Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” - Matthew 21:12-13

I was reading these verses this morning and the reality and weight of these few lines settled very heavy on my heart.  MY HOUSE.........but YOU......

We often criticize and look around, spreading blame thickly among others, finding fault with all and sundry.  But these words return to haunt the heart.  It is HIS HOUSE....... but WE are making it into something else.  WE are changing it from a house of prayer to a centre of merchandise, a business, a commercial interest - anything but what it is called to be.  There is no one to look to, no crutch, no analgesic in order to unload and assuage the heaviness of these words.  I must simply embrace them, accept them.  WE have messed up royally.  WE have taken the Master's house, and converted it into a shopfront.

There is a call within these lines.  If we read them from back to front, we can sense a calling, a challenge, an admonition, to retake and reclaim our stewardship of the Lord's goods.  It is a mission that involves re- transforming the House of God from a den of robbers into a House of Prayer for all nations.

Let's get to it.

 

I have recently finished this gem of a book that had been lying on my humongous reading pile for too long.  I have been really impacted by the message, and the heart behind, this little red book.  For those of you who want to taste the DNA of a movement (as opposed to the structure of an organisation) this is a must-read.

Providing a slight monastic tone to the evangelical scene, it effectively captures the essence of what a "European Move of God" looks like.  I say this, not because it is confined to Europe, but really because it was birthed in Europe, and consequently carries in it much of the European Evangelical world-view, rather than its North-American siblings.

If you want to turbo-charge your prayer life and want to sign-up to a post-modern subversive resistance movement, check out Red Moon Rising - you will be blessed to read how this God-ordained "accident" happened.

The Vision from Dave Wright on Vimeo.

So this guy comes up to me and says: “what’s the vision? What’s the big idea?” I open my mouth and words come out like this: The vision? The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus. The vision is an army of young people. You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism. They laugh at 9-5 little prisons. They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday. They wouldn’t even notice. They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won. They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence. They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying. What is the vision ? The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure. Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation. It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games. This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause. A million times a day its soldiers choose to loose, that they might one day win the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters. Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: “COME ON!” And this is the sound of the underground The whisper of history in the making Foundations shaking Revolutionaries dreaming once again Mystery is scheming in whispers Conspiracy is breathing… This is the sound of the underground And the army is discipl(in)ed. Young people who beat their bodies into submission. Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms. The tattoo on their back boasts “for me to live is Christ and to die is gain”. Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ? Can hormones hold them back? Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ? And the generation prays like a dying man with groans beyond talking, with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and with great barrow loads of laughter! Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365. Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries. They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive Inside. On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide. Would they surrender their image or their popularity? They would lay down their very lives - swap seats with the man on death row - guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair. With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days, they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them. Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.) Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus. Their words make demons scream in shopping centres. Don’t you hear them coming? Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden. And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon. How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner. Guaranteed. (The Vision - - by Pete Greig) Technorati Tags: 24/7 Prayer, Vision

Things have been a bit of a blur for me lately with so much to do and so little time to do it in!  So, in the spirit of this time lapse that I find myself in (Just where did the past three weeks go?) I want to share a little on a visitor/speaker that we recently had at Living Waters Church. Wytze Valkema is an awesome guy from [wikipop]Holland [/wikipop]who leads the Daniel Prayer Network.  What does this guy do?  He prays.  That's about it.  He prays.... day-in, day-out, 24/7.  He visited us during the second week in July and I can say that I am continuing to reap the benefits from his visit......big time.  Some of the things that he spoke on really resonated in my heart and continue to speak to me even now.  This guy is really anointed and speaks with an incredible authority that can only be obtained by spending time beholding the Lord in prayer. How has he impacted me?  Although I find it hard to put into words how deeply he has spoken into my life, I guess that he has come through at a time when I needed a deep word from the Lord to change me.  Some things are hard to describe - they need to be tasted.  And so I have tasted part of the message that he has brought and it has left me hungry for more. As a direct result of his visit we are starting to see some breakthroughs in how we do [wikipop]intercession[/wikipop], and prayer, and our weekly meetings in the prayer room have taken on a very interesting dynamic.  We are also now actively looking for premises that we could use as a prayer room - a prayer room without an agenda, where the only agenda is Psalms 27:4:

One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.

One really practical consequence of this focus is that I realise that if I am going after "One thing" I cannot have a multitude of "things" on my plate.  As a result I am taking active steps to de-clutter my life right now.  This is HUGE!!!!  I am weaning myself off SO MANY to-do lists, tasks, projects, inputs, media, information sources, entertainment, etc. in order to free my time to live a lifestyle of One Thing.  That's my big take-home benefit from Wytze's visit.  I encourage you to do a similar personal audit to see how many "things" you need to deal with.

At the 24/7 prayer room tonight, the urgency of seeking His face was pressed upon my heart. It is in seeking His face, for the sake of just seeking Him, that the doorway for increased favour upon our lives is opened, and Divine provision for every need of our lives is given abundantly. Technorati Tags: Campo247.com, 24/7 Prayer, Prayer

It is 5:00am as I write this. I am with a group of pastors that have joined together for an all-night prayer vigil at the local Methodist church in the run-up for our 40 days of regional 24/7 prayer in October. Promises are being released, communities are being blessed, and we are pressing-in for more of the Lord. We have kicked off the night by viewing George Otis Jnr's "Transformations I" video - awesome stuff. That has really got us fired up for the rest of the night! Man that video is awesome! There is a shift that needs to take place from seeing yourself as a pastor of a church to seeing yourself as a steward of a city for the Lord. We are called to pastor cities, regions and nations. It is time to crawl back out from under the floorboards and regain the spiritual ownership of the land. Photos will be posted soon. Back to the payer room - over and out. Technorati Tags: 24/7 Prayer, Campo de Gibraltar, Gibraltar, Transformations, George Otis

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