Author: cascmedia

Principles to Stand On During Turmoil

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The rising turmoil of contending for political authority, along with the internet, is clearly causing much confusion and anxiety to many believers.  We, as the overseers of our church body, would like to offer a reminder that “God is good, and His love endures forever,” and that “all things works for the good of those who love God, and have been called according to His purposes.”

Despite the torrent of warnings, prophecies, analysis, and opinions, we encourage you to stand on the following principles:

  1. Interpret what is happening in light of Jesus’ highest agenda – which is the preparation of His church, the purification of His bride.  This can bring a clearer understanding of God’s working in the midst of all our upheaval – and come to rest in His peace, despite any political or social outcome.
  2. Set our expectations and anticipation of what is to come on scripture, not just on the basis of anyone’s visions or revelations.  To start, we recommend Malachi 4 and Matthew 16.

In my Sunday message on 11/29, I shared a statement on the election.  That message is available at our church website here.

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MTC 2020 – Access Links

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We hope that you had a restful Thanksgiving, fitting for a Jubilee year.  We give thanks for a tremendous time of sharing, learning, and imparting during Friday’s Sessions 1 & 2.  These sessions can be viewed here on YouTube:  Sessions 1 & 2

Saturday’s Sessions 3 & 4 can be accessed here:

Zoom or
YouTube Live Stream

We will start with praise worship at 1 PM (U.S. Central Time), and flow into the topic sharing at 1:30 PM.  Please see the schedule for topic details.

If you would like to contribute to the MTC work, please contact us at this email and we will send you information.

MTC 2020 – Authority through Self-Denial

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Greetings in the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

In standing faithful to God’s call, we intend to hold the 2020 MTC gathering onsite at our Worship and Prayer Center from Friday, 11/27 – Sunday, 11/29.

The pursuit and contention for authority has never been so intensely visible.  But during this most tumultuous time when so much of our welfare seems to be at stake, it is more important than ever to take note that Jesus did not contend for authority on the level of votes from the public and support from powerful people.  He never sought out influence or support through the political and religious establishments of His day.

Jesus’ path to authority – to the right hand of the Father – was at another level.  His path went through the road of the cross, of self-denial, as demonstration for us to follow.  The pursuit of this example has been the heartbeat of the “10,000 Call” – to raise up market place believers to complete the great End-Time harvest by walking in the authority of Matthew 16 – who are not bound by the gates of hell, who hold the keys to the Kingdom, who move heaven from earth.  For this reason, we are intensely focused on “Authority through Self-Denial.”

Our schedule this year will cover 4 afternoon sessions filled with worship, intercession, and sharing in an interview/discussion format, along with our corporate Sunday worship.  Currently, we plan to touch on the following topics for the sessions:

In the coming days, we will provide more details on each session – participants, preparation questions, and scripture narrative.  We will also provide information on connecting through Zoom and YouTube Live stream.

If would like to attend the sessions onsite at WPC, please contact us immediately.

Blessings,

MTC 2019 – Journeying with Jacob’s Limp – Jesus’ Repeated Insistence

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The night of Gethsemane offers a most revealing picture of Jesus’ heart.  Jesus implored Peter, James, and John to keep watch and pray with Him.  They fell asleep.  He asked again.  They fell asleep again.  He came back to see them once more.  They were embarrassed, but then just fell asleep once more.

There are few other instances, if any, where Jesus pressed for something with such repeated insistence.  Perhaps if the disciples where able to keep watch with Jesus for even one hour, they would have felt the anguish, heard the wrestling, even see the angel come to sustain Him – and through it all, have the words from the Creator of the universe, “Your will be done,” be seared into their hearts.  Perhaps with that, the disciples would have been imparted with the strength and authority founded on self-denial.  Perhaps with that, they would have handled their disappointments and fears differently.  Perhaps with that, Peter may not have wept when the rooster crowed.

The disciples’ spirit was willing, but their flesh was weak.  This time around, we set our anticipation for MTC on the “repeated insistence” of Jesus.  We set our expectation on God to bring the impartation of self-denial – from those still wrestling in their “Gethsemane,” and maybe crippling along with a divine limp.  Our fervent prayer is that He will cover us in the grace to overcome the weaknesses of our flesh, and stand in watchful fellowship with our ministers…because our spirit is willing…

Blessings.

MTC 2019 – Journeying with Jacob’s Limp – the “Garden Model”

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The four gospels devote 149 verses to cover the 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection, where John says that Jesus performed many miracles.  Conversely, the scripture devotes 297 verses to narrate the hours between the Last Supper to Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  By dividing the number of days in each period into their respective verse count, we get 297 verses/day for the Last Supper to Gethsemane, versus 3.7 verses/day for the spectacular “post-resurrection” days.  That comes to an astounding 80 times difference in “verse density” between the two periods.
 
This seems to run against conventional thinking.
 
We like the victory and the “happy ending” of Jesus’ post-resurrection days.  We, by nature, are attracted by miraculous power and authority, and may have even wished that John wrote more about those spectacular events.  Our works of ministry reflect that, where we strive to attract participants by designing programs and inviting ministers that can fulfill our demand for the spectacular and manifestation of Kingdom authority.  Conventional thinking places first priority on delivering a “post-resurrection” sensation.
 
MTC 2019 is committed to flow against conventional thinking, and will strive to seek God’s heart on His reasons for the 80X – or 160X if we count by half day.
 
There is something powerfully precious about the few hours of wrestling for the disciples and Jesus from the Last Supper to Gethsemane.  On many levels, those were moments packed with tension, disappointment, confusion, anxiety, depression, helplessness, loss, betrayal, fear, and seeming failure – for the disciples and for the Son of Man.  But in the sum of all that, in the absence of any spectacular victory, Jesus bestowed to us in the Garden a most powerful invitation to self-denial, a demonstration of “not my will, but Yours be done.”  Perhaps this is the Kingdom gem, the treasure in the field or the precious pearl, that Jesus has called us to purchase with all that we have.
 
MTC 2019 will have many ministers who can testify to their “post-resurrection” authority, but our priority will be to first seek Jesus’ “Garden Model,” to train our focus and expectations on the 80X of Gethsemane.  In the coming week, we will try to share more on what this might look like in the program flow, the schedule, and the roles and responsibilities of the participants.
 
If you are planning to join us, please take a few minutes to register and make your hotel reservations.  That really helps out with the administration.
 
I see a joy set before us for this year’s MTC like I’ve never seen before, and it would be my honor to share those moments with you.
 
Blessings.

MTC 2019 – Journeying with Jacob’s Limp – Immersion in Transformation

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If you will be joining us at MTC 2019, we encourage you to take a few minutes to make your Marriott hotel reservations.  We highly encourage all attendees to stay at the hotel because it allows for a freedom that brings a much deeper immersion in the Holy Spirit’s agenda of transformation.

2019 has been a year of tremendous transformations for our Chicago based church and many connected to our fellowship of Kingdom servants – those that responded to the market place call throughout the past 25+ years.  Hosea paints a very apt picture of this transformational work, where God has broken and injured us, and yet healed and bounded up our wounds, taking us closer to a place of self-denial where we can gain the whole world, but not forfeit our soul.

For this reason, we want to provide an environment where our venue and programming allow us to fully immerse in the wresting, supporting, healing, and commemorating of our transformation process.  We encourage you to set apart these days, free from the burdens traffic and other obligations, to rest at the hotel and fully immerse with us.

Testimonies of the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and manifesting heavenly binding and loosening are always inspirational and exciting.  But in this season, we will dig deeper from a different vantage point, and invite you to edify us with your simple stories of standing with a limp – and not letting Him go.

Blessings.

MTC 2019 – Journeying with Jacob’s Limp

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We continue to press forward in faith carry out God’s call with our 25thMTC on November 27th – December 1st, held at the Oak Brook Marriott near Chicago, IL.

In Matthew 16:19, Jesus declares over His church an incredible assignment of authority for “gaining the whole world.” 

MTC’s call is to build the fellowship of Kingdom servants – people who move in the authority to “gain the whole world” – yet will not forfeit their soul in the process.  Over the past 25+ years, many have responded to this call of the Kingdom servant.  With that, God has led us through His preparation program, which entails the journey of the cross – a journey of seeming contradictions, distress, weakness, offense, betrayal, failure, and shame.  It is a journey that leads us to a place of wrestling with God, a place of becoming limp by His touch, a place that ultimately opens the way to the heavenly crown jewel of self-denial.

Self-denial sets the value system that allows us to gain the whole world, but not forfeit our soul.

For this reason, we devote this 25th MTC to build the body through the reflection and celebration of this journey with a limp.  We hope to be edified by your stories of wrestling with God, not letting Him go, and finally coming to the place of “not as I will, but as You will.”

Blessings.

MTC 2018 – a Schedule

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We would like to share with you MTC 2018’s General Schedule.  With that, we place our anticipation fully on the Holy Spirit, and relinquish this “pillar” of conference events – the “speaker agenda.”   It’s our honor to finally step into this new wineskin with you.

Because of MTC’s inter-generational priority, we have always striven to generously resource our children and young people focused ministries.  In that, we ask you to register today if you have children or young people attending.  That would tremendously help with the preparation of our team of dedicated ministers.

The schedule also opens Thursday afternoon for Thanksgiving fellowship and reconnect.  We encourage you to make arrangements with family and friends to catch up, reconnect, minister to each other, or just refresh at the hotel pool.

It’s our honor to step into this new wineskin with you.

Blessings.

MTC 2018 – This is Why We Come Together

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If you are planning to join us at MTC, please register and make your Marriott reservations.  Your early registration is very helpful for us in planning a most enjoyable conference experience.  Thanks.

MTC was conceived 24 years ago with the charter to raise up Kingdom-centered people, who can be entrusted with great authority in order to fulfill their part in the end time great harvest.  This year’s focus on “Honoring Spiritual Inheritance” continues to reinforce that charter.

Inheritance establishes the foundation of our authority, whether biological or spiritual.  The linage of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob illustrates a clear case example.  But this case example also shows that our attitudes toward our inheritance can make or break our qualification in its authority flow.  By right and tradition, God could have introduced Himself to Moses as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Esau.”  Because Esau despised his birthright and dishonored his inheritance by seeing it to be no more valuable than food – to satisfy the “justifiable” yearning of his flesh – Esau denied himself his rightful place of authority, and in turn, God established Himself as the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” forever.  Now that’s a heavy load.

As people called to walk in authority, we also must learn from the case of Esau.  Offenses against our parents, expectations unfulfilled by our spiritual coverings, hurts from our leaders, worldly values that disregard the older generations, and even disappointment in God can all drive us to despise our inheritance.  Our yearning, during this MTC, is to hear the Holy Spirit speak conviction into our hearts, and pour forth honor to our inheritance until our flesh hurts. 

In this homecoming to the place of our inheritance, we will come to stand firm in the authority of our spiritual linage.

This year’s MTC is not purposed for personal development for advancing our careers, gaining entrance into a star college, or tripling our net worth.  MTC will always be about value transformation, through the denying of our flesh, so that we can gain authority by losing it.  God has not given us any “secret formula short-cuts” or “7-steps” for gaining the place of authority, but something far greater…He has given us the Body that manifests the counsel and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

This is why we come together.

Blessings.

MTC 2018 – Honoring Spiritual Inheritance – Re-Centering Our Call

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We continue to press forward to faithfully carry out God’s call with our 24thMTC on November 21st – 25th, held at the Oak Brook Marriott near Chicago, IL.

This year, we intend to step into a conviction that the Holy Spirit has stirred in us since MTC’s inception in 1995.  In the past years, our conferences have generally been structured around speakers and music, with a strong focus on personal ministry.  In this season, we sense a clear leading by the Holy Spirit to change that order of priority – to move away from a speaker-centered agenda, and pursue one led by the Holy Spirit in real time. We will strive to do this through a team of sponsors (stewards of the MTC meetings) coming together to discern the Spirit’s direction, and leading the sessions into the flow of “Honoring Spiritual Inheritance”.

We see this change in the same vein as the “reset” that our good friend, Mike Bickle, is bringing to the Onething gatherings.  We also see this change as a part of the Holy Spirit’s agenda to transform the value systems of Jesus’ Bride, to prepare Her for a manifestation of Christ’s fullness that will be essential for us to stand in the coming season.   

In flowing with the theme of “Honoring Spiritual Inheritance”, we extend a special call to the family members who have enjoyed a spiritual root with Pastor and Mrs. Joseph Tai, along with those who have ministered with us at MTC over the years.  It would be an honor for us to reconnect in seeking God’s heart, and “re-center” our call together as a stronger body for the coming season.

As Pastor Mike is taking Onething on a “reset”, we, after 23 years, will bring MTC to a “re-centering” with our spiritual family from far and near.

We welcome you home.

Blessings.