Jocelyn and I are heading to Branson, MO tomorrow for a week at a nice little resort. We’re super excited to be getting away and spending some time together. It’s perfect timing because our two-year anniversary is on Tuesday, and Jocelyn is on a three-week break in between her summer class she took and the fall semester.

We’re not too sure about what we’ll do in Branson, but it’s known as a live entertainment center with all sorts of theatre “stuff.” Hopefully we find something good. We’re just thankful that we get to have this little vacation to spend much needed quality time with one another.

I’m only 28, but I’ve been feeling very old lately. I don’t mean that I’m feeling very mature lately or anything like that. It’s just that it’s weird to think about the fact that it was 10 years ago that I was 18. Or 15 years ago when the Toronto Blue Jays won the World Series. I can remember those things like it was yesterday.

When I read the other week that Delirious? are breaking up, it kind of shocked me again. I mean, I remember when my brother and I first heard “Did You Feel the Mountains Tremble?” and were awestruck. What was this music, this sound?

I remember when the King of Fools record came out and I was just getting my friends into them. It was worship music, but it sounded good. It wasn’t cookie-cutter lyrically but had passion and poetry.

They gave me vision to see music break out of the Christian world into the world. Music that could not be contained within four walls. They were a group of guys who gave vision to hundreds, if not thousands of songwriters all over the world to write big songs about a big God. They gave bands boldness to believe that their music could touch the lost and the broken. That music was meant to inspire and heal.

Now they are breaking up.

I feel old.

Where did these 13 years go since we first met?

Anyway, thanks Martin, Stu, Jon, Tim and Stew for dreaming big and making good music that I could meet God with. You gave vision and boldness to millions of young people who will redefine Christianity as we know it in one generation.

There is a brilliant article by Joel Belz in the current issue of WORLD magazine on why single-issue voting (ie. Pro-Life) is right and responsible. Here’s a snippet:

It’s true that we evangelicals sometimes haven’t been as zealous as we ought in fighting racism, abuse of the environment, and poverty. But on all those fronts and more, we’re at least facing the right direction. We’re sometimes slow.

But here’s the difference: What evangelical do you know who says insensitivity to the poor should be promoted? What evangelical leader is calling for more racism? Who advocates the uncontrolled plundering of the environment?

Go read the whole thing!

We went and saw WALL•E on the weekend. Although I liked Ratatouille better, it was still really great. Somehow they made a little garbage compacting robot be cute and expressive, not to mention his little cockroach friend. Anyway, the point of this post is not to give a review, but to give my viewpoint on something about the movie.

You see, the point and message of the movie was to love one another and indulge in human, and not virtual activities. Yet the way that the story was told was to focus on a character who’s job it is to clean up the earth after humans have literally trashed it. Humanity has been on a cruise-liner space ship for 700 years while little WALL•E down below dutifully cleans up after them. This means that the movie is seen as having an environmental message. Right? Well, I disagree.

Here is what the director, Andrew Stanton, said in World Magazine:

WORLD: How do you feel about reports that WALL•E is an environmental movie?

STANTON: People made this connection that I never saw coming with the environmental movement, and that’s not what I was trying to do. I was just using the circumstances of people abandoning the Earth because it’s filled with garbage as a way to tell my story.

I always knew that I wanted WALL•E to be digging through trash for two reasons: One, I wanted him to be the lowest on the totem pole. It’s a janitorial job; it’s the saddest, lowest status amongst his kind; and it just makes him that much more of a lonely guy. Two, trash is really visual. Even the littlest kid understands when there’s stuff in the way and it needs to be picked up, so I didn’t need to spend time explaining his job. And then I just reverse-engineered from there, “OK, if there’s trash everywhere, how did it get there?”

So the “environmental message” isn’t the message at all, but a way to tell a story. The main message of the movie is that to be genuine human is to love your neighbor and experience life in all its fullness. If WALL•E, a garbage robot, can yearn for love, shouldn’t humans be loving one another in service and genuine relationship?

Instead of having genuine relationships with one another, virtual reality prevails. Instead of enjoying the stars, farming, dancing, and swimming, virtual reality prevails. Humans no longer touch one another. They are all robots programmed to eat and vacation.

You can say that it is an environmental movie if you wish, but it is Paul’s version: Creation is groaning as the result of human sin. Not, “we had better pick up our garbage because if we don’t the earth is going be wasted.” So there.

I’m reading a book called The Life and the Times of the Messiah by Alfred Edersheim. In speaking about the announcements of the birth of John and Jesus, he writes:

“From the Temple to Nazareth! It seem indeed most fitting that the Evangelic story should have taken its beginning within the Sanctuary, and at the time of sacrifice…In the Sanctuary, in connection with sacrifice, and through the priesthood–such was significantly the beginning of the era of fulfillment. And so the great religious reformation of Israel under Samuel had also begun in the Tabernacle, which had so long been in the background” (102).

I found this idea to be fascinating. The beginning of the new era where Israel’s Messiah would finally come to His people was birthed at a prayer meeting! As the passage in Luke says, one priest was chosen each year to offer the incense of prayer before the Lord in hopes that it would be accepted by Him.

In the midst of Zacharias being before the altar, the angel Gabriel appears before him and says that his prayers have been heard. Not only will his barren and aged wife, Elizabeth, have a child, but his people would finally see their Messiah. His son would be the herald, the forerunner, to prepare the people.

Hannah presented her baby Samuel to the Lord to serve Him for the rest of his days. He was to be the prophet who would lead the people and anoint their king: David. Elizabeth received word that she would have a son and he would be the forerunner of the true King of Israel. What are we doing?

The return of the Lord will only come when the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come!” in unison (Rev. 22:17). As I stand in this little prayer room, and as believers from every nation lift their voices to the throne, we are preparing the way for the Lord to come. We are changing the atmosphere for a people who will arise in holiness and righteousness to welcome our Lord Jesus Christ back to this planet.

Whenever we go to pray, we are going to a waiting room. We just don’t know how long we have to wait.

Here are IHOP, there has been prayer and worship 24/7 for almost 9 years. But what is the reason for the House of Prayer? For a long time I have considered the release of revival as the purpose for the House of Prayer (globally not just locally). Yet lately I’ve been seeing things a little differently.

If you start with the idea that heaven and earth will be joined together at the end of this age, the purpose of the House of Prayer starts to take a different shape. In short, we are to mirror on earth the prayer and worship in heaven happening now in anticipation of the day when we will join the worship of heaven as heaven descends to earth.

If the angels, the 24 elders, and the 4 living creatures are worshipping God day and night now, should not there be an expression of this on earth? We are to enter into unceasing prayer and worship as a corporate people because He is worthy and we will be doing this forever.

“For you shall not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Ex. 34:14).

God is jealous for worship not because He is egotistical, but because it is right and it is healing for our souls. As we worship Him, we become like Him. As the purpose of new creation goes forward, He wants a place where worship continually goes up before His throne joining the incense of heaven.

David understood this and appointed the Levites “to stand every morning to thank and to praise the LORD, and likewise at evening” (1 Chr. 23:30). Notice that their job was to “thank and praise the Lord.” That was it!

The purpose of the House of Prayer is to pray for revival, but it is so much more. Revival will come, but the House of Prayer will never stop. It will just join in with the chorus that has been sung since the creation of those creatures in heaven:

“HOLY, HOLY, HOLY is THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME” (Rev. 4:8).

I’m at my parents house in South Carolina waiting to return to my wife tomorrow. We just returned from being in Lakeland, FL at the healing outpouring for 3 days. I’m still processing what I experienced, but I will offer some of my thoughts, however random they might be.

Todd Bentley, from what I witnessed, is a genuine man of God who is of godly character, sound doctrine, and a mighty hunger for God. While his ministry style didn’t always make me comfortable, I didn’t feel that he was trying to manipulate people or drawing attention to himself. I felt that he has a great compassion for people and a desire to see God be glorified. Any “hype” is probably his way of stirring up faith and hunger in people and not exhibitionism.

I saw genuine miracles. He reported that there have been 20 people raised from the dead in connection with the outpouring. He actually retracted one report because they discovered that it was bogus. While we were there, we witnessed people having deaf ears opened, being freed from chronic pain, and coming out of wheelchairs. One man testified that he was on the verge of suicide because of pain from cancer in his body. His friend flew him down to Lakeland and he was free from pain. Seeing God rescue this single father of two was truly miraculous.

The funny thing about miracles is that you really have to believe the people when they say that their back hurts or whatever. Tears in the eyes, friends with the healed on stage, and empty wheelchairs and abandoned hearing-aids definitely help you to believe in the healings. Yet the fact remains that skeptics will always find a way to not believe.

As the revival is being broadcast on GodTV in 213 countries and on the Internet every night, I think it is going to impact more people than any other revival to date. Those who cannot come for whatever reason are able to experience it through media. The remarkable thing is that many have been healed by watching on the Internet.

There is a lot of talk about this being the beginning of the end-time healing revival that will touch the ends of the earth. While I believe that this is true, I believe that we have many years ahead of us. While many were healed on stage, there were more who were not healed. This isn’t a negative on the revival, but a reality check to see that what is happening in Lakeland is only a little power.

I am grateful and awed by what is happening, but I am hungry for more. The trip has given me confidence that what is happening in Lakeland is real and it is from God. But I am also emboldened to see that the ministry of intercession is pivotal for birthing moves of God that will increase in power and expression. I feel renewed to believe for great things in my city and in my day.

I’m leaving for Lakeland tomorrow at 6:10 in the morning, which Jocelyn is none too pleased about. I’m flying to Charlotte to stay a day with my parents at their home in Columbia, SC, then we will drive down to Lakeland on Wednesday. We’ll be there for 4 days and then come back to spend a couple days with my parents. It’s a little confusing.

I’m excited to being going for a few reasons. First, I want to see miracles. I’m not going to lie to you. Second, I want to see firsthand what is actually happening so that I can be better equipped to explain what is happening. Third, I want to see my mom healed of migraines that she has suffered with for years and years now. Fourth, I want to be provoked in my faith to see God move in my city.

There are more reasons, but that will suffice.

As one who is called to stand in the house of the Lord and minister to Him

“We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6).

I was looking briefly at 1 John 4 today regarding the issue of deception and discerning truth. I ran across this verse that I came across a couple of weeks ago and I think it is hilarious.

So John, tell me again how we can tell what is the spirit of truth and what is the spirit of error?

Oh that’s easy, Ian. If they don’t listen to us, then they are not from God. If they do, then they are. Any questions?

Er, no sir. None.

Jiang Guohua, the Communist Party boss of Mianzhu, knelt Sunday to ask parents of earthquake victims to abandon their protest. - New York Times 5/28/08

Imagine being that guy? Being blamed for the death of children because of the “shoddy construction of public schools.”