An AuSSM Year!

Image from Pixabay

        I just wanted to share with you a bit about this past year and as the Grateful Dead once said, "what a long, strange trip it's been!" ;-)

  

        For me, this trip started in December of 2016 when I encountered the Holy Spirit in such a powerful way that I can only quote John Wesley: "I felt my heart strangely warmed."

        When I started blogging, I was about seven months into this journey of exploring my heart-warming experience, a charismatic life and the Methodist roots that were born through revival and Holy Spirit power. Part of that experience led to my accidental second baptism and the opportunity to baptize my granddaughter. But, that experience also led me to spend the past year in a strangely named school - The Austin School of Supernatural Ministry. I also discovered that the United Methodist Church also has its own School for Supernatural Ministry, hosted through Aldersgate Renewal Ministries in Tennessee.

        I'm now approaching the end of my first year at AuSSM (pronounced 'awesome') and it has been a very eye-opening and life-transforming experience to learn how wonderful our Father God is and how much He loves us. This past year has been my Emmaus Pilgrim walk on super Holy Spirit steroids - it's the only way I can describe it.

        I have experienced God's presence in worship, prayer, and community with fellow believers. I have prayed like I've never prayed before. I've heard and shared testimonies of God's move in our lives, like never before. I've seen the positive side of the church - people loving God and loving people - with no objective in mind other than to love one another.

        It isn't about church growth, even though I've seen churches grow because of this. (I witnessed one church plant that started in October of 2017, grow to over 200 worshipers within 6 months.)

        I would say that I'm fully enveloped in, what others would call, a crazy charismatic life. But it isn't just about the gifts or the miracles or the signs and wonders - it really is as simple as understanding that we are children of God. And because we are children of God we must love all the other children of God - even though they might not know who God is, or worse, hate, despise or dismiss God.

        I've learned it's about living a life unoffendable. That's a simple statement but at the same time a life that I can only live through Him who strengthens me. What does it mean to be unoffendable? I say that it's about not letting my mistakes and dirt bring me down and take my eyes off Jesus. More so, I'm not going to let other people's mistakes and dirt take my eyes off of Jesus. Even more importantly, I'm not going to see people in ways that God doesn't see them. Since God is perfect love, He can only see people with love and that is exactly how I need to see others, as well as myself.

        One item that I've learned, and this came through learning about the prophetic, is that we are to see the gold that God has hidden inside each of His children. We are not to pay attention to the dirt that hides the gold, but rather, help brush the dirt away and expose the gold. It is the parable of the man who finds the treasure in a field and sells all he has to buy the field. It is the parable of the man who finds the pearl of great price and sells all he has to purchase it. Every person on this planet has value in God's eyes and we are to see that same Godly value, even in the broken, sick, hurting world that we live in. Our planet is not going to hell in a handbasket, but Heaven is invading Earth - one loving believer at a time.

        "Heaven invading earth" has such a strange sound to it, but it is essentially the third statement in the Lord's prayer: "On earth, as it is in Heaven". It is also the title of one of the books I read this year, by Bill Johnson. The focus of Heaven invading earth is this: we, as believers, need to represent (and re-present) Christ on this earth. We need to be revival wherever we are. We need to bring the earth into alignment with Heaven (or as the title of the book states, let Heaven invade earth.)

        I've transcribed the Lord's prayer as I now understand it - it's a wonderful pattern for our belief and our prayer. Jesus is so good to show us how to pray:

    Our Father, in heaven, holy, holy, holy is Your name.

    Let Your Kingdom come.

    Let Your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven!!!

    Feed us every day, but not just with physical food, but on Your every word.

    We know we still stumble and falter, but that Your forgiveness is for us and that withholding forgiveness towards others keeps us from Your forgiveness.

    We know that you will protect us from temptation because our hearts and eyes are on You.

    We know that You have already defeated satan and You have delivered us from him as well.

    For it is all for Your Glory!

    Amen and amen.

        There is so much more, but it really boils down to this: God loves us and we are His. All we need to do is copy Him and show His love to everyone we encounter.

        I know that the UMC is wringing its collective hands over disunity, disagreement, loss of church members, schism, and a whole host of other issues. I also know that the charismatic life may not be for all, but what I've seen is that the problems of this world cannot be overcome by human effort alone. We need the Holy Spirit's power to accomplish our mission. And that mission is very succinctly stated in the UMC mission statement:

The mission of the Church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. 

        This isn't something that can be accomplished through human effort alone, that would be an exercise in futility. We must trust in God and His power to accomplish the mission He has assigned us (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8). I also know, at least within the Central Texas Methodist Conference, there has been a call for "out-of-the-box" thinking in order to find creative solutions to our denominational issues.

        I can't think of anything more "out-of-the-box" than letting God lead.

~~Ken