My guess is that it was about 18 months ago the Holy Spirit illuminated John 3:8 so we came to understand this was not simply a random verse (as if there really were such a thing) in the midst of a conversation Jesus was having with a Biblical scholar. John 3:8-The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit., is presented by Jesus as the norm for a person who has been born again. This is the norm, not the exception! There are at least two levels higher. This is entry level. We will be right back to that.
The world does not, cannot, understand those who are born of the Spirit. I received an interesting comment yesterday, from a man I have had a professional relationship with for the past few years. I had updated him on what we are doing and our vision for the future. He embraced most of the concepts and as we were parting he said, "You are a very interesting man." I said I would take that as a compliment. He assured me it was intended that way. What he was communicating to me is that he did not exactly understand where I was coming from or where I was going, or at least he did not understand what motivated me. I respect this man, his general attitude, and his professional abilities, but from previous conversations, I know he is not born of the Spirit. He cannot be expected to understand my motivations.
Those born of the Spirit do what the Spirit directs them to do. Of course we all have fleshly parts so we are not "on" 100% of the time. We just keep trying to get it right. What the Holy Spirit directs does not always make sense to our rational minds initially. However, it will always make sense untimately if we follow the direction.
We said John 3:8 is entry level stuff. There are at least two levels higher. The first level is a Revelation 12:11 Christian who, "...did not love their lives to the death."
Before I finish that thought, I have to tell you what just happened because it is kind of how my life has been going lately. I wrote the first part of the previous paragraph, but did not have time to look up the verse before I left the house to run a few errands. Standing in line at one place I looked at the tee shirt the young man ahead of me was wearing and it said, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony" Revelation 12:11. I immediately recognized that as the first half of the verse quoted above. Okay, back to the point.
I know people who think they would like to be done with this world and spend the rest of eternity in the heavenly kingdom. Maybe my theology is not as good as theirs or who knows, but I am just not ready to die yet. I am not afraid of dying, but I would rather not. In fact if I knew where I am going to die, I would avoid that place at all costs. So perhaps I am getting close to John 3:8, but Revelation 12:11 is still too much of a reach for this feeble mind. But wait, there is more.
Hebrews Chapter 11 is all about faith. You can read it yourself for context if you need a refresher. After giving a brief definition and explanation of faith, the author writes what is commonly referred to as "The roll call of faith." He comments on the faith of people throughout the Bible. He writes of the things they endured for the faith. Then we come to verse 38, of whom the world was not worthy. The world was not worthy? I did not write that. I quoted it.
Those folks lived with such a vision and revelation of God's eternal kingdom that whatever happened to them while they were on earth simply did not matter. That is way beyond me. Because of that attitude, the world was not worthy of them. The world could not understand them, death was an event in an eternal life, and they lived lives that made all others seem insignificant by comparison.
Of course you know I cannot quit without encouraging everyone who reads these words to examine his or her manner of living to determine what kind of life you are living. I used to be young and now I am, well, sort of old. I believe I am doing a better job of living a life pleasing to God than I have in the past. It certainly is not a perfect life. I suppose the world is still worthy of me so I will keep trying and learning and getting better at it by God's grace. Now I think I am done. God bless.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Cracks Are Beginning to Form
Admittedly we are speaking by faith here, seeing things that have not yet manifested in time. When a spirit, such as the religious spirit that covers the Santa Maria valley, is present, the darkness it causes is like a shell covering the area, protecting it's territory and not allowing any new birth to happen. God also uses that shell as an incubator to grow a stronger church that will thrive when the shell is finally broken. We are talking about the spiritual realm here. These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. (1 Corinthians 2:13) One can never understand these things with the mind, nor can they be perceived with the senses.
I am about as slow a learner as anyone I know. I will be sixty years old in just four weeks. I probably should not have spent all those years confessing to be a late bloomer. It would be great to have learned a lot of these things much earlier in life. Nonetheless, enlightenment is creeping up and beginning to run all over me. In the spirit, I can literally see the cracks in the shell beginning to form. I would have thought, according to all the teaching I have heard, that it would take some massive spiritual warfare with fasting and praying and standing in the face of one spiritual presence or another for a long time before there would be any movement. What I have come to understand is something much different.
All that is necessary to defeat an evil spirit is to not participate with it. The Holy Spirit can then begin to direct the action behind the scenes, moving people in, out, and around and even having people come in from outside the area. We have mentioned Tom Demaree of Pentecost Walk in these pages. The previous post acknowledged Shari Norvell from Cessors (short for intercessors), but did not mention her husband Scott who directs a parallel ministry called Terraforming. If you are not familiar with that ministry, you owe it to yourself to find out more about it. (http://www.terra4ming.com/) In fact, all three of the people mentioned above are what we like to call John 3:8 Christians. The world does not understand them. The Holy Spirit called them to come to Santa Maria to help us defeat the religious spirit. We cannot even be sure if they recognized exactly why they were here. They were simply answering the Holy Spirit's call on their lives.
Most of my life, I have heard things like, "When God closes one door He opens another." It is not that I did not believe that, I was just a little short on experience. I had a lot of doors slam either in front of or behind me and I only recall one time that I knew beyond doubt God had done it. Now I am living the experience.
I have had several people offer me condolences on the loss of my job a couple weeks ago. Were I still at the Central Coast Rescue Mission, I would still be frustrated that I could not fulfill what God was calling me to do. In fact, I have only within the past few days heard from the Holy Spirit some of the new things He wants me to do. Several people are going to be blessed beyond what they even know to think or ask, and more will be after that. The best expression is probably some variant of, "I am blown away" by the larger things the Holy Spirit is speaking to me now. I will not have room to tell you about all of them now and prudence dictates I wait a few days anyway. I sort of think there is one more change yet to come.
Some of you will understand when I say a part of what I am called to do right now is to be a testimony against some people who are cooperating with the religious spirit. (Imagine the criticism I am going to get for making that statement.) By the way, please send those criticisms as comments to this post. It is our practice to publish all comments as they come to us without editing them. In fact, this time there will not even be any rebuttal to your comments. We will let them stand or fall on their own merits. You may even post them anonymously if you choose. Please allow me to add my disclaimer here. I cannot promise that some of the regular readers will not post rebuttals to your criticisms. I have lately been hanging around with some people who sincerely desire to be John 3:8 Christians themselves. The end.
I am about as slow a learner as anyone I know. I will be sixty years old in just four weeks. I probably should not have spent all those years confessing to be a late bloomer. It would be great to have learned a lot of these things much earlier in life. Nonetheless, enlightenment is creeping up and beginning to run all over me. In the spirit, I can literally see the cracks in the shell beginning to form. I would have thought, according to all the teaching I have heard, that it would take some massive spiritual warfare with fasting and praying and standing in the face of one spiritual presence or another for a long time before there would be any movement. What I have come to understand is something much different.
All that is necessary to defeat an evil spirit is to not participate with it. The Holy Spirit can then begin to direct the action behind the scenes, moving people in, out, and around and even having people come in from outside the area. We have mentioned Tom Demaree of Pentecost Walk in these pages. The previous post acknowledged Shari Norvell from Cessors (short for intercessors), but did not mention her husband Scott who directs a parallel ministry called Terraforming. If you are not familiar with that ministry, you owe it to yourself to find out more about it. (http://www.terra4ming.com/) In fact, all three of the people mentioned above are what we like to call John 3:8 Christians. The world does not understand them. The Holy Spirit called them to come to Santa Maria to help us defeat the religious spirit. We cannot even be sure if they recognized exactly why they were here. They were simply answering the Holy Spirit's call on their lives.
Most of my life, I have heard things like, "When God closes one door He opens another." It is not that I did not believe that, I was just a little short on experience. I had a lot of doors slam either in front of or behind me and I only recall one time that I knew beyond doubt God had done it. Now I am living the experience.
I have had several people offer me condolences on the loss of my job a couple weeks ago. Were I still at the Central Coast Rescue Mission, I would still be frustrated that I could not fulfill what God was calling me to do. In fact, I have only within the past few days heard from the Holy Spirit some of the new things He wants me to do. Several people are going to be blessed beyond what they even know to think or ask, and more will be after that. The best expression is probably some variant of, "I am blown away" by the larger things the Holy Spirit is speaking to me now. I will not have room to tell you about all of them now and prudence dictates I wait a few days anyway. I sort of think there is one more change yet to come.
Some of you will understand when I say a part of what I am called to do right now is to be a testimony against some people who are cooperating with the religious spirit. (Imagine the criticism I am going to get for making that statement.) By the way, please send those criticisms as comments to this post. It is our practice to publish all comments as they come to us without editing them. In fact, this time there will not even be any rebuttal to your comments. We will let them stand or fall on their own merits. You may even post them anonymously if you choose. Please allow me to add my disclaimer here. I cannot promise that some of the regular readers will not post rebuttals to your criticisms. I have lately been hanging around with some people who sincerely desire to be John 3:8 Christians themselves. The end.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
A Newly Radical Old Challenge
A few weeks ago, someone mentioned she was hoping for more teaching in these pages rather than an online journal. Okay, when she says she wants more teaching, maybe it is not such a bad idea. (Guess who "she" might be.) We do have to do one thing before we start this.
WARNING: If you pastor a church you probably do not want to read any further.
God made just one challenge in the Bible to test Him. It is recorded in the last book of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke God's word to us. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." (Malachi 3:9-10) If you have not heard a message, or at least an admonition, from this verse, you probably just have not been around churches or other religious organizations very long. Hold on! You probably have never heard what you are about to read. Due to limited space, there is not a lot of detail here. We are working on recording the full message.
First, take a look at the italicized words in the verses quoted above. The quotation, as is our custom, is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. The translators of the NKJV did something that is very helpful to us in understanding what God is really trying to tell us here. They took their lead from the translators of the original King James Version in that wherever they added words to the text to make it more understandable in English, they italicized the words.
When we read verse 10 from about the middle of the verse, we see only, "...pour out for you blessing that not enough...") God has already given us an if, then. That is the sign of His covenant with us. In this case it is the covenant that shows how God will meet our needs. If we will bring our tithes into the storehouse, then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out for us blessing. God is not wishy washy on this. If we, then He. But wait, you get more.
Most teachings on this subject are limited to verses 9 and 10 quoted above. That is not the end of the thought. For whatever reason, most people preaching or teaching on the subject of bringing tithes, stop before they get to verse 11 and as a result never get to the really good part. Having the windows of heaven open above us is a great thing. God pouring down blessings through those open windows ratchets that up at least a notch. However, to understand the whole of what He is saying here we have read at least the opening words of verse 11. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." It would not be a complete promise from God if He opened those windows and poured out those blessings only to have the devourer eat them. In God's economy, you can have your blessings and enjoy them too!
We are running out of room here so we have to hurry. I have no idea at this point how the following quotation relates to this post, but I heard it yesterday and I know it does. Without further comment, here it is. "People have been making choices between a lie and a lie." (Shari Norvell, 1/28/11)
There are just two more things we need to cover. The first one is really a reminder. In order for you to have open windows above you, blessings pouring down on you, and the devourer rebuked out of your life, you must tithe. The second thing will get me into trouble with pastors everywhere. Hopefully, they heeded the warning and stopped reading awhile ago. You need to know this.
The storehouse is not what you have been told it is. Here is one example to verify that statement. If you have ever heard a sermon on these verses, tithing, and/or the storehouse, you have most likely heard the storehouse is the local church. That is where your tithe should be taken. The word "storehouse" appears in the Bible eight times. The most telling occurrence is in Nehemiah 13:13 which talks about the men who were entrusted with the tithes the people brought. The final words of the verse are, "...and their task was to distribute to their brethren." We obviously cannot speak for everyone, but if memory serves, there have been fewer than a half dozen times in a half century of church attendance that anyone has distributed to us out of the storehouse.
Should you need an apology for what I am about to do, you have it. But I am done for now. Selah (And get back to me if you like.)
WARNING: If you pastor a church you probably do not want to read any further.
God made just one challenge in the Bible to test Him. It is recorded in the last book of the Old Testament. The prophet Malachi, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, spoke God's word to us. "Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. And try me now in this says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." (Malachi 3:9-10) If you have not heard a message, or at least an admonition, from this verse, you probably just have not been around churches or other religious organizations very long. Hold on! You probably have never heard what you are about to read. Due to limited space, there is not a lot of detail here. We are working on recording the full message.
First, take a look at the italicized words in the verses quoted above. The quotation, as is our custom, is taken from the New King James Version of the Bible. The translators of the NKJV did something that is very helpful to us in understanding what God is really trying to tell us here. They took their lead from the translators of the original King James Version in that wherever they added words to the text to make it more understandable in English, they italicized the words.
When we read verse 10 from about the middle of the verse, we see only, "...pour out for you blessing that not enough...") God has already given us an if, then. That is the sign of His covenant with us. In this case it is the covenant that shows how God will meet our needs. If we will bring our tithes into the storehouse, then He will open the windows of heaven and pour out for us blessing. God is not wishy washy on this. If we, then He. But wait, you get more.
Most teachings on this subject are limited to verses 9 and 10 quoted above. That is not the end of the thought. For whatever reason, most people preaching or teaching on the subject of bringing tithes, stop before they get to verse 11 and as a result never get to the really good part. Having the windows of heaven open above us is a great thing. God pouring down blessings through those open windows ratchets that up at least a notch. However, to understand the whole of what He is saying here we have read at least the opening words of verse 11. "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes..." It would not be a complete promise from God if He opened those windows and poured out those blessings only to have the devourer eat them. In God's economy, you can have your blessings and enjoy them too!
We are running out of room here so we have to hurry. I have no idea at this point how the following quotation relates to this post, but I heard it yesterday and I know it does. Without further comment, here it is. "People have been making choices between a lie and a lie." (Shari Norvell, 1/28/11)
There are just two more things we need to cover. The first one is really a reminder. In order for you to have open windows above you, blessings pouring down on you, and the devourer rebuked out of your life, you must tithe. The second thing will get me into trouble with pastors everywhere. Hopefully, they heeded the warning and stopped reading awhile ago. You need to know this.
The storehouse is not what you have been told it is. Here is one example to verify that statement. If you have ever heard a sermon on these verses, tithing, and/or the storehouse, you have most likely heard the storehouse is the local church. That is where your tithe should be taken. The word "storehouse" appears in the Bible eight times. The most telling occurrence is in Nehemiah 13:13 which talks about the men who were entrusted with the tithes the people brought. The final words of the verse are, "...and their task was to distribute to their brethren." We obviously cannot speak for everyone, but if memory serves, there have been fewer than a half dozen times in a half century of church attendance that anyone has distributed to us out of the storehouse.
Should you need an apology for what I am about to do, you have it. But I am done for now. Selah (And get back to me if you like.)
Friday, January 28, 2011
Walking on Water
Although he claimed the motivational gift of exhortation (Romans 12:8) the late Don Pickerill was one of the best Bible teachers I have ever had the privilege of hearing. I suppose "Bible" is not really the best word to use there because although he did teach the Bible, being a exhorter, he taught more practical Theology and left the studies of the original languages and the parsing of the verbs mostly to the teachers.
One evening in a college classroom, Pastor Don taught about the ability of the Christian to walk on the water as Peter had the night Jesus invited him to get out of the boat, in the middle of the night, in the midst of a storm. (Matthew 14:22-33) I had no idea what he was talking about. When he jumped up and down on the concrete floor to show how great it was to be able to walk on water, I was pretty sure he had lost his mind all together. As a Bible college freshman, it did not occur to me that he was moving in a spiritual realm I had barely peeked into. He was talking about life in the Spirit, about walking in the miraculous. I sort of knew about the Holy Spirit and I had heard of miracles. Pastor Don's brother, Dr. Donald McGregor, once said, "L.I.F.E. Bible College must be the greatest depository of spiritual knowledge in the universe. The freshmen come in knowing so much and the graduates leave knowing so little." I was an exception to that rule. I arrived knowing virtually nothing and graduated having learned a little more.
Something has been going on around me that has made me understand what Pastor Don was talking about that night 38 years ago. If you have been reading these pages since the beginning of this year, you have most of the information and some insight into what is happening. If I read the numbers correctly, this is the tenth post this month. That means lots is going on. You probably think I have suddenly become a very prolific writer. I am wondering why I cannot get a break. Oh, wait, this is probably what the whole termination from work was about. I have always preferred Jesus' yoke to any that have been put upon me by others or those I have taken upon myself. He said His yoke is easy and His load is light. (Matthew 11:27-28) Let me be his witness. That is a totally true statement.
We mentioned in a previous post that people have been gathering around me for the past year or so. When I began to understand that was happening, I also realized something else. Their confidence, encouragement, and prayers have begun to lift me up. God's mercy and grace has met us in the process. While my feet seem to be on solid ground, it is unlike any ground I have walked before. In fact if feels a little spongy, like water might. I am not at all sure about that. I have never walked on water before.
I can tell you this. If Jesus were to beckon me from the boat today to join Him in a walk on the water, there would be no hesitation on my part. (I hope I am not giving myself too much credit here.) When Jesus reaches out his hand to me, I fully expect to be reaching my hand out toward him.
This is a short post, and maybe it is not for everyone. To those of you who believe in me, that I am following the Master's call, and doing the right thing; to those of you who are lifting me up, by whatever means, please accept my most sincere thank you. We may not be quite sure where we are going yet, but we are on the right course. We are marching together, following Jesus. God bless!
One evening in a college classroom, Pastor Don taught about the ability of the Christian to walk on the water as Peter had the night Jesus invited him to get out of the boat, in the middle of the night, in the midst of a storm. (Matthew 14:22-33) I had no idea what he was talking about. When he jumped up and down on the concrete floor to show how great it was to be able to walk on water, I was pretty sure he had lost his mind all together. As a Bible college freshman, it did not occur to me that he was moving in a spiritual realm I had barely peeked into. He was talking about life in the Spirit, about walking in the miraculous. I sort of knew about the Holy Spirit and I had heard of miracles. Pastor Don's brother, Dr. Donald McGregor, once said, "L.I.F.E. Bible College must be the greatest depository of spiritual knowledge in the universe. The freshmen come in knowing so much and the graduates leave knowing so little." I was an exception to that rule. I arrived knowing virtually nothing and graduated having learned a little more.
Something has been going on around me that has made me understand what Pastor Don was talking about that night 38 years ago. If you have been reading these pages since the beginning of this year, you have most of the information and some insight into what is happening. If I read the numbers correctly, this is the tenth post this month. That means lots is going on. You probably think I have suddenly become a very prolific writer. I am wondering why I cannot get a break. Oh, wait, this is probably what the whole termination from work was about. I have always preferred Jesus' yoke to any that have been put upon me by others or those I have taken upon myself. He said His yoke is easy and His load is light. (Matthew 11:27-28) Let me be his witness. That is a totally true statement.
We mentioned in a previous post that people have been gathering around me for the past year or so. When I began to understand that was happening, I also realized something else. Their confidence, encouragement, and prayers have begun to lift me up. God's mercy and grace has met us in the process. While my feet seem to be on solid ground, it is unlike any ground I have walked before. In fact if feels a little spongy, like water might. I am not at all sure about that. I have never walked on water before.
I can tell you this. If Jesus were to beckon me from the boat today to join Him in a walk on the water, there would be no hesitation on my part. (I hope I am not giving myself too much credit here.) When Jesus reaches out his hand to me, I fully expect to be reaching my hand out toward him.
This is a short post, and maybe it is not for everyone. To those of you who believe in me, that I am following the Master's call, and doing the right thing; to those of you who are lifting me up, by whatever means, please accept my most sincere thank you. We may not be quite sure where we are going yet, but we are on the right course. We are marching together, following Jesus. God bless!
Casting Stones
Casting stones is something we all do from time to time, try as we might to not do it. There seems to be a link to the DNA of fallen man that keeps us from minding our own business. When we find some juicy tidbit of information that will damage someone else, we cannot wait to throw that stone at him or her. Recently, let us say the past five years or so, yours truly seems to have been more the target of stones than the thrower. Maybe some of that is proving the truth of God's universal law of sowing and reaping.
I used to have a very good arm. It is a little know fact that my name used to be on the records board at the high school I attended for the second-longest softball throw in school history. I admit, I was having a good day when I tossed that ball 267 feet. I was only off the record by 22 feet. That was my senior year so I have no idea how long the record stood. That was also about two years before I landed on my elbow playing tackle football in the park and dislocated my shoulder. I still managed to play outfield in college baseball, but the arm has never been the same. (heavy sigh.)
I am telling you that because, for many years, I could cast stones with the best of them--and I was accurate. I could embarrass almost anyone with a piece of information that I had acquired about him or her. As I write that, I wonder what I was thinking. I suppose I was not.
Fast forward to the present day. I think there is a post somewhere in this blog about reputation. (I am too lazy to look it up for you right now.) I do not have much of one. A few people have seen to that over the past several years. I might have helped them along a little and given them some stones to cast. I really have no idea where they got the ones that damaged me the most, the ones that seem to have manifested out of thin air. (If you are not following the poetry here, the last ones fall into the category of bold-faced lies.) People have believed them anyway, and repeated them.
Nothing is all bad in God's economy. A friend reminded me today, "And 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) I would not even have recognized the religious spirit over this valley had someone not lied about me and had that lie not then been repeated. Through that sequence of events, the Holy Spirit revealed at least a part of my destiny. I have a part in helping pull down that demonic stronghold.
King Solomon, in his natural wisdom tells us there is, "A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones..." (Ecclesiastes 3:5) Take this as a prophetic word if you like. Now is the time to cast away the stones you have been gathering to use against your brothers and sisters, and gather some you can use to build the Kingdom of God. The end.
I used to have a very good arm. It is a little know fact that my name used to be on the records board at the high school I attended for the second-longest softball throw in school history. I admit, I was having a good day when I tossed that ball 267 feet. I was only off the record by 22 feet. That was my senior year so I have no idea how long the record stood. That was also about two years before I landed on my elbow playing tackle football in the park and dislocated my shoulder. I still managed to play outfield in college baseball, but the arm has never been the same. (heavy sigh.)
I am telling you that because, for many years, I could cast stones with the best of them--and I was accurate. I could embarrass almost anyone with a piece of information that I had acquired about him or her. As I write that, I wonder what I was thinking. I suppose I was not.
Fast forward to the present day. I think there is a post somewhere in this blog about reputation. (I am too lazy to look it up for you right now.) I do not have much of one. A few people have seen to that over the past several years. I might have helped them along a little and given them some stones to cast. I really have no idea where they got the ones that damaged me the most, the ones that seem to have manifested out of thin air. (If you are not following the poetry here, the last ones fall into the category of bold-faced lies.) People have believed them anyway, and repeated them.
Nothing is all bad in God's economy. A friend reminded me today, "And 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) I would not even have recognized the religious spirit over this valley had someone not lied about me and had that lie not then been repeated. Through that sequence of events, the Holy Spirit revealed at least a part of my destiny. I have a part in helping pull down that demonic stronghold.
King Solomon, in his natural wisdom tells us there is, "A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones..." (Ecclesiastes 3:5) Take this as a prophetic word if you like. Now is the time to cast away the stones you have been gathering to use against your brothers and sisters, and gather some you can use to build the Kingdom of God. The end.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Change Has Begun
"The winds of change are blowing. More on this later." I posted that on my Facebook wall just a week ago. This is the "more on that" to which it was referring. If you are on Facebook and you read this blog that probably makes a little more sense.
The first, highly anticipated change, happened yesterday by the clock. Sunrise will be in about two hours, more or less. The mission director and the personnel director walked into my office and sat down. After exchanging the customary pleasantries, one of them said words to the affect of, "This is probably not what you were expecting in this meeting." Soon after, the personnel director told me that would be my last day of employment. Whereupon I replied, "This is exactly what I was expecting from this meeting."
Yesterday was my last day at the Central Coast Rescue Mission by their choice. I had so many people telling me that was going to happen soon, I almost felt like Elisha in the hours before Elijah turned the main, prophetic responsibility in Israel over to him. (2 Kings 2) Only there was not an Elijah turning anything over to me, at least not that I know of.
Thankfully, the Lord has been gathering people around me for the past year or so. I was not even aware that was happening until very recently. It simply seemed like the natural course of events, the ebb and flow of relationships. It is very obvious now that it is much more than that. It is a God-ordained gathering of people with like minds and similar visions for what The Church In Santa Maria, CA can and should look like. Let us add "will" look like, by faith right now. We know God has already done what He is going to do--it just has not been manifested in our time yet.
Now we come to the previous post. If you are starting from the top of the page on your computer screen, and are behind at all, you may want to read "Ecclesiaticisms" first. The first comment was written by a person I know, and I know the church to which he is referring. However, let me hasten to add that when I stopped writing that post, I had no idea he would respond to it. The meeting he refers to had not even happened at that point. There may be a factual error or even two in the comment, but it has been our custom to print all comments in their entirely rather than to selectively edit them. I do not know who wrote the second comment. Again, we have always published all the comments, even when the person writing them preferred to remain "Anonymous" for whatever reason. This blog was started in direct response to a call of God to expose the religious spirit that controls churches and deceives people in the Santa Maria Valley. It is beginning to look as though more action will be required than simply writing a blog. (Somehow I knew I was not going to get off that easily.)
The change has begun. It began on Monday of this week when my employment was terminated. Let me don my prophetic hat and tell you, I know what is coming next. I am not at liberty to share that in these pages at this time. I will write about it in this space after it happens, just as I did with this one. I believe I can tell you, there are people, inspired by the religious spirit, who do not want me to have any more influence in the Kingdom of God than I have. Too bad for them the Holy Spirit set me free from my day job to give me more time to ratchet up the work I am doing. Along with my termination, I lost virtually all my public, teaching ministry. That is only temporary. The truth is, the people who have been gathering around me have already made it clear they will not let that happen.
The change in my employment situation was handled on relatively congenial terms even though the company could have accomplished their goal of terminating my employment without getting personal as they did. The next one could get ugly. Let me assure you, I will be there, but will not be a party to the ugliness. Ugliness, wherever it rears it's ugly head is not the way things ought to be done where love rules. Read about the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21. Those have to be three of the ugliest verses in the Bible. I usually feel as though I need to wash my hands, or brush my teeth, or something, after reading them.
Creflo Dollar talked about "agape tests" in a message I heard a few years ago. Those are times God orchestrates the circumstances of our lives in such a way that we can either follow His way of love or our way of selfishness. When we love, we pass. When we let selfishness be the practice of the day, we have to try again at a later time. That puts everything on hold. We are not ready to serve the Master until we can love. I, we, have an agape test coming. According to Dalton Austin and Anonymous, commentators on the previous post, they had, or are currently having an agape test. Still not telling everything I know, I am taking the same agape test they are. My aim, my goal is to pass this test (and the next one) by God's grace so I am deemed worthy of taking whatever the step after that is.
Now that I reread the previous paragraph and think about it, perhaps my termination meeting was an agape test. Maybe the way I ultimately handle the termination is an agape test. Maybe writing this post and not telling everything I know is an agape test. I do know this: I want to be a person God can use however, whenever, and wherever He chooses. You see, it's not all about me at all.
The first, highly anticipated change, happened yesterday by the clock. Sunrise will be in about two hours, more or less. The mission director and the personnel director walked into my office and sat down. After exchanging the customary pleasantries, one of them said words to the affect of, "This is probably not what you were expecting in this meeting." Soon after, the personnel director told me that would be my last day of employment. Whereupon I replied, "This is exactly what I was expecting from this meeting."
Yesterday was my last day at the Central Coast Rescue Mission by their choice. I had so many people telling me that was going to happen soon, I almost felt like Elisha in the hours before Elijah turned the main, prophetic responsibility in Israel over to him. (2 Kings 2) Only there was not an Elijah turning anything over to me, at least not that I know of.
Thankfully, the Lord has been gathering people around me for the past year or so. I was not even aware that was happening until very recently. It simply seemed like the natural course of events, the ebb and flow of relationships. It is very obvious now that it is much more than that. It is a God-ordained gathering of people with like minds and similar visions for what The Church In Santa Maria, CA can and should look like. Let us add "will" look like, by faith right now. We know God has already done what He is going to do--it just has not been manifested in our time yet.
Now we come to the previous post. If you are starting from the top of the page on your computer screen, and are behind at all, you may want to read "Ecclesiaticisms" first. The first comment was written by a person I know, and I know the church to which he is referring. However, let me hasten to add that when I stopped writing that post, I had no idea he would respond to it. The meeting he refers to had not even happened at that point. There may be a factual error or even two in the comment, but it has been our custom to print all comments in their entirely rather than to selectively edit them. I do not know who wrote the second comment. Again, we have always published all the comments, even when the person writing them preferred to remain "Anonymous" for whatever reason. This blog was started in direct response to a call of God to expose the religious spirit that controls churches and deceives people in the Santa Maria Valley. It is beginning to look as though more action will be required than simply writing a blog. (Somehow I knew I was not going to get off that easily.)
The change has begun. It began on Monday of this week when my employment was terminated. Let me don my prophetic hat and tell you, I know what is coming next. I am not at liberty to share that in these pages at this time. I will write about it in this space after it happens, just as I did with this one. I believe I can tell you, there are people, inspired by the religious spirit, who do not want me to have any more influence in the Kingdom of God than I have. Too bad for them the Holy Spirit set me free from my day job to give me more time to ratchet up the work I am doing. Along with my termination, I lost virtually all my public, teaching ministry. That is only temporary. The truth is, the people who have been gathering around me have already made it clear they will not let that happen.
The change in my employment situation was handled on relatively congenial terms even though the company could have accomplished their goal of terminating my employment without getting personal as they did. The next one could get ugly. Let me assure you, I will be there, but will not be a party to the ugliness. Ugliness, wherever it rears it's ugly head is not the way things ought to be done where love rules. Read about the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21. Those have to be three of the ugliest verses in the Bible. I usually feel as though I need to wash my hands, or brush my teeth, or something, after reading them.
Creflo Dollar talked about "agape tests" in a message I heard a few years ago. Those are times God orchestrates the circumstances of our lives in such a way that we can either follow His way of love or our way of selfishness. When we love, we pass. When we let selfishness be the practice of the day, we have to try again at a later time. That puts everything on hold. We are not ready to serve the Master until we can love. I, we, have an agape test coming. According to Dalton Austin and Anonymous, commentators on the previous post, they had, or are currently having an agape test. Still not telling everything I know, I am taking the same agape test they are. My aim, my goal is to pass this test (and the next one) by God's grace so I am deemed worthy of taking whatever the step after that is.
Now that I reread the previous paragraph and think about it, perhaps my termination meeting was an agape test. Maybe the way I ultimately handle the termination is an agape test. Maybe writing this post and not telling everything I know is an agape test. I do know this: I want to be a person God can use however, whenever, and wherever He chooses. You see, it's not all about me at all.
Ecclesiasticisms
The title of this post may be something that just happens in the middle of the night when the change has begun. (Come to think of it those last three words might have been a better title. Oh well, maybe that is the next post?) Still, I would stake whatever reputation I have on the fact the Holy Spirit actually spoke that word into my spirit.
I am a bit conflicted at the moment. I determined that I was not going to write or say anything about a couple different things until I knew exactly what it is the Holy Spirit is saying. Now, here I am typing and I am not sure what He is saying, only that He is saying something. In fact the only thing I am sure He is saying is, "Ecclesiasticisms." Please allow me to save you a little effort by telling you, I already looked it up on dictionary.com and it is not there. However, if you look up "ism" you can get something of an idea of what the word might mean. That is assuming you know that ecclesiastic anything applies to The Church. An ism in this context is something to which one is devoted. So ecclesiasticism would mean devotion to The Church. (Assuming it were a real word.) Except for one thing. Ecclesiasticism would be devotion to the church; not necessarily The Church. Maybe that is the point the Holy Spirit is trying to make? You see, to be devoted to Jesus is to be devoted to The Church whereas ecclesiastism is devotion to the church, or my church, or your church, or any particular church.
I am devoted to the concept of church. Were it not for church, Christian people would have to come to me to have fellowship because I would not go to them. That is just the way I am. My wife, on the other hand, will go about anywhere to meet anyone for any and every good reason. In fact, she often does not even need a reason. She just wants to be around people. When I go anywhere, I am on some kind of a mission. My mission may be to find something like a piece of hardware, a article of clothing, or a flame-broiled whopper, but I am on a mission. Sometimes she just wants to go. So we compromise and we both go. (Get it?)
I have to quit writing now. I am not sure why, but I think it is because if I keep writing I will get myself into trouble. Hopefully someone out there will finish this post. There should be enough here to elicit at least a comment or two about people who love church, but only attend for the purpose of...
I am a bit conflicted at the moment. I determined that I was not going to write or say anything about a couple different things until I knew exactly what it is the Holy Spirit is saying. Now, here I am typing and I am not sure what He is saying, only that He is saying something. In fact the only thing I am sure He is saying is, "Ecclesiasticisms." Please allow me to save you a little effort by telling you, I already looked it up on dictionary.com and it is not there. However, if you look up "ism" you can get something of an idea of what the word might mean. That is assuming you know that ecclesiastic anything applies to The Church. An ism in this context is something to which one is devoted. So ecclesiasticism would mean devotion to The Church. (Assuming it were a real word.) Except for one thing. Ecclesiasticism would be devotion to the church; not necessarily The Church. Maybe that is the point the Holy Spirit is trying to make? You see, to be devoted to Jesus is to be devoted to The Church whereas ecclesiastism is devotion to the church, or my church, or your church, or any particular church.
I am devoted to the concept of church. Were it not for church, Christian people would have to come to me to have fellowship because I would not go to them. That is just the way I am. My wife, on the other hand, will go about anywhere to meet anyone for any and every good reason. In fact, she often does not even need a reason. She just wants to be around people. When I go anywhere, I am on some kind of a mission. My mission may be to find something like a piece of hardware, a article of clothing, or a flame-broiled whopper, but I am on a mission. Sometimes she just wants to go. So we compromise and we both go. (Get it?)
I have to quit writing now. I am not sure why, but I think it is because if I keep writing I will get myself into trouble. Hopefully someone out there will finish this post. There should be enough here to elicit at least a comment or two about people who love church, but only attend for the purpose of...
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