Schoolies Australia

In Australia our media refers to "Schoolies," (that is, the week long alcohol fueled sex party after high school), as a "Rite of Passage into Adulthood". Most of these youth are only 17.
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I believe that these Year 12's and the so called "Toolies" are only attracted to "Schoolies Celebrations" because they are yet to have an 'extreme encounter' with Jesus Christ. I am not talking about sitting in Church singing a few songs and listening to a sermon, or playing games at youth group. I am talking about being totally blasted by the presence of God. Experiencing first hand, God healing people, setting them free, filling them with the Holy Spirit making them new, blasting them with joy.........As the old chorus says "and the things of this world grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace."
Bob Lipsys, Australia

Ordinary Extraordinary

I think that someday when we get to Heaven, we’re going to be amazed at how many things in this life were actually activities of great spiritual worth, but we thought they were just everyday, human things that God didn’t really care about.
Jim Driscoll http://www.stirthewater.com

One of the most significant words God has spoken into my life was: “Take your girls for a walk.” Nothing super-Spiritual about that. However during that walk with my wife and 2 very young daughters, God spoke into our lives. The end result was that we left all that was secure in our lives (A career I loved, financial security, our positions in the local community, good house, friends, Church and ministry, and our dreams) to follow God’s call into the ‘unknown’. We ended up 850km away, totally reliant on God, His provision and His security.

Over 7 years we lived where our income did not meet our expenses. Yet we lived these years without debt. In our everyday lives we experienced God’s presence, His faithfulness and His provision. We always had enough for our needs plus enough to give. By the end of the 7 years we had four children who all had experienced God providing for their needs. We now have four children with deep faith.

Faith is grown in everyday experience, as we interact with God. According to the Bible, that is the sort of faith that pleases God. Hebrews 11:6 “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.”

Want to experience God? Then begin in your everyday life. Ask yourself the question: “What do you want me to do next Lord?” And keep asking it and obeying Him.

Bob Lipsys

Drenched and dripping with the power of God.

We ought to live every day as though we've come out of another world into this world - but with the power of that world still upon us. We should live and speak and move in that power, and have our whole being in Jesus Christ!
John Wesley

Last week someone was very surprised that I go to Church each week. They said, "You are not Catholic, you don't have to go. Why would you go?"

(I did not tell them I also go to "Church" each day - via the net, worship CDs, teaching CDs etc - I did not want to completely blow their minds. They were surprised enough.)

I don't go to Church for Church. I go to meet God with a group of friends who are committed to me. Via worship we enter another world, another dimension. Being together with God empowers our lives and our spirits. On Sunday I got prayed for out the front. That prayer is still bubbling through me, doing its powerful work. There is power in prayer that is inspired by God. It releases one for the destiny God has for them.

John Wesley was so right. Each day we do come from another world. We come drenched and dripping with the power of God.
Bob Lipsys

Is experiencing God important?

Bill Johnson pastor of Bethel Church, Redding California believes so. In his book "When Heaven invades Earth," he writes: '...God cannot be known apart from experience. Randy Clark puts it this way: "Anyone who doesn't have an experience with God, doesn't know God." God is a person, not a philosophy or a concept.'
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The Bible from beginning to end is about people who experienced God. They talk with Him. Are healed by Him. They experience miracles. People prosper in drought times, defeat great armies, are saved from impossible situations, all because they know God.
God is part of their lives. Actually, most of the people in the Bible first got to know God through experiencing His intervention in their lives.

I grew up in a Church which focused on having an "objective knowledge" of God. That is knowing about God from the Bible and the Church's doctrines. Personal experience was looked down on. It was preached that we no longer needed miracles or personal experience because we now have the whole Bible. Because of that many people in the Church looked outside of God for help when sick or in need. God was seen as only a last resort.

The sad thing is that God wants to be known. It is His will to heal, to save to set free. God wants to intervene in financial situations and in relationships that are breaking down. God has the miracle needed for your situation. He wants to do these things because he wants you to know Him personally. The only way this can happen is by experience. You need to experience God.

God is closer then you think
Bob Lipsys