Blowing the Lid Off
This past Sunday, I could hear Steve McGarret of Hawaii 5-0 fame tell his faithful sidekick, “Book em, Dano!” But instead of these exact words, I heard Jesus tell Dano McCollam, “Blow the lid off, Dano!” That’s what prophets do. They blow stuff up. They raise the bar. They present the heavenly standard. They give hope! All of this happened at the worship school!
The morning started off with great worship and prayer. It was different, though. It was deeper and richer. We sang similar songs from previous weeks, but the devotion and depth of worship, tempered over the last nine months, have taken the congregation to a place of realness with God, a place of intimacy. I cannot explain it any other way. It was awesome.
We then proceeded to take communion. Pastor Dean wanted the congregation to experience bitter and sweet by using cranberry juice and sweet bread instead of the usual sweetness and neutral flavors of grape juice and unleavened bread. It matched the bitter herbs (marror) and bowl of sweet fruit (charoset) in the Passover meal. The bitter herbs (horseradish root, parsley, lettuce, endive) are eaten once a year by the Jews to help them remember the bitterness of slavery under the yoke of Egypt. The bowl of chopped apples, or even salted water, represents the mortar and straw used in their labor. It also mirrors the sweetness of deliverance from bondage. They dip the bitter herbs wrapped with unleavened bread into the charoset bowl to symbolize both.
In the New Covenant, it parallels the bitterness of Gethsemane and Calvary with the sweetness of the resurrection and enthronement of Jesus. It also mirrors our enslavement to sin and the Devil with the joy of forgiveness and salvation through Yeshua’s sacrifice. Bitterness and sweetness, sadness and joy, bondage and freedom, mingled together in our communion to produce thankfulness in all our hearts. Jesus dipped the bitter herbs wrapped with unleavened bread in the charoset bowl and gave it to Judas in John 13:26 as an act of affection and love. Jesus desired to connect with his bitterness and point him to the sweetness of hope found in Him. Judas didn’t see it. Jesus connected with our bitter past and reminded us of our sweet liberation in Him through this week’s communion. Little did we know that we were passing over into a new season in the life of our church; symbolized by this prophetic act. No more bitterness, sadness, shame, or grouchiness! Only joy and happiness found in Christ Jesus. Hope was renewed.
Dano McCollam then proceeded to talk about how to live the supernatural lifestyle. “We cannot let our miracles die of natural causes!”, he stated. It’s not God’s fault that we don’t see breakthrough. It’s ours! He used 2 Kings 5 to make the point that just as Naaman had to follow through with a very insignificant act (washing in the Jordan seven times) to receive his healing, we also should not despise insignificant acts to receive our miracle. Following through on these small things leads to breakthrough! We should not despise small beginnings!
2 Kings 7 highlighted the point that God wants us to attempt the impossible in order to receive our miracle. The Christian life is not difficult, but impossible! 2 Kings 13 challenged us not to strike the ground with our arrows of faith only three times, but five to six times. We need to ask God for big things. We need to persevere! All we need is a little faith to move the mountains in our life. With God all things are possible.
Hey, if a caveman- oops, I mean Dano – can do it, then you can too. “That’s so wrong” as Dano would say. Ha! God likes to use people like Dano – like us – to do the impossible. He likes to use the weak and the foolish. Why? He will get the glory, not us. He shares His glory with no one.
That night our speaker shared this theme: Our creativity is linked to our dominion! When we show forth our creativity, we start to effect society and culture for the Kingdom of God. All we need is the ability to step out and be vulnerable with our paintings, songs, poetry, fiction, dance, and other gifts. We are God’s song. Our DNA is a song! Our creativity transforms!
We are not to judge, but redeem! We should not be intimidated by the darkness or territorial spirits, but become the territorial spirit to bring change to our times and places. Our God given creativity can do this!
Monday night continued our powerful spiritual journey with some teaching from Genesis, physics, crazy videos, and Biblical examples of what heavenly sounds can do. Did you ever see the Trinity in the first few verse of Genesis chapter one? God spoke the particles into existence! The Holy Spirit hovered over this void to create the gravitational force! Jesus harnessed this force and brought shape to the void! Wow! Colossians 1:17 is true, “He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.” One Christian astrophysicist stated that you need nuclear power, gravitational power, and electromagnetic power in order to create. The Holy Trinity provided this at the dawn of creation. “Hallejujah!!!!!!!!! Someone needs to go nuts right now!!!!!”
Because we are made in the image of our creator God, our words also create. When the spiritual frequency and resonance of our songs match the resonance and frequency of heaven’s song, entrainment happens. This is the definition of entrainment: when two things are in the same frequency, they produce a vibration; sometimes a powerful vibration. The walls of Jericho came down because the marching Israelites matched the heavenly sound with their shout. They resonated with heaven and released a cataclysmic force that brought literal breakthrough. Spiritual entrainment occurred. The walls came down. The same thing happened with Paul and Silas (Acts 16:22-26) in Phillipi.
Our prayers, words, and songs have power to transform cultures and society. We need to get on track with the disco entrainment of heaven! The Lord spoke through Dano and challenged all of us to steward our tongues wisely. Neighborhoods, cities, kingdoms, nations, and this world can be changed by our words. James 3:1-12 takes on a whole new meaning through this revelation.
The last night of the conference was activation time! We practiced worshipping horizontally over our state and one another. Songs of the Lord were released. Mantles were given out. Laughter was ignited. The oil flowed! My wife has abs of steel now!
Sunday morning encouraged us to live the supernatural life in the Lord; Sunday night enlightened us to be the song of the Lord; Monday night emboldened us to sing out the song of the Lord; Tuesday night exploded the song of the Lord on our lives. Was this a transformational conference? You better believe it!
This baby went way beyond my expectations; maybe all of our expectations. Our view of worship was changed forever. Thank you Dano and family for blessing us with the song of your lives! I would love to play the Hawaii 5-0 theme song right now for you, but I know the heavenly version is way better than the earthly. Dude, you actually look a little like Steve McGarrett! You got the big hair and everything!
When we were driving home on Monday night, our little Aimee started to wheeze. She was having trouble breathing. We all started to sing the song of the Lord while driving down Kalanianaole Highway, even Aimee pitched in with her labored voice. By the time we reached Hawaii Kai, her breathing was normal. “Come on!!!!!” She woke up the next morning singing Jika. Last night, she danced her heart out to the Lord. I know many of your kids were blessed and changed too. This is one proud and thankful papa. God bless you church. Thank you Unified.. . and LMI leadership for putting on a mind blowing, life expanding, faith building, hope energizing, and love inspiring school of worship.
Watch out world!!!!! Here we come!!!!!!