December 3, 2010
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Some notes from a writer’s conference with Don Nori from Destiny Image Books
When you write ask yourself, does this make access to Jesus easier?
What is it in me that is a fresh taste of cool water?
Does it ring in your own life?
People are looking for fresh bread and the cool water of the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Move beyond the foundation. There is nothing wrong with teaching on the foundations, we need a strong foundation, but at the same time we need to build the house.
There is more to us than to just live in the basement we need to go beyond the foundation.
Do I have something to say?
Jesus did not focus on the cross, he focused on the resurrection after the cross.
Hebrews 11:10 …for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Life changes and we need to be open to see the changes and do what God wants us to do with them.
The church system does not bring a person deep enough, we need to seek the things of the Spirit to bring us deeper still. Change is considered a heresy to many. But at the same time we need to be careful about how we change, making sure that the Spirit and the Word agree. God does not contradict Himself.
God is multidimensional.
We need to help people see that God is bigger than the image of God they have built inside themselves.
We tend to build personal theologies with rules that are not so strenuous that we can keep them ourselves, but as soon as the rules are more strenuous than we can handle we gather around people whose rules we can live by. But if we stay only within the bounds of what is humanly possble we do not seek the grace of God.
People seek to obey rules as a way to avoid hell, but God wants us to seek a relationship with Him and choose to obey Him because we love God.
Humanity tries to make God smaller, a reachable God. We want a God we can organize and handle. But when challenges threaten our sacred cows, we need to see that God is approachable, but that He is more than our limited perception.
Man wants to limit God and our interaction with Him through legalism.
We don’t want to reinforce our image of a small God, but expand our perception of Him, that He is mighty, bigger, powerful, multidimensional, and able to do far more than we can think or ask.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10 But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
As disciples of God, the Holy Spirit will help us understand God’s multidimensional reality and help us to realize how little we know and understand.
If we write to cater to someone’s smallness, that does not help them to go to deeper places in God. As we help expand people’s understanding of Him, it helps to make His kingdom more fully manifest in the earth.
Jesus prayed, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Pastor Nori told us that he prays this prayer differently. He prays, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in this earth (as he pointed to himself as the earth), as it it is in Heaven.”
We pray vehemently for others, but we need to remember to pray vehemently for ourselves as well.
He suggested watching an old TV show called Firefly
The prophetic word challenges, provokes, and fires people to look beyond who they are toward what they are to become.
God is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all we can think or ask. He works in us, to us, and through us far more than we can imagine.
When you get up in the morning pray, “Lord, what can I do for you today?”
Know you are in the palm of His hand and that He can do what He pleases with us. Are you ready to go and change the world?
The legalism of the puritan ethic is awful.
Pastor Nori suggested two of his books that can help nonbelievers find God: How to Find God’s Love, and the book You Can Pray in Tongues.
This small, impromptu talk blessed me and I pray that you are blessed as well.
Heather
