In our hallway hangs a four part cartoon by English artist Simon Drew. In it four pigs chorus. Q What do we want? A Procrastination Q When do we want it? A Next week! We bought this years ago as we love Simon Drew’s quirky and perceptive approach. Little did we suspect that that fun cartoon would sneak up on us years later! Goodness, it applied to us! Or shall we say it did on this one occasion. In early March, we were at a meeting and a Pastor friend introduced us to his fri

The study of the spirit of humans and the Spirit of the Lord. Spirit is the part of who we are that came directly from the ‘nostrils,’ or ‘lips’ of God to humans. Gods formed Adam from the dust of the ground, like a potter would form clay. Then unlike the rest of creation which He just called into being, God actually breathed into humans. The word breath is our word, Ruach, meaning breath or spirit. The spirit of humans breathed into him by the very breath of God. No wonder t

Like most of you, Gary and I are working hard this year to stay on track with what God has for us. We have been inspired by a quote from leadership Expert Simon Sinek "Optimism is the ability to focus on where we're going. Not where we're coming from." It’s not that we want to ignore where we have been, but we know that Jesus has more for us. We are going from glory to glory and learning what it means for us in the day to day. As leaders, it is fundamental that we are always

“I am the light of the world”. This quote from John Chapter 8:12 is the opening statement of the late John Paul Jackson’s ‘Declarative Prayer’ some of which is reproduced below. When I first read these words many years ago, I was shocked. I was shocked because I knew, of course, that Jesus had said these words, and I thought John Paul was fine saying them, but I felt totally unqualified to do the same. I challenge anyone to meditate on those words for a moment or two and not

While it is not our purpose to lift up a man, it is appropriate that we recognize the impact that Scott Evelyn had on so many of us both here at Patria Ministries and through Streams Ministries. Scott was a modern day mystic and pushed the edges of most of our abilities to understand how Heaven interacts with the earth and those upon it. His life inspired us to go deeper, to reach higher and to engage the supernatural realm in ways that we might possibly never have imagined

One of the best ways to understand the working of the Spirit is to watch, listen and grasp the life that Jesus lived. In our modern day most believers have no problem accepting that Jesus is the Son of God. This was not always true for believers. The writings in the New Testament affirm the divinity of Jesus. But I believe part of the controversy came as a result of those who knew Him and testified of His humanity. Arianism did not hold to the divinity of Jesus and was add

So...How do I get to know the Holy Spirit of God. We can do the thing that most people in our culture do when the want to get to know someone. Well..someone famous. God is after all the most famous being in all of creation. People try to seek God, and want to find out about Him but, interestingly in our non-supernatural culture, if you say that God speaks to you, people become suspect, even leery. Unless, of course, you are a psychologist or psychiatrist, then the person wh

Merry Christmas! Well I'm here typing on Christmas Morn. What better place to be and wonderful thing to do! Since this is a blog, and I am writing, I will just put down my thoughts and try to stay along the subject line of Ruachology. I have been thinking that I will write about the Spirit of God's working in our lives. When I read my Theology books there is more a line of thought around the overall understanding of the Holy Spirit, and not so much about His working in o

I have been meditating on this subject for quite some time. I am not total sure where this will go or how it will eventually be cataloged, but I feel like I have to start somewhere. The world has long studied the soul or as more modern folks would say, the mind. They have put all that research into a discipline called Psychology. Psychology, as many of you know, is from two Greek words psycho, meaning soul or mind and ology meaning, the study of. They have gone far enough

As a local Pastor of a church, I find myself scratching my head when it comes to reading the New Testament and looking at the modern church. When I look at what we now call church, I often wonder how we would be graded by God as the early church was in Rev. 2-3. In order to give ourselves a sober evaluation, we must use a biblical standard according to the scriptures. In order to do that, we need to first look at the word, “Church.” We first hear the word, “church” in the