What is the Spirit Saying Today?

As I read the Word of God today I asked the Lord, "Lord, what are you saying to us/me today?" I read in various places until again I came upon Matt 25...that's when the flame inside me went from low burn to full flame. I believe the Spirit of God has testified with my spirit in agreement that the content of Matt 25 has some real treasure for us today.

Before we get to a reminder of what's in Matt 25, another lingering voice within me keeps pointing at "patient endurance:"

Rev 1:9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.

2 Peter 1:5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Rev 3:10Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth.

One of the key foundational aspects of us as servants of our God is our
patience. We must endure, we must be patient, we must persevere....

And this patient perseverance works hand in hand with the glow I see all over Matt 25. If you recall, Matt 25 gives us the parable of the virgins and the parable of the talents before giving us a picture of the Lord judging all mankind. Matt 25 is a grand panorama taking us from where we stand today, all the way through to the very end of "life as we know it" on this earth.

If we look at the parable of the virgins, what do we see? Again we see patient perseverance and preparation. Preparation? Yes, the evidence of "prepared" virgins is in the oil filled jars. The wise virgins prepared themselves to wait for however long it took for the Lord to show up. They were ready to wait :-)

The parable of the virgins also has direct tie in with the "open door" we see in Rev 3 and 4. Someday in this worlds future, a door WILL open in heaven and wise virgins WILL go through it. We know from Rev 3 that this "open door" also has a direct connection with being kept from ALL of what's about to happen, exactly as we are promised in Luke 21:36.

In addition to our patience, readiness, perseverance in waiting for our Lord, we are given the gem that is known as the parable of the talents. The parable of the virgins tells us to be ready to wait, the parable of the talents tells us we are not sitting around staring at tents and sand while we do our waiting. We are to DO something, anything, with the "talents" that our Lord has given us. Remember, even the servant who came back with a little return on what he was given was told "well done" by the Lord:

Matt 25:22“The man with the two talents also came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘you entrusted me with two talents; see, I have gained two more.’
23“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

It was the servant who has nothing to show for what he had been given that reaped the wrath of our master. We are all to be growing spiritual fruit in some way. We are all different parts of the body and what our "doing" is for each of us is radically and wonderfully different.

In my case, the Lord has given me faith to believe him for very big things. We worship a big God, very big, and he delights in people (like the centurion or the woman with the issue of blood) who believe him to the fullest extent of what he said to us. For example, if Jesus raised the dead, AND Jesus told us that we shall do greater things than he did, who among us BELIEVES him and takes him at his word?

I am sure that our God is looking for people today who will take him at his word and expect to see our God move according to his word. If the Lord said it, he meant it, and we fail to believe it at a great cost to ourselves and the world around us.

Keep the faith, done for today. Grace and peace

March 18, 2010

I wanted to post today to let you know how the Lord has been dealing with me. The past 3-4 months or so have been about staying focused. There are so many things in this world that pull our attention to the left and right and everywhere else, and being the human that I am, my attention does wander, which requires daily refocus.

Our walk with the Lord truly is a daily thing. The enemy is constantly trying to derail our walk with the Lord and he is subtle about it. He hides his attacks in subtle things, in subtle thoughts that he fires into our heads. Recently a couple of reminders of past sin popped into my head and the Lord immediately popped in after each one saying "that was an attack." Had I not heard that I would have been left to ponder the error of my previous ways. The Lord tells us in Psalm 103 though that our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west, so we can move on. Today is not yesterday. Tomorrow is not today. Each day is a fresh start. Each day is a day to evaluate where we stand and refocus if we have been distracted.

This life can be a battle at times, and the bulk of the fighting is done between our two ears. War requires us to think like soldiers, endure hardship, be courageous and most of all be patient. We are at war, that's for sure. We must decide for ourselves what we believe, what's most important to us and when we get distracted or pulled off course we need to readjust and head back in the direction we know we should be going.

This life appears to be a serious of peaks and valleys, like a sine wave. We seem to learn a heck of alot more at the bottom of these cycles then we do at the top. Again, this requires the attitude and thinking of soldiers. We are soldiers but we do not war as this world does with carnal weapons.

2 Cor 10:3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) 5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

The Lord has used the past months to teach me, to get me to correct my ways before him, rather to "perfect" my way before him. Knowing myself like I do, this will certainly be a lifelong work :-).

The Lord has adjusted my focus from the apostasy of the church, the "end is near" to perfecting my way before him. I am amazed and very thankful at how patient he has been with me. What a wonderful God we serve. He can be a gentle taskmaster if we will remain broken and humble before him. This perfecting of his people could be the Lord's last act of grace to his people before he shows up for us. At this point I have no earthly idea how long it will be for the Lord's return. He has shown me clearly now how long he can drag out events that seem to be teetering on the brink of collapse, to make them last however long he wants them to. Again, this is another proof to me that our God is in absolute control of everything. He determines the times and seasons of events, not the illuminati, not the president of the US, not the bilderburger groups, not the satanists, not Isreal/the Jews/the Zionists etc etc etc. OUR GOD ALONE determines the timing of things.

We must be ready for him to return today. We must also be prepared to wait to live out our entire lifetime and still not see his coming. Let us be patient then, maintaining the true faith that we ourselves read in the bible. Lets be responsible for correctly handling the word of truth and cease endless debating that leads men nowhere. Let us perfect our way before our God because he is WORTHY of our BEST and he loves us.

The last thing I have for you today is this: our God hears and answers prayers. That's a fact. He does not answer in your time, he answers in his time so be patient, but expect answers. Believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer and they shall be yours:

Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

These are the things that have been on my mind for months now. I will try to post more often. We are dearly loved children, remain "in Christ," keep the faith, be patient, adopt the attitude of soldiers who are not of this world.

May the Lord bless you and keep you and prosper you even as your soul prospers. Grace and peace.

Evidence of the Problem

I was speaking with a "religious person" recently who claims to be a christian (I'm not her judge, just an observer) and I was confronted with evidence of the problem.

What problem you ask? The problem is, only a FEW are going to make it into the kingdom of heaven.....a great problem indeed.


Matt 7: 13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

In this conversation with this lady, I heard all about how great her "pastor" is, how great their "church" is, even how wonderful the "rock band" is for "worship services" but what I heard nothing about is JESUS. No kidding, not one single mention of "Lord" or "Jesus" in the entire conversation. What is that indicitive of? No Holy Spirit. Again, I'm not her judge, just an observer. The Holy Spirit ALWAYS magnifies Jesus the Son of God, NEVER men or manmade organizations.

This lady is like so many today. Lots of "going to church" lots of wonderful "pastors" but where's the JESUS in them?

This world has what it presents as "light" and the bible comments on it here:

Matt 6:22“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

I write these things to you today as more evidence that there is a terrible problem in this world, even though many refuse to acknowledge it. The bible clearly tells us that many who call Jesus "Lord" today will be told Matt 7:23 Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

Why remind you of these things? 1. because these things are written in the Word of God and 2. because FEW others are reminding you of these things.

The time for us to remember that we must keep Jesus as our "First Love" (Rev 2), is today. The time for us to watch and warn is today, not after Jesus has come for the wise virgins (Matt 25). Let us be diligent to search the scriptures for ourselves today and take to heart the FULL counsel of God, not just the cherry picked "juicy bits" that today's world feasts on. Let us confront ourselves with God Almighty today while there is still time to break our hearts before him and correct anything that needs correcting.

I asked the Lord recently for something to write to you about, this was it. If you are "in Christ" today, remain in him. Be encouraged because our God hears prayer and he does answer. Know that he does love you and he does hear you. Do not be discouraged when his answers do not come in your time. Wait for him, his answers will come in his time....

Grace and peace