Fire In My Bones

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It’s time to check your posture: Are your hands in the
air? True worship requires surrender.

Christians used
to talk a lot about surrender. They called it the consecrated life, and they
sang about it in hymns such as “I Surrender All,” “Have Thine Own Way” or
“Wherever He Leads, I’ll Go.” These songs fueled the missionary movements of
the past.

Today? Not so
much.

How one brave Nigerian is risking his life to win militants and terrorists to Christ.

Kelechi Okengwu has taught me to face my fears.

This 32-year-old Nigerian evangelist will probably never star in a movie or be featured on the evening news. But he has been a younger role model for me since I met him seven years ago.

Converted to Christ at 21, Kelechi has spent the past decade reaching dangerous militants who are spreading violence on Nigeria’s university campuses. Through his Gospel Mania Project, the young preacher shares his faith with leaders of The Black Axe, Brotherhood of the Black Brigade, The Big Eye, The Pyrates, the Buccaneers and The Mafia—clandestine groups that mix African occultism with drugs and violence to spread fear and political instability throughout the country.

An Iranian evangelist says a spiritual awakening of
unprecedented magnitude is occurring behind the scenes in a nation known for
its terrorism.

Most Americans have put Iran on a blacklist. We’re concerned about Shiite militants who spread terrorism around the world, we don’t trust Iran’s nuclear weapons plans and we can’t stomach Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s human rights record or his maniac ways.

But my friend
Lazarus Yeghnazar, an Iranian evangelist based in England, hopes you will
develop some compassion for this part of the world. Most of us associate the
Bible with Israel, but did you know that Esther, Daniel, Nehemiah, Ezra and
Habakkuk all walked on Persian land that is now called Iran? In fact, the tombs
of Esther, Daniel, Habakkuk, Cyrus and Darius are in Iran.

For three years I’ve wanted to gather a group of friends for a time of encouragement and personal ministry. I…

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Pentecost is
Sunday, May 23. Here are four reasons we should celebrate the Spirit’s
outpouring.

I’ve often
wondered why we tend to ignore the historic events of Acts 2. We celebrate
Christmas for weeks, and we pack as many people as possible into our churches
on Easter Sunday. But
in our smug evangelical subculture, Pentecost is just an add-on, if it’s
noticed at all. We can take it or leave it.

Many
pastors will make no mention of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost Sunday, May 23.

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Many people today feel overwhelmed by negative
circumstances. But you can be sure the Lord has an amazing plan to carry you
through.

Long ago God promised He would send the Messiah
through the lineage of King David. Yet there was a time in Judah’s history when
the royal seed was almost snuffed out.

It happened during the oppressive reign of Queen
Athaliah, a selfish woman who was so power-hungry that she killed her own
grandchildren in an attempt to secure her position. The Bible says in 2 Kings
11:1-3:

“When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her
son was dead, she rose and destroyed all the royal offspring. But Jehosheba,
the daughter of King Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah
and stole him from among the king’s sons who were being put to death, and
placed him and his nurse in the bedroom. So they hid from Athaliah, and he was
not put to death. So he was hidden with her in the house of the Lord six years,
while Athaliah was reigning in the land (NASB).”

Many Christians who defend biblical morality can sound
hateful when it comes to immigration policy. What happened to loving our
neighbor?

A few years ago I
attended my oldest daughter’s college graduation ceremony in north Georgia. The
school had invited a respected state legislator to address the students—a woman
known for her conservative Christian values. I enjoyed some of her remarks,
until she suddenly veered onto the subject of immigration policy.

This lady
launched into a blistering tirade against illegal immigrants and blamed them
for bringing danger, drugs and disease into the United States. An icy chill
went through the audience and students began to fidget nervously with their
graduation caps. I was embarrassed.

We charismatics celebrate the Holy Spirit, yet our theology of the Spirit is often off balance. Two popular charismatic speakers…

In February I spoke to a group of ministry leaders associated with a particular denomination in South Carolina. They are…

After spending some time last week with Bob Hartman, founder of Petra, my hat is off to a true musical pioneer.

Last week while I
was preaching at Cumberland Worship Center, a charismatic congregation in
Crossville, Tenn., the pastor invited a musician to the stage to play during
the offering. I didn’t think anything about this performance at first, until a
friend reminded me that the unassuming guy with the gray beard was Bob Hartman,
founder of the Christian rock group Petra.

There’s a rock
star in the house!

At the Empowered 21 Conference last week in Tulsa,
thousands of people celebrated the renewal of a movement.

At
a time when many Christian conferences are suffering from sluggish attendance,
at least 10,000 people jammed into the Mabee Center on the Oral Roberts
University (ORU) campus last week to honor the pioneers of the Pentecostal
movement and to pass the torch of Holy Spirit renewal on to the younger
generation.

The
Empowered 21 event, nicknamed E21, was a bold attempt to bring every stream of
the charismatic and Pentecostal movements together under one huge roof. When I
arrived on Wednesday night for a welcome dinner, I met leaders from the Assemblies
of God, Church of God in Christ, Foursquare Church, Pentecostal Holiness,
Church of God of Prophecy, Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) and even the United
Pentecostal Church International—plus directors of such varied ministries as
Teen Mania, Every Home for Christ, International House of Prayer and Convoy of
Hope. We even had Matteo Calisi, an Italian man who gives leadership to
thousands of charismatic Catholics.