2012 is going to be a great, great year! I believe it. The number 12 is interesting in scripture. 12 is connected with perfection of government; divine authority and appointment; governmental foundation; and rule through government. I believe that 2012 marks the beginning of governance for the body of Christ. Governance is the effective exercise of authority. This is the beginning of the people of God becoming prevalent in a righteous way. We have been a laughing stock to many for far too long. Our influence and significance will be elevated this year, and increasingly so in the years to come. There is an emerging remnant. But, we must emerge with wisdom instead of foolishness. When we come with wisdom we will also have the ability to think and plan strategically; and governmental structure will increase. The way to GOVERNANCE is through WISDOM. The way to WISDOM is through THE FEAR OF THE LORD. The way to THE FEAR OF THE LORD is through COMPLETE SURRENDER & BROKENNESS.

In II Chronicles 1 and I Kings 3 Solomon has an encounter with the Lord. We first see Solomon worshipping and giving in an extravagant fashion (1000 sacrifices). In response to such extravagance of worship (“on that night”) the Lord visits Solomon and says, “Ask for whatever you want.” That is an extravagant response from God. Solomon asked for knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Solomon understood he had a governmental deficiency. He knew in order to govern he would need wisdom and an understanding heart. I believe we need to be calling out to God for a strong impartation of divine wisdom. Wisdom is the foundational strength of government (Proverbs 8:15,16).

As this shaking continues God’s Remnant is rising!

* Elijah discovered 7,000 remnant prophets who had not sold out.

* Gideon found 300 faithful, courageous, remnant warriors who brought deliverance to a nation.

* Paul changed the city of Ephesus, starting with just 12 Spirit-filled people.

* Jesus baptized 120 with power and they turned the world upside down.

The Spirit of God is gathering His remnant, spiritual warriors just like us that want to make an impact with their lives.

Join me and our Mandate team, along with others, November 16-18, 2011, at Cornerstone Christian Center in South Chicago Heights, IL for THE MANDATE Conference. Our theme is EXPANSION: BREAK THE LIMITS!

Get ready to receive . . .

Prophetic ministry
Revelation knowledge
Understanding to break demonic opposition
Strategy for establishing Kingdom Culture
The unlocking of spiritual authority for the purpose of EXPANSION
Apostolic equipping, empowering, activating, and sending

Identity – Purpose – Healing – Refreshing – Impartation – Courage

For more information go to www.sharpeningstoneministries.com or call our office at 708-756-3358.

This morning I was reading a piece written by Prince Handley. This is the tremendous truth he shared in his writing. If you could win 1,000 people to Jesus every day, how long do you think it would take to evangelize the whole world? At this time, the population of the world is about six (6) billion people. It would take you 16,427 years to reach every person (even at 1,000 every day!).

However, if you would lead only one person each year to Christ, and would really train them, here’s what would happen:

At the end of one year there would be two of you to take the “Good News” to others. If each of you would lead one person to Christ that next year, there would be four of you at the end of the second year to go tell the “Good News”. At this rate, it would only take you a little over 32 years to reach the rest of the world! (Even if the population increases to 8.5 billion, it would take only one extra year, or 33 years.)

This is why Jesus said, “Go, then to all peoples of the world and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember! I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

That is the power of exponential growth. We read in Acts how believers were ADDED to the church. Then there is a tipping point by which Luke tells us that believers were MULTIPLYING in number. That is what we desire today.

Let’s go for it!

In Malachi 3:16 the prophet writes: “Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, and the LORD listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the LORD and who meditate on His name.”

The Lord likes to be in on our conversations. He is listening, and He is recording our thoughts and words.

Let’s have world-changing conversations!

The Mandate is happening in Muskegon, MI July 28-30. We will be at Rivers of Living Water Ministries. Our speaking team will consist of myself, Michael Posey, Dan Caldwell, Stephen Garner, and Rod Stevenson.

There is growing enthusiasm about this Mandate session because of the rising tide of revival that is happening in Michigan.

Check us out at www.sharpeningstoneministries.com.

I was scratching my head last week after hearing about the couple from Toronto, Canada, who announced they were going to raise a “genderless” child. Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, parents of two boys named Jazz and Kio, had a third child named Storm on New Year’s Day. Witterick announced to her family last month that she intends to keep the child’s gender a secret and let him/her figure it out on his own.

So far mom and dad have not granted interviews, but the mother said in a letter to the Edmonton Journal, published May 30, that letting Storm determine his/her gender was “a tribute to freedom and choice in place of limitation.”

“Gender is determined by the foreknowledge of God; it is not our choice. He is the Creator, we are the creature; He is the potter, we are the clay. To say that a child is going to “choose” his/her gender is the ultimate in rebellion against God’s created order.”

“Someday soon, Storm will have something to say about it,” the mom added. (And I’m thinking he/she also may grow up resenting its parents for this bizarre decision.)

We know where this line of reasoning came from. We already have laws on the books in several states to protect people who don’t know their gender or who have altered it surgically. In Gainesville, Fla., for example, a man is allowed to use a women’s restroom if he “feels” he is female, regardless of whether he has had a sex-change operation.

Also, some educators have advocated a policy of not telling little boys they are boys and little girls they are girls. They fear this will lead to “gender stereotypes”—such as girls wanting to play with dolls, boys wanting to drive monster trucks and all kids thinking heterosexuality is normal.

So far it doesn’t look like the Canadian couple is setting a popular trend. I doubt parents are going to send their boys to school in pink tights anytime soon. But this decision was made because we live in a time of growing gender confusion. To stay on track we must reclaim some simple principles from Scripture:

1. God created gender. Gender is one of the most fundamental concepts in the Bible. Genesis 1:27 says God created mankind “male and female”—and both genders together reflect God’s divine image. God, who is a spirit, has both masculine and feminine qualities, so when He made mankind He needed men and women to reflect His nature as well as to procreate.

Gender is determined by the foreknowledge of God; it is not our choice. He is the Creator, we are the creature; He is the potter, we are the clay. To say that a child is going to “choose” his/her gender is the ultimate in rebellion against God’s created order.

2. Attacks on gender are ultimately aimed at God. The apostle Paul noted that the reality of God and his power are clearly evident “through what has been made”—the Creation—but that sinful and unbelieving people reject this obvious truth. Romans 1:21 says: “They did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

All we know about gender is obvious in nature—and it should be taught at home (as well as in fourth grade health classes). God made males and females, and when they have sex they often have children. Same-sex couples can’t have children biologically without help from the opposite gender. A penis goes with a vagina. A sperm goes with an egg. It’s a no-brainer. Gender isn’t that difficult to figure out!

It is true that some people develop same-sex attraction, but this is not because God is confused, or because He occasionally creates a male with a female psyche, or because He thinks it will be OK for a certain percentage of men to have sex with each other. Homosexuality is just one of many manifestations of the fallen world we live in—and anyone who struggles with sexual brokenness can find healing and freedom in Christ. (And they should be able to find this healing in any church, without fear of judgment.)

3. Children should be taught to embrace their gender, without unhealthy stereotypes. Many modern psychologists think if you reinforce a boy’s masculinity he’ll grow up to be a wife-beater, a rapist or a violent thug. They also oppose teaching a girl to be feminine, lest she grow up to believe all she can do is bake cookies and vacuum.

This was obviously the thinking behind David Stocker’s decision to keep baby Storm’s gender a secret. He said: “What we noticed is that parents make so many choices for their children. It’s obnoxious.” Stocker thinks he’s providing freedom to his child by adopting this choose-your-own-gender policy; in the end, what he’s doing could be classified as child abuse.

Proverbs 22:6 says: “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.” There’s nothing wrong with reinforcing a child’s gender—this will result in emotional health. But in a fallen world where men often oppress women, and where women struggle with their self-worth, we also must train our kids to rise above unhealthy stereotypes.

True masculinity, when transformed by Christ, is not violent or dominating. True femininity is not defined by inferiority, timidity or domesticity. Boys can be trained to be strong yet compassionate gentlemen. Girls can be trained to be confident women of character. And churches can help raise healthy families no matter how confusing our culture becomes.

You see, according to the Rev’d Professor Andrew Linzey, director of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, we shouldn’t even use the word “pet,” because the phrase is demeaning to animals.

Instead, we should call a Labrador Retriever a “Companion animal.”

And please, don’t use the word “owner.” That’s demeaning to pets — I mean, to companion animals — as well. Instead, call yourself a “human carer.”

Ay-yi-yi. What’s another phrase for a “leading academic”?

Of course, such language has its downsides. If some fellow is reaching out to a canine with a temper, instead of shouting “Don’t pet the dog!” we’d have to warn, “Don’t manually stroke the companion animal!” Of course, by the time we got the words out, the poor man could have lost a finger.

As reported by the U.K. Telegraph, Professor Linzey and his colleague, Prof. Priscilla Cohn of Penn State are quite serious. And they have a point: The language we use can shape the way we think.

Linzey and Cohn say “We shall not be able to think clearly unless we discipline ourselves” to use appropriate language that reflects our proper “moral relations with” animals.

Ahh. And what might the proper moral relation be? Linzey and Cohn give us a hint. The word “owner,” they say, “whilst technically correct in law, harks back to a previous age when animals were regarded as just that: property, machines or things to use.”

They even object to the term “wildlife.” Linzey and Cohn “invite authors to use the words ‘free-living’, ‘free-ranging’ or ‘free-roaming’ rather than ‘wild animals’”

Why? Because, they say, “For most, ‘wildness’ is synonymous with uncivilised, unrestrained, barbarous existence. There is an obvious prejudgment here that should be avoided.”

Of course, what we’re seeing here is Linzey’s and Cohn’s own prejudgment — that Humans and animals are equals.

And that’s a perfectly natural conclusion if you hold to a secular, materialistic worldview. As I’ve said many times before, if we humans are nothing more than a random collection of atoms that evolved out of the primordial soup, then, yes, we are no more valuable than the common ground slug.

But the equality — or near equality — of animals and humans is a view that is creeping into the Church as well. The Telegraph says that Professor Linzey is a theologian who was awarded “an honorary degree from the Archbishop of Canterbury for his work promoting the rights of ‘God’s sentient creatures.’”

But we are not all equal. Humans alone bear the image of God. And animals cannot have “rights” in the way we humans do.

Should we care for animals as part of God’s creation? Of course. Christians have long recognized this. It was William Wilberforce, after all, who founded the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. But to treat them as equals or even near-equals? Never.

I’m with Linzey and Cohn on this: Words are important. Which is why you’ll never catch me stroking a companion animal.

Bengt spent much of the 80′s and 90′s serving with Ulf Ekman at Word of Life in Uppsala, Sweden. I admired the leadership of Ulf Ekman during those years. Word of Life had a great impact on the church landscape in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. Yesterday I discovered that Bengt Wedemalm was really the driving force behind that pioneering thrust.

I found Bengt to be a strong apostolic leader with a breakthrough anointing. We will see him in Chicago again.

Greetings to you in the name of the Lord Jesus!

I am writing to invite you to The Sharpening Stone 2011 Spring Conference. This is what is now known as THE MANDATE. The thrust of this conference will be in the apostolic and prophetic veins of Spirit-filled ministry.

Over the last several years we have been doing our best to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in discovering, processing, and establishing a NEW “NORMAL.” We have been discovering that this NEW “NORMAL” is really a return to ministering in the fullness of Kingdom dynamics. We are seeing the Kingdom as the activity of God’s rule revealed in . . .
• Bringing deliverance and healing.
• Conferring blessing and favor.
• Exercising authority in every arena of life.
• Revealing truth that tears down deception.
• Rebuking the “false” of religious and secular culture.
• Building the house of the Lord.

We will continue to develop our model for building local church ministry (Acts 2:46). “The apostles’ doctrine” involves our ability to exegete Christ from the scripture in our preaching and teaching. “Fellowship” involves “reclining at the table” as we share our hearts and minds from a basis of friendship. The “breaking of bread” involves the way we present the presence of God. “Prayers” involve our access to the supernatural realm.

Our speakers for this conference will include gifted and strong leaders such as Michael Posey, Michelle McClain, David Rodgers, Dan Caldwell, Kevin Leal, and I. On Thursday afternoon we will enjoy a panel of music ministers who will share their hearts with us about the ministry of worship in the local church. The panel participants will be Phil Tarver, Rose Harper, Jon Jones, Brandon Roberson, and Andrae Ambrose. Trent Cory will be leading worship on Friday evening. After the finish of The Mandate on Friday night we will have young people from all over the Chicago area heading for an all-night event at Hidden Cove in Bourbonnais, IL. I am extremely expectant of what the Lord will release to us, and activate in us during this called meeting.

Thank you for considering this conference. I am looking forward to fellowshipping with you next week.

Sincerely,

Greg Howse
The Sharpening Stone Group