Tag Archives: Gifts of the Spirit

(Azam Amir Kasav)

I wrote this series almost six years ago, but because I just watched a video by Rick Joyner, which you can see on Youtube here, I am rerunning this series. All Christians need to watch Joyner’s video. We must prepare ourselves now!

When you look at the 21-year old terrorist, Azam Amir Kasav’s face, what do you see?  A good-looking youth who should be at a college, preparing himself for a future career. Maybe having a beer or two with buddies on Fridays nights. Maybe dating a soccer cheerleader on Saturday nights. All in all, just being young and doing what youths do, right?

But the facts are that Kasav trained for months, gobbled steroids to buff up his body, and dedicated his life, along with his dead compatriots, in the hope of killing 5,000 innocent people. 5,000 people. They hoped to kill until their last, dying breaths.

Now, most soldiers are trained and committed to being warriors. If  occasions should arise, and combat actions are needed, they will fight. Yet, in the back of their minds, they will desperately want to live. This is a normal reaction by normal men in peril. Thus, most soldiers’ combat actions will be toned down according to a calculated risk/reward ratio on the battle field.

Not so these terrorists. They are committed to killing and dying! No risk is too severe or too challenging for them.

How do we defend our cities or America against dedicated, radical terrorists like Kasav?

Maybe, we don’t really want to think about Mumbai-type terrorist attacks happening in our neighborhoods.  After all, nothing much has happened since 911. Why stir up our fears and anxieties now, right?

(CONTINUED Part 2)

Click on to see MyGFA site.

In the late 1980’s, I attended a Pentecostal church with a congregation of 200 members. The young pastor wanted to have prophecy as a part of the services and came up with a plan.

“If you feel you have a prophetic word, come up front to me. Tell me the word and I will determine what to do with it,” he said during a service.

As the worship music finished, I felt I had a prophetic word. I stood up and edged my way out of the middle of the pew to the aisle. I walked up front to the pastor. There I told him my prophetic word.

He shook his head. “No, I don’t believe that is God,” he said.

I walked back down the aisle, edged my way along the pew to my seat and sat down.

After watching what happened to me, how many people do you think prophesied under those conditions in that church? If you guessed zero, you’re correct.

But all things should be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:40)

What a pastor or you or I think is decent and in order is probably miles away from what the Holy Spirit thinks.

In fact, how many of us or our leaders would allow a casket to be opened up on the way to burial so a believer may pray for the dead person. Or have a grave opened up for healing prayer. Or allow a believer to make spitballs for a blind person. Or allow a person to spit in another person’s eyes.

Aren’t we called to do the works of Jesus? And − yikes − even greater ones?

We believers will never do the works of Jesus or take our places as bold prophetic voices to our communities unless we are taught and then allowed to make mistakes. To accomplish this, our church leaders have to get over the idea that they are called to be professional babysitters and instead become equippers of the saints for ministry.

So, what can we do?

(Continued in Part 3)

Click on to see MyGFA site.

The female pastor walked to the pulpit and began the eulogy for my deceased friend, Brad. I have no idea what she said because the Lord chose this moment to speak to me once more.

I felt Him whisper to my heart: “My church is a bunch of nice losers. They lay their hands on the sick and pray for them, but when they die, they aren’t mad at all. They don’t check themselves out to see what happened or what they may have done wrong with their prayers and actions. They accept defeats and don’t think anymore about them.

“Now, Major League baseball teams are all filled with good players. Each player has to be one of the best in the world to make it to the Major Leagues. Losing teams have good players on their rosters, too. But after a while, losing teams’ players don’t mind losing because after all, they still receive their Major League paychecks and bonuses.

“But winning Major League baseball teams are different. They hate losing and will do anything and whatever it takes to win. They hate losing.

“I want My church to hate losing!”

This time the grief, which hit me, measured a ten on the Richter Scale. It was so bad my sister leaned toward me.

“Don’t you think you should go outside and get a hold of yourself,” she whispered.

If I had attempted to move, I would have fallen on the floor. Everything would have erupted out of me, making a bad situation much worse than it was. The grief lifted after a few minutes, but I sat on pins and needles for the rest of the funeral service.

(Excerpt from my memoir, The Hunt for Larry Who, an Amazon eBook.)

Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

If our prayers aren’t working, let’s check ourselves out and not accept defeats just because we’re struggling through tough situations.

(Continued in Part 13…earlier parts can be read by clicking here or above on the header.)

Click on to see MyGFA site.