God's on the Phone?

I had to write another entry. That last one was just too gross. Although, you'll notice I didn't delete it! Mwa-ha-haaaaa

I had a very interesting evening. A very challanging evening, but very interesting. God chose to speak a few things to me in a rather unique way that only He can. He used the phone. Now, I have this thing with the phone. I don't seem to be able to communicate properly over it. I can have the most burning passionate thing in my heart and if you stick a phone in my face and ask me to talk about it, I'll sound boring and dumb. At least that's what I think.

So I don't really like talking on the phone. But I will, and often I enjoy it.

But there comes a time when you get phone call after phone call after phone call that are all equally as long with people droning on and on about nothing at all. This happened to me this evening. It started out with me. I called someone up to confirm some dates for a ministry trip to Australia so I can then confirm some dates for some more ministry in Idaho (whoo-hooo... I'm more excited about the Idaho one then Australia, right now...). That phone call took a while and in the end I had no confirmed dates yet. I hung up. A friend from Calgary called and talked me all the way through dinner that I missed. I hung up again. Then a friend from Edmonton called RIGHT after that, but it was Niel and I love him, so I didn't really care. So I attempted for the second time to eat dinner.

I got all that done and wanted to prepare for this evening and our small group. I was planning on relaying the vision I have for Edmonton and wanted to make it all good and understandable and planned out.

So I went downstairs, grabbed the guitar and some paper and decided I would be in God's presence and He would help me get it all perfect, so I could whip this group into a frenzy.

Then the phone rang again.

And this time it was Carol Lovejoy and whenever she calls you stop whatever you are doing and listen. But I really didn't listen much, which I felt bad for and had to repent.

Okay. It's now two hours later after the phone calls and eating and I have less then half and hour to prepare. I said, "Okay God, let's do this!"

And in response I heard, "You know, you're kind of like those phone calls."

"What???" I said.

"Yeah, you're kind of like those phone calls. You said you wanted to spend time with me, so I got all ready and now you're peppering me with requests to organize stuff and make yourself look good and you're not even paying me any attention. I just want to be with you and not have to bother with all this stuff."

"Oh...."

So I decided at that point not to do what I was planning on doing and I laid on the bed and played guitar with Jesus for a while. It was really nice. I quite enjoyed myself. I didn't push my agenda in His face, I didn't badger Him with a bunch of questions or half-hearted prayers that I didn't really mean, but knew they were the right thing to say at the time. I just hung out with Jesus.

He even pulled a sneaky one on me and flipped a song right around that I was singing. I was singing "I wanna be where you are" over and over. Then I started thinking about my travels, about flying, being on boats and driving all over the country sides. So I wrote a little verse that goes something like this:

Way up there in the atmosphere
Or riding on the waves
Driving all those hundred miles
I hear your voice
And it's telling me....

I wanna be where you are
I wanna be where you are

God totally flipped the song on me! I was singing it to Him and suddenly, He's singing it back to me. He wants to be where you are!! How cool is that? Just as much as my heart was crying out to be in His presence, He's crying out to be in mine even more.

Wow.

I sang that to God for a while and He sang it back in the way only He can and then it was time for our small group. I spoke a little bit about what is burning in my heart for Edmonton and how close we are to seeing it come to pass. I felt like I butchered the whole thing and turned everyone off to it, but remembered my little prayer that I have prayed over and over concerning this whole thing. Basically it is that the only way this will work is if the Holy Spirit breaths on it. If not, this will fail.

Why put our hands to anything else, anyway?

So I babbled for the evening and felt bad. But in the end... I couldn't get out of the house because everyone was coming up to me and telling me how much they want to be a part of it. Strange. They must have been listening to someone else while I was talking. Someone like the Holy Spirit, maybe?

Gathering Myself and One Sick Egg

I think I have successfully put all my brains cells back in my head today. The Blue Like Jazz book really did a number on me. So guess what I did today? Yes, that's right... bought the next one. It's called "Searching for God Knows What".

I was also very pleasantly surprised to see my California Pastor's book for sale in Christian Publications! I was so surprised to see it for sale! Woo-haa! Go Pastor Bill!! 10 points if you can find all the pictures of me on that website... although I still can't find one that everyone says is on there, so I don't even get the points that I am dishing out.

Anyway, that was random.

And to take this even one step further, how about a disgusting random egg story of my dinner last night?

One of my favorite things on this earth is breakfast. I love breakfast. I would be happy if I ate breakfast for lunch and dinner too, but I have this strange fear that I'll end up getting sick and all my teeth falling out because I am not getting the right nutrition. Eggs and potatoes can only go so far, I suppose.

Last night I decided that I would make breakfast for dinner. Nobody was home, so I whipped out the frying pan and got to work. Made the hash-browns perfect and then proceeded to crack the eggs. Or sound I say, "I proceeded to vomit directly into the frying pan as the egg I cracked in there was covered in blood."

Yes, folks... I got the urban legend egg. If I was thinking I would have taken a picture of it for you all, but let's just thank the Lord that all I could do was stand there in shock and horror and try to figure out a game plan to save my precious breakfast-dinner.

The game plan consisted of cooking the egg... sort of... until I was able to scoop that evil thing away into the garbage.

Everything worked out rather well after that.

Anywho... I don't really know where to take this entry after telling that story. It's kind of a classic conversation stopper, if you ask me. "So, who had bloody eggs today?"

And just for fun, here's a picture I took of myself yesterday. I was sending Trisha a photo documentation of a certain realm of emotions I went through after reading one of her e-mails and this was one of them. I think I burned my retinal walls a bit though. It took me about 900 tries to get three good emotion face pictures. All in a dark basement with a digital camera that has a flash on steriods.

And yes, Aaron, I tried your secret picture posting code and it didn't work. Sorrows.

Here's the grand pic, anyway...

Crap

I just finished reading the book, "Blue Like Jazz."

Chelsea told me about it a long time ago and I should have listened to her sooner.

I just finished watching the intro movie.

I'm now sitting here crying.

I need to go into public right now. Last time I felt like this I cried in all my friend's faces. This time I'm going to cry in my chair at Raw and hopefully love my friends in that place for real for the first time again.

Go watch the video.

Russia, sweet Russia

Last night I ate too much chocolate and watched a crazy documentary on Russia.

I love everything about Russia.

I also loved the chocolate head of Shrek that I ate. I'm so glad Jesus rose from the dead and gave everyone chocolate as a sign of good fortune. That's how the story goes, right?

Anyway, a couple years back I spent some time in Russia and the Ukraine and I went away with pieces of that country stuck in my heart. And worms from their water stuck in my intenstines. Now whenever I hear about Russia, read about Russia or see pictures about Russia my heart melts. I honestly would love to spend a year or two and live there. What a joy that would be. There are tabillions of young people there in such a wild thriving youth culture. Of course all of it is bleak and black, but it is still wonderful. Perfect place for some real Jesusness to come and live.

I spend much of my time these days thinking about my life and what is happening with it. I'm kind of at the place of "it will either succeed or fail" and if succeed's then that is wonderful and if it fails I'll just get a job at starbucks or WestJet, make a bunch of money and go live in Russia.

Sounds like a good solid plan.

Tears Flying Out My Eyes!!!

Oh Praises!!

I have recieved great breakthrough in the picture posting department. I still can't put them on this thing, but I sure can link to them. Link link link. How I love to link.

So with great joy and happiness I can finally begin to broadcast more of my life to the entire world via internet. Privacy? Who needs privacy? I'm going to be an internet staaaaaaar!!

Either that or just make it easier to stay ever more connected with my wonderful friends spread all over this hunk of planet.

Which by the way, Secret Agent Chelsea gave me a shout out on her blog, so I am doing the same on mine. Go read her's. It's marvelous in many ways.

Okay.... I am so excited I don't even know how to tell the stories around these pictures. There are rules though. You have to link to the pictuers and then come back here and then read the rest of the entry and go to the link and I think this is possibly the worst entry I have ever made because I don't care about grammar or telling a proper story to keep you interested right now. ALL I CARE ABOUT IS FREAKING PICTURES!!! Mwa-hahahahahaha!!!

So the first wonderful image I will share with you is one of my favorite locations on the planet with some of my favorite people on the planet as well. Eagle's Nest Ranch in the winter. Ahhh... I love winter out there. Winter in the city, not so much, but out there it's wonderful. The people walking are Aileen, Carolyn, me and Nathan. I would tell you more, but I don't feel like it right now. So have a look-see.

Another nice thing about winter at Eagle's Nest is the little cabins. In the summer they are nice, because you can't really see them. The blend sort of with the forest. But in the winter they get highlighted by snow, ice and sun. This is the little cabin in which my mom stayed this last week.

Finally a rather breathtaking view from Prayer Mountain. It's always breathtaking up there and maybe one day I will share with you all the incredible stories and experiences I have had up there. They have been far from normal and very supernatural. Things like being surrounded in fog and knowing without doubt we were surrounded by angles, or taking communion with giant bits of frost from the cross because that was the only thing available, or watching a massive 360 degree thunderstorm with green, blue and white lightning going off every two seconds, or being up there witha Korean who made us all be quite because this was the first time she has ever heard natural silence in her life. So yeah... some pretty neat times we've had. Here it is in the daylight of winter.

I also said that I would tell you a wonderful story about my favorite Norwegian, but I'll wait until I can formulate my thoughts more coherantly and tell a proper story.

So there you go. Finally... pictures...

Why Crewel World?

I was going to write the most splendid little deal about Eagle's Nest and show you great pictures complete with funny and amazing stories and a great heart warming story about my most very favorite Norwegian but alas... not only can I not post pictures because of the strage operations of this computer, but the way that I found to get around it has also failed me today. I can upload pictures for free to a certain yahoo account that I have, but tonight it is not working. How wild is that?

Maybe I am just not to have pictures on this lovely little website.

But then again some things are worth waiting for. Especially these pictures because they are cool and amazing as Eagle's Nest always is in the winter time.

So check back soon. Maybe it will be functional tomorrow. I suppose everyone is on the page uploading their nice Easter photos for all to see. Traffic should be lighter tomorrow.

Anyway, I think I shall crawl into my little bed and be with Holy Spirit for a while. Also I shall be praying that I get a picture posting breakthrough. Because this last trip is so worth it. You'll like them.

Home Again with Smelly Things

It was another glorious trip to the YWAM base at ENR. Oh how I love it there. Each time I go the pressure is increased exponentially for me to stay. Soon, I fear, I may buckle. That is, after Edmonton is birthed into revival, or at least I am done what my job here is to do. God has made it very clear that once that is done then I am off again. So I might as well work really hard and see what happens, eh?

I think one of the neatest things from this last trip was the fact that everybody was able to smell the presence of the Lord. My friends were telling me about it and I thought it was pretty cool. I have smelt the presence of the Lord before, so I was like, "Yeah... neat." I was not prepared for what smells awaited me!

This DTS school's theme is "Gladness". I think. YWAMers, correct me if I am wrong. They felt like they were supposed to make an oil of gladness, complete with nice smelly things in it and give some to each student and staff. Heck... YWAM people... just post the whole story on a comment if you can, at the end of this.

So it seems that this smell has been coming and going in certain rooms and such, even though there was no oil present at the time. I thought that was pretty cool. Chadwick mentioned over breakfast one morning how its funny that we do not consider it strange anymore when we can smell His presence. We're used to "Oh, can you feel His presence right now?", but how many of us are used to *sniff, sniff*..... "Oh, God's here!"

On Sunday night we met with all the YWAM staff just to hear their hearts and give a little direction to where the week would be going, as far as we knew. The night quickly ended up into us all drinking in the presence of God and some being plain old plastered in His presence. In fact, any time someone got anywhere near Aileen, she would freak out and flop around on the ground. She was getting some serious power shots from God.

When the night came to a close, Carolyn and I went for a traditional walk. But when we stepped outside there was a gentle breeze blowing which smelled powerfully like the oil of gladness! It was unmistakable. We walked about half way to the gate, which was about 1km and the scent was just as strong as when we were near the Town Hall! Remarkable!!

It was quite enjoyable, actually.

It really made me wonder that if the wind is smelling so wonderful, where is the wind actually coming from? Did God just spike the wind, or was this no natural breeze to begin with?

Either way.............

Diaryland Disaster

I would like to point out to all my diaryland friends how often that site crashes. It's a great site... just in the time that I have switched to blogland, diaryland has crashed twice while blogland has stayed active and healthy.

Hmmm....

But that really doesn't change much seeing as nobody is really updating with any regularity anymore, except A+B, of course.

But I don't have much to say either seeing as I am not able to update when I am on the road.

Which is where I am heading tomorrow morning. Off to Eagle's Nest again. I'm very happy because my mom is joining the team for this trip. This makes me happy because very rarely has my family actually seen what I do. This is still very relaxed and not the "big time" preaching, but it is still a very important part of what I do. In fact, the YWAM trips are often my most very favorite ones because of the personal interaction... mainly with the people that I have relationship with already.

Second reason to why I am so happy is because mom doesn't really know exactly what kind of power she carries. Everyone else knows it and I am hoping that she will see and know that she is being used by God. That will be a very good thing. Plus these kids, if they press in and tap into mom, will get very VERY blessed to say the least.

So with that, I need to pack and go to bed. I think it is so funny, my mom's packing style vs. my packing style. She has been pretty much packed and ready to go since friday. Right now her boots and a pair of shoes are ready by the door, along with some CD's. I, on the other hand, have gotten as far as putting a suitcase in my room. That's all. There is nothing in it, yet and I'll probably end up going to sleep before I pack anything. I think I just need to have a "Eagle's Nest" suit case that is permanently filled with clothes, so I never have to worry about packing. I can just pick up the bag and go. I like that.

When I travelled with Randy, he had it great. His wife would pack everything for him, every time. They even had a system worked out where Randy's suitcase would be packed in layers. The 1st layer would be the 1st day's clothes. The 2nd layer would be the 2nd day's clothes and so on. We'd be on the road for at least two weeks, so once you are done the suitcase, you just start over again. Worked well for him! I just chucked everything I owned in my suitcase and hoped for the best.

So yeah, pray for a safe, anointed, HEAVEN INVADING EARTH trip!

Much love to all!

Ground Beef and Nudity

I think the last entry get's a billion points for longest e-diary entry ever. Thank you, thank you.

The move of God continues. What fun up here in Canadia! Last night Aaron, Bobbie and I went off to the prayer thing and it was nuts as usual. I so much love all these people and I hardly know them, yet. Although in May that could change drastically.

You see, we decided rather quickly to all go to Vancouver. Get a big van, hop in and join in the BC Gathering for three days and all stay crammed into hotel rooms. Sounds good to me! That will occur in May and should be fun because I have met a lot of people from BC and I miss them.

We were talking about something to bring to BC as a prophetic gift or action from Alberta. Since Alberta beef is widely regarded as the best in the world (except for that little mad cow scare which is completely driven by uneducated public hysteria because it is physically impossible for someone to get mad cow disease from eating mad cow meat - the only way to contract the disease is through eating infected spinal cord, brain stem or brain tissue and last time I checked there are no brains in my steak) so I suggested we get a bunch of ground beef and throw it over the crowd at the BC Gathering. For some reason they didn't think that was a good idea.

But then Matt gave a really good suggestion and read a portion of scripture highlighting when God told Isaiah to strip naked and go barefoot for three years. I felt the wind on that one... get it? Get it.....?

So I then suggested that we strip naked and throw ground beef. Yes, I believe this is it. We have discerned well.

I wonder if the fathers and mothers in Canada really know what they are getting themselves into when they say that they want us to take leadership in the country. Church is suddenly going to look a little less stuffy I believe, and a heck of a lot more fun. How many other places can switch from profound and powerful prayer time to laughing about ground beef and nudity and then back again? Somehow it happens...

Oh the glory of it all.

A Slight Eye Opener and a SHAMELESS Plug

First of all, let's start off with a shameless plug. It would be for my friend Jason and his brand new, hot off the presses blog. Yes, another one has been welcomed into the highly addictive world of e-diaries and blogging. As my brother says, "Virtual friendship, how it warms my soul."

So check out Mr. Jason's blog and in the future, he's just a click away on the links to your right.

Also, if you want a great laugh you can hop over to Dave's blog. He's currently in England helping do really cool mission work, although he sadly got McFood Poisoning the other day....

And now for the slight eye opener. If you want to just keep reading happy stuff, maybe stay away from this one. Tonight was an interesting one to say the least.

I have a friend whom I have been getting to know through the gatherings here in Canada. His name is Matt and he has a crazy heart for the 1st Nations people of Canada. I always thought I had a pretty good handle on things, but as of late I have been seeing that I am sadly wrong. I do count myself priviledged to walk with some of the main spiritual mother's and father's of Canada who are native leaders, so I get to learn a bunch from them. Plus they help me in my "whiteness", which we usually have a good laugh about.

I was with this one lady in particular back in November and she said something that troubled me. She told me about how much we as a church are completely out of touch with the raging emotions going on in the native community. A big thing in the church lately has been seeing reconciliation come to the white people and the 1st Nations, and seeing them be honored and put into a place that they have always deserved. My friend Carol said that we have no idea what is actually happening when the 1st Nations are hearing that and how there is real rumblings and great misunderstanding still in hearing that.

To be honest I had no idea what she was talking about. But I listened as I have learned to do with her. To say she is stately would be a gross understatement. When you are in Carol's presence you are in the presence of royalty.

I think I got a first glimpse of what is boiling beneath the surface.

As I said, Matt has a huge heart for the 1st Nations. He is well respected by many of their leaders and has literally given his entire life for them. He is majoring in Native Studies in University, which should tell you something. And he's white.

This might not make sense to the American's, but bear with me. I know there is a heck of a lot of hurt on that side of the border too, but you have to come and really spend some time and see the culture up here to get a good sense of what's going on. It's way worse and way more embarrassing and way more in your face - if you see.

So Matt gave a little talk about his heart and some of the points that we are going to have to address as a nation here pretty soon. He was very diplomatic about it and even talked to the native people in our small group before starting his talk. I thought that was incredible.

He talked a lot about the residential schools that the Canadian Government set up and how horrible they were. Basically, white man came along, set's up schools to teach the native children English and "culture" and present to them the "gospel". Although usually all of that was done through beatings and horrific abuse. They would round the children up and send them all off to residential schools hundreds and hundreds of miles away from their families.

Not only that, but they were generally denied their culture, forced to conform to white man's way - such as cutting their hair. Long hair is a symbol of honor, so making a native kid cut their hair off is publicly shaming them.

We thought we were culturing them.

Not everything that happened was bad. We can't paint the entire system with a negative light. But we sure can't paint the entire system with "it was a great success". We can't even say that it was a 30% success. We can no longer even say, "Well, it was the best that we knew at the time."

The best that we knew was flat out wrong and horrible no matter what positives came from it. Take a look at the wide sector of the native population in Canada and try to justify what happened. It was common practice to beat the kids if they spoke their own language! What the heck is that?

So Matt talked a while about that and coming to grips and seeing just what sick stuff we did in decimating entire people groups, not just then, but now. They are alive, but we are responsible for obliterating a culture. Even now, I have no place to say it properly.

We opened our small group up for general discussion and I was not at all prepared for what happened next.

Turns out a senior couple who comes to our small group every once and a while were the people who not only oversaw, but set up residential schools for the entire north of Canada. Not only that, but they oversaw the ones in Northern Alberta as well. These were actually the people who ran the schools. The husband told us that he was one who would go to the reserves and take the children away. He was responsible for it all.

I couldn't believe it.

But I got a good look at what the situation is like on the surface. He gave quite a passionate response justifying the residential schools, acknowleging the shortfalls, but justifying nonetheless.

I thought about how communist Russia used to invite people to come and study in Russia and they were in turn indoctrinated with communism and then sent back to the country they came from. Sort of the same, but really not. Still, how would I like to be taken away by a strange Russian speaking man one day and given the best education available. Although that education was to convert me to atheism, communism and the higher, better way of life. This Russian man and the system may truly have believed it was for the better and have had the best intentions. But at the end of it all, I still was stolen from my way of life and forced to conform to another against everything in me whether I knew it or not.

I felt sad, because this man honestly thought residential schools were a good thing. He honestly thought that when a person receives Christ that their culture is in essence "sanitized" and now we all look the same. Everyone now must give up their ways and look like white man.

He honestly thought that and gave a passionate argument for it. You can't argue that. He really believes it's true and wasn't being a jerk about it.

But it's so wrong.

I talked with Susan (she is full blooded Cree) after and just asked her if she was alright. She gave a brave smile to me and said, "No. I feel very heavy and very sad. But what was said tonight has to be said. We all have to begin talking about it before we can get anywhere." Susan's entire family was in residential schools and her family has been torn to pieces - alcoholic's, drug addicts.

Jesus said something about judging a tree by it's fruit.

Dad talked to Matt after and all Matt said is, "And the 1st Nation's hurt and passion about what they feel is three times as deep."

Oh my gosh.

So I think tonight I kind of understood what Carol said to me last November. Here we come, thinking that everything will be made right and it will be nice and easy between white Canada and 1st Nation's Canada. We fail to realize there may be some serious dyeing to self and we also fail to realize the depth and extent of destruction we rained down upon the 1st Nations People.

The good thing is that before we had no hope of ever addressing this. Matt said it beautifully tonight in that what the government has tried to fix by spending billions of dollars on, we will fix by spending our lives and our love on. This is a spiritual problem and will only be healed by the power of God. Not sanitizing through religion, but placing Jesus Christ in the place He belongs in every culture and people group - and through not compromising His message for the sake of staying true to culture. Some things have to die. And yes, I was told that by Carol herself.

I think tonight was good to see that this is probably going to be hard work. Dad pointed out that talking frankly about the residential schools is like attacking this man's life work and what he honestly believes God called him to do. That really puts a twist on things. But mom did point out that justice will never come if we keep seeking to justify. But just imagine the weight of it all when this man really sees what he put his hand to and did to an entire culture - to children all over the north region. All the good intentions in the world cannot fix that.

This is why we must pray for both sides because it's not going to be pretty when we all truly see. It's going to be real hard for this man to come to grips with what he put his hand to. We'll have to come around him and pour into him and truly bring him to the forgiveness of Jesus... Probably so he could forgive himself. And then bring the 1st Nations to a place where they can honestly come and forgive people like this guy. His heart is pure gold - if you ever met him, you cannot deny that. He is a precious man. He truly did the best with what he knew how... It was just so, so, so wrong.

What a mess.

I guess that cheesy saying really is true, "God wants to take our mess and turn it into a message."

Power is needed

I saw a friend of mine at the Flood last night. He wasn't doing too well. He was a staff member at ENR for the past two summers and barely made it through. Plus he tried to do a DTS and didn't make it. Hasn't had the greatest life and has made some really poor choices and is suffering the consequences. He also hasn't really learned how to make right choices, but I think he is getting acquainted with rock bottom these days.

Anyway, he randomly showed up at the Flood and stood beside me right at the end. I asked how he was doing and... Well... Not good. He's been on coke for the past five months and is trying to get off it again. He used to be a runner for it and landed himself in prison as a result.

I think he was on something last night, but he claims he wasn't. He said he was just very sleep deprived, which can be the case when coming down off a huge cocaine binge. Either way, after Kandyce and I prayed for him he really started wigging out.

I hopped in my car after that and was really burdened for this guy. Once again my hatred for injustice rose up and I wasn't too happy about it all. Please, if you are reading this, honestly pray for this guy right now. It doesn't have to be hours of deep intercession, but if you pray for 30 seconds, that's 30 seconds more prayer then he had before.

We just need more power. God can come and change people in an instant. I know they still need to learn proper life skills and all that, but I keep thinking of the demoniac in the Bible who had a legion of demons in him. He was so out of his mind that they tried to chain him up - only he kept breaking the chains. Not only that but he generally ran around naked in the grave yard. Not your normal fellow and also not an easy candidate for inner healing.

But Jesus just said one word and after some strange negotiations this man was in his right mind. It says nothing about the hours of counseling he received. In fact, it says that he just went to town and lived a normal life.

All over the Gospels it talks about Jesus healing all manner of sickness and putting the insane people back into their right mind. It doesn't really talk about inner healing and counseling.

God can do this. I want Him to do this through me. I want Him to do this through you. How about we all pray right now from that seat of faith, and declare freedom and deliverance over this guy and that God would do a miracle for him and set him into his right mind and in right standing and be completely healed in spirit, soul and body.

If we never try, it will never happen.

Jesus, set him free.

Interesting Fruit

I have come to the conclusion that I am ruined. I think I am now learning a new definition of what it means to be ruined for the Lord. I have gotten wrecked and ruined on different levels at different times and I think I just underwent another one.

I am done hearing information. I want revelation. I am done having meetings. I want encounters. For example, tonight I was at the Flood and someone was doing the teaching portion. It was really good. Lots of really good points and lots of information. It was all right. But there was no revelation of it. I just heard words that I already know. Nothing was revealed to me. Information goes into my brains and revelation changes my life.

So the question then goes is revelation dependent on me or the person talking? I think the answer is yes.

Yes because I need to be disciplined to find the Glory of God in even the most feeble attempts to do His work. And yes because the person delivering the Gospel must do so with a spirit of revelation and impartation or else it is just wind. I can line up a bunch of people who really know the scriptures and deliver a great sounding sermon and each one of them is a witch or a new-ager. Then I can line up a bunch of people who are raising the dead, leading thousands to Christ, seeing remarkable healings on a regular basis and they are illiterate, have hardly seen the Bible and have no idea that there is something called "tongues" out there. Now that puts a stick in the spokes.

I chuckle all the time because I talk with a lot of "Pentecostals" who are hard liners on tongues being the initial evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit. I was filled with the Holy Spirit in dramatic fashion one evening almost 9 years ago now. Maybe 8... I can never remember. It was massively powerful and nobody could deny what was going on. It wasn't until about a year later that I actually realized that I had the opportunity to speak in tongues too! I had no idea concerning anything about tongues until I heard a teaching randomly about it. I thought it sounded like a good idea and started praying in tongues right then.

There goes that theology.

And that's just my problem. Everyone's blasting on about theology while those who are uneducated are doing exactly what Jesus told us to do in the Bible, 2000 years ago. The way I look at it there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and then there was the tree of life. God told us not to eat from one.

The more and more I hear about knowledge these days the more I get a sick taste in my mouth. Not that it's a bad thing - it's just knowledge and revelation are two different things that look a heck of a lot similar to each other. Just one brings life and the other... Well... We saw what happened to Adam.

We must have more of His presence. This is Almighty God, King of the Universe, Creator of All who is spending time with us. He wrote the book - why not hang out with Him? If the author of your favorite book wanted to spend time with you would you say, "No, no... I have the book to know you by." or would you want to spend as much time as you could with that author so he could tell you the meaning behind all the stories and you could get the real deal straight for his mouth?

If it was about information and understanding why did Jesus constantly talk in parables to the very people He was sent to save? The only way they got it was through a revelation.

That's what I want. That's what I need.

Some Notes... FINALLY!

Okay...

Now I can sit down enough to collect my thoughts. Well, more like copy my thoughts that I collected while in Toronto onto this blog thing. Although, I'm sure that when I am done transferring these thoughts, my brains will once again explode with revelation and memory of a trip of genuine amazement.

So here we go. These are the notes I took from the first session of the prophetic conference I attended. Bobby Conner spoke the first session and this is what I wrote down. I hope it makes sense. Well... actually, pray for the Lord's revelation about these things because what you think and what God knows is something very different, I am discovering.

- We cannot continue to mis-diagnose ourselves as a church
- If we honestly ask the Lord to reveal to us how we need to change, He'll be swift and sure to change us
- Heaven is screaming, "Don't hold back! No hesitation!"
- The Biblical definition of "listen" is to listen with the intent to intentionally hear
- A natural mind cannot comprehend that of the Spirit
- We need the revelatory windows opened over our heart
- The Lord said, "I'm not a politician seeking to be elected. What I say goes!"
- Nothing improves hearing then intimacy
- It would be better not to have heard then to hear and not follow
- It's the Father's good will to give you the Kingdom
- There's got to be more then a 'shanda' and a chill. He wants to establish the Kingdom
- Jesus talked about church three times and the Kingdom 130 times
- It's the devil and the demons who know they're defeated. It's the church that's still trying to understand. (ouch)
- If the prophets roar, a city should shake
- "Well... it's just little ole me" is a poor evaluation of yourself
- There's a world of difference between a meeting and an encounter
- For the first time, heaven and hell are synchronised in what they're saying to the church - "Who do you think you are?"
- We don't esteem the Word of the Lord as we should
- Tolerable = a fancy word for compromise
- God wants a function and not a title - if you have to name yourself, you're probably not
- Behold means "to drop everything you're doing and set your focus on the Lord. Focus firmly and intently on the Lord. Luke 10:19. Listen intentionally."
- It's not a production. He isn't going to establish His Kingdom through watching
- Psalm 90:16
- We've got the best message and the worst methods
- We cannot turn over to our children less then what we've gained
- A visitation is wonderful, but He wants a habitation

I'll write some of Paul Keith Davis' stuff tomorrow, I think. Although I only got eight points down before I was just totally blown away. I got the DVD, so maybe you can come and watch it with me.

And keep giving Aaron's diary a shot for an update of the Proclaim tour. He was super busy all weekend, hence no updates, so maybe it will come now. That is if he does update on the Proclaim tour and not on how he, Bobbie and I discovered how it is possible to have a brother-cousin and how it really is possible to be your own grandpa.

Deep and profound, I know.

Run Run Just as Fast as You Can!

I guess I did not get to posting my notes from the Toronto trip. Yet.

Things have been somewhat crammed to say the least. Fly home from TO on Tuesday night. Wednesday get settled back home and then kinship. Thursday take a rest day and then Canada Prayer. Friday drive all over the Edmonton area all day long, pray for Cancer patients and attend the Proclaim Tour which was astounding, Saturday (today) rest and Hot Sauce is tonight, Sunday is church, Monday is the Flood and then Tuesday miraculously I might not be doing anything. Then back at it for a few days in Edmonton, hop in the car and off to Eagle's Nest to teach the first week of YWAM again!

I LOVE IT!!!

And it's only going to get busier as the Lord moves more and more. Much like He did last night at the Proclaim Tour. That was intense to say the very least. To get a good idea about it just go to the Watchmen website and look around. There is a really good video clip on the front page. In fact if you search well, you can find lots of incredible video clips.

Last night was an absolute blast. Not just a blast of fun, but a blast into the Holy of Holies and real Father Heart of God. It was a blast of His power, glory and AWE!!

I always find these things kind of fun to watch. People start out kind of feeling the place out and getting into it - all sitting nicely in their pews and praying like good Christians. And then it ends up with improvised country music hymns and line dancing.

How it got from pews to line dancing is a long story. And I'm probably not going to tell you because it will take too long. It was so funny, though... When God is really in the house anything can happen. Especially if He is wanting to play with His kids. I could see Him laughing and laughing because a group of lines dancers were at the front of the church. Then the real dance team invited them onto the stage. Of course, this is fun and up they went. I don't think they really expected the worship team to then crank up the tempo to make it "sprint" line dancing and then play for three straight songs.

When those people got off the stage they were really puffing! I was laughing so hard, but they were too, so it was great.

Oh yeah, I got invited to Australia last night. That was pretty cool. A good friend of mine, Laura Woodley, is going there to minister for three weeks and is taking a team to join her. I would only have to raise between $500 and $1000 for three weeks in Australia, so I am really praying about it. I would fly from Australia to Toronto in time to join the family for the One Heart Gathering in Quebec City and then be able to fly home after that and go to The Ranch for August. So hopefully that will happen, because that would be crazy fun and I think I REALLY hope I would be able to see Jodi and Candice while I'm there. I'll keep you posted.

In other news, I'm sure Aaron is going to post an awesome report from last night. He always posts the best ones and since we were both at the same place, go read his.

Toronto Unpacking

I must commence the verbal unpacking of the Toronto trip now, because the rest of this week is going to be crazy Holy Spirit, revival of a nation crazy. I thought my mind was blown after this past trip only to step into an even higher high after getting off the airplane last night. God really does mean "glory to glory"!!

First of all, you must go and visit Akiane's website. She is a child prodigy not only in art, but in poetry. She and her family were total atheists until God took her to heaven and imparted to her the gift of art and creation so that she could impart God's love to the world. Now she is very saved and walks remarkably with Jesus, being continually given dreams and visions to paint and write about. She prays for models to help her paint and they walk into her house unannounced and uninvited saying that their master sent them... Wild. She's only 10 years old now. So go check out her stuff. And if you like it (which you will) drop her a line. Currently she is getting over 100 e-mails a day from Christians and pastors saying that she is from the devil. How stupid is that? I was shocked when I heard that and very, very saddened. So we need to rally the troops to encourage her and what the Lord is pouring out to the world through her.

I think tomorrow I will post pages of notes that I took at the Prophetic Conference. That will be the best way to share with you what happened. But that was only 3 days of the 15 that I was gone. There was much adventure, much God stuff, much wonderful friendships being made and renewed and much awesome time spent with my brother Geordie and his wife Stefanie.

I think the highlight would be the night we went up the CN Tower. It is one of the modern wonders of the world and it still holds the record for the highest free standing structure on earth. And best of all, you can take a glass elevator up the thing and walk around on a glass floor really, really high up.

I had a dream before I went to Toronto that we all went up at night, so we did that and it was great. You could see the massive city and into Buffalo, NY. You could see all the little cars racing along the freeways. You could see all the way down to the ground and it made you a little dizzy. You could see the strange giant blackness, that was one of the great Lakes that I can't remember it's name.

Later that week we also went to Niagara Falls for a while, which was fun. Until we paid for lunch. I got a Big Crunch from KFC and it was $5.75 BEFORE tax. And it was just the sandwich, not the meal. How insane is that? Stef's soft taco from Taco Bell was over $2.00!! Yikes.

So Geord and I got a Tall Latte from Starbucks (which cost $9.72) and we walked around some more and then left to tour a Winery. We got pretty lost for a while, which was nice because we saw this massive statue that I have been wanting to check out since I was in Toronto last April. It's wild, but I'll talk about that later, I think.

We arrived at the Hillebrand Winery and took the tour and I have finally been taught how to properly do a wine tasting. We tasted a great white wine and THE BEST Ice Wine ever. Of course the make you taste the best stuff so that you go back to the store and buy it for $900 a bottle.

The tour renewed my passion and dream to eventually own a vineyard. That would be a dream come true and just between you and me, I fully plan on making that dream come true. I'll have to hire a bunch of people to do it for me, because I haven't the faintest idea how to grow grapes (well, I know more now then I did before the tour), but really... All I want to do is just own the vineyard.

I looked at some a few months ago on the internet. Prices started at around $2.3 million or so, but one came with it's own authentic castle. I thought that was neat.

Anyway, that's off topic.

I made an awesome new friend who goes by the name of Martin. He's 90 feet tall and from BC. He's living in Toronto for a while and works on the security team of TACF so you can be sure that he has some great stories. I'll probably share those later too...

Also hooked up with Jon Patell again and Mark Lauzon who got back from Australia and England the day before I left. And since the majority of the people reading this have no idea who they are, I'll just stop now. Although, if you want a really great CD, let me know and I'll give you information on how to order Jon's album. It's acoustic, amazing worship that is not your normal worship, but is wonderfully refreshing in new sound.

I'm really starting to ramble uncreatively, so I'll stop now and write more tomorrow morning.

Love to all!

I'm home now

I just arrived home from Toronto. What an incredible and amazing time that was. God did so much that I can hardly put it into words. The only way to describe it is that God truly orchestrated this trip for there is no way that human hands could have woven such a tapestry.

I am in awe.

I never want to be out of awe again.