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The Musicians’ Intent & The Audiences’ Permission – HOW do we lead others to THE PROMISED LAND of the Presence of God

I’m excited to share this post on the subject of Intent and Permission as it pertains to musicians, their music and their audience.

I’ve always believed personally in what I am about to share, but was excited recently to have my views confirmed by another writer, almost as if I had written it myself.

I will get more in-depth, but to begin, I share the concept simply: The intent of the musician and their music is hugely relevant to the effect that music has upon the audience. Also, and even more important to me, is AUDIENCE UNDERSTANDING of the musicians intent IS VASTLY IMPORTANT regarding said audience GIVING PERMISSION TO THE ARTIST, allowing the audience to FULLY RECEIVE from the intent of the musician.

Let me make a statement: I’ve been frustrated in the past as a musician when my intent is not received by an audience because the audience comes in with preconceived expectations, whether conscious or subconscious.

Most of these scenarios occur in the context of me leading a church congregation. I have led worship in literally hundreds of churches over the last 15 years and this has given me a unique perspective to voice what I am sharing here. The reality is that American “church culture” does not tend to lend itself extended silence, waiting and contemplation in their worship services. I’m not writing to criticize this. I’m pointing it out as a reality in the church.

So, moving forward… I am, as a musician, drawn to lead people to places in the Holy Spirit that require time, silence, contemplation, waiting in order to RECEIVE what I, from my own experience, have enjoyed. I KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE what is required to experience facets of God that cannot be experienced in 18 minutes singing straight through songs.

My journey as a musician began in tiny piano practice rooms at Christ for the Nations in Dallas, TX. I spent a year isolated in these small rooms with God. It was, what I call, my “sheep field.” I was, like David in the sheep fields, ministering to the Lord and being drawn to incredible encounters.

Ok… I’m just going to skip a lot of thoughts and get to a point here…

I have been to incredible places in the presence of God alone with Him. God has called me to re-create these type of encounters for others…

WHAT THIS REQUIRES IS TRUST… Trust from my audience TO BE LED BY ME.

MY CHALLENGE: My challenge is that I am LEADING PEOPLE TO UNFAMILIAR PLACES IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, OFTEN WITH UNFAMILIAR SOUNDS.

Here is what I am realizing as a prophetic musician who desires to take others to the places I have been with God… IT REQUIRES THEIR TRUST IN ME… IT REQUIRES THAT THEY BE WILLING TO GO TO PLACES THEY HAVE NOT BEEN LED BEFORE.  IT REQUIRES THAT MY AUDIENCE UNDERSTAND MY INTENT AS A MUSICIAN… IT REQUIRES THAT AN AUDIENCE GIVE ME THEIR PERMISSION AND GIVE THEMSELVES PERMISSION TO GO TO THESE PLACE TOGETHER…

Unfamiliarity & Fear… These are the two things that will stop YOU AND I from going to these places in God TOGETHER.

If I try to lead you to a place in God that you have not been familiar with, FEAR COMES TO THE SURFACE… You begin to question my leadership. You begin to question my intent. You begin to wonder what I am doing, why I am using that vocal effect on my mic, why I haven’t said anything for a WHOLE 60 SECONDS.

If I led worship like a NORMAL WORSHIP LEADER, we’d both be safe… I’d get the job done and you’d never feel uncomfortable…

But here is the thing… That’s boring to me and MY CHALLENGE is… I don’t understand why YOU AREN’T BORED YET. I don’t understand why you don’t want to TRUST ME to lead you to VIABLE TRULY SPIRITUAL PLACES IN GOD THE FATHER, JESUS CHRIST AND THE HOLY SPIRIT that I have experienced for years and years.

Listen church and musicians… I really hope this post get out there because I know many will identify with it…

BUT IF NOBODY CHALLENGES THE STATUS QUO… IF NOBODY TRYS TO ENLARGE THE PLACE OF THE TENTS… We are never going to grow. We are never going to mature more fully.

SO WHAT IS MY INTENT?

As a musician, my intent is to LEAD PEOPLE to the still waters spoken of in Psalm 23. My intent is to lead people to experience and Isaiah-like encounter with the throne room of God. My intent is to see people refreshed and healed in the presence of God under the sound and word of God.

MY INTENTIONS ARE TRUE. MY INTENTIONS ARE PURE.

I’m not going to LEAD YOU like your worship pastor does on Sunday because I AM NOT TRYING TO GO TO THE SAME PLACE HE/SHE IS GOING. You have to be willing to GIVE ME PERMISSION to lead you… Otherwise we will never go where God desires us to go TOGETHER.

THE PROMISED LAND…

As a musician, I have often felt like Joshua. Joshua went and SAW THE LAND, but when he tried to LEAD OTHERS to what he had seen, they rejected the notion of going there.

I can’t imagine living for 40 YEARS with a people who denied obtaining WHAT I KNOW IS THEIR INHERITANCE.

So friends, I am letting you in on what it’s like to be me. If you view me as arrogant, I am sorry. This is not arrogance.

I, like Joshua, HAVE SEEN A PLACE. I AM HERE TO TELL YOU THAT WE, AS THE CHURCH, CAN GO THERE TOGETHER. But it’s going to require you to come up OUT OF THE FAMILIAR.

GOD RAISES UP FORERUNNERS to run ahead, check things out, report back, get other excited SO THAT THE TEAM CAN ADVANCE.

I don’t have 40 years to waste.

So I am asking YOU FOR PERMISSION with all the music I’ve ever led and recorded and with all the music that is to come.

I am asking you, “Will you TRUST ME?” Will you allow yourself to believe that I, and many prophetic musicians like me that God is beginning to bring out of obscurity, have been chosen by the Lord TO LEAD PEOPLE TO PLACES THEY’VE NEVER GONE BEFORE.

It requires trust. It requires patience, time, waiting… BUT THE REWARD IS WORTH IT.

PRACTICALS

I think what I have gained recently by this confirmation regarding intent and permission is to make my INTENTION MORE FULLY KNOWN and to BEGIN LITERALLY ASKING PEOPLE for their permission to lead them… Not only does this grant me their permission, it also activates in the audience to engage where I am leading.

What I am discussing here is not going to work in every situation, I understand that. I am excited about creating more venues that give the time to go to places I am talking about.

We are going to be starting a “retreat ministry” facet where we lead people musically to contemplative places in God. We are really excited about this. Some of these retreats will be for an evening, some for a day… I will be sharing about this more soon.

Jason

Who Gets the Credit? God or Creation? Or both? Redeeming what the Church has handed over to NEW AGE…

This is the first blog I’m posting in a series of blogs that I will be writing as I progress through my certification process as a CHM (certified healthcare musician). I want to address the topic “Who Gets The Credit” regarding God as creator and His creation that we discover…

I was frustrated by a recent YouTube video that simply dismissed “healing frequencies” in music as both new age and demonic. The man on the video stated to be a musician and a Christian… So he expressed his thoughts regarding “claims” that certain frequencies have been found to bring PEACE to people who sit under the sound of these frequencies. He said that these sounds were literally demonic and the teaching regarding these findings are “doctrines of demons.”

I am saddened by close-minded ignorant viewpoints in Christendom regarding labeling scientific truths as demonic and/or new age.

I will not spend time cutting and pasting the research regarding the proven truths that music/sound/frequency can have a positive effect upon the body/soul/spirit of people.

You can read about David and Saul and find blatantly that the music effected Saul in a positive way…

All that said, here is the big question and topic I want to refer to… DO WE GIVE CREDIT TO THE CREATOR OR THE CREATION? Do we give credit to God and say that God was the one who brought Saul peace when David played the harp? Or, do we give credit to David and the music and the frequency?

MY ANSWER IS… YOU GIVE CREDIT TO BOTH!

Why are some Christians fearfully claiming that frequency teaching is demonic? And if they don’t claim this verbally, many will not promote the use of such sound to induce peace, healing or enhanced state of conscience. To do so would be risky at best.

Back to the YouTube video, the man sharing specifically stated, and I quote. “It’s not the frequency that is bringing you peace, only the Holy Spirit can bring you this peace.”

If I could sit down with this man, I would argue that it’s BOTH the frequency AND the Holy Spirit that is bringing the peace.

IN ORDER TO AGREE WITH ME, YOU HAVE TO ALSO AGREE WITH MY STANCE ON THE NEUTRALITY OF MUSIC/SOUND. You have to agree that music is a tool that can be used positively or negatively.

IF WE MIX HUMANISM WITH THE BELIEF THAT SOUND INDUCES PEACE, then you remove THE CREATOR FROM CREATION and THIS EXALTATION OF FREQUENCY removes WORSHIP OF THE CREATOR FROM WHICH IT COMES…

I get it! I believe exalting creation devoid of the CREATOR is humanistic and is new age…

The PROBLEM IS, THE CHURCH KEEPS ASSOCIATING SCIENTIFIC TRUTH WITH HUMANISM AND NEW AGE AND THEN THROWS IT OUT AS DEMONIC, AS IF DEMONS CREATED IT INSTEAD OF REDEEMING CREATION AND WORSHIPING THE ONE WHO MADE IT AS WE ENJOY THE BENEFITS OF WHAT HE CREATED FOR US TO BENEFIT FROM.

This is what FRUSTRATES MY WIFE AND I… We ARE SICK AND TIRED OF THE CHURCH BEING ROBBED OF SO MANY THINGS THAT GOD CREATED FOR THE CHURCH… YES, in the arts of music and dance as well as other areas of health and wellness…

FEAR ROBS… FEAR KEEPS THE CHURCH FROM EXPANDING…

If the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST SHOULD FEAR ANYTHING, it should fear being BLINDLY ROBBED OF THE ABUNDANT LIFE THAT GOD WANTS TO GIVE because they threw TOO MUCH OF GOD’S GOOD CREATION in a bin labeled “HUMANISM/NEW AGE.”

Christian… If you label God’s creation as New Age etc… I challenge you that WHAT YOU ARE ACTUALLY SAYING is that Jesus is unable to redeem that sound, that food that whatever it may be… You are handing “said thing” over to the ENEMY and you are basically saying, “Here created being, I allow you to have this.”

We need to mature in this as the church… We really do… We need to quit leading people to fear things that God can redeem in our culture…

Instead of fearing coming in to a meeting where I, as a musician, would tune my piano to 444Hz and sing through a conch shell with reverb on my voice as I try to RE-CREATE the sounds of the heavenly realm… YOU SHOULD BE THANKING GOD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE RECEIVED SUCH REVELATION AND ENJOY WHAT IS BEING BROUGHT FROM HEAVEN TO EARTH THROUGH ARTISTS WHO DO NOT FEAR THE STATUS QUO.

TO CLOSE, I ANSWER MY OWN QUESTION OF “WHO GETS THE CREDIT” – CREATION OR THE CREATOR… I SAY BOTH BECAUSE…

Because when I rub PEPPERMINT OIL ON MY HEAD and my headache goes away, I CAN BE THANKFUL FOR THE OIL as I also thank God for creating it and for giving knowledge to man, that the oil expressed from peppermint leaves is useful for the human body.

SO IT GOES FOR MUSIC/SOUND/FREQUENCY – I can UTILIZE the knowledge that science has discovered regarding implementing music/sound/frequency AND STILL BE A CHRISTIAN… STILL PRAISE THE ONE TRUE CREATOR GOD…

IT BOILS DOWN TO WHAT THE INDIVIDUAL WANT TO FOCUS ON AND GIVE THE CREDIT TO…

Just because somebody is running around in the woods wearing a tunic, smelling leaves, listening to the wind and PRAISING MOTHER EARTH FOR IT WILL NEVER EVER MEAN THAT A BIBLE BELIEVING LOVER OF JESUS CHRIST COULD NOT DO THE EXACT SAME THING AND PRAISE JESUS… IT’S NOT THE METHOD, IT THE MAN! IT’S THE FOCUS OF YOUR HEART!

MAN HAS BEEN REMOVING GOD FROM NEUTRAL PRACTICES AND ACTIONS FOR CENTURIES… CHRISTIAN YOUR GOAL IS TO SEPARATE THE PRACTICE FROM THE NEGATIVE FOCUS (HUMANISM/SATANISM) AND FOCUS ON THE ONE TRUE GOD JESUS CHRIST…

Stop handing the enemy SO MUCH. People are flocking to New Age because the church handed SO MUCH GOOD STUFF TO THEM AND SAID THEY COULD HAVE IT .

I CAN’T… I want what God has for me and my family… And God has called me to wake others up to these realities to re-consider your position on things that CULTURE, NOT YOUR CONSCIOUS, has told you is wrong.

I welcome questions and comments…

Jason

It’s Time For A Greater Restoration of the Prophetic Minstrel

 

Welcome to the dawn of a new blog series called The Restoration of the Prophetic Minstrel. Let me jump right in to the why and the what…

Let me ask you to do something right now… pull up Google and type in “prophetic minstrel.” Go ahead and then return to this post…

That’s right… #1

Out of 80,000 results, the #1 result is a post I made in 2010…

What does that tell you? Well, I’ll tell you what it tells me…

It tells me that, after being called as a prophetic minstrel 17 years ago, after years writing this blog, releasing music and a book… The ministry of the Prophetic Minstrel is still widely unknown much less understood… And that I personally still have a lot of work to do.

As I’ve just turned 40, I felt a shift in my life and ministry to begin narrowing down specifically what I will focus on over the next season of life and ministry.

I feel that bringing a RESTORATION of the ministry of the prophetic minstrel to the church and the world is a large part of my personal calling and assignment. I’ve spent 17 years figuring out my own personal calling regarding all of this. I’ve travelled the world releasing the song of the Father in churches, coffee shops, homeless shelters, living rooms and more. I’ve learned so many things along the way…

Now is the time to begin reproducing what I’ve learned in thousands of other artists globally. The roots have gone DEEP for 17 years… This tree is about to get huge!

One of the things that has impacted me along my journey, especially the last 5-6 years, has been the interaction I’ve had with many of YOU here on this blog and via social media.

It’s crazy when someone from Australia or the U.K. contacts me because they Googled “prophetic minstrel” and found my blog and they ask me how they can order my book… It’s crazy because the reason I think they are contacting me is because THEY HAVE NOWHERE ELSE TO LOOK, NOBODY ELSE TO CONTACT….

It blows me away to think that I MAY VERY WELL BE WHAT I CALL AN “ACCIDENTAL EXPERT.” I NEVER set out to be an expert in the niche called prophet minstrel, but after 17 years I am humbly accepting that this may very well be what God had in mind all along. He did not just call me to this so that I could sing in living rooms for the rest of my life, hiding away… I think that season is done and it’s time for this to explode onto the scene like the House of Prayer movement did in the early 2000’s.

THE PSALMISTS ARE COMING OUT OF THE FIELDS… THE MINSTRELS ARE COMING TO THE PALACE…

This word pertains to David coming from the sheep field to King Saul’s palace. David left the field as a psalmist and entered the palace as a minstrel… He developed a connection with God in that field that translated into an ability to bring others into the place he now lived, moved and had his being in… David left the field, but the field never left David… That place of devotion was not tied in to a field, it was now in David’s heart and he carried it wherever he would go for the rest of his life…

I’ve been involved in the worship and prayer movement since 1999. I go way back. I remember when IHOP Kansas City met in a double-wide trailer. I’ve been around this for a while… I am saying that to say that these psalmists are not called to the House of Prayer forever… God is calling these psalmist OUT. NOW! Now is the time for those who have been hidden in these sheep fields “TO EMERGE WITH THE REVELATION THEY’VE CULTIVATED” for years now… If we keep this to ourselves for another decade, we are not going to find ourselves in God’s will. That is a strong statement, but I believe strongly that God is calling the psalmists out of the fields and the caves to begin speaking for God through the arts in incredible ways…

YES, IT’S ALREADY BEEN HAPPENING… But this is a new level that is coming.

WHAT’S COMING FROM ME?

Consistency! Writings, video and audio – This is also the beginning of a new book that I will release called “The Restoration of the Prophetic Minstrel”

There are some books that are timeless… Others that are TIMELY… This next book is going to be a catalyst, as will this series of blogs, vlogs and podcasts be…

I’m at 750+ words, so I will go for now…

Thanks for going on this journey with me!

Jason

The “Prophetic Sound Man”

 

Why House Concerts/Alternative Venues for Heilman Ministries in 2012… and beyond…

(Written December 10, 2011)

 Last night, I went to a house concert in Dallas, TX played by a long-time friend of mine. It was incredible for a number of reasons. One, the location: I loved walking up the creaky stairs of the old building venue to apartment H. Others: I enjoyed walking in to a room full of people, sitting down on the big chair I shared with my wife, eating gluten-free cupcakes while sipping on a choice beverage as my friend released his songs and sounds over the course of the next hour and a half. I was refreshed, recreated and inspired.

One of the reasons I went was to observe; to investigate how he went about things during the entire evening. Why? Because God is speaking to me to begin doing the same thing, but in a little bit different way…

For about a decade now I’ve been traveling all over the USA, and even into some other nations, playing music at conferences, events, church meetings, etc… I’ve led for 10,000 as well as for 100. I’ve loved doing this and I will continue to do this… But there is something God is stirring in me for house concerts as well as other alternative meeting venues…

In my book, I share about a couple of times when I, my wife and our team had played in a living room, business office or similar venue. There was a dynamic in that small venue that lent itself towards a very fruitful time of refreshing, prophetic ministry. This is the kind of ministry we feel we are most called to. In fact, my latest CD “I Can’t Wear This Armor”, was recorded live in a living room with about 30 people. My favorite parts on that CD are the times when you hear the crowd of people releasing their songs… So basically, going forward, we are feeling led towards creating & ministering through venues like this on a more consistent basis.

My friend, whose house show we went to, has recently been on a 15,000 mile national house concert tour through which he’s been able to hold dozens and dozens of gatherings in only a few months time. The fact that he holds his gatherings in homes opens up a broader opportunity to release his music versus if he looked only to clubs… In a similar way, I feel led to do the same. Rather than only look to opportunities in churches, I see such vast opportunities to be able to create musical/moving/art ministry venues through alternative opportunities…

Often, I meet people (who are not necessarily in local church leadership) that love our ministry, love what we do and would desire to have us minister in their “neck of the woods.” Rather than only look for church venues to release our ministry, I believe it’s time to simply create other ways by which we can travel and do what we do through alternative venues.

Another thing I look forward to is the relational aspect of these venues. Conversely, over the course of a year, we held meetings in a local house of prayer on a monthly basis. When 20 people showed up in a room that could seat 150, it felt a little distant. Take those same 20 into a home, and you’ll have a different experience. So the Lord spoke and said, “Jason, you’re doing the right thing but you need to shift the venue.” As I sought God on what He meant, I felt impressed to no longer try to host meetings on my own at a “neutral location”, but to work with hosts who would be willing to help coordinate venues for the release of the ministry God has called us to.

That made me really excited. House concerts, and venues like it, allow me to work with a host or co-hosts that will invite and help spread the word to others. It becomes more personal. We hang out before the meeting starts, we eat & drink, I read a little excerpt from my book and then we engage into the Presence through music, dance and the arts in a unique, warm setting. That sounds really good to me! Picture yourself sitting back in your recliner, listening to a beautiful piano/strings medley while my wife dances the heart of God amidst the soft sound of a worship artist’s brush strokes on their canvas… You were made to sit back, drink a beverage, relax and release your worship sounds in an atmosphere of God’s presence like that. That’s my calling, to create that place for people and I want to do this now more than ever before.

I’m not going to quit ministering in churches or conferences. I just feel that God is emphasizing this type of venue for us and our ministry. I’m really excited about it, and I hope you are to. Right now I am booking the 2012 Potential of God’s Presence Book/Worship Tour, and I hope you’d be interested in hosting whether you are the pastor of a church of 1,000 to the owner of a living room with a couch, a few chairs and an electrical outlet.

This writing/blog was meant to be a little intro into my heart on all this, but I have more detailed info for those willing to consider hosting us. I hope to be in touch with you soon.

(For more info please email us at contact@jasonheilman.com)

Jason Heilman

 p.s. – CD Project: We plan to record many of our upcoming house concerts for the purpose of creating a compilation album filled with the best moments from these gatherings… 

WHY DON’T WE ENTER INTO THE POTENTIAL OF GOD’S PRESENCE? A DISCOURSE… Comments Welcomed – Day 30 of 47 Days

I want to start by telling you the short story of an incident that occurred just recently while I was attending a dance convention that my wife teaches at. This convention and ministry is awesome and I’m so glad that my wife has the chance to be such a part of it… I was attending the final part of the weekend where the staff and students release their final group dances and solos. They always end with a massive group dance, which is what I want to share about here…

The dance was incredible, great choreography etc… But that’s not what struck me in the moment when I was viewing this dance. In the midst of the dance, I was seeing how “into it” the dancers were, how they were even worshipping God off-stage when they weren’t even on stage doing their “parts.” I myself was drawn to worship… my soul was drawn to the awareness of the presence of God that was manifesting upon those dancers movements of praise. It got to where I wanted to rip the suit-coat and tie off that I was wearing and jump up on the stage with them, ESPECIALLY THE END, after the music had stopped, when they were all just jumping and shouting around the stage. I even recall one of the dancers coming to the front of the stage and encouraged the crowd to enter into worship as well… But it never happened, and the lights came up and it was over…

You could talk to those dancers on stage and ask them what they felt in that moment… You could also ask someone in the audience what they felt and get a totally different answer…

What I want to do now is make a statement about God: He is ALWAYS AVAILABLE & IN OUR MIDST, IN HIS FULLNESS…

Now, I made a statement on my FB wall the other day which read, “The manifest presence of God is simply the omnipresence of God that people have chosen to embrace.”

What do I mean by that? It’s another way of saying that God is always with us and that His omnipresence becomes manifest once WE decide to embrace it, dance in it, sing in it… THE MANIFESTATION OF GOD’S PRESENCE IN YOUR LIFE WILL OCCUR WHEN YOU DECIDE THAT YOU WANT IT TO… It’s not based on WHEN OR IF God decides to OUTPOUR. Why? Because HE ALREADY DECIDED…

How is it possible friends for a large number of people to be in the same room, yet only some enter into God’s powerful, glorious, manifest presence while others do not…???

It’s time to quit putting the focus back on God, AS IF IT’S UP TO HIM HOW MUCH OF HIM WE GET. It’s UP TO YOU. YOU CAN HAVE AS MUCH OF HIM AS YOU ARE WILLING TO OPEN UP TO.

God is saying in this hour to His people all across the earth… “I am pouring out the fullness of my Kingdom. I am pouring out even now, so come and engage in what IS EVEN NOW BEING POURED FORTH…”

SIMPLY: What happened in this convention room with these dancers is that these dancers DECIDED TO seek and find God and they found HIM because they opened themselves up through worship to become aware of His presence… People that stayed seated and watched and consumed and postured to be entertained received EXACTLY what they had purposed to receive.

I’m not angry here friends, but I am tired of the mentality in the church today that talks about MOVES OF GOD, as if God MOVES MORE AT SOME THINGS THAN OTHERS FOR CERTAIN DENOMINATIONS MORE THAN OTHERS IN CERTAIN GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS MORE THAN OTHERS.

It’s time to put the focus back on US as human beings, to admit that WE HAVE FEARS, WE HAVE ANXIETIES, WE HAVE INTIMIDATION ISSUES, WE HAVE FATHER COMPLEXES…

God wants to get rid of all of these for us in His ACCEPTING PRESENCE… THE FEAR of man, intimidation issues, etc. will be washed away in the acceptance of the Father…

When a generation realizes that God is ALREADY HERE, they won’t have to TRY TO GET HIM TO COME, they will start from the realization that HE NOW IS and REJOICE IN WHAT NOW IS… NO STRIVING, NO WONDERING, NO “CUTTING THEMSELVES UNTO BAAL…”

Why wasn’t that room FILLED WITH ABANDONED, JOYOUS DANCERS WORSHIPPING THEIR FATHER??? I don’t have all the answers to that question, and there are many of them…

But one major answer to this is that people SIMPLY NEED TO LEARN how to engage into the presence of God that even now IS IN OUR MIDST. This group of dancers led in worship, led in showing others potentially where they could go through the art of dance as a form of expression to worship the Lord. It doesn’t mean that anyone had to “take their dance (word)” for it… They made believers out of me!

So why didn’t I join in? Well, I was in a suit, bad shoes for dancing, didn’t want to get on stage because I wasn’t sure it was allowed, didn’t want to be the only one, figured if I did, it would end in a few minutes anyways so why start… the list could go on, and those were MY reasons… What were the other reasons out there… I’m talking about myself here so that those of you who may consider that I am judging others will realize that I’m willing to put myself in the scenario here…

TRUTH: That dance and that moment had the potential to lead into an extended time of spontaneous, moving worship and praise that could have lasted for who knows how long… Reality: God would have loved every second of it…

So I am still left pondering this: Why don’t we enter into the Potential of God’s Presence more often and with more consistency and with more abandoned… I think every one reading this post has their own list of answers…

My desire is that we will begin to answer these questions honestly so that we can move into new levels of expression, new levels of understanding, new levels of JOY in just being IN ACCEPTANCE with the FATHER…

And I leave you with an exhortation and a request for prayer… I encourage you to get my new book, pray it gets out there and to pass it on to others… One of the reasons I wrote The Potential of God’s Presence was because of the countless times I’ve experienced what I just described to you… A room full of people who need to learn WHAT IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM, without the need for the latest, greatest, flashiest worship cheerleading entertainer…

Let’s hear your thoughts friends… Peaceable comments encouraged…

I’ve just released a new pre-order campaign on a fund-raising site called Kickstarter with the goal of 100 backers before December 17. From November 1 onward I will be sharing one quote a day from the book to bring potential “pre-orderers” some more context to what this book is all about… Know that these quotes are not necessarily made to stand alone, but they represent the greater part of what the book is all about… I hope that these quotes will inspire and persuade you to take the plunge on getting your copy of The Potential of God’s Presence… Thanks

Pre-Order Your Copy of The Potential of God’s Presence today…

JOPLIN Tornado Relief Tour Update – Angelic Stories, Video and more…

The Invitation & The Sending

This trip and the entire process of how God called me to go to Joplin was very significant for me personally. I heard the same Holy Spirit that the Apostle Paul heard to go into another region and to encourage the Church. When I heard the Lord, He did not say to go to encourage a specific church. I heard the Lord speak to me, “I want you to take a team and go encourage the Church of Joplin.” This is how God looks at His Church.

This trip represents one of the truest examples of the apostolic (sent forth) and prophetic (encouraging) ministry that I, and I believe many other musicians (minstrels), are called to in this hour. I want to tell you that I was not invited to Joplin by any man, I was sent by God. Oh yes, God used relationship that I had with friend Daryl Billings, a man who has been standing in prayer for the Joplin region for over a decade. That is who God had us connect with, but I draw attention to the “God sending” here for a reason. I was invited by God, welcomed by man. I believe that I and others that are called in an apostolic ministry manner are going to more often go forth from this type of God sending in which they don’t wait for invitations from men, but they go forth from the sending of the Lord, they are welcomed by man, and they have need of nothing because they are supported and sent by their community.

Trip Summary

First of all, thanks to Dan, Tom and Welser for going with this crazy, traveling minstrel on this journey to Joplin. We arrived to some great hospitality… an entire dorm with a complete kitchen, stocked fridge and everything we needed for the weekend… Thanks to Daryl B and all those involved in hosting us.

When I entered the damage path area of the city, I was really overwhelmed by the extent of the damage, even a month and a half after the incident. There really is no way to capture through words, photos or video what it feels like to stand in the middle of 360 degrees of destruction. It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Although it’s a tough thing to see, I almost feel it’s a good thing for anyone to travel to a place that is experiencing or living through a trying experience. It helps you to appreciate what God has done and is doing in your own life. It brings perspective back to you to realize the blessings you live with everyday that you take for granted.

Friday night we packed out a tent that was set up in a park adjacent to the hospital that was completely destroyed by the tornado. We led worship and then testimonies were shared, some that I will share with you shortly… AMAZING stories. We then spent the last hour interceding & prophesying through music and declaration over the people and the city. It was incredible actually. Here we were worshipping outdoors through a blaring sound system, the sound going forth to all those who drove by, to all those in the city. We were releasing a kingdom sound in the very place where the sound of devastation had been just weeks before. We released a sound of peace, of hope and of healing. It was an incredible feeling, experience and honor for me.

The next morning Tom and Welser led a worship and prayer set at the JOPHOP for an hour and we were joined by a team from IHOP-KC. After a break, we had the opportunity to split into two teams and go canvassing in some neighborhoods. Dan and I had the chance to talk to and pray with a young man who was still living in a home that had been badly damaged in the storm. His home still stood, yet all around him were homes totally destroyed. I can still remember the cool wind of his AC pouring out of his front doorless doorway as we encouraged him and prayed with him. He had a smile on his face as we left. I was amazed at this young man’s ability to have any sense of joy in the midst of the situation he was in. I made me so thankful for my little townhouse back in TX.

Dan and I had the opportunity to drive a Baptist pastor around to all of these homes. This Pastor had been in the community for over a decade and I was so blessed by all he was doing for the people. The Baptist church was actually contacting each and every homeowner that had left their homes without giving the city a right of entry, thus potentially saving each of these former homeowners upwards of $4000 each. I was so blessed by what they were doing in the community. Dan and I were able to pray and prophesy over this Baptist pastor in our car before dropping him off at his church. It’s amazing how the denominational walls fall away in the midst of a situation like what is taking place in Joplin.

After a break for dinner, we held our second night of ministry in the tent. It was equally powerful and the tent was packed out again. We had a man from Houston actually share a little that night and he brought a cross that he had made from the very rubble of the tornado. He himself had been in Joplin for over a month just praying and ministering to whomever he came into contact with. Let me tell you that I really experienced another  realm of community kingdom culture here in Joplin. It was as if “church as usual” was off… Anyone could share on the mic at these meetings. There was such a sense of family, of spontaneity. The spirit of professionalism was so far away. I looked down at my dusty, sandaled feet and thought of how Jesus and the disciples had stood and ministered the same way on dusty, dirty hills to the people… Man, it was just awesome.

I want you to know that the people in Joplin, especially some key leaders in the house of prayer movement in the city were VERY blessed by us being there. I want to thank all of you that prayed and that supported us to go to bring hope, joy and love from Dallas to the Church of Joplin. Another south Missouri tour is in the works for September 2011 and we hope to stop by Joplin again very soon.

Testimonies & Stories

Some of the stories I heard were too incredibly detailed for me to write it all here, so I will list them in short summary. These are stories I heard directly from people who spoke to me on Friday night after the meeting. (I have not confirmed these stories in any way, I share them as I heard them from others)

One story I heard had to do with a 4-year-old boy who was found in a field behind what was formerly the Home Depot. When they asked him where he lived, he was too young to tell them his address, all he knew was his name and his parents names. This boys parents were in touch with the police in order to find the boy. Once they were reunited, they realized that the boy had been found FIVE MILES from his home. When they asked the boy how he got to the field, he told them, “The angels carried me through the tornado.” Are you getting the same chills that I did when I heard this?

Another story is one that I actually found & confirmed online. A girl was with her grandma in a car when the tornado was picking them up off of the ground. The grandma told her to start praying and she did. The girl said she could see her guardian angel during the incident. A metal bar actually came through the roof of their care and pierced this little girl into her shoulder and through her abdomen, totally MISSING EVERY VITAL ORGAN. The doctors simply removed the rod from her body and she survived and fully recovered…

I talked directly to a woman who was actually in the Wal-Mart that was completely destroyed by the storm. She showed me a picture of the Wal-Mart right after she got up from the floor… there were no roof or wall that remained. She told me that when she got up and looked around, she saw more that one “large black men” walking around the Wal-Mart dressed in white picking up large chunks of rubble off of the people in the store. When she looked for these “men” later, they were nowhere to be found.

One story had to do with a man who was praying in his basement and felt the Lord tell him over and over to “go outside.” At first he was like, “Are you crazy, why should I go outside during a tornado?” But after being prompted continually, he obeyed to find a group of ten people outside of his home, people who had no basements, people whom also later said that they also felt “something” telling them to go outside. This man called them all into his home and into his basement. All of these people survived, only to later find that the basement-less homes that they had vacated had all been completely destroyed. The still, small voice…

One older woman was in her third story apartment. After the tornado hit, she tried to go down the solitary stairway out of her place only to find that the stairs were gone. From nowhere a giant man came up to her, picked her up and set her down on the stairs. He then thoughtfully grabbed her walker and handed it to her. She never saw this “man” again.

One man, we will call him Andrew, was in his basement with his family. After the tornado ravaged their home, he went to the bottom of his basement stairs to look up at the top to see a black man dressed in a bright white t-shirt. The man asked, “Andrew are you and your family okay?” Andrew first wondered how this man, whom he’d never seen before, knew his name. Secondly, he wondered how his shirt looked so clean. After Andrew answered yes, the man walked away from the stairs. Later, when Andrew went up the stairs, he realized that his home had completely caved in with no clear way of coming in or out. They had to dig their way out, afterwards realizing that no man could have gotten into their home to the top of their stairs and kept their clothing completely clean!

Once again, these are all stories that christian men and women told me after the Friday meeting. I just stood there in awe at their stories and testimonies. I left Joplin with a renewed sense of the reality of the supernatural realm. The craziest part is that I know that these are just a few of the many, many supernatural stories surrounding the Joplin Tornado.

 Personal Reflection

For me personally, standing on a dusty hill playing music in a tent overlooking a city is probably the most precise representation of the calling on my life and the function of my ministry as a “prophet with song.” We were literally a light on a hill, a light to the city. As we worshipped with the distant hum of the gas-powered generator, I really don’t think I could have felt more “in the pocket” of what I feel I was made to be and do.

It’s easy to write a book about living out the life of a prophetic minstrel, to talk about taking teams of people to places to bring hope and joy through the music and the prophetic word. It’s another to really do the 12 hour round trip drive, to get your feet filthy on the dusty hill and to really sing ‘til you can’t anymore over the sound of a generator and grimy guitar amps. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Not just for the experience, but because lives were touched and will continue to be touched. His Kingdom Came, His Will Was Done. It wasn’t awesome because it was “a great conference” in a “hip building.” In fact, these meetings offered nothing to the senses. You had to walk in the dark to sit in a tent in 90 degree weather with dust flying around in the middle of utter devastation. And all the while, I could not help but think, “This is what having church is all about!”

TO WATCH THE MINI-DOCUMENTARY JOPLIN CLICK THE LINK BELOW

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=2249816290624&comments

 

New Podcast: Are you HD ready?

I just released episode 4 of the potential of God’s presence podcast. The sub-chapter I read is called “Are you HD ready?” It’s an analogy I got concerning how we can sometimes standardize our worship experience in God while God may be sending more than we are positioned to receive… Check out the podcast below, I think you’ll really enjoy this 6 minute reading… Jason

Click here to listen to episode 4

Click here to download episode 4 @ iTunes

Why We Should Support Christian Arts & Creativity… & Not JUST Mine

As you may know, I am in the midst of raising funds to publish my upcoming book The Potential of God’s Presence. I felt like sharing concerning why WE should support Christian Arts & Creative Projects. Honestly, I have more creativity within me than the finances to release it. I hope that some day this won’t be the case. But in every major creative project I’ve ever done, someone or “someones” were moved in their heart(s) to financially contribute to make things happen. My three previous CD projects and the one on the way were all funded by people in the Body of Christ who believed in the Art & Creativity that God had chosen to release through me and my team members.

I think it’s important that when financially giving, you believe in THE PERSON that is actually creating the project. But I also think it’s important that we really look at the project itself to see the potential of the art form and to look into the future to see what kind of impact it will make upon the culture, society and even future generations.

To fund this project, I’m using a “secular” fund-raising website called Kickstarter. I’ve looked around on the site to see if there were any other projects similar to mine and I ended up finding one that was the exact opposite. Please hear my heart here, but it’s sometimes frustrating to me what ends up getting funded in “the world” while Kingdom Creatives are sitting on projects that have the potential to lead 1,000’s into a greater understanding of Jesus & His Kingdom. Let me give you an example of one of the projects I found, a book entitled “You Are The Messiah.”

The book is called “You Are the Messiah!” and it’s a parody of sorts, written in a similar tone/format of the best-selling “Choose Your Own Adventure” pre-teen game book series. My book is strictly intended for fearlessly immature adult readers, though, because in it you get to take control of Jesus Christ back in biblical times…with all of the hilarious and irreverent possibilities that this might imply to your brain.

Yes, you are donning the sandals of the almighty Jesus in this book, and as Jesus, you will get to do whatever weird, twisted things your heart desires. Let the deliciousness of that concept sink in for a second.

The author of this book raised $1,500 for the publishing of his project. Decide for yourself, but my opinion is that this book is not going to bring anyone closer to Jesus. Could you join me in my thoughts here: It’s hard for me to believe that I would be unable to raise $1,000 for a book that I’ve poured two years of my life into assimilating for the glory of the Kingdom of God. If “You Are The Messiah” could do it, surely I and those that have known me and my ministry for years can, right???

One project is trying to raise $15,000 create a piece of art under the ocean and he’s half way there! Another project raised $4,000 to send a hand-written letter to everyone in the world. These are just a few example of projects that people pour finances into, projects that really don’t have eternal significance. Please understand that I love all art and I don’t think it’s wrong to raise funds for project like these (um, with the exception of the I AM JESUS book… if you don’t agree then we can agree to disagree)

So, when you get an email from me or a Facebook message asking you to partner with me, many of you might just say to yourself, “Jason is just asking for my money again.” I hope not. I hope you are looking WAY PAST ME. I hope you are looking at what I am looking at. I’m looking at a world and Church that needs to know about what God’s given me to write. It’s not about me or a book, it’s about the Kingdom message, and if you don’t believe in ME, at least believe in THAT and forgo a few Starbuck’s drinks and throw down a Jefferson ($20 bill) for the cause.

I honestly don’t know if this post is offensive to people or not. I don’t want it to be. I am just sharing my heart with you.

So, if you are moved to give please visit one of the following links, watch my 4 minute video, and support Kingdom Creativity today.

This post is not meant to invoke guilt, but rather thought and action towards seeing Kingdom Art & Creativity funded and released… and not JUST MINE…

AMEN…

donate at:

http://www.jasonheilman.com

http://www.thepotentialofgodspresence.com

http://kck.st/gX4mpQ

Preview The Book Introduction & Chapter One By Clicking Here

Christmas CD Special — Buy One Get One Free

order today at www.jasonheilman.com