Archive for the 'Carl's Writings' Category

Railing Against the Prophetic Again

Published
by
carl
on March 11, 2008
in Carl's Writings, Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Prophetic and Revival
. 6 Comments

One of my disciples asked me the other day about a “national prophet” that had given a specific prophecy regarding a rapper that did not come to pass.  He questioned how this national prophet could have been so wrong.

I restated the question asking how people who are wrong so often are regarded as national prophets.  The prophetic ministry in America has a serious lack of oversight and accountability.   I have remarked in the past about the abundance of homosexual sin in the prophetic movement and I truly believe there is a link here.

I personally know less than a handful of people that I would consider prophets.  I see lots of people who consider themselves prophets but I think the fruit does not bear witness.  If we are going to be a New Testament church, we have to use the New Testament as the measuring stick.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Ephesians that the five-fold ministry was for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.  For too long we call people who prophesy real good prophets.  I do not believe that is the case.  You can have a deep and strong gift of prophecy without being in the office of prophet.   And just because you can’t tell who is calling without looking at the caller id and you don’t see the voice of the Lord in ever headline out of Jerusalem does not mean you are not a prophet.

I take the call of the prophet to come from Jeremiah 1:10

See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant.”

And I think that this is the test of a prophetic ministry.  IT would seem that the test of a prophetic ministry these days lies in the ability  to tell the head of a church you are visiting how much God favors your church over the one down the street and how special that pastor is.

Do prophets prophecy?  Of course they do.  Does a person in the office of prophet get it wrong now and then?  Of course they do.  Not every pastor give the perfect counsel every time.  Sometimes the evangelist gets it wrong when witnessing.  Sometimes the teacher doesn’t fully understand a scripture.

But the pastor is held accountable for bad counsel.   The teacher is held accountable for false teaching.  The evangelist is held accountable for bad doctrine.  So too the church must not be so enamored with the prophetic to keep from demanding accountability for those who minister the “Word of the Lord.”

Prophets, by the nature of their call, should be more open to confrontational accountability and should demand more from the Church then we are seeing.

Popularity: 25% [?]

Improving Communication

Published
by
carl
on August 17, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Websites and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

Nothing spiritual here. Just some advise from a tech guy.

Can your readers contact you? You would not believe the people you will come into contact with through your blog. If there is no way to contact you, you can’t believe it because you won’t come into contact with them. Get a contact form. Here is the one I use. I am simply amazed at the number of blogs that give you no way to contact the author. It is a sure fire way to tell the readers that you are here to talk and they are there to listen. No conversation desired.

If you are new to blogging and wonder why nobody ever comments on your blog make sure they are able to. Do you require people to register to leave a comment? Unless you are running the New York Times (who by the way does not require registration to comment) this is not going to happen. If you had a contact form I would have sent you a note telling you to turn off the “require commentors to register” feature, but you didn’t have one.

And for those of you that maintain a church website: Is the location of your church clearly spelled out on an easy to find page? Nothing demonstrates small vision like having a map of your church that says “we are on the corner of Johnson and Peach.” What you are telling the world is, “If you don’t know this intersection, you would not be interested in our church.” There have been church sites that I went to that I could not even determine what country they are in. At the very least your church contact page (please tell me you at least have that) should have the address of the church, a phone number, and a contact email address.

—————-
Now playing: Lecrae - After The Music Stops

Popularity: 31% [?]

Where are the Apostles and Prophets?

Published
by
carl
on August 8, 2007
in Asemblies of God, Carl's Writings, Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit and Revival
. 21 Comments

This is the post I do not want to write.

The Assemblies of God is having its convention this week and they will elect a new General Superintendent. The only reason this is a big deal is because so many people think this will have a great effect on the direction of the AG.

Follow me here.

The Assemblies was born in revival as people were kicked out of their congregations for receiving the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Others formed new congregations that were on fire and sought fellowship with like-minded ministries. From the AG website:

A cooperative fellowship emerged from the meeting and was incorporated under the name “The General Council of the Assemblies of God.” Most of the delegates had little desire to form a new denomination or sect, and they structured their organization to unite the assemblies in ministry and legal identity while leaving each congregation self-governing and self-supporting. This structure continues to the present.

While it is true that the structure continues to the present, the need for the structure and the desire of the delegates has strayed far off of that original path.

You want to know the definition of a “Spirit-Filled” church today? Loud music and a little tongues. That is it. The Spirit may come in worship but He better leave in time for the welcome and announcements because we are moving the service along.

I wonder what would happen if a church could not call itself Pentecostal unless the Apostles and Prophets came and tested the meetings against Pentecost and discerned whether or not the same Spirit that fell on Pentecost was at work in the service.

Ooops, I forgot, the AG does not believe in Apostles and Prophets anymore. In fact they have a whole position paper on it. No, today the AG has senior pastors and missionary evangelists. The other terms might offend somebody. And they might actually carry the anointing that comes with the office.

No, we are happy to hear Bible stories of miracles and declarations that we will see them again but we do not want to take any risks and declare “And we are going to wait until it happens today.” And we certainly are not going to call a fast to hurry its coming.

I read lots of comments in blogs where people pray that God send revival to the AG. Have you forgotten Brownsville? God did send revival. The denomination got itself wedged into the middle and the thing and caused a series of splits in the congregation.

The move in Toronto that was mocked by many AG people still has all the key players on staff a dozen years later. The real difference? Toronto recognized that God was doing something new, left their denomination and started a new move. Brownsville tried to make the move of God fit into a denominational structure. God was merciful and touched many lives but the effect is still there. Toronto has a convention center that is paid for and all their staff either in tact or sent out with blessing to start a new work while Brownsville is strapped with debt and the wounds from the splits.

I know this is a wandering, meandering train of thought but an important point here: The AG of today lacks focus and has sought expansion at the cost of its founding mission: revival. I read Mark Batterson’s blog every day and I love what his church is doing but there is no connection between his fellowship and Brownsville, or Azuza, or Pentecost for that matter.

What does the AG need? Decentralization. Right now, churches operate within the structure of the organization. The national structure needs to be cut back to the point of only supporting missionaries. Tell the congregations to seek the Lord as to the direction He is leading and then come back in 10 years to see what structure is needed. Determine that religious spirits will be cast out of the fellowship and declare that we are moving forward in revival. Partner with what Bill Johnson, Randy Clark, Che Ahn and others are doing.

Get a fresh move of God. Open the door to let congregations that really just want to be a slightly more spiritual then Calvary Chapel to leave. Rebuild a fellowship of churches that want revival and move on in that path.

In the end, the AG needs to decide if it wants to be a cooperative fellowship of ministries born in the fire of the Holy Ghost or just the new Methodists.

I will pray for this convention. But my prayer is not for the right leader, it is for purpose.

edit:  I wanted to add that this is in no way an indictment of all AG churches.  I was speaking about the denomination and its direction.  I attend an AG church and I do not hesitate to recommend it to those seeking a church.  Simply being a part of the AG is not wrong and in fact there is much good in the denomination.

—————-
Now playing: Jeff Deyo - Bless the Lord (Featuring Rita Springer)

Popularity: 44% [?]

Taking a Blog Break

Published
by
carl
on June 17, 2007
in Carl's Writings
. 4 Comments

The family and i will be in Orlando for a few days.  Tonight, I am in the “business center” at the hotel.  I am surrounded with kids on myspace.  All the computers were taken. 

Since I am in youth ministry I just said, “One of you ned to get off the computer so I can work.”  and one promptly did.  Surely they knew I was about to smite them.  :)

Tomorrow I will visit Disney world and move to a different hotel.  Hopefuly one that has something better than WiFi in the rooms.  It never works for me.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Tips for My Blogging Brothers

Published
by
carl
on June 15, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Websites and Wordpress
. 0 Comments

I have been blogging for a couple of years now and have been reading other blogs for about the same amount of time. I have just shy of 20 web sites including a few blogs. In this time I have learned a few things that I would like to share to my fellow blogging faithful. If are about to start blogging, this list will be invaluable to you.

I will start with a few things to remember:

Free is not always the best - Now you already know this to be true but so many bloggers start out cheap and never move on to better blogging platforms because they think they are stuck with what they have. How many of you never switched versions of the Bible because you already have so much KJV memorized? This is no different.

One caveat to this is WordPress. I believe this is the best blogging platform and it is free.

Cheap may indeed be the best - There are web hosting packages out there that are close to nothing. They will give you great service for next to nothing.

Expensive is a rip off - Small companies cannot compete with the super hosts. They are great for design and control of a web site but this is unnecessary with a blog.

Step by step guide to starting your blog and becoming famous for your writing.

Get a domain name - Sure, you can do a blog without one but for less than $10 why would you do that?

Even if you use Blogger’s free service, one day you are going to grow out of that and your readers will not have to learn a new address if they always went to Your ReallyDeepThinkingBlog.com instead of thinkingblog.blogspot.com with a note to go to the new address. Most people use Godaddy.com but they have pretty racy commercials. Netfirms.com has a special where you can get a domain for $4.95 for the first year and privacy protection is free. I have a dozen domains registered there.

Get hosting - Websites are kept on computers called hosting servers. When you get a website, you rent space on these servers. The great thing about this is that you can host as many domains as you want. Dreamhost.com will give you an unbelievable amount of space and bandwidth for less than $10 a month. They will even pay for you domain registration. On top of that, if you decide to have more websites, one for your kids soccer team, one for your work, one for your ministry, you can add them on your account for free!

Tips for the Blogger faithful - If you still want to go free try wordpress.com. You can get used to wordpress while still having free blogging. If you are determined to use blogger, please observe these bits of advise:

  1. Turn off pop-up comments. Yeah, I know it seems cool. But you can’t track comments with co.comments and often, the window is so small that you can’t use it in Firefox. These are two really annoying features.
  2. Get a domain name. If you are even mildly serious about blogging, spend the $10 and get a domain name.
  3. Get a custom layout. With this, you can drop the blogger bar at the top of the page. This is vital.

Now, if you have followed this advise, write some good stuff and watch the world take notice!

Popularity: 34% [?]

Spurgeon was a Old Earth Creationist

Published
by
carl
on June 13, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Christianity, Creationism and Doctrine
. 6 Comments

Can I be honest? I am not convinced that the earth is only 6,000 years old.

WAIT! Put down the stones! I am a creationist! Evolution is a lie. To believe in evolution is to believe that we did not evolve from a monkey but a rock. This is complete nonsense. However, I am still not sure that the earth was part of the six day creation story.

Genesis 1:1

1:1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The earth has been around since the beginning. Nevertheless, I can see how many believe that time began with the creation of the earth.

I was doing a little research yesterday when I ran across a Spureon sermon titled “The Power of the Holy Ghost.”

In the 2d verse of the first chapter of Genesis, we read, “And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” We know not how remote the period of the creation of this globe may be—certainly many millions of years before the time of Adam. Our planet has passed through various stages of existence, and different kinds of creatures have lived on its surface, all of which have been fashioned by God. But before that era came, wherein man should be its principal tenant and monarch, the Creator gave up the world to confusion. He allowed the inward fires to burst up from beneath, and melt all the solid matter, so that all kinds of substances were commingled in one vast mass of disorder. The only name you could give to the world, then, was that it was a chaotic mass of matter; what it should be, you could not guess or define. It was entirely “without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The Spirit came, and stretching his broad wings, bade the darkness disperse, and as he moved over it, all the different portions of matter came into their places, and it was no longer “without form, and void;” but became round, like its sister planets, and moved, singing the high praises of God—not discordantly, as it had done before, but as one great note in the vast scale of creation. Milton very beautifully describes this work of the Spirit, in thus bringing order out of confusion, when the King of Glory, in his powerful Word and Spirit, came to create new worlds:—

“On heavenly ground they stood; and from the shore
They viewed the vast, immeasurable abyss,
Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild,
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds
And surging waves, as mountains, to assault
Heaven’s height, and with the centre mix the pole.

“Silence, ye troubled waves, and thou deep, peace,
Said then the Omnific Word; your discord end.
Then on the watery calm,
His brooding wings the Spirit of God outspread
And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass.”

This you see, then, is the power of the Spirit. Could we have seen that earth all in confusion, we should have said, “Who can make a world out of this?” The answer would have been, “The power of the Spirit can do it. By the simple spreading of his dove-like wings, he can make all the things come together. Upon that there shall be order where there was naught but confusion.”

Popularity: 29% [?]

Youth Service Engulfed by Angelic Activity

Published
by
carl
on June 12, 2007
in Angels, Carl's Writings, Healing, Holy Spirit, Prophetic, Tongues and interpretation, ministry and visions
. 4 Comments

Of the ten people who read this blog and leave comments, nine have greater ministries than I do. I of course am the tenth reader. Because of this, I have not written about the things I see in ministry that are supposed to be part of the average Christian life.

I have been convicted about that and will write more about the mundane things that I see regarding healings, visions, dreams, tongues and interpretation, angelic encounters and all things prophetic.

Some day someone may google, “Youth service engulfed by angelic activity” wanting to know if that has happened to anyone else and if I don’t write about it, who will?

So here is the first.

I had a word of knowledge in the middle of my friday night meeting that the Lord was releasing angels in the room. After the meeting a guy got off the floor and told me that right as I was saying that he saw a flood of angels. Right after that the room kind of exploded. It was as if the youth service was engulfed in angelic activity.

Great meeting.

btw. . . I also do search engine marketing and I can’t wait to see how long it will take to get this post to number one in google for “Youth service engulfed by angelic activity.”

Popularity: 41% [?]

I Admit it, You are Better Than Me

Published
by
carl
on June 4, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Funeral and Preaching
. 2 Comments

I know a bunch of you out there have active ministries and active lives and manage to post to your blogs regularly.  You are better than me.  But lately it has been really hectic for me.

I preach at an outreach every Tuesday and preach a service every Friday.   I have done a wedding each of the past two weeks and will preach an additional time Wednesday night of this week.  And don’t forget I don’t preach for a living.  I have to hustle to make ends meet through secular employment.

But this week on top of trying to work to support my family and before preaching Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, I have to do my first funeral tomorrow.  Doing the funeral is no big deal except the person was not saved.  And nobody in the family is saved (except maybe the chain smoking lady who is married to the ex-husband of the deceased).  Oh, and I did not know her, or her family.

When I talked to the family they said things like, “She was really stubborn.”  and “she was a complete narcissist.”   Not exactly memories of comfort to pepper your sermon with.

So if you are less busy than me, please pray that I get some level of wisdom for this funeral.

And if you happen to have a funeral sermon on your desk that is suitable for a stubborn narcissist that did not know the Lord that I could deliver to a room full of people who have no faith in the Scriptures would you mind emailing it to revivalblog@gmail.com?

Thanks

Popularity: 28% [?]

Comcast is not that Great

Published
by
carl
on June 2, 2007
in Carl's Writings
. 0 Comments

Sorry about the lack of posting.  My Comcast High Speed Internet was down for a week.

Really not good if you work on the internet.

Popularity: 19% [?]

Homosexuality and the Prophetic

Published
by
carl
on April 23, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Christianity and Prophetic
. 8 Comments

I may be way off base here but I have to ask.

What is the connection between homosexuality and the prophetic?

Besides the “outing” of the senior prophetic minister last year, I know of more than one prophetic minister that I swear is gay.   I do not know of any sexual immorality or I would have called them out by name.  But the overtly effeminate speech and dress coupled with the manorisms and hair styles are too much for me.

There was a time that I thought the problem was me.  I would see something and rebuke myself for thinking a certain way.  Now I am just calling out the obvious.  I get creeped out when I hear them teach or see them sache’ across the platform.

I am not hateful.  I am not a homophobe.  I have sin just like the next guy.  But I see this pattern and I am trying to figure it out.

Has anyone else seen this?  And why is this happening?

Popularity: 40% [?]

More Changes . . . And an Explanation

Published
by
carl
on February 21, 2007
in Carl's Writings, Christianity and Wordpress
. 4 Comments

Ok, so here is the deal. A couple months ago I was preparing to move into full time ministry. My job ended, we put our house on the market and told the youth we were leaving. Around the same time God gave me an idea for a web business.

That was almost four months ago.

Since that time I have preached my “last message” a half dozen times. The house is no closer to being sold. My ministry has flourished like never before and my web business exploded. Here is an example:

graph_summary_barchart-php.png

These are the webstats of one site I build in the last six months (click for larger view). I have seen a small discipleship group that I started for a few teen boys grow into a Friday night revival service attended by 20 or so, and I have seen the youth that I disciple begin to really be used by God to win their friends to Christ, minister under the power of the Holy Ghost, choose righteousness and be a light to their circle of influence. I have had no less than three of them ask me what to do when their job is threatened because of their winning coworkers to Christ.

This is all great. I find it extremely fulfilling but my mortgage company does not. Same is true of the electric company, the homeowners association, Chrysler financial, student loans, well, you get the point.

So I have been lax in posting here because I have been consumed with my online business and ministry.

There is lots going on and much to report. I try to skim all of your blogs and even rarely post a comment.

Please continue to pray that something will happen soon to bring some sense of stability.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Religion in the South

Published
by
carl
on January 9, 2007
in Carl's Writings
. 1 Comment

First this

Then this:

I have to admit, I stayed up and watched the game. I taught my kids all the Florida cheers during supper. I rooted a little too loudly. I read all the post game articles including the Washington post which had this quip I liked,

And the Big Ten? What a sorry finish for that conference. First, Michigan has its clock cleaned by USC in the Rose Bowl. Now Ohio State is taken to the woodshed in less than two quarters by an underdog from the Southeastern Conference. The Wolverines and Buckeyes deserve a rematch, all right — to see who is No. 4.

When I was going to UF I was amazed at how Florida Football is a religion in the south. I met people who owned homes in Gainesville and only used them on football weekends. After a loss you could feel a funk fall over the town. I imagine it was similar to the day when Baal did not show up for the prophets (before they were killed of course. That must have felt much worse). The loss would almost always be part of the message the next day in church (something I absolutely could not stand).
Conversely, after a big win it was like something else. Picture a frat party that encompasses several square miles converging on mardi gras in the middle of Gomorrah. You get the picture.
Anyway. We all know these schools make a ton of money off of these programs which leads me to the question,

Can I get a break on my student loans?

Popularity: 14% [?]