JOEL 2 GENERATION

In one of the darkest places, there is an incredible light growing - the light of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am seeing articles almost every week about the growth of the Church in Iran.  I am sent reports. I know Iranians who have come to Christ and they tell me their stories.  There is arguably no movement to Christ in the Muslim world since the beginning of Islam like what has been happening in the past few decades amongst Iranians. Here is yet another article I have just seen.  Incredible - Iranians reaching Iranians!  Former Muslims reaching out to Muslims. The most effective evangelists being the most effective! https://www.christianpost.com/news/muslim-convert-on-miraculous-ways-god-is-radically-transforming-iran-despite-persecution.html And I have seen in recent years that my podcast gets listened to regularly and downloaded from inside Iran!  Even yesterday's podcast was downloaded 10 times in one Iranian city in less than 24 hours....

I saw an article today on Charisma magazine’s website entitled "God's Assignment for You During the COVID-19 Crisis" from a well-known charismatic Christian website wherein the author boldly states that... “ God’s assignment is for you to be in your home , using your social distancing, and washing your hands.”   I’ll say this up front – this author was/is 100% WRONG! No, this was/is NOT “God’s assignment” for any of His people! That's funny (especially coming from Charismatic Christian source that talks all the time about healing and the miraculous!) because God spoke to our community that we were to BE GOING OUT OF OUR HOMES and to be ministering to people who were/are gripped with fear, to pray for their protection and to share God's truth with them. And He has confirmed this mandate for us over and over again since this pandemic began. So that is exactly what we have done for 2 weeks now! And as long as we are allowed to go out of our homes, which has been ...

What else is there to do?  Seriously!? We had to get out of the house and go and find people to love, to pray with, to share with, etc. Even after yesterday where there were over 100 people who our community got to pray with my thought this morning was, "WHO ELSE CAN WE REACH OUT TO???" So we headed out and in less than an hour, the Lord opened doors for us to pray with another 20 people or so - in coffee shops and in a huge supermarket. We began our adventure today in a Costa Coffee shop where we got to pray with two Filipino employees - they were in total agreement, "So Be It Lord", they repeated over and over! Later in the supermarket, the first two men we encountered were Egyptian Muslims - they were so appreciative as we began to speak about God's protection at this time, that they gave us free samples and chocolates! One gave me his number and I told him I would be sending him Psalm 91 IN ARABIC and other resources. Another woman from Sri Lank...

I believe God is speaking to His Church right now in many ways, emphasizing certain Biblical teachings/truths. We have all been hearing many of the same messages/emphases: "Do NOT fear" "Have faith" ("Believe", "Trust", etc. - "Focus on God's promises") "Draw near to me" (intimacy) "Fast and Pray" "Preach the Gospel" ("Share the hope that is within you..." "Go into all the world" ("Reach out to people") "_______________" (fill in the blank, etc. etc.) But if we are listening, Jesus is also telling us to REPENT. Jesus would often say, "to those who have ears to hear, let them hear". He knew all-too-well that many do not have ears to hear. They refuse to listen. They would rather listen to Christian teachers who are giving them "what their itching ears want to hear" (2 Tim 4:4) Jesus, speaking to the Church in Laodicea, said this (and IS SAYIN...

Today 11 from our church community got into 4 different vehicles and in about 2 hours we were able to pray with/for more than 100 people all over this Muslim nation. We truly became a "Church on wheels" and from restaurants, to coffee shops, to security guards, to individuals we drove by, we were able to "extinguish fear", and pray for peace, protection, provision, healing and anything else that people needed/wanted. We prayed for Christians, for Muslims, for Buddhists and for Hindus. From many different nations - from Asia to Africa.  We prayed in English, Arabic and even in Tamil and Hindi as our community has speakers of many different languages! It was our multinational, global Body of Christ reaching into a multinational, global context. There are too many stories to share but as I get the more detailed reports I might be sharing some of them here. But overall people were incredibly grateful for the ministry they received. Even the non-Christians were of...

Today we tried something a little bit different.  I felt like yesterday in addition to praying for the things that we have been praying for, I would begin praying things like this, "Lord, we surrender our lives to you at this time, we ask you to forgive us and to fill us now with your Holy Spirit..." - of course, always praying clearly in the Name of Jesus. And in probably about a 30 minute period today, at 6 different restaurants we had the opportunity once again to pray for at least 30 people - from India, the Philipines, Bhutan and Egypt. At least those are the countries we were aware of.  Some we got to pray for one-on-one, and in once place once again the Lord opened a door to pray for about 12-15 all at once.  A couple of the women my wife prayed for were already committed Christians and she was able to connect them with each other. They worked in restaurants that were next to each other and didn't know that there were any other believers.  One who was n...

Jesus didn't just give His disciples a set of teachings; He modeled for them the way they can/should live as His followers. Sometimes we think a book or an article is enough (or a blog!?!?) to inspire others to live out their faith. And at this hour, to be FEAR Extinguishers. But, we have been doing quite a bit of modeling for others. It is a great idea to help others who are struggling with fear, but HOW we do it is just as important if we want people to run with the idea, to run with the mandate! Very practical things need to be considered and I have endeavored in this blog to share the questions that I ask, the prayers that I have prayed, the words that I am using, etc.  I have sought to demystify things - and most importantly to make people feel empowered and that they CAN DO IT! My heart, my passion is to see others doing this very thing. To see the multiplication of the Body of Christ in the country I am in, and all across the world doing just this in this hour. Th...