From the Desk of James W. Goll

Blessings to each of you in Christ Jesus! This past week, I had the honor of ministering at the 14th Annual Women on the Frontlines Extreme Conference in Phoenix, AZ with Patricia King, Gwen Shaw, Heidi Baker, Beth Alves, Sharon Stone, Stacey Campbell and so many others. I gave a strategic word “Let the Women Speak!” It was a profound time! It is such an honor that the burden of the Lord that was laid upon Michal Ann and I continues to this day. I have included a few photos of this year’s extravaganza for your viewing.

To follow this up in A View from My Chair this week I am bringing you notes on Women in Leadership. I am also highlighting the video on Empowered Women I did in honor of Michal Ann. We are running a special on this powerful book, Empowered Women, for only $10 – normally $17!

We are so excited about hosting our Compassion Acts Conference “Light Belongs In The Darkness”in San Antonio, Texas from May 19-21, 2011. It will even include a special time of Disaster Preparedness on Thursday afternoon with Doug Stringer and team from Somebody Cares in Houston, Texas. These are not just conferences, they are times when your heart is impacted, live are changed, and destiny is released! Join us this May!

News Flash! I have been nominated as the Author of the Year with Destiny Image Publishers. Your vote during the month of March would be greatly appreciated. Encounters Network would win an award of $5,000! Now that would be a big blessing! You can see the promotional ad below or follow this link to cast your vote!

Want to go on a Prayer and Glory Tour of Israel? Then I invite you to join Matt Sorger and me this September 3-11, 2011! We will visit key sites, pray with revelation, meet with leaders in the land, and much more! Please click here to see our website for details!

In Prayer Storm this week we will join the efforts of others by “Praying for a Breakthrough in Burma”. Always remember, you have flexibility to adapt your themes to fit your situation. Yes, together in Jesus, we make a great team!

Calling forth intervention!
James W. Goll

If the ministry of James W. Goll and the combined ministries of Encounters Network • Prayer Storm • Compassion Acts have blessed you, please consider giving a financial contribution so that we may continue to serve you and others. Checks can be made out to Encounters Network and sent to our office address, P.O. Box 1653, Franklin, TN 37065, or contributions may be made online by clicking here or call 1-877-200-1604. Gifts are tax-deductible as allowed by law and a receipt for your donation will be mailed to you.

Thanks, for your consideration.

A View From My Chair

Women in the Leadership
With James W. Goll

INTRODUCTORY GUIDELINES

1. The Concern for Biblical Order
   
   Primary Verse - 1 Corinthians 11:5
   And any woman who publicly prays or prophesies (teaches, refutes, reproves, admonishes, or comforts) when she is bareheaded dishonors her head (Amp).
   
   
   1. The first priority for men and women both is a proper relationship to God.
   2. The second priority for men and women both is a proper relationship to those in authority including those in the church.
      
      
2. Scriptural Liberty for Men and Women - Primary Verses
   
   Acts 2:17,18
   I will pour out of My Spirit upon all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. On my maidservants in those days I will pour out of My Spirit. And they shall prophecy (telling forth the divine counsels and predicting future events pertaining especially to God’s kingdom.)
   
   I Corinthians 14:39.40
   So, my brethren, earnestly desire and set your hearts on prophesying (on being inspired to preach and teach and to interpret God’s will and propose.)
   
   
   1. The goal is not to make the exception the rule, but to produce liberty and equality where there is no restriction enforced.
   2. A thought to ponder: What General of an army would only use one-half of his forces?
   3. Statistics reveal that 60% of all church members are women. Not only that, but 80% of all intercessors today are women!
   4. A dilemma exists! What are women to do who earnestly desire to be “prophetic”, but no place seems to be made for them? We need secure men and leaders who will graciously extend a biblical invitation into full participation in ministry and leadership alongside them to walk in and release this wonderful supernatural anointing. An invitation needs to be extended!

MINISTERING WOMEN

1. Women Referred in Scriptures as Prophetesses
   
   
   1. Exodus 15:20 - Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron (one of the three main leaders with Moses and Aaron).
   2. Judges 4:4 - Deborah, a prophetess and a judge.
   3. II Kings 22:14-20 - Huldah the prophetess and keeper of the wardrobe.
   4. Isaiah 8:3 - Isaiah’s wife, the prophetess, whose name is not revealed.
   5. Luke 2:36-38 - Anna the praying prophetess, present with Simeon the Seer at the dedication of Jesus by His parents Joseph and Mary on His eight day of life. (A man, a women, a seer, a prophetess: equal distribution with unique expressions of the same prophetic presence.) As it was at the first coming so it will be at the second coming of Jesus as well.
   6. Luke 1:39-55 - Elizabeth and Mary. The interchange between these God-fearing women resulted in exuberant praises and prophesying concerning the destiny of Mary’s child within.
   7. Acts 21:8,9 - Phillip the evangelist had four daughters that prophesied (some translations say “who were prophetesses.”)
      
      
2. Other Examples of Biblical Women’s Roles
   1. Esther - Godly queen who through her intercession saved the Jewish race.
   2. Abigail - I Samuel 25 - An advocate who pleaded a case for mercy to David on behalf of her husband.
   3. Jael - Judges 4 - She drove a tent peg into Sisera’s head and delivered him into the hands of Barak. (Deborah prophesied that the Lord would give Sisera to Barak. God did it through the hands of a woman.)
   4. Proverbs 31 Woman - She was involved in household and business issues, bought and sold real estate, ministered to the poor, etc.
   5. Woman at the Well - John 4 - Considered by many to be the first evangelist in the Bible as she went forth proclaiming the good news of the Christ (John 4:29).
   6. Phoebe - Romans 16:11 - A deaconess who washed the feet of the saints.
   7. Priscilla and Aquilla - Acts 13:26 - They were probably a husband and wife teaching team explaining the word of God with accuracy.
   8. Lydia - Acts 16:15-15 - She is noted as the first convert in all of Europe.
   9. Mary Magdalene - Matthew 28:1-10 - Women were the first at the tomb, first to hear that “He is risen”, and the first to announce His resurrection.

STEPPING FORTH - MOVING FORWARD

1. A. Developing Security
   1. Put down your crutches!
      God is removing the false props and crutches that we have used. He wants to relate to each of us first as a son or a daughter - not through another and not primarily centered around giftedness.
   2. We have a Father!
      Let Him love on you and you back to Him. Let your personal communion with God be your priority!
      
      
2. Breaking Intimidation
   
   
   1. Hebrews 12:1,2
      Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses (who have borne testimony of the Truth), let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance - unnecessary weight - and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us. Looking away (from all that will distract) to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith (giving the first incentive for our belief) and is also its Finisher, (bringing it to maturity and perfection). He, for the joy (of obtaining the prize) that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
   2. Romans 8:15
      For (the Spirit which) you have now received (is) not a spirit of slavery to put you once more in bondage to fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption - the Spirit producing sonship - in (the bliss of) which we cry, "Abba", that is, "Father"!
   3. I John 4:18
      There is no fear in love - dread does not exist; but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror! For fear brings with it the thought of punishment, and (so) he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love - is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection.
   4. You must break off the spirit of slavery and its chains of fear of man! We must have no mercy on the enemy - for He has had no mercy on us.
      
      
3. Concluding Admonition: Cultivate Your Unique Expression
   
   We must quit comparing ourselves to one another and quit using someone else’s measuring stick on ourselves. Our eyes must be focused on Jesus and our goal is to do and be whatever brings Him pleasure. We are each planted in a garden in the midst of a great variety of flowers. Each has its own color, fragrance, and season of blooming. Our individual life, when lived to the fullest, releases our own unique aroma to the Lord. This collective blend of individual fragrances woos and draws the Spirit’s presence to walk among us.
   
   Whether we are a man or women is really not the main issue. Are you being the unique vessel that God has created you to be? Step out of your self-made limitations and be the prophetic person God is longing for you to be!
   
   There are professing Christians who think it their duty to make every other Christian like themselves. This is man’s plan, not the plan of God. In the church of God there is room for characters as varied as are the flowers in a garden. In His spiritual garden there are many varieties of flowers.

Let His unique fragrance come forth from you!

(These are some of the notes James used to speak from this past week on Let the Women Speak that were adapted from the Prophetic Maturation Study Guide which he and Michal Ann prepared many years ago. The truths are timeless and the message is even more relevant today as in the past!)

With Gratitude!

James W. Goll

Light Belongs in Darkness – May 19 – 21, 2011 in San Antonio, TX

Prayer Storm

Praying for a Breakthrough in Burma
With Marcus Young and Others

Intoduction by Marcus Young
Why am I writing to you about Burma? My great-grandfather, W.M. Young, went to Burma in 1887 as a missionary, and now I am the 4th generation in his family line to live and work on that soil. My great-grandfather was a man of tremendous faith and prayer who saw two movements of God’s kingdom sweep across the people of the Shan State of Burma. You can read some of this story in Don Richardson’s missionary classic, Eternity In Their Hearts.

An Overview on Burma
Burma is a very beautiful, natural resource-rich country, but it has been plagued by some of the world’s longest-standing ethnic and civil conflicts since its 1948 independence from Britain. The situation worsened when in 1962 a military coup took place and established the current regime. Nearly 50 years later, Burma ranks as one of the 20 poorest countries in the world per capita (the other countries are all in Africa with the exception of Afghanistan).

Global Day of Pray for Burma: March 13th
My friend, David Eubank was inspired to launch the Global Day of Prayer for Burma after a God-orchestrated meeting with Aung San Suu Kyi, and for the past 13 years people all over the globe have gathered to cry mercy over this land. This year, the Day of Prayer lands on March 13. I hope you will pray as you read this and then mark the date on your calendar to pray yet again.

Pray for the Peacemakers
Aung San Suu Kyi is a freedom fighter. She has spent 15 of the past 21 years under house arrest. Suu Kyi was legally elected prime minister by a landslide victory in 1990, but the Burmese military (SPDC) have retained control. After the staged, military-led November 2010 elections, Suu Kyi was released but thousands of political prisoners are still in jail, ethnic minorities are attacked and, the people of Burma remain under oppression.

Another Axis of Evil? (Call to Prayer)
Reports have emerged of uranium discoveries in the lower Kachin region of Burma. In recent years, North Korea has become a supplier of arms and weaponry to Burma, but now Burma is taking concrete steps to establish a nuclear weapons program with the collaboration of North Korea. Our world hangs by many resilient yet slender threads of grace. In order for situations like these not to become massive tragedies, God’s people must pray.

Ethnic Suffering
Since the November elections, Burma’s military has felt even more urgency to take control of “rogue” tribal armies. Tribal ethnic groups comprise up to 40% of Burma’s population. Groups like the Karen have been fighting for freedom for 60 plus years and huge swaths of the Karen population are believers. I recently visited a Karen refugee camp in Thailand just across the border from Burma where 60,000 people were jammed tightly into the confines of tiny bamboo and thatch houses.

The Next Generation
IDPs (internally displaced people): There are approximately 1 million internally displaced people in Burma, and generations of children have grown up as IDPs. These children are extremely important to our Father, and heaven’s most powerful angels behold the Father’s will on such matters (Matthew 18:10).

Child Soldiers: Burma has more child soldiers than any other country in the world: somewhere between 75,000 to 130,000 children are currently conscripted. Most of these children have little choice and desperately want out. We have heard of thousands of new conscriptions of children over the last year. You can visit www.ProjectAK47.com to learn more.

A Hot Zone
The Wa State is ruled by the largest drug army in the world, which has become Burma’s most powerful resistance army. The last report we heard said the Burma army had sent 150,000 troops to lock down the borders along Wa State. The Wa have at least that many troops: we’ve received information stating they have close to 200,000 soldiers between their army and militia. Potentially 35% of these are child soldiers! There are also 60,000 plus Chinese troops, Shan ethnic armies and Kachin armies in the standoff. Conflict in this region could quickly become a bloodbath.

God Loves the Drug Lord
Right in the middle of this hot zone we have homes for rescued child soldiers that are in the crosshairs of war and re-conscription. There is a drug lord named Aisuh who is after our 200 children and staff. He has already taken over some of our larger agriculture projects there and has told us that our children are of no consequence to him because he cares for 20,000 soldiers and has larger concerns (The Wa government recently put him over our territory because of his troops).

I am reminded of Elisha and the flaming chariot armies of heaven that were on the battlefield even when the only thing Elisha’s servant saw was the massive enemy army (2 Kings 6:16). This scenario is similar: we are participating with the innumerable armies of heaven to agree for God’s best for Aisuh and that the strength of his army would extend to all who cannot protect themselves.

A 2-Sentence Prayer
To help protect the children I’m asking everyone to pray a short prayer right now for Aisuh, a man whom God loves deeply. You can pray it again whenever it comes to mind:

"Father, satisfy Aisuh with living water. Make him a great deliverer and wise ruler of his people. Amen!”

Please consider joining our Facebook Cause www.200k2pray.com for Aisuh and get everyone you know praying for this man.

Thank you for Praying!
God sees small people. Lonely nations. Little child soldiers. Ethnic minorities struggling in the jungles, displaced by war. They are His most welcome friends. Those that are last in our world are very important to our Father. “And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29).