THE
Spring-Summer 2015
ecstatic
MAGAZINE
There is no Hierarchy in the Trinity The Laughter of God Mission to India Cana Returns Online Seminary Mystic Meditations
Late 2016 Issue TheNewMystics.com
THE ROCK OF OFFENSE the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016 | 1
News
New Book now Available in all Formats John Crowder’s brand new book Money. Sex. Beer. God. has now been officially released. Scandalous stuff your pastor is afraid to talk about! John shows how the ancient heresy of gnosticism has religiously hijacked our worldview about the God-given material world, specifically honing in on the controversial topics of cash, booze and nookie! Not only can the book be purchased in hardback, but John has recorded a full-length audio version of the book, in addition to offering it on Kindle, Apple iBook, Nook and Kobo. Get a copy today in any format at www.moneysexbeergod.com
New iPhone/Android App is Now Here We are excited to announce that we have updated our older, outdated iPhone app … and we have also launched a brand new Android version! The app is now available as a free download. Get all our Jesus Trip video archives in one spot, along with our digital magazine, event calendar and more. Simply look for “New Mystics” at the iPhone app store to get the Apple version, or search for us on Google Play to get the Android version.
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India Mission Trip Open to Applicants
You can join a life-changing adventure to the nation of India this Spring as John Crowder leads a team to our first visit back to the country in four years. Visit the poorest of the poor as we reach the margins of society in the garbage dumps; and experience the raw, miracle working power of the gospel as we reach thousands in a massive power evangelism campaign. You will also participate in a huge pastor’s conference, visit orphans at one of our children’s homes and flow in the supernatural like never before. Space is limited. Application and deposit are due by December 15, 2016. See story on page 13 and visit www.thenewmystics.com/india
Religious Detox Cruise Setting Sail
After several years off, John Crowder is launching another Religious Detox Cruise in February 2017. This seven-day conference at sea also features Dr. C. Baxter Kruger, Dr. Steve McVey and worship leader Tim Wright. Departing from Miami, Fla. the party boat sets sail for Dominican Republic; Grand Turk; St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; and San Juan, Puerto Rico. At the time of this printing, we are already 70 percent full capacity, so space is limited. To register or find out more information, email our coordinators at detoxcruise@gmail.com
News
Cana New Wine Seminary Online
Gospel Funhouse Vacation Bible School
John Crowder and worship leader Tim Wright are blasting across the USA for another tour in Spring 2017. The Gospel Funhouse is a drunken Vacation Bible School for adults and children of all ages. Coming to four cities, the two will visit: Omaha, Nebraska Feb. 25-26 Atlanta, Georgia Feb. 27-28 New York City, NY March 1-2 Cleveland, Ohio March 3-4 Space is limited. Early bird registration now available online at: www.thenewmystics.com/fun
Our first year of Cana New Wine Seminary online is now complete, and graduates will be launching into their second year of study in November. If you have ever dreamed of studying theology, but lack the stamina to filter through all the lifeless, religious dogma — consider becoming an online student this fall and study at your own pace. Register by Oct. 14 for the early bird discount and participate in the world’s first drunken seminary. Our vision is to release the word of Grace in an atmosphere of joy unspeakable! Teachers include John & Lily Crowder, Dr. C. Baxter Kruger, Matt Spinks, Francois Du Toit, Dr. Eric Wilding, Rod Williams, Tony Seigh and more. The full course runs two years, with one session per week for an easy pace. Both first and second year courses begin Nov. 2. For more info, see story on page 14 and visit: www.cana.co
Asia Leper, Garbage Dump Mission
Revelation: The Apocalypse in Patmos
John Crowder has released a contemplative reading of the Book of Revelation with an introductory commentary recorded live from the Island of Patmos. Pulling from more than 20 translations of scripture, John explores the Apocalypse from a grace lens of the finished work of the cross, offering some dynamic new perspectives of this mystical book, while dismantling the one-dimensional doom and gloom eschatology offered by modern interpreters. Download the audio recording from our online digital store at www.johncrowder.net
Our Sons of Thunder team is headed to Indonesia and Philippines in November for a mission to the poorest of the poor as we feed the hungry, pray for the sick and visit the lepers and garbage dumps at the ends of the earth. Thanks for your support and partnership as we spread the gospel at a massive miracle festival, reaching Muslims and equipping the church in the gospel of grace. Although the trip is now full and closed to new applicants, it is still possible to apply and join us on our next following trip to India in March 2017. If you would like to make a donation to our mission, you can visit www.paypal.me/johncrowder
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From the Publisher ... This latest issue of The Ecstatic continues our plunge into the glorious scandal of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The theme of this installment is a three-cord strand covering the person of Jesus Christ, the heart of the Trinity and the joy of the gospel. Our most extensive offerings include a full-length feature piece on the Rock of Offense, together with an inspiring selection entitled The Laughter of God by the late Christian author and lecturer Walter Lanyon. In addition, we dive into some contemporary theological debates on the role of Christ in There is No Hierarchy in the Trinity aimed at cheering up your theology and returning to a vision of a Christlike God. Furthermore, our Meditations of the Mystics section has deeper contemplative, devotional thoughts on the Trinity from Thomas Merton. In this issue Besides our full length articles, readers will get the first look at a fresh batch of events, mission trips and resources coming your way. We are excited to announce our next, long-awaited trip to India, where you can apply now to join our team for massive evangelism festivals, garbage dump outreaches and a huge pastor’s conference next April. While we still have a few select Mystical Schools coming around the world, you will notice that in the coming year, we are switching up some of our event themes. We will be traveling with musician Tim Wright for two full-length tours of the USA, as well as a Cosmic Canadian Tour rolling out in spring 2017. Additionally, readers will notice we have several Supernatural Grace events coming to select areas, a special weekend event of story telling and intimate sharing in Virginia titled John Crowder Naked, and a women’s conference with Lily Crowder, Beni Johnson and Melissa Wood. You will also find fresh resource materials including the brand new book release of Money. Sex. Beer. God. together with new mobile device apps and an all new improved model of our Joypod mp3 player launching in September. Stay Subscribed to The Ecstatic Some select US addresses receive a print copy of the magazine, but we now host a digital version online for readers around the globe. Be sure you visit our homepage at www.TheNewMystics. Com/Ecstatic and enter your email address to join our free newslist – this will ensure you receive each issue to your inbox twice a year, together with our regular free Jesus Trip teaching videos. We value your support to keep the magazine and ministry running. Your generous contributions make the publication available to all and enable us to spread Good News to the ends of the globe What we’re all about We at Sons of Thunder produce The Ecstatic as a way to bring a cohesive voice to the growing interest in authentic, mystical Christianity – but a mysticism rooted in the grace message of Christ’s cross – not in human attempt at spiritual disciplines or mental ascent. In a practical sense, The Ecstatic serves as an information gateway to the ministry of John & Lily Crowder. But moreover, it is a first fruit in publishing toward bridging several important themes that are converging at the moment: finished work theology, the miraculous, divine satisfaction and daily human existence in the divine life. All of these concepts are intrinsically woven together. A new, reformed Christ-centered mysticism is on the rise. It is bridging many streams. Relevant is its cultural approach. Radical is its charismatic fervor. Reformative is its theology of grace. These are guiding values of this publication and our own lives. It is a theological journal whose frequency is joy unspeakable.
Fully Satisfied … John Crowder Founder, Sons of Thunder Publications the ecstatic is published bi-annually Copyright © 2016 Sons of Thunder Ministries & Publications, All rights reserved. Email: info@thenewmystics.org Phone: 1-877-343-3245 Address: P.O. Box 40, Marylhurst, OR 97036
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Contents 2 News: The Latest from Sons of Thunder 5 The Rock of Offense 10 The Laughter of God 12 Find the Party: Sons of Thunder Itinerary 13 Upcoming Mission Trip to India 14 Cana Seminary Online 16 There is No Hierarchy in the Trinity 19 Meditations of the Mystics
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The Rock of Offense by John Crowder Believe it or not, there is one single trait in common to every preacher that ever was or ever will be. What do Augustine, John Piper, Jim Bakker, John Crowder and Martin Luther all have in common? Each one will eventually look back at some of the stuff they once preached and realize they were wrong. There is a quote often (wrongly) attributed to Thomas Merton, which has a ring of truth to it: If the you of five years ago doesn’t consider the you of today a heretic, you are not growing spiritually. Your mind is always changing as you go along. To be honest, this was one point at which I figured Jesus could not fully empathize with us entirely. Because none of His words ever fell to the ground, how would He understand the chagrin of ever having to eat any of them? Everything He said was the word of God because He is the Word of God. He was always right from start to finish.
clusion (in His human mind) that His crucifixion was the core purpose of His calling is unknown. I doubt He had it all figured out in kindergarten. But the subject matter of His preaching eventually centered in almost exclusively to this very thing as the time drew near. Capon even suggests that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus may have resulted from his personal understanding of Jesus’ words about His own death. Perhaps Judas realized the Lord’s calling more than most by the end. But in a twisted, misguided attempt to “help him out” by moving the whole process along, Judas may have cashed in and “moralistically” handed Jesus over to the authorities. A speculative, but interesting idea. Puts a misguided twist to Judas’ motives.
Exactly when Jesus actually honed in to the final con-
And that is scandalous. The Scandalon The deeper we run with this rabbit trail, the more scandalous it gets. The gospel invalidates all our religious attempts at self-improvement, trying to draw God closer, or to set ourselves right with Him. Paul calls the Gospel a “scandalon” … the scandal of grace. As much as we may want to make the Gospel palatable, seeker sensitive and non-offensive, it is simply impossible to avoid this looming mountain called the Rock of Offense. Christ Himself is that Rock of Offense (1 Pet. 2:8, Rom. 9:33). You are packing the most counter-cultural, scandalous message and Person on the planet. The more we depart from a mere message of ethics and human do-gooding, and the more we hone in and center on Jesus alone (and what He alone has accomplished), the more we ourselves will be scandalized. We must expect some blowback.
But even in this I was incorrect. In a very real sense, Jesus can empathize with us in this area … not because He was ever wrong; but if you trace out the message Jesus proclaimed, there still seems to be a development and a process of growing in revelation even in His own ministry and preaching. Jesus still grew in wisdom and understanding, and there seems to be a fresh unfolding in His own teaching as His ministry progressed. Maybe Jesus never had to eat His words, but He was still growing in maturity like us. The Maturation of Christ In Robert Capon’s book “The Gospel According to Marvin,” he creatively addresses Jesus’ own personal growth as the subject matter of the Lord’s teaching transitioned from the ethical message of the Sermon on the Mount and general kingdom concepts, becoming more and more honed in on the whole crapshoot of the human condition and the need for a complete death and resurrection. It is as if Jesus was ever realizing more and more that the whole thing boiled down to His own death and resurrection. As if He was inch by inch realizing it was all summed up in His calling to go to the cross. As the God-man, the paradox of Jesus is that He was both omnipotent and impotent, omniscient yet limited in knowledge.
fullness. But Jesus is the Kingdom. It is here at hand. The job is complete. Now we are waking up to something called union, and that God has fully wrapped everything up. This is good news.
The Lord promises some amazing things in the atonement. There is reconciliation, forgiveness of sin, healing, deliverance, and prosperity. But He also promises something else … if you hang out with Him, people will want to kill you! Jesus was no stranger to offense. Herod was vexed at his very birth and wanted to snuff Him out. Imagine being born into a very scenario in which your very existence is a scandal. For a moment, let’s consider the scandal of offense that followed Him throughout His earthly ministry: Nevertheless, in my own ministry, one of greatest changes toward maturity was moving away from a concept that we are called to somehow “bring the kingdom” or usher it in. How arrogant to think we can somehow make the kingdom happen. The shift has come in realizing the kingdom is already here thanks to Jesus. Yes of course there is a future unveiling, and obviously we have not seen its manifestation in all its
– In Nazareth people wanted to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30). – Jesus healed someone on the Sabbath and people wanted to kill Him (Matt. 12:14). – Jesus healed a lame man and they wanted to kill Him (John 5:16-18). – The people wanted to kill him because He claimed to be the Christ (John 7:19-44).
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< Continued from page 5 – He claimed equality with God, so they wanted to kill Him (John 8:37-59). – He was making Himself to be God, so they wanted to kill Him (John 10:31- 39). – Many were believing in Him, so people wanted to kill Him (John 11:45-57). It is an understatement to say that Jesus Himself is the great Stumbling Stone. One that the builders rejected. He stands as an affront to any system built by human hands. He stands in very opposition to any tower of Babel of our own religious constructs to reach heaven on our own. He is pure sacrilege to those systems of ascent we hold sacred. He invalidates every self-help ministry aimed at climbing the holy hill to God. The Free Radical Look at the audacity of the guy. Imagine you are in the crowd, and here is this fellow Jesus that everyone is talking about and gathered around to hear. You see the religious elite standing there in the front row – the most important, respected cats in the whole community – the Pharisees. Jesus turns to them and says, “The whores are going to enter the kingdom of heaven before you do!” (Matt. 21:31) You cannot believe what you are hearing. Dude that’s hilarious! But how offensive! He goes on to invalidate every one of these professionally religious guys by saying “none of you know God.” Only Jesus knows the Father - and none of you can know God except through Him! (Matt. 11:27) Or consider when Jesus is addressing a massive crowd of kosher Jews. He does not tell them to eat a pig (something sacrilegiously tantamount to homosexuality in that culture). No he says something far worse. He says, “Eat Me.” And He just leaves it hanging there with no explanation. No homily on the Lord’s Supper. No Eucharistic sermon. For all they know, He is endorsing cannibalism! And Jesus said it knowing full well that half of them would walk away that day! You cannot accuse Jesus of pandering to the crowds. “Jesus, maybe you should bring a PR man onboard to help you grow your ministry. You’re doing it all wrong!” This love-hate relationship the people had with Jesus would ultimately culminate in all the crowds, who once followed Him for a free meal, eventually rejecting him, shouting to Pilate, “Crucify Him!” with even His own closest friends denying him, tucking tail and running for the hills. But it was Jesus Himself, the person, who ruffled feathers – far more than even what He did or even said. If you look at it plainly, even Jesus’ “saving act” was really less of an “action” than it was a passive submission to
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death. He just kicked over and died so the Father could begins to manifest in one’s life in such a way that you raise Him. Jesus Himself, more than His saving action, essentially are forced to start working off the grid. is the real Offense. Paul would roll into town, hoping to work within the The Fatted Calf framework of the local synagogue structure. He was I love how Capon describes the parable of the prodigal not setting out to upset the apple cart in such a way as son. Not only does he describe the simplicity of Christ’s to “start a new religion.” He was not transitioning folks work in being nothing less than to fall over and die to ev- from Judaism to Christianity. He was just proclaiming erything we hold sacred in this world … He also shows that the Word of the fathers had finally arrived – here how the scandal of the gospel is summarized in God’s was Christ, the culmination of all they had been looking desire to throw a party. Check out what Capon says for! More often than not the Jews would run him out of about this parable: town on a rail. He was lucky if he did not get stoned or beaten half to death. Then he would move out of The fatted calf is actually the Christ-figure in the safety of the so-called “local believing community” this parable. Consider. What does a fatted of Jews and began carrying the message out into the calf do? It stands around in its stall with one highways and byways … onto the streets – bringing the purpose in life: to drop dead at a moment’s message to the Gentiles. In all honesty, if Paul had not notice in order that people can have a party. been rejected by the Jews, who knows if his ministry to If that doesn’t sound like the Lamb slain from the Gentiles would have ever flourished and developed the foundation of the world – who dies in into what it was? Jesus and in all our deaths and who comes finally to the Supper of the Lamb as the pièce If the Jews had accepted Paul, perhaps he never would de résistance of his own wedding party – I have pioneered the message to Gentiles. He may have don’t know what does. The fatted calf projust lived his entire life on the Jewish conference circuit. claims that the party is what the Father’s And one has to wonder if Paul himself did not face the house is all about, just as Jesus the dead occasional doubt, “Can it really be this good? These and risen Bridegroom proclaims that an eterfilthy, heathen Gentiles are brought into the party as nal bash is what the universe is all about. well?” But the persecutions he faced kicked him out of Creation is not ultimately about religion, the nest. What the enemy meant for evil, God used for or spirituality, or morality, or reconciliation, good. Paul went off the grid. or any other solemn subject; it’s about God having a good time and just itching to share Sometimes it is the curveballs thrown to us by the reit. The solemn subjects – all the weird little ligious detractors that actually force us out of the boat bells, whistles, and exploding snappers we to begin pioneering outside the four walls. In my own pay so much attention to – are there only belife, as some readers may know, I was a rather popular cause we are a bunch of dummies who have conference speaker before I believed the gospel. I reto be startled into having a good time. If ever member a time when everything on my calendar was a once we woke up to the fact that God finally speaking event of 1,000-plus people. Then overnight, cares only about the party, then the solemn I was blacklisted and vomited right out of the big shot subjects would creep away like pussycats charismatic conference circuit. … and the truly serious subjects would be brought on: robes, rings, shoes, wines, gold, Now I could have fostered a victim mentality and just crystal, and precious stones (“Finally! A little whined about it. Or worse yet, I could have tried to waclass in the act!”). ter things down and change myself or the message to cater to the existing charismatic evangelical framework It is the joyous goodness of the good news that really people wanted to hear. But unless I had been forced irritates us. If you want to offend someone, try being to work off the grid, I never would have had the unchappy in front of a depressed person! I have probably tion or freedom to really pioneer the message of grace gotten into more trouble for just having fun over the that I now carry. Only by getting outside of that system years than anything else! Usually the first thing to go as did I have the flexibility to really speak truth and deliver a Christian is the sense of humor. something that otherwise could not have been birthed and developed within the limitations of that system. At Working off the Grid minimum my message would have been water under This scandal of the gospel has for ages caused great the bridge, quickly forgotten by the next session when men and women of God to be vomited out from the re- the next conference speaker stood up and preached ligious systems of their day. There comes a point in the everyone right back into the law. lives of many great saints, where the Rock of Offense
Broader Horizons Resistance is always a doorway to greater opportunity. There is a platform God has prepared for us. With every closed door, a bigger one opens up. This is why we can never view persecution or resistance as the one negative thing about being a Christian. Nothing can quench our joy. Opposition is always opportunity in disguise. Paul said he faced great resistance, and at the same time great doors of opportunity to the Ephesians. It is the very exuberant joy of this Rock that rattles the cages of false piety. We become emboldened, saying things a sober man never will, like those who “will drink and roar as drunk with wine … full like a bowl drenched like the corners of the altar” (Zech. 9:15).
Now I am not comparing myself to a Whitfield or Wesley, but one slight comparison that I do see (in terms of working outside the grid of the system) is that I have never once made it my intention to work outside the institutional church. In fact, I consider myself firmly planted within the church and ministering primarily to the church at large.
Learning From Detractors Know that not every bit of resistance we get is defined as persecution. If you reach a point where you are always right, and everyone else is wrong, you have arrived at a sad state of arrogance and hubris. I have stirred up a ton of trouble that was rightly merited which I brought upon myself. I remember many years back in our days in Alaska before I was in itinerate ministry; we unwittingly split a church because people did not like all the inner healing courses we taught. And now, ironically, I look back shaking my head because today I preach against the very inner healing formulas I once embraced!
I have noticed over the years, since I host most of my own events and schools, that many folks assume that I bailed out on the local church or the conference circuit – and in my hard-headed stubbornness decided I wasn’t going to play with those guys anymore. Some say “John you should start doing conferences with the ‘big boys’ again because they need this message,” as if Sometimes we just do dumb things that cause unnecBesides the offensive theology of grace, it is the mere I intentionally walked away from churches and confer- essary trouble. Do not get a persecution complex, arjoy of Mr. Grace, exuding in play and goofiness that ences … No, I got canned! rogantly thinking every bit of negative criticism is always ruffles many feathers. Little do folks know, when their wrong. Stay humble. Be teachable. If there is an area blood boils over many of my own irreverent jokes and It is humorous to me that many pastors who actually for correction, try to agree with your adversary quickly. shenanigans – often they were really getting upset do want me into their churches don’t even bother reabout the gospel itself in its glorious freedom spilling questing me because they assume that I only work So embracing the rock of offense is not owning a out in lightheartedness and experiential delight. solo … the Lone Ranger, with the occasional sidekick constant sense of rejection. Nor is it equated with the Tonto – with Tim Wright doing music or something. It is continual deconstruction of thumb sucking Facebook Although I am sharing a bit of my testimony, understand important to clarify I was never looking to work outside pundits who constantly tear down what they perceive I am not moping about backlash I have faced. Rather the grid. I was spit out. I never once became an “anti- as wrong – the only right ones in a world of deceived it has enabled me to make some important points to local-church” guy, nor did I ever reject the importance of religious Christians. No, this Rock is also about emwhatever degree I’m viewed as a leader in the church. conferences or special gatherings. I did not walk away bracing the scandal of humility in a world of pride. A People get insurmountably nervous when you begin to from it all. I was booted! Not by some decree of an ap- frequency of love and kindness in a world of ego. It is rock the boat of lifeless traditionalism that has become ostolic counsel, but by shady greenroom whispers and about the joy, exuberance and radical liberty of grace their safety net and the little box in which they believe simple fear of the unknown. This guy doesn’t take legal- undiluted that stirs the ire of a zealous, self-important God resides. People can spout until they are blue in ism seriously enough. Sanhedrin lacking in true, deep knowledge of righteousthe face that God does not “live in a box,” but these ness by Christ alone. selfsame people will still demand your blood the mo- I can honestly say there has always been something ment you suggest their “out of the box” God was just on me (an anointing if you will?) wherein even from my We do not offend for offense sake. Jesus has some neatly filed away into a different shaped box of their time as a youth, folks would either love me or get irratio- pretty harsh words for the one who causes the innoown making. nally irritated by me. Sometimes, we are just marked for cent to stumble (something about millstones tied to their controversy. And we must see this as a gift, not a curse. necks and being dumped overboard?). But let us not go Stubborn and stiff-necked, any movement of God must down that road. Rather, we offend the mind to reveal align with their existing protocol. There is no paradigm Again, I am not trying to personalize this in a therapeutic the heart. We confound, only to open eyes to revelation. for the truly inexplicable or the mystery of God’s ineffa- rant, but sharing a bit of testimony. The most atrocious We are shocking humanity into a realization of God’s bility that is not only beyond us and foreign to our tradi- thing is when people get a spirit of rejection and just goodness. And the abrasion comes rather accidentally. tion – but moreover it invalidates the mindless ritualism assume everyone is out to get them. I do not have to It is not that we really do things to intentionally bring ofand self-effort in which we are entrenched and highly assume jack squat. Just Google me and see it is a fact fense. Religious folks get upset over the very fact that invested. … everyone is out to get me! But even in that, I know you are not doing anything! Retiring from all the exterit is all a blessing in disguise so I have learned a valu- nal, superstitious trappings they expect of you. The very Vomited by Mother Church able lesson in not growing bitter or brooding or insecure rest of faith and confidence in one’s absolute perfection You see a common theme here with many great reviv- or taking the whole victim mentality onboard. I expect in Christ alone is radically challenging. alists. John Wesley and George Whitfield in the First favor, and I know that when it comes to the common Great Awakening left the pulpit to begin preaching in man who does not have a religion business at stake, A Loving Aggression the streets. Now on the one hand, this was because there are more who are for me than are against me. Let us always remember to bear with the weaker broththe church buildings could not hold the crowds of thouer: the older brother who has been slaving away for an sands gathering to hear them. But a more inconvenient And I want you to realize this in your own life. Because approval he has always had. Paul tells us of religious truth that the history books often gloss over, is that once you get a certain bit of negative feedback, our twits so lacking in faith in Christ, they are locked into all these men took to the streets – for the most part – pre- natural inclination at times is to start second-guessing manner of performance. Their faith only allows them to cisely because they got kicked out of their denomina- and wondering if the Pharisees are right! eat vegetables (today that would be the fasting crowd, tions. or those who superstitiously avoid wine and Pink Floyd,
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< Continued from page 7 entrenched in a two-decade inner healing program to bones; and let us not forget loudly honoring former become holy). prophets while plotting to kill the present ones preaching the same message. Love is the rhythm of this whole thing. We know to love sinners, but we also love even religious folks who just Jesus and Paul were not the only biblical figures who “don’t get it.” Love does not demand a compromise of employed sarcasm. Consider Elijah mocking the priests truth. Paul does not pull any punches regarding what he of Baal as they begged and slashed themselves in a believes. He still addresses the doctrinal backwardness frenzy, “Why hasn’t Baal showed up? Shout louder! and anti-gospel, anti-faith error of the aforementioned Maybe he is busy taking a dump!” vegetarians. Paul knows that their manmade regulations are irrelevant, as he says, “Nothing is unclean in And do we forget about Martin Luther? Every protestant itself.” But Paul is saying to put relationship over these calls him a superhero, but what if they actually read his things. Do not get caught up in trifling matters, arguing books? He is the classic prophet venerated after his and debating petty issues. The kingdom is not a mat- own death. But his books are laced with horrendously ter of food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy obscene insults, swarthy enough to offend the best Luin the Holy Ghost. The real offense is the gospel. therans today. Not necessarily classy stuff, but who am I to say? He got the job done. With the intensity of our rigid stance against darkness, we must always have the correct culprit in the cross- Just for fun, here are a few random Luther insults just hairs. We must never fail to love our brother, though to brighten your day (good for a laugh, but I would not we hate the sin and unbelief that entangles him. The recommend employing them yourself): very reason for our unrelenting stubbornness against religion is that we are motivated by love to see the op- You are the prostitute of heretics! pressed liberated. Snot-nose You are a bungling magpie, croaking loudly. But even then, love does not always look like coddling You are admirable, fine, pious sows and asses. words and windy walks in the park together. You are like mouse dropping in the pepper. You are a brothel-keeper and the devil’s daughter in The Gunslinger Prophet hell. This mark of offense is something inherently latent You cowardly slave, you corrupt sycophant, with your within any true prophetic ministry. There is a certain sickening advice! flippancy and crassness toward the religious idols they You are idiots and swine. smash. Consider Paul speaking of the Judaizers, whom I can with good conscience consider you a fart-ass and he termed the “circumcision lot.” He says, “I wish they an enemy of God. would go all the way and chop the whole thing off!” (Gal. 5:12) At times crass, Paul used intentionally vulgar Again, use those carefully. But talk about working terms - not just calling these legalists “mutilators of the outside the grid!! Luther had the whole of the Roman flesh” and “dogs,” but most literally says such self righ- church storming down on him, lusting for his blood. Yet teousness amounts to dog shit (Phil. 3:8 – skubalon). Luther just happened to be born in a day when this convenient thing called the printing press came into popuForget the sugarcoated terminology of “filthy rags.” Isa- larity. The Roman church could not stop him or stamp iah called self-righteousness old menstrual rags. I hesi- out his words from the bully pulpit. Luther’s message of tate to conjure up this image, but in the East (even still grace went out to the masses. in much of impoverished India today), those same old rags would get shoved in every month without even be- Catalysts Outside the Box ing washed – viewed as an object of shame. Sorry to be The Lord has always made a platform for His mesgross … just stating a fact about the beauty of religion. sage, even if it entailed certain catalysts being spurned from the church building. Millions came to faith in the The scriptures vehemently poke fun at human pride and televangelism of the 1980s before all TV ministry evenpretension. Jesus used humor and irony all the time in tually went south. Those guys were working outside this way, constantly employing satire to mock the overly the grid of the institutional church. Granted, television serious Pharisees. He used humorous images like the ministry is pretty institutionalized today. But before Jim blind leading the blind, swallowing a camel, anal reten- Bakker started picking up hookers, it was cutting edge tively cleaning the outside of a cup while leaving the and highly effective in reaching society. Certain minisinside filthy, having a log rammed in your eye while ters are cut out for TBN. Myself, well I’m just fortunate picking the speck out of someone else’s, whitewash- to be on YouTube! But in all seriousness, thank God for ing beautiful tombs that are inwardly full of dead men’s the Internet.
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The Internet is a phenomenal, fresh platform that is radically more open than the Sunday morning pulpit filter. No doubt it is both a door of heaven and hell … but what an avenue for the Gospel today! We are living in exciting times of change and reformation. I’m not saying every keyboard warrior out there is a Martin Luther – no more than every book that hit a printing press was inspired, nor every Christian TV telethon. But there is a massive worldwide platform pregnant for potential with true reform. At the end of the day, God is highly vested in the Word of our salvation. He will broadcast it. If we can reform the system within, that is beautiful. But sometimes it is His very sovereign hand that allows us to be shunned or excommunicated, just to reach a broader base. It is the sick, not the healthy who need a doctor. So what? A door was closed in your face? Get over it and lift your vision to the bigger doors of opportunity He has placed before you. The Spirit of Elijah Nevertheless, whether within or from without, the Gospel just does not come without offense. For decades, the modern prophetic/charismatic movement has long talked about the Spirit of Elijah – it is one of their pet subjects. The Spirit of Elijah is not about giving a few personal prophetic words during your home group prayer circle. The essence of what we might truly call the Spirit of Elijah is a wild, ecstatic, out-of-the box, blazing, groundshaking thing that shocks people out of their existing normative paradigms. And one hallmark feature that stands out about this mantle is brazen unpredictability. It is extreme. People cut from this cloth always have a measure of eccentricity and wildness. John the Baptist, who walked in this spirit, was untamed and unfettered. These persons embody what composer Oscar Levant once spoke of when he said, “There is a fine line between genius and insanity.” There is something solid in the surreal. The existence of a realm outside the known parameters. It is a place of divine mystery. The path of Life. The ecstatic prophets of old knew this place. These men were radicals. Unpredictable. Fiery. These were unbalanced men; their lifestyles marked by the strange and uncanny. They lived somewhere between heaven and earth. These men were well outside the established circles of their day. They belonged to a company of fanatics and mystics—an eternal generation that is strewn timelessly throughout all the ages to be paraded at the end in a grand apostolic processional—these men who never danced for mainstream society nor fit within the tailored hem of manmade religion.
These men were a loud and grinding catalyst in a white-picket-fence world, a reminder of another place. They were a preservative of truth who endured social distaste, persecution and misunderstanding for our sakes and for the hope of a better resurrection. Most people are quite comfortable with a faith that fits within the boundaries of their own understanding. But these men lived outside themselves. Consider Isaiah, who wrote 66 chapters in our gold-gilded Bibles. He looked millennia into the future through multiple dimensions of reality. And he walked the earth naked for three years. Ezekiel cooked with dung cakes. Hosea married a whore. John the Baptist lived in the desert, wearing animal hair and eating bugs. Their approaches were heterodox at best. Their truths were inconvenient. The world and the clergy of their day forbade their ideas.
The fool (for Christ) is guided, not by objectivized “laws,” but by the voice of God speaking directly in the heart. … He bears witness to the preeminent value of persons rather than rules. Mocking the world, the fool strips off the masks of hypocrisy, demystifies roles, and reveals the presence of the human, the all-too-human, behind the facade of dignity and honor. He is the one who dares to say that the emperor has no clothes. To awaken others from their “pious” complacency, he often employs shock tactics. ... He does not mock Holy Scriptures or the Creed, the sacraments or the icons. He mocks only the pompous and self-satisfied who hold high offices in the Church and the humorless ritualists who confuse outer gesture with inner life. His protest is not destructive but liberating, and creative . . . He is a “sign” bearing witness that Christ’s kingdom is not of this world.
Thomas Merton said, “One of the first signs of a (great saint) may well be the fact that other people do not know what to make of him. In fact they are not sure whether he is crazy or only proud: but it must at least be pride to be haunted by some individual ideal which no- Let me close in saying this is no wholesale endorsebody but God really comprehends. …He cannot seem ment of anarchist character flaws, bad attitudes or flipto make his life fit in with the books.” pant, unloving, arrogant personalities who just want to be provocateur shock jocks in order to have an edge, Holy Fools draw attention or make a name for themselves. We see The Scriptures and the annals of history are chock full thousands of these, and it becomes a dull, disinterestof these ecstatics, who somehow tasted the invisible ing, hackneyed caricature in our society of outrage and were too captured by the siren melodies of heaven on social media. I do not endorse the lack of humility to turn back around. The Lord speaks most highly of or unteachability we see in such persons. Jesus never these men whom we despised in life but honor in death. criticized anyone He was not willing to die for. Holy critiHe also spoke of more to come—many more to come. cism is far more concerned with building up and edifying what is true, rather than a mere defacement of what In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, there is in fact an is false. unofficial office (like prophet or deacon) that is literally called the holy fool. Bishop Kallistos Ware explains: No, I am speaking of a wildfire of divine love and vision that takes hold of a man … something that cannot
shake loose. True, unabashed sacrificial love is the very heartbeat of holy offense. It is a bravery and curiosity to look square in the face of the Gospel, though it shatter every falsehood with which we are clothed. This untamed intimacy does indeed call for bravery … because our biggest fear is not of rejection, but of total, absolute acceptance. We are scared spitless of this kind of love and vulnerability, which is the very rhythm of the Gospel and of an incarnate Savior who embraced us warts and all. Let us not join with angry hotheaded critics, who lacking substance merely find a foil by which to prove themselves better. No, I look for a people who are so overmastered by the love of God and a beatific vision of the Gospel that they honestly and authentically do not care anymore about opinions. They are veritably possessed by the authentic love and care of God and their fellow man. Yes, this may make them pariahs and irritants to the status quo. But this is not some gimmick. This divine abrasion is not just a personality trait of the caustic or contentious. Indeed there is one true offense. And that is Jesus Christ. The Rock of Offense. The very grace of the Gospel that upends entire religious and world systems on their heads and says all are embraced. All are loved. All are accepted. All are perfected. All are included - and it is not our fault! Let us be radically bold, obnoxiously joyful, invasively loving and certifiably insane for believing and preaching a Gospel that is absolutely too good to be true … as if it really, really is. Offensiveness is not something you need to cultivate. It is just a byproduct of believing this scandalous good news.
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THE LAUGHTER OF GOD Deep in my soul I heard the laughter of God ringing in silvery cadences through the timbers of my being, breaking the human bonds and limitation as a strong yet gentle wind in the forest sweeping aside the strands of cobweb. The hard, fast knots that I had tied, slipped loose, and the snarls of beliefs broke free. The river of my human life, frozen by a thousand and one false ideas and teachings, broke joyously into expression and went bounding to the infinite sea of Life, to be lost and found at the same time. One dark cave of fear after another was illuminated by the light of this laughter and swampy areas of sick thoughts were dried up instantly. Parched sands of hopelessness and futile efforts were drenched by the living waters sucked in – absorbed instantly like a wave breaking on the sands. God laughing at me and my puny efforts to make things happen; to make
The glorious laughter rolled on, searching the very joints and marrow of me – dislodging every belief in fear, sickness, or age. As it swept over me and through me and round about me, I was amazed at the wonder of it – the fierce, terrible thing which was at the same time so beautiful and free. The wonder of it kept singing through my soul as veil after veil of belief was rent asunder and new kingdoms stood revealed. The whole thing was as if one just saw a little deeper, as one looks through the surface reflection on a river and sees the pebbles and shells below, that was all; only the Laughter made this possible, for it cleared away all the effort and straining which in its attempt to see God had been halted at the reflection on the surface, instead of gazing into the limpid, glorious depth of Infinity.
“I stood before the infinite peals of laughter, which flowed through all creation like floods of golden mist...” heaven appear; to attain the sonship. Not the laugh of derision, but of infinite compassion – a laughter so deep and sweet, so pure and glorious that every thing in the nature of struggle gave way before it. The breath of that glorious laughter blew all the dirty rags of personal teaching and self–aggrandizement away from me, and at first the fierce joy that proceeded from the unheard, heard peals of laughter made me afraid. Afraid that everything worth while was being taken from me, and that I should be naked; but no sooner had the filthy rags of personality blown free, than I was clothed in a panoply of light, and in this glorious raiment of light I saw for the first time the glory of the Spirit made flesh. I stood before the infinite peals of laughter, which flowed through all creation like floods of golden mist, filled with speechless wonder at the beauty of the world I lived in which had been invisible because of my separation, because of my personal ideas about attainment. I was as a child with a small measure at the seaside, trying to carry off a little water when the whole sea was at my disposal, and I understood for the first time the exhaustless sea of substance about me, and that the idea of hoarding was but a childish fear grown into a goliath by false teaching and beliefs. I suddenly became aware that the substance was everywhere, in everything, out of everything, and the only place of lack was in the hypnotic state of belief and I alone created and moved in this vacuum.
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The voice, as its honeyed tones flowed out like a burst of sunshine through storm clouds, was so unlabored, so untrammeled, and so divinely indifferent; it seemed to envelop me with an instant realization that all was well. No matter how many struggles had been made, no matter how many mistakes, how many shortcomings, how many failures, how long the belief, or how short the hate, it was all swept aside as nothing. The glorious divine ease with which it was expressed made dis-ease impossible. It was the overturning and overturning that had to take place before He, the Laughing one, could come into expression. The people of God are a people of joy, and it is not until they hear this God Laughter in their souls that they have attained to their heritage. What of this race that speaks of the Kingdom and doing the Father’s work, and uses all the language of the Truth, and at the same time sows seeds of fear and hellish inventions? What is this race that is always seeking evil to destroy, like a weasel seeks out a rat? What is the hopelessness they preach that on one hand, you are the sons of God, and on the other, that you must fight against evil of every sort and nature? Ah, yes, but, if, and maybe they roll these stumbling-blocks under their tongues with a wise twinkle in their eyes, as much as to say, “Yes it is all true, but it comes only with hard labor and long study, and it is not for such as you, sinner and worm of the dust that you are, until you have purified yourself in the fount of my wisdom and paid me personal homage.”
By Walter C. Lanyon
It is then that the Magdalene hears the Laughter of God and is clean and free; and in an instant too; and it is when the cripple hears the Laughter of God that he leaps to his feet and runs away praising the living God. It is when you, no matter where you are or what you are, no matter what you have done or left undone, hear the Laughter of the God within and the God without, that you will crash through the gates of hell and find heaven, no matter what these gates may be – person, place, or thing. One moment’s recognition that you are the son of the living God, and you have attuned your ear for the Laughter of God which will put to flight all the stupid ideas, of my and yours, free you into an expression that you have not dreamed of. How can you restrain the joy that fills you when you hear this laughter which, when it is heard, causes the winter of your discontent to break into full fruition, which causes you to see literally see that “before they call, I will answer,” is not a bit of euphonious language, but a positive living, glowing fact. “I was afraid,” and therefore you were driven out of the Garden of Life. You have been afraid that God will punish you, that it is too good to be true, that you are not ready, that it comes by great learning; and so you are still without the portals of your own kingdom, trying every way but the only way to re-enter. Many there be who try the way of violence, and many who expect to ride in on the skirts of another. There are some so foolish as to invite this. Why do you not stop trying to get things, trying to learn how to get power, place? Why do you not come away from the man whose breath is in his nostrils? You who read this page, and go within and hear the Laughter of God, and know that “it does not matter” – that the things which gave you great concern are all swept away into the dump heap? The sooner you learn this the sooner you will see they have no value. Finally, one time, when you take away their value, they are possible of attainment to you. You profess to be a follower of the Master. If you in any way believe this, you will begin to listen for the Laughter of God through your whole being, and you will know that the Laughter of God sets you free from the snarling discontent of the Tower of Babel in which you have been living. Presently, as you listen for this Laughter, you will hear it, and gradually you will begin laughing – billows of laughter, silently-audible laughter that will shatter one limitation after another; laughter filled with the divine indifference which knows that the
universe is filled with God and only God, and to recognize this will cause this laughter to flow into expression and shatter the belief in sin, sickness, and death. When this belief is shattered in you, the pictures of this on your universe are dissipated and are no more, and even the place thereof is no more. You will know how there can be naught but laughter in the Kingdom of Heaven. What good of words or arguments? What in humans’ sense is a lecture worth on the subject of Laughter, as compared to one glorious sudden peal of joy released by a God soul and picked up by all those in hearing distance? Gradually, as you learn the Laughter of God and join in with the glory of the sons of the living God, then you will laugh at yourself. You will perhaps go back and laugh all the mistakes and faults and limitations out of existence. You will stand with your glorious feet on the mountaintops of self-revelation, laughing at your universe and with your universe, and laughing in words: “It is wonderful, it is wonderful, it is wonderful.” “Let the filthy be filthy still.” Some may read into the Laughter of God a belief in carelessness and indifference, and some consecrated souls may rail and tear their hair and say that it is encouraging license and making nothing of sin, in order that one may indulge in sin, and so on; and for them this message is not. He that has ears shall hear what the Scripture says unto the Churches, and only he that has a single eye is through with trying to twist meanings to suit personal ends. But he that has the consciousness of the Son of the Living God shall not find it strange that “he that is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity” should laugh at the belief in it that has bound men for so long; and this divine disregard does not in any way encourage license, but gives liberty to the Sons of God. It breaks up the dank morasses of human belief and reveals itself as heaven, a state of consciousness, which finds not happiness at the disposal of sin, health at the disposal of sickness, and harmony at the disposal of in-harmony; but finds these pairs of opposites swept away. It finds man the individual Son of the Living God, experiencing power and wisdom such as could not be put in human language. The impress of the Divine upon the human causes the human to express in what to the unenlightened thought may seem to be a supernatural way. The how and why and when are all bested in the limited human concept of life.
You who read this page, when are you going to start laughing the laughter of God? When are you going to join in the glorious chorus which is already encircling the globe, and which has for its password “It is wonderful?” You cannot stop this laughter once it is started; you will shatter the belief in disease in thousands as you go along your way – not by a poor, half-hearted way of beseeching God, but with the ringing Laughter of God in your soul which knows no sickness, sin, or disease, and hence cannot look upon it. And in this very knowledge it will impress the consciousness with the eternal well-being of the Son of the Living God. The man, if he hear the Laughter – that is, if he be willing to hear it, instead of accepting the pinched human concepts of his
way? No matter if it be thousands of years old, and hoary with the respect of mankind. Not one stone shall remain in place. The very foundations of the human belief shall be shaken in order that the True Cornerstone, which has been rejected up to now, shall be laid. Yes, the Stone – the very Stone that the Master gave to us – the philosopher’s Stone if you will, which we have rejected, because to accept it would have been to have overthrown great temples of human reasoning – will finally be made the Head Stone of the Temple of Truth. You are the Temple of the Living God, and from out the inner recesses of your being proceeds the Laughter of God. “The Sons of God shout for joy.” You will shout for joy, not because of victory over evil, but because
“You who read this page, when are you going to start laughing the laughter of God?” human reasonings – shall break the bounds of his limitations; crash through the gates of brass; shake off the shackles of beliefs; burst through the prison bars of his own making, and find himself free, free, free, and find his soul ringing with laughter and with the song, “It is wonderful.”
you have at last realized that the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place of overcoming evil, but of revelation which is above the belief of a divided universe.
Whoever you are who reads this page – you who sit in prison houses of disease, sin, and unhappiness – listen, listen, listen. I AM the door of attainment – I AM the door to this glorious Laughter of God – I AM the way to the eternal bliss and harmony of the sons of the Living God. No matter where this finds you; nothing is hopeless or helpless; this joyous Laughter of the recognition of God, here and know, of the Finished Kingdom – of the sudden discovery that Jesus was not a liar, but a truth-sayer, a concrete truth-sayer, when he said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand – it is within you” – will cause this Kingdom to descend out of the clouds of your belief and be real.
And I heard the Laughter of God in the Soul of my very being – ringing in glorious cadence throughout my universe, causing me suddenly to burst into a glorious laughter which was full of praise, full of wonder – full of wonder and amazement at that which I had missed through looking through a glass darkly. “Arise, shine, for thy light has come,” do you hear? “It is wonderful! It is wonderful! It is wonderful!” Heaven and earth are full of Thee – sin, sickness, and death have vanished away. I hear the Laughter of God ringing in the deep recesses of your soul, you who read this page. I see the moving finger writing across all the worries and fears of a lifetime “It does not matter,” and I see this laughter writing the things of beauty over the walls of your temple and casting a glorious glistening white robe – a seamless robe of attainment – over you. And at last I hear you laughing from the mountain peak as you go on your way, without thought of scrip or purse or robe or ring or upper chamber, and long before you have reached your destination, the Laughter of God in your soul has gone ahead and made ready the upper chamber, and the Host has come out to receive you. Do you hear? You who read this page? You? Under the aegis of Jesus Christ you can “go” with the Laughter of God in your heart.
How can you help laughing silently and audibly the Laughter of God, and see its ringing notes shatter the silly arguments about life? “The wisdom of man is foolish in the eyes of God.” Why try to measure the inspiration of the Almighty against any manmade teaching! “I will make you fishers of men.” I, the I AM, when once discovered will make the one who discovers it a Fisher of Men. Who can resist the Laughter of God – the fearless Laughter of God ringing through the universe, sweeping all the debris of human belief out of human belief out of the
Awake, thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light.
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Itinerary Find the Party Near You!
Schools, conferences & mission trips with John Crowder
2016 Supernatural Grace Seminar
September 29-30
Seattle, Washington
Massachusetts Gospel Mania
October 19-20
Pepperell, Massachusetts
Harrisburg Gospel Mania
October 21-22
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nashville Gospel Mania
October 23-24
Nashville, Tennessee
Chicago Gospel Mania
October 25-26
Chicago, Illinois
Switzerland Mystical School
December 2-4
Geneva, Switzerland
Las Vegas Supernatural Grace
December 9-11
Las Vegas, Nevada
2017 UK Mystical School
January 13-15
Manchester, England
Religious Detox Cruise
February 3-11
Departs from Miami
Omaha Gospel Funhouse
February 25-26
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Atlanta Gospel Funhouse
February 27-28
Atlanta, Georgia
New York Gospel Funhouse
March 1-2 March 3-4
Cleveland, Ohio
India Mission Trip
March 26 - April 2
Open Now to Applications
John Crowder Naked
April 21-23
Newport News, Virginia
California Women’s Retreat
April 28-30
Beni Johnson, Lily Crowder, Melissa Wood
Supernatural Grace Seminar
May 5-6
Redlands, California
Cosmic Canada Tour
May 20-27
Toronto, Montreal, Abbotsford, Edmonton
Schedule subject to change. Sign up for events early at:
www.thenewmystics.com 12 | the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016
Newly Relaunched – More User Friendly & More Features! We just overhauled the Inner Sanctum with lots of new features, including a social media platform where you can create a profile, share pictures and chat with friends 24-hours a day. Here is a list of upcoming live broadcast dates – so mark your calendar. This schedule is subject to change, so keep an eye on the Web site.
Upcoming Broadcast Schedule: October 16 November 27 December 18 January 8 February 19 March 12 April 17
www.TheNewMystics.TV
Atlanta, Georgia
Ohio Gospel Funhouse
Live Monthly Web Conference: Interact With John Crowder Our interactive monthly Web seminar, Inner Sanctum, connects supernatural gospel grace drinkers all around the world on a regular basis. The live teaching and exclusive online chat features have enabled us to bring fresh revelation to viewers right to their homes, churches and house groups. Each month, we answer your burning questions and unpackage the glorious gospel in a fresh, intoxicating atmosphere of impartation and glory! If you’re diving into grace revelation and want to plug in deeper with lifechanging messages, we invite you or your group to join as a member of our online community at www.TheNewMystics.TV
All seminars are held on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific
Online Community ... Intoxicating Fun! Our ministry events are full of joy and impartation, but let’s face it ... you can’t make it to every conference in the world! Inner Sanctum is a way to plug you into a steady diet of gospel revelation right in your own home. Everywhere we travel, people are always asking us, “How can we stay connected with the Message?” The Inner Sanctum is a great tool as you grow in grace. Our Most Comprehensive Teaching Resource! Since we’ve launched Inner Sanctum at TheNewMystics.TV, we have posted more than 60 hours of archived teachings – and as a member, you receive instant access to watch all of this footage, anytime! Your monthly membership contribution ($19.95) also helps support our ministry endeavors all around the world! Gather your family and friends to enjoy each month’s event together! Each month, you can take part in our live, interactive seminars where John Crowder spends several hours engaging one-on-one with viewers right from his home study. Ask us your questions live for our real-time Q&A ... or just kick back and have a laugh as other members log in and join the fun. These are NOT recorded church meetings! Instead, John engages live-in-person with viewers, answering your questions and getting you activated in the gospel message. Join us as we savor the bliss of mystical Christianity and the supernatural realities of the new creation. Finally, a fun way to feast on the finished work no matter where you live!
India Mission 2017: Join the Team!
After nearly four years, Sons of Thunder is finally returning to India in 2017 for a mission trip open to any applicants who would like to join us! Next spring, we are returning to Mumbai, for a supernatural week of power evangelism, pastor training and outreach to the poorest of the poor. India is an exotic place full of beautiful, vibrant people. In March/April, we will bring the healing, delivering power of the Gospel in a large miracle “crusade” outreach to Mumbai over several days. We expect to gather thousands for the event, and those who join the team will operate in hands-on miracle ministry, healing the sick and releasing the tangible presence of God. If you have never operated in the working of miracles, expect to be amazed in such an electric atmosphere of faith as the Lord opens blind eyes, deaf ears and destroys cancer in front of your eyes. We never cease to be awed by the sheer miracle working power displayed at these campaigns in India! In our years of massive evangelism outreaches in the nation we have seen more than 200,000 people respond to the gospel. Will also gather hundreds of pastors for a several more days, equipping and training leaders in the Gospel of grace, bringing much needed revelation on the finished work of the cross. Our heart is to see a pure, unmixed Gospel exploding through India – free from the religious legalisms that are so often
imported from the West. Since 2007, John Crowder and team have also been working with the poor in India. SOT operates two children’s homes for orphans there. We rescue children right from the brothels, offering food, shelter, clothing and education. Most of all, we want them to experience a severe love and mercy. During our next trip, the team will have the opportunity to visit our oldest children’s home near in Mumbai to celebrate and play with the kids – ministering and sharing the unconditional love of the Father with hugs, candy, song and dance. Finally, the team will also visit the garbage dumps, with an outreach to the very margins of society – those who live among the burning rubble of the trash piles. In such darkness of extreme poverty, we want to bring a Gospel feast of light and love and tangible outreach. On our last trip to the country we had a massive team of more than 50 people. But on the next trip, John wants to bring a somewhat smaller group so as to better connect with team members and have more personal one-on-one time. This means we will be limiting registration to a smaller group. So if you have a desire to plunge into the sights, colors, tastes and smells of India, we recommend you register as early as possible!
deadline cutoff date is December 15, but we may cut the date short if the team fills up before then. Keep in mind you do not need your entire trip payment by that time. Only your initial application and deposit are needed to secure your spot, so take a step of faith and apply early. You will have more time to raise the remainder of your funds, with final payment due at the end of January. This is a “make your own way trip,” which means we allow you to purchase your own plane ticket to lower costs. Many folks end up finding friends or family who donate air mlies, making the trip more affordable. The team will meet up onsite in Mumbai. Total cost for the trip is $2,150. This includes all of your hotels, two meals per day, ground transportation and also helps contribute toward the outreaches. Email us with any questions at: info@thenewmystics.com or visit the trip Web page at www.thenewmystics.com/India If you are unable to join the team, but would like to contribute to the outreaches – you can visit www.paypal.me/ johncrowder to send a donation toward the mission. Total Cost: $2,150 Team Applications Due: DECEMBER 15, 2016 Final Trip Payment Due: JANUARY 31, 2017 Trip Dates: MARCH 26 - APRIL 2, 2017 Registration: www.TheNewMystics.Com/India
Registration is now open for the trip. The sign up
the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016 | 13
Gospel Transforming Lives Through Cana Online Seminary Offers Study at Your Own Pace Ever considered diving into theological study, but you don’t have patience to filter through all the lifeless dogma and dead intellectualism … not to mention just finding the time to study? These are factors we had in mind when starting Cana New Wine Seminary. Our goal was to gather a dream team of non-religious, grace-based instructors who have a deep grasp of the finished work of the cross. Rather than have you memorize a bunch of irrelevant doctrinal information, we wanted a theology school that is experiential, supernatural and saturated with the tangible presence of God. Theology should not be boring. The pure, unmixed message of grace intoxicates us with divine love and produces real, radical change and fruitfulness in our daily lives. Furthermore, our decision to move Cana to a twoyear, online format has opened an opportunity for everyone to participate through the Web no matter one’s career or existing life circumstances. With an easy course load of only one session per week, students can do the class at their own pace (you have two weeks to watch each lesson), and connect on a live Q & A with John Crowder. The online version also allows us to offer Cana at a fraction of the cost versus physically attending the campus in Portland. For early bird registrants, Cana starts at $275 for the first semester. The vision for Cana is literally a drunken theological institute! A renewal based course that appreciates the presence of God, Cana hosts a mystical/ecstatic atmosphere together with a rich roster of doctorate level theologians and engaging speakers. Together with John and Lily Crowder, speakers include Dr. C. Baxter Kruger, Mirror Bible translator Francois Du Toit, Matt Spinks, Dr. Eric Wilding, Rod Williams, Tony Seigh and more. Register Now for Fall 2016 Early bird registration is now open at a discounted rate until October 14, 2016 at www.Cana.co Rate before October 14: $275 First Semester Only $650 Entire Year Course After October 14, cost for the year-long course increases to $700. Classes begin November 2 with holiday breaks included. Cana is a two-year course, but students can inquire about a double class load if they want to finish quicker. You can get a one-year certificate or become a full graduate of the entire twoyear course. Find out more at www.Cana.co or write us at cana@thenewmystics.com Cana helped take away the veil allowing me to see the scriptures clearly without any preconceived notions on what verses meant. It also helped me see how loved and accepted by God I really was, helping me to experience the kingdom right here right now. I am eternally grateful for my professors and friends at Cana. If you would like to see the scriptures in a refreshing way, I encourage you to take the course. - Matthew McClellan After years of fasting and praying and pining after God, I came across John Crowder’s teaching and was set free. But even then, it was a long process of unlearning the old. Coming to Cana was the final capstone to that process for me, where I got to be fully immersed in the teaching and culture of the Good News! Theologically, I had some final questions answered and also had my mind blown more than once. Relationally with God, I just got to go deep and enjoy
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Check Out These Alumni Testimonies! without interruption. … I got drunk in the Spirit a lot. … My life changed dramatically from reading tons of theology and trying to be sure I really understood the message, to just knowing the Truth and being set free into living my life-dream - Esse Johnson My experience at Cana has forever changed my outlook on Christianity and just how beautiful it is. The truth I walked away with has freed me to be myself, think outside of the boxes I didn’t realize I was in and to love more fully than I ever knew I could. Cana may offend you at times. It is unconventional and full of so much grace and good news that it’s hard to digest … but if you give God a chance to expand your horizons I believe He will do just that. - Ashley Ownby When I went to Cana my expectation was to go deeper in the revelation of the finished work of the cross and our Father’s heart toward us. I was surprised how much more I received. I ended up concluding that He is always better than we think, and it’s so good. A lot of old paradigms of God were removed in my mind as I learned and experienced his divine embrace towards me and the whole world. I even lost weight! I recommend Cana to anyone who wants to know the heart of the Father and experience his Love in all its fullness. You will not be disappointed! It’s a great school, with great teachers and the price is really cheap for all you get! - Ruben Castillo
I experienced three months of intoxication, love and inclusion in a community that could only be built on the supernatural message of Christ and Him crucified. Honestly, I am still piecing together what happened during that time two years ago... and still reaping the glorious benefits. - Schuyler Jorgensen The best word I could use to describe Cana is: Heaven! I experienced the most growth, transformation and healing in the shortest period of time ever; whilst simultaneously (and in a way that overtook my awareness of anything else like growth and transformation) experiencing the most rest, intimacy, love, friendship, joy and bliss I’ve ever felt. - Melody Mitt Time of your life. Thought I literally died on the road on the way to Cana and woke up in heaven. - TJ Lathrom Your life will never be the same! Cana was the wisest investment I’ve ever made – and definitely the most fun! Be ready for the glorious Gospel to shatter your false mindsets and radically reorder your thoughts! Cana is such a safe place to explore, experience, question and share your journey of discovery into the heart of the Gospel. … Drink deeply friends! - Caroline Macphie
the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016 | 15
There is No Hierarchy in the Trinity When we talk about the Trinity, this term signifies a special understanding of God existing as Father, Son and Holy Spirit – three distinct persons of the same essence and unity who eternally and communally dwell as one substance … the one Almighty God.
A great delusion and much controversy has swept through evangelical camps in recent decades (up to a boiling point in recent months) as a number of mainstream conservative teachers are proposing the idea of hierarchy within the Trinity. They teach that there is a role of primacy within the Godhead, in which the Father sits at the top of the ladder, with the Son being eternally subordinate (underneath or subservient to the Father), and Holy Spirit is beneath the Son at the bottom of the totem pole (perhaps they figure He’s not too important since they haven’t seen Him around in their churches for a few decades). Such a contorted view is a clear danger to our perspective of the Christian God, and yet somehow this modern twist on an ancient heresy has gained traction in churches all around the world. A lot of nuance and big theological terms get thrown around in this whole debate, which I hope to boil down into ordinary speak for readers in an effort to bolster us in the knowledge of the other-serving, other-giving dance of the Trinitarian life which is the very heartbeat of the church and the gospel. Dr. Liam Goligher, one of a number of teachers who has been recently vocal in combating this modern heretical view, compiled a list of succinct quotes that contrast the difference between contemporary evangelicalism and the orthodox faith handed down to us through the Christian fathers: Modern Evangelicalism Says “The Father is the authority of Christ, and always has been…There is no Holy Trinity without the order of authority and submission” (Owen Strachan and Gavin Peacock). “I hold to the eternal submission of the Son to the Father” (Wayne Grudem). “Today debates over whether the Son submits eternally to the Father have been wrapped…relations of authority and submission do indeed exist among the persons of the Godhead” (Christianity Today, Oct. 10, 2008). Orthodox Christianity Says “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of light, very God of very God” (Nicene Creed) “In this Trinity none is afore, nor after another; none is greater or less than another” (Athanasian Creed).
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“Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist ‘in an inseparable equality of one substance’” (Augustine). “We believe with all our hearts and confess with our mouths that there is a single and simple spiritual being, whom we call God – eternal, incomprehensible, invisible, unchangeable, infinite, almighty: completely wise, just, and good, and the overflowing source of all good” (Belgic Confession). “In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son” (Westminster Confession of Faith). “The Scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are equal with the Father, ascribing to them such names, attributes, works, and worship as are proper to God only” (Westminster Larger Catechism, Q11). “The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father’s glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made…” (1689 Baptist Confession) “If there be one God subsisting in three persons, then let us give equal reverence to all the persons in the Trinity. There is not more or less in the Trinity; the Father is not more God than the Son and Holy Ghost. There is an order in the Godhead, but no degrees; one person has not a majority or super eminence above another, therefore we must give equal worship to all the persons.” (Thomas Watson) One Will, Three Persons Jesus clearly submitted to and did the will of His Father on earth. As a matter of fact He shall always do the Father’s will. But so shall the Father do the will of the Son and the Spirit! There is only one will and one shared heart in the life of the Trinity! Mutual submission and an inter-penetration of love one between the other. But a hierarchical view of the Trinity being embraced in the modern church is a drastic departure from the foundations of the Christian message.
By John Crowder
this; if they are right we have been worshipping an idol since the beginning of the church; and if they are wrong they are constructing a new deity - a deity in whom there are degrees of power, differences of will, and diversity of thought. Because, mark this, to have an eternally subordinate Son intrinsic to the Godhead creates the potential of three minds, wills and powers.” In His earthly ministry, Jesus clearly operated in the will of His Father. But it is a heretical leap to assume He is eternally beneath the Father in a functional way. There are no executive decisions on the Father’s part in which the Son and Spirit must simply shut up and obey. No separation of wills or minds or powers. In fact, the very reason Jewish religious leaders sought to have Jesus killed was on the charge of blasphemy in John 5:18, “because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” In their culture it was clear that an adult son was an emissary deemed equal in all things (status, stature, etc.) with his father.
One Substance The debate often gets jumbled into a quagmire of terminology. Most evangelical theologians are smart enough not to suggest outright that Jesus is ontologically subordinate to the Father (lower than the Father in His essence or being). The biggest term used in the Nicene Creed, Christianity’s most succinct and revered doctrine of faith, is the word “homoousios” (meaning the same essence or substance). In fact this word is the crux of the Christian faith – that Jesus Christ is the same essence or substance as the Father. Very God of very God.
One of the main reasons the early fathers so strongly pronounced this in the Nicene Creed of 381 AD was to refute one of the largest heresies ever to sweep through the church: Arianism. The Arian heresy stated that the Son of God was “created” by the Father, and therefore Jesus was neither coeternal with the Father, nor of the same “substance.” But the chief theologian of the Trinity emerged in those days, Athanasius, who together with the Cappadocian fathers argued that the “begottenness” of Jesus did not refer to His beginning, origin or starting point in time. His begottenness stands outside of time as an eternal reality – Jesus did not become the Son at the incarnation, but He always flowed out of the Father. And in fact, the Father was always “It’s not hard to see who has moved!” writes Goligher, the Father. He did not one day “become a father” by addressing the above list of quotes. “These quotes creating the Son. highlight what is at stake in the teaching of some contemporary evangelical scholars and pastors: they This concept is sometimes called the “eternal generaare presenting a novel view of God; a different God tion of the Son.” Jesus clearly stepped into our world than that affirmed by the church through the ages and and “became” a man, but He was always the eternal taught in Scripture. This is serious. It comes down to Word through Whom all things were created. He had
no starting point and was continually face to face with the Father (not made by Him nor somehow less than the Father (John 1:1-3). The term “only begotten” is monogenes. It refers moreover to Christ’s absolute uniqueness – one of a kind. While no evangelical teacher would outright say Jesus is of a lesser substance than the Father, nevertheless by painting Him in the role as subservient under the Father’s hierarchy, they end up doing this very thing. A popular term now used is eternal functional subordination. They contend that although Jesus is fully God, his functional role is still to always obey and serve the father (also called an economy of subordination). The idea is that the Father and Son are “eternally distinguished by an ‘authority-submission’ structure,” wherein the Father will forever have authority over the Son, and the Son will forever submit to Him. Devaluing Christ The danger in handing the Son a lesser “role” or “position” is the risk that even functional subordination tends to devalue Jesus. Millard Erickson explains, “The problem is this. ... Authority is part of the Father’s essence, and subordination is part of the Son’s essence, and each attribute is not part of the essence of the other person. That means that the essence of the Son is different from the essence of the Father.... That is equivalent to saying that they are not homoousios (the same essence) with one another.” Author Zack Hunt furthers this sentiment that Jesus’ person and role cannot be divided without the one lessening the other. “As I said, advocates of this position hold that Jesus is eternally subordinate to the Father, but that that role has nothing to do with his being, who he is or his ontology, because according to them a person’s eternal condition is irrelevant to their existence,” writes Hunt. “From what I have read, the argument for this apparent inconsistency is that Jesus’ subordination to the Father relates to his role in the Godhead, not his ontological status; meaning the Father and Son (and presumably the Spirit) are one and equal because Jesus’ subordination somehow doesn’t affect his being even though it is a position he takes and has taken and will take for all eternity and can do no other.” Considering the Ramifications Another topic that is usually brought to the fore in these debates on the subordination of Christ is the doctrine’s relation to the role of equality/submission of women as well as questions on obedience to church leadership. Whatever your view on church leadership or gender roles (as vital as these topics may be), I see these as side issues that muddle the
most important point. Diminishing the role of Christ or Holy Spirit is devastating beyond comprehension in its ramifications. The core problem lies in these questions: How do we see God? Does God really look like Jesus? Is there some other dark, authoritarian side of God behind Jesus’ back? The fact is that Jesus is radically submissive. But the Lamb Who was silent before His shearers also speaks volumes on the nature of His Father and Holy Spirit (who is also a Person, not a force). The Trinity mutually submits to one another. I do not object to the concept of the persons of the Trinity having roles (economies of function), nor the obvious sense of patriarchy that being a Father implies. But He is no heavy handed, judgmental controlling Father as our own fallen projections of a paternal figure may lead us to believe; “… the Father judges no one. Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge” (John 5:22). What is submission? Is it a slavish, dutiful obedience? Or does it look like serving, loving, laying one’s life down for another? If “worship” is the ultimate act of love and obedience then we could most veritably argue that Christ “worships” us far more than we worship Him! Not that He hails us as God or obeys our command, but that He loves, serves and sacrificially gives Himself to the creature far more than the creature loves and worships Him in response. The love and self-giving that Jesus demonstrates is the love and self-giving of Abba. Perhaps it is the Father who gets most maligned in these heresies (these after all are the same evangelical camps which preach penal substitution – the idea that Jesus was dying to pay off the Father’s bloodlust and wrath against us). This bifurcation between the loving servant heart of Jesus and a supposedly vindictive, heavy handed Father who demands a “price” for forgiveness drives a schizophrenic split in our vision of God, and through the fabric of our very lives. Forget mere equality for women … we are dealing with a fundamental dualism that corrupts our parenting, our every relationship and whether we view the sinful world around us through eyes of compassion or with legalistic fury. Perichoretic Union The Trinity is not a vertical, hierarchical chain, but a circle of other-giving love.The term for the interpersonal indwelling, communion and shared life and work of the three persons of the Trinity is called perichoresis, which literally means “dancing in a circle.” A perichoretic understanding of the Trinity is found in the very teachings of Christ Himself in the gospels. In John 14:8–11 we read:
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe because of the work you have seen me do.” Jesus, the Logos, is not less transcendent than the Father. He is the very visible image of the invisible God, existing before and supreme over all creation (Col. 1:15). He does not merely possess a diluted or mediating form of deity. Never must we fear an “invisible” side of God not reflected in Jesus. There is not some looming puppeteer over the head of Jesus whose arbitrary mood will ever shift against us. His Abba is our Abba. The presence of His Holy Spirit abides with us always. Dr. C. Baxter Kruger states: From all eternity, God is not alone and solitary, but lives as Father, Son, and Spirit in a rich and glorious fellowship of utter oneness. There is no emptiness in this circle, no depression or fear or insecurity. The trinitarian life is a great dance of unchained communion and intimacy, fired by passionate, self-giving, other-centered love and mutual delight. This life is unique, and it is good and right. It is full of music and joy, blessedness and peace. And this love, giving rise to such togetherness and fellowship and oneness, is the womb of the universe and of humanity within it. The stunning truth is that this triune God, in amazing and lavish love, determined to open the circle and share the trinitarian life with others ... This is the one, eternal, abiding reason for the creation of the world and of human life. … Before the creation of the world, the Father, Son, and Spirit set their love upon us and planned for us to share and know and experience the trinitarian life itself. To this end the cosmos was called into being, the human race was fashioned, and Adam and Eve were given a place in the coming of Jesus Christ, the Father’s Son, in and through whom the dream of our adoption would be accomplished.
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MONEY. SEX. BEER. GOD. Ditching Religion for the Joy of Incarnation
MONEY.
SEX.
BEER. GOD. A New Book by John Crowder a new from John Crowder Nowbook Available at www.MoneySexBeerGod.com
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available at JohnCrowder.net
Meditations of the Mystics By Thomas Merton
Excerpted from New Seeds of Contemplation Let us live in this love and this happiness, you and I and all of us, in the love of Christ and in contemplation, for this is where we find ourselves and one another as we truly are. It is only in this love that we at last become real. For it is here that we most truly share the life of One God in Three Persons. God in His Trinity of subsistent relations infinitely transcends every shadow of selfishness. For the One God does not subsist apart and alone in His Nature. He subsists as Father and as Son and as Holy Spirit. These Three Persons are one, but apart from them God does not also subsist as One. He is not Three Persons, plus one nature therefore four! He is Three Persons but One God. He is at once infinite solitude (one nature) and perfect society (three persons). One infinite Love in three subsistent relations. The One God Who exists only in Three Persons is a circle of relations in which His infinite reality, Love, is ever identical and ever renewed, always perfect and always total, always beginning and never ending, absolute, everlasting and full. In the Father the infinite Love of God is always beginning and in the Son it is always full and in the Holy Spirit it is perfect and it is renewed and never ceases to rest in its everlasting source. But if you
follow Love forward and backward from Person to Person, you can never track it to a stop, you can never corner it and hold it down and fix it to one of the Persons as if He could appropriate to Himself the fruit of the love of the others. For the One Love of the Three Persons is an infinitely rich giving of Itself which never ends and is never taken, but is always perfectly given, only received in order to be perfectly shared. It is because the Love of God does not terminate in one self-sufficient self that is capable of halting and absorbing it, that the Life and Happiness of God are absolutely infinite and perfect and inexhaustible. Therefore in God there can be no selfishness, because the Three Selves of God are Three subsistent relations of selflessness, overflowing and super abounding in joy in the Gift of their One Life. The interior life of God is perfect contemplation. Our joy and our life are destined to be nothing but a participation in the Life that is theirs. In Them we will one day live entirely in God and in one another as the Persons of God live in One another. As Christ says “I in them and Father, You in me, that they may be made perfect in One … and the glory which you have given me I have given to them, that
they may be One as we are One” and “In this shall everyone know you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” The Quiet Member of the Trinity It is generally safe to say that noise and turmoil in the interior life are signs that proceed from our own emotion or from some spirit that is anything but holy. The inspirations of the Holy Ghost are quiet, for God speaks in the silent depths of the spirit. His voice brings peace. It does not arouse excitement, but allays it because excitement belongs to uncertainty. The voice of God is certitude. If He moves us to action, we go forward with peaceful strength. More often than not his inspirations teach us to sit still. They show us the emptiness and confusion of projects we thought we had undertaken for His glory. He saves us from the impulses that would throw us into wild competition with other men. He delivers us from ambition. The Holy Spirit is most easily recognized where He inspires obedience and humility. No one really knows Him who has not tasted the tranquility that comes from the renunciation of our own will, our own pleasure, our own interests, without glory, without notice, without approval, for the interests of some other person. The inspirations of the Spirit of God are not grandiose. They are simple. They move us to see God in works that are difficult without being spectacular.
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NEW&CLASSICBOOKSFROMJOHN&LILYCROWDER
Money. Sex. Beer. God. In this Biblical companion to the happy life, learn how religious mindsets of gnostic dualism slipped in over 2,000 years of church history and blinded us to the God-given joys and pleasures of this world. We have often separated our spirituality from earthiness. But did Jesus really condemn all enjoyment of this world? Ditch religion for the joy of incarnation as John Crowder covers topics your pastor is afraid to talk about.
Books
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Chosen for Paradise The topic of election has confused theologians for centuries. Does God harden hearts and choose some to fry forever in Hell? Explore the tough passages of Romans 9-11 and gain new light on the debated doctrine. God is not choosing one human over another. Jesus Christ is the chosen, elect man on behalf of all humanity. And you are fully included in Him. John’s shortest book aims to cheer up theology’s biggest problem ever!
Cosmos Reborn Need a religious detox? Have a dose of happy theology on the new creation! A grace-centered look at regeneration, the new creation and the new birth. See the massive, cosmic scope of the finished work of the cross as John makes a scandalous case that the Father of Jesus Christ is in a good mood. Get a gospel view of wrath, hell and dispel the myth of a dark, schizophrenic god of religion. One of our deepest books!
Grace for the Contemplative Parent Based on the classic Practice of the Presence of God, Lily gears this book for real-time parents whose lives are full of dirty diapers and soccer practice. Don’t have luxurious hours of quiet time like a 17th century monk? You are not missing out. Be awakened to the very real presence of Christ in your everyday, seemingly “mundane” state of affairs. Full of practical, down-to-earth examples and wisdom from a mother of four.
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*NEW*
*NEW*
Seven Spirits Burning
Mystical Union
The New Mystics
The Ecstasy of Loving God
John’s long-awaited Seven Spirits Burning is an extensive, Biblical plunge into the nature and operation of the sevenfold Spirit of God. This book unpackages a deep theological and Christocentric understanding of the seven Spirits. John has taught for years on the seven Spirits, but not until now has he released this detailed compilation of his study and experience. This book could possibly be the magnum opus of anything written to date on the Spirit’s sevenfold nature.
When you think of the cross, do you think of fun? Get ready for the gospel as you’ve never heard it. With clear revelatory truths on the New Creation and the scandalous joys of the cross, Mystical Union promises to be one of John’s most revolutionary, lifechanging works. The happy gospel of grace is about uninterrupted union with the Divine. This book lays out our most core beliefs. It promises to wreck your theology and cheer you up with undeniable Biblical truths on the free gift of perfection.
God has destined you to live in the joyful radiance of Himself, just as Adam was called to live in the realm of Eden. Ecstasy, or “extasis,” is the Greek term for trance, and is linked with a pleasurable, God-given state of out-of body experience recorded throughout the New Testament and the church age. In this book, John takes us on a journey from Old and New Testament ecstatic prophets to the future ecstatics who will usher in a massive wave of harvest Glory to the streets in these last days.
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Two thousand years of miracle workers and seers crammed into one generation. The fiery bowls of heaven are being poured out through an anextreme extremebody body of spiriof spiritual tual forerunners. Are called you called to forerunners. Are you to walk walk among them? Miracle Workamong them? Miracle Workers, ers, Reformers New MysReformers and and the the New Mystics tics contains more than70 70 photos, contains more than illustrations, and biographies of men and women whose lives have demonstrated the phenomenal throughout the theages. ages.Let Let their stotheir stories ries inspire inspire youyou. to join their ranks as part of this revival generation. $15.95 + Shipping $15.95 + JohnCrowder.Net Shipping Buy It At:
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20 | the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016
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R
The Priesthood of Christ The Relevance and Perfecting of the Office
Miracle Healing Session Healing Release & Impartation
While priesthood seems an irrelevant topic in today’s culture of Instagram, Netflix and backyard barbecues, all of humanity longs inwardly for the role of a priest - one who will atone for their sense of guilt and offer to God the perfect worship they can never muster up. How was Christ “perfected” as our High Priest?
John often says he has never done a whole teaching solely on healing ... He just teaches on the gospel and does healings. In this session devoted completely to healing miracles and impartation, John brings a finished work perspective and grace focus to the subject of bodily miracles. Get free from striving to “work up” faith for healing!
Killing the Sacred Cow
Communion
A Beginner’s Guide to Why we are so Offensive
Participating in Sacramental Union
John Crowder gives an overview of many major concepts the Lord has downloaded to him over the years. He walks through a journey of various topics: from a focus on the supernatural, the wine of God’s presence, our union with God, the inclusion of humanity in the gospel, freedom from dualisms and much more. A good scandalous snapshot of our experiential and theological journey.
In this teaching John Crowder covers the topic of communion. Is it a mere symbol or a mystical sacrament? How do we view communion from a perspective of the finished work of the cross? John also explores the rich history of eucharistic miracles and ancient communion celebrations that led to modern revivalism.
Christology & Prolepsis
Baptism
The Incarnation as an Eternal Reality
Understanding Water & Spirit Baptism
“Prolepsis” is the foreshadowing, or anticipation of the coming Christ that always existed in a hidden way throughout the course of human history. Jesus did not merely come onto the scene 2,000 years ago. In the beginning was the Word and all things were created through Him. In this teaching, John explores Christ as eternal sum of all things.
In this teaching John covers the role of water baptism from a finished work perspective. Not a superstitious act required to “purchase” salvation, nor a symbol pointing to your own “personal faith,” baptism is a sacrament that points to your death with Christ before you ever even realized it! John also covers “spirit baptism.” Do you get Holy Spirit in a separate act from your conversion?
Ephesians Euphoria Four-part Series on the Cosmic Incarnation
Catch the grace of the gospel and the cosmic scheme of the incarnation in this fourpart series as John Crowder walks through the entire book of Ephesians, dispelling our dualistic notions of separation from God and encouraging a practical life lived out to the glory of God in the beauty of holiness.
Abiding in the Wine Vine Sap Suckling & Fruit Bearing
“Abiding” is a passive work - not an active one. We exist in Christ, and He bears fruit through us. In this teaching, John Crowder expands on the fruit of the Spirit that is produced through our effortless union with Christ. This is a study and meditation on love, joy, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control from Galatians 5.
the ecstatic : fall-winter 2016 | 21
Digital Download Store: www.johncrowder.net A Better Word
Cruciformity
The Bible: Infallible, Irrelevant or Holding a Secret?
The Divine Nature of Self-Giving Love
In this teaching John touches on the topic of the inspiration of scripture, offering a different perspective on the controversial topic. What do we do with tough passages like the flood, genocide and other scriptures that appear to paint God as a moral monster? There is a Word within the Word - an underlying “Yes!” hidden within the “No!”
Christ did not simply die for us as an action. But the crucifixion speaks of His nature as the cruciform God. It is “because” He is God that Christ emptied Himself. God’s nature is other-giving love. As we explore what it means to have the divine nature - to embrace “theosis” or being God-like - the end result is always self-emptying love.
God in the Unbeliever
Losing Your Salvation
Seeing Christ Hidden in Humanity
Eliminating Fear of Divine Abandonment
Modern evangelicalism has conditioned us with an insider-outsider mentality. Jesus supposedly “jumps inside” a person when they make their salvation “decision.” But is this the message of the apostle Paul? If all of humanity is included in the Last Adam, as Paul clearly articulates, how does that play into our understanding of our fellow man and the dynamics of being “in Christ?”
A number of passages in scripture are mishandled in a way to instill the fear of losing our salvation. But salvation was never based on our performance or even our ability to drum up faith on our own. In this teaching, John Crowder tackles some tough passages offering a radical grace perspective.
Woven into the Trinity Grafted Into the Incarnation
Why is a revelation of the Trinity core to our understanding of the nature of God? Unlike the unitarian concept of God that is directly based on our human performance to please him, instead we have been grafted into Jesus’ relationship with the Father in the Spirit. Our relationship with God is fully mediated through the incarnate Son - our salvation rests completely on His faithfulness, His vicarious repentance on our behalf and His baptism into our death. God is family. He is other-giving love.
Contemplating the Mystery
John Crowder’s Joy Clinic Three-Part Extended Teaching Set
Do you suffer from Religion, Burnout, Boredom, Depression, Unbelief or Legalism? Looking for a quick, easy remedy that seems too good to be true? This is just what the doctor ordered! In this three-part series John lays out a multi-dimensional gospel feast. Covering new creation realities and the joy of the glorious gospel, he addresses the identity of the believer and dispels the theological myth of an angry, schizophrenic God.
Renewing the Mind
The Divine Dance of Theology and Contemplation
Gospel Joy Explosions to the Brain
Contemplation is the practice of His presence. Christ is the object of our contemplation. Our intersection between the seen and the unseen, the finite and the infinite. Contemplation - as a mode of enjoyment - is never an end in itself. It does not exist if it is detatched from the Person who is contemplated or enjoyed. And theology is not to become mere intellectualism. When Christ is given His place, the scriptures find their place.
The renewal of the mind is a happy journey of having our thought life infused with the joy of our salvation and saturated with the revelation of our true identity in Christ. Tired of stupid thinking that produces strife and tension? As we stay plugged into the word of truth, we “know the truth” and the truth sets us free.
Hearing God for Dummies
Manifested Sons of God
New Covenant Prophetic Insights
Effortlessly Shine in the Supernatural Life
Most charismatics think they know everything about the prophetic. But much of the prophetic movement has been derailed in old covenant style future-telling. A new covenant people are emerging who can point backward to the cross, releasing faith for what’s already been given to us. Get practical tips on hearing God!
All of creation awaits the “revealing” of your sonship. You were created for the supernatural life. Manifesting our divine identity is as effortless as realizing who we really are – adopted heirs entrusted with authority in heaven and earth. John explores our miraculous inheritance in Romans 8 from a finished work perspective.
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Raising Family in Grace
The Election Series
The Gospel at Home with John & Lily
Seeing Romans 9-11 Through a New Lens
John and Lily Crowder explore the topic of marriage and family life in the grace and glory of God. The gospel radically liberates parents from the stress and fear of religious performance, infusing children with identity and life. This extended teaching features Q&A and practical tips on practicing the presence at home.
Romans 9-11 contains some of the most difficult and misunderstood concepts ... In this 5-part series, John Crowder shoots religious cows on every side of the debate - cheering up your perspective of God, hell and predestination. Going beyond the Calvinist-ArminianUniversalist debate John presents a strong hope in Christ - the Vicarious Man, who is both Elector and Elected. This is one of our most stretching teaching sets.
Drunken Theology 101 Extended Teaching on the Cross
Divine Creativity And the Graven Image of the Law
Get new creation foundations for your bliss as John expands on the revelation of the gospel in this two-hour teaching session from Australia. Tap into the mysticism of St. Paul, the glorious drink of divine union and the beautiful gift of perfection. This is a powerful summation of finished works theology that will cheer you up, infuse you with joy and transform your understanding of Christianity.
Ever notice that religious folk are usually not creative? Longing for the Spirit of Creativity the Spirit Himself - to manifest more through your life? Often, what Christian artists deem to be “creative” is really just a dead, copycat repetition of types and shadows. But now, since you are restored to the true image of God in Christ, you can manifest a fresh expression of the divine.
Drink Grace Straight
Mystical Union Audiobook
Revelations of the Glory
The knowledge of the Glory of God is filling the earth in this hour. Ever wonder what the “knowledge of the Glory” actually is? It is the pure revelation of the gospel. Grace has to be drunk straight. Any mixture of law added to your pure drink of grace, and it ceases to be true grace. Drink deep of the gospel revelation in this teaching!
Read by John Crowder
In this audiobook recording, listen as John Crowder reads his classic, Mystical Union. The gospel is a mystical message, based on an instant and effortless union with God achieved at Christ’s cross. There is a delicious feast prepared for the believer. This book threatens to turn your Christianity upside down. Makes a great easy listening audio companion to the hardback book.
The All New Quantum Crowder Joy Pod MP3 Player Upgrade to the Latest Redesigned Model With Even More Teachings & Features
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Ships in September 2016 Available at JOHNCROWDER.NET
This Device Includes: 45 Full Length Audio Teachings by John Crowder 2 Full Length Audio Books (Mystical Union & Money. Sex. Beer. God.) Material Not Available on our Digital Download Store Earbuds included USB Charger Cable/Sync Cable Included Slim Design - Zinc Construction No Batteries Needed More Than 5 GB Additional Space for Extra Audio Files Built in Speaker Supports MP3, WMA and Other Lossless Audio Formats Supports FM Radio, Voice Recording & Ebook Reading 24 Optional Languages, Manual Included
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