Rahab's Place

As it it in Heaven

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 03:54:00 +0000

One of the things that we are undertaking here is to revolutionize culture. I mean we are challenging the standard of earth with heaven's standard. If we were to try to attract the world to Jesus by becoming relevant to their culture, we would be moving in the wrong direction. I am deliberately calling people away from all of their previous commitments and understandings to commit without reservation to the cultural standard of heaven as it is revealed in the Bible.

It is not easy to question the beliefs, customs, practices and social behavior of our nation, but it is really needed. Think about it. The world is disgusted to hear that the culture of the church does not differ from theirs. The church has adopted the culture of the world. You have, no doubt, seen the statistics about divorce, morality, spirituality, character and on and on. Worse yet, you have probably seen the worst sort of failings in those who are called to lead the church. How would you like to be a part of heaven's answer to this?

Kingdom culture goes right to the question of, "What is God doing?" As the song puts it, "We will go where He goes, say what He says, and pray what He prays!" I am not condemning the church or its leaders, because I do not believe that is what God is doing.

Heaven models finding ways for the prodigal to come home, even if you must bear the cost yourself--like Jesus did. We do not see him leveling blame at people for being in bondage to the devil. Instead, he sets them free and encourages them to walk in the things that he created them for. Even though this strategy did not always result in freedom for the individuals he was ministering to, he offered the chance anyhow. Consider Judas, who was a thief before he was put in charge of the offering bag. Did Jesus not know what he was? No way, Jesus knew what was in men without asking. He was offering Judas a chance to become something more. Judas did not choose to take the offer.

Forgiveness is one part of heaven's culture and has to be exercised towards yourself before you can take it to others. When you don't let yourself off of the hook, it is called shame. Jesus paid the whole price for you to walk out from under shame. The devil will try to convince you that you are forever tainted by...whatever. We need to realize that that is not from God. Forgiveness and redemption come from God through Jesus who bore all of the blame and shame that we deserved.

The same is true for people who have offended and hurt us. They need to be let off of the hook. The mission that Jesus was on, and is still on, is destroying the works of the devil. Although people hurting people is one of the major themes that the devil employs, we are not fighting against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers.

Let me put it another way. The culture of heaven is more concerned with maintaining relationships with people than with rules and regulations. We are told to maintain the unity of the Spirit, but some people add all kinds of junk to that. Do you know people who are willing to destroy relationships if someone does not agree with their favorite ideas about the faith? That is what Jesus said that the Scribes and Pharisees of his day did. They were too interested in their interpretation of the law and in their rules, and too little interested in the presence of God and his love for his people.

The presence of God, and his love have enough supernatural power in them to transform everyone who comes close. Lets let go of the culture of the world that keeps us from putting our full attention on Jesus, and with passionate, abandoned love for Jesus chase him until we catch him!

Pastor GIGO

The Reward of Serving Him

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 22:38:00 +0000

I've created a monster! Pastor Got-It-Going-On is on a roll!

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The average person who lived in Jesus' lifetime understood that the earth and its people are captives of Satan and in need of being freed from that bondage. People of our time, however, need to be reminded of how God's creation fell under Satan's domination, and to see how Jesus' mission on earth fulfilled God's plan to win back the earth. Adam and Eve were the very apex of all God's perfect creations (Gen. 1:26). Only Adam and Eve had the capacity for a relationship with God, and part of God's plan for them was to give them dominion over all the plants, fish, birds, and animals (Gen. 1:28). The teaching of the first chapters of Genesis is this: through disobedience and sin, Adam and Eve lost for all of us our original innocent relationship with God. They also lost for all of us dominion and authority over the earth (Gen. 3:17).

What had been created as a place that was only to benefit and bless people, now became a hostile environment, subject to calamities, famines, parasites, violent storms, and all of the other things that we now view as "natural" disasters. Mankind became victim to Satan's whims and death loomed as the ultimate victory of darkness. Satan had tricked man out of this place of dominion and had established his own evil influences and purposes on earth. Man is now prey for all forms of evil-- including sickness, hunger, natural calamities, demonic attacks and death.

This is why God initiated a plan to reclaim his beloved creation and place the original stewards back into authority over it. In 1 Cor. 15:20-24 we see Jesus as the Second Adam who came to live a sinless life, die on the cross and rise again from the dead. In this way he fulfilled all righteousness as the perfect atonement for what Adam and Eve had done, and for all of the sin that we have fallen into since then. Jesus destroyed Satan's power and earthly dominion and took it from him. Jesus was manifested to destroy the works of the Devil and has now called us to walk in that same calling. He has given us the authority to partner with him in this mission: confront and destroy the works of the Devil everywhere we see them.

Satan and his allies, the demons, stubbornly hang on to the earth to work whatever evil they can upon mankind who are objects of Gods love. Jesus has won absolute power over the works of Satan, but the moment that he calls in the chips and the dominion of the evil kingdom comes to an end, all of the people who are still lost in its influence will be lost. So lets go for it in the name of Jesus and win for the lamb the reward that he gave his life for: all people everywhere in a fresh innocent relationship with God, walking in the authority, wonder, and power that he has given to all of us who love and serve him!

Pastor GIGO

The Kingdom of God

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 18:01:00 +0000

The "Kingdom of God" on earth is only to be found where the Holy Spirit is moving and people are yielding to Him! That is why Jesus taught us to pray for the Father's will on earth as in heaven, because that is what the Spirit is doing. The word "kingdom," in the New Testament, means the rule of a king--not the things or the lands that belong to Him. In other words, you are only drawing near to this kingdom to the extent that you are actively involved in the supernatural ministry made possible by the Holy Spirit. Let me state it another way, you cannot live by the ways of this world and be Christian!

You cannot just stick "God" on your way of life and expect him to bless you.
And you cannot stick other things on your walk of faith and call them Christian! We are commanded to get His ways!

Mt 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Those who have not understood this verse have made it a message of morality, but it is a message of faith and power. The message of the kingdom is the message of power, but because the church has not walked in this power, we have a credibility problem. "Credibility Gap" used to describe our disillusionment with our national institutions- primarily government, media and politics. Many Americans no longer feel that they can believe what government leaders and the media tell them are "facts." It is commonly believed that there is an enormous gap between reality and what we are told.

We have developed a similar credibility gap in the church. It only takes a cursory reading of the Gospels to see that there is a huge difference between the life and ministry of Jesus in the New Testament and the experience and ministry of much of the church.

The claims of Jesus carried credibility because he backed up what he claimed to be with supernatural endorsement. When he claimed to be the Light of the World (John 8 & 9) he fed over five thousand people with a few loaves and fishes; as the Prince of Peace he brought peace not only to a stormy sea, but also to the victims of violent demons (Mark 4 & 5).

In Jesus' kingdom message of the Rule of God (Mark 1:15, Matt. 3) his words and works were a complete unity. Jesus designed our faith so that the credibility of his ministry would continue through the church. In the early years, the church did continue to minister in both word and works, but today much of Christ's Body is ministering in word only.

Our words tell of the wonderful works of our Savior, but the accompanying supernatural works of the Holy Spirit are missing in most cases. What our world needs most is to see and experience the Jesus of the New Testament in all his compassion, truth, wisdom, and power!

Pastor GIGO

God Encounter

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:44:00 +0000

Pastor Got-It-Going-On has graciously agreed to put down his quill, come into the 21st century and write a post.

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To represent the good news of the Gospel as being fully expressed by God's love for us, or even Jesus' incredible sacrifice for us, is to fall short of Jesus' full message and mission. There is a theme that contains these elements of truth, but goes on to explain the works of Power that Jesus demonstrated.

The powerful supernatural working of the Holy Spirit through Jesus was in the context of a war with Satan. Recently, I was telling a friend about what the Gospels reveal of Jesus' worldview, and to my amazement, he told me that his church taught him that there was no personification of evil! No wonder the church is becoming irrelevant today. Jesus' message and everything he did was designed to reveal the kingdom of God in the context of freeing people and creation from the dominion of the evil kingdom. Each time we see Jesus heal someone of disease or free someone from an evil spirit we see the Kingdom of God defeating Satan's kingdom of evil. Jesus' miracles of healing and deliverance, and his power over nature and death demonstrate his passionate love for us and his provision for us to walk in the same things that he did--and even greater. The same Jesus who healed the blind man and delivered Mary Magdalene of seven demons also walked on water, stilled violent storms, and raised at least three people from the dead! What could be greater than these things?

Are these dramatic examples of "God showing off?" Is Jesus merely flexing his divine muscles? No! Jesus was not just performing these things just for shock appeal. These startling miracles are an invitation for you to go deeper in your own God encounters. If your faith is not founded on your experience of God destroying the works of satan in your life, then you are a candidate for the most amazing and wonderful upgrade that you can imagine, and even more than you can imagine. God is looking for people who are ready to say to him, "you are everything I want, I renounce the world, the flesh, and the devil." Living in radical love and commitment to Jesus will automatically propel you into his mission to reclaim and restore the earth and its inhabitants to wholeness and destroy the perverse works of Satan. That means that the anointing is not for your enjoyment, but it is given to you for the sake of others! As Bill Johnson says, "you owe the world a God encounter!"

Pastor GIGO

WOW!

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:27:00 +0000

That is pretty much all that can be said for what is currently going on in the Church of the Amorphous Mass. There has been a dramatic shift in our meetings and the Holy Spirit is SOOOO present. We've pretty much added another service because we simply can't get enough.

Pastor Got-It-Going-On has a lot of wisdom in this. He paid attention to the things John Arnott has been saying about Toronto. The Toronto Outpouring is in it's 13th year. That is because God gave Arnott the wisdom to not let his team burn themselves out. Stewarding revival is as important as initing something in the Spirit, and John Arnott has done an incredible job of that.

Grace has a sister, Glory. Glory has been coming and has the most beautiful voice. The Lord is doing such an awesome restoration in her, and is giving her songs to sing over people the way other people get prayers and words. It is a beautiful thing.

Pastor GIGO's Number One Son has applied to the School of Ministry at Bethel. We are believing with him for acceptance (they have like 5,000 applications for 2,000 slots) and the finances to pull this off. Number One Son has worked dilligently and saved for this, but there have been some really intense things that have come up that have drained his resources.

The face is still in the carpet over at the Remnant's house. You can only see it at night. It is amazing. We have found a few feathers floating around after our services. I don't want feathers, I want to see the whole angel.

There has been such a change in the level of intensity of the peole who are hanging out with us. We want more. We want to do higher up and deeper in. Animal told me last week that he appreciates the fact that they are having to stretch in worship to go beyond where they have ever been. People are meeting together to pray outside of church. Whenever people get together for any reason, they wind up praying. There is such a hunger.

When I see these things, I remember why I love church planting so much.

Weird Manifestation Award Winner

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:43:00 +0000

Yep, it's a face. It appeared in the carpet where we held our prayer meeting this week.

We win the Weird Manifestation Award for the week.

We decided to pray at some one's house this week. We had been meeting in a park to pray, but after Saturday and Sunday decided that maybe we didn't need to be out in the open when we got together again.

When he opened the meeting in prayer, Pastor GIGO asked for angels to come and minister to us. Something new - he's not done it before.

We have a list of things we pray for. God has been answering A LOT of requests we've been making lately. It's fun to mark stuff off the list as the request gets answered. Sometimes we pray for people who are there as well. It's generally been rather laid back and free-form.

It stopped being laid back this week.

Pastor GIGO's second son, Prophet-boy, was powerfully touched while they were at Jesus Culture in Redding, CA. He came back a different young man. He has taken stands for his faith, been out on the streets ministering and in general acting like someone who has had a fire lit in their heart. Sunday night he asked for prayer for a release of the Holy Spirit. He's prayed, but never received a prayer language. He got that. Tonight, he asked for prayer for a release of the prophetic in his life.

We prayed for him until he hit the floor. He was on his knees, though, and Pastor GIGO pounced on him and prayed until Prophet-boy couldn't sit up. He was out on the floor for quite some time. When he got up off the floor, the image above was in the carpet where he was laying.

Being us, we took pictures. Lots of pictures. And emailed them to everyone we knew.

Grace (which means God's powerful presence that enables you to be who He's made you to be and gives you the power to do what He's called you to do), the young lady who was so powerfully touched by the Holy Spirit over the weekend, was there. Pastor GIGO was a paratrooper in an earlier life and has the knees to prove it. His knees decided to make their protests about his current activities (he was laying carpet earlier in the day) known, so we prayed for him. Grace laid hands on one of his knees and it was like an electrical current running though her hand into his knee. I could actually feel things moving in his knee as we prayed. He reported a 60% improvement then and later said it was even better. Grace is now a little maniac who will pray for anyone about anything.

Someone who is not part of our group came by later in the evening. She said that when she walked in the front door, the anointing in the room was so strong she nearly fell back out the door.

It was after 11 pm when we called it a night. The only reason we left that early is most had to get up at the crack of dawn to go to work.

What was the purpose of all this? What happened for us when we saw this image is that we were filled with awe that the Lord would do something physical to answer us. What we are craving is more of His presence, not more manifestations. We are excited to hang out together and do the stuff.

People are praying more. They are spending more time with Jesus on their own because something has been touched in their hearts. We come together and there is such a sense of the presence of the Lord that none of us want to leave it. We just want to sit and worship Him. People are reading their Bibles and actually getting good stuff out of that.

The manifestations are cool only in that they draw us into deeper relationship with Jesus. They are like jellybeans the Lord is throwing out to us to help us find our way to where He wants us to be.

What Does It Look Like When God Shows Up?

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:15:00 +0000

Pastor Got-It-Going-On and his family returned from their much-needed vacation to Redding, CA where they attended Jesus Culture. From everything I have heard and seen on the Internet, this event ROCKED!

We met for our usual Saturday meeting. The young lady that I wrote about previously and her family came. She wanted MORE, and boy did she get it.

Worship was great. They turned our drummer, Animal, loose and let him follow after the leading of the Spirit. I don't know about anyone else, but when that happened there was such a release of the Holy Spirit for me. I danced until I nearly passed out.

One of the things that we have been doing is releasing people into art. We have easels and art supplies in our meetings. If the Lord shows someone something during worship, they are welcome to draw, paint or otherwise represent it. When we break, then those who have created a media piece share the interpretation. One of the Thundering Herd drew a beautiful picture of the crucifixion against a setting sun. He didn't have an interpretation of the drawing, but it was a picture of what Pastor GIGO was going to preach - the finished work of the cross in healing from Isaiah 53.

The awesome thing about Pastor GIGO's sermon was that it represented a major shift for him. We discussed whether or not healing was part of the atonement last year and his position at that time was that it was not, it was part of the goodness of God. He has grown in his understanding and now sees it as part of the atonement.

That is one of the things I love about this man. His brain has not atrophied from lack of use. He is actively growing in his knowledge of God as he pursues the Lord and pours his life out in that pursuit. There is something tremendously comforting about leadership that is willing to say, "I learned something new and adjusted my theology according to what I am learning from the Lord." That might wig some people out, but for me it means he is on the same journey I am on and has no illusions about having arrived. We are all chasing Jesus together and that is more exciting than I know how to describe.

After some excellent teaching, we did what is know in Toronto circles as a Fire Tunnel. You line up in two lines facing each other, send some poor victim through and we all lay hands on them as they move through the tunnel and pray for the Fire of God to fall on them.

It did.

By the time we finished this part of the exercise, very few were left standing. Some people were in need of some ministry from the Lord and people gathered around them to pray. Others we just left in the floor and let the Lord minister to them. My young friend was quite overwhelmed with the presence of the Lord and shared it with whomever she touched. It was quite amusing.

Our normal 2 hour service lasted about 6 1/2 hours. No joke. We started at 7 and ended at 1:30 am. We prayed, we laughed, we worshiped. I hadn't seen anything like it since the early days of the Toronto outpouring. No one left. Not people with kids, no one.

Even after we locked the building at 1:30, there was still a group of us out in the parking lot praying. We prayed and talked until 2:30 am.

The next day we decided that it was so wild, we wanted some more, so we begged Pastor GIGO to hold another service. We met at someone's house this time and that meeting went on for 5 hours. None of us wanted to leave. We just wanted to pray and worship and hang out with Jesus.

What it looks like when God shows up is addictive. Very addictive. It's not about the manifestations, it's not about this or that or the other thing. It is about Jesus. It is about falling in love with Him all over again and wanting Him more than food or sleep or anything else.

The book of Acts talks about this. It tells of how the early church met together every day and that there were times when the Holy Spirit even shook the place where they met. It tells of how thousands were added in single meetings and that people were added to the church daily.

I can't think of anything more addictive than that.

MInistry

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:14:00 +0000

I got the opportunity last night to pray for a young teenager who wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I thought, "Sure. No problem. No big deal."

When, oh when will I learn?

She was laying in the grass and I explained what it means to be filled with the Spirit and how when you ask Jesus to fill you with His Spirit, that's what you are going to get and nothing else. I had her to ask, "Jesus, please fill me with your Spirit." And He did.

Have you ever seen someone try to press themselves through the ground?

The Holy Spirit was so on this child. She laughed, she cried, she shook. She got, in the words of Heidi Baker, wrecked. I am talking can't stand up, can't move, can't string three coherent words together wrecked.

This went on for 2 hours.

Her older sister said, "I want you to pray for me. I want what you were talking about."

I have no idea what it was that I said. It often works like that for me. I follow a flow of the Holy Spirit and afterwards I have no idea what I said. I often wish I could remember. People seem to think it was really awesome. It would be really nice to be able to apply it to myself.

Here I am trying to explain to her mom and sister what's going on with this girl. That's a real scream because I have never seen some of this before, at least not when I've prayed for people. The Lord, however, is so cool. He's telling me what's going on so I can tell them. Again, that probably would have been really helpful to remember, but that didn't happen either.

The thing for me is when I am praying for people, when I am ministering to them, it's not me. It's not about me. And it's nothing that I have. Actually, when I prayed for this girl, I was in a tremendous pit. I didn't have anything to give. But I prayed for her anyway, because I have a God who does and who is always able to give, no matter what the condition His servants are in.

After about 2 hours, she was able to peel herself off the grass and wobble out to her mom's car. And I do mean wobble. Drunk in the Spirit doesn't even begin to describe it.

They are supposed to be at service tonight because they want me to pray for them some more. That ought to be fun. We have yet to have to carry someone out to their car. I am believing God that we will get to that point.

Mickey Mouse Preaching

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 21:43:00 +0000

A number of years ago I have a prophetic dream that I thought I would share. It changed the way I view church and ministry significantly.

Church Disney
In this dream, I was sitting in the church I attended at the time. It met in the lower level of an office complex, basically a large basement. There were no windows or natural light of any kind. All the light was artificial.

The music starts and Goofy comes up on stage to lead worship. On the wall where in many churches words would be projected, there was a large portrait of Walt Disney. Goofy led the group in singing, among other things, "It's a Small World" and "When You Wish Upon a Star."

After Goofy finishes, out comes Mickey Mouse to preach. His message was basically about the need for us all to just get along.

My dream ended.

Interpretation
When I woke up, I asked the Lord what all this meant. This is what I believe the interpretation was.

The dream was a warning about the movement I was in at the time in particular and the church in North Americal in general.

The church has built a structure that cuts off access to the true Light. The light within is artificial and generated, not natural.

Goofy represents a totally lack of discernment on the part of those in worship ministries. These sing of worldly things from a human point of view. Rather than being full of faith and filled with the Spirit, they are wishful that God will do something to change the situation.

Walt Disney represents what the church is truly worshipping:

Money. Disney is a very wealthy enterprise built on good deeds and family oriented, but not true faith and holiness.
Power. Disney now owns ABC, one of the original 3 TV networks. This gives them worldly power to promote worldly values. If the world gives you power, the only way to retain that power is to promote what the world wants promoted. However, if your power has its source in the Holy Spirit, you will promote what the Father wants.
Respectability. Disney was respected as a provider of "family" entertainment. In order to keep that "lifestyle", however, Disney had to conform to the values of the world to continue to make money. If your goal is respectability and prestige, you will have to compromise with the world and give the world what it wants in order to maintain that.

Mickey Mouse represents a leadership what is mousy and so bound by the fear of man that it has lost it's authority and power. It seeks to maintain position by the unity that comes from compromise. It has no value that is not up for negotiation.

Which Kingdom?
What this dream represented was a warning of a path that cannot be followed. There is a clear choice before us. We can be a part of the world's system and enjoy a measure of worldly success or we can have the True Light and be part of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken.

There's an old Keith Green song that comes to mind. It's called "You Love the World and You're Avoiding Me":

My word sits there upon your desk
But you love your books and magazines the best
You prefer the light of your TV
You love the world and you're avoiding Me

These other loves
They're hurting you
If you end up losing Me
Then what will you do?
I gave My blood to save your life
Tell Me, tell me is it right?
Will you leave me here alone again tonight?
Well, I love you still more and more
But you're fighting everything I'm working for
You prefer the light of your tv
You love the world and you're avoiding Me

James clearly says that friendship with the world is adultery. We have to make a choice, a clear choice concerning which kingdom we are a part of.

Happy Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 04:51:00 +0000

Today is my birthday. I have managed to keep this fact hidden from the members of the Church of the Amorphous Mass. The Keyboardist Formerly Known as Shallow says, "The earth cooled, the dinosaurs died and then came Rahab." Is it any wonder that I did not want any encouraging words from the rabble?

Pastor Got-It-Going-On is out of town. He usually harasses me about my age, but then again he's 3 years older than I am and always will be. When he gives me grief about my senility, I ask him to save me a place at the home.

Anyway, it is amusing to be around a group that I am, for the most part, old enough to be their mother. My call is to the under 30 crowd. This was really hard in Georgia. I was a student and the other students called me Miss Rahab. There is nothing that will make you feel ancient faster than Miss in front of your name, especially when it is someone in your class at school.

Scripture teaches that wisdom tends to come with age and that gray hair is a sign of such wisdom. I take comfort in that fact. It's cheaper than getting my hair dyed.

Heavenly Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:52:00 +0000

I lifted this picture from Patricia King's site. It is a picture of gem stones that appeared in a meeting. I have seen this happen at Growing in the Supernatural. I actually have one of these that the Lord gave me and I thought I would share the experience.

A lot of people freak out about these things, but there really is a reason for these types of things happening. Part of it is just the love of the Father for His children, but there is also a prophetic meaning behind these gifts.

At this particular conference, the Lord was dealing with me about my call as an Evangelist. I have struggled with this for years because I come out of a background that says women can't be used by God for anything. They are given to rebellion and deception and they cannot be trusted. There's a real affirmation in Christ, eh?

Anyway, Todd Bentley was preaching and the meeting was very much an impartation session and as such was a bit wild. The Lord spoke to me very clearly when this was going on. It seemed to me that He held out His hand and said, "Will you come with me?" And I immediately responded, "Anywhere."

I had told the Lord earlier in the day that I would do anything He asked me to do, but I also asked Him for solid confirmation that I could hold on to after the emotions of the conference left. I fight a battle against the curses spoken over me on a regular basis and I was asking for ammunition to use against that when it came.

After this exchange with the Lord, I was sitting on floor crying and had my glasses off. I am blind as a bat without them. As I was sitting there, He said, "I have a commissioning present for you. Look over." There on the floor next to me was something that shone. I picked it up and it looked like a sliver of glass. I put my glasses on and watched it grow in my hand.

This gem was not cut and pretty like so many others I saw at this conference. And He said, "You are a diamond in the rough and I have given you a picture of where you are." That means He is forming me into what He desires.

For me, this is not about I have a gemstone. What I have is a gift from my Lord that shows me how much He loves me. He loves me enough to give me a token to reassure me that I really am hearing His voice. I am in awe of a God who cares enough about me to give me something tangible to hang on to as I make my way through a difficult path.

Every single person that I spoke with at the conference who had a gem has a similar story. The type of gem or the cut of the gem or something about it spoke to the person who found it something very personal from the Lord.

Now, I'm not saying we didn't act like a bunch of idiots at times. Yes, we crawled the floors after the meetings looking for these things. They are a hoot to find. The closest thing I can compare it to is like looking for Easter eggs when you were a kid. And maybe that's part of the point. Only little children do things like that. Maybe this is part of becoming like a little child so that we can inherit the kingdom.

I saw gold dust and glitter and gems. They were cool and wonderful, but that wasn't the focus. I just felt the presence and the love of my Father in a way I never had before. I fell more in love with Jesus and was drawn deeper into His presence. The signs are just that, signs. They point the way to the true treasure, Jesus Christ.

Love Jesus, Hate Church

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 19:09:00 +0000

I found a great book last night. It's called, "Love Jesus, Hate Church" by Steve McCranie. You can download the PDF of the book here for free. Steve is a pastor who has come to hate, loathe, abominate the current state of what passes for the church.

My kind of guy.

The difference is where I had come to the point I was willing to chuck the whole thing and just love Jesus in isolation, he has hope. He honestly believes the church can be changed by the decision of individual believers to BE who they are SUPPOSED to be in Jesus.

What would happen if you became a radical, sold out disciple of Jesus Christ determined to live a life of true holiness? What if you determined to become a worshipper of the Father in Spirit and in truth, and made a determined effort to just get lost in adoration of Him every time you attended a corporate gathering? How much would those two acts on your part change the spiritual temperature of your church?

One of the groups of people this book was written for was:

Next, Love Jesus, Hate Church was written to those of you who are living large in the land of Laodicea, those of you who have purchased waterfront property by the sea of lukewarmness. Those who, as the Scripture states, have a “form of godliness, but deny its power.” Those to whom our Lord said He would vomit out of His mouth.

I rather like that. What I didn't realize at the time I was ready to just do the "Me & Jesus" thing was this was exactly what I was doing. I was going to go hide in my cabin; I just didn't realize it was on the sea of lukewarmness.

When you disengage from the church for whatever reason, you are choosing a form of lukewarmness. You may be pursuing Jesus, but you are abandoning what He loves. Jesus gave His life for the church, the real church, the church that will become His Bride. When you choose to not walk there, then He can't walk with you. He will walk His bride through this life.

What most of us know is what Steve McCranie calls "The Well-Oiled Machine." It chugs along quite well, thank you, without the presence of the Holy Spirit. If Jesus actually showed up and tried to run His church, the membership of the machine would be horrified. How dare you suggest that their cold formalism isn't worship. How dare you suggest that in order to reach the world of today, you might have to abandon the methods of 1930 and try something new.

Something new? Change? How dare you! We've been running this church since (insert whatever archaic date is appropriate) and if it was good enough for (insert approprite number of "great"s) Grandaddy, it's good enough for the likes of you!

You probably have to have lived in the South to have experienced that particular phenomenon in all it's glory. There is nothing more fascinating than watching the controlling family of a church set about on a seek and destroy mission against a new pastor who wants to change things.

As long as you are not that pastor.

I have scars. I have scars from sheep bites. I have scars from having my throat slit by leadership I trusted. I have scars from the knives in my back. So do Pastor Got-It-Going-On and his wife. So does the Ordained One who is going to preach this week while Pastor GIGO is out of town.

Unfortunately, in my woundedness I have probably inflicted those same wounds on others. That was never my intent, but it is a universal truth that hurt people hurt people. It is a self-perpetuating cycle that is part of what makes the church the mess that it is today.

The cycle of abuse has to stop. And it has to stop with me.

I can't control anyone else. I can't make church people act like Christians. I can't stop people from living large in the land of compromise.

But I can fix me.

I can seek the Lord and find healing. That has been the quest in my life for the past 2 years. Pastor GIGO and his wife have ministered tremendous healing to me and helped me ditch most, if not all, of the bitterness that life in the church has helped to develop. The fact that they are real and genuine has brought more healing than they realize. I didn't understand what I was doing to my heart by walking in the fear and defensiveness of making sure I didn't get hurt again.

It walls you off from the life of Jesus.

You don't lose your salvation or anything like that. What you lose is intimacy with the Lord. In order to have true intimacy with Jesus, you have to be open, vulnerable and transparent. If you are erecting walls to protect yourself from the body of Christ, those same walls separate you from the experience of walking in His presence and His love.

This book is an excellent place to start in that journey. It confirmed to me that the problems I see are real and that they grieve the heart of Jesus even more than they revolt me. But the answer isn't to withdraw. The answer is to press in to Him even more. This book is more than a challenge to change. It is a 2 x 4 upside the head to make us take a serious look at where we are as Christians and challenges us to be the church as it was described in Acts.

Download and enjoy.

Goodbye, Tim

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 05:23:00 +0000

I got a message this week that a guy I used to go to church with back in the day fell asleep at the wheel and tried to eat a semi. His funeral was July 21.

It really hit me just how ungodly old I truly am. The guy who let me know led me to the Lord 25 years ago this summer. I'm getting to the age when the only time I see my old friends is when one of us dies, and the rest go to lunch after the funeral.

How did that happen? Just yesterday I was thinking I would never live to see 30. Of course, none of my friends expected me to either. I was such an obnoxious street evangelist back in the day, they all expected someone to shoot me in a park somewhere. But that's another story.

Tim was part of my youth. He was the lead guitarist in the house band of the first church plant I was ever in. We didn't have enough musicians to make up a band, so we joined with other plants in our fellowship to cobble together a band. Tim was from St. Louis, the drummer from SE Missouri and the lead singer was from Evansville, Indiana. They met at a church in Southern Illinois to practice and did a rotation of events at the three churches.

And you thought the current plant I'm in was insane.

Before he came to Jesus, he lived with his guitar. He was the kind of guy that did Jimmy Hendrix for his warm up, to get his fingers limber before a show.

I frequently tell a story about being in a service and realizing the guitarist was playing "Stairway to Heaven" for the altar call. That's right, Led Zeppelin. The pastor had no clue, just thought it was a beautiful piece. Tim was that guitarist.

We were going to take the world for Jesus. We weren't going to see 30 because Jesus was going to come back before then. We didn't have time to waste. There was a world that was lost and dying and we had to do something about it. And we did.

The last summer I was in that fellowship, my life ran something like this. I had church Sunday morning and night and Wednesday night. We had drama team practice on Monday night and I was in that. We had a bible study at my house on Tuesday night. We had music group practice on Thursday night and the drama team was usually at that. Friday night we did a coffeehouse scene with music and drama. Saturday morning we had prayer at 9 and street outreach that night. We had prayer meetings every weekday at 7 am and 1 hour before each service. In addition to that, we somehow wedged in a 3 to 5 day revival service every 3 weeks that summer. We did some type of movie outreach every other week and then we hit festivals on the average of every other week. And I worked full-time. I led roughly 150 people to the Lord personally during the time I was in that group.

Looking back now I think, How did I do all that? At the time, it was no big deal. It was just part of serving Jesus.

I lost touch with most of those guys that I did all that with. We all moved on in different directions, different callings of the Lord. But I look back and laugh at a lot of the stupidity we did in our youth and zeal. The amazing thing is how often the Lord honored it. We really did see people come to the Lord in droves.

The Lord has been challenging me to go back to that mentality and be that nuts again, but this time with some wisdom and insight. There's a proverb that youth and zeal will lose out to old age and treachery every time. There's a lot of truth to that. I think most Christians have betrayal stories in their past. This time, however, let's see how old age and zeal fare against treachery.

So rest in peace, Tim. I wonder if there are electric guitars in heaven and if the Lord likes Zeppelin?

Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:54:00 +0000

Pastor Got-It-Going-On has taken his beautiful and long-suffering wife off to a conference this week. They made the drive to Redding, CA to attend Jesus Culture out at Bethel Church. They took the Thundering Herd (their seven children) with them. So we are without adult supervision this week while they are gone.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Actually, I promised I would not kill, maim or dismember anyone while he's gone. If you read Dilbert, Alice is my hero and role model, so this is a rather important thing. The last Dilbert I read, Alice was explaining to her therapist how she had an uncontrollable urge to punch people in the face who irritate her, like the bad combover and outrageous prices of her therapist. I so relate to her. Obviously, I have a long way to go on that love your enemies and bless those who spitefully use you thing.

Must control fist of death...

Pastor GIGO has been attempting to create a culture in our church of honor and forgiveness. Preferring one another in love, giving honor where it is due and forgiving people when they fall short or offend. This has been a huge challenge for those of us who have been around the church for any length of time. The church is one of the most hurtful institutions around. That should not be, but I challenge you to find people who've been in the church more than 5 years who aren't carrying scars from wounds they have received there.

The challenge in this culture is to become transparent. Those of us who have been beat up know it. We know we've been hurt. In my case, I have had leadership that I have gone to in the past for help with spiritual issues and they have in turn used it against me. I've had pastors preach on what I've told them in private sessions. I've been accused of being a witch because I was honest about having a background in the occult and mysticism 20 years ago. The last thing in the world I ever intended to do was to allow any kind of leadership any access to the real me.

A lot of us do that. We compartmentalize our lives. We have our work life. We have our "real" life. And we have our church life. Often times in America, none of the three have any connection to the others. You project the front appropriate to the situation.

Pastor GIGO and his wonderful wife have the scars, too. In some cases, we share the same scars. They get it. What they have done is create a safe place for people with scars to find healing. They meet people right where they are at and just love them into wholeness.

If you had told me 4 years ago that I would be in another church plant, I would have told you that smoking crack is really, really bad for you. I had no intention of doing this again. I certainly had no intention of getting myself in a situation where I actually had to trust a pastor again.

But Jesus is truly amazing. One of the things that I find so amazing about the Lord is the fact that He loves me just the way I am, warts, scars, sin and all, but at the same time He has no intention of leaving me like that. He never loses sight of who and what he intends me to be, and He never stops molding me in that direction.

It's all a work of His grace, not something I do. I can't. I can't fix me. I can't make the hurt stop hurting. But He can. I can't forgive, but He can heal the hurt to the point I have nothing left to hold against anyone, and am just able to let the offense go. He can break the chains that have held me in bondage to things in my past and set me free to walk in the abundant life He promised.

It's all about Him. It's always been all about Him. We just occasionally lose sight of that fact.

Sin Is An Outdated Concept - NOT

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:46:00 +0000

Pastor Got-It-Going-On preached an awesome sermon Saturday night. Actually, he preached 2. His prologue, which had very little to do with his main point, was really, really good. His stuff usually is really, really good. One of the reasons I am doing this again is because Pastor GIGO teaches stuff I’ve always believed but never heard anyone else say, and he brings a real clarity to what he teaches.

Besides, he KNOWS Greek. If I jump ship, who else will I get to help me track the Greek down on words studies? I took enough Greek in school to realize a) I don’t know jack and b) neither did a good many of the translators who worked on translating English editions. I just did a study on what an evangelist is and realized that what the church believes that office is bears very little resemblance to what the scripture shows. You can read my posts on this here.

But I digress.

Greasy Grace
There’s been a lot of teaching in the Church on grace, some good, some bad and some that rightly qualifies as an abomination. Grace, in the Western Church, has become to some extent a license for sin. Sin all you want, it’s under the Blood. The worst case of this I have ever heard was in Pastor GIGO’s sermon. A friend of his decided to have an affair, but it was okay because he and the woman prayed about it before they slept together. It’s like they repented BEFORE they sinned, so it’s cool. I was amazed Pastor GIGO could tell the story with a straight face.

That one wins the Braying Jackass award, for sure.

Sin Has Consequences
What he spoke about was the fact that yes, Jesus forgives you of ALL sin. You do have an Advocate before the Father who intercedes for you, and if you do sin, there is forgiveness. Instant forgiveness, without any need for penance.

But there are consequences for sin.

As ministers of Jesus Christ, and all Christians are priests before God, sin disqualifies you from ministry. You can’t turn off your porn flick, repent and go preach and expect the Holy Spirit to show up. Of course, if you are in a setting that doesn’t believe the Holy Spirit manifests His presence anymore, then you can probably get away with it. But if you are totally relying on the Holy Spirit and you do something stupid, He will be noticed by His absence.

The Old Testament (that’s the first 39 books of the Bible for those of you who believe we are under grace and not the law so there’s no need to read the law) gives some really important principles of ministry and standards that God holds his priests to. Things like the fact that the High Priest carried the names of the 12 tribes inscribed on stones on his shoulders as an act of intercession for the nation he was responsible for. Pastors likewise are responsible to carry those they are responsible into the presence of the Lord in intercession. Things like that.

One of those principles is the concept that if you engage in certain activities, you are unclean and are to stay outside the camp for a specified period of time. There was no sacrifice required to fix the situation. You were unclean and nothing but time could change that fact.

Deuteronomy 23:10-11 specifically talks about this sort of thing. “If one of your men is unclean because of a nocturnal emission, he is to go outside the came and stay there. But as evening approaches he is to wash himself, and at sunset he may return to the camp.” I’m not going to go into details about what a nocturnal emission is because I don’t want to get nailed for content violations, but I think that most of you can probably figure it out.

The Lord explains why this has to be in v. 14. “for the Lord you God moves about in your camp to protect you and to deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, so that he will not see among you anything indecent and turn away from you.”

Turn away from me? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to do anything that would cause the Lord to turn His face away from me.

You Are Not The Only One Who Suffers
The story of Achen illustrates the dangers of this sort of thing. The Lord declared that Jericho was His and everything in it was to be devoted to Him. That meant no one was to take ANYTHING from Jericho when the Lord delivered the city into their hands. Evidently Achen didn’t get that memo because he took just a little for himself and thought no one would be the wiser. It was just a little bit.

Next Joshua went up against Ai. Ai was nothing. It was such a nothing that Joshua didn’t even send his entire army against it. And nothing Ai kicked their butts. Twenty Israelites were killed in the battle.

Achen wasn’t one of them.

Achen’s sin caused the Lord to withdraw from Israel. The really scary thing here was that others who were innocent of any offense against the Lord, paid the penalty for Achen’s sin.

New Testament Example
Paul takes up this theme in 2 Corinthians 6:16-7:1.

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, 18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. 7 1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

The implication in this passage is that God will not receive you if you don’t cleanse yourself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Holiness is a really, really big deal to God. He commands us to be holy simply because He is holy.

Agree With God
The whole purpose of this exercise is coming into agreement with God’s assessment of your situation. You sinned, you did something stupid, or whatever. God’s holiness cannot endorse you because of it. Be honest enough to agree with God, set yourself aside and deal with your issues. That’s a much better option than having God judge you and having others wounded because of what you did.

I have to wonder what would have happened to people like Jimmy Swaggart and Ted Haggard if these types of standards had been worked into their lives at an early stage. Maybe they could have found the ability to come clean when they were dealing with thoughts as opposed to being busted in a hotel with a prostitute. You have to hope.

And I do have hope. Not everyone in the meeting Saturday had that deer-in-the-headlights look of cluelessness on their face when Pastor GIGO was preaching this.

We are in the process of putting Pastor GIGO’s teachings up on our website. I will link to it when this teaching becomes available.

When Jesus Comes

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:24:00 +0000

Last night was the weekly meeting of Church of the Amorphous Mass.

Did I mention that our current meeting location doesn’t have air conditioning? That’s right. New Mexico. Late July. No air. We have an innovative thing called a Swamp Box that provides something resembling cool air to the rear half of the building, the part we DON’T meet in. We do, however, have fans. Lots of them. Enough to sound like a B-17 Flying Fortress at times.

There’s a reason we do night meetings.

One of the things that I love about Albuquerque is the fact that we have very little humidity here. In reality, if you can just get out of the sunlight, the temperature drops 20 degrees. For some reason, there is usually a breeze blowing here. I prefer the climate here to anywhere else I have ever lived.

I got to the church around 5 pm last night. Pastor Got-It-Going-On blew the pre-amp in his guitar, so he uses mine. Yes, even though I haven’t an ounce of musical talent, God saw fit to give, and I do mean give, me a fairly nice guitar. The worship team practices on Saturday just before service and I hang around to pray.

I spend a lot of my time praying for this thing.

Half our worship team was gone this week. The Keyboardist Formerly Known as Shallow was there. The KFKS is really young and he was part of my Bible study in Georgia who decided to make the trek to New Mexico when I came out here. His line for years was, “I’m just too shallow to care.” In the past year or so, God has been doing stuff in him and we can’t call him shallow anymore. His primary instrument was the French horn, but he decided that leading worship on that instrument wasn’t a viable option, so he traded what had become a $3,000 paperweight for a keyboard (and a guitar) and taught himself to play it.

Pastor GIGO is a competent guitarist, but he is not going to be assailed by talent scouts when they come to town. The KFKS has been playing off and on for about 3 years. It is safe to say that our worship team is not going to be offered a record deal any time soon.

Our service starts and we begin to worship. The amazing thing about worship is that it is not about our musical talent, our ability to sing or even to stay somewhere in the same proximity to the rhythm. It is about our hearts before the Lord, and the love and passion we have for him. And in that, this little group excels.

One of the things I have been praying for in my own life is that the Lord would open the eyes of my heart and that He would enable me to see what He is doing. Scripture says that when Jesus walked the earth, He only did what He saw the Father doing. I want to be like that, too.

He decided to take me up on that last night.

As I was worshiping and just having a good time, I looked up at the platform and I could “see” someone standing behind my pastor. I could see and not see him at the same time.

I can’t really explain how this works. People have been trying to explain to me for years what it is like to be able to see in the Spirit and I couldn’t get it. It’s one of those things you have to experience to understand. And once you do, you understand what people are talking about. Until then, you just smile and nod a lot.

Anyway, this figure stood behind Pastor GIGO with His hand on his back during the entire worship set. It didn't really take me long to realize I was seeing a representation of Jesus. I could tell from the way Pastor GIGO was acting that he was feeling something very intense. It was evident in the way he was leading worship. It was a very sweet and intense time of worship.

When the worship set ends, we always take a break. It allows parents to make sure their kids have dismembered one another and so forth. I told Pastor GIGO what I had seen and he said he was aware of the intense presence of the Lord, he just didn’t realize HOW intense it was. He also stuck a mike in my hand and had me share it with the group.

Jesus told us that where 2 or more were gathered in His name, He would be there in the midst of them. It has dawned on me over the years that if He is not in our midst when we gather, we are NOT gathered in His name, no matter what we say. If you cannot feel, sense or see the Lord as being present in your midst, then there is something in the life of your group that has become more important to your group than Jesus.

church planting

Church of the Amorphous Mass

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:49:00 +0000

The adventure of the plant goes on.

I would tell you the name of our church, but I’m not sure what it currently is. We have changed our name three times in the past year. So for the sake of continuity in this blog, I’m going to call it the Church of the Amorphous Mass. In case you didn’t know and don’t want to look it up, amorphous means “without clear shape, form or structure.” It fits rather well.

We are also on our 6^th meeting location. We started as a prayer meeting in my pastor’s house, which was 30 miles out of town. Then we moved to my house. I didn’t have furniture at the time. Then we met in a community center. The rules there stated we couldn’t hold a religious service, so we were a Bible discussion group. From there we moved into the meeting room in a Chinese restaurant. There we had painting of a 6-foot smiling Buddha on the wall surrounded by smoke that spelled “Jesus”. Then we moved into a coffee shop owned by a Christian. He was ecumenical enough to have literature out from the local Buddhist temple. Actually, the Buddhists were meeting in a building that used to house the church a friend of mine once pastored. He no longer believes in Jesus and is now an astrologer.

It’s all true, I promise. Who could make all of that up?

We are currently renting facilities from another church in town. They are set up more like a coffee house. It has been interesting to be in a place that is so normal.

I love my pastor. He’s the reason I’m in this mess again. He and his wife have invested quite a bit of time ministering to me and really helped me at a time when I was just destroyed. So I owe them and I have a lot of personal loyalty to them. However, he kicked and screamed about planting a church in this city almost as much as I did about being in yet another pioneer church. Jesus didn’t pay any attention to either one of us, so we occupy much of our time laughing at each other.

Pastor Got-It-Going-On is actually quite brilliant, holds a zillion degrees and survived seminary. None of that is very helpful to him at the present. Seminary does a really lousy job of teaching students how to chase after the presence of the Lord, how to experience the love of the Father and how to walk in the power of the Spirit. As a matter of fact, most of them don’t even teach students how to preach a sermon.

We are actually still quite small. We have managed to chase off any number of people in the past 2 years. Something about insisting that people actually OBEY the Bible just seems to not set well. Of course, my pastor has 7 kids and has family that attends. When his extended family all show up, there’s 15 right there. When we all show up, there’s 26 of us. That’s larger than some churches in the South that have been in existence for 100 years. On the other side of that, I’ve run Bible studies that had more people in them.

We have actually incorporated and have a board of elders. They are 25 and 24 years of age, along with Pastor GIGO.

We have managed to cobble together a worship team. They are okay and they flow in prophetic worship, at least some of the time. The problem with that is that people get lost in worship. When that happens, they also get lost in the music. That can sound like quite a train wreck, though it can be quite amusing to watch members of the team throw things at each other or have to walk over and kick someone to get their attention. Note to other pioneers: If you are going to have a worship team that gets drunk in the Spirit, you should have a designated driver to keep things on track.

In spite of the Laurel and Hardy aspect of some things, the Holy Spirit keeps showing up. The Lord keeps meeting with us, keeps changing us and keeps encouraging us to press in. It is so encouraging that He does not see us as we see ourselves.

Karma of Church Planting

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:11:00 +0000

Somewhere in a former life, if you believe in such things, I must have been the equivalent of a Nazi Storm Trooper or something equally vile and disgusting. Somehow I have earned the purgatory of church planting. I am in my seventh pioneer church.

That’s right. Seven.

Something in me draws me to fledgling pastors with a vision. Men who are passionately chasing after the Lord Jesus and offering others the opportunity to come along on the adventure. There is something so appealing about the call to be a part of a different expression of the body of the Lord.

What is wrong with me?

Church planting offers you the opportunity to crash and burn in an endless variety of amusing ways. You never seem to run out of ways to splatter yourself against the cold, hard, unforgiving wall called reality. You find yourself being stretched in ways you never knew you could stretch. In the circus, they call you a contortionist. In the church, they call you Pastor.

The Bible says that we are to rejoice in the Lord always and we are to give thanks in all things. I finally found a reason to be thankful for my complete lack of musical ability and my inability to carry a tune in a bucket with a lid on it. My pastor can’t ask me to be on the worship team.

There is, however, something irresistible for me in this whole process. It is watching a team that at times resembles the freaks from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, led by the Three Stooges, be transformed into the image of Christ. Somehow the Lord takes us and uses us to create a place where His Holy Spirit likes to meet with us, and we are able to invite people to experience His presence and be transformed as well.

Fortunately, God is not looking for perfect people led by the Apostle Paul. He is looking for us. He invites us to become part of a group of imperfect people led by sincere seekers to bring His Kingdom to a city. And for whatever reason, He chooses to meet with us and we are transformed in the experience.

There is something in that raw encounter of desperation that happens in a church plant, where you are crying out to God to come and meet with you because you have nothing else, that is unlike anything you will ever experience. You can’t hide behind a program or behind talent, because you don’t have it. Either God comes and meets with you or you fold your cards and withdraw from the game. And time after time, He comes.

And that is why I’m here.

Why Rahab?

noreply@blogger.com (Rahab) — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 01:49:00 +0000

Rahab is one of my favorite people in scripture. She was a Canaanite woman who lived in the city of Jericho. When Joshua sent spies into the city, she risked her own life to hide them. She understood that God was up to something and that He was about to change the world as she knew it. Rather than try to stop that, she embraced it and saved herself and her entire family. She was probably the only one in the entire story that got it.

When Joshua destroyed Jericho, he sent the spies to save Rahab and her family. She became not only a part of the nation of Israel, but she was an ancestress of Jesus Christ. She is one of only four women named in His genealogy. Not only that, she was also listed in Hebrews, one of only two women so listed. Pretty impressive, huh?

Except for one thing. Throughout scripture she is called Rahab the Harlot.

It has always fascinated me that this woman was one of the few repeatedly mentioned in the Bible and commended repeatedly by God, but she never lost the term Harlot. Why is that?

It could be that the Bible was written and edited by men. That's another can of worms that I might take on some other time, but not tonight.

It could also be that God has always taken the base things of the world and given them honor. He uses the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Nothing looked more foolish than the cross, but it was the wisdom of God displayed for the ages.

I've always thought that Rahab's tent must have been a wild place to hang out. She had a different perspective from the rest of Israel. She got it when everyone else was wondering what God was doing and how would they survive without Moses. She didn't even know who Moses was, but she knew that the God of the Hebrews was kicking butt and she wanted to be on His side.

God is again on the move. His Spirit is stirring in many places. He is doing things differently than many people have ever seen. The reality of the spiritual realm is being seen more clearly with each passing day. People are searching for connection with the supernatural and God is meeting them. For many people, this is something they have never seen before. He is tearing down all kinds of walls and setting people free from the strongholds they have built.

The Lord is looking for a new generation of Rahab's. People who are willing to abandon all they have ever known, all that is familiar, in order to launch out on an adventure with Him. This adventure is the advance of the Kingdom of God in this time. As the Kingdom comes, it will pull down the strongholds that are in its path and overthrow those things that oppose it. It's going to be a grand adventure.

Will you come along?