Open the Gates

Right before our Transform 2010 Outreach a team went to both Morocco and Spain and as a prophetic act Opened The Gates for God to move in the Mediterranean.

T10: Italy Update

Here's some prayer requests from the arts & media team in L'Aquila.

• Our van (from IBEI), whom we have dubbed Frederico, is really sick and in the shop. The engine starter doesn't work, and a new one has to be ordered that costs 300 euros. Please pray that God would guide the hands of the mechanic and that this problem would not continue so that this van could continue to be used for ministry. We will not have transportation until Wednesday or so.

• We're currently coming up with recurring themes from our initial impressions of this earthquake-ravaged city. Please pray that God would guide us and give us clarity and unity as we seek to provide healing and hope.

• Pray also for the people of L'Aquila, who are still trying to process their grief and attempting to move on. Rebuilding is difficult because Italians tend to only worry about their own problems. One Italian girl shared that the center of town would likely be in the same state ten years from now because of the Italian state of mind. Please pray that God would give these people hope and a passion to see a new city rise from the rubble.

T10: Bosnia Update

Tomorrow will be our first day of outreach in the town park. We got permission from the town for "presentation of religious literature"! We only asked for "cultural program"... so we will have bookstands, people singing and dancing, talks with people, invitations to concert. 

• Pray for protection, good conversations, anointed programs, good weather.

On Wednesday evening at 8 we will have a big concert on the main square of Bihac, with our Afro-American singer Mikki doing solo with Gospel music. This is the first time this is happening in Bihac, so I am really excited! 

• Pray for a very anointed concert, that God will touch many lives in Bihac even though they might not understand the words. Yesterday she sang for our believers and got a few listeners crying!

T10: Greece Update

The Larisa Team in Greece has arrived at its final destination safely. All of us could get some sleep on the train and seem to be fit for the ministry starting tomorrow.

First prayer requests have come up already. I will sort them with top priority first!

• Zyiad: He is a Muslim student of comparative religions. We met him at the first evangelical church in Athens as he was observing the service. Our group leader, Kees, soon started talking to him. He speaks 7 languages, including 3 arabian dialects. He is doing a research wherein he compares the 3 major religions (Christianity, Jews, Islam). Therefore he is educated on bible knowledge on a high academic level. He is very strong in destructing biblical truth, pointing out passages that apparently are corrupted. He is really good and no match in argument for the most of us. In attitude he wants to proof us that he is right, therefore is not open to our side. Pleas pray for him that God reveals the truth to him, since Kees will meet him again. Please help us pray that he will come to faith and God would call him to his fellow muslims since he has so much potential.

• Olivier: A frenchman we met in Larisa who has relatives here. He came here for 2 weeks. He got saved a week ago and water baptized today! He will go back to France tomorrow where he will need to find a good church and where he can be encouraged on his way with Christ.

• Ministry: We will be doing a kids programs in Larissa with Roma Gipsy kids, starting tomorrow morning. Pray that God prepares their hearts that we can reach out to them.

• In the evenings we want to organize a festival in the centre of town. Whether that happens depends on the goodwill of the Orthodox Church... Please pray that it will happen and have a positive influence on the local youth.

T10: Serbia Update

Two very significant ministries are being kick-started during this week, planned to be ongoing (drugs ministry and domestic violence ministry). 

• Pray for strength and protection for those leading them, and for divine appointments with addicts, and victims of abuse.
• Pray that whole church will get really involved during this week, and be envisioned for ongoing outreach.

T10: Bosnia Update

We are having a local help with making a video and picture taking. She is not a believer, but we feel that with the close interaction that she will be having with the Transform team she will be more interested in why the OM team is here in Sarajevo. We also feel that she is very open and searching for something spiritual. Pray that we will have a deeper relationship and that the Lord will touch her life. She is the niece of our regular attended coffee shop owner, so also pray that our relationship with them will grow. Her name is Adela.

2. We are still waiting on approval for painting the murals. Pray that the approvals will go through.

3. Pray that the OM team in Sarajevo will be recognized by the community that we are living in and that the community will welcome us as their own.

4. We originally wanted to do a concert out in the local park, but we did not get the approval. Our plan now is to just go out guitars and hang out. Pray that the police will not give us to many problems.

A fun message from our Founder!

George Verwer asks us to keep Transform 2010 in our prayers.


More about Transform...

The Great Commission

“Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Mat 28:16-20

Oxford American Dictionary explains “commission” as “a group of people officially charged with a particular function” and “the authority to perform a task or certain duties”. I’d say we have done quiet well with the first part of the commission. We have gone to the nations, discipled them, baptized them, and taught them everything Jesus taught us. But I think for various reasons we have skipped the second part - how we were actually supposed to go and disciple the nations, baptize and teach them. 

I have 2 questions i’d like to answer

• How did Jesus teach 
• How did Jesus tell the disciples to teach

How did Jesus teach

“You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” Acts 10:37,38

In Matthew 3 we find Jesus being baptized by John in the Jordan. Until then i believe baptism was more of a outward sign, a confession of faith so to say. But when Jesus was baptized something deeper happened, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God came on Jesus and then His earthly ministry began, one of teaching and power. It’s this same power that Jesus told His disciples to wait for in Jerusalem before they could start their “great commission”. (Acts 1:4,5,8)

In Luke 4 we find Jesus Himself saying what this power, anointing, Spirit was for:

“Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: 

 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, 

      because he has anointed me 

      to preach good news to the poor. 

   He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners 

      and recovery of sight for the blind, 

   to release the oppressed, 

    to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

 Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:14-21

Jesus then went on preaching the good news of a God who loved the world so much, a God who wasn’t going to hold anything back. (John 3:16,17) He confirmed this teaching with opening up salvation to anyone who would believe. In Mark 16 Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Lets look for a second at the word “saved”, Greek word 4982, Sozo. 

Sozo (salvation) touches 3 areas. 

• Salvation for the Spirit (Mat 1:21, Rom 10:13)
• Deliverance for the Soul (Luke 8:36)
• Healing for the Body (Mark 5:34, James 5:15)

The Good News, salvation, has a lot more to offer than just being baptized in the names of God, and being taught how to live in righteousness. The Good News is really a Gospel of Power, the power to save and effect every area of our lives. Without power, without the Holy Spirit, aren’t we just going back to the law? (Rom 8) Jesus taught in the power of the Holy Spirit. He demonstrated this power through healing all who was sick (Mark 6:56), casting out demons (Mat 8:16) and forgiving sins (Luke 5:24).

How did Jesus tell his disciples to teach

The first time Jesus sends out His disciples, He sends out 72 and gives them these instructions: “When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God is near you.’” (Luke 10:9) When they got back they report with joy, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name." And then Jesus replied: 

"I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

"All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him."

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.”” Luke 10:18-24

Notice the joy for both Jesus and His disciples? Notice how Jesus praises Father for what He was doing according to His good pleasure? And then He how Jesus blessed His disciples for what they have seen? That is the way missions should be done! That is the results that we should be expecting! Jesus sent out His disciples in power and they continued the same ministry of Words and Wonders as Him. According to Acts 2:4, we now have that same power! 

We easily quote Mat 28’s “Great commission” because it doesn’t require a lot of us, and to be frank, it’s easier. But i think the reason we see Christianity impact so little of the world, is because we don’t in the same breath and with the same enthusiasm quote the rest of the Great Commission found in Mark 16:

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."

Get Transform 2010 Updates

Please keep praying for Transform 2010, a Mediterranean outreach going on right now.  The conference goes through tomorrow, then ministry teams will be sent out all across the region.  Thanks for remembering these teams and the people of the Mediterranean as you pray this summer.  Stay informed by subscribing to the Transform 2010 blog.

Buddy Hoffman leads from God's Word

during Transform 2010.

Home Groups

We have a family that goes to another Church, yet comes out our home group when we have it. For me it’s a picture of the unity that can come from Love. Our home group leaders washed our feet and prophesied over us a couple of weeks ago and it was so ridiculously special. And then this family invited us to their home group to do the same there. 

I went over quite excited until i realized that their youth were between 10 and 16 years old - i’ve never prophesied over such young people! For a moment there i forgot that God actually has as much plans with their lives as He does with mine at 26. And it became real apparent from the first greeting that He was there Love them, and draw then closer to His heart through our words and actions. 

We kicked off by giving some testimonies about Jesus Culture and my wife and I’s trip to the Middle East in May. The one where a girl had metal in her wrist from a accident and after prayer and God’s divine awesomeness, the metal was gone. Completely gone. I touched her wrist, i know. That got them going... And then we explained some on prophesy before we broke up into boy and girl groups. 

And then God was there. We had a great evening with them, and one girl who had dislocated her knee, after being prayed for said that all the pain she had had up to that point - was gone. She’ll go back to the doc today and so we wait for a full conformation of the depths of God’s grace. 

Last night we had home group again and even before we started Love was there. The wife of this same family, shared with me how she had hurt her ankle and that her achilles was too long or something? There was a term she gave which was way above my IQ. I called her husband and had him gently lift up her ankle, focus on God’s love and releasing it through his spirit, and then he prayed after me. The moment we stopped praying she got The Touch. She got real excited as her ankle got really hot, and then her whole body started tingling. She got up and walked around without any pain. She rolled her feet in perfect circles (something she couldn’t do over the last 6 months) and put pressure on it for the first time. God healed her! 

Then she asked me why is her whole body tingling and not just her ankle? It’s only her ankle that needed healing. And i just said that God loves all of you and He is here to show that to you. It was so precious for me to see a husband and wife encounter God like this for the first time. 

Home group blew up with amazing worship, encouraging words and some creative miracles. I love physical healings, but when I see my friends and family get a emotional breakthrough everything inside of me goes My God Did That, He Is Awesome!!!

For me being a missionary means that I’m sent out by God, doesn’t really matter where I go or to whom I go, I am going in His power and love. 

Jesus Culture Atlanta

I was at Jesus Culture Atlanta last week and God showed up with a big bag of love. Scot Thompson did a workshop on healing revival. Of the 500 in his workshop, eighty people were healed. One was healed of cystic fibrosis. Two had metal disappear. A little girl with Turrets got healed. A torn acl was made new. And a girl with celiacs disease was healed and had a very fun lunch.

A lady had crushed her foot badly, and they had put metal pins in her toes that would shove into her foot when she exercised, causing great pain. The pins disappeared. She tested it out by doing things that she couldn’t do before.

A girl had social anxiety disorder. She had stress-induced bulimia, for which she saw a therapist and took medicine. She felt all that lift off of her and gave a testimony to the 500. On outreach that day, she got the words “depression” and “suicide.” All afternoon, she looked for that but didn’t find the person. That night, she said, “Is it somebody here at the church?” During worship, the Lord told her it was not someone at the church; it was for her friend. He told her to text her right then. Her friend texted her right back and asked her to call her. Weeping, the friend said she was sitting in her room with a bottle of pills and a razor blade getting ready to kill herself when she received the text about God’s love and plan for her.

In 1993, a man had had a parachuting accident at 15,000 feet. His parachute malfunctioned and he hit the trees, bounced off the ground and broke his back in three places, shattering one area. He was in constant pain all those 17 years, and a huge bulge had formed on his back. He came to pick up his wife from the workshop. He received prayer, and all the pain left and the bulge disappeared.

We also sent out all 1500 on the streets and malls of Atlanta and had some amazing stuff happen at the hands of this fearless generation. The Jesus Culture Band lead worship and Jake Hamilton recorded his new live album. 

Check out Jesus Culture here...

Check out Jake Hamilton here...

**Although i was there, the actual testimonies and statistics I got from http://bit.ly/bvxw5T

What was Open the Gates

If you look at the map you can’t help but see how narrow the entrance to the Mediterranean is—just about 9 miles or a 90-minute ferry ride. So before the outreach starts we have a small team meeting in Algeciras southern Spain for a day and half of prayer and worship, then taking the ferry across the straits to Tangiers in Morocco and doing a similar thing there. We believe that these places are the gates to the Mediterranean. We want to worship and pray and ask that the gates be opened so that the King of Glory can come in. We want this prayer also to prepare the way for the training and equipping in Rome. It is a declaration of intent for the summer and all the outreaches taking place. Let the gospel go forward in power and might!

Open the Gates

A team of prayer people just completed 4 days of prayer on both sides of the Mediterranean in Southern Spain and Tangiers Morocco. At this point the Med is only 9 miles across, anything entering the Med has to pass between these points. Right from the beginning of Transform 2010 we felt it was important before the conference started to have time of worship and prayer and to Open the Gates to what the Lord wants to do this summer. In Algeciras we joined with local workers to pray for the countries involved, the teams and all that God wanted to do. Then we took the ferry across to Tangiers and did the same- the key in Tangiers was declaration of the names of God. In a country that does not hold a correct view of who God is we spent an hour speaking out the names of God and related scriptures. That seemed to open something up and we had the most beautiful and powerful worship and ministry to the Lord and each other! We called the church to Rise Up and enter into its destiny!

There was sense that we had completed our assignment after the end of these intensive days as we declared the Mediterranean is the Lords and asked Him to work and demonstrate His power through the teams this summer for His glory! 

Hovering over the Gulf

With so many emails and prayer requests going out about the oil spill, about God judging the Gulf even the US, this painting from a friend came as a refreshing reminder of Father’s positive redemptive purposes for the Gulf. 

“I had the picture in my mind for a couple of weeks, but I wasn't real sure of the full meaning. I kept seeing Father waving His arms over the face of the deep. His glory shown all about Him and the ocean was very dark. As I began painting it, I remembered the prayer sent out from Mahesh. I had already been praying about the blood of Jesus redeeming the Gulf and it dawned on me the painting was our prayers.  With each stroke I could see the oil and the blood in the water. I felt the Father's breath on the water breathing life...until finally the water was redeemed to it's original state. The painting became a prophetic act of my...our agreement with the Father for His redemption of the Gulf.”

**Painting and story used with permission of artist. 

Jesus knows your phone number

The wife of a man in western Algeria became very sick. Her husband tried everything, taking her from doctor to doctor and nothing worked. He was advised to try sorcery, which also failed. One night he had a dream in which a man appeared to him and said, “You’ve tried everything but nothing has helped your wife get better. Only one man can help you and I will give you his number.” The man awoke and called to his son, “Hurry! Get me a pen and paper!” The son returned and his father quickly wrote the number down. Though the father had never had any contact with a Christian, the Holy Spirit gave him the number of Rachid, head of church planting and follow-up for OM Algeria. He called the number.

Rachid answered, having no clue who the man was, and listened to his story. Rachid answered, “I cannot help you but there is One who can, the Lord Jesus Christ.” He led the man to the Lord and his wife was soon healed. As of this writing, she was still opposing the gospel, but please pray that the Lord would open her heart

Leonard Ravenhill

“Such praying men are always our national benefactors. Elijah was such. He had heard a voice, seen a vision, tasted a power, measured an enemy, and with God as partner, wrought a victory. He knew the mind of God. Therefore he, one man, strangled a nation and altered the course of nature. By the key of faith, which fits every lock, Elijah locked heaven, pocketed the key, and made Ahab tremble. Though it is wonderful indeed when God lays hold of a man, earth can know one greater wonder—when a man lays hold of God.” Leonard Ravenhill

Healing service in the Middle East

While in the Middle East we were blessed to lead a healing service, the one where you invite all the sick people to come and after telling them how much Jesus loves them, you demonstrate His love by healing the sick... It was so much fun!

This one old lady from India kept coming up to me with different pains in her body. I would pray for her back and she would thank me and start crying and smiling, and then 10 min later come back with a pain in her leg or something. I think she just liked getting hugs and wanted someone to just love on her.  It was so precious. 

Two of the more extreme healings was of a man who had gone blind from diabetes. We prayed for him and after quote some time he started seeing a little, and then more and more. It was so awesome to see him recognize his wife and waiving at us when we waived at him. God is so good!

The other one was a older woman who had taken a 4 hour leave from the hospital where se was staying. She came in a wheelchair and still had the needle and tubes in her arms for medicine. Apparently she had tremendous pain in her legs and this was her last hope for healing. I was off praying for someone else and suddenly heard a big commotion behind me. Laughing, clapping and dancing - the old lady was the one dancing on the stage, Jesus had taken away all her pain and gave strength back to her legs!

My friend told me when God heals His people it’s because of our covenant, and when God heals people on streets or anywhere where there isn’t really any “faith”, it’s just pure grace - because He loves and because He is good. Our trip just made this so much more clearer for me.

Pete Craig

“For 30 years the church has been meeting to say 'Come Holy Spirit'. Maybe the Holy Spirit is now saying, 'Come holy people'. He's inviting us to a thousand new meeting places, where new sounds and sights burn the eyes and break the heart! Could it be that the Holy Spirit is weary of attending our meetings and hungers for our presence at His? Are you coming?"