Training at West Mostar Church

Monday, March 15, 2010

Today went quickly. We went to the West Mostar Church in the morning where Anita trained the musicians and worship leaders in the church. Her training was skillful and impacting. After inquiring of the people that came about their level of knowledge and experience, she decided to move it up to the advanced level and cover some complex topics.

She took them all through scripture tying together many concepts about the 24×7 worship strategy King David set up in the tabernacle with a staff of over 8,000 fulltime paid musicians and worship to minister to the Lord and provide a dwelling place for the Ark of the Covenant. She discussed how scripture says that God will rebuild the Tabernacle of David in the last days, and we are seeing this movement happen in every nation of the Earth right now. God instructed King David how to combine prayer and worship and musical instruments and the roles of the priests before the Ark.

Anita Teaching Worship Leaders

I got a lot out of her teaching myself. I took a few pages of notes not only about what she was teaching but I also got additional revelation and things it stirred up in me. It was like heaven opened up for me and I got a download of how several things tie together about descriptions of what happens around God’s throne room and God’s purposes on the Earth for prayer and worship. I typed a page of notes of additional things I wanted to teach on in the evening class to tie in with Anita’s teachings.

We didn’t get back to the school until mid-afternoon. We connected with Becky to share how it went and plan for the evening. Then, we had about an hour to rest before we needed to get ready for the evening session. Becky decided to join us for the evening training and practicum session.

Anita Teaching Worship Leaders

This time went well too. Anita lead some opening worship, then I taught for about 15 minutes and then Becky taught for about 10. Anita then demonstrated many of the concepts of how to get the prayers, Bible readers and worshippers all on the same page singing, praying and worshipping out of the same scripture passages. It was apparent that the worship team really absorbed the teachings from the morning session. They hit the ground running and never looked back. Becky and I had planned on leading in some of the prayer and scripture readings but the Bosnians really ran with it and we never needed to add anything.

Their worship team was really gifted. They had a missionary couple from the U.K. on the team that plays the electric guitar and bass. Budo, a worship leader and skilled drummer from here in Mostar, brought a lot of skill and passion to the worship team. Several of the church members came up to the microphones and prayed during the 2-3 hour session. There were a lot of excited people chatting with us after it was over. We spent a lot of time encouraging them to continue exploring this area as it helps change the spiritual atmosphere over dark places.

John Teaching at West Mostar Church

We got back to the school around 8pm. We stopped by the neighborhood store and got some bread and meat to make sandwiches. We sat in the kitchen downstairs and ate and chatted with several of the students who we there. Our old friend Bobo came in and we got a chance to visit with him for a while. He was looking good and it was great to reconnect with him. We got to chat with some other precious friends Remi and Dehanah from Breza who were also taking classes here in the training school this week.

We are pretty wiped out and are going to get to bed extra early tonight. Tomorrow, we lead a prayer meeting in the early evening at the West Mostar church and then we are speaking at a conversational English language class. Anita will be baking a TX sheet cake in the kitchen here for the English class to try something from TX. It won’t be nearly as long of a day as today was. I’m hoping we can get some laundry done as I’ve been in the same pair of pants since leaving Houston.

Quick Update

Monday Morning – March 15, 2010

Just a quick update. I slept really well last night but Anita didn’t (trading our usual roles). I awoke several times in the night to find her awake, including typing her thought on the laptop in the middle of the night. She studied her teaching notes right up until time for sleep and then she just couldn’t manage to turn it off. I’d encourage anyone reading this to pray for her strength today. Thanks!

I had numerous vivid dreams in the night all having to do with guilt and shame. I shared this with Anita first thing this morning and she also wondered if they were from the Lord giving some insight into breakthrough. So, we are praying for discernment whether we need to adjust any of our messages on that basis.

We are teaching a lot about prayer and worship this week. Biblical prayer and worship are both centered around God. We are training them how to shift from self-centered prayer and worship to the Biblical model. Shame and guilt can definitely interfere with praying and worship as God intends. Since God gave dominion over the Earth to Adam and Eve in the garden, everything He does on the Earth He does through mankind and only by mankind agreeing with what He wants to do on the Earth. So, God doesn’t act on the Earth unless people come into agreement with His purpose and plans. So, prayer is the act of surrendering our wills, agendas and ways and aligning ourselves with God’s will so that His dominion can reign in the Earth. In other words, prayer is the process of asking God to do what He wants to do on the Earth. Prayer is asking God what He wants to do on the Earth and then agreeing with Him to enable Him to act and fulfill His purposes on the Earth.

So, we focus a lot of our training on how to pray scripture and how to worship out of scripture. Since we know that God has declared His will and purposes in scripture, we pray what He has already declared to be on His heart for people – such as love, repentance, justice, truth, etc. We particularly pray the prayers the apostles prayed and those Jesus prayed. We sing them too in worship. This combination of focusing prayer and worship around what God says is true and what God declares is on His heart and asking HIm to do those things, create a powerful combination to release His power to transform lives on the Earth. This is especially true in a nation where other people are agressively praying in agreement with other forces and declaring that those things be done on the Earth.

It is difficult to focus on God and partnering with Him to manifest His purposes on the Earth when you are distracted by guilt and shame. So, perhaps this is something the Lord is wanting us to teach on as part of our training this week. We pray for wisdom and discernment. All four of us on our team are teaching today so we would appreciate any prayers for such things today.

Well, we are heading downstairs to start our days and may not be back until late tonight. Blessings to all. If you are reading this, would you mind leaving a comment by clicking on the link under the title of this post so we know? Thanks and blessings, John