Faith is not a Sunday show or religious ideas that you ought to know. Faith is a mighty, inner flow — a tsunami of the Spirit that totally transforms your heart!
Check out the new book, Tsunami of the Spirit Come Roll Over Me, published by The Salvation Army.
Salvation is a lost word in the 21st Century. Lost words are often referred to as archaic. Archaic words are no longer in use or have lost their meaning in their current usage. Almost the only remaining usage of the word salvation is the 21st Century is in the popular name of The Salvation Army. So what does this lost word mean?
Salvation is a noun that means rescue and deliverance from evil, harm, danger, and/or destruction. Here are some examples of its usage:
As the angry wolves came closer, he felt his only salvation was to climb a tree and wait them out.
When the capital was surrounded by enemy forces, it looked like there would be no salvation for the country.
Sometimes innovation is optional, but it tough economic times innovation may be a company’s salvation.
In these three examples, salvation is temporary because the person will eventually die, the country will eventually cease to exist, and the company will eventually fail. However, there is a rescue and deliverance that never ends, eternal salvation–the rescue and deliverance of the human soul from the power and eternal consequences of wrongful thoughts, words, and behaviors; through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
That is the way that The Salvation Army uses the word, salvation. It is an Army fighting for the salvation of souls in more than 120 countries!
The word salvation may be archaic, however, salvation remains the greatest need of mankind. Are you rescued and delivered from sin and living in God’s salvation?
The Salvation Army USA’s Crest Books has just published a new book, Tsunami of the Spirit Come Roll Over Me. It is an urgent call from various Salvation Army leaders from around the world for a radical, earth-shaking, overwhelming move of the Holy Spirit.
The book is based on a quote from General Paul Rader, a former international leader of The Salvation Army: “Pray that a Spirit-inspired movement of prayer reaching the throne of God will bring a mighty tidal wave of salvation blessing sweeping over our Army around the world, a tsunami of the Spirit, cleansing, refreshing, and renewing us for mission.
The passion of my life has been to see a mighty, world-wide move of God, a great spiritual awakening, so Tsunami of the Spirit hits deep within my heart. I believe that a genuine spiritual tsunami would transform everything about the church in 4 ways:
1) Release incredible and uncontained spiritual power in greater ways than we can imagine.
2) Bring forth amazing urgency, intensity, uncontrolled emotion, and victory shouting.
3) Wash away human control.
4) Minimize religious order, structure, and organization.
Here are a few quotes from the book that match my 4 results of a tsunami of the Spirit:
1) “We’re anticipating a global tsunami. We’re praying for it. We’re fighting for it. We’re believing in it. We do not settle for ‘making a difference,’ ‘leaving a legacy,’ being an influence.’ We’re wanting God’s boundless salvation to sweep the earth with wave after wave of Holy Spirit love and purity and power, the whole world redeeming.” –Stephen Court
2) “Many a meeting has failed at the shouting point. Songs were sung, testimonies had been given, the Bible had been read and explained, sinners had been warned and entreated, prayers had been poured forth to God, but no one wrestled through to the point where he could and would intelligently praise God for victory, and, so far as could be seen, the battle was lost for want of a shout.” –Samuel Logan Brengle
“Nothing can stand before a man with a genuine shout in his soul. Earth and Hell flee before him, and all Heaven throngs about him to help him fight his battles . . . at times their shouting will be like the boom of a big gun, and will have the speed and power of a cannon-ball.” –Samuel Logan Brengle
3) “The believer is a disciple, giving up one’s own way and following the Christ at all costs. It’s considerably more than a marginal interest in Christianity.” Jim Knaggs
4) “We have been trying to break loose all the trammels of custom and propriety which may in any degree have hindered or hampered us in the past…We mean to gain the ear of the people for our Master; and we are more than ever determined that no conformity to any church forms or ideas shall hinder us.” –William Booth
“Too often I struggled to squeeze enough Gospel into people to get them to Heaven, without realizing the power of the Gospel to break into dark and desperate places in order that the light might shine brightly throughout the entire earth.” –Danielle Strickland Lord, send a tsunami of Your Spirit and send it soon!
* Here’s another book full of Salvation Army history and quotations: Beyond Church: An Invitation To Experience The Lost Word Of The Bible. Check it out here.
If your life feels crummy
And you’re living like a zombie,
Perhaps you need
A spiritual tsunami.
Guilt is an electric quilt that will burn you up. No one should carry such a burden.
Shame will leave you lame and loaded with inner pain. But how do you shake off your blame?
The most commonly tried remedy for guilt and shame is denial. “Who are you to judge me? There’s nothing wrong with my thoughts, words, or behavior! I’m not guilty of anything! My lifestyle is nothing to be ashamed of!”
The only problem with denial is that it doesn’t work. Guilt and shame, like an undiscovered cancer, continue to secretly eat away our insides.
So how do you get rid of guilt and shame? By receiving forgiveness! But how do you receive forgiveness?
1) Face the facts. You have done wrong (and may still be doing wrong). Bring it out of your secret closet and openly admit it.
2) Then apologize to the living God for your wrongful thoughts, words, and deeds! Say, “God, I’m sorry for . . . ” and name them one by one.
3) Resolve to no longer think, say, or do your sins, no matter how difficult it is to overcome them and no matter how long it takes you!
4) Ask God to forgive you for each sin. Say, “God, I’m so sorry for ________. Please forgive me! Please change me inside and give me the power to live without it!”
5) Allow God to work in your heart, to bring you fresh insight, sorrow, tears, healing, and restoration. Let His Spirit move deeply in your innermost being and free you from the ravages of your guilt and shame. Let the living, resurrected Jesus Christ take over your life and live His life through you.
6) Stand by faith that you are forgiven based on these words from Scripture: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” –1 John 1:9. And: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” –Romans 8:1
7) Every time you fall into a wrongful thought, word, or behavior; stop it and immediately ask God to forgive you for it. Don’t accept any new guilt or shame; but get up again and continue to give your all to follow and obey Jesus through out every single day.
8) If you have sinned against a person, apologize to her/him and ask her/him to please forgive you. Where possible make restitution to the person. Even if they refuse to forgive you, you have done your part and guilt and shame will lose its grip concerning that person.
9) Forgive everyone who has ever done you wrong.
10) Don’t get caught up in the forgive yourself myth. God’s forgiveness is what matters! If He says you are forgiven, then your own opinion is overridden by the fact that you are forgiven no matter how you feel.
Guilt-free living is wonderful! It’s not easy, but it is definitely worth the effort! Go for it today!
3 Streams of Internal Human Communication
The flow of thought-talk (internal communication) through the human mind is called often self-talk or the stream of consciousness. Many people are confused and falsely believe that all of the thought that passes through their mind is self-talk. However, in reality, there are three distinct sources (or channels) of our internal thought:
1) Me & My Pride (MMP): Some human thought-talk is indeed self-talk. It’s source is simply the individual talking to herself/himself. It is the self (or soul) mentally desiring, planning, pondering, reacting, emoting, analyzing, etc.
Me & My Pride
2) The Tempting & Tormenting Tide (TTTT): Another source of the human inner voice is an external thought tide that flows into and out of the mind, sometimes seducing and sometimes scolding. TTTT alternates between bringing various forms of allurement, anger, attitude, and accusation. It is forceful, compulsive, coercive, self-destructive, and deceptive; and it requires much courage and effort resist TTTT. Because of that many people fail to turn the tide and instead simply surrender to The Tempting & Tormenting Tide and become its obedient slave.
The Tempting & Tormenting Tide
3) The Guide Inside (TGI): The living God also releases internal communication inside the human mind in the form of insight, encouragement, direction/correction, warning, and revelation; through images, words, sounds, impressions, aha moments, etc. TGI speaks like a whisper in a “still, small voice” and is gentle, kind, and loving; and can easily be resisted, ignored, or snuffed out.
The Guide Inside
America needs a spiritual awakening. We have lost our way and are wondering aimlessly. I long to see a mighty move of God in my country and in my city. One thing the Holy Spirit continually prompts me to do (even when I don’t want to) is to walk and pray while carrying a big red, yellow, and blue flag.
It is The Salvation Army Battle Flag. The red represents the Blood of Jesus, the yellow stands for the fire of the Holy Spirit, and the blue represents a lifestyle of overcoming sin and misery.
For more than 8 years my wife and I(and others) have carried the flag through East Nashville praying as we go for God’s protection and for a great revival to wake up our city. Here are some pics of a recent prayer walk in and around downtown Nashville.
Here are some keys to releasing God’s power from Acts 2:
1) Going along with God’s plan to use all believers, not just special ones like the apostles. At the end of Acts 1, the believers pick one disciple to replace Judas as an apostle. However, Acts two begins with God pouring His Spirit on all the believers and overriding a formal structuring of ministry.
2) Spirit prompted words. All of the believers “began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” We tend to focus on the tongues in this story, but what if it isn’t the language of the words that matters most, but where the words come from. The disciples boldly and openly spoke words “as the Spirit enabled them.” The words they were speaking were directly prompted (enabled) by the Spirit.
3) A willingness to appear foolish. People laughed and mocked, but the believers didn’t let that stop them from flowing with the Spirit. “Some, however, made fun of them,” but they didn’t let that slow them down.
4) The Spirit & the Scriptures radically proclaimed and obeyed. The disciples put Scripture and the Holy Spirit above tradition, custom, and their comfort zone. They boldly quoted “I will pour out my Spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy . . . Even on my servants both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
5) Belief in and humble reliance on a risen, resurrected Jesus Christ. The disciples boldly declared that “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.”
6) Courageously challenging the culture. They boldly confronted their culture: “With many other words he warned them and he pleaded with them, ‘Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.'”
7) Not being offended by the mysterious and the supernatural. They openly and publicly spoke in languages that they didn’t know. And they prayed for and experienced miracles: “Many wonders and signs were performed by the apostles.”
8) Giving it all to God. They “devoted themselves” to following and obeying the living, resurrected Jesus, no matter what. Many of them were later murdered for their faith.
Almost nobody criticizes Muslims for believing the Quran, or Hindus for believing the Bhagavad Gita. They expect the followers of those religions to believe their holy book.
Yet many people criticize Christians and Jews for believing the Bible! What’s up with that? Shouldn’t Bible believers have the same rights as Quran or Bhagavad Gita believers?
According to the Bible, the living, resurrected Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and the Chief Shepherd (which means “Senior Pastor”). That means that all the rest of us in a church are fellow believers, called to follow and obey Him.
Why not make the living, resurrected Jesus your Senior Pastor (Chief Shepherd)?
“For ‘you were like sheep going astray,’ but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
One human being is not the Head of the Church. The living, resurrected Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church and all believers should follow and obey Him!
One or all? In Acts chapter 1, the disciples “cast lots” and 1 man is added to the leadership team. In Acts chapter 2, God fills all the believers with the Holy Spirit and He uses all of them to praise and glorify God on the streets of Jerusalem.
Check out this short Mark Driscoll video: “Jesus is the Senior Pastor.: http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2011/march-online-only/jesusseniorpastor.html
