I recently read a book by John Paul Jackson entitled, Needless Casualties of War. The main premise of the book is that we have not been given authority in the second heaven. It was therefore his contention that we should not be rebuking, binding, loosing, or otherwise wasting our breath attacking the spiritual powers there. To validate his position, he cited a dream he believed the Lord had given him and several examples of anecdotal evidence. In his dream he had seen people attacking the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms to no affect whatsoever. He then saw the spiritual forces counterattack and wreak all manner of havoc on the people who had attempted to attack them. Mr. Jackson said the presumptuous attacks by the saints had opened the door for the counterattacks. His contention is that when we operate outside our God-given authority, we are presumptuous and are sinning. Any sin gives our enemy the right to attack us.
Perhaps I am writing this post more to myself than to anyone else. As one who, at one time, had a problem with presumption, I have no desire to return there. That's a good way to have your head handed to you. If you are not familiar with the term, to presume means to "venture without authority or permission." (The Free Online Dictionary)
The idea of attacking the powers of darkness in the heavenly realms is scriptural (Ephesians 6:12) isn't it? That is what I had always been taught. As with so very many things, it now appears this is simply another place we, The Church, have had things wrong for as long as we have been teaching it. Try and lay aside your prejudice and let me make my point. This blog accepts all comments so you can have your say after you have read this.
Jesus is our example of how to live life on the earth. We never see him attacking any spiritual authorities in the heavenly realms. As God, he certainly had the authority to do so, but as man, if he did, he never used that power. Logically, had that power been available to him, he would have used it. The answer to why he did not use it actually lies in two different areas. First, his authority was confined to earth when he was confined to flesh and blood. It was only after the resurrection that he said, "...All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." (Matthew 28:18) Secondly, he did not need to attack heavenly powers to accomplish his work on the earth. He knew why he was here (Luke 4:18-19) and he was about the work his Father had given him to do, always assured that his Father in Heaven was backing up his activities on earth. Now put on your spiritual ears and hear this: He has authority in heaven and will see to it that our earthly battle will also be secured in heaven. This is what he meant when he told the disciples, "...whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:19) Without going into a detailed teaching on this verse, we need to know that the binding and loosing in heaven precedes the same actions on earth. Jesus binds and looses in heaven. We bind and loose on earth.
Jerry Savelle has been teaching for years about the hand of the Lord. I have been blessed to have been given a copy of a CD containing this teaching. I have a habit of leaving a disk in the CD player of my car and letting it run over and over until I feel I have chewed all the nutrients out of it. I would hesitate to tell you how many times I have listened to this particular CD. It is certainly well into the double digits. When I first listened to it, my understanding was that he was simply talking about how to secure the blessings God wants us to have. About the time I started writing this blog, I realized the reason it is still playing whenever I drive is that God had more for me from it.
The hand of the Lord is a phrase in the Bible that always portends blessing and judgement. As Jerry says, "When the hand of the Lord is in motion, somebody is going to get judged and somebody is going to get blessed." It is the hand of the Lord in the heavens that releases judgement on the spirits we are battling on earth. When the spirits in the heavens are judged, they are neutralized and are unable to interfere with our warfare on earth. The result is an open channel for God's blessings to come to us and the removal of spiritual deception wherever it may be found. I want to shout about that. Does anyone want to join me? HALLELUJAH!
The spiritual battle for the Santa Maria valley is going to be won by the hand of the Lord coming upon the spiritual powers in the heavenly realms and neutralizing them so they can not stand against The Church on offense. I am sure most of you have noticed God is not big on formulas. He would rather script our individual lives as we go. I sometimes find scripts helpful in limited situations. I recommend we follow this script in beginning our spiritual warfare over the Santa Maria valley. 1. Confess any known sin and repent. 2. Ask the Lord to stretch forth his hand to bind the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms. 3. Tell as many people as you know about the current battle and enlist them. The more of us there are the shorter the road to victory. If you are reading this from anywhere outside the Santa Maria valley, we humbly thank you and ask if you would join us in number 1 and number 2 above. Thank you for doing whatever the Lord directs you to do.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The Battle Lines Are Drawn
If you have read the previous posts to this blog, you will have a pretty good idea of how we have come to this place in time and space. Should you have any questions about anything in the blog please do not hesitate to post a comment or even become a follower of this blog. Our intent is to energize The Church in Santa Maria to fight and win the spiritual battle that has gone on, largely unknown for at least the past twenty years. Notice we are talking about "The Church" not a local fellowship or denomination, not the place we go on Sunday mornings or the people who fellowship there. If your view of church is limited to any of those things, we would encourage you to expand your view. The Church in Santa Maria is everyone who has made Jesus Christ Lord of his or her life whether they even attend a place called church or not.
In a previous post we stated, we know people who have told us they doubt they will ever again attend a "church" because of the hurt done to them where they last attended. Generally when any of us meet or hear about a person in that situation there are alternate responses we might give. We might empathize with them and agree that the particular pastor or church they had problems with could do a better job of walking in love toward people. We might alternatively listen politely and think to ourselves, or even tell them, it is about time they just get over it and move on. The third, and probably more correct option would be to relalize there is a spiritual battle raging for that person's soul and encourage them as best we can to not give up on The Church for it is the body of Christ on earth which was formed to do God's work. (1 Corinthians 12:27) Therein lies the problem.
When we fail to understand the spiritual battle and how the religious spirit works, we blame people who have themselves fallen victim to the spirit. Note carefully, it is not only the people we think of as the victims who are the only victims. We are all the victims. Spiritual deception is an equal opportunity problem. The people we see as victims have only been hurt by and because of other people who are themselves victims. Let me illustrate it this way. Suppose some official in a church, pastor, elder, deacon, Sunday school teacher, etc, hurt some other person over whom they have been given authority by that local church. Perhaps that person gossipped or lied about them or took something from them. Whatever they did, it was a real offense. Who is the victim in this situation? We generally think of the victim as the person who suffered loss. However, when there is the influence of a demonic spirit involved, the person who did the hurting is himself a victim in that he has been deceived out of his love walk and into a sin. We would contend that we are all victims of that spirit. We have all been seduced into sinning by not walking in love as Jesus commanded. (Matthew 22:39) A very good place to start the battle would be to check our love walk and be certain we are walking in love toward everyone.
We see this victimization happening over and over, day in and day out, on a regular basis in the Santa Maria valley. It is time it stopped. It is time we join with God and with each other to put a stop to it. This battle is real. It is a battle for the souls of the men, women, and children in the valley and all those who will come to this valley in the future. The battle is against "...the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12) but it must be fought here on terra firma. We have not yet been given the battle plan that will bring about our victory. That is what this blog is about. As the plan evolves, we will share it in this space. Currently we are looking for those whom God has called and is calling to fight with us. Where are the people who weep over Santa Maria as Jesus wept over Jerusalem? (Luke 19:41) Where are those who are called to be mighty and to do exploits? (Daniel 11:32) It is time to stand up and be counted!
In a previous post we stated, we know people who have told us they doubt they will ever again attend a "church" because of the hurt done to them where they last attended. Generally when any of us meet or hear about a person in that situation there are alternate responses we might give. We might empathize with them and agree that the particular pastor or church they had problems with could do a better job of walking in love toward people. We might alternatively listen politely and think to ourselves, or even tell them, it is about time they just get over it and move on. The third, and probably more correct option would be to relalize there is a spiritual battle raging for that person's soul and encourage them as best we can to not give up on The Church for it is the body of Christ on earth which was formed to do God's work. (1 Corinthians 12:27) Therein lies the problem.
When we fail to understand the spiritual battle and how the religious spirit works, we blame people who have themselves fallen victim to the spirit. Note carefully, it is not only the people we think of as the victims who are the only victims. We are all the victims. Spiritual deception is an equal opportunity problem. The people we see as victims have only been hurt by and because of other people who are themselves victims. Let me illustrate it this way. Suppose some official in a church, pastor, elder, deacon, Sunday school teacher, etc, hurt some other person over whom they have been given authority by that local church. Perhaps that person gossipped or lied about them or took something from them. Whatever they did, it was a real offense. Who is the victim in this situation? We generally think of the victim as the person who suffered loss. However, when there is the influence of a demonic spirit involved, the person who did the hurting is himself a victim in that he has been deceived out of his love walk and into a sin. We would contend that we are all victims of that spirit. We have all been seduced into sinning by not walking in love as Jesus commanded. (Matthew 22:39) A very good place to start the battle would be to check our love walk and be certain we are walking in love toward everyone.
We see this victimization happening over and over, day in and day out, on a regular basis in the Santa Maria valley. It is time it stopped. It is time we join with God and with each other to put a stop to it. This battle is real. It is a battle for the souls of the men, women, and children in the valley and all those who will come to this valley in the future. The battle is against "...the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12) but it must be fought here on terra firma. We have not yet been given the battle plan that will bring about our victory. That is what this blog is about. As the plan evolves, we will share it in this space. Currently we are looking for those whom God has called and is calling to fight with us. Where are the people who weep over Santa Maria as Jesus wept over Jerusalem? (Luke 19:41) Where are those who are called to be mighty and to do exploits? (Daniel 11:32) It is time to stand up and be counted!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
One More Move
The reason for our departure from the church we mentioned in the last blog is critical to the story we are telling here. Before we deal with that, however, it is important that you know about a revelation the Lord gave me in the early morning hours sometime in 1998.
I was laying in bed awake very early in the morning when a moving picture of sorts started to play in my mind. In it, I saw a man, who I knew was me. He had some sticky paper on his hand. He was shaking his hand vigorously to remove the paper, but to no avail. When he grabbed it with his other hand it became stuck to that hand. He bent down, put it on the ground and stepped on it. The paper became stuck to his foot so that even a violent shaking would not dislodge it. Again he stooped and pulled it from his foot only to have it stick once again to his hand. In desperation he smacked his hand on his forehead and when he removed his hand, the paper was stuck to his forehead. Now in abject confusion as to how to resolve the situation he stood and pondered. A hand reached down from above and pulled the paper from his forehead, removing it into the darkness. God spoke to my spirit and said, "That is how it is with your sin. You can do nothing about it, but I have taken it and removed it as far from you as the east is from the west." (If that phrase sounds familiar try looking at Psalm 103:12.) I do not really take pride in the fact that I can be a smart aleck in virtually any situation, but I said--and it is as though the Lord knew I would--"I know, and you have forgotten it." I sensed Father God looking down and shaking His head at my statement. He said, "David, that is an anthropomorphism. I do not forget anything. But it is as if I have forgotten it because I will never bring it up again. And if anyone else ever brings it up again you can know they are not speaking for me." This was to become a pivotal revelation. Although it contained no new theology to me, it gave me a concrete way to tell if another person was speaking for God in certain situations.
One Friday afternoon in the fall of 2008, the pastor called me on the telephone and asked if I would be attending the men's breakfast the following day. I said I would and he asked if I would come to his office afterward to speak with him. Although I have discovered over the years that an invitation like that usually portends an uncomfortable conversation, I agreed. After the meeting the two of us adjourned to his office. He told me he had talked to a woman the previous week who had told him I owned a collection of pornographic videos and had even appeared in one. I am not certain I have ever felt quite that level of shock at anything that was said to me previously. For the record, I have never even seen a pornographic video. As a young adult, I had been invited to view an X rated movie during an Army National Guard drill weekend. Within about the first five minutes I decided that was not my kind of activity. It was only upon reflection that I realized this accusation was the devil escalating his attacks against me to another level.
The pastor had no empirical way of knowing whether the woman was telling the truth or not. However, he explained his reasons for giving any creedence to her allegations. By way of evidence, he reminded me of several other things I had been accused of over the previous fifteen years. I knew a few of those things to be true, but in my mind it is still questionable as to whether there was ever any actual wrong done. I will, however, admit to less than excellent judgement in failing to avoid even the very appearance of evil. I would later discover the majority of the accusations were unknown to me at all or were incidents that had never been verified. I declined to discuss any of the allegations because the most recent of them was already a year old at that time and I have some understanding of the spiritual power of our words. I fully believe that to give voice to those things would be to give them life when they should have died months or years ago. Naturally, I also had a problem with him even bringing up those things. I have a revelation, by direct word from the Lord and validated by scripture that says God will never bring up past sins. I question whether any of the things he mentioned could be considered sins. If they were, they are covered by the blood of Jesus and he was reminding me things God does not remember. If they were not sins, could they be anything other than spiritual attacks against my personal credibility?
The pastor offered counseling if I were having such a problem. He was courteous when he said that if the woman's allegations were true, I might very well be the reason the church was not doing any better than it was. He felt he had to ask for my resignation from the church board. I had sensed the beginning of the end of my ministry in that church almost a year earlier, but had remained faithful because that is who I am. It had not occured to us that we would be leaving under such unfortunate circumstances. In fact the pastor was very disappointed when my letter of resignation from the board also indicated that we would no longer be part of that church.
We were out on the street, without a church home, one more time. This time there were more potential churches to visit. We decided to revisit some churches we had passed on previously and to check out a few churches that had been started while we were attending our former church. We even visited one of the churches mentioned earlier in this blog, but knew when we visited that nothing had changed in the years since we had left.
In searching online for the telephone number of a church we wanted to visit, we came across the website for a church we vaguely knew existed, but had not previously considered. In perusing their website, we discovered the church belonged to an association of churches with which we were familiar and believed to have sound doctrine according to our understandings of scripture. We had one other church left on our list to visit so it was two weeks later that we made our visit to that church. What we found when we entered that building was a group of people who had good concepts of worship, teaching, fellowship, giving, and ministry. Within the next few months we attended the mandatory, introductory class for those wishing to be part of the church. That particular church has no official membership. Instead those who wish to be part of that fellowship, exchange vows with the current participants on what is known as "committment Sunday." Prior to our committment to the church, I felt it was important to inform the pastor of the allegations that had been made to our previous pastor about my participation with pornography. My feeling was that if that allegation had walked into one pastor's study, it could certainly walk into a second pastor's study. I felt it far better that he hear it from me.
Having completed the basic requirements for inclusion in the life of that church, we participated in committment Sunday and settled into getting aquainted with the other people who attended the church and finding exactly where we fit into the body life.
A few weeks later, I received an invitation to visit with the pastor in his office. We set the date and time. When I arrived at his office, I found there was only one item on his agenda for the meeting. He had visited our former pastor and had been told about the allegations against me. All he wanted to know is if I were ready to confess my faults and repent. He said he had a list of twenty different allegations given to him by the other pastor. I am not sure if he realized that list was compiled from allegations over the previous fifteen years or not. I am aware of no more than half the allegations on that list myself. (If you have read the post entitled, "Back to 1987" this may sound hauntingly familiar. It did to me.) When I mentioned that many of the things he had heard had never been verified and might not even be true, he said he knew they were true because another pastor had given them to him. He did not want to hear any defense.
This catches us up to the present day. It is clear to me that history is in the process of repeating itself (and has already in some ways) in an twenty year cycle. It seems anyone should be able to see the similarities between the events in that first church we attended in Santa Maria and the one just mentioned. Harold Hill, in his 1970s era book, How to Live Like a King's Kid, defined coincidence as being when God performs a miracle and chooses to remain anonymous. Using that as a working definition, we must consider the possibility that we are facing a work of God in the present situation.
Tom Demaree of Pentecost Walk says he hesitated to start that ministry thinking himself unworthy of such an undertaking. In the middle of his argument with God he heard, "You are the third person I have asked to do this. Shall I go on to the fourth?" Obviously we know the answer to that question.
Now we are faced with two, strikingly similar situations, separated in time by twenty years. Not long ago I was complaining to the Lord that the devil had stolen the past twenty years of my life from me. I have to wonder, had I recognized the spiritual battle that was going on those twenty years ago, if we, the Christians in the Santa Maria valley would already have won. How many people might have been born again and entered into everlasting life had the conflict been understood? How much more abundant would our collective lives be? How many more people would be worshipping Lord Jesus as they go about their daily lives and participate in church services? Twenty years later, we have another chance to enter the conflict. This time we are going to fight and we are going to win. God promises us, "...the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." (Daniel 11:42)
I was laying in bed awake very early in the morning when a moving picture of sorts started to play in my mind. In it, I saw a man, who I knew was me. He had some sticky paper on his hand. He was shaking his hand vigorously to remove the paper, but to no avail. When he grabbed it with his other hand it became stuck to that hand. He bent down, put it on the ground and stepped on it. The paper became stuck to his foot so that even a violent shaking would not dislodge it. Again he stooped and pulled it from his foot only to have it stick once again to his hand. In desperation he smacked his hand on his forehead and when he removed his hand, the paper was stuck to his forehead. Now in abject confusion as to how to resolve the situation he stood and pondered. A hand reached down from above and pulled the paper from his forehead, removing it into the darkness. God spoke to my spirit and said, "That is how it is with your sin. You can do nothing about it, but I have taken it and removed it as far from you as the east is from the west." (If that phrase sounds familiar try looking at Psalm 103:12.) I do not really take pride in the fact that I can be a smart aleck in virtually any situation, but I said--and it is as though the Lord knew I would--"I know, and you have forgotten it." I sensed Father God looking down and shaking His head at my statement. He said, "David, that is an anthropomorphism. I do not forget anything. But it is as if I have forgotten it because I will never bring it up again. And if anyone else ever brings it up again you can know they are not speaking for me." This was to become a pivotal revelation. Although it contained no new theology to me, it gave me a concrete way to tell if another person was speaking for God in certain situations.
One Friday afternoon in the fall of 2008, the pastor called me on the telephone and asked if I would be attending the men's breakfast the following day. I said I would and he asked if I would come to his office afterward to speak with him. Although I have discovered over the years that an invitation like that usually portends an uncomfortable conversation, I agreed. After the meeting the two of us adjourned to his office. He told me he had talked to a woman the previous week who had told him I owned a collection of pornographic videos and had even appeared in one. I am not certain I have ever felt quite that level of shock at anything that was said to me previously. For the record, I have never even seen a pornographic video. As a young adult, I had been invited to view an X rated movie during an Army National Guard drill weekend. Within about the first five minutes I decided that was not my kind of activity. It was only upon reflection that I realized this accusation was the devil escalating his attacks against me to another level.
The pastor had no empirical way of knowing whether the woman was telling the truth or not. However, he explained his reasons for giving any creedence to her allegations. By way of evidence, he reminded me of several other things I had been accused of over the previous fifteen years. I knew a few of those things to be true, but in my mind it is still questionable as to whether there was ever any actual wrong done. I will, however, admit to less than excellent judgement in failing to avoid even the very appearance of evil. I would later discover the majority of the accusations were unknown to me at all or were incidents that had never been verified. I declined to discuss any of the allegations because the most recent of them was already a year old at that time and I have some understanding of the spiritual power of our words. I fully believe that to give voice to those things would be to give them life when they should have died months or years ago. Naturally, I also had a problem with him even bringing up those things. I have a revelation, by direct word from the Lord and validated by scripture that says God will never bring up past sins. I question whether any of the things he mentioned could be considered sins. If they were, they are covered by the blood of Jesus and he was reminding me things God does not remember. If they were not sins, could they be anything other than spiritual attacks against my personal credibility?
The pastor offered counseling if I were having such a problem. He was courteous when he said that if the woman's allegations were true, I might very well be the reason the church was not doing any better than it was. He felt he had to ask for my resignation from the church board. I had sensed the beginning of the end of my ministry in that church almost a year earlier, but had remained faithful because that is who I am. It had not occured to us that we would be leaving under such unfortunate circumstances. In fact the pastor was very disappointed when my letter of resignation from the board also indicated that we would no longer be part of that church.
We were out on the street, without a church home, one more time. This time there were more potential churches to visit. We decided to revisit some churches we had passed on previously and to check out a few churches that had been started while we were attending our former church. We even visited one of the churches mentioned earlier in this blog, but knew when we visited that nothing had changed in the years since we had left.
In searching online for the telephone number of a church we wanted to visit, we came across the website for a church we vaguely knew existed, but had not previously considered. In perusing their website, we discovered the church belonged to an association of churches with which we were familiar and believed to have sound doctrine according to our understandings of scripture. We had one other church left on our list to visit so it was two weeks later that we made our visit to that church. What we found when we entered that building was a group of people who had good concepts of worship, teaching, fellowship, giving, and ministry. Within the next few months we attended the mandatory, introductory class for those wishing to be part of the church. That particular church has no official membership. Instead those who wish to be part of that fellowship, exchange vows with the current participants on what is known as "committment Sunday." Prior to our committment to the church, I felt it was important to inform the pastor of the allegations that had been made to our previous pastor about my participation with pornography. My feeling was that if that allegation had walked into one pastor's study, it could certainly walk into a second pastor's study. I felt it far better that he hear it from me.
Having completed the basic requirements for inclusion in the life of that church, we participated in committment Sunday and settled into getting aquainted with the other people who attended the church and finding exactly where we fit into the body life.
A few weeks later, I received an invitation to visit with the pastor in his office. We set the date and time. When I arrived at his office, I found there was only one item on his agenda for the meeting. He had visited our former pastor and had been told about the allegations against me. All he wanted to know is if I were ready to confess my faults and repent. He said he had a list of twenty different allegations given to him by the other pastor. I am not sure if he realized that list was compiled from allegations over the previous fifteen years or not. I am aware of no more than half the allegations on that list myself. (If you have read the post entitled, "Back to 1987" this may sound hauntingly familiar. It did to me.) When I mentioned that many of the things he had heard had never been verified and might not even be true, he said he knew they were true because another pastor had given them to him. He did not want to hear any defense.
This catches us up to the present day. It is clear to me that history is in the process of repeating itself (and has already in some ways) in an twenty year cycle. It seems anyone should be able to see the similarities between the events in that first church we attended in Santa Maria and the one just mentioned. Harold Hill, in his 1970s era book, How to Live Like a King's Kid, defined coincidence as being when God performs a miracle and chooses to remain anonymous. Using that as a working definition, we must consider the possibility that we are facing a work of God in the present situation.
Tom Demaree of Pentecost Walk says he hesitated to start that ministry thinking himself unworthy of such an undertaking. In the middle of his argument with God he heard, "You are the third person I have asked to do this. Shall I go on to the fourth?" Obviously we know the answer to that question.
Now we are faced with two, strikingly similar situations, separated in time by twenty years. Not long ago I was complaining to the Lord that the devil had stolen the past twenty years of my life from me. I have to wonder, had I recognized the spiritual battle that was going on those twenty years ago, if we, the Christians in the Santa Maria valley would already have won. How many people might have been born again and entered into everlasting life had the conflict been understood? How much more abundant would our collective lives be? How many more people would be worshipping Lord Jesus as they go about their daily lives and participate in church services? Twenty years later, we have another chance to enter the conflict. This time we are going to fight and we are going to win. God promises us, "...the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits." (Daniel 11:42)
From There to There and Almost Here
We were once again without a church home and a fairly short list of churches from which to choose. After a few weeks of visiting churches, we settled on one of the larger Pentecostal churches in the area, the Assemblies of God church, Pacific Christian Center. Shortly after we began attending the church there was a pastoral change. While not being greatly affected by that change, it may have opened up new ministry possibilities for us. We had opportunities to perform in a musical, teach a Sunday School class for one summer quarter, play on the worship team, and even preach a Wednesday evening service. I was comfortable enough that I even considered changing my ministerial credentials to the Assemblies of God from the Foursquare Church, having had just about enough of church politics. I discovered that as bad as Foursquare Church politics were, they were amateurs in comparison to the AOG.
By the time we left Pacific Christian Center, it occurred to us--perhaps Judi was the first one to mention it, that we had seen pastors come to town very committed and very dedicated to winning the lost to Jesus and building the Kingdom of God. However, after being in town for some period of time, all that did not seem to matter anymore. They seemed to place more emphasis on building their own kingdoms instead. They wanted more people, larger buildings, bigger budgets, and more renown. Undoubtedly spiritual deception enters in to cause this so it is doubtful those so affected have any idea what it is actually happening. After all how are we to build the Kingdom of God without sufficient finances? How do finances come except people
bring them in? Where do the people bring them if not to a nice facility? (Hint: Those are three largely rhetorical questions, none of which should be answered affirmatively.)
Spiritual deception is like ignorance--we just do not know how ignorant, or deceived, we are until we find the truth. We were blessed to be in a service many years ago where Paul Cain was the guest speaker. Paul has some history in this area from many years before we heard him and is considered by some to be a modern day prophet. Regardless of your opinion, one thing he said in that meeting that struck a responsive chord is that Satan loves to trip up the man of God with any or all of the three G's, the gold, the girls, or the glory. As nearly as we have been able to discern, the girls have not been a large problem with the pastors in this town. I am intentionally leaving the other two G's unmentioned. This might be a clue as to where the real spiritual battle lies.
Where were we? Oh yes, leaving Pacific Christian Center. We had not really intended to change churches. We had a lot of good friends there and the ministry, from praise and worship, to the sermons, to other ministry and fellowship opportunities were edifying and enjoyable. That is not even to mention we had recently bought a house and moved to within walking distance of the church. Nonetheless, when a friend, who is an excellent Bible teacher, decided to start a new church, we were there from the very beginning. It was great to be a part of something new, something different. The church was not even called a church. It was called a worship center. There was a feeling in the first months that something special was happening. The hundred or so people who were meeting together at that time sincerely wanted the Holy Spirit to be free to move in the worship and the teaching. We would later find out there was one critical element missing from that equation--The Holy Spirit Himself.
The testimonies of many people as well as of God's provision in so many ways were ample evidence that God was working behind the scenes to put that little church together. The music was very good as several, excellent musicians and singers stood on the platform Sunday after Sunday and offered their gifts unto the Lord. The Bible teaching was as good as could be found in any church in the area. I even learned a piece of Pentecostal theology that had alluded me through many years of attendance in Pentecostal churches and studies at a Pentecostal Bible college. (I will add the link here after I write that one up in case you are interested. In the meantime, ask.) We also had ample ministry opportunities in teaching, facilitating women's ministries, and guiding some of the business practices of the church. At some point, probably earlier rather than later a spiritual dullness came over that church. Had we been at the top of our game spiritually, we might have recognized it when it first crept in. Even today we cannot tell you when it had it's genesis. What we do know is that, at some point, the decay became irreversible (at least to the present) and what very well may have started out as a spiritual pursuit became a soulical endeavor.
When we left the church, within months of its eighth anniversary, there were fewer than half the people and well less than half the budget there had been at the end of the first year. It is doubtful we would have left at all had it not been for a spiritual attack that prevented us from having further ministry in that church and demonstrated to us that we really had no choice but to leave. At the time we did not realize that God was using multiple people to move us in a direction we would likely not have moved on our own. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
By the time we left Pacific Christian Center, it occurred to us--perhaps Judi was the first one to mention it, that we had seen pastors come to town very committed and very dedicated to winning the lost to Jesus and building the Kingdom of God. However, after being in town for some period of time, all that did not seem to matter anymore. They seemed to place more emphasis on building their own kingdoms instead. They wanted more people, larger buildings, bigger budgets, and more renown. Undoubtedly spiritual deception enters in to cause this so it is doubtful those so affected have any idea what it is actually happening. After all how are we to build the Kingdom of God without sufficient finances? How do finances come except people
bring them in? Where do the people bring them if not to a nice facility? (Hint: Those are three largely rhetorical questions, none of which should be answered affirmatively.)
Spiritual deception is like ignorance--we just do not know how ignorant, or deceived, we are until we find the truth. We were blessed to be in a service many years ago where Paul Cain was the guest speaker. Paul has some history in this area from many years before we heard him and is considered by some to be a modern day prophet. Regardless of your opinion, one thing he said in that meeting that struck a responsive chord is that Satan loves to trip up the man of God with any or all of the three G's, the gold, the girls, or the glory. As nearly as we have been able to discern, the girls have not been a large problem with the pastors in this town. I am intentionally leaving the other two G's unmentioned. This might be a clue as to where the real spiritual battle lies.
Where were we? Oh yes, leaving Pacific Christian Center. We had not really intended to change churches. We had a lot of good friends there and the ministry, from praise and worship, to the sermons, to other ministry and fellowship opportunities were edifying and enjoyable. That is not even to mention we had recently bought a house and moved to within walking distance of the church. Nonetheless, when a friend, who is an excellent Bible teacher, decided to start a new church, we were there from the very beginning. It was great to be a part of something new, something different. The church was not even called a church. It was called a worship center. There was a feeling in the first months that something special was happening. The hundred or so people who were meeting together at that time sincerely wanted the Holy Spirit to be free to move in the worship and the teaching. We would later find out there was one critical element missing from that equation--The Holy Spirit Himself.
The testimonies of many people as well as of God's provision in so many ways were ample evidence that God was working behind the scenes to put that little church together. The music was very good as several, excellent musicians and singers stood on the platform Sunday after Sunday and offered their gifts unto the Lord. The Bible teaching was as good as could be found in any church in the area. I even learned a piece of Pentecostal theology that had alluded me through many years of attendance in Pentecostal churches and studies at a Pentecostal Bible college. (I will add the link here after I write that one up in case you are interested. In the meantime, ask.) We also had ample ministry opportunities in teaching, facilitating women's ministries, and guiding some of the business practices of the church. At some point, probably earlier rather than later a spiritual dullness came over that church. Had we been at the top of our game spiritually, we might have recognized it when it first crept in. Even today we cannot tell you when it had it's genesis. What we do know is that, at some point, the decay became irreversible (at least to the present) and what very well may have started out as a spiritual pursuit became a soulical endeavor.
When we left the church, within months of its eighth anniversary, there were fewer than half the people and well less than half the budget there had been at the end of the first year. It is doubtful we would have left at all had it not been for a spiritual attack that prevented us from having further ministry in that church and demonstrated to us that we really had no choice but to leave. At the time we did not realize that God was using multiple people to move us in a direction we would likely not have moved on our own. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
The Journey Continues
We made very short work of finding a new church. We visited one church with some friends, but we were not sure we felt quite right about it. Our children also did not like the children's ministries as well as they had others, so we continued our search.
We attended services in a community gymnasium which was the temporary quarters for another church while they were building a new building. It was what would probably be called a conservative, evangelical church. We were impressed when the pastor showed up at our door the following Monday evening to thank us for attending services the previous day. We expressed some of our concerns about the church doctrine, especially the fact that, while not unfriendly to the present day workings of the Holy Spirit, they did not seem to give Him is proper place either. The pastor assured us that we would have no doctrinal problems at his church because the church did not really have any official doctrine (sic). He also said he had grown up attending an Assemblies of God church. If memory serves me, he had also studied at Southern California College, now Vanguard University, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. What we were later to learn is that a fair percentage of the congregation, and most of the leadership including the pastor had no experience with the present day working of the Holy Spirit. Many were even hostile toward the concept.
Our children fell in love with the children's pastors, Michael and Debra Laflin, so we settled in and tried to discern what we should do. We were involved in many of the church ministries over the next several years including teaching Sunday School, facilitating Women's Ministries and being on the leading edge of a new counseling ministry the church started while we were there. When the time came for the church to add a staff minister, it would have seemed I was a good fit. According to two, credible witnesses, the pastor would not allow my name to be considered. There had been allegations that I had made three women in the congregation uncomfortable. There was no identification of the women or were any specific actions on my part stated, but unbeknownst to me, those allegations would haunt me to the present day. I suppose I did not help myself by telling him I thought the Lord might be telling me that I would one day lead that church. Obviously that has not happened to this point and it still seems like a very long shot that it will. However, when the pastor offered to pay for me to have an appointment with a Christian psychologist to see if he could discover why I thought I was hearing from God, I realized there was no longer any point in further communication with him about ministry in that church.
About a year before we left that church, I became the victim of a downsizing in the Financial Planning Department of the Christian Broadcasting Network after only eight months of employment. I would remain largely unemployed for the next four years due mostly to the local ecomony. I did various jobs that turned out to be more temporary than I had hoped. The Lord put it on my heart to write some teaching letters which I entitled "The Rising Sun" from Malachi 4:2, which says, "But to you who fear My name, The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings..." Those letters became my ministry and teaching outlet. I was careful to make sure the pastor and his staff members received copies of the letters so there would be no allegations of my teaching errant doctrine or attempting to undermine anything the pastor was teaching. I never did receive any feedback from the staff regarding the letters.
An old friend of mine had assumed the position of District Supervisor of the Foursquare Churches in our area. It seemed good to meet with him and see if he could give any insight as to why God had called us to Santa Maria. As we were talking in his office, he asked how large Santa Maria was. I indicated I supposed with the surrounding county area there were probably close to 100,000 people. He said to me that was a large enough population to justify another Foursquare Church. That as a totally unexpected statement. I told him the current Foursquare pastor would never allow another church in his backyard. He assured me that it would be his decision. I left his office pondering the idea and telling him that we would discuss and pray over the idea and get back to him.
We did pray and discuss and ponder the idea of planting another church, our first experience having not been totally unfortunate. We also discussed the idea with the founding pastor of the Santa Maria Foursquare Church, long since retired. He agreed the current pastor would not allow that to happen, but I had the assurance of the district supervisor that it could indeed be done. I called the supervisor and told him we had decided we would like to plant the Sunrise Foursquare Church. He quickly reigned me in telling me that he would need letters of recommendation before that would be a possibility. I complied and had three pastors write him letters. In the meantime, I began contacting people and contracting a building to meet in. He received the letters, but said he needed more current recommendations. We had only been to two churches over the last seven years. One of those pastors wanted me to see a psychologist and the other would not be happy about another Foursquare Church in Santa Maria, I strongly felt it would be no use to ask them for recommendations, but did ask one of them anyway. He declined and the possibility of planting another Foursquare church withered and died.
Since we had already begun the process of planting a church, we forged ahead and did begin meeting as Sunrise Ministries. To say it was a struggle would be a slight understatement. We did see thirteen people make first time decisions for the Lord in the nearly two years of the church's existence and baptized fourteen people in water. The church began to grow and after the first year we had over forty people in regular attendance on any given Sunday morning. Then inexplicibly, three families moved out of the area over the course of about a month. Those families represented nearly a quarter of the congregation. The death knell came not a long time thereafter when one man in the church took it upon himself to let everyone know how poorly I was doing as a pastor and how bad my doctrine was. In my defense, this man thought that because the first page in his King James Bible proclaimed it as "The Authorized Version" it was the only English version of the Bible God had authorized. The fledgling church could not endure that sort of divisiveness and we decided to close the doors the day no one came to church except our family.
We attended services in a community gymnasium which was the temporary quarters for another church while they were building a new building. It was what would probably be called a conservative, evangelical church. We were impressed when the pastor showed up at our door the following Monday evening to thank us for attending services the previous day. We expressed some of our concerns about the church doctrine, especially the fact that, while not unfriendly to the present day workings of the Holy Spirit, they did not seem to give Him is proper place either. The pastor assured us that we would have no doctrinal problems at his church because the church did not really have any official doctrine (sic). He also said he had grown up attending an Assemblies of God church. If memory serves me, he had also studied at Southern California College, now Vanguard University, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. What we were later to learn is that a fair percentage of the congregation, and most of the leadership including the pastor had no experience with the present day working of the Holy Spirit. Many were even hostile toward the concept.
Our children fell in love with the children's pastors, Michael and Debra Laflin, so we settled in and tried to discern what we should do. We were involved in many of the church ministries over the next several years including teaching Sunday School, facilitating Women's Ministries and being on the leading edge of a new counseling ministry the church started while we were there. When the time came for the church to add a staff minister, it would have seemed I was a good fit. According to two, credible witnesses, the pastor would not allow my name to be considered. There had been allegations that I had made three women in the congregation uncomfortable. There was no identification of the women or were any specific actions on my part stated, but unbeknownst to me, those allegations would haunt me to the present day. I suppose I did not help myself by telling him I thought the Lord might be telling me that I would one day lead that church. Obviously that has not happened to this point and it still seems like a very long shot that it will. However, when the pastor offered to pay for me to have an appointment with a Christian psychologist to see if he could discover why I thought I was hearing from God, I realized there was no longer any point in further communication with him about ministry in that church.
About a year before we left that church, I became the victim of a downsizing in the Financial Planning Department of the Christian Broadcasting Network after only eight months of employment. I would remain largely unemployed for the next four years due mostly to the local ecomony. I did various jobs that turned out to be more temporary than I had hoped. The Lord put it on my heart to write some teaching letters which I entitled "The Rising Sun" from Malachi 4:2, which says, "But to you who fear My name, The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings..." Those letters became my ministry and teaching outlet. I was careful to make sure the pastor and his staff members received copies of the letters so there would be no allegations of my teaching errant doctrine or attempting to undermine anything the pastor was teaching. I never did receive any feedback from the staff regarding the letters.
An old friend of mine had assumed the position of District Supervisor of the Foursquare Churches in our area. It seemed good to meet with him and see if he could give any insight as to why God had called us to Santa Maria. As we were talking in his office, he asked how large Santa Maria was. I indicated I supposed with the surrounding county area there were probably close to 100,000 people. He said to me that was a large enough population to justify another Foursquare Church. That as a totally unexpected statement. I told him the current Foursquare pastor would never allow another church in his backyard. He assured me that it would be his decision. I left his office pondering the idea and telling him that we would discuss and pray over the idea and get back to him.
We did pray and discuss and ponder the idea of planting another church, our first experience having not been totally unfortunate. We also discussed the idea with the founding pastor of the Santa Maria Foursquare Church, long since retired. He agreed the current pastor would not allow that to happen, but I had the assurance of the district supervisor that it could indeed be done. I called the supervisor and told him we had decided we would like to plant the Sunrise Foursquare Church. He quickly reigned me in telling me that he would need letters of recommendation before that would be a possibility. I complied and had three pastors write him letters. In the meantime, I began contacting people and contracting a building to meet in. He received the letters, but said he needed more current recommendations. We had only been to two churches over the last seven years. One of those pastors wanted me to see a psychologist and the other would not be happy about another Foursquare Church in Santa Maria, I strongly felt it would be no use to ask them for recommendations, but did ask one of them anyway. He declined and the possibility of planting another Foursquare church withered and died.
Since we had already begun the process of planting a church, we forged ahead and did begin meeting as Sunrise Ministries. To say it was a struggle would be a slight understatement. We did see thirteen people make first time decisions for the Lord in the nearly two years of the church's existence and baptized fourteen people in water. The church began to grow and after the first year we had over forty people in regular attendance on any given Sunday morning. Then inexplicibly, three families moved out of the area over the course of about a month. Those families represented nearly a quarter of the congregation. The death knell came not a long time thereafter when one man in the church took it upon himself to let everyone know how poorly I was doing as a pastor and how bad my doctrine was. In my defense, this man thought that because the first page in his King James Bible proclaimed it as "The Authorized Version" it was the only English version of the Bible God had authorized. The fledgling church could not endure that sort of divisiveness and we decided to close the doors the day no one came to church except our family.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Back to 1987
Having not heard any clear direction from the Lord beyond that initial word, we settled in the only place we could--my father and mother-in-law's house in Mission Hills, at the northern end of the San Fernando Valley. In looking for a church, it seemed best to us to attend one we had not been to before where perhaps our ministry gifts would be useful. After a few false starts, we settled in at the Panorama City Foursquare Church being welcomed by the pastor and his wife. Jim and Jane Phillipi were acquaintances more than friends when we arrived, however, Jane grew up in Santa Maria, for whatever that is worth. We attended the church and found some ministry things to do from October 1987 until February 1988. During that time we twice had visiting ministers call us out of the congregation to tell us they saw the hand of God on our lives and ministries.
We were standing, worshipping during a Sunday morning church service in February 1988 when as clearly as I had ever heard the voice of the Lord to that time, I heard Him say, "You don't need to be here. You need to be in Santa Maria." That week I explained the situation to Jim. He was completely understanding and agreed we did not have any choice but to go. The following Sunday morning we were in the worship service at the Santa Maria Foursquare Church. A new pastor had taken over the leadership of that church since we had last visited. The only thing I can tell you about that first service is that my spirit witnessed that we were in the right place for the first time in awhile. It is one of the very few times I have wept during a worship service.
We commuted from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Maria on weekends, sometimes all six of us, sometimes only one or two, for about six months until we were able to get out of the lease on the house we had rented. It was at about the same time our lease ended, we were in a Sunday evening service in Santa Maria when we met a couple who were in the real estate business. We inquired as to whether they knew of any houses we might be able to move into on a lease option basis. They did. We moved to Santa Maria in September 1988. At that point, I began doing a reverse commute--working in the San Fernando Valley during the week and coming home to Santa Maria on the weekends. It was during that commute we were assigned the task of rebuilding the college and career ministry which had fallen into some neglect after the departure of the previous leaders from the church.
The college and career ministry became fruitful once again. We taught a Sunday School class and had a small group meeting in our home which we named "Monday night manna" after the small group meeting we had started in Davis. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, manna is the food that fell from heaven which the Israelites ate during their wanderings in the wilderness. The word manna means "what is it?") We never knew what was going to happen when that group got together and began to worship and pray. We saw physical and emotional healings as they simply believed God to do what they asked of him. By that time I had managed to find a full time job in Santa Maria selling life insurance and investment products.
The Lord also began to speak words of edification, exhortation, and comfort to me for the church. He told me I was to be a watchman on the wall, to warn of approaching danger. At that point my mind was still intent on being a pastoral staff member. I looked to the pastor to give me a position of ministry not realizing God already had. I wanted to get paid, to make my living in the ministry. Sometime during this period of time, my mother-in-law conveyed a message to me she had received from the Lord. She said the devil was setting a snare for my soul. I cannot explain why, but it never occurred to me to follow-up on the word to see if I could ascertain exactly what it meant for me. As of this writing I realize the snare she mentioned was the fear of man. (Proverbs 29:25) It became an ongoing problem which only recently have I confessed and repented from. Neither that pastor nor any other pastor--nor any other man, can put me into the ministry. But God is faithful, by whom I was called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9) He alone is able to put me into the ministry.
One morning I was sitting in the church worship service, near the front as is my custom. For some reason there were no other people near me. I will not claim to have heard the audible voice of God, but the words came so clearly that I looked around to see who could have said them. Such a one has a controlling spirit. I recognized that person as one of the pastoral staff members. That very day I went and told the pastor what I had heard. He dismissed what I said as unbelievable to him. Two weeks later he called us into a side room off the platform and said that he had been wrong. He had asked the staff member if what I said were true. She said it was and asked him to pray for her that it might be taken away.
Within the next several weeks, I was awake in the early morning hours being compelled to write down another word from the Lord for the church. In short, the word was that there was a problem in the church which, if not dealt with, would cause damage to the church and to many people in the church. That word was summarily dismissed and it seems to me, may have become the beginning of the end for us in that church. Shortly thereafter, the pastor accused me of unChristian conduct. He called his church council together, but refused to hear any defense and did not even present me with any specific charges. All he wanted to know is if I were willing to confess and repent. When I told him I would not consider doing that until I knew what the charges were, he told me there was nothing else to discuss and ordered me to leave the church. I did find out what the charges were nearly five years later when I reached out to restore fellowship with this pastor. At that time, one of the things he apologized for was that he had neglected to make me aware of the charges at that meeting five hears prior. Thankfully, his secretary had taken meticulous notes that showed him the charges had been discussed before I had joined the meeting.
We both knew his order to leave the church was unenforceable and possibly even illegal, but with four young children who would be affected by any struggles or stresses that might arise by our staying, discretion seemed the better part of valor. We left in search of a different church fellowship. The unfortunate end of that story is that within the following six months many people did leave the church. Although the specific reasons for that are still unclear, the pastor estimated that 250 people left the church during that time. We heard one estimate that put the total number at around 535. We know people from that exodus who have never returned to church. As for us, we were totally knocked off balance and did not recognize what had happened as a spiritual counterattack against the good work with the college and career group. As if being told to leave the church were not enough, shortly thereafter, the devil would begin pulling out all the stops in an effort to neutralize us and keep us from entering into the spiritual warfare which we have only recently discerned as possibly the very reason God sent us back to this valley in 1987.
We were standing, worshipping during a Sunday morning church service in February 1988 when as clearly as I had ever heard the voice of the Lord to that time, I heard Him say, "You don't need to be here. You need to be in Santa Maria." That week I explained the situation to Jim. He was completely understanding and agreed we did not have any choice but to go. The following Sunday morning we were in the worship service at the Santa Maria Foursquare Church. A new pastor had taken over the leadership of that church since we had last visited. The only thing I can tell you about that first service is that my spirit witnessed that we were in the right place for the first time in awhile. It is one of the very few times I have wept during a worship service.
We commuted from the San Fernando Valley to Santa Maria on weekends, sometimes all six of us, sometimes only one or two, for about six months until we were able to get out of the lease on the house we had rented. It was at about the same time our lease ended, we were in a Sunday evening service in Santa Maria when we met a couple who were in the real estate business. We inquired as to whether they knew of any houses we might be able to move into on a lease option basis. They did. We moved to Santa Maria in September 1988. At that point, I began doing a reverse commute--working in the San Fernando Valley during the week and coming home to Santa Maria on the weekends. It was during that commute we were assigned the task of rebuilding the college and career ministry which had fallen into some neglect after the departure of the previous leaders from the church.
The college and career ministry became fruitful once again. We taught a Sunday School class and had a small group meeting in our home which we named "Monday night manna" after the small group meeting we had started in Davis. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term, manna is the food that fell from heaven which the Israelites ate during their wanderings in the wilderness. The word manna means "what is it?") We never knew what was going to happen when that group got together and began to worship and pray. We saw physical and emotional healings as they simply believed God to do what they asked of him. By that time I had managed to find a full time job in Santa Maria selling life insurance and investment products.
The Lord also began to speak words of edification, exhortation, and comfort to me for the church. He told me I was to be a watchman on the wall, to warn of approaching danger. At that point my mind was still intent on being a pastoral staff member. I looked to the pastor to give me a position of ministry not realizing God already had. I wanted to get paid, to make my living in the ministry. Sometime during this period of time, my mother-in-law conveyed a message to me she had received from the Lord. She said the devil was setting a snare for my soul. I cannot explain why, but it never occurred to me to follow-up on the word to see if I could ascertain exactly what it meant for me. As of this writing I realize the snare she mentioned was the fear of man. (Proverbs 29:25) It became an ongoing problem which only recently have I confessed and repented from. Neither that pastor nor any other pastor--nor any other man, can put me into the ministry. But God is faithful, by whom I was called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9) He alone is able to put me into the ministry.
One morning I was sitting in the church worship service, near the front as is my custom. For some reason there were no other people near me. I will not claim to have heard the audible voice of God, but the words came so clearly that I looked around to see who could have said them. Such a one has a controlling spirit. I recognized that person as one of the pastoral staff members. That very day I went and told the pastor what I had heard. He dismissed what I said as unbelievable to him. Two weeks later he called us into a side room off the platform and said that he had been wrong. He had asked the staff member if what I said were true. She said it was and asked him to pray for her that it might be taken away.
Within the next several weeks, I was awake in the early morning hours being compelled to write down another word from the Lord for the church. In short, the word was that there was a problem in the church which, if not dealt with, would cause damage to the church and to many people in the church. That word was summarily dismissed and it seems to me, may have become the beginning of the end for us in that church. Shortly thereafter, the pastor accused me of unChristian conduct. He called his church council together, but refused to hear any defense and did not even present me with any specific charges. All he wanted to know is if I were willing to confess and repent. When I told him I would not consider doing that until I knew what the charges were, he told me there was nothing else to discuss and ordered me to leave the church. I did find out what the charges were nearly five years later when I reached out to restore fellowship with this pastor. At that time, one of the things he apologized for was that he had neglected to make me aware of the charges at that meeting five hears prior. Thankfully, his secretary had taken meticulous notes that showed him the charges had been discussed before I had joined the meeting.
We both knew his order to leave the church was unenforceable and possibly even illegal, but with four young children who would be affected by any struggles or stresses that might arise by our staying, discretion seemed the better part of valor. We left in search of a different church fellowship. The unfortunate end of that story is that within the following six months many people did leave the church. Although the specific reasons for that are still unclear, the pastor estimated that 250 people left the church during that time. We heard one estimate that put the total number at around 535. We know people from that exodus who have never returned to church. As for us, we were totally knocked off balance and did not recognize what had happened as a spiritual counterattack against the good work with the college and career group. As if being told to leave the church were not enough, shortly thereafter, the devil would begin pulling out all the stops in an effort to neutralize us and keep us from entering into the spiritual warfare which we have only recently discerned as possibly the very reason God sent us back to this valley in 1987.
Present Day
The purpose, then, of this blog is to bring the reader up to date on the events from late 1987 to the present (not to worry, we are not going to give you minutia). We feel it is important that you, the reader, understand how we came to be in the place we are, doing what we are doing today.
Many people over the years have commented that I seem to have greater spiritual insight than the "average Christian" (whoever that is). I believe that to be true and the best way to explain why that might be so is by way of scripture. Jesus Himself said, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward..." (Matthew 10:41) (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations in this blog are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.) It is our considered belief that the prophet's reward spoken of in the above verse is the ability of the prophet to see into the spiritual realm with greater frequency and accuracy than is considered the norm. Does this mean we will always be right in the present day? One would hope that is true, but it seems unlikely. New Testament prophecy comes to give, "...edification and exhortation and comfort to men." (1 Corinthians 14:3) New Testament prophecy can be a foretelling of future events, but it is much more often simply God speaking to someone through another person to answer a question or need in that person's life.
Having said all that, the prophet I relate most closely with is Amos. Amos came to Israel at a time when the nation was not living according to the Word of God. Shortly after he began to call Israel into account for their transgressions, he was told by the king to run away and not to prophesy any longer. His response was that he was not a prophet or a prophet's son, but God had told him to prophesy. I teach. That is what I do. But occasionally God does give me a message for someone else and I would be loath to contain it. In those times, my sole responsibility is to make God's present word, his rhema, known. It is the responsibility of the person to whom that word is given to decide how to respond to it.
Many people over the years have commented that I seem to have greater spiritual insight than the "average Christian" (whoever that is). I believe that to be true and the best way to explain why that might be so is by way of scripture. Jesus Himself said, "He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward..." (Matthew 10:41) (Unless otherwise indicated, all quotations in this blog are taken from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.) It is our considered belief that the prophet's reward spoken of in the above verse is the ability of the prophet to see into the spiritual realm with greater frequency and accuracy than is considered the norm. Does this mean we will always be right in the present day? One would hope that is true, but it seems unlikely. New Testament prophecy comes to give, "...edification and exhortation and comfort to men." (1 Corinthians 14:3) New Testament prophecy can be a foretelling of future events, but it is much more often simply God speaking to someone through another person to answer a question or need in that person's life.
Having said all that, the prophet I relate most closely with is Amos. Amos came to Israel at a time when the nation was not living according to the Word of God. Shortly after he began to call Israel into account for their transgressions, he was told by the king to run away and not to prophesy any longer. His response was that he was not a prophet or a prophet's son, but God had told him to prophesy. I teach. That is what I do. But occasionally God does give me a message for someone else and I would be loath to contain it. In those times, my sole responsibility is to make God's present word, his rhema, known. It is the responsibility of the person to whom that word is given to decide how to respond to it.
In the Beginning
Everything has to start somewhere. (I will be catching you up on the intervening years in coming posts.)
Although this blog starts today, the story starts almost 22 years ago. We were relatively, happily pastoring a Foursquare church we had started in Davis, CA when we felt prompted of the Lord it was time to leave there and go back to "a place you have been before". I remember complaining to the Lord that it just didn't seem as though we had really accomplished anything. He said, "I did not send you here for the sake of Davis. I sent you here for the sake of David." I understood that to mean He had been preparing me for whatever was to come next, but I remember being frustrated, thinking I had just spent another seven years getting an education, wondering when I would be finished with that. Little did I know or understand at that point that our education into the things of God never ends.
There were only four places that could have been referred to by that brief word from the Lord to my spirit so, after packing our belongings and the kids we headed first to Santa Maria. At that point it had never occured to us that we might be leaving the ministry or the Foursquare Church. We visited the pastor at the Santa Maria Foursquare Church and were told there were no ministry opportunities available for us. Although we were not told in so many words, the emphasis, as it turned out, was on the words for us. As it turned out the other three places also did not seem to be the right places and largely by default we ended up resuming the life we had left in the San Fernando Valley in 1980. It was August 1987.
Although this blog starts today, the story starts almost 22 years ago. We were relatively, happily pastoring a Foursquare church we had started in Davis, CA when we felt prompted of the Lord it was time to leave there and go back to "a place you have been before". I remember complaining to the Lord that it just didn't seem as though we had really accomplished anything. He said, "I did not send you here for the sake of Davis. I sent you here for the sake of David." I understood that to mean He had been preparing me for whatever was to come next, but I remember being frustrated, thinking I had just spent another seven years getting an education, wondering when I would be finished with that. Little did I know or understand at that point that our education into the things of God never ends.
There were only four places that could have been referred to by that brief word from the Lord to my spirit so, after packing our belongings and the kids we headed first to Santa Maria. At that point it had never occured to us that we might be leaving the ministry or the Foursquare Church. We visited the pastor at the Santa Maria Foursquare Church and were told there were no ministry opportunities available for us. Although we were not told in so many words, the emphasis, as it turned out, was on the words for us. As it turned out the other three places also did not seem to be the right places and largely by default we ended up resuming the life we had left in the San Fernando Valley in 1980. It was August 1987.
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