What does it mean to be delivered? What does it look like for God to take full possession of us? Did He not purchase us? Did He not redeem us? He surely did and He will have all of us. One Wednesday night many many years ago at a church I used to attend, I was ministering to a young man in his 20s. He had been in the army. As I prayed for him I heard myself telling him that this was a battle. He had to fight his way to the very center of all of the madness and take this flag that had been planted in the depths of his heart and break it over his knee. “This is what victory looks like to you,” I told him. As I was driving home the Holy Spirit spoke to me very clearly clearly. “That was a good prayer…. how about you?……what about your battle?” And in that way that only God can do, I heard Him speak without speaking. I had a flag planted in the depths of my heart. It was planted there when I was a child. The devil himself, through my earthly father had planted a flag in my heart and it denoted ownership. There was a part of my heart that I could not have articulated to you. Oh I knew I had anger. I knew there was rage in me still, even after coming to the Lord, but it was buried deep. It would come out in flashes and would shock me.
As I continued driving home in the midst of this revelation, the Holy Spirit told me to go home, go to the basement where my father would be, he was visiting from Scotland. Turn of the television and look him right in the eyes and say to him “I am going to tell you something and I do not want you to interrupt me. I love you dad. As far as I am concerned there is no past between us, there is only now and I forgive you.” And when the Holy Spirit was finished speaking to me I was totally horrified. There was an inner scream in me. I was supposed to say this to the man who crushed my heart and broke my spirit? I would rather be roasted over hot coals. Its not that I did not want to say it to him, its that I simply could not. That was a bridge too far. And in my thoughts I screamed “I could never do this.” And immediately, the Holy Spirit very firmly said to me, out of my own mouth no less, in a way that could not be argued with “yes you can.” And so I drove home, trembling. Fear rose up in me. A fear I had not felt since I was a child dealing with the rage of a drunken father who hated God. I was literally drowning in my fear. There was no place to run and no place to hide. There was a flag planted in the depths of my heart and this very night God was going to tear it down.
I arrived home. I asked my wife where my dad was. I was half hoping he was not in the basement. Maybe I could convince myself it was not God that spoke. “He’s in the basement watching TV. ” I approached the stairs like a man walking towards his own funeral. Thoughts and memories rushing through my mind, memories I had suppressed all of my adult life. With every stair I went down I could hear the insults. “Fucking idiot.” Another stair, “You useless piece of shite.” Another stair “stick that fucking knife in me right now.” Another stair “go on you fucking poof.” I was descending back into a hell I had long since left behind. And there he was. And there I was. The man that had crushed my heart and broken my spirit and robbed me of my childhood, and had never been confronted in any way. The giant that ruled over my childhood land with ruthless domination. All of a sudden, there I was, speaking word for word what the Holy Spirit had told me to say. And the flag was uprooted and broken in two. The stronghold fell. I hugged my father and wept on his shoulder. And when it was over it was over. I would like to tell you that it had a fairy tale ending. That we had this marvelous relationship after that. We did not. Yet, the power had been broken. The work had been done. Listen brothers, listen sisters. God wants all of you. He knows the very depths of your heart. He knows you better than you know yourself. He will do a work in you. He will take what is His. He will shape you and mold you. Never fight it. God bless you in your journey.
Fill me till I thirst no more
With living waters from above
Fill me till I overflow
And it manifests itself in love
Fill me with abundance Lord
That fills my very soul
Fill the deepest parts of me
And in the filling I'll be whole
Fill me with your presence Lord
Till it flows from the depths of me
Fill me with waters from above
That would fill the deepest sea
Fill me with Your glory Lord
For it surely fills the temple
Fill me with your power Lord
That keeps me strong but gentle
Fill me with Your Light O Lord
Burning brighter than the sun
Remind me of Your victory Lord
That on Calvary was sorely won
Fill me with eternal life
So I'll walk the narrow way
That leads to my celestial home
Where I'll forever stay
2Co 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
How many people that you know, glory in their infirmities? This chapter of 2 Corinthians highlights the difference between the one who boasts in order to elevate themselves, and the other who boasts in their weaknesses so that Christ might be elevated. There is a great chasm between the two camps. We see clearly in 2 Cor 12 that the power of Christ is manifested not by dreams or visions or even out of body experiences to places such as ” the third heaven, but rather the power of Christ is manifested in his humbled servants who can see and are not ashamed of their infirmities. Now why would this be? Surely the fantastic element of the supernatural would draw people? Yes indeed it does, but not to Christ. It draws them to the one who “boasts,” of them. Paul’s greatest desire is that the power of Christ may rest upon him and that all men would be drawn towards Jesus, not himself.
If you are looking for the difference between a true shepherd of Christ, or a hireling, listen to what they say. Many elevate themselves by telling stories of spiritual “adventures.” They want to show you how important they are in spiritual matters and will boast, over and over again, about these matters. Paul does the opposite. Listen to what he says that he takes pleasure in for Christ’s sake.1. Infirmities. 2. Reproaches. 3. Needs. 4. Persecutions. 5. distresses. He has fully grasped the tremendous spiritual truth that when we are weak then He is strong. The power of Christ rests upon those who understand that His grace is sufficient for us and His strength in us is “made perfect” by our weakness. The name it and claim it folks, the prosperity people cannot understand this. To them, healing is everything because in the end it is all about them. They desperately want the healing and their very lives are a denial of the sufficiency of God’s grace.The hirelings they follow desperately want any healing so that they can boast in that and elevate themselves.
Consider Paul and Silas in the dungeon. Were they not weak? Were they not reproached? Were they not persecuted? Were they not in distress? Yes indeed and so much more. Yet, incredibly, Paul says that he takes pleasure in these things. And this very incident in the dungeon proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Gods word through Paul was more than just words. He lived this life. The power of Christ did rest upon him for this very reason. And this in no way inhibited the supernatural power of God, quite the opposite. It is from a place of glorifying God, whether we live or whether we die, that His perfect strength is demonstrated in us. Why do we see so few miracles? Because we do not embrace the sufficiency of His grace. We, self, must have what we want, what we consider we need. Our very lives seem to be all important when in actual fact all that is important is the glory of God. It’s in this glory that God operates. Brothers and sisters, when we can glorify God in our infirmities (The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord) then we can manifest His perfect strength through us and show the world what it truly means to walk in the all sufficient grace of God as His power rests upon us.
2Co 1:8 For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond measure, above strength, so that we despaired even of life:
It is quite astonishing to see the transparency of Paul here. How many leaders would acknowledge such a depth of despair, even of life itself? How many saints would acknowledge this to each other? Especially men. Most of us are raised to be strong and to keep our innermost thoughts to ourselves, but here is Paul laying out his heart, his fears, his insecurities for everyone to read. And yet even in this he is teaching, he is becoming all things to all men so that he may comfort them. We cannot truly comfort others unless we can be honest and transparent. Once someone realizes that you have walked through the same fire as they have , they sit up and take notice. Paul assures us that his hope for you is steadfast because he knows that as you enter into the sufferings for Christ sake, you shall also enter into the consolation of Christ.
And how glorious is that consolation! Just to be known by Him, just to know that He knows what you are going through. To know that He stands with you in the midst of it all, then we trust Him. And that trust is our strength. It is that trust in Him that sees us through the fires. It is that trust in Him that elevates us above the storm. It is that trust in Him that causes despair to flee and be replaced with a blessed hope. To see Him in the midst of it all is to live. We know that the One who delivered us from the world will deliver us still from all of our calamities. And when He does, we then comfort others, who are going through the dark valleys of life and who are suffering for the cause of Christ, with the same comfort we ourselves were comforted with.
To be known by you sets my troubled heart at ease
It lifts me high above the waves, above the stormy seas
To be known by you fills me with such great desire
It overflows my flooded heart and puts out every fire
To be known by you means that I have been redeemed
Delivered from the guilt and shame and every voice that screamed
To be known by you puts a sword into my hand
To be lifted up from the battle-field that I once more might stand
To be known by you sets all my enemies to flight
And with the Word of God helps me navigate the night
To be known by you it is manna to my soul
For that which once was broken, you have now made whole
To be known by you will hold me in that hour
When all the world is crumbling, I'll be standing in your power
This I know in the depths of my heart to be true
That I am overwhelmed that I am known by you.
Twenty eight years ago, just two years after being saved and six weeks after Daniel, our son with Down Syndrome was born, I began to have difficulty breathing. After the initial X-ray, it seemed likely I had lung cancer. I had been a heavy smoker from the age of fourteen until I got saved at twenty seven. Much of that had been smoking cannabis. The X-ray was followed up with a cat scan and then finally a lung biopsy. They discovered I had a disease called Sarcoidosis. It mainly effects African Americans in this country, I later discovered I had 5% African blood in my DNA.
Sarcoidosis can affect any of the organs in the body, and in my case it manifested itself as pulmonary fibrosis in my lungs. These fibrosis are irreversible and as they begin to build up in your lungs, your lung capacity is diminished until at some point you die. A third of my lungs already exhibited irreversible fibrosis. I was told by my Pulmonologist that I was stage three of a stage four disease. There was no cure. There was, however, a treatment that could prolong your life. Very high daily doses of prednisone. IN my case, 60 mg a daily.
As Christians we understand that the more we rely upon Jesus, the deeper our relationship is with Him. Dependence is the key to the depth of our spiritual life. We often see the martyrs testify of how their relationship with the Lord grew to greater depths in the dungeons of this world. When everything is stripped away, when we lose the ability to control our own lives, then we discover that Jesus is fully in charge. As the old adage says, we have to let go and let God. The letting go part is the battle, it is the refining fire, it is our sanctification.
After less than two weeks of taking the steroids, that still small voice spoke into my spirit. “Frank, come away with me, I am your life, I am your stillness, I am your peace when all around you is falling apart, trust in me….trust in me.” I knew exactly what the Lord was asking of me, asking mind you. I was to stop taking the pills. I was to trust in Him, I was to put my life fully into His hand. As you can imagine, the opposition to this was great. My son with Down syndrome was only a few months old and had life threatening issues that would require more than one surgery. My wife was devastated at this decision of mine. She was not a Christian. Yet even Christians did not agree with me and let it be known. The pulmonologist was very angry and told me bluntly that I would die and that it would not be a pleasant death.
Several weeks passed, and the many voices seemed to be right. My ability to breathe declined. It is imperative to note that the still small voice of the Lord made me no promises, my only command was to “trust ,” Him. A well known man of God from the last century said this “Lord, may I be an ox on the altar or an ox in the field.” None of is really know our purpose here in life, what we do know is that we have been called to bring honor to the name of Jesus, regardless of our situation. Whether we live or whether we die we have been called to glorify Him. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
There will be times, in every Christians life, when the Lord will “make you lie down in green pastures.” You may think to yourself, what is so “Green Pastures,” about an incurable disease? I do not have the words to describe to you the place I found myself in. Enough to say that it was glorious. The warmth of the sun upon my face was indescribable. The blueness of the sky was glorious. The little sparrow sitting on the wall was altogether fascinating. I became super aware of things that I had routinely overlooked or had taken for granted. I was in this mysterious place called “under the shadow of His wing.” I had to rely upon God for every breath that I took and it took my spiritual breath away. I was not burning at the stake and singing psalms and spiritual songs, but I glimpsed into that realm.
The pulmonologist was part of a national study on this disease and had been taking X-rays of my lungs every two weeks, he wanted to chart my regression. He told me that this way, my decision would at least do some good. He was quite angry with me and never tried to hide it. One Monday morning, at 5.30am I was awoken by a call. It was my mother calling from four thousand miles away in Scotland. She apologized for calling so early, but she had been compelled by the Holy Spirit. She very simply stated “The Lord told me that He is going to heal you.” The Lord had instructed her to attend a certain prayer meeting the following night and have me held up in prayer. I find it significant that my mom was instructed to call and tell me beforehand. This was an act of faith, a “stepping out.”
As she spoke, I was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit, I fell to my knees and in my spirit I knew that I was to be healed, I had no doubt whatsoever. I went for an x-ray two days later. The Doctor called me into his office, he seemed subdued. I had shared with him months before that I was putting my life in the hands of the Lord. He paused before flicking the lights on that would light up the X-ray and said words that i will never forget. “I do not know what you are going to call this.” He flicked the light on and pointed to my lungs, they were completely clear. Apparently the Lord does not know the meaning of the word ,”irreversible.”That was twenty eight years ago. Trusting God is the key to life. When glorifying Him becomes more important that anything else, including your own life, you will be propelled into new heights of glory.
My wife and I know something of the pain of losing. Our first child lived only for two days. In the end it was God’s unfailing healing love that brought us through. He gives, and He takes away, blessed be the Lord as Job would say. None of that negated the pain nor stopped the tears, but it did restore my broken heart. He wipes away the tears and catches them in a bottle as a memorial. And my pain ebbed like the slow receding tide as the world continues to turn. I have a firm assurance that when this tide rises again one day, and takes me up into my eternal home, there I will see the child of my youth. The why’s of it all are really just a faint echo of the world as I lay down wrapped in the arms of the one who ever weaves this tapestry of life.
In the end I had “two” funerals for my son, Stephen. The first was on an overcast rain soaked day in Scotland, which perfectly matched my darkened closed down unsaved heart. The second would come fifteen years later, many years after being saved. It came from nowhere and broke over me like a violent thunderstorm. Thunder and lightening and a torrential rain of tears. Healing, never saw it coming. God was working His way into every chamber of my heart, and everywhere the waters of life flowed, there was healing, and there was healing for me. These are the mysteries of life and a God who works in mysterious ways whose thoughts and ways are so much higher than ours. As you ponder your own loss in this world, it is very likely that no answers will ever come as to the why. When we learn to put aside the why and live this life rather than die, then once again we shall surely fly.
Great loss is a clipping of our wings. Here is the definition of wing clipping …..”Wing clipping is the process of trimming a bird’s primary wing feathers or remiges so that it is not fully flight-capable, until it moults, sheds the cut feathers and grows new ones.” I have had my primary wings clipped many times over the years as I am sure that you have dear reader. The moulting and the shedding of cut feathers and the growing of new ones takes time and comes with its own unique pains. And then one day………we fly. We live again, fully restored. A process full of mystery and undoubtedly unique to every single person.
Luther did not invent a new doctrine when he announced that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works. He rediscovered it and presented it to a church that had long ago forgotten this most fundamental and vital aspect of what it means to be saved. This most basic fundamental truth was lost in religiosity and liturgy many centuries before. The clergy had robbed the laity. Century after century Christendom slowly drifted away, each generation losing something from the previous generation until they were totally adrift from the Truth. Once they were totally adrift from the truth then with every passing century the errors solidified and grew in strength. Walls like Jericho rose up and stood, formidable.
Then comes Luther and as he hammered that nail into the door, the whole of Christendom shook. A bloody revolution then ensued as the clergy, keepers of the error and the status quo, fought with all of their might against this upstart priest of no account who was challenging their religion and their liturgy. I believe a similar revolution would have to take place today in order to rediscover the truths of 1 Cor 14 and how we interact in gatherings. The sign gifts and their purpose of edifying the saints and the unsaved and the unlearned have fallen into disuse and have been forgotten. God help this starving and dying generation. If we do not have eyes to see then we cannot be fed. The walls of Jericho were rebuilt after the reformation. Brick upon brick, stone upon stone, error upon error.
We need to rediscover, once again, the fundamental truths of our faith as it is plainly written in the Scriptures. Who has dared to bypass or take away from the Holy Word of God? Do they not know that they shall be removed from the book of life? The walls of religion and the devastating clergy/laity divide need to come down. And if they will not then the saints need to abandon those strongholds. We need a mass exodus from behind those walls. We need to allow God Himself to be a wall of fire around us. Dear saint, you must follow the fire by night and the cloud by day and not the doctrines of the Nicolations. You cannot be immersed in the culture of religion, which is a mere reflection of the prevailing culture around us, and serve God at the same time.
What does it mean to rob from yourself? In the natural, it would be quite impossible to rob from yourself for after all, everything that you have, according to this world, is your own. So quite naturally you cannot rob from yourself. Yet in the realms of the Spirit, in the Kingdom of God, you can most certainly rob from yourself.
Let us say that God has gifted you in some way. Denying that gift is robbing from yourself. You are taking from yourself what was given to you by God. You can rob yourself of peace. You can rob yourself of joy. Contentment, self control, holiness, all of these things you can rob from yourself. We like to blame the devil for a lot of stuff, but most people that I have ran into with this problem are simply robbing themselves. Do not get me wrong, the devil will take full advantage of the circumstances. Yet, when we take from ourselves that which was given to us we are robbing ourselves of the good gifts of God.
We can even rob from ourselves by taking what does not belong to us. Now that does not seem to make any sense, right? Bear with me. When you look into your future, whether it is tomorrow or next week or next month and you take from it and add it to your reality today, you are robbing yourself of today’s peace with tomorrows troubles. Tomorrow does not belong to you. In the realms of your imagination you have created any number of scenarios for yourself which you have no possible way of knowing if they will ever come to pass. Your taking out a loan of fear and paying a huge amount of interest on a debt that should not exist. Foolish man or woman, how do you even know you shall be alive tomorrow?
You are not only robbing from yourself but you are robbing from God, He alone holds your future. It is disobedience. Repent of that and give that borrowed/stolen burden to God right now. Take what you have been given and live it to the fullest today. Live in the glorious gifts of joy and peace and grace and forgiveness. Live in contentment with thanksgiving. Understand and know what the Lord sees when He sees you. Do not take from the past and steal from the future and nullify your present. If you do, you will be robbing from God and robbing yourself of the promises of God that are enjoyed through obedience.
In the days in which we live, that grows darker with every passing moment, we must grasp a hold of who we are in Christ. Is it any wonder that identity is front and center in society and in politics? Identity is under attack across the board and now where is this more true than among the saints. Yes, saints, that is what you are. We have to understand about His righteousness and how we have been called to walk in it. Lift up your eyes and look upon Jesus. To look upon anything other than Jesus in your life is to magnify everything that is not of Him. Do not identify yourself as a sinner saved by grace. That is not your identity. You are an adopted child of the living God. You are not a sinner you are a saint. If you do sin, the Lord Himself has made provisions for that. Do not aid and abet Sin in robbing from you that which God has provided.
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8)
Do you see what Jesus is saying there? He is not primarily giving you power to witness( although you will have that) He is giving you the power to be a witness. Can you see the difference? It means that by your very life, Christ in you, the hope of Glory, will shine out into the darkness of those around you. They see you, they see your changed life, by the power of God, and they see the reality of what God can do. How He has truly overcome hell and death and sin.That is the victory, that is the promise, that is the hope to a dying mankind. Talk is cheap, any religious man can do that, but a life that exemplifies the Word of God is the power of God and the testimony of God.
Therefore, by robbing from yourself you are robbing from God and robbing a dying world that is all around you. Let the power of God be seen in you. The very least that we can do as saints is to live an exemplary life before God and before men. Quit running to the lowest common denominator and pronouncing that to be your title. There is only one entity that wants that and it is not God. The world already understands what it means to be a sinner. It is your changed life, the victory over sin that causes them to reflect upon their own life and know that there is something more, there is hope, hope for the hopeless. Live out your title, you are a precious child of the Living God. Live your life by the power of God and be His witness. The kingdom of darkness already has its representatives. Let the Kingdom of God be seen in you among men.
A poem for all the people who grew up in less than perfect households
.
He who walks upon the sea of tears.
I am fragile I can be broken
Broken by the words spoken
Can't you see your words are clawing me apart?
Can't you see how you're crushing my heart?
How my heart longed to hear warm words spoken
To be warm and whole and not to be broken
Why didn't you just reach out and touch me?
And cover me and hold me in love.
The broken child in you
Now breaks the child that you can see
Two broken children collide
Only wanting to be free
I am fragile I can be broken
Broken by the words left unspoken
And this brokenness is now a void in me
That is deeper and wider than the deepest sea
What can fix a broken heart?
And fill this vast expanse in me
What can fill an endless void?
That's deeper than the deepest sea
So many tears, enough to fill an ocean
Shed by all the children, broken
A Saviour comes and walks upon this sea of tears
He calms the stormy sea and quells the fears
I have come to mend the broken heart
To heal the wounds where you were torn apart
I have come to set the captive free
To dry up every tear that fills the deepest sea
I hold the universe in the palm of my hand
I cause the blind to see and the lame to stand
And all the stars in the heavens, I know them all by name
And I will touch you and you shall never be the same
The words I speak they are life and they are love
I know every sparrow that falls from above
I created the sun and the moon and the pouring rain
I still the stormy seas and I take away the pain
Come and bring your emptiness to me
And I will fill you with a love that's deeper than the sea
Come all you that are broken and contrite
And I will heal you and set you free this night
And so I came and took my Saviour's hand
Out of the pit on the solid Rock I stand
A broken heart replaced and reconciled
Standing whole and new, I am my Father's child
And every word spoken, they are life to me
Your love and Your kindness, they have set me free
And by thy Spirit my eternity is sealed
And by thy love my broken heart was healed.
How many times can a heart be broken
How many tears have to fall
How many times do I have to forgive
Or perhaps not forgive at all
When my steps grow tired and weary
And my sleep has vanished in the night
How can I go on living day by day
And not simply give up the fight
Where can I find the strength to go on
When it seems I have lost my way
How can I lift my head from the pillow
Even if it’s for just for one more day
Then all of a sudden I know He is here
My waiting has not been in vain
He comes to me through the fire and the flood
Through the heartache and through the pain
And suddenly I have the strength to carry on
I rise up on the wings of His love
Who knew I would rise o'r this valley of death
And find myself far far above.
I soar on the glorious splendor of Love
On the wings of the eagle I fly
I feast on the banquet He prepares for me
As I revel in the endless sky
There is a place where the setting Son
Merges sky and endless sea,
A place where different worlds collide
A place where you and I are free.
In God alone we find this place,
Where everything else is stripped away
And there I look into your face
Where endless sky meets ocean spray
Will you sail beyond horizons
In endless seas of blue
Will you fly in boundless skies above
You can as long as you are true.
2Co 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
It’s a terrible thing to be held captive by our own thoughts. How exhausting it can be when we allow them to consume and overwhelm us? They can begin to eat away at us. They can even rob us of sleep and leave us tired and weary and walking the floor at night. I thank the Lord that He freed us and gave us the ability to take every thought into captivity and focus on Him. If a specific situation or trial has taken hold of your mind today, know that there is a way of escape, you are no longer slaves to the flesh but bond-servants, willing servants to the Lord of power.
If you have been set free by the Lord then you are free indeed. You now have the power to take those thoughts captive, they must bow to the Spirit of God in you. By an act of your will, take your eyes off of that situation today and turn them to Jesus and draw close to Him and peace will flood your soul. “Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)
Commit your heart to trust in Him today. Determine in your heart that you will no longer walk in fear. Give it to the Lord of hosts, let Him take the burden. He will take it if you will give it to Him. Your situation may not change but your attitude in the midst of it will. It will give you clarity of thought and the ability to focus and speak to the Lord. As your mind is drawn away from the pressing situation and the darkness of it, and you are drawn to the light of your Lord who loves you so much and is jealous for your thoughts, His light will begin to fill you. God bless you this day as you begin the task of taking your thoughts captive.
As an immigrant to America I have many thoughts about what is going on in the country right now. I hear reports, mostly unsubstantiated, of people being abused because they are different in some way. This does not represent the America I know. It hurts for me to think that the foreign press would pick up on these stories and give the world the wrong impression of American people.
I have traveled a lot and met people from all over the world. I can say from my experience that the American people are the most friendliest and welcoming people in the whole world. They have loons on the far right and the far left just like everyone else but a handful of anecdotal stories in no way represents the heart of America and who they are. Your average American is warm and friendly and generous to all people.
I hear a lot about tolerance, yet the irony is that those who constantly speak of tolerance tend to be the most intolerant people you will ever meet. They are only tolerant to those of a similar view. If they meet someone of the opposite view, watch the venom pour forth. This dividing of the people for political purposes is evil. I think of the 49 people killed in a nightclub recently by a terrorist . That story became a gay story when the real story was that 49 Americans were killed.
Why is it always a gay story or a black story or a white story? In a mad effort to be inclusive, the politicians who push such an agenda have managed to make this country more divided that it has been since the time of the civil rights. By focusing on the rights of a tiny minority of people such as gay people and transgenders (perhaps 3.5% combined) the President( President Obama) has driven a huge wedge between the folks. There is no tolerance for anyone who disagrees with their agenda.
The truth is I can completely disagree with the notion that people are born gay and still be tolerant and inclusive. I can think that there should be stronger border control and not be a racist or a xenophobe. Those who do not allow for this thought are truly the folks who are dividing this country. The true reason for Brexit and the recent election results in America is that regular folk are pushing back against the powers that be, who spend an inordinate amount of time and energy on a tiny minority of people to the exclusion of the majority. And it is not just the exclusion, it’s the demonizing of that mostly silent majority. They are considered to be toothless morons because they disagree on issues of morality and economics.
Where will all this lead? I have no idea. I am cynical of people in general. Our younger generation was supposed to the most inclusive generation ever, yet we see by their reaction to the election that this inclusiveness and tolerance is nothing but a thin veneer. Underneath that thin veneer lies the ugliness that has haunted mankind from the beginning. They hate people they do not know or understand and would like to destroy them.
Outside of Jesus Christ, people, no matter what generation they belong to are as flawed as they have ever been. We live in a modern world surrounded by technology and comfort in the West. Yet we still hate as we have always hated We still divide along lines, does not really matter what the lines are, all that matters to the enemy of our souls is that we do divide and hate one another and seek to destroy one another. The utopian dreamers and liberal thinkers are just as full of hate for those they do not understand and with those with whom they disagree with.
As a young man growing up in poverty in a housing scheme in Scotland, I hated the middle class and the upper class. The region that I came from was known as the “Red Clyde.” The shipyards that dominated my town and many towns in Scotland were full of socialists and Communists. This was my heart as a young man. Come the revolution I would have manned the guillotine and gladly pulled the lever, over and over again. I longed for the revolution.
I finally got my revolution. I personally met the most radical revolutionary ever to walk the earth. I met Jesus. He upended everything I thought I knew. He invaded my very DNA. He took all of the hate and all of the jealousies and all of the insecurities I had and he dismantled them piece by piece often with me kicking and screaming. I learned not to judge ” groups,” but to encounter individuals. I encountered true love and the enormous power of it. I learned that it rested in truth, that truth and love were one and the same thing and If I could learn to speak the truth in love then I could become an agent of incredible change, one person at a time.
And so my appeal today is that we saints on earth be radical lovers who speak the truth without fear or favor, in love. If God so loved the world, and He did, that He sent His only Son to die for that World then we as saints must be radical lovers of every man and every woman no matter their background or how they perceive themselves. The greatest dividers are always those who seek power, no matter if they are wonderful orators or speak brutally and bluntly.
In this time of disunity and hatred and division, let the true lovers of all men and all women step forward as representatives and ambassadors of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Love people as you find them saints and speak the truth in love. The true revolt in men and women is the revolt against the schemes of the enemy. Let us be revolutionaries for the cause of Christ. No man or woman can fill the void that is in the hearts of those on the left or on the right, only in the radical center of God’s will is there wholeness and fullness of Joy as opposed to the schemes of men which is full of bitterness and division.
This piece is about coming through a trial and at the end of it being able to make a declaration. No matter what you are going through right now, in Christ, you will make this declaration to the enemy of your soul.
You have gathered here today in defiance of darkness and tyranny. You have come here to fight as free men and free men you are, for it is I that gave you that very freedom. So you see with your eyes that you are few and they are many, you see that you are vastly outnumbered. Will you fight today?Read the rest of this entry »
There is a time for shouting and praising God, but if we are ignoring the knocking, then we must stop shouting. If our lives are not reflecting the Glory of God, if we are not becoming like His Son, daily, then all of our shouting and praising God will just be so much noise. How tragic for the church of the living God if, when He looks down, He does not see praise but just a group of people making a noise.”Read the rest of this entry »
“Jesus has many who love His kingdom in heaven, but few who bear His cross. He has many who desire comfort, but few who desire suffering. He finds many to share His feast, but few His fasting.All desire to rejoice with Him, but few are willing to suffer for His sake. Many follow Jesus to the breaking of the bread, but few to the drinking of the cup of His passion. Many admire the miracles, but few follow Him to the humiliation of the cross. Many love Jesus as long as no hardship touches them.”
This is a vision that I had as I stood on a terrace in Croatia. My wife and I went there last year on our 25th anniversary. Before I went the Lord had shown me that I would meet someone there and that it would be significant, just did not know that He was talking about Himself. The whole piece was my vision, He gave me a new way of writing my testimony and of writing about coming into His presence, then the Word that He gave me for the church, I wrote in red at the end. I pray that this will challenge and convict you………….
They will gather together and throw in their gold and rise up and play, or in this case, fall down and play. You see the people are without leadership, and the Lord has with-held His rain. So the people have demanded gods to go before them, listen to what they said to Aaron…”make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him. “
She put her head back against the wall and looking upwards told me that she was in no position to even try and refuse this. She was blown away that God had answered her and her husbands prayer so immediately (she did not know that I had messed around for several week) She could not wait to get home and share this with her husband. Higher critics could explain this in the natural, but the supernatural is God talking to His people, directing them and of course, His perfect timing.
A Call To The Remnant 