Growth

Growth.  It is a natural part of our lives.  Spiritual growth should be also.  God's plan for our growth is included in Paul's writing to the church at Ephesus. The five-fold ministry of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers are to prepare us to do God's work and eventually reach maturity, "attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ." (Eph 4:13).  If the believer does not do the works appointed to him by Christ, he will not have mature faith.

We are growing up into Christ. "From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." (Eph 4;16) Here we see that the individual believers must do their work in order for the body of Christ to reach its full growth.

My previous posting included a dream I had wherein the leaders of the church held the talents of the believers and would not release them.  I believe this is the case in many churches.  There does not seem to be a trust in the work of the Lord in the members of the congregations to do well with their talents.  Yet the leadership usurps Christ as the head of the body by holding onto the individual talents and not using them.  Indeed, no one man can use everyone else's talents.

"For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph 2:10). There will be spiritual maturity in the individual believers as they do the works God leads them to do.  This individual spiritual maturity will be spread to the entire church, Christ's body, as each member does the work God gifted him or her to do.

In the Bible we find encouragement to use our gifts, or talents. In the churches we often find discouragement.  If you are a spiritual leader, perhaps one in the five-fold ministry, I encourage you to build your people up in their spiritual gifts, and to facilitate the works they are called to do.  Then we will have the fullness of faith you desire.  There will be no great works without individual people having great faith, mature faith.  Amen.

The Church as a Bank

Though the following post is very long, it is about a dream that the Lord brought to my mind today.  He asked me to post it. He gave me the following dream on 2/20/06, in which I was in a bank, which resembled both the Church, and a courtroom;

There was a bank.  A lady was hired, and it was the head banker’s desire to get her obligated to his agenda by marrying her, so he wooed her.  She did not know he was evil.  The day came for a meeting between the head banker, his upper management team, and the bank’s employees.  The room was set up like a court room.  Near the front was a large square container, transparent like glass.  The person preparing the room put a key in the arm of a chair, which looked like a throne.  When he turned the key the ceiling let down coins with a thunderous sound, which filled up the container.

Then I saw pews full of the employees, elderly men and women who had faithfully served in the bank.  Each had an empty sock in which they had formerly stored their savings, or talents.  One lady walked down the aisle with her guitar case.  A man said “can’t you take the guitar for her debt to Me? I would gladly accept it as payment?”  The head banker said “no”.  Each person on the pews had paid a fellow-employee’s debt and in turn had their own debt paid the same way, giving their money to the bank.  The bank held all the money and the employees had none, yet owed the bank their service for the rest of their lives.  I finally understood that this was how the head banker, an evil leader, held onto his employees, and that all their lives the debt would never be paid.  After I realized this, all the employees cried out and created a ruckus for their fellow employees to be forgiven their debt.  I was the new employee being wooed, and seeing the contrast between the upper management and the employees caused me to realize that the latter were like the people I would see in heaven.  End of dream

Interpretation;

Bank – the Church, becoming legalistic and setting itself up to judge if

          People are worthy to serve with their talents. 

Lady wooed by the head banker – bride of Christ

Square glass container – holds the talents given to the church, but not

          Distributed to the congregation as needed

Coins – money paid to cancel debts

Key – opens heaven’s storehouses in the church

Socks – represent impoverished state each congregant found himself

          In when entrusting his talents to a church which didn’t allow the

          Use of his talents.

Bankers – Church leaders who want the talents of men for their own      uses

The church got the people to give up their talents because they had

caused it’s congregation to remain indebted to guilt.  Pastors and church leaders themselves do not look for this to happen, but it is a direct fruit of the teachings now current in the body of Christ which cause introspection and self-blame.   The resultant guilt carried by the child of God can never be paid, for there will always be cause to find fault with oneself.  However, the gifts each child of God has can be used to supply the needs each part of the body has.  The enemy wants the church to hold onto the talents and not let the children of God use them to heal each other.  The following is a prophecy which came following the dream;

In Revelation 12 it is written that we overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony.   The blood of the Lamb is that blood shed at Calvary.  It’s the pardon of God on our sin-torn lives when we surrender our lives to God.  This same blood continues on through our lives that we may come before the throne and ask for forgiveness for any future sins that we commit. 

This blood of Jesus is strong, strong enough to purchase our souls from hell, strong enough to keep us from our enemy who is so hot and heavy on our heels.  Satan has been cast out of heaven, that accuser who accuses the brethren night and day.  He accuses us still on the earth.  This is why we need the blood of the Lamb to cover us; satan still accuses us.  We continually are bombarded with thoughts of guilt, shame, and remorse.  If we take heed to satan berating us, we would stay in the dead works of repeated forgivenesses sought for those things which we have already been forgiven from, and repeated forgivenesses given, which we have formerly already given.  His design is to keep us indebted to our guilt in order to render our faith in God impotent.  When we are not the freed heirs of Christ, we are the impoverished indebted slaves of our enemy’s accusations.

We overcome satan by the blood of the Lamb, continually holding up to him our own forgiveness in response to his fierce arrows of slander and accusation.  And the testimony, the wonderful testimony we speak is of the on-going works God does in and through our lives.  For we believe the Holy Spirit which speaks that Jesus Christ has come in our flesh.  Amen.  This is his purpose, to stand in His Bride of Christ.  This is His purpose, that His Body would be joined to His head and not shrink back in shame or the feeling of unworthiness.  All who feel unworthy because of false guilt will think themselves humble, but the sad fruit they will bear is that they will not use their talents; they will bury their talents.  Though they love their brethren and want to serve them, they will not walk in their God-given works to do so.  But those who know that their sins are covered by the shed blood of Jesus and who walk in the Spirit are freed from the condemnation of the evil one, to serve God and bring Him glory.

It is satan’s design that in this hour God’s people would feel indebted to serve their guilt instead of serving God.  Satan knows that we can set our brother free, forgive his sin, snatch him from the fires of hell.  So the enemy accuses to us the brethren we have forgiven.  His design is that we would find fault with the sacrifice of Jesus, whose blood covers our brother’s sins.  His design is to render all people, including ourselves, unforgiven.  Instead of being covered in the Blood which has the power of God to deliver us all from evil, satan covers us with guilt.

The accuser sets brother against brother, and families are torn apart. Some of you are going to find that the brethren treat you like damaged goods.  They don’t choose you to serve along side of them.  But we were told this would happen in the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Mt 20:7).  Jesus is going to take the people rejected by man and say “You, come, serve Me”.  Do not wait for a man to choose you, for you have been chosen in Christ before the world began (Eph 2:10).  Go with Jesus into the harvest field He has chosen for you.  If they find fault with you because of satan’s attack on your life, look to Jesus who is example of bad things happening to good people.  The scriptures call this phenomenon a contradiction, for He was innocent (Heb 12:3).  

Remember also that satan chases the seed of the woman (Rev 12), those who have the spirit of Prophecy.  He hates her seed for the very image they bear, and chases them to prevent their lives from bringing the kingdom of heaven down upon the earth.  So this untidy and harassed life is common to those who will make way for the Kingdom of God to descend on the earth.  Lift up the powerful blood of Jesus against your accuser, and testify of God’s mighty works.  Amen.

Yielding and God's course

Have you ever felt stuck? Here is a word that might be just for you:

I have mapped out a course for you.  I send my angels to bring you back to that course whenever you stray off of it.  You cannot walk My Way by contending with powers that try to steal your faith or deceive you from following Me. You will become stuck.  But you can follow Me by yielding yourself to My hand.

Do not seek to know your enemy.  Seek after Me.  I will set My beacons along the path to warn you of danger.  Be not afraid, but trust in Me.  Amen.

" . . . let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Heb 12:1)

God wants to give His Words to the people

On 3/2/2008 I had a dream.  In this dream I was on top of the mountain of the Lord, in an unfinished house.  The carpenters had left their saw in front of a window which over-looked shorter mountains.  The table-saw still had saw dust on it, but there were no workers.  In that dream I knelt, calling out to the Lord to bring even just one man to be nurtured there.

Today this dream returned to my mind.  The Lord seemed to focus on the fact that the workers had left the God-appointed work He had for them to do.  The house of the Lord was unfinished.  Here are the words I heard this morning;

“The church has stopped listening to Me.  Why would they be interested in hearing what I have to say to My prophets when they are not interested in doing My work?  The churches have shut up my mouth.  But I am going to change that.  I will put the pastors who shut up my mouth on the bottom and put my prophets who speak My words on the top.

Right now the people in the congregations do not hear My words.  The pastor think that what they hear and speak is enough.  But they do not seek Me in purity, and are giving their own words to the people.  The prophets are grieved that no one hears them, nor receives My words.  I am going to change all that.  I am going to put the prophets on top and the pastors on the bottom.  I will do this so that I can give My people My words."  Amen.

God has a work for us to finish, and we need to have His words in order to do so.  We will see Him restore His order to the churches so that His words can be given to the people.  His words are that important.

Sovereignty and Joseph's life

 I think one of the most powerful stories in the Old Testament is Joseph’s life story.  He was a favored son of his father, Jacob.  But his jealous brothers sold him into slavery, and the slave traders took him far away from his native land, into Egypt. There he eventually, after several trials, became a ruler. You can read his story in Genesis, chapters 37-50.

I see God’s sovereignty in Joseph’s life.  Before being sold by his bothers, Joseph share 2 dreams which showed he would be a ruler over his family.  I have heard many teachers say that, if Joseph hadn’t been so proud and shared his dreams with his brothers, they wouldn’t have hated him and sold him into slavery.  These teachers use Joseph’s example as a reason to “keep things to yourself.”  Quite the contrary, God always sends His word out ahead of what He does. 

When Joseph’s brothers met him as a ruler of Egypt many years later, Joseph revealed himself to them.  He was in fulfillment of the very dream he had spoken of to them.  They saw that the words their brother had spoken to shouldn’t have been despised because God had intended to fulfill them.

God shares His word with us so that we can know Him and His ways.  The brothers learned that God had chosen Joseph as ruler over them, just like He showed in the dreams.  In retrospect, they could see that God chose Joseph long before he ever arrived in Egypt.

There is another reason I see God’s sovereignty in the story about Joseph.  He shared with his brothers that what they had intended as evil (selling him to slave traders), God had worked as good.  “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Gen 50:20).  Not only did God redeem Joseph’s life from trials, but by placing him in his destiny, God was able to save many others.

It is powerful to see God’s sovereignty.  That’s what makes Joseph’s story so great. His journey to his destination began when he shared his God-given dreams.  And God was faithful to fulfill the dreams and words He gave.  We should share God’s words with others also, trusting God to bring them to pass.  Our dreams and words may seem foolish, but though our trials be severe, God will remain faithful, always (Rom 3:3).  And perhaps, like Joseph, we will save many.  Amen.

The Sins of the Church

No one has enumerated the sins of the Church.  They think she is good.  But she seeks acceptance, and intercourse with the world.  She strengthens the hands of evil by giving permission for abortion and marrying men and women of the same sex.  The world has no standard for love or for family because the Church has sanctioned what never was love.

Though governments have laws by which to care for the old and the poor, the infirmed and the mentally ill, the Church ignores those with need who sit in her very pews.  The world knows more about the value of humans and nurturing than the church does.

However, the lust for worldly favors and fame among men has driven church leaders to begin orphanages and women’s homes abroad.  “The reproach of the church,” they say, “will be taken away by these good works.”  Though they are insincere in their love for their own flock, despising their needs, these men go to great expense to support out-lying ministries that make them look benevolent.

The Church has come to despise her offspring, favoring them in their youth and then discarding them.  She is like a mother who only wants small children who do cute things out of ignorance.  She despises her children’s growing knowledge, and their wisdom is an indictment against her foolishness.

The world trains up their children with vision for a future.  The training of the churches has been to receive money from her own children.  She has no vision for those she teaches and no plan to prosper them.  Though they learn well and grow in stature, she will grow in jealousy and remove their place to secure her own.

I have adorned My Church with My Spirit and beautiful music that heals troubled souls and draws men to Me.  But My Church lusted after the affection of the world, adorning My worship with the world’s lust through both music and apparel.  They relaxed their prudence which had protected their purity, and made noises and presented sites that displease Me. These draw men to the excitement of their flesh, and the broken and the wounded remain so.

The leaders of the Church have become high-minded and seek no instruction from the Lord.  They want suits and agendas that draw a crowd and give them a good reputation so that they will be received amongst men.  These things they will learn about, but they reject the true Word of the Lord.  Their prophets support the leader’s willful desires for gain and fame and do not reprove them.  How useless are the prophets and apostles of this age who will not give correction! And when I send My true Word through My true prophets, you reject them.  Like to Jesus, you say to My prophets, “we will not have you rule over us.”  You think you can seize the inheritance by the fierceness of your dedication to prosper, but it will be handed down to those meek servants of Mine that you refused to listen to.  When I restore order to My people, you insincere leaders will be on the bottom and My true apostles and prophets will lead My people.

The leaders have intimidated the flock with admonitions of “unity.” You forget the scriptures that say those who are genuine will not be a part of your insincerity.  If you will not listen to My true prophets for fear of losing your position, I have troubled the weak and lowly of your congregation about your behavior so that you could listen to them.  Will you continue to demand conformity, calling it unity?

Even the world assesses its motives and aligns them for goals that meet their mission statement.  But you refuse to listen to those I send you or those I raise up in your midst because your mission statement is good, but your motives are selfish.  What you lack in integrity you make up for in innovation and technology, to the point that they world has clothed you and you have set aside My clothing altogether.

How you use intimidation to keep your positions, accusing My servants of pride and insubordination!  Your position will be put low and you will be last who loved not the Word of the Lord. Will you brag to men about what you can accomplish by the numbers of those who sit before you?  You count My servants as your own, and I am no longer the Head of your body.  Your cancerous ideas have made the body of little use, until all that remains is your own talking head.  How full of yourself you have become, that your self-satisfaction has blinded you to the point where you cannot see your own hands and feet have withered and all is consumed with unhealthiness.

I have designed My body to maintain its health by the nurturing of each part supplying what is needed.  The body of the talking heads have smitten their own health and become corrupt with disease because they say they don’t need their other parts.  But I will remove the talking heads and restore My order to My body when I am once again the Head.  Life shall flow through the body and bring the nourishment from each member to the next until all is whole, clean and pure.  The Life is in the blood and flows through My entire body for this purpose; that she would live.