We are not entirely sure how blogger works, and it really does not matter all that much. The way we hope and pray this blog works is that we hear what the Holy Spirit is saying, write it down, and it becomes some kind of semi-permanent record on the internet. We mention that only to say, this post, we think, is going to show it was published on a Saturday. In reality it is barely Saturday by the clock. We are morning people, but this can hardly be considered morning at all.
Watchman Nee, who is one of our heroes in the faith, said every day was a spiritual battle while he was writing his classic The Spiritual Man. I was talking about that with my neighbor across the fence just yesterday. When we look back at the dates of these posts, we note we were publishing much more frequently when we started. Then something happened. The warfare became a little more intense. Trust me when I tell you this whole, past week was one distraction after another.
For most of the past twenty years, as we have alluded to previously, we have been unsure of what we were called to Santa Maria to do. We are embarassed to say most of that time we spent in ignorance can be directly related to spiritual deception. Not only were we unable to see what we were supposed to be doing, we thought we were doing what we should be. We know, that sounds sort of cryptic, but that is how spiritual deception works. One wrong turn, one false piece of information, one lie that we believe can send us down the path toward deception.
At this time, however, we can tell you, we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. In the past three months, more or less, we have moved out of that period of ignorance and deception, into a period of apathy, where we did not really care what happened, to peace. We now understand, with more than head knowledge, God is at work in us to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13) Looking back over our lives, we see sometimes very clearly, sometimes less how God was bringing us to this time and place.
In the beginning, this blog was as effortless as anything ever has been in my life. Of course, most of the early posts were simply personal history so the most difficult part of writing them was remembering that far back with a brain that may have passed it's prime. It has become more difficult recently. We are aware of Satan's schemes. We also understand a little something about how God works in our spirits.
This is a real time update. I just learned what I am about to share, and I do mean "just" as in moments ago. It is also one of those "duh" moments as in, how have I been missing that? Let me explain what "just" happened. The Holy Spirit dropped a word into my spirit. The word is "schemes". I knew it was in the Bible, but I get a little fuzzy on addresses sometimes. I almost always blog with another tab open to http://www.crosswalk.com/. What a blessing that site is to The Church. Anyway, as we said very early on, we always quote from the New King James Version of the Bible unless otherwise noted. So we search in that translation. Nothing came up. Maybe it was in the Authorized Version, a.k.a The King James Version. Not there either. Sometimes we do use the New International Version. Might as well try that. There it is, two times. The word "schemes" appears in 2 Corinthians 2:11 and Ephesians 6:11. Both times the scheme of Satan being talked about is division amongst God's people. For your information, the other two versions mentioned use the word "devices" instead of schemes.
We neglected to mention earlier the Lord has been working overtime dealing with us about our love walk. In fact, our pastor sent an email just yesterday reminding us that loving one another is one of the life principles of our church. That also came up in the conversation with the neighbor yesterday. He is a Christian man. We briefly noted that some people are just easier to love than others.
There is no way to over-emphasize the importance of loving one another. The Bible is God's love story to mankind. From Genesis 1:1 where God began His work of creation to provide a perfect place for man to live to Revelation 22:20 where He wishes us the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible is the expression of a Father's love for his children. Jesus prayed, "...that they may all be one...that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me." (John 17:22-23) We truly will show God to the world by loving one another as He has loved us.
I started writing this over an hour ago because I felt led to write. At that time I did not know what weapon I would be writing about. By now it should be obvious. The weapon is unity and it works by love. It seems I remember some historical figure saying, "United we stand, divided we fall." or was that just a song lyric performed by Sonny and Cher? (We do hope you recognize our sardonic comments that appear in this space from time to time.)
Now I had better get back to bed. Our grandson is here for the weekend and we would hate to miss any time with him. He is, after all, the cutest little boy in the world.
Work on your love walk and we will be "perfect in one".
Showing posts with label deception. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deception. Show all posts
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Where We Were is Where We Still Are
I had not really planned on writing this particular post at this time, but you know how that goes. Maybe you do not so without a lot of fanfare, just let me say the topics and the timing are, we hope, God given and Holy Spirit driven. By the way, we know more of you are reading the blog than have signed up as followers and we are very appreciative of your support. If you would like to make a comment, but not have it posted, you may do so any time. Simply add to your comment that you would like to have it not posted. We are counting on you to keep us balanced and toward the center as we continue this adventure into spiritual warfare. It is a new experience, but not a totally new one. As we said in an earlier post, the deception of being deceived is that we never know we are until we are freed from it. Should you see any deception, or think you do, please call it to our attention immediately and start praying about it so it can be removed.
September 14, 15, and 16, 2001 a group of us had set aside the weekend to have Mario Murillo come and minister to all who would come together in a united effort to proclaim the Gospel to the Santa Maria valley. We were attending the church that was spearheading the effort. Actually that church was the leading church due largely to the fact that two of the men in that congregation were the prime movers behind the event. That church had probably 110 people in regular attendance at the time making it certainly not the smallest church in the area, but nowhere near the largest. These two men and the volunteer corps they put together had invested countless hours and thousands of dollars to make the meetings happen.
For those of you unfamiliar with the ministry of Mario Murillo, he is a dynamic servant of God who ministers according to Pentecostal doctrine. He is Nicaraguan by ancestry. You can find out about him at http://www.mariomurillo.com/. He is, by our witness, spirit led in his life and ministry. However, like anyone who has a heart to do great things for God, he has been a victim of all sorts of malfeasance over the years. He as been attacked mostly from within the church at large. That leads us toward what happened when he came to Santa Maria.
In the pre-planning for the event, there were the typical fundraising, prayer meetings, and volunteer sign ups. Notably, there were very few churches represented in any of those efforts. It is not surprising that non-Pentecostal churches would not be thrilled to have a dynamic, Pentecostal minister hold a citywide meeting. Of special note, however, were that members of the two largest Pentecostal churches in town staying away by the hundreds.
It is not our purpose or our intent to criticize churches or their pastors. Our purpose is simply to expose the lack of unity and more of the workings of the religious spirit that rules here. One has to wonder why Mario could not get the support of the local churches who would, or should have, agreed with pretty much everything he preached those days. Or would they? I read something recently about not knowing one is deceived until we are freed from it. Now see, this is getting ugly again because we really have limited options as to why fellow laborers for Jesus would not welcome a man of Mario's stature, ministry ability and spiritual insight. Should we go on to point them out, we could be construed to be casting stones and of not walking in love toward them as perhaps they were not toward Mario. I am pretty sure one of the manifestations of a religious spirit is that those in authority will do anything to retain their power. Case in point, John 11:48 where the High Priest says, "If we leave him (Jesus) alone...the Romans will come and take away...our place..." (parentheses mine).
Mario was disappointed by the small turnout for his meeting and stayed just two of the three days he had planned. I remarked to the men who planned and funded the event that at least we had learned where we were at that time. Sitting here today, I have little confidence that anything has changed in that regard. I would love to be wrong about that, but the Holy Spirit is telling me that, were we to try something like that again now, the result would be very similar.
Some of us are sensing in our spirits that a very faint breeze is beginning to blow. Did you know we felt two earthquakes this past weekend? The Bible says the whole creation is groaning and laboring, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. (Romans 8:18-22) There are other, more localized things happening too. We are pondering them and how we should respond. Please pray for wisdom. We have been in training for this time entirely too long to lose our focus now. There has lately been a huge temptation to do the good things rather than the right things. It seems as though one thing after another comes along to try and throw us off course. So far so good, but challenges loom that we have not even identified. We really do solicit your prayers. Thank you for your support.
September 14, 15, and 16, 2001 a group of us had set aside the weekend to have Mario Murillo come and minister to all who would come together in a united effort to proclaim the Gospel to the Santa Maria valley. We were attending the church that was spearheading the effort. Actually that church was the leading church due largely to the fact that two of the men in that congregation were the prime movers behind the event. That church had probably 110 people in regular attendance at the time making it certainly not the smallest church in the area, but nowhere near the largest. These two men and the volunteer corps they put together had invested countless hours and thousands of dollars to make the meetings happen.
For those of you unfamiliar with the ministry of Mario Murillo, he is a dynamic servant of God who ministers according to Pentecostal doctrine. He is Nicaraguan by ancestry. You can find out about him at http://www.mariomurillo.com/. He is, by our witness, spirit led in his life and ministry. However, like anyone who has a heart to do great things for God, he has been a victim of all sorts of malfeasance over the years. He as been attacked mostly from within the church at large. That leads us toward what happened when he came to Santa Maria.
In the pre-planning for the event, there were the typical fundraising, prayer meetings, and volunteer sign ups. Notably, there were very few churches represented in any of those efforts. It is not surprising that non-Pentecostal churches would not be thrilled to have a dynamic, Pentecostal minister hold a citywide meeting. Of special note, however, were that members of the two largest Pentecostal churches in town staying away by the hundreds.
It is not our purpose or our intent to criticize churches or their pastors. Our purpose is simply to expose the lack of unity and more of the workings of the religious spirit that rules here. One has to wonder why Mario could not get the support of the local churches who would, or should have, agreed with pretty much everything he preached those days. Or would they? I read something recently about not knowing one is deceived until we are freed from it. Now see, this is getting ugly again because we really have limited options as to why fellow laborers for Jesus would not welcome a man of Mario's stature, ministry ability and spiritual insight. Should we go on to point them out, we could be construed to be casting stones and of not walking in love toward them as perhaps they were not toward Mario. I am pretty sure one of the manifestations of a religious spirit is that those in authority will do anything to retain their power. Case in point, John 11:48 where the High Priest says, "If we leave him (Jesus) alone...the Romans will come and take away...our place..." (parentheses mine).
Mario was disappointed by the small turnout for his meeting and stayed just two of the three days he had planned. I remarked to the men who planned and funded the event that at least we had learned where we were at that time. Sitting here today, I have little confidence that anything has changed in that regard. I would love to be wrong about that, but the Holy Spirit is telling me that, were we to try something like that again now, the result would be very similar.
Some of us are sensing in our spirits that a very faint breeze is beginning to blow. Did you know we felt two earthquakes this past weekend? The Bible says the whole creation is groaning and laboring, waiting for the sons of God to be revealed. (Romans 8:18-22) There are other, more localized things happening too. We are pondering them and how we should respond. Please pray for wisdom. We have been in training for this time entirely too long to lose our focus now. There has lately been a huge temptation to do the good things rather than the right things. It seems as though one thing after another comes along to try and throw us off course. So far so good, but challenges loom that we have not even identified. We really do solicit your prayers. Thank you for your support.
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