**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
We are excited to share with you a new video series with Lynn Green, which has been produced in partnership with YWAM Harpenden. He has been part of YWAM for more than 45 years and is the former Executive Chairman of YWAM. In this first video, he will be discussing with Clare Mulrooney, leadership in YWAM and some of our changes around eldership.
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
Or, how do I hear God better? After decades of meeting with countless thousands of Christians all over the world, I guess those questions must be in the top five questions committed Christians ask. The Holy Spirit is endlessly creative, so no description of His voice or explanation of how He works can encompass the reality. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing to say on the subject.
My personal experience is that God speaks in countless ways and has probably spoken in some ways that I have missed completely. There is no doubt that He speaks to those who are tuned in to Him, dependent on His word and consciously paying attention.
AN EGYPTIAN PROPHECIES
Earlier this week God spoke to me in a way that would be hard to miss. A number of Egyptian Christians visited us here at the Harpenden campus. We had planned two days of prayer and seeking God for the United Kingdom. I was expectant for the nation, but did not expect to hear anything for me personally. Then, in the first hour of a small leadership meeting scheduled before the main meetings started, one of the Egyptians began to prophecy over me! It was a wonderful few minutes as this man, whom I didn’t really know, repeated several prophetic words I have received before—promises of long life, of very fruitful ministry to the nations for many years to come, and much more. What an encouragement! God likes to do that for all His children. He is an encourager by nature. (I might add that is the reason why Paul writes that we should all desire to prophecy. God wants more outlets for His encouragement.)
When the word of the Lord comes that way, it is hard to miss. However, it is easy to fail to receive and remember it. One of my regrets is that sometimes the Lord has spoken through prophecy and I thought I would remember it well, but ended up forgetting much of what was said. In the meeting earlier this week, I took notes as fast as I could and was then relieved that one of the others in the meeting was recording it.
WHO WOULD HAVE GUESSED?
One of the most unusual ways God has spoken to me happened just about a year ago. A very kind and godly accountant in my home town has done our tax returns for many years. Whenever we are back there, we plan to take him to lunch, or at least coffee. During the course of our lunch last October, we talked about the changes in the YWAM leadership and leadership structures. He was really interested, so I suggested he could watch a video I had done on the subject.
He emailed me the next morning and this is part of his message:
“I thought I’d see what you were referring to, but before I got there I watched this one.
https://youtu.be/v7S1UQxMC50 .
Would you re-watch it and then let me know if God says anything to you?”
I was intrigued and clicked on the link right away. To my surprise I saw a video I had made several years ago (when I looked much younger!) and, YES, God did speak to me through it.
If some Bible teacher was speaking on hearing God’s voice, I’ll bet he would never mention that in his list of how God speaks. He used me to speak to myself ten years later!
I realised that I had made some initial efforts to communicate better, but that commitment had faded. I was convicted! But I also wondered how I could produce more good content and also learn to implement the technology required to get it onto good platforms, and how I could be sure that it was presented well and attractively.
WHERE GOD GUIDES, HE PROVIDES
When Marti and I got back home, I had a “get-to-know-you-better chat” with one of our new staff members, Thiago, from Brazil. I discovered that he had a broad and strategic grasp of social media; more than that, he was eager to help me communicate better. Now, a year later, we have been doing a much better job. Once again, I can say that when God requires a step of obedience, even when it seems it will be very difficult, he will provide the means for me—or you—to obey.
We have produced many good videos, dozens of blogs, a lot of prayer letters and now, this past week or so, we have posted nearly 20 podcasts and will continue to post more. If you like to listen to podcasts, you can find mine at:
(Click one the picture)
REMEMBER AND BELIEVE
Can you remember some of the ways God has spoken to you? Are you alert to hear his voice, and do you take steps to be sure you remember what has been said? Do you actively believe it? After all, that is why God speaks to you—so you can believe, and as you do, He works through your faith to bring His word to pass.
Who knows, He might even speak to you through something I say. He surely did speak to me through something I said a decade ago!
Lynn Green.
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
You might be relieved to learn that this blog is not about Brexit.
This is about pot, weed, cannabis, marijuana, hashish, bhang, kif, Mary Jane, dope, skunk….My goodness, there are so many names for this stuff!
SOFTENING US UP FOR CHANGE IN THE LAW? My wife, Marti, and I are just back from a visit to Colorado, where cannabis has been approved for medical and recreational use for quite a few years, so we have some recent experience with the results of legalization. In the few days since we got back, I see that a number of national newspapers and several TV programs have focused on the pros and cons of legalizing cannabis. It is quite obvious that they usually lean towards the positives, especially since Canada just decided it was in the best interests of the nation to make it legal. When this kind of media onslaught appears, my experience tells me that it usually implies some measure of government and media coordination. Someone with quite a lot of clout has decided to change the law, so first they aim to change public opinion.
THE FIRST ARGUMENT The most common argument is summarized by this quote from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying that it had become, “too easy for our kids to get marijuana – and for criminals to reap the profits.” So we asked around our friends and family in Colorado to see if legalizing stopped illegal dealing in the state. The answer was;
“No, there are always people who will grow and sell illegally because they want to avoid the state tax and the regulations which were the inevitable result of legalization. They can undercut the legal pot shops and make bigger profit.” So that seems to be one argument shot down, or at least seriously holed.
Since my home state, Colorado, led the USA in legalizing pot, it would be good to know what the Governor thinks now. In a recent interview with CNN, he explained that the crime rate has been rising since pot was made legal six years ago and he has not ruled out making it illegal again. He said:
“Trust me, if the data was coming back and we saw spikes in violent crime, we saw spikes in overall crime, there would be a lot of people looking for that bottle and figuring out how we get the genie back in. It doesn’t seem likely to me, but I’m not ruling it out.”
MY CANNABIS STORYAt this point, I should make a confession. In the year before I committed my life to the lordship of Christ, I smoked hashish (cannabis resin) at least a couple of times a week. I was attending the University of Colorado at the time. I enjoyed it a lot and wanted to smoke whenever it was possible. Although I was in my third year of a four-year electrical engineering degree, it was my first year completely away from home, as I had done the first two years at a junior college in my home town. When I got to the home of CU in Boulder, I joined in the party atmosphere.
I then proceeded to demonstrate an obvious truism; partying, drunkenness and pot smoking don’t contribute to an engineering degree! It wasn’t long before I was experiencing anxieties and there was a reason for that. It’s not much fun to go to a math class, having missed the two previous ones, only to realize that you can’t begin to understand what the professor is talking about. In those circumstances I could see two choices: I could stop partying and study with the “nerds” who understood, or I could reduce my anxieties with hashish. I smoked more.
The problem was I was only anxiety free when I was high. Every high was followed by ever more excruciating anxieties. Back to the young man who was prescribed cannabis to reduce anxiety: I notice that he is not addressing the reasons for his anxiety. He is still avoiding the hard choices required to make his life better, but the smoking makes him feel less anxious–at least temporarily. It seems quite clear to me that his prescription cannabis is not helping him lead a better, more fulfilling and satisfying life. All he gets is a temporary delusion that things aren’t as bad as he feels they are.
A BETTER CURE There are much better cures for anxiety. Since my conversion, I have aimed to live clear-conscience Christianity and that has given me the key to anxiety management. Where there are reasons for me to feel anxious, I should never avoid the circumstances causing the anxiety or attempt to anesthetize my conscience; I must face the reasons and make the choices that reduce my anxieties. However, sometimes anxieties arise for no identifiable reason. In those cases, once again, a clear Christian faith provides a pathway to overcoming. I have access to God’s presence, His promises and His reassuring love for me as an individual. When I focus on those realities, anxiety begins to shrivel.
I conclude that substance use, whether alcohol or cannabis or another something else, is no way to manage anxiety or fear. It is so much better to change the way I think and live and thus increase relational harmony and whole-person peace—shalom.
REVENUE FOR GOVERNMENTS I think the only obvious case for legalizing pot is the case for revenue. When a government legalizes and taxes pot, they will certainly increase their tax income. How much of that will have to go on extra policing is hard to say because it is so difficult to say that certain crimes are the result of pot use and others are not. But it’s not just a matter of policing. Some people will be able to use pot recreationally without it apparently affecting their behavior, but others will lose more time from work, withdraw from relationships, become less industrious and make more mistakes at work. Some of those mistakes can result in injury or death. How do we calculate the cost of that?
Driving under the influence of cannabis can be as dangerous as driving drunk. Note the following quote from a Canadian news service earlier this year,
As Canada prepares for legal pot, the federal government plans to spend as much as $80-million to train 750 police officers to smoke out high drivers. But how sound is the test? A Fifth Estate investigation raises serious questions, showing it can lead to false arrests, is prone to police bias and, according to one scientific expert, is no better at detecting high drivers than “flipping a coin”
The same article states that the Canadian government has spent as much as $80 million to train 750 police officers to “smoke out high drivers”. So where does all this leave the equation that all governments have to work out? (Revenue minus costs equals the overall financial benefit.) The answer is not clear, but it is not likely to be an overall positive income.
We become used to governments presenting this sort of decision in purely financial terms, but they are always more than that. This one is certainly about more than mammon. What impact will legalization have on the character of our nation? Will it be a help or a hindrance to young people as they grow up? Will it help develop more reliable and responsible citizens? The answer to that one is self-evident.
So is there a case for legalizing pot? Should Britain go the same way some other liberal western democracies have gone? Now that it seems many other nations will follow suit, so should we be among them?
A few months ago I watched a BBC documentary in which about half a dozen British TV celebrities were taken to Colorado where they talked to lots of people about pot. They toured pot farms and went to the specialist shops where they tried many different kinds of smokes and eats. They were older celebrities—I would say the average age was middle fifties—so their giggling and fooling around was quite entertaining. After their fascinating and picturesque tour was over, they were asked the big question:
I was sure their answer would be yes. But to my amazement, each one had exactly the same answer. “After all we have seen and experienced on this trip—the answer is no.”
I agree.
Lynn Green.
**This is a personal website and reflects my thoughts and convictions. It does not represent any official position held by Youth With A Mission.**
CONGREGATING IN THE EGYPTIAN DESERT
Why would two to three thousand people from dozens of nations gather in the Western desert of Egypt (between Cairo and Alexandria) just to worship and pray? There were no guest speakers, and the very long sessions were mostly prayer and worship. In fact at one point the whole group simply sang the name of Jesus (sounds like “Yassu” in Arabic) for nearly an hour. Why would over 300 Chinese risk coming to the event, knowing they are likely to be questioned by the Police and possibly punished on their return? Why would people pay their own way, then sit on buses travelling under armed guard from Cairo to the desert and back each day – a journey that took at least three hours?
Described that way, it sounds like torture to me — especially the idea of being in a tent in the desert with the temperature approaching 40 degrees C. But it wasn’t! Something very powerful happened, of which I can only give you a glimpse. In fact trying to describe this event reminds me of the Apostle Paul’s phrase that we “see through a glass darkly”.
THE COMPLEMENTARY BODY
Perhaps it helps to think firstly about who we are. We are all created as individuals, and we differ immensely. Some of us are very logical and concrete and linear in the way we think and live – I am one of those. Others are deeply moved by symbolic gestures, visions and dreams or connections that remind them of scripture passages. This kind of gathering tends to attract more of the people who get visions and dreams and see great significance in what sometimes looks like coincidences to me. I need these people, and they need me. Together we represent body, as Paul writes in I Corinthians 12, and we can safely discern what God is saying and doing – at least as much as He wants us to . But, there will always be mysteries.
ANCIENT “GODS” IN MODERN TIMES
Let me back up a bit, though. It didn’t start in the Western desert. About ninety of us started in Aswan, in the region of Egypt where there were the most temples, obelisks and symbols of the ancient Egyptian gods. These “gods” manifest themselves right through human history, and those who seek spiritual power often gravitate back to the symbols that appeared in Egypt about 5000 years ago. I think especially of the sun god Ra. Here are some obvious illustrations: As I understand it, the family of the Japanese Emperor make a covenant with the sun god and that has a direct connection to their flag and national symbol of the rising sun.
That symbol appears in many other nations too, including Korea. Freemasons and others have recognised the power in the symbols of ancient Egypt, so a couple of centuries ago they exported the obelisks from the Luxor region to the financial capitals of the world at that time. These obelisks still stand in London, Rome (which has eight), Paris and New York; in fact about 25 nations have obelisks in their capital cities. These were all very important symbols of prosperity in the eyes of Freemasons, and so a huge amount of effort was put into dismantling, transporting and reassembling them all across the world.
A SIGN TO US?
To the modern mind symbols like that often don’t make immediate sense, and yet we see the significance of symbols throughout the Scriptures. A central command of the Ten Commandments that God gave is that we should have no idols, and when you stop and think about the Biblical stories they are full of physical objects and acts that seemed to have direct spiritual power. I am deeply convinced that some material objects represent a direct connection to spiritual power. Interestingly, on the first day we began to worship in Aswan, with a number of Japanese believers present, a recently-erected 40 ton golden statue fell face downward in Okinawa. It was exactly like the story of Dagon in Judges 16. If you do a google search you can see a picture of it. The statue was 38 metres high (125 feet).
Here is what I think was going on both in Aswan and in the Western desert. Firstly, Egypt is a spiritual “mother” nation, and is the source of historical spiritual power, but can also be a mother of nations for blessing. We gathered in Egypt because we were convinced that God had said to do so, but gathering in Egypt alone does not give you power. What gives power is when people come together across the usual social divides: those can be national, racial, cultural, linguistic, economic or gender. The list could go on and on, and has to include age. I have been in many of these prayer and worship gatherings now, and the most notable characteristic of them is family affection. When God’s people come together and bridge all the usual divides which cause conflict, then we fulfill the condition for exercising the authority that Paul describes in Ephesians 1 and elsewhere, when he says “we are seated with Christ … far above all principalities and powers”.
ARE WE UNDER OR OVER?
We can get used to operating under the spiritual powers, and the divisions, suspicion, fear and even violence that they foster between different groups. But the Body of Christ is called to oneness and interdependence across all these divides. From that place we have the authority that the Bible describes. Sadly, we too rarely rise to that high calling of authority.
So that is what we did in Egypt. We let the Holy Spirit lead without a pre-planned agenda, and we ended up with a sense of God speaking into various nations, including China, Japan and Korea, but also with a day-long emphasis on the entire continent of Africa.
I have to add one thing, otherwise these events could appear to have no direct application. The Lord did bring a lot of encouragement to the Egyptians, who have experienced great discouragement and despondency, especially in the last decade or so. The Christians there are discriminated against, and the nation itself has experienced one huge setback after another.
So there were many words of encouragement to the Egyptians, but it was not only that. On the second to last day, a soft-spoken Sudanese pastor stood to describe how much racial discrimination he had experienced at the hands of Egyptians, including the Christians. It exposed another divide that God wanted us to close. The Egyptian response was deep humility, worship, repentance, and asking forgiveness, not only of the Sudanese who were there but all the Africans, as they realised that they had discriminated on the basis of skin colour.
Throughout the four days, we did not seek to address any of the spiritual forces, but we focussed on worshipping Jesus. As we did so some of these issues of division were dealt with indirectly and, I believe, the kingdom of darkness were dealt a mighty blow.
The principalities and powers are forces of division, fear, hatred, and violence—all towards the end that the image of God would be eradicated from the earth. However during a few days in the deserts of Egypt under a burning sun, we bridged many of the divisions, and it seemed that God smiled—then He achieved some of His purposes all over the earth because a group of His people really did act as His body with Jesus as the Head.
Lynn Green.
Lynn Green 