I had just started my walk with father the other day, and I realized I was feeling kind of strange in my soul. I examined my heart for a bit and realized there was a sense of unworthiness there, a vague sense of uncleanness.
What better time to discover these issues, I thought, than walking with God? so I began, as has frequently been my practice, to search my soul with him, to unburden my soul, to find whatever was amiss and 'fess up and fix it.
I had been going at the search for a little while when I paused and recognized that Father wasn't joining in it with me. It was like he was just standing back, leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest, waiting for me to notice him.
I stopped my search for my dirty laundry and gave him my attention.
"Son, do you remember the counsel you give people about not treating your emotions as always truthful?"
"Yes...." I replied. "The feelings are real, but they may not be telling the truth."
"Yeah. You're not immune from that, you know."
And I realized that he was telling me that my feelings were lying to me, that I didn't have sin in my heart. What I had was an accuser telling me, lying to me, about sin in my heart. Oops.
We talked about it some more, about how hard I've had to work to get past that lie that says that God can't relate to people who sin. He reminded me that any time his kids sinned, he was always, always out there going after them.
"Sin doesn't scare me, Son. But I think it scares you. And sometimes, just the Accuser whispering about sin scares my children off.
"Come here, Son. Let me hug you."
Showing posts with label warfare. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warfare. Show all posts
Thursday
The Chef's Knee
I was raised in the church, but I was raised by a couple of
left-brain, logical thinkers: by a school teacher and an engineer. They taught
me math and science and the occasional Bible story, but we knew nothing of the
power of God. We prayed for every meal, but it was a routine; we did it because
that’s what good Christians did.
The church we were part of explained why nothing
supernatural ever happened and why the miracles that the Bible talked about
weren’t really what they seemed to be, and how science explained them.
Many years later, after I came to a real and personal faith
and began to pursue Jesus for myself, I discovered that the gifts of the Spirit
were real and that there was actual power present in them. I’ve spent the last
half century pursuing knowing my loving King and learning all I can about the
tools that he’s given us to run this race well.
The son of a schoolteacher doesn’t have any trouble studying
the Book, and the son of the engineer has got some natural advantages applying
the wisdom of that Book to his life. But power? But the supernatural? Now wait just
a doggone minute here. It’s harder to overcome the natural and logical mindset
that I was raised with.
Fast forward a few decades. I’ve taught hundreds, maybe
thousands of people about the love of God, the gifts of the Spirit, and even
about how to heal the sick. I didn’t have much personal experience actually
healing the sick, and the voices from my childhood kept explaining away any
healings and miracles that I did see.
So one Friday night, I’m with a team of friends hosting a
large meeting, when all of a sudden, one of the group gets up and announces to
the auditorium that God wants to heal everyone tonight, “If you need healing,
come forward.”
I was confronted with my unbelief. So I kicked into
administration mode and connected people who needed prayer with people to pray
for them (“Just like we’ve talked about,” I reminded a few of them), but there
were so many of them!
Among the last to arrive was the chef in charge of the
kitchen at that facility, and he was bearing down on me, and he was limping. We
had talked a few times; maybe I wasn’t a complete stranger. I looked around for
someone with a healing gift. Not a one!
So here I was, acknowledging that God heals, but full of
unbelief, and I was expected needing to heal this guy’s torn ligaments. I was
doomed.
So we found a place out on the edge of the crowd where he
could sit down and where I could get my hands on his knee. He explained how he
needs to be on his feet all day, every day, and the stress weakened his knee,
and then he stepped wrong or fell or something (I wasn’t paying as much
attention to his situation as I should have been, being much more attentive to
my immanent unmasking as a healing fraud).
I laid hands on the
knee, and quietly complained to Father that this wasn’t fair! He wasn’t
impressed with my panic.
Eventually, my adrenaline levels dropped enough that I
remembered to ask Father how to pray, and I had an impression, so I prayed in
that direction. I prayed hard in that direction. I prayed every little detail I
could think of in that direction, and in the direction next to it just to be
safe.
Eventually I had to come up for air. “How does your knee
feel? Stand up and test it.” I tried to sound confident.
He tested it, and sat back down with kind of a scowl on his
face. “It feels warm inside, but I’m not sure it’s any better.”
My heart didn’t really have any further to fall, but I
figured “warm” was a good sign. “OK, let’s pray some more.” It was clear he
wasn’t in a hurry.
Over the course of the next hour or two, I threw every
prayer I knew and six or ten that I didn’t know at his knee. I wasn’t going to
fail because I’d given up: I was going to go down fighting. Every ten minutes
or so, we’d check it again, and every time it was a little better. “Not a lot
better, but yeah, it’s a little bit better.”
It must have been the nine thousand and twelfth time we
stopped to check his progress that he bent and stretched and matter-of-factly
announced, “Yeah, I think that did it!” I picked my jaw up off the floor and
thanked him for his patience. We were nearly the last ones out of the room.
I had reason to return to that conference facility several
times, for several different kinds of events, often including meals, and every
time he saw me (he never once missed me!), he’d come out of the kitchen, wrap
me in a bear hug, squat down and bounce back up and announce, “Yep! It’s still
healed!” (You should have seen the looks on the faces of some of my business
associates at the tech events there! I remember that feeling, when I first
heard that healing really was for today.)
Healing is still not one of the primary tools that I use in
the ministry Father has me involved in. And every time that I slap hands on
someone for healing, hell rubs my nose in that fact. “You don’t have that gift!”
“No, but I know a Guy!” and I remind him of the chef’s knee.
Shuts ‘em up every time.
It’s still a challenge, still a battle every time I go after
healing, and I mean that literally: when we heal the sick, we’re conquering the
works of hell (both in the natural and in the minds of those we’re healing):
hell is fighting (unsuccessfully) for survival; of course there’s a battle.
And no, not everybody I pray for is healed, not by a mile or
six. But I have a testimony to keep me going.
Friday
Sometimes we fire blanks.
Sometimes we
fire blanks.
Oh, we don't
mean to. We think we are firing powerful weapons of war, kicking ass and taking
names.
Jesus
modeled for us a way to pray that was more about telling the situation how it
needs to be, rather than about us whining at God to pleeeeease make it be that
way. We are learning to command, to declare, rather than to ask politely. Or
impolitely.
That much is
good.
The problem
is, so often we just fire blanks.
We read the
Gospels oh, and we observe how Jesus did it. He said, Lazarus come forth! And
Lazarus came forth. He said, I am willing, be cleansed. And the leper was
instantly healed.
We look at
the model of Jesus, and we make it our model. But we are only looking at part
of the model that Jesus gave us. We're looking at his Harvest, not his labor.
I am a
member of a few prayer groups. I am embarrassed to tell you how many times, in
response to a really dire need, somebody pipes up, blithely commanding all
demons to go to hell, smugly decreeing bones and skin and organs to line up,
happily commanding this and that, and wrapping it all up with a grin of
self-congratulation.
And of
course very little actually changes. Nobody really expected it would. I think
even that the enthusiastic intercessor himself didn't expect it. And why would
he? We get so that we’re commanding everything nowadays, and nobody points out
that it's not really changing much of anything. The emperor has no clothes on,
but everyone is afraid to mention it.
Yeah, I
know. I’ve overstated it in order to make a point. You know this goes on, at
least some of the time.
I have been
reflecting on how much of Jesus’ life is hidden from the casual reader of his
biographies in the Gospels. I suspect that this is on purpose. If we really
want to know the secrets, he wants to go find them for ourselves, to do the
work of learning, to make the knowledge our own.
The gospels
are quick to tell his hero testimonies, how he healed this person, raised that
guy from the dead, all before lunch, and without raising a sweat.
That's the
part that big, flashy, and easily captures our attention. But it's only the end
of the story. We miss the beginning and the middle. And I think that if we
don't follow all of Jesus’ example, the beginning, the middle, and the end, we
will probably not have the results that Jesus had.
I have been
involved in a lot of spiritual war. I have friends who have been in so much
more than I have. Some of it has been successful; some has been less
successful. Ultimately, I think that Winston Churchill may have had it right.
War involves blood, sweat, toil, tears. And healing the sick, raising the dead,
these are acts of War. It’s not a quick declaration of victory and move on.
I've been
thinking about the topic of rest recently. God is constantly inviting his
people to a place of rest. Not a place of doing nothing, a place of doing much,
but doing it from the place of resting in him. Kind of a foreign concept to
most of us, I think. But it wasn't foreign to Jesus. Jesus seemed pretty big on
working from a place of rest. I’m beginning to learn the value of this.
And Jesus
was always getting away with Father. Sure, we have our “quiet times,” and
that’s a great starting point, but it seemed that Jesus spent all night in
prayer sometimes. All night, getting to know what Father was doing and
thinking.
In fact,
there was one time he spent much of the night in prayer, and it was hard work.
He sweat blood. We talk about that in the context of the Easter story, but as
he said, “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.”
Paul kept up the theme. “These things happened to them as examples and were
written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come.”
I’m not
saying that blood is the signifier of a solid prayer life. I’m saying there’s
work involved, hard work, if we’re aspiring to declare with the kind of power
that Jesus’ declarations had.
There is one
more secret, I think, that we need to lay hold of. In John 5, Jesus revealed
this secret: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can
do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son
also does.”
The last
secret (for this moment) of Jesus’ amazing record was that he was only doing
what he saw Father doing.
A whole lot
of our failing comes from our making our declarations about things that are in
our heart and mind that are not actually things that Father is doing. They may
be things that we wish he was doing, things that we think he might want to do,
or things that we ourselves want, and we’re maybe just putting God’s name on
them.
That’s a
whole lot different than seeing what God is doing, or seeing the situation -
really seeing it! - in its completed state, and then telling reality to line up
with that vision.
This is a
hard one to ‘fess up to. But we kind of have to separate our desires from his,
separate soul from spirit, as it were, in order to walk how Jesus walked.
I’m so
thankful that we’re growing up into Him. We’re going to change the world. In
him.
Victory. Overwhelming Victory.
This has been on my mind for a while.
Where our Owners’ Manual speaks of the battle (in Ephesians 6), it’s very specific: the victor is defined as the one still standing when the dust settles.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 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. Stand firm therefore.”
So if you’re battered and bloody and discouraged and weary when the fighting stops, that’s normal. If you’re still standing, you’re the victor.
We tend to think “victory” means that we’re still humming a happy tune, the birds are still singing and our armor is still shiny.
Bah! Shiny armor means you haven’t been in a real battle yet. And the birds will sing again when it’s time. And you can always choose what kind of tune you want to hum.
Someone will bring up Romans 8: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” True that. We are more than conquerors. Isn’t that talking about the happy Hollywood ending where the hero (you) rides off into the sunset with his heart’s desire next to him?
Not so much. What it means is that you’re still standing.
How do you conquer except that you do battle? Real battle. War. Blood. Guts. Demons flapping. Curses flying. Tongues wagging. Naysayers naying. Enemies screaming.
Look at our own example of “more than a conqueror.” He wore the crown of thorns and not a scrap of cloth as he dangled bloody, groaning “It is finished.” That’s our example. That’s our Forerunner. That’s our King.
Have you fallen and you’re not getting up? That’s not winning. I don’t care who’s fault it is. Lying there, staying there, with your face in the mud and blood is not victory.
Having face-planted, and then struggled to your feet as the angels mopped up the battle, even if you need three others to help you to your feet, that’s victory. That’s more than a conqueror.
Do not let the devil tell you you’ve lost if you’re still on your feet, if you’re still fighting, if you’re weary to the bone. If you’re upright, you’re the victor.
‘Nuff said.
Where our Owners’ Manual speaks of the battle (in Ephesians 6), it’s very specific: the victor is defined as the one still standing when the dust settles.
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. 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. Stand firm therefore.”
So if you’re battered and bloody and discouraged and weary when the fighting stops, that’s normal. If you’re still standing, you’re the victor.
We tend to think “victory” means that we’re still humming a happy tune, the birds are still singing and our armor is still shiny.
Bah! Shiny armor means you haven’t been in a real battle yet. And the birds will sing again when it’s time. And you can always choose what kind of tune you want to hum.
Someone will bring up Romans 8: “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” True that. We are more than conquerors. Isn’t that talking about the happy Hollywood ending where the hero (you) rides off into the sunset with his heart’s desire next to him?
Not so much. What it means is that you’re still standing.
How do you conquer except that you do battle? Real battle. War. Blood. Guts. Demons flapping. Curses flying. Tongues wagging. Naysayers naying. Enemies screaming.
Look at our own example of “more than a conqueror.” He wore the crown of thorns and not a scrap of cloth as he dangled bloody, groaning “It is finished.” That’s our example. That’s our Forerunner. That’s our King.
Have you fallen and you’re not getting up? That’s not winning. I don’t care who’s fault it is. Lying there, staying there, with your face in the mud and blood is not victory.
Having face-planted, and then struggled to your feet as the angels mopped up the battle, even if you need three others to help you to your feet, that’s victory. That’s more than a conqueror.
Do not let the devil tell you you’ve lost if you’re still on your feet, if you’re still fighting, if you’re weary to the bone. If you’re upright, you’re the victor.
‘Nuff said.
Wednesday
Waging War With Your Prophetic Words
It was a heartbreaking season in my life.
I’d been given some prophetic promises about an area of my life. God had declared some beautiful things: unity and power and intimacy and victory. Yeah, it was a lot of “the usual stuff,” but it came in a declaration from God. Actually, it came in two or three declarations; this wasn’t just a warm and fuzzy thought from one person.
We’ll pause here for a definition. When I talk about a “declaration from God,” that might be a prophetic word; those are the best, and I give them the most weight: when someone with a known gift of prophecy says, “This is what God says,” and the community judges it to be true (1 Corinthians 14:29), that’s the gold standard of prophetic revelation in my view.
But the idea of a declaration from God includes what I hear God whispering to me, and it includes those times that something from the pages of Scripture leap alive and demand my attention. They include when friends tell me what they hear God saying about me, and when the promises of scripture actually, contextually apply to me.
As I said, I had two or three of these, including both the prophetic words and the whisper of my Father. There was a good bit of unity among the declarations. I trusted them.
And then things began to go to hell. I wish I spoke metaphorically. Without putting too fine a point on it I’ll say that just when I expected the promises to begin to manifest, to show up, just when I expected to see things turn toward unity and power and intimacy and victory, they turned the opposite direction.
It was a heartbreaking season in my life. You see, this was an area that was really quite important to me. This was no cute little bonus.
I ran through the demonic logic tests: Can God be trusted? Is he really a good God? You know that list. They came at me hard and fast, and I threw them back in his face just as hard, declaring God’s goodness, his trustworthiness, and my confidence in Him. I went further and rebuked every demon I could think of from every aspect of this promise. I felt victorious!
I thought, There. That will do it. And the promises down-shifted for better acceleration into oblivion.
My heart was crushed, but still I held on. I began to ask better, more honest questions: Did I assume God had promised this, when in fact he had not? No, he’d been quite clear.
Were the promises for right now, or was I rushing him? That one was tougher, as he’d never actually given a date, but if this trend continued, then there was no chance of fulfilling them later.
Was I imposing my own definition of what these fulfilled promises needed to look like? Maybe the fulfillment was so different than my expectations that I didn’t recognize it. I searched my heart long and hard on this, and I examined the circumstances. No, the failure was real. This wasn’t just my misinterpreting it.
My life was pretty much over. I nearly gave up.
And then something whispered in the back of my mind. It was a quiet little whisper, easy to miss. “I want you to give thanks for my promises as if you were already walking in the fullness of their fulfillment, as if everything I said has already happened, even though you’ve seen nothing yet.”
It took rather a lot to take the voice seriously, and it took even more to do what he said. But I did.
In those days, I took my lunch hours in a remote meadow. I parked my truck, and since I pray best when I walk, I’d worn a trail into the grasses and shrubberies of the meadow.
I began to pace my trail, questioning my sanity, and mumbling thanks for these hallucinations, these promises. I recognized the failure of my prayer, so I began to pray out loud. That was better, but I could tell I wasn’t to the point of actually engaging my faith yet.
So I began to shout. It was hard, and it took me days to get there, but before long, I fairly flew into that meadow, locked up my parking brake, and before the truck had fully stopped, I was on that trail, roaring my thanks for these promises, for the glory of having been my experience, for the power that had been unleashed. I screamed my gratitude for a victory I had not yet seen, and I wept in thanksgiving for the intimacy that I still only imagined.
Over the next days and weeks, I watched several changes. The first were in my heart. Eventually, my empty declarations of faith began to actually fill with faith, and I began to understand that I was waging war with these promises (1 Timothy 1:18). Not long after, I realized that the things that I was declaring that had not yet happened, they were going to happen. I began to expect, not fearlessly, not solidly, but I began to expect to see things change.
My prayers expanded. I spent my spare time thinking of what that will look like when these promises are fulfilled, and I prayed every answer to that. By now, I was thankful that my meadow was remote, and occasionally, I checked the trees near the meadow, to make sure I hadn’t roared their bark off.
And still I prayed. I walked and prayed and shouted and demanded and wept and gave thanks like there was no tomorrow.
And then things did begin to change. It was like lighting a match to the tinder of a well-set fire: the change was so very small and fragile, and the slightest breath would extinguish it. I said nothing of this to anyone, so as to not blow out my precious flame, but I gave myself to serving that tiny, flickering flame, nurturing it the best I could.
But gradually, over months and years, it did turn, and today I can say I’ve been walking in the fullness of many of those promises for many years.
I’ve also noticed a change in me. I’m quicker to give thanks than I ever used to be. I think I like that.
I’d been given some prophetic promises about an area of my life. God had declared some beautiful things: unity and power and intimacy and victory. Yeah, it was a lot of “the usual stuff,” but it came in a declaration from God. Actually, it came in two or three declarations; this wasn’t just a warm and fuzzy thought from one person.
We’ll pause here for a definition. When I talk about a “declaration from God,” that might be a prophetic word; those are the best, and I give them the most weight: when someone with a known gift of prophecy says, “This is what God says,” and the community judges it to be true (1 Corinthians 14:29), that’s the gold standard of prophetic revelation in my view.
But the idea of a declaration from God includes what I hear God whispering to me, and it includes those times that something from the pages of Scripture leap alive and demand my attention. They include when friends tell me what they hear God saying about me, and when the promises of scripture actually, contextually apply to me.
As I said, I had two or three of these, including both the prophetic words and the whisper of my Father. There was a good bit of unity among the declarations. I trusted them.
And then things began to go to hell. I wish I spoke metaphorically. Without putting too fine a point on it I’ll say that just when I expected the promises to begin to manifest, to show up, just when I expected to see things turn toward unity and power and intimacy and victory, they turned the opposite direction.
It was a heartbreaking season in my life. You see, this was an area that was really quite important to me. This was no cute little bonus.
I ran through the demonic logic tests: Can God be trusted? Is he really a good God? You know that list. They came at me hard and fast, and I threw them back in his face just as hard, declaring God’s goodness, his trustworthiness, and my confidence in Him. I went further and rebuked every demon I could think of from every aspect of this promise. I felt victorious!
I thought, There. That will do it. And the promises down-shifted for better acceleration into oblivion.
My heart was crushed, but still I held on. I began to ask better, more honest questions: Did I assume God had promised this, when in fact he had not? No, he’d been quite clear.
Were the promises for right now, or was I rushing him? That one was tougher, as he’d never actually given a date, but if this trend continued, then there was no chance of fulfilling them later.
Was I imposing my own definition of what these fulfilled promises needed to look like? Maybe the fulfillment was so different than my expectations that I didn’t recognize it. I searched my heart long and hard on this, and I examined the circumstances. No, the failure was real. This wasn’t just my misinterpreting it.
My life was pretty much over. I nearly gave up.
And then something whispered in the back of my mind. It was a quiet little whisper, easy to miss. “I want you to give thanks for my promises as if you were already walking in the fullness of their fulfillment, as if everything I said has already happened, even though you’ve seen nothing yet.”
It took rather a lot to take the voice seriously, and it took even more to do what he said. But I did.

I began to pace my trail, questioning my sanity, and mumbling thanks for these hallucinations, these promises. I recognized the failure of my prayer, so I began to pray out loud. That was better, but I could tell I wasn’t to the point of actually engaging my faith yet.
So I began to shout. It was hard, and it took me days to get there, but before long, I fairly flew into that meadow, locked up my parking brake, and before the truck had fully stopped, I was on that trail, roaring my thanks for these promises, for the glory of having been my experience, for the power that had been unleashed. I screamed my gratitude for a victory I had not yet seen, and I wept in thanksgiving for the intimacy that I still only imagined.
Over the next days and weeks, I watched several changes. The first were in my heart. Eventually, my empty declarations of faith began to actually fill with faith, and I began to understand that I was waging war with these promises (1 Timothy 1:18). Not long after, I realized that the things that I was declaring that had not yet happened, they were going to happen. I began to expect, not fearlessly, not solidly, but I began to expect to see things change.
My prayers expanded. I spent my spare time thinking of what that will look like when these promises are fulfilled, and I prayed every answer to that. By now, I was thankful that my meadow was remote, and occasionally, I checked the trees near the meadow, to make sure I hadn’t roared their bark off.
And still I prayed. I walked and prayed and shouted and demanded and wept and gave thanks like there was no tomorrow.
And then things did begin to change. It was like lighting a match to the tinder of a well-set fire: the change was so very small and fragile, and the slightest breath would extinguish it. I said nothing of this to anyone, so as to not blow out my precious flame, but I gave myself to serving that tiny, flickering flame, nurturing it the best I could.
But gradually, over months and years, it did turn, and today I can say I’ve been walking in the fullness of many of those promises for many years.
I’ve also noticed a change in me. I’m quicker to give thanks than I ever used to be. I think I like that.
Friday
Kindness Leads to Repentance
In Matthew chapter 6, Jesus is describing some of the ways
that his family is to be different than how the world does things. In the
middle of that lecture, he drops this bomb: “Do not be like them, for your
Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
There’s one command in this, and one reason for the command.
Don’t be like those people because unlike their father, your Father knows what
you need, even before you tell him.
I’d like to share a testimony, if I may.

The World Class Pain was making his life miserable,
threatening lawsuits, threatening huge expenses, and was completely flouting
the law on the matter. He was Too Important To Be Bothered with things
like that (he is a legitimate millionaire, for all the good it does him), and
he does know powerful people who owe him favors.
So we’d talked together about the options open to us. At its
most intense point, my spiritual son called me in terror and confusion about
the latest round of threats, so I called the Millionaire Pain and explained
things firmly to him. I think he’ll be able to use that ear again in a few
days. I did not submit to his campaign of terror. I wasn’t rude, but I didn’t
let him push me around.
But I pissed him off, so he jacked up the intimidation and
threats, and neither my son nor I slept much for a couple of nights.
I wanted to ask for prayer, but I didn’t feel that freedom.
A day later, I realized that when I got in his face, I
misquoted some facts to him, so I called him back, and (as expected) he sent my
call to voicemail, so I left him a long message. I apologized for my errant
facts, explained the situation from my son’s perspective, acknowledged what we understood of his own
needs in the situation, and proposed a sit-down meeting where we could resolve
the disagreement.
He ignored me, of course. His intimidation continued, but it did not escalate again.
Again, I wanted to post a prayer request, but I still didn’t
feel the freedom.
One night it really got to me. I should have been asleep.
Instead, I was ranting, my intestines were growling, and my sheets were soaked with sweat.
I had acknowledged that we’d probably need to take the Pain to court, but as I
rolled it around in my mind, I realized that we couldn’t lose the case. We had
him cold! We had documentation of a couple of things that would make this an
open and shut case! I didn’t want to go to court (nobody in their right mind
does), but if we needed to, we would win.
And then I realized that The Pain wasn’t doing any of this to hurt my son
or to hurt me, and he wasn’t doing this to win a court case. He just needed to
stay in power in his interactions with other people. He needed to feel
powerful, and this whole drama was how he met that need. I honestly began to feel sorry for
him. That was actually confusing; he was the reason I was still awake at 3:00
in the morning!
And then Father reminded me of Romans 2:4b: “God’s kindness
is intended to lead you to repentance.” We wanted him to change his mind about
the hell he was wreaking; we wanted him to repent. Here, God’s showing me the
key to The Pain's repentance: my kindness. Nice.
So I prayed quite a bit; I prayed blessing on this man, on his business, on his real estate holdings. But wait, there's more!
So I prayed quite a bit; I prayed blessing on this man, on his business, on his real estate holdings. But wait, there's more!
I’d been studying angels in the Bible, recently. My new
favorite book of the Bible talked about them: “Are not all angels ministering
spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14).
So I invited some angels to go visit him and minister the
things of the Kingdom to him. We’re supposed to DO the stuff we’re learning,
right? And I gave him a new name. No longer The Pain, now he was The Millionaire.
Suddenly, I was tired and I slept.
The next morning, the Millionaire surprised us all. He messaged my son with a
remarkably reasonable response. He outlined some things he needed from us
(reasonable ones!), and offered some concessions we hadn’t even asked for. Then
he recused himself from the final negotiations and he invited us to work with his more reasonable partner. (What? Who IS this guy?)
I wonder if there’s a connection?
I shared the good news with Mrs P, and she admitted that she
had been praying blessing on him as well (before she dropped off to a sound
sleep several hours before I did!).
I never did ask others for prayer. Our amazing Father really does know what we need, even before we tell him. He ’d been answering that prayer long before we got around to praying it.
Then I heard Holy Spirit whisper to me, “I’m serious. It’s
kindness that brings repentance. Not power, not strength of will, not even
being right. It’s kindness.”
It's kindness that leads to repentance. It really is.
Thursday
Christian Judgment
I confess that I’m haunted by Psalm 122. You know, the one that begins with,
“I was glad when they said to me,
‘Let us go into the house of the LORD.’“
I get it when the Psalmist gets excited about going to hang out with God! What a delight! But a couple of verses later, in the middle of his rejoicing, he explains,
“For thrones are set there for judgment,
The thrones of the house of David.”
One of the reasons he’s excited about going to hang out with God is because he looks forward to the judgment there.
What?
That tells me that among other things, I don’t have a good handle on what judgment is supposed to be. I can tell when it is used wrong, and that appears to be a lot, but we already knew that. Let’s be honest: Christians have earned the judgmental, condemning reputation we’ve picked up. (Sure, hell has reinforced the reputation, but as a community, we earned it.)
Today, I’m struck by this: if judgment is part of the work of the saints, then it’s subject to the same restrictions as the rest of the work of the saints. Judgment is to be an act of love. It’s to be for people, not against them. It’s to be something that builds people up, not tears them down, something that draws them in, not what pushes them away.
I don’t see much of that sort of judgment yet. Not among saints, not anywhere.
But it’s coming.
The Fighter’s Regrets
Have
you ever woken up with a song floating through the fog in your mind? Sometimes
I think that’s just an echo of a dream or a memory, particularly if it’s a song
I’ve heard or sung recently.
How
about a song from your ancient history in your mind as you woke? I actually pay
more attention to these; there’s less chance that it’s just my subconscious
expressing itself.
I’d
like to share one of these with you. You may find the process interesting, but
I believe the lesson might apply to several of us.
Recently,
I woke up with a song from my youth playing in my mind, and trust me, that’s
from a long time ago. The song had
nothing to do with the dream as far as I could tell, and I could only remember
snippets of it – really only one phrase.
But
that phrase kept replaying in my mind: that caught my attention. And as it
replayed, my memory of the lyrics grew. This also suggested to me that this
might be from God. So I spoke with Father about it, acknowledging that I
thought he might be up to something; I asked for insight, and I paid attention
as the memory of the song replayed and expanded in my mind.
Some
themes began to stand out in the lyrics that kept playing in my memory. One of
them definitely seemed to have the fragrance of my Father about it, so I
meditated on that one. That is, I thought about it; I let it roll around in my
mind to see what might come from it.
When
my mind began to warm up (you know, I really appreciate the fact that God
invented coffee!), I fired up Google and looked into it a bit more. And I
realized that even after my memory had been playing it back for an hour or two,
I had remembered only one verse out of five; the rest hadn’t come back to me,
though those verses had actually been more important to me when the song was new.
Here’s
the song: https://youtu.be/MYPJOCxSUFc.
It’s called The Boxer, by Simon &
Garfunkel. It was the last verse alone that spoke to me through the morning
fog:
In the
clearing stands a boxer
And a
fighter by his trade
And he
carries the reminders
Of every
glove that laid him down
And cut
him till he cried out
In his
anger and his shame
“I am
leaving, I am leaving”
But the
fighter still remains*
This
verse had literally never made sense to me, but suddenly, there was a message
in it for me.
It
speaks to me, but I’d like to share it with you, because I suspect it might
speak to other, too, and maybe that includes you.
I
confess: I’m a man of fairly strong conviction. I stand up for those
convictions, and it’s not inappropriate to say that I fight to maintain them.
If I believe something to be true, I’ll fight to defend it.
Father
gently pointed out that I, too, carry reminders of those fights, reminders, I
suppose, every glove that laid me down or cut me till I cried out. I’ve paid a price
to defend my convictions. Like the fighter in the song, the price has been paid
in several areas of my life: in my memories, in my body carrying the stress, in
the solitude that comes from having lost relationships.

(Didn’t
someone say “You shall know them by their fruit”? Hmmm....)
This
is something that’s come partly from my character (I believe that standing up
for “what is true” is important), partly from my youth (I was taught that truth
is important and should be stood up for).
But this
fight may have been fanned into the biggest flame from my years in Bible-believing
churches. “This is what I believe to be true, so I must defend it at all
costs.” We teach that, we believe that, in many evangelical churches, and while
we defend different truths in denominational churches, we still defend them
vigorously.
Think
about how Christians respond when a movie comes that we don’t like out
(remember Russell Crowe’s Noah?). Consider how Christians
respond to “The Homosexual Agenda” or to political candidates, or to the
abortion issue.
We’re
taught to fight. And we do fight. Vigorously.
And
let’s be honest. We don’t win these fights. Hollywood ’s marketing now counts on “Christian
outrage” as a publicity tool for their controversial movies, and they’re always
right. Christians have not affected “The Homosexual Agenda” that we’ve stood
against, abortion is still a very big business, and we’ve never once had an
Evangelical believer in the Whitehouse, despite our fights on those issues.
The
world knows: Christians are fighters. They don’t win, but they sure will fight.
Behold how much they fight.
Father
hasn’t been talking to me at this time about the issues in themselves. He’s
only been using them to illustrate the fight, to illustrate the blows and the
cuts that so many of us have taken in the fights.
Then
he drew my attention to the refrain:
“Lie-la-lie.
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie, Lie-la-lie
Lie-la-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie,
lie-lie-lie-lie-lie.”*
Oh
my. It’s right there. I’ve sung this haunting refrain with Paul Simon and Art
Garfunkel, and I never saw it: there’s a lie here, and the refrain rubs my nose
in it. That’s a lie, lie lie!
There’s
perhaps some room for discussing what the lie is. The song itself identifies
one:
“He cried
out
In his
anger and his shame
“I am
leaving, I am leaving”
But the
fighter still remains.”*
And
I’ve done that. I’ve declared that I’m quitting this fight. But I haven’t
really done it. I’ve lied. I’ve gotten tired of being beaten up, tired of the
anger, tired of the shame, and I’ve tried to quit the fight. And I’ve failed.
As
Father comforted me in this, I realized that for a fighter, the fight is a
choice. It’s an option, but only one of several options. I don’t actually need to fight.
As he
held me and murmured his love for me, I realized that these are not fights that
have helped me, or have helped the Kingdom, not even a little bit.
I
occasionally have “won” a fight, but what was the result? Maybe I could say I
won, that I defeated someone who believed differently. So what? Now they’ve
been defeated, now they’re wounded, too. And now they resent me, and worse they
resent my message, and they resent the truth that I fought for.
You
know, I don’t think anybody’s ever been bullied into receiving the truth, have
they? Oh, sure, we’ve bullied people into acting
like they know the truth, but that’s just equipping them for hypocrisy. That’s
not a win, not really, not for anybody.
For
myself, I’m going to reflect on this for a while. I’m wondering if I might
actually defend my beliefs better by walking them out than I would by fighting
for them. I don’t know. I’ll think about it.
I may
not need to be a fighter, alone in the clearing. I may not need to be laid
down, cut open. I may not need to subject myself to the anger and shame.
The
Kingdom is not about any of this, is it?
Lie
la lie….
----
* From "The
Boxer," by the American music duo Simon & Garfunkel from their
fifth studio album, Bridge over Troubled Water (1970)
©1969
Clean Off Your Boots
Father has had something on my heart for a few days, now. I’d
like to share it, in case this is talking about you.
Some folks are in a formidable war, and they know it, but
they’re misunderstanding the war.
Some of the battles are about overcoming a sin that’s been
besetting you. You’re fighting back, and mostly you’re succeeding, but you
surely wish the temptation wouldn’t be so strong and so in-your-face.
Some of the battles come in the words of our neighbors, our
leaders, even our brothers and sisters, but they are surely not God’s words.
Instead they’re words of accusation, words of manipulation and control, words
of rejection and abandonment. You keep shaking them off, but it’s hard to
dismiss them entirely.
A small number of the battles are when we’re pressing
forward to walk in the fulfillment of God’s promise (and maybe you’ve heard God
well, or maybe you’ve missed some of it, it doesn’t matter here), and you
encounter opposition and discouragement and ridicule and slander. But still you
still fix your eyes, if not on the promise itself, then even better: on the
giver of the promise, and you are trying to press forward into your calling.
Some of the battles
that we’re fighting aren’t even our own battles. We’re fighting for sons and
daughters who, despite our prayers, are still making foolish choices, partners
who have chosen to no longer partner with us. Some of us are fighting on behalf
of those who have hurt us, and may still be hurting us. They seem to be trying
to fight off our prayers and reject our best intentions for them, and how
discouraging that is.
Some time ago, Father spoke to me as I woke, and he’s been
bringing it back to my attention recently.
“Wha? Hunh?” I mumbled reflectively. I hadn’t had any coffee
yet.
“Tell them to clean off their boots. They’ve been kicking the
devil’s ass for so long that their boots carry his stink.”
So I tell you: you need to clean your boots. The devil has
told you that you’ve been losing the fight, that you have no hope of winning
this particular fight. The devil has been lying to you. (Imagine that!)
The devil has been hiding from you the fact that you’ve been
making hamburger of his hindquarters, and he can no longer walk straight
because of the beating you’re giving him. He wants you to think you’re losing,
when in fact, he’s already lost, and you are, in fact, successfully enforcing
our victory over him.
I tell you that you have been more successful in your battle
against the evil one than you can know. Keep fighting, he cannot maintain the
illusion forever.
His promise is certain: “I will do whatever you ask in my
name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
He’s talking about you. http://nwp.link/1SjebvW
Wielding Authority to Change the World
I have been reflecting on the changes
going on in the United
States and in the world. Those are both many
and substantial.
But my
thoughts focus not on what those changes are, but rather how we should respond
to them.
Let us
assume, for the sake of this conversation, that many of the changes are
inappropriate, even evil, and should be opposed or reversed.
The
question at hand is this: how shall we oppose the things we need to oppose.
More specifically, what kind of power shall we exercise.
The changes
are being made by the exercise of political power, the power of manipulation
and intimidation, the power of deception, the power of public opinion, and some
would argue that spiritual power is involved. Many of the changes have been by
the use of a combination of these forces.
The
question that appears to be neglected so often is this: what kind of power
shall we wield as believers, to oppose the inappropriate or evil works in our
land? Shall we exercise political power, or manipulation? Shall we wield the
power of public opinion with petitions?
Let’s back
up for just a moment, and ask a slightly more foundational question? What power
has God given us? Or what kind of authority has he given us to exercise on his
behalf?
In this
whole conversation, I’d argue for these truths:
·
Some
forms of power are simply not appropriate for sons and daughters of the Kingdom
to use: deception and intimidation, for example.
·
The
primary tool Jesus gave us was authority, which is not the same as power (that’s
a topic for another article), and the authority he gave us is in the realm of the
Spirit. Let’s acknowledge, however, that authority wielded in the spirit realm
will manifest as changes in the physical realm.
·
Having
said that, there are some believers (I emphasize: not all believers) who are
specifically called by God to represent his Kingdom in the political realm.
These brothers & sisters have the right to exercise authority in that
realm.
My tentative
conclusion, therefore, is this: we as
believers, when we see a political crisis (such as laws against Christians) or the
exercise of violence (I think of ISIS or Hamas), we are not called to exercise the
same force that is being used for evil. We are, instead, called to exercise
authority in the spiritual realm, with the result of change in the natural
realm.
This is the
model of the New Testament.
When they
experienced a political crisis (for example, Peter jailed, in Acts 12), their
response was not to petition the government, and it was not a prison break);
rather, they exercised spiritual authority in prayer, and angels were released
to carry out the results of that authority in the natural realm.
The result
was, ironically, a prison break of sorts, which was what the believers had been
praying for, but also a testimony of supernatural power, which spread
throughout both the church and the government.
And when
they experienced violence (in the person of the Pharisee, Saul persecuting
believers), they again went to prayer. In this case, Jesus himself appeared to
Saul on the Damascus
road (Acts 9), knocked Saul off his ass, and confronted his erroneous ways.
The result
was a conversion, which stopped Saul’s “threats & murder” (Acts 9:1), which
was what they were praying for, but it also resulted in arguably the greatest
preacher of the gospel that has ever walked this planet: the apostle Paul.
I know that
we have brothers and sisters who are called to exercise authority in the realms
of political power, or of public opinion, or other forms of power. I contend
that these are few, and are specifically called by God to those positions of
authority.
But all of
us, the whole Body of Christ, we have all been given authority to wield in the
Spirit. We learned long ago how to wield that authority to lead others out of
sin and into salvation. We’ve learned more recently how to wield that authority
to heal the sick and raise the dead.
It is time
to wield the authority that God has given us – and by doing so, to lay down the
power and authority of the world – in the spiritual realm on behalf of nations,
and people groups and regions.
It’s time
for us to walk away from the weapons of the flesh, and to pick up the weapons
that God has given us, and with them, to change the world.
--
Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.
Terrorism: Father's Grief
The most
famous verse in the Bible declares that “For God so loved the world, that he gave…”
God loves the world, the whole world.
Father
brought that one back to me recently, as I was praying for his Spirit to move
among the ISIS terrorists. “Son,” he said, “Christians
are all worked up because the terrorists are killing Christians.”
I listened.
“I love the Christians. But I love the terrorists just as much.”
That
startled me a bit. And it brought back to my mind a conversation we’d had years
ago about martyrs. “Do I not have the right to spend the lives of my servants
in the way that I know is best?” I could hear tears in his voice as he said it.
And I
realized something. While it’s an ugly thing that terrorists are killing
Christians, while it’s a heinous act to crucify or behead women or children for
any reason, there’s a reality behind it that is yet even worse.
When the
Christians are brutally murdered, they go to run and jump and shout and play
with Jesus. They go to a place full of light and love and wholeness and
acceptance. The route there was evil, but the destination is glorious.

Here’s what
I learned today. I already knew that Father wept over his children’s murders,
but I was reminded that their blood would, as it always has, be the seed of yet
more revival on the earth. Every time a Christian’s blood is spilled, the grace
of God is unleashed to bring even more people into the Kingdom.
Their
murderers think they are doing evil, but they are sending individuals to glory
and empowering revival upon the earth!
But I
learned that my Father weeps more over the murderers than over the murdered. Because
these do not know hope, because of what their sin does to their soul and how it
enslaves them all the more, because when they are killed, their destiny is far away
from Him who died that they could know Him. Father grieves because the terribly
costly sacrifice of his Son has not yielded in them the benefit for which he
paid that terrible price.
Father
weeps more over the terrorists than the Christians they murder.
--
Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.
A Vision of the Puddle.
I was visiting with a friend the other day, talking about what God was up to on the earth today, and I envisioned this picture. (In Churchspeak, “I had a vision.”)
I saw the devil, and he was watching you. And as he saw you emerging from your hidden place, as he saw you beginning to walk in your identity as a child, as an heir, of God, as he watched you shake off “every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares you,” I realized he was standing in a puddle. A yellow puddle. A warm yellow puddle.
Around the planet, the saints of God are coming out of their hiding places; they’re shaking off the snares of the enemy. Around the world, believers are beginning to believe, and are devouring the Word and learning who they really are, and what they’re really armed with. Around the Earth, wounded ones are healing the sick and raising the dead; some of them, without being healed themselves, are healing others in great numbers and with great determination.
And it’s scaring the piss out of hell.
This is one of the main reasons that “all hell is breaking loose” in some places: because all hell is terrified of the people of God growing from just being “Christians,” to becoming “Sons of God.” This is hell’s “fight or flight” mechanism kicking in, except that they have no place to run, nowhere to hide, so they have to fight.
This is also why we’re seeing so many earthquakes, so many storms, on the earth, in my viewpoint. These are the birth pains of the mature sons of God. And it’s also why so many believers are groaning, crying out for more, no longer content with sitting on a wooden pew once a week to be the primary manifestation of their relationship with God.
Romans 8 declares, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
This is happening today, right now. This is going on in you, today, right now. If you’re one of the ones wanting more of God – whether you want more of his presence, more healings, more people to know him, more signs and wonders: whatever! – then you’re one of the ones that are making the devil piss his pants.
Good for you! Keep up the good work! Don’t let down your guard, but keep pressing in! Keep manifesting heaven on earth!
--------------------------------
Nehemiah 4:17: “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.”
I saw the devil, and he was watching you. And as he saw you emerging from your hidden place, as he saw you beginning to walk in your identity as a child, as an heir, of God, as he watched you shake off “every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares you,” I realized he was standing in a puddle. A yellow puddle. A warm yellow puddle.
Around the planet, the saints of God are coming out of their hiding places; they’re shaking off the snares of the enemy. Around the world, believers are beginning to believe, and are devouring the Word and learning who they really are, and what they’re really armed with. Around the Earth, wounded ones are healing the sick and raising the dead; some of them, without being healed themselves, are healing others in great numbers and with great determination.
And it’s scaring the piss out of hell.
This is one of the main reasons that “all hell is breaking loose” in some places: because all hell is terrified of the people of God growing from just being “Christians,” to becoming “Sons of God.” This is hell’s “fight or flight” mechanism kicking in, except that they have no place to run, nowhere to hide, so they have to fight.
This is also why we’re seeing so many earthquakes, so many storms, on the earth, in my viewpoint. These are the birth pains of the mature sons of God. And it’s also why so many believers are groaning, crying out for more, no longer content with sitting on a wooden pew once a week to be the primary manifestation of their relationship with God.
Romans 8 declares, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”
This is happening today, right now. This is going on in you, today, right now. If you’re one of the ones wanting more of God – whether you want more of his presence, more healings, more people to know him, more signs and wonders: whatever! – then you’re one of the ones that are making the devil piss his pants.
Good for you! Keep up the good work! Don’t let down your guard, but keep pressing in! Keep manifesting heaven on earth!
--------------------------------
Nehemiah 4:17: “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.”
--
Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.
Terms and Conditions for Trick or Treating
Have you ever seen the fine print on some of the websites
out there: “Your use of this website constitutes your agreement to comply, and
be bound to, the following terms and conditions…” If there’s ever a legal
issue, the case will be decided by how well you and the other party comply with
the terms and conditions of the website where the legal issue occurred.
These terms and conditions are very often tricky to find.
Sometimes they’re in very small print at the bottom of the page. Sometimes
they’re not even on the page you see, but are hidden away on a “Terms and
conditions” page that nobody ever sees. But they are binding nonetheless, on
every visitor to the website.
1 Corinthians 15:46 says “However, the spiritual is not
first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” So let’s take this
natural principle and apply it spiritually.

But I’ve been setting up some “terms and conditions” that
apply to every single person that sets foot on my porch, or my walkway, or even
my lawn tomorrow night. (And I may leave them in place indefinitely.) They are
not posted publicly in the natural, but because they’re clearly posted in the spiritual realm they will be binding nonetheless, on every visitor to
my property (which by legal definition extends to the centerline of the street, so this includes at least half of those driving by as well).
The terms and conditions that affect them include the
following:
● Every visitor to my neighborhood is welcome to bring
the Holy Spirit with him or her, their own human spirit, and any angels that
submit who are in service to the God of Heaven, but any other spiritual beings,
any fallen angels, any demons, must be checked at the gates to my neighborhood,
and are not permitted in. (This one’s old news: http://bit.ly/gatekeeping)
● Every visitor to my own property, by setting foot on my
property agrees, by coming onto my
property, to be targeted for the kindness of God, targeted for grace and mercy by the Kingdom of Heaven .
● Every family and every household that receives candy or
other nourishment from our home agrees, by receiving from us, to receive
nourishment from the Spirit of God and from the Word of God, and to receive New
Life from the Creator of Life. If anyone receives something from us by theft,
they are still agreeing, by receiving from us, to receive the same nourishment,
and the same Life.
● Every guest to our property agrees, by coming onto our
property, to receive an angel or angels as their guests and guards, to lead
them to the King of Kings, to teach them the ways of the Kingdom of God ,
and to protect them from harm.
● Every guest on our property, by coming onto our property,
receives freely and without cost or obligation, our blessing upon their lives,
their future, their family, and their family’s future, blessing for peace, and
not for evil, to give them a future and a hope.
● These terms and conditions are subject to change and
can be modified at any time without notice. Changes may be effective
retroactively. Check with the Holy Spirit for the latest terms and conditions
in effect.
So I encourage y’all to set up similar “terms and
conditions” for your own property.
I’m relying on the
resources of the Kingdom to carry out the terms and conditions I’ve specified.
The metaphor of “terms and conditions” was something I worked out with Father
in prayer, which was also where these specific terms and conditions were
formed. I implemented them by walking around my property, declaring these terms and conditions, until I felt I was “done.”
Have fun. Wreak glory upon your guests!
(Feel free to share this idea with your friends and
co-conspirators if you wish.)
The Cleaning Lady
The Cleaning Lady
I’d like to tell you the story of a friend of mine, whom
I’ll call Chantelle.
Chantelle had just found a roommate and a nice apartment,
and they were in the early stages of moving in, when she called me. “I’d like
your help in praying over our apartment before we move in.” She and I had dealt
with some things together before, and she understood that teamwork is valuable.
So we began to pray. We prayed over the kitchen, the dining
room, the living room, and declared the destiny we heard Father speaking about
for the rooms and their activity. During the prayer time, I slipped away, and
tossed a large handful of Dove’s chocolates into her empty room, just so she’s
find a nice surprise.
When we finished praying about the public rooms, we headed
down the hallway, and we both felt something strange, an unhealthy, unclean
presence back there, and we both felt it at the same point, right as the
hallway turned the corner.
Cool! A teachable moment! So we discussed it, discussed what
it felt like, and I proposed that we check the back rooms individually for more
sense of it.
We checked her room first, and there was no sense of that
particular darkness, but there were wrapped dark chocolates scattered on the
floor. She laughed and picked up a couple of them, and we agreed that this room
wasn’t the source for the sense of the unclean that we felt. She offered me a
chocolate and we moved on.
We prayed over the bathroom, blessed it, and ruled it out as
a source of darkness, and moved on, while she nibbled her chocolate.
The roommate’s room. As Chantelle opened her roommate’s
door, we felt the unclean darkness inside. “Aha! I suspect we’ve found a clue!”
The roommate wasn’t home, of course; she wasn’t a believer, and wouldn’t
understand what we were doing. In fact, there was just a small stack of boxes
in the middle of the room.
We discussed the situation. We both sensed that there was
uncleanness on the walls, though they appeared a clean white to our eyes.
Chantelle stepped into the room, spiritual senses wide open, looking to sense
where the unclean stuff was coming from. The closet? Nope. The window? Nope?
This place where the bed obviously went? Nope.
That left the boxes in the middle of the room. They were
just moving boxes, and only two or three of them; they looked innocuous enough.
She popped the last of the chocolate in her mouth and touched the top box.
Bingo! This is where the darkness came from! As we talked about the source of
the presence, she straightened out the foil that had wrapped her chocolate, and
read the quote it contained: “You are exactly where you are supposed to be.” We
laughed!
We didn’t get into the boxes; they weren’t our property, but
we felt the need to address the darkness, particularly, the darkness clinging to
the walls. So we prayed that it would be removed. Nothing happened. We
commanded it to leave. Nothing. We prophesied blessing on the room and its
future. Nada.
I had an idea. “Chantelle, why don’t you ask Father for the
right weapon to remove the darkness?” She gave me a funny look, but we’d done
stranger things than this together. She prayed, and I could see from the look
on her face that she’d seen Him give her something.
“What is it? What did he give you?” She scowled. “A
washrag.” We laughed some more.
But she began to wield the washrag that she saw in the
Spirit against the darkness. In reality, she began to wash the walls with it,
and it was the first time that we saw the darkness give way, though it was a
fight.
After a few minutes, we recognized that this was going to
take all night, and I couldn’t help her, as I was still standing in the hallway
(out of respect for someone else’s room).

So Chantelle handed the washrag to the cleaning lady angel,
and invited her to wield the weapon. Immediately, she began washing the walls,
and by the time Chantelle had reached the door to the room, the first wall was
halfway clean; we could both feel the darkness lifting. That was better! We
blessed the cleaning lady, and invited her to stay. It seemed to us that her
assignment was the back of the apartment, particularly the hallway and the
bedrooms.
We felt the freedom to invite a couple other angles to the
house. A big armed one was stationed outside the downstairs entrance, and Chantelle
assigned another, whom she named Cheese Grater Guy, to the front door, to
remove any “Klingons” from guests to the home.
When we left, we looked back at the bedroom windows, and we
both discerned what appeared to be a cleaning lady waving happily to us from
the roommate’s window. We laughed and waved back.
The really fun part of the story came weeks later, when the
roommate cautiously reported that she “could feel a presence” in the back
hallway. Chantelle replied, “Yep, and she’s staying here! We’re not going to
get rid of that one!”
And the cleaning lady likes cats. Both Chantelle and the
roommate had pet cats, kittens, really, who loved to play with them. But from
time to time, both women could see the cats in the hallway, playing with someone
they couldn’t see with their natural eyes.
Some Experiences with Judgment in the Courts of Heaven
Some years ago, Jesus took me to a new place that I hadn’t
expected: it was a tall, oak, judge’s bench. He took me around the back of the
bench, and up the stairs behind it. But rather than sit down himself, he sat me
in the great chair behind the bench, and when I sat, I was wearing black robes
and I had a wooden gavel in my right hand.

I was charged with judging my brothers and sisters, but
judging from Heaven’s perspective, from the perspective of a King who’s madly
in love with them, who’s unreasonably proud of them, who’s amazed and overjoyed
with their every step of faith. So the judgments that I’ve been invited to
pronounce are about God’s favor on his children; I’ve been charged with finding
them guilty of pleasing their Father, and sentencing them to be loved and
adored for all their natural lives, and beyond! It’s better work than I first
feared it would be; I’ve actually come to love that bench.
But some of the judicial work has been darker than that.
Once, I was praying intensely for a dear sister against whom hell was having a
measure of success. Jesus brought me around to the stairs and up to the bench.
I could see more clearly from up there, and with his help, I saw the cloud of
filthy spirits that were harassing my sister. “Judge them,” he said, and I understood.
I began to recognize their crimes, and as I identified them
– the spirits and their crimes – I spoke its name. As I did, it was as if the
gavel moved on its own, gently tapping, “Guilty!” to each charge. With each
tap, a demon was bound and hauled of. Soon, I got into it, reaching into the Spirit
for the discernment of each spirit and shouting its name, its crime: the gavel banged
and the demon was bound. This, too, was judgment I could get excited about.
I needed to be careful, in my exuberance, to still judge
accurately, according to what was true, not merely because I felt bad for my
sister’s misery: this was a matter of justice,
not pity, and it was a mighty justice
that was handed down that day, and other days like it. I’ve developed the
opinion that this judge’s bench is an excellent place for intercession.
There was one day, though, that I still shake my head about.
It happened some years back, and I’m only now understanding what may have
actually gone on.
God the Father somberly walked up to me, and he was looking
really quite serious: he was cloaked in a rich black judge’s robe, and his eyes
were as intense and alive with fire as I’ve ever seen them. With his eyes fixed
on mine, he slowly opened his robe. I was surprised to see a red plaid shirt
underneath, but before I had opportunity to react in surprise, he pulled a
shotgun from the depths of his open robe, and handed it to me. Startled, I took
it from him and glanced at it. Yep, that’s a shotgun, all right.
I looked up again, and now the robe was gone, and with it,
the stern look from Father’s face. Instead, he sported a red hunter’s cap and a
huge grin, and he held up a shotgun of his own. Movement caught my eye, and I
saw Jesus, similarly attired with plaid shirt, red hat, grin and shotgun.
Father asked, “You ready, Son?” but before I could answer, the air above our
heads was suddenly filled with demons, their leathery wings flapping frantically
as they zigged and zagged about the room.
Father laughed mightily, hoisted his shotgun and fired; a
demon exploded into a black cloud. Jesus cheered and blasted another one. Soon
all three of us were shouting and hollering and laughing uproariously. And
blasting demons to tiny black dust. Shotgun blasts were interspersed with
shouts of encouragement, great fits of laughter and the soft splatter of the
demons shards. They had met their maker, and it had not gone well for them. He
is a very good shot, actually.
I had enjoyed this experience so much that I hadn’t stopped
to ask what it meant until recently; the answer wasn’t particularly surprising;
something about “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself
against the knowledge of God.” But the experience was, frankly, a great deal of
fun. “Spiritual warfare” and “fun”: two concepts I never expected to put
together.
That hunting party only happened the one time. I think it
was more about teaching me a lesson than a regular part of our business in that
place. He’s a good teacher, by the way: I’ve never forgotten that experience,
though I’ve been slower to learn its lesson.
An Upgrade by way of a Dream
I had a dream. The next morning I told it to a friend, and as I told it, I realized that God was speaking to me.
In the dream, I had visited with my family, at my parents’ home. At the end of that visit, someone across the way started shooting at us from the undergrowth. Because of the danger, everyone else left, and as he drove off, my dad told me that he had a weapon I could use. It was in the hall closet.
I ran to the closet, and searched under the bed linens. I remember checking the shelf from left to right; I found a tiny handgun, a pea-shooter, really. It didn't even look like a gun; it looked like a tiny tambourine. It was obviously not going to be accurate at any distance beyond a yard or so, and wouldn’t pack much punch. It was a weapon, but not as powerful a weapon as I needed.
After a great deal of hard work and persistence, which were not part of the dream, I overcame the enemy.

On reviewing the dream, I believe God was telling me that He has made another weapon available to me, beyond the weapon of worship that I'd been using, a new weapon that I hadn’t yet. It was a much larger & more powerful weapon. (And indeed, that was my experience.)
I suspect there's a fair bit of this going on, God upgrading his kids' weaponry, training our hands to war.
Put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.
This is before us today.
We all know that 20:20 speaks about vision. Also true for 2Chronicles 20:20, which includes this declaration: “Put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.”
We will be established, we will stand our ground, when we trust what God has spoken to us, what he’s given & done! This is safe territory, and considering the context of the verse, that was a huge declaration! You’ll be OK.
But God is inviting us to receive a NEW word from him (“prophets” speaking of the prophetic community we’re part of), which will take us into a new realm of battle, and into a new realm of victory. You’ll take territory you’ve never had before, territory that you’ll never have to give up.
We can succeed, either playing defense or playing offense. But we score more victories when we take the offense.
God has been speaking to some of us in the Northwest about this, and he used the Superbowl to do it: I’ll summarize it this way: When the people that have spent their lives at defensive suddenly begin to play offense (even from their defensive positions), then the other guy is going to look really bad.
When we add offense to our defense (not a different place, in the midst of our defense), suddenly you accomplish things that nobody has ever accomplished before.
(We could add something about getting the people that have been sitting quietly on the sidelines for all these years involved, but that’s another topic.)
Interestingly, in the original context of our verse, this offense consisted of “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” When we get that down, that’s a big deal in the progress of the battle that we’re facing right now, the battle that looks to be the end of us and our line.
The result of this shift? The result of this declaration? “Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.”
If you’re going to listen to the NEW word from God, if you’re going to take the offense in the battle, then you probably ought to bring a wheelbarrow with you. Because you’re going to need it.
We all know that 20:20 speaks about vision. Also true for 2Chronicles 20:20, which includes this declaration: “Put your trust in the LORD your God and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed.”
We will be established, we will stand our ground, when we trust what God has spoken to us, what he’s given & done! This is safe territory, and considering the context of the verse, that was a huge declaration! You’ll be OK.

We can succeed, either playing defense or playing offense. But we score more victories when we take the offense.
God has been speaking to some of us in the Northwest about this, and he used the Superbowl to do it: I’ll summarize it this way: When the people that have spent their lives at defensive suddenly begin to play offense (even from their defensive positions), then the other guy is going to look really bad.
When we add offense to our defense (not a different place, in the midst of our defense), suddenly you accomplish things that nobody has ever accomplished before.
(We could add something about getting the people that have been sitting quietly on the sidelines for all these years involved, but that’s another topic.)
Interestingly, in the original context of our verse, this offense consisted of “Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever.” When we get that down, that’s a big deal in the progress of the battle that we’re facing right now, the battle that looks to be the end of us and our line.
The result of this shift? The result of this declaration? “Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it.”
If you’re going to listen to the NEW word from God, if you’re going to take the offense in the battle, then you probably ought to bring a wheelbarrow with you. Because you’re going to need it.
Focus on What we're For.

First,
it's easier to keep track of: there's only ONE God to be FOR. There are too
many more wolves out there, and they keep swapping their sheepskins, so you
have to kind of study their evil to know what evil they're representing this
week. Ick.
Second,
we become like that which we focus on. I'd much rather be like Jesus than like
the guys that people are warning us about, the wolves in sheep’s clothing. If I
focus on the wolves, I become wolflike. Ick again. No, we aren't ignorant of
them, but we don't squander our attention or our conversation on them.
Third,
if I train people to pay attention to my warnings, or the warnings of others
like me, then I am drawing their attention and their devotion away from where
it ought to be. Believers in Christ ought to be following Christ, not other
believers, and I don't want to be the one who has to answer Him for why His
Bride is turning away from Him and following me. Yikes.

Fifth,
we're commanded to focus on the good stuff. Philippians 4:8 is pretty clear.
Hebrews 12:1&2 tells us where to fix our attention. This is a WAY better
(and WAY more useful) focus of our attention than the wolflike bad guys.
Sixth,
we are NOT the only ones out there working to protect innocents from wolflike
bad guys. If we act like that's our job, then we are completely disrespecting
the Holy Spirit and the angels of God. It is not our job to do His job.
Seventh
and finally, the power of God in us is orders of magnitude greater than the
power of evil. Jesus kept messing with that one. In the old covenant, a good
guy touching a bad guy polluted the good guy, and this is what many of today's warnings are about. But in the Kingdom, a good guy
touching a bad guy brings healing to the bad guy: lepers, demoniac, even
corpses!
Honestly,
any ONE of these is enough reason to put our attention on bigger and better
things. All of them together are overwhelming.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)