The "Song"

As I have said several times in past posts, "I was awakened again early this morning"........but this time I was agitated within my spirit in a most unusual way. I have been wrestling with the word "October" for several months now and as I was awakened this morning I realized that this is the last day of September..........tomorrow is "October".

Now you may be looking at this and saying "duh"..........but for me whenever things reverberate within my spirit over and over again I tend to sit up and take notice. Two years ago, October of 2005, I sensed an overwhelming message within my spirit, so much so that my wife wrote it down in the front of my bible. This was the message " The season of my warnings is drawing to a close". That was it.........nothing more was given to me. I thought it strange until recently when I was in the middle of a worship service, in the middle of worship, when another message came in such a powerful way that it jolted me from worship and compelled me to write it down. We were singing the song "Still", which I had never heard before so I was having to read the words as I sang. The chorus goes " when the oceans rise and the thunders roar, I will soar with you above the storm. Father, you are king over the flood, I will be still and know you are God." The part that jolted me was "I will soar with you ABOVE the storm"............that's not what the promise was..........it was that He would be with us THROUGH the storm. Now you may be saying that I am being nit-picky with this, but I didn't understand at the time just how profound this was.

About the same time that I was "singing that song", David Wilkerson was giving a message in New York entitled "In one hour, everything is going to change". We receive his monthly newsletter and I sometimes take time to read through it, but this morning it was like I was compelled to read it.........so I did. In it he speaks of a time coming when everything will change in one hour, using scripture from Isaiah, Revelation & 1 Thessalonians. These are all passages that speak of cataclysmic events that could change the face of the world in one hour, and I was familiar with all of that............but the part that reached out and slapped me was toward the end of the message. He was answering the question, "Why such apocalyptic warnings", and the answer struck me right between the eyes. He quoted Jesus speaking a warning to His disciples in John 14:29 " I have told you before it come to pass, that, when it come to pass, you might believe". He was saying, in essence, "when it happens, you'll know there is a God who loves you and forewarned you." David then makes reference to the SONG that will be sung in the midst of the calamity; "This is the hope of our most holy faith; our Lord causes a song to come out of the darkest of times. Start now to build up your holy faith in Him, and learn to praise His majesty quietly in your heart. When you sing your song, it will strengthen and encourage your brothers and sisters. It testify to the world: "Our Lord reigns over the Flood!"

My point in all this is; if we heed the warnings that are given to us (all the things that point to OCTOBER in my case), and spend our time refining our "SONG", then, we will not be looking for an escape from the calamity ("I will soar with you ABOVE the storm"). If we prepare now, we will be a tool used of God to bring in a great harvest of souls that have been singing the wrong "SONG" for so long they believe it's the right one.

Spontaneity

I was awakened early this morning again, as it usually is when God wants to talk, with the word "spontaneity" being at the forefront of my thinking. I have walked with the Lord long enough to realize that words carry great meanings, especially at 4:00 AM. At first I thought it was for the class I am teaching on Evangelism tonight at Changed By Grace Bible College, but then it seemed as though there was a much broader picture here that God was showing me.

As I lay there pondering this word I was compelled to get up and examine the following scripture passage;

Acts 16:9-10 A vision appeared to Paul in the night: a man of Macedonia was standing and appealing to him, and saying, "Come over to Macedonia and help us." When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.

If Paul had not been spontaneous in nature he would have missed the conclusion that God was calling him to preach the gospel in Macedonia because it wasn't in his "day planner".

I truly believe this "spontaneity" is going to be one of the traits that will cause the true church to STAND when it becomes necessary to do so. I also believe that you can judge the level of spontaneity in your own life by the degree you are listening & following the Spirit who is in you. If the Spirit has preeminence in your life you are more apt to move in His direction when He says "move". If you are locked into a "self serving" schedule to where every waking minute is planned out, the chances are very slim that He will be able to "move" you out of something that would be detrimental to your life, or the life of your family/church.

One other thing I saw from this passage that was important; Paul had actually seen the vision, but it says; "When he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them". It is obvious here that if Paul had not been completely confident in his God, and His leading, those around him would have possibly talked him out of this hair-brained idea and had him rely upon the "tried & true" plan. If we can say anything about the apostate church it would be that they will be people who are locked into "the traditions of men" and nobody will be able to move them in any direction other than what has been done in the past. Much of what has been done in the past is good, but if that is all that you have then you will lack the ability to "move" in a different direction if so prompted by God's Holy Spirit. This is a very dangerous place to be in a world that is changing minute by minute now. A modern army would not go to war today using spears and clubs.............why is it that Christians will attempt to "fight the good fight" with antiquated weaponry just because it was good enough for grandpa & grandma down there at "Play it Again Sam Community Church".

Let us be people of spontaneity, Spiritually speaking.

P.S. Macedonia was a very strategic place for the spreading of the Gospel up into Europe. If Paul had not been willing to "change the plan" and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit, he would have missed the blessings of God and the people of Macedonia would have had to wait for another to come. How many blessings have we missed and how many people are waiting because of our lack of Spiritual spontaneity.

Truth about the TRUTH

The following article was written by Richard Wurmbrand;

TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUTH

How much each one of us can suffer depends on how much he is bound up with a cause, how dear this cause is to him, and how much it means for him.
In this respect we have had in Communist countries very big surprises. There have been gifted preachers and writers of Christian books who have become traitors. The composer of the best hymnal of Romania became the composer of the best communist hymnal of Romania. Everything depends on whether we have remained in the sphere of words or if we are merged with the Divine realities.
God is the Truth. The Bible is the truth about the Truth. Theology is the truth about the truth about the Truth. A good sermon is the truth about the truth about the truth, about the Truth. It is not the Truth. The Truth is God alone. Around this Truth there is a scaffolding of words, of theologies, and of exposition. None of these is of any help in times of suffering. It is only the Truth Himself who is of help, and we have to penetrate through sermons, through theological books, through everything which is ‘words’ and be bound up with the reality of God himself.

I see a key phrase in here that I feel deals with standing firm in Jesus in spite of severe persecution;

Everything depends on whether we have remained in the sphere of words or if we are merged with the Divine realities.

When the time comes, are we going to fully comprehend what "merging with Divine realities" is all about..........or will we remain in the sphere of words and compromise our faith. The "sphere of words", as I see it, is what pseudo salvation is all about. A person will not stand firm if all they have are mere "words"........it takes the reality of "Jesus in them" to be able to do this.

Think about it.

Who's Equipping Who......For What?

Eph 4:11-13 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.


Now, unless I am missing something here, it appears as though Jesus set it up for the saints to be fully equipped to fulfill their destiny given to them by God........ and, there would be a progression of this equipping to bring about a completeness in Christ for each saint. That really doesn't sound all that complicated.........unless the spirit of man gets in the way.


Seems like down through the years since Paul penned the letter to the saints in the church of Ephesus things have gotten a bit complicated.........resulting in a myriad of useless equipping stuff. I believe the first major problem comes from the equippers themselves, those men and women that God has given great responsibility to...... pointing the saints in the right direction so they will be able to "stand firm" when the time comes. Paul emphasized this a little later in his letter;

Eph 6:13 Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.


The "equippers" have spent endless hours debating everything from "which equippers still exist in the church today"to"who should be the senior equipper"............absolutely pathetic. If we, as equippers, are relying on His Holy Spirit to guide and direct us into all the truth (John 16:13), then it shouldn't be rocket science to have effective equipping. The second major problem would be the equipees.................because of very poor basic training equipping after their salvation experience, many of the saints are following after anyone who will tell them what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4). The results are devastating as we move into the "tumultuous & desperate" times of 2 Timothy 3.


So, this equipper would like to make a suggestion, If you are truly interested in fulfilling your destiny and standing firm in the process, and you know that difficult times lie ahead, why not get the equipping you need from the best equippers on the planet. If you need brain surgery you don't go to a podiatrist for help.............search out your equipping from those who are walking victorious in "tumultuous & desperate" times now. The following links will take you to a study in Philippians where Paul is encouraging the saints to do that very thing;


http://www.theundergrounded.org/observesg.pdf

http://www.theundergrounded.org/index.html click on the link in the bottom right hand corner for a zipped Power Point program if you would like to equip others.



STAND FIRM saints of God.

Train Up The Child...........

As I was listening to Thursday's edition of Crosstalk, "Exodus Mandate Project", I was struck with an ominous statistic;

"Sadly, Moore reports that within the category of public school children that are evangelical and from Bible based families, 70-80% of them are abandoning the church early in their adult years."

70 - 80%.............that's unbelievable............but true. I would encourage every parent to listen to this 50 minute radio broadcast.

One of the areas in "preparing" to stand, is making sure our children and grandchildren have a fighting chance before they are faced with the onslaught of the enemy. Sending "truly BORN AGAIN Christian children" into the government school system is cruel enough when they are young, but subjecting them to the higher education "elite" is a travesty if you don't give them everything possible to "stand firm" in Jesus while attending those Godless institutions. And I do mean GOD-less.

There is a ministry that is designed to help students in this crucial time of life. It is called RECON, a ministry to connect Christian students with mentors who can help keep them spiritually fit for the battle. We are instructed to be "wise as serpents & gentle as doves";

Matthew 10:16 "Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. NASB

If you keep this verse in context you will see that Jesus is giving instructions to His disciples before sending them out into a world that was going to eat them alive.......for His name's sake. Before you send your child out into the "higher education world" to be eaten alive......give them some weapons they can use to fight against being one of those 70 - 80%.

Important post on Undergrounded News

There is an important post on the Undergrounded News blog that should be considered.

http://theundergroundednews.blogspot.com/

I THINK I can.......I THINK I can.....

Oh…..the tenacity of that Little Red Steam Engine. He could do it!

Funny……it’s taken me many years to realize that the story of The Little Engine That Could was probably written by someone who had a very low self esteem growing up; or.... maybe by a budding psychologist; or maybe…….just maybe, it was one of the ways our enemy uses to influence the minds of little ones before they have the ability to rationally think things out for themselves.

Now, before you all label me as some kind of kook………..consider what the Word of God says about THINKING.

Proverbs 23:7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you.

1 Corinthians 3:18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.

1 Corinthians 10:12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall.

An interesting side note; in the Bible the word “THINKS” is mentioned 9 times……4 of those 9 were in the first letter written to the Corinthians………go figure. Could it be that the Corinthians had some problems with their THINKING ???? Duh !

Here’s another little ditty that needs to be given some serious thought;

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

That’s right……your mind is not the only place where thoughts are generated. That is why the “battlefield of choice” for our enemy is in the MIND. Before a person is regenerated by God’s Holy Spirit, the control of their lives is predominately in their minds. Part of the seminar I do on Spiritual Warfare is given over to this topic. However, a truly born again individual has the ability to give over the control of their minds to the Holy Spirit & the Word of God;

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, {which is} your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

This may already be a “no-brainer” to many people, but to sum all this up……..the apostate church is going to be full of “Little Red Steam Engines”………self made men & women who will stop at nothing until they have molded and shaped their “religious institutions” into what they want them to be;

2 Timothy 4:3-4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

Of course, the “theys” really can’t make this happen without the help of the Little Red Steam Engine LEADERSHIP that will be more than willing accomplices to their folly. The Emerging Church movement is a classic example of this, I have linked this Emerging Church Movement to a fascinating site where you can find out all you need to know about this. Stay on the alert for this deadly tactic. Be willing to “take a risk” and confront anything that looks as though it could develop into something deadly.

THINK about it!