When we were little we were taught not to go around certain people because they might have the cooties and if we came in contact with people who had the cooties, they would surely get on you. As a result of this certain thing called the “cooties” we developed mindsets all set around staying far away from anyone who has the cooties. First of all what were the cooties? We were told certain people had them but we were never given an explanation of what they were. Was it a disease? All we learned was don’t go around people who had them and the only way we knew who had them is that those who told us they had them pointed the people out to us. The urban dictionary describes the cooties as this “Diseases that the opposite sex has that gives you a reason to not be around them.” We are taught not to be around people because what they have will affect us. To me this sounds exactly like what a lot us of do in the church (hey I was guilty of this) to other people but instead of the cooties it is called sin. Let me explain.

We have developed a culture of judgment in the body that when someone falls we get our stones and begin to throw them at these people and keep them down in their sin they have become entangled in. There have been a lot of leaders that have recently fallen and we being spiritual said stay away they have the cooties!!! Yet we read scriptures like Galatians 6; 1 that declares because we are spiritual we are to restore those who become entangled in sin IN A SPIRIT OF GENTLENESS lest we also be tempted. What it is saying is what we judge others with will come back and bite us. I recently heard a minster describes some events that took place in the early 80’s of men of God who fell and how we the church responded, it really caught my attention. He went on to say that when Jim Baker and Jim Swagger fell we the church did not restore them, but rather cast our stones of judgment. The speaker said as a result the thing that entangled them, sexual sin, is now the thing that we the church deal with the most. Just maybe we have reaped what we have sown. Now I’m not quite sure if I agree 100% with all this but it caught my attention. In the midst of those who have fallen, what I think is happening, is that the church as a whole is having what is in their heart tested to see if we are really ready for what we have been asking for.

The church government is to be one set upon the foundations of love and grace which leads to freedom, it was never meant to be established upon us as leaders to develop a government based on fear, control and judgment. I love what Bill Johnson says “In a culture built on grace the sin that is in people’s hearts has an opportunity to manifest” Wow! Now this brings me back to the sin cooties. For whatever reason we have developed a false view and perspective that thinks the church is a place where there is no sin. This is a big problem let me tell you why. With this mindset we develop a culture that is based around the notion that there is no sin, and if there is no sin then that means we have no system of government to deal with sin. Where there is no vision the people perish, where there is no vison to deal with sin then the people persih. Because we have no system in place to deal with sin when it becomes exposed in someone’s life, especially other leaders, then what we do is cause them to have to deal with it on their own. Out of this perspectives we have developed a culture that says “oh no there is sin everyone, go run and hide, if they touch you, you might get the sin cooties”. We have no system to deal with your sin, so don’t tell me it scares me and it might jump on me and bring me down. We think when someone on our leadership falls or has a failure it is going to make me look bad, so we need to hide it and make sure no one finds out so we end up sweeping it undernaethe the carpet and cut them off and no longer have fellowship with them. We care more about ourselves, ministries, and churches looking bad then we do about the welfare and spiritual state of our brother and sister who fell. Sorry but that’s called judgment. Must I remind us that the men and women of God that we honor the most, especially King David, had major sin issues.

It is a must that we develop a government based on grace, that will release people to get free and be free and be able to expose their sin and not feel it will be used against them or that they are some bad person that should be cast away on an island by themselves away from everyone. One of the most dangerous places you can fail and mess up is in most churches in America, because there is no system in place to deal with sin or the system they have is one of fear, control, and judgment, so people end up leaving not free but in more bondage and now carrying condemnation with them. If we can’t be there for one another when we fail then I question if we really love each other. Posting hate mail and blogs against our brothers and sisters is not love!!!! Because we have no culture of grace for hidden sin to manifest we end up inheriting a performance mechanism. How you doing? Well I’m doing great praise the lord! What do you think about today’s message? Well I was thinking about so and so the whole time and how they really needed to hear it! How is everything going in your life? Just perfect. When we know thats it is not and at any moment we are on the verge of a nervous breakdown because everything in our life is chaotic, or we are so far stuck in bondage we feel trapped. We learn how to put on a good show but never really express or tell how we really are feeling, so as a result we perform for one another. Performance now becomes who we are and affects everything we do and how we minister. We start performing for one another. We need to develop a safe place where we can mess up but it will be alright to do so, because we will get a hand to pull us up, help us out and release grace, love and strength to us We need to understand that in a grace culture it strethens our relationships together,with one another to the point sin no longer has a home or can not stay hidden in darkness. Over the years I have meet more people that wanted to expose there sin and get help but were afraid because there was no system in place or help for them. Let me end with this, I’m not saying this system is one to allow people to freely sin, but I believe it gets people free from sin Come on!!! This culture is only attainable through developing a healthy kingdom confrontation with one another…… to be continued

The word of God is saturated with revelation about walking out our Christian faith in victory, yet I find myself so many times just reading Scripture and not understanding what it is truly saying. Maybe this has happened to you? Just recently I stumbled upon this verse in Romans. I have read it many times before, but the revelation within it remained a mystery. As I began to meditate and dialogue with the Holy Spirit about it, the Lord spoke to my heart, saying, “Many people are fighting for victory, instead of fighting from a place of victory.” “What?” I asked. Then suddenly this passage was unlocked to me like a treasure chest waiting to be explored.

There is a huge difference between fighting for victory and fighting from it. This is what distinguishes between someone who is trying to conquer something and someone who is more than a conqueror. Webster’s Dictionary defines to conquer as “to gain mastery over by overcoming obstacles or opposition”. The Bible defines conquer as “to vanquish beyond mastery”. Let’s brings this all together. The word salvation means “deliverance, healing, and salvation.” Many of us believed that salvation was just a free ticket to heaven, but it is so much more than this; it is deliverance from our bondages, healing for our sickness and the ability to have victory over death. We have gained all this because of the love that God had for us when He went to the cross and purchased these things for us.

The way this is activated is by getting into the word and capturing a revelation of what He purchased for us and what we have access to. Then we will not fight for things that have already been given to us for free!

God has called you to be more than a conqueror in all things, not just some things. Whatever the enemy has thrown your way, understand that God has not called you to just master something, but to go far beyond mastering that obstacle. When we begin to have mastery over an area, then we can impart it to others. I want to challenge you. No matter whether it is sickness, disease, financial struggle, relationships, job situation or whatever, capture the revelation from the word in that area and begin to become more than a conqueror!

“Hi, this is Erica Crystal’s sister. I have no words other than God is real and He is here and He is shaking things up!!! They told me that the cancer spread to my ovaries which would mean surgery and therapy. To be honest, I was terrified! I knew God had other plans and I knew this cancer they spoke of wouldn’t take my life. There has been so much prophesy spoken over me and I know God wasn’t done with me yet. I was scared for my children, the bills that would pile up, taking time off work, and my parents having to walk and guide my children through the process since I wouldn’t be strong enough to take care of them myself. I started to realize that with thinking those thoughts I was already letting the enemy win. I spoke with my job, with my daughter’s school and I was preparing for surgery. The day before my Drs Appt my sister came to visit and her faith built my faith and her courage built my courage. After lots of tears and prayer together she said “wouldn’t that be so awesome if you went to the dr and they couldn’t find anything!” It was a pleasant thought but my spirit was hindered and I already felt defeated. The next day was my appt. We were going to set a date for surgery. I went in and they began in search of what organs were affected and what they would remove. After what felt like hours she called in for another dr and another. I began to cry because I thought oh God there’s more, it spread. I heard the dr say I’m not sure what I’m looking for, I don’t see a thing! Immediately my spirit was awakened, I began asking questions and they couldn’t see nothing. The Drs words were “Its like there’s 2 different bodies I’m looking at because I don’t see a thing!” After 2 hrs of waiting my dr came in and said “Were sending tissue down for a biopsy and cancelling the surgery” and then she said, “I don’t know how to explain this” I turned to her and I said ” I can, I believe in God and I believe in prayer and I believe it works!” With tears in her eyes she looked at me and smiled and said “you have no idea how lucky you are” I told her “I’m not lucky, I’m blessed” I immediately called my mom and then my sister to share what God has done!!!! A week later my sister and I were at my house and my doctor called with results from my biopsy…NOTHING!!!! We began thanking God for what he did, something that seemed so impossible and God made it possible because there is nothing too big or to great or even to impossible that God can’t fix! He’s the creator of this universe, He’s the beginning and the end, the sun rises and sets on his command, He parted the sea, He healed the sick, He caused the lame to walk, the blind to see, He gives and He takes away! And there is NOTHING that our God CANT do!!! And I am living proof!”

The day we gave our lives to Christ in submission to His will we received an invitation into a Kingdom and an upgrade in our identity and status here on earth. We were brought into a royal bloodline, we inherited a royal family. Our dad is a king, which then means we are King’s kids literally! Because we are now part of a royal family there are some things we must recognize? First, we now have been given a huge responsibility to represent where we are from. We have been given a royal responsibly to represent this kingdom to this earth on behalf of our father. Second, because we are from another kingdom we have all the resources of that kingdom available to us, and for us. Come On!!!! Paul explains this fact clearly when he says in Ephesians 2:19 “19 So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. “We have been given great responsibility to represent our father in speech, character, and action.

Part of the responsibility of royal people is the concept of honor. We as ambassador of Christ have a responsibility to establish the government of heaven here on earth. The government in heaven and its relationship are built on a foundation of honor. We find in exodus 20:12 that if we honor our parents we will live a long life in the land God as established for us. This scripture has messed me up. In this scripture we see a connection between honor and life. Where there is honor it creates life and establishes what God gives us!!!! Honor creates a passage way for life to travel and is the key ingredient to creating and establishing a kingdom culture. Where honor resides it creates life, freedom and as a direct result we now see everything God gives us, and every relationship we have begins to flourish, and grow. Honor is the currency of heaven.

There are two cultures right now that are being established in the body of Christ. One is a culture of fear and the other is a culture of honor. You see where there is no honor people begin to fear and where fear is established people then begin to control. Honor naturally set up government. In God’s kingdom there are levels of responsibility and authority. All kingdom relationship work together through honor. The only way honor works is if there are levels of honor. Becuase of the levels of honor we are now able to honor those above us. Honor creates government. With that said, where there is no honor system, we have no kingdom government established and now people begin to fear and chaos takes place. Everyone fight’s for a place and position.

Where honor is present there is also love and freedom. 1 John 4:18-19 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.19 We love Him because He first loved us.” In a culture of honor there is love, and that love cast out fear. But in a culture of fear love is cast out. Where honor is present our relationship with one another grows, I’m able to love you and not fear you. I able to love you regardless of what you have down to me, regardless of us not agreeing on everything. Where honor is present I don’t fear what you are becoming and the anointing on your life, I rather encourage it, it is not a threat to me and I don’t fear it. In a culture of honor we are able to empower one another and the head of that culture desires you to be accomplish greater things then they have ever done. In this culture of honor you are free to be who you are in Christ and I do not fear that, I love the Christ in you. In a culture of fear there is no love or freedom. Because of the lack of love and freedom in our relationship, I begin to fear you and as a result I then control you and what you become. You cannot surpass me because I won’t let you. In this culture there is no empowerment. In a honor culture we are to walk out the model Jesus left for us. He first honored us so we now honor Him. In a fear base culture honor starts from the bottom going up but in never comes down to the people who first honored. In a culture of honor, the head first releases honor to those beneath him changing their status and drawing greatness out of them and in return they release it back pushing the head further into their God given destiny.

The concept of honor is only possible through relationships. Each relationship with our brothers and sister in the kingdom is meant to be eternal and held together with honor. But we have allowed a worldly view of honor creep into our kingdom perspective. The world’s view is temporal and conditional. We give honor to those who deserve it, who have earned it, or those we want something from. There is a big problem with this, it’s not kingdom honor. In 1 Peter 2:17 it says “Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king”. We are to honor all people not just the ones we believe should have it or who have earned it. How can you say that? I didn’t, God did. You maybe asking yourself, how can I give honor to a dad who has abandoned me, to people who hurt me, to those I don’t like, the persons who let me down, or the person who has different views than me? Because when we release honor to all people, what we are declaring is that I am not letting my disagreements with you or your character defects control me. I have standards that will not be removed regardless of our disagreements and what you may have done to me, it will not control who I am. We think by not honoring it protects us but it actually does the opposite. It allows the person we feel that we can’t honor to control who we are, because we were meant to honor all people. We don’t honor people because they are honorable but because we are honorable!!!! Honor does not mean we agree with what they said or did to us. It just means we have a standard in our heart and we value them as a person created in the image and likeness of God. We honor the Christ in them. By honoring all people you are drawing the goodness God hid inside of them. Let’s honor one another and follow the pattern Christ left us here on earth.

It seems Americans are looking for an anchor point, a safe haven where their soul can be anchored and kept steady from sailing away into the chaos of life. At any moment each one of us, as believers, could find ourselves one decision away from falling into a deep depression because of our current circumstances. But we are one decision away from our greatest victory, too. We can not afford to put our hope right now in anything other than Jesus. Scripture declares He is the hope, which is the anchor for our soul! I want to take time to encourage you that Jesus is hope. Hope is His character and nature. No matter who is the next president, what happens in the stock market, or any other tribulation we may face, Jesus must become the anchor for our soul that connects us to a greater reality, which is heaven. That which we are anchored to will not only keep us steady and firm but will be the resource in which we turn to. Right now is not the time to masquerade Christ as a self help book, another help yourself message to get people in our church seats, 10 ways to the “Blessed Life” (find God that’s the blessed life), nor to promote our own minstries and agendas. We have the greatest platform ever set before us to give this nation an anchor for there soul which we keep them from there current reality given them a greater reality!!! Right now is not the time to give up or give in. As a believer, we have an awesome opportunity to SHOW people what they are searching for. Hope, which is in Christ, is available, and we must present to them the answer that keeps them grounded in times of crisis. I want to encourage you today to not let fear or crisis rob you of the great opportunity that is before us. God is still on His throne. He still owns cattle on a thousand hills, and He is still our Father who loves us! Let’s fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, and step into the miracles that are awaiting us on the other side of crisis!!!!

I love reading a good book; I can sit down hours at a time and devour a good book. Many of you know what I’m talking about, that book that just captures you and reveals something to you or takes you somewhere. When you are reading a good book you can’t put it down. You try to avoid anything at the moment that will distract you from having to take your eyes off that book and even sometimes baring the pain of having to use the restroom, no just kidding. There is just something about a good book. Two things about a good book, one it reveals a message and two a good book needs no promotion it will promote itself. It is natural when I read a good book I can’t wait to go out and promote it and tell everybody I know. The reason I can’t wait to tell people about it is because it blessed my life in some way. I can honestly say most books I have read have not been because I just randomly picked it up at a book store or ordered it online, but it had been recommended to me by someone.

In second Corinthians Paul tells the Corinthian church that they are to be living epistles or messages written not by ink but by the spirit of the living God. That word epistle is actually translated “a written message”. Paul was trying to convey to the church the difference of the law and of the Gospel. Not only were these two different but they were to have a grid to be able to tell the difference because they we being called to become a living message of the Gospel (Good News) that would be read by all men. Jesus modeled this; He was a living message of the father to this world. Jesus was the human model of what the Gospel was and looked like, His life was being read as a living message of the heart of the father. In the same way we as believers are to become a living message of the Gospel to this world. Our life is to be like a good book that conveys the father’s heart to the world. Now with that said remember what I said earlier about a good book it promotes itself. Now here are the million dollar questions? What are you promoting? What is the message your life is conveying? Is the message you conveying the Gospel message of the Kingdom, our own agenda or perversion of the Gospel? Are people blessed by the message, are they wanting to know the father or are they wanting to put the book down because of the message? I want to suggest something to you, what’s in you, you will convey. Let me give an example. A lot of what we are promoting is not the Kingdom but our own wounds and hurts. Much of what we preach, teach are filtered through our past hurts and wounds. How can you say that? I have lived it. Early in my walk I was hurt in church by people I looked up to, out of that wound, that I did not even know I had, began to flow the message I was conveying. The message was not the good news of the Gospel. Everything filtered through that hurt. Hurt people hurt people. How can I tell if I have unresolved hurts and wounds? You will know because you will see a trail of people you have hurt. Secondly, you will attract the message you are releasing and I found myself around hurt people that wanted just to hurt people. I want to challenge you to take an inventory and ask the Holy Spirit is my life conveying a message of the good news that people desire to watch and read, or is my life telling a different message. I was healed by allowing others that I trusted more than myself to speak into my life. Lets become a people that preach the good news with our lives so that people can’t wait to grab a hold of Christ and see their lives forever transformed.

One of the privileges we have as believer’s is the ability to declare the works we have witness God do by sharing a testimony. A testimony I believe is a weapon to see the kingdom of heaven invade earth and shift atmospheres, and hearts to God. I have witness the power of what a testimony can do in church meetings and doing open-air outreaches on secular college campuses. A testimony is a vehicle to see the impossible become possible. According to scripture a testimony carries with it a prophetic anointing that prophecy for the same miracles to be duplicated wherever your at. I love to share and declare the testimonies we have witness. My prayer is when you get done reading this blog that you will have a testimony to share of the miracle that just took place wherever you at!!!! I really believe we will hear testimonies as a result of this blog that your reading. Enjoy and receive.

In the Fall of 2003, Baseball Coach Jim Yanko was diagnosed with a cancerous brain tumor. He got it removed, and had been in remission until Novemebr 5th 2004. Upon a routine checkup that month, the doctors had some disappointing news to share with coach. They had, indeed, found another tumor and wanted to do surgery right away. After hearing about coach, we began to pray. God had gave us a promise that he was going to heal coach Yanko and this would be the beginning of a move of God on campus and in the community. Coach was going into surgery on that Tuesday, so I called coach and insisted on coming to pray the Sunday before surgery. Deseree and I went to his house that afternoon believing for a miracle. We prayed and we literally felt God’s power in the house. As we were leaving, coach said, “I have a feeling you will be getting a call on Tuesday to hear the good news.” On Tuesday while they were taking coach to surgery, he had an encounter with the Almighty God and here is his story….

“ On Nov. 5th 2004, I awoke with what was the 4th conceive day of excoriating headache. I drove myself to St. josephs Emergency room. I was then taken by ambulance to get a MRI. I knew something was wrong when the ER doc asked me if I had family that lived close by. I called my wife at work, and she came immediately. The neurologist said I had a lesion on my brain and needed emergency surgery to remove it! 4 hours later I’m in the recovery room. I began to wonder if this is what God had planned for me with such a young family (2yr.old and 5yr.old). My Doc thought the lesion was an astrocytoma, post surgery determined to be a glio blasttoma forme, the most aggressive invasive brain tumor there is. Prognosis for me at the time was less than three years ( the longest survivor of this type of tumor was three years). These tumors were known to come back in less than a year. My MRI in July 2005 showed another tumor. Matt & Des told me God was going to heal me and prayed for me prior to the next surgery. On my way down to the operating room, lying on the gurney, I opened my right hand on purpose in hopes that God would take hold, and he did. I felt the warmth of His hand in mine, and my entire body seemed to relax. Post surgery the doctor told me they could not find a tumor that it was a miracle! There was a less than 2% chance that it was not a tumor. I’m now 4 1/2 months cancer free with out any medication”

Here is the good news!!!! Coach Yanko wrote this in January 2006, He is now celebrating four years cancer and medications free!!!! Come on Jesus!!! May cancer leave your body now in Jesus name!!! I pray you will go out and evict cancer off your loved ones, off friends, and off strangers in Jesus name!!!

We live in a day and time when we are overloaded with commercials, movies and magazines that point out our defects. They do this by showing us what we supposedly need in order to fix what they deem is wrong with us. As a direct result we have seen a generation infected with this lie walking the campus with their heads down, depressed and defeated. One of the most powerful things about the gift of prophecy is that it does not tell people what’s wrong with them; it does quite the opposite. Prophesy reveals to people what’s right with them by revealing the treasure that God has hidden in their hearts and lives. In every one of us is hidden a treasure that God has placed. A person only needs someone to come alongside, wipe the dust off their heart, and begin to let the treasure shine. Prophecy should illuminate Jesus, reveal their destiny and point them to the One who created them.
Every Friday night we take the TFRSM (Training for Reigning School of Ministry) team and Delta college students to the streets of Stockton with the purpose of finding God’s treasure hidden in the lives of people. Every time we go, we see and hear the most powerful testimonies of what God is doing in the lives of people as God exposes the treasures in their heart. Last Friday was no exception!!! We all met at our house for a time of worship and waiting on the Holy Spirit to speak to us where to go. We felt led to go to downtown Stockton, specifically Starbucks. Deseree had written down on a piece of paper something’s the Lord had spoken to her before we left. The Lord had told her there would be a teenage boy at Starbucks, wearing a kelly-green shirt, who had labels spoken over him that affected his life. She knew he had a business gift and that the name Robert was significant to him. When we arrived at Starbucks, no one fit that description. So we ordered our drink and waited a few minutes. Just then a young African American man walked in wearing a kelly-green shirt. We all got very excited. We approached this young man and struck up some conversation. We told him that God had brought us there for him and that God had a plan and purpose for his life. We showed him the paper of all the facts God had revealed to Desi about his life and the young man was amazed. He told us his name was Donald. He was sixteen and was told he would never amount to anything by family members who put labels on him. What is more, the name of his brother was Robert!! As we began to tell him about how God has gifted him and wanted to use him in business, he responded with one of the biggest smiles I have seen in a long time. He went to Franklin High School and was apart of the Bloods gang. We prayed for him right there in Starbucks, and he testified he felt the presence of God come on him. He even began to laugh.
As we were wrapping up our conversation, his younger sister, who was about nine years old, said, “I want prayer, too.” She had just witnessed God touch her brother and she wanted in on the action. Deseree asked if she went to church or have ever heard of Jesus. She responded, “No.” She had never once heard of God or prayer. We prayed with her, and she testified that she felt something warm come upon her body, which was the love of God. I want to encourageto you right now, that in the mist of everything that is happening in our nation, let’s not get distracted from the assignments that the Lord has placed before us each and everyday… God wants to use you to reveal the treasure He has hidden in a lost and dying generation!!!

I have several core values that I live by that have deeply impacted my life. These core values have helped me keep a kingdom focus through the good times and bad. One of the most important ones that I live by was passed onto to me by one of my spiritual fathers. It goes something like this “always be quick to sow grace, because one day you will need it”. This one truth I believe is so needed in the times we are living in. We have so many people turning against one another, bashing one another, we have blogs that sole purpose is to expose brothers and sisters in Christ by tearing them down in the name of Jesus. Sometimes I wonder what God thinks about all this? We need to be people who sown grace into one another because we are all not perfect, hence that’s why we need a savior. We need to become grace sowers because we never know when we might need to make a withdrawal from our grace account.  As the scripture declares let’s not become people who sow of the flesh, for we know nothing good comes out of the flesh (sinful nature) except corruption. Let’s be a generation that sows out of the spirit where grace resides. It’s easy to sow grace into the ones we love but we really need to sow grace into those we may disagree with, those who have hurt us, those who may tear you down, and those who you might consider enemies. I leave you with this thought; anyone of us at anytime can become the person that has fallen into sin  if it were not for the grace of God. We are never the exception to the rule. If that would become more of a reality to us I think we would be quick to so grace into others lives. Let’s change the face of the church and become a genration of grace sowers!!!