My parents were staunch Republicans. They were not thrilled with Presidents Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson, but I can never remember them calling these presidents unkind names. They respected the office.
But today, we have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media outlets. Anyone can air his views to an audience, without leaving his home. All he has to do is write his viewpoint, or share one he likes from another person, and then hit the “share” button.
I have read some where President Obama was called the Antichrist and President Trump was called a racist. Neither of these are true. Period.
The sad thing is that quite a few Christians join in this madness. The Bible specifically warns us not to do this.
You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people. (Exodus 22:28)
The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries (2 Peter 2:9-10)
Likewise also these dreamers defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignitaries. (Jude 8)
Christians are called to pray for our leaders, not to slander, gossip or speak evil of them. If we continue in this madness, we can expect God to judge us.
My prayer today:
Lord, send the Spirit of the fear of the Lord to convict American Christians of our words against leaders and those in authority so that our tongues are tamed and the words of our mouths are acceptable in Your sight. (Based on Isaiah 11:2, James 3:8 and Psalm 19:14)
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for the Body of Christ in America.
If you are reading this, then I’m dead and will forever remain sixty-six years old.
If you are a searcher, looking through the rubble for survivors or their remains, thanks for trying. I appreciate your efforts. If you are a looter who picked up my MacBook Air because you wanted it, consider the laptop a gift from me. I won’t need it anymore. But whatever your reasons, it makes no difference because I’m dead and just glad someone is reading my story.
Oh yeah, my name is Jackson Edwards.
Maybe I better get on with it because I’m drifting off more and more because of the pain.
It all began when my doorbell rang a few months ago.
Ding. Dong.
I hit pause on the TV remote and stood up. My sciatica and arthritis ached more than usual so I stretched myself, hoping to work out the kinks, before reaching for the doorknob. Halloween had passed two weeks earlier, but I still took no chances and looked through the peephole first. I saw my bearded neighbor standing in the hallway and opened the door.
“Monsieur Roberto,” I said with a lousy French accent.
“Si vou ples, Monsieur Jackson,” he said in his own second rate accent, pointing toward the living room.
“Come in, my Charismaniac friend.”
He laughed and walked into the living room and sat down on the sectional. I followed and sat on the opposite side of the coffee table in the leather recliner.
“I don’t know where to begin,” he said, rubbing his hands together.
His blue eyes checked out the oak floor that his jogging shoes rested upon. Something bothered him.
“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Don’t you usually start with John 3:16 and work your way through the rest of the Bible when you come here?”
“Hey, man, I’m sorry if I’ve ever whacked you over the head with my Bible.”
“Just yanking your chain, Dr. Bob.”
He sighed.
“Okay, but I still don’t know where to start.”
“Why not at the beginning? It’s only 7 p.m. and we have all night.”
He nodded and rubbed his forehead with a hand.
“Do you remember four years ago when I told you about a vision a Christian woman had about a gigantic ocean wave hitting Japan? Do you remember that?”
“Vaguely,” I whispered, not being totally honest because I remembered the story quite well. In fact, I even did research on Google and discovered numerous other warnings spoken ahead of time about the tsunami.
“Okay,” he said. “Well, this same woman just had a vision of a nuclear blast hitting us here in San Francisco ─”
“Really?”
“Yes, and not only that, a prophet friend from Albuquerque called and told us a disaster would soon hit the Bay Area. He recommended we should pack up and leave now.”
“Hmm,” I said, leaning forward in the recliner. “What are you going to do?”
“Mary and I sold our condo today, furniture and all. We’re moving to an area near Tahoe.”
“What about your medical practice? And your two kids?”
“My two partners bought out my share and we’ll homeschool our kids.”
Everything moved too fast to grab a hold of what he was telling me.
“Well, it’ll take sixty days or so for everything to close, right? So, we’ll have plenty of time to talk in the future.”
I stood up, hoping to end this uncomfortable conversation.
“No, sadly, we won’t. I made cash deals and sold everything for sixty cents on the dollar.”
I fell backwards into the recliner and shook my head.
“You took a four hundred-thousand dollar loss on your condo?”
“I would have given it away if I had to.”
I opened my mouth and closed it. How do you challenge a person who is willing to turn his back on a fabulous way of life in the city he loved? I know I could never have done it. It had been too hard building a forty-year career in Silicon Valley to end up tossing it away. And a million-dollar condo on Nob Hill? That would have been a laughable goal back in the days of my youth, living in the inner city of Oakland.
“Is this goodbye?” I asked.
He nodded and stood up, offering his hand to me. I stood and shook hands with him.
“Listen, Jackson, why don’t you come along with us? Mary and I really feel some bad things are going to happen in San Francisco and we don’t want anything to happen to you. We love you.”
“No way, I’ll take my chances here on Nob Hill,” I said, shaking my head. I winked my eye and added, “Just remember, my white Charismaniac friend, I’m still one of them jive-talking, hustle-or-die blacks from the inner city. We know how to survive.”
In 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2, Paul answered questions about a misunderstanding the church had about the Day of the Lord and whether it had already come.
Paul replied:
Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that Day will not come unless the apostasy comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed] (2 Thessalonians 2:3 AMP)
Okay, think about this for a moment: Jesus will not return and rapture us until after there is a great rebellion by professed Christians who then walk away from their faith.
…because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)
This is not written to argue the point one way or another whether the great falling away involves born-again Christians or in-name-only believers. I’ll let God sort that out.
But it’s written to remind us to pray for our loved ones and neighbors before it is too late.
My prayer today:
Lord, send the Spirit of Truth to open up the hearts of our loved ones and our American neighbors so that they receive the love of the truth and are saved. (Based on John 16:13 and 2 Thessalonians 2:10)
I was going through the worst trial of my life where nothing was going right for me. Finances, relationships and everything else were in the toilet, waiting to be flushed. It was all I could do to rise each morning and put one foot in front of the other throughout the day. Then I had a dream.
In it, I arrived in heaven. It was so beautiful and peaceful there. No fear. No worries. No enemies. Only peace. Only joy. Only love. Even the colors were alive and seemed to sing in their beauty to the Creator.
But as dreams usually do, the scene changed and I saw myself standing in front of a long line of young, dark-skinned people. The first one walked up to me and said, “I died young and did not achieve God’s destiny for my life because you failed to fulfill the calling on your life.” When he finished, he walked off.
The second person in line then stepped forward. He repeated what the first young man had said to me. Then, a third. And a fourth. And so forth.
As I stood there and looked at the endless line of young people waiting to talk with me, I couldn’t handle it anymore. I cried out to the Lord at the top of my lungs. “Lord, give me a second chance. Send me back to earth and I promise to not allow pain, agony, rejection, sin or anything else to stop me from fulfilling the calling which You have placed on my life.”
End of dream.
Yet, I can still see the long line of young people waiting to talk with me. The dream continues to work on me, even today.
For many are called (invited and summoned), but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:14 AMP)
The Lord determines the type of calling He places on our lives, but we determine whether or not we are chosen to fulfill that calling on earth by how we endure His training program.
You see, at any point in the training process, we can rebel and opt out. It’s our decision, but we need to remember that there are consequences involved with our decisions.
(Continued in Part 6…but if you want to read all the parts to date, you can go here.
After his rebellion, being thrown into the Sea, swallowed by a great fish and then vomited onto land, Jonah showed up in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria.
Can you imagine the hungry and thirsty cries of babies, children and animals filling the air in Nineveh? It had to be almost deafening. What an extreme reaction to a prophet’s proclamation!
When God saw what they had done and how they had put a stop to their evil ways, he changed his mind and did not carry out the destruction he had threatened. (Jonah 3:10 NLT)
What if the King of Assyria had decided to check out Jonah’s credentials before deciding what to do? Or what if the King wanted to talk it over with his religious aides first? Or what if the King wanted to just wait and see before he acted?
Nineveh would have been destroyed. It took an extreme and immediate response to stave off the city’s destruction.
Will the Lord send last-call prophets, like Jonah, to America before removing the nation from before His eyes because of abortion?
(Continued in Part 6…but if you want to read all of the parts to date, you can go here.)
If I asked most Christians what happened in Acts 2 of the Bible, they’d answer: “The one hundred and twenty disciples waiting in the Upper Room in Jerusalem were filled with the Holy Spirit and they all spoke in tongues.”
That’s true, but did you also know that Peter prophesied a message for us Twenty-First Century Christians?
“In the last days,” God says, “I will pour out My Spirit upon all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy.Your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams. In those days I will pour out My Spirit even on My servants—men and women alike— and they will prophesy.“ (Acts 2:17-18 NLT)
How many of our sons and daughters are prophesying? And if we consider ourselves servants of the Lord, how many of us are prophesying?
Now, if you’re thinking all of Peter’s prophetic words were fulfilled on that first Pentecost in 30 AD, then you need to look at the next part of his prophecy:
“And I will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below— blood and fire and clouds of smoke. The sun will become dark, and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the Lord arrives.” (Acts 2:18-19)
So far, we have not seen the sun darkened and the moon turned to blood, right?
If we look at Peter’s prophecy and consider the questions I have raised, that means Peter’s prophecy has only had a limited fulfillment so far.
Lord, we believe we are living in the last days so we ask You to pour out Your Spirit of prophecy on our sons and daughters and on every one who is Your servant. (Based on Acts 2 and Revelation 19:10)
Join with me on Thursdays to fast and pray for prophetic voices to arise in America.
Lars Enarson’s prophetic words have stirred many Christians to fast and pray against President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” plan to create peace in the Middle East by dividing the land of Israel to establish a Palestinian state. (You can read more on this here.)
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of not effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:8-11)
Prayer Focus Point #1: Pray that the Lord brings the counsel of America and other nations to nothing and that the plans of President Trump and other leaders will be frustrated by God and have no effect on Israel. (Psalm 33:10)
Prayer Focal Point #2: Pray and agree that the counsel of the Lord stands forever for Israel and His plans to all generations of Israel. (Psalm 33:11)
Prayer Focal Point #3: Pray that an Esther will arise and convince President Trump that his “Deal of the Century” will endanger Israel and America.
Prayer Focal Point #4: Pray for a great victory for the political parties in Israel’s upcoming elections that refuse to negotiate a division of Israel to establish a Palestinian state.
Join with me to fast and pray for Israel, America and President Trump today.
A couple of weeks ago, I had one of those dreams which seemed so real that it felt like I was really there.
In the dream, I was walking along a sidewalk through my neighborhood during an early summer evening. The temperature was perfect and the sky was clear.
As I walked, a pretty daughter of a high school friend approached me. She was wearing an attractive, but conservative blouse and skirt outfit. She stopped and we chatted a bit. I didn’t really think anything was out of the ordinary until she embraced me with her arms. I did the same to her. Our hands groped each others’ bodies in all of the wrong places.
While this was happening, I thought, “What’s happening here? I’m twenty-five years older than her.”
Yes, we were passionately carrying on, out in the open on that sidewalk in front of our neighbors, but that didn’t seem to bother us.
Finally, she said, “I want to go home and change into something more comfortable. Let’s meet at such-and-such place.”
I agreed to meet her there.
When she left, all I could think about was that I was about to commit a sin — a big one!
Next, I began heading toward our meeting place, which happened to be a steep downhill walk for me. I cried out to the Lord as I moved along. “Forgive me, Lord! Pour out Your grace on me! Stop me before I fall into deeper sin! Help me, Lord! Help me! Help me!”
I kept walking. My prayers did not stop me.
I looked ahead and saw the pretty daughter at the bottom of the hill, awaiting me. She looked beautiful, luscious and inviting.
Not knowing what else to do, I began fighting with spiritual warfare prayers. “In Jesus’ name, I command the spirit of sexual immorality to go from me right now! Go in Jesus’ name.”
My spiritual warfare prayers did not help. I kept walking toward her.
I was only a few steps away when I tossed out a last resort prayer. “Lord, I plead the blood of Jesus over me and over this terrible situation.”
Bam!
I was set free and transported by the Spirit out of that seemingly hopeless situation to a place of peace and safety.
And they overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. (Revelation 12:11)
After the Azusa Street Revival, the critics of the early Pentecostals called them “blood obsessed.” Why? Because these early Pentecostals sang about the blood, preached about the blood and pleaded the blood over almost everything in their lives. They had a deep revelation about the power in the blood of Jesus.
For most, that revelation is not so strong in us today.
Pastor Jack Hayford says about pleading the blood of Jesus:
There is no circumstance in life to which the blood of Jesus isn’t key to God’s releasing, protecting, resolving power, whether it’s removing the potential of confusion, overcoming the impact of rebellion, breaking the torment of fear, or the shame of the past. When we “plead the blood,” we are to do so in the understanding sense, with the firepower of the supernatural, and on the basis of the body of evidence that through the blood of Jesus Christ, all hell has been broken in its power, all sin neutralized, the power of death overwhelmed, and every human need paid for once and for all. (See Hayford’s powerful teaching on pleading the blood here.)
Because of my dream, I now plead the blood of Jesus often.
Hey, why not use the “firepower of the supernatural” to help us walk with Jesus?
The above video is fifteen minutes and six seconds long and is great, but the following are the major points of Lars Enarson’s message:
Israel is in great danger and so is America right now.
Why?
U. S. President Donald Trump, who is a great friend of Israel, has developed a plan that he is calling the “Deal of the Century.” It’s a plan to create peace in the Middle East by dividing the land of Israel to establish a Palestinian state.
President Trump had been trying to keep the plan a secret until the right time, but we have just learned that Trump has decided to unveil the plan a couple of days after the elections which will take place in Israel on April 9, 2019.
By doing this, President Trump is hiding his plan from the people of Israel who are going to the polls to elect the next government. This is wrong!
There’s no doubt Trump and America will place great pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to accept this “Deal of the Century.” Trump may also present an offer that suggests the nations surrounding Israel will make peace with our nation if Israel accepts the deal.
The last few presidents have tried to divide Israel by establishing a Palestinian state. Because of this, look what has happened to America. It is more divided now than at any time since the Civil War, over one hundred and sixty years ago.
If this deal goes through, God may divide America in such a way that the nation will cease to be a world empire. That is what is at stake right now!
“For behold, in those days and at that time, when I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of My people, My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations; they have also divided up My land.(Joel 3:1-2)
The two warnings in the above verses which the Lord will bring judgment upon nations are focused on the scattering of the Israelites among the nations and dividing up the land of Israel.
I am calling for a fast on March 20, 2019, which is the day Israel celebrates the Esther fast. I am asking all Evangelical Christians to join us in the fast.
Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of not effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:8-11)
Prayer Point #1: Pray that the Lord brings the counsel of America and other nations to nothing and that the plans of President Trump and other leaders will be frustrated by God and have no effect on Israel. (Psalm 33:10)
Prayer Point #2: Pray and agree that the counsel of the Lord stands forever for Israel and His plans to all generations of Israel. (Psalm 33:11)
Prayer Point #3: Pray that an Esther will arise and convince President Trump that his “Deal of the Century” will endanger Israel and America.
Prayer Point #4: Pray for a great victory for the political parties in Israel’s upcoming elections that refuse to negotiate a division of Israel to establish a Palestinian state.
Israel could be in its most dangerous position since it became a nation in 1948. It’s up to believers to fight the good fight of faith through prayer and fasting for Israel.
Lars Enarson, a native of Sweden, has been an author and Bible teacher with a prophetic voice since the 1970’s. Lars is the founder and president of the Watchman International (thewatchman.org), a ministry dedicated to “prepare the way for the Lord.” He is based in Israel, teaching and mobilizing prayer for Israel by way of Seminars, books, and TV-programs.
The video is 11 minutes and 21 seconds long. It is well-worth listening to, but for those who would rather read than listen, I have written out his dialog:
Moderator: How do you respond to unbelievers who say Christians are hateful toward people who support lifestyles that are not according to the precepts of our faith?
Zacharias:Very important question. I would be a dishonest person if I told you I don’t think about that question or worry about it. In fact, our speakers’ team has sat around a table and asked, “How do we deal with this question, the trying social issue of our time.” And even if the word is not used in the question – the homosexual lifestyle and all that has come about in our lifetime. How should Christians deal with it?
Let me give you three panels for an answer on this, okay?
The first panel is the logical or sociological problem. The second panel is the theological problem. The third panel is the relational problem – how do you communicate it.
So, first, let’s take the sociological issue here. What is the problem now? We talk about tolerance.
I was speaking at a prestigious university and someone walked to the microphone and asked this same question about homosexuality.
I said to this person, “I will be glad to answer your question if you first answer mine. What kind of culture are we living in right now? You have to define it for me.
“I see three cultures in relation to absolute.
“The first culture is called a Theonomous culture where the Law of God is so embedded in our hearts that we all think in the same way.
“Once, upon a time, we talked about the natural law as in “we believe these truths to be self-evident. The early framers believed in the natural law. We don’t believe in natural law anymore nor do we believe in the Theonomous culture in the West.
“So, what’s the second culture?
“It’s a heteronomous culture. This means that the mainstream of a culture is dictated to by the top or its leaders. If you look at Marxism in secular terms, it is a heteronomous culture with the handful at the top controlling the masses. If you look at Islam, it is a heteronomous culture. The mullahs or sheiks or ayatollahs at the top tell the masses when they can eat, what they must wear, who they can be seen with and so forth. It is a heteronomous culture with the few at the top dictating to the masses below them.
“So I looked at the questioner and I asked, ‘Are we a Theonomous culture?’ He said, ‘No.’ ‘Are we a heteronomous culture?’ He said, ‘No.’
“That leaves with us the third which is an autonomous culture, which means each person dictates their own moral prerogatives. So, I asked him, ‘Are we an autonomous culture?’ He said, ‘Yes.’
“Okay, if we are an autonomous culture and I answer your question, are you going to give me the privilege of my autonomy, too? Or as soon as you disagree with my answer, will you switch to a heteronomous mode and dictate for me what I must believe as well?”
That is the sociological dilemma.
If A disagrees with B, A wants to enforce his principles on B. Not only that, B wants to do the same to A. So there is a mutual autocracy being sought here.
But it will never be consistent in a culture that is neither Theonomous or heteronomous because everyone has their own autonomy. That’s the sociological issue.
Now, the theological issue.
Years ago, I did some forums at Indiana University. At one, a reporter came and asked if she could film some of our program that night. I said yes. She only planned to stay for a part of the program, but ended up staying for all of it, even the question and answer period afterward. She ended up walking with me back to my lodging on campus.
The reporter asked, “I have a question for you.”
“Is this an on-the-record question or an off-the-record one,” I replied.
She said, “No this is just for me. It will not appear in print.”
“Okay,” I said. “Go ahead and ask.”
She said, “I have a problem with Christianity. Christians are generally against racism, but when it comes to homosexuality, they discriminate against the homosexual. How do you explain that?”
“I find your comments so interesting,” I said. “In the first part of your question, it’s an -ism you’re talking about. In the second part of the question, you particularize it with an individual. That fascinates me.
“The reason we believe ethnic discrimination is wrong is because the race and ethnicity of a person is sacred. You do not violate a person’s race or ethnicity. It’s a sacred gift.
“And the reason we believe in an absoluteness to sexuality is that we believe sexuality is sacred. You will help me better understand your question if you tell me why you treat racism as sacred and do not do the same for sexuality.
She replied, “I never thought about it in those terms.”
Here’s what I want to say to everyone: marriage as God has given it to us is the most sacred relationship you will ever enter. Love is given one word in the English but it has four words in the Greek: agape, philio, storge and eros. Agape is God’s love. Philio is friendship or brotherly love. Storge is protective or parental love. Eros is romantic love.
Marriage is the only one that pulls these four loves together. And if you take agape out of this mix, eros is gone. Romantic love will become redefined.
For believers, the Bible gives the sacredness of marriage as God gives Christ to the church, the bridegroom and the bride. In the sacredness of the beauty of that consummate relationship between a man and a woman in the singular marital vow: “I do and I will…” When you say I do to the one, you say I don’t to all of the others. When you say I will to one, you say I won’t to the others.
Any departure from this beauty and sacredness of the full union of love is against the biblical notion of what it really means to be married. Just to take one behavior and make it look like it is aberrant is not right. All departures from this model of a man and woman are not right in the sight of God.
The theological position is a consummate relationship between a man and a woman in the procreative act and the sacredness and paying each other the ultimate compliment of taking each other at his or her word.
Theologically, we are put in a conundrum. So, how do we deal with it? This is the hard part.
I accept people with a love and genuineness on anything if their views are different than mine. I have learned to love humanity. I can put my arm around a person who has a different view on marriage.
God gives us the most sacred gift: the prerogative of choice. But God does not give us the privilege of determining a different outcome of what the choice will entail for us . Consequences are bound to the choice.
That brings us back to the Book of Genesis 4:7, where it says, “If you do what is right, you will be accepted, but if you don’t, sin crouches at the door and desires to have you.”
When I look at the sacredness of marriage, any change from the biblical point of view is a departure from the biblical mandate. But at the same time, the Bible commands us to love even those we disagree with. Our responsibility as a church is to never to hate individuals. Our privilege is to love. Only God can change the heart of a person and He is the ultimate judge. Let us be light, salt and learn to love one another and let God be the judge. We can make errors and He does not.
Larry Who 