By Richard Gazowsky

There’s a situation that seems to occur when God is bringing promotion and blessings to our lives. The pre-cursor to this shocking situation is chaos. By “chaos”, I do not mean confusion. I’m actually referring to the scientific term that denotes a higher form of order which is so complex it appears to be chaotic even to the most informed observer. It is important for leadership to be willing to flow through the chaos so they can receive the full measure of complimentary blessings that God is about to bestow on them. The science of chaos is a great explanation about getting through complexities that appear to have no blessings within. Scientists call this the “butterfly effect”. What this means is that a butterfly can flap its wings in Rio de Janeiro which two weeks later causes a storm in New York City. At first hearing, this dramatic domino effect through the weather system can appear absurd. When we understand how vulnerable complex systems are, we can see that these things happen all the time. What I’m talking about is not just a phenomenon in weather; I’m actually talking about how God does stuff. The word of God says, “For His ways are not like our ways.” Believe me, there is no exaggeration in this phrase. We like things extremely controlled and organized around us. I have learned that when He really starts operating, it can be as crazy as a storm.

I know some people with strong religious spirits are going to freak out right now. They’ll say, “No, things should be done decently, and in order.” Oh really? That was written by the Apostle Paul, who dreamt he’d go to a city and save a man; instead he found a woman, got thrown in jail, had an earthquake destroy the jail, and there’s his man: the Philippian jailer. Tell me that little trip’s not chaotic! Paul knew how to follow the pathway set out by the butterfly, and not be discouraged by jail time.

When the Challenger spacecraft exploded 45 seconds into flight, NASA had a problem. The space shuttle was the first piece of equipment built by man that was complex enough for the science of chaos to even apply. An aircraft carrier is actually more complex, but it’s not an interdependent system. If a door is left open on the aircraft carrier, it doesn’t sink the whole ship–but it does on a space shuttle. Despite much criticism, Edward Lorenz, the father of chaos theory, was brought in to explain why no warning system went off before the shuttle exploded. Edward first determined the moment of critical mass, the moment a system is most vulnerable to the tiniest influence. This is when the “butterfly effect” occurs. Edward measured every item in the space shuttle and compared it to previous shuttle flights. He discovered that the moment of critical mass was the moment of ignition at lift off. After much testing, he discovered that the “O” rings sealing the fuel tanks had shrunk by two millimeters in the colder weather, causing the fuel to leak down the side of the shuttle tank. It took about 45 seconds to reach the engine’s flame and then blew the shuttle out of the sky.

What most people don’t understand is that small movements at a time of extreme destruction can bring about incredible, unexpected blessing. The key to it all is that we must keep our wits about us. I can hear some of us screaming, “How can I do it when everything around me is crazy? It’s all chaos! What do I do, God? How on earth are You going to bring a blessing out of this?”

“If Abraham, by what he did for God, got God to approve him, he could certainly have taken credit for it. But the story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story. What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.” (The Message Bible)

So, dude, that’s it. The way we get through chaos is by losing control, staying calm, and only responding to what God is doing around us. Quit trying to put out fires. Quit trying to fix unexpected distractions. Let all of that stuff pass without paying attention. Focus only on what the butterfly does; that gentle whisper from God warning us that chaos is coming.

Three months ago, I had a dream that I was in France with Lance Armstrong, riding in the Tour de France for the last leg of the journey through dead marshes. At the time I thought the dream was warning me that I was going to face some difficulties in the next few months. Two weeks ago the Tour de France began, and my life became extremely chaotic. I figured the dream was a clue from God that Lance’s riding of the race in France was going to be an inspiration for me to ride my race in San Francisco. Sure enough, he started way behind, in tenth place. On the third leg of the journey, I was shocked to read that he did a breakaway when he came to the marshes on the last leg of that particular segment. This move brought him up to third place. When they interviewed Lance after the third segment, he said he broke away because he saw “a contrary wind”. When the French interviewed him, they were upset because they thought the C.I.A. was using satellite technology to predict and tell Lance how the winds were going to blow. For the rest of the race the French have made all of the racers turn off their mobile communication devices, so they cannot communicate to their team. Wow! What a revelation this was to me. I began to realize through the dream and the metaphor of Lance Armstrong that I had seen the plan of the enemy. The enemy wants to cut off our communication with God who is daily revealing to us the pathway of the butterfly.

It is a time for peace. It’s a time to double your prayer time, and a time for giggling instead of crying. Oh, wait a minute, maybe I’ll sound more spiritual if I say it this way: “Beloved, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” Or, maybe it would sound cooler if I said it like this; “Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides”. However we put it, it’s time to party!

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

by Richard Gazowsky

Many of the things I am accused of now, such as following God down pathways that I truly don’t understand, happened because of the day I lost control as leader. What you are about to read may seem like either the ramblings of a man on the verge of insanity or a healthy monologue from a sound mind. I feel the strong necessity to be honest with you, because I sense that some of you leaders are facing the same crossroad.

Early in the month of July of 2007 the church that I pastor in San Francisco had gone through a series of unpredictable catastrophes that had rendered our physical church building in bad shape. Our heating system was completely useless… it had been so cold in the building that the congregation could see my breath when I spoke. Coats and blankets were necessary attire. A city water main broke underneath our church lobby, flooding the building, destroying our carpet, knocking a six foot hole in our floor, and disabling the bathrooms. Two weeks later a flash flood filled the main sanctuary with a foot and a half of water destroying the remaining section of the carpet that had not been destroyed by the water main break. We continued to have services even though the building smelled like mildew. People had to leave the building to find a bathroom.

At the time, the Lord had been dealing with me about the words of Jesus who said, “The Son can do nothing unless he sees the Father doing it.” These words totally consumed me, because one of the pleasures I found in leadership was my ability to make decisions based upon my feelings of favor or dislike. Now God was asking me to turn over this personally satisfying area of control in my life. I had just began to work with a well connected member of our church and had hired an architect to begin a five-step plan for remodeling that would take years to complete. I knew I had to ask the Lord’s permission to do this in front of the congregation. To me, this meant the casting of a lot. If the lot (coin) came up heads, I’d pursue and if it came up tails I wouldn’t. On Sunday morning I obeyed the Lord and cast the lot. As I stood there, I knew that by doing this publicly anyone on my staff could now question my decision and could ask me to cast a lot concerning my decisions. This was an extreme loss of power in a personal way. When I cast the lot, it came up “No”. To further confirm the decision, I asked the member of our church who had hired the architect to open his Bible randomly and to see if he got a confirming word. The scripture he got was a warning to Israel not to let the heathen touch the remodeling of the house of God. The entire congregation was amazed by the accuracy of the word. We obeyed the Lord and dropped the remodeling plans from the architect.

When the third week of July came, the prophet Timothy Snodgrass prophesied, “Pastor Richard, God is going to immediately remodel this building. He is tearing out the old wine skins, and is going to give you new wine skins, and then He will pour in the new wine.” I kind of chuckled when I heard the word, because I knew how fascinating God could be, but I was also staring at the cold hard facts: our church had literally no money, for we had just given what we had to a missionary. Four days after this prophetic word, I was feeling an immense level of stress over the condition of our building. I opened my Bible looking for encouragement and it fell open to Ezekiel 7. I read what must be one of the most devastating scriptures in the entire Bible. The prophet says, “It’s over! You are finished…doomsday is here…five…four…three…two…”. I couldn’t understand it, but as I read this verse of scripture, I felt the warm, loving, presence of God, even though I was reading about my own demise. Then the Lord spoke to me and said, “Will you continue this service daily until all things are fulfilled?” I said, “Yes”, and immediately walked in front of the congregation and spoke to the evangelist Pastor Victor Emenike who was our guest speaker for the evening and asked, “Are you willing to continue this service tomorrow?” He immediately canceled his plane flight out and said he would stay.

When I went back to my seat, brother Ken Ealy, a painting contractor from Palm Springs and a member of our church, whispered in my ear, “The Lord just told me to carpet and paint the church. Can I do it my way?” I had no clue what he meant by “his way”, but I was acutely aware of my leadership, and that the Father was now calling the shots.

At home that night, I laid down and went to sleep. I immediately dreamed that I was laying on my side in the middle of a downtown city square that was surrounded by skyscrapers. Each skyscraper imploded and then collapsed until finally the last building fell to the ground. The Lord then spoke in an audible voice, “Richard, now everything that you have done to the Voice of Pentecost Church has been destroyed, even down to your former choice of paint colors. Now everything you do will be through Me.” I woke up crying, quickly opening my Bible for encouragement; once again, it fell open to Ezekiel 7. As I read each verse in that chapter, my heart was filled with inexplicable joy.

When I arrived at the building the next day, twenty construction workers were in our main auditorium, (which seats 1,500 people) taking sledge hammers to our old cast iron theatre seats. The paint I had chosen was already covered with new, white primer. There was no turning back now. Today, the church sanctuary looks elegant, complete with luxury theatre seats, carpeting, all copper plumbing and hand carved alabaster chandeliers, all completely paid for. But of course, I had nothing to do with it. It all happened the day I lost control as leader.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

by Richard Gazowsky

It is a time of chaos, and it is a time of peace. It’s a time of starting up and a time of shutting down. No time has seemed crazier than the time we are living in right now. What’s going on in the nation is actually going on in my own life but it wasn’t until this last week that I realized why personal experiences have so much to do with the course of the world. What an incredible time to be alive!

A month and a half ago, I had two dreams. In the first, I was traveling the last leg of a journey at sea and the waves were at mountaintop heights. In the second dream, I was with Lance Armstrong on the last leg of the Tour de France. Lance had decided that for the last mile of his journey, the race would go through the “bogs of death”; the pathway would be so narrow that it would test the bicyclist in his ability to stay on course more than any other race in history. Let me clarify; this was a dream. I understand that the Tour de France is beginning this week. But I now wonder if the dream that was given to me two months ago has something to do with what is currently going on around us. In the public eye, the King of Pop and other celebrities are dead. In my personal life, four of my friends in the ministry have died and each one was an untimely death, a reflection of what happened to Michael Jackson. When things like this happen on such a grand scale, it causes me to enter into a time of praying in the Spirit and asking God for His perspective. At the same time of being surrounded by the pains of death, the birth pains of book writing also surround me. I have to finish four books by August 7th, 2009. These books include “Angel Wars”, a two-year long vision of planet Earth from the perspective of angels in the times of Adam and Eve to Noah’s Ark; a ghost-written book for a man who is potentially the next governor of California; a non-fiction, five-year project describing the difference between Western and African thought concerning the Spirit world; and finally a political thriller describing how American Indians teach teenagers the technology of the Spirit world from a Christian perspective. All of these are potential movies. But what a storm these productions have created!

I suddenly understood the prophecy of Ezekiel, when he saw a “wheel in the middle of the wheel.” All of my life I have felt like one on the outside looking in. In the music field, Christians always seemed to write songs that copied what the world was doing. In the film industry, Christians were always hoping to do what the big film companies were accomplishing. Even in preaching, most pastors seem to allow the news to choose their sermon for Sunday. But then, just a few days ago, I saw everything in a new light. Apostle Paul wrote, “For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels – everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He (Jesus) was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe – people and things, animals and atoms – get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the Cross.” (Message Bible) Did you really read this? What Paul tells us is amazing! Christ is at the center of everything; even the atoms and you and I are right in the center. Do you truly get what it means? I feel this can be best described by the opening scene from the movie, “Oklahoma!” (On a fun note: our film company owns the actual lens, the Todd AO Bug-Eye lens, that shot the opening epic scene in “Oklahoma’s” corn field!)

Yesterday, I was walking out of a store and I realized that the trees in the parking lot were growing for me. The asphalt was warming for me. The very atoms in my shoes were going my way! If I was in the perfect will of Christ, then the very sky above my head was literally flowing in my direction. I realize what I’m saying sounds a bit fantastic, but if you get in a place of being overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit instead of being overwhelmed by the troubles satan is throwing at you, you will also get this revelation. In another place the Apostle Paul says, “The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which He speaks and acts, by which He fills everything with His presence.” (Message Bible) Wow, wow, wow, wow, WOW! This is SO cool! As I was contemplating this amazing fact about the power of God living inside of me, I heard an old song by R. Kelly (Look; I know the guy has had trouble but at the moment that he wrote this song, he was totally inspired!). R. Kelly was writing about the Holy Spirit. Notice the metaphors that he’s using. It is the metaphor of what the Holy Spirit is in you: the mountain of God, the wind across the land, the river of Ezekiel 47. No wonder Jesus had stars announcing His birth! He is the center of the universe and you are right there in the center of the wheel, the hub, His body. Enjoy the song and think about the power that is in your belly right now:

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

by Richard Gazowsky

The images that most people have of Jesus are those of a quiet, gentle carpenter who would never hurt a flea. But they also forget that He said, “I’ve come to start a fire on the Earth- how I wish it were blazing right now!” There is no doubt about it. A fire is destructive in one sense, but at the same time it is purifying. Did you know that there are some California trees that have seeds that must be brought to 3000 degrees Fahrenheit for the seed to be released? What that means is that the tree cannot reproduce until its forest is raging with a blazing fire.

I believe that your business, family and religious group must go through a purging fire to multiply. It’s a weird phenomenon we don’t want to face often. The truth is that if you have a right attitude, the purifying days of your life will be the best ones ever!

An interesting event happened in our family. An elderly person very close to us lost her husband. When we went to her house a year after he had passed away, she was sitting alone in the kitchen, asleep with the sun beaming across her sad face. We nearly broke into tears at the sight because she had lost her reason for living. Everything in her life had revolved around her husband. He was a farmer, and she cooked for him and his workers, and it consumed her. Now that he was gone, a neighboring farm was leasing her fields and she no longer needed to work. Everything around her seemed to join in a sad chorus, singing a finale. My family and I stood outside her house and cried out to the Lord, “God, turn things around! Give her a reason to live. Let her see that there is more before her to do than that which has been behind her.”

When you pray this kind of prayer, you will be amazed to see that God actually answers it. The way He answers, however, is most likely in the least expected way, because He came to start a fire.

A few weeks later, a well-known prophet of God from the Philippine Islands, Timothy Snodgrass, was prophesying in our church and he turned to us, out of the blue, saying, “There is someone close to you whose house God is going to transform. It is going to be remodeled. This is a spiritual event and God is setting a rainbow over that house.” WOW! The next week we pulled up to this dear friend’s house, and there was a rainbow up in the sky… and it was not a rainy day! When we got to the house, we discovered that a pipe under the sink had burst and flooded a section of the home. This was just the beginning of an entire, bizarre remodeling saga that would have stressed out even the youngest of men. The first group of contractors came in and tore everything out of the house in every room that had damage. Next, they repaired everything that was wrong, but only completed 45% of the job. When the second contractor was brought in, they found out the first ones had done everything wrong to the point of leaving a live wire in the wall whereby you could be electrocuted. They found another wire that was constantly glowing red in the dark because it was not big enough to handle the power that was flowing through it. The dear friend who owned the home is a very mature Christian and so in each area of conflict, she forgave them and ministered to them, even though she was the victim. It appeared that new surprises and faults were being discovered. This has gone on for the last 6 months and we are just now coming into the closing days of the remodeling. Our family has now seen the most amazing thing in this dear woman’s life. She is literally 20 years younger. She now runs around the house like a spring chicken. The garden at the rear of the house is full of fruit and vegetables. The home looks gorgeous; everything is full of life. We were brought to tears of joy when we saw the great transformation that the fire of God had caused.

Look guys, this is not an original idea with me. The Apostle Paul dealt with the same thing. The Message Bible says, “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!” [Romans 5:3-5]

Jesus is the One Who has started the fire that is purging the Earth today, and you are somewhere in the forest. Look out- it’s coming your way! If you don’t believe me, look at the New York Times, at least while it is still a published paper. EVERYTHING’s changing! But then again, I think Billy Joel says it best in “We Didn’t Start The Fire.“

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

The Apostle Paul said, “It’s a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God.” This is a truth that has actually strengthened my faith because I realized when God gives you a word that is truly from Him, He backs it with His kingdom force. In the past, I had always wondered how Moses got the fortitude to walk into a country where he was a fugitive from the law, wanted for murder, and then go to Pharaoh (who could be his potential executioner) and demand that Pharaoh give him his entire slave work force, which in essence was free labor. The Lord showed me that the motivation behind Moses was his fear of God. He feared the voice at the burning bush more than he did the burning anger of Pharaoh. It is no wonder that the Bible says the “fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Today, the Lord told me to go to the fig tree and ask for figs. I knew that it was out of season, but I also knew that the “force of the kingdom of God” was commanding me to do it, and that the fear of the Lord was so great in me that I could do nothing but obey the Lord and make the request for figs. Let me take a moment to explain what this means. Jesus explained to his disciples that the kingdom of God suffers violence, and that the violent take it by force. I felt His teaching showing that every advancement made by the kingdom of God is done so by sheer force. I feel that the kingdom of God is not advanced by our clever contracts, wise negotiations, our smooth talking or any other fleshly means but by the sheer force of God’s will, expressed in untampered words directly from Him. This is why we must be very cautious to not add to or take away from God’s word. I have been guilty of doing so in the past.

Many Christians have departed from the simple “force of God’s will”, but in most of these cases a negotiated compromise with the forces of evil is what has left them in a miserable state. The Apostle John said, “If you are lukewarm, God will spew you out of His mouth.” God is looking for people who realize that the kingdom of God is advanced by brute force. Anyone that has outted a demon understands this truth. You cannot negotiate, talk to or trick a demon into leaving a person. It is the force and power of the name of Jesus Christ that causes the demonizing spirit to go. Even Jesus expressed that you cannot spoil a man’s house unless you “bind the strongman” first. Notice in this terminology that He is always talking about force. Even Paul says, “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.” The part of this truth that really causes fear in my heart is seeing what happens to those who do not respond to the force of God’s word.

Jesus showed us a truth: “Seeing a lone fig tree alongside the road, He approached it anticipating a breakfast of figs. When he got to the tree, there was nothing but fig leaves. He said, ‘No more figs from this tree – ever!’ The fig tree withered on the spot, a dry stick. The disciples saw it happen. They rubbed their eyes, saying, ‘Did we really see this? A leafy tree one minute, a dry stick the next?’ But Jesus was matter-of-fact: ‘Yes – and if you embrace this kingdom life and don’t doubt God, you’ll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you’ll tell, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it will jump.” (The Message Bible)

Wow! Did Jesus ever cut to the point here? I didn’t even realize that this was a part of the kingdom of God. You see, for years I had spent a horrendous amount of time studying business plans and critical path management charts. When we first started preproduction on our current movie, “Gravity”, I put together a critical path management chart that was 50 ft long, 10 ft high and covered every single detail of the movie-making process. Not one potential problem, shortfall, or prediction was overlooked. I was sure that my effort was going to generate the funds, but nothing could be further from the truth, because although I could not see the hindrances in the physical realm I began to realize that there were demon forces that did not care how plausible or reasonable my Godly efforts were. They were not going to do it simply because they did not want to. At this point the Lord spoke to me about the revelation that he was Alpha and Omega, and I saw that Jesus said that He could do nothing unless He saw the Father do it. I put two and two together and saw that the only thing in the kingdom of God to be advanced would be whatever the Father said should be done. When it came to our movie, “Gravity”, I realized that I had to listen each day for the Father’s instructions and only do what I could see Him doing. This changed the dynamics of everything, but I also began to realize that I’d already seen this principle in action.

When WYSIWYG started we ran into a conflict with a major Fortune 500 company (name withheld for privacy). The executive assigned to handle our account just happened to be a born again Christian, but as the negotiations continued we discovered one side to be the will of God and the other to be the force of business and profits, handled by a bank of lawyers. This battle got very heated and I felt like I had to continue to press for my request, which was now based only upon my personal fear of God. When I faced the Christian executive, he said, “Richard there is nothing that I can do and I must oppose your proposal for the Christian market because this is my job. I want to protect my position and potential stock offerings.” I then realized that this must have been the position that Pontius Pilate took when he said that Jesus was a righteous man and then washed his hands of the matter. Of course, we know that no one can wash the will of God from their hands. History tells us that he kept washing his hands until the day he died. Two years after the confrontation with the Fortune 500 company, I met its Christian executive at his job selling T shirts. Everything that he’d tried to protect had withered away. When I saw him, the fear of the Lord consumed me, because I realized that the weight of the words that God had given me to bear. To this day I pray that the Father have mercy on them who know not what they do.

Recently our film company ordered a sophisticated piece of painting equipment from a website on the internet. The company did not deliver the expensive items, so I questioned the set department. Had they truly asked the Lord before they ordered this piece of equipment? They said, “Yes, the Lord told us to pursue this company.” Two months went by and multiple communications went back and forth with the internet company until it was finally discovered that the company was running a scam. At this point, the Lord told us to talk to our bank. They immediately refunded the money to us, started an investigation, and the site withered away before our eyes.

I began to discover that the judgment of the Lord may begin with the action of our request for “figs”. This is not negative but extremely positive, because the Bible clearly says that when God judges it is first for blessing and reward, and then only in rare instances it shuts the mouth of evil. God expects that every time He comes to a fig tree, it will give figs. I must make a point here that this kind of intense power can only be had by those who are in alignment with God’s spoken (revealed) word (rhema) and also those who do it in God’s perfect timing. James warned us that if we do this only to heap it upon our own lusts that we ask amiss. In other words, it would be an arrow that never hits the target. A good example of this is found in nuclear bombs. When they are transported they are very safe, because the accuracy and timing of the weapon is so critical that only when things are in perfect alignment can nuclear fusion occur. This is similar to the power of God. The psalmist said, “To him alone who doeth great wonders; for His mercy endureth forever.”

However put, know that when God tells you to go to the fig tree, it is acutely important that you do so. Whether your request is fulfilled or not, the purpose of God is always fulfilled in your “doing” when asked. Remember that the trees Jesus did get fruit from are still producing plentifully today.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

On July 30, 2007, I wrote my first email to 50 of you. There are now 4,200 receiving this email, without advertising or purchasing of email lists. This is just a phenomenon that has happened. When I wrote my first email, which was on the subject of “No money in the bank again”, I was afraid that no one would read it because it was blatantly honest to the point of being embarrassing. I have discovered however, that there are a few of us who actually like things being told the way they are. Those of you who know me realize that I am trying to introduce a subject that is going to be hard for me to talk about, but the Lord said this was the time to share, so buckle your seat-belt.

For fourteen years I have led the company, Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks, as an arrow aimed at piercing the media industry. This has brought me into the halls and executive offices of the largest media companies in the world, and has made me acutely aware of what it is that drives the current media waves. To be honest with you, I have never known clearly what God’s counter-measure would be. It is only recently that the Lord began to speak to me concerning this. He made it clear that He was going to show me only two or three steps ahead, and that I would not know what the final product would look like. This is a difficult business plan to present to a corporate board and business partners who are in an industry completely run on predictions and estimated outcomes. I am able to provide none of these normal business tools.

The first blessing was that God led me to a group of investors, 23 to be exact, each of them independently wealthy and able to give a secured investment (meaning they can afford to give without an expected return). When I first met with these investors you can imagine how shocked and overjoyed I was to hear that they had been given the same word of the Lord, that they would only know where they were going one a step at a time. The amazing part of this story is their companies make products everyone uses daily. Elijah felt he was the only one not bowing to Baal when the Lord pointed out to him, “There are 7,000 in Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” The multi-levels of support teams that God put around me were literally walking as Abraham did, “He went forth and knew not whither he went.” Now let me show you how far I’ve gotten on this journey.

Seven years ago God told us to focus on making a blockbuster film that now has a 200 million dollar budget. We began script development and preproduction testing on new cinema concepts, and since then we have seen technological breakthroughs. These were not however, the core directions that the Lord was leading us in, even though there were 14 of them. The core direction was in story development and what a radical change God introduced us to. I am not allowed to share the details of the process, for the Lord told us to keep this a secret, but He has literally turned our concept of story development up-side-down.

The second pathway that God has been leading us down has been that of the communication media, which we traditionally call “news”. The first step that God told me was to cancel our satellite contracts and close down everything, all television shows and productions in the daily media market. We were in effect publishing absolutely nothing and this condition lasted for years. Then the Lord spoke to me very strongly on the first day of 2008, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. Don’t do anything unless I initiate it and don’t stop anything unless I end it.” I realized that God was wanting total and complete control of how this process would be developed. He took me to the Santa Monica beach in prayer and told me to say nothing for four hours and just to watch the waves. It literally took me that long to quit trying to figure out what I was supposed to be looking at or searching for. Finally, when my mind was at rest, God said, “Notice how every wave refreshes and washes the footprints away, and the beach is made new again. This is the way that I want my media to be.” At the time, the only part of this message I could understand was that God apparently wanted stuff to be fresh, but as I have progressed on this journey I have discovered that the message runs even deeper.

Subsequently, in the local church that I pastor, young people have begun to have dreams about huge ocean waves hitting the city of San Francisco. Actually, there have been 21 of these dreams. I also had two dreams concerning these monster waves. I realized that water represented the Word of God, and that His vibrant and fresh word is getting ready to pour upon us in an uncontrollable way. At the same time, God spoke to me out of the blue to have the young people of our church come forward and share in our 3:00 pm services if they had a word from God. I was amazed as their words became more prophetic and accurate, until one day one of the youth saw that a volcano was going to explode in South America on the following Friday. When we all read about it in the news it completely blew us away, but then God turned things up to an even higher level.

In a dream I was visited by a blonde female angel with dramatic wings. She handed me a USB key and showed me, in the air in front of me, that there was a large white blank spot in a huge digital stream that was flowing in front of me. She said this key was my breakthrough and that it was the secret to opening up the new media that God was releasing upon the earth. The first step that she mentioned was for our website, GNXNews.com, to begin releasing prophetic words and news at the same time everyday, which is 6:00AM PST, and that we should release the prophetic words that are given at our 3:00PM service through Twitter Instant Messaging. The next day the Lord had me read the cover story on Time Magazine. To my pleasant surprise the story was about Twitter and how it is now changing peoples’ communication with each other. The author of the Time article had gone to a seminar on communications, and even though there were just a few people in the meeting, they were joined by many others through Twitter receiving SMS messages on their cell phones. They, in turn, had the ability to respond by just typing, (in our case it would be “@WYSI”,) the call sign in their return message on the phone number 40404 (If you do this you must join Twitter first for us to receive it). I suddenly saw in the Time Magazine story what God was trying to show me. We could literally link up, at no cost, our young prophets daily to anyone in the world that has a cell phone. Within a few days we were actively using this service. To my shock, ten minutes after we hooked the system up we received a request for a prophetic word from 11,000 miles away, in Europe, and the phenomenon has continued. (Click Here to read the Time Magazine article)

The next day I had a dream that I was standing above a beach 40 miles long, and the vision was epic. To my left was a flat desert that went to the horizon, but when I looked to my right, instead of there being an ocean, there was a huge wall that was 1,000 feet high at the waters edge. At the top of the wall that went to the horizon, there were waterfalls. Water was trickling down these waterfalls in waves, and I did not understand what was causing the waves until God lifted me up above the wall’s height. Behind the wall was a huge ocean being held back from the desert. The Lord said, “I have called you to break through this wall. That ocean represents the prophetic word that I am wanting to release upon the nations of the world, about the good things I am going to do for mankind. Life is coming to every desert.”

It was at this point that I realized how much God really wants to say. When I was young and in a pentecostal church, prophecy was usually preceded by someone speaking in tongues, and then the prophecy was interpreted in King James English. When a prophet would come to our church back then, it was usually an older man who gave a mixture of correction, judgement and sprinklings of good news. As I matured I began to realize that life experiences and rejections had caused many of those that had the gift and ability to see in the spiritual realm to see dark things and express them, even though they might not be the plans of God. Something new is happening with these innocent youth; they have no agendas, no religious traditions to reinforce and when they see in the spirit it is just pure hope, faith and love from God. Wow! Even I have a hard time seeing things that “good”. What amazes me is how accurate these words from the Lord are and now God, through technology, is giving us the ability to share it with the world. When the youth started prophesying at our church I had wondered if ten or fifteen words were too much. Now have been literally hundreds of words which are turning into a tidal wave that is becoming more and more refreshing.

Even in the Lord’s prayer, Jesus said, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” So, there is a “force” of God’s word that He is wanting to release upon the earth. As a businessman in charge of a media company, I wondered if the unprecedented release of prophetic words could even be a viable media subject, as I take these things very seriously. My family and I wanted to get an “out-of-the-blue” confirmation from the Lord whether this direction of releasing the prophetic word was a true rock-solid business plan. I opened my Bible randomly (it was upside-down) and turned it right side up to read. The left side of the page was blank and the right side of the page had these verses from St. John (from The Message Bible), “The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing – not one thing! – came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by.”

I am not expecting what I am trying to share to be fully understandable, because a tidal wave of God’s prophetic word is about the only way we can describe it. The question still remains: If Jesus said, “I can only do what I see the Father doing,” and you and I are to be just like Jesus, then how are we going to have the Father fill our day with activity if we are not plugged into his ever vibrant, fresh, and daily words? So, God, “How much do You want to say?” This is the new media.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

Last week the Lord called our church in San Francisco to host a 12-hour praise party from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, and He told us to come in costumes that reflected our royalty. To be honest with you, I was not all fired up to go for that length of time. But once I got there, the power of God hooked me and I found myself in twelve hours of incredible glory. And yes, I was also in costume. We all knew that this event was prophetic but I don’t think we had a clue what the message was. In the middle of this meeting, the Lord said to me, “I am breaking the curse off of the nameless-faceless generation. I am giving my people a name.” Wow, did this hit me like a ton of bricks! For the last twenty years, the rising leaders in the church, especially worship leaders, have been trying to become a large “nameless-faceless” group. I am one of them. I never realized that a lot of this had been our response to the generation of religious leaders who fell in the public eye, ones who had ministries based upon their own reputation and names. In response to that, in our honest desire for holiness, we wanted to remove all connections appearing to make names for ourselves. Little did I know that this would also become a curse. We have all become Gap-clothing store customers (Side-note: The church I pastor in San Francisco was the actual location for the very first Gap retail store in the world). This bland, faceless look reflects no personality, no individuality; it becomes a big nameless-faceless army.

At this moment I realized what the Lord was doing: He was choosing to use this army that was nameless-faceless and give them a name, having them become like Christ. A famous prophet once wrote, “God says, ‘I have a hidden, secret army around the earth that I will enlist and uncover at My time. They are hidden away in the secret prayer closets—a generation of nameless, faceless nobodies. In My time, even in a day, I will uncover a new breed of apostles, pastors, prophets, and teachers; a new breed of ministry.” I realized this prophecy was actually saying that God has found you and hidden you in this condition, but He is going to make you into a new breed. Breed identifies names and faces and definitely shows identifiable differences.

Now what does it mean that God is breaking the curse of the nameless-faceless generation? Well, I researched this in 27 different translations of the Bible (don’t think me too diligent, it’s an easy task on google!) and discovered that in every scripture being nameless is a curse and it definitely is not something that God would award you with. It usually refers to vagabonds who are lost and wandering, something I think we all can relate to, but the purpose in God choosing you is to give you a name. Paul told the Philippian church that this was God’s gold for them; “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Now guys, I may have no clue about all this and if you are totally sold into being nameless-faceless, go ahead and enjoy it. But I think God is pointing me in a different direction; to completely lose my reputation and allow the Father to give me a name. I know this sounds crazy, but let me explain:

I was once called by a radical newspaper journalist who wanted to do a story about me. The first thing she said was, “I saw on the internet that you have some theological difficulties with another Christian organization.” My reply was, “Look, I am not a serious theologian, so I don’t know what you or they might be referring to. I just love God and love to make movies.” The reporter started laughing. She then wrote an article which ended up on the front page of the SF Weekly, one of San Francisco’s most radical news magazines. That, in turn, led to a film director in Colorado coming to San Francisco and following us for two years while making a feature film documentary which pokes fun at our ministry. At the same time, however, the film handles the “God topic” with respectful kid gloves. Yes, I look silly in the film and I now constantly get letters from people all over the world who have seen it. God didn’t give me a reputation, but He did give me a name. My question was, “What does it mean that He gave me a name?” I am now known by most of the secular movie community as a film director who pastors. Is this bad? No, of course not. Wasn’t Jesus known as a carpenter who was also the Messiah? Peter- a fisherman, Paul- a tentmaker, David- a king? Recently, many of my pastor friends have said, “Richard, I must be authentic in everything I do, which is why I look like a pastor.” What?! Are you telling me that in your heart of hearts you want to look like a priest? I don’t think so. I knew that these guys had been bikers, graffiti artists, and into crazy things, guys who had laid down all of their natural, God-given gifts to become part of a nameless-faceless group called “men-of-the-cloth”. The real issue was, as Jesus told us, “Ye are the light of the world. Don’t put it under a bushel; you’ve got to put it on a candlestick.” Jesus wants you to shine! You are not a man in black, you are to be the natural, sometimes goofy guy who God called you to be, therefore, the wearing of a costume. When you do wear your costume, make sure you “bleed” the same color that you are wearing.

I recently went to a Christian television network and I was amazed to see a big dude with leather pants, leather jacket, spikes and long hair and I said, “Wow! check it out. A really cool dude in this Christian environment.” But when I shook his hand, I found out that he was a typically square white guy that should have been dressed in a doctor’s coat. I thought, “What costume shop did you just come out of?” If you wear a costume, live the costume. I’m a film director and I’m going to dress like a film director. What are you?

Let me close by telling you about the power of a name. Even in the face of negative press, your name is where God’s power is released. Miss California did not win the Miss USA contest. Instead, she won second place. She lost in part because of her Christian convictions. But do you know what’s crazy? Nobody can remember the name of the winner. But Miss California’s name, Carrie Prejean, is on the lips of many Americans and she has been invited to speak five times more often than the winner.

Susan Boyle is a 48-year old single woman from Scotland who, for the last 12 years, had cared for her ailing mother. When her mother passed away, her final wish was that Susan should try out for the television show, “Britain’s Got Talent.” It took Susan two years to fulfill this word. Part of the reason for this was that she was used to being alone instead of in networking with producers and trying to win contests. She even reported that she had never even been kissed. Finally, she entered the contest and it literally shocked the world. A film of her singing on YouTube has recorded the most hits in internet history; over 300 million to date. Amazingly, the last week before the contest finished, the British press tried to take advantage of her inexperience in the public eye and a few times she completely lost her temper on camera. This mockery influenced the public and she finished second in the contest. The truth is, she really won because she now has a name. Her first singing tour in the US has already been planned and she is set to make over $14 million dollars. By the way, few remember the name of the group that won the final contest of “Britain’s Got Talent”. God wants to give you a name and to put you in costume. So I break the curse and say, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give some of the hidden manna to eat. And I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written which no one knows except him who receives it.”

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

Most people of faith are aware that in the last days God will show signs and wonders. But have we ever looked at or understood what it meant for God to show you a wonder? I have personally seen many of these. I’m not special or anything; I think it’s just because I pay attention, and if you would pay attention as well, I think you’d be surprised at how many wonders are happening around you.

A good friend of mine, Ben Medel, is a leader in the Miwauk Indian Tribe. He and his tribal people are very sensitive to nature around them and he has commented many times that I should listen to the voice of God in nature that is always speaking to me. Well, this is difficult for a city slicker whose only concern for the weather is usually, “Should I bring an umbrella or not?” Recently, it rained in San Francisco out of season, and I stood there looking at the rain clouds and wondered, “Was God saying something?” A few days later, I was with Ben during the National Day of Prayer and when I asked him about the rain out of season, he replied, “Richard, which direction was the wind blowing? Was the rain horizontal or vertical? How was the grass responding in front of your house?” All of these questions went well beyond my normal level of observation, but I realized how important they were because God had already brought me to the attention level that showed me the importance and significance of the rain itself. I realized His message was very simple. God is bringing funding for my ministry out of season, but this funding would be very necessary at the time brought.

A few days later, my wife Sandy had a dream. In this dream, thirty to forty workers in our ministry were peering through a large plate glass window that overlooked an epic view of the Pacific Ocean. Everyone was very excited because they knew some kind of a ship was going to be sailing to shore out of the fog and we were all waiting for the ship to come in. When Sandy told me this dream, it had no apparent meaning to me, and I just filed it in my memory bank as an unusual, inexplicable event. Two days later, I was praying with my daughter and son at my favorite prayer spot. It’s on a cliff that overlooks the Pacific Ocean. There was a fog bank over the Pacific about two miles out to sea. We had been praying for about an hour when I suddenly noticed the dark outline of a ship headed directly towards me. Now, this is Ocean Beach in San Francisco. It is about 10 miles long and there is absolutely no port, docking or other facility for a large ship to come to. The beach is exclusive for surfing, fishing and sunbathers. Sure enough, the ship continued and came out of the fog. It was then that I saw it was a huge ocean cargo ship and to the amazement of everyone else on the beach, the ship headed directly towards the shore, stopping only 1,000 feet off the beach. Realistically, I could not comprehend any reason for this ship to be here, but of course my wife’s dream came immediately to mind. Suddenly, my spirit was filled with wonder. I was viewing something inexplicable, yet my family was given foreknowledge that it would occur. And at this point, I realized that the power of wonder is found in its mystery, and that mystery creates an environment of inner strength and faith. It transforms every other question I am facing that I cannot explain into an additional response of wonder. I realize that God has every single thing in control. There is not one mystery that I am facing that He has not allowed to occur for my personal pleasure and growth.

Now, what I just said is quite a mouthful and you will never fully understand it until you can stand wide-eyed, bushy-tailed and filled with wonder yourself. Even though I do not know why I have seen this ocean liner pull through the fog and park at shore three times, it doesn’t matter. What matters is why it is happening in my world view. When you understand that dynamic, you begin to realize that even the rain has a purpose; it has a message for you. It is part of God’s divine order and why He gives us signs and wonders. Apostle Paul said, “For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected [it] in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.” Around you, God’s earth is cheer-leading you. Is this a wonder? It’s a wonder.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

The Apostle Paul said, “The story we’re given is a God-story, not an Abraham-story.” What we read in Scripture is, “Abraham entered into what God was doing for him, and that was the turning point. He trusted God to set him right instead of trying to be right on his own.” Nothing could be more true in my own personal life. I am discovering that it has nothing to do what I am doing for God, but it is all about my reaction to what God is doing for me. This is especially true when it comes to my new overwhelming and profound love for the Bank of America. Let me explain:

Years ago when I set up my bank account at Bank of America I was making pretty good money, and so I added some conveniences to my account not knowing what ramifications there would be later if I ever got to a point where I was consistently low on funds. Everything was perfect for years. I never had any problems with my account. Then I ran into the scenario where God warned me through two dreams that rough times were ahead.

In the first dream I was working with a very famous bicyclist who was planning the last mile of the race, which went through dangerous marshes full of dead bodies, and we had to ride on a very narrow pathway. The next night I was given the second dream in which I was on an island. We were to cross the sea but the sea was very rough. An angel warned me that it was going to get much rougher than what I saw, but I also knew that it was the last mile of the journey. I knew that these two dreams were from the Lord, that something was going to happen very quickly, and that I needed to prepare for it but I had no clue how rough this rough was going to be.

The first conflict with the Bank of America happened because my account had just a few dollars in it. I wanted to make some purchases on itunes for some worship music so I went to the bank and deposited $30 dollars and went home. That night I discovered that I could save money on itunes by not purchasing the whole album but just purchasing the individual songs that I liked. Wow, did I feel clever making all of these .99 cent purchases! I purchased the whole $30 dollars worth, but the next day I was freaked out to see that my bank account was over $400 dollars in the red. I discovered that the bank had added $35 overdraft charges for every .99 cent song. My deposit didn’t register until the next day. Oh, was I upset! Since I know most of the people who work at my local branch I wanted to go in and give everyone a piece of my mind, but I first went to pray. I was angry at the huge massive titan of Bank of America and how they were taking advantage of poor little innocent me who was in a period of lean financial times, but as my prayer continued I drifted into the spirit and realized that God wanted me to do absolutely nothing except to go and deposit money in the bank to cover the over draft charges. This did not make sense to me, but that was just the beginning.

A series of events began to occur that were intense. I felt like Job on the day that he lost everything. In the morning I woke up with bites all over me. One of my best friends, John Cook, was working on our church roof and was blown off of it by an east wind. He was rushed by ambulance to the hospital and needed surgery on his wrist. At the same time I learned that a homeless man whom I had been witnessing to for twenty years was also in the hospital with a heart attack. The next day, the head of our youth ministry was having a hip operation. On Mother’s Day my 86 year old mother fell and broke her arm. This process has continued for the last three weeks, everyday another difficulty. This morning waking up with an ingrown pimple on the end of my nose and a stack of announcements from the Bank of America, it has happened again, this time twenty-two $35 dollar overdraft charges. Then the Lord asked me this question, “Do you love Bank of America?”

Before I answer this question, I must share with you something that the Lord had been doing within me. I realized that God is trying to set me right rather than me trying to do so on my own. I began to see how God changes the interior of our spirit man. The Apostle Paul put it this way, “There are vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honor, and some to dishonor.” The Message Bible puts it this way, “Some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage.” Wow! Did I suddenly get it? Many of the people that were giving me a hard time were actually vessels chosen by God to take the garbage out of my life. The way it works is that when someone or a situation comes to revile me and I respond in love and blessing then the garbage is taken out of me. Wow, that is amazing! So rather than getting upset I need to love them, bless them and thank God for them. When is the last time that you hugged your garbage can? Don’t you get it? It is a necessary item that helps us have a clean house.

All of this was coming to a head in my family so we decided last Saturday to drive to the top of Mount Tamalpais and spend the day in prayer. The Lord kept pounding this truth into my spirit; I must respond to what God is doing in me rather than trying to do things for God. On the way home to San Francisco, we drove across the Golden Gate Bridge. When we reached mid span and my daughter Rocki cried out, “Dad, look at the city; it’s gold!” The whole family looked at downtown San Francisco, and to our amazement the tallest building in San Francisco was reflecting the golden sunset and this one building was shining so brightly that you could not see any of the other skyscrapers in the city. I thought, “Wow, I am on the Golden Gate Bridge; I am seeing gold in the city!” Then I recognized the building that was carrying the golden reflection; it was the headquarters of the Bank of America – my bank! The Lord said, “Do you love them?” I can honestly say I did love them at that moment in my heart even though by this time they had taken over $770 dollars from my account. All this week we have been believing God for miracles to put food on our table, and each time to my entire family’s joy and amazement God provided including that day. When I walked to my car someone rushed up to me and said, “The Lord told me to give you $40 for food.”

The following Monday the Lord said, “Richard, I want you to go to your bank and bless them. Your test is over.” I had no clue what God was planning to do. To tell you the truth I am embarrassed to admit this to you, but if you get the message, it is not about me but about what God is doing in my life. When I got to the bank I had a friendly conversation with the bank manager about some of the business accounts that we had there. He asked me about the bank overcharges and I explained to him how difficult it was for me to keep getting these $35 charges, and wasn’t there a way to stop them. He smiled and said, “Of course, it is very easy. When you first opened this account years ago you asked for overdraft protection, I assume this was so that you wouldn’t be embarrassed if you were at a restaurant and had insufficient funds, but if you want I can remove that and now when you don’t have money it will just refuse payment.” I was shocked. I didn’t realize that I had asked for this silly $35 charge years ago that would be thrown at me. I was totally fine with the bank saying there is no money in my account. I was just frustrated with the bank charges. I walked out of the bank laughing at myself because I now understood the reason for everything. For the moment, Bank of America had appeared to me to be a “vessel of dishonor”, but it wasn’t until I saw that God wanted me to love the situation in which I felt victimized, vulnerable, and out of control that I realized that Bank of America had become a “vessel of honor” to me.

So, maybe you have a situation or relative who is annoying you. When you finally can love no matter what is said, then the “vessel of dishonor” has removed the garbage from you and it becomes a “vessel of honor”. Wow, Bank of America, I love you! Thank you for taking the garbage out of my life.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

By Richard Gazowsky

God is undoubtedly displeased with mediocrity among His people. He is calling us to the extreme. The trouble most of us face is, “How do we get there?” I believe the heart beating in every one of us is that of a potential champion. This is why when we hear of the little guy making it big, something within your heart races and says, “One day that’s going to be me!” The trouble is, most of us have been told, “Sorry, it’s closed.”

We live in a generation that is different from any previous generation. I’m not sure I understand how we got here, but we are definitely here. Caution amongst young people is no longer acceptable and we are constantly being surrounded by those who push the boundaries of extreme to new levels. This is why many in traditional Christianity have begun a lifelong journey of pursuing mediocrity and safety. They use as logical examples those who have entered into the realm of extreme sin, such as beer bonging, Girls Gone Wild and other perversions. But these “sin movements” are only fringes of the real passion that is beating in the heart of this generation. I personally believe that we cannot stop it. There is a passion for the extreme that has been set in our generation’s heart by God Himself. In activities such as dancing, satanic forces can try to turn it into something perverse, thereby forcing Christians to shun it and some to speak out openly against it. But how foolish that is for us when dancing was obviously initiated for and by God; Miriam danced coming out of the Red Sea (first recorded dance in history).

How do you join God in this adventure? There are two elements that I have discovered to be extremely important. We must know the difference between the words of God and the ways of God. Years ago, I used to think that copying another minister was following God. I soon learned that that was a big mistake. There is absolutely nothing but death down that pathway. God’s word is fresh, it is Rhema and it must be spoken to us. If you don’t understand this, then you should quit reading this letter. It’s just going to mess you up. But if you ‘get it,’ you must know how to hear God’s voice and know that it is Him speaking through dreams, day visions, words in your spirit, or whatever method He chooses to communicate to you. This can never be taught. It can only be developed through the matter of use. Any other method is a waste of time. This is why the Lord tells us, “If you are faithful in little, I will make you ruler over much.” But what most people don’t get is what He means by ‘much.’ Hang on to your seat because He’s not talking about big bank accounts! He’s talking about greater risk and the level of an extreme life. If that doesn’t excite you, then you simply don’t get what the great adventure of God is about.

The second piece to this puzzle is knowing the ways of God. In other words, you can receive a word from God and apply it to your life in a completely carnal Western thinking environment and neutralize the entire effect of that word just given to you. For example, you may receive a word that the Lord is going to give you a car. So instead of following the ways of God with this word, you go out and do the normal thing; a) make a list of what kind of car you want, b) shop around at dealers that have the car you want, c) negotiate for the lowest price, d) get into debt, e) tell everybody that God gave you this car, but now you can’t afford the payments. WOW, what a testimony! (Sic) Now let’s get real. What are the true ways of God? The first thing to realize is that God means exactly what He says. I believe He would “give you a car” is His actual promise. That means that the blessing will overtake you, so what are you doing or wishing for one? Instead, you should believe for one. Secondly, shopping around is nowhere in God’s ways. Jesus always told His disciples, “The first house you come to, stay there and don’t go from house to house.” Thirdly, if the price matters, then you are not serving God, but mammon. Almost in every single point, the ways of God are opposite the trained ways of our Western culture. As a matter of fact, most of our ways have actually been designed to protect us from the extreme Kingdom of God life that God is calling us to.

All around us, we are surrounded by “Caution’ signs” that say, “Don’t do this! CLOSED FOR YOUR SAFETY.” I saw a barrier broken through by one of sport’s greatest extreme skiers, Doug Coombs, who passed away saving the life of his friend. Back in the early 90’s, Doug kept running into signs that said, “Mountains closed at sunset. Pathway dangerous. Don’t go here.” So he did something no one ever thought was possible. He flew to Alaska and had helicopters take him to mountains that hadn’t even been climbed yet. He said, “When I stood on these mountains, there was no one there who could say, “It’s closed.” WOW- what freedom he felt as he was able to break all barriers, gates and walls and open up a whole new vista of extreme skiing that now has overtaken the world of that sport. This is the heartbeat of our generation—breaking through the barrier that says, “It’s closed.” We are coming back to the original command that God gave Adam- TAKE DOMINION! Let Doug tell you in his own words:

No One Can Say “It’s Closed”

But this is not the only place where the extreme is being sought. It runs through the very fiber of our generation. Let me give you just a few examples:

On the British show “Top Gear,” they are told by the mayor of a local city that they cannot race in the city streets at night. Once again, the message is the same. “IT’S CLOSED!” So, what they did was rent out the mall that is in the center of town and instead of racing beyond the speed limit on public property, they did it inside private property. What an amazing video this is!

Ford Fiesta vs. Corvette

Kent Couch is a gas station owner in Bend, Oregon who decided to do the extreme fantasy. He tied over 100 large helium balloons to a lawn chair and tried to fly to Idaho. What did you do with your lawn chair this weekend? What he did was so extreme that I am sure that it inspired the new Pixar film coming at the end of this month, “UP.” Before we know it, lawn chair ballooning will probably be an international sport. The video below:

Balloon Man’s Amazing Journey

I am not talking to you about doing extreme for extreme’s sake, but I am talking about that basic desire put in all of us by God. The desire of divine discontentment, the wanting of more than just what was dealt out to you, the desire to push the limits. These desires and urgings are not evil, as many religious factions would want us to think. Instead, they are extremely Godly and totally safe. I have spent my life reigning in my extreme urges. It wasn’t until I learned how to listen to His voice and follow His ways that I began to give into them completely. Oh! What fun it is! Two years ago, my son and I signed up with Virgin Galactic for their flights into outer space. I’m sorry to say that there were over 7,000 in line before us.

So what is it? Why are we in the church usually surrounded by mediocrity? It’s very simple. We are copying each other instead of talking to God Himself. Look man, I realize that taking the time for your personal prayer life is a hassle but you will never move into the extremity of God until you are willing to move into it. It’s the process of obeying the little things before you take on the big things. Last week, I didn’t tell you the full story in “Puke Or Be Puked.” The truth is that I did not personally have the extra cash that it was going to cost to take my family deep sea fishing. It was either buy groceries or obey the voice of God and go deep sea fishing. But you see, every time God gives you even the simplest command it is set up in a way to put you in the valley of decision: whether you are going to play it safe or go extreme. When I got back home, I discovered that my bank had added over $600 in overdraft charges on my account. This meant that I was now extremely in the red. There are two ways I could approach the situation. One is like the Israelites in the wilderness who just whined and complained over every difficulty or the other is like Christ, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross.

Principalities and powers do not want you to get this so they have put up “IT’ S CLOSED” signs everywhere. I even have friends in the ministry that begin every sentence with the phrase, “But I’m concerned, Richard…” What is up with this kind of life? Somebody has got to run outside the camp like Moses did and grab the tabernacle and put it in the extreme presence of God, letting the Lord speak, and then follow Him to the place where “no one can say it’s closed.”

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”