Forerunner Church Podcast: Recent Episodes
Forerunner Church
Forerunner Church Podcast highlights key messages and themes related to the Body of Christ. Inviting you to connect with our spiritual family as we grow in passion for Jesus and compassion for people. For more information, visit forerunnerchurch.com. Forerunner Church is a ministry of the International House of Prayer, Kansas City.
Daniel Brown teaches about the fear of the Lord and seeking His help amid times of crisis. 1 Timothy 5:20
All true strength is derived from the Lord. Human strength/wisdom gets in the way of the Spirit. Strength is what enables one to accomplish intention and will. What should be the aspiration of every Christian? To be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29) so he may participate in God’s glorious redemptive plan.
This is a great paradox of faith: weakness makes way for strength. The kingdom of God goes forth through the weakest of these. The degree to which we desire to partner with Jesus is commensurate to human weakness and humiliation.
We are priests before God. Jesus Christ is the High priest. His priestly business was to “give His life as a ransom for many.” (Mt. 20:28) Our priestly business is present our bodies as a living sacrifice. The sacrifice of the Cross removes our guilt before the Father. Our sacrifice of thanksgiving and praise doesn’t make peace, but proceeds from peace. It works to declare and exalt the sovereignty, beauty, and awe of God.
The Lord is committed to shaking all things; He is the Author of the quake and storm. We must anticipate, be clear when it comes, and embrace and respond when it does. These shakings come from God. He has an affinity for removing our misplaced affections and confidence.
The birth of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, set something into motion regarding peace. One aspect has been secured, and there are more to come. The biblical pattern seems to follow thatpeace with God precedes peace with others and will result in Jesus establishing peace with the nations. Easily forgotten is that Jesus is actively engaged and central to each phase of peace.
The gospel uniquely positions the Christian to go through difficulty and trouble with the capacity to rejoice and hope.
We often don’t equate kingly status with shepherds. Sheep are not found in royal courts but in fields and valleys. Kings are not found sleeping in fields or weathering storms but in royal courts. Shepherd leadership reveals something significant about a relationship to power. When God looks for a leader and king, He seeks a shepherd. Some of the great characters of the Bible were shepherds. This status of servant-leadership embodies that which reflects the heart of God Himself. That which God calls “great,” or royal, is a servant's heart.
Our culture has become experts at removing the symptoms of pain while leaving the root cause untreated. What do I run to in pain? Where is my comfort? Many Christians have convinced themselves that our spirituality is strongest when our fear and pain do not show. Yet, we know that Christ Himself did not shy away from the anguish of the human experience. God became a man.
Paul makes the incredible statement that all in Christ are made spiritually alive; totally reborn and new. The only way to describe this change of condition is that the Christian has become a new creation in Christ. The old dead things have passed away, and all things related to the spirit have become new.
This service was a special two part message addressing, The Significance of Loren Cunningham, and, The Seriousness of the War in Israel.
All of us can relate to this story. We have things that take hold of our lives that God never intended for us. Maybe it's a sin/addiction that you struggle with, you’ve become apathetic in your personal life in God, not reading the word, spending time with God in prayer, or maybe something that has happened to you that just broke you. It's shattered you, making you feel helpless and small, as though you have no way out or control over your life. Spiritually and emotionally, that's where some of us might be right now. But it was right there in Gideon's lowest, darkest moment–when sin, shame, and fear had overwhelmed him–that God's light tore through that darkness, and God spoke the words that would raise Gideon out of the wine press.
Therefore, the Lord wants to convince us of the glory and power of the gospel (Rom. 1:16). The gospel message is sufficient not only to save but to usher the church into spiritual maturity and fervent love as she engages the nations in the most important and powerful gospel witness of human history. In an hour of global hostility and trouble, the gospel will prevail, displaying Christ's virtues in wisdom, humility, and forgiveness amidst cataclysmic foolishness, arrogance, and betrayal.
God intentionally made the human heart desire and delight in interesting and beautiful things. First and foremost, this desire was put in us to draw us to Him, who is the origin and source of all that is good and beautiful in all existence. Unfortunately, the narrative that’s been told of God over the last six millennia is that He is not good, not beautiful, not worthy of knowing, or not there. Because very few have, by the help of the Spirit, pressed beyond the limits of their own dullness to “behold the beauty of the Lord,” much of the earth has been left to scratch their longing for wonder with waterfalls, food and drink, relationships, sex, and, perhaps worst of all, the endless and ubiquitous buffet of “entertainment,” we now have available to us.
Ephesians gives us the most succinct overview of the gospel of Christ. The gospel is the good news. Revelation calls it the everlasting gospel (Rev. 14:6). It shapes perspective, granting an eternal vision that lifts from the ashes and anguish of the temporary. It fills the “eye” with “light.” The eye is the perspective of the believer in light of this age and the next
In Eph. 1-3, Paul explains the mystery of God’s mercy strategy and the Father’s family plan, how God, in eternity past, desired to have a people near and precious to His heart. It is glorious to ponder how One Who needs nothing, desires. The God who owns everything, yet He wants something.
Betrayal is part of the optimum environment for the Church to be transformed in order to relate as a unified international family of affection (Jn. 17:22-23). Multitudes in the end-time Church will progress toward mature love (Jn. 17:23), while many others will be overcome with offense that will lead them to betray other believers—even some of their loved ones (Mt. 24:10).
Caleb Culver is the Senior Worship and Prayer Pastor at Radiant Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and shared a powerful message during the first service focusing on the fragrance of Christ.
The manner in which God fashioned the world affords critical insights into the highest, most satisfying life a human being can possibly experience. However, while God has provided all we need, including the ability to understand how reality works, many (if not most) believers continue to live far below the “spiritual poverty line” either due to ignorance of, or unwillingness to possess, riches freely made available to us in Christ.
The mystery of God’s will is His hidden plan. The centerpiece of this plan is for Jesus to return and establish His kingdom rule over all the earth, joining these realms together. In heaven, the glory of God is openly manifested, visible, and tangible because of His immediate presence. The earth speaks of the physical/material realm is where natural processes, human emotion, and physical sensation reach full expression.
The Spirit of God will bring the Church to the fullness of maturity and love in the generation of the Lord’s return. The purpose of these truths is to awaken the human heart in passion for Christ and confidence before Him. The knowledge of the gospel regarding the change in our legal position unlocks the transformation of the living condition (mind/will/emotions) toward mature love.
In the Father’s heart, He had always planned that the redeemed would become His sons. In His cosmic plan, He determined that the human family would join Him in the Father’s House in the coming age, living with Him in His grand city and beholding His majesty and splendor.
Nothing is more powerful than a child living under the enjoyment and delight of their fathers. When fear and shame are removed, the child’s heart is filled with secure love, confidently knowing their Father enjoys them in accordance with His unique design and intended plan.
Mike Rizzo shares an encouragement from Ephesians 6 on putting on the full armor of God. What does it look like to be victorious using these six pieces of armor in our life and in our marriage?
The purpose of the truths from Ephesians 1:3–6 is to awaken the human heart in passion for Christ and confidence in God. The knowledge of the gospel regarding the change in the Christian’s legal position unlocks the transformation of the living condition (mind/will/emotions) toward holiness and mature love. We grow in confidence through the truths of the gospel by the saturation of these truths in our minds over decades. This is how our faith grows. Our aim is a burning heart of passion for Jesus and compassion toward others (first and second commandment).
The purpose of the truths of Ephesians 1:4–6 is to awaken the human heart in passion for Christ and confidence in God. The knowledge of the gospel is not only the facts which describe the spiritual regeneration of the heart or the change of the legal condition before heaven, but these further unlock the transformation of the living condition (emotional/spiritual) toward holiness, perseverance, and mature love. A life of love and worship are undergirded by profound truths. These truths serve as the anchor for the true Christian life. The Spirit wants His people confident before Him in love.
God is wanting to deal with our overfamiliarity of His love. We invite you to ask the Lord "What do You see when you look at me? What is the Father's heart towards me right now?"
Message scriptures: Revelation 2:1 and John 15:9
Are we fathering from a place of inadequacy and fear or are we fathering from a place of confidence in the power of the gospel?
Paul’s vision for the full expression of church life, friendships, marriage, families, and employees is too often read and understood apart from everything Paul has said up to these chapters. Everything that Paul calls believers to live in Ephesians 4-6 is made possible by the manner in which believers are loved in Ephesians 1-3.
Without the foundation and paradigm of grace and love that Paul establishes in Ephesians 1-3, the latter half of his letter becomes a “to-do” list that condemns. As we believe that we are “accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6), we become free at the heart level to engage in the grace of God without condemnation related to our failure or inadequacy.
The scripture tells us of a man who discovers a treasure hidden in a field and goes and joyfully sells all that he has to buy the field and enjoy the riches. In this parable, we see the connection of total surrender with the joy of a tremendous wealth. Joy is the motivation of commitment.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Mt. 13:44)
No believer has ever lived the Christian life beyond their understanding of it. Many if not all our issues and problems faced as Christian’s trace back to an ignorance or lack of understanding of the message of Christ. This was the issue in Hosea’s day: a lack of the knowledge of God (Hos. 4:6) was destroying them. In the generation of the Lord’s return, there will be a great release of revelation and understanding concerning the gospel of Jesus of Christ and His Kingdom.
In the generation of the Lord’s return, He will pour out a Spirit of prophecy on every believer. The Body of Christ will walk in an unprecedented measure of the supernatural, including signs, wonders, miracles, healing power, dreams, and visions. The Lord will multiply the activity of the Spirit across the earth as a great witness of the gospel. It will be like the wonders of the Book of Exodus and miracles of the Book of Acts multiplied and magnified across all nations. The church will walk in the greater works that Jesus prophesied.
Stuart Greaves shares an insightful message amid the 21-day Isaiah 62 Fast, where over 1 million believers have said yes to engage in prayer for Israel for at least one hour a day for 21 days (May 7-28) for the increase of God’s salvation promises and plans for Jerusalem and Israel.
Daniel 9 is one of the most extensive intercessory prayers for the full release of God’s covenant purposes for the Jewish and Holy City. The prayer shows us both the heart posture and the perspective necessary for times of judgment, crisis, and uncertainty. One of the striking elements of Daniel’s intercession consists of some surprising components. The prophet Daniel as an individual, was also a witness to how to respond in the midst of crisis. As things continue to unfold nationally and globally, various crises will increase, whether financially, politically, morally, spiritually, etc. Like Daniel, the Lord is raising up a people who have deep inner and spiritual fortitude rooted in understanding and deep intimacy with the Lord.
Isaac Bennett interviews Frann Wohlers about her journey and how she meet Yeshua. Tune in to part 2 to hear her fascinating story and key insights that are critical for our spiritual family.
Isaac Bennett interviews Frann Wholers about her journey and how she meet Yeshua. Tune in to part 1 to hear her fascinating story and key insights that are critical for our spiritual family.
Sing with gladness: songs connect the heart to ideas and themes, expanding their impact and duration. These are not songs of sentiment but sincerity. The fact they will be written speaks of a growing heart transformation among Gentile believers toward the Jewish people—the removal of enmity (Eph 2:15) through the power of the Cross. We are called to engage with gladness, not reluctance, in God’s purposes for Israel and not remain ignorant (Rom. 11:25).
In May 2023, several million believers across the globe will give themselves to 21 days of fasting and prayer for the salvation of Israel, understanding God’s purposes for Israel, and for the Holy Spirit to raise up 100,000,000 intercessors for the Jewish people. This is a collaboration with thousands of ministries who will engage in various ways. IHOPKC will fast and pray 24/7 for 21 days. The 21-day fast will culminate with 100,000,000 intercessors in the nations and in Israel throughout the land.
Many know what the resurrection of Jesus Christ is, but we must not stop there; we must ask why? Why must He be raised from the dead? And then, what does it mean? The answers to these questions can lead to the opening of understanding and a heart that loves and worships Jesus. (see Lk. 24:32)
Our faith finds its roots in a Jewish family, recorded in Jewish scripture, written by (mainly) Jewish authors, to a Jewish audience, about a Jewish Messiah who will return to a Jewish homeland at the turning of a Jewish nation, ruling from a Jewish city to restore the whole earth. Some ask, “Where is Israel in the Bible?” when they could be asking, “Where is anyone else?” The Lord has inextricably linked the destiny and hope of the Jew and Gentile – they are interdependent.
The Lord set His unique and eternal affection towards Israel. I believe it is the same love that Jesus declared in Jn. 15:9. Israel can only enter into this through the born-again experience. It is essential that a heart for Israel not be fueled by human sentiment but by us touching the Father’s affection for His Son.
From the ascension of Christ to the days of vengeance (the day of the Lord) is a timeframe referred to as the intra-advent period. Right between the prophecies of Isaiah 61 and 63 is the raising up of watchmen (Is. 62). This is a critical piece of the Father’s unfolding plan. During this period, Jesus is building the church (Mt. 16:18); the followers of Jesus are commissioned to make disciples (Mt. 28:19, 20); and endued with power by the Spirit (Acts 1:8); ultimately, as the nations are discipled, all prophetic roads lead back to Jerusalem.
In heaven, Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, being continuously adored and worshipped. The Holy Spirit has initiated a plan to establish Jesus Christ at the center of the heart of the Church.
Understanding this authority Jesus granted is through this principle of binding and loosing. This term was a cultural idiom (expression) often used in Rabbinical circles. Binding something meant that a particular action or thought would be stopped because it was an offense to God. To loose meant to lift off an unnecessary restraint because it didn’t produce the righteousness of God. We see in the ministry of Jesus, and later among the leaders of the early church, these binding and loosing principles. Context: the leadership of Israel and the leadership in the secular culture were encouraging activities that either didn’t produce the righteousness of God or permitted/celebrated things which were an offense to God.
Covetousness is likely the sin most committed yet the one least talked about from the pulpit. The issues of money, fulfillment, and how we understand God’s provision and leadership of our lives are the core issues of our life and identity in Christ. To identify and repent our way out of the restlessness of covetousness over time is critical to lay hold of the fullness of delight and joy in this life. Covetousness is the poison that kills the satisfaction and pleasure we find in communion with Christ. Unfulfillment is the restlessness that distorts the cry of “there must be more” from “more of the beauty of Jesus” to “more influence, more recognition, more honor, more security and safety, more ministry, more vocational success”.
The wisest man received and gave humanity one of the greatest gifts: the divine song of the heart between the Bride and the Bridegroom. In its natural interpretation, the Song expresses the joys of married love. In the spiritual interpretation, the Song is about the relationship of Christ and the Church, highlighting the delights and challenges of growth from immature to mature love.
By seeing what the Scripture says about the certainty of persecution and by talking to God often about how we seek to respond to it (by His grace) and the benefits that we receive from it by being empowered to be transformed and being found worthy to participate in the privilege of glorifying Jesus in it in several ways (Acts 5:41) which results in great eternal rewards. We glorify Jesus by magnifying how attractive He is by trusting His leadership while being persecuted.
The definition of perseverance is “steadfastness in doing something, despite difficulty or delay in achieving success.” Perseverance is a steady continuation in the course of action despite difficulties or discouragement from others. Giving up or taking the less difficult path is the easiest thing to do in various situations. We must fight this urge and learn to take the more profitable path. This requires focus, practice, and a plan for a way forward; staying with it the more perseverance strengthens us.
The interior life is where the affections are directed, and intimacy with Jesus rises or falls. Intimacy is knowing and being known. Therefore, intimacy with God is cultivated by growing in our understanding of who Jesus is and what He is like. There is a cry for intimacy in every heart. Many attempt to answer that cry through various means, but it is only answered by growing deeper in God. Growing in intimacy doesn’t happen automatically. Believers must participate in the necessary activities that foster the inner flame of love. This is a rare thing. God will not make us love Him, but He will help us by His Spirit as we diligently seek it (Prov. 2:4, 5). As we grow the interior life, believers soon discover its incredible value and the need to guard it with careful attentiveness.
Intimacy with Jesus or abiding in the vine involves connecting to what’s in God’s heart and expressing it in practical ways. We respond to what He prioritizes, not what others say we should do. Intimacy with God is rooted in a place of confident responsiveness. Believers are confident because of their position before God (adopted, forgiven, sons, Bride); they are responsive because of their loving commitment to obey (listen, hear, and persevere in God’s Word).
Christ’s call is to the sinner, not the righteous. A call to come to the Father and be joined to the Divine Family. Yet, if a person does not realize they are a sinner, then Christ’s call means nothing. We must be convinced of our sin for the call of grace and forgiveness to be meaningful.
Mike Bickle emphasizes John 15:18-24 in this sermon. Persecution is both a demonic attack to hinder our spiritual growth and a divine gift to enhance it. God granted and appointed that His people endure persecution (1 Thes. 3:3; Phil. 1:29) so that they may be transformed by it for their great benefit in this age and in the age to come. We do not make persecution happen to us in the will of God—it is granted as a divine opportunity that we don’t have unless God grants it to us. The apostles rejoiced in being “counted worthy” to suffer, knowing how it transformed them and how precious it is to have it in their testimony when they stand before God. .
A significant component in growing in fascination with the beauty of God comes through the storyline. His beauty is not merely seen through mystical bells, whistles, and light shows. The storyline of God is designed to awaken our hearts in love. The genealogy does just that.
Isaiah makes a fascinating statement when he says that the Child, the Son, is given unto us. The tradition of Christmas, which often includes retelling the story of Jesus’ birth, isn’t meant to be a dry custom. Consideration of His coming develops something, sets something into motion, and causes something to arise: satisfaction and anticipation.
The Voice of the Lord is central to all things. The voice of the Lord is the beginning point of creation and the end of the age. From Genesis to Revelation, His voice holds all things together, and, in the end, we return to Him because He says that we will. All commands, proclamations, and revelation of His desires come from Him speaking.
This week as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, it reminds us not only of thankfulness in difficult times but hospitality in such times. The thanksgiving holiday is as much about loving strangers as it about the subject of thanks.
Isaac Bennett teaches out of 1 Peter 2:1-10, highlighting how we, as a church family, are to be firmly established in God’s Word, secure in His love as we seek to obey Him, grow in fellowship, and minister to others in the Holy Spirit from a foundation of prayer.