Bear Grylls Testimony (from "Mud, Sweat and Tears" Autobiography

 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mud-Sweat-Tears-Bear-Grylls/dp/190502648X/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1308313689&sr=1-6

Page 92 of "Blood, Sweat and Tears" by Bear Grylls

...Girls aside, the other thing I found in the last few years of being at school was a quiet, but strong Christian faith - and this touched me profoundly. setting up a relationship or faith that has followed me ever since.
   I am so grateful for this. It has provided me with a real anchor to my life and has been the secret strength to so many great adventures since.
   But it came to me very simply one day at school, aged only sixteen.
   As a young kid, I had always found that a faith in God was so natural. It was a simple comfort to me: unquestioning and personal.


But once I went to school and was forced to sit through some services, listening to stereotypical churchy people droning on, I just thought that I had got the whole faith deal wrong.
Maybe God wasn't intimate and personal but was much more like chapel was . . . tedious, judgmental, boring and irrelevant.
The irony was that if chapel was all those things, a real faith is the opposite. But somehow, and without much thought, I had thrown the beautiful out with the boring. If church stinks, then faith must do, too.

Page 93

The precious, natural . instinctive faith I had known when I was younger was tossed out with this newly found delusion that because I was growing up, it was time to 'believe' like a grown-up.
   I mean, what does a child know about faith?
   It took a low point at school, when my godfather, Stephen, died, to shake me into searching a bit harder to re-find this faith I had once known.
   Life is like that. Sometimes it takes a jolt to make us sit and remember who and what we are really about.
   Stephen had been my fathers best friend in the world. And he was like a second father to me. He came on all our family holidays, and spent almost every weekend down with us in the Isle of Wight in the summer, sailing with Dad and me. He died very suddenly and without warning, of a heart attack in Johannesburg.
   I was devastated.
   I remember sitting up a tree one nigh at school on my own, and praying the simplest, most heartfelt prayer in my life.
   'Please, God, comfort me.'
   Blow me down . . . He did.
   My journey ever since has been trying to make sure I don't let life or vicars or church over-complicate that simple faith I had found. And the more of the Christian faith I discover, the more I realize that at heart, it is simple. (What a relief it has been in later life to find that there are some great church communities out their, with honest, loving friendships that help me with all this stuff.)
   To me, my Christian faith is all about being held, comforted, forgiven, strengthened and loved - yet somehow that message gets lost on most of us, and we tend only to remember the religious nutters or the God of endless school assemblies.
   This is no one's fault, it is just life. Our job is to stay open and gentle, so we can hear the knocking on the door of our heart when it comes.

Page 94

...The irony is that I never meet anyone who doesn't want to be loved or held or forgiven. Yet I meet a lot of folk who hate religion. And I so sympathize. But so did Jesus. In fact, He didn't just sympathize, He went much further. It seems more like this Jesus came to destroy religion and to bring life.
   This really is the heart of what I found as a young teenager: Christ comes to make us free, to bring us life in all its fullness (John 10:10). He is there to forgive us where we have messed up (and who hasn't), and to be the backbone in our being.
   Faith in Christ has been the great empowering presence in my life, helping me walk strong when so often I feel so weak. It is no wonder I felt I had stumbled on something remarkable that night up that tree.
   I had a calling for my life.
   I do owe so much of my faith to a few best friends at school who, especially in the early days, nurtured that faith in me. They helped me, guided me, and have stood beside me ever since as my buddies: the great Stan, Ed and Tom.
   As for me other great buddies at school. like Mick, Al, Watty, Hugo and Sam, they simply considered this new found Christian faith of mine was a monumental waste when it came to getting girls!
   Talking of getting girls, in case you were wondering, it was because of my faith that I only kissed that beauty of a German girl I met, and didn't end up making love. (Although, I must admit, it took all my strength at the time to resist that one!)
   Despite all my friends thinking I was utterly made, deep down I felt determination to keep my virginity for my wife one day.
   But that really is another story..."

The end of Religion...

Here's some cool quotes and thoughts from a new book I recently purchased by Bruxy Cavey called "The end of Religion":
http://www.amazon.com/End-Religion-Encountering-Subversive-Spirituality/dp/1600060676

His podcast:
http://www.theendofreligion.org/?page_id=43

My definition or religion: "Religion is any church activity that's void of Gods will, desire and voice for that moment, that hour or that season!! Christianity is an intimate, living relationship and friendship with God!!"

Doug Banister "Religion is a tiresome system of man made do's and don'ts, woulds and shoulds, impotent to change human lives but tragically capable of devastating them."

Bruxy Cavey "I understand that some people use the word "Religion" to refer to a healthy outward expression of their inner faith. But for the most part, when I look around me me today, including looking over my shoulder at thousands of years of religious history, what I most often see in the name of religion is a ritualized return to bondage. The concept of religion has been closely associated with the repetitious tying of oneself to inherited beliefs and behaviours, traditions and theologies ...religion ties us down, Jesus came to set us free."

Robert Farrar Capon "Christianity is not a religion. Christianity is the proclamation of the end of Religion, not a new Religion, or even the best of all Religion...  The cross is actually a sign that religion can't do a thing about the world's problems - that it never did work and never will."

Erwin McManus "The murmurings of revolution are everywhere. I am convinced that there is an uprising in the works and hat no one less than God is behind it. I am convinced that multitudes of followers are tired of the church playing games and playing down the call of God."

Myles Munroe "Religion produces a system (of rules which you try to follow), but the Kingdom produces a culture (a lifestyle which you live from)"

Myles Munroe "The number one opposition to Jesus Christ's ministry on earth was never sinners, it was religious people!!"

Myles Munroe "Religion is mans attempt to substitute the kingdom"
"Christianity was never a term given to us by Jesus Christ nor the apostles. The term Christian was never to be a title nor label that we wore, but a lifestyle that we lived demonstrating the nature of "Christ-Likeness". ...The name Christian was originally a derogatory label (little Christ's/little anointed ones) given by non believers to followers of Christ (christian literally means "little Christ" & Christ means "anointed"). The term Christian occurs only twice in the scriptures (Acts 26:28-29 and 1 Peter 4:16-17)."

Bono "Religion is what happens when the spirit has left the building"

Kris Vallotton "The word of God without the spirit of God is death! It's called religion!!"

Kris Vallotton "Religion starts wars but the kingdom stops them!!"

When I pray for healing...

Matthew 13:31-32 amp
"³¹...The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. ³²Of all the seeds it is the smallest, but when it has grown it is the largest of the garden herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and find shelter in its branches."

The kingdom of heaven (where their is no sickness) is like a seed sown in a field, so when I pray for someone's healing I can't always guarantee if the person i'm praying for will experience the mustard tree (the fulfillment) or the mustard seed (the beginning of the process)!! The thing i'm hungry for is the ability to know at what stage the seed being planted is at so I can attach my faith to that particular stage of growth!!

Let me explain...
When Jesus began his ministry the first thing he said was "...the kingdom of heaven has come upon you" Matt 4:17, also "the kingdom of God is at hand" Mark 1:15, and as soon as he declared the kingdom was available the Bible says that he "went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him" Acts 10:38.This clearly tells me that the kingdom of heaven coming upon a person is associated with "healing all" sickness because we know theirs no sickness in heaven. We also know that the devil is responsible for "death, lost and destruction (sickness falls under those categories)" (John 10:10) and the kingdom of heaven destroys all of that!!

Then he turned that around and told us to do the same thing, he said:

"...as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand! Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons...” Matthew 10:7-8

“...the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.”(With the kingdom of heaven invading earth!!) 1 John 3:8
“...As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” John 20:21

...Now here's the thing, the scripture at the top of this page (Matt 13:31-32) tells us that "the kingdom of heaven" is like a seed or a tree, so when I pray for someone who's sick I have absolute faith that the kingdom of heaven (where their is no sickness or oppression) has come upon that person but I do not always know the stage it is at. It could be in seed form or it could be in tree form!! My job is is to press into God's Rhema voice so I can find out the stage it's at then attach my faith to the seed being planted or the tree being manifested.

Here's another way to look at it, When I pray for healing if I have absolute faith that the kingdom of heaven has come upon that person, but I see no immediate change in the symptoms, that tells me that i'm not manifesting a tree but planting a seed, this is similar to starting a fire when you go camping! First you have to get a small flame going then you have to fan that flame and add fuel to it in-order for it to grow and get bigger. If you keep adding fuel and oxygen to the flame it will eventually turn into fire!! Sometimes all you can do is start the flame and give the responsibility of fanning the flame to the person you just prayed for!!

If you pray for healing and you don't see an immediate change (i.e. you're only planting the seed and not harvesting the crop) you then have the responsibility to help the person understand this scripture so they can fan the flame themselves until they get their healing:

Proverbs 4:20-22 
"²⁰ My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹ Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart;
²² For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh."

Value shift...

If we're going to see God move in power and co-labour with him to see the kingdom of heaven invade earth, we have to create an atmosphere in worship/ministry/life etc where things can get messy, where we can step out and make mistakes boldly!!

1 Corinthians 14:40 nkj
"Let all things be done decently (nlt: "properly") and in order (amp: "in an orderly fashion")"

If we're going to birth something new in the spirit during worship it may not look clean and neat and polished and professional!!! God, who created sex/pregnancy/birth etc, said that a women giving birth to a baby is "decent and in order"!! Think about how messy giving birth can be but God looks at that and calls it "decent and in order"!!


Birthing something new in the spirit is the same thing!! We limit God by trying to make things professional, polished and clean!!!

"Value's shift in urgent moments!!"  

You might value the upholstery in your car but if a women runs up to you whilst in your car with a bloody child after giving birth, and that child and needs to get to the hospital, the value for your upholstery changes in the moment!!

It's not wrong to aim for making things clean and polished and professional etc but as soon as it holds you back from taking another step forwards (which is usually when you fear it becoming messy), that's when your value for professionalism has to change in order to birth what God wants to do!!!

"research and development" vs "manufacturing"

In the business world you have the "research and development" department and you have the "manufacturing" department. In the manufacturing side of the business you want to have zero defects. Apples manufacturing department wants every iphone and every ipod to work 100% of the time, if you work in that department your core goal is to have defects and mistakes!! But if you take that core value and you super-impose it over the research and development department by telling the team to never make a mistake, guess what happens! You will never create anything!! You will never push any boundaries, break any limits or create anything new!!

In order to move into new territory we have to create a mindset and a culture where it's alright to make mistakes and make a mess. If we're going to change culture, bring the kingdom of heaven to earth and go up against the powers of darkness we are going to have to humble ourselves, step out of the zoo into the jungle and head on down to the research and development department for some training, because you're never going to be prepared for the jungle by staying in the zoo!!!

“The greatness of a man's power is in the measure of his surrender (to God).” William Booth
“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” Andre Gide

Calling out the Gold in People (Evangelism)

When you believe in a person they rise to a new expectation!! Working with the homeless you see that principle in practice quite a bit, people will often raise to the standard you expect of them if you expose the potential greatness inside of them and they get a glimpse of it themselves!! They will raise to a higher standard when they realize that they are living below "the absolute fullness of life in abundance" and they can have more!!!

When I read John 10:10 a fire burns within me to live by that standard of "the absolute fullness of life in abundance" because it forces me to look at areas of my life where I can see that i'm living 'below that standard' which then produces a drive in me to raise to the expectation God has set for me to experience and live in!!

We don't need to fight darkness by addressing the darkness in people, all we have to do is flick on the lights and darkness will leave!! If you are able to prophecy the greatness inside people it's the same as laying down a path in front of that person and giving them a torch to follow it when it gets dark because you're revealing a standard for them to come up too, you're pointing to a treasure on top of a hill which people then have the opportunity to pursue. "Fortelling" is to predict the future with our words, "Forthtelling" is when we cause the future with our words!!!

"...Most people know what is wrong with them but they are unaware of the greatness that God has placed in their lives... Prophecy brings people into a revelation of the Glory that God has assigned to them. This exposure brings conviction in their lives that they are living below the glorious standard that God has set for them." Kris Vallotton (Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry)

"The purpose of the prophetic is to expose a person to his/her true identity and destiny. Showing them that there is far more than what they are currently experiencing." Kevin Dedmon (The Ultimate Treasure Hunt)

John 10:10 amp
"The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)."

The Greek word for "life" is the word zōē (G2222) which means = "The absolute fullness of life"
The Greek word for "Abundance" is the word Perissos (G4053) which means = "Over and above, More than enough"