Megamorphosis Magazine Issue 7 - Holy by Megamorphosis Magazine

HOPE GENERATION: BEN COURSON + DR. JOHN JACKSON + ONERACE MOVEMENT: JOSH CLEMONS + LIVE NOW!: CAMERON ERMAN

FOR THE RISK-TAKERS

MAGAZINE

PURE & HOLY Based on Todd White Movie Compiled by Bralynn Newby

ONERACE MOVEMENT Interview with Josh Clemons SET APART & LOVING DEEPLY by Dr. John Jackson THE BIG SHIFT#2 by Bralynn Newby SEND ME "Joe Joe" Morris Story by Jenene Stafford LIVE NOW! Cameron Erman Story by Nissi Guiao

plus

An Army Reigning with Kerah Riel by Bralynn Newby

hope generation

2019 Goals by Nissi Guiao

With Ben Courson

Lavished with Love by Lesa Johnson #SHARERADICALLOVE #EXPECTMIRACLES

Issue 7: HOLY

Photo by Michael Palmer

THE WORLD DOESNâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T NEED

MORE RELIGION.

THEY NEED LOVE.

#MEGAMORPHOSISMAGAZINE

#SHARERADICALLOVE

#EXPECTMIRACLES

CONTENTS

ISSUE 7 HOLY

CREATED, DESIGNED & EDITED BY A MIGHTY TEAM OF 5 + A BUNCH OF BEAUTIFUL WRITERS JENENE STAFFORD BRALYNN NEWBY NISSI GUIAO AARON GUZMAN HEATHER MURDOCK AND A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO A NEW ADDITION, LESA JOHNSON

20 HOPE GENERATION Ben Courson & The Optimisfits Nissi Guiao

24 ONERACE Conversation with Josh Clemens

30 AN ARMY REIGNING Bralynn Newby

PURE & HOLY

36 PURE AND HOLY Based on Documentary by Todd White Bralynn Newby

44 THE BIG SHIFT Bralynn Newby

48 SET APART & LOVING DEEPLY Dr. John Jackson

54 SEND ME

58 LIVE NOW

"Joe Joe" Morris' Story

HOPE GENERATION

Jenene Stafford

58 LIVE NOW Cameron Erman's Story Nissi Guiao

FOUNDER'S LETTER

Jenene Stafford

AMBASSADORS UNLEASHED Dena Davidson

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FINDING MY VOICE Angela Manzanares

LAVISHED WITH LOVE Lesa Johnson

A COMPANY OF SOUND MAKERS Malvina Laudicina

LOOK TO THE MAKER Payton Carty

2019

Rise & Rejoice

WOMEN'S ONLINE BIBLE STUDY

with Heather Murdock

JOIN US IN OUR PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP! COURSE STARTS IN JULY

Join us

ONLINE BIBLE STUDY COURSE! STARTS JULY

Rise & Rejoice Bible Study: Join Heather as she leads women through an exploration of the Biblical heart to experience deep inner healing and freedom. In this study, we will dig into the powerful prophecies from Isaiah 55 that promise that in Jesus we are fully satisfied. Isaiah asks why we continue to go to that which will never satisfy us.

For more details, contact Heather at heathersfaith@gmail.com

THOUGHTS FOUNDER'S THOUGHTS

new era we've barely stuck our

walk in His painful shoes at some level

big toe in is all about Jesus unveil-

because it's foretold in Scripture that we

ing the beauty and uniqueness of

would be hated for following Him. Still,

His bride with our varied creative

we have joy, peace, and purpose as sons

expressions. We don't necessarily

and daughters. The challenge and grit of

look, act or sound like the typical

following Jesus is what ultimately makes

warm-the-pew Christian (or we

us holy because we choose Him over the

might), but we don't really care

fleeting world, and that's why we're set

either. We're a lot more interested

apart. Our declaration is solid when our

in Jesus. As the Father is scanning

heart is pure and being in His presence

the earth looking for us, we also

is our greatest desire. We will spend our

are looking for Him in a lot of

lives declaring the Truth of God's love for

different ways. I say that with

humanity and MM is full of stories of real

some caution to use discernment.

people who were once stuck in darkness,

We're going to have more enlight-

depression, sickness and oppression being

enment on the "Good Father" in

miraculously encountered by a gracious

the coming months and years and

God. There are several stories of freedom

we need to keep our eyes open for

from religion and depression that have

counterfeits because they're going

lead all of these amazing young men into

e can't be holy without God. It's

to come out of the woodwork.

various ministries and movements. Ben

His gift of our Lord Jesus that

(Just sayin'!) However, what may

Courson, author of Optimisfits is one of the

even allows this possibility.

seem normal isn't always and

most amazing speakers I've ever heard

Those seem like big shoes to fill

what may seem weird may be

and is the leader of Hope Generation (pg.

and yet it is the mystery of Christ

the new normal in the church. If

20). Joe Morris, a former Mennonite, was

and His radical love for us that we can even

ever there were a time for God's

told his gift of music was from Satan, but

attempt to step into what it means to be set

creativity to shake the culture and

he continued to feel the pull of the Lord

apart, to be holy as He is holy. But, I'm so hon-

re-shape the church, it is coming

and his desire to be sent (read "Send Me"

ored to have Dr. John Jackson, a dear friend

soon in waves of His glory. It may

pg. 54). And Cameron Erman, founder

and contributor to Megamorphosis Magazine,

seem extreme because it's so dif-

of Live Now! shares his transition from

tackle this topic in his article "Set Apart and

ferent and new to many. We have

religion to relationship and how he found

Loving Deeply" (check it out on page 48).

to remember God will go to the ex-

healing from addiction to pornography

treme to reach humanity and He'll

(pg. 58).

Thoughts on Being Holy & Being One

This current theme of "Holy" is happening now because this is the trumpet sound for the

also use people who are willing to

next several months—to awaken to the Holi-

be extreme to reach them.

ness of God, to pursue it for ourselves in truth

God wants us to know Him

The Lord is also building an army of holy soldiers because He knows as well as anyone we're in a short window of

and to take it seriously. At the same time God is

intimately, and the more we wear

time for preparation. Soldiers don't live

still working hard to bring His family together,

holiness, the more we recognize

on cotton candy, we need the meat of

to bring justice into His Church so we can see

we are sons, daughters and

the Word and the direction of the Holy

His Kingdom established (at least in part) on

ambassadors of the King. We are

Spirit. We need to live in purity, and it's

Earth. He's reconciling His body. He's showing

called to reign with His authority.

time to rise to His occasion. The Lord led

us that until we are OneRace (see the interview

And with honor we bow to His

us to Todd White's Movie "Pure & Holy"

with Josh Clemons on page 24), we won't see

will and His name. We're not wait-

and we compiled an article—because

justice come to pass.

ing to get to heaven to show Him

frankly— the movie rocked! (Read this

The earth is truly crying out for the sons

honor, we're ministering to the

main feature on page 36.) In conclusion of

of God to be made manifest. That's us and it's

Lord now, and this is something

my thoughts—we need love because it will

why we pray, worship in songs and sounds,

that is resonating through the

never fail us or cease to be. Love is the key

art and dance, intercede, lament and make

voices of the church.

that awakens the world to the goodness

declarations. We're cleaning up our history

When we are presented to the

and repenting for our past generation's sins

Father we will be unveiled as a

and tragedies so the enemy has no grounds

bride without spot or wrinkle like

and we're being made ready and holy in the

Jesus, the perfect lamb of God. As

process (An Army Reigning page 30).

He suffered we will suffer. As He

The stage is being set and the church and the world both are about to dramatically shift. This

ISSUE 6 + EMPOWERED

was persecuted and wrongfully accused, we will be also. We will

of God.

JENENE STAFFORD Founder & Creator

2019

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www.DokimosProject.com

Think About It DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE TOUGH STUFF

deny the lie deny the lie deny the lie deny the lie deny the lie deny the lie

BY LORI HILL CO-FOUNDER OF THE DOKIMOS PROJECT

hy were Adam and Eve so easily deceived? Why did Eve believe a lie so easily and Adam went along with it? My dad used to say, “… tricked hook, line, and sinker.” Adam and Eve were in perfection, face to face with God himself. The snake was able to twist things around and Eve believed his lie. And the enemy of our soul, the devil, has been lying to us ever since. Lies, deception, twisting words, and false beliefs are all tools of the enemy. Second Corinthians 10: 3-5 says, “For though we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not the weapons of the world. Instead,

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they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We tear down arguments, and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” The same battle still exists. Even today, the enemy of our souls can trick you and me into believing lies. So, what is the pathway to victory in overcoming the lies that we believe? The first step is realizing that we fall prey to lies. Whether they are from outside of ourselves, or our own inner dialogue, we have to realize that we can be deceived. The biggest deception is to believe, “I can’t be deceived.” Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is

deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” If we are so easily deceived, and if we are “beyond cure,” then what is the solution? Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Jesus testifies to the truth and teaches the truth because He Himself is Truth. Jesus did not deceive. He didn’t mislead, and He was never fake or uncertain. Jesus is the only one who can legitimately claim to be Truth. Truth is a person. As we walk hand in hand with Jesus, we can know the truth and the truth will set us free. John 8:31-32 says, “So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, ‘If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. Then

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"Those type of thoughts are Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) and statements that Jesus does not agree with. So squish those ANTs! Deny the lie and walk in freedom."

you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.’” One of the battlegrounds against deception is our own thoughts. We deceive ourselves. This is called “self-deception.” I don’t know anyone who is free from the struggle of negative thoughts and self-deception. Don’t fool around with this. Do a quick analysis of the negative thoughts floating around in your mind. Pick one negative thought and ask yourself, “Does Jesus agree with this statement?” That is a powerful tool to help you realize that lies cause the negativity in our thinking. Dr. Daniel Amen has introduced some language in his books that explains what happens. The term he coined is “Automatic Negative Thoughts” (or ANTs) as we like to call them. They are the kind of thoughts that sound like: “I’m not worthy.” “It will never work.” “I’ll never have enough money.” “I can’t get this done.” “I don’t have enough time.” “I’m too tired.” “They won’t understand.” “It’s not safe.” “It’s too risky.” “There is something wrong with

me.” “I’m not good enough.” “Nobody cares anyway.” “Things will always be this way” …and, the list goes on and on. Those types of thoughts are Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTs) and statements that Jesus does not agree with. So, squish those ANTs! Deny the lie and walk in freedom. My husband and I have devoted several years of our lives to detect these thoughts in our minds and prayerfully replace them with new, truthful, scripts. Brain research shows that it takes 140 repetitions of the new script to burn a new neural-pathway. A good friend calls this “motto therapy.” Jesus Christ said, “The truth will set you free.” Why does the truth set us free? Because He sets us free from the thoughts that hold us back when we ask Him for the truth. We are free to pursue all that the Lord has for us without the boat anchors of deception weighing us down. What does “truth that sets people free” look like? It is following Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 10, “We tear down arguments, and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

Does Jesus agree with my negative self-talk? Does he agree with my false belief? No. He wants me to deny the lie. When I think “I am not worthy,” I replace it with the truth statement “Jesus says I am worthy—He died for me.” When I think “They won’t understand me,” I replace it with the truth statement, “Jesus always understands me—He knows my heart.” Those are just two examples of how to take your deceptive thoughts captive. Sometimes you need the help of the Body of Christ to get breakthrough. James 5:6 encourages us to “confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” There are ministries that use Biblical models for inner healing such as: SOZO, Theophostic Prayer Ministry, Elijah House, Global Awakening and others. The “inner healing” movement is growing, because it’s needed and biblical. Denying the lie and replacing it with truth takes consistent effort. But it is worth it. I pray you pursue and apprehend the freedom that is available in Christ, and base your life on Truth, the Solid Rock. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Deny the lie, receive the Truth. It’s a powerful exchange. www.DokimosProject.com

MEGAMORPHOSISMAGAZINE.COM

+ THINK ABOUT IT

We Are Designed to Reveal God's Glory

DIVINE DESIGN

Teaching by Dr. Caroline Leaf

Compiled & Written By Bralynn Newby

here is nothing in our physical, genetic makeup that is created or wired for any sort of negativity. Nothing. Sickness, disease, fear, anger, hatred, depression, anxiety—all of it is learned behavior—right down to the cellular level of cancer cells learning to mutate. We are designed and wired for perfection—for love. The natural craving of mankind is toward positivity, right thinking, thriving

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relationships, health. When any part of our thinking or physical body is in the toxic zone, we naturally don’t like it; it’s uncomfortable, painful. Science proves we are spiritual beings. Quantum Physics is the deepest science, and points to the most fundamental reality. As you go smaller and smaller, to particles and atoms, and finally all the way to nothing, there’s still something, energy—consciousness. Our ability to think and feel and choose uniquely is our unique expression of consciousness, which comes from a source. And of course,

we know that source is God. Our spirit is designed to lead our soul, which is our mind, will and emotions. Our soul is not designed to operate spiritless—without consciousness. Although God gave us free will, and we have the ability to choose, and in fact are choosing every moment, there is an obvious, natural flow of our choices toward our design, toward our Creator. Our spirit is designed to be led by the Spirit of God. Dr. Leaf says, “The most important thing I can teach you is to set up a constant internal dialog with Holy

2019

Spirit.” This sets a natural accountability guard rail in place to keep us in the flow of love and out of the toxic zone. It’s here in this love zone where we can thrive in our unique expression of who we were created to be, and to be fully alive, fully living out our destiny.

CHOOSE TO STEP IN Because we live in a world where we are faced with challenges and circumstances and moment-by-moment choices to make, as intelligent beings we’re going to have to think about what we’re going through. We’re going to feel what we’re going through, and we’re going to make choices about what we’re going through. We do this 40 times every second in our conscious mind—and even faster in our non-conscious. The only way we are going to operate in our love, power and soundness zone, which is our “Perfect You” zone, is to choose to step into it. That is where God is, and where we are designed and naturally inclined to operate. Every choice we make builds genetic expression in our brains. We create matter from our thoughts by building neural networks in our brain, either healthy ones, or toxic ones. When we choose to live by the influences of the world around us without the discerning of Holy Spirit, we become atheistic Christians, professing a belief, but choosing the toxic zone where God does not exist. None of us are perfect, and we all make wrong choices, which is why we are encouraged to renew and keep renewing our minds. We must continually tear down the toxic neural pathways and create new, healthy ones with our thoughts. A yo-yo lifestyle of habitually choosing fear, doubt, depression, victimhood, and so on, yet confessing to be Spirit-led actually causes brain damage. In fact, the quality of what we are thinking about, the feelings we have, and the choices we make determines the quality of what our brains and body look like.

IN THE IMAGE (AN EXACT 3D COPY) OF OUR CREATOR Because we do physically create either toxicity or health in our brains moment by moment, we have the capacity to create both beauty and chaos in the world around us. Every moment is a genesis moment because we never stop creating. When God created us with free will, He knew we would then have the capacity to literally self-destruct by the damage we create with wrong thoughts and wrong choice. But in His infinite wisdom, and limitless love for us, He also created a huge cushion of grace. Science shows that the extent of the damage we can do to our brain is actually limited to about 3% of its total capacity—which is enormous. Current studies have shown that our brains can hold at least 3 million years worth of memories and data. However, just like a tiny bit of dog food would spoil a whole batch of cookies, just a few negative patterns or beliefs can derail us from being our “perfect you,” thriving and fulfilling our destiny. So many people feel “stuck” in life. And they literally are. When the same negative patterns keep occurring in our lives, it’s because our brain is stalled out in the “superposition” of making a decision. Like a wave crests and then collapses, science calls the moment when a decision is to be made, “superposition.” Our brain is designed to peak, and then collapse naturally into the decision, but when we stall out and have fear around it, we cause exhaustion and damage. It’s literally painful to continue making choices out of habit, rather than being led by Holy Spirit and choosing to operate in the love zone.

GET BACK TO LOVE When we are in alignment with Holy Spirit, we activate the natural pharmacopeia to heal ourselves. We strengthen our ability to hear and discern, and build strong, healthy neural networks that affect every other area of our lives. It’s here in the love zone

that God has given us all the ingredients we need to create a fabulously rich and meaningful life. Here we can access the substance and evidence of our own healing. Our choice to operate in the love zone impacts others as well. We were designed to live in community, in relationship. Science calls this quantum entanglement. When we are immersed and entangled with each other in love, we physically empower each other to have the courage to make right decisions, to heal, to thrive. This is why it’s so important to reach out to serve and give and love others when we don’t feel like it, when we’re hurting, or feeling depressed. The very act of connecting empowers us to begin the healing cycle to get back on track with our destiny. The practical strategy for getting back to love is this: thankfulness, praise, and worship. This sequence sets us up to step in. With thankfulness, we bring our attention to the fact that God is always looking, always listening. Quantum theory says that if the Source of our consciousness were to stop looking, all that exists would fade into nothingness. Be thankful He’s looking. Next, praise. God inhabits the praises of His people, so this is a deeper connection. Our brains fire even more and networks start forming. We increase the neuroplasticity of the brain and new growth of dendrites happens, which gives us strength. Finally, worship. This step is completely devoted to thinking about God. In this reverence we begin to bring heaven to earth with our thoughts toward our loving Creator, our Source. In this intimate moment of worship, completely entangled with God, we feel His limitless love and can’t imagine ever being created for anything else. [ Leaf, Caroline. “Mind-Body Connection | Dr. Caroline Leaf | HSC' 17.” Abundant Life Syracuse. Feb 27, 2017. https://youtu.be/skh2iAr8SWc ]

MEGAMORPHOSISMAGAZINE.COM

+ THINK ABOUT IT

The rise of popularity in Witchcraft is of no surprise in our time. People crave connection. People crave love. People crave intimacy and people crave peace. And most of all, people crave control. The problem isâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;although sorcery may offer a form of this, it is completely fraudulent in contrast to an authentic connection with Jesus Christ.

WHY

WITCHCR IS BECOMING POPULAR

RAFT

BY NISSI GUIAO

ith a rush of chaos working to divide the world, people are becoming more open to the idea of tapping into the spiritual realm via different forms of witchcraft to escape the uncertainty that clouds the air. Through modern-day wars among self-segregated movements, through absurdly heightened sensitivity over minuscule things, through death tolls rising for no good reason, through all kinds of bad news surfacing daily, the hearts of humanity are purely exposed and in raw form. Open, yet vulnerably susceptible to counterfeited bliss. Ready to receive, yet drawn in by a fraud sense of hope. Whether aware or not, people are getting desperate for a real encounter— an encounter with Jesus. But with moral compasses on mute, the masses are following trends blindly, stampeding toward the most accessible, instantly gratifying forms of comfort through control. The multitude who are still unversed in Holy Spirit’s ways are simply unaware of their deep need of a Lord and Savior. And Satan has learned how to capitalize on the world’s ignorance of what God deems wicked. The devil loves taking advantage of the world’s hunger for something more. Unfortunately, his persuasive counterfeits rarely fail to get humanity to succumb to his deceit. Since the majority of the world is looking for spiritual guides, they don’t

+ THINK ABOUT IT

understand the danger in dabbling with witchcraft. Instead, because it’s attractively painted to be harmless, people are finding comfort in the wrong side. Everyone is searching for Truth whether anyone realizes or not. And until hearts are awakened to Jesus, the tireless search continues. The simple yet hard truth to grasp is that there are but two sides to everything. Especially when it comes to the spiritual world, there is only right or wrong, black or white, light or dark. Satan, over centuries, has honed in on his trickery by graying all the areas. He’s skilled at making what’s wrong seem right, what’s black seem white and what’s dark seem light. He’s well aware of the God-given hunger for more that everyone experiences. And nothing brings him more pleasure than causing fumbles in order to intercept authentic opportunities for souls to grasp Truth. Witchcraft is becoming more popular in the world today, and it’s an easy assumption who’s behind it. Under Satan’s spell of deceit, people are swarming to the latest trends. Undetectably fraud to the naked eye, leading magazines like Allure are persuading minds with articles titled “In 2018, Astrology Offered Comfort in a Chaotic World” and “A Modern Witch’s Guide to Casting Love Spells.” In these published pieces, the occult is praised for the sense of control it offers and people are encouraged to literally cast spells in the name of love. Allure’s astrologer Aliza Kelly Faragher writes, “When we elevate a thought by infusing it with our magickal intention, it transforms into energy. Spell-casting is the art of identifying, raising, and directing energy to actualize our intentions, and when it comes to matters of the heart, love spells are the perfect tool for inviting positivity and connection into our lives.” Who could argue with that? Not incredibly far from truth, anybody

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longing for connection (even believers) could get sucked in. The demand to get connected is significantly higher in today’s day and age, simply because social networking and social media have taken the world by storm. Overcome by technology, the most consistent personal touches have dwindled down to an electronic “like” or heart symbol via highly anticipated post notifications. Feasting off of crumbs of connection has starved our world of deeper feels. This is where the draw toward witchcraft comes into play. According to Faragher, “In a way, a beautiful image of a tarot spread serves as a gateway to something more. Though we’re initially attracted

"FEASTING OFF OF CRUMBS OF CONNECTION HAS STARVED OUR WORLD OF DEEPER FEELS. THIS IS WHERE THE DRAW TOWARD WITCHCRAFT COMES INTO PLAY."

to the visual vocabulary of magick, genuine interest in the occult stems from a much deeper, more vulnerable place. Occult offers the opportunity to connect with others in truth and honesty, inspiring communities to form through honest connections.” It’s no surprise that massive numbers are collectively funneling into the world of witchcraft. Similar to the draw in gangs, there’s a community, a “family” with open arms, ready to accept whoever’s willing to dive in. Sorcery’s not even the main attraction. Bottom line is, people—all humankind—long to love and be loved.

And if desperation is thick enough, it doesn’t matter who’s sending the invitation. Everyone wants to feel like they belong. With witchcraft now being painted with softer colors of ease versus the dark and gothic energy it reflected back in the day, if you’re not a follower of Jesus, why wouldn’t you jump in to this inviting lifestyle? In these communities, only positive vibes are showcased. “Are you looking for long-term commitment…? Are you seeking to let go of painful, lingering feelings for your ex?. . .Once you release your magickal intention, it will take the best route to reach its destination, but this route won’t necessarily be the fastest. Your energy has the power to bypass obstacles, but in order for the universe to do its thing, you need to give it time, space, and trust. When you obsess over the outcome of your spell, you infuse this energetic current with desperation, fear, and doubt. This energy muddles the effectiveness of manifestations, so play it cool and let the magick groove. Whenever you’re collecting and directing energy, consider the law of threefold return: Whatever you release into the world—positive or negative—will be returned to you three times. Depending on the spell, this triplicity can refer to either sequence or potency, but regardless, casting spells ethically will lead to the best outcomes for others and for yourself. At the end of the day, cosmic warriors, there is no greater power than light: The most effective spells are those rooted in empathy, kindness, and compassion, so always conjure with warmth.” Although very enticing, these concepts and belief systems are 100% flawed. Faragher is not entirely wrong about some things, but in her column and within her entire belief system, there is a gaping, God-sized hole. Com-

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“When people tell you, ‘Try out the fortunetellers. Consult the spiritualists. Why not tap into the spirit-world, get in touch with the dead?’ Tell them, ‘No, we’re going to study the Scriptures.’ People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end! Frustrated and famished, they try one thing after another. When nothing works out they get angry, cursing first this god and then that one, looking this way and that, up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing, a blank wall, an empty hole. They end up in the dark with nothing” (Isaiah 8:19-22 The Message).

pletely disregarding God creates an empty invitation to voided space never intended for humankind. We were always meant to connect with our Maker. As mentioned earlier, there are only two sides to things, so this is where Satan has found his niche in deceit. He takes what’s complete and good, eliminates God and markets similar concepts to the masses. “That doesn’t surprise us, for even Satan transforms himself to appear as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14 New Living Translation)! This is the meat of his deception—he’s smart in the way he ever so slightly taints and twists truth that even the mature need to keep their eyes peeled. The question is: Why is the world so

happy with a knock-off spirituality? Truth is, it’s hard to detect counterfeit, especially when the desire for instant gratification trumps the wisdom to align everything with the Bible. It is absolutely vital to remember that just because something is (or seems) good, it doesn’t at all mean it’s got anything to do with God. There may be countless similarities to the world of witchcraft and a Jesus-following, Holy Spirit lifestyle of hope and faith, but we must not ever believe the lie that they are one in the same. Jesus says “. . .for the prince of the world comes, and has nothing in me” (John 14:30 King James Version paraphrase with added emphasis). God makes it very clear in His Word

how He feels about empty spirituality. And the more the dark side gets marketed exposure, the greater our opportunity to shine pure Light. Witchcraft may be popular, but it screams of the need for Jesus that every searching soul is truly after… [Faragher, Aliza Kelly. “In 2018, Astrology Offered Comfort in a Chaotic World.” Allure, 26 Dec. 2018. Website. Faragher, Aliza Kelly. “A Modern Witch’s Guide to Casting Love Spells” Allure, 21 May 2018. Website.]

MEGAMORPHOSISMAGAZINE.COM

+ THINK ABOUT IT

BY GARY ZELESKY

THE HEALING POWER OF INTIMACY

I chose my seat in the back of the room at a men’s retreat with my Bible in my hand and a bad attitude in my heart. In the past, I was the one chosen to be on the platform fulfilling my calling as a preacher. However, what lingered in the back of my mind seated me where I thought I deserved to be. After the “worship service” (which for me was nothing more than Karaoke for Jesus) I braced myself for another message that would create my “Jesus to do list” for when I got home. My lack of intimacy with the Lord made me a performer looking for approval, not a son receiving full acceptance. In 1989 I forfeited God’s plan for my life, not because of the magnitude of my sin, but because of its timing. While I was a minister, I chose to commit adultery. Not to my credit, but to this day I have taken full and complete responsibility for that decision. No blame, no excuses, no past to point to. I have also intentionally chosen not to minimize or sanitize my sin. I broke hearts, wounded friends and family, and caused mistrust in other ministers, something they never asked for. I did, however, marry the woman (Cherisse) I had the affair with and have been married for over 28 years now.

BACK TO THE FATHER'S HEART If true healing/restoration is to occur, I believe the following must be the priority. The first heart I broke must become the first heart I mend. My Father’s heart. God can handle my honesty and He doesn’t need my pity. The beginning of healing started with my admission and ownership of how wounded my faith had become. Not because of others, but because of my lack of true intimacy with the Father. I discovered that intimacy had very little to do with a place or space. Intimacy is about acceptance, trust, confidence, closeness and understanding. My intimacy with Jesus was not about His acceptance of me but my acceptance of Him. Intimacy with the Savior cannot be taught within the confines of a classroom, but must be caught by seeing examples through the lives of those who lead. Christians whose faith has been tested, and even wounded but not destroyed, serve as the greatest of examples. Christians who believe they are fully accepted by Jesus and, more importantly, who fully accept Jesus at His word. Their trust in God is consistent no matter how inconsistent things become around them. There is an intimacy that can be seen through the way they treat others, and they have made the secret place a sacred place. In that secret place of intimacy with Jesus, stony hearts photo by Hannah Busing

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are transplanted, soil is plowed, seeds of destiny are sown, minds are renewed and His peace rules. All is done in secret without anyone’s awareness. It’s where prayer becomes the weapon of warfare in a closet with the door shut, the place where faith is cultivated without applauses. The same secret place that was once reserved for perverted, fancy, so-called justified revenge, endless critique of others and unforgiveness. Thankfully, healthy intimacy changes our focus from inspecting the flaws in others to realizing our own flaws. We must call out our sin for what it is regardless how uncomfortable it might make us feel. I am intentional concerning the focus being “our sin,” not the sins of others. Because I have found myself at times more concerned about taking care of the business of others than my own. If I am truly about taking care of my Father’s business in my life, I will not have time to put my nose in what God is doing in anybody else’s life.

PARTICIPATION IS NECESSARY I have made up a term called speck-takers (not to be confused with spectators). Speck-takers spend large amounts of time and energy looking for the tiniest specks/ flaws in others. They are careful to tell everyone to “pray” for the specks (flaws) in others while at the same time are completely blind to their own. They are “spectators” that have become “speck-takers,” as they stay a safe distance from the battle line. Please consider the following: there simply is no place for speck-takers or spectators within this place of intimacy with the Father. The very

nature of intimacy is to participate, not to spectate. God wants our eyes to be open that we may see His love for us, our need for Him and the pain in others. Simply stated, whatever label you want to give it, be it quiet time, prayer time or daily devotions, intimacy will seldom be found in a place, group or book. Intimacy is found in the secret space that becomes a sacred place in the back of your mind. Jesus has

“WE MUST CALL OUT OUR SIN FOR WHAT IT REGARDLESS OF HOW IT MIGHT MAKE US FEEL. I'M INTENTIONAL CONCERNING THE FOCUS BEING 'OUR SIN,' NOT THE SINS OF OTHERS." already created the perfect date for just you and Him. He could care less where you meet or even how you meet—His delight is that you actually meet.

HONESTY BREEDS INTIMACY Committing adultery was not simply a bad choice in a weak moment. At some point or another, we all hit exactly what we are aiming for with little thought of the consequence. No one pulls the trigger for us. There

was no one to blame but the one who pulled the trigger. My sin wasn’t a mistake that was made in a weak moment like running over a speed bump accidentally. I chose to miss the mark with complete intent and disobedience. But I learned the importance of not sanitizing my sin with descriptions that do little to expose the absolute vulgarity of my actions. Honesty/transparency must take their rightful place in our lives as believers, for without honesty there can be no intimacy. It is my conviction that if one is living with intimacy with the Savior, honesty will become normal. I am so grateful for His grace. After 30 years on “the forgiveness tour,” I have received unconditional love from family, friends and countless people I never knew but I deeply hurt. May those of us who serve in ministry be accused of longing to be with the Father more than our ministry. May leaders continue to be led by the Spirit to their secret place that has become their sacred place in the back of their minds through cultivating spiritual fruit, not simply spiritual gifts. May leaders show even greater significance off the platform than on it. If we want to live our lives the way He always intended, it all begins and ends with intimacy.

GARY & CHERISSE ZELESKY'S primary objective is to bring reconciliation to those who serve in leadership but are now in need of restoration, renewing and relaunching. Their mission is to demonstrate the grace of God that was given to them by giving that same grace to others. www.Restored3ministries.org

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AMBASSADORS UNLEASHED

ISSUE 7 + HOLY

2019

By Dena Davidson, Christian Apologist

LESSON 1: ASK MORE QUESTIONS

o you feel like an outsider? Increasingly, Christianity is moving from the center of society to the outskirts. I talk to people all the time that feel like they went to sleep knowing America was a Christian nation, and woke up to America being the enemy. It’s not the first time Christians have had to ask how to relate to a culture that is hostile to some of our basic beliefs. But it’s important to mark our changing relationship to culture and ask the question “How can I be the best ambassador for Christ to my culture?” 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT) says “We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” I love this verse. It takes me out of any “mopeyness” I may feel about being an outsider because I understand that I’m an ambassador. By definition, I am an outsider. I’m not an outcast, I’m chosen. I’m chosen by my King to represent my country. I’ve been given an assignment—to represent my King and his Kingdom to another culture. When I speak, I don’t speak on my own authority. I speak with the authority I’ve been given by my King. I treat the culture I live in with respect, but I never lose my cultural identity. I speak the language of the culture I’m an ambassador to, but share the message of the Kingdom I’m from. I am an ambassador. “I’m an ambassador” is really easy to say. It’s much harder to live. It’s hard to long for home yet stay abroad. How exactly does one live as an ambassador? For a long while, I had no answer. It wasn’t until I became an outsider in college that I began to grapple with this question. Before college, I was a homeschooled pastor’s kid (#supersheltered). I didn’t really fit in at youth group so imagine how out of place I felt on my secular university campus. I cried my first day in college because I was afraid no one was going to like me. Then I decided to major in philosophy. Suddenly my outsiderness became far more than my lack of knowing how to properly high-five someone. I was an outsider in the very basics of how I saw and understood the world. I kept hold of my faith in college by learning to love and embrace being an outsider. College taught me three unexpected lessons about how to be an ambassador, and my hope in sharing them with you is that you’ll learn to love being on the outside too.

My philosophy classes played a big role in teaching me to not believe in God. Right before I graduated, I decided that I wanted to hear the best of the best reasons in support of this new way of thinking. Even though I was headed to a Christian university to study Christian Apologetics next, I wanted to be well-informed on both ends of the spectrum. Before I heard all the arguments for Christianity, I wanted to make sure to hear the best arguments against it. So I decided to sit down with a few of my favorite professors and ask them why they didn’t believe in God. One day after class I approached my Ethics professor, inviting him to share with me his best reasons for not believing in the Christian God. He paused and said “Okay, but I think that should be a conversation over coffee.” Not long after, we met up. Sitting at that coffee shop, my heart was pounding; I was so nervous to hear his reasons. We chatted for an hour as he explained pretty devastating stuff (if I’m gonna be honest). I took it in, wrote it down in the journal of questions I’d started. We wrapped up and left it at that. At my graduation, I ended up running into him and he blindsided me with a powerful statement. He congratulated me on graduating and then said, “Um Dena, you’re not a very good Christian.” “What?!” (As an Enneagram 1, why don’t you just punch me in the face?) I was completely taken aback. He continued, “You asked me why I didn’t believe in God.” “Yes, I wanted to know,” I said. To my surprise he replied, “I told you my reasons for not believing in God. But you were then supposed to say, ‘Can I share with you why I do believe in God?’” I was floored. I’d asked not because I wanted to share my faith, but because I genuinely wanted to know my Ethics professor’s thoughts. I’ll never forget what he said next. “I want to hear why you do believe in God.” Did he just ask me to share my faith with him? What is happening? My genuine question led to his genuine question. This is the meat of conversations. How do we forget it so easily? Ambassadors ask questions, lots of them. Don’t stand in the break room with your palms sweating wondering when’s the right time to interject “Jesus loves you—would you like to come to church?” Ask a question! “How’s your day?” “What’s your favorite movie?” “Describe the last three years in three words.” “What was your family like growing up?” “Where did religion/God/church fit in your childhood?” “What’s the most important thing in life to you?” Every single one of these questions (and others), when asked genuinely, can lead to conversations about faith. Questions are the beginning of all good conversations. Ambassadors ask more questions.

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LESSON 2: EAT MORE FRENCH FRIES I met Nico in Dr. Lucey’s Metaphysics class. He overheard me and Julia, another Christian, talking about our ethical views. He asked me out for coffee. While I sat there trying to figure out how to explain to him that I’d kissed dating goodbye, he said “I heard you talking to Julia about your faith and I was wondering if you can tell me who God is.” “Is this real life?” I thought. Astounded, I sat there for an hour and shared who God was. That was the start of our friendship. One day I invited him to a church that had a great ministry for 20-somethings. They preached exegetically through Luke, and the passage that night happened to be on hell. The preacher was incredibly gifted, which made things worse. It was fire and brimstone and totally true—and totally incomplete. He barely touched on the gospel. We exited the service in silence as the trendy music ushered us out of the lobby. The whole service I pleaded, “Why God, why?” As we walked to our car I asked, “So, how are you doing?” He said, “Honestly Dena, I’m sick to my stomach.” My heart fell and I said, “Okay, let’s go talk.” We drove to a restaurant and he ordered a glass of wine. I ordered some french fries. And we talked. We talked for a couple of hours about everything that message brought up for him. I told him my honest struggle with the doctrine of hell and what answers I’d been able to come up with so far. This invitation to church didn’t end in salvation. But, it taught me that taking people to church is just the start—you have to get french fries afterwards. Ambassadors give people their time. They share their heart and mind and let people in on the struggles they have with their faith. Church is powerful, but the witness can’t stop in

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the parking lot. People need to see the hard parts of your faith, and that’s best done over french fries. Ambassadors eat more french fries.

LESSON 3: OFFER MORE OF YOU You start by asking questions. You show genuine interest in people. You value them not as a means to an end, but as worthy of love and time and attention, regardless of whether they convert. You follow those questions up with french fries. You give them your

“I JUST KNEW DEEP DOWN THAT I WAS NEVER GOING TO BE COOL. AS A CHRISTIAN PHILOSPOHY MAJOR, I CERTAINLY WASN'T GOING TO AGREE WITH MOST PEOPLE'S BELIEFS. SO I JUST DECIDED TO BE ME."

time, you open your life to them, you let them see the messy parts of your relationship with God and with God’s family. You don’t Pollyanna them into the fold. You believe that the gospel is true and fills the longings of the human heart so you don’t try to make it prettier than it is. You also don’t abandon people just because they don’t see it yet. You stay up late and eat some french fries with them. When you start with questions and follow them with french fries, all that remains is to offer more of you. This is the easy part. As an ambassador of Christ, Christ is in you. You long for home, so of course you’ll bring it up. You love your King, so His name is on your lips. Offering more of you means you get to relax. You don’t pre-plan what you’re going to say. You can skip

reading five books about how to evangelize. You don’t need to edit your conversations. Who you are, Christ in you, is exactly what that person needs to see. A hundred moments in college taught me this. It may have been my homeschooled-ness that was my saving grace. I just knew deep down that I was never going to be cool. As a Christian philosophy major, I certainly wasn’t going to agree with most people’s beliefs. So I just decided to be me. When someone asked me how my weekend was, I told them about how I preached in church that Sunday. I told them my Bible passage. I told them the terrible sexual innuendos I accidentally made to a room of high schoolers. I brought my classmate coffee and told her I wanted to bless her because my church challenged us to bless people this week. She thought I was weird. I brought my Bible and read it during lunch. I used the staff break room microwave and when they asked what I was reading I told them “Matthew.” When my friends asked me how I was doing, I included how God and I were doing. There were awkward stares and uncomfortable pauses. But they accepted my non-cool self and lumped my Christianity in there with it. But many people asked me follow-up questions. I’ve never forgotten the feeling that every conversation I have with people might lead to a conversation about God that could change their life. There’s nothing quite like that feeling. It’s the feeling of being an ambassador. God is looking to unleash his ambassadors. He wants us to rejoice that we are on the outside. Being on the outside means you have an opportunity to represent your King and His Kingdom. Who knows? Maybe you’ll even get to bring someone home with you.

www.DenaDavidson.com

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+ MOVERS & SHAKERS

hope generation BY NISSI GUIAO

BEN COURSON & THE OPTIMISFITS Ben Courson is a roaring wildfire fueled by a deep love for Jesus. He’s found purpose in rioting normalcy as an “optimisfit” for Kingdom’s sake; his passion has proven to be a contagious flame consistently igniting hungry souls, especially within the next generation. He leads with his life in reckless abandon—his courageous surrender to the call that’s been on his life from the very beginning. As a result of his loud obedience, God continues to provide open doors to the wildest of opportunities. Aside from being a host of a global TV and national radio program, Ben recently released his new book "Optimisfits: Igniting a Fierce Rebellion Against Hopelessness" in March of this year.

ight now, depression is one of the top-ten leading causes of death,” says Ben Courson (founder and leader of Hope Generation and author of Optimisfits: Igniting a Fierce Rebellion Against Hopelessness). “People commit suicide once every forty seconds. There are 123 suicides per day in the United States. We consume, as Americans, more pills due to anxiety and depression than the rest of the world combined by three times over. This gave me a passion to go share hope (that God gave me a couple years ago). That’s how Hope Generation really started.” The Hope Generation movement genuinely exploded from Ben’s personal experiences. “When [he] turned 18, [he] fell into a really, really deep depression—chronic, heavy depression.” He had just stepped into a Teaching Pastor role at his father’s mega church and was having fun in his new position when a switch unapologetically flipped within him. He shares, “I thought I was on the way to living my dream. And I had an amazing platform that my dad so graciously provided for me. I felt God’s gifts and callings on my life, but I didn’t feel like I was meeting the goals that I really wanted to accomplish.” These feelings multiplied, and left Ben divided from his true self. Desperately wanting his life to mean something, he eventually found himself entangled in the wrong kind of thinking. He struggled in this mental space of severe depression “from 18 years old to a decade after that.” What essentially broke him free “was a verse that carried [him] through [that] darkest time. Psalm 37:4, which says ‘Delight yourself in the Lord and He’ll give you the desires of your heart.’” He explains, “It was

this idea that God wanted to turn my reality into a ‘dream-ality.’ That, the suffering that I was going through— yes, they were nightmares—but I also had dreams. And I would conquer my nightmares because of my dreams. . .[they] carried me through the time of depression.”

HOPE IN A NEW WAY Truth in the Word lit the path for Ben to begin dreaming again. It made a way for his great escape. And it wasn’t long after before “God caused [his] dreams to come true.” Miraculously, “that’s when I really started to find my hope in a new way,” he states. “It was really a God thing. He just opened up all these crazy doors. So, it was when those dreams started happening that I felt like Joseph, called out of the dungeon and into the palace. I was so stoked and also humbled. Like, deeply humbled and honored simultaneously that I got to see these dreams come true. That was big in overcoming depression for me.” Since God brought Ben back to life, activated his dormant dreams and set him free, a newfound passion set ablaze in his heart to spread this message of hope that he intensely got to experience for himself. Things for him didn’t take flight until God saw that he was ready, however. With humility he shares, “It’s such a blessing because I did this thing called the 10,000 hour role where you have to practice a craft for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for 4 years. I [spent those hours] speaking, reading, writing and [learning] the art of communication in 5 years. It was a constant training ground in preparation and waiting for opportunity to roll up. God showed me through this quote, ‘We shouldn’t wait for opportunity to roll up, we need to roll up our sleeves because

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you can’t have a million dollar dream with a minimum wage work ethic.’ You know, faith can move mountains, but don’t be surprised if God hands you a shovel. A lot of my years were just looking forward to what was going to happen.”

HOPE ALIVE Ben talks about having these very specific dreams. Dreams and visions started coming true right before his eyes following his season of preparation. Patience and diligence grew the good seed planted in him, which at the proper time yielded harvest of plenty opportunity. With zero striving, a couple scouts and a publisher reached out to him at different points, asking him to be part of a TV/Radio show and to write his own book. And right now, Ben teaches about 10 times a week. Seeing “a movement of young people who are going from literal despair, depression, suicidal predispositions to a lifestyle of profound, sacred optimism in Jesus,” he excitedly shares is “Holy happiness.” Ben wholeheartedly believes, especially today, that God wants to do something new, something fresh. “My heart,” he says, “is that we would see this unification of this next generation rising up into a powerful place in regards to what God wants to do in our future. I’m more concerned with where we’re going than where we came from. In Isaiah, God said ‘I want to do a new thing.’” The rich yet simple “now-for-this-day” message that effortlessly spills from Ben’s heart coupled with his relevant/engaging communication style is the foundation of his ever-growing following of “Optimisfits.”

DEEP HOPE God’s umbrella of protection and blessing covers Ben with each step he takes in risking for the true gospel to

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be shared with the masses. He carries such wisdom and doesn’t shy away from teaching in a different light than most have been used to hearing the Good News. He explains, “The fact of the matter is, fun is fundamental. Fun is not a message that we move on from, the more mature we get. It’s actually a message we move deeper into the wiser we become. Because Jesus said, ‘If you want to enter my Kingdom, you must become as a child.’ One of the things this generation, I think, is discovering is really chewing ‘the cut.’ That’s what it means to meditate deeper on Scripture, really chewing the meat (strong doctrine). It’s actually becoming more childlike. It’s realizing in maturity, hope is not something you graduate from. So, that idea of hope, joy and fun—I want to deconstruct those words so they’re not just like unicorns shooting rainbows out of their eyes, rainbow sandwiches, pegasus steaks, raining jelly beans and skittles—all super fluffy, like airy-fairy, happy-clappy, wishy-washy pie-in-the-sky. I want to show people that these realities are actually very deep. Those are the realities I want our generation to run into, and that’s what our generation’s hungry for.”

A HEALING HOPE

“Now what’s next for me,” Ben openly shares, “is going deeper into the dreams I’m already experiencing. So, ‘further up, further in,’ as Aslan would say in Narnia. Romans 15:13, it’s actually a verse that I feel like is the mantra [God] would speak to our generation and to me personally, ‘Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.’ So, I believe that hope has the final word. That pain makes us stronger, tears make us braver, heartbreak makes us wiser so we can

make our path for a better future. That our God is Jehovah Rapha—He heals. He turns our scars into stars. He doesn’t just say ‘Hear My words,’ He says, ‘Touch My wounds.’ You never see Jesus giving someone sickness to teach them a lesson. He’s never like striking people down. He’s healing people, and I believe God wants to heal our generation.

HOPE NEVER DIES Yes, sociological research and data shows us that we’re the most depressed generation on record, but I believe that’s all going to change. I believe that we’re going to see a spiritual awakening to the reality of the eternality import, of hope. That hope never dies. Hope has the last word. And I truly believe that our breakdown is actually God’s break-through in our lives. There is always reason to hope. I just tell people, ‘Everything’s going to be okay in the end. So if it’s not okay, it’s not the end. But it’s okay if you’re not okay. It’s just not okay if you stay that way.’ For me, I’ve been through a lot of stuff. My brother went to heaven a couple [months] ago. . .and my sister also went to heaven when she was a teenager. They passed away, and I went through 10 years of chronic depression and major heartbreak that wrecked me emotionally for a long time. We just go through stuff in life that’s really hard, but God has healed my heart. He’s given me hope, so I believe His message for our generation (I want to speak this message as a resounding echo chamber) is—there is always hope, as our Lord is the God of hope.” Buy the book "Optimisfits: Igniting a Fierce Rebellion Against Hopelessness." (Amazon)

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Listen in as Jenene Stafford and Bralynn Newby have a conversation with Josh Clemens of OneRace*.

"The cross has destroyed the enmity between us, and made us one new humanity as a result of that. And so the heart of the father is that we would be one people with one sound, with one God ultimately."

MM: I saw your movement come across Facebook and the only way I can describe it is like, I could just feel the Lord so happy over what you're doing. I could feel the emotion of the Holy Spirit over this thing. I feel like right now I'm going to cry just thinking about this because there's so much ugly out there. And you know…with what's going on. This has been one of those things where I'd been like, “Lord, how do we talk about the stuff that's going on out there? And how do we be the church and love each other when we disagree politically and all of these things?” And I don't know, when I saw your guys' stuff, I was so thrilled, for lack of a better word. And I know God was thrilled too. I love the whole idea. I think I saw a video where somebody was washing someone else's feet on stage. Was that you? JC: It was actually Pastor Lee Jenkins, one of the pastors here in the city. MM: Okay. Very good. Sorry. It's been a long time since I saw it, but I just remembered that and I was just like, “Oh, this is so good. This is so good.” Just a whole idea, which is such a biblical idea really, of us coming together and being one race. You know, we are one kingdom race—we are one family. Also, I saw something recently on your website or somewhere on social media that talked about oneness. And this is where I was trying to get you into the last issue because in the last issue there was a huge theme of

oneness. So when did this movement actually start? JC: It's a pleasure to be here, and I’m certainly excited about what you guys are doing and the fact that you're interested in this topic. You know, because the conversation of race and culture, I mean, it’s divisive, it's toxic, it's—it's broken. It shows the brokenness of humanity. And so to have someone wanting to cover from a godly perspective means a lot. It means that the message is getting out. We're beginning to speak truth to culture, and so I really appreciate you guys being willing to cover this topic with regards to OneRace and how it started. Well, I'll give you the shorter version because I could probably spend 30 minutes talking through it. It was during the summer 2016, and it just felt like it was the height of racial tension. (I don't care where you turned) there were killings and police killings and different kinds of things going on, and the outcry was everywhere. So there were four pastors here in the city who all happen to be friends of mine that came together and said, “Let's seek the Lord about this thing. Let's take some time away and let's get together and pray about a solution for us. How do we as a church address those? How do we speak truth to culture? How are we salt and light here in the city?” It was Billy Humphrey, Garland Hunt, Scotch Free, and Corey Lee and their wives who all went away to pray. [From this place] this idea of OneRace was born.

And thereafter they began to meet every single month to do the same thing, to just pray and to fellowship. They felt like a directive from the Lord that relationship was the only way forward. That if we're going to heal the wound, that if we're going to close the chasm, we have to do it in an authentic relationship. There's no other way to pursue this. They began to meet, and that would become the seed group for the other groups that we would start here in the city. This idea of OneRace was born and somewhere along the journey, the dream began; what would it look like to bring pastors and leaders together, and where would we do this? It became very obvious that Stone Mountain was the place. The story here is that in 1915, a Methodist Episcopal minister and a hoard of thugs went to the top of Stone Mountain to burn a cross publicly for the very first time. And most notably, we can hear Dr. King screaming or exclaiming, “Let freedom ring from the top of Stone Mountain!” Well, why is he doing that 40 years later? Because he knows about the seed, about the ministers who went there. He knows about the clan and he knows about the hate that's reigning from the high place here in the city. He's exclaiming, “Let freedom ring from the top of Stone Mountain!” And we felt like it was a directive from the Lord that we were supposed to go to the high place in the city, that a wound that a minister would open, ministers should [also] close. The idea, of taking pastors and

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"We've lived in the post civil rights era for the last 54 years. Well, that's 87% of the history of the US. But that's toxic, that's broken, that's evil. And then we wonder why we have some of the events happening that we have happen when we've got a root here that's toxic, that's broken."

leaders to the city. . .to the mountain, to the wound to ask for healing, was born. From that time forward, we started about 17 groups across the city. Pastors and leaders praying together, seeking the face of God, relating to one another out of their four key pillars that we built our groups around. The first one being prayer. We consider ourselves a prayer movement. The second thing is—is authentic relationship. There is no moving forward without relationship. We'll have conversations about things, but if it isn't rooted in relationship, we typically, you know, devolve into arguments and debates and futility. Then the third pillar here is critical conversations. What are the things that divide us? What is it that keeps the tension alive? How do we address those things? [Essentially] that points to justice, and justice would be the fourth pillar we built our groups on. How do we move forward in works of Kingdom justice, serving one another in love? [Well], these groups met all over the city (geographical groups) pastors and leaders together every single month, and then the run up to Stone Mountain. Along the journey we did about 30 prayer gatherings ranging from 200 participants to 1,500 participants all over the city. Those groups would, in essence, bring their churches together to do prayer gatherings in different parts of the city, inviting their congregations in on this conversation about racial reconciliation. We prayed and did those 30 prayer gatherings around the city and [eventually]

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they’ll all culminate into one, large prayer gathering at Stone Mountain, on August 25th, 2019. And so that's the story there. MM: I love that story. Oh my goodness. Okay. Wow. I feel like the questions I wanted to ask, I'm not sure that I want to ask them. Like, that story is so rich—what you shared is so incredible just to think that [through] the Lord, it all came back to that original spot. I’m just amazed. [The] restoration, that’s incredible. JC: Yeah. And you know, Stone Mountain is the high place here in Atlanta. And I think the cooler thing. . .in days ahead, we'll have more talk about it, but the steps of the Lincoln Memorial (you know, Abe Lincoln freed the slaves, Abe Lincoln? Good, old, honest, Abe, right?) The steps of the Lincoln Memorial were hewn from the granite there at Stone Mountain. You think that the monument dedicated to the man who (and it's intentional of course) ended slavery, would be hewn from this place. This, years later, there would be such an offense and affront to God. And then we get to come together years later and ask the Father to heal that place in our hearts. It’s a powerful, powerful testimony. MM: What is the heart of the Father for the movement? So yes, the story is amazing and incredible, but we're kind of like, well, what's next? How are you moving forward? What's the heart of the Father. What's He saying to you right now? I know you have this big event coming up in August,

but flesh that out a little bit. Unpack that. JC: Absolutely. Well, reconciliation, this idea of racial reconciliation can't be accomplished in a day. It just can't. You know, I like to tell the story of the last 400 years. August marks a 400th year anniversary of slavery entering the US colonies here in the US, or what would become the US. If you think about that 400 year history, let's break it down just a bit. Two-hundred forty-six of those years, African American folks were slaves in this country, not to mention how indigenous people were treated here. You've just got a root of pain and hurt. Then to complicate things further, you have a hundred years of separate but equal, and Jim Crow, and you know, the Chinese exclusion act. And in that same period you've got the evil that's happening to the Jewish people around the globe. So that's about 350 years. We've lived in the post civil rights era for the last 54 years. Well, that's 87% of the history of the US. But that's toxic, that's broken, that's evil. And then we wonder why we have some of the events happening that we have happen when we've got a root here that's toxic, that's broken. With respect to that, I believe the heart of the Father is that all people would be dignified, all people would be honored, all people would be celebrated because we bear His image, right? It starts there in Genesis 1, “And I breathed my spirit into you. I impressed my image upon you. And thus you have inherent value because

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of that.” And so we believe the heart of the Father is [pointed] at all people groups regardless of believers or nonbelievers, regardless of your faith background, whatever. You're made in the image of God, that's a truth. And then secondly, that means that you're worthy of value. You have value. And then, as it relates to the brokenness, we believe that the heart of the Father is that we would be one. That we would be united (in the spirit of Psalm 1:33 and the spirit of John 17 and the spirit of Ephesians chapter two). That the cross has destroyed the enmity between us, and made us one, new humanity as a result of that. The heart of the Father is that we would be one people with one sound, with one God ultimately. MM: That's so good. And we all know that. I mean, that's exactly what the word says, “Father, let them be one as we are one.” JC: Absolutely. Yeah. And the glory that's shared between the Father and the Son, He's asking that we would share in that same glory there. This idea of oneness and unity really has some power to it, when you think about Him saying, “Let them share in the kind of unity that we share in together.” It’s just a powerful idea. MM: Oh my gosh, this is so good. You mentioned that your fourth pillar is justice and how you are moving forward with the kingdom. Can you give us a gold nugget of what that is, how you walk that out in

practical terms? What is that piece of moving forward? JC: Yeah, I'd always like to start with the Gospel, right? That the Father judiciously dealt with the Son, right? It wasn't that we got a get out of jail free card. No, He, Jesus took on sin. He took on hell. He took on death on his body when He went to Calvary. And that’s a justice in and of itself. So we see that in the heart of the Father; justice is a motivation of His. This idea of making wrong things right comes into focus. And we do this in light of the Gospel. Now there are a lot of movements out there that claim to be justice movements. That claim to be justice oriented. You know, social justice gets a bad rap because of that. But I believe that the kingdom [is] coming to earth—and to the poor, the widow and the orphan—the disenfranchised. As Scripture says, the sojourner would be cared for. They would be taken care of in the sense that where there had been slights, where there had been wrong, where there have been gaps between us, that we seek to be a bridge to love and serve one another. MM: Is your movement facilitating the practical steps of what that would look like, or are you more like inspiring and educating? JC: So it's all of the above. It's all of the above. You know, the first year, or year and a half of our movement, we bit off a lot trying to rally pastors together and to build this massive

event. That justice really was a lacking piece for us. But just as we've sought the Lord and began to pray, we really feel like we're supposed to do two things here. We're supposed to serve. We’re supposed to serve our city, love our city well. And then secondly, we're supposed to call pastors and leaders (these different groups, these different hubs we've got going on around the city) to begin to dream of How do we serve our community? How do we serve this part of the city well? Without us having to inform that piece of that. I'll give you, within our organization, how we're going to go about this idea of justice. In the days ahead, we're going to call churches. We're going to call city leaders, call people to service. How do we serve our city well? How do we serve the underserved? How do we get involved in our communities? That might look like tutoring. That might look like mentoring. That might look like we serve our local schools. We're going to call the different churches to be a part of a movement that does just that. You know, we could get political real quick. And I think that when you start talking about kingdom justice, I don't think that you can avoid it, because I believe that the truth of the Gospel should inform how we do politics. It should inform how we legislate in those things. But we're seeking to start the ball rolling and allow the Lord to do what He does best, which is to reform hearts and change minds on these things.

"And the glory that's shared between the Father and the Son, He's asking that we would share in that same glory there. This idea of oneness and unity really has some power to it, when you think about Him saying, 'Let them share in the kind of unity that we share in together.' It’s just a powerful idea."

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"Wherever you go in this nation right now, there is a tension around race and culture. But if we don't bring the Kingdom of Heaven to this conversation, I just can't imagine where we'll be in twenty years from now."

MM: Amen to that. That's good. One of the things that keeps coming to me is: when we're bringing people together, it often seems like there's a disparity, of the visual, the socioeconomic, like “lower” areas of town get all of the service. They get all this stuff, right? And yet in the more affluent areas or—or other areas, people are starving for God. You know what I mean? They're stuck in their technology or they're stuck in their cliques and things like that. So are you addressing any of those areas of the city, or are you focusing on the lower end? Or how are we bringing everybody together here? JC: Yeah. You know, you hit a really good point, and I'm going to say this before I move on, that also a piece of justice is the Gospel. We talk about within our movement. . .reconciliation relationally, which is a horizontal reconciliation. There also has to be a reconciliation unto God, which is a vertical. We’re in this for the name and the fame of Jesus to be made known. So shifting gears to your question, absolutely. I think that there is a reconciling that has to happen across class. I talk about race or ethnicity. I talk about race and we'll talk about class because those things play together so often. There has to be a reconciliation across all of those different categories. Have we perfected that piece? No, I'm not going to tell you we have. But I'm going to tell you that we have to begin to consider, How do I, as a person of privilege—how do I get involved with this whole thing? How do I—and I'm not talking about

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a socialist idea—how do I leverage my privilege? How do I leverage my status to serve someone else? MM: Yeah. Right. It is a responsibility that we have, but yeah, that's good. That's really good. I was saying I was so excited about your movement, and I was thinking this needs to be like across the nation—what you guys are doing. And I believe that Holy Spirit is revealing that you're creating a model that needs to be replicated across the nation. So are there plans for that? Are you guys talking about that? Are you praying about that? Are you seeing that? Like, what—what does that look like? Because I just think the Lord is absolutely moving in cities right now, and He's even waking the church up to transforming cities across the nation. It's so obvious the last couple of years. And so that's what I see. And I know even in Sacramento, God's doing amazing things in this city and waking people up to this city. There's a lot of models. I feel like He is creating models here too. But I think people are still trying to figure out what's the model here, and we have a lot of challenges here in Sacramento as well. So anyway, I'm curious about that. JC: We do have intention on scaling it to other cities, because I think it's a conversation that needs to be had around the nation. I don't care where you go, I don't care who you are. Wherever you go in this nation right now, there is a tension around race and culture. But if we don't bring the Kingdom of Heaven to this conversa-

tion, I just can't imagine where we'll be 20 years from now. The sin nature, the nature of man, it's just running rampant. So we have plans to; we want to. We want to make sure we do a good depth of work here, and sustain it here. And then we want to scale, so that we do things responsibly. MM: Well, is there any final words that you want to make sure that we convey in the article about OneRace? JC: Yeah, absolutely. We’re a movement of a presence—a movement of racial reconciliation unto revival. And I believe that when we get this idea of race and community and oneness and unity together, I believe that the Father is going to release some glory on the church here in these last times and we'll begin to see harvest like never before. We'll see power like never before. And so I just can't overstate the importance of us coming together and seeking to live as one. MM: Well, we are so in accord with that and just thrilled, absolutely thrilled, for what God is doing. I thank you so much for making the time for our conversation. *OneRace exists to displace the spirit of racism and release a movement of racial reconciliation across Atlanta, the Southeast, and the nation. God desires a young adult movement that will counter the tide of racial division in our city and nation. www.oneracemovement.com

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AN ARMY REIGNING AN ARMY REIGNING AN ARMY REIGNING

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ARMY REIGNING

ARMY

REIGNING

AN ARMY REIGNING AN ARMY REIGNING AN ARMY REIGNING

By Bralynn Newby

It's our job as mature sons and daughters, as the bride, to bring heaven to earth and establish Kingdom government. Obedience is required.

hey started six years ago doing tent worship as An Army Rising in parks, beaches and business areas of San Diego. In 2017 God changed their name and changed their declaration to An Army Reigning. Now Kerah and Daniel Reil have been called and positioned to be catalysts and stewards for a company of people who would truly understand their creative identity and their assignment to carry the frequency of heaven. For Kerah, that was definitely a stretch. There's a lot of responsibility for a mission so vast and weighty. In obedience, they began declaring their mandate and felt the heavenly governing come to their house first. God had them start right where they were. And

they asked, “So what does an army reigning look like for us? How do we actually walk that out for ourselves?” So they began to gather and collaborate, and to equip and train. Kerah’s love and passion is worship, which can be a great gathering tool for the body to not get caught up in differences and doctrines and theologies, but rather, to rally around Jesus. From that place you can call people higher and the Lord can do a lot in those atmospheres. She hails from the tribe of Judah, so sending worship out before battle comes natural for her.

REIGNING FROM IDENTITY While worship still precedes it, the strategies of spiritual warfare are shifting. Some people would like to stay away from the word ‘war,’ but we are in a war, And it really isn't about the darkness as much as it's about the light. It's about us coming into the fullness of our identity. If we fully believed who we are, we wouldn't need to go after the enemy. We would be seated in our high places and decree, declare, and release court orders from the king himself. Not to say that there is no enemy—the enemy is real. But we are the answer. We are the response for everything that there is going on in the world. It doesn't really matter what darkness is doing as long as we're doing what we're created to do and being the light. There's a call to go and experience and do things that the earth is groaning for…things that have never taken place. And no matter what past generations have done, it's all accumulated to this time now. God saves the best for last. We really are the best of our generational line. And that's a—that’s a compliment. But it's also a responsibility because there are demands on

our very DNA to come into the fullness of all that Christ paid for. Even looking like Him, which is completely creative light, creative energy, creative sound. And everything we do, everything we touch is original. It’s not a copy. It's not a counterfeit. It's a sound that the earth has never known. And that's what we're just starting to tap into as a forerunning remnant. We must know the mature things of Christ, including protocol in heaven, such as in the courts of heaven, and how that really works. Churches don’t teach you about this—they don’t even talk about it. But we have a responsibility to teach people things like the enemy’s role, who is he really and what is the truth of what he can do legally, and what he can't do—those things we need to stand up against and not just roll over and take. Mature sons have a part to play in bringing heaven to earth, and there's a lot to do. The only way the government is going to come is through the mature sons, through the bride. So even Jesus Himself, even God, is not going to do it. No, that is our job. There is a company of people who have been hidden who are coming out now. People who know the spirit realm almost more than the natural. And even if we don't recognize something the Lord shows us, it doesn't matter. We just say, “Okay, I've never seen this. I've never been here, but I’m okay with that.” It's actually that our spirit recognizes it, and if we’re in tune, we don’t freak out. It’s just different. And I think that I've realized that it's my spirit who bears witness. So whatever my mind thinks, I don't care. My soul can take a back seat because my spirit bears witness. I would say that's a mark of a mature son—the soul taking a back seat to the spirit because

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+ MOVERS & SHAKERS

ARMY

the soul ultimately bows its knee. It's not going to be about one church, one person, one movement. It's going to be about an entire people, an entire generation, moving together, choosing to come into that fullness.

ESTABLISHING GOVERNMENT

Their mandate includes establishing the government of heaven on the earth, whether in San Diego or Sacramento, or Washington DC or other nations. Positioning themselves geographically, and getting practical strategies to execute assignments that can only come by nurturing a deep, personal relationship with Yahweh. During an intimate conversation with Kerah, God said, “I want you to go to the womb of California.” He reminded her of a dream she had had a year prior, where He showed her that there was a very specific location where the original intention for the land was to bring forth life for California. She had googled this “womb” God was talking about and discovered it's actually in the California Cavern cave in Calaveras county. As it turns out, the historical landmark also has a bridal chamber room, which is also quite prophetic, and strategic. In her research, she found writings of explorer John Muir. One of the things he wrote about that particular land was that it had been disemboweled. This highlighted several things going on. Obviously abortion and miscarriages in the natural, but also in the spiritual: things people are wanting to do or to birth in the spirit that don’t happen. So their assignment for this area was to go and pray over the land and declare life, and for the original intention for

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California to come. It's an assignment that they were chosen and asked to do, and they've said, “Yes.” That commitment is just the beginning. For each area God brings to their attention, they have to go do research and spiritual mapping. There are so many factors involved, and history to take into account that it can be overwhelming at first. Then you have to draw natural and spiritual parallels, such as the womb room in the dream, that actually begins with a

came and saw the gold, then essentially raped and pillaged the land. They are coming not to take from the land, however, but to pour themselves out over it. They’re going to release blessing and restoration, considering their assignment as an honor. Timing is also a key to fulfilling their land assignment. On the Hebrew calendar Sivan (March/April) is the pregnant month. So Kerah felt like it was very important that we came in sync with the Hebrew calendar to “spy” the land and release the declaration of life. Then they are supposed to come back in the ninth month and give people (especially the women) an opportunity to gather. They felt God say, “I'm going to open it up.” They’ll have more clarity on what that looks like, but around 9-19 they'll come back to the Sacramento area (9-19 just happens to be Jenene’s birthday!)

“...But having obedience and choosing to lay themselves down to speak and do what God told them to do is paying off.” bridal chamber. Kerah had a vision of the map of California overlaid with a pregnant woman facing toward the rest of the nation. Her belly was exactly where they were called to go—California Cavern and the Sacramento area. She even saw the detail of the belly button and umbilical cord giving life. Ironically, this area was also where the “motherload” was and people

MANDATE TO AWAKEN

They began as An Army Rising, which was a declaration and a sound calling a remnant to come out of the hidden places and begin to arise. That was their first forerunning mission six years ago, and now as An Army Reigning, they are forerunning again. People came up and out of hidden places, and they're still coming. There is a remnant in every area of these mountains that are going to be leading people, and it's going to look completely different than it ever has before. God is opening up new revelations, and there are others getting massive downloads, just like the Matrix movie. People are waking up, seeing things that have never been re-

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vealed before. We’ve come to a point in history where the Lord is saying, “You're ready.” Kerah and Dan, and other forerunners are now experiencing moments where all they can say is, “Oh my gosh, this is everything God showed me. This is everything I saw. And look, it's happening! They're doing it.” It’s an unbelievable confirmation. As forerunners, sometimes they have revelations where they think, “Well who's going to listen to this?” But having obedience and choosing to lay themselves down to speak and do what God told them to do is paying off. People are listening to the sound of heaven they are releasing. It's magnetic, drawing people who resonate with the frequency and vibration. There are so many precious ones who are not quite getting it, but they aren’t getting thrown out with the bath water. It’s just a timing issue. Sometimes the Lord will give us people who still have one foot over there, but who want to come along into the new thing God is doing. We don't want to just cut them off. They still may be the bride, they just haven't woken up yet. Like a wedding—you really do make a vow to Him, but you also make a vow to what He loves. And He loves those people. AAR is a safe place for those who are hearing these mature revelations, because they can't go to the church. Many church folk don’t understand, and they fear unfamiliar, so they criticize and ostracize. The reality is that we can’t grow into mature sons if we’re not able to have a place where we can talk about what we see and hear and experience. We need to be able to say, “I don't know if I'm crazy; I don't even know if I’m still saved,” without being judged. We need leaders who will say, “Hey, let's have some coffee, let's sit down, let's talk.” We need leaders to encourage us and say, “Look, you're

not crazy. The Lord is calling you into some very mature things and some of it is not going to make sense, but don’t worry, He's going to bring wisdom.” As mature ones, we also have a responsibility to those who are walking this new move out who haven't grown up in the church. They need the foundations set, and to know where the boundaries are. Maybe they’re doing this for the very first time and they're about to call it quits and be done, and we don't want that either. We want them to understand that they are on the front line. We need them to keep seeing, keep hearing, and keep sharing these revelations.

KERAH, BEING A FORERUNNER It’s lonely sometimes. A lot of it isn't acceptable to talk about…it’s not well received, it's not common. There have been times where I've said, “I don't know if I have it to dive into this right now.” Some of the things he's talking to me about or showing me, I'm like, “I don't know if I can do this.” He'll remind me, “If you choose to follow My lead, you will continue to move the body forward.” And that's a different perspective to think about. Because sometimes as a forerunner, you can feel lonely. You can feel like a lot of the things that you're experiencing in the now are off the grid, and you have to ask Him, “Okay—let me know who to talk to about this.” So I think the Lord in His goodness is connecting people because He's saying, “You're not meant to do this alone.” So even in the craziest things, He's hearing our heart cries. He says, “I'm going to connect you to somebody who will understand exactly what you're saying.” I'm amazed by that. I'm seeing it happen and I just feel like that is the goodness of the Lord because I think that maybe in past movements this was the reason it couldn’t

be sustained. But I think that this is the time where the pieces and support are in place to sustain the move of God. It’s amazing, and humbling because you were open to all that He had for you. There’s a balancing act. You have to be very humble because when you start getting in magazines and on stage, thousands of people are watching you. This is a part of my becoming a sweeter aroma, a fragrance to Him of a wine that would be fit for this supper. He's about to come. And I want to be the best wine. But in order to be that, there’s the crushing, the pressing, and we don't like that in the Christianese Happy Land world. But what I will say is that all of this is still real too. He's not boring. It's the most adventurous life you could ever have. It's not full of just sorrow and despair. You are truly in the pressing, you are overcoming and you feel that warrior in you coming out. It’s the greatest thing you ever could feel. You are being who He's called you to be. And those mountain peaks are amazing, you know, but so is the journey. You'll just experience things that are life changing. You’ll—you'll see the nature of God. He will give you a new perspective on your authority and your mandate. I think that if people make their focus intimacy, just wanting to know the Lord and his heart, and the mysteries of who He is, that He'll take you into things as you're ready. That’s the cry of my heart. To just be able to release the sound and frequency of heaven in our worship for the purpose of bringing the Kingdom government to the earth. Really learning and training people to walk that out, and connecting and gathering all those who are ready to step into their maturity as true sons of God.

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Go to armyreigningministries.com to learn more.

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PHOTO BY NICK OWUOR

Fig Leaves & Freedom How to Be Good Again

BY JEFF WITTMER

ONE OF THE MOST CURIOUS things about life as we navigate our way through the day is the fact that the one face we hardly see is the one closest to us: our own. Has it ever occurred to you that our face is always right before us yet also, beyond us? It’s so easy to forget about our face until we have that unexpected glance reflected through a window or mirror. Why are we surprised at seeing it? Have you observed how we are with one another in an elevator? The chatter goes to silence and we rarely make eye contact. No one wants to acknowledge we are seeing or being seen. When we have forced intimacy, we look away, as if we are ashamed or just pretend no one sees us. It is understandable if a man is robbing a convenience store that he cov-

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ers his face to conceal his identity. In the elevator, however, we stare at the floor, watch the numbers reporting the passing floors; in other words, we hide our face. For much of our lives we do this, but why? While writing this article, the door to my study was quickly pushed open by my two-year-old granddaughter in all her naked freedom. She escaped from her Mimi still dripping from her bath. She danced playfully like a kitten as she giggled with joyful delight. When do we become ashamed of our nakedness? Adam and Eve, aware of their guilt at a chosen disobedience tried to hide their nakedness behind suits of woven fig leaves. “Where are you?” came the voice of God as if brokenhearted when they were hiding from Him. “Who told

you that you were naked?” We hide when we feel naked and exposed. This wasn’t about their physical nakedness; it was about shame-emotional nakedness. We continue to hide behind figleaves to cover our nakedness. We have lost face so we look away hoping no one sees us. Fearing exposure as imposters, we live with constant, lowgrade anxiety hoping no one discovers our many flaws. Shame is a powerful identity emotion that can cause people to feel defective, unacceptable, even damaged beyond repair. How much do you know about shame? You may sometimes confuse shame with guilt, a related but different emotion. When you feel guilty, you’re mak-

2019

ing a judgment that something you’ve done is wrong. When you feel shame, you’re feeling that your whole self is wrong. When you feel guilty about the wrong thing you did, you can take steps to make up for it and put it behind you. But feeling convinced that you are the thing that’s wrong offers no clear-cut way to “come back” to feeling more positive about yourself. From the day you were born, you were learning to feel that you were okay or not okay, accepted or not accepted, in your world. Your self-esteem was shaped by your daily experiences of being praised or criticized, lovingly disciplined or punished, taken care of or neglected. People who grow up in abusive environments can easily get the message that they are undeserving, inadequate, and inferior. In other words, that they should feel ashamed. Shame also affects men differently from women. It’s said that men with shame-based low self-esteem tend to “act out” through anger and violent behavior toward others, and women tend to “act in” by turning their feelings inward and hating themselves. I would not say I was a violent young man when I gave my heart to Jesus when I was 19 years old, but I was indeed quite reckless. Growing up in a home with an alcoholic father giving in frequently to rage outbursts can certainly take its toll on the esteem of a growing boy. I did, however, become a bit of a teenaged rebel which landed me in a juvenile detention home a time or two. What brought me to Jesus was the hope of becoming good again. I attended a Sunday night church service at the invitation of a friend who pestered me until I said "yes." When the altar call was given, my heart burned within. “I want to feel good again” was the thought going through my mind as the preacher beckoned the sinners to come forward. My friend grabbed my wrist and shoved my hand above my head, thereby “leading me to Jesus” on a night that changed the trajectory of

my life. Whether we realize it or not, I believe we all crave goodness. Our souls long for a sense of wholeness and goodness, or even “holiness” which is essential to wholeness. I did not respond to that altar call because I wanted to become religious, but because I wanted to become good again. That does bring up a question about Christianity. What exactly is Christianity supposed to do to a person? What is the effect upon a person who receives “Jesus as Lord?” The way we answer that question will shape everything in our lives relative to us losing our figleaf coverings and coming out of hiding. “How blessed is God! And what a blessing He is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in Him. Long before He laid down earth’s foundations, He had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of His love, to be made whole and holy by His love” (Ephesians 1: 3-6 MSG Italics mine). In this passage of Scripture, we see the intention of God toward us, to make us whole and holy by His Love. Wholeness, isn’t that what we all long for? But to be honest, being “holy” isn’t something I ever aspired to become. I could never imagine I would want to be a man passionate about avoiding sin, being a really “nice guy” and just praying all the time—that all sounded quite dull and boring. Actually, the assumption in the New Testament is that these two go together. You cannot have one without the other. If you study closely the ministry of Jesus, He often provoked the debate of “holiness” by healing someone’s body (see John 5:2-16; 7:15-24). It is apparent that what God is after is the healing of the whole man—made whole and holy by His Love. Track with me on another portion of Scripture from the Book of Hebrews. The narrative of Scripture is drawing toward a close and the author is helping us understand the ways and purposes of God:

“Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 'Make level paths for your feet,' so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed” (Hebrews 7-13 NIV Emphasis mine). Notice closely, God is working with us—correcting, nudging, disciplining—so that we may share His holiness (whatever that is). Why are we surprised when we struggle with misplaced desires and selfishness? Could the pain and cover-up of our shame actually be leading us somewhere? Is there a relief from all our struggles and suffering within holiness—the desire to be good again? The point of Christianity, what it’s supposed to do to you is the restoration of your creation—to make you whole and holy in God’s love. Everything else is missing the point. Whatever holiness truly is, the effect of it is healing. There is so much more to say on this subject, but if God wants to restore us to His original design, we need to go back to the garden before the fig leaves were used as covers for hiding and humans were “naked, and not ashamed” (Gen. 2:25). Jeff Wittmer is a speaker and certified life coach and writer of the King Maker column for Megamorphosis Magazine. www.burningbushlifecoaching.com

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EXCERPTED FROM THE DOCUMENTARY "PURE AND HOLY" BY TODD WHITE. ARRANGED BY BRALYNN NEWBY.

REVOLUTIONARIES DEFYING STATUS-QUO CHRISTIANITY

THE CALL TO BE

PURE AND HOLY

IS THE LIFE YOU'RE LIVING WORTH THE PRICE HE PAID?

INTRO Throughout the documentary, Todd and his team are traveling in Europe living out this pure and holy lifestyle, praying for people, healing them, and welcoming them into the Kingdom. At one point they went into an empty church and were singing and praying when a woman walked in. Todd asked her through a translator app if she had lost a child who was now with Jesus. She said yes, and he prayed for her. It turns out that her whole family was having a lot of problems and earlier that day she had cried out to God for an hour to send a someone to her who could look into her heart. Todd was so moved that this was no coincidence that he went and got money out of his ATM, and went back and gave her €150 (euro) to bless her family. “You can come into people's lives, and Christ in you can come in and through you everywhere you go. That lady prayed that day, ‘God help me. I need help. Send a man to pray for me. Send a man of God to pray for me for my family and for our needs.’ So she goes into a church and she meets some people from from Texas, and from Canada, from different places, and it's just crazy. God shows up through normal people. We're just normal people who serve an extraordinary God.” photo by Michael Palmer

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“Grace empowers us to walk out what truth calls us to." SO OFTEN grace is reduced to a permission to "sin and get away with it," but is that really the life that Christ died to give us? It is such an amazing privilege to represent Jesus, that we can't afford to misrepresent him in a place of hyper grace that says we can keep sinning. When you come to Christ there should be a real difference between your life and the lives of the people around you. It’s dangerous to go into a place to witness that’s totally against God when you don’t truly know who you are and what you’re called to. There are Christians who push that line. And they push a little further, a little further, and a little further, and all of a sudden they sear their conscience and shipwreck their faith. It’s important to stay pure and stay separate from the world. In it, but not of it—to really just remain with holiness inside of us and have a reverence for God. You can't afford to incorporate the way that seems right to a man into the way that is right and righteous because we're listening to the devil. We’re being manipulated by the liar, and God forbid you learn how to heal the sick, and heal them, and then think that it's okay and sleep with your girlfriend—that’s not okay. False grace slips in because there’s no relationship

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with God there. I'm not judging people. I’m telling you that there ought to be a difference between our life and theirs. How can I witness to you if I'm gonna be drunk when I'm doing it? That's not a witness. When you lower your conscience and numb out your senses, you actually forget what's real and what's important. People are important. All the people you hang out with are eternal. They're either headed to heaven or to hell. You're walking before them every day. Let that matter. You have the opportunity to represent Jesus.

IS THE LIFE YOU'RE LIVING WORTH THE PRICE HE PAID? People across Europe will sometimes say to me, “Well, this is our culture. You must have a glass of wine.” And I say you’re asking me to violate my conscience for the sake of your culture, and I don't believe I'm supposed to sacrifice my conscience on the altar of trying to be relevant to a culture. There’s no need to use profanity to fit in either. When your heart gets changed, when your heart's in surrender, your language will change. My language shouldn't be like the language of people around me if I want them to know that Jesus is different. After I was saved I lived real bad

in front of a friend for five and a half months, partying with him, getting drunk with him. Still getting high, talking about Jesus. There was no difference in my life, no change. I went away to a rehab, and three days into this rehab my friend had a brain aneurysm and went into a coma. I had a revelation of who Jesus was, and how Jesus changed my life forever, but now my friend was in the hospital. I went to visit him and told him I was sorry, but he was in the coma, and couldn't hear me. The next day he died—my best friend that I could have witnessed to, but I lived my life as a hypocrite, confessing one thing but living another way. We can make a real change in people's lives by the way we live ours. Jesus said, “Be not conformed, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” So I believe that as we step into our identity in Christ and who He's created us to be that our face actually shines. Jesus says that we're supposed to be the light of the world. I believe that light shines brightest in the darkness, and I believe the darker it is, the brighter we shine. And I believe that if our identity is secure in who God created us to be, then we'll be able to represent Jesus well everywhere we go. I believe that God wants His bride

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to be pure and powerful. He wants her to walk in purity and He wants her to walk in power. Jesus satisfied and paid the price for me so that I could enter into a place by grace as a son—not an orphan—as a son, knowing who I am in Christ. The Bible doesn't say, “Deny the devil, pick up your cross and follow him.” The devil's not your problem. You are. It says to know yourself. Know the way you think. There's a way that seems right to a man...and it's killing us. The devil is a liar. He’s finished, he’s cut off, and he’s trying to recreate himself in your mind. Know your mind. I can't afford to read that Bible with my carnal mind and think that I know it because I can quote it. The only

“It's such an amazing privilege to represent Jesus, that we can't afford to misrepresent him in a place of hyper grace that says we can keep on sinning."

scripture that we really know is the one that we can walk out. God doesn't want us to be professional quoters. He said, “Be in relationship with me. My word is alive and sharp and active. Sharper than any two-edged sword. It's able to divide and separate the soul from the spirit.” You read that stuff and say, “God my life isn't what this says, and I need it to be. Help me father. This is who you say I am. God, make me become this word. God, this is who you say I am. Here I am God, your son. Show me what it means to be a son.” You don't want to just pray for people and not be practical. If you are going to say that you represent Jesus on your job, then you want to do your job better than everybody else. Especially when you're going to pray for people at the same time. When I got saved, I got a job and I started praying for people everywhere I went. It was just normal to work really hard and to pray for people, to never let my job go bad because of praying. You don't want to be so heavenly minded that you’re no earthly good. You want to be so heavenly minded that you’re earthly incredible, and your boss wants more people just like you.

HOLINESS IS THE BYPRODUCT OF RELATIONSHIP We need to let our roots go down deep into the love of God. We are to love God with all of our heart, our soul, our strength and our mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves. The reality of our life in love with Jesus in the public eye is amazing, but it starts with His eye being on you in private. I love my one-on-one time with my Father more than anything. It’s that time right there, just me and Him. Holiness to me is my state of love relationship with my Father. You've called me into holiness; a royal priesthood; a holy nation set apart. We are a people that represent the name of Jesus through our lifestyle. Ask God to help to train your senses to discern between both good and evil. I want to live my life

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in love with you every day and I only want those things in my life that you love and I don't want those things in my life that you don't love. So honestly, it’s a secret love relationship with the father that's on public display; what’s revealed is holiness. It’s supernatural, it’s miraculous, and it’s amazing. We weren't just born into sin, we have been cultivated by the very enemy of God. Our minds have been trained by the liar, by deception. Even if you grew up in church, if you haven't pressed in to relationship on your own, you still have been trained by the world. Like with weed. I used to tell people that God made this, and God thinks it's good. This is “medicinal.” If God made weed, God also made poppy seeds, therefore he also made heroin. If God made coca, he also made cocaine. God didn't make that stuff so that we could get drunk and high and be buzzing all the time. You know God created us in His image and in the likeness of God He made man. Jesus restored that which was lost, so that we could walk like Christ walked. A lot of times people are struggling with pornography or similar things. Many people ask me to pray for them that these thoughts would just go away. We're in a day where people want something microwaved, some-

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thing delivered to them without having to deal with it on their own. You can't simply come to a prayer line and expect these things to go away permanently. All God's asking you to do is apply yourself to a relationship, and the Holy Spirit will bring massive conviction inside of you. I am talking about growing in your personal relationship with God. And if you're not willing to do that, you will never be free. There is a necessity for you to surrender. Surrender doesn't just mean I'm going to try harder, or I'm going to go to church on Sunday. When you desire and seek God with everything you are, with all your heart, all your soul, and with all your strength and mind, it will become available to you. Surrender to the truth of what He says. Get on your knees and open your Bible in a quiet place and ask God to teach you who He says you are.

IT'S TIME TO GIVE UP COMPROMISE God says, “Let fornication not even be named among you as is fitting for saints.” And Jesus said if you love me, obey my commandments. One of the commandments is not to commit adultery. Adultery is not just cheating on your wife. Jesus defines adultery as actually committing lustful thoughts

in your heart. People say, “I can't help it because I fall into sin.” I don't believe it's a fall, I believe it is a gradual descent...because you haven't protected your conscience. You haven't guarded it from things that are not okay. There's a way that seems right to a man, and in the end it's destruction. It's time to give up compromise. You need to ask God to convict you of things that are right to Him because living in that lifestyle, you're living in the way that seems right to a man. The wisdom of the world is sensual and demonic. It’s self-seeking and empty, and every evil thing is in there. Sexual immorality separates you from an intimate relationship with God. God loves you regardless of whether or not you sleep with your girlfriend or boyfriend. It's not stopping God from loving you. But by the fact that you're doing it, you're actually telling God, “I don't love you. I choose to serve myself. I choose to serve how I feel rather than what you say.” If you're going to sleep with your girlfriend or boyfriend and think that God's okay with it, you're going to answer for your life one day when you stand before him. You can call it whatever you want, but it is sin, and it is twisted. I'd rather warn you now than you to be forced to your knees later before God,

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“God loves you whether or not you sleep with your girlfriend or boyfriend. It's not stopping God from loving you. But, by the fact that you're doing it, you're actually telling God, 'I don't love you. '" and answer for your life and all the people that you affected. We can't afford as Christians to compromise our faith and get high, or get drunk, or look like the world. We can't afford to compromise to try to “reach people,” because that's not reaching people. That's actually hyper grace. It's a twisted thing where people think, “I'm under grace I can do this. God will forgive me.” No. Jesus paid a price for you to be free from every addiction. Anything that's a vice, even if there's something in your life where you know it's a stumbling block for other people, there should be none of that in you because you don't want to

cause anybody to stumble. So it's really important that I be really secure in my identity, but also to walk the way God created me to walk so that I can represent Jesus. To be an imitator of Christ. Walk away from a situation when that's what Jesus would do. That's really what should happen in a Christian’s life. Be bold, be courageous, be free, be pure, be holy as He is holy. If every Christian would know what it means to be a son and a daughter they would change every sphere of influence that they're in. God wants to restore what sin defiled, so the focus is identity in sonship. When you see that you've been adopted, it's so powerful.

GRACE EMPOWERS US TO WALK OUT WHAT TRUTH CALLS US TO Life is a gift. You've got this short opportunity—you get to leave a legacy of what it looks like for someone to be possessed by God. Grace enables me to walk like Christ walked, and Christ never tried to sin and get away with it. He walked free from that, and He did it all for us so that we could step into the same thing. I'm not talking about perfection in my own strength. I'm talking about His perfection. You can live in the fear of man or in the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord isn’t the scary thing, it's the only place to live. If you want to live without fear, then you have to understand the blood of Jesus, because it's the perfect love of God that casts out all fear. When I got born again, I left habitual sin. I didn't want to do it anymore. Your conscience gets clean and washed by the blood, and it enables your conscience to be free from wanting to sin. When you get born again, your conscience gets sensitized by the blood of Jesus. He cleanses my conscience from dead works in order to serve God, so my conscience is completely clean; and if I don't violate it, it stays that way. Why do we have the helmet of salvation? Why is it on our head? A helmet of salvation is given to encapsulate the reality of a believer’s identity so it cannot be torn away by lies. The weap-

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ons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, taking every thought that rises itself up against the knowledge of God captive. So how do we do that? You don't just get hands laid on you to get the thoughts to go away. You have to continue in truth. You have to study the word to show yourself approved. You have to not be conformed to the world. The world will try to squeeze you, mold you, shape you, make you look just like it, but God wants to transform you by the renewing of your mind. So that everywhere you go you know what is and what is not the will of God.

WHAT IF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE WAS ALL ABOUT THIS? WHAT IF THIS IS WHY WE'RE ALIVE? Everywhere we go there are people that are asking God for a sign, and you just might be that sign. We have the opportunity to transform people's lives with each person we encounter. How can we do that if we remain unclean and look exactly like the world? If we all realized how much He loves each and every one of us, we would live our lives holy and pure. Because when people see you live a life that's not unto the Lord they want nothing to do with the Lord. Hypocrisy is not just damaging to you, it's damaging to everyone that sees you. Cold or Hot. I wish that you were cold or hot, because cold God can switch you like a light switch to burning. Hot you are burning and nothing can slow you down. When you’re burning, you’re on fire with His love, with His goodness,

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with His grace, with His mercy, with His purity. God wants us to be pure in heart because you can't even see God unless you're pure in heart. And you need to see God when you look in the mirror. You see Christ in you, the hope of glory. You can't afford to live with junk in your closet. Where is the Christian that would run full steam, full on with God, and believe the absolute truth of what the blood of Jesus has done? Where is the Christian that believes that you can actually walk and be holy? That doesn't mean that I'm never going to miss it. But if I slip, I don't stay in the slip and do it again, and stay in the slip and do it again, and stay in the slip and do it again. If I slip, I confess it to God and He's faithful and just to wash me clean with blood. Completely faithful. He’ll cleanse me of all unrighteousness. The least that we can do is fully surrender and live our life in a godly way and be a representation of what Jesus looked like on this earth. The least we can do is surrender everything to Him. That we walk in a way that's convicting to everyone around us. That's all God's asking you to do, to be a living epistle known and read by all men. So that one day when we stand before God you don't have blood on your hands from people that you’ve lived like a hypocrite in front of.

GET BEFORE GOD RIGHT NOW. DON'T PLAY. DON'T MESS AROUND WITH THIS THING. If you’re in a place where you think God doesn’t see your life, you’re wrong. He sees everything. Little chil-

dren, don’t you be deceived. The one who practices righteousness is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil. Righteousness bears its fruit unto holiness. Everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness—and sin is lawlessness. Know that He appeared in order to take away sin, that in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins. I pray that God would sear you in righteousness, sear you in holiness, and that God would baptize you in fear of the Lord. Right now you're saying to Jesus, “I surrender all.” You're saying, “I am willing to give everything that I've always been about, to have You. Lord Jesus, I believe that You died on the cross for my sin to be wiped away. You valued me so much that You came and You died for me. While I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Your blood, Lord Jesus, takes away my sin. And everything that I wish I'd never done gets wiped out right now, today.” The blood of Jesus has cleansed you from all sin. He says He's faithful and just to cleanse you of all unrighteousness if you just ask Him. Pursue holiness. Pursue a relationship with God. Learn your identity. You have become pure and holy.

*Although rearranged and edited, this work is from Todd White. White, Todd. “Todd White - Pure and Holy”. Todd White - Lifestyle Christianity. Dec 14, 2018.

https://youtu.be/QfldY6ChOuI

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SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES BUSINESS PRINCIPLES COMBINED

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THE "over 10,000 churches closed their doors when an estimated 1.2 million people left the church in 2015."

BY BRALYNN NEWBY

y heart went cold and my blood boiled as my jaw dropped. In a business seminar, a “Spiritual Intuitive Guide” was getting coaching on how to raise her rates, because she was only getting $5,000 for a 1-hour phone call every other week for 3 months to help “mystics access their power and find their grounding point.” Yes. People are so lost and disoriented that they pay spiritualists $833 per hour to get

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grounded. Meanwhile Christians will “pray about” going to a 3-day retreat to have a deeper encounter with God for $297. Something is horribly wrong with this picture. Be honest now. Were you thinking that it’s horribly wrong for someone to make $833 an hour? If so—that’s what’s horribly wrong. A man in Boston found out that his 6-year old son was being taught about homosexuality and tried to remove him from that class. The court ruled

that parents did not have the right to protect their children from teaching contrary to their religious beliefs. That was over 10 years ago. Now, a regular question upon entry into pre-school asks which gender your 4-year old prefers to identify with. Something is wrong with this picture. Over 10,000 churches closed their doors when an estimated 1.2 million people left the church in 2015. (Don’t tell my parents, but I was one of them.)

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I didn’t leave the church because I lost faith—quite the opposite. As I began a deep spiritual journey, surrendering to inner healing, and developing a true relationship with my Father, I saw how irrelevant and fake “Churchianity” was. I saw my church—where I faithfully served and engaged in Bible studies, women’s ministries, worship team, and outreach—striving and rallying to “build the congregation to 10,000.” They, like tens of thousands

God-inspired idea that could saves lives? How do you work with the laws of God’s universe in your business, instead of fighting them? What I heard about this in church? (…crickets) Maybe I missed the workshop, but I never once saw even something as simple as how to structure your calendar to be more productive, to accomplish the goals that would get you to your God-ordained destiny. Oh, that’s right—the church never taught us to

what God was calling me to do, and I kept meeting people who felt the same thing. Of course, I didn’t have the words for it at the time; I just felt that shift stirring inside me, a burning to get this message out there. I had no idea that people like Dr. Lance Wallnau, Ed Silvoso, or Os Hillman had already been teaching this. I didn’t discover them until late 2015. All I knew was that the way Christ followers did their life and vocation could no lon-

of churches across the world, desperately tried to keep the people happy by pouring buku bucks into high tech production equipment for more lights, more sound, more cameras, more fog—more, more, more. Except not more spiritual meat. They were stuck in the old paradigm of saying “Come ye…” when Jesus said, “Go ye…” They were preaching the gospel of salvation when Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom. They were not accessing the power of the Holy Spirit by expressing His gifts. I was seeing more Holy Spirit outpouring singing in my car on the way to church than once I entered the doors. The meat that was lacking was practical training in how to put kingdom principles to work in the marketplace. How do you solve a problem you can’t solve? How do you get funding for a

set goals in alignment with our natural abilities, strengths, and passions. In fact, it seemed to me that the only goals worth attaining had to do with building a new nursery or funding a mission trip. I felt dissatisfied, unfed, marginalized. I realized that something was horribly wrong. Like many of my fellow “dischurched,” I felt the shift long before I knew what it was or could describe it. With the religious spirit clinging to me, I felt guilty and alienated by my own choice to no longer spend my Sunday mornings in a place where I felt disconnected, disappointed, and even drained. I was done. And, yes, we are collectively called, "the Dones.” In 2014 I created Spirit-Centered Business because I could no longer live my life and do my business compartmentalized from who I was and

ger be separated from the way they did spirituality. In fact, the only way we were going to truly make the difference in the world (that we feel the deep calling to make) was not to do either one anymore. We need to shift into being who God created us to be, using our talents and skills to fulfill our destiny, and properly represent God in the marketplace. Spirit-Centered Business started out teaching the science and practical application behind the principles in the Bible. There was a lot of justifying and bridge-building and sugarcoating going on trying to satisfy the offended, religious spirits I encountered. I felt like my hands were tied behind my back. My voice was stifled. (I actually got counseling for it.) I knew I was supposed to reach people who would be turned off by Christianese and of-

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fended by Jesus, which wouldn’t serve my purpose. I can now put language to it that I didn’t have then. What was going on was that I am not an evangelist sharing the gospel. I am an apostle, shifting the culture for the kingdom, so that the ground will be ready for the evangelists to come in. Since this article was first published in December of 2016, I have learned and experienced so much more of God’s revelation of how the spirit realm works. I am honored to bring on Gil Hodges as a new partner to re-launch Spirit-Centered Business with a whole new dimension of teaching: access. We now have tools and understand how to access heavenly realms for wisdom, resources, divine connections, supernatural favor, angelic help in carrying out your mission, and to see what the purpose and destiny of your business really is, to name a few. We will still have to deal with backlash, but now we’re prepared. News flash: the spirit of religion does not want any boat rocking—culture shifting is highly frowned upon. In my oh-so-sweet voice, with a cherubic smile dancing upon my lips I say, “Screw that.” God is turning everything on its head. If I were doing a video right now I would be saying “Wake up.” We need to shake off the contentment of our comfortable, “don’t get involved,” lives. It is no longer acceptable to re-

main silent. It is no longer acceptable to drift along, being lulled to complacency by the hypnotic rhythm of our culture. The coddling and spoon-feeding warm fuzzies to pacify the spirit of religion needs to stop. I really am here because I love you. If it offends you when I say that religion sucks, then I suggest some inner healing for it right away because

me), “You’re not good enough, not smart enough, not connected enough, not funded enough…” The Kingdom of God is enough, has enough. And always will be enough. You and I are sons and daughters of the Creator of everything we could possibly want or dream of. I am calling anyone who thought that making $833 an hour was wrong to shift. What’s actually wrong with that scenario is that we kingdom people are allowing Satan to go in and show people how to “access their power, and get grounded.” We have the solution. We can provide the Real McCoy, not the counterfeit. We need to get over our “heebie jeebies” about serving the woo-woo crowd, or the nightclub crowd, or the inner city crowd, or whatever, and just dive in. Start transferring the wealth of the wicked to the kingdom. God can trust us with that money a whole lot more than He trusts them with it. And think about this; it’s not just monetary “wealth” the Bible is referring to. The secular world has embraced the counterfeit of spiritual principles God intended for His kids. While they meditate, visualize, and cleanse their ancestral bloodlines, we hide our head in the sand, thinking these are “of the devil.” They’re not. Satan is no creator, just a thief. There’s a wealth of information and practices out there that we need to

"there's a wealth of information and practices out there that we need to demystify and put the biblical version into practice."

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the army of God needs you. You are not reading this by chance. We need to shift the way we do everything. My focus is business, so my Warrior Cry is to break off the barriers of the poverty mindset, to smash down the strongholds of lies that tell you (and

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demystify and put the biblical version into practice. Which is why the time is now to learn Spirit-Centered Business strategies. As a side note, Satan is also catering to our kids. When we step aside in our career-chasing busyness, in our (hold on, I’m going there) “not-myjob” mindset, he’s telling them what to wear, what games to play, what music to listen to, what to think. It’s not the progressive liberal media’s fault, or the political machine of government’s fault. It’s our fault. We dropped the ball by not rocking the boat and standing up for biblical values. We need to retrain to become relevant and influential in culture again. We need to get off our religious mountain and break barriers of relationships, of economics, of politics, of arts and entertainment, of media, and of education. But first, we need to conquer our own fears. We need to get over our poverty mindset, our doubt, fear, and unworthiness issues. There are people on the other side who desperately need our help. What we need to do requires a lot of money. Thinking money is evil, or the root of evil, or whatever bad theology may be lurking around, is what has kept, and will continue to keep you and me in “barely getting by” mode. That poverty mindset comes from an orphan spirit that the church, the bride of Christ, has been conditioned to accept as normal… “Holy” even. So I ask, “What have you been tolerating? What have you settled for? I know I need to step up my game. Are you with me? We need to rise up and shift the atmosphere of the culture to the point that anyone who thinks parents shouldn’t have the right to guard their kids’ minds will think twice about voicing their opinion—not the other way around. We can no longer be silent. I’m not telling you to be an activist. I’m not telling you to leave church.

The cry of my heart, my Warrior Cry, is that you would be fully and unapologetically you, and be fully and completely supported and equipped to do what only you can do as the hands and feet and heart of God on this earth. I am calling those bold and courageous enough to stand up and be the voices of the kingdom to sharpen iron with me. We are over-qualified in the “innocent as doves” category, and woefully lacking in the “shrewd as serpents.” We need to sharpen our God-given skills and abilities so that the world will take notice of our excellence, our extraordinary giftedness in solving its problems with supernatural solutions—and pay us handsomely for the blessing of helping. So, if you agree with me, I invite you to admit with me, that the soak in religiosity still smells a bit like pickling, and we need to do the work it takes to get totally free of it. I admire the Millennials on fire for Jesus who aren’t as jaded as we are. We need their fresh revelation, their energy, and their creativity. They need our wisdom. God is calling Fathers to Sons and Sons to Fathers. We are the Fathers of the next generation. Thank God they won’t hear us when we speak Christianese to them. We have to be authentic and straight up—relevant. If you agree with me, I invite you to get totally free of religiosity and bring the kingdom to the world. Be uniquely you. Only then can we make the big shift and begin to see, feel, sense, know the shift God is bringing to the earth. What He is doing is unprecedented— it’s unusual; it’s going to look, sound and feel different than anything we’ve ever experienced or imagined. It’s an exciting time. It’s a time to awaken and arise. It’s your time to shift.

Bralynn’s Note: My goal for Warrior Cry is to equip Kingdom leaders and business people with practical tools and training overlaid with spiritual access to fulfill their destiny in the marketplace. I invite you to lock arms with those in your metron, and virtually with me and other Spirit-Centered Business people. Visit www. SpiritCenteredBusiness.com for details. Bralynn Newby is a kingdom warrior called to release voices held captive by fear, doubt and confusion. She is a co-host on Kingdom Talks, the creator of Spirit-Centered Business™, author of Planning to Profit. Bralynn is a commissioned Dokimos Project™ coach, and her apostolic gifting paired with an ability to see how to strategically put pieces into place activates influencers and launches them into their destiny. She coaches visionary influencers to package their brilliance by designing, building, and activating a lifestyle business that fulfills their God-given destiny. Connect with Bralynn at www.BralynnNewby.com

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Dr. Jackson is a teacher and author of books on leadership and transformation.

SET APART & LOVING DEEPLY

Photo by Aaron Guzman

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The Lord will establish you as his holy people as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him” (Deuteronomy 28:9). “To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord JesusChrist” (Romans 1:7). “For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight…” (Ephesians 1:4).

he Bible seems to make a big deal out of an uncommon word. The world “holy” is used over 400 times in the Old (or First) Testament, not counting the word “holiness.” In the New Testament, the word is used 180 times, and over 200 times if you count the word holiness. But other than fairly slang expressions (“holy smokes,” “holy cow” or something profane), the word and the concept of holy and holiness are out of vogue in modern culture. Not only has the word gone out of style in culture, it feels to me like it has lost its “zing” even in the church and among people of faith. A previous generation of church members and culture understood the word holy to invoke notions of reverence, awe, and perfection. I have been thinking a lot lately about words like “holiness” and “sanctification.” Both words relate to the idea of being set apart, devoted, or perfect and complete.

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In fact, when I was studying theology in school, we used to understand that the holiness of God is His first attribute. If we know that God is holy or perfect, then we know that His holiness and perfection and completeness extend to every dimension of His being, His nature, and His behavior. The perfection or holiness of God always made sense to me when I thought about the behavior of God. God is perfect in all that He is and in all that He does. When God loves, He loves perfectly. When God shows mercy, He shows perfect mercy. When God gives justice, He gives perfect justice. The holiness and perfection of God made sense to me from a Biblical and theological standpoint. What was always a lot more challenging was the notion that I was to be holy as a human being, in all my messes and imperfections. What do Deuteronomy and Ephesians mean when they say that we are called to be “holy people?” In what sense could that even be a reality with this flawed and failing vessel that I am (not to say anything about you, but if the shoe fits…smile, just checking to see if you were reading carefully). Literally hundreds of Bible verses talk about the fact that God is perfect and holy, and that we, His people, are to be set apart (sanctified) and be holy as He is holy. How is that possible? And, if we are called to be holy, how can we also be involved in the world and loving people and culture that is so unholy and morally compromised? These are the things I have been pondering as of late. You see, I lead a Christ Centered University (William Jessup University in Sacramento, www.jessup.edu). I’m pretty consistently praying and pondering about what it means for our students, staff,

and faculty to be making a difference in the world. Our very mission statement (We partner with the church to educate transformational leaders for the glory of God) suggests that we care about how culture is affected by how we live as a community. And while I do not have any final answers for my questions, I think that some of what I have discovered so far may be of help to all of us. Let me center our thinking around three things.

“Obviously, we are imperfect in our everyday experience of living in the power of the Spirit. In fact, we are often not holy; we are profoundly failing and insufficient.”

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First, we need to have a better understanding of salvation and sanctification. Being holy is a calling, a journey, and a destination. We often think of salvation as an event, and therefore holiness and being holy must be one as well, a moment in time. But that clearly is not the teaching of Scripture. The Bible talks about salvation in three tenses. We are “saved, being saved, and will be saved.” One simple way I have learned it is the following three statements that apply if you are a follower of Jesus Christ: We were saved in the past from the penalty of our sins. That is justifica-

tion. We are saved in the present from the power of our sins. That is sanctification. We will be saved in the future from the presence of our sins. That is glorification. This passage in 1 Thessalonians makes it clear that we are to be blameless and holy when we are in the presence of God: “May he strengthen your hearts so that you will be blameless and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones” (1 Thessalonians 3:13). There is a sense that being made holy is both a once and for all completed action (Hebrews 10:10, 1 Corinthians 1:30) and a progressive, daily experience of surrender (1 Peter 2:2, Hebrews 12:14, 2 Peter 3:18). Understanding that holiness and sanctification are not only a now reality but a then experience, helps me understand that I live in the “in between” time. That theme certainly reflects the story of Christ followers throughout history. Second, we are called to bring the perfect holiness, love, and kindness of God to a society that is broken and off the rails and through people like us who are still in process and imperfect carriers of perfect love. Clearly, we are incapable in our own strength of living lives of complete righteousness or perfection. Titus 3:5 tells us that our righteousness is as “filthy rags.” There is no capacity in our own human ability to be all that God has called us to be. And yet, the Bible gives us the glorious source of our empowerment in Romans 8. “You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives

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life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:911). This glorious promise of Scripture tells us that all who belong to Jesus have the Spirit of God living in them and empowering our daily experience. That which would be impossible in the “natural” becomes supernaturally possible. Faith in the midst of uncertainty, hope in the midst of despair, love in the midst of anger and pain, and all of these become supernaturally possible in the power of the Holy Spirit. We are followers of Jesus who have been called to live in such a way that the presence of God manifests itself in a redemptive fashion here on planet Earth. Obviously, we are imperfect in our everyday experience of living in the power of the Spirit. In fact, we are often not holy; we are profoundly failing and insufficient. But the glorious reality of our human experience is that we live out what the Scriptures proclaim in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” The earthen vessels of our lives (“cracked pots” in some translations) are the vehicle the Lord uses to “leak out” His love and grace to a world full of pain and brokenness. The holy grace and love of Jesus is to flow through our earthly walking around so that heaven comes to earth. The treasure of the holiness of God is entrusted to followers of Jesus; as such we have opportunity to be carriers of His redemptive and holy love to those in our sphere of influence. Third, while we have been set apart for the glorious and holy purposes of God, we are called to love the world with a deep and abiding love as His people here on planet Earth. When Jesus looked at the City of Jerusalem, He wept for the condition of their hearts (Luke 19). When asked

which of the Commandments was the greatest, Jesus’ all time summary answer was that we should love God and love our neighbor (Matthew 22). But, when I have the privilege of teaching in American church settings, I will periodically remind my church-going audiences that the general population in current American culture often thinks of religious people as “mean, angry, condemning and judgmental.” Often, I will let those words sit and sting in our collective experience. Personally, I do not believe the vast majority of Christ followers are any of those 4 words, but those words can, sadly, be used to describe the experience that some have had with people of faith in our culture. For that, the church can and must be profoundly repentant, and also recognize that media and the cultural elite are often doing their best to marginalize faith out of the public square. My experience as a pastor and a university president suggests that redemptive, bold, and positive engagement in the public square is necessary for people of faith and in every sphere of our culture. Further, the demonstration of love for our world begins in our neighborhoods, our jobs, our supermarkets, our recreational settings, and any atmosphere where we are present as people of faith. When Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray in Matthew 6:9-13, He petitions the Father that it would be “on earth as it is in heaven.” If you are like me, you have many times read that phrase as a “Hallmark card” type of sentimentality, but without any real time and place application. I’ve spent substantial seasons reflecting in the last decade recognizing that though I revered Scripture, this was one (of many) verses that I really did not expect Jesus to fulfill in my life, let alone my lifetime. I believe that the mandate of heaven is for followers of Jesus to bring heaven to earth. One very clear pathway to that mandate is to bring the holiness and love of Jesus into the lives of broken and wounded people in the atmospheres into which we walk. Later

in the Matthew 6 passage (verse 33), Jesus actually tells us that if we seek His kingdom and His righteousness, “all these things” will be added to us. I believe that an outbreak of radical, kingdom of God love and holiness will be radically transformative for our culture. The people of God, living in a holy and sanctified fashion, will be a witness and loving embrace to a world that has gone off the rails in this present hour and is desperately in need of hope and transformation.

SET APART AND LOVING DEEPLY Followers of Jesus, people of deep and abiding faith, are called to live in the midst of our imperfections and challenges for the glory of God. We have been “set apart” not in a monastic or geographic sense, but in a purposeful and declarative sense. Who you are as a follower of Jesus is a “holy vessel.” You have been set apart by the King of Kings to be His representative here on this planet. Our condition as a “set apart one” has nothing to do with our inherent goodness, and everything to do with His matchless and wonderful grace and kindness. Because we have been so deeply loved, we then have an incalculable opportunity to give Him praise and respond to His love by loving others in His name (1 John 4:19). I am believing for a church that recovers great clarity about the holy nature of God. I believe that knowing that He is holy brings us to a place of reverential awe and worship, a “fear of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 7:1) that comes from a place of deep encounter, and a love for women and men (that God has placed in our lives) that they too might come to know Him. I think this call to be set apart and to love deeply is the clarion call of bringing heaven to earth, bringing that which is holy and redemptive to that which is broken and without hope. This is the call of our hour and the opportunity of our lifetimes. Rise up Church and let us respond to the Holy One who’s name we bear and who’s love and grace we carry. Maranatha!

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BY HEATHER MURDOCK

The early church had no political or social clout, yet they changed the course of human history forever. They raised the Church by living fearlessly for Christ in total dependence on Him, empowered by the Holy Spirit. They prayed and obeyed. They confronted hard issues with truth and love and planted churches with a single-minded focus to multiply the Kingdom of God. They were unpopular, unorthodox and, at times, underestimated. The early Christians didn’t rely on a political party, a president or a policy. They didn’t fight for freedoms granted by man, but instead feasted at the freedom table set for them in the presence of their enemies by Jesus Himself. They lived free, even when bound in chains. They didn’t put their safety before the cause of Christ. They were all in. They had nothing to lose and everything to gain. They truly lived out the words of Jesus, “Whoever tries to keep their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life will preserve it” (Luke 17:33 New International Version). American church culture has shifted over time. We have become very comfortable with our life, our stuff, our traditions. We’ve become anesthetized to our own desperate need for a Savior. Desperation feeds hunger. Hunger is the soil of revival. But desperation doesn’t make a clever marketing brand. A polished product is our goal. Our image is our focus. We’re living such a safe, protected and public life that we scarcely have need for Jesus. But God is shaking things up. We will see what remains can’t be shaken. As our systems shake and what’s known becomes unknown, we will discover our need of God.

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Things aren’t falling apart, they are coming together. God is shaking our idols, our obsessions and addictions, so that we let go and grab a hold of the One that will never be shaken, our One True God. But I see fear in our midst. As created things shake and crumble, we clamor to hold on. Fear drives anger and division as we turn on one another. The devil delights in confusion and chaos. We are not called to run in fear, but to persevere in trial. We are not called to scatter, but to gather together as God’s chosen people, to rise up as influencers of the world with the power of the Gospel. We are receiving a Kingdom which can not and will not be shaken. Anger, hostility, fear and bitterness do not become the Bride of Christ. She is beautiful, brilliant and bold in her gown as she waits for her Bridegroom. He is preparing her for

the crowing moment, the moment of truth when they finally become truly one. Church, we are not silenced, but surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who testify to the absolute faithfulness of God. Instead of shrinking back in condemnation of the world, let us rise up together in faith, convicted by our love for the world. Jesus said He didn’t come to judge the world, but to save the world through His work on the cross. How will the world know His love if not for our love for the world He came to save? Let us love the last and least of these, as Jesus declares they will be first. Those once called the margins are becoming mainstream. It’s a shift. As we align ourselves with Heaven in this transition, let us not let hate spew from our mouths as we encounter opposition, but let us pour out love like a river, like a saving salve over a

wounded soul. Let us fight harder for love than we do for our rights. Jesus laid down His rights. He made Himself low, so we may rise with Him in victory. Jesus demonstrated that divine power, like a flow of water, pools in the lowest place. In humility we will bow down. In power, we will love, serve and lead people to the cross of Christ. We are not silenced, but surrounded. “Therefore, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. For the joy set before Him He endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3 NIV).

"Church, we are not silenced, but surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who testify to the absolute faithfulness of God."

HEATHER MURDOCK is a speaker and writer and the host of MMTV. This is her first article in her brand new column here called "Unleashed." Check out her ad for Rise & Rejoice women's online Bible Study starting July (on page 3).

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SEND ME BY JENENE STAFFORD

'm not going to be a loose cannon, firing up random things, you know. I want to be able to join the ranks [and] be able to say, ‘Here I am Lord! Use me—send me!” Not everyone wants to be sent because many are satisfied with an average, mediocre lifestyle of Christianity, where we show up on Sunday, sing our favorite songs and get a little shot of faith to keep us going until the next time we return. But, when we say “send me” to God it comes from a place of passion that oozes purpose and destiny and longing, a longing to be part of something that we know in the deepest part of our soul is sovereign and true and destined to be. Those who lay themselves aside for the sake of God do it willingly, authentically and typically after a long battle of wrestling with God for destiny, for truth and for real love. In that wrestling to get all of our whys answered by God (like Why did you give me gifts I’ve been forbidden to use?), we discover that God’s love is often outside of the box of our religious context or rules.

LIFE AS A MENNONITE “Joe Joe” Morris was raised “hardcore Mennonite.” He says “I had a call on my life since birth to be a leader, but I always thought I wasn’t worthy.” In his

own words, “very very conservative. Lots of rules. You know, we sewed our own clothes. I was raised on a farm and I drove a tractor around every day and that was my life.” He and his family drew attention with their attire being hand made and he recalls, “People would take pictures of us when we would go to the grocery store.” His perception of God and his faith was wrapped up in a box that was simple, archaic, outdated and extremely religious. He, too, wondered why “normal” people wore the clothes they wore. He was taught to focus on the outward appearance rather than the heart of a person. But, in the deepest part of himself was a thirst for truth, for meaning, and to belong to a community and a tradition where he, as well as his gifts, could live and thrive in the way he felt so lead. The experience as a Mennonite for Joe Joe was “oppressive” because the gifts that he had for music were not only stifled or discouraged, but deemed “from Satan.” And he even had his guitar taken away for playing the “wrong” kind of music. He says he remembers thinking “how can the devil come up with such good music?” This was only one of many questions he had on his personal journey to find freedom from religion. Even though he couldn’t see it at the time, God was building a hunger in him and the de-

sire for an intimate encounter with the Creator that would send him out into the world—free to be uniquely who God designed him to be.

A JOURNEY OF FORGIVENESS Two years ago he left home after an extraordinary encounter with God (that we’ll share about in the next issue of MM). He left the Mennonite community and he was excommunicated from the church. He says, “It was because of God’s calling on my life that I cried out to God. I said, ‘Lord, show me your people,’ and that’s exactly what [He] did.” It was a journey for Joe Joe to unravel and break the strongholds of religion in order to experience true freedom and understand his identity in Christ. Through the help of his sister, he got connected to New Covenant Fellowship, a church in Oklahoma, one that three years earlier he and his family thought was “of the devil.” He says, “they were speaking in tongues” and he thought “This church is too evangelical. This church is weird. This church is off—it’s of the devil. I want no part of it.” God has a sense of humor as He sent Joe Joe back to a church he mocked and likely never imagined being part of. He recalls, “This time I was hungry for the Holy Spirit and God’s like, ‘I want you to go to that church.’ I’m like, ‘Here we

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go.’ So I go there and instantly I find family instead of what I thought I was going to run into—people that were hypocrites, that were using grace to live in sin. Instead, what I found was a group of people, a community that was seeking God’s heart. And that shocked me because I didn’t think I’d find that anywhere else other than the Mennonites.” Joe Joe says, “The Mennonites have something the world needs. They have community. They have that bond together that they’re willing to die side-byside and take a bullet together. He was still looking for that sense of belonging and family. He says, “The world needs Jesus in it. . .but what they don’t need is the control and the religion with it.” That sense of family in this new church is what Joe Joe found, and God used Pastor CJ to take him under his wing to help him uncover the bitterness in his heart. From this bond, a year and a half healing journey began. He says, “God started demolishing those strongholds in my life and showing me His heart for me, and He gave me a completely new identity that came with the process.” Healing didn’t happen in a day, it was over the span of a year. But within a very short period of time he says, “I had no bitterness towards my parents” and feeling abandoned by a few of the churches he had been part of, “God dealt with that pretty quickly as well” as he was

able to release them. His focus became tapping into God’s plan for his life—his identity and calling.

REVELATION There were bigger revelations that came that ultimately would help Joe Joe realize that he was used to working for his salvation and God wanted to free him from that. He says, “Whether I want to admit it or not, the background I came from, you really work for your salvation and that’s really

God began opening Joe Joe’s eyes and unraveling lies that he believed about certain churches. Then he began to investigate for himself exactly what they were teaching. What he discovered was an eye opener, leading him to realize how wrong he had been— judging without personally knowing. New Covenant was a sister church to Bethel in Redding; often his church had speakers come to visit from Bethel. He says, “I used to listen to Bethel Music in secret while I lived with the Mennonites and to Jesus Culture, but I didn’t know what they preached, their doctrine or what the lifeblood of their church was… so I started digging into it.” He says, “I found out that they are literally preaching the same thing I’m hearing every Sunday—empowerment, discipleship and they are world-changing, game-changing Holy Spirit people. He thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” He came to grips with what he thought he knew but really didn’t. Bethel Church taught about real forgiveness and encouraged leadership. “True leadership,” Joe Joe says, “and how leaders work together with a group instead of dominating and standing on top of everyone.” He listened to hundreds of podcasts to hear with his own ears what they really taught. This all happened in 2017 and he ended the year “with a bang.” He

"I FOUND A LOT OF FREEDOM, NOT ONLY IN BREAKING UP A LOT OF RELIGIOUS MINDSETS, BUT ALSO FREEDOM IN BEING ABLE TO GO OUT IN PUBLIC AND HAVE AN IDENTITY ."

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detrimental because it’s based on my performance.” During 2017, his new church family began teaching him that God wants his success as much as he does. He said, “I learned He’s fighting my battles—He’s literally fighting for me to be successful.” He says, “I found a lot of freedom, not only in breaking up a lot of the religious mindsets, but also freedom in being able to go out in public and have an identity.”

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said goodbye to religion and bitterness and found out the the truth of who Jesus was and how his life and his calling mattered to God.

IDENTITY AND CALLING The birth of Joe Joe’s calling to create films and be an entrepreneur came in 2018 after he spent a year being a crane operator, working long hours. Although he is extremely grateful for the training ground of hard work, long hours, accountability and a paycheck, he knew there was more and he was leaning into God to unveil his bigger purpose in life. God showed Joe Joe a huge business move that he would step into and it would be right along with his passions. He mentions, “A lady had explained that in three months there was going to be a business opportunity that would rise and I would walk right into it.” But within a couple of weeks he

says, “I forgot the prophetic word—I forgot the prophecy. Not even three months later, I’m getting all these calls to do film work.” The word he was given was accurate. The phones were ringing off the hook. And in the meantime, his gift and passion for filming became obvious to his employer. He sent him out (God sent him out) and his new journey had begun. This happened in February of 2018 and by March he was doing film work for large corporations. By May he says, “I started my film company, Phantom Films. And the reason I chose that name was because I was asking people ‘What was your experience with me filming for you?’ And they said, ‘I didn't even see you there.’ The name caught on and I started getting more jobs. I got my first commercial gig later that summer in Seattle.” To this day Joe Joe continues to grow in what he knew he was called to. Be-

neath the pain of his former beliefs, a calling of leadership, entrepreneurism and worship is free to flourish, grow and shift in the arms of Jesus. God took Joe Joe through a healing process to view God as someone who loved him, who was approachable and non-religious, who was real and not far away—unreachable. Ultimately, a testimony was birthed in him that could not be denied and a passion to bring heaven to earth and lead a revolution of love was forever embedded. God changes everything, even down to our DNA. Revelation and transformation came from going through the fire on his way to pursuing truth, love and purpose—all prerequisites of being sent by God. No matter where you come from or what you’ve been through, God doesn’t deny the one whose purest desire is to say, “Send Me.”

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live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now live now

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"...I had this giant desire [for freedom], but in the church [I was at] there was no true answer that anyone could give me on how to be free." By Nissi Guiao

Live Now is a culture-shifting movement birthed out of Cameron Erman’s personal testimony. Just a few, short years ago God gripped his heart and graciously awakened him to fullness, fun and true freedom. By simply living (going after his passions/not settling for less than God’s best) and being himself, he’s a real catalyst for change—especially for the next generation to follow. ike the merriest Christmas season, it’s as if God’s been having fun doing a lot of unboxing of His children lately. Eager to see and show off His creation, His gift to the world—us—He delights in tearing up all the things we once knew or thought to be true. He, in His great grace, doesn’t like to leave us where we’re at. And with a hunger for something so real in this generation, we’re getting ripe for His picking. Here in our purest surrender, He finds joy in unwrapping—unravel-

ing us of the stupid lies we’ve learned to believe over the years (especially in the church). His goodness uncovers us from the things that smother us. Then we can finally come alive to discover the fullness of who we are in Him, because of Him. This is the reality of Cameron Erman, (founder, content creator, speaker and worship leader of Live Now). He didn’t know what to believe, as he was stuck in a culture that told him one thing yet loudly spoke the opposite through their actions. He “grew up in kind of, like, almost a stale religion” that, in a sense, turned him off to the whole idea of Christianity. He says, “I [went to an] evangelical, Christian church—[was] involved in that culture. But I quickly saw that most of the people within the church were living and dealing with the same stuff that the people outside of the church were.” With no real answers, Cameron lacked a foundation to keep him solid in his faith. “I did not find freedom,” he states. “And no matter how hard I tried, [each] time I went to church every Sunday, I’d realize and be reminded of how I was falling short, but I was never given the proper answers of how to actually be free. So I just wound up condemned—I would leave feeling [that way] every time. [Although] sometimes, I would leave feeling a little more hopeful, [thinking] ‘I can do it this time,’ you know. But it was just confidence in myself. Confidence in my own effort. Confidence in my own diligence to, like, discipline myself to be free from these bad habits and these things I didn’t want to be a part of anymore. . .it never gave fruit to freedom or anything. As hard as I tried, it just never worked out. And I was—I was gripped by an addiction to pornography and lust over my life. I had horrible anger issues and all this stuff that came out of that too. I even went to some anger management courses growing up and everything. I had all these issues and

I—I was going to church (I felt God’s presence in church before and at different youth camps and things growing up), but I was never able to get over these really pressing, life-threatening issues that I was dealing with where I was addicted and all this different stuff. . .I had this giant desire [for freedom], but in the church [I was at] there was no true answer that anyone could give me on how to be free.”

A TEMPORARY FIX Cameron “had a heart to serve God and [he] had a heart to walk and live a pure life, but [he] was not able to walk it out in [his] own strength. That pushed [him] away from the church [where] around the same time [he] fell into entrepreneurship.” It turned out to be “just a lot of work [that] really got [him] nowhere at the end of the day.” He openly shares, “I learned some stuff along the way about business, whatever, some practical things. But as far as really transforming my soul, it just is—it’s not how we were created to live—apart from the love and apart from Him.” For a while, Cameron got swept up and lost in "doing." He “found network marketing and then started getting into sales and started getting into self-help and personal development. [He] started studying more new age-y things like doing meditation incantations in the morning—all this different stuff.” He invested time in learning more about law of attraction things “where [he could] attract success and be more successful in business” because it was “fed to [him] by people who [were] actually seeing results.” Not yet understanding that only Jesus could lead him to true freedom, Cameron was driven by images of success, though outside of the church and apart from solid truth. “I was pushed further and further away from [the church],” Cameron says. “And then I was doing a lot more meditation. I had literally an hour or

Now 59

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two where I would have all these rituals that I would do in the morning. I’d wake up, I’d do visualization of my dreams and goals. I would journal and stuff. I would go and work out for an hour. I would go and do some mediation. I would track everything that I ate because I was really wanting to hit my fitness goals. I was super diligent, but I found myself very unrestful inside. And I just had a lot of—a lot of pent up issues. . .I would see some progress that would keep me going and keep me [trying] to be more diligent.”

PUMMELLED BY LOVE This exhausting cycle turned out to be the perfect storm before the dawning of a personal encounter that would lead to genuine breakthrough. Long story short, God met Cameron in his bedroom one day where He loved him right back into Himself. He “felt in the moment His love for the first time, in probably 3 or 4 years, as strongly” as he did. Wrecked, bent over his bed just bawling his eyes out, he was just like, “God, I don’t want my life anymore. I don’t want my life anymore.” He talks about how sick and tired he was, trying to figure it out on his own and doing it without Him. He explains, “That was the first time I think in my whole life where God loved on me to the point where I wanted to love Him the way that He loved me. And I wanted to die to myself, give my entire life over to Him because in that moment I realized how much He loved me. I [got to a place where] I was like, ‘I don’t want to hold anything back from this amazing, amazing Father who cares about me so much.’” It didn’t matter that in the past Cameron “had massive distrust towards God.” Pummeled by the wildest love, all of those deceptive thoughts couldn’t remain. “Stuff started shifting for me,” he says. “And then right after I had that encounter (the very next day or two after actually), I made a post on Facebook and I was like, ‘I had this cra-

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zy encounter with God. . .’ and then my friend Annie reached out to me. She messaged me on Facebook and sent me this sermon from this guy Judah Smith, about gaps and like closing the gaps in your life. His sermon was on how we come to church and we have this gap that we’re working on, and we think it’s our job to close these gaps. And he [talked] about how we think that Jesus is there cheering us on, how well we can close our gaps in church. But in reality, Jesus, by His work on the cross, bridged those gaps for us. And that message of grace struck my heart. I said, ‘Wow, I've been struggling and working so hard on myself to try to fix all these things about myself, and this amazing Jesus who loves me so much, wants to fix all this stuff for me.’ He wants to come into my life and be like ‘No, you don't have to do all of the dirty work. I did the dirty work. I'm going to take care of you and fix these things about you that you don't like,’ like my struggling and my addiction and [everything].

JESUS: THE ONLY HOPE I’ve read so many books. I had stacks of books in my room, but nothing compares to a personal relationship with Jesus. That’s what actually changes you from the inside out to where you’re not trying to discipline yourself, but rather He changes your desires. And it says that God works within us to will and to do of His good pleasure. That’s a verse that God’s stamped on my life. One of them is that He’s the one who works inside of me to will (which is to choose and to do), which is to act on what He wants me to do. [Jesus is] the one who’s going to give me the sufficient motivation and He’s going to give me the drive to actually take action on the things that He would want me to do. Things like that started to reshape how I viewed the world. It’s crazy because right after I had the experience and encounter with God is a total answer to prayer.

[On that same] night, I experienced deliverance. You know, I’d felt demons leave my body [and] I was just wailing [in] the presence of God, was brought to a full place of repentance. I didn’t feel very good. . .because even Jesus says that you can deliver a person, but unless you fill that person, that demon will go grab seven of his other friends and then come back [making] that person worse off than the [beginning]. God showed me that’s the Spirit of Truth, and that truth has to come to a person and replace the lie that was once there.” Cameron continues to share that, beyond the encounter (no matter how moving), there’s still a huge need to be filled with truth—to fill that void. He says, “something else good has to be put in that place or else there’s a vacancy there and the demons are going to come back and find the house swept clean and made nice and tidy for [them] to move back in.”

STRONGHOLD OF TRUTH As he learned more and got more familiar with the Word, Cameron became diligent in meditating on the truth that Holy Spirit was showing him. Since that significant moment that broke him from meaningless living, God didn’t relent. He wanted to completely deliver him from all negativity. He shares, “That became a stronghold of truth in my life and a shield of faith around me to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, to where I was all of a sudden safe. And I had the safety in Him, in Jesus, and the truth of who He was, to where I wasn’t vulnerable to the enemy coming and moving back into my life or anything like that.” The protection provided a safe place for Cameron to grow in his faith and surrender. During this time, God exponentially expanded his thinking and drew out the gifts and passions already embedded in his heart since the beginning. And the passion to call peo-

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ple out of their own feelings of insignificance and confusion from wrong doctrine really came to life for him. “I have a movement on my heart for the church,” tells Cameron. “I realized that, wow, what changes us and what allows us to be successful is not us working on ourselves, but rather giving our lives to Jesus and trusting what He did on the cross was enough to finish and complete us.” Cameron originally “thought that to give your life to God meant to forsake everything, sit in a church all the time, volunteer, you know, stacking chairs every week at church and then just kind of giving up on all your dreams and just going on missions trips every month or something like that. But it’s not like that.” He says, “Like, there’s God—God wants us in all these different areas and He gives you a passion for art or for nursing or for whatever so you can be Jesus in those areas. One thing that has always been a pain point in my heart about society is that I see so many people squandering their gifts, not doing what they’re passionate about. Really, just succumbing to fear of finances, whatever. And they’re just throwing their dreams out the window for the sake of a paycheck every week. That’s something that has pained my heart to see—other people give up on their dreams and goals and not really focus on their passions at all. So to see people move beyond that [and begin to] do what they love [so they can] be successful in all facets of their lives—that’s something [I’m] passionate about.”

BE LIKE JESUS Cameron “was raised in such a sheltered, Christian, little—little bubble. It was like this religious grave that [was] dug [for him], and there was no life in it. There wasn’t this power.” One thing that God changed his life with he says “is that I realized that there’s a lot of people out there who are [all talk]…and that’s actually leading peo-

ple away from Jesus because they’re basically saying the cross is of no effect. They’re unintentionally screaming that message to the world when they go to church and they live just like everyone else is. [It screams], ‘I’m a Christian, and that means nothing.’” It’s evident, the purity in Cameron’s heart to see people experience the same freedom he was granted out of God’s love. To this day, he’s moved with compassion and a sense of urgency to spread the real gospel of truth as he states, “I see such a huge difference right now between the body of Christ and Jesus in the fact that Jesus was so attractive to the world and the church is so very unattractive to the world. Jesus ticked off religious people, but sinners loved Him and then would follow Him for days without food and water in the wilderness just because this guy was so caring, so loving, so genuine, so different, so empowered. [Jesus performed] miracles. He was someone where they were like, ‘I’ve got to be around this guy. I don’t care if I have to follow Him for days and just leave everything that I have. I’m going to forsake everything that I have to be around Him.’ And my question is, Where is that today? Where is that in the body of Christ? I see a select few who actually know their identity, who actually know God personally. If I had any advice to [give to] people [it] would be: Spend time with God. Get alone with Him, and meditate on His Word. Fill your mind and heart with truth. Because a lot of the time, the truth is going to lead you into God and [into] relationship with Him. And relationship with Him is going to lead you into [more] truth. It’s this cohesive thing where Jesus says [that] God desires for us first to worship Him in Spirit…and in Truth. We can’t have one without the other. We can’t be like crazy Pentecost and rolling on the floor 24/7.” Cameron explains the importance of maintaining a balance of both the Spirit

and the Truth. He shares, “It’s like two pillars of your walk with God. You need to have the Spirit to where the Truth becomes manifested reality. But you need to have the Truth to where the Spirit is actually, in Truth. A lot of people are out there having spiritual experiences, but they’re not bearing any fruit—so that’s a clear indication [something’s off balance].”

THE MOVEMENT There is hope for the world with a wildfire like Cameron eternally ignited for Kingdom’s sake and for freedom’s sake. Everywhere he goes, he beams the light of Christ because he carries an awareness, a conviction in his heart, that “the Kingdom of God is demonstrated not in idle talk but with power” (1 Corinthians 4:20, New English Translation). Just like God won’t relent, neither will he now that he’s tasted and seen what it’s like to actually live out (now) the life Jesus paid such a high price for. Cameron, along with the movement of Live Now, is equipped and empowered to change the world, one smile, one hug, one act of service—one step of obedience led by Holy Spirit—at a time. He boldly states, “We have a commission from Jesus to go out there and to change the world and to be the body of Christ. And I want, through Live Now, people to realize that we’re not waiting on a move of God. We are a move of God. We’re not waiting for God to move. We’re not waiting for a sovereign move of God on the earth. We are the sovereign move of God on the earth. If people are going to meet Jesus today, it’s going to be because we went out and touched them. It’s going to be because we became love and decided to step out and be confident and bold in other people’s lives because the righteous are as bold as a lion.” Let God wreck you, join the movement, and together let’s live now! WWW.LIVENOWNATIVES.COM

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FINDING MY VOICE

voices FINDING MY VOICE MUSIC + ART + INFLUENCERS OUR JEWISH ROOTS

HOW TO BEAT FEAR AND LIVE OUT OUR PURPOSE

BY ANGELA MANZANARES

wallowed in the crowd that filled the church auditorium a few years ago, God woke my heart for what felt like the very first time. “What would your life look like without any fear?” He challenged me in love. “I have plans for you beyond your wildest dreams, but you’re going to have to trust Me with your whole heart in order for Me to take you there. Think of individuals that’ve made a meaningful impact on history—they were just normal people that weren’t afraid to serve, lead, and speak up when they needed to. I have big plans for you. I’m a God of the impossible, and it’s time for you to start living like it.” At 20 years old, my eyes were finally opened to limitless possibilities. Sure, growing up in church taught me that God could do the impossible, but it wasn’t until this specific encounter that I started to dream like I believed it. Excitement of truth set my heart on fire, and I started burning for so

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much more. So long were the days of chasing “the American dream” of finishing college, simply getting a job I didn’t care about just to pay the bills, settling down, and dying unfulfilled. I wanted my life to have eternal significance. I wanted to do whatever I could to make God the norm in our culture. I felt driven to be a positive role model, to be a voice of truth and encouragement in a world so heavy with darkness and misguidedness. With this passion coming alive in me, I boldly decided “Okay, God. You can have all of me. Do whatever You want with my life.” This sparked the beginning of a new way of living for me. Following this road of fresh thinking, I started to daydream about publishing books, speaking all over the world encouraging others to live fearless lives—ultimately leading souls into a relationship with our Creator. Awakened to my calling, I couldn’t continue living life according to my own, safe plans anymore. It’s always a challenge to

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“ STEPPING OUT FROM WHAT I WAS

not remain confined to the mediocrity of my comfort zones, but it was important for me to lay everything down and accept God’s invitation to experience the literal adventure of a lifetime. Up until that point, I always played it safe, always too afraid to take risks out of fear of failure. Making excuses, I shied away from using my gifts and talents because blending in was much more comfortable. Fully surrendering to God meant confronting all of those fears that held me back from who He had really made me to be. I committed to myself that I would never let fear be the reason I didn’t do something. “If it scares me, I’ll do it,” I told myself. That set me on a journey of laying down my life, which has led me to finding my identity, my purpose, and my voice.

ACCUSTOMED TO, I FOUND MYSELF SHAKING, FEELING SMALL AND COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED."

you’re being selfish by letting fear keep that gift locked up.”

STEPPING OUT

I had no clue what I was getting into or what it would look like, but I took another leap and said “yes” to singing. A few, short weeks later came the perfect set-up. The church I attended at the time had youth leader worship team tryouts. I’ll never forget the drive over—trembling with my stomach in complete knots, trying to mentally prepare myself to sing in front of people for one of the first times in my life. Nervous and afraid, I went with this conviction in my heart, “God, whatever You want to do with my life and my voice, do it. Whether I make the team or not, I’m doing this for You and to show fear that it doesn’t control me.” By the end of auditioning, everybody was shocked that I could sing (including myself, to be honest) and I made the team, which opened up a whole new world of worship-leading and musicianship for me. The stretching revealed deeper insecurities. And there was one day in particular that marked a more defining turning point for me in my battle with fear. In that moment, God revealed to me the root of why so many of us shrink back from our callings. Putting my makeup on in my bathroom getting ready one day, I felt so nervous about leading worship at a church prayer gathering the next night. I had some kind of a bug, my voice was giving out, and although it was my 3rd time on stage that week, leading this time around felt like more pressure than singing the usual background vocals. Stepping out from what I was accustomed to, I found myself shaking, feeling small and completely unqualified. For a split second, the thought crossed my mind, “Is this worth it? Why do I put myself through the nerves and the nausea? God, I can’t go on like this forever. Help me.” Feeling layers of fear, I had a decision to make. Should I say it was a good run and plan to close the worship-leading chapter of my life before it had a chance to take off, or should I continue to fight the fear head-on until every last bit of it was gone? I felt like I needed to be perfect. I thought, “The world has so many other gifted people, and I’m just some random girl that decided to be obedient. What could I have to offer?” I didn’t want to disappoint people. I felt like every worship set I led had to turn into a super powerful, spontaneous set like the Bethel videos I saw on YouTube. But that’s when

LAYING IT ALL DOWN The first thing I needed to surrender to God was my fear of being single. Ever since having my first boyfriend at 14, I always felt the need to be in a relationship. I used relationships with guys as a source of security since I didn’t feel complete without the affirmation of someone wanting me and being committed to me. At that time, I was in a 3-year relationship with plans of getting married once I finished college. I had my future all mapped out. But my whole life, it had always been me, God, and a guy. I grew up singing songs claiming, “All I need is You, Lord,” but I wanted to honestly live that out. It was in no way easy, but I laid down that relationship. For me, it also represented laying down my security, my “planned out” future, and my own desires. In another moment of surrender I said, “God, here you go. I have no strings attached to anything. It’s just you and me now. Do whatever You want with my life.” Ending that relationship and jumping into singleness was one of the hardest but best decisions I’ve ever made. There were painfully lonely times, but God became my comfort. I stumbled through worry and uncertainty, but God became my peace. And instead of experiencing an imperfect version of love through another person, I experienced perfect love from the One true source of it. Not long after this set of breakthroughs, God began to lead me further away from other fears. He told me “I’m so proud of you for all the fears you’re overcoming, but there’s another big one—your fear of singing. I want to use you to bless others in worship, but

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God told me, “Your worship doesn’t need to look like anyone else’s. You don’t need to be the best singer or worship leader out there for Me to love your worship. You’re learning. Give yourself the time and grace to grow. If you’re fighting your way through this fear and can only manage to sing the simplest song imperfectly, that is more than enough for Me. That is beautiful, costly worship.”

felt like driving another nail into fear’s coffin. It’s been about 5 years, and worship-leading has become one of the most unexpected and beautiful journeys of my entire life. I’ve been honored to lead at different churches, conferences, and have been a part of my church’s team at Jesus Culture Sacramento for almost 4 years now. Before I let God in, singing always gave me intense anxiety; it’s been so rewarding to find one of my greatest passions on the other side of that fear. But it hasn’t come without a fight. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that Satan tries his hardest to keep us too afraid and insecure to live out God’s plans for us in the world. God showed me that I have a voice. And now that I’m secure in the truth, I want to use what He gave me to stand on the other side of a victory and be a resounding reminder that you were made to be brave too. You were made to be free. It’s time to leave behind the pressures of perfectionism, people-pleasing, and striving. There is no fear that has any right to control you. It’s time to let God breathe on the little spark in your heart until it’s a raging, unstoppable fire that won’t let you die alone in comfort. Just like He showed me, your voice is a weapon, and it’s time to use it. Even if you’re trembling, have no clue what you’re doing, and feel completely unqualified, I encourage you to just start somewhere. One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned is that He can only help you “walk on water” when you finally decide to take the first step. What would your life look like if fear didn’t stop you?

“GOD, HERE YOU GO. I HAVE NO STRINGS ATTACHED TO

THE FIGHT TO FREEDOM

ANYTHING. IT'S JUST YOU AND ME NOW. DO WHATEVER YOU

God’s words hit home like usual, and I started singing the lyrics to “You Make Me Brave” by Amanda Cook until I was shouting them, and until I believed. He helped me get to the roots of my fear so it could no longer control me. I began to realize I buried myself with all these different pressures that so many of us experience once we step out where He leads. Singing in surrender sparked truth within me and I thought, “Why on earth would I let fear rob me of what I was made to do? God, You spoke to me. You called me to this, so help me face and overcome this fear once and for all.” For the sake of obedience, of the refusal to let fear win, and of my hope to someday encourage other people battling fear, I waged war (against fear) with worship in my bathroom. Within moments, all of this pressure, comparison, and anxiety started to vanish. Immediately I felt a rush of freedom—the freedom to learn, the freedom to not be perfect, and the freedom to just be myself. The next night ended up being one of my top favorite times ever leading worship. Without all the nerves in the way, I was able to actually sing out what was inside of me. I remember looking around, seeing a room full of people singing, shouting, cheering, dancing, and excited about what God was doing in our lives and in our city. I experienced a new level of freedom I hadn’t felt before. I felt so alive in that moment, and every word I sang

WANT WITH MY LIFE."

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ANGELA IS A CERTIFIED LIFE COACH, A WORSHIP LEADER AT JESUS CULTURE SACRAMENTO AND AN INTERN OF MM. WWW.LIFECOACHINGWITHANGELA.COM

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SACRAMENTO SONGWRITER CIRCLE UPDATE BY HEATHER EVANS

’m Heather Evans, the Founder and Host of The Sacramento Songwriter Circle, an in the round style music showcase and music community, springing up in the heart of Sacramento. It’s been a year and 4 months since I started this showcase and I am overwhelmed with gratitude and amazement to see how this community has grown organically through positivity, encouragement and support of local music. It’s something that I’ve never seen in any music community that I’ve been a part of and it’s inspiring. We just expanded our Music Showcase to 2 locations. One in Roseville at Fig Tree Coffee on the 2nd Wednesdays of each month, hosted by Ben Taylor. And the second at SHINE in Sacramento on the 4th Wednesdays of each Month, hosted by myself and Marco Robledo. I received several words from people that we needed to be in downtown Sacramento, and I felt the pull myself. I thought of SHINE immediately, but knew it was a tough venue to get into. When I messaged SHINE on Facebook, they asked me many questions about what we do and to my surprise, they were interested immediately. WOW! Our very 1st showcase at SHINE was on Wednesday, April 24th at 7pm. We are excited because we know we are supposed to be there. Even the name SHINE has significance for me. I got a picture of the Songwriters in our group being like lights all over the city. That wherever they sing, they are being bringers of light and hope to parts of Sacramento. I am really

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expectant to see what God is going to do there through us. Another new thing we just tried out was a Song Share Night. We often do Meet Ups that are more workshop-like, but Song Share Nights are all about Community and sharing music. If you’ve ever seen the indie move Once, it’s basically like the scene of all the musicians eating and sharing songs around the table. It was moving, powerful and we were able to encourage each songwriter that shared. Tears, laughter, good food and community. It was a beautiful display of what I want for this community. They also gifted me with the most amazing mosaic photo of all of the individual photos placed together to make a photo of me that said “Anything’s Possible.” I was in awe and in shock that they would make something like that for me. I felt seen and loved and grateful to have found such an incredible group of people to call friends. The most encouraging part of this whole process is finding people to help me actually run the Sacramento Songwriter Circle. Marco Robledo and David Andrew have been such great support and help for me as we move into bigger things. Marco helps with everything, and is my right hand man. We literally talk almost daily about

how we can do better and encourage each other. David Andrew helps with The Songwriter Circle Podcast and helps me and Marco stay organized and focused. Stephanie Perez of Sparrows Storytelling is our Official Photographer for all of our events and does an incredible job. James Carnahan helps coordinate our sound team to help deliver amazing sound at our events. I’m learning that you can’t do everything on your own strengths and to rely on your teammates to go to the next level. It’s been truly humbling for me to work with such amazing people. The Sacramento Songwriter Team was just Nominated for a SAMMIES Award as well. We feel so honored to be nominated by our community. I can’t wait to see what is next for the Sacramento Songwriter Circle. I envision us leveling up in every area, and it’s exciting. We hope so see you at a Showcase in Roseville or Sacramento soon!

Stay connected: Instagram: @sacsongwritercircle and Facebook: www.facebook.com/sacramentosongwritercircle and on our website www. thesongwritercircle.com Listen & Subscribe to our Podcast The Songwriter Circle on iTUNES and Soundcloud.

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ISSUE 6 + EMPOWERED

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A COMPANY OF SOUND-MAKERS BY MALVINA LAUDICINA

MUSIC

s we enter the Hebrew year 5779, we need to

understand the new revelation at hand, and how that revelation can be utilized to accelerate our transition into this new season. What is God doing and how is it different from seasons past? The

year 5779 will be a year of preparation and birthing for the upcoming shift in 2020/5780. As I sought the Lord concerning 5779, I had an encounter where I was transported back to the time of creation, seated inside the mouth of God, feeling the vibrations from the sound of His voice. My body was being reorganized and restructured to become one with His sound, flowing with the waves of His voice. I was reminded of Zephaniah 3:17 and could feel the Lord

ANYTHING'S POSSIBLE

TOPOGRAPHY

HEATHER EVANS

BRETT LEE MILLER

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JOURNEY WITHIN MY SOUL

LIFELONG LULLABY

singing over me. However, His frequencies included more than just sound. Inexpressible shapes, colors, images, movements were also present in unearthly forms. After this, He stressed in my spirit that the year 5779 will be a year of equipping and training our ears to learn what His voice really sounds like. I felt the Lord saying, â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is a need to raise up a company of sound-makers that are familiar with the sound of My voice and the culture and frequencies of heaven. They will establish a foundation for a new government of heaven on Earth.â&#x20AC;? The Lord revealed to me that this company has been equipped to minister unto the Lord and that they know full well that they have been called to do this. In addition, we are going to see a shift from operating in

JUSTIN GAMBINO

WILL DERRYBERRY 2018

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the prophetic to hearing God Himself speak in a language we have not heard or operated in before. The Lord showed me that when we enter into 5780 (2020) we will shift anointings and we must be trained to hear differently. It has been an amazing season of vision and discernment, of the prophetic and the apostolic, but in the coming seasons, the voice of God Himself will utter frequencies that need to be received, expressed, and manifested here on Earth just as they were in creation. In the year 5780, the shift will start, and we have but one year left to train our minds and our spirits for prosperity. Heaven will release a divine resonance over the earth and we need to learn to recognize it. And the new company of sound-makers that God will commission will help us hear and translate exactly

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PEOPLE

ELEVATION WORSHIP

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what He is saying. I pray that those who read this article will seek the Lord to see if they are to be a part of this company. May this be a call to those who know they have been chosen to release the sound. www.malvinalaudicina.com

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LAVISHED WITH LOVE +BY LESA JOHNSON

SOMETIMES WE'RE LOOKING FOR THE LOVE STORY AND TRAGEDY IS WHAT SHOWS UP. BUT GOD CAN TAKE A TRAGEDY AND STILL SHOW UP TO LAVISH US WITH LOVE. . . AND THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE DID FOR LESA JOHNSON.

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have to confess that I grew up reading Harlequin romances. Just so you know, I’m not proud of this. My girlfriends and I would share stacks of them back and forth, through high school and well into college. Over and over, I read the recycled plots of heartbroken women meeting dashing and mysterious men, each being swept off their feet and always loved into eternal wedded bliss. These books were all exactly 187 page-long, “love-guides to life.” They were my mental partners to the more mundane real-life realities of my truth, because I definitely kissed a few frogs and wore a broken heart in those early awkward days of seeking true love.

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tion and forgiveness. For me, I needed to be whole. God answered my cries. I received a covering of love and peace that night. The clarity of the holy cleansing was so intense, sitting on that broken log in the woods huddled down with my spiritual sisters. I celebrated a new beginning. There was no doubt in my mind that God would never leave me or reject me. As I later rode down the mountain towards home, I felt so greatly covered with God’s love. I knew my life would be forever

"CAN I JUST SAY THAT LOVING 24/7 WASN'T A PERFECT TRANSITION? LOVE IS HARD. I ALWAYS PRAYED FOR A GODLY HUSBAND, A MAN I COULD TRUST, HONOR AND RESPECT. TRUTH IS, I JOKED WITH MY GIRLFRIENDS THAT I WOULD 'SUBMIT' TO MY HUSBAND WHEN I FOUND ONE STRONG ENOUGH TO LEAD ME."

Honestly, my heart just ached to be the center of another’s being. Oh, how I wanted to be desired. How I prayed to be unconditionally loved. In the middle of all this, one moonlit summer camp night, I sat on a campfire bench and cried out for forgiveness and life-meaning. It was late high school, when things were vividly raw. I just remember I had been struggling spiritually. Looking back, I needed to know I belonged to God first. Even though I had prayed for Christ to be my Savior as a child, circumstances and events happened to cause great doubt and fear in my love relationship with Him. I remember that end of camp session, as I was such a mess. Sobbing, clinging and crying out my desire for holy comple-

changed. Corny as it sounds, we sang the song “Behold What Manner of Love” as a round in the car the whole way home. We were high on Jesus. It was no coincidence then that our verse of the week was this: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are” (1 John 1:3)! After camp, I had the “Jesus thing” down, and it was good. I have to admit, the map of earthly love wasn’t quite as straight a route as my redemption plan at summer camp. After a few painful relationships, I truthfully gave in to the fact that the Harlequin Romance “man of my dreams” had actually been in my life since junior high, I just didn’t realize

it. The best friend I walked with at high school graduation honestly turned into “the one.” It took a few years, but finally I recognized the jewel God placed at my feet. I was so ready to run down the aisle in a white dress with Deputy Dean. I remember laughing and saying that I didn’t even want or need an engagement ring; I just wanted a plain, gold band. God answered my prayers, and I wanted to be married and have that “happily-ever-after.” Those wedding vows were so sacred to us both—we trembled at the importance of the most holy union this side of heaven. I remember them so clearly— “I Lesa, take you Dean, to have and to hold, For better or for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” We kissed, we had the biggest party, and we lived happily after. Well, that’s not entirely true. Books are made from life, and life often resembles books. My personal “romantic novel” was sometimes a tragedy, sometimes a comedy, and most often a mystery. I got my characters all mixed up, and I tried to write an ending that just wasn’t so perfect. There were times I felt my holy matrimony was instead a wholly mess. Can I just say that loving 24/7 wasn’t a perfect transition? Love is hard. I always prayed for a Godly husband, a man I could trust, honor and respect. Truth is, I joked with my girlfriends that I would “submit” to my husband when I found one strong enough to lead me. I was a stubborn wife. He was obsessed with hobbies. I spent too much money. He was a planner. I was fearful, he was fearless. My tough guy was all that and more, and for twenty-five years I shared a home, adventures, careers, babies to teen boys (and richer or poorer every few years) with that handsome door-kicking avenger of evil. I confess

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to idolizing my husband at times, and my life thesis. It was not all about reproach of your widowhood you will I admit that I thought about him way my earthly relationships. While the remember no more, for your Maker is more than I ever thought about God. phrase “you complete me” may sound your husband, the Lord of hosts is his Then, one morning, that ended. great in a movie, the real truth is, it’s name; and the Holy One of Israel is Like a puff of air on a tiny leaf, My a temporary thing. The second thing your Redeemer, the God of the whole husband came home after working I was told, and the advice I found earth he is called.” (Isaiah 54:4-5) an extra-long shift and went to bed. most helpful, was to “just do the next God’s Word is a vow of his everlastThen, he got up ing love for me. and unexpectHis Word is a love edly collapsed letter of epic proon our bedroom portions and His "LIKE A PUFF OF AIR ON A TINY LEAF, MY HUSBAND floor. The love love doesn’t stop at of my life simply earthly death. In CAME HOME AFTER WORKING AN EXTRA-LONG died, right there fact, that’s when it between the sink simply gets kicked SHIFT AND WENT TO BED. THEN, HE GOT UP AND and the closet. up a notch. We Everything in grieve and we miss UNEXPECTEDLY COLLAPSED ON OUR BEDROOM FLOOR. my personal love because we loved. story was torn to We don’t need a THE LOVE OF MY LIFE SIMPLY DIED, RIGHT THERE pieces. (Yes, you Harlequin life, or a read that right. Hallmark life, we BETWEEN THE SINK AND THE CLOSET. EVERYTHING IN My husband need a Holy life. died.) Later, Grief is the price MY PERSONAL LOVE STORY WAS TORN TO PIECES." we learned he of love. Even in passed from a grief, God commassive pulmopletes me and I am nary embolism content in living in a matter of minutes while I was thing.” Widowhood was and is a faith a good life serving Him the rest of driving our son to high school. He was walk, keeping my eyes on my Father’s my days. My joy cohabitates with my forever 48 years young. Our children eyes. We don’t understand all things grief. With faith, family and friends, I were fatherless. I was a widow. That Holy. We don’t know the way. It’s a have a good life. My vow is truthfully morning, in shock, I posted on my trust thing for sure. to serve Him, for my Heavenly Father social media one simple sentence, The following summer, I attended is unleashing love on me, every day. I “God help us.” my first wedding post-loss and again can’t begin to understand his capacity You know what? God really did. In was blown away at my deep, sudden of love for me, but I trust it. It took a the darkest days, He helped us. He emotion. My eyes were just leaking long time to really get this love story. carried me. We were cared for in the tears as I said to myself “It’s not supI know how the story ends. We are all most incredible ways. My family expe- posed to be this way.” I was grieving reunited again. What a crazy, good rienced love and compassion from so and I was jealous. Later that night, love story, where in Christ we can all many places that we were repeatedly curled solo in a guest bed, I read a live...happily ever after. M blown away. I was not unfamiliar blog on a Christian Widow’s support with widows—my best friend was page, one that touched my heart sadly already a widow, my mothervery much. My heart had a moment, in-law, aunts, grandmother, even my like that night years before, back LESA JOHNSON is a mom of two cool, adult sons and a own mom was widowed when I was at summer camp. “My Maker is my fabulous daughter-in-law. She just an infant. I had the same converhusband.” I read it again. And again. spends her days helping people sation with each of them, “How did What in the world did that mean? And plan to have enough retirement resources, and spends her you survive this?” I heard repeatedly then I read it out loud, just like this: free time digging in the dirt, two things. First, remember the Love “Fear not, for you will not be playing the piano and baking of Christ. That covers it all, no matter ashamed; be not confounded, for you for friends. what happens. Heaven as home base will not be disgraced; for you will formade me edit my story and revise get the shame of your youth, and the

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+ BY PAYTON CARTY

ometimes understanding doesn't lead to change. Have you ever gone to someone to feel understood? Have you found yourself unhappy with how a certain situation is going and then turned to someone for a set of listening ears? Most of us, I would say, go into conversations without an awareness of what we are really seeking from the one who is understanding. There is a hidden expectation that they (mom, dad, pastor, wife, child, friend, boss, etc.) will do much more than understand. This plays out when we have put our trust in someone. When we give away our trust, (which is a healthy part of any relationship), we open ourselves to the hidden field of expectations we carry. Relationships bring out what’s inside of us. (No wonder they can be messy.) We can’t avoid this messiness because growth is contingent upon our relationships with others and with God Himself.

ISSUE 7 + HOLY

Repeatedly, we go to others for what we first must receive from God Himself. Have you considered that God is the only one that fully and completely is designed to understand you? Doesn’t the creator understand what He has created? His level of understanding is beyond what we could think or imagine. Inside all of us, the desire to be understood lies like a gentle lamb in our heart and other times like a roaring lion. If we’re honest, it’s hard to actually receive the truth that Jesus is the only one who can truly understand us and what we are going through. There is a massive level of peace you can receive when you let this reality sink in. This peace is sabotaged by our hearts filled with hidden, unspoken expectations. Most of us run to another to understand our circumstances, and along with the desire to be understood comes the the hidden field of expectations rushing to the surface. This is because we find ourselves in need. When we are in need we are

vulnerable. And when we are vulnerable, our true hearts appear. After going to someone for understanding, immediately in our subconscious, we begin to believe they will be the ones who fix, solve, or change what we are bringing to them to understand. The issue is our lack of verbal communication with the one who best understands us. Our expectation rises up, without our full awareness. And we start to live in a place where we think they should know this. Our thoughts look like, “If they are being understanding, then they should help me change this—or better yet change it for me!” And yes, other people do this for us at times. They help us along our journeys, they clean up our messes, or pioneer change in our circumstances. But what do we do when we have continuously gone to someone for understanding but see no change? Are we aware that we have stopped going to the one who truly understands us? Consider the following scenarios:

2019

You go to your mom and ask her to confront your father's alcoholism. She understands your concern, but never confronts him. Your work environment is unhealthy. You work way over your hours and people do not respect your boundaries. You go to your boss for understanding and desire change. He says he understands, yet nothing changes. Your girlfriend spends alone time with other men frequently. You've expressed your concern and she understands, but later that day she meets up with another guy. The reality is, sometimes, simply understanding does not lead to change. We free ourselves of a great deal of disappointment and frustration if we let the expectation go that people must change for us what they are being understanding for. Letting go of this is crucial if we are to lay down a life making other people our “god.” Those who genuinely understand

still have limited understanding. They themselves cannot know in full what we need or would like them to help us with. We must let go of the cycle of expectations of others to change our current reality. The real reality is found in the one who truly understands us. When we let this sink in, transformation happens. Here’s a checklist to help you assess if you are living in an expectation cycle: • I have not clearly communicated what I would like help in.

These are markers to remind you to go back to the one who understands, God himself. The moment we let go of this cycle, we free ourselves to find solutions, think openly for ourselves, and begin to engage reality. We engage into a real, kingdom reality when we act this out in love. We can demonstrate love by going directly to the source of love, God Himself, to be understood. And then we can be loving to our friends, family, co-workers, kids, etc. by being clear in what we ask of them. This is one way we can love God and love others.

• I have not asked. • I am constantly complaining to others about my circumstances and finding blame in them. • I have seen no change in something at all. • I have neglected to turn to God.

Payton lives in San Luis Obispo and works for Beautiful Feet Books.

When you find yourself checking off some of these, praise the Lord!

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