(Shofar via Wikipedia)

Happy New Year!

Actually Rosh Hashanah, the Biblical new year began at sundown last night (Wed) and ushered in the beginning of the year 5771 on the Jewish calendar and Judaism’s High Holy Days-  a 10-day period of repentance that culminates on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement –Sept. 18.

Most Christians pretty much ignore this Biblical celebration since it really it isn’t on the traditional church calendar. However many ministers and particularly those called to minister in the prophetic recognize a special significance and work of God related to the Biblical calendar that Jewish folks still go by.

It was during this season that I received my first call to the ministry 44 years ago and later when I was turning 30 had a commissioning experience that still marks my life and ministry today. So usually during this time and particularly on Yom Kippur I take some time to evaluate where I am at and repent of my failures with a look towards being a far more effective witness for the Lord Jesus Christ in the year to come.

It is amazing to me when I look back to see that this time of the year usually marks all of the major changes in my life and ministry. I use to chalk it up to my birthday being in October but now am convinced that changes in my ministry in particular seem to more closely reflect the Biblical calendar. 

I use to think I was alone in this perspective until I ran across several major prophetic ministers who also have experienced significant happenings during this season. Some have come to believe that during this time of the year ministers and ministries come under the rod of the master and are evaluated –some to be promoted, some to decline, and others to stay pretty much the same.

Happy New Year and Blessings to all.

Don’t forget to pray for the peace of Jerusalem and the Jewish people particularly during this time of celebration. Also pray for revival in America, we need it.

“The longer I preach the more cognizant I am of this fact: my words don’t mean anything without the quickening of the Holy Spirit. I’d rather have people hear one word from the Lord than a thousand of my sermons!
My prayer coming into 2009 was simply this: a greater anointing. Honestly, I don’t even know what that means or how it happens. Just keeping it real. But I know I want it and need it. And I feel it. I preach with more conviction now than I did six months ago.”

<<Read the Rest>>

Response: Praise God! That is what I call an encouraging word in these troubled times—more of the Lord, more of his anointing, more of his Holy Spirit, more of HIS word. Rejoice! This is exactly what the whole American Church needs.          *Top

An Atheist Protestant Pastor? Condoms being handed out at church? A practicing Muslim serving as an Episcopal priest? A practicing Gay Bishop? All ‘April Fools’ jokes Right? No–incredibly true!

This is where you end up once you begin to deny Biblical authority and established truth –than anything goes.            *Top

“It is one thing to believe the truth, it is a very different thing to apply it. We did listen, and apply the truth, initially, otherwise we would not be Christians at all. But it is possible for us … to go on, content with just listening to, or reading the truth, and never applying it to ourselves, or examining ourselves in the light of it. Is this not one of the most alarming possibilities in the Christian life?

… read the life of any man who has ever been used of God … in connection with revival, and you will always find that he was a man who had examined himself, and had become alarmed about himself. It has always been the thing that has led him to God and to prayer — his astonishment at himself.

But if we do not examine ourselves we will never truly pray, and our lives will be lived entirely on the surface. Now, how little we hear about self-examination! Oh, we believe in having a quiet time, a short reading of Scripture, a hurried prayer, and we have done everything. But where is self-examination? How much talk is there about mortification of the flesh? (Colossians 3:5, Romans 8:13)

… allow the truth to search you … apply it to yourself … preach to yourself … talk to yourself … meditate about these things … bring yourself under conviction …[do] not let yourself escape. But …do not stop at that … allow the Scriptures to lead you to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the cleansing of His blood. In other words, any Christian who is depressed and morbid and introspective is really failing to apply the doctrine of justification by faith only. If you stop in your sins, if you stop in the dust and the ashes and in the sackcloth, I say, you are not scriptural.

You must go on from that and look to Him, and apply again the truth to yourself. You must be certain that you end in a condition of thanksgiving and praise, with a realisation that your sins are covered and blotted out, and that you are renewed, and that you are able to go forward.”

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Westchester, Illinois, Crossway Books, 1987), pp. 80-83.

He quoted one pastor, Jamal Harrison-Bryant, who was accused of adultery, fathering a child out of wedlock, and divorced by his wife yet continued pastoring:

Yet Bryant preached a now-famous sermon in the church in which he used King David’s story of adultery with Bathsheba to defend himself.

“I am still the man!” he shouted from the pulpit as worshippers stood and cheered. “The anointing on my life is greater than any mistake.” He made it clear that he had no intention of being defrocked or disciplined. To Bryant, anointing surpasses character.

Grady follows with the teaching of the Apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 3:2-7 and makes the following 3 points:

1. There are definite qualifications for Christian leadership.

2. Those who do not meet these qualifications must step down.

3. The church will not thrive if discipline of leaders is neglected.

Response: This is a timely post and well worth the effort to read and digest. The question that keeps coming back to me the last few days is this– Is anointing more important than character in ministry? Some seem to think so in Charismatic and Pentecostal circles. But answer is obviously no if we take the Bible seriously.         *Top

“We have to recognize that we’ve created the system that we loathe. I don’t think the reason 15 percent serve is because 85 percent are lazy. We’ve created a system that glorifies the clergy and marginalized the laity. We got the outcome we created programs for. We’ve become ‘clergified.’

There’s a three-tiered structure: laypeople, clergy and missionaries. … All religions tend to create a class of people who are above others so 1) they can revel in that and 2) the rest of us can say it’s their job.

Christianity was started without any of those structures, and ended up like so many false religions do when they create a ministry caste structure. When we see real movements of God take off, they happen when people are free.”

-Lifeway Research director Ed Stetzer [rev.org, 2/09]            *Top

Dear Ministry Partner,

A military chaplain recently wrote, "I have personally given out thousands of RDKs at no cost to my unit."

It is only with the support of people like you that Rapid Deployment Kits are made available to our troops. Campus Crusade for Christ’s Military Ministry continues to receive requests for an average of 10,000 to 15,000 Kits each month.

To learn how you can help place these Kits—each containing a pocket-sized New Testament with Psalms and Proverbs, a daily devotional, and a booklet that clearly shares the Gospel—into the hands of service members click here.

Or visit: http://give2.ccci.org/featured/rdk-ct4

Thank you for your support and prayers for our troops.

Blessings in Christ,

Megan Hawkes
Director, Donor Relations
Campus Crusade for Christ, International

Please feel free to forward this on to a friend.

All gifts are tax deductible.

©2008 Campus Crusade for Christ International
Questions and Comments are always welcome!

(Play time: 6 minutes 31 seconds)

You can find this in printed form at Charisma Online: "Fire in My Bones": go to ‘Archives’ and click on the menu and find the article @ 10-26-07 – Advice to a Young Leader in a Time of Shaking.

Here are the main points that he suggests young leaders to live by:

1. Live a humble, transparent life.

2. Stay open to correction.

3. Audit your actions regularly.

4. Stay in touch with the real world.

5. Don’t allow people to make you a celebrity

6. Make family a priority.

7. Live modestly and give extravagantly.

8. Don’t build your own kingdom.

9. Develop keen discernment.

10. Maintain your spiritual passion.

*Top

A couple of days ago I read an interesting article by Rich Tatum on ‘Blogging as a ministry’, and challenged other Pentecostals and Charismatics to participate. He shares his one year experience of blogging along with a number of good insights.

I started blogging 7 months ago. It all began with some clear inspiration that I received while worshipping on March 5. It was a call to ministry on the web. The initial idea was to teach a Bible study and answer Bible questions on the internet, my first blog- ANSWERS For The Faith was born that very day.

Soon I was caught up in blogging and spending hours reading and commenting on other blogs. I realize now that it became a hobby, and the ministry aspect was diminished in the process. My experience parallels some of what Carl of Revival Blog cites in his post: What I Learned in My Year of Blogging, a very helpful article for me. It helped me to put things in perspective and make some needed adjustments. Actually, the Holy Spirit used it to get me back on track.

There are many times when I ask the Lord what I am doing here? Is this helping or blessing anyone? What I hear back from him is this: You must learn to trust in me and be more humble in the process. Amen.

*Top