Prayer: January 2012 Archives

This is the first preface I have ever done for a blog entry. I don't even know if prefaces are done for blog entries, maybe I'm starting something with this.

I have come to the conclusion after hours of writing this, that to communicate it right, I have got to have something to set this up, without it, the message won't be effective, at least not as effective. 

So, here is how this came to be, or soon will, and the why and the process I went through and am still in as it is being developed. 

Initially I did not want to write this and I still don't want this to reach thousands of readers. 

Mostly, because I am not ready to enter into a season in my life that I know I am called to and here now the second time in less than a week I am feeling prompted to write a entry that might have the very effect I do not want it to have. 

The person's video I am writing this in reference to whose youtube video now has nearly 10 million views, I suspect has experienced things he was not expecting or ready for because of that video and the response it prompted from a lot of people. 

Here's his video, watch it if you have not already done so.

His video has gone out like a massive war party and into spiritual territory of the enemy and as he has likely experienced now - there is a big back lash that follows when this happens. 

We need more men and women storming the gates of darkness with boldness and courage like him, but as he has likely come to realize - we have to plan it and prepare for the war we wage when we do. (If you read this Jeff tweet me privately).

Thankfully, this isn't a entry that I think will result in the same type of response in terms of spiritual warfare (this is not a video format and people in need of grace lost in the sin of mistakes are not likely to read this in the masses to prompt it), but this might propel me into moving more into a season of ministry I am not looking to enter into at this time - that I am not looking for. 

Thankfully, I don't expect this to bring about any offense in those who read the message, Thank God. I don't want the stuff that comes with that. It's just as bad. The time may come for that, but that time is not now.

But, this is likely to reach the audience I am called to in ministering to and that is likely to put me on the radar spiritually as a threat to spiritual darkness. 

If you have ever clearly felt the calling of God in your life in something and then in bold faith started moving in that, you have, I can almost guarantee, experienced spiritual warfare at a whole new level. 

I did and for years I fought that war and God did big things in my life in setting the foundation and seed for the calling and vision He has given me. 

A few years after that He led me into a season of a sabbatical and a time of being fathered, growing as a young man in Him and being prepared for the calling in this. I am still in it. Though it has changed over the years. 

The great thing about this season, is the rest, the break of the spiritual warfare at the level I was experiencing and did for nearly 2 years, and well I don't want to rush out of it. 

So, until that time comes and I know that I know it has, I don't want to send out the war party, I know the enemy will wage war back when I do and I know God is with me and in Him I am more than a conqueror, but that time to go out to war spiritually is not yet here.

However, as much as I have tried to resist it - I also can't deny that there is a strong nudging I believe from God not to remain silent or be disobedient in not writing this.

So, here I am writing it. Wondering and secretly, hoping, God is not moving me forward in what I don't feel I am ready for because of a few things not yet in place in my life. I don't think God will send me in that direction before things are in place in the ways I believe He has told me are going to take place first, but I also want to be open to Him. So, that's where I am going into this and why I am writing this, by that prompting.

If I am lucky thus far, I have lost a good deal of readers who I don't really want reading this.

So on to the video and the many areas around it that I feel directed in addressing. It's coming next. Might be a few hours. Might be a few days.

It's hard to believe that this little preface, has had paragraphs, many, written, deleted, edited, and maybe even pages of them. Tomorrow, I'll move into the entry, this is to set it up, the preface.

The good thing about this is that in the hours I've spent working on this, a peace and fears have broken as have concerns in many ways and I am moving forward in a new way in something. That's pretty cool. Here God has already worked in me and out of me something new, and I've not even got to the blog entry yet, it's just the preface to it.

While I'm working on it, I'd love to hear your comments about the video below and this preface as well. 

It's now live. You can read the entry by clicking here.

When I first heard about Code Orange Revival I did not know what it was. My pastor tweeted about it and so I googled it. After watching the video I knew I wanted to watch it and it spoke to something in me. I knew I was to watch it and I do plan to watch every night of it. 

So why am I writing this? 

Well, I am feeling prompted in writing it and yet I don't want to write it; mostly in fear of what it could cost. 

You see I know I am called to things in life; as I previously shared and yet the season for the fullness of most of it has not yet come. I am actually alright with that, but with that I want to be discerning in the steps I take before that time comes - you don't plant something in winter - it will die or it will be severely set back and or harmed in it's growth.

So, in writing this I am doing so in such a way that I can obey the prompting and tugging on my heart I am feeling and yet do what I can as to not project myself into something that I am not ready for. I don't want to plant something in this that isn't supposed to be planted at this time, but I do feel it is something I should share. Perhaps by God's providence it will reach the eyes of the people I suspect God has prompted me to write it to reach. 

So here's the deal. 

I have known for a while that Stephen Furtick has his fair share or perhaps more than his fair share of critics. As I wrote in my last entry on Code Orange Revival I have not heard him preach before and I don't make assumptions on people without learning first hand or from what I hear from personal and trusted people on their thoughts on someone. (Though as I've learned in the past, even our trusted and loved friends and people we respect are not without biases, flaws and errors in their assumptions about others.) 

However, in googling about Code Orange Revival today I ran across a blog that had several good questions regarding some of the speakers invited to come speak at Code Orange Revival. I can't say that the heart and spirit of the blog I read came across as being done in love or that the author showed any feeling or emotion of agony or grief over the things that they felt were unbiblical in the teaching of some of the speakers invited. 

Yet, even if the heart and motive of a critic is off; it doesn't negate the points that they bring up on concerns of some of the speakers and what they are teaching God's people. 

If a speaker or preacher is teaching something that is not biblical - what does it mean or say if I go and speak at the same event? Is that an endorsement? 

Yet, what of the other side of the argument - even if an avenue I go on and or through is used by someone who is off doctrinally or theologically - is it right to not use the same avenue for the proclamation of truth? If a LDS church invited you to come preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, would you decline them? (I know it is not likely they would, but if they did - would you?) You would be standing on their pulpit and or stage, etc. What about a TV network that airs other pastors/teachers that you do not agree with? Would you decline preaching on their network to the world - even if they offered it to you at no cost? What if you accepted a invitation and only later learned another speaker would be sharing the stage with you that you did not know about before? Do you then decline the invitation breaking your word that you would come? (Assuming they asked you for it to come - I understand it is possible they use contracts for speakers on an event of this size, but keeping it very simple - on it just being your word - your promise you would come - what would you do?)

These are all good questions. They are not ones I am going to be able to answer in this blog entry and not even ones I think that in answering would address the issues at hand in all this. 

Whatever our views or beliefs we can all agree that we must ultimately do what God calls us to do - not what pleases men. 

I think we can all agree as well that our clever and well written blog entries are not likely to change the hearts and minds of other men and women. They may influence their thoughts and God may use them for that purpose, but ultimately it is the Holy Spirit that is going to change the hearts and minds of other men and women. So I move the focus to our prayer life. That's really where the power to change things is going to flow from. We all like to quote and refer to great men and women of the past who were used of God to change things - as as far as I can tell most of them were in prayer - in prayer of agony, prayers that shed tears and prayers that moved their hearts so close to the heart of God - that when they spoke all who heard were deeply impacted and changed. 

I am not judging in this. I am not condemning. I am calling you to pray for God to completely turn your prayer life upside down. Mine is included in this. It's not where I want it. It's really not. In writing this I have nearly shed a few tears, but my heart is not utterly broken for God's men and women who are preaching. Nor is it even for His people. Pray for me too. Feel free to leave a comment on my blog and I will pray for you as well.

I am going to watch each night of the Code Orange Revival. I am also going to begin to earnestly pray for it and for each speaker and for the people who are there and all who stream it around the world. That is I believe the heart of Steven Furtick in the Code Orange Revival.

I have been blessed by it thus far and I do expect to be blessed as it continues. I also respect and applaud Steven Furtick for obeying the Lord in undertaking the Code Orange Revival vision and moving forward with it.

On the speakers who he has invited and the uncertainty surrounding the doctrines and theology around them - that's a issue I would encourage Steven Furtick to prayerfully consider for next year (if he did not do so in the process of preparing for Code Orange Revival this year - as he may very well have - I don't know him personally or even from a distance having listened to his teaching enough to comment one way or the other on that - I say this only as a brother to Him in our Lord and with sincerity. Perhaps one day I will get a chance to shake his hand and give him a hug. If not in this life, I do believe so in the other side of eternity that I will - many times).

Finally to the critics and those who have found what they believe to be a very bold and strong confidence in the things they are writing about Code Orange Revival and the pastors connected with it and speaking at it I have this to ask, "Are the things you write, speak and voice all things of which you have in your private times of prayer earnestly prayed out? Have you experienced any agony in your prayers over what you are writing? Have you shed any tears?"

I do not ask this in condemnation - for there are things I have had concerns about that are not related to any of these pastors or this movement, but I have not earnestly prayed about them. That is my own fault and my own short coming. I personally could not speak out against another with the level of harshness that some have; if I had not first prayed and asked God move in my heart and give me His heart over it all.