Desperation

I literally gasped for breath as if my body were demonstrating the state of of my spirit. I need Him and I can't seem to lay hold of enough. I could no longer breathe through my nostrils. I had to open my mouth and gasp for air. My heart wanted to jump out of my throat. I took quick heavy breaths as if my lungs were competing for air. As if air would run out. As if my heart would faint from suffocation. I feel an impending headache. My forehead is all wrinkled. My face is like that of a mother's, wailing after losing her child.


I have to need Him. I need you to need Him. To want Him for myself is one thing. But my spirit is not separate from the others.' I will never be satisfied until I find myself in the midst of a Body that groans for His presence and His return. My insides are wired to theirs, to yours. I am weeping for hunger, for food, for communion, for connection. I am weeping with a heart that longs for a generation that would gasp for His presence as if it were the only thing that would keep them alive.

wanted: recklessness

I thought I’d browse through wordpress tonight. I keyed in these words: Christian, Jesus Revolution. I stumbled upon a blog entry (Give Me Scotland) that quoted these striking words. Just wanna share:

What is, therefore our task today? Shall I answer: ‘faith, hope, and love?’ that sounds beautiful. But I would say—courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature…we lack…the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the kingdom of God. And remember the signs of the Christian church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish…but never the chameleon.

The Violence of Affection-based Obedience

Note: Phrases in italics are quotes from the podcast message.

I am thinking we must put teeth to our PASSION.

As I write this blog, a myriad of things are running amok in my mind and heart. I hope I get them organized enough to be able to write something with sense. I have just listened to a highly intense and stirring podcast message from www.ibethelmedia.org 's Kris Vallontton >> Babies Are Dying To Come Out. It is basically an exhortation exposing the philosophical and spiritual roots of abortion but it also tackles in it's intro the role of the Church in advancing God's Kingdom, how we cannot and must not accept the mediocre plight of simply being "church goers" but rather we must be Kingdom advance-rs.

There is a shift that is happening and it's a shift that we must advocate, that of shifting from coming to church to being the Church. To some of you, it might sound familiar but unfortunately, to others, it's absolutely new. That is why we who have come to an understanding of this must not take lightly the task of shaking up the rest of us for us to sober up to this reality.

You will know how close you are to the palace by how you respond to injustice! I think it is not just for me but for a handful of us (more specifically those people who, like me, have shared in the revelation of Affection-based Obedience by listening to an audio preaching we have been passing around online). God has been intensifying and establishing the right concept and even theology of Agape or God's unconditional love. We are being stirred up, gunned down, all-wrecked by an Encounter with the pure Love that casts out fear. A response seems but imperative.

Peace (Only) in the Inconvenient

in some cases, one may call it impractical, or unwise, but in this particular case, i would call it DIS-obedience. and if this personal revelation would also be for most of my readers, then God must be calling you (as he has also called me) to recognize the fact that this is not the time to wait for CONVENIENT circumstances to come before we actually start doing the things he has impressed in our hearts.

i sense an intensified call to OBEDIENCE of a more radical kind, the one that makes people wonder why we're doing "this." and now that it occurred to me, isn't that that this is really the kind of obedience that CHANGES communities and nations? Acts of obedience that rock the boat, acts of sacrifice that make the world begin to question their level of commitment, ventures into the inconvenient that make even the fiery, question their passion. because if we do not allow our lives to be shaken, how can we shake the world?

Ako ay Pilipino Movement - Call for Volunteers

hey hey guys! i'm recruiting volunteer Christian researchers, writers, editors (and what you have's) to run with the vision of publishing a book about the IDENTITY of the FILIPINO and the PROPHETIC DESTINY of the PHILIPPINES - before the 2010 elections. Comment here or send me a PM if you want to volunteer. Students are very much welcome to join. :) Contacts and recommendations will be much appreciated. ;)


if you're hesitant but you'd like to know more about the project (/vision God gave my friend), send me your email address and i'll let you in a bit.. thaaanks!

we've targeted november 2009 as launch date so we need as many eyes and brains as possible!

btw, this will be just one part of the "Ako ay Pilipino Movement.." we've envisioned to have a full blown campaign, the book being the launching pad and more tangible manifestation of the movement.

thanks thanks! hope to hear from you. *wink*

riz

To know more about Ako ay Pilipino, click here for vision/project description.

The Cost

Late last year, when I was praying with my friends Michelle and April and we're having a hard time getting a breakthrough, the Lord in his mercy released a word through a vision. The vision that Michelle saw was a flag ceremony. The Philippine flag was being raised up and as the rope of the pulley was being pulled down, there was also the impression of the stronghold of corruption being pulled down. Then she sensed that the Lord is saying that He has heard the cry of the poor and oppressed and the weary...that God's heart goes out to his people with great compassion and love. She prayed, "come Lord" but the the Lord said to her, "how can i come? prepare the way of the Lord!" (Michelle, can you fill us in with the Scripture God gave you? Thanks.)

After she shared this, we started praying this prayer of "prepare the way of the Lord..." We sensed the great urgency. We sensed as well the complacency and unpreparedness of our hearts, our nation. While we though we have been diligently praying and seeking His face, we have not really come to the point of intense seriousness... a position that has really considered the cost and declared the sacrifice worth it for the sake of having God's visitation in our nation.

We have been distracted by petty concerns. Even financial concerns that are not really a matter of life and death. While... the other part of our nation is actually enduring real hardships that our struggles do not even compare to. In short, God rebuked us.

We cried, not for our nation, but for ourselves. That we would find the grace and the courage to face the question of the hour: Are we willing to pay the price?

who will finish the race?

Lou Engle said in one of his preachings that in Israel, during the time when there was so much corruption, the Nazirites were a sign that God had not given up on a nation. "WHEN YOU SAW THE NAZIRITES, YOU'D KNOW THAT GOD HAD NOT GIVEN UP ON A NATION!" During a time of moral depravation and all sorts of breakdown (financial, social, etc.), God raises up a NEW BREED --- a man, or as in this case, a GENERATION that will run hard after HIM and the purposes of HIS HEART. A generation that will groan the very groanings of God. A people that has come to understand the UNQUENCHABLE love of God, a love that is RELENTLESS, and a love that SHALL NOT, WILL NOT surrender His people to the enemy of their soul. A people that will fight for the VERY THING that is IN GOD's HEART.

This reminds me of Michelle's vision and word about the heart of God for the nation. That God in his intense compassion and longing, wants to come... but finds lukewarmness in our invitation... Where has our hunger gone?

Have we started something in HUNGER and then eventually REFUSED to finish it. We have FAINTED somewhere along the way! We have forgotten the promises of God or we simply lost heart or faith. Our nation (they say) has a history of unfinished revolutions! But see, it is time we finish this revolution that we started. Fainting is not an option. Because if we faint, we will be worse off than those who never ran the race! For it will be like losing something that was really meant for us. Trading our inheritance for a bowl of soup! (of what? soup?)

We are a PRAYER MOVEMENT.

And I hear the voice of Lord echoing this words, who will finish this revolution? Sabi nga ng song ni Jason Upton, 'justice is waiting.' SEE the Lord has given us a PROMISE (promises!) and when the mouth of the Lord has spoken, it is a SACRED thing. God is not man that He should lie!

I have been praying with JREV even before the word to gather for a Solemn Assembly in Luneta had been received. (2000-2001) And I am still here right now because I simply BELIEVED. God's word, I believe will come to pass. And I DARE NOT surrender what has already been SECURED.

And the eyes of the Lord are looking to and fro across the earth for a people that is truly HIS.... Whose hearts are completely His... crying out the very cry of a just God wanting to rescue a nation from sin, injustice and corruption... WHO WILL FINISH THE REVOLUTION?