Apostle David Johndrow - Fire And Grace

1 John 2:27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit - just as it has taught you, remain in him. NIV  My good friend Pastor Steve held a series of meetings with a minister by the name of Larry Lambert. I attended all of them as a participant. I didn’t really like the pastor/minister title/role thing at all. I just loved Jesus and desired to do whatever He asked me to do. I didn't need a title. I really enjoyed the meetings with Larry. His meetings were exciting - a little crazy might be a better description! Signs and wonders began to manifest in various ways. At one, we could smell Easter lilies and frankincense. Later on, people were laughing and rolling on the floor, others were just laying in the presence of God. It was exciting, deep, healing, and magnificent all at the same time. Larry also had a great sense of humor ...

This past week I was in London, Ontario. I had a chance to minister at Life International Church with my friend Dan Roberts, as well as a attend a conference at Impact Church . My family heritage on my father's side is Canadian, so I feel some sort of connection when I am there. For me it was another short-term mission trip. An amazing one. I suppose that everyone has a definition of what a mission is. For me, it when you go somewhere to love others with your gifts and the primary focus is ministry. The work of the Kingdom takes on many forms as there are varying types of God-given natural and supernatural gifts. This trip was the result of meeting a Canadian in California last fall. Dan came to visit us here in Boston in February (more on that HERE ). We have a number of things in common, but who knows if we'd be friends without Christ? I am glad that God puts me...

I am sitting here in my office, and not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse, or the noisy chihuahuas; not even the 7-year-old. In my spirit I am as excited as a kid on Christmas eve. I don't even know what God is doing quite yet (I usually get the memo about the time it is happening). So what is going on? Well, the Spirit of God is beginning to move in our region. Some of the things that I have brooded over, prayed about, and had vision for are on the precipice. How do I know? Well, my spirit is raging. Emotionally  life is just the same old, same old.I am working part time, exercising and recovering from a heart trauma. It it has taken a physical and financial toll, but the Kingdom of God is where I live. There is a saying: some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good, others are so earthly minded that they are no heavenly good. it is meant to point out the balance between living here, and living t...

Today I am taking a few minutes off from working; that's right, I am back to to work. It has been a tough two days. I was accustom to taking an afternoon nap, or at least a rest. Instead of plying myself with caffeine, I am going cold turkey. The good news is that I am working from home and get to skip 2 hours of insanity on the Massachusetts Turnpike each day. But I am tired, really tired at the end of the day. Within 2 hours of starting work, I seem to have used up a lot of my creative energy - then I fake it 'til I make the rest of the time. It's not a very spiritual message, but I must say that I have discovered my limitations quickly. I am still not back to where I once was, and truthfully I wonder if I ever will be. I will say that I have been pushing the exercise, running three times a week about two and half miles. That is where I feel the most normal. In spite of all that, the cardiologist says that my heart is back to 100%. That's a miracle seeing as 1/...

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, used to say "everyone gets to play." What he meant was that the leadership wasn't going to be doing all the ministry. And that is a good thing because, in most denominations, the pastoral and overseeing authorities were really separated from the laity. They were the paid "holy men," often doing all the praying, all the teaching and all the administration and counseling too. Bigger churches just had more paid holy men to carry out the so called ministry of the church. When I was doing missions in Brazil, I found it really difficult to just be a regular guy, trying to do what I saw the Father doing. Everyone wanted to address me with some sort of title -- out respect for sure -- but I wasn't ordained at the time. The separation between me and them was perceived. Sure, I studied the Bible in a formal school... but really, who gives a flying epistle? Paul the apostle was a very well educated Jew, but he didn't...

Well it's Monday, and I had a pretty amazing weekend. I went out to a very nice breakfast with my wife and little one on Saturday. I had a chance to hang out with a friend while we worked on my PC later in the day. It is all set up for recording now. And I recorded a new song! Sunday I went to church and enjoyed the message and the ministry. Each week we seem to make some real progress in terms of using our gifts. We had a few folks really turn their lives around in the past few weeks! My biggest concern is about those that are just getting their life in order and need spiritual parents. Friday was the last class at the 5-Fold School of Ministry and we had almost 30 plus those watching online. I really enjoyed teaching about the apostle, because it is such an important function in the church. I had a lot of challenging questions, yet I felt comfortable with my answers. Here is one of them: What would you call a person that only designs ministries based...

I have been part of a discussion that asked this question:  Spiritual Maturity - why wouldn't Christian leadership want their people to achieve it? Of course most of the respondents had a bone to pick with pastors that were prideful, greedy, controlling, afraid of folks with strong gifting and things like that. All of which are problems in the church. I have a different view. It appears that the consensus is that somehow leadership likes to keep folks uneducated. I agree, there are lot of pastors that probably like control, the limelight, and are wounded; finding a false sense of value in their job. The real question for me, is: "How did we get here?" If you think about it, church structure is pretty much a business model in most countries - especially in America. The pastor is the CEO of his church, compete with salary and perks. He may surround himself with a few elders to support him. Much like the president's cabinet. They are not elected,...

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, used to say "everyone gets to play." What he meant was that the leadership wasn't going to be doing all the ministry. And that is a good thing because, in most denominations, the pastoral and overseeing authorities were really separated from the laity. They were the paid "holy men," often doing all the praying, all the teaching and all the administration and counseling too. Bigger churches just had more paid holy men to carry out the so called ministry of the church. When I was doing missions in Brazil , I found it really difficult to just be a regular guy, trying to do what I saw the Father doing. Everyone wanted to address me with some sort of title -- out respect for sure -- but I wasn't ordained at the time. The separation between me and them was perceived. Sure, I studied the Bible in a formal school... but really, who gives a flying epistle? Paul the apostle was a very well educated Jew, but he didn't...

I was thinking over life now that a couple of major projects are completed at work, the daughters three are enrolled in school, Yaris 3 is almost repaired and the sun has returned after a Nor' Easter dumped as much as 10 inches of rain on us in 4 days. I thank God is wasn't snow. Today it's St. Patrick's Day. I talked to Mary Anne about living a simple life on a farm somewhere a lot warmer than Boston . We've laid out a retirement plan that hopefully includes not working. ;o) There isn't much holding us here and the cost of living is just plain stupid. Some days I feel trapped by the rats, and occasionally I get a few days off an run one of them over. Rick Warren spent a lot of time writing and teaching on the Purpose Driven Life . I was reviewing those purposes listed below. I am not a huge fan of Warren since his flip-flop on Prop 8 in CA and I find his stuff sort of elementary. It is however; engaging for the average American trying to eek out a Christian...

-7 Missed Opportunities and Overlooked Treasures - I find it interesting that the church often says one thing, and does another. Quite a few years ago John Wimber discovered that evangelical churches claimed that bringing folks to salvation in Jesus was there main mission. He then asked the question, how's business? The truth was that most churches claiming to be evangelical were in fact, not seeing regular salvations! When John looked closely at what churches were spending time and money doing, salvation was often near the bottom of the list. For a church to be effective, it needs godly vision, solid priorities and dedicated leaders. Too often the church can get so filled up with programs that it can easily miss what God wants to do. Every church needs to be part of the local community. Churches are not meant to cloister the saints in some sort of secret society. Every community has needs. Within those needs are opportunities for the church to make an impact for the Kingdom. Firs...

There was a discussion on Facebook today about how some people think Christians are "whack jobs." Regardless, God is still great. I don't really know much about beer. I haven't had one in just about 30 years. There are a lot of folks that consider themselves to be Christian. Some because they do good, and others because they have faith in God or are born again-- and others because they grew up in a Christian denomination. Far be it from me to decide who is in, and who is out. Some say we'll be surprised at who is going to be there, and others say who think they are in will be surprised when they are rejected at the Pearly Gates. Hmmm... But let's say you are a real Christian who is feeling passionate about doing something for God. You know something beyond throwing a few bucks in the offering plate and trying to be a good person. The church calls it service or ministry, which could include such things as: reading scriptures on Sunday morning, planning a harves...

Christians are an interesting group of folks. When they think of ministry, they are more likely to think of it as an occupation or vocation -- plumber, pastor, or car thief. As believers we often assume that because many ministers go to school for a masters degree in divinity - M-Div in the business, that they have lots of answers for us in negotiating the treacherously narrow path known as the will of God. This is not always the case. In truth, when we look at the early church, we do not see this type of education in any of the apostles but Paul. As a Pharisee he was the only one that was formally educated in the scriptures. I doubt that he took homiletics, pastoral counseling or classes on exegetic principals. And like any human, before he had an experience with a living God, he was legalistic about the Scriptures even using them to decree death - sound familiar? After the experience on the road to Damascus, Paul became revelatory - the latter being of God. The scriptures could not ...

John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard movement, used to say "everyone gets to play." What he meant was that the leadership wasn't going to be doing all the ministry. And that is a good thing because, in most denominations, the pastoral and overseeing authorities were really separated from the laity. They were the paid "holy men," often doing all the praying, all the teaching and all the administration and counseling too. Bigger churches just had more paid holy men to carry out the so called ministry of the church. When I was doing missions in Brazil, I found it really difficult to just be a regular guy, trying to do what I saw the Father doing. Everyone wanted to address me with some sort of title -- out respect for sure -- but I wasn't ordained at the time. The separation between me and them was perceived. Sure, I studied the Bible in a formal school... but really, who gives a flying epistle? Paul the apostle was a very well educated Jew, but he didn't...

Have you ever wondered what it was really like for the disciples to follow Jesus? Think about it, you leave your job, you drop everything, and go into full-time ministry. Most people I know, can't just leave their job and house and go into ministry. I also hate to call it ministry, because they actually became friends of Jesus; even Judas. Real ministry flows out of relationship. Jesus' insight, genuineness, warmth, and His can't-quite-put-my-finger-on-it qualities were some how very attractive. Of course, now we know why, but the disciples, they didn't. They had some sort of religious notion that there would be a messiah, a king greater than David-- one that would rule and reign in Israel, defeating all their foes. Which is true, but the way that God carried it out, well it wasn't what they thought-- not even close. How about you, do you have some sort of religious notion about church, about Jesus? I could write a hundred things about being religious, and I hav...

So, you want to serve Jesus? There are some things that you should know before you get in, or maybe understand now that things are not going quite the way you envisioned. We have an adversary, that is the devil seeking to devour us. We also struggle with our flesh and our sin nature, along with the damage that has come to us from our sin, and the sin of others against us. Even Paul suffered as he partnered with God to take the kingdom back; buffeted by the devil. In Luke 22:31,32, Jesus warned Peter that Satan would sift him like wheat. But, Jesus had prayed for Peter; and Peter would be restored to be able to strengthen his brothers. Though Satan would try, he didn't destroy Peter's destiny. Maybe you just want a peaceful existence and do what you can at your local church to serve others, but when you got saved you joined an army; the army of God. Regardless of whether you chose to engage or not, here are your marching orders. Matthew 11:12 From the days...