The End is Near .. Peapods in the Pigpen

We are seeing a radical rise of lawlessness in the USA, South Africa, France, Sweden and many other nations where there is no longer in many areas any attempt to retain or restore order.  Authorities are giving up and retreating.

If you have ever watched any of the Mad Max movies did you ever wonder, "Where are the police, the military?".   You didn't because you quickly came to realize they couldn't and wouldn't restore order.  We will see such a world in some places soon.

What is about to happen?  My friends who believe we are in the end times point to the verse from Matthew 24:

9“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10And then many will fall away^a and betray one another and hate one another. 11And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

They say, SEE, those signs are everywhere.  We are living in those days.   We are, but this has happened before and also again and again.  It's a long deep cycle.  It moves with faithful inexorable repeatability.  There is no stopping it, but when we recognize the pattern we can cooperate with what God is doing in the earth.  It has nothing to do with end times or the return of Jesus.

We are in that portion of the cycle of lawlessness and love growing cold.  People falling away.  People betraying one another.  Unfaithful friends.  People claiming to be men of God misleading many.  Many into deep perdition.  Led astray they end up lost for any usefulness in the Kingdom.  Rendered inert.

There is no option but to endure to the end.  To let God do what he does.  To proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom.  To walk it out faithfully.

This is NOT about getting people saved, begging them to join a church, to get them to recite some prayer as a ticket to heaven.  This is about your personal demonstration of the Kingdom of God before all men.  There will be few that can do this, but some will.  There will be persecution, that too is part of the pattern. Endurance will be the requirement.

God is not surprised, He's not concerned, He's not wringing His hands.  He sees and knows the end from the beginning.

In the natural this is hopeless. This is going to get much worse before it turns around.  We are still living in the pig pen eating pods inside our culture. We have not yet come to ourselves.  We have not yet said, "I will return to my father".    We are lost, morally bankrupt.  We have no hope without Jesus.  Not for salvation, for restoring a culture that works.

There is a far superior culture to what you see all around you.  It is based on respect, honor, courtesy and honesty in all things.  It is made up of knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, and customs.
It is the sum total of man’s efforts to adjust himself to his environment and to improve his modes of living.  There is only one of those, all others are inferior.  We must learn to identify what that looks like.  Not all global cultures are equal.  Not by any means. There is only one that is superior to all others.

What we see in the world around us is animalistic, not based on any of these things. When the culture becomes exhausted with base culture, there will be a change.  It will require an overturning of the catastrophe that exists today in today's culture.  That will come after a crisis, a collapse, a complete capitulation.  This has happened in every country, every nation, every people who came back from a disastrous cultural condition. It is the order of things.

The Kingdom of God will expand, but first the prince of this world must be exposed for the evil he has done. Those who are his promoters must also be exposed.  The good news is they are being exposed, Religious leaders, political leaders, media leaders, education leaders, entertainment leaders, community leaders and business leaders are all being shown up for who they are.. But the end is not yet.  Exposure will not cause the culture to change, the change can only come as the Kingdom is modeled in the face of horrid conditions.

There are opportunities even today to do this... yet they are not being taken.  Mostly because it takes  setting aside of pride to do so.  This is not normal.

Prophetically, expect things to get rough, yet expect those who are citizens of the upside down invisible Kingdom to prevail and attract a lost world to them after they reach the end of their diet for pea pods in the pigpen.

Have hope, the end is near and a new beginning is coming.

Offended Sensitive Thin Skinned People are the Devil's Product

I know that it is hurtful to some, but when a person takes offense at everything, everyone, is hurt easily, holds resentment and is so thin skinned that everyone walks on eggshells around them.. you have a person who has been formed by demonic activity.

I am not saying that they are possessed, I am not saying they aren't saved and headed for heaven. They just will never be of much use for the Kingdom on this earth. They carry a chip on their shoulder, a grudge in their pocket and a chain of remembered and imagined wrongs done them in the past.

What is sad is some of these people at one time were mighty in the kingdom.  They were powerful. They had destiny.  YET.. today they have been sidelined by the enemy who devoured them.. he looked for someone, opened his mouth and consumed them by having them consumed with anger.

When you see people oppressed of the devil, they are a pitiful bunch.  What makes it worse it the offended person sees being set aside as further offense.  So it compounds.

It is from this platform that the enemy feeds deception into a person, a group, a subculture that becomes a meme of lies which cause them to become even more displaced, disused and discarded.

Be careful of offense.  It is a demon.  You may need to be delivered of it.  The offended person has lost their love..

1 Corinthians 13:

4Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. 6It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

The opposite of this is true today, even among Christians:
We have a culture that has lost the ability to forgive and forget, is not patient or kind, is proud and rude, demanding it's own way.  It is easily irritated, remembering every slight.  It prides itself on injustice and rejects the truth.  It gives up easily, loses faith quickly, hopeless and easily defeated.

IF that isn't the work of satan.. I don't know what else he could do.  You only have to look at all the offenses that has caused riot and protest in the last few years to see the fruit of this.  And the reactions from others. Offense is of the devil himself.

Proverbs 19:11 Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.

Proverbs 18:19 A brother offended is more unyielding than a strong city, and quarreling is like the bars of a castle.

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

One thing is for certain.. JESUS was really offensive to one group of people.. the Pharisees.  They crucified him. That same demonic spirit is alive today.  

 Get over your offense, take back your life.  This word is for someone today.

My Testimony of Pentecost

In the early 1981 I experienced Pentecost. It was alone. It was powerful.  It was personal.

The Spirit of God was poured out on me and I received Him supernaturally. It is why I am so passionate about what it means to be filled with the Spirit of the Creator of all the universe. The Promise of the Father... Jesus living in me.

I was saved, raised in the church, nominal, not yet entered into the fullness. There was a longing for more.. but nothing happened. When it happened it was so revolutionary I have never been the same. It is too late for anyone to tell me it wasn't of God, that it wasn't Biblical. The idea that everyone who is saved is baptized in the Holy Spirit isn't scriptural. I experienced Pentecost in a moment as complete as that day 2 millennia ago.

There are Ten Things I can testify that happened at that moment that changed EVERYTHING:

1. The Word of God came alive for me.. Every word lived in a brand new way
2. Clarity began to set in and delusions were dispelled as the Spirit of Truth entered
3. I was moved by Holy Ghost Filled preaching in a new way able to hear God speak
4. I was able to share Jesus without fear in a new fresh way
5. I became unafraid to testify of who HE is in me.. boldness came
6. Love for fellow believers magnified.. all believers
7. I was able to pray longer and deeper than ever, even in English sometimes
8. Singing in the Spirit became a default worship mode
9. I began to hear God speak in my quiet time.. comfort, wisdom, insight, vision, hope
10. Huge passages of scripture supernaturally became part of my permanent memory.  John 14:26  

There an many other things.. no fear of death, stability in my marriage, courage to face difficulty (didn't make the pain less, hope came alive), able to interpret what God is saying when others are speaking in another tongue.  I have had that experiencing again and again. In China, in Brazil, in Mexico and in Europe.  I know what it is to hear someone speak in an unknown tongue and hear what is being said.  God does all things well.

It is a fallacy to say that all saved people have the Fullness of the Spirit. Until you have lived a before and after life, you can't know that. No one who has had a personal Pentecost ever says that. They know better.  Getting saved was one thing, but the most revolutionary thing that ever happened to me was being filled with the Holy Ghost.. Pentecost can come to every individually, personally and it will have the exact same effect as it did in the second chapter of Acts.

Top Ten Reasons Ministers and Ministries Fail

I have known a LOT of People who have failed in ministry. Some were not cut out for the work. Some were emotionally incapable of making it.  Some were looking for a job and it didn't take.

Here are the top ten reasons ministers fail:

1. The call that wasn't. Your call is your anchor and if you were not called, you will drift.
2. Double-mindedness leading to man pleasing.   You are there to lead.. not follow.
3. Lack of a centered personal theology which comes from too many books that confuse the issue until they are stumble from one "truth" to another.  Chameleons can't lead.
4. Being led by the doctrine of the denomination.. the fellowship is your responsibility, not the denomination.
5. Allowing internal pressure from power groups to sway... hear but ignore and focus on the VISION.  Anything more than one vision is di-vision.  You are the set one, be it.
6. Allowing ministry to trump your marriage.  Allowing Children to trump your spouse.  Stay in order.
7. Becoming a follower in the name of servant leader.  You must lead, not follow.
8. Too many boards directing too many things .. they put you in, they can take you out.  Ministry by committee never works.
9. Not hearing from hard voices of warning when it comes.  God will always send someone to warn you.. hear them
10. Not resting when you should.  Overwork will cause discouragement.  Feeling guilty for not Praying enough.  Pray but don't be condemned.

God cares more about the sheep than he does about the shepherds he sends.  Yet he does care about the shepherds too. Hope this helps.

Father says... CHOOSE THIS DAY WHO

My day has been hectic so far.. not bad, just wild.  It's not unusual.  I operate in that realm and deal with stress pretty well... for the most part.

Yet, in having to navigate some difficult things this morning a half dozen times a choice had to be made.  Not a bad choice, a choice.  It would have been easier to leave it alone, let it mature and make a choice later.  Except that doesn't solve anything.

I was reminded of this truth:

Your life is a result of the choices you make If you don't like your life, it's time to start making better choices

This is not condemnation, but many people who struggle in life do so because of choices they make or let be made for them by default.  That is not God's best for any of us.  He wants us to hear from Him and choose. Choose to do what is right not only in your own eyes but in the eyes of the one who made you.  Much harm comes to the one who makes choices for evil.  

There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.  Proverbs 14:12


If confusion exists about what is the right thing to do, then ask the question, "How shall we then live"?  It's a critical question and one that requires an excellent answer.  Here are a few choices I am faced with and try to do right.

• IF I am able to leverage money in places other than what was agreed, is that a blessing or a bad choice?
• 
  If I am in a place at a time where frankly I know no good thing is likely to happen, is that a choice of privilege or is that a bad decision?
• 
  If I can get by with doing less, and I choose to, and get let go.. was that a good choice?

Once more with a little more insight:

Your life is the sum result of all the choices you make, both consciously and unconsciously. If you can control the process of choosing, you can take control of all aspects of your life. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.

Robert Foster Bennett

Maybe that's why I heard so clearly, CHOOSE THIS DAY.. who will you serve?

The Unveiling Continues as the Bride is Prepared

We are in a time of unveiling, exposure, revelation.

It's all around us.  You see it as people's fleshly motives are revealed.  This is happening in ministry, politics, economics, global strife, government, media, education, entertainment and even in our personal lives. 

That which was hidden and kept in the dark is now being revealed.  Shouted from the rooftops.

Many who are exposed say, "It's always been this way".  Some say "Other people do it".   Others say "I deserve this".  They are being shown up for the filthy clothing they wear.

Much of the national unrest we have seen is in fact exposure.

This is preparation for the bride.  She has been wearing filthy garments.  Wrinkled.  Spotted.  Grave clothes. If she is going to be revealed on the earth to a world hungry for reality to usher in an awakening, it will require her to be cleaned up.  She doesn't look very appealing right now.  She looks exactly like the world. She looks filthy.  She looks like she is at war with herself.  Within the body of Christ is a lack of unity that is in fact stinking filth. 

There is another exposure taking place.  Those who thought themselves followers of Jesus are being exposed for impersonation.  Not sin in the classic sense, but sinful motives, selfish motives, sectarian motives.  Filth.

When the attendants to the bride arrive to prepare the bride for her wedding, some of the cleaning up they must do is uncomfortable for the bride. A cutting away, harsh scrubbing, disinfecting, clipping, a discarding of former things that seemed at one time to be essential.  This causes great discomfort.   It also causes those who think it should be otherwise to know that there is no compromise.

Either the bride is ready for her bridegroom or she is rejected.

Which will we be.. or shall He wait for another?

When You Strip Away the Fear

This last year the End of the World folks are in overdrive.  Jesus is coming soon.  Rapture.  End of all things.  Armageddon.  It's almost time...

It was brought to my attention a word from Annie Graham Lotz (Billy Graham's Daughter) that we were in full mayday mode now. Then you have Harbingers and Blood Moons with Rabbi Cahn.
And lots of other voices who sell books, fill conference seats and end up on Christian TV telling everyone with the modern version of the sandwich board, "THE END IS NEAR".

Everything is ending and newness starts again.  Long Deep Cycles.

With all the recent "Prophetic" activity I thought perhaps we need to revisit a word the Lord gave me two years ago about this day we are in.  What is interesting is how much has already come to pass and is coming to pass right now.  When you strip away the fear, the rest is very good indeed... if you know JESUS.

The End of Days

Prophetic History is never linear. It is circular. Where we are on the great wheel of history helps us understand the past present and future. The Jewish mind in the time of the ancient writings saw history as a cycle.

Our western linear thinking makes us think that things must be future based, they are, but they are simply repeats of what has been. That's why scripture is so helpful to understand the times and seasons. There are events that foretell where things are on the great cycle. One thing is certain; Israel, spiritual and natural (Chosen People) is a key in understanding the benchmarks prophetically. It is a conundrum.

God's plan shoots like an arrow thru history, yet the cycle is how we grasp eternal truths. It's a convergence of eternal truth and humanities propensity to fall. Pagan peoples always embraced the cycle. Too many Christians have ignored the cycle and only embraced the arrow which points to an end time, a final conflict, a rapture, an event culminating in the coming of the Lord. It's a difficult thing to reconcile the human mind's incapacity to grasp eternity... yet to see the future history you must.


Here's what the Lord has shown prophetically in light of these things:

We are going to go descend further in our global culture. Life will become less and less valuable to the culture at large. Killing people for "reason" (sick, in the womb, mentally challenged, old, impaired, insanity or racially different) will become acceptable.

The attack on the family will grow driven by a demon that embraces homosexuality, destruction of all marriage, sexual insanity and the resultant children of those "families" will become pagan change agents for the worse. This will be promoted by the False Prophet (the cultural spirit embodied by media and entertainment)

Wars not yet imagined will break out as things change. Some will become severe. They will be racial, cultural (yes the cold civil war will become hot) and international as countries attempt to stop what they see as danger by imposing war against a source of the danger as they see it. It will happen as certain countries begin to see the USA (or any other nation) as a danger along the lines of how we saw Iraq after 2001. We went to war because we thought there were WMD's in an unstable nation. That license to conduct a preemptive war is now about to be exercised by other countries and if the USA becomes more unstable than it is today, we will see those nations attack the USA preemptively.

The imagined alliances in the world will dissolve under these attacks. Any illusion that France, Germany or England will come to our aid under such an attack is fantasy.

There are no global military to stand down a China or Russia who sees the USA as a global danger by taking direct action against her.

As things deteriorate, there will be attempts again and again to take control of other dangerous nations as a precursor. Mexico is one such by its continued lawlessness and corruption (there are small signs there may be progress in this area) stands vulnerable to invasion. IF a nation with a huge military were to move against Mexico (see Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela) supported by a Russian or Chinese Army and all it's might in a 3 pronged attack, do you imagine our government in its weakened condition trying to defend such action? Mexico would fall. I see this coming to a head.

This is not to be feared, it is the wars and rumors that are always with us and will be again. They are threatenings. God may in his mercy judge those but the real judgment is the heeding to the false prophet of the Beast that has brought us to this point. The apex that was the USA a generation ago that knew God now has become a nadir to a generation that has forgotten who God is. That cycle has been part of humanity since Joseph in Egypt. It is again.

God hasn't forgotten us, he wants us to be aware of what our decline and degradation has cost us. How the decisions we made over the last 50 years have brought us to this point. Even mentioning the reasoning of God as he says to us, "Let us reason together" is an offense to the false prophet.

We can only pray and act to have a real impact on a culture and society that no longer knows God.

Joseph arise! God have Mercy

End with Optimism
The time of this trouble in our world will be global. The high will be brought low.  This will appear to be a good thing for those who are low and feel like the high and mighty deserve this.  The problem is the low will be brought lower and many will not survive this time.

This is not the great tribulation, it is A great tribulation.  It comes as a curse on those nations who have substantially abandoned God and turned to their own ways.  Judgment was always declared on nations, but people in nations suffered.  "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; Matthew 25:32

There  is going be a complete economic reset in the nations, particularly harsh among those nations who have tried to game the global economic system to sustain unsustainables mostly in western countries.  This will mean the collapse of currencies.  This will mean warfare intranationally (civil war) as services collapse.  It will start slowly; Detroit was considered a black swan.  That destiny waits for many cities, states and nations. Prophets have declared in the past that Detroit would be a pattern for the nation.  Many spiritual leaders didn't think it would be like this.  Other cities will collapse, then states and eventually the whole nation.

Once one large western nation collapses, other economic dominoes will follow; one at a time.

That will create the chaos that neutralizes the supposed power of a one world currency.

People will form these smaller subcultures.  Skill will once again become the currency of exchange.  I will do for you as you do for me.  Exchange will be conducted with hand written IOUs in small community groups.  Those who have nothing to offer (skill), those who cannot contribute in these small sustaining subcultures will die.  Man's fallen nature will not support one another in a godless society.  Give to get.  Dog eat dog. Raw survival.

Add to this the constancy of violent global weather conditions, not unusual, just constant. This will result in unmet needs in nations.  When earthquakes, hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, epidemics, volcanic eruptions, blizzards, tornadoes, floods, landslides and a hundred other killer events occur after a global economic collapse (I promise one is coming) there will be no response.  There will be no one able to respond. People will perish.  There will be much death and destruction from this.  There is hope however and it bears the signs of rebirth.  Read on. All this seems like doom and gloom and the end of all things.  It's not, its birth pangs as the Kingdom of God is advancing.

Those who look to these events as the end of the world aren't looking at the optimistic future I see. BUT, you can say, "Doesn’t seem very optimistic to me".  NO, if we depend on our leadership, our government or the corrupt world economic system, we have good reasons for pessimism.

There is no cause for optimism as long as two altars are erected in every home, city, church, state and nation.  One allegedly to the God of our Fathers and one to the Beast supported by the false prophet.  We have that situation now. There are two altars in many churches, Baal and God.  One is an altar of prosperity and fertility (Baal) and one is to Father God (giving lip service to trusting HIM for provision and protection).  It's time for one of them to be torn down.

The result of Baal worship is that those who support it become dog food.  Jezebel and Ahab were a type of this religious system of government with it false prophets who supported this evil government and economic bondage system (as is being formed right now in the USA).  The worship of Baal was for the purpose of assuring prosperity. That's the antichrist system we have in effect today.   You don't have to look for the antichrist spirit; he is in the news every day.  You don't have to wonder what religious governmental combine is supported by this.  It's global.

It's a strange combination, the false prophet is encouraging tolerance by imposing intolerance.  Islam is one such, but as John the Apostle said, the antichrist is already in the world and there are many antichrists.

When you see a false worship based on peace and prosperity wrapped up in government and supported by media with a degraded culture (as seen on TV and it's not Sham Wow) you see the beginning of the day when it must all be thrown down by the Eunuchs and consumed by the dogs. THROW HER DOWN.

There will be places of refuge, but they won't be predictable.  They will happen as the Holy Spirit manifests Christ among us.  Many places will remain in deep darkness, but the Holy Spirit will brood above the deep darkness and bring light at His Word.

This will result in the greatest awakening the world has ever known, even in Israel spiritual birth will come as a sign and a wonder.  Jesus will be manifested even greater than we have ever known.  Nearly all churches, as we have known them will dissolve. Our focus on some supposed future event will be discarded for the realization that here and now is the fullness of the Presence of Christ.  In the natural tragedies of flood and famine there will be supernatural events that point to the true and living God. Manna, Healing, Wholeness, Provision.  It is that happening at the hands of Holy Ghost empowered witnesses (not witnessing, being witnesses) demonstrating deliverance to the nations.

This will require sacrificing all the priests of Baal in our lives.  No more can we be of two opinions.  Now only one.

Our God is one.... and HE IS ABLE

WITHOUT FEAR

In the beginning of this I said there are deep long cycles.  Even with a destiny for all of us we are operating in patterns easily recognized from the Word of God.  One thing is certain; God will take judgment on the evil of rebellion - Its witchcraft to him.  He will strip away everything that violates the first and second commandments (Thou shalt have no other gods & No graven images or likenesses) until the only thing left is HIM.  He has always done this.  He allows rebellion to run its course until he pulls back hard. Just reading the book of Ezekiel chapter 7 and you can see clearly the pattern.  Gold thrown in the street. Money fails.  Rebellion results in desolation.  It happened before and in rebellion will happen again and again (long deep cycles):

Ezekiel 7:10b-22 The rod has budded
Arrogance has blossomed! 11Violence has arisen a rod to punish the wicked. None of the people will be left, none of that crowd— none of their wealth, nothing of value. 12The time has come! The day has arrived! Let not the buyer rejoice nor the seller grieve, for my wrath is on the whole crowd. 13The seller will not recover the property that was sold— as long as both buyer and seller live. For the vision concerning the whole crowd will not be reversed. Because of their sins, not one of them will preserve their life. 14“?‘They have blown the trumpet, they have made all things ready, but no one will go into battle, for my wrath is on the whole crowd. 15Outside is the sword; inside are plague and famine. Those in the country will die by the sword; those in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16The fugitives who escape will flee to the mountains. Like doves of the valleys, they will all moan, each for their own sins. 17Every hand will go limp; every leg will be wet with urine. 18They will put on sackcloth and be clothed with terror. Every face will be covered with shame, and every head will be shaved. 19“?‘They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will be treated as a thing unclean. Their silver and gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath. It will not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs, for it has caused them to stumble into sin. 20They took pride in their beautiful jewelry and used it to make their detestable idols. They made it into vile images; therefore I will make it a thing unclean for them. 21I will give their wealth as plunder to foreigners and as loot to the wicked of the earth, who will defile it. 22I will turn my face away from the people, and robbers will desecrate the place I treasure. They will enter it and will defile it.

The result of all this will be a wholesale return to the God of our Fathers.  False religions will fade away.  There will no hope except a return to the Lord.  "Come let us return to the Lord" will be the cry.

There will be no escape.  You won't be able to buy your way out of this.  The only thing that can save you are your relationships horizontally and vertically.

God will be in our midst.  Jesus will manifest.  The Holy Spirit filled saint will walk in authority.  In the middle of all this will be a recognition of the hopeless worthless materialist things that costs many everything, even their lives.

 

It will be a glorious new day. Stop the FEAR!

When the Temporal Disturbs

There are all kinds of crises going on in the world.  With a twenty four hour news cycle and reporters equipped with skype and cell phone cameras we see much of it in real time.  That causes us to think that things are worse, getting worse, radically worse.

At one time I tracked these things.  That was in my dispensationalist days.  I decided to become educated on earthquakes around the world and on hurricanes.  I went back in history as far as history existed and measured occurrences of both relating them to current events.  I discovered something.  Earthquakes come and go.  The earth moves a bit and the earthquakes happen.  There are no more nor fewer massive quakes today than there were 50 years ago.  We just hear about them more and graphically.

Same with hurricanes.  And drought in California.  It was a desert, it will be again.  It doesn't have to be as bad as it is, but that's what humans do.

Tornadoes.  About the same.

Yet when I woke up this morning and heard there had been another big quake in Nepal, I heard the Lord say to me, "Don't let the temporal disturb you.  There will always be trouble in time.  Focus on the eternal where I am.  I never change".

While it makes good Jack Van Impe TV things are as they have always been.  Wars, Rumors, Quakes, Storms, Rain, Drought, Fear, Hate, Love and Pain.   Nothing is accelerating or counting down towards anything except that for those of us who are older, we will see eternity sooner than others.

I for one am ready to be done with the temporal and it's constant crisis.  Keep my eyes on the Eternal Preserving God, Creator of all of Heaven and Earth.

Three Inconvenient Truths About Healing

We know that Jesus went about doing good and healed all who were oppressed of the Devil. So should we.  Churchy religion gets in the way.

There have evolved in many churchy environments three big Obstacle mindsets to being healed:

1. If it is God's Will I will be healed
2. If someone would just pray for me, I could be healed
3. Laying hands on the sick is not really as important as having faith to be healed

I know about now are wondering.  Let me be clear and a few truths about healing.

1.  It is ALWAYS God's will and ability for you or me to be healed. 
Healing is part of the full propitiation.  Part of the sacrifice on the cross.  It is finished.  The soterio, the sozo of our salvation. IF we say we are sick because it's God's will, then we dare not do battle, pray, hope or believe for relief because we would be violating the will of God for our lives. We would be coming against his will. Of course you know that's not the case.  God's will is for you to be healed, for all men to be healed, but not all are.  Since it is part of our full salvation, are all men saved?  NO.  But they all are meant to be. 

It is Gods will for all to be saved, made whole, delivered, healed and as much as is possible to prosper according to his purposes for you and me.  Let me nail that down one more time, don't say, "If it be thy will".  It IS His will.  You are not supposed to be sick.  You are not supposed to be infirmed or in pain.  I'm preaching to ME here.  It is always and in all places for you to be healed.  It's the children's bread..  IF you are a child of God, it's supposed to be your portion of the bread.

2. JESUS in his ministry on earth NEVER PRAYED for the sick to be healed. 
Nor for the dead to be raised.  If we are to do as Jesus did when he walked among us and healing all oppressed of the devil, then why do WE insist on praying for the sick?  To be clear, there is a place where healing and prayer intersect.  It is as we pray for spiritual strength.  As we pray to increase the faith for receiving healing.  As we pray to build ourselves up in the Holy Ghost to heal the sick.  BEGGING GOD to send down his healing touch is not what Jesus did.  He thanked God for hearing him... but what did he do next? He took authority, all authority that had been given Him on earth to cast out demons, heal the sick and raise the dead.  The authority HE gave to the disciples when he sent them out and that was before Pentecost. 

There is no formula other than the one Jesus exampled for us.   Pray to the Father, don't beg, then SPEAK OUT TO THE SITUATION.  Use the same Holy Ghost power that raised Jesus from the dead to heal the sick or cast out demons.  Don't pray, speak.  Every cell and sinew in our body responds to the voice of GOD.. Which when you act in this capacity you carry.  As you speak out healing command the cells respond. You can address them directly.  If a person has an infection, you can say, "Infection I speak to you now in the name of Jesus, come out of her, be extracted and never come back".   It won't always happen.. but it will enough times and more as you practice it more to give you even more confidence. 

If you speak healing over a hundred and ten are healed that's called a start.  When you speak healing words a year later over a hundred and 30 are healed that's called progress.  We are all on the path.  Now to the verse that anyone who thinks they know about healing will revert to... "The prayer of Faith will Raise them up".  You know it well.  So we end up praying rather than taking authority.  What is the prayer of Faith?  It is a prayer made and prayed before the word goes forth, it is meant to build faith, it is meant to be the prayer of instruction and confirmation of the healing power of God as spoken by a saint.  We need to stop praying for the sick and do as Jesus did.. speak to that mountain.  Let's do what Jesus did and stop praying for the sick.

3.  We need to restore the laying on of hands and all that it implies in healing virtue.   Somewhere along the line, particularly in large form churches the idea of laying on of hands for healing has lost it's punch.  There are reasons for this.  Numbers.  When you have an altar call for healing and 90 people come forward, many are tempted to say, "You don't need anyone to lay hands on you to be healed". 

Now there is some weak truth to that.  Certainly Jesus didn't lay hands on everyone who was healed.  Some reached him to receive virtue (woman with the issue of blood).  Some he just spoke to (Go show yourself to the priest and you will be healed).  Yet we have used these events to rob people of the laying on of hands. 

Sometimes when you are very sick, you need to borrow someone's faith to get well.. that is called impartaion of virtue.  Sometimes the problem is the elders of the church who should be the front line are so badly prepared in how to minister healing.  They fall into the first two traps (above).  So nothing happens. 

The well prepared church ministry has  many well trained well developed experienced in ministering healing people who can and will take authority over the illness or demonic influence and by the laying on of hands and anointing with oil to administer the good news of healing.  "who healeth all thy diseases".   If an altar call is 90 or 900, the healing flow takes place, people are healed according to the word of God and God gets the glory.

Does it take faith for healing?  YES.. but faith in what and who is the key.  Lets put our faith in the one who provides healing, the one who paid for our wholeness, the one who is ready, willing and able to heal if we will just do what Jesus did.  There is no formula. Jesus healed in several different modalities.  Yet the common denominator was being prepared to react when the chips are down.

It's too late if when someone comes to you for healing for you to say, "I'll go get elder Randy or Prophet Gene to help".  You need to be equipped for the ministry and today the Lord impressed me that someone needed to clear this up for themselves.  Start speaking to the situation and stop begging God to come do what he gave you all authority to do.

After you have been to the undiscovered country you can never go back

• Spoiled me for anything else
• I have never been the same
• Life as I knew it changed
• Things became real for the first time

We hear a lot about how travel expands a man or woman's mind.  It's true.  I have been fortunate enough to have seen a large part of the world.  My mind once expanded cannot go back.  If you tell me something about Japan, I have clear remembrances of that place..  my experience trumps your explanations.

If you tried to tell me about Germany where I lived for a few years, I would respectfully listen but I was there.  I know what happened.  I saw, I heard, I lived it.  My experience trumps your theories.

I grew up after World War Two.  My remembrances of those times are clear.  I know what I saw. I know how it was. Korea, Vietnam, Cuba Falls, The Berlin Wall.  The 60s.  70s.  80s.  90s.  2000s to today.  What might be history to you is for me clear recollection.  Experience is impossible to invalidate.

Those are all things that while living them we didn't know they were for us an undiscovered country.

Undiscovered countries are strange when you go there.  Visitors to India, China, Japan who are from the west often would have experiences that rubbed them the wrong way.  40 years ago it sure did.  I won't tell you of them, but there were some strange things.

This is also true spiritually.  We do not recognize how different life is after some unique time in the Lord changes us forever.  Some of those experiences are outside what those who have not experienced them might approve of.  For many it is the gifts of the Spirit, particularly Tongues.  Or being slain in the spirit.  Or Holy Laughter.  Or Fire Tunnels.  Or Prophecy. Or visions of angels or demonic presence.  Or strange manifestations that cause people to say, "They are drunk".  see Acts 2.

I don't always go these places I have been.. but I can't forget what happened there and what that means to me today.  I have been to the undiscovered country and can't go back to someone's theological theory that tries to debunk.   My experience trumps their theology every time.  That's what happens when you travel a bit.

At one time I was a critic of those who ventured into the undiscovered country.  After Toronto, after Pensacola I was one who was skeptical, even critical.  Sure I had experienced a great healing from the Ministry of Rodney Howard Browne.  On the floor for over an hour doubled up in Holy Laughter being released from a demon.  But the Lord wasn't done.  He wanted me to be careful not to call unholy that which IS holy.  "What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy." Acts 10:15

Pastor Dan Rothwell sat me down and worked thru some of the things I questioned.  I asked why he from time to time would bring in ministry groups and teams that were pretty off the wall (as I saw it).  He told me that he believed that people are capable of sorting these things out and the result should be that people will be expanded spiritually by such things.  

It certainly was true for me.

The devil has a stake in getting us to question what God is doing in the earth.  What "SHOULD" happen is ruled by bad theology.  That way when push comes to shove the enemy can say to us.. "Hath God Said"?   Sometimes he uses denominations to accomplish this.  Sometimes he uses the heresy hunters.  The spiritually inexperienced fall for such deceptions.  They are sometime even talked OUT of the things God has done for them.  God won't hate them.. He just will have to sideline them.  

To be clear there are some things that are outside the realm, but that is my opinion.   I once asked a national ministry leader why he went to certain places and ministered. I thought in a soft way he was endorsing them.  Not so.  He said, "How can they ever experience what we know to be true unless I go and help them go there".   He was bringing them the undiscovered country.. and they will never be the same again.

The Devils Toolbox... Right next to temptation is distraction (Oppression)

The devil has no new schemes.  Lies, deceit, temptation, condemnation, distortion and distraction is how he accomplishes most of what he gets done. 

He's effective because we keep falling for them.  Every generation has to be taught how to spot and avoid the traps he sets.  If they aren't well taught they become easy prey. Ignorance of the devil's schemes creates a blind spot that should not be there.

One that is particularly insidious is distraction. Its easy to spot. It might be money troubles, relationship problems, insecurity, difficulty.  It will cause even the most steady believer to stumble if it gets hard enough.  Oppression is a big distraction.  Oppression of the devil most often manifests itself in health issues.  That's why when Jesus ministry is described in Acts 10:38 "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him".

Healing those oppressed. Oppression is illness.  DIS-EASE.

When we are sick in body our faith reserve sinks.  We have to borrow faith for healing.  That's why we need others to lay hands on us sometimes, agree with us, give us a word of encouragement and come against the enemy of our body.  Our soul is not our body.. That much is clear:  Matthew 10:28
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell".

Yet when we are very distressed in our body it is not unusual for the devil to use it in oppressing us, discouraging us, even deceiving us.

It's not about confession positive or negative, it's about understanding that this meat suit we wear has an expiration date.  Sooner or later it comes up.

What to do?  When you find yourself discouraged and oppressed because of illness, remind yourself who Jesus is and what he does.  Accept that you are where you are, not because of what you did but the fact that you are going to change.   You will change over time for better or worse.. if worse there is nothing to fear... except God.  If you change for better it is mercy.

One last thought, have mercy on those suffering pain and dis-ease.  Pray for them.  Encourage them.  Help them focus on things eternal.. not on the things we see and feel here and now.

God is not going to change .. but we can.  It's God's will.  Have hope in God.  Even in your pain and suffering.  There is no other plan.. but HE is enough.

I write this because I am in this place right now. 

We have already HAD revival, NOW it's time for the NEW move of God

I have been around "churchianity" for a long time.  Longer than most of my readers have been alive.. and if that's not the case, congrats for a long life.

There have been wonderful waves that have flowed thru the body of Christ over the years in the USA. Each of them was new, exciting, refreshing.  God is always doing a new thing.  I remember many starting with the healing revivals of the 50s.

I am here to announce that once more a new thing has begun.. you see it all around you, you feel it.  It's right there.  You don't know what or why.  But you know it's true.

The day is coming soon where the church will undergo a powerful change.  It will mean a great separation.  You see it manifesting in the huge numbers of people who no longer attend any church yet are as passionate about Jesus as any yet in the church.  Masses of people who meet in homes with a few.  Others who take their time to minister to others.  Others who are reaching the lost one on one.

There is a pattern.  Jerusalem 69-72 AD.  Hard times and warfare came on the synagogue.  The old temple system had become corrupt. It collapsed and a great scattering took place.  That is a type of what is happening right now.  People are being sorted spiritually.  Those who are serious are scattering into the far country and carrying the power of the Gospel of Christ with them.

It's an apostolic action. SENT ONES.  Missionaries because there is no home to return to.  It's gone.  Not one stone (living stone) upon another.

Don't think I am telling you the church is dead.. it's not. It will no longer look like you remember. Your grandfathers church is going away.  You knew that in your heart but couldn't put words to it.

Now churches and assemblies will of necessity become gathering places for those apostolic sent ones to get marching orders and be refreshed, not taught.  Teaching is no longer the mode employ.  It must now be empowerment, equipping, releasing and from time to time adjustments of strategies.  There will need to be order, but it will be different.

You see this in large conference gatherings.  You see this in a few large churches (not all).  You see this in conventions of young people.  You see this in iterations that do not mesh well with what "Church" used to look like.  The church works against these changes.

This will happen as it always does.  Persecution and rejection of Jesus will cause a powerful reaction by Holy Spirit.  He will manifest Himself in Signs, Wonders, Healing and Revelation.  What won't happen will be a "Revival" as we have seen in the past. Yes there will be huge gatherings.. but they won't be what you think.  It will more like an army going to war, not an army constantly in basic training learning over and over and over again how to load their gun but never actually pulling the trigger.

When the Lord gave me this, He said,

"You have had revival, there are some recruits still coming in, but you are now part of the host of which I am LORD.  Revival is over, it's time to take the nations.  To bring in those lost and without hope. To go where I send.  To endure to the end.  To change the culture the enemy has created".  

We are engaged in a struggle against a defeated snake, who still strikes out. Against a wounded lion who still has teeth and knows how to roar and kill.  Do not fear nor draw back, but put on your armor to war.   To the battle".

So while many prophesy and pray for revival, I have heard the Lord say, it's time for those called and sent to take up arms.. in the Spirit.  On offense.  Looking for revival is a lost cause when the enemy is just over the hill.  It's time to count the army of the Lord and decide who is fit for battle. No man is fit for battle and command who cannot command himself.  This will take determination, clear vision and discipline.  Many will not make it and will fall away. Casualties of war.

This much is clear, "But those who endure to the end will be saved". Matthew 24:13

But we are not like those who turn away from God to their own destruction. We are the faithful ones, whose souls will be saved. Hebrews 10:39

Our hearts had not turned back; our feet had not strayed from your path. Psalm 44:18

This warfare will cause many to retreat, to fall back, to defect, even to join the other side.  This is not for the lightweight or new recruits. 

"And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it".  Matthew 11:12

Don't expect this to be easy warfare, don't expect it to be simply by a wave. This is now hand to hand, heart to heart, soul and spirit combat.. Victory is YOURS.. yet advancement is always opposed.. violent people are attacking..

"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."  2 Kings 6:16


PUSH BACK.. you are a part of the Lord's Angel Army.