You and I are at the halfway point in a three-year time of transition. A prophetic word has come forth that the years 2008 through 2011 are a season of transition. In God's timing, the halfway point can be the most dangerous time during transition. It is a time when some people decide the journey is too difficult. They can't seem to catch the vision for the new place, so they decide to go back to an old place. Others make wrong turns that cause them to take a detour from their destinations.
In 1993, Pete Myers faced one of the toughest challenges in sports history. To that point, the 6-foot-6-inch journeyman had played sparingly for seven NBA teams in seven years. But prior to joining the Chicago Bulls that year, Myers was asked to do the impossible: Fill in for Michael Jordan after the greatest basketball player of all time abruptly decided to retire (for the first time).
I’m thankful I don’t face as daunting a task as Myers did—not because the person I’m replacing isn’t as extraordinary, but because of the remarkable inheritance he’s left behind and the way it’s being transferred. Lee Grady is one of the most distinct and respected voices in Christian journalism today. After serving Charisma for 17 years, he’s made my task of following in his footsteps extremely challenging. Yet one thing I love about Lee is that he’s never wanted me to trace his trail, but instead to blaze one for myself. As anyone close to him knows, Lee leads by empowering. He believes in handing over the necessary tools to let people run their own course, all while he offers them his unconditional support.
The church desperately needs more Lee Gradys right now. We need battle-proven generals who are willing to make way for and empower a new generation of passionate, Spirit-filled leaders. We need veterans with proven wisdom to help guide those eager to venture further.
But let me remind my fellow emergents of this two-sided coin: We may be blazing new trails, but we must not neglect the wisdom of the pioneers who came before us. Our success will be directly proportional to how well we listened to the voice of God speaking through our predecessors. If the church is to truly flourish in the next season, young and old must understand the need for intergenerational conversation, not monogenerational monologues.
This month Charisma highlights the Spirit-prompted generational transfer already in process—and shown in places such as Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the ongoing Empowered21 conversations will be celebrated April 8-10. We believe these pivotal multigenerational gatherings offer hope for all ages. Because as in this magazine’s transfer from one editor to the next, those involved understand that the state of the generational inheritance usually matters more than the individual inheritors.
Famed philosopher and orator Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” It’s true. Doing nothing is easy, but it’s also dangerous. Where there is no opposition to evil, evil will multiply.
We all fall into the trap of complaining about the things that are wrong. But complaining does nothing except discourage us even more. It changes nothing because there is no positive power in it.
Sin began in a garden. Thousands of years later, Jesus Christ stood in another garden and announced His ultimate victory.
The Easter story has many amazing scenes: Jesus' last Passover meal with His disciples, His arrest and brutal scourging, His crucifixion between two criminals, and the dramatic darkness that fell on Jerusalem at the moment of His death. But my favorite part of the story is when Mary Magdalene peered inside Jesus' tomb on that resurrection morning. John 20:11-12 describes it this way:
"But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying" (NASB).
When I was a kid I had one particular "goin' to church" dress that made me cringe. I was 11 at the time and the dress—the height of fashion for the late '50s—was crinkly pink organdy, complete with a wide-swinging under-hoop. If I became too animated while wearing it, I lost my balance! Even worse, my two younger sisters, Carolyn and Diana, each had a matching crinkly-hooped dress. As you can imagine, trying to sit together on the front-row pew during a church service presented a problem.
The Spirit of God was heavy on our 11-year-old daughter, Destiny, when she came to us and said,"Mom and Dad, God just spoke to me and told me to come and tell you something." She really caught our attention because giving us words from the Lord is not something she normally does. She was trembling slightly, and we all felt the presence of God as she shared a vision she had had of a great harvest and told us what God had instructed her to say:
We are about to experience a new move of His Spirit. As we welcome it, let's protect the church from abuse and misuse of His gifts.
During the past few months I have prayed for many people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. It has reminded me of the mid-1970s, when Baptists, Episcopalians, Catholics, Lutherans and Methodists were discovering the power of the Spirit in small prayer groups, renegade Bible studies and gatherings in hotel ballrooms.
Back then people seemed especially hungry for a deeper experience with God. Hollywood actor Pat Boone wrote a book called A New Song to testify how he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Episcopal priest Dennis Bennett led thousands into the experience after he was dismissed from his staid, traditional church in California because he admitted speaking in tongues. And Presbyterian novelist Catherine Marshall wrote Something More to describe her encounter with the Baptizer.
Last night I watched the health care vote on C-Span. I was disappointed in how partisan the vote concluded. Quality health care for all will undoubtedly not be the result of last night's vote. Quality care for all means that the breadth of who is covered is matched with the kind of care that compels foreign nationals from around the world to fly to the Johns Hopkins Hospital or the Mayo Clinic. Balancing these two dynamics of care without bankrupting the nation is a victory that every American would celebrate.
In the spring of 1980, a series of earthquakes and small eruptions drew the attention of people living in the Pacific Northwest. Scientists and sightseers were drawn to Mount St. Helens. Steam vents, tremors and hot spots appeared almost daily.
Then on May 18, a 5.1-magitude earthquake shook the mountain. For a few seconds the north flank seemed to ripple, then broke loose and began sliding downhill as a massive avalanche. Eruption plumes shot up as quickly as 600 miles an hour. The blast traveled as a hot, churning mass of gas, rock, ash and ice. More than 50 people were killed or reported missing after the blast, and the eruption devastated 235 square miles.
In 1999, while in intercession for revival in Arizona, I had a vision of a map of the southwestern region of the United States. Three major cities on the map were highlighted—Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. In the vision, one line was drawn from Los Angeles to Las Vegas and another from Los Angeles to Phoenix.
Last week, research company the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released a comprehensive report on who the Millennial generation is and how they think. This group, which is comprised of people aged 18-29, will soon be the America of tomorrow. On the surface, young people seem less religious, less materialistic, yet, less relationally anchored than previous generations. I would like to talk about what Millennials' attitudes toward faith are and what the evangelical church and social conservatives should do in response. I am convinced they can be reached, empowered and mobilized ... but not with the same old tired rhetoric and judgmental approaches. Before I give a prescription, here are some of the specifics of the spiritual views listed in the Pew report.
Last week many of our brothers and sisters lost their lives for Christ. How should we respond to the cry of the martyrs?
Last week while millions of Americans crammed into theaters to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D, many Christians in other parts of the world were attacked, raped or killed for the cause of the gospel.
This past weekend I received an urgent message from my friend Christopher Alam, a U.S.-based evangelist, who was writing from Southeast Asia to inform me of a terrible atrocity in Myanmar.
As a Christian counselor I have listened to many married couples express feelings of frustration and hurt because of their inability to effectively communicate with one another. Studies prove that communication breakdown is a major source of conflict, one that can eventually lead to other problems in the marriage, such as a lack of intimacy and divorce. Statistics prove the truth of what the Bible says in Proverbs 18:21: "The tongue has the power of life and death" (NIV).
However, there is a remedy. Many of the struggles married couples face, in fact, can be avoided with the use of some simple communication tools. Learning to use these tools to express ourselves in more effective ways fosters better understanding, which results in greater emotional intimacy.
There are 5 strategic keys that will help propel you into your future and the destiny God has for you this year. Ask Him for specific insight and direction for you and your life, and allow Him to manifest in these areas throughout 2010.
1. God is sounding a wake-up call.
God is sounding a wake-up call to the body of Christ! There has been a lull and a spirit of slumber that has spread over much of the body in the last couple of years. We have become satisfied with "church as usual." Unfortunately, many people have settled into a place of comfort and complacency—but God is shaking and waking this sleeping giant once again!
We can't reach the younger generation with yesterday's stale religion. It's time to unclog our wells.
Last week I spoke to a group of ministry leaders associated with a particular Pentecostal denomination in South Carolina. Many of these men and women are hungry for a fresh move of God, but they are also aware that they aren't effectively reaching people for Christ. Most of their small congregations are getting grayer by the day.
I told these folks they have only two options: Change or die.
Most of us remember the stellar advertising campaign A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste designed to give underprivileged college children a bite out of the educational apple. This week Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) decided to use this concept to become an advocate for middle school and high school students as well. Lieberman and five colleagues weighed in on D.C. politics, filing an amendment to a tax extenders bill to reauthorize the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP).
The D.C. OSP was created in 2004 under the Bush administration. These $7,500 scholarships made it possible for students to attend a private school. The students that used these scholarships felt a greater degree of safety as well as made major academic strides. A federally mandated evaluation of the program also showed these private school students received the equivalent of 3.7 months of additional learning than others. This has been done while actually reducing the District's costs as these students only received half of the city's $15,000-per-pupil assessment.
As a young believer, whenever circumstances that I viewed as roadblocks to an otherwise smoothly sailed life appeared, I took them as something to remove. They had no business causing a detour in my well-organized, over-controlled lifestyle. I had determined that anything negative must be the devil's playground, and I needed many hours of standing on the Word to void that which I perceived as his sinister activity. However, this seemed to have no effect. Situations remained.
Avoiding them or trying to pray the problems away was of no use either. Troubles sometimes arrived in a rush with no advance warning. It was confusing. Shouldn't believers be exempt from the normal living that existed for nonbelievers? Doesn't the writer of the psalms tell us that the crooked will be made straight? Doesn't Jesus calm troubled waters? But I also kept coming across words such as "suffering," "trials" and "testing" from New Testament writers. Could it be that somehow the Father allowed those dreadful situations in my life? If so, why?
Last summer while speaking at my church on a Sunday morning, I saw a vision of snakes wrapped around someone's lungs. It wasn't a great vision to have. ... I knew those snakes represented a demonic presence, probably a spirit of infirmity.
I didn't want to say what I was seeing because I thought some poor soul might be visiting for the first time and, not knowing there were such things, be scared to death. So I altered it a bit and said, "I see ropes wrapped around someone's lungs. Because of that constriction they aren't able to breathe, and God wants to heal them."
Too often the American church has tried to put the Third Person of the Trinity in a box.
Hundreds of years before the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early church on the day of Pentecost, the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel, newly anointed as a priest, got a free preview of how God would send the Holy Spirit to empower His people. The preview came in the form of a Technicolor vision that included a stormy wind, a cloud that glowed with fire, flashes of lightning and strange, four-faced cherubim that were empowered by God's divine energy.
Ezekiel wrote of these heavenly creatures: "In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning" (Ezekiel 1:13-14, NASB).
Last month Catherine Davis and her Atlanta-based Georgia Right to Life (GRTL) organization launched a groundbreaking effort to stop the egregious number of black abortions in their state. The organization decided to use billboards to present its case for life - that's right - billboards.
The 80-billboard campaign permeates the skyscape of Atlanta. Because of its scale, the campaign is nothing less than cutting-edge innovation. The billboards read, "Black children are an endangered species." The words encircle the face of an adorable black child. In addition to the message, the only Web address listed is toomanyaborted.com.
