Apostles and Prophets for the Balkans

I was praying Saturday (Feb, 8th 2020) for God to raise up an apostolic/prophetic group in the Balkans that will make covenant with each other to identify and encourage anointed evangelist, teachers and pastors. These would be men and women that have been tested by fire and walk in their office with power. These would be men and women that do not fight against flesh and blood but know how to walk in dominion over the enemy. They would be the ones that know how to fight along with the armies of heaven to bring forth God's glory. They can be trusted with the finances of heaven and actually desire to suffer so the Kingdom can be established on earth.

Let me give some definitions. These are my definitions, so I don’t expect others to adhere to them.

Prophet:
a.    The Office – Speaks for God to open doors for moves of God. Confirms the vision of the Apostle. Can announce a major shift in earthly ministry, clarifying direction or correcting direction. Seasoned man or woman of God.
b.    The Gift – forthtelling, encouraging words and direction to individuals and churches. All believers can exercise this gift. b.    1 Corinthians 14:31 For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be encouraged.

Apostle:
a.    The Office – Person of Vision. They can see how heaven can be established on earth. Usually have a broad view of how the Gospel can impact a country or region. They can recognize giftings in people and they know how to raise up and align these people into their calling. They have been tried in the fire and there is a God-given respect they walk in.
b.    The Gift – Love to encourage others to fulfill their calling. Knowing how to love people into their calling. I feel most local pastors move in this gift.

In my sphere of ministry, how does this apply?

God has made me an intercessor to the Balkan countries. That is not for me to boast in but to be faithful to. For over forty years I have been praying for the countries and people in the Balkans.

I can’t explain this now, but the Apostle and Prophet work together to move the Church forward. An apostle and a prophet that can work together smoothly is a lethal threat to the devil. God will put them together to steward a move of God. Usually their combination offices will come forth when God is about to pour out mercy on a region.

So, in my prayers for the Balkan region, I am praying for these apostles and prophet to come forth. Two big questions; is God’s mercy ready to be poured out on the Balkans and how can these offices come forth.

I feel there are two things that hinder these two offices from coming forth and being effective. First is the reluctance of local Christians to accept the Apostle and Prophet. There is a lack of honor for these offices. Second, those that have been called to be apostles and prophets are timid and don’t want to step into their authority.Of course we know these offices have been abused.

How can those hindrances be overcome in the Balkans? These apostles and prophets must walk in humility. From what I see, both offices are birthed out of humility. Especially when signs and wonders are following them, and divine appointments are leading them. These signs and wonders should verify their calling and create a healthy respect from fellow Christians. Usually these are men and women that have been through much trials and tribulations.

What I envision from my prayers is apostles and prophets across the Balkans that have a genuine respect for one another, coming together often to pray and learn from one another. They are united for the Kingdom. From what I read in the New Testament and letters from early church fathers, there was a healthy flow of ministry between them. You see them carrying letters back and forth, the counsel in Jerusalem and sending disciples to each other’s cities to help in the work. Even in our modern day there are some international ministries that are already doing this.

My prayer is that God would raise up from the Balkan churches these biblical offices to usher in a mighty move of righteousness on the Balkan peninsula. I am believing for apostles and prophets that will help the evangelist, teachers and pastors find their place in the Balkan Church. Holy Spirit, I ask for Your divine help to accomplish a mighty transformation across the Balkans.

Two Weeks of Ministry

Prayer points:
1.    May the impact of the just held workshops (see below) be far reaching and bring lasting change in awakening the hearts of the believers.
2.    We continue to ask for Levites for the URGS House of Prayer. Musicians and singers who can lead live worship sets. Please pray with us for young people who would be willing to give 1-3 months of their time and resources to come to Croatia and help cultivate, train and raise up Croatians to take the lead.
3.    God is opening doors wide for us with the Charismatic Catholic youth. Pray for wisdom and to know what and how to collaborate and cooperate with them.
4.    There is continued forward movement in the acquisition of property in the town of Gračac. Please pray for favor in all negotiations.

From Jerry’s Desk

Past Two Weeks of Ministry
The last two weeks has been wonderful and a true advancement in ministry for the Lord’s work here. It amazes us to watch how God loves and touches people. Perhaps most of all, it is remarkable to see them respond to His love. Transformation is happening in lives here in Croatia.

We were blessed to host a team from Upper Room (UR) Denver, Colorado. They spent three days teaching on intimacy, worship, encounter, song writing and more. We had over forty Croatians attend the Worship and Prayer Workshops from throughout the country. The teaching was above and beyond everyone’s expectations. Perhaps the greatest of all was that the team taught from their personal life experiences. They showed sincere love and encouragement to all they encountered.

The team consisted of two couples with their three children and a single lady. They stayed in our home, doing all they could to serve us. The UR Denver teams who come are always a cut above and it is such a pleasure to have them in our home. We are so very grateful to UR Denver for their investment into us as their missionaries and into the people we serve here.

Since the end of the workshops, we have been receiving testimonies from many of the attendees. They speak of how their lives have been blessed and enhanced. The core team that regularly attends the Upper Room Gornja Soba (URGS) House of Prayer has also been encouraged, challenged and energized by the Workshop. They seem to have entered into another level in their intimacy with the Lord.

This past Sunday we also met with our team in Gračac. Our team just purchased fire wood for an elderly lady in town.  Igor, who is a prayer leader in the URGS in Zagreb, and Roni who lives in Gračac, chopped all the wood. We love it that our team is practicing the lifestyle of “in and out”, where we come in to the presence of God and pray, but then we also go out and allow the Spirit of God to spill over onto the communities we serve through practical ways.  At the same time, the rest of the team blanketed the town with a prayer walk. As we walked, we spoke blessing over the city. What a powerful day; praying for and serving the city of Gračac.

Prayer Points & A Life Formula

Prayer Points:

1)    Intentional Strategies for Transformation is hosting a Prayer and Worship Workshop in Zagreb. Please pray for this event. We are expecting many, not only from the evangelical churches but Charismatic Catholics also. (Dates: Sept. 13th – 15th)
2)    Pray for the team from Upper Room Denver who will be teaching on worship, intimacy with the Lord, the prophetic, song writing, etc.
3)    There has been a health issue to attack the team, so pray healing will come quickly.



A Life Formula
 
Joy + Discipline + Vision + Convergence = Legacy & Eternity

For me this is a formula for life. This is a principles that have helped me live an overcoming life as a Christian.
Let’s explore what this looks like for us in our walk with Christ…

Joy
When I gave my life to Jesus, He gave me joy. I am not talking about happiness, but something deeper that has a measure of assurance in it. Jesus was so real to me in my conversion, that deep down I have never doubted Him. I may have had the thought but my confidence in God dispelled it. I am talking about a gift of joy because of confidence. The non-Christian will not have this. They will move in and out of happiness.

Discipline
Second comes discipline. Oh, wow, I sure fought this one. I had some bad habits that were destructive. I thank the Lord for His patience with me. It was the Holy Spirit speaking to me in one of those awe moments that got my attention. One day I found myself saying something out loud that revealed a deep inter passion I was carrying. Then immediately the Holy Spirit spoke, “You are not ready”. Also, “It may be years before you are ready”. So, I asked, “How do I get ready”? “Discipline son, discipline.”

Vision
As the years passed and I stumbled through learning discipline, vision began to form. Vision was driven by passion. I begin to get insight of my inter desires. Once you understand the vision in your heart you must fight for it. In that fight you develop the life skills you will need. I was listening to James Goll the other day and he said, “When discernment and revelation meet, insight occurs”. Oh, how you will need God’s wisdom for a clarity of vision.

Convergence
Then the time comes, when God puts it all together for you, that is convergence. It is when everything lines up. Your passion is being fulfilled. You have great joy because you see ultimate purpose. You have enough discipline that God can trust you. There is a peace of mind that rules your steps. It could be just the right job; one in which you are meeting all your needs physically, financially and emotionally.

There is a great joy in knowing you are pleasing God, your loving Father and you are doing what He has designed you for. See this has been His plan all along to bring you to your greatest potential. You are content because you know God is pleased.

Legacy
So, what does all this get you? How do you benefit? You leave a Legacy that others can follow. The Apostle Paul said, “Follow me as I follow Christ.” Legacy will live on as long as people remember you. If your deeds are published, your legacy could live many, many years.

Eternity
Then comes Eternity. Eternity, according to the Bible, is heaven or hell. God’s ultimate justice is heaven or hell. At death you are in God’s bliss with Him or in a place of eternal punishment, separated from Him and His Kingdom. All these steps culminate in your destiny.

Here is the good part, you don’t even have to work out this formula in order to get to heaven. You can be a failure in every point. Your eternity is decided by this, have you accepted Jesus or not?
By the way, I am still working on this formula. I think we work on this all our lives.
Ask yourself, "Where on this journey am I?

IST Prayer 7-17-18

Prayer Points

1.    1)  God is bringing us emerging Christian leaders to the URGS house of prayer here in Zagreb. Pray they will continue in the faith from glory to glory.

2.    2)  Our efforts to bring transformation to Lika, a destitute area of Croatia, is going slow but a good foundation is being laid. Pray for the Lika team to walk in unity and expectation.

3.    3)  Having mentioned expectation, Croatian Christians have long suffered from doubt and apathy. Pray they would learn to walk in God’s promises.

4.       Is. 66:8 says: “Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day or a nation be delivered in an instant? In light of the World Cup this past Sunday, this verse is being played out on the world scene. As though the nation was just born. So much hope, expectation and unity has suddenly emerged in this little nation, this is remarkable. Pray that this truly is the beginning of a spiritual breakthrough. 

5.    4)  Pray for the IST Learning Program in the Roma (gypsy) village in Romania. It will cost $7,000 this next school year to help these poor children continue to excel and someday graduate. Pray for the funds to come in quickly. 

6.    5)  Pray that IST, and its leaders Jerry and Zuzanna will strategically execute God’s will in this land. The needs in the Balkans are overwhelming. Pray that we always hear clearly what we are to be involved in and be able to say no to all other demands.

From Jerry’s desk

The Church

In my studies of Church history this is the way I have come to understand its evolution.

The disciples of Jesus where together in Jerusalem (about 120 of them, Acts 1:4). They were in unity because after Jesus’ resurrection He spent forty days with them, teaching them. Jesus had clearly inspired them, and they were being obedient in waiting for something called the Holy Spirit to come. They did know something of the Holy Spirit because Jesus breathed the Spirit on them earlier. (Jn. 20:21)

Then the Day of Pentecost came, and like dynamite the Holy Spirit came and rested upon them and the Church was born. (Acts 2) That day a great many were saved; from many nations. This indicates the first spreading of the Gospel through these foreigners. They likely returned to their countries with a wonderment in their minds of good news. They were the first seeds planted into the nations. Likely they did not become evangelist but rather people that would recognize the Gospel when it did come to their area.

Then we have the book of Acts or Acts of the Apostles. Here we see how the Early Church functioned.

1)    The disciples were bold even in the face of death. (Stephen, Acts 7)
2)    They went forth with signs and wonders following them. (Acts 5:12)
3)    In Jerusalem they would go to the Temple, the main meeting place of the Jews and preach the Gospel.
4)    They took the Gospel to Samaria and after some persecution, to Antioch and beyond. (Acts 8:1,4-5)
5)    They would minister to the Lord and the Holy Spirit would speak direction to them. (Acts 13:1-3)
6)    After a few decades, they had turned the world upside down. (Acts 17:6)

Then came the second generation of disciples. They had not seen the Lord in the flesh and only had stories from those who had. They did have the written Gospels and letters from apostles Peter, Paul, John, etc., but there begin to be many other so-called Gospels and sayings being written. This was the start of some problems. The stories begin to differ from region to region. Some believed in the Trinity some didn’t. There were issues about Jesus’ nature; was He God and man or was He just a man. By the end of the 2nd century they set up bishops in the regions of Antioch, Alexandria, Ephesus, Rome, etc. These bishops tended to set the doctrines in their areas.

Throughout the 2nd and 3rd centuries the Gospel was having a great impact but there begin to be fights or heated disputes about the different doctrines. Of course, the devil’s divisive spirit is at work here.

Then the Roman Emperor Constantine got saved. Maybe he got saved and maybe not, but he did realize Christianity was spreading like wildfire across his empire. Constantine also recognized the divisions among the Christians and knew that was not good if you wanted to make Christianity the state religion. He called all these bishops together in the city of Nicaea for a council meeting. He basically said: Hey you guys, come to an agreement on these doctrines. And that is what they did. What really solidified their efforts was the canonizing of the Bible. The books we have now were accepted and other books or written works that were questionable were left out. Overall, there was a united front and Constantine put his seal on the council.

From the time of Constantine, the bishops were given great statue and authority. They were considered heads over their regions. Although some had pet doctrines they held on to, mostly they were in agreement. There even followed many more councils over the next four or five hundred years to decide on matters of doctrine.

Then came the great divide between the Eastern Church and the Western Church. It started with the Western Church in Rome. With so many Bishops, each having their authority, there begin to be disagreements again. The Western Church said that there just had to be a Bishop with final authority, so they declared the Bishop of Rome to be that authority. The bishops elsewhere did not agree. The Western Church declared their bishop to be Pope and the Eastern churches grouped together against Rome.

Over the next seven to eight hundred years the Western (Roman) Church and the Eastern Church became institutions. Legalism became so strong in these churches that anyone who differed would be persecuted. Christianity had become rather dead.

Then the Reformation came about. The Bible was translated into the languages of the people. In the west there arose a protest against the Church as an uncaring institution. It came to a critical mass and it could not be contained any longer. These reformers or Protestants begin to get revelation from the Bible that was different from what the institutional churches taught. Protestant groups begin to pop up all over the place.

After a hundred or so years of breakaway reform, denominations being to be established in almost every country. These denominations not only disagreed with the Roman Church and the Eastern (Orthodox) Church but also disagreed with each other. Although there had been religious wars before, these diverse denominations took their countries into many wars.

Then the New World opened up. A lot of Christians that were fed up with denominational bickering, fled to North America. They had a healthy respect for freedom and it was incorporated into governments; especially the American. While most nations in Europe had state churches, America protected freedom of religion.

I think that because of freedom of religion a third movement of the Church happened. Although there had been outpourings in local areas in the past, at the beginning of the twentieth century the Pentecostal movement marked it’s beginning. It started in America and before the end of the century had reached around the globe. Though many say that the Pentecostals are protestants, I believe they were not exclusively against the Catholic church but rather a coming-out from all the denominations. 
To summarize: (Remember these are mainly my thoughts)

The First century Church closely walked in spirit and truth. Their motives were pure and they resolved conflicts in a respectful, God honoring way. They were bold in their witness, understanding they were living completely for an eternal Kingdom. Because of that they walked in signs and wonders.

Just as Paul and Peter had warned, the second and third centuries brought disputers and false doctrines. (2 Peter 2:1, 2 Cor. 11:13, etc.) Then when Constantine unified the churches under the state, that is where the Church begin to be institutionalized as an earthly kingdom not a heavenly kingdom. The counsel in Nicaea should have been a time of repentance and bishops honoring each other’s differences. At Nicaea, maybe the Church could have healed and returned to the first century model.

The next seventeen centuries are times of the Church losing its power and ‘Jesus as the head’ as its focus. Although Jesus was always highly honored, the Church did not follow Him in all things. Therefore, they rarely walked in signs and wonders. Humanism and atheism took deep roots in the cultures because of hypocrisy and lack of power.

I think the Pentecostal movement is an attempt to return to the first century. There has been Pentecostal denominations form and they do lash out at the Catholics and older denomination, but in the past 30 to 40 years there has been a real change sweeping through the churches. These changes take on two main aspects. 1) Unity; honoring others even in our differences, and 2) focusing on Jesus as the head of the Church. The Charismatic movement has greatly helped to bring these two changes about. Many Catholics are experiencing renewal. Mainline denominations are being baptized in the spirit. The future looks good for the Church.

I personally am in favor of getting as close to the practices of the Early Church as possible. I do feel we will always be diverse in doctrine because each person, local church, region and nation have different callings. Therefore, since no one can absorb all of God’s knowledge in our fallen state, God will make sure we have the information, skills and opportunities for the divine task He has assigned for us where we are at. My finger will not do what my ear does. Although I will scratch my ear sometimes.

The only legitimate judgement we can make of other Christians is found in 1 Jn. 4:2-3a
    By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. …

Pray for IST Group

Pray for IST Group

Praise Report: This past week was amazing at the Upper Room Zagreb, House of Prayer. New people came and they were ministered to. Monday night, a young man experienced the presence of God for the first time and amid tears declared: “I have only seen religion in the Catholic church and did not want that. This here is something totally different. Your relationship is real with God. Whatever this is, I want THIS.” Thursday evening was also special. Two young ladies, neither one knew the other, but after worship, they both confessed depression and a lack of self-worth. In both of their lives it was due to absent fathers. The young man form Monday night was back and ministering to them as well! These ladies went away not only touched by the Holy Spirit, but a deep work had begun in their lives. As a matter of fact, we are getting crowed in the house of prayer! Praise God.

On another note, Jerry went to the doctor on Monday for his heart check-up, and he received a good report! Praise God!

Tidbits:
The Lika initiative is progressing well. We have our next meeting with the team on the 26th and some individual meetings the week prior to that. It is wonderful to see this team beginning to take shape and get really excited.

The third week of February, we will be traveling to Greece for a meeting with Balkan Networks. Balkan Networks is a loose network of like-minded ministries that meet to encourage one another and coordinate resources. We will be in Athens for 5 days.

The ministry is growing! We are currently in the vetting process of a young couple. We are looking for them to join us here in Croatia and help in various ways. They have lots of cross-cultural ministry experience and we are excited about this possibility.

God is beginning to open doors for us to minister and speak in churches. This has never been something we sought after, but as the Lord is opening doors we feel Him releasing us to take the opportunities.
 
Prayer Points:
1)    We thank the Lord for new people who are coming to Upper Room. May this growth continue, and may the authentic presence of God be experienced by many more here in Zagreb.
2)    Pray that the HOP will attract more Levite worshipers and musicians. We believe that having a bigger variety would bring a new level of growth to the Upper Room.
3)    We are starting to outgrow our current space. We have an attic which has been offered to us free of rent, but it requires about $25K upfront cost to renovate. We appreciate your prayers specifically in this direction.
4)    Keep the Lika team in prayer. Especially the family of six, as they prepare to move to Lika. Each family had tremendous attacks ever since the first meeting. Pray for discernment and protection over each of the families.
5)    Pray for Balkan Networks. We want to strengthen each other and hear from the Lord as to how to properly minister to the region.
6)    What an exciting opportunity for us to lock arms with others to bring the love and presence of Jesus to the Balkans. Please keep us in prayer through the vetting process. Pray for this couple  specifically.
7)    We are happy for these open doors to minister in the churches. Zuzanna is preaching this coming weekend. Appreciate your prayers for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Thanks for your prayers. They truly strengthen us.