Part Two

 

So, we are reminded not to lose hope in the midst of this prolonged war we call life. Don't lose hope  - when it appears your enemy has won. Don't lose hope  - when your salvation  -  in whom you put all your trust and faith  - lies dying on a cross  - don't lose hope. Hope is faith for our future, faith is hope fulfilled now. 

We will overcome through the Blood of the Lamb (hope that it will be enough for us, for we have faith in the One who shed it, for we have only His word to rely on) and we overcome by the word of our testimony  - our testimony is Jesus himself  - walking with us, working with us, daily, to see us through.  Our testimony is our witness to his faithfulness  - not our own. Our testimony is one of answered prayer. We do not serve an impotent God who is blind and deaf to our wants and needs. When we cry out to Him  - when we make our petitions and requests known to Him  - He hears us! He attends to our prayers, He responds to us because He truly cares about us.

Keep moving forward, looking forward, don't look back. Put your hand to the plow and look to the New Jerusalem.  Don't long for your old life, your old ways  - keep focused on the path He's put you on  - step by step, forward, always forward. 

Jump spirit, spirited attack run, and courage, are all tied together.  Might as well face it  - you're going to go through battle after battle  - quit playing defence! Go on the offense! You have the weapons! Take down those strongholds opposing you and the Christ within you! Tear down that spiritual wickedness in high places. You can't be timid and follow Christ! You need a "Jump spirit" when you're told to take a leap of faith  - by the Holy Spirit  - DO IT! Jump! Don't hesitate mi amigo! The more you step out in faith - the more your personal faith level will increase. Soon  - you'll do a "spirited attack run"  - you'll fly over the enemy and strafe him till he's finished  - not daring to attack you again  because you took the "high ground", when you fought him. If you cleanse the high ground of your heart of all idols, including "self" - then every battle with the enemy of your soul will be successful  - for you'll always have the high ground.  Any military strategist can tell you  - the one who holds the high ground will win. Take courage! Your God fights for you and with you! Follow your General's leadership and you can't lose! You may get wounded, but guess who heals all wounds? Spirit, soul and body? That's right  - you guessed right.

But do not be weary in well doing. You must like what you do. Whatever ministry - whoever He's called you to minister to - you must like what you do. Not always, not everyone  but remain passionate about God and his plans for you, because in the end, passion will see you through the really tough times when nothing else will. When all is said and done  - trust that the results are of God. Trust in the process He puts you through. Trust that your footsteps are ordered of Him. Trust Him! Be Amazing! Be the original He created you to be! Don't copy anyone else  - be you, uniquely you! And when the new tide of His Spirit rolls in  -  you'll roll in with it , when it rolls out, you'll roll out with it  - you'll come and go as the Holy Spirit moves you. Those who only know God with their minds, the intellectual ones, will not be able to understand  you  - your ways or even your words. No matter! You roll on the new tide  - the new thing He's doing  - no matter what others say or think. 

The following is from my days in South Korea where I was a teacher of English  -

One day i found myself waiting for my students to arrive.  Typically,  i would stand by the door and greet them as they arrived every Monday morning.  So, just after writing my last blog, the first student appears, and her T shirt says  "So Simple"....I'm like, Yes! Lord! It really is  -  Your wisdom is simple and easy to understand! (God often communicates with me through my student's clothing). 

So, the next shirt i see with writing on it says "Made in Heaven" - Hallelujah! Yes! The source of all love, our love, is "Our Father which art in Heaven" . Next I see  "See good in all things" - Amen. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs  - love tries to see the good not the evil. Next came "Hope" , then "Overcome", tgen "Prayer", then "Forward", then "Jump spirit", then "spirited attack run", then "Courage", then "like what you do", then "Trust", then "Be Amazing ", then "Original", then "New Tide". Wow! Let's put them together in order  -  all from the clothing of my students walking by  - 

       So simple

       Made in Heaven

       See good in all things

       Hope

       Overcome 

       Prayer

       Forward

       Jump Spirit

       Spirited Attack Run

        Courage

       Like what you do

       Trust

       Be Amazing 

       Original 

       New Tide

So God's word to me (us), goes something like this  - first of all, i believe the wisdom of God, the revelation of God   - is so simple even a child can understand it. Religion (Theology) tends to complicate the simple truth in God's word. If it takes an entire book to explain a scripture,  or doctrine,  chances are man's wisdom has polluted the wisdom of God.  It's not that God won't show us profound, deep truths  - really amazing revelations,  but when HE does, we will find, the deeper we go in Christ  - the more simple His ways and His words become, till in the end, it all leads back to "love one another" and "love the Lord thy God", it really all boils down to love  - God's love - pure, gentle, full of mercy, without partiality or hypocrisy.  It's unfeigned! (Not fake). Indeed, all that is good comes down to us from Heaven   - His love, His wisdom,  His life, US  - are all "Made in Heaven"  in our case  -  we are "remade" but made in Heaven nonetheless.  You've seen "made in China"? Every Christian has "made in Heaven" stamped on their passport  - it's where we're from, it's where we're returning to. 

"See good in all things" or try to. Love believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love doesn't keep a record of wrongs. Love thinks the best of everyone  - even it's enemies. All things work together for the good  - of those who love  - love God and one another. So we should try to see, in every situation  - no matter how bad  - how will this result in good for me? Three things abide in our hearts daily, three faithful companions. Faith, Hope and Love  - all important but the greatest is love. 

Part two soon

  It's a love issue. It all comes down to love. The enemy wants to cut off our love supply. You've heard of blood supply? Blood banks? We need love banks! We need to bank our love for each other so we can be a love supplier to those running low on love. Some people need a "love transfusion". As blood is to our body, so is love to our soul  - we can't live without it. 

 How's your love supply? Are you running low? Come to me  - I'll give you some of mine. All the problems in the world  - I mean, literally,  all of them, are a result of the lack of love. If everyone simply "loved one another" as Jesus told us to  - there would be no problems, for love worketh no ill to it's neighbor  - love cares for the poor, the widows, the orphans. Love supplies all our needs. Because the world doesn't know God, they don't know how to love, as God loves, without expecting anything in return.  They practice a counterfeit form of love that is fleshly -  it ultimately serves self. Yes, there are people who do their best to love others - who give of themselves  - but ultimately,  their good works mean nothing because they did not bring glory to God: only themselves. They exalted man, not God. Their deeds often stem from pride. Still, in His mercy, God will bless their efforts to love, apart from Him  - problems (sins), do abate, but unless their love leads them to the God who is Love, the problems will sprout again like weeds in an otherwise beautiful garden.

So - we must ensure our personal  supply of love is healthy, and we must donate regularly to those in need. Our local fellowship should be a "love bank" where those in need can go to get loved. Indeed - just as a body must have healthy blood  -  and if it loses enough blood it dies - so does the Body of Christ need love to survive  - and healthy love to prosper. 

This analogy of blood=love is true of the Blood of Jesus - for His blood poured out for us IS HIS LOVE POURED OUT: The life is in the blood could just as well read "the love is in the blood" for His love for us prompted Him to give His life for us  -

 And we too -  if we follow in His footsteps  - if we choose to obey Him, we too must give our lives on behalf of others  -  and we will count it a joy to do so  - if we are truly His disciples, we must love as He does, for we are the carriers of His love on the earth today - He loves through us (check out "love carrier" by Billy Crockett). As a Body (of Christ) carries blood so do we carry love. As He gave His blood so must we give our love on behalf of others  - that they might live, as people who receive a blood transfusion are able to get well and continue living. Many today are running so low on love they're in danger of dying from lack of love. This world is a desert  - where oasis of love are scarce. 

In Hell - their bodies lack one thing  - blood. Their souls too lack one thing forever  - love. In Heaven,  love abounds endlessly,  forever.  I've come to Belfast to give you love  - and that more abundantly! Love really is the key! To everything! (cue Tommy Coomes "love is the key"). So, as Saints, wha happens when we're wounded? When people hate us and despitefully use us? When they slander us, gossip about us behind our backs? When they refuse to love us because their hearts don't have love in them because they don't have Christ in them? What happens? LOVE FLOWS! Just as blood flows when a fleshly wound occurs  - so does love flow when a soulish or heart wound occurs in a saint  - just like Jesus! When He was "wounded for our transgressions" - love poured out of Him - "Father forgive them". Love doesn't see the wounds that others cause  -  love sees them as wounded.

 Every church should have no declared pastor. No man in charge. Who's your pastor? Jesus! No, really, who's your pastor? No, really, Jesus! No man is in charge  - all are obedient to the Holy Spirit  - all are mutually submitted one to another. If they must  - they can point to me as the founding apostle, or whoever birthed it, in that location,  but they must never become  "followers of Chris" only "followers of Christ". The Cross makes all the difference   - the Cross is the great equalizer  - at the Cross, we're all slaves turned into servants   - unwilling slaves who become willing servants, for a servant is simply a slave that chooses to be a slave. No one must be exalted above due measure, and no one brought low, or lowly esteemed,  amen! 

 Oh how we live in a generation that does that which is right in their own eyes! They are blind and they are deaf  - by choice, to the ways and the words of the Lord. They refuse to turn that He might heal them  - of their blindness and deafness. They choose flesh over His Spirit   - they choose death over life. They cling to the old  - though the old ways were never of Him  (some were, but most weren't)  "The Kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an householder, which brings forth out of his treasure things NEW and old". 

So we see, not all that is old is bad and not all that is new is good  -  to discern what is good and what is evil, we need to follow closely in the footsteps of Jesus. His Word was not given for to study  - His Word was given to us live: it is a living document   - by which we consume our daily spiritual manna, that it may sustain us in the wilderness of this wicked world till we arrive in our "promised land"  - eternity with God. We live by allowing His words to penetrate our hearts so deeply,  Christ Himself follows the trail they blaze in our hearts and takes up residence there. Then, we can "rightly divide the Word of God" because the God of The Word is our study partner, our teacher, and He shows us how to become "doers of the Word" and not hearers only. If we merely study the Word with our minds but do not digest it with our hearts  - we will never leave the Chrysalis  and become the saints we're meant to be. We're meant to soar! To fly  - far above the wickedness of this world. As Noah was borne above the wickedness of his generation   - so are we meant to rise above the wickedness of our generation   - only we rise on the wind of His Spirit   - and exactly as i wrote that last line, a song came on my playlist that said "Your love is lifting me higher, than I've ever been lifted before" (Rita Coolidge) Hallelujah! Oh how God is ministering to my heart at this moment! Oh how sweet His presence is! To be born up on the wind of His Spirit we must have wings, we must "learn to fly" as the Tom Petty song says. We do have wings  - "And i saw an Angel standing in the Sun; and he cried with a loud voice, SAYING TO ALL THE FOWLS THAT FLY IN THE MIDST OF HEAVEN (that's us!) come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of THE GREAT GOD!"

Oh what a feast that will be! But only those "soaring in the midst of heaven" are invited! Don't let the unwise virgins hold you back  - don't stay grounded because everyone else you know is  - don't let their lack of faith keep you from exercising your faith. Go, dear child, GO! Soar high  - higher than you've ever gone before! 

This song from 1977 (see those double 7's?) is a prophetic cry we should all sing to the Lord Today  - 

Your love keeps liftin' me higher

than I've ever been lifted before

So keep it up, quench my desire 

And I'll be at your side forever more 

Now once, i was down hearted,

disappointment was my closest friend

But You came, he soon departed

and he never showed his face again 

Oh I'm so glad I finally found You

You're that one in a million man (Jesus)

when You wrap Your lovin' arms around me

I can stand up and face the world again 

cause YOUR LOVE KEEPS LIFTING ME HIGHER

THAN I'VE EVER BEEN LIFTED BEFORE

SO KEEP IT UP, QUENCH MY DESIRE 

AND I'LL BE AT YOUR SIDE JESUS FOREVERMORE!

 Now, hear this wisdom from the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" -  and realize "the children  of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light" -

"I find so many people struggling today, often working harder, simply because they cling to old ideas. They want things to be the way they were, and they resist change.  I know people who are losing their jobs or their houses, and they blame technology or the economy or their boss. Sadly, they fail to realize that they might be the problem.  OLD IDEAS ARE THEIR BIGGEST LIABILITY.  It is a liability simply because they fail to realize that while that idea or way of doing something was an asset yesterday   -  YESTERDAY IS GONE".

Read that passage again,  this time thinking of institutionalized,  denominational,  Christianity.  Think of how hard they resist change.  Think of how every service is exactly the same, week after week, year after year. 

                                 "But if The Lord make a new thing, and the earth open up her mouth, and swallow them up, with all that appertains to them, and they go down quick into the pit:  then shall you understand that these men have provoked The Lord " ( Num:16:30)

                                   "Behold, the former things are come to pass, and NEW THINGS DO I DECLARE; before they spring forth I tell you of them. Sing unto The Lord a NEW song" (Isa:42:9&10)

                                    "Behold, I will do a new thing; now shall it spring forth, shall ye know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness,  and rivers in the desert!  Remember ye not the former things,  neither consider the things of old" (Isa:43:15,18)

                                "Thou hast heard, see all this and will not ye declare it? I have shewed you new things from this time, even hidden things  and you did not know them" (Isa:48:6)

Oh my people,  be open, ready and willing to receive the new thing God is bringing to pass in our gener. We must repent of our former ways or perish  - we must shed all our traditions of men,  and all our doctrines of devils  - as garments not fit for the bride of Christ! We must cling to Christ,  not our traditions  - we must leave the Chrysalis  and soar with Him  - WE MUST CHANGE! Do not let Him say of you  - "This people's hearr is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at anytime they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART, and should be converted,  and i should heal them" (Mt:13:15).

May WE not be as our "Fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation,  a generation that set not their heaet aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God"  (Psa:78:8).

Instead, may Jesus speak this over you  - "But blessed are your eyes for they see; and your ears for they hear" (Mt:13:16)

 The following was written in 2018 but is being shared now for the first time.

 Much change is coming....

.....to the world and the worldwide Body of Christ.  As God wraps His loving arms around His Bride, as He hides her in the cleft of the Rock  - as the door to the gentiles closes, the final judgment of this world is upon us.

As for me and my house, I'd rather welcome change  than dread it. I'd rather embrace the Holy Spirit's leadership than reject it. During the upheavals to come, it is imperative our faith remains strong   - with our hearts fixated on Him  - and our minds too. We'll desperately need that "perfect peace" He promises us, in the dark days ahead.

I'd rather change in every way i need to, rather than fight it and miss the destiny and calling God has graciously prepared for me. I want to change, I need to change   - for the better, as this world continues to change for the worse. 

I like change. It's part of my spiritual DNA, i think. I've never lived in one place for more than five years.....in my entire life. I've never kept the same job for more than four years, either. I'm 53. Think about it.

I want to change from glory to glory. The glory of the God who changes not  - is what i seek. He changes not, but i must. I don't want to remain in the Chrysalis. While this world goes up in flames  - i want to go up in the blaze of his glory  - i want to be consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit   - i want to be burned beyond recognition  - i want to become so holy, so like Him, i can't be recognized anymore. 

"FOR OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE"

 ....guaranteed,  absolutely, no doubt, of a certainty  - follow Christ and you will be rejected of men. You won't be popular, you won't be accepted   - learn the score  - rejection will be yours...

The only ones who will truly love you and embrace you are others who are also following Christ.  Most will shun the pleasure of your company,  but there is one who won't reject you  - that someone,  says the Lord, is me!

Truly the surest sign you are a disciple of Jesus Christ's  is your love:  for your love will, just like His, know no boundaries   - you won't form "cliques", you won't pick and choose whom to love and whom not to love  - indeed  - no one will be denied your love. If you only love those you like, those who return your love, for example,  you'll have no reward in Heaven  - for your love was selfish,  segregated and partial  - all things He is not.

 The rich man could see

     the poor man in Paradise 

                     and he realized 

he'd spent his life

                      being so unwise

   ignoring the plight

       of those less fortunate than he

He'd lived so selfishly. 

Too late for regrets

     He cried out  -

Warn those who haven't died yet!

  And The Lord took pity

       and in His great mercy

       he recorded his story

       in Scripture for all to read.

yet still   - the rich

     live to fulfill 

         their own will

They choose to ignore

   the plight of the poor

      God brings to their door

They take advantage of

 with hearts lacking love

   the poor who lack enough 

     And who would you rather be   -

     a poor man in this world,

      but rich in eternity,

       Or a rich man

         in this world's wealth

        doomed to spend

           forever in Hell?