Ignite (5/5/19) - Revival: Fear of Man vs. Fear of God

Revival: Fear of Man vs. Fear of God (Pennie Mirande)

So often a religious spirit is rooted in the fear of man. With the religious spirit, there is a love for tradition. A religious spirit is a form of godliness but denies the power of God. 

Pennie gave a list of verses that the Lord highlighted to her about the fear of man:

Mark 7:5-8 "So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.' You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions."

Matthew 11:25 "At that time Jesus 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.

The fear of God doesn't mean that we don't trust him. It means that we have reverence for Him. We have fear in the sense that we know his authority. 

Proverbs 9:10 "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."

Fear of man would be holding that same reverence and sense of authority over man. We're thinking about what other's opinions of ourselves are more important.

Proverbs 29:25 "The fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe."

Pennie connected this to Matthew 6:24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. "That verse is in the context of money, but it seems to apply to many other things. You get to pick who is going to be master of your life. The verse says that you will either love one or hate the other. You have to choose if you will fear the Lord or fear man. 

John 5:30 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

John 2:23-25 "Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man. "

John 5:41 - 44 "“I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. “I have come in My Father’s name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own name, you will receive him. “How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?

Mark 12:14 "They came to him and said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren't swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?"

John 7:16-18 "So Jesus answered them and said, “My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. “If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."

John 8:29 "The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him."

John 12:42-43 "Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God."

Matt 21:45-46 "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet."

John 12:42 "When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard His parables, they understood that He was speaking about them. When they sought to seize Him, they feared the people, because they considered Him to be a prophet."

Let's look a little closer at the fear of man. When you think about a religious spirit back in Jesus' time. The religious leaders back then loved God, but the resisted everything that came from Jesus. Pennie connected that to today. First it was resisting Jesus, then it went to "we'll take God and Jesus, but not Holy Spirit", then the religious leaders called Jesus blasphemous for saying he was God and that he hears from God. 

Fear of God can manifest as approval addiction, people pleasing, caring what people thing, performance, and more. With these, there's usually a pulling back out of fear, or it manifests in the opposite with the feeling of the need to impress and prove something. When we see these things happening, it's an alert to check on where your identity is rooted. 

Pennie shared a few stories of where the Lord has freed her from fear of man. 

Bill Johnson says in his book The Way of Life, "Those who struggle most often with the fear of man, are usually people have the gift of discerning the hearts of others. This person becomes unusually aware of the ideas, opinions and convictions of others. Using this gift correctly, this person is able to serve well and they know the tender areas of another persons heart. But this gift used outside of the lordship of Jesus causes them to react to what they discern and fall under the influence of an unredeemed mind. When a discerning heart is used correctly, they're no longer intimidated by the opinions of others, but are instead positions to serve that one who tends to control others by their stance on issues. The issues at hand is the lordship of Jesus and that really is the key to a healthy soul."

Dancing is something that Pennie used to be so insecure about. She recalls being the insecure junior high student who would hardly move at school dances. She was so afraid to be embarrassed. But as she walked through revival, dancing was one of the first places that the Lord has set her free. Another place is with singing. She was always terrified to sing in front of others, but now she feels freedom to sing spontaneously as she interacts with the Lord and leads others. 

A few tips as we work towards overcoming fear of man.

1. Pleasing people is not the same and loving them. If we focus too much on pleasing people, we might miss the point of loving them by speaking Truth. 

2. Keep surrendering to the Lord. As we follow him obediently, he continues to break off the fear of man. 

3. Sometimes it's helpful to just have a talk with ourselves when we're feeling heavy and burdened. The heavy yoke comes from caring of others' opinions. Jesus' yoke is light. Have a conversation with yourself and ask if you honestly care about what that person thinks more than what God thinks. 

To listen to the full service, click here. 

To watch the full service, click here. 

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Ignite (4/14) Revival: Discernemnt of Spirits

Pennie and John Mirande shared about Discernment of Spirits 

At first Pennie felt as though she should talk about intimacy with the Lord, but all of the gifts of the Spirit about intimacy with the Lord. They come from intimacy with Him. 

1 Corinthians 12:1-11 talks about all of the gifts of the Spirit: 
1 Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed.

2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.

3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them.

5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit,

9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit,

10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.

11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. 

These are all the work of the Holy Spirit and they are gifts that Holy Spirit gives. 

Human beings by nature have discernment - we are able to discern things throughout life, but often this comes down to wisdom, so how do we know the difference between discernment and wisdom? The greek word for distinguishing is diakrisis, meaning judicial estimation, so asking "what is the source?". 

Practicing discernment often starts with "something doesn't feel right". So you look at it's fruit (is it good or bad fruit?) then ask God a lot of really specific questions about the situation. 

Pennie gave a few examples of this:

She shared that at one time in life there was a family member who would speak a lot of vile things to Pennie that did not have any grounding. The Lord showed Pennie that this was a spirit of defilement - when something is clean but is being called unclean. So the next time this situation arose with that family member, instead of arguing, Pennie responded with "I don't receive that. That is the spirit of defilement talking." then the person went blank and said "I don't know why I was saying that or what I was saying - that's not even true!"

Then next example, Pennie shared about a coworker that had a hopelessness and negativity about her in every conversation. Each time Pennie talked with this person, she left the conversation feeling so defeated. The Lord showed Pennie how to stand against this spirit of negativity in authority. Whenever this coworker would call, Pennie would answer, put her on hold and pray "In the name of Jesus I say no to the spirit of hopelessness and negativity. In my conversation, you are not allowed. I will always listen to the Spirit of God who brings hope." From then on, her conversations stayed positive, light and hopeful. 

Pennie shared a third example about the spirit of offence and accusation that can come up in marriage. Whenever she and her husband feel that spirit rising, the pause and pray "spirit of accusation and offense, we see you and you are not welcome here. The only thing welcome is the Spirit of God in our midst." And that shifts the conversation, realigning focus. 

Next, Pennie shared and example from a friend who has a ministry teaching young kids about Holy Spirit. At a birthday party, her young daughter was around 5 years old. At the party she ended up at the back of a yard with an older boy who started acting inappropriate towards her. As the young girl later told her mom, she said that in the moment, she felt that something wasn't right, so she did what her mom taught her and asked Jesus what he thought about it and he said "No, that is wrong." So the young girl said that to the boy and the boy ran off. It is so important that we teach young kids how to walk with Holy Spirit!

Next John shared his testimony of the Lord calling him to walk in authority over the spirit of fear of man. John worked at a school with at risk students who would speak offensively to him, argue, mock, and be violent. That was very hard for John at first, but he continued to stand on the truth that God has given us not a spirit of fear, but power and love and self control. He began to walk in the authority that the Lord has given him. He would not respond to the offenses and mocking but would love on the kids. The kids eventually began to love and respect John as he showed the love of Christ to them. 

We have to walk in the authority that we've been given - the power that raised Christ from the dead lives in us. 

Pennie and John then led a ministry time of prayer and activation. To watch the full service, click here. 

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Ignite 4/7 - Revival: Evangelism Carly Schut

This week we heard from Carly Schut about street evangelism. Carly spent some time in the past year doing missions with YWAM.

To know God and to make Him known. - YWAM Mission Statement

What pops into your head when you hear the word "evangelism"?
Often times we think of it was scary. Many will say that evangelism is about "winning souls", but if you see yourself as a "soul winner" you'll set yourself up for failure. We need to see ourselves as "seed planters" because it's not our job to save people - that's God's job. We get to be the messengers apart of that job. It's not about arguing with people and convincing them. We can't view this as something where we have success or failure.

If you go up to someone and ask them if you can pray for them and they say "no", that's not failure. A seed was planted where they might walk away thinking "Why would they want to pray for me?". Seeds were planted and now they have questions.

When we think of ourselves as "seed planters" rather than "soul winners" we take the pressure off of ourselves.

Carly used a number scale as an analogy.

Someone who's not anywhere close to saved may be at a "-5" and someone who's saved may be at a "5". You can't go up to someone at a "-5" as expect them to be saved with one conversation. Salvation is a process. Every encounter you have may make one step closer to salvation.

What our job as believers is to simply be available and obedient. Maybe you're in the grocery store and feel a nudge in your heart to go talk to someone. Often we fight it, but that is when the Lord is asking us to step out and be bold. He does the work, we are the vessels.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 - "On the contrary, we speak as those approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please people but God, who tests our hearts."

We aren't doing any of this for people. We are doing this for God. He doesn't need us - he could do this by himself, but he loves us so much that he invites us into partner with him. 

Carly then shared what she did with YWAM. 

First, they would pray and ask God what He has. This part takes a lot of faith, obedience, and trust. Many times you get a picture or phrase or name or scripture. 

The first time Carly went out in Thailand, she saw in her mind's eye someone in a green shirt, but heard "yellow shirt". She and her partner went out and they saw a man with a yellow shirt with a green apron on. Carly was blown away. 

Another time, her school leader was praying with his team and kept hearing a Lady Gaga song in his head before going out. As the team went out they pass a coffee shop with the song playing. They enter the coffee shop and talked with the owner and had some great encounters with the Lord. 

Each time as they'd go out they'd be praying "God open my eyes to whatever you have" and listen to where the Lord leads. When God says to go up to someone, just go out of love and relationship. Ask them about what they're doing, their family, activities, etc. It's not hard to simply be caring to them. Then ask God for a word to share with that person. 

It often feels like you're going out and doing prophesy. We just share the love of God with people and let God do the rest. We don't get the victory for the salvation so we also don't take the blame. It's not on us, we're just being obedient to what the Lord says. 

This is an every day type of thing. The nations need to know God, but so do our neighbors, friends, coworkers and families. We just need to wake up with obedience in our hearts. 

Carly then shared a couple stories. 

When she was in Thailand, they went out and a man came up to them and just began conversation. He began sharing a ton about bars and the red light district which was very near. He shared how he didn't like going to that area of town. During the conversation the man said he used to pray with his grandma but isn't really a Christian anymore. Then the man had to leave and go across town. Carly and her partner wished they could've talked to the man more, but went to the area he had talked about and were able to talk and pray with some people. A little while later they ran into the same man they were hoping to see again. They talked with him again and he shared how he might need to start thinking about faith again. The team felt very blessed by the encounter and was able to help him take a step closer. 

When Carly was in Orlando, her team was in a park praying for people. They were praying for healing for a guy. When they were done and walked a way a bit. A guy came up and asked if they had been praying and when the team responded yes, the man said "I want that - I want your Jesus." He was so ready for Jesus and had the desire so the team was able to pray with him and lead him in that. 

To watch the full service, click here. 

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