Mar 21 2011
This kind only comes out by…(Part2)
Jesus’ answer to the disciples question is a key to all breakthroughs in every area of life…
“Because of your unbelief (little faith), for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Interesting that Jesus points to “little faith” as the problem and “mustard seed faith” as the solution. Those that have seen a mustard seed will know that it is one of the smallest seeds in the plant world. Faith could not get much smaller in size than a mustard seed. Yet the distinction of the mustard seed is that though tiny in size it is mighty in potential. Though small to the eye, it is packed with life and future growth. It is a great influencer in the garden, even to the point of providing nesting limbs for birds of the air (Mt. 13:32). So, possibly Jesus does not mean little in size when he speaks about our disease of unbelief but rather little in nutrition. Another way of describing this unbelief would be to call it poverty of faith. Faith may exist as an entity but is in poverty of substance. It has the exterior shell of verbiage but is impoverished in interior life. The mustard seed is the solution because, though small in appearance it has all the necessary elements for great life! And so is the faith that brings breakthrough. It may feel small, looks small, sound unimpressive, but can carry tremendous power for transformation, healing, and deliverance.
This whole area of faith could of course be pages and pages of study and understanding, but in this situation lets not go beyond Jesus simple statements. Small faith with an interior life produces massive fruitfulness and growth. Small faith with no interior life hinders the kingdom. Very practically speaking, this mustard seed could be likened to a growing, vibrant relationship with God in the interior that leads to a life of obedience and risk that “moves mountains”. It starts with a willingness to take small risks, pray for headache to go away, but in the end, over time, it develops to a faith that raises the dead! It can begin with simply discipling one young person and end with discipling nations. It could start with a simple Jesus loves you to a check out lady and end with seeing many come into the kingdom.
After Jesus exposes unbelief as the key to the hindrance the disciples faced in getting breakthrough, he makes a second point that we do not want to miss. He points to something beyond just His current faith but He also speaks to His history in the Father. “However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.” Obviously Jesus has not stopped in this instance, fasted, given a couple of hours to prayer, and then healed the boy. He is not speaking about his immediate actions but rather pointing to a history that has empowered Him to bring breakthrough even over this demonic power which was stronger than the average. The needed breakthrough required a greater authority than some of the weaker demons that the disciples had encountered. Jesus had instant authority because of His history of devotion. The hours, days and seasons that He had logged in prayer and fasting enabled Him to be ready in the moment to effortlessly cast out the demon.
Now, real time, 2011, out our front doors, no matter where we live… the enemy wreaks havoc on our communities, cities, and nations. Not entirely, we are all aware of amazing testimonies that are perhaps greater in magnitude and frequency than any period of history. This is not a doomsday declaration. It is just a reality. In the midst of all of the good that is happening, there is much pain, suffering, sickness, bondage, and sin. Whether in the newspapers, on the Internet, or with our own eyes we are daily confronted with the need for more breakthroughs. It is not Ok that babies are being aborted by the multitudes of millions. It is not ok that cancer kills so many. It is not ok that families are breaking up more than sticking together. It is not ok that the church stands powerless in the face of so many strongholds in our present day scenario! There must be more! Jesus did not die for powerlessness, wishful thinking, and waving white flags of retreat! He said that the gates of hell would not prevail against the revelation of his messianic identity as Son of God and savior of man (Mt. 16:16). He said that the Kingdom of God was within us (Luke 17:21). He said that He has overcome the world (John 16:33). He said that He died to destroy the works of the devil(1 John 3:8) and to set the captives free (Luke 4:18). We know all of these truths. We pray them, shout them, read them, and yet in many of our hearts we are aware that there is so much more than what we are walking in.
It is time to come out of shame and condemnation at the thought of our lack, but instead to approach Jesus with a teachable heart and deep conviction of our need for breakthrough power! He has given us His word as an unshakable foundation of the revelation of who He is, who we are, and what He desires to do. He has filled us with the very same Spirit that raised Him from the dead (Romans 8:11). He has seated himself at the right hand of the father making intercession for the saints (Romans 8:34). In fact there is nothing more He can give us. There is no more pizzazz He can place on the gospel. It does not need more pizzazz, it just needs believed and lived out!
So, we find ourselves facing a wall much like the disciples. We find ourselves looking around for a solution to every impasse. We find ourselves just hoping to get Him back on the earth to take care of everything when in fact He said it was better that He go(Mt 16:7). Obviously we all want Jesus back and we are to pray and live unto this end. But in the mean time He has given us everything necessary to see heaven invade Earth, disciple nations, preach the gospel to the remote corners of the earth and walk in breakthrough over every stronghold! The issue is not getting more sap out of heaven, the issue is a people on the earth who would believe with mustard seed faith and a people who would build a history in prayer and fasting to be able to break the opposition of the enemy. Could it be this simple? I think so. Obviously there are a hundred tributaries flowing into every stream of revelation, but what if it were simple again. Pray, fast, believe.
Prayer entails intimacy with God, discovery of God, the knowledge of God, and passion from and for God. It leads to oil in our lamps, fire on our lips, and agreement with Gods desires. Mt 6:9, Eph 1:15-23, Phil 1:9-11, Mt 7:11, Mt 25:1-13, Lk 24:32, John 14:15, John 14:21
Fasting is brokenness in God and a place where in weakness He is made strong. It is a posture of the heart as well as refraining from certain things. It is: Our neediness, his provision, our weakness, His strength, our humility, His ability, our desire to know Him and His desire to be known. 2 Cor 12:9, Matthew 5:1-12, Mt 6:33
Faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for. It is impossible to please God without it. It comes by hearing His words and obeying. It is the muscle of Kingdom building. It begins with a word from Him, leads to an agreement with Him, and results in an act of obedience. The outcome is God getting glory, man getting liberty, and the Kingdom being extended. Hebrews 11:1, Hebrews 11:6, Romans 10:17
Mar 21 2011
This kind only comes out by…(Part 1)
This kind only come out by prayer and fasting…
The stage was perfectly set for Jesus to lay out an everlasting truth about the nature of breakthrough over seemingly impenetrable walls. The story begins with Jesus being transfigured right in front of his three closest disciples. In the midst of the transfiguration, the disciples are overcome with the emotion and magnitude of what they are seeing and experiencing. In His zeal for the moment, Peter suggests that they build dwelling places for the three transfigured ones! In a rage of jealousy for His Son, the Father booms from heaven, “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him!”
Peter’s life highlight turns into fear, humility and a face full of dirt. It is as if the Father discerned their heart motives and thoughts and made sure that the disciples knew that the “great man of the law” and the “great prophet” are never to be equated or exalted to the position of the beloved Son! “God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds…”(Hebrews 1:1). Only my Son is worthy of the dwelling place of man! Jesus is to be heard above all and all are to be heard through the life and teachings of my Son! Hear Him! The Father has always sought, in great jealousy, to exalt the Son.
Upon arriving back at the base camp, Jesus finds a desperate father and his defeated disciples. Not only was the master gone, but also the three, and the other nine found themselves against a wall that none of their past experiences or even present level of anointing could break through. To them, the wall represented an impasse and the way around, over, or through was locked in something they did not know. Whatever demonic spirit was causing this sickness in the child, it was so intense that it was trying to take the child’s life through burning and drowning. A desperate father does not take no for an answer very easily. Though the disciples had hit a wall, the father was not giving in.
Jesus premises the soon coming miracle with an indictment against the widespread (generational) faithlessness and perverseness. To be faithless literally means to not be true to allegiance or duty and to be without credibility. To be faithless is to deny action to the one that we have given verbal allegiance to. Rhetoric without action. This disease runs rampant in today’s generation. Somewhat comforting, is the fact that we are not the first faithless generation. Massively convicting however is the statement of Jesus hardship in “being with” this type of generation. His love for us is unending and unconditional! However, His pleasure and delight is to dwell among a people of faith. Oh, that He would find a faith filled generation on the Earth and find pleasure in dwelling among that people! Let us be that people.
Not one of Jesus’ words is rash or wasted. This is not simply a Jesus venting session where His inner frustration accidentally becomes verbal. Jesus would not lower himself to such places. These words are an invitation to be something different and a context to what is about to take place in front of them. Jesus rebuked the demon, it came out, and the boy was healed from that very hour.
Imagine the shock on the faces of the disciples as their impenetrable wall became a miracle highway right in front of their eyes. No crazy antics, no hours of perseverance, and seemingly very little effort and the stronghold was dethroned in the boys life. The disciples were not shocked at the healing as much as their inability to achieve the same results. They had seen many healed and set free by their own hands. Their puzzlement was over their lack of breakthrough in this instance. In embarrassment, the disciples wait until the crowds have dispersed to find out why that had found themselves powerless in this situation.
“Why could we not cast it out?” This needs to be the question that everyone of us come to. Have we become so calloused to powerless Christianity that we no longer come with desperate questions to the one who wants to give answers. Have we become so accustomed to seemingly impenetrable walls around us that we have stopped pushing against them and instead set up camp in the midst of them justifying their existence in our lives and nations through creating theologies that give us comfort in the midst of perpetual powerlessness. Oh for a better day! The only things the disciples had going for them in this moment was humility, teachability, and desperation. Powerlessness can not keep leading to shame, condemnation, and defeat but rather to humility and a heart that diligently seeks after answers! Let us repent of our calloused defeated hearts, receive His forgiveness and move into a posture of fresh hunger, asking, and readiness to hear what He has to say to us! Surely He did not die to render us powerless against the strongholds of the enemy. Surely he meant what He said when he declares that He came to destroy the works of the enemy.
Jesus’ answer to the disciples question is a key to all breakthroughs in every area of life. Stay tuned next week for more on this parable!
Mar 21 2011
Revival that Remains
This is an article I recently found written by E. M. Bounds in 1890 for a publication called the “Christian Advocate”. We are in desperate need of more teaching and understanding of what sustains a move of God. We so desire these refreshing and life giving moves of God that we have read about or experienced ourselves. But what does it look like for a revival that remains in both individuals hearts and even gatherings of believers all over the world. A move of His presence that may wax or wane in terms of emotion, manifestation, and tangibility, but that never ends in terms of fruitfulness in intimacy and in impact!! Read on for some tremendous keys from a man who has authority on this topic…
Revivals are among the charter rights of the church. They are the evidences of its divinity, the tokens of God’s presence, the witness of his power. The frequency and power of these extraordinary seasons of grace are the tests and preservers of the vital force in the church. The church which is not visited by these seasons is as sterile in all spiritual products as a desert, and is not and cannot meet the designs of God’s church. Such churches may have all the show and parade of life, but it is only a painted life.
The revival element belongs to the individual, as well as to the church, life. The preacher whose experience is not marked by these inflows of great grace may question with anxious scrutiny whether he is in grace. The preacher whose ministry does not over and over again find its climax of success and power in these gracious visitations of God may well doubt the genuineness of his call, or be disquieted as to its continuance.
Revivals are not simply the reclamation of a backslidden church. They do secure this end, but they do not find their highest end in this important result. They are to invigorate and mature by one mighty act the feeble saints; they also pass on to sublimer regions of faith and experience the advanced ones of God’s elect. They are the fresh baptisms—the more powerful consecration of a waiting, willing, working church to a profounder willingness, and a mightier ability for a mightier work. These revivals are the pitched battles and the decisive victories for God, when the slain of the Lord is many, and his triumph glorious.
There are counterfeit revivals well executed, well calculated to deceive the most wary. These are deceptive and superficial, with many pleasant, entertaining, delusive features, entirely lacking in the offensive features which distinguish the genuine ones. The pain of penitence, the shame of guilt, the sorrow and humiliation of sin, the fear of hell—these marks of the genuine are lacking in the counterfeit. The test of a genuine revival is found in its staying qualities. The counterfeit is but a winter spurt, as evanescent and fitful as the morning cloud or early dew—both soon gone—and the sun but the hotter for the mockery of the cloud and because of the fleeting dew. These surface revivals do more harm than good, like a surface thaw in midwinter which only increases the hardness and roughness of tomorrow’s freeze. The genuine revival goes to the bottom of things; the sword is not swaddled in cotton, nor festooned with flowers, but pierces to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow.
A genuine revival marks an era in the life of the church. It plants the germs of the great spiritual principles which grow and mature through all the changing seasons that follow. Revival seasons are favoring seasons, when the tides of salvation are at their flood, when all the waves and winds move heavenward…days of emancipation and return and rapture. The church needs revivals; it cannot live, it cannot do its work without them. Revivals which will lift it above the sands of worldliness that shallow the current and impede the sailing. Revivals which will radicate the great spiritual principles, which are worn threadbare in many a church. It is true that in the most thorough work some will fall away, but when the work is genuine and far-reaching, as it ought to be, the waste will scarcely be felt in the presence of the good that remains.
The first element, in a revival whose effects will stay, is that the revival spring from within the church, the native outgrowth of the spiritual condition of the church. The so-called revivals do not spring from the repentance, faith, and prayers of the church, but are induced by foreign and outside forces. Many of the religious movements of the day have no foundation in the travailing throes of the church. By outside pressure, the presence and reputation of an evangelist, of imported singers and imported songs, an interest is awakened, a passing impression made, but these are quite different from the concern aroused by the presence of God and the mighty power of his almighty Spirit. In the manufactured revival there is an interest which does not deepen into conviction, which is not subdued into awe, which cannot be molded into prayer, nor agitated by fears. There is the utter absence of the spirit of prayer; neither has the spirit of repentance any place; lightness and frivolity reign; tears are strange and unwelcome visitors. The church-members, instead of being on their knees in intercession, or mingling their wrestling cries with the wrestling penitents, or joining in rapturous praise with their rapturous deliverance, are simply spectators of a pleasing entertainment, in which they have but a momentary interest, the results of which, viewed from a spiritual stand-point, are far below zero. A revival means a burdened church and a burdened pastor and burdened penitents.
The revival whose results are gracious and abiding must spring from the spiritual contact of pastor and church with God. A season of fasting and prayer of deep humiliation and confession are the conditions from which a genuine and powerful work springs.
The nature of the preaching is of the first importance. Its character will grade the converts and measure the depth of the work. The word of God in its purity and strength must be given. The law of God in its spiritual demands must arouse the conscience, and pierce and lay bare the heart. If there ever is a time for sentimental anecdotes, for the exercise of wit, if the preacher is ever justified in pausing to soften the sympathies or inflame the fancy, it is not at this period.
The object must not be to increase the impulses, or move on the surface, or work on tender emotions, but to convict the conscience, search out the sinner and expose his sins, to alarm the guilty soul, and intensify the faith and effort of the believer. The word of God is the imperishable and vitalizing seed. The Spirit of God is the quickening energy that is to be let loose. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The sword must be unsheathed, and cut with both edges.
The spirit of prayer must be the one evident and prevailing spirit. The spirit of prayer is but the spirit of faith, the spirit of reverence, the spirit of supplies, of grace, and mercy and is increased. This spirit holds in its keeping the success of the word and power of the Holy Spirit; as the spirit of prayer fail these fail. If the spirit of prayer is absent or is quenched, God is not in the assembly. He comes and stays only in the cloud of glory formed by the incense of a church whose flame of prayer is ascending to him. All genuine revivals are simply God coming with great grace to his Church. The revival that springs from heart contact of the church with God, which is directed and intensified by the pure preaching of the pure word of God, and in which, and through which, prayer, mighty prayer, prevails, will be a revival that will stay in its coming.
Taken from
Christian Advocate
December 6,1890
Mar 21 2011
What must I do…
This last Sunday I had the honor of speaking at an amazing church in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
I was also very blessed to have three of our fiery young revivalists from Fire and Fragrance in Harrisburg with me. We spent the morning sharing testimonies of what we have been seeing God do all over the world including right here on our own national soil. We started with some closed and remote nations around the world like NK and Bhutan and ended with the amazing testimonies of all of the flat fee that have been healed in the last several months. We have lost count of exact details, but the number of healed feet is currently between 20 and 30 people. As the morning went on we went from the expectation and faith that God is sovereignly and massively awakening His bride all across the earth to the need for us to prepare, according to the Word of the Lord, for what is coming. Truly, God is looking over the Earth for a Noah generation who will live in total agreement with the Word of the Lord for this season of salvation History! Some will eat, drink, and live in perennial distraction(Mt 24) and others, like Noah, will live according to the Word of the Lord with the right word in the right season even when it does not make sense.
I feel that the last ten years of global prophetic words can be summed up in one phrase:
“Come back to your first love”.
God has been jealously pursing his wayward bride from the many distractions that will rob us of our true destiny as sons and daughters of Edenic intimacy and warriors of an ever expanding Kingdom. Even what has been called the prayer movement, in my own estimation, is truly an intimacy movement and my globetrotting observation has been that there is no nation or people who have not needed to hear that love is the core of the gospel.
As this banner of first love continues to wave across the nations I have been seeing another flag raised into the horizon of global prophetic seasons. This flag is marked with the sweetest revelation that love can birth and the only source of true freedom: Lordship. The message we carried this last Sunday morning was one of walking in even more revelation of the Love of God than ever before and at the same time realizing that mature love voluntarily embraces Lordship with the fresh understanding that this is the gospel and that the original Herald of the gospel is not only loving Savior but also benevolent King! Intimacy without Lordship always ends in adultery! However, when love and lordship collide in the human spirit, a new creation results and true freedom, in obedience to Christ, is the beautiful beginnings of a hero that can’t help but change the world around them! Anywhere, any word, any way that Jesus would lead and we will follow! Gladly dead to self and fully alive in the Man, Christ Jesus! Many across the body of Christ have experienced the love of Jesus but have never matured into total and absolute surrender to the benevolent King of the Universe!
As the service concluded many came forward to declare Jesus as Lord of every area of their lives. Many came forward to say yes to areas of obedience they had not stepped into. For some it may mean a change of location as they step into obedience, for others it was saying yes to a greater degree of obedience in the life and location that they already know God is calling them to. A humanistic gospel has crippled many across the body of Christ as we have mistakenly put man’s earthly or even eternal welfare at the center of the gospel. Both of these realities are very important to God but can never compete with the true gospel which puts the Glory of God at the center of the gospel message. We exist for His glory. Our earthly good is only as good as it gives Him glory and our eternal life is about His eternal glory.
The highlight of the morning for me was this. After the call to Lordship and the gospel of God’s glory, a young boy, 10 years old, came forward. As someone came to pray for him he had one question. “What must I do to be saved?” So childlike, so innocent, and so pure! I feel this is where we are going as a church. When the message of the pure gospel is restored to the the glorious bride; the young, old, hard, or callused will come to the realization that there is one Lord, and He has paid a price that has made Him forever worthy of every human life! He is unconditionally loving and incomparably worthy!
Let us return to the youthfulness of our salvation! Let us simplify the gospel again and re-embrace its profound and simple truths!
Nov 8 2010
Release the Circuit Riders
And as you go, preach, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Sean Feucht awoke from a dream early in the morning, replaying in his mind the simple yet powerful scene he had just watched unfold. He began to recall with great clarity the image of a young man, guitar strapped to his back, stepping into a van to go to the airport. He was setting out from the University of the Nations in Kona, HI on a life-long journey overseas to a difficult area of the world. His mission: to release a sound of worship, to bring the message of the Kingdom, and to see light continue to penetrate darkness! As he reached to step into the van, Sean stopped the eager missionary for a final goodbye. He asked his final question: “Are you prepared to give your life on this journey?” Both Sean and the young man knew that this was not a light question of desire but was a reference to the literal potential of losing his life for the Gospel. The simple reply was confidant and sincere at the same time, “Yeah, I am.” With a last embrace and a silence that indicated that they both understood the gravity and the privilege of the mandate, the young man took his seat in the van, closed the door, and set out on a journey of unknown conclusion. His journey would cost everything; his sacrifice gain for the Lamb a reward worthy of His sacrifice!
Just over 250 years ago a wild breed of men was unleashed into the wilderness of America not unlike the 12 young, zealous disciples that Jesus sent out in Matthew chapter 10 or the young man that Sean saw in his dream. Their mandate: take the Gospel to the remote corners of the frontier. No house too far, no family too isolated, no hindrance too difficult to overcome. Their message: The kingdom of God has come! Repent, be baptized and follow Jesus. Their salary: nonexistent, a mere 40 dollars per year if they were lucky. Their cost: their very lives. Fifty percent died before reaching 33 years old. Their reward: Nothing in terms of the glory of man, but everything in terms of the glory of God!
These men, known as the circuit riders, took the Gospel to the simple, far spread population of the frontier of America. They became as influential as any of the famous names in American history in spreading the message of Jesus. Their founder, Francis Asbury, was listed among the top 40 people in U.S. history who paved the way for a nation that would attempt to live based on godly values and principles. This nation, along with many others, would take the gospel all over the world and would be the seedbed for massive moves of God that would touch the globe. Early seeds planted in that bed came from a band of horseback riding preachers who were selfless, dedicated, and lived for a cause greater than themselves. They rode and rode, preached and taught, lived and died, all for a coming King. They desired the revelation of God’s love to permeate the heart of every man, woman and child that their horse and voice could reach! The fruit of their labors was a nation lit ablaze in simple love for God. When their rides began, their denomination numbered less than 300 members. Asbury’s legacy is clear: after 45 years, 250,000 miles on horseback logged, and 17,000 messages preached, 240,000 new believers called on the name of Jesus and 4,000 personally ordained ministers continued to ride, lead, and disciple this ever-growing flock.
The sound is going out again today and 21st century circuit riders are beginning to ride! This time it looks different, as it has in every nation and every era of history. The horses are buses and planes and motorcycles, and some of the frontiers are peoples of different nations, tribes and tongues. The mandate, the message and the cost remain the same. Today’s generation is responding in a way that has perhaps never been seen before in history. They gladly lay down their lives for deep friendship with God and desire intimacy without an agenda. They long to be a burnt offering releasing the fragrance of Christ all over the Earth! Immense hope is tangible for the hardest and the darkest, the least and the lost as this army rises to its feet, mounts its sturdy steed and begins to ride.
Do you hear the sound? Do you feel the rhythm of heaven mobilizing sons and daughters who have blazing fire in their hearts, love oozing out of them at every encounter and see no circumstance as too difficult to overcome? Get ready to ride!
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