June | 2013 | Beyond the Map

At times in my life, I’ve felt overwhelmed with life’s issues… and realized that I hadn’t taken care of my heart as well as I should. I hadn’t spent the time with God necessary to fuel my heart. As a result my heart was diminished in spiritual vibrancy. This left me without the reserve of inner empowerment to overcome. The fact is simple: empowerment to overcome life’s issues really only comes from spending time with God.

“Guard over your heart with all diligence for from it flow all the issues of life.” – Prov 4:23

Since we’re prone to shame-based thinking, at first glance we may think this verse means to try to keep our hearts as free from the world and evil as possible. Well, of course… that’s elementary… but what it really means is that we must keep it full of the Life of God. And there is no substitute for keeping it full except to spend time with God.

That begs the question, “How do I know if my heart is full… or healthy?” Well, ask yourself what kind of self-talk thoughts are rumbling through your mind. If you are thinking negatively about life’s issues, you are probably deficient in ‘God-life’.

A great hero in the faith, Bill Johnson says, “If I am more than two weeks away from tears, then I know what I have to do.” In other words, tears are one of his indicators that his heart has been refueled with God-life. (For more on tears, read: The Language of Tears ) We too must find the indicators which help us become aware of the status of our hearts.

In those times when I was overwhelmed by life, I have discovered that if I give myself to several weeks of more focused God-time, my heart is refueled and life’s issues are now much easier to face. The solution to most of our inner struggles and stress is really quite simple… spend time with God.

For various reasons, most of us have some level of desire to spend more time with God, but don’t have a strategy or plan to make it meaningful. Over the years, I have gradually discovered a plan that works for me. It goes like this:

Plan to succeed

Find a place where I can be fully real and uninhibited with God
Establish regular and predictable set-aside times with God
On a calendar at home, check off my times with God
All conversations with God are ‘out loud’

1. Start with praying in the Spirit

Invite Holy Spirit to pray through me
He prays the right prayers and best prayers
He always prays in agreement with Father
He always gets the answers to His prayers
He edifies me as He prays through me
I ask Him what He’s praying so I can pray with Him

2. ‘Love-on’ Jesus / Father

This is the First Commandment
It is Matt 6:33 “Seek ye first…”
Develop new vocabulary to express my affection

3. Pray God’s heart over each of my issues

No ‘beggar-prayers’ allowed
Must pray faith-filled prayers
Agree with God’s heart and thoughts about me
What does the Word say?
Practice prophesying His will into issues

4. Thank God for this time with Him

Train my heart to expect and love face-time with Him
Anchor my heart in Heaven’s favor today
Declare eagerness to meet here next time

When asked, I have offered this plan to many hungry or ‘stuck’ people and have heard some pretty cool testimonies of break-through as a result. A more detailed A plan to succeed gives a specific plan to follow and a way to keep one’s self accountable until a new life-pattern has been established.

“Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, that he may run who reads it.” – Hab 2:2

I have ‘written the vision’ so that anyone can ‘run’ with it. If you are hungry for more or don’t like your ‘stuck’ feeling, try this plan… be serious with it, and I’m confident that you find a noticeable… even significant changes within a few weeks.

Click here to download A Plan To Succeed ‘work-sheet’… and expect new spiritual vibrancy.

— MLH

Tags: fuel my heart, God-life, guard over your heart, Life of God, Plan to succeed, self-talk, spiritual vibrancy, tears, write the vision

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Categories Insights

DPM Update – 2013 June

17 Jun

Dear Friends

Northland Holy Spirit tour (June 1-10)

We just got back from a ten day trip to MN and WI again. Hey… we didn’t encounter a blizzard or icy roads this time. Thank you Jesus!!

We spoke at Destiny Church (Rod & Connie Marquette-pastor) in Rochester, MN on Sunday morning and led a worship seminar for their youth worship team the rest of the day.

Guest speaker Kevin Dedmon hit a ‘homerun’ Mon and Tues at the Regional Global Legacy Leader’s Advance. We experienced one of most authentic corporate outbreaks of the joy of the Lord since the late 90s. So refreshing!

Wednesday evening we discovered a great group of Jesus-lovers at Steve & Cheryl Dick’s house church in Mt Lake, MN… will likely return soon.

On Thurs eve we led a barn-church (yeah, you heard right… a barn-church) near Pigeon Falls, WI owned by Dennis and Melanie Simon. It was a real barn in a real hay-mow (clean) with nearly 75 people on a very chilly and damp evening. Everyone bundled up in winter coats and blankets… but Jesus loved it. Along with good worship times, there were some healings, and 2 young people gave their hearts to the Lord that evening. (Check out this pic or my Facebook page for more.)

We made a lot of new friends at (WLN) Wisconsin Leaders Network run by Bob & Julie Ambler in Oconomowoc, WI… and led worship and spoke about the emerging Kingdom Age, all day Saturday, June 8.

Sunday afternoon, Paul & Donna Bell’s Tree of Life Fellowship in Madison rallied many of our great and long-time friends… Holy Spirit junkies. It didn’t take much to get them going. In fact they were already in Heaven by the time we started. So fun.

We have some amazing times in the Northland and always look forward to these trips.

SoCal trip (May 16-30)

Impact Church (Jack & Annie Lee-pastor) in Pasadena is a group of creative and eager young Asians. We were there most of two weeks and just lived with them… listened to them… and were Mom and Pop to them, etc. We hiked the nearby mountains a few times and talked about what it takes to make our hearts come alive in God. We led two Saturday all day seminars on worship and heart matters. The evenings were ‘encounter’ focused. One one occasion, while we were exploring around in spontaneous choruses and verses, one of the young guys named William who had never rapped before, shocked all of us by rapping his verse and later rapped the ‘benediction’… Listen here. He brought the house down and became our new hero! So fun! They asked us to join them in their house churches also… and of course anywhere they gather there is amazing food. One evening we talked about romance, dating, and told cool God-stories about our kids finding their mates… and asking God for God-signs to validate their future spouses… and what good and bad qualities to look for when you’re attracted to someone. It was pretty obvious that it was ‘hitting home’ when we saw elbow-pokes and the ‘fun/guilty’ glances darting across the room. Click here to read ‘Life’s Mate Check List’. We love our Asian ‘family’… a pic.

San Diego – Dave and Ann Clark and a vibrant young Hispanic leader Israel Chavez, set up this meeting at Lacasa Delcafe in National City with around 40 Hispanic leaders from San Diego… about 7-10 churches were represented. It started off a little slow but WOW did the evening come alive. When we modeled how to sing spontaneous choruses and make up verses, their singers and worship leaders almost immediately began to follow. It wasn’t long until they were prophesying in English and Spanish, with lots of cheers… then body ministry broke out, with lots of tears. And true to Hispanic form, it didn’t wind down until after 11 PM… then they broke out the home-made tacos, salsa, cilantro and home-made ice cream floats. Now you talk about an evening made in Heaven… We will likely go back in early July for more awesome Jesus-times. Pic of Deb and I at La Jolla oceanside.

Santa Barbara – UCSB – Isla Vista Campus Church (Jason Lomelino-pastor). This group has become famous for serving free “Jesus Burgers” on campus every Friday night during the school year. We had an amazing evening with them which reminded me of my early life experiences in 1970 with the Jesus-hippies in LA. This is authentic grass-roots religion in operation… raw, unpolished, innocent, passionate and effective. Bethel church in Redding, CA also supports this group.

City of Industry House of Prayer (COIHOP) – Josh Sun leads a house of prayer that meets in an upscale marketplace commercial business. The business owner was so taken with giving the best part of his business to the Lord that he built a house of prayer inside the walls and furnished it with modern interior decorating, the latest AV tech equipment, and all the instruments and computers a musician could ask for. We spent one evening there, drank from their ‘well’ and had a great time encouraging them.

Mott Auditorium – A friend Noel Johnson, is a YWAM DTS leader. His group was based in the dorms at Mott Auditorium for two months. We were most blessed by these ALIVE youth when we shared with them one afternoon. They soaked it up like a sponge. You gotta hand it to these young people who just live by faith and do the crazy cool stuff. Love, love!!

Our very special grandbabies… Aslan and Avalee! Click here

Aslan’s new sibling – Due Sept 7!

Aslan is going to have another brother or sister! Listen to this heartbeat audio

Fun Supernatural Provision book testimony:

Wife: “Your book releases laughter. I was reading and I couldn’t stop laughing. When I read, “O, my little flock, do not fear”, I started laughing. Then when I read that it was the “Father’s good pleasure to give us the Kingdom”, it made me break out in uncontrollable laughter for twenty minutes. Later, I got this giggly thing when I just stared at the cover. I’ve never done that before. I felt like the Holy Spirit was doing something… I was receiving a revelation… like “deep calling unto deep”.”

Husband: “I’ve never heard her laugh like that. She was cracking up so loud. Then when she quieted down she would look at the book and crack up again. Normally, she is more of a ‘crier’… with tears, but this time was so different; she was uncontrollable… see, like right now even as we’re talking about it.” Josh & Carla

Upcoming June trips

Springfield, MO – Dayspring Church – Steve Wilson-pastor – Bob Hartley Hope Conference – June 21-22
Eldorado Springs, MO – Springs of Worship Family Worship Center – Earl Ackley-pastor – June 23

St Louis area
St Charles, MO – Encounter group – Tom Kyle-pastor – Friday eve June 28
Foristell, MO – house church – Scott & Julie Hammond-leaders – Saturday eve June 29
Warrenton, MO – Abundant Life Church – David Click-pastor – Sunday morn June 30

As always we deeply appreciate your prayers for us and our family. Thank you so much, for releasing Kingdom life over us and prophesying effectual ‘doors’ in the Spirit for us. May you and yours be blessed beyond your wildest expectations!!! Amen.

Much love to all

Mark and Debbie

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Dwelling Place Ministries
Hendrickson
11011 Olive St
KC, MO 64131
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