word #2 for Pastors of Sonoma County

To Sonoma County Pastors, #2

I speak a thing before it happens so that men might be prepared, and walk forward in glory. A man should not rebuke the future lest he be caught by the thief. I change things and tell a man ahead of time so that he can do the works of glory with Me which bring the changes I have foretold.

You have heard words of love. I love you and don’t want you to think that the changes to come are from anger or that I am indifferent to your circumstances.
You have believed that I can do all things. Believing I am God is just the beginning of faith. Knowing that which I will do, and then working with Me to do it, that is faith.

Now look with Me at the circumstances as they now are. For the trumpet sounded and many things, structures, people, ministries, and much more, fell. Look at the Church here in Sonoma County. Many of the sheep are poor and becoming homeless. Yet the structure of the churches have not changed. Look with My eyes as I compare it to a previous famine of hard times which hit Egypt. Joseph took in the tithes during the good years. So the pastors here have taken in the tithes. Now, hear what I say. There are the harder and harder yet and hardest years yet ahead. It is time to change the way you do things. Just as Joseph gave out to the people during the lean years, so you also need to give out to the flock. Do not tell them that they need to have faith to give you more because you are sinking. They did not give you their tithe only to have you deny them what they need. I would not tell them to go, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body.
I am restructuring the Church of Sonoma County. Pastors can work with me to feed their flocks, or they can try to run their churches as before, and suffer loss of all things. I am looking for pastors who will prepare their flocks with leaders, who will let the doors of their churches close on that day they can no longer pay. I am looking for pastors who will invest in men and women now while the congregation is together so that home churches can be made in the future. These pastors will be seen as overseers when they have many smaller home churches under them. Some will start new home churches and be as Apostles. People will care for each other’s needs during the great famine of finances; and it will become even more dire than it is now. There will be a run on the banks, and a great thief that was formerly contained will break out and steal from this community. But if you are prepared, and tending to the needs of the flock, you will have my heart, and you will not store up your funds for that day when things return to “normal” for you.

Now I have shown you My purpose, and the great change that is ahead. Though there are some churches that will not close, many will. If a pastor yearns for things to be as they are now, he will seek to preserve his church until it closes. His faith will be founded on sand, and all that he builds towards the future will fall.

Programs, funds for missions, and the costs of running a church will be held against My word which has been sent to him, and he will be in debt to Me. But those who train up their congregation, knowing one day they may not all meet under one roof again, they are the wise ones. Then will preserve unity amongst their people, and be found giving each one his portion in due season. And I will bless them in famine. So said the Lord.

word for pastors in Sonoma County

Word to the Pastors of Sonoma County
5-15-09

A calamity comes into the land and who judges it with wisdom? Those who stand in the presence of the Lord. Who confronts the calamity with his own strength? The young in faith, and those who don’t yet know what faith is.

I am saying to the churches of Sonoma County, many of you will not have your monthly payments. And yet you say “How so?” Is it because of sin that a church closes its doors for lack of funds? No, I say. All across this land the rich are becoming poor and the poor are becoming destitute. The trumpet has blown and that which can be shaken will be shaken. That the entire may be rebuilt, the entire will suffer change. Yet the wise will be preserved by their knowledge.

I am giving some pastors vision to see that, in a year’s time they will have exhausted their funds. And I am asking them, ”How will you prepare your flock?” Will you wait until that day to tell them that you’re closing the doors to their place of worship and fellowship? Or will you prepare them to stand in the day of adversity?

I am calling pastors to raise up shepherds in their midst. I am laying visions on these pastor’s hearts to invest themselves in making leaders arise from within their flocks who will one day surpass them, the pastors. I am calling pastors into the bigger vision of planting house churches so that their flock will be mentored, strong to the weak, in the troubled times to come. For California has not seen the end of its adversity. Yet I have sprinkled My gifts amongst my children to use for the benefit of all.

This is not a time for pastors to ask “What about my salary?” It is a time for them to prepare the flock to stand. In the house churches I can mentor the weak to stand. It is a work lost in the bigger group, the congregation who has no accountability but comes and goes unnoticed. I notice that the weak ones remain weak. I notice that those straddling the fence are about to fall on the wrong side of it. And I am able to make them all stand. I am able to say “I have lost none, except the son of perdition.” You are able to say this also. Come with me into the planning room and I will show you your steps for this next year. Lay aside your programs and agenda as you know it, for I am doing a new thing. I wish for all my flock to remain safe in the coming times, and I can do this through you, O My pastors. So said the Lord.

banners of authority

Many have asked why I don’t answer their prayers. They believe that all authority on earth has been given to me, and so they ask “why don’t you vanquish my enemies?” I could, and at times I do. But just as a child looks to his father to shelter him from the bully at school, so do many believers look for me to shelter them. They have forgotten that, as they grew up, they learned how to deal with the bully themselves. When talking did not work, they used other measures.

The mature adult looks back on his childhood with perspective. The bully does not seem to be the threat he was when he was a child. Why is this so? Because he, the child, grew in learning how to deal with bullies. As an adult, fear and being intimidated have given way to wisdom and understanding of his own authority in matters which were formerly ruled over by others.

I don’t ask Man to answer his own prayers. But I do lead every child of Mine into adulthood. When a child gains a victory, and then another, he is gaining confidence in his child-given attributes, for all children are made in My image and are destined for victory. As an adult, he stands with a standard, bearing flags for each victory from the past. This is a representation of the authority the man now carries. Not only has he grown in confidence, but he displays for the spirit realm that which he has experienced in his life: victory. The Father sees it, the angels see it, and the fallen angels see it.

Now satan will not stop in his endeavors to defeat My children. If a man carries a banner with many victory flags, satan will scheme bigger and more serious attacks against him. But there is no battle against My anointed that will prosper if they put their confidence in Me. And the man who has his heart steadied on victory will see his prayers as the weapons of his warfare, establishing the kingdom of God around him.

It is good for the angels of God to see a man’s victory flags, for it is angels who minister to and aid each child of God. Do not fear what the fallen angels see, but defeat them by the word of your testimony. For each victory is a testimony you bear to the world and is on display to the spirit realm. Amen.