"Life Bloom" by Garris Elkins

We all like flowers bloom and unfold.

From bud to blossom, new to full,

from young to old.

The summit of a life cycle no one knows

the height, the apex of life's arc

from fullness to withered petal.

But life is,

from beginning to end,

from tender shoot to brittle leaf,

all part of the bloom.

"A Soul in Drought" by Garris Elkins

To the despair in this dry place - listen

Listen to the approaching sound

of a rising tide of answered prayer

Mounting upon a wave of his presence

breaking down upon this soul in drought

upon the despair in this dry place.

"Confused and Confirmed" by Garris Elkins

On Tuesday mornings I gather with other believers in the sanctuary at Living Waters Church to pray. Like we do each week, we put on some worship music and spend an hour together in God's presence. There is something powerful and spiritually fulfilling about being in prayer with other believers.

For the first half hour many of us walk around, some sit and others kneel in prayer as the Spirit leads. We pray with our mind and with our Spirit. During these times of weekly prayer things are taking place in the heavenly realm that we are not fully aware of. Systems of darkness that hold people captive are being dismantled. Families are being set free. Supernatural provision is called in. For the last half hour the music is turned down and we pray for circumstances God has brought to our attention and we pray for each other.

As a couple of the men were receiving prayer for specific needs in their lives the Lord prompted me to share a word. In essence the word was this:

"This is a time of both confusion and confirmation. Your mind is being renewed and your old way of thinking is now confused. What has worked is no longer working. God is doing a new thing in your life that He is renewing your mind to receive. New things are coming to you to confirm that this is God Who is at work in you."

God is not the author of confusion. When God is doing a new work in us His new work will challenge our old mindsets. He is not throwing the old away, He is simply taking us to a deeper place of revelation. Each new revelation builds upon the previous revelation. The Kingdom of God is ever-expanding. If we hold on to the old, at the expense of the new, we will miss the fresh work God is doing in our lives and upon the earth.

We get confused when our religious thinking and religious systems are no longer producing the life they once provided. Some people continue to hold on to the past out of fear because it is familiar and controllable. At this point we can either attempt to justify their continued existence or we can lift them up to God in exchange for something new.

The confusion we are experiencing will begin to leave when we make the exchange - the old for the new. In this process of letting go the confirmation that comes will turn our confusion into understanding.

“A Transferable Pentecost” by Garris Elkins

Pentecost in its purest form is transferable across all models of ministry, Pentecostalism is not. Pentecost is what God did on the Day of Pentecost. Pentecostalism is a narrow human interpretation of the moving of God's Spirit. The “isms” of ministry have distanced many believers from the very things He wants to do in our midst.

A transferable model of Pentecost can work within any ministry without compromising the power and authority of the Holy Spirit or violating the unique assignment God has given a particular ministry.

In 1985 I was a burned-out young pastor. I wanted out of the ministry. We had gone to Montana several years earlier to plant a new church and we had begun to grow. We had a rented facility and a group of wonderful people, but I was tired and wanted out.

To augment our church income I worked as a pilot at a local airport. I thought I would return to Oregon, get a flying job, and become a faithful member of a local church. Jan and I made a trip to the Portland area where I was offered a job as a pilot flying for a local business.

We returned to Montana to share our decision with the church, pack up ,and leave. Then the words began to come. My brother said, “Garris, that doesn't sound like God.” A long-time ministry mentor quoted a Psalm that said, the servant watches the hand of the master and only moves when His hand moves. I was jumping the gun.

We settled back into the routine of ministry and decided to not leave. Several months went by and Jan and I traveled to Los Angeles to the International Convention of the Foursquare Church. It was my first time to Angelus Temple. It was like a spiritual Disneyland for me. I wept as I read the history of the Foursquare Church and saw the crutches displayed from the healing ministry of Aimee Semple McPherson.

I don't remember much from that convention. I do remember John Wimber who spoke in one of the evening sessions. John came out on the platform dressed in white pants and a Hawaiian shirt and said, “I am just a little fat man trying to get to heaven.” I immediately liked him.

John preached that night and uttered one sentence that will stay with me for the rest of my life. John simply said, “Go home and do what's in the Book.” John meant, “Go home and do what Jesus did.”

When we arrived back home to our church in Montana we did not change anything. We had the same worship team, the same service structure, and the same pastor – me. What changed was an expectancy I brought home that came from hearing Heaven speak to me. Miracles began to take place during worship. Serious diseases were healed. Backs were straightened. Marriages were restored. Forgiveness was granted. God simply walked into our church and began to tell His people that He loved them enough to touch their brokenness.

In some circles of the Church today, the ministry of the Holy Spirit is viewed like a free-spirited uncle who was invited to our last Thanksgiving Dinner and had too much to drink. We are not sure we want to invite him back next year so we plan around him.

On my Twitter account, one person I follow is David Platt, a Southern Baptist pastor. David posted this chilling comment : “If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95% of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference.” I wonder how true this might have become for some of us. The Church, birthed in power on the Day of Pentecost, has not been called to be a Rotary or Lions Club, even though these wonderful secular groups do important work in our cities. These groups are not the Church. Much of what is taking place in some corners of the Church today, any service club could do without the Holy Spirit being present. Good works alone will not accomplish God's plan.

On the Day of Pentecost the entire Church was birthed. Those in attendance that day came to the Upper Room in Acts 2 indwelled by the Spirit. Previous to the Day of Pentecost, in John 20, Jesus had breathed the Spirit into His disciples. These disciples became the first born-again humans to walk upon the face of the earth. These “new creations,” who had the Spirit of God within them as they came to Pentecost, would now be clothed in power as the Spirit fell upon them, and they would take the Gospel to the far corners of the known world.

On the Day of Pentecost the church was given an empowered voice. That empowered voice would transmit the will of heaven upon the earth through the supernatural gifts of the Spirit, which included healing, prophecy, and miracles. This empowered voice of Pentecost would be the vehicle to carry the declarations of heaven into places of disease, suffering and bondage. This voice said, “Be healed,” “Rise up and walk,” or “Come out of him.” The Book of Acts is filled with the supernatural commands of the empowered voice. In fact, the overwhelming message of the voice of the Church throughout Acts was given in the form of commands, not prayers. In Acts they commanded more than they prayed.

The unique voice of each ministry on earth today was empowered on the Day of Pentecost 2,000 years ago. It will be a wise leader who discovers the sound of that voice and releases it into their unique ministry assignment.

Culture is not opened nor is the Kingdom expanded by our academics, our doctrine, our highly groomed communities of fellowship, outreach ministries, hip websites, great stage props and lighting. Culture is opened and the Kingdom is expanded because of a supernatural encounter with the Holy Spirit on the frontiers of darkness. As you study the Book of Acts, cultural frontiers were breached and the Kingdom expanded because the Church spoke with an empowered voice and the darkness stepped back.

Community outreach has become a buzz word today. Community outreach is a good thing. The Church is being awakened to this neglected aspect of ministry. As we pursue a fuller expression of our calling, we need to remember that our best attempts at community outreach will only be terminal events unless we are prepared and available for an encounter with the Holy Spirit against a dark spiritual frontier where hell is entrenched. Outreach is a wonderful work for the Church to engage in, but it is only intended to be a platform from which to release a supernatural encounter with the Living God.

How would you validate your ministry? What criteria would you use to make sure you did the same things Jesus did while He walked the earth?

Jesus sent a validation of His ministry back to John the Baptist who was in prison awaiting execution. The event is recorded in Matthew 11: 1-5

"When Jesus had finished giving these instructions to his twelve disciples, he went out to teach and preach in towns throughout the region. 2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” 4 Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen―5 the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. ” (NLT)

This is the same John who, on the day of Jesus' baptism, saw heaven open up and the dove descend upon Jesus. John heard God speak. John saw first-hand the supernatural events that occurred that day and yet he asks, “Are you the Messiah we've been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”

John's question makes no sense. John saw it all. He should have been in a place to never doubt the Lord. But being in prison, whether locked up in a real steel- barred prison cell or a prison of the mind, can cause a person to lose their grip on reality. Jesus knew that in just a matter of days John's head would be removed from his body and served up on a tray as a macabre party favor. Jesus prepared a response to send back to John to tell him he had not wasted his life and he could now die in peace.

Jesus validated His ministry to John by saying, ““Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen―5 the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor.” Jesus did not say that He had been painting houses, picking up trash in the community, or running a soup kitchen. These are all wonderful things to do, but they don't fully validate what He has called His Pentecost-empowered Church to do. Of the six points of ministry validation Jesus sent to John, five were outwardly supernatural in nature. Jesus made these statements to John knowing that you and I would show up centuries later and may need to hear the same thing in order to keep our focus.

Peter said something similar in Acts 2:22, “People of Israel, listen! God publicly endorsed Jesus the Nazarene by doing powerful miracles, wonders and signs through him, as you well know.” Individual and cultural transformation requires a miraculous encounter with God and that takes place when the power of Pentecost is released through the empowered voice of the Church. If we are seeking a validation or endorsement it is important that we reflect the very nature of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

So, what is the take-away from all of this? The take-away is in three areas.

For the primary ministry leader – make room for Pentecost in your personal life

My ministry coach is Dave Jacobs. Dave's ministry touches pastors all across the United States. I am blessed to have Dave as part of our church. Dave kindly coaches my calling each month when he sticks a spiritual thermometer into my life to see my level of vocational health. Dave asks good questions.

During my times with Dave and my own interaction with God, I have realized how important it is to create margins in my life. These are margins outside of work, my daily devotional life, my sermon preparation and my family. In these margins I am alone with God without an agenda. My margin time is on Wednesday mornings when I leave my house and hike the trails in the hills above our home.

During my margin time with God I listen for the voice of heaven. I pray in my native tongue and in the tongue of the Spirit. The longer I spend in this margin time the more I understand how to discern God's voice. We learn to speak in the empowered voice of heaven by listening to the voice of heaven.

Once we hear the word of God for our specific issues, we then have something to say to our family, our leaders and the Church.

For your leadership team – discover the unique language of Pentecost God has assigned to your ministry

It is critical for our primary leadership teams to speak the same language. Language is culture. Make room for the Spirit to speak in your primary leadership gatherings.

My pastor, Roy Hicks, Jr., once told a group of us young-pastors-in-training to never have a meeting of our primary leadership team without making room for the Holy Spirit to speak. He also went on to tell us that a public meeting should be characterized by three things – Word, Worship and the Witness of the Spirit. Many of us have a Word-language and a Worship-language, but we need to develop a Witness-language if we are going to confront darkness and bring freedom to our communities.

In Acts 13 the entire Gentile missionary movement was birthed because these leaders were worshipping and listening together before the Lord. As a result, the Gospel moved out from Jerusalem and touched the world. No gathering, no matter how small, is ever insignificant if we hear the voice of God and act upon what He said to us.

For your public ministry teams -train them how to speak in the empowered voice

The public outreach of our churches that may include our weekly public church service, some form of community outreach ministry like painting houses in town, feeding the poor and all the rest of what we do to be out and among our community, are all gracious platforms from which the empowered voice can speak. It is critical to train these ministry teams how to do their practical ministry assignment with excellence. But this alone is not enough. These public ministries will carry us to the frontiers of darkness where we will have the opportunity to speak and command life into the darkness of imprisoned lives. These encounters are supernatural and require a supernatural ministry empowered by God's Spirit.

As you train people how to minister, include in the training how to minister with their unique and personal voice of Pentecost. Our daughter, Anna, is a gifted artist who conducts Prophetic Art workshops to help people learn to hear the voice of God. Anna instructs artists, from the stick-figure-only artists to the professional, on how to hear God's voice and then interpret that voice back into their medium of art. Anna was released into this ministry when a wise professor told her that when the Spirit moves in her life she creates art. Today, people stand before artwork inspired by the Spirit and receive emotional, physical and spiritual healing.

The moving of the Holy Spirit upon believers can appear monolithic if we require that Pentecost be expressed in any limited form. The Kingdom of God is expanding and in that expansion He is raising up new and unique ways for people to hear His voice. Teach your teams to release what will validate the ministry of Christ and endorse His presence in your community.

This kind of leadership takes courage. In the early years of the Foursquare Church, Aimee Semple McPherson took hits from some of the traditional Pentecostal churches on one side and the mainline churches on the other. One side thought she was too cold and the other side thought she was too hot. She remained true to what God had called her to do because early on she discovered the uniquely empowered voice of Pentecost that was assigned to her life. Later that voice initiated a great move of God and birthed the Foursquare Church. Aimee did not allow what she heard from heaven to be high-jacked or re-translated.

"Come Out Of The Clutter" by Garris Elkins

A very strong and clear word came to me recently,

“During this season stay away from over-scripted, over-studied and over-choreographed personal lives and corporate church gatherings. God is up to something new and our planning can be the very clutter that dulls our ability to hear the voice of God.”

We are living in cluttered times that have produced distracted lives. Family activities and careers ask for their fair share of our day. Ministry commitments ask us for more of our time. The needs of others stand in line at the door of our lives and want to come in. Each of these demands are good by themselves, but together they can become overwhelming in their ability to fill every spare moment of our lives. At some point we must push life back and create a place to listen to what the Spirit would say.

John the Baptist stood in the wilderness and cried out for people to prepare for the coming of the Lord.

“Prepare the way for the Lord's coming! Clear the road for him!” Mark 1:3

All the people in Jerusalem, and all the people in the surrounding country-side, left their known civilization and walked out into the uncluttered wilderness in response to John's voice. A friend recently told me at that time there were over a million people in Jerusalem and the surrounding region. Imagine a group of people that large walking away from the city and out into the wilderness to hear about Jesus. They left the clutter of their everyday lives and walked out into the simplicity of the wilderness to hear the message of God.

Paul addressed cluttered lives when he wrote to the Church in Corinth,

“The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away. I want you to be free from the concerns of this life.” I Corinthians 7: 29-32

Later in verse 35 Paul wrote,

“I want you to do whatever will help you serve the Lord best, with as few distractions as possible.”

Paul was listing, among those things that can distract us, our relationships, our failures, our successes and our possessions. When all of the stuff of life begins to fill our lives we become absorbed into them and take on their shape – our image changes. Like wet clay we are crafted into an image of the distractions in our lives instead of being absorbed and molded into the image of Christ.

Profound and epic change is taking place upon the earth. Promises spoken by God are hanging above the Church seeking places to fall. God is looking for target audiences, not target audiences that come from opinion polls or logical conclusions, but target audiences that have prepared themselves for His coming. These target audiences are those personal lives and public ministries that have cleared away landing zones for heaven to touch down, much like an “LZ” (Landing Zone) that would be provided in a military operation for an incoming aircraft. Now is the time to push back the clutter and distractions of life that are occupying your time and space and draining away your energy. Heaven wants to land, but the clutter is in the way.

For the last year I have felt that much of what Heaven wants to do upon the earth is now hovering over the Church ready to fall into our midst. Words of promise spoken in the past are now in orbit over our lives waiting for God's signal to land. Heaven is prepared for this landing. God is asking His people to prepare for His coming by providing uncluttered landing zones where His Spirit can set down and do extraordinary things. Remove the clutter and distractions and welcome the coming of the Lord.

"The Spiritual Farm" by Garris Elkins

For the last several weeks I have been going through a deep pressing of my soul. God is wanting to get to the foundation of who I am and that will always stir a life. Discovery is never a comfortable process. This morning I read the following verses from Mark, chapter 4:

3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4 As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” 9 Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

I used to look at this text of scripture and try to pick out which soil I represented. My hope was that I would be the fertile soil. Then something happened today as I read this parable – I realized that I had all four soil types on my spiritual farm.

In the last 60 years I have accumulated a lot of spiritual acreage. Like a farmer in the natural realm, we work different parts of a large land holding based on the needs of each particular soil type. For those of you thinking I am copping out to having sin in my life, I am not. I love God, love my wife and don't want anyone to die because they crossed me. I repent daily and make heart adjustments. But maybe at age 60 I am finally realizing that I don't have it all together all the time and I need to understand what that means. This is the pressing that comes in times of intense spiritual formation.

As I look at my life I see places that used to be fertile ground where I have allowed other things access to and they have beaten a hard path across my once fertile field. I look at another section of my life where I have allowed myself to become shallow by seeking the dim and lesser things of this world. Nothing lasts long in that patch. The third parcel of my spiritual life is overgrown with thorns and I feel their choking influence as I become consumed with the “what ifs” of life. And finally, and thank God for this, there still remains patches of fertile soil from which I can compare all the others and demand that they yield to the fertility of His presence.

For the places I have allowed hardened footpaths to develop I need to limit access to who and what crosses my field. For the shallow places where I failed to go deeper, I need to allow God to take me into that ground and deal with any fear or shame that might arise on the way to freedom. For the thorn-infested places I need to pull these things up by their roots and not settle for a weed-whacker form of Christianity. And for those places of fertile soil I need to ask God how it became fertile in the first place and do more of that kind of work in all the other areas of my spiritual farm.

If you are like me, and going through a time of intense spiritual formation, God is wanting to do a work of fertility within you. To prepare the field of our lives for the supernatural seeds of His Kingdom, God needs to show us the condition of our soil and those images are not always pretty. From the parable of the sower we see that God is secure enough to throw some of His precious seed into the fields of my life that are not yet ready, and through the painful process of death and resurrection of that seed, He will create in us a heart that is fertile and inviting to His presence.

"Critics and Crisis" by Garris Elkins

It seems that in each season of breakthrough two things show up - critics and crisis. At our best we will never be able to please all the people all the time. It can be a rude awakening for some to realize that not all people agree with them.

The critics, for the most part, do their critique behind closed doors. This kind of criticism is fueled in private without you being present. This criticism will grow and remain unchallenged until it is discovered. Once discovered it must be challenged in love. Unless dealt with it will spread like a cancer without the “medicine” of truth to confront it. Small groups of “friends” can gather around this kind of criticism and require of each other an alignment with their point of view. An emerging crisis of relationship begins to develop because it is being fueled by this cancerous criticism. This kind of battle is based on rules of engagement from the kingdom of this earth, not the Kingdom of Christ.

In the book of Judges there is a re-occurring theme. Israel walks in sin and God sends judges to expose their sin and call them to repentance. After these confrontations with their national sin Israel would repent and begin to live in peace. Before long Israel would return to their sin and the process would start all over again.

A man named Jephthah emerged as a judge over Israel. In one instance he was dealing with the king of the Ammonites over a land dispute. When Jephthah delivered the word of the Lord to this king the king paid no attention to what was said. As a result, Israel went to battle with the Ammonites and destroyed them.

Jephthah spoke to the Ammonite king before the battle and said, “Let the Lord, who is judge, decide today which of us is right – Israel or Ammon.” Judges 11:27.

This word delivered by Jephthah to the Ammonite king would not be confirmed in its delivery – it would be confirmed in battle. Every word of the Lord has a battle where it will be confirmed. Where and how we choose to do battle has a huge effect on the outcome and confirmation of God's word in our lives.

God is the only one who can righteously decide and define true victory. Even in a time of criticism those being criticized have something to learn from their critics. If you find yourself in the midst of a season of critics and crisis it is time to look again at the battle armor of a New Covenant believer and to make sure those protective coverings are in place.

We are called to stand fully armored and let God fight for us. This battle is fought from a stationary posture. Paul described this battle armor in Ephesians 6 as the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of God's Word.

Taking a stationary posture in battle does not mean that we don't speak the truth in love and confront sin. This means that we speak from a place of truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation and God's Word. We don't let the battle draw us into the battle. In this kind of warfare we evaluate our words and our response to our critics through the filter of our Spirit-empowered armament.

The weapons of our warfare are not drawn from the armory of this earth. These weapons are imported across the border between heaven and earth. These weapons look powerless to the natural mind, but they are what God will use to bring down the spirit of criticism and turn the crisis into victory.

Critics bring to their acts of criticism all of their unresolved sin, brokenness and limited observations. These unresolved issues create a lens through which they view you. We all do this. Sometimes these critics can even bring an element of truth hidden within their criticism.

What you and I can do is to step into a supernatural level of trust that hands the outcome of our crisis, and the critics themselves, over to God. None of this is personal even though it feels deeply personal. He loves your critics as much as He loves you. God's victory will always look different than what we have planned because our plan has personal vindication at its core. God's plan it different - it brings Him glory.

When we allow God to decide “who is right” a sense of rest comes because we are not expending our thoughts and energy on the preservation of our self-image. This kind of rest is deep inside our soul where the criticism and crisis cannot do battle once we close the door to their entry. This kind of rest is a spiritual resistance that confounds the real enemy (the enemy is not people) and puts him to flight.

A prayer for those under the weight of criticism in the midst of crisis might be-

"Lord, this criticism hurts. My wounds feel overwhelming. I don't understand why this is taking place. I want to run to the battle and scorch my critics with words of self-vindication. Forgive me. I ask you to first examine me before I examine others. See if there be any hurtful way in me. In this crisis I want you to do another battle within me in those private places of my own pride and fear that this crisis has brought to light. I choose to rest in knowing you will decide who is 'right.'”