17 July 2013 by Donna Uning CM-
Through his many years in ministry, Bob Fitts’ journey with the Lord has brought him to an even closer relationship with God. In this second part of the interview, Bob talked about his revelation, powerful worship and trees.
Is there something that you wish you knew then that you know now?
“You know something that I wish I knew in the early days that I know now. Love is this massive concept, I mean the whole world, Christians or not. When we say love, everybody say ‘I like that;’ most people unless they’re anarchists or really black, dark persons in their heart. But, everybody relates to love.”
“When I first came to Jesus, the thing that blew me away was how free His love and goodness was to me. I mean, it’s like if the whole revolution of God’s love, which is if the whole of universe gets that concept – God so love … If you get that all in one blast, I don’t think you could live, and I’m not trying to be dramatic here.”
“If it were possible, I wish I could’ve have a greater revelation even then, although it was great at the time, of just how broad (His love is),” he says bringing the scripture from Romans 8:39 which says and he quotes.
“Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
“If I could just have the revelation of that to a degree that we come into our destiny, that sounds kinda spiritual, I really believe that. Because my own insecurity comes from the lack of believe of God’s love for me because if you know you’re loved.”
Bob continues emphasizing this love to the early days where people were burnt or thrown in with the lions because of their love for Christ.
“But because they were so lost in love for God, they’d say it’s okay because Jesus loves me; the kinds of love that turned Roman guards into believers.”
“Understanding God’s love is an eternal journey. It really is, it’s so massive, so great, so powerful and it’s the key to the world’s worship. So that’s why, I believe why we’re called to the nations. Called to worship is, what people often refer that to, especially in this culture is that ‘it’s my responsibility to come and worship God’ rather than it’s my responsibility to bathe and swim in the river of God’s love.”
“Isn’t that amazing, what a difference! My wife and I were just reading in (the book of) John this morning, it’s not that we love God, it’s that He is so in love with us.”
“To be honest, I don’t know if I could take any much more of that when I first started! But we were so excited about God! We were just doing crazy things, you know, just having fun.”
Bob also talked about worship in his seminar earlier. He hopes to impress to worship leaders to understand worship and God’s love the same way.
“Obviously that would be the first one. Remember, this worship is not about how much we love God, that’s a misconception. Because worship is a response.”
“Called to worship is a response. One is when someone knows they’re loved. What do you do with that? It’s hard for people to grasp that, but after a while when it keeps coming you say, ‘thank you.’ That’s worship right there; the moment you receive God’s love. Ultimately in some point in time you’re going to say thank you, that’s worship.”
“I think the second thing I would say to people is what we talked about last night (during his seminar), those three things we ended with – love is the most important one. But those other two (faith and hope) are so key in everyone’s life – is knowing you got a dream. Every person when they are conceived has a purpose in life and it’s always bigger than what they think, always.”
“So I would say to worship leaders, your job is to point at Jesus. And when you love God, you’re gonna love God’s people. And everything you say to them is going to be, you ain’t seen nothing yet! Wait until you see what God can do, just let go and let God, you watch what’s He’s going to do in your life.”
“I’m telling you, I’m living proof to all those that know Jesus. There’s no way I could be able to dream being a person who stands in front of thousands of people leading them in worship. I’m going to be leading in a church with 30 000 people in a couple of weeks. And every time I go on stage, I’d go whoa! If God had told me at 17 years old, that I would be doing this I would have said, ‘forget that!’”
He was talking about a church in Singapore where he would also be doing a benefit concert. Speaking of Singapore, he does go there a lot.
“It’s interesting. I live on an island; I have a great love for islands. I think that’s why I’m so attracted to this part of the world. You guys have tons of islands here. Actually the bible says, in Psalms, “Islands in the sea will give glory to the Lord.”
“So, you guys in Malaysia are blessed. And the third thing you asked is to live by faith. The thing that pleases God the most is, take a dive and jump off the cliff.”
He laughed as he referred to his story back in Hawaii diving off a cliff into a waterfall, unintentionally. In the story, he slipped after standing on the cliff for quite a while, holding onto the line.
“A lot of time for me is like, ‘God I do not know what to do, I want to jump but I’m scared to death. God says I understand your weakness, and you just slipped into God’s will. For me the message in that is when people make faith the highest thing and not love, it becomes an ingrown eyeball. Anytime when your life becomes centred around you, its religion.
“Christianity is all about Him. That’s a huge difference. When you find yourself saying ‘if I’m, gonna slip’, it’s always self-promoting. Where Jesus said look to me, I’ll be your guide, I’ll be your shepherd, I’ll take you places you’ve never been before. I’ll push you over the cliff.”
Tell us something that we don’t know about Bob Fitts.
“This is going to sound funny to you, but from when I was a kid I love tropical plants. That’s crazy, I mean from when I was a little kid, I live in California where it is sub-tropical so we have palm trees and stuff but we don’t have coconuts; but we do have some mangoes.”
“I remember my parents went to Hawaii when I was just a kid and came back with what we called, plumeria tree but here it’s called frangipani, you know the flowers they put in their hair in Hawaii, the yellow flower just like a star.”
“I get to smell that in California. Actually, before I was going to be in ministry, I was going to be a landscape architect. I always wanted to go to college to study that. In California it’s a big industry – landscaping hotels, landscaping using plants and stuff, so I studied plants, agriculture, and horticulture; I love all that stuff.”
“When I’m in Asia, I’m in heaven because it’s like rainforest here. Stuff grows when you throw a seed out of a window. So when I go home to Hawaii, my downtime is trimming plants. You know, working in my yard, growing trees and sounds silly but I love it.”
“The Word of God said we are going to be like a tree planted by the water. And the interesting thing is, in Revelation, which says there’s a river that comes from the throne of God, and along banks of the river there are trees, and the trees have leaves that bring healing to the nations. I believe that you and I as believers, we are those trees. And we are planted by Jesus; the river represented the presence of God. It says they bear fruits in seasons, they always bear fruits.”
“Honestly, I believe, you, all of us as believers, are healing Malaysia. It’s interesting that horticulture, plants, and worship coming together in that picture of revelation. So, that’s kinda a little peak of what I do.”
“Thank you all so much, you’re so hospitable, so welcoming to your country. As I was flying in there’s so much rainforest, just forest. It’s just so green. I grew up in California which is just desert.”
His wife Kathy came over. “The interview is over?” she asks, just in time before their next meeting.
“It’s our anniversary today,” says Kathy joining us at the café. She took out her phone and showed photographs of her family in Hawaii. What a great looking family.
Sitting with Bob Fitts, the worship leader, songwriter, preacher or whatever we may call him, there is no denying the strong presence of God that is with him. Unwavering and unshaken, that’s what we get when we were immersed in a conversation about God.
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