Prison and Persecution

In the United States, persecution is something we know very little about.  The option to shy away from being overtly overtaken by Mr. Love Himself (aka Jesus) seems more prominent in an effort to “relate” and “be relevant” to the world around us.  Love is how you relate.  Compassion is the key to being relevant.  In other words, being relevant is not skin deep.  The Holy Spirit is known for being a show off.  He wants to make a scene at the expense of the expectations the world puts on your shoulders. I remember my first date with Keeli.  We went to a movie and then strolled through the Asheville Mall.  I saw some teenagers passing by.  One was in a wheelchair.  I stopped to speak to them and asked what had happened.  The boy had hurt his leg in a skateboarding accident.  I asked if we could pray for him.  He agreed so I took a knee beside him and prayed for total and complete healing to manifest in his leg.  When I was finished, I asked him if he felt anything different.  Immediately, his friends began laughing at my question.  I stood to my feet and told them that this isn’t a joke.  I began telling them what we had seen healed by the power of God.  I haven’t been stoned, I haven’t been beaten, and I haven’t been shot at.  I’ve taken on the simplest form of “persecution”… the lightweight, powder puff kind that many believers in America think is true hardship.  Those kids weren’t laughing in insult when I was through.  The world wants to know that you’re serious about what you believe.  Of course, even in your firmness, you can still overflow with the joy of God.

So let’s face it… If we consider this as persecution, we truly need a new perspective.  Each morning at my office, we have devotions.  Pastor Saeed Abedini was sentenced to prison for 8 years in Iran because of his faith in Jesus Christ.  He has been beaten, tortured, and is in the hands of radicals who want him dead.  The only thing keeping him alive is the fact that he is in the media spotlight.  His wife, Naghmeh, shared their testimony.  They have been arrested multiple times, threatened, and promised death in prison by the authorities in Iran.  I could retell their amazing testimony, but I encourage you to hear it from the lips of Naghmeh.   She is a woman who has asked for the nations and shares how she was given an open door to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the world.  Join us as we pray for the release of Pastor Saeed and for his wife as she takes care of their family.

-Jonathan Fawcett

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs7wDLQBmOc&w=640&h=400]

Bathroom Breakthrough: Puppets Can't Subdue Tyranny... You Can

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKyU17b4DbQ&w=640&h=360] There is a term that is used loosely and innocently by many in the church.  The intentions of this phrase is good but it slightly misrepresents the truth of who God is, who we are, and the state of the world.  In fact, most believers, at some point in their life are guilty of saying it at some point or another.  It is a phrase used to bring comfort and assists in the justification of why bad things happen.  However, one must understand that God's will is not everything that happens and everything that happens is not God's will.  The phrase I am referring to is: God is in control.

When God made Adam and Eve, He did not create puppets.  God is not a puppet on a string.  Therefore, He could not truly create anyone in His image if they were under control.  Instead, He gave dominion to mankind (Genesis 1:26-28).  Psalms 115:16 states that the heavens belong to the Lord but the earth He has given to man.  But we do not have control over the earth.  We simply have what Jesus gave: authority.

There is a major difference between authority and control.  If God is in control, why is there racism?  Why is there war or terror?  Why is there murder and rape?  Why is there human trafficking?  Why are there natural disasters wiping out entire cities?  Why is anybody sick?  God is either in control and mad, or we are co-heirs and seated in heavenly realms with Him operating in His authority, and He is madly in love with the entire world.

I Timothy 2:4 and II Peter 3:9 tell us that it is God's will that all be saved and come to the knowledge of salvation.  The entire world was chosen, elected, and predestined to be in Christ.  However, we know that many reject His love and the knowledge of His salvation.  It still does not remove their inclusion in the finished work of the cross or mean that they were chosen by God not to be saved.  It just means they simply choose to reject.

When we walk in the authority of Christ, sickness becomes extinct, solutions come easy, divine inspiration and creativity change nations for good, poverty becomes a thing of the past, the hungry are fed, the lonely are loved, and the orphans and widows are taken good care of.  Heaven on earth is a utopia.  We can know God's will when we look at Jesus.  We can see what isn't God's will when we look at the absence of His authority.  But now, there is no absence of authority for the believer whose goal is God's kingdom on earth.

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: I Like Big Buts

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3ZGckmtt8]That's right!  Big buts!  When millions stop short with I Corinthians 2:9, Paul was bold enough in verse 10 to say, "But God".  That is a very big but and utterly destroys every excuse for not understanding the mysteries of God.  Jesus has revealed the mysteries of the universe by His Holy Spirit.  The beauty in hearing God's voice is that it requires us to be teachable.  It took time for me to arrive to the realization that Christ already accomplished what I was trying to in my own efforts.  To quote two statuses from this past week's Facebook activity:

"Who is guilty of using the phrase "standing in the gap"? I'm raising my hand. NEWSFLASH: There is no gap! Jesus is closer to you than you are to you. Gap: closed. Old Covenant vernacular: over. When we remain teachable, the Good News continues to get better and better because we can look back on the silly things we once believed and be glad that Jesus didn't keep a secret. Only people can take the upfront truth of God's grace and twist it to require more of our effort. With that said, if we continue to believe in our striving, the only gap remaining is the one between our ears and the one where our teeth get knocked out by the self-inflicted beating that accompanies religion."

And...

"Repent of your constant repentance! Even though the platform of some ministries is to get people to repent, the question is- of what?! The word "repent" means to change your mind. When you received the mind of Christ, your days of crying out in repentance were over!"

In other words, because of your union with Christ, you now have the mind of Christ.  His thoughts have become your thoughts and His ways have become your ways.  The mind of Christ does not need to be changed.  We are continually being made in the image of God.  We already are!  Your moments of denial are just the nature of the old, dead, zombie - the person you once were who was co-crucified, co-buried, and c0-raised.  You deserved hell and death.  But God... He made you a new creature - one that can never be separated from Him.  That old, sick, crippled zombie stayed buried.  The new you was raised in perfect union with Christ.

Don't let repentance and ritualistic religion (no matter how charismatic it might seem) keep you from experiencing the freedom of the rest that accompanies His grace.

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: Jesus the... Adulterer?

We are in perfect union with Jesus, as a wife is in union with her husband.  Jesus set very high standards for His bride.  In John 14:12, Jesus said that whoever has faith in Him will do the works He has done and even greater.  Translation: All things are possible.  Reality bends its knee to the name and authority of Jesus.  As a believer, you carry His authority and have taken on the name of Christ, just as a bride takes on the name of her groom.  It was Jesus’ will for His bride to have dominion on the earth and subdue evil.  Then why is the church quick to blame God for something bad?  Matthew 12 is a beautiful picture of Jesus clearly telling the religious folks that He is not operating with or under the influence of the devil.  In retrospect, the devil is also not under the influence of Jesus. The devil is in an nonredeemable rebellion against God.  When we are under the influence, we are full of life, love, joy and the fruit of the Spirit.  The devil has no life, love, joy, or any fruit of the Spirit.  The enemy came to kill, steal, and destroy.  He is a defeated foe.  We have Christ in us… the hope of glory!  Heaven would be bankrupt of glory if we needed anymore.  We have the fullness of God within us.  We do not have a portion of the Holy Spirit.  Even Jesus said that God gives the Spirit without limit.  His goodness and glory fills us.  There is none to spare for the devil.

With that being said, Jesus does not use the devil to accomplish something intended for His bride.  A husband seeking sex apart from his wife with a prostitute is still fulfilling his desire for sex but it makes him an adulterer.  That husband’s desire, as pure as it may have been, becomes tainted in its satisfaction outside of marriage.  Jesus doesn’t seek to fulfill His will and desires through someone outside of His bride.  Jesus and the devil are not having a secret love affair behind our backs.  When the church awakens to this, we will stop blaming God for “using” sickness, pain, disease, poverty, natural disasters, and a life of hard knocks to bring Himself glory.  Remember, in John 9, Jesus said the man was born blind to bring glory to God.  If the glory was in the man’s blindness, then Jesus brought an abrupt and swift end to God’s glory.  But He didn’t!  Glory was not in the handicap but in the healing.  Jesus heals the man of blindness.  He works all things together for good.  All things include some bad things.  He turns bad situations around in confident triumph over our defeated foe.

In conclusion, God doesn’t bring storms, make people sick, or humble you through bad situations. He loves you faithfully.

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is.” –2 Timothy 2:13, NLT

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzX0jIS-zro?rel=0]

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: The Blame Game

God is good, the devil is bad (and a defeated foe).  Simple?  Not for many in the church.  Though it may seem like common sense, it's often a perspective that is warped by repetitive garbage that we hear, see, and experience.  Have you ever sung, "You give and take away," on a Sunday morning?  The New Living Translation says that Job takes back everything he said (Job 42:5-6), including the line responsible for the bridge of that song.  John the Baptist made an accurate claim of Jesus taking away: “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29, NIV) Jesus never blessed a storm.  He never turned someone away from receiving healing.  He didn't teach people a lesson by making them sick.  Enough with the blame game!  Detox, watch, and share:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuXlTjdte3A]

Jonathan Fawcett

Bathroom Breakthrough: The Unchanging God-Man: Jesus

With tornadoes and death ensuing in an onslaught of torrential storms, many voices begin sounding in their attempts to justify why God "allowed" this to happen.  Isn't God "in control"?  It's the common phrase heard by Christians around the globe.  Jonathan tackles this issue by focusing on a simple Truth: Jesus.  He is the unchanging God-Man who perfectly demonstrated "Your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" better than anybody else in history.  He is the blueprint for life and heaven.  He embodies truth, grace and love.  If we look at His patterns, we will discover that Jesus had no stomach for religion, unbelief, and condemnation.  Here's food for thought: If Jesus uses the devil to accomplish His will in the earth, does that make Him an adulterer for using someone besides His bride to accomplish what she is supposed to carry out?  The devil is not a co-heir with Christ.  We are.  Watch this and other Bathroom Breakthroughs at www.youtube.com/somethingmoreinc.  Help a friend detox from poisonous thinking and SHARE this with them from our Facebook page.[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5HvP5uvaZA?rel=0]

Bathroom Breakthrough: Under the Spell of Almighty Pastor

*Disclaimer: Jonathan is not down on pastors.  In fact, Jonathan and Keeli have been pastors to college students for years.  Jonathan is, however, down on "pastors" who make it their goal to manipulate and create formulas for success in order for the "stupid sheep" to be under the control of their shepherd.  Ever hear of the Shepherding Movement?  It was a hellish thing and left a wake of destruction in the lives of many believers.  Let's not repeat history for the sake of building one's ministry. In this video blog, Jonathan reveals the truth about controlling pastors and church leaders.  Pastors (along with apostles, prophets, evangelists, and teachers) are a gift to the Body of Christ so that its members may be fully equipped to do the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16), not to convince them that their purpose in life is abandon their hopes and dreams to get behind their pastor's vision.  Pastors are not a position to control, but rather a gift to edify and build (the people - not just a bigger building).  If the supernatural power and love of Jesus does not regularly transform the lives of people in your community... RUN until you find a church who sees "the stuff" confirming the Word that is preached with signs and wonders (Mark 16:15-20).

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBp321h3snU?rel=0]

For more Bathroom Breakthrough, visit youtube.com/somethingmoreinc.

Bathroom Breakthrough: Dismounting the High Horse of Religion

Bathroom Breakthrough is a detox and Body cleanse from religion and spiritual hygiene while viewers take a few moments to take care of business in the throne room where physical hygiene is performed.  In a culture where cell phone carriers pack their mobile devices for latrine duty, these short videos give an opportunity to alleviate themselves from nasty ole religion and the spicy food from the night before.  Use the john and wash up under the faucet while Jonathan Fawcett debunks the myths and unhealthy thinking brought on by that old time religion.  Subscribe to our YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/somethingmoreinc. [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DidN4CWTXiU?rel=0]

Childlike Faith

One of our most read testimonies, Healing in the Home, tells of Anneli at 11 months old healing her dear old dad.  On April 20, 2013, the night of her Gammy's ordination, my left arm was hurting again.  After checking the length of my arms, it was time to get the camera and show you proof that childlike faith (and joy) can teach us how to effectively and powerfully release the Kingdom of God.  Check out what Anneli does when given the opportunity to heal her dad again: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPaHaLfSy2U?rel=0]

Father God is so proud of His kids when they do what He does and I'm proud of mine when she imitates Jesus!

Jonathan Fawcett

World Cup

Keeli, Anneli and I embarked on an amazing treasure hunt Sunday, April 7, 2013.  Watch the video to hear about the powerful encounter we had.  SPOILER ALERT: There is a world cup tournament competitor involved.  But for which sport?  Click to find out: [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZ9hdMLyVbo?rel=0]

Jonathan Fawcett