It's been an exciting few months of 2009 - God has been showing up more and more as many of us have been seeking him with more passion as He reveals His great love to us.  We've been experiencing breakthrough on so many levels, corporately and personally!

I want to share some stories of what God did here last week.  I am in continued amazement!

Heaven opened up

Last Friday, as we gathered as a community to seek God, He showed up in many ways that are difficult to describe.  People on our campus were saved, healed, and set free as God's hand reached down to us from heaven!

It all started during our pre-service prayer gathering.  There is a group of people (about 7 of us) that are on the "official" prayer team.  We offer people prayer up front after CCF on Friday nights.  We begin by meeting from 5-6pm to pray and worship.  At 6pm, one to two bible study groups (we call them cores) join us for our pre-service prayer.  As the prayer team, we're privileged to have the opportunity to minister to the cores that come.  We long to see them have a deep encounter with God and to experience an outpouring of His love!

After some worship near the beginning of the prayer meeting, someone from the prayer team felt a small nudge from the Holy Spirit.  He asked if anyone in the room recently injured their right ankle.  One girl said she sprained her right ankle recently and was going to ask for prayer that night when she came to the pre-service prayer.  What a coincidence (but not really)!  A couple people prayed for her, and she got completely healed!  She was also able to overcome some nervousness and share the testimony with our community of about 400 people later that night.  Praise God!

Later, during CCF, a few people from the prayer team shared words of knowledge during the closing worship - promptings by the Spirit to call people out of the group to receive prayer for specific healing.  There were specific words shared for people with pain in the right side of the jaw, a left wrist injury, someone feeling a spiritual "block", and maybe even more (I got caught up in praying for people!).  Right after I shared a couple words, I wasn't able to pray fast enough for people that were coming down.  At least four people came down with jaw pain, all from recent wisdom tooth removal or pain due to lack of wisdom tooth removal.  One person with a tweaked left wrist also came down for prayer, as well as people with spiritual "blocks", a person with stomach pain, and people seeking prayer for other things!

Let me backtrack just a bit - as I was holding the microphone, waiting for another brother to finish sharing something, I felt the presence of God come upon me more powerfully than ever before.  My right leg started shaking.  Not violently - more like twitching and giving out every once in a while.  The Spirit and love of God was so thick in the room.  You could feel it.  Everyone we prayed for expressed partial (some seemed to be very surprised!) or full healing!  We also had a few people baptized in the Spirit on Friday, as well as about 7-10 people saved in the last two weeks!  Glory to God!

God is certainly moving in this place.  I can't express my excitement of what is yet to come!

A little longer
w/m by: Jenn Johnson

What can I do for you
What can I give to you
What kind of song would you like me to sing
I’ll dance a dance for you
I’ll pour out my love to you
What can I give to you beautiful king

Cause I can’t thank you enough
I can’t thank you enough

Then I hear you sing to me
You don’t have to do a thing 
Just simply be with me and let those things go
It can wait another minute
Wait this moment is too sweet please stay here with me
And love on me a little longer
Cause I’m in love with you

As I settled in for the week and hit the streets, God broke my heart for His people.  I longed for them to know Him.  Although they suffered in the flesh, I hoped that they could all see, perceive, hear, and understand the good news that God had for them.  Throughout the week, I struggled with many things that the enemy was trying to speak to me.  It ranged from the enemy trying to bring me down with struggles happening in my personal life, to him speaking to me that I had no place ministering to those in the city and that it wasn't what I was made for.

As the week went on, the struggles continued.  But satan suffered huge blows and suffering when fears of mine were broken and I was able to preach the gospel to hundreds of God's children.  Urban ministry isn't quite what I had expected.  What did I expect?  I couldn't really say for sure.  It was different, which I had expected.  Seeing as clear as day some of the extreme needs that people have such as housing and food was a constant reminder of who my real provider is.  If you simply walked down the street with a box of food, the interest of those around you would be piqued in no time at all; something as simple as food, which I take for granted every meal.

Will God call me long term to the inner city someday?  Sure, it's possible.  He certainly called me there for a week, why couldn't He call me there longer?  There's a reason I was on this trip (many, I'm sure).  In the Tenderloin, He did great works in my heart when I wasn't even realizing it.  I look at things a bit differently now.  I'm sure God will use this trip to change my heart well into the future.  But if it's one thing He's changed already, it's that I'm ready.  When He calls, I will answer.  No matter the cost.  No matter the discomfort.  No matter the difficulty.  I will follow Him wherever He leads - into the darkest city in the world, to the most uncomfortable bed, to the least amount of money.  Here am I!  Lord, send me.

"And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  Then I said, "Here am I!  Send me."  And he said, "Go, and say to this people…"  Isaiah 6:8-9

In Genesis, the Garden of Eden is said to lie where four rivers meet.  It is widely accepted that two of these rivers are the Tigris and Euphrates.  Gobekli Tepe lies between both of these rivers.

Is this the true location of the Garden of Eden?  I don't think anybody is sure, but the topic is still very fascinating to learn about, realizing that there is always the possibility it could indeed be the place where Adam and Eve once lived in the garden .

Gobekli Tepe on Wikipedia.

But take a step outside of the secular world for a moment, and step into the greater Kingdom.  We are called to be givers, so why do bake sales and other fundraisers work so well even within the church?  Do we finally realize how bad those raising funds need them, and take the cookies or washed car because it's offered, or is what we get in return really an incentive to lure us into giving?  I know I'm guilty of wanting the baked goods.  Yes, I could have given to a cause weeks ago, but now there is pie!  If I give money I get the pie, and justify the high cost because it's going to a good cause.  But that's something that isn't right in my heart.  I wasn't in it for the giving, I was in it for the pie.  This isn't the kind of cheerful giving God wants.  Is it possible to cheerfully give, and accept something in return which is ultimately lowering the amount of your donation?  I'm not convinced a truly generous church needs to have fundraisers.  But, we are imperfect.  How do we become more generous givers, giving away what has first been given to us?

“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."  (Matthew 6:2-4)

The Story

Stuart has a good friend that owns an apartment complex.  His friend was leaving town and asked Stuart to take some time off work to watch his complex, so he agreed.  While he was working at the complex, a man of middle eastern decent approached him and asked him for help with a washer and dryer.

"Sure, I can help you with that," Stuart said.

While assisting the man with the washer and dryer, he felt a stirring in his spirit and sensed that he needed to share the gospel with him.  However, he remembered of a book he recently read that said all you need to do is be consistently friendly to Muslims and they will eventually ask you questions about your faith.  In the current day, he now strongly dislikes the book.  He let it get the best of him and he passed on sharing the gospel with the man on that day.

Later, while reading scripture, he came across a passage in Acts that greatly convicted him, where Paul says that he is innocent of the blood of all men because he has not hesitated to share the entire will of God with them.

Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.  (Acts 20:26-27)

This scripture is saying that if we are hesitant to share the gospel with someone that does not know it, then we are responsible for their blood on our day of judgment.

Even after this passage convicted him, he watched a Bible video on Acts sometime later.  The same passage came up and it convicted him yet again.

He later found out that after his friend had returned to his apartment complex, it was swarmed with many police.

"There was a terrorist staying in my complex," his friend told him.

It turns out, the terrorist was the man that Stuart did not share the gospel with on that day.  He went to a nearby gun shop and purchased a gun, taking it to the Empire State Building.  He shot and killed six people that day before turning the gun on himself.

Stuart said that he will never forget that man's face.

Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God.