Cherith Stream

The Harbinger: A Call for America to Repentance

2012-02-04T20:07:00.000-06:00

America needs to repent! If we will humble ourselves, and yield to the Lord Jesus Christ, He will restore this land. Reading this book is a must for any Christian today. I never say this, but having just read this book, it is a must. Why? It gives the inside scoop on what happened in the spirit behind 9/11. Our leaders unknowingly, or knowingly, moved in a spirit of defiance before the Lord, just as Israel did during the time of Isaiah. This book is a news flash from heaven. Please read it, and pray for our leaders to abandon the schemes of man, and simply repent, and lead the nation in repentance. I pray and call our congress, legislators, and president to hear the words of this book, and respond in corporate repentance. We need to return to the Lord, and abandon all this secular religious non-sense. This moral code of tolerance is actually blocking us from understanding the truth of this nation being founded in prayer to our Heavenly Father. We are in trouble because of the curses enacted by the proclamation and declarations spoken by our leadership. We need to call them to lead us back to our roots, back to our national identity. There is no benefit in secular democracy. We need a democracy that is founded on the convictions of Jesus, with the empowerment of Holy Spirit. I don't know what else to say, but get this book, read it and pray.

Sorry for sounding fanatical. I believe this book is one of the most important ever written for our time.

May America wake up and return to the Lord.

My Fitness Pal

2012-01-14T14:46:00.001-06:00

Heidi and I have gotten in the ritual of having a Saturday morning date. It normally starts with Panera, and usually a Walmart quick stop. This morning we had lots of fun talking. We had to get Sam's friend Eli a birthday present, so I took a moment to savor $10 masks. It's a picture of my true self, but don't tell anybody because it is a secret!:)

After the morning celebration, I decided to see if I could mount my bowling ball bag on the back of my motorcycle and go have a bowl at the alley. Well, I succeeded in the first, but they were having tournament there, so I couldn't bowl. But I took back a video to Blockbuster and enjoyed my motor bike.

My Fitness Pal

Recently, I've been going through an eating revolution. I can't explain it (shocker) but I have found so much joy in doing it. First it gives me so much to obsess about on my phone, I now feel it serves an invaluable purpose. (Like I had nothing to obsess about before!) Today at Panera, I stood in front of the window, counting the calories of the various treats, looking them up on the phone. It was great! I wondered if the people behind the counter knew how I was scrupulously evaluating their sugar treats! Of course, they have the calories for most of the main entrees on the board. But it gave me a sense of spending my calories to percipitate the greatest amount of enjoyment. Boy was it tasty! I settled on a sweet onion poppy seed bagel with cream cheese. Wow! So much more freedom than the old system. If you are looking for a fun way to loose a few pounds, My Fitness Pal is awesome. My user name is willydee695. Look me up if you want to be friends.

Teacher of the Year

2012-01-11T17:05:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while a miracle happens around here. This was nothing short of it. One of the things people say to me is "You deserve it!" Well I know the truth! I do not. It is truly a matter of grace. God's grace. With teaching, probably more than any other profession, it is an adventure of trial and error. People are amazingly complex. Teacher make lots of mistakes, more than their students. However, we keep coming back for more, and dishing it out too.

I actually nominated and voted for a different teacher. She ended up tying me for first place. We had to have a runoff. So I voted for her again. In the end, we were all standing in the office, when the second batch of results were released. I gave her a high five. The result is that I am now called TOY by my colleagues, and get to go to a special dinner with my wife. I'm sure something interesting will come from all of this. God is up to something.

Dawning of a New Day

2012-01-06T23:13:00.001-06:00

I know it sounds crazy, but I hear Isaiah 29:6 so loudly in my spirit. The Lord impressed on me need to blog it. It says, "Suddenly, in an instant, the Lord almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of a devouring fire."

The Lord shows up all the time, for He indwells His saints. However, this kind of showing up has a regional implication. I hear the Lord saying, "Watch, Watch, Watch you intercessors, for my fire has been kindled and it shall not be put out until all who are mine are brought to my kingdom. Great is the hour that is upon you, great is the hour upon land and sea. Selah."

A New Mind for a New Season

2011-12-30T12:55:00.002-06:00

I got revelation from God to blog about Friday morning. I awoke to remember a dream where I was sitting in the local IHOP with my friend Ed. (I actually met with Ed at IHOP Friday to talk and eat. We had a good time.) In the dream, I was talking about the old dispensational mindset I aligned with growing up; the James Vernon McGee/ Hal Lindsay mindset of Bible understanding. The basic idea was that the Rapture was impending at any moment, and we just really needed to be in right order with God, to get ready to go. That is where I came from. But since then, God has taken me beyond into a new mindset. Back to the dream.

I was talking about how we could if we wanted to just sit around and wait for God to come. But if we did that, we'd be on our hands and knees with our backsides exposed. The staff from our church was there and they laughed at the idea. One gal jumped down and said, "Like this!" Everyone laughed at her prone exposed position. Then I went into a diatribe about how the devil, like a hawk, is looking down for people in this position to violate. I talked about how we need to have a mindset where the Lord is calling us to war through the tribulation, to manifest heaven on earth.

The New Mindset

In 1 Cor 2: 14-16

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

God is giving us His mind to bring judgment on the enemy. We are not called to judge people, rather the spirits that hold people in bondage. How do we do this?

In Ephesians 3:10 it says that "His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms."

The manifold wisdom of God is the testimony of Jesus Christ. The victory and authority that Satan gained over the earth in His victory over Adam, he lost in his execution of Jesus Christ. Since the day that Jesus shed his blood on behalf, the TESTIMONY of the Blood of Jesus has released a satisfaction of guilt and obligation to the perfect law of God. This is the Blood Judgment of God.

The mind of Jesus Christ is to destroy the works of the devil. He has chose the landscape of the human heart to execute this judgment, for that is where pride dwells. We release this judgment when we, who have accessed the free gift of the shed blood of Jesus as payment for our guilt, and extend it as an offer of reconciliation to others. Beyond this though, Jesus Christ is Lord. For those who reject the love of God offered in sacrifice of Christ, they stand condemned already under the perfect law of God. We do not have to judge them at all. For they are already judged (See John 3.) Rather, the law itself will execute a series of consequences, expanding and intensifying until all under it are overtaken by death. Our mandate is to liberate those under its unyielding weight.

What you will see is a great intensity of God's law take hold as a new season of reaping begins. Our job is reclaim the human heart, and hearts, from it's grip, the ministry of death. (2 Cor 3:7) We do this by extending the blood judgment of Jesus, loosing the new law of covenant in Jesus Christ, the perfect law of liberty of Life. (Romans 8:1-3) As the ministry of death is nullified in those under the Blood Judgment of Jesus Christ, we bring down the exalted places of the enemy.

THE EXPOSURE

Now is not a time to wait for Jesus to come. By adopting this attitude, [now here is the main point] we expose ourselves as open prey to the devil. How so?

By waiting for Jesus to come we adopt a passivity that breaks our timing with God, and we miss our divine times of appointment to move with God. We substitute a NOW life in Holy Spirit, with a YESTERDAY remembrance of all that was. We settle for religion, and theology, without power. Who wants fossilized brittle theological acumen without the dunamis power of Jesus Chirst? I have been guilty myself of adopting this attitude. The devil loves religion, religious practice, legalism, and faultfinding. These modes actually champion pride, giving him access to devour us as a aerial predator. The point is this: the devil has a plan to get you out of alignment with God, and out from executing the Blood Judgment of Jesus Christ in the lives of other.

If we wait for the impending rapture, as Tim La Haye would have us believe, we develop an expectation of God judgment apart our call to loose love. See Jesus didn't come to judge the world. He came to set it free. (Isaiah 60, Luke 4). Our call is not to damn the people of the world, but to destroy the works of the devil by setting them free from this ministry of death. That is why the return of Jesus Christ will come through His warrior bride!

Now is the time to unleash the plan of God, going into all the world, making disciples of men in Him. So get ready for signs and wonders, for they are made available to those of us in Him, to further His kingdom.

A Master Bowler

2011-12-28T11:35:00.000-06:00

The other day I took a secret photo when nobody was paying attention. These are my friends out here in Texas. They have easy names like Ralph, Ben, and Fred. They are completely regular guys, except for the quiet eccentricity they display when it comes to bowling. On the outside it's calm, cool, and collected. On the inside, it is a barrage of mathematical calculation, infinitesimal adjustments, and nuanced references to oil patterns. Do you see that guy in the red? He is a master bowler. Now, you wouldn't know it by the looks of him, but he is one of the hottest bowlers around. There are other guys, fancier, faster, more dynamic. But Red is like a master sniper... The guy in blue is one of my team mates. He is a great bowler as well. His average is 203. Blue can never believe it when a strike doesn't happen. It is one of the funniest things. Blue says things like, "Wow. Gee. What happened?" as if controlling a bowling ball was as easy as adding single digits, or feeding the dogs. Last weekend I tied Blue for first place in a second tournament of the day. We both tied with a 246, to enter into a sudden death strike off. I took the win. His comment to me was, "I don't mind loosing to you." To what do I merit this consideration? Eccentric. Red was not in the tournament. That was the good news.

Today we are playing again. I'm excited because I get to roll in with my new "Strikeforce" black four ball bowling bag. Its a real smooth roller. Red is in the tournament. We are playing in four man teams. My advantage is that I have three really high handicap bowlers on my team. If they get hot, we are in for some winnings. However, honestly, we are at the bottom of the field. Time will tell.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T12:11:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We had a roaring fire for Christmas morning this year. We've had a calm, enjoyable vacation. I've managed to walk the dogs, 1.2 miles everyday. This morning they barked wildly when I got up. I gave them a terse "HUSH" and a left foot to the rump, whereby I fed them and gave them some tasty bits from my plate. All was forgiven, and the calm was restored. Then Heidi came out and exclaimed, "Your such a morning person!" "But it's after 9am", I replied. You can't call getting up after nine the habits of a morning person. (In truth, I am a morning person.)

Well, I hope you have a joyful Christmas and New Year celebration. We love you family and friends, and miss you all. Thank you so much for all the blessings you've poured out on us!

Unexpected Christmas Provision

2011-12-18T17:31:00.000-06:00

God really came through this weekend. Last week I ran over three nails with my car, and I had to use the Christmas budget to get them fixed. It was the first time I had ever gone into the Christmas season with a 0$ budget. I really believed we were supposed to get what we needed, and trust God for some unexpected blessings. Well, they came on Saturday when I participated in a local bowling tournament. It was an individual handicap tournament. Well I started off bowling six strikes in a row, ten strikes for my first game to post a 256. My handicap is 34, so I was able to pull off a 290 for the high first game. Our team won the first game high score competition. At the end of the tournament, I pulled off a 695 for my scratch three game score, and a 797 with my handicap. With that I was able to take first place for the day. This is my third first place finish for local tournaments this year. (In July I got two in a singles and doubles tournament.)You can see here how good our team did: we bowled a 695 + 649 +651 between the three of us. Mediocre for great bowlers, but good for handicappers like us.

After the tournament, we play a fourth game bowl off, where the whole field gets to compete for the fourth spot in a sudden death strike off competition. Since I came in first, I got to sit this one out. Once the top seed eliminated the field, we bowl a fourth game to determine a bonus placement of 1-4, with each place have a payoff from 20-100 bucks. Well I bowled a 212 to get a 246 with Handicap, and tied the guy who took the fourth spot. We beat the other two players by about 5-6 pins. Since we tied for first. We had to have a second sudden death strike off. I went first, and bowled a strike. The other man threw a split, and I took the win. In the end, I won $450 for taking the tournament, and the fourth game bowl off after it was over. Pretty great way to get the Christmas budget back by faith. Really, I give God the credit, because He kept my nerves under control.

Today, after church, we had a Jr. High-Senior High football game, and I got to be the referee. I took Sam with me just because, and we had a fun time. Here we are having a hoot. You can see little Sam in the midst of all these "BIG" guys. Well, tomorrow we brave the Monday morning shopping world. Merry Christmas.

Holiday Lights

2011-12-17T08:45:00.001-06:00

Awesome! A new vacation is here, and I await to see the many blessings that unfold over the next few days. What a full week! I knew this time would get here, but making it past the last few days in school has been quite a challenge. I've been battling chest congestion, and just getting up and going in the face of responsibility...you know how it is. Thank God for vacations.

Last night, I fired up the old telescope and went out to engage in some star gazing. Planet gazing...too. It seems like I go eight months before I break the thing out again, and then I remember it. Last night it was so clear, and cold, but the sky was beautiful. I just got a new jacket, for the cold, so I decided test it in some 30* air.

One of my favorite things to do is grab my cell phone and hover it over the lens and see what images I can capture. Normally, I can only get the brightest of objects, like Sirius, or Jupiter, or the moon. Last night these three were particularly bright for our lovely light polluted Denton Texas, so I decided to go for it with my phone camera. Here you can see Jupiter and three of its moons. I love to look at the Orion Nebula as well, it was very bright and beautiful. Sadly, my camera isn't sensitive enough.

We also had a big two weeks of performances and testing. Madeline had her big winter finale with orchestra, which is always wonderful and makes me cry. (I love it when people do great!) They performed six different songs. I felt bad for the orchestra teacher though, she had to manage about 400 parents, and almost a 100 students by herself. Where was the help?! The teacher inside of me was ready to throw a fit. I found the AP, he was out front reading a paper. She prevailed however, and the night resounded loudly.

Sam sung with the 4th grade choir at his school. Here he is singing next to his good friend Charissa, who's head is being covered up a bit by the microphone. Charissa and her family are moving to Detroit, so Sam is sad about that. She lives down the street, and we go to church together. Sometimes he goes over there to play right after school, as we are not quite home yet. They did a wonderful job, and used both socks and flash lights to accent "All I get is socks for Christmas" and "Holiday Lights."

Well, I'm off to breakfast with my bride. Today I will get to bowl in another tournament in a few hours. Enjoy your vacation. Merry Christmas.

Here Comes Christmas

2011-12-10T07:40:00.001-06:00

Well, there has been so much happening lately, I've hardly had time to write. I secretly captured Sam pondering the glories of ice cream at Chick-fil-a. I just love this picture, it really is a picture of a happy heart.

The other night we were getting the tree all set up when we discovered our dog Mander taking to the tree kindly. By the way, he has an "ad" below, and doesn't think I know. But you can humor him. Here is a video of Mander working on a good back scratch.

On Friday I got to go with my class to the DFW airport and look at some cool airplanes and a hangar. Inside were a 1000 kids and all kinds of debris, mostly junk from all the venders. This kids loved it. My true delight was touring the cockpit of a C-130 airplane. I got to talk to the pilot. Had a great time doing it. I learned that the propellers rotate in park mode to a place where, if they were actually spinning, the plan wouldn't go forward. I was greatly perplexed by their angle, and stood gazing upward for a minute trying to figure it out. Finally, I just went in and asked the captain.

Flying Angels in the Flags

2011-11-22T08:10:00.001-06:00

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite celebrations of the year.What a feast! But it is not only a feast of food, but of worship. Thank you God for all your blessing, love and provision to make it through!

Waving the flags during worship has always been one of my favorite joys of worship expression. On this day, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, I had a large flag heralding the lion of Judah, Jesus Christ. We use an 8' fishing rod to connect the flag to. Here it looks like I'm standing under a burning flame.Sam is waving a gold flag behind me.

During this particular Sunday, I felt like I was supposed to wave the lion during the worship, because Jesus is advancing as a lion. As I did, John the worship leader told me that "Angels were being attracted to the flag." At one point I put it away, and he then came to me and said I had to go get it again and keep going. Later on a lady came up to John and said she saw a few angels at first, and then hundreds flying around the atmosphere. I didn't see any, but I could hear the voice of the Lord telling me to wave this way and that.

Here is a picture of my mom taking a turn of worshiping with the same flag. At one point I heard the Lord tell me to let her wave it a bit. She gladly took over, and soon gave it back. It actually takes a lot of strength to wave it for a while.

This Thanksgiving, God is shifting His time table on the earth. I better read Daniel again to readdress His times and seasons. I have a sense as I worship these days that it is the most important thing I do. I want to encourage you to worship in new ways. Make a flag, turn on some worship music, and fly some colors with the angels. All the colors have meanings by the way. Gold symbolizes anointing and glory, white is for purity, blue is for the heavens, red is for sacrifice and war; green is for restoration and growth, and purple is for purity. All the colors have nuanced spiritual significance. I find that as I worship God creatively, with the flight motion of a wind song flag, I am completely renewed.

Here is Abigail going for a double flag routine. I tend to avoid doing this as I get all tangled up. Abigail has a definite gift for dance, motion, and creative worship. Here she is all trussed up with some flags.
Sam actually does the flags as well. He usually doesn't engage a lot in worship until it gets hands on.

The Next Tsunami

2011-11-15T14:22:00.000-06:00

Last time I had a dream about a Tsunami, it was in 2008, about six months out from the Bear Sterns economic fiasco. This morning, around 1:45am, I had another Tsunami dream. It is unusual for me to dream at this hour, as it is an early hour for dreams. Secondly, in the dream, I lived through the hitting of the wave twice. This speaks to me of Jesus’ words “Verily, Verily, I say unto you”, or “Eyes to see and Ears to hear.”The DreamI was standing on the cement beach front of some city. I looked and was gripped with intensity as I saw a 30’ tsunami approaching. I didn’t have any time to run. It came fast, like 60 or 70 miles an hour. I simply faced it, and grabbed the steel handrail. I stiffened and the wave hit me. It was a clear solid wave.As I broke through the initial water surface-tension, my right arm grew long, to about 30’ so that my head could finally surface over the top of the water. When it did, I just hung on with the very long right arm of the Lord, and felt like a keel sliding through the wave. It wasn’t actually that hard to hold on, but I tried not to get afraid of the overwhelming current surrounding me.Then I had to relive the wave again. Only this time I was in a different place. I was in a hospital with clear windows all over the place. We all became aware of the coming wave, and the impending doom it was bringing. Then it hit, and yet it did not wash the building away. There were clear windows surrounding the room, and I could see the water flowing past, clear, and not tearing down our room.Finally I was with my apostle. I was in a place with seven of us- it was like a house full of canals with little boats. I heard the apostle say that the house was shaken a little, but that it was fine. He did lose a few shirts however. Then I found a place to lay down and rest. Interpretation I really believe that another great economic shaking is coming. It will be a lot stronger, a lot stronger than what happened in 2009. I believe it is connected with Japan’s Tsunami, how the wave struck Japan is a picture of how this economic shaking will hit the world.God has covered us with His wing, in other words, His right hand is outstretched, and we will have angelic assistance to endure this wave. I saw no white water in this wave. It was pure, clean, and dense. In the ocean, from the point of view of a surfer, this is a slammer. This wave didn’t even have a lip. It came in as an angular wall, pure water mass.Thirty feet high, is essentially an unsurfable wave from a paddle-in point of view. This thing came so fast, all the regular wave dynamics were not at play. This means, to me , that it is coming in an unparalleled manner. More like the Dec. 2004 earthquake Tsunami.Hold on to your foundations. God will give you strength, and actually it will be easy to go through as long as you don’t let your brain freak out. The church will get hit, and shaken. But if you are aligned with your apostle, (or leader) in right order, you will find a place of rest.The hospital room is a picture of the church, and the open windows are a picture of the revelation we have from Holy Spirit. God is bringing this wave. It is not from the devil. There was no chaos in it, or mud or debris. God is taking action.America, even the world needs to give up their idols of greed, and realign around Jesus Christ. You can do what you please, but I tell you there is a God who rules the earth from Heaven, and the whole world will know it very soon.

Dealing with the Root

2011-11-07T11:11:00.001-06:00

I have a batch of carrots growing in the back yard. This one was the biggest, and the first to get pulled out. (They are multi-colored carrots, not just orange.) It reminded me of how the roots of bad ideas support the plant of bad attitudes and actions. This week, I hurt my foot bowling. I basically ignored my foot and bowled two tournaments, and worked all day, for a couple of days, as the pain in my foot grew and grew. By Thursday morning, it was in sharp pain. I worked all day on it again, pretending it wasn't there. Friday, I was in a crippled state. I went to the doctor, and got it x-rayed. Nothing, but the swelling state of my foot. Well I never did quite figure out what was happening in the natural, so I went to my church leadership and had them pray on it. They told me some good stuff, which basically meant "slow down" and let God adjust your walk. So here I am on Monday, foot high up in the air, writing a blog while my colleges are all at work. I always seem to have a little residue of guilt staying home, even if the doctor ordered it. I think that is the point. I am valuable. You are valuable. I get so caught up in my obligations over my duties that I get out ahead of God, and my timing gets off.

Back to the Root
The truth that God is showing me (again) is how much He loves us. If I really understood this, I would feel completely secure in my life journey. The devil has given me the false idea that I need to work to control the outcome of my future by worrying about this or that. That is the false root. The blood of Christ puts this root to death. The presence of Holy Spirit pulls it out, and love of heavenly Father grows new life where the old root was.

Now this was a good carrot, and I just wanted to use this picture of it to illustrate the false root. See my lovely hound in the back of it? He is a picture of unyielding love. Check out his plea below. He thinks I don't know about it.

Halloween Booty

2011-11-01T15:53:00.001-05:00

Well, we had quite a haul yesterday for Hallowe'en. I wanted my kids to have an experience like I did when I was a kid, getting loads of candy. I took four of the neighborhood boys with Sam. It took a lot to keep the boys from bolting. One boy, Trevor, was driven as the pure snow.

The Snow
Speaking of the October Snow, that was a prophetic sign. Heidi and I watched a sermon from two years ago where Chuck talked about the snow fall that happened for the first time over the course of a year to fall in all 50 states. Well last night some places got as much as two feet of snow on the upper east. Prophetically snow is a good thing. Glory. Get ready for the glory to manifest earlier than you expect.
There is a time of trouble at hand. For those in alignment with Jesus, it will be an opportunity for a manifestation of glory. Timing is the key.

posted from Bloggeroid

Herman Cain has found Grace

2011-10-31T17:01:00.000-05:00

Rock Hounding

2011-10-30T21:14:00.002-05:00

Yesterday I went to a neighborhood party. Had a great time getting to know the local hub bub. I talked to a neighbor named Gene who likes to go find fossils and rocks. He showed me all these really cool rocks at his house. He loves to collect fools gold, and all manner of clear crystals. He told me I could go to Albertsons, and walk out in the field and have a ball finding my own rocks. So I decided to go. Sunday afternoon, and everybody was sleeping or gone. I got on my motorbike, and took off to go rock hounding. At first I went to our churches northern property. There were a bunch of tad poles in the waterhole, but not many native rocks. So then I decided to go back over to the Albertsons. There were fossils everywhere, mostly devil's toe nails. I was looking for my own iron korzite? rocks, like the kind he had. I couldn't find any. But I did find a bunch of neat out-croppings. I was able to find these neat veins of rock. I brought my hammer and pack along, and ended up grabbing a dozen or so rocks. It was fun. The thing I realized about rockhounding is that it is hard on the knees. I spent about an hour on them searching around, and after a while, they really got tired.

Prophetic Significance

As I dug through the dirt I honestly felt very close to God. It is so amazing to see how life leaves it's imprint on the ground. From ages past, so many sea creatures everywhere. Out croppings of red, yellow, black, rust. Just looking at the land in a whole new way gave me a perspective I've never had before. Suddenly I was in a treasure trove of thermal geomorphic snapshots. It is fun to see how God's creative power orders everything, to the smallest detail. I also thought about the things that I was seeing that no one had ever seen before, in the token itself. Finding these amazing little rocks, it made me want to get a rock tumbler real bad to refine the beauty.

School Night Fun

2011-10-27T18:44:00.001-05:00

Here we are at Sam's school with Sam and Heidi doing little science queries to get candy. Just played chess with Sam. I didn't teach him. He understand a lot. Who taught him? Well, on to sweeter things.

posted from Bloggeroid

The Curse

2011-10-15T12:49:00.003-05:00

Recently I had a chance to go with a good friend of mine to take a three day break down in Waco. We got to stay with a couple that had two extra houses on their property, designed for pastors & missionaries to rest. It was a real treat. While I was there I got to relax and sit on a back porch, and just exhale. It happened that they had a drawing kit there, and I set about drawing a design.

What popped out of my spirit was the following drawing. It clearly reminded me of the 6th vision of Zechariah, the curse over the earth.
You can see how the scroll rides upon a tornado, scouring the land. Yet, there is a sound, and a glory dimension resulting in an ascention up the stair.

Zechariah's 6th Vision

Here is what Zechariah Saw. I looked again—and there before me was a flying scroll!He asked me, “What do you see?”I answered, “I see a flying scroll, thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”And he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the whole land; for according to what it says on one side, every thief will be banished, and according to what it says on the other, everyone who swears falsely will be banished. The Lord Almighty declares, ‘I will send it out, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by my name. It will remain in his house and destroy it, both its timbers and its stones.’” Zech 5: 1-4

Acknowledge the limitations of Human Compassion

So what?Recently I was at Taco Bell where I was asked to give a dollar to feed the hungry. This is good, and addressing hunger is good, but I said “No” to the server. My daughter was shocked, for we give all the time to various ministries. I explained why I did not give. I said, “Human Compassion can be an affront to the testimony of Jesus Christ.” This perplexed her even more. So I said that with a tiny wiggle of God’s pinky finger, He could remove hunger throughout the world today. With that given, I asked her why He didn’t. I think she responded something about sin.

The Curse

There is a curse working on the earth today. Like a vacuum cleaner scouring the carpet of the earth, the curse is ravaging the contents of the world. No amount of political posturing can address this curse. There is a way to undo that curse in our lives, but it will never be broken through human compassion. The only way it can be broken is by a faith transaction we trigger when we receive the blessing based on the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

The Law of Liberty

The way we counter the law of sin and death, working through the curse on earth that Zechariah sees here, is to access and put into play another law. Just as an airplane overcomes the law of gravity by accessing the law of lift, so we too can overcome this curse by obtaining divine righteousness through faith. What can the curse of the old law say to righteousness? There is no foothold for it to lay hold of in righteous. Just as we access righteousness by receiving the blood of Jesus, so the laws of sin to conquer our lives are removed. This is how we can address world hunger. By learning to sow faith in the heavens, we can use one law of liberty in Jesus Christ to displace the law of sin and death that robs people today. People may not understand it intuitively, but a law will take any good, like the good a demonstration in human compassion, and submit it to the other laws of sowing and reaping. I am not saying Taco Bell giving initiative are bad, rather that there is a much better more effective way.

Wild Hog Removal

We had to laugh at this sign posted on the telephone pole.
It too reminded me of the curse. What happens when the wild pigs come and eat all your roots? Call in the experts. Here in Texas, you can find answers at your local rail road street crossing, like I did here. In your life, are the hogs getting at your roots? If so, go down to the cross roads and call on Jesus, who by the authority given to him, can grant access to every blessing in Heaven. Here is where the real life begins.

Herman Cain

2011-10-07T11:40:00.001-05:00

Herman Cain is the most exciting candidate for president of the United States today. Here is some of the data I discovered from Rick Joyner on a Special Bulletin at Morning Star. It is an amazing progression. As I read over this bullet list the first time, I was shocked. I wondered how any person can move with such creativity at such a level of responsibility. It baffles me. I copied it here, because I want you to see what I saw, as I read over this list. This man knows what it is to come from humility, and work through the process of overcoming and victory. At this point in my understanding, I think he has awesome potential to restructure America to overcome the battles we currently face with joblessness and the economy.

• His father was chauffeur for Robert Woodruff of the Coca-Cola Company, and his mother was a maid.• He was literally a rocket scientist and rose to the top of his field in computer and technology management. He then rose to the top as a banker, then in the franchise restaurant business, accumulating a vast knowledge of some of the most important economic issues now facing America.• He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics.• He has a Master’s Degree in Computer Science.• He was a mathematician for the Navy, where he worked on missile ballistics (making him a rocket scientist).• He was a computer systems analyst for Coca-Cola.• He became VP of Corporate Data Systems and Services for Pillsbury (being in charge of information systems for a major corporation is the top in this field).• He achieved all of the above before reaching the age of 35.• After reaching the top in the information systems world, he changed careers to become a business manager.• He took charge of Pillsbury’s 400 Burger King Restaurants in the Philadelphia area, which were the company’s poorest performers in the country, and after just three years, he had turned them into the company’s best performers.• He was then asked by Pillsbury to take charge of their Godfather’s Pizza chain that was on the verge of bankruptcy and he made it profitable in just 14 months. This ability to identify problems and turn losers into winners may be the single most important asset of the next President.• In 1988, he led a buyout of the Godfather’s Pizza chain from Pillsbury making him the owner of a restaurant chain.• He became chairman of the National Restaurant Association during this time, which is the primary government interface for the restaurant industry, giving him possibly some of the best experience he could have received about how the government works and doesn’t work.• He then became an adviser to the Federal Reserve System on how monetary policy changes would affect American businesses.• He was then named Chairman of the Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank. This is just one step below the Chairmanship of the Federal Reserve that many consider the most powerful position in the world for economic policy. There could hardly be a better position than this to understand the political forces that impact the monetary system and our economy.• After reaching the top of the banking industry, he changed careers for a fourth time to become a writer and public speaker. His books include Speak as a Leader, CEO of Self, Leadership is Common Sense, and They Think You’re Stupid.• He then became a radio show host on WSB in Atlanta, the largest talk radio station in the country.• Herman Cain is a committed Christian.Wow!!!

The Difference between Knowing and Seeing

2011-09-26T21:50:00.003-05:00

Recently I've been learning how to see. Sometimes learning how to see requires getting a new point of view, like these aromatic visions of Mander. Notice the indirect eye contact. The nonchalance. The Merlin whiskers. The off-set gaze. Just sitting down by a slowly breathing dog helps me relax.

So what is the difference between knowing and seeing? To say that they are interrelated is an understatement. However there is a subtle distinction, one that I believe hinges on the verse that says in Proverbs 29:18 "Without vision, the people perish." The point is having eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus said of His beloved Pharisees "Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand." Matthew 13:13

What is it to look and not see, to hear and not hear? This is where knowledge can come in. For I say, what old wine skin can hold new wine? (Luke 5:37) When we are so full of knowing, we can miss the NEW. Therefore we must become blind to see, and deaf to hear. Isn't this an interesting principle of heaven?

During this days of entering the promise, I'm learning to recognize the need to become blind again, and deaf again. See, I really believe this one point: those who are very familiar (like me with the present/past move of God) can become the most resistant to forthcoming NEW move of God. God never does it the same way twice. He always brings in a fresh release, to set the captives free. So, out with the old, and in with the new. Time to change lanes again.

What does that look like? Allowing God to show me a whole new dimension of His righteousness being worked out through a manifestation of His glory in His people. Get ready, because here it comes.

I feel the Lord calling me to prophesy on the blog. "Hey, come back to the new. Get ready, for the hour of my visitation is upon you. Don't you know? Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard what God has prepared for those who love him." Selah. 1 Cor 2:9

Condemnation

2011-09-10T05:13:00.000-05:00

One of the most intense, tricky, vile methods of the devil is to get us to receive JUDGEMENT. Honestly, it is basic to our old nature in the flesh. Here is what CONDEMNATION says: "You are evil because of X." X can be anything from leaving toilet seats up, to leaving fingerprints on the windows. It could be first degree murder (heaven forbid) or forgetting to let the dog out. I can be saying the right thing at the wrong time, or the wrong thing at the right time. Whatever the case, when we receive a judgement, we become downcast in our spirits. It is precisely this downcast nature that torments the soul. Condemnation hurts like hell, because hell is full of it. Hell is a place of condemnation, and when we enter into condemnation in our hearts, we enter into a dimension of hell, here and now.

The Problem
Jesus makes this issue of condemnation very clear in John 3:18-19. Regarding the believer He says, "He [any person entering into the faith, hope, love and trust of Jesus Christ] who believes in Him [Jesus Christ] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that "the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather that the Light, for their deeds were evil. " So why is it the case that those who haven't received Jesus stand judged already?

The Ministry of Death
When God gave Moses the law, He did so to show man the futility of trying to earn righteousness through the power of choice. The great error of the Pharisees in Jesus' day was to redouble in a spirit of religious pride, and attempt to satisfy the law through personal obedience. James makes it clear in James 2:10 that "whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all." No one therefore can obtain righteousness under the law.

Paul actually names this spiritual dynamic of the release of the law as the ministry of death, equating it with a ministry of condemnation. Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians 3:7-9. "But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory." We see here that through Moses God released a ministry of death and condemnation. However it was a precursor to make us ready to enter into the only pathway of obtaining righteousness; faith in Jesus Christ.

The solution

Well, Jesus said it best. Those who believe in Him are not judged. Paul said it again in Romans 8:1, when he said "Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."

The Rub
So what? Why talk about it? ... ...

I see so many "Christians" operating with condemnation and guilt. In short, they are judged, standing condemned in life practice, and heart belief. I see the devil continually trying to get me to receive a guilty verdict through the words of others. It is subtle, and it looks like this: "There is problem...you're the problem...you better fix it!" The result is a deep religious spirit that is predicated on the form and function of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They truly know not of the REST in Jesus Christ that releases freedom and life to live in the Glory of the new ministry Paul was talking about.

The Good News

There is such a great glory being manifested in the earth right now. It is the glory of Holy Spirit, in the life of the believer, bringing the fulness of righteousness on the basis of faith. This glory, the freedom, grace, and unprecedented favor, to be lifted from the yoke of death and condemnation, is being brought forward. I hear the Lord saying, "I say to you old structures, ministers of death, my kingdom army is going to rip the fabric of your society. Get ready, for the old thrones, the ancient thrones, are beginning to topple. Come, and sit with me, while you are still able. For in a very short while, a very short while, I will return. But until that time, pay heed to my prophets."

The Prophets
What are the prophets saying? They are hearing the Lord say that death and condemnation have been swallowed up in Christ Jesus! Enter in while you still may, O beloved Christian! "Who has bewitched you, you foolish Galatians?" (Go back and read Galatians 3. It is one of my favorites in scripture.

A final thought...
No one can fix themselves, or change their nature. Do not try. Simply ask God, pray with Him, let him know about the death or condemnation that surround you, and he will bring you into a NEW GLORY.

Katia: A Second Look

2011-08-31T19:23:00.005-05:00

Well, I got some more "signs" about Katia today. See the previous post to sync up with this post. So I've been thinking about the hurricane Katia. The big key understanding is that Katrina is the Gaelic form of Katherine, and Katia is the Russian form of Katherine as well. Katherine means basically, one of a pair, or one of the the twins. Here is what they say over at "Behind the Name.com"

"From theGreek name Αικατερινη(Aikaterine). The etymology is debated: it could derive from theearlier Greek name ‘Εκατερινη(Hekaterine), which came from ‘εκατερος(hekateros) "each of the two"

Each of the two, one of two, the two, the pair, however you want to look at it, involves a two together.

The Sign

So I got two new students today from Honduras. Their dad had translated their names (on his own) and asked that they go by their American names. They were Stephany and Katherine. So here is what blew me away. The younger sister, Katherine, is like Katia, in that she is the younger sister in a pair of sisters.Here is what struck me with fascination. in the name Katrina/Katherine. According to "Behind the name.com" they say:

"...or it could be from a Coptic name meaning "my consecration of your name". In the early Christian era it became associated with Greek καθαρος (katharos) "pure", and the Latin spelling was changed from Katerina to Katharina to reflect this."

In short, it is not everyday that I get a pair of sisters, where the second sister's name matches up (in essence) with the current hurricane out there. Only the sister's name in my pair is Stephany. Here is what they say at "Behind the name.com".

"From the Greek name Στεφανος(Stephanos) meaning "crown". SaintStephen was a deacon who was stoned to death, as told in Acts in theNewTestament, and he is regarded as the first Christian martyr. Dueto him, the name became common in the Christian world. It waspopularized in England by the Normans."

I think God is going to establish his Glory, His "Crown", a demonstration of His authority over America, and confront the idolatry in the Government.

Idolatry in the Government

You'll have to come to your own conclusions on this one. All I can say is, I see it. Here is what I hear the Lord saying. "Get ready, the new is upon you. In a very short while, I will show up, manifest, and reveal my glory in the earth realm. It may not be with Katherine, but it will be in the culmination of my plan."

So there it is. Who can say what will become of this Labor day. But what I do know is that God has the final end game sorted out, and that is where I put my trust.

Hurricane Katia

2011-08-29T22:32:00.004-05:00

Here comes Katia. Could it be Katrina's sister? So Irene means peace. Well, hurricane Irene was no devastator. But what about Katia? Well I went to “Behind the Name .com” and looked up Katia. Turns out it is a variant transcription of Katya. Katya turns out to be a diminutive of Russian Yekaterina. Yekaterina turns out to be the Russian form of Katherine.

According to the site, Katherine is the English form of Greek name Aikaterine, which came from hekaterous, “each of the two.” It could've come from the goddess Hecate, and it could be related to aikia, Greek for “torture.” It could also be from the Coptic name meaning “my consecration of your name.” In the early Christian era it became associated with the Greek Katharos, “pure”, and the late spelling was changed from Katerina Katharina to reflect this. The Galician form is Katrina.

Now I think this is interesting. Katrina and Katia, “each of the two” possibly bringing purity, torture, or consecration of the name of Jesus Christ. Time will tell. But I have a sense which I never had about Irene, that this forming hurricane is a possible game change on a whole new level.

Here is what I hear God saying. "I've said it before in my book, the heavens declare the glory of God." In Psalm 57:11 the Lord says, "Be exalted above the heavens, O God; Let Your glory be above all the earth." NASB

Kingdom Education part one

2011-08-18T15:51:00.004-05:00

With the start of the new school year, I've found myself thinking a lot about what it means to be a kingdom educator, as opposed to a Christian educator. "Kingdom" is distinct from "Christian" in that the fundamental paradigm is one of "The Kings domain" as opposed to a term of knowledge. Christians were so named in Antioch, a Greek city. The point is that the name, "Christian," denotes a designator within a knowledge structure. By contrast, kingdom education aligns the context of the authority domain within its premises.

What will it look like for the body of Christ to be educated in the near future?
In order for this kind of education to transpire, new lines must be drawn on the perimeters and modalities of effective Christian education.

The Prince of Greece

In order to hit the mark in kingdom alignment, we must begin to identify and recognize spiritual elements of other kingdoms not of the Lord Jesus Christ. The point in fact is that there is more than one kingdom out there, on the spiritual plane. This calls for discernment, and using the spiritual gift of discerning of spirits talked about in John. In the book of Daniel, Gabriel is described as contending with the prince of Persia. Gabriel states that after he leaves, the prince of Greece will come. When this spirit took up dominion, the philosophers of old shifted the normative mindset of Homer and Hesiod fans, to align with thinkers like Zeno, Parmenides, Plato, and Aristotle. Plato literally shifted the entire continent from the terror of demonization to the securities of rationalization. Since that time, the time of Christ, the populace has been completely preoccupied with knowledge. This is straggly evidenced with Pilates question, "What is truth?"

What the disciples discovered at Pentecost was the realm of third heaven, or that place outside of the spatiotemporal/temporal universe where Satan has no authority. This means that they broke through our heavens, where Satan does have degrees of authority within the foundation of the law, and sinful choices of man. Since Jesus manifested God's glory through the shedding of his blood in the land, we who have been brought forth out of the dirt, have now been given access to a greater dimension through the blood. By gaining access to something beyond the flesh, we are able to gain access to something greater. It is this greatness, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, that gives us the ability to live from an empowered position, able to overcome.

Power to Overcome

It is this aspect of the kingdom of heaven, namely the indwelling presence of Holy Spirit, that gives us the ability to overcome. To live by faith is to step into the realm of Holy Spirit. It is at this point at which we must make a pivotal distinction. Christianity is not primarily a discipline of knowledge! It is a living way, an ongoing encounter by which we come to know the living God. This living God has given us every resource we need to overcome.

Vain imaginations

We have historically supposed that knowledge, like every good Greek since Thales, and Adam with the tasty apple, will help us become wise like God, knowing good and evil. While it is possible to have this knowledge, it is not beneficial for releasing life. It is the central struggle of our age, the battle between life and death. Guess which side of that battle the tree of knowledge of good and evil is on? Death. If we are going to multiply and release life on earth, it will be by becoming partakers of the tree of life. This can only be done by being born again into Jesus Christ.

Historically, we have sought to prosper in Christ by developing divine knowledge, namely sound theology. Here is the error: truth can only be obtained through fellowship with one of the three members of the trinity. The authority for knowledge, in actuality, lies with them. By contrast, historical theologians have moved in a knowledge dimension where they placed the authority for knowledge in the self, or some other person. Additionally, they have moved to seek justification for knowledge at the empirical level, rather than cultivate a true spiritual mindset for interacting with a super-sensory dimension.

The bible as a substitute for relationship

The big reduction utilized in normal practicing of theology is to approach the scriptures. The danger is to learn about God without God. We can come to a comprehensive theoretical knowledge of God without necessarily knowing God. By contrast, moving with Holy Spirit is to practice intimacy prior to justificational stances on divine knowledge. God made a determination to remain unjustified to the knowledge dimension which natural man approaches God. That is why the righteous shall live by faith. It is to these things which Paul speaks when he says; "How can I tell you about mature things when you still feed on milk?" paraphrase It is only on a faith dimension that we gain access to a super sensory realm of the spirit and get activated on a new level of existence. Here many things are made plain, being justified to the mind and the spirit, yet baffling the senses.

When we approach God within this knowledge dimension, moving under our own authority, we suffer the temptation of using the Bible and it's contents as a substitute for true intimacy.

Knowledge

What is knowledge per se? This is probably the most slippery concept I have ever tried to define, and really I don't know. But what I do know is that knowledge is what we hold in our mind in varying degrees. To learn with God is not to abandon knowledge. Rather it is to see knowledge connected to a greater structure, namely the presence of God. Again, the issue is one of authority, going back to the two trees in the garden. I find this dynamic in my life: there are two contexts of knowing and referencing at play within my life at every given moment. 1)The "Old" is the knowledge structure that I gained under my own powers, connected to my reason. 2)The "New" is a way of holding revelation with Holy Spirit that has been deposited into my spirit. The "Old" wineskin can't hold the new wine of the "New." Does that make sense? This is why people have such a hard time receiving dreams. Dreams speak to our spirit, while baffling our minds.

Kingdom education is simply this: learning to operate and learn within the domain of our spirits over our minds, allowing our minds to follow.

Back in the Fat!

2011-08-10T09:11:00.003-05:00

Well, I'm sitting here, back in training at school. Don't worry, it's a review! I am paying attention. It is a new season for a new day! We have entered the land of promise! You know, God is always doing something new, making something new, creating, and bringing us about in the middle of it. One of the most amazing dynamics about living with the Lord is that He is bringing something new, both into existence, and into our sphere of experience, everyday. This is how the realm of the Spirit interacts with the time dimension we live in now.

Fish, Fish, and More Catfish

2011-07-28T11:09:00.010-05:00

Wow! Did we have fun morning! This morning we got up at 5:30, and hit the pond. This time, Sam and Abigail came with me. We did not strike on the bass front. However, we scored a slew of blue gill and a couple of catfish. (And two turtles.) Apparently, turtles like worms too. They were a bit of a trick to unhook, as they are snapper turtles. Abigail caught a phenomenal catfish for this little watering hole. I was so surprised by the catch. It had to weigh at least 3 pounds. I caught a little one pounder. As always, it is so fun to hook up. Worms turned out to bethe hot ticket. We also shiftedto smaller hooks, as the fish were stealing our bait on the bigger hooks. I finally gave up on the bass, but we had so much fun all the same. Catching is more fun than fishing, and it is always fun to see the tip of the pole jump consistently. Here are three pictures and a video. Enjoy!

Two Bigger Than My Shoe

2011-07-23T07:56:00.001-05:00

Today I got up early and decided to hit the water hole. I caught two very large bass for the pond size. While the first one was a bit bigger, the second bass fought like a champion. The boy really had some fight in him.

This speaks to me prophetically. O hear the Spirit saying: "Get ready, the harvest is upon you. Rise up early. Get ready to go without plans. Cast your net into new waters. The fish are where you expect them and where you don't. They have gone deep. You will have to go deep to get them. They don't feed from the surface anymore. Listen to my voice! I will show you how to cast your hook. I tell you my people, we are past the eleventh hour.Hear what the bride groom is saying. Time is short. The harvest is ripe. Seek me while I still may be found. I am coming quickly."

This really is what God had been saying to us over and over. Earlier this week Heidi was stopped by the Lord to pick several bunches of ripe grapes from our "Servants House" garden. When she heard this song in the spirit that we sing at our church. It says, "This is the day! This is the hour! Now is the time. We are the people." Ask the Lord for the strategy. This is what I'm doing. Bless you.

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Gone Fishin'

2011-07-22T08:43:00.001-05:00

Had a great time with my friend Ed this morning fishing a UNT lake. Ed caught two, and I caught one. We just released them after we caught them. It was a great time to connect!

The funny thing was, wednesday I was riding my motor bike and stooped by the lake. I saw this man and what I thought was his grandson. So I took a picture. Later that day Ed called and asked if I wanted to go fishing on Friday. (We hadn't been before.) I asked him where he planned on going, and he said suggested this small lake by UNT. He said he had gone just that morning. I said "really?" "I took a picture of a man and boy fishing that lake this morning." It turned out to be Ed and Jamin that I photo graphed, and I had no idea. God has such sense of humor. I love his miracles. See the picture I took of them across the lake that morning.

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Drizzle Work

2011-07-20T11:35:00.002-05:00

There are just some things that warm the heart.

Watching Heidi drizzle these blue berry biscuits with her sour cream powdered sugar combo made me smile. May you taste the love as you watch the video.

Days of Celebration

2011-07-18T14:12:00.008-05:00

I love my kids! Not having them here for two weeks has been hard, but...we are having days of celebration! One of the biggest adventures for me personally has been competing in two distinct bowling tournaments. The first one I was on a team of 4. We competed against 39 other teams. We took first place, winning $150 a piece. Yesterday, we bowled a scotch doubles tournament. My partner, Chip, was on the other quartet as well. In this tournament, we literally bowl every other ball all the way through four games. Our scratch average for four games was 221.25, with high game of 246. With our handicap of 26, we bowled a 989 to tie for first place! The four of us got to spit $800, walking away with $200 apiece. I give God all the glory! I just throw the ball and see what happens. But I know it is a sign from God. Chip and I are above average/average bowlers, averaging together around 190. That puts us in the bottom third of the field. The high bowlers average 235-240 per game. So, to take first place twice in July...that is God!

I have been having a wonderful time with Heidi during this HEAT WAVE. One of the places we have discovered is "The Bakery." Above I put a picture of the slice Heidi was about to put into her mouth. It is pretty much an all woman place. The first time I went in there I had my San Antonio style cowboy hat on. I'm pretty sure I was the only male customer.

It has been so fun to wear a large brimmed cowboy hat. Suddenly I seem to get the respect of local testosterone. I didn't know a hat could make such a shift on the appearance level. It has been a key defense against the sun. Cool days around here are in the mid '90's with the heat cresting around 110.

God is so good. I see Him in a new light. He is in control, and He has the resources and ability to carry us through any trial. We have been tried and tested, and I'm sure there are many more tests to come. To God be the glory, for He has brought us great victory. More and more I am amazed at the greatness of Jesus' plan to leave and give us the gift of Holy Spirit. He is a true treasure, and the greatest reason I have to celebrate.

We have about four sunflowers in the back garden. Here is one of them blossoming.

DeHart Departure

2011-07-08T09:54:00.006-05:00

Two weeks of bliss! For us and the bambinos. They are off to see the grandparents. We had to get up at 4:30 this morning, and get them loaded up and checked in. I am so excited for them. I'm so excited for us. We get to discover who we are without the kids again. This to me is the real treat. I'm excited to see what God does to keep us all moving in creativity.

Posh Seats at the Frisco Riders Baseball Game

2011-07-04T15:53:00.008-05:00

Wow! Yesterday, Sunday we were given an incredible treat. We were invited to go swimming at the baseball game for our friend's three children's birthday party. They celebrate it all at once, so the Novemeber December birthdays don't get gipped out of summer fun.

I was puzzled at first, but thought it must be some two part activity. I was wrong. It turns out there is a private pool, that you have to rent out for the evening, and watch the baseball game.

The pool itself is dead center between center field and right field. It came with waterfall, open bar (Majoring on the Dr. Pepper) and open grill. I really felt like an upper class citizen for the 4 hours we were there. Very few times have I ever been treated to such celebration. We even got baseball caps and dipping dots to boot.

We had a great time. We played and swam, and raced. Then, we ate. I had a cheese burger and a hot dog. It was so hot! I felt bad for everyone out there, it is right around 100*. So we celebrated.

The Riders were down by 5 runs in the top of the eighth. But then they scored 5, making it 6-6. We won it in the tenth with bases loaded and a base hit. It was a very exciting game.

I thank the Lord for unexpected blessings like this. Who would have guessed? I surely didn't, even after I was invited. God is so good.

In the end we had a fireworks show. Short and sweet, and felt like a grenade machine gun. What a day of celebration.

The Bees of Abundance

2011-07-03T12:53:00.006-05:00

Recently we had a discovery: Bees in our front shrubs. A day after the storm we found them swarming in front of the house. I had never noticed them before, and soon discovered they were coming from somewhere in the bushes. Well, after two days, I discovered that they were in the water main box. I had gotten into over half a year ago to fuss with the water faucets. Apparently, I didn't put the top back on all the way.

A Solution

We decided to talk to Pam Pierce about the possibility of finding someone to take the bees to the land, our new church property. She is making a massive garden there (you can see it on the link to the left called "Bulah Acres") They have lots of vegetables there, and need pollination. Well Heidi talked to Pam and she was amazed! It turns out that they have actually a few bee keeper enthusiasts who have been praying for God to bring them bees.

So we called Eddie, and let her know our circumstances with the bees. She came right over. What she found in our water main bucket was amazing. There were seven full slats of comb, full of honey and bees. She pulled them out one at a time, and they were 12 to 18 inches long. !! These bees had been living here since right after I got into the water main. So she pulled out the honeycomb, and took the hive. Apparently, it was an extremely mellow batch of bees. There was no queen, but she found three queen larva. What she thought is that they simply ran out of room, and the queen left with half the bees. However, she gave birth to a replacement queen, and the hive was in the 7-10 day window of waiting for a new queen to hatch. So now we are praying for those queens to hatch that is in her custody.

Our prayer is that the hive will survive with a new queen, and she can transport the whole hive to the land to pollinate the gardens.

Prophetically, Heidi and I were blown away on a number of levels. Bees speak of the activity of God, multiplying and gathering the nectar from the harvest. We really felt like God is doing a miracle of bringing out hidden resources below the surface that we knew nothing about. He is bringing forth His glory out of the water main, the river of life, the flow of Holy Spirit. Practically what this means is that God is working in us, His land, to bring forth resources for His kingdom. Honey has always felt like the glory of God's word made manifest in the anointing of Holy Spirit.

So we will see!

Zion Kids Camp

2011-07-01T12:31:00.013-05:00

Wow! It was another hot one this year as we went to the YMCA Camp Grady Spruce located at Possum Kingdom Lake. The real highlight this year for me is seeing kids get saved. You never know who is saved or not because they attend church. The Lord always puts it on my heart to call people into salvation, and I am always surprised to see who responds and how.

This year our focus was God's word as a weapon, and fighting the battle we are to called to. Ephesian 3:10 says"...so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places."NASB This means that the church is demonstrating the glory of God's wisdom to the enemy, by resting in the abiding place of our seat in Christ, empowered by Holy Spirit to hear the word of the Lord.
What God gave me to teach on was a picture of how the word of God forms in the human heart. The picture He gave me was that of a wheel barrow. I pictured salvation as climbing into the wheelbarrow and letting the bucket form the abiding place. For my talk, I set Heidi in there and put a red cape down representing the blood of Christ. Then I robed her with righteousness (a white scarf), kingship ( a purple scarf), spiritual gifts, a blue shawl, and a spiritual mantle, (a green shawl. I showed how God does this for each person who is saved, and what it looks like in the spirit. After this, I showed how Jesus grabs the handle and pushes us down the track. Then I showed how theanglesmake up the wheel that allows us to roll forward. Next, I gave Heidi a little Swiss Army Knife full of dangling ribbons. These ribbons represented the strands of truth in God's word. Then I came at her as an educated person presenting her a series of lies in the form of balloons. As I roared at her the lies, she popped them with the truth, speaking it out for everyone to hear. It was really fun, and I saw the Lord move people through it.

We also had a great time shooting guns, doing archery, playing in the canoes, horse back riding, and swimming in the lake. There were these little fingerling fishes that kept trying to bite me and ward me off. It kind of freaked me out at first, but then I talked tothe life guards and they knew all about it.

Weathering the Storms II

2011-06-22T09:42:00.010-05:00

It has been so fun to hear from the family on the blog. Thank you guys for your comments, it is nice to connect. Well, we got pounced Monday night. Our houses did great, but the trees, shrubs and fences didn't do so well. As you can see in the picture here, fences are simply gone.

The first storm came through at 11 pm and it was a humdinger. But no damage was done, a. The second storm, which we did not know about until it arrived, came through around 2:30 am. It was a humdinger with an attitude.

I woke up to a thunder peal that seemed to come down next to the house. Everything shook a little, then we had a a few more. The kids were up, and in our room. I put the dogs in the kennel, and when to check on Madeline. When I looked on the web, there was a tornado signature coming straight at us. Then the wind and the hail got real intense, and we all decided to move in Sam's room, and the far side of the house. After 20 minutes it passed. I looked outside the fences where down. Oh man, what was I goingto do?

The Miracle

I couldn't sleep worrying about how I was going to repair my fences. Humidity is way up, heat is way up, and worker man motivation why low. I cried out to God, "Help!" Before I could face the day, I went to church with my girls to attend a workshop on prophetic song. John Dickson started talking about how we can build of faith in worship when we face obstacles. I knew I needed that new sound before I came back to face my fences.

So when returned home I talked with my neighbor Roy, he was on the ball. He decided to go out and buy supplies and rent jack hammer, if I'd simply help him. So we, along with his dad and day worker, jackhammered the cement blocks around the posts, and removed the old posts. We put in proper treated posts, green board that should last a few more years than these did. They used this junk wood that really wasn't designed for long term support. The whole neighbor hood has rotting fence posts, so now everyone will be replacing them.

Well, it was extremely hot, and I had to sit and cool down often, but we got the new posts in. We decided to not attach the fences until today, after another storm passed last night. My other fence which is down is going to be covered by the land lord of that house. I talked to him yesterday. So, things are getting done.

It was really a major bonding experience with the neighbors with all this damage. I was able to connect with my neighbors Matt, his wife, and Jessica. Not to mention Roy and his dad. I told Roy how grateful I was for his help, and surprisingly he said the same. I saw how God used this event to get the community connecting. The Lord is good.

This was a scan of the first storm that came through which did no real damage.

In & Out Texas: California Style

2011-06-20T22:02:00.007-05:00

With the slowing down of life pace, we had to find something to do for a evening dinner. Why not go to In & Out Burger?! Heidi finally persuaded me. So we drove out to Frisco Texas, about 35 miles away (have to drive around a big lake) to get there. Ohh. I can't believe how good a double double tastes. It tastes just like California. It was amazing to see the business they are getting.

I really couldn't believe I was still in Texas. I started having all those feelings like one has on vacation, after driving for a long time to get there.

Miraculously, we got a spot to eat at. It took us 10 minutes to find a table to occupy. I knew one would open up. I used to work at In & Out back in late '89. I loved it, but got sick and got fired within three weeks. I lost 35 pounds, and couldn't eat for three weeks. But I didn't go to the doctor, and get the note, so I lost my job. Probably it was for the best, as I moved on to more educational opportunities with Biola HVac.

Well, now the prayer is for In & Out to come to Denton, so we don't have to go so far to get some. If you plan to move to Texas, from the West Coast, you won't have to give up In & Out anymore. I'm sure no one wants to move out here, but hey, just in case. :)

Weathering the Storm

2011-06-18T19:23:00.002-05:00

As I sit here in my chair typing, there are a few powerful weather systems coming. I could feel it 3 hours ago, when there was barely a trace of difference in the gray and white in the sky. Here is a picture I took out in the back yard. Within two hours we will enjoy the rumble of lightning, and feel the house go through another one of God's car washes.

These storms are a lot like the trials we go through as Christians. One of the most difficult things I've had to reorder my life around is the principle of not judging. Now I'm not talking about discernment, but rather that preoccupation with assigning guilt. Who do I struggle with the most: myself, and sometimes others. However, Jesus commands us not to judge ourselves or others, and Paul does to. How easily it is though to feel guilty, and receive guilt for the choices I've made. Whenever I receive judgment, I feel judged. This feeling sits in my gut and slowly builds until I realize I'm miserable. It is one thing to know that we have sinned, and confess that portion of our heart before God. Determining that sin is sin is a form of judgment, but it is not the form I'm talking about. I'm talking about guilt, that dynamic of bearing guilt under a voice of shame. Shame is actually pride, the believe that we can please God in the strength of our own righteousness. Really we can't. What I can do is go back to God on the basis of His righteousness.

Paul says very clearly in Romans 8:1,2

There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.

It is this law of sin and death that feels so natural. I understand it intuitively with my body, and mind. But then I come back to the reality that my life is now hidden in Christ with God, and I am under the Law of the Spirit of Life! What is this law, and how does it work? Well, I know that the blood of Christ is the key that breaks the old law. Praise God for freedom from judgment.

I thought that others out there might be suffering some of the same storms I've been weathering. If your suffering from a voice of condemnation, look again at the blood of Jesus, and the hope we have in Him.

San Antonio Vacation with the Dollars

2011-06-15T13:41:00.011-05:00

We just experienced a wonderful two day trip to San Antonio. The real highlight was of course our connection with our friends the Dollars. We had a great time of fellowship, prayer, and touring the local cuisine. We figured out it is 298 miles from Denton. We got down there around 7pm on Sunday, and stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. How fun it was to fellowship with our good friends. I haven't laughed so hard in ages.

We've been friends since '85. That is going back some years for me. It is so fun to see our children grow up and reconnect with so much change. They have three children, Justin, Aaron, and Jessica, that parallel Madeline, Abigail, and Samuel in ages. It was fun to compare notesand see how they are progressing in their life calls and passions.What huge adventures lay just over the horizon as they progress into adulthood.

The River Walk

I haven't seen such a manicured area since Disneyland. To quote Robin, my mother3, “Disneyland feels like this.” Apparently that is what she saidwhen she visited, and someone said “This feels like Disneyland.” It was amazing. The kids were fairly bored until we got to Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. Then, it was all hands on deck, and watch thebank account go up in smoke. I had the best Granny Smith Apple with Caramel Apple Pie treatment. Unbelievable sour sweet snap. We ended up walking 2/3rds the loop, and I could just live there. I was amazed at how cool it was down low, and how hot it was on the street level. Parts of the river just flow through hotel lobbies; super fascinating for a waterwaylover like me.

The Alamo

I was taken back to the San Juan Capistrano mission. Everything from the architecture to the vegetation just felt the same. I actually like the feel of San Juan Capistrano a little more, but this was the place of the big battle that ultimately doubled America's size. What really stood out to me was the oak tree in the middle of the yard. It was transported back in the 1930's by some bloke who figured out how to do it with a team of horses and a wagon. Itwas 42years old then, so now, it is 110 years old. It has branches 50 feet wide.
Sam's birthday
Samuel just turned 9. Thank you to the family who sent him gifts. He is very blessed to be so remembered. I bought him an “Alamo” pocket knife with 11 different tools to use for his birthday. We are also letting him purchase his sisters Nintendo DS and probably I will buy him a bicycle. We celebrated his big day with a Texas waffle, and just being with our friends.

Here is some of the local architecture that really stood out to me. I just loved this semi-circular building. The windows off to the side were to me simply beautiful. I just love this kind of stone work.

Behold, the Lion of Judah

2011-06-09T12:13:00.011-05:00

(I hope my cousin Philip gets to see this blog. He is a landscaper and this is the sort of thing that would be up his alley.) Pentecost is here! I went by the church today to help Heidi store some drinks for the concession stand the conference. The garden is just breath-taking. It is going to be a wonder in North Texas. This garden is being made to represent the land of Israel, and the tribes of Israel. Israel really is the land of promise, and God is not finished with Israel. God blesses Israel, and will bless those who bless Israel. We are going to dedicate the garden to the Lord on Friday.

This is the view looking out of the cafeteria. You can see here the length of the garden. Yesterday I took the girls down yesterday to sit out by fountain and draw some art. There were a few to many ants and mosquitos, but it was simply beautiful.

Here is the bridge crossing over just in front of the cafeteria. There is a drainage water way underneath.

Here is a threshing floor, symbolic of all the threshing floor episodes in the bible.

Here is a view from the opposite angle.

Aren't these full grown oaks amazing? This is the section we planted with the youth. We dug up a bunch of predatorial roots, and then spread fertilizer and planted.

I decided to go to our other northern property where we had a massive passover celebration last year. We brought in like 30 truck loads of gravel to put down roads, and here is the location of the big tent. Not a single soul out there beyond me. When I think of how hard we worked this land, and all the stuff we did to make it ready, I get a little sad. However, it had a purpose, and that purpose is still yet to be fully realized.

Flare Potential

2011-06-02T20:09:00.012-05:00

(This post is partly for my dad3 David who knows how to make distinctions about golf clubs. Well, I don't golf regularly, but I do bowl. It's also just pure fun for me to identify the equipment I was gifted this week from my church father Chuck.)

This past week I decided my old bowling balls were not adequate for the job. They are only 13lbs. This is a good starting weight, but after three years of bowling, I realized they are just missing something. So I spoke up, and decided to shift after the USBC Texas Championship to get some new balls. When I did so, my pastor/apostle Chuck said he had a few 15lb balls that I could have, if I'd trade in my old ones so some one else could use them. So I turned in my Columbia 300's for some Roto Grip Balls. Here is what I got.

1. The Nomad Dagger
2. The Infinite Theory Ball (this one is right up my alley!)

First let's get a little nerdy and hit the stats: (Everyone knows?? no two ball designs are alike.)

1. The Nomad Dagger
Cover Stock: Ultra vision hybrid reactive
Ball Finish: 1500 Polish
Rotary Core
Differential: .054
Mass Bias differential:n/a
Radius of gyration: 2.55
Flare Potential 5+
Durometer: 73-75 Rex D Scale

Designed for Medium to Heavy Oil with moderate carry-down
The hybrid version offers a strong entry angle, while maintaining a smooth Mid-Lane transition on medium to heavy patterns with moderate carry-down.

2. The infinite Theory
Cover Stock: Insight hybrid reactive
Ball Finish: 1500 Polish

Triliptic core
Differential: .058
Mass Bias differential .013
Radius of Gyration: 2.49
Flare Potential 7+
Durometer: 73-75 Rex D Scale

Designed mainly for longer Medium to Heavy oil conditions. The Insight™ coverstock features the same reaction tuned technology as the original solid version, but with the added benefit of a hybrid pearlization process giving the ball more control on the difficult wet/dry conditions.

Summary:

Basically the Dagger Ball is a medium-heavy oil ball with a solid back end, and a longer smooth approach. The infinite theory ball is a more aggressive ball.

Now I don't know why, but when I bowled the Dagger ball Tuesday night, it demonstrated a wicked hook. I had to stand full to the right, throw across the third arrow to the left, and still had trouble keeping it on the correct side of the head pin. I bowled consistently in the low 170's on average. Not so good, but exciting to feel the action. The thing slammed home like a drunk boxer. Sent the messenger more than a few times.

On Wednesday night (Yes, I'm in two leagues this summer) I bowled the Infinite Theory ball. Now the lane oil seemed a little heavier than the night before. Even still this is a slightly more aggressive ball, statistically. However, the sucker rolled smooth. Now it didn't seem as hard hitting as the other ball??? For the night I averaged 198 over the three games. My second game I bowled clean, finding six strikes in a row to finish with a 256. So for the summer, I'm going to alternate each ball for each night, and see if I can learn the math to put the ball where it is supposed to be. Maybe I need a little notebook? :)

Empowered to Move Forward

2011-05-30T14:12:00.006-05:00

God is so good. This is the day that the Lord has made. God in the midst of these storms is going to bear our burdens, just like these wheel barrows. We can thank God for the angels, and for angelic help.

Balaam was helped by a talking donkey. We are helped by God commanding His angels to work on our behalf. This is the day to look and see what God has done on behalf of those who love Him. Consider the wheel barrow. A wheel gives motion and movement. A barrow gives structure to what the people need. "I tell you in days ahead, you will move in alignment with me to gain access to the motion you need to overcome every obstacle. Get ready for I am on the move."

Garden First Fruits (Vegetables)

2011-05-27T17:27:00.012-05:00

God is so good! In the midst of all the chaos, the garden has been growing. We've been tending the garden in the midst of storms, hail, and tornados. Today we harvested some good radishes. Man they were hot! It is really fun to see the garden sprout and grow into life. The day after we planted everything the dogs got in and dug everything up. So we leveled out the yard and just watered everything.

Boom, the seeds sprouted and everything came to life. We ended up watching our dogs get in again and again, so we put up chicken wire to guard the thing. Below you can see sometomatoes growing and turning red.

Here is our watermelon corner. I plan to let this thing grow through the onions and into the lettuce patch.

In the corner we have green peas growing. Its fun to watch them climb. We are thinking that they need some higher sticks to climb on.

Here is our one remaining strawberry plant returning to life. These were all chewed into nothing. We had one sprig left, and we nurtured it to life, and now it is looking beautiful.

We have two sunflower plants growing. I've never gotten these things to grow full term. They've always died off. Let see what happens this year.

I like to prophesy over what I'm seeing and blogging about. It is the heart and soul of why I blog. I love the Lord and what He is doing. Holy Spirit is teaching me how to see the manifestations that everyone sees, but hear it in His light. So here is what I'm seeing in the garden.

Hear what you see. That is what it means to be in me. Eyes have not seen and ears have not heard what God has prepared for those who love Him. Just as these fruit are growing in your midst, so am I working as a master gardner in the roots of my beloved. I tell you in a while, a very short while, the whole world shall see the garden of the Lord, and how He (Father) has tended it for the last few thousand years. Behold I have a plan, and I am making all things new! Get ready, for the new is upon you.

First tornado by our house

2011-05-25T11:58:00.007-05:00

Last night we had a tornado show up at around 8pm. Crazy. It didn't really touch down but it did look like a slippery snake on the sky. I was at the bowling alley when the thing hit, so I missed it. Sam was a little freaked out. Heidi just enjoyed it with a sense of awe. We at the alley just kept bowling through the sirens. I beat the 3inch hail that shut down the 35 w on the way home. That hit around six, and I went through at 4:30. Roy my next door neighbor took this video. Our house is the house in the picture. I'm thinking this was the end of the tornado.

Watchman, what do you see?
Here is what I see in this tornado passing by. I see that during this season of passing over to Pentecost, the storms are many. There is great warfare upon the Land. (Israel)
I hear the Lord saying, "Get ready, for time is short, and there is a great, great storm coming, that none can escape. Are you ready? Do you have your oil for your lamps? Are you keeping the midnight watch? For I tell you, surely the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and those who have to go back and fill their oil while they should be ready for the watch, are in danger of missing the aligned time of my visitation. Keep your oil handy! Wait on me, and you will see the hour of my visitation on the Land."

I asked the Lord and He answered Me.

2011-05-20T19:30:00.001-05:00

We have this Chick-fil-A tradition of getting a kids meal (3) and then trading in the toy and getting and ice cream. It turns out that when Sam asks...He gets more, a lot more. It started years ago with bacon. (He went up to a lady behind the counter and asked for some bacon. He came back with a little box with three bacon strips in it.) Of course, he asks for more, which the girls don't. So tonight we had a witnessing of Sam's asking gift. Here is the proof that Sam's asking gets results. Of course, his name means "I asked the Lord and He answered me."

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Camp Carter Science Day

2011-05-19T12:07:00.001-05:00

Just sitting here listening to the instructor teach my students... It is amazingly beautiful. Such an awesome day to sit and be still, and enjoy the Lord.

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We are Not in Kansas Anymore

2011-05-14T07:37:00.010-05:00

This week we had the privilege of watching two of our children perform in the wizard of oz play. Both Madeline and Abigail had support roles...Madeline was the wicked witch's assistant winkie, and Abigail was a sign language interpreter for the great oz, a winkie and a munchkin.

The play lasted about 40 minutes from start to finish. It was very enjoyable to watch. I started to cry at one point because I always love to see people win, or do well. It is amazing how my children have grown up... and move into new territories.

a
Both the girls are not in drama, so it was kind of a big deal for them to apply for parts in the play and get a role. The drama teacher wondered who Madeline was, and was amazed at her ability to perform. She didn't know who she was after three years of attending McMath. Well, now she knows. The real highlight of the play for me beyond the involvement of my Texas gals was the 7th grade boy who played the lion. He did such a great job being a scared-y-cat. He had kind of a big husky voice, and whimpered greatly. I think he stole the show. But then again, everybody did awesome and that is that.

It really is amazing to see my children grow and mushroom at an exponential rate during this season. Sam has grown two inches since August. Developmentally, the kids are fast approaching adulthood. It is just incredible.

Texas Six Flags

2011-05-08T16:36:00.012-05:00

Yesterday was a mini-adventure. We had an incredible time--surviving. We went with Madeline's orchestra, about 60 kids, in the two school buses. In the beginning it was tough because of road construction. We got there 2 &1/2 hours after we left. I had to get past that, and just move on to enjoy the day. The park is only 30 miles away. After we got there we finally broke off into groups.

I sneakily suggested that we go on the Texas Giant, and we stood in line for a few minutes until everyone realized how long the line was. Only later did they realize it would have terrorized Sam. So we switched to the log ride. Here is the first drop of the Texas Giant. I might add that this is neither the scariest or fast roller coaster at the park. But it did fall in the scary category.

Then we went back to the buses at one and had a great packed lunch. Thebreeze was blowing and the busses were cool, so this was an actual huge blessing. Feeling refreshed, we entered the fray once more.

Perhaps the most fun part for me was watching Sam enjoy the rides. It was his first time, apart from Disneyland, to go to a roller coaster park. He truly thought every ride was "awesome" and you could see the joy beaming on his face. So, we set our focus on Sam and just went with the flow.

In the end, Abigail and I tried to do a scary ride, "Batman", but the line was too long to meet our six o'clock dead line. So we got some Cokes and walked back to the entrance. This was a special time for me,just to enjoy Abigail and her junior high-ness.

According to Abigail, "Umm, I had a fun time, but I'd not bring a back pack if I were you, cuz man, you get really hot there!" That is an understatement.

According to Sam, "The best one that I went on was the red yellow and black one with no tracts."

According to Madeline, "I had a great time hanging out with my friends and discovering Six Flags for the first time."

Heidi says, "It was fun to meet so many nice kids and take Sam for the first time.

So there it is, a day at the park, and good times to boot.

Standing in the Light of Heaven

2011-05-06T05:38:00.006-05:00

Most of my life, most of the time, I have walked in the light of pride. I repent for this. When I begin to grab a firm grasp of this, I am shocked. The fact is that I have not tried to walk in pride. Rather, I have let those wrapped up in pride define me by their light. When I have incorporated those definitions into my "stage", or framework for moving forward, then I have moved in pride. This is not an active, conscious pride. Rather it is a mindset based on the permeating perceived belief of knowledge being located in the authority of man.

Knowledge is not based on Human Authority, and it's authority is located (intensionally) within God. Pride is that attempt of man to break from the authority of God in knowledge, and define reality by His senses. The problem in this is that man is always limited, and his judgements are mired with contingency. So he settles with what is spatially quantifiable, and this always rules out the realm of the Spirit.

The Hebrews early on gained an understanding of the terrible nature of this condition. They learned to identify it for the false structure that it is.

David-
He says to himself, "God has forgotten;
he covers his face and never sees." Ps 10:11 NIV

Jeremiah-
You hope for light,
but he will turn it to thick darkness
and change it to deep gloom.
But if you do not listen,
I will weep in secret
because of your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly,
overflowing with tears, Jer 13:16-17 NIV

In my experience I have received the definitions of pride in the home, the work place, and church. Well meaning parents, friends, family and co-workers, judge based on what they see. The problem is I believe them. :)

Who really is able to judge the motive of the heart at the time of the action? This is really God's special ability, and the rest of us have to wonder.

So in my journey to know God, He has been speaking to me this week about getting out of the definitions of pride that the world has tried to wrap around me with all the well meaning intentions of the world. Now, I can't do this on my own. But what I can do, I listen to His definitions on any given context, on any given day, in any given circumstance.

This is what it means to stand in the Light of Heaven. Let God define what is, let God report on a subject, let God report on a review, and see what He has to say about it. To me, this is the Glory of the Holy Spirit.

Now, I may not always hear Holy Spirit correctly, but God is God! He has a way of connecting with us so that we may gain access to a correct alignment to His authority. This is what I'm waking up to, and it is really hard. It is hard because I'm so willing by nature to accept the definitions given to me by those I "function" with.

So, Jesus understands this. He says, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Matt 5:11-12 NIV

To stand in the Light of Heaven, is to report from a very different place than from those around us. To say the least, they will not understand. That is okay. They do not have to. But they do need to be loved, and that is the whole point. So my challenge from God is to love those who will daily proclaim my inadequacy, knowing full well that whoever would enter the kingdom of heaven, must come as a child.

A Tower of Defense

2011-05-01T21:02:00.005-05:00

With the changes that are coming upon us, it is so important to know who our God is in the midst of these situations.

Psalm 61:2-4
"From the ends of the earth I call to you,I call as my heart grows faint;lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.

I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings."NIV

I hear the Lord saying:

"This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice in it and be glad, for great and mighty is the Lord of Hosts. Behold, He has loosed His angelic armies on your behalf. During this time of upheaval, call upon the Lord's name, and surely you will overcome every obstacle levied against you. I am the Lord God, I have spoken it from the beginning. Will you not put aside your vain imaginations of fear and anxiety, and trust in me? For I tell you, greater is He that is in you, than He that is in the world. For I have overcome the world, and am bringing restoration to my people. Behold, Israel, the Lord of Hosts is upon you."

Tuscaloosa Tornado

2011-04-30T10:44:00.003-05:00

Wow! Unbelievable. In the times we face, we really need the presence of God to face such trials.

Passover 5771 (2011) Entering the Land of Promise in the week of storms

2011-04-25T21:48:00.013-05:00

What a week! We got through passover. This year passover was truly amazing. We had an intense three days of worshipping God and moving in the midst of all the timing. It feels like the great awaking to the kingdom age is upon us. We will just have to wait and see.

In the first photo we were all down close to the stage watching Eddie James and the crew dance, and sing, and get wild. I was amazed to watch my family perch on the side of the stage, in front of a couple thousand people. No big deal really, but we were all into it.

In this second photo we were out at the land for the sunrise service. We had an open heaven poking through the clouds. No rain. It was truly amazing. Peter and Doris Wagner were there, and Chuck was just amazing. We really are entering something so new, we don't quite grasp it yet, although we can see it smack in the middle of us.

Storm Watch

What I've seen this week is a tornado wall cloud form over my back yard, walnut sized hail, and no damage. Thank you Lord. I'm putting a video in so you can experience a glimpse. You'll be able to see it in the side bar when I get it loaded.

After the sunrise service, Abigail and Sam, and friends decided to play in the water feature (out of bounds). No one saw. So hey, refreshed feet, and a new outlook on life. We went back to the super pit at UNT and partook of the Seder meal. Then we went home to sleep. Glorious sleep. I could not take today off as I had to proctor the TAKS test. Ugghh. Oh well. Onward and upward. We also had Darren out. It was really great to connect with him. He moved to Portland a year ago, and came out to play wind instruments for the worship team. He is quite gifted.

Here is the wall cloud forming in a circular shape over our neighborhood. Behind this was a bright green/white hazy sky. Scary. First time we've waited in the bathroom for a few years. If you look carefully, you can see the pink triangle in the weather map below. It only hit one roof in Denton. See the local paper article here.

Well, it was all very exciting. But more than this, I hear the Lord saying, "This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it. I will come, behold, I am making all things new. Don't be afraid as my endgame begins to run it's course, for I tell you, I have prophesied the end from the beginning, now you shall see the beginning made manifest in the end." Selah

Have a blessed week, enjoy.

Crossing Over

2011-04-22T17:52:00.005-05:00

According to Dutch Sheets, we are moving from 11 to 12. What this means (among many other things) is moving from the wilderness to the land of promise. Dutch saw it exemplified in Gen 28:10-13.

11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. NIV

I saw that we are moving from the qualities of verse 11 to the qualities of verse 12. In the wilderness, we moved about looking for a place to rest. In the place of promise, the land of promise, the portals of heaven open up and manifest the glory of God. This is where we are for this next decade, according to Chuck Pierce.

As I was meditating on all of this during our first day at our Passover conference, I decided to revamp this blog. In the old season, we were in the wilderness, and it was time to hear the sound for the new. Now we are in the new, and it is time to SEE. In the cloud formation picture I put behind the Title, I saw Jacob's ladder. I've been meditating on that picture for some months. The Lord is showing me how to see in a new way prophetically for a new season.

In this new season, it is all about learning how to see His kingdom manifestation in the spatio/temporal universe, as opposed to learning to see with Holy Spirit in the spirit. Because of the formation and opening of these new portals of heaven, we will see God's glory manifest, and His kingdom advance. It is the combination of seeing heaven in earthly substance, like vegetables, children, events, life.

As I was forming an understanding of this, the Lord brought me to Elijah, hanging out at Cherith Stream for a few years while the land of promise was being scourged by famine. Here it was the Elijah learn to take what he was seeing in the realm of the Spirit, and see again by looking at the sky, stars, streams, and ecology. He was seeing heaven manifest in the earth realm. This is how he gained faith to demonstrate to Israel the power of God to over take baal worship structures. This is exactly what we will be doing in America.

Get ready. This coming season will be a time of tremendous shaking. If you can't see God in the midst of it, you will see destruction, and hopelessness.

Rejoice, for salvation is at hand. Salvation for the Land of Promise. This includes both Israel, and America.

Fiddle & Stomp

2011-04-14T21:59:00.003-05:00

Tonight we had a blast listening to Madeline and the McMath/Calhoun Middle school orchestra play at the annual String Fling. Listen, stomp, and enjoy!

Pure Evil: Good Qua Good

2011-04-13T22:17:00.003-05:00

Recently I've been thinking about the nature of evil. Perhaps the defining feature of evil is its presumption to be good, while maintaining a healthy addiction to non reality.

Definitions:

Goodness: the real, or of reality.

Evil: the false, or of non-reality (vain imaginations)

Goodness is necessarily connected to reality. They way things exist in fundamentals is good, and equally real. Enter Evil: within the context of reality, a power is established to engage non-reality. What is this power? The power God gave humanity to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil. It must be at some level good to have the power of choice to partake of this fruit. Perhaps it is required for love to manifest?

So within this tree, or spiritual flow of vain imagination, were we gain access to the power to hold as true that which is not true, namely lies. Think about it. What quality do we possess to believe lies? A fundamental disconnection/separation from the real.

Within this context then we see the ultimate form of evil; an attempt to connect goodness (the real) to non-reality. It attempts to locate the set of all things good (G) within the belief that (A)It exists independently (on its own ontological stage) from God's presence and purpose. In order for (A) to be true, it would need to sustain itself in a world where God does not exist.

Now here is the marvel of our age: God has given us a place where Evil can abound, and we can believe in good while believing (A) to be seemingly true. What is this context in which we live, and how do we fall prey to the presumption that (A) is true, and that (G) goodness is something we can achieve by pursuing it directly? Time.

Time is partial. It is a degreed process of change whereby things pass into existence or non-existence. We as sons of Adam have a choice. We can align with God, and press into the fullness of goodness, by engaging in reality. Or we can align with vanity, and press into non-reality by following ourselves.

How do people divorce goodness from God, and root it in Goodness (Belief in (G)? It happens in our capacity to use our mental gift for applying intentionality to mental concepts. This power of intentionality gives us the ability to form mental relations with illusion. Example: I believe in Unicorns.

We all know what a unicorn is. It is a mythological creature, one described in fairy tales. But we don't see it in the city Zoo. At the zoo we see real animals, good animals.

But if someone teaches that Unicorns live at the zoo, everyone begins to form a conviction that the teacher is silly, or crazy, or playing a trick. But say someone believed a lie from a well meaning parent, and really believes in unicorns, and looks forward to seeing one at the zoo. That person holds a mental concept (U) Unicorns are real as a belief. How does the person hold the concept? This is a power within the mind to form a relation to a concept. The nature of this relation is something of a mystery, but I believe we have it by being created in God's image. We know that it is spiritual in nature, given the nature of words within human agency located outside physical causality. (Meaning: the Twinkies I just ate didn't make me do it.)

Good qua Good

Believing that Goodness (G) is real in the context of (A) then is just like believing in (U) Unicorns. We can hold it as true, but it will in reality be false, for it is fundamentally located within imagination, (a knowledge state) with no real substance.

Real Substance

The real substance of any idea (de dicto) is rooted in the intentionality of God as manifested through His creative power. Ideas are true when they hold true within God's design. This is an alignment we call truth. False ideas exist, but without any real substance located within the intentionality of God's design. We can hold concepts (G), (U), and (A), but in the end it will only give us a shocking surprise: Hell.

Hell is a given territory at the edges of God's design that form a reflection to the dweller that Good is real, and it is not separated from God. If you want to pursue (A) you will have to do it within (H) Hell, the place where (A) CANNOT stand true from the perspective of the believer. The level pain in (H) will form a self-evident conviction that (G) is false, and real goodness is connected intrinsically with Jesus Christ, or reality. This is the real evil within the belief of (G): we can pursue what seems good (G) and it will take us to (H) with no chance of finding (L) Life abundant in Jesus Christ. It can be argued additionally that Religion per se is the pursuit of (G) and not of God, and is a path to (H).

A Day for a New Garden

2011-04-10T22:51:00.003-05:00

Really this is our third attempt at a backyard garden. We are pretty excited about it though as every time is a learning process. As I type, my fingers are sore, and we have a storm with 2" hail approaching. I'm praying for rain, but not that our little garden plants get messed up. You can see the slide show to the right to see the process we went through.

All in all it took us about 4 hours of digging and building to put the structure in place. We have hard clay soil here, I I was surprised at how difficult it was to dig through. I times I wasn't sure I had the strength to go on. But in the end, we prevailed. We decided to build our own little fence around the box with wooden stakes and twine. The effort is an attempt to keep the dogs from making it a sleeping hole. Last year they chewed off about 10 tomatoes from my flower pots. If the birds make a stab at it we'll throw some netting over the top. It should be interesting.

Well, time will tell how this endeavor will bless the family... It's already given us a chance to create something new.

Get Out There

2011-04-02T14:20:00.008-05:00

Now is the time for the body of Christ to reach those pre-Christians. We cannot do it by trying to reach them behind church walls.

We must learn to go, and find them in the field. To do this, we must see God in a new way.

I often think of soccer as this universal cultural point of reference that kids from all over the world can utilize as a common point from which to interact. I have students from Mexico, South America, Vietnam, and Thailand. So I have begun to play soccer everyday at recess, for ten minutes. I have begun to see so much more of who my students are. Even the girls are beginning to play. Somehow, by my presence as the teacher, there is a material edge, a new level of engagement in the game, that I have seen in my kids. Everyday they look forward to it. It has become so fun. The boys have their signature flop that they see the pros do. I'm learning social norms, game norms, injury norms, and a host of things. Most of all though, I see how strong they are, and how they press forward in the arena THEY consider important. My arena is the classroom. Their arena is the soccer-field.

They call my student Jose the golden goalie. Jose will sacrifice, I mean sacrifice his body, to block a goal. He is an amazing ball blocker. His goal is to win. I see this also: when a student kicks the ball for a big open shot, other students will leap and twist, sacrificing their well being, to block the ball. I'm turning 40, I don't do this. Lord knows breaking my ankle is a bad idea right now. But I can still get out there and run around, and watch.

Shift to the Kingdom

So where or what is the field or arena that the world considers important? They could care less about our stucco and bricks. But they love the place of their interest. The golf course, the bowling alley, the bike shop, and the restaurant.

We need God to remove the Limitations

Break down the fence O God! Break us out of the walls. How will this happen?

We must not limit God to our past experiences of God. We must access the greater things of God, divine heavenly reality, and allow His presence to reorder our present. We do this by waiting on God to access intimacy with Him.

Listen: what are your exceptions on God for your experience of the present? Do you expect God for miracles? What about seeing into the heavens? How about seeing angels? What about seeing your dreams being made manifest in the earth realms?

We must begin to see beyond who we are in Christ, to who Christ is in us. This means we allow God to strip us of our old wine skins and give us new wine skins to receive new wine. Jesus is going to do this for those who give Him permission. This is why we must wrap our minds around the prophetic destiny God has spoken over each one of us.

The Ultimate Rock Cycle

2011-03-30T17:43:00.013-05:00

Lately I've been teaching my students about the rock cycle. There are three kinds of rock; igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary. I was feeling very self-congratulatory on a rock formation demonstration I designed using water, salt and coffee. Unable to utilize a Bunsen burner, I confiscated the microwave from the teacher work room. I set it up in the middle of my room, heating water in which to dissolve the rock (salt).

After I dismissed the students to specials, I began to think of the various kinds of rocks, and how rocks are formed and reformed with water, pressure, and heat energy. I kept telling the students all day that every rock has a story of the journey that it has gone through to find its formation. Suddenly, I thought of Christians as living stones.

1 Peter 2:4-5

And coming to Him [Jesus Christ] as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. NASU

So I began to think about how God makes rocks, and how He would go about forming us in a elemental parallel.

It became as clear as mud!

He takes us from the dust of the earth. Mixes us with a little water. (Holy Spirit) We drift awhile in the river until we are buried in the sediment surrounding us. (Things from the past, laws of sowing and reaping.) Then a great pressure comes, (trials) and we shift into a unique alignment. (Right order) This produces a much stronger composition in us. Some of us are lucky enough to get shoved into the underground where the fire gets hot. (Exploring root issues of the blood, generational sin, and issues of the curse.) It is there that we are completely melted and mixed with other elements or qualities. (Yielding to the master physician.) Then He cools us down at varying speeds, reflecting beautiful internal qualities, like geodes. (Resurfacing after deliverance and healing) I think this is what Jesus means when He says, "I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by the fire." Revelation 3:18. In the end, we are simply beautiful!

The LIving Word

2011-03-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

Recently, the Lord gave me some revelation about the nature of His living word, and how it relates to us. Over the last week, He has been impressing on me to release this revelation on my blog. It is mission critical for us to align appropriately with His word if we are to overcome the shaking that has begun, and will continue until the end.

On Tuesday morning we have prayer at our church. Here is what I saw prophetically as we entered into a powerful prayer time.

I saw a document briefcase come down out of heaven. God’s hands opened it up and it revealed a tricycle, that steel kind we rode when we were little. The Lord showed me the metal seat and the handle bars, and then brought my attention to the three wheels. (I thought: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.) Then He showed me writing inscribed on the side of the wheels in white with little blue sparks/flames everywhere.

As I was meditating on this tricycle, I listened to our leader talk about uncapping the wells within us where the living water of the Lord can rise up. I made a connection from the living water, to the Spirit of Truth, (Holy Spirit), and then by extension, Jacob’s well.

Jacob’s well is all about uncorking his land of promise. It was a place in the land of promise where he tapped into a life source. The word of the Lord is life to us. Next I began to meditate on Jacob’s ladder, where the Kingdom of Heaven was made manifest to Jacob on earth. Here it was that Jacob found a “gate” into heaven. It was such a radical manifestation of revelation that he named the place Bethel, or house of God.

The nature of True Revelation

True Revelation will always unfold and reveal the risen king, Jesus Christ. Since God has made so many great on wonderful promises for those of us fortunate enough to be Him, we have access; a permission and a call, to partake of His living word.

The Living Word

As I was meditating on all of this I began to see how, to really truly grow up in the things of God, we must approach as a child. (Tricycle) We can’t be all grown up, with everything figured out, or there will be no place in us to receive the new wine. Paul talks about this in Corinthians where he desires to talk with them about heavenly things, but due to their immaturity, can only talk to them about issues on carnality, as spiritual babes.

As we begin to sit in the heavenlies, (Col. 3) there is a place God has for us; a seat of destiny and design. This seat is specially designed for a child. But then there are the wheels. These wheels are the angelic company of God, sent to assist us in the alignment and assignment of the word of God: not as a propositional structure (de dicto), but as a kingdom manifestation (de re). These are pictured as the living wheels in Ezekiel 1,10, that move the throne of God. God has called us to be His sons of Glory, with a living and active promise of a manifestation of that Glory on this side of death. (See Isaiah 60)

To understand what this means, is to see how God moves here and now to establish His kingdom on earth. As the earth rocks with birth pangs of the arrival of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, we have a crucial role to play. That role is to LIVE the word of God, as a manifestation of Logos. Sounds cool doesn’t it? Maybe heretical? Not really. We are not the Logos. But Jesus Christ is. (See John 1) But this same Jesus Christ is alive in me, and you, if you are in Him. (John 17:17) It will not be us, but Him that is made manifest in us, that will loose the living word of Heaven on earth.

The Woman at the Well

If you go back and look at John 4, the woman at the well, you will see that she was drawing water at Jacob’s well. (In the land of promise.) Here she enters the king of kings, and He asks her for a drink. Then His reveals to her water he has to offer that will spring up into eternal life. “Then Jesus makes this proclamation:

“ But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” John 4: 23-24

Spirit and Truth dovetail together in Jacob’s well and Jacob’s ladder. The place of our fathers (by the promise) foretold of how living water will be made manifest on earth. By the manifestation of a sound, and an act of faith, the heavens will be opened, and the earth will be realigned, and all creation with in it. We must get this if we are going to prevail in the trials that now stand before this. Pray, and ask God to make the revelation of the living word available to you.

See, Jesus spoke into the deepest place of that used woman, with a level of compassion unknown to man. That is His call for us today, and it will save the world, one person at a time.

Playing Catch at the Park

2011-03-18T18:02:00.009-05:00

Today we had a very fun last day of Spring Break. We decided to go with grandma and grandpa overto the park and play catch. There was such a beautiful breeze today. It was about 75*, which is awesome Texas weather. We found a nice shade spot to perch, and then commenced with our play.

We threw frisbees, baseball, and even dribbled the basketball around. Then we had a blast swinging on the tire swing.

Sam and I played catch with the baseball. Grandpa had some sound advice on how to catch the ball by crossing over your hand. This helps avoid skip-shots into the face. Sam is getting really good in his third grade development. We practice on the side yard on a regular basis.

Heidi was so inspired watching Sam, Madeline, and Abigail play catch, that she had to have a try. Her she is showing off her skillz catching the ball. She even inspired grandma to have a try. (I didn't get a picture, but she really did catch some balls.

In the end, we were all hot. So it was time to pour water over appendages. Grandpa decided that we should go over to McDonalds and get some cold drinks. I decided that I need to get a new mitt, and ad a soccer ball to our arsenal of reciprocal play objects.

First Day of Spring Break 2011

2011-03-14T19:52:00.011-05:00

Grandma and grandpa are here this week (Heidi's parents). We are having loads of fun. It is great having family in town, as it is about once a year that we get to visit.Other family, please come to visit! We miss you so much.

Today we had sucha pleasant day. Woke up to a balmy 47*, and I decided to take the dogs on a walk. Then we went out to IHOP for breakfast. That was tasty. Then we came back, and decided to go on an exploratory drive down to Fort Worth. We first stopped at my school, and decided to play on the playground at the adjacent park. Here is a video of us playing on the merry-go-round.

After the park, we drove down to a park by Texas Christian University and had a nice lunch. It seems our body clocks have not adjusted to "Spring Forward." Getting up and nine and going to bed at midnight, we haven't quite got the hang of it yet.

Tsunami - A Sine Wave

2011-03-12T07:52:00.011-06:00

This week has been a marvel, both distressing and wonderful. On Thursday night before the Japan double catastrophe, the Lord gave me a vision picture sequence of his elect moving out on the sea. This was a picture of how not to move. He showed me them as a troop of trees moving out in a "sine" wave, rolling over the ocean waves. The problem was they were yo-yo-ing up and down as they traversed the surface.

We are not called to move primarily along political lines. We are called to war from Zion. This is a place of divine worship, and habitation. It is a place that recognizes GOD IS IN CONTROL, not in a loose way, but over every detail, down to the last building scrapped by a wave.

The other word He spoke is that He has a plan, and that it is here.

Here is what Jesus said in Luke 12:49-51.

"I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division."NIV

At the root of this thing is a battle between light and darkness, between those who hide in the darkness, and those who love the light. John said it best.

1 John 2:9-11

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him."NIV

I see a lot of hatred in the world today. I can't stand war among the people of the earth. But the people are locked into a mindset that promotes it. So...in the midst of the plan, there is a curse involved for those who ignore the plan.

Isa 24:1-6
Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.
The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word. The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. NASU

Is there any HOPE? YOU BET! ZION

This is the amazing reality. We do not need to be driven by the fears of catastrophe. God is actually in control. He has an amazing fortress, called Zion's Hill. Now is the time to live from Zion, and overcome the paw of the lion. To get a clear picture of this, read Psalm 2. I have put part of it here. This is the endgame, and it is about to unfold at an unprecedented rate.

Ps 2:4-12

"I have installed my King
on Zion, my holy hill."

I will proclaim the decree of the LORD:

He said to me, "You are my Son; today I have become your Father.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your inheritance,
the ends of the earth your possession.

You will rule them with an iron scepter;
you will dash them to pieces like pottery."

Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth.

Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way,
for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
NIV

Catching the Wind

2011-03-05T20:10:00.005-06:00

Today I was collecting fun kite pictures off the internet to teach about the prophetic ministry in a power point I'm putting together. Then I came across a most entertaining picture. I have been giggling about it all day.

It really captures something of the adventure we have in living by faith in Jesus Christ.

Here you are: Out of Control. Death is on both sides of you. You're in the danger zone. Jesus, it turns out, is the boat driver, and if He stops suddenly, your going to free fall into the water. You have a little viewing area to see what is happening in the boat, if you have the presence of mind, and the ability to overcome your fear.

Not to worry, God's got you in a life vest. That's good, because people who fly over the lake can always drown if they take a plunge. Of course, that is not the "fear" when you are flying with no control.

There are fancy bright colors all over the place showing off the nature of your "tube." Communication with the driver appears to be a mind-reading adventure. I doubt anyone could here you yelling up there if you got tired or had a panic attack. But hey, you're not the average inter-tuber, contending with all the chop on the surface. You're flying, and what's more is that it is on a watercraft kite. Only for the courageous, those who want more, you've found a way to lift off. Now you see like you've never seen before, if you can keep your eyes up looking out. :)

Wake Up Call

2011-03-03T17:24:00.000-06:00

This afternoon I was taking a nap, and at the end of it, the Holy Spirit shook me and told me to put what I hear as a blog post. So here it is.

“Here what the Spirit of the Lord says to the seven Churches. I will not contend with you forever. WAKE UP. The great delusion is upon you. Now is the time to snap to, and pay attention to me. I have spoken this!” Says the Lord.

2 Thess 2:9-12

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness. NIV

This is the end of the matter.

2011-02-26T20:39:00.011-06:00

Daniel In The Den Of Lions-FrancoisVerdier

Today around the diner table we read Daniel chapter seven on the end times. What with all the "rioting in the streets" business happening world wide," hitting a refresh button on the word of God seems like a good thing to do.

I thought it is good to give the children a foundational understanding on the big picture of end times events. Daniel is the book for that, putting the grand scheme of things in a straight forward prophetic context. No need to make it complicated. Four beasts, ten horns, the little horn, the heavenly court, the final judgment, and the eternal kingdom.

Dan 7:26-28

"`But the court will sit, and his power will be taken away and completely destroyed forever. Then the sovereignty, power and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be handed over to the saints, the people of the Most High. His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him.'

"This is the end of the matter. I, Daniel, was deeply troubled by my thoughts, and my face turned pale, but I kept the matter to myself." NIV

All of this was revealed 555 years (aprox.) before Jesus manifested in Israel. Then, at the fulness of time, Jesus came, proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand! He was right. He conquered satan, and left, going to heaven.

We come now to the crux or pivot of the next season in God's economy. Jesus final words before his ascention are recorded here in Acts 1:5-11 Jesus is talking about the next phase.

"...for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." So when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?"

He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."And after He had said these things, He was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.

And as they were gazing intently into the sky while He was going, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. They also said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven."NASU

It seems to me, after reading this, that God himself is really interested the indwelling Holy Spirit. Apparently, it is not for us to know the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by His own authority. I mean we've been trying to figure it out for these 2000 years now, and we've only complicated things to the nth degree. I mean, just go back to Daniel and get the big picture.

BUT what did Jesus say? We shall receive power, and be witness of Christ, and testify to the ends of the earth. Now here is the part I think we overlook.

God has fixed His times and seasons, and they are determined beyond all human here-say. However, we have a focus, given by Jesus, as to the baptism of Holy Spirit, and the role of witness, both in observation, and proclamation. What kind of power shall we receive upon entering into a baptism of Holy Spirit? (Have you been baptized by Holy Spirit? If not, just ask God for it.)

Power of Observation: Eyes to see and ears to hear

Holy Spirit opens up a Now (present active indicative) awareness of Jesus Christ in the Spirit of the Lord. This is truly exciting, so much is to gained here in the body of Christ.

Power of Proclamation: Entrusted with the word of God. The word of God is the most powerful force in existence. When He puts it in the mouths of His saints, as His word, it will be fulfilled. This is the power of the apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist, and pastor. Right now, many are speaking in the name of God, but not the word of God as a Holy Spirit utterance. When God speaks, the devil responds. It's that simple.

Time to Change the World

It is time for Christians to rise up and change the world. This will happen as we gain the power to watch God, and gain the power to utter the utterance of God. For that is power indeed.

Rev 11:3-4

"And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for twelve hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth." These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands that stand before the Lord of the earth." NASU

Spiritual Warfare

2011-02-19T07:58:00.008-06:00

The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call to the LORD, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies. Ps 18:2-3 NIV

Spiritual warfare is one of those subjects that gets marginalized by its ethereal nature. Seemingly intangible, or non-sensory, Christians generally tend to view it as a category of “God’s business”, outside the realm of normal human purview. Well it is God’s business. However, when He put the Serpent in the Garden, He made it man’s business.

Warfare By Design: Part of a perfect World

One of the central aspects of man’s identity and creation is to contend with the enemy of our souls. Spiritual Warfare did not come as a result of the fall. It came as a featured tenet of God’s central design in human identity. As creations of God, we contain within our DNA the very image and likeness of God.

If you carefully read Genesis, you will see that God created everything in six God days, and it was good. Part of that goodness contained the presence of the Serpent and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is interesting to me that it was good for those pathways to evil to be present in the garden. By God’s logic, this is the case.

I don’t think that God desired us to partake of the fruit, or listen to the serpent, for that indeed would be evil. But part of our call to be made in God’s image is to content with what God contends with, and overcome. Jesus Christ came, and demonstrated that the Victorious life is possible. It is He who professed that the life which He lived is both possible and accessible for those of us who dare believe His words. That is what I’m believing in.

Warfare as Controversial?

So if God designed us to see, recognize, and master the temptations and challenges in Spiritual Warfare, why do we generally avoid it as a topic of conversation? Well, this is the question. The short answer is that it serves the devil well for you to ignore it.

The fact is that warfare is all around us, and we are called by God to discern it spiritually. It is within this context then that the role and value of Holy Spirit leap into the forefront of all that goes on.

The age old scripture written through Paul testifies of the REALITY. “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.” Ephesians 6:12 NASU

Keys to a Victorious Life

Receive Jesus’ Blood by faith as a foundation for entering into the righteousness of God, and salvation of the soul.

Cultivate the presence of the Lord through waiting prayer.

Learn to hear the voice of Holy Spirit, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ.

Learn to see your enemy, and discern the spirit around you.

Speak to the enemy in the authority of Jesus Christ.

Here I have listed a set of scriptures, one for each of the above points. Meditate and see if this is what the Lord would have for you. You will see that it is not just about knowledge, but encounter within a spiritual arena. The Lord is not calling us to avoid the spiritual realm, rather rule it in conjunction with Him.

Rom 3:23-25 “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed." NASU

John 16:13-14 "But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. NASU.”

1 John 4:1-3 “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.” NASU

Prophetic Seeing

2011-02-09T14:47:00.014-06:00

ON Sunday after church, I just had to go out and take a ride. During Saturday, I sat in an all day conference learning about the gift of Seer, and learning how to see prophetically into dynamics happening in the natural. I decided to go around taking pictures, thinking that I might see some revelation in each of them.

The first thing I took a picture of was the sky. I did this during my dog walk before I took a ride. This really spoke to me of seeing the pathway of ascending into heaven, much like Jacob's ladder. In short, God takes us through a series of disciplines to help us rise above our current level. Holy Spirit is the only means to do this legitimately in God's kingdom. He has a plan for us to navigate the heavens.

Next I drove by Erin & Jim's old house on "Miracle Drive." Now, I am courting the miraculous, and our transition to Texas was miraculous. It was scary, and full of faith and fear. We had to overcome our fears and move in faith to get here. Now, five years later, I am seeing just how wonderful it is to be here, with my community growing in the Lord Jesus. Beyond that though, this house is situated on a path of Miracles. That is where I want to be positioned as I advance for the future.

I just had to take a picture of my vehicle, cuz I love it. Here is what I see in this. God is always giving us a new. I got my last bike as I started my teaching career in 2004. By contrast, this vehicle is very different. 1. It is dual sport: it can navigate both off road and on road. This speaks of conventional and non-conventional means of progression, or movement towards the goal. Additionally I can carry a lot of resources, and is designed to be modified. This speaks flexibility and versatility. Last, I can put my legs right underneath me. This means I can stand up. Probably the number one driving motivator to help me get rid of my last bike was that there was no way to stand up on it. The foot plates were way in front, and I had to stretch my legs out to rest them. But this meant I couldn't drive far because my hind end would get so tired. Prophetically, well, I can stand up. To me this speaks of empowerment to stand against the works of the devil. It just does...

I captured this photo on Tuesday as I was driving home from work. I just had to pull over and capture the 55555, five fives. Five Fives speaks of a portion of double grace. You can see my picture in the reflection of the odometer. This speaks to me, and says, my identity is covered in the Grace of God. According to Bullinger, five is the number for grace. "If four is the number of the world, then it represents man's weakness, and helplessness, and vanity, as we have seen. But four plus one (4+1=5) is significant of Divine strength added to and made perfect in weakness; of omnipotence combined with the impotence of earth; of Divine favor un-influenced and invincible. pg. 135. "Numbers in Scripture". My helmet speaks of salvation. (Helmet of salvation.)

Additionally 196 is the multiple of (14 X14). This speaks of the generations and genealogies of Jesus Christ which are broken up into sets of 14, This multiplication of 14 fourteens, speaks of a multiplication of divine seed. Through process of the passover, deliverance, salvation, and double anointing manifested in Christ, His identity, and precious promises have been made available and manifest to us.

Lastly, 15 is the number for "divine grace, rest, mercy, deliverance from death, the bride of Christ." (Barbie Breathitt. Dream Encounter Symbols) Capturing a vision for our connection with Christ as the Bride of Christ is at some level what it is all about. To move and grow in love, and understanding the richness of our calling is what the journey is all about.

May you see the divine elements surrounding you in your journey.

A Trip to Market in the Snow

2011-02-04T19:44:00.006-06:00

After four days of sitting in the house, surrounded with Ice and Snow, we just needed to get out. Here we are beginning our trip to the library and the market. Enjoy.

We got a fresh 6" of snow today. Sam and I set out to make the base of a snowman. Heidi got me stuffing more bags ing the trash can.

This morning Madeline and I worked on the driveway. We've found at 19* scarves are the way to go.

The Pitfalls of Sense Perception

2011-02-02T14:28:00.000-06:00

Part of the trouble of contending with the flesh is contending with the information our senses present us with.

Gal 5:17-21

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. NASU

Cultivating a “Sense of Reality”

The flesh at its root is a spiritual condition of disconnection from God. It is to be consciously informed of our environment without God’s input. See the design for us is to be connected to God, and move with Him, discovering our world or environment. However with the fall of man through Adam’s choice, the driving M.O. has always been and always will be to cultivate a sense of reality through empirical evidence. What is it exactly to “partake of the fruit of the knowledge of Good and Evil?” It is to move into realms of knowledge under individual authority. From that point in time, the human trouble has always been to ascertain warranted belief in any subject.

Climbing the Mountain

Climbing the mountain of philosophy, theology, religion, ethics, morality, the law, or any other system of thought has always been the work of establishing credibility within knowledge claims. However, all such claims are subject to the senses, sense data, and empirical evidence. These empirical data inferences or basic seemings are what? Our attempt to accurately define what is through what we connect with through the senses. The only problem is, it was never the way God intended for us to function.

Life in the Spirit

To “live in the Spirit” is to move out of the pursuit of warranted belief on the basis of empirical evidence. In other words, we must learn how to access divine revelation within the context of God’s presence. By this process we let the word of God, under the presence of God, inform our definitions of reality. This is really very humbling to the senses, because the definitions God gives are so beyond what we see. Therefore we have to learn to acknowledge the contingency which our senses employ to form definitions. For example: when I experience a bad sickness, I can say, how can a good God let this happen? Or I can say; “God works all things together for good,” and wait on determining the fruit of a trial. I think this is what Isaiah is describing about Jesus. In these qualities Jesus establishes a pattern for us.

Isa 11:1-3

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.

And He will delight in the fear of the LORD, And He will not judge by what His eyes see, Nor make a decision by what His ears hear; NASU

Snow Days- Amazing Winter Storm

2011-02-01T17:10:00.012-06:00

Well today was one of those days, 19* outside, with a windchill making it feel like 4*. Too cold to go out and play in the snow. However, we managed to walk the dog. You can see here the snow in some places came up to the curb edge. It was lots of fun. I was amazed that we have about 2" of ice over the street. Sam gave me a proper rebuke about "never making him go to walk the dog in the snow again." I asked him why. He said his legs hurt. Hey, it was cold enough for me to wear my bomber jacket, I can't blame him. We haven't seen a storm like this since we've been here. The big burning question is, what will we do tomorrow? Will we make it to school? The temperature is not supposed to come up from freezing until Saturday. Now as I sit here and type, my V.P. called and said, "No school tomorrow!" Wow.

Local neighborhood men enjoy quad riding in the snow. Everyone has to find a way to have fun.

I found this picture of the storm going across America from at the "Universe Today" astronomy web site.

A New Bike for A New Season

2011-01-30T20:11:00.006-06:00

Saturday morning I woke up after this big dream. In the dream, I was buying a new 650cc motorbike. I was really excited in the dream because the salesperson wanted to purchase my old motorcycle. It is a 650 as well. The interesting part of the dream was that my director and supervisor from Ft. Worth were there, looking at the bike catalog, discussing the 650cc engine size. Then my grandma showed up and I took her down to the other part of the store for the women, so she could shop while I bought the bike. To me, the interesting part was that the woman's section was actually the Hinshaws down at the Whitwood in Whittier.

I didn't think a lot about the dream. However I got up and had breakfast with Heidi at the local McDonald's. (I know, but it is a fun place to go for cheap, and a nice cup of coffee.) I told her aboutthe dream, and we moved on. Then, as we were driving home, we drove past the local bike shop. I'd never been in there. I heard (heard!) the Lord say, "You should go in there." I said to Heidi, "Hey, let's go in and look at some bikes, not to buy, just to imagine what I'd get if I could." So we did.

I looked all around, I discussed, hmmed and hawed, and told Heidi all the reasons why I wanted a particular bike. Then the fourth salesman came up, and said, "Hey, do you have a bike?" I told him I did, and why I wanted something different. My Yamaha has no foot rest under the seat, so I can never stand up on it to reposition and give my rear a rest. So I really can't ride it very often for a 40 minute ride. I told him that I needed something I could stand up on, and move throughout the ride.

He said he wanted to check out my bike, and buy it. Now I tried to sell my bike for the better part of two years, and did not receive one call. So I went and got it, and made a deal. I ended getting this blue used KLR Kawasaki dual sport 650.

For the last two days I've been riding my new bike with my children, both on road and off road, and I love it. It is super fun, and apparently, what God had ordered. Now I can get excited about riding to work again as soon as the temperature is up around 50* early in the morning. Thank you Lord.

Religion is Hell

2011-01-21T07:35:00.003-06:00

(Well's Cathedral)

Jesus makes the strongest statement to religious leaders that I’ve ever heard of anybody making.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Matt 23:15 NASU

When I first read these words a couple of decades ago, I didn’t understand why Jesus said them. I knew the Pharisees were bad, but I didn’t know why they were bad. The truth is that I functioned just like a Pharisee, and it puzzled me greatly. Since that time, I have become increasingly aware of the nature of religion, and how it is intrinsically/inherently evil, functioning as a privation of the real. Just as your shadow is not you, but has the same outline, so religion forms around truth, yet lacks real substance.

Religion by nature is treated it as a loose and nebulous concept. It this is due to the nature of religion itself. What is religion, and how can we define it in such a way as to align in our understanding of what we are talking about? Simply put: religion is a process of thinking about good and evil under human authority and initiative. This sounds innocent enough.

The Root

Religion started back in the day. Adam and Eve were having a nice stroll in the garden when Satan came to them and had a conversation. Here is the account:

You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." Gen 3:4-5 NIV

Now you can be sure a lie is presented here to the first family. See, Adam and Eve are ALREADY created in God’s image. They are ALREADY in union with God. They are ALREADY in a perfect state, as a completely good created work of God. Satan knows this. So what’s his plan? Sell them a lie trying to obtain that which they ALREADY have.

This is the greatest lie ever told. It is so closely etched to the truth, that to ferret out its counterfeit nature requires revelation from Holy Spirit.

The Nature of the Tree: Death/Separation/Hell

Now Adam plainly knew the boundary God set over this tree. God said: And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Gen 2:16-17 NIV

So here is the truth straight from God’s mouth: Eat the fruit of this tree, and you will die. Death is separation, and hell is a manifestation of the fullness of separation from God. (Scary, isn’t it?)

Now look at the nature of the tree: it is a place of knowledge of good and evil. When the Lord first gave me revelation about this tree, I saw it as a series of nuclear explosions, bombs, bullets, and destruction, all contained within its leaves. What happens when things are blown up? They are separated! They die.

So it is with a preoccupation of separating good and bad under human initiative and authority. This is religion personified.

Now I can hear the criticism in myself: How then can we talk about this? Isn’t our conversation itself a religious practice? Aren’t we sitting here separating good and bad, eating the apple ourselves? The short answer is no.

The Real

Just as Satan sold Adam a bill of goods, so God deposited in man His IMAGE. This is no small thing. God formed His image in us, loosed it through His breath, and empowered it with life. At the center of this event is a connection. God is intimate, internal, relational, and connected. At the center of this connection is His word, Jesus Christ. The word of God makes exposes counterfeits. However, this cannot happen unless we enter into union with God. That is why any attempt to discuss good and bad, apart from God will not work.

The Truth

So how does the truth work in union with God? When we accept the BLOOD SACRAFICE of Jesus Christ, we enter into a covenant that frees us from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and brings us into life.

Look at what the author of Hebrews says:

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: "This is the covenant I will make with them

after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds."

Heb 10:15-16 NIV

How does God instantiate us with Truth? Listen to this verse in this context.

John 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. NIV

Now when we receive the testimony of Jesus Christ, we receive the word of God, the truth, through the indwelling of Holy Spirit. Now Jesus testified what would happen to us regarding Holy Spirit.

John 14:16-17

"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.” NASU

John 14:26

"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. NASU

Now that we have gotten the foundation in place, we can go back and look at why religious practice is a manifestation of hell; why Jesus’ words “sons of hell” to the Pharisees were so powerful.

To evaluate right and wrong, good and bad, ethics, morals and virtues, apart from God, is to move in separation and death. This is precisely what Satan does, and who Satan is. Built into it is a need to assign blame, assign guilt, and label. Isn’t this precisely why so many believers flee churches today?

The church in America needs to repent, individually and corporately, to God, and each other. We have got to stop labeling and condemning, faultfinding, and word cursing. It is time to stop keeping score, keeping the letter of the law, judging tit for tat. It is God’s job to judge. It is our job to pursue intimacy with Him. What I see is that people are terrified of churches (and rightly so) because when they go there they get stabbed by the words of Christians. If Christians will pursue love, intimacy, and fellowship with Holy Spirit, God will align our hearts by the nature of His presence and power. He has ways of making us shift, and we don’t need to help everybody out by telling them their mistakes.

I must confess: I have much to learn on this, especially as a parent, and that is why I am taking the time to hash it out on my blog. For I have wounded many with my words, and moved in a powerful religious flow. But I’m learning, and God is not done with me yet. Be blessed ya’ll.

Recovery From Sickness

2011-01-20T10:36:00.003-06:00

This week has been an especially painful week for me. I got Bronchitis, and a bad fever. I have had to take three days off, which is very uncomfortable for me as a teacher. I cannot remember the last time I have taken off three days together. I think it was in 2006.

During these times when the Lord has me slow down, I try to see purpose in the suffering. It's always intellectually hard for me because I believe in and walk in divine health. Divine health is part of the promises we have access to in Jesus Christ. That means most of the time, I can pray and access the anointing of Holy Spirit in such a way as to be healed and ready to go the next day. But not this time. I felt the anointing surging through my body. But the bronchitis still came.

So I asked the Lord why? What I hear is James 1:2-4

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.NIV

Well this is definitely a trial. But where is the real stress of the trial? Albeit suffering is what I feel most acutely, the real stress is on resting, and trusting God about the future. I don't like to take off three days, and sit in agony. Sleep, suffer, sleep, suffer. A seemingly endless cycle of infirmity. I really hate it. Yet in the midst of it, I know God is doing a deep work, a work regarding basic trust, and resting in the fortress of my God. He is allowing me to be limited, small, and partial. Thank you dear Lord for securing my future! You are my God in whom I trust.

Capernaum

2011-01-14T05:28:00.002-06:00

Last Friday I took a day of rest. Looking back after the intense activity of this week, I realize that was one of the smartest things I have done in a while.

When I sat down, I waited on the Lord. I was going to write a third blog about the red moon. The Lord really highlighted it as a sign to me. What is He saying, and how to do I get my head around it? When all of a sudden I heard, “Capernaum”. (Image from Wikipedia)

I immediately set out and did a research blog on the whole thing: sea level, location, historical events, name meanings, etc. It was super fascinating, and really a blessing and a joy. Now, as I sit here at 5am, unable to sleep after hours of processing the finer concerns of professional life, I realize how powerful this reflection is.

What struck me the hardest about Capernaum is that it was the central location of Jesus’ ministry. It was His FIELD. Where Jesus walked and talked the most was surrounding this town, and the Sea it crested. Above all the places on earth, this place got to experience the miraculous incarnation power of Jesus, fully man, fully God. True, other places got to see Jesus, and Jerusalem saw the culmination, and the feasts, but this place was central during His three year walk, or “normal ministry life.”

Perhaps the common-ness, or the mundane, or unofficial nature of Capernaum speaks to me the most of how ordinary people can connect with Jesus, who always brings in the miraculous.

Capernaum means “village of Nahum”. So I had to look up Nahum. Nahum means “consolation”. (Smith’s Bible Dictionary) It is a place of comfort, or being consoled. I believe that Capernaum’s destiny was to be a place of rest and consolation, right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of common life, full of all types of commotion.

Capernaum: A picture of the Land of the Human Heart

The Land can serve as picture of the human heart. Many of the parables (the sower, the seeds, hidden pearl, etc.) are all pictured in the context of farming and working the land. Prophetically, God will “work the land” to “produce fruit.” That is what is going on in our hearts with Holy Spirit.

By looking at Capernaum, we can tune into a place for us, here and now, an ordinary place, where we access by faith the divine life of Jesus Christ. This revelation allows us to make ready for extraordinary miraculous life, in the midst of our current context. Capernaum is like every other place, it was a place of strife, contention, and struggle. This is where I am right now, up half the night with thoughts about this and that. Yet in the midst of that struggle walked Jesus, displaying the willingness of heaven to intervene.

Jesus: God’s Word

I realized during this refection that Jesus is God’s spoken word to us. See Hebrews 1:1-3 and John 1:1. As Jesus walked and talked, bound, loosed, and released, He revealed the heart of the Father for our restoration. Isn’t that wonderful? Many don’t see it, but the people of the day sure did! And they wanted to make him King! KING. Yet Jesus knew the condition we were in, and the requirements for us to enter into His glory.

The Glory of the Cross

Jesus died that we might access Him, Holy Spirit, and Heavenly Father, in Spirit and Truth. By pulling the faith trigger, accessing the invisible realities of the living God, we suddenly see a new glory, beyond the glory of a risen King.

The Resurrected Life: The Hope of a New Glory

That new glory which Jesus purchased with His blood not only gave us access to the Kingdom of God, but gave the Living God access to indwell us. This is the testimony of Jesus in John 17. That we may be in Him, as He is in the Father, and the Father is in the son. WHOA! THAT IS THE GLORY!

But here is the fuller revelation of that glory: WE DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL WE ARE DEAD!

Now read this carefully, and see if this doesn’t get you on fire like it does me.

John 17:22-26

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;

I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

"Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

"O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;

and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them." NASU

See, when God makes His home in the human heart, HE IS HERE. Just like in Capernaum. His is in the middle of the ordinary, and we simply need to turn around and say hello.

Life before Birth

2011-01-02T13:26:00.002-06:00

A revelation from the word about how the sons of God live and dwell with God before physical birth.

Caveat:
What I’m not saying: That we will have memory, and function like we do now before we are born. We did not enjoy per se human life as we know it now before we were born. Rather, we have the quality attributes of identity, existence, design, destiny, and value, prior to the creation of the world.

This revelation came to me during start of the year weekend conference. It really centers around three verses in the Bible and a careful examination of what they entail.

Gen 1:27 And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. ASV

Starting point on human identity: Created in the image of God. In short, we possess God likeness in our DNA. The essence of who we are carries a God glory, a set of qualities sustaining the glory of God. This means that we are connected to God in such a way as to manifest His quality essences.
Paul testifies about this in Romans chapter one. Read this carefully.

Rom 1:19-21
…because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, (even) his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse: because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. ASV

What was known about God? His goodness, love, eternal life, divine attributes, ubiquity, timelessness, unlimited power, glory…God manifested these qualities IN MAN. The material point is this: The word of God testifies that HIS invisible qualities e.g. all that stuff we can’t see in the spirit realm that we can see through the power of Holy Spirit, was actually made manifest in the creation of the world, and essentially man. Especially His everlasting power (eternal nature) and divinity (Godliness, Holiness).

Man knew, understood, recognized God’s glory made manifest within Himself, and still turned away. But the interesting part for this study is the quality of eternity, or everlasting identity. Now Paul gives us further enlightenment into this manifestation of God’s identity within man.

Eph 1:3-6
Blessed (be) the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly (places) in Christ: even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved: ASV

Did you hear that? Chose us before the foundation of the world… having foreordained us unto adoption.

This tells me a number of things:

1. How could God choose us if we were not? WE had to be, at some level, to be chosen.

2. By creating a destiny for us to be adopted into requires and understanding of the illegitimate made legitimate. It means God understood prior to human time that we would fall away, and many would rediscover their true identity in Jesus Christ, and be adopted, and reintroduced into His divinity, and His Glory.

3. All this understanding, design, purpose, and thought, regarding us happened before earth time began. (That’s like millions of years ago as the rock rotates.) However, as God stands in eternity, it might as well have been yesterday.

4. In Jesus Christ, we gain access to an incorruptible Glory, that we lost, through Adam’s sin. This incorruptible glory was within us in original creation. However, since it is incorruptible, and we could not corrupt what was within us, we lost access it. Yet it was there all along, just hidden within, waiting to be activated by the blood of Jesus.

5. As new creations in Christ Jesus, putting the old man to death, we are able to recover, and become partakers of divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) that is actually locked away and hidden within our DNA. The mystery of DNA is a huge subject and I’m just asserting this claim for now.

6. Wholenss in Jesus Christ is: Activating our new life in Jesus Christ, through the power of Holy Spirit, on the basis of the Blood of Christ; to become partakers of divine nature, and operate as a temple of the Living God. It is not that I am God, rather, that God invades every aspect of my heart, and I am drawn up into the everlasting, eternal qualities of God. By gaining this, we have access to an awareness of God’s thoughts, (the mind of Christ) plans, designs, choices, and will for us prior to our arrival on earth in space and time.

That’s cool.

Army game

2010-12-30T16:15:00.008-06:00

Today we went to the Armed Forces Bowl at Southern Methodist University. We saw SMU play the ARMY team, and it was a blast. We had a great time, and here you can see the ball being passed to the SMU receiver for a touchdown. I got this photo with my cell phone camera. You can see the ball mid air right next to number 70's helmet.

Our friends gave us the tickets as a thank you gift. We had lots of fun eating peanuts, nachos, and pretzels and cheese. I was amazed at how little my kids knew about football. Madeline wanted to know what the orange markers were that keep track of the downs, and Sam didn't know why the touchdown didn't count when the ball bounced in the end zone.We had a fun day, and in the end, Army beat SMU by 2 points.

We had fun watching the marching band perform at half-time. Here is a photo to give you a sense of the day.

I decided to attach this video of us at the end of half-time.

What Vs. Why: A Central Distinction

2010-12-30T00:05:00.000-06:00

After watching an episode of Lord Peter Wimsey proposing marriage to Harriet Vane at Oxford College, I just had have an episode of my own personal jargon. Perhaps what I enjoy the most in sleuthing is the nature of personal identity, and motive; or should I say “why” as it pertains to the “what”. For without exception, there is always a “why” purpose behind a “what” condition when in comes to the scruples of human behavior.

What:

A “what” is a person, place, or thing, attitude, episode, event, or state of affairs, given at a certain point in time or place. What’s are not limited to time, but certainly exemplify their qualities within time. What’s have/hold the quality of existence, and excludes non-realities and fantasy objects. What’s are real, and have value, and therefore, by virtue of existence, carry purpose. They are designed, at least in essentials, like soil, and subject themselves to human will. We can see the what’s at all levels of creation: light, laws, space, atoms, rocks, vegetables, animals, humans, angels, and God.

Why:

A “why” is a purpose, reason, consideration, or initiation of will towards a clear desire for a creative endeavor. God creates. He created man after/in His own image, and man’s creates after God’s fashion. “Why’s” require a person, with personal identity, to hold them, or bring them into effect. However, once they are put into effect, they can be held by any “what” with a varying degree. If I throw a rock, it will have the why-design/purpose of my aim for a few brief moments. “Why’s” find themselves fashioned in design, structure, intention, will, law, rules, motion, effect, cause, attitudes, and actions.

How do the two relate?

Within the deep essence level of this question, there remains a mystery to be discovered in council with God. When God says, “I Am” He justifies His infinite nature with a self sufficient claim: namely the manifestation of power exemplified at His word. Who can argue with that? One can argue, but to no avail. God is not impressed with such arguments, and such arguments merely frustrate the self; and satisfy neither purpose nor posture. In fact such people who adhere to this level of skepticism often deny their own existence. Why give them any credence at all? According to them, they are not. I think Parmenides had something to say on that subject.

Yet at the surface, at the level at which we interact with life, there is a common sense articulation of the relationship between “what” and “why”. All objects are governed by “whys”. Yet some “whys” we can completely ignore, while other “whys” govern ever level of human existence. Consider gravity. It is actually a law. Laws are purposes set forth in motion by God, and these purposes are grounded in the power of God’s word to create and instantiate these laws that govern the spatial/temporal universe. Within time, this law serves as a constant. The “what” is the law itself, and the “why” is God’s choice to exemplify it as a constant. Here we see the why in the what, and the what serving as a why for so many objects. This is all basic.

Now let’s shift to the personal power of choice. With regards to morality, we can choose within time how we will relate to God’s moral design. This means we can ignore His “whys” by choosing our own “whys” and doing our set of “whats” that we often call holiness or sin. The power of choice gives us the power as “whats” to hold “whys” that we choose. We call it freedom, and regard it as a virtue over slavery. In fact, God claims about Himself that where His spirit is, there is freedom. 2 Cor 3:17.

Why are we so quick to throw out the why?

Perhaps the central failing of humanity is to disregard the why for the what in favor of the now. I see this as especially true for life of the modern believer and modern education. Man has always struggled with internal separation, none so great as Descartes claim: “I think therefore I am.” Such renown disconnection from the nature of reality gives a clear picture into the nature of man’s internal fissures. What began with Adam’s fear of nakedness in the garden, grew to a Copernican revolution in the authority of knowledge.

Perhaps a practical consideration is to favor the what in favor of the function, without understanding the impact it will cause in relation to the why. For example, it is probable that most people will choose hell over heaven by the choices they make. This dynamic is one of the central themes running through Plato’s “Republic”. Plato asks, “What value is there in the good man? Why should man choose good, when it is evident that the man who chooses vice gains so much?” Indeed, on the temporal side of life, such choices for personal gain look tempting indeed. However, if given a perspective from eternity, such choices are exposed for the foolishness they really are. For once man dies, he becomes fully present the eternal, and this is the material point. This point cannot be argued here and now, rather, experience by skeptic and advocate alike on the other side. For my sake, I do not question it. It makes as much sense as existence itself.

In America today, especially Christianity and education, we have indeed shucked the “why” for the sake of the “what”. How can I make such a universal claim? Just look at the fruit. Within the knowledge realm of theology, philosophy, ethics, or law, any given belief will always have an opponent. How can anyone make heads or tails about this or that, and know where to go, or what to do, for a good reason? Someone will always tell them they are wrong, and have a good reason for doing it. This is the root issue in our legal structure today, and a root issue of how our adversary seeks to undermine human endeavor. However, God doesn’t stop all this. Rather he calls us to understand another category of existence.

In the realm of the spirit, there are actually only two kingdoms. God’s and Satan’s kingdoms alike operate with distinct qualities, or whys. When people shift from the mind/knowledge realm to the spirit realm, they see the duplicity of it all. Spiritual flows within God’s kingdom always operate along the nature of Holy Spirit. Spiritual flows within Satan’s kingdom always pursue self.

Back to the common ground

So what about us? Why do we do what we do? If we hold our whats, our creative effects, under our own authority for why, then surely we deny Lordship of Jesus Christ. I think the central challenge is to move into a recognition of an authority for why that stands outside our self, and learn how to hear from God on the daily what’s and why’s we face. We cannot do this by forming an exhaustive opinion on every what and why there is (which is what I thought I had to do to be a good Christian.) Yet how are we to move under His Lordship in such a secular society as the one in which we now live? Very simply: don’t try to figure it all out, simply talk to God, and let him show you. That is how I found mental relief in the world I found myself in.

To talk to God is to find a way out of the melieu, for God is listening, and He will talk back, if you will wait on Him, and confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. There is so much more to say, but for now, all I can really say is Glory be to God for the great things He has done. For in the end, the Glory of the Lord will be revealed. That which has been concealed from the beginning will be made plain. Get ready y’all, for the Glory of the Lord is being made manifest on the earth.

Sign of the Red Moon: Life of Christ in the Blood

2010-12-27T09:01:00.006-06:00

Recently, God has been giving the word to watch the signs, and make the shift. He is changing His season on earth, again. I’ve been paying attention to the heavens, and most notably, observing the Red Moon. (I took this picture with my telescope last week.)

It is one of the signs of the 6^th Seal in the Book of Revelation. “I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood.” (6:12NASB)

What is really fascinating is that from 12 noon to 3 pm, darkness falls on the land during Jesus’ crucifixion. (See Mark 15:33) Can this be a picture of the moon blotting out the sun? Apparently not! I found this really excellent Catholic article on calculating the date of Christ’s death at 3pm on April 3, AD 33. In it they quote from Pilot’s report to Caesar. It is there that Pilot gives a testimony of the Blood red moon. “And the moon, which was like blood, did not shine all night long, although it was at the full, and the stars and Orion made lamentation over the Jews because of the transgression committed by them.”

What’s the point? God speaks globally with the heavens. He may talk to us about particulars, but when he wants the world to wake up and pay attention, He uses the heavens.

This is actually how I got into astronomy. I’m just a beginner, and I know very little. However, I had a dream about getting a telescope. The next day, I asked my friends on Facebook if anyone wanted to help me start a new hobby by giving me a telescope, and I was given an 8” Orion Refractor. I see that God wants me to pay attention to the signs in the heavens, so I do.

So what is God saying?

Well another clue is the Winter Solstice. Having the two events collide speaks of the shifting of the seasons with the resurrection power. When Jesus died on the cross, it was at the height of spiritual war. Satan dealt the “death blow” to Jesus, which backfired and turned out to be the “death blow” to Satan’s authority within the law. Now man had a way to obtain righteousness, by passage of the blood of Christ. Here is the third clue: The Blood! The moon always speaks about time. Red speaks about blood and war. Winter is the time when all things seem to die, yet it is the time we celebrate Christ’s birth.

Life in the Blood

Jesus’ disciples were very interested in the days in which we now live. The chapter of Luke 21 is a fascinating read for all of this. In 21:25 Jesus says this: “There will be signs [plural] in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves.” I think this red moon is one of these signs.

The great wonder during this time is how, in the midst of death, Jesus overcame with resurrection power. Here I believe is the real message: the presentation of eternal life in the midst of death. God is in a process of bringing us to life in the midst of a trauma season. The earth will roll and rock with destruction, yet God is in the midst of healing, and bringing all things into the newness of life. This is the real message. There is power in the blood of Jesus. For by it we access life, and as new creations in Christ, our true selves are unlocked, giving us access to the miraculous, divine nature of God himself.

Conclusion: God is unraveling the mystery of His times and seasons. Now is the time to move with God, in a place transformation to life in Him, in Jesus Christ, and live by the Spirit to overcome the trauma of the world.

Winter Break Christmas Shooting Adventure

2010-12-23T11:04:00.008-06:00

Yesterday, we went shooting the guns with grandpa, Sam, Abby, and me. We had a lot of fun learning the protocol. I got to shoot my 9mm and our two .22 caliber rifles. It was a blast, literally and here is a few photos to chronicle the event.

The Glory

2010-12-21T10:25:00.004-06:00

I'm sitting here at the Pep Boys waiting for my car tire to be fixed. I decided to read Romans 8. As I was reading, I was struck by 8:30. It talks about how we are predestined, called justified, glorified. My elementary mind is just getting it.Glorified! Whoa! Glorified! Whoa! As I sit here in the semi-dank serenity of the auto shop, I am blown away.Commercials and Wheel of fortune play on in the background. Talk about a real wheel of fortune. What is this salvation I have found in Jesus Christ my Lord? I tell you there is a better than life reality at the end of this story. May it be for you as well.

Red Moon On the Winter Solstice

2010-12-20T23:22:00.019-06:00

Last night, I went out back and took some pictures with my camera through my 8" refractor Telescope. It was super fun.

As I was watch the process of the eclipse, I saw the man on the moon gets swallowed up into a sea of red. Are the seasons changing? I think so. Get ready for war. Red is a sign for war, and the moon a symbol for time. The fact that this is happening on the beginning of a new season I think is no accident. God is always giving the heads up for those who will watch the heavens. Watch Korea too.

I did a little research on the web and found these two quotes at the following links. Click on the links see the original articles.

Tonight the first red moon to land on the winter solstice since 1638. This is only 18 years after the arrival of the Pilgrims. December21, "1620 Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts." "How rare is that? Total lunar eclipses in northern winter are fairly common. There have been three of them in the past ten years alone. A lunar eclipse smack-dab on the date of the solstice, however, is unusual. Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory inspected a list of eclipses going back 2000 years. “Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is 1638 DEC 21,”

I took this picture of the full moon before the eclipse hit. I got the following pictures of the half-moon shadow, and three/quarter moon shadow.

Isaiah 8:1 Bowling Tournament

2010-12-12T08:44:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I had an amazing day bowling in our local tournament here in Denton. In the morning games, I bowled mediocre. During the second game, I got twin pocket 6-7 splits, which has never happened to me before. During the first frame I hit the 6 pin, and the second, I hit the 7 pin. The relationship between 6-7 is the relationship between man and God. But I the screen I saw the 8split with the 1 remainder, two times. I looked at it twice, and asked the Lord about it. He said, "Isaiah 8:1"

So I opened my bible app on my phone and it read "The Lord said to me, "Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary pen: "Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz." This is all about making off with the plunder. So I began to pray this phrase like a tongue word. I kept getting 8's and bowling mediocre. Eights mean "new beginning," so I was taking comfort in that.

During the afternoon session, I began to bowl and pray with my phrase. My first game I got 8 strikes in a row, then an open frame, followed by two more strikes. 10 Strikes! That was a first for me. I scored a 253, 198, and 205. That was 656 series, and with my handicap, it became a 773. My league average is 175. Well I finished fifth place, lost the bowl off to advance, but came away with $275 of earnings for the day.

What is really miraculous about the whole thing, is that we ran out of money this week. I had my last $10 to pay for lunch, and that was it. We spent it all, and the Lord told us to. But we still have a week to go for my monthly payday. I was praying for a strategy not to use a credit card. Well, God gave me the spoil and the booty to make it through. To God goes the glory.

Zechariah chapter 2

2010-12-10T11:40:00.013-06:00

A call to Zion...

Today as I was reading Zechariah I was realizing the duration-less (timeless or eternal) quality of Zechariah's revelation. It is as if the completed past action has arrived at the present, and the angel is going to measure the present condition of the city.

Who was he speaking to? The diaspora. To what is his call? Zion.

Zion

Zion has a very interesting relationship to Jerusalem. Zion is the eternal Jerusalem. She is a place/ position /identity in the realm of the spirit. While David set up his worship structure in his tent for36 years, he discovered and tapped into Zion, and revelation about Zion. Zechariah is expounding on this destination for all Israel. How can we know this?

Psalm 87:2 states that "Jehovah loves the gates of Zion More than all the dwellings of Jacob." And in Psalm 53:6, David states: "Oh that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! When God brings back the captivity of his people, Then shall Jacob rejoice, [and] Israel shall be glad." And again in Psalm 51:18, "Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion: Build thou the walls of Jerusalem."

Clearly Zion is the place where God rules from, and that is a realm of the spirit. It is also distinct from Jerusalem, yet engages in a profound relationship with Jerusalem.

As Zechariah discusses Zion, he is really speaking to the fullness of God's glory as it concerns the destiny of Jerusalem, and the destiny of the people of Jerusalem. The two destinies are intertwined as God's spiritual dwelling is made manifest upon the earth.

Right now we have access to Zion by the righteousness gained through faith in the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Yet, we don't simply go there. We have to be taken by the Lord. This is far more exciting than anyone can express, and a profound reality for the Christian who will go deeper with the presence Holy Spirit.

Zechariah #1

2010-12-08T17:52:00.003-06:00

I decided to do a discipline and blog all my reflections on the chapters of Zechariah.

A Glimpse into the heavens...

Zechariah is such a shift from Haggai. Same God, same time frame, same issues. Different prophet, with a very different gifting. I love it because it speaks of such diversity within the balance of the persona of the Believer.

First we see the angelic horses: various red, brown, and white ones that roam throughout the earth, determining the present level of peace on the world.

Secondly we see the horns, that drive Israel and scatter them throughout the earth. Third, we see the craftsmen; angelic persona's sent to help with the rebuilding of the temple. It turns out that the craftsmen come to terrify the horns, so God's word can be fulfilled.

Key Idea: God remembers. This turns out to be the meaning of the name of Zechariah and the central call of the book. Since God remembers, He will establish Zion in the earth realm.

Here is what I really love about this book. There is a real spiritual meta-narrative informing the actions and events of the natural world. Horses, horns, and craftsmen, all have a key role in establishing the will of God on earth. Now meditate on this: God reveals it to Zechariah, and pulls back the curtains on the "goings on" of heaven.

The shocker: So much more is happening now, in the heavens. If you want to really understand the times, you probably need to get a glimpse into the heavens. So pray and ask God for a watchman anointing.

Haggai #7

2010-12-04T22:46:00.004-06:00

Seeing God's plan...a kingdom within.

When Jesus set about to reorder the entire world, he knew he was facing the cross. So what was the plan, if He as God was not looking for a political takeover? His goal was and is bringing the kingdom from within to a manifestation of the kingdom externally.

Conception: When God brings his plan into action, he gets a woman pregnant by the power of Holy Spirit. So what is God going to do with you?

Isaiah 601,2

Arise, shine, for God's light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon you. For Behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the peoples, but Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.

That is the plan. So get ready for the light of God to penetrate you, your darkness, and your soulishness. Get ready to move in the inconceivable. God is radical, and his radical plan includes you!

Haggai#6

2010-12-04T07:11:00.007-06:00

Zerubbabel (Born in captivity) - THE PRINCE OF CAPTIVITY

Haggai declares the shaking of the Lord two times. First-time comes with an admonition to rebuild the temple. The second time comes as a promise of being established like a signet ring. We see here in allusion to the first and second coming of Jesus Christ. What is God really saying to the Israelites at this time?

At first glance we see that God is calling the people to rebuild the temple. Then we see that God is making a declaration to shake all the nations. Finally we see a proclamation that the whole earth shall be filled with the glory of God.

The Hour of visitation is upon us, just as it was upon them. Could they have imagined that Jesus Christ was coming in human flesh, as God incarnate? Can we imagine that Jesus Christ will reorder all nations in alignment with himself?
Can we imagine that the whole world will be filled with God's glory? This is the promise that God has made and now is the time to watch for his coming! Don't look outside, at the political schema. Look within at the kingdom of God in human heart. Here is where the real drama is being played out.

In the end God will take this world which was born in Babylon, and bring it into the House of Lord.

Haggai#5

2010-12-03T17:11:00.002-06:00

The mind of an overcomer…

Haggai. It was clear to the man that the people were lost. The people had no idea of their purpose. He had been praying for some time that they would not forget their destiny. But they were lost in a sea of obligation, and stopped looking for a sunrise of blessing beyond the ordinary. But there was hope. The man knew God was here, now, ready to revive, reorder, reconstruct, and bless. The people needed to know. He would go to them and proclaim the message. “How will they respond?” He wondered. “It does not matter.” He thought. “Success lies with God.” His job was simple. Go to them and speak what God spoke.

It really was a wondrous encounter with the Spirit of the Lord. He would never forget what happened that morning, during the fourth watch. The first thing he saw were two angels standing at his bedposts. A fire lit the edges of the atmosphere, creating a living portal open before him. A fire came and began to dance in the midst of the portal. “Tell the people, I am in their midst. Do not be afraid.” A voice proclaimed. He sat there, transfixed on the living flame. The voice continued, “Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens, and the earth, the sea also the dry land. Behold, I will shake the nations…” Then, an electrical pulsing began to resonate through the bed frame itself. Soon, a violent shaking overtook Haggai, until his teeth began to rattle. Soon he fell into a deep sleep, and was whisked away into the heavens. The rooster crowed . He awoke, and felt as if he’d been sleeping for a week. Climbing out of bed, he knew what he had to do.

Haggai#4

2010-12-02T19:07:00.001-06:00

Life in the Shadows…

Every once in a while God shines a light in a dark place. Those poor creatures of darkness living their get their eyes scalded for a brief moment when the light shines. How will they respond to the light? That is the question God puts forth to the watchers as the look on and gaze at the spectacle in the darkness.

When Haggai shows up on the scene some 16 years after the start of the rebuilding of the temple, the people are living in dark, dry times. They are sowing little, and harvesting even less. His basic word to them is “let’s get back on the job!”

Why did the people give up on the temple building process? Economic strife is the prevailing cause thought to be the reason. Beyond that though, there was a prevailing sadness because of the glory of the former house. The old ones knew the beauty and splendor of the temple prior to the time of captivity. Really, they did simple math: old stones and wood, plus human effort, equals mediocrity at best. Such is the mindset of those living in darkness.

To live in darkness is to limit belief in reality to the parameters of human agency. Haggai makes this great statement speaking on God’s behalf: “My Spirit is abiding in your midst! Do not fear.” 2 vs. 6 Then He casts a bold vision; “The latter glory of this house will be greater than the former.” Vs. 9.

However, living in the shadows has a way of breeding a brittle, crust mindset embroidered with spider webs. Israel finally got Yahweh monotheism, but corporately they missed Holy Spirit among them—the very wonder of David, producing the very wonder of the former house. To recapture the original vision, they are admonished to capture the presence of Holy Spirit, the God of Abraham, Moses, and David.

The Latter Glory

The latter Glory is not yet here. Israel by and large missed their day of visitation with Jesus Christ. Jesus set out a course of redemption to penetrate the entire world. That parenthesis in Kingdom agenda is coming of age, and about to be concluded. The Glory of the Lord is beginning to manifest in a whole new way. So hear the prophet! Holy Spirit is in your midst. “The silver is mine, The Gold is Mine,” Declares the Lord of Hosts.