The Fullness of Time By Mike McClung

The last few years have been the most volatile, unstable and stressful in memory. From a natural standpoint, fear and failing faith seem to be “standard operating procedure” – IF we have failed to understand Who is allowing all of the shaking for His own purposes.

Transition is all around us, and very prominent within the individual and corporate life of the body of Christ. We are moving into a new season that has been prophesied about by not only different prophetic voices, but also in the scripture itself. To move into this new season means we must leave that past season and the things of the past season.

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times (kairos) 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 (chronos – season) of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. (Acts 3:19-21)

Spiritual Warfare: Two Views in the Church By Mike McClung

Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; he has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Acts 10:38: “…how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.”

I John 3:8: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.”

Eph. 6:12: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

The Lord created both the earth and man, good. Both have been seized by hostile, evil forces that are seeking to destroy both earth and man, and also God’s plan and design for time and eternity. The Cross of Christ has completely defeated Satan, all of his minions, and every work of the enemy. The church is now the means by which this defeat is to be enforced and all the powers of darkness subjugated to the will of God.

Special Announcement From Lionheart/ The Prayer Furnace...

To All Friends of Lionheart/ The Prayer Furnace,

The Lord is speaking clearly and many mature prophetic voices have confirmed it: the Body of Christ is heading into a season like never before, and it is nearly upon us. The Lord has spoken to us specifically at Lionheart for many months that we should be prepared for big changes starting in September this year. Therefore, with this in mind, we are taking a Sabbath as a ministry for the next four weeks starting today.

Tearing Down Our Idols – Part 3 – Mammon, By Mike McClung

Matt. 6:19-33: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also…No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?..Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?..For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

A quote attributed to Martin Luther states the last thing to be converted to Christ in one’s life is one’s purse. Through the years I have found this to be true in my own life, as well as the lives of those to whom I minister and pastor.

Tearing Down Our Idols, Part 2 By Mike McClung

Save me, O God, by Your name, and vindicate me by Your strength. Hear my prayer, O God; give ear to the words of my mouth. For strangers have risen up against me, and oppressors have sought after my life; they have not set God before them. Selah. (Psalm 54:1-3)

What does it mean to be “vindicated” by the Lord? I have found myself praying the prayer of the Psalmist for vindication for several years now. There have been literally years of misunderstanding, slander, offense, etc, that I and Lionheart Ministries have been on the receiving end of. Some of what has been said is deserved, as many mistakes and weaknesses have been exposed over the years. But most has been accusation that is beyond plausibility for rational thought. This type of regressive warfare and stress (friendly fire) begins to take its toll on the spiritual, mental, emotional, financial and physical health of both individuals and a corporate covenant community. In light of these “momentary light afflictions,” one begins to cry out to the Lord, as the Psalmist did, for “vindication.” Is it righteous, Christlike vindication that one seeks? It is now my experience that what I thought it was to be vindicated by the Lord is actually the seeking of human retribution, at least at a motivational level. Such is the insidiousness and subtlety of the deception of the “idol” of self-preservation.

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.