I am awaiting my flight's departure in Queretaro, Mexico after the Congress of Ministerios Vision Internacional. Sitting here with a little extra time on my hands (the flight has been delayed significantly), I'm reflecting on the events of the previous week. There were several speakers as a part of this conference and it was certainly a privilege to minister in the altars for these meetings. One of the speakers was Randy Clark of Global Awakening. Randy was the catalyst that God had used to ignite the fires of revival in Toronto, Canada several years ago and is still using around the world in revival and teaching the body to function in the grace gifts of the Holy Spirit. To me, Randy's "legacy" is not found in his moving in the grace gifts or even in his participation in the various revival movements. In truth, Global Awakening is not that large a ministry. To be sure, it's reach is great, but it is not a huge organization. Randy's "legacy," I believe is found instead in the resulting work of the Holy Spirit in those whom he has selflessly imparted whatever grace God has given him. Among the more widely known who have received impartation of the Holy Spirit through Randy's ministry are Rolland and Heidi Baker and Leif Hetland. Heidi received an impartation in Toronto and she and her husband Rolland (both were already active in missions around the world for years) went on to plant between 6,000 and 7,000 churches (to date) throughout Mozambique with over 1 million new believers who are attached to this work. Leif also received an impartation of the Holy Spirit through Randy's ministry and has since seen over a half a million of new believers brought into the Kingdom of God throughout the Middle East. Of course, these are among the more widely known of those who've received impartation from Randy, but there are certainly thousands more who have been used to create an impact for God's Kingdom. In essence, Randy has been walking out the "Catch and Release" principle (http://yrkingdomcm.blogspot.com/2011/10/catch-and-release.html): our Heavenly Father gives to us for the purpose of us giving away.
In the meetings in Queretaro, Randy ministered to crowds of around 1,500 in a few specific areas: Impartation, Healing, and Activating Words of Knowledge. In each session, there were hundreds that received a specific element from the Holy Spirit. During the session specifically devoted to healing, there were well over 400 different kinds of healings (that's nearly 27% of the total audience). I personally was privileged to pray over and see many different types of healings (from eye injuries that caused diminished sight to heart trouble to breathing issues to a paralytic from a motor cycle accident that we prayed over via mobile phone...these were a few of the healings from that night). On the last night, Randy called out ministry to those with metal or another foreign substance in their body as a result of a medical situation for healing. Out of the 12 that responded to this, all 12 declared that the metal was either gone, their limb(s) or back/neck that were previously immobilized because of the metal were now flexible and movable, and/or their chronic pain associated with these issues was gone. We shot some video of these testimonies which will be available from Global Awakening very soon, I'm sure. There was also an even greater number that received impartation as we prayed. It is my belief that all those who received a prayer for impartation, certainly from Randy but from all of us who were helping in the altar ministry, will go on to do great things in building God's Kingdom throughout Mexico!
Monday, October 17, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Catch and Release
I was thinking today back to my childhood. For a short time, my immediate family lived in Miami, Florida and we would spend our weekends usually doing one of two things: we would either find our way to one of the beaches or we would drive down to the Keys. My parents owned a small parcel of land on Big Pine Key at the time. It was completely undeveloped and capable for one task being done on it: camping. So on many occasions we would pack up the car and drive down to Big Pine Key for the purpose of camping there. One Thanksgiving was especially memorable that we spent in our tent on BPK feasting on, you guessed it, Turkey Franks.
Being that the land was undeveloped and very scrubby, even the camping was a bit interesting. About all it afforded us was an opportunity to fish. As a kid, I had very little patience for anything and even less for waiting for some fish to decide if it wanted to bite my hook or not. We would spend hours casting and reeling, casting and reeling...it became as rythmic as the water lapping up at our feet. There were a few special moments where fishing actually had some appeal to it for me: when we would actually catch something! Never mind the fact that I didn't like the taste of fish--it meant that all that hard work of sitting paid off. It was then that I received my education. We would certainly keep the fish we were planning to eat for dinner but I was introduced to a very curious practice that I saw no sense or value in whatsoever: the idea of catch and release. For some strange reason, we would go to all the trouble of sitting, waiting, sitting some more and waiting even longer all to finally catch a fish--only to carefully maneuver the hook out of its mouth or gills and then throw the thing back in the water! What a waste of time! Who cares if we weren't going to eat it? It's the law of the ocean--if you caught it, you can do whatever you wanted with it. The only problem was, there was no "law of the ocean," and if there were, it was actually the opposite of my childhood understanding of doing whatever you wanted with what you caught--it was catch and release. It would irritate me to no end to see all that time and effort thrown back into the water to swim away.
I have come over the years to love the concept of catch and release but as it applies in a different scope. I am sitting in a hotel room right now in Texas awaiting travel to a conference in Mexico where I have great expectation of receiving some significant impartation into my life and ministry. Yet, here's the thing: my expectancy for receiving from the Holy Spirit is not just for me to "catch and prepare for my dinner." My heart is on receiving from the Holy Spirit and then releasing whatever I've received into my family, my spiritual daughters and sons, my church, and then into the world. In the Kingdom of God, catch and release is the guiding principle: Jesus said in Matthew 10.8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." What's the point of catching something, whether it be revelation, impartation, a gift...anything, but then keeping a hold on it so it you become the one who has received some revelation, impartation, gift, anything that other people need to come to receive? That speaks to carnal Christianity, where it is still all about the individual. Kingdom living is recognizing that whatever I've received has come from the King for the purpose of building His kingdom. And so Catch and Release becomes the living paradigm for this kingdom life. Jesus told us in John 15.16, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain...." The only way I've seen to have any fruit that remains is to continue to see it borne over and over again--a continual supply. If I have sons and daughters in the spirit and if I am consistently catching and releasing the things from the Holy Spirit into their lives, they'll be continually bearing fruit. Because we are inextricably connected by real, personal relationships, this continual bearing fruit is the fruit that remains. The fruit that is held on to is the only fruit that rots and is prevented from increasing. I could move in things in the Holy Spirit right now perhaps with great success and amass a great following over whatever gifts I possess, but to what end? The slow, deliberate process of developing daughters and sons who can have truth caught and released to is the greatest expression of building God's Kingdom on earth--in the hearts of those who have freely received and now will freely give. Who would've thought that those days of waiting and finally catching fish just to release them would have any impact on my life? What I used to despise has become the motto for our lives: Catch and Release. ~Brian Lukacsko
Being that the land was undeveloped and very scrubby, even the camping was a bit interesting. About all it afforded us was an opportunity to fish. As a kid, I had very little patience for anything and even less for waiting for some fish to decide if it wanted to bite my hook or not. We would spend hours casting and reeling, casting and reeling...it became as rythmic as the water lapping up at our feet. There were a few special moments where fishing actually had some appeal to it for me: when we would actually catch something! Never mind the fact that I didn't like the taste of fish--it meant that all that hard work of sitting paid off. It was then that I received my education. We would certainly keep the fish we were planning to eat for dinner but I was introduced to a very curious practice that I saw no sense or value in whatsoever: the idea of catch and release. For some strange reason, we would go to all the trouble of sitting, waiting, sitting some more and waiting even longer all to finally catch a fish--only to carefully maneuver the hook out of its mouth or gills and then throw the thing back in the water! What a waste of time! Who cares if we weren't going to eat it? It's the law of the ocean--if you caught it, you can do whatever you wanted with it. The only problem was, there was no "law of the ocean," and if there were, it was actually the opposite of my childhood understanding of doing whatever you wanted with what you caught--it was catch and release. It would irritate me to no end to see all that time and effort thrown back into the water to swim away.
I have come over the years to love the concept of catch and release but as it applies in a different scope. I am sitting in a hotel room right now in Texas awaiting travel to a conference in Mexico where I have great expectation of receiving some significant impartation into my life and ministry. Yet, here's the thing: my expectancy for receiving from the Holy Spirit is not just for me to "catch and prepare for my dinner." My heart is on receiving from the Holy Spirit and then releasing whatever I've received into my family, my spiritual daughters and sons, my church, and then into the world. In the Kingdom of God, catch and release is the guiding principle: Jesus said in Matthew 10.8 "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." What's the point of catching something, whether it be revelation, impartation, a gift...anything, but then keeping a hold on it so it you become the one who has received some revelation, impartation, gift, anything that other people need to come to receive? That speaks to carnal Christianity, where it is still all about the individual. Kingdom living is recognizing that whatever I've received has come from the King for the purpose of building His kingdom. And so Catch and Release becomes the living paradigm for this kingdom life. Jesus told us in John 15.16, "You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain...." The only way I've seen to have any fruit that remains is to continue to see it borne over and over again--a continual supply. If I have sons and daughters in the spirit and if I am consistently catching and releasing the things from the Holy Spirit into their lives, they'll be continually bearing fruit. Because we are inextricably connected by real, personal relationships, this continual bearing fruit is the fruit that remains. The fruit that is held on to is the only fruit that rots and is prevented from increasing. I could move in things in the Holy Spirit right now perhaps with great success and amass a great following over whatever gifts I possess, but to what end? The slow, deliberate process of developing daughters and sons who can have truth caught and released to is the greatest expression of building God's Kingdom on earth--in the hearts of those who have freely received and now will freely give. Who would've thought that those days of waiting and finally catching fish just to release them would have any impact on my life? What I used to despise has become the motto for our lives: Catch and Release. ~Brian Lukacsko
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
"Man is the Measure of All Things" as Heaven Laughs
Protagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher and sophist, is credited with having issued the statement, "Man is the measure of all things." Interestingly, the term "sophist" was originally from the Greek word "sophos," meaning "wise man." We have here one of the original Greek "wise men" declaring that man is the measuring rod of all of life. This statement has been heralded ever since by those subscribing to the wisdom of man as preeminent in the universe. Man's mind, will, and emotions, it is said by these, are the undisputed standards that all else is gauged by. We see this and varying degrees of it throughout our society: from political thought to sociology to science, Protagoras' "wisdom" has many devotees.
Paul the apostle deals with this idea rather quickly in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1.12). "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you" (italics mine). This idea of an inherent wisdom in man was not even new in the days of Protagoras. Throughout the Old Testament we find instance after instance of the arrogance of man in the face of God; flaunting his ideas and self-fashioned superiority before an all-patient Father. It is to this that Paul speaks to: "not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God...." We find here a very subtle comparison created that we could easily miss: the "fleshly wisdom"of man with the grace of God. What are we dealing with when we read "fleshly wisdom"? The original Greek speaks to the mind or reasoning of the unrenewed human nature. In other words, fleshly wisdom deals with the unrenewed man's mind, will, and emotions. These facets of man are juxtaposed by the apostle with "grace of God." Wouldn't it seem to make sense that "fleshly wisdom" would be set alongside "spiritual wisdom," or even "godly wisdom" rather than "the grace of God"? As with every other element of God's Word, this comparison is not an accident or happenstance but is, in fact, calculated and extremely purposeful. God's grace deals with a divine empowerment to make a person be or do what they could not do as a result of the hindrance of their human limitation. Ouch. "Man as the measure" becomes deficient by definition of God's grace. Paul is detailing to us that the end of fleshly wisdom (the unrenewed mind, will, and emotions) is literally the beginning of God's grace (the divine empowerment to make a person be or do what they could not as a result of their human limitation). And, yes! When the fleshly wisdom would dictate something as impossible, God's grace speaks of greater possibilities. When we are faced with dilemmas and circumstances that defy the powers of reason, ignore the voice of the mind, will, or emotions that would say all hope is lost. Turn instead to the grace of God and find the empowerment for what is impossible. In this, I'm not at all suggesting that we exhaust the capabilities of our human intellect before we turn to God's grace as our last resort. Not at all. Paul himself is setting these two concepts side-by-side for the purpose of showing the inadequacy of the one and the superfluity of the other. God's desire is that our mind, will, and emotions (our souls) would become fully submitted to our spirit-man who lives in constant supply by His grace. Man who is energized by the grace of God is a man whose life declares the insufficiency of his own corrupted abilities and the all-sufficiency of God's unending empowerment. "Man is the measure"...ha ha.
Paul the apostle deals with this idea rather quickly in his second letter to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 1.12). "For our proud confidence is this: the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you" (italics mine). This idea of an inherent wisdom in man was not even new in the days of Protagoras. Throughout the Old Testament we find instance after instance of the arrogance of man in the face of God; flaunting his ideas and self-fashioned superiority before an all-patient Father. It is to this that Paul speaks to: "not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God...." We find here a very subtle comparison created that we could easily miss: the "fleshly wisdom"of man with the grace of God. What are we dealing with when we read "fleshly wisdom"? The original Greek speaks to the mind or reasoning of the unrenewed human nature. In other words, fleshly wisdom deals with the unrenewed man's mind, will, and emotions. These facets of man are juxtaposed by the apostle with "grace of God." Wouldn't it seem to make sense that "fleshly wisdom" would be set alongside "spiritual wisdom," or even "godly wisdom" rather than "the grace of God"? As with every other element of God's Word, this comparison is not an accident or happenstance but is, in fact, calculated and extremely purposeful. God's grace deals with a divine empowerment to make a person be or do what they could not do as a result of the hindrance of their human limitation. Ouch. "Man as the measure" becomes deficient by definition of God's grace. Paul is detailing to us that the end of fleshly wisdom (the unrenewed mind, will, and emotions) is literally the beginning of God's grace (the divine empowerment to make a person be or do what they could not as a result of their human limitation). And, yes! When the fleshly wisdom would dictate something as impossible, God's grace speaks of greater possibilities. When we are faced with dilemmas and circumstances that defy the powers of reason, ignore the voice of the mind, will, or emotions that would say all hope is lost. Turn instead to the grace of God and find the empowerment for what is impossible. In this, I'm not at all suggesting that we exhaust the capabilities of our human intellect before we turn to God's grace as our last resort. Not at all. Paul himself is setting these two concepts side-by-side for the purpose of showing the inadequacy of the one and the superfluity of the other. God's desire is that our mind, will, and emotions (our souls) would become fully submitted to our spirit-man who lives in constant supply by His grace. Man who is energized by the grace of God is a man whose life declares the insufficiency of his own corrupted abilities and the all-sufficiency of God's unending empowerment. "Man is the measure"...ha ha.
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