A Church Without Walls

In this episode, I share a family story of restoration. I'm not going to tell you more, so I don't give it away. But I believe God wants to restore what has been lost in families in this season. Get ready for a miracle!

The end of the year offers us the opportunity for a calendar-specific spiritual exercise of the year-end examen. The examen is a relatively simple practice, often done daily or weekly, to pause and take note of God's presence throughout the day, as well as where we missed Him. The year-end examen offers the opportunity to reflect with Jesus on 2025, and be in conversation with Him about the year to come. After we set it up, we will take time to go through the questions as they guide us in our reflection.

If you would...

Meet my friend, Bethany Dearborn Hiser. We've known each other for a long time and worked together for several years at Tierra Nueva. It was there that she experienced burnout and began her journey into healing and belovedness, learning to sit beneath God's gaze of love. As you hear her share about her journey, I know you will receive, as well.

If you'd like to give a year-end gift to help support the work of Church Without Walls, please go to www.church-withoutwalls.org and click on Donate. All donations are tax-deductible and must...

It is Advent, when we celebrate the arrival of Jesus. John sees about him that "the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us." Today we explore how the tabernacle and the Temple were the place where heaven and earth met, how this is true of Jesus, and (spoiler alert) that it is true of each of us!

If you'd like to support the work of Church Without Walls with a year-end donation, please go to www.church-withoutwalls.org and click on the donate link. All donations are tax-deductible and must be processed by December 30 to...

I'm excited to have Aidan on today as he shares his journey from a bored church kid obsessed with football to a passionate lover of Jesus obsessed with telling others about Him. Get ready to, as Aidan likes to say, get lit. 

If you'd like to make a year-end gift to support this podcast, please visit www.church-withoutwalls.org/donate. All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you!

We are joined by my friend Wendy Bents Patterson as she returns from her seventh trip to Brazil with Global Awakening. Wendy has prayed for and witnessed the Holy Spirit perform amazing healings on these trips, and she shares testimonies, as well as the five-step prayer model they use. You will be encouraged and equipped!

Check out my new book on the Holy Spirit: A Longing for More: Deeper, Wider, Further with the Holy Spirit. Now available through Amazon.com

What are your thoughts or even practices when it comes to Sabbath? Join me on this journey of exploration with my friend, Brian Steele, as he takes us back to what we were created for - delighting in God and experiencing his delight. We already practice all sorts of disciplines that are driven by what we value. What if we stepped into the discipline of delight? Enjoy this refreshingly new invitation into an ancient practice that is from the very heart of God.

Also, my new book, "A Longing for More: Deeper, Wider, Further with the Holy...

What does prayer look like for you these days? How do you pray about global and national things? Are you overwhelmed? Have you stopped praying altogether? Romans 8:26-28 tells us that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how to pray as we ought..." Do you feel like you don't know how to pray as you ought? You qualify! The Spirit wants to help. But it may not look like how prayer has been modeled for us. Let's explore.

Welcome back to part two of my conversation with Eric Stelter about hearing God and stepping out in risk. Eric lays a great foundation for hearing God, telling us to "get empty," to live in the expectancy of God speaking, and to commit ourselves to 100% obey what God is telling us to do! He tells us to practice in the little things to train ourselves to be ready when the big stuff comes.

To support this podcast, go to www.church-withoutwalls.org and click on donate. All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you!

Welcome to Season 4! Along the way, I want to share and explore some of the more "out there" ways the Holy Spirit leads us. I want to start with a story of my own about how the Holy Spirit led me to give up alcohol. Here we go!

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I get to talk again with my friend, Eric. We had him on this podcast two years ago after his brush with death (literally). Eric is the person I think of whenever people ask what it looks like to hear God, engage with the Holy Spirit, and follow Jesus outside of a formal ministry context. Eric uses the term "blue collar mystic" to describe what it looks like for him. A mystic is simply someone who has had an experience of God. Karl Rahner said that the Christian of the future will be a mystic or nothing at all...

I hear people say that they want our country's laws and values to be influenced by Christianity, by what the Bible says. Well, let's take a look at that. What might the Bible (and Jesus!) have to say about the bills being passed by Congress and the laws being broken by ICE?

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Have you ever wondered why Christians and the United States has such a strong tie with Israel? What are we to make of that amid all that is happening in the Middle East, and especially Gaza? Let's explore a bit of this with Bob Ekblad and see how it gets tied into "end times" thinking that isn't as biblical as we might think.

Is there a revival going on among young people? What does that even mean? Join me in my conversation with my friend, Derek Archer, and hear what the Spirit is doing among a group of young people who are seeking Jesus first.

It's been said that we are all angry with God to some degree for not being good on our terms. Do you feel that? What are we to do with anger toward a perfect Being? Let's explore.

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All gifts are tax-deductible. Thank you!

This one is for all you software engineers. This is my friend, Charlie Yang, an engineer who has been asking the Holy Spirit if he has strategies for the nuts and bolts of his work in writing and fixing software. And you know what? He does. Check it out as we explore some of the ways the Holy Spirit is leading Charlie outside of church.

If you'd like to partner with me to help this podcast continue to happen, go to www.church-withoutwalls.org/donate. All donations are tax-deductible. Thank you!

Have you heard someone say, "Well, Jesus is still on the throne," when there is tragedy or struggle, or suffering? What do they mean? Is it true? Does it feel true? If it is true, what does it mean? Join me in my conversation with Jesus as our guest this week as we explore what it may and may not mean that Jesus is still on the throne.

This podcast is only made possible by support from listeners. If you'd like to partner with me in this way, you can go to https://app.aplos.com/aws/g...

You are invited into this wonderful conversation with my friend and spiritual director, Larry Spousta, as he talks about the biblical idea of different baptisms and what he calls an "intimacy language." If you are longing for more, Larry is a great guide. Let's explore.

As we continue to explore the terrain of North American Christianity, including Christian Nationalism, one of the questions that has come up for me is what to do with Romans 13 regarding how we are to relate to governing authority, especially authority that we disagree with. How are we to understand this?

If you and Jesus walked into a room full of people, how would he introduce you? Are we able to believe and receive the goodness of what Jesus would say? I'd like to introduce you to my new friend, Tyson Bradley, as we explore some of this identity work of the Holy Spirit. On our way to hearing what God wants to say to us about who He has made us to be in the world, we will also explore some prayerful grounding exercises that can help us be more present to God and our own selves as we...

As we continue our exploration of Christian Nationalism, I believe what lies at the heart of it is an idolatry of nation. Yet, in the process of digging into that, we will uncover our own idolatries. Where are you feeling fear these days? Or anger? What feels threatened? It may be that there is an idol hidden in the basement of our hearts.

We are doing a deep dive into the Scriptures with Bob Ekblad as we cover a lot of biblical terrain regarding what are called "powers and principalities." The path leads us to some key scriptures where Paul describes idolatry as serving the creature instead of the Creator and Jesus saying we cannot serve two masters. As we discern how we are to respond to powers and principalities, the first step for all of us must be to renounce the idolatry of nationalism. Unless we break with our brand of nationalism and are born from above, we will not see...

I am finding that my spiritual life is taking more time and intention these days. As I wrestle with what is going on in the world around me and not living from a place of constant reactivity, I hear Jesus calling me to set my mind on things above where He is seated at the right hand of God. And to not set my mind on things on the earth. How do we do this without just burying our heads in the spiritual sand? Let's explore.

Join me with Dr. Paul Olver, the Director of Operations for Impact Latin America as he shares about what the Holy Spirit is doing in Latin America and we reflect on our recent trip to Uruguay.

As we continue to discern whether the prophetic voices promoting Christian Nationalism are speaking God's heart and God's kingdom priorities, it is important to take a look at what the prophets were doing and saying in the Bible. We don't have to look very far to see that they were not political "yes-men" but regularly challenged religious and political leadership for their idolatry and neglect of the poor. What can that tell us about what we are seeing in Christian Nationalism? Let's take a look.

On a separate note, if you are interested in...

I want to continue a conversation about something heavy on my heart concerning the need for greater discernment in the prophetic movement in the United States. My concern is that Christian Nationalism and the way it is being validated and promoted by the prophetic culture portray a twisted misrepresentation of Jesus and the kingdom of God and use the gifts of the Holy Spirit to do it. How are we to discern what is from the Holy Spirit in these confusing times?

When the Apostle Paul talks about the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12, he distinguishes the gift of healing from the gift of miracles. In other places we read phrases that include "signs and wonders." What is Paul or Jesus talking about, where do we see those happening today and what is God doing through them? Join me with my friend, pastor Rich DeRuiter, as we talk about healing, miracles (signs that make you wonder) and why the gathering of God's people helps to bring a completeness to the works of the Holy Spirit.

With the New Year, we are revisiting some teaching from almost two years ago on the importance of discernment when we are listening for God's voice. Jesus tells us that he is the good shepherd and his sheep hear his voice, and he also warns us that there are other voices - the stranger, the robber, and the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Let's explore how to recognize God's voice amid all the clutter.

I am revisiting some foundational stuff for me in prayer - that hearing God's voice changes everything. Maybe your experience feels more like silence and praying to the ceiling, but I want to encourage you that there are many ways you are already hearing from God, and they all count. Let's explore together and then practice.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, if we talked about the Holy Spirit at all, it was regarding rumors of miracles that seemed to happen in Africa. Most of this podcast has been to help us become more aware of what the Holy Spirit is doing right here among us. But today we get a glimpse of what the Holy Spirit is doing in Africa as we are joined again by our friend, Andy Ekblad. Get ready to receive!

Wherever you find yourself in prayer or out of it, Jesus is always waiting for us. Be encouraged, inspired, and invited deeper into love with Jesus in prayer by my friend Deborah Meador. She will draw you in with her the passion of her lived relationship with Jesus and open the door to a new way of entering into intercession for others. You are in for a treat.

Friends, I release this podcast the day before the election, out of my regular release sequence. I bring you this sermon I preached Sunday, November 3 in Bellingham, as a word to refocus us on where our hope lies, Jesus and His Kingdom. We may be divided at the ballot box but let us be united in a vision of Jesus crucified and risen and in His Kingdom. Jesus is our King. This is where our hope lies.

We are back with Bob Ekblad to discuss the critical need for discernment as we listen for what God is saying, and especially as we listen to voices in the North American prophetic culture who claim to be speaking for God. As we listen for God and to others, how do we discern what we are hearing from the echo chamber and idolatry our own cultural and political bubbles?

As a teenager, Mitchell Senti wrestled through the disconnect of what he was reading in the Bible about the Holy Spirit speaking and the fact that his church wasn't saying anything like this. His exploration took him on a journey, not just of hearing God, but following in extraordinary ways. I invite you to come on the journey with him.

If you'd like to donate to help this podcast continue to go beyond the walls of the church, you can go to my new website is www.church-withoutwalls.org and click on "Donate." All donations are tax...

Pastor Jonathan Hanson shares his journey in the Holy Spirit and how hearing God's voice is foundational. We start with the foundation of being a beloved daughter, a beloved son. Then God speaks a specific identity word in our lives that cuts through the lies we have believed about ourselves: I am not enough or I am too much. Let's walk in the fullness of who God has made us to be.

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I've been thinking a lot about the Kingdom of God lately. It was the centerpiece of Jesus' teaching and he tells us that we "must be born again if we are to see the Kingdom of God." If the Kingdom is what we are "saved" and born again for, what is Jesus talking about? Has our model of church in North America somehow missed it? We will explore some of the terrain with my friend, Derek Archer, founder of Kingdom Works.

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Welcome to Season 3 in our continuing journey with the Person and Work of God the Holy Spirit. After taking two months off, I want to give us a jump start with the sermon I preached for Pentecost last Spring. If you've been living a faith life of quiet desperation, or simply been wondering if this is all there is, I'm here to tell you, There is More!

If you'd like to give to partner with me in my work with www.impactlatinamerica.org and my trip to their leadership summit to release my book, Hearing the Heartbeat o...

As we enter into a season that includes rest and time off for some, how can we enter more deeply into the kind of rest we so desperately need? Jesus' invitation to "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden" is for each of us. But what sort of rest is he inviting us into and what is the "easy yoke" and "light burden" he offers in exchange?

If we want to grow in knowing and co-laboring with the Holy Spirit, we will do this best in community. Why? Because the Holy Spirit was poured out on the Church for the Church, not simply on individuals. As long as our approach is just "me and Jesus" we will see limited fruit. So, what are some ways we can begin to grow together as we seek the ministry of the Holy Spirit? Listen and we will see.

I will be taking a short break on content development in July and August (for the first time since...

Today I talk with my friend, Kathy Crosby, about her journey with the Holy Spirit in receiving and co-operating in inner healing prayer. Physical healing is much of what we see in the scriptures, though I would argue that inner healing is happening as well. They differ from one another in that physical healing has to do with our bodies while inner healing has to do with soul and spirit hurts that have kept us from flourishing in the ways God intends. Get ready to receive.

*If you'd like to give to help support this podcast, you...

I know many people who have been kept from being open to the Holy Spirit due to a particular Pentecostal doctrine/theology that said you must speak in tongues as a sign of the baptism of the Spirit.  I wanted to have this conversation with my friend, Larry Spousta, who is a Pentecostal pastor.  You will be blessed by his story and his generous approach to the topic.

If there is a God in the room with me then that is a completely different world I'm living in than if God is talking to me from a distance on a walkie-talkie. So says my guest, Alison Millikan, as she shares her journey through some of her obstacles to the Holy Spirit - not wanting to be duped or emotionally manipulated, and her fear of being out of control. 

As we begin to believe for more, there can be a greater experience of disappointment when the more doesn't happen in the way we want or desperately need.  We continue our conversation with Andy Ekblad as he talks about the already and not yet of the Kingdom as he saw miracles and answered prayer all around him but not in his daughter. 

Join me with my friend, Andy Ekblad, as he shares part one of his journey of hunger for and experience of more of the Holy Spirit. Are you hungry for more of God?

It's Good Friday. Of all the things Jesus cries out from the cross, the most anguished may be the cry of dereliction, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" We have been told that in this moment of terrible suffering, the Father turned his face away from the Son as the wrath of heaven is poured out on sin. But is it true? Is that what is happening?

Meet my friend, Rebekah Cancelosi, as she shares her journey with the Holy Spirit through knowing the Holy Spirit as Helper in her 20s, as Hope in her 30s, and as Healer in her 40s. There is always more the Holy Spirit has for us and while there are big moments of breakthrough that mark the way, it is a long journey that won't end until we are face to face. You can find out more about Rebekah and also check out her book Becoming - An A to Z  Journey of Hope and Healing at her website - w...

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When we are in crisis, we often cry out, "Jesus, don't you care that we are perishing?!" And Jesus responds with what can feel like a harsh question: "WHERE is your faith?" What kind of faith is Jesus expecting of us? What if he wants us to walk in his authority to calm the storm?

Jesus call to love our enemies cuts across partisan lines and there is much that can be said about the failure to love on all sides. However, I feel the need to address a form of religious extremism happening in the church in America because it promotes a hatred of enemies and threat of violence as though these are compatible with being a follower of Jesus. We rarely win arguments by pointing out what is wrong with the other, but maybe we can point to Jesus. 

"The prophetic is a gift. It's not an award or a reward, or something you can earn." So says my friend, Kitsy Gregory. And like any gift, it needs to be opened and we need to learn how the Holy Spirit wants to interact with us through this gift. If you have been wondering about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and this gift in particular, you will enjoy this conversation. 

And if you'd like to explore the gifts of the Holy Spirit further, I invite you to join me and the Dunamis Essentials team for an o...

When we talk about walking in spiritual authority, we are talking about doing the will of our Father to bring His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. There are few verses in the gospels that spell out the challenge of what following King Jesus means more than when he tells us to "love our enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you..." As we seek to be Kingdom people, today we are going to explore what it might look like to "bless those who curse you."...

Whether we are aware of it or not, we live in a war zone. While armed conflicts between various nations are all around us, the reality is that there are only two kingdoms - the kingdom of our Lord Jesus and the kingdom of darkness - and they are at war. Jesus has won the ultimate victory but the battle continues. When we become aware of that battle, we are becoming aware of what is called "spiritual warfare." Today James Kearny and I will explore some of the ground level tactics of the enemy and how we can walk...

In this episode I want to step back into our conversations about Holy Spirit empowerment and look at how it intersects with the humanity of Jesus and the concept of spiritual authority. I want to do this because we will explore spiritual warfare in our next podcast, and our understanding of spiritual authority is the central issue in spiritual warfare. Our understanding of spiritual authority is also foundational to who God made us to be upon the earth! Check it out!

If you'd like to help support this podcast with an end-of-year gift, you can go to h...

The Christmas / Advent season is about waiting for the fulfillment of the prophetic promise… God spoke through the prophets by his Holy Spirit and his word accomplishes what it set forth to do. It doesn’t return to him empty. But there is waiting. In the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth we see how their long awaited prayer was finally answered but it was part of a bigger story, and God was just getting started. Maybe the prayer or prophetic word you are waiting on is part of a bigger story?

We are in the season of Advent and while it is meaningful to us in many ways, we often treat the Holy Spirit supernatural activity more like a children's book than actual events. There is no section of the Bible given to more Holy Spirit activity than the conception and birth of Jesus. Let's explore and discover that the Bible isn't just a story of what God did then, it is what God is doing now!

Meet my friend, Ruby Tanaka. Some may say that she's a dreamer; but she's not the only one. In fact, dreams and visions are mentioned as a way that God communicates over 200 times in the Bible. And part of the prophetic promise from Joel 2 is that when God's Spirit is poured out on everyone, they will dream dreams! The question then becomes, how do we pay attention and understand and interpret what God is trying to tell us? Let's explore together.

Lorinda's journey with God is one that highlights God's pursuit of us as described in Psalm 139: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the seas, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me." While she shares some of the big moves of God in her life, it is the smaller ones over a long period of time that show how God has held her.

We dive back into the topic of deliverance from a new angle. How cano we engage with our own places where we are stuck? Join us as Bob takes us into Matthew 7 and Colossians 3 as we seek to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in identifying roots, addressing them and walking in new life.

One of the statements I have often heard is "everything happens for a reason." Usually someone is trying to give some sense of meaning to a hard situation, at other times there is a sense of resignation or fatalism. And while the thought that everything happens for a reason may feel like it offers some solid ground in the midst of chaos, if we believe in God it ends up saying that God is the reason for EVERYTHING that happens. There is theology that says just that, but is it true. Let's explore.

As we are learning to partner with and cooperate with the Holy Spirit, there are times when we can get excited about what God is doing, while at other times prayer takes more effort. The answers we are asking for don't come immediately (or at all). What does it mean or look like to persevere or contend in prayer? Meet my friend Wendy, who is a prayer warrior, and if there is anyone I want to talk to about this topic, she is the one.

Trigger warning: this episode contains content regarding drug addiction and attempted suicide. 
Jonathan Oliviera shares his story of redemption from being a young, fatherless, addict who tried to end his life to an unlooked-for encounter where Jesus claimed him as his own and set him on a new trajectory. 

I'm excited to share this conversation with my new friend, Charlie Yang. Charlie works in the tech industry and was happy to finish out there. He shares how God has been moving him from being the "most okay Christian ever" to a Spirit led Kingdom life, as well as his resistance along the way. Beginning with honest prayers and moving toward praying for others, the Holy Spirit has been empowering  Charlie in beautiful ways. 

If the conversations with about the Holy Spirit have felt like riding the rapids, let's wade into the deep, quiet waters where the Spirit hovers over the chaos of everyday life and the larger issues. Sara Shih operates out of a place of devotion that flows out of an experience of God's faithfulness in spite of her disobedience, a heart posture of regular dependence, out of which she participates with God's presence in the world, as she raises four girls and works with a global non-profit.

As soon as we start believing and expecting the Holy Spirit to do miraculous stuff, we run into all sorts of places where our expectations aren't met. God healed this person. Why not that person? 

So, I'm excited to introduce you to my friend, Rita Nussli. Rita is a person who lives in the power of the Holy Spirit out of a deep foundation of her belovedness in God. Prepare your hearts to receive what she brings as we discuss disappointment with God and she invites us deeper into a place of belovedness where there is the s...

With all the talk about the Holy Spirit and hearing God, what do we do if we feel our experience of God has been all or mostly silence? It's not a "one-size-fits-all" answer. Let's ask more questions about your journey and explore some of the terrain through the lens of spiritual direction.

While still on topic, I've invited our regular guest, Drew Shih, to dialogue with me about my book, Hearing the Heartbeat of God, that came out in May. Join us in this conversation about some of the journey the Holy Spirit has had me on and what God has been teaching me in the process.

Challenged by one of my friends that all my guests and examples have been people in some form of ministry, I reached out to my friend, Eric Stelter, who has been in the construction business and run his family business along with other business ventures. Equipping and inspiring people who live and work outside of "professional" ministry contexts is one of Eric's passions. I regularly point people to him if they want to see what it looks like to hear from and follow Jesus in radical and practical ways. There is a lot of Holy Spirit power packed into...

As we continue our journey with the Holy Spirit in hearing God, in healing and in deliverance, I want to take a step back to have a conversation with another Heidi (Hughes) to talk about how we discern what we are hearing is from God. Discernment is the common denominator in all our cooperating with the Holy Spirit. Heidi will share stories of getting it wrong, of our need to be regularly in Scripture to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, and how we need people in our lives to help us discern.

This week we are diving deeper into the reality and weirdness of the spirit realm as we talk with my friend and prayer partner, James Kearny. James shares how the Holy Spirit "jumped him in" to this kind of ministry when he was delivered from an evil spirit. And we will talk about what is often a missing piece of this kind of work, and that is discipleship - walking out the new life and freedom and authority we receive in Jesus. Buckle up!

In the same passage where Jesus gives his disciples authority to heal, it is also authority to cast out demons and raise the dead. For most (church) people the idea that demons exist and that we have authority to cast them out is so far removed from our grid that we don’t know where to begin to enter in. This podcast may be your beginning.

After jumping in the deep end on healing with Bob Ekblad in our last episode, I want to explore some of the biblical foundations. We will look at Jesus as our model for what God's heart is about healing and what the healing ministry of the Holy Spirit looks like. And we will get prepared to step out with the Holy Spirit in praying for healing.

In this episode we venture into healing waters , talking with Bob Ekblad about his journey with the Holy Spirit in the ministry of healing prayer, in particular, praying for physical healing. People have all sorts of skepticism and questions about this topic so let me know what questions you have and we can pursue answers in future podcasts. For now, be encouraged that God does heal and be inspired and challenged to step into partnership with the Holy Spirit.

As we are learning to hear God and be led by the Holy Spirit, one of the main questions I hear is, "How do I know it is God and not just me?" This is a good and really important question. We will see what Jesus has to tell us and explore some core questions to help guide us.

We've been exploring how God speaks and we hear, and how we are led by the Holy Spirit. In this episode we will look at one of the ways the Holy Spirit does stuff, what Paul calls "the gift of prophecy" (1 Cor 12:10) The most basic way I understand this is that prophecy is hearing God - for others. We will explore some of the layers going on in how we interact with a prophetic word and look at some life-giving ways to help guide how we share a prophetic word with someone.

Continuing with our questions about God the Holy Spirit, I talk with our friend, Drew Shih, about his journey with the Holy Spirit and his take on what the Bible means when it says "Don't quench the Holy Spirit," "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit," and by the haunting statement from Jesus that the only sin that won't be forgiven is the "blasphemy of the Holy Spirit." Drew brings a lot of humility and compassion to this conversation.

Buckle up for this ride with the Wild Goose of the Holy Spirit. My friend, Heidi Basley, has been called to follow the Holy Spirit since she was young and has known the Holy Spirit is always about mission - leaving what is familiar and going to the least. For Heidi, being led means being surrendered and willing to follow. Follow vs. fear. Get ready.

Today you all to get to hear from my long-time friend, Libby Chapman. Libby brings a wealth of experience and wisdom, shaped with sensitivity and deep compassion, as she describes her own journey with the person of the Holy Spirit and brings her insights into our topic: what does it mean to hear God? In Libby’s work as a spiritual director she has accompanied many people who feel they don’t hear God, and she has helped them step into a greater awareness of how God is communicating with them. 

How are we to be led by the Holy Spirit unless God is speaking to us in some manner? This brings up all sorts of issues and questions for people, including many who feel that God doesn't speak, or if God does, they don't hear. I'd like to suggest that you are already hearing in many ways, and we will explore some of them together and see what God is doing.

Supernatural (Holy Spirit) ministry is weird by definition. So says Jordan Seng in his book Miracle Work. But one of the weirdest seems to be the Holy Spirit phenomenon called speaking in tongues. What is it and why is it so controversial? We'll explore the scriptures and some 20th Century history to see if we can better understand what the Holy Spirit is doing in this unique and strange gift.

"I've got Jesus, the Church and the Bible, why do I need the Holy Spirit?" The world around us is desperate for encounters with God that bring healing, restoration and transformation, where they feel seen and known by God. I want to live a life and be part of a community of faith where things happen that can only be explained by God.

As we continue our exploration into the Person and Work of God the Holy Spirit, we look more closely at what the Bible has to show us about the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. The question for this episode is, "What changed at Pentecost?"

We are starting a new season exploring the Person and Work of God the Holy Spirit. There is probably as much avoidance, resistance, and misunderstanding about the Holy Spirit as there was in our previous series on God as Father. For an introduction, today we look at some of the obstacles and stories of how the Holy Spirit overcame them. We'll hear again from Bob Ekblad and I will share some of my journey to get us started.

I'm so excited for this conversation with my friend, Willow Weston. She is the founder and directer of www.wecollide.net in Bellingham, Washington and today she allows us into her story of pain and healing with the Father and the journey of learning to be a daughter. She brings a much needed voice to this conversation. You will be ministered to by this.

I'm excited to share this interview with my friend, Drew Shih, as he brings a multi-cultural lens to our conversation about God the Father. Drew leads LED, a ministry catalyst for relational discipling and shepherding, and has been in senior leadership in South Korea, Taiwan, Canada, and now in San Francisco. Drew invites us to "taste and see" the Father's heart rather than simply "think and agree" that God is good.

Spiritual orphans function out of our experience of abandonment, rejection, isolation. These experiences create beliefs about who we are, what we are worth and how we must live in order to have security, significance and acceptance. It is a bottomless pit. We feel we have no name and so must work to build a name for ourselves. There can be a deep sense of lostness, ungroundedness, loneliness. They are well acquainted with the feelings of fear, rejection and anxiety that accompany homelessness. All this impacts how we relate to God as Father and believe He relates to us.

In this episode I share a prayer practice that has been part of going deeper in the Father's love - the Welcoming Prayer. I hope this will help frame our time as we seek to be still and make space to receive what God already wants to give us.

Today I talk with Bob Ekblad, founder and director of Tierra Nueva in NW Washington State, a ministry that seeks to share the good news of God's total liberation, healing, and transformation in Jesus Christ with people on the margins, especially those affected by immigration, incarceration, and addiction. Bob shares his approach to the Father of Jesus as it impacts our orphan hearts and the drive to perform.

I share a picture of my inward journey that has resulted from praying, "Father, take me deeper in Your love." David Banner, in his book, The Gift of Being Yourself,  frames what deeper looks like. “The self that God persistently loves is not my prettied up pretend self but my actual self – the real me. But, master of delusion that I am, I have trouble penetrating my web of deceptions and knowing this real me. I continually confuse it with some ideal self I wish I were.” 

Our identity, as ones who have been born from above, is to come from what the Father says and must trump any other identity, every other value. An idol is anything that we have put in place of the Father. And whatever is in the place of the Father is calling the shots.

We are so wired for performance in every relationship. We get the job because of how we’ve performed in other places. We keep the job or get a promotion because of how we’ve performed in the job. Even our closest relationships have an element of performance. But our relationship with the Father is one of being loved by Him first, before we’ve done anything – no performance! We want to move from our performance-based identity to a baptismal identity where we can receive what the Father has to say about us.

One of the greatest obstacles in our journey toward God as Father is our complicated relationships with our earthly fathers, especially when we've been hurt by them. If we’ve had no father or bad fathers, or even average or good but not perfect fathers, how do we get to the Father revealed by Jesus, who looks, acts, tastes, smells and feels like Jesus?

How can we know for sure what the Father is like and how He feels about us? It's not enough to say that the Bible tells us what God is like. 

God is like Jesus.

God has always been like Jesus.

There has never been a time when God was not like Jesus.

We have not always known what God is like—

But now we do.

"Mother is the name of god on the hearts and lips of all children." 
In our journey to go deeper in the Father's love, one of the primary obstacles has to do with the fact that, no matter what we say we believe about God and His love, in our hearts we often  relate to God through the filter of our relationships with our parents.

In Galatians 4, Paul tells us that one of the reasons the Father sent the Son was to rescue us from the Law, that we might receive adoption. Is it possible the have been rescued but not truly entered into the experience of our adoption as beloved daughters and sons?

Right now, 100% of the Father's love is for you. But we aren't experiencing it. Church Without Walls is launching with an eight part series on the Father love of God and exploring some of the obstacles that keep us from entering in and receiving more fully the love of the Father. Whoever you are, wherever you are, there is more.