WEEK #1
Tuesday, September 3rd
Speaker – Gabe Valenzuela: Expectations & Advice on Maximizing the
Next 9 Months
·
Worship is a primary component in everything
that we do, and it needs to be a primary component in everything that you do in
life
o
Let me be clear – you should not have your best
worship times in this room
o
Your best worship times this year should be on
your own somewhere else with Holy Spirit
o
If you aren’t careful, you’ll come to this room
for the next 9 months thinking you understand what it is to worship the Lord
o
You have to actually work to enter into the
Presence
o
If you aren’t careful, you’ll measure your
success by what you feel instead of pushing into the deeper levels of the
Spirit of God in worship
·
You will have to define what success looks like
for you this year
o
Determine what that is early on and come here
purposefully, knowing where you’re headed
o
Find out what that thing is that God’s trying to
do in you and go hard after it
o
Why are you here – you’ll have to define that
for yourself
o
It’s your responsibility to run hard and pursue
passionately
o
Some of you will have to go to another level in
learning to manage yourself
o
Being a leader is primarily first about being
able to manage yourself
·
Your going to have to take ownership over the
things we give you
o
The success of any outreach doesn’t depend on
us, it depends on you
o
What is your sphere of influence going to look
like
o
How much are you going to give to the people
around you
·
Development
o
Some of you are here to develop emotional health
and healthy connections
o
We try to be as relational as we can in this
room
o
Your
structure internally is vital to how you lead people around you
o
That responsibility is on you – it’s up to you
to manage that
o
If you aren’t careful, you’ll come here for 9
months without letting anyone into your life – you have to be intentional about
establishing healthy emotional connections & pursuing relationship with
others
o
School here is great, but I’ll let you in on a
little secret – THIS IS NOT REAL LIFE
o
It’s vital that you learn how to manage your
relationships in a healthy way inside this environment so that you can be
successful outside of this environment
·
Develop a Deep Intimacy with the Father
o
You cannot equate your intimacy with the Lord to
the environment in the room
o
You cannot allow the curriculum or time at
school substitute as your intimacy with God
o
Learn to hear the voice of the Lord for yourself
– if you aren’t careful you can come here and never learn to hear the voice of
the Lord
o
Some of you are longing to hear a prophetic word
– go and learn to hear from God and He’ll give you one for yourself
·
Personally know how to practically live out of
sonship/daughtership with Father
o
Your kids as you for stuff the most
o
You say know to your kids the most
o
You discipline your kids more than anyone
o
Some of you need to learn how to gain access to
the things that you want, and be prepared to here “no” a whole bunch of times
o
Find out what it means to be a real son &
live that way
·
Leadership
o
We want you to lead out of your personal encounter
with the Lord, not out of truth received second-hand
o
We want you to lead with vision – get a vision
for the thing that God has uniquely for you
o
Find out what the thing is that God has for you
and you alone – pursue that passionately
o
Lead with longevity – 9 months is awesome, but
that’s not the goal, the goal is the rest of your life
o
This isn’t meant to be an event, but a movement
that you launch yourself into daily for the rest of your life
o
LEARN TO
LEAD WITH HUMILITY – ALWAYS LEAD OUT OF HUMILITY
o
We want you to lead out of relationship with
others
o
We want you to lead WITHOUT FEAR – fear of
making mistakes, fear of leading
·
Everything you do today should be with the
mindset that you’re sowing into 10 or 15 years from now, that you’re sowing
into your future
·
Communicate bravely with one another
·
The leaders of this school don’t determine how
amazing this year will be for you – you get to determine how amazing this year
will be for you
·
Come into this room everyday prepared to go to
war together
Speaker: Kris Vallotton:
·
My goal is that every person in this room will
become a leader
·
There’s a difference between ministry and
leadership – we have often confused the term ministry with the term leadership
o
In order to change the world, we need leaders
o
Leadership begins with having followers, not
fans
o
Jesus turned the world upside down with only a
few followers
o
It’s better to die for something worth living
for than living for nothing worth dying for
·
We desire for you to have the skills to
demonstrate the power of The Spirit wherever you go
·
“Engine” metaphor – whatever kind of vehicle you
are, we want to build your engine
o
We want to raise up people that can raise up in
the most evil system and recreate the heavenly ecosystem within them to
transform that place, that Jesus and His Kingdom are being expanded by you
·
We aren’t here to learn to be entertainers –
entertainers draw fans, leaders draw followers
·
The idea that we don’t have to make sacrifices
or face struggles or work hard because “Jesus did it all” is not creating
world-class leaders
o
Leadership means taking great risks because He
asked you to
o
Jesus is going to ask you to leave the boat –
but the crowd doesn’t want to leave the boat, the crowd likes the boat, but
Jesus said go
o
True leaders believe in something they are
willing to die for
·
If you
want to be a great leader, it’s going to cost you
o
Freedom comes at a cost – Jesus said “unless you
pick up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple”
o
You have to decide if your life is really going
to make a difference
o
The
really important times are the times that you do in secret that no one will
ever know about – it’s your private victories that give you a public platform
o
Gifts are cheap, they cost you nothing – God is
watching you and He cares about things that people don’t think He cares about
o
Sacrifice isn’t measure by what you give but by
what you don’t have left
o
It takes radical obedience and great sacrifice
to change the world
o
What’s keeping you from doing the small things
that no one notices
·
Great
leaders are willing to sacrifice in secret
o
The level of sacrifice required is determined by
the greatness that lies in the calling
o
The idea of living for values is right – that
people will die for a value is right and important
o
When you leave school you should have something
to live for because you have something you’re willing to die for
o
What
would it be like if your life was so amazing that you couldn’t do anymore
fantasy?
o
Evil does NOT have to triumph – be done with
giving up land and go get the nations
·
Most Christians develop an identity that is
wrapped up in who they don’t want to be
o
We need to know what we’re for, instead of just
knowing what we’re against
·
Matthew 6:1
o
Start your development as leader by not doing
anything to be noticed by people
o
Your gift will get you a platform, but your
character will keep you there
o
What is
your secret life like – what are you doing when no one is watching
§
Great leaders must be proud of what they’re
doing when no one else is watching
§
Are you spending your secret life in the Secret
Place? God knows…
o
To raise up great leaders, you must start
thinking like a great leader
§
Only kings can raise up kings – Jesus is the
King of Kings
o
This doesn’t mean we don’t mess up, but we
manage our thoughts and temptations when they arise
o
It’s easier to give account for your inability
than to give account for your ability
§
Do you have someone in your life that calls you
to account for your level of ability?
§
1) You need a secret life that God would be
proud of
§
2) Don’t do things to impress people
§
3) Don’t make your secret life about the things
you don’t do
o
Jesus wants you to be great, He just wants you
to do it humbly
o
Don’t study so you can teach, study to learn –
try not to approach Scripture with preconceived ideas looking for validation,
but with an open heart giving an open door to God to speak to you
o
Praying a long time is important if you have a
lot to say, if not stop talking
§
Spend time everyday in silence with God,
listening with a notepad
§
The point is that everyday we have an encounter
with God
o
Some of us spend our whole lives tearing down
and destroying without any idea of how to build anything
§
We must
not only learn to destroy the works of the Enemy, we must also learn to expand
the borders of the Kingdom
§
This is the journey that we’re on – that we
would not just learn what it is to destroy the works of the devil, but what it
is to bring the Kingdom to every dimension of life
§
We are not only to heal the sick, cast out
demons, raise the dead
§
The Kingdom of God is not merely the absence of
something, it is the Presence of Somebody
o
Daniel 2 – Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s
Dream
§
The stone that struck the statue became a great
mountain that filled the whole earth
o
Isaiah 2
§
Come let us go to the mountain of the Lord that
He may teach us His ways
·
What could you hope to gain from all these
amazing leaders if you gave your heart completely to this year?
·
Miracle workers are not people who heal the sick
but work signs (more like OT signs) that can defy the laws of physics for a
purpose
·
You only have as much influence in people’s
lives as they have value for you
·
You gain influence in Heaven not by following
your passions but by how you embrace seasons of sacrifice
o
Passion always looks like sacrifice to people
who are not in love
·
The difference between followers and fans is
that followers have to do what God wants them to do, not necessarily what they
want to do
o
God wants to so renew your mind that He can do
your will
o
Let’s not lose sight of the fact that we still
need to obey, still need to sacrifice
o
The Body of Christ is in a season of entitlement
§
The gifts come from a life in The Secret Place,
not out of entitlement
§
The idea that we’re entitled needs to go away
without losing the mentality that we’re a son/daughter of the King – we cannot
afford to have a conditional obedience
o
Leadership comes at a cost
§
When Joseph was a slave and in prison, he never
lost sight of his dream – he was the best slave and prisoner he could be
§
Where ever God puts you, give your best, try
your hardest
·
When the Kingdom comes, the characteristics of
the city or nation look like the Kingdom, people are happy, and they have a
mantle, an anointing and a purpose
·
God has called each country to demonstrate a
certain part of Him – you can take someone out of their country but you can’t
take their country out of them
o
Each person on earth has 98% of our DNA in
common – only 2% of our DNA differentiates us from everyone else on the planet
·
The problem is that we all think we’re right –
when are we going to celebrate who other people are?
Speaker – Crystal Stiles:
·
Most of my life was trying to measure up to a
God that was constantly judging me, but now my life is about knowing a God who
is radically in love with me
·
As leaders, commit yourself to do the things you
are asking of others
o
Never stop pursuing God and hearing His heart
·
There is
so much power in the Body of Christ learning to be the Body of Christ for each
other
·
Tips on 2nd Year:
o
2nd Year is what you bring to it
§
Don’t just sit here waiting on what 2nd
Year is going to bring to you
§
Come in like kids ready to raid the refrigerator
– come in here like you belong here
§
You have permission to chase down what you came
for
§
We’re actually waiting to facilitate you – what
you bring to the table
§
We want “you” to happen
o
Don’t make comparison
§
Be on your journey and allow others to be on
their journey
§
We allow God to emphasize different in different
people
§
Run well & keep your eyes on the prize –
Jesus
o
Have an actual relationship with God
§
There’s nothing we can do to make that happen in
your life
§
That is the thing we are most passionate about
you leaving here with
§
God is no
respecter of persons and you can’t earn His love, but He does look for those
who pursue
·
He’s looking for and waiting for us to be people
who pursue
o
One challenge of being at Bethel is there’s too
much good stuff
§
It’s easy to stay hungry in the desert, but can
you stay hungry in a place of abundance
§
How are you going to stay hungry at a full
table?
·
You must find ways to stay in touch with your
hunger
·
Ask God to help you find answers to this
questions
·
Philippians 3:4-15
o
Press onward to obtain the prize – Jesus
o
“I am your very great reward” –God
o
Your great prize isn’t any kind of ministry or
recognition, your great prize is Him
·
This is a year of heart-felt devotion to the
Lord
·
Psalm 87:7
o
As they make music they will sing “all my
fountains are in you”
o
He is our resource, and out of Him comes all
sorts other resources
·
Remember that God is more committed to you than
you are to Him in this thing, and He’s faithful to complete the work He’s begun
in us, and He is compassionate and kind, abounding in love
o
Our whole life is basically a response –
remember the things He’s going to do for you this year
Wednesday, September
4th
Speaker - Kris Vallotton: Building a Plan for Developing your Ministry
·
TED Video – Simon Sinek, Puget Sound 2009 (Tedx)
o
“Golden Circle” – Why – How – What
o
People don’t buy what you do, they buy what you
do it
o
What you do simply proves what you believe
o
There are leaders and then there are those who
lead – those who inspire us, those who we follow not because we have to but
because we want to, those who we follow not for them but for us
·
Core Values – Who are you? Beliefs? Identity?
o
Mission – Why? Purpose?
o
Vision – What?
o
Plans – How?
o
Goals – When?
o
Steps – Process?
·
“We are God’s poem”
·
Core Values of Bethel Music
·
Perfection is the fear of failing, excellence is
the pursuit of His excellence
·
It’s not doing extraordinary work, it’s doing
ordinary work in an extraordinary way
o
What can you do that people wouldn’t believe
that you could ever do?
·
You should never do what you aren’t
o
Everything you do should be a manifestation of
who you are
o
When you are doing your “be” it’s exhilarating
·
Don’t want to be the best IN the world, want to
be the best FOR the world
o
Whatever you do, each year tear it down and
re-build it the best it can possibly be
·
“The kingdoms of this world will become the
Kingdom of our God”
·
God’s plan is not a secret plan
·
Get passionately pregnant
·
It doesn’t matter whether or not you do
something amazing, so long as you DO it amazing
o
After all, you’re amazing because He’s amazing
and He made you in His image
·
If you want the impossible, you’re going to
attract those who need a miracle
o
If you’re going to establish a ministry that specializes
in the impossible, you’re going to have to be a miracle worker or you’ll break
trust and then you won’t have any customers
·
You are not what you think you are and you are
not what others think you are, but you become what you think that the most
important person thinks you are
o
If God is the most important person in your
life, then you become a manifestation of God’s imagination
o
Unless you think God thinks differently of you
than He really thinks of you, then you’ll become a deformed version of what God
really thinks of you
o
Your goal then is to become what God really
thinks about you
·
You aren’t just your strengths, you are also
your weaknesses
o
My greatest strength is sometimes my weakness
because when you’re at your weakest, that’s when He gets to show up and be strong
o
In order to work in your weakness, you must know
what your weaknesses are
o
God uses you in your weakness as well as your
strength
·
If you’re going to do something no one has ever
done before, don’t despise the day of small beginnings, but never stop reaching
for the impossible
·
If you have the same problem over and over
again, then you have an ecosystem problem
o
The real goal is to have different problems
Thursday, September 5th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
Who you are has everything to do with how you
behave
·
Everything in the world works relationally
·
All
relationships are built on trust
o
Trust means “I believe what you say”
·
We have to live by faith in every area of life
·
We don’t want to reduce our income to what we
can do – we don’t want money to be able to buy our faith
·
We never want to make promises in a relationship
that we cannot fulfill
o
We don’t want to over-promise and under-perform
·
We need to live beyond our abilities and into
His
o
Leaves us with a tension between living by faith
and not making promises we can’t fulfill
·
If following me isn’t the same as following
Jesus, then I need to be headed somewhere else
o
Paul told the church to imitate him as he
imitated Jesus
o
One of the goals of moving fans to followers is
that they would imitate you
·
The world says – I have my vision, then I build
my provision around my vision
o
Why spend your time providing what God can
provide?
·
God will provide the necessary provision, but He
requires faith which in turn requires risk
·
When you have a vision from God, all your
followers need to pray and seek to hear from God themselves on the matter
o
You want to create a team that has ownership –
requires transferring ownership for everything from you to the group
o
We don’t want people who want what we have, we
want followers who believe what we believe
o
You don’t want to have an idea that the group
manages, you want to have an idea that the group takes ownership of because you
all believe in the idea - requires a consensus of belief
·
For most of us, we like to be led, but we really
dislike being managed
·
Group ownership of an idea can result from
consulting the group for input regarding the idea
·
There’s a difference between disagreeing with an
idea and disagreeable people
o
People who disagree with an idea can bring beneficial
insight into the situation
o
Disagreeable people don’t agree with anything,
don’t have faith for anything, and require that everything be proven to them
·
Whatever
you misdiagnose you will mistreat
·
Mission = Why, the purpose behind what we do
o
Some people think that once people catch the
reason behind what they’re doing, they will get on board
o
People won’t take ownership over getting
involved with what you’re doing until they see the vision
·
Vision = What, the thing we are doing
o
It’s called vision because you can “see it” – it
isn’t a vision until you can see it
o
It’s a bummer to have a vision that isn’t God’s
·
Hebrews 11:3
o
Everything that you can see was first
established in the unseen world – without vision there would be no reality
·
What you see in the watering hole of your
imagination is what you will reproduce
o
If you can see it you can have it
·
If people can’t catch your vision, the only way
they’ll get to see it on the inside is first to see it on the outside
·
Proverbs 29:18 – where there is no vision the
people wander aimlessly (perish) – with vision people restrain their options to
accomplish the vision
o
It’s very difficult to punish people into purity
– you motivate people into purity by giving them a vision for their purity
o
It’s vision that gives pain a purpose
o
It’s very difficult to establish positive
attributes through negative thinking
·
Mission tells pain the purpose, but vision
actually gives pain a purpose
·
When I
don’t have a vision, I spend my life trying to stay out of pain or seek
pleasure
o
I need a purpose to go through a trial – without
a vision, I avoid trials at all cost
·
The
difference between good leaders & great leaders know how to get people
pregnant with vision
o
Once you get a vision, the next step is to get
someone else to capture your vision
o
Fans become followers when they catch your
vision
o
People don’t want to buy what you have, they
want to believe with you, and for them to believe with you they must first see
what you see (vision)
·
People have not caught the vision when they can
repeat it, people have caught the vision when they can see it themselves
o
When people catch your vision, they’ll go from
working for money to working for the vision for free
o
Once people “see it” they’ve got to have it
o
The more of the 5 senses that can be involved in
the experience, the easier it is to catch the vision
·
The worst kind of life is to be living for a
“thing” (a car, a job, etc.)
o
You must have the courage to let go of your ego
and say “I was wrong, I made a mistake”
o
Instead of things serving you, you become a
slave to things
o
You don’t want to spend your life serving stuff
o
Stuff doesn’t make you happy – it doesn’t define
you & it can’t tell you who you are
§
If you are looking to get your identity from
your stuff, don’t buy it
·
Money
doesn’t have anything to do with excellence
o
Excellence is picking up paper towels off the
bathroom floor
o
You simply do the best with what you have
·
When God instills hope in you for something He
doesn’t fulfill, you do as Abraham did – in hope against hope Abraham believed
o
Keep hoping – when you stop hoping your heart
gets sick, not when the thing you’re hoping for gets deferred
·
Hope feels, faith sees, and love never fails
o
You can’t
have faith unless you first have hope
o
Hope will
get you off the couch so you will start looking through faith for what hope
feels
o
It’s from
the heart that man believes, not from the head
·
You aren’t entitled to anything – it’s important
to remind yourself of this on a regular basis
o
Always be thankful!
Speaker – Gabe Valenzuela:
·
You have some unique opportunities because of
the family you were born into
·
You think the way your family does things is
normal, and then you see how other people do family and you realize your family
is nuts
·
The enemy will try and attack you in when you’re
young in the areas you are most destined to change the world to try and stop
that gift before you have the chance to develop in it
·
With risk comes potential pain, but there is
also huge reward that comes with risk
o
The rewards outweighs the risks – focus on the
rewards, not the risks
·
You have
the responsibility to manage the thing that those who have come before you have
placed in your lap because of the price they paid to give you what you’ve been given
o
Don’t be someone who doesn’t manage the things
that you get for free
·
If you can respond to the voice of the Lord in
your life – even by accident – God will work it out
·
Like Abraham, sometimes we have to leave our
“home” – the place we have family – in order to grow
·
“When God closes one door He opens another, but
it’s hell in the hallway”
o
In life you will take your lumps, but your lumps
will make you better
·
Greatness
in the Kingdom looks like servant hood
·
God is going to grow you somehow all the time –
suck it up, be a man, go back in their and get it done
·
It’s important you put yourself in a position to
grow
o You must first learn how to serve great leaders, then you must learn to be a great leader
o You must first learn how to serve great leaders, then you must learn to be a great leader
WEEK #2
Monday, September 9
Speaker – Gabe Valenzuela: Time Management
·
You have to be aware when God is doing something
a little out of the ordinary, or you will miss it
·
The real challenge in management is in learning
to manage ourselves
·
We cannot manage time – only God can do that
·
We must learn to manage ourselves in time,
setting up our life conditions to help us do the right things everyday
o
Involves putting boundaries in place to guide us
in the right way
·
We cannot do everything, nor can we do
everything well
·
We have more options everyday than every other
previous generation in world history
o
We are the first “over-communicated society” in
world history
o
As a result, we have more challenges than any
other generation in history to manage our time well
·
If you don’t manage yourself, someone else will
manage you for you
o
In our society, the people who do the worst job
of managing their freedom end up in prison
·
The goal is freedom – managing yourself well is
essential
o
This skill will help get you to where you can
maximize your freedom in life
·
In life, things are either “important” or “not
important”, “urgent” or “not urgent”
Time Management
|
Urgent
|
Not Urgent
|
Important
|
I.
Crisis (Pressing Problems, Deadline Driven Projects)
|
II. New
Opportunities (Relationship Building, Planning, Prevention)
|
Not Important
|
III.
Interruptions (Some Meetings, Some Calls, Some Mail)
|
IV.
Time Wasters (Busy Work, Some Mail)
|
·
In order to be successful, you need to keep the
following in order:
o
Vision
& Mission
§
Without a mission, all you have is a vision and
no way to see it fulfilled
o
Roles
& Goals
§
My goals in life are completely dependent on the
roles that I play, they should complement one another
o
Priorities
& Plans
§
You must make plans to make your priorities
happen
o
Desires
& Disciplines
§
You must be disciplined enough to manage
yourself achieve your desires and accomplish things
·
Quadrant II – “Balance”
o
The Kingdom is held in tension, and many times
so is life
o
If you don’t give time to what you truly want to
do, you will miss out on some important things in life
·
Schedule
o
Flexibility – your schedule is not your master,
it is your servant
o
Portability – you must be able to bring it with
you
·
You must organize yourself continuously in order
to avoid crisis
o
Many times, we schedule crisis and think we’re
doing a good job of managing our schedule
·
There is a “people dimension” to time management
o
Efficiency is dealing with time, but
effectiveness is dealing with people
§
Just because you are efficient doesn’t mean you
are effective
§
We must order the context of our lives around
relationship
§
If we really want to be effective, our schedule
must reflect our priority for people
·
Time Management = Destiny Management
o
Every day you are managing/dictating how God
will be able to use you in the future
o
Long-Term Organization
§
Visions -> Mission -> Roles -> Goals
§
Weekly Organization: Roles -> Goals ->
Plans -> Schedule and/or Delegate
§
If you live life consistently and effectively,
you will work your way into a place of freedom where you get to do what your
heart desires to do
o
Short-Term Organization
§
§
Where are you headed? What is the big picture?
Where are you going?
·
The answer to these questions may change over
time
§
Why did you get up this morning? Mission?
§
Who are you?
·
Make a list of the primary roles that you play
or the primary roles that you want to play
o
Too many things means you won’t be able to
manage them
§
Son
·
He lived as a son and did what he saw the Father
doing
§
Brother
·
He was fiercely loyal to his brothers and made
sacrifices to help their dreams come true
§
Friend
·
He was dependable, that he cared, and that he
would always be there for you
§
Athlete
·
He was always pushing himself to be the best he
could be
§
Leader / Coach
·
He loved to empower others to be the best they
could be
§
Worshiper
·
He loved God with His entire being, and he
cultivated a relationship rich in heart-to-heart intimacy with Father/Son/Holy
Spirit
§
World-changer
·
God worked through him to impact the globe in
Spirit and in power
o
The things that are important should be the
things that actually make it into your schedule, the things that aren’t
important should not make it into your schedule
§
Leave here and change how you do life so that
you can be effective!
§
Challenge yourself – schedule your day in 15 min
increments
·
You will be AMAZED at how much time you waste
o
Set aside time to actually manage your schedule
so you can get done what you need to get done, and be prepared to change it
constantly
o
If you’re going to be an effective leader and be
used by God to the fullest, you have to manage yourself in a way that is
efficient & effective
o
“You aren’t going to change the world if you
can’t make it to the airplane on time”
o
Manage yourself in a way that you happen to
school instead of school happening to you
Tuesday, September 10th
Speaker – Beni Johson:
·
Know the importance of the season you are in,
and a wise son/daughter you will be
·
2013 has been a season of crazy stupid favor,
and that is going to continue
·
2013 will be a season of open doors
o
Doors and windows long-closed are going to be
opened
o
Things you’re contending for and have been
believing for will be opened to you
Speaker – Bill Johnson: Wisdom
·
If you have a dream that’s not impossible, it
may not be from God
·
Wisdom is the key to your next breakthrough
o
I truly believe the Lord has hidden the secrets
to taking cities for Jesus and hidden them in the book of Proverbs,
specifically in the life of Solomon
·
Excellence is an extension of wisdom
o
As we value excellence, it launches us into
places of favor
o
The only way you’ll know if you value wisdom
above rubies is if you’re faced with a financial system where you’ll have to
sacrifice funds to go with wisdom
·
Proverbs 8
o
“Can you hear the voice of wisdom? From the top
of the mountains of influence she speaks into the gateways of the glorious city….
There she stands shouting aloud to anyone who will listen. The meaning of my
words will release for you revelation to reign in life.”
o
Redding is the City God loves
o
Notice that Wisdom is a person (I Cor. 1)
o
Ask the Lord specifically to impart to you a
spirit of wisdom and revelation
o
If we’re open to wisdom, it increases revelation
o
God’s wise correction is greater than silver or
gold
o
Wisdom pours into you when you begin to hate
every form of evil in your life
o
He empowers generous ones to govern the earth
o
Wisdom cannot be found by the half-hearted,
superficial wisdom with only yield superficial knowledge
·
The world desires this wisdom from God, they
just don’t know what you call it
·
There is no limit to the influence you can have
o
It is much better to have influence than
title/position
·
We all have the opportunity to help shape the
way people view reality, the way they think
o
People can actually learn how to think from
God’s viewpoint
·
Wisdom positions people for miracles
o
Wisdom doesn’t rob someone of spiritual momentum
for their own miracle
o
Wisdom knows when to go to the person and when
to have the person come to you
o
Wisdom know the appropriate time
o
Wisdom is extremely useful in the miraculous
·
You can literally read any story of Jesus and
say to yourself, “Okay, there’s wisdom represented in this story, where is it?”
·
God has answers in His heart to every problem we
encounter
·
It is
God’s good pleasure not only to give us the Kingdom, but also the mysteries of
the Kingdom
·
The way truth works is that when you understand
revealed mysteries, it becomes the platform for greater revelation
o
Foundational revelation attracts building
materials
o
Pray “God help me to gain the foundational
truths in my life, establishing them deeply in my heart, so that I may have
something excellent to build on”
·
The revelation of Moses was supposed to be the
low-point and it was only supposed to increase from that point on
o
Tragically things have been unveiled to leaders,
but they don’t successfully get passed onto the next generation
o
What we know now, 50 years from now, should be
thought of as elementary
·
Wisdom is
divine reasoning
·
Story of Gideon
o
God chose not the fearful or the poorly trained
soldiers, He chose those who operate in excellence and were on alert
o
Quantity was not important, quality was
·
When God encounters individuals in Scripture,
the vast majority of the time He interrupts them while they are doing something
o
Get involved and allow God to show up and
re-direct your path
·
Wisdom becomes evident in the most menial of
tasks
·
There’s something about taking the menial tasks
unto the Lord and performing them with excellence as an offering to the Lord
·
Admire the fact that people will give themselves
to moderate, menial tasks with excellence and do them unto the Lord
o
Approach menial tasks as an expression of
worship to the Lord
o
God will take the weapons of your labor and make
it supernaturally effective (They will make their plowshares into swords…)
·
Wisdom is not stoic, it is both active and
creative
·
Hunger is
the key to open the door to wisdom
·
Every
place the sole of your foot treads, that God has already given to you
o
Don’t go
anywhere to chase the devil away, simply create such a place of glory and
worship there that the Enemy can no long stick around – expel the darkness with
light
·
Don’t ever try to intentionally figure out the
season you’re in at the moment – simply focus on maintaining a tenderness and
affection for Him
o
You may not have a strategy for the next 5
years, but you know He is with you and He will nudge you in the direction He
wants you to go next
o
Live out of your heart as purely as you can
right now without requiring understanding to maintain your inner-peace
o
Stay in the center of God’s will and enjoy the
journey
·
Seek God’s face and His hand will be connected
o
Sometimes people need to taste of God’s goodness
o
We cannot
measure our success according to answered prayers rather than by encounters
with God
§
Will lead you into performance-based mentality
at the expense of relationship
·
Eternity is always to be in our peripheral
without making it the primary focus
o
When our
focus is the return of the Lord instead of on our assignment, we lose our
effectiveness in our assignment
o
His return is not our job, it’s His
o
“Lord, teach me to number my days…”
·
Many
people live in fear, but they call it wisdom – true wisdom is
fearless/courageous/gutsy
o
If you can stay free of fear (especially the
fear of man) and it’s influence, we’ll know better what wisdom looks like
o
If you
live with caution, everyone around you will cause you wise, you just won’t move
mountains
o
Wisdom
knows how to tap into the unseen to help bring about the outcome
·
Sometimes if you just go through the process of
simply being obedient without having to know why, our physical obedience brings
a supernatural release
·
Go through the practice of waiting until you
recognize God’s presence prior to beginning to pray
·
We don’t turn our attention toward God with an
agenda, we turn our hearts toward the Lord to be impacted by His presence
o
Turn your affections toward God simply for the
purpose of loving Him and experiencing Him in an encounter
·
You are able to do things through God in your
life simply because you’ve been gifted by God to do it
o
Greater things come not through our gifting, but
only through our encounters with Him
·
It requires discipline to operate out of your
gift, operating out of the presence/glory is easy
Speaker – Dann Farrelly:
·
At BSSM, our rules our hidden below our values
o
We’re more concerned with you violating our
values than breaking our rules
·
We are inviting you – individually and
corporately – to live in a beautiful fashion that prompts people to take notice
o
Wholeness is beautiful
o
There is a radiance in beauty
o
The harmony of our beautiful interactions
manifests joy
·
Our lives should be attractive and draw others
to know the Lord
·
Revivalist – a believer who is focused
and passionate, willing to pay any price to live in community, purity and power
because they are loved by God and love Him, whose manifest presence transforms
lives and cultures
·
In many ways, we’re an entertainment culture,
but we’re rapidly becoming a “distraction culture”
o
You can’t do everything – we must learn to say
“no” and “yes”
·
Unlike college, we expect you to attend class
and stay in class
·
Always be growing our capacity to show up places
we ought to be on time
·
Worship happens just one step beyond convenience
·
Some of the work you do is seen and known only
by you and God – that knowledge should be enough
·
“The seat of service often turns into the throne
of destiny”
o
Your natural bias towards service will help open
the door to your destiny
o
Service is a powerful way to bring the Gospel to
the nations
·
Community is one of God’s most powerful tools
for changing us into His likeness
o
Use brave communication – help each other by
speaking the truth in love
o
You are responsible to confront fellow students
in love – when someone confronts you, welcome their input (which may be hard to
do)
o
Americans especially tend to be pretty skilled
at defensiveness as a response to confrontation
o
Remember that you are not perfect, being
confronted is normal, and you need this input from others
o
Our culture of freedom exists because we freely
confront and call out the greatness in each other, not because we pretend not
to see the poor choices of others
·
Leaders don’t pretend, they take responsibility
and then they follow up
·
The Lord asks us to walk in purity because it is
life giving
o
God hates sin because it hurts and it makes
people/situations crazy
o
“What were you thinking? Because you are way too
awesome to be acting this way.”
·
BSSM’s environment of freedom requires a high
level of connection to God, connection to community and managing yourself well
o
It’s less about policing each other and more
about calling out the royal attributes in one another
·
Your
integrity is even more important than graduating
·
Find out
what pleases the Lord – this standard is to govern both our public and private
life
·
Jesus
never used another person for His own gratification and called it love
·
Being careless is like backing up your truck
without using the rear-view mirrors – regardless of who’s back there they’d
better get out of the way because I’m coming through
·
Drugs or alcohol provides an effect that is
merely a counterfeit of something that Holy Spirit has for us
·
Please
embrace your role as an influencer as seriously as we do
·
Context is key when it comes to your
relationship with drugs and alcohol
·
The devil has never created any pleasures, He
can only pervert the pleasures that God has created
·
The Good News without power is not good news
·
We work from the love of God, not for the love
of God
·
We want to deal with you in such a way that the
fruits of Holy Spirit blossom in your life
o
External motivators only go so far – here we are
all about internal motivators
·
You are always performing for an audience of one
– the Lord
o
Build your integrity one moment at a time
o
Your worth to God in public is who you are in
private
·
Allow the fruit of self-control to ripen in your
life
Wednesday, September
11
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
Matthew 11:20
o
“Then He began to rebuke the cities in which
many of His mighty works had been done because they did not repent…”
o
This is a bit of an alarming passage for a
number of reasons
o
In this particular passage, Jesus isn’t talking
about the conversion of individuals, He is talking about the conversion of
entire cities in a corporate conversion
o
Sometimes
Jesus talks to us about the future not so that we will set up strategies but to
stir up our hunger for what could be
§
We can’t hunger for what we don’t know exists,
so God will talk to us on occasion about what could be in our future so that we
will develop a hunger to draw us toward it
o
Jesus wants to see entire cities swept into the
Kingdom
o
The Apostle John claimed that Jesus did so many
works that the world itself could not hold the record of them – and MOST of the
works Jesus did were in the 3 cities listed in Matthew 11:20
§
It is possible to have cooperation with God for
Jesus to show up in the miraculous without ever actually repenting and changing
your standard mode of operation
o
Miracles bring a manifestation of glory
§
Capernaum had become like heaven with the amount
of manifested glory it contained due to the number of miracles Jesus performed
there
§
The
result was the miraculous became common-place to the point that the inhabitants
of Capernaum didn’t respond to God in equal measure to what they’d been given
o
Our
thankfulness must match or exceed the significance of God’s gift
§
Story of Hezekiah
§
The
people of Capernaum only added Jesus to their lives instead of making their
lives about Jesus
§
Any time
an act of God becomes familiar to me, it becomes dangerous to me
o
In this
story, Jesus is giving us secrets for city transformation
o
Opening
myself up to Jesus completely isn’t the end of the story; the real question is
what am I going to do when He shows up?
o
Revival isn’t dependent on a list of needs that
should be addressed, those needs will be addressed once revival comes
§
We need God to come because we need these things
healed
o
You will
pray a lot more once God shows up than you ever did to get Him to show up
o
Sin-filled
cities, not religious cities, WILL repent when they see miracles in the streets
o
Religious
cities become acclimated to the miraculous, and their comfort becomes their
downfall
o
The demonized and the sinner can recognize Jesus
much more readily than the religious leaders ever will because they are no
longer conscious of their need for God
§
Living conscious of our need for God actually
helps give us clear sight to recognize our moment of encounter with Him
o
This comes with people who have done more than
make miracles a part of their Christian life, but they’ve made the Gospel of
the Kingdom
·
Extended Time of Prayer and Worship
·
“If you are not faithful with what belongs to
another man, who will trust you with your own?”
o
When you faithfully steward over those things
that belong to someone else is what qualifies you to receive your own riches
o
God gives us credit for what He does through us
·
Psalm 20
o
“May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.”
§
The same day the trouble begins, may He answer
you the same day
o
“May the name of the God of Jacob defend you.
May He send you help from the sanctuary.”
o
“May He strengthen you in Zion.”
§
May He send you help and strength right out of
the presence of God
o
“May He remember all your offerings and accept
your burnt sacrifices.”
o
“May He grant you according to your heart’s
desire and fulfill all your purpose.”
§
We pray that your heart’s desire becomes
supernatural
§
If you want, you can shape history
o
“We will rejoice in your salvation. May the Lord
answer all your petitions”
WEEK #3
Monday, September 16
Speaker – Dann Farrelly:
·
You’ll be preparing a 9 to 11 minute sermon that
you will be delivering in front of your home group
·
Parts of a sermon:
o
Information – What am I saying?
o
Communication – How will I say it?
o
Transformation – Why am I saying this?
o
Presentation
·
God teaches us in ways today that parallel His
interactions with people in Scripture
·
Your message should have a theme that is
interesting and easily remembered
·
Be able to capture the essence of the Scripture
and orient the audience to the context of the passage
·
Recommended References: BlueLetterBible.com, The
Bible Backgrounds Commentary, The Study Notes in the NIV Study Bible, The Life
Application Bible Study Notes
·
Search for Dann’s online message “Confessions
of an ‘Evil’ Dad”
Speaker – Danny Silk:
Know Yourself, Know Your Team
·
Self-awareness builds leadership effectiveness
·
At some point, it is an excellent idea to do an
in-depth DISC Assessment
·
Classically, when I meet someone who is
different in me, my anxiety begins to escalate
o
We prefer that everyone on our team is like us,
because then they’ll do what we would do
o
The more people you add to your team, the more ingredients
begin to change what you would’ve done
o
The more time you spend on a team, the more you
realize people don’t think like you
o
In our anxiety, we tend to lose our connections
with people
o
When you begin to disconnect, you tend to lose
effectiveness and value
o
Through teams, we learn to engage strengths that
used to scare us
·
We like to talk about the Body of Christ as
though we do it – we DON’T do it
o
We surround ourselves with ourselves and try to
reproduce ourselves because we really don’t understand how to connect with
different parts of the Body of Christ
o
We are trying to be influential in a community
when we can’t even connect with other parts of the same Body
o
It all boils down to the fact that we don’t
understand ourselves as well as we think we do, and we don’t understand others
·
Whatever situation you find yourself in, it is
super important that you understand you
o
You learn to know what you need to flourish
o
You learn the role that allows your to fully
happen
o
Most people end up as a victim of life because
they followed money or security or were not powerful enough to make their own
decisions
o
People who create the life they want to live in,
the life of the powerful and aware, make better choices
·
The DISC Assessment is not made up of
classifications that we should be gaining our identity from
o
It’s simply a predictor of behavior, it is not
an identity mark
o
Tells us how we are likely to respond to pain
and anxiety, as well as what increases/decreases our anxiety level
o
Provides an outline for ways for you to be
successful – ways to rock in your role in the team
·
Dominant (D):
o
Natural Born Leaders – they want to be in charge
§
Love control – more control equals less anxiety
§
Make sure they’re in charge of something you
want them in charge of
o
They’re going to leave a ‘mark’ on the
generation
§
They are here on a mission from God
§
They are clear about their purpose, and their
purpose is to make a difference
o
Need clear definitions of territory
§
They require clear structure and authority
§
Do an excellent job with what is within the
boundaries
§
Make sure you give them a defined area, or they
will go until they hit a boundary
o
Plays to win – needs to win
§
Sometimes confuse tasks with people
§
Needs to work on how to win, how to happen,
while protecting they’re relationships
o
Seek Justice, Require Justice – it’s all got to
be fair
§
Injustice is like losing, and we won’t be having
any of that
§
When they see an injustice, they will jump in
with both feet to defend those being treated unjustly
·
Influencer (I):
o
“Give me that microphone!”
§
Very comfortable in front of people, as the
center of attention
§
They have a message, and they were born to share
that message
§
They benefit their entire environment by sharing
their message
o
Life of the Party
§
Born to talk, born to have fun
§
Love to plan parties
§
If it isn’t fun, why do it?
§
They will bring fun everywhere they go
o
Verbal Processor
§
Their thoughts are coming out their mouth as
they are having them
§
Have lots and lots of words that are coming fast
o
Fast thinker
§
Inventors, creative, genius types, think outside
the box
§
More than happy to contribute ideas
§
Will take you outside the box in a heartbeat
o
Doesn’t like much structure
§
Have to learn to do structure, boundaries
·
Steadfast (S):
o
Faithful
o
Servant
§
Fueled by doing things for other people
§
Salt of the earth
§
Society is built on their backs
§
The highest percentage of the population
o
Easy Going
§
The most easy going people on the planet
o
Avoid Conflict
§
These people are looking for a way not to have a
confrontation
§
If you find yourself in a conflict with an “S”
then you’re a jerk
o
The ‘Glue’
§
They’re the people who are paying attention to
the other people
§
Want to make sure that everyone is okay
§
They keep track of birthdays and personal
struggles
§
Pay attention to how everyone is doing
§
Caring Leaders – create an environment that is
cohesive
·
Conscientious:
o
Information hounds
§
The more information they can get, the better
§
There is not such thing as too much information
§
Heaven is a gigantic library
o
Detail oriented
§
Every little detail matters
§
Need all the information possible so they can
take into account all the details available
o
Internal Processor
§
Take time to intentionally process things
internally
§
Take time to research, contemplate, analyze,
etc. before they respond
§
If you find yourself arguing with a “C” – stop,
because you’re wrong
o
Slow to change
§
When you suggest change, they say “Why?”
§
Heaven is like the movie Groundhog Day – you get
to do the same thing over and over and over again until you work out all the
mistakes
§
Very certain about why they’re doing what
they’re doing – do not change on a whim, they intentionally walk in truth and
purposefully stand on secure territory
·
Motivations
o
D – Significance
o
I – Freedom
o
S – Connection
o
C – Security
§
Pay attention to what people need to be their
best
·
Fears
o
D – Insecurity
o
I – Rejection
o
S – Conflict
o
C – Failure
§
Be sure you have certain Biblical truths you can
interject to expose the lies being believed
·
Response to Fear
o
D – Anger
o
I – Optimism/Trust
o
S – Unemotional
o
C – Fear
§
Ask them “Are you feeling powerless about
something right now?”
·
Focus of Interest
o
D & C
§
Tasks
·
Put them in charge of the schedule & the
shopping, and to make sure there is a party
§
Certainty
o
I & S
§
Relationships
·
Put them in charge of the party, not the tasks
involved
§
Uncertainty
o
D & I
§
Fast paced
·
Can be professional apologizers
§
Predictable
o
C & S
§
Slow paced
·
Can take too long to engage
§
Unpredictable
·
Biblical Personalities
o
Abraham – S
o
Moses – C
o
David – I
o
Elijah – D
o
Esther – I / D
o
Ruth – S
o
Paul – D / C
o
Peter – I / D
o
Barnabas – I / S
·
The goal isn’t to be any or all of these particular
classifications, but for your leadership to be able to function as the moment
requires
·
Jesus was able to step into any of these as the
moment required
o
That is the goal for us and a true mark of
spiritual maturity
·
When you discover ways that the way you behave
causes problems for those around you, it then falls on you to make the
appropriate adjustments within yourself
o
You must respond appropriately to prevent
escalating the anxiety in those around you
Tuesday, September 17
Speaker – Bill Johnson: Foundations
Attract Building Materials
·
There are times when we pray about things and
they don’t happen, then in other seasons we get results without even praying
about it
o
Sometimes
we’re asking for things that God can’t give us because it would destroy us
o
Once the
foundation is in place, the rest of the structure seems to spring up rather
quickly
§
It would seem as though foundations attract
building materials
·
Luke 19:11
o
The disciples are thinking Jesus will establish
His Kingdom by setting Israel back on top as the supreme global power on earth
o
Jesus tells a story that identifies what is
right and/or wrong with their expectations
o
Jesus is speaking to the disciples about their
heart for entire cities and regions coming under His influence
o
Cities are brought under influence of the
Kingdom not is a sudden upheaval, but by managing well what God has given to
you
o
Jesus is
the only one who has the right to expect the impossible in our lives
o
God has given us gifts and abilities in our
lives, and we must invest them
o
His is the only Kingdom where we get rewarded
for what He does through us
o
God makes a slave a governor simply because he
managed what he was given well
§
An illogical leap in promotion
o
God puts us in different realms of influence
o
Influence doesn’t come with title, it comes with
favor
§
God loves us all the same, but we don’t have all
the same favor
§
You increase in favor by stewarding what God has
given you well
o
Influencing cities and nations for the Kingdom
will not come first or primarily by a military invasion of heaven, but in us
stewarding well what He has given us so He can put us over cities and nations
o
Often God
puts an acorn in your hand instead of the oak tree you asked for – He wants to
see what you can grow
o
God gives
the immediate answer to reveal His goodness, He gives the delayed answer to
reveal the content of our hearts
o
Faith
brings answers, enduring faith brings answers and character
o
What do you do with breakthrough? What do you do
with loss?
§
When someone doesn’t get healed that you love
and prayed for, do you withdraw from your pursuit of healing, or do you press
in more earnestly
o
There are many people who pursue impartation
prayers that do little to nothing with the impartation that is given to them
o
Whenever you prayed for someone that’s healed, you
didn’t write the check, you just delivered the check
o
When you received praise and glory for having a
prayer answered, don’t deflect it, absorb it and then make sure you turn and
pass every bit of it on to the One who really deserves it
o
Many times, we spend our lives praying for the
building materials, instead of praying for foundations to be laid in our heart
that will attract the very materials we’ve been crying out for
·
John 7:17
o
If you’re
willing to obey before you hear the command, you’ll have the discernment
necessary to hear what He’s saying
§
Be willing to sign the contract before the
contract is written
o
You can do something that’s internal that will
attract revelation to you
o
The most unique and special times is when He
opens up His heart to you
§
You can open up the “yes” in your heart that
will draw His voice
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
You get a “raise” in the Kingdom through clean
hands and a pure heart
·
It’s the everyday stuff that you eat that
sustains you and keeps you alive, not the powerful word we receive at
conferences or in special encounters
o
We tend to remember the mountain peaks of our
experience as the level we were living on in specific seasons
·
We always need to be sure we’re building on
levels of revelation that we understand and not building on levels of
revelation we’re still working on comprehending
o
We can know things in our head that we don’t yet
have in our heart
·
If we don’t take the leadership principles we’re
learning and apply them to our lives, we won’t have a working comprehension of
it at the ready to put to use when we need it most
·
When we build outside of who we are, we end up
with a result that doesn’t represent us and won’t bring us joy
o
It is crucial that we do our “be” – first we
have to know who we are
o
Every organization should be a manifestation of
its leaders
o
Core values are different than high values
§
Core values are the way you see
§
We often
question what we see, but we seldom question how we see
§
We don’t see the world as it is, we see the
world as we are – we have a preconceived idea of the way the world should be,
and thus read it into everything
·
We all have an “accent” in life, and when we
meet someone with another accent, we think they’re the ones with the accent
§
We not only speak with an accent, we see with an
accent – we even read Scripture with an accent
o
You get in life what you’re looking for, what
you expect
§
We read the Bible to validate what we already
believe – we don’t read what it says, we read what we need it to say
§
Sometimes the Spirit of Revelation is the ability
to set our prejudiced glasses aside and read the Scripture for what it says
o
If we’re going to build off who we are, we have
to know who that is
o
Core
values are the lens through which comes our vision
§
Joshua divided the Israelites by tribe and
vision
o
One reason churches and organizations split is
the leadership sees the world differently
o
Sometimes we attract people that love us, but we
don’t attract people who see the world the way that we do
§
We need to attract people that are like us in
our core values so that we don’t end up in division based on our dual visions
o
People
don’t care what you do, they care why you’re doing it
§
Our mission describes the purpose behind the
vision
§
One of
the things that makes an apostle and apostle is that they have a mission from
heaven that people come into submission to and receive a commission
o
When you support your leader, we come under
their covering
§
We aren’t supposed to go, we’re supposed to be
sent
§
We want to be commissioned, but we don’t like to
come into submission
o
1 Cor. 12 – often the members who are seen are
the weaker members while those who remain unseen are the stronger members
§
Perhaps you’re called to be a spiritual
“electrician” – metaphorically speaking
§
Your work goes unseen and taken for granted, but
power flows through you to others and it’s an essential part of the functioning
of the ministry
o
Sometimes we like to spiritualize our
dysfunctions
§
There’s nothing that God created that doesn’t
have organization
§
We may be opposed to control, but many times we
throw the baby out with the bathwater
o
Structure is determined by who you are, who
you’re leading and the season you’re leading in
§
God isn’t in a structure
§
We build structures based on how we see the
world and our ministry style
o
Submission is the attitude that releases
commissioning
§
When someone in authority tells you know, it’s a
great opportunity for you to grow in authority by submitting to theirs
§
Leading leaders is typically like herding cats
because they don’t want to listen to anyone
§
Authority must flow two ways – everyone should
be under someone’s authority
o
Submission
is not doing what I’m asked to do only when I agree, but when I don’t agree
§
This is not about blind faith because faith
sees, but for many in our culture we have made independence a ‘god’
§
Christians will do things for money that they
won’t do for love
·
We will do anything we’re asked to do at work,
but it takes an engraved invitation for us to do anything for God or the church
o
A
well-communicated mission will create a sense of expectation in those who hear
it
§
It’s
important that the expectations that I impart to people and the boundaries of
the mission I’m communicating to people are congruent
§
Otherwise we create distrust because we
over-promise and under-perform
o
We lead by faith, we can’t please God without
faith, and we advance the Kingdom through faith
§
God is pro-vision – if He gave you the vision,
He’s going to provide for it, it just may not be in your timetable
o
It’s easy to have people follower you if you
aren’t going anywhere because there’s nothing significant for people to
disagree with
§
When you’re part of a family, there will be
things required of you
o
Proverbs 29:18
§
Where there is no “vision” (“prophecy” – RSV),
people cast off restraint
§
It’s not a vision if you can repeat it, it’s
only a vision when you can see it
o
World-class leaders know how to impregnate their
followers with their vision
o
You can’t just tell people you have a dream, you
have to show them what it looks like
Wednesday, September
18
Speaker – Eric Johnson:
·
Every time you pray or minister, something is
happening, whether you see it or not
o
God is using you to sow seeds all the time
o
Just because you don’t know the outcome, doesn’t
mean God didn’t use your encounter with someone, however simple it may seem, to
change history for the Kingdom
·
You are in the right place at the right time in
this very moment of your life
o
Avoid the temptation to begin comparing yourself
to those around you
·
Stewardship is a really big deal
o
Often we mis-steward things because we don’t
understand what it is that we actually have
o
The basic principle of stewardship is this – God
knows exactly what you can handle
·
Parable of the Talents
o
He gives to each one according to his own
ability
o
As long
as you don’t pay attention to anybody else’s stuff and you stay in your lane
you will be successful in stewardship
o
We get in
trouble when we take our focus off of what is in front of us right now
·
It’s important that the Master “leaves” at some
point to see if you actually keep the same standard or decrease the standard
just because He “isn’t around”
o
Often times, it’s the times we feel like we
can’t hear or feel God that are the times when He “leaves”
o
God will put things in front of us that we need
to learn to steward so that we can be prepared to go where He wants to lead us
o
He only puts us in places where we are equipped
to succeed
·
We have a certain expectation of promotion in
our head, but God’s promotion plan looks entirely different than ours
·
Often
times, God teaches us how to cultivate something when there’s no reason to
cultivate it
o
He’s teaching you how to start a fire where
there is no fire
·
You are called to bring influence, you are
called to happen in certain places and situations
·
Focus on
building the section of the wall that’s in front of you (Nehemiah)
·
Stay focused on being the best at what God is
cultivating in you in this season
·
When you are faithful with the “money” he gives
you to invest, He will make you the governor over cities
·
When you live in a religious system, you have to
do certain things to get something
·
When you live in the Kingdom, if you can see it
you can have it
o
Story of the man on the cruise ship – once
you’re aboard the ship, everything is free
·
Stewarding things in the Kingdom is different
than when you aren’t in the Kingdom
·
Isaiah 9:7
o
“Of the increase of His government and peace
there will be no end…”
o
“no end” literally means that the end doesn’t
even exist, it is impossible for the increasing of God’s Kingdom to stop
increasing
o
“The zeal (“jealousy”) of the Lord will perform
this” – no matter what happens, this will come to pass
o
We must operate in life with His perspective in
mind
o
Anytime God starts something, it will never come
to an end
·
When you live in this realm of the Kingdom, just
because you can see it doesn’t mean it belongs to you yet
o
Grace is free but the Kingdom will cost you
everything
o
You can always tell when you have something in
you – you cannot be convinced otherwise
·
Sometimes when something is bigger than what you
believe in, it often causes you to question what you believe it
o
Actually, it’s a sign that you need to
grow/develop what you believe in
o
It is impossible to develop without resistance
o
If you ask questions out of doubt, you will
always finds things to justify your unbelief
o
If you ask questions out of a place of hunger,
you will always find what you’re looking for
·
We don’t need Christians pretending, we need
Christians being real – be honest with yourself
o
It’s normal to ask questions – just make sure
you’re asking them to find faith
o
The wisest thing you can do is ask questions
·
You can always tell when you own the fruit – if
you can eat it and give it away no matter what
o
You can only give away what you actually have
o
If you don’t know what you have, start there
o
If you know what you have, begin stewarding that
to the best of your ability
·
Everyone was designed to be a resource to the
world, whether we realize it or not
o
We can broadcast piano music all day long, but
until you can sit down at the piano and actually play, you can’t give it away
o
Just because you can’t play the piano the first
day doesn’t mean it’s for another day, it means you’re going to have to pay the
price
·
God set up the Kingdom so that you can have as
much as you want
o
If you can see it you can have it
o
Do whatever it takes to get it
o
Don’t change the subject
o
Don’t let what you don’t see happening
discourage you – stay on task
o
Before you know it, the fruit trees that you’ve
been longing to own start growing on your property and you can give it away at
will
o
You begin to move from someone who is in the
Kingdom to someone who has authority in the Kingdom
·
“When you cry out, I will come to you speedily”
- God
·
It’s time for us to move out of desperation into
hunger
o
Desperation is over-rated, desperation is
dysfunction
o
Desperation should not be your cornerstone
o
Desperation is based on the awareness of lack,
hunger is based on the awareness of what’s been given to you
o
If you have an angry God, continue to be
desperate because that’s the only way you’ll get anything
o
Remaining desperate for things you’ve been given
access to is a sign of dysfunction
·
The bottom line is this – you are a child of a
really good DAD
o
There’s only one direction in the Kingdom – from
glory to glory
·
Regardless of whether or not you want what
you’ve been given in the season, be diligent in your stewardship of it
·
God trusts you more than you trust yourself –
why would He put Christ in you if He didn’t trust you?
·
In the Kingdom is always abundance
o
There’s a tension that we live in where we see
some things we know are in the Kingdom, and we don’t yet see some things that
we know are in the Kingdom
o
The question is not whether or not it’s been
given to you, the question is do you know how to go after it?
o
Instead of spending the rest of our lives crying
out for Him to do something, we must learn to develop authority in certain
areas and when resistance comes against us we refuse to be moved
·
Don’t move out of desperation into laziness,
move into hunger
o
Hunger says – “I’m a son and I have free access
to the Kingdom and I’m going to go explore it until I can make what I see mine
and steward it well”
·
Keep your heart really full of what the Lord is
saying, then when you’re in front of people He has more options regarding what
He can draw out of you to minister in that place to those people
·
As a leader, if you’re living out what you
preach, the people who follow you will live it out also
·
Being generous is not limited to just financial,
but is also spiritual, time/energy, ministry, etc. – develop generosity in all
avenues of your life
WEEK #4
Monday, September 23rd
– Wednesday, September 25th
Retreat Week – JH Ranch
WEEK #5
Monday, September 30th
Speaker – Bob Hartley:
·
Salvation is a free gift, but hearing God’s
heart must be cultivated
o
Requires understanding of the wavelength that He
uses to communicate with you most often
o
Learn well the wavelength God wants to speak to
you on – He is broadcasting, adjust your receiver
·
Conversation leads to revelation often with God
o
He wants to reveal Himself to us in that place
of intimacy
·
Your
group is qualified to be a Jeremiah 3:15 group
o
This is an invitation not to compare yourselves
to other groups, but to step into this divine destiny
·
People always want to make you a “king” – don’t
let anybody define you according to a title or a role or a gifting
o
There’s an ability that we all have to hear His
heart and His voice
o
Don’t
ever leave the place where you know God to become something you aren’t
o
His secrets are not to be traded, nor your
relationship with Him traded for anything
·
God says
“you’ve experienced 1% of Me that I desire you to experience in this lifetime,
dive into the other 99%”
o
He is giving you the gift of Songs of Solomon
1:4
o
Intimacy isn’t earned, it’s cultivated out of a
pure & honest & hungry heart
o
He wants us to be like Job 42:5 – “I no longer
believe, now I see”
o
You are to be presence carriers – people are
saved by the light of His presence, not by your giftings
·
Always
laugh and dance upon your problems and your challenges
·
In your own weakness, love well even when you
aren’t being loved well
·
God has been minimized and marginalized in our
world, and He’s inviting us to seek Him
·
Have confidence in the long-term plan of God
·
Ache that every day God would be loved well
o
God just wants to help them, but they won’t let
Him help them
o
Long for God to be valued and loved well across
a city, region, nation, etc.
o
It is the understanding of the heart of a Father
to want to reach out to His children just to love them and to help them
·
God hates a despairing Christianity – He is not
afraid of a world already afraid
o
Jeremiah 33:10-11
o
Those cities that were wastelands will be His
joy!
o
The people have rights to know their God, to
hear His voice, to have heartfelt communion and prayer
o
Kings & Queens see well, all you have to do
is show them the door
·
Moses in Exodus 33:11-15 – “Give me intimacy or
give me death”
·
God is inviting you to be a people that see His
form, His heart
·
You are to lead others into His presence
·
Many of you have been prayed into here by
others, but many of you have the John 1:38-42 cry of your heart – “Where are
you staying?”
o
You don’t want a “what” we want a “who”
·
He trusts
His heart with you
o
He has chose to invite you into a place with Him
to give you His very self
o
You will question your worth, but He says “you
are lovely to Me”
o
He is releasing the gift of the Knowledge of Him
·
It’s not about your revelatory notes, it’s about
drinking in the glory of His presence
Tuesday, October 1st
·
“Family Day”
Wednesday, October 2nd
Speaker – Kris Vallotton: (see audio file)
·
WEEK #6
Monday, October 7th
Speaker – Crystal
Stiles:
·
The thing about vulnerability is that we each
have reasons that we haven’t been vulnerable
·
Kate Eifert – Psalm 24 is a really key Psalm for
your class
o
There is a connection between us being authentic
with clean hands and a pure heart and Him coming and pouring out His heart to
us
o
He is preparing us as a class to steward the
glory that He longs to release
o
Holy Spirit says you will be a class of
appropriate response – we’re going on to more glory and deeper freedom
·
Sometimes when God invites us in, there’s an
instantaneous breakthrough while other times the breakthrough is a process
o
There is great glory to be found in both methods
·
There’s a new dawn rising over the mountains of
impossibility in your life, and there’s a fresh invitation – God is standing on
top of our biggest mountains
·
Romans 8:28 – “We know that all things work for
the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose”
o
God
actually has this crazy dream that we can look just like Jesus
o
Sometimes we need to align our belief system
with His
o
Sometimes we relegate certain areas of life as
applicable to this verse, while other parts of life we consider to be
out-of-bounds for this verse
·
Upgrades in your situation
o
The reason He allows us to stay in a
circumstance that’s difficult is because there is an upgrade available for us
to find
o
He is working all things together for good for
you
o
No matter where we find ourselves, there is an
invitation for you in the situation to encounter more of who He is
o
God only disciplines those He loves – we want to
be loved by Him
o
When we don’t understand the redemptive nature
of our Father, we want to run and hide again, searching for fig leaves to cover
up with
o
God’s discipline is never unto punishment, it is
unto love and fruitfulness (Hebrews 12:1)
o
Step into the places where you aren’t like Jesus
and invite Him into those places
o
You can
only know unconditional love when you don’t meet all the conditions and you let
Him love you anyway
·
We have a
God who doesn’t just celebrate finish lines, but runs the race with us
o
All we
want is freedom from the problem or an escape from a circumstance, but God
wants may be to break a generational curse that may have been on your family
for centuries
o
Sometimes all we’re seeking is for God to bring
us into justice, but God’s desire is to bring justice into us
o
Learn to
embrace the process and run into the breach with God running in with you
o
Half the healing is in the revealing – once you
can see it, you’re already halfway there
·
God isn’t
waiting for you to prove to Him how serious you are, He’s just waiting for you
to bring your heart to the table
·
Sometimes the unfamiliar land and struggles we
find ourselves in are the answers to prayers we have prayed to be more like
Jesus – don’t turn back and head for familiar land, press in for an upgrade
·
God doesn’t show us who we are to make us feel
bad, He shows us who we are so He can lead us into our divine identity &
destiny
·
The hard relationships/situations are an
invitation from God to step into your upgrade
Tuesday, October 8th
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
Matthew 11
o
Probably the most informative chapter on John
the Baptist in the Bible
o
Provides insight into what life and ministry are
to look like for us in the NT
o
The teachings of Jesus are vital to NT life, even
though they were given on the other side of the cross
o
There are plenty of people who are familiar with
the teachings, but not familiar with the doings
§
They know when to say “amen” in a service, but
when things happen in real life they don’t know what to do
o
Jesus, the guiltless, is standing in the shoes
of the guilty to be baptized by John
o
1 John 3:8 – Jesus was commissioned by God to
destroy the works of the devil, but Jesus received His power in the HS baptism
in the Jordan
§
We need both power and authority to operate
effectively in the Kingdom
§
Authority
comes in the commission, power comes in the encounter
o
The least on the other side of the baptism of
fire (in the Kingdom of God) has access to a greater level of anointing than
the greatest prophet of the OT which was John the Baptist
o
Sometimes the lesson that God has on the
forefront of our lives is to teach us how to fight for things, to contend for
things
§
On the front line, there is an intensity
available that is not required anywhere else in life
§
Most of what you need will be brought to you,
most of what you want you’ll have to go get
§
There is a narrowing of focus when you’re in a
fight – a season of single focus
§
There are some things God will only release to
soldiers, other things He will only release to sons
§
Those on the front lines have very few concerns,
the further back from the front line you are, the more your concerns increase
§
Receiving the Kingdom as a child is totally
different than fighting for it as a soldier
§
You can’t get what you want to get through
fighting when God calls you into a season of sonship
·
There is a vast difference in a soldier fighting
for something and a child receiving out of inheritance – receiving something
that someone else paid the price for
o
We lose personal
revelation from God when we allow our attention to shift to what God ISN’T
doing
§
All of us are vulnerable to doubt, unbelief
& resistance to what God is doing if we focus our hearts on what God ISN’T
doing
§
Jesus gave John a way out by giving Him a list
of things to think about that God WAS doing – concluding it with “Blessed is he
who is not offended because of me”
§
When you
feed yourself on what God isn’t doing, it will take you to a spirit of offense,
and a spirit of offense will lead you into unbelief which takes you to a place
of spiritual opposition to God
§
God can’t
entrust powerful anointing to anyone who can’t navigate disappointment
§
MINIMIZE YOUR DISTRACTIONS
o
Throughout history there have been individual
carriers of powerful anointings, but God is looking for a generation that will
walk in this level of powerful anointings
o
There is something to be said about ending well
o
Jesus wasn’t at liberty to save John the Baptist
because He could only do what His Father was doing
§
The only
way to navigate these disappointments is to stand before the Lord and have
gut-level honesty with Him about how you’re feeling with a desire to reconcile
your heart with His without accusing or entering into offense against Him,
without questioning
o
Powerful, mighty prayers are a dime a dozen, but
to be entrusted with the anointing to bring those powerful prayers to pass
doesn’t come without learning to navigate disappointment
·
King David was rejected by Saul, rejected by His
family, rejected by His friends, and eventually was rejected by the Philistines,
then he was rejected by his own men
o
In response to all the disappointment, David
strengthened himself in the Lord – the next thing that happened was David was
crowned king
o
You want the crown? Can you handle
disappointment??
·
Faith actually attracts promises from God
o
Any promise is available to us – we are to find
promises and pray into them until God breathes life into those things in our
life
o
There are things God would like to do, but He is
looking for someone who will take ownership of it
o
Faith is more than a good idea, it’s a burning
conviction that something is true
o
John G. Lake prayed for an average of approx.
110 people a day in ministry, in the course of that level of ministering to
people you get a lot of experience co-laboring with God for healing
o
We don’t have a formula, we have a relationship
· Read Real Faith by Dr. Charles Price – it’s the essential book on faith
·
Sometimes when we’re not seeing things come to
pass, we made be in receive mode when God’s directing us to fight for
something, or vice versa
Speaker – Bobby Connor:
·
Vanity/profane in the Hebrew means empty,
worthless, of no eternal value – literally “attempting to grab the wind”
o
God’s
definition of vanity/profane is anything that man is doing that God did not
initiate
·
You’ll never be used by God in the measure you
want to be used if you’re shallow in the Word of God
·
Have you read the Bible enough to figure out
that God doesn’t like religion?
o
Man likes religion – anything that man can
control, man is a fan of
·
The Bible never asks a question without
releasing an answer
·
It’s one thing to have visitation with the Lord,
it’s another thing to have habitation
·
You may not know what to do with yourself, but
God knows what to do with you – He wrote your script before you were ever you
·
God forged us in eternity past to live in the
present to forge the future
·
God will say some weird things sometimes just to
see if you’re listening
·
Nothing amplifies the voice of God like intimacy
o
God shouts His truths, but He whispers His
secrets
o
We get His secrets by becoming His friend
·
What we need is a synchronization between what
He wrote in His script and what we walk
·
God will not do anything in the earth that He
won’t first reveal it to His servants the prophets
o
Isaiah 48:6 – this is how God brings new things
into town, He brings His prophet into town
o
Then He brings a apostle into town to explain
the ins and outs of what the prophet said
·
Following God is simpler than you think – the
most profound thing you can do is maintain simplicity
o
The quickest way to spot religion is they always
complicate what God made to be simple
·
We got a body the same reason Jesus got a body –
to make God known!
·
Joel 2:25 – He is the God of restoration
·
Matthew 4:23 – Jesus went about doing good
o
We must go about and get the message out
o
Jesus
makes us fishers of men – we ought to chunk what they’re biting and fish where
they’re schooling
·
God is more concerned about the heart of one
wayward girl than about a whole civic center full of people who have already
heard it anyway
·
You can hardly believe what God will do for you
if you’ll let Him
o
Job 22:28
– Make up your mind what you want, tell God what that is, and He’ll get it for
you (restated by Jesus in Mark 11:24)
·
Ecclesiastes 10:10 – If the axe is dull you have
to swing harder – if you aren’t smart enough to sharpen the axe you’ll have to
work harder
o
The witchcraft in the church today is trying to
substitute our effort for His ability – trying to finish what only God can do
for us
·
Ephesians 3:20-21 – “I give you personal permission
to try to exaggerate what I’m about to do”
·
The giftings of God are not owned, they’re
borrowed
·
Even failure is not final – don’t clean up
mistakes for people, guide them in cleaning them up themselves
·
If God doesn’t get you out of your hardship, He’ll
stop everything right in the middle of it and throw you a party (Ps. 23:7-8)
·
God will never call you without giving you the
right kind of axe head
·
Philippians 2:13 – God works in you to will and
to do His good pleasure
o
Our greatest goal is to bring Father good
pleasure
§
Luke 12:32 – nothing pleases Daddy God any more
than finding a family He can trust His Kingdom to
§
They must be ripe in understanding, and that
hidden wisdom will bring encounter
o
We will find in His presence something far
superior to His power – His authority (Luke 15:32)
·
Even our prayers can over-ride God’s will
·
According to Scripture, dung will keep the king
out of your camp – maybe there’s a reason there’s no presence in your camp
·
God is looking for those with big vision
·
God is going to come to us before He comes for
us
·
Jesus came and gave flesh, form and function to
an invisible God
o
We are His body who is to make an invisible God
known
o
What are you supposed to do? SHINE!!!
·
God didn’t say “Make there be light,” He said
“Let there be light” – if you try too hard it won’t happen
·
The righteous will be bold as a lion, the wicked
are running and no one is chasing them
o
If you want to get bold, get righteous!
·
God has been fanning the flame of discontentment
in the hearts of His people so they won’t settle for any less than what He has
for them
·
Psalms 84:11
·
We’re yelling “throne room!” – God’s yelling
“threshing floor!”
·
Be bold and very courageous, go do what you’re
called to do because you aren’t going by yourself!
·
God says
if His people want to survive, they’ll survive on Psalm 27:1-14
o
I prayer Ephesians 1:16-17, 2 Kings 6:16-17,
Matthew 13:16
o
Proverbs
25:2 – He’ll hide things from us for us so that we don’t contaminate them
before we’re ready for them
o
Daniel 2:22, Deuteronomy 29:29, Rev 2:17
o
Your identity is woven in the secrets of God
(John 15:15)
o
Nehemiah 9:20
Wednesday, October 9th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
Proverbs 15:20
·
Psalm 37
·
There are plenty of things that we believe in
our head that our heart doesn’t actually believe
o
Worry means I have a God that can’t take care of
me, worry means I can’t trust God
o
My core values isn’t something my head knows,
it’s something my heart knows
o
Core values are something you live out of, not
something that you think you believe
o
If you aren’t sacrificing for your core values,
you don’t actually have them
·
Where ever the leader goes, that’s where the
people follow
o
An attitude/heart problem at the top will be
reflected in the people below
·
You’re created to need a reward – a reward is
attached to something you’re accomplishing
o
Go to work, not to make money, but as a minister
of the Gospel of Jesus, which means you’re working for reward
o
It’s okay for people to give to get – “give and
it will be given to you”
o
He that comes to God must believe that He is,
and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him
·
We must reward people in a way that feels like a
reward to THEM, not to us
o
You must develop a system that has rewards and
happens consistently
·
Sometimes the Lord will allow you to have a
vision to chase donkeys when you are destined to be a king (story of Saul
becoming king of Israel)
·
If you feel like you’ve lost vision, the best
thing to do is serve someone who has a vision
o
It’s contagious and you will catch it
o
Don’t do nothing just because you don’t yet have
a vision
·
We want to be able to serve Republicans,
Democrats and Independents – but we aren’t bringing them our opinions, we’re
bringing them our gift
o
A man’s gift will make room for him, not his
opinion
·
Your personality is NOT your core value
o
We want to establish a team around us who don’t
necessarily share our personality, but definitely those who share our core
values
WEEK #7
Monday, October 14
Speaker – Sara Webster:
·
We must take steps to prepare our “God
perspective” like a muscle so that when we encounter walls and boulders in the
spirit, we have the spiritual strength to push through them
·
The joy of the Lord is our strength – when you
feel weak it means you’ve lost your joy
o
When we enter into His joy, it helps us to
regain His perspective and exchange a heavy burden with His light yoke
·
Cultivate a lifestyle of worship
o
We should be able to access the same places in
corporate worship that we do when we’re alone with God
·
“I would have despaired had I not believed that
I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”
Tuesday, October 15
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
In the OT, whenever you see the phrase “the
presence of the Lord” – the word “presence” is actually the word “face”
·
God’s face is in the “rain”
·
The greatest transformation in our lives comes
based on the amount of glory we’ve been exposed to, not the degree to which we
embrace discipline
·
The greatest adventure for mankind comes with
embracing the face of God
·
Joy (aka laughter) is to salvation what tears
are to repentance
·
God fashioned you specifically to find your
ultimate place in existence before the place of the Lord
·
John went before the face of God – everywhere
John went, God’s face followed
·
Jesus is wisdom, and wisdom has its delight in
the sons of men
·
In the light of the King’s face = favor
·
The
clarity with which we see is determined by what’s already in our heart
·
There are many in Christendom who look for
Kingdom principles without the King
o
To want Kingdom principles apart from the King
Himself is to want the Kingdom without a King
·
We enjoy ever opportunity we have where Holy
Spirit comes and is poured out on people
·
We must never be moved by numbers, we must be
moved by heaven’s activity, knowing that in every action of God comes the acorn
that can create the forest
·
Every time there an outpouring of God, His face
is behind it and it carries with it His favor and delight
·
God gives us commands and promises that we can’t
accomplish without Him – they act as His insurance policy that we will do
things with Him and not apart from Him
·
Proverbs 16:15 – “his favor is like a cloud of
latter rain”
o
Early & latter rains are prophetic
statements concerning the pouring out of God’s Spirit
·
When God saved you, He saved you for something
o
Salvation isn’t the end of the story, salvation
merely positioned you for the rest of the story as you walk out who He created
you to be through the power of His resurrection
·
God
cannot know you unless you invite Him
·
One of
the things that happen in Christendom is that we spend out time seeking out the
benefits of knowing Him, without actually knowing Him
·
God is so delighted with us, that He delights in
whatever portion we’re willing to give Him, but He designed us to live before
His face
·
God wants us to be worshipers because He loves
us, and God always chooses the best
o
That’s because we become like the one we
worship, and there’s nothing greater for us than to become just like Him
·
Theory – once He reveals Himself completely, the
worship becomes involuntary, which robs us of the reward of worshiping from a
heart that is voluntarily yielded completely to Him
·
It’s also possible to worship worship
·
We don’t create “images” in the form of idols,
we create “images” in the form of formulas (Greek thinking)
o
We like to trap God in principles in an effort
to get Him to do what we want
·
In the next 10-20 years, one of the things you
will see is a revelation of God’s beauty
o
One of the best things that will come in your life
and through your life is a divine awareness of beauty – all of it comes from
His face
·
It’s always amazing how quickly manna becomes
routine, becomes normal, and we lose our awe for it
·
His desire for me is to completely lay down all
my agendas (even my revival agenda), not looking for the key to something but
to look for Him, to experience Him in an encounter that changes us
o
The favor of the King’s face IS the outpouring
of Holy Spirit
·
Genesis 28 – the first mention of the House of
God is here, and it’s NOT a building
o
Usually the first time something is mentioned in
Scripture sets a standard for its application the rest of the way through
Scripture
o
I don’t want to go anywhere and not recognize
the manifestation of His presence
o
The House
of God is the gate to the face of God
o
A gate is a reality that connects two separate
realms
o
“The gates of Zion are His eternal resting place
forever”
o
When we pray “on earth as it is in heaven” we
aren’t praying from earth, we’re praying as the gate (with dual citizenship in
both realms) between heaven and earth, bringing one realm into the other
·
“God, if you’ll touch me again, I’ll never
change the subject” –Bill Johnson
o
‘I will not add what you’re doing to what I’m
doing, I will make what I’m doing only what you’re doing’
·
The
reaction of the crowd to the outpouring of the Spirit in Acts 1 provides a list
of common responses to revival
o
The crowd came in response to the sounding of
the roar, not from hearing foreign languages
o
The sound drew them without knowing why to the
point that they mocked what they saw, but they were still there, and they
responded to Peter’s message by the thousands
o
Psalms 104 – God has made His ministers of wind,
of flame of fire
o
120 people changed the course of history in one
of the major international cities of that day
Speaker – Banning Liebscher: (see audio file)
Wednesday, October 16th
Speaker – Kris Vallotton:
·
It is important to connect what you’ve learned
about strategy & structure to apostleship
·
If God ceased to exist, matter would literally
cease being held together
o
It is the literal presence of God that holds
matter together
o
When we say that God’s in the room, we aren’t
saying that he wasn’t here before
·
There are different levels of the presence of
God
·
Mark 2:22 – When Jesus talks about new wine
& new wine skins, wine is the intoxicating presence of God
o
God puts new wine into new wine skins to protect
the wine
o
There are some churches that don’t have any wine
skin, let alone a new one
o
When we’re “intoxicated” with God, it effects
the way we think the way alcohol effects our physical ability to think
o
Jesus only pours out new wine into new wine
skins, so what’s a new wine skin? LEADERSHIP
o
The pre-text to this verse is fasting (found in
all 3 of the Gospels that contains this story)
o
Jesus says – if you want new wine, give me a new
wine skin
o
John’s disciples and the Pharisees’ disciples
represent leadership from a old era
o
When you have new leadership, the new wine is
constructive instead of destructive
o
New wineskins are current and flexible
§
Leadership – in order to carry the new wine, you
must be current – it’s not what God has said, but what God is saying that is
bread to my soul
o
As a leader, we should prepare to be current and
flexible to what God is saying/doing
·
Acts 1
o
The Holy Spirit fell on them when they replaced
Judas with Matthias, which completed the governmental structure (12), 11 is the
number of incomplete government
o
Leadership matters to God, and being in a
covenant community that is a new wine skin (current/flexible) is important to
God
o
This is a key to moving out of denominationalism
into apostleships
o
Denominations gather around truth, apostleships
gather around community/covenant relationships
·
The church was born in a covenant, not in a
conference
·
Jesus never called us Christians, He called us
disciples and sent us to make disciples of all nations
o
Discipleship happens in community where you
allow someone to lead/mentor you
o
God is moving us out of denominationalism
(orphans) into an apostleship (family relationship with fathers)
·
God is returning us to covenant – we are
supposed to be a covenant people
·
The Judas spirit wants intimacy without
covenant, and will try to create its own redemption
·
The Judas spirit is what’s destroying the church
right now – it wants the benefits of a marriage without the covenant of the
marriage
o
So much more destructive than the Jezebel spirit
(which is upon far more men than women)
o
Contracts are all about what you can get,
covenants are about what you can give
o
People will do for money what they won’t do for
love – that’s the Judas spirit
o
People will create a doctrine to support their
unwillingness to follow spiritual authority
o
You should have spiritual authority in your life
that you have to listen to – the church is the only place in society where we think
we don’t have to listen to authority
o
Don’t let people control you (even your boss),
but people should have a place of influence in your life and you should submit
to authority in every area of your life
o
How can you come to a place where you’re
receiving treasures from heaven and don’t expect to have to listen to anyone
o
You are called a disciple – it is not normal NOT
to have a shepherd in your life, someone who is discipling you
Speaker – Keith with City Service Project:
·
Our DNA is God’s DNA, and we leave that
everywhere that we go
·
Agape is truly unconditional love – it’s the love
that doesn’t expect anything back
·
A lot of the work that people risk their lives
doing isn’t really worth dying for
·
If you calculate it, then it’s not a leap of
faith
·
“That thing to which I am called is not greater
than that which I am a part of” –Bishop Garlington
·
The times when you do something good and nobody
on earth knows what you’ve done, those are the good deeds that you really want
credited to your account in heaven
·
Come in quiet and low, and just serve
·
“The decay of compassion is spiritual death”
WEEK #8
Monday, October 21st
Monday, October 21st
Speaker – Jake Veach:
·
Psalm 24
o
The Lord is taking us through a season where He
can work in us clean hands and a pure heart
o
A generation with clean hands and a pure heart
that seek the face of God
o
The ancient gates & doors will be lifted up
/ opened and the King of Glory will come in
o
Whenever a standard set in place in Scripture,
it becomes an invitation for us to encounter God and receive an impartation
from Him in that area – not to expose us to what we’re doing wrong
o
If we see the Bible only as a set of
instructions regarding what to do and what not to do, you’ll miss your
encounter with God
o
We can see standard set in Scripture, yet not
know the heart of the One who set the standard – doing so sets us under law
without relationship
o
It’s one thing to not do something because
someone told you not to, it’s another things entirely to come to know/experience
the heart of the One behind the standard
o
God sets the standard for no sex outside of
marriage not because He wants to restrict you, but because He wants to protect
your heart
o
God is inviting us to encounter Him
·
Purity is not something that you gain through
the practice of abstinence – you cannot earn it
o
You can’t cancel out bad deeds with good deeds
o
Purity is a gift from God – you can’t earn it,
you can’t behave well enough, you can’t heal yourself – it is a gift Jesus has
given you with His blood
o
God comes to you and cleans you and says “Okay,
let’s keep your house clean”
o
As we pursue purity as a class, it is imperative
that we understand where our purity comes from
§
You can kill yourself trying to create in
yourself a pure heart
§
It only comes through encounter, not through
punishing ourselves or through suffering
§
Impurity is not only sexual, but includes
speech, thought, action, etc.
§
He is the one who has made us pure
o
The only time sin is appealing is when part of
His nature is in question in your heart
o
You’re not called to struggle against a sin
nature the rest of your life
§
There’s a
difference between managing perversion and managing your sex drive
§
Sex drive is from God – perversion entered your
life through sin
§
When
temptation rises up, go to God and ask what about His nature you’re struggling
with / doubt – without doubt in His nature, there’s no temptation
§
The enemy introduces doubt in the nature of God
in our hearts, which makes temptation tempting
§
The enemy
introduces an appeal to sin by questioning God’s nature, by challenging the
nature of God, trying to get us to act as a slave instead of as a son/daughter
o
We are made to encounter God on a regular basis
§
We must encounter the God who looks like who
we’re becoming
o
We get access to the house built by the fathers
of this house, and we get it whether we have the internal structure for it yet
or not
§
God wants to fill our house with things that are
glorious, but we must make sure we’re able to maintain those things well
§
We must have a strong foundation, know how to
clean and maintain the house and everything in it
§
When we’re given the keys to the Kingdom, but
don’t receive them in the context of being empowered to serve, we turn into
spoiled brats
o
I should
not approach the Scripture with anything short of an expectation for a
supernatural encounter
§
Most Bible studies include lots of knowledge,
lots of dates and lots of principles, but no actual encounter
§
Causes us
to separate out the pursuit of knowledge (reading Scripture) from pursuit of
His presence (encounter)
§
In most of us, God needs to kill the lawyer and
resurrect the lover in us regarding Scripture
§
Every time we open Scripture, we’re opening a
book full of open doors, full of invitations to an encounter with Him
§
Scripture teaches us how God thinks, what’s
important to Him, how He loves
§
We must allow Scripture to teach us what He’s
like so we can know the God behind the story
§
When we come to Scripture for information or
just out of obligation, it closes us off to the invitation inherent within to
encounter God there
§
We can obey a standard without understanding,
but we understand it when we’ve encountered Him in that place
§
If we stay in what’s normal now, we’ll never
step out of normal – if we step into what should
be normal, then what should be normal will become normal
§
Every time we don’t feel like reading Scripture,
there’s something wrong in my heart
·
Every time we don’t feel like reading Scripture,
we should read it until our heart comes alive
o
Scripture
is designed to bring encounter to those who are hungry
§
We must embrace the process and give ourselves
permission to grow in relationship – we can’t come under pressure to know
everything at once
§
You don’t have to know it all right now
·
I Corinthians 14:1-5, 14-18
o
Tongues isn’t something that happens to you, it
is a gift of the Spirit that you choose to engage with
o
Tongues is NOT the evidence of being filled with
the Spirit – POWER is the evidence of being filled with the Spirit
o
Tongues is direct communication between our
spirit and God
o
Tongues is for the edification of yourself,
while prophecy edifies the rest of the Body
o
The Spirit intercedes for us – if ANYONE know
how to pray, Holy Spirit knows how to pray
o
When I choose to engage the gift of tongues, we
choose to engage our spirit with His Spirit, and He sets our priorities
straight, activating the faith in your spirit
o
Praying in tongues in like tilling the soil of
your spirit, it prepares you for encounter
o
It takes faith to encounter a supernatural God –
we can partner with a reality we do not see
o
Praying in tongues is one of the most under-used
gifts in the Body of Christ
o
For where the Lord desires to take us, it is
imperative that our inner being is STRONG
o
A life of
power is built on a foundation that chooses to engage with the Spirit of God
o
Make sure you’re protected with heaven – pray in
tongues
§
You can’t connect with God and come out angry
with a bad attitude, He transforms you
o
Your character isn’t tested/developed when you
feel like doing something, it’s tested/developed when you don’t feel like doing
something but do it anyway
o
Exchange life & burdens with God – when you
encounter Him, that becomes your Secret Place with Him
o
Your Secret Place is when you come to Him as you
– you let Him see everything, and you let Him touch everything
o
There are
times in life when we’re experiencing pain in an area, but we know in our head
that our pain (fear) is not in line with Scripture, so we hide our pain from
the Lord and go talk to someone and ask them to help us call out some lies we’re
believing, rather than exposing our pain to God and making your case that while
you know in your mind that He’s good in a particular area, you don’t really
know (haven’t experienced) Him in that area, and YOU NEED TO experience Him in
that area
o
Jesus will always sit with you while you cry
o
We need His nature confirmed to our heart, but
in order to do that we must expose ourselves to Him – to take what feels
shameful to me and show it to the Lord
§
We’re tempted to go off and fix ourselves before
we feel like we can come to the Lord
§
When we bare our soul with Him, He will move in
an encounter us
§
You won’t last long in life unless you can bare
your soul before God and allow Him to restore your heart, rather than trying to
restore it yourself
o
We have to move from “I’m obligated to do
something” to “I get to do something” – sometimes they feel the same, we don’t
feel like taking advantage of what He’s given us access to
§
When we don’t feel like it, something isn’t
right underneath the hood – we choose to engage with His Spirit and allow Him
to restore our heart in encounter
o
My heart WANTS to engage with God, but sometimes
the barrier of “I don’t feel like it” is there on purpose, because those with
TRUE HUNGER will push past that and enter in
Tuesday, October 22nd
Speaker – Bill Johnson:
·
The entirety of the ambition that Bill’s parents
had for him was that he would make it to heaven
·
The time came that he started to travel to hear
Mario Murillo speak until he reached the point that he said “Yes” to God and
gave Him everything
o
You never have to count the cost if you give up
everything to Him
·
Up until then, Bill had read only one book in
His life, but then he started to read Scripture and he read all the books he
could get his hands on about prayer, meeting with God
o
If you aren’t hungry for something that’s right,
then start eating that thing and you’ll develop a hunger for it
·
It’s one thing to go to a prayer meeting that’s
been called, it’s another thing to answer a summons from heaven
·
You can become discouraged about pleasing/serving
the Lord by constantly “taking your temperature” – keeping your focus on your
shortcomings rather than on His goodness
o
It’s possible to be 100% devoted to God but end
up very discouraged/disillusioned
o
Even when obedience isn’t fun, or our attitude
stinks in the process of obeying, He still credits it to our account
·
Say what God is saying, don’t get caught up in
repeating what God has said – one carries powerful anointing, the other sounds
good but doesn’t carry the same power
·
When we come to realize how really good God is,
we won’t get so caught up in what we lack, in who we aren’t, in our own
limitations
o
So often our biggest problem is introspection,
self-evaluation, self-criticism
o
We cannot afford to have a self-perception of
ourselves that He doesn’t have
o
He looks at us through promise – so we need to
feed off of promise, to live on it
o
Rather than pray into a place of acceptance,
we’re to pray from the place of acceptance, into the thing we’re praying into
·
Prayer is
the backbone of all ministry – walk you city and pray
o
If you’re
ever in doubt, just worship or pray in tongues
o
You have to get out there and get your spiritual
hands dirty by walking / praying / proclaiming
·
Marry the one who is completely devoted to God –
that’s the one you look for
·
Live out of His presence
o
If you can’t feel His presence, then live out of
discipline until you sense His presence again
o
Hypocrisy is the opposite in the Kingdom – if
you only do what you feel like doing, you’re a hypocrite
·
When you’re in love with God, it isn’t a discipline
to think about Him, you’re pursuing Him out of passion
·
We can tap into realms of anointing in 6 months
that took Bill 30-40 years to break into
o
There’s no charge for it, but there is a price
that must be paid in order to establish an infrastructure within us that can
support it
o
Inheritance gained hurriedly is lost hurriedly
o
Pay the price – what was obtained by grace needs
to be contended for
§
Of all the people in the NT, Paul worked the
hardest of all
·
Law requires, grace enables
o
Law requires you to do something to become
righteous, but grace enables you to become righteous
o
Grace is much more demanding than the law
o
Grace says don’t call someone names, it’s murder
§
Names are like murder because seeds are as
defiling as the fruit
§
Graces says don’t even go near that family of
fruitfulness
·
Between
now and the end of January is going to shape the rest of your life
o
You have inheritance being handed to you on a
silver platter every day for free
o
There’s a huge responsibility that comes with
that – paying the price enables you to steward the inheritance
o
God honors the cry of our heart – what is your
heart crying out for?
§
Your travailing to give birth to things in God
is not done in vain
§
Make the decision to get up early just because
it’s a good thing to do, not because you feel like it – you must have a Secret Place that actually stays secret
·
Bill hardly ever knew what he was doing, but he
knew how to hold onto promises and how to worship
·
Our
humanity that we despise He values
o
Vision of placing a crown on His head during
worship and leaving his fingerprints on the crown, only to see his fingerprints
turn into gems on the crown
o
There are
some things that you just can’t learn accept by getting alone
·
As Christians, don’t ever measure your growth again
o
God will tell you when you’re progressing, wait
for Him to tell you
·
Jeremiah 23 – pray that He’ll give people a
heart to know Him
·
Prayer is
an ALL DAY LONG event – we pray constantly where ever we go
·
You must
not allow there to be a day when you’re not in Scripture
o
You have to put something in your heart for Him
to address
o
Most of
what He speaks to you won’t come while you’re reading or studying, He’ll speak
to you at the most unexpected times
o
You have to put fuel inside your heart for Him
to burn
Wednesday, October 23rd
Speaker – Crystal Stiles:
·
One of the major concerns we have for this
school is that we have the ability to teach a whole bunch of people a whole
bunch of things, without really having to know Him
·
Our fruit
shouldn’t be born out of ability but out of relationship
·
We must not elevate experience to a point that
we lose value for the process
o
You’re waiting for God to microwave you into a
30-year relationship history with Him, and He wants to stick you in the oven
and take time to cook
·
Everything He’s provided for us came in Jesus,
but He’s waiting for us to walk through relationship with Him so He can release
those things to us
·
We have idolized the “suddenly” in charismatic
culture to the point that we’ve devalued the process
·
Many of you heard things this week that will
convict your heart, but if you aren’t careful they’ll become condemnation to us
rather than an invitation to us
·
Money is the kindergarten of Christianity – if
you can’t trust God with your money, you have yet to graduate from kindergarten
o
Rather than feeling condemned, take it as an
invitation into something greater
·
Often times in this culture, we’re waiting to
get free before we’ll step out and act in faith
o
We’re waiting for God, but He’s waiting for us –
freedom comes out of obedience
o
God has put all the tools in your hands for life
and godliness – only you can take your
thoughts captive, God will not violate your free will to do that for you
·
Being
spiritual is not about doing spiritual things, it’s about doing what the Spirit
is doing
o
Causes us to have to stay in constant communion
& relationship with Him
o
What is the Spirit doing in your life right now,
and are you partnering with Him?
·
Psalm 32:8-9
o
The Spirit of God in us actually wants to
instruct us, council us, direct us
o
We should be close enough to His heart that we
can hear His whisper
o
He’s inviting us into a place of closeness to
Him
·
Hebrews 10:5-7
o
“Sacrifice and offering You did not desire…”
o
God isn’t looking for your spirituality, He’s
looking for your surrender
·
Right now you’re living in Bill & Kris’s day
– they cried out for this
o
When are the days that are ordained for you?
What are you crying out for?
·
We aren’t raising up spiritual people, but
people who are following the Spirit
Speaker – Paul Manwaring: Divine Order
·
Divine order is conceptual, there isn’t exactly
a Scriptural text on the idea
·
The energy for divine order exists in tension –
a place where opposing forces are at work
·
What may appear to be Biblical contradiction is
actually truth in tension
·
Mental health is the ability to cope with
competing emotions
·
Why do we like to shut down tension in the areas
of politics and religion in favor or having it one way or the other?
·
The prophet’s job is to create tension between
tomorrow & today
o
Our job is to manage the tension
·
Revelation 19:10-11
o
It’s all about tapping the energy source of the
Kingdom
·
We want children to serve and steward our dream
instead of encouraging them to have and steward their own dreams
o
If we limit the next generation to our
experience, we will shut down the move of God
·
The greatest manifestation of Kingdom principles
shows up in tension
o
The greatest manifestation of Kingdom
love/hope/faith is in the place of greatest tension
·
If you have no mystery in your Christian life
you have reduced your God to your level of understanding, and you may as well
be worshiping yourself
o
As long as we only allow a God who does what we
can understand, we won’t have a God that does much at all
o
Without mystery in tension, we end up shutting
down what God is doing
·
Psalm 46 – where deep cries unto deep, the sound
of your water spouts
o
There’s a storm on heaven and a storm on earth,
they’re joined by a water spout in tension
·
“Some men see things and ask why, other men
dream dreams and ask why not.”
·
We need to learn to live in a place of tension
without shutting it down
·
We are called to call things that are not as
though they are
·
Proverbs 8
o
One of the greatest mistakes we make is that to
us Wisdom is not a living person
o
Wisdom is the dominion of the wise
·
People love to create their own theology that
actually has nothing to do with God and has everything to do with themselves
·
Breakthrough comes out of tension, of us saying
God show us what we don’t know
o
We must be those who know how to steward tension
·
If a reformation over-extends the reason it was
started it will run itself out
·
We were never called to be exclusive, we’re
called to be inclusive
·
Tension in balance is good and healthy
·
A great key for leading a congregation is not to
answer all of the congregations questions but to challenge them to seek God
directly for answers
o
If you become the one with all the answers,
sooner or later you’ll come across an answer you don’t quite know the answer to
and you’ll be pressured to come up with one
·
The prayer for “more” is the prayer of tension
that doesn’t settle for what is
·
Ezekiel 47 – the river is a picture of the
Kingdom that keeps on going from glory to glory
·
Rivers and lakes have tension, swamps do not
because they have no tension between inflow and outflow
WEEK #9
Monday, October 28th
Speaker – Gabe Valenzuela:
·
In this school, we realize and operate under the
reality that your spirit catches so much more than your brain does
·
There is a unique distinction between conviction
and condemnation
o Conviction
is from Holy Spirit, condemnation is from the enemy
o Conviction
happens when you are not doing the thing that you’re not supposed to do
o Conviction
goes away when you actually change
o Condemnation
says no matter what you do or try, it’s not enough
·
There is
freedom in process, but process should make progress
o As
long as you keep moving forward while in process, you continue to step more
into freedom
o Whatever
level you’re at, you’re being called to a new one – not an issue of comparison,
but of moving forward
o There is freedom in process, but the
process should make progress – your progress should look like growth, and your
growth should look like maturity
o We’re
not looking for the amount of freedom that says ‘I can do whatever I want’
o Maturity
requires discipline
o In
freedom we’re walking in grace, and grace isn’t a free for all, it calls you to
a higher standard
·
As leaders we want to do our very best to lead
you, but as a class we also have to go places together
·
“Who will ascend the hill of the Lord? The one
with clean hands and a pure heart”
·
Where are
we headed? We’re going up the mountain
o Exodus
19:2
o As
a class right now, we are camped in front of the mountain, but we’re headed to
the top
o Right
now, the Lord is saying to us COME HERE
o This
year is going to be defined by tension – this whole year
§
Maturity is marked by tension
o This
isn’t about ‘do we love Jesus,’ ‘am I a good Christian,’ ‘does the Lord like
me’ or ‘do I like the Lord’
o Right
now we’re camped at the foot of the mountain looking up, and God is calling us
up
o The great thing about God is the choice is
always yours, it’s always up to you
o It’s
not about being a believer, it’s really about seeing the face of God
o God
can visit you anywhere He wants to visit you, but He is calling you to come to
where He is
§
Most of the time, God comes to where we are, but
there are moments when God calls us to where He is
o The
question for us as a class is are we going to go where He is
o Psalm
121 – I will life my eyes up to the mountain… my help comes from the Lord
o How
do we get to the top of the mountain? We head up
§
The journey is different than you think
§
Perspective is often skewed at the bottom of the
mountain – it looks like it’s right there, but it’s actually miles away
§
At first it’s easy going and beautiful, but then
you run into steep inclines, boulders and ravines – it gets hard
§
It’s not so hard that we’ll never get there, but
we’re going to have to work a little bit to get where He has for us to go this
year
o OUR
GOAL FOR THIS YEAR – DON’T GET DISCOURAGED
§
When you get lost, put your head down, figure
out which way is up, and head that direction
§
You’re in school together, there is hope
§
You don’t have to climb that mountain by
yourself
§
No one gets left at the bottom – we all go
together
§
RULE #1 – DO NOT GET DISCOURAGED
§
At some point you’ll reach places you could stay
put and be totally fine, but the goal is the top
§
The pace this year is endurance – it’s not about
how fast you travel, it’s that you keep moving and don’t stop
§
Some in this group are going to be leaders who
stop, turn around, and lend others a hand up
§
Some in this group will need a hand up, and it’s
key that you call out for a helping hand
§
At the top of the mountain is His presence, but
in His presence is the fullness of joy
·
What you sow in tears, you reap in joy
·
Tears aren’t the goal, the goal is joy
·
You can endure anything because of the joy that
is set before you
o WE
ARE NOT GOING AFTER ‘FUN’ – we’re going after joy, not fun
§
There is a unique difference between joy and fun
·
Fun is momentary, joy is lasting
·
The Kingdom is not eating or drinking (i.e. fun)
·
Fun is
sought out, joy is an outcome of your perspective on life (James 1:2)
o When you’re short on joy, check your
perspective on life
·
Fun is what you have, joy is what you can be
(Gal. 5:22)
·
Fun can be taken away, but joy can never be
taken from you (John 16:20)
·
Fun can be had, but joy can be given (Psalm
45:7, Hebrews 1:9)
o God
can give you the oil of joy, and you can give that away to others
§
We’re are going to do a lot of work this year
because we’re birthing something together, and what you give birth to can never
be taken from you
o In
the process, we must maintain our joy – the reason we’re going up there is to
be with Him, and with Him there is fullness of joy
Tuesday, October 29th
Prophetic word from RG intern – see you as a rocket chained
to the ground, getting ready for take-off. I feel like God is saying to not
waste your time trying to break the chains before takeoff, simply focus on
taking off and the chains will break in the process of takeoff.
Prophetic word from RGP – I feel like God showed me that
what you came here for isn’t even close to what you’re going to leave here
with.
Speaker – Eric Johnson: Inheritance
·
An inheritance is basically something that
you’ve been given for free that didn’t cost you anything
·
There are parts of the Kingdom that we inherit,
then there’s part of the Kingdom we have to pay a price for
·
Any time you study revival history, most moves
of God have lasted roughly only 2 to 4 years
o As
a result, many people have reached the conclusion that God likes to work only
in short spans of time
o We
also approach revival in such a manner that we’re preparing for it to end
before it really even gets going – “I need to hurry up and get all I can from
God while I can”
o We
are famous for gorging ourselves whenever God shows up
o This
creates a foundation of fear, and nothing that lasts can be built on fear
·
We have to learn how to practically manage and
steward the moves of God
o We
tend to error on the side of excess when it comes to trying to steward the
things of God
o Most
in history who did not steward the things of God out of a place of faith found
themselves a wreck spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically at the end
of their life
o If
you pay a heavy price in a season, make sure you make up for that in a season
of rest somewhere along the line
o There’s
a fallacy in the Body that says you just keep your head down and keep moving
forward no matter what – not true when the season you’re coming into is one of
REST
o God
schedules seasons of rest for your life, but if you won’t take them you won’t
reap the benefits
·
When it comes to stewarding inheritance, who are
own parents are plays a significant role
o No
one is excused from the responsibility to steward their inheritance
o Since
you’ve been grafted into God’s family, you now have access to resources you
didn’t have access to before
·
Luke 15:11
o Most
of us can identify with the older brother in some way
o “Son,
you are always with me, and all that I
have is yours”
§
The older brother never understood what he had
access to
§
As a result, he was never able to enjoy living
in his inheritance because he didn’t realize that everything his father had was
his
o Everything
our Father has is ours
o You
must start on the foundation that everything God has actually belongs to you
now
§
If you start somewhere else, you’ll create a
Gospel and a God that matches your life
·
As a believer, you now have access to things you
didn’t have access to before
o Many
people live performance-based lives to prove that they’re worth the inheritance
they’ve been given
o Others
will live independence-based lives and completely reject their inheritance to
prove they don’t need it
o Then
there are people who don’t work for it, they just show up and get everything
for free
§
A lot of people don’t like that approach, but
that’s how the Kingdom works!
·
DO NOT
EVER NEGLECT AN INHERITANCE BECAUSE OF AN IDENTITY ISSUE
o When
you neglect an inheritance and reject it, you have to go all the way back to
square one and now you have to pay a price for what you were entitled to for
free because of inheritance
o This
is what has happened in the church throughout revival history – the next
generation wasn’t taught how to steward the inheritance that the fathers of
revival paid a price for, as a result the church has to go all the way back to
the beginning and start over
o Most
of the things we’re learning was actually intended to be possessed and
stewarded by the church generations ago, but the inheritance that was available
was dropped and lost
o Inheritance does not mean retirement – if
you’re concerned about getting an inheritance for free, don’t worry you’ll get
to pay a price for another piece of property to pass onto the next generation
o God’s
nature is to start something and to see it continue
o The
fact that God has mentioned these things to us means that we have been enabled
to possess it and walk in it
·
If you
think that inheritance is all about you, the you have missed the entire point
o Inheritance
is all about what we steward and pass on to the next generations
o The
great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1) cheering us on in Hebrews is watching us
steward things today that they helped pay the price for
o What
you do today actually extends grace, covering and favor to future generations
that you’ll never see
·
We must create a culture of inheritance where
it’s legal and permissible for people to receive things for free
o You
must be willing to celebrate other people’s successes
o It’s really easy to honor and celebrate a
special guest, but can you honor and celebrate the person you’re most familiar
with?
§
This is
where building a culture of inheritance begins
o The
same spirit that killed Jesus is the same spirit that cannot celebrate people
o If
you do not learn that now, it will lead you down a path where you will destroy that
person if necessary
o We
must choose to celebrate what God is doing in people’s lives – especially when
you’ve been pressing in so hard for that same breakthrough
§
You must come to a place where you’re okay if it
never comes to you and still be willing to celebrate what God is doing in them
·
The issue isn’t whether or not offense comes,
but what you do once it arrives
o Familiarity
breeds doubt and heresy
o You
build a foundation for inheritance by celebrating what God is doing in other
people’s lives
o If
you didn’t come from a good family background, then you have an opportunity
that no one else has – you have the chance to break the cycle and establish an
inheritance for your descendants
§
“Son, you’re free to do what you want. What are
you passionate about?”
·
You aren’t allowed to apologize for anything you
get for free in the Kingdom
o It’s
illegal to tell God He’s given you enough and you don’t need anymore
o Most
people accept gifts/favor/blessings according to what they think they need
o God’s
system isn’t designed to get you to the break-even point, that’s just the
starting point
o Inheritance
isn’t retirement, it’s responsibility
·
Matthew 6:8-11
o Don’t
ask God for the things you need for He already knows that you need them
o Go
on an experiment – don’t ask for anything you need from God for the next few
weeks or months and see what happens
§
That first week, you might find that you have
nothing to pray about
§
For most of us, the majority of our prayer life
is based on our needs
§
As a result, the bulk of our relationship with
God is 100% about us, completely selfish
§
What starts as an experiment may result in a
lifestyle – learning to live in the realm of abundance
§
It’s impossible to give something that you don’t
actually have
§
Living in the realm of abundance gives us
authority and puts us in a position to distribute what God entrusts to us
§
LET US NEVER REDUCE PROSPERITY TO MONEY
o Let
us never limit God’s ability to bless us only according to our needs
o You
don’t have permission to determine how much you get from God – PERIOD
§
You just stand under the shower of His goodness,
deal with the awkwardness and discomfort, and simply let Him bless you in
abundance
o One of the greatest challenges of
inheritance is to gain a value for something that you didn’t pay the price for
·
Some people don’t like looking at their history
because they’re ashamed/not proud of it
o Turn
around and look at your history (physical & spiritual)
o The
more familiar you are with your history, the more clearly you’ll see where
you’re headed
o You
need to learn to differentiate between what part of your inheritance is meant
for you yourself, and what part of your inheritance is meant for you to pass on
to others
·
Whenever you receive favor, learn to extend it
o It
will enhance and expand your capacity to receive more
Wednesday, October 30th
Speaker – Beni Johnson:
·
Word for the 2nd Year Class:
o The
distraction that came was a necessary one, but you’re past it now
o This
is not about you, come back to the focus
o God
is lining things up, He has the whole world in His hands
·
There are times when you need God to speak to
you one-on-one and He’s right there available to you
o You
must find your peace because when you get anxious, neither you nor He work well
in anxiety
·
We are in very strategic times
·
Be a friend of God and you’ll know the times
& seasons of what’s going on
·
Research the Masonic Temples and pray
strategically
·
Wakey-wakey story
·
Things don’t have to align perfectly with your
theology before you can obey God
·
When we
adore/worship/soak before the Lord, we become connected to heaven – you never
know what can happen after that
·
God shows us a strategy, but He is also capable
of interrupting our plan and showing us a bunch of other things too
·
I love the “coincidences” of God – they just
makes this fun
o If
you aren’t having fun, you’re not doing this right
o There
may be seasons of struggle, but the lifestyle is one of fun/joy
·
We don’t worship angels, we worship Jesus – but
we shouldn’t be ignoring His angelic hosts
·
God is sending angels to set everything up –
like getting ducks in a row
o We’ve
been praying for years for heaven to come to earth – not just miracles
o The
wall between heaven and earth is getting thinner and thinner, so watch for
things to increase
·
God told Bobby Connor – there is a great evil on
the earth and it is polluting people’s minds
o They’re
causing drug lords and other evil people do horrendous things
o But
a time’s coming, and when those angels bring their wings down, the evil will be
annihilated
·
There are two sides to the prophetic – you can
take the optimistic side or the pessimistic side
o We
have a choice to make regarding which side we will choose
·
This is a season of open doors – there have been
doors that have been shut up, and you’ve been wondering why they haven’t opened
yet, but they are now opening
o Be
prepared for the open doors – look around and be ready
o Step
outside the door and see the possibilities, the way Abraham stepped outside to
look at the stars of the sky
·
You may think that your prayers are silly,
but God does not
o We live in a strategic time – petition is
good, but move into declarations
o Go
deeper in, worship before Him, adore Him, to lay before Him, AND NOT ASK FOR
ANYTHING, but simply ENJOY HIM
o You
don’t have time for these regrets (like the song How He Loves), so GET OVER IT!
§
If you’ve addressed it and fixed it then move on
from it because God HAS STUFF FOR YOU TO DO
·
When you first come together as a group, start
with soaking because it will bring you to a place where you’re all on the same
page
o If
the intercessors are on the same page with the heart of heaven, it shouldn’t
take long to start hitting home with your prayers
·
We don’t ignore the things we see that God is
showing us because we’ve taken ownership – we’ll pray it down, pray the
opposite, and lean in / wait on God for direction on how to partner with Him in
what He’s doing
o Always
be asking God what He’s doing
·
You know that you aren’t having fun when there’s
a lot of stress involved (striving, feels like work) rather than being fun
(pressing in)
o Where
did you lose your peace? Go back and find it and start again, you have to find
out what God is doing
o PRACTICE
MAKES PERFECT – it’s a process/journey, not an event
·
Look back into your lineage and heritage, and
call wakey-wakey to the angels assigned to your lineage
·
You must learn to step away from the intense
times of intercession into rest – there’s a season for everything
·
You don’t engage principalities / powers
directly, go and declare what God is doing, and release what the Father is
doing or is about to do
·
Bless the people involve, read Scriptures the
Lord has given to you, and perform whatever prophetic act(s) He’s given you to
do
·
Don’t try to conjure anything up – you want to
use your gift when God is asking you to use your gift
·
The best way to tap into the supernatural is to
soak
·
You have to be really sensitive when you start
researching the occult – you have to know when to stop, you’ll know it’s time
to stop when you start feeling the weight of it on you
o Always
be cautious/sensitive to what God is saying about it
·
It is essential that you are asking God what you
are supposed to do
o Go
home, release everything you can, and just love on people
o Don’t
get stressed about it or try to change anyone, just love them well
·
Rather than boss angels around, ask Holy Spirit
to release them, that way they are dispatched according to God’s design, not
ours
·
You can experience angels in all different kinds
of ways, you will probably sense them more than you see them, but they are not
always in angel form
·
If your kids are strong feelers / perceivers,
they can come across as being very strong willed because they are feeling
things, but the circumstances aren’t going in line with what they’re feeling
o Talk
to them about their gift – Did you see any angels today? How did you feel when
that happened?
o Teach
them to pray and how to let go their prayer burdens and trust Jesus to take
care of it
·
Breakthrough doesn’t usually come while fasting,
but after the fast is over
o Fast
when God speaks to you, not just as a religious practice
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