Guess who’s back? Greg is back. Guess who’s back? Greg is back.
After a nice two week hiatus from blogging I am back and ready to start 2013 off with a bang. Each year instead of New Year’s Resolutions I like to create a theme for my year. Themes are certainly more nebulous and undefined and you can gauge their success or failure with more creativity than a goal of losing 40 pounds or becoming a published author. I always like to leave myself room to try and put a positive spin on my failures for the year!
Themes from the past have included Turning it Up A Notch, Wholeness, Accountability, and What If? This year the theme is Breakthrough. It is a theme for my life and a theme for Duneland Community Church. Every time I talk about this theme I think about the Doors song Break on Through to the Other Side. (I was sorely tempted to bust out my best Jim Morrison song and dance routine during my sermon yesterday. I abstained out of love for my wife. See breakthrough is already occurring this year! We do need to add more rock organ to our worship music, however.)
So why breakthrough? What does breakthrough look like? As I have reflected on this past year of my life and the season we find ourselves in at Duneland Community Church the overwhelming sense has been longing. There is a deep longing in my life to see the power of God manifest in ways I have not seen it before. There is a longing to explore the great depths of the mystery of Christ within me. Paul tell us in Romans 8 that the same Spirit, the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is within us. This is a profound mystery that the power of God that conquered death and opened the gates of heaven to us is present within the children of God.
I am hungry to know this power even more. There is a profound desire to be overwhelmed by the power of God. I desire to live in a state of awe inducing silence because of the power of God on display around me. Breakthrough occurs in the presence of God. When God’s power is on display all the shortcomings of our abilities are meaningless. When the power of God is at work we are invested with an authority to do those things which are only possible through God. That is the hunger of my soul for my life and for our church.
God is beginning a new work at Duneland. There is a momentum building. A holy buzz is arising. A spiritual electricity is in the air. My prayer is that this year we discover new depths of faith and surrender that result in breakthrough. I have a dream of a baptism service that is filled with scores of new believers. We have dreams of financial breakthroughs that allow us to give away huge amounts of money this year. We are praying for countless stories of blessing the poor and the broken in our community. We long, from the depths of our souls for breakthrough.
May it be so Lord, may it be so.
January 7, 2013 at 6:53 pm
This Vineyard guy might be helpful in your breakthrough. It’s a great book. He’s a great guy. Thy Kingdom come!
Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom
January 9, 2013 at 11:40 am
I will check it out, thanks
January 13, 2013 at 8:04 pm
“His Presence is His power.” I heard this from our national director at a Vineyard gathering in Raleigh this weekend. If we simply seek and we shall find God in our midst. Go to Vineyardusa.org and look at Vineyard resources. There you will find books and teaching shared in non-hyped way of empowered evangelicals. When we ask for God’s Spirit to come with expectation…he moves in ways that show us God is pursuing, healing and empowering.