The Burning Prophet's Blog

Originally Published 02/28/24

An effective time with God truly consisted of 4 things:

1. Worship

2. Scripture Reading

3. Prayer

4. Listening

1. Worship: This can be singing songs but it doesn't have to. Worship in the bible means to "kiss towards" something. So anything we do with our hearts and minds pointed towards God is technically worship. That could be singing, or just thanking God for all that He has done, or even sweeping the floor. Its not the activity but mindset and heart posture that is important. John 4:24 says "God is Spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth."

2. Scripture reading: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." Many people want to skip scripture reading but God uses scripture as a way to teach us His nature and character and He uses scripture as a jumping board to launch us into a deeper relationship with Him. The Apostle Peter calls scripture our "Prophecy more fully confirmed" and says that it is "a light in a dark place" and that we "would do well to pay attention" (2 Peter 1:19) If we are truly wanting an intimate relationship with God then we need to be seeking Him in scripture. Let's give God something to work with.

3. Prayer: Prayer in its simplest form is just talking with God. The bible says in James 4:2 that "you do not have because you do not ask" So prayer is just talking with God, letting Him know from our perspective what is going on in our daily life and building relationship with Him. It is also a way for us to let him know what we need and give Him the opportunity to show his faithfulness and fulfill those needs. If you would like to learn more about different kinds of prayer or how prayer is explained in scripture I would be more that happy to go into detail in another letter, just let me know what you want to learn and I'll teach it.

4. Listening: This is the step that most people skip. No one can build a relationship with someone if every conversation is one sided, so to know God we must also learn to take time to listen to Him and allow Him to speak. Sometimes this freaks people out but the thing that separates our God from all the Idols in the old testament was they they were "deaf and mute" they were not real, they were not alive, they could not hear prayers nor answer them, nor speak to their followers. But God is alive and active and speaking! Jesus in the bible is called the "word of God", how can someone named "the word" not have something to say??? Our issue is that we do not take time to sit and listen. So in your time with God carve out a few minutes just to listen to Him, or ask Him questions and then listen for His answer. And remember English is not His first language, God usually speaks through our conscience (like Jiminy Cricket), he speaks through thoughts and memories and into our imagination once it has been submitted to Him and purified by Him. and if you know His word through scripture then it becomes very easy to know if a thought is from God or not, because you will know if it lines up with his nature and character.

Originally Published 07/10/23

• The importance of extravagant worship

  • • Psalms 150 commands us to praise God in various extravagant ways

      1. 1. Damon Thompson said that God commands us to worship extravagantly and left no other option for the “introverts” or for those who didn’t “feel it”

         2. He says God commands this not because God needs it, but because extravagant worship unlocks something on the inside of us that makes us bold and unafraid. 

         3. It also allows us to practice obedience to His voice in a safe space

    • Psalms 22:3 says that he is enthroned in the praises of his people

      1. 1. Our praise and worship build a spiritual throne for God where, once completed, he comes in and takes dominion in that area where He is enthroned.

         2. Why would we expect God to come and move and pour into us when we have yet to build a space for Him?

         3. Worship is not about us, our needs, our wants, our desires, it is about ministering to the heart of God, what he wants and desires

         4. When we have this mindset our feelings are no longer part of the equation, but only what God desires from us in that moment

    • Leviticus 9:24 When they had the offerings and sacrifices ready fire came from heaven and consumed the burnt offerings

      1. 1. Fire always falls on sacrifice (when it is the one He has chosen)

         2. Our “sacrifice of praise” may have to cost us something, be it our sense of dignity, our pride, or our fear, these things must be laid on the altar but God’s response to this is to consume us with His fire

• Connecting with Jesus

  • • By the end of worship each person on their own had laid on the ground so we did an activations where we asked Jesus to take our imagination and use it to speak to us. Each person had God speak to them in this way and were each deeply touched in a personal way by what Jesus showed/said to them. 

• The Necessity of Hunger

  • • 1. Bobby Conner said “We have become way too familiar with a God we barely know…God is not nearly as easy to get along with as many pastors have led you to believe.”

      2. Many times we are ok with having God's presence moving in our lives and sometimes we even want him, but there is a lack of true hunger for his presence

      3. As long as we are even a little content to live without his Holy Spirit moving in our lives we will not have Him

      4. We have to stop seeing the Holy Spirit as an optional thing. We must look truly at our own state and realize that we cannot live this Christian life effectively without him.

      5. When He stops being an option and starts being a necessity, then we will have His movement in our lives.

This comes from a vision the Lord gave me many years ago when I was praying because I wasn't feeling close to Him, so He showed me a wall that had been erected between me and Him.  He then began to dismantle the wall brick by brick, and these are the 7 bricks I had to cooperate with him on to see the wall between us fully dismantled. 

THE WALL

1. Take inventory of your relationships and bring them before the Lord and terminate any and all relationships that are:

   1. Unhealthy or Holding you back

   2. Not actively helping you move forward

   3. That you have an inner witness from the Lord you need to let go of

   4. Delete, block, explain, do whatever is necessary!

   5. (sidenote, these are friendships, acquaintances, co-workers, etc. *DO NOT* get rid of your wife or parents)

2. Delete any apps that are a distraction or that do not help you to grow forward.

3. Delete any social media or accounts that distract or call your attention away from where your focus should be.

4. Terminate any goals, hobbies, or activities that do not bring you actively closer to God. There are hobbies and activities we enjoy that bring us closer to him, and there are others that take us away from him. Take inventory and discern which is which.

5. Take self-inventory/self-deliverance to ensure that there are no lingering spiritual attachments.

6. Actively pursue people, relationships, and activities that give you life, encourage your walk with Christ, and lead you towards your destiny. Seek to spend time with people and in activities that cultivate your relationship with the Lord.

7. Decide and practice exactly what to say WHEN (not if) these "old" people and things try to reintroduce themselves into your life. 

Originally published November 16,2023

"Remember who you are" Video Clip 

• Our sense of Identity is given to us by our Father. 

  • It is where we get our name, our history, and in the past where we learned a trade to make our livelihood. (The baker's son becomes a baker)

  • If we do not have a relationship with our father, or if he is unable to give us our sense of identity we grow up in a desperate search for where we fit into this life

  • Identity cannot be searched out or found. It must be given and received.

• We tend to place our identity in the place we find love and acceptance, whether that is a skill, a sport, a group of people, a romantic relationship, a job, etc. Where we feel loved, applauded, and accepted is where we place our identity. 

  • When we lose the area where we have placed our identity we lose our sense of self and are thrust into an "Identity Crisis" where we once again have to find where we fit into this life.

  • Examples: The athlete who is injured. The wife that gets divorced. The man that loses his job.  These are some common areas where people (wrongly) place their identity and when they lose what they feel like made them "themselves" it feels like they lose everything.  (Athlete in his ability to play, Wife in her sense of family and relationship with husband, Man in his career and ability to provide.)

• Our true sense of identity is given to us by our Heavenly Father, and when we forget who He has called us to be, we lose sight of ourselves and Him and we begin frantically looking for where we can find love and acceptance so we can place our Identity in that new "thing." (relationship, hobby, job...)

• Like Mufasa says in the video clip, when we lose sight of ourselves and forget who we are, we forget who God is as well and we end up becoming something we were never meant to be. For this reason Mufasa says "you are more than what you have become".  

• Our true Identity in Christ is so much higher than the false identities we try and make for ourselves, and when we find our identity in who HE says we are, we become unshakable, because "Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore" (Hebrews 13:8)

Originaly published August 7,2023

1 Corinthians 12

• Intro

  • V3 "No one speaking by the Holy Spirit can call Jesus Accursed, and no one can say 'Jesus is Lord' but by the Holy Spirit"

  • v7 "But the manifestations of the Spirit are for the profit of all." Some versions say "for the common good"

    • The things that God gives you are rarely just for you but instead for the benefit of all those around you and in your sphere of influence. The gifts of God are not to be used to benefit or promote yourself but to build those around you. Jesus said, "if any man wants to be great among you he must be your servant" (Matthew 20:26-28)

    • Manifestation is "an event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, especially a theory or an abstract idea" in other words, when something shows the truth of itself or what it really is. 

    • The word manifestation comes from the Latin word "manife stare" meaning "to make public". 

    • So the manifestations of the Spirit are the ways that Holy Spirit reveals that it is him working in and through us. The gifts of the Spirit are His chosen way to "make himself public" and He has chosen to do that through us!

• Word of Wisdom

  • A word of wisdom is when God supernaturally gives you insight into a situation and with it a solution to solve that situation.

  • A great example is Solomon's judgment between 2 women both saying a baby is theirs in 1 Kings 3:16-18

• Word of Knowledge

  • This is when God supernaturally gives us information about past or present circumstances that there is no natural way we could have known.

  • An example is the story of Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:5-30

• Faith

  • Hebrews 11:1 says "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen"

  • We all must have faith to come into a relationship with Christ, but the spiritual gift of faith is when we have supernatural faith to believe in something that is outside of our normal "measure of faith" (Romans 12:3)

• Healing

  • As Christians, we are all called to heal the sick (Mark 16:17-18, Luke 9, Matthew 10) but people with gifts of healing have the inclination to be used this way by God

  • The gospels are full of examples of Jesus healing the sick

• Miracles

  • This is spoken of separately from healing. Miracles are when God does something supernaturally that operates outside the natural laws of our world.

  • When working Miracles God will ask us to do some simple act that we CAN do at which point his power meets our obedience and He works a miracle. 

  • Examples are: 

    • Jesus turning water into wine (John 2)

    • Jesus feeding 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish (Matthew 14)

    • Moses parting the Red Sea (Exodus 14)

• Prophecy

  • This is when God speaks to us concerning the future. Things that will happen, or things which may or may not happen depending on the actions of the people involved. For example, through Jeremiah, God promised that with repentance he would not bring disastrous judgment upon the people (Jeremiah 18:8)

• Discerning of Spirits

  • This is when we, in one of many different ways, can sense the spirit that is the motivation behind words and actions. 

  • We may see images, feel certain feelings, hear our inner voice or conscience speaking to us, or any other way where we can consistently discern what spirits are operating in a situation. 

  • Jesus tells Peter, "Get behind me Satan" (Matthew 16:23)

  • Jesus tells James and John, "You have no idea what spirit you are of" (Luke 9:55-56)

• Tongues

  • This is when someone starts speaking in a language that they do not know.

  • There is a distinction in Scripture between "Speaking in tongues" as in standing up before a group and giving a message that is in another language, and "praying in tongues" which is when we ourselves are praying to God in a language that we do not know. (1 Corinthians 14)

• Interpretation of Tongues

  • This is when supernaturally we can interpret a message in tongues given by someone else. The Scripture tells us to make sure we have someone with this gift if we are going to be giving a message in front of a congregation in tongues. (1 Corinthians 14)

• v11 "He distributes to each one as HE wills"

  • We were all made for a purpose and equipped with what we need to fulfill that purpose. God has given each of us gifts according to what He created us to do and Paul tells us to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts"

• v15-21

  • We need each member to be using their own gifts so that each piece can fit together and work together, not as individual parts, but as one body with each part doing a needed job.  The eye sees, but the ear hears. The hand moves things, but the feet move the body. We can't operate in fullness if one part is not carrying out its job. 

• • Personal prayer/Conversational prayer

    • This is the prayer when it is just you and God and you converse about your day, your needs, and your thoughts, it is intimate prayer time (Mathew 6:6)

  • Intercessory prayer

    •  Ezekiel 22:30-31, the prophet says on behalf of God, "And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them "

    • This type of prayer allows us to go to God on behalf of a person or group and ask for help and mercy for them.

  • Soaking Prayer

    • This is a type of prayer where we rarely speak, once we are in the presence of God we then just rest there with Him and allow him to work and speak in us. 

    • Exodus 33:11 After speaking with the Lord face to face, Moses would return to the camp, but Joshua would stay behind and linger in the presence of the Lord.

    • Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I AM God."

    • Psalm 23:1-3 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul”

  • Declaratory/Warfare Prayer

    • Job 22:27-28 "You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, And you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways."

    • This is the type of prayer where we declare the words of God and He commissions angels to carry out His word on behalf of his people. 

  • Praying for someone/Laying on of hands

    • When we lay hands on someone to pray for them it is like we become the conduit allowing God's power to flow through us and impart (to give, convey, or grant from a store) to them something from Him. 

    • 1 Timothy 4:14 "Do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy and the laying on of hands by the Elders"

• Is there a biblical basis for "Falling out" or being "Slain in the Spirit"?

Click here to see a chart of biblical examples of falling under God's power. 

• • 1 Samuel 19 King Saul is trying to kill David so he runs to take shelter with Samuel the prophet. Saul sent messengers to capture David, but when they came into the presence of the prophets worshiping and prophesying the Spirit of the Lord came upon them and they could do nothing but worship and prophesy as well. After this happened 3 times Saul decided to go get David from Saul himself but before he even arrived the Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul causing him to shake out of his clothes and (v24) "prophesied ...and lay naked all that day and night."

  • Acts 8:15-24 After Philip preached and did many miracles the Samaritans believed in Christ, then John and Peter began to lay hands on them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit. There was a sorcerer there who could also do mighty works of sorcery and he gave his life to Christ (v10), but (v18) "When Simon (the sorcerer) saw that through the laying on of hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money" that they may teach him this power. Although this man was already respected by the people for his sorcery, what he saw happen when the Apostles laid their hands on people so caught his attention that he was willing to pay them so he could learn to do it too.

  • Acts 10 Peter had been commanded to preach the gospel to the Gentiles and was at the house of Cornelius where many had gathered to hear his message. (v44) "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word."

    • The word "fell" in this verse is the Greek word Epipipto (Strongs Concordance G1968) and it means to embrace (with affection) to seize (with violence)  -to fall into or upon, to lie or press upon, in other words, to tackle. This word is used several times in the new testament in relation to the movement of the Holy Spirit upon people and the accompanying manifestations. 

  • If I were to stick my finger in an electrical socket my body will twitch and jerk as a manifestation of the electrical power flowing through it. If electrical power will cause my body to have a physical manifestation, how much more will it be when my physical body encounters God's power?

• Click here to see more scriptural examples of Falling in the Spirit

• The Persecuted Church

  • This week we had a special guest Derek Henning who has spent the past 4 years in China and shared with us about how the church there is persecuted and some of the things the underground church has to do to survive in China's communist environment.

  • Derek's testimony was both fascinating and enlightening and there is no way I would be able to type all that he shared, I did however get to share that when Derek was 16 (now 28) we met and I was able to pray for him and he was miraculously healed of a sports injury and the Holy Spirit came upon him causing him to fall and shake (in a books-a-million parking lot).  This encounter showed him the reality of God's power which was important to him living in constant threat under communist China.

  • We shared about how in India often the Christian villages will be attacked the people murdered for their faith. One girl woke up to her father's head on a stick in her front yard. He was killed because he was a Christian, and his daughter said something to the effect of "I count it a blessing to be a part of this" because Jesus said if we suffer with Him then we will reign with Him. (actual video on the documentary "Furious Love")

  • We told the story (watch the video here) of an Iranian Christian woman who married someone from the States and they moved here and he worked very hard to give her a nice house and things, but mostly to let her know that she was safe and that in America she didn't have to live in fear of being persecuted for her faith.  A couple of years in she says she wants to go home to Iran, and when he asks her why she said "There is a lullaby being sung over the church in America, and I'm beginning to fall asleep".  She would prefer to live where she was in mortal danger for her faith, but be where Christians are authentic and God is moving, than to be where it is safe and the church is asleep.

  • I made the point that Christians are the most persecuted religious group on earth (Statistics on Christian Persecutions 2022) it is amazing that in many of these countries, Christians are willing to lose their family, livelihood, and lives for the name of Jesus and often are not able to receive good and consistent teaching and instruction, but here we are filled over and over and over again and we choose to do nothing with it.