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)

For those looking for a theological discussion regarding the priesthood of the believer, you will be disappointed.

In the other churches I have been a part of, the ministers were ordained by the local church.  All the formal ministers were on staff.  There were never ministers that were not a part of the governmental structure of the church.

In my church, we have a mixture of pastors licensed by the denomination and another accrediting agency.  We even have a pastor that is not licensed.  He is called a staff pastor but could not perform a wedding.  This is a bit of an odd phenomenon.

But here is my question for you,

What benefit do you get from your credentialing authority other than meeting the legal and denominational requirements to minister?

I have ministerial credentials from Christian Ministries International Fellowship.  It is headed up by my pastor so it made sense to get licensed through them.  There is a monthly meeting that is available for fellowship and an annual conference.

We had The Mission Tuesday night as usual. But things are never usual at an urban outreach.

I preached on living a double life and how Jesus never changes. I gave a warning about playing in the anointing and then playing in the world. I felt the need to warn the people who come and minister and then lead a double life on the outside. The Mission has become their God time break and then they leave and go back to nonsense.

Don’t fool yourself. Randomly pick 10 on fire young people in your church and visit the pictures on their MySpace page. I guarantee you you will find near pornography on many of them.

I talked about how you can probably live a mildly Christian life and make it to heaven but if you want to be part of the end time harvest it is going to cost you something. And if you throw your hat into the ring and seek the anointing of God, and turn back to the world, the devil will be waiting. Choose wisely I told them.

The conviction fell and I invited all those making the choice for Jesus to come forward for prayer. Among them was a guy I will call Jimmy.

Jimmy had come off and on. He has a (fallen) angel that visits him at night. Sometimes it tells him that he is Jesus. Other times it tells him to do really bad things. I am not making this up. about a month and a half ago he came and ran out of the house at the altar call. I later found out that the angel had told him to come to the meeting, listen to the message, and then kill me and two other guys. After the message he left because he did not want to kill us. Thank you Jesus! This guy is about 6′4″ and over 300 lbs (135 kg, 21.4 stone).

I was happy he wanted prayer . . . for a minute.

When I began to pray he almost instantly began to manifest. He began to grunt and growl. He clenched his fists and tightened his jaw and began to snarl. His eyes turned blood red and he began to stare at me as if I was a lineman on the opposing team. Apparently I had stumbled onto something.

I began to command the demon to stop manifesting and to come out of the man but it would not budge. When the manifestations would increase I would rebuke the demon and tell it that it could not put on a show. I would then command it to leave until it began to increase the manifestations again. There was a minute when the people kind of gathered around, stopped worshiping, and began to stare in wonder. Fortunately my disciple let them to begin worshiping God who is the only one who can truly deliver.

I have found that one of the keys to deliverance ministry is to establish that the enemy has no authority in the person. I normally lead the person in a confession regarding the birth, life, death, resurrection, and the second coming of Jesus. After this I tell the demon that they have no authority and that it has to leave. Sometimes confession of specific sins is required or the renouncing of sin, but you get the idea.

So I say to this guy, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

He says, “Jesus is a lie.”

Huh? Maybe I heard him wrong, “Repeat after me, Jesus is alive.”

“Jesus is a lie.”

Wow, that sounded pretty clear that time. That was a new one for me. Not exactly knowing where to go from here I say, “Say - Jesus - IS - ALIIIIVVVEE.”

“Jesus … IS … A … LIIIIIEEEE.”

Hmmm. I was a communication major in college so I can make a sentence more than one way. You want to play games? I can play games.

“Say, Jesus lives.” HAH! Try to mess that one up! Got you devil!

He looks me dead in the eyes and says,

“I am alive.”

Wow! Wasn’t expecting that one. We are now on uncharted territory for Carl Thomas Ministries (if there were such a thing). I pulled the ole ace in the hole and the devil trumped me with a joker. But now I was stuck. This thing was like engaging a pitbull. You can’t just attack it for a minute or two and then walk away. One of you is going down. And every time this thing would manifest this spirit of fear would try to jump on me. And I knew if I let it take root that this guy would split my head open.

And I really did not want that to happen. I like my head just like it is.

So I decided that since Jimmy asked for ministry, that was all the authority I needed. I grabbed this guys head with both hands and began to command every demon in his life to leave. I normally don’t use that language because it is not necessary. I normally just declare freedom and the devil has to leave. But we were way beyond niceties.

I told the devil to get out of him and leave in the name of Jesus. Then Jimmy began to cough so hard I though I might see his liver. You might not believe this next part but I then saw all these demons standing around looking kind of bewildered like, “What happened?” It was almost funny.

I had someone open the front door and I told them, “Get out!”

Needless to say a real soberness came over the prayer time and several others were delivered that night.

The devil truly is defeated and has no authority in the believer. We can all agree with that, right? But does he have authority in my appliances?

The next day my washing machine completely died. It seems every time I have some sort of spiritual breakthrough, something breaks in my house. Once I had a really seasoned minister who has been mightily used in revival come to dinner. The garbage disposal decided to die as they showed up. I have lost my microwave in these times, my refrigerator, my car has broken down as has my van and various plumbing issues. These regularly happen when I see these types of things. This all leads me to believe that the devil does not mind me so much but he hats my appliances.

Coincidence? Maybe so. But it is annoying none the less.

Remember that old Steve Martin movie, The Jerk? “He hates these cans!”

I have told this story lots of times but have never set it to paper.

When I got saved, I really got saved. I was in my late 20s and had live a pretty wicked life. I had gotten out of the military a few years earlier and was in college. I went into a Charismatic church, got set free from the devil, and never looked back.

Within a year I was part of a rogue deliverance/healing ministry and saw all kinds of signs and wonders. We prayed for people all over the place and saw miracles in pizza places, hospitals, living rooms, and anywhere else you find people. I distinctly remember casting the devil out of a homeless man in the doorway to Winn Dixie before buying Swiss Cake Rolls to break a fast. (Oh the college years)

Within two years of getting free I was part of church plant team sent to south Florida. I was beginning to move in the prophetic in general and had a pretty keen word of knowledge. The church I helped plant was not a very healthy one but I was young in the Lord and I did not know any better. There was lots of judgment. I thought that was part of leadership. Maybe the leaders need to know the struggles of the people but this was something else. The church leadership I was a part of would gossip about people. If anyone left the church, all their dirty secrets would be laundered in an effort to discredit them and their criticism of the church.

Because of my critical spirit, almost all the prophetic words I got were filled with judgment. I spoke lots of words about repentance, sin issues, pride and rebellion.

As time went on our church became friendly with a man who lived in town who had spoken at Toronto. My pastor went there and got really blown away. Though he was not completely sold on what was going on, he knew God was in it somehow.

Several months later, Jeremy & Connie Sinnott, who were worship leaders at Toronto, were coming to a church in South Florida for what was billed as a worship conference. The congregation was odd to me but the presence of God was there and so I worshiped. On the second day of the conference, Jeremy and Connie were praying for some people so I was waiting for Jeremy (because I was a man and only men could minister to me). Eventually someone said to me that I should have Connie pray for me because she has a real anointing.

I went to her and she ministered to me what I now know to be the Father€™s love. She spoke some words, laid hands on my chest, and I literally began to feel hot liquid flow into my heart. I could only cry. When she was done I could not even talk. I told someone that it felt like my heart was being circumcised. Strange indeed.

After that weekend a work of grace began to develop in my life. The hard prophesies began to be softened and I began to flow in a compassion I had never experienced before. When someone came to me for counsel, no longer was my first impression to find a reason to blame them for their problems. Before, no matter what you were going through I could always find a way to make it your fault. That was not the initial response after that.

So this love of God began to swell my heart but I had this problem. I had this word of knowledge that I seemingly could not control. I could look at people and see the sin in their lives. I only had to listen to someone for a minute before I could clearly see all their moral transgressions. This made it almost impossible to have meaningful relationships. All I could see was people€™s sins. They would tell me they were fine but I knew better and I wanted to rebuke people so badly.

I now had this issue. I knew the love of God but I was getting all this dirt on people and I was in the leadership of a church that was constantly bringing accusation against everybody. There was no issue that could not be solved with a rebuke.

As an example. When my son was born he had a slight problem keeping down food that caused him to be hospitalized. It turned out to be minor but they had a hard time diagnosing it and he was quite ill. In the midst of this hard time I went to my pastor and told him that I was having a hard time and that I was being tempted with lust. While my son was dieing in the hospital he said to me,

“You know that this sin is the reason your son is in the hospital right?”

Blech! I have to spit that out every now and then. I cannot believe I thought that was godly counsel. (If that man is reading this please repent. If you go to his church, RUN!)

So I had this revelation of the love of God in conflict with what I was receiving and how I saw Him ministered. In the midst of this conflict, I took a pilgrimage to Toronto.

At first, I was really disappointed. The services were quite tame. The ushers did not let people remain in the isles during the preaching and most extravagant behavior was stopped. This was not the kennel I was told it would be.

There were lots of great sessions with great speakers but as I look back God did two things. The first was I got a revelation that I am exactly how God created me to be (this is a major post in itself so I won€™t go into it). The second was almost as impactful as my time with the Sinnots.

In the middle of one session John Sanford said, €œJust because you have access to the spirit realm does not mean you can go snooping around in everybody€™s life. If they have not asked for your ministry, stay out of their business.€ This is not a direct quote but pretty close. John then talked about how you can read people by staring at them long enough and how people today call that prophesy but it is not. It is soulish and does not glorify God. His wife Paula talked about walking into a room and picking up the burdens of every person in the room and that she had to learn to not allow that to happen. She had to reject that natural reaction.

This was revelation to me! Just as the ministry of the Sinnots revolutionized my relationship with God, this one little teaching revolutionized my ministry. After that time, when I would start getting accusations against a person I would have to tell myself that I am not going there.

God began to use me in genuine prophetic revelation. That is revelation minus the anger. Since the church could not bring accusation against me regarding my personality they began to tell me that I did not have a prophetic gift and that I was an evangelist so I should only bring prophetic words to the lost. And it just got goofier from there. Eventually the God I knew conflicted with the church I was attending and it was time to go (can you say deliverance?).

In the past few years I have had people tell me that I am one of the nicest people that they know. And I have people call me saying that I always have a word of encouragement. This is a miracle! I was genuinely changed by a few encounters. Now I have read books by lots of the people in this movement and have listened to lots of teaching series and watched lots of conferences online but these two moments were landmarks in my walk.

So when I hear people say that Toronto was a counterfeit move or that it was really the devil I quietly pray that the Lord forgives them. It really is a frightful thing to call the Holy Ghost a demon. Not an area that I would tread.

Were there things in Toronto that were off? Aren€™t there in your church? Aren€™t there in your ministry? Could you testify that every single person that has ever heard your teaching will respond in a biblically sound manor will produce good fruit? If your church sees a couple hundred people a year how many of them are fruitcakes that you could not help or would not be helped? Imagine if that number was a half million that came through. Give a little grace.

In the end, I know that God was in that place. They have since ended the nightly meetings and the crowds have disbanded but there are congregations all over the world that were birthed in a move of the Father’s love the same way I was.

update:  this post was in response to a post by Michael at Charismatica.

There was a thing on Anderson Cooper on CNN about healing prayer. The church they went to was Brownsville AG. Click it for the video.

This post is one part testimony, two part prayer request.

I have done lots of posts about a Tuesday night outreach I have been leading. last week a lady from my church wanted to come and see what was happening. She later confessed to me that t one point she was actually scared for her safety. I shouted Halleuijah! That means we are attracting exactly the crowd we feel called to reach. The young urban knuckle heads.

Last week we had almost 40 people in a living room and man did it get hot! I was there worshiping when the Holy Ghost said, “Why don’t you take off your shirt?” Mind you, I had on a t-shirt underneath, but I was thinking, “I am about to preach.” Thankfully it was a new shirt because I preached the Gospel that night in a wife beater to a group of young men who find that suitable attire.

Among the (many) people flopping around on the floor was a Mormon girl who missed her flight back to Arizona because of a traffic jam on the way to the airport. One guy who got saved was the roommate of a crack dealer that has been coming (we believe that this dealer is the gateway to nothing short of a revival so please pray for his deliverance and salvation).

This Saturday we are going to have a big blowout with performances and almost a real service. We are expecting over 100 to show up. Here are the flyers: (click them for a larger view)

click for larger view

click for larger view

Would you please pray for the lost to be saved? We have gone into every hood we can find inviting people. We really need the grace of God in this thing and are hoping for a real move of God. This is not going to be some Billy Graham crusade. We are praying for the supernatural to manifest. We want miracles, signs and wonders. This generation has heard the Gospel but has never experienced the full Gospel. It is my goal to make that an unavoidable fact.

I have taken a cadre of young revivalists to try and infect youth groups from all over Florida. While I am gone I have asked some of my friends to post for me. Here is the bio of today’s blogger:

Dr. Michael G. Davis: MGD, as he can be found throughout blogsville, of Charismatica runs ANSWERS FOR THE FAITH Internet Ministries. Michael received his Doctor of Ministry from Claremont School of Theology. I have never personally met people before who were willing to out run their D.Min in chasing Jesus in this realm. His writings are both well exegeted and passionate.

---

As Iron Sharpens Iron€™: Experiences in Blogging

€œAs Iron Sharpens Iron, So one man sharpens another.€ -Prov. 27:17

One year and four months ago I launched my first blog and tentatively posted my first article. At the time I had all sorts of grandiose plans to do a €˜great€™ teaching ministry on the internet. At least that was the vision that I believed that God was instilling in me at the time and maybe still is to a lesser degree.

Soon I was visiting in the blogosphere and paying homage at the feet of Adrian Warnock, JollyBlogger, Challies Dot Com, Evangelical Outpost, Mark D. Roberts, and Albert Mohler; with a Hugh Hewitt, a Mark Steyn, and a James Lileks or two thrown in for insane variety.

The €˜Godbloggers€™ at the time were in the midst of a continuing discussion about Spiritual gifts. The battle lines were drawn between the Reform Charismatics and the Reform Cessationists with a few Pentecostals and what I call €˜Functional Cessationists€™ (those who grant the possibility of Spiritual gifts while they seldom if ever experience them) thrown in as observers and referees. I thought I was through with theological minutiae when I passed my €˜quals€™ and graduated from seminary. This was definitely not what I had in mind when I started.

One day while searching on Adrian€™s blog I came across a link to PneumaBlogs. I went down the list on that page checking out a few. Then I came to a blog with an interesting name: €œA Mighty Rushing Wind€ -Carl Thomas. I Clicked on the link and was totally jealous when I saw that the domain name was Revivalblog.com, seeing that revival is a Spirit driven passion of mine. After that, I became a regular visitor to Carl€™s blog.

I remember reading an article by Carl: €œWhat I Learned in My Year of Blogging€œ. That article changed it all for me and the Holy Spirit used it to give me a new direction. Up to that point, Answers For The Faith was my main blog and it was by-in-large a teaching and an apologetic site. Charismatica was just a site where I stored a bunch of revival and prophetic ministry links that I wanted to keep track of. Once and a while I would post something Charismatic or Pentecostal that did not fit well on my other blog.

I really had no vision for the Charismatica site except the Lord had given me that name and domain in church one day. After reading Carl€™s article, the ideas started flowing in a sovereign way. This would be a blog where I would share my own personal struggles, testimonies, and prophetic insights. Where I would write about my God-given passion for a major World harvest and revival.

A couple of weeks later, after I put up a contact link, I received an email from Carl asking me if I knew that it was impossible to make a comment on my blog. He helped me to change the settings and left the first official comment on one of my posts. It was the beginning of a friendship. He has no idea how thankful I was. My wife had been asking me every night for three months if anyone had left a comment yet. Finally, I could say yes and there was celebration in the Davis household.

That was over a year ago, though it seems like yesterday. Since then I have had a lot of different guests and a number of regulars commenting on my blogs and I am better for it. Also, I comment regularly here and on several other blogs. A whole community seems to revolve around this site and I am honored and blessed to be part of it.

I started out thinking that I was going to do some kind of teaching ministry on the internet and have found myself on the receiving end more times than not. I find myself in the midst of a whole lot of folks with similar interests. All seeking greater intimacy with God. All looking for a sovereign move of the Spirit in their lives and in their churches. All hoping for God to grace our land with revival once more.

All of you have built me up and have increased my faith and my hope exponentially. It is a case of €˜Iron sharpening iron.€™ Every time Carl brings us testimonies about the Holy Spirit blasting his youth group, it is iron sharpening iron. Every time you visit Revival Journal and read about David Copeland€™s latest ministry trip, it is iron sharpening iron. Take a few moments and visit SLW and gain the heart of a pastor, it is iron sharpening iron.

Read the latest on Chet€™s blog and gain a heart for missions and discipleship, it is iron sharpening iron. Stop by and visit Mark H and Made To Prauise Him, it is iron sharpening iron. Go visit Rich and read his latest and then browse the Pneumablog articles, I have always found something to be thankful for, it is iron sharpening iron.

Then there is the fiery pastor/street preacher JC Smith, his passion wakes me up and keeps me moving on, it is iron sharpening iron in a big way. There are many others and lest you think it is just a €˜man€™ thing, Sista Cala will drop by and occasionally leave an encouraging word, it is also iron sharpening iron.

I can€™t tell you how much my life has been enriched and blessed by all of you. May God continue to richly bless you all and continue to bless me through you, and hopefully you through me also.

Michael G. Davis

I have taken a cadre of young revivalists to try and infect youth groups from all over Florida. While I am gone I have asked some of my friends to post for me. Here is the bio of today’s blogger:

Rev. David Copeland: David Copeland of Revival Journal is the head of Revival Now! Ministries. The intro to his itinerary is probably the most telling text regarding his ministry:

Due to the Holy Spirit moving mightily in some areas, dates are subject to change and meetings may extend without notice. Please call the church or our office before driving a great distance to a revival meeting.

I love that!

---

What I Have Learned From RevivalI was prompted by the Lord this afternoon to sit down and write out a few observations of what I have learned since beginning itinerant ministry six years ago:

1. God can show up in the most unlikely of places, in the most unlikely of ways, though the most unlikely of people, at the most unlikely of times! The timing is really not our choice, its God€™s: our schedule and His schedule are two different things!

2. Preparation for revival is a process many churches get weary of! [fasting, prayer meetings, giving, the constant talking and preaching about the revival that is coming] But those who are willing to accept that as the DNA of that particular ministry will enjoy the fruit of it!

3. When revival hits, many times we are still not completely prepared! In fact, I don€™t know if you will ever be completely prepared!

4. Revival may look different in different places. For some it will simply be in the form of the regular scheduled services, but the services will have a marked increase in the manifest Presence of God! Others will hold extended services and meetings; others will experience a new focus on outreach and birthing of new ministries; but all will know there is a marked difference in the worship, preaching, teaching and attitude of the people! And yes, people will be saved, healed, delivered and drawn closer to God!

5. When revival comes, many times pride sets in and people market it, or build a new €œmovement€ around it or out of it.

6. Revival can be very messy! Every baby delivery room I have ever been in both during and after the birth of a new baby, there has been a lot of blood, messy linens, after birth, screams, crying, (even some cursing), but afterwards MUCH JOY!

7. A revival can either revolutionize you or repulse you! Just as a new child revolutionizes a family (changes everything that family does from scheduling to feeding!) so do new converts and a new move of God! But how many times have we prayed in a move of God€™s Spirit, but because we didn€™t like the way the €œbaby€ looked, we abandoned it?

8. There are €œbirthers€ and then there are €œsustainers€ €¦sometimes a church or ministry can do both; but many moves of God have been lost because we failed to follow through with God to be able to sustain the move for a long period of time. Brownsville has been the exception, in that they were able to sustain the move of God there for a longer period than anyone thought they could.

9. Finally, we must learn in revival when to move on to the next season in God! There is a season of revival, then there is a season to rejoice over the harvest or spoils of revival; then we must learn to start the process all over again! There is an even greater move of God€™s Spirit He wants to send than the one we may be experiencing right now!

10. Most of all, real revival will bring all the Glory and the Honor to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ! It will never be deposited to glorify a man or a church or a denomination: it will be to Glorify God!

This is certainly not an exhaustive list, nor do I claim it to be completely authoritative; my hearts desire is for all of us to be ready when He arrives with His Glory to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea!

I have been tagged by my friend Mark to share 5 things I really dig about Jesus. This is actually my first meme so I got a little excited. Then I began to think about Jesus and I got even more excited.

Here is my list. It is definitely not all conclusive:

1. He is not of this realm. Though He did come here, He did not stay here and wants to take us where He is. Gal 1:3-4

2. He is focused on things I cannot even see yet. I was praying about my broken washing machine the other day and Jesus showed me a vision of a church I will preach in one day … in London. (thats about 4500 miles / 7100 km away) Truly my thoughts are not His thoughts.

3. When Jesus says He is coming to an event, He shows up. Every single word of knowledge I have had in conjunction with preaching has been fulfilled. I got two words of knowledge for my meeting last night a week ago. I pronounced them and Jesus came and healed.

4. He is always wanting to meet new people. I cannot tell you how many people I have laid hands on who have had a vision of Jesus. He almost always embraces them. That’s really really cool!

5. He is absolutely on fire for the Father’s business. I don’t have any lost friends. I don’t have any lukewarm friends. All my friends are focused on the Gospel and on fire for God. But Jesus stands out from all of them. He has more revelation to share, more testimonies to give, more prophesies to proclaim, more exhortation to declare, more fire to impart than anyone I have ever met by a long shot. Hanging out with Him is more fulfilling than with anyone else. When my friends get together we preach to each other all night each building upon what the other said. With Jesus, you speak once, then spend the rest of the conversation trying to get your mind around what He says in return.

Ok, I stretched that last one a bit but I only had 5 remember?

So now I am supposed to tag 5 others so here we go:

David - Sure to be something firey.
Michael - Sure to be something well thought out and doctrinally sound with that Vineyard flair.
Chet - Can you say graphics?
Rich - If he completes it, (remember that “imminent” post on Ted Haggard back in November of last year?) it will be in several months and contain thousands of words. Some pro-gay group will surely comment on it and tell how Carlton Pearson is the greatest man since Moses.
slw -  Don’t ask. I have no idea what slw stands for.

For some reason trackbacks do not work in this theme so make sure you comment here with a link to your post.

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.”