Desperation Leadership Academy

I am here in Berlin, Germany with the second year Core leaders as we go to past places of revival and contend for God to do the same thing in our day and in our time. We went to Wittenberg, Germany where Martin Luther lived, studied, and posted his 95 theses on the door of the church changing church and our availability to the Scriptures forever. Luther had a passion for God and the thing that caused the turmoil within himself that would not allow him to be silent was the love of TRUTH. The Lord spoke to my heart during my time in Wittenberg and showed me that other priests before Luther had been given the revelation that we are saved by grace, a free gift of God- not by purchasing indulgences (which is what was being taught by the church at that time). The Lord showed me that the reason they didn’t change history forever is because although they had knowledge of the truth, they were unwilling to fight for it. They were unwilling to suffer for TRUTH. You see, Luther faced extreme persecution, trials, and unrest because he went against not just the world and it’s systems but against the church and its perverted systems of that time. Am I encouraging people to rebel against the church? Absolutely not. I am simply saying that we MUST be a people that love the truth and that will even die in order that others know the truth. The truth is what sets people free, not religion.

We went to Herrnhut, Germany and saw Ludwig Von Zinzendorf’s church, house, and his grave. We have learned a lot about the Moravian movement and how Zinzendorf created a community of people committed to living whole-heartedly after God all of their days. We heard stories of worship leaders having weekly meetings with their band and asking each person hard questions like, has money had a hold on you this last week, how have you dealt with the opposite sex, what sin have you committed, and so on. Herrnhut was the first place to continually send forth missionaries ever, thus launching the modern mission’s movement as we know it today. We heard the great sacrifice it took to go on missions in those days. People would leave their parents and settle in a place and they would live in a community of friends and family and build close bonds all their lives. So the simple fact of saying goodbye to people was extremely foreign to most people in that day. Let alone, the fact that traveling long distances was very dangerous and very difficult in those times. Many times people would die on their way to the country they were to evangelize to. Other times they would die of some unknown disease within a few weeks of arriving, never getting a chance to witness to any of the people there. Did this change the mandate the Moravians had from God to send people to places where others had never heard the Gospel? No way. They were determined to live holy, to pray always, and to give up their lives for Jesus Christ.

What God has shown me on this trip thus far is this:
He desires to do what He has done in the past, but even greater things than these. He showed me that yes Luther, the Moravians, and others were instruments He used to bring about great and much needed change but they were mere men that lived to please God. Jesus is raising up reformers today, just like Luther, just like Zinzendorf. The goal isn’t to try and “reform” something, especially if God is not leading you this way. The goal is to live passionately for God, pray always, love people, stand up for the truth, and be willing to give up all you own, all you know, all you can gain in this world, and even your own life for the gospel of Christ. There is a reforming spirit that moves amongst the people of God and yes, the young people as well. In fact, Zinzendorf as a teenager made a commitment with a friend to bring the gospel to the ends of the earth. The success of true reformers isn’t that they succeed in “going against the flow.” Their success is that they lived their whole life in bold pursuit of the King of kings and the Lord of lords, obeying God and His Word in everything.

What makes these things so impacting for me is that in the Furnace and DLA in Colorado Springs, God IS doing what once was done. It’s exciting for me to know that the Moravians didn’t even have a central meeting place for all their prayer meetings. People would commit to one hour a week to pray. For example, every Wednesday at 3pm someone would commit to that hour, for the rest of their lives. That person wouldn’t necessarily come to the church but they would sit down by the bushes of the field they were working in and pray for that hour and they were held accountable to pray when they said they would. There was a community of people that lived this way and thus ended up praying 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for over 100 years. The encouraging thing is that that same thing is happening today. It’s going on all over the world but we are living in a fellowship of burning hearts right here in Colorado Springs. We have prayer meetings every day. We have accountability to live holy, where we ask each other the hard questions. We send out people to love people and proclaim the kingdom. And our goal is this: to live passionately for God, ALL of our lives.

Do you live in a godly community that spurs you to holiness and prayer? This is our entire mandate from heaven, to be a PEOPLE unto God. Here at the Furnace and DLA we are doing just that. Come join us as a fellowship of burning hearts and live your whole life for God as a reformer that lives boldly for the truth.

Tyrel Koenes
Director of DLA
WWW.DESPERATIONLEADERSHIP.COM