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Just Say Yes – Part 1: Allowing God to Heal

 

Yesterday I discovered yet another area of my life where I’ve been getting in God’s way. I tend to do that sometimes. But He lovingly showed me how to stop blocking Him and just say, “yes”. I thought that I was doing well by “trying” to do what was needed, but now I realize that I was cutting God out of the mix and trying to do something on my own strength. It’s what a friend calls D-I-Y religion.

Last night I was reading Thomas Merton – New Seeds of Contemplation. Something that he said in that book struck me with revelation. He was talking about contemplation being a gift from Father. My job was simply to be fully present and to allow Him to bless me. This idea is what lead me into thinking about my need to be the “yes” for both my growth and healing. Merton further said something that lead me to grasp that my growth was my healing. They are one in the same thing. If I will simply turn toward growth, the healing happens all by itself.

I’ve come to realize that “yes” is my first and simplest expression of the powerful freewill that Father God has given me. Because He will never override or violate my freewill, this simple first expression is my permission to Him that I am willing to receive whatever He wants to bestow upon me. After that permission, it is imperative that I remain in “yes” and stay out of His way as He helps me. Lastly, a big part of my “yes” is that I want transformation. I want to change.

The other day I got a rather serious medical report from my neurologist telling me that I have problems. Some of them are in my brain. Some are my body. Most, if not all, of them are reversible, and it’s up to me to just get on with it. It’s up to me alone. This is my own choice.

Okay, back to my being the “yes”. It has to do with the idea that at times I get in God’s way when He has simply wanted to help me all along. My various doubts, challenges, and fussiness all add up to my blocking Him and not allowing Him to guide me into full health. This is the barest essence of what Merton was talking about. Many times I get in God’s way. Somehow I seem to think that it’s up to me alone to do the doing without a full submitted reliance upon Father God. Even though I know better from other ares of my life, I’ve found that I have still been doing this with regard to my physical healing.

I had to ask myself, has my health improved in the last few years? The truthful answer is no. On my own effort, nothing has changed long-term. I’ve not become the new person physically that I can and want to be. I’ve been doing all of this work on my own strength. And that’s what Merton was talking about in his writings on contemplation; it is God Himself who brings me into the relational experience, the intimacy, and the revelation through contemplation. It’s a gift pure and simple. All I need do is say, “yes” and receive – Amen.

Lew Curtiss

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Do you Need Fellowship? Have hope.

The number of home fellowships, small fellowships, faith communities, or ekklesiae (whatever you choose to call them) are increasing across the globe. These groups are not house churches with regard to current church concepts. There’s no three songs, a prayer, offering, and a senior leader preaching. This is family and community in action. All participate in one form or another. All are responsible for their personal growth. These groups are not church small groups governed by a larger organization which tells them the agenda and what to teach. The fellowships that are organically popping up all over seek the Lord with regards to what He wants to reveal to them.

In a matter of a few years, the concept of the global faith community will encompass the earth. There will be no denominations or hierarchies which stipulate regulations for these fellowships. It will be comparable to families that unite and share with each other what God is saying and doing. Families that agree by the inclination and conviction of the Holy Spirit. Believers will have a common goal to see the Kingdom of God manifest.

These fellowships will be unique. They will have their interests and characteristics. All this is wonderful. But, what does it look like? John 13:34-35  “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Love! The core people in NW Ekklesia feel like they have found genuine relationships, family, and yes love. We adore each other. We trust each other with our deepest problems. These groups are defined by the Hebrew word qahal, community, and family. We’ve heard other fellowships tell us the same.

Personality! Each group has its own personality. Freedom, the group Mike Parsons belongs to operates what they call a therapeutic community. They help homeless and drug addicted individuals. We tease about NW Ekklesia. We say we are an artist’s commune, even though we don’t live together. But, somehow almost everyone is a writer, visual artist, or musician. Every fellowship finds it’s own identity, purpose, and personality. There is no formula as to how we function.

Kingdom Government! Most small groups will have benches of three. Three leaders seeking God’s direction. Groups that are a bit larger will have councils of ten. They will have a leadership or governmental bench of three plus seven others to make up the ten. The two function separately and together. Individuals in their groups will find that they have specific tasks within their community. Tasks such as benevolence, records keeping, mentoring, healing, etc. In order to mature to this level, they have studied and done activations with people like Mike Parsons, Ian Clayton, Justin Abraham or Nancy Coen just to name a few.

Communion! We have found that there is more to communion than a cracker and some wine. Communing is one to another and to God. We have learned that a spiritual family has parents and younger members that eventually grow into parents. So, pretty much, it’s based on peer relationships. Families sit in the round when they eat and talk. So do we. The communal meal, which is dinner for us is very important. (You may meet in the morning. So breakfast would be the communal meal.) Within that meal, just as they did in the last supper, we serve the bread and wine. We usually ascend and participate from the Kingdom realms when we take communion.

Ascension! Yes, this is another earmark of this kind of fellowship. We see in the spirit and travel in the spirit. We’ve been to heaven. we function in the courts of heaven. We carry out God’s directions.

It sounds so simple. But, it is difficult to transition to this kind of fellowship. Old mindsets get in the way. Years and years of programming make us stumble over the simplest things. Lately, we have been helping other groups that ask us about ekklesia. We are also meeting individuals that want to start an ekklesia. We are now seven years functioning and we want to help them steer clear of many of the mistakes we made.

I believe there is much more coming. These groups are popping up all over the globe. I heard about one in Germany made up of theater people. I think one day soon there will be something akin to family reunions. Members from various groups will get together to share what God is doing with each fellowship, and you know there’s always a communal meal. It could be a Barbeque, a banquet, or a potluck. Putting it in simple terms, there will be big parties in the Holy Spirit. As Ephesians 4 says, I am waiting for the day that we all reach unity in the faith and we all attain the whole measure of the wholeness of Christ.

How about you? Do you need community and spiritual family? Is there nothing happening in your neighborhood? It’s really simple to start. Invite your best friend over for lunch or a snack. Spend time sharing what God is doing in your lives. Watch videos together from Kingdom minded speakers. Participate in the activations the speakers have at the end of their videos. In a short time, you will be saying to others, “Guess what happened? God changed my life or I got healed.” You’ll find that others want to join you. If you have questions, ask us. We will be glad to help.

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My Journey into Ekklesia

Ekklesia seems like a new buzz word in the Christian world but, is it really? If you look at the New Testament model, ekklesia has been around for quite a long time. In fact, the word “church” in the Bible is really “ekklesia.” It refers to a gathering of people who are like minded. That can literally happen anywhere – in a home, through video conferencing, in a coffee shop, or other meetings. The key is to build relationship where everyone participates and grows as a community.

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My first real experience with ekklesia came as a junior high schooler. This was during the “Jesus movement” in the 1970’s (yes, I’m dating myself here). People were so excited about getting together to discuss all the new and cool things we were learning about the Christian walk. A group of people in my community started meeting on Friday nights at various homes around town. We called it “Friday Night Fellowship” and people from many local churches came. Most Fridays, there were around 30 people who attended. There was no one leader, everyone participated, we all shared testimonies, we all participated in worship, and we all read scripture together. Now that I look back on it, this was true ekklesia.

Skipping many, many, many years ahead (let’s do the time warp again….) I’m now reminded of those early years where we discovered together how to function as a unit. I meandered around for many years wondering, “Father… what do you have for me? Where do I find like-minded people?” My pastor left the ministry, my church disbanded, and I was left alone to figure out where to go, what to do, and how to do it.  During this time, God began to speak to me about personal maturity and the importance of building relationship – intimacy with Him in a way that I never knew was possible. That’s when things started to change.

Many reading this will recognize the names Ian Clayton, Mike Parsons, Justin Abraham, Dr. O, Grant and Sam Mahoney, and many others. They are forerunners in this “movement” of discovering and living out of intimacy and functioning from the kingdom realms first. It’s when I discovered the importance of developing intimacy with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit that things begin to change. I practiced seeing in the spirit. I practiced being in the presence of God from a heavenly position rather than an earthly one. My focus now on Christ and being IN HIM made all the difference in the world. No longer did I plead with God to do things for me. I learned how to legislate situations in my own life bringing the truth from heaven to earth IN that situation. I began seeing things from that heavenly perspective so that what was going on around me no longer affected my vision of life’s circumstances. No, I don’t always get it right but, it’s getting easier as I practice functioning from that place of intimacy.

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I became a part of NW Ekklesia in the spring of 2016. For me, it was a new chapter for me because being “in ekklesia” helped me mature even more. It wasn’t about me listening to someone preach a great sermon. It was about discovering all that Papa has for us as a group and growing into what we’re each called to do as Sons of God. We each have a part, just like every body has parts that make it work correctly (head, shoulders, knees, and toes, etc.). I also found that all experiences (the good, the bad, and the ugly) leading up to this time of my life had the opportunity of training me into greater revelation and responsibility if I allowed that to happen. Nothing is wasted! God can redeem any situation and circumstance as we use them for maturing tools.

In “ekklesia,” we’re given the opportunity to build relationships with one another to a much deeper level than in most church situations. I believe that’s why many churches have home fellowship groups. When these small groups focus on group participation, you have ekklesia. Fellowship is great in person but it can also be done using our modern system of technology! So, let’s not be limited to “in person” meetings.

When I first began this journey of seeing in the spirit and directly communing with God IN His presence, I had no local people that I met with. I didn’t know anyone who desired a similar journey. For many, “church as usual” was good enough. I wanted more than that. But, I didn’t let the lack of knowing people stop me. As we continue to seek the things of God, by divine methods, He brings people together. I had to learn to function from a place of rest and peace even though it felt like I was flailing about with no direction. What helped was my focus on Jesus and being “In Him” during the process. That’s what the faith walk is all about! We step out without having to know the answers. Our trust and focus directs us into the arms of the Father and from that position, we learn and grow. In and through that, I found ekklesia.

For those who are on this same journey, I encourage you that there really is nothing wrong with feeling like a fish out of water. The question to ask Papa is “What is it you have for me in this?” Grab a journal and start writing what comes to your mind – what you see, sense, hear, and feel.  Ascend into The Presence and function from that position. Then, allow divine connections to be made. As we mature, we each contribute to the health of an ekklesia. It also requires that we understand and believe that we each have a part to play.

Shalom!

Del

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A Model Coming Out of the Pacific North West

This blog post is from a dear friend and someone we consider a part of NW Ekklesia. Yes! It’s a new template for worship, intercession, and intimacy with God that will go around the world. He doesn’t say it in the post, but, our leadership and his worship team have been asked to go to India next year to teach the leaders of spirit filled churches. By the way it’s a network of 4,500 churches. To read more of his posts please go to: http://ecclecticecclesia.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-model-coming-out-of-pacific-north-west.html

So you hang around with the “prophetic” crowd and you hear all kinds of things. You SEE all kinds of things.  And you pray that you might get to be involved in what’s coming…
Nearing 20 years ago I heard someone say that there was going to be a movement that would originate in the PNW and go around the world.
I got excited.
Then I got involved in worship, each team showing a higher skill level as well as a higher tolerance for…  the out of the ordinary, which was good for me, because I detest the ordinary.
Even in high school, if my choir director handed us a sheet of music that wasn’t hand written I was kind of miffed.
Through the years I began to find myself in positions where I was invited as a guest, of sorts, to play at a few native american reconciliation events, a party  collecting bicycles to give to a village in Africa so that the kids could get to school safer and quicker.
I began to see the value of rhythmic intercession and was mc at a few drum circles that gathered folks together for purposes of intercession for unity in our city, evangelism, some were initiated to explore the possibilities.
We started a circle of musicians, meeting in a barn for the express purpose of stretching ourselves into playing for an audience of one, although we all played together and fought to protect the sanctity of our offering. (It’s hard to get people on board with “No Agenda” when they have always been part of the machine and can’t find the clasps holding their garments on)
Now let me tell you about this region- hang onto your hats…
New Age. Not just New Age, but a 300 year old warrior spirit who channeled (until recently) through a woman in a small town that had the world come to visit… and just New Age.  Mountains will do that to you.Buddhism- Buddhist monks aren’t all sunshine and goodness, nor do they all respect YOUR belief systems when they are engaging in their own satisfactions.
Islam- They aren’t militant, but they are represented.
Progressives- they don’t do anything remarkable except fix things that aren’t broken… and sometimes break things so they have something to fix.
Wicca, Pagan, Animism- Hindu’s, well, why not, everyone else is here.
All that to say that all the world is here.
And why does that make a difference?
How else do you reach every tribe and tongue- you must become relevant to them. You make room for the sound of their voices.
I have not learned to play tabla with any skill whatsoever, but I am ready for someone who has- I have room for them.
I HAVE learned to play a native american flute on a very basic level.
I am LEARNING to throat sing.
I have some proficiency on a djembe
I keep a watchful eye out for those who are proficient where I lack, and I make room for those whose sounds are beyond my scope.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE to hear mixtures of cultural melodies, rhythms and instruments that are proving unity in the earth, making room for a unity that goes beyond doctrines and fears.
This region begat Jimi Hendrix, Quincy Jones and Nirvana, it is fraught with diversity (there is actually a band from Vancouver Canada called Delhi to Dublin- can you guess what they are mixing?)
Why would it not come from here?
Why would just such a movement be born here?
And why would it not be borne from where ever you are sitting?
Let’s DO this!!!!!!!!