Hey Friends,

Just a note to thank you all for praying for this past weekend. In case you were not there with us, I thought I would share with you a little of how awesome the weekend was. As you know, we were praying for a weekend of miracles. Well, we got what we asked the Lord for – miracles, that is.

We had over 4,000 in attendance and I have never seen the church more charged up, especially for a huge offering. A record attendance for a huge offering says a lot about the church. People came so excited and trusting in the Lord to perform miracles. I have never seen such faith in all of my ministry. People lined up to get in the sanctuary early. It was amazing!

During the service we prayed for healings, jobs, favor, and many other things the body needed. God showed up and He showed out. We had 24 people saved and baptized. Tears flowed and joy filled the hearts of so many. We set up an email address for the people to share the miracles God did: miracles@faithpromise.org.

I am so grateful to God for how He moved at the prayer and fasting of His people. I am so honored to lead such a great congregation. I am truly blessed in more ways than I can count. This weekend we got a glimpse of what the Lord can do when we come together in agreement and in faith. Tomorrow, I will post a thought about synergism.

Are you leading a group of warriors together to make a great difference? That is what the Lord is calling us all to do. It is my prayer for all of us that we get to see the power of God before we bow before His throne in heaven. The power is ours if we come together.

Let us lead the people over whom God has given us stewardship to win the spiritual war.

This is the call of spiritual leadership.

Love,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

We Christ-followers are STUCK in this natural world for just a short period of time. We are bound by the laws of nature that God invented for us. We are not, however, limited by this hyper-negative environment we exist in. We are told that 9 of 10 businesses fail and that we will fall prey to the same standards. We are told there is not much hope for ministries in the milieu we find ourselves in. BULL!!!

What the world doesn’t get is our God! We have faith in the Eternal One who holds all the cards! He owns all power, victory, ability, and authority. We are the King’s kids and as such, have power they don’t understand.

I Corinthians 2:14 says, “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

We are not limited by this world or its wisdom. We serve a higher power and have a higher calling. That means what the world says does not have to determine our outcome or ability. Sometimes, “The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.” (from REWORK)

As leaders in the Kingdom, we must be careful that we don’t let the world set our course. We are saints in service of the King of forever! As I study the church in America, it seems we are letting the world have too much to say in what we say!

We still need the prophetic voice of God in our generation! We can do it with love and compassion, but we still need to say it.

Together we can make a difference.

Love ya,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

There is a word I love and that is ANOINTING! I love the word and all it means. It means different things to different groups or individuals. As I think and meditate on it, I believe it to mean the “smearing” of oil. In the Older Testament, oil, which was symbolic of the Holy Spirit, was poured on leaders. Both kings and priests were anointed or had oil poured on them for service to God.

Psalm 133:2 says, ”It is like the precious oil upon the head, coming down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard, coming down upon the edge of his robes.” If you look at different leaders, they were anointed with different amounts of oil. Some had flasks of oil and some were anointed with a horn of oil. There is a distinct difference in the amount of oil for some leaders.

Can I just tell you, I want a 55-gallon drum of oil dumped on me by the Spirit of God! I ask daily for the anointing of the Lord. The “anointing breaks the bonds” that people are chained up with. A leader that is anointed has great power of God and he or she can be used to accomplish great ministry and life change. This anointing is not for you, but it is for others.

So, what were you anointed with – a dab or a drum? How much do you want? Is this something that you consider? Is this something that matters to you? I can promise you the leaders in the Bible got this and desired the drum. A man or woman anointed by God can be used greatly and that is what I think God wants to do with each of us.

Psalm 92:10: “But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil.” How about you – can you say that with the Psalmist?

Today, I challenge you to ask for fresh oil and anointing and see what God does.

Just a thought,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

As spiritual leaders we read the Bible often, or at least I hope we do. I find myself wondering and wanting more of what I read, don’t you? I read Acts and long for the power of Pentecost and the miracles of the apostles. But do I want to do what they did to get what they got?

Do I want the power of Pentecost, but what about the prayer of Pentecost? Ten days in the upper room before the Spirit of God fell… I haven’t been in many prayer meetings like that, have you? We want God to move like in days of old, but to do the things of old, are we too busy? Will our activity accomplish more today without the prayer and fasting? We know the answer, don’t we?

Easter season is almost on us. At Faith Promise it is a huge outreach season for us. We will have Sacred Storm on Thursday through Sunday, March 25-28, then celebrate Easter on Friday through Sunday, April 2-4. We will have about 12,000 people for those two weekends. But what will happen that will last forever? What miracles can we expect?

Do we pray for the dramas and messages and music to be ready? Is it for the people to equal out at 1,000 in each service? Or do we pray for a harvest of souls that only God can accomplish?

The worship team is seeking God like never before. They have called for a 21-day fast. I have called the entire church for a 7-day fast leading up to Sacred Storm. You can choose when to start, but let’s seek the Lord for a powerful move of the Holy Spirit.

Pray that God will save over a thousand between the two weekends! How’s that for Pentecostal power? Together we can see the Lord move.

What are you expecting the Lord to do?

Just a question…

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

Yesterday we talked about full surrender to the Spirit of the living God. Let me give you some illustrations to the fact. William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. At its inception it was all about evangelism. Booth had enormous success in his pursuit of souls and the Kingdom of God. He was asked the reason for his success:

“Booth remained silent for several moments. Finally, with tear-filled eyes, he said, ”There have been men with greater brains or opportunities than I, but I made up my mind that God would have all of William Booth there was.’”

“Several years later when General Booth’s daughter heard about her father’s comment regarding his full surrender to God, she said, “That wasn’t really his secret – his secret was that he never took it back.’”

Jim Cymbala wrote about surrender: “I discovered an astonishing truth; God is attracted to weakness. He can’t resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him. The first step in any spiritual awakening is demolition. We cannot make headway in seeking God without first tearing down the accumulated junk in our souls. Rationalizing has to cease. We have to start seeing the sinful debris we hadn’t noticed before, which is what holds back the blessings of God. Sin grieves the Holy Spirit and quenches His power among us.”

We must cry out to God in total desperation. We can do nothing but He can do all things. Let us humble ourselves in prayer and fasting. Let us seek Him with all of our heart. He is the answer and He is what we must seek first.

What are you depending on? Who are you trusting? How are you seeking God? He really is attracted to weakness – it is a theme that runs throughout the Word.

Love Ya,

Pastor Chris

Hey Friends,

I have been an avid student of church growth for over 25 years. I actually have a doctorate degree in the field. Who knew? I have watched many transitions in the church in this quarter century. I know many of my contemporaries dislike the new model – I guess that is an understatement! Whether your church is traditional, contemporary or somewhere in between is not the real issue of the day.

Where is the power? Is it in the choir? Pulpit? Programming? What about the moving lights and the hazers? How about the new music? Maybe it is in drama, video, or even creativity. NONE of the above is the answer. The power is still where it always has been – with God and His Spirit among us!

I have watched and been in the middle of worship wars, stylistic skirmishes, decibel debates, Sunday School verses Cells, and programming pounding. It really doesn’t matter in the end; the major issue is the power of God to change a life. We all want the same thing and yet we argue over style. It’s sad that saints are that easily taken out of the game. We must wake up and smell the coffee, or lose the war altogether.

Creativity is awesome but it does not change a life. Creativity gets someone’s attention and then the anointing of God is able to move in. The power of God comes on the man or woman of God who gets with God, hears from God, and obeys His leading. Let’s not lose the power of God by fighting the form over function.

The question for every church leader is not, “How do you do it?” but, “Is God in on it?” Is the Word cut loose to do its work? Is the Spirit of God free to convict, encourage, save and deal with hearts? If we are going to fight, let’s fight hell and the devil for souls before it is eternally too late.

So, leader, where is your focus?

Just a thought,

Pastor