WEEK #10
Monday, November 4th
Speaker – Jennifer Toledo:
o
Instructed by God not to build up the face &
name of the institution, but to focus on being faithful in the dirt/trenches
o
After a long season of being faithful, God said
it was time to play “hard ball”
o
Has lead to doors opening with governments and
presidents around the globe
·
We believe that absolutely NOTHING is impossible
– but you have to walk that out
o
If you really believe that, it becomes not a
chore but a wild/crazy adventure to dive into the darkest places on earth
·
We don’t have much in the way of resources, but
we just are faithful to show up
·
When is the church going to step up and take out
human trafficking?
·
We aren’t married to a type of injustice, we are
committed to justice in all it’s forms on a global scale
·
God is big enough not just for the worst of
victims, but for the worst of perpetrators
·
There’s something that happens when you know who
you are and you just show up
o
God shows up and miracles happen when you are
completely out on a limb
·
Be willing to stop for the “one”
o
That’s what revival looks like – you just have
to be willing to love the person in front of you and take some risks
·
The church shouldn’t be standing on the
sidelines telling everyone what they’re doing wrong, but it should come to the
table with solutions and impart the Kingdom
·
Justice
is not judgment or punishment, it is the restoration of every violation of love
– making right what’s been made wrong
·
Instead of looking for who to blame, look
instead at what God can do
o
Begin to look at pain/brokenness/tragedy as an
opportunity for God to show up
·
Christians should be running into the darkest
places in the world
·
Instead of looking at problems, look at what God
can do
·
We aren’t looking for money, we’re looking for
movement/shifting of culture
·
You and I
are God’s PLAN A, and there is no PLAN B
o
You are the light of the world
o
YOU ARE HIS AMBASSADOR
·
You can’t tell me that the God of all the
universe wrote some boring old story for your life
·
Not only
were we created as living art, but we’re co-creators God is inviting to create
with Him
o
Pick up a paint brush and get to creating
o
YOU ARE A CO-CREATOR WITH GOD
·
The WORST thing you could ever do is ask, “What
can I do? I’m just one person.”
·
GIANTS WERE MADE TO FALL
o
It is time for the Body of Christ to stop being
intimidated by the giants of our day
·
There is perfect strategy right now, this
second, available for everything under the sun
o
God is just asking, “Who is going to come and
get it?”
·
There is this invitation for us to stand in our
place and proclaim truth out of our “BE-ing” and transform the globe
·
We have only discovered the tip of the iceberg
with this thing
·
The US Census Bureau estimates that 200 million
people were on the earth in Jesus’s day
o
In 1804, the world population hit 1 billion
people
o
In 1927 we hit 2 billion people
o
In 1960 we hit 3 billion
o
In one generation, we went from 3 billion to 7
billion people
·
You could’ve been born at any point in human
history, but you were hand-picked by God to be on the planet during the time of
the greatest harvest field that has ever existed in all of human history
·
Your theology will actively affect your
anthropology
o
WHAT YOU BELIEVE ABOUT GOD IS WHAT YOU WILL
BELIEVE ABOUT PEOPLE
·
You wake up every single day with the biggest,
fattest spiritual bank account of anyone who has ever lived
o
It’s the violent who take it by force though
o
It’s those who are willing to take risk, who are
willing to show up
·
When you pray for revival, do you even know the
7 billion people you’re praying for?
o
You’ll need to know that if you’re going to
impact them
·
The first thing to understand is that of the 7
billion people on the planet right now, 3 billion of them are children and
youth
o
If you’re called to the great commission, then
you’re called to kids because that’s who’s out there
o
We must have a grid for half the planet
·
85% of Christians globally say that they got
saved between the ages of 4 to 14
o
The ages of 4 to 14 is the ripest harvest field
on the planet – they are more likely to get save in this window than at any
other point in life
·
60% of the planet lives in Asia, 15% in Africa,
11% in Europe, 9% in South America, 5% in North America
o
Our whole world can’t revolve around 5% because
His heart revolves around 100%
·
The majority of the 7 billion people on earth
are drowning in injustice
·
Global poverty in endemic, systematic
o
There are more than enough resources globally to
wipe out poverty in our day
o
Proverbs
1:8-9 – Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves
·
The #1 killer of God’s people world-wide is
diarrhea
o
The solution is clean water – we know how to do
that
o
Completely preventable – no need for this
reality to exist
·
World-wide, we would rather die from
over-indulgence than share what we have
·
It’s the
kings & the queens who can speak up for the people
o
Until you know who you are, you won’t speak up
for anyone
o
You were wired by God to bring global
transformation – it’s who you are
·
Isaiah 61:8 – for I the Lord loves justice
o
Your definition of justice is going to paint
your picture of God and His judgment
o
We think God loves judgment in society
o
When we read Scripture, we don’t see a God who
loves judgment (see John 3:17 MESSAGE)
o
God isn’t interested in judgment, He’s
interested in all of mankind being restored to Him
·
It’s up to us to paint a better picture of the
world for who God is
·
Justice is the culture of heaven, injustice is
the culture of hell
o
The atmosphere around justice is love and
faithfulness – Jesus is living justice
·
New book coming out soon called Justice is Beautiful
·
Jesus modeled perfect love in every
relationship, in every situation He encountered
o
You may not be aware of this, but loving the
poor and loving justice is not just a “Christian elective” – it’s actually
central to the Gospel
·
Heavenly justice isn’t about giving somebody
what they deserve, it’s about giving them what God says they deserve
o
The blood of Jesus is justice – it takes what’s
wrong and makes it right
o
Kingdom justice doesn’t just bring things out of
the red back to zero, but multiplies it into the untold riches of the Kingdom
o
Justice is the restoration of every violation of
love
·
Righteousness is 100% about relationships, it is
100% social
o
“Social” and “Justice” are ALWAYS paired
together in Scripture
o
Social justice is God’s idea – He wants to see
justice come forth in every single segment of society
·
None of us signed up to see what we can do in
our own strength, we signed up to see what God can do
o
Just show up and be a carrier of heavenly
justice
·
It’s time – there is a stirring that’s happening
o
There is an army of “Davids” who are just
chomping at the bit
o
You bring something unique and powerful to the
table and He wants to use that
·
Matthew
25 is a highly significant and important passage for you right now
o
Response of Jesus to the disciples’ questions
about the end times
o
This is the last teaching, intended for the
final generation
o
Jesus tells 3 stories
§
Wise/foolish virgins – invest in oil, what
lights your fire?
§
Story of the Talents – investing is a risk, but
the risk is worth the reward
·
Get a right view of God, or you’ll be unable to
take a risk & risk is REQUIRED for this generation
·
You must declare war on fear in your life – stop
tolerating it, allowing it
·
If you shake hands with fear, you shake hands
with hell – it is sent to kill/steal/destroy you
§
Story of the sheep and the goats
·
What you did to the least of these you did to me
o
Those who are really with and for God will take
care of what is important to Him
o
Instead of pointing out the bad stuff, in love
say look what God can do
·
There’s something about confidence that
emboldens you to face down giants
o
This year is the year of confidence
o
We can speak out of confidence the things that
God places in our hearts
Tuesday, November 5th
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
Take care of yourself – there is a selflessness
from God and there is a selflessness of the enemy, one will preserve your
ability to minister while the other while destroy it
o
Like putting on the oxygen mask on an airplane
before helping those around you – you can’t help anyone if you aren’t able to
function
o
Like a tree sucking up 40 gallons of water a day
– it isn’t being selfish, it is getting what it needs to survive and produce
·
David kills Goliath, becomes highly favored in
Saul’s house
o
After jealousy hits, his life is in danger and
he’s rejected by the king’s household
o
He goes to hide with his friends, but they are
going to turn him in so he’s rejected by them
o
He goes to hide with the Philistines, but they
reject him too (it’s a bad day when the devil rejects you)
o
He comes back to camp one day with his band of
men to find his village burned, looted and families taken captive – his men
talk of killing him
·
If God calls you to be a pastor, it’s glorious –
but nobody in their right mind would choose to be a pastor
o
There’s nothing like pouring an extraordinary
amount of time and effort into a group of people only to have them turn on you
when something goes wrong
·
I Samuel 30:6
o
“David strengthened himself in the Lord his God”
o
In the next scene, David becomes King
o
The fulfillment of the prophecy over His life
did not come until he had faced His darkest hour and turned aside to strengthen
Himself in the Lord
·
If you’re in a season where the Lord has blinded
the eyes of your friends and deafened their ears to the cries of your heart, it
isn’t their fault – the Lord is isolating you to lead you to strengthen
yourself in Him
·
David decided He didn’t want a promotion from anywhere/anyone
but God
o
If you gain promotion yourself, you’ll have to
work to keep it
o
When God gives you favor that brings promotion,
He gives you the grace to operate at new levels
·
When you’re the guy at the top you’ll get shot
at a bit
o
You must learn to strengthen yourself in the
Lord during those times
·
Don’t read Scripture to find something to
preach, read Scripture to feed yourself
o
“Whatever feeds you feeds them” – just make sure
you’re well fed
o
The strength of your life is to know what He’s
saying
·
If you
start thinking about you or your life out of your own resources, you are in
trouble
o
You must know what God is thinking – you cannot
afford to have a thought in your mind that isn’t in His
o
Any hint of fear/anxiety/frustration is a
trigger that you need to go strengthen yourself in the Lord
o
Don’t lower your thinking to the average level
of the people around you
o
You must see something authentic from God
impacting the course of history
o
Always be so filled with hope that it becomes
contagious
o
If you’re going to live by the prophetic, you
must capture it when it happens, not when it’s convenient
o
Say what Mary said – “Be it unto me according to
your word” – one of the most important prayers you can pray in the prophetic
§
When He comes to us with a word, the most important
thing we can say is “I’m in”
o
Get a relationship with the promises from God to
the point that they become part of who you are and you declare them as a
guttural expression of who you are
§
If someone cuts you, you should bleed prophecy
§
You must make diligent attempts to get that
stuff in you, because when the going gets tough you must have something you can
draw on
o
There may be nothing that will feed your soul
quite like the prophetic
o
Sometimes you’re fighting for something for
years
o
Sometimes the ache inside for what God has
promised is actually what pulls you through
o
One of the most profound pictures of meditation
is a cow chewing it’s cud – it literally comes back up to be chewed on again
o
Everybody wants a life of significance, are you
willing to have your heart your heart pruned enough to live your life in
significance
§
Pick up any newspaper and you’ll see stories of
people of significance who grabbed promotion too soon
o
To the degree the cloud above you is dark is the
same intensity with which we must rejoice
§
You are not rejoicing out of your circumstances,
but to break those circumstances
§
Continue rejoicing until you sense breakthrough
in Heaven
§
Rejoicing is extremely difficult if you don’t
think you’re accepted by God, if you don’t believe He approves of you
§
In the Kingdom, you get joyful by rejoicing
§
Psalms 2 – rejoice with trembling
o
Nothing against weeping, but there is a place
where it is an expression of unbelief
o
Rejoice your way into God’s standard for life
§
This rejoicing is an offering, and in this
offering you get elevated
o
There are
some battles you need to engage in as if there’s no one else
o
When his dad died, from that point on is when He
has learned the most about the goodness of God
o
Choose the kinds of people that you want to be
with when you’re the most vulnerable emotionally, mentally, physically
§
Bill tries to choose those with a real good,
healthy, godly sense of humor – behind their humor is an abiding faith
§
He pours himself into anyone with need, but he
only lets someone pour into him if he like what they’re cooking
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
I Corinthians 4
o
Developing a new wine skin is one of the
elements required to receive new wine
o
New wine skins = new government/leadership
o
In denominationalism we gather because we agree,
in an apostleship, we gather around family
o
If we gather not because we agree but because
we’re a family, then God can pour out new wine (revelation) on us because it
won’t divide us now that we’re in covenant with one another
o
This last days move is really about family and
about fatherhood
o
It’s important that you don’t repeat bad history
o
The level of discipleship that an ex-drug addict
needs is different than those of the average Joe
o
Hebrews 12 – “discipline doesn’t seem to be fun
at first…”
o
The word “Yada” is used more often in Scripture
to describe the relationship between God and man, rather than the relationship
between man and man
o
God wants to break the spirit of
denominationalism and bring us to a place where we gather as a family, not
because we agree intellectually
o
What would happen if you had the confidence to
say “follow me, imitate me, because as you follow me, you’ll be following
Jesus”
o
When you’re in a family, it isn’t all
ooey-gooey, you’re in a covenant relationship where you don’t have a right to
leave just because someone offends you
o
When you love on the level Jesus loved, a rebuke
doesn’t feel like it feels if a “normal person” brings a rebuke – family is
messy, but you must have people in your life you give the permission to speak
into your life
§
Sons receive discipline, illegitimate sons don’t
receive discipline because nobody has a right to speak correction into their
lives
o
The challenge is that we were raised in a
spiritual orphanage, so when we start learning family principles, the question
is “How do we apply them?”
§
Most of us need a dad but we don’t even know how
to be a son
§
A lot of people actually mean they need a “sugar
daddy” – someone to fund everything they want to do and tell them how amazing
they are
·
They look for a sugar daddy because that’s what
they’ve been taught they need, and that’s what they’ve been taught Jesus was
§
A father brings direction and correction, not
just kisses & hugs
§
This is a shift we will have to make if we want to
receive deeper levels of new wine
o
Agreement is not required in order to submit to
authority
§
There must be mutual submission to authority at
the highest levels
§
Then there will be no problem with handling
confrontation
o
It’s important that we teach people that they
need a family
§
We expect them to be in a family as a necessary
ingredient in their walk
o
Part of the challenge is that we’ve been raised
in a culture that doesn’t value feedback
o
Fatherhood comes in different levels
§
Corporate coverings where we don’t receive what
we deserve, but what they deserve
·
We come under someone personal victory
§
Accountability and covering are not the same
thing
·
Accountability means there some level of
personal relationship
§
The struggle is that you need both a covering
and personal accountability
WEEK #11
Monday, November 11th
Speaker – Jason Vallotton:
·
If you can start out well, you can normally
finishing well
o
Within 80% accuracy, how you start a
conversation will determine it’s outcome
·
No one
can take away your power to choose – so you can choose to be happy and have
a great day in the midst of terrible circumstances
o
Your
ability to choose how to respond and prosper in tough times will determine
whether or not you have a future
o
Very simple things often lead to incredible
outcomes
·
I need to be able to live my life the way God
designed for me to live my life
o
Even if we constantly fail at whatever we do, it
is learning through the process that still can lead us on to greatness in the
end
·
Psalms 126:5 – “Those who sow in tears will reap
in joy”
o
Talking about breaking the poverty cycle
o
A farmer has enough seed to either feed his
family or plant for next year, not both – involves sacrifice and
mental/emotional/physical pain
o
In the hardest times of life comes the most
beautiful gift that you can’t get any other way
o
You can’t reap with joy if you don’t sow in
tears
o
If you’re going around the same mountain over
and over again, it’s because you haven’t mined the gold out of the hard times
yet
·
James 1 – when perseverance has had it’s perfect
work, you will lack nothing
o
When we get in unexpected trials, we take it as
a sign we did something wrong
o
The hard times in your life will bring you to an
incredible time in your life
o
If you skirt hard times, by the time you make it
to your goal, you won’t be strong enough to stay there
o
Most men can achieve greatness, but not many men
can maintain it – they lack the character to keep them there
o
Poverty Cycle – you get what you want, you feel
great about yourself, and you sink back down
·
If I could give you one tool in life, it would
be self-awareness
o
Self-awareness is “checking the weather” inside
yourself
o
People who are self-aware do really well, and
they go from glory-to-glory
o
What you see everyday will eventually define
your culture
·
Red Flag – anything that could potentially cause
you to violate yourself
o
Past trauma, laid off from work, leadership
issues, etc.
o
You should have a list inside you that you know
you have an issues with
o
When you develop healthy defenses for all your
weaknesses you it can help you become a stronger person
·
Anytime you violate yourself, it’s a need inside
you wanting to be met – you’re trying to fill a need
o
Sometimes your needs are so big, you can’t even
see that you have anything wrong inside
·
Ephesians 5:8
o
Live as children of the light
o
Have nothing to do with fruitless deeds of darkness
but expose them
o
Shame comes when you live your life in secret
o
Everything exposed in light becomes visible, and
everything exposed becomes light
§
That means you became light
§
You literally don’t have your sin anymore once
you bring it into the light
o
When you’re the only one that knows you and
you’re carrying shame around, the person God created you to be in hibernating
inside of you
·
Who’s in your God spot? We’re always going to go
back to that
·
Intimacy is not sex – the world knows how to do
sex, but intimacy is something different
o
Allows us to feel love at the deepest level
·
If you
only tell broken people that you’re broken, you will not gain any ground – all
you’ve found is “misery loves company”
o
You must have healthy people in your life that
you can show your junk to
·
Forgiveness
o
Forgiveness is one of the most misused terms in
all of Christianity
o
Forgiveness is one of those things that, as
Christians, everyone has tried it
o
Forgiveness is not words, it’s a posture of the
heart
§
People answer an alter call wanting to get out
of their pain, out of their lives
§
We expect them to say a prayer and it will all
be taken care of
§
When you see somebody through God’s eyes, now
you can truly have compassion for them
§
Compassion
makes forgiveness works
§
Jesus took your pain and walked in the fullness
of compassion for us simultaneously
§
Forgiveness free from compassion is simply an
endorphin release tied to heart-felt words that you wish would work at
resolving your issues
o
How do you process through pain? You just
embrace it, one step at a time
o
A lot of the Psalms is David processing through
his pain with God
o
I can’t
get to forgiveness or connect with God in my pain until I’m will to bring it
out in the light
·
Most
people that can’t forgive themselves don’t have compassion for themselves, so
they punish themselves and expect others to have compassion for them
o
Having
feelings/compassion/love for yourself when you’ve had to punish yourself to get
your needs met or to receive compassion
·
If you don’t set up expectations right, knowing that
you’re children are incapable of thinking on their own about how their actions
effect others (their brain literally hasn’t developed that area yet) you’ll
think you’re a failure as a parent
Tuesday, November 12th
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
Sometimes we think our job is to pray for
revival, not have one
·
What can you ask Him that He isn’t more
committed to do than you are to ask Him?
·
If you ask Him to come then our job is to find
Him because He answered
·
Jesus recognized that the power of the Lord was
present to heal
o
The intention of the presence of God can vary
·
How do you learn to recognize a person’s mood
then that you do more than spend a meal with them, you actually do life with
them
·
Holy Spirit doesn’t always give us direction for
everything He wants to do – where He’s focused is where we should be focused
o
If I were going to prophesy over someone, I
would look around the room until I saw someone that I either wanted to hug, or
my heart responded to the sight of them, or they were highlighted to me in some
way
o
He typically won’t give you the next step until
you take a step toward that individual
o
It’s much better to approach people as they are
highlighted to you than to wait for them to all come up for prayer after a
service – in the former you are giving out of your overflow, in the latter they
are pulling on you, which is much more fatiguing
·
It just takes time to recognize what’s in God’s
heart
·
“Lord, they came all this way to encounter you,
and all they met was me. Something has to change”
·
How full of Holy Spirit can we be?
·
Whatever we give thanks for increases
o
We choose our own leveling-off place
·
What would it look like to have no routine or
wasted or impotent prayers?
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
When I win a personal victory with God, it
becomes a covering that transcends both time & space
·
Sometimes when we do something we receive a
reward for it
o
Jesus never said it was evil, He said if you sow
in the natural with a motive you will receive some level of reward, but you
just aren’t sowing into eternity
·
When we sow into eternity, we are rewarded for
eternity
o
King David sowed into eternity and his
descendants reaped the benefits of that covering
·
A righteous man leaves an inheritance to his
children’s children
o
What am I leaving that is going to have lasting
effects?
o
I want there to be things that I do only for God
that way I am laying up an inheritance in eternity for generations to come
·
How do you pass an inheritance from generation
to generation?
o
You can pro-actively pass spiritual inheritance
/ personal victories onto the next generation
·
I Kings 19
o
The spirit of Jezebel is a spirit that brings
irrational fear
o
When prophetic people get exhausted, they are
more open in the spirit to coming under the influence of the spirit of Jezebel
– intense irrational fear
o
Under the influence of the spirit of Jezebel you
feel depressed, afraid and alone
o
God usually comes for people when they were
working
o
Elisha burns his “Plan B” leaving him nothing to
return to, and follows Elijah
o
There’s
something about serving someone and eliminating all your other alternatives
§
You don’t go into a marriage thinking there’s
another choice – at that stage there’s never another choice
o
There’s
something about having something to die for that makes you really want to live
o
There’s something about sacrifice, covenant,
having no “Plan B,” and focus
o
There’s something about a private calling and a
public commissioning
§
When we serve in private, God promotes us
publicly
o
It’s really hard to accept that revival could
look differently as it does when it’s passed from one father to the next (i.e.
Elijah to Elisha)
o
The difference between a history maker and a storyteller
is money – is your anointing for sale?
o
In order to do what can’t be done, you have to
see what can’t be seen
§
You must have a high value for the invisible
realm
§
Do you have a value for people that are ahead of
you that have something on them that you don’t have
o
The bigger concern is not getting to heaven but
having something to pass on to the generations that follow
·
We’re moving from a round table to a rectangular
table
o
With a round table the highest level of life is
sowing and reaping, but with a rectangular table we get an inheritance that we
never could have gotten from sowing and reaping
o
Don’t be like Esau who sold his birth right for
instant gratification
o
There are only two ways to get in the right seat
(take the lowest seat) is either by chance or because we know who we are
§
The Father knows who has the most favor on them
(what seat you deserve)
o
Every time you pass a test you gain grace –
unmerited favor and power of God
o
God hides the treasures of life in the latter
years of life, so when we are beyond our ability to perform we have an
inheritance to pass on to the next generations
§
Today, youth doesn’t look to the elders for a
blessing because they’re all wrapped up in their performance
·
Romans 1:11
o
“If I come you will be established because I
will impart a spiritual gift to you”
o
Sometimes you can’t get what you’re supposed to
get except through another person – that’s why it’s called inheritance
o
Revival isn’t coming from the youth, it’s coming
from one entire generation working together as one big family
·
Vision of the 2 Daughters
o
Omission is powerful – if you’re saying “you’re
beautiful” to the one daughter and not the other, then you’re saying something
to the other daughter without using words
·
“When I have an opinion you do not have a right
to a different one, but where I’m silent feel free to dream.” –God
o
Revival doesn’t have an age, a gender or a
social class
o
The Kingdom is not a Kingdom of performance but
a kingdom of honor
§
God hides the greatest treasures in the twilight
years of our lives
§
If the generations are not connected, then
revival last a short time and dies
§
The curse is on the land because the generations
aren’t connected
Wednesday, November
13th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
You can syphon off your anointing through
worldly thinking – you take your anointing and put it into temporal things that
don’t really matter in the sense of eternity
o
It’s important for our families to know how to
sacrifice, but it’s important not to make our family a sacrifice – we should
allow our family to go to hell while we win others to heaven
·
It’s important that we manage our lives well –
that we pro-actively think through what we’re doing, understanding the we
aren’t omni-present, and everything we say yes to means we’re saying no to
something else
o
Remind yourself often that there’s always time
in your life for doing what Jesus wants to do
o
Stuff you’re feeling overwhelmed about indicates
either you aren’t trusting Him with those things or you have taken on the
expectations of others in the place of His expectations
·
Regularly having a plan B when it comes to the
big covenant commitments in life is a formula for disaster
o
Some areas in life dictate a plan B, but for
many significant moments in life, having a plan B will be the very thing that
costs you your plan A
·
Correction is never very fun, but you must
intentionally have people in your life who you have gone to and said, “If you
see something in me that needs to be addressed, it is your responsibility to
bring that to my attention”
·
Saying that you’ve sinned without a plan to
repent isn’t “coming out of the closet”
o
That’s not them being them – they weren’t
created to sin
o
We can never accept someone’s sin as your
identity
o
Your sin does not define you
o
The real mistake was made long ago when we
started identifying people by their behavior
o
Behaviors do not make a people group
o
The Constitution cannot protect a people group
that isn’t a people group
o
We cannot afford to identify ourselves according
to our temptations
o
Shame takes away our confidence to do anything
o
“God doesn’t plumb you one way, and give you
temptation another way”
o
Temptations undermine the plan of God in your
life
o
God doesn’t instruct you not to do things unless
they’re going to help you
·
The Jezebel spirit represents sexual perversion,
demonic worship, and it always usurps authority
o
Attaches itself to someone in authority, usurps
authority, uses figurehead as a cover, but that spirit is the one that’s really
in charge
o
Creates irrational fear
·
To receive from a spiritual father/mother,
position yourself in a way to honor them
·
There are intentionally unanswered questions in
Scripture that God has left for us to dive into with Him personally in our covenant
relationship with Him– it’s the Spirit that leads us into all truth
·
It doesn’t matter how many talents you have,
someone will always have more than you
o
When you measure yourself by other people, you
always come up short
o
Do a really good job of comparing yourself to
yourself, and use Jesus as the model
o
However many talents you have, use them really
well – never bury them
·
The Enemy is a law-breaker, He is not authorized
– He was de-authorized at the Cross
o
You are to be policing the cosmos – enforcing the
law on our lawless Enemy
·
When you choose righteousness, you tap into the
righteous bloodline, the bloodline of Jesus
o
Not that the Enemy’s stuff can’t effect you, but
it’s not supposed to
o
We are called to enforce the law on the lawless
one
·
You’re in a really dysfunctional culture if it
takes someone who doesn’t even know you to rebuke you
o
Typically God will use someone with relational
authority to speak into your life rather than send you a rebuke from someone
you don’t know
o
If He does, it’s probably more of a commentary
on the lack of community you have in your life, or it’s someone who is rebuking
out of place
·
It’s a tendency for young people, because you
have little experience and tons of zeal, but you haven’t had enough experiences
in your life to understand how things work over time
o
Sometimes we don’t value elders because their
ideas seem dated, but they have the most longevity of anyone on the planet
o
Youth doesn’t value longevity only because they
don’t know what they don’t know
o
Most people just want to be valued
o
It’s easy to come up with a plan for succession,
but actually walking it out is hard because it means someone is being succeeded
·
Thought stopping is a really great skill to
learn
o
My mind doesn’t tell me how to think, I tell my
mind how to think
o
You must take control of your thoughts or they
will take control of you
·
More than accountability, we need skills for
self-management
o
Nobody will probably know about many of our
internal struggles with temptation until we tell them, but our skills for self-management
will always be more successful than accountability alone
Speaker – Eric Johnson:
·
Inheritance – it’s important that we not pay the
price for something that’s already been paid for and been given to us for free,
then how to steward those things
·
“Let’s live a life for a generation we will
never see”
o
Your life right now has the capacity to extend
blessings/favor to generations you will never see
·
Can you honor the person sitting next to you
that you’re doing life with on the same level that you honor the special guest
speaker that comes to town, you’re creating a culture of inheritance where
people have permission to become great
·
No one has trouble seeing the farmer get a share
of his crops, but many of us have a problem when people get things they didn’t
have to work for (inheritance)
·
Poverty spirit
o
You always live in lack, and if anything good
comes along you had better take advantage because you likely won’t see it again
anytime soon
o
Our
experiences in life shape us in certain ways – those of us in the Body of
Christ must learn not to be shaped by our life experiences but by our
experiences with God
o
Grace wasn’t just to get us out of debt, it was
to get us well into the black
o
Limiting grace to getting us out of the red
really limits the scope of what Jesus purchased for us
o
It’s impossible to give away anything you don’t
actually carry or have ownership over
o
Your
identity will always determine how much you are willing/able to receive
o
There is no where in Scripture where it gives us
permission to tell Him it’s enough, to stop giving
o
We cannot reduce abundance to money – it’s
spiritually/emotionally/physically prospering
·
Matthew 6
o
Vain repetition – long, lengthy, babbling
prayers
o
The Secret Place is the place of our reward
o
Don’t ask for what you need
·
Luke 18
o
The unjust judge is not God
o
Jesus instructs us to cry out for what we want
·
Any time you find tension in Scripture, it’s
often an invitation to revelation and relationship
o
DID YOU
KNOW JESUS IS NOT A SET OF BELIEFS?
o
Jesus is not a system, and you can’t systematize
your relationship with Him
o
God’s version of “speedily” is different than
our version of “speedily”
o
Jesus was famous for this – teaching one truth,
then throwing in another truth right after it that appear to be either
unrelated or contradictory
o
A GOOD
FATHER/MOTHER TAKES CARE OF YOU WHEN YOU CRY OUT TO THEM – they don’t tell
you to be quiet and stop crying
o
God’s grace is so big that you can continually
cry out to Him and He will answer you, but the question Jesus posed was, “When
I come, will I find faith on the earth?”
§
There is a process of growing from crying out to
asking in faith to walking in it
·
WHEN YOU
HAVE A MEASURE OF BREAKTHROUGH, DOES THAT BECOME YOUR NEW STANDARD OR DO YOU
STAY WHERE YOU WERE AT BEFORE THE BREAKTHROUGH CAME?
o
When you have a breakthrough, make a conscious
decision for that new level to become your new floor
o
This becomes our new standard that we operate in
faith in this area from here on out
·
Matthew 12:38
o
Your evil intent is to disrupt the harmony in
motion, and you have broken the covenant with God
o
Jesus referenced their history and the fact that
they had not stewarded it was the reason He could not show them anything more
·
Desperation is highly over-rated
o
Many have been taught that to be a good
Christian they have to live a life of desperation for God
o
This only makes sense if we serve an angry God
§
The only way you can get something from an angry
person is to humiliate yourself and come beneath them, which is how they gain
power
o
If we are desperate in our earthly relationships,
it’s a sign of an unhealthy relationship
o
We go to our prayer closet and cry out for
things
o
Crying out for things that you have access to is
living life from a place of unbelief
o
God is a good God – we just need to be hungry
o
Desperation is an awareness of lack – hunger
means you know where to get food
o
Desperation can be a brick in the wall, it just
can’t be the cornerstone from which you live
o
Sometimes we’re so fearful of something that
doesn’t exist yet that we don’t do anything
o
Jesus has given us permission to be great – we
become stale and stagnant because we’re afraid to take risk and afraid of
becoming prideful
o
You must become a student of signs – it’s easy
to see the big ones over the freeway, but can you see the small signs beside
the road when there is tons of traffic
o
The Lord is trying to teach you how to run, you
just need to learn to understand how He’s speaking to you
·
This whole thing of momentum and inheritance is
much bigger than just you
o
THE
GOODNESS OF GOD IS THE WAY YOU RESTORE MORALITY IN A PERSON / SOCIETY
o
IF WE
DON’T KNOW HOW TO STEWARD HIS GOODNESS, THEN THE WORLD WILL NEVER SEE IT
·
It’s not about what fits the category of needs,
it’s about the posture of the heart
o
Is the
majority of our relationship with God need-based, or is it based on
interpersonal exchanges of love?
·
One of the greatest challenges in this
generation is entitlement – blessing is an ability to serve more
o
The
greater anointing on my life is a greater calling on my life to serve the
Body/world at a greater level than before
o
Don’t entertain thoughts of “I deserve this”
because it a slippery slope that will end badly
o
Confidence
and arrogance look very similar – confidence is motivated by what it can give,
arrogance is motivated by what it can gain
·
Steward what’s in front of you, and be
pro-actively diligent in everything that you do
·
Surround yourself with people/community that
have permission to give you feedback
o
Most people only have a problem with feedback
when they don’t agree with it
o
We must gain a value for all feedback,
especially the feedback we aren’t a fan of
o
Blessing always comes to enable you to better
serve others, be conscientious
WEEK #12
Monday, November 18th
Speaker – Winkie Pratney:
·
The best churches in the world are the ones
where none of the people look the same
·
A called & chosen life
o
Most people have no idea why they love what they
do, follow a certain interest or are drawn to certain kinds of work
o
To neither recognize nor acknowledge this sacred
gift is one of today’s greatest tragedies and sources of disappointment
o
Psalm 102:3, Deuteronomy 7:6 – yet only 10% were
professionally religious with a specific ministerial call
o
Deuteronomy 6:5, Deuteronomy 11:1
§
The mind is a massive storage system, but it is
not where all the major decisions are made, they are made in the heart
§
We are called to love God first with our HEART
·
What happens to the 90% not called to the clergy
o
A principality is not necessarily a demon or
devil, it can be a structure or system that still maintains its original
purpose, even as things change over time & the original founders are gone
§
More people can be hurt by these principality
structures than by individual people
o
One of the last great fallen principalities left
to be broken in the Church is the deep religious division between what we call
§
Clergy and laity
§
The “clergy” do all the spiritual work and the
“laity” work to keep them on the job
o
It’s very dangerous to pray for revival
§
If you pray for rain you’d better bring an
umbrella, because He’s libel to show up
o
Story about God splitting the pulpit in the
middle of the service
§
“I don’t mind being in your services, but I’d
rather be M.C. & run the whole thing Myself.” –God
o
2 Chronicles 12:8
o
The Kingdom of God is much bigger than the
Church – the church exists for Him
o
God never makes the same think alike twice –
even you
o
The only thing God made personally was us with
His own
·
If you change the label on a bottle of cyanide
& you drink it, you’ll still die – you just won’t know why
o
Just because you can sing the Peter Pan song “You
can fly” doesn’t mean you won’t die if you try jumping off a building
·
The
parable of the sower is not about the sower or the seed, it’s really the
parable of the soils
·
The Bible
is not just a book about religious things, it’s a book about everything
·
How can God do something if we aren’t prepared
to receive the outpouring and influx of power AND people
·
When God shows you who you are, you can show the
world who He is
·
Don’t call common what God has made
o
Don’t put your calling in a little box on the
side, He owns the whole world
·
“Occupy until I come…” –Luke 19:13
Tuesday, November 19th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton: Apostolic Anointing
·
Restoration of Father/Motherhood
·
We sit at a rectangular table
o You
can’t receive an inheritance if you don’t believe someone has something you
don’t have
·
God is an equal opportunity employer
o We
are all loved the same, but we are all favored differently
·
You want to have problems – just take broken
leaders and put them in places of leadership while they’re still broken
o Exposes
the cracks in their foundation
o Two
broken people getting married makes a broken marriage
·
If I cultivate the Kingdom within me, it will
cultivate the Kingdom around me
·
An anointing stays with the man, but a mantle
remains with the position
·
You can teach what you know, but you can only
impart who you are
Wednesday, November
20th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
(See audio file)
·
The deeper you get into darkness, the greater
the miracles are
o You
are here to be deployed into the deepest, darkest places on the planet
o Unless
you simply cannot talk God out of it, don’t relegate yourself to ministry
within the church building
o We’re
all gifted differently, you are responsible for what you have, not for what you
don’t have
·
People don’t come to cathedrals anymore to learn
how to think, they go to the movies/television/radio/internet
o People
are not used to having any kind of virtues that they live by – they’ve lost
most of their sense of virtues
o We
have some Christians preaching a Buddhist message – no virtues, no values, just
do whatever you want because “judge not…”
·
We need to be out shining light into the
darkness
·
You can have excellence or you can have perfectionism
– excellence comes from His personhood, perfectionism comes from a fear of
failure
·
We want to develop a structure that activates
and cultivates the call that God has on our lives
WEEK #13
Monday, November 25th
Speaker – Dann Farrelly:
·
(See audio file)
Tuesday, November 26th
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
Thankfulness
is the secret weapon to entering into the Kingdom
·
The further away from animals you get, the
further along you get to humanizing animals, and the further along you get with
humanizing animals, the closer you get to deifying animals
·
Proverbs (MSG) – “Is your enemy hungry? Buy him
lunch. Your surprising generosity will awaken his conscience, and the Lord will
reward you with favor.”
o When
a culture is bent towards pursuing evil, only bad things can happen
o When
the God-given desire for good thing awakens in the heart, it precedes a
transformation of right living
o Let
your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and
glorify your Father
o Your
life can cause a non-believer to become a worshipper
·
When you think of living in transformed
cities/nations, we must think of them in terms of “What does it look like for
cities/nations to love God?”
o The
closer you get to His heart, the more you’ll see how He sees and thinks
§
He see and thinks in terms of cities and nations
·
Mad Man of Gadara
o Transformation
takes place through righteous acts & power
·
Daniel 4
o The
king recognizes that Daniel speaks differently than everyone else, that the
Spirit of God rests upon him
o Daniel
warns the king how to avoid the seven years of madness – by avoiding arrogance
and walking in humility (works for a season)
o The
typical Christian response is “I told you so” – comes with a sense of
self-satisfaction that they were right
§
This is the point we as Christians usually
separate ourselves because they have come under God’s judgment
§
Don’t take vengeance for yourself, but leave
room for the wrath of God - then bless him!
§
If you point your finger and separate yourself
from the one under God’s judgment, then God cannot judge them because there is
no one to hold them up
§
When we are condemning, we are actually
prostituting a gift contrary to its purpose
§
Throughout church history, the moment the church
separates themselves from someone they say is going to be judged, that person
typically gets vindicated or protected somehow at the expense of the church
§
“Oh king, that this dream would have been about
your enemies.” –Daniel
o In
the end, the king repented because someone remained loyal and stuck with him
when he didn’t deserve it
§
Often as
Christians, we value being right over having influence
§
We are
not excused from our assignment in order to pronounce judgment – we are never
authorized to bring destruction to our assignment
§
Everyone considers themselves to be loyal
(because we have spiritual terms for disloyalty)
§
Whenever
we put a “spiritual” label on something, we are giving it permission to stay
o Daniel
associated with everyone, but he wouldn’t live like anyone
§
So often the church protects its image of
holiness by disassociating with society, when underneath the lifestyle of its
members are no different than those with whom it refuses to associate
§
HOW DO WE DO LIFE DIFFERENTLY THAN ANYONE ELSE
§
What won’t you allow to be a part of your life
that normally people allow to be a part of their lives in today’s society
§
No one who has ever really seen the Cross for
what it is could willingly sin under the umbrella of “it’s all covered under
the Blood”
o There are two groups of people in this room
– there are those who want to see cities changed, and there are those who want
to change the cities
§
Story of hunger in the massaging recliner
§
We must not want the transformation of cities to
be convenient
§
Don’t throw out the recliner, just get out of it
often enough to transform cities
§
It takes power, wisdom and righteous acts
§
Your
extreme generosity will awaken the consciences of the people
o Extreme
generosity will awaken the conscience of a city/nation
§
We want the transformation of a city to happen
in a weekend – we must learn to think in terms of decades
§
Ignore your individual cultural norms – you’re a
citizen of Heaven, so live like it
o Loyalty
will transform a nation
o Power
will bring rejection (Mad Man of Gadara)
§
Some people are very much terrified by the power
of God
·
The best way to learn how to give is to learn
the mood of God
o You
learn to know where the line is – whether you step beyond it or fall short,
you’ll grieve Holy Spirit and you’ll be able to sense it
§
He doesn’t condemn you for either, but this is
part of the process
·
When power is demonstrated, people will begin to
challenge you, question your character, mock you, etc.
o We
get to bear the weight of that persecution out of honor and respect to what He
is doing
o What
they’re saying is not under the Anointing because what they’re saying is a lie
o We
never accuse them, but we pray for mercy on their behalf
o Often what’s hurting like crazy on the
inside is what should have already been dead
Speaker – Kris Vallotton: Living without Bitterness, Living without
Offense
·
If you
want to know about immigration policies, better ask the Native Americans
·
Matthew 5:21
o When
you live in the Kingdom, you’re living way above the standards of the Law
o We
must come to this place of understanding in life where we know God is good, and
we will never fully understand His nature
§
Jesus said, “Over my dead body will you go to
Hell”
·
People keep stepping over Him to get there
o Where
God is silent, it is okay to have an opinion, but we must make sure that the
opinions we form do not lead to the downfall of society
o So
many of the responses that Jesus had for people who asked Him questions were
designed to help them walk into the solution themselves
o “If
you come to the altar…”
§
Offense is a greater priority to God than
worship
§
What doesn’t seem to be a big deal to most of
popular culture, and even Christian culture can be a big deal to God
§
Jesus is saying that being in relationships that
are healthy IS a big deal
o “Don’t
speak unless you can improve on the silence.” –Danish Proverb
·
Ephesians 5
o What
you do matters – if anyone tells you otherwise, don’t listen to them
o Don’t
give the devil a foothold – you give him a foothold through anger, and when you
hold onto anger long enough it turns into bitterness, and that gives him entry
into your life
o God
isn’t an angry God, but He can get angry – He is not a Spock-like God, void of
emotion
·
When you’ve forgiven someone, you release the
right to bring it up again
·
The goal of communication is to come to an
understanding, not an agreement
o We’re
trying to understand one another’s heart
o Our
goal is not to win the argument (win/lose)
o The
goal of communication is to help them understand how you feel, not make them
take the blame
o The
real question is – can you forgive someone who doesn’t really deserve it?
o When
you go into a conversation with the objective of getting them to say “I was
wrong,” rarely do you come out of that conversation in a reconciled place
o We
judge ourselves by our intentions, we judge others by their intentions
o The
bottom line is you don’t know people’s hearts
o When
you’re angry, your gift of discernment becomes manipulated by the enemy
o Love covers a multitude of sin – what does
hate cover?
·
Matthew 18
o You
don’t believe in Hell? Jesus did…
o Not
having great relationships with people is a bad plan
o The
illustration of cutting of an appendage is there for the sake of emphasis –
it’s extremely important!
o It’s
very important that whenever you’re in a conflict that cannot be resolved, that
you bring in a neutral party to help resolve it (not someone who will act as
your advocate)
§
This person must believe in both of you, not
just one of you
§
Both parties must trust this person, or else it
won’t work
§
Both parties must be willing to hear that
they’re wrong without letting it violate relationship
§
Both parties must be willing to reconcile at any
cost, and they must give permission to the mediator to tall them they’re wrong
§
How do you treat someone as though you have no
relationship with them? You forgive them even when they don’t deserve it, and
you pray that Heaven will forgive them too
o Jesus
didn’t say that when you’re offended go pray about it, He said go talk to them
about it
§
Those who have issues with confrontation often
use the excuse that they don’t want to hurt their feelings, when in reality
they don’t want their own feelings hurt
o You
must not take other people’s offenses on as your own, and you must not choose
sides in an issue until you’ve heard both sides of the story
§
As a mediator, you are not anyone’s attorney,
especially when you don’t have all of the facts yet
o Never
lay hands on anyone weaker than you in anger and call that justice – especially
women and children
·
Your “truth” isn’t necessarily true, it’s true
from your perspective
·
If I am truly a born again believer, then I am a
new creation and sin is not my nature
o Thus
I am MORE responsible not to sin than I was before
o IF
we sin, we have an advocate with the Father (not WHEN) – you DON’T have to sin
o The
feeling of being “stuck” in sin is a lie from the enemy
§
Please DO NOT identify yourself by your feelings
§
If you let your feelings establish your
identity, you’re headed downhill fast
§
Your inner world will always reproduce itself in
your outer world
§
Being born with a temptation is proof of nothing
– we are all born with temptations
§
Your temptation/behavior is NOT a people group
·
As long as you think your temptation is a people
group, you will live out of that identity
·
Paul’s point is that circumcision of the flesh
is nothing, but the circumcision of the heart is everything
o The
commandments are written on your heart – you will not be judged by the letter
of the law, but by the letter of your heart
o “To
him who KNOWS it is sin…”
o Sin
increased when the Law came, because the knowledge of sin increased
·
Hyper Grace = grace that takes away personal
responsibility
·
We have every right to judge fruit, doctrine,
and prophecy – WE HAVE NOT RIGHT TO JUDGE A PERSON’S HEART!
Monday, December 2nd
– Wednesday, December 4th
Preach Week
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