Category Archives: Kingdom of God

A Updated Rerun Series

Prophetic marriages can really be something, right?

After being divorced in early 1992, I received a prophetic word later in the same year:

“The Lord will place the woman you are to marry in front of you. So don’t go looking for her.”

At the time, I thought, what a silly prophetic word. I can’t afford to pay attention. So how can I possibly  support a wife?

Fast-forward ahead two years to a home church meeting where I prayed for a lady named *Virginia. And Virginia was standing in front  of me when I prayed for her.  Soon, we began dating each other.

But this was 1994, and I was going through the worst financial and spiritual warfare struggles of my life. I was barely able to hold my head above water, and Virginia had her own bag of issues. So, our relationship was on-again and off-again during the months that followed.

Then, in early 1995, while driving my truck home from Virginia’s place,  I was talking to the Lord about my dating situation. “Lord, You need to get us married. What’s Your problem?”

All of a sudden, the truck cab filled up with laughter. It was as if  Jesus and His angels were laughing. The laughter was so loud and contagious that I joined in, tears ran down my face. I slowed the truck down so I would not end up in a ditch because of my laughing convulsions.

Hmm, I thought at the time. Is the Lord laughing because He knows something that I don’t know or is He just happy for me?

I chose to ignore the former and opted for the latter.

Next, the Lord spoke to my heart in July, 1995. “You will get married on an anniversary.”

And guess what? A  Christian neighbor came over to my apartment later on  the same day. He was excited. “I saw an anniversary card at the drug store and felt the word anniversary was important to you,” he said.

Unbelievable confirmation, right?

Now, at the time, I was confidant that I would marry Virginia because of the 1992 prophecy. There were no doubts in my mind. We just needed a few miracles from God to make it happen.

But then, nothing happened for months and months. Virginia and I discontinued dating because of our issues. But even in the midst of all of this discouragement, I felt that I needed to just hold onto the prophetic words and something good would eventually happen. Faith moves mountains!

But then God pulled a switcheroo on me. A big, big switcheroo!

(Continued in Part 2.)

*Virginia is a fictitious name for the woman.

An Updated Rerun Series

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

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

D. Waiting And Waiting And Waiting.

But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31)

If any American region knows about waiting, it should be us Southern Californians, all 24,000,000 of us. We wait on expressways. We wait in banks. Grocery stores. Libraries. Post offices. Walmarts. LAX. Disneyland. We wait everywhere. It’s a fact of life. Period.

But is this the type of waiting referred to in Isaiah 40:31?

The Hebrew word qavah, which is translated into the English word wait in Isaiah 40:31, means more than just hanging out and passing time while doing nothing. It’s number one interpretative definition actually conveys the thought of “to twist or to bind like a rope.”

Now, consider that rope making has been around for thousands of years. Natural fibers, such as jute, sissal or common vines, are woven into strands which are then woven into ropes, usually three-stranded ones .

Hold the picture of a woven rope in your mind for a moment or two, okay?

The second interpretative definition for the Hebrew word qavah implies “to be strong, robust” as in the notion of tying fast with a rope. And even the third interpretive definition imparts the idea of “enduring, waiting for or expecting with strength.”

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait for You. (Psalm 25:21)

Wait for the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land… (Psalm 37:34)

Scripturally, waiting on the Lord does not imply that a believer sits around, doing nothing, and still hopes that his personal prophetic words will come to pass in his life. It won’t happen!

Waiting on the Lord means winding and weaving yourself around the true vine – Jesus – so that like a rope, you will be strengthened and renewed to receive the promises offered by your prophetic words.

If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. (John 15:7)

(This concludes this series.)

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

Even as an agnostic, I knew two scriptures and one unusual story. John 3:16 – from my Bible school days. John 11: 35 – from playing Trivial Pursuit. And the unusual story – from listening to a stereo record album.

You see, in my college days, I enjoyed folk music and one of my favorite groups was Peter, Paul and Mary.  A song that I really liked by the trio was Jesus Met the Woman at the Well. I listened to it over and over again.

Then as a new Christian, I discovered that Peter, Paul and Mary’s song was actually taken from the Bible. And it is this story which was the second early act that Jesus performed, that sent shock-waves through the men-only leadership system of the Temple.

And Jacob’s well was there. So Jesus, being wearied from His journey, was sitting thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (John 4: 6-7)

Jesus did the unspeakable: He spoke to a woman in public.

Yes, the woman was a Samaritan and, most of the time, Jews avoided Samaritans. The reasons the Jews did this was because they despised the mixed Gentile ancestral heritage of the Samaritans and their style of worship.

But being a Samaritan was not the number one issue in this instance.  It was because the person was a woman.

At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or “Why do You speak with her?” (John 4: 27)

Not only did Jesus break the accepted religious protocol of His day, but He did something even more amazing than that.

The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” (John 4: 25 – 26)

Jesus tells a woman that He is Messiah, the Christ. So, when did His twelve men disciples finally discover this same truth?

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 16: 16 – 17)

Simon’s revelation happened about two years later.

Now, was this just a mere coincidence that Jesus revealed who He was first to a woman?

For I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. (John 12:49)

…Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. (John 5: 19)

Amazing, but true! It was the Father’s decision to honor a woman.

Now, why did the Father do this?

(Continued in Part 9)

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)