Purpose in Connecting

Further posts will explore the nature of connections, their contexts, purposes and the barriers obstacles we face in connecting.

why thoughts to finish the phenomenons of .... dissonance ... disconnected-ness in the light of why we are here (in the Kingdom, our Kingdom Communities and in (not of) the world.


Knowing the nature of a thing or a matter often reveals its purpose
Connecting is a term that is almost too cliche in these days but it is a good synonym for relationship. Perhaps it is a better word for relationship as it implies a bond where relationship can mean anything from disconnected to vital, depending on the context. I have a relationship to my rabbit. He thumps the floor when there is no food in his bowl; i feed him in response. That pretty much describes that relationship. It may be vital to him but it is not that vital to me. Nothing meaningful is shared or imparted. There is little if no mutual edification.

Connecting does imply something vital. It is simply a bond that exists between one another where interpersonal transactions take place. It comes to my mind as two one way transactions that are not governed by anything other than love (agape); no other conditions other than meeting another in a need (emotional, spiritual, material, physical, etc.).

The Word describes vital connections in detail and is perhaps best left for our own honest and earnest discovery. Most prominent in my mind are the Gospels, Acts 1-6, 1 John where the vitality of the connections are exemplified in community. It is the conduit of community. We see it in forms of encouragement, kindness, forebearance. The attributes of vital connections and their workings are laid out in 1 Corinthians 12-14.

Love is also about Community and Connecting: ordinary people with extraordinary relationships; to the Father, to the Son and in the Spirt to each other. It Goes Beyond Forgiveness, past Reconcilliation, past healing into Restoration into what God desires for our lives. It is Connecting to the Father's heart to release the Spirit of Might (true power) and going beyond the appearance of being connected (a form of godliness but denying His Power).

1 John 4 (New International Version)

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.


One of my favorite paraphrases of Love comes from a band called the 77's. Not too many people know of their work. They don't fit the molds well in either secular or Christian music. Larry Norman calls them “too Christian for the radio and too radio for the Church”.

This Is The Way Love Is (Mark Tootle)

When I gave up, you held up
When I ran out, you filled me up
When I kept runnin', you kept up
When I let you down you lifted me up

This is the way love is

When I couldn't find the words, you understood
When I didn't find the time, you were in no hurry
When I wouldn't make ends meet, you tied them together
When I cheated you kept to the rules

Well, this is the way love is
This is the way love is
When it's a one-sided double-minded mirror with no reflection

When I was keepin' it in, you were givin' out
When I was losin' out, you'd let me come back
When I was holdin' back, you were holdin' on
When I was losin' my cool you were keepin' your love warm

Well, this is the way love is
This is the way love is
When it's a one-sided double-minded mirror with no reflection

When I kept it all to myself like a miser holds on to his last dime
When I closed up myself like a desperate hand on a lifeline
Well I was bled, I was dried, all wrapped up in my pride
This is the way it is when you're on the wrong side

Well, this is the way love is
This is the way love is
When it's a one-sided double-minded mirror with no reflection

Bless you all.

Here to Connect!

Our Connections and the ways and means we connect to each other is a central thought through out this blog. I believe we can connect in many ways (spiritually, socially, intellectually, emotionally, physically, etc.) and in varying degrees.


Most of our connections are often superficial and our motives to maintain them vary. However, the utmost motives we are called to reflect are out of love; the one-way, outward kind that gives without concern for self. In their pure forms, authentic and vital connections are initiated and maintained out of love for the Lord and towards one another.


I am learning that we are here to experience consistent connections between God and each other in the Body. The strength of those connections witness to others in the world and act as signposts pointing them towards the Father. The Lord gave me a dream recently that is drawing me into better understanding of what connections are in the Body and what it means to connect. I would like to take the risk and share what i have been learning, starting with the dream.


This post has to do with something shown to me during time in the Furnace. For me, the most valuable time spent their, whether share or alone, is in the night watches. It is clear of most distractions that inhibits connecting to the Father's heart if we are inclined and dare to do so. Sometimes dreams come about after an intense nightwatch. This is an account of one that remains clear to me.


Why are you here? ... You are here to Connect!

Night watches in the Furnace for me are a paradox; energizing and tiring, more so when things get intense. I came home after a rather intense night watch and seemed to immediately fall into a dream as soon as i hit the pillow.


A short clip began to play in my mind as i drifted off. I was still alert but it was clear i was somewhere else. I was standing amidst a full gathering of our community in the gymnasium where we do the event part of church.


There was the normal buzz of voices talking amongst themselves as we prepared to worship. We stood in a full grid of neat rows and columns. No one seemed to be coming forward to speak or to lead worship and the buzz became louder as the absence of leadership persisted.

Suddenly, the whole stage area and the back wall became like a huge website that quickly re-directed our attention to the blank, clear screen. The buzz suddenly ceased and everyone fixed their gaze on the display. There was no way to avoid looking at it.

A bold text banner floated to the top-centre of the screen, captioning ...

Why are You Here?

The screen broke out into columns of many lists of plausible reasons, each with a check box adjoining it; as it were a survey. It seemed apparent to all that it was the Lord working an interactive presentation with us. I had the sense that He was concerned with why we were gathered here.



We began pointing at the screen as if our fingers were co-joind to a mouse. The lists flew up on the screen rapidly and we began to anxiously click at each line as they appeared. They all seemed like reasonable answers...

To sing praises...
...for the teaching
To pray for others ...
...for healing and deliverance
To serve in sunday school ...
... for friendship

The list grew to be quite huge! Then suddenly, before we got a chance to finish our hurried responses, the whole wall blanked out, like a page reload. Another wave of silence washed over everyone until a new banner appear as if to exhort us, in likeness to the correct answers being revealed after a multiple choice quiz ...

You are Here to CONNECT!
You are Here to Connect with Me and I to you.
You are Here to Connect to One Another as I am with you.

Everyone began to look at each other. Some appeared offended, bewildered, bothered but all very surprised. I seemed that no matter how many good answers we came up with to the question, there were only three that mattered. None of us seemed to have gotten them either.


Then i woke up. I didn't have much choice in the matter and it was only a short time after i went to bed. The whole thing gripped me to the point that it re-engaged my thinking to the point that i was distracted from a much needed sleep. I journalled the account and fell fast asleep.


Now What Was That All About?


The whole dream seized my thoughts and got me thinking again about why we are really here in the context of what we are calling church. What we do seems to be right but there seems to be something missing. We have good teaching, programs and excellent times of worship in song and adoration. However apart from all that there seems to be something missing.


Our experiences of church in the programmatic context can be quite empty. Church can and often is a lonely place in spite of the attendance and activities.

Most have come to see it as a place where we are busy being busy for the sake of being busy. Paradoxically, it can be one of the most loneliest places on earth. I believe this is a prominent phenomenon out of discussions at large.

The intent of this post is to provoke thought into the nature and purpose of connecting to one another, in the Kingdom and in our communities. Hopefully, some dialog would come out of it, preferably outside of this blog with one another. Even better would be to see real vital connections flourish, but that can not be done by words alone; they have to be shared and experienced together.

Further posts will explore the nature of connections, their contexts, purposes and the barriers obstacles we face in connecting.

What do you think is missing? What has the Lord been impressing you with?

Share your thoughts!

Bless you all.

Out of the Furnace

Most of what i have learned has come out of furnace experiences. Furnaces are those places of fiery trials and adversity. Furnace experiences are common to all, but the effects or outcomes vary in accord to our responses. We can get burnt to some degree, consumed or refined. In the latter, God is with His own in the midst of the refining fires to guide the process of melting us down and separating our new natures from our old flesh; to conforming us to the image of the Son.

God speaks to us out of the furnace of adversity in the midst of the pain with His presence reassuring us that He is in it with us. He gives us words (scripture, visions, dreams) to apply to our burnt places for healing and encouragement. I have come to trust Him more through each heat. It is a good thing for me as i have more heat to go through yet.

There is also the furnace of His presence; intense, intimate times where we are overwhelmed and barely able to stand. I can see why we will need transformed bodies to remain there. I see it as the furnace that contains the other furnaces.

There is another furnace that is important to me, a place of intercession and worship called the Prayer Furnace, a little white house called the Prayer Furnace; (aka www.pegwatch.com). It has come to be an important place to meet with the Lord for many in the church at Winnipeg. It is a house set apart for set apart folks who set apart their time to meet with the Father, intercede for others and receive His Heart for things that matter to Him as well as us. To me it is a vital part of day-to-day of body life where we can connect with Him and to each other. I see Him changing us and the way we do church with each other through that place.

It has a lot in common with the nature of the IHOP's south of the border as it operates on a 24/7/365 basis, but on a smaller scale. We share the same Spirit and heart, pray for the church, our nations and communities; the peace of Jerusalem. It operates on a schedule, manned by single or small groups of intercessors. The people and groups are represented by families, small groups within our fellowship, as well as other ministries in the city of Winnipeg.

I find The Furnace to have many facets. It is a place where we can come to be alone with the Lord, to intercede for others and to intercede with each other in His presence. It is a comfortable place to come for worship with others. It is the family room of the church where we can enjoy the Father together. Some families come for their devotional times. There is always someone at the Furnace.

Also like the IHOP's south of our border, it is a place where God is intimate with us, speaking directly and in power. It is in our intimate gathering together where i have found there is real life. We often think of gathering in the context of the event(s) of our church experiences; like Sundays or conferences and the like. We often think of Hebrews 10:25 in that context. The context does concern our communion (with Him and each other) for encouragement to love each other and to do the works that come out of that. Communion implies intimacy in relationships. It is hard for that level of intimacy to be realised in the context of an event alone without vital relationships.

As good as the larger programmatic events can be, it is hard to be intimate with one another in the Lord in the event unless we are intimate with Him and each other first. It is hard to do that in the framework of a couple hours or in a programmatic context. Ultimately, I believe the gathering the Lord does not want us to forsake is the intimate communion of saints. Consider how one could really consider and encourage one another to love and good works apart from an intimate fellowship. it is in the intimate times we experience the Father together where we find life.

I think the mission of the Furnace defined on the Pegwatch home page facilitates that intimate gathering quite well;

To Gather those who tremble for joy
for the pleasure of the One
Who seeks those
who worship in Spirit and in Truth.

There is no question that this Furnace was birthed out of a move of God. It has been gently raised and cared for out of obedience to a burden given to Jonathan and Carolyn, a couple who put their whole selves in to see God work in ways that can only be His work. The working of their courage, obedience and love for the Father and His Children is an encouragement in itself, as they walk in an observable daily dependence on His hand. It is a real blessing to see it at work.

I believe God is using it to change us individually so that He can change us corporately. He wants to connect with us so that we can connect with each other. I believe this a prominent facet of Kingdom living. The more we connect with the Father personally, the better we can connect with each other and demonstrate to the world that we are connected.

I have learned a good deal in this furnace, especially that we are to connect, not so much in the ways that we have come familiar with but in ways we all have to learn. Much of what i will write about comes out of the furnace and those vital connections with the Father and His children.

Like any move of God, it needs to be handled in reverence, as it is His desire for His Children. It needs to be guarded especially in this age where worldly influences press in with a great intensity. Many moves of God have become mere forms of godliness, taking on synthetic structures out of the world and of our own motives.

We need to guard against the things that can come out of our collective flesh; our natures that harbour them. Pride, jealousy and fear are powerful inhibitors of any move of God. Satan is waiting to put down moves like this and will leverage our flaws. The thin edge of his wedge is mis-understanding. Therefore we need to be vigilant and take personal responsibility to have the Lord sift our motives and to pray earnestly for one another and for understanding.

Thank you for being with me so far. I hope that you would continue with me. All posts are for your comment and our mutual edification.

We are in deed Blessed in Him.

So then ... why are you here?

A Prelude

This is a question that often comes across our minds or at least it should; Why we are here? It is broad in scope, from our existence on earth to the place we are at this moment. No matter what context, there are reasons why we are here. Whether we were drawn, lead or placed purposefully, passively drifting or sucked into a vortex we had little to no influence over, we are where we are at for a reason.

I think this question worthy of our asking and often so that we are confident of where we are headed. The process asking by itself will yield great benefits provided we are looking for real answers. A right and true answer will either help you correct your position or affirm it. Seeking the answer and doing something with it requires sincerity, openness and courage for it to be of value. Pressing in for the answer often involves hard work and often you are alone in the process; also for good reasons.

I have been a student of this subject for some time and i would like to share what i have learned out of the experience, one that is still unfolding. The road has been hard but looking back i see there was purpose in the difficulty. I believe we experience hard things in order to share the outcome, the truths of a matter, with others who are just entering in.

Sharing these experiences of the truth at work in us is the word of our testimonies; the first hand witnessing of the truth being worked out and applied in our lives. Seeing the truth clearly about us and our circumstances will change us, individually and collectively in vital connections to one another. It is one of the three things that we overcome by.

You may be asking; "so then what exactly is {the} truth"? Everyone may have differing opinions of what truth means or is. In fact, in this age, truth or at least our perception of it, has become relatively relative. However, truth by its nature can not be relative; it is the way things actually are. Truth is absolute. Perceiving the truth is often a long process of learning and un-learning; letting go of biases and impure motives so that we can see it more clearly.

For me, I am persuaded (and still continue to be) that the ultimate truth is found in the presence of the Almighty God. He is the truth. He is so true and pure that nothing un-true or impure can dwell in His presence and live to tell about it. His Spirit is true. His Word is true. God calls us to Himself and worship in the process, in Spirit and in Truth. For me that is the place to start. Worship is another interesting topic as the more we explore it, the less it is what we thought, but that is another topic.

This is a huge question and it is hard to preface it in a short space like this. That being said, I hope this will be a good place to start. I hope you would continue the discussion as we explore why we are here; for our mutual edification.

All related discussion to this topic will follow the labels for this post.

Bless you.