Tearing Down Our Idols By Mike McClung

Jonah 2:8: Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own Mercy. (NKJV)

1 John 5:21: Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

On June 7, the beginning of the festival of Shavaot (Pentecost), I began to have serious heart arrhythmias combined with classic symptoms of heart malfunction – shortness of breath, chest pain, etc. I believe we are entering a new season where, if we will position ourselves biblically, we will have a great refreshing, infilling release of the Holy Spirit. This is to prepare us for a new season beginning on Rosh Hashanah described in scripture as the “season of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:19-21). I was expecting a great release of deep repentance and power to come. I still have those expectations, but with the current state of my heart problems, the Lord has radically altered my conception of what is required.

After spending a day in the hospital and gladly returning back home and to the Prayer Furnace prayer room, I spent the morning following my hospital stay seeking the Lord on what was happening to me. I sat down in my little place and prayed, “Lord, You have my attention. What is happening?” His reply was quite shocking to me….

A Fresh Look at "Desiring God," by Patty King

In Desiring God, John Piper presents his powerful case for Christian hedonism. Having previously associated the word “hedonism” with the selfish, pleasure seeking lifestyle which served as a main contributor to the collapse of the Roman Empire, it took quite some convincing to turn both my head and heart around to embrace Piper’s message.

After reading Henri Nouwen’s two books The Way of the Heart and Clowning in Rome which immediately grabbed my heart and revealed so much of my cold love towards God, there was a serious disconnect for me with Piper’s approach which largely builds on deductive reasoning.  While the first two books exposed the barrenness of my heart, Piper’s message revealed the necessary connection between heart and mind and how both are intricately connected in our relationship with God. Even though at the core of our being we were made to enjoy God and be enjoyed by Him, the disconnect between heart and mind make us err in one of two ways.

An Opportune Time of Refreshing; A Season of Restoration

Acts 3:19-21: Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

At the beginning of 2011, the Lord gave me this scripture as a template of what would be coming over the next few months, and then afterward, the following years. The Lord indicated that the body of Christ would be entering a kairos window of opportunity to align ourselves with Him and His purposes in a greater way, which would be attended by a great in-breaking of the Holy Spirit. The word for “times” in verse 19 is kairos, or the now, opportune timing of God. It is usually a very short window of time for us to align ourselves with the will of God, or the moment will be missed and may take years to come back around. This is what happened in the wilderness when the Israelites refused to obey the Lord and enter the land of Canaan, choosing instead to cave-in to the fear and unbelief emanating from their mindsets and emotional wounds and bondages formed in Egypt. Because they refused to trust God and actually accused Him of mischief, that generation, except for a Joshua and Caleb, missed God’s plan, and delayed it for another generation. A new, kairos moment is now upon us.

The Unveiling of Jesus as Judge, Part 3 - By Mike McClung

Meeting Christ As Judge

The depth of intimacy with our Lord affords a liberty and honesty in our relationship like no other. No one will ever know us to the minutest detail as He. We have great assurance and confidence in Him, knowing that He will never leave us or forsake us. Jesus, as the perfect Husband, exhibits an unparalleled patience with His bride. He affords us an extended grace period or honeymoon, where we become secure in His undying love. When our relationship is strong and stable, as King, He is also faithful to begin to reveal truth to us about our character. He shows us weaknesses and flaws that do not conform to His image and likeness. Jesus is a faithful Bridegroom/King who confronts us, and works in us to conform our character to His likeness.

Truth is a two-edged sword that helps us first to identify with our new nature in Christ. As we align ourselves with His thinking and who we are in Him, we also begin to see that which is not of Him. We are like Adam and Eve in the Garden, as we see our nakedness. Nakedness here is a metaphor for the fallen nature of man, and that fallen nature is inherently rebellious to Him because is shamed-based at its root. We need clarity of both aspects of the sword. Our intimate relationship with and knowledge of Him gives us the courage to embrace the power of the cross prepared for us specifically, allow the Holy Spirit to work within our lives, and leave behind our old self to be clothed in Christ.

The Unveiling of Jesus as Judge - Part 2, By Mike McClung

We are a bride awaiting our bridegroom

Jesus is returning for a bride that is without spot or wrinkle. We know that Jesus must have a bride that bears His image. The bride, who is the church, must make herself ready (Rev. 19:7-8). If we examine the betrothal process of the Hebrew culture, we can begin to understand how to embrace the intimate relationship the Lord desires.

It was customary for a Hebrew young man to prepare a Ketubah, a marriage contract (a covenant), which he presented to his intended bride and her father. Included in this covenant was the Bride Price, an appropriate gesture in Jewish society meant to compensate the young woman’s parents for the cost of raising her. In addition, and more importantly, the payment was considered an expression of the man’s love for his intended bride. This betrothal covenant was legally binding once the bride and her family accepted the terms of his Ketubah.

The wedding proposal began when the young man visited the young woman and her family in her home, and poured a cup of wine for his beloved in the presence of all. He then watched to see if she drank from his cup. If she drank, the covenant was accepted and they were betrothed. The young man then would give gifts to his beloved and then take his leave, announcing, “I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will return for you when it is ready.”

The Unveiling of Jesus as Judge – Part 1

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness. It was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, We had everything before us, we had nothing before us. We were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way.

                                                    

A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens

                                                                                        

Charles Dickens opens his classic, A Tale of Two Cities with a series of paradoxical statements that paints a vivid picture of tumultuous times in England and France. The year is 1775, and while England is soon to lose its grip on the American colonies, France is soon to face total anarchy as the peasants arise to overthrow a corrupt and decadent regime. England is rife with crime and France with poverty. While life for the nobility was exquisite, the lower class struggled to survive. The plight of the times raised serious questions about man’s ability to rule justly and the desire of man’s heart to serve selflessly.

Entering the Fray, Part 1: The Two Battles, By David Townsend

“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” I Timothy 6:12


There are two core battles every believer faces. We are all drawn into the fight and shot at whether we understand warfare or not; we can even be taken out, while wondering what just happened. The first battle we are called and empowered to fight is to pull down the spiritual strongholds which hold us captive to our old nature. As the process of the Cross works deeper in individuals and in a local fellowship, the Lord begins to entrust the individual and fellowship with a small sphere of authority (influence) in that geographic and spiritual area. The deeper the Cross goes in the members, the more the sphere of authority grows. By this method, the Lord moves through His people to conquer the earth with the Cross.