Fire On Your Head

After spending the better part of the weekend in bed sick over the weekend, I got myself up on Monday to try kicking this cold that I've been fighting and recorded some of my thoughts into my microphone. I get a little preachy. But it's also with trepidation that I share these thoughts because I'm not trying to just be a critical armchair critic.

There are two main points I cover today:

1) I share quotes from an eyewitness of the Azusa Street Revival who talks of how it was totally spontaneous and everybody contributing -- kinda like the stuff we've been discussing on the podcast about house churches and organic churches.

2) Then I get into full-on "preach mode" and spend time in the whole paragraph of 2 Chronicles 7 that the infamous prayer meeting verse comes from.

After listening to this through for a full edit, I realize there's a lot left to be said and that I've left out, but I guess we'll just have to get back to that later, eh?

I don't dog the importance of gathering together to pray, but simply remind you what we need is to go do it and get out of the upper room, not just gather in it all the time in order to receive (which if you remember me saying, also has its place.)

Please listen with an open heart. Remember, I'm more FOR these types of things than "against" them, but I just think what I share today is worth considering.

Relevant links by Dr. Stephen R Crosby, a regular guest on the podcast:

Revising Revival Part 1: 2 Chronicles 7:14 in context

Revising Revival Part 2: There's no "If You" in the New Covenant

Revising Revival Part 3: The futility of 2 Chronicles 7:14

&

An Open Letter to Revival - by Carlos A. Rodriguez

This week Carlos Rodriguez was visiting our ministry, Oikos, here in Peru and I was able to twist his arm and sit down with me for a podcast interview/discussion. This is a real bonus for me as I got to do it in person instead of over the internet.

Carlos is one of the pastors of Catch the Fire - Raleigh, in North Carolina. We discussed the Brownsville Revival and the Toronto Blessing, and the similarities and differences both in those movements and in our personal lives, as we apparently are both the same age and attended those schools of ministry while the other did also.

We also discussed "happy sonship" and his blog, as well as his trip(s) to Peru

Enjoy!

Books Mentioned in this episode:

• Experiencing the Father's Embrace &
• Spiritual Slavery To Spiritual Sonship both by Jack Frost
• Designed For Inheritance: A Discovery of Sonship by Carlos Rodriguez
• Nine Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues by moi.

Don't forget to check out Carlos's site at HappySonship.com

Today's episode was a long time coming, as it had been on my mind to invite today's guest on the show for quite a while, but I never went for it until a few months ago. If you are a subscriber to the podcast or a long-time listener of this show, then you have heard me refer to him on many occasions, sometimes as a point of reference when talking about certain things like hyper-grace or revival.

Today's guest Dr. Michael L. Brown is host of the nationally syndicated talk radio show The Line of Fire, author of a bazillion books, such as Authentic Fire, Hyper-Grace, and the five volume series Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus, among many others.

He was also one of the leaders of the Brownsville Revival, which birthed the FIRE School of Ministry that several other guests of the podcast went to or graduated from or taught at. As of late, Dr. Brown is also a columnist for Charisma magazine and Town Hall.

In today's episode I asked him:

• How he got started in writing.
• How he determines what he's going to do with inspired content
• What lifestyle habits does he have in his life so as to keep fostering the habit of writing.
• His tools of choice for writing
• Traditional publishing vs. self-publishing, since he has done both.
• Why doesn't he do any audiobooks (yet)
• Does he still have to submit manuscripts, or do publishers come to him begging him to write a book?
• The number one way to promote a book.
• Building Your Platform & ethical self-promotion.
• How many books he keeps on his computer at any given moment that eventually will become books.
• And more...

We close out the rest of the episode after that sharing listener feedback in response to last week's episode with Matthew Robert Payne on charging for personal prophecies through his website.

Links:

Ask Dr. Brown

The Line of Fire Radio

Charisma Magazine

Town Hall

Ask Dr. Brown YouTube Channel

This week I'm privileged to have on the show my mate from down under Matthew Robert Payne. We spent nearly two hours talking about writing books on the kingdom of God, but specifically the prophetic.

Early on we wound up opening a can of worms and discussing whether it's ethical to pay someone for personal prophecy, or a better way of putting it: is it wrong to charge for prophetic ministry?

We spent a while talking about this before moving on to discussing honoring leaders and mixing prophecy with national elections, as well as some of Matthew's angelic encounters.

I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Check out Matthew's Amazon book page.

Don't forget to check out his website at Personal-prophecy-today.com/.

Would you be shocked, offended or apathetic if I told you I haven't had any female guests on the podcast in over 6 years? Yes, that's right, somehow six years have gone by since the last time Fire On Your Head welcomed a female guest. Not because we're sexist, but like as I explained in the introduction, none of the people I've invited on the podcast in recent years have gotten back to me.

We finally break that streak and welcome author of the forthcoming book, God's Feminist Movement, Amber Picota to the show. We discussed a lot of different things, such as:

• the pros and cons of repurposing blog content into a book,
• the challenges I faced when I published my first Kindle book
• how she scored a book contract with Destiny Image Publishers
• how her time so far in the Welton Academy also led to her going through the Scripture with a new set of eyes to see things we're oftentimes conditioned to accept without question.
• God's Feminist Movement and what it is. We've heard a lot of prophetic voices talk about how God is turning the hearts of the fathers to the hearts of the sons, but what about… the mothers?
• Amber shares her powerful testimony
• and a lot more...

Join us this week for an in-depth conversation.

Check out Amber's site at AmberPicota.com, and pre-order a copy of her book on Amazon.

Other books mentioned in the show:

Powerful & Free by Danny Silk

Fashioned to Reign by Kris Vallotton

Normal Christianity by Jonathan Welton

Playing Second Fiddle: God's Heart for Harmony Regarding Women and the Church by Judi Peers

This week Dave Edwards and I catch up and record it for your benefit. In a nutshell we discuss vision. What are you dreaming about? Do you have vision for it? Do you just need a little push or a kick to "go for it" and get out of the upper room?

A phrase that came to me in our conversation was the question "Can you see it first? Or do you need to see someone else do it first and then follow the path they forged?"

We talked from there about pioneering versus settling, and going for the dreams and callings God's given us versus waiting for someone to give you permission or "choose you".

Books mentioned in this show:

By Seth Goins - Poke the Box and The Icarus Deception

By Todd Henry - Louder Than Words: Harness the Power of Your Authentic Voice & Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day

By James Altucher - Choose Yourself!

Have you ever been told that speaking in tongues is “not for today?’ Maybe you’ve heard people speak in tongues and it seemed weird. You thought to yourself, “This is too strange to be God!” Or, maybe you believe that people can still speak in tongues today, but it’s not for everybody.

Whether you’re skeptical or intrigued, whether you speak in tongues or don’t, my new book 9 Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues is for you.

Get your copy wherever Christian books are sold, and head over to SteveBremner.com and click on the first link on the home page for more information about how you can spread the word.

Blessings and fire on your head!

Steve Bremner

This week I'm privileged to have Larry Sparks on the show. I've been following Larry for a little while now and recently took the plunge and invited him to be on the show.

Larry Sparks is on a mission that can be captured in three words: Encounter, Activate, and Transform. His driving passion is to see people encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit, activate God's power in their everyday lives through supernatural discipleship, and transform their worlds by representing Jesus Christ and advancing His Kingdom.

As an author, speaker, and revivalist, Larry is committed to harnessing the power of media to equip the body of Christ for supernatural living. His ministry, Equip Culture, exists to provide tools and resources that empower Christians to discover their inheritance in Christ and live a life where anything is possible.

Supernatural discipleship is one of Larry's main areas of emphasis. He presently serves as Director of Curriculum Resources for Destiny Image Publishers where he creates media-based resources that equip believers to sustain supernatural lifestyles characterized by the pursuit of God's presence and demonstration of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, signs, wonders, and miracles.

Having ministered in university, church, and conference settings, Larry delivers a message of supernatural empowerment and spiritual passion. A repeat guest on CBN's Spiritual Gifts Webcast and host of the weekly Voice of Destiny radio broadcast, he is also a blogger, columnist and a regular contributor to Charisma Magazine and Charisma News.

So you can see why he's a great fit for Fire On Your Head.

We started off discussing the balance and tension between being carriers of the Holy Spirit's revival presence, but yet still needing to contend to manifest it. On the one hand it's true that all has been done on the cross and we don't "earn" anything from God. But at this point I ran my analogy by Larry that just like Israel in the wilderness receiving manna on a daily basis, they still had to go collect it. If you slept in you missed that day's manna, but you still didn't work to create the crop or sow manna seed and cause it to harvest. God did His part, we do ours.

As I reflect on the conversation and listened to it again while editing it, I was pleasantly surprised how flawlessly we segued into talking about the marriage of revival and discipleship in the second half of this show. Regular listeners are going to enjoy today's show, no doubt about it.

We all need upper room experiences, but the goal is not to stay in the upper room and never go into the streets below with the power of God to a dying world around us.

Enjoy today's episode!

Links:

• Larry's website: Lawrencesparks.com/
• Voice of Destiny Podcast
• The 1 Lies Millions of Christians Believe About the Holy Spirit.

Finally, an interview for the first time in like what, 5 months? Today's guest goes by the name of Chad Kidd. Chad and I have a mutual friend through Stephen Crosby, and we're both a part of a group on Facebook about 'the dones' which has been a theme lately on the show and will be for a little while longer.

There's the dones, and then there's the "called out ones."

I posted a message in the group looking to have a group Skype call or Google chat hangout, and Chad was the only one available so we converted the conversation into a podcast discussion which I think you're going to enjoy. We also briefly discuss his book, Rethinking the Unthinkable: In the Light of Love which he co-wrote with his wife Ondrea documenting their reflections on exiting the institutional church and how God has been leading them ever since over the years that followed.

Topics we discussed:

When we discuss being done, what is it we're done with? Done with institutional and relationship-less Christianity, and not done with a relationship with Jesus Christ.

We discuss a blog post "A Response to Christians Who Are Done with Church" by Carey Nieuwhof

We would never do 'family' the way we do church. We discuss a threshold most, if not all dones and "called out ones" reach which tips them past the line of how much they can take before they need to leave the Institutional Church in order to satisfy that longing.

Join us today as we bounce ideas off of each other regarding being a called out one.

Check out Chad's blog at Roadofkingdom.blogspot.com

This week I finally get around to publishing an episode I recorded back in November before things got really busy for Lili and me. In today's post I want to give you some updates about the feedback we got on the last episode (back in September) with Dan Daily about the Done with Church "movement".

Never have I gotten as much feedback for an episode as that one, so I share some of the feedback!

Make sure to check out the following items mentioned in this week's episode:

• The Missional Man Podcast with Jonathan Chambers
• The Gordian Knot of Institutional Church with Rob Wilkerson

And don't forget to pre-order a copy of my new book, 9 Lies People Believe About Speaking in Tongues available everywhere February 16th.

Blessings and fire on your head,

Stevie B