Unleashing the Power of God

And Jesus said to his disciples: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

What is it Jesus says will happen when the Holy Spirit comes upon his disciples?

He says that they will be his witnesses to the end of the earth.

So many times we talk about all the ways the Holy Spirit makes us holy and gives us the fruit of the Spirit, but we have a great tendency to forget the first thing Jesus tells his disciples will happen when they receive the Spirit. Jesus says the first thing they will do when they receive the Spirit is witness.

So yes, the Holy Spirit is given to us to make us holy—that's why he is called the Holy Spirit. However, the first thing he does in the early church is empower them to witness.

Jesus tells his disciples to wait until they have received power from on high and then they will be empowered and emboldened to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth. So the moment the Spirit falls on the believers he gives them power to witness to the people gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost.

It is very interesting to note that it is much more common to see the early church and the apostles praying for and exhorting others to pray, for boldness for themselves, than the conversion of unbelievers.

In Acts 4 after the apostles have been put in prison, beaten, and released they go to the Lord and pray concluding their prayer in this way:
"And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus."

They don't pray here for the lost to be saved, they pray that they might do their part and speak the word with boldness, so that God would stretch out his hand and do wonders and save people.

Paul tells the Ephesian church to pray "that words may be given me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak."

This does not mean Paul does not care about the lost. He says in Romans 9, "I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish myself accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers." Of course Paul cares about the lost and of course he prays for them, especially if he would go to hell for them if he could.

However, Paul has a focus in his prayers and his asking for prayers from the churches, which is primarily boldness in his speaking the gospel. Did he always do that? No, he tells the Corinthian church that he came to them in much weakness, fear and trembling. That's why he asks the churches to pray for him.

I wonder if we are often times too wimpy in our prayers for ourselves. Do we content ourselves with a passing request for our own boldness? Do we understand the importance of our own speaking the Word with boldness?
Man's responsibility and God's sovereignty meet in salvation as men speak the Word with boldness and God stretches out his hand to perform wonders like making dead men come to life. It is our responsibility to speak the gospel with boldness because in our telling is the power of God unto salvation.

How often are our prayers for unbelievers a cover-up for not telling them the gospel ourselves? I'm not speaking as one who is not guilty of doing this very thing, but I speak from my own experience.

If we are merely praying for the lost to be saved and neglecting to speak boldly and praying to speak boldly we are missing a major aspect of Holy Spirit's work. Holy Spirit has been given to us to enable us to speak boldly about the gospel. So, we must seek him desperately and not rest until he gives us boldness to speak the gospel as we ought to speak.

We have his promise that his Word will not return void any more than the snow will float back up into the sky after it has fallen. We must hear his Words to Joshua ringing in our ears as we ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, "Have I not commanded you? [Think: the great commission.] Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go."

Do not let the idea of people stereo-typing you get in the way of you sharing the gospel. You cannot fit in. You are not of this world. But you are in the world and the telling of the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. For, "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"

So, my plea to you, my brothers and sisters, is that you unleash the power of God upon the world by proclaiming boldly that Jesus died to save sinners!

Prayers for the Summer Answered

Our prayer going into this summer has been for God to simply save some people from Hell this summer.

He has done that in a remarkable way already this season. We have seen people calling on the name of the Lord to be saved. We don't keep careful count but we've seen at least 10 people already who got a sense of their sin and desired to call on the only name by which men might be saved in order to find mercy.

This has been an immense encouragement to our faith [confidence in God and our belief that He is able to do far more than we ask or think].

This week began with a short hymn sing and prayer meeting Sunday night with the group from Heritage PCA from VA who was here all week.
I wasn't sure what to expect. Some high schoolers (much less older Christians) are timid to pray in a group setting. I didn't know if many people would pray and what their prayers would be like. I opened it up for people to pray short one-sentence prayers and was floored by the hearts which were exposed during our 30 minutes of seeking the Lord's face. I began weeping to be in the presence of such men and women who wanted God—His presence and power—so much.

Already this week we have seen His glorious power at work.

A man walked by Monday I think it was and Griffin handed him a tract called The Way to God. The guy asked Griffin what it was about, Griffin said it was about Jesus. "Oh, can we talk?" he asked Griffin.
So Chris and Griffin took him aside and spoke with him. He had recently had an engagement for marriage break off and was looking for something. After speaking with him for only a few minutes the guy said he wanted to call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Chris and Griffin led him in a prayer for God to be merciful to him, forgive his sins, and give him power to live a new life in the Holy Spirit.

Tuesday we were flooded with an unprecedented audience of 40 to 50 kids from a pastor in New York who brought his youth group down to see the Chapel (many of whom had never believed the gospel). We knew what it might have been like for the disciples when Jesus told them to throw their net to the other side of the boat and suddenly find their nets full to bursting. We were reminded that God is able to bring people to us. We spent the evening after the program befriending the kids and sharing the gospel on a more personal level and ending the evening in a time of collective worship with singing.

Wednesday night when I went out evangelizing I felt inclined to pray as the disciples did in Acts after they received their first persecution: as we continue to proclaim your word with boldness, You stretch out your hand and perform wonders, signs, and miracles.
That night I met up with some friends I met last year and then early this year. One had done a 7 month mission trip to New Zealand, but had not shared his faith much in Wildwood. The other did not have Christian parents or many Christian friends and had never shared his faith explicitly. I got to talking with them and showed them the tract called The Way to God and explained how I used it to start conversations with people.
After showing them my example they took off and within moments were deep in conversation with people about the riches of the gospel, with some people almost in tears. It was awesome to see God give these young men such boldness and multiply my own efforts to share my faith.

God is at work my friends! He is MIGHTY to SAVE. Not just from earthly afflictions, but also from eternal damnation! Praise the Lord!

The Battle Belongs to the Lord! #Claimed.

"For we wrestle NOT against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." -Ephesians 6:12-

It's been a while since I posted. Part of that is because there has been a lot of spiritual battle and struggle going on. satan has really been trying to get to me, and because I am a Child of Light rather than a Child of Darkness who claims the name of Jesus, he continues to lose. Ultimately, as we know, he has already lost. Death & Sin have been defeated, and this makes him irate. However, satan does not let this keep him from trying to sow tares in the wheat of God's beloved children. he wants to win though he has already lost. Hence, he continues to steal, kill, & destroy on the earth. Fortunately, we serve a God who has always been greater and always will be greater, a God who cares & wants His children to believe TRUTH. After all, He gave us two entire books of it: Creation & the Word.

These past few weeks have been a time of battle. I am realizing the battlegear I am lacking in, but I am also understanding that even when certain weapons are small (for example, at times, I feel I have a dagger rather than a Sword of Truth), I have the greatest weapon of all already. His name is Jesus, and, as a recent Sister & Friend told me, my place is at the right hand of the Father. From there, Jesus can show me how to fight the enemy, or simply defeat satan & his demons for me when I ask. "So, #winning,!" to put in 21st century terms. Seriously, guys, our right hand of the Father status is a huge deal.

satan has tried to attack me, thus far, in three different ways. First, he tried to make me believe that I didn't belong here, that my gifts weren't needed or wanted here. He also tried to confirm this through a few people, which made the lie seem more like truth. At one point, he hurled a three-pronged attack at me. What I mean by that is that, at the end of the attack, I realized there were three possible ways for him to win and that I had to pray for truths to battle all three possibilities. I prayed over all three prongs and have thus far been given supernatural love, a heart willing to change in the way I need to, and the strength to say "I do not receive that" to the things only meant to bind me in guilt & shame that is not mine to take.

Once satan lost this battle due to God's Holy Spirit revealing the truth of what was going on, on the spiritual level, he tried another tactic. This time he attacked my spiritual gifting. He tried to make me doubt the prophetic gifting I have received. (It's fine if you are reading this blog and do not believe the prophetic gifting exists post-Acts. I do not condemn you. I simply cannot believe that having lived out prophetic gifting myself. To deny the gifting would be to throw out every conversation I've had that started with a form of prophecy or insight. And that would be a lot of throwing out God's working & a ton of Ebeneezers He's given me over the years.) satan tried to attack this gift by making me believe that a dream from him was a dream from God. He tried to give me a package, as Don Francisco would say, which was labeled "God" but was really from the father of lies. I've been having more dreams from God recently and was shocked at this one in particular, which seemed prophetic but was in some way "off."

In the dream, I was surrounded by cannibals who were about to eat me. It was rather graphic. I was hanging naked on a spit while these cannibals around me conversed about eating my heart. The odd thing was that they spoke very eloquent English and were logically telling each other why it was okay to eat my heart. I awoke feeling like I was a "feeling"/empathetic person and that a lot of people here in the Dunn House & in the Boardwalk Chapel ministry were not acknowledging my gifting or what I added. Rather, they were so  logical, unfeeling, and rational, that they were, without realizing it, slowly killing my sensitive heart. This was the attack which was defused the quickest because the people here have shown me encouragement and great love, and I knew it! Given: folks here tend to be more logical/rational based than most of my more artsy friends (though there are artsy people here too) and Given: sometimes the blunt way that people speak here, to a sensitive Southerner, might hurt a little. But: LOGIC & BLUNTNESS DO NOT EQUATE WITH NON-LOVE. In fact, Jesus spoke with logical sass and bluntness throughout His ministry whilst loving people perfectly. So, satan lost again. I do not doubt the prophetic gifting I have been given AND I know people love me here well. No one is trying to eat my heart but satan. He was the face of every cannibal in that dream. Not my beloved brothers & sisters in the Dunn House.

The third attack came this morning when we, as a staff, were reading through "Four Letter Words," our Evangelism Training book for the summer. We were reading about Monism: which holds that all is god, god is in all, nature is all, all religions are one, opposites are true, and illusion can be truth rather than reality. I experienced an extreme spiritual & physical reaction to this. We had read about Animism and Naturalism, and though these are wrong worldviews, these first two did not effect me as much as Monism did. It both sicked me and drew me in at the same time, and I hated it.

I realized (with the help of Susie Buckley & Mikaela esp.) that what upset me most about this particular worldview is that it changes the Jesus and God I love so much. You see, Animism acknowledges evil and fear but doesn't really speak about God. Naturalism says there is no God; only science. But Monism takes God & Jesus and twists them into hideous forms of untruth. To use a Jay-Z analogy, if you ride the train of Monism all the way, God & satan are one (YUCK!) and evil & truth are the same. That is pure evil! Of course I was spiritually repulsed. It only makes sense to vomit when you see a worldview that entrenches people with so many lies about our God and Jesus and which buries people on the lowest level of inception (I mean, it's hard to get someone who sees that they are believing an illusion & is still fine with that, to walk into truth. And I am ALL ABOUT SOME TRUTH.) I just sensed satan's utter joy over this worldview. The others bring him praise. Animism gives him power without acknowledging him, and Naturalism acknowledges neither him nor god which ultimately means it serves him, but Monism in its purest form literally brings him as much glory as God openly and candidly. It unhinged me.

But here's the attack part of the issue. I realized that Monism disgusted me but that it also attracted me. That attraction and understanding made me feel like satan's child rather than God's. The thing is, the most complicated, inverted, and contradictory things often attract me because I like complications and intrigue and psychology. But satan was telling me that "getting that," understanding why people would buy Monism and being attracted to it myself in a sense, proved his claim on me. See, some people, like my husband, read about Monism and laugh at it's utter folly. And some people, like me, read it and can really get why people are drawn to it, I don't see the folly first. I see why people like it, the lies that drew them to it. But this, my friends, does not make me a child of darkness. It makes me God's child who wields a different weapon than my husband. I can get in people's heads and work from inside their paradigm (while remembering and dwelling on the truth of God of course). I see the lies that bind them first, satan's puppet strings, and then can cut those strings with truth (again, still working on my Sword but the dagger and Jesus work well for now). People like my husband and my friend Ninja Tim see the folly of their belief first but look for common truths to start a conversation. People like me see lies and then start cutting; I don't focus on common truths all that much (Teacher/Exorter Status).

So satan, sucks for you. You do not win. I embrace having a purpose here in Wildwood, being loved by the people/leaders here, AND my spiritual giftings in prophecy and the seeing of satan's strings ("the better to cut them with" as the grandmother in Red Riding Hood would say).

There is a lot more going on here. For now, just know that God is faithful and that knowing with certainty that I am needed and wanted here helps a lot. God is using me a lot to defeat lies of those on the Boardwalk as well as lies that God's children, especially his girls, believe about themselves which keep them from walking in freedom, love, and power!

Continue to pray for the ministry here. God is Moving. The Holy Spirit is opening souls up to truth. And satan can't stand it.