Romans 11:29
For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
What does this mean? Many Christians believe it means we are born with a gift that God put in us regardless of our repentance from sin. That’s why when someone they think was living right sins, yet they did all these wonderful things, they use this scripture. However, this is incorrect theology. What it is actually talking about is not the repentance of the person but the repentance of God. See God will never give you something and than later say “Ooops, you messed up I’m going to take it back.” This is a very encouraging scripture because all of us at one time or another mess up or fail, and the devil loves to say “You might as well give up, God is not going to use you now. He’s not going to be able to trust with his work or do wonderful things through you now!” Satan is a liar. God is omniscient -an all knowing God. You can never do something and surprise God. He called you and has used you regardless of all your short comings past, present, or future. He died for you and me knowing everything we could or would do wrong in our life. You have to pick yourself up and keep going.

-NATHAN BLAND

Praise…Worship…many Christians really don’t have a concept of what this is. They go to church, they pay their tithes, they sing along in the hymnal, they may even clap during some of the fast paced songs if they really feel good. If this seems far from what you experience in church, than I am probably not talking to you. I am talking to those who have been longing for something more. I am talking to those who leave church week after week and they fill the same as when they came. You ask yourself “What am I missing?” You may not even know that you are missing anything, you just think you are going through a trial yet it has been a very long time.

What is real Praise and Worship?

2 Samuel 6: 14-16, 20, 21
14) And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
15) So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16) And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
20)Then David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David, and said, How glorious was the king of Israel to day, who uncovered himself to day in the eyes of the handmaids of his servants, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth himself!
21) And David said unto Michal, It was before the LORD, which chose me before thy father, and before all his house, to appoint me ruler over the people of the LORD, over Israel: therefore will I play before the LORD.

Now I am not suggesting everyone start dancing in the nude! Ha! Ha! The point is David was not ashamed of praising God. David was a man after God’s own heart. (1 Samuel 13:14) He did not care how he looked, how he acted, or what others would say about him of his praise for God.

Psalm 9: 1-2
1) I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
2) I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

Can you say you praise the Lord with your whole heart? I know there are some who would say “I don’t have to act out of control or be loud and disturbing to praise God with my whole heart.” I can understand praising God in silence sometimes. There have been many times where I would praise the Lord quietly and feel his peace. However let’s take a look at this scripture.

Luke 19: 37-40
37) And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38) Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39) And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.
40) And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

When someone asks me “How are you today?” I do not always reply “I am rejoicing!”, I say “I am good.” or “I am happy.” Rejoicing is reserved for those times when you are beside yourself about something that has happened. When a mother finds her child that has been missing for days, or when a family hears word from the doctor that “She will recover and everything should be just fine.”
When the people rejoiced, they were beside themselves and excited for the King of Glory and the Lord of Lords was coming down the road to the temple. They laid palms before him as he came according to scripture. It says they shouted with a loud voice, it was so loud in fact that the pharisees came out of the temple and told them to be quiet. You see they could hear the rejoicing inside because inside it was quiet and they were conducting their service as usual.

God has saved me, saved my soul! Even before I existed He knew me and loved me. After all of the wrong I had done in my life He still loved me and wanted me to live in the abundance of his glory and in the peace of his presence. He is a good God! I will show him through my praise, my clapping, my shouting, and my worship. It’s because I am so thankful for what he did and where he brought me out of. I will praise the Lord with my whole heart!

-Nathan Bland

It has been a few days since I have posted and for good reason. Me, my wife, and another couple went down to Lakeland, Florida this past weekend to the Lakeland Florida Revival. Where do I begin….?

We left out Friday morning at around 4am and after many Starbuck’s stops arrived at our hotel at 2:30pm. When we inside the hotel there was a group of people to the right praying in the lobby. We went to check in and we heard a loud noise and turned around to find three people laid out in the spirit. I turned back around to the manager and said “Looks like we came to the right place.” She smiled and said “This happens everyday, don’t be surprised if you come to breakfast in the morning and see people all over the lobby.”

FRIDAY NIGHT - JUNE 20TH

We arrived at the revival at about 3:30pm. We were very anxious to get started! The entrance quickly filled up with people from all over the world! That Friday they had people from over 35 countries. Once we were seated we began to pray for the service. It did not take long to feel the presence of God and get in tune really quick. Once the worship started it was amazing. They had well over 10,000 people there that night all singing and praising God together. I mean how often do you get that many people in one mind and one accord praising God together. The crowd was so pumped about worshiping Jesus! When the last song had been played the crowd started chanting in rhythm “JESUS-JESUS-JESUS” and the music started again! This happened on the next two occasions when they stopped playing. It was awesome just feeling the presence of God in the air so thick. Todd Bentley preached a wonderful message that night that I was really fed from. He truly is a holy man of god. Christians need to put away their traditional mindset of what someone should look like and start getting their sights set on getting in God’s presence.

That night was the impartation anointing service. Todd personally prayed for everyone in the building no matter how many there were. I had a stack of prayer cloths to bring back with me and when I went through the line for prayer you could just feel the glory of God all over. I honestly had started talking to others during the long wait and by the time I was getting close to the prayer line had a mindset of “OK, I’ll get my prayer cloths prayed over, go eat and head to the hotel for some sleep.” However, when I got closer to the line you could feel the glory of God so strong it was overwhelming. We headed to the hotel room at about 2am…yep that’s right 2am in the morning, 10 and a half hours after we had arrived and it flew by.

SATURDAY NIGHT - JUNE 21ST

We were extra pumped for our last night of service and arrived at 3pm and were first in the pastors and international line. While waiting in the lobby the entire crowd of people began to sing “Amazing Grace”. This night I volunteered for the ministry team. One of the things that I truly loved about this revival was the level of involvement they give opportunity for. The ministry team are volunteers of pastors and ministers, from the ones that prayed for the sick, to the scribes that took the testimonies, to the ones that wrote the sticky notes for individuals who were healed or needed prayer and were going on the platform. There were volunteers vacuuming the building, cleaning up the sanctuary, and doing whatever needed to be done to help out and be apart. Everyone wants to serve! I have more than too many people to list that I was able to pray with and see God touch or healed that night. Sweden, Germany, Lebanon, Iran, Holland, Norway, Canada, Indonesia, India, France and many other countries were represented and wanted to take back part of the revival with them. One of the best miracles I seen that night was a elderly woman who could not walk without leg braces and arrived in a wheelchair get out of her wheelchair and begin to run up the aisle. Everyone cheered and shouted for joy at this work of God. She could hardly speak to me when I took down her information before going on the platform. It was awesome! A man from Israel came running down the aisle when it happened and shouted “I seen it, I seen it, I just seen a miracle! Praise God!”

This revival is so needed. There are many skeptics out there but that was prophesied there would be. One of the reason I stay out of the forums now online is because of the negativeness, bashing, and debating that goes on between Christians; It’s not healthy. I pray that before anyone says anything against it or decides to reject it, they would just go. Go and experience it. Send your pastor, worship leader, take a bus, anything to get down there and get in the presence and bring it back to start a fire again in your church, your life, and your relationship with Jesus Christ.

-Nathan Bland

Today I ran into a gentlemen that I see quite often in public but I am not on a first name basis with him. I have noticed his weight has been dramatically declining over the past several months and a lot of his hair has been coming out. I asked him how he had been and he told me he was still going to the clinic for some medical procedure. He than lifted his shirt and showed me a device taped to his stomach that he was having removed today. He used a random expletive word during his explanation about the clinic. It really gets my attention when I see the elderly who are very sick and so close to death having no awareness or concern of being distant from God. I want to clarify, I am not speaking about those that are mentally impaired in their old age.

Following the impulse in the spirit I went immediately to my truck and retrieved a cloth that was given to me by a friend who had it prayed over as a point of contact at a revival, a prayer cloth. I came back and asked him if I could give him something. I told him I wanted to give him a prayer cloth because I knew the procedures he was having to go through had to be tough and wanted him to know I would be praying for him. He put his hand on my shoulder and said “Listen, I don’t put my faith in cloths I put my faith in God” I started to tell him that I do too but was cut off by his next statement. He said “You know in all my days I have never met anyone that does not believe in God.” I told him that I have met quite a few. He walked away.

There is a strong disillusion these days that as long as you believe in a God we will all go to the same place, whatever heaven that might be. This is not the truth unfortunately for so many of the lost who have found otherwise upon their death.

My impression from the elderly man was that maybe I was trying to present something of a non-biblical new age practice with him and he didn’t want nothing to do with it. So I wanted to take a moment to share with you a scripture that reveals the practice and reason for prayer cloths.

Acts 19:11-12
11) And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul:
12) So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.

Sometimes you cannot go to the sick and personally pray for them one on one. Let me show you another scripture.

Matthew 18:19
19) Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Faith can be implemented in so many ways. It may not always be that you lay hands on someone and they recover. Sometimes faith will call for something so crazy and radical to be done that everyone around may think you have lost your mind but it is worth the leap for the growth in God. You have to have such faith that you don’t care what others say about you, you just know what Jesus can do and you will push through the “nay-sayers” to see God work. People probably thought it was crazy when Jesus spit in the dirt and rubbed the mud on the blind man’s eyes, but after he washed it off and his blind eyes were opened it was worth it! We have to be perceptive to the leading of the spirit and follow it. We can follow quickly and act immediately knowing that it’s God if we will seek him and stay close to him knowing that he will not lead us wrong.

The prayer cloth is not the source of the healing, it’s Jesus! It wasn’t the shadow of Peter that had the source of healing, it was the people’s faith! (Acts 5:15) Sometimes word’s are not enough to exercise your faith for something miraculous to happen, sometimes it needs action to get the gift stirred up inside of you and your faith lifted. It is easy to say “I believe, I believe” but yet you still have a shadow of doubt of whether it really can happen. Satan does not want you to work in the gifts of the spirit. He battles you with doubt anytime you exercise it. You need to believe so much so in what you are praying that you will start acting on your faith. You have to be that convinced.

Prayer cloths are not some pagan tradition that have found their way into Christian practice, but acts of faith that if this is the only point of contact I might have for this need than Lord touch them with the prayer I pray. God can do great things if we will just show a little faith.

-Nathan Bland

I find wikipedia.org a great place for finding information on subjects I am studying. A lot of the times I find myself lost in its vast emporium of information whether it’s needed or useless. I was reading through all the information it had on the “United States” this week and come across and interesting section for “religion”.

It states that in 1990- 8.2% described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or not having any religion. In 2001 this number reached 14.1%. A similiar study conducted in Britain in 2005 showed 44% and Sweden went from 69% in 2001 to 85% in 2005. WOW! 85% are atheist!?! I pray that the Lord will send someone to Sweden because this country is in need of serious awakening.

In my personal opinion I feel atheism is one of the fastest growing religions there is. What is religion? Religion according to the dictionary is any set of beliefs that one follows devotedly. Regardless whether someone says “I just don’t believe in God”, that is their belief.

Hebrews 10:31
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Many Christians are not preaching the word of God. Their doctrine has become a watered down version of God’s holy word. Some Christians doctrine has become something that is unbearable to live by and it shows in their unfruitful lives which are rooted in bitterness, jealousy, and strife.

It is time for an “AWAKENING”. We need to wake up and quit slumbering before it is too late. Tell All, that the Lord is coming back but only for those who are ready and watching for him. The pharisees tried to make living righteously such a hardship that the bible says they did not let others enter in, neither did they enter in themselves. I know atheists can be individuals with some of the hardest hearts for many times they are intelligent people that trust in their own wisdom and knowledge than that of God’s. They find comfort in their own logic, but yet God has called “whosoever will”. We must pray for those afar off and those that are “ease in Zion”. (Amos 6:1)

I call on everyone that reads this to fall back in love with the word, with prayer, with FASTING, and with the presence of God. We need his presence more than we ever have before. This world is falling under their own pride and love for themselves, pray that the Lord will shake their foundation before it is too late.

-Nathan Bland

I was reading through the headlines this morning, on several websites that I often visit, and I noticed how no matter what site I went to the web layout may be different but the elements that make up the news are all the same. “Gas Price’s Rise”, “FLOODS”, and many more stories of terrible times. I find myself looking through news stories from several sources just to hear some good news about something going on. Most of the time these stories are not reported unless it’s with a negative outlook. As I read through the news and see so many photos of hurting people, I realize how many need the Lord. They may not realize it, they may not accept it, yet they are searching for comfort, love, and filling of the void in their life. Now many would say this is a simplistic or vain solution to people with so many diverse complex problems in their life and the last thing they need is religion. Well I agree with one part of that; People do not need more religion, they need Jesus in their life.

The Lord has existed before creation, before genesis, because he has always been. There is not a problem that we face that he cannot guide us through. Many times Israel looked toward leaders amongst themselves when they were in need, instead of the God that brought them out and that has kept them through the ages. As the years go by I see this trend more and more- people relying on other sources for strength or escape from their problems than God. What it means to be a Christian becomes more open to interpretation by scholars than by the word of God. We have let good values and morals be the compass by which we live instead of the authority of Jesus Christ, yet good morals and deeds are dead works without him.

Times may be hard right now in your finances, your relationships, your job, your marriage or some other part of your life but do not let your relationship with Jesus suffer. It only takes a little time to open the bible and read from the word of God that will strengthen you, or pray to keep your spirit in line with the spirit of God, or stop for just a moment to praise God for the good things in your life. Take the time this week to sit down with your family and separate yourself from the negative that seems to abound and surround yourself with the good things in your life. Sit down and write 10 things that have happened good to you in the past week, past month, or past year. God still blesses his people we just need to be perceptive to the small things in life that he is blessing and that we take for granted.

-Nathan Bland