A Kingdom

A New Paradigm For the Post Modern House Church Movement

House Church Reflections On Waiting In This Season
Announcing Our New House Church Equipping Workbook
A Time To Dance – This Friday (and every Friday), March 24

Dear Friends,

The Lord laid this letter on my heart the past couple of days, so I am sending it out now rather than waiting til next week. Consider it a bonus.

Blessings,

Maurice

House Church Reflections On Waiting In This Season

"Simon Peter said to them, 'I am going fishing.' They said to him, 'We will also come with you.' They went out, and got into the boat; and that night they caught nothing." John 21:3

In my personal notes I have a "prophetic timeline" which I have kept now for three years. On it I have recorded what I believe to be the "significant" prophetic words and events of the past three years in our area. It begins in January of 2003 when I heard from the Holy Spirit that we in Spokane and the Pacific Northwest were entering a season of divine visitation during which (at some unspecified point) He intended to pour out the River of His Spirit - the River of Ezekiel 47 - in spiritual power not experienced in our generation. It would be a River that would flow outside of existing religious control structures, flowing instead through new channels hewn with tools of humility, repentance, fasting and prayer. This River would flow through new channels which He called "river houses" (and you wonder why I'm an unabashed "house church guy"?! I just want to be where God says He's going to move! Why would I want to be anywhere else?!). He also emphasized the importance of repentance and networking, which gave rise to The Spokane Blessing Network and The Spokane Market Place Transformation Network. For reasons which God understood and I could only guess at, He made His message clear: religious control had to be broken, repentance had to be the foundation, and networking was to be the channel.

This has been the consistent and growing message which I have heard now for three years. Could I be wrong? Sure. I'm human and put my pants on backwards one leg at a time just like the next guy. I spend a significant amount of time feeling about as "anointed" as a sack of new hammers from Home Depot. And on our best day we all know in part and prophesy in part. But I've received enough confirmations along the way to have a good level of confidence that I have heard correctly. God is gracious, even to us hammers.

So, where are we now on God's timeline? The answer depends on who you ask. The "prophetic chatter" among those who listen to the "cottage industry prophets" (which is the only way I can make any sense of 99% of what I see on The Elijah List) is that "the move has begun". Hmmmmm. With all due respect to the "cottage industry prophets", I don't think so. Not quite yet. Much of the chatter is being generated by people who believe that if they proclaim it long and loud enough, God will have to listen and respond. As you can probably tell, I'm not a "proclaim it" kind of guy. I believe God proclaims and we listen, not the other way around. This is His season, not ours. When the day comes that we proclaim and God does anything other than slap His knee and chuckle (while angels roll on the floor of heaven in laughter) . . . well, Maurice is going to become a Buddhist monk, and just the mental picture of me in saphron robes should be enough to bring you to your knees, crying out, "Please God, no!".

Pressing In . . . And Going Fishing

O.K., I digressed. So, where are we now on God's timeline in this season? I think we are right where the disciples were in John 21. Think about it for a moment. They were between significant, even momentous events. The crucifixion and resurrection were behind them now, and Pentecost was yet to come (unbeknownst to them). They found themselves in a somewhat confusing shadowland between promise and fulfillment, punctuated by occasionaly appearances by the Risen Jesus. Would you have known what to do at such a time and in such a season? So they did the obviously spiritual thing . . . they went fishing! Seven of them (yep, I counted) decided to go fishing (I have no idea what the other 4 were doing!). Ever wonder what they talked about all evening and into the night? Maybe they talked about all of the signs and wonders they had seen and experienced over the past three years. Maybe they openly wondered what the "next step" would be. And in their wildest speculations did they even begin to imagine the life-changing events which would unfold and overtake their lives in less than 50 days, events which would propel every one of them to the far reaches of the known world as living witnesses to the death and resurrection of the Son of God? The River of Ezekiel 47, The River of God's Spirit was about to be poured out for the first time in human history, and the disciples pressed in and prepared for it . . . by going fishing. Yeah, later they would gather in the Upper Room to observe the feast of Pentecost by fasting and praying, but for now they prepared by gathering in a fishing boat and wondering what the future might hold.

How about you? Like the disciples gathering together to go fishing, we may well be only a few days or weeks away from the greatest outpouring of the River of God's Spirit in modern times. Our lives and the lives of those around us may soon be radically changed in ways we never imagined as the River of God's Spirit flows in power through our homes and our house churches. The River of God poured out on the Day of Pentecost created the Acts 2:41-47 house church movement that many of us have taught about and longed for. The coming outpouring of the River of God's Spirit, I believe, will create the next great house church movement in our day as the River of God seeks for and creates new channels through which He can flow to redeem our homes, our neighborhoods and our communities.

So, where are we on the the "prophetic timeline" for this coming move of God's Spirit? Like the unsuspecting disciples awaiting an unknown Pentecost, things have grown prophetically quiet. O, there's a lot of "prophetic chatter" but most of it is little more than echoes of previous words. I sense that we are in the lull before an approaching storm. The Holy Spirit has said what needs to be said, and people will either listen or they won't. And this is not the first time in the history of God's greater dealings with His people in Seasons of Visitation that this has happened. On the eve of the great Welsh Revival of 1904 Evan Roberts wrote to a friend and ended the letter with these words: "The altar is prepared, the sacrifice is laid, now let the fire fall." Is your altar prepared? Is the sacrifice of your life "laid out" for the coming fire? The River of God's Spirit is preparing to flow. Are you and your house church a channel through which He can flow?

Personal & Ministry Needs

When Wolfgang Simson was here back in April he taught on the role of finances in ministry (check out Saturday's talks on the Wolfgang Simson Conference page under House Church Resources). In the process he made a declaration that touched me deeply, because it represents where we are personally and as a ministry. He said, "I work for God, and He pays me." Our ministry operates on the basis of faith - we trust God to provide. And He most often provides through His people as He urges and directs them to give to meet needs. We want you to be aware that our growing ministry has some pressing needs. We want you to be aware that needs exist in the belief that God will direct you as He sees fit. In our recent move from Living Springs Ranch God provided a home where we have lived rent free since November. This has now changed and we must now begin paying rent as of April 1. This was a challenge that we didn't expect to have to meet for another 4 or 5 months, so it caught us by surprise (but it didn't surprise God!). In addition we are confronted with 1) car repairs, 2) the need to acquire a laptop computer so I can write, edit websites and edit radio programs on the road, 3) website expenses (we now have 3 ministry websites which need attention), 4) printing expenses for the new Equipping Workbook, and 5) the potential expense of re-starting a daily radio program. Would you please pray over these needs. If God should direct you to participate in meeting them you can respond by simply sending a gift to: The Parousia Network, P.O. Box 18793, Spokane, WA 99228. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please feel free to contact me via REPLY e-mail or by calling me at (509) 928-3360. I would enjoy visiting with you.