(1906 San Francisco earthquake: Wikipedia)

A small earthquake shook Southern California 24 years ago and a new move of God surrounding the gift of prophesy and the ministry of the prophetic came forth.

I remember it well since I was at that conference in Anaheim when it all started and I have the tapes and the t-shirt to show for it so to speak. John Wimber was scheduled to speak the first night and he referred to the earthquake as introducing and confirming the new speaker. Then he proceeded to introduce Paul Cain to the 5,000 or so folks attending the conference that was supposed to be about ‘Spiritual Warfare’ but ended up being about the gift of prophecy, the ministry of prophets, and the modern church instead. A shaking followed in the Vineyard Movement.

It doesn’t seem possible but 24 years have come and gone with some incredible highs along with lows and lessons learned the hard way. It was the beginning of what some call ‘The Prophetic Movement’ but no one involved calls it that. It was introduced out here following a small quake but how it has shaken the American Church since then has been anything but small.

Now a major earthquake- ‘The Big One’ is long over due in Southern California and many Christians in the last five years or so have had dreams and visions of it. Most believe that it is just a matter of time -God’s timing. But remember, sometimes what God is doing in the natural reflects something that going on in the spiritual realm just like the small quake did 24 years ago.

Along with the dreams of doom many Christians out here and elsewhere have also seen visions of a new revival or ‘Jesus Movement’ that will shake Southern California once again. This time for the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. A major Kingdom event that could end up shaking the whole church.

So what kind of quake is is going to be? Natural or Spiritual or maybe both?

Actually at VCC Laguna Niguel we are preparing for both. Across the street from our church is the huge federal building parking lot which is designated as a site for emergency services and medical care in the event of a major catastrophe in South Orange County, California. Meanwhile, we have a 24,000 square-foot warehouse filled with food and clothing and 2 years ago we were able to send a cargo container with 100,000 bottles of water and other emergency supplies to Japan when the big one along with the tsunami that followed hit there.

But more indicative of what I am really talking about is the mini revival that seems to be going on in that same warehouse. Hundreds have come to Christ in the last year and major miracles and healings continue to happen nearly every time the place is open to the public offering food and clothing to those in need. The expectation is that it is merely a foretaste of what God wants to do Spiritually all across Orange County and Southern California.

I started thinking about this and decided to share some of my thoughts after I read an account in Charisma of a dream that James Goll had where he saw Southern California represented as ‘a womb’ that would bring forth a major revival once more. A birth that is imminent and overdue just like the ‘big one’ in the natural.            *Top 

May 2, 2013: National Day of Prayer- USA

National Prayer:

Father, we come to You to pray for our nation, the United States of America.

How You have blessed us through the years, Lord! We rightly sing, “America, America, God shed His grace on thee.” Yet we see trouble in our culture today. We see the breakdown of the family, crippling addictions, and random acts of horrific violence.

Lord, we need Your help in America. In recent days, we have done our best to remove Your Word and Your counsel from our courtrooms, classrooms and culture. It seems, as President Lincoln once said, that we have “forgotten God.” But Lord, You have not forgotten us! You can bless and help and revive our country again.

Scripture tells us that “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34). Lord, in Your mercy, we ask that You would exalt our country again. We have had a number of great awakenings in America. We have experienced times of refreshing, and revivals that changed not only the spiritual but also the moral landscape. As the psalmist said, “Will You not revive us again, so that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:6)

That is our prayer for America today, Lord. Send a mighty spiritual awakening that will turn the hearts of men and women, boys and girls back to you. You have told us if we will humble ourselves and pray, and seek Your face and turn from our wicked ways, that You will forgive our sins and heal our land. (2 Chronicles7:14)

Forgive us today, Lord, and heal this troubled land that we love so much.

We ask all of this in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

-Pastor Greg Laurie, 2013 Honorary Chairman

<Here’s a link to the NDP website which lists all of the events of the day>

This is a great time to add your prayers to the millions praying for America today. Please pray for a spiritual awakening that our nation will turn once more back to God and be revived and blessed.                *Top

J. Lee Grady has an article which lists 9 bad habits that we really should reconsider. I have experienced every one of these one time or another and it is a matter of degree in each case.

Anything that is a natural response to the Holy Spirit is one thing but when some of our actions become ‘expected’ and part of an act or when we attempt to re-create something that was a blessing at some conference or another is when we enter the territory that Grady is talking about here. It is the traditional ‘formulas’ that actual sap the strength of the Holy Spirit and drive it right out of the room.

“9 Bad Charismatic Habits We Need to Break”:

1. The body slam.

2. The courtesy drop.

3. The song that never ends.

4. The amateur flag corp.

5. The wannabe telethon offering.

6. The sermon with seven endings.

7. The praise-a-go-go dancers.

8. The ear-shattering amp.

9. The "jump-start" glossalalia.

Read the whole article and what J. Lee Grady has to say about each of the nine. I will say this about “the sermon with seven endings”- I have experienced this many times in churches which don’t even believe in the ‘gifts’ so it may be an American pastoral problem in general.

Also I have been at a service where there was a ‘song that never ends’ and no one really wanted it to since the Spirit was really in it. I have also endured what Grady is talking about which is was a ‘formula’ trying to make something happen that the Holy Spirit really isn’t in.

The one listed here that has always bothered me the most is the ‘jump-start’ on tongues. Personally that was tried on me and I didn’t get it then but latter one morning when I tried to order breakfast at a restaurant. So much for my highly educated respectability. I laugh every time I think about how I struggled that morning to order my eggs and sausage.            *Top

(Image by abcdz2000 via Flickr)

May You and your family have a wonderful Easter. May we all remember and reflect upon what is really important after all the cultural fun of Easter bunnies, colored eggs, and special ham dinners and family get togethers. May we remember what the day is really all about—the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Happy Resurrection Day!

When the women went to the tomb on Easter morning the rock was rolled away and the tomb was empty. Not only that but an angel met them there and said:

“Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come see the place where he lay.”

…And behold Jesus met them and said, “Greetings! Do not be afraid…” –Matt.28:5-10

Another good scripture to remember–this is what Jesus told Martha before he raised her brother Lazarus from the grave:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?  -John 11:25-26

The good question for each one of us today—Do you believe this?

*Top

                                            (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Here’s my traditional post for ‘Good Friday.’ Never understood what was so good about this day. After all, the forces of evil celebrated on this day nearly 2,000 years ago at the death of Jesus but Sunday changed everything:

My Favorite message of all time for Good Friday is by Dr. Tony Campolo. Here is a link to the famous tape and where it can be downloaded.

The whole tape is great but the best part is at the end when Tony Campolo recalls one Sunday when he had a little preaching competition with the head pastor at the church where he attends.

Dr. Campolo tells how he preached the perfect sermon in every way and had taken the congregation to ‘the heights of glory’. As he sat down beside his pastor, Dr. Tony patted him on the knee and simply said, “Top that.” The older black pastor looked at him and said, “Boy, watch the master.” Then Dr. Campolo recalls for us the very brilliant message which followed.

The following is a short printed version of the 45 minute sermon–the printed version doesn’t really do justice to the original, but you can at least get an idea what the last part is like:

It’s Friday. But Sunday’s coming—

It was a simple sermon, starting softly, building in volume and intensity until the entire congregation was completely involved, repeating the phrases in unison. The sermon went something like this.

It’s Friday. Jesus is arrested in the garden where He was praying. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The disciples are hiding and Peter’s denying that he knows the Lord. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is standing before the high priest of Israel, silent as a lamb before the slaughter. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is beaten, mocked, and spit upon. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Those Roman soldiers are flogging our Lord with a leather scourge that has bits of bones and glass and metal, tearing at his flesh. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The Son of man stands firm as they press the crown of thorns down into his brow. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. See Him walking to Calvary, the blood dripping from His body. See the cross crashing down on His back as He stumbles beneath the load. It’s Friday; but Sunday’s a coming.

It’s Friday. See those Roman soldiers driving the nails into the feet and hands of my Lord. Hear my Jesus cry, “Father, forgive them.” It’s Friday; but Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross, bloody and dying. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. The sky grows dark, the earth begins to tremble, and He who knew no sin became sin for us. Holy God who will not abide with sin pours out His wrath on that perfect sacrificial lamb who cries out, “My God, My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?” What a horrible cry. But Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. And at the moment of Jesus’ death, the veil of the Temple that separates sinful man from Holy God was torn from the top to the bottom because Sunday’s coming.

It’s Friday. Jesus is hanging on the cross, heaven is weeping and hell is partying. But that’s because it’s Friday, and they don’t know it, but Sunday’s a coming.

And on that horrible day 2000 years ago, Jesus the Christ, the Lord of glory, the only begotten Son of God, the only perfect man died on the cross of Calvary. Satan thought that he had won the victory. Surely he had destroyed the Son of God. Finally he had disproved the prophecy God had uttered in the Garden and the one who was to crush his head had been destroyed. But that was Friday.

Now it’s Sunday. And just about dawn on that first day of the week, there was a great earthquake. But that wasn’t the only thing that was shaking because now it’s Sunday. And the angel of the Lord is coming down out of heaven and rolling the stone away from the door of the tomb. Yes, it’s Sunday, and the angel of the Lord is sitting on that stone and the guards posted at the tomb to keep the body from disappearing were shaking in their boots because it’s Sunday, and the lamb that was silent before the slaughter is now the resurrected lion from the tribe of Judah, for He is not here, the angel says. He is risen indeed.

It’s Sunday, and the crucified and resurrected Christ has defeated death, hell, sin and the grave. It’s Sunday. And now everything has changed. It’s the age of grace, God’s grace poured out on all who would look to that crucified lamb of Calvary. Grace freely given to all who would believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross of Calvary was buried and rose again. All because it’s Sunday.

At the end of the message the pastor shouts out:

It’s Friiidaaaay!

And the whole congregation responds:

But Sunday’s Coming!

*Top

                     (Photo credit: Old Shoe Woman)

Last year was an extraordinary year at VCC Laguna Niguel and 2013 seems to be even more so. ‘More’ is the key word. The church is experiencing the Kingdom breaking through in a number of different ways especially in healings and miracles.

One thing that we have decided to do in the last several years is to continue to pray for healing until proven otherwise –death proving the otherwise. Some of our congregation have finally received remarkable healings after years of prayer with no results. This has encouraged us to keep on keeping on.

Along the way we are also learning to rejoice and celebrate even minor victories when God brings any kind of relief or partial healing. Some Christians seem to find partial healings to be somewhat controversial nevertheless we are dedicated to always celebrate what ever God gives us. Yet we also continue to pray for even greater blessings.

The most important change for us came when we began to notice that healings or miracles in one area seemed to open to door and dial up the faith for others to receive similar blessings. We started calling these ‘Gracelines’ since a whole line of similar healings, miracles, and testimonies have followed.

For 5 years or more our church had become a ‘migraine free’ zone where a large number of people in our congregation who used to suffer from severe reoccurring migraine headaches had received substantial healing. Doesn’t sound like much unless you are plagued and occasionally disabled by that malady.

Then this last year one of our key leaders in our healing rooms received a remarkable healing of his eyesight in one eye which had severely degenerated. Then later he and others had prayed for a lady who was legally blind and her sight impossibly began to increase over a week or so until she could actually read again. More remarkable healings in eyesight have followed and continues to this day. In my own case, I had one eye with distorted vision. When I looked upon a straight line or board with my one eye it would look crooked to me with a jagged line in the center but after prayer one day in church that went away. Still need glasses but at my age I am truly thankful for the blessing of better eyesight.

Then another brother who had continual pain in his shoulder for 5 years was healed and it has opened to door to many others with shoulder trouble and severe pain to be healed. The testimonies are still coming in on that one. Then there was another with knee problems with similar results and breakthroughs.

Another Graceline opened when a pastor’s wife testified that she had lost a necklace that was really dear to her and prayed for its return for several days. Then one morning it just appeared around her neck. I know that is a strange one for many and I have no theological explanation for it but it has opened a door for others to pray for lost things with amazing results. Many have received dreams or visions of the location of what they had lost after prayer.

On one occasion I could not find my keys after looking everywhere I could think of for 30 minutes or so. Finally time was up and I really needed to get going to work. Usually at that point in the equation I would have been fuming and yelling at my dear wife and blaming her for moving them but then I remembered a couple of the Graceline testimonies and turned to prayer instead and immediately had a picture of myself working in the garage the evening before and found my keys right where I left them on the work table. All this may sound trivial to some but believe me my wife is even more thankful for this blessing than I am.

Then there was a couple early last year who are worship leaders/musicians who testified that they had prayed for money to pay their rent and while driving down I5 Freeway money rained down on their windshield and when they pulled over and picked it up they found that it was just enough to pay the rent with $10 left over which they gave to a homeless person the next day. Then after that another lady testified that when she went to buy a car, the vehicle she really needed was several thousand more than she knew she really had but the Lord told her to buy it anyway and when she handed over the cash she had in an envelope it somehow had multiplied and was exactly enough to complete the sale. This not only opened a door but a deluge has followed with new testimonies nearly every week.

We have started to call these- ‘mail box miracles’ since so many of the testimonies that followed have revolved around folks receiving needed prayed for unexpected money in the mail. In these dire economic times, many in our church are living from week to week trusting in God like never before to bring what is needed to support their families. One week I was a couple hundred dollars short of the expense money I needed for an out of town business trip. I had prayed for help in that area but still was completely surprised when I received a $200 check in the mail from a Christian contractor I had used for referring him to a neighbor across the street for a job. Amazing.

We have a lot of business owners in our congregation and these have been particularly tough times for small businesses but God has been faithful through it all. I will save that for another post. But another door which has been particularly significant is the ‘job’ Graceline. So many of our folks have lost jobs in this economy and have been out of work that we started actually taking time on Sunday morning to pray for those who needed new jobs or business with remarkable results. While the jobless rate in our county is still above 10% nearly everyone in our congregation is now working and paying their bills.

Bottom line- this is not revival but it is better than we have ever seen before and I have already posted about the even more remarkable things happening in our outreach ministries. But there is nothing happening here that isn’t happening or can’t happen elsewhere. It is just now happening more often. It is a matter of our faith and expectations being dialed up and increased exponentially in certain areas in response to the testimonies and experiences of other brothers and sisters in Christ.

Our understanding of ‘Gracelines’ is that when you take the time to acknowledge and rejoice in what God is doing he seems to open up the door to The Kingdom breaking through even more in the same areas. We have also found that including testimonies in our regular Sunday services has encouraged our people to live by faith and include God in their everyday living. Blessings have followed, miracles and healings have increased, Gracelines have continued, and our faith, expectations, and thankfulness have gone to another level.              *Top

     ( Ziggerat in Laguna Niguel, CA: Wikipedia)

Last February VCC Laguna Niguel sent a team to India and had incredible results during the 2 weeks or so that they were there with 10’s of thousands coming to Christ, along with hundreds of healings including a number of miracles which featured lame folks that now walk and blind who now see.

On the plane on way back, Pastor Mike pleaded to the Lord for similar results back home in South Orange County, California. At the time we were hopeful for revival to break out in our church. While our services at VCC seemed to dial up considerably in 2012 most of the healings, miracles, and salvations that one would associate with revival actually began to happen among our people ‘outside the walls’ of the church at Starbucks, Walmart, Costco, at the malls and at high school games. Even at the federal ‘Ziggerat’ building across the street but particularly at our Mercy Warehouse Ministry just across the parking lot.

The Kingdom started breaking though in the food warehouse in March. Since then as far as we can tell over 403 people have come to Christ along with several hundred healings and miracles which continue to happen nearly every time we open the doors of the 24,000 square-foot facility. Meanwhile the faith of the warehouse volunteers for talking to folks about Christ and praying for healing in that ministry has risen to another level entirely. It is no longer Nazareth in that place but far closer to India.

It wasn’t until the last few months of the year after numerous accounts and testimonies that it began to dawn on us that the Kingdom was breaking through and God was doing some extraordinary things among our people ‘outside the walls’ of our church.            *Top

“When the Foundations are being destroyed what can the righteous do?” –Palm 11:3

The very foundations of our country were shaken when 26 children and teachers were recently killed in Newtown, Conn. What is the real answer to the causes of events like this in our country. Is is really all about guns? 

In 2013 we are living in a culture where the foundations are being destroyed. What is our role? We now live in a country where  evil is now considered good and visa versa. What now can we say?

A couple of weeks ago a Christian preacher who was chosen to give the benediction at the inaugural was deemed unworthy and dismissed because he once preached a Biblical sermon against homosexuality. Also another evangelical pastor was sued for “crimes against humanity” for his anti-gay teaching. We now live in a world that is upside down- Gay is good and traditional Biblical teaching about homosexuality is bad.

Some in the media are now calling for the Bible to be changed and there is a serious ongoing discussion about doing away with prayers and the Bible when political leaders are sworn into office. Some actually now claim that the Bible is too ‘evil’ and full of ‘wrong teaching’ that offends 21th century cultural sensibilities. It also opposes a secular/progressive agenda for necessary change so must be eliminated. How can Bible believing Christians respond to all of this?

When the foundations are being destroyed it is time for believers to stand on the sure foundation of the Word of God and refused to be moved. It is also time to celebrate and rejoice and demonstrate the real blessings that we have received and continue to receive through the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit sent by our Father in Heaven.

May His Kingdom break through in America in ways that can no longer be hidden or ignored and let us continue to stand on the one foundation that can never be destroyed in time or eternity.           *Top

Happy New Year- 2013!

It is a good time to begin the year right with a prayer for peace around the world.

Remember to pray for the peace in Jerusalem and in the Middle East. Also let’s remember to pray that the Iranian drive for nuclear weapons will somehow be peacefully resolved.

It is also a great time to pray for our economy which seems to be stuck in recession with all sort of folks (self appointed experts) warning that maybe the worst is yet to come?

Meanwhile, we have political leaders in Washington DC that seem to be more interested in pushing their own agenda and increasing their own political power above that which might be best for the country and the world. Let’s pray that this tendency will be turned around in 2013.

There are Christians all around the world being persecuted for their faith. Let’s remember them in our prayers. Just in the last week – Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani was re-arrested and taken from his family in Iran on Christmas Day, 12 Christians were killed by Muslim terrorists in Nigeria during Christmas Eve services, 41 Christians were arrested by the religious police in Saudi Arabia for having a Christmas party in a private home, a Christian man in Syria was beheaded by the Islamist rebels and fed to  animals, and 10 million+ Coptic Christians in Egypt are now facing a new reality of life under a newly approved radical sharia supporting Constitution.

It is also a good time to pray that revival will come to places all around America and that the American church will experience a new reformation of hope and finally stand up and bear the light and hope of the Good News of Jesus Christ to a darkening culture and people that desperately need good news and hope in their lives.

May God bless us all in 2013.                *Top           

                             (Image via CrunchBase)

Facebook now has over a Billion users which includes nearly half of all those on the Internet worldwide.  According to a LA Times article Facebook execs are shooting for the rest:

"We’re not a company that is just trying to add more people," said Chris Cox, Facebook’s vice president of product. "What we are trying to do is build a service that everyone in the world can use."

<Read the whole article>

It is amazing how the Internet has become a part of the lives of so many people in so little time. Here is just one social network that is now touching over a billion people worldwide in over a hundred nations. The fact that it has happened in only 8 years is really shocking. It took Christianity over 1900 years to reach a billion souls.

From a Christian perspective, the Internet has the potential to become the new ‘Roman Road’ that can even provide access to people in lands where missionaries are not allowed to go. Now people can come to Christ and receive Christian and Biblical teaching on the Internet even if they live in countries like Saudi Arabia where Christian churches are illegal.

The potential for using the Internet and social networks like Facebook for spreading the Gospel is astounding. It gives me real hope for taking the ‘good news’ of Jesus Christ to every nation and for a worldwide Christian harvest and revival in this generation.            *Top