Bro. Petosky- Bro. Petosky opened the conference with some incredibly powerful and encouraging remarks. He said that 2013 would be a year of moving from survive mindset to a thrive mindset in our churches. He said that the church has long been compared to a hospital and announced that it is time to reopen the maternity ward and stop just being a long term care facility. The place went nuts, because most of us can relate to that concept. It is time for a mind makeover!
Bro. David Bernard - The first speaker Thursday night was our bishop David Bernard. He also said that it was time to get out of maintainance mode and into forward momentum mode. He preached from Joshua 1:6 where the Lord told Joshua to be strong and courageous as he moved forward into the promised land. In fact, God said it 3 times, and Moses had said the same thing to him back in Deut. 31:6. It is good to allow your elders to speak into your life! Anyway, Bro. Bernard's point was that our elders moved forward in their generation, and now we stand on their shoulders, on their accomplishments, and move forward from where they left off. But the clincher was this..... Joshua, Moses is dead. (pause, respect) NOW GO. Yesterday's miracle is over. Yesterday's ways of ministering are over. The past is behind. Time to move on and reach our own generation! And His promise to Joshua still stands for us today... every place that the soles of your feet touch, I WILL GIVE TO YOU. I'll give you the land, I'll give you power over your enemies, and you will have my presence with you. Be strong ... why? Because this is not a cake walk. There will be obstacles. The enemy of your soul does NOT want you doing a work for God, and he will throw lots of obstacles in your path. BE STRONG! Be courageous... why? There will be opposition. Do not be surprised by the fiery trials that come your way. Joshua 1:7... do not turn away from my commandments. Hold fast to this precious truth! Joshua 1:8 People follow leaders as the leaders follow God. The people responded to Joshua by asking him to be strong and courageous. They want a leader to LEAD. Leadership needs to catch the vision before the people can catch it.
Bro. Jerry Jones - Our general secretary Jerry Jones preached from Ezekiel 40:16 about narrow windows. Narrow windows restrict our view. Sickness, disappointment, discouragment, etc are temporary difficulties that restrict our view, but when narrow windows become the way we view all of life every day, it takes away what God wants us to see. Narrow windows confine our vision. We need to break out the walls and expand our vision. Also, we have narrow windows for defensive purposes. We trade what we can see for security in our comfort zone. We need to break out of the walls that keep us safe!Stop crouching in fear behind your narrow window. We were made to conquer enemy territory - made for victory! Behind narrow windows, we don't have to answer questions... it's business as usual. You don't have to love much or be moved with compassion for the hurting. We have to break out of our self centeredness.
One final word about Thursday evening service... you had to be there to hear Bro. Raymond Woodward's amazing Dr. Seuss declaration regarding this storm called Nemo. It was hilarious!
Okay.... Friday morning worship was POWERFUL! They kicked service off with Jesus Culture's "There is Power in the name of Jesus", then they sang a bridge to a song that I had not heard before by Hillsong. The words were: Every high thing must come down, every stronghold shall be broken, you wear the victor's crown, you overcome, you overcome..... this set the atmosphere for the first speaker....
Bro. Raymond Woodward - This man of God never ceases to blow me out of the spiritual water. His knowledge of the Word and the Jewish people is incredible. He preached from my very favorite verse, 2 Chronicles 7:14. In fact, that part of the message was so good, I didn't even take notes! Basically the point was that God is listening... waiting for his people to be praying. And when we finally do, then we will see things happen!! But the part I took notes on was about God imprinting his name. Wow, wow, wow. The 21st letter of the Hebrew alphabet is the shin (pronounced sheen).
This letter represents two words, shaddai and shalom. This letter represents the name of God. The Word of God says that God placed his name in Jerusalem. I wish I had the picture Bro. Woodward had. It was so good. This one is the closest I can find on google images.... the name of God imprinted on the land of Israel in Jerusalem. This is Mount Hermon, the Mount of Olives, the kidron valley, and whatever the other names of the valleys were....
Incredible. He also preached and backed up with MUCH scripture that the sacrifice Abraham was making of Isaac happened in the same spot as the sacrifice of the perfect Lamb of God 2,000 years later. that was AWESOME teaching! This is the God who is waiting for his people to humble themselves and pray! This is the God we worship! We are marked by his name in baptism! We are also marked by his name in our hearts!
Do you see it?? The shin? We are marked by God IN OUR VERY HEART! And one final quote from Bro. Woodward that I wrote down was "When God seems the most absent, he is the most present."
Bro. Sam Emory - God's Counter-measure
Bro. Emory preached about spiritual battle. He said that he is tired of playing it safe. Time to stop being quiet pentecostals... it's time for a street fight! We WRESTLE against principalities and powers of this world and spiritual wickedness in high places. In wrestling, for every move, there is a counter-move. For every hold the enemy puts you in, there is a way of escape! GET UP OFF THE MAT! Weeping may endure for a night, but JOY comes in the morning. JOY is the counter-measure for weeping, weakness, fainting...the joy of the Lord is our STRENGTH. We suffer from battle fatigue, weak, weary, faint, dysfunctional... If we could just get our JOY back.....You can't just sit there and expect your joy to come. You have to go get it. Joy is an expression of your gratitude to God for all he has done for you. So EXPRESS it! Esp. if you don't feel like it! Every leap, every clap, every shout, helps to restore your joy!
Bro. Mike Mitchell - Bro. Mitchell was up next after an exuberant time of rejoicing and restoring joy at the altar. He preached about the invisible enemy. He said that unclean spirits were sitting among us sitting comfortably on our pews. It is time to expose them and declare war. The unclean spirit comes camoflaged and invisible. But we must tell the devil that we are not intimidated by him and that everything that is not of God is coming OUT. Every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is coming DOWN. You cannot fake the move of God. If it is real/genuine, it should be powerful and we should see results. You can't keep putting a bandaid on unclean spirits. Only prayer and fasting and the WORD will cast out these spirits. Can't sing them out, play around with them or pretend they are not there. You have to cast. them. out. This type of work only comes to a church through prayer and fasting. If my people which are called by my name will sing a little more professional.... no. It's not in the choir. It's in humbling ourselves and praying and fasting.
Bro. Mark Morgan - And our final speaker of Winterfire 2013 was Bro. Mark Morgan. He preached on Kingdom Increase. He began with the 3 temptations of Christ.
1. Lust of the flesh - turn these stones into bread.
2. Lust of the eye - shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and offers them to him
3. Pride of life - tempts him to jump from the pinnacle of the temple. (trying to get Jesus to use the power of God for personal gain).
Romans 12:1 deals with lust of flesh, Romans 12:2 deals with the lust of the eye, Romans 12:3 deals with the pride of life.
There was so much in this message that was visual that it is hard to capture it all in words for this post. The chess board was one of the most powerful! Talked about the importance of lateral moves. Another visual was the box representing the measure of faith God gives. There are no words to describe that one... but finally as he approached the end of the message, I wrote down a few tidbits.
1. go to the altar, crucify your flesh, and get your own word from God.
2. You need to find God's purpose and will for your life.
3. If you want the fire of God to fall, you have to put something on the altar... a sacrifice. Worship. Love.
When Bro. Morgan finished, Kent Elliott got up and told us that the conference was over. It was around 1:00 in the afternoon. It had been snowing since 9:00. The governor had declared a state of emergency and the interstates would be closed very soon. He prayed a prayer of safety over us, and out we all went, headed to our hotels... sad that the conference was cut short by the blizzard, but very very full spiritually.... satisfied in the Holy Ghost. At our hotel room this evening, we sat around and talked about all that God had spoken to each of us personally... it was very encouraging. Can't wait to come home with the THRIVE mindset!!!
1 comment:
Thanks for your great detailed notes!! We wanted to come out Saturday but due to the blizzard we weren't able to.
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