Majesty from the dust

Many of you know that recently my brother lost his earthly battle with cancer and went on to his reward, he was younger than me so there is the taste of injustice in my soul but the Lord was ahead of me so let me rewind for you the events of late:

My brother had already defeated Crones disease, he was a man of faith and determination, so when he got the diagnosis back in Dec. he became resolute in his confession and his course of action, and never once did he ask "why"?

We had many conversations over the last 6 months, times when he was wavering in his confidence and moments when he needed a reminder of Gods faithfulness, I found it a joy and delight to encourage him, to remind him that God had given him a word of healing and the only real course was to remain steadfast in his faith. He was, and he did.

Even up to the last he never faltered in his confession, it was his core belief that God would heal him completely...and then July 2 at 4:30 in the a.m. he died...apparently not having obtained the promise.

Everyone at his house (I was there at the moment he breathed his last) had said, "he waited for you Mark", all day long my mom, and his wife, and my sister told him, "Mark is coming" he had lost all ability to respond but his breathing always changed, or he would indicate by moving his arm or leg that he understood, it was the only thing he responded to in his last 48 hours...

Of course when I got there I was shocked by his physical condition, but I immediately began to pray in tongues and held his hand, told him I loved him and just sat...about 6 hours later he took a few large breathes and finally died...but it was kind of obvious that IF he was waiting on something it must have been me...and I already knew why...

See on the flight over I had fallen asleep, it was about a 3 hour flight and I was listening to "You came to my rescue" by Hillsong United on repeat, and as I dozed I had a dream.

In my dream I was going to a train station, the trains were flying by very fast going all kinds of directions, and a gentleman whom I knew to be the Holy Spirit took me into a small waiting room attached to the station. Inside the waiting room was my brother and my dad (who passed away in 1994), and Jesus... they were all sitting on benches and Jesus was polishing a silver sword with a small white stone. My dad looked incredible, he was buff like he had been working out and I told him, "You look great, much different than the last time I saw you" (I have seen him before in a dream). He said "Yes I've been growing in the love of God", and he and John continued making small talk and laughing while Jesus finished polishing the sword.

John was completely whole, he looked young and vibrant again, and I could tell he was finally home and he and dad were excited to do some things together for the Lord but they were waiting on me to come to the station so that the two of them could leave and get on with their plans.

Finally Jesus finished the last bit of polishing and handed me the sword, I looked at him kind of shocked because I knew that it was Johns sword, it was his faith for wholeness, it was his battle with cancer and I also knew that the small white stone was Johns identity (*see Rev. 2:17), it was his name that was being applied to the sword, so I asked Him, "This is Johns doesn't he need it?", Jesus smiled and said "No, he gets a much better one here, besides its of no use in heaven, but it had to be dipped in heaven so it can be used on earth"...then the dream ended and when I woke up we were flying in a cloud (for real).

This is one of those prophetic dreams, where you know stuff without asking, where timing is more important than time, where understanding flows between you and everyone in the dream without any effort, and communication is clear and sharp, it was a God dream and probably as real an event as the airplane ride itself, because when I got to Johns house even my nephew commented that John was there but it was clear that he was somewhere else even more.

The day before I flew out I had gone out into the desert of Tucson to pray, my heart was heavy and as I walked thru the dusty desert landscape, I passed by an old beat up penny...the Holy Spirit immediately said, "Go back and pick that up", I protested saying "Its just an old penny", and the Lord corrected me saying "I never waste anything"...and my mind immediately remembered the feeding of the 5000, where they took up all the left over fragments, so that nothing was wasted. I knew God was speaking to me about what I was getting ready to encounter, He wanted me to prepare my heart and save every part of the experience because He does not waste anything.

Which means Johns faith and confession cannot possibly be wasted, it must be collected and passed on just like the faith of Timothy had originally resided in his grandmother Lois and then his mother Eunice, faith is apparently something that can be transferred (2Tim. 1:5) and for some reason Johns faith had to be "dipped in heaven" (which is part of the dream I have not sorted out yet).

If you are skeptical (God help you, He's the only one who can), and believe that John died and his confession and faith was wasted because he failed to obtain the promise then let me leave you with one last verse:

Hebrews 11:39-40 "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received NOT the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect"

The basic principle here is that it is possible to go on to heaven never seeing on earth the fulfillment of the promise, so that perfection comes through others who are left behind...

The sword of his faith had to be dipped in heaven...somehow in that waiting room that place between heaven and earth, it was finished, and it was left here for us...my basic belief is that I have been given Johns sword, I am going to pray even harder and with more faith than ever before for cancer patients, and I know in my heart, that I will see them healed, because my brothers faith will be made perfect.

I believe God has already given him the victory sword and his reward for winning over cancer in heaven and I'm sure they are celebrating his victory...which we get to enforce on earth...you watch in the next 5-10 years cancer will be a completely defeated disease, both by the church and by the science community, its days are severely limited and my brother gets credit in heaven that we will use on earth.

God wastes nothing...not a dusty penny in the dirt, and certainly not the trial of faith, He makes it Majestic and in His infinite wisdom spreads the victory around so that all of us get to participate and enforce the victory that the First Son purchased through His death and resurrection...majesty from the dust.




Post Script:

As I have played with my niece and been the best goofy, dorky uncle I know how, I have watched joy begin to replace sadness, it is gradual but unavoidable, children have a contagious resiliency that is wrapped up in the joy of living in the moment.

The weird thing I am noticing is my mind wants me to feel guilty for joy...let me make this perfectly clear, joy is NEVER illegal, as a matter of fact it is the core of rejoicing always which is a command in the New Testament.

The enemy (and our own predisposition to depression) would like to make us feel guilty that we have joy, can laugh and smile even when pain is so obviously near, because if the devil can steal your joy, he can rob you of the blessings that come with it, you should never, ever, under any circumstances feel guilty for joy, if you do, just rebuke that feeling since it is not from the Lord.

If the joy of the Lord is your strength, why on earth would He ever make you feel guilty or depressed for having it?... it is not God when you feel guilty for joy, it is hell trying to make one final stab at your heart...

I recommend you use some "kung-fu-ninja-karate-girl" laughter to ignore and rebuke that nonsense it is not from God, joy is a door into His favor and blessing that will never end, please choose to go through it...for the sake of the ninja girls!

Praying out of our Identity

All of us have multiple identities, for me I am a father, a brother, a covenant friend, a worship leader, a teacher, a builder, an uncle, a son, an American, a middle aged male, an Arizonian, part Choctaw, a musician, etc...

When we encounter different people we respond based upon our identity to that person, I am completely different in my approach as a grandfather to my grand-kids than I am as a son, or as a builder.

We also have multiple identities as believers, we are the Beloved, we are the Bride, we are Joint-heirs, we are sheep, we are the light of the world now and salt, we are also soldiers in the good fight as well as the body of Christ and members in particular, we might be prophets, we might be teachers, some of us are evangelists and all of us should be worshipers and the assembly of the first-born, we are redeemed, holy, sanctified and chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world so we are also timeless and eternal and surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

So when we come to pray, it becomes important to recognize what our identity is when we approach the Father, and even more than that it should be our intention to find out which identity the Father is highlighting in our lives as we make our approach.

Your prayer as a Bride should be different than your prayer as a warrior in the midst of the battle, but to often we find ourselves defaulting to the same kind of prayer in all our identities, and typically that is the prayer of petition.

Lately I pray much less petition than I do prophetic proclamation, I seem to be exploring the power of a lament as it is joined with the prayer of submission, and more and more I find myself in simple conversation and then responding with spoken prayers that I have been crafting out of my "life-words", and these crafted prayers are being refined and pushed as I explore everything that God is calling me to be in my prophetic identity.

My point is simply this: If you have encountered a staleness in your prayer life, then change your prayer approach by moving into a different identity, this is how God approaches you so why should your approach to Him be any different? How do I know this is how God approaches you?

Easy, He is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, He is the Light of the world, He is the truth that sets you free, He is wisdom, He is peace, He is your provider, He is your righteousness, He is I am, He is your healer, He is...well you get it...

He approaches you in any of His different identities to you and He as Creator wants you to do the same for Him, He wants you to come to Him based upon an identity that He is currently highlighting in your life...and if you have encountered staleness, then perhaps it is because you are not being everything to God that He wants you to be for Him.

So explore a little, try on a new identity in prayer, its ok, its not like He's gonna smack you for being who He called you to be...

Try it and see...see if perhaps the default mode of petition is really kind of bland for a Bride and Lover, see if perhaps supplication is a little weak for a soldier and warrior, and see if perhaps a lament is a pure from of worship that touches His heart in ways you have not known.

Faith cometh by hearing...and hearing by the Word of God...but you get to choose which one of your identities is doing the hearing and maybe, just maybe a lover has a better ear than a soldier...I don't know try it!

Easter Prophecy 4/5/2010

This is a prophecy I received from the Lord during my recent Easter prayer time:

There are no accidents in my kingdom. There is no such thing as a “random event” everything in your life is intentional from me. When I tossed the stars up into the night sky it was not “random” it was not haphazard or unintended, it was planned and purposed, it was designed and a delight, so if the placing of the stars in the heaven was not random or accidental, how can you suppose that any event in your life is random or an “accident”, are you not more important to me than the stars which are not eternal?

Everything in your life is intentional from me and everything in your life is useful to me. The world provides “insurance” for accidents and unintended events, but I do not need insurance since I give you “assurance”, assurance that with each and every event there is a pocket of provision tucked away waiting to be used by you for just such an occasion.

These pockets of provision are filled with, faith, hope and love for every event, and every eventuality.

I haven’t left you as orphans with no provision for your daily needs, I couldn’t possibly leave you alone, it is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE for me to abandon you, I would have to tear the fabric of my very nature in order to abandon you, and since I have already torn my nature on the cross there is never ever a need for me to be torn again. This is so you will never ever need to experience me forsaking you; I cannot forsake you anymore than I could now forsake myself.

The dreams you have in your heart…these are from ME!!! I placed them there for you to enjoy, delight in and experience in the fullness of joy…but you have barely scratched the surface of those dreams, you have barely left a fingerprint on those dreams why are so you hesitant to believe that I have given them to you and want you to enjoy them? What is this poverty of asking that is so prevalent in your heart?

I want you poor in spirit not in a poverty spirit and the reason for being poor in spirit is so I can fill you up with myself. The things you imagine as most wonderful are simply the top of the iceberg of my purpose rising out of your subconscious, the real heaviness, the real depth of my dream for you lies well beneath the surface of your experience.

I call you to dream large with me; I call you to dream big with me I call you to dream huge of me. I call you to dream with me and dream of me. You have dreams of me, that I would be a Father, that I would be a lover, that I would be a redeemer, but even those dreams are far below the reality of who I am and only form a faint outline of my shadow in your world, I am so much larger than your dream of me, it cannot be apprehended by your natural mind, you need an anointing to dream just to see the dream in the first place.

I long to bring the substance of who I AM into you very soul, I long to bring the substance of WHO YOU ARE to the surface of your experience, so that you become enraptured and in awe of all I AM and all I AM IN YOU.

Your asking reflects the shallow nature of your dreaming, your asking defines the perimeters of your relationship with me and you barely ask for anything at all, why is that? Do you think I will say “no”????, did you not hear me when I wrote it down for eternity that everything is “Yes and So be it”????

I wrote in my word so that it would go into eternity with you that anything you could ask or think, even beyond you ability to dream is “Yes and Amen”…yet so far you have barely asked anything of my graciousness, barely anything of my nature, and know without a doubt I am a giver and the very spirit of giving, it defines a part of who I am to give. I give because I am a giver and for no other reason than I love to give.

Ask of me and I will give you the nations, ask of me and I will give you the world, for the promise to papa Abraham that he would be heir of the world was not based on his performance or his ability to dream, it was based purely on his response when he said “yes” to my dream for him…and this became the source of his eternal righteousness, the yes to me when I told him my dream for him.

So if you want to be like your papa Abraham you need to learn to say “yes” to my dreams for you, you need to say yes to the impossible, the improbable, even what might feel like the “improper”, it will almost feel inappropriate for you to ask of me the dreams I have placed deep within your soul so dig them out and ask knowing that my heart is always “yes” to you.

I want to give you “grand” things, it should be like children circling the toys in the catalog right before Christmas in your heart, for I tell you before Christmas comes I AM, I AM the heart and spirit of Christmas, the giving and the hope, the joy the abundance of laughter, the fun and the delight that is all of Christmas is a normal day in my house. It should be a normal day for you to have a hard time going to sleep because you are so excited about what I am doing and giving you tomorrow.

This is how I want you to live… as little children so rowdy with expectation that you wake up the world with your joy. I want you to live in the giving goodness of my nature that is so extravagant you become inebriated with my love and my blessing on your life. That’s right I want you drunk and giddy with joy, laughing so hard your sides hurt for I am a funny God, I created humor and laughter and I know how to laugh and want to teach you the joy of laughing with me…not the nervous laughter of embarrassment, no I want you to laugh the laugh of joy and sweetness so profound you actually cry with tears of joy, as a matter of fact the ONLY tears I want you to have are the tears of laughing so hard you beg me to stop.

This is where I live in the space between laughter and joy, and I have never had a depressed thought or a “down” moment in my existence and even the cross was a pleasure for me, the pleasure of paying for your dreams and the pleasure in my Son for becoming the payment for your dreams and think about this, if my son became the payment for your dreams, then what is owed on them? Nothing.

So know that your hopes your dreams have been paid in full and when he said “It is finished” the final payment for your life was made in full and the Holy Spirit immediately took the title deed of your life and sealed it with a kiss to preserve it until you could come to me and experience all I have dreamed for you. It was my pleasure to bruise the Son for you…for I knew that he would do it “right” and by doing it right then His “rightness would be your righteousness once again and that righteousness would be a righteousness that would be worthy of heaven since it originated in heaven.

Did you know that the righteousness you now have originated in heaven? And since it came from heaven it is always welcome in heaven. Did you know that the righteousness you now have is not only welcome in heaven but guarantees you access to my Throne, and not only to the Throne but also to everything the Throne stands for?

The righteousness I have given you grants you full access to all of heavens resources, from the court room to the storehouse, everything is yours.

Did you know that the righteousness you now have grants you access into the court room of heaven where you can obtain full restraining orders and punitive damages upon the enemy? You can make demands for restoration of everything that has been lost or stolen from time to things, including relationships, dreams, toys and people.

You can make demands for restoration because now you are righteous and you can now ask for “damages” to be repaid and I will insure that your claims are enforced, I actually have “enforcing angels” who’s primary duty is to exact payment from the enemy for all that he has stolen from you. This is what is known as “declaring to principalities and powers, making known in the heavenlies and the judgment written which is in fact your heritage as my child. And I long to hear you make these demands on me and my throne.

To long has the enemy held sway over the kingdoms of this world, to long has the enemy polluted my planet with his lies and hypocrisy, to long has the enemy enslaved my children with depression and apathy, and to long have the letters of his judgment sat idle while he exploited my family.

Vengeance is mine, and it is a day vengeance I want to give you, not a vengeance on the sons of men, but instead a vengeance on the enemy of your soul and I want to give you a day of anger, and wrath and tribulation upon the kingdom of darkness it is only fair since this is what he has given my children for so long.

I want you to trouble the trouble-maker, depress the depressor, I want you to harass the harasser, I want you to defang his lies and lie in wait for his schemes so you can turn every one of his weapons back against him. This is the purpose of my vengeance, to exact damages and retribution for every rape, for every lie for every murder for every stolen blessing, for every broken promise or shattered dream for every wound and disease I WANT MY VENGENCE UPON THE ENEMY!!!

And vengeance will look like a miracle to you. It will appear glorious, it will seem as the sun rising from a long dark dream and your soul will breathe freely again. Vengeance is glorious and it is joy and it is food for your soul. For the weary one, I will make their enemies food for their soul. The beat down and tired will find new strength as I prepare a table for them right in the midst of their enemies, and the feast they enjoy will be the victory I give.

So prepare your heart and wash your hands of double-mindedness have a single eye for the victory and not defeat, for this is a battle you cannot lose, for I have already won it. I have already won the battle for the miraculous, I have already won the battle for provision, I have already won the battle for love and relationships and all you have to do is simply stand and receive.

And this standing I call you to is not like the isolated standing of a solitary guard in the night watches, no the standing I call you to is to stand in the winner’s circle to receive the prize. Like an Olympic champion standing on the winners block to receive the gold medal I call you to stand and receive the prize that was purchased for you when it was finished long ago. It is not by your might, it is not by your strength, it is not even by your power, but it is purely by my Spirit that I grant you the victory.

And with every grant there is a resource, resources from heaven to accomplish my dream for you.

And my dream for you is far grander than any dream you could imagine, it is far more fun, far more joyous and much more intimate than you could ever imagine or hope.

I know you. I know exactly what you need. I know exactly how to give it and I enjoy giving it to you, one of my favorite things to do is to give you the dream I have and watch joy invade you life as you run to it.

So enter into my joy, the joy I had with my son and the foundation of the world, enter into the joy of my rest in the complete and total victory that is my dream for you

The Pirate Bride (or how I pray part 2)

I think my favorite movies of late have been the Pirates of the Caribbean series...loved the first one, enjoyed the second, loved the third...

The word pirate comes from the greek word "pirata" meaning "one who attacks"...so there is a reason I have titled this post "the Pirate Bride"...one of my favorite stories is about Ní Mháille, a legendary Irish Pirate who is rumored to have captured Doona Castle in Ballycrow for herself after her lover was killed by the former owners, she captured all their boats and then stormed the castle taking it for herself once her revenge was meted out for her slain lover.

Anyway my fascination with the story is that this Irish Lady becomes a pirate after her lover is slain, man what a tragic yet romantic idea, she goes on a rampage and not only avenges his death, but then proceeds to occupy the very stronghold where he was killed.

When we go to pray, it should be obvious to anyone that we have serious needs and issues that must be resolved, yet one thing I find is that God never seems to be in a rush about that stuff, really at times it seems like He's just ignoring my crisis and talking about the weather with me.

I have had some heavy stuff dumped on my doorstep recently...big and intimidating stuff...and my immediate reaction was to question what I had done to get here, why was I unaware and not paying attention and then I kind of slide into a "regret" stage where I pondered what a jerk I had been and why had I not been more loving etc...when the opportunity existed in the past...

So as I got up to pray, the Lord spoke to me "You can look for sympathy (and look is all you will do) or you can find Majesty in this...so I simply replied "majesty"...

I may be crazy about God, but I'm not crazy...I know that if God gives you alternatives always take the better one...majesty trumps sympathy any day...

So I said "majesty"...out loud...where I could hear it myself...within a few minutes...I had a mental picture, a vision if you will, in my head of my hand holding a sword...

Ok, thats pretty obvious I thought, I am in a battle for life in this situation...a sword in my hand...that seems appropriate...and as I focused on the mental image in my mind,( that was really sustained without any effort on my part), I noticed my hand had all kinds of rings on it...which is really wierd since I don't think I even own one ring...

So get the picture...I am under a very heavy responsibility for life in several situations, I feel completely inadequate for the task and in my prayer time God has suggested I find "Majesty" and the next thing I imagine, without any effort, is my hand with lots of rings holding a sword for battle...and I don't own one ring...actually have no desire for rings, truth be told I don't own or wear ANY jewelry, just never went down that road in personal design...

So if you extract me from the equation and look at what is happening in prayer...not much in way of spoken language, not a lot of words going back and forth, more of a "showing" than anything else...its as if someone is showing me something by way of mental pictures as I APPROACH God...

Mind you I have not even really prayed about the crisis yet, I've just gotten over some very mopey attitude (thanks to some inspiration from God) and all I've prayed so far is the word "Majesty"...

Now here's where the mental side of the equation goes off the rails...logic at this point would dictate that I ask what the rings were about...problem is...I already knew...

And this is one of the features that distinguishes a vision/mental interaction with God, from a general imagination or thought...in a "God imagining" you instantly know things that would take a paragraph or two to explain, or would require some kind of extended explanation for your comprehension, yet they are immediatly dropped into your spirit and you instantly "know" what you know...the information becomes something that would normally require history but in this moment it becomes complete without the normal path of time.

And in this vision I knew the rings were wedding rings, even though they looked nothing like wedding rings from my cultural perspective. One of the rings had a big black piece of Obsidian, another had a blood red stone, yet another had a white stone with an engraving on it, none of them were gold, or diamonds or really all that beautiful they were...I dunno...Pirates rings.

They reminded me of the rings Johnny Depp wore in the Pirate Movies...

And this is what the Lord said to me..."You should ask me for wedding rings..."

...Meaning I was seeing something that God wanted me to have and yet He was requiring that I still ask Him for it...and it made absolutely no sense whatsoever, especially in context of the difficulties that were weighing on my heart...

This is where it began to make sense...when I looked at the ring with Obsidian in it, I was reminded of a specific enemy in the demonic realm I had encountered in the past...and I realized that the ring was the equivalent of taking that demonic head off and storming its castle and keeping its territory for my Lover, Jesus...obsidian is an old arch enemy of mine (for lack of a better name)...and by asking for wedding rings I was asking for specific victories and triumphs over the demonic in the areas that I was currently being intimidated in...

...here's where I am at in the story...I am facing some serious life threatening issues in my family and God has told me to ask Him for wedding rings...and as I posture myself to frame the question He drops this gem into my spirit, "Your greatest weapon in this fight is your intimacy with me..."

Let me get this straight...I am in a life crisis, been kinda whiny about it, God tells me to find Majesty, then tells me I need to ask for wedding rings, next thing I know I am understanding that my greatest weapon is not "harder prayer, more faith, greater faith, stronger words, or any of the things we tend to think it will be...my greatest weapon is my intimacy with Jesus...something I COMPLETELY LOVE TO DO....worship and adoration and kisses to heaven, (even unrestrained dancing when nobody is looking)...

Now I have a way to pray, and have learned a thing or two about Gods tenderness and His perspective on the battle, and I am no longer intimidated I am excited to pray and ready for victory...

I kinda like this idea...the idea of a Pirate Bride, "one who attacks" especially now that I know loving Jesus and drawing as close to Him as possible is in fact the best way to storm the castle and take territory for Him...

I should ask Him for wedding rings...

The Funny Book of Love...

The Book of Love

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing

It's full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing

But I....I love it when you read to me
And you...You can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact that's where music comes from

Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb

But I...I love it when you sing to me
And you...You can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago

It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we're all too young to know...

But I...I love it when you give me things
And you...You ought to give me wedding rings

And I...I love it when you give me things
And you...You ought to give me wedding rings

And I...I love it when you give me things
And you...You ought to give me wedding rings

You ought to give me wedding rings

-Steven Merrit (The Magnetic Fields)

One of my favorite songs, you may remember it from the closing episode of Scrubs...Peter Gabriel did a cover version of it that he sings with his daughter Melanie...great song, youtube it...

Anyway...why would I post a song like this?

Because I think it highlights one of the more obscure aspects of God almost no one talks about...

His sense of humor...

The song is really kind of sarcastic...which is a fun kind of humor, its actually one I really enjoy.

So yes I am suggesting that God is quite sarcastic...

I believe that every kind of humor there is... finds its origin in God...

Sarcasm, slapstick, puns, riddles, jokes and just plain ol' goofiness...

I think Gods humor is always wrapped in love, which is kind of the way I feel about this song, it comes across with a bit of an acid tongue, describing loves book as so damn heavy no one can pick it up...but then the song goes on to call out for love in every verse..."you can read me anything"...

If you look at the story where God has lunch with Abraham and tells him that the promised son will be here next year, and Sarah laughs there is a cool play on what happens....God says "Why did you laugh Sarah?"...She says "I did not laugh..." and God says "Oh but you did!"....


...

...you did laugh at my joke didn't you?...

"No I did not laugh"....

"Sure you did..." and I think as God tells her this that God himself is laughing...

It really is kind of an amazing joke...a woman well past menopause is now going to have a baby...

I wonder if she had to go through menopause again?...I wonder how Abraham handled it?

...really when you think about it, it is kind of hilarious...but here's the punch line...

They named the promised son "laughter"...

I am discovering this incredible tension of Gods abundant amazing love wrapped up in laughter and joy and the burden of the human heart as I come in contact with Him.

Of late I have been praying a lot...many hours at a time...and God is ALWAYS in a good mood when I meet with Him...

But my heart is heavy...

So heavy...

Even in His Presence where there is fullness of joy, I am experiencing a heaviness that is partnered with laughter...its kind of freakin me out...

Its funny and tearful all at once...

I have no model or template for this...

I am completely at rest in His Presence, I am completely at home there...it is my greatest addiction right now...I long for His Presence and run to pray at the end of every work day...


...but when I get there...it is so heavy...maybe its the weight of Glory I have no idea...

Maybe its transformation...

Whatever it is...its funny...and heavy at the same time...

It's showing me Gods incredible sense of humor, its funny and serious, hilarious and heavy, beautiful and bold, all at the same time...

God has a divine sense of humor...and He wants you to laugh with Him so He can tell you the punch line...which is your greatest desire He will fulfill...but ya gotta laugh at His jokes...

I'm laughing and crying all the time now...

"But I...I love it when you give me things"

Where's the love?

It is getting near Valentines day, probably one of my (if not the) favorite holidays in the entire year...yeah I know guys are not supposed to be so mushy...whatever.

Being a divorced single Valentines Day always carried a little bit of pain with it, since our primary emphasis is on romantic love, but several years ago I adjusted the way i thought about it.

My primary paradigm about the holiday now is that it is about love...and even a little bit of culturally warped love is better than no love at all...

Where would we be without love?

Truly none of us could function even a little bit.

Fish need water to swim, birds need sky to fly, and people need love to live.

We were made to love and to be loved.

So if you take out all the love then you take out all the life.

I've had fish tanks where due to neglect the water got cloudy, tropical fish are extremely beautiful but the balance of the eco-system is very fragile and it doesn't take much for the water to fall below optimum opacity and chemical balance...but just because the water was cloudy I never once thought about getting rid of all water and expecting the fish to survive.

Sometimes our relational life gets a little cloudy, especially in a world where people are paired up like animals heading to the ark, many times being single feels like you are gonna get stuck outside the ark when the flood comes and there is a quiet desperation that wants to dominate your emotions...

...still...I would rather see and observe a romantic holiday that celebrates the intent of loves design than live in a world devoid of all love because I am now single.

Even observing love is better than living in a love void.

What is better than love for us?

And just because you may not be in a "romantic" relationship does not mean that you are not living in a love aquarium where the Father is closely watching your emotional eco-system...He knows exactly what you need and it always starts in His love, so really...we always have love.

So I rejoice in any celebration of love, I am a hopeless romantic and will remain such until I breathe my last...I still listen to Frank Sinatra and Harry Connick Jr. and Nat King Cole and any others who "love" love...

The Bible declares that the greatest force of action that we can move in is love...and love will remain...we are continually called to love and to grow in our love and to be lovers of God and to receive His love and well....there's a lot of love in the Bible.

It really is quite simple...we should never be afraid to love, we should never apologize for loving, we should never be embarrassed because we are romantics and enjoy the idea of love...we should never feel ashamed that we need love...

We all need love...

Let me say it again...

We...

All...

Need...

Love...

Every person you know needs to be loved...and you need to be loved...so whats the big deal in talking about it, celebrating it, focusing on it?

Really when you think about it, who benefits if we abandon love?...Only hell...there is no love in hell...

...and really that is the best definition of hell I can think of, its like forcing a fish to exist outside of water, hell is the only place in the universe where there is no love...think about it.

So really...

Even celebrating broken and mangled human love kinda guarantees we are at minimum providing something that keeps the atmosphere of hell at bay...see hell cannot exist in love anymore than love can exist in hell.

So I ask...where's the love?

Because once you find it...you've found a safe place, an "anti-hell zone" so to speak...

The good news is we get to practice being people who love, it is our heritage, it is the atmosphere we were meant to thrive in...so go ahead...celebrate romantic love...enjoy the environment that your very nature requires to exist...

You were meant for love...and love was meant for you...love is, after all Gods idea...He invented it...He is it...(God is Love)...and even romantic love shows us the way to God...

What a cool way to live and thrive and what an exciting journey we are on...we get to learn about love all the while being loved by a God who is in His very nature love...

Even the Beatles knew...all you need is love.

How I pray

I love to pray.

This week I had several days of "non-work" due to snow and such...I tried to do stuff, but ended up spending most of the time in prayer.

It was great...

Wasn't always this way.

It used to be great effort to pray.

I never felt like I prayed enough.

Never felt like it did much good...

Oh I had moments when I knew I connected, but for the most part I did not enjoy it and it seemed like warfare/work and not something fun, more something essential if I was to survive, so I did it in self preservation....which means I only prayed when I really had to.

All of that has changed...

...rather than tell you how I got here I will simply tell you what I do now.

My primary activity in prayer is just thanking God for who He is in my life...I start with some general thanks and praise, I try to articulate something more than "You are glorious", I really attempt to connect His Glory to some facet of His current activity in my life and declare my gratitude for what He's doing...then I wait...


...and wait...a little more...

Sure the crisis thoughts (head noise) try to crowd in and dominate my mental activity, but when they do I just go back to thanking Him for who he is even in those situations...

So I thank him...I thank Him some more...I tell Him I love Him...I worship Him a bit...and then I ask Him what He wants me to pray...

See it really is kind of rude to dominate the conversation with someone as High as He is, His majesty alone should shut us up, and frankly when I ponder His greatness my issues seem to take a diminished importance in the room...I wait to hear from Him about how and what I am to pray, rather than impress Him with my language and thoughts, I am learning to wait for His thoughts and His ways...

Frankly, He doesn't say many words, but He says a tremendous amount in the few phrases/verses/pictures that He impresses to my spirit...

Once I know what He wants me to pray, I pray it several different ways.

I declare it to myself, I sing it to Him, I cry aloud and lift my voice, I meditate and consider what He is asking me to to ask Him, I look up verses He gives and pray them back to Him, I express in all my persona the prayer I receive from Him.

Sometimes it takes hours, sometimes it takes only moments, but when I do connect with the prayer He wants me to pray, there is a confidence and a faith quotient that is not possible from my own human efforts.

It is fun.

I have no idea where it will go.

He always surprises me, and He is radically consistent with all the ways He has dealt with me throughout the years.

I am deeply aware that He is present and wants me to partner with Him...He has a plan and an agenda that includes my faith and my character being fully challenged and developed as I choose His prayer for me to pray.

I now keep pretty serious prayer journals that coincide with my prophetic journals...and I usually maintain a very high focus on my inheritance and life verses, because God will continue to grow the revelation of who I am and who I am to be based upon what He has always said to me...see prayer is more about changing me than anything else...and if I approach prayer as some way to strong arm or manipulate Him to do something for me...well that just seems rude and ungrateful...and how can I have intimacy with someone if I'm trying to manipulate them?

True love creates liberty, and liberty is just another way to say "options" and as I love Him I want to give Him every option in my life that is possible...even the impossible options...

...and my Father seems to enjoy the free will offering of options...when He's in charge He gets to pick the menu...

"He sets a table for me in the presence of mine enemies..."

Prayer is exciting this way...makes me wanna go pray right now...

Thanks Dad.

Our Prophetic Identity

Recently I had one of those "Ohhhhh...." moments...you know the instant something suddenly makes sense, like the cogs falling into place and the gates opening up when you say the right magic password.

I have been reviewing my journals for the last few months because I noticed some things coming round that I had completely dismissed and forgotten about and when I recognized them I realized they were in my journal as prophetic words/prayers/events.

As I reviewed my prophetic history it dawned on me that God was very consistent, and He always remembered what he had said to me before...like "duh"...that is so obvious...maybe to you but not to me, I tend to see shadows and silhouettes rather than the things right in front of my nose.

So here's what I am discovering...God speaks to us about who we are in the future and then refuses to acknowledge any other identity we may try to walk in. There is a distinct conflict between our prophetic identity and our current personality, usually manifesting in negatives and problems.

I am beginning to see that this is what means when scripture tells us to put on Christ, or put on the new man, the bible is pointing us towards an identity that is recognized in heaven, but perhaps not so manifest in our daily walk...and I am seeing that this is actually one of Gods "ways", it is how He approaches us and if we fail to see it we will miss it completely.

I can see He deals with all the saints in scripture this way, He speaks of their favor, their authority and intimacy with Him, and then He refuses to recognize any other version of them that they may want to fall back on.

God always see's us from the perspective of our prophetic identity, and NOT our current personality, and whats more, ALL of the resources that accompany that prophetic assignment are connected to that person as seen in heaven.

So if you pray from a negative personality, there will be a distinct disconnect from the resources and function of heaven in your life because God has spoken over you a particular identity and He will refuse to hear any other persona...thats right I said He will refuse to hear any other persona, especially when He WANTS TO GIVE us everything we need, he will refuse to give it to the negative persona that we might manifest because it is in direct conflict with the person He declares from the future.

All prophecy is simply a picture from your future of what God see's and what is possible if you will believe.

So the challenge is how do we grow into the prophetic person that is seated right now and known in heaven?

I'll tell you....just not right now.

All will share alike

There is an odd story in 1 Samuel 30 where David and his men are pursuing some thieves and part of the team by virtue of circumstances needs to stop and wait by the stuff rather than continue and fight in the battle...

When Davids men get the victory and return to the "waiters" an argument breaks out about who gets what stuff, the men who went on the battle suggest that those who waited by the stuff only get to keep what they guarded of their own, David tells them NO!

"So it was, from that day forward; he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel to this day."

David made it an eternal decree that those who wait by the stuff get the same reward as those who go into the battle...

"All will share alike"...meaning the division of the spoil of battle will be given to each person equally regardless of if they were in the battle or simply guarding the stuff.

I started out in ministry with a lot of hope and lot of energy and a whole lot of ignorance.

I look back and realize the incredible hand of God in keeping me on track...I have been adopted by just about every ministry that I have encountered, I somehow managed to be grafted in to ministries and covenants that really I had no right to.

This has been really humbling to a guy deeply aware that his natural father did not want him, his adopted father did not understand him and his dream partner left him for someone else.

To be grafted in to families and ministries by the hand of God speaks volumes about His grace and Agape love for me in spite of my insecurites.

As I finished a chapter in my life last year I became accutely aware that Jesus had a promise for me...just as real as any other visitation from Him Jesus let me know that my "remaining by the stuff" these last 16 years did not go unnoticed and I would recieve the same pay as those who went out to battle.

It is an eternal decree that the House of David has made that if you stay by the stuff, being obedient to guard and nurture what has been left behind you will in turn receive the same reward as anyone who manages to keep it together enough to stay in the battle.

Within that promise to me are very specific words about the things I stopped pursuing in order to raise my kids...in some fashion I put my own dreams on hold, my own needs on the back burner and poured out my life in order to remain a Godly example to my kids as I raised them.

Really the reward I was seeking was to see them made whole and complete and God has been faithful, my kids have not been messed up or disabled by the divorce and heartache that a split family normally produces, for the most part my kids are confident, whole and serving God on their own which is a testimony to His Grace.

Frankly I did not make those sacrifices for a reward, I made them because that's the kind of person I wanted to be.

So when Jesus showed up with this promise of ministry and relationship and life, that I would recieve the same share as someone who had never left the battlefield, I was completely undone.

I still am...it messes me up to know that Jesus is thinking about the stuff I quietly sacrificed and turned away from...

My heart was always in the battle, I have always been driven to advance the Kingdom of God and really...I felt that my part would simply be in raising my kids for the kingdom and that would be it...

But God is always bigger than we believe, and He is always better than we imagine, and His promise is always greater than what we can hear...and He enjoys rewarding His kids...as a matter of fact I am discovering it is His nature to reward us as often and as much as we will allow.

So what does it look like?..this promise of sharing the same as those who go out into the battle?

I dunno...for me it will involve traveling to nations, building the kingdom, the prophetic, worship, music, art, a thirty year marriage, pretty much everything I managed to set aside in order to guard the stuff.

Two years ago I was invited to teach in a Bible school in Scotland...I immediately said no since I was raising kids...I imagine I get that back...I get back the relationships I had with missions in Bern, Columbia, Germany, Mexico, and Apai and Samoa...at least I get the same pay as if I had continued down that ministry path...

So 2010 is not just a new year...it is a new epoch...and I've got a lot to do, a lot of mental "catch-up" and releasing the kingdom to get on with...its a bit daunting...it will require planning and faith, both of which I need more of...but like Leahbeth told me recently:

"Dad sometimes I don't have enough faith and I just tell God to give me some more and He does..."

...The stuff we've been guarding was/is training us for greatness...

So let me ask you...what is it that you've sacrificed in order to "guard the stuff"???

..."All alike will share"...

Satellites

Sometimes the natural world is a reflection of things in the spiritual. Take for instance our planet and the way we orbit our Sun, as well as having things in our own orbit...sometimes the rotation and interaction of the planets can be a metaphor for how we are existing.

Now mind you I have no place for astrology, I believe that is a bunch of malarky created for people who do not know how to trust God, however God did write in Genesis that the stars and planets would be for signs to us...

I recently began to think about eclipses and how powerful they can seem, especially if you do not know the natural order they play out in, think about something having the power to block out the light of the Sun and how that might affect an uninformed paradigm.

But what is an eclipse (thinking lunar here)?

It is when a lifeless, waterless, gravitational object blocks out the light, warmth, and illumination that would normally be a part of everyday life.

How many times do we allow jobs, relationships, expectations, finances, elections, schedules, etc...block out the warmth, and revelation that we would normally enjoy?

If you understand what the moon is, it should be clear that its only power is in keeping its own orbit and in reflection, it has no power to create light or feed life, even its gravity if you are on it is an unstable environment that you cannot trust.

Perhaps we should just look out at our sky and see what exactly is keeping the light of the Son from reaching us, what is it that prevents us from experiencing new revelation, what has kept us in an unstable gravity and what is the lifeless, waterless object of our attention that needs to move out of our orbit?

Have you bought into a certain mindset or teaching that keeps you from experiencing a deeper revelation?

Are you addicted to an expectation that prevents the Lord from moving in your life except upon the conditions you have established?

Is there a lifeless relationship that no matter how you try keeps you from feeling the warmth of Gods love today and every day since you can remember?

Maybe the job you are in only meets you with a dry, waterless and unstable gravity, that never allows you to see your true calling and purpose...

Regardless of the conditions you are over shadowed with ANY eclipse is temporary and eventually the big lifeless rock moves out of the way...

Hope smiles even in the dark of an eclipse...

All things new...

The book of Revelation describes that Jesus is making all things new...not all new things...my mind naturally surveys the world outside and says huh? But as I think about it, I begin to realize that the things Jesus values and makes new are not the things we necessarily value and want replaced.

I especially think about the holidays at this time of the year and the painful process that a lot of divorced and separated families go thru as holy-days are divided and isolated, parted out and packaged in dysfunction, only to leave a residue of emptiness.

I have distinct memories of feeling like a third wheel, burying emotional loneliness and missing my kids all at the same time while surrounded by loving covenant family...its an odd shape our heart takes when pain and love collide.

But now...

Now...I am somehow different, I feel a substance and a life that over-powers the murky cloud of isolation that being a divorced single brings...now somehow my soul sings in the fog and it is a real song, not a simple whistling past the graveyard kind of tune.

It is because my heart has been made new, which I now realize is "more-better" than having a new heart, that is why I sing...

Can you imagine getting a brand new heart and having to break it in?

The first time you're left alone...brand new, the first kiss and heart-break, brand new, the first loss of something dear, brand new, all of those myriad emotions and trauma's brand new...

Jesus knows better...in His wisdom He knows that an old broken heart made new is much more beautiful than a new heart broken in...

An old heart made new knows the value of making His praise bigger than the problem...

An old heart made new knows that tenacious love is stronger than death...

An old heart made new knows the value of a gentle word and a a face of faith...

An old heart made new truly understands that a faithful friend can see past the chasm of despair and will walk quietly beside you until the Morningstar appears.

I am beginning to see how truly rich I have become by the making of an old heart new...rather than simply replacing a broken one.

There is an amusing event in Luke 1 where Zacharias ask Gabriel "How will I know this?"...Gabriel had appeared to bring him a word that old old prayers, buried in brokeness and completely unavailable because of an old heart were about to be fulfulled...and Gabriel does an amazing thing, he tells Zacharias, "You will be unable to speak until the promise is fulfilled..."

At one time I thought this was the way God was, he would smack you down if you did not believe, but I now understnd that it is Gods grace that made Zacharias mute, see the bible says "life and death are in the power of the tongue"...and Zacharias was speaking from an old heart that had not been made new yet...God was simply keeping Zacharias from destroying with his mouth what he had prayed about for years before and lost hope in...

It reminds me of that scene in "You've got mail" where Tom hanks leans over to Meg Ryan as she starts to say something mean and places his fingers on her lips and says..."let me help you not to say something you'll just torture yourself about for years to come..."

See God is actually helping Zacharias because his heart is still old and he will say something bad if the angel doesn't shut him up...that is the danger of keeping an old heart old...so he goes mute until the promise is delivered.

And once the old heart is made new the mouth follows...Zacharias "spake and praised God" once his heart was changed...

It is impossible for others to know the pain of a lonely heart, I will not pretend to know anything except what I have experienced...but I can assure you as someone who has had both an old unbelieving heart, and an old heart made new...new is better...and old made new is better still...

Behold He makes ALL things new...

I am fascinated with time and eternity...as purely scientific concepts these things grab my attention. I have come to identify eternity as a region of space/geography/dimension that is NOT subject to time. Time itself as I understand it is a created thing, much like a tree, it is something God created, therefore by definition He is not subject to it, it is subject to Him.

If you think of time in the western model then you probably imagine a line that starts with a beginning and has an ending...so it is a definite length, this is usually how we think of time and we are very good at creating time lines and schedules based on this understanding, which at best is very simplistic.

So what if time (whatever it is) functions like we imagine and there is a beginning and there is an end and it has definite length and can be measured...it has a dimension and perimeters and it might even be possible to see it, as long as you are outside of it...

What if time from the beginning to the end is completely visible before Gods throne, which is outside of time and not restrained by it? If this were possible, then God could look at your life from any point on the line (using a western example here) and could base His posture towards you from any vantage point in the past, the present or the future...

Now here's where it gets a little different, God can quite possibly see your life as it occurs all at once from the first breath to the last...and because Jesus offered himself up as a sacrifice by the "Eternal" Spirit (Hebrew 9:14) he creates an "Eternal Salvation" (Hebrews 5:9) and for you that salvation gets superimposed upon the time-line of your life no matter where you are in "time"...your salvation, your redemption, and Gods attitude towards you all are not subject to time or any actions occurring there, other than the one act of placing yourself into eternity by accepting the sacrifice that is now outside of time.

Eccl.3:11 says this "He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end."...

So if I get this right, man which is a temporary being based upon a time-line, has eternity inside him...are you freaked out yet?

I dunno...its kind of cool to think about this stuff, the bottom line is that God has done something for us that goes beyond our limited scope of time, and not only that He has placed "anti-time" or eternity into our hearts...maybe thats why we are so clock conscious and aware we are aging, because in our hearts we know that time is temporary, it is simply the scaffolding of Grace around the building of our lives...

How the world works

I have come to the clear and unmistakable conclusion that the world we live in is designed to be lived in by faith.

First of all, it is a world full of mystery, there is no one person on the planet who is able to answer all the mysteries that life holds out, and in order for us to make it all make sense we need some sort of adjustment to our reality, this adjustment comes to us in the form of faith.

Now regardless of if you are science oriented or religion oriented, you must hold certain aspects of our world system in tension to the reality you walk in and the ONLY way to do that is thru faith, you simply choose to believe a reality exist that you cannot possibly prove.

This is the core essence of how faith works, believing in a reality that you are unable to prove at the moment, be it a healing, a breakthrough, or a scientific hypothesis at some level you choose to believe in a reality that has no substance in this moment in time...and your faith becomes the substance that brings the unproved into your reality.

Ever wonder why as a species we have the need for everything to make some sort of sense? And when things do not make sense to us, or violate our sensibility, we turn to some sort of faith, or project the tension into the unknown and mysterious thru the use of faith.

Everyone knows the argument about the origin, where did the very first crystal come from or the very first molecule that formed the basis for the big bang or whatever you believe?...at some point everyone has to admit that there is a realm beyond our capacity to understand and how you deal with that realm absolutely REQUIRES you to use faith...faith in science or faith in God, once you get past the edges you are left to responding by faith in something.

And this is how God designed the system to work.

If you are on this planet, you will be required to operate in faith, you may not like that, or you may disagree, but it makes no difference it is a reality of the world you live in.

So knowing that admission to the planet requires some degree of faith, what does that imply about God?

He apparently likes faith...His planet, His decision, you can love it or hate it but you get no say in it, His rules and His rule.

So the obvious conclusion is this, faith is a commodity that God values, He actually requires it of everyone who is born on the planet...so what are you doing to grow in faith?

On heresies

Recently my youngest daughter was doing the typical teenage thing and stayed out to late, did not sleep enough and hung around some friends who had strep...guess what?

She came down with strep.

We got her some antibiotics and after a rash and some sleep she was fine.
It began to illuminate to me something I see happening in the body of Christ, that frankly has been going on for a long time, and its time we looked at the sickness and the cure...there are some rather poisonous teachings that have become part of the current expression of Christendom and frankly it looks a lot like a teenager with strep



There is one particular theological virus that I have come to detest, and I see it affecting vast segments of the body of Christ in very detrimental and unhealthy ways...I call it the "the bad ending virus"...

There is a particular set of fictional books that ten years from now the majority of Christians will consider as demonic heresy, books whose primary focus is a really bad ending of the age.

There is also a very predominant heresy that describes the ending of Gods gifts be they spiritual (pneumatikos) or personages (Apostles/Prophets), an ending that supposedly happened somewhere around AD 100 when the last Apostle died.

One other strain of this particular doctrinal virus is what I would describe as "eschatological strep" that manifests as the infected see conspiracy's, new world orders, the mark of the beast, and an intense fear of what might be coming any day now, and on and on etc...

I will make it plain:

Tim Lahaye (and his partner in fictional crime) needs to repent, the entire "Left Behind" series is a gross study in negligent theology, and Hal Lindsey needs to join them on his face for the inconsistent nonsense he's been spewing out at a great profit for over 20 years.

The mismanagement of eschatology and the consequential theology that must be embraced in order to buy into the "Left Behind" series, as well as just about any Hal Lindsey book should make any clear thinking believer shake their head in embarrassment, a simple reading of New Testament eschatology will clear the air right quick as long as the believer is willing to trust that what is written by the early Apostles is what God meant.

But it isn't simply bad eschatology that these works of fiction create, they also contribute to a general weakness in the challenge to disciple nations, which is what Christ has commanded us to do.

Jesus was quite clear about when the end would come he said in Matthew 24:14

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come"

...notice the little word "this" it is the Greek word "touto" and it is a demonstrative pronoun, referring to a specific and demonstrated "this"...in other words the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached and NOT SOME WATERED DOWN TRACT AND FOUR SPIRITUAL LAWS kinda gospel that we've been dispensing for several hundred years.

If you are of the mindset that we have "preached the gospel as a witness to all nations" already, well I beg to differ, Jesus made it clear that there would be a "witness" to all nations that was based on the preaching of the gospel that HE preached...which included raising the dead, healing the sick, setting captives free and challenging the religious elite and political power houses of his day...we have yet to preach that gospel to every nation...but its coming.

It would be a very convenient deception to convince the church at large that the assignment Jesus gave us was impossible and that events would over-ride his mandate to disciple the nations...as I read the words of Jesus the end depends on a message not an event, the message being the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached, and as long as your escatology makes the ending depend on an event rather than a message you will fail to engage in the assignment with anything like real faith.

Let me say that again: According to the words of Jesus the end depends on a message that WE preach, NOT an event.

How can you declare that the kingdom of God is here the way Jesus declared it if you don't believe it?

Simple answer is you cannot, and if you don't believe it you will not demonstrate it.

I learned a long time ago that if you don't believe in something , as a general rule you never experience it.

The denominational "Cessasionists" need to repent for filling the flocks ears with unbiblical positions that have no basis in biblical theology or historical accuracy, there is absolutely no evidence that the gifts of God, be they individual expressions of the Holy Spirit or be they ascension expressions of Christ's victory as demonstrated in Apostles/Prophets/etc have ever or were ever designed to cease until He returns.

Again if you do not believe that Apostles and Prophets exist how will you ever experience them? Funny how the role of Pastor/Teacher/Evangelist (which comes from the exact same verse) did not cease to exist when the Apostles died off.

The same verse that validates the ministry of a Pastor validates the ministry of an Apostle and there is no biblical record that either office has ceased to exist, anyone who suggest it is being dishonest and they know it.

The same goes for the gifts of the Spirit, great movements have conveniently picked and chosen which gifts would remain, and damaged the scripture to prove it.

You don't get to keep the gift of knowledge, or wisdom and reject the gift of tongues or prophesy...not without twisting the scriptures to meet your own unbelief.

If the thousand year reign of Christ in Revelation is literal, then so is the chain that binds the devil, because its in the same passage (Rev. 20:1-3) we don't get to pick and choose as we like what part of the scripture applies to our view and what part does not, either the Word of God is the Word of God or it isn't.

Which brings me to the final expression of this virus, the "escatological strep" version...I call it that because when you have strep everything you swallow hurts, and this particular strain of heresy sees the anti-christ in everything from innoculations to water supply. You can't drink a soda or play video games since these are "of the world" and don't even think about going to a movie or you will lose your salvation the minute you pay for the ticket, because as we all know the mind control of hollywood and the secret society that runs the world is so much greater than one who resides in you.

I am not making fun here, and I am also not saying that the anti-christ spirit does not exist, it does, but it is probably a lot different than we realize, it is primarily "against the anointed one"...and did you know that you have been anointed?


There is a simple cure for this virus...and it cures all strains...

Grace.

Charis...(the greek word for grace) is also used for the gifts...and really Charismatics should be known as "Grace-a-matics" unfortunately we are not.

1 John 2:27 "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him."

The word "anointing" is the word "chrisma" which is rooted on "charis" or grace...in other words you have received a gracing that teaches you ALL things...even things about the end...you already have the anti-body to the "bad ending virus" right inside you from the Holy Spirit...so stop believing in a really bad ending and start believing in the anointing inside you...


Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.


We have an assignment, Jesus told us to disciple NATIONS...did you get that?

Notice how long this assignment last...it takes until the "end of the age"...in other words Jesus gives us an anointing and an assignment with a promise that he would be with us until the very end...if your belief is that the assignment is optional to the end of the age, or that perhaps events are greater than the assignment and the anointing to accomplish it, I suggest that we believe the words of Jesus before we throw them out in favor of Hal Lindsey, Tim Lahaye and our own personal fears...

If you are suffering from some "bad ending" virus I suggest you take a little grace and get back in the game...nations are waiting to give glory to Jesus...and He is with you...especially when you are on assignment.