Category Archives: Gifts of the Spirit

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

Do you realize that on any given Sunday only one out of three Christian men attend churches? And of those men who do attend churches, most do not want to be there.

You see, by and large, most men attend traditional churches just to placate a wife or a girl friend.  (Who said women do not have strengths, huh?)

But the fact remains: most men do not like attending traditional churches. Period.

So, what are traditional churches doing to rectify this problem?

Most have followed the examples of the corporate world and taken a Madison Avenue approach to their men problems. Exhaustive surveys are conducted to understand their markets; seminars are put on to explain the survey findings; and then, marketing plans are established.

But of course, the marketing plans really just repackage everything with a more masculine look. Maybe, the music choices are manned-up a little or the worship style is remodeled to appear more male friendly or the church is redecorated or the sermons are muscled up a bit.

But all in all, nothing is really changed. It’s still the same old, same old!

But what if…

I contend that the Lord has called most Christian men to leave the traditional church system and pioneer something new. A home church. A church in a business. A church in a park. A church in Starbucks. A church outside the four walls of a traditional church, with no strings attached to traditional churches, except for loving the brethren. A church where men can be apostolic trail blazers and not gelded pew sitters.

I further contend that the Lord has allowed the feminization of the Church to take place over the last thirty or forty years because the pendulum had swung too far toward the male side of the church. And when this happened, the females were ignored, especially the women with callings on their lives.

If my contentions are accurate, what should women do?

(Continued in Part 5)

An Updated Rerun Series

Click on the following link for an earlier article: Part 1.

So what can a New Testament believer do to help bring a personal prophetic word to pass in his (or her) life?

A. Confirmation of True Prophetic Words by the Lord.

And He has confirmed His words… (Daniel 9:12)

And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. (Mark 16:20)

The Lord is not an idle babbler. His words spoken through a prophetic voice to you have a purpose behind them. So much so, that He will confirm them to you in His own perfect timing.

Biblically, there are four possible time periods in which the Lord will confirm every true  prophetic word:

(1). The personal prophecy could confirm what you have already known and heard via the Holy Spirit through an earlier dream, vision, another prophetic word, prophetic impression or by hearing the voice of the Lord for yourself.

Except that the Holy spirit solemnly testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions await me. (Acts 20:23)

(2)  The personal prophecy may be confirmed to you at the moment it is spoken to you. Maybe, you’d say, “My spirit really witnesses with this prophecy.”

They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

(3)  The personal prophecy may be confirmed to you after it is spoken to you. It could be days, months or years later.

Jesus prophesied to Peter: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan, has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22: 31-32)

(4)  The personal prophecy could be confirmed to you after your death.

All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. (Hebrews 11:13)

At some point, you can be assured that the Lord will confirm His true prophetic words spoken to you via prophetic voices.

(Continued in Part 3.)

Click on following links for earlier articles: Part 1 and Part 2.

Sometimes, I focus so much on where I’m heading that I overlook the importance of the present. This happened in the comment section of Part 2.

Grace, of Serious Whimsey, commented:

…But I wonder if, rather than the Lord pushing it into the Honda, the enemy was allowed to do it, via the opening through your flawed reasoning/attitude?

Sadly, I penned one of my quickie, soft-shoe, glib replies and headed on down the road, not looking back. For this, I’m sorry, because Grace’s comment was a valid point of discussion.

Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, “Go number Israel and Judah.” (2 Samuel 24:1)

Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel. (1 Chronicles 21:1)

The above two scriptures are the opening verses by two different authors giving their accounts of David’s sin of taking a census of Israel. Both accounts agree with each other, almost verbatim, but their opening verses reveal two different viewpoints.

The 2 Samuel 24 version shows the Lord and His anger stirring up David to sin, and 1 Chronicles 21 states that it was Satan who was the inciter.  How can both be correct?

Graham Cooke, states in the book, Permission Granted:

God allows in His wisdom what He could easily prevent by His power.

Like most of us, King David had sin issues; and also like us, most of David’s issues were covered by the grace of God so that He dealt with David’s problems with the king alone on a God to person basis.

But God also had a plan for Israel and He wanted to make some adjustments in the nation. So, God allowed one of David’s sins to come into full bloom.

Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, so a curse without cause does not alight. (Proverbs 26:2)

David had sin; and the curse from the sin allowed Satan to attack Israel. So, was it God or Satan who incited David to sin?

It really depends on where in the process you are viewing the answer. Sadly, I have a habit of jumping to the ultimate conclusion where believers are bought with a price, which means God owns us and He causes all things to work for good in us.

But, by doing this, I skip over some important steps of biblical logic.

So in Part 2, soon after my truck accident, I should have mentioned that I sought the Lord on whether or not I had sin. He then showed me my improper thinking on the weakness of women which I described this way in Part 2:

Now, as I contemplated the accident and how it happened, this thought kept coming into my mind:  The Lord pushed the rear-end of my truck into the Honda Pilot.

Why would He do that? To reveal my judgmental, hypocritical heart and wrong thinking to myself.

Now, the Holy Spirit speaks to me and you in ways that we each understand, but this does not mean that others will have the same understanding.

You see, I understood what the Holy Spirit meant by showing me the Lord pushed the rear-end of my truck into the Honda Pilot. But I skipped too many steps in explaining it for all to understand in a like manner.

So, was Grace correct with her comments? Yes, of course she was.

My error was skipping over that particular step and then jumping to my ultimate conclusion. Hopefully, I will do better in the future.

(Continued in Part 4)

Click on following link for earlier article: Part 1.

A True Story

“Great,” I mumbled to myself when I saw the address for my next pizza delivery. It was just down the street and in a golf course community.

Usually, a short run like this meant a big tip for only about ten minutes work. Easy pickings!

As I drove my truck on the delivery, the radio was tuned to a classical music station which allowed my mind to wander here and there. Finally, my thoughts centered on my friend, Claire, and a recent crisis she and her family had endured.

It seems that Claire’s car was broken into and her purse was stolen. And like most women, her purse contained money, cards, ID’s and all the things everyone needs to live in our modern world.

She mentioned all of this on Facebook and from her comments I could tell just how devastated she was by the incident.

So, as I turned into the golf course community, I thought:

“Well, you know Claire is a woman and all. And women are much more emotional than us men, what with their hormonal system and mothering instincts. You know, women are just created weaker than us men. Now if this would have happened to Tony, her husband, then…”

CRUNCH!

I sideswiped an almost new Honda Pilot SUV which was parked in front of the house, next to the address of my pizza delivery. I could not believe it!

As soon as I pulled over to the curb, I jumped out and surveyed the damages. My Tundra pickup had some minor scratches on its rear, passenger-side wheel well. But the Honda, now that was a different story! Its front bumper and fender had been ripped open by my truck. Yipes!

I delivered the pizza and then went to the Honda owners’ house. I knocked on the door. No one home. I left a note on the Honda’s window and on their door. Then, I returned to work.

But I was so emotionally worked up, frazzled,  frizzled and shaken by my accident that I took the rest of the night off.

Now, as I contemplated the accident and how it happened, this thought kept coming into my mind:  The Lord pushed the rear-end of my truck into the Honda Pilot.

Why would He do that? To reveal my judgmental, hypocritical heart and wrong thinking to myself.

You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered. (1 Peter 3: 7)

Eventually, the Holy Spirit showed me that the weakness assigned to women in the above verse refers only to a physical and a muscular weakness. It in no way refers to a spiritual weakness or any other weaknesses on the part of a woman as compared to a man.

Why is this so important?

(Continued in Part 3)

An Updated Rerun Series

“Larry, you told me the Lord was going to give me my own business,” she said, her eyes locking on mine. “So, where is it?”

This is the situation we prophetic voices hate, as in absolutely, positively hate.

On the one hand, we need to boldly speak by faith what we feel is a prophetic word to a person. But then, on the other hand, we have to recognize we can make mistakes.

“Well,” I replied, “what do you think? Was my prophetic word about the Lord giving you a business a true word or not?”

Her eyes blinked. “At the time, I really believed it was from the Lord,” she said. “But now, after all this time, I’m not so sure.”

“Okay, what have you done to bring this particular prophetic word to pass in your life?” I asked.

She sighed. “Well, I’ve been waiting on the Lord, you know, just waiting on Him.” Her eyes narrowed a bit, daring me to say something.

In my twenty-plus years of speaking prophetic words to people about their callings or their ministries or their businesses or prospective marriages or having babies or whatever, I have heard this answer countless numbers of times. In fact, I’ve heard it so much that I have to quell a scream from spewing out of my mouth whenever I hear it uttered.

What most Christians think waiting on the Lord means, compared to what Scripture actually reveals it to be, is about like the difference between night and day. Or in the case of New Testament prophetic words, it’s the difference between having a prophetic word come to pass or one that fails.

A young Roberts Liardon said, “I knew that I was called to preach so I went out to meet my calling.”

Liardon’s words may sound brash to many of us believers, but they are scriptural.

So what can a New Testament believer do to help bring a personal prophetic word to pass in his (or her) life?

(Continued in Part 2.)

Click on following links for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 and Part 7.

What would the Apostle Paul say about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

As a five year old child, I had my eyes on a silver-plated toy gun in a local store.  I really wanted it.

When I showed it to Mom and Dad, they shook their heads. “Son, it costs a dollar and that’s just too expensive for us,” they told me.

But I really, really wanted it. So much so, that I stole a dollar from Dad’s wallet while he was readying himself for our weekly Saturday evening journey to town. I hid the dollar in my undershorts.

After eating with my family at a restaurant, I excused myself and headed to the local store. There I purchased the silver-plated toy gun.

Now as thieves go, I was not a clever one because I took my purchase directly to my parents and showed it to them. I thought that they’d be happy for me. But of course, they were not!

“Where’d you get the dollar?” asked Dad. His eyes searching my face for telltale signs.

“From you,” I said. Then I explained how I stole it out of his wallet.

Dad marched me over to the store. There I confessed to the store owner about my theft and I returned the silver-plated toy gun, thus receiving the dollar back. Dad scooped up his money and put it back into his wallet.

Dad never spanked me or yelled at me, but even today, it’s hard for me to write this story. I loved Dad and never ever wanted to cause him pain, but this incident had to be tough on him, knowing his son was a thief.

Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. (Acts 20: 26-27)

Paul was a father to the churches in Asia. But like my dad, he was not a modern-day, wishy-washy, anything-goes type of father. He believed his flocks needed to hear the truth whether it enhanced his popularity or not. After all, he was a responsible father who loved his children.

So, what do I think Paul would say (if he could) about the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?

“America, you ought to have listened to the Spirit of God after the 911 attack or after Hurricane Katrina or after Haiti, but you did not. You continued on the same course, and now, the BP oil spill has caused you more economic damage and loss. How much more must you suffer before you return to Me with a whole heart?”

The apostles are coming! Are you ready for them?

(This series will be resumed in the future.)

Click on following links for: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6.

“Been there! Done that! Bought the tee-shirt!” should be the slogan printed on shirts worn by apostles.

Why?

Because the phrase aptly describes the apostles’ journeys into their callings and throughout the length of their callings.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. (2 Corinthians 1: 3-4)

As a young Christian, I remember another believer saying to me in a hushed, reverent whisper, “You know, Cathy is called to be an apostle.”

How awesome? I thought at the time.

And I was absolutely flabbergasted at how glamorous the word apostle sounded to my ears. It seemed to be the height of the  Christian pyramid. The top hierarchal rung. The creme de la creme of callings.

Of course, I was naive and had no understanding of callings at all, and especially that of an apostle. But since then, I’ve studied and learned a few things.

You see, the apostle is specifically prepared and trained ahead of time by the Lord to help the Body of Christ journey through upcoming treacherous, tough times.

How does the Lord prepare His servants – the apostles?

If your guess is that the training is carried out in nicely lit, air-conditioned rooms while sitting comfortably on soft cushions and listening to qualified lecturers at an ivy-towered university which overlooks a quaint village, then I have bad news for you. You’re wrong!

For each apprentice apostle candidate, the Lord simulates the treacherous, tough times which awaits the Body sometime in the future; and then drops the candidates into the simulated circumstances.

And the apostle candidates are like dirty clothes shoved into an automatic washer, going through one desperate, ruinous cycle after another. The candidates’ heads are held under the water most of the time, with a few short breathing breaks in between dunks.

All of this continues until they are finally rinsed and brought out to dry. And this may take years!

Now, while this divinely orchestrated training is happening, the rest of the Body of Christ looks on and scratches their heads. “What’s wrong with those losers? Why don’t they get with the program? They haven’t got a clue!” they murmur to each other.

But when the treacherous, tough times hit a nation, it will be these losers – the apprentice candidates – who will step forth as apostles and confidently proclaim, “I know that our God will bring us through these bad times. Just follow me because I have discovered the correct path to walk on.”

(Continued in Part 8)