When Moses was speaking to God in the book of Exodus, chapter 33 he spoke candidly and honestly. The Bible calls this speaking to God face-to-face (verse 11). Later Moses is literally in a heated discussion with God and tells God that if God is not going to go with them when they enter the promised land then He did not want to go. He spoke on his own behalf but included the people of Israel as their spokesman before God. He said, “If your presence does not go with us, we do not want to go. Because, if your presence does not go with us how with the other nations know that we are different and that You are our God.” Good point.

The people of Israel were known as “the people of His presence.” Some say that they early Church was also known by the presence of God. I believe today that we – true disciples of Jesus – are still the people of His presence. Paul speaks about this when he writes: “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature…” (2 Corinthians 5:17). To note here is the phrase “in Christ.” I believe when we read this verse almost everyone immediately subconsciously thinks and hears “Christ in you.” Of course, when we are born again the Spirit of Christ comes to dwell in us and then we can say, with Paul, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” But this is not what the verse is expressing.

This verse about being a new creation is expressing a truth about us when we are “in Christ.” When we are walking with Him and live ‘in His presence’ as the people of His presence. As we live “in Christ” then we are changed, transformed, and become involved in His cause of seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10). As we work in the family business that Jesus established – as we walk in His presence – we then experience experience His power without which we cannot do what He has called us to do (see John 14:12).

I believe it is time to rediscover this truth about our life “in Christ” so that we can be transformed and not just informed. As we rediscover this truth we will hear the Word of the Lord and not simply receive more information in our heads but we will be transformed as the Word dweels richly in our hearts where all change originates. I believe that only then will we live up to the potenti8al the Lord offers to us as true disciples who have experienced conviction with godly sorrow and repented (see 2 COrinthians 7:8-10). Then we will truly live life and experience life abundantly as Jesus promised.

Many years ago I sat with my mentor Dale and over lunch he commented that apostles, when they teach, should impart life to those who hear them. We talked about that. His comments included that we are looking for life change or transformation when we teach and not just the imparting of more information. As we discussed this further we recognized that this means the target of the teaching is the heart and not the head. A terrific revelation – a great conversation.

I asked him how do apostles do this. He was honest with me and said that he didn’t know. He just knew it to be true and that this revelation must be acted upon. Now, thirty years later I have seen that this is possible and actually how it is suppose to work and does work. So, I have “discovered” the interpretation of this truth. I understand John 6:63 where Jesus states: “My Words are spirit and they are life.” I have experienced and seen the difference between just teaching information and imparting life into those who are listening. In many ways it is still rather raw and in the developmental stage. It is rather hit and miss. I can never guarantee that what I am teaching and the way I am teaching it will impart life as my mentor said it should. But, I do have the “application” and can see it work at times. I even had fun sharing this with several apostles and a prophet today at a meeting we held over coffee and then lunch.

The next generation – those I am sharing the revelation and interpretation with – will truly be the ones to apply this revelation and see it working in the lives of their people on a regular basis. This third generation will have the “application” and this will become a regular part of life no longer just a revelation or a interpretation of the truth with the occasional application that works. But, an actual way of life and ministry.

This is the way with much that God restores to His Church. Apostles were simply a revelation in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Then some of us began to walk in this revelation interpreting the revelation. The next – the third – generation will walk in the fullness of the calling and receive the full benefit of the restoration of this amazing revelation regarding apostolic ministry and the role of the apostle.

Just thinking through ‘out loud’ something the Lord really showed me clearly today. Sorry if I have not expressed it well but it is still fresh manna for me. Feedback and your thoughts are always greatly appreciated.

I am currently in Russia ministering. I love this nation and the people. They are amazing and wonderfully warm and friendly. Of course, I am working with believers and they all have the gift of hospitality and we spend many hours fellowshipping and sharing. I work hard as the average day is 18 hours of meetings, services, and talking to individuals. It is such a blessing to be called to minister in this nation. Already I have two more “two week” trips scheduled for 2015 just to this region of the nation. Others have asked as well but I have not even attempted to fit them into the calendar yet.

Here is what I have noticed both on previous trips and on this trip:

1> The majority of leaders are seriously dedicated and deeply in love with Jesus. They are not doing this for the money or the fame. There are exceptions but they are few. This is not a nation that encourages the Gospel of the Kingdom.

2> The churches are usually small in numbers but big in hope. They have tremendous dreams for their ministry and powerful visions usually given to them prophetically.

3> They are open to the moving of God’s Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and love to see others blessed and receive a word. They sit, listen, and celebrate with each person being ministered to. They are “family.”

4> There is a great deal of training needed for the leaders as many really love Jesus but do not have a good grasp on church history, the dynamics of the Kingdom, good theology, and the Bible. (I am asked questions continuously about these subjects…

5> The average church is much like those in other nations. There are many who are “holding to an outward form of the religion but deny the power of it.” They are truly born again but are not walking fully “in Christ.” Of course, there are also many cultural Christians who heard the gospel of salvation, said a sinner’s prayer. and think they are saved. There is much work to do to spread the Gospel of the Kingdom.

6> Every city here could use many more new churches. In a city of 1.5 million people a pastor friend commented that there are 13 born again churches, mostly small. There is a need for a church planting movement in Russia – a multiplication of each existing healthy church.

7> The people need to be trained and equipped. Similar to many nations the people are being taught information but not equipped to minister and evangelize. For this to happen local leaders need to be trained and equipped first. Local training schools need to be formed (I will be helping do just that this coming year in the city of Kazan).

8> The church in Russia is a mixture of very young and very old. There is generally a missing generation as there is in nations such as my own (Canada). The young are hungry and ready to serve going into all the world. The older members love Jesus and are mostly unable to uproot and go into the world to expand the Kingdom’s territory.

9> Much of the bandwagon Christianity of North America is quickly absorbed here. Teachings such as the current “Blood Moons” nonsense are known and believed to be true. The internet is having a profound and usually negative effect on the life of the Church here in Russia. The American prosperity gospel is embraced, the strange and demonic manifestations of many recent “moves of the spirit” can be seen, and every heresy we know in the west is here as well.

10> There is a great need for the ministry of the apostle and prophet – and the full five-fold ministry team in each and every region and church. Hundreds if not thousands are needed to work closely with local churches to establish a biblical foundation for healthy churches and growth.

The Church worldwide is becoming very much a global church where all the same issues and problems are experienced in every nation. The same false teachings are impacting churches in every nation. There are differences in the nations but mostly due to culture, politics, history, and geography.

Please pray for the Church in Russia. Alive and well but needing some serious guidance and direction from mature, well-balanced, five-fold ministers who are not running a business but are simply helping Jesus build His Kingom.

Remember to read “Part One” first…

US Army Special Forces training is now based on how to improvise and find your footing in unstable circumstances, not on how to devise and adhere to a plan. This has become so much more evident with the Ebola outbreak and the attempt to have a force that can respond within 72 hours to whatever the outbreak might look like and wherever it may occur in the nation.

Everyone who understands economics is in retreat from the dangers and constraints of a “command economy.” In China, the preferred expression is “planned economy” (jihua jingji) according to CNN Business Report. But it really means the same thing. And the Chinese are becoming more entrepreneurial and quick on their feet than those “western capitalists.”

A “planned” life works no better than a “planned” economy. In a world where the half-life of information i steadily decreasing, the road to hell is paved with strategic plans and best practices. God’s plan is to always be there to pick us up. No matter how many bad things happen to us, God can turn those bad things to good – according to Scripture. Grace turns the very things that brought us down into the means of lifting us higher to help others see broader vistas of God.

So, try this. If it doesn’t play, try that. God wil lalways be there for you. We all fall. But when we fall, we have a fallback. God will be there – in, with, and under the stuff of our lives -every step of the way, for as long as it takes and as many potholes as we hit. That’s THE PLAN – that we will arrive eventually and never be alone as we journey along the way. That’s the plan: “The losses and the crosses are better means to growth in grace than when everything is according to our liking” is how John Wesley put it.

God’s plan, simply stated, is this: “I’ve got you covered. I’ll be there for you.”

No matter how bad things are or how big a mess we make, God’s plan is to never leave us or forsake us. In other words, God’s ‘plan’ is really a “promise.”

But we can’t leave it there. We love the promies but forget the particulars. Yes, Jesus promised, “Ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you,” but those words are framed by an important context. Here’s the full quote: “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.” So, “It shall be done for you” (1) in God’s good time – hence “abidance”; (2) for God’s good pleasure; and (3) for the purpose of our bearing good fruit.

The Bible is not the story of how to plan or what to expect in life, but the story of what not to expect in life – dead men walking, water turning into wine, missions impossible, and so on. The Bible is not the story of “great expectations,” but “great unexpectations.” This is why it is so frustrating when critics say, “But dead men don’t walk, but you can’t turn water into wine, but that makes no sense…” They are missing the whole point. The Bible is not the story of how to live life “normal” and by a plan, by the numbers, by the book. It’s the story of how to live life by the Spirit. The Bible is the story of what it is to live an anything-can-happen life.

More next time…

In the Garden of Eden Adam, the first man, invented the game of “hide and seek.” After he sinned he hid from God because he knew he was naked. God came seeking him calling out “Adam, where are you?” not because He did not know but because He wanted Adam to know what he had done and the consequences for his actions.

Jesus, the Second Adam, came to replace the game of hide-and-seek with a new game – “to seek and save the lost.” Jesus calls us back to God with the voice of the Great Shepherd and there we find forgiveness and acceptance. In His arms we find value and meaning. In the safety of His presence we know we are safe and secure. From this place of confidence and assurance we can then move back out into the world (our new and bigger garden) with God and seek and save the lost.

This “new game” is almost always ignored by those who come in out of the night into the light. Once safe and secure in God’s arms they settle in forgetting what it was like ‘out there’ without God’s love, acceptance, and forgiveness. This is not as it should be. Once saved and walking with God we must recognize that we are no longer the centre of our existence – God is. He must be our focus. This is such an abrupt difference from our unsaved condition where it was all about us and only about us. Regretfully, often this switch is focus is not forthcoming after someone’s salvation and the person still remains the centre of their universe and the focus of their new walk. Their relationship with God is still self-centered and all about them – their needs, their wants, their hurts, their dreams, their desires, their comfort, their safety, their security… and on and on the list goes.

There is something wrong here. When we come into a relationship with God through a valid salvation experience of godly sorrow and repentance (2 Corinthians 7:8-10) our focus will truly change. It will no longer be “hide and seek” but it must become “seek and save.” If not, then God is here to serve us and we are really still ‘lord’ of our own life and He is not Lord, only Savior – which, I don’t believe, is a biblical possibility. You cannot separate Saviour from Lord. He is both or He is neither. And, if He is Lord, then His agenda and His will is what it is all about and not our will, our needs, and our agenda. Salvation includes the losing of our self-centredness and the taking up a wider picture and understanding of the plan and purpose of God – seeing our role in His Kingdom because we are no longer focused on our own personal little and insignificant empire.

So, maybe, just maybe, many who claim to be Christians but who are still self-focused and playing the “hide-and-seek” game are really not converted and born again. They are simply using and abusing God for their own benefit and supposed gain. Maybe, we have a great number of people who believe, sincerely believe, that they are saved and thus okay with God when, in reality, they are not and are simply holding to another form or religion – but religion just-the-same.

This was brought home very clearly last night at Bethel Church in Moscow. I prophesied over a young man about his future – the opportunity God was offering to him, the potential God sees in Him and what God wants Him to grab hold of and become. It mentioned that he must become involved in winning the lost and seeking those of his own generation whop were lost. He is just a young believer and someone who has only recently begun to attend the church. He is not all fixed up, healed, and mature – he is simply a true believer. Well, after the service ended he went up to another young man who was attending the service for the first time having come with his girlfriend. And, because of his word just received he shared his testimony and the Gospel of the Kingdom and led the young visitor to the Lord.

That is what it is all about. Giving up ‘hide-and-seek’ and picking up ‘seek and save the lost.’ What game are you currently playing?