I am writing two posts today, this one being the “random appreciative” as I am feeling thankful to God for the manner in which He has allowed me to live my life before Him. I am feeling very tender and thankful to the Lord for this place, my home; and these people, my friends - more than any place I have ever been, there is a right “order” to things here. The people are easy, it’s God that’s hard at times. People (good and bad) are just God’s ministers and divine “escorts” to lay hold of God in the wrestling match of life. It is true that we really do not wrestle with “flesh and blood”. We wrestle with principalities and powers, as Paul noted in Ephesians 6. Yet, behind those principalities and powers is a sovereign God who is above and over all. We wrestle with Him.
That fact frees us to love people regardless of what they can give us or take away from us. Of course, it’s easy for me to say that since I have the privilege of rubbing elbows with some of the most excellent of the “excellent ones” of the earth (Ps. 16:2). Prayer works. The “greenhouse” cultivating authentic, humble, tender, godly men and women works. God’s methodology and leadership, implemented wisely and biblically, works. Of that I am convinced.
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March 6th, 2007
I’m taking the suggestions below (from the State of the Union post) seriously. My plan this week is to poke a little, disrupt a little, and annoy a little in a post on global warming and human trafficking. My goal is to leave no one happy with me when I am done. Look for that on Wednesday, perhaps.
Tomorrow, I want to declare war on some false mindsets related to evangelism that have led to a far too positive response to Hal Lindhart’s fantastic and necessary message yesterday. More people need to be offended by what Hal said. The fact that most people liked his sermon tells me that there is a real problem in our midst. I intend to take it on.
Then, later this week, I hope to finish up the “Beatitudes” portion of my Sermon on the Mount series. It’s after that point that Jesus’ theology gets really, really disruptive. So, my friends, I have heard you! I have a new zeal to go after some things in my life, my heart, and my ministry. I have an aggression to prophesy the hard things to my soul and be bugged for days afterwards. I invite you to come along for the journey, if you’re up for it. You may not be - I understand.
Hope to see you - keep giving me advice! I love it!
It’s a “double post” day, so please read the first one (”He who spoke…”) and bypass this one. Thanks!
David
March 5th, 2007
There are two necessary principles to keep in mind as we move forward into the plans and purposes of God’s heart for us. We must keep those principles before us as we cooperate with the grace of God towards us. In an intense season of exhortation, rebuke, and encouragement orchestrated by the Holy Spirit and the leadership of Jesus related to the zeal of His heart for His people, it is easy to fixate on the wrong issues - the negative emotions and fears that threaten to circumvent the work of God to bring us into His purposes.
There are always two options when the Lord speaks and identifies areas in which He longs for us to “come up higher”, whether those areas are related to personal holiness, obedience, ministry, or mindset. Those options, simply put, are always either “yes” or “no”. Most believers, however, have found sophisticated ways to say “no” to God when He stirs repentance and change to equip us for the road ahead. Our refusal is rarely outright or blatant. It often takes the form of helplessness, frustration, or self-pity. The operative word is “unbelief”.
The real issue for us is that God desires to give us a leadership role in the days ahead – a significant one. Location and present function is irrelevant to me – any believer who is reading this needs to understand that every believer on earth in the days to come will operate in a totally different context of life and ministry. Participation in the plans that are on the heart of God at the end of the age is not guaranteed, however. Participation in the things that God has purposed to do in the coming days is directly linked to our participation with His preparatory work in our lives today. All of us can be in the family of God and be loved by God, yet still miss out on the fullness of His plans in our life. This is not a love issue. This is about growing and being prepared to walk out what is ahead.
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March 5th, 2007
Just for good measure, I also added Aaron James, Nate Wood, and Steve Offutt to the wordcast links.
I would say “Steve and Amanda”, but it’s just Steve over there folks. I read that thing all the time, and no Amanda sightings yet. So it’s just plain “Steve” until.
David
March 3rd, 2007
…and, she’s here…
She may have to duke it out with Hartke, though. Is someone going to start the “His Hand is Really on the Door” site at some point soon? Should there be some kind of kickback?
David
March 3rd, 2007
I’m singing it over and over again lately. Why? Because I can’t believe how many “spam” comments I am getting. I’m about to go crazy. One I.P. address in particular, if I find a way to ever hunt them down, will feel a particularly special kind of wrath that I’m storing up for just such an occasion. Does anyone else have this problem? I’m getting about one every two or three minutes! Arrrgh!
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
David
March 3rd, 2007
I started doing this in October, just four months ago. I posted my first little offering, here - and was welcomed by Kristen and Ducky (who have both since moved to WordPress). I haven’t seen them much in these parts since, but they are both championship-caliber lurkers, so maybe they’re around.
I really got rolling in January, post-Onething Conference after a few weak posts just prior. It took me those six December posts to find my voice and my groove, to really get a feel for what I enjoyed writing and what really flows out of my little, weak, growing heart. Thus, now that I have some things a bit more clear in regards to what this is about for me, I can really articulate now what this wordcast is about for us as well.
I’m enjoying the journey so far - and I’m surprised how much. Not only has writing been fun, but interacting and connecting has been great. I now have about 150 or so unique visitors a day, which is odd to me. I don’t even have the experience in doing this to know if that is good or bad. My guess is “okay” or “decent” mixed with “enjoyable”. I do know that I now get enough spam comments to drive me to really dark places in my heart.
My only “regret” over the past two months is that I haven’t been a bit more controversial on some things. Everybody tends to agree with me! In that sense I actually enjoy running after Jesus with a bunch of like-minded, passionate, tender-hearted intercessors. Still, I like poking people the wrong way at times and causing trouble in a redemptive manner. I want to be more broadly “Pauline” in that sense and write in the Corinthian and Galatian manner; where, up to now, things have been very Roman (diplomatic) or Timothean (familial). Of course, the Corinthians didn’t like Paul very much after his first letter (prior to the writing of 1st Corinthians) and gravitated to Peter and Apollos as a result, so I may lose a few of you in the process…
The other thing that has changed as I figure this thing out is that I trimmed the hedges on the sidebar a bit, cleaning things up. This won’t be the last change I make. I’ll be fully revamping this space sometime soon to make it cleaner and more readable. My big problem is that I have a love of design and color but no time or ability to translate what’s in my head to the page. So it will take me time to make it work, but I assure you I am thinking of your eyes as you read my long posts against the dark background with an achy head.
I also want to add a comprehensive links page soon. If your name is missing from the sidebar, take heart! I’m sure many of you are well aware of how many of our “peeps” (as Randy calls them, slipping a McTwist into a Fakey after getting some serious air) are now wordcasting vigorously. I hear about more everyday. I can’t find them yet, but rumor has it that Katty Spink and Emily Russell have joined the ranks. I did a casual count this morning and came up with about 40-50 of us that are now really doing a semi-regular wordcast. So, I’m going to link up on a secondary page everyone here and abroad that carries the banner of the prayer movement on the ‘net. Then, in the spirit of Shawn Blanc, the sidebar will have three or four links that flow with what I’m doing here.
So thanks. Really. I appreciate everyone that’s jumped into this with me here, and everyone that is jumping into writing, chronicling and journaling from IHOP-KC (and other parts of the prayer movement) in general. It has been a thrill so far to knit hearts and run together, and I look forward to doing this with you for quite some time. This is the medium now, while it is day - for night is coming in which no one can work (Jn. 9:4). In that, Matt Hartke’s title is more urgent than maybe some had realized; more prophetic than maybe even he had realized.
I am sure that in a year, everything as we know it will be different. I can’t wait for the conversation.
Enough about me - there’s lots going on both at IHOP-KC and in the world.
David
March 2nd, 2007
I used to love that song when I was in junior high as a baby Christian. There have been few things more enjoyable for me over my life than watching God continually follow through on that wonderful name - “The God who Provides”. He is the God who promised to fund the prayer movement with a billion dollars; thus the financial miracles that have happened at IHOP-KC over the past seven years and the past few months will not be able to compare with the ones to come.
I have made it a fifteen year pursuit to build a history in God in both giving extravagantly and receiving financial blessing in really powerful ways. I want to continue and even stretch to increase what I have done in taking Jesus at His word in the coming days. I suspect that an aspect of the coming revival that we do not speak of much will be the corporate (which we kind of expect) and individual (which we kind of forget) ways in which the Leader of the prayer movement will stun us with incredible financial miracles and staggering amounts of provision and resource for the work of “keeping charge of the sanctuary”. Even in the last few weeks, I feel as if the Lord has been giving me some subtle and not-so-subtle hints that this will be the case in the form of a few fun encounters.
I’ll get to those in a minute. They really are fun.
I have never given much to “get” much, but I have labored to give much to have the means to give more. In that I have always considered the new believers of the Jerusalem community after Pentecost as a critical model, early in the book of Acts. Some have read about the extraordinary manner in which they had a “commonality” of goods and provisions as some kind of sanctified version of communal living; a kind of forerunner of the more corrupt communist expression of the early to mid 1900’s. I have never seen that expression of generosity in that manner - I have always viewed it as a vibrant expression of the generosity of God flowing through authentic apostolic community.
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March 1st, 2007
I find a few things slightly tragic and ironic at the same time this morning. It is frustrating to me that I have been too busy with my leadership responsibilities over the past few days to write about Matt. 5:8 and the promise of Jesus to the pure in heart. I find it ironic that I was in tears in Allen Hood’s office yesterday over the tension of being given more leadership while simultaneously yearning for more time to pray, fast, and go deep in the word. I find it tragic that my leadership responsibilities make it very difficult for me to do an extended fast that is not a corporate one. I find myself in a great tension clinging to hope that desire and longing “counts” before God as I struggle to navigate laying hold of a true life of prayer and not simply the reputation of having one. I want to have what Jesus invited me to have - a pure heart. Pure desires. A longing for the only thing that matters - intimacy with God.
Jesus made, to the “great multitudes” that had gathered to Him on that incredible day on the front end of His earthly ministry, an audacious promise. Really, the promise Jesus made to those who labored to cultivate a pure heart cannot truly be appreciated by a modern audience. The Jewish audience that had come from the southern boundaries of modern Turkey to the borders of Egypt were understandably stunned at His teaching. I, personally, find it shocking that the multitudes were “astonished”, as Matthew says (Matt. 7:28-29), at His teaching and His authority. Why am I shocked? Because Matthew tells us that they gathered to Him in the first place because of His fame that had spread throughout the region related to Hid unprecedented displays of power to heal and deliver the sick and tormented.
He healed “all kinds” of sickness and “all kinds” of disease among the people. (Matt. 4:23) Yet they saved their “astonishment” for His teaching. Imagine laying hands on someone and dramatically healing them, only to have them be astonished more by your sermon afterwards. That, in my opinion, is authority in teaching. It is also the point of revival and signs and wonders - not that we would pursue them as an end unto themselves, but that they would serve as a gateway to bring people into stunning truth and propel them into a rich and vibrant relationship with the living God. In many ways, the whole of Jesus sermon and ministry was about this incredible promise found in the beatitudes.
What was so stunning about the promise?
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February 28th, 2007
I am actually FOR global warming 100%. It’s on my prayer list, to be honest.
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” (2 Pet. 3:10-13)
David
February 27th, 2007
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