Arise and Come Away With Me…


Sensitivity to Holy Spirit
October 20, 2009, 5:23 pm
Filed under: Evangelism, Prophecy

Here I am, back in the secular work force again, no longer in my cushy job working for the prayer movement. Though I do work with a fellow Firestarter, Brett, I have much more access to unbelievers (sort of). I work in the tiny town (though not as tiny as Ottertail) of New York Mills. The downtown area in which I work consists of a home center, chiropracter, bar, cafe, bakery, credit union, real estate office, cultural center, library and a couple of beauty shops… and that is all. Seriously.

But you know what? Working and living in a small town gives you an awesome oppurtunity to build relationships and impact the small community you are in. It will take some getting use to in adjusting my mindset from city to small town. No longer do I just walk into a coffee shop and walk out without paying attention to anyone (because no one in a big city pays attention to you either). Instead, everyone knows everyone else and because of the slower pace of life, people actually make time for eachother.

But to impact a community, building relationships is not the only key. We must learn to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, asking for words of knowledge and prophesying destiny and the love of Jesus over them. 1 Corinthians 14 says that we are to “eagerly desire to prophesy” so that the church may be built up. It is used for strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Verse 24-25 says this:

24But if an unbeliever or someone who does not understand[h]comes in while everybody is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, 25and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”

Prophecy impacts the hearts of men and women who are confronted with the truth of the Living God. But prophecy is also a way for us to learn the true meaning of friendship with God. Even though He doesn’t need us, He chooses to use us in this way because He desires to spend time with us and tell us His secrets.

So in this season I want to learn how to be sensitive to Holy Spirit even while I’m in the midst of people that are living in darkness. The Word of God brings life and we are carriers of that Word which lives inside of us. Jesus is the Word (John 1:1) and because He lives in us, we can speak forth His Word with boldness and know that it is Him speaking.

Enough of this for now…

1 Comment


The Emergent Church: What Does it Mean in the End of the Age?
November 13, 2008, 8:55 pm
Filed under: Bible Study, Biblical love, Communing with the Holy Spirit, End Times, Eternity, Evangelism, Grace, Humanism, Intercession, Intimacy with God, Justice, Leadership, Martyrdom, Maturity, Prayer, Prophecy, Social Activism, Spirit of the Age, The Church, Wisdom

* The following statements are not necessarily the beliefs of the International House of Prayer but are based on my own opinions… the opinions of Brooke Turner.

I am not a heresy hunter therefore I want to first affirm some of the sincere qualities of the emergent church. I have been a participant in the Emergent Church movement in recent years and some of those involved in this movement are people that are very much beloved by me. This is not intended to bring hurt or cause disunity in the church, however, I felt the need to share my heart about this matter because it is an area of great concern to me.

The emergent movement began initially to address the great decrease in church attendance among young adults. It was clear that traditional church culture was not drawing the lost to Jesus. And so in observation of this dilemma, a web of ideas began to circulate among many young leaders. The underlying theme seemed to be: “how do we get the world to like us more so that in return, they will start coming to our churches/home groups etc?”

I believe that many “emergents” have a sincere burden for the lost. Many of them are characterized by great compassion for the poor and the marginalized. They have a desire to break out of the traditional Christian culture mode and relate to the lost in a new and fresh way. This is admirable considering the great majority of the church seems to feel more comfortable hiding behind the four walls of the church than venturing out into the world to love and serve the lost.

However, I have many concerns about the direction the emergent church has gone in recent years. The primary reason I have these concerns is because I believe that we are at the end of the age. Unlike a large percentage of the church, I believe that instead of being “sucked up” to heaven during the tribulation… we will actually be living here on earth. The tribulation will be used to purify the Bride of Christ and make them ready for His return to earth (2 Peter 3:14, Revelation 19:7-8). If you can find a verse supporting a pre-tribulation rapture, I would love to find out where it is because I haven’t seen one and personally… I would love to stay up there in heaven while hell breaks out down here on earth… but it ain’t gonna happen that way, folks.

The emergent movement has challenged the explicit truth of the Bible that we are to live Holy and blameless lives (Ephesians 1:3-5). Instead of using intimacy with Jesus and the powerful gifts of the Holy Spirit living inside of us to draw unbelievers to the truth, they have instead utilized compromise as a bridge to the lost. This may sound harsh but I myself have experienced this. In fact I was one of the promoters of this style of evangelism: “let’s hang out in bars, drink what we want and that way the lost will feel more comfortable around us.” Did it lead anyone to Jesus? I don’t remember one person coming to Jesus through this method and even if there was such a person, they sure weren’t being fed the truth of the gospel.

Why are we so concerned if the world likes us? We are actually suppose to expect that the world HATES us. 1 John 3:13 says, “do not be surprised brothers, if the world hates you.” In Jesus’ conversation with His father before his death on the cross he prays for us, His followers, “I have given them Your Word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.” John 3:19 says “this is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil.” Yes. It is uncomfortable to be around people who hate us because we love Jesus. We are commanded to love them anyway but we are not given permission to join them in their sin. It pains me to think that we are using a false message of grace to exploit the work done on the cross. Grace is not a reason Jesus gave us to sin. Grace was given to us to empower us to keep from sinning. Sinning just because we can is a mockery of what Jesus has done on the cross.

So how do we reach the lost then? I have a few ideas 1. PRAY. Pray for the lost to know Jesus. Pray for specific people. Pray for their hearts to be open to the gospel. Pray for encounters with Jesus and dreams in the night. GOD is a real, active, and personal God and He is always moving. He wants evangelism to be a partnership with Him… not just some idea that we come up with on our own. 2. Prophesy. Yes. That’s what I said. 1 Corinthians 14:24-25 says that “if an unbeliever or someone does not understand comes in while everyone is prophesying, he will be convinced by all that he is a sinner and will be judged by all, and the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God, exclaiming ‘God is really among you!’. 3. Serving the lost. Feed them, clothe them, but don’t feed and clothe them without introducing them to Jesus. Without Jesus, humanitarian efforts are pointless. We are simply making their lives more comfortable as the drift away to hell.

A message of holiness, intimacy and purity for God CAN work in a young adult movement. Just look at my community, IHOP. The International House of Prayer is comprised mostly of young adults. Imagine that. Around a thousand or more young adults, pursuing Jesus as their ONE desire, and striving to live a life before God that is blameless. It can happen. Young adults are looking for something bigger than they are. In the words of Misty Edwards “there’s something bigger going on… something bigger than ME.”

In light of the times that we are in… and trust me… we are very very close to the tribulation… I want to introduce a few other dangers with the emergent church.

Because Jesus return is so imminent, the Sprit of the Anti-Christ is increasing rapidly. The Apostle John refers to this in 1 John 1:2-3. It is a spirit that deceives unbelievers into trusting in the false doctrine that Jesus is indeed NOT fully God and fully man. This spirit will be prevalent even in the body of Christ and well… it actually is already very prevalent. The emergent church has been characterized by a pervading deception that questions, ever so subtley, the deity of Jesus our Lord. This will start out in a seemingly subtle way and then increase in deception over time. A few years ago, I was able to hear a very popular emergent speaker. I will not share his name because it is not my desire that anyone should be ’singled out’, but some of the things this man referred to have disturbed me for some years now. He made a statement similar to: “the book of Genesis is outdated and archaic” and then began to subtley share his unbelief in what he seemed to believe wasn’t inerrant, God-breathed scripture on how the earth was formed and created by an uncreated Being. 2 Timothy 4:2-4 says this, “3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” People who are uncomfortable with the truth of God’s inerrant Word will find someone to preach to them what they desire to hear. This is dangerous, why? 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 explains about the Spirit of the Anti-Christ or the Spirit of Lawlessness as it is otherwise called: “the coming of the lawless one will be in accordance to the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perished because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness.” There will be many in the church, who once called themselves Christians, who will fall away from Jesus because of offense.

In essence… we don’t have time to mess around. This spirit is in the world RIGHT NOW. We cannot allow any form of deception from the enemy. We cannot allow ourselves to sit in compromise. If our consciences are bothering us at all, we must turn away from that sin. Paul said that he “strives to keep his conscience clear before both God and man.” In humility and without religious pride, we must lay hold of the prize that is set before us… JESUS! We must live lives holy and blameless before Jesus and before the World. This includes loving each other. This includes serving each other but it also includes fleeing from immorality, darkness, dangerous theology, and drunkenness.

5 Comments


I love the poor.
September 15, 2008, 4:58 pm
Filed under: Evangelism, Humanism, Justice, Sermon on the Mount, Social Activism

I just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that my previous, very angry post a couple of blogs below this one was entirely sarcastic.

The article link that I posted in that particular blog has been taken down, most likely not only because it was extremely controversial but more accurately… absolutely insidiously evil.

The title of the article from LA Times wrote as such “Canadian Doctor warns that Sarah Palin’s refusal to abort her Down Syndrome child could result in a Reduced Number of Abortions”. Seriously. Are you kidding me? He goes on to explain that most mothers aren’t prepared for the difficulties raising a Down Syndrome child can provide… so we should just murder them?

So when will the line be drawn? That is my question. I despise politics. What pains me is the obvious contradictions both political parties take. Obama votes to allow the brains of partially unborn babies to be sucked out of their skulls. And if other babies don’t die in late term abortions after they are born, he wants to take the baby, stick it in a dirty linen closet and let it starve to death… yet he says he loves the poor which the Republican party doesn’t seem to be too concerned with… yet the Republican party tends to side with those that believe life is sacred and begins and conception… and don’t believe in slaughtering millions and millions of babies for the sake of convenience.

Amanda Beattie has just written a great blog on the poor and justice. I’ve made this statement a couple of times that we should always help and feed the poor. This was the heart of Jesus. He loved the poor and it was primarily to this audience that he taught… however that is the key. He fed them (supernatually, I might add) but he also shared His gospel with them. If we feed the poor without giving them a message of hope and salvation through Jesus Christ, this is not true justice because looking at things through an eternal standpoint– if they don’t know Jesus, they have no hope. We are just making life more comfortable for them as they glide slowly into eternal damnation. On the other hand, how can we justify not feeding them at all? How can we who have somewhat cushy jobs, have an air-conditioning unit, have enough food to survive on and even purchase the occasional pair of blue jeans… how can we spit on those in that receive welfare from the government?

What about the single mom who refused to have an abortion? Are we suppose to ignore her circumstances when she is doing everything she can to take care of her child but ends just aren’t being met? She doesn’t have the money to get an education and take care of her child. Her child then grows up and attends an inner city school with incredibly low standards because all of the education funds go to schools filled with wealthier children in wealthier neighborhoods. The cycle is repeated and these children aren’t even given a chance.

Aren’t we to care for the orphan and the widow? I hate how the church has seemingly turned a blind eye to these fundamental issues.

… but I’m still voting against sucking the brains of babies out and leaving them to die, starved in the linen closets of abortion clinics.

6 Comments


The Giants of the Land.
September 13, 2007, 9:52 am
Filed under: Evangelism, Intercession, Social Activism, Spiritual Warfare

I feel a bit like Joshua going into Canaan to spy out the land. Though there seem to be so many huge obstacles here, I know, by faith and prayer that God will accomplish whatever He chooses and He wants to use intercessors to do it!

Yesterday I was walking somewhere between Picadilly Circus and Soho. Soho is kind of a posh area but is notorious for sex rings, brothels and other very immoral places. I was walking to see a play because this is also the theater district. As I was passing a little nook in the side of the street I spotted a young girl around 16 or 17. She was very thin and had sores… something like bruises or bites all over her legs. My heart sunk as I walked past her, at that moment not really knowing how to respond. How could I go up and start telling her about Jesus and His love for her in a situation like she was in? I got an idea and quickly went to buy her lunch and bring it back to her.  I breathed a sigh of relief that she was still in the same spot, handed her the lunch and started to talk about Jesus to her and that He was taking care of her. She was very unresponsive, took the food and I walked away, heartbroken.

Later on that evening, I was telling my host family the story and they explained to me that human trafficking was a huge problem in London. Oftentimes a girl will escape from a brothel and find herself on the streets. Most of these girls are stolen from Eastern Europe. I couldn’t believe it. For some reason I never even thought about that issue while I was here and now it infuriates me! After hearing that, more than ever I wished I could take that girl home with me.

Seeing something like this firsthand, gives me more of an urgency to pray for the issue. My head is still spinning.

2 Comments


Holiness. Have I got your attention now?
September 11, 2007, 10:26 pm
Filed under: End Times, Evangelism, Grace, Humility, Intimacy with God, Jesus Loves Me, Maturity, Spirit of the Age

I was just up reading and praying when I started to think about something hard… and well I thought I would share it. Friday night before I left I had a few friends over and as we were talking, I found myself back in a mindset that I haven’t been in in awhile. Though what my friends were talking about was provoking me in some good ways, I became a little confused as to what I really believed anymore about certain issues.

Depending on the person the word “holiness” could have a good or a bad conotation. To some of my friends that have grown up in legalism, uber-piety, and un-sincere fundamentalism churchiness, the word “holiness” can bring up feelings of resentment, condemnation, and well… bitterness. Having been the daughter of an Assemblies of God pastor, I have felt the brunt of the misuse of this word for years and years. It wasn’t that movies were just not the most edifying things to see when I was a kid… they were BAD and evil (this was not coming from my parents by the way but members of my church) and if you were caught going into a movie theater than you must not be very “holy”.  As a result of the massive amounts of legalism and self-righteousness and ELITISM in my church, later on in my adult years I decided that “holiness” was not worth it if I was going to be constanty baraged by condemnation from other imperfect people.

But as I’ve come to IHOP and spent hours in the prayer room and listenened to the teaching I felt a struggle stirring inside of me. At first I didn’t agree with most of what was taught. I have spent years in an emerging church movement where holiness was rarely a topic that was discussed. Though I loved Jesus and so did my church, I found myself at times drinking a little more than I liked (and then waking up one morning after having one of those nights with a demon in my bed!!!!), having conversations that were clearly not good things to be talking about, not practicing the sermon on the mount or even THINKING about that sermon. All that mattered was that maybe I was learning to love Jesus and spending time with Him but compromise was not something I ever thought of.

The point that I am trying to make is that holiness is not a bad word. The hard thing to understand about holiness though, is that it’s not about rules and if it becomes about rules than it’s totally not from the Lord. I know that I cannot earn God’s love by trying to follow the law. God already loves me more than I could understand. However, my life and how I live it and if I’m keeping a clear conscience should be a natural reflection of my love for the Lord. My striving to be holy shouldn’t stem from trying to out-do someone else (elitism) but it should be fruit of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. It should be a constant listening and speaking relationship with God. It should be from a firm foundation in the Word of God. It’s knowing to obey even when it’s hard (and when I don’t obey… which I admit happens way more than I would like)… because I love Him and I want to stand before Him one day knowing that I didn’t live this life so that I could feel comfortable but I lived this life to build the kingdom.

And just so you know… I don’t think like this every day. I don’t wake up and say “alright Jesus, I’m gonna do my best to build the kingdom today”. Most of the time I want to just be comfortable and sit on my butt all day doing nothing. Most of the time I want to whine and complain about how I have no time for anything or that I can’t see my old friends and do fun things anymore. Sometimes I even reminisce about how much “fun” I had hanging out in bars, playing pool, and drinking beer.

And that brings me to another topic. Drinking beer in a bar with people that are un-saved does NOT bring them to Jesus. Now don’t get me wrong. I actually strongly feel that I am called to hang out in bars with the un-saved… someday. But you do not seem less uptight when you are drinking a beer. It’s not a relating to them through beer-drinking that shows them Jesus, it’s your love for Jesus being clearly evident in how you treat them and love the person you are ministering to. I have other opinions about alcohol consumption that I would prefer to not say on here but just trust that I am not as legalistic as this may appear to you.

In England ESPECIALLY it is a hugely terrible example to be drinking in bars with the un-saved. Why? Because alcoholism is a major major problem even among believers here in this country. We all know that even if we are drinking, we shouldn’t get drunk but what kind of statement would it make if we DID NOT drink at all around others? Yeah, yeah, we may try to justify ourselves and ask why it is such a big deal when we only like the taste of alcohol but I believe that though we think we are having a postive effect we are really having a massively negative effect. I have never in my LIFE after all the years of drinking as a Christian…. EVER had a postive situation happen while drinking. Drinking impairs judgement and in my case, the girl who always puts her foot in her mouth…. it becomes much  more of a problem after I’ve had a few.

The bottom line is, we have to understand that the age we’re in is not “fun time”. Though fun is good and Jesus loves us to have fun, if our version of fun is even POTENTIALLY compromising than why do we even bother????? Yes, we all have issues and none of us love Jesus perfectly and none of us are really righteous but we must must must pursue the heart of God and maturity or we will not make it when it all comes down.

This is like most of the things I’ve been writing for the past year: An explosion of stream of consciousness that is seriosly hard to decifer and I wish that I could explain it better then I have but I just had to unload what was on my heart tonight.

Leave a Comment


Anna, Prophetic Messenger… What’s the Dealio?
August 6, 2007, 2:34 am
Filed under: Communing with the Holy Spirit, Elijah, Evangelism, Prophecy

My roommate and I were having a “discussion” tonight. She was saying that an Anna calling and a prophetic messenger calling are completely seperate from themselves. I told her that you cannot seperate the two. I adopted my beliefs from something Stuart said about this one time. He said that in order to be a prophetic messenger or what we call “Forerunner” that we also have to be an Anna. Why? Because we have to learn how to hear the voice of God in order to prophesy. How do we learn to hear the voice of God? By spending time with Him hours upon hours a day. Sure, we can all prophesy little things at times to eachother but people who really have a relationship with the Holy Spirit will eventually do things like Elijah did with the prophets of Baal (I can’t help it, I love that story). Without spending lots of time with God we can’t operate in power and we can’t operate under a prophetic anointing… pure and simple. So….

We’d like to know you’re opinion… What do you think?

And also… is a prophetic messenger and evangelist the same? I say it CAN be but in essence, no.

4 Comments


Surprise, Surprise.
June 21, 2007, 4:09 pm
Filed under: Evangelism, House of Prayer, Jesus Loves Me, Leadership

sti-2007-003.jpg 

Teens look on in horror as Seth presents boiled crawdads for them to eat in a little game called Faith Factor.

I was a little apprehensive about starting STI. I have never worked with teenagers in this capacity (well, since I myself was a teen, anyway). I was a little afraid I would be annoyed by them and one day I would just go “off” because of some obnoxious behavior. But I have been pleasantly, pleasantly surprised. The group of girls I oversea are AMAZING. In fact the last couple of days have been some of the most fun in my life. The Holy Spirit has shown up every day and I am so thankful that I am able to be a part of this.

The coolest thing that has happened so far is that a 16 year old girl in my group got saved yesterday. Oftentimes a lot of the teens are forced to come here by their parents and haven’t yet committed their lives to the Lord. Denise went forward and as I went up to lay hands on her and pray for her the Spirit of God descended on us. I started prophesying over her and her eyes filled with tears (mine did too!). Jesus ministered His love to her in a very real way and to me, that is the coolest thing that could have happened.

Later on in the afternoon, I was meeting with my 12 girls and we were going around, sharing some things that we we learning. The very last girl began sharing about how she knows she’s been lukewarm and I could sense a real struggle in her heart to give up some things in her life. I could tell she wanted to follow Jesus but she also doubted how real He was and if she could choose Him over other things. So I told her to get up, took her chair and placed it in the middle of the group and had the other girls prophesy over her. Some of the girls prophesied for the first time. The last girl to prophesy over her saw a vision that was very personal to the girl being ministered to. She burst into tears and talked to me afterward about some things she knew she had to say good-bye to in order to follow Jesus. She couldn’t believe that Jesus really knew what was going on in her life.

SO COOL!

1 Comment


The Judgement to Come.
June 11, 2007, 7:14 pm
Filed under: End Times, Evangelism, Family, Fasting, Fear of the Lord, Intimacy with God, Jesus

Since I’ve spoken with my Aunt I can’t help but shake this urgency that I’ve been feeling.  There are soooo many people that are totally unprepared for what is going to happen on this earth. That’s why I think this fast is so great. It’s uncovering all of this hidden sin in our lives and preparing us to be without offense when it all comes down. But there are so many out there that are already offended by this message and we have got to pray for them! I’ve learned that there is nothing I can say to them apart from the Spirit of God prompting me. If they only knew how merciful He was and how much He longed for them to know Him intimately. If they only knew their destiny in Him. Jesus tenderize their hearts and break up the fallow ground! Pluck them out of darkness. Let those who are now lost be found again!

“Even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments, Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave behind a blessing– Joel 2:13-14

3 Comments


Confessions of a Former Emerging Church-er.
May 9, 2007, 7:35 pm
Filed under: End Times, Evangelism, Grace, Sin, Social Activism, The Church

For much better thoughts on this movement, refer to Dave Sliker’s Blog.

This was yet another one of the MANY paradigms that were shattered for me after coming to FITN last June. I remember wrestling continuously with what I thought was the answer to the church’s problems: a distorted view of grace and a weak understanding of Biblical love… not to mention all the confusion about pre-trib/post-trib views and how this greatly affects our ideas about evangelism. I finally realized after working with many people that not only lived wicked lifestyles but also HATED believers in Christ that my views were based mostly on my own fear of man and not really on anything else. Having had many friends that were homosexuals or at least fully accepting of homosexuality it was difficult to say to them that the homosexual lifestyle was clearly Biblically sinful. I might have been tarred and feathered…

I think what hit home to me was a question Stuart asked our group one evening. What is justice? Is it being socially active and making sure you take a stand to end poverty/governmental corruption/violence or is it even more than that? Are we being so “socially active” that we aren’t understanding that true justice is leading others to Christ and showing them how to live in holiness? In order to be more pleasing to the world, has our view of social activism just opened the door for allowing people to go to hell more comfortably?

Now go read Dave’s post. It’s excellent.

2 Comments


The “groan for the lost” verse.
March 19, 2007, 3:04 am
Filed under: Eternity, Evangelism

“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;

the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.;

Where are the wise? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom  did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who have been called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

Who can fathom this Jesus? How can the lost ever expect to rationalize the cross? It’s just not rational or logical… mainly because it’s something we can truly never understand to the full extent. So many friends of mine disbelieve the message of Jesus because it is such a mystery… but who can ever figure God out? He created us and we expect to know His thoughts and ways? I feel the fear of the Lord right now for those who don’t know Jesus. Not only do I have fear for them because they will go to hell for their disbelief but because I cannot imagine getting through this life without ever having known Jesus.

3 Comments