Category Archives: Spirituality

February 4, 2009 · 9:27 am

Swimming Upstream: “The Question: How?” “The Answer: Men.”

“Would you pray for my husband? He doesn’t like coming to church with me.”

In my twenty-three years of being a Christian, I’ve heard the above statement made by wives (or girlfriends) hundreds of times. Why? Most men don’t like going to churches. They find it boring.

In fact, a recent study revealed that only one in three men attend church on any given Sunday in our nation. And of those men that do attend, a majority do so only to placate a wife or family.

Pretty sad, right?

Actually, not really.

What?

I believe the Lord has called Christian men to leave the traditional church system and start something new. Home churches. Churches in businesses. Churches in Starbucks. Churches outside the four walls of the traditional church. Churches where men can be apostolic pioneers rather than gelded pew sitters.

And what most critics have labeled as apathy by men is not really true at all. But instead, it is a divine dissatisfaction sowed into the hearts of men by the Holy Spirit.

This dissatisfaction will be used by the Lord to bring about reformation in just a matter of years, rather than over a long period of decades and decades.

So, Lord, bring forth dissatisfied men who are hungry for You and Your kingdom. Amen.
Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s a little of this and a little of that, all written to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian jouneys.

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February 3, 2009 · 2:55 pm

The Writing of “New Wind Blowing” (Part 1)

new-wind

I was not seeking it, did not ask for it, and when I received the revelation for New Wind Blowing, I tried to pray it onto someone else. Someone like Billy Graham or Franklin Graham or Rick Warren. A person who had the ears of millions of people rather than an unknown sixty year-old guy like me.

It all began with me having a hair cut in a barber shop just down the street from work. Now to be honest, when it came to barbers, I was not picky. Most winked at my bald pate and asked, “How do you want it cut?”

I usually smiled back at them. “A number two will do,” I’d say. They’d set their trimmers for a quarter inch; and buzz, buzz, I was done and out of there.

So, when I entered the barber shop the first time, there were three barbers working on customers. The first available one was a mid-thirties woman named Belinda. We chatted a little and she told me that she was Vietnamese. I gave no thought to her cultural background as being important to me one way or another. It was a barber shop conversation, just two ships passing each other in the night. But over the next six months – as my hair was being cut – she told me her story.

When Belinda was ten years old, South Vietnam was falling apart. The Americans had left. The Communists were taking over the government. Her dad decided that Belinda, her younger brother and the mother would take a boat to a safer country, Malaysia. At the last second, there was not enough room for all three of them. So, only Belinda and her brother left Vietnam.

boatpeople-3

Somehow, the boat arrived in Malaysia. There, little Belinda learned that being ashore was not the safest place for a little girl. She had to fight off robbers and rapists, all the while watching over her little brother. They survived by hiding in the jungle forests.

Then, after a few months, the two came to America. But even this had its dark side for her with the problems she suffered in a foster family.

A few years later, Belinda and her brother were reunited with her mother when she arrived in America. Her father was forced to stay in Vietnam.

No matter how hard I tried after hearing her story, I could not get it out of my mind. I could not pray it away. It gripped my heart to think that a little girl had suffered so much. It seemed so unfair.

Out of my struggles, I wrote this article on May 2, 2008.

(Continued in Part 2)

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February 2, 2009 · 10:42 am

Swimming Upstream: “Leftover Rebellion from the 1960’s”

And it’s one, two, three, what are we fighting for
Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, next stop is Viet Nam
And it’s five, six, seven, open up the pearly gates
Ain’t no time to wonder why, whoopee we’re all gonna die. (“Feeling Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag” by Country Joe and the Fish)

For me, the 1960’s began with me attending high school in a small Illinois farming community. Sports. Girls. Studying. Cars. Just a normal kid in a small high school of two hundred students.

My parents were like most other parents in our small community, in that they were politically conservative, family oriented and loved America. Like most children, my parents’ values helped to shape my own.

Then, I went off to the University of Illinois. 30,000 students. No parents. Not many rules. Politically-stimulating environment. Free thinking. And I changed. I became a disenchanted liberal who not only hated the Vietnam War, but I also believed that America was no longer a good nation. And I had no problem with lambasting America’s leaders for not doing what I thought was correct.

The years passed and I met Jesus in 1985.

Now, the outward appearance for most of our youthful rebellion generally disappears when we start paying taxes and having children of our own. This was especially true for me.

But the Lord does not look at our outward appearances, He looks at our hearts and its motives. And one afternoon in 1995, He showed me my heart and said, “Because of your 1960’s rebellious attitudes, you do not like America. Because of this, you never prophesy good things for America, only bad. You need to repent and change.”

How fast can a person change? I wept. I prayed for forgiveness. I did what I could do to change my mindset as quickly as possible. And the Lord helped me by walking me through a fourteen year wilderness. A wilderness that is just now ending.

Here’s some free advice: if you have any rebellion in your heart against any type of authority, cry out to the Lord for deliverance. This rebellion is bound to cause you problems in the future; and these problems will stop you from getting prayers answered.

Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s a little of this and a little of that, all written to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian jouneys.

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February 1, 2009 · 7:43 am

It Pays the Same

Bob Jones once said, “If you are in the will of God, it pays the same whether you are raising the dead or taking a nap.”

If you think it over, the statement is a comforting one. And a true one.

Swmming Upstream: “Selling Your Prophetic Words”

After a long period of fervent prayer, the small assembly of believers sat quietly in their chairs, expecting to hear an answer from heaven concerning their problem.

A young man stood up. “Yesterday, I was driving my car when I had this impression about our problem…” He proceeded to tell his story and sat down.

A older man stood up. “My experience completely disagrees with his story. Yesterday morning, Gabriel, the angel, woke me up while I was in bed and took me up to heaven where I talked with Jesus about our problem. He told me…” He told his story and sat down.

Without being at the meeting and without knowing the problem, most of us would tend to think that the older man’s story had the most validity and that the younger man had the least. Why? He had the best sales pitch, the most dramatic delivery and the younger man had nothing but a prophetic impression.

But yet, scripture does not tell us to be impressed with sales pitches or dramatic deliveries. Instead, we believers are called to judge prophetic words through spiritual discernment and scriptural knowledge.

This probably sounds trivial, but it is not. In the days ahead we are going to be deluged with prophecies and spiritual experiences. And we believers need to be prepared ahead of time by praying for greater spiritual discernment for ourselves and others, and spending more time studying our Bibles.

If we are not prepared, we could end up in a swamp of misery.

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January 28, 2009 · 8:24 am

Swimming Upstream: “New Musical Sounds from Heaven”

iPods. MP3 players. The world loves music and so does heaven.

In fact, every new move of God has had new songs from heaven, accompanying the move. The songs have helped fuel the fires of revival and reformation for their generations. Looking back, some of the songs may seem tame to us today, but in their day, the music touched hearts and changed people’s lives.

Martin Luther himself wrote 37 hymns, including the classic, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, which became the Battle Hymn of the Reformation.

In the Great Awakening, John Wesley’s brother, Charles, wrote over 6,000 hymns. One hundred and fifty of which are still in Methodist Hymn Books. His best known works include, Christ the Lord Is Risen Today, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and Jesus, Lover of My Soul.

A blind song writer, Fanny Crosby, wrote over 8,000 hymns. Many of these were sung by Ira Sankey at a D. L. Moody evangelistic crusade during the late 1800’s, when millions gave their lives to Christ.

Then, the Pentecostals erupted on the scene with the Azusa Street Revival in 1906. Unlike the calmer Protestant churches, the Pentecostals enjoyed uptempo music with lots of clapping and open praising of the Lord during a song. There’s Power In the Blood still gets a old-time Pentecostal out of the pew and clapping his hands and moving his feet.

The Latter Rain Movement. The Charismatic Revival. The Vineyard Movement. The Spiritual Warfare Movement. The Word of Faith Movement. All of these moves of God have had their own unique music.

Now, heaven is poised once again to bring forth a new musical sound. But this time, the music will not end up inside churches with people sitting in pews. This time the music will be like a musical John the Baptist out in the streets, calling people to repentance and making ready a people prepared for the Lord. And like popular music, this music will have a hook which will catch the attention of saints and sinners alike. People who have only heard the music once will find themselves humming and singing the tunes over and over again.

The music will arrive in same fashion as did the Liverpool sound of the Beatles in the 1960’s – all of a sudden. And when the music arrives, all of the other music genres will be pushed aside for the new sounds from heaven.

…You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. (Psalm 32:7)

Just a Christian And That’s Enough

I receive comments and emails from people who are determined to label me with an adjective in front of the word Christian, dropping me into one camp or another. So, this little post should answer everyone’s questions about my spiritual DNA.

Though I walk in the gifts, I am not a Pentecostal or Charismatic Christian.

Though I have a revelation of faith, I am not a Word of Faith Christian.

Though I believe in John 3:16 and salvation, I am not an Evangelical Christian.

Though I walk in prophecy, I am not a Prophetic Movement Christian.

Though I believe in home churches, I am not a Home Church Christian.

I am a Christian. Period.

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January 26, 2009 · 9:27 am

Swimming Upstream: “God Doesn’t Do That Anymore.”

“Will God show up at this service?” I whispered to my girlfriend, sitting next to me on the hard wooden pew. Somehow, she had convinced me that I should go with her to church before taking in a movie.

She turned to me and rolled her eyes. “God doesn’t do that anymore,” she whispered. Then, she turned toward the front as the organ began playing an opening hymn.

This experience happened forty years ago during my senior year at college. The young woman has long since moved on with her life, but her words still linger in my ears.

At the time, I was a proud, mouthy agnostic. And she was a church goer who practiced her faith to the best of her knowledge. Water baptism. First Communion. Confirmation. Church attendance. And so on and so on.

Sadly, I’ve heard hundreds of so-called Bible believing Christians uttering the exact same words over the years since my salvation in 1985. But of course, we Christians add a different twist in that we believe God could do it if He wanted to, but we believe that He doesn’t want to. Thus, “God doesn’t do that anymore.”

So, will God make the sun stand still in the sky just because a man asked Him to do it? “God doesn’t do that anymore.” (Joshua 10)

Will God raise a dead man that has been in the tomb for four days? “God doesn’t do that anymore.” (John 11)

Do signs, such as casting out demons, speaking in tongues and healing the sick, still follow those who believe in Jesus? “God doesn’t do that anymore.” Mark 16)

Will God kill believers who disobey Him? “God doesn’t do that anymore.” (Acts 5)

Is it possible that our generation is the one that Jesus was referring to in Luke 18:8 when He said:

…Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?

If we are, in fact, that generation, we are in for some bad times!

Is God Judging America’s Newspapers?

From 1950 to 2000, advertising revenue for America’s newspapers had a consistent growth pattern year after year. Then something happened, which changed the whole economic model for newspapers. What was it?

Was it the growth of the internet? Yes, in small part; but this excuse becomes lame when you consider that newspapers could have reaped financial profits by jumping on the internet bandwagon early on. What stopped them from doing so?

Was it the souring of the economy? Yes, in small part; but hey, it was the newspapers who told us day after day after day the economy was bad. Don’t they believe their own words? Why didn’t they make cut-backs?

If it wasn the internet or the economy which has sealed the doom of the newspaper industry, especially the LA Times, Chicago Tribune and the New York Times, then what was it?

The election of George W. Bush as president of the United States. This man was the most lied about, most lambasted and most hated president by the newspaper industry – as a whole – in the history of the United States. The ink on each paper dripped with venom, nothing was too outrageous to print about Bush.

And at the same time, President Bush was the most vocal Christian proponent in the history of the White House. A man whose faith was always apparent for all to see.

So, is God judging America’s newspapers? Of course, He is. He’s a Father who loves His son, George, and knows how to avenge the wrongs done to this man.

Saying, “Do not touch My annointed ones…” (Psalm 105:15)

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. (Romans 12:19)

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January 23, 2009 · 8:13 am

Swimming Upstream

The applause was coming from the garden of the Hyde Park mansion. An internationally acclaimed pianist had just finished a Mozart etude for a charity event of a women’s guild. The women, dripping in diamonds and wearing Yves Saint Laurent dresses, stood up to acknowledge the maestro’s performance.

As the clapping died down, one lady in the front row said, “I would just do anything to play the piano like that.”

The pianist turned toward her and eyed her up and down. “No, you wouldn’t,” he said in a stern rebuke.

The audience gasped. The woman was known for her kindness and generosity to many causes. All felt her shame as her face reddened and eyes watered. Trying to regain some modicum of dignity, she defiantly mouthed toward the pianist, “Yes, I would.”

The man stood up with his eyes glaring. “No, you wouldn’t,” he repeated in an even sterner voice. “Because if you really meant what you said, you would have been willing to give up your youth, your teenage years and eight hours a day – everyday – of your life practicing the piano. There is a price to pay to sit on this bench. I paid it. And you didn’t.”

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men…(2 Corinthians 5:10-11)

When the Lord touches our little pile of works with His torch, and the flames reveal what sort they are – whether gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw – maybe we will feel like this lady. Red cheeks. Wet eyes. Wishing that we had paid the price.

Hopefully, this will not be so because it will be too late to do anything about it then.

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