by John Baw on February 5, 2010
This weekend, at Living Waters Church, we will have with us Pastor Angel Nava, of Semillas de Vida, a dynamic church in La Paz, Mexico. This church has partnered strategically with Bill Johnson’s Bethel Church of Redding California. Semillas de Vida hosts one of Bethel’s Schools of Supernatural Ministry. The school is designed to raise up nationals in Mexico to begin to dream and to train them to bring revival and transformation to Mexico. They are seeing some phenomenal things take place. Graduates from this school are beginning to plant businesses, become missionaries, and move into places of influence. This base is becoming a place where people are being raised up and sent out. Angel is also emerging as a key voice of reconciliation, honour and unity among different streams, churches and ministries in Mexico, and beyond.
If you are in the area, come and join us for these meetings! Watch this space for some follow-up posts on these sessions!
by John Baw on September 28, 2009
We have just finished a couple of days with one of my favourite people in the world: Pastor Tom Rowe.
He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers – Malachi 4:6
When a person like Tom Rowe visits….. you sit down…and listen…. and take notes. That’s what 56 years in ministry gives you I guess….. the “gravity” to speak…. the “voice” that causes young hatchlings in ministry like myself, to take notes.
We tend to place a lot of currency on the polished dynamic young preachers and speakers. That is good, and they certainly have their place, but it is also high time for the Church to recognize spiritual fathers in addition to the vibrant and dynamic speakers. There is an anointing that wows you, and that is awesome….. and then there is also the quality that says “I’ve been there.” I have purposed in my life to pursue the powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit in my life…… I want to pursue it with passion, intensity, focus and persistence – what is the point of it all if I don’t? I also recognize the need to surround myself with “been there” people – “fathers”, like Tom Rowe.
During Tom’s visits I LOVE the word He brings. I usually say that his ministry is a deep well that I turn to often. However I also find myself wondering whether I end up gleaning MORE from our conversations during the margins of his visit – conversations over a cup of coffee, whilst driving, whilst taking a walk – than I do during his sermons and teachings, deep and rich though they always are.
There comes a point when a pastor becomes a pastor’s pastor – Tom is, for many, a pastor’s pastor.
Some time ago I wrote about the gray-hair test. These thoughts are resonating in me again. I proposed the following ministry timeline:
- Childhood to 30 years: These are the formative years where you get rooted and grounded in the motivations behind your mission, and also get competent enough to fulfill it in an excellent way.
- 30 to 50 years: These are the performing years, where the actual job is done and the mission is advanced during your tenure.
- 50 to 70 years: These are the mentoring years (Reference the gray-hair test), where you take young aspiring leaders under your wing and nurture and mentor them in order to reproduce yourself in them.
- 70 years and over : These are the legacy years. During this season in your life you’d better get real busy and write as many books as you can, recording your legacy for as many generations to come as possible. During these years you are a mentor to mentors, a pastor to pastors, and a much needed source of wisdom, guidance and inspiration.
Thoughts?
by John Baw on September 21, 2007
We are constantly learning to adjust. Constancy, predictability and comfort are words that God is erasing from our vocabulary in order to prepare us and train us for the seasons to come. One of the key lessons to learn is to be sensitive to the stirrings of the Spirit and know when to drop your ‘plans’ and just go with what He is doing. Some have called this “flow”. I want to honour flow and go with it every time.
A bible-study gets shelved.
On Tuesday evening we were due to have a bible study on the Centrality of the Cross. There was just a handful of us for this bible study that we are covering on what actually took place on the Cross. From the outset there was a drawing from the presence of God to go in deeper and enjoy more of Him. After we shared the testimony of the prodigal granddaughter returning to her grandmother we were pumped and ready to go for it as the Lord promised that He would repeat this testimony again, and again, and again.
Sensitive to what the Lord was doing that night, we scrapped our bible study and had an encounter instead! The times of refreshing from the presence of God were upon us as He removed all our mourning and the spirit of heaviness and gave us a mantle of praise and the precious oil of joy. After an extended time of “face time”, resting in the presence of God, the New Wine of His Presence begun to flow. As wave after wave of supernatural joy broke loose, emotions were healed and hearts were strengthened. The Holy Spirit was ministering deeply during this extended time of worship and just allowing Him to show up and move and touch His people.
A brother came up for prayer and shared how he felt that lately he had lost “the edge” – we prayed for him and he went under the power of the Spirit and lay on the floor for a while connecting his heart back to its life source and getting filled and refilled.
The New Wine of His Presence.
The New Wine was pouring and we were drinking deeply. The intoxicating effect of this was obvious. After tasting of this you can never go back. After tasting of this you give it all up in exchange – what you will have to surrender will be too small a price. The oldness of religion will not cut it with you any more.
Steering wheel or spare wheel?
Always be prepared to align yourself with what God is doing and do not expect it to be the other way around – ever. Ask yourself this question – what is the Holy Spirit for you? Is He the steering wheel or the spare wheel? Is He in control, or do you have Him as a fallback when you blow it and your plans and schemes do not work?
by John Baw on August 2, 2007
Tuesday evenings usually see us “Living Waters” folks alternating between our Harvestime School of Ministry teaching class one week, and a prayer meeting / worship session / Holy Spirit workshop the other week.
This Tuesday we had our “Holy Spirit workshop” – a “more Lord” type of gathering where we press-in for a greater measure of anointing and freedom in the Spirit. In these sessions we purposely invite the Holy Spirit to come and the feel free to move in His gifts. Some worship, others soak – great stuff really. As we get more proficient in this “stuff” we want to get to a place where we minister to each others in the prophetic, etc.
I view these fortnightly meetings as an equipping class – getting acquainted with the Holy Spirit and His ways and methods – in order to take it all outside subsequently.
Main points covered on Tuesday:
- Psalms 100:4 - The key to entering the Manifest Presence of God is thankfulness. The word thanksgiving literally means “to raise” and it implies the offering of a sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice involves a cost – we offer thanksgiving by focusing on what God is doing , or what He has given us in the New Covenant, at the expense of everything that our circumstances may be telling us.
- Our worship should be modeled on biblical patterns of worship rather than our ecclesiastical tradition or comfort. Biblical patterns of worship involve extravagant jumping, dancing, clapping, shouting with joy and lying prostrate to name a few.
How about next time you don’t close your eyes and bow your heads – how about lifting your heads, O gates, and lifting them up, O ancient doors, That the King of glory may come in?
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