Do You Need a Word??

Almost everyone that I know could use a word of direction, healing or encouragement from God.
But to the ones who don't seem to "hear" from God, they get frustrated as to how easily and frequently others apparently hear from Him.

People often come up to me after one of those meetings where the prophetic is in action and they say things like "I wish I could prophecy," or "hear from God," "like you do."  They have the tone of Eeyore the donkey from Winnie-the-Pooh in their voice, a look of empty longing in their eyes and they sound hopeless, as if they have tried and failed repeatedly.

For these folks, the scripture which says that we are God's sheep and we do hear his voice seemingly doesn't apply to them.  (John 10)  But it does!  If you belong to God and if you follow Him, then you can hear His voice!

So what's the problem?  There are many explanations for varying cases, but I want to single out the biggest one that will solve most peoples problem in this area.

If you want a Word, then read the Word!  Everyone that I know who is authentically prophetic is a student of God's Word and enjoys reading God's Word on a regular basis.  Knowing Jesus is the prerequisite and the way to know Him is to study the Word because He IS the Word!

I ask some of these well meaning folks what they do to try and hear from God.  Many say that they pray and pray and pray, refusing to get up off their knees until they give up.  Others worship and worship and worship, trying so hard to get raptured into a place where they lose themselves so they can finally and hopefully get a word from God.  And it is true that many times we get a word from God through fervent prayer and desperate worship, but the fact still remains that if you aren't in the word, not only is this less likely to happen, but you are prone to mistaking other voices or even your own inner selfish voice for the voice of God.  Because God will never go against His word and we must measure every prophetic thought against His word to test for validity.

Get a Word from the Word!  Get into the Word and study it and enjoy it!  Your future depends on it!

Psalm 119:104-106 (NIV)

¹⁰⁴ I gain understanding from your precepts;
    therefore I hate every wrong path.

¹⁰⁵ Your word is a lamp for my feet,
    a light on my path.
¹⁰⁶ I have taken an oath and confirmed it,
    that I will follow your righteous laws

 

1 Peter 1:10-11 (NIV)

¹⁰ Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, ¹¹ trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

 

 

Launching a Year of Consecration in 2014

It’s not even Christmas yet… 15 days until the New Year and I have already heard from the Lord about what 2014 needs to be for me.  A year of complete consecration.  He really got my attention earlier this week when He started speaking to me about it.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Whatever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger?”  It’s not in the Bible, but the Holy Spirit spoke it to me.  He said, “you have been asking for more anointing, more power, more strength…”  He went on to say, “Consecrate yourself in 2014.  There are going to be attacks, tests and challenges more severe than any you have faced before.  And by the end of the year, you will either be at a new and greater level of the anointing than you ever imagined, or you will be dead.”

Now when the Holy Spirit speaks about death, it can be metaphorical, literal, or both.  In this case, considering the evidence of how the enemy has already tried to literally kill me several times in the last few months, I believe that it is both.

I know I lost some of you already because if you aren’t accustomed to this kind of extreme talk about what goes on in the spirit realm, you might be thinking that I have gone off the deep end.  But I’m tired… seriously tired of writing and ministering in ways as to not shake the tree.  I have been guilty, have repented and now I’m free.   I’m done with that.  This is a new season, a radical and a real season and I’m stepping into it.  I hope you will too.  If you want to read some user friendly sensitive nonsense telling you that God’s grace means you can do whatever you want and not pay a price for the anointing, then stop reading right here.  There are plenty of those kinds of ministries out there and this isn’t one of them.  And if you don’t want prophecy in your church, don’t invite me to speak.  I’m moving forward and I’m done wasting my own time by trying to tone things down.  J

I want you to know something friend.  This is the way those who authored the Bible spoke.  The Bible says things that seem far-fetched but end up being completely true.  How about this one?...  Many who previously partook of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner, in other words, they didn’t repent of their sins, are sick, weak, or have fallen asleep (I’m assuming prematurely).  That means dead.  Check it out for yourself in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34..  Do you think the Lord isn’t serious about making sure to examine ourselves before drinking that little cup of juice and eating the cracker?  He is serious.  Or what about this warning from Jesus in John 10:10 which tells us that the thief (devil) comes only to kill to steal and to destroy.  You’d better believe that literally because it happens all the time.

God is the filter on my life and He only allows attacks from the enemy to come that He knows will be for my benefit if I work with Him to be victorious.  And so He is going to open the filter up some more here in 2014 and is warning me to consecrate myself so that I will be able to not only withstand the brutality of it all, but grow through it and become stronger.   After all, I asked for it.

And so I’ve been discussing this with Him.  A year?!?!?!  Really???  Yes, really.  Oh my!

And so my friends, I am announcing to those of you who pray for me and follow my life for whatever reason that I am launching a year long season of consecration starting right now.  The reason now, is that when I started planning to begin on January 1, the Holy Spirit informed me that He is giving me a chance to get a running head start and that if I’m serious about it, why not start now?

What does this mean?  To consecrate?  Websters says this:  Consecrate: “dedicated to a sacred purpose”  Another way that I like to describe it is “set apart for the purposes of God.”  Look at it this way.  You are a vessel that is for a special purpose  Not a common vessel.  And so you reserve yourself to only be used by God, not cheapening yourself with the things of the world.  You are like a silver platter used for special occasions but now you want every occasion to be special.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner.

In the Bible, there are many instances where God asked people to consecrate, purify and prepare themselves for events ranging from religious ceremony to times of war.  They would cleanse themselves, spend time in prayer or performing sacrifices, they could fast from food and often wouldn’t even sleep with their spouses.  There were other ways they would do it as well.  The main thing is to set yourself apart for the Lord as the Holy Spirit is leading you.

So here is how He is leading me for this year.  I am to eat no sweets (even sugar free) &  I will eat no rice.  On a side note, if I were someone who drinks alcohol, then I would abstain, but I am not.  Furthermore, I will not attend movies, watch television and I will not surf the internet for entertainment purposes.  I will only perform tasks including ministry that I believe the Lord is asking me to do and will eliminate all of the busy-ness in my life that is possible.  My primary dedication will be to a cleansing and growing process as I read the Bible, pray, watch and spend time in the presence of God.  There are more promises for this year that I am making between God and myself as well, but you get the point.

I will of course continue to be a faithful Pastor to those the Lord has directed me to work with in Manila and will continue to minister everywhere that the Lord leads me.  I will also focus on being the best Father that I can be to my children, especially to the two boys, Chad and Ethan who are living with me in the Philippines.

It is going to be quite a year and I intend to live through it and come through it as gold and silver come through the Refiners fire.

But I have to tell you,  this is not only for me.  Prophetically, this is for many people and for many groups of people.  I sense in my spirit that this year, 2014 is going to be a very challenging year for God’s worldwide Church and that we all really should consecrate, purify and prepare ourselves.  For those who will do this, they will pass test after test and go from peak to peak, glory to glory in their relationship and empowerment with and from God.

As I preached in a Church in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia yesterday, the battle cry for 2014 must be “No Compromise!”

Prayer Partners and Friends, would you pray for me?  And would you consider joining me in consecration, cleansing and travail this year?  If so, ask the Holy Spirit to give you your custom plan, don’t follow mine.

2015 is going to be an even more amazing year as long as we set it up to be that way in 2014!!!  Let us plough the ground and set the stage, shall we?

Snake Attack!!

The first attack that came upon mankind was through a slithering serpent.  This of course has given these creatures a bad reputation and snakes have done little to help their own reputation as they do tend to bite people and sometimes kill them.  And so in the prophetic realm, I have not often heard an analogy of a snake used to the positive. They are usually negative, very negative pictures of attacks, temptations, spirits and more.

I used to be a pastor of a church which had many people who had migrated to America from Africa.  In that church, I heard visions and prophetic words on a regular basis about snakes and the ultimate thing that you didn't want was for a snake to bite you.  This was probably the case because many in the congregation had at one time in their lives lived with the very real possibility of being bitten by actual snakes. 

One example was of a member who received a word from a visiting pastor from Ghana which said, if you go out from under the umbrella of the covering of this church, the snake will bite you.  That guy proceeded to leave the church and what happened in his life certainly could be associated to the analogy of being bitten by a snake.  But he did recover.  I think that having received that word in advance, even though he went against it, helped him to ultimately recover.  God never does anything without first alerting some of His prophets.  (Amos 3:7)  So awesome!

The reason for this article is that I want to share with you some recent insights I have experienced in my own life as I have literally been bombarded (in a good way) with prophetic messages from many different sources about snakes attacking me and my household.

The first one came a few weeks ago that there is a green snake with a red ruby on its forehead and it is very angry at me.  It is gossiping and lying about me.  The reason is because in the past, when it has tried to get me, I overcame the attack, killed it, and lifted up its skin to expose it to the world for what it really is.  Of course not everyone chooses to see the truth, but at least the lies of the enemy are exposed for those who love the truth and are not blinded by their own ideas.

So the green to me meant, "green with envy", anger, etc.  The red ruby on the forehead meant something precious that is designed to entice me to reach for it.  If I would come out from the covering of God to reach for whatever that represents, I would be bitten.

A week and a half later, I was in a car accident in which the driver unwisely went through a light.  It was not technically his fault, but if I had been driving, I wouldn't have gone.  It was as if he was reaching for the red ruby on the green snake.  The red light.  The result was that we were hit by a van and a car.  The most serious impact was at the back door where I was sitting.  And so the word of warning was accurate.  Because the driver reached for something that he shouldn't have reached for, going through a light turning red, the enemy was able to try and kill me.  And he might have if God had not miraculously protected me.

I learned from this that the attacks do not even necessarily have to come from me stepping out from God's protective covering.  It could even be through someone that I am with.

But more prophecies about snakes kept coming.  Another one was that there was a black snake trying to gain access to my house.  It had tried the doors, the windows and any crack it could find but it couldn't go in.  So it went underneath the house and found a hole.  But just as it was about to go into the hole, a double edged sword was placed in the hole and the snake was not able to enter.  The sword represents the word of God and the Holy Spirit that should be on guard in my life 24 hours a day seven days a week.  If the sword is removed even for a second, that snake who is on stake out at that hole will slither in and do its destructive work.

Later on, I received another word that there is a hole in my life that the enemy would like to gain access through and it is a family member.  And so as the head of the household, it is my responsibility to continue to make sure that the word and the Spirit are being applied 24/7 in my family members life in order to protect not only him, but also myself and the other members of the household.

Then another prophecy came just a few days ago while I am in a different country for ministry. (even at the time of this writing)  Another black snake is in the shadows trying to hide.  I saw it and I was able to grab it and remove it, but what I didn't see is that it had already laid eggs.  Many eggs.  The purpose for the prophecy was to show me that snake eggs had been planted against me.  I discerned that they were seeds of discontent and little gossipy lies being planted by those who are jealous or who I may have rubbed the wrong way.  Some were there planted by others as a hedge or as a retaliation for things that had been exposed in their lives or ministries through prophetic means.

I was with a group of people including some from a team from the Philippines who were with me.  I said that I believe that this prophecy was referring to the Philippines where there are some who are against me that the devil is able to use because of openings in their lives.  Then one person said, "yes, but it's not just in the Philippines, it is here in this country as well." 

I didn't pick up on that in my spirit because ministry in this country has been really wonderful and I was not aware of any attack like this.  But then I got socked a few days later when it was revealed that I had stirred up a hornets nest...  or rather, a snakes nest.  But thank God for His warning so that my heart would be prepared for the attack.

How many of you know that when you go where God wants you to go and say what God tells you to say and do what God tells you to do, you're gonna get into some trouble?!?  Can I get a witness??  Amen!  :-)  He always is faithful to protect, lead, guide and He works in all of these things.  He is IN CONTROL!

The enemy is on a stake out just waiting for that moment when we might reach for something that we shouldn't or for us to get lazy for a moment and remove the protective sword of the word and the Spirit.  These are perilous times and the enemy isn't playing games.  he intends to steal, to kill and to destroy.  We must stay in grace, blessing, covering and we must stay in the word and walk in step with the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 26:41a (NIV) “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Don't Judge Another Persons Journey

Theology is only kept pure if we do not base it on experiences. And so we cannot change our belief in God's Word because of any experience we have had. The Word of God is our standard, our filter, our anchor.

But things do happen in our lives which are not addressed in God's Word or are not clarified to the extent that we can make difinitive decisions about them.

If God's Word speaks neither for those experiences nor against them, then they can become an acceptable part of your journey, but we never make them a part of our core belief system.

We must make an area for these experiences in our lives. They are more like Permanant Residents or Green Card holders but not Citizens. They are always subject to deportation if they ever get out of alignment with Kingdom Law which is God's Word.

With that in mind, we have to not only allow for these experiences in our lives, but in the lives of others as well.

It is very easy to judge another persons journey and to become like a movie critic, evaluating and forming opinions about their life from a distance. Giving them a thumbs up or a thumbs down rating in our mind. Things get even more out of hand when we start sharing these opinions with other people. I think you already know this, but that's called gossip.

Luke 6:31 (NIV)

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."

We should apply this principal even to the way we talk about or think about other people.

Legalistic judgmentalism and gossip is one of the most prevelant and destructive sins in the Church today, as it has always been. We don't seem to be making much progress in cleansing our spiritual communities from this. It's to the point that when we find a Church that is more free from it, it is shocking, but in a good way.

We often hold standards over people much in the same way that the Pharicees did in Jesus' time.

Matthew 23:3-5 (NIV)

"3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 "Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long;"

What the Bible says must be strictly adhered to. But on all of the subjects in which the Bible does not make distinctions, we must apply wisdom, discernment and grace. How much of what we believe is opinion or comes from tradition or even from culture rather than from pure application of the Word of God? Allot!

So the next time you begin to judge someone because of what they drink or how they entertain themselves, where or who they hang-out with (like the Pharisees did to Jesus), how a person dresses, what they do for a living, how they raise their kids, how they spend their money, what kind of Church they attend, the way they met their fiance or spouse, or the next time you start thinking to yourself that a person is "getting what they deserve" when things go wrong for them, stop yourself. That's not the devil attacking you, that's your own carnal mind bringing you down.

Will you sometimes see things that are clearly wrong according to God's Word?  Yes!  And you should confront those things with firmness and with grace.

If there are those who have a different stance then you do about the debatable issues in the Bible, then you cannot walk with them. But at the same time, you simply cannot waste your time criticizing them or being in competition with them. Let them go their way, and you go yours. Bless them then leave them alone.

Amos 3:3 (NIV)

"Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?"

Don't judge someone else's journey, because if you do, the next journey that may be judged by others could very well be your own.

Luke 6:36-38 (NIV)

36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 "Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

How to get to the next level...

I received an Email today from a well known minister in America which was an Easter greeting inviting the readers to click on the button to receive their breakthrough which included going to another level.  If you clicked on it, you would be directed to a secure portal to give your miracle seed offering by Visa, Mastercard or Paypal.  The big hint he was giving is that if you give to his ministry, he will included you in his prayers (I doubt personally since there will be thousands who click) and you will receive your miracle and hit your next level since you had the faith to sow into his ministry.

 

What came to my mind is that after Jesus’ first miracle of turning water into wine, the next thing He did was go and cleanse the temple in Jerusalem of people who were making God’s house into a marketplace.

You obviously have deduced by now that I probably don’t believe that giving of your finances will necessarily take you to the next level.   Well, it’s not that simple.  If God tells you by His Holy Spirit to give, then I do believe that you should and that there will be great benefit based on your obedience.  But you need to beware of manipulation.

So, how do you get to the next level?

Matthew 23:23-24 (MSG)

^23-24 “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.  Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?

What is normally thought is that you have to make a change in order to make it further in this Christian life, in blessing, in anointing, in calling and more...  And when using human intellect, this would make sense.  Common sense.  After all, we know according to a famous quote by Albert Einstein that "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."  In other words, if you keep doing the same thing and expect different results, you will continue to fail.  In many ways I agree, but not in achieving a higher level the Kingdom which requires the use of UnCommon Sense!

In God’s Kingdom, we must not be like the Pharisees and try to get fancy, trying to figure out some new thing or focusing on some minor thing.  (the minor thing Jesus accused them of making too big of a deal about in the above scripture was in being legalistic about tithing, but it’s just one example)   Instead, we must always be diligent to get back to the basics of what God’s Word requires of us.  If you did the basics to get to where you are now, don’t get off track, instead, get back on the track... the very same track that got you this far and go around again!  It’s like a lap race.  The more laps that you complete on the same track, the more levels you will achieve in your relationship with Christ!

What are the basics?  Jesus did not go into great detail in this scripture.  He mentioned as example, fairness, compassion and commitment.  But there are many more basics.  I will not complete the list but will add prayer life, worship, study of the Word, having accountability relationships and more.  The big word that I believe describes the basics in our Christian walk is “consistency.”  The key to achieving another level is being consistent in the basics over long periods of time. 

It is consistency in the basics that promotes you!

The more worn your trail of the basics in your relationship with God gets, the more familiar you are in the basic disciplines of your faith, the deeper your relationship will be to Jesus who is the source of all power, all wisdom, all anointing and every good thing you could possibly desire.  My advice to you?  Find out what the basics of God’s Word are and make your goal to put them into practice every day and in every way that you can.  Before you know it, you will have completed another lap in this race called life, another level in your relationship with God!

WONDER

We often say that Christmas is filled with “WONDER.”  Usually what we are talking about is how little kids are reacting to the sights & the sounds of seeing big trees lit up or when they see a present with their name on it.  I suppose they have wonder about such things because they only get them or see them occasionally. 

But we know that the Reason for the season, the only One who can provide lasting wonder in our lives is Jesus Christ.  Everything else, the decorations, the gifts and such only delight us for a moment.

But what does “wonder” really mean?  It is being so impressed with something that you wonder how it could have happened.  How did they build the pyramids?  It’s a wonder!  How did man fly to the moon?  A wonder!  More importantly, why did God send His only Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins??  That’s the greatest wonder of all!

But there are more wonders.  Wonders which are yet to come.  The Bible speaks often about Signs & Wonders being performed through believers by God and by the Holy Spirit.  Signs and wonders include miracles and supernatural deeds of all kinds.

And so I leave you with this.  If this is a season of wonder, shouldn’t it be our job to fill the lives of others with signs and wonders?  And not just by presenting those we care about with greetings and gifts, but by truly ministering to them to the point that they “wonder” how God could care about them so much as to touch them by sending you as His vessel to their life and situation for such a time as this!?

So go and prophesy, go and pray for people, go and speak the good news, go and make Christmas a miracle for somebody by walking in the power of God through the Holy Spirit!  Then it will truly be a Merry Christmas, filled with Joy and Wonder because of your faithfulness as an agent of wonder!

We don't need Leaders like "Napoleon"

I was in Melbourne, Australia a few months ago speaking for a Church camp and conducting some other Church ministry.  A friend of mine took me to a wonderful museum in which we visited an incredible exhibit about the life of Napoleon Bonaparte which featured many relics & paintings.

Since then, I have thought about his life, the glory & the tragedy of it, quite a bit.  Thinking about him has impacted me more than I ever could have imagined. 

Napoleon was a key person in the French Revolution which featured overthrowing the Absolute Monarchy, Marie Antoinette, the Bastille and more.  Many movies and the classic book "A Tale of Two Cities" feature this famous time in history.   

He helped to free the French people through his efforts as a young officer who acheived fame, only later to make himself not only Emperor of France but of much of the world.  He freed people only to put them under his own foot of control.  They got rid of a King and got an Emperor instead.  What's the difference??

This reminds me of many leaders in the world and especially in the Church today.  I often see the results of ministers and ministries who have loosened the ties of the enemy on the lives of people through the power of the Gospel only then to bring them into a new kind of bondage.  It is as if they were set free from the forces of darkness only to be be re-shackled under the influence of modern day Pharisees.

The problem is that people often will follow the most charismatic, the most dynamic visionaries and they can be blinded by it all.  No wonder Jesus said the Pharisees were like the blind leading the blind.  (Luke 6:39).  I have discovered that just because somebody can preach very well, that doesn't make them qualified to lead and it certainly doesn't mean they know how to raise up disciples, which is what it is really all about. 

If we are to follow a visionary, which we should, we must make certain that their vision is from God and for God and not from their own imagination of becoming someone great by using God.

And even more importantly, we need to make sure we don't become little Napoleon's in Christ's Church.

Once we have freed people from the enemy, we must be the vessels which connect these new branches to the Vine (Jesus) directly.  Not making branches connected to other branches.  We need to guide them from a position of not being in the way and not making them relient on us.  Not controlling or driving them.  Not owning them and not receiving glory but rather giving all glory to God by building the overall Kingdom of God rather than our own sub-kingdoms.

Galatians 5:1-3 (NIV)

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

² Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. ³ Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law."