Ten Things To Pray For In The Year 2014: # 2 Discernment

There are many gone out into the world to deceive…and they would deceive the very elect if they could…and some do. I have seen so many things within the walls of what many people call “church,” and some of it is pretty ugly. I’ve seen

…pastors cooing like doves…preachers stirring the air with imaginary wands to bring in “the river,” an idea that does not exist in the Bible and is satanic in origin…making people “fall backward in the spirit” by convincing them that they need to fall backward- when in reality, they believe that must be what they have to do when under the power of God’s spirit; it is a culturally learned phenomenon, and in the Bible where there were instances of people falling backward from the power of God it was when God overpowered an enemy…worship “enhanced” by filtering in aromas, fog, and surreal special effects while the faithful flop around like rag dolls in entertainment that becomes unfocused and unhinged until people sing and chant lyrics contrary to the Word of God…preachers mesmerizing the crowd with the right words, only to deceive them with a haughty spirit of “healing virtue” that is nothing less than crowd control and emotional manipulation, not done in humility and awe of God…and prophetic messages that are spoken over people in a whipped up emotional fervor, devoid of God’s spirit, damaging those who are ministered to….and more…

So…why aren’t people stopping this- throwing up red flags of concern everywhere these things happen? Why? Because they have no discernment.

Discernment is the ability to decide between two choices…and spiritually, the ability- through God’s presence in you- to tell when something is of God and when it is not of God.

Let me give you an example:

        You are in the crowd of a large congregation and a minister has come out and is praying for people- laying hands on people. STOP. DISCERNMENT TIME. #1- Don’t let anybody lay hands on you unless you know for certain what spirit is within them. You can tell this from their fruit= the fruit of the spirit. The fruit of the spirit does not include pride, arrogance, or a lack of self-control (it’s in the Bible, look it up if you don’t agree). 

        So, Minister so and so goes on about his or her work, praying for this person and that person. STOP. DISCERNMENT TIME # 2. before you get out of your seat and run up front for prayer…you better pray yourself. It states in the Bible that spiritual things are discerned spiritually. Ask God in prayer if you should go up. AND Listen to what is happening. If you see anything out of line with what the Bible says…DO NOT GO UP FRONT.

        Why? Because you could be in line for what evil or spiritual sickness they have…it can pass on to you if they lay hands on you. The Biblical thing to do if you are sick is call for the elders of the church…they can pray for you. Notice I said “can.” You have a choice.

        God’s answer in the Bible tells us to get alone with Him and pray directly. So why is it so many Charismatics, Pentecostals, and Protestants are imitating Catholicism, as if the priest or “minister” (priest) is the only one that can make things happen? Power? Control? Jealousy?

It is a dangerous thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. Pray for discernment. test the spirits if you are right with God. Do not be deceived. 

When you can’t love yourself

When you can’t love yourself

and can’t seem to grasp

not the world at large

but the window before you-

find a safe little place

for some supernatural space

and wait for the appearance

of God.

Return to me, and I will return to you

Return to me, and I will return to you. That is the message in the first part of Malachi 3.

Way before the Lord speaks about the tithe in the latter part of Malachai 3, the Word speaks of Christ coming. This Messiah does not seem to be all cuddly here. In fact, it states quite plainly that He will refine, purify, those who seek to offer sacrifices so that they will be righteous before God.

When this happens, it states that God will act. But you have to go back to Isaiah 58 to understand how to get into this acceptable place of acceptable sacrifice.

True fasting is found in Isaiah 58. The definition of fasting has been obscured by traditions of men- just as God revealed through the prophet Isaiah. God desired that each of us walk humbly with God, and:

* Repent of sin (turn away from being in any state that keeps us from a close relationship with God. “God, I am sorry. I want to do things your way.”)

The next action requires complete submission to God as you need to be willing to be a spiritual warrior (if you are a follower of Christ, you will know what I mean).

* Loosen the bonds of wickedness (Now “wicked” is not good, it is cruel evil- when someone is attacked by a cruel evil, we are to help that person under attack. In fact, God tells us so many times not to be wicked. If you follow Christ, you are to do what you can – in action and in prayer. This is part of an acceptable sacrifice, part of an active fast)

*Break every bondage (Bondage is anything that has a hold on you- it might be drugs or another kind of addiction, but it may also be emotional bondage- baggage- or even mental bondage.)

*Free the oppressed.

*Divide your food with the hungry.

*Bring the homeless poor into the house. In fact, if you are homeless and your relatives ignore you, Isaiah 58 insinuates that your family members who turned you away are totally out of touch with God, therefore, in sin.

*Clothe the naked.

*Be available to family- do not turn them away. See above.

*Do not accuse anyone. If you accuse, you are doing the same thing that satan does. So, stop it. Yes, we are to reveal the works of evil…but not be an accuser.

*Satisfy the need of the afflicted.

So, it seems to me from this passage that we have a lot of work to do. If you say you are a Christian or a Messianic Jew, and you believe you have no time to act like this as you live out your daily life, check your pulse. You are alive. God gave you life again today. Are you ready to walk humbly with your God?

Justice and mercy

I struggle with diabetes. Many years ago, I worked in a high stress, high performance, high profile career that contributed to a food and health lifestyle that lead to the development of that diabetes. It didn’t help that I made my own bread, pasta, and pancakes. Or started the morning with a mountain dew and a couple of candy bars.

When I came into the office in the morning, before we went out to work, everybody else was sleepy, waking up. I was zigging one liners, feeling totally off-the-wall. And, sometimes, I felt out of control, like I couldn’t stop being goofy. I had no idea I had high sugar levels. No one in the family had it…

I say all of this to say that this morning I have an A1C test, a particular blood sugar test diabetics would quickly recognize. I had been doing better, but a diet high in vegetables, low fat, and some fruit, with occasional forages with lean meat, is very difficult for a guy who grew up eating hamburgers, pasta, and potatoes nearly everyday for years.

So, I have listened to the doctor, studied on my own, and read the Word. It is the latter that I now know is the place to start in fighting this disease. The Word speaks of living a life that is not fast-paced, not high-stress, and requires vigilance.

It is not just what we eat that brings on diabetes. It is also how we think, how we live, where we live, what we do for work…so many factors effect health. In light of my present circumstances, I have more time to contemplate that Word. In essence, I am fighting diabetes, but also need to be sure of God’s direction- I am job searching.

How then shall we live?

What is required of us is  this: to do justice, love kindness (some versions say “mercy”), and walk humbly with God. (Micah 6:8)

*You cannot work in a high stressed job where people want you to manipulate people and “do justice.”

*Mercy (or kindness) does not include a job where we treat the poor with contempt. Being kind and merciful, walking humbly with God, would quickly bring a conflict there.

*A job that encourages senseless wealth accumulation at the expense of others cannot conform to this Word.

I would appreciate your thoughts, comments, and reflections.

the road to the top of nowhere?

i have a headache the size of a mountain this evening…and it does not come from scaling heights to glimpse a fantastic view, like this one above Lost River, deep in Nowhere, West Virginia. No, it is a problematic headache, the kind that Jacob had before he wrestled with the angel, or the kind that Moses had as he looked up at the peak  they called “the mountain of God.” I admit, sometimes in this walk of faith, I feel like a Sontaran in a candy shop- not quite knowing how to respond tactically to something that currently makes no logical sense. Still, I cling to what has always worked- to wait expectantly for the Lord…as He is the God of my salvation. (Micah 7:7)

This picture- from the past- reminds me of the time I climbed this mountain- not alone then. It reminds me that people, in their selfishness, can choose the wrong road, the wrong mountain height, only to find themselves so waylaid and so far from home. I do not want to go there…so I will continue to trust in the Lord, even when my thoughts are so much smaller than those of the Lord.

In the blank space on the bookshelf

To everything…there is a season…Ecclesiastes claims, the Birds (not the angry ones) sang, and ’tis true. The trees, the leaves, the plants of the field, all change with time. And, so too, the ages of a man or a woman. And this we all know by a particular age- or will one day know. But life is so much more complicated than that, as Plan D changes into Plan E, so far removed from the Plan A we dreamed about when we were still wearing teenage haircuts and sporting waistlines that somehow elude the present evolving pull of gravity. Life is a complicated stretch of seasons, and often those seasons do not come into complete focus until they pass on…

So I sit by my computer contemplating how it has taken me three years to discover the principal spiritual purpose of this particular season, and why, after all this time, I failed to see the season for  what it was- only a season. In our great intelligence we believe that somehow this season will last so much longer than the previous one…but often that is not true.

Seasons, like an old bookshelf or bookcase, have bookends. Today, I rarely see the portable bookends, but the analogy should be recalled in order to understand how a life’s season is set. Chapters of each seasonal saga form books in our lives, and these are set off by the bookends- a beginning one and an ending one. Most of the time a dramatic event marks a solid bookend, and we know then that a transition stage- the blank space on the shelf between the sections of books- will take over until we are firmly established again in a pattern of books that make another season.

It is to this blank section on the shelf that I have jumped, not finding a bookend nearby yet, and hoping I do find that solid bronze or metal reminder, identifying the beginning of the next season. I do not fear this space, it is neither purgatory nor limbo, it is simply a space. I pray it remains blank until I can plainly see the other bookend. Meanwhile, I can watch the other leaves of books accumulate around me, as each person collects more seasons between shelves of this library. And soon it will be my turn to set the bookend against a new book, a new chapter, a new season in the continuing sage of life.

When lies multiply like flies

Put anything rotten outside in warm weather and you’ll have flies before you know it. Flies are attracted to garbage, just as accusers are attracted to lies. When one rotten morsel is tossed into your path, you know the flies will follow. Flies multiply as the garbage piles up, and lies multiply as rotten lies are piled up.

The Word of God states that spiritual things are discerned by the spiritual. A person in right standing with God knows the truth.

But one who lives a lifestyle of lies cannot discern the truth. Worse yet, liars believe liars. They believe a lie is the truth. Pack several liars together and you have a whole lot of accusations toward those following the truth. It is no wonder that so many businesses and organizations are falling into judgment, simply because they believe liars.

But the liar in his or her heart will say, “So what. Nothing will happen to me.” Just like the mass of Israelites who murmured against God in the wilderness, spreading lies among those called out of the darkness of Egypt. Well, those liars were swallowed up when the ground opened up. I know many people will say: “But..that doesn’t happen today.” Look around you, judgment happens…besides, if it doesn’t happen here, it will happen in God’s own timing.

But this isn’t so much about judgment- which is God’s job, not mine. It is more about those lies spreading like flies. It is more about being aware that a person who has lied to you two or three times will probably lie to you again, and many are so deluded, they actually believe the lies they tell. If you are a child of God, beware…there’s a whole lot of rotten stench out there. Watch where you walk…

A detour on the way to destiny

I’ve heard enough preachers in my day to do a full two hour stand-up routine with about every variety and denomination featured. I’ve heard some great phrases, one liners, and simple truths in those sermons too. I’ve boogied for Jesus with the grooviest dudes in Hackensack, and have sung a nasal chorus with Brother Moses the cross-eyed preacher, in a building so deep in the black hole of Nowhere, it lacked a sign, a heating source, and indoor plumbing. I’ve watched a deranged man coo at his congregation until one man nearly fell off his seat in laughter. And I have heard such a powerful sermon that throngs of people were affected. I’ve sat under the best, and I’ve heard the worst. You could say I have seen and heard a mighty big crowd of witnesses in my time.

So when I say I have been on that “detour on the way to destiny, more than once,” I am hoping I’m not using another preacher’s sacred sermon phrase. That detour on the way to destiny has caused a lot of problems in life. I have seen it in my own, when I missed a road sign from heaven and ended up in the second best football field ever. Now, I’m heading for that best football field ever. Too bad the fog was too thick to see the gate entrance until now…

But now I have my ticket…

It seems strange to the world, but God does work in such unusual ways that it confuses those who do not know Him. They’ll think that they are running the show, they are destroying their enemy, but in reality…..God will take their evil and twist it around for our good- for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. The Imposters, and the ones following their own selfish desires….think they have a victory when everything seems to be going their way. But then something impossible will happen- the one following after God’s heart will suddenly come through the mess on the other side with a better job, better living conditions, a better group of people to work with, a better home, a better wife or husband, a better day to day existence, and even a better reputation, You can count on those poor unrepentant sinners scratching their heads till Judgment day…unless something changes.

I’m going through what seems like an impossible situation…but God has already promised me a victory and a new situation better than what I have had before now. If He will do it for me, He will do it for you. You have to “put all your chips on the table,” telling God “you’re all in.” When you move all of your trust over to God, like in poker when you put all those chips on the table, it is no longer you trying figure it out.

Think about it…then go do something about it….and you’ll be blessed…(no, no pastor’s quote there, just yer man from the mountains).

PS I don’t play poker, but when I was younger…

The Impossible

Is it only when we are totally helpless that God brings us victory? And what about the hardships the prophets and early Christians went through? It wasn’t pleasant for them…and it certainly is not pleasant for me right now. So what are we promised? That nothing will separate us from the love of God. So, even if the world slanders us, destroys what we have, or exiles us, God is still there with us, giving us an abundant life.

What a paradox. When hopelessness surrounds us, He is hope. When there are more questions than answers, He is the answer. When it all looks impossible…and no one seems to care, He cares, and He will be there.

We have an advocate who wrote creation’s law, is final judge and jury, and who will not be mocked, even if your accuser mocks you. It is with confidence in Christ that I set my hope on Him, because He is the only one who can do the impossible.

Too many people have told me over the years that “that is impossible,” or “you’re crazy, it will never happen.” I stand alive today as a witness that  those statements are not true. God can take the lowest situation you have ever imagined and change it for the good. He did the impossible in my life before, so now, as the odds increase against me, I pray He will all the more do the impossible- for His glory.

Be aware- God is not mocked. If one or a group try to destroy you as you have placed all your hope in God, there will be a different outcome from what your enemies expect.

Bring it on Lord Jesus!

What the Word says

Count it all joy, my brethryn, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (James 1)

“Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5, 11, 12)

The Word does not lie.