Mysterious, Cosmic Humility

"Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men." ~ Philippians 2:5-7

So, here I am, back in Waynesville, NC. For the third time, I have left the YWAM bubble in New Zealand in order to return home. The difference is that this time I get to spend more than 3 months at home (instead of just one month) before I plan to return to YWAM Marine Reach in New Zealand to do some more new and exciting things. First I will be staffing the lecture phase (first three months) of the Justice-focused Discipleship Training School (DTS) that begins in April 2014. After that, I will be working with my friend Micah Mitlyng to fulfill his vision of a new Backpacking-focused DTS, called the Pilgrimage DTS, which will begin in October 2014. Launching a new DTS, particularly one that involves lots of outdoor activities, comes with a plethora of challenges to confront and details to figure out, so even now, 10 months in advance, Micah and I will working long distance, along with the base leadership in New Zealand, to begin preparing for next October.

Besides the work on this new DTS, I am looking forward to doing at least a few other things as I stay in western North Carolina. Of course I will be spending time with my family, which I'm really excited about, but I am also stoked about serving at my Church, the Vine of the Mountains, in whatever ways I can. I will also be meeting and communicating with friends, relatives, and supporters - mostly because I love them and have missed them, but also partly because I need regular supporters for at least the next year and a half after I leave in April. Then, most importantly, I want to continue the wonderful growth and transformation that God has been working in me these past months, keeping my eyes on Him, growing in intimacy with Him, and stepping out in faith and obedience whenever He asks. The great thing is that God is just as capable of doing amazing and miraculous things in and through me here as He is while I am in YWAM. As I have begun to understand more than ever on this past DTS, my continued transformation really just depends on remaining intimate with God, continuing to fix my eyes on Jesus, and beholding His glory:

"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another." ~ 2 Corinthians 3:18

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." ~ Heb 12:1-2a

And so this is what I have been trying to do. The wonderful thing is that because of my breakthroughs in gaining intimacy with God during this past school, staying focused on Jesus is easier than it ever has been before. I love God so much more, and my time spent with God gives me so much joy rather than just being a duty that I need to do. I am not as drawn to old distractions - TV, movies, video games; instead, I am more drawn to worship, reading Scripture, and prayer. There are still plenty of distractions and challenges, but I know that each time I make myself available to God, He will meet me, fill me, and lead me. And that is SO good.

Take for example this morning. I began my time with God just opening myself up to the Holy Spirit, submitting and surrendering to God again. If in doubt, that's always a good idea. It was for me, because then as I finished reading a little devotion, Holy Spirit swept me off through Scripture for some revelations about Jesus. I don't remember how exactly, but I ended up in the book of Revelation, reading about Jesus in chapters 1 and 19, which will blow your mind even on a good day:

"Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two- edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, "Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades." ~ Rev 1:12-18

See, John definitely got his socks knocked off. Oh, but it gets better; look at Revelation 19:

"Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords." ~ Rev 19:11-16

That's incredible just to try and imagine. THIS is our Jesus; THIS is our king. He's going to judge and make war, but not like any judge or general we've ever seen because it will be in complete righteousness. We don't like judgment and we don't like war; but we've never seen it done righteously. He will also "rule [the nations] with a rod of iron," which sounds harsh, but think about it - who better to rule than Faithful and True, the Word of God, King of Kings, His eyes burning with love for us, and His robe dipped in His own freely spilled blood? Then finally He will "tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty," and no one has more authority to do that than Him. Why? Because He already received and endured that wrath Himself, full in the face, starting in Gethsemane (which means oil press by the way) and going through even to Death and Hades (where He apparently got the Keys - v. 1:18 above). That...is Glory.

So let's connect some dots here, since it's Advent. Let's remember that this same Son of Man we've been talking about is that little baby born in a stable in that one story we've heard so many times it started seeming normal.

And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. ~ Luke 2:6-7

King of kings....in a manger? Eyes like fire....crying baby?? "In righteousness He judges and makes war.......an infant who can't even walk??? That's right. This is massive, unthinkable humility. Truly, He "emptied himself" of His glory (Phil 2:7 at the beginning), and this is how we know He is good and He loves us. He is not a power-hungry and blood-thirsty deity. No, He let go of His power, and He would soon spill His own blood. He is mysteriously glorious in His humility, strong in his weakness, rich in his poverty, alive in his death. As a Lamb, He will defeat the dragon and beast (Revelation 5, 12, 17:14, 19-20). Somehow, by letting go of Glory He became even more worthy of it.

Seriously, you just can't make this stuff up.

I mean, I won't fully grasp this while I'm still on this earth, and I can tell you, Satan is utterly confused and frustrated by this.

So that's enough of a revelation for a good while. But there's more, and this part involves me. As it were, I have foolishly (but honestly) asserted that I want to be like this Jesus. And in light of this understanding of Him, that immediately means that I have forfeited any right to cling to anything except my God. He gave up basically everything it was possible to give up (even a home, Matthew 8:20), and all of those things were things He deserved. I don't even deserve any of that, and so I must then be willing to give up whatever I think I have earned or am entitled to in order to serve Him and be "transformed into His likeness." Suddenly this verse has a lot more meaning:

"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." ~ Mark 8:34

But praise the Lord - I will do this, not with my own strength but with His strength. After all, He is strong in weakness, He is rich in poverty, and He is glorious in humility...

I love Him,
Dan

Outreach Video

I've posted this on Facebook and on my outreach team's blog, but if you don't look at either of those, here is my outreach video for this school! It pretty much speaks for itself.

Staying Current

Just in case you wanted more up to date news on what I'm up to at the moment on my outreach in Vanuatu, see my outreach team's blog here. We're having an amazing time, and God is doing unbelievable things!

Thank you for your continued prayers!

Dan

All My Walls Down, All Your Love In

[Disclaimer: I know I haven't blogged much in a while and this is pretty long. But that's only because God has done so much awesome stuff in my life over the past several weeks. So it might be worth your while to read it all if you want to know what's been going on with me...]

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Freedom (the Concept)

I could hardly come up with a better verse to describe what happens on DTS, or even to describe what the journey of everyone following Jesus should include. ...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. As we invite the Holy Spirit into our lives, begin to trust Him more, and give control over to Him, the result is also greater freedom. Greater freedom from the condemnation and taunts of the enemy and other people. Greater freedom from the broken and twisted things of our past. Greater freedom in relationships; that is, more freedom to love and be loved by God and others and serve them as the unique person that God has made us to be. Freedom from addictions. Freedom from being wholly ruled by our mind and emotions. Freedom from purposelessness and hopelessness. In one way or another, the Presence of God in the Holy Spirit brings this kind of freedom.

This isn't to say that gaining this freedom is effortless or easy. It requires our continual and active participation. The Holy Spirit doesn't so much come and give freedom as He shows us opportunities to step out into freedom and empowers us to make the step when we otherwise could not. He gives us opportunities and courage to step out of darkness into light, but we have to choose to be vulnerable, expose sin and brokenness that we'd rather not talk about, and receive forgiveness that we don't really deserve (but have been freely given through the cross). The Holy Spirit brings conviction, showing us sin that was hidden to us in order that we might leave it behind and be free. But we have to choose to leave it behind, submit to God, and follow His ways. God gives us opportunities to step out in faith, to face our fears, to use gifts He has given us (including supernatural ones), and to do things that will challenge us and stretch us. They are all things that will grow us and bring new levels of freedom, but all things which require faith, trust, effort, and courage to do. The great thing is that He never asks us to do these things on our own. Really, it turns out that He is there giving us the tools to obey Him, encouraging us, providing rest when we need it, giving us grace in our weakness, and putting a fiery passion in our hearts for pursuing nothing less than ALL of the freedom that God wants to give us.

No time of transformation is easy, especially transformation "from one degree of glory to another." But there is an incredibly strong driving force behind our transformation which makes it easier and easier the further we go – it is a love for the Person most worthy of love, whose Glory we can behold and whose Presence we can encounter if we will just open the door where He is knocking. If we can continue "beholding the glory of the Lord," we will follow and worship Him, and we inevitably become like the One we worship. Of course, there is always the option of walking back into the prison and putting the chains back on ourselves, but we will never do that if God remains the object of our pursuit and worship.

Freedom (the Process)

Though the process was often tough, we saw so many people gain freedom in the last three months. Students were freed from addictions to drugs and alcohol. Students were freed from being ruled by fear of what other people think of them. Students were freed from painful things in their past or even harmful family patterns. Many were freed from living under oppressive lies planted by culture, people, or the enemy. Others were freed from physical ailments, and still others were freed from suffocating religious and performance-based mindsets. And not only were the students experiencing breakthroughs, the staff were as well! This included myself, and for that I sincerely want to praise God all the time.

To be honest, I think the second half of this DTS brought with it the most breakthroughs for me since my own DTS last year! It has been an intense and wonderful time!

It started several weeks into the DTS, when I began to become aware of a building frustration in my relationship with God. Though the DTS was going pretty well, I was having a really hard time connecting with God. I didn't feel like I could hear His voice very well, and I couldn't connect personally with the Scripture that I was reading. I was becoming more and more sure of believing that God would never do anything truly miraculous through me (unbelief). I felt kind of disconnected in worship times, like I wasn't totally sincere about the things I was singing. I understood that I what I really needed was more intimacy with God, but the more time I tried to spend with God, the more it felt like a chore rather than a joy. The confusion and frustration kept building even as I tried to understand the problem and do something about it.

Finally, I gave up reading Scripture decided to spend more time just resting in God's presence rather than trying to do anything. I began to do that and focus my thoughts on a couple songs which reminded me of God's rest and unconditional love: Take a Moment and Through and Through. This helped a bit, but I still felt the barrier.

Soon after this, a woman named Laurie Morris came to do a week's lectures. Laurie's life's work is to help people uncover the oppressive works of the enemy in their lives and be led to freedom through prayer and counseling, relying heavily on the Holy Spirit. The works of the enemy include spiritual bondage, core lies, places of pain, damaging family patterns, and even demonic oppression. During the week, she led all the students through this process in class, and gave ten students the opportunity to meet with her one-on-one for two hours – a more personal setting. The next week, however, she remained in town and gave the staff the opportunity to meet with her. Considering what I had been going through, I jumped at this chance, and I am so glad that I did.

In preparing for and then meeting with Laurie, I ended up encountering and dealing with some things that I didn't even realize I needed to deal with. For example, though I had heard a few times before of the harmful effects that Freemasonry can have on people, even down family lines (that's a whole can of worms which I will not open here), I didn't realize the extent to which it affected me. Before I met with Laurie, however, I found out that Freemasonry had had a large presence on my dad's side of the family. So in meeting with her, she told me that some of things I had been dealing with (blocked intimacy, fear, works-based mentality, unbelief, etc.) she had seen in people with the Masonic in their family lines, including herself. Knowing this, with her help I prayed through a prayer renouncing any Masonic oaths (and the associated curses) that my ancestors had taken.

Besides addressing the Masonic, I dealt with several other things in meeting with Laurie. I renounced and repented of a couple different patterns that have come down in my family – unbelief and pride/rebellion. I broke agreement with different lies that I had been living under, and listened to God for his truth in each situation. These were lies that I would never have articulated but which I could see really drove my behavior – things like "I always have to be doing something or accomplishing something to be OK", "I will never find that trust and ongoing intimacy with God that I really long for", or "I will never hear God's voice as well as others can." In looking to God for the truth, He gave both me and Laurie different words and impressions, things which have helped change my mindset and actively work against the lies. For example, we got the impression that music would be a specific way that I would find intimacy with God – and already it has been filling that role more and more!

Freedom (the Effects)

The effects of this time with Laurie was both immediate and prolonged. Almost immediately, I felt like walls had been taken down and it was so much easier to spend time with God, receive from Him, love Him, and hear Him speak. I felt like a weight had been taken off of me.  Over time, though, I continue to have breakthroughs and experience new things. My times with God have been so much freer, richer, more varied, and satisfying. It's much easier to feel His presence and connect with Him. As I said, Laurie was right about music being a way to connect with and express my desires to God. I like to go down to the valley where there's no one around and sing at the top of my lungs :) Worship times have also been better, and I feel like I can connect with everything that I am singing. In fact, I think God may be putting me on a path to actually leading worship at some point.

In the past couple weeks, I have also been gradually receiving the gift of speaking in tongues. This was the kind of thing I thought was pretty darn weird when I first got to YWAM, but I have really begun to understand its value for edifying myself and others. This is another one of those cans of worms that I won't open up all the way, but I'll just say a lot its value is in essentially letting God have control of my speaking, which an important act of surrender and allows me to be connected to God directly, spirit to Spirit, without my mind filtering anything. In fact, when I speak in tongues my mind is usually thinking things like "This is really stupid. You're just making this stuff up. What a waste of time..." And yet at the same time my spirit is standing up and being stirred up to love Jesus more. Anyway, it's pretty cool, and it's hammering a death blow on that lie about God never doing anything supernatural through me. We had a whole night session focused on tongues where we tried to listen to God and interpret each other. We also sang in tongues (new for me), did spiritual warfare in tongues, and started getting new tongues from God. It was ridiculous and crazy cool at the same time.

All of this really made it possible for me to really engage and receive so much during the last couple weeks of lectures, which was really wonderful. As Joylynn Landshut taught on Destiny by Design, I started to really receive things from God about my dreams, my callings, and my identity both from God and other people. Now, before you get excited, I should say that I still haven't found out what my ultimate specific calling is, but I have a lot more general stuff to go on. Here's a bit of a summary of that:

All I know right now is that I am called to be on fire for Jesus, see lives and land healed, be a solid and stable refuge for people (a rock, an oak of righteousness), have godly wisdom that brings peace and unity to the church, and be a leader/administrator who lifts up new leaders and helps them see their visions fulfilled. Justice also fits in there somewhere, as well as speaking or preaching. Yeah, that's what I feel like I know so far, but it's still quite a bit.

Oak of Righteousness - Shelter, refuge, stable, rooted. People can climb up to be closer to God, and rest in the branches.

I do also basically know what I will be doing for the next year and a half or so, but that will have to wait for yet another blog post.

The final week of lectures really capped it all off for me. The week's topic was the Holy Spirit, and the speaker was the amazing Kristen Williams. Kristen is a fiery, tongue-talking, Scripture-grounded preacher who prophesies over people and encounters God every day in his garage, but he's also one of the most enthusiastic, joy-filled, passionate, and encouraging people I've ever seen. If there is anyone whose attitude about God I would like to have, it would be Kristen. I always say that Kristen could make anyone want to be a Pentecostal (and that includes me). I think part of it is that he simply understands how incredible the Bible's promises are, and he takes God at His word! As he taught, Kristen imparted some of that passion and desire for more of God, and every day the Holy Spirit would show up in class, manifesting in different ways, doing work on people's hearts, giving or unlocking new spiritual gifts, and making us all love Jesus more. It was really, really, really good, and everyone received some fire to propel us out on outreach (and the desire for that fire to only get bigger)!

So now we're leaving tomorrow for seven weeks of outreach – one team to Thailand, one team to Fiji, and three teams to Vanuatu. I think I'm anticipating this outreach what God is going to do on this outreach more than I have going into either of the others that I have been on! We have such high expectations and faith that God will pull through on his promises as we listen and obey Him!

Yay God!!!

Dan

A DTS in Pictures

 So much happens during the 3-month lecture phase of a DTS that it is totally impossible to capture it all without carrying around a camera and taking pictures constantly. I didn't really have time to do that, but I have here a few of the highlights of the lecture phase that just ended. Unfortunately, this gives a pretty lopsided picture of what happens on DTS, because the big events and trips are what I usually take pictures of as opposed to the day-to-day life on DTS - worship, prayer/intercession, lectures, work duties, meals, and fun... Still, this should give an idea of a few of the cool things we got to experience this DTS. You can click on any of the photos to make it bigger.

I arrived back in New Zealand and as usual was amazed at the beauty of the place:

At the end of the first week of the school, we drove all the students up to Auckland to board Marine Reach's new ship, the Pacific Hope. 

The ship then sailed to Tauranga, where we had a big welcome ceremony, complete with the traditional Maori powhiri.

We took a fun trip to the Karangahake Gorge, where we hiked around and explored old gold mine and railway tunnels.

We had our own Maori Welcome Ceremony (powhiri) in Gideon's Valley (right on the base's property).

Also in the valley, we had six people get baptized!

Each week we had "stream" classes. This is my "Go" stream - the other streams are Medical, Devoted, Pacific Challenge, and Worship.

One Saturday morning, all of the guys made a nice breakfast to honor the ladies!

Of course, we continued to have lectures every morning! This was Teresa Archer teaching on worship - it was an awesome, Scripture-packed week!

On another weekend we took a trip up to the Coramandel Peninsula to visit Cathedral Cove (made famous in the second Narnia movie).

We had a really fun (and messy) fundraiser for our outreach trip to Vanuatu!

Here is the entire school (click to see it bigger)!

During another week of lectures, Joylynn Landshut came from South Africa to teach us Destiny by Design. We learned about the particular way that God has made us and how that helps us know what we are called to do. We looked at our dreams, personality, experiences, and the identity that God gives us.

Part of the identity that God has spoken over me!

Along the way, we had themed meals - one for almost every nationality or region represented in the school! Kiwi, American, Canadian, Swiss and German, Italian, Fijian, Asian, and more!

American night! It's amazing how American you can make two kiwis and a Dane look if you dress them in plaid and jeans :) 

African night!

The Go and Pacific Challenge streams took an epic trip to Tongariro National Park to climb on snowy volcanoes. It was really intense, but we felt so accomplished when we made it to the highest point on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing.

It has obviously been an action packed three months of lectures! But the best part is what you can't see in the photos - lives changed, hearts healed and filled with joy, love for God increased to overflowing, confidence gained, and God's glory revealed! It has been such a good time, and God has been SO faithful. I'll be posting again about what God has done for me personally - it's a lot, and it's really exciting!

Thank you for your continued prayers and support! Tomorrow my team flies to Vanuatu (a small island nation in the South Pacific - near Fiji) to spend 6 weeks of our outreach, and we are really excited!

-DJS

Not as Hard as You Think

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:5-6)

This past week, the third week of this DTS, came complete with everything from amazing breakthroughs to daunting challenges. As our leader Cheyne Hosking says, "those who come to DTS aren't usually the spiritual elite" – thus the challenges. Everyone comes in needing to grow; everyone has issues that need to be worked out. All of us –staff and students – are on a journey together, and the journey often isn't easy. It requires heart transformation, which really only God is capable of doing, so we have to trust Him a lot.

The focus of last week was hearing God's voice. This theme come out in lectures, where Cheyne was teaching, as well as in our Go stream class and our times of intercession on Wednesday and Thursday morning. Hearing God's voice is one of those things that most students hope they will be able to do on DTS but come in very uncertain of how they will hear or if they will be able to at all. And it's true, hearing the voice of God is a challenge (I myself have a long way to go to hear easily and clearly in all situations), but it really isn't as difficult as you might think. Here, the students progressed so far in just one week that by the end even those who are still unsure about God started hearing His voice.

The preconception that hearing God's voice is very complicated (and maybe only for really mature Christians) is maybe one of the biggest obstacles to actually hearing from Him. Before I came on my DTS, I so doubted that I would actually be able to hear from God that I rarely asked Him questions or listened for an answer. Half the battle is simply listening to God and expecting an answer from Him. Besides that, it's also important to understand that it's not like listening to people. You probably won't hear in a way that you're used to – you're hearing with your spiritual ears, not your physical ones.

We started the week by looking at why it's important to hear God's voice. We determined that at the most basic level it is an expression of humility – we are admitting that we were not designed to be independent of God, that we don't have the complete ability to know what's best for ourselves. Thus we invite his blessing and input into our situation as we listen for his Voice. We found that He speaks in many different ways; some of the most common are his still, small voice (1 Kings 19:9-18), impressions, T-bone thoughts (sudden thoughts contrary to your train of thought), visions/pictures, and the Scriptures.

Next we looked at the different things that hinder our ability to hear from God. These are things like negative pre-conceived notions of God, unforgiveness or bitterness (toward God or others), feelings of inadequacy, disobedience, busyness, distractions, and quite a few more. Pretty much all of these stem from a few root sins: doubt, unbelief, pride, and independence. So, we went through a time of confessing the things that hinder us, asking forgiveness (if necessary), and praying for God to take those things away and help us hear. That was a really important step, and from there we were ready to look at the more practical issues of hearing such as discerning God's voice versus our own, understanding how God speaks through Scripture (both generally [gk. logos] and specifically [gk. rhema]), and knowing the different things that God speaks (like words of knowledge, words of encouragement, prophecy, etc.). Cheyne also taught some things to pray through in order to prepare to hear from Him. They're called the 4 S's:

1. (Thanks) – this isn't an "S" word, but it's really important for getting our hearts right before God. The Bible tells us to "enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! (Ps. 100:4)"
2. Sin (Psalm 66:18, Isaiah 59:2) – confess and repent of any known sin, and ask God to reveal any unknown sin in your life to get rid of it.
3. Self (2 Cor. 10:59) – pray for God to remove distractions, to help you "take every thought captive" and hear His voice, not your own.
4. Satan (John 8:44, James 4:7) – In the authority of Jesus, tell Satan to be silent and go away ("Resist the devil, and he will flee."
5. Spirit (John 16) – Welcome the Holy Spirit in to speak and guide you into truth and relationship with God.

Finally, we did lots of activities to apply what we learned. For example, we did activities where each person listens to God for a word from God (encouragement, prophecy, or the like) for another person. In one such activity, everyone gets into to two lines with the same number of people in each. One of the lines (we'll call it line 1) turns its back while the other line (line 2) shuffles around until each person is standing behind someone in line 1. Then everyone in line 1 asks God for a "word" for the person in line 2 standing behind them (they don't know who the person is). Then, before line 1 turns to see who's behind them, they share whatever they received. Everyone did actually get something from God (whether a phrase, a sentence, an impression, or a picture), and every time it's amazing to see how many of the "words" are perfectly applicable and wonderfully encouraging to the person they pertain to. It would be really uncanny if we didn't know that God was speaking.

So, if you are pretty sure you're unable to hear God's voice, I'm telling you that's not true. God can speak to you, and He wants to speak to you; in fact, He's probably speaking right now. You just have to "tune in to radio Jesus" and listen to the words of love and encouragement that He has for you and those around you.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ....For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. (Ephesians 2:18)

Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)

That's the gist of what I wanted to share about last  week, but there is one more important bit of information that might interest you. I think it official now: around the beginning of October I will be leading an outreach team to the island nation of Vanuatu. It will be a small team of six (4 students, 2 staff, including me), but I don't think will at all determine what we'll be able accomplish. We will likely spend most of our time in the capital, Port Vila, where we have an outreach base, but hopefully we will all be heading to some more remote locations on another island to serve the villagers there in a practical way. To serve in the way we would like, we will almost certainly have to raise some more funds – I'll let you know the details of that soon!

Thanks once again for you continued interest and support!

Cheers,

Danny Boy

The sunset the other day (click to enlarge)

A view of Mt Maunganui (taken up the hill from the base)

Reentering the DTS Vortex

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. (Colossians 1:9-10, ESV)

Wow. I've been back in New Zealand for 3 weeks already and while it has flown by, home seems so far removed, like I've been gone for quite a long time. It's odd, but I have experienced this feeling before – it means that I have reentered the DTS vortex.  It's a place where the intensity of living is such that time seems to skip ahead at an unnaturally fast clip, yet simultaneously so much is crammed into that time – challenges, growth, new friendships, adventures, lessons, etc. – that on looking back you could swear you'd been there twice as long as the date would suggest. The environment of DTS veritably forces one to be so present that everything else seems further off. Fortunately, in most cases (especially for the students) that isn't at all a bad thing. It allows us to throw off some of the cares that would weigh us down at home and have the freedom to focus our lives on Jesus.

The past three weeks have been very busy, hence why I'm only now writing a my first blog post for this trip. Of course, the beginning of a new DTS is always busy for the staff, but this one has been particularly demanding because a certain ship was just arriving in New Zealand.  The ship was the M/V Pacific Hope, which, as you may recall, was the same ship my last outreach team worked on in Manila, in the Philippines. The Pacific Hope was purchased in March by Marine Reach Ministries (part of YWAM) with the ultimate purpose of bringing medical care and the gospel to many of the Pacific's more remote and isolated islands. Since then it has been a major work in progress, and will continue to be for several more months until it is fully renovated and outfitted to do its intended service. In fact, Marine Reach is on a major faith journey to make that happen financially and practically, something you can partner with them in (for more information, click here).

The ship arrived in Auckland, NZ just a few days after I did (July 9^th) and stayed there until July 19^th, when it finally sailed down to its home port of Tauranga. This was a pretty amazing and historic occasion to be a part of, but it did make life more hectic for us as staff. You'll see why pretty soon.

After an elongated trip to New Zealand due to a problem with one of Air New Zealand's planes, I arrived back at the base in Tauranga on July 7^th. The week following was staff training week. This involved learning about dealing with the myriad of issues that can arise on DTS, getting on the same page as staff (there are 12 of us), praying lots, and doing all the final preparations for the students' arrival.

The students began to arrive on July 11^th, with the bulk coming on the 12^th and 13^th. Because of some details I won't get into, we had to drive to Auckland (two and a half hours away) to pickup nearly all the students, sometimes very early in the morning or late at night, which made for some interesting adventures. In between pickups, we got to hang out and make friends with lots of uncertain and jet-lagged students who were generally very far from home – which is fun and quite awkward at times. On Monday, the first official day of the school, we had orientation, and then proceeded to inform the students that the very next day we'd start a time of sharing in which they had the opportunity to share their life story, complete with every struggle, sin, and area of hurt in their past. We do this at the beginning of every DTS – our DTS coordinator Cheyne explained why by comparing the DTS to the renovation of a house. Usually, the beginning of a renovation involves clearing out all the old, broken, and unnecessary things left inside before the real renovation can start. So, over the next two and a half days about 25 of our 30 students shared their stories, taking the first step of a new journey in total openness. After sharing, each student received some one-on-one prayer and consultation with Cheyne and his or her school leaders – the beginning of a healing process for many of them. To look back at the experience I had as a student on my DTS, click here.

Then on Thursday we took the students up to Auckland, where they boarded the ship and got to sail with it to Tauranga. I drove a van back to Tauranga, and on Saturday morning I helped set up for a big welcoming ceremony for the ship and photographed its arrival. Finally, after about four months of work and sailing, the Pacific Hope arrived in its home port for the first time! There was a large crowd there to welcome the ship, including a group of traditional Maori warriors, the local Maori kaumatua (chief), and the city's mayor. The ceremony included a traditional Maori powhiri, complete with speeches and songs.

The Pacific Hope coming into port!

Maori warriors doing the haka!

Jesse Misa, CEO and regional director Marine Reach, speaking.

The welcoming crowd! (click to enlarge)

The following week we happily got into our normal DTS routine with morning lectures, work duties, and community living. The week's lectures were on relationships (a foundational issue, and one which most people have problems with today), and they were taught by Linda Cowie, a YWAM veteran who founded Marine Reach Ministries (and the base here in Tauranga) with her husband David. She has a wealth of wisdom gathered from many years of experience in leadership, friendships, and marriage, and she readily translated that wisdom into great teaching.

This past week, we also had our first "stream" classes. Right now, we have five different DTS's running here at the base – Medical Compassion, Pacific Challenge, Worship, Devoted, and Go (click for more info). The students from all of these schools (or "streams") participate together in lectures, work duties, worship, and the like; however, each stream has a weekly class and small group time. For this school, I am the leader of the "Go" stream. I have one fellow staff member named Hannah, and students named Brad, Abbey, Ainsley, and Charlene (you'll see pictures soon). Brad and Ainsley are both from close by in New Zealand, while Abbey and Charlene are from the United States.

Of course, the name "Go" doesn't give you much idea of what the stream is really about (part of the point is that it's not as specific as the other streams), so here's the vision behind it:

The Go School is ultimately about challenging ourselves, pushing further, thinking bigger and being equipped and empowered to boldly step out and do ALL that God has called us to do. However, a sustained life of boldly "going" must first be based in relationship with God – in intimacy, trust, and dependence on Him. The purpose of the Go DTS is to guide students to come to God in close relationship, trust Him fully, and go out in radical obedience to him.

I am totally happy leading this stream, and I feel sure this is what God has called me to do. He has awesome things planned for these students on this journey, and it will stretch and grow me in all sorts of new ways as well! We will be studying how to have an intimate relationship with God, learning about spiritual gifts and evangelism, and discovering what our calling is in Christ. Please pray that we will press into Him as completely as possible and grow together over the course of this school. We don't want to miss anything that He has for us!

Stay tuned for more updates and photos in the near future, and thank you for your prayers and support!

Grace and Peace,

DJS

If you'd like to donate to me online, click here and select "Donate to a Staff/Student."

Infinitely More than We Might Ask or Think

Last Sunday, June 30th, I had the opportunity to give the sermon at my home church, The Vine of the Mountains in Waynesville, NC. It was a daunting task: I had to try and look back on six packed months of ministry with YWAM and decide on the most important things to talk about in only a little over twenty minutes. Fortunately, though, God really helped me out and gave me a focused message. Before I got to the message, however, I started at the beginning, trying to briefly sum up my past year.

It starts last May, when I graduated from NC State with a degree in Ecological Engineering. However, I decided not to jump right into an engineering job but rather take some time out and focus on God. My friend Seth Blanton had the same idea, and we settled on doing a Discipleship Training School (DTS) with Youth with a Mission (YWAM) in New Zealand. We didn't know exactly what we were getting ourselves into (I don't think anyone who comes on DTS really does), but it turned out to be more incredible and life-changing than we could have imagined.

Our DTS started with three months of lecture phase in New Zealand. The essence of lecture phase is a that students are surrounded by a culture or an environment that is amazing for rapid spiritual (and mental and emotional) growth - it's like a spiritual greenhouse. The environment is built on encouraging, diverse, and loving community; lots of prayer; worship; good leadership; and Biblical teaching (lecturers are brought in each week from all over the world to speak on various topics). Next there are two months of outreach, which is essentially where the students put in practice what they learned on lecture phase and continue to be challenged to grow in different ways. The video below shows some of what we did on my last outreach, a trip to the Philippines.

Trying to sum up DTS is difficult. However, to simplify it as much as possible I said during my last presentation (six months ago) that the purpose is to help students shed the things that hold them back, then to empower them to do the work to which God has called them. This happens in all sorts of ways, but the main transformation comes simply as a result of growing closer to God in relationship and experiencing his incredible love and goodness.

Now, after having been a staff person, I have some more insight into how the process works and I have tried to summarize it in this way (although it's still not all-encompassing):

We all go through life with hurts, fears, or insecurities – big or small – that we either don’t know are there or we’ve lived with for so long that we’re used to them. So we don’t realize that they are holding us back in so many ways. DTS is the perfect environment to stop and look at those issues and discover that Jesus is offering healing and victory over them. With an open hand, God offers us a whole new identity as his valued children, and with it a new mindset to live a life of security, confidence, and freedom we didn’t realize was possible.

Of course, those are some pretty big claims, but I can honestly back them up by saying that I've seen evidence that this is true! In fact, I've experienced it in my own life!

So, coming back to my story... Partway through my own DTS I felt led by God to return and be a staff member on the next DTS. My hope was that assuming that role would allow me to continue building my foundations in God – prayer, Scripture, worship, intimacy with God - along with a greater focus on teaching, serving, and leading.

It turns out, I was exactly right about that. I've had the opportunity to be help create that environment that is so encouraging, accepting, and focused on God. I've been a mentor to students dealing with a variety of issues. I've planned an outreach in the Philippines (a country I've never been to) and co-led a team of 12 people (some of whom were older than me), and by God's grace it was pretty successful (I mean, no one got seriously injured or anything). Really, looking back I can see how this time with YWAM has been a perfect complement to my technical training in college. This experience has allowed me to round out that engineering foundation with a better understanding of relationships, leadership, and God himself, which in most ways is far more important than technical knowledge.

So, the past year has been far more life-changing than I could have expected, and now I'm going back to staff again for five more months. I will be doing a similar job, but I will have some new challenges because I'll have some different leadership roles. So as they say in Cambodia, "Same same, but different."

Now that I've given you some context, I could tell stories from DTS for the entire message time, no problem, but I think God has given me something else to share. It’s partly still about YWAM and my adventures with Jesus, but some will hopefully be an encouragement to you, and some is meant to be a challenge for all of us individually and as a church. We're going to talk generally about our relationship with God, in the process wandering off just a little to talk about what worship is. I have so much I want to say and I'm going to plow through a lot thoughts, so I hope you can stay with me.

Our starting point is the following Scripture, from the book of Ephesians:

Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. (Ephesians 3:20 NLT)

I want to talk about the " infinitely more than we can ask or think" part and what that means in the context of our relationship with God. It's some pretty strong language that should really mean something for us if we believe it! I'm going to come at from the perspective that this statement about who God is, is actually an invitation for us. It basically says that whatever it is we're expecting God to do or to be able to do in our lives and our world is actually TOO SMALL. It's not fanciful or amazing or delightful enough. Whatever you came to church thinking God wants to happen here, He really wants to do MORE. Whatever you think God can do with your life, whatever hurts you think He might be able to heal, whatever sins you think He can free you from - He can actually do MORE. God has MORE gifts for us; He wants to reveal MORE of himself to us. And if there's something that much greater out there that we have yet to wrap our heads around, why wouldn't we pursue it? That's the invitation, whether you've followed God for one day or half a lifetime - it's an invitation to a relationship with God that is always growing, always increasing, always experiencing new and more unbelievable things.

That brings me to this next Scripture, which takes us further into this invitation:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
      have worked salvation for him. ...
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
      to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
      the salvation of our God.  (Psalm 98:1,3 , ESV)

“Sing to the LORD a new song” indicates more to me than just writing some new lyrics and notes to worship with. To me it points to a freshness in our entire relationship with God. We’re told to sing a new song to the LORD - why? Because the Lord "has done marvelous things." And I think the command is not necessarily just to sing about the marvelous things God did long before our lifetimes (that we never experienced), but the idea is that God is constantly doing new marvelous things for us to write new songs about! So the question for me (and you) is:

Do I have the kind of relationship with God where I see and experience new (and sometimes really unexpected) things that God is doing now, in the present? Or is my relationship with God always in the same place, or even looking backwards? Just the same old, same old?

This idea of newness is all over Scripture. A verse in Lamentations (of all places) talks about God’s mercies being new every morning (3:22). 2 Corinthians says that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation"(5:17) and that we are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory (3:18)! That evokes an image not of drudgery and stagnation but of excitement and novelty and…well,  freshness in our relationship with God. Now, that's not to say that there aren't times when moving forward is really hard and we don't see new things from God for a while (I mean, look earlier on in Lamentations!). But if we never see anything new from God, I think we're missing out on who He really is!

As I have begun to understand really what it is that Jesus is inviting us into, I’ve seen (and experienced!) that this journey is more like falling in love than anything else. We’ve probably all heard that Jesus wants a “personal relationship” with us and that we need to “fall in love with Jesus.” But these phrases have lost the ummph that they should have! This is no run-of-the-mill “personal relationship” we’re talking about here! For one, we’re talking about falling in love, which is one of the most powerful and intense and exciting things that can happen to a person. And two, this is a personal relationship with Jesus who, we read just right here, has done “marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation…and all the ends of the earth have seen…!” And even though you can’t see Him like you can other people, it’s still possible to relate to Him personally, to hear His voice, to spend time with Him. Peter says, “Though you have not seen Him, you love Him (1 Peter 1:8). In some ways It’s the most challenging relationship you’ll ever have, but think about all of that – how is that not exciting??!?! How is that not an adventure?? How did anyone ever turn that into a rule-focused, oppressive, Sunday-relegated way of maintaining the status quo? That is just crazy... because relationship with Jesus is the most freeing, dynamic, whole-life-encompassing adventure there is - and you made for it!!!!!

So, you see what DTS does to people J Sometimes I’m just like, “How did I find something this good?” and I just want to dance during worship time and sing whatever praises and truths come to mind. I want to tell God how much I love Him. I want to declare how great He is because I've seen it!

THIS is what I'm talking about what it says “sing a new song!” It's saying that a genuine relationship with God just naturally results in worship. It’s saying that the point of worship is to pour out the overflow of your personal relationship with God and express your response to His work in your life. It might involve dancing; it might involve prayer; it might involve generosity; it might involve singing whatever words come out about a God you’ve experienced and known. To put it another way, worship – or the ease with which I worship God from my heart – is really the barometer measuring the quality of my relationship with God. It’s not so much about drumming up some emotion and feeling for God with good music, but it's about expressing the feelings and adoration God has already drummed up inside of us through this love relationship I was talking about.

All of this really forms the basis for what I think is maybe the best thing about the culture of YWAM as an organization, and one of the main things that is transferrable from DTS to "normal" life at here at home. DTS is a really unique environment, but everything about it need not remain isolated. What I'm talking about is this mindset, this approach to relationship with God  that is based on a CONSTANT DESIRE FOR MORE. More of God Himself in relationship, more His Spirit, more of His wisdom, more of His love, more of His power.

In Scripture, this idea is actually a crazy paradox you see in the psalms: that we can be totally satisfied with Christ and yet absolutely longing for more. Case in point – David in Psalm 63. He says things like, "I earnestly search for you; my soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you..." And then just a few lines later, "You satisfy me more than the richest feast. I will praise you."

As new students come to DTS, the ones with the most promise and potential for transformation aren’t the ones with the greatest skills or the most Bible knowledge, but those who come with open and seeking hearts, hungry and thirsty for God. In the same way, I think we are most on track as followers of Jesus when we have an earnest and active desire for more of Him. Didn’t Jesus say something like that? “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.”(Matthew 5:6, ESV)

The unfortunate news here is that we can’t suddenly make ourselves hungry for God. In reality, the Holy Spirit does most of that work. But we can totally set ourselves up for that deep desire, knowing that what we’re after is something incredible, the one thing that is most worthy of our effort and focus. One starting point is to really take ownership of our own journey, understanding that because it’s a personal relationship, it’s not up to your pastor or your small group leader or your friend to do it for you. Jesus wants you to seek Him; he wants a relationship with you. And so we can start seeking God in the Word and in prayer and just spending time with Him; we can start wanting that relationship with Him, even a little bit. We can start stepping out in faith, trusting that God will come through for us. And we can do it together, working as a community to create a culture that is satisfied with loving Jesus, but totally unsatisfied with seeing only what God has already shown us.

The good news is that this whole process moves itself forward. As I have sought God, I've found him, and what I've found is so good that I just want more! We step out on a limb in faith – i.e. we get in situations where we will crash and burn if God doesn’t come through for us, and every time when He does come through it makes it that much easier to trust in Him again. The more we seek to satisfy our hunger for God, the more He satisfies us and the more hungry we get. How’s that for a paradox?

Now I really don't want to come back to the Vine and say, "Oh, I've been in YWAM, where we do everything right and you should be just like them." No, I just think God wants to extend this invitation to you. He wants to do more in and through you as an individual and through this church as a whole. Some of the things He is capable of doing here won't necessarily be expected, comfortable, or easy, but they'll be on the way to "infinitely more than we can ask or think." I don't know about you, but that sounds like good news to me. I don't want to stay where I am because right here I see all kinds of issues that still need to be fixed, all kinds of seeds that still need to grow. But God doesn't want me to stay where I am; He is calling me (all of us) forward, closer to Him and into fuller restoration!

I know I've made some pretty big claims here that probably need some backing up, and I understand that "more" is pretty ambiguous if you don't have any specifics. So I had thought I would tell stories from my time on in New Zealand and the Philppines to follow up, but God gave me a crazier idea. Now don't get me wrong; I do have stories. I wouldn't be so excited if there weren't something to be excited about. I mean, besides falling in love with Jesus myself, I've seen people miraculously healed, thousands of dollars provided in a few minutes,  and money multiplied inexplicably. I've seen prayer transform lives and realities almost immediately. I've seen God align circumstances that no one else could have lined up. I've heard people speak in tongues and see visions. I've seen visions. I've heard God's voice in unmistakable ways.

 So here's the crazy idea. God said that I could be the evidence for you, right here, right now.  It starts with a song that I first heard on my DTS and it has since become one of my favorites. It's called "Set a Fire," it's written by a guy named Will Reagan, and the lyrics just happen to line up exactly with what I've been talking about. But the real kicker for me is that I think God wants me to play and lead you guys in singing it, and I have never even played and sang in front of people before, let alone led any kind of worship. So I'll be your example that God calls us into new and unexpected things, and praise Jesus, the result is just more of Him.

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for me), I don't have a video of my singing, but it may be a part of the podcast when it comes out. For now, here are the lyrics and a video of the song. This short worship session was how I ended my sermon time.

There's no place I'd rather be

No place I'd rather be

No place I'd rather be

Than here in your love

Here in your love

Set a fire down in my soul

That I can't contain

That I can't control

I want more of you God

I want more of you God