I began to share the testimony of the last year of my life.  It was ministering to his heart as he was dealing with the wrestling with the consequences and questions of such a move.  As I was sharing with him, I felt the unction and somewhat of a level of anointing and authority.  What I did not anticipate was level of volume and conviction with which I was sharing.  It became visibly apparent that he was hearing the message.  I was then hit with the reality that I was preaching to myself as well. I felt that I was preaching to him but to myself in a greater measure.

The Lord was bringing to rememberance how I lived by faith in the last season.  Oh how easy it is to allow the claws of comfort and entitlement come and dig in to the soil of my heart.  To some degree the mindset of the flesh and this world have taken root in my heart.  I realized these last few weeks I have not been vigilant as I should have been.  I have not been daily 100% surrendered.  I say NO!!!

Oh Lord, help me to embrace the upside down kingdom!  Once again, strip away everything that I hold onto that is not You God!  No matter how little it may be, let my surrender be complete.

As my guest and I prayed for each other, we felt the presence of God so strongly.  It was wonderful.

“I am changing! Less and less asleep!” [emphasis added] Oh the doctrine of regeneration. This is the constant aggressive pursuit of restoration. Restoration to the Garden. To walk in the cool of the garden with our Creator. Intimacy and wholeness. Then the song entered the bridge I about lost it. “You make all things new” Well I will spare you the details but I will say that it was an amazing encounter. I felt the affirmation of my Father who showed me that He who began a good work in me is faithful to complete it. Despite the past and all things that I believe, sometimes I need to hear from Him that He makes all things new. Do you believe He makes all things new? Not just that He has the power to do so but the reality that He is doing so in you right now! Even though sometimes we don’t feel it. I am totally a different person than I was a week, month, or a year ago.

By the way I am trying to make it back to SoCal on October 8th to the 11th. I want to visit and hangout in LA on Thursday, The Source that Friday night, and then Saturday go to my church men’s retreat on Saturday. I will be at my church in SD on Sunday and be back to Fullerton to be with family and friends Monday. I should be flying back to KC on Tuesday. All this of course if I can swing the funds to do it and get the time off work and there’s lots of work to be done   It’s like what Miles McPherson said “we have to work fearlessly and tirelessly…”

The song: Shadowfeet
By Brooke Fraser (go buy the CD, I like her stuff)

Walking,stumbling on these shadowfeet
toward home,a land that i’ve never seen
I am changing: less and less asleep
made of different stuff than when i began
and i have sensed it all along
fast approaching is the day

when the world has fallen out from under me
I’ll be found in you, still standing
when the sky rolls up and mountains fall on their knees
when time and space are through
I’ll be found in you

Theres distraction buzzing in my head
saying in the shadows it’s easier to stay
but I’ve heard rumours of true reality
whispers of a well-lit way

You make all things new

When the world has fallen out from under me
I’ll be found in you, still standing
Every fear and accusation under my feet
when time and space are through
I’ll be found in you

I do not know where to begin to recall the providence of God.  An unexpected tax return, my dear parents taking over my upside down real estate properties, beloved strangers who have quickly become friends giving to me when I have not asked nor deserved, a young couple who give me (at the moment) their only working car, my church community that embraced the call on my life despite the sacrifice, the Monday women’s prayer group who prayed me back to New Hope, ma and pa Bailey who have made San Diego my home for almost the last ten years, my worship pastor who teaches me humility and service (what do I know I’m still a little kid , my pastor and his wife who stood by me in the most difficult times of my life and loved me enough to talk about difficult things, and so many that would take me so long to name who have blessed me immensely.  There is a story and it continues, I wish I could tell it and convey where it is going.  All I know is this that regardless of hardship or circumstance God will be glorified. He is who He says He is.  For His namesake He will act, for how can his name be profaned among the nations.  His glory He will not give to another.  I am ready for this next season.

By the way thanks Merced peeps who barraged me with calls, facebook, and email these last few days.  My heart burns with desire to see Holy Spirit break through on your campus.  Press in, never give up never surrender.

The corporate prayer time was powerful I thought.  The highlight for me was when I deferred by responsibility of leading the prayer time for the young generation to Eddie Brown.  Eddie brought his spiritual father George Runyun to the stage and asked all the attendees to pray for the generations to walk together and for spiritual fathers and mothers for this generation.  I felt as the spirit of intercession fell on me and I began to weep and cry out.

Thank you for your prayers as I ministered at UCR to the Asian American Christian Fellowship (the campus ministry that I was closely aligned with outside of bringing campus fellowships together).  A couple of people accepted Christ and over ten people recommitted their lives to Christ.  Troy led in an amazing set of worship before the message and did a couple of songs during the response time.  It is always great to minister with an anointed worship leader who is in the place of obedience and faithfulness.  I am truly blessed.

Today starts the beginning of the first ever Southern California Luke18 Conference.  Please keep us in prayer as there have been too many weird occurences/distractions with multiple people who are giving leadership to this conference.  Flights have been delayed, miscommunication and last minute changes due to circumstances beyond our control.  The enemy must be working and that must mean we are doing something correctly.  We are praying for protection but even more than that we are praying for the equipping of college students to run the long distance race of lifestyles of prayer. We are far more interested in transformation of hearts and reformation of culture and society through prayerful lifestyles than throwing on a good event.

For more information about the Luke 18 Conference please go to:  www.luke18california.com

Yesterday afternoon I had an early dinner with an old friend Zack Curry.  Zack and I met in 2001 when the Turning Tour (the original TheCall Tour) came to San Diego.  New Hope Church Hosted a night and Lou and Jesse spoke alongside Zack Curry and Rich Manley.  It was great to connect with Zack after all these years.  He is now married and has had his second daughter born just eight weeks ago.  Zack now serves as the youth pastor for a local Chico church (Neighborhood Church).  The church itself has gone through quite a transition as they have brought the gifts and a more charismatic expression to their church. Pastor Larry Lane there has really been faithful in the midst of many leaving the church.   However it seems to me that the church is as a whole is doing quite well despite the lack of numbers.  A deepening and rewarding for faithfulness is obviously apparent.

This morning a small but mighty group of us met at the campus of CSU Chico to pray for the campus, the students, and revival and reformation in the city.  Chico is a beautiful place with a Christian heritage to match.  The Bidwell’s really were God loving people who were environmentalists and lovers of God and His creation. There is a stream that flows through the city which runs into the Sacramento River.  Praying over the stream on a bridge on campus was very symbolic this morning.  God would you take this “party campus” and make it a place of joy unspeakable.

I head down to Fullerton tonight with another stop at UC Merced.

Please pray for San Diego this weekend. Henry Blackaby is coming to town to address the pastors on how to bring revival and reformation to the city.  It is being hosted by Vision San Diego, my good friend Thomas Bush, and some other pastors who will be speaking are Mike McIntosh and Miles McPherson.  I have had a discussion almost ten years ago with Mike McIntosh about how to reach colleges and I hope to have another conversation this weekend with him about it (I am leading worship and the some of the corporate prayer time on Saturday).  My hope is that the city would continue to pray and fan the flame of prayer throughout the city/county and then obviously the state then nation and so on.

I fully realized why God was moving or cancelling my meetings today.  I was eager to have meetings while I was here but in His infinite wisdom he had me here to confirm that He wants me more in the secret place.

Please pray for me as I have a few meetings over the next three days.

- Meeting with fellow TheCall staffers regarding a nazirite conference to be possibly held in San Diego during Father’s day weekend.

- Meeting to see if I can help establish the location of the facedown 40 for TheCall Sacramento.  The Facedown 40 is when people from around the country come together and worship, fast, and pray for the forty days leading up to TheCall.

- Meeting to lay out the schedule for TheCall College Tour coming to California in the fall of 2009.

- Meeting to work out details of relocating from California to Kansas City.

- Hopefully a meeting to work out some specifics regarding mobilization for Sacramento.

I reconnected with a good high school friend while having lunch in Pasadena.  I shared about the ministry and he has a baby on the way!   The story about the baby is quite amazing (dreams by believer and non-believers). It is so good to hear how God speaks to people about such significant things.  Jacob is the baby’s name!  Josh, you’re a blessing bro!

After lunch I drove to Little Tokyo (Los Angeles) where I met with Troy and had an early dinner for Ramen at Daikyokue. Good stuff!  There is a lot going on with him that makes me happy.  The Father’s heart for our generation is such a strong theme in our lives. It will be a blessing to see how it comes out in our lives in the years to come.  The night before we were talking about fathering worship leaders… it was a great conversation.

Then a one and half hour conversation with Biola student leaders about what God was doing on campus and in the hearts of students.  Thankfully I was blown away.  They are longing for revival.  Many are open to the gifts and hungry for the Holy Spirit to break out on campus. We are going into prayer together to see how God would have us partner on campus for His glory.  We are definitely having a PreCall Rally/ Tour stop there in the fall.  Some of them are hungry for The Love Tent and some just want to see the different groups joing together in unity to pray for the kingdom.

Apparently when we did TheCall San Diego, there was a solem assembly being held on campus.  The change since 2005 until the present has been great to see.  Please keep Biola in your prayers.

This weekend is:

-Saturday morning worship practice at my church in San Diego

-Saturday night: the launch of our truth project group

-Sunday morning services at church and then I fly to Kansas City in the afternoon…  hopefully I have a ride and a place to stay when I get there.

I am a geek:

Okay I just realized a few moments ago that I am really on the phone quite a bit everyday.  Thank God for unlimited call plans on Verizon.  I wish I could get an iPhone but due to the battery life and lack of functional tethering (with wi-fi) I am stuck with my Verizon phone on and a super good deal on Sprint that allows me 1500 anytime minutes and unlimited data and text.  So I love my phone with Verizon because that is simply what it is, a phone.  Convergance always leaves you lacking for the strengths in an individual function (the price you pay for all the convenience).  An iPhone is super convenient but it is not the best in being a phone and not the best portable email client (you need something with Tactile keys for that).  The iPhone is definitely cool though.  I can go the entire day chatting away and usually my battery does not die until 10 PM. That is on the average of 3.5 to 4 hours of talk time and 60 sent and 60 received messages.  Not to mention the benefit of in network calling on Verizon.  So around 9 to 10PM my phone looses its charge and I switch to my Sprint Mogul.

The Sprint plan is excellent because it is 1,500 minutes anytime with unlimited data and text for $54/month.  I knew a guy who hooked it up!  Anyways I use the 3G network on my Mogul to get my emails and use a third party software that allows me to take my laptop or those around me to connect to the 3G network via the wifi on my phone.  Take that blackberry!  So when I am on the road with a team they usually use my Sprint Mogul as a portable Wifi router.  Yes! It’s super convenient when we are in the minivan (the godly drive them) going somewhere and everyone is on their laptops or iTouchs with internet via Wifi via Sprint!  Thank you Sprint!  I think the iPhones are so cool but yeah my current setup works for me.

Okay I just wasted five minutes of your life.  You’re welcome…  That usually happens when I am up this late…

However, one of the projects that I had figuratively “put on the shelf” was a fund raiser recording project to raise money for feeding the homeless, raising awareness of a downtown San Diego urban ministry and raising funds for a future school of worship in northern San Diego. Therefore on Thursday afternoon I headed into Skyline Studios, in Santa Fe Springs, to start on the completion of the project.

Okay I’ll shorten it up (for you Joe):

- There is enough recorded material for 2 CDs

- So I am contemplating doing a 2 CD set with an insert for the Horizon Urban Ministries to publicize on the CD artwork

- This would raise the cost to $20 for the 2 CD set (making dealing with cash a lot easier while raising more money)

- If we could sell 500 units then we would break even and have enough to feed the homeless for an entire year (once a month and an extra day during the holidays)

Well today I woke up and discovered a slip of paper on the windshield which while I was walking to the car I was praying against it being a parking ticket.  Turns out someone hit the car and left a note claiming responsibility.  Thank God that in the midst of these times there are people with integrity.  So my front left fender will most likely have to be replaced.  I will take the car in on Wednesday or so to get it all checked out since it makes noises when the steering wheel is spun to its limit.

At the risk of being labeled as someone who over-spiritualizes, we are in a battle and I believe that the enemy is unhappy with our efforts.  This pleases me.