The urge didn’t leave me and finally, during Saturday night prayer, I couldn’t ignore it any longer. As I was walking through the rows of chairs, praying for the precious people who would sit in them the next morning, God says to me, “Yell my name.” I think to myself, “Yeah right!” God says, “Yell my name!”

I have my eyes closed while I am praying and having this conversation with God. I slowly turn and open them and right before me there is my friend Connie, standing on a chair with her arms open wide worshipping God. God says to me, “See, I’ve been telling you, YELL MY NAME!” So I finally surrender and start yelling the name of Jesus! Timidly at first, then with each yell I become bolder and yell the name of Jesus at the top of my lungs.

It was wonderful, but after prayer the doubts set in. I realize I probably scared the daylights out of little Liam, Melanie’s son, and then one of the young men in our church tells me how the prayer service was out of his comfort zone. Hello? I start laughing and tell him he’s not alone. I tell him that that’s the first and hopefully the last time, I yell at the top of my lungs in church! Haha! Not if God has his way.

The next morning I go to 8 am prayer before church. This time God says yell my name. Of course, there are ten times as many people in that service than the night before and pastor decides to put a microphone right in front of my face and says proclaim the name of Jesus….I am laughing right now as I write this! God is so funny and good and amazing! So, I surrender again and yell the name of JESUS, broadcast for all to hear!

Again, I run into that same young man. I laugh and tell him, “Well, I guess I lied to you, I think maybe yelling in church is what I do now.” We laughed and joked about how someday, people will say, “Oh yea, she’s that old lady that yells JESUS in church!”…. I hope so!

What do you hope for? What would you do if God said, stand on the chair and yell my name? What would you do if God said, surrender all? Well, God IS saying to you, “Stand on the chair and yell my name!” God is saying, “Surrender all!” In Matthew 22:14, God says, “Many are called but few are chosen.” How are we chosen? By saying yes to Jesus! By standing on the “chair” in our life and throwing our arms open wide in surrender and saying yes to Jesus! Then we are not just called we are chosen! Chosen by God!

What does your “chair”, your surrender look like? It is different for each of us. There is no doubt though that God wants it all, 100%, complete surrender! He didn’t call us so that we can just sit back and go along for the ride. He called us to step up, say yes, be chosen and change the world! If you can stand on your “chair” and surrender all, then freedom will come pouring into your life. You will worship like never before, pray like never before and power, power in the name of Jesus, will enter your life!

So what are you waiting for? You are called, do you want to be chosen? Are you going to sit or stand? I say STAND! Do it! God is calling you to stand on your “chair”, surrender all and yell the name of JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! JESUS! Name above all names! Don’t wait any longer! Don’t let the thought of “What will people think?” hold you back. Step up into the full life Jesus has for you!

Special Guest Blogger: Susan Sorenson

What do the mentors of Our Time Rising look like? Some are women who have sat quiet for too long because they didn’t know they could be part of a younger girls’ life. Some weren’t ready to make a commitment in the past, because they were working on there own lives. They didn’t have time to mentor because they weren’t sure what that would require. Some just thought they weren’t capable. They are learning to say, “NO!! It’s Our Time!”

I love that God is using women who finally said, “It’s me, God, I will GO!” That’s what these chicks of Our Time Rising look like.

Pastor Connie wrote a blog recently titled, “You See Her”. The blog was about a dream one of her friends had about a little girl who went over the edge of a building and no one paid any attention. It was heart wrenching to think we might see someone fall off the edge and we didn’t do anything about it. If God gave us the opportunity to do something and we didn’t do anything, then what? We have young girls who need us to “see” them. I get that I do, but here’s the deal, we need to engage, we need to put time into them, and we need to cheer along side of them. We may be the only hope they have and if we end up not “seeing them” they could take a wrong step that could change their life.

Our Time Rising is a group of women who have the opportunity to be there for these girls. Some of them won’t need a lot of cheering on and some will. It’s a balance but they need to know that they are valued. It starts with us. Teaching them to see what God can see in them, teaching them they are valued by the most High God, that becomes priceless! We are all daughters of the King and we are His girls!

I love Our Time Rising and this is why: The mentors have been hand picked and the girls we are impacting are also hand picked. These are not mistakes. God is in the business of making perfect decisions. Some of the girls I’m around are girls I have been around since they were teenagers. They have their own families now. Others are girls who are young adults that have made some mistakes and have decided to do what God is asking them to do. And some just wanted to spend time with a generation of women who love them and see them the way God sees them. I love watching what God is doing in their lives and in the lives of the leaders who said “yes”.

Psalm 145:4 says this: “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts”.

This is the scripture that my friend attached to Our Time Rising and it’s a perfect fit. I often think of this and know that God has made it great. If we show this younger generation how God can change their lives, then they teach the another generation and on down the line it goes. It starts with us! We need to rise up! It’s our time to accept the challenge God has placed before us!

I am so grateful for those who have said “yes” to what God is requiring of us. They are changing the world. What will you do? What is God asking of you? This is our time to RISE!

“O you daughters of the West!
O you young and elder daughters! O you mothers and you wives!
Never must you be divided, in our ranks you move united,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”

One of the great passions of my life is encouraging and inspiring women of all ages and different backgrounds to step up, to accept themselves as the beautiful creation of God that they are, with enormous potential and a destiny to fulfill.

I have been branching out, studying, taking a class on “Assemblies of God History, Missions, and Governance.” I began the class thinking it would just be another step I needed to take to get to my next goal. Little did I know the words would leap off the page and resonate in my soul.

You see, we are a part of a beautiful story that runs throughout time, illustrating that women are not merely spectators in the grand epic, we are at times the main characters, bringing the love of God to the world.

We are not the first ones to realize we are “made for this moment”. Look at Mary! And don’t forget about Esther. We come from a long line of pioneers. Let me introduce some of them to you.

Edith Mae (Patterson) Pennington. (1902-1974) Voted Most Beautiful Girl in the United States. She became famous overnight. Had a stint in movies in Hollywood, but as she read her Bible, she wanted something more. “Finally, she exchanged the glamour of Hollywood for the glory of the cross in a Pentecostal church in Oklahoma City.” Her
husband/business manager didn’t approve of the sudden turn around and he left . Her decision to leave Hollywood made news across the country. As reporters told her story highlighting her meetings, she soon became an evangelist and pastor.

Anna B. Lock. (1890-1952) An alcoholic since age 14, trapped in a life of sin and drugs, nearly dying many times of overdoses, having nowhere else to turn. She knew Jesus died on the cross, but she didn’t know how to get saved. In 1931 she was invited to a revival where a woman preacher hugged her and said, “Jesus loves you. Jesus needs you.” Two years later she started her own church, traveled and preached all over North America where many were saved and baptized.

Aimee Semple Mc Pherson. Held A/G credentials as early as 1919. She rejected the cultural norms that limited women, and she built Angeles Temple in Los Aneles and fed the hungry, clothes the needy, and evangelized the city. She used popular culture to attract the masses.

Hattie Hammond. The most famous mentor in Pentecost. Ordained at age 20. Her Deeper Life Conventions took her all over North America and she ministered for 67 years.

In 1925 we had 250 missionaries on the foreign field. The wives were equal partners with the husbands, and 95 of those missionaries were single women! Wow! In 1925! They were pioneers and they were made for that moment.

That rich tradition and history runs in your blood! If these groundbreaking women could overcome addiction, stigma, past, hardship, social acceptability, age, gender, language barriers, and opposition, what is our excuse?

Women have never breathed free-er air or lived in a more opportunity laden time than right now, in 2012. Has God planted dreams deep in your heart that you have been waiting to act upon? Has God nudged you but you’ve resisted? Have you heard Him whisper, yet you’ve been too afraid to listen?

“Has the night descended?
Was the road of late so toilsome? did we stop discouraged nodding on our way?
Yet a passing hour I yield you in your tracks to pause oblivious,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”

This is our time! You were made you this moment! Rise up, O pioneer!

“Till with sound of trumpet,
Far, far off the daybreak call-hark! how loud and clear I hear it wind,
Swift! to the head of the army!-swift! spring to your places,
Pioneers! O pioneers!”

(Excerpts taken from “O Pioneer” by Walt Whitman.)

Capital Christian Center is in a state of revival. It is jaw droopingly cool to see so many people give their lives to Jesus every week. In the past ten weeks we have witnessed 89 people make a verbal confession of faith. People are letting go of pride, fear, selfishness, and confusion. All the barriers that block a relationship with God.

What salvation does, is open up the doors for a completely new way of life, a new way to make decisions, and a new way to experience relationships. We see happy couples absolutely glowing! We see restoration happening. We see hope rising. We see victory coming. All because of one act. Surrender.

Surrender is not new. I read about a man written in the pages of the book I’m reading. It says he was handsome. It says that when he was young, he obeyed his father and loved his family. He spent his time getting physically strong, and practicing His music. He had a heart for God. When he was called on to do heroic things, he was brave and fearless! He killed wild animals, he killed the enemy of his people in spectacular fashion! He attracted bold men as friends and followers. Women sang songs about his prowess. He was one sexy dude. He eventually became the King of an entire nation. He wasn’t perfect though. He made very public mistakes. He suffered loss. He mourned. He danced and celebrated. He ultimately surrendered to and served God magnificently.

Of course I was reading about David. But I read about many other incredible people who surrendered entirely to God. People like Paul, whom God flipped his whole life around at the point of surrender. People like Mary who said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants.”

These same pages describe a man named Jesus, so powerful that he could call down fire from heaven, yet he played with children, he brought freedom to the captives, he relieved people’s suffering, he gave voice to women, he drew huge crowds every where he went, he spent time with the outcasts, he suffered, he surrendered, and eventually died a criminal’s death, just so the deserving parties could go free.

(People who are charismatic and draw crowds are typically described as possessing sex appeal. Do you think Jesus was sexy? What a strange thought, right?)

These heroic figures all learned the secret. They learned that true power and victory come through surrender.

Some might say, “well, that was then and this is now.” But I beg to differ. I know what a surrendered person looks like. I’ve seen it.

A surrendered person is strong. Surrender takes a personal choice and laying down your free will. It takes determination to truly surrender. We all are born with talents to be released, skills to be honed, and personalities to grow with time. It takes a strong person to surrender all that they are and all they have accomplished to a God who could change everything. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, “The greatness of a person is in the measure of his surrender.”

A surrendered person is secure. To understand that there IS a God, and I am not Him, actually builds security into a person. A surrendered person can say, “I can let God be in control. I can trust Him, and I don’t have to have all the answers.”

A surrendered person is a lover. A surrendered person can set aside their own agenda, their selfish ambition, and put other people first. To love others as Jesus loved is the new standard. To look people in the eye, to touch, to comfort, to laugh, to enjoy being together. To love unconditionally and without reserve is a God-thing.

A surrendered person is free. A surrendered person is no longer bound by what anyone thinks or says about them. They live for the approval and opinion of ONE. They can ask God for what they need, and know that God hears them. “In Whom, because of our faith in Him, we dare to have the boldness (courage and confidence) of free access (an unreserved approach to God with freedom and without fear).” (Ephesians 3:12 AMP)

By these definitions, there is nothing more sexy to a husband than a wife who is secure and is a lover. There is nothing more sexy to a wife than a man who is strong and free. There is nothing more sexy to anyone, than a spouse who is truly and totally surrendered to God and to the cause of Christ.

That’s why I say surrender is the new sexy!

If surrender is the new sexy, I can say, “my husband is HOT!”
If surrender is the new sexy, I can say, “our church is gorgeous!”
If surrender is the new sexy, I predict a baby boom!
(Church growth is a beautiful thing!)

God has been preparing and stirring our hearts for more than quite some time. We have been learning and growing and training for this very moment. We are poised and ready for our next assignment! A God assignment to change our world.

In the book “Awakened” by Stovall Weems, he challenges us to revolutionize our walk with God. To be awakened requires action on our part and we need to create space in our life for God to fill. His nature is to create new things, but He will not push His way into your life, your family, career or finances. The God of the Universe wants to do amazing things just for you if you will let Him. He wants it even more than you do, but He will not force His way in. God is saying, “just create a little space for Me, and I’ll come and fill it!

The whole point of creating the space is filling the space, and because of that, the space has significance! What does creating space look like?

I was listening to an interview of George Clooney the other day as he was sharing his passion for the people of Sudan. He told about the genocide that has been taking place by the Arab nations as they terrorize and starve the people to the point that they run for their lives and hide out in caves, until they die. Then he said this, “this army is killing for the sole purpose of creating space to obtain oil in the region for a profit.” Tragic! The space they created is destruction and greed.

Space is significant in your life. Something has to be given up to gain it. God is asking for space and the more you give Him the more He will pour and multiply blessing and provision into it. We create the space He fills it, we stretch and then there is room for even more than we can ask or think!

Space is created by giving, reading God’s Word and listening for His voice through it, praying and fasting. One of the greatest gifts we can receive from God is the gift of our spirit being renewed through times of fasting. It brings a fresh newness to celebrate the goodness of God and that Christ has set us free! Fasting shuts down the natural man and engages the spiritual man and prepares us to receive incredible, new and expanding plans designed just for you. That is amazing.

2 Corinthians 6:13 says, “…Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively.”

Space starts with you! How different would your life be if you began to intentionally create more and more space for God? What if you took one day a week to fast? What if you made a commitment to prioritize your giving in every area of your life? What if you read God’s Word and prayed regularly – like never before? Is your space selfish or significant? Never forget that the God of the Universe wants to fill your space with more than you can dream, but He won’t force it! He will fill it if you create the space.

Our Time Chicks are getting it! Every day we are becoming who God has designed us to be and we are passionately giving up our space.

She said,”I was standing on a balcony of the second floor of a building. I was talking to some friends, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw a little girl getting closer and closer to the edge. There was no railing and I began calling out, ‘someone help!’ but no one did. People continued about their business, busy in conversation, some were simply watching, and the girl backed herself right off the edge! I ran over, but I was too late.”

Now, I don’t know how you interpret that dream, but I see it like this. Even this week I have been plagued with thoughts turning to young women within my circle of influence, girls that were a vibrant part of our collection of women even a year ago, who are no longer here. I get so upset about it. I wonder, “Where is she? Why don’t I see her anymore?” I miss her. I worry about her.

I read about her life in public view on social networking sites. I read about decisions she’s making that take her farther and farther away from where she was.

Where she was, was a place of surrender to God. A place of encountering His presence in a fresh, beautiful, and personal way. A place of seeing miracles in her own family.

I say, “God! Draw her back to you! Shake her and put some sense into her! What is happening?!”

Perhaps Jesus expressed it best when He lamented over Jerusalem rejecting Him in Luke 13:34 “How often I have desired and yearned to gather your children together [around Me], as a hen [gathers] her young under her wings, but you would not!”

Can you sense His despair? The Bible states God’s expectations clearly. His word says that His desire is the none should perish. NOT ONE!

I believe we are the ones milling around on the balcony. We are the ones busy making plans. We are the ones talking with our friends. We are the ones taking care of our own concerns.

But God has placed someone in your view for a reason! Chase after that young one. Do not give up. Do not get distracted by busyness. Rescue that one, before she disappears from the edge and it is too late. You see her for a reason. Maybe you’re the only one that does.

Awakening Fast Recipe Share

We’ve noticed a lot of great recipes being shared on Facebook, twitter and word of mouth; so we thought it would be a great idea to have a centralized spot where you can post your recipes for others to try and enjoy. Just simply comment to this post with your recipes and we’ll let people know where to check them out!

Daniel-fast.com – a great resource for meals and snacks.

Smoothieweb.com – just looking for a quick breakfast smoothie or maybe a simple snack?

So what are you going to share?

Some might say she showed generosity to the perpetrator. But Matthew 5:43 states, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

Loving your enemy is not generosity, it is required!

Some of us come to church on Sunday, feeling good because we got paid this week. But even more importantly, we wrote out our check for tithes. Woohoo! It’s easy to settle into our seat in church and listen to the announcements, to hear all that’s going on, with events and outreach, and we think, “yes, I’m a part of all this! I’m so generous to my church.”

But Malachi 3:10 says,”Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.”

Paying tithes is not generosity, it is required!

Occasionally I hear comments from people like this, “I find it so hard to stand in worship the entire time because I’m so tired from working all week.” Or, “I wish it were louder.” Or “I wish they’d turn that racket down!” we all have preferences when it comes to music and worship style.

Let me just give a disclaimer here before I state my point: I am not the same person I was a year ago. My husband frequently tells me that I am too intense. I have an inordinate supply of passion running through my veins. But let me tell you, when you seek the Lord and you earnestly pray, “God change me!” You don’t get to pick HOW He will change you. So here it is my point.

When I see people half heartedly enter into worship I feel a couple of things. One, I feel sad, because if they really knew who God was, they would pour it all out, holding nothing back, honoring the King of Kings. Secondly, I get angry. I wonder if they really think they have the right to be passive. This Jesus we worship died to set us free!

And we act like He owes us something? Really? The attitude looks like this, “Hey,I drug myself from home today, I didn’t skip worship, I arrived on time, I stood when they asked me to, I clapped on cue, how much more generous do you expect me to be?”

Let me tell you what Psalm 96 says about our worship:

“Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples. For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and glory are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness; tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it. Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.” (Psalm 96:1-13 NIV)

Coming to worship and pouring your heart out isn’t generosity, it is required!

Luke 19 even says, “If we don’t praise Him, the rocks will cry out!”

So if loving our enemies isn’t generous, and tithing isn’t generous, and wholehearted worship isn’t generous, what is?

Generosity is defined as an act of generosity or abundance or amplitude.

Amplitude is defined like this:
1. State of being ample; extent of surface or space; largeness of dimensions; size.
2. Largeness, in a figurative sense; breadth; abundance; fullness.
3. Of extent of capacity or intellectual powers.
4. Of extent of means or resources.
5. The arc of the horizon between the true east or west point…

When we think generosity, we must think capacity. You can’t contrast a generosity norm with your past or what you consider typical or compared to someone else. Generosity is examined in relation to your capacity!

I think God defines generosity best when He tells us how generous and BIG His love is for us in Ephesians 3:

“I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

Yet I think all through my life I have wished for that kind of vivid sign of God’s hand at work in my life. How about you?

Have you ever asked God to show you His glory? Have you ever wanted to see the angels surrounding you? Have you ever asked God to intervene in a resplendent, sensational, flashy, show-the-world-off kind of way?

Here’s the thing I discovered about Daniel’s story. In Daniel 6:16 it says, “So the king gave the order, and they brought Daniel and threw him into the lions’ den. The king said to Daniel, ‘May your God, whom you serve continually, rescue you!’”

The Bible does not say one word about how he felt, or his fear or his courage, or his response to the King’s order. Nothing. Nada.

We assume our own conclusions. Why? Because the Bible is filled with 153 verses on his life before he ever faced the lions.

I have formed my own questions in response to understanding this story, that really force me to look in the mirror of my own life. Maybe it will make you look in your own reflection too.

We all can agree that it was God who performed the miracle of shutting the lions mouths, not Daniel. So was the point of this story really about Daniel’s bravery or was it about Daniel’s position? Daniel prepared and positioned himself in the way that he lived, that proved who His God really was. Daniel’s faithfulness in giving honor to His God, and His obedience to what God was telling him at every moment is really what put him in that den.

As his enemies were looking for a way bring accusation and to bring him down, they could find nothing to stick to him that would tarnish him in any way. So here they were, making up fake laws about prayer, so they could charge him with something. And in the face of that, he stayed constant. He stayed steady. He demonstrated his true strength and courage not in facing the lions, but in being obedient.

We often want to see amazing things take place in our services. We pray, “Show me your glory.” But have we been seeking HIM for who He is?

We ask God to release His power in our city, but have we been living lives worthy of God showing up!

We ask for freedom from our financial bondage, yet are we having trouble trusting Him with the ten percent He requires first?

We want to see God deliver the young people in our high school, but do we don’t realize we play a part in that happening? We can’t stand back and refuse to get our hands dirty.

Bill Johnson, in his book, “Release the power of Jesus” writes, “However, our success in the battle is determined by what we do before the battle begins. To put it another way, our success in the battles around us is determined by our success in the battles we face in bringing our lives into submission to God.” He further states, “It is this perspective that enables us to hold nothing back from God, to live passionately and sacrificially in our daily lives…Unless we are walking in radical obedience, we will not make radical efforts in battle. We will back out of them.”

This week , I read two Facebook posts by members of my worship team that made it so clear to me that God is trying to teach us this.

Charlotte wrote: Powerful “God-moments” are up to us to have. If you want God to work in your life, you have to let Him.

Greyson wrote: If we want God to change this city, we need to change this city. That means fixing relationships that we had in the past and stepping up and repairing it today for a better future. I can’t do that without God, but there ain’t nobody else my age as strong as me or as bold as me. Imma soldier and I need an army who will fight with me.

Sadly, many people will never have the opportunity to prove God’s faithfulness in the lions’ den experience because they will not prove their faith in their everyday life.

So perhaps we shouldn’t try to be like Daniel in the lions’ den. We should be like Daniel who prayed every day and exhibited such great integrity. Maybe we should be like Daniel who served God continually in every area of life.

For God to show up in our den experience, we need to be fully obedient in our daily experience. I’m learning, if we do our part, God is always faithful to do His.

Beginning March 11, 2012 we embark on a mission of prayer, fasting and personal devotion. Be a part of what God is doing at Capital Christian Center by joining the Awakening 21 Day Fast. All the information you need is included in the packet available by download at the following links or you may pick up your packet at the information counter on Sunday mornings.

Download Your 21 Day Fast Resources Here:

Adults Fast Resource (English)

Adults Fast Resource (en Español)

Students Fast Resource (English)