Julian Adams Weekend

Next weekend we have the privilege of receiving the ministry of Julian Adams into the life of Life Changers. A friend, a worshiper and strong prophetic voice, Julian manifests a theology and lifestyle of what a true son looks like. A ministry marked by prophetic accuracy and signs and wonders, this promises to be an inspiring, equipping and life-giving time as we prioritize the presence of God, His voice and in celebrating His faithfulness in giving us gifts. We are expectant and we recognize Julian as an Ephesians 4 type Prophet, but how can you best prepare your heart preceding the weekend and as well as during his visit in order to fully receive "a prophet's reward"?

1. Come with a faith-filled open heart, recognizing the office of a prophet which is more than a gift of prophecy we can all operate in.

2. Celebrate the corporate prophetic word for the church and do your part to see it fulfilled.

3. Rejoice with those who may receive personal words. If your heart leaps and witnesses with that word by faith, receive it for yourself.

4. Open your heart and mind to an impartation of the mantel Julian the prophet has so you can begin to walk in more of your prophetic gift, that is within each believer.

 

 

Matthew 10:41: “He who receives a prophet in {the} name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.”

 

 

Fathering Part One

“You have many teachers but not many fathers”

I was born in an obscure Zimbabwean clinic on the 2^nd of June 1988. A very normal day, except for the extraordinary number of times people asked my parents, “Does he come in blonde or is that red a permanent feature?” Tears flowed, champagne was popped, photo’s were taken of the new bundle of joy and I was taken home to meet my two older brothers. A normal day. From that day onwards though, my life has been anything but normal.

In a world where fathers have become a source of hilarity in countless sitcoms portrayals of bumbling, impotent and drop-out heads of homes (think Homer Simpson, Al Bundy etc) and where the reality around us in most homes in the western world is very similar (bar the hilarity), I have never lacked incredible father figures in my life. The trend where fathers influence on society have become as barren as the Protea’s world cup trophy cabinet due to multiple societal factors, I have seen my 24 (nearly 25 years) of existence play out a very different tune. Blessed with an amazing, stable home where mom and dad were both present, not just in body but emotionally, in friendship and most of all spiritually, the lens that I view the world and my heavenly father is a strongly positive one.

 

My dad will be the first to admit that he is not perfect, but he has given me an incredible example. Here are four great lessons I've picked up from him.

 

1.       He told me he loved me...often

-The most common phrase used by even good dads, is the one where they say, “ah, he knows I love him”. Don’t presume it is known, suck up your pride and say it. And say it again. And again.

2. He told my mom that he loved her...in front of me

- It was very evident that my brothers and I were my father’s priority, but only after his wife, our mom. Mom was my dad’s pride and joy. Loving notes left for her with pet-names inscribed on the top were attached to everything. And my dad honoured her with his words and physical affection often in front of us. No greater earthly model for what I pray I will do for my wife.

3. He was present

-My dad doesn’t do sports. He just doesn’t get them. And yet every Saturday since all 3 of his boys got to school going age, he was on the side of either a cricket field, a hockey pitch, or a tennis court cheering his three boys on in their various pursuits. Add to that the fact that we ate together around the dining room table as a family every night, as well as the countless hours dad invested in his boys doing projects, running through lines from school-plays, praying with us after teenage heartbreaks and just the moments of lying together on a couch watching TV and being in each others company. Dad took being present in our lives as utmost on his agenda.

4. He loved Jesus...visibly

- The faith my dad has is not a hidden, private one. It is one of bold proclamation, loud and demonstrative worship, family prayer and bible reading, extravagant generosity, an open home to the homeless and early mornings on his face in our lounge one on one with the Lover of his soul. And I was watching. Something of his radical devotion to Jesus has fuelled in me a wild nature where lavish worship on all fronts has become my language. This is his greatest gift to me. He didn’t force his religion onto his sons. He pointed to The Father. He showed us what intimacy looked like. And we were watching.

 

This list is not exhaustive. I could go on and on, but my tears of gratitude towards my heavenly Dad for giving me the privilege of having a dad in the calibre of Rowan Phillips have clouded my eyes now.

 

The world has many teachers, but it has very few fathers.

It's time we put our hands up and model something a little different.

The Adventure Continues

I lead a very privileged life. I’ve Just returned from a week up in Joburg with Junction Church where what was required of me was to lead worship and help minister with heroes of the faith Keir Tayler and Mike Hanchett, two men who have seen and done much over the last 30 years. 3 things that gripped me afresh this week are as follows:

1.       Testimony is the spirit of prophecy

-Hearing story after story in meetings and over coffees of incredible power encounters, supernatural phenomena and kingdom break out moment has re-awakened a passion to live in such a reality. Accounts of faith moves, declarations and adventures of obeying the voice of God has stirred me to venture out the boat in these realms more and more. Its part of my inheritance!

     2.       Kingdom friendships are priceless

- Getting to stay with couples from the church in their own homes is something I cherish. Getting to be a part of peoples lives in such close quarters gives you a chance to grow real, robust and enduring friendships. Early morning theological debates, late night ministry philosophy discussions and all the inbetween joking and laughing knits hearts like not much else. Our futures depend on these

      3.      God has undercover warriors that are about to break out

-Spending time with, praying for, eating lunch with, praying a bit more for, drinking coffee with and you guessed it, praying some more for a host of young people in their late teens and twenties revealed the incredible depth of resources that the Lord is preparing. In a world that is marked by superficiality, the genuine desire for both radical experience and strong wells of theology show that God is about to bring prominence to a young people who take the call of God seriously and yet also with a wild abandon.

So looking over my shoulder at these three learnings, I once gain commit to surrounding myself ongoingly with people who are further than me in their God adventures (I need to hear their stories of victories won and mountains conquered), with those who are peers (we need to hold each other unswervingly to the hope we profess) as well as the next generation pushing through (they need to see my life of struggles, wrestles and triumphs).

My future depends on it. Our futures depend on it.

Generation Unleashed

 

A dear friend of mine sent me a whatsapp video of his 18 month old daughter taking her first two clumsy, stumbling, and yet awe-inspiring steps on her own tonight. And as he followed that video up with a half laughing, half choked up phone call, I knew that this was a moment he and his wife would tuck deep into the memory bank of things they will never forget.

This past weekend I had the extraordinary privilege to be a part of a moment that resonated deep within me, and has quite possibly become one such marker in my life.
Five years ago I met a couple named Geoff and Jane Kirsten who quite literally birthed dreams and awakened wells in my heart through one very late night of conversation. Coffees were drunk, my mind raced and plans and schemes formed as the embers of the dreamer inside of me were breathed upon.

Five years on, we met up again, four days ago, in a parking lot in Joburg as they squashed me into the front seat of their car bound for a 3 day student camp (a group called Satellite from 3CI) in the bush. Things have changed. I am no longer a skinny, wide eyed, awkward Durban teenager...I am now a skinny, wide-eyed, awkward, Cape Tonian pastor and they have blossomed into parents with wild stories of victories and scars. But as we drove and chatted something burned within me again. A sense of something new. As Chris Wienand says, there was a strange sense of electricity in the air, and the three of us could almost touch it!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday followed as a group of +-150 Pretoria based students and one red-haired, red-faced preacher felt a seizmic shift in our hearts and in our destinies. The stuffy, over-bearing, stiff and powerless imposter of religion was pushed aside as the cosmic, wild and joy-filled Gospel of Christ cut a clear and decisive picture and reality in the deep recesses of our souls and minds. Shallow moments of religious nods and hat-tippings were discarded with abandon for a life of diving again and again into the wild, unpredictable but all satisfying depths of His goodness. Salvations, baptisms, tears, repentance, joy, unhindered worship were the order of the weekend as the Spirit of God shook the bottle and began to loosen the top.

What happens next keeps me awake tonight. Just like 5 years ago, my heart is dripping with anticipation and unbridled excitement. Is it possible that I get to live THIS life?
 I feel like a teenager before a big date.

Or a parent watching breathless as their child takes her first few steps...

A generation is about to be unleashed.

IMMERSED part two

 

Last weekend saw us preach our second installment in our new series "IMMERSED", where we are exploring the fundamental doctrines of baptism that we find in scripture. Week one saw us inviting our church to wade deeper into the depths of real community life as we unpacked what it meant to be immersed into the body of Christ. In week two we painted a compelling and strong case why baptism by full immersion in water is so vitally important for us individually, corporately and for the world, so much so that we abandon the previously held religious connotations and mindsets that come with it and rather embrace the life changing power of obedience that leaps from faith.

The response to the Word of God being preached uncompromisingly was staggering. Multiple first time commitments to Christ in both meetings, mothers who attended the morning going home and bringing the rest of her family in the evening (and the family responding to the Gospel) and a queue of people signing up to publicly declare their fully immersed faith by being baptized this coming Sunday.

 It was a humdinger of a day!

And so tomorrow our journey continues as we seek to dive in deeper into the wild adventure of faith that we have been called to. Our church floor will be soaked no doubt, but our prayer is that that won't be the only thing completely drenched. The thing our city needs most is not more dry religion. It needs wet, wild and alive Sons and Daughters who have fully leapt into the ocean of adventure, forsaking the safety of the shallow-end, and pushed out into being immersed in the pursuit of Christ, community and the mission.

How to raise a ginger in an anti-red world

 

We live in a dull, banal, colourless world where blondes and brunettes have become the toast of society, the A-list of hair-colours and where red-heads have been banished to nothing more than unimaginative punch-lines for immature jokes. But do not despair, we will see a brighter day (tainted with a ginger hue), where the word “ginger” and “ranger” will be something to be proud of, something  to be boasted about and gloried in. And we need to be ready for this day of nearing revolution. So parents of new born babes laden with flames of glory on their tiny heads, stand up tall and take heed of my top 10 list on how to raise a ginger:

 

10. Along with nappies, Factor 50 sun-cream is the next most vital commodity to be stocked up on

9. South Park and its “Gingers have no soul” mantra must be banned from your series collection

8. Never confuse freckles with pimples

7. On the line of freckles, never tell the children’s classic “How the Leopard got it’s spots”...it will lead to many an awkward question

6. Get rid of all wall-colours that are of the bone, ivory, white, off-white, egg-shell variety...red-head children’s skin tones often get lost with this type of palate

5. Never get angry or frustrated at a red traffic light as this can breed insecurity in your child

4. In the same vein, red cards in rugby and soccer matches are never to be booed or jeered.

3. When they become teenagers, make sure they shave regularly as red stubble can appear as dirt from a distance, causing your child to appear unwashed. (ignore if your ginger is a girl)

2. Live in the confidence that for all the jokes that come their way, if they grow up in a church the amount of prophetic words that come their way will more than make up for it...red-heads are easy prey for visiting prophetic ministries.

1. Did I mention to buy lots of suncream?

 

IMMERSED part one

 

We've started an exciting four week journey as a church community with our new series, "IMMERSED". Over four consecutive Sundays, we are inviting our church to explore four fundamental and yet revolutionary doctrines surrounding the baptisms we find in scripture:
The baptism into the body of Christ, baptism in water, baptism in the Holy Spirit and the often ignored baptism of suffering.
Hebrews.6 speaks of these "baptisms" as elementary teachings and yet the vast majority of christendom as we know it are only ankle deep in their understanding and application of these truths.

We believe that God is taking us deeper as a people, as we get ready to go wider in our efforts of discipling our city and the nations. Our prayer for this series is that we would dive into the greater depths of community, discipleship and mission that scripture and the Spirit are calling us into.

 

If you'd like to join us on this life changing journey, add us on twitter, read our blogs, study the scriptures and join us on Sundays 9AM or 6PM. Alternatively, you can check out our website where all this content will be readily available.

www.lifechangers.org.za