The Headwaters

While living in Minnesota, we lived close to the exact location where the mighty Mississippi River starts it's windy path through the United States from top to bottom. It all begins in a lake at Itasca State Park. It was incredible to me how such a large River that stretches so many miles, gets its start from a modest size body of water. Then it winds through nine different states and eventually ends in the Gulf of Mexico. The headwaters of the Mississippi is Lake Itasca.

The headwaters of true prayer is relationship. When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, as recorded in Luke 11:2, He began by saying when we pray, use the words, "Our Father". This is the launching pad for all prayer. At take off, we are immediately introduced to our loving Father. He wants us to encounter His radical love, demonstrated in His Son, Jesus Christ. We do not have to live or pray as orphans; He wants to adopt us into His family. Apart from Christ, we have no right to call God, "Our Father". However, when we are in Christ, we can receive our adoption, the right to call Him our Daddy, our Abba.

If our prayer does not start at the headwaters, and we jump into the middle of the river, our prayers will be prone to becoming religious, stale or even intimidating. All too often, we come to God out of desperation and jump directly into our needs and wants. When we receive His love and take our time building our relationship, then we are able to pray His heart for our situation. The brevity and strength of our prayer lives hinge on our ability to encounter and receive the Father's love.

One issue that could clog the river of our ability to receive the Father's love is the orphan spirit. This is an evil spirit that makes you feel as if you do not have a Heavenly Father and specifically that we are not loved. We have all had imperfect earthly fathers. Because of this, it is easy to develop a view of God, as our Father, based on what we experienced with our earthly father. This results in living under this orphan spirit, and we allow the orphan spirit to take the place of God's blessing and His love for us. Father God wants to re-parent you.

If your prayer life does not start at the headwaters, in the Father's love, it's time to break off the orphan spirit and allow Christ to heal your love receptors. Friends, we need God's love! We need the Father to re-parent us. The health of our soul and strength of our prayer life hinges on our ability to receive the Father’s love. Come to Him today and open your heart and allow His love to enter.

The ability to receive His love will absolutely revolutionize your prayer life. It changes the way we pray. Every time you pray, jump into the headwaters. It's refreshing!

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* I credit Lesson 3 from Year 1 of the College of Prayer International. For more information, go to www.collegeofprayer.org

Chiapas Mexico Trip Update

EThree months ago, at our (The College of Prayer International) annual leadership gathering here in Atlanta called iGNITE, God called me to Mexico. It was while we were praying for the nations. Right after hearing this, I went and told my friend, who is now our Director for Latin America, Luis Calderon. I said, "I'm going with you to Mexico". He got excited. The Lord provided the exact funds I needed and I began praying for this experience.

On my plane flight South last weekend, I was reading Scripture and praying, and I heard the Lord tell me very clearly, “Fred, you have been on trips before, but this will be far more significant and far reaching than any other. Prepare yourself.” So, I began praying the Lord’s kingdom come upon me and our team and over the Mexican state of Chiapas, where I was headed to serve. In my Scripture reading, the Lord gave me a verse that became my heart cry over the weekend. It is Acts 10:35, “God does not show favoritism, but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.” This spoke to me as I prayed that God would give me His heart for the people of Mexico. I saw this play out throughout the weekend as the Lord broke my heart for these beautiful people.

I served with a team of six. Luis Calderon, our Director for Latin America, led our team. In addition, we had a pastor from El Paso Texas, a pastor from Mexico City and two Christian and Missionary Alliance Missionaries from Guadalajara, Mexico.

On Friday morning, we visited the Voice of the Martyrs headquarters for the area. There is a couple who lead this ministry as they reach out to those who have been persecuted for Christ. Recent statistics prove that Mexico is on the rise in persecution and are now in the top 40 places for persecution worldwide. It was humbling for me to sit with people, who have been persecuted, and listen to their stories of what they have been through because of their faith in Jesus. One new friend (pictured above with grey plaid shirt), shared that when he gave his life to Jesus, he was not able to buy any goods in stores, he was pushed out of his homeland and forced to move out. Someone stole his 20 acres of crops and burnt down his house. Another friend (pictured in blue shirt), was going to be killed and God intervened and saved him. His enemies had poured gasoline on his feet, and while they were trying to burn him, they were unable to light a match. He was rescued! The persecution that is endured in this area is mostly at the hands of religious groups. This area is heavily Catholic and if anyone becomes born again, they will force you out of the community. I can’t express how moved I was to be with these people and hear their stories. We had 30 people from the persecuted church attend our training.

The primary reason we went to Chiapas was to complete our Year One training in the College of Prayer. We started Friday night and went over 4 hours. There were around 300 people in attendance. We experienced high worship, led by a youth praise team. Luis taught both lessons and facilitated response times. After both lessons, there were many who came to the altar to receive from the Lord. There were people crying out to God, weeping. These people are so genuine. I have never seen such hunger for God before.

On Saturday, we started at 9am and went until 6pm. We continued to see God move in the hearts of people, going deep with God during every session. The Lord was with me as I taught two lessons from our curriculum. I was the only one in the whole room who did not speak Spanish. The Lord gave grace and I had an amazing interpreter. The Lord moved in powerful ways. I taught on the Father love of God and many came to see Jesus break off the orphan spirit and to have their love receptors healed. Then after the lesson on prayerlessness, we had many come to repent of prayerlessness and receive the Holy Spirit to fill and ignite their prayer lives. It was overwhelming to see the Lord work in the lives of people as they poured their hearts out to Him. We finished the day with what we call a “tunnel of blessing”. All 25 pastors in attendance lined the middle aisle on either side and everyone else walked through slowly as we prayed blessings over these dear people. This went on for over 2 hours. It was incredible. The people loved it!

Sunday morning, we were invited to preach in a church. I preached on the parable of the persistent widow from Luke 18. Again, we saw the Holy Spirit poured out on our gathering as we experienced the presence of Christ. Many responded and came to the altar inviting the Holy Spirit to activate their prayer lives. In addition, many came to intercede for deep needs. As I stood on the platform and looked out upon these dear people, it felt as if Jesus was walking through the room. The presence of the Lord was thick. All glory to Christ!

This trip was deeply impacting on my life. To hear stories from persecuted Christians, to see the Lord use our curriculum and training, to see the Lord work in so many ways, it was incredible! I fell in love with Mexico and I want to go back. I fell in love with the people. I fell in love with what Jesus is doing in the nations. I am so thankful that He does not show favoritism. I now know why God wanted me to go on this trip. May God continue to pour out His Spirit in the last days.

Our Father and Fear

I was awaken in the middle of the night recently, by my children coming into our bedroom to find love and comfort. We were experiencing a loud thunderstorm in our area of North East Atlanta. I could tell it was bad when I discovered that all four of my kids decided to join my wife and I.

It was fear that led them to interrupt our sleep. They were afraid of what might happen to them during the storm. It was a difficult combination of being tired, being in the dark and hearing the wild storm outside their windows. All of this led to their fear. They began to ask questions like, “When will this stop? What if a tree falls on our house? Will we be okay?” I totally understood where they were coming from because I can remember, as a child, crawling under my pillow and covers when a major storm rolled through my neighborhood.

When we have fear creep into our lives, we need a way to deal with it. Fear can cripple a person. It needs to be dealt with. Fear can come in all shapes and sizes. We can be afraid of the future. We can be afraid of suffering. We can be afraid of something happening to our family. We can be afraid of sickness or death. We can live in fear of many things.

My children knew, that night, that if they came into our room, we, as parents, would give them a sense of security and comfort. They knew that the moment they walked into our room, they would have those things. They were right. When I woke up, I wanted to answer each of their questions and make sure that they were comfortable enough to go back to sleep.

I was reminded that night, as I laid in bed, of the love and care of our Heavenly Father. What my wife and I provided our children, that night, is what our Heavenly Father provides for us. He provides love, care and acceptance. 

Receiving the love of our Heavenly Father will help us conquer any fear in our lives. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no love in fear because perfect love drives out fear.” The moment we receive the love of the Father, it is as if we have a complete antidote for fear. Love and fear cannot operate in the same room. The Father’s love will drive out any fear that we have. He gives us a sense of security and self-worth that can conquer all fear.

Have you received the full extent of the Father's love for you? God wants to reach every area of your life with His love. As the song goes, He is a good, good Father, it's who He is. Paul says in Romans, "There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus." But His love needs to be received. We need to open up every area of our lives, so that the love of God can come in and meet every desire we have to be loved and accepted. Our relationship with God begins as we understand that He is a loving Father.

Are you dealing with fear in your life? Receive the love of the Father. When you do, you will see the things of this earth grow strangely dim. He loves you.

Who's Got Your Back?

I just recently returned from a youth retreat and the theme for our weekend was: Who's got your back? When you hear the phrase, I've got your back, It leads us to a place of confidence, companionship, security, relationship. It’s hilarious, in the last 2 weeks, I’ve heard that phrase come up so many different times. I was down at our theater with my family watching Ice Age 3. (Which BTW is hilarious!) There was a scene where the saber tooth tiger says to his new friend, I’ve got your back. Then a couple weeks ago, I was playing short stop at a church softball game and I overheard our right center-fielder tell our left center-fielder, I got your back.

Those words bring life! Each of us have a longing to be loved. When we know that someone has our backs, it makes us feel loved. There is nothing more encouraging. There is nothing that propels you to greater things. There is nothing that energizes us more. There is nothing more satisfying than knowing that someone has our back.

Now, as an associate pastor, I have many roles in our church. I’m the youth pastor. I oversee Christian Education. I preach on occasions. I run the Anchor (our Christian youth center). I visit people in the hospital. I meet with people for counseling. I’m officiating a wedding next month. These are all important roles. But, in addition to knowing Christ, my primary role is to support our senior pastor. As his associate, it is my primary role to support him. No matter what, I need to be loyal, I need to pray for him, I need to be there for him. I have his back no matter what!

Unfortunately, too many people in this world will turn our back on us. We may have a best friend who loves us one day and then leaves us the next. When storms come into our lives, we need to know that we have someone who will support us, love us, be there for us no matter what. We may receive this from our parents, we may receive this from our children, we may receive this from our spouces, we even may receive this from friends. However, there is a love that exists that is far greater and more sufficient than any human love and that is the love that we receive from our Heavenly Father.

Check out these verses:
Proverbs 18:24 “A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Hebrews 13:5-6 "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.”
John 15:13 "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

My desire is for you to know beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus has your back. That no matter what you do, what happens to you, no matter where life takes you, Jesus has your back! He loves you, He died for you and He lives today to be your best friend!