Cleansing the Atmosphere

Turn on the news in any city around this nation and the top story is the weather. Since when did the weather become a top story, I remember growing up and the weather was one of the last things they discussed on the news and only my dad and grandma would watch the news until the end. But today, the weather is front page news, it is one of the first stories you hear about when you turn on the news. We hear about droughts in California, floods in Texas, snow, snow and more snow in Maryland, and Tornadoes in Oklahoma. In the past when prophetic people would try to address the reason for a storm, they would proclaim it is the judgment of God.

When New Orleans was hit with a hurricane that broke the levy and came on shore, prophets declared God’s judgment on that city. When earthquakes shake the west coast, or fires break out in San Fransisco in the early 1900’s we hear it echoed again, the judgment of God is the reason for it. While there may be some truth to this statement, for God uses elements to bring judgment, like the flood that came in Noah’s day,  and the firestorm that took out Sodom and Gommorah, I think we need to be careful how we label these storms. God is holy, He does not tolerate sin, but He is also a Father, He is really good and He desires that none should perish but all should come to the saving knowledge of His son Jesus the Christ. So, when we blame destruction on God’s judgement, we make a loving Father out to be an angry God.

Now the reality is, there are major storms happening, they are and will affect our lives here on earth, however, our interpretation of them will draw us near to God or push us away from Him. Therefore, we need to understand what the Bible stays about storms.

Nahum 1:3 “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.”

Psalm 135:7 “He makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth; he sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.”

Zechariah 9:14 “Then the LORD will appear over them; his arrow will flash like lightning. The Sovereign LORD will sound the trumpet; he will march in the storms of the south”

One of the weather men here in the US said, “Storms cleanse the atmosphere!” So, with all the floods happening, snow storms blasting, earth’s shaking, storms raging, what is it all about, I believe it is God cleansing the atmosphere in preparation for the Fall Harvest Festival. Every farmer knows you need a summer soaking in order to have a bountiful fall harvest, for wheat does well only in rainy years. We have prophesied the billion soul harvest, we have declared the next move of God is going to be beyond anything we can ask or imagine, so let’s not complain or be concerned that these storms are the judgment of God. Let’s lift up our eyes to the hills (Psalm 121) for these storms are cleansing the atmosphere in preparation for a fall harvest festival and we all know, America needs a cleansing of the atmosphere.

An Unshakable Kingdom

Tags

Christianity, Christians, Conform, culture, Kingdom, kingdom of God

Hebrews 12:28 “Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe.”

One of the most challenging things to change in ourselves is the culture in which we were raised. Our culture is so much a part of our DNA, that we do not even recognize the strength of it until we live in another country, marry someone or try to understand those of another culture. Churches all over the world are predominantly of the same color, race or creed, because we struggle so much to change the culture in which we were raised.

I lived in Malaysia for 9 consecutive years. When I first got there, I did not realize how American I was; I did not recognize how law-abiding I was; how Christian I was; how much I wanted them to become like me, even though I was in their country, their culture. I chose to move to Malaysia, no one made me live there, yet I was so ingrained with my culture, that I wanted them to become like me and to do things my way. This lasted about 2 years, but it finally dawned on me, they were not going to change, this was their culture, their country and they had no intention of changing. So, for me, this was my first official culture clash.

American culture is not as well liked as we may think around the world. They see us as loud, opinionated, big, and immoral. They want our money, they want our power, they want our influence, but honestly, they do not want their people to adopt what they perceive as our bondage that we call freedom. To them to have a voice is dangerous, to speak out against your President is unacceptable, to elevate women is destructive, and to be democratic is undesirable. They want to keep their value systems, while they take over our land, our money, our influence.

This is true for other cultures and countries, but it is also true for Christians. Many Christians, who have voluntarily accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior did not realize how American they are, how Asian they are, how African they are, how Australian they are, how European they are. Until they came into the kingdom, they did not realize how anti-Christ they really are, for in this kingdom, there is only one King and there’s only one culture. No matter how much we try to change the kingdom of God to be American, African, Australian, European or Asian, we find that the kingdom demands us to conform to its image. But many are not willing to conform, so they seek to take the land, the money, the power, the influence of this kingdom, but they are not ready to adapt the values of this kingdom.

Many are in a battle, for no other reason than they refuse to conform to the kingdom culture.

The kingdom of God is not like America, it does not conform to other cultures, allow for sub cultures and change laws based on people’s personal values, whims or desires. The kingdom of God is an unshakable kingdom, if you do not want to conform to it, you will never succeed in it, and the truth is, no matter how hard you try you can’t have the blessing of it, unless you submit to it. Unless I was willing to learn to take on the Malaysian culture, I was not going to succeed in that culture, for it was not changing for me, I had to change for it. The same is true in the kingdom, you will never succeed as a Christian, until you conform to the kingdom culture, which is an unshakable kingdom.

Servant or Spouse

John 15:15 “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing…”

John 14:2 “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would not have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.”

On Friday night, Pastor Kathy Gray of World Revival Church in Kansas City, MO spoke about the next visitation of God. She said, God is coming in this next move to examine our hearts! She went on to say, that He is looking to see who has faith. It was a powerful message and was confirmation of this word the Lord spoke to me late last week about being a servant of God or a spouse of God. As we look around the church we see a lot of people who are servants. They come to church, they pay their tithes or at least give something in the offering plate, they sing the songs, and they listen to the sermon. Some serve as an usher, bookstore clerk or even in the children’s ministry, all of which are noble tasks. In church people look like Christians, but the Lord spoke to me and said I have a lot of servants, but very few spouses.

Servants according to Jesus are those who do not know what the Master is doing. As we listen to what people talk about and see how they live their lives when not in church, we realize most people who call themselves Christians are servants, but most are clueless as to what the Master is doing. In the movie Dirty Dancing there was a group of people who were servants in a high society type country club for their job. When they were in the country club environment or working in their job as a servant, they were very proper, respectful and were able to mingle among those of the club. But the moment work was over, they were doing their own thing. Dancing in ways that were not appropriate for the time, using language they would never use in the club and doing a variety of other activities. The Lord spoke to me and said this is what most of my children are doing. They are servants in my house and look like they know what is going on, but after they are done serving, they do their own thing.

Servants don’t know what the master is doing, so when they are done serving, they do whatever they want. But, not all people in church or who call themselves Christians are unaware of what the Master is doing. There is a group of people on the face of the earth right now, who are a spouse of God or as is more common to say, the bride of Christ. A spouse is someone who is the same whether they are together or apart. Whether they are in church or outside of church. A spouse has access to all the family finances, they work the family business, they know the heart and mind of their spouse. Before some decision is made, they hear about it, or are invited to be in the discussion about it. A spouse is a lover, they do things from their heart, they are all in.

A spouse is a servant, but a servant is not a spouse. Intimacy is of highest value for the spouse, communication is key in this marriage, honor is always in season for those who are married. The church as we see it today, is filled with servants of God, they come to church, do their duty and when done they do their own thing. However, the spouse of God is on the earth today and will become more and more visible as the days go on. The bride serves her husband out of love for him, she does not put on something to do, she is the embodiment of this kingdom and is a lover of her king. The King is coming in a fresh visitation and He is looking at our hearts, to see who is a servant and who is a spouse. So, who are you, a servant or a spouse?

Guard the Gates

Tags

Believers, Christianity, church, kingdom of God, Truth

Did you know your life is like a garden and you decide who and what is allowed to come inside? Did you know that you are the sole guardian of the gates of your life, no one can force themselves into your life? Did you know that as a gatekeeper of your own life, you have a responsibility to protect your life from things that would seek to destroy it? Many of us have been conditioned to blame others or the devil for things we have allowed through our gates. But today, is a great day to guard the gates and let the process of garden maintenance begin.

A gate is a movable barrier, usually on hinges, closing an opening in a fence, wall, or other enclosure; an opening permitting passage through an enclosure (Dictionary.com). We have three gates through which access is granted to our life, which scripture calls our garden. We have an eye gate, an ear gate and a mouth gate. The eye gate and the ear gate are entry only gates, the mouth gate is an entry and exit gate. With the mouth gate, food can go in and we need to watch what we eat, but words can come out and that is really what we need to guard. The bible says in Matthew 12:34 and Luke 6:45, for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. But things do not get in our heart through our mouths, for what goes in the mouth enters the stomach and then exits as refuse. So, how do things get into our hearts that come out of our mouth?

The ear gate and the eye gate are the only two entry points into our lives. What we see with our eyes and hear with our ears are what goes into our heart and then eventually comes out of our mouth. The Lord is calling us to guard our ear gate and eye gate, for in doing so we guard our heart and then we can guard our mouth gate. What we allow our eyes to see and our ears to hear either builds beauty in our garden or it brings destruction. The increase of evil we are seeing in the world, is predominantly due to the fact that we have not guarded the gates of our lives or the lives of our children. What comes through the television is destructive to our gardens. What we read in newspapers plants fear in us; music we listen to can “feel our pain” but does not help our situation.

We have not guarded our gates and now we have gardens that are neglected, destroyed or diseased. Many people’s lives are evidence of gates that have been left unguarded. But the truth is, the Lord is calling us to guard the gates again. We may have left them unguarded and our gardens may be in disarray, but today is a new day and His mercies are new every morning. We can heed the call to guard the gate today, by making godly choices about what we allow into our eye gate and ear gate and what comes out of our mouth gate. We are the most powerful agent on earth, but we render ourselves powerless when we don’t heed the call to guard the gates.

Confess Not Suppress

Tags

Confession, Feelings, Frustration, healing

Psalm 32:3 “When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.”

Proverbs 17:22 “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones.”

Did you know that when you suppress your unhealed emotions, your frustrations, your anger, your sin that it doesn’t go away, rather it eats away at you on the inside? Have you ever had someone say something or do something to you and you just exploded on them? Then when you calm down you ask yourself, where did that come from? Have you ever been in a conversation with someone and then you step on a proverbial land mine and they just blow up at you, for what seems like an unsolicited reason? I think we all have done this and had this done to us, but very few people realize why this happens. We don’t realize that our souls have a maximum capacity level of which they cannot take anymore suppression, so it explodes or seeps out sideways.

Men, typically do not like to talk about their “feelings”, they would rather act like they have none. Now this is not a criticism, but rather a conditioning that has taken place. Our world does not see men who share their feelings as strong, but rather as weak, so they are conditioned to not talk about them. Unfortunately, this conditioning has led to a lot of destructive behaviors and the number one medical issue for men is a heart attack. When we suppress our feelings, for God created us with feelings and the scriptures are riddled with a God who feels, King David says, our bodies waste away. Our souls were not created for the suppression of feelings, but for the confession of feelings.

Now this is not a license to say whatever comes to your mind, or express every feeling you have anywhere and everywhere. We have to temper this with the fruit of the spirit (Galatians 5:22). Many people are living at maximum capacity of suppressed frustrations, anger, disappointment, resentment, offense, grief, and many other pains. The Bible says in I John 1:9, if you confess your sins to one another you may be healed. Our healing is founded not in suppression and acting like everything is okay and calling that spiritual. It is in confessing to one another, what is going on inside of us. If you don’t get it out of you, it is going to dry up your bones or waste away your spirit.

Confession can be done through writing, singing, talking, shouting (in the woods where no one can hear you), crying, painting, just to name a few. People are struggling with something that is easily healed if only they will let it out. You do not have to tell everyone, nor should you, but you need to tell someone. You will surprise yourself at how free you feel, not when you unload for hours on someone, but when you are honest with yourself about what is going on inside. Passion is an inside job; worship in truth is an inside job; joy is an inside job; peace is an inside job. If our insides are filled with suppressed not confessed garbage, there is no wonder, we have limited passion, an inability to hear the truth that will set us free, and are not enjoying the abundant life we have been promised. It’s time to confess not suppress, so we can live again. This may be the very revival you are crying out for.

Back to Original

Tags

Apostles, church, Jewish people, Order, Teaching

Acts 2:42 “And they steadfastly persevered, devoting themselves constantly to the instructions and fellowship of the apostles, to the breaking of bread and prayers.”

The question has been asked, analyzed, criticized and sought to be actualized on various occasions as it pertains to what the early church looked like. Theologians more studious than myself have sought to explain what happened then, but God has a way of describing things that everyone can understand. You do not need to have a Doctorate in Church History to understand God, for He speaks with a simplicity that a child can comprehend and a depth that baffles the most astute learner among us. So, what He shared with me about the church was simple yet profound, attainable and yet very difficult.

In the year AD70 the second and final temple of the Jewish people was destroyed, of which Jesus predicted/prophesied that this would happen. Since then, the Jews have never rebuilt another temple, and there are many reasons for this. Some being that Jesus is now the sacrifice for sins (Romans 3:25); Jesus is now the mediator between God and man(I Timothy 2:5); and the ark of the Covenant is inside of us as believers (Colossians 1:27). So, since there has never been another temple built since that one was destroyed and all the authors of the New Testament are Jews, what exactly was the Ekklesia (Greek for assembly from which we get the word church) in the New Testament? Was Peter a Sr. Pastor of a church in Galilee? Was John the Sr. Pastor of a church on the Island of Patmos? Did they build buildings and gather people every week to come and hear them preach? They were Jews, there was no temple, so what exactly did they do?

As I have pondered these questions, prayed about these questions, searched the scriptures about these questions, I finally heard how God viewed what they used to do and what I believe we are supposed to do. After the destruction of the Temple in AD70, the church left the building and went into homes. They did not build buildings, not because they didn’t have the money or the land, but because that is not what God wanted, henceforth, destroying the temple and it never being rebuilt by the Jews again. They went into houses, not because of persecution, but because of design. God did not want a central location like church as we understand it today, because movements are supposed to move, when they cease to move they become monuments and they cease to be a movement.

The Lord showed me that church today is like a restaurant, we drive to a building, we sit down, we are served worship, we are served the word, we pay our check (tithe) and we leave. But God wanted the church to be a potluck, where everyone makes something at home, then brings it to the house of God/gathering and we all get to partake of what others have prepared. That is why Paul said in I Corinthians 14:26 “When you meet together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a disclosure of special knowledge or information, an utterance in a tongue, an interpretation of it. Let everything be constructive and edifying and for the good of all.” We are all to come together with something to add to the gathering. This is discipleship, this is why they needed order, this is how they matured, this is how they grew, this is how they changed the world, this why we need to get back to original. This is what God is doing right now!

Ready to Swim 5.6.15

Tags

church, kingdom of God, Knowledge, Revelation

Summertime is fast approaching and in some places the weather feels like it is already here. With summer come activities that have to do with the water, swimming, boating, slip n’ sliding, squirt gun fights, you name it, if it has to do with water, most people are all in. Our God created the times and seasons, He is fully aware of what season it is in the spirit and in the natural, for that I am so thankful, because He is inviting us to go for a swim.

In Ezekiel 47 there is a trip in the spirit that Ezekiel takes to a temple of which water is flowing out of it. At first sight of this water, Ezekiel notes in verse 2 that it is only a trickle, but then his guide, leads him along the journey of this river about 1/3 of a mile and he invited Ezekiel to pass through the ankle deep river. The guide leads him along for another 1/3 of a mile and they come to a place where the river is now knee deep, so they pass through. As they travel another 1/3 of a mile, they come to a river that is waist deep, but they still are able to pass through. But as they continue along on their journey another 1/3 of a mile, they get to a place in the river, according to verse 5, that Ezekiel could not pass through, for the waters had risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over or through. (Selah)

In the early 2000’s there was a popular teaching about the river of God that came forth and brought all kinds of worship songs about the river of God and called us to evangelism, all birthed out of this chapter of Scripture. As I was reading this today, I could not help but remember those sermons and songs, but it is a new day and so I began to intercede for understanding in regards to this portion of Scripture and this is what I learned.
The river flows down from the temple. The mouth of the river never changes, nor does the direction of the rivers flow, but the level of water does. I asked the Lord what the river represents and He told me it is revelation knowledge. He said when you first get saved, there is a bubbling up inside of you and it’s like a trickle of the word of God, for you know nothing about the Bible, other than some stories you heard in Vacation Bible School, or John 3:16 which you saw on a bumper sticker, or the sermon that you just listened to that caused you to finally yield to salvation in Jesus Christ. But as you journey along with the Lord, you will come to revelation that is ankle deep and as you pass through that revelation, you continue on your journey until you come to knee deep revelation. For those who read their Bible, who engage in a desire for a deeper relationship with God, this is sounding familiar.

Then as we journey along in our walk with God, being led by the Spirit, we come to a place where the Word is waist deep. It is hard to cross a waist deep body of water without some work, it is the same in the Word of God. Jesus said to His disciples after talking about eating His body and drinking His blood, He said, do you want to leave to? Peter said, where can we go, for you have to words of eternal life (John 6). Then we are pressing in, listening, loving, growing, still hungry for more and we come to a place in our journey, where the river of revelation has risen to a place where we cannot pass over, so what do we do? We go for a swim!

There are some people that are at the river of revelation, you see how this is a descending revelation into the deep things of God and the more we are on this journey, the deeper the waters get. If you are not experiencing the fear of the Lord, you are not at this level of revelation. But we press on in the journey, for when we step into swim, we are taken down stream and into the Dead Sea and the waters are made fresh. There is a level of revelation God is inviting us into that we cannot control anymore, either we swim or we stay on land, this revelation you cannot cross over or pass through, you must jump in and let it take you where it wants to go. Are you ready for a swim?