There is a supernatural strengthening to the people of the final generation that is different than any other generation before. I see the dots but don’t quite have the language to connect them, so bare with me as I fumble through this, and hopefully we’ll all end up on the same page by the end.

Theory: There is an element to leadership that supersedes natural understanding and even physical capacity requiring supernatural strengthening.

Foundation 1: Leadership at the end of the age will be dependent upon friendship and intimacy with God. (Matthew 25:1-13)
First of all, if God is truly omniscient – and He is – then He surely doesn’t need our advice, opinions. And secondly, if God is truly omnipotent – and He is that as well – then He doesn’t need our help. So why then does He use us? Simple. Because he wants to. He made the rules and decided He likes us and enjoys partnering with us.

So when God is looking for leaders, what is He looking for? He’s looking for friends. People who’s company He enjoys, and vice-a-versa. He doesn’t need intelligent people, eloquent people, or tall, dark and handsom gents. He only needs friends.
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Regardless of your reputation, the difference between being dead or alive on the inside is a matter of rejoicing greatly. Not rejoicing that you’re alive – though that is a worthy reason – but rejoicing greatly in God.

In John 3, Mr. the Baptist lists three occupations of a friend of the Bridegroom. They (1) Stand, (2) Hear his voice and (3) rejoice greatly. Rejoicing greatly in the voice of the Bridegroom is not only to delight yourself in the Lord but to love what he loves and hate what he hates.

Let me tell you something: There is a coming expression of Christianity that will be filled with people who love righteousness with all they are and they will hate sin with all they are. And this new expression of Christianity will change the way others view the church.
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Thankfully I am not the only one working at a million miles per hour.

If you have been paying much attention on The Fight Spot lately there are two things you’ll have noticed.

First is the obvious change in posting schedule. This change has been simultaneously intentional and unintentional. Intentional because after 18 months of following many websites and weblogs on a near daily basis with new ones getting added and old ones getting dropped, I have discovered that most of the handful which have made it through the test of time and now rest on the top of my list do not post every day. Some only post once a week. Thus the myth of keeping up with the Joneses has been broken. (And is that how you spell “Jonses”?)

Unintentional because the reality of publishing two weblogs naturally means a little less time for each. Pardon a slight tangent here, but I am really enjoying having two weblogs. The ability to have a razor sharp focus on each has been surprisingly freeing.

Additionally, the change to my posting schedule is due to the many new outlets I have stepped into for teaching. 3 months ago I had one outlet: this website. Now I have five – not including my Moleskine.
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The fat lady is singing, because Josh Hawkins launched his brand new site. It’s got a blog, and no, this ain’t it.

I had the privilege of beta testing his new site a few weeks ago and it’s outstanding. If you know Josh he hasn’t left out any details. His site incorporates tons of features and resources. It’s a great touchpoint for those outside of IHOP wanting to get more from teachings as well as those of us who know Josh and hope to be one of the friends he thinks is cool enough to merit writing about.

Well Josh, welcome to the world of blogging, online journaling, wordcasting, whatever. I am very glad to have you.

When I was in high school my friend and I would show up 30 minutes early, two days a week and prayer walk the halls of our school.

It wasn’t a lot. It wasn’t out-of-control radical, but after three years we logged many hours of prayer.

Going to public or private school is difficult. I actually have more friends that are messed up from their private Christian school than those that went to public school. Wishing things were different while slandering the pitiful spiritual state of your classroom will not bring any change.

Historically, revival begins in small prayer meetings and small Bible studies. Thus, the issue at hand is what are you going to do to make your campus a place where God is invited?

Get a friend and start prayer walking. Start a Bible study. Go to someone else’s Bible study.

It doesn’t have to be big, or long, or grandios. It just has to happen. You and a few other real people, with real voices, asking God to show up.

Feel free to pray for someone who’s sick. Why not? Maybe they’ll get healed. Maybe the Lord will stretch out His hand and perform some signs and wonders, and put boldness in your inner-man. Why not?

If you want to see revival break out don’t wait for something big. Start something small and let the Lord lead you from there.

Other than being something that neither you nor I have much of, it’s amazing how time plays out in regards to righteousness and evil.

Believe it or not, time works differently for us when we spend it towards Godliness than when we spend it towards sin.

The Urgency for Righteousness

There is an urgency to spend our time for God. Growing in God takes time. It requires patient continuance and waiting. We have to tarry until we are endued with power (Luke 24).

To grow in God we are short on time. We need long hours spent over years to develop in our calling and giftings and our relationship with Jesus. To grow as men and women of the Word and to cultivate a spirit of power on our lives requires lots of time.

We’ve all heard it before but it’s true that we cannot get a deep life in God on the run. The Kingdom is not a drive through fast food joint.

The Slippery Slope of Compromise

On the other hand, it is easy to fall into sin and to waste our time on darkness. The time we spend in darkness will quickly overtake us and lead us down the wrong path. It is a slippery slope.

We all have plenty of time to waste our lives because the days are evil. Thus we must walk circumspectly and vigilantly. We must redeem the time.

The Point Is…

What I’m trying say is that if we desire to grow in God it requires time. Actual chunks of time spend with God. And a lot of chunks. Plus we even need a focus during that time. Like I said, you can’t just get your life in God on the run.

However, there is plenty of time for us to backslide and fall into sin. The days are evil and our flesh is weak.

It’s a difficult paradox to grasp but the nitty gritty of it comes down to the fact that our life in God requires more energy, time and focus than our “not life in God”. We have to be diligent about how we spend our time and especially diligent about how much time we actually spend before the Word, with God in prayer.

A few weeks ago I received an email from a TFS reader saying he and his wife were coming to town and he wanted to meet up. I was hesitant but he offered a free lunch so I couldn’t refuse. Yesterday we finally met up at Chipotle.

At lunch he asks me why I write. I thought that was an excellent question, and decided it warranted a public response.

So, why do I write?

When I first started blogging at the beginning of 2006 it was for the novelty of it. Then later I realized I had something to say and I began writing for the reader. Then later again I realized that blogging has helped give me language and understanding to so many areas.

The best example is the 5 Lifestyle Practices for Maturity in God. Teaching those here on The Fight Spot has really helped me understand them, and put them into practice. Now I preach them all over the country at the onething conferences, and will also begin teaching them to the IHOP staff.

So, why do I write?

I write because I’m a teacher. I want to encourage you and I want to learn.

I also write because I really enjoy it. Blogging, in it’s purest form (un-influenced by stats, comments or so-called effective posting tips) is really enjoyable to me.

As I wrote on shawnblanc.net today, I’m re-thinking the blogging stereotypes I’ve adopted over the past year and a half and re-writing my own.

The other night I was over at a friend’s house with a group of people. Also known as a party.

The host, we’ll call him Bob, is quite the story teller. But the good kind. The kind that when he starts on a story everyone else starts listening. The kind that never touches his food, and we’re all leaned over our plates with open ears.

But he doesn’t just tell random stories. He tells stories about powerful encounters he’s had with the Lord. He tells about prophetic promises and insights that he’s been given. And we all are attentive.

One of my favorite things about Bob is the language he uses. His vocabulary concerning the kingdom of God is familiar enough that you know what he’s talking about, but different enough to make you think.

There’s one thing he says in particular that has always grabbed my attention. When he talks about revival he talks about the lost faces of Jesus being found again. When he talks about community he talks about us seeing a new face of Jesus within each other.

The Faces of Jesus.

Finding them in others. Finding them in ourselves. I love that phrase. It gives me permission to honor other people who may get on my nerves. When I look for a face of Jesus in them I am doing much more than tolerating them. I am discovering God.

Even beyond people and into circumstances. I can discover a lost face of Jesus when I’m doing the dishes, running errands or even in the prayer room.

Ask the Lord to reveal a new face of Jesus to you.

After 311 updates I like twitter now more than ever.

When I first signed up for twitter I wanted to solely incorporate it into my blog and use the messages I sent to twitter (a.k.a. “tweets”) as mini blog posts resting in the sidebar.

But after a few months of using twitter like that, I tried out a program called twitterific and that changed everything.

Twitterific makes the whole twitter community a whole lot more exciting. It’s like a running public tab of instant messages. I almost always have it running if I”m on my computer, allowing the updates that others post to twitter to become more like a conversation.

I suggest you sign up for a twitter account if you haven’t already. Then, download twitteriffic, and have fun. You’ll see what I mean.

And once you’re signed up, you can find me and choose to ‘follow’ me. it’s not as creepy as it sounds. It simply means you’ll see my tweets in your timeline of friends.