My School of Circuit Riders LA Summer Lecture Notes, #2

Day 2 of Circuit Riders' LA School 2013, July 26, (Love Santa Ana Event), Part 1.

Speaker # 1 Adam Edgerly (Site Pastor of NewSong LA) teaching: The Spiritual Discipline of Civic Engagement-how to be an agent of change for the downtrodden.

Jesus said, "Go into ALL the world…" Therefore we the Church need to live a disciplined spiritual life (Biblical example of Nehemiah and King Artexerxes). Nehemiah showed patience, after all, Rome was not burned in a day!

We are to be Revolutionaries.  Characteristics of a revolutionary:

1. Willing to experience Pain (Nehemiah's grief in Neh.1). We are not ready to be used by God until we weep with those who weep.

2.  Willing to risk relationships in order to have hard conversations.

3. Willing to be disciplined. 4 levels of discipline:

            a. Investigative: collect facts on injustice

            b. Negotiate

            c. Self-purification

            d. Non-violent civic demonstration

Pray that "we would be one as the father and I are one."

4.  Devoted to praying for reform in this country.

Speaker #2 Brian Brennt:

Overcoming the "Sharing your Faith" Paralysis:

1. Have a humble heart and realize you too were rescued. Coming from a higher position is out!

2. Realize you're proposing JESUS!! Not a religion. Religious insincerity is out!

3. Listen, don't lecture. What does he/she have to tell you?

4. Ask yourself-"Do I know my own (Jesus) story?"  Be ready with your story when the opportunity arises.  How can you connect your story with theirs?

5. Relax! The Holy Spirit does the work.  All you need to do is strike up a conversation and ask questions.  Be ready to say, "How can I pray" or "How can I help?"

6. Be ready for the religious police! Don't worry about being perfect.

7. Overcome fear; you don't need more training! That is a lie-fear of man is a killer. There is no perfect way, so don't force a preconceived idea…flow with the Spirit.

8. Share the love!

Speaker #3 Jason Aguilar:

On Evangelism:

1. Take the risk of failure-be willing to MESS UP!  Remember when the gift of faith starts operating, the rest of the gifts rise up too.

2. Fix my eyes on Jesus! Not on myself, my gifts or wisdom.

3. Remember that wherever I walk, Jesus comes with me, bringing the POWER OF GOD into the situation!

4. Learn to rejoice in the small things. The more I rejoice, the more miracles will come.

5. Yield to God-the filling of the Spirit comes with yieldedness. The book of Acts came out of yielded people.

6. Ask "Do I know what God is doing in my city?"  This is important, for this information lets us know what, where and when God is going to do something, and I can show up with faith.

7. Realize that being Spirit led has to be preceded with prayer, fasting, and conquering the desires of my own flesh.  Prayer is vital!

8. Rely on the Grace of God. Grace=power and gifts of the Spirit. This will bring favor, access and influence.

The bottom line is to remember that GOD is the giver of all gifts. HE gives them to whomever He pleases.  My vision should be bigger than my capacity!