DELIVERANCE - SALVATION - BAPTISM

Last night was amazing! We had our usual group at the hall after school yesterday and we had a few new people come. One guy came early because he wanted to get right with God. I was able to speak to him about the foolish man building his house upon the sand and the wise man building upon the rocks. This worked beautifully and he immediately wanted to pray and repent.
We spent some time in prayer then as I was leaving the room he kept saying how hes going to try to be good but he still has demons in him. I wasn't 100% if they were demons but I wanted to at least pray for him. So I simply accepted the authority Jesus has given us over the demonic (luke10:19) and started quietly praying if there was anything not of God in him that it would leave. I started getting names of unclean spirits so I simply told them to leave. He started shaking and falling backwards even though I had rested my hand on his shoulder. Wanting him to know that I wasn't pushing I decided not to touch him and I kept praying. Again, as I quietly commanded the demonic to leave he kept falling backwards. Then all of a sudden he was at peace and had a great smile!

Then a couple of girls came in as we finished up. They were swearing so I simply said no swearing in church. Then we started talking about church, to which I asked, "Do you believe in God?" They said yes, but when I asked if they were heading for heaven they didn't know. So I did the good test so they could find out of they were 'good enough' to go to heaven. Of course we found out that they both were headed for hell and they didn't like that thought. So I was able to tell them about the grace of God dieing and rising again to forgive us and to wipe away it all from us. To recieive this you had to say sorry to God and choose to follow Him from now on. They agreed so we wrote down on paper all the sins we could think of. Then we lit fire as we thanked God for Jesus and for forgiveness. They then committed to following Jesus.

We then mucked around with all the other guys but then we decided everyone needed to know how to listen to God speak. So we spent time listening to God and had some very prophetic stuff coming out for each other. I was particularly impressed with one prophetic word from one girl to the other saying she could see the girl walking away from a fight and walking towards Jesus. It was a great moment!

After this we spoke of the need to follow Jesus in more detail and how it can be hard but God has sent the Holy Spirit to help us to follow Him. I then asked if they wanted to receive the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands. They all indicated they wanted to so we started praying for each other. The Holy Spirit showed up and touched our hearts, and as a sign of Him touching the inside He also touched the outside causing us all to fall to the ground. We explained that the falling to the ground was an outward sign of them letting go and letting God take over, giving God full control so that He can touch our hearts. A great peace filled the room!

We had a great time. We all had fun and encountered the living God. We gave them our new Christian show bags that have devotionals, bibles, stress balls that say Jesus loves you, and a bunch of other stuff, and we also organised a new small group to be held every week so we can learn to follow Jesus better!

Praise God because He saves!

JESUS IS LORD OVER EVERYTHING

Some really cool stories here... Try read them all, they're all pretty cool, supernatural, and God glorifying! Warning: if you're not a Holy Spirit lover you may take offense...
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I'm back from camp! And yes I did get the gastro bug which a few of us are pretty certain was food poisoning... For those of you who dont know I went to a Salvo camp in Adelaide and they had to finish a day early because over 20 youth and leaders got sick! They even had to quarantine the sick (lepers) from the rest of us on the edge of camp. It reminded me how in Bible times, and some places today, that the lepers were on the outskirts of town and people would ignore them etc... So, instead of ignoring them we decided to tease them to cheer them up... One guy preached to them and a couple got saved! Hallelujah! The week was great hearing RC, SC and AW and others preach! The last night was awesome, the leaders had a powerful prayer time beforehand where we sung Awesome God followed by an outbreak of shouting praises to our king! The night ended with demons getting booted out of every hole we could find! God is our deliverer! Hallelujah!
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Last nights Macca youth meeting was great! Not heaps of people there but heard some great testimonies! Worship was great with a leader seeing angels whispering into peoples ears! Then I had a short preach and a guy got saved! Hallelujah! To cement it all in, I got him to exercise his new God given power and authority over sickness and he layed hands on a guy with a bad neck and he was healed! Hallelujah! He hadn't been saved 20minutes and he'd obeyed Jesus command to heal the sick! Glory to God for He alone is worthy of all praise and honor!
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While I was sick and in bed I saw something evil in the spirit outside my window, as I prayed I saw a vision of a lion roar and scare it away! The lion kept roaring throughout the night as I was praying for healing...
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I heard great stories of Holy Spirit stuff while I was hanging with some guys at easter camp. One guy was prayed for by a friend of mine, he had a glory fit and woke up underneath the salvo flag, a symbol of being dead to sin alive in Christ!

Friend also prays for people but shoots them with a bow and arrow that we cant see. People have watched this holy prayer warrior at work and has been reported that he will walk behind people in worship un-noticed and shoot someone and they will be affected somehow, some even jerking forwards... Other times shot in knees to work for healing... Apparently this guys brother uses a spear...

These guys also prayed for another friend of mine that angels would tickle him (there is more context to this story... dont freak out too quick with questions of "why") and the guys said it was unbearable! He was getting tickled all over!
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Theres some stories of my last week for you to chew over and think about. How can you use the same techniques in your ministry today and this week?

Praise God! A guy from the breakfast club got saved today! He devoted His life to living for Jesus. We prayed that He would be filled with the Holy Spirit and He had a glory fit and fell on the ground! Hallelujah! As he lay on the floor you could see he was clearly deep in prayer. One cool thing was that he was doing the palms up prayer and he said they got too heavy to hold up! The Holy Spirit was filling and overflowing him! Please pray that his commitment will not weaken but will grow stronger every day as he ministers in his school!
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We've got a new group. Not sure what to call it yet. Probably C.A.T.S Community Action Teams. 4 groups that the followers of Jesus in Plenty Valley Youth are expected to be involved in, Power Evangelism, Fair Trade, Servanthood and Fund raising. So far its going really well and we have opened it up to any youth to join, so we are building some great teams that will serve the community and give us opportunities to lead people to Christ!
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Just saw OASIS on ABC. It really really touched me. Not really sure what to say, but I will reflect on that over the next few days.
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I spoke early in the week of prophetic boundaries/rules. Heres the basic run down...

When giving the word you must test the word
is it encouraging, building up and or edifying?
is it line with the word of God?
is it line with the fruit of the Spirit?
is it true?
we also need to test the source: is it of God? Is it of us? Is it of the enemy?
is the voice/vision/person speaking etc in line with the fruit of the Spirit?

When receiving the word
dont accept it all as from God straight away
test the word against scripture, the church, the Spirit
is it true?
does it make sense?
if it doesn't make sense "put it on the shelf" leave it there until it is confirmed

Prophetic Fun

Last night was the kick of our divisions youth 24/7 prayer. I took a group for the 2am-5am shift and we had a blast! We started off with a bit of listening prayer. We just asked God to speak to us and asked Him questions and let Him talk back to us. After a while it was pretty clear that we were all hearing God so we moved on to "Prophetic Piggy in the Middle."

We had someone jump in the middle and we all prayed for them, asking God to speak to them through us. So we asked God "Is there anything you want me to say to them?" We all got answers and it was very prophetic, delving deep down into our hearts. I had a vision someone had of me at Easter camp confirmed along with some good challenges...

After this we moved on to "Blindfold Prophesy." For this one we sat the prayer down in a chair and they weren't allowed to open their eyes. Then we had someone sit behind them. Then the pray-er had to ask God for something to say to them. Again we had some very prophetic words, visions etc and pretty much every time the person praying knew who they were praying for! This was alot of fun as we praised God that we were hearing Him speak to us!

Some of the people there had not heard God speak to them so clearly before and so the night was really really fun! To see the youths smiles when the words they heard from God were confirmed was my highlight. The more I do ministry the more I realise that my job is simply to teach, equip and empower. I dont need to be the person prophesying or anything, I would much rather a group of youths doing it than me just because I'm the 'leader.' Its great seeing that the same Jesus I hear speak to me is the same Jesus that speaks to the youth!

I'm sure I'll get some comments and emails about these games, so this week I will blog about some of the boundaries and rules we have for these games so people dont freak out! But at the end of the day who is going to complain that a bunch of youth simply waited on God to speak to them?

But everyone who prophesies speaks to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. 1 Corinthians 14:3

Connections

Connections was great!

Heres a couple of the issues that were discussed...
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TSA is most trusted organisation in Australia. We are seen as a group of people who don't preach to people and this is apparently a good thing. People like us because we don't preach?

What does that mean?

Does that mean we only help people in Jesus name but don't try to get them saved? You can only respond to the gospel if you hear it. Have we as an Army stopped preaching with words and are hiding behind our good works hoping that people will want to get saved? Heres a headline for you, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Mormons etc all help the poor too. We have more than good works! We have the one and only true living God who created and loves His creation!

What scares me is that the fact that "we are seen as a group of people who do not preach it" is seen as a positive! Who cares if that means people like us, our friendship with them is not going to save them from facing up to the consequences of their sinful lives! Yeah we might win a few like we have been, which is great, but arent our expectations a little higher than a few here and there? Aren't we all about "THE WORLD FOR GOD?" After all, we did sing about it.

People can not get saved without putting their faith in Christ. People cannot learn about or respond to Christ unless they hear about it. Works are good, and it shows a glimpse of Christ, but for them to be saved they need more.

I propose we need to keep up the holy living, the responding to people with justice and compassion, but also preaching the gospel strongly! We should not be ashamed of God, the gospels or the fact that we're trying to get people saved!

Is the Salvation army wanting to keep going down the not preaching path, or do they want an Army of evangelists who are trying to plunder hell and populate heaven? I know what I'm called to do...

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Rudd wins the election. There will be a few pastors around the country who will be scratching their heads and bunkering down in prayer to see why their prophecies of a Howard win did not eventuate. Im waiting for their explanation, did they mis-hear or did the prophecy come with a "if?"
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More connections stuff...

Over 2000 people marched for justice in the name of Jesus! Followed by a rally at Fed Square. Heaps of people stopped and listened to the musicians, and the gospel! Nazarite Vow were awessome and testified that they play because of Jesus! Frankie Wants Out were great as they always are, their committment to helping the Salvos out is fantastic. Mez Coleman has a fantastic voice and dazzled the crowd with her cool groove. Bits and pieces played some MXPX, Relient K, Planetshakers etc with the worlds smallest guitar player!lol Great job everyone!

Alot of people herd the gospel!

Around 3000 people gathered yesterday morning for commissioning and the Holy Spirit definitely showed up!
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Some stuff from connections:

Uniform was made with the intent to emphasize the priesthood of all believers. -Is it these days? Have we instead gone the other way and broaden the gap between officers and soldiers even with different colored eplets?

In 1901 salvos took up.8% of the population now we're o.4%

T. Costello encouraged us not to get too close to telling the public we're a church because of its bad press, heres an easy way to do that, lets call ourselves CORPS...

Alan Harley is a great Holiness teacher, more on him during the week!

God is good!

Tonight was awessome at band practice. We had a great prayer time at the end. Pretty much everyone was knocked over by the Holy Spirit. A couple of people even fell forwards! We had people prophesying, prophecies being confirmed, curses being broken, blessings being declared. A great time to the glory of God! Hallelujah!

Second part of Finney... (still in fairly contemp english... my better version coming soon...)

Sins of Commission

1. Worldliness: What has been the state of you heart to world possessions? Have you looked at hem as your own, meaning you have the right to do with them as you like? If you have write it down. If you have loved property, and tried to get it for the sake of it to satisfy lust or ambition, or a worldly spirit, or to lay it up for your family, you have sinned and must repent!

2. Pride: Vanity is a specific form of pride. How many times have you spent more time, going through more of a hassle to decorate your body to go to church than you have spent preparing your heart and mind for the worship of God? You have gone to the house of God caring more about how you look to mortal men and women than how your soul appears in the sight of the heart searching God! You came to divide the worship of Gods house, to draw off attention of Gods people to look at your petty appearance!

3. Envy: Look at the times when you were envious of those who you thought to be above you in any way. Be honest, and if you have accommodated this spirit of hell, repent deeply before God, or He will never forgive you.

4. Highly critical: Times when you have been bitter, when you have spoken to Christians in a manner totally devoid of charity and love, charity requires you always hope the best, and to put the best slant on any ambiguous behavior.

5. Slander: The times what you have spoken behind peoples backs of the faults, real or made up, of members of the church or others, un necessisarily, or without good reason. This is slander. You don’t have to lie to be guilty of slander, telling the truth with the aim of hurting is slander.

6. Lightheartedness: How often have you gone about as though nothing matters, but you would not dare do in front of God.

7. Lying: Understand what lying is. It is any means of designed deception. If you design to make an impression contrary to the naked truth, you lie. How many lies are told in business, and in social times, by words, looks, and actions in order to make an impression on people contrary to the truth.

8. Robbing God: Times when you have misspent your time, wasted hours, which God gave you to save souls, in vain amusements or foolish conversation, reading novels, watching T.V or doing nothing.

9. Bad Temper: Maybe you have abused friends, family, partners, or other people in any way. Write it down.

10. Hindering others from being useful: Maybe you have weakened their influence by insinuations against them. You have not only robbed God of your own talents, but tied the hands of someone else!

Hell

During "Go For Souls" we were challenged to ask God to show us hell. We were told that one of the reasons why we don't evangelise as we should is because hell isn't real enough. I think thats a good point. Imagine if we actually applied that to the people we love, our friends, family, neighbours etc! Man, would we be busy!

Anyway, i had a vision of hell at the conference, here it is...

I saw the gates to hell and behind it were people aglow. they were glowing because it was so hot. And, they were all weird looking like they'd been melted. And as i stood at the gate into hell i saw hands reaching out, trying to escape. But, sadly, they couldnt. The other thing about it was that there was no sound. no screaming, because there tongues were so parched.

i was talking to someone who knew someone who worked with William booth. when he was asked why Booth was such an effective evangelist he paused then said, "Because he had such a strong belief in hell." Wow.

i don't know about you, but I don't want anyone to go to hell. And as Catherine Booth said, "Its Jesus or Hell!" Or as Jesus said when talking about Himself, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son"

freinds dont let friends burn in hell.

revival?

Are we really ready for revival? Do we expect it? My guess is no. I could be wrong here but to the best of my knowledge there is no Salvo material for new Christians. I'm guessing this is because 1) we hardly have any converts these days and 2) we're not expecting it!

Mu aunty is c.o somewhere and they put some Bibles under the mercy seat expecting people to be saved. The following Sunday I believe a bunch of people came forward and gave their life to Christ!

If we're praying for revival and salvations etc, lets get some plans together for when it happens. I don't want to get left behind because I wasn't ready!

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the following has been edited from the first time it was posted a few hours ago...
Will The Salvation Army get serious about our covenant? Will there be a day when people will not be accepted as officers, soldiers and lieutenants if they don't believe the doctrines and follow the therefores? (Not just talking about first time committments like swearing in, commissioning etc) How long can we go along compromising? How can we continue to perpetuate the already bad situation because we dont want to make people upset? If we are allowing people to stay in covenant and the positions that brings even though they constantly break it are we not taking Gods grace in vain? Are we sinning because God will forgive us?

The problems are too great. Bad theology etc leads to bad mission. Dis unity in the body will only hinder revival not improve it.

The covenant is what unites Salvationists. Not everyone is called to The Salvation Army. I love having non salvos help out and do stuff, I know some great non-salvos who help us heaps. But at the same time we need to unite on those things which make us us. The things that separate us from other denominations and movements...

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Sorry I'm so negative today! Just a bit frustrated. Heres some positive to keep us going. One of the guys who has just got saved has been laying hands and praying that his sister will get healed! He has also told me that one of his friends is coming on Thursday night and shes gonna get saved! Hallelujah! The Army is moving! The Spirit is stirring! Lets cut the dead wood and allow the Holy Spirit freedom in our lives!

Prophet words and holiness

I feel like Ive been one of those Kings in the Old Testament, who even after hearing remarkably prophetic words from prophets theyre still not sure and do their own thing! I woke up the other morning and God told me to write in my journal instead of Bible and prayer, So I did. Then later in the day God sent a prophet to speak to me who said some amazing things. What this prophet was telling me to do was backed up by a string of comments about things I had written in my journal. Even though that was so obviously God, theres still something in me that says, hold on, I need more confirmation! Prophets, cant live with them, cant live without them! hahaha

Also, I need to testify to some of the victories Ive been having on the holiness front. Im beginning to understand the meaning of having faith leading to holiness. Ive been alot more believing in my prayers, and its working! Hallelujah. A few weeks ago at Basketball I got sent out of the stadium for a bit of unsportsmanlike behaviour. Nothing serious but it was unsportsman like. This Monday I was completely differernt, I shook all their hands, wished them the best, congratulated them after good shots, and they let me stay playing! hahaha also,

I can get annoyed at people who dont drive "properally." Some may call it road rage. But since believeing more, Ive stopped getting angry and frusturated, and have started to really just not care! Hallelujah!

Do you want the blessing of a clean heart? Do you want to be filled with love? Do you want to have the choice wether to sin or not instead of falling into sinful habits? Devote your whole life to God, leave it on the altar, let Him purify you, have faith that it is done, and as Brengle said, "Testify, Testify, Testify!"

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness! 1 John 1:9

God answers prayer!

Firstly, On an unrelated topic, has anyone ever been to Koorong without a) seeing someone they know, or b) not buying anything, or even c) both??? Its an mazing place...

Anyway. One of the things I love about God is that He answers prayer! I dont believe our prayers are powerful in themselves, rather the God who answers prayer is powerful! 2 stories...

Yesterday I did Junior Soldiers, I did the session with the three young junior soldiers, (around about 7-9 years old...) on "Listening Prayer." I encouraged them and told them they had all heard God speak to them and I got them to tell me some of the times they have heard God speak in a variety of ways. We did some personal friendship questions with Jesus, then we stepped into a Bible story, then we prayed for each other asking God what to say to each other.

The Junior Soldiers were on fire! They asked God what to say then encouraged, prophesied and gave words of knowledge to each other! I was about to finish but I made them do the same for me and what they said was very spot on! God is good and answers prayer!

Then today I had a phone call from some friends who I had prayed with recently. I had prayed that their son would get better. Surprise, surprise, there son has been miraculously healed! Thankyou Jesus!

So, when you pray do you believe God will answer? Or do you leave a message on His answering machine and not let Him speak back to you? When reading the Bible do you simply read the menu or taste the meal? I'll leave you with Gods phone number...

Jeremiah 3:33 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Pray for revival!

The last few weeks I have been really convicted and convinced that NOW is the time for us to pray as much as we can for revival! There is something on the horizon, we need Spiritual breakthroughs right now. I feel revival is so close yet we need to pray it through the place we are in now! I urge you, PRAY as much as you can! Ive tried doubling my prayer time today, and I hope to continue that on. We need more prayer meetings, spontaneos meetings, with friends, family and church! We cant pray too much!

The other connected idea is, and I dont know how theologically correct this is... I want to have the sort of faith that makes God do things. Like the centurian Jesus saw, He was amazed at the mans faith He had to heal the boy! In evangelism, I ask God to show up in peoples lives! I try to put God to work. I try my best to put the pressure on God. I dont want just my words to do the work, I want to have enough faith etc so that God will have to show up! What do people think about that idea? Im still trying to think it through...

Anyway, lets pray as much as possible for revival! Lets have faith that its coming! Lets put the pressure on God to act! Make sure you're ready. Repent of your sin! You have sin! So do I. Lets get rid of it, consecrate ourselves to God and live by faith!

30 "Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, O house of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign LORD. Repent and live!
Ezekiel 18:30-32

There are many who are interested in the cause of Christ, and who are pleased to see it prosper in their corps, their church, their city, their country. But there are few who bear the burden of the world upon their souls day and night, who make His cause in every clime their very own, and who, like Eli, would die if the ark of God were taken; who feel it an awful shame and a consuming sorrow, if victory is not continually won in His name.

- Samuel Logan Brengle

LORD, we're crying out for you to touch this land. Bring revival to this nation! Bring healing by your hand! LORD we cry out for more of you!

- Soteria

AMEN

A word to The Salvation Amry Southern Territory:

33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

1 Kings 13:33-34

Within this I hear God saying:

Teachers will be judged more strictly. (James 3:1)

Integrity and truth is vital. (1 Timothy 3-4)