Antioch 2009, All Things Starfish, and Haven In The Hood
About two years ago Christy and I by the providence of God found ourselves at the Tribal Gathering hosted by Rock International. While Christy and I try to make a habit of going to the Tribal Gathering as often as possible, this year God seemed to have something up His sleeve. A work schedule that should have been impossible to navigate opened up and we found ourselves in the middle of a series of meetings that blew our minds.
The Rock’s guest that year was Wolfgang Simson, a German missions expert who wrote the mind-bending book, Houses That Change the World. To make a long story short, my life was dramatically shifted during that weekend in a way that’s hard to explain. Wolfgang unveiled his vision for multiplying house church movements being used to win masses for Jesus at the end of the age. He likened the process to a starfish, which can be multiplied many times over but never dies throughout the process.
Without going into a ton of detail, this “Starfish Vision” called for a gathering of believers to meet in Antioch in 2009 to gather before the Lord and repent for having missionary agendas that were not the Lord’s. This meeting, however, was only to serve as a springboard to a more significant gathering where house church leaders from around the world would gather to hear God’s plan for gathering in the last great harvest. I think it may look something like this.
Needless to say I was intrigued by the idea of the Antioch meeting and never forgot about it. Well, two years have come and gone and this meeting finally occurred. In the last few weeks, several of those who were there have written about what happened. You can read Guy Muse’s very personal observations here. You can get Tony Dale’s perspective here. And last but not least get the thoughts of the guy who called the whole thing together (Wolf) here.
And as if that wasn’t enough at the gathering, Wolfgang and Mercy released the finalized version of the Starfish Manifesto. The Starfish Manifesto is the culmination of a couple of years of waiting on the Lord, hearing His voice, and pairing apostolic strategy with prophetic insight. I have not read this version, but the early version I saw was amazing and challenged me to go deeper in the things that God started in me that weekend two years ago. You can download the final version of the Starfish Manifesto here.
And finally, turning our attention from Antioch back a little closer to home, I want recommend to my readers a new blog “Haven In The Hood.” The blog features two new friends of ours who moved out of suburbia and into a neighborhood not too far from us. The blog is their story about creating a little place of refuge where many think none could be had. You can check them out here.
Joel’s Birthday And The Outpouring of the Spirit
We just finished celebrating the 1st birthday of my son, Joel. We did all the typical stuff…the party with presents, the much anticipated “first birthday cake smushing,” family came over, we sang…everything you would typically expect for a one year old. And we had a great time.
All of this, however, has got me thinking about Joel and what he means to Christy and I and to the larger body of Christ. We gave our son the name Joel because the Lord had spoken to us about a move of the Spirit that would come at the end of the age. The birth of Joel was going to be a sign for us about an outpouring of the Spirit described in Joel 2:28-32:
“And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
Even on the male and female servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the LORD calls. (Joel 2:28-32)”
I’ve written about this before, but I want to stick this thesis the door of my blog for the whole world to see: There is coming a move of the Spirit that will trump anything we have seen before. I’m not saying that just because the Lord told us to name our son Joel. I’m saying that because God declares in His word that He will pour out His Spirit in the last hour of human history. It will happen. It is as sure and as fixed in Scripture as the coming of the Anti-Christ and and the second coming of Jesus.
Beloved do not forget the coming outpouring of the Spirit! It’s not some pie-in-the-sky fantasy. God wasn’t just trying to motivate us with a promise that He never intended to fulfill. Weariness and dryness tend to shrink our faith. It’s hard to believe for an outpouring of the Spirit when you look around and see an Earth suffering from a shortage of God breaking through! But remember that just because we have not seen the outpouring does not mean it does not exist. When Noah built an ark no one had ever seen a flood, but that did not make him foolish for preparing.
So tonight, while I’m celebrating the life of my son, I want to call us all contend for the breakthrough of the Spirit of God wherever we are. There will be a day when we all cry out “come” together and a tidal wave of presence of God floods the Earth like never before. Our job is to continue to call out “come” until the crescendo in Heaven builds and God cannot hold Himself back any longer. The result will be signs in the sky, miracles on the Earth, and a flood of souls coming into the Kingdom like never before. May the Lord help us to be found faithful and waiting in that day.
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