Jim & Al's Excellent Adventure!!

Tomorrow Al and I begin our epic journey to the International House of Prayer in Kansas City! We are very excited. The past two years I have been able to go to the pastors conference, but this year it just didn't work out. So I was very excited when this window of opportunity opened for me to drive there with Al.

This time I've decided to take my computer and use my blog to share what God is doing during this trip; so if you're interested in following the exciting adventures of Jim and Al, then keep checking back here for the updates!

People often ask me why I so enjoy going to IHOP. Honestly, when I walk into the House of Prayer, my spirit becomes at ease; I am at rest in my spirit; I feel like I've come home. I LOVE worship and intercession. I love listening to people pray and and love listening to people playing music and singing and interacting with the intercession. The spiritual atmosphere is different; you can feel it when you walk in the room. It's not an event; it's a way of life!

One night back in 1991, when I was in the youth group at McKernan Baptist Church, I heard an evangelist speak on the topic of prayer. He taught clearly that all the revivals in church history had been preceeded by a group of people praying fervently and passionately for the Holy Spirit to move in power. I don't know exactly what happened that night, but I know that at the end there was an invitation to anyone who wanted to dedicate their lives to prayer. I was up in the balcony of the church and I made a bee-line for the front and gave my life to the purposes of intercession.

Even since that night I have been calling people together to pray; hundreds of prayer meetings; trying to cast the vision of the power of prayer; seeking to instill a passion for intercession amoung as many as possible. This is the heart that God has given me and I've carried it ever since. So for me to be in the midst of a people who are giving themselves to prayer in such an extravagant way touches me on a very deep level.

For anybody who thinks that my dream is to copy what is happening in Kansas City, I would say this: NO, I don't want to simply copy a model; it's the heart of the people that I'm after. It's the level of anointing in the arena of worship and intercession; it's the degree of revelation from the Scriptures.

God is doing some amazing things here in Edmonton. We've been holding 24 hr. monthly prayer gatherings in the ciry for over 4 years now. There has been much spiritual opposition, so for Al and I, the opportunity to go to IHOP will be inpiring and renewing. I want to see God do new things here in Edmonton! I long to see God's vision for worship and intercession here in this city. l've lived here all my life and I love this city and I know God has more planned for us than we can ask or imagine!

Amen Lord! So be it!

I will follow

Back in the days when I was in youth group, people used to talk about 'dangerous prayers' and how you needed to be careful what you prayed for, because you might just get it! You know, prayers like 'God to come and take 'total ownership of my life' and stuff like that or 'Every area Jesus, I want to submit to you.'

I've prayed those prayers, but never really connected with the 'dangerous' part. Recently I've prayed those kinds of prayers and I guess I've decided that maybe they are dangerous after all. Painful even.

One of my favorite worship leaders is Matt Redman. One of his early albums to get noticed over here in North America was "The Friendship and the Fear". I have long felt it is one of the best worship cd's that has ever been made. I've wept more than once over many of the songs.

One of the songs is 'The Way of the Cross". I'm listening to it right now, meditating on it, including a few tears.

Here are some of the lyrics that are hitting me right now:

"Show me the way of the cross once again
Denying myself for the love that I've gained
Everything's You now, everything's changed
It's time you had my whole life
You can have it all

Yes, I resolve to give it all
Some things must die, some things must live
Not "what can I gain," but "what can I give"
If much is required when much is received
Then You can have my whole life
Jesus have it all"

Maybe my youth leaders were right. Maybe there are dangerous prayers.

So tonight I will trust you Lord Jesus.
I've not called you Lord for nothing.
I've asked you to come, and you have.
I've asked you to own all of me, and you are.

You will work all things for good, won't you Lord?

on Faith, Hope & Love

This past Sunday I spoke at The Canopy on God's invitation to become History Makers. For me it was a message all about faith hope and love and here's why: it takes real faith and hope to believe in any substantial way that we can be 'history makers'.

I didn't say this on Sunday, but all through the previous night and all that morning I was really struggling against a strong attack of depression type feelings. Lots of discouragement and temptations to give up. On Sunday morning I did not want to preach, and I wrestled hard with the irony of the fact that I was about to proclaim something that I have not had much success at living out recently. Where I was at on Sunday morning was emotionally quite different from what I was saying; yet I was able to speak it because I knew in my head that it was truth and that God was stirring inside me. So that's a bit of the internal war that was being waged.

I believe that this message is resisted and fought against a great deal by the enemy. The level of discouragement I felt on Saturday night and Sunday morning was certainly unusual and it was pretty easy to recognize, at least on a mental level, what was going on.

In recent weeks, I've been sensing the Lord beginning to stir some things in me again... some old things, old dreams, old longings. These stirrings are difficult because they require hope to be rekindled in my heart. There's always hope in me, because of the work of the Spirit (Rms. 15:13) but I've realized recently that there is different hope for different things. So God is stirring me to hope again in certain areas and for certain things.

Things like revival in our time, a great release of the Holy Spirit in my generation, God raising up The Canopy and awakening a deep passionate love for Jesus within The Canopy; hope for radical holiness, sacrificial giving, miracles, healings and large numbers of people being saved.

There's a lot of rhetoric around those ideas and they make a nice sermon and people cheer about them, but it takes something to hold those things in you heart. There's a cost involved. There's the pain of hope deferred. It's one thing to cheer on Sunday when those topics are mentioned, but it's entirely another to hold those things, in hope, in your heart for years and years. This is why Hebrews 11:2 is so huge for me right now: "This is what the ancients were commended for." That verse is just shouting at me these days! They were commended by GOD! Why? Because they held things in their hearts for years and years, decade after decade and still had hope and faith for them!

God is being very gracious to me. As Kevin Prosch sings, "He saw that I had missed the stirring of the waters" and He's helping me by bringing some healing to me and inviting me back to faith, hope and love.

When the song History Maker came out, I was gripped by it because it gave expression to a lot of what I hoped for. For several years I was impacted by that song. Then over time, it began to fade somewhat in my heart. Not entirely, but the burden of hope deferred wore it down somewhat. Now God is working on me afresh and I realize again my need for faith hope and love.

For anyone who wasn't able to be there on Sunday, I'm including a copy of the message I spoke. I preached the message because I believe that it's part of what God is doing within The Canopy right now. I feel that he is not only awakening hope and faith in me in a new way, but that He is wanting to do that (and is doing that) in The Canopy.

So if you're able to spend a few minutes, give it a listen. I've edited it down slightly, so it's about 42 min.

my neighborhood

Yesterday I found out that my neighbor across the street is moving. When he explained why, I understood. John works out of the city a lot of the time, so he was surprised to get a call at work a few weeks back from the manager at the Superstore wholesale place over on 99th Street, asking him to come and remove his trailor camper from the parking lot. John knew nothing of it! He found out that some yahoo's had hitched up his trailer from his back yard and taken it for a joy ride! Soon after that incident, his garage door was spray painted. All this, after having his truck broken into twice over the past 2 years.
We've had our cars broken into as well, with small items stolen, but nothing too serious. Plus the fact that my bike was stolen out of our back yard, all added up for my neighbor and his decision to move to Stettler. It's a good move for him. He's a single guy who likes the rural areas and he'll make over a $100,000 on the sale of his house, above and beyond what he's paid for a newer, bigger place in Stettler. I can't blame him, but I'm sad he's leaving. And I'm saddened by what is happening to my neighborhood.

Reality is, that there are a few 'party' houses right along my street. One is filled with youth all the time; yesterday in the afternoon there were 6 of them sitting outside drinking a bottle of JD's. There are a couple of others that probably are not really party houses, but let's just say that the people living there keep really wierd hours and there are small kids running about way too late at night.

All this, is, I suppose, part of the blessings of the economic boom and growth in Edmonton. I guess we're becoming more and more of a 'big city' and having to deal with all the problems associated with it.

Lots of bikes are stolen, cars broken into and stolen, houses robbed, all over the city, so for the most part I haven't really thought things were all that bad. The reality is that they probably are not all that bad.

It's just sobering to have your neighbor and friend leave the city because of this kind of stuff.