Poem: HIS LOVE

HIS LOVE

God said love me with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind and with all your strength...
This was his greatest commandment and not suggestion,something to do and not to shew....

But what did the master mean when he wanted us to love with everything we had,surely we can not stay the same we had to change!

Well, with Father its always simple... With your mind, the mind of Christ , imagine, dream, and envision with Christ's thought,  in the power of the Holy Spirit spend your strength on His mighty works, with the inspiration of the Father in your soul create, sing aloud, compose and dance with daddy, and with everything, with all your heart, and all these days on this earth let not your heart remain silent as you spend your all for your King!!!!

But that was only one half of the equation, an unbalanced part of the Father's determination...
For without the second we would be lead into navel- gazing introspection...
For His love is only complete when we give it away, a windfall gain to be passed by the saint... For his second commandment is to love,
your very neighbour as yourself!
For Your gift, your heart, your mind, your love  is NOT for your own, its not by chance to you it has been sown...
Its for the lost,the hurt,the broken to release, the whole, the body, in fullness to bring increase....

And so we swallow our pride and to the Father's wing we return to hide, for in Him alone, in His love do we have our strength our joy our victory song...
And so now balanced and even spanned do we walk with our hearts turned heavenwards and our hands and eyes, touching, looking, releasing His love  by the power of His dove

For at the end of day all that remains, is His love not just for us but to give it away!



Ryan

Discovering the Impossible - 3

I was listening to the God channel the other day and a couple of things really stood out to me. A man had ventured into a foreign nation to preach the gospel and to reach the lost for Jesus. He had felt that the Holy Spirit was leading him and his team across a certain river into an area in which God wanted them to minister to other people. They followed God’s lead and tested to see how deep the water was. When they discovered that the river was only knee-deep they continued to walk across the river with the water only coming up to their knees.

They arrived in the area and began to minister to the people. When they had completed their mission, the people asked them how they had arrived in the area.  They responded that they had merely walked across the river, as it was only knee deep. The people explained to them that the river was in fact very deep. They proceeded to test the depth of the river and discovered that very close the shore the river was in fact fifteen to twenty feet deep. The Lord had, unbeknown to the mission team, performed a miracle! To this day, the man does not know whether God had lowered the river level or raised a sand bar for them to walk on.

“What is the point of this story?” you may ask. The missionary shared with the TV audience that his revelation was that we are not to pursue the miraculous by itself, but to pursue the lost (those needing Jesus) and God will give us the miraculous to fulfil this mission, in this missionary’s words: “following miracles is like chasing after rainbows”. The mission team had the goal of reaching the lost in that area for Jesus. God provided the miracle.

This truly is a challenge and something that we must consider. What is the motive of our hearts when it comes to the miraculous power of God? Bill Johnson says that the miraculous power of God is always to point unbelievers (and us) towards Jesus. The miraculous power is not merely to satisfy our needs and confirm our theology. It is rather to point us to the reality of the Holy Spirit and His power and that God wants to partner with us in releasing/realising His will on earth :that none should perish but all come to a knowledge of Him.

Lots of love

Ryan

DISCOVERING THE IMPOSSIBLE - II

It has been three weeks since I began my quest to discover the impossible nature of God for myself. Well it truly has been an interesting experience.

My first observation is that God is willing to meet you wherever you are. In terms of my experience, that was not a place of confidence in flowing in the supernatural. Actually, quite the opposite was true. I had a certain amount of fear and hesitation in approaching people and sharing what God had put on my heart and praying for healing, especially because there is a real possibility that I might fail.

My second observation is that the supernatural is within our grasp. Jesus seems to be waiting for us to take the first step and trust him for something impossible. He wants us to have the faith to step out of the boat and trust him in this new area.

This last Friday, the Oasis Revival Youth from Howick, Kwazulu-Natal, ventured out on a ‘Treasure Hunt’. This term is coined from an activity that the Bethel Church, Redding, USA, conducts on a regular basis. This is where a team of people get together and ask Jesus for very specific ‘clues’ which they write down on their ‘treasure maps’. Here the Holy Spirit gives people’s names, colour of clothing, details of places and specific body parts that need healing. The teams then embark on finding their treasure using the ‘treasure map’ that God has given them.

We spent time praying for our treasure map and left for the mall with many clues in hand. Many of us spent time giving prophetic words to waiters whilst looking for our treasure to appear. We gave the one waitress a prophetic word, where we encouraged her about her circumstances and gave her a word about who God has called her to be. We then left. Members of our group returned to eat at the restaurant where she worked and this waitress approached them again. She told of how she was amazed at how we had described her so accurately even though we had no idea who she was. She explained that she was a Roman Catholic believer and how she had now decided that she was going to be praying to Jesus. What a testimony!

Later in the evening, we discovered some of our treasure. On our treasure map, we had the colour red and the place ‘Fegos’ coffee shop. So there at Fego’s, was a man in a red shirt with his fiance. This must be our treasure we thought. We then approached with our treasure map in hand and began sharing what God had given us as clues. It worked out that this was definitely a God encounter. They were believers but had been going through a tough time and they shared that they were expecting a baby. We were able to share words of encouragement and even to pray over the baby that they were expecting. They felt uplifted that God would care for them to send people to encourage them in their circumstances.

Another aspect that seems to come through repeatedly is that ‘treasure hunting’ really is an enjoyable experience that releases fun and joy in those that participate in it. This was my experience with our youth. They loved the thrill of being used by God for the miraculous and they want to do it again.

So after really experiencing an increase in my life for the impossible, I think the challenge now is to make the experience a lifestyle by incorporating it in to everyday life. The only way to do this is to ask God for the treasure map for each day!

Later,

Ryan

DISCOVERING THE IMPOSSIBLE

In my quiet time, I was pondering the reasons why we don’t embrace the impossible and miraculous life that Jesus commanded. I came to this answer. To put it quite simply, it is not comfortable. Delirious’ album summed up the world that we currently live in:  the ‘Kingdom of Comfort’. I don’t need to get into the endless list of the conveniences and escapes that are available to us now to say that they swiftly draw us into a life of numbing meaningless.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my conveniences and comfort zones and for the most part, it’s ok. Nevertheless, we are not created to be ‘ok’. We were made to soar on wings like eagles, we were made to live in a place of intimacy with Jesus that His presence oozes out of our pores into the air around us. We were made for the heavenly realm.

We need to be constantly questioning the way that we live and match it up against how Jesus lived. He lived a naturally supernatural life. He also said that certain things would “follow” the believing believer, i.e. US. What were those? Check out Mark 16v16 – 17: “He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues, they will take up serpents and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover”. Funny how the believer doesn’t  follow after signs but the signs follow the believer.

I looked past the here and now and imagined the moment when I stand before Father and He reckons my life and what I have done with what He has given me. Will he say: “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”.  Although I make every effort to be faithful in all areas of my life, I am not sure about this area of the supernatural. This is why I have decided to challenge myself and change my lifestyle to one of living in His supernatural ‘zone’.

I don’t know about you, but it has been ages since I personally ministered to someone outside of the church context where it is ‘easier’ and less of a risk. From my own experience and listening to other people’s stories, the place where God really moves is outside of our church walls. My challenge is therefore to minister to at least one person a week that does not go to our church. If you are daring, bold and tired of living the same old ‘comfortable’ way, join me in my quest to discover the impossible!

Lots of love,

Ryan Hogarty

WHY "THE FATHER HEART"?

Hello all,

To many Christians the phrase: "the Father(s) Heart" is a cliche thrown around with all the other lingo that we tend to use and tend not really to think about.

On recently becoming a father, it dawned on me how much our heavenly Father loves us and what price He paid by sacrificing His son on the cross for us. I realise what a gut-wrenching decision Father God made when He did this.

I also have come to know that life is way too short to focus on what doesn't really count in the long run.

My mission therefore... to get back to what is on the heart of our Father - those things that really do count and which should be priorities in our lives. To do this I am going to go on a journey! Does that mean I know exactly where I am going with this? Short answer - no... But I am going to let Jesus lead the way. My hope is that this blog will be a place of encouragement where we can share our thoughts, risks and experiences as we dare to walk in step with Him.


Lots of Love

Ryan