Prophetic Ministry News- May-June 2007

Posted: 2007-03-04 11:38:32

• Weekly Prayer, Saturday evenings, 7 p.m.
• Des Moines Ministry Base Church, Sunday evening, 6:15 p.m.

WHAT DO YOU THINK? (March)

Posted: 2007-03-03 23:29:28

WHAT DO YOU THINK about the question below?

QUESTION:  As Christians, we all need to be meeting together with Christians regularly in an institutional church setting or in a home fellowship.  Which meeting environment do you prefer and why?

"And let us consider one another in order to sir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the habit of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."  Hebrews 10:24-25

E-mail WHAT YOU THINK to:  info@propheticministryiowa.com

How Revival Happens: USA -1745 by Chris "PrayIn Tongues"

Posted: 2007-03-03 17:38:32

We have seen how united Christian prayer can pray down Revival. But what about one single Christian? If one person fulfills 2 Chron 7:14, can Revival happen?

David Brainerd attended Yale University which in those days trained men for church ministry. Disaster struck. Through an unwise remark about a lecturer, he was expelled. Only 23 years old, his career seemed in ruins. But his attitude was exemplary: "I felt thankfulness to God for they have been the means of making me more humble. I felt pleased to be little, to be nothing, to lie in the dust."

He gave himself to prayer and fasting and soon sensed God still wanted to use him: "Though I have been so depressed respecting my hopes of future serviceableness, yet now I had much encouragement. I was assisted [by God] to intercede for poor souls, and for special grace for myself, to fit me for special services."

These "special services" soon became clear: "I set apart this day for fasting and prayer, to give me divine aid and direction, and in his own time to send me into his harvest. I felt a power of intercession for immortal souls and even joy at the thoughts of suffering hardship and even death itself, in the promotion of it, pleading for the conversion of the poor heathen.  God enabled me so to agonize in prayer that I was quite wet with sweat. I gasped for multitudes of souls."

The "poor heathen" were the Indians and he was granted a license to preach to them. "I rode out to Kaunaumeek and there lodged on a heap of straw."

There began a terrible battle with loneliness ("I live in the most melancholy desert"), culture shock ("only one single person who can speak English"), poor food ("bread baked in the ashes"), poor housing ("a log cabin without any floor"), poor bedding ("a little heap of straw upon some boards"), and hard physical labor ("hard and difficult. I travel on foot.") But above all, no Christian fellowship ("no fellow-Christian to whom I might open my spiritual sorrows.")

A dreadful sense of unworthiness and black depression all but consumed him: "Still in distress. In the afternoon preached to my people, but was more discouraged with them than before. Feared that nothing ever would be done for them to any happy effect. I poured out my soul for mercy, but without any relief."

As he persisted, God gradually changed his attitudes. Nine months later he wrote in his famous diary: "I love to live alone in my own little cottage, where I can spend much time in prayer. Oh, a barn, stable, hedge, or any other place is truly desirable if God is there!"

Returning briefly to civilization he was at last ordained a minister and called to two churches, one large and wealthy, and the other near his friends. But Brainerd knew where God wanted him. Turning both churches down, he returned to his Indians.

He knew what he was in for: "To an eye of reason, everything that respects the conversion of the heathen is as dark as midnight, and yet I cannot but hope in God for the accomplishment of something glorious among them."

Brainerd now writes of "praying incessantly, every moment, with sweet fervency," of going to the woods for prayer where "I was in such anguish and pleaded with such earnestness that when I rose from my knees I could scarcely walk straight." He felt "I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I woke, the first thought I had was this great work of pleading for God against Satan."

Illness struck. He often felt to weak to fast and pray. The moment he was well--

"I set apart this day for prayer and fasting. When interceding I enjoyed freedom from wandering and distracting thoughts." Three days later, however, "I could not keep my thoughts fixed on prayer for one minute. My soul was in anguish. I was so overborne by discouragement that I despaired of doing any good."

He began to think seriously of giving up his mission: "God seemed to frown upon their saving conversion by withholding His blessed Spirit." Over the next few months his despair deepened: "It was my duty to make some attempts for their conversion to God, though I cannot say I had any hope of success."

Still, he stayed on and prayed on. A breakthrough had to come: "Enabled to  speak with plainness and warmth, the power of God attended the Word, so that persons were brought under great concern for their souls, made to shed tears, and wish for Christ to save them."

Now when he spoke "a few words about the concerns of their souls," their indifference had become "tears, sobs, and groans."

Finally, on August 8, 1745, the long prayed-for, wept-for, suffered-for, agonized-for outpouring took place: "The power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly 'like a mighty rushing wind' and with astonishing energy bore down all before it. I stood amazed at the influence, which seized the audience almost universally. They were praying and crying for mercy."

Those soon assured of sins forgiven went among those still under conviction "telling them of the goodness of Christ, and the comfort that is to be enjoyed in Him, and thence invited them to come and give up their hearts to Him."

Day after day the meetings went on, tears and cries of conviction gradually becoming the peace of sins forgiven.

Brainerd prayed, preached, and labored on. He now looked out beyond his Indians: "Here am I, Lord, send me. Send me to the ends of the earth, send me to the rough, the savage pagans of the wilderness, send me even to death itself, if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy Kingdom."

But his years of intercession had taken a terrible toll. Soon he was coughing up blood. Two years after the Revival he was dead, a testimony to the price he was prepared to pay for the Revival he lived to bring.

Can one person's prayers bring Revival? Yes. But be prepared for the price that may be required by God to see others blessed at your expense. "Thus death works in us, but life in you" (2 Cor 4:12).

Quote by C.S. Lewis

Posted: 2007-03-03 17:38:29

Journal Excerpts (March)

Posted: 2007-03-03 17:29:26

Spirit Walk by David Nelson

Posted: 2007-02-28 22:46:22

Chapter  3         Spirit  Walk (from the book  Desiring One Thing)

 
There is a sifting and a separating of the wheat and chaff going on at this time.  The wheat is good, it is edible, whereas the chaff is not good to eat. We don’t want to chew on half wheat and half chaff. We want pure wheat (Spirit) and so does the Lord. In Romans 8:4 it says,“…that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”  So, there is the flesh and there is the Spirit, these two things. Is it possible to keep the whole law? Just consider all the teachings of the law. The Lord gave it to help us to know what is right in all areas of our life. Jesus said, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” (“I have not come to destroy the law.” (Matt. 5:17 & 18)). Not one thing should be done away with, but there will be a fulfilling of the law, not a disappearing of it. In Romans 7:12 & 14 you will see these two phrases “the law is holy” and “the law is spiritual.” Romans 8:4 says, the righteousness of the law can be fulfilled in us, not by following the law in our own strength, but by following or walking in the Spirit.  When we walk according to the Spirit, we will fulfill all the righteousness of the Law, without even knowing all the details.  It is because we do it by the Spirit’s leading. This does not mean we don’t need to study the Word, it means that we may not know everything but we can be led by the Spirit.  In Luke 10:38-42 we see Mary and Martha. Here is a case of the Lord’s separating of what is spiritual and what is flesh.  It was not that Martha was a bad person and Mary was a good person or that Martha was evil and Mary was righteous; not along that line.  It was just, in this instance, Martha chose what was not spiritual; she chose what was the reasonable way to do something, but it wasn’t the way the Spirit was leading.  Does it not make sense to fix a meal?  It seemed to make sense to prepare a meal for everybody at that place.  Jesus was there.  The disciples were there and Martha just felt like we need to eat and, so, I’m going to prepare a meal.  However, she didn’t make the right choice because she was walking by her own idea. (maybe reason only). Whose idea was flesh and whose idea was Spirit?  It says in the Word that God’s ways are not our ways, His ideas are not our ideas.  His thoughts are not our thoughts but what are His thoughts?  His thoughts are Spirit.  His ways are Spirit.  Everything that God does is right and spiritual and perfect.  But you might say, “We can’t do everything right, can we?”  Still, can we not learn to walk in tune with the Spirit?  How to do that should be our goal.

Mary, in this situation in Luke 10, where she sat at the feet of Jesus, was this the right spiritual decision? Was Martha’s decision fleshly? Martha thought her decision was right, because it made more sense to her.  It seemed more reasonable than Mary’s decision; because Mary wasn’t helping with the meal. Martha felt like the right thing for Mary to do was to help her with the meal.  When you have a big project to do everybody should help and pitch in, but Jesus said to her, Mary has made the right decision—and it was a spiritual decision and Martha has made the wrong decision.  Jesus said, “You are anxious and concerned and worried about many things but there is only ONE THING that is needful.”  The ONE THING is to find out what the mind of the Lord is and to find out what the will of the Spirit is and to walk in the Spirit.  It can be a very smooth thing that is almost like second nature, instead of being so cumbersome and you are always worried about what to do and overly concerned, “Am I walking in the Spirit, am I not?”  It will become more of a second nature thing.

It says in Rom. 8:4 that, “The righteousness of the Law will be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit.”  In Proverbs 26:4 & 5, there are two verses that give contradictory instructions.  One of these verses instructs us to rebuke a fool and the other instructs us to not rebuke a fool.  In one instance the person might be very foolish but the Lord says to rebuke them, lest they be wise in their own eyes. In another instance a person is being very foolish but the verse says, don’t rebuke them.  The idea here is that you are not going to get anywhere and you are going to get yourself in trouble and they are going to end up attacking you and they are probably not going to listen to you anyway.  So, when do you “give your pearls out” and when do you hold back from “casting your pearls before swine?”  How do you know which verse to follow when you have instances of different types of fools before you?  The only way you know which verse to follow, because they are both the true laws of God, is by the Spirit of God showing you.  The Spirit of God will show you what to do, when to do it, and you won’t always be able to figure it out by reason alone.  It will just be that you will know in your Spirit that you are supposed to take a particular course of action each time as the Spirit leads.

Walking after the Spirit should become as natural as when you go out for a walk, you do not concentrate on how to walk.  You don’t think, well, I’ve got to move this foot and I’ve got to move it for exactly so many seconds and then put my foot down and then I’ve got to move the other foot and I’ve got to move it this far.  Otherwise, you would be jerking around down the street trying to negotiate each step. When you walk, you already know how to walk.  A newborn baby doesn’t know how to walk.  They do not know how to balance themselves,  if they walk too fast forward, they fall down or if they lean too far forward they may lose their equilibrium, or if they move too fast this way or that way, they start to fall.  They are learning by trial and error how to walk. Once you learn how to walk, it is like riding a bike, it becomes second nature.  So too, walking in the Spirit will become second nature to us because we will know the voice of God better and better.

In Romans 8:5 it says, “They that are after the flesh (carnal) do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit.”  This doesn’t necessarily mean “flesh,” meaning evil.  It just means that you are minded toward your own thoughts, your own reason, I’m going to go do this, I’m going to go do that, I’m going to go play tennis, I’m going to go watch TV, I’m going to go shopping, and you have not the mind of always giving everything to the Spirit and saying, “What do You want me to do?” Or “Do you REALLY want me to go there?”  But, it will become second nature that God will always know that you want to do His will and that you are always putting everything before the Lord and, like second nature, giving things up to the Lord about what do you want me to do, what is Your will?  He wants to guide us in an effortless kind of walk.  Now, at times, you won’t know what you are supposed to do.  You won’t know what the will of the Spirit is, but you will just have to trust that God is going to guide your feet and guide your way.

It says in Rom. 8:6, “To be carnally-minded (or fleshly-minded) is death, but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace.  The carnal mind is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can it be.  So, then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”  So, if there is this division between what is of the Spirit and what is of the flesh, when we do things of the flesh, this does not please God.  When we do things of the Spirit, this does please God.  When we are walking in the flesh, it is contrary to what God wants.  When we are walking in the Spirit, we are walking in harmony with what God wants.

In Rom. 8:13 it says,  “If you live after the flesh (continually) you will die but, if through the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you shall live, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”  We want to be led by the Spirit of God.  We want to be children of God.  We want to be sons of God.  We want to have the flesh phased out of our lives and put the flesh to death and we want to do what is spiritual. 

It says in Luke 10:38, “Now, it came to pass, as they went, they entered into a certain village, and a certain woman, named Martha, received Jesus into her house (I’m sure the other disciples were there also).  She had a sister named Mary who went and sat at Jesus’ feet to hear his word.  So, picture Jesus coming into the house, in the living room, and Mary is focused on sitting at Jesus’ feet and hearing what he has to say.  He might have been ready to share something with everyone and she was ready to hear and wanted to hear, and she may have known that Martha was out in the kitchen making a meal. She could have said to herself, “Well, it makes sense to say to Jesus, Martha is out in the kitchen making a meal and I sure think I should go help her or she is going to be mad at me,” and she might feel a strong, social pressure to go to the kitchen. But in another way, she didn’t care what anybody thought.  She just became focused towards Jesus and she wanted to hear what he had to say, and he was wanting to speak.  In other words, Jesus had the unction to speak and she had the desire and unction to be right there and hear it.  Martha was encumbered with much business and serving and busy-ness in the kitchen.  Martha came to Jesus and said,  even in a somewhat rebuking way,  “Do you not care, Jesus, that my sister has left me to serve alone.”  This is a big job and I need help.  Tell her, “bid her to come and help me.”  In other words, Jesus, you know what is reasonable, tell Mary that she shouldn’t be doing this (sitting at your feet), she should be helping me.  Jesus said to Martha, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful and Mary has chosen that good part.  Mary has heard the voice of the Spirit and has chosen to follow the Spirit.  Mary was in the right place at the right moment, hearing that the Spirit was bidding her to come.  Jesus was bidding her to come.  She in her heart was coming and obeying the voice of the Spirit to do the one thing that is always needful. This also is as we have read in Deuteronomy 8.  It is more important than food or clothing, it is to seek the kingdom of God first, to seek to know and follow the voice of the Spirit.  Deut. 8 says, “Man shall not live by bread alone but he shall live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  That is how Jesus lived.  Jesus said, “I do nothing on My own authority, I do nothing, except what pleases the Father.  I just walk moment by moment listening for His leading.  I don’t even make a rock into bread or go seek for my own bread, or if the cupboards are empty, I am not overly concerned about the cupboards being empty.  I am more concerned about doing the will of God.  Moment by moment, every need will be taken care of.  Your food and clothing will be taken care of if you seek the Spirit first.  That is the one thing that is needful.  Mary chose the good thing and it will never be taken away from her because whatever you do in the Spirit is life and whatever you do in the flesh just makes you weaker, kills the Spirit, or fights against the Spirit.  Flesh fights against what God wants.  So, we must have this goal, to walk in the will of God.

In Romans 8 there is a division between what is spiritual and what is fleshly and we want to become more spiritual and less fleshly.  Spirit is a pure thing.  Mixture of Spirit and flesh is an impure thing.  It is like this, if you were in a church service and someone got up to sing a song and they were singing full of pride and they were not close to the Lord and they had very shallow prayer lives; now, God could bless that song in spite of the person singing it, in spite of their pride, in spite of their shallow prayer life, in spite of their worldly life when they leave the church building.  It doesn’t mean that they are not a Christian, but they are at least a carnal Christian.  The song isn’t going to have a spiritual anointing unless God comes in and supersedes, and says in spite of this person, I want to bless these people out there in the congregation.  So, I’m going to take what is coming out of their mouth and I’m going to bless it and touch these people’s lives.  But in most cases God wants true spiritual anointing to come from spiritual people.  An anointing comes from their sermons, from their messages, from their singing, from their sharing, from their walk with the Lord, from just them being with them at a supper table.  There is an anointing from people who are close to God, who walk spiritual lives, and who don’t walk fleshly lives.  Yes, God can use you in spite of your weaknesses.  You might be the weakest, most fleshly, most carnal Christian, but He can take you in a moment in time and just use you to help somebody else.  But, you can’t say that it was you—you just have to say God must have helped me, when the words seemed to flow out of your mouth—that was the grace of God through you.  If you walk a more spiritual  walk and you walk more in tune with God, you will have an anointing that will be unmistakable, it will be more sure.  It will not be you, but it will be because the presence of God is with you and in you and flows through you, because it has a more unhampered ability to flow through people who have been walking with God and walking in prayer and know the voice of God and who try to follow the voice of God and who are tender to know God.

In II Thess 2:9 & 10 it says, “Even him who is coming, who is after the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders…”  This is the antichrist.  This is the one who is working after the power of Satan, who is going to come with power and signs and lying wonders. “He is coming with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, in them that are going to perish, because they received not, or embraced not, the love of the truth that they might be saved.”  These truths that I am sharing and that other people are sharing also and that many people all over the world are sharing are truths that God is giving us at this time that we need to embrace to come closer to what He wants, to be separated from Babylon, to be separated from the sins of Babylon, to be separated from the mentality of Babylon, to come out of Babylon and to be separate.  What is now being taught needs to be embraced to the point where you have a better relationship with the Lord and you say, “I must have a closer walk with the Lord.”  “I must have a better relationship with the Lord.  “I must hear things more clearly and purely.”  “I must hear this truth so that it will change me.  This is the way to be in tune with the Spirit; to have the flesh decrease and to not stay carnal, to not stay weak, to not stay envying and striving in worldly pursuits and everything that has to do with seeking after the world, after food and clothing, and the mentality of always being busy.  Even Martha thought she was making the right choice, but it wasn’t the spiritual choice.  I am not saying that everything is to be “so spiritual”; meaning getting down on your knees, and getting in a quiet room, or getting in your closet, everything is always “spiritual” in that way, Sometimes the Lord wants us to go talk with somebody.  Sometimes he wants us to go play tennis with somebody.  Sometimes we are to do something that doesn’t seem very spiritual but it is what God wants us to do.  In that moment, you have to know that THIS is what the Spirit of the Lord wants me to do.  The Spirit of the Lord does want me to fix a meal at this time.  It IS His will and it is going to be the perfect time to do it.  But then, you have to know, just like the verses in Proverbs 26:4-5 set forth, you have to know when to NOT DO one thing and when to DO another thing,  when to rebuke a fool, when not to rebuke a fool, when to fix a dinner, when not to fix a dinner, when is it God’s will to fix a dinner, then Martha would have been in God’s will.  When is it God’s will to push away everything and come and sit at His feet?  You have to know.  So, this truth that is coming into the Body of Christ is calling us back to what God wants us to be, closer to Him, walking in the Spirit.

In the last chapter (Fire), we shared from Malachi 4:5 & 6 which say, “In the last days, Elijah will come and he will turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers….” What God is doing right now is restoring to the Church the character, the holiness, the purity, the desire, the hunger, the righteousness, all the holiness that He has ever wanted for His Church. He is restoring His Bride.  He is cleaning-up His Bride.  He is getting His Bride ready and He is getting the heart of His Bride ready.  The heart of the Bride is going to be as the Father’s heart.  Those who are getting the Father’s heart, their hearts are going to begin to turn toward the children, even the children of God in the Church and their own children.  They are going to turn toward the children, the ones who are unknowing or who don’t know the right way and they are going to have the Father’s heart toward the children.  Through their persistent love and their persistent anointing and the love that never fails, that has been produced and restored into their hearts, they will turn the hearts of the children back to the heart of the Father.  Actually, since the Father is the author of all of this and he is putting His heart into his Bride, when the children turn back to what God is wanting and people are interceding and loving and having the understanding of holiness and the beauty and the forgiveness of God, they will turn not just the hearts of the children back to the human fathers but they will be turning them back to the Father himself, because they will be creating in the children the Father’s heart also.  Everything will be brought together; the Father, the Bride, the Son, and even more people will become part of the Bride.  This is actually what is happening in Malachi 4 and when it began to happen, it happened with John the Baptist when he came in the Spirit of Elijah and Jesus was on the earth and Jesus was bringing everything together to show them the Father’s heart and to bring them to the place where they would have the Father’s heart and then they would turn others, as they were changed.  All of this is going to be seen in future chapters as to what kind of character he is creating in us and how it is going to be us who will turn the people back to God and back to what God wants. 

As it says in II Thess. 2:10,  we need to embrace the truth, we need to love the truth, we need to hear it, we need to let it transform us and it will save us, but verse 11 says, because of the deception of Satan and the deception of the anti-Christ and the deception of the world getting worse while God is changing His Church, His Bride, to be more holy, this is causing a separating.  The world is getting worse and the Bride is getting closer and the true Church is getting closer to what God wants and we are pulling away from all of this garbage and insanity and, yet, not really pulling away from the people and separating from the people, we are still going to be connected with the people, because God wants us to love them we will try to work to help them to see.  But even that will cause more of a separating, the people who are really close to God are going to look even more ridiculous to some people but to other people they are going to be as the savor (or fragrance) of Christ.  For some, they are going to say, this looks good, this looks right and I don’t understand it and I want to fight it, but at the same time I am attracted to it.  But others are going to hate it so much, just like some who hated Christ and some who were attracted to Him.  That is what the difference has to be.  The difference in us has to be so great, such a great anointing, that people will either hate us or love us and we have to be able to cause a shaking because of who we are.  This will be a separating and this pulling apart, again, not meaning that we are going to pull apart from people and not want to be with them.  Just like Jesus was worlds apart in what he was, he wasn’t worlds apart from the people.  He was with them, but yet he was awesome in his difference. He says, “I never do anything of my own initiative, I only do what I hear the Father say, what I see the Father do,” and that is what he wanted to teach us to do, have that purity of walk.  As this separating is happening, the world is getting worse and cold and distrustful and betraying one another and hating one another and sneaky with each other; the Church is not going to become that way.  The Church is going to become more loving, more transparent, more without guile.  For this cause, it says in II Thess. 2:11, that God is going to send a strong delusion upon those who continue to harden themselves to the truth.  They will hear it.  They will see it.  God wants us to be out there, to be touching people’s lives, and they see it but they keep hardening themselves to it.  So, he is going to make them believe a lie.  They are going to be hardened into believing a lie, so that all might be condemned who did not believe the truth, who did not receive the truth, who did not love the truth, who did not embrace the truth, but they had pleasure in their unrighteousness, and they wanted to stay in their pleasures, stay in their flesh, a leave me alone attitude, and they will get harder and harder and harder, and that is what will happen in the separating between people becoming harder to the things of God and others becoming softer to the things of God.  People will become closer to God or they will become more hateful of what God is doing.

In Rev 3:13 we have the 7^th and last church, Laodicea.  It is the last period of time.  There will not be any other church after this.  There are many meanings, I believe, to the seven churches.  Many meanings that people can come up with, but I still feel that one of the meanings can be that it is the last period of time, the last church, it is the last moment in time, too.  There is not an 8^th church.  Verse 13 says, “He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the church.  That tells me that some people do not have an ear to hear.  They do not have that Romans 8 idea of minding the things of the Spirit, of saying, I want to tune myself into the things of the Spirit, like Mary did.  Even she was criticized by Martha.  Martha stood up and publicly criticized her in front of other people.  Mary didn’t stand up and defend herself or get out of the Spirit. Unless the Spirit tells you to get up and rebuke someone, you hold your peace.  There might be a moment when God will say, I want you to get up and say this.  Actually, the Lord got up and rebuked Martha.  The Lord stood in the gap between Mary and Martha and said, you are wrong Martha and you didn’t hear the voice of the Spirit.  Even if Mary would have stood up and tried to rebuke Martha, she might have been out of the Spirit to do that.  That is why you have to find out what you are supposed to do, when is it right to fix a meal, when is it right to rebuke somebody, when is it better to be silent.  Jesus, when He stood before Pilate and Pilate asked him certain questions, at certain times he didn’t answer and at other times He did answer. 

So, he who has an ear, tune your ear to hear what the Spirit is saying and the angel is saying to the Church of the Laodiceans, “I know your works.  I know that you are neither hot not cold.  In other words, you are not freezing cold and I have come to you and you say, “Hey, I haven’t been reading my bible, I haven’t been praying, I haven’t been going to church, I am dead cold; I’m not even thinking about God, I don’t have anything to do with God, I am just living my life, leave me alone.”  That would be pretty cold, wouldn’t it?  To be hot would be, I’m trying to follow everything the Lord is saying, my heart is zealous, and I feel fire in me and I want to be on-fire and other people say about me, “You are on-fire.”  If you are lukewarm, you are not really hot and you are not really cold.  Jesus said, I would rather have you be cold or hot, rather than lukewarm.  He says, if you stay lukewarm I will spew you out of my mouth; I am sick in my stomach.  I feel nauseated, but yet I am holding it down, but there is only so long that you can hold down something when you are nauseated.  Eventually, it is not good what is in your stomach and it is better that it come out.  He says, I will spew you out, but I am waiting for you to either be cold and say, “I don’t want to hear God anymore, I’m just going to get involved in the world again, and I’m just going to go down this route of hating the ones who are close to God and hating the things of God and being deceived, “And a strong delusion is going to come upon these and they are going to believe a lie and they will be deceived and they won’t want to hear what God is saying and they’ll just stay in Babylon and they will be destroyed with Babylon.  Or, the Lord is waiting for you to hear His voice, warning, warning, warning, when you hear His voice, hear what the Spirit is saying, and become not half flesh and half Spirit but more Spirit, more Spirit, more Spirit, because those who are of the flesh cannot please God and God doesn’t want the mixture any more.  Just like if you were to go into the Holy of Holies.  If you said, well, for 9 days I’ve been coming in and burning the incense the way God wanted me to do and on this 10^th day I’m just going to come in and burn the incense in a different way because, I just don’t feel like following everything He says all the time.  If you were a priest and went into the Holy of Holies, and you did things your own way, you may die in the Holy of Holies; because in the Holy of Holies God says, people can’t come in with wrong hearts or just doing things the way they want.  Even the good-intentioned man who saw the ark of the Covenant falling, because it was being carried on a cart and one of the wheels might have hit a hole and the cart began to tip, and he went up to steady the ark and he touched it, and he died.  Didn’t he have good intentions?  Well, here is the problem, God told them never to carry the ark the way THEY decided.  Aah, we’ll carry it on a cart, aah, we’ll put it in a truck, aah, we’ll put it in our pick-up.  NO, He said carry it on poles.  That way, if six people are carrying it with poles, if one person’s foot goes in a hole and he twists his ankle, the others can still carry it or it won’t fall because they are carrying it the way God told them to carry it.  And, He also said, NO ONE is to touch My ark except the ones that I have assigned.  If you decide that you are going to do it your own way, you are probably going to die.  That is why Ananias and Sapphira, died in the book of Acts because the Church was so red-hot and so close to God, that you just didn’t bring lies and sin into the camp.  Somebody is going to die.  If God knows that his church is so far away from him, so fleshly, so 90% flesh and 10% God or 5% God, he says that you have come to a place of such looseness that you think that what you are doing is OK, but it is not acceptable to God any more, and God is going to get us back to the place where what we do is acceptable again, the way He wants it to be. But if we are so lukewarm or we are so far away from God, and we think we can make so many exceptions to God’s ways, God will say, “You don’t have the right heart.  You have got to have a heart that is sensitive, that wants to do my will.” In Rev. 3:17 it says, “Because you say you are rich, and you say you are increased with good, and you say that you have need of nothing and you don’t even know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked.” The church is thinking that it is alright.  The church is thinking that it is rich, has increased in goods, has need of nothing, and is pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, that it is acceptable to the Lord and the Lord says that it is not acceptable, and the Bride now is beginning to really see and feel the things of God and is beginning to seek God, and is beginning to see that things are not right, and we are not satisfied, and the feelings that we have inside, a dissatisfaction and that something is missing, and that all this really isn’t the Spirit of God, this song really isn’t anointed, this sermon isn’t really from the throne of God.  Where is the pure voice of God?  I see mixture, I see flesh, and I see Spirit in the Church. I see a little Spirit here and then a lot of flesh over here and it is NOT acceptable to the Lord, this mixture. The Bride and the people who are seeking God and the people who are dissatisfied who are wanting more and who are hungry for more, are starting to see that what used to satisfy them, was really man-made, and it does not satisfy them anymore. God is saying, this is man-made stuff, it is flesh and it fights against my Spirit and it does not please me and it is not going to accomplish my will because it is full of flesh.  God is saying, I want you to be able to discern what is flesh and what is Spirit and I want you to hear My voice more clearly and, pretty soon, you will see that the Church, that thinks it is so rich and so increased in goods, is wretched, miserable, poor, blind, naked, a desolation, a burned-up city, flat on the ground.  If you read Isaiah Chapter 1, you would see a prophetic indictment of the people of God, no matter how much they raise their hands, no matter how much they pray, no matter how much they sing, no matter how many services they have, no matter how many revivals they have, that it is not acceptable to God, it is not pleasing to God.  He is sick of it.  He is tired of it.

In the next chapter we will go to Matthew chapters 21, 22 and 23 to see how the Lord wants to correct His Church. He is wanting to show them their nakedness and what we will need to clothe ourselves. (Of course we are to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ and none of our own works, but when it says in Rev.3:18 that the Laodicean church needed white garments to clothe themselves the Lord also requires of us “spiritual clothing.”) We are not to clothe ourselves in fleshly church shows and fleshly church conferences, but we are to clothe ourselves in spiritual things. Also, how can we seek the Lord together, corporately, to find corporate revival? In these first few chapters we are seeing better how to find personal revival but our goal also is how to find corporate revival through seeking him together. We should come to a church service with no agenda, not making up our own agenda and not keeping the ball rolling or keeping the plates spinning with our own ideas until God shows up.  It should be like this, if He doesn’t show up, we are not going to know what to do and the meeting is going to be broken until he fixes it and if he doesn’t fix it, it is just going to remain broken. We have to seek God’s way. He wants to crash our parties and create His party, and to do that will take a dying to self and a dying to being embarrassed, looking at each other and not being sure what to do next.  It takes a seeking of the Lord, it takes putting aside everything to find out what the Lord wants to do corporately.  This gold tried in fire is like pure gold, refined 7 times in the fire and the white raiment is pure spiritual things, pure spiritual prayer, real intercession, a real spirit of travailing that comes from God and if it doesn’t come from God then it is not real.  A real season of music that is orchestrated by God that has to do with the ebb and the flow of how God wants to bring music in and not 3 fast songs and 3 slow songs but spiritual songs and spiritual orchestrations of what God wants to do and if he doesn’t even want music in an evening, you do not have to say, well, we have to put in our little music because music is always part of what we do.  What does God want?  In the Argentina revival, in its early days, at one period of time, they went 4 months with no sermons and no songs.  Can you imagine what our services would be like with no sermons and no songs for 4 months but only the leading of God?  We will need eye suave, also, to anoint our eyes so that we can see spiritually, see clearly. 

The State of the Church by David Nelson

Posted: 2007-02-28 11:47:17

The State of the Church   6-17-02

(1) The church services (in the Church at large) held on Sunday mornings, Sunday evenings, Wednesday evenings, etc. are, for the most part, not led by the Lord or the Holy Spirit. The Lord (even the Father) wants to come close and have a meal or a feast with us but we do not have the patience or diligence in seeking his presence to see what he wants to do. We try to fill in the gaps when he is not there (which is most of the time). Our meetings, services, offerings, songs, sermons, etc. are not acceptable to the Lord for they are either a mixture of Spirit and flesh (these are antagonistic, enemies of each other, at enmity with each other, cannot cohabit), or these things at our meetings are mostly flesh. The “Holy of Holies revival” will have no mixture of flesh and Spirit. Joel 2:12-14 (Amplified Version) says, Now, says the Lord, turn to me and keep on coming to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning (until every hindrance is removed and the broken fellowship with me is restored). God is not in charge at our meetings and we must admit something is terribly wrong. We have substituted our things and they are hindering his things from coming in. Verse 13 says, “Rend your hearts and not your garments (real repentance) and return to the Lord...and He will revoke His sentence of evil (when His conditions are met).” A sentence of evil is on the Church and we don’t even know it. Also, we haven’t stopped to find out what conditions must be met before the Lord will even come to our meetings. He really wants them to be his meetings. Verse 14 says, “Who knows but that the Lord will turn back to us, revoke His sentence of evil, and will leave us his blessings, His feast…,” and even will stay with us forever as His dwelling place. The raising of our hands, our prayers, the trampling of his courts in our 3-day and 7-day “revivals” that he did not call for, designate, plan or specify as his will are all rejected by him with 12 words of rejection (Is. 1:11-15). To what purpose is the church doing its services, who has required these things you do (saith the Lord), Bring no more vain, man-made things before me (saith the Lord). I am full with your things, I delight not in your things, bring your things no more, they are abominations, I cannot endure them any more, they are iniquities, I hate these things, they trouble me, I am weary of them, I cannot bear them any more, I will hide my eyes from them, I will not hear them. (12 rejections).

Many leaders are saying, “Peace, peace, everything is OK.” The prophetic voices are saying, “Do not say peace, peace, when there is no peace.” Do not say love, love, when there is no love. Do not say revival, revival, when there is no revival. If what is happening in our churches is not a “Spirit thing” or a “God thing” then it is not acceptable to the Lord. Only Spirit prayers, Spirit intercessions, Spirit gifts, Spirit sermons (who has stood in the counsel of the Lord to hear and perceive his word, who has a “thus saith the Lord” (Jer. 23:18)). We need Spirit testimonies and spirit songs and “Spirit things” to be pleasing to the Lord, these will change our lives and the world who is looking for the real thing. (We must worship him in spirit and in truth, for such worshipers He is seeking and looking for). Man-made things are not acceptable and will not change people. Please, let us search for the true things coming from the throne of God for truly then we will see and find Him. “You will see me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.”  (Jer. 29:13)).

(2) Individuals are not learning the art of waiting on the Lord, listening to the Lord, or hearing his voice clearly. We should be able to write down exactly he says clearly (day by day). It says in Hab. 2:1-3 that we can do this. If we spent as much time learning how to hear God and know God as we do in our services and “activities for the Lord” we would really learn the most valuable part or really the main or central part of Christianity, in other words, hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord.

(3) Corporate revival is our corporate meetings when we meet with the Lord and hear from Him publicly (as we are all together).  Individual revival is when we are seeking God diligently and we find him (hear from God alone) and then we are to tell others what he said (unless the Lord specifically tells us not to tell others, we are to shout what he says from the rooftops).

(4) There is a great lack of love in the Church.  People pretend that they care about each other but the truth is, “out of sight, out of mind.” Instead, this should be our aim or the end desire of our relationships, “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” It may seem strange to use these two phrases but do you see that one forgets people and in the other phrase love grows stronger? “Out of sight, out of mind” means we really don’t care if others live or die, though we profusely pretend that we do. We don’t really care if others are close to God, love God, hear from God (unless we can use them to get “spiritual information” for our own selfish advancement). We have walls between us that cause us to fear one another, be jealous and envious of one another, think negatively of other’s motives and actions, we are suspicious and skeptical of others, we don’t trust others, we don’t care if they are praising or loving God, and we don’t care if they are getting blessed. We don’t care what happens to them when they leave the church building or house meeting. Perfect love casts out (all) fear of one another. If we fear we have not yet been perfected in love. We fear when we are afraid to speak, pray, prophecy, share our hearts. We are not transparent, vulnerable, guileless, because we want to protect ourselves, we don’t want to be hurt by others. So we guard our hearts, we will not give our hearts to others (lest our heart be broken by them). So, we wear masks and pretend, and say many words to others that we don’t really mean, even though we may have good intentions of following through, but because real love is not there we let our words, promises, and “love” fade with time. Hence the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind.” If people were really in our hearts, “absence would make the heart and love grow fonder and deeper.” We do not love each other as Jesus loved us, we do not love each (and we are not united in heart) as the Father loves the Son (and as they are one) (Jn. 13:34 and 17:26). The true, agape love (the Father’s heart) will have to come back into the true leaders (Mal. 4:6 the hearts of the fathers (true leaders and physical fathers) will turn to the children (the Church people and the physical children). The leaders will then have true love and hearts for the children of the Church and will persistently and methodically teach the Church true love. Or intercessors, or the least of the brethren, or anyone who will sit at the Lord’s feet will learn of this love from God and they will live it and teach it also. As wickedness increases and love decreases (grows colder) fear also increases. (Fear of one another). People will be easily offended at what others do to them (or what they imagine others are doing to them) and so they will betray one another, talk behind one another’s backs, and allow wedges to be driven between themselves and others, (friends, relatives husbands and wives, parents and children, church splits, even divisions between Christians who at one time had very close relationships).

(5) The true Church, Remnant or Bride will be characterized by: agape (unconditional) love for each other and all people, sweetness of spirit, humility, transparency, acting without guile or pretense, openness, honesty, they keep their word, are forbearing and forgiving of the faults and offenses of others, they have generosity, hospitality, kindred spirits for the things of God, a sincere hunger for the things of God, desiring purity and holiness in their daily walks, welcoming strangers, befriending the lonely, unlovely, and those unwanted by others, kindness, gentleness, giving people the benefit of the doubt again and again and again.  They believe the best, hope for the best and endure all things done and said against them, they do not wish bad on anyone but bless everyone, they have oneness of heart with those who love God, never speaking negative about others, they are lowly, teachable, tenderhearted, loyal friends (through all ups and downs), available, approachable, not in a hurry, easy to please, uncomplaining, fair, no respecter of persons (favoring one over another), show no partiality to rich or poor (popular or unpopular).

Is anyone like this? By God’s strength and grace each of us can walk in this anointing. Let us be a Bride prepared for her Master, without spot or wrinkle. He is at work in us to make us the beauty of holiness as He is.

(6) We need to escape the gravity of this earth.  Much of the Church are ground birds that cannot fly. They peck along the ground and seldom look up for higher things. It takes a lot of energy to flap your wings hard and get the thrust you need to break the hold this earth has on us and get up in the air and soar where the eagles fly. We are so busy, even with what we consider “Christian things.” Our appointment books are full. Our lives are really full of worldly things, love for the world and (our own ideas) of what God wants us to do. To break free of the gravity of this world takes a considerable effort to hear and see and do only what he says. With our appointment books empty to see only “what the Father is doing” and hear only “what the Father is saying” and do nothing in our own authority or of our own ideas will take a radical change in our way of living. All errands, our own ideas about ministry, our own works “for the Lord”, our business, our activities, our recreations, our free and relaxing times, our “must do” lists must be given over to the Lord so that we will be completely led by the Spirit 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We must to be comfortable in his world when really his world is much more foreign to us than we know, and also we are already comfortable in our world. (TV, work, errands, responsibilities, church activities, our own devotions, our own daily agendas, our tapes, CDs, Christian music, Christian television, teaching tapes, TV sermons, Christian books). These things can be good but sometimes the good gets in the way of the best, really knowing God personally for ourselves. Press into the Lord himself, learn the secret of living in prayer, living in his presence, and not being at home or comfortable in this world. When we really decide to make a radical effort to know God for ourselves and live in his world we will begin to leave the gravity and orbit of the earth and fly where the Lord lives, breathe his air and eat from his hand. Then truly we will be seated with him in heavenly places and we will live all the rest of the days of our life (now) in his house and dwell on his holy hill. We will walk with him as Enoch and Moses and Abraham and Paul did. Do you want that? It is for every child of God from the least to the greatest.

The points (#1-6) mentioned above, are not just theories for the Church to read and hope for but they can be lived. Don’t just hope for these things, you enter in and live them. The Lord is ready and waiting for you.

February 2007-We love God!

Posted: 2007-02-03 17:38:36

The Personal Revival I am Looking for by David Nelson

Posted: 2007-02-03 17:38:31

THE PERSONAL REVIVAL I AM LOOKING FOR (which also leads to corporate revival)    2-20-07

What is your focus? If you were looking through a binoculars at some distant thing, it may be a tree, a bird, a deer, words on a sign that you want to see more clearly? To focus is to zero in and look more carefully at one thing of interest and not everything in the scene.

Regarding our walk with the Lord there are many activities each week that we could engage in but are they hitting the nail on the head, hitting the center of the target, and really helping us get closer to the Lord?

Some people may be more focused on sermons, books, music tapes, “fellowship,” music concerts, worship meetings, seminars and conventions, etc. All these can help us walk closer to the Lord and know Him better but what is our focus? If there were to be a revival would it be more sermons, more worship meetings, more miracles, more things to read or listen to? Or will revival be more fire in our hearts for God, tasting more of God, a closer walk with Him, and getting together with others as they share the fire they are gaining in their daily walks? The main point is what is our focus? Where is our walk with the Lord and where is our relationship with the Lord in all we are doing? Do we even know for sure what intimacy with the Lord is?

I choose to become an expert at knowing the Lord, and all that I do is secondary unless it enhances that one thing. I want to pursue that one thing of knowing the Lord till it bears fruit. Hopefully the fruit of this walk with the Lord will lead to loving people (getting them closer to the Lord), godly character, answered prayers, some big miracles, some small (that only we and the Lord see), but that it all leads to touching people’s lives forever.

The revival I want is passion and fire in my heart, my love increasing and discovering more of His love for me. Also His love for others increasing in me, to pursue them for the Lord, that they might love Him too. This is a very worthy focus. What is the purpose of all the miracles, knowledge gained, more money and prosperity and things, did these draw us and others nearer to Him? I believe He is calling us into a relationship where we want only His will, a trust relationship that doesn’t depend on our immediate satisfaction, our convenience or comfort, but that looks to Him with trust and love whether we have or have not (or receive when we want).

How important is this focus on relationship? I believe it is very important to the Lord, in fact, it is the most important thing to Him. The Lord is desiring sons and daughters who are prepared and ready to be with Him for eternity. From the very beginning of our walk with Him when we got saved it was His desire to make us more and more able to fellowship with Him. So He takes us as children and wants to make us more and more holy as He is holy and He must train us in His ways so that we can know Him better. Hebrews 12:7-14 says that we must receive God’s chastening and correction as His Spirit speaks to us and that He is dealing with us as sons, for He chastens all His sons. If you be without chastening you are not a son of the Lord. He is chastening us so that we will become partakers more and more of His holiness. The path is hard sometimes as He trains us but if we are trained and go into the right ways as He leads us we will yield the fruit of righteousness in our lives. So, follow peace and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. (pursue, strive, make every effort to be holy as He leads you).

BE READY FOR HIS COMING

Matthew 24:11-13 says, Much deception shall arise in the last days and the love of many will grow cold but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. You must watch, keep awake, keep praying, for you know not the hour your Lord comes. You must be ready. Matt. 25:1-13, Be ready, be awake, have oil in your lamps, hear when he calls at midnight, go out to meet him, those who were ready went in to the marriage and the door was shut. Matt. 25:31-46, The righteous who learned to help the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, visited the sick and those in prison or welcomed the stranger (even the least of the brethren) because they were changed to have the Lord’s character and because they followed as the Spirit led and had love and compassion like the Lord. These are the ones at the right hand of the Lord who will enter into His eternal life and His heaven but the others who were not like this shall be sent away into eternal punishment.

It is paramount that we become holy and that we are ready for the Lord at the end of our walk with Him (whether that be when we are called home to be with the Lord or when He comes). Let me give this illustration: if you are being changed to walk closer to the Lord is it not true that certain TV programs, books, time spent in various pursuits no longer appeal to you or that they are now distasteful to you or you know that they are bad for your spiritual health (or not really helping you)? Are there not people that you cannot fellowship with very well because they do not talk about the Lord or they talk about distasteful things, is it hard to be close to them or intimate with them spiritually? It is not that you don’t love them or want to help them to know the Lord or make every effort to help them to be saved (or they may be Christians who need to get to know the Lord better). But it is difficult having sweet communion with them in the Lord until they know Him or until we can help them get a little closer to the Lord. Well, it is the same with the Lord himself. He is pure and holy and He has difficulty communing with us in our condition. We must know Him better and be trained in His ways. The more we become like Him the sweeter our fellowship with Him becomes. This is what He desires. Everything we do and everything He does has this one goal, to save us so that we can begin to fellowship with Him and then to change us so that we can walk closer and closer to Him.

So, (1) sermons, books, music, fellowship with others, meetings and/or (2) intimate relationship with the Lord? Can we have both? Is there a difference between the two? What is our focus, the things we do (“spiritual activities”) or our relationship with Him? We can have both if our activities are helping and strengthening our relationship with Him.

Here is what to do to understand intimacy with the Lord better. Seek His face. Seek His presence. Seek to find Him and love Him with all your heart and strength. When you come to know His voice and taste of Him and His presence you will know the difference between “activities” and finding Him.  Many activities can lead you to Him but the relationship is His ultimate goal. Taste and see that He is good and you will not be satisfied with other things that do not lead to Him.

Jeremiah 9:23, 24   “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercises lovingkindness, judgement, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”

Will revival be coming to me and our area? Excerpts from article by Alex Buchan

Posted: 2007-02-03 17:38:30

What kind of person will have revival?  Will revival be coming to me and to our area?  Excerpts from an article by Alex Buchan (taken from Voice of the Martyrs Jan. 2000, Vol. 15, Issue 1)    (2-17-07)*

Born at the turn of the century, Wang Ming Dao was China’s most famous house church pastor and evangelist and, until his death in 1991, received all the religious VIPs, including Billy Graham.

Wang was the genuine article. While his official church counterpart, Bishop Ding, was mysteriously protected during the Cultural Revolution, Wang spent those years in prison in solitary confinement. Finally released in 1980, his steadfast faith during 23 years of imprisonment inspired millions of Chinese Christians.

For Wang, revival could only come upon those who knew that walking the way of Christ would be hard, requiring courage, determination and sacrifice. During a visit, I quizzed him on his prison experience. “I will probably never be put in jail like you, so how can your faith have any impact on mine?”

He replied by asking me a series of questions: “When you back home, how many books do you have to read this coming month? How many letters to write, people to see, sermons to preach?”

Then he stopped and said, “You need to build yourself a cell. When I was put in jail, I was devastated. I was an evangelist. I wanted to hold crusades all over China. I was an author. I wanted to write books. I was a preacher. I wanted to study my Bible and write sermons.

“But I had no Bible, no pulpit, no audience, no pen and paper. I could do nothing. Nothing except get to know God. And for 20 years, that was the greatest relationship I have ever known.”

His parting advice was, “I was pushed into a cell, but you will have to push yourself into one. Simplify your life, so you have time to know God.” For him, the absolute requirement is to go at a “walking pace,” slowing down, stilling yourself enough to commune properly with God.

Revival can only come to those who make room for God.

*(For further reading:  See Books/Prophecies page and read “Leaving Earth’s Gravity” by David Nelson.  Hope to make this a FREE reading soon.)