Henderson Update… Earthquake and all that…

Well the past two weeks have been madness over here. The day after I posted the last blog update, our city Christchurch was hit with a devastating 6.3mag earthquake that has killed some 200 people and destroyed a third of the buildings in the city center and 10,000 homes. Tens of thousands of people are out of work, and lots of people are leaving the city, many of them with no plans to return. The Prime Minister has called a national emergency, and the main city center is shut down for the foreseeable future, could be months. The local CTV building, which is the headquarters of the Canterbury region of NZ’s main regional media/news operation was totally destroyed, and I believe most everyone inside was killed. The local news is effectively halted, and all of the area schools went on hold for two weeks until it can be determined that the buildings are safe. 80% of the city was immediately without water and power, and incredible amounts of city infrastructure including roads, wires, underground pipes/sewers, bridges, etc were wrecked. Huge gashes have appeared in the roadways, and in certain parts of the city you cannot look in any direction without seeing devastation. In one hour’s time, people of all classes of society were streaming into Hagley Park, which is the main city park area. It was turned into a makeshift refugee camp. Businessmen, tourists, and elderly people alike found themselves in the blink of an eye both homeless and in many ways helpless. Just like that everything that has always seemed so fixed and sure was pulled out from under your feet, and you find that you didn’t have it all worked out after all. Some things just can’t be controlled, and the people of Christchurch have become alarmingly aware over the past month that even when you cover all your bases, when you do everything right and make all the right plans, even then, no one is ever totally secure in this natural world. When the ground under your feet, which has always been that last bastion of security, so steady and reliable, itself rises up against you, where else can you turn? To what can you cling for safety when all that should be secure is shaking free of its moorings and beginning to go spinning off into oblivion? It is in just such a time that humans become aware of their own mortality, their own utter dependency on Another who alone in the face of everything else failing around can stand firm and unmovable. There is a principle of foundations in all of life, and that which comes first and that which has the deepest anchor in Existence has the fullest level of Reality. The Creator of all things, by virtue of being first, and by virtue of being the most fixed in being of Himself is the one defining factor in the existence of every other thing. And life is based on the process of things in existence being rooted and grounded in things that are more real than themselves. All people everywhere take their measure of significance or meaning of life from their position in things that they deem more significant or more meaningful than what they might otherwise have, and through that process we journey through life searching for more and deeper foundations in which to root ourselves. Thus the search for the meaning of life is really nothing more than the one search for the foundation in which to root ourselves that is deeper and more real, more primary than any other. And at the end of all things, at the end of the day, to be found rooted in a foundation that is not the first foundation, the fullest foundation, is to be found to have fallen short of the mark. For all of life does not flow from the other foundations, for they themselves look up the line to something that makes even their own existence make sense. And when it is all said and done, everything will unravel back up the thread of life to that one first order self-sustaining reality from Whom all things flow, and everything else will come to nothing. To be found having built on any other foundation will be to be found in a place of utter remorse and regret. For “life does not consist in the abundance of one’s possessions.” And “the one who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a man who builds his house on the Rock. The streams rose, and the rains came down, and the wind blew and beat against that house, but it stood strong and did not fall.” And “Heaven and earth will pass away, but these words of mine will never pass away.”

That is the reality of the situation we all are in. It’s always true for all of us, and sometimes God in his mercy allows us the opportunity to face circumstances that will shake us out of our slumber into the reality of the moment, and we have a chance to turn in the light of the truth. We have a chance to allow the current of our lives, both good and bad, to carry us along into the path of true wisdom and true life. Christchurch as a city is in that very moment right now. There has come a shaking the likes of which no one had ever dreamed possible, and even now there is more talk of another much bigger and more significant earthquake around the corner. There is a sense of real anticipation, as if mortality were hovering just over head, waiting for an opportunity to settle in for the night. People are scared, and people know they are no match for what might be arrayed against them. They know their limitations, and they know their need for help. And it is into this situation that we find ourselves thrust. Even as I write this, just now there was another strong quake… We have been through probably 400 of them now in the past two weeks. “Everything that can be shaken will be shaken, so that what cannot be shaken will remain.” That is the reality, because God in his goodness cannot sit idly by while people build their lives on shaky ground, and all the while he knows that he himself is the foundation of first priority to which all things must bow. It is like Jesus said, “Just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given me to have life in myself.” And “Without me, you can do nothing.” And “I am the vine, you are the branches. If you will abide in me, you will have life. But if you don’t abide in me, you will not have life. When a branch is removed from the vine, it withers up and dies, and is good for nothing but to be used as firewood.” There is a Source of life, and there is no life in any other place, because there is only One Source of life.

We have an opportunity to step into this moment in Christchurch and be a real influence in this time. We know that this is what we are here for, and that God has given us some amazing strategy to be a force for real life in the city. Thank you for walking with us in this time. If you haven’t already done so, go to www.weheartchristchurch.com and get involved with us in the journey. Follow along with us as we see the city impacted for the Glory of God. We are still in the early infrastructure building stages, so thanks for being patient as we get the site built and get content up on it. But some amazing things are happening, and we look forward to walking it out with you. We love you. Blessings. Blake and Laura

Update From New Zealand

Well here we are in Christchurch, New Zealand! We arrived three weeks ago, and since we landed we have been going non stop. We are still in transition, and haven’t yet worked out our internet situation and other basic items, but we are gradually getting things in place and becoming established. I will begin to blog updates and revelations from the Lord on a regular basis, hopefully once per week, and I am just getting the infrastructure in place to pick up with monthly newsletters. So in the meantime, I wanted to at least get a brief update out so you were informed about all that we have been up to and all the Lord is doing.

So much has been happening since we got here, it has been a veritable whirlwind. Within two days or so from our arrival, we went into the most impacting conference that I think I have ever been a part of. Jason was set to speak at an event with the CEO of the local and largest Maori tribe on the south Island, and with the Deputy Mayor of the city of Christchurch, about the justice of God and restoration and reconciliation of the Maori and European New Zealanders. Over the past one hundred and seventy years or so, there has been much signing and breaking of treaties and agreements between the Maori and the European New Zealanders, and the resulting social injustice has been a constant blight to the New Zealand way of life. The process of reconciliation and establishing of justice has been a long and arduous one, and our coming to New Zealand is at a time of great significance with respect to that process. We truly believe that this is one of the major keys to the future destiny of New Zealand, and that much of our assignment from heaven in this nation deals directly with this issue. It begins there, and flows into all of family and social life, because the Kingdom of God is over all and his grace and mercy flow into every sphere of life. This is not the building of a religion that we are involved in. But in fact it is the very essence of all life. God is the source of life, and in him we live and move and have our being. Our eating and drinking, our marrying and having children, our education and development, and even our working and resting all are aspects of life in God, and the answer of our prayer that it would be “on earth as it is in heaven” will yield no less than the reformation and reordering of every element of life until the blessing of God can flow unhindered into all of creation everywhere. This is what we are living to see made manifest, and we not only believe that it is possible in New Zealand, we are actually seeing the first traces of that thing beginning to bud and reach for the sun. For me, the conference we had that first week in the country was the beginning of a realization of that goal. Seeing the leader of the Maori tribe, having the chance to sit and hear his heart for his people, seeing the alignment of our vision with the vision of true world leaders, and realizing that this really is something that God is orchestrating, for me was like a radical awakening of a person from a dream only to discover that it was not a dream after all but reality. I have spoken of this vision– the discipleship of whole nations– for so long that it has almost become like a mechanical mantra that has lost sight of the goal but knows only the journey. But then, in the blink of an eye, the Lord is bringing to pass all that has been in my heart for so long. This truly is the most amazing time to be alive. God is truly on the march, and he is accomplishing all that he has set out to do. This time in New Zealand I believe is going to prove to be a catalytic force that will be felt around the world for generations to come. What an honor.

After that conference, we spent the next two weeks or so just getting established in day to day life in a new country. We still don’t have much in the way of furniture, and are just beginning to get a feel for the city. We have been getting connected with the two main churches who are hosting the Reformation meetings, and have started to have meetings three times a week. During the days we have started to go out as a team on the streets to pray for people and share the Gospel. So far, we have seen a number of miraculous healings and a couple of people gave their heart to Jesus. It has been great, and we are just getting started. There have been some challenges of course, but for the most part, we are all systems go and not looking back. We are increasingly assured that this year will see the Glory of God go forth in New Zealand. We believe that God has given us the promise of seeing 100,000 souls reached for the Kingdom in Christchurch alone, and from there a ripple effect of transformation sweeping across the nation of New Zealand and the nations of the earth.

We love you all so much, and are so thankful for all of our friends and family who love us and stand with us in all that we are doing. Thank you for being you. God loves you and has wonderful things for your lives. We look forward to getting to walk together in reaping a great harvest in the nations for years to come. Please contact us and communicate. We will be having a newsletter come out soon.

If you remember to pray for us, we would greatly appreciate it. We are still getting through all of the rough bumps of transition even while we are moving forward with vision.Pay for grace for Laura and I. Pray for grace for our team relationships. Pray that the Spirit of God would be poured out in the City of Christchurch with mighty signs and wonders, so that lives and families would be restored to the highest level of life. Pray for divine partnerships with leaders, and that we would have favor in everything that we do.

We also still need financial provision for this year. I am not able to work as in past years, so we are believing God to hook us up with strategic partnerships to enable us to give ourselves fully to the work that is before us. If you would like to partner with us, we would greatly appreciate it. We still need about $28,000 for our living expenses this year. You can email us at blake.henderson@ymail.com if you want to partner with us, or just to connect. We would love to hear from you.

God bless you all. Love Blake and Laura

Halleluia!

Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. Rev 4:8-10

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4:23-24

There is a revelation of God, that if we can get it, will have us on our faces for all of eternity before him crying “Holy! Holy! Holy!” with everything that is in us, and more. That revelation will lead to a worship that will take us from revelation to revelation, from worship to worship, from realm of encounter with God to ever greater realms of encountering God. This is what kept Joshua in the tent before the Lord long after Moses got up to tend to his duties. This is the revelation that kept Mary at the master’s feet when Martha would have her up helping with the chores. This is the secret behind David’s success in everything he did. This is the big picture in God. This element of being a true worshiper is what set every great man and woman of faith apart from all the rest.

I really believe that there is a key here if we can get a hold of it. I know that I have experienced these realms of worship, where I am encountering God at such a level that all of his goodness is being revealed to me. In those moments, it is like trying to stand under Victoria Falls, with all of the torrent of the glory of God pouring through your body. It literally pulls the worship out of you. In our physical bodies, there is a limit to what we can experience, and in these moments before God, I am pushed all the way to the limit. I am pouring out my heart with all that I’ve got, singing and praising with my whole voice, my whole body, and all that I want in those moments is to have a greater capacity to pour out more. I reach down deep, trying in vain to find enough adoration to satisfy my love for him in that moment. And due to my physical limitations, I can never find enough worship. Always he deserves more, even after you have given him all that there is to give.

This is our lot. Jesus himself is our inheritance, our prize, our very great reward. It is the pearl of great price, or the treasure hidden in a field. When you find the treasure of your soul, you gladly go and sell all to purchase that field. There is a glorious truth of the Kingdom that we will get what we desire. If you set your desire on earthly wealth and fame, it will be yours, and you will sleep in the bed you have made, for all of eternity regretting the foolishness of a life spent in vain. But if you set your desire on the Desire of the Nations, you will come into a life of such satisfaction that you will never be able to contain it all. Your cup of delight will run over for all of eternity as you try  in vain to plumb the depths of your inheritance in Him. That is what it is really all about, after all.

I am in this journey, and I am not alone. This is the big picture for all of us. What is it that you desire? Your treasure is where your heart is. Where do you spend your desire? At the feet of what lover have you laid your heart? Very early on in my walk with God, he gave me a picture to this effect when I was listening to a teaching series by Louie Giglio of Passion. It goes like this: All of us are pursuing a light. We are like moths drawn to a flame. There are many twinkling lights off in the distance, and each one of us has his heart set in the direction of one of them. We spend our years rushing toward our goal, and at the end of our days we will finally come to discover that which we have been pursuing all of these years. In the picture God gave me, I saw people reaching their destination, the light which was their God all their life. And just as they get right up to the light, expecting to pass through the tunnel into glory, they bump into a piece of glass. It turns out that the light they were pursuing all this time is nothing more than one of those neon beer signs hanging in the window of some closed-down seedy bar, and they are all alone. And in that moment, the person realizes that they have spent their life on some nothing inheritance, and they have nobody but themselves to spend it on.

Our inheritance in Christ, on the other hand, is quite the opposite. He said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me.” He is the humble one, the one who was reviled, yet did not curse. He was the one who could go without receiving glory, but only lived to glorify the One who had sent him. Jesus, who was the king of the universe, had nowhere to lay his head, and was not ashamed to count his place among the most lowly. He forsook the place of greatest earthly acclaim and instead was content to look to the horizon, to that distant country from which he had come, and look forward to the day when he would be vindicated in the heart and sight of God before all men. He was the faithful one, the one who alone was found true and worthy, and therefore the Father has made him Judge of all things. Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but instead took on the form of a servant and became obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. This is the one whom we worship, and we will spend all of eternity trying to express how worthy he is to be praised.

This whole thing is about worship. And the great test in life is to determine who in the end will receive our worship. If we are not careful, we will miss the pearl of great price; we will miss the treasure hidden in the field. Who do we desire? Will we miss the glory of the living, uncreated One? Will we even know it when we see it? Jesus came not as the conquering king in robes of splendor, but he came as the treasure hidden in the field. He came as the one who will without question pass under your notice, unless you know what you are looking for, unless you are led by desire. The Son of David is passing by even now. Will you, like blind Bartimaeus, be waiting with every available sense straining to catch the hint of the passing master? Will you, when he is passing by, call out passionately, “Son of David, have mercy on me! Do not pass me by!” Will you call out to him with longing, unable to be denied? Because if you don’t he will pass you by. He would have passed on down the road and out of town. And the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, when they had reached their destination after having shared the road with Jesus, would have missed the day of their visitation if they had not insisted that the master come in and sup with them. He was going to keep on going his way, and they would have missed the revelation of the Christ that he was about to reveal to them. He will pass you by if you let him. But if you don’t, if you will cry out to him, he will visit you with such a revelation of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ that it will have you climbing the farthest reaches of Glory for eternity to come. This is our destiny. This is our calling. Will we answer the call?

A New Year

It’s interesting to me to think about how time has all of us somewhat on the same page. Other than in extreme cases, pretty much everyone in the world knows that just a couple of days ago we entered a new year: 2011. And today, everyone on this side of the Date Line knows that it is Monday. I was thinking about that the other day, and I realized how peculiar it is. In some strange way, despite the limitless diversity and myriad expressions of human life scattered across the earth, somehow through this dimension called time, all of creation is bound together in a shared journey, hurtling through eternity. This life is such an amazing miracle, so full of twists and turns, ups and downs, and every sort of spectacular surprise that one could hope for. The possibilities are endless.

The Lord in his wisdom decided that the right approach to creation was to make a man in his image and place him in an environment of infinite options, and then to give him free will. From there what we have is the spectacle of human history. Over the generations leading up to the present, there has been nothing short of total pandemonium. Mankind was created to rule in dominion, but the Fall warped that into something unrecognizable. The Divine Order with which God laid the foundations of the earth was lost, and chaos entered the fabric of everything. What started as a destiny of righteous kingship in the sight of God has become a lust for dominance in the heart of man. Man has taken his call to individual greatness seriously, and king after king has arisen to take his place at the head of global strife. From national governments and armies to thinly veiled contempt at office Christmas parties, the seed of unclean ambition and self-exaltation runs through the whole of the human race.

God knows what he is doing.

Underneath all of the noise, there is a sound. If you listen very closely, straining all of your effort in the attempt to hear, you will hear the call. It is a call to come away, to unplug from the race for significance, and to plug back into the Source of all things. Jesus said, “Just as the Father has life in himself, he has given the Son to have life in himself.” It is scary to me, even as a believer who is serious about the things of God, how easy it is to get caught in the pull of the undertow of the spirit of the age. I often find myself stopping, turning to the Lord, and asking him to reveal where I have gone astray. I am moving along, following the path of God, and before I know it I drift off into some rabbit trail of life and lose track of where I am and where I was going. It’s not some gross sin usually. It’s usually not even a real sense that anything’s out of place at all. In fact, at these times, I often find that I have not a care in the world. And unless I had the habit of doing this regular self-assessment, I would never have suspected that anything was amiss. But then I stop and pray, “Lord, where have I fallen asleep? I ask you to reveal to me anywhere I am believing a lie. I know that I do not see with perfect clarity, and that there is still so much more that I have not yet realized. Please open my eyes, that I might see.” And before I know it, I am struck with some revelation of sin or complacency in my life that I was totally blind to moments before.

This life is full of options. It is like the scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indiana must choose the goblet of Christ. He is in a temple searching for the Holy Grail, and he has finally found the room in which it is kept. The only problem is that it is hidden among a multitude of impostors. If he drinks from the right goblet, he will live forever. But if he drinks from the wrong goblet, he will immediately die. This is the exact picture for this life in the world. Jesus said, “If anyone would seek to save his life, he will lose it. But if anyone will lose their life for my sake, he will find it.” I think this is the main ingredient in the Christian life, and if we are not careful, we will miss it. “What is the most important Commandment, Master?”, the teacher of the law asked Jesus. “The first and greatest Commandment is this: Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” All over the world, people are darting here and there, always so busy in their endless pursuits. If only I can get to this benchmark… If only I can just achieve this position… If only… If only… And all the while they are zipping through life toward the final exam without any realization that they are in school. This is a picture of non-believers, but it is also a picture of the church. A vast majority of the church has no real sense of how to live in such a way as to pass the test. We are always running here and there looking for the next thing, the next teaching, the next blessing… Or we are striving to prove ourselves worthy to enter heaven through our good works, all the while starving to death on the inside and without any sense of our own security in God. And the unfortunate thing is that it seems like there is nobody to teach the church how to live rightly. All the while, the Lord is saying so softly, “Come away, come away… Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

This is a new year. This is a year to restore right priorities. This is a year to finally grow tired of running in your own way, of never reaching your destination and never finding rest. This is a year to realign all of your life with the Source of Life, and to again get in tune with the heart of God. I believe that we are coming back full circle in the creation story. The First Man was born into order and Fell into chaos and despair. The Second Man was born into chaos and Rose into glory and life. We end at the beginning, and it’s all coming to a grand finale. And this whole “time” thing has us all on the same bus heading toward our destination. Some 6 billion people, all rushing here and there, too busy to stop and think about it all. I believe that this is the year when we will begin to see a monumental shift  in things being set on a right foundation. Let’s stop, assess, and then come into alignment with the plumb line of intimacy and yieldedness to God, and let’s let him fashion our lives into what he sees in us, rather than our endless recreation of ourselves in an attempt to find something worthwhile. That whole thing will never get us to where we are trying to get and will only end up in despair. But when we stop our rat race and plug into Jesus, and allow him to speak over us who we really are,we find so quickly that we begin to come into the exact kind of life that we have always wanted. And we will find that we get a lot more done too. No more running here and there shooting in random directions hoping to hit something. Rather, we will find a level of focus and effectiveness that is possible in no other way. The Lord is going to do some amazing things this year in all of our lives, and I can’t wait to get into the boat with him (or out of the boat, I suppose.) God Bless You and thanks for walking with us. Peace!

Transition anew

It is Sunday before Christmas, 2010, and we are having a quiet afternoon here at home in CT. We moved to CT a year and a half ago. When we did, it seemed an almost unbelievably rapid shift in our life. Six months prior to leaving FL, we would not have ever seen such a shift coming. And then, in the blink of an eye, we were on our way to CT, a place neither Laura nor I had ever imagined as any kind of a destination for ourselves. Since then, admittedly with some bumps on the road, this place has become more of a home to us that we would have believed possible. And just as we are starting to plant ourselves here, just as unbelievably we find ourselves about to make another radical shift to the other side of the world. We never saw it coming, but here it is. In just over one month, Laura and I will be moving to New Zealand following the Lord on this wild journey that is unfolding before us in the Kingdom. So once again, we are about to give away all of our furniture, get yet another storage unit for various odds and ends that don’t need to travel the world, and take our hands off of the controls to see where the Lord might take us. We are partnered with the Westerfield family and Kingdom Reality Ministries, and that is an amazing honor. This opportunity that we have been given is all that we have ever wanted in the Lord. To have the chance to be right in the middle of history as the Lord brings cultural, social and eternal transformation to the nations… it is all so wonderful. It is a great privilege to be able to run with the Lord as he creates the world anew.

But there is a cost. As we have seen so often before, it actually costs us everything to step into the flow of what God is doing in and through our lives. It is everything that I want, to spend my life in the pursuit of eternity. But what we have found is that it requires us to lay down so many things that are very dear to us. Who knew that our coming to CT would bring us into relationship with people who we would feel totally at home with? Who knew that just as we were beginning to become truly committed in our heart to these friends, when vision for the future was just beginning to take shape and we were just getting settled in for some years to come, that just like that we would be saying good bye? And we have a choice: hold on to those whom we have now become so close to, or once again die to ourselves and let everything go to follow the Lord into the mysterious unknown. Too quickly, we find ourselves once again leaving those we love.

Yet as we have walked this thing out a little bit with the Lord, I have learned something. God is Love. The closer I get to God, the closer I get to Love. The closer I get to Love, the more I become love. The more I become love, the more I find I love everyone around me. There are always going to be some special ones who are particularly dear to you, and those will always be difficult to part with. But every step of the way, as things shift and reform with each new eventuality and change in dynamics, as old friends leave and new faces come into the picture, I find that the perfect picture comes more and more into view. The tapestry shifts and flows, the scene ever evolving into the whole scope of what is intended. And as I get a bigger and bigger perspective of the whole, I am struck by the realization of the Kingdom. This is the Kingdom, and it is in every way coming together. Relationship to relationship, connection to connection, covenant love to covenant love. And though at the time of separation parting feels painful, even final, in reality the web is just expanding. The net is stretching ever wider, the better able to catch the fish. And it just expands. This Kingdom is an ever increasing Kingdom. Of the increase there will be no end.

So leaving is hard in a sense, just as someone dying is sad. But it is only sad in a sense, and that mostly as a result of incomplete perspective. Because there will come a day in Glory when all things culminate. And the great connectedness of the Body and all of its organic life will be seen for what it is, and in that day the love that we share with one another will become what it was always meant to be but could never become this side of things. Where we see in part and love in part here, on the other side we will see one another fully, and the love that we will know for one another on that day will be a perfect love. The unity that we will k now then will be marked with such intimacy and awe. And the joy we will know in that moment will be indescribable, as we realize we are standing at the starting line of an eternity of perfect friendship.

Love really is the greatest gift. The most excellent way and the most powerful force, certainly, but without question it is God’s greatest blessing. It is Him. God is Love. He has given us Himself. He has given us each other. And those are the things that will prove to be our greatest delight. For all eternity, we will be exploring to depths of enjoyment in relationship with God and with each other. The Great Commandment is actually the Great Blessing. No greater joy will you find than when you discover the joy of true friendship. So we find it sad when we must leave those we love and move on into some new frontier. But we also understand. We do not really leave these friends behind; we never let go. As we move forward, and as they move forward, together we take a hold of others and make them a part of the ever-widening circle that is the Kingdom. We are a Kingdom. Though we always, like Paul with Timothy, long to be with those whom the Lord has given us, yet we realize that we can never really lose anything in the Kingdom. We will always be together in the Spirit, and we will always be together in eternity, and that truly is the greatest gift of all. So once again, we find ourselves about to embark on another leg of this journey, and we know we will find new and wonderful friends on the other side, each one a world of discovery waiting to be made. What a wondrous mystery!

2011 into forever

Daniel 7:14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Isaiah 9:6-7 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Revelation 2:19 I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

About two months ago, we entered into the Jewish New Year, on the Day of Awe: Rosh Hashanah. God’s calendar is the calendar of Israel. He set the dates, times and seasons for a reason, and we would be wise to begin to seek understanding on those things. So in the Jewish calendar, this past Rosh Hashanah began the start of 2011, as we figure it. On that very day, I noticed a significant shift in my business and in my personal interactions. At around the same time, the Lord began to speak to me about 11. It seemed like every time I was looking at the clock, it said 11:11. I began to ask the Lord what the significance of 11:11 was. Since then I have heard Patricia King teach on this, with the significance being 2011 is a year for 1000-fold multiplication. Her teaching on 11 lined up with what I had been experiencing. But there was another component that the Lord began to show me.

I was at a 2-Day Gathering with Jason the weekend that the Lord began to speak to me about 11:11. I began to do research into 11 in the scriptures. Prophetically,11 is a number for apostolic un-fullness. After Judas was killed, there were Eleven. Incomplete. So they added Matthias. Twelve again. Fullness. 12 is the number for Government.

The weekend that this was happening was the first weekend after Jason and the team had just returned from England. On that trip, God had downloaded some things to Jason dealing with government and kingly anointing.  So, all of these things were coinciding in the timing of God. Rosh Hashanah breaking into the new year 2011, the Lord speaking to me about 11:11 and apostolic un-fullness, and the download into Kingdom Reality of new mantles and revelation on Government and Kingly anointing in the Body of Christ. So on Saturday morning as I was riding to the meeting, I looked at the clock: 11:11. Later on that night, in the meeting, the Lord was moving powerfully. I knew that God was going to release something very significant that night. Then Jason got up and began to talk about the crowning of the kingly authority and anointing that he had received in England, and how the Lord was releasing that same thing in that meeting. Right at that time, I got up to go check my phone because I was expecting a message from Laura. I picked up my phone as I asked my buddy the time. He said, “11:11″, just as I was picking up my phone and looking at the clock. It said 11:12. And when I saw that, I knew that it was not 11:11, but it was 11:12. I knew that that night was a night of a beginning of transition from the 11 of apostolic un-fullness to the 12 of the fullnesss of the government of God. We went on in that meeting to receive a kingly crown and anointing, and it was the beginning of something wonderful.

We are in the midst of a kingdom. This kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and the increase of God’s government is never ending. It is 2011 right now, and Bob Jones is famously documented as declaring that 2012 is a year when the apostolic government of God will be in place. We live in a day of such shifting in history as things are being brought forcefully and swiftly into alignment with the purposes of God, and we have the opportunity to hear the call of God and to jump into the battle. This is the most fertile age history has ever known. There is such an acceleration in God, and we have the opportunity to cast off everything that hinders and to throw our whole selves into the pot. And when we do, we will reap such a harvest of our lives, that the seed that was sown will pale in comparison. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains but a single kernel. But if it dies… it produces such a harvest, such as the world has never known.

This next year will be one of great advancement in apostolic establishment, and governmental increase in the Kingdom of God. We are in an age when, truly, the kingdoms of the world will become the Kingdom of our God. God is positioning his people in places of great influence and authority. Over the last year, we have seen the Lord bring about so many amazing signs and wonders, and we have seen kings and rulers of the world come to the brightness of our rising. In Jason’s travels, the Lord regularly opens up face to face meetings with world and governmental rulers, people with real, significant power over nations and world systems. And he is put in a place to be able to speak the word of God to them, to outline the ways of the Lord in righteousness and justice, how their nations can make changes to come into alignment with heaven and so to enter into the blessing that was predestined for them. How to come into their inheritance. This is what the Lord is doing, and of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg.

This reformation taking shape in New Zealand is a piece of the puzzle. Laura and I will be right in the middle of it next year. As she said in her last post, it looks like we will be over there helping to steward that movement for much of the year. It looks at this point like we will be there for six months. During that time, we will be teaching and equipping, training people in the things of God, and taking people out on the streets to preach to the lost and win souls. Then we will be teaching and equipping the churches, working with area leaders and pastors to help establish the work for fruit that remains. Not just revival, but reformation. We are running full speed into the hour of God in this generation, and this is just the beginning. After 11 comes 12, and that will be awesome. We have not seen anything yet, but it is coming.

Laura and I are basically raising one year’s worth of ministry expenses. We are going to be traveling, and we may not be able to work very much. I know that I will have to take a year off from my business, and we need to cover our living expenses, food and lodging, etc. If you would like to contribute to our next year of ministry, we would be greatly appreciative. We need to raise about $35,000 for the year. If you want to partner with us in this work, please contact us. My email is blake.henderson@ymail.com Laura’s is laurahenderson@ymail.com. We love you all so much. Please pray for us and for what God is doing. And connect with us also. This Kingdom is coming together. It is not in factions but it is all coming together. We will see. Peace!

Transformation in New Zealand!

A couple of weeks ago I returned from New Zealand where the Lord has been pouring out His love in an incredible way.  Revival and reformation have begun to take hold of the city of Christchurch and there is an excitement and anticipation as church, government and business leaders come together in agreement for a radical shift to take place. While there we saw incredible miracles and a unity among the churches to see the Lord do a new thing. I will get to some of the miracles in a minute, but let me paint the backdrop of what was going on.

Recently a major disaster hit the city which has created an awareness in people of the things that matter most in life, God and one another. The city of Christchurch was hit by a 7.1 earthquake on September 4th. This is the same size quake that hit Haiti and killed an estimated 230,000 people. Miraculously not one person died in the quake in New Zealand though there was extensive damage to property including fallen buildings and destroyed homes. As we were driving around the city I saw lots of construction areas along the roads and near the city center where we were staying. It took me a while to realize that all the ‘construction’ was actually the aftermath of the earthquake. Right across the street from the hotel where we were staying were buildings that had collapsed and others that were damaged beyond repair. The roads which had been straight were buckled and uneven in many places and underneath the roads were broken pipes to be repaired.

After the quake the most common response of a person was to check on their family and then to go outside and see if their neighbors were okay. Suddenly people who hadn’t spoken to their neighbors in months were concerned about the lives of those living nearby.  This was the setting we entered as we came to Christchurch.

We began our time there like we do for most of our events with a Leadership Luncheon to bless and draw together area leaders. Eighty pastors and leaders came to Northcity Church to eat and hear Jason speak. While Jason was speaking many of the people were hit with the power of God and were weeping and shaking on the ground. After the meeting some of the pastors came up to welcome Kingdom Reality Ministries and a few gave the keys of the city to Jason. It was very powerful and moving and we could sense that something special was happening in that place.

During the Two-Day Gathering there was a rising call for intercession from the people that were there and many prayers came forth for the healing of the land and the relationship between the native people and those of European descent. Miracles of hearing being restored, pain disappearing, scars disappearing and hearts being healed also happened during the two days. There was one girl who Jason prayed for over the phone that had scars totally disappear off of her arms and a hole in her heart close up. She went into the doctor after feeling something change in her body and her heart was completely whole. Another woman, who couldn’t make it to the meetings because she was having heart surgery that week, was brought a cloth that had been prayed over. She laid the cloth over her heart for two days in the hospital. When the surgeons opened her up they said that she was absolutely fine and did not need surgery! The doctor actually said that he hoped he had a heart in her condition when he was her age. There were numerous testimonies of the goodness of God filling people’s lives and emotional healing taking place. The fire of God came down on the second night of the gathering and the tangible presence of God filled the room. It was a wonderful atmosphere of faith, love and an anticipation for change that would extend beyond the walls of the church.

While the event was taking place Jason sensed something bigger than the event was happening in the pastors, people and city of Christchurch. A spirit of revival was coming forth and was activated in this season to bring reformation. He spoke with his wife and then the KRM team and then the pastor about what he sensed the Lord was doing. We all agreed that something transformational was being birthed and that they should stay for an extended time in Christchurch. They decided to stay for an extra month to facilitate people to take the Gospel to the streets and to build and encourage the leaders of the city. There are a lot of details dealing with amazing God-ordained exchanges with the native people that I don’t have the time to type out now, but if you are interested ask me!! Currently Jason, his family and most of KRM are still in New Zealand and will be returning at the end of the month.

I say all that first of all so we can all rejoice together at the great move of God happening in New Zealand! It is amazing that we can rejoice with those who are rejoicing. Secondly, there is a big possibility that we will be spending a significant part of our year next year in New Zealand to continue to sow into the move that has begun there. We believe this transformation will extend beyond the borders of New Zealand into the nations. There is a rising anticipation in this hour for an outpouring of the Lord. While we were there I remember hearing that quote, “If not us who? If not now, when?” There is a divine season for everything and now an unction to move forward into what is unknown to us but is known to God. It is the glory of kings to search out a matter and we are in a time of seeking out and pressing forward for the Kingdom in this hour.

What will the year look like? Haha…we don’t exactly know yet. Blake will be beginning the internship in January and I will continue to work with the ministry. Our time may be split between the US and New Zealand, but we are uncertain of all the details. There are a couple pieces we do know and many mysteries yet to be revealed. We do know that we are going after the Lord with everything in us and that we are surrendered to the adventure that the Lord has us on. It is exciting and wonderful and full of the goodness of God! We love you all and hope to connect with you in the coming weeks and months so we can share the amazing things that the Lord is doing with us and we can hear the great things that are happening with each of you. Don’t you love living the dream? Blessings!!!

Reformation

Once more I will shake everything that can be shaken…  Everything….

I find myself firmly situated in the middle of this scripture.  I am too far in to be able to see all the way back to where I started, and yet I cannot yet see the other side. It’s like the place in the middle of the night where you lose track of whether it is the night before or the morning that is approaching. In so many ways it is a place of death, where so much of hope is being put to the test. The things that have been so immovable, so constant in my life… The things that have always made up the landscape of my reality… These are the very things that the Lord is trying with fire. Inside, I feel like a scared animal, fleeing from one room to the next ahead of the flames consuming the house all around me. And I am running out of rooms. God is chasing me down, making thorough, quick, relentless work of the chaff that I have built into a life for the past 29 years.

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me…  I want to know Jesus Christ and the power of his resurrection, and to share in the fellowship of his sufferings…

Jesus is teaching me about the cross. Everything in life is centered around the cross of Jesus. There is only one way into life, one narrow road. That road passes directly through the way of the cross. Our whole life in Christ is a measure of walking with him through the cross, through death, and into the resurrection. There is only one way to the resurrection, and that is through the cross. The reality that I am touching on here is so so deep, and there is only one way to even comprehend it: to walk the road with Jesus. Wow. It is so crazy. This thing is really not a religion. It is not some theological framework and position. It is not about knowing the right things, or even believing the right things. It takes faith, but I am just now discovering how much it is actually based in the process. This is a mystery, and hard to explain. But I had an encounter last night that shook me, and I see now in a way that I never did, and never could have. The whole thing is a matter or seeing and really perceiving, and then being able to turn and be healed. The most important thing you or I could possibly do is to cry out that the Lord would give us gold refined in the fire, and white robes to cover our shameful nakedness, and eye salve to put on our eyes so we can see. Beloved, hasten to the Lord, and cry out to him. Cry out and do not stop, until you begin to see. And then, don’t let go. Do whatever it takes to not lose sight of him. The way will open to you, you will see. And then you will understand.

If any of you thinks he knows something, he should realize that he does not yet know as he ought to know…

Onward and upward, ever higher, ever deeper. There is a way in, to actually know Jesus in the fullness of his revelation, in the fullness of his sufferings and triumph. It is impossible to know the full reality of his triumph without knowing his sufferings. Oh, to know Christ… He is desiring a people who will walk with him trough the fire. He is looking for friends who know him completely. This is the process that Jesus has the Church in right now. He is removing out of the Church every spot and wrinkle, and everything that causes offense. There is a purifying work that is taking place, and if you will allow it to happen, that purifying work of the Spirit will bring forth in you all that he sees in you, and all that you see in yourself. It is a work of grace, and you only have to yield. Yield. Deeper and deeper, yield. He is going deeper, always deeper. He is so passionate about those who are made in his image, about winning the full redemption that he paid the price of his life for. Meditate on Isaiah 53. That will get you there. Blessings.

Been a While Pt. 3

Laura was needed back in CT immediately to help prepare for a ministry trip the upcoming weekend. So she packed up the next day and headed back north. She was going to stay with a friend for the month of Feb, while I would stay in FL and work to make some money rather than return to CT in snow season. So for the next month, I just worked hard and stayed in the apartment with the dogs. In the meantime, Laura was getting acclimated to the new season in CT with KRM, and she found us a house to move into in the beginning of March. Things were looking like they were starting to get into a settled rhythm with a season in CT for the foreseeable future. I was still not in the 2010 internship, but we had a place back with the ministry family, and that is where we felt we were supposed to be. The internship was still a sore wound in my heart, and my soul in general from the past season was still in a state of sickness. Actually, while I was looking forward to what God was going to do in the next season of our lives, at the same time I was not really looking very much forward to returning to CT. As much as I knew it was in my heart to be there in the middle of things, the amount of disappointment and hurt, rejection and hope deferred that I had endured there caused me to feel quite shaky to say the least. So when I got there in March, I had a very hard time getting back into the community. I was struggling with isolation and rejection, and was caught in a swirl of emotional chaos that was leaving me feeling at a loss for vision. The enemy was very much involved trying to derail what God was doing. Even my marriage during that first period was challenged, because here I was in CT without knowing my place, and my wife was smack in the middle of the day-to-day operation of the ministry that I knew I was intended to be a part of during this season. And even though she was a part of things, still there was no real place for me. Not that I needed a job or something, but KRM is very community-focused in the staff team, and they do a lot of relational development stuff within the team, and despite Laura wanting me to be involved, there really was no way for me to be a part of the team. So that only served to drive me more into a place of isolation, and this time I was drawing further and further from Laura in my heart. The enemy was trying to sabotage my life and destiny during that time.

Eventually, over the intervening months, I was able to have some restorative connections with various people in the church, and that was a beginning toward getting settled. Then I began to get more involved in the life of the KRM family, beginning to participate in the different activities and events that they hosted. Then, finally, after some months of being here, I got the opportunity to communicate with Jason about all that I have gone through over the past year, and my various challenges along the way with the internship, the ministry, and my family. That talk was very important because it enabled me to verbalize some things that I needed to get out in the open. We were able to connect on all of that, and after that talk it was like a whole new season began.

Even after that talk with Jason, still I have been wrestling with some areas of shakiness in my soul. Some of it is residual stuff from all that I have gone through over the last year, but much of it is stuff that I have begun to realize has been laying dormant in my soul for a long time, and just had not been put under enough pressure to surface until all that I have gone through over this past year. So suddenly I find myself in a process of soul healing that is taking me deeper and deeper into places in me that I have never been before. I have been in a process like this for a long time, but over the past few weeks I have begun to learn about elements in this inner healing/restoration of foundations process that are deeper than anything I had ever seen. I feel like I am just now beginning to chip away at the real heart of some of the issues that I have dealt with for all of my life. It goes into identity and core places in me that speak of real true transformation. I will go into more detail in a further post. This is just an update.

So over the past month or two, we have begun to see a budding connection with Jason and his family that God is beginning to birth, and we don’t know exactly where it is leading all of us, but we are starting to see that it goes farther than we saw at first when we came up in Jan. Some amazing things have happened and come forth, with the Lord birthing Laura into areas of her destiny and identity that had not been touched before. And many other amazing things have occurred. We are just beginning to try to sort it all out, and we know that we are just at the beginning. I think we will be here a bit longer than we originally thought, which is exciting. I knew God had some things here for us, it just took running up against that wall again and again in perseverance until it gave in. Wow, what a journey. I feel like we are in a process in every area of our lives of ripping up wrong foundations and being built on a right foundation. There is so much to say on that, so I will do that in the next post, maybe. Bless you all!!!!

Been a While Pt. 2

So we were leaving CT yet again to brave the mean streets of 95-S. The weekend before we left CT, we attended a Gathering with Jason and the KRM team. It was an incredibly difficult thing for me. Here I was standing at a door, looking in and able to see clearly all that is on the other side. Imagine a great banqueting hall, and a table filled with  all sorts of sumptuous foods and delicacies. Imagine all sorts of people who you know and love enjoying the banquet. And imagine seeing two empty chairs sitting forlornly alone amidst all the celebration. Those were our seats, and this was supposed to be our celebration. It was unreal to be there in the Gathering with the other interns, and to have such amazing encounters with God, and to receive such clear vision for what the Lord is building in that community and that place through the ministry… and to know that we were meant all along to be in the middle of it… and to have it all slip though our fingers like so much sand. I had prayed and contended for this place. Many long hours laboring in prayer, being formed in the same spirit and heart of that which God is building in CT, and yet it seems like I can see it all shrinking in the distance in my rearview mirror. I am unable to adequately describe this process. But we were turning around and walking away from all of it. Crazy. The second night of the Gathering, I just laid on the ground and wept, crying out to God again and again, “Lord, I don’t understand… I don’t understand…”

So as we were driving south on 95, about one hour from our town in CT, my truck broke down. Here we were trying to put this place behind us, and we were unable to get out of the state. $1,500 and one day later, we were back on the road. The trip took us two more days to get back to FL. While we were traveling south, my mom and her friend arranged an apartment for us to rent in FL. We got the electricity turned on while we drove, and we had our sights set on home. This time for real.

When we were passing through NC, Laura called me and she asked me what I was thinking about the 2011 internship. I almost couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Now, I know that the Lord had been doing many things under the surface throughout all of these events over the past season, but at times it is hard to perceive exactly what is going on while you are going through it. One of the main things that the Lord has been doing throughout all of this is to bring Laura and I up to speed with each other and with what He is doing in the earth and in KRM. So for the first four months that we were in CT last year, Laura and I were not in unity about our place and our process there. I was going to do the internship and travel all over the world, while Laura was going to be basically muscling through a year of work and paying the bills, being left behind. She was always supportive of my opportunity, but in reality she was not in the same place as me in the vision. It felt a bit one-sided, and she could not help but feel like this year would only create more separation between us in our journey toward our joint destiny. I would be getting the mentoring, and she wouldn’t be. So for the first four months in CT, it was very hard for us. Laura was making a great sacrifice just being there.

So when Laura called me in NC and asked me about the internship for 2011, I was stunned. I told her, and honestly, that I was not even thinking about that. Actually, I was so spun from my pursuit of the 2010 internship and the ensuing disappointments that I was only to ready to leave the whole state of CT behind and good riddance. It hurts to make yourself vulnerable and step out in faith only to be broken in the process. I was very much limping home to FL licking my wounds. So this call from Laura could not have been more unexpected. She was surprised when I told her all of that. I was surprised that she would be bringing it up, with all of the difficulty the internship idea created for her the first time. Then she went on to tell me that she had been thinking about how she might find the money for the first half of the year for the 2010 internship if Jason had told me my place was still open for me. When she told me that, my heart broke. Here we were, leaving the one thing behind that I had expended more of myself on than perhaps any other thing, and the one thing that I had perceived as the greatest barrier to that–my family unity–was now completely resolved. At one moment I was overwhelmed by love and appreciation for my wife, that she would take it upon herself to find a way to fund my internship without even telling me what she was thinking. And at the same moment I was struck by the realization that now there was no reason why I could not have done the internship. Surely there should not have been any remaining hindrances. The only thing now keeping me from doing the internship that I could see was just unfortunate timing. Man that was a bittersweet moment.

So without further ado, we finished our drive. It was no use pondering what might have been had things been a little different. So after a long drive, we finally rolled into our new apartment. We went in and got settled, unpacked all of our stuff from the two vehicles and the trailer, and had just stopped for a minute when Laura’s phone rang. I didn’t think anything of it, and decided to run to the store to get some things. When I got back, Laura was still on the phone. When she got off, she looked at me and told me that it had been Jason on the phone. She proceeded to tell me that he had called to ask her if she wanted her job back. Her position had just opened up again, and after praying with his staff, they came to the conclusion that Laura is the person for the job. So at the risk of seeming totally ridiculous after all that we have been through running up and down 95, he wanted to call and offer her a position with the ministry. Wow. What the heck? So there we were, in our new apartment, just unpacked, looking at each other in bewilderment… And somehow we both knew what we were going to do. Dang it, we were going back to CT. Aaahhhh! This was going to make us look completely flaky to all of the people who are the most important to us, but at some point you have to count the cost for what God has put in your heart, and forsaking the shame and your very dignity, run after it with all of your heart. So that is what we purposed to do. God bless my mom in all of this, and her friend Lisa, who had just jumped through all sorts of hoops to get us set up in this new apartment. My mom was sitting on the edge of her seat this whole time, worried that we were getting in over our heads with all of the change we were putting ourselves through. And I will always love her and appreciate how she made herself available for us without fail during this season of perpetual transition. She has been such an encouragement and support all throughout, even and especially when she could in no way begin to understand where we were in our process. God bless her, we were going back to CT.