Happy Thursday!

My dear friend Aswan North finally released his first song on Itunes. Paper Tongues is the name of his band… check out their band website and purchase their 99 cent release.

Also, my friend and partner in ministry, Dave Harman sent an article written by Matt Sorger that really confirmed my thoughts on the current charismatic movement. In this article, Matt, a highly charismatic minister himself, speaks to his fellow charismatics about BALANCE… something I have been heralding for some time.

Whereas I believe that followers of Christ should not be afraid of pressing in for all that the bible promises concerning the presence of God and the supernatural endowments of the Holy Spirit… I also believe there is an unhealthy trend running its course in the body of Christ right now… a revival junky kind of self centered craving for more and more of Gods PRESENCE… a craving that is centered on ME being more and more filled with all the fulness of God… and ME having a deeper encounter… while ME exemplifies very little commitment towards the great commission.

For many believers, following Christ has become more about having heaven on earth than bringing people FROM earth TO heaven. The argument is that if we have GOD COME DOWN… lost people will run to him. Yet, this is not the case. Instead we sit around in tiny elitist charismatic circles, having our heavenly encounters while the world outside sees us as nothing more than a freak show.

Even though I dont consider myself a seeker sensitive kind of Pastor… I believe that the charasmatic church needs to be very careful we do not spend our days celebrating a harvest we never harvested. Even though we have many bible promises for heaven on earth… we also have a very clear mission to carry out before heading to eternity. Let us never make christianity more about OUR EXPERIENCE than OUR COMMISSION. There will be PLENTY of time to BASK after we have finished our race.

Yes, we need Gods Spirit to carry out Gods assignment… yes we should ENCOUNTER God every day… we should FEEL him and be MOVED by him… we should have his Spirit operating through us… and we should do all we do as Spirit powered people. Yet, we must become far more willing to take our encounter to this world in a way that she will be able to understand our message and be saved by it.

1 Corinthians 14:18-19 I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue.

I believe the Apostle Paul was giving the very same message I am giving here… to NEVER be ashamed of the Holy Spirit… to be filled with all the fulness of God… and to do this CONSCIOUS of how we are  coming off to others. Paul made it very clear that he was the most ENCOUNTER hungry believer of them all… but that he had many of his deepest encounters in PRIVATE so that he could REACH people during the churches public gatherings. Paul was telling the charismatic church of Corinth to make sure their were not being perceived as a freak show… and not to use the excuse of Holy Spirit entitlement.

Undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow will be a HEALING church… undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow will be a MIRACULOUS church… undoubtedly, the church of tomorrow be a church of Gods presence… a church of HIGH praise and DEEP worship. What I am suggesting here is that we shed off yesterdays CHARISMATIC RELIGION to give this world an unembellished demonstration of God’s Holy Spirit. That we leverage our Holy Spirit endowment as Paul suggests… that we make our aim far more about the great commission than our great encounters.

For more on this subject check out two recent blogs of mine: our founding manifesto and the real meaning of life 4 a follower of Jesus and the article from Matt Sorger published in Charisma Magazine.

In summary, please understand how much this reader LOVES to be in meetings with other believers when the chief aim is to ENCOUNTER GOD. I crave for everything supernatural… and I long to be in prayer meetings. I’m only suggesting that there is a fork in this road… and while I would love to spend the rest of my years locked away in a bubble of encounter… I would rather get my kicks off seeing others born again. For me, there is no greater manifestation of HEAVEN on EARTH.

I hope todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives. I pray these thoughts produce a deeper encounter for some and greater balance in others. Have a super duper day everyone!