A Massive Quake Coming to Christ's Church

According to the New Zealand Herald, the city of Christchurch had been “left devastated by a massive 7.1 magnitude earthquake,” which struck at 4:35 A.M. the morning of Saturday, September 4th.

My wife presented this information to me earlier in the week, and we both came to the immediate conclusion that this particular “shaking” was undeniably prophetic. Come on. I mean, there was a massive quaking in a place called Christchurch. Now, whether or not this specific event was purposefully orchestrated by the Lord to make an intentional prophetic statement to Christ’s church, I cannot say for sure. All I know is that our spirits resonated with the spiritual wakeup call that is clearly paralleled through this natural disaster.

New Zealand Herald reporter and Christchurch resident, Jarrod Booker, was awoken by what he described as an “extremely violent shaking” that morning. I believe there is a “Jarrod Booker” generation strategically positioned in Christ’s church that is being prepped for an “extremely violent shaking.”

According to the author of Hebrews,

…but now He [God] has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” 27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.

First, we observe that God has sovereignly orchestrated a “shaking” that would impact two realms: The earth and the heavens. The shaking purposed to awaken God’s instrument for restoration and heaven’s establishment on Earth, the “church,” is part of God’s agenda for the ages. Though uncomfortable and confrontational, this sovereign shaking is ordained and either we can embrace it or fight Him kicking and screaming. It’s ultimate culmination is Jesus’ physical, visible return to the Earth. The key to spiritual survival? Loving and pursuing the Unshakeable more than the shakeable. Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

Secondly, we ask, “What exactly does this shaking mean for earth and heaven?” Things in the Earth need to adapt to things in heaven. This starts in and with the Church, the gate of heaven to a lost and sin-stained world. Yes, Jesus is The Gate. However, where is Jesus presently located? He calls the church His “body” for good reason, as this is one of His two current residences (in the church and at the Father’s right hand), and there, we become administrators of heaven in the earth, through preaching the Gospel of salvation and seeing the Lordship of Jesus dominate every arena previously affected and impacted by the stain of sin. The heavens will shake as God’s will for His church is supernaturally released from His realm into this one. Rest assured, the shaking “on Earth” will be violent, for the schism between how things currently operate in God’s realm and how they operate in what we know today as the church are worlds apart… and shouldn’t be!

Third, we give definition to terminology that could be otherwise construed as hyper-spiritual ambiguity. In other words, what elements and attributes are being translated from heaven to the Earth? What does it look like… practically? The answer is simple: Jesus. Manifesting and re-presenting Jesus, on earth, is the destiny of the Church, and I believe that God is bringing this high call to His people again. The day of innumerable books, teaching series’, conferences and seminars attempting to answer the age-old question, “What is God’s Will for My Life?” is reaching its consummation, as the Answer will be profoundly and simply, Jesus. His compassion. His love. His signs, wonders and miracles. His teaching. His Kingdom. His restorative will, “that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him…” (Eph 1:10, KJV).

In Hebrews 12, we read that the elements that are shakable will be shaken, so that when the shaking concludes, all that will be left are the things that cannot be shaken. In short, God is shaking the world out of His church and is in turn replacing it with Jesus, the Inaugurator and Advancer of the unshakeable Kingdom. All that’s built on the sand will come crashing down, but that which is established on the Rock will never be moved.

I pray that we’re ready, for God will either shake to or shake through his Church. He’s more concerned about His glory than our comfort and His Son being made manifest than us being happy behind the four walls of our padded church bunkers. You can see why a shaking’s coming. For too long, we’ve been content “doing” church on our terms, in our buildings, through our programs, and in turn, have lived endlessly below the inheritance of Christ in us, the hope of glory.

Our Paramount Priority in Breakthrough Prayer: What Exactly Should We Pray to “Break Through?

“In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10, NKJV)

A popular phrase surfacing in the church world today—specifically in regard to the subject of prayer—is “breakthrough.” In my opinion, the word in and of itself, without any context, clarification or instruction, conjures images of Christians praying simply to get some-thing from God and thereby, start equating the precious supernatural language of prayer with a means of merely satisfying natural wants and improving one’s caliber of life “on earth.” This is surely not the Kingdom concept of breakthrough prayer.

Christian bookstores are simply littered with titles boasting all sorts of tips and tools that believers need to get their needs met by Jehovah Jireh. Preachers present sermons week after week, exhorting congregations to implement the X-number of steps to receiving their breakthroughs and experiencing love, joy, peace, health, prosperity, problems-turned-into-solutions, yada, yada, yada.

“Faith ministers” (Word of Faithers) implore us to not only pray for, but expect and in some extreme cases, actually demand God to come through with a “break through.” Can I be honest? If I hear the word “breakthrough” one more time, I think I’m going to lose my lunch. Why? The concept is totally perverted because it is presented without proper context, or even worse, from a selfish perspective of getting what I want or need from God. I actually attended a church where the pastor preached a series called “How to Get Whatever You Need or Desire From God.” (available on CD, DVD, and on television). Hmmm, seems like these are the messages people are clamoring for, right? After all, isn’t this the concept of prayer Christians want to learn about and implement in their daily lives? If we were to live carnal, flesh-directed lives, then yes—this “version” of prayer would suit us just fine. But let me tell you, our flesh is dominated by tunnel vision. It so quickly hones in on and settles for mediocre counterfeits and perversions of glorious supernatural realities.

And that brings me to the subject of praying for true Kingdom breakthrough, not only to meet needs in our lives, but to reveal the nature, character, and reign of King Jesus “on earth as it is in heaven.” To work from any other understanding of breakthrough is, quite frankly, living far below our born-again birthright as Holy Spirit-possessed people.

Is it incorrect to pray for our needs to be met? Not at all. God desires to meet them and, often times, with great extravagance. The key is maintaining a Kingdom perspective. Oh, that our hearts’ desire would be for none but Jesus and nothing but His ever increasing reign. We want to see His world “break-through” to this one, primarily through the salvation of sin-bound souls, and for His Kingdom’s advancement to be physically signaled with miraculous demonstrations of power. And to think, He has sovereignly ordained to accomplish these supernatural exploits through us, His Church!

Amidst our needs being met and problems being fixed, let’s delight in the great Truth of prayer: Representatives from an undeserving humanity have been saved and filled with the very Spirit of God to execute His divine decrees on the Earth. The conduit? True break-through prayer.

Cultures of Glory

As we were praying last night, I sensed something emerge out of the Spirit that, I believe, will dramatically shift the face of twenty-first century Christianity. This, reader, applies to YOU if you are a member of the household of God and the community of faith in Jesus Christ.

The Holy Spirit desires to create communities (not buildings or institutions, per se) of believers so grounded in Scripture, so yielded to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and so hungry for supernatural encounters with the Living God, that the Spirit of Jesus will begin cultivating entire cultures of believers where previews of the Age to Come are released NOW on a normative basis. “On Earth as it is in heaven.” (Matt. 6:10)

However, the key to accessing and abiding in this supernatural glory-culture is the term “lordship.” Everyone seemingly wants Jesus as their Savior; when it comes to His complete lordship, however, we start compartmentalizing. This is why we don’t experience the supernatural as the normative. Not only do we refuse Jesus lordship when it comes to sin in our lives, but we also deny Him lordship when we pursue a comfortable, makes-sense, consumer Christianity and refuse to bow denominational biases, doctrinal concepts, and past experiences/disappointments to the supernatural realities presented as FACT in the Word. I pray that we would be convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that His presence tastes endlessly better than sin, that Jesus is ravishingly beautiful, that His Word is uncompromisingly true, and that He is wholly worthy of our complete devotion (Ps. 27:4, 34:8, Rom. 12:1).

Listen, do you want to continue in a mediocre, natural life, where the “same ole same ole” is normative, or do you want to embrace the new normal Christian life that God is raising up in this hour?

You were NOT born again to go through the motions of Christianity (endure the drag of church, attend Bible study, go on a missions trip, pop some money in a bucket, etc.) while simply “making it through” life. You were not saved by the unmerited favor of a righteously Holy God, sovereignly snatched out of the domain of darkness, and redeemed from the stain of sin by the precious blood of the Lamb to simply sleepwalk through life and do “your thing.” You know, the thing we assume God wants us to do that we (deep down) know is so far below the supernatural, history-making destiny Jesus has ordained for those who would be—literally—possessed by His presence.

I’m going to be straight with you—if you know Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, you are possessed by the very presence of Almighty God. The same Jesus Who healed the sick, raised the dead, overcame the power of sin, and released glimpses of the age to come in here and now lives inside of you and, believe it or not, this same Jesus has prophesied over your life that you would do “greater things” than He did, in His Name, by His power, because He is doing them through you! (Jn 14:12).

Oh yeah, and the “greater things” that we sing so passionately about in “God of the City” are NOT just feeding the hungry, clothing the cold, visiting third-world countries, and handing out turkey dinners. That’s a part of it, but really, such things can be done through natural human strength. We need to start contending for and in turn seeing the presence and power of a Living Jesus released into the darkness. This demands the church—you—to “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee” (Is. 60:1-2, KJV).

As Bill Johnson so aptly puts it, “The Holy Spirit is in you… and He wants out.” The Third Person of the Trinity does not exist to simply draw attention to Himself. He works to manifest Jesus through you, plain and simple. He stirs yearnings in the core of your being, causing you to want to experience Jesus in a tangible, powerful way, and in turn, see His presence, power and compassion manifest through your life in the sphere of influence He has uniquely given you.

You, believer, have been redeemed and filled with the Spirit for this strategic era in history, as God is uniting a people who will truly arise and radiate the light of Hi Son’s glory. And friends, this is not the type of “glory” that we will need faith to see. When Jesus walked upon the scene of humanity, His physical presence transformed the geography around Him. Why should it be any different with the Christ in you? He didn’t change at some point between the ascension and Pentecost. And to think, Christ is no longer constrained to a single physical body. He has been released through the Holy Spirit to inhabit entire communities of people.

Just ponder with me in closing—if Jesus Christ clothed in the glove of humanity released powerful glimpses of the Age to Come, how much more will this same Jesus release and manifest the same glimpses [plural] through a culture… a community… a generation…an army of God-possessed people?

Lord, release a hunger for this supernatural culture in your people, I pray!

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done… on EARTH AS IT IS in heaven.

The Fearful Goodness of Good Friday

In Hosea, we receive an interesting prophetic picture of the soon-to-be-released goodness of God in redeeming a truly wretched, sin-loving bunch. In fact, this “latter” goodness is presented as something “to be feared.”

We read in Hosea 3:5,

"They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days" (NKJV).

How can something like God’s goodness bring us to tremble? Simple—it’s absolutely awe-inspiring when considered in context to Who God is and who we are:

• Consider Who the Father is—Holy, perfect, blameless, majestic, glorious.

• Consider who we are—wretched, sinful, at enmity with God, and yes, murderers of the very God Who came to rescue us.

• Finally, consider the glorious exchange Paul describes in Ephesians 2: We were then by nature children of [God's] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation…”But God--so rich is He in His mercy! (Eph 2:3-4, AMP).

There are many roads I could travel down with this topic, but really, I want to focus on the terrifying goodness of God as expressed through His extravagant forgiveness.

Satan has an agenda for us. He seeks to corner believers with his lies and convince us that the sin in our lives alienates us from the love, presence, and yes, forgiveness of God. He wants us to believe that in order to “get right with God again,” we have to… fill in your personal blank. Do penance in our heads. Feel bad enough to become good enough again to be received by God. Or worse of all, travel down this road long enough, ascribing to these lies so often that we ultimately believe: “God doesn’t want me anymore. I’m a screw-up Christian. I just keep missing it.”

Works will not redeem you from this line of thought—revelation will. Period. Lift your eyes to the cross and everything it represents. Satan doesn’t want our minds going there, so let’s really bend him out of shape and BOLDLY behold the cross and the Man, Christ Jesus, nailed front and center. Do you know what His presence there tells me? His forgiveness and mercy are extravagant beyond comprehension.

He died an outcast. His people rejected him. His own disciples abandoned and denied him. Surely even his mother was engaged in mental gymnastics, hoping he would bypass this “cup” of suffering. Let’s face it—God came to the earth to redeem us, and what did we do? We killed him. If that’s not evidence for the total depravity of man, I don’t know what is.

Now here’s the kicker—If you and I literally killed God (which we did with our sin), and He still declared, “forgive them…” do you really think what presently we “deal with” sin-wise now places us beyond His mercy? I think not.

Behold the Man upon the Tree this Good Friday. Look upon the One we pierced—I know it’s confrontational and uncomfortable—but beyond the confrontation with our sin is the most explosive revelation of mercy one could ever receive.

Medicate upon the Savior through this dynamic worship anthem. He truly deserves all of the praise.

"...and the Stars"

Astronomers estimate that there are about 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone. Big number, eh? Initially, it almost sounds kinda fake. I mean come on. “A hundred thousand million” might as well be a “Shlabadabado-illion.” Ah, but bare in mind that this estimated calculation represents the star population of merely one galaxy.

Outside of the Milky Way, there are millions upon millions of other galaxies as well. Consider it for a moment. Millions upon millions of other galaxies beyond the Milky Way galaxy-a sphere man has merely scratched the surface of-and each one brims with an estimated 100 thousand million stars.

Now observe Genesis 1, verse 16,

"And God made the two great lights—the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars." (ESV)

I was simply blown away last night as I considered the implication of how the stars’ creation is recorded in the Genesis account. More or less, populating millions upon millions of galaxies full of thousands of millions of stars is considered a mere sidenote to our Great God. “…and the stars.”

Got it?

Now consider this. The God Who placed a practically infinite amount of stars in the universe-effortlessly-is the same Glorious Spirit that dwells with and within you and I.

Let’s not be like Sarah and brand the miraculous laughable. Remember the Creator God who effortlessly and yet meticulously placed the countless stars in the heavens? Yeah. This same God has promised, Sarah, to supernaturally touch your dead and barren womb and bring forth the child He Himself pledged to give you.

Is it any wonder that He responded to her appropriately:

"13 And the LORD said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, saying, ‘Shall I surely bear a child, since I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:13-14, NKJV)

When faced with the impossible, let’s consider the One who didn’t consider creating the stars a big deal.

My Oceanic Sojourn

This Saturday, I arose at the break of dawn (Larry’s “break of dawn” is 7:15am) to join my Dad and some family friends on a deep sea fishing excursion. Oh, the adventure that would soon greet me!

We headed out at around 8:30am and voyaged through the ole Jupiter inlet. Amazingly enough, there were 30-40 commercial fishing boats floating around, trying to snatch some “triple tail.” Now, I pride myself on being somewhat of a Cousteau-in-training and yet, I had never seen or heard of these inlet dwellers. Apparently, they’re tarpon-esque and great for eating.

Then came our first steps towards “going ocean.” It was quite choppy, but such a beautiful day! I thoroughly enjoyed our “way out” into the sea, as the ocean spray collided with my face and the smell of the salty sea air embraced my nostrils. I’m not much of a roller coaster enthusiast, but I will say that violently jerking up and down as we glided over (and through) the wake was most exhilarating.

All in all, our day at sea was non-stop action and adventure. Whether it was beholding the majestic leatherback turtles making their way towards shore (to lay eggs), watching schools of shiny Mahi Mahi zoom by the boat, or my exposure to the incredible technology innovations that has emerged since my “days” of fishing with a rod, reel, bobber and rubber worm, the trip was most enjoyable!

Ah, but those who have participated with me in previous oceanic outings surely know that beneath the beautiful blue lurks the menacing deep sea demon (i.e. seasickness). That sucker hit about two hours into the trip and man, was it torturous. Everyone was having a grand time reeling in their catch while I looked to the sea, pondering: Would being consumed by a shark be preferable to this? Fortunately, throwing-up helps (as does Dramamine, so I’ve been told). One hurl changed everything and I was, more or less, back to normal (after about an hour and a half of trying to preserve my pride).

When all is said and done, there’s nothing like the thrill of the catch and being able to bring home some fresh, wild Sea Bass or Snapper (which will cost you a pretty penny at your local seafood restaurant). Be advised, though, that fishing is aptly named “fishing.” It would be called “catching” if the majority of the time was spent reeling in those aquatic acrobats. Such is not the case.

(note: The photos are illustrative; they are not the actual pictures from my trip)

Praise Him Because He's Unshakeable

Very quick thought. I implore you, don’t embrace the flighty, good-intentioned but deadly-wrong idea that God changes or shifts based on our situations, seasons or circumstances. That may sound like an ear-tickling, emotion-massaging comfort, but it is a deception that can be extremely costly, namely if we embrace it in the midst of tribulation.

Right now, I don’t need a God who falls apart when I’m going through stuff. Sadly though, one too many folks are “teaching” and writing “Christian” self-help books about this overly emphatic Jesus Who is so “in touch” with our junk that He too collapses under the pressure. After all, we need to make Him relatable right? That’s what people need…right? No.

Does He emotionally relate to us in our distress? Absolutely. However, rejoice in the Truth that He is the unchanging, unshakeable God and that He desires to release an unshakeable kingdom into an all too shakeable planet Earth. Stand on His unshakeability in the midst of your shaking and instead of looking for a “Savior” who simply allows us to savor our circumstance, let’s seek the One Who pulls us out of the ash-heap, sets our feet upon a Rock, and collides His unshakeable world and will with ours producing the miraculous.

Rejoice in His unshakeableness!

Take comfort in the following Truths as I do,

“For I am the LORD, I do not change…” (Malachi 3:6, NKJV)

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17, NIV)