I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to some conversations I’ve had with several people about our responsibility (or lack thereof) of the social and political climate at this current time. I’ve been troubled by the division in the church to what our civic duty is and to respond and claim responsibility for the climate of our world at this time.

I think all of us feel we should pray and intercede for what is happening. Where I’m troubled is why it seems that most Christians don’t feel compelled to stand up with a righteous stance at this time. Several times I’ve heard, “People in Jesus’ day were looking for a physical deliverance from Rome and thought Jesus was going to overthrown and establish a ‘physical’ kingdom during that time.” They continued to say, “They were frustrated and disillusioned when they discovered He was referring to a ‘spiritual’ kingdom.” While that may be true, I don’t see how that event in time establishes a precedent for what is happening now. In fact, I don’t think they are even related.
Our Founding Fathers fought England during the Revolutionary War to establish a country free from tyranny and provide a country with freedoms that we all live in today. For all of our lives we’ve lived in the freedoms they fought for. We’ve taken them for granted, but just talk to ANY Romanian who escaped their country and came to America to enjoy those freedoms. If you talk to them they will tell you we are on the brink of becoming a Communist nation. They know…they lived in it; it’s all very familiar to them.
We are all grateful for those men who resisted that tyranny and fought, some losing their lives, many arrested and going through trials to make a point. History tells us about Paul Revere and his historical ride to warn people that the British were coming. Brave men like George Washington literally rallied the troops by riding around on his horse while the British were shooting. He had bullet holes in his coat and several horses were shot out from under him but he was never hit, he was divinely protected by God while being involved in fighting for the freedoms we have today.
Resistance was a necessary part of establishing what we now take for granted and we’ve never known any different. In our life time it’s always been free, so now what do we do? Things are starting to look shaky. Mandates are coming down the pike faster than we can process them. Rules are being applied without going through the proper channels, the channels set up by our Founding Fathers to assure that a tyrant would not rule over the citizens unchecked and unrestrained.
The concept of church and state has been misunderstood. Check out this link to see what it meant when our Founding Fathers set it up:
Debunking the “Separation of Church and State” Myth | Give Him 15: Daily Prayer with Dutch | Mar. 5 – YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RX5wUz7x6_U
This short 15 minute teaching brings so much balance into this myth. The teaching starts at 2 minutes 16 seconds. I would encourage you ALL to listen to this. It’s good to get clarity on some of this so moving forward we all understand this. The letter written by  President Jefferson stating the “separation of Church and State” was to keep the state from affecting the church. The church being involved in governance was an understood and the Constitution was written with that understanding. Here is a short description from the site Advocates for Truth that explains Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Danbury Baptist Association. “In 1801, the Danbury Baptist Association wrote a letter to then-President Thomas Jefferson expressing concern that their rights to religious freedom were still unsafe from the intrusion of the states. Jefferson, wanting to reassure them, wrote in response,
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
This is where the phrase “wall of separation between Church and State” comes from. It is not directly found in the Constitution itself but was Jefferson’s informal way of expressing the effect and intention of the First Amendment.
So, as you see, the wall of separation was towards the church for their protection, not towards the government. We were never supposed to negate our influence towards government.
So I have a question to those of you who feel we should not involve ourselves in what you perceive “politics”. If you saw a man walking down the street breaking the window out of each car along the way? Would you feel compelled to somehow stop him from this? Might I say that many things are being broken right now for all of us. We believe in neighborhood watches for our houses and property. We will take responsibility for the safety of our neighbors or the safety of our cars because it’s a matter of right and wrong. It’s a matter of good versus evil.
What is happening right now in our nation and around the world is also wrong and it’s evil. This is not a political issue. It might be in a political arena but the issues at hand are  a matter of life and death of our freedoms. Our current administration is literally trying to take away our freedom to choose for ourselves, and how we will live by mandates, not by laws being made through the proper channels. By the way, do you know what the word mandate means? Mandate means to direct or require someone to do something. Mandates come from one person. Our government is not set up this way. We, the people elect officials to carry out our directives. They are not supposed to come from the other direction. We elect people to represent us, but if we don’t pay attention to what they actually do, then they have no accountability. It was not supposed to be this way.
Did you know that when the constitution was written and our government was new the citizens each took turns representing the people of their area? It was not until later that people were elected and the pursuit of a political career came into being.
I would encourage each of us to pray and ask the Lord for wisdom in this. With that, here is one more link that I would encourage everyone to watch.
We Must Find Our Governmental Voice | Give Him 15: Daily Prayer with Dutch | August 9 – YouTube  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsW3k0yqJHI
Please take the time to consider these things I’ve brought forth. If it’s not in our realm to govern, then whose?
One more thing… by not taking a stand, we are taking a stand. We are either lining up with truth, or we are not. I’ve heard it said that God is in control. I understand, I think, what they are trying to say. Yes, God is all powerful, He created the Heavens and earth and He could strike us all dead with a blink of His eyes, so yes, I agree that God is God and I am not. But… if He was really in control of this earth would there be abortion? Would there be hunger and poverty and murder and rape? The truth of the matter is He created the earth and everything in it then He created man to have dominion over it. I don’t believe we even understand what that really means. Let’s look a little closer at this…
We are to pray and declare the kingdom of Heaven’s decrees and see the climate change on this earth. The original intent for mankind, when God created us, was stated in Genesis 1:27-28. It says, “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Do we give this directive much thought? I didn’t until I got deeper revelation from it. Here are what some of these words mean in the Hebrew.
Image: to shade, a phantom, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance, a representative figure.
Subdue: to tread down, to conquer, bring into subjection
Rule over (KJV says dominion): to tread down, subjugate, (make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (make to) rule over
Subjugate: to bring under control, governance as a subject, conquer, to make submissive
Of course when Adam and Eve sinned and obeyed the serpent (the devil) the world came under the rule of the devil. BUT!! When Jesus came and died for us, went to hell and took the keys from the devil, He took that rule back over. Do we know this? Do we REALLY know this? Because if we did, I think we would all take this responsibility WAY more seriously.
We are to have dominion over the powers of darkness and the schemes of the enemy which are being played out right now in front of us in a “in your face” sort of way. It is no longer hidden, it is out in the open for all to see.
We need to cast off the image of “I’m just a sinner saved by grace” and take on the image of who we are IN HIM. (Did you know being referenced as a sinner is only used a couple of times in the New Testament? That’s in James 4:8 and 1 Timothy 1:15. We WERE sinners, but now we are saints of the Most High God.) How we perceive ourselves matter! We need to study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and really take to heart Jesus’ words when He said He gives us power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. Now that doesn’t mean that we take on the principalities and powers at a national level (unless He leads you to through prayer), but we can certainly prayer walk our cities and get involved in school board meetings, city council meetings and make a difference at a local level.
That’s where it starts. I’ve been in a few of those meetings lately and when you are sitting there making them make their decisions with a group of you watching them, it makes them more accountable. I have not always been this way, I was as disengaged as most of you, but I am learning. I know how to pray at a local level if I have my feet on the ground and my eyes on the situation. By being involved, we can actually have an influence. We can make phone calls when needed, go visit our representatives and share our perspective. We’ve given our elected officials a free reign for generations to do what they want unchecked. We all stand responsible for our current situation.
I won’t get into this today, but if you haven’t read my last few blogs, take the time to do so. I uncover how our political system is being motivated by darkness, so this is truly a good versus evil situation. God really does care how things are governed and we need to be involved. This is not political, it’s just playing out in a political nature.
One last thought. When Elijah was confronting the prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18, verses 17 through chapter 19:2 talks about Elijah talking to Ahab. Ahab was the king…Jezebel who was threatening him was the queen. Those were governing figures of the day, just like a President or 1st lady. When Elijah called fire from Heaven and killed the prophets of Baal, he was killing those involved with idolatry in their political governing system. Can we not see this?
God is calling us to be involved this same way today. Not to go kill people but to destroy the powers of darkness that is driving this thing; to stand up to our governing elected representatives and speak truth. We need to pray for God to guide us where to be involved and then obey. We need to wake up, speak up, and show up. It’s time…

 

It’s been awhile since I’ve written.  Last time I talked about the history of the children of Israel and how they became compromised by what they were exposed to after they entered the Promised Land. Here is what’s been stirring in my heart lately:

I think we can all agree that we are in a battle of good versus evil.  Obviously, God and the Kingdom of Heaven is the good and satan and the kingdom of darkness is the evil. But here is something that’s been stirring in my mind.  Our culture has done a really good job of discrediting the kingdom of darkness. Some churches don’t even believe there is a heaven or a hell anymore.  They represent the devil as a red guy with horns and a pitchfork.  Believe me…this is not what satan looks like. If Eve had encountered that in the Garden of Eden would she have been persuaded or deceived?  I doubt it.

When evil is dumbed down or reduced to the category of liars and thieves it presents an impression that there’s not much danger. Liars and thieves are bad, don’t get me wrong, but evil goes SO much farther than that! It’s much more insidious than that.

There are several scriptures that I want you to consider:

Proverbs 4:20-23 says, “My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your sight; keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life to those who find them and health to all their whole body. Watch over your heart with all diligence. For from it flow the springs of life.

The word “keep” in the line that says, “Keep them in the midst of your heart” literally means to hedge about (as with thorns), to protect, attend to, observe, preserve, take heed (to self).

The word “watch” in the line that says, “Watch over your heart with all diligence” means to guard, protect, maintain, obey and preserve.

This in intentional…this doesn’t just happen by happenstance.  God is telling us something very important here and sometimes I feel we don’t see the seriousness of what He’s saying.

Then look at this verse: “Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.” (Romans 12:9)  The word abhor in the Greek means: to detest utterly and comes from a double root 1. Off  and 2. To hate i.e. odious.  Romans says to utterly detest evil.  This is not just “not liking” something, this is something way more…

Then it says to “cling to what is good”. The word cling means to glue, to stick, cleave, join self, keep company.  Both of these words, “abhor” and “cling” are intentional and deliberate.  They don’t just casually happen.

I feel like the church, as a whole, has not done a very good job of combating society’s influence of diminishing evil. Rarely do we hear sermons on sin and the devastation it brings. Seeker friendly services want to keep people coming every week. “Let’s not make people feel too uncomfortable or they may not come back”, but is this truly loving people?  Jesus said the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:23)  We have accentuated the point of the “gift of God” part, but don’t really talk about the “wages of sin” part.  I feel we have done believers today a disservice.

Here is what I’ve been noticing.  We have evil around us every day.  Our kids see it at school and on tv.  You can’t watch any program anymore without certain sinful aspects as a part of every episode.  It has become common place.  We go to movies that stir up the adrenaline because we like the feeling of “being on the edge of our seats” but at what price?  What are we being exposed to for that rush? Remember the movie The Exorcist? Did you know this movie was based on a real life incident? And it happened in St. Louis, MO? Read the link below if you want to know more.

‘The Exorcist’: The Real-Life Story Behind the 40-Year-Old Horror Classic (yahoo.com)

But scripture does not hold the same standard, it does not support subjecting yourself to evil, and for a good reason. Stepping over the fence and walking just a little bit on the dark side doesn’t look very bad and may not cause much of a ripple in your heart and mind but if you realize where the full effect could take you it’s not a pretty picture.

It always starts out small. Let’s take porn for an example.  I was just listening to a podcast the other day by someone who was caught in the porn industry and ended up being sex trafficked.  Here was her observation of the people she was forced to be around: Everyone started out with watching regular porn; a guy and a girl in a normal sexual relationship.  Seeing that stirred up emotion and everything else that goes along with it. But eventually just seeing that wasn’t enough, more was needed to produce the feelings desired. The steps down the spiral had begun. Eventually it went to viewing multiple people having sex together, or seeing a violent rape, or children being sexually used,  or even sex with animals. 

When the first steps are taken, you have no idea that in time more would be needed to accomplish the same result.  It’s the same with drugs.  My daughter has run calls on people who needed WAY MORE medication to knock out the pain because their body was used to so much on a regular basis.  It’s like that with all sin.

Not fully knowing the realm of evil creates a complacency of heart, as you aren’t aware of what you need to safeguard against. It’s easier to grow careless when you don’t realize where that first step will eventually take you.  It’s harder to draw a line in the sand and create a hard boundary when you don’t know where the full result of evil goes. I’ve heard it said in sermons, “I don’t want to glorify the devil so we aren’t going to talk about him”.  While I understand that view (somewhat) I also know that if you can’t recognize the enemy it’s hard to resist.  We need to fully understand where those first steps over the fence take us.  We need to know that satan is not content with us playing around just over the boundary.  There is a goal to take us into that snare.  Take a look at this scripture from Joshua 23 that references this:

Joshua 23:6-13

 ^“Be very determined, then, to keep and do everything that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, so that you will not turn aside from it to the right or to the left, ⁷ so that you will not associate with these nations, these which remain with you, or mention the name of their gods, or make anyone swear by them, or serve them, or bow down to them. ⁸ But you are to cling to the Lord your God, as you have done to this day. ⁹ For the Lord has driven out great and mighty nations from before you; and as for you, no one has stood against you to this day. ¹⁰ One of your men puts to flight a thousand, for the Lord your God is He who fights for you, just as He promised you. ¹¹ So take great care for yourselves that you love the Lord your God. ¹² For if you ever go back and cling to the rest of these nations, these which remain with you, and intermarry with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, ¹³ know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land which the Lord your God has given you.”

The Lord was warning the Children of Israel that if they did not “take care for themselves, to Love the Lord God” that the end result would be a snare and a trap.  In my opinion, that is love.  That is full disclosure of where joining up with those practices would take you, and that is exactly what happened, as they ended up in Baal worship right along with them.  They gave their daughters in marriage and fell into the same behaviors as the nations they conquered.

Disney has done a good job of normalizing witchcraft (which is stepping over the boundary) as there is a witch or other Greek mythology that is taught in almost every Disney movie made. Hercules is packed full of Greek gods using their names. These gods were worshipped and on some level still are.  I can’t find the link right now, but many of the Greek gods names were associated with Baal and Moloch, the name was just changed according to the country of origin, same god, different name, same practices. The book series Harry Potter, I’ve heard, has real spells in the books that children read as they read the story.  Here is the description from a website explaining the story line:

So, there’s this kid named Harry Potter and he lives with his terrible, abusive relatives named the Dursleys. When Harry turns 11, he finds out that he is a wizard and he has a spot at a magical boarding school waiting for him. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the home Harry has always lacked. While there, he makes friends like Ron, Hermione, and Hagrid, and learns about his magical powers and identity. He finds a place to belong.

The seven-part series follows Harry’s adventures as he furthers his magical education, grows up, and fights the second-coming of Lord Voldemort, the evil wizard who killed his parents and tried to kill Harry when he was just a babe.  

How much is too much guys?  To me, any step over the line of what God says is too much.  If our children are learning through entertainment and pleasure anything about the occult, then how will they readily recognize it as a danger?  Take a look at the link below and how cute they make these books sound.  Each one is about a witch.

13 Witch Books for Kids of All Ages | Brightly (readbrightly.com)

As I take a look at scriptures like Deuteronomy 18:10-12 I don’t see where God takes any of this lightly.  It says, “There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.  For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.

Fantasia, the 1940 Disney cartoon is all about a sorcerer using his magic wand to create cute scenes in the movie. But if it’s in cartoon form does that make it ok?

God drew hard lines in the sand about what was right and what was not.  I wonder if we have taken those hard lines away and muddied the boundaries through movie and books that expose us to the very things that God said to stay far away from. I believe He gave us those hard boundaries for a reason that we don’t fully understand.

If you are interested in hearing more about the occult, listen to the link below.  This is the testimony of two different people, both born in blood line families that have come out and accepted Christ.  They don’t get too graphic but their testimonies are very telling. 

(219) Special LIVE report – spiritual warfare with Ex Satanist John Ramirez & Jessie Czebotar – YouTube

Jessie Czebotar, born in a blood line family (part of the illuminati), and was being groomed from the time she was 4 years old to become the queen mother when she was older.  She witnessed (from the age of 4 mind you) 1,000 human sacrifices a MONTH!  She had her first encounter with Jesus, while still in the system, at the age of 5 and another encounter at the age of 10.

John Ramirez shares a lot about his life growing up in the occult and having a father that was a Satanist, and what all he encountered, as a high priest himself, in the occult.  It is not hard to listen to and really gives glory to God and they pray to lead people to Christ.  I encourage you all to watch it.

Of course, I don’t want to saturate myself into learning everything there is to know about satan and His realm. I want to focus my attention on the kingdom of God and learning all I can so I can grow and mature.  I want to focus on my relationship on Him, but if I don’t know and recognize my enemy, then I am vulnerable.  I lived most of my life like this.

I was raised going to church every week but was very, very ignorant of both.  I was enticed by “spiritual” things as a child.  I understand why now, I was prophetic but I had no one to train me up as my parents were religious but not really believers at that time.  As a child I got involved with Ouija boards and séances. I spent time trying to develop my ESP powers and somehow God kept me from going fully in. But believe me; I spent a lot of time also repenting from all of this stuff when I realized what doors I had opened in my life.  Thank the Lord He sent me to someone who knew very much about the occult and deliverance. I spent two evenings a month for almost a year getting prayer about many aspects of my past, closing doors and renouncing things I had “willingly” invited in. 

For those of you who read the link above about The Exorcist, all of that young man’s problems started after his aunt introduced him to a Ouija Board.  I am so thankful God protected me from the full affect of it, unlike the poor kid that the movie was based on.

I heard an interesting comment today that said satan doesn’t care if you go to church. He doesn’t care if you love God, as long as you’re not a threat to him or getting in his way.  What I have come to know is the dark realm takes their dedication way more seriously than most Christians. Are we leaning into Jesus’ last words to His disciples from Mark 16:17-18?  He said, “These signs will accompany those who have believed; in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (I find it interesting that Paul actually did get bit by a serpent and flung it into the fire in the book of Acts and he didn’t die which made the people on the island want to worship him like a god. Acts 28:3)

Guys, if we are doing the things listed above, then we are a threat to the devil.  If we just consider our walk with God going to church on Sunday and calling it good, then sadly to say, we probably aren’t much of a threat.

On another note, unfortunately, the occult also specializes in “brotherhood”, the family you never had which if you’ll remember, was part of the Harry Potter description above. It literally says, “Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is the home Harry has always lacked”. If you’ll also notice, groups like Free Masonry and other “secret” societies also focus on brotherhood. They stand with each other and support each other and offer favors to each other in ways that the common folk don’t get.  It satisfies a need in your life, it fills the void of loneliness.  Unfortunately, they do a better job than a lot of churches. And you may not know this, but Free Masonry eventually takes you to the occult.  I had it in my family and knew members at the 33^rd degree level.  That is where it takes you. The Shriner’s, Knights of Columbus, many of them all have the same thread.  They do good works for the community, The Shriner’s have a hospital and offer free or discounted services, so on the surface it all looks good, but when you go deep it’s a different story.

It’s everywhere guys. We need to start knowing what’s what.  I hate to always be exposing and sharing what I’ve been sharing lately, but I have felt led by the Spirit to do so and I feel someone needs to. We need to know what to avoid and how to navigate freely in the world that we are trying to share Christ with, without falling into the pits that are all around us. If we have open doors in our lives from generations before us, it’s our responsibility to repent, close those doors and draw the blood line of Jesus as a barrier between our past generations and our future.

We need to know how to direct our kids through life with wisdom, staying away from those danger zones and training them to recognize when compromise is present.

Like I mentioned earlier, I spent a couple of years addressing issues from my past that were still affecting my present.  There is freedom from this.  Jesus DID pay the price on the cross and He purchased freedom for us from the devils snares, but we need to apply it. Satan is a legalist.  He will access and keep on accessing what we have willingly participated in until we tell him to stop and break the contract with him. This is done through prayer.  I am willing to pray with anyone wanting to start this process.  I am not the same as I was in those years when I was just doing good to keep my “suitcase of crap” zipped and hopefully out of site.  It would burp open at the most inopportune times.  I was vulnerable and broken but God healed me and today I am free from those things. Of course there will always be something new to address, but from those things I am free.  Thank you Lord!!

I want to encourage you to please consider your lifestyle.  Think about areas that are compromise in your life. Ask the Lord if there are past generational situations that you need to close off. Your kids are worth you fighting for and doing the work of giving them less for the enemy to work with.  If you have allowed your kids to see or learn things that the Bible says is a clear “no”, repent, pray over your kids and cut that influence off.  It all makes a difference.

I did a Bible study years ago on repentance and renouncing and the differences between the two.  If you want a copy of it to go through, let me know and I’ll get it to you.

In closing, I just want to say that there could be some rocky days ahead. Exposure to some of what I have referenced in the last few months IS going to come to the light. You will discover that there have been things going on, despicable things going on that turn your stomach and you may have sleepless nights.  I did when I went on this road of discovery.  God is getting ready to blow the lid off of this and it will look ugly.  Please don’t suffer through it alone.  I will pray for anyone, I will talk to you if you desire.  I didn’t really have anyone to help me process and it would have been helpful.

I’m here for you if you want it. I Love you all…

Blog post being set apart            

I have been reflecting lately on God’s original intent for His people.  God, Himself, had delivered His people from slavery at the hands of the Egyptians and while they were on the way to the Promised Land, which was in the land of Canaan. He began to teach them how He expected them to live.  They had been in slavery for 400 years and slaves don’t have choices, they only follow orders.  God was now beginning to teach them His ways and He wanted them to think, choose with their freewill God’s ways, and live for Him.

But first a little genealogy and back story.  Genesis 9:18-22 reveals the beginning of the Canaanite nation.  It says, “Now the sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem and Ham and Japheth; and Ham was the father of Canaan.  These three were the sons of Noah and from these the whole earth was populated.  Then Noah began farming and planted a vineyard.  And he drank of the wine and became drunk and uncovered himself inside his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.

I may be wrong, but I have to assume that seeing the nakedness of his father means something more than just seeing a nude body, but none the less, he shared the news with his brothers, which I would take to be a dishonorable conversation, possibly with ridicule and let’s face it, we don’t need to tell everything we know.

So, Ham revealed information about his father in a dishonorable way and verses 24-25 say, “When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son

had done to him. So, he said, “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brothers.” Starting out a nation with a curse is not a good thing.

Portions of Genesis 10:6-10 reveals more about where this lineage goes. It says, “And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizoram and Put and Canaan. And the sons of Cush were Seba and Havilah and Sabtah and Raman and Sabteca; and the sons of Raman were Sheba and Dedan. Now Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calhen in the land of Shinar.

I know this may just seem like a lot of names but I want to point out a couple of key names.  Ham was the father of Cush who was the father of Nimrod.  He was an idolatrous king who gathered people together to build a tower into heaven called the Tower of Babel.  Their intent was to climb up into Heaven and to overtake God and take His place (per the book of Jasher). This displeased God to the point of giving everyone different languages so they had to disperse.  (See Genesis 11:7) Then this same son Ham was the father of Canaan. Two different sons from Ham who were going completely off of God’s original intention and this was just a couple of generations after the great flood.

I have spent some time reading other Jewish literature, one book being the book of Jasher.  It fills in some more of the Genesis story and helps reveal timelines that Genesis skims over. Nimrod was already offering child sacrifices and the beginning of Abram’s life was threatened because Nimrod perceived his birth as a threat and wanted his father, Terah, to bring him in to be sacrificed.  Instead, Terah had another baby brought in and secretly hid Abram away in a cave until he was old enough to go live and be schooled in the ways of God by Shem, Noah’s son. The book of Jasher begins to reveal the different paths of the lineage that chose to know God and walk in His ways and the other lineage who walked away from God and went right back into idolatry and human sacrifice, which by the way was also going on before the flood.  In those days this was out in the open and not hidden.  When Abram left Shinar as an adult, he had come back from living with Shem for around 45 years and had been taught the ways of God. Then God led him from there to Ur and then on to the land of Canaan. (Genesis 11:31)

It was there that God made his covenant with Abram, changing his name to Abraham and promising him that his lineage would be as numerous as the stars in the sky.  He also told him that the land of Canaan would be given them as an inheritance (Genesis 12:5-6). This was God’s first mention of the Promised Land.

After a few hundred years Jacob (who was also called Israel) ended up in Egypt because of a famine and Egypt was God’s provision to keep them alive, but they ended up in slavery when a new king arose that didn’t know Joseph and didn’t respect the Israelites (Exodus 1:8). That is how the Israelites ended up in slavery with a slave’s mentality.  God knew they would need specific guidelines to follow as they again began to know God and learn His ways.

Here are portions of scripture from Exodus 23:24-33, “You shall not worship their gods, nor serve them, nor do according to their deeds; but you shall utterly overthrow them, and break their sacred pillars in pieces…I will send My terror ahead of you, and throw into confusion all the people among whom you come, and I will make all your enemies turn their backs to you. I will send hornets ahead of you, that they may drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites before you…You shall make no covenant with them or with their gods. They shall not live in your land, lest they make you sin against Me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.” (Keep in mind that part of serving their gods included human sacrifice.)

God continues to teach and warn them in Exodus 34:11-16, “Be sure to observe what I am commanding you this day; behold, I am going to drive out the Amorite before you, and the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. Watch yourself that you make no covenant with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, lest it become a snare in your midst. But rather, you are to tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and cut down their Asherim, for you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land and then play the harlot with their gods, and sacrifice to their gods, and someone invite you to eat of his sacrifice; and you take some of his daughters for your sons, and his daughters play the harlot with their gods, and cause your sons also to play the harlot with their gods.”

God was speaking this to them years before they needed to live it out.  He was giving them plenty of time to get it down, to understand what was expected from them so they would be blessed and to understand what the affects of this evil would do if they compromised.

Just a side note: God was implementing a sacrifice system for them to follow. He had delivered them from the final plague in Egypt by telling them to sacrifice a spotless lamb and use the blood to apply to the door posts so the angel of death would “Passover” them (read Exodus chapter 12) and God tells them in Exodus 13:11-12, “Now it shall come about when the Lord brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, that you shall devote to the Lord the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the Lord. But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every first-born of man among your sons you shall redeem. And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ Then you shall say to him, ‘With a powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and it came about, when Pharoah was stubborn about letting us go, that the Lord killed every first-born in the land of Egypt, both the first-born of man and the first-born of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the Lord the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every first-born of my sons I redeem.’” (He is making it clear that he does not want the first-born sons to be sacrificed.)

God knew the land He was leading them into also did sacrifices, but they did NOT do animal sacrifices they offered humans.  As I have mentioned in my last few blogs, they were offering their babies to Baal to receive a blessing.  God made it clear with the first Passover, while they were still in Egypt, that the sacrifice He would require (until He sent His Son, Jesus, once and for all). Was NOT to be their children but an animal.  He told them this so they would not be confused in the years ahead.

A few more scriptures where God taught His people how they were to live are:

Leviticus 18:3-4 “You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt where you lived, nor are you to do what is done in the land of Canaan where I am bringing you, you shall not walk in their statutes.  You are to perform My judgments and keep My statutes, to live in accord with them; I am the Lord your God.”

Deuteronomy 6:17-7:5 “You should diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and His testimonies and His statutes which He has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers, by driving out all your enemies from before you, as the Lord has spoken.”

“When your son asks you in time to come, saying, ‘What do the testimonies and the statutes and the judgments mean which the Lord commands you?’ then you shall say to your son, ‘We were slaves to Pharoah in Egypt; and the Lord brought us from Egypt with a mighty hand. Moreover, the Lord showed great and distressing signs and wonders before our eyes against Egypt, Pharoah and all his household; and He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land which He had sworn to our fathers.’ So, the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.  And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to observe all this commandment before the Lord our God, just as He commanded us.”

Deuteronomy 7:1-5 When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show them no favor. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.  But thus, you shall do to them; you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars, and hew down their Asherim and burn their graven images with fire.

Deuteronomy 12:2-3 “You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess serve their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. And you shall tear down their altars and smash their sacred pillars and burn their Asherim with fire, and you shall cut down the engraved images of their gods, and you shall obliterate their name from that place.” Verse 8-9, “You shall not do at all what we are doing here today, every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you.”

Deuteronomy 12:28-31 “Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, in order that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.  When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in the land, beware that you are ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, “How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?” You shall not behave thus toward the Lord your God, for every abominable act which the Lord hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.”

Deuteronomy 18:9-14 “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead.  For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For those nations, which you shall dispossess, listen to those who practice witchcraft and to diviners, but as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do so.

There are many more verses I could share but these give a clear idea of what the Lord was saying.  There was no gray area for these things. His people were to stay far away.

Several places in the above scriptures reference Asherim.  Here is some information showing that the Asherim and Baal or Molech worship, which involved human sacrifice, were part of the same system.

Groves and high places were places of worship erected to Canaanite gods and goddesses.
They were primarily devoted to the worship of Baal and Asherah (or Asherim, Asheroth).
Baal was simply the title (literally, Lord) of the pagan god Molech. Child sacrifice was a fundamental aspect of Baal worship.

Asherah was a fertility goddess. She had different names in various nations, but she remained fundamentally the same:
 
Nation…………Fertility Goddess
Babylonians——Ishtar
Canaanites——Asherah
Phoenicians——Astarte
Greeks———–Aphrodite
Romans———-Venus

The Canaanites were characterized by their sexual perversity (Leviticus 18:3-30, 20:2-27). The Israelites were expressly forbidden to engage in their practices or in the worship of the Canaanite gods, which also involved sexual licentiousness. The failure of the Jews to keep this mandate resulted in increasingly more severe discipline from God and, eventually, in the final cycle of divine discipline: 

On a side note, the ritual that was offered to the fertility god, Asherim, was to offer your first child in a sacrifice to Baal to have the blessing of future children. If you have read my previous blogs, it was explained that sexual orgies of abnormal sexual behavior and the shedding of blood was involved in this ritual.

Another place references that Asherim were pole shaped to represent a phallus. You may not know this, but many monuments around the world, including places here in the US are Phallic symbols.  They are put there for a reason and have spiritual significance to the people today who worship satan in the same way the Canaanites did in the Old Testament, but I won’t get into that today.

So, Joshua led the children of Israel into the Promised Land with very clear instructions to not learn the ways of these people and to annihilate everyone who practiced human sacrifice.  I’ve heard people say they can’t understand why God would command Israel to destroy every man, woman and child, but these nations had chosen to walk an evil path.  They had given their allegiance to the devil and his ways of death.  The children of Israel started out following God’s commands and God fought their battles with and for them, guiding them in unconventional ways to destroy the enemy.  But then this happened:

Joshua 9:3-11 “When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they also acted craftily and set out as envoys and took worn-out sacks on their donkeys and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, and worn-out and patched sandals on their feet and worn-out clothes on themselves and all the bread of their provision was dry and had become crumbled.  And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.’ And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, ‘Perhaps you are living within our land; how then shall we make a covenant with you?’ But they said to Joshua, ‘We are your servants.’ Then Joshua said to them, ‘Who are you, and where do you come from?’

And they said to him, ‘Your servants have come from a very far country because of the fame of the Lord your God, for we have heard the report of Him and all that He did in Egypt, and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon and to Og king of Bashan who was at Ashtaroth.’ So, our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them and say to them, ‘We are your servants, now then, make a covenant with us.’”

They continued to lie to them, telling them that their bread was warm when the left for their journey and the wine skin was new but now had become old and torn. Then verse 14 says, “So the men of Israel took some of their provisions and did not ask for the counsel of the Lord, and Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore an oath to them.”

So that’s how it started to go badly for them…they were tricked by those nations and Joshua would not renege on the covenant he made with them.  To make a long story short, some of the idolatrous nations remained and they had a negative influence on the children of Israel.  If you read through 1 and 2 Kings you will read example after example of kings who rebuild the Asherim and some kings even sacrificed their children to Baal. 

2 Chronicles 33:1-7 is an example.  “Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem, and he did evil in the sight of the Lord according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.  For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord of which the Lord had said, ‘My name shall be in Jerusalem forever.’ For he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord, and he made his sons pass through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom; and he practiced witchcraft, used divination, practiced sorcery and dealt with mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.”

Then look at verse 10, “And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.”

You can see that the failure to completely clear out the evil in their midst ended up compromising them and the warning God gave them from Numbers 33:55 which says, “But, if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they shall trouble you in the land in which you live. And it shall come about that as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.”  This was prophesied to them through Moses before they ever got there.  They had been told what would happen if they didn’t completely obey the Lord.

After they had fallen in the ways of the Baal worshippers, Jeremiah prophesied the word of the Lord to them in Jeremiah 32:33-35, “And they have turned their backs to Me, and not their face, though I taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive instruction. But they put their detestable things in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. And they built the high places to Baal that are in the valley of Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.”

In Hosea 11:1-2&5 it was also prophesied, “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, the more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; but they did not know that I healed them…But Assyria, he will be their king because they refused to return to Me.”

Now that you understand that worshipping Baal included child sacrifice, it changes how you perceive the Old Testament.  Or at least it did for me.  It helps me understand why God was so upset and why He made it clear that they were not to compromise His ways. (Remember, this behavior was rampant in the days of Noah, and I will get into the why and how’s of it in another post, but God had made His promise through a rainbow in the sky that He would never destroy all of mankind again with a flood, but He didn’t say He wouldn’t render judgment on that kind of evil behavior.  You can read that portion of scripture in Genesis 8:21 and 9:9-17.)

(Back to today.) In the last couple of blogs, I have explained that this kind of behavior (Baal worship and human sacrifice) still goes on today.  It is what they call “hidden in plain sight” and they boast of the ignorance of people like us that don’t know or don’t want to acknowledge that this is going on. I’ve even heard people say, “Today, we are more civilized that that”. (Really??)  Let me give you a few examples.

TOP 30 SIGNS & SYMBOLS USED BY THE ILLUMINATI – winkprissarealitytheory (wordpress.com)

Intel Bulletin Pedophile Symbols (whale.to)

In these two links you will see all kinds of symbology and when you start looking around you see it everywhere.  This is their plan, it’s called “hidden in plain sight”.  You may think some of it is over the top, and maybe some of it is, but it’s worth taking a look and becoming familiar.  In the pedophilia symbol site (the second link) you will see designs that I see everywhere, on kid’s clothes, jewelry etc. like this one below:

                                                        These are pedophilia symbols.

If you take a look at the first link you will see all kinds of illuminati and free masonry symbols.  Then as you’re looking through magazines or sites online or even television shows you will begin to see movie stars and other people using these gestures and it’s not an accident.  Their secret society gloats in being “hidden in plain sight”.  Owls are a satanic symbol and are everywhere.  Unfortunately, you will see them drawn into the wallpaper of Disney cartoons or on the edge of steps like the picture below:

If you want to see more, here is a link to a YouTube video:

(162) 10 SECRET Messages HIDDEN In POPULAR CARTOONS ! – YouTube

And if you’re interested in watching an entire documentary on how the media has used movies and programming for decades, check out the link below:

OUT OF SHADOWS: The Truth Is Learned Never Told – Documentary (bitchute.com)

I just have a question though…based upon the scriptures above, where God Himself is laying out guidelines and standards for His people, where do we stand today, not just as a society, but as His people? 

When my kids were teens, we watched a video series in youth group and Dean Sherman, the gentleman teaching shared this analogy.  He used an example of a river and said, “When a river is within it’s banks it brings water to be used for life;  to water plants and drink.  When a river is in flood stage and is out of its banks, it destroys everything in its path.”

Then he compared God’s laws or standards to the banks of a river.  He explained that when we stay within the safety of God’s ways, we are blessed.  We aren’t living out in a way that brings harm, or as God said, “brings a curse upon us”, or perhaps you could just apply the law of sowing and reaping. Much of what happens in our lives we plant with our own actions and behaviors.

When we live outside of God’s standards or ways, it’s like a flood that brings destruction upon us.  Then he asked the question:  Did God have restrictions in place to keep us from having fun or was it for our good?  I think we can say that in all ways God put out restrictions because the fruit of those ways would bring destruction in our lives.

In what ways today are we living (or toying around) outside of God’s standards?  I know for myself; I took a good hard look at where I had fallen into compromise.  I think this would be a good thing for all of us to do.  

Much of entertainment has a mixed message.  To watch a movie or your favorite series on TV means you also have to watch today’s agenda, things you don’t agree with and the Bible says NO to.  Even Disney over the years has become more “mixed” in their message.  Back in the day, in movies like Snow White, Sleeping Beauty or Cinderella, there was a clear evil and a clear good and, in the end, evil lost and good won.  Today it’s not always that way.  I remember watching the Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog”.  I turned it off part of the way through as there was no clear line between good and evil.

There are books written for children and teens that teach how to speak curses and say there are good witches along with the bad, but if you look in scripture you will not find any reference to “good” witches.  Scripture says all witchcraft and casting spells is evil and to not entertain it but to stay far away.

It’s my opinion that if we don’t set hard boundaries between good and evil, then our children’s mindsets are muddied and it’s harder for them to set clear lines in the sand. This is contrary to scripture that says, “And their children, who have not known, will hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live on the land which you are about to cross the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 31:13

When I got saved back in the 70’s, the message of holiness was taught.  We understood what it meant to live a holy life and we were encouraged to pull out of society to walk separately before the Lord.

Then the message of grace came along.  As I’ve shared in my last couple of blogs, pulling out of society did not accomplish anything good.  We removed God’s standard when we removed ourselves.  While the message of grace was important and necessary, it also has a ditch and I believe we are now in it. The Grace message has brought a “sloppy” Christian lifestyle.  I have come to believe that all truth needs to be held in tension.  While the “Holiness” message brought a religious spirit, the grace message brought a Christian lifestyle that looks much like the world.  If we hold these two truths in tension, we should get out of the ditches on both sides and learn that both messages are important and necessary.  By God’s grace, He gives us the ability to use our free will to walk in His ways.  Not grunting it our in the flesh but relying on His grace to walk holy before Him.

Leviticus 11:44 says, “For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy; for I am holy…     This is the Old Testament, you might say.  This does not apply to us today!  So, let me share two New Testament Scriptures with you:

1 Peter 1:15-16 “But like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be Holy, for I am Holy.’”  (You’ll notice Peter quoted the Leviticus scripture above so he was saying it was pertinent to today.)

Ephesians 5:1 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” What is Paul saying here?  The word imitator in the Greek means: an imitator, follower and comes from the root word to mimic.  These two verses indicate to me that it DOES matter how we live and what we subject ourselves to.

So, closing I’d like to tie this all back together with the lineage of Ham.  Because Joshua and the Children of Israel did NOT eradicate all of the Canaanites in the land, those who were Baal worshippers, they continued on.  They were mentioned in Babylon where Daniel lived.  They lived throughout the New Testament times.  Rome had elements of it in their time.  They burned Christians as torches on the streets at night while people walked the streets and walked by them.  They burned Christians alive in sports events for entertainment.  They watched people (Christians) torn limb from limb in arenas by lions. 

At some point it went underground but I assure you it is still alive and well.  The people today who practice these things are called the illuminati.  This is not a conspiracy theory.  Let me show you, in closing, an image from a Disney Cartoon.

This was a Ducktales cartoon made in 1989.  If you want to read more check out the link below.

“Ask About Illuminati” Eye Chart in DuckTales Cartoon (wafflesatnoon.com)

The Rothchilds, The Rockefellers, many billionaire elites are involved.  I won’t get into all of it now but if I’m led by the Spirit I may in the days ahead.  Of course, if you ask, I’ll be glad to share what I know.  But just let me tell you they are involved with the sex trafficking and millions of children a year just disappear.

On a good note, there is an operation going on, also under the wire and things are turning around for good.  God is on the move and what has been going on for generation upon generations is getting a smack down from God.

There will be some BIG reveals coming out soon and some things taking place that may seem down right frightening.  This evil element isn’t giving up easily and they may have some cards to pray.  It would be good to pray…ask the Lord what your part might be to address these things in the Spirit.  Again, Tim Ballard has a ministry called “The Underground Railroad” and they literally do rescues of children all over the world.

https://ourrescue.org/

I pray you will take to heart some of what I’ve shared.  Ask the Lord for insight, if you need to remove some things from your life.  Ask Him for wisdom for the days ahead.  God is on the move…let’s all be on the right side of what He is doing.

Blessings…

Something has been stirring in me for a few weeks now. I’m going to try to communicate what I’m feeling.  First off, I want to say that, I’m saying what I’m saying in love, not hostility or judgment, but kindness and love. These two verses have struck me as a model for sharing truth. 

Ephesians 4:15 says, “But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ”.

Then Psalms 85:10 says, “Loving kindness and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other”.

Now, I don’t always do this well, but I try.  I’m going to try really hard today…

I have seen lots of division, in our culture and also in the church.  It doesn’t seem to be just about one issue.  I can think of several right off the top of my head.  But the situation we find ourselves in as a nation is prominent right now.

I know politics isn’t a topic that is politically correct any more, but I’m going to address a couple of things that I see.  I believe the Lord has shown me this, but I’m not going to say “thus sayeth the Lord”.  I’m going to present what I see, and you can weigh it for yourself.

This last election was not about democrat versus republican.  It was darkness versus light. Unfortunately, darkness was on both sides of the aisle.  I’m not going to get into what all I’ve been exposed to, but just let me tell you it’s not pretty, in fact it’s disgustingly nefarious and luciferian.  I won’t discuss it here or even on social media, but if you want to meet in person, I’ll gladly share what I’ve learned.

Many believers have seen what God intends to do to step in and tear down the darkness that is ruling at this time. Many, for decades, have been watching as this evil has unfolded.  They were called conspiracy theorists and the likes.

Whenever people would try to tell me about this I would say, “I want to know what the Lord is doing, not what the devil is doing”.  Some of you have heard me say this.

Last summer I began to intercede for our nation and for the world.  I spent hours a week seeking the Lord on what to pray and what was on His heart to address.  I believe He began to show me, and with that came the understanding of another agenda that was on the horizon.  It was God’s intention of what He planned to do.  When I began to learn about it an excitement stirred up in me and I knew it was something to stand in faith for.

Well, November came and went and now we are in the month of February. In prayer, I have sought the Lord and I always hear the same thing.  He told me to stand in faith as one believing for what He will accomplish during this time and what the prophets have said.

I realize this looks foolish, and if you look with natural eyes it looks impossible, but faith is not believing what you see with your natural eyes.  Faith is believing what you have been told by the Lord.  Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”

I’m not asking you all to stand and believe what God has told me.  If He hasn’t told you then it’s not something I’m going to try to convince you of, but what I do want to address is the hostility and the ridicule I see from people who don’t see what I see, and don’t believe what I believe.

I think about Noah when the Lord told him to build an ark and the fulfillment of that word wasn’t seen for 120 years.  Genesis 6 says, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and that he was a righteous man, blameless in his time and that he walked with God.  It also says in Hebrews 11:7 that “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which He condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”. 

He walked out this walk alone.  I’m sure that during that time people everywhere were mocking him because he was building an ark on dry land and telling everyone that would listen that it was going to rain and flood the earth.  If I’m correct about this, I don’t think it had ever rained up to that point, as Genesis 2:6 says, “But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.”

If I’m correct in my thinking, no one had ever seen rain before.  It made no sense at all to them and was not on their grid of understanding, so I’m sure Noah was made fun of and appeared to be a lunatic.

Hebrews 11:11 says, “By faith even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered Him faithful who had promised.” I realize they messed up with Ishmael, but this verse says Sarah conceived Isaac by faith.  If she was in her 90’s, and had been believing for over 25 years for a child because “God said”, don’t you imagine that people were wondering how she could still believe for what was naturally impossible?

Hebrews 11:8 says, “By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going”.  How do you explain that to doubters?  How do you try to make sense of leaving your family and going out, believing you have heard from God and you can’t even assure them that you know where you’re going?  I’m sure he came up against opposition when people didn’t understand the “why” and the “where” of what he was doing.

Here is my concern though.  In each of these examples, God’s people were correct in what they were hearing and God did fulfill His word.

Do you know that Messianic prophecies took up to 400 years to be fulfilled?  Do you think people like Isaiah and others were told to apologize for “missing it”?  Honestly, I doubt it, but I could be wrong.

Look at this verse from 1 Kings 13:1 and 2, “Now behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.  And he cried against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the Lord, Behold a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.”

This prophecy was not fulfilled for over a century.  In 2 Kings 22:1 it says, “Josiah was eight years old when he became king” and the mess Israel was in by allowing compromise and idol worship was corrected in his reign.  The whole chapter of 2 Kings 22 talks about the revelations that were received and the corrections that were made to get the kingdom back on the right track.

Here is my point in all of this.  I present this in love.  Please hear me… I see people scoffing right now, laughing at those who are trying their best to stand in faith for what they believe God has said.  With the situations we are facing right now, it’s not going to be centuries to see God move (or not).  It’s more like a matter of months.

Nay-sayers and others might want to check their hearts and motives. If things come to pass as I see them, I would not want to be on the wrong side of what God is saying and doing.

If you have not been asked to stand in faith for this coming season, as least consider being in the category of “I’ll believe it when I see it”.  To mock and scoff at believers who are trying to obey their directives from the Lord is a dangerous position.

I know what I’m sharing sounds ridiculous to many.  I realize I’m putting myself out there for more judgment etc.  What I’m trying to do, though, is be the watchman on the wall that Ezekiel 33 talks about.  The Lord gave me this verse over 30 years ago and it’s part of my calling and how God has gifted me.  I’m trying, in love to provide a heads up to consider where you may stand and how you may want to re-think some things.

I’m accusing no one.  This is not written for anyone in particular, but if you feel convicted, perhaps it’s for you to ponder.  If it makes you angry, then that’s between you and God.  I’m just trying to obey what He’s giving me.

If anyone wants to discuss what I’m referencing I’m willing, but not on social media, preferably in person.

The days ahead may be rocky, but God’s on the move and He’s cleaning up some things. There may be things revealed that rock you, things you had no idea existed.  I understand…I was there and with the Lord processed through them.  I’m here to pray with you and help if I can. 

Let’s all love each other and have grace during this time.  It’s rough enough right now, in just our everyday life, we don’t need to be tearing each other up.  We need to stand together for and with each other. Let’s not give the enemy any more advantage.

In closing, I’d like to present one more thing.  The Body of Christ should look different than the world.  Our earthly culture is hostile and violent.  We should look different in the church.  There is power in anointing in unity, that’s why the devil hates it. Psalms 133:1 says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity”. Then it goes on to talk about how that unity is like the precious oil that was poured out over Aaron’s head and down over his body.  This is a symbolic reference to anointing.  We need to guard unity. Ephesians 4:3 says “Being diligent to preserve the unity of the Sprit in the bond of peace”. 

Let’s have grace for each other.  Like I said, life if tough enough right now without tearing each other up.  We’ve been called to a higher standard than that. We’ve been called to reconciliation and love.

Chapter 15
What is it You’re Looking For?
There was a time in my life that I expected the worst. It was so familiar to me that I didn’t even know that it was my mindset. If someone would have told me I had a negative mindset, I would have denied it. I honestly didn’t see it in myself.
I think it developed in my childhood, from circumstances and pain that I lived through. If a person doesn’t have someone guiding them through tough events, and helping them see truth instead of what seems true, then a false negative mindset can be the end result.
Let’s take a look at some Biblical examples of people who had a similar problem.
We have looked, several times, at the Children of Israel and what they encountered when the Lord wanted to lead them into the promise land. Numbers chapter 13 tells us that Moses sent twelve spies, one from each tribe, to check out the land of Canaan. They were told to observe the people, the land, the crops and bring back a report.
Verse 25 tells us that they returned, came to Moses, Aaron and all of Israel and began to describe what they saw. They brought back a cluster of grapes, which was so large that it hung between two poles and they said it was a land that flowed with milk and honey; good qualities.
But then they began to mention all of the obstacles. The people who live there are strong and the cities are fortified and very large. The descendants of Anak are there. “We are not able to go up against the people, they are too strong for us”.
Then it gets worse… “We also saw the Nephilim (they were giants) and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight”. (Emphasis mine)
Then verse 30 – 31 says, “Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “We should by all means go up and take possession of it, for we shall surely overcome it.” But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us.”
What do you think brought on their defeatist attitude? Even though they all saw the same thing, at the same time, how are they divided between the ten who saw a negative outcome versus Caleb and Joshua, who did not?

Elisha and his servant
2 Kings 6 brings us another example. The Arameans were at war with Israel. The king of Aram was angry because he knew someone was giving Israel’s king inside, confidential information. The Aramean king was informed that Elisha, the prophet, was telling the king of Israel the secrets that the enemy nation spoke in their bedrooms (verse 12). So basically, he commanded them to go capture Elisha, the one telling their secrets to the king.
Elisha and his servant discovered that they were surrounded by horses and chariots from the Aramean army. Verse 15 tells us that the servant said, “Alas, my master! What shall we do”? And Elisha said, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
What is the difference between Elisha and his servant’s perspective? How can they be in the same circumstance but perceive such a different outcome?

Multiplying the loaves and fishes
Or, what about the time when Jesus told His disciples to feed the crowd that has followed them?
Luke 9 tells us that a multitude of people had followed Jesus and His disciples out into the countryside because He had been teaching them and healing the sick. Verse 12 says when the day began to decline, the twelve came and said to Him, “Send the multitude away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat, for here we are in a desolate place.”
But Jesus said to them, “You give them something to eat!”. Verse 13 says that their reply was “We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people.”
Might I point out that they had just seen miracles, as verse 11 says Jesus was teaching and healing the sick. Luke 8, the chapter before, tells how Jesus rebuked the storm as they were traveling across to the other side of the lake (vs.22-25) and asked them, “Where is your faith?” Then He delivered the man from demons (vs. 27-38). Then He heals the woman with the issue of blood (vs.43-48) and that’s on the way to raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. ALL of this happened BEFORE He asked them to feed the multitudes.
After seeing all of these miracles, why did they think with their reasoning instead of by faith? Why did they perceive Jesus’ request as something to be fulfilled physically instead of through Him miraculously?
As I pondered all of this, trying to get a handle on why we have a tendency to see all of life’s issues so negatively, I ran across verses like this:

The thunder of the Lord
“Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, ‘Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines,’ And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord; and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.” (1 Samuel 7:8-10 NASB emphasis mine)
Did you notice what happened here? As Samuel was offering the sacrifice, God thundered with a great thunder against the Philistines. This was supernatural, divine intervention.

Pharaoh and the Red Sea
Let’s look at another Biblical example from Exodus 14. When the king of Egypt was told that the children of Israel had fled, Pharaoh and his servants had a change of heart toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?” (vs 5) Then the Egyptians chased after them with all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, his horsemen and his army and they overtook them camping by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon. (vs 9)
Then they (the children of Israel) said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?” (vs 11). But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. (vs 13)
And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So, it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel, and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night. Thus, the one did not come near the other all night. (vs 19-20 emphasis mine)
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. And the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea.
And it came about at the morning watch, that the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. And He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty, so the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.” (vs 21-25)
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. And the waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. (vs 26-28)
Did you catch this? God divinely intervened in each of these examples. Now in the case with Moses, he obeyed the directives of the Lord by stretching his hand out over the water, but God moved on their behalf, both the evening before by placing a wall between Israel and the Egyptians, and again in the water by making it dry land for Israel to cross and then bringing the water back over the Egyptians.
I’d like to propose that God has not changed. He is still the same God, with the same heart for us now as He had then. Now, in the case of Moses and the children of Israel, Moses was looking for God’s help while Israel was seeing with fear and negativity. In the first example, the people came to Samuel asking him to petition God on their behalf.
In both examples, someone had an expectation to see God move, and I personally believe that is an important point.

Taking this question to heart
Could it be that we get what we are looking for? Could it be that we bind and loose situations around us based on our faith and expectations?
Hebrews 3:7-19 talks about the children of Israel and their time in the wilderness. “Do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me, as in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tried Me by testing Me and saw My works for forty years” (vs 7-8), “Take care, brethren, that there not be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart that falls away from the living God” (vs 12), “Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient? So, we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.” (Vs 15-17 emphasis mine)
In Deuteronomy 1:26-33, Moses is talking to the children of Israel. He says, “Do not be shocked, nor fear them. The Lord your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place. But for all this, you did not trust the Lord your God, who goes before you on your way, to seek out a place for you to encamp, in fire by night and cloud by day, to show you the way in which you should go” (emphasis mine).
So, what is it God was looking for from them as He led them out of Egypt and into the promise land that He had told them that He had for them?
I believe there are several things that we should look at. Let’s take a look at faith, hope and trust.

Faith
Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Romans 5:2 references that “we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.”
Hope
Hebrews 6:17-19 “In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath; so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast…”. (emphasis mine)
Romans 4:18 says, “In hope against hope he (Abraham) believed, so that he might become a father of many nations according to that which had been spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be’”.
1 Timothy 1:1 “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope.”
Trust
Psalms 84, the entire chapter, is amazing, but I’ll pull out a few verses: Verse 5 “Blessed is the man whose strength is in You” verse 11 “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.
O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in You!” (NKJV emphasis mine)
Proverbs 3:5-7a “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Do not be wise in your own eyes…” NKJV
Psalms 118:8-9 “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” NKJV
Faith, hope and trust
Let’s dig a little deeper into the above verses to get a better visual of what is being said.
The word “faith” in the Greek (new testament) means “persuasion, credence, moral conviction and goes back to the root word “convinced”; And in Hebrews 3:19, when it mentions that Israel was not able to enter in because of their unbelief, the word “unbelief” literally means, when taken back to the root “not convinced”. (emphasis mine) Not convinced is much more revelatory than unbelief isn’t it?
And hope…Romans 8:25 says, “But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for It.” (NASB)
What is Biblical hope? Is it, “I sure hope everything turns out ok… (insert whiny voice)” NO! How we even use the word hope in conversations like that is beyond me, (although that used to be my mentality and behavior). That kind of talk is hopelessness and fear talking, far away from the hope mentioned here.
The word hope in the verse above, in the Greek, means to anticipate with pleasure, expectation.
Trust was a huge eye opener for me. The word trust in the above verses literally means “to hie for refuge”. The word hie means to hasten or run quickly to. Can you get a mental picture of this? Imagine a small child who gets scared about something or feels uneasy in a certain environment. They will run quickly to a parent to feel secure again. Scripture says we’re supposed to be child-like, so this is exactly what we’re supposed to do too.
To help us understand better how the children of Israel ended up in unbelief, and to also take an assessment of our familiar patterns, let’s go back to the book of Exodus. I found this an extremely helpful study.

Looking back
1.The Red Sea Exodus 14:10-12 And as Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so, the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness”.
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? I saw: fear, unbelief (not convinced), self-pity, accusations, eyes focused on the circumstances and not on the Lord, sarcasm (no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the wilderness,) not remembering God’s past faithfulness (I mean, He had already done so many miracles during the plagues in Egypt; and the Passover blood? That one literally saved the firstborn in each household that night.)
What Moses did: vs 13-14 “But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent”.
What God did: vs 19-20 “And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So, it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet It gave light at night. Thus, the one did not come near the other all night”.
And then… vs 21-29 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided. The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea. At the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion. He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so, the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.” Then the Lord said to Moses. “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left”.
2.Waters of Marah Exodus 15:22-24 “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore, it was named Marah. So, the people grumbled at Moses saying, “What shall we drink?”
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? I see: grumbling and complaining, unbelief (not convinced), looking to man for provisions instead of God, hopelessness, not remembering God’s past faithfulness (and His faithful deeds are piling up at this point).
What Moses did: vs 25a “Then he cried out to the Lord”
What God did: vs 25b-26 “and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet. There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them. And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”
3.Manna and quail Exodus 16:1-3 “Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt. The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger”.
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? I see: fear, grumbling and complaining, accusation, influencing others in fear (the whole congregation was grumbling but you know it started with just one), Unbelief (not convinced), looking to man instead of God, not remembering God’s past faithfulness.
What God did: 4-15 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, for He hears your grumblings against the Lord; and what are we, that you grumble against us?”
Moses said, “This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him. And what are we? Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your grumblings.’” It came about as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning, you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”
So, it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning, there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground. When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did now know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”
4.Obeying His ways Exodus 16:16,19 “This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer each, according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’” Vs 19 “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.”
What schemes of the enemy do you see: I see Disobedience, using their own reasoning instead of following orders (I know my own family’s needs best,) independence (I’ll do it my own way), lack of trust (that God knows my needs best), not remembering God’s past faithfulness
5.Sabbath Instructions Exodus 16:22-30 “Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is the Sabbath observance, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So, they put it aside until morning, as Moses ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it. Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.”
“It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore, He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day. Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So, the people rested on the seventh day.”
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? (again) Disobedience, using their own reasoning instead of following orders (it was there every other day so why not today,) independence (I’ll do it my own way,) not taking God at His word, unbelief (not convinced), not remembering God’s past faithfulness
6.Water from the rock Exodus 17:1-3 “Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”.”
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? I saw: Fear, grumbling and complaining, accusations, lack of trust, unbelief (not convinced), not remembering God’s past faithfulness.
What Moses did: vs 4 “So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me”.”
What God did: vs 5-7 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink”.”
7. Complaining about each other Numbers 12:1-2 “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.”
What schemes of the enemy do you see here? I saw: jealousy (has God only spoken to Moses?), judgment (of the Cushite woman), pride (sat themselves above the Cushites, Has He not spoken through us as well?), backbiting/gossip (sowing discord).
What God did: vs 5-10 “Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, He said, “Hear now My words. If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. Not so, with My servant Moses. He is faithful in all My household. With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” So, the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed. But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow. As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.”
What Moses did: vs 13 “And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Oh God, heal her, I pray!”
Wow! Isn’t that impressing… I want to have this kind of trust in the Lord that I can have this response, even when wronged. He did not vindicate himself, or complain about his own siblings turning against him. He cried out in intercession for those who had spoken against him; And God did vindicate him. He said, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again”. So, Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

Miriam’s sin affected them all
I find it interesting to note that Miriam’s sin affected everyone, not just Miriam. Everyone waited for her throughout that seven days and did not move on. I think we secretly feel like our sin issues are ours alone, but truthfully, our sin affects us all. We may not see its affects in others, but I believe, in the Spirit, we are impacting each other.
We could go on and on, there are so many situations they faced in the wilderness. But what I discovered while I was doing this was the enemies that they were being influenced with are the same ones we face today. The ways of the enemy have not changed in all of these years. I saw that fear, pride, independence and everything else they faced are situations I have had to deal with, and may still from time to time.
Recognizing these things has helped me put a name on what I’m vulnerable to and recognize it easier. It gives a face to the schemes of the enemy so I can see it sooner and not find myself lying flat on my back wondering how the rug of faith got swept out from under my feet yet again.
We need to take a look at what our minds lean towards. Is it hope in God for His leading as we look for Him moving on our behalf? Is it a doomsday feeling that any minute the bottoms going to fall out because we are influenced by fear? Is it somewhere in between with our minds flip-flopping back and forth like a pin ball?
I have a question for you…what is it you’re looking for? What kind of result are you expecting? If it’s not a good outcome, then I wonder if some tweaking needs to be done, some mind renewal based on truth.

What about the armor?
1 Thessalonians 5:8 is a good verse to look at as well. “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. Let’s look a little deeper at this.
When looking at the armor mentioned in this verse it talks about a breastplate and a helmet. The breastplate covers and protects your heart and emotions and a helmet protects your head and your mind. There is protection for both.
The word faith in the Greek means persuasion and comes from the root word “to convince”. He provides a breastplate of faith.
Hope, as was stated above means to anticipate with pleasure, expectation. He provides a helmet of the hope of salvation.
When I take a look at the meanings of these two words, so much stands out to me. Are we convinced in our faith? It’s easy to say we have faith, or to look at verses that talk about unbelief and not think this could apply to me. But faith means to be convinced, and the Greek word for unbelief means “not convinced”. It can’t be much clearer than that. Do we have an expectancy of hope?
If I am not convinced that God is a good Father and has good in store for me, then I might whine the statement above, “I sure hope everything turns out ok…”; but if I am convinced of the goodness of God and the verse that says He is looking for those to support whose hearts are fully His, then I wait expectantly for His divine help and intervention. When we are looking for God then we begin to see Him moving all around us. When unbelief clouds our spiritual vision, we don’t notice Him, we focus on the problem and fear keeps us consumed with worry and fighting off discouragement

A Better Way
King David wrote many Psalms about refocusing himself on truth and not let the facts of his current circumstances present themselves as true.
Psalms 121:1-4 is a perfect example. “I will lift up my eyes to the hills; from whence comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to be moved; He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. (NKJV)
In verse one he asks himself a question; Where does my help come from? Verses 3 and 4 both say that He keeps us. Do you know what the word keep is describing? In the Hebrew it means, “to hedge about (as with thorns), ie, guard; to protect, preserve.
Imagine it… God, our heavenly Father, literally hedges around us (that is what about means, to encircle) as with thorns. If we really comprehended His active care for us, we would run to Him in every little circumstance, because we would know it’s in His heart to protect and care for us.
It’s when we don’t know that we allow way more than we ought because we don’t know His heart for us, or His intentions. Because we don’t know, we don’t catch the little foxes that ruin the vineyard that Song of Solomon references (2:15). Because of this, we might have a tendency to allow things to remain and grow into a bigger attack. This is not the Father’s heart for us, to fight and resist the enemy alone.
Psalm 3:3 says, “But thou O Lord, art a shield about me…”. There is that word “about” again, which means to encircle. And the word shield? It means “a protector, buckler, defense and comes from the root word (again) “to hedge about”.
Psalms 9:9-10 (words in (parenthesis) are the Hebrew meanings) says, “The Lord also will be a stronghold (a cliff or other lofty or inaccessible place, a refuge) for the oppressed (crushed, injured, afflicted). A stronghold (same as above) in times of trouble (tightness, affliction, anguish, narrow, from root to cramp, bind up, shut up, be in a strait (trouble) vex); And those who know (to ascertain by seeing) Thy name will put their trust (to hie for refuge) in Thee; For Thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken those who seek (to tread or frequent) Thee.
Did you see that? He will not forsake those who tread or frequently pursue Him. By faith we must begin to believe these truths. We must begin the process of renewing our minds and trading out facts that has seemed true from our past with what God’s word says.
If you’ll remember in an earlier chapter, I mentioned that we must not formulate doctrine based on our experience, but we must line up with the word of God. Don’t let past troubles or failures paint a different story over your present. Believe what God’s word says instead, in every instance.

Learning from the ways of David
David challenged his thoughts and the realm of his soul many times throughout scripture. Psalms 42:5 and again in 11 both say, “Why are you in despair, O my soul” And why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance, and my God”
Then he would take it a step further. Psalms 25:4-5 says, “Make me know Thy ways, O Lord; teach me Thy paths. Lead me in Thy truth and teach me. For Thou art the God of my salvation; For Thee I wait all the day”.
David understood that he needed the wisdom, understanding and leading of the Father to make it possible to live this type of lifestyle, as do we. We can’t do this on our own. We can’t just learn some principles of the Kingdom then work them on our own. It’s all about relationship.
I Thessalonians 5:10 makes this clear. It says, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him (emphasis mine). This is key…we live together WITH Him…not for Him. For Him is working it on our own. With Him is, well…with Him. There’s a BIG difference in following concepts of truth on your own, and walking in close relationship with Him.

Kingdom Perspective
Living life this way; seeking to see circumstances from a heavenly perspective is a choice. We can look for God’s wisdom and provision, but it doesn’t come naturally. Human reasoning and our natural emotions do not lean this way. This is why we must lean into faith and renew our minds. So, again I ask, what is it you’re looking for? What kind of result are you expecting? The answer to this question is an indicator of what realm your faith is in. It’s either the realm of trust in God’s protection and provisions, or I fight a big devil and God may not be able or willing to help.

A Kingdom promise in the words of Jesus
John 16:23b says, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. Then verse 27, “for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.”
The word love in the Greek is the word phileo and means to be a friend to (fond of an individual) ie have affection for. We know that God agape’s us, but did you also know he phileo’s us? He has affection for us, He is fond of us…
Are we asking for His help? Or are we just making it through the day, pulling up our boot straps and trudging along; this is not His best for us, nor His will. He is waiting for us to say we can’t do it ourselves. He’s waiting for us to rely on Him and not on our own reasoning. He’s waiting for us to seek out relationship with Him and not just “work” the principles of the kingdom, independent of Him.
If you identify yourself in this and want to move from independence to relationship, and from fear-based perceptions to convinced faith, pray this prayer with me.

Father, I see that I have some changes to make. I have allowed fear to cloud my sight. I’ve allowed facts to paint an alternate picture over my present and what Your plan is. I’ve taken the truths of the kingdom and applied them as a prescription to my life instead of walking in relationship with you.
I repent, Lord, of my faithlessness, not being convinced of your loving intentions for me. I repent for thinking I have a plan that will work better than Yours. I repent for walking independent of you with your truths and not walking with You so You can reveal Your heart for me along with Your path for me.
I can’t do this on my own. I’ve tried and failed. I need You and I invite You in. As David prayed, please come and make me know Your ways, come teach me Your paths, come lead me in truth…I’m waiting for you, and in faith I know you will hear me and answer because You’ve just been waiting for me to ask, In Jesus precious name, Amen.

As some of you may know, I’ve been writing a book for about 8 months and it’s caused me to begin to think about my spiritual life and assess where I need to grow. I’ve deeply studied the heroes of faith and desire their steadfastness for my own life.  I want to have the faith that I read about in the Bible, like Moses, who walked closely with God and saw miracles in the face of adversity.  One example comes to mind; when the children of Israel are at the Red Sea with water in front of them and the Egyptians coming towards them in the distance.  In the natural, they were trapped between water and their ever- approaching enemy and they panicked. 

Exodus 14:11 tells us that they began to accuse Moses by saying, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you dealt with us this way, bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt saying, “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.””

If I had been Moses, what would my response have been to a seemingly ungrateful and scared group of people, who, according to previous chapters, did not say anything like that, unless, of course, the Bible just doesn’t mention it.  I’m sure I would have wanted to defend myself, telling them that I had been “trying” to obey the Lord, and besides, He had done some very amazing things up to this point.  Then to God I would have been going, “How did I mess up your plan SO badly that it all ends like this?”

But Moses doesn’t do any of that.  He replies in verse 13, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today, for the Egyptians whom you have seen today you will never see them again forever. The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent”.

Oh my gosh!!  This is the stance I want to have for my circumstances!  Then God tells him in verse 15…(I think this is rather funny) “Why are you crying out to Me? (So obviously Moses must have been sending up some desperate prayers, but they were cries for help, not accusations or questioning Him) Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. And as for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.

Then the most amazing thing happened. Verse 19 says, “And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them. So, it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet it gave light at night.  Thus, the one did not come near the other all night.”

Isn’t that amazing?  The confidence that Moses had developed through the plagues in Egypt and his experiences with God moving over and over again had grown up his faith.  But look at the adversity he went through to get there.  Having to go make the same request from Pharaoh (let my people go) over and over with the same answer each time (no) then seeing all of Egypt suffer from the stubbornness of their leader.  All of Egypt must have been upset because of their suffering.  The children of Israel were definitely upset, because they were telling Moses about their suffering and how they were being forced to make bricks without being provided with the straw to make them, yet they were required to produce the same quota each day or be whipped by their overseers. (see Exodus 5:6-19)

We are living in some tough times today.  With the natural eye, the climate seems to be getting more violent, with rioting, shootings, sickness and quarantine.  But I believe God has a plan.  I do not want to be like Israel, panicking at the Red Sea, I want to be like Moses, facing each situation with faith that God will reveal the next step as he goes. He was faithful to them and He is faithful to us. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8)

I’ve heard it said that Vietnam was the first war where it was hard to tell who the enemy was.  The Vietnamese were fighting for both sides, and with your natural eye you couldn’t tell which side,a person approaching, was on. I sensed the Lord telling me to begin to identify the enemies of my own mind. What lies did I believe? What filters did I process life through?

2 Corinthians 2:11 says, “…so that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes”; And Ephesians 6:11 says, “Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil”.

1 Corinthians 10:1-11 retells the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness with verse 11 in the Passion Translation saying, “All the tests they endured on their way through the wilderness are a symbolic picture, an example that provides us with a warning so that we can learn through what they experienced”.

So, with that in mind, I’d like to take a look through some of the different situations the children of Israel faced in the wilderness and analyze their response to each situation. I believe we can glean wisdom from their experiences to apply to our own.

LOOKING BACK:

1.The Red Sea Exodus 14:10-12  And as Pharaoh drew near, the sons of Israel looked, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they became very frightened; so the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord.  Then they said to Moses, “Is it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?  Why have you dealt with us in this way, bringing us out of Egypt?  Is this not the word that we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians?  For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness”.

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?  I saw   fear, unbelief (lack of trust), self pity, accusations, eyes focused on the circumstances and not on the Lord,    sarcasm (no graves in Egypt that you have taken us to die in the wilderness), not remembering God’s past faithfulness (I mean, He had already done so many miracles during the plagues in Egypt)

What Moses did: 13-14  But Moses said to the people, “Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.  The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent”.

What God did: 19-20 And the angel of God, who had been going before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them.  So it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud along with the darkness, yet It gave light at night.  Thus, the one did not come near the other all night.

Then… vs 21-29 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night and turned the sea into dry land, so the waters were divided.  The sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.  Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea.  At the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion.  He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.”  Then the Lord said to Moses. “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.”  So, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.  The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left”.

2.Waters of Marah Exodus 15:22-24 “Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness and found no water.  And when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore, it was named Marah.  So the people grumbled at Moses saying, “What shall we drink?”

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?  I saw   grumbling and complaining,  lack of trust, looking to man for provisions instead of God,   hopelessness,   not remembering God’s past faithfulness

What Moses did:  25a  Then he cried out to the Lord

What God did:  25b-26  “and the Lord showed him a tree; and he threw it into the waters, and the waters became sweet.  There He made for them a statute and regulation, and there He tested them.  And He said, “If you will give earnest heed to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, and give ear to His commandments, and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have put on the Egyptians; for I, the Lord, am your healer.”

3.Manna and quail  Exodus 16:1-3  “Then they set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the sons of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departure from the land of Egypt.  The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.  The sons of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger”.

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?  I saw fear, grumbling and complaining, accusation, influencing others in fear (the whole congregation was grumbling but you know it started with just one), Unbelief (looking to man instead of God), not remembering God’s past faithfulness

What God did: 4-15 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.  On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” So Moses and Aaron said to all the sons of Israel, “At evening you will know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt; and in the morning you will see the glory of the Lord, for He hears your grumblings against the Lord; and what are we, that you grumble against us?”

Moses said, “This will happen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread to the full in the morning; for the Lord hears your grumblings which you grumble against Him.  And what are we?  Your grumblings are not against us but against the Lord.”

Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your grumblings.’” It came about as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “I have heard the grumblings of the sons of Israel; speak to them, saying, ‘At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

So, it came about at evening that the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp.  When the layer of dew evaporated, behold, on the surface of the wilderness there was a fine flake-like thing, fine as the frost on the ground.  When the sons of Israel saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” For they did now know what it was. And Moses said to them, “It is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.”

4.Obeying His ways  Exodus 16:16,19 “This is what the Lord has commanded, ‘Gather of it every man as much as he should eat; you shall take an omer apiece, according to the number of persons each of you has in his tent.’” Vs 19 “Let no man leave any of it until morning.” But they did not listen to Moses, and some left part of it until morning, and it bred worms and became foul; and Moses was angry with them.”

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?   Disobedience, using their own reasoning instead of following orders (I know my own family’s needs best), independence (I’ll do it my own way),  lack of trust (that God knows my needs best), not remembering God’s past faithfulness

5.Sabbath Instructions   Exodus 16:22-30  “Now on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one.  When all the leaders of the congregation came and told Moses, then he said to them, “This is what the Lord meant: Tomorrow is the sabbath observance, a holy sabbath to the Lord.  Bake what you will bake and boil what you will boil, and all that is left over put aside to be kept until morning.” So they put it aside until morning, as Moses ordered, and it did not become foul nor was there any worm in it.  Moses said, “Eat it today, for today is a sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the sabbath, there will be none.”

It came about on the seventh day that some of the people went out to gather, but they found none.  Then the Lord said to Moses, “How long do you refuse to keep My commandments and My instructions? See, the Lord has given you the sabbath; therefore, He gives you bread for two days on the sixth day.  Remain every man in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.” So the people rested on the seventh day.”

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?   (again) Disobedience,   using their own reasoning instead of following orders (it was there every other day so why not today),  independence (I’ll do it my own way),  not taking God at His word ,  not remembering God’s past faithfulness

6.Water From The Rock Exodus 17:1-3 “Then all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed by stages from the wilderness of Sin, according to the command of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink.  Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me?  Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water; and they grumbled against Moses and said, “Why now, have you brought us up from Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?”.”

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?  Fear, grumbling and complaining,   looking for provisions from man instead of God, accusations,    lack of trust,  unbelief,   not remembering God’s past faithfulness

What Moses did:  vs 4   “So Moses cried out to the Lord saying, “What shall I do to this people? A little more and they will stone me”.”

What God did: vs 5-7 “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel; and take in your hand your staff with which you struck the Nile, and go.  Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb; and you shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink”.”

7. Complaining about each other  Numbers 12:1-2 Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman); and they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses?  Has He not spoken through us as well?” And the Lord heard it.”

What schemes of the enemy do you see here?  I saw   jealousy (has God only spoken to Moses?),   judgment (of the Cushite woman),  pride (sat themselves above the Cushites),  backbiting/gossip (sowing discord), rebellion

What God did:  vs 5-10  “Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam.  When they had both come forward He said, “Hear now My words.  If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord shall make Myself known to him in a vision.  I shall speak with him in a dream.  Not so, with My servant Moses.  He is faithful in all My household.  With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moses?” So the anger of the Lord burned against them and He departed.  But when the cloud had withdrawn from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, as white as snow.  As Aaron turned toward Miriam, behold, she was leprous.”

What Moses did:  vs 13  “And Moses cried out to the Lord, saying, “Oh God, heal her, I pray!”

Wow! Isn’t that impressing… I want to have this kind of trust in the Lord that I can have this response, even when wronged. He did not vindicate himself, or complain about his own siblings turning against him.  He cried out in intercession for those who had spoken against him; And God did vindicate him.  He said, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut up for seven days outside the camp, and afterward she may be received again”. So Miriam was shut up outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on until Miriam was received again.

I find it interesting to note that Miriam’s sin affected everyone, not just Miriam.  Everyone waited for her throughout that seven days and did not move on.  I think we secretly feel like our sin issues are ours alone, but truthfully, our sin affects us all.  We may not see its affects in others, but I believe, in the Spirit, we impact each other.

We could go on and on, there are so many situations they faced in the wilderness.  But what I discovered while I was doing this was the enemies that they were being influenced with are the same ones we face today.  The ways of the enemy have not changed after all of these years.  I saw that fear, pride, independence and everything else they faced are situations I have had to deal with. 

Recognizing these things has helped me put a name on what I’m vulnerable to and recognize it easier.  It gives a face to the schemes of the enemy so I can see it sooner and not find myself lying flat on my back wondering how the rug of faith got swept out from under my feet yet again.

I also find comfort and encouragement that the work done in Moses was accomplished during times of stress and crisis.  We say we want to be a people of miracles, but to have a miracle, you have to have a situation you need a miracle for.  Living a lifestyle of faith is finding God’s path through the circumstances we find ourselves in, and His supernatural provisions in the midst of trouble. 

We are all living in times of trouble right now.  But we have a choice to make.  Are we going to suffer through our troubles, barely squeaking by, plagued by hopelessness and fear?  Or are we going to see with eyes of faith, cry out to the God who can make a difference, and overcome these times with supernatural provisions.

A couple of years ago, our family was fundraising for an adoption. I was feeling the stress and pressure of seeing it accomplished (as if I could have made it happen…but that’s another story) and while I was in prayer, the Lord gave me a vision. I was walking through a swiftly flowing stream, stepping on rocks as I went across. It was foggy and I couldn’t see the next stone in front of me. All I could see was the stone I was on. The Lord was holding my hand to keep me steady and my foot was stepping out towards the next rock, although I could not yet see it. I heard these words, “This is what it looks like to walk by faith. You can’t see where your foot will yet step, but you know who’s holding your hand.” that gave me such comfort to know that I couldn’t see the whole picture, or even the next step clearly. But I knew who was holding me up and guiding me across.

This is what I still want.  Troubles are here and have seemingly increased.  But, in the Bible, it was during crisis times that He moved in very significant ways. God has a plan and He wants us to be a part. He wants us to trust in Him and ask Him how He sees the situations that we are facing. He wants us to pray what He shows us to pray. He wants us to then do what He shows us to do. And Moses had his part to do too. He held out his staff when the Lord told him to. He struck the rock when the Lord told him to. God did His part (which was most of it) and Moses did his part.

When we trust in Him, ask Him the next questions, and obey His promptings, no matter whether they seem to make sense or not, we WILL see His hand at work.  That, folks, is what I choose!

I’ve been feeling the stirrings of revival for about a year and a half now. My daughter had a dream (she’s a prophetic dreamer) and then we started seeing in the natural the very things her dream had been about. The Lord told her we were on the verge of revival.

I was super excited and let my faith rise up to embrace it. I had been through the renewal times of the 90’s and was hungry for God’s move again.

Then different prophets started prophesying that revival was coming. Bill Johnson and Shawn Bolz both talked about it and I joined my faith with theirs. And with Hannah’s dream, I partnered with what we saw happening, again, both of us with a sense of expectation for what we were hungering for.

Bob Jones even prophesied before he died that when the Kansas City Chiefs won the super bowl, revival was right behind it. The Chiefs won last year in 2019. Woo Hoo!!

Then 2020 hit. I remember, on New Years Eve, spending some time in prayer asking the Lord to prepare me for these exciting next steps. That my eyes would be open to recognize what He would be doing next. I didn’t want to be like the people in Jesus’ day who missed what He was doing because of a preconceived idea of what it would look like. I remember connecting the year 2020 with 20/20 vision and we all agreed it was going to be a great year.

I remember having conversations with some, in my local community, who were also looking for revival and we all agreed if you read back through revival history, many rejected what was happening because it wasn’t what THEY were looking for. Many times the new smacked up against the familiar and conflict arose within the church as people tried to reason out what was happening.

Our church spent 21 days in prayer and fasting during January. We were asking God for more clarity and more of Him.

Then Covid 19 hit… then quarantine hit… Then racial tension hit, as another African American was shot then a week later a very unfortunate situation happened between the police community and another African American man who ended up losing his life.

There’s a LOT of trauma….a LOT of injustice everywhere. A LOT of accusations, a LOT of fear for our future…. a LOT of negativity floating around on social media where everyone has an opinion and lines are being drawn, sides are being formed, deep divides between even the church community, where we have those who say wear a mask, then those who say they will not be ruled by governmental rules and they ridicule those who do. Those who support the police community and those who don’t know what to believe anymore.

I’m not here to address any of those things. I’m just wanting to share what the Lord’s been speaking to me in the last few months of crazy.

My journey actually started a couple of years ago, and has come more into fruition recently. 2 years ago, I read a book by Graham Cooke called Game Changers. It’s published by Aglow Intl. if you are interested in buying a copy. I went through that study with a couple of friends and what I took from it was a turning point in my walk. In a nut shell it’s about renewing your mind and choosing what you are going to hope for in each situation. He says with every obstacle comes a heavenly provision and we have a choice what we will partner with.

Ephesians 4:22-24 says, “In reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth”.

Renewed… The word renew in the Greek means to renovate. We did a kitchen renovation a few years back and that image came to mind. The first thing they did was tear out everything that was going to be replaced. They tore out a window and door, the kitchen cabinets, sink, stove, everything; the room was an empty shell. Then one thing at a time was addressed. They built a new wall with a sliding glass door, then replaced everything else with brand new items. It looked amazing when it was done.

But, what does it mean to renew our minds? Well, for me, I had a life-time of wrong perceptions and familiar but dysfunctional cycles of behavior to address. I believed lies about myself because of circumstances I’d lived through and I processed everything I saw through the scratched lenses of my past circumstances, not through God’s truth.

Then, the same scripture above says to “put on the new self”. Remember the movie The Secret Garden? Remember Mary Lennox as she wants to be dressed by her Ayah while still living in India? She would stand with her arms held out while her nanny literally dressed her. Sometimes, I wonder if we take that posture about renewing our minds and putting on the new self mentioned in the verse above; And the word “put on” in the Greek literally means (in the sense of sinking into a garment); to invest with clothing (literally of figuratively). This is an action we do, it is not done for us. It’s a part we must play or we end up spiritually holding our arms out like Mary and asking and hoping that the Lord will do it for us.

I know that our salvation was purchased for us on the cross when Jesus was crucified for us; But I also believe our maturity in Christ comes with us doing our part to choose truth, by addressing lies and strongholds in our minds; by replacing those enemy thoughts with what Scripture says and doing spiritual housecleaning so to speak. And the Lord has been faithful to lead me into truth about many things in my life and I am not the same. I’m learning to choose to believe what His word says instead of what circumstances say. Sometimes that’s challenging, because the circumstances are dancing around right in front of you, but the truth is more of a subtle perception with a choice to believe it instead.

One day I came across this scripture that was so revelatory to me. Matthew 13:58 says Jesus didn’t do many miracles in His own hometown because of unbelief. I felt compelled to look up the word unbelief. It means faithlessness but comes from a double root meaning “not” and “convinced”. Unbelief means not convinced. This was eye-opening for me. It was easy for me to hide in the word unbelief and say, “I don’t struggle with unbelief” but it was harder for me to ignore if I called it not convinced. Were there part of scripture that I was not convinced? Especially parts about my identity in Christ….I knew I did not fully believe those words about myself, who He said I was in Him. I let life circumstances create my identity and that was an area of massive tearing out and renewing of my mind and heart.

Unbelief, being not convinced, is even so serious that it kept the Children of Israel out of the promised land. Hebrews 3:19, in addressing Israel, says “So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief, the same word “not convinced”. They were not convinced that God would provide for them…they constantly complained and grumbled in the desert; and when Moses led them to the borders of Jericho, and the 12 spies came back with their reports, they chose to believe the 10 who were “not convinced” that God would win the victory, instead of the two who said He would. God had proven Himself faithful time and time again by providing water and manna, a pillar of fire that led them when to go and when to camp. They had every example in front of them, to believe He would complete what He promised except their own reasoning…maybe they thought they would have to win the battle themselves, on their own? I’ve been thinking about that. Could that also be a reason we struggle today? That we have to figure it out on our own? That we have to come up with a plan and implement it ourselves? I wonder…

He’s also been teaching me to choose what I will look at; what I’m going to focus on, especially during this time of constant chaos and negativity. I’ve come to realize that the devil has a plan and we see that all around us. But do we know and believe that God also has a plan? It may be harder to see….like I mentioned earlier, it’s with subtle glimpses and nudging that we perceive Him. It’s with eyes of faith that we see what He is doing. We don’t need subtlety to see what the enemy is doing though, do we? He’s blatantly out there and it’s hard to miss. But, I for one, have seen some amazing miracles as I’ve chosen to believe the subtle suggestions of promise and truth, instead of what’s screaming right in my face.

So back to revival coming… I know it is. I believe Hannah’s prophetic dream. I believe what the prophets are saying. I believe the sensing of faith that I have in my heart. But the Lord showed me the other day that I need to contend for it. The devil does NOT want a renewal coming. I believe that ALL of what’s happening on the earth right now is an all out attack to get our eyes of faith off of what He is doing and onto the crazy right in front of us. A huge distraction and assault to challenge the strongest of faith.

Remember Elisha, the prophet in the Old Testament? The King of Aram was enraged because Elisha was telling the king of Israel (prophetically) what the enemy’s plans of capture were. They made a plan to capture Elisha and went to Dothan and in the night, surrounded him and his servant. 2 Kings 6:15-17 says, “Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early and gone out, behold an army with horses and chariots was circling the city. And his servant said to him, ‘Alas, my master! What shall we do?’ So he (Elisha) answered, ‘Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.’ Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see’. And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Then Elisha and his servant were led by God’s hand with another plan to take the enemy right to the king of Israel instead of being captured. Totally a God story for sure!

This verse has been challenging me. This and the verse about the Children of Israel choosing what they were going to believe between the evil or the good report brought back by the 12 spies..

In both circumstances everyone was seeing the same thing at the same time. Why was the perceived outcome different? I believe it’s because of what you choose to believe and what you choose to focus on; What you choose to process your experience through. Some saw and chose to believe God’s promises, or God’s provisions, and some saw and reasoned with their own abilities and came to a wrong conclusion of “not convinced”.

I do not want to be in the “not convinced” category. This was the category of many people when Jesus walked the earth and they missed what He was doing and didn’t get to partner with Him. Instead they nailed Him to a cross.

I believe we also need to ask the Lord the next questions. We see what He is showing us and we ask Him how we can do our part to allow Him to work with us and through us. We see what is going on around us (with the crazy) and instead of crying out in alarm…or anger, we ask Him how to pray. Ephesians 6:12 says, “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”.

People are not our enemy folks! It’s the powers of darkness propelling them that are the enemy. I have been trying to do better at asking the Lord the next questions when I see the news. What do I address? How do I pray? How do I partner with Him to see Heaven come to earth, like He asks us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”.

It’s time to fight guys….fight for what we choose to gaze upon and believe (renewing our minds). Fight for what we want to see God bring during this time. Do we want justice? Let’s pray for God’s righteous justice. Do we want peace? Let’s pray that the peace that passes all understanding be poured out on this earth. Let’s pray for divine encounters for the looters and those who are being mislead during this time, to fight this terrible injustice righteously. Let’s pray that they will encounter the one who saves and come into the kingdom of God. What about Covid 19? Can we pray for God’s hand to stay this virus and for people to be healed? What better way to come into the kingdom than through a healing…Do we want revival? Let’s petition Heaven for it and believe for it with eyes of faith.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Let’s get our mustard seed of faith out, blow the dust off and put it in the fight. If you, like me, have seen the stirrings of what God wants to bring, let’s join together and fight the right fight…the fight in the spirit to contend for what He wants to bring.

Who’s with me?

In my earlier years as a Christian, I never thought much about healing. I grew up in a religion that didn’t focus on it or even mention it. When I got saved, clear back in 1973, I started, for the first time, to read my Bible, but even though I read verses where Jesus healed, or people got healed by the apostles, it wasn’t something I even thought about. It wasn’t on my radar.
I was exposed to healing for the first time in July of 1976 and it was a healing I received. Greg and I had been married for 5 years with no hope of children in sight. I had been told by medical doctors that I could not conceive because my ovaries had stopped functioning. I remember one doctor giving me a prescription for fertility pills with the caution that they caused multiple births. My husband wasn’t open to that saying he didn’t want twins or triplets. (I think God has a sense of humor, because we had twins years later without any fertility pills). Anyway…I really wanted children and carried a sense of grief that I never could get pregnant.
The first time I ever heard of God’s power to heal was a sermon I heard at my church in Wichita, Kansas. The pastor preached, on a Wednesday night service, about the word SOZO and how it meant to be healed body, soul and spirit. He asked if anyone wanted to come up at the end for prayer, and of course I went. Some people laid hands on me and prayed that I would be healed to be able to conceive.
Well, 6 weeks later I was pregnant. Boy was I amazed. But even though I had been healed, it didn’t make a big difference in my life. I wasn’t going around telling everyone or looking for opportunities to pray for people. Maybe it was because I was SO sick and literally threw up every single day until the day my first daughter, Holly, was born.
My second experience with healing was when my son, Jon, was little, probably around 2 or so. I had taken him into the bathroom during another Wednesday night service. When we were leaving the bathroom, his finger got shut in the heavy bathroom door and he screamed while I quickly opened the door back up. As I looked at his finger it looked ripped open and smashed. I remember, without even taking a second to think, putting my hand on his hand and praying for healing while I comforted him then took him to the bathroom sink to run cold water on his hand. When I took my hand away his finger was whole. He still cried while I comforted him, but there was no rip in his finger and it was no longer smashed. My second eye witness healing…
In time, we moved to Union, Missouri and went to Abundant Life Church. One of our pastors had a wife that developed cancer. I remember our whole church praying for her fervently. They went to healing conferences, healing rooms, we spent services in intercession for her but she didn’t get healed. She died leaving 4 young children. I can’t speak for our entire church, but I know that did a death blow to my faith for healing, when that happened. They had really believed God and they did not get what they were believing for. I don’t remember praying much for healing after that point.
Some time after that, I went to a conference in St. Louis. My pastor at the time was Randy Clark and he had been immersed into the renewal in Toronto, back around 1994.  He was the main speaker at this conference and one of his sermons was, “God Can Even Use Little Old Me”. He talked about how God began to challenge him to start believing, by faith, what the scriptures said about healing and pray for people. I remember him saying, “I start my prayer out by saying, Lord, your word says that you heal, and to pray for the sick and they will recover, so out of obedience to your word, I ask for healing for…..” I remember thinking, I can do that. Out of obedience to God’s word, I can do that. So, I stuck my toe back into the water for healing. I chose to believe again for it. I started praying healing prayers over people when I was on the prayer team at church or when they would ask me individually for prayer. I chose to begin to combat the doubt that had layered itself over my mindset because of my pastor’s wife’s death. I still didn’t understand why we had believed and it hadn’t been answered, but I repented for my doubt and moved forward.
A couple of years ago I really began to come alive to more of the Kingdom of God. I read through the Bible once a year for several years in a row and my faith began to stir for miracles. I watched a movie called Paid In Full, God’s Desire to Heal through Today’s Believers; A Supernatural Truth Productions film. This film literally blew my mind. It had teams of people praying for people in the streets. One young man, who was not a believer, was asked by a couple of men if he had anything he needed healing for. He told them he had a back problem that could not be fixed and he had lots of pain. These two men asked him if they could pray for him to be healed. He said, “Why not”. He handed his cigarette to his friend and they prayed for him. Then they asked him if he felt any changes. He said he had felt something when they prayed for him, like a warmth in his back, so they prayed again. Then they asked him to do something he couldn’t do before. Right there in the middle of the street he did a back flip and then started freaking out because he was completely healed. It was amazing to watch God show His love to this young man who didn’t even believe in Him. He physically healed this young man who wasn’t even looking for God. Then these two men asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus into his life, the One who had actually healed him. Of course, he said yes and they prayed with him, right there on the street. I remember a stirring in my heart when I watched that documentary and I loved it so much I bought the video so I could watch it again and share it with anyone else willing to see it.
So, healing began to be on my radar. This spring I went to a healing conference at Bethel  Church in Redding, California, and Randy Clark shared the conference with Bill Johnson, Bethel’s pastor. I was, again, blown away when the conference started. I remembered the last time I’d been at Randy’s conference and he shared his sermon on “God Can Even Use Little Old Me” and this was nothing like that. This was full blown, mind blowing, faith in action. There were words of knowledge and people were healed. There were meetings where all they did was share testimonies of other people getting healed and then he would say, “If you need healing for this area, stand up”, and people were getting healed. They would pray for people at one meeting and have several of them share the next day about what God had done in them. One lady had a leg injury, had several surgeries that did not fix it and was told there was nothing more they could do. The next day she was up on the stage, ecstatic! She walked back and forth as she talked saying she would have been limping the day before but now there was no pain. Then, she jumped off the stage as she went down the aisle. Needless to say, when I came home from that conference, I had a huge stirring for God to show up in Washington, Missouri. I still have that stirring.
Then a most significant thing happened. I felt the Lord prompt me to do a word study on the word SOZO, the word the pastor clear back in 1976 had taught us in Wichita, Kansas. So, I got started. Here is what I learned.
The word SOZO is a Greek word and means “safe”, to save, ie deliver or protect (literally or figuratively); heal, preserve, save (self), do well, be (make) whole.
Here it is in context to the scripture I looked up. John 3:16-17, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved (SOZO) through Him.
So I looked up every other SOZO verse in the New Testament. Here are a few of them below: The words right before the word (sozo) are how sozo was translated in the Greek.

For salvation: Luke 8:12 The seed is the word of God. Those beside the road are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they may not believe and be saved (sozo).
Physical Healing: Luke 18:42 and Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has made you well (SOZO).
For Salvation: John 10:9 I am the door, if anyone enters through Me, he shall be saved (sozo) and go in and out and find pasture.
Physical Healing: Matthew 9:22 For Jesus, turning and seeing her said, “Daughter, take courage, your faith has made (sozo) you well (sozo).” And at once the woman was made well (sozo). (King James says whole)
For Salvation: Romans 10:13 For whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved (sozo).
Physical Healing: Mark 5:34 And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made (sozo) you well, go in peace and be healed of your affliction.
Deliverance: Luke 8:36 And those who had seen it reported to them how the man who was demon possessed had been made well (sozo).
Physical Healing: Mark 10:52 And Jesus said to him, “Go your way, your faith has made (sozo) you well”(sozo) and he immediately regained his sight and began following Him on the road.
Physical Healing: Luke 8:48 (woman with the issue of blood) and He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made (sozo) you well (sozo), go in peace.
Physical Healing: Luke 17:19 (leper who returned) And He said to him, “rise and go your way, your faith has made (sozo) you well (sozo).
Physical Healing: Acts 14:9-10 (lame man) This man was listening to Paul as he spoke, who, when he had fixed his gaze upon him, and had seen that he had faith to be made well  (sozo) and called out, “Stand up on your feet!”. At that, the man jumped up and began to walk. (This one is significant because It wasn’t Jesus who was doing it).

For Salvation: Luke 19:10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save (sozo) that which was lost.
Salvation or Protection: 2 Timothy 4:18 The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed and will bring me safely (sozo) to His heavenly Kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever, Amen.
Physical Healing: Mark 6:56 And wherever He entered villages, or cities, or countryside, they were laying the sick in the market places and entreating Him that they might just touch the fringe of His cloak, and as many as touched it were being cured (sozo).
There are many more sozo scriptures; I just added a few.
So, I had a decision to make. Was I going to believe the word of God or my earthly experience? I heard a sermon that challenged that very thing. It said that just because you’ve had a lack of experience in something doesn’t mean it’s not true. We can’t formulate a doctrine around our experience because we haven’t experienced the fullness of what Jesus provided. He purchased sozo for us on the cross. It’s been provided for us. Unfortunately, if you were like me, you didn’t know this. I had never thought of it that way. It’s easy to believe His work on the cross for our salvation. Each one of us, when we got saved, accepted, by faith, that it was so. But it’s harder to believe that the same work paid for our healing AND deliverance too. But as you can see, scripture says that it does.

When I was at the last healing conference I had a vision while we were in worship of me walking on a tight rope with a safety net below me.  I felt the Lord ask me the question, “Will you take down the safety net?  Are you all in?”  I literally wrestled with removing the safety net, like having a back door to retreat back into if what I was starting to believe for didn’t happen.  The back door was my safety net so my faith wouldn’t be destroyed.  I was choosing to protect myself.  I finally said yes, but it felt rather scary and uncertain.

I also did a word study from this verse a while back.  Mark 9:17-24  And one of the crowd answered Him, “Teacher, I brought You my son, possessed with a spirit which makes him mute; and whenever it seizes him, it dashes him to the ground and he foams at the mouth and grinds his teeth, and stiffens out.  And I told Your disciples to cast it out and they could not do it.  And He answered them and said, “O unbelieving generation, how long shall I put up with you?  Bring him to Me!”   I’ll let you read the rest of those verses but he challenges the fathers belief and delivers his son.

The word unbelieving in the verses above comes from the Greek word which has a double root meaning.  The first is “not” and the second is “convinced”.  So that word literally means “not convinced”.  It’s easy for us, all day long, to deny that we have unbelief in our hearts, but when you hear it translated into not convinced, it’s a little easier to see where we may have mindsets in our life that are not convinced toward the Kindgom of God.

I’ve chosen to take the safety net down and believe for the full work of the cross. Jesus died a gruesome, painful death for our complete sozo. I don’t want to disregard the pain and suffering He went through and ignore all He died for and just choose to accept one piece of it.  He paid a high price for us and I want to choose to believe for it all.

But, what, you may say, do we do with all of the prayers we pray and nothing happens? Whose fault is it that they didn’t get healed? Did we not pray the correct prayer? Did the person we prayed for not have enough faith? I don’t have answers for those questions. But I have a few thoughts… The Bible tells us in Mark 10:15 “Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it at all”.
I felt the Lord ask me to think about what it means to be child-like. I started thinking about my own kids and grandkids. If I tell them something, they believe it. It’s not until we’re older and the experiences of life set in that we begin to process through our reasoning and past. A child just believes what their parents tell them. If I told my 2-year-old grand daughter that the sky is red, she would believe that it is red. She wouldn’t doubt my words until she learned her colors…she would just believe my words.
We have God’s word with us, it’s easy access in this country. It’s not illegal here to have a Bible and I have more than one. But how many of us, when we read His words,  we pick what we want to embrace and leave the rest there. We don’t believe everything we read because our experiences have told us another story. Unfortunately, the enemy is quite busy messing with people when they’re kids, because if he can get their mindsets warped young they are easier to control later. Or they just end up saying, “Yea, I don’t believe that”. That was the case with me… I had years of life experiences to wade through and challenge with the Word of God. As I’ve done this my core values have changed.
Interestingly enough, I am sick today while I write this. I have prayed for healing…I’ve been sick for over a week and unfortunately, I’ve been afflicted with virus #2 when virus #1 isn’t even done. I have not been healed, yet…. but just because my experience isn’t matching what I KNOW God has for me, I’m not going to throw the baby out with the bath water. I choose to believe anyway.
I read a book a while back about a man who could see in the spirit. It was an amazing read…. This thought comforted me. He said when he chose to look, when people were getting prayed for, every single time, angels had buckets ready to pour out on the person being prayed for. Sometimes, they were healed, sometimes he could see demons hanging off of them and they didn’t get healed, and sometimes he couldn’t tell why they didn’t get healed. But what excited me was the fact that angels had the provisions ready to give every,  single,  time.
I did learn during the healing conference this year, that unforgiveness and bitterness hinder people receiving their healing. If the team prayed for someone several times and they didn’t get healed, they would ask if they held unforgiveness or bitterness against someone. Many times, they did. After they repented and released it, they would pray for them again and they would be healed.
Or maybe they would get healed but they didn’t stay healed. They said, almost always it was a bitterness or unforgiveness issue. Those things in our lives are like an open door to the enemy saying, “Come on in”.

And praying the right prayer part?  There isn’t a formula, a right or wrong way to pray.  God doesn’t want our walk with Him to be functional.  He wants relationship with us.  He wants us to feel His heart for a situation and bring Heaven’s intentions into it.  He wants us to see injustice in situations around us, feel His heart for that person or situation and ask Him for a divine intervention.  If we are walking in relationship, we will literally “feel” the promptings as He guides us in and out of situations around us.

And then there’s just going to be those times when we don’t have an answer; we just need to still trust the Lord anyway;  just because it didn’t work, doesn’t make it not true…
And what about the man from the video who wasn’t even a believer? Who wasn’t even asking God for healing? God reached out and showed him great love by healing his body. It wasn’t his faith that healed Him. This young man had no faith at all, it was God’s mercy. So, if we get into the argument that the person receiving prayer just didn’t have enough faith, this debunks that argument all over the place. I’ve even been reading books about people who are using words of knowledge, prophecy and healing to witness to the unsaved.
I heard a testimony of a man who was sitting on the airplane next to a man who, when they started talking, found out he was an atheist. This man ended up having several words of knowledge for him and a prophetic word. The atheist said, “I don’t even believe in God”. The believer said, “Well the God you don’t believe in, believes in you. He loves you this much to have me, a stranger, share secrets of your heart to show you how much He knows and loves you.”
This intrigues me. I want to be used this way to speak and show God’s love to those who don’t even know He’s real. They think He’s a fairy-tale; a made-up mindset for simple minded people. They are hostile to the Gospel, but God is not hostile toward them. And He wants to use any of us who are willing, to show them that.
That’s what I’ve been learning anyway…and I’m willing.