Tag Archives: Christianity

The intimacy with God message first began in the late 1970’s with John Wimber’s teachings and the introduction of a new music genre.

Wimber’s teachings about how God desired times alone with us believers, not because we earned them, but because He genuinely loved us, were needed messages for us believers who had been chained to works based mentalities. The accompanying music, now called contemporary worship music, helped us express our intimate love to the Father.

But as with most revelations from heaven, this important love message has been polluted over the years. So that today, many Christians believe that because God loves us and desires to spend time with us, He will then overlook our iniquities.

[Love] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6)

How could we end up straying so far away from the truth?

Seldom does error blow into the Church like a hurricane, uprooting all truth standing in its way. But instead,  deceitful winds of doctrine erode the biblical foundations, a few grains of truth at a time. Then, after a period of time, the foundations of the Church no longer sit on a solid rock of revelation from God, but on the shifting sands of men’s thinking.

And this is exactly what has happened to the American Church.

At approximately the same time Wimber founded his Anaheim Vineyard Church in the late 1970’s, the American Church opened its eyes and realized our nation was heading down the wrong path. Legalized abortions slaughtered babies at the rate of 1.5 million per year. What to do?

Rather than looking at its own bloody hands first and then repenting, the Church pointed its fingers at politicians. They were the evil culprits. Thus, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority was birthed in 1979 with a noble agenda to overturn abortion and other issues by mobilizing Christians to elect moral politicians. On the surface, it seemed like a good idea, but was it?

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death. (Proverbs 14:12)

At times, God has anointed men and the Church to take on political systems to change a nation’s directions. William Wilberforce with the abolition of slavery in England (1807) and Martin Luther King with the civil rights movement are two such examples. Yet these are the exceptions, not the norms.

The Church’s Great Commission is to disciple, baptize, teach, and preach the gospel, changing nations one person at a time. The Church is the bride of Christ, whose head is the Lord, and we are called to be a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that we may proclaim the praises of Him who called us out of darkiness into His marvelous light.

When the Church lowered itself from its lofty calling and tossed away its holy mantle for prayer and fasting, and then clothed itself with earthly rags, placing its hope in political candidates, the Church stepped onto a slippery slope, greased with compromises. No longer were we friends of God, but instead, we became friends of the world.

So, here we are again, just months away from the 2012 elections. Will we the Church continue on our errant ways, hoping for change to come in our nation through our political system? Or will we repent? And then once again, pick up our mantles for fasting and prayer before the Most High God, the One who holds the destiny for our nation in His hands.

There are many of us believers who look at the Old Testament and wrinkle our noses. We somehow feel we should just study and follow Jesus’ red letter words in the four Gospels, but the Apostle Paul did not agree with that thinking.

Now these things happened as examples for us… (1 Corinthians 10:6)

With Paul’s admonition in mind, let’s look at an Old Testament example to learn more about San Francisco’s plight.

Most of us know the story of Jonah and how the rebellious prophet decided to take a hike to Spain rather than obey the Lord. His sea trip was then cut short by a storm and eventually Jonah was dumped overboard by the sailors into the raging Mediterranean Sea. There a great fish swallowed him.

Okay, what was it like inside the great fish’s stomach?

The protein-digesting enzymes, the strong hydrochloric acids, the constant muscular contortions causing the stomach to churn digested food and Jonah toward a sphincter muscle which opened into the small intestine. The smell. The insufficient oxygen. His whole body constantly being burned by acids. The never-ending churning. It had to feel like a living Hell without end for him.

In fact, Jesus Himself later compared Jonah’s seventy-two hours in the great fish’s stomach to His time in the heart of the earth or Hell.

What did Jonah probably look like when he walked through Nineveh preaching his message?

I assume Jonah obeyed the Lord and went directly to Nineveh from the Mediterranean shore. It was a five hundred mile trek through rough country and across the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

Thus, his skin, hair, and beard most likely still had yellow acid burns coloring them. And his clothing must have been tattered, stained, bleached, filled with acid holes, and smelly. He had to look and reek like Hell.

Jonah’s message, “Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed,” would have gathered him a crowd in the Assyrian capital city, but even the heathen had babbling prophets in those days. So, why did the people listen and believe his prophetic words?

Jonah’s appearance and testimony about his three days and nights in the great fish had to be a powerful sign to the people of Nineveh of God’s mercy. Who could argue with him? The people quickly believed Jonah and his prophetic words, and then repented.

Jesus also referenced Jonah’s three days and nights inside the great fish as a sign to evil and adulterous generations. The message was loud and clear for all: “Repent at hearing the words of the Lord concerning judgments for sin or be destroyed.”

On April 18, 1906, at 5:12 AM,  a major earthquake struck San Francisco. A policeman who happened to be on duty said he heard a deep rumbling and looked up a hill. “The whole street was undulating. It was as if the waves of the ocean were coming toward me, and billowing as they came.” The earthquake lasted 65 t0 75 seconds.

Within seventeen minutes, fifty fires were reported in downtown San Francisco. Fire engines rushed to answer the calls, but the water mains were broken. The fires burned out of control.

Out of San Francisco’s population of 410,000, up to 75% were left homeless. Over 3,000 people died. 80% of the city was reduced to rubble by the earthquakes and fire.

At the time, San Francisco was the ninth largest city in America, and the largest city west of the Mississippi River. It’s port made it a banking, trading, and cultural center which gave it the title, “Gateway to the Pacific.”

The earthquake’s damage ended up diverting trade and population to Los Angeles which soon surpassed San Francisco as the most important and largest urban area on the West Coast.

Were there any prophetic warnings given ahead of time to San Francisco?

A woman named Ellen White may have had a vision ahead of time, but she did not publish or announce her vision until after the earthquake struck the city.

Frank Bartleman, an author and evangelist, was involved with the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles at the time the earthquake struck San Francisco. Soon after, he noticed how most preachers announced that God had nothing to do with the earthquake. Even school teachers taught their students that God was not involved in the San Francisco Earthquake.

Barthleman sought the Lord in prayer and ended up writing an Earthquake tract. In it, he explained how God was grieved with the wickedness of San Francisco and that the earthquake was a judgment for the city’s sins. The tract specifically answered the question, “Did God do that?”

Thousands of tracts were distributed to Los Angles and San Francisco. Many people repented and others were upset by them.

So, how does this all play out for today’s San Francisco?

(Continued in Part 6) 

Do you think there were any babies and young children in Sodom and Gomorrah when God rained brimstone and fire on the cities?

Yikes! This is the type of question that skeptics ask us Christians which causes us to stutter and stammer. We may even end up second-guessing God and His motives. After all, did God’s anger push Him over the edge so that He became a baby murderer?

Okay, take a deep breath and let’s study sin.

“Sin is sin,” proclaim many people who think all types of sin are equal in God’s eyes, but is that really true?

Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation. (Exodus 34:7)

The Bible separates sin into three specific types: sin, transgression, and iniquity.

Although the word sin can be used as a generic catchall word for all three types, its biblical definition really means “missing the mark,” as an archer’s arrow misses its target.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

Basic sin is disobedience to God’s commands and His word, but without willful intent. Examples of sin: losing your temper with your spouse; getting caught up in gossip with your neighbor; exaggerating your importance at work to a new employee; and so forth.

All basic sins can easily be taken care of by asking forgiveness of the Lord and the person involved.

The word transgression means revolt or rebellion and is willful disobedience of God’s commands.

And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14)

Eve knew that God had commanded them not to eat the fruit of the tree of good and evil, but she rebelled and did it anyway. As with all acts of rebellion, Eve suffered consequences for her transgression.

Truthfully, we all have transgressed at different times in our Christian journeys and can probably give interesting testimonies about the consequences we suffered. But as with sin, transgression simply requires us to ask forgiveness of the Lord and anybody involved. Then, we need to change our ways and not continue in the same transgression.

Yet, continuing in a transgression without repentance eventually leads to iniquity. The word iniquity means depravity (evil perverseness or moral corruption) and always carries within it the hatred of God and His ways.

Iniquity is not a voluntary or involuntary disobedience to the commands of God, like sin and transgression are, but instead, it is a second nature sin. It is a demonic stronghold within the individual which may have been passed on through one’s ancestors or the result of continued willful transgressions or the surrender of oneself to an evil principality over a region.

The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. (Proverbs 5:22 ESV)

Ridding oneself of iniquity is not as easy as it is for sins or transgressions. Because it is intertwined with the individual’s personality and attitudes, it requires acceptance of truth, God’s mercy, and the fear of the Lord to set an individual free. This totally depends on a deliverance move by the Spirit of God upon the people.

…For I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting [punishing] the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me (Deuteronomy 5:9)

Iniquities are not committed in spiritual vacuums. They are committed before the throne of God and cry out to the Judge to be avenged.

So, when God acted against Sodom and Gomorrah, the people’s iniquity had reached completion. In fact, there were not ten people in the cities who were not filled with this horrible sin. This included young children which the parents had defiled by passing iniquity on to them through the bloodlines. It was then a part of the young children’s second nature and attitudes.

Now, I believe the Father foresaw the iniquity that would be committed by the babies and the young children. And because of His love, He removed the young people of Sodom and Gomorrah before they were accountable for their iniquities. By doing this, the children died in their innocence and not in full-bloomed iniquity.

Our God is a good Father who views eternity as more important for His creation than the present.

So, why San Francisco now?

(Continued in Part 5)

San Francisco is the tail that wags California and most of America.

Although only 46.9 square miles in area and 805,000 in population, San Francisco’s power rumbles throughout our nation’s political and economic corridors.

California’s three most powerful posts – governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general – are filled by politicians from the San Francisco Bay area.  Both U.S. senators for California, until recently, lived in San Francisco, and the U.S. House of Representatives Minority Leader is also from the city.

The nation’s largest appellate court,  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit,  is based in San Francisco. This court has appellate jurisdiction over nine states and two territories.

Silicon Valley, on the south edge of the San Francisco Bay area, has the highest concentration of millionaires and billionaires in America. Plus, if you add in the banks and financial institutions, San Francisco is one of the top producing cities in the world.

How did San Francisco ever achieve such a powerful status?

The Spanish first built a fort and a mission on what is now San Francisco in 1776. A nearby settlement was named Yerba Buena. The biggest problems for the new settlement was the scarcity of three necessities: water, wood, and food. These had to be carted into the settlement.

In 1821, after gaining its independence from Spain, the area came under the rule of Mexico. Twenty-six years later, Mexico then ceded the area to the United States at the end of the Mexican-American War. It was then renamed San Francisco.

At the time America took over San Francisco in 1847, it was a settlement of approximately five hundred people. Although the Bay was a strategic port and military base, the inhospitable geography and weather patterns of the area caused families to shy away from living there.

Then, in 1848, the California Gold Rush hit.

Ships from all over the world headed to San Francisco loaded with men who had gold fever. At first, San Francisco was itself a ghost town as shop owners and military personnel fled to the gold fields. But soon, new merchants set up shop and prospered in the city.

With the influx of people, the population of San Francisco jumped to 25,000 by the end of 1849.  The male-female demographics were extremely lopsided, in that there were only 300 women in the city, and of these, two hundred were prostitutes. It took many years for San Francisco to become a family oriented city.

As with most boom to bust mining towns, the social climate in the city was chaotic. Committees of Vigilance took over the city in 1851 and 1856 because of crime and government corruption. Each time, after the city was cleaned up, power was relinquished back to the people.

But one area that was not cleaned up was the Barbary Coast. This nine block area was famous for its prostitution, crime, opium dens, dance halls, and complete debauchery. Many lonely men, searching for love, ended up having bumps on their heads and their pockets picked. Or worse yet, they were shanghaied and woke up on ships heading overseas.

The Barbary Coast was almost completely destroyed in the massive 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Yet, within months, the bars were rebuilt and business continued as usual. It wasn’t until 1917, that the Barbary Coast was finally shut down.

San Francisco has always prided itself on its wild frontier spirit and ribald character, but it is these exact traits which have proved to be the city’s spiritual downfall, especially in the mid-1900’s.

(Continued in Part 3) 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Because our minds are limited by space-time continuum thinking, it’s hard to wrap our minds around the simple truth that God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit never had a beginning. They always were and always will be.

This simple truth is the foundation for all of our Christian faith and belief in God. It is one which cannot be partially accepted, but must be believed in whole, in order for us to have a vibrant faith in God. Anything less than 100% on this truth will create doubts which will limit the works of God in our lives.

Okay, assuming we all accept this simple truth,  how did God create the heavens and the earth?

Then God said, “Let there be light; and there was light.” (Genesis 1:3)

For years, I figured God spoke His words, wiggled His nose, much like Samantha on Bewitched, and then presto,  light and all the rest of creation appeared on the scene. But there are other scriptures which give us a clearer glimpse of how God created the heavens and earth.

Bless the LORD, you His angels, mighty in strength, who perform His word, obeying the voice of His word! (Psalm 103:20)

Our English word angel is translated from the Hebrew word malak which actually means messenger, representative, or deputy. Therefore  God has deputy helpers who perform His words, including the creation of our world.

The Bible gives the names for three angels: Gabriel, Michael, and Lucifer.

Gabriel (strength of God or warrior of God) is an archangel who was sent as a messenger with important messages for  humans, such as Daniel, Zacharias (John the Baptist’s father), and Mary.

Michael (who is like God) is a chief archangel, a protector of Israel, and the leader of God’s heavenly angel army.

Lucifer (light bearer or morning star) was also a chief archangel.  In Jude 9, Michael still respected Lucifer’s high level of authority, even though he had fallen and was now known as Satan.

Okay, now let’s do some digging.

For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels. (Hebrews 2:5)

For whatever reasons, God set up our present world to be in subjection to angels or under an angelic governmental system. God created this system to be obedient to His words, but obviously, angels, like humans, have a free will. The system was eventually corrupted with Adam’s fall.

Yet, God being true to His own system had the Law brought to man under the direction of angels.

Now, the idea of creating man and man’s home here on earth was always in God’s heart. It was His highest priority as He longed to share His love and fellowship with other beings. And it’s only natural to assume that His angels all knew about the importance of earth and how a being called man would eventually fit into God’s plan for His kingdom on earth.

So, who did God choose to be His chief angel over earth?

You [Satan] were in Eden, the garden of God… (Ezekiel 28:13)

You [Satan] were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. (Ezekiel 28:14)

Eden, the garden of God, and the holy mountain of God were on earth, not in heaven. Thus, it’s my belief that Lucifer (Satan) was chosen by God to be the head angel, or His chief ambassador, here on earth. Satan was actually created to be man’s helper and a minister to us humans, not our accuser and destroyer.

But because Lucifer (Satan) was proud of his authority over earth, he wanted to exalt his throne over all of all the other angels and to be like the Most High God. Then because of Satan’s iniquity, war broke out in heaven. Michael and the good angels drove Satan and his horde (a third of all the angels) out of heaven.

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:9)

Who were Satan’s angels?

Most likely, Satan’s angels were those he had authority over here on earth, his underlings. Later, Paul referred to a part of Satan’s fallen angel horde as principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Keep in mind that Satan is not a creator. He is a liar, a deceiver, and a usurper of God’s creation and His plans.

Thus, when Eve was deceived and Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, God’s authority to rule on earth passed from man to the fallen angel, Satan. He became the god of this world.

And because Satan had authority on earth and in the heavens surrounding earth, Satan’s angels replaced God’s angels in the spiritual governmental system reigning over earth. Satan’s angels were already trained to do exactly that, but instead of obeying God, these fallen angels now obeyed the father of lies,  Satan.

The bad news is that we are stuck with this corrupted angelic system until Jesus returns. But the good news is that we have a new spiritual governmental system on earth, not subjected to angels. It is the Kingdom of God.

Are you scratching your heads and wondering what this has to do with California and San Francisco?

(Continued in Part 2)

Who is really behind the same sex marriage movement in America? Politicians? Or political parties? Or media? Or Hollywood? Or special interest groups? Who?

No, none of these.

All of these lack the ingenuity required to orchestrate such a brilliant strategy at precisely this time in America’s history. Let’s check the facts, okay?

On the extreme right wing, there are some cut and paste Christians who cloak themselves with Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, and a few other similar scriptures. “Gays are an abomination before God and are all going to Hell. Therefore, same sex marriage is an abomination, too. Period!”

On the extreme left wing, there is another group of cut and paste Christians. These believers hold tightly to Matthew 7, John 13, and a few other red letter words of Jesus. “God created gays and lesbians just the way they are. So, how can their sexual inclinations be a sin? Therefore, we must love them, accept them, and affirm their choices of mates. Period!”

Much of the middle consists of Christians who realize homosexuality is a sin, but hope they will not be forced to take sides. These believers meekly toss their hats on Genesis 2 and the sanctity of marriage. “Historically, marriage has always been between a man and a woman.”

Now, Rachel Held Evans points out an often overlooked group: the 16 – 29 year olds. She states that 91% of non-believers and 80% of churchgoers in this age group describe Christians as antihomosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, and too involved in politics. “So, my question … Is a political ‘victory’ [concerning laws pertaining to marriage as being solely limited to a man and a woman] really worth losing millions more young people to cynicism regarding the Church?”

Put your thinking caps on for a moment, okay?

How could human wisdom come up with this slice and dice, same sex marital strategy which so openly divides the Body of Christ and neuters our divine power?

ANSWER: Human wisdom could never conceive it, but the accuser of our brethren, Satan, could and did do it.

We Christians need to lay our swords down and seek the Lord for spiritual discernment. Our enemies are not our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what their beliefs are on the same sex marital issues. But instead, our enemy is the god of this world – Satan- and his kingdom of darkness.

At stake are the millions of prisoners held in chains by the kingdom of darkness as pawns on America’s political chess boards: the gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, and so forth.

These prisoners deserve to hear the true gospel of the Kingdom of God so they can make their choices based on truth, rather than on partial truths and emotional gobbledygook.

“Lord we cry out to You today. We ask that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon us believers so that we would be anointed to bring the gospel to those who have not heard its truth as yet. Help us to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the prisoners, to open blind eyes, and to set free those who are oppressed.” (Based on Luke 4:18)

We now live in an age where good is considered evil and evil is considered good, and where truth is muddled by whitewashing the facts. But no matter what age we live in or how much we dress up abortion with a catchy sound byte label, such as pro-choice , abortion is murder. Babies are murdered. Period. Then, with this act of murder, another descriptive word must be used: sin.

Hey, folks! Abortion is sin. It breaks commandment number six of the Ten Commandments.

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. (Matthew 19:30)

In light of the above scripture, the one group which has to be considered as first, from the founding of Jamestown in 1607 until now, would be us white Americans. Our nation’s founders came from Europe, were white, and all of the early colonies were inhabited mostly by whites.

Even today, whites comprise 72.4% of America.

Using the same verse as a standard, the one group which has to be considered last would have to be black Americans. My scriptural usage has nothing to do with intelligence or any other factors, it’s just aimed at racial equality.

From the first twenty African men’s arrival in 1619 as slaves, to the Constitutional Convention’s determination that a slave equals 3/5 of a person in 1787, to the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 aimed at ten southern states, to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the racial inequality for black Americans has been a festering sore on our nation’s history.

Today, black Americans comprise 12.6% of America’s population.

Let’s view abortion through a racial lens.

Approximately, 1.2 million babies are aborted each year. This works out to 3,315 babies losing their lives each day, and of these, 50% of the abortions are performed on women under the age of 25 years of age and 84% of the abortions are for single women.

White women account for 36% of the total abortions, but black American women have 36.4% of them. This means that each day, 1190 white babies are murdered and 1207 black babies are murdered. Shocking right?

More black babies are murdered by abortion than white babies!

Now, let’s toss God into the mix.

Even though America has a black president who is a staunch backer of Pro-Choice and Planned Parenthood, even though black Americans overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party which heavily endorses Pro-Choice and abortions, even though black Americans have more abortions than whites and other groups, God will soon change everything.

Like the Israelites who were in Egypt 400 years before their eventual deliverance, God is about to deliver black Americans from the chains of the spirit of slavery. This foul principality has enslaved black Americans, God’s number one group of believers percentage-wise, far too long, and now God declares, “Enough! Let My people go.”

God will accomplish this deliverance through a move of the Spirit of Adoption, especially aimed at inner cities and black neighborhoods. Shouts of , “Abba! Father!” will openly be declared by black men and women.

This move of the Spirit will produce a hunger for holiness and the ways of God for black Americans. God will then raise black Americans up so that other Americans will hunger for God in the same way.

Inner cities which have been centers of crime and waste will end up becoming cities of refuge where the Spirit of Adoption awaits thirsty pilgrims. Hungry people will flock there.

And abortions? And Roe vs. Wade?

Abortions will still be legal and Roe Vs. Wade will still be intact. It’s just that the Planned Parenthood sites which are located in black neighborhoods will be idle and close down

So, then, the last will be first.

(Conclusion)

Sometimes in the midst of the clamor and clutter of the 24/7 news cycle, we miss what God is doing and then wonder, “Where are You, God?”

Chen Guangcheng, a blind civil rights activist and self-taught lawyer, recently became a top story in the world’s media by seeking asylum in the US Embassy in Beijing, China.  Chen had served more than four years in prison because he brought a class action suit against the city of Linyi for its one-child policy and other abuses, resulting in sterilizations of women, forced abortions, and the murdering of newborn female babies. Chen had escaped house arrest when he arrived at the embassy.

All this happened on April 22nd, just days before Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Beijing for high level economic talks with the Chinese.

Both China and America attempted to diffuse the Chen situation with behind-the-scene diplomatic manuevers, hoping the economic summit could be salvaged.  And after some awkward posturings, it looked like the two nations had succeeded when Secretary of State Clinton finally announced, “I am pleased that we were able to facilitate Chen Guangcheng’s stay and departure from the U.S. Embassy in a way that reflected his choices and our values.”

Chen later announced that he left the U.S. Embassy and went to the hospital because his wife and family were threatened by Chinese officials.  Then, to add even more fire to the situation, he said, “My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton’s plane.”

Chen’s words proved to be a sharp needle which deflated the egos of America and China, revealing to the world the true reasons behind both nations’ motives: money.

Now, this is the hand of God working on the world’s stage.

You see, who else but God could help a blind man climb over a wall, move past guards, walk alone through unfamiliar territory for almost twenty hours while falling over 200 times, arrive at a prearranged pick-up point, and then show up at the U.S. Embassy.

Impossible … yes. That is, except for our God who loves little Chinese baby girls.

“Lord, we thank You for using Chen Guancheng to trumpet to the world the horrendous murdering of newborn baby girls and forced abortions in China. We ask You to protect Chen and his family by whatever means possible. And Lord, we know that You are the Protector of these girl babies, not America or any other nation, so we ask You to move on their behalves.”