The 166 Factor - by Marc Lawson

The Razing & Resurrection of the American Church

2011-07-13T09:09:00.000-07:00

On New Year’s Day 2000, I was laying on the couch all day fighting a sinus infection and watching the TV turned down low. I would doze off from time and to time all through the day. I was not fasting, seeking the Lord or even thinking about much but getting over the sinus infection. One of these times when I dozed off, I had a vision where I was taken to what looked like any large American city with skyscrapers and high buildings. Some were more visible than others some were just a few stories high (visible) but had a big footprint (made an impact) others took up less than a city block but were 40-50 stories and could be seen from miles away.

I noticed whole buildings were being razed or demolished, like those precisely timed demolitions where the entire 50 story building comes crashing down straight within a few feet of where it was standing with little effect on those buildings around. I saw several of these high-profile buildings coming down in this fashion and somehow I just knew this was happening in more than one city or area. It was like I was being allowed to see the wholesale demolition of many man-made structures. They all had signs warning people to “stay away" and were empty of ANY people so NO ONE would get injured. I also KNEW (revelation) that these buildings represented man-made religious structures or churches, even denominations. Some even had the name of the flamboyant or superstar Christian leader on the building. One was the LONG building, another FAME building, one even the MINE building. They all seemed to IM-plode not EX-plode. I even saw angels as part of the demolition team strategically placing explosives, like the Lord had angelic demolition angels who planted charges for a perfect implosion.

Then I realized this was an architectural illustration of the church. In scripture the church is illustrated three ways: architecturally, agriculturally and anatomically. Ephesians 2:21 is an architectural one.

All of a sudden I realized I was with the Lord and He was revealing things about this vision. I just somehow knew that this was a picture of what was going to transpire over the next 7, 12 &15 years (through 2015) and that it would be a progressive thing. I knew then that I was seeing the wholesale demolition of hundreds or even thousands of man-made "buildings" that probably began by the Spirit and ended up being idolatrous impediments to His people. Many hundred thousands, even millions of well-meaning Christians were at one time inside these buildings but the Lord was getting them out of these institutions.

I then had a flash of downtown "underground" and saw many people in these underground (not visible) gatherings some quite large of hidden, nameless groups of believers preparing themselves for a great awakening. They were learning about the authentic Jesus then staying for a while then going up above to bring what they learned to the lost and perishing. They were healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons and doing the gospel, without any trappings or fluff. You know, basic meat and potato Christianity, but with NOTHING left out (like the gifts of the HS). How can the church even exist without the HS? How can a leader say, "We are OPEN to the gifts of the HS"? He is rejecting God the HS when he does that. Anyway after this I woke up and two or three other times over the next couple years I returned to this vision or dreamed about it and got more details.

I am remembering it because we are seeing now in 2011, whole ministries, churches and even movements being imploded like this. Many mega churches have closed their doors in the city of Atlanta in the last 5 years and there will be MANY more as the covered-up sins, wickedness or corruption and abuse of the Body is exposed. When these hireling CEOS are exposed, many may be dismayed. The problem isn't the size but many became enterprises and businesses rather than expressions of the Body.

The GOOD NEWS is that Christians, though disillusioned for a little awhile, will begin to see their own idolatry of men, methods or movements which they put in the place of relationship with Jesus. And God is faithful and is raising up authentic shepherds, pastors, apostles with a spirit that wants to come under and serve the Body rather than stand at the top of the pyramid and rule it. The Pharaoh spirit is being removed from the church. Jesus is coming back for a spotless church without blemish. And it can't and won't happen with many of these Christian superstar sideshows in existence. Do not be dismayed. The razing of these ministries MUST happen so that the resurrection of a new form of church that looks like Jesus can arise! Isaiah 60 speaks of an arising. Ephesians and Romans say, “awake!”

These" rude awakenings" are signs of a new birthing which is already occurring of a true expression of the church arising! Rejoice!

NORTHGATE: Wednesday Night Intercession at 7pm in Cafe 166!

2011-04-06T06:21:00.000-07:00

Our Emphasis every night in April-PRAY for AMERICA!!

We have seen recently and even in the last few weeks how one epic event can bring a nation to the brink of collapse! The earthquake in Haiti last year leveled Port Au Prince and it may never be completely rebuilt, There are a million displaced just by that earthquake alone. Japan ,once seen as a vibrant and prosperous nation, through a combination of bad financial choices governmentally and then the earthquake, tsunami and damage to its Fukushima nuclear plant is now fighting so many unimaginable problems, it may be years or never till it recovers.

Jesus revealed God's view of these tragedies:

“When the days were approaching for His ascension, He was determined to go to Jerusalem; and He sent messengers on ahead of Him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for Him. But they did not receive Him, because He was traveling toward Jerusalem. When His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?" But He turned and rebuked them, [and said, "You do not know what kind of spirit you are of; for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." And they went on to another village.” - Luke 9:51-56

God's desire for our nation and all nations is salvation, deliverance and revival, NOT destruction! We know it is God's will for "all men to be saved and come to repentance". But events are happening rapidly now with our economy and politically that escalate the risk of America experiencing this or another kind of event.

Every Christian should be busy doing one of two things:

Praying if they are not out preaching; and Preaching before or after they are done praying! Praying and Preaching-That's simple enough.

If you are not out preaching to win your neighbors come and pray for our country! America needs a spiritual awakening more than ever!! So every Wednesday in APRIL- 6th, 13th, 20th & 27th - the Emphasis is to pray for mercy and a spiritual awakening for America!

COME ON OUT!

TOP TEN Reasons Why Seeker & Emergent Churches Are Biblically Destined to FAIL

2011-03-10T11:04:00.000-08:00

United States Treasury agents that track down and apprehend counterfeiters are taught to distinguish counterfeit money by first and foremost learning by sight and by feel what the authentic American currency in all of the denominations looks and feels like. Their main training is to first learn how to discern and identify the real as the way to best discern the fake. While counterfeiters might take many different approaches to copying money and be more expert in different aspects of the printing or the artwork, a person who knows and is well acquainted with the real can always spot the phony!

But with the proliferation of seeker churches, I now believe many will be deluded into thinking this form of godliness is real, when it fails by all biblical criteria to even be classified as a church. Consequently, America is growing a population of spiritual people who are simply not converted.

Vance Havner, in his book "Playing Marbles with Diamonds" offered the following insight that prophetically describes the present church message: “The devil is not fighting religion; he is too smart for that. He is producing a counterfeit Christianity so much like the real one that good Christians are afraid to speak out against it. We are plainly told in the Scriptures that in the last days men will not endure sound doctrine and will depart from the truth and heap to themselves teachers to tickle their ears. We live in an epidemic of this itch and popular preachers have developed ear-tickling to a fine art. Today, the angle is to avoid "negative" preaching and accentuate only the positive.”

Recently, key “Emergent” Church leaders have come out in favor of homosexual church membership; though the New Testament clearly forbids it; and the abolition of the doctrine of hell, even though Jesus Himself spoke with chilling detail about escaping it.

We must instead raise up the real and authentic expression of the apostolic church in the earth!

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TOP TEN Reasons Why Seeker & Emergent Churches Are Biblically Destined to FAIL:

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2. Outward appearances and externals are more valued than inward character and change. (I Samuel 16:7)

3. In the name of tolerance and love, they prohibit church discipline so invariably the body becomes toxic and rotten. (II Corinthians 6:17) False mercy leads to perversion.

4. To be inclusive, instead of “believer’s meetings”, gatherings are a mish-mash of lost and found, leading to compromise. (Acts 5:13)

5. In the name of a hyper-grace message, the lifestyles of the believers are the same as those in the “world”. To reach the world, they have become worse than it! (III John 1)

6. Websites, new media, events, worship or programs can’t bring about discipleship. (Matthew 21:6)

7. Non-Christian musicians on the “worship” teams violate God’s standards of righteousness for priests and remove the presence of the Lord. (I Samuel 3:14)

8. When "relevance" and assimilation of darkness is more important than confronting it, how can you even be the "light?" (Luke 11:35)

9. A culture where FEAR of man is more important than fear of hell leads to self-focus & people-pleasing rather than a fear of God. (Matthew 10:28)

10. This ALL leads to “the Blind leading the blind”. (Romans 2:19)

by Marc Lawson

Anointed Hanky Healing!

2010-05-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

*This is a testimony that we just received over email.

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Hi,

I came down with symptoms of things crawling on my skin with bites on Easter Saturday, April 3. This persisted with manifestation of fibre-like substance on my skin. I knew it's demonic because of the strange symptom. I am a Christian and am in the process of being trained to be a prayer minister. However, I made a mistake of going to the internet to search for information which opened the door of fear to enter in. I isolated myself in the apartment because I was not sure if it's contagious.

I called my family doctor and he said he would call me back but he didn't. During this horrific trial, I went to Sid Roth's Supernatural website and watched many of the interviews because I wanted to receive the anointing and the Glory of God that many of his guests carry. It's there that I watched the interview of Pastor Marc Lawson.

I looked up Pastor Lawson on Google and found his Facebook page. I was desperate for healing prayers. I called the phone number not knowing what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised that Stephanie answered the phone and right away offered to pray for me and even offered to send me a prayer cloth. I was filled with hope after the call.

During this time of trial, there were days when I would lose hope. It was on such a day when Stephanie suddenly called me to tell me that she had been praying for me and gave me Proverbs 13:12 "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." I held onto this Promise of the Lord and was able to go through that day and the days after.

The prayer cloth arrived in two weeks because I live in Toronto Canada. I put it on and it calmed the symptoms on my body. That was May 14. That evening, the Lord revealed the source of the attack. It's towards my mind and my body. I took hold of this revelation and counter-attack with prayers decreeing deliverance and healing for my mind and body.

It's a total of 44 days. I praise and give thanks to our Lord Jesus Christ for victory over the defeated foe. My body is almost 100% symptoms free. Hallelujah!

NorthGate Church is truly the Church of Jesus Christ that gives out God's love and power. My gratitude to you all especially Stephanie for her tender loving care.

Blessings,
Lilian

Healing 101

2010-04-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

The Lord’s Heart for Healing

Unless we know and believe the Lord’s heart for us in the realms of healing, we will never beable to truly receive all the Lord desires for us. It’s not good enough for us to only know about what the Lord did in the Bible and for others, but we must each get a revelation of His astounding love, His great mercy and His overwhelming passion to see each of His children whole and well. Some excellent examples of this are found in the scripture:

Psalms 103:11-14

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His loving kindnesstoward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.

Isaiah 30:18

Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

Isaiah 4:13

Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the LORD has comforted His people, And will have compassion on His afflicted.

Matthew 9:36

And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd;

Matthew 14:14

And when He went ashore, He saw a great multitude, and felt compassion for them, and healed their sick;

Matthew 20:34

And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.

John 5:19

Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.

From the scriptures we see the following things:

1) God desires to heal ANY who are sick.

And while the sun was setting, all who had any sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and laying His hands on every one of them, He was healing them.

2) The Lord desires to heal ALL the sick, not just a special few.

And all the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all.

3) God is no respecter of persons. What he’s done for others He can and will do for YOU!

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons:

4) God NEVER kicks one of His kids when they’re down, but instead picks them up and helps them out of their “ditch”.

And behold, there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. And when Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, "Woman, you are freed from your sickness."And He laid His hands upon her; and immediately she was made erect again, and began glorifying God. And the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the multitude in response, "There are six days in which work should be done; therefore come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day." But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall, and lead him away to water him? "And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?"

God, the Father is absolutely committed to seeing us freed from our afflictions, addictions, bondages and sicknesses. While the religious spirit asks questions like, “how can God do that?” or “why would God do it that way?” or “ how can God do it to them? ”. Rather than rejoicing at what God is doing, religion questions the how, why and what for. The religious spirit always glorifies what God did in the past while bitterly opposing what God is now doing. While religion wants to analyze how we got in the ditch, the Kindness and mercy of God just wants to pull us out!

Isaiah 42:3

A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.

5) God doesn’t resort to “making someone sick” or keeping someone suffering to “teach them” some kind of lesson.

Four Ways God Uses to Bring Healing

1) Faith of the one sick

2) The Prayer of Faith

3) The Word of Knowledge

“I only do what I see the Father doing”.

4) The Healing Anointing

4 Realms of Healing

There are at least four realms of our life God’s healing power can touch and effect:

1) Physical Body

Mark 4:23-24

- “And Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.”

2) Demonic oppression, affliction, sicknesses and diseases

"You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.”

Mark 9:17-29

“And one of the crowd answered Him, "Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him to the ground and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and stiffens out. And I told Your disciples to cast it out, and they could not do it." And He answered them and said, "O unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him to Me! " And they brought the boy to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit threw him into a convulsion, and falling to the ground, he began rolling about and foaming at the mouth. And He asked his father, "How long has this been happening to him?" And he said, "From childhood. "And it has often thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us!" And Jesus said to him, "'If You can!' All things are possible to him who believes." Immediately the boy's father cried out and began saying, "I do believe; help my unbelief." And when Jesus saw that a crowd was rapidly gathering, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, "You deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and do not enter him again." And after crying out and throwing him into terrible convulsions, it came out; and the boy became so much like a corpse that most of them said, "He is dead!" But Jesus took him by the hand and raised him; and he got up. And when He had come into the house, His disciples began questioning Him privately, "Why could we not cast it out?" And He said to them, "This kind cannot come out by anything but prayer."

A Note on:

II Corinthians 3:1-10

giving no cause for offense in anything, in order that the ministry be not discredited, but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger, in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true; as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.

Galatians 3:13-14:

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us-- for it is written, "CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO HANGS ON A TREE"-- in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Galatians 4:15-17

Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness, that if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth? They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out, in order that you may seek them.

Luke 11:52

Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered."

3) Mental and Emotional Bondages

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."

Psalms 34:17,18

The righteous cry and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, And saves those who are crushed in spirit.

4) Relationships

Matthew 24:12

"And because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold.

Matthew 6:14,15

"For if you forgive men for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. "But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.

A Meeting Centric Church Culture

2010-04-21T13:54:00.000-07:00

"Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

— Matt 5:10

What do I mean by meeting-centric?

Here is the definition of “centric”: “located in or at a center; concentrated about or directed to a center.”

So when I say meeting-centric faith (or Christianity or church culture), I mean the cultivation of an entire lifestyle around an event. In this case, I am referring to the typical Sunday church service that takes approximately 2 hours out of that person’s 168 hour week. When a person becomes born-again into a meeting-centered mentality of Christianity, it is as if that person needs to wait till he or she goes to the weekly meeting to hear God’s voice. If an encounter with God is only centered on the Sunday meeting, then there is little to no discipleship. The hard work of mentoring and character development and modeling is left to the Holy Spirit whom new Christians are often never introduced to—or are even taught to ignore. We must teach folks to see that we are the church. We don’t just “go to church,” because we are the church! Yes, we go to those meetings and activities at the buildings the church is using. But we must look beyond meetings to see that being the Church means that we don’t act one way two hours a week and then another way the other 166. We must see that we are to live out our life in a way that fulfills the purpose God has for us as we manifest His presence on the earth.

"From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it”

- (Matt 16: 21-25)

As we read in this passage, even those who love the Lord deeply, like Peter, can assume they need to “help the Lord out,” and, even worse, feel like they know how. Many of the problems the Church has are tied to well-meaning people with good motives who are led by their carnal thinking and reasoning. Double-mindedness is such a regular part of the way of thinking in most churches and ministries that it is considered “normal.” In Matthew 4:17, Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Repent! The Kingdom of God is at hand. This is what Jesus first had to say. He exclusively had one message to preach. Over 160 times in nearly every story and parable this Kingdom is mentioned. He was always talking about and referencing the Kingdom. The Kingdom is not the Church, but the Church is supposed to be an expression of the Kingdom on the earth. Is it? Most places I look, I don’t see it. Jesus said, “God is like this…The kingdom of God is like…” His statements absolutely confronted the religious system of the day.

He said repent (which simply means change the way you think and look at things); he didn’t say cry, sob, or run to the altar. When we equate an emotional response with repentance, we will always get an outcome which doesn’t result in lifestyle change. Repentance moves people to effect a complete turning around and a change of mind, ways, habits, and intentions!

Here’s an honest question: If the church leaders of today have the right message, then why does the response to their message appear to bring little to no change of habits, lifestyle, values, ethics, and morality? And why do all the polls indicate that righteousness, morality and cultural change is not only going the wrong direction in the church but our society as well? Why in the early years of our nation could one preacher like George Whitfield or Jonathan Edwards with the right message be so effective in changing his culture, yet today, even with all technological tools at their disposal, our leaders have such little success making that same difference?

I believe our present compromised system has helped fashion a compromised message. Most pastors, by and large, that I have known over the years of churches small, big, and huge are like anyone else attempting to do God’s will. Most feel like their job is akin to cleaning sand off the beach. Many are in survival mode or caution mode. If things seem great outwardly, “Don’t rock the boat”, if not, then “We need to be careful”. But these are apostolic mindsets! An authentic apostolic message will produce a real life-changing response, a change of mind & rending of the heart.

The Kingdom of Heaven (the regime, rule, and reign of God’s authority and dominion on earth or anywhere without limits) is at hand (which means right here, right now, in the midst of you, as plain as the nose on your face). While this is plain and simple, we seemingly have a hard time having faith for something we can’t see. However, Jesus said the Spirit was like the wind (see John 3:8). You can see its effects and its force, but it is not visible to the eye. He was talking of a real dimension right in front of all of us that could be accessed by faith which He modeled for His followers.

In this world the blind are blind, but in Jesus’s world the blind see! In this world the lame can’t walk, but in Jesus’s world the lame can walk! In this world the deaf need hearing aids, but in Jesus’s world, the deaf can hear! In this world the dead are dead, but in Jesus’s world the dead rise!

Up is down, in is out, rich is poor, poor is rich, last are first, and first last; it is a parallel dimension right alongside our fallen world, but the rules are different there! There are no wheelchair ramps, no handicapped parking, no deaf section! It is wrong that we spend so much of our life accommodating the failure of our faith and our lack of bringing in the Kingdom.

Jesus’ message went so against the flow of the religious establishment that they couldn’t deal with Him! He tweaked all the religious elements in His culture. Maybe we need to use His same approach since ours don’t seem to be helping us.

Today we have even the basic order and structure of the Church backwards. Imagine getting one of those “assemble yourself” kits for a swing set or BBQ grill or bike. You take out the instructions which go A, B, C, D, etc., and are to be done in the “manufacturer’s order of assembly”; you begin with F, then go over to Q, then make your way to D, and on and on. How do you think that would work for you? Not so great.

Paul wrote about how God designated things to be formatted in the Church:

"And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues."

- (1 Cor 12:28)

1) Apostles: senders

2) Prophets: seers

3) Teachers: search the Scriptures

4) Miracles: signs and wonders

5) Gifts of Healings: supernatural

6) Helps: supporters

7) Administrations: solutions

8) Various kinds of tongues-those who receive and speak heavenly mysteries

While most pastors are well-meaning people, they are frequently concerned with only two things: salvation and protection for the sheep. According to C. Peter Wagner, pastors and administrators have done an admirable job in winning a huge section of the world to Christ, but, “What would happen if we could actually function by God’s design and intention?” Pastors, evangelists, and even administrators by and large are leading the American church, which leads to a church focusing primarily on what happens in and around the Sunday meeting, creating an atmosphere that is imbalanced spiritually. With administrators, pastors, teachers, and evangelists at the helm, we have a meeting-centric faith based on an excellently packaged, entertaining Sunday meeting. In this church culture, the only time God does something is “at church.” When does God speak, or when do we feel His presence? At church. By defining “church” as a meeting to attend rather than a lifestyle to be lived, we end up with a lopsided faith based on our definition of God and how He operates. Everything is about “the meeting” and “the service.” We even back off on being too bold or aggressive because we might “run off people.” It is as if the whole fate of the Church is resting on having a good service, a good meeting with excellent fluff.

Government Priorities

Here is what this meeting-centric church culture looks like:

Pastoral: people’s comfort and safety

Administrative: things and money

Teacher: doctrine we teach, often in order to defend our territory

Evangelist: salvation message only

The perception of God in a pastoral government is primarily anxiety and fear. The great concern is losing what we have. There is also a fear that if and when any obstacles or opposition come our way it indicates that the Lord is behind it, so this is “how He directs us.” In addition, in this type of church culture or atmosphere, the supernatural is suspect and thought to be deceptive and unreliable. With everyone protecting their turf, things, and assets, there is no forward-advancing mentality. And in this environment anything supernatural means “you can be and probably already are deceived, so I will protect you from yourself.”. A pastoral government is filled with anxiety and control. Why? By keeping you in line you will continue to need me, your pastor. In my view, the vast majority of people living in this kind of church are taught subliminally to stay powerless and mostly helpless, dependent on leadership. In this atmosphere, many times good reasons are made up for suffering to keep the leader in his job.

In 1994, we pulled a church which I planted out of a church-planting denomination that operated and had an atmosphere like this. While it felt so strange to be leaving the supposed security and “covering” of it, within 10 days our church was caught up in a move of the Spirit that lasted over five years; God used it to send missionaries to nations like Norway, France, Romania, Jordan, and Israel. Also, other churches and ministries were birthed from it. When I pulled out of one thing, I wasn’t exactly sure what we were going into, but I knew God was doing it. I knew we needed to get out of the old to go into the new. While it was a major shift and shock, we have been pursuing it ever since. We had to make a choice to move forward for the Kingdom. I look back on that decision now, and it was absolutely not the safest or most comfortable way to go. But there has to be resoluteness, a determination in us that old ways must give place to the new.

"He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

- (Hebrews 10:9)

The absence of a Kingdom or an overcoming mentality in churches helps create an attitude of “We are only lowly sinners working out our salvation…We’re not fulfilling our calling, for how can we know His will? We are just lowly servants waiting for further instructions.” In 1996, Rick Joyner prophesied a spiritual civil war coming to the American church. Like the Civil War, it too would pit brother against brother, and would be over the issue of spiritual slavery, to end the injustice on these ministry “plantations.”

I think that the timing of the meltdown of American business markets in the last few months was a sign of the beginning of the meltdown of the giant “ministry plantations” where the Body was in slavery to a few. Let’s hope that what is happening in the natural, we also get to see happen in the spiritual. For many of these institutions it was over a long time ago. To relish or adhere to these ways of man versus the ways of God is a dangerous trap and will be a snare to us. Jesus even said, “Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition” (Matt. 15:6 NIV). The devil uses these things and the lusts of man to trap us into this world’s system of operation. This causes us to compromise our entire “way of doing business.” We attempt to fight the devil, but he has already us snared in his ways.

One of the reasons people get burned out from going to church is that they were told a number of stories that never came true. And I don’t mean those wonderful testimonies of God’s love and mercy but just an idealistic and unrealistic view of living that revolves around only “going to church” instead of being the Church. This happens as we are reasoning in our hearts, not just our minds.

"And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts?”

(Luke 5:21-22 NKJV)

The main reason for this double-mindedness is our need to resort to reasoning things out rather than hearing and obeying by faith. The problem is made worse by taking that reasoning out of our heads where it belongs and bringing it into our hearts. Because it is with our heart, we are to believe, not with our heads! We’ll never believe using only our logic and brain power.

"For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." (Romans 10:10 NKJV)

To resort to reasoning in our minds is simply prideful mental gymnastics to make sure we cover all our bases in case God doesn’t come through. One of the weirdest things is many times we do this especially when God authentically and legitimately speaks to us, when we have been given an authentic word from God about something. But unfortunately then we attempt to bring it to pass, do it in our own strength and with our own abilities!

"This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:2-3 NKJV)

The Greek word for reasoning is dialogizomai, where we get the English word dialogue from which means, “a conversation between two or more persons; an exchange of ideas or opinions on a particular issue.”

Here’s the breakdown of the Greek word:

Dia: through, on account of, because of;

Logizomai: to reckon, consider, regard, suppose.

To give ourselves over to reasoning is to entertain an argument with God in our heart: “How am I gonna do that?” or “Are you kidding me? Do you know what it will mean if I have to do that?” Peace begins to come as we learn to acknowledge and obey truth, but peace is only truly realized when the person (Jesus) who is the Truth is submitted to. When we learn to obey Him and His Word, we can begin to walk in that peace. And as we mentioned earlier, fear rather than peace is the prevailing atmosphere in most churches that are built around the meeting-centric culture.

_{This was an excerpt for “The 166 Lifestyle” by Marc Lawson published by Destiny Image}
_{Reproduced by permission© Copyright 2010 – Marc Lawson}

Something in the Mail Today!

2009-11-24T13:21:00.001-08:00

Marc & NorthGate Family,

Don’t know if you remember me. I came to your church near death in January. I laid in a chair by the thermostat. Marc each time you adjusted the thermostat you would lay hands on me. Then the church body laid hands on me. I was on Oxygen, chemotherapy; blood pressure was 50/30.

God healed me just a few weeks later. Came back a few months later and you didn’t recognize me. I would like this Oxygen tank to be put on the healing wall.

With much love, blessings & gratitude for your faith,

Rhonda Whitmore

Arlington Texas

Why Socialism is Stupid

2009-11-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class.

That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan".

All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B.

The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy.

As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.

When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

The scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

All failed, to their great surprise, and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.

It could not be any simpler than that.

Reasons the Church Has Lost Her Moral Clarity

2009-10-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

The Scriptures clearly spell out the peril of mixture and the need to keep things clear of compromise & wishy-washiness.

The first reason the church has lost the capacity to judge itself is because there’s such a profound lack of moral authority in leadership.

How can we understand true righteous judgment if we don’t comprehend the fact that God called the church to judge itself and keep itself pure first?

“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1)

The second reason the church has lost its capacity to judge itself is a fear of making moral judgments based on the present atmosphere of “tolerance” and political correctness in the world.

There is a pervading atmosphere now in our society that we are not to make a call about anything. The question, “Who am I to say that is wrong?” rings through our minds. We feel if we hold something up to the standard of the truth of the Word of God we are judging and somehow being a hypocrite. Peter describes this moral ambiguity as “falling from your own steadfastness”.

“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 3:17-18)

Many Christian leaders abstain from dealing with these unpleasant things by quoting Matthew 7, where Jesus commanded us to “judge not”. This can be a cop-out to excuse our non-involvement. Also, many are afraid of them being persecuted or scrutinized so they don’t even challenge things, even when they know it is wrong. This passage was about making spiritual calls, not rash judgments based on our own opinions, bias, preferences or operating in the flesh based on outward appearances.

"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." (Matthew 7:24)

“…for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (2 Samuel 16:7)

While we are warned not to judge outwardly, we still have a clear responsibility to take an uncompromising stand for the very clear biblical standards concerning integrity, marriage, homosexuality and purity. Someone must stand up and call these things by the light of clear biblical standards instead of looking the other way. While denominations can separate Christians based on an interpretation of one or two scripture passages, these things are exceedingly clear. We must call light, light and darkness, darkness.

The first area we must judge is ourselves and the church.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

One of the great end-time battles will require us to stand up for Truth against a great end-time wave of lawlessness.

New Testament Suffering

2009-09-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

The ONLY biblical instance where suffering is ever God’s Will...

The only instances we see in scripture where suffering is ever “according to the will of God” is those situations where believers suffer persecution or death for preaching or living for the gospel. Standing up for and declaring the message of Jesus and His Kingdom with a demonstration of power is the only legitimate reason the bible gives for suffering.

2 Timothy 1:8 - "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God..."

2 Timothy 2:8-9 - "Remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David, was raised from the dead according to my gospel,9 for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains;"

However, enduring hostility and persecution for this message is rarely experienced by most American Christians, who by and large are still locked into a “safe and hidden-in-the-prayer closet” form of Christianity “waiting on the Lord” to do things they are called to do. This “lifestyle”, unknown to most Christians in the rest of the world, allows believers to redefine things like “suffering” to include things that have nothing to do with being a Christian but instead are due to a lack of character or lack of a complete surrender to follow Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 4:12-19 - "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now "If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? "Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, (preaching the gospel) as to a faithful Creator."

Over the last generation in an attempt to be relevant the church has so watered down its message it has devalued what a Christian truly is. Consequentially, there is little to no standard we are called to live up to. Being among God’s people over the years I have seen people who call themselves Christians call all kinds of things “persecution for the gospel”.

Some examples I have seen:

- Being arrested for drunk driving;

- Getting fired at work because they don’t show up on time or do a good job;

- Being harassed by bill collectors because their bad financial decisions got them in a lot of debt;

- Being upset because the friends who they talked into a get-rich-quick scheme are now their enemies;

- Being arrested for not paying parking tickets;

Being reproached for the name of Christ, being persecuted for the gospel or experiencing hardship because we are authentic Christian believers is the ONLY instance we see in scripture where this is allowed by God for His people. And nearly all the persecution we see in the NT referred to as “suffering” was brought by religious leaders upon those who had the boldness to proclaim this message! These religious leaders were incited by jealousy to attack preachers like Paul who proclaimed and demonstrated this gospel.

In the book of Acts we only see two responses when the gospel of the Kingdom is declared-revival or riot! Let's go start a revival. And if not, a riot will do.

2 Timothy 3:12 - "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."

Keep It Simple, Saints!

2009-09-04T09:14:00.001-07:00

After Elijah was run out of town in fear of Jezebel, he poured out a lament to the Lord, painting himself as “the only real believer left”. The Lord kindly came to him in a gentle whisper and decided He wouldn’t place any more on him, then delegated his task to others. But in doing so, He wanted Elijah to know there were still thousands “in the game.”

I King 19:18-"Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him."

The implication of the Lord is clear-many of God’s best and most devoted weren’t known or in the “limelight”. God had 7000 in Israel.

America’s celebrity-adoring culture tempts us to admire and even pursue a “superstar” type of Christian lifestyle and ministry. Being the “talk of the town”, an exceptional person with fame and all the trappings of celebrity is esteemed and admired. Historically however, Christian leaders who live like this have complicated lives and in most cases, abandon their callings due to moral or ethical failure, aborting and discrediting most of what they accomplished.

Our goal then should be to pursue God and fulfill our calling SIMPLY and with little fanfare. We should keep our lives uncluttered and focused on the basics.

-Every day we should worship, read & study the Word of God.

-Every day we should make our marriages and family a priority.

-Every paycheck we should put God first with our tithes and offerings.

-Every week we should make time to fulfill our callings.
One of satan’s key temptations is to get us to succumb to delusions of grandeur and shortcuts to promotion. (2 Corinthians 11:3) If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Before we will ever see greatness in our lives, God promises to test us and we must be found faithful in handling three key areas (Luke 16: 10-12):

1) Little
2) Money
3) Another’s

By doing little things well,we will do big things well. If we don’t trust the Lord with our finances, how we can we use spiritual treasure? And if we don’t respect that which is another’s, including other’s ministries, how we can have our own? If we keep our life focused and simple, we build every day on a sure foundation and sooner or later we find we have accomplished some amazing things for the Kingdom.

Keep It Simple Saints!

Blessings,
Marc Lawson

You Had Better Pick A Side....and Quick!

2009-09-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan, one of the foremost songwriter/poets of a generation, penned the words to this song:

You may be an ambassador to England or France,
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance,
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world,
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody.

After Israel had taken possession of the land, at Shechem, Joshua led the nation in rededicating and recommitting itself to the Lord there. This event is recounted in Joshua 24.

"Now therefore, fear the LORD, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the LORD! "And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." - Joshua 24:14-15

This similar theme is also seen where Jesus was tempted by Satan in three areas:

#1 - Submission to the Word of God -"Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread." But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'" - Matt. 4:3-4

#2 - Presuming on the Word of God - "Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'" - Matt. 4:5-7

#3 - Serving self rather than God - "Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'" - Matt. 4:8-10

Each time Satan came, he questioned Jesus' identity and attempted to move Him to forget who He really was and who He was really serving.

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…" - 2 Timothy 3:16

American cultural values used to be based on the Word of God, influenced by America's large Christian majority. This helped define American culture. But today, more and more American cultural values are created by a consensus of a majority of people, many who are pagans, atheists and even amoral. This consensus of morality will get further and further away from the truth as more divergent ways of living are introduced into the culture. Eventually, what the majority thinks will end up being neither scriptural or moral!

And then we have believers living their lives reacting to what hurt them in the past attempting to live a "safe" life. Rather than being told by church leaders what to do, many now attempt to stay "below the radar" not wanting to cause trouble. By only trying to be against what is wrong, they have now succumbed to relativism. Instead of boldly running into their destiny based on living biblical absolutes and priorities, many now are in "survival" mode.

Character is who we really are when no one but God is watching. Character and integrity is sorely lacking in our American society today. Unfortunately it must be formed in us. It can't be imparted by prayer and nowhere in scripture is it called a spiritual gift. But it is the summation of our entire life. It is made up of our habits, lifestyle and the sum of the daily choices we make with our money, time, talents, words and especially - our priorities. We can only give it to others by modeling and mentoring and it can only be worked out in day-to-day living. If we make wise choices each day that conform to the Word of God and fulfill our destiny we grow in Christlike character.

It is now almost "normal" and acceptable for Christians to display immense cowardice in actually living by the Word of God. This fear is what helped foster the present state of many churches and promotes ease and comfort for believers rather than true discipleship. Even the prophetic camps can be guilty at times of elevating their personal subjective experience and revelation above the authority of the scripture to accommodate their unbelief, fears and distrust of God. The big question we all have to answer is always the same: "What do I have to give up or lose to follow Jesus as King and truly live according to the Kingdom?"

It's not what "we think we lose", it's "what do we acquire by following Him?"

Living our lives and leading our families with biblical priorities and a Kingdom lifestyle can't merely be taught with words, it must be modeled with action and lifestyle. The American church can no longer comment or talk about things we aren't living anymore. Now more than ever, THIS IS OUR TIME to SHINE! We can choose to come out of our hiding places and shine or slink into pseudo-safety. It is high time to WAKE UP out of our self-induced hibernation!

"For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret. But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light. Therefore He says: "Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." - Ephesians5:8-15

It's time for the body to begin to wake up and get with it. All our excuses are now null and void and we only need agree with heaven and our destiny to bring light into the darkness. It's our time to shine!

Better pick a side....and quick!

Marc Lawson