Author Profile
Dean Taylor
Dean grew up in Newcastle, NSW surfing the beautiful beaches and playing on many sporting teams throughout his young life and into adulthood. He was born in 1967 and raised in a Christian home, attending a Baptist Church where he accepted Jesus as his Saviour in 1978. Upon finishing a science degree at university Dean worked in the cardiology unit at the John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle before returning to do a diploma in teaching. It was around this time that he experienced the call of God on his life to ministry and while teaching at a Christian high school he had a transforming experience of the Holy Spirit which consequently altered the direction of his life.
Dean married his wife Wendy in 1993 and they moved to Brisbane in Jan. 1995 where he studied at the Baptist Theological College of Queensland. Graduating from there with a Diploma in Ministry, they were then led to Kenneth Hagin Ministries on the Gold Coast in 1997, where he completed studies before entering into itinerant ministry in 1999. During this season Dean was given a fulll time instructors position at Rhema Bible Training Centre which he filled until moving into a teaching/pastoral position at Destiny Church in 2003 which he continues in today.
Dean's home church is affilliated with Harvest International Ministries Australia one of the Apostolic Networks in a group known as the Revival Alliance. While continuing in his role at his home church, Dean has been directed by the leading of the Lord to also serve the wider Body of Christ. Operating in the ministry of prophetic teaching, his mandate and passion is to help pastors mature the Body of Christ so her individual members can come into their God-given destiny. His desire is to see God's children skillfully applying Jesus' Kingdom principles by bringing them practical, revelatory insight in a fresh, dynamic and understandable style. His heart is to see the Body of Christ being built up in strong faith and operating in greater demonstrations of the Kingdom.
Dean and Wendy live on the Gold Coast with their daughter Darcie.
Website: www.deantaylor.com.au | Article Archive: here | MP3 Messages: Shop
Gift Of Holy Hunger - Dean Taylor
In Matt. 5 Jesus said that it was a blessed place and a good place to be in, when you are hungry and thirsty. You know why? Because Jesus said you will be filled, you will be satisfied. You won’t be disappointed, you won’t be disillusioned or dejected but filled with the desire of your heart to come to know the living God by experiencing Him.
Desire Is A Gift
From what I have seen and experienced in the Body of Christ, there seems to be an endowment, an experience of the Holy Spirit that causes one, either unsuspectingly or sought after, to come under an awareness and desire to get a hold of God like you never have before. To come into a place of encountering the living God so that almost every fibre of your being is completely fulfilled and satisfied with its creator, where there is nothing more you could possibly ask to have that is greater in this life. This desire and hunger is like a gift from God. It may not be one of the gifts you could find in 1 Cor. 12 but certainly there would be no greater blessing that God could confer upon a person than this phenomenon of hungering and thirsting after Him until you get a hold of Him personally for yourself. It is a place where instead of just being consumed with God, He now possesses you.
I have seen and heard about this “gift” being prayed for and given. And I have also seen and experienced this hunger given by impartation. It is like a seed that goes into the heart soil of a person, some not even realising what has happened, but in the days, weeks and months ahead a holy discontent grows into a quiet (or sometimes not) desperation , where you want all of God or you’d rather just go on to heaven than stay here in your current state.
We can read about people in their biographies and hear about their experiences in messages they have given, but after a while, you want to cry out.... “God.... Father, I want to have my own experiences of you.”
I Want My Own
When we read or hear about others we can have one of three reactions. First, we can say “wow that’s a good read, it’s amazing what God did with that person” and leave it at that. Secondly, we can read about it and talk about it to the extent where we get to a place where we think we’ve actually got something ourselves, but in reality it is only association. Then thirdly, we can actually have an awakening and pray “God, I don’t want to just read about this stuff, I want to get a hold of you so that I have my own stories and testimonies.” The truth is there is so very much more, and I believe you know it.
When the gift of holy hunger gets a hold of you, then getting a hold of God for yourself becomes the greatest treasure and desire of your life. Being able to know that you experience God and not just read or hear about Him, where you become like Paul where he said he knew God by experience, becomes the oxygen of your existence.
As Real As Any Person
God can become as real to us as even the closest human being in our lives. Even though Adam knew Eve intimately, it didn’t replace the desire of Adam to know God personally by experience as they walked together in the Garden in the cool of the day. It didn’t suddenly just become all about Eve and God became just this cosmic force ‘out there’ somewhere.
Desperation Is The Key
Desperate people will do desperate things. Just take a look as some of the familiar stories of the Bible. Do you remember the two mothers in the severe famine and how they were so hungry they agreed to eat each other’s babies for food. What about the four guys in the gospels who tore up someone’s rooftop to get a hold of God in the house below. A blind man who was calling out to the Messiah was told to shut up and be quiet , but the Bible says he called out all the more to get a hold of God and you know that he received what he was after , Jesus gave him sight.
Desperate people do desperate things to get a hold of God. What might you do with the gift of holy hunger ? Would it be possible that you might fast and pray to get a hold of God ? Would it be possible that you might not spend all your spare time in leisure activities but pursue God with all your heart. The promise in the Word is there for you to grab. “If you search for me and seek me with all your heart you will be found by me”. “Call to me and I will answer you.” Listen to what these scriptures are saying about those who become the hungry and the thirsty after God.
The Flesh Wont Like It
One of the things we will have to deal with in pursuing God and experiencing this gift of holy hunger is that our flesh is going to fight, scratch and claw, bucking up against this desire to get a hold of God. Smith Wigglesworth’s comment on this was that most people aren’t able to endure the flesh reaction and the purging of all the “self” that happens as we get closer to a Holy loving God. His favourite saying was “more of God none of self, more of God none of self.” Heidi Baker the great Mozambiquan missionary says something similar in her pursuit of God’s presence and carrying more and more of God..... “lower still.... lower still.” He who has ears to hear, let him heed these words.
So I don’t want you to get the wrong impression that this “experiencing God” will be a walk in the park or a tip toe through the tulips, because the selfish “we know what’s best for us” part of our being would not really appreciate what this gift of the holy hunger produces in our lives. But oh...what kind of fruit will be produced in this generation and in your and my world and sphere of influence by someone whose thirst and hunger is only satisfied and filled with the fullness of God Himself.
Don’t Settle For Anything Less
May you pursue God like never before! My prayer for you is that you would receive this gift of holy hunger into your heart and let it grow and let it have its way because if you do, the Body of Christ and those lost in the bondage of darkness will never be the same again.
Devoted To The Apostle’s Teaching - Dean Taylor
We love to read about the incredible power and awesome healings of the believers in the Book of Acts. We are inspired by the scenes of revival and the many souls won into the Kingdom. But have you ever wondered about some of the causes of such great scenes of God’s people doing great exploits in Jesus’ Name? Acts 2:42-47 is a great passage that I believe reveals some of the dynamics that fuelled such a mighty move of the Lord that we cherish and long to see all over the earth in our generation.
The Four Keys Of Acts 2
There are four key elements that flowed together under the outpouring of the Spirit that united the Jerusalem church and made it an inspiration to all generations after them. We can glean so much from those keys and ask the Holy Spirit to pour Himself out on our local bodies so that this kind of “koinonia” manifests in our midst.
We see that the believers in the new Jerusalem church were devoted to four things. First, it mentions they were devoted to the apostle’s teaching. Secondly, it describes how they were devoted to ‘The Fellowship’. They then devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and finally devoted to corporate prayer.
A Lifestyle Of Koinonia
In this article I only want to deal primarily with the first of these ‘devotions’, the apostle’s teaching. If I can stretch the Greek word ‘koinonia’ a little in this article, then please allow me to label the Jerusalem church’s lifestyle as one of ‘koinonia’, incorporating all four of their devotional activities into this word. Yes, I know that ‘koinonia’ is translated as ‘fellowship’ here in the Acts 2 passage, but I like to use it as a label for the whole lifestyle of the genuine believer that God wants us to pursue.
Purpose Of Teaching
So then, they were firstly devoted to the “Apostle’s teaching”. Why is this so important and vital? Why were they devoted and why to their teaching? The purpose of teaching incorporates many aspects, but two main ones are that it firstly establishes new beliefs, and secondly that it strengthens already established beliefs. We see the second application of the ministry of teaching in Paul’s ministry where his method of operation was to firstly enter into a new region where he taught and established new beliefs in the people. Then he returned several times over the ensuing years to those same regions and taught, strengthening the brethren in each place.
Wielding The Sword
The Word of God in the ‘armour’ passage of Eph 6 is described as a sword, “Taking the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”. The ministry of teaching and preaching under the authority and anointing of Jesus is like a sword that pierces the hearts of mankind. Swords also cut off as well as pierce, and so receiving anointed teaching and preaching is like receiving heart surgery on some occasions. If our hearts are open we can receive the light of heaven that writes new beliefs into the heart of our spiritual inner man. Since we live subconsciously out of our heart, and make decisions based on these subconscious beliefs and values, don’t you think it would be a great thing to have them established on the light and ways of Heaven? Jesus once said if we make the tree good, the fruit will be good, make the tree bad and well....you know the rest of the story. So how do we make the tree good you may wonder? Anointed teaching and preaching of the words of God under Jesus’ authority, pierces the heart of mankind just like on the day of Pentecost when Peter arose to speak in Acts 2. The reaction to the sword’s work in people’s hearts was such that the piercing caused them to cry out “what must we do....”
BBQ the Sacred Cows
Anointed teaching and preaching also cuts off old traditional, carnal, fleshy beliefs of doubt and fear. The sword knocks over those sacred religious cows and slices them up nicely for the flames of the Holy Spirit’s BBQ. These strongholds of tradition have been handicapping and debilitating the Body of Christ for decades and longer. They have been cruel shackles that have held people captive to hurts and bad experiences, infusing them with crazy teachings. The sword cuts a swathe through all this and allows room for the Kingdom of God to flood in and take up residency.
The believers of the Jerusalem church were devoted to all this in two places. The temple courts (Sunday/ weekend service or larger gathering), and then in their houses (small groups). But the key here in this passage in Acts 2 is the word ‘devoted’. One of the big issues pastors of local gatherings/ congregations face in 2011 is the massive overload of good teaching from every ‘Tom, Dick and Harry’s church around the world via internet, Christian TV, books and conferences. All those are good and great things but they cause the ‘general Jo’ believer in a local church to be pulled in 10-20 different directions at once if he is trying to take in all he or she can get their hot little hands on.
Only Sometimes Food
What I have found is that the Lord generally deals with things in our lives, one or two issues at a time. Any more than this usually takes us into overwhelm and we never seem to master or get the victory to move on to the next thing. It’s a journey that we are on and a very specific one. However, can you imagine what progress, if any is made when a believer is reading and watching 10-20 different ministry teachings a month? That’s a lot of dilution, distraction and truckloads of input. No one can work on and practice that many things and master each of them at once. Like my wife used to say to my daughter when she was training her about eating, “that is only ‘sometimes food’”. All those goodies from those many and varied ministries that are circulating through the airwaves and cyberspace are really only ‘sometimes foods’, not for jamming and cramming in as much as we can stick in our spiritual mouths.
The Jerusalem believers weren’t getting around every Tom, Dick and Harry pharisee, rabbi and teacher of the Law ministry grabbing every pontification flowing forth. The Bible says they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching. This means they forsook a lot of other ‘material’ they could have also tried to ‘eat’. What the apostle’s were training them in was the New Covenant, Kingdom way of living. Now I’m not saying you can’t receive from other ministries, but that’s only ‘sometimes food’.
When a local body becomes devoted to the 5 fold ministry coming from their Sunday/ weekend service gathering, and devoted in their “house to house” ministry then the whole group moves in a customised direction that the Lord has designed for ‘such and such’ a group in that locality. Much ground is covered and great strides are taken when a group is more unified and less fragmented and scattered in their affections/devotions.
Not Rating The Teaching
Did you notice that the Book of Acts didn’t say that the believers ‘rated’ the Apostle’s teaching? They were devoted to it. That conjures up ideas of embracing and pondering and meditating what they ministered to see how they could put it into practice in their lives. To me, it brings to mind images of them changing things in their lives and making adjustments to their families and relationships from previous ways of doing things. Many in the Body today sit under the apostle’s teachings and after they have concluded, give it a score card. “Yessss brother... that all lines up with everything I believe, so today I’ll give it a 9/10”. Well, what if the 5 fold teaching that day cut right across what you already believe? Devotion to the 5 fold teaching that the Lord has hooked you up with might mean making some alterations and allow the Sword of the Spirit to do some piercing and slicing off.
Getting Planted
What will you do with your affections and your devotions? Will you be a swinging believer that swings from this camp to that and flits and floats around all the churches in your city, never being planted in a local gathering where you can give yourself to koinonia. Maybe, just maybe, the new church in Jerusalem’s commitment to the Lord’s design of koinonia created such an environment for the Holy Spirit to move in that great grace was upon them all, even motivating them to such love so that no one among them had need. Whatever the true cause, they had the privilege of enjoying such an outpouring of the Spirit that those who were scattered in the surrounding regions turned the cities where they went upside down.
Children of Light - Dean Taylor
How much do you want good relationships and a good marriage where you get on well with people? Most people will say “yes, yes that’s what I want” but the reality is the methods we use in relationship, our ways of relating to our spouse or other people is tearing down what we SAY we want.
Core Values Revealed
Our operating system is actually governed by our inner core values. What we REALLY want shows up in our MO (method of operation). Instead of good relationships, the things that are really important to us are things like titles, appearance, position, being accepted by a certain group, being seen as spiritual, and the list goes on. When these are the driving core values in our heart and are what is really important to us, then the quality of our relationships are always going to suffer when these other things aren’t met in our lives. So as much as we SAY we want good relationships and marriages, we can test if that is true by the tools we use in them.
Who’s The ONE
If I was to ask you to write down your top five relationships, either the people you are closest to including your spouse, would you be able to identify the ONE person you are having the most trouble with? It may even be your spouse. Could you then try and identify some of the dynamics of this relationship? What are the symptoms? For instance, is there things like throwing anger tantrums, yelling, silent treatment, name calling, getting drunk, swearing etc going on ?
You see we SAY we want good relationships, but when our ways of relating to each other involve these kinds of symptomatic signs and MO’s, then there is no way that good marriages and relationships are going to eventuate. The true core values of people who act like that is not actually good relationships but actually trying to get what is REALLY important to them on the inside. These things can even be subconscious and not readily understood. Only getting revelation from God about what’s really in our hearts is going to shed light on what’s truly going on.
Unpunishable
2000 years ago, Jesus died, sacrificing his life on the cross. He allowed Himself to be inflicted with all of God’s wrath and punishment for mankind’s sins. In doing this, God totally satisfied his righteousness and justice, and now has no punishment in his economy to try and establish good relationships with. His use of punishment to manipulate people to do right by Him doesn’t exist.
God’s Ways Are Light
God is light and His ways are the ways of light. Eph. 5 describes those who are born again as children of light. If we are children of light then we are children of another kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is more about dominion than it is geographical territory, although God does want His dominion to rule everywhere on earth in a geographical sense. Heaven has no punishment as a tool for developing good relationships with mankind. It only has the tools of light. The earth’s tools are those things that are causing relationship division, causing couples to actually repel their spouse, not endear them to one another.
The Baby With The Bathwater
When we resort to the world’s ways of relating, we are choosing to tear down any chance of having good relationships or marriages. These forms of punishments and controls used by people in relationships are bids to manipulate their friend or spouse into doing and being what they want. Because the other person is not behaving in accordance with ‘their rules’, and they are not getting what they want, the internal value system kicks in manifesting anti-relational tactics to try and produce the desired end result. We get so frustrated or disappointed in relationships and so we tend to throw out all relationship wisdom and resort to manipulational techniques and strategies, trying to get what we SAY we want, but only to no avail. Until God shows us our ways as we repent in our hearts, this will be a never ending cycle of the earth’s dysfunctional wisdom.
The truth is we will only enjoy good relationships and marriages when we revolutionise and transform our thinking in the ways of light and the ways of God. His MO does not consist of any manipulation, punishments or controls because all of that is earth’s ways of doing and being. Our core values will be completely altered when we throw out what earthly wisdom looks like and what we have been implementing and embrace our identity as children of light who use the ways of Heaven in our relationships.
Are you Making Room? - Dean Taylor
How To Be Good Stewards Of The Prophetic Word
How many prophetic words have you received that have not come to pass yet? I mean the true words from God, not the false words?
There are some really important aspects concerning the right way to handle a true word from God because so many of us in the Body of Christ go about it in a way that completely frustrates and discourages us.
It’s Not Automatic
One of the keys to understand is that the word is not automatically going to happen. Maybe a small percentage will come to pass because it is God sovereignly doing it, but probably most of the things that come prophetically are more like an invitation to co labour with Him to see them come to fruition. It’s potential, but not definite.
So much of the manifestation of what God wants to happen depends on us in at least two important and significant ways. Firstly, there could be conditions to fulfil and secondly, we generally need to ‘make room’ for the prophetic word to be able to “land” in our lives, so to speak.
There Are Conditions
Let’s look at fulfilling the conditions for a moment. Have you written out, as best as possible, the word you received either through a prophetic voice or what you heard on the inside? That’s the obvious first step, but then as you look at the word, are there some things you need to do or change so that you come into alignment with the plan of God? Perhaps, when we talk about fulfilling conditions, there are obvious things that are easy to implement....well do those first, do what you can right now with what’s in your hand... because the next step we discuss might not be so clear or easy on the flesh.
Making Room
Now, let’s look at the “making room” component. Usually a prophetic word paints a picture of what you will be doing or who you will become. So here’s the deal, God is inviting us to become what He has spoken. This means we need to acknowledge how we look now and then, where we need to head. Ask yourself, “how would my life have to change so that it would look like the person God describes in this word? What would I have to alter, what mindsets and lifestyle would I adopt to accommodate this word? What would I have to cut out or start, to be someone who would carry the weight of this new phase of my life?”
Here’s a truth. You won’t be able to carry the “new” and stay the same way that you are now. The “new” is usually a bigger step, a higher level and needs us to come up higher in God to be able to fulfil everything that is included in His vision. He has seen ahead, and the reason that God speaks to us and lets us know in advance what is in His mind is because He is outside time and can see, in His economy, what already exists in eternity future.
Wage the Good Warfare
Paul said to Timothy to wage a good warfare with the prophecies that were made concerning him and his life / ministry. Why doesn’t God just DO it you may ask? One reason is because He wants us to co labour with Him to see our destiny open up. Daniel had to pray through when the angel with his answer got caught up in the second heaven doing warfare with the demonic prince over that region (Dan 10).
God has given us arrows to shoot into the heavenlies. These arrows are our prophetic words and as it says in the Book of Job, when we declare a thing it shall be established, when we decree a thing it shall be done (Job 22). We are kings over our territory, and God has delegated to us kingdom authority in this earth for us to exercise and call for His will to be done in our sphere of influence for the Kingdom’s sake.
Don’t Quit While You’ve Got The Devil On The Run
In my experience in looking over the Body of Christ, I feel the biggest factor in what we have discussed in this article that I see that limits us experiencing the fullness of the will of God come to pass is that we give up so quickly when it seems like nothing is happening. Because we quit, we stop making room in our lives for the prophetic word to “fit” into our experience....we don’t go the whole ‘hog’ to see God expand our capacity to be able to carry those things He wants to happen and so the word lays dormant in some notebook somewhere.
Completely Devoted
Paul exhorted Timothy to devote himself completely to his calling and field, for him to give himself wholly to it so that all may see his progress.
Will you make room, and not grow weary in well doing? God wants to do mighty things in the Earth through your life. So let’s not give up, but get out those words again and dust them off because they have eternal consequences for you and the people God has called you to.
Grace Revealed - Dean Taylor
In a recent (2009) survey conducted by John Bevere ministries they asked the question as to what Christians thought grace was. 98 percent of the Bible believing, spirit-filled, church going people asked, gave very vague and incomplete answers. In fact across the board there was much misunderstanding about this vital experience that is essential to our lives.
A Frustrating Christian Life
98 percent of the people gave these top four answers. They said grace was salvation, forgiveness, a free gift, or a pardon. This result means that potentially 98 percent of Christians are trying to live the Christian life in their own strength. And as you probably well know the Christian life is impossible to live without divine power. No wonder Christians feel frustrated and condemned because they are continually trying and failing in their attempt to live up to what they think is God’s standard. Only 2 percent of people said God’s grace was ‘His empowering’ in our lives; that is, the ability to be able to live a godly life by His power and to live an overcoming lifestyle that has mastery over the temptations and habits that have kept us in bondage in times past.
If we see grace as simply His forgiveness, mercy or salvation, then by what power are we going to be able to resist the enemy, live God’s holy standard of life, and be as Jesus was on earth, one who destroyed the works of darkness?
A good definition of grace is “the divine influence upon the heart that makes one able to do those things we can’t do in our own strength.” Someone else uses the definition that God’s grace is “God’s power which gives us the ability to go beyond the ordinary and live an extraordinary life.”
Grace Equals Power
In Acts 4 we see the story of the apostles and disciples of the first century displaying great power in signs, wonders and miracles. It says that “great grace was upon them all.” Can you see the connection? Because there was great grace upon them, guess what? There also was great power.
Some people say grace is God’s unmerited favour, but again that is not what grace is but how grace comes. He gives us His ability because we have His favour. We can’t earn it, but it comes as a free gift. We, as sons and daughters of the kingdom are able to live a life using someone else’s ability! We are not, and do not have to be, restricted to what the world only has at their disposal. We don’t have to just scrape through, struggle by, but in any given circumstance we find our self in we can rely on and be empowered by His ability when we believe the truth concerning what God has said about us.
Knocked Out Or An Overcomer
The truth about life is that we can be deceived thinking that we are doing okay, going alright, can handle everything, we have got it all together. But the reality is that if we live like that we will inevitably come up against something that is too big and ugly for our ability to cope with. We will find ourselves flat on our backs on the canvas looking up and wondering what happened. But God’s word says that we need to come to the throne of grace where we will obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. We can live in His ability at all times, and are supposed to live that way.
Unlimited Supply
God’s ability is available. Let’s not fall away from grace and try to live out this life restricted to the ability of human flesh but obtain the ability of the Almighty so that we may live above the ordinary and realise our full potential in Him.
Subscribe to our newsfeed
