February 2022
The Lord has revealed prophetically that “It’s going to be the 1970’s again”. The Lord poured out His Spirit in such a mighty way that when so many were saved there was no building large enough that could contain everyone. They began gathering together in their homes. It’s happening again today! With this being said, people have found themselves getting caught up in the conversation of it being a “house church”. The truth of the matter is, it’s not a house church, it’s simply the Church, God’s people, gathering in a house. As Dale Partridge, President of Relearn.org explains, “A biblical house church is simply a biblical church in a house.” In America, we find ourselves being focused on size, but when we look at Israel, there is a profound difference in understanding what is considered normal size. When one thinks of a home, they might have a picture in their mind of a 2,500 sq. ft. home with multiple floors. This is an American mindset that doesn’t always apply to the rest of the world. When Jesus healed the paralytic, who was lowered down through the roof, as wonderfully portrayed through The Chosen, we get a grasp of what a “normal” home appeared to be, and still are to this day.
When speaking to William F. Buckley, the late Billy Graham shared his perspective of how he believes the Church is going to gather in much smaller gatherings than how they presently were, that they would gather in their homes. When emphasizing his point, Graham recalls a recent crusade that was made up of 5,000 different church gatherings. It’s in these small gatherings that the Church must embrace to rise above the calamities that we are facing today. “The Christians are going to have to get back to the early Church of realizing that we’re living in a hostile secularism and paganism that has enveloped our country, and that we’re going to have to come to small groups and live dedicated, disciplined lives that we might even suffer persecution.” Francis Chan further echoes the conversation by talking about the simplicity of making disciples and shepherding a gathering of 15-20 people in our own personal homes versus the massive operations in large buildings we see today. We cannot become so focused on man’s buildings that we lose sight of what is God’s building; His people; the Church.
Just because we have turned Christianity into an “enterprise” as John Fenn describes, that doesn’t mean that is what God originally designed it to be when He birthed the Church. God is not into religion. He is into family and relationships. Family is His idea. God wants His Church now, more than ever, we must begin to re-think how we perceive Church to be, and get back to simply relating to one another as family, in Christ.
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TGLS 02-22-22
Greg is a wonderfully blessed man and he is tremendously grateful for his children and his grandchildren. In this humor moment, Greg recalls a joyful moment of sitting with his youngest grandchild, Rayna. In this most precious voices, Rayna asks Greg for a sucker. He asked her where the suckers are, and she quickly pointed towards grandma’s office. Greg directed her to tell her to go ask grandma for a sucker. After thinking about the directions for a moment, she went where the suckers were. A few moments later she came back, with no sucker. You won’t believe what she said in response to Greg after returning back to his lap.
In this hilarious humor moment, Greg recalls how children can often come up with the most brilliant ideas to solve their problems. His cousins, who are twins, once walked their neighborhood asking their neighbors for some food. Interestingly enough, they didn’t carry out their plan as you would expect. Upon approaching one door, they asked for some bread. At the next, they asked for some mayonnaise; and the third, they asked for bologna. As fate would have it, the hearts of their neighbors were touched and provided the requested food for these hungry children. Of course, when their mother found out, she wasn’t happy when the neighbors were calling asking if everything was alright and if the family needed any food or help in providing for their family.
You would think with all the things happening in the world today, people would not be entertaining themselves with games? Who knew the show was about to start in the middle of a funny game of cards? I guess not. Enjoy this humorous moment
1970’s Again? Did It Get That Bad Then? Is It That Bad Now? The Jesus Revolution: Part 13
The Lord revealed prophetically that “It’s going to be the 1970’s again. Horrific tragedies were in the continual headlines during the 1970’s, and crime was rampant across cities in America. Many people were struggling to live and make ends meet. People were doing all that they could to survive each passing day. During that timeframe, New York City was experiencing the highest murder rate in the country. Was it really that bad? People were living in fear of their lives on a daily basis. When looking back at an interview to a group of a young woman in New York City, one woman described her life as, “If you’re just into the city and you don’t know what the city is about, you might as well forget it. Because, you know, in a couple of months you’re either going to be killing by somebody or somebody is going to be killing you.” That’s a tragedy. This is how people were living their lives when they got powerfully saved and radically transformed by the power of the Holy Spirt in the Jesus Movement of the 1970’s.
Fast forward to today, and similar experiences are being witnessed on today’s streets. We can look at major metropolitan areas, such as San Francisco, and Los Angeles, and see the same things happening that took place 50 years ago. You may be experiencing difficult times of increasing pressure and a weight in your daily life that seems to be getting heavier and heavier. The answer is not moving to a different city, getting a new relationship, or getting a different job. The answer is crying out to Jesus to come into your life and become your Lord and Savior! These are the moments that cause people to cry out to God. What is deeply encouraging to remember is that these are the moments when God does His best work. The Lord revealed to John Paul Jackson that things will continue to get darker and darker until we cry out to the Lord. When you hear people proclaiming that it can’t get any worse than it is right now, God is about to pour out His Spirit in a mighty and awesome way! God is not limited to the many plans of men scheming and planning to distract you with the onslaught of media. The Lord Jesus is going to invade all of this with His glory! Get Ready!
TGLS Descriptions 02-15-22
HUMOR: Funniest Thing Happened in the Office, My Son Got Drafted in the Military…He Thought
For all of those who have had the joy and privilege of raising children, you know that eventually they grow up to be teenagers. As all teenagers do, they have a tendency to have a rebellious stage. As Greg recalls, he remembers the season of his own son going through this stage and how he experienced a hilarious moment that completely caught his son by surprise. The best way to enjoy a good deep-hearted laugh at the expense of your children is to write a professional-looking letter addressed to your teenager. And the letter is from the Department of Defense, advising them of their requirement to report immediately for service in the Unites States Armed Forces since they have been drafted to serve in Active-Duty Military Service: Effective Immediately! As a parent, there needs to be some rewards. Right? Enjoy this hilarious parenting moment as Greg recalls this vivid memory for all to enjoy.
We can all relate to that moment of having to adjust to the sudden reality of finding ourselves working in a new environment, especially in professional meetings. In this changing environment, there are new technologies and developments that we all learned. Primarily: Zoom Meetings. Greg recalls his hilarious memory of a gathering of pastors, led by Ron Lentine meeting Together in Unity regarding what the Lord was doing in their city. This meeting was on Facebook and Greg suddenly realized it was live! As different people were sharing, he was so encouraged by what they were saying, he was raising his hands praising the Lord in excitement, or at least so he thought. He was clicking on the emoji to raise his hand, what he didn’t know was that this was the emoji that signified, “I HAVE A QUESTION. PICK ME! PICK ME!” At that moment it was humbling, but hilariously Greg looks back full of laughter at this moment.
TGLS Descriptions 02-15-22
One of the simple beauties in life is being able to experience your day-to-day life with those around you, your neighbors. Some experiences are better than others, and some, not so much. Greg recalls one hilarious moment when his neighbor angrily banged on his front door with an urgent matter that needed to be brought to his attention at once! Doing all that he could to diffuse the situation, he was eager to help and find out what was wrong that had caused his neighbor to be so angry. ‘YOUR CAT ATE MY BIRD!” Obviously there had been some type of mistake. His neighbor was adamant and furious that he would just let his cat run freely in the neighborhood. To which, Greg responded by telling her that the cat was his daughter’s cat. You won’t believe what Greg found to be staring at him from across the street of his neighbor’s home. THE CAT HAD HER BIRD IN ITS MOUTH! What was Greg supposed to do? That’s not MY CAT! THAT’S MY DAUGHTER’S CAT!
It was such a wonderful day when the Church came together to help a young woman, Brianna, who had just purchased a new home. It is a beautiful 1970’s home, complete with a pink tiled bathroom and avocado green toilet. Which is why many were gathered in support to help her on demolition day. As many came equipped with crowbars in hand, tile and sheet rock was being removed. Greg even found out that he didn’t have to go to the gym anymore, he could just spend his days repeatedly bending over to remove hardwood flooring. It was the most rewarding and exhausting work he’s ever done. Who needs a gym when you have hardwood floors that need to be removed? At least that’s what Greg was asking. We’ll see if he still feels the same way tomorrow morning.
TGLS 020822
The Lord has prophetically revealed that “It’s going to be the 1970’s again”. This was the decade when God mightily poured out His Spirit in America, that is known today as The Jesus Movement! People were coming to Christ in the crowds hundreds at a time. One would think that people were highly educated and experienced in religion before this moment took an entire nation by surprise. But, this was hardly the case. One man shared from his own story that he was a surfer at the beach one day, but the next he felt the calling of the Lord upon him to share the Gospel. “It just sort of came supernaturally, but just naturally developed. Next thing you know, you got people around you. They’re asking you Bible questions, you’re opening your Bible, you’re teaching them and the crowd keeps growing. Low and behold, suddenly you have a Church.” This is such a freeing and empowering perspective to have and be reminded of that we don’t need a theological education to be hungry for the Lord and willing for Him to move through our lives. When Jesus decided to choose His disciples, He didn’t go to the Jewish temples looking for men studying prophecy. He went and chose simple fisherman. God is totally okay with us having the understanding that we have nothing to bring to Him and that we are completely dependent upon Him. Where we get into trouble is when we see the Lord begin to do great and mighty things in our lives, but then begin to rest on those experiences, and not the Lord Himself who is the One that is carrying out those experiences through our lives.
In the 1970’s, so many people were hungry for the Lord. They were searching, they just didn’t know it. The world presented the answer as a counterfeit solution through sex, drugs, and relationships. Even after all the searching, people still weren’t satisfied until they encountered the One who is Love. As David Rosales, Pastor of Cavalry Chapel Chino Valley shares what he learned in the hippie movement, “it taught me things like community, and sharing, and love, and the value of peace. It was all a sham. It was all pretend. None of it was real.” He continues, “it was a close counterfeit in many ways. But, there’s no holiness. There’s no genuine love for one another.” So many people are looking for that genuine encounter of love and authentic relationships. They may be looking for that in a sports team, or in a military unit, but outside of Jesus, it falls short.
There was a lot of craziness that was going on in the 1970’s, and we can be encouraged by that because the Lord moved mightily in spite of the tragic happenings taking place in the 1970’s. God was responding to a people who were desperate and crying out for Him. There is a similar shaking that is taking place in America today. There are similar crises happening in the headlines across our nation. You can’t say that God can’t turn these events around. What is God looking for? He is listening for that desperate cry of His people. That bitter cry of humility and brokenness from a people who understand that their only hope is in the Heavenly Father who is above all things in this Earth. We can stop the darkness that is sweeping across the land, if we will cry out to Him. This is the very essence of 2 Chronicles 7:13-15, “When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.” God is not addressing the world in this passage. He is speaking to the Church, those who are His people. We must separate ourselves from those close relationships with sin. Those “sin friends” in our lives. Not people. Sin. What is separating us from God Himself? That is what we must distance ourselves from. God is not waiting for us to grumble and complain. This is what the Israelites did in the desert. Their reward was a longer journey. God is wanting for us to cry out to Him. It will only get darker and darker until we cry out to Him.
TGLS 020822