Gathered Around the Fire

God Knows...The Church needs Orthopedic surgery of supernatural proportions.  What does Ezekiel 37 and the valley of dry bones have to do with the Spirit-filled Church of Ephesians? I am glad you asked.  In our passage in Ezekiel 37, there are three stages of restoration leading a valley full of dry bones to become a mighty army standing and ready for battle.  First God says to Ezekiel  MADE ALIVE  " Prophesy to the dead bones , that they will live. Prophesy to the bones?? (the skeleton is the foundation of the human body).            BUILT UPON/ FITTED TOGETHER - Declare that sinews and tendons will come upon them to connect  the bones and providing strength .                   BUILT TOGETHER  Prophesy 'skin'* to come and cover the skeleton and the mechanical elements of the   body Giving honor to all the ' less presentable'  body parts ...

A friend shared this with me... and I wanted to share it with you. TETRAD - THE BLOOD MOONS The Jewish Talmud, (Book of Interpretation and tradition) says: When the moon is in eclipse it is a bad omen for Israel.  If its face is as red as blood, it is a sign that the sword is coming to the world. Four blood moons on Jewish feast days two years in a row is very rare and has only occurred seven (7) times since the time of Jesus. There are 4 blood moons to appear in 2014/2015 on Passover and Sukkot and there will not be any for the next 100 years. Every time a blood moon appears on Jewish feast days a big event affects the nation of Israel. There have been blood moons on the first day of Passover and Sukkot on back to back years ONLY 7 TIMES since 1 AD. Three of these occurrences were connected to: 1492 the year the Jews were expelled from Spain by Isabella, Columbus (Spain) Discovers America  1948 statehood for Israel and the war of independence.  ...

THE GREAT EXCHANGE OF LOVE part 3  We have all seen a pair of young lovers who gaze endlessly into each other's eyes and will kiss each other publicly at the drop of a hat. Like every two minutes, they wrap their arms around each other and just cling to each other endlessly. Most of us are uncomfortable with their behavior, we look away, embarrassed for these kids who do not know how improper it is to display their affection so publicly. And yet a part of us secretly wonders where all the electricity and chemistry has gone in our love relationship? We used to carry on just like them back in the day before we discovered what it means to be proper. What has changed? As I was laying in my bed awake at 4 am contemplating leading prayer this monring on revival and the church. God brought the Song of Songs to my mind. BTW*  -   This is not our favorite book of the Bible.   Must of us are not very comfortable with it, because the two lovers are very mushy, p...

Prayer Part one This morning I had the opportunity to lead my first 20 minute session of prayer at Potter's House of Prayer (PHOP). As I was preparing for this, many things went through my mind, in fact in the middle of the night just a few hours before stepping to the mic, God was challenging me to take a fresh look at prophetic intercession and worship. The night before in the PHOP 10 WK Intensive, during the class on prayer, Max Thomas shared that,  "Prayer in essence is  the connection between two hearts." I thought that was profound. If we forget that... we can: act as though prayer is a transaction focus on the words discount our relationship status with Holy Spirit  make prayer a  one-way monologue miss hearing his voice speaking to us  focus on our needs  miss hearing His desires As God has been challenging the traditional approach to prayer over the last several months, I have come to see  that we are very...

WORSHIP UPLOAD? (part 3)  In much the same way as we have made prayer a transaction, a one-way upload of what is going on with us to Heaven, We can make our praise and worship a one-way transaction as well, just the UPLOAD of an mp3 file from our mouths to Heaven.   Is it wrong to think that God is expressing His love to us at the very same time as we are praising Him? Human Lovers do..." Man:  "I love you" Woman: "I love you more" Man: "you look beautiful" Women: "you are very handsome too." You get the picture. Do our expressions of adoration, affection, desire have to be one-sided? In both prayer and worship to the natural mind, it seems just fine that all the traffic is traveling in the same direction, from us toward Heaven.  At its essence however both prayer and worship are expressions of love and of two hearts connecting.  They should flow back and forth in the same instant, much like a kiss, that is bot...

After I found this on the internet I thought there are probably others interested in this kind of information. So I shared it here. Autopsy of a Deceased Church: 11 Things I Learned  by Thom Rainer UPDATE: Listen to the podc ast episode about this post. I was their church consultant in 2003. The church’s peak attendance was 750 in 1975. By the time I got there the attendance had fallen to an average of 83. The large sanctuary seemed to swallow the relatively small crowd on Sunday morning. The reality was that most of the members did not want me there. They were not about to pay a consultant to tell them what was wrong with their church. Only when a benevolent member offered to foot my entire bill did the congregation grudgingly agree to retain me. I worked with the church for three weeks. The problems were obvious; the solutions were difficult. On my last day, the benefactor walked me to my rental car. “What do you think, Thom?” he asked. He could see the uncertainty...

CROATIA DECLARES JUBILEE... with limited application FOR THE POOR (NaturalNews) The small eastern European nation of Croatia has decided to let Jubilee come early for its poorest citizens: Under a new initiative aimed at giving them a fresh start, the government is wiping out their debts, leaving some observers to relate the move to an ancient Biblical pattern indicating a looming financial collapse. As reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), the "Fresh Start" program will help tens of thousands of Croatians become liberated from crushing debt, leaving them with a clean slate. Some of you might remember that I have been getting bits and pieces of this and sharing them over the last two years, Declaring on the Day of Atonement 2013 what was really to happen on the Day of Atonement in 2015, namely the declaring of a Jubilee Year. All prisons open all captives set free, all debts forgiven in the year of jubilee All children of God (spiritual Israel) return to th...