Ignite Rocks
July 1, 2017
Dear Friends,
Last month I had the opportunity to spend a week in Burlington, VT at the Ignite Conference put on by Francis & Judith MacNutt of Christian Healing Ministries. This is a yearly conference for them that attracts about 400 people. The speakers were Judith MacNutt and John & Carol Arnott.
The first night Judith spoke on forgiveness, a topic that is often ignored. During the ministry time it was apparent many of those attending needed to deal with issues of unforgiveness. John and Carol both gave powerful talks regarding the Holy Spirit and the Fire of God in your life. It was exciting to watch them minister the power of a spirit filled life to those that came for prayer. During the conference people gave testimonies that both physical and emotional healing was taking place. It was great to connect with old friends and be part of a ministry that emphasis healing and equipping people to do what Jesus did.
Look Busy – Jesus Is Coming!
I had to laugh when I read this line in one of Brennan Manning’s books. It so poignantly expresses how many of us live out our Christian experience. We have this misunderstanding of not only who we are but who God is and what He both desires and needs from us. In his book, Alone with the Alone, George A Maloney writes, “The God we cannot understand or even appreciate is He who waits lovingly for us with an attitude not only of wanting our love but also, apparently, of needing our love.” We would probably respond that God doesn’t need anything. Consider this; God created us to love us that we might love Him back. While in the strictest sense of needing anything, He doesn’t need anything from us to remain God, but I agree with the author in that God does need our love, and that’s why He created us.
It’s difficult for us to grasp that God wants relationship with us, relationship that goes beyond just doing things for Him. We feel that if we are not busy doing something for God we should be. We have this nagging feeling that He is not going to be pleased with us unless we are engaged in some important Christian work.
I also believe God wants us to live every moment of every day that we have on this earth; both the good and the bad. One of the topics Brennan Manning writes about in his book, Ruthless Trust, is living in what he calls the “Nowhere.” The “now-here” is living life to its fullest. Not always thinking about the past, or worrying over the future but actually living the moment given to us each day. I would call that, “taking time to stop and smell the roses.” Often we are so caught up in what we have just done or what we have left to do before the next task, that we don’t enjoy what we are doing at the moment.
If we can move to a place where we understand that we don’t have to look busy to be loved by God, that we are already His beloved and His intention is that we live each moment of each day as much as it is humanly possible then we will caught a glimpse of what it means to rest in that knowing and we will not have to worry about looking busy because Jesus is coming!
WHOLENESS RECEIVES 0.5% OF YOUR AMAZON PURCHASES
AmazomSmile is a program where Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to Wholeness Ministries. As many of you shop on Amazon this could amount to you giving a significant amount of money to us over a years time. There is no cost to charitable organizations or to AmazonSmile customers. The shopping experience is identical to Amazon.com with the added benefit that the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate to the charitable organizations selected by customers.
IT’S EASY All you do is go to http://smile.amazon.com, register, and designate Wholeness Ministries as the organization to which you wish funds to be given, and they do the rest. Then 0.5% of your purchase price will be transferred to us at Wholeness Ministries.
Thank you for your continued support of Wholeness Ministries. We continue to see God do exciting things and there is much on the horizon we will share with you in the coming months.
God bless,
Mike