Vision: January 2012 Archives

Thus far in the 21 day Awakening Fast with my church family, and now on day 7, I have not had or experienced really any powerful presence of the Holy Spirit and the times of my encounters with the presence of God and all of the top spiritual experiences have not yet happened with my church or for me personally in many years. I have had good times with God, but I say mountain top, I mean a very powerful and life altering encounter with God. I was wondering about that, but then something started to click.

There is a new foundation of something God is at work in building in me and in my heart and it is not a individual spiritual mountain top experience. I've had those and I love them and crave more and believe more will come in the future, but I realized that I have in all of my great experiences that have changed my life in the works God has done in me and in the presence of Him - they have all been individual. I have been with others corporately and had them, but I do not believe any others around me have experienced what I did corporately, with me, for a similar purpose and in a very similar way, to unite us for a purpose as a body of one.

Yet, here recently, although for a growing period of several months, I have been experiencing and seeing the foundation for something very much like that taking place among my church family. It is what I can best explain as a work of community by the Holy Spirit. Yet, more than just community, as my church is more church family, than a community. We are growing in a unified purpose and I have been experiencing church family in a way that I did not think possible this side of eternity. While individual encounters with the Holy Spirit are powerful and life changing and build us up individually, I have not had any that have unified me with others for a purpose we all share and in this way before. It's not a mountain top spiritual experience thus far, but it's amazing and I think the foundation of something that God is at work in doing is growing and being prepared during this 21 day Awakening fast with my church family.

That has me excited. I love the presence of God and knowing Him more and having my satisfaction in Him increase. But, up until this weekend I have never considered what the mountain top like experience with the presence of God would be like - to experience with an entire local body of my brothers and sisters in which and through which God did so with purpose for reaching our city for His glory. 

Such a work of community of the Holy Spirit, well..

It would be incredible. 

It would not be setting me on fire individually for the Lord for His glory, but it rather would be setting an entire church body on fire for Jesus, as a body united with one purpose. 

I can't even being to imagine what that would be like.

Yet, that is the foundation for what I think the Holy Spirit is at work in doing in me, but not just in me, in many of my brothers and sisters with my church family.

I can't even begin to process this. Right now, I am simply in joy in it. 

Basking in the love of God. 

Looking forward for what God is going to do in the next 2 weeks during our Awakening Fast. It's just began, the best is yet to come. 

This is going to be a year to remember.

This was the first time I've heard the church's lead pastor and founder Steven Furtick and guest speaker Craig Groeschel speak. I know they are pretty big from what I have heard, but I don't really make a point of going out of my way to learn about the newest things. I just follow things as they come across my path as the Lord leads me. 

The majority of the things I have heard online have been negative blurbs about Steven Furtick, but I have never really given much thought to him or the church one way or the other or made any assumptions about him. One thing I have learned in my adventures in ministry is people often come faster in the church to disagree with what you are doing than to support you in it. I have never really understood why the majority of attack in ministry at times comes from within the walls of the church - not outside of it. Maybe, it's just that you don't expect it and it comes as a surprise at first. If you feel called by God to something, it's almost a guarantee you that as you pursue it you will face opposition from people in the church. 

While I have never heard either Steven Furtick or Craig Groeschel speak before, Craig in a way has had an indirect impact on me through his direct impact on my pastor who has impacted me. So, I was already in a favorable expectation of Craig's message last tonight when I watched him preach (of which was even better than I had expected).

I had not heard anything about Code Orange Revival up until yesterday when my pastor tweeted about it. So, I googled it and watched the video about what it was going to be and soon it had my attention. After that, I knew I wanted to watch it with my church family at the office as our pastor was hosting the video streaming of it for us. I'm glad I did go. I plan on watching it every night now and am excited for what God will do through it.

This idea has really got my attention, because for years I've wondered why the "Old-School" revivals and "Tent Meetings" seem to have ceased. While, I certainly can understand some or maybe a good deal of them were not good (in being off spiritually) there are many great revivals and awakenings of the past few hundred years that have roots to the revival and tent meeting format. So, I have not understand why they had ceased (maybe they have not - but they seem to me at least not all that common today). Perhaps it has been that men have not felt led by God to do them and so even with a desire to resume them, they have not resumed them. What ever the case, when I heard about the 12 day old school revival format for them something in me sprang to life and I was excited with that feeling of anticipation that God was going to use it in a significant way and I wanted to be a part of it. 

I and many from my church are also on day 3 of a 21 day fast with the Awakening movement of which had me even more excited about this. I am doing a Daniel fast, with limited fruits and vegetables and juicing them into liquid for mine right now. That's another blog entry I will have to do on juicing with my Daniel fast in the future.

I look forward to the next 11 nights with the Code Orange Revival. The first night was a real blessing to me. Speaking to me in some ways that I needed to hear. 

I invite you to logon to the revival online and stream it from their online network at http://elevationnetwork.com/ tonight. Oh, and by the way the code orange revival, is a modernized one, no real tent and lot's of new technology to take the message far beyond the walls of a geographically located building. I think that is pretty cool too.