Religion is man’s way to God, but a relationship with Jesus is God’s way to man. Jesus wants to establish a relationship with each of us personally. He builds His church through His people by revealing Himself to us individually, and revealing to us what His plan and purpose is for our lives. It is so important that we become self-feeders, and make time to seek God personally to go deeper in our relationship with Him. It is then that our revelation of Jesus becomes living and active, which then leads to us fulfilling the mission that God has given us.

Fasting is one of our most powerful weapons. As we shut down our natural appetite, our spiritual appetite is opened up, and we are put more in tune with God. Fasting is all about alignment.  We don’t fast to get God to do something. We fast to align ourselves in faith with what God already wants to do. Prayer becomes alive when you fast. I have never been on a fast where I did not want to pray, and I actually find myself praying constantly when fasting.

Fasting is also the quickest way to break out of a spiritual rut of lukewarmness, and get back into a routine of spiritual discipline. Our hearts get on fire for God again, and prayer and Bible reading become much more of a “want to” than a “have to”.

How has fasting helped you in your relationship with God?

Scripture References: Matthew 17:20-21; Matthew 6:17-18; Hebrews 11:6; Isaiah 58:8-12

Here’s a quick excerpt:

“At least half a dozen U.S. mega-churches have opened international branches in recent years, and plans are in the works for many more.” If Starbucks can start four stores a day, why can’t churches?” says John Bishop, the pastor at Living Hope Church. His congregation in Vancouver, Wash., which has a weekly attendance of 6,000, has 23 satellite churches, including new sites in New Zealand, India, Mexico and the Philippines. The Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, La., has eight U.S. branches, and in the past year opened churches in Mozambique and Swaziland. Celebration Church in Jacksonville, Fla., with 10,000 members, recently launched branches in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and Atiquipa, Peru.” We try to keep consistent what we call the DNA of our church, much like a business would,” says Celebration’s pastor, Stovall Weems.

These super churches have the resources to expand overseas, as only mainstream denominations could in the past. With a large base of followers, the biggest independent churches have” as much money as a small denomination, so they’re creating denominations of themselves,” says Dana Robert, co-director of the Center for Global Christianity and Mission at Boston University.”

You’ll notice this article is written through a business filter, which matches today’s fast paced world of numbers, markets and budgets. And as Pastor Stovall mentioned on Sunday, all of that of course does matter, and technology has indeed changed the way we can do church. But the big picture, the very reason we look to expand nationally and overseas, is that each church plant, each campus that launches, and each door that opens up where people can come in and experience God, these all represent souls that are being reached for the kingdom of heaven.

Isn’t that awesome?

Lives are given over to Jesus, and changed, forever.  These people are then empowered to reach their own community for God. It’s all about eternal impact, not just the here and now. The greatest investment we could ever make is one that will live on forever, which is to continue reaching lost souls for Jesus.

Click here if you’d like to read the rest of the article.

Written By: Linda Riddle, Executive Assistant to Pastor Stovall Weems

It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

God gives us spiritual gifts not for ourselves, but for others. It’s good to have an ambition to see the kingdom of God thrive and expand. However, Godly ambition expresses itself through servanthood, not through selfish promotion. Many people believe that the church is given to them as a platform to find expression for their gifts, when really God has given them their gifts to build and enrich the church. Christ gives us spiritual gifts so that we can labor alongside Him as He builds His church, bringing her to full maturity.

1 Corinthians 13:12 (NIV)

Now we see but a poor reflection, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

As long as we see only part of the picture, we will tend to fill in the gaps with our own idea of what the whole picture should look like – and that will inevitably lead to disagreement. But I do believe that as the church continues to grow in her knowledge of Christ, we will learn to move together in that rhythm of grace and servanthood which characterizes spiritual maturity.

How can you promote unity, even when you don’t see things the same way? How can you build an attitude of servanthood in your life and in the lives of those you influence?

The book is entitled Awakening. It is a very user-friendly, fresh approach to the God-first life. It is basically my life message about awakening to a whole new incredible world of feeling and experiencing God.

One of the main themes of the book is how we don’t just learn about God, but we experience Him. Another main idea is the incredible concept that we can feel God in an emotional way – that is when we experience God, it DOES affect us in the emotional realm. The book also talks about how to put God-first and focus on His love for you, rather than on trying so hard to stir up love for Him.

The Bible says that we love God because He first loved us. The best way to stir up love for God is by first focusing on how much He loves you!

This is a generation that has bought into the idea that truth is relative and subjective. So one of the ways they validate truth is through experience. This generation bases much of their lives on experience - what they can experience and feel is real to them - what they cannot feel and experience is not real (at least conceptually).

Through this book I hope to introduce to them the concept that you can feel and experience God just like you feel and experience other things in life, both good and bad. The God experience is the best experience you can have in this life, and hopefully many who read the book will be inspired to draw near to Him.

I understand we are not to be led by feelings, we are to be led by the Word of God and we walk by faith. However, God wants us to experience Him in our hearts and emotions.

A few of the chapter titles include:

• It’s a Whole New World Out There
• Feeling God
• Do We Have It Backwards?

However nothing is in stone at this point, not even the title. So I would love your feedback on ideas, chapter titles, anything!

Thanks!

If you haven’t checked it out yet, log on to the One Prayer website.

Look forward to seeing you this weekend.

Speaking of that, it looks like we have an opportunity to plant our third international campus in Greece in 2010. Many of you know we have a location in Zimbabwe, Africa now. We also planted a church in Arequipa, Peru, which we have turned over to our friends at Camino de Vida Church. Camino de Vida is an incredible, established church under the leadership of Pastor Robert Barriger and his wife, Karyn. Robert and I are good friends. He has a church of several thousand and over 100 churches in his network. The church in Arequipa is doing well, and it will do even better as part of the Camino de Vida network of churches.

Oasis of Life Church, the church we planted in Africa, is exploding with over 600 people in just over a year. It could grow to several thousand over the next few years and will be part of the Celebration Church network. Pastor Dixon Changara, who many of you met in May, is doing an incredible job there. Through our church in Africa we have been able to really get hands on with being part of the solution for the AIDS pandemic. Through the church and our partnership with Children’s Cup we feed over 7000 children (mostly AIDS orphans) everyday.

Just as our campus in Africa is engaged in fighting AIDS and poverty, our church in Greece will engage in fighting human trafficking. Greece is the number one nation engaged in abducting and selling children into the sex trade. We will raise up a great thriving local church and partner with A21 (under the leadership of Nick and Chris Caine) to help bring social justice in this area.

One of the major goals for our global campuses is to be in an area of the world that is strategically positioned for both evangelism and social justice. We want to go into some of the world’s darkest areas and bring God’s marvelous love and light.

It seems more reachable for him to have told us to make disciples of our neighborhoods; yet we are asked to have a vision, a mindset that includes our neighbors yet reaches the nations of the world. Today we recognize that reaching the world and overcoming cultural differences, language differences, and physical distances can only happen through God-ordained connections.

These connections are more than feel-good friendships; they have a very pragmatic function. Through relationships with leaders of other communities, we extend our ability and effectiveness to take the gospel to the nations of the world.

It’s easy to see how God-given connections …

• Multiplies ministry impact
• Unifies us as a body of believers
• Testifies to the world of our oneness in Christ
• Pleases the heart of God

The connections and friendships we form come from a shared desire to make a maximum impact for the kingdom of God and along the way we double the enjoyment through working with and spending time with friends. It’s no wonder we eagerly share relational capital with each other.

God has honored us with great friendships and partnerships with Hillsong Church (Brian and Bobbie Houston), Association of Related Churches (ARC), Children’s Cup Africa, Equip and Empower (Christine Caine), Equip (John Maxwell) and our most recent partnerships with Craig Groeschel and the churches participating in One Prayer.

This list is by no means exhaustive but a small sample of how God has positioned us to make disciples of all nations while helping others do the same. And for that we are extremely grateful.

A21 is a project they are starting to address the injustice of human trafficking in Europe. I knew that human trafficking was rampant in Cambodia from our work with Joyce Meyer last summer with Hope Cambodia. However, I didn’t realize that Europe was a main destination for human trafficking in the west. So it was eye-opening to find out more about that.

It made me even more glad that Celebration Church supports their ministry. We are looking forward to spending more time with the Caines when they come to Celebration in November.

Gary and Kathy are doing a fantastic job here as the pastors, and the staff and leadership team are just awesome. Brian and Bobbie have done a great job of downloading the Hillsong DNA from Sydney over here to London.

Kerri and I miss Celebration Church and everyone back home so much and we look forward to seeing everyone soon.