I’ve just returned from two weeks in Europe where I ministered in the Netherlands and spent time with my family seeing some sites. Sara and I worked it out with our kid’s school for Sydney and Reese to join us. I have looked forward to the day when my entire family could travel with me on ministry trips. While kids seem to grow up quickly, I’m thankful for each phase. My family did a wonderful job ministering with me. I’m personally excited about how that will develop in the coming years.

Last year while ministering with Jim Richards at his World Changers conference I met Rob and Ellen Berendse. They invited Jim to minister in their country but he suggested they invite me instead. I don’t like to travel much but I felt like this was something I should do. I remember being in the Schipol airport in The Netherlands a few years ago a feeling a connection to the people and the region and now I know why. The people I met are hungry for a mature, Christ focused relationship with Jesus.

De Wijngaard (the Vineyard) church has recently come into understanding the finished work of Jesus and like many people, they’re asking “what now?” They’ve been hearing for a couple of years that God loves them, that God is not mad at them, that they’re blessed because they’re in Jesus, God’s not holding their sins against them, that they’re righteous by faith alone and all the tenants of the New Covenant and praise God for that. Some of them are in the same place I’ve seen many people who first understand “grace,” they’re relieved they don’t have to give, go to church, and please God through their performance but are sensing that they want to be active in their faith. They’re recognizing that God loves them but they still have some problems in life that need to change. People who come out of legalistic backgrounds sometimes get frustrated because they now believe God loves them but their lives are not reflecting he promises. Sometimes people also become inactive because they had been working so hard in their Christianity up until their new revelation. Christianity can become about all the things we don’t have to do if we overreact to a legalistic past.

Praise God people know they’re loved by Jesus no matter what and their salvation is secure but people are still struggling with sin, fighting depression, having difficulty in marriage and are not walking in their calls. I praise God people are discovering freedom from religion but that’s just the first step in grace. From there we are to engage our hearts with the living spirit of God within us to daily experience mind renewal and transformation. Once we get the information about grace we must learn to open our hearts to actually experience grace (God’s influence and ability). Once established in the knowledge on grace we can walk a path that is both personally satisfying and brings glory to God.

When grace has it’s perfect work within a new heart, a commitment to transformation is no longer a work of the flesh, it’s a continual yielding to His spirit. Christ is one with our spirit, he’s blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places but we must steward our hearts in confident faith toward him so we’re allowing Christ to dwell in our hearts and allow his spirit to establish His will and purposes in our lives. He’s given us every promise but they’re spiritual. In other words they’re in seed form and the focus of our heart will determine the degree to which we allow those spiritual seeds of promise to bear fruit in our lives.

The people of De Wijngaard received this messages with open arms. Over the course of a week two people were born again, marriages were touched, people experienced God’s love in an empowering way and some understood the purpose of the cross like never before. There are just a few of the testimonies we heard. They have invited us back next year, I look forward to being with them again.

They are asking for more resources. I plan to send them some flash drives loaded with my messages. If you would like to sow into the people of The Netherlands, use the give link below.

You can listen to or watch my messages from The Netherlands at these links:

AUDIO: http://www.wijngaardbarendrecht.nl/preken

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClV7jn5l93nJxnXQTrGm_Lg/videos

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