Do you desire to let God take you to a higher place, to let God meet you outside of your little box of preconceived religiosity and experience?
When you became a Christian how many of you had a dramatic improvement in your quality of life?”
How many of you want to go to the next level?”
Do you feel that nothing satisfies, that the church doesn’t fill the yearning in your heart anymore?
“And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.” (Isa 10:27 KJV)
“For many are called, but few are chosen." (Matt 22:14 NKJV)
"In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it".
"So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father." (John 1:1-5, 14 NLT)
A. Incarnational Living
Throughout the world, there has been a dramatic increase of interest in the supernatural, the paranormal, and the extraterrestrial. I am convinced that we must proclaim and provide access to the supernatural in the message we share of Jesus. I see a generation of people coming along who don’t see much hope or fulfillment within the world as we now know it, nor in the not-to-distant future. They will seek access to the supernatural elsewhere if we do not show them that through the risen Christ, who transcends this world and the world unseen, they can find the true access into the realm of the Spirit. We could lose millions of them if we do not.
It really doesn’t matter what model of ministry we use or what approach we take in conducting “church" to reach the lost. What should be of utmost importance is having the desire to help these new travelers participate in and experience the power of the resurrection in their daily lives, not just occasionally in a "magical" night at some "Holy Ghost" rally. Sharing the risen Christ proactively and relationally will have a far greater impact than changing the format of your church to the latest "fad" espoused by futuristic church ‘guru’s.’
I remember as a young Born-Again Christian just starting my spiritual journey that I would walk in and through the presence of God effortlessly. I lived and breathed the supernatural. The anointing was powerful! I don’t want that to be a memory, I want it to be a living reality!
How can we reveal the true reality of the spiritual universe to the generations to follow? What can we do? How can we make their walk with Jesus an authentic incarnational experience flowing and breathing in and of the Spirit? How can we show them how to transcend the cares of this world through the supernatural?
Incarnational Ministry finds its origin in the love and care of God for His creation. God demonstrated, in a concrete way, His care for humanity by becoming human. It must be this love of God that takes hold of us and inspires us, in turn, to care for others.
Outreach to the unchurched must consider the issues of incarnation by going where people go and living in their world. The methods we use to reach them must be based upon developing relationships that are authentic. We must model a lifestyle of Christ-likeness in the context of friendship. The church must meet the needs of the unchurched within the world in which they live, whether they be Builders, Boomers, Busters, Gen X, Post-Moderns, or…
Because Jesus is love incarnate, He chose to leave the comfort and glory of heaven and dwell among men. Think about this… God, the eternal Son Jesus, chose to become flesh - human flesh.... just like you… to dwell side by side with each of us and to get caught up with the garbage and the sweat and the blood and the tears and the pain of our world. Why? Because God is love! God so loves you that He was willing to give Himself so that you could have life everlasting… starting today! This is the God we can entrust our hearts too! Now we must prove through our lives that man can still dwell eternally side by side with God.
When God the Father gave the honor of giving birth to the Savior of the world to an unmarried teenaged girl, the created bore the Creator. Her maker, her Creator, was to grow within her and be raised by her, nurtured by her, taught by her...loved by her…
Incarnational Ministry is not about remembering an event in the past but about the future events. We must come to realize that the best days are ahead of us, not behind. The Kingdom of God is just around the corner. We must stop yearning for the good old days and begin to look forward with joyous anticipation and excitement that the best is yet to come. God is yearning to be incarnate in your life...today and in all your tomorrows. The Kingdom of God is just ahead of you. It is time for us to look farther down the road. The fullness of His Glory is still yet to be revealed!
Without giving up His divine qualities, Jesus became fully immersed within the culture of the people to whom He brought the Great News. He was part of the culture yet transcended it. He lived happily within the culture yet was an agent of transformation. The incarnation is a challenge to understand and live within the world of the unchurched culture. We must make the Great News culturally relevant to them and take it into their world.
Although the incarnation first took place 2000 years ago in the life of a young girl, it continues to happen every time you share His love with others...when you speak words of life in His name….when you offer a shoulder to cry on…when you offer a helping hand...a touch to heal ...a handshake of welcome and acceptance…when you give a cup of water in His name…It happens whenever and wherever the name of Jesus is lifted up…every time you choose to forgive....
And it will continue to happen each time someone offers a prayer of simple faith..."Lord Jesus, come into my life and be my Lord and Savior. I need you to forgive my failures and faults. I give you my life as you have given yours. I surrender to you all of the hidden things of my heart."
How can we expect the God of the universe to entrust us with the souls of spiritual seekers if we are not living an incarnational reality? Incarnational Ministry is a challenge to understand and live within the world of today and of the future. We must make the Great News culturally relevant to all people. Just as God chose to become like us to prove His love, we must now choose to become like Him and learn to walk in the Spirit, breath by breath, overflowing in the power of the Resurrection so that Jesus will become incarnate in every heart we touch.
B. The Vertical Call
How will you reach that higher place of walking naturally in the anointing? It begins through extravagant worship! We are going to spend eternity worshipping God just as the Angels:
“And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living beings. And they fell facedown before the throne and worshiped God. They said, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and strength belong to our God forever and forever. Amen!" (Rev 7:9-12 NLT)
Worship truly is a way of life. Not just worshipping but being a worshiper - living a life that is pleasing to Him, no matter where you are or what you are doing.
We need to become lost in the ecstasy of intimate embrace. You need to press into Jesus and let Him hold you so close that He takes your breath away. Why, because you take His breath away, every moment of every day. The Cross proves He loves you so much it hurts. God isn’t mad anymore…He is madly in love with you.
We must come to that place in worship that we are completely overwhelmed with His presence - His beauty - His majestic splendor – His infinite love. He desires to love us so intimately that the waves of passion from His presence will make a casual observer blush.
Do you long for His passionate touch? He longs for you to feel His heartbeat against your chest, two hearts beating as one. He longs for His majestic love to roll over you like waves upon the seashore - sometimes like the waves caused by a quiet, gentle breeze and sometimes with the intensity of storm-tossed waves pounding you, heaving and sighing, pulling you under, causing you to gasp for breath.
Do you long to do His bidding? His love can totally overwhelm and engulf you with the deep satisfaction that His love transcends all that this world has to offer.
Do you desire to become a hopeless romantic for the caresses of His love that are better than life?
God is a relentless pursuer and lover who desires to ravish each of us with His love. We must become relentless in our pursuit of His passion and presence. He is looking for radical worshippers. We can only worship in the degree of our revelation. Worship takes us deeper into the revelation of who God is. The deeper you move into worship, the greater degree of the revelation of His glory.
C. Resurrecting Dry Bones
This generation is yearning for a greater unveiling of God’s glory and a deeper longing and desire for intimacy with Jesus.
God is imparting unique gifting upon the new generation that is similar to the Jesus Movement of the ’70s but with signs and wonders that will come out of having a deep experience of intimacy with Jesus.
God is posturing us to meet with Him. Revival is coming. It will sweep across the nation and cost something - not just our time, talents, or money. It will cost us everything.
As written in Ezekiel 37, God is going to resurrect this generation and put life into dry bones in order to create an army full of grace and the gifts of God’s glory. The message is clear; God is saying to this rejected, abandoned, and fatherless generation, “LIVE!” and He will place a double anointing on them.
This young generation has seen it all, experienced it all. They are being bombarded with visual images so amazing and often so vile that they defy the imagination. There are designer drugs that even Timothy Leary could never have conjured up. But now they are to behold Jesus in all His splendor, in the wonder of His glory. It will transcend anything they have ever experienced. No drug, no human-made image can compare to the wonder and glory of God. This generation is being beckoned into His chambers. The spirit of prophecy has come. These dry bones will live!
D. “Trading Spaces”
One night while in prayer, the television show “Trading Spaces” popped into my mind. This is a show that takes two couples from the same neighborhood. They redecorate a room of each other's home over a weekend based upon the design plan of a professional interior decorator. At the end of the show, the finished rooms are unveiled before each of the couples with mostly excitement and happiness over the changes. Sometimes, the results are so hideous to the couple that tears of anger and sadness overwhelm them.
I asked the Lord what this was all about, and I heard Him say, “This generation is going to redecorate and renew the Church. Some are going to love it, and some are going to hate it, but it will be by my design”. Just as the Jesus Movement crossed denominational boundaries, so will this new move of God.
E. The “Free Love” Generation
The Jesus movement discovered the transforming power of Jesus and experienced the passion, but there was no one to lead us into the Secret Place. Instead, we were led down a path of maintaining the status quo because that is all our spiritual leaders knew. We were led to believe that church could only be conducted a certain way. And now, because of it, our sermons, our music, our programs are boring and culturally irrelevant. We have settled for the sublime. We have pursued prosperity rather than His presence. We can’t have it both ways. We can’t love God and money. We have abandoned this generation in our quest for unfulfilled dreams that will break.
We longed for love, and we became the “free love” generation, which has reaped a whirlwind of multiple sexually transmitted diseases. Aid’s is killing tens of thousands. Ten’s of millions of babies have been sacrificed on the alters of our hedonistic self-indulgence under the guise of “free choice.” The institution of marriage is in shambles. Divorce is rampant.
As we grew older, the empty longing persisted within us. We thought it was because we didn’t have enough. Our children became latchkey kids while we pursued our careers and increased our wealth. We have filled our houses with “things” made by hand and not made by the heart of God. They have become a nameless, faceless, and fatherless generation. This generation is crying out in desperation for transformation - the transformation that brings true freedom to grow and experience all that God has for them. Our kids have become infatuated with the supernatural, yet we can only mesmerize them with “Harry Potter” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” rather than the King of kings and Lord of lords. The mind can’t comprehend, nor has the ear ever heard what God has in store for this generation.
F. The Simeon and Anna Call
My generation didn’t have anyone to lead us into reckless abandon with Jesus. We fell in love with Him, but there was no one to teach us His intimate ways, to lead us into the Secret Place deep in His Chambers. I believe God is giving us that opportunity with this generation!
The success of this new move will be dependent on my peers - the Moses generation. We hold the correcting rod of the Lord. This army of young Saints carries the sword of Joshua. They will take back what the enemy has stolen in the Arts, Music, Sports, Politics, Business, and Education. And just like Joshua, their success will be dependent on the authority God has given us. The key element for success is that we are so plugged into Jesus and His holiness that we can become true spiritual parents. We must become the Simeon’s and Anna’s who will lead them, mentor them, and become spiritual fathers and mothers to them.
The job of a servant-leader is to lead people into God’s presence. We must lead the sheep to the pastures of His presence so that they can reproduce. It is a biological impossibility for Shepherds to begat sheep. Only sheep can beget sheep. Shepherds can only beget shepherds. Nor can they create the pastures. Only God can. We must hear His voice and bid His calling. The degree to which we know Him personally will determine the degree we serve Him.
As in the parable of the 10 Bridesmaids, we must have our lanterns full of the oil of God’s Spirit so that we will be a blazing light to this generation, and they will be drawn to His passionate flame. We must find the Secret Place of intimacy with our God before we can lead this generation there. We must let God fill us with His passion and presence. Your destiny is revealed in your passion. Your passion will be released in serving others. A lover will always outwork a worker.
Jesus can’t be just a part of your life He must be ALL of your life. We don’t have the capacity to receive all that God has for us because of our pride. It is pride that keeps us from experiencing all that God has for us. You can’t become without beholding. You have to see to be. We must learn to cling to the Lord wholly and completely. You can’t fully cling if your hands are full. It is time to cry out, “Awaken my heart God, let me feel the burning passion of your love. I yearn to love you the way you love me”.
G. Fascinate This Generation
God is calling a warrior Bride - but first, they must get to know their lover. This is a generation that longs to be intimate with God but is afraid to approach Him because of shame and fear of rejection for the evil and sinful nature that is hidden deep inside.
We must help fascinate this generation with the person of Jesus. We must teach them of His character and nature so that they can be infused with lovesickness that will cause them to long for nothing else - long for no one else - but Jesus.
The Lord is saying, ”My Bride is timid and shy. She is afraid that she isn’t desirable because of her failures and faults. She is afraid to let Me see her in all her nakedness. I say, Come now into the Bridal Chamber, for I desire all of you just as you are. I see you as a new creation - spotless - without wrinkle or blemish - radiant and beautiful in My sight. For now, you see me through a glass darkly, but one day soon, you will see Me face to face. I long to be with you. Teach her my ways. Show her my glory. Let her see what it means to be married to the King of Glory, the Lord of the universe! Reveal My intimate love for her - that I Am to be trusted and adored.”
I am convinced that the primary way to attract the unchurched is to become ATTRACTIVE, having the fragrance of Jesus, an aroma that the lost will seek out and yearn for nothing else ever again once they experience His presence. We are to be reflections of His mercy in how we appear to the world.
“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumph, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. (2 Cor 2:14-16 RSV)
If we are going to reach the unchurched, we must be willing to be broken and poured out. We must desire to be shattered upon the Rock and emptied of ourselves so that God might fill us up over and over again each time He chooses to pour us out. We must yearn to share the bread of heaven with the hungry. We must ride in the chariots of fire across the earth so that the Glory of God will cover the earth like the waters cover the seas.
H. Make Us Dry Wood
The Church must become a place of extravagant worship and teaching - A place of training and mentoring to empower and send out a bunch of revolutionaries to take our cities for the Kingdom. We must teach them what it means to be loved by God, not just as His servant but as His bride. We must ask God to make us dry wood so that His fire may burn brightly and consume us. We must cry out for God to move with each breath, not just when He speaks. We must break the chains that hold us back from knowing Him more so that we can be released into the passion of His presence.
It is no longer the time to weep tears of sorrow. We have been forgiven! His shed blood has paid the price for our redemption! It is time to weep tears of joy! It is time for dancing in the streets! It is time to jump and shout in celebration for the Bridegroom is coming! Blow the trumpets in Zion! Sound the alarm! Make way for the day of His appearing is near!
Are you ready to walk in the anointing? He wants you to go deep into the Secret Place and consume you with His love. Are you ready for more? Do you desire to fall deeply in love with the Savior? Today is the day
I. Become Consumed By God
As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. 16 Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits, and all of them were healed (Acts 5:15-16 NIV)
The Glory of God was upon Peter to such a degree that when he walked, the anointing poured over onto those that needed healing.
We must come to the understanding that we were saved by God for His Glory so that we can become vessels of His Glory and begin to walk in His anointing so that the sick will be healed, the blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will walk and the dead.
We must pour out our lives and allow ourselves to become totally possessed by Him, not just spiritually, but emotionally and physically as well. The blessings of being possessed by Him are far greater than the satisfaction of being self-possessed.
“The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor 4:4-6 NIV)
Before you became a Born-Again Christian, it was tough seeing how exciting being born again was. But, when you stepped into the light and asked Jesus to become your Lord and Savior and repented of your sin, all of a sudden, you begin to understand the reward that came with salvation.
What we're going to experience is a new revelation of the Cross because we have known the Cross from the standpoint of Jesus dying for us. So now He is going to pull the church through that atonement into a deeper revelation of what it is. Then we begin to see a second death and a second resurrection, which is the death of God's people in this hour that need to die so we can be resurrected under the anointing and His presence.
“Now unto Him who is able to do, this kind of thing we've been talking about, abundantly above what we could ask or think.” (Eph 3:20)
It says He is able; it doesn't say He will. So we have to change. It says He is able to do this for those who will humble themselves before the mighty hand of God.
If we don't walk in humility, then we can't move "He is able" to "He is willing to do it." That's why it's conditional to walking in humility, laying down our pride, then the power begins to take place in us and through us. 'You believe the will of the Father through the Body of Christ.
