The WordPress.com 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner can carry about 250 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,800 times in 2012. If it were a Dreamliner, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.
(Disclaimer: There is a belief called ‘dualism’ which separates God in the spirit realm from man in the natural realm. The two don’t mix in this belief system. Conversely, when I speak of dual realities I believe they are intertwined and inseparable.)
Heaven is for real! And it’s for now! Yes, we walk on earth, but we’ve been invited to live in and rule from Heaven… and experience both of them simultaneously. God’s original intention was for us to be aware of and live in the supernatural realm more than in the temporal realm. Unfortunately, most voices around us scream to give our full attention to this earthly realm. And even most of the voices which would point us to the Heavenly realm would have us believe that the Heavenly realm is reserved for after we die. Of course this is just not true. Jesus, our Supreme Model gave us plenty of examples to see how a mortal can ascend into Heaven while still living and breathing on earth. John 3:13 is a prime example:
“No one has ascended to Heaven but He who came down from Heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in Heaven.”
Jesus is referring to Himself in each instance in this verse… the one who ascended… the one who came down… and the one who is in Heaven. Just for reference; this verse is pre-cross, pre-resurrection and pre-glorification. Then how could He say this? Because He had discovered how to ascend and descend. He had learned to traverse between the two realms. In fact, He lived in both simultaneously. One realm was not mutually exclusive or cancelling of the other. They had merged into one experience… all under Father’s jurisdiction and care. Jesus, being 100% man, set the example for us. He’s inviting us to live in the Heavenlies with Him, now! No delaying it until our ‘ticker’ stops. A host of Scriptures reference and establish this powerful fact (if we use the right ‘glasses’ to view them). So now, while our feet walk on terra firma, we live in and rule from Heaven where we’re “seated with Christ”!
Unfortunately this world has baptized and marinated us in the pickle juice of shame, insecurity and lack. And we’ve believed this diabolic lie. Even as sons of God, we still operate nearly exclusively out of our ‘pickled’ state… in our self-talk, in our conversations and in our prayer life. Just listen to ourselves talk about ourselves or our conditions next time we talk to anyone, especially when we talk to God. Do you hear any ‘poor little ‘ol me’ overtones… or rehearsing the sad state of affairs… or outright beggar posture just hoping for another morsel to help make it till Friday. The following quote says it quite succinctly:
“One of the most disbelieved scriptures in the entire Bible is found in Col. 2:10: “You are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.” This is the root of unbelief that gives rise to all of our struggles. When we do not believe we are complete in Him we spend our every effort trying to become who God says we are. We use our “faith” to get what God says we already have. Our prayer life is consumed with asking God to do what He has already done through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus!”
“Break the power of lack by persuading your heart that you are complete in Him. Memorize, meditate on, sing, say, and worship every scriptural promise that tells you what is yours in Jesus. (And, by the way, every promise God ever made to anyone is yours, in Christ. (2 Cor. 1:20) Lose yourself in Him. Immerse yourself so deeply in your identity in Him that you have no sense of self outside of Christ! No lack can live in a heart that is complete.” – Dr. James B. Richards
Did you catch that? Even our prayers reflect our beggar mentality because we’re still slaves to the Liar and his lies. Believing this lie will prohibit us from being kings and kingly. But we ARE kings… co-heirs with Jesus and seated with Him in the Heavens! This MUST become our greater reality. We must learn to think, see, speak, pray and rule from this reality. The now emerging Kingdom era needs and awaits us. Believing Him who is Truth will launch us into being “filled with all the fullness of God” (see Eph 3:19).
In the beggar posture, we didn’t have to accept responsibility for the rightness or wrongness of our prayers. We just cried out from our real or perceived pain or lack… and we let Almighty God do the sorting out. We didn’t have any power anyway… it was all up to Him. Right? No! That’s not scripturally correct! Jesus said, “I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy…” (see Luke 10:19). And this is NOT reserved for ‘the millennium’… this is NOW! Friends, we’ve got a lot of growing up to do, in our prayer type (ruling vs beg), our prayer focus (from Heaven toward earth) and our prayer topics (governance). We’ll have to determine whether we’ve spent sufficient ‘face-time’ to get to know Father’s heart so that we can pray authoritatively as His spokesperson and emissary.
Suggestion: Try a fast… a unique type of fast. Try fasting for one week from plaintiff prayers… even from asking prayers. Try releasing, prophetic, declaring, decreeing type prayers. This may feel awkward at first, but you’ll find that it’s much more in keeping with who you are and your inheritance in Christ. Try thinking, speaking and praying as a ruling king would… as a king who has heard and knows his King’s heart and mind. Are you ready, kings? Ok, no more pickle juice! Welcome to kingship in His Kingdom!
The simple graphic below may help visualize this powerful dynamic. (Click for larger graphic)
To view an 80 minute video of Mark presenting this subject, click here.
For notes to accompany the video, click here.
And the best and happiest New Year, yet!
From the Hendrickson family
A little over 2000 years ago, a baby was born who would become
the Savior of the world. Despite a very humble beginning,
He became a King. This King loved so well that we still
celebrate His birthday… and wise men still seek Him.
A very special 6 year old girl sings ‘Happy Birthday Jesus’.
And speaking of babies
let us introduce our newest family members born this year:
Aslan James Avalee Joy
Dear Friends
Exciting Newsflash!
Another momentous milestone in the Hendrickson family… Luke and Sarah Church are engaged to be married. We all agree, Sarah is a great young lady who is quite easy to fall in love with… just ask Luke. They’re planning an April wedding in Redding, CA. (See pic)
Philippine ‘Love Box’
Many of Cheryl’s relatives live in an extremely poor part of the Philippines and exist very meagerly on about $2 a day. On occasion we’ve sent money for special purposes; e.g. repairing a leaking metal roof, replacing a dirt floor with concrete and building a cook area and chimney so the concrete block house isn’t filled with smoke. When the work was completed, we were very surprised to receive detailed receipts and a letter of heartfelt thanks. On another occasion we sent a ‘Love box’ crammed full of helpful items; flip flops, hundreds of personal toiletries, writing tablets, coloring books, crayons, puzzles, toys, clothes, hats, coffee & creamer, canned meat, etc… We also added fun size Snickers bars, because when Cheryl was a little girl in the Philippines her family received a box from America. In the midst of all the necessity gifts there were Snickers candy bars which were sliced into little slivers so everyone got a bite. Cheryl talks about the box smelling like ‘America’ and how special it was. We’ve heard of others receiving International gift boxes and experiencing the same thing. It’s been a huge blessing to us when we hear how impacting our gifts have been to them.
We are shipping two huge boxes in the next few days. If something stirs in your heart to help financially or you’d like to enclose something in this shipment, please let us know ASAP. We also like to enclose a picture of each family who participated which they proudly hang on a wall in their Spartan home.
Recent travels
St Louis weekend
Last month Deb and I joined a St Peters house church one Friday evening and helped facilitate their desire to have “encounter” meetings. This group is transitioning from a ‘seeker sensitive’ church to a more Spirit led experience. It was a blast to create freedom and on-ramps for them to engage in giftings and body ministry beyond what they normally experience. This dynamic is probably the most fulfilling thing we do at this time in our lives… unlocking people’s hearts to exercise their latent giftings.. and then watch them come ‘alive’ with delight in the discovery process.
That Sunday we revisited a church of great friends in Warrenton. There was much grace to enlist many in the congregation to ‘active duty’… young and old, veterans and newbies. We even ‘drafted’ the worship team to sing and play prophetic songs over others in the auditorium. Tears and laughter, fun and freedom were the order of the day. In the course of one of the ministry times, 7 or 8 year old Kristin prophesied a Scripture over a first-time visitor… so touching and impacting to all of us. We could do that every day… so liberating and satisfying to see God’s people functioning together. It is I Cor 14:26 in action.
Springfield, MO
Each month we try to join regional leaders who gather for purely relational purposes. A great meal is provided by the host church and a very meaningful time of sharing and body ministry almost always follows. I’ve probably said this before, but this group has the most organic and ‘unofficial’ rallying of leaders… most of them not related by denomination or network… just relationship. Steve and Sally Wilson are the rally-ers of this gathering. They pastor Dayspring Church, which in our opinion is one of the freshest things happening in the southern MO region. In the last year or so, they’ve hosted three or four Bethel leaders and Randy Clark, with Todd White and Heidi Baker coming in the future. All that to say, we’re very pleased to be associated with what God is doing there.
We’ve had several outstanding house churches in our home recently. And of course, body life and body ministry is the order of the day when we gather. I can’t think of anything too much better than watching Jesus’ people discover the gifts He’s put in them. The delight and life they experience is obvious… what kind of joy do you think Jesus is experiencing?! If you’d like to attend, let us know and we will email you when we have our irregularly scheduled meetings… all welcome.
Christmas
This year, we’re excited about having a full house of all our immediate family here in our home on Christmas Day. The Hendrickson family hit a growth spurt this year with our two grandbabies, Aslan and Avalee, and Luke’s fiancé Sarah. Yay!!! Other extended family members will join us the day after Christmas.
One Thing Conf
As usual, downtown at the Bartle Hall, a major rally of around 20K hungry people will gather again from Dec 28-31 for IHOP’s annual One Thing Conference. Free online registration here. See you there.
Cool miracle
We committed to buy 5000 Supernatural Provision books from the Destiny Image Pub… in 1000 book allotments. The strange thing is that each time we’ve needed to order another 1K books at about $5K per order, timely finances for that order show up from very unpredictable sources.
Cool story: About two months ago we received a $5100 direct deposit into our bank account from a royalties distribution company. Now, we receive some royalties, but just a pittance each year. This amount was over-the-top. So I researched the matter and found that the royalties were for two songs… and we’d never heard of either one. We tried for a month or so to inform the company of the mistake. Last week, we received an email from the manager of the royalty department acknowledging the mispayment… and their correction of the computer error. But here’s the good news… He informed us, “We have no policy for receiving erroneously paid monies so there’s no further response necessary on your part. In addition, we have passed the time for 4th quarter distribution of royalty payments and so you will receive another payment for $611 later this month. There is no response necessary for this matter, either.”
As you can imagine we were elated with this much needed but unexpected windfall, so Debbie responded with an email saying, “We are surprised and delighted with how you have resolved the matter. Thank you!” To which the manager responded, “I had a feeling you’d be happy about that ha-ha. Glad I could be the bearer of good news!” Is that crazy cool or what!!! How often does that happen? Doesn’t that just sound like God?! His creativity is so amazing!
So as long as our Good God keeps mysteriously providing for us to purchase the books, we’re having a blast giving them away for free (or when mailed – $5). Ya just gotta love His ‘No Sweat Zone’ which is available for each of us! He is for sure, the better-than-we-expected Jehovah Jireh!
God bless each of you with His over-the-top goodness this year end!!
Lotsa love
Mark and Debbie
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Dwelling Place Ministries
Hendrickson
11011 Olive St
KC, MO 64131
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(A powerfully vivid excerpt regarding our authority over the principality of financial oppression from the book, The Veil by Blake Healy)
“As I stood, minding my own business, a principality fell out of the sky and landed in front of me. It had a long neck with a bulky body and thick tail. From head to tail it was probably fifty yards. Its head had landed just at my feet, while the long neck and pale body stretched all the way down the hill.
I looked up and asked, “God?”
Immediately the creature began to writhe and shrivel, shrinking down until it looked like a skinny sallow person lying at my feet in the fetal position.
I heard it mumbling, “Don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.”
I looked up again, “What’s this?”
God answered, “It is a principality of financial oppression.”
“Alright. So, what do I do?”
“Rebuke him.”
Without really thinking about what I was going to say, I looked at the disgraced demon and said, “You are not allowed to touch me or my family ever again”
It gritted its teeth in acknowledgement. Since sniveling principalities don’t make for very pleasant company, I turned and started back up the path toward my car. After a dozen steps I heard a deep roar from behind me. I turned to see the principality, flexing and swelling to its original size as it stomped up the path after me. As it extended its neck, slobbering jaws open wide, a black streak fell from the sky. The principality’s head shot from its neck as if it were spring-loaded, sending it soaring past my left ear as the limp body tumbled by my right side.
I stood speechless, not particularly accustomed to being charged down by principalities, much less ones whose heads spontaneously leapt from their bodies. A man was standing with his back to me at the spot where the principality had been decapitated. I only had a moment to observe the ornate sword in his hand before it dissolved into blue flames that ran up his arm, coming to rest across his shoulders. Just as I began to wonder who he was, the man turned around, and I found myself staring back at me. Perhaps my standards for normality are different than most people, but even for me this was very weird.
Then I heard God say, “You don’t know the authority you have.”
Healy, Blake (2012-09-24). The Veil (Kindle Locations 528-543). The Kindle Edition.
It is our human nature to focus on dealing with the symptom rather than the problem because the symptom takes less responsibility to correct. When we have a headache we’d rather take a pill than drink six to eight glasses of water a day and reduce our sugar intake, we’d rather buy diet coke and fat-free sour cream than eat fruits and vegetables, and it’s much easier to throw money at the needy than to develop a culture that prevents poverty.
Principalities can only stay where they have a place to land. While casting down a principality will remove it from its place, it is much more profitable and powerful to change the spiritual ecosystem that attracted it in the first place. If there is a spirit of poverty over your city, be generous. If there is a spirit of anger, release peace. If there is a spirit of homosexuality, release identity in Christ. If there is a spirit of fear, release love. It is possible to cast down a principality through prayer, but it is impossible for a principality to remain in a culture that has made no room for it.
Healy, Blake (2012-09-24). The Veil (Kindle Locations 585-593).
Mark Hendrickson
Beyond the Map 