Wading through life

Rick Joyner communicates on the Elijahlist a powerful revelatory experience he had with the Lord recently. It’s thick and heavy with relevant material, but I wanted to highlight a few that stirred me in particular:

That which is burning on the heart of God has been there from eternity—it is indestructible and will never die. As we take what is on His heart onto our hearts, that same indestructible life is in us. This is what it really means to know God, to know the deepest things on His heart and to share these with Him in His ultimate purposes. We do not need to have a prophetic experience to do this, but just be a seeker of God. The true seekers of God, those who are truly close to Him, will burn with a fire that is unquenchable. They will not be lukewarm.

The new breed of ministry will not use the people to build their ministries, they will use their ministries to build people. This will result in a revolution in the Church. Selfish ambition will be driven from the ministry of the Church. Christians will begin to love each other and serve out of love. The result of this will be a society of saints who will become a marvel in the earth and a true light to the world.

Those are kinda self-explanatory. But he goes into a section about prophetic artists that really hit me. It was particularly timely because I’ve recently been thinking and praying about what it would be like to be a prophetic photographer. What would it look like to communicate on behalf of the Lord as a photographer? What would it be like to take pictures that drip with His anointing and presence?

Think about this fact: An artist was the first person to be filled with the Holy Spirit, not a priest, king or prophet. This should give us a definite sense of the importance that the Lord gave to art. His dwelling place, the tabernacle, which is a blueprint or model for the Church, the “dwelling place not made with hands,” had to be fashioned by the best of all artists. There is a power in art that the Church has not generally recognized for many centuries now. It must be recovered because the Lord is going to give the artists in His house unprecedented power to prophesy through their art…

…There is an anointing that is about to come upon artists that will be from the Holy Spirit. Art will again be motivated by love for God. This art will have a prophetic power such as has not been given to mankind before. The more pure the love, the more pure and powerful the art will be. These are gifts from God to His Bride, and they will touch her in profound ways to draw her heart to Him and be used to express her heart for Him…

…I am not just talking about painters, sculptors or musicians in this art, but also the true apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers who were given for the equipping of the saints to become the Church we are called to be. They will be so creative in their ministries, that ministry will become one of the most compelling attractions of all. The crafting of words in messages will start to come with such creative power that multitudes will be drawn to their oratory. This is not about entertainment, but an anointing on the art of speaking that the Word of God is worthy to be adorned with.

Creativity, the basic nature of the blessed Creator, will shine through His Church as a witness of His nature. Because her heart will be in such unity with the Creator, creativity will flow from everything she does. The greatest music and the greatest art of every kind will come from the Church as worship to the Lord. These gifts will also both draw and equip the Bride for her highest purpose–her union with the King. It will begin to draw the nations to the feast.

A few years ago, I was meeting with a friend of mine and talking to him about the fact that while I can do a lot of things well, if not excellent, I wasn’t interested in doing these things if they weren’t backed by the Holy Spirit’s anointing. If it’s pictures, or Web sites or written pieces… whatever… I wanted people to encounter God through them. He later suggested that he thought eventually everything we do becomes anointed as we invite God into it. While I think this is true to a certain extent, I believe there are particular gifts and callings God would have us operate in as His ambassadors that He’ll back with more power and authority than others. And that’s where I want to be.

The things I do most naturally and the things that seem to generate the most anointed results are my writing and photography. While my technical mind and personality type helps me excel with things in my current career track, I don’t feel Web design is the anointing “pocket” for me. I think it’s a tool I’m being equipped with to support and transport my writing and photography.

I was particularly encouraged by the above passage because it took me back to a revelation the Lord gave me as I was preparing for my mini art show at a Real Life special event. I feel what I did for this event—showed pictures from travels and wrote an accompanying piece—is a seed for what my future might hold. And while some have told me that traveling around taking pictures and writing about my experiences is a dream of most people—and one that requires the person to be independently wealthy—I’m confident that were God guides, God provides. And if there is a growing outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s anointing on artists and creatives to help prepare the Bride, sign me up

2004 Subaru Forester XT

Though a few days late, I’m announcing my new vehicle: the 2004 Subaru Forester, dressed in black. Though this picture obviously is NOT my actual vehicle, it is the same make, model, year, trimline and color. I think the only visual difference would be that this one has something mounted on the roof racks and mine are bare. Though, that will change soon enough when I get something to haul bikes with. I’m guessing this one probably has a moonroof too, which unfortunately didn’t come with mine. But that and leather seats are the only options missing from mine. It’s pretty well equipped for a function-first Subaru.

I was leaning heavily toward a new 2007 Toyota RAV4 Sport or Mazda CX-7. But after months of deliberation and hours upon wasted hours of research, I wasn’t at peace with spending so much money and going the new route. And I was very frustrated with how I was letting searching for a new car influence my time management.

So, I vented my frustration to the Lord, repented of leaning on my own knowledge and understanding of what vehicle would be best for me and asked Him to help me find a vehicle at the price point I felt He laid on my heart. A few hours later, I had located the very Forester I ended up purchasing . Amazing how things fall into place when we invite Him into the fold officially rather than casually.

I got it for slightly less than the price point the Lord had targeted and it Bluebook’s for $4,000 or $5,000 more. It’s had one previous owner who took great care of it and, after 70,000 miles, has had zero non-maintenance service performed.

I’m expecting many good years and miles from it—even more than the Grand Prix gave me. And in about three years, I’ll have it paid off and be car payment free once again!

Spinach Chicken Salad

Those of you who know me better than others know that I’m not much for following a recipe to make a meal. I’m pretty much a wing-it type. I think through stuff in my cabinets and refrigerator and figure out a way to put it together—usually to decent results.

This tendency of mine was the incubator for one of my more famous comments to Scott and Clark while living with them at the Park Rd. house. “You need to be more creative!” I blurted out when they complained we had no food and wanted to go to the store. I could think of plenty of options! Clark still brings it up now and then.

So, I currently have this big bin of baby spinach that I’m not getting through as fast as normal, along with some pitas I wanted to eat. For a few days, I’d been planning on doing something about those lingering refrigerator items. And tonight I finally did. Turned out de-lish! So, I’m going to guesstimate a recipe for you; “~” means “my best guess.”

Ingredients

• ~4 cups chopped organic baby spinach
• 3 stalks celery
• 1 9.75 oz can chicken breast in water
• 1 tomato (not sure which type… but certainly not a cherry or grape tomato)
• 1/4 cup crumbled basil and tomato feta cheese
• ~1/2 cup light salad dressing
• ~3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• ~1 tbsp mustard
• whole peppercorn
• whole chicken seasoning (whatever that means)
• pita bread

Directions

Chop the celery. Dice the tomato. Drain the chicken. Put spinach, celery and tomato in a bowl. Crumble the chicken and put in bowl as well. Add the crumbled feta cheese. Mix in salad dressing, olive oil and mustard. Grind peppercorn and chicken seasoning over mixture to taste. Cut pita bread in half and open. Stuff with salad. Potentially serves two. But I ate over half of it after my workout tonight.

Enjoy!

Wanted to apologize to some of you who had e-mailed me at joel-at-joelmaust.com recently (within the last three weeks or so) but didn’t get a reply. That address had been set up to forward into my gmail account, but I think that command got broken when I upgraded my hosting service.

I had done a few test e-mails that indicated it was working properly… but it appears it wasn’t. I noticed this as I was trouble-shooting why WordPress had ceased notifying me of new blog comments.

So, it appears this is all taken care of. I tested WordPress comment notification and it is working. And I sent myself a message from my hotmail account and that works as well.

We need one.

With just 90 verses in the Bible about music and 375 about prayer, we are long overdue for a cultural revolution in the way we pray—not just in order to keep up with the changing times, but also … to be truly biblical in the ways in which we wait upon God. — Pete Greig, Red Moon Rising

It’s interesting, isn’t it, that so much effort and energy has been poured into being on the cutting edge of worship the last few decades… but far fewer people have pursued Christ’s coattails in prayer. Is it too mystic and ethereal? Too hard? Or is it just not a priority? Do we not believe prayer works?

Well, the good news is that the revolution is coming. God wants to hear from us; He wants to commune with us; and He’s sending people with understanding to teach us how it works.