#BackToBasics Devo - John 1-4

John 1 - Jesus shows up in the old testament as "The Word". People are not born of God by their own will or by the will of man. In this chapter, people are bringing friends to follow Jesus.

John 2 - Jesus didn't believe his own press, and He didn't put his emotional well being in the hands of people. He knows how people can be.

John 3 - People who don't like the light, love their evils deeds. Darkness is a cloak for evil deeds. People who do right love the light. "Jesus must increase, and must decrease."

John 4 - In conversations with people, Jesus talked with them on a deeper level. "God is a spirit, and those that worship him must worship in spirit and in truth (reality)!" We must be aware that we are in partnership with generations before us to bring in God's harvest.

On Passively Leading...

As I'm going through my leadership journey, I've begun to notice a few things about myself. One of the things I've noticed is how my leadership style has changed. As I stated in my last blog, there were some ideas that I had about leadership that were just off. I was young. I didn't know how to treat people right. It was kind of rough for those people who served in any ministry that I oversaw. But not all of my leadership qualities were bad. There's one in particular that I would like to regain. That risky, edgy, raw side of leadership.

The thing about me is...I am sort of an extreme personally. "Be ye hot or be ye cold!" Or something like that. I gravitate towards extreme characters in the bible like John the Baptist and Elijah. Dudes were just raw! I could relate. I had no problem confronting people or situations that needed confronting. And I had little to no fear of consequences. For example: in my early youth leader days, I shut down the entire youth band. I felt like they were up there for show & their personal lives didn't reflect holiness at the time. So we did what no thriving youth ministry wants to do. We went to CDs instead of a live band. And it was awkward. And in my zealousness, I did make poor decisions on the particulars of how it was handled. And kids and parents got hurt. And God had grace on me because He saw my heart. It was a radical decision but it was made for Him. And despite of my mistakes, his presence showed up and we had kids giving their lives to God, powerful altar ministry, kids prophesying and seeing visions. Our youth ministry began to grow...not because we had parties. God knows it wasn't because of parties. My mindset back then was, "Who needs fellowship to have fun? The altar is fun!" Wow! Man those days!

As I grew, something happened. I began to notice how I could grow in leadership. I realized the culture in which I was serving. Most everybody around me was so chill. Some were radical in their personalities but not when it came to interaction with others. And the ones who were radical with others were also immature in the way they handled things. The insecurities and the flat out wrong was so apparent that I began to despise the confrontational side of myself. I was like, "Look at the people I've hurt. Look at the people these radical people are hurting. I don't want to be that anymore." I was also grappling with some theological issues of grace and works at the time. "Does God do it or do we do it?" I decided that it was much easier if God changed people's hearts. But in extreme fashion, I leaned all the way to the "God does it" side. And that resulted in passive leadership. I became the nice guy. I sought to "understand rather than be understood", include everyone in every decision, and wait for the "right time" or for "God to move on their hearts" in order to make crucial decisions. And I must admit, it's easy and stressful at the same time. But things don't really get done that way. At least not in a timely manner.

I'm now beginning to walk in the balance. I needed both of these leadership experiences. I need to understand that collaboration is very important. I also need to understand that as a leader, it's my job to pull the trigger and make the tough decisions. I feel my edginess coming back. This time it's tempered with more love and compassion than I've ever had in my life. And about that grace/works thing...that may have to be a totally separate post entirely.

I'm still learning and still growing. Just keep me in prayer! And thank you for reading!

Jarrell

"And Some Preach Out of Rivalry..."

I was listening to Philippians today and I ran across Philippians 1:15-17 which reads:

"Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment."

Talk about politically incorrect. In Christian circles, it's just wrong to flat out call someone an agitator. You're supposed to believe the best, right? What gave Paul the right to say, "This person is an agitator, that one is a hater. This one has good intentions, but him over there? Nah."

There are a few keys in the above verses:

1) The latter (the ones preaching from good will) preach out of love. When another brother seems to be down, they find out why the person is down (i.e. "Paul is not there because he did something wrong. He's actually there because of Christ. Let's be more bold in our approach too!")

2) The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry. They saw Paul's downtime in prison as an opportunity to get "one up" on him and become the next well known preacher. They also knew what that could do to Paul (i.e. "Paul's gonna hear about us doing it big while he's in prison and he's gonna get frustrated that he's not free".)

I've been on both sides. I wish I couldn't relate to #2 as well as I do, but sometimes these attacks do come. When I'm about to do something that I think will be highly effective, sometimes those thoughts come. They generally start out like this: "Man, when I do this or when this comes out?? Whew! People are gonna trip!" Then it turns to: "So and so already doesn't like me too much. So and so's might be a little upset when this happens. Oh well. Let them hate." Then, if unchecked, it turns into that person coming up in your thoughts on the day of your "big event" or during your creative process. (Sorry, this is just real. And if you have ever tried creating something in a market that you share with others, you've more than likely felt the same way too.)

Here's a little curve ball though. Most people who are in the public eye (or seek to be) are very emotionally fragile. We feel like someone is always trying to outdo us, make themselves look better than us, etc. When we feel like that in a situation, how do we figure out if we're being paranoid or if the other people are trying to be a pain?

Honestly, most of the time it's us! This is what I do: I examine my heart and say, "Why is this getting on my nerves? If they're preaching the gospel, why am I mad? What's in me that has me so agitated?" After I test myself and come to the conclusion that I should be happy as long as the gospel is being preached, I move on to examine the other party according to the scriptures. In Philippians, you'll see this common thread of selfishness in those who don't have the right motives for ministry. What does this person or ministry look like on a practical level?

1) They strive to do something big and can't wait to put their name on it (either exclusively or their name is at the forefront).
2) They generally try to set themselves in positions of influence, tell you that they are there and make you feel like all hope is lost if you get on their bad side.
3) You can tell by the way they treat you and talk to you that their concern is not the interests of the Lord. They're just interested in doing something big.
4) Who comes out on top in the end? Is their name shining bright, is there a struggle to see the light of Christ due to self promotion, or does God get all of the glory? (Not glory in word only but also in deed. Remember, if we say "God gets all the glory" but we treat people like trash then God is NOT glorified.)

A quick way to identify these people is seeing how they react to real unity. As a rule of thumb, people who are only concerned with their own things will never make time to connect with you on a one-to-one basis. Why? Because they're too busy trying to be "great". You never see them unless you happen to be working with them on the same project (which is not real unity). If they are in a public setting, they carry around a "network swag" instead of being truly personable. These are huge red flags.

The bottom line is that we should be okay with Jesus and the kingdom being preached...even if we feel the vessel is somewhat tainted with wrong motives. But we should also check our motives daily AND we should have a good feel for those who labor among us. Hope this helps someone!

More...

Yesterday was monumental for me. Last night I rapped at Hip Hop Sunday in Austin and for the first time in a while I felt like the old me...before the record label, the music videos, the TV and radio appearances, the constant requests to minister, booking processes, etc. Yesterday I just felt like that dude who was rapping with nothing to lose. I felt like I was speaking what God put in my heart to say - and I enjoyed it.

While I was driving up to Austin, I found myself reflecting on my ministry thus far. Recently God has put it in my heart to spend more time in preparation with him before I get up and say anything to anybody. I feel like before I say anything, me and God need to have a conversation about how the ministry time is gonna go. Even if I'm not the main person doing ministry and I'm a part of a larger schedule, I feel like God can tell me what the overall atmosphere will be like and how He wants to use me to strengthen or even change that atmosphere. If He decides to tell me, "Jarrell, just open your mouth and I'll fill it" then I will be totally fine with that. But we need to be in one accord about what ministry time is gonna look like. This requires consecration.

I remember, as recently as 7 or 8 months back, when I was so afraid to minister if I felt like the Lord wasn't with me. I remember a time before a particular concert when I said, "Lord if you're not going up there on stage with me then I refuse to go. I have no problem telling these people that I'm not prepared to minister." And in my heart I really would have cancelled. But somewhere in there I must admit...I began to believe the lie that people wanted good music with a message instead of the presence of God. God (in His grace) still showed up to concerts and people were blessed...but it wasn't the same. I felt God there but I didn't feel him taking complete control of the ministry time. I had control. It's during times of reflection like this that I have to ask myself, "What is the goal of ministry?" I had a guy prophesy over me once. He warned me never to forget why I'm doing what I'm doing. So when I get up there to minister, what exactly is it that people should experience? For me, I want people to experience the reality of God's power. I also want to speak the heart of God and watch it strike a chord with those who are in tune to His voice. I want to impact a generation with the voice of truth and a passion that reflects the reality of that truth. I know that God has called the ministry that I'm connected with to be marked by a John-the-Baptist-style of doing things (hence "Johnny's iPod", etc). Really radical and passionate. Really prophetic. But this kind of ministry demands some serious consecration. I've said this before and I'll say it again - I am not the greatest rapper. The only thing that sets me apart from other ministers has been my time with God. That's all. I've tried incorporating different styles in my rap and I've come to know my natural limitations. But there's just something about the Holy Spirit that reaches beyond the known boundaries and into the soul. By the time you're done ministering, people who don't know what happened will come up to you and say stuff like, "Your words are encouraging" "you're really good" "you, you, you". But after the concert is over and you retreat back to the quiet place to thank the Lord, you know that it was by His grace that anything good was shared through you.

That's what happened last night. I didn't want to go on stage unless God was with me...so I prayed. God gave me some direction as to what I was to say and do. I did it. I left the stage and went back to thank God. I came back out and talked with the people. I went home rejoicing over what God had done that night. One guy really encouraged me when he said, "You rapped really good. And you were really passionate and I could see in your eyes that you really believed what you were saying." That is how it should be. The moral of the story...I need more of Jesus. Yes, I need to practice my craft and do all of the label stuff. But what is the overall spirit of the organization? I'm striving for raw, passionate, Jesus-loving, people-loving ministry.

There are more things that play into me being distracted from staying before God's face! I'll talk about those distractions later and how God is solving these issues. I think that it will definitely help people put a few things in perspective. But it comes down to one thing - ferocious passion is contagious. If I devote myself to being a wildfire, then my whole ministry will catch on fire. And everyone who comes in contact with it will either catch on fire or watch me burn. It starts with me though. I have to be even more passionate about removing things that hinder me from being fully immersed in the reality of God and His power. Killing sin must be a crime of passion. At the end of the day, my goal is not good music. It's revival. It's preparing the way for the Lord. Pray that God strengthens me to guard the flame.

Jesus Is Still Lord (pics)

You know how unpleasant car troubles can be, right? Jesus is still Lord. Thank God for Bro Joe.

My Church Has A Blog!

Hey everyone!

I want to let you know about a new blog that I'm following. The local church that I'm a part of (Faith Outreach Center Intl) has just set up a blog! Currently they are logging their mission trip experiences from India! They're drilling water wells, buying sewing machines, preaching the gospel! Good stuff...please follow!

The URL is www.myfoci.blogspot.com. It's awesome!

Prophetic Dreams and Visions (pt 3)

So before I continue with the story, I think that you shoud know that when I started part 1 of this little series I had no idea that this whole wallet situation was going to happen. I was actually going to share another recent dream that had (and continues to have) a huge impact on my life. I chose to talk about this dream and the wallet situation because this was so fresh and so relevant to our little discussion here. I should also let you know that the Lord has been dealing with me about the importance of a solid prayer life. And, of course, when the Lord wants to begin to teach you something, the enemy is always there to fight against that. I have been having an extremely difficult time praying and studying. I know we all struggle because our flesh doesn't wanna pray or read...and we have that struggle everyday. But this is not that. I feel that there is some extra hindrance there. So when I tell you the rest of this story, please understand that God in His sovereignty is trying to teach me the importance of prayer. I'm no prayer warrior...although I'd like to be. With that being said, let's get back to the situation.

I was in the car having a breakdown. The Lord told me that someone had my wallet (and for those of you who thought that the someone was me, it wasn't lol!) When the Lord told me that someone had my wallet, I asked the Lord to "crush" whoever had it. Mind you, I was pretty frustrated when I prayed the prayer. To my knowledge, this wasn't a "righteous" indignation. It was a "someone-has-my-wallet-so-I-hope-they-get-what-they-deserve" indignation. After I said that I figured, "No use complaining. What's done is done. Let me start cancelling cards and hope that there are no crazy charges to my account." I drove back to the church, and posted on Facebook that I lost my wallet and that I was now cancelling cards. You all saw it. You all showed sympathy. I thank you for that! When I got back to the church, I called a pastor friend of mine to tell him that I had to cancel my appointment with him because I didnt have a driver's license. We got to talking about a little bit of what we would've talked about had we kept the meeting. While I was on the phone with him, Faith (our receptionist/children's ministry extraodinaire) comes and tells me that there is a police officer on the phone for me. Now I received a call from a police officer last week. He wanted to rent the gym and I am the one that handles those requests. And because I didn't even make a police report about my wallet possibly being stolen, I just assumed it was the officer calling about gym rental. I asked Faith (yes, that's her real name) to forward the call to my voicemail. Thank the Lord she didn't. She instead asked my wife to take the call. I was still on the phone with the pastor when my wife came down. She told me to talk to her after I got off of the phone and said to me, "it's about your wallet." I thought she was just gonna encourage me to get the ball rolling on card cancellations and such. I'm a procrastinator.

After I finished my call, I went to go talk to my wife. Little did I know that the call was from a police officer who found 3 of my cards: my personal debit card, my business debit card, and a capital one mastercard. Now out of everything in my wallet, these were the things I was most concerned about. The police officer told my wife that he would come by the church and give me my cards. Crazy! But what's even crazier is how it all happened...

When the police officer came and dropped off my cards, he told me the story. He said that he was dispatched after the police station received a call from a cafe right up the street from the our church. He said that the cafe reported that there was a person sitting outside of the cafe that looked pretty sick. The officer who was dispatched happened to be a Christian. When the officer arrived at the scene, he asked the young man for some ID. When the young man gave the police officer the information, the officer pulled up some information on the man. Turns out the young man had warrants for his arrest. The officer then searched the man and, in searching his wallet, he found my cards! You're probably thinking, "How did he know to contact your church?" I told you earlier that this man was a Christian man, right. Well this same man went to a men's conference that my dad and I attended 2 years ago. When he saw the last name he told me that his thoughts were, "I wonder if this is the same Flowers that pastors Faith Outreach..." He pulls up the church information in his computer, calls the church, and ends up talking to Faith...who tried to tell me the officer was calling...etc. The young man who had my cards tried telling the officer that he just found the cards. The officer said that the young man was stoned on methodone and had weed in his pocket...so with that and the warrants, he ended up going to jail. When the officer pulls up, he's listening to KDRY 1100. Funny thing, I just did an interview taping on KDRY the day before. He told me that he remembered the church because he visited once and loved it lol! God is awesome.

Think about this! Had I not had that dream (and the confirmation of the God's voice), I wouldn't have randomly (and in my opinion quite fleshly) asked God for justice. And God in His sovereignty heard my request and brought justice to me. I still have take care of things like getting a new driver's license, etc. But you know what? After a miracle like that I have to believe that if God really wanted me to have my whole wallet back he would've given it to me. So as this relates to dreams, God doesn't do things haphazardly. God also cares about the little stuff...and will give you a dream to change the course of your life (like He did in my other dream) or to give you a simple word of knowledge about something seemingly insignificant. I might share the other dream with you sometime...much crazier than this story. I know this was pretty long. Thank you for reading.

Jarrell

Prophetic Dreams and Visions (pt 2)

So on Facebook I let everyone know that I lost my wallet, right? Well I didn't let you know how I lost it so here it goes...

I was actually doing a print job at FedEx Kinkos last Sunday afternoon. I had another shipment of CDs that had to go out so there I was...printing more CD covers & CD labels. (By the way, thanks to all those who have bought the CD so far. Also thank you for the great responses to it! I'm gonna get better at posting my events too...pray for me lol! And if you haven't bought the CD yet, go ahead and get off that $5 haha! www.freedommusicgroup.com :) The next day, I went to another Kinkos near my house to do more CD stuff. I think I left my wallet/planner at one of those Kinkos stores. Sad, I know. I was looking for it Monday evening and I couldn't find it. I thought, "This could be bad but I probably just misplaced it or something. I'll tear the house down tomorrow and find it." Great plan, right? I thought so too until the next morning.

Monday night I went to sleep thinking about what I could've done with my wallet/planner. It was pretty important because I pretty much carry my life in there. Sad, I know. My passport, my debit cards, my ID/Driver's license, my checkbook, my blockbuster card (very important), my Sam's card...everything. I went to sleep with this on my mind. Then I had a dream. I dreamed that I was at the first Kinkos I visited. I was asking the cashier who helped me Sunday if she knew where my wallet/planner was. (Her name is Kat, a very helpful lady by the way.) In my dream, Kat was telling me that she didn't know where my wallet was. That was it, the end of the dream. When I woke up I got the feeling that maybe my planner was taken. After the dream, I was pretty sure that I left it at Kinkos and if Kat didn't know where it was...then I had a problem. Even though I was pretty sure I wasn't 100% so I woke up and began to search (sort of frantically) for my planner. I went to the Kinkos near my house to find out if I had left my wallet there. Then I asked them to call the first Kinkos I went to so that they could check if someone may have turned it in. They called and could find it. I was unhappy with their answer so I went myself. I was like, "Maybe Kat is there and she'll remember me. If it's there, she'll know for sure." I think I left it on the check out counter so if anybody would know where it would be Kat would know right?? I went to the first Kinkos I visited and guess what...no Kat! I asked the people who were working there if the found my wallet. They looked in their lost and found and told me the same thing that they told me when I was at the other Kinkos...no wallet found. I asked them when Kat was coming in. They said she wasn't coming in until 2pm. (I don't know why I asked. She told me in the dream that she didn't know where it was.) So I went back to my truck and proceeded to melt down in the parking lot. I was asking God why He wouldn't tell me where my wallet was. I was so frustrated with Him. Then I remembered the dream. Then I got frustrated because I wasn't tryna decode a dream at the moment. I was trying not to believe that someone would take something that doesn't belong to them. Then that still small voice came and said, "Jarrell, someone has your wallet." Because I was sooo frustrated, I quickly said, "Lord if someone has my wallet, please crush them!" Be careful what you ask for.

(to be continued...)

A Little Bit About Me

Hello!

Let me start by introducing myself. My name is Jarrell Flowers. I am married to an awesome woman named Jeneil! The bible says that a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. I have definitely found a "good thing" in Jeneil. She really is amazing. I have also recently been blessed with another gift in the person of Nyomi Raquel Flowers! Nyomi was born just a few days ago and...WOW! I have never loved a little baby so much! I feel a great responsibility to teach her how to bring glory to the Lord because "children are a heritage of the Lord". That's so hard to hear sometimes but it's so true. In the light of eternity, children are not our heritage. We are merely stewards of the Lord's heritage. He has graciously entrusted us with His heritage...the furtherance of HIS family Name! WOW.

What I Do:

My first ministry is to my family. If I weary myself trying to minister to others only to find out that in the end my wife and child have fallen short of God's calling for their lives, then I have miserably failed as a man of God. God is teaching me more and more how to be a better husband and father. But anyway...that's my first ministry.
I am also a youth minister at our church. I attend Faith Outreach Center Intl. My father pastors this church along with a great group of elders. (Yeah I'm a PK.) I work at our church part-time. However, we all know that youth ministry is never "part-time".
I am also a Christian music artist. I do Christian rap. I also produce music for other artists, write songs, etc. I do this "part-time" as well. At first glance you probably would think that I do music...especially rap. Your second glance would only confirm your first one hahaha! I don't look anything like a rapper. I don't dress like a rapper. I don't even call myself a rapper. Lol! I just have a gift to put words and music together that bring glory to God. That pretty much sums up my musical talents. I've started a record label called Freedom Music Group. I am the first and only artist on the label so far. It's been a long process but my CD is almost complete! I can't wait to see what God will do with this label.

Why I decided to start a blog spot:

I am going through serious progressions in my walk with the Lord. Since I've graduated from Texas Bible Institute, God has taken me on this spiritual journey that has been nothing short of revelatory. He's taught me concerning the Kingdom of God, the Torah, grace, sanctification, discipleship, the family unit, the structure and operation of the church, apologetics, and so much more. I've been enjoying this time with the Lord. Lately, however, He has been showing me how all of these things tie into each other! He has also challenged me to allow all of these things to become reality in my life by living a lifestyle of radical faith. He dropped a phrase in my heart a while back that has been going off in my spirit like a thousand bells since He spoke it to me. "Deeper than theory" were the words He spoke to me. In other words, He challenged me to allow Him to take me deeper than a head knowledge about spiritual things. He's calling me to walk in them....to walk in the supernatural without fear. He's slowly taking me through baby steps. So far, I've prayed for a few sick people and they have come back with reports of healing. God's also used my dream life in incredible ways...mostly to warn people. He's used me to prophesy (accurately). And of course, He has used me to lead others to Himself! I've been so excited about this process that I only thought it proper to share with others what God is showing me. My intent is to post whatever the Lord allows for however long He allows me to do so. Hopefully this blog will ignite passion and hunger for God, His truth, and His reality in the hearts and lives of all who read. (Oh...and I'd love to hear your feedback. I think we all grow that way!)

I could probably tell you more but that'll be all for now. I hope you join on my journey to bringing the pages of the bible into reality. Either God is real or He isn't. Either He is who He said He is or He is a fake and a liar. Either He can do all that He said He can do or my hope is in vain. If God is God then may He answer by fire.

Jarrell