4 Weeks To Go

Greetings from New Zealand :) Here we are in our 8th week on the I-DTS. Amazing how fast time can fly by. The students have enjoyed much learning and much freedom as different lecturers have ministered Jesus through various subjects surrounding our life in God. Last week Nick Badger & Ben Poulton brought to us Why and How to Study the Word of God. This week we are blessed to have Dave Cole teaching and ministering to us "Freedom In Christ". Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we position our hearts for continual healing and transformation as we seek to know and to be like our awesome God.

4 Weeks To Go

Freedom in Christ

The Cross

Urgency of the Hour

World Missions & Biblical World View

Evangelism & The Gospel

As you can see, the next 4 weeks are pretty power packed! In 4 weeks time the students have much to be excited about as they will be heading out for an 8 week outreach to the Philippines! While in the Philippines the students with their outreach leaders will serve the Filipino people in through prayer/worship, teaching/preaching/evangelism, working in orphanages, in Churches, homes, mountain tribes and some will even have the opportunity to minister to prostitutes!

I personally have served in the Philippines and have been eye-witness to salvation's, deaf ears being healed and blind eyes being opened. I have even been blessed to experience the joy of seeing a handful of prostitutes leave prostitution. The staff and students are sure to have an amazing life changing time as they go in to several different regions across the Philippines.

Please pray for us over the next 4 weeks as we prepare to shoot this group out like arrows. Please also pray that in the midst of this excitement our hearts will be open to receive what the Lord has for us each day as lecturers minister to us and God encounters us in various ways!

Blessings :)

The following link is a slideshow that I made in 2009 on one of my trips to the Philippines:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=60215380828&set=vb.602075828&type=2&theater

I-DTS Week 6: Relationships

We are more then half way through the lecture phase and only have 5 more weeks until we send the teams out for an 8 weeks outreach to the Philippines. It is such an amazing privilege to serve here and facilitate an incubator/greenhouse for relationship/discipleship with God. Over the last 6 weeks the staff and I have been delighted in the goodness of God as we have watched and experienced His transforming power in and through the students. It always astounds me to watch God change the countenance of the staff and students. He gives beauty for ashes! Romance for shame! Life for death!

We take all of our good and bad and lay it at the foot of the Cross of Christ and declare the worthiness and glory of God and in return He gives us life and abundant joy! He is faithful and just to complete the good work in which He has started. He is forever more faithful and committed to us, even in our wanderings, than we could ever be to Him. It is His great delight to save us to the uttermost!

This week we had Jono & Mary Turner speak to us on the subject of "Relationships". It has been such a delight to listen to them! They have brought a very Christ centered and refreshing perspective concerning how we relate to others. The theme that bled through their whole teaching was based on the foundations of aligning our whole identity in Christ and Christ alone. That out of the wellsprings of life in Christ we would have the capacity and right understanding on how we relate towards humanity.

Here are a few quotes from the week:

"Western societies are so caught up with placing value on individualism that they have lost all sight of the importance of community."

"The journey in to our identity in Christ will take our whole lives. But, we need to settle the position of who we are in Christ for life, rights and inheritance. we need to have a strong understanding of our position as sons and daughters of God so that when things are hard or our faith is under trial we have firm foundations to stand on."

"There is a real crisis in the body of Christ in the area of relationships. Mostly out of past experiences that have left us jaded, insecure, envy, strife, fear, etc. The fact is that very few people in the body of Christ operate in right fruits when relating to others."

"Many people are very spiritual and theologically sound and are anointed to preach the Gospel, yet, they are horrible at relationship! Mostly because we live in a fallen world and just do not have the capacity to treat others as Jesus has commanded."

"It is impossible to maintain right relationship with others without the help of Holy Spirit."

"Any time God speaks to you the word will be tested. The test always involves time. Get word and you think it will happen in 5 years and it takes 20 years. When the word gets tested you may feel like God has forgotten you. But that couldn't be further from the truth."

"You become a great leader when you don't need to be a leader."

"God walks with you in every good and bad season whether you feel His presence or not. When things go bad God is with you! Even when our heart grows cold towards God, God is forever faithful to pursue us."

Please to continue to pray for us. In the next 5 weeks we need to see about 12,000.00 come in as a team to God to the Philippines. Stand with us as we press on!

Blessings :)

I-DTS New Zealand

An update on the Lord's provision

Just wanted to share an awesome example of the Lord's financial provision for the staff and students who are preparing to head to the Philippines for outreach. We have found that as we partner with the Lord for finance and daily provision that He will often require a first fruits offering from within our community! In times past we have seen upwards of 5-6 thousand dollars come in through the staff and students own offering!

For the staff and students involved with our current school we were looking at around a $20,000.00 budget that needed to be filled. So we gathered the community (Around 20 people) for a time of worship and giving!

The staff and students gave what they believed the Lord had put on their heart to give. Some gave to specific individuals and others gave to the general pot to be divided evenly among those who need money.

We then prayed that God would multiply our offering. The result of 20 brokish Missionaries was astounding!

$8,900.00

Personally this has blown my mind! I've never been apart of such a simple living crew of people who live off less than most people who have paying jobs, yet, they gave wholeheartedly believing and trusting in God to provide for them as a good Father does no matter the cost.

"By this we know love, because He has laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this worlds goods, and sees his brother in need and shuts up his heart from him; how does the love of God abide in him. My little Children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:16-18

I believe this past giving time was a wonderful example of preferring on another in love through more than word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.

We still need to see a little over $10,000.00 to send our staff and students to the Philippines for 8 weeks. The teams will serve through evangelism, teaching, preaching, discipleship, compassion, etc; in schools, churches, orphanages, streets, hospitals, events, etc.

Please pray and consider partnering with us as we serve the Lord here in New Zealand, the Philippines and beyond. Furthermore, please pray for the staff and students that the exceeding greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ would be abundantly made known in our hearts & minds as we walk together with the Lord.

Blessings :)

I-DTS Week 5: Identity In Christ & Hearing God's Voice

Intimacy and Impact Discipleship Training School had the privilege hearing Matthew Dawson for 3 days on "Identity In Christ". A very important subject in these days of secular humanism! We put all our identity in our work, hobbies and relationships, and we even put our identity in our ministry positions and theological concepts! Through this we can become selfish and very earthy centered, not living fully for Christ in the hope of redemption and the age to come. Here are a few quotes from Matt's passionate lecture's:

"The prophets in the old testament main proclamation was to remind the Israelites of their marital covenant with God; to remind them of how He saved them from slavery in Egypt. Today it is the same, we are to continually remind humanity of the God-Man Jesus Christ who saved us and established with us a covenant of everlasting marital status."

"Is there a better way to dishonor the Cross than to act as orphans and keep our distance in a cold hard hearted manner? No!"

"Children do not one out of the womb with the art of self-sufficiency. They learn it as they grow! This is why we cannot enter in to the kingdom of heaven unless we enter in as children. We have to come again to the place of wholehearted dependence upon God in our all things pertaining to our lives."

"The story of what you believe about why we are here will always feed the outcome of how you live."

"The Father of glory can meet every need and desire that us weak humans could ever have. As the Father's love envelopes us we lose less desire for the things of the world and we become more obsessed with how we can love those in the world."

"We think that we have the Gospel figured out. But the truth is that we barely have scratched the surface."

We also had the privilege of having Jenny Gruenwald for 2 days on "Hearing God's Voice". The students enjoyed her practical application to teaching. She came prepared for us to experience hearing God's voice and not just to learn about how to hear God's voice. Each practical application was like gold as the Lord spoke! During the final session Jenny had everyone go by themselves for one hour and write down on a piece of paper everything that God speaks about them. We then gathered back together and shared what the Lord was saying followed by a time of prayer and prophesy for each student.

She remind us that God is a relational God who loves to spend time chatting with His children.

Please continue to pray for us as we meet with God and prepare to go on outreach. We will launch our plans for outreach very soon :)

I-DTS Week 4: The Father Heart of God

On a week like this week there really is to much that could be said! We had Frank Naea on The Father Heart of God. Frank has a real gift to teach and minister the Father Heart through one simple biblical philosophy:

"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me WHAT to SAY and HOW to SAY it." John 12:49

Of course, you cannot sum up his way of teaching based on teaching alone! His style of teaching is mixed with tangible stories, a prophetic weaving, and, an ability to teach to all the learning styles (See, Touch, hearing ,etc). Also, the man himself has the personality of that of a loving teddy bear who has the ability to heal with even just a hug! His sense of humor is original.He carries an anointing of the Father Heart that is rather inviting and soothing to the soul. So when we speak of teaching the Father Heart of God we're not just talking about the theology behind it but we're also talking about the experiential manner in which it comes alive for those in the classroom.

This week consistently is a landmark week on the course and usually a course favorite for many of the students because of the nature of joy and healing that comes forth for them personally. So this week was just that. He took 3 sessions to teach and tell stories and 2 sessions to minister. The following are a few quotes from the teaching sessions:

Salvation is not merited for anything we've done or thought. It is 100% from the Father. Jesus didn't primarily die for us , He died because the Father sent Him! But in His dying, He died so that we would have relationship with Him. (I am in the Father, and you are in Me. Through this reality we grow in relationship with the Father).

We are to live in relationship not to live to be like the relationship! When are primary focus is to be like Jesus we grow tired and let down; when our primary focus is to be in Jesus we find rest and hope in our pursuit!

God is law, Jesus is intimacy! Jesus took on the fullness of the law and it's consequences in our stead so that we could have intimacy.

When our understanding of loving God is based on our own ability to love God we than find that it is not a gift of God but our own attempt at relating to God which we cannot sustain!

John 14:18: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

"Currently humanities condition is as orphans because of the fall. Everything outside of God's presence and perfect love begins to deteriorate! When Satan was cast out of the perfect love of the Father and His presence was taken from him, in Satan became the perfect spirit of the orphan." Frank Naea

"A great misconception in the Church is that Satan comes like this grotesque thing! Our image of Satan is in serpent language, but Satan was the angel of worship, he was the most stunningly beautiful thing that God had created in eternity past. Rarely do we fall for something that seems grotesque, we fall for that which appears beautiful and satisfying." Frank Naea (Ezekiel 28:11-18; Isaiah 14:12-21; Genesis 3:1-7)

There is so much more that could be said and so much more that needs to be said to really get what the students received this week through his teaching.

The last 2 sessions were what Frank calls the Word becoming flesh. You take the John 12:49 WHAT to Say & HOW to Say it. Frank had us all draw names from a hat. We then had about 24 hours to ask the Father of Glory what He wants to say to the person we drew and how do way say it. The ministry times then become a demonstration of the prophetic but are so personal it's mind blowing! For example: One person was given the scripture "You are dark but lovely", meaning that though we are darkened by sin the Lord through Jesus blood sees us as lovely and perfect! So that person went and bought several bars of dark chocolate to make that word become flesh. And, the result was that of healing and revelation from the Fathers Heart. It gets much more profound at how accurate some of the prophetic words are, but for the sake of honoring those involved i won't share. But i hope you get the gist.

My personal favorite thing that Frank talked about in his teaching time this week was that the whole is an orphanage. Satan, when cast down from heaven was cast to the earth. For Satan, earth has become his imprisonment of rejection and he has made it his goal to father humanity in to the orphan spirit because in satan we find the father of orphans! But, the nature of the blessing of the Gospel is:

John 14:18: I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Friday Night @ the Tauranga House of Prayer

The following is a link to Youtube that one of our friends at the Tauranga House of Prayer posted after last nights prayer meeting. The I-DTS is partnered with THOP. Our Staff & Students spend 10-12 hours a week in the place of worship & intercession. We have been blessed as a ministry over the years to see massive transformation at the heart level and we believe that by placing our Staff & Students in the place of prayer it catalyzes their inner life in God & propels them in to this radical heart transformation. Intimacy with God is the catalyst for impact in the nations! Enjoy the clip :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GK2yFzDOhhU