Burn Teachings

Each month a specific Post is highlighted in the Email Newsletter. Those teachings are listed on this page.

Shining Stars

Gazing out the window of the B747 fleeing LA and jumping the world’s largest pond (Pacific Ocean) bound for Sydney, I’m captivated and consumed by the stars blazing brightly in the midnight sky. They demand my attention. As an escape from the mayhem, chaos, and emotions of high school life, I would spend hours on sticky summer nights lying on the cool concrete slab in my Virginia backyard and just gaze and gaze. For some strange reason it would bring me face to face with God and renew my destiny for eternity. I would return from these moments in time refreshed and with a new sense of faith, hope, and vigor for my purpose on this spinning ball of dirt and air in the middle of a expansive galaxy. Absorbing in the energy of a giant cluster of gas billions of miles away awakens you to the feeling that you are a small thing in a big world. It’s a sobering but comforting thought as long as you are in good with the Creator of it all.

So this is the verse coming to mind I want to unpack:

“Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe. “

Philippians 2:14-15

Longing for Legacy

Lets face it - we live in a jacked up, crooked, lukewarm, godless generation marked by debauchery, cynicism, complaining and a whole lot more. The only comforting thing is that it seems to be no different than during the time Paul wrote this letter thousands of years ago and God wants us more than ever to experience His fullness. What strikes me about this age though is how God is “pouring out His Spirit on all flesh” in the midst of all our issues! We are nearing the end of the story and He is longing to add more to Heaven’s squad before the games last trumpet sound. The sobering reality is that our character today is so increasingly horrible that we cannot contain and sustain what He is pouring out for any time before we implode and retreat back to the status quo. As my good friend Andy and I have been meditating on (Plug: We’re leading the Fire and Fragrance School launching in Kona, HI on Jan 09 – fireandfragrance.com), urgency is an easy find today among young leaders in the body but it’s the legacy part that is sorely missing. We must possess both if we are going to fulfill the mandate God has for this Davidic generation. The urgency to throw our life into His move around the globe at all costs and the legacy to stick with it to see it far outlast our children’s children. An older leader in the church came up to me three years ago with something I’ll never forget as Kate and I began this journey I refer to as “the pursuit of the Presence.” He said “Sean, I’m glad you are burning hot right now but I’m committed and contending to see you burning hot for the next 60 years – along with your children and their children.” I was marked and challenged by his words and they have not escaped me yet.

The Present Reality

I have been grieving this week while peering into the state of many my good friends, leaders in the body, my own heart, and the church culture that now “tolerates” a whole lot more in the name of grace. For some reason, it seems as if I’ve heard more bad news in the last two weeks about moral failure, marriage issues, and beyond than any other time of my life. Don’t get me wrong, we would all be goners if it wasn’t for grace and I want to live a life operating in greater capacity and understanding of this. But in our quest and zeal to become “non-religious,” “free,” and “practice grace” we have lost all sense of discipline, integrity, purity, and accountability. I have been just as guilty and God has heavily convicted my heart this night. There are many people who are preaching, teaching, and living a “soft” gospel that requires no sacrifice, repentance or suffering. They ask more questions than they have answers for, preach and write as polished politicians (with no absolutes) rather than honest God-fearing disciples, and want people to hear them talk more than experience a real demonstration of God’s power (1 Cor. 4:20). This coupled with an attempt to make the Gospel of Jesus Christ “convenient” to the microwave and instant generation is breeding a character-less, power-less, and foundation-less people that cannot possibly sustain or maintain the anointing and glory when it rolls in on us like a blazing furnace.

We need immediate repentance and divine restoration to see this trend reversed. We need adequate discipleship, authentic accountability, meaningful discipline, and a righteous man to strike us once in awhile (Ps. 141:5). We CANNOT miss our destiny as a generation to “shine like the stars” as we were created to be. The world is watching, waiting, and longing for it.

Time to Persevere

My purpose in writing this wasn’t to bring a depressive “we’re so messed up – there’s no solution – so deal with it” approach to our situation, but to offer hope that God is beckoning us to something greater than we know. A greater level of character, deeper insight, wisdom, and knowledge of the Word and the beautiful absolute truths it releases are necessary to help us carry what He’s pouring out. In the midst of the apathetic western lifestyle that demands low integrity and little commitment on our promises, refusal to risk out of self-preservation, and the gammit of “prophetic excuses” to back any of our selfish desires, WE MUST PERSEVERE AND BRING OTHERS INTO THIS CALL!!

“Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

Hebrews 10:22-24
We cannot join in with others and water down our beliefs and stances on everything from abortion to sanctity of marriage to pornography to our own personal verbal commitments. We must strive, contend, push, and move forward with “pure hearts” longing to “see God” (Matthew 5:8) by becoming a people of character that who value God, family, and authentic relationship above all else. We must passionately pursue becoming families and friends that are committed to one another in brotherly love and embody the gifts of the spirit (husbands and wife’s, fathers and mothers to sons and daughters). This is dangerous and risky living that will turn the world and MTV culture upside down! It is our destiny, calling, and the fullness of the Kingdom!! We must PERSEVERE!!

I’ll leave with it then with this last verse:

“He who’s coming will come and NOT delay, but my righteous one will live by faith and if he shrinks back, I WILL NOT BE PLEASED WITH HIM.

BUT WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO SHRINK BACK AND ARE DESTROYED, BUT OF THOSE WHO BELIEVE AND ARE SAVED!!!”

Hebrews 10:37-39
LET US NOT SHRINK BACK BURN CREW AROUND THE GLOBE!!! LETS ADVANCE, RUN, BURN AND LIVE LIVES WITH BOTH URGENCY AND LEGACY IN MIND!! LETS BECOME THE BRIGHT AND BLAZING STARS IN A CROOKED AND DEPRAVED GENERATION!! LETS BE BURNING TOGETHER WHEN WE’RE 70 YEARS OLD AND PASS IT DOWN TO OUR CHILDRENS AND THEIR CHILDREN!!!
THIS IS OUR CALL, DESTINY AND MANDATE!!! WE MUST PERSEVERE!!

WHO’S WITH ME???

by Natalia Baker

Jesus reigns in Indonesia! Jesus reigns in Indonesia!! JESUS REIGNS IN INDONESIA!!! Amidst all the curses from the Muslim mosques around the city, the cry in my heart echoes above all else. It is a cry of truth, a cry of freedom, a cry of desperation. It is a cry that seemingly goes unheard as everyday a Muslim woman cloaks herself head to foot in clothes that do nothing but mask the chains that bind her. It is an anguish that appears to go unseen as everyday another ‘Allah-fearing’ man routinely kneels to pray misunderstood promises to a false god.

How do I change that?

I long to see such a dark nation burning with passion for the true God. If I were to know that none of my prayers would produce a difference that I would actually ever get the chance to see… Would I still beg God for the souls of this land? My answer is yes. This is my labor of love and so, I laboriously love these people who live life daily without knowing the Life. I adore his children who believe a lie, yet need the Truth. The spirit of the living God inside of me aches for relationships with the lost, and so I obey in hope to provide Light to the Way. We are the salt of the earth and the light of this world. Let’s let our light shine before all men!!! I am determined to not let the darkness that suffocates the nations, keep me quiet.

Death is the only cure.

I have to consecrate myself day by day. I am living to die and dying to live. I cannot afford to wait. Every day that passes and every minute that ticks by, is lost time in the countdown of the race for souls of the unsaved. We are called for such a time as this. Satan is not backing down and neither will I. God is raising up his army of radical, passionate worshipers and intercessors. I will join with them by pleading for God’s mercy and grace to shower on Indonesia. I will unite with those warriors to contend for Indonesia to fall on her face in worship. “May his glory cover the earth just as the waters cover the sea.” One day, the largest Muslim nation in the world with bow and hail him as King.

The sooner the better.

The world grows more corrupt by the secon- let worship arise. Adultery is a sin- may Indonesia repent. Millions of people are dying- Satan will pay. There is no time to lose.

Burn Israel:Sean has left me with the most difficult task of this trip…to write a report within a few paragraphs and not a novel.  How does one squeeze 15 days of one of the most revelatory, historical, monumental, life changing trips to Israel into a short “blaze” recap?  Allow me to try…

I truly don’t know where to begin…

yes we saw all the historical biblical sites,
yes we Burned in Jerusalem flipping the spirit realm upside down,
yes we went into the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Father’s of the Faith are buried and by the Spirit of God we were there on Father’s day,
yes we went into refugee camps to cry out and bring the presence,
yes we went into Jericho, the oldest city in the world,
yes our prayers broke through for a particular ministry to get new buildings (one in Jericho, and 2 in Jerusalem,)
yes we worshipped where the original tabernacle of David stood, in the middle of a Muslim neighborhood…
yes we ate more falafel, schwarma, and hummus that we thought possible,

I could go on and on and on and share all of the wonderful things we did, what we saw, and how effective our worship and intercession was, however God did something so special with our team that I think reflects what the Burn is truly about.

The Love of Christ:
Of course the Burn is vertical worship for hours on end ushering in the presence God to change territories and nations, but I want to share another aspect that I think sometimes gets overlooked.  The Burn is about relationships, love, and family.  The Burn is about, tearing down the walls of religion, denominations, agendas, and the self centered culture we live in.  As we begin to minister vertically to the Father, He begins to do something horizontally in the earth, but specifically within the hearts of His people.  Ravenous radical worship not only affects the Heart of the Father, but it tears down all of the facades and fills all of the wounds within the hearts of His people.  There is no greater bond than to have His presence in our midst.  One of our team members, Paul Mozley, released the anthem for the trip during our first Burn session overlooking Mt. Zion that truly expresses this reality, “Now is the time to break down the walls that divide”.  Only the Love of Christ can do this, and this He did to our team.

This bond of unity and love was personified not only within our team, but at the culmination of the Burn on Mt. Carmel.  The presence of God drew ministries throughout Israel together that had never met before!  You would think that all the Christians would know one another and work together in a country the size of New Jersey, but this has not been the case in a county where literal walls streak across the horizon and walls of religion, denominations, and fear permeate the spiritual realms.  The Burn lifts up Christ so that all men are drawn unto Him and His presence tears down the walls.  We had Messianic Jews, Christian Arabs, Americans, Canadians, Russians, Norwegians, just to name a few all worshipping together in spirit and truth!

“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;  I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.(John 17:22-23)

“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Jesus is the perfect bond of unity!

Issachar Anointing:
Another key blessing from coming to Israel is connecting to our roots and gaining a prophetic perspective of the times that we live in so that we are not ignorant.

As most of you know, (I Chron 12:32) “Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do”.  This is a vital part of Burn Israel, to understand the times in which we live and gain revelation of what to do.  We must not forget that the single greatest prophetic fulfillment of this generation is the return of the Jewish people to Israel. (See Isaiah 11:11, Ezekiel 36:24) This in itself should stir your faith to know that first of all, the Lord is faithful and also that the end of time is near.  This is all the more reason to go to Israel and see for your self what the Lord has done in a generation.  I truly believe that it is vitally important for every Christian to visit the Holy Land at least once in their lives.  It will open the Word to you in a new way, wreck your heart for the Jews and Arabs, and give you a real sense of the urgency of this hour in which we live.  The time is short…seek the Lord and go forth into your destinies!  Ps 115:16, “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.”  Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t make a difference because the Lord says you can!
Isa 62:1
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet,
Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness,
And her salvation like a torch that is burning.

Isa 62:6
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen;
All day and all night they will never keep silent.
You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves;

Download “Urgency and Legacy” as a PDF file

As I write this two of my team members and their wives are on the verge of becoming parents. One is in labor as I type; the other has the weekend to go into natural labor before the doctors induce on Monday. Everyone was positive these babies would be born weeks ago due to one couple being pregnant with twins, which typically come early, and the other has been showing signs of labor for as long as three weeks now. I have found for my own children as well as many others I know that these seasons of conception, pregnancy, and delivery in the physical often coincide with conception, carrying, and releasing of future vision and seasons in the spiritual.

So I began to ask myself what the Lord might be saying to our little team here at the University of the Nations in Kona, HI as we wrestle with the visions and dreams God has given us to see a wave of missionaries sent into every dark corner and across every closed border, burning with an unquenchable zeal for the presence of God and redemption of humanity. As this question left my mind I waited with the confidence that I speak to a prayer hearing God who loves to respond with affectionate wisdom and life giving insight.

“You must carry the dreams and visions that I am giving you from MY heart full term.” I continued to listen and he continued to speak. “In this year of new beginnings many are excited about what is being released on the earth, but conception is only the beginning. Development, health, and wholeness require my dreams and vision to be carried full term. Don’t rush my times and seasons. Healthy delivery requires a predetermined gestational period.”

For many, this year started off with an explosion of favor and moves of the Holy Spirit that quickly confirmed the numerous words from trusted voices that 2008 was to be a year of new beginnings. And few things in life can compare with the joy of new beginnings. Few things except the joy of timely, healthy delivery and the new life that especially if carried “full term” has the highest potential for long life. You see beginnings are wonderful but we must not mistake them for endings, maturity, or fullness. They are just what we call them… beginnings.

The answer given to me by the Lord challenges my microwave culture mentality which wants to associate beginnings with fulfillments without realizing that there is a wonderful, sometimes difficult, and certainly patience requiring season that is still ahead to really see the moves of God carry over from beginnings to history changing transformational movements that impact generations to come. The challenge for most of us is not the conception of a vision or dream from God but the carrying, birthing, raising, and releasing of a true God dream. I would call this process of thinking a legacy mindset.

You see, historically, and even denominationally, most of the body of Christ has been strong in one of two areas, urgency or legacy. More Charismatic movements that carry a strong emphasis on evangelism and even the end times tend to also carry a very valid piece of the heart of God called urgency. Without urgency the church would have slipped into unshakable apathy centuries ago. It was a sense of urgency that led the early disciples to quickly take the gospel as far as their lifetimes would allow. It was urgency that led the St. Patrick to Ireland as a missionary to Celts believing God wanted to ransom the heart of a nation. It was urgency that led William Carey to lay down his life for the people of India to see a people trapped in darkness see a great Light. Urgency is a excellent motivator and a very real expression of God’s heart that acts as an injection of faith, boldness, and zeal to the body of Christ.

Other streams of the body of Christ have had a strong understanding of God’s heart for legacy. This is the heart to see a release of blessing in future generations and the willingness to not see the fulfillment in our own lifetimes of the visions we carry. Those with a legacy mindset have tended to devote more time to education, building up the family, and financial stability.

Both are valid, but both are lacking without the other. Sometimes an overemphasis of urgency can lead to losing sight of also living with the long term in mind and actually short circuit the very effort produced by urgency and threaten the longevity of that what God is pouring out. On the other hand many with a legacy driven perspective can easily slip into apathy in the moment and lose the daily zeal that keeps life hot and on the side of risk. A misunderstanding of the need for daily urgency can often times allow a legacy heavy perspective to also short circuit the vision to see something sustained and passed on because it grows cold from lack of daily passion. So, in actuality, for urgency to actually bear fruit it must be lived out in the context of legacy and for a legacy to actually be passed on, urgency will be required. They are mutually inclusive and equally necessary. The coming move of God will be marked by a people that are walking in the fullness of urgency and legacy. Daily urgency for a long-term legacy! The marriage of urgency and legacy will be lived out in daily zeal leading to a life of impact that will keep impacting well beyond our own dreams and visions being carried out. This is what it means to both conceive a vision and carry it until its birth and then actually begin to raise it into maturity.

New beginnings are marked by a sense of urgency! And praise God for the urgency that is being lived out by many in the body of Christ in these days. However, I believe the question more lies on the side of our perspective of legacy. Are we willing to carry this urgency for the long haul, “full term”, until we see the fullness of what God is releasing and maturity of the visions and dreams that are currently being birthed? Are we willing to spend ourselves for something we may never see the full release of in our lifetimes? Are we building something that will still be weathering the storms of life after a hundred years, a thousand criticisms, and a handful of set backs. Are we building a Kingdom that will actually carry into eternity? Even a last days generation must think with a legacy mindset. Legacy goes far beyond just storing something up for future generations it is a kingdom way of living and thinking. It is the life that will carry the Kingdom between mustard seed and mustard tree and a little yeast in the dough to yeast permeating the dough (Mt. 13:31-33). It is an eternal perspective that sees the big picture and both the daily passion and the perseverance and selfless determination that will be required to see any true and lasting move birthed on the earth.

Are we ready to go the distance? Are we ready for the long, boring, and possibly hard periods of time that may come? Will we carry the fire breathed dreams that lie before to their “full term”? Last year I walked through a community in NE Washington that truly understands the importance of urgency and legacy. The community is after a culture of zeal for the presence of God all the while allowing their zeal for the heart of God to be released on the earth to be translated into decisions that are always made in light of the next three generations. As I walked through the homes I asked one man about his huge, timber framed house that resembled what I would have imagined Noah’s ark to look like. He informed me that he had built every part of the house with materials and construction that would allow his home to still be standing in 300 years. My laugh met his serious face as I realized he was not joking. At that moment I had an epiphany that I had never thought in a 300 year term in my life. How will we see successive moves of God that outlast and overpower the previous ones unless we begin to think beyond our five year visions!

Friedrich Nietzsche, famous for coining the phrase, “god is dead”, did have one good thing to say when he talked about the essential thing to a life worth living is a “long obedience in one direction”. Let the weightiness of this statement carry us far beyond the dings of our microwave thinking, pleasure addictions, and commitment phobic tendencies. Oh, to see and be and like Daniel who postured himself in the place of the urgency of daily prayer and at the same time in the legacy driven perseverance to do it for sixty years. Oh to be like David, building the blueprint of revival knowing it was for a future generation. Oh to be like Paul who spoke with his zeal saturated heart, “I press on toward to goal to win the prize”.

Therefore, let us rise up as burning ones, fully consumed with daily passion for the beautiful one and yet filled with a determination to carry this passion “full term”. Let us permeate every decision and thought with the fullness of urgency and legacy. Let us spend our lives in a long obedience in one direction. There is a generation emerging that the world has never seen. And the world will only see them long enough for them to change the world if we are a people of urgency and legacy!

YWAM and Burn 24-7 are partnering together to create a one-year training school that will help develop us as leaders who are anointed, passionate, and zealous as well as full of character, integrity, and Christ like leadership qualities. We want to see vessels raised up that can carry the glory that is being poured out and still yet to be poured out. Could it be that there is glory reserved for a generation that will put equal emphasis on urgency and legacy? If your heart longs for this kind of training then check out our website at fireandfragrance.com.

Download “He wants this more than we do” as a PDF file.

Its true. It is one of the great themes of scripture- God desiring to be with a people that don’t desire Him nearly as much. Just read the Prophets. A Dad wanting to be with His kids, a wild lover desiring the committed affection of His beloved (whichever paradigm you can dial into easier), He wants US!

We must keep this ever present in our minds that this “thing” that we are all apart of is not an end unto itself. King David’s desire wasn’t to create a new religious ritual when he built his tabernacle. In an almost “childlike” way, like when a poor kid finally makes it big as professional athlete and then wants to build a big old house for his parents, David saw himself living in a palace and wanted to build a place for his Father to live. Israel already had a good “prayer and worship model” set up by Moses; they didn’t need a “new model”. They needed the simple heart of David. They needed to desire the Lord with all their hearts, soul, mind, and strength.

Here in the West, we have a real hard time with this. We just can’t seem to think beyond the world’s systems of thinking; and I take personal responsibility for that because I have fell victim to it as well. The world’s way of thinking is to see a goal and then copy the process in order to achieve the same goal. The Church in the West has been stuck in this mindset for too long. There are no doubt Pastors around the country getting back from Lakeland, Florida and heading to the tattoo shop to get some sweet ink like Todd Bentley, or setting up their stage in the exact manner, thinking that by copying a pattern that they will get the same result.

The Lord is raising up a “living body”, an organism, and not an organization. Our tendency to default to creating organizations stems from our fear of losing control. “Organizations” are organized, neat, and are designed perfectly for man to receive honor at their success. “Organisms”, on the other hand, are defined as “a living structure capable of growth and reproduction”, and sometimes their growth and reproduction is a little bit out of control!

1 Peter 2:4-6 says, “As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

“Tabernacle of David” worship, “24-7 Prayer”, “harp and bowl, and “revival meetings” cannot be our “end all” motivation in our cities. If we build a movement around these things, we will have successfully built an organization, maybe even a good one, but not a house built of “living stones” upon the “Living Stone”.

Here in the Twin Cities, I’m seeing people dial into the reality that they are the “tabernacle”. About 6 months ago, I got together with several of the 13, 24-7 prayer/worship ministries in our state and asked the question, “Why don’t we all just get together, worship and pray regularly?” They agreed that it was good, and we did it. We do “it” every week at the same place with the entire city invited for 4-6 hours (going twice a week this month). Of the 50-80 “living stones” that come together every week for this, a good percentage of us get together in a living room at a big house with 100 other college students and young adults every Tuesday night and do “it” . Some of those get together on their college campuses and do “it”, or go to the mall or hospitals, or just on the streets and do “it”. Is “it” the Burn? Yes, it is. But it’s also your home, your job, your campus, your marriage, your local church. It’s you- the living tabernacle made up of flesh and bones and designed in the likeness of our Father and being indwelled with His Spirit. It’s wild, it’s out of control, and it reproduces.

It is the body of Christ in action.

It is the Creator inhabiting His creation.

That is the end all. (Revelation 21) That is what you must pursue with absolute abandonment. That is what must fuel your set a 3 am! That is your fuel for staying up for 36 hours straight: to get a glimpse into the eternal throne room of the Omnipotent, Uncreated, King of the Universe and to be overwhelmed by His inhabitation of you!

The time is short, and His final inhabitation is coming! So “burn” like you’ve never “burned” before. Offer yourself to him as a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1), not confined to any setting, but “burning” everywhere. From late night shift at the Burn, to the late night shift on the assembly line, let Him inhabit you. He is no more pleased with one than the other! From traveling the world to minister to poor, to traveling down the street to bring a meal to a neighbor, let Him inhabit you. He is no more pleased with one than the other, for it is only living sacrifices that please Him! God was just a pleased with David’s worship in the field as He was with David’s worship in the palace.

I believe that within this year, many of our Burn cities will get buildings donated to them. Some may even go 24-7-365! I know its possible here in the Twin Cities. But let us remember, that when we say “He wants this more than we do,” that what He wants isn’t a building of stone or brick, but a people that He can have companionship with.