Patterns of God

     Does God speak by patterns? I think so. He not only speaks by command but by pattern.  Some of the most important things we can learn, we learn by seeing the pattern God reveals to us.  According to pattern, church was birthed in an outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts2).   Pattern?  Holy Ghost falls and church sprouts.  God was so anxious to do this when Peter preached for the first time, that He didn't even let Peter finish preaching.  "While Peter yet spake" the Holy Ghost fell and the Gentile church sprouted up out of that.  Same pattern as Acts 2.  God's patterns don't require constant repetition on Bible pages.  He does what He does - perfectly.  That is why we can sometimes trust the pattern more than we can simple words. We are too prone to interpret words to suit ourselves.  Harder to do that with a picture pattern.   What happened when the brand new church that sprouted up after the first Holy Ghost rain was threatened?   Another outpouring of the Holy Ghost (Acts  4).  Another pattern.

     Think about these patterns and then look at the church of America.  Are we observing the patterns?  I fear the situation is that we have strayed so far from the pattern we have forgotten there was a pattern.  I don't sew, but I can imagine the happy little seamstress sewing away making a dress.  She just loves sewing so much and she sews on a piece here and a piece there, just humming as she sews.  Forgetting that there is a pattern to observe, when she holds up what she has made to the light, it bears no resemblance to the pattern before her and she has no idea what she just created, if anything. It is worthless, though she worked so hard. Feeding the poor, even reaching the lost and other good works are wonderful things churches can do to reach out beyond their walls.  But, churches according to God's pattern didn't spring up from feeding the poor or any other good work.  They emerged from the soil of a God-manifestation.  They survived and grew from a steady stream of God-manifestation.  The great Pentecostal church of today didn't start with feeding the poor or reaching the lost.  It started with a Holy Ghost outpouring on Azuza street, in an run down building in California with some kids and a black preacher willing to believe for revival.  Observing the patterns is why the Bible defines the gospel, not as mere words, but words accompanied by the demonstrations and power of the Holy Ghost.  That is why the Bible gives us a promise that God would go with us confirming the Word, not with more words, but with signs and wonders. 

    The problem, among well-meaning people, is that we want to race to the end product - reach the lost - feed the poor - do the good work.  We are like those who stand over a plot of ground, wanting a apple from an apple tree that hasn't yet been planted.  I know a lot of good people busy, busy, busy praying for the salvation of the lost who have not prayed with equal or greater intensity and desire "oh that thou wouldst rend the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that mountains might flow down at thy presence" Isaiah 64:1.  Isaiah went on to say that there was none who would call upon His name, that would stir himself up and take hold of God.  There are lot of apple-pickers willing to pick the fruit but too few who will stir themselves up and take hold of God, who will call down the rain, the manifestation of God that makes mountains move.  I went to a beautiful fruit orchard this last spring. "Wow", was all I could say as I stood under those peach trees, branches bent with the weight of the fruit.  I loved picking those things, but looking at the healthy trees and well kept ground, it occurred to me that someone before me, put in a lot of work in order to have that harvest I was enjoying, with so little effort.

     The pattern says that from "glory to glory" we are being changed.  Glory falls and the church springs up. This will go on until the very end, but the pattern will never vary.  We are all looking for the end of this pattern, when Glory appears in the eastern sky and suddenly, we all spring up, an immortal church.  But, for some reason, we fail to observe the pattern in the here and now.  We don't need more people in the pews. We don't need more money in the pocket.  We need more glory, more revealed God, and those who want God will run to God. Understand, this is not a new word from God, or a best-selling Christian book, or a great sermon from the pastor.  This is a manifestation of GOD!  This is happening around the world right now with awesome results. God is showing up in far away places like Nepal, and boom, church is springing up in the wake of a God-manifestation.  Come saints. Stir yourself up and take hold of God. 

Heaven

  
     Heaven!  How long since you were excited about heaven?  In some religious places, church in name only, you may not have even heard the word "heaven" in a long time.  But, there is a hell to shun and a heaven to gain.  Where are you headed, my friend?   I know some may see it different, but I believe Revelation four contains a dramatic end to the church age, the age of grace, and the beginning of something beyond wonderful.  It starts with a voice that said to John "come up here".  And, oh, the sights John saw. We, too, will one day see these sights. The first thing that caught his eye was God almighty, so beautiful that John used the beauty of jewels and rainbows to describe His glory.  John met His maker at that moment.  Then his eyes were filled with the twenty four elders, representative of the church and Israel, clothed in white righteousnes, wearing gold crowns of authority.   Then he saw the "seven" Spirits of God, the number "seven" meaning complete and perfect.  He saw the formerly invisible Holy Ghost, on whose wings he had made his journey from the dust of Israel to golden streets of heaven.    He saw those streets, beholding the beauty of God's throne room.  He saw the heavenly creatures and I believe that he, along with the elders cast his crown at the feet of God and began to sing "thou art worthy".  What a song!  And, what a sound, the sound of the clashing of the crowns being cast at the feet of God.  The more he looked, the more wondrous things became.

    Some thing, however, in chapter four was missing from his view.  After all, how can the eyes of man, even with heavenly eyes, take in all that heaven is?  Something was missing.  Chapter five reveals what it is.  A book was held up and a loud voice asked "who can open this book?"  No man, of heaven or earth, was able to open it and John said he began to weep.  Something to be seen could not be seen until that book was opened and someone stepped forward who could open that book.  Then, as he wept, an elder stepped up and told him "Don't weep, the Lion of Judah, the root of David, will open the book".   And, then, suddenly, stood a Lamb!  Suddenly, what was missing from his view became visible.  John saw Jesus!   My God, what a moment.  He saw what Jesus had been and what Jesus now was.  He saw that clothing of the Holy Ghost that Jesus had been wearing all along, even when He walked among those disciples.  And then the worship of the redeemed really kicks into gear. An innumerable host, ten thousand times ten thousand, thousands of thousands began to sing "worthy is the lamb".  And the elders fell at His feet and worshipped Him.  Oh, what a moment of recognition and worship!

     It is at that point that John is suddenly aware of not only God Almighty, the church, the Holy Ghost, the glory of heaven, the Lamb called Jesus but when he saw that host,  he became aware of the multitude of the redeemed.  Maybe it is only my imagination, but at that moment, in the midst of worship beyond dreams, he sees and knows those who have made it.  No, there will be no "rose garden" in the sky meeting, but there will be a meeting.  There, at the feet of the Lamb, in the midst of worship, we will look across the multitude and see that Mom made it.  Dad made it. That baby we lost prematurely, made it. Our spouse made it.  Our kids, they made it. And, our grandkids.  And, oh, there are those we won to the Lord, they made it. And, some of our friends, there they are.   John must have looked across the crowd and no doubt, noticed that Peter and the other disciples made it.  Something in us will recognize those we have loved before.  No, we may not run over and hug them, though we might.  We will be to busy in our mutual mission now, doing what we were created to do, saved to do, taken to heaven to do, that we might not do that family reunion right at first.  For the first ten thousand years, we will sing the song of the redeemed, sharing the mutual harmony that only a singing family might understand. And, then, after ten thousand years, maybe we will start all over and sing another ten thousand years or so. "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever".

    My friend, lift up your eyes.  Point your feet toward eternal destiny.  Worship now, practicing, for what you will do there.  Let "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"  guide your journey

Our adversary

     Did you know that satan is our adversary primarily because he is an adversary of God?  Sometimes, in our shallow human-centered thinking, we think the fight is about us. Actually, it is about God.  And. it started long before there was man.  At that far away time, the adversary attempted to ascend, without invitation, to the throne of God and was cast out of the heavens. Since then, the war has gone on.  He strikes at us because we are made in the image of God.  He can't get at God, so he strikes at what looks like God. He strikes at us becase we have access to the throne of God, and it is the throne he has always wanted to ascend to and can't.  He strikes at us because we can worship God on the throne and he has always wanted that throne so he could have that worship.  So, my friend, when persecution comes from the adversary, it may be that your resemblance, your nearness to God, your worship of God has become too sweet and has become more than his nerves can handle, so he strikes out. So, on that day, rejoice and leap for joy.  And, keep on doing what you are doing.

Play It Again God

   The Word of God and the ministry of that Word by the Holy Ghost is a marvelous thing.  Have you ever watched those commercials advertising the oldie songs now on CD?  They play a bit of a song that once was so special to you and your attention is captured and there is a little turning in your soul that goes on.  You are reminded perhaps, even of special things related to that song and they flash in your mind.   You know, the Spirit also does this with the Word.   He can make a passage, a principle, a book of the Bible so powerfully real that it changes your life.  In fact, it becomes a part of your life.  For a while you live in that passage and it feeds you and grows in you.  Then time goes by, and it sort of fades from your thinking for a while.  And, then....the Holy Ghost makes an old revelation a new revelation - again.  Don't you love it?   It reminds me of a Cornflakes commercial of a few years in which we were encouraged to "Eat it again for the very first time".

   Some folks love the Word for what they can gain out of its promises.  That is fine with me.  Others love the Word because they just love the Word.  That is fine with me as well.  I guess I love it for both reasons.  It does sustain, it does offer riches both earthly and eternal.  But, I also just love it because it is loveable.  It is honey to the soul.  It reminds me of Him who soul thirsts after.  I love the way the Holy Ghost ministers it.  I love it when a fresh new revelation comes bursting through into my mind.  I love it when an old revelation becomes new again.  It makes me want to say "Play it again God". 

Potpourri Religion!!!!

      Do you know the difference between the "great command" and what men call the "great commission"?  If you don't, confusion reigns.  Do you know the difference between ministry unto the Lord and ministry for the Lord?  If you don't confusion reigns.   Not knowing the difference is how we have arrived at "potpourri" religion or church.

     The two questions are actually the same question.  The great command is to love God with all you being and that is ministry unto the Lord, not ministry for the Lord. Ministry for the Lord is serving Him and working for Him,  Every now and then, even in my own lifetime, God speaks to the church and tries to correct us, but then we drift. One of the great messages of the charismatic move of the 60's was a call to minister unto the Lord. Often our drifting is based on valuing the work of the Lord (ministry for him) above ministry to Him. This is tantamount to valuing God above men. This is the condition the Bible warns of when it speaks of those who love the creature more than the creator. Actually, there is no competition, nor should there be, and there is no excuse for not doing both, but men will find those excuses.  Did you know that when God brought Israel out of Egypt, that great symbol of our salvation, He told Moses to tell them "I brought them out for myself to stand before me and minister unto me" (my words)?  It is the same idea Jesus expressed with "God is seeing those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth".  Is that in your thinking?

    The great command is to love God with all your being and do it His way, for obedience must flavor anything we bring to God.  That makes the most commanded subject in the Bible, which is praise,  the most important commands for they express the great command. The great commission is to "go ye" and make disciples, cast out devils, lay hands on the sick and preach in such a manner that signs and wonders follow us.  Obedience must flavor our "go ye" as well.  The great command is foundational. It is the beginning of divine order, which is why is is numbered "first".  Finding a church, or a believer, that is in divine order is becoming more and more difficult.  The value of man has triumphed over the value of God.

  

   Not knowing the difference between the great command and the great commission is how we have arrived "potpourri" religion.  Do you know what "potpourri" means in French, according to Google?  Dead pot.

God In Different Form

   Many people have a fixed idea of what God, or Jesus, must be like and anything different is rejected. This has robbed so many of really knowing God.  When God chooses to manifest in a different way, they are left saying "Oh no...it can't be God".  I knew a little scrawny fellow in the Army who in civilian life was a DJ. He was a little ol' nerd but when he spoke, out came this booming, deep bass voice. I often thought about what a shock his listeners might have if they were to see him in person.   Their reaction might be similar to that of believers who encounter God in a way different from their expectations.

    How about today?   Could you, or your church accept Jesus the wine maker?  How about Jesus who walked on the water in the midst of a storm causing the disciples to think He was a ghost?  Or, how about a burning bush, a snake on a pole, a rock in the desert, a cloud by day, fire by night and a staff in the hand of Moses?  He came as a baby to those expecting a king.  To Joshua, He came as the Captain of the host of the Lord and to Mary at the tomb, she thought He was a gardner.  To those disciples on the road to Emmaeus, their eyes were "holden" at first and they did not recognize Him (Lk. 24:1-16).  To the disciples on the day of Pentecost He came like fire and then new wine.  Isaiah saw Him seated on a throne, high and lifted up.  John saw Him and said His eyes were like a flame of fire.  To some He was healer to others a deliverer and to others a master of the wind and waves.  To us, right now, He has come a Holy Spirit that is willing to dwell in us and fill us to overflowing.

   How many of those different manifestations could you accept?  Eventually, only accepting God as you have predetermined Him to be, or as you have previously seen Him to be, is going to rob you and cut you off from the Spirit of God.  The Spirit comes as He comes. He decides.  One way He comes is to blow upon you, grab hold of the tongue, bends our knee and say,  "Call Him Lord".   He comes and grabs our tongue, gives us an utterance and says "Praise Him in a tongue you did not learn".  Over the years, I have heard so many confess their love and hunger for God, only to see them pass up the chance to touch and know God, missing manifestation after manifestation, since it was not what they had in mind.  Sad indeed!  

    For me, I want God to be God and manifest as He wishes.  However, I have to confess, I would love to see the wine-maker anointing re-appear, on TV, in the First Church of The Fridgedaire and at the next great prayer conference, and denominational general confab.  Come on now, wouldn't you love to see the bottled water they might be drinking on the set of the big national Christian TV network suddenly turn to wine?  With everyone there getting drunk and the host, Sister Dodad's pink wigs fell off,  make-up smeared, mascarra running like a black river, one false eyelash comes unmoored and the men on the set, their ties come off, shirts came out of their pants, hair taking on that wind-blown look and their suit coats up over their head.  Wait a minute, that sounds like some church services I have been in!

How the enemy gains power

   The Bible says Jesus came to destroy the works of the evil one, that He stripped him of his power and made an open show of him.   If that be so, and it is, how does the enemy get power?  How does he do what he does?  It is simple; he gains power by lying. When we believe his lies, his power increases.  Most of his lies produce fear and fear is the opposite of faith, but works the same way.   Here are some ways he lies:

1. He lies about himself, his ability, his stature.  A lot of the church still believes the devil rules over hell, but that is not so.  Hell is a place God controls and it is reserved for the wicked, including the devil.  Jesus said we are not to fear him who could kill us but him who could kill us and cast us into hell. That is not the devil. That is God in final judgment.
2.  Lies by altered definitions:   Instead of outright lies, the devil cleverly lies by redefining terms, words and experiences from the Bible.  Holy Ghost baptism, which in the New Testament came with speaking in tongues and power is now just another doctrine to be studied and then put away. New birth is now church membership and sinners are just confused people.  The list of re-defined terms could go on forever.
3. Lies with ignorance:  Ignorance alienates us from the life of God (Eph. 4:18).  Just by keeping our eyes closed to understanding the rich inheritance purchased by the blood of Jesus the enemy robs us.  This is perhaps the best tool the enemy has against us.
4.  Lies with lying signs and wonders:  This one is working great for the enemy. These lying signs and wonders are not those of a cult, or magician. They are those intended to deceive the church and they will be connected with what we have come to accept as church.  There are many, many things going on in the church world that we are calling "God" that are impossible to support from the Bible. How many mega-churches do we "ooh" and "aah' over, that are too big for God, for the gifts of God, in which if the Holy Ghost manifested during the pastor's sermon, as happened to Peter (Acts 10), it would get the pastor fired and split the church.
5.  Lies by seducing spirits and doctrines of devils:  (1st Tim. 3:1). God only knows how far the modern church is from the powerful, anointed church seen in the New Testament.  Many, many among us no longer believe in the new birth, Holy Ghost baptism, speaking in tongues (a particular sign God put on us to seal or mark us), healing, deliverance, the speaking voice of God, joy unspeakable, praise, worship, etc.   How did this happen?  Seducing spirits spreading doctrines of devils.  Doctrines of devils are those that lead us away from the powerful Spirit-filled life we could have.

     So what is the answer to this?   Truth!   And, the Holy Ghost has come to lead us into all truth and away from lies.  The more full you are of the Holy Ghost, the closer your walk with Him, the greater protection you have from lies that seduce and curse.

Songs you love may tell who you love

 

    You know, songs you love best have a way of telling who you love most.  Much of what we sing in church is songs about us. Second to that are songs about what we have been given. Still, they are also about us.  Then, there are songs sang directly to Him and they express our deepest love to Him face to face.  Those are the songs I love because they are focus me on the one I love.

   The condition of being "spirit-filled", as described in Ephesians is that we start singing to ourselves psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, melodies of the heart "to him".  These are not songs about us, sung to us.  They are songs sung  "to him".  For sure, we can testify, preach, and prophesy one to another in songs, and that is good, but when songs become love songs, they are "to him" and that is wonderful. 

   There is a great absence of love songs right now in the church world, it seems to me. Lots of songs about us, about what we have, even some about the devil but not many love songs.  For those of you who are married, or seriously dating, can you imagine singing to your loved one about the devil while you are in the process of giving a deep loving kiss?  Happens all the time in the church world.  Right in the middle of a time of intimacy with God, someone starts singing about the devil, or about themselves. This tells me that they probably don't really understand worship and it strikes me as both funny and sad.  Think about some of the songs we are singing.  Can you imagine looking into His wonderful face and taking the time to sing that song to Him?

   Don't get me wrong: songs that testify, preach, proclaim, that encourage faith, etc., are not bad.   In fact some times they are best for the situation, but oh, don't you love it when the song arises that speaks your heart to His heart?  For me, I come unglued. I melt.  I fade away and He fills the vision of my heart.  In the Lakeland, Fla., revival I enjoyed Roy Fields so much. He sang those pounding testimony songs such as "I am free" and I sang with him and ten thousand other voices.  However, I remember and treasure a moment that came when he abruptly stopped that and sang in almost a whisper "Show me your face Lord, show me your face".  That was the moment when I kissed the Son.  Every fiber in my being stretched toward His presence.  I was lost in Him.  Now, those are the times I am talking about. Ever had one?

   In my experience, when a move of God, a revival is fresh, the songs become simple, straightforward and often directly addressed to HIm.  The further away from the move we move, the more complex and man-centered the songs become.   Prayer is the same.  I wonder sometimes, looking back, did He move, or, did we?  Did He drift away, or did we lose our focus on HIm and turn it on ourselves?  Could it be that we stopped singing to Him and He moved back over in the shadows to await the return of our passion for Him?  Could it be that we kill move after move, revival after revival, because we can't keep our focus on anything but ourselves? 

Emotionalism? Bad or Good?

     Recently we were accused of emotionalism. GUILTY!!!! I shout my plea.  You see, there was a time when I was not very emotional and incapable of being so.  I thought strong and silent was cool.  Tough, macho, manly. And then, years ago....after seeing my wife have such a wonderful, emotional relationship with the Spirit, I realized I wasn't cool.  I was crippled.  So - I sat out on a journey to be made free. I wanted to be free to worship Jesus my Lord with all my being.  And free I have become, by Holy Ghost help.  Not overnight, mind you, but free at last, thank God almighty, free at last.  No, I don't lean on my emotions, but I allow my emotions to express my devotions, my excitement, my joy in my Jesus.  And, I am free to do that.  My freedom of emotions also allows Jesus to bless me in a tangible way that speaks volumes of love to me.

     Bad emotionalism?  When emotion is all you have, that's bad. When emotions are negative and spread condemnation, that,s bad. When you are emotional and it is the only time you will praise and worship God, that's bad. When your emotions are all bottled up, as was mine, that's bad.  When you can be in the presence of God and you can do little but yawn or play with your phone, that's bad.  When the power of God is igniting those around you and you want to feel something, but you can't, that is bad emotionalism.  You see, emotions are of the soul and God wants us to love Him, therefore relate to Him, with all our heart (spirit), soul (emotions), mind (imagination) and strength (physical person).  You can't do that - unless you are free to do that.  People often will say, "oh, I'm not emotional".  That is NUTS!  The only non-emotional persons are six-feet under or soon going to be.  Stick your finger in a light bulb socket and watch how emotional you become. Slam the car door on your finger and watch your emotions come alive.   Sometimes emotionalism gets a bad name when someone who really isn't free in their emotional responses gets a touch from the Lord and they go off like a rocket and draw too much attention to themselves.   Now, of course, that is better than nothing, but such a person needs to take the cap off the bottle more often and release the phizz, (Like a bottle of cola).

    Good emotionalism?  Good emotionalism is when the presence of God comes near with such sweetness your soul wants to weep - and you weep.  The joy of the Lord brushes you and your soul wants to laugh - and you laugh. The power of God touches you and you want to dance - and you dance.  The fire of God comes near and you want to shout - and you shout.  To truly worship God requires His manifested presence, which means you need to seek and be where His presence manifests.  Secondly, worship requires you being free enough to recognize His pesence and respond appropriately. It is not appropriate to be in the presence of God almighty with arms folded and emotions bottled up. With those we love in the natural, if we are free and they come near, we respond to them with love.  It is a requirement of relationship.  

    Worship and emotions:  It is so wonderful to be around free people.  The presence of God sweeps in and in our freedom, on the same row at church, one can be singing, another laughing, another crying, another shaking, another in deep peace, another praying fervently in tongues, another shouting, etc., etc., and we are all doing the same thing.....responding to the presence of the Spirit of God.  Of course, somewhere in the building will be the emotional police. "arrest them....they are getting carried away..we don't do that here".  That was the role the prodigal's brother wanted to play. The Father and the younger son wanted to make "merry", to have a party and he wanted to complain.  So...the prodigal was restored and his brother is still complaining, I guess, even today. The prodigal is dancing with the Father and his brother is probably complaining about emotionalism.  Come on saints - press for freedom!  Freedom is better than captivity!

Great Words From This Side Of The Cross

Here are some words Old Testament believers could not enjoy.  They describe things that was not offered to them, or at least not as we know them today.

"Redemption".  A price has been paid to redeem us back to God.
"New Birth".  When we accepted the Lord, our old man, old record passed away and we were made new.
"Remitted".  In the Old Testament sin was only atoned, which means to "cover over". Every year those sins had to be recovered with the blood of an animal.  Our sins are gone! Remitted!  Blotted out.
"Holy Ghost baptism":   Very little mention of the Spirit of God is found in the Old Testament but He is the heart of the New Testament.  Jesus died to give us a baptism of the HOly Ghost, which is a saturating, personal, powerful, relationship with God the Spirit.
"Propitiation".  This word speaks of an act whereby anger / wrath is turned to mercy. The blood of Jesus turned the wrath of God to mercy, making a way for us to approach God and God to approach us.
"Reconciliation".  This word speaks of having enmity turned to friendship.  This is what Jesus did on the cross.
"No condemnation".  Jesus came, not to condemn the world but to save the world.  As with the adulterous woman, He says to us "I don't condemn you, go and sin no more".
"Righteousness".  This is a word that means "rightstanding with God".   They could not have dreamed of having righteousness in the Old Testament.  For us, it is a gift.
"Confidence".  This is from a Greek word "parrhesia", which means free spokenness, free access, bold approach.  An impossible idea in the Old Testament. With this, we can come boldly to the throne of grace, something no Old Testament person could do.
"Tongues".  No Old Testament person could have dreamed of having a language only God understands and with which we can speak directly to God. All the other manifestations of the Spirit that we call "gift" can be seen in the Old Testament except this one.  This is unique to us.
"Abba".  This word means "paternal father".  No one in the Old Testament would have dared use the word in connection with God, but we can!  The Holy Ghost in us cries "Abba" all the time.
"Worship in spirit".  No one, before the cross and the outpouring of the HOly Ghost could worship in the spirit. This refers to worshipping in your spirit tongues and is to us what circumcision was to Old Testament folks.
"Worship in truth".  The word "truth" means veracity or reality.  We don't have to worship types, shadows and symbols of God.  We can, in reality, worship God.
"Grace".  The divine involvement, the favor of God, given freely to men.  Amazing grace!!!!!

And, that is just the beginning.

Circumcized Worshippers

   Jesus very clearly defined who God is, as we are to worship and relate to and in spite of that, most people don't obey.  He said "God is a Spirit", (Jo. 4:23-24).  That is the Holy Spirit.  Those who worship God must worship Him, on this earth, in this day, must do so in spirit and in truth (reality).  Isn't it amazing that this is so frequently ignored by the church?  And, one way of escape for those who choose to do so is to declare "we are not supposed to worship the Holy Spirit".  Of course, that is precisely the opposite of what the Bible says, but it does not seem to matter to some.  It is equally amazing to watch religious people choose to worship God in almost any form, rather than Spirit form.  Well-meaning folks by the million are still worshipping Jesus, God in flesh form, even though the Bible says we can no longer know Him that way.  If this was because of ignorance, it matters little, but if this is because men don't want to approach God as He is, it matters greatly.  God isn't manifesting to us as God in the flesh.  He isn't manifesting as God Almighty, God the creator, God the Judge, etc.   He is manifesting as God the Spirit.

   The limitations, the weaknesses, the powerlessness of the church has to do with little else except our refusal to embrace the HOly Ghost the way He will be embraced.  Oh, we will let Him do a work in us (the new birth) or rescue us, but we won't embrace Him as one to fellowship with and worship.  It is not God, off in heaven, that we are to commune with on earth.  It is with the Holy Ghost.  The deception that has worked for the devil, so far, is to keep men focused on God as He is not (among us) while ignoring Him as He is (among us).  The Pharisees of old were dedicated to the same error.  They wanted to worship God as He formerly manifested or as they imagined He might some day,while steadfastly refusing to accept Him as He was.

   It is a fact that Jesus dying on the cross worked to remove our sins and redeem us but many miss the true purpose of the work of the cross.  Jesus went died and went away in order to give us the Holy Ghost.  All the other stuff was done in order to do that.  People everywhere will accept the work of the cross and miss the purpose and remain far away from their full salvation.  The HOly  Ghost is our salvation.  He is the beginning, the "earnest" of all God has for us.  And, He is here now, to enjoy now, to worship now, to enjoy now, to be empowered by now, to commune with now!

   We are not only to worship God the Spirit we are to do it in "truth", meaning "reality".  We are to really do what we say we are doing.  And, we are to worship in the spirit.  That means we have come to such a condition that our spirit, as well as the rest of us is empowered by the Holy Spirit, to express worship.  That means we have been baptized and repeatedly filled with the Holy Ghost, until our spirit (not our natural man) gains a language of praise. And then, just as the early disciples did, we use this power to speak from our spirit directly unto God, our praise.  This is otherwise known as speaking in tongues.  This is God's chosen mark upon us. It is a particular sign promised to follow us everywhere and one even unbelievers are to see us doing.   In fact, according to the Bible "we are the circumcision who worship God in the spirit". 

    A lot of folks wandering around the church who have yet to be circumcized of the spirit.  Before Israel could cross into the promised land, every man had to be circumcized.  You better believe the flesh of those involved resisted that circumcision but there was no crossing over without it.  It pretty much works the same way now.  There is a promised realm of God, available to born again believers, but entering in requires circumcision of the heart and tongue.  Yes - flesh will argue, pride will resist, religion will deny but God requires.  No, not to be saved, but to worship in spirit and in truth.

Can You Imagine This?

    Can you imagine this?  Sitting in a service where people are shaking under the power of God, a tongue here with an interpretation, a prophecy here, a song of the spirit, Holy Ghost joy bubbling like a fountain, the presence of God overwhelming, the thirst for God erupting in believers with desperate passion?  Really, now, can you imagine that?  Weeeeelllll....can you imagine someone sitting in that, and then declaring later that they don't need all that emotionalism?  They just want mo' money!  Wow!  That takes dead to a new level. 

    Do I want the touch of God?  Yessss!  Do I want that touch on my body, soul, mind and spirit? Yessss! and double Yessssssss!  Old timers used to say "better felt than telt".  uh-huh!  We ministered in a church with a little bitty black dynomo lady pastor many years ago.  I have always remembered her saying "You can touch God and when ya do,he'll touch ya back,and when he touches ya back, ya'll know yo been touched".   My, my, how wonderfully true.  Oh, how wonderful to touch and be touched back.  Is that emotionalism?  Guilty, guilty, guilty!   But, you know, when the power of resurrection "quickens" it is a bit hard to stifle the course of God's power running through your body,soul and mind.

  You, know for those who worship the Bible and nothing else, I am sad for you.  Jesus is gooooone!  He left us, but not like orphans.   He did not promise to leave a book but He did promise to leave the Spirit of God, a comforter not unlike Himself.  Oh yeah!  And when that Comforter, God manifested on earth in my presence, touches you, supernatural meets natural and it gets exciting.  Bring it on God!  Do it again. Ever filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost is my prayer (Eph. 5:18-19).  Do I love the Bible?  Yes.  Is it the Word of God?  Yes. But it is only words until the Spirit (who wrote it), gives life to it. That is what makes it special.  He can take that word and engraft it right into your soul, your emotional being, and you feeeeeel it!   YES YOU DO!  He can takes words and turn them into life and power.

   You know, some define prosperity has having lots of money.  That's okay but I could live with less if I had to.  Of course, I'll take all of the gold that comes my way and put it into the Kingdom. But, prosperity is also "as thy soul prospers".  Your soul, my friend, is not your spirit.  It is your emotional, rational being.  It didn't get born again. That was your spirit.  Your soul needs a little saving - regularly.  Your soul needs a little quickening.  Your soul needs wine and water. Your soul needs to party, to make  merry with God.   Oh, I can give up the gold, if I should have to, but I cannot give up the touch of God.

   Sad to say, men today have prospered and called it God, but it isn't. It is the deceptive power of riches.  You see, true prosperity is measured by "as thy soul prospereth".  If your soul "ain't" prospering, you "ain't" really prospering, not by God's standard.  You just have money.  Why not have the best of both?  Money, earthly goods and so much God you stagger under the load of His presence?   Can you imagine, having all the gold you could want but not being able to feel and enjoy the presence of God?  Of being so satisfied with "stuff" that you no longer desperately crave a touch of the Spirit of God?  Not for me - no sireee!  I like how the Amplified Bible says we are to ever be being filled and stimulated with the Holy Ghost.  I'm telling you that stimulation is sometimes like sticking your finger in a light socket. Sometimes is like the 29th shot of moonshine that suddenly catches up with you and your eyes cross.  Sometimes it is like an explosion of joy and you laugh and grin 'til your ears hurt.  Emotionalism?  mmmhh?  Yeah.  I like it.  Yeah - that's what I'm talking about.

A Rash Of Insanity

      Can you imagine, Jesus telling us He was going away but would send another comforter, one like Himself and not having that be the most important thing a Christian could possible know?  Insanity grips us and we hang on fiercely to the comforter who isn't here, while ignoring the one who is.  Insanity!  Can you imagine worshipping Jesus, who isn't here, but not worshipping the one like Him who is here?  Insanity! Can you imagine Jesus saying that if He did not go away, the Holy Ghost would not come, people paying no attention to it and acting as if Jesus did not go away?  Insanity!  Can you imagine Jesus dying on the cross to give us the Holy Ghost and men saying "no thanks"?   Insanity!  Can you imagine all the discipleship classes going on that do not start with an full-fledged introduction to the Spirit of adoption, the child-trainer, the Holy Spirit?  How can we be a disciple without walking with the disciple-maker? Insanity. 

    Can you imagine being so loyal to God, the way He is not, while failing miserably to be loyal to Him the way He is?  Insanity!  Can you imagine being given the downpayment of your salvation, the HOly Ghost, and ignore and minimize that downpayment all the while claiming salvation? Insanity!  Can you imagine being given a gift of tongues with which you can talk directly to God, and rejecting it?  Insanity!  Can you imagine having a gift whereby you can worship God in the Spirit, and choosing not to receive it?  Insanity!  Can you imagine having a gift of God unbelievers are to see believers doing, such as speaking tongues, and choosing not to let unbelievers see you doing it?  Insanity! Can you imagine Jesus saying that those who would worship God would have to worship Him in Spirit form and then man continuously attempting to worship God in any form but that?  Insanity!  Can you imagine having the signs, wonders, demonstrations of the Spirit and the power of God, upon which our faith is to stand, available but choosing not to believe in them and worse, base our faith on something else?  Insanity!  Can you imagine having the same anointing that was on Jesus available to us, but choosing not to want it? Insanity!  Can you imagine church being about anything but the manifested presence of God, present and real among us?  Insanity!  Happens everywhere, all the time.  Can you imagine church too big for the Holy Ghost to manifest in for fear it might confuse or offend?  Insanity!

   You know, come to think of it, I think there is a rash of insanity going around.  Thank God it has passed me by.  How about you?

The Craziest of Crazy.

 

Considering Jesus went away so the Holy Ghost would come, it is crazy not to get all the Holy Ghost we could possibe get.  Considering Jesus died to give us the promised Holy Ghost, it is crazy for people not to get all the HOly Ghost they could get.  Satisfied with just a work of regeneration?  Join the crowd of crazies.  But, that is not for me.  Yes, it is good to be born again, to be made a new wineskin.  It is crazy not to understand a wineskin exist to put wine in. Considering the Bible says no one can call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Ghost, it is crazy not be constantly filled with the Holy Ghost. so you can better call Him Lord   Considering the the Holy Ghost is the earnest, the downpayment, the seal of our salvation, it is crazy not to get all you can get and then go for some more.  If the Holy Ghost had not come, there would be no Christianity. We would be lost forever.  Yet, crazy people ignore, reject, minimize and redefine the wonderful gift continuously.

   The beauty of the Holy Ghost is that He is presented to us as liquid. Wine and water!  Things you drink. Wine that warms the heart, makes the face shine, rids us of the spirit of mourning and heaviness and evens intoxicates.  Water, that keeps us from being spiritually dehydrated, dead, withered and joyless.  Like liquid, like water, you can never speak in past tense about drinking.  Don't get too excited about that drink you had twenty-five years ago.  Like water, if that is the last drink you can recall - you is in big trouble.  Some of the driest people in America are Pentecostals who brag about being filled with the Spirit forty years ago. Bone dry!

Don't be crazy.  Be filled!  Don't be unwise concerning the will of God but be ever filled with the Spirit until praise boils out of you, thanksgiving rises up out of your belly and your mouth is filled with laughter and your tongue with singing.  Anything less is crazy. Real crazy.  Don't be fooled by what the world around you says is "normal".   You know, that dead, dry, ritualistic, programmed, people friendly version of Christianity. That is crazy.  You are normal.

A.D.D. (attention deficit disorder)

     My goodness, the problem with "ADD" has been around a long time, even though doctors and people are just now beginning to catch on. Not serious, you say?  Do you know what the failure of Adam was, the failure by which we were all made sinners?  It was "disobedience", which is a translation of the Hebrew word, "parakoe" which means to fail to pay attention or inattention. On the other hand the "obedience" of Jesus, by which we have all been made righteous is "hupokoe" which means attentive listening (Ro. 5:19).

      No, it wasn't the apple eating that got Adam (a trespass).  It wasn't the failure to dress and keep the garden (sin).  It was "ADD".  He didn't pay attention.  He was busy doing something else when he should have been listening to God.  Hmmmm!  I wonder, has that ever happened to any of us?  You know, there was a member of my family that came under a great threat. Victory did come, but it involved a great struggle.  Yet, the night before this threat materialized, just before we went to sleep, my wife and I both suddenly heard the warning of the Lord.  We started to make a phone call and give a warning, but talked ourselves out of it and then the next day it unfolded. You cannot imagine how much trouble could have been avoided had we been paying attention.  Then,  one time when our first child was young and we lived in Maine, I took her to school one day on icy roads. We drove a little Ford Pinto at the time. Remember them ? They looked like a half of a car with a long nose and cut off backside.  Front-end heavey.  I hit a ice as I rounded a curve and the car went over the bridge, front first where the most of the weight was.  At that exact moment, back at home, the Lord spoke to Bev and she dropped to the floor and screamed, for no reason she knew of, "NO...IN JESUS NAME!. That car should have toppled over into the rocky creek bed, but it stopped, at that exact moment,  with the heavy end over the edge of the bridge.  Thank God, on that day, Bev did not have ADD. She paid attention.

    I wonder how many "falls" all of us have had because of ADD?   I am so thankful for God's forgiveness for ADD.  I am so thankful, that even when we do miss Him, His grace steps in and helps us overcome anyway. Wow!  What a God we serve!  Thank God there is a medicine for spiritual ADD.  It is New Wine!  It makes His voice louder in our inner being.

Viewpoint

    Our understanding of the things of God, such as the cross, redemption, man, God's plan for man, etc., may vary depending on how you look at the matter.  By that, I mean from what vantage point you are looking from. Either vantage point can be and probably is, correct with Bible verses to confirm.  Yet, that view may become wrong for you, as you grow in the Lord.  There are three viewpoints that are common among us: the fallen man view, redeemed man view and then the God view.  With the fallen man view, everything is about man; his lostness, wretchedness, dispair,  hopelessness and his past. This view presents a constant focus on the darkness of fallen man. With adherents of this view, their world is not filled with light, but with darkness and underlying fear.  They only hope they can make it to the end.    Then there is vantage point number two, the redeemed man view.  He looks at matters, and sees redemption as all about him.  All that he does, he does for reward and the size of the reward ever looms bigger in his eyes.  Everything is about man for this fellow as well as the fellow with fallen man view.  And, they both have lots of supporting Bible verses to throw about.  Yet,  both views are horizontal  man views.  Both are views through the eyes of flesh and not from heavenly places.  Incidentally, these viewpoints often set these two camps at odds with each other.  One hates that "prosperity, bless-me preaching" and the other hates that "hell-fire and brimestone condemnation" preaching.  And, they often don't mix well.  And, they are both sure they have the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

   When we only view, and refuse to go beyond, the horizontal man view, our values of matters may be greatly out of whack.  We can't see how this, or that, fits in the scope of our man view, so we devalue.  We optionalize. And, in the end, we lose.  With the man view, the value of things is based on the what seems best for man, not God.  So, we easily cast aside anything that might make man uncomfortable.  And, sooner or later, that becomes costly.

    The difference between the man vision and the God vision, which is the third viewpoint, is like looking at a parade through a knothole (man vision) versus watching the same parade over the top of the fence (God vision).  Same parade, very different perspective but through that knothole, you actually see little.  The man vision is like standing on an open plain looking at a line of telephone poles stretching across the plain.  The one you are standing next to is huge, the one at the end of the line is tiny. That is a distorted perspective.  Yet, what you see seems to be nothing but the truth but it is distorted.  Man view makes the things of man huge, and is only concerned with those things that fill his eyes.  He will hug that pole close and build his world around it.   But, when the eyes of our understanding are opened, meaning we have shifted from man view to God view, the view of the same matter is dramatically different.  We see the beginning and the end. We see that all those poles were equal in size.  And, we see the purpose of the whole matter. And, our values change.

   I have found that there is a lot of restance to changing viewpoints upward. Our adversay, if he cannot keep us lost, will keep us earth-bound by vision perspective.  He blinds by ignorance, and I don't mean lack of smarts. We are alienated, Paul says, from the life of God by ignorance.  This ignorance is about not seeing things from God's view.  This ignorance is about letting the man view tell you all there is to know about the things of God.   You know, you can take a quarter, put it over one eye, close the other, and block out the immense sun, but it is a distortion.  Yet, it is how so many view the things of God.  Our eyes are so filled with quarters (the things of man) that the Son is blocked from view. For example, people who hate themselves love to focus on their darkness.  They don't want to hear about righteousness.  They want to hug that pole of remembered, wretched, darkness. They have what the Bible refers to as an evil conscience that steals a bold approach to God.  And, they don't care that that pole is followed by a thousand other poles and the purpose of all is to bring power.  They just know they are a wretched person, lucky to be saved.  Sin, sin, sin, is their obsession, their pole and they hang on to it.   Or, how about the man who has just discovered the prosperity message?  Every verse for him is about money.  Money, money, money, blessing, blessing is his message.  Every teaching revolves around getting more blessings.  That quarter over his eye is all he sees. I remember a prosperity preacher declaring "we don't need more God, we just need more money".  He had an eye full of quarters.   Is the darkness real and do we need to resist it?  Yes!  Is it the will of God to prosper us?  Yes!  But, behind that pole, behind that quarter, there is divine purpose and God wants us to know it and walk in it.  We look for His light, not ours.  And, in His light we shall find light.

The God Fight

  You know, there is a fight going on over God.  You may not know it, but you are a part of the fight, the struggle.  Let me give you one insight on this:   God, as we know is "omnipresent", meaning He is everywhere, all the time.  There is not too much to brag about concerning that.  It means, of course, He is in Australia at the same time He is in Kentucky. But, He is also in the bar at the same time He is in the church.  There is comfort in that, knowing, as a believer, that wherever you go, He is there.  Yet, the most lost soul on the planet can claim that same benefit.   The fight over God which His adversary is conducting, is not over the omnipresence of God, but rather over His manifested presence.  The devil does not care a nickel's worth over the omnipresence but he is at war over the manifested presence.   You see, if all we have is omnipresence, we have little relationship with God.   It is like having a distant relative that you know exists, but you never see them, hear from them, touch them or be touched by them.  And, you are doubtful you are in their will.   Yet, they do exist and that is the depth of your relationship. And, that is not God's plan for us.

   I hate to give the devil much credit, but he has and is putting up a good fight. about this  And, much of his effectiveness comes on the basis of our willingness to settle for the omnipresence and forsake the manifested presence.   All you have to do to see this is just listen and watch how people describe God.  Look at the church world, which for the most part knows only the omnipresence of God.  Even among those who say they believe in the manifested presence of God, how they define that manifestation is a long way from how the Bible defines it.  And, they seem to be perfectly willing to re-define to suit themselves.  Why is that?  It is a part of the fight.

    God has said  in His Word that in His presence is fulness of joy and at His right hand, pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16:11).  Does that match the descriptions of God's presence you have heard?   When Peter was explaining Holy Ghost baptism, he used this verse to help describe what had just happened to them on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:25-28).  Manifested presence of God!  And, there was, just as described, fulness of joy!  There were pleasures!  They behaved as though drunken.  Their tongue was made glad.  Look around at the church world that says they believe in the manifested presence.  Is there joy?  Is there pleasure?  Is there rejoicing?  Is there tongues being made glad?  Is there any semblance?

    Our covenant with God includes the promise of manifested presence, but the enemy works hard to keep the church from claiming the blessing.  Here is the promise: "Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, when times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord", Acts 3:19.  That verse, in a nutshell, describes our new covenant with God.  If we repent, turn around and change our mind, our sins would be blotted out, not just covered over as in the old covenant, and, we will have times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.  That is a favorite verse!   Here it is in the Kenneth Wuest version of of the New Testament and it is even better, "therefore repent at once, instantly changing your attitude, and perform a right-about-face, in order that there may come epoch-making periods of spiritual revival and refreshment from the presence of the Lord".   Glory, halelujah, I love the times of refreshing in His presence!  It is our promise.  It is our covenant.  It is our expectation.

The center of our focus

     You know, in the church of God, when man becomes the center of our focus, the reason for our existence, the primary recipient of our minsitry, we have missed God.  We have been lured into humanism and likely, do not know our enemy has struck a blow.  And, we have missed divine order. Divine order exists only where we love God first and foremost, with all our being.  Divine order exists only where the Lord Jesus has pe-emminence in all things. The pull of humanism is constantly at work to take our eyes off God, to remove Him from the center of our focus and to turn our focus on man.  And, to do it in a way that leaves us thinking we are Scripturally correct.  Our adversay is very, very good at this.

       When God moves and man messes it up, such as not too long ago in Florida, watch how quickly men dismiss what God did, and throw out the whole thing by focusing on the man that made a mess.  If it had not gone that way, it was already going the other way.  Men were clapping the evangelist on the back and proclaiming his greatness, prophysying of even more greatness, and the same error was going on.  Eyes were being drawn to man. The focus on God was slipping away.  I have been privileged to see God arise so many  times in these last fifty years, and each time there was a wonderful display of God that captured our heart's focus.  In the beginning of every move, it was all about God.  Oh, man was touched, things happened, signs and wonders occured, but God captured our hearts.  And then, as quick as man could, man stole the focus and the move ebbed away as it became about man and not about God.  It seems we cannot help doing this.  I have seen certain men, with an awesome anointing to point the way to God, deliberately turn the move of which they were leaders toward man and away from what God was doing. The result?  Man at center focus.

    In the denomination I grew up in, a slogan arose "Win the lost at any cost".   Lost souls became the center of our focus.  And, the last survey I read, about ten years ago, sixty percent of the membership is no longer baptized in the Holy Ghost. Their focus on God among us is gone.  The love of man took precedence of the love of God.  If any thing concerning man; his salvation, health, wealth, or even eternity takes precedence over God, we are on a slippery slope.  God gave us an order and made it so simple that even a child would struggle to mess it up. It is "one" and then "two".  Love God first with all your being and that is  "ONE".  Then, and only then can you truly move on to loving man and that is  "TWO". It is the simplest of mathematical formulas. One and then two.  Strangely, and in defense of the indefensible, there are those dismissing these two great commands, or at least the first one, saying we are no longer so obligated.

   Too simple?  Seems like it but still, we manage to mess it up.  We flip the numbers.  But, God in any place but first in our love, devotion, reason for being and we are back on the slippery slope. Jesus, for certain, came seeking the lost but that is not the end of the desire of God.  God is seeking from among those formerly lost men that Jesus sought and found,  those who will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.  Is it enough to just count a man saved?  Is that the end of our duty?  If it is, that makes man a number, not a potential worshipper.  Man seeks man out of pity for man, desperately seeking to save and spare him from harm. Man values man above all, which is the driving force among many well-meaning believers.  Yet, God seeks man for the purpose of worship.  When Israel was brought out of Egypt, God instructed Moses to tell them He had brought them out for Himself, to stand before Him and minister unto Him. Nothing has changed. That still expresses the purposes of God. Isn't it strange, considering this is what God is looking for (Jo. 4:23-24), that so little of our training, discipleship, leadership programs reflect the purpose of God?  As for me, I want to worship and worship more and worship better. There is a song that reflects my heart. The words are something like this "I will always, love and adore you, worship you only.  As long as I have breathe, Lord I promise this, that I will always worship you". Is that the song of your heart?

   

Joined at the heart

    There are times when I am made to realize a oneness in the spirit with another person. It is not that way always, but it should be. Ever wonder why? I think it is because most of the time, we are not around people who operate out of their heart, their spirit. They operate out of their outer man. Their inside man is often buried so deeply we can’t feel the connection. Let me give you an example of a joining of the heart. Have you ever been in a worship service, church, concert or just listening to a CD and someone sang a deeply personal, from the heart song unto the Lord and it so touched you, it became as if it was you singing that song? In fact, you were. You were connecting in the spirit realm. Songs of the heart have a way of joining the heart. Have you ever been in a worship service where the Holy Ghost took control and the crowd, as one, began to sing in the spirit unto the Lord. Oh, I love it!  The sound is so awesome, moving, swelling, rising, getting loud and then soft, directed by the Holy Ghost. Oh, there is a breathtaking oneness in that experience.  Joined at the heart!  Have you ever heard preaching, teaching or sharing that was so from the heart, that you absorbed it like a sponge on water? Joined at the heart!

     Why does this not happen more? I don’t know all the reasons but I do believe one reason is that we are so performance oriented that we can’t be transparent. Fear, guilt, pride, religion, etc., all work against us being able to be transparent about our relationship with God.  Preachers tend not to preach from their relationship with God, they just lecture from their intellect. They are sharing knowledge, not relationship.  Oh, that is good, in a way, but it doesn’t usually connect hearts. Singers are the same. Performance often dominates and we don’t really connect spiritually. Plus, most of the songs, and even most of the sermons, are little teachings,sermons, etc., and that is good, but they are not shared relationship material anyway. Oh, we may love the perfection or the style of the singing, or the oratorical skills of the preacher, but we are not really connecting hearts. It is hard to break the performance bondage. For many years, as a younger man, I did not know the difference between excellence and anointing. In fact, I thought the anointing was on the excellent,  until God set me free. I thought of this not too long ago in a church where an elderly lady was leading worship. She was a bit older, with older songs, and the old me would have been a bit put off by her. But the free me started listening to her heart and I found myself worshipping with her. We connected. Not on the basis of mutual style, perfection, performance or any such thing. Joined at the heart by songs of the heart. 

    Another reason that transparency is a hard commodity to come by is religion. Religion causes us to mask who we really are.  The Pharisees wore the long robes, made loud public prayers and various attention getting rituals, but Jesus said they were a whitewashed gravestone.  What you saw on the outside was definitely not what was on the inside.  Nothing about religion lends itself to honesty, to transparency...appearance is the ruling factor in everything. And, we can't join at the heart where there is no transparency.  Oh, by the way, did you know that holiness is to be transparent? So that what you see is what you get?   A transparent  sinner is more holy than a whitewashed gravestone of a deacon. Without transparency, seldom do we minister, praise, sing, worship, from the heart.  We can only do what we can do while still keeping the mask on.

    You know, back in the 90's, I fell into the River of God.  Oh,  okay, maybe I was drug in,  under prostest, but I got in anyway. And, I am so glad! Glory, halelujah glad!  And, you know what I lost most of?  You know what got washed away the fastest?   My masks!   All my pretenses, all my masks, flushed down the river.  And, I found a freedom to be real.  I found a freedom to stop performing, stop lecturing, stop entertaining, stop keeping up appearances. Oh, 'tis good.  Now, it is so much easier, when the anointing flows from the spirit of another brother or a sister, to just enjoy - being joined at the heart.   My friend, you can have this freedom.  Reach for it.  Pray for it. Do what you have to do to get it. Find the river that washes away your masks, your religious pretenses and role-playing.

Cure For Dryness!

“And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Eph. 5:18-20. You can never boast or testify about being filled with the Spirit in the same way you might about being saved. You can look back and say “I was saved fifty years ago”, rightly testifying of your salvation experience. However, you can never do this with the Holy Spirit. You might have first been filled with the Holy Ghost years ago, but that is not what matters now. Are you filled now? That is the question! If not, you are dry. That is why the Spirit is not presented to us in human form, nor is our relationship with Him of a human kind. He is living water. One drink fifty years ago means you are more than bone dry today. That one drink is not going to sustain you anymore than that first sip of water you had as a baby. You need a drink! Lots of drinks. The Amplified Bible says we to be “ever filled and stimulated” with the Spirit. 

    When I was very young I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was a wonderful moment. However, my church did not tell me that one drink was not going to last, that I needed to be filled and filled and filled. I had long ago dried out, ceased to become truly Pentecostal, before I found out I needed to keep on drinking. Oh, I had the form down. I was good at acting Pentecostal, but I wasn’t Pentecostal. I belonged to the denomination, but I wasn’t Pentecostal. I was bone dry. A Pentecostal is not one who was filled, but one who is filled. Recently filled. Full! By God’s grace, I found the fountain and started drinking. Oh, it is so good. You see, we were all “made to drink” of the Spirit (1st Cor. 12:13). Anything less leaves us like a fish out of water. Dry. 

    You remember that story of Jesus turning water to wine? It is repeated over and over in the drinking believer. You drink for sustenance and the next thing you know, sometimes when it seems the party is over, the water turns to wine and hope springs up like a daffodil in March, joy erupts, the Son shines, and the party turns to celebration. Yeah!  Drinking is good when Jesus is brewer, distiller, distributor and dispenser.

Bootstraps & Horns

    

    Ever heard the phrase "Pull yourself up by the bootstraps?".   Or, "Grab hold of the horns of the altar!"?     Who knows where those sayings came from but to me, there is a truth in them.  To me they express a need to reach down inside of yourself at a moment of trial, at a moment of warfare, or tempatation and make a determination, no matter the outcome, you are going to make it.  A lot of folks, I guess, go through life and never have one of those bootstrap moments.  Or, maybe, their moment hasn't come yet.  But, for most people I know, there comes a moment, or moments, when you have to reach down inside and determine in your spirit, that no matter the outcome, you are going to go on in life, go on in the worship of God, go on being the person God says you are.

   This reminds me of the Hebrew children in the furnace.  They went through the fire and come out the other side without the smell of smoke on them, unharmed.  But, you know what saved them and made them heroes was in how they faced that furnace.   They got hold of the bootstraps.  They grabbed the horns of the altar.  They gripped the bone like a bulldog.  They got hold of something down inside and they said, "no matter, if you throw us in, we will not bend nor bow, we will not worship another God".     I think that committment would have delivered them, or, taken them through.  As it was, it took them through and indeed, they came through without harm.

    The real foundation of overcoming faith is something like this.  Often when we are only concerned with relief from the trial, our faith is grounded solely on our human desires.  No matter how good the desire, it is not always a strong basis for standing in faith. A lot of it is motions and emotions can trip us up. A determination to walk with God, to go on in life, to not let the furnace put the smell of smoke on us, is a better basis. We don't really have a promise of "overcoming life'. We have a promise of "life" by which we overcome. Sometimes "life" takes us through, sometimes it takes us over.

    Do I know what I am talking about?  Well, more than once, I have had to reach down inside and say "God, no matter how this comes out, it is still you and me.  I won't be changed by the furnace. I am still yours Lord."  I have known and pastored others whose faith through the trial was so admirable.  One lady lost her  baby grandson to a brutal murder. We prayed and prayed with her and she walked through the toughest of painful agonizing times. Times that would have caused a lot of stronger looking people to crumble and become bitter by the smoke of the furnace. She came through with a song, with a devotion for God that has not faded over the years. And, she has joy. Wonderful joy.

    Facing a trial? Grab hold of your faith in God. You can and will make it. Focus on Him through every day and you will come through.

decent and in order

     Defenders of the modern, evolved gentlemanly church love to talk about things being done "decently and in order" 1st Cor. 14:40. Only they too often mis-quote the verse and say "decent" and in "order".  They mean by  the word "decent" that what is done should be done so as not to offend any all-important person.  (Religious correctness at work!)  No siree bob!  We wouldn't want to offend Bro. & Sister Doodad.  He is on the board, she is the church mother and they tithe BIG!  And, several of the little Doodads run the Sunday School.  Them thar Doodads like things quiet, reserved and dignified.  Well, unforturnately for the Doodads, the word is not "decent" which implies being done so as not to offend. It is "decently"  implying things done  things done well.  So, if we are to prophesy, do it well.  If we sing, praise, shout, dance,  talk in tongues, roll on the floor, get drunk on New Wine, do it well.  "Decently"

    And, then, there is that word "order".   Whose "order" are we truly concerned about?  Doodads?  Man's? The board of deacons?  Or, God's?  Often the word, as used, means things have to happen the Pastor's way or they are not going happen!  No siree!  Of course, sometimes it is the bored board that establishes the order, including hiring and firing the pastor if their order is not observed.  Yessiree!   For me, I really prefer God's order.  Haven't seen it as much as I would like, but I love it.   A friend of mine visited a powerful revival going in a church in another state.  He received a mighty touch of God that changed his life and he excitedly ran back to his pastor to report what had happened.  He told him, "Oh, we need this revival to come to our church. Couldn't we have that evangelist or someone from the revival come and hold a meeting here?".  The pastor answered "Oh no, we don't want that kind of revival. It is out of order.  It would split the church.".  And, of course, he misquoted the obligatory verse saying all things need to be done  "decent and in order".

    Who are we to tell God what kind of revival we will allow Him to give us?  Isn't that  just a  big wheelbarrow full of pride to even think that way?  Who are we to tell Him what order we will permit?  You know, in spite of the common sentiment to the contrary, He is God and does what He wants when He wants, the way He wants. That is what you get when you are God.  That is what you get when God shows up and manifests among us.  I am okay wih that.  I like God being God.  I like God showing up suddenly , disrupting the well laid plans of man.  I like God offending the senses of natural thinking deacons, forcing them to really examine where they are with God.    I like it when "humdrum" explodes under the mighty wind of God.  I like it when ordinary burns up under the flame of the Holy Ghost fire baptism.  I love it when God takes charge, does things real decently and has His own order.

Non-Gentleman God

    Some folks believe God is the perfect gentleman, that he would never do anything to offend.  (They might be the same folks that think the fruit of the Spirit is to just be a nice person.)  What Christian television show would allow Jesus to make a spitball out of mud and rub it into a man's eyes? Hear the critcs?  "We don't believe in spitballs here", "This is TV, not the time and place for spitballs"  "No spitballs, it might offend". No matter that the man was healed - just stop them spitballs.  God is not always a gentleman. Ask Zechariah about it. God struck him dumb for a while. Or, Saul, riding along minding his own business killing those pesky Christians and the Holy Ghost knocked him off his horse or whatever he was riding, and changed his name.  Ask the ruined farmer whose pigs who Jesus gave a good dose of demons and it sent them screaming over a cliff. Or, imagine a great convocation of fundamental preachers from around the world and their water gets turned into wine.  Oh, I would love to be at that meeting, just to watching the wilting of spiritual pride.   Would water turning into wine be acceptable in most churches?

     I was in the Army with a scrawny little fellow who wore big black goggle-like glasses. He was a first class Nerd!  But, when he spoke he had a bass voice that rumbled when he spoke.  He was a DJ in real life and I often wondered what his fans thought he really looked like. Certainly not like he sounded.  People are that way with God. They shocked when God turns out to be different than they supposed.  Eventually, only accepting God as you have predetermined Him to be, or as you have previously seen Him, is going to cause you to miss God.  He comes as He chooses.

     How about you? Can you accept God the wine maker?  Or the water walker?  He appeared to Moses as a burning bush, a snake on a pole, a rock, a cloud, a fire and a staff in hand. Any problem with those forms?  Mary, at the tomb, thought he was a gardner. In Acts He came like tongues of fire and then as New Wine.  To Joshua He came as captain of the host.  John saw Him and said His eyes were like a flame of fire.  How many  of these manifestations would you accept?

  God has promised manifestations of Himself.   I think we have slowed down the rate of occurance of His manifestations because we insist on telling God how He ought to behave.  If He doesn't come like a gentleman, as we have so determined, we tune out.  It is time, I think, for the Holy Ghost to start interrupting sermons, religious plans and mannerisms and theological boxes and preconceived notions of how He ought to manifest.  What if He manifests in an unfamiliar way?  Will we go with the flow or fight the tide?  Over the years I have seen and heard many confess their hunger for God, only to see them pass up manifestation after manifestation, since it wasn't what they had in mind.  Having met this God who at times chooses not to observe the order of man, I am ready for more.  I want to "see thy power and glory as I have seen it in the sanctuary", Ps. 63:1-4. Come on Holy Ghost, come as you choose!

    

The Falling Holy Ghost

    Don't you love it when the Holy Ghost falls?  "while Peter yet spoke these words,the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word", Acts 10:44.  Why is that not every believer's dream?  Oh, what church we would have if the Holy Ghost would fall, right in the middle of the sermon!  Why not?  Maybe because our dream is about people showing up, not the Holy Ghost showing up.  Maybe, because we are too big for God to manifest.  Very much God would be disruptive, out of order for today's mega-church.  You see, success  in church today is measured by counting heads, census taking.  It is not measured, any longer, by whether or not the Holy Ghost fell.   Sad, huh?  

    Watching some of the more "successful", big, people friendly churches on television, I often find myself wondering, with amusement, what would happen if we had a Holy Ghost falling moment.  Right as the Reverend. Starchy was at his most sobering, intellectual point in his well prepared sermon, just as He did with Peter that time, BOOM!  The Holy Ghost falls and makes a spectacle - people start shouting, laughing, singing, talking in tongues, looking drunk and prophesying to one another.  And, all Reverend Starchy can do is just stand there.  Of course, the TV cameras would shut off immediately, but, wouldn't you just love to see the camera pan out across the huge audience and focus right in on a spot where the Holy Ghost was manifesting?  Right there in the middle of the 20,000 member church, about  120 folks just get plastered with the presence of God and just lose it!  Holy Ghost chaos strikes and just ruins the well-planned service order.  Having a Holy Ghost falling moment, they got so intoxicated they forget where they are and just had church!    Wouldn't you love to hear Reverend Starchy try to explain what just happened when the cameras did come back to him?

   I remember a Mennonite preacher telling how, in the 60's, the Holy Ghost fell on his congregation.  I don't remember the whole story and may have some of the details wrong but as I remember it, somehow he had come in contact with the Holy Ghost but his congregation had not. It was all new to him, but  one day he began sharing what he knew with his folks.  One by one his congregation began to fall under the power.  Frightened, he got his deacons and men to haul them out to other rooms until there was no room and then they stacked them against the walls of the sanctuary.  He had everyone still upright plead the blood of Jesus over them and rebuke the devil.  They were scared witless and pleading the blood for fear of their life. They thought the devil had envaded.  Then one by one, the congregation began to slowly awaken and did so speaking in tongues and worshipping God. And, from that, their came a mighty revival in that community and a mighty ministry for that pastor.  Can we even dream of this?

    Where are we today?  Do we dream of this?   Can we?  In churches today, even those who bill themselves as "Spirit filled", if the Holy Ghost shows up in any way other than a seemingly silent force, it is too divisive. The church splits and the pastor is fired for letting it happen.  That has actually happened to me.  Been there, done that. The cost was high, but, it was worth it and you know, the dream is still in me.  I am still dreaming, still thirsting, still hunger for more of God.   I dream of Holy Ghost falling moments.

The Shout of A King!

    Remember when Jesus came riding into the city on a donkey and people began to shout?  Of course there were those there who wanted to stop the shout, to whom Jesus said, "if these should hold their peace the stones would immediately cry out", Lk. 19:40.  God will have a shouting people because His plan does not call for shouting rocks.  And, there is more to this shouting business than just noise and emotions.  Once the king of Moab tried to get old prophet Balaam to curse Israel.  Balaam said he couldn't do it for the "shout of a king was among them", Nu. 23:21.  That is peculiar for Israel at the time had no earthly king.  I think old Balaam saw something in the spiritual realm about shouting that the modern church might be missing.  Jericho fell when God's people shouted.  The people of Israel once rebuilt the temple walls and did so with great shouting, so much so that people were unable to discern weeping shouts from joyful shouts (Ezra 3).  Have you ever been in a church service like that?  Love it, love it!    When David brought the Ark home it was done so with shouting.

    Of course, shouting is only for the undignified, some will say.  Yet, the Bible says those that trust in God "shout for joy", Ps. 5:11.  Upright of the heart "shout for joy", Ps. 32:11.  Those God blesses "shall shout aloud for joy", Ps. 132:16.  Sometimes I get so full of joy there just ain't no way to let-r out but shout!  We are to shout for joy for the Lord has taken away judgments that were against us, (Zep. 3:14-15.)   Oh my, when that sinks in - you just gotta shout!   Undignified?  Okay, I'll accept the title and love the title - and keep shouting. Why?  Because I trust, because I am upright of heart,  because God has taken away judgments against me!  G-L-O-R-Y!!!!!! (shouted).

       When Jesus came riding on that little donkey, He was fulfilling this prophecy,  "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold they King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salavtion; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a cold the foal of an ass", Zech. 9:9.    Those people in Jerusalem, seeing Him coming on a little donkey, started shouting because deep down inside the shout of a king rose up.  Maybe they did not understand it all, maybe they did not even know a prophecy was being fulfilled before there very eyes, but the shout of a king rose up in them and they let the shouts fly!  My friend....when you know the King...it happens!  Can't help it....gotta shout!

      We are to clap our hands and "shout unto God with a voice of triumpth" Ps. 47:1.  Why, oh why oh why should we behave so radical, so undignified?   Because "God is gone up with a shout", Ps. 47:5.  God rises with the shouting of His people!  Over the years I have found things begin to happen when people begin to shout for joy. Demons get nervous and flee and revival may even break out when "the shout of a king" arises in the hearts and mouths of the redeemed of the Lord.  It has happened for us before.  Oh,  tell you, when the Holy Ghost suddenly chooses to magnify the King to you  it is really hard not have a shout come out.  If I could somehow type with volume, I would say, Halelujah, the King is here and He has taken away judgments that were against us!!!!!!!!  (shouted)

Sound Of Heaven

    

     "and suddenly there came a sound from heaven", Acts 2:2.  Do you know heaven's sound?  The word "sound" in this verse actually is the word "echo".   That day on Pentecost, it was a sound as of a mighty rushing wind, but what could have made that sound?  What was that echo that reverberated from heaven to earth?  What do you think a sound from heaven, coming right on the heels of the ascension of Jesus might be?  Joy, Joy, Unspeakable Joy!   "Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance", Ps. 89:15.   The word "heaven" in that verse is, by implication, means "happiness".

    When you get around where the Spirit is flowing, you can hear this sound.  You can hear it in the celebrating believers.  You can hear it in your spirit.   Echoes from heaven!   In Ezra, when the temple was rebuilt, they were shouting for joy and weeping at the same time and it could be heard from far away.  It was a precursor of the heavenly sound.   People who have connected with the sound of heaven begin to alter their approach to God. They come into God's presence with a "joyful noise", Ps. 95:1-2.   They have placed their trust in God and without inhibition "shout for joy", Ps. 5:11.   In heaven, the sound of ten thousand times ten thousand times a thousand praising God, sounds like thunder, rushing water and mighty winds.

    Those early disciples were in the temple waiting for Holy Ghost baptism, an event that meant to them (and us) that Jesus has been crowned Lord of Lords.  They were praising God with great joy and then "suddenly",  the Holy Ghost entered the room.  His first act?   Take the praise of men, anoint it and combine it with the heavenly sound, the echo from above.  Suddenly, they were as drunken, laughing, rejoicing and praising God in languages only God understood.  Suddenly they were in the manifested presence of God where there is fulness of joy!  The sound of heaven!  What a sound!  The sound of home!  It still echoes right down to those who thirst after the Holy Ghost.

Holy Ghost Tongues

      "Have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed?"  That was the question asked of the Ephesians,  (Acts 19:2).  Have you?  You may already have, if you are a Christian, you just haven't yielded yourself to His presence.  That yielding always starts with the tongue.  When you got saved, it required a yielded tongue.  You had to confess unto salvation.  Holy Ghost baptism has a similar requirement.  He comes upon you and gives you an "utterance" (odd, unknown syllables).   That requires you to speak that utterance.  It isn't your native tongue.  In fact, it may not sound like a language at all, at least not one you have heard.  But,  yield your tongue and for the first time, your spirit (not your soul  or  physical person) begins to speak.  And, it begins to speak to God.  Isn't that awesome!  You can now talk God's language.  Spirit to spirit.  No man understands that language, including you, but God does (1st Cor. 14:2).

    Some always ask "do I have to speak in tongues?".  The answer is "no", but you get to and why not?  You can talk to God in His language. When you do, it builds up, strengthens your spirit. When you do, it builds you up on your most holy faith (Jude 20).  When you do, it is a rest and refreshing for your spirit.  So, why not?  And, then there is the usual question "Should there be an interpretation?".  The answer is as simple as God could possibly make it, though natural men struggle to understand.  If you are talking to man, in any language he does not understand, then interpretation is required.  If you are not talking to man, and you are praising God, talking to God in tongues, it is none of man's business what you are saying.  Oh, and by the way, speaking in tongues is a sign God specifically says unbelievers are supposed to see us doing (1st Cor. 14:22).  So, it shouldn't be hid in a closet somewhere.  It is crazy for people to say "tongues" are for real, but only for private use.  Really?  How will unbelievers see us speaking in tongues?  Some will say tongues are only for home use only, but not for in the church.  Really?  Are you going to believe you have a language with which you can speak to God, but you can't use it in His church?  Come on now, wise up a bit. That is crazy!

    Want to receive?  Search the Scriptures and see if the promise is there.  (Try Matt. 3:11, Lk. 24:49, Acts 1:4, Acts 2, Acts 10:44-45, and Acts 19:6 for example).  Start praying about it and begin to tell God you want to receive this gift Jesus died to give you.  Then, if you are alone, get before God  in praise and prayer.  Ask Him for the gift of the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues.  If you ask, He promised to give you exactly what you asked for, (Lk. 11:13). Begin to thank Him for the gift and praise Him .  Do it out loud, yielding your voice and tongue.  If you don't open your mouth and yield your tongue, you will have a much more difficult time coming into this than you should.   After a time of this, pause a moment believing the power of the Holy Ghost is coming upon you.  Take a deep breath, then let it out and when you do, speak the syllables that come to your mind. Don't speak your natural language. There will be strange syllables that will pop up.  Speak them, whethere they be a few or many.  And, by the way, chances are you have already heard them in your head.  Like so many others, you might think you are making it up or copying someone.  But, have faith.  You asked God for this, now trust that He has given what you asked.    Now, speak out in praise  those syllables just the way you were doing a few minutes before in your native tongue.  What happens after that may vary from person to person. It can be sudden and dramatic change, elation and joy or it may be quiet stillness.  No matter.  In the days to come you will begin to notice significant differences.  Keep praising God with those syllables and as well your natural speech.  Do it every time you think about it.

    If you are in a believing church and want to receive, do what I just told you, during praise tor altar time. Or, get to the altar and if your church does this, have them lay hands on you and pray over you.  The method of receiving will still be much the same as I described above.  One last bit of advice: if tongues do not come right away, don't be discouraged.  Keep thanking God for the gift and listen to for those syllables to pop up in your mind.  They will,  maybe later, when you are relaxed and not worrying over it, and when they do, speak them boldly.