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Localization

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is imperative that we become students of the culture, spiritual climate and sensitivities of the people we are ministering too…

Introduction

It is extremly important that we operate in an honoring way toward any nation we are attempting to start an Ignition Center in. Learning about the country, the town, the culture, the spiritual climate and the local community will give us an advantage in transforming that community.

Language

Even though English is a fairly common internationally recognized language, all attempts to transition the program into the local language is one of the first easy ways we can show honor to the people we want to influence.
When we choose teams of leaders for the Ignition Centers from BSSM grads, preference will be given to the grads that speak the local language of the culture we are going to.

Traditions

There is a lot to be said about the appropriate value of traditions within the church especially because holding on to traditions can be the symptom of a religious spirit. However, it is not our job to wage war on every tradition in the community in hopes of driving out every religious spirit. We partner with Holy Spirit to discern the spirit of the tradition and then wage war on the spirit not the tradition. This will transform the traditions of men and avoid attacking what makes them feel safe.

Culture

We must become aware of the cultural norms, practices, traditions and sensitivities and, unless biblically contradictory, we must make every effort to assimilate into their culture. This the easiest way we can show honor to the society we want to influence.

“I have become all things to all men so that I may, by all means, save some.”
Paul

We must also remember, a Christian culture is not a western culture. The goal is to make the message relevant to the culture we are influencing not to try make the culture adapt to the message we are delivering.

Demographics

We adjust our scheduling and teaching to fit the demographics of the people we are trying to reach. A young women is not expecting the same message as an older man. If we have a room full of young 20-somethings, we make it our business to preach a message that is relevant to them.

Burning without Scolding

While burning with passion and conviction is paramount in reaching the community, being aware of cultural sensitivities will help us show love and honor in our interactions. For example in the Japanese culture it is really impolite to say “no”, so often our passion can come across abusive or abrasive.

Spiritual displacement

Principalities and powers that govern a region are displaced by manifesting the hidden, manifold wisdom of God to the unseen kings. We do this by infiltrating every level of the society with love.

Intmacy, the David Model

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If you read the Psalms that David wrote it won’t take long for you to recognize a pattern. A pattern of intimacy and power. What do we know about David’s approach to God? Well we know that he was credited as a man after God’s heart. This is the ultimate compliment you can give a modern believer. Many believers like to associate their pursuit of God after David’s because it epitomizes the heart-to-heart connection with God we all desire. In fact, in Israel’s history most Kings refer to David as their ancestral father for this very reason.

What was so unique about his connection that makes him such a patriarch in biblical history and icon in modern Christianity? Well I think one of the clues is his unique communication with God. There is something deep in the core of David that bubbles forth when he writes or sings. I kind of hope that springs up from the depth of his soul to defy the process and engage in an encounter with God. He is known for rejecting the strict rules the priests were given, trading the process for undignified worship. Something the priests feared they would suffer for. However there is no fear in love. Remember their approach to the holy of hollies was marked with purification processes and even then they were not sure they wouldn’t drop dead in the presence of God. Where God is, sin and affliction can not hide. And in those days sin was bound up in the heart of a man so exposing himself to God without the cleansing rituals, meant certain death. Just for extra measure, a rope was tied around their ankle, just in case they dropped dead, this way they could pull a dead priest out without having to go in and be exposed to God’s presence. David proceeds to enter the holy of hollies and talk directly to God, usually only done by a priest of Levi.

So how did David thrive in this culture and environment? It seems obvious now after the death and resurrection of Jesus, that all God wanted was an intimate, heart-to-heart connection with His people. That deep in the heart of God is this unquenchable desire to be connected with us. It seems to supersede rules, process and formula. Isn’t this the reason He sent His son? So that we may be reconciled to Him? It proves that He will go to great lengths, moving heaven and earth, to be connected with us. And when we just look at him with one look of desire in our eye, it says in Song of Solomon, He lavishes the kingdom upon us. David understood this. God’s perfect love casts out the fear. David was practiced in his ability to draw the favor of God into his life.

One of the clues we have is the way he wrote the psalms. They are an inside look at David’s heart. It is easy for us to strip it down and turn it into a process, but it flows from the heart of a man in intimate embrace with his God. The overflow of David’s heart shows several clues about the posture of a heart after God’s heart.

First off David was a master of intimacy or “into-me-you-see because I showed you”. He bypasses traditional prayers moving away from the first levels of communication [i.e. spiritual cliche's, facts and opinions] and moves right to opening his heart. Intimacy is only for the brave. He shares his feelings and needs openly and honestly. The reason he is so good at this is because he has developed a great trust cycle with God.

A trust cycle looks like this:  Need Awareness –> Need Expressed –> Respond to Need –> Need Satisfied –> Comforted –> repeat…..

As God satisfied his needs, David’s trust grew, and a safe place for intimacy increased. What we see in the Psalms is a result of practiced intimacy in the presence of God.

Next David builds his own faith or strengthens himself in God. Notice how often he repeats a testimony and how often he makes prophetic declarations about who God is and what He will do. David is a master of pulling to the surface the testimonies, promises and prophesies of God. This is a clue to where his faith came from. This is more than just great self talk or a and inspirational pep-rally. This is the renewal of our minds; the alignment of our minds with the mind of God. It is the very essence of the spiritual warfare of an advancing kingdom of God that the gates of hell can not stand against.

Psalm 61
1 Hear my cry, O God;
Attend to my prayer.
2 From the end of the earth I will cry to You,
When my heart is overwhelmed;
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
3 For You have been a shelter for me, A strong tower from the enemy.
4 I will abide in Your tabernacle forever;
I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.  Selah
5 For You, O God, have heard my vows;
You have given me the heritage of those who fear Your name.
6 You will prolong the king’s life,
His years as many generations.
7 He shall abide before God forever.
Oh, prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him!
8 So I will sing praise to Your name forever, That I may daily perform my vows.

The heart after God’s heart is evident in David as we observe his communication style and the hope that he carries in the midst of trials. He is intimate with the Father, easily sharing his feelings and needs, and he is adept at strengthening himself in God, by repeating the testimonies and declaring the character and promises of God over his life. This is the pattern of intimacy and power that leaves an imprint in history like no other. It is the the blueprint of a life poured out in the pursuit of God’s heart. It is the clue to attracting the attention of heaven and the favor of God for your life.

So what is the problem? The problem is this doesn’t come naturally to all of us. In fact we are so conditioned in our relationships that what we feel and need has no value and the enemies plan is for us to easily forget the testimonies and promises of God, that we find this exercise really difficult. It was never supposed to be this way. You were created to carry the testimonies and promises of God and to intimately commune with Him.
Often relationships have gotten us into this mess and they will get us out. If we can practice this kind of communication style and and hope building with friends we can trust, as well as the God, we will become masters just like David.

I was wrong!

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I was wrong. The best way to release and increase the kingdom wasn’t through a better system or open source curriculum or even people doing the ‘stuff’. This statement seems rather ridiculous when it is written out, but it was an all to real realization the other night when I had one of the craziest encounters with His consuming, furious love.
I had talked myself out of going to the prophetic conference in town, for all the ‘right’ reasons, “…we just got back from ministering in Nicaragua, I’m tired and need to rest…” etc.. So I decided, because of the subtle hints of my friend Holy Spirit, that I should go. Sometimes we need to act in the opposite spirit than that of which we are.
We arrived at the dry lake bed with parched people doing the ‘normal’ horizontal watering of their proverbial soil… it was rough. I needed more, and pushed in again, by dancing then lying on the floor to receive all He was making available… it was good, but nothing near what was about to happen.
Heidi Baker, in her tender way, declared she was going to do something different, which really isn’t that different for her. She said that the alters are open and we were going to press in to God and give Jesus a drink. This was all my friend an I needed. So along with all the chapped-lipped Christians desperate for something else, we ran up and dove face down at the apostle’s feet. For most of the duration of her message, she laid hands on my friend and I, as she soaked, prayed, preached and poured out her heart to heaven. I felt the throngs of His love physically flowing through me as I lay there face down, it was incredible, but still nothing compared to what happened next.
I think the Spirit was telling me, “Servants beg face down, but lovers lie on their back!” So I turned over and lay on my back, the whole time Heidi was laying hands on my head and chest intermittently. It ‘physically’ felt like I went from the experience of God touching me, to having Him enter me. Like another level of His love.
There is more! There is more of His love than we can imagine or dream about.
With this new encounter came the an overwhelming thought,
“I don’t ever want to leave!”
… and I mean ever… I decided I was going to hold onto this moment forever, no matter what. Well that was the beginning of the longest incoherent, trance-like state I had ever been in up until that moment. For 24hrs I couldn’t walk without staggering around and falling down. I could barely open my eyes or speak without laughing spontaneously.  I was reminded of the biblical references where Peter said, “These men are not drunk as you suppose!” and when Paul said to the Ephesians, “Do not be drunk on wine but be filled with the Holy Spirit.” My friend and I were filled, and we were drunk, drunk, drunk in His intoxicating love. It was completely marvelous and yet this was only a hint of what is available.
It wasn’t till the next day in a very controlled church service that I began to sober up. It was a pity. We spent the better part of 24hrs on our backs or crawling around under the weight of His presence. This isn’t a new thing. The biblical and revivalist fathers of old experienced this all the time. It was said of Smith Wigglesworth that he could bring the anointing so strong that most people couldn’t stay in the same building under the weight of God’s presence. A physical weight, they could feel baring down on their bodies.

The point is there is more love for us hidden in God, than we can imagine or dream of. There is always more and there is always higher. The metaphor for this increase seems incredulous to me considering the salvation theology that says His presence comes to live in us. So what is this ‘more’ and why have psalmists and worship writers for generations penned the echo of our hearts over and over again? How can we have more of the ‘all’ that lives in us? Could it be that we don’t really see ‘all’ of what we have; that we don’t comprehend the height, depth and breadth of He who is in us? That somehow, we need to see more, comprehend more and experience more of Him who lives in us. And then what?

When we experience intimate, heart-to-heart, deep love we can’t help but love. It reduces the fist commandment to an overflow of the love that we already experience in our hearts. We become agents of His love, reflecting Him in the communities we live in. All over the world the agents of love are being released and are changing the world as more and more people experience the mystery of the kingdom. Love is contagious and cancerous (yes I am using this work on purpose), especially cancerous to the works of the enemy and the gates of hell which can not prevail against it.

“We love, because He first loved us.” [NASB] 1 John 4:11

The bible says you can’t love without being loved by God. I didn’t write that, it is in the word… so that means that any love we are experiencing today is a run off or an overflow of love experienced by someone who at one point was connected to God.
The word ‘Theophany’  from the Ancient Greek Θεοφάνεια – Τheophaneia(meaning “appearance of God”), refers to the appearance of a deity to a human, or to a divine disclosure.

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” [MSG] John 13:34-35

Surprised by the favor

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We came to Nicaragua concerned that there wouldn’t be enough time to do one Ignition Center, but now we have done one and we are about to do another. That is two in the space of 3 months… that is crazy. You know when God gives you a dream and then a plan, you still might be a little unsure of whether it will work? I am here to say it works! People really respond well to this mini-school format. This has been a huge proof of concept for us and we thank God that He has organized it the way that He has. We really believe we are called to feed those who are hungry for revival. People need it and we can do it.