Thursday, March 26, 2009

Beautiful Expression...

Eight years ago today my little Caleb was born! Hard to believe it's been that long ago. Nothing has been the same ever since. This little guy has taught me what it's like to love from God's point of view. That's right, I said from God's point of view.

What I mean is that Caleb brings nothing to the table - he has no job, pays nor room or board, for many years he couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself, clean himself, he makes messes of everything, eats my food, breaks our things, spills his glass and the list could go on and on - yet in an instant and without hesitation I would lay my life down for him. I love this little guy! I would fight off a 200lbs chimp on Xanax and alcohol to try to save his life. (Please Caleb don't give any chimps Xanax or alcohol... in fact stay away from 200lbs chimps!) But, I think you get the picture... love from God's perspective.

I remember when he was only a few weeks old, one night I was laying on our bed holding him. We were watching television and I kept making "daddy" noises at him, playing with him and just staring at him amazed at it all. All of a sudden I had this surreal moment that this is exactly how God loves me! Think of it. God goes "dada" over me... funny noises and all, right? Probably. But, I remember being so overwhelmed at the notion that God loves me simply because I'm His and created in His image.

The family is actually a perfect expression of our relationship with God. The love holds no conditional pre-agreement. It just is. Fathers would gladly trade the heart in their chests if it would save their children's lives. Dad's protect daughters at all costs... dads fight their fights. Sound familiar? Children trust and cling to parents for safety and provision. Parents provide correction and teach discipline. See the expressions of the relationship?

Husbands and wives take the expression even further. God created humanity in a garden... naked... and no one was ashamed. Only in marriage is this rightly able to be restored. In the shared naked intimacy we see a bit of the expression of intimacy God wants with us. He wants to see us naked, exposed without hiding anything from Him nor wanting to. The image of two becoming one is an expression of our souls being lost in Christ and becoming one in Him, with Him. What a picture He paints right before our eyes and one that we are daily confronted with to some degree or another.

Brothers and sisters are an expression of loyal love that is supposed to exist in the Spirit between us and Christ, and us and each other.

Of course, we can look at these expressions of family and see all the human perversions that the world has polluted this beautiful picture with. But in the family's purposed existence, we see a perfect mirror image of how we could exist in Him, how we should exist in Him.

An eight year old taught, no teaches, me this...

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Beyond the Stuff...

Stuff consumes our attention so severely that the thought of losing our stuff simply terrifies humanity.

What is stuff, though? Houses? Cars? Clothes? Boats? These things are really an extension of an image we want to uphold. We really want others to see our material things and think, "Man, that guy is successful!" Or, "Wow, they really have it together!" We place tremendous value on peoples' perception of who they think we are that we work slave and worship at the feet of the god Mammon. We forget completely the One true God that created the universe by breath. A little more impressive than a house...

There is a prayer that consumes my journal. Actually, there are two. I find myself often saturated in these prayers and I go to them very often. I found myself here again this morning.

First, and in no particular order of importance, is that I walk uprightly before the Lord. I'm consumed with this prayer and most of the time, looking at my life, this prayer seems to bounce off the ceiling. I prayed this morning that if God answers any of my prayers let it be this one. I asked Him to answer this prayer in such a way that a cosmic conversation happens. That God would take notice and say to those beings that worship around His throne, "Now there's one who 'gets it'! There's one who has forsaken this life even though he is surrounded by Mammon worshipers... he only bows his knee to Me." I want that conversation to take place ever before I hear Christ say, "Well done faithful servant! Enter!"

Beyond the stuff... this is all that matters. Beyond the stuff - that we are so consumed to pray to preserve - let us pray for an upright walk! We have a bit of responsibility in this prayer, however. We have to determine our walk to be such. We have to turn our worship from Mammon, repent and be God-worshipers. He gives us the power to be obedient, but we must obey.

The second prayer is for my children. I pray that they be saturated with the power of God's Spirit from today until forever when they stand bathed in His presence. This is a prayer beyond the stuff. If I'm requited to two requests to be granted in all my life, then these are it. Nothing is more important. Earning enough money to purchase Mammon's trinkets and losing time to teach my children the way of worship to God alone is the lost way... the way leading to destruction.

I don't think they allow boats on the lake of fire, do they? Then why work our life at the cost of stuff and lose that which is most dear?

The question has to be asked, "Are things (stuff) wrong?" No, of course not. But the pursuit of happiness can be when happiness is rooted in this world's system and they go from tools to sacrifices made to Mammon. We are appalled and our stomachs are turned when we read how Israel reduced itself to offering their own infant children in the fires to the god Moleck. But, we perhaps burn our children to Mammon every day in our pursuit of this life and it's stuff. We become too busy teaching them the importance of travel ball, vacations and the good life and do not instill in them the proper importance of worshiping in community where we are united by God's Spirit. We burn our children to Mammon, so go easy on the Israelites of pre-Babylon. We are the "Christians" of pre-judged America.

Find life beyond the stuff...

"If it's hard for a rich person to enter Heaven, then why do we work so hard to be rich?" - Todd Agnew


Monday, March 23, 2009

Bittersweet Symphony... The Inevitability of Judgment

I was praying this morning and I asked God this question, "Is Your coming judgment inevitable?"

As of late our church has entered a season of prayer for the coming judgment that God is outlining for America. I've written about this in the last few weeks of what God has been revealing. It doesn't seem to be a pretty picture at all in the onset. The messages are saturate with judgment and calamity. There are dreams of decimated cities and fire and chaos. Rioting because of our selfish society is coming and a full out economic collapse is on our horizon. So, our prayers are the prayers of Habakkuk, "Remember mercy in judgment."

My prayers have been turned to pray for mercy more than anything. And in praying for mercy my heart went naturally to this question, "Is Your judgment inevitable?" God has answered my prayer. His answer is "Yes." His judgment is inevitable. It is coming and it will happen just as He has revealed. His answer came with an explanation, which is something we don't always get. Does God need to explain Himself? Certainly not. But, in this He wants to. He wants to explain why this judgment is upon us. Have you ever jerked a child up and punished them without explaining to them why they are being punished? If you have, the punishment was wasted. The punishment serves the purpose of teaching and often it is a result of lessons we chose not to learn. We force the corrective hand out of continually "not listening" to the teaching.

The coming judgment of God is bittersweet.

It is sweet because God is the One doing the judging. If ever I'm to be judged let it be by an all knowing judge who can rightly discern the evidence against me. Let it be a judge also who loves me and won't sacrifice mercy for emotion, but One who is able to judge perfectly. Most likely the only fair trial anyone will ever receive.

It is sweet because humility and holiness is His desired outcome for us. If this is His desire for us, and we become more intimate with Him and we are corrected to His path and are "right-ed" then what can be more sweet than being so close to such a Deity? The outcome is then sweet. There is nothing more desirable in this world's existence than to walk closely with Him and to be a friend of our cosmic Creator.

However, the judgment is also bitter. It is bitter because God takes no delight in judging sinners. We are forcing God's hand into something that is not delightful to Him. This judgment would be avoidable if we just repent and turn from the ways of this wicked world. He would spare us the judgment if we would repent. Think of Nineveh. The judgment is inevitable because America will not repent. We are too comfortable in the warm bed of Mammon. We won't leave this god's bed of pleasure.

I remember in 1990 as a small boy at an international church meeting of our denomination that there was of course a squabble going on in the church that had the church divided down the middle. The Holy Spirit issued a strong ardent warning to repent and turn to Him. The warning was so final and severe that it shut the meeting of 10,000 up completely and there was silence all across the place. The sense quickly became that God was referring not to "us" but to "them". God wanted "them" to repent. That was the sense on both sides of the issue. It stroked each sides righteous indignation with the other half of the argument. The attitude was "See! God wants 'them' to repent." As a much older boy, I see that God was referring to "both" sides of the argument. His attention was far from the issue at hand and was fixed upon the rebellious heart of the church at large. He had a lot more on His table of important issues that we were completely segregated from. Business as usual for us...

America will not repent and change her ways. She must be humbled by God's compulsion. He has been trying to get us to repent for decades and we've completely ignored Him. Repenting to us has always been for the "other guy", never ourselves. We are so blinded by the worship of our gods - as my pastor put it yesterday, we are so comfortable with them that they have become the new normal - that we can't see that we are the ones polishing the idol for our Sunday morning worship service.

The judgment is inevitable because our refusal to repent is unwavering. God please temper wrath with mercy since it's on its way.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

iWorship...


I recently took the $12.99 plunge into the world of Rhapsody. For the past three days, I've had two songs in my Mixer... "Open Up the Skies" by Deluge and "From the Inside Out" by Hillsong. I have these two songs on perpetual repeat. Three days into this saturation I'm now able to listen to these songs without losing my composure and openly weeping in my office. Did I mention that my office has two large windows for the corner walls over looking my coworkers? Yeah, it's fun to openly cry at work... :) They've not committed me yet. I think there's still hope, though...

Anyway, these songs scream the cry of my heart. One in particular, "Open Up the Skies" opens with these inspired lines:
"Father, loving Father, please come down and meet us / we are longing for Your great touch / open up the heavens shower down your presence / we respond to your great love / we won't be satisfied with anything ordinary / we won't be satisfied at all"
What gets me most is the near desperation that come across in just the lyrics. The cry of the church has been for so long "Give me! Give me! Give me!" The chorus goes like this:
"Open up the sky / fall down like rain / we don't want blessings we want You"
Of all the cries that the church can make, this is the ONE! If you've never listened to this song, then either make the $13 plunge on Rhapsody or buy the CD or something. Just hear this song!

It wrecks me! It says:
"Here we go, lets go to throne / the place that we belong / right into His arms"
These lyrics are fantastic! This is where we belong... right into His arms and the fascinating thing is that God wants us there too! He longs for us. But, we are too busy with anything and everything. I know I am. We run and run and run and all that ever matters is being near to God who is present.

It reminds me of Jacob in Genesis when he crosses over the river and lies down to sleep. He then has the dream of the ladder that stretched from Heaven to Earth and he sees angels ascending and descending. He sees God. When he wakes up on that ordinary piece of ground, with an ordinary stone for his pillow, he says something remarkable... something that marks our everyone of our lives "God was in this place and I was unaware of it."

What scares me isn't whether or not I'll make it to Heaven in the after life. That's already been determined. What unnerves me is that when I stand before Him, will I see all the mundane things in my life, all the times I sat outside with starry skies screaming at me that God was there and I was unaware? I'm crying even now as I type this. This should unnerve us all, that we will see God in the after life and we will become aware of how close He was to us all along and how unaware we all constantly are.

My life's journal written from the vantage point of the afterlife will surely say, "God was in that place and I was completely unaware." That place will be wherever I happen to be looking back at that moment. My challenge: Live life aware...

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Distinguished From the World...

Lately, the seemingly dire news of impending calamity - storms driven by the hand of God - have been voiced with great emphasis in the last week. I started posting last week what God began dealing with me about two years ago, then two days after my first post David Wilkerson felt compelled to send out an urgent message of coming calamity - something he has been voicing for decades now.

Our church has resigned to prayer every Sunday evening with surprisingly large numbers in attendance for our Sunday evening - now prayer - services. This says that people are heeding the warnings given by God's Spirit. Our pastor has been speaking at length on the warnings that have been received by him from the Spirit as well and encouraging the congregation to repent, turn to God and pray. This is the spiritual preparation that must be made now.

Last night in my reading a verse of scripture leaped out at me having the signature of the Spirit on them:
Exodus 11: 6-7
6 And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there hath not been, nor shall be any more. 7 But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast: that ye may know how that Jehovah doth make a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.
Two things I noticed in the text immediately:

  1. "A great cry... " (bolded above) such as there hasn't been in Egypt ever before.
  2. Jehovah makes a distinction between the Egyptians and Israel.

This seemed to parallel what is about to take place in America in the very near future. When God pours out His wrath on our nation a cry is going to go up throughout all of America. It's going to be as such as has never before been felt in any American catastrophe. The Great Depression won't match it, Pearl Harbor won't match it and September 11th won't match it. What I've received from the Spirit is that this will be a permanent crippling of America; to state it more accurately, a complete collapse is coming. Unthinkable, right?

How can this great country ever not exist in the capacity it has always existed?

It will cease to exist because it has ceased to call on God for it's guidance and salvation. This country has resigned itself to the murder of millions of pre-born babies a year. This country has resigned itself to the "struggle" for gay rights and the redefining of God's most basic and original institutions - marriage. The rich profit from the poor. The church does the same. As the church goes, so goes the country. And, we would all - maybe all - agree that the church has, well, gone... .

But, the second thing that seemed to leap out at me was the statement, "Jehovah doth make a distinction between Egypt and Israel." In the text, God was raining judgment down upon Egypt. And, just before the tenth plague where the first born would be killed, God makes this statement to Moses. He was going to show open distinction between His people and the people of Egypt. God is going to make this distinction as well in the coming calamity.

While America is being judged, God is going to miraculously distinguish His people from the people of America being judged. What a statement of His Kingdom! What a hopeful statement for those of us who are called by His Name and have not ceased to walk in His ways. It will be those who have not bowed to worship the gods of America - namely Mammon - but who have been faithful to our Lord that He will preserve. This should send shock waves, however, through the church. The church that has made Christ the sideshow and Mammon the headlining act! God has instructed us to not tear up the tares for the wheat might be pulled up as well. He said in essence "leave the sifting to Me".

This sifting is beginning. The church must make sure individually that they know in whom they have believe and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which has been committed to Him against the day of judgment. If we truly follow Christ, then protection from the calamity is ours. God's hand of provision will be upon us. This doesn't mean we won't suffer any loss of stuff, but it does mean that the thing most valuable, given to Him, are never in danger at all. He will preserve us to be a peaceful beacon in the time of chaos and calamity. People will want to know how we are getting along when their world has fallen apart. God will save the small group of people who haven't bowed and succumbed to this society to be the pointing compass to Christ. Though calamity is on the horizon, so is revival. As Wilkerson has stated a song is going to rise out of this. A song to God most High will rise from the ashes!

Search your heart, repent and begin to pray that God tempers wrath with mercy. To God be all glory. Our hope is in Him alone.

Friday, March 13, 2009

A Pastor's Response to an Urgent Warning

The below text comes from David Wilkerson's blog

Friday, March 13, 2009
A PASTOR’S RESPONSE TO “AN URGENT WARNING”
By Gary Wilkerson

It is the task of a true prophet to warn. We have recently heard such a clear warning of perilous days just ahead of us. The prophet is like a man who comes to warn a shepherd that ravenous wolves are approaching.

It then becomes the shepherd’s task to appropriately discern the warning and to guide those in his care to a place of wisdom and security. I am not a prophet. I am a local pastor. I must ask myself what I am to do in light of hearing the warning from God. What should I say to those under my pastoral care?

First, I want my people to clearly hear the word. What is it saying and what is it not saying. Some have heard of fires and looting and their hearts are filled with fear. I am to assure my people that God is always completely in control. God is sovereign. Nothing takes place outside of his notice and counsel, and all things happen for his ultimate, highest glory. Even in the most troubling of times, our God knows exactly what he is doing.

Second, I want those I serve to know two things concerning God’s wrath. First, some leaders in the church have sadly fallen into the deception that there is no such thing as the wrath of God. Roman 1:18 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Some act in ungodly ways, others are ungodly by their suppressing the truth of God’s wrath. Some leaders reduce, ignore and even ridicule anyone who reminds them of the certainty of God’s wrath. Romans 2:5 also tells us clearly that the wrath of God is toward those whose hearts are hard and impenitent. This leads to the second element of understanding God’s wrath. It is never, ever, ever poured out on the children of God. In I John 2:2 “He is the propitiation for our sins.” The word propitiation means “wrath quencher.” What marvelous grace, what redemption! God’s wrath at my rebellion and sin has been quenched on the Cross of Christ. Hard times come; rain falls even on the just but wrath does not.

Last, I am obligated to guide the flock given to me with loving-kindness and soberness. If a wolf or a storm is coming, I as a shepherd must know the conditions of my flock. Are any sitting on the fence? Warn them that this is no time for compromise or close affiliation with the world. Partying in the house of an Egyptian on the night of the Passover is definitely not a good idea. This is a time to stay close to the Chief Shepherd. This is also an opportunity for us to call out to those outside the gate. Jesus is the Door and has opened his heart. His cry it that all flee from wrath to come. More than shrinking behind a double-locked door or fleeing to a rural farm, this is a call from Jesus to move your life into the sheepfold.

When a prophet comes with a message of warning, often people want the prophet to give them specific advice about what to do in response. At times, God gives the prophet a word, but more often it is up to the shepherd, and even more so, up to every man of God to take the word into account for his own family. Just as a pastor has stewardship of the church, a man of God is to give an account of his own family. When one comes to warn that wolves are coming, it is not always his responsibility to tell them what to do. We can hear from God. Joseph heard God say to store up food for the season to come (Genesis 41). Moses heard God say to receive gifts from the Egyptians for their journey (Exodus12). We as well can hear from God for our situation. Sheep do hear the Shepherd’s voice.

Jesus—in this hour, in this storm—will not only guide his people and comfort his flock but will also give them boldness, confidence and a heart to serve those troubled by the afflictions. A prophet once came to Paul and prophesied that if he went to Jerusalem he would be bound and put in prison. The prophet was faithful to give his word; it was up to Paul to hear from God how to deal with that warning. Paul, after hearing the prophecy, still decided to go to Jerusalem—willing to risk his life for the gospel (Acts 21). Some will hear and stay in a place of safety; others will hear and go to a place to serve. Some churches are positioned in cities that will need their spiritual strength and compassion. Perhaps the wisdom of Paul in Ephesians 5:15-18 speaks most to what we need, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.”

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

News Post... "Heed Wilkerson's Warning"

Heed Wilkerson's warning
The author is a commentator for WorldNetDaily.com
Posted: March 10, 2009
3:02 pm Eastern © 2009

When I was a kid, I read about David Wilkerson who took to Gospel to the gangs of New York. I even saw the movie "The Cross and the Switchblade" that was made about him. Many know about that, but most don't know what happened in his church just eight years ago.

In the fall of 2001, Pastor David Wilkerson, of Times Square Church in New York City, was warned by God that a calamity was coming. For six weeks they felt an intense burden and enormous heaviness. A critical need for intercession was so profound that Pastor Wilkerson canceled everything on the church calendar – mission's conferences, youth events and every guest speaker.

For six weeks, there wasn't a sermon. Instead, there was intercession for our nation with weeping and repentance. They knew something was coming and that something was bad. And that something was soon. So they prayed. And prayed … and prayed.

[This portion of the original post has been removed due to errors in the reporting from World Net Daily.com. See correction article here from the commentator.]

By morning they had about 2,000 sandwiches. At 8:46 a.m. the first plane hit the World Trade Center and Times Square Church was ready to feed and minister to rescue workers and victims of our nation's worst attack.
See full article here.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Decimated City - Where's the Cry of My People - Part 3

Months after the first words from God on the coming calamity America would soon be facing my life pretty much returned to normal. Actually, there is no "pretty much" about it. I resigned what I heard as being reserved for another time way into our future. Life went on.

One late spring evening I came in from mowing my lawn and after cleaning up a bit I laid down on our couch to rest for a moment. I fell asleep.


During my sleep of only twenty minutes or so I had a dreadfully disturbing dream. It was a dream of a "storm" that is on our horizon now. I remember the dream vividly. I was standing on a brown-grassy knoll-like hill and there were others on the hill looking toward a major city's skyline. Hovering above the city, in an expansive panoramic view, I saw a massive tornado hanging directly above the tall skyscrapers. In the dream the massive storm was very wide and thick and was a swirling ominous grey torrent of looming disaster. From our vantage point on the grassy hill mound we saw that the city was about to be completely destroyed and a gasp went through out the sparse crowd. The city jutted out over the ocean or bay very much like the city pictured above, though we were much closer than the vantage point pictured.

The next scene flashed and the storm over the city descended upon it and everything was being consumed by fire. Everything was burning... concrete, steel... everything. The entire city was completely decimated. But oddly during the chaos and fire and destruction those on the hill were completely safe from the fires and destruction. The hill itself was a place of safety.

After I awoke I was covered in dread and heaviness. I immediately called my pastor to explain the dream to him. He began to share with me as well dreams that he had that were of the same nature. All depicted an impending judgment that is upon the shores of America even now. What form this judgment will take place is unknown and to make any suggestions would simply be speculation. The one thing that is sure is that God is moving in wrath against this country's immorality.

This idea is hard for us to accept or even fathom today. But, make no mistake God will move in this type of judgment. We must now humble ourselves before the Lord, repenting and returning to Him. These warnings are going out so that God's people won't be unaware. He is revealing His message... this message - in the words of David Wilkerson, "to nobodies, from nowhere." But, showing this to praying pastors and ministers of His all over the country.

Those who are in Christ, true followers of God, He will cover and protect. "Remember Goshen" was a message preached by my pastor this past Sunday in light of the movement of the Spirit upon his heart to Remember Goshen. Goshen was where the Israelites lived in Egypt. And, while the plagues raged all around them, it did not touch them there.

The message of hope is coming in future posts in the next weeks...

Monday, March 9, 2009

An Urgent Message! Where's the Cry... Part Two

At the urging of God's Spirit, Thursday I began to blog about the coming calamity, devastation and economic collapse that is coming to America very soon. I've been extremely cautious in dealing with God's message that I began receiving two years ago for a couple of reasons. One, I wanted to be certain I had heard from God and, two, I wanted to be certain I have heard from God. It didn't take me two years to come to this conclusion - and two years ago I began sharing these messages with the local congregation where I attend church.

After reading Habakkuk 2: 2-3 on Wednesday March 4th I felt it was now time to begin making these messages more public. I have no great pulpit to share these messages with the masses, but this blog is what I do have. Reading Habakkuk resulted in Thursday's introductory blog post. I went home Thursday evening and told my wife that I had began to post these messages. And, then I told her something that I hadn't felt until this past week, that we need to get a thirty day supply of food and water. Up to this point all the messages that I have received from God involved only preparing our hearts for this time and now it seems that this 30 day step may be critical. This will provide a buffer to keep people out of the stores and off the streets when rioting and looting begin to happen all over the nation.

Then Saturday morning I got up around 6:30 am and checked my email to find an URGENT MESSAGE from David Wilkerson. This message was posted Saturday morning, two days after my introductory post. Please stop here now, click the link and read this message from David Wilkerson before reading further.

In light of the publication from David Wilkerson - a trusted voice hailing from Times Square Church in New York City, I believe God's Spirit is moving. Make no mistake GOD IS IN THE COMING STORM. It is his vehicle of judgment, but it is also His vehicle of redemption! To Him alone will we be able to turn; to Him alone will come our provision. We are going to be stripped of all that does NOT matter in His kingdom. But, we will gain what matters most - a renewed connection to our Father and a renewed connection to God's people in community.

This may sound to most as Chicken Little syndrome. These messages right now are ominous and despairing with no hope to be seen at the moment. But, this just isn't so. In these messages, God has outlined His redemptive plan for us through these coming calamities. I will be delivering the messages that I have received and at the end of these posts in the coming weeks I will completely outline what God has revealed as a message of hope to those who truly know Him and are truly called after Him.

Right now is the time to repent and renew your commitment to the Lord. Begin to prepare your heart and strip every weight that bogs you down from being completely given over to our Lord.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Where's the Cry of My People? Part One

A little over two years ago my life was rocked by a message from God. There were no audible voices, angels or even a vision... just a text, Exodus 3:7, and a "sense" - "sense" is the only way I can explain what I experienced, "voice" might fit better however - from Him.

Let me back up a bit to explain the text. Sitting in church on a Sunday morning listening to my pastor's sermon, God began to stir my spirit to study after Moses. So, in my mind I thought, "Okay, I'll do that." But, later after the service I didn't give it much more of a thought. A week or more later, on a usual Wednesday night REVOLVE! service we had two visitors. A guy I knew and his friend, "Bishop Sean". The name alone set my critical mind into an uneasy mode, then at their declaration, "We've come to view your service," my sensibility was set even further off. I told them to sit in and listen; honestly I didn't know what else to do, but I expected that after the service they would have something to say to me about how I'm not measuring up or how I'm not following God or some other dig at me as a minister. As expected, after service I received word that "Bishop Sean" wanted to "speak" with me. I thought, "Here we go...". But, what happened next was weird. He was very nice - I guess I shouldn't judge so hastily - and told me that while he had been praying that day, he felt he was supposed to come and hang out with us that night. Then, he said that while I was speaking he felt as though God wanted him to tell me to begin "studying after Moses." When he said that my heart sank. I hadn't told anyone about what I felt during that previous week's Sunday morning service. At the time, I just thought it was something I had thought and there wasn't any sense of urgency in me about doing it. I didn't hear anything else "Bishop Sean" said after that.

I would like to say that I went straight to my Bible and began studying. You think that would have been enough instruction. But as it would be, I didn't and then again God - for a third time! - stirred my heart this way again, but this time there was a severity from Him and a question, "How many times am I going to have to speak to you until you do this, or I pass you over?" That was it. I began in Exodus.

Then came this text, Exodus 3:7. I was in my office at work and while reading in Exodus 3, God began to speak to me specifically from verse 7 about a coming calamity to America. In an instant of reading this text, God gave me a deep profound sense that His people had forgotten Him and were no longer crying out to Him. He gave me this sense that He was at work to bring our nation to a place where everything would change. A complete collapse. And, that once again His people would "cry" out to Him since we have forgotten Him. The sense was an economic collapse was coming. A collapse that would cause the first depression to pale in comparison. It would be total and utter. Mind you this was received while our economy was booming and unemployment was at an all time record low. There was nothing at the time of receiving this "sense" from God that would suggest to me this was even possible. I honestly felt stupid in writing what I had written about what God was speaking to my spirit. I thought it impossible at the time and actually later went back to throw the writing in the garbage and hope no one would ever know that I had written something so ludicrous. But, the Spirit of God just quieted my spirit and said, "Hold on to it for a while." So, I did.

A heaviness came over me as I finished writing the prophecy, for lack of a better term, and the thought everything is going to change weighed so heavy on my mind that I lose words to explain how I was glued in placed - metaphorically speaking - at the weight of the message I had just received. Many times since then have I have fought what I received wishing things to be better or for me to be completely wrong. But, His word keeps being renewed to me. Even this morning, which I'll write about later.

This is the introduction to some things I'll be posting in the coming weeks. The label "Prophetik" at the bottom of this post will be used to organize these posts together so they can be easily accessed. Everything is changing and the time of warning is now upon us. I pray you read these posts and prayerfully prepare yourself for what God is working even now. The coming calamities are for several purposes, first - to judge as only God can, and second - to save His people.

I will detail a dream I later received of the complete destruction of a US city as well as how God has revealed how His people will survive this time of calamity and judgment. A song from His saints will arise... from the ashes joy and dependence in Him alone will sustain His people. As Moses sang when the Ark of the Covenant was marched through the wilderness and the visible cloud of His presence lead the people through the desert, "Let God arise and His enemies be scattered!"

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

New Civil Rights Violation In Birmingham

Friday I became aware of an incident that took place in my home of Birmingham, Alabama. When reading the story I was outraged and disenfranchised, but then I thought "why?" Don't I expect the world to be against such things as morality, sanctity of life, etc. Why would this disturb me? But, I think that it is the fact that this happened about 10 or so miles from where I work everyday. I expect this type of thing from cities like Boston, San Francisco, et al. But in the Bible Belt? In Birmingham? Aren't we conservative? Aren't we Bible thumping, pew jumping, Jesus loving, Devil shoving, blood bought, red-hot, soul redeeming, shoutin', screamin', over coming children of God? How could this happen here? Again?

Here's what happened in Birmingham .

I guess I was more disturbed that in my little sheltered mind these types of civil rights violations don't occur any more. Aren't we civilized now? We have the first black president elected by a large majority in office. Gone are the days of segregation. We are now progressive right? Freedom of expression and speech are established rights, right? So, I was disturbed that this group, "Survivors" could have their rights violated right in our very city.

I began a letter writing campaign to the city mayor, Larry Langford, three of his staff members. I wrote the governor of Alabama as well as our great state senator Richard Shelby (so far his office is the only office to acknowledge my emails).

We who believe in the sanctity of life for the unborn children of the world should expect a new civil rights battle. Do I think it will reach the atrocities of Birmingham circa 1950? Of course not. But, with President Obama's new appointment of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to Secretary of Health and Human Services the pro-life fight is only going to get tougher. Although, not yet confirmed, she is on the fast track to being appointed. God help us all!

Pro-lifers get ready to go to jail! Get ready to have your inalienable rights defiled! Get ready to be the target of the new descrimination! But, by the strength of God we shall over come!