Fire On Your Head

Article by: DAVE ROBERSON
I got it here from Fresh Outlook Magazine.

Oregon is where it all began for me. I can still remember the peaceful sounds of the rivers, the pine trees, the fresh air. It was along the banks of Oregon’s rivers that I learned how to pray. Even the soft colors of the evergreens were peaceful, and the mountains made me think of God — tall, immovable, final.

To this day, if I was to compare anything to the peace of God, it would be the still quietness of Oregon’s wilderness. In the natural, I could not have had any better surroundings to help move me over into the things of God, and for that I am forever grateful.

Several years ago, I was watching an educational program that talked about the way a baby elephant is trained to be a circus elephant. The circus trainers begin by tethering the baby elephant to a stake with a small leather strap tied to one of his hind legs. The poor little elephant wears himself out struggling against the leather strap until eventually he gives up and accepts the fact that he can never break free. Afterward, it doesn’t matter how massive the elephant becomes, the prison is in his mind. He has accepted a stronghold, and even though the elephant has everything it needs to be free, he remains in bondage for the rest of his life.

Too often our Christian walk is better described by that circus elephant than by the vast, quiet Oregon wilderness of my youth. But that isn’t how God intended for us to live our lives in Him. He is waiting for us to leave behind our lives of self-imposed bondage as He ever beckons us to enter into a new realm of peace and rest in Him.

But what can we do to answer this divine call to a life of greater power and greater intimacy with the Father? That question is answered in my book The Walk of the Spirit — The Walk of Power. Through an in-depth study on praying in tongues, the book explores the powerful place of rest and refreshing this revelation gift holds in our lives as believers.

You see, the enemy trembles at the thought of you partnering with the Holy Spirit until the Spirit of God is released to do what He is ordained to do in your life — searching out the origin of any and every problem, destroying it from the roots. Therefore, if there were only one door that the devil could keep you from entering, it would be the door of praying in tongues. He hates it second only to salvation and wants to make sure you never go through it.

Why does the devil hate this revelation gift so much? Because praying in tongues is the search engine that activates the process of releasing the Holy Spirit in your life. As you go through this supernatural door and begin to pray much in other tongues, you will cease to be like the elephant whose strongholds remain buried somewhere in his past. When this revelation gift is in operation, there is no place that strongholds of bondage can hide — not in your past, not in your soul, not even in the wrong teaching you may have received.

There is no greater application of God’s power to your problems than through the work of the Holy Spirit. He cannot be deceived, and He never fails. He and He alone is ordained to do what no man can do: to step into the patterns of your failures and break their cycle once and for all. You see, one of the enemy’s greatest weapons is to keep you repeating the past. But the Holy Spirit is not only waiting to break the negative patterns of the past in your life; He can also establish you in God’s plan for your future through the powerful gift of praying in tongues.
God is a God of order, not of confusion. He wouldn’t give you an unclear, confusing path to walk down. Your life is worth a whole lot more to Him than an occasional impulse that you’re not sure of or an emotional high that never seems to go anywhere. But God’s plan for your life isn’t revealed to you all at once; His direction grows like a tree. As you pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit works out the divine plan for your future, using His power to pull you into that plan as His direction grows stronger and stronger. The apostle Paul wrote about these truths in Ephesians 1:13,14:

In whom [Jesus] ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

When a person finds a house he wants to buy, sometimes he puts down earnest money as a token of his sincerity. The earnest money has the power to hold the house until it becomes the possession of the buyer.

You are Heaven’s most prized and costly possession, purchased by the blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is the earnest of your inheritance. He has the power to hold you until you become Heaven’s final possession.

I spent several years not knowing how to release the Holy Spirit’s power and direction in my life. I had been baptized in the Holy Spirit for several years, and I knew Jesus said we were supposed to receive power after the Holy Spirit had come upon us [Acts 1:8]. But whenever I heard a preacher teach on the Holy Spirit, I felt like raising my hand and saying, “Excuse me, Sir. Is the Holy Spirit who dwells in me the same One who moved on the face of the deep during creation?”

He would answer, “Why, yes, it is.”

Then I would reply, “So how do I get all that power out from the inside of me and onto my problems? I need to find out, because up until now, sickness has been running over me; I’ve struggled with strongholds that seem stronger than me; and circumstances expect me to lie down and quit every time they knock on my door!”

During those times of confusion, I often thought how nice it would be if we were given a special Bible the moment we were born again. At the end of that Bible would be a book with our name on it. In this book would be the whole plan of God for our personal lives. Every time we wanted to know what we were supposed to be doing at a certain age, we would just open the book and read our answer.

It took me quite awhile to discover that, in reality, there is a book with my name on it. The Holy Spirit brought it with Him when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Not only does the Holy Spirit have the mind of Christ resident within Him regarding God’s personal plan for my life, but He also brought a supernatural language from Heaven with which to pray out that plan. And the same is true for you!

Praying in tongues is like any other form of prayer in that it is designed by God to be answered. However, the form of answered prayer this kind of praying takes is in the direction and the leadership of the Holy Spirit for our personal lives. God is a loving Father who loves His family, and He wants us to walk in the fullness of His power and His plan for our lives. So whom better could He have sent to teach us than a member of the Godhead Himself? And who knows more about the family of God than the Holy Spirit?

I can still remember the campmeeting where I was preaching when my staff surprised me by sending me the first copy of the book The Walk of the Spirit — The Walk of Power, just off the press. It had been two years in the writing and editing process, and I had no idea it was that close to being finished. But there in my hands was the book we had worked so hard to complete — 400 pages on how believers can walk out of everything Jesus said they are free from and into everything He said they could be. That was when the Lord spoke to me and said, “This book I have given you will change people’s lives where it finds them.”

I began to weep because I knew where I had come from, and I knew that what God had done for me, He would do for anyone. And as time passed, testimony after testimony began to pour in, confirming what God had said to me.

Whatever circumstances you are facing, no matter how bad things may look, you can know this with certainty: To God, these obstacles are just your starting point, the platform from which He can do what He does best — the impossible. However, the measure of God’s power in your life is dependent on how much of your life is ordered by the Holy Ghost. So how do you launch the Holy Spirit from the platform of your circumstances to bring His power to bear on every problem, every adversity, and every stronghold in your life? How do you release Him to bring His divine direction and His indescribable peace into your daily life? You do it God’s way — through the priceless gift of praying in tongues. It is through this revelation gift that the Holy Spirit will pull you out of everything Jesus set you free from and into everything God created you to be in Christ.

Dave Roberson pastors The Family Prayer Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Whether home or abroad, Dave’s ministry has always been marked by a free flow of spiritual gifts and by outstanding creative miracles and emotional healings as he teaches others to hunger after a deeper, more vital walk with God. He is the author of The Walk of the Spirit — the Walk of Power.
The Walk of the Spirit the Walk of Power – visit Amazon.com for copies of this book.

If you have ever preached in the open air, you will know that there are a number of fears you have to overcome. There is your own natural fear–that your mind may go blank and you will make a fool of yourself in front of a crowd of people. There’s the fear of being asked a question you can’t answer, or of attracting an angry heckler. But there is actually a bigger fear you will have to learn to live with.

It’s the fear of having a crowd gather and then scattering them as soon as they hear what you have to say.

It’s disheartening to pray for listeners, have them gather, and then watch them walk away while you are still speaking. That’s why I pray for a good heckler. A good (angry) heckler can take a crowd of three people and make them three hundred in a matter of three minutes; and if you learn to handle yourself and the heckler right, the crowd will stay.

There are some people who think differently. They don’t mind standing up publicly, opening a Bible, and talking to no one. However, that doesn’t look good, and it confirms in the mind of those that pass by that open air preachers are weirdo’s. They talk to themselves. Publicly. Sadly, much of the reproach leveled at open air preachers has nothing to do with the message they preach, but rather how they present themselves.

The problem is that the modern day open air preacher in the United States carries a lot of unwanted baggage. The moment he (or she) stands up to preach with a Bible in hand, he becomes the victim of prejudice. He is immediately lumped in with the wide-eyed sign-carrying “The end is nigh” folks, or the money-hungry televangelists, pedophile priests, simple-minded Bible quoting creationists and snake-handling fanatics. That’s why I don’t hold a Bible in my hand when I preach, and why I rarely mention spiritual things when I begin speaking. Scripture warns us that the ungodly think that spiritual things are foolish (1 Corinthians 2:14), so if I want them to gather and then stay to listen to the gospel, I have to know how to hold their interest.

There are learned skills involved in fishing, and perhaps one of the first is to use good bait and to know how to use that bait to disguise the hook. The average fish isn’t stupid.

A year or so ago, someone gave us hundreds of brand new stuffed toys, so we began using them to attract fish. We would stand up with a hand full of toys, ask trivia questions, and give them away to those who gave the correct answers. Then, after gaining a semblance of credibility with the crowd, we would swing to spiritual things, and more than often the crowd would stay and listen to the gospel.

There are some that would say that using stuffed toys to attract a crowd is the old “bait and switch” trick. I suppose you could call it that. We begin with the “bait” of toys, and then we “switch” to the things of God. Most of our tracts do that. They begin in the natural realm before they swing to the spiritual. Jesus did that with the woman at the well in John chapter four. He didn’t sit on the well and tell her that she would have to drink His blood and eat His flesh to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. She may have thought that that sounded a little strange. Instead He spoke to her about water. That was something she could understand. Then He swung to the topic of her salvation. That wasn’t deceitful. It wasn’t a “bait and switch” con trick. That was wise. It was exercising discretion.

I love what someone who shared his faith said, when he was criticized by someone who wasn’t involved in evangelism. He gently replied, “Well, I like the way I do it better than the way you don’t.”Water Running UphillThe day before Christmas, 2006, I did things a little differently. When someone answered a trivia question incorrectly I had the thought that it was Christmas–the season of giving, so I said, “That’s wrong,” and threw him the toy. That made the crowd laugh.

I asked another question. “What is the most common food people choke to death on in U.S. restaurants?” Someone called out “Steak!” I called back “Wrong! Have a bear,” and tossed out another stuffed toy. I then noticed a mom quickly coaxing her four children to step forward, so I asked the question again. One of the kids called out “Ice cream!” I said, “Wrong! Have a bear,” and threw out another one. The crowd laughed again. The same thing happened with the other three children, much to their delight. This not only gathered a crowd, made kids and parents happy, it made the crowd happy enough to stay and listen.

I was aware that there was something very weird about what I was doing. Life in this world isn’t like that. Losers don’t get the prize. Ever. It’s like water running uphill. But that’s what it’s like in the Kingdom of God. Christians are losers. They were at war with God and His Law. They were morally bankrupt and heading for Hell. But instead of trying to justify their guilt or hide their sin, they justified God. They said, “I am wrong and God is right. The battle is over. I surrender. He wins, and I lose.”

In doing so, the sinner then gains the greatest gift of all–eternal life. He didn’t earn it, and he didn’t deserve it. He can’t boast of his achievements. He can only boast of God’s kindness in the gospel, where the last become the first, the first became last, and the losers become winners.

For further teaching about open air preaching, see “Open Air Preaching 4-in-1″ and join Ray Comfort as he takes a team from David Wilkerson’s church and open air preaches in Washington Square, New York, right in the middle of a Hare Krishna convention. Witness an encounter with the New York police, learn how to draw a crowd using a fake funeral, and discover how to handle “hecklers.” Then go step by step though open air preaching at UCLA and other Southern California universities. Also join Ray and his team as they preach open air in Paris, Jerusalem, London, Tokyo, Santa Monica, New Zealand and Amsterdam.

For Evangelism Resources, please visit LivingWaters.com.

What does that statement really mean? I hear it used a lot. Maybe you don’t. But I sure do. I don’t know if I will post this in two parts or just one post, depending on if I can be concise enough or if it merits exploring further in a few days.

Have you ever noticed the glaring difference between Paul who said this in the New Testament, compared to those of us who say this about ourselves today?

I’ll give you a hint right away as to where I’m going with this: We misquote Paul all the time to justify our carnal lifestyles, whereas Paul said he becomes all things to all men, through self-DENIAL of things, as a means to not be a stumbling block to others.

I’m all about being relevant (another overused Christian catchphraze losing its relevance the more it’s used), but I think the manner in which many ministries and individuals are doing it is nothing short of glorifying carnality in order to not come across as out of touch and too traditional to the culture around us. But in the process of achieving our society’s acceptance of us as a movement or force, have we in fact lost our relevance? I think so, but only in many cases.

I hear people tell me things, in justification of places they go, activities they participate in, things they watch, stuff they listen to, and things they drink–and they often quote this passage (maybe not even knowing the book or the author who said it). And for some reason, I couldn’t really figure out why it hardly ever jives with me.

Let’s take a look at a chapter of Scripture and I can tell why (I hear some of you moaning that I’d post that much, but hey, if you’re a Christian, you should LOVE the Word of God). First Corinthians 9:

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are not you my workmanship in the Lord?
If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.
This is my defense to those who would examine me.
Do we not have the right to eat and drink?
Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?
Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the Law say the same?
For it is written in the Law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Does he not speak entirely for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.
If we have sown spiritual things among you, is it too much if we reap material things from you?
If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more? Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.
Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am I writing these things to secure any such provision. For I would rather die than have anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting.
For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward, but not of my own will, I am still entrusted with a stewardship.
What then is my reward? That in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law.
To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law.
To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.
I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

OK, I won’t make this exhausting, but notice some things (such as CONTEXT).

• Paul talks of freedoms he has because of freedom in Christ and from being an apostle, but he doesn’t use these freedoms. (v. 1, 4-6,11-12, 15)
• Paul doesn’t want to be an obstacle for anyone else’s salvation or faith in Christ (v.12)
• Paul has made himself a servant (certain translations say slave) in order to be relevant to others. (v.19)
• The context of this passage, especially as detailed toward the end of chapter 9, is one of self-discipline and refrain, not one of endulging and engaging [in freedoms]

There are places where Paul talks of things like how there’s nothing wrong with doing certain things, but if they would offend others who knew of him partaking in such, he would never do it again if it caused someone to stumble (eating meat for example, Romans 14:20-22). A modern example we could use is alcohol–a grey area where some abstain, and others find nothing wrong. I will not reveal my side of the issue here, but I will say I usually am disapointed with the arguments those in favor use, and the defense people use when confronted or someone indicates they’re uncomfortable with the idea Christians drink. In fact, I hear the “it’s my freedom” card all the time, but can you imagine Paul–who talked of his freedoms–arguing with a weak believer why he won’t give something up even though there’s “nothing Scripturally wrong with it?”

When Paul writes he’d rather die than cause another to stumble, I think it leaves little argument as to what he thinks of that attitude. Yet many Christians would label you legalistic or judgmental if you even suggest some “grey area” offends them. In fact, the “all things to all men” stuff, Paul is usually giving up and abstaining from things, not indulging in them, in order to be relevant and not a stumbling block to others. We’ve got it backwards?

I hear people say to me all the time (just so you know, I hardly ever ask or suggest not going, but other people bring it up more than I do)–that going clubbing with unsaved co-workers or school-mates is “the only way to reach them or share something in common with them and that’s how you’ll share the Gospel”. Too funny, and too lame. For one thing, if you want to go clubbing, do so, but don’t pretend it’s for spiritual reasons. When I hear this, I always ask the person if they can introduce to me someone they’ve led to Jesus from going and getting hammered with them. I’m not bluffing either–nor do I ask it to be difficult or holier than though, but I’ve never been introduced to any “bar hopping ministry” converts.

In a tragic example of how come this doesn’t work, and that it’s always easier to get sucked into sin than it is to rescue people out of it, I remember before going to FIRE years ago, a deeply passionate and intense brother in the Lord started going to parties and bars as a witness to a sport team he was on–which going to a bar in and of itself I’m not against–like setting foot in a pub is not a sin, and I don’t crap my pants when I hear of men of God going out for a drink with their friend or shooting pool, but I hardly believe social dancing really ever benefits many with the Gospel. Just my humble opinion after a few years of observing–for the simple reason that believers need the same dope from the world in order to unwind, then we show we really aren’t satisfied with what we’ve got, so why should they want our Gospel?

Anyway, there’s this particular night club in Peterborough, known for having a booth on stage where a random guy and girl enter it together, and are given something like 30 seconds to disrobe on the inside of it, and trade as much clothing as possible, and whatever stage of dress or undress they are in, they come out of the booth before the audience. This bar’s trademark contest was common knowlege to me since I worked across the street at a Subway franchise for almost a year, but what was not common knowledge–or expected was when someone sent me a web link showing me that the particular brother I mentioned a moment was one of the people who participated in that the week earlier and won the contest they have! Yikes.

For some reason seeing him in his boxer shorts with a girl topless with blurry lines covering her upper body doesn’t strike me as what the apostle Paul had in mind when “becoming all things to all men”.

Friends, let’s get real and not twist Scripture to fullfill the lusts of our flesh, but give them up and live above board on every matter, even grey areas. I don’t mind tattoos and piercings on believers, or styles of MODEST clothing that resemble current trends and styles, but I think I’d rather wear a suit and tie to reach the lost more than pierce myself in eighteen different places to become “relevant” to a certain peer group. Much of the reasons we come up with for doing certain things is usually to defend the fact we WANT to do certain things, and hardly ever to reach anyone or anything.

Isn’t that the truth? Be honest now.

Or, just because most of the Church is ignoring it, maybe it’s not a secret, but “forgotten truths”.

For those of you whom it would interest, you’ve got to check out a website.

I always encourage people to check out the links on the right hand sidebar, and that’s usually the reason they’re listed there. But lately I’ve checked up on a couple of them, found updates and things I never knew were there before. One in particular, would be for John G. Lake ministries. Curry Blake, Lake’s successor and divine healing teacher/practioner, and friend of FIRE, updates and maintains this site, but once in a while when I check it, there’s a preaching mp3 playing on the home page. There’s no way I know of to download the preaching to my computer, but if you have broadband and you can do it, I strongly suggest checking it regularly for whenever they post a message. You will have your world rocked.

Then, if you have the time, and you are really wondering where do I get fired up and so passionate about healing, and what do I “eat” that makes me the way I am, this website and the teachings of Lake definitely are a part of my spiritual diet. On the left hand column of the homepage, there’s a category “Divine Healing” (big surprise right?) and when you click on it there’s more categories listed on a new page. If you burn for this, and really want some stuff to chew on, click on “Healing Truths that destroy tradition” and you my friend will be happier than a pig in crap. At least I was.

Also included in that directory is 16 answers to FAQs about divine healing. You may have noticed in the past I’ve quoted one in it’s entirety, or you may be bored with the link because I’ve written entries covering many of the same topics. But I highly recommend it.

In the meantime, allow me to whet your appetite with a lengthy quote directly from the second instalment of healing truths that destroy tradition:

“Preach the word; be instant in season, and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”

Do you realize that you can reprove, rebuke and exhort with doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. As you’re teaching you can reprove, you can rebuke, and you can exhort. To some people that are hearing it they will be reproved. Others will be rebuked and others will be exhorted. You’re saying the same word to three different people. Three different types of people. Three different soils you might say.

Now I preach what I see in the Bible. What it says by scripture. I try not to read anything into it or anything out of it. In doing so I’ve had people say, “Well you’re putting me under condemnation.” I can’t put you under condemnation. Matter of fact all I can do is preach the word. You decide if it is conviction or condemnation.

Conviction, when you get under conviction you’re shown a way out and you decide to take it and you know you should. “This is a way out and I should go that way.”

If you get under condemnation and you come tell me that I’ve preached you under condemnation what you’re saying is, “I heard the word preached and I refuse to obey it. I refuse to change. I refuse to come out of what I’m doing so therefore I’m under condemnation.” Condemnation puts you down and makes you feel as though there is no way out. So I don’t decide that. You decide that. All I do is preach the word.

Now we need to look at that word for just a second. The “preach” is the Greek word kerusso. And it means, now listen to this. You as ministers should judge yourselves. You as congregation members, audience, whatever you want to call it, saints is what the Bible calls you, you should decide if what you’re hearing is what this Bible and what the Greek word says “Preaching” is. And if you’re not hearing “Preaching” you should find out where you can hear it and go there.

Check it out for yourself, there’s plenty more where that came from. (And it’s usually about healing.)

Blessings for now.

Stevie B

Or at least the version of it that’s taught, lived out, preached, practiced and demonstrated in our culture. Too many Christians are afraid of a little resistance and swimming against the current.

Frankly, tell underground Christians in closed countries of the world who are dying for their faith and living in prison that you’re “not allowed to talk about this at school” or “your county school board won’t allow intelligent design to be taught alongside evolution.” When at the marriage supper of the Lamb of God you sit across from a little 12 year old Arabic girl whose family killed her for accepting Jesus, tell her the horrible “persecution” you’ve faced living in North America.

Oh sure, it’s easy to swim against the tide when you have like 500 other people swimming up current with you when the strength of numbers minimizes the impact of the resistance, but what about when you are standing alone? What about when, in the Church, and amongst believers you may set yourself apart if you dare to take stands on the Word of God despite the status quo?

I’m a “missionary”. That means little, but I mention it because it would help explain to you I’ve been spending my time back in Canada itinerating, raising support and presenting my ministry to people, showing pictures of various activities I’ve been involved in overseas, I’ve been going out for coffees and meals with people and met with a few leaders in the community. I’ve heard a few different sermons here and there, and I’ve read a variety of blogs by believers and non-believers alike. I’ve caught up with friends. The result?  I officially want to scream at how much we’ve ’sissified’ the Gospel, but think we’re doing a favor to Jesus and the world around us with our fine tuning of it.

Something is terribly wrong, when a total heathen backslider unworthy of being used by God in any capacity like me is considered “fanatical” or “extreme” by the “establishment”—the Church. For one thing, I’m just like all of you–we have the same Holy Spirit using unworthy vessels like us. I feel like I’m normal and maybe even sub-par more accurately and to be honest.   I try to live out the Gospel as best as I understand it to mean. So if by that standard, I’m “extreme”, then what does that make the rest of the “normal” people saying that about me? I don’t know, but if I’m your barometer of spirituality (which I shouldn’t be), than the western Church is in desperate need of help and I cringe and get depressed thinking too much about it.

If you have read my blog for a while, you’ll notice I don’t have a large plethora of stories of leading people to Jesus (yet). I count probably like ten total, and feel ashamed for how little fruit that is comparative to my ‘profession’. Others recently (and in the past), thinking they’re buttering me up and stroking my ego tell me things like “you’ve got the GIFT of evangelism” and I respond “there’s no such thing as a ‘gift’ of evangelism” (There’s the gift of an evangelist as per Eph 4:11—but that’s to equip the Body for evangelizing). Fact is, I wanna pull these peoples’ ears off and tell them that associating me with a gift is their way of excusing their lack of evangelizing themselves. We do that all the time. Someone starts laying hands on the sick, seeing results and we excuse ourselves from taking the same risk and stepping out in faith and chalk it up to a “gift” the other person has that we don’t.

The only gift involved is tenacity, and you are in charge of whether you have that or not, not the Lord. What are we so afraid of? Rejection? If they don’t listen, keep praying for them, and try again with other people who might.

I’ve been at house parties with mixed company –Christians and nonbelievers–and get shushed or corrected by certain people for talking “too much about Jesus” to so and so because they’re not saved and this brother or sister is ‘working on them’. For one thing, how ridiculous is it to be told by other supposed believers you talk of Jesus too much? If me sharing the Gospel is going to do “damage” to whatever “work” you are doing on them, then I assure you are and have been wasting your time, because the Word of God never returns void, but accomplishes what He purposes for it. Are you ashamed of Jesus? Is that the real reason it bothers you so much because I won’t pussy foot around but go for the jugular? Or how do you know in a moment I might not be the answer to all the prayers you’ve been praying for someone and low and behold in that moment I’m there getting thru to someone’s heart in a way a long time friend might be unable to? Rapport and seizing opportunities are two different things.

How the heck else are people going to learn the Gospel believers are too afraid of sharing it with them? I’m all for living it out and “not always using words”, but man, something is wrong when believers are afraid you’re too preachy. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, nobody is going to get to heaven and wish they’d slowed down or were quieter about the Gospel.

I find people get defensive as soon as you say anything regarding engaging the culture with the Gospel in any specific way—and start to defend to me why they don’t do it—even though I was never saying they should. What makes people start telling me all they do and don’t do with the Gospel message? Especially when I’m not making it a standard to judge spirituality by? Something is starting to tell me it’s because by and large we’re afraid of looking, coming across as, or BEING fanatics for Jesus.

Christians, especially my generation, like to call themselves “history makers” or “revolutionaries”—when most of us are about as revolutionary as a new vacuum cleaner. I don’t know how most believers could call themselves any of those things if they don’t leave their Acquire The Fire conventions and campus Christian clubs and actually change history and start a revolution! Just calling ourselves things doesn’t make us so. In fact, history remembers those who swam against the tide and did something unheard of, not those who went with the flow and blended in. You are not revolutionary if you blend into the culture or are a subculture in it, but if you are a COUNTER cultural movement.

There’s this big trend in Christian circles to ‘be relevant’, and being too spiritual is frowned upon–or so I’ve noticed and has been my experience. Friend, you will never be relevant to the culture around you if you are not relevant in the kingdom of heaven. There’s a reason demons say “Paul I know, Jesus I know, but who are you?”

There’s so many catch-phrases and lingo people like using anymore such as those, and “apostolic” and “new testament Christianity.” Every group or circle of Christians I know of who claim to be New Testament better take a good look at the book of Acts and really evaluate if they’re embracing everything taught there.  Charismatics and full Gospel churches—do you sell everything you have and lay it at your teachers’ feet like the early church? Baptists—do you omit anything from The Book claiming it not to be for today? What about the community-oriented fellowships who increase in number and evangelize consistently—do you get arrested for preaching the Gospel? Do you get martyred and stoned—cuz that was also New Testament Christianity! I tire of listening to so many people restore ONE detail of the New Testament to their fellowship, stop there, and think that makes the entire difference as to if one is “New Testament” or not.

There is no such thing as a New Testament church except IN the New Testament, and if one opened up in one of our cities, the rest of us would overlook our differences in doctrine, join together and excommunicate them and label them a cult. I don’t want a New Testament church anyway, that was for then. Personally I want whatever God’s idea is now for our specific generation, and using the past to build upon as a foundation, not as something to mimic. I don’t want the baby form of the church akin to how it was in its 1st century infancy, I want the adult last days form!

Whatever it is we’ve got is has clearly been very little threat to the powers and principalities of the air in our cities. If we’re going to call our selves a “New Testament” church, then we need to be doing the same things, and having the same things said about us:  “they’re starting trouble all over the world” (Acts 17:6). If they’re not saying that about us in our day, then it’s because our message is for sissies.

“Extreme” for Jesus?
Judge Rightly (Is not some guy’s name)