I have just posted Episode 3 of Flee California Now on Youtube. It is entitled, “Train Like You Fight”
You can check out the video here:
Check it out, especially if you live in California.
And also, Flee California Now can be heard on Apple Podcasts. Just enter Flee California Now on the search line and listen to every episode on your headsets or while you’re traveling in the auto.
Thanks
Filed under Christianity, Church, Prayer, Prophecy
If the Apostle Paul walked into most of today’s churches, he wouldn’t wait for the service to start, he would rush to the pastors, elders, and deacons and ask, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
The leaders might hem and haw, explaining their beliefs and theological insights on the Holy Spirit.
Paul would shake his head at their words. “Do you prophesy? Do you speak in tongues?” he would ask, with his dark eyes blazing.
Maybe you disagree.
Okay, did you know Paul spent one to five months planting each church in such cities as Pisidian Antioch, Iconic, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea? Then he left them alone without pastors or leaders for a long time, as much as two years.
Now remember:
Fifty percent of Paul’s converts were slaves.
There were no Bibles and few had even one Old Testament scroll.
90% of the converts were illiterate.
95% could not write.
Average life expectancy for a male was 45 years of age and for a female 38. (The Untold Story of the New Testament Church by Frank Viola.
Yet, the gospel that Paul and Barnabas preached to these new converts that were once heathen and miserable Gentiles, was enough for them to love each other and evangelize their neighbors without any outside help.
How did Paul accomplish this feat?
Pursue love, and desire earnestly the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)
The Apostle Paul made sure the spiritual gifts were working in the believers for each church. It was through the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy, that Christ came to life in their midst.
So, do we really want to turn our cities upside down for Jesus?
If so, maybe we should rethink prophecy and the spiritual gifts. It worked for the Apostle Paul in Pisidian Antioch, Iconic, Lystra, Derbe, Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
And I believe it will work today in our cities, too.
(Conclusion)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Prayer, Prophecy
In the late 1980’s, I attended a large meeting where Dr. Bill Hamon taught on prophecy. He had a unique way to encourage people to prophesy. “I want everyone to pair up with someone you don’t know,” he said, waiting for everyone to follow his directions.
The lady sitting next to me agreed to be my partner.
“Okay,” said Hamon, “I want each of the pair to give a personal prophecy to the other person. I will wait until everyone is done.”
My partner’s eyes were the size of pie plates. “I prophesy. What about you?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. Why don’t you go first?” she whispered.
I prayed and prophesied to her. “Your words were just what I needed. Thanks.”
“Okay, now you prophesy to me,” I said.
Again, she shook her head. “I’ve never prophesied and never have thought about doing it.”
“We need to be obedient. If you make a mistake, I won’t tell anyone. So, just open your mouth and prophesy.”
She looked around and shrugged her shoulders. “Why not?” she said. Then, she spoke a long prophecy to me, which answered some important questions for my life.
“Wow! That was awesome,” I said.
“I can’t wait to pray and prophesy to other people,” she replied.
The best way to encourage people to prophesy is to have them speak personal prophecies to other people. This can be done in a small group, a church, or just two people sitting alone somewhere.
All you have to remember is that you are obeying:
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)
Will all be able to prophesy? Probably not, but if all give an honest effort, there will be numerous surprised believers speaking words of prophecy who will be encouraged to prophesy even more in the future.
Why is there such an emphasis on prophecy for today’s believers?
(Continued in Part 8)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Prayer, Prophecy
With our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross and His resurrection, He made the Old Covenant obsolete.
With this, we no longer need to appoint a high priest to go into the Holy of Holies to offer gifts and sacrifices for our sins. Jesus is our High Priest forever and His blood has cleansed us from all our sins. We also no longer need a Temple because we are His living temples and His Spirit dwells in us.
Thus, the ministry of the New Testament prophet has changed dramatically from that of the Old Testament prophet.
First: the New Testament prophet is still a mouthpiece for the Lord, but he no longer is the Lone Ranger galloping into town on a white horse ready to speak the word of the Lord to people. Through the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all believers can prophesy and are encouraged to do so.
Second: Prophecies spoken by a prophet (or a believer) are not to be accepted as prophetic words straight from the throne of God without being judged first by other believers. We judge prophecies by checking scripture and our inner spirits.
Third: A prophet or believer can no longer burst onto a scene, like a church, and prophesy. Everything has to be done decently and in order. Thus, the Holy Spirit has to make a way for the person to prophesy.
Fourth: If a prophet or a believer makes an error in his (or her) prophecy, he is to humble himself and ask forgiveness. Believers are to forgive him as the Lord has forgiven them.
Fifth: Prophets are still held accountable for prophesying words of warning and the full counsel of the Lord, but the sting of failing to do so has been removed at the cross.
The one thing that has stayed the same is that prophets or believers who prophesy may suffer afflictions, even severe ones.
Okay, what can we do to encourage believers to prophesy?
(Continued in Part 7)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Prayer, Prophecy, Spiritual gifts
What is the first thought that enters your mind when the word “prophet” is mentioned? Do you instantly think of a wild-haired, bearded man wearing coarse camel-hair clothing with a leather belt, bursting onto the scene, much like an Elijah or John the Baptist?
Or do you think of our Lord Jesus walking through crowds of people and ministering to them?
And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” (Matthew 21:11)
Most Christians can easily picture pastors, teachers, and evangelists as ministries for the Lord, but then we struggle with the ministry of the prophet. The main reason for our struggles are the more than fifty-five examples of prophets mentioned in the Old Testament. These were the main characters, and with the exception of Jesus, we know more about the Old Testament prophets’ ministries than all of the other ministries in the whole Bible combined.
What do we really know about the ministry of the pastor, teacher, or evangelist? Very little.
But what do we know about the ministries of the Old Testament prophets:
1. The prophets were God’s mouthpiece to the people of Israel and other nations. There were no ifs, ands, buts, whys, howevers, therefores, or testings of the prophets’ words. All words were to be accepted as from the Lord. Period.
2. If the prophets’ words failed to take place, the people were not to fear them.
3. If the prophets’ words led people away to follow other gods, then the prophets were to be killed.
4. The Spirit of the Lord came upon prophets (also a few kings and priests) to prophesy.
6. The Old Testament prophets suffered heavy afflictions because of their prophecies.
I do not want to understate the value of studying the Old Testament prophets because there is much to be gleaned from studying them. Yet, we need to view their ministries through the light of the cross. The Apostle Paul wrote:
These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. (Colossians 2:17)
So, what about New Testament prophets and prophecy?
(Continued in Part 6)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Prophecy, Spiritual gifts
I have just posted Episode 3 of Flee California Now on Youtube. It is entitled, “Must haves if You are not Fleeing California Now.”
You can check out the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD0t5lImzQA
Check it out, especially if you live in California.
Thanks
Paul and Silas were clicking along from city to city until the Holy Spirit forbid them from heading north into Bithynia. They instead responded to a vision that Paul had about a man who said, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.“
The twosome hurried to Troas, boarded a ship to cross the northern tip of the Aegean Sea, and landed in Neapolis. They then journeyed thirteen miles by foot to Philippi.
The city of Philippi had a population of 2000 people and a large Roman garrison. It was the chief city in the province of Macedonia, but the Jewish population was too small to support a synagogue, which required ten Jewish men.
Thus, Paul and Silas searched for and found a Jewish prayer meeting along the banks of the Gangites River. The two spoke to the Jewish women attending the meeting where a woman named Lydia was converted and baptized as a believer in Christ. Paul and Silas then stayed at Lydia’s house.
All of this sets the stage for a powerful scene.
As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” (Acts 16:16-17)
If we use our New Testament Bibles – which Paul and Silas did not have at the time – how would we judge the accuracy of the slave girl’s prophetic words? We would have to admit that the girl’s words were accurate because Paul and Silas were God’s servants and did proclaim the gospel.
Yet, Paul was greatly annoyed by the slave girl’s proclamations and said to the spirit in the girl:
“I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her…” (Acts 16: 18)
As the Apostle Paul demonstrated in this scene, spiritual discernment is a two-sided coin. On the one hand, we need to know if the prophetic words line up with scripture, and on the other hand, we need to know what spirit backs the prophetic words. Is it the Holy Spirit, a demon or our own fleshly spirit?
How can we do this?
(Continued in Part 4)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Gifts of the Spirit, Prophecy, spiritual warfare
Let’s break down the process of speaking a prophecy from my experience, okay?
When I prophesy, I first feel a nudge in my inner man from the Holy Spirit to speak something. Along with my nudge or inner witness, I usually have the opening words, which may be something like, “I believe the Lord wants to speak to us…” As I speak the opening words, a few more words are given to me by the Holy Spirit and then more words gush through me as I speak, until I finish.
There are a few inner things happening in me while I prophesy.
On the one hand, I’m trying to listen to the Holy Spirit and speak His words in a similar manner. If He is cheerful, I want to be cheerful. If He is sober, I want to speak in the same way. Etc. Etc.
At the same time, I am trying to check my words against scripture because every prophetic word must line up with the Bible and its intent. If my words do not line up, they should be judged as false.
So, I like to think of myself as a computer with a few tabs open while I am prophesying.
Don’t worry!
It’s not as hard as it sounds because the Holy Spirit is doing the heavy work. I am just a vessel allowing Him to work through me. He fully understands my capabilities, my insecurities, my audience and my faith level. He then gives me more than enough grace to handle all of this.
Now, whether or not you prophesy like I do really doesn’t matter because we are all unique individuals. Allow Him to train you to prophesy according to the measure of faith that God has assigned you.
Okay, what about spiritual discernment?
(Continued in Part 3)
Filed under Christianity, Church, Faith, Gifts of the Spirit, Prophecy, Spiritual gifts
A friend sent me an email with a YouTube video link by an evangelist who talked about the New World Order, 6000 FEMA camps in America, pastors pledging allegiance to the New World Order, railroad cars moving Christians to camps and countless other statements
I listened to three or four minutes of the video and turned it off.
Then, I gritted my teeth and listened to the full message. Did I feel any better after listening to the twenty-six minute message? No, absolutely not. It still felt like ice water dripping on my inner spirit.
There is no doubt the evangelist has a prophetic gifting, sincerely loves the Lord and has a little bit of truth mixed into her message. But just because a person talks about dreams, visions, prophetic words, has a few revelations and inserts some scriptures along the way, are we supposed to accept her message as an inspired word of the Lord?
So let two or three prophets speak [those inspired to preach or teach], while the rest pay attention and weigh and discern what is said. (1 Corinthians 14:29 AMP)
It is not just the responsibility of leaders to discern whether prophecies are accurate words of the Lord. We all are called to do this. Why? Because the Holy Spirit dwells in each of us and does not just fall upon prophets, kings and priests as in the Old Testament.
Okay, let’s be honest with ourselves.
Most of our spiritual ears have been dulled by the world around us, by our teachings, by our dependence on leaders, by television and movies and by countless other things. Our spiritual discernment is probably at its lowest level right now.
So, what can we do to sharpen our spiritual discernment?
(Continued in Part 2)
Filed under Christianity, Gifts of the Spirit, Prophecy
Peter, James, John and Jesus walked back to the crowd after their transfiguration experience. A father approached Jesus and explained how His disciples could not cast a demon out of his son.
Jesus asked that the boy be brought to Him. He rebuked the demon and it came out of him. He was cured at once.
Later, the disciples asked why they were unsuccessful.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. But this kind never comes out except by prayer and fasting.” (Matthew 17:20-21 ESV)
Faith like a grain of mustard seed.
The mustard seed was the smallest seed in Israel. When germinated and under the proper growing conditions, the seed grew into a mature bush within three months’ time to an average height of seven feet tall.
Therefore, when Jesus used the mustard seed as a metaphor for His teaching here, he was talking about the seed’s one-sided genetic focus (or faith) to be the largest garden plant.
The seed never doubted or waivered in its faith to be all God called it to be. The seed could even lie dormant for over sixty years, but when the conditions were right, it would fulfill its genetic calling by growing into a mature plant.
Although the mustard seed is tiny, mustard-seed faith is not a small amount of faith. It is 100%, put-your-hand-to-the-plow-and-not-look-back, all-in faith. It is the pinnacle of faith and where we need to set our sights.
Prayer.
The word prayer, as used by Jesus, signifies the many different types of prayer, such as supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings, praises, worship and more. But no matter what type we believers use, we must draw near to God and believe He will reward our efforts.
Prayers depend upon our relationship with our Father. We must act little children and rush into His presence, knowing He loves us and desires to answer our prayers.
Fasting.
Fasting is probably the least popular of all of the spiritual disciplines. Starving for Jesus’ sake, right?
But as Paul discovered, God’s power works best in weakness. And the weakness God was referring to is our fleshly nature, especially our desire to eat and drink.
My experience on fasting is that we have to trust that God’s grace is truly sufficient, even when we don’t eat for a period of time.
So, what’s the plan of action for healing dementia?
(Continued in Part 6)
Filed under Christianity, Deliverance, Prayer, Uncategorized
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