The dawning of the digital age spread the Word throughout the Earth, even into places not easily penetrated. In fact, I’ve been amazed that our web site has reached people not just in Athens and Southeastern Ohio, but all around the world. Our statistics show that people on all continents, and even in predominately non-Christian nations, are listening to the Abundant Life Today podcast and reading content on the web site. That’s supernatural multiplication!

The clear digital trend is toward mobile computing. Increasingly, people are reading and computing on their mobile devices – iPhones, Android-based devices, and iPads being the main ones now. Any effort to spread the Gospel has to recognize that trend.

Accordingly, we’re pleased to launch the Abundant Life Church mobile app in the iTunes App Store and the Android Market. Thanks to Christy Robe, we have a crisp updated logo, and will populate the app with more interesting graphics over time. We’ll be adding new content regularly. People everywhere will be able to read the Bible, listen to preaching, keep up with our events, and engage with the Church, all from a device they carry with them.

This is our time, and we need to use all the tools the Lord is giving us to advance His Kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria!!

Then you hear that he’s alive again. You run to meet him. He’s alive! Some, including Thomas, have doubted. But there he is. Bigger than life. Bigger than death.

You just want to celebrate. You want to enjoy his company and the company of his other followers. You want to sing a few songs, tell some stories, hear him teach.

But he seems serious, driven, impatient. You’ve seen him like this before. There’s something on his mind. And he starts to speak.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. (Matthew 28:16-20 NKJV)

Jesus did all he did to fulfill the mission the Father gave him. But he left a body behind. His Church. And he sent it on a mission.

Read through the book of Acts. These people went. They gathered in Jerusalem as he told them, just long enough to pick up the power of the Holy Spirit. Then they spread out and made disciples. People were healed and delivered. Jesus spread through them exponentially throughout their world. Why? They had seen him. They had been with Jesus. They’d seen a guy who had been dead, but was raised up and at with them. When he told them to proclaim the good news, that was no problem! They were excited to do it!

We’ve become people who meet, and think that’s all we’re supposed to do. Sunday meetings. Conferences. We have books, CD’s, mp3′s. We fill ourselves with knowledge, and we think it’s enough. It’s not. Jesus didn’t just send his early followers on a mission. Jesus sent us on the same mission. It’s to continue HIS mission.

We’ve even met to talk about going. We’ve sung songs about going. We’ve heard from people who went, and have told us wonderful stories about what it’s like to go. But we’re entering an era in which the Church has to shake off fear and complacency and just GO.

We have a mission. It’s to continue the Master’s mission. But we can’t do it just hanging around the place where we meet. We have to go. Out of our comfort zone. Using the power of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, the love of God, and the Name of Jesus. We have the best good news to proclaim. Let’s get it done!

Really? Justice is a recurring them in the Bible.

One of the most-quoted scriptures in the Old Testament is this:

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the LORD require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?
(Micah 6:8 ESV)

In the New Testament, Jesus scolded the Pharisees:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
(Matthew 23:23 ESV)

I may differ with some of the directions taken by ministries centered on “social justice” in their interpretation of scripture. But to suggest that God is not a God who wants his people to pursue justice in our society – especially for the weak and poor – is to ignore huge chunks of the Bible. Our prayerful quest should be for the means the Lord wants us to use to pursue justice in society, not whether we should pursue justice.

The Church today should operate more like the Church of the early followers of Jesus. They gathered regularly to worship, to be equipped, and to encourage each other. The gifts (manifestations) of the Holy Spirit were present. But those early disciples didn’t just have meetings. They met to be recharged for ministry outside the meeting place. And when they went outside the meeting place to share the good news of Jesus, signs and wonders followed.

Today I see some churches that are filled with lively worship, encouraging and solid Bible teaching, and manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but all of that good stuff stays bottled up in the building. Other churches are passionate about the Great Commission and engaging the culture around them, but they deny that the miraculous workings of the Lord are for today.

We should be seeing both. We should gather for life-changing worship, fiery and encouraging preaching, and manifestations of the Spirit, but we should be taking what we learn, the power of the Spirit, and the good news of Jesus to people we encounter. We should be focused on engaging the culture and being missional, but as in the “early church,” we should expect healings and miracles to manifest in the name of Jesus as we encounter people.

I’m hungry to see the Body of Christ do the greater works Jesus prophesied in John 14:12 – just as our brothers and sisters did in the earliest years of the Church. We can’t do it if we just meet, and we can’t do it if we just go. We need to meet, we need to go, and we need to expect the power of the Holy Spirit to demonstrate signs and wonders as we minister. That is when we will be mirroring the ministry of Jesus, who constantly engaged ordinary people and made Himself available for miracles to occur through Him.

Let’s be the Body of Jesus. Let’s GO in the power of the Spirit!

Peter and John

Think about it for a moment. The leaders of the temple bound and beat them for proclaiming the name of Jesus, and commanded them to stop. They didn’t. Instead, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer persecution for Jesus. They prayed for even greater boldness to proclaim the name of Jesus. They asked for a healing revival to break out. The Lord must have been happy because His power shook the place! Everyone went out and proclaimed the name of Jesus with boldness!

Miracles and healing were expected. Peter and John walked by the Beautiful Gate of the temple, found a lame beggar. They ordered him to get up in the name of Jesus, expecting him to be healed. He was miraculously healed, got up, and danced.

Throughout the book of Acts, we read that thousands were added to the church. And we’re part of the same Church – just a few centuries later.

We should be doing the same things as our early brethren – and more. But we won’t see any of it if we’re inward looking. We won’t see it if we’re paralyzed by fear of failure or criticism. The Church will be weak if we don’t both BELIEVE and DO what the Bible tells us we can and should do.

Let’s really live by faith and not by our senses and experience. Let’s be really evangelical, boldly proclaiming the lordship of Jesus, and inviting people to join us. Let’s believe what the Lord says in Mark 16:17-18. Let’s have some faith in the authority of the name of Jesus, and in that name let’s cast out demons and lay hands on the sick expecting them to be healed. Let’s operate in the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit.

Let’s stop entertaining ourselves on Sundays, and secluding ourselves in little enclaves. Instead, let’s break out of our safe houses, go into all the world, and let the Lord use us to minister His love and His power to the world around us – just like He did in the Church years recorded in the book of Acts.

I want my church to be a place the early disciples would recognize and feel comfortable in. How about you?

Fill 'er up.

But He also told them to go into the world and preach the good news. (Mark 16:15). He just wanted them to power up before they went. The entire book of Acts records that they did that. The early disciples went all around the region, and miracles happened wherever they went. The number of followers of Jesus grew exponentially.

The Church today is spending too much time in the garage enjoying the engine’s sound, listening to the radio, and telling everyone else in the car how great it is to be in the car.

We’re supposed to meet – at least every Sunday – but we’re not supposed to think that’s all there is to being a disciple of Jesus. No! We’re supposed to GO!

If Jesus is your Lord, you have a ministry. Get powered up in the Word and the Holy Spirit, get prayed up, get praised up, and go do your ministry. Minister healing to the sick. Minister hope to the hopeless. Minister salvation to the lost.

Minister in the work place. Minister at home. Minister at the grocery store. Minister where you are.

Go and share the Good News. Jesus is Lord!

GO!!

In 1 Timothy 2:1-4, the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write this as an instruction not just to Paul’s spiritual son, Timothy, but to all believers for all time:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I’ve noticed over my lifetime that it’s hard to pray for someone and at the same time call them nasty names. It’s almost impossible to invest yourself in another person’s success, and at the same time tear them down.

As Christians, no matter what we may think about the political convictions of our political leaders, our scriptural assignment is to pray for them. No matter our political affiliation, we need for our leaders to make wise, righteous, Godly decisions. Our well-being depends on it. The preaching of the Gospel depends on it. The country’s future depends on it.

So whether we’re Republicans or Democrats, conservatives, liberals, or moderates, we need to take seriously our scriptural assignment to give thanks for our leaders, pray for them, intercede for them, and make supplication for them. The faithfulness and unity of the Body of Christ in this nation – or in any nation – to fulfill that assignment will be a critical factor in determining the destiny of the nation.

Step into your place and fulfill your assignment!!

Jim and Judy Stevens

This past Sunday, we were blessed to have Prophet Jim Stevens, and his wife, Apostle Judy Stevens, minister in the church. Prophet Jim chose 1 Corinthians 13 as his text, and challenged us to look at it as the “prophecy chapter,” and not just the “love chapter.” The message will be added soon to our podcast; I encourage you to listen.

Through the Apostle Paul, most particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of 1 Corinthians, the Holy Spirit admonishes the Church to operate in the gifts (manifestations) of the Holy Spirit. He also instructs us as to how to operate in the gifts of the Spirit in an orderly and powerful way. The Body of Christ needs to heed the admonition of the Holy Spirit!

Let’s all make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit for Him to minister through us. All of the gifts operate by faith, and MUST be powered and led by love. Let’s get to it!

The Lord has been speaking to me for a few months about what’s approaching in the Body of Christ. This past Sunday I delivered what I think is a timely word from the Lord for the Church – for Abundant Life Church, but also for the Lord’s Church worldwide. Get ready for a new era in the Church!

Here it is:

2011 will be a year of “stepping over” for those who believe. It will be a year, and the beginning of an era, unmatched in the history of the Church. A year of breakthrough, fulfillment, and overflow. A year to move in the miraculous, to expect the impossible, to flow in the supernatural. A year to lift your eyes, lift your sights, and raise your vision. A year to double down and double up.

You are entering an extraordinary era of power, purity, and purpose. No more keep your focus on you. My heart for all My people is that they look outside the walls of the Church. See the pain with My eyes, and you will see it as opportunity – an opportunity to glorify Me.

This era will be marked by four things. Parts of My Body that don’t get in the flow will die out or be cut off.

1. Miracles and the impossible being performed through saints who love and believe, not just those in the fivefold ministries.
2. A rekindling of love with a focus beyond self and the institutional church.
3. Unity in the Church, bringing about great power and joy.
4. Believers who are proficient and determined in the use of the gifts, tools, weapons, and authority of the Kingdom of God.

Do not cease pursuing the gifts of the Spirit, but don’t let them be your life’s search. Loving the unloved and using the gifts for others is of greater importance to Me than your moving in the gifts for yourselves. They are not entertainment. Those who look to bring attention to themselves for their use of the gifts will no longer bear fruit, but only those who use the gifts to profit others will be fruitful. Guard your hearts. Be fruitful.

My Church must regain a focus on the poor, the hurting, and the lost. Those parts of the Body that do that will be fruitful. Those who focus inwardly will dry up and die. Bear fruit.

If you want to participate in this next era in the Church, major on faith and love, and live in the Spirit. If you do that, I can use you to do great things, extraordinary things, miraculous things.

Extraordinary upheaval will continue in 2011. Don’t be afraid; believe only. I will take care of My people. Don’t worry about your “stuff.” Be concerned about pursuing the Kingdom. The “stuff” will come. Yes, tithe, sow, and expect a harvest. Yes, confess your healing. Yes, speak the Word. But don’t let your focus be on you and yours only. I need you – I need My Church – to be in place and operating in My power and in My love. Selfishness will be a blessing-blocker like never before. Give of yourself and it will be given to you again without measure!

Look for ways to partner with other churches and ministries. Get involved in what I’ve given them to do. Reach across boundaries. Reach out to the lost. Reach out to the weak and broken. Minister. Serve. Lay hands on the sick and expect them to recover. I will move! Go where you haven’t gone before. Talk with people who don’t look like you. Minister My mercy. Expect the flow of resurrection power wherever you are – NOT JUST IN CHURCH. The dead will rise, the lame will walk, the blind will see. You are entering an era of the miraculous.

There are those of your “kind” who will say you have adopted “social justice ministry.” Don’t worry about it. Do what I’ve given you to do. Walk by faith, walk in love. Believe. Move. Go. Step into the miraculous. Step into the miraculous. Step into the miraculous. When you care for the least you unleash the power of the miraculous. Hook in to Me.

Major on Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58 and Joel 2 in 2011. Be Joel 2:13 people. I’m calling My Church to be Joel 2:13 people. Do it, and you will be blessed. Do what I’ve called you to do, and prepare the way of the Lord. Together we’ll get this job done.

Janet and Craig Watson.

Today I received a Skype call from my dear friend, Craig Watson, the pastor of Eagle Christian Ministries in Durban, South Africa.  Cherie and I have a covenant relationship by divine appointment with Craig and his wife, Janet, and we are becoming closely knit together in the Spirit.  Craig and Janet have been in Athens and have ministered at Abundant Life Church.  Talking with Craig via Skype (a free computer to computer “telephone” call) with web cams was like being in the same room with him.

Craig shared with me that his greatest passion over the last many months has been to live in the presence of God.  For years he has enjoyed daily fellowship with the Lord.  Lately, though, he has been hungry for the Lord’s presence, and has begun to spend each Wednesday morning in prayer and fasting before God.  The result has been striking.  Craig has experienced wonderful times of fellowship and received extraordinary revelation and anointing from God.

To Craig’s flesh, taking Wednesday morning to seek God seemed like a big sacrifice.  In addition to pastoring, Craig and Janet operate an international logistics business that is thriving in famine.  Time is not something he possesses in excess.  But he made the quality decision to make time to seek God, and has reaped enormous rewards, both in the Spirit and in the natural.

Craig reflected, and I agree, that we’re not “professional preachers” delivering a joke, three points, and a story.  We shouldn’t preach just to preach.  Instead, we need to preach from a position squarely in the presence of God.  The presence of God and the anointing that accompanies His presence makes the difference between just a nice message and a rhema word from God that will change the lives of the hearers, open blind eyes, heal bodies, bring deliverance to the captives, and cause miracles to occur.  Like Moses, we should not preach or do anything unless the presence of the Lord goes with us.  (Exodus 33:15).

In your own life, seek the presence of God and let it transform you.  Make a quality decision to spend time in the Word of God, being quiet before the Lord, and hearing His voice.  In your marriage, your job, your health, and every other part of your life, seek first His kingdom – and His presence – and everything you need He will supply to you.  (Matthew 6:33).   And when He supplies it, it won’t be by small degrees.  It will be exceedingly above all you can ask or think (Ephesians 3:20) and according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).

Seek His presence, and let Him transform you!