Thoughts from a guy just trying to chase after God!

So this morning I decided to go to the Connection Internet Cafe instead of the church office. I love being at the office and you would figure with it being a church office I would be doing God stuff all day. The problem is I get so wrapped up with doing great things for God, that I miss out spending time with God. I know many ministers and people fall into this trap. We equate, “well I am serving God and doing great things for the Kingdom, with intimacy with God.” The problem is that is not what Christ modeled. True, He modeled a life of service and community with believer and non-believers, but then you see time after time when the scriptures show us He retired to a hill side to be alone with the Father. I believe it was in those times He was refreshed and equipped to go back and do the work of the Father. 

That is why I need to become locked in a serious about the time I spend with God. I can go days at a time without spending time in the word and really intense prayer. This morning I came to the coffee shop and put the ear-phones in, put worship music on, turned off iChat, Facebook, ESPN or any other distraction and spent time in God’s word. It was so amazing. I read the first 2 chapters of Acts and was reminded about Jesus promise to send the Holy Spirit and for the Apostles to wait for the Holy Spirit before they went out and did His work. It was a great reminder that they were unable to do all of God’s work until they received the full power of God through the Holy Spirit. 

Yet I live life a lot of times trying to do great things for God without allowing the full power of the Holy Spirit to be living through me. How will that ever work? It wont! God led me to John to help remind me of the gift of the Holy Spirt. Christ taught about the promise of the Holy Spirit in John 14:15-27. He just got done telling us in John 14:6 “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The disciples still are wondering how can they see God or know how to serve him. Christ says in John 14:12 “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” They still don’t quite understand so John 14:15-27 helps reveal the untapped power many of us miss. John 14:15-27 says,

 “¹⁵“If you love me, you will obey what I command. ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— ¹⁷the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. ¹⁸I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ¹⁹Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. ²⁰On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. ²¹Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”

 ²²Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”

 ²³Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. ²⁴He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.

 ²⁵“All this I have spoken while still with you. ²⁶But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. ²⁷Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

A couple of things stood out to me here. The Holy Spirit reveals truth. He helps us understand what is true and what is not, the main place He reveals that wisdom is in God’s word the Bible. Christ says, “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is one who loves me.” So right there we see the importance of having God’s commands which are given in scripture and obeying them. So many of us, me included, take what the preacher says, or what we read in a book, or heard at a conference or meeting as complete truth for our life. Christ said, “my commands”, which only come from one place, His mouth. Which is only found in one place, His word, the Bible.

Now I know some of this may be common sense to a lot of people, but I needed a reminder on the importance of being in His word as the place to gain the power and wisdom I need for daily life. Then the next point from the passage in John that hit me was, verse 26,  “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.” That is a missing ingredient in a lot of believers lives. They miss the gift God has given them of the Holy Spirit. He is the one who teaches us and reminds us of those commands and desires God has for us to live for Him. When I am spending intimate time with God, reading His word and praying in the spirit then I am filled beyond measure to do all that God has for me. Yet when I ignore his word and prayer, and think I can fill that with a book, worship CD, conference, or even a sermon then I miss the full power of God. 

Again these are things that God revealed to me today. This blog was mainly for me to be challenged and reminded where the full power of God resides in my life, it is through the word of God being poured into my life through reading it and spending time in it and it is through the Holy Spirit having his active part of my life and allowing him as Christ said to “Teach me all things and reminding me of Christ commands and instructions.”

I hope this encourages someone who reads it and most importantly that we are all challenged more than anything to spend quality time daily with God and to tap into all that God desires for you.

As usual I am very bad about blogging. It is usually 2-3 weeks between post. Right now I am in my office and I feel led to just share about an awesome opportunity I get tonight. In Mt. Olive, NC there is an event that has been going on since April 11th and is scheduled to end on Sunday April 19th unless God says, “Keep going”. It is called Fulfillment Fest and it is just a gathering of people underneath a Tent that holds about 3000 people, who desire to see revival rise up in this nation and world. 

I got to go up Monday with my pastor Tim to do a time of Devotional Worship. It was just me and my acoustic guitar. It was so cool. For an hour and a half I just worshipped God personally and intimately and a group of around 15-20 people looked in on that and had their own personal devotion time. The spirit of God is so evident under that tent and I am looking forward to getting back there tonight.

Tonight I am taking 3 of the guys who play with me @ Life CC. We start at 8pm tonight and we are just looking forward to pressing into God and helping people corporately praise and worship the God who created them tonight. Timothy Carr, who has been a huge part of putting this event on, along with his family will be ministering before us at 6pm and I am really looking forward to joining  in with them in worship.  

So I am writing this to ask for your prayers as we get ready to lead people tonight, but also to invite you to drive up to Mt. Olive and worship with us. It is only an hour away from Wilmington out in the middle of a field. The link to directions are posted below. Hope you might come join us.

Wilmington, N Carolina

	Continue straight onto N College Rd/NC-132/US-117 Continue to follow NC-132/US-117		1.3 mi
	Continue on I-40 W		46.8 mi
	Take exit 373 for NC-903/NC-24 towardKenansville/Magnolia		0.3 mi
	Turn right at NC-24/NC-903 Continue to follow NC-903		7.7 mi
	Slight left at NC-1004/Summerlins Crossroad Rd		5.2 mi
	Turn right at Kelly Rd/NC-1511		1.9 mi
	Turn right at Faith Ln Destination will be on the left		197 ft

I went in to last night at the Azalea Festival very unsure of what to expect. My thought pattern was, “well for the 45 minutes we get, I hope we just press into God”. What happened was nothing short of AMAZING!! It was so good to play with Sean, Dave, Tom and Brooks again. It was the first time since the album that all 5 of us had played together. I knew we were prepared, musically speaking, but I don’t think any of us were prepared for what we saw God do. I had a group of really close friends pray with me before hand including my pastor Tim and my buddy Chad Yarborough. They covered me in prayer and the Holy Spirit just took over. As I was on that stage I just sensed an amazing move of God begin to rise up. We just went full fledged after the heart of God and the crowd began to join in that pursuit. By the end of the night as we sang Forgvie Me and just repented as a body of believers and possibly some who have never encountered the loved of God, it was amazing. I just prayed a covering over that crowd and our city. The prayer for revival to begin to rise up and for us as a people of God to press into God and become the body of Christ we are called to be. 

It was just an incredible time with God and I was so moved by the response. Today the prayer is that will carry over into Wellspring an event on UNCW’s campus from 3-10pm. It will be a time of just intense worship and prayer. I go on @ 5-5:15pm and I am just praying for an amazing move of God in that room once more. Then the prayer is it will spill over into all the churches in Wilmington and that I will lead that at our church Life Community Church. 

Hold on everyone because God is stirring in Wilmington…