Shocker!

This is just kind of a general announcement that I will be soon changing my major from Geology to Basket Weaving, er, I mean, East Asian Studies. I have found that while I think rocks are neat and I like Geology conceptually, I just can't stand it (or science in general) in practice. I believe Einstein sums it up best when he says that science as an interest and a hobby is a wonderful thing, but actually pursuing it and being involved in the process ruins it for you in some ways. This is true with me. I will get a Minor in Geology and be on my merry way into a major with no known outcome...but that's OK, because I know that God will take care of me as he has continually this year and I am not going to sweat it. I am going to do what I like, and I know that what I put my hand to, God will bless. I was strongly considering changing my major last semester, but got cold feet and moreover decided to at least finish the year with geology and see how I felt about it.

The irony is this: I am more likely to graduate on time now that I have decided to change my major than if I had stuck with Geology. Funny? You bet!

Also, I will be going to China next winter and currently have about 1/2 the cost covered in a $300 down payment I made and the $2,200 scholarship that I got to go to China. Between all the different costs including tuition for the classes I will be taking, it will be about $5,000 (just for the study abroad trip in winter session), so I am already halfway there. Things have become complicated, however, as the gravy train has more or less ground to a halt and I will not be receiving help for tuition or rent from my family this year. Therefore, this paragraph is a shameless advertisement for my cause, and if anyone wants to sow into my education, I would be very grateful.

So. Anyway. East Asian Studies. Whoohoo!

Keith Freaking Richards

At the Lakeland FL revival that I was at recently, Todd had a word of knowledge about Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. If I am not mistaken, they have since talked on the phone together, but this is the only thing I could scrounge up at the moment:

“Last night Todd made a strong statement about Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. Yes, you heard me right. I was so shocked by the detail that I wrote down exactly what Todd said and the time he said it. At 8:55 Eastern Standard Time on 5/1/2008, Todd gave a word of knowledge that Keith was watching the revival from a borough of London and that he was wearing a maroon colored shirt. He said that he was caught up in the worship and something about God reaching out to him. It was definitely a step out on the water, if you know what I mean. This should be something that can eventually be independently verified as being true or false.”\

I received a comment from Hannah today stating this:

“Todd actually followed up on the Keith Richards thing last night (May 2). A Hollywood director called Todd and told him that Keith WAS watching the night that Todd gave the word of knowldge…because Keith called her and told her (the Hollywood director) that he had just heard Todd Bentley talking about him.”

I mean, seriously. Keith Freaking Richards. Do you know how awesome it would be if he got saved? A friend of mine from VCF, Melissa, thinks that Ozzy Ozbourne and Eminem are going to get saved. Honestly, I have a feeling they will.

God is like...a good beef stew

I love God. He made everything, and since everything exists to glorify him, it seems that there is little that he cannot give you a better understanding of him through. Case in point: I was eating at a wonderful place called "A Piece of Ireland" with some friends of mine and, clearly led by the Lord, I ordered the Guinness Beef Stew. It was the most delicious stew I have ever eaten. After that great meal, I went down to The Gathering, a youth conference being held by a local church called "Vineyard Christian Fellowship" (some of you may vaguely remember this as the place where I participated in an outreach event called Liquid Love).

So, I was laying down and just soaking in the Lord's presence. The worship team started playing Jeremy Riddle's "Sweetly Broken" which almost always stirs my heart up, and then this revelation hit me like a sack of golden potatoes:

"God is like a good beef stew."

I proceeded to seize my notebook and furiously expand on this lovely nugget of understanding and felt lead to share it (because revelation is also like a good beef stew, in that it should be shared!). For those of you who either do not know what beef stew is, or find it so disgusting that you can't get anything out of this note, my apologies and prayers go with you (apologies that this note isn't for you, and prayers that you will see the light and eat/enjoy beef stew). But hopefully everyone else will get it.

So. God is like a good beef stew. The beef is kind of like the power and authority of God that we have as adopted sons and daughters; it has more flavor than the other things in the stew like the potatoes and carrots by themselves, and is on the whole a much more attractive morsel on its own. The beef is also like the power in that the only way that we could have it is by something being sacrificed; Christ's blood had to be shed in order for the authority over the enemy and creation to be given over us so that we may deliver the oppressed, heal the sick, and do many other spiritually miraculous things besides. It is also like the beef in that beef, in older times, was a rarity that required labor to have in your food. If you wanted beef, you had better be willing to work a few extra hours that week to get something other than pork or chicken in there. The same is with the power. You don't get it without practice and working at your gift. And, finally, the beef helps you build muscle, it makes you strong (yes this is circular..."ingesting power makes you powerful!"... but this should be a no-brainer). You'll never build muscle on celery. And really, you just can't have beef stew without beef. I mean, man alive, it's in the name of the dish!

The character of God is like the potatoes and carrots. It's like the potatoes because, like potatoes, God is simply...good. He just is. Potatoes are the same way. They're just good. For lots of reasons, mostly having to do with taste and how they compliment other things. At the same time, his character is also like the carrots, because they help us to see better (I credit this particular bit to my friend Nate Krause, who mentioned this when I told this to him today). If that last sentence didn't strike you, read it again because it's deep. And next, we return to the circular thing, because the carrots and any other veggies in there are actually good for you and nourishing to your body, providing nutrients it needs that the beef can't provide. And, really, you just can't have beef stew without carrots and 'taters, because honestly who has ever heard of such a thing? You couldn't call it stew without carrots and 'taters. They go together with the beef like...well, like beef carrots and potatoes in a stew (besides, using "like peanut butter and jelly" as a simile is just lame). The other reason being if all you ever have is straight beef in your stew, you'll get fat and unhealthy. You need some (relatively) healthy stuff in there taking up space.

But here's the thing that makes all of this special: His love is like the gravy that saturates everything, and what makes stew special and different from everything else. Without the gravy, there is no stew and there is no seasoning. The gravy is the most key and special part of the stew. A stew lives or dies on its gravy. Without the gravy, the potatoes are just potatoes, the carrots are just carrots, and the beef is just plain hunks of meat. And sure, those things nourish, but here's the rub: God doesn't want us to just live and sustain ourselves to the end of our race here. Does he want us to endure? Yes. Without a doubt. But he also wants us to live to the fullest and most awesome experience we are willing to have the faith for. When you order a stew, you don't get it to gulp it down quick and wash it down with soda before the taste of it can sink into your tongue like some of the dining hall food around here. You get it because it's delicious in all it's gravy saturated goodness. And speaking of saturation, there's another reason why his love is like the gravy; in order for the other stuff to really be a part of the stew, they have to soak in that gravy, until it's permeated everything in that stew, so that the savory flavor is in everything and not a single bite is without that delicious flavor.

So...

If you're being served a God who's like a stew without beef, send it back and get some beef in there.

If you're being served a God who's like a stew with no 'taters and veggies, send it back and get some 'taters and veggies in there.

If you're being served a God who's like a stew with no gravy...smack your server upside the head and send it back. I mean...seriously. They should know better. And I might even say to never go back to that restaurant again... because if they don't know that gravy is supposed to be in stew, then that's one messed up place. Maybe you can learn how to make stew yourself and come back one day to teach them (if they're willing to learn)...but until then, avoid that establishment like the plague!

So thanks for readin'...man am I hungry now. All of this talk of 'taters and stews...

Author's Note: The comment about backhanding your server is meant to be figurative. It is not nice to slap your waitresses, not to mention illegal and Not Very Nice and/or Biblical.

The Florida Outpouring

I recently returned from an incredible experience of the revival that's going on in Lakeland, FL. There have been many healings and when I went down there with my holy family, it really was an incredible experience, and the Lord really helped to break off a lot of things within me. You the revival has grown from a single church called Ignite Church to a larger church (they couldn't contain the people there) to the city's convention center, and soon it is possible that this will expand into a stadium. This revival has reached globally through the service of God TV and is really an awesome thing. The services are every day from 7-11 PM, and you can watch on us.god.tv or you can go to Todd Bentley's website www.freshfire.ca and follow the links to watch the revival breaking out there. This isn't televangelist nonsense, this isn't "charismania" shenanigans, this is the real presence of God, working mightily on this earth through his servant Todd and many others who have done the work of the Lord and are open to be used by Him.

What's the problem?

The problem is that the church has an appearance of godliness but is lacking in the power. The things of God that were all throughout the ancient church, healing, the prophetic, spiritual deliverance, all of those things; where are they now? What happened to Christ's prayer for the saints that they would work GREATER MIRACLES than Christ himself? There is indeed much hypocrisy, and it goes above and beyond merely natural things like being nice to the poor or lacking moral fiber. Where is the spiritual power?! Canned up by fearful spiritual bean counters who are more interested in theology and arguments than they are about the TRUE character of Christ.

It is easier to not try to perform acts of spiritual power than it is to try and fail because you didn't have the faith for it, and learn a lesson. It is easier to accept your lot and that of other's as "God's will" then to put your faith TO THE TEST and SPEAK into the lives of other people and ours in faith and Christ's name.

All of these things flow and operate out of love. Prophecy apart from love isn't any different from the $25 an hour psychics on Main Street, because while it may reveal things it does not do so for the purpose of love, but for money, which does not reach the heart of the person and edify them (which is the point of prophecy in the New Covenant).

Healing apart from love is a parlor trick, and apart from love there simply is no deliverance from demons because, as Christ said, "How is it that demons are cast out by the prince of demons?" Apart from love all of the things I mentioned are controlled by the demonic and by our sinful nature.

To give someone a prophetic word of encouragement, that IS an act of love, see? It is an expression of love, which is at the center of all things. By attaining love, you attain Christ's character that the church is attempting to make people be (which is what you are addressing) and also Christ's power, which is what I am addressing. Both are necessary.

Just to be clear on what I mean by "prophetic": If you look at the definition of the greek word used by Paul, it can be succinctly summed up as "what God is thinking at a given moment and wants you to say for him," which is anything spoken that edifies others, that is an encouragement (because God loves you 100%). One time, a girl I know came up to me in a coffee shop and just said, "David, I know you really are destined for great things, I can tell God has a big calling on your life, I don't know why I just feel that you do." I know for a fact this person knows little to nothing about the prophetic, but that person gave me a prophetic word.

Nowadays, prophecy is often associated with judgment. That was in the Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, prophecy is positive, and is a gift given to people for the purpose of infusing God's joy, love and mercy directly into people's lives. But the reason why it has been abandoned is because people no longer believe in the power of their words and what they put their faith in.

You have got to understand this: Our words have power. Have you ever heard of something called a self-fulfilling prophecy? They are real. The words you speak into other people's lives have an impact on them. I'm not just talking about when you are speaking to the person. I am talking your prayers, what you say about them when they aren't around, what you think changes the world. If it were not so, then why is it that at the end every man will be held accountable for the words he has spoken? Why is it that sin can be committed long before it manifests in the body and can be spoken to someone? Because it has an affect. But because people do not believe in their own power (because of a bunch of Calvinist garbage that says that everything is sovereign), they do not believe in the power of prophecy, which isn't from people anyway, but is a combined effort of God and man.

But true prayer, true prophecy, and and anything spoken, is something that YOU do...and you do it with God. You put in your two cents, and God puts in his 2 trillion gold bars. But you still put in two cents, and that two cents matters a great deal.

How many times has Christ talked about mustard seed sized faith, and the woman dropping the small coins in the temple offering? Or about the talents that are increased when they are invested in? Our contributions of faith matter a great deal in the kingdom of heaven. If we are not willing to even contribute a little to using the spiritual gifts, then the church is nothing but a foolish virgin standing outside with no oil. We need to be wise virgins and have the abundant oil of the holy spirit and God's anointing.