Friday's Musings Try the Spirits

Fridays Musings   June 20, 2014    Meri Ford

In the last few days  I read an article somewhere on the Internet about the deception that the scriptures talk about in the last days. In that article he talked about how those that are coming as deceivers will NOT speak error or false doctrine until they have the confidence of people that are "following them." Then when they have a following, they will begin to sow false doctrine and heresy.

Recently while I was raking up the grass from a field which I had finally gotten cut with the rider mower, the whole thing about being caught by such deceivers came to my thoughts and with it that scripture that says, 

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but  test the spirits  to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God;  3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.   I John 4:1-3

 Tests/try according to the Greek is  Strongs    δόκιμος (G1384)  as listed in Blue Letter BIble....

1. to test, examine, prove, scrutinise (to see whether a thing is genuine or not), as metals

As I pondered these things, I thought of how the article said, you cannot tell at the beginning if these are deceivers or true believers.  And I understand from the premise of his article that at the beginning of a man's preaching, it is difficult to discern if a man is a deceiver.  BUT..Holy Spirit brought this scripture up to my attention. No where does the scripture say "test or try the person or the person's teaching."   But instead it says...try the spirits examine....the spirit by which the man operates.  

Long ago Holy Spirit gave me some understanding of this when I would watch people asking people if they confessed Jesus Christ to come in the flesh. Some people had no idea what in the world that meant and I remember a man who told my dad on time, I don't know about all that stuff, I just know He is Lord and He loves me and has come to live in me.

AH HA...while that man doesn't know the "doctrine" of Christ come in the flesh, the spirit of which he was speaking, was "Christ come in his flesh. The power of God by Holy Spirit had come to live in his being...that is the "test of the spirits" not some standard by which we ask someone if they believe such and such.  This man expressed faith in the fact that Jesus Christ had come to live and dwell in his house of flesh.  

So as I raked 4-5 inches of grass into piles so I could later pitch fork them into the wheel barrow to go to the burn pile, Holy Spirit was showing me that only he who believes that Jesus Christ indwells them by Holy Spirit has the power to be saved from the deceiving wiles of wicked men.  And as the grass blew in my face, I saw that he who welcomes the indwelling of Christ, knows that he needs be taught of no man, but he is taught of Holy Spirit, the teacher.  Such a person can sit under any kind of teaching as he knows that His teacher is the Holy Spirit not the man. The person who is dependent upon the Helper, the Counselor, the Indwelling one who reveals Christ, can not be led astray.

So...Father what does this mean? From that inner awareness I understood that  it meant  that if you have teachers who expect you to follow them and their teaching, no matter how good the teacher or "anointed" person is, no matter what signs and wonders,..be aware that there is a spirit in that person that is antichrist or against Christ that could lead people astray.

Being a counselor, I found it is easy to have people become dependent upon me to learn and to grow. That is not the spirit of  Christ Jesus come in the flesh. Understanding this  makes a big difference in the way I counsel both in the secular realm and with my fellow Christians. The only value any teaching is, is found in  what Holy Spirit illuminates or quickens in another's understanding. When I am teaching in the secular realm, I would refer to the "light bulbs" that would go off in THEIR heads.  With the brethren, it is what thoughts Holy Spirit speaks into their understanding about what I might say or teach.    Unless an individual has assumed responsibility for the indwelling presence of God and the role of Holy Spirit as their teacher from the inside out, so to speak, they are vulnerable to deception.  There are a great number of very persuasive preachers, prophets, apostolic men and women  and counselors out there today.  It is necessary that we drink only of our own well, drink only of that spring of living water that rises up within us and invites us to   be renewed in the spirit of our mind (repentance--metanoia). Holy Spirit always gives us a choice. Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty...freedom to choose. Yes, and freedom to reject Him.   The worldly teacher will ultimately lay condemnation, guilt and shame upon those who don't follow his teaching which the natural man often finds is safer than having the choice or the responsibility  to hear God for himself.  So what was the dilemma of the Israelites when they faced the result of telling Moses they would just hear God from him, instead of hearing and seeing God for themselves?  They went back to camp and got discouraged, and thought Moses was gone forever on the mountain and began to gather their gold and make an object to worship.  So it is with our old nature, it will quickly get discouraged when a teacher or preacher doesn't feed us, or they don't meet our need in some way and we are already on the idolatrous road.

As we grow in the knowledge of Christ, and I like the way Paul puts it, about "learning Christ", we begin to be comfortable listening to what Holy Spirit says, learning to rest and wait upon and in Him and trusting the Father's great love for us in Christ Jesus, that He would Himself come in the flesh suffer and die so that He could send Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our flesh.   That is the safety that we have from deception.  Yes, we can get the voice of God mixed up with our own understanding and ways, and can mess our own lives up, but that is different than the deception of antichrist which is abounding as we come into the end of the age.   And godly men and women will risk stepping into our lives and speaking forth the Word of Truth in order to "stir up the Spirit" within us so we can once again hear Him and grow in Him.

I think again of what that article I read  which said something like: You cannot tell the difference in the beginning with the preaching/teaching of the deceiver and the real thing. I keep hearing people talk about the wheat and the tares. It isn't our job to discern the difference. It was the angels who would come and do the reaping at the end of the age because it was impossible to tell the difference until they were ready to harvest.  Besides, one never knows if what looked like darnell/tares might become a new creature in Christ Jesus a week or two or three after we meet them.  None of this is really our business. Our business is being conformed to His image, which means being totally dependent upon the anointed one, Christ in me revealed by Holy Spirit.  Those who are so "dependent" upon Himself, may error, but they won't be  following  those who will ultimately deceive.   

Here is one of the neat things about following after Christ, the anointed one in me by Holy Spirit. Such believers also won't follow any other man, woman, preacher, apostle, prophet, evangelist, husband or wife. They will each be dependent upon the Holy Spirit as the source of their life, and understanding, and as such will relate to ALL men increasingly with the wisdom and knowledge that He who is Love is!  As we listen to Holy Spirit, and see those in our lives through the eyes of Himself, we will be increasingly conformed to the image of Christ until a point will come where this body won't hold that Life any longer and we will be joined with Him.  We will see Christ and Him crucified as we look at those men, women, prophets, preachers, children, etc..and not respond to people after their fleshly desires and thinking or image of themselves.

I trust you will wait upon the Lord and seek what He is saying through or about these things that I write.  

Meri

  Meri Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA 98596 360 520 4503 Blogs
      http://meriford.blogspot.com/
      http://www.renewedhopesite.wordpress.com/ website: http://www.renewedhopesite.com

Stress

It amazes me how little the average person understands about stress and that lack of understanding comes from a basic lack of understanding about who we are as human beings and how  we are made.




Stress isn't about what is happening around us as most of us think. Stress is MY BODY'S response to what is what is "changing" around me. Stress is my physical body's reaction to change. Stress is not bad; it just is our own body's way of dealing with change. Our body puts out  hormones from our adrenal glands sometimes called corticoid hormones which give the body a burst of energy to effectuate a change. When a person gets up out of bed in the morning, it takes energy to change from the prone, laying down position to the sitting up and then the standing position. The body releases energy in the form we often call adrenalin to energize the body to make a move, a change. This is what is called the "stress response."  It causes the blood vessels to constrict and increases the heart beat.




  When I drive down the highway and a car cuts in front of me suddenly, my body releases some of these hormones to allow me to make a "quick response." These responses always call out whatever my predominant "thinking" is in that  kind of situation.  For instance, if you grew up in snow country, you probably learned riding with your parents and then learning to drive, how to drive in snow, how to handle going into a skid.  It is the predominant thinking relating to driving in snow. I live on the West Coast and we don't develop those skills in our youth and our first response to any kind of situation is usually put the brakes on. The stress response pulls from our very basic survival techniques and what we have programmed in our minds as to how to respond.   That is why it is often called a survival mechanism.




The problem with the stress response is two fold. 




One, without adequate understanding of our own physiological and personal make up, we tend to see stress as a matter of "external stimulus" and get into what is appropriately called "victim status."  It upsets me, it makes me, which are both language we learned from our childhood and which we as parents enforced to get compliance with our expectations and standards. Do it or else!   Victim status increases our stress response because it puts us in an ongoing status of "survival" or "threat." So our body is in "high alert" mode ready to act at any moment. One of the problems with this is that the release of lots and lots of adrenalin overpowers the front lobe of our brain where we make rational decisions.  In survival mode, we aren't in need of thinking things through. When a deer runs in front of my car, it isn't the time to think about what kind of deer it is, is it overpopulated, will it decrease the populations too much if I hit it.  It is a time to make a "save my life" decision based on whatever "automatic" response I have programed whether knowingly or unknowingly.




Second..one of the problems with the stress response is that if we get into situations where there is one change upon another in a rather random pattern, we stay in "high alert" mode and our bodies never go back to "relaxation mode."  Anyone that has started a new job knows the stress of dealing with all new stuff...change after change after change. Then after a week or two we become accustomed to the changes and they begin to be anticipated at which time the body doesn't have to release so much adrenalin.  People can work in high change or what we call high stress enviroment and not have "stress issues" because they have learned to relax and take "change" as if it were normal.  I worked in a field where I dealt with a variety of issues and people throughout the day, changing regularly. However, if I had focused on how things changed everyday I would have been highly stressed out. I learned at least in the later years,however, to stay in a place of "rest", quietness in my inner man and move through what came to be "typical changes" without issue, most of the time!! In the field I was there were big changes, crises, and we knew after they were over, we felt like wrung out dishrags...our bodies had "sped up" to handle the changes and when the crisis was over, there was what we call "adrenalin let down."  And that is a healthy thing...it brings us back to the place where the blood pressure goes back to normal and the heart beat goes back to normal.  If however crises are continual and there is no relaxation period and the body doesn't get time to relax and be restored between changes, we get stress related medical issues.




I was in a high stress situation for 20 years and had no understanding of these things and as a result my doctor told me some years ago that my "stress response" is hair trigger sensitive. It has been overworked until it activates without any real change.  I was having major spikes in blood pressure while doing routine things that made no sense.  For me, once I recognized that and when I changed to a gluten free diet, things  in my body have changed.  It is to note that intolerance for Gluten itself will cause blood pressure spikes.




During a crisis, not only does our body increase the blood pressure to give us more energy (which is sort of stored in the blood) the heart beat is increased as it has to pump the blood that the increased blood pressure causes. In normal situations, if the blood pressure rises, the heart beat lowers to maintain the equilibrium of the system. Not so when under stress............or under the use of any kind of amphetamines or stimulants where both heart beat and blood pressure are elevated as if to prepare for a life threatening emergency.




I retired in 2013 and I love retirement. I didn't have many days sitting around home not doing anything because I had so much I wanted to do that I didn't do while working full time.  Was retirement stressful! Most definitely!  Was it bad? NO....Stress is about change and I changed from going to work 4-5 days a week and being gone about 12 hours a day to being home all day.  Now my days were full, but they were full of different things than I was used to. I started Zumba twice a week, I started painting, I worked in my garden....all things that were "changes."  Plus...my energy consistently went out to the pattern of life that I had established for 12 years. There was an empty hole there where what I used to do no longer existed. One can't fill up that empty hole with all the stuff that I did.  It is a grief and loss issue no matter how busy I stayed.  Grief and loss are about "change"...grief is what I feel when there is a loss or a change where energy went out to something and it no longer goes out there. One can't just change directions of ones energy flow. One has to reckon with the loss or one will find themselves  totally empty on the inside yet busy on the outside.  There was grief and loss issues when I retired though I loved and still love retirement. The people I talked with weren't there to talk with...and NOTHING can replace what isn't there. I had new people in my life but that doesn't deal with the energy going out to what was "yesterday" and which I was accustomed to.

Grief is a feeling based on my past experiences involving "change."  One experiences grief even when what changed is positive. And griefis one of the neatest of "uncomfortable feelings" in that it decreases everytime we feel it. The empty hole of loss fills up as we feel the grief of the loss.



I am sure every husband and wife love their first child...but the birth of that child involved a loss of their independence and a complete change in lifestyle. And as much as you welcomed it, it was still a change/loss and sometimes people don't recognize this. In these changes not only is there grief but the whole body has to accommodate to a different pattern and it takes the stress response to handle that change.  One of Newton's laws says something about a body that is in motion takes a force equal or greater than that motion to create a change.  And in the body, dealing with change involves the stress mechanism....whether the change is positive or negative in our estimation. It takes energy to deal with any change in my life...it is about me, my body effectualing the response to changes.



Stress is an important factor in our lives. Stress creates enough anxiety over change and in change that we adjust our behavior. The stress we feel of an uncoming test, or social event, prepares us, gives us energy to study for the test, or get things ready for the social event. Without the stress response, we'd  be stuck in the same position we started the day in all day long.  Learning that we as the human being with this human body are literally "in charge" of our stress responses, releases us from a lot of the guilt and shame from facing stress related issues, of denying stress and blaming people places and things.  

I am pushing 70. I still am aware of certain things from my past that activate my "survival" mechanism almost immediately. I am learning to understand these things and as I change my thinking about them, I have some measure of power over the stress response by coming to a place of acceptance and relaxation in my body.  Anxiety is a part of what we call "stress ailments"....and I used to find at at 5pm each day I would find myself stressed out, in a measure of anxiety and there was no present circumstances that was activating it. Instead it was a long established survival mechanism of gearing up for change around 5pm not knowing if the man of the house was coming home when he got off work at 5, if he was going to call and say that he was working late, or if I wouldn't hear from him and it would be later before he'd come in staggering drunk with who knows what consequences then to face. Years later when I recognized that anxiety would come up about 5pm I learned to address my thinking, speak forth the reality which I was living in in the now, which then solicited different emotions and my body then could relax. It took some time for this process to wipe out that anxiety pattern altogether but it began. The same thing activated when someone didn't show up when I expected them too. Suddenly I found myself irrationally anxious...and the stress response went into high gear. Again, I began to "see" that it was tied to my past experiences, change my thinking about the now that it wasn't the same, altered my emotions, and my body began to respond differently....again a process.



We are in a victim based society today therefore stress is very high and stress related illnesses are maxed out as is seen in the amount of antianxiety medications that are prescribed. Also, the end result of stress is burn out and depression. More and more people on the job are facing "burnout." One speaker on this subject told how he had so been filled with adrenalin, functioning at a high paced lifestyle that one day his body literally stopped...in  the middle of the 520 Bridge in Seattle and he couldn't move or drive his car and had to be extricated from his vehicle by emergency workers. His whole body had been drained by the demand that had been put on it, mainly by the stress mechanism, continually exhausting the energy supply of the body until it was drained.  Several years later, he was still having to take things to supplement his body to help repair the complete drain and exhausted supplies. He learned he  has to order his day very simply to be able to maintain his physical body in that state of relaxation as much as possible.



We are not going to escape Stress........it isn't about our circumstances as such. It is about our response to the changes in our circumstances and our attitude about them. The more we see our stress as about what is happening to us, the greater activation of the stress response we have....because I am a victim and that puts me into a survival mode.   My husband and I joke about being the victim because so much of our language and that of our society's is victim language which puts us into survival mode and increases our stress levels.  So for his birthday a year ago I got him a black T shirt that said I AM THE VICTIM!    For us it is a joke, something we can laugh about, and remind ourselves that we have a choice today and we don't have to operate out of victim mentality and have our stress levels activated unnecessarily. Life itself without our contributions brings us enough change.



Meri Ford

Call it not conspiracy

Call it not conspiracy

Date: Jun 11, 2014 7:50 AM

This morning as I was reading the scriptures and seeking the Lord, I came across this scripture and it stirred in me, once again and I share here with you what I was seeing and hearing.    Isaiah 8:11-20    (Jerusalem Bible)  For this is how Yahweh spoke to me when his hand seized hold of me and he taught me not to follow the path of the people, saying Do not call conspiracy all that this people call conspiracy; Do not dread what they dread, have no fear of that. Yahweh Sabaoth is the one you will proclaim holy., him will you dread, him you will fear. He will be a sanctuary, A stumbling stone a rock to trip up the two Houses of Judah a snare and a trap for the inhabitants of Jerusalem over which many of them will stumble, fall and be broken, been ensnared and made captive. Bind up the the testimony, seal the instruction in the heart of my disciples. My trust is in Yahweh who hides his face from the House of Jacob. I will put my hope in him. Look, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me shall become signs and portents in Israel on behalf of Yahweh Sabaoth who dwells on Mount Zion. And should people say to you, Go and consult ghosts and wizards that whisper and mutter------------------ a people should certainly consult its gods and the dead on behalf of the living! As regards instruction and testimony, without  doubt  this is how they will talk and hence there will be no dawn for them.... .........for is not everything dark as night for a country in distress? It goes on in  Chapter 9 to say... The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ And as I read this, I so remembered Deb Moore's word given to this list or its predecessor during one of the times of internal turmoil of this nation as things in the White House and things happening in this nation were in turmoil. She shared this Word: Don't call conspiracy what this people call conspiracy. Does this mean there aren't devious and wicked plans being perpetrated in and against this nation? Of course not. that is not what this scripture refers to.  It is that OUR focus is to be upon Him who is in CHARGE...The God that is...Yahweh Sabaoth....The Lord of the Angel Armies as a popular song translates it, The God that is, that is Lord of War; the The God that is the Lord of War himself.  Him we are to "dread." Him we are to stand before in reverent awe knowing it is by His hand presidents rise up and presidents fall, that is is by His hand that al Qaeda is able to be successful in bombing our troops or that our troops prevail. It is by His hand and His word  whether Afghanistan is over taken even as Iraq is being over taken as the American "saviours" are being pulled out.   It is Yahweh Sabaoth who controls Wall Street's up and down and allows crooked men to rise up and manipulate the global economies. This morning as I read,  I noticed that Yahweh Sabaoth declared that the King of Assyria was His River....the force he used to flood into Judah, flooding everything and passing on (Is. 8:8). In other places, as in Joel, He talks of HIS ARMY.....how often in years past I heard people talking about wanting to be in Joel's army. I don't.....that army that the Lord called his own....was a tool of devastation upon the earth. And in good Hebrew style, scriptures in the Old Testament remind us that HE IS LORD OF ALL.  No army, no wickedness arises that operate outside His control. He sent the evil spirit to Saul.   HE IS LORD OF ALL. Weeks ago I began eliminating most Facebook posts from my Timeline that address the negative conditions of this nation.  No one needs to be told "how bad things are."  I am not ignorant of the sin and wickedness that are afoot in this nation  or be reminded of the nasty plans of the men in power or of their lasciviousness.  And making folks aware of these things does not "illuminate their understanding."   Wake up Church!!  Light awakens people.  It is the Light that  shines in the darkness that allows people to "see."   When we accept the reality that "we are light in the Lord", then we will have a message so very different from the world.  We don't have to tell the world how sick or how dark it is. THEY KNOW.  The Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin, of righteousness and of judgement and He is poured out on all flesh for yet awhile. It is as we walk as children of the Kingdom of Light that they will 'see" a way out of their darkness.   Those who have been known as the "church' have often sought to show people how sinful and how dark things are.  People don't "see" in the dark. In the dark, we grope for whatever we can touch to hold onto for some semblance of stability. It isn't until Light shines in the darkness that there is Hope, and HE, the Light is our Hope. In this day where darkness is increasing, sin and destruction abound, where statistics tell us that there is one school shooting on an average of every week in this nation unlike any other nation in the world, where car wrecks are the number one killer of our teenagers, and where medical care is increasingly unavailable to the average person due to high costs and high deductibles, may we walk IN HIM, who is the Light of the World.  Yes, He came to his own and his own received Him not because their deeds were evil and they desired to remain in their evil deeds.  And as He is so are we in the world. And as they rejected Him when He came to his own, to those by His Word he created and whom he would desire to hold in his bosom,some will reject the Light as we walk in Him in this world also.  May we forever be mindful not of the darkness, but of Him in who we dwell, in Him who is Light to our souls, and who makes us the Light of the world even as He is that Light in us.   Fear not what you see about you.  Fear not the earthquake that will come, or the increasing mudslides that have been prophesied by His Mouth,  fear not the rise of power and authority that takes over the mind of a people,  but fear the Lord God, Yahweh Sabaoth,  for He is the one that wages war, He is the one that WON THE WAR that we are invited to participate in, knowing that the battle is the Lords,  that He broke the power of the enemy who is now allowed to "work out his sentence" here on earth until the appointed time.   Our appointed time is NOW, in Christ Jesus, Lord of All Creation, Lord of the Angel Armies, Lord of Hosts!,  YAHWEH Sabaoth,..Jehovah, the GOD THAT IS.... Meri Meri Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA 98596 360 520 4503 Blogs http://meriford.blogspot.com/ http://www.renewedhopesite.wordpress.com/ http://www.renewedhopesite.com

Milk and Honey

Date: Jun 3, 2014 9:48 AM

Good Morning Dear Friends, I was doing some studying this morning and came across the phrase from Joel " What a day! Wine streaming off the mountains, Milk flowing everywhere in Judah..." So went looking for understanding of "milk"  and the most common phrase "milk and honey"  and came across this article that I am going to copy and paste here. Thought you all might enjoy reading about milk and honey in Israel. Meri KIBBUTZ KETURA - In the Bible, God promises the Jewish people a land flowing with milk and honey. And while the depiction is seen as a sign of abundance, it's also literal. "In fact, milk and honey is critical. It's used 20 times in scripture," explained Moshe Kempinsky, an author and co-owner of Israel'sShorashim Biblical Shop. But when the Jewish people returned from 2,000 years in exile, they found a barren, desert land. "God says, 'I'm going to do something miraculous,'" Kempinsky added. "'I'm going to create a land that even though those climate issues don't call for it, it's going to be a land that's going to be filled with dates and honey, and also with milk so that you know that... nothing in this land comes here except when it's from Me.'" God's Abundance It appears God has delivered on that promise. Despite the heat, humidity and limited resources, Israeli cow produces more milk per year than cows in the United States, European Union, and Australia. Ronen Gal manages operations for the dairy at Kibbutz Yotvata, the largest milking facility of its kind in the country. "We're considered leaders in the production of milk in the world," he said. "The milk production in Israel is very clever. It's very high tech." What about the honey? Most believe during biblical times, honey probably came from date trees. Botanist Dr. Elaine Solowey emigrated from the U.S. and settled not far from Yotvata on Kibbutz Ketura in 1974. "I started out here as the head of the orchard branch and of course that was kind of funny because at that time we didn't have any orchards," Solowey recalled. "In the first few years I was responsible for planting them and the first orchard I planted was the date orchard... which is the main agricultural branch of the Kibbutz," she said There are tens of thousands of acres of date trees in Israel. Soloway planted some 3,000 of them. Each tree produces about 350 pounds of dates a year. Soloway even managed to sprout a 2,000-year-old date seed found by archaeologists years ago at Massada. Nicknamed "Methusela," the tree is now 5 years old. World-Renowned Produce Dates and palms were important in the scriptures, and those from this area were known throughout the ancient world. "The Romans had nothing nice to say about the Jews except that they had good dates," Solowey said. "Their emperors actually used to order Judean dates to eat." Today, Israel's dates are still famous throughout the world. Israel exports some 12,000 tons of dates each year to 20 countries. Soloway has now moved beyond dates to grow life in the desert. "I'm looking for trees that love to live in the desert, that rejoice to live in the desert. Not the ones I have to keep on life support," she joked. "The biblical trees, if they grew here in the old days, why shouldn't they grow here now?" Solowey added. "We re-introduced frankincense and myrrh, which had probably been introduced at the time of King Solomon," she continued. "According to what we can tell from folk tales and from the Bible, there was already an incense and medicinal tree being cultivated here called the Balm of Gilead," she said. The frankincense and myrrh brought to Jesus were probably in crystal form. According to Kempinsky, the revival of trees in the land is the first sign of redemption. Prophecy Fulfilled According to Kempinsky, the revival of trees in the land is the first sign of redemption. "Ezekiel 36 says, 'Mountains shoot forth your branches, give forth your fruit because my children are coming home,'" he explained. "That's an unusual thing for God to tell a tree. That's what He created a tree to do." "Except God is saying in Leviticus, 'It's going to be a desolate land when I kick you out … but watch when I bring my people back home. The land is going to come forth with blossoms and trees and fruits.'" Kempinsky added. So to Kempinsky, every date that's eaten and every glass of milk we drink here is like prophecy being fulfilled. --Published Sept. 29, 2011.  http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/insideisrael/2011/september/israels-land-of-milk-and-honey-prophecy-fulfilled/

Clay Sikes Overcoming Testimony - A Kingdom Evidence

Date: Jun 5, 2014 7:31 PM

From the current Open Heaven Digest... Overcoming Testimony - A Kingdom Evidence! By Clay Sikes Finally, I am seeing it! What is this new spiritual dimension on earth? Many see it, sense it, know it, and now beginning to identify its chief characteristics. Whoa...we're entering something new - it cannot be seen, but can be felt! Is it the Kingdom, Tabernacles, the New Jerusalem coming down? Is this a new spiritual era? Yes, something incredible is happening within; not visible, yet undeniable. Some, mostly of a religious nature, deny this as fact. Similar to those tardy, well-intended Christians who came too late to convince us about tongues, the mass exodus from organized religion, and other spiritual truths, they too are a bit late! Not only is there spiritual change, but also emerging are specific 'characteristics,' when identified and applied, cause massive change in our lives. Anything growing will change, whether a pubescent child, large corporation, or us, individually, as spirit beings. We cannot evolve without 'change,' as it is the ultimate prerequisite for GROWTH. What is offered here may require some adjustment (change) in your internal assessment process (spiritual discernment), as it surely did with me. I focus here on one of the characteristics of this new season, and share it from the depth of my heart, evidenced by testimony. As with any spiritual word, test it! If it opens something in you, use it. If not, trash it! For me, visiting an old principle required change within, now spawning incredible growth and glorifying, overcoming, testimony. It is being offered at the risk of considerable criticism from many within my own spiritual community. I will be accused of promoting old Word of Faith doctrine, and to some extent that is true. This is my testimony, not my doctrine. The facts surrounding the testimony will follow in subsequent writings, as I will focus here on the WORDS OF DELIVERANCE that spawned the testimony. During 31 years of Spiritual life, my understanding of the word has changed, grown, evolved, and produced multiple testimonies, of which, today's is greatest of all. I have been stripped, broken, rebuilt, broken again, stripped again - in, out, upside down, inside out, over, and under. I have journeyed to a few mountain tops and visited a number of valleys along the way. For me at least, Ishmael seems always to precede Isaac, but when Isaac comes Ishmael must leave the house - first man, then God and man, then God. In a new awareness, I am seeing the word rightly divide my understanding of redemption, revealing that standing against what I have been redeemed of is to 'share in His sufferings.' The magnification of the Word's Power to bring redemption to any situation seems to revisit 'Word of Faith' teachings, but this is different. Similar principles, but different heart as I am not 'using the word to get what I want,' but rather allowing the word to GLORIFY GOD in every situation I face. Admittedly, some of these 'situations' are daunting, yet producing overcoming testimony. "In the world you will have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration...But be of good cheer - take courage, be confident, certain, undaunted - For I have overcome the world - I have deprived it of power to harm, have conquered it for you" (John 16:33). "Giving thanks to the Father, who has (QUALIFIED) you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the Kingdom of light. For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son He loves, IN WHOM WE HAVE REDEMPTION, the forgiveness of sins" (Colossians 1:12,13). Even though your feet are planted firmly upon the earth, as a born again child of God you are already a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and that citizenship gives you certain rights - including the right to experience victory over the evils of this world. The victory is attained through the Word - both the knowledge of it and acting on it. "I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of this world, even as I am not of it.Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth" (John 17:14-17). The key to being  spared the tribulation, trials, and distress, and frustration living in this world brings, as described in John 16:33, is found in John 17 - "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. Sanctify them by the truth; your word IS TRUTH." In other words, the truth of the word is what separates us from the beggarly elements of the world. It was Jesus prayer that we be spared the evil this world brings. It is our job to walk in the light of the word in order to be spared. As John 17 shows us, though we live in the world, Jesus never intended for us to be part of the world's sins, sickness, lack, and perversions - we've been translated into the Kingdom of light. There are two Kingdoms in operation in the earth - darkness and light. As children of God, we are citizens of the Kingdom of light, even though we are surrounded by darkness. The light that we walk in is the word. The WORD separates us from the world's woes. Circumstances often tell us God's Word is not going to work - we are pressured into thinking the problem is impossible. Faith demands that that you TRUST GOD no matter the circumstances. Complete and utter dependence upon God is a Kingdom characteristic. We must reach into the depths of our heart and speak with our mouth, "I CHOOSE TO BELIEVE THE WORD..." Many have not experienced Jesus' words when He said He had "deprived those things of the power to harm them" - see Luke 10:19. You, as a believer, must live in the world, but Jesus never intended that we live as though we belonged to the world. He didn't intend us to share in the world's sins, sickness, poverty, perversions or lack. He gave us promises; His Word to stand on - And the Word separates and sanctifies and gives us an intended inheritance. It is the Word and His Word alone that launches His dream in us. If we will receive it, believe it, speak it, and act on it that word will set us apart from those around us. It take us from trouble to triumph again and again. Another way of saying John 5 is "This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our believing God's Word. Word of Faith says, "Name it and claim it." The new Kingdom Word is "Hear and obey." Faith is believing God's word under any circumstances (and usually in spite of circumstances). It is believing God at all cost. Until you make the word total authority OF your situation, it is not going to be total authority  IN your situation. I believed this many years ago, but tossed it as its motive stemmed around 'getting my stuff from God.' I hated the wrong motive then, just as I do now. Arthur Burt teaches, "It is never about what you do, but rather 'why' you do it!" And if the 'why' cannot be traced back to God said, the motive is wrong. "The Kingdom of God is forcefully advancing and the violent 'take it' by force"  (Matthew 11:12). We have a choice in every situation we face - to become spiritually violent or spiritually passive. To 'take it' indicates a forceful action on our part, usually something radical. Something like 'standing in your pain (suffering), binding yourself to the altar of God's Word no matter what you face circumstantially.' Will everyone choose to do this? No, many live by the traditions of this world and will remain captive to their carnal mind. They will never fully enjoy their citizenship IN THE KINGDOM ON EARTH. "Take it by force" means violently snatching your mind out of the gutter of your old thinking, and with deliberate force pressing into 'GOD'S WORD/WILL.' You must be willing to do battle, breaking out of old concepts - willing to fight the resistance you feel from the devil and your old insufficient mentality. We have to fight to achieve a new level of understanding, realizing that every attack is an opportunity to prove God's Word. When we stand on the WORD against what we have been redeemed of, we will endure some pain and discomfort, requiring courage and endurance: but if we boldly proclaim the Word in the face of circumstances "Joy will come in the morning," as we overcome the death of the circumstance. This is the entrance to the Kingdom - no self-preservation, loving not our own lives unto death (Revelation 12:11). The word made flesh is testimony; OVERCOMING TESTIMONY. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. His ways are not our ways. As we 'break' our human resistance, through the Kingdom of light, our breakthrough produces a testimony, a witness that Jesus returns for. Our trials are designed to 'make us,' not 'break us,' but we must see what is being revealed and accomplished in us. When we do, deliverance is not far behind. We are weak but He is strong. Being established in weakness is brutal, but is where He takes us to ESTABLISH utter dependency and ultimate deliverance from ALL THAT CAME FROM THE FALL. It is critical as to who you listen to and who is around you when you are in a battle. The last thing we need is well-meaning, but un-renewed carnal minds speaking flesh ruled judgments and opinions into our lives. Never speak of what is happening - speak FAITH or nothing. Our words carry life and death...SPEAK LIFE! Only one voice matters when walking through a trial - The voice of Jesus sitting at the right hand of the Father. He is always right with us. Our responsibility is to become more sensitive to Him than anything else that is screaming for our attention. There are reasons why we go through these attacks - it is where we find God, His Christ, and our Dominion in earth as in heaven. Finding Jesus in the midst of our painful circumstances, not letting the pressure have its way, is to deny Satan and enter into dominion with Christ. As we pass through the veil of our flesh, we will not be moved by the pain of circumstance - painful yes; victorious no! Victory is ours! The Spirit that raised Jesus from death dwells in us to quicken our mortal bodies, anoint us for victory, and accomplish what we cannot as mere humans. The power of His resurrection is the real way through the valley of the shadow of death. The Sons are rising now, and Jesus is their All in All...Spirit, Soul, and Body. We are growing up under great pressure, sweating blood in the garden. The Sons of God are manifesting in victory and overcoming power, being revealed to the groaning creation. This Day We Fight! Clay Sikes www.lighthouse.org

The Dilemma of Gods Will

Date: Jun 5, 2014 8:29 PM

This subject is much bigger than I am addressing and I know that it has many more sides or perspectives through which it is addressed. For this post I only want to consider that place where most of us at one time or another have found ourselves saying something like this: God, this didnt turn out as I expect. It is a dead end and we are having to go back to the start. Did we miss your will or what? Often at this point we are discouraged because we thought that what we were doing was "right." IT was what we were supposed to do. So we find ourselves saying,  "Now what, God?" I think that many of us or most likely most of us know this place?  Did we "miss God"?   I'd like to address this question of the dilemna of God's will first from the perspective of "right" and what we "should" do. As I look into the nature of my Father and the person of Jesus Christ, I don't see any sense that we are to be doing what we "think is right."  Just as much, we aren't to be addressing the question of what "I should do."  Yet this is the place where most of us Christians have lived and it might just as simply be put as living out of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord Himself, taught the disciples to pray..THY will on earth as it is in heaven.     Now how would we know HIS WILL...if we are only seeking to do what is right and what we think we "should do?"   The focus of such thinking is clearly  my thinking of right and wrong, rather than seeking what the Lord Jesus tells us in John that is the way we are to function in Him.  He said, I only do what I see my Father doing, I only say what I hear the Spirit speaking."   So....how does that differ from me doing what I think is right?    It is diametically opposed or the opposite of His way of thinking and doing. and if we were to happen to do "what He wanted me to do", it would still be done in my strength and in my power out of my understanding.  We are accustomed to pray according to what we think is right and what is wrong....we ask for Him to do things according to what we think is right. And this is "carnal" thinking. And this kind of thinking sooner or later ends up in a pit when things don't happen the way we think they "ought to" when we "do things right." So what then is God calling us to?  He is calling us to believe that He is in us and we are in Him.....that wherever we go, whether we got it all figured out or not, that we put our faith in WHO HE IS and WHO HE IS IN US and WHO WE ARE IN HIM.   As we wait upon Him and wait in Him, we learn to trust Him even if we end up in a dead end.   The test is not whether we do it right or if we miss it all together. The test is...WILL I PUT MY TRUST IN WHO HE IS!!! AND WHO I AM IN HIM?  Will I be found in faith...in HIs faith? Not even "my faith." We see as through a window darkly....we aren't going to always see clearly the path that is ahead, or the way He is leading us, but we can trust that HE is leading, that He is in charge of our lives, no matter what I end up doing. Am I His, is He is charge, whether I am weak or a failure, is He still Lrod, still in Charge or is his faithfulness dependent upon my faithfulness?   He is still faithful because that is His character even when I miss it, mess it, blow it greatly!!  God is looking down to see if there is faith in the earth....not if there is "right behavior"  rather he is looking for "righteous men and women"...men in "right relationship to HIm"  who trust Him to be faithful no matter what condition I may find myself in.   This does not justify "sin"...but when I sin or miss the mark, it means the power of that sin is broken and God is still in me and God is still with me in Christ Jesus!! I watched a dear friend go down one dead end pathway after another, seemingly following the leading of the Lord each step of the way.  i learned as I watched her that it wasn't where she was going that was the key, it was whether or not she was trusting the Lord regardless of the outcome of her walk.  When she hit one dead end next to another, would she believe that God had abandoned her, that she had "missed God" or would she believe that HE was in her and with her whether she missed or misunderstood?  In this case I watched this dear sister go down one dead end path after another, and it was as if He walked her down each of those paths until she finally comprehended the goodness and faithfulness of God was with her and in her, and the answer to all her needs ultimately was not in any of those dead end pathways, but when she came to the end, she knew that He alone was her salvation, healing, restoration.  It was about learning to trust the Lord, even if it was down a dead end pathway!  Did she miss God's plan?  He was working HIs plan out in her. Recently I was with a dear sister who was carrying such guilt and shame for the financial and vocational situation she found herself, worrying that she'd missed God's plan, or done it wrong.  My heart went out to her because I knew God never left her, God was still in her and with her and had gone with her everywhere she had gone and was calling her to trust Him and rely on HIm and put guilt and shame to the cross where all short coming is laid. God is God in our failure as much as in our success. In fact we are less likely to trust God in our success than in our failure!  How often we may say, Thank you Lord for success, you "helped me" get here!!     God isn't interested in helping us do what we want to do!   Yep, that is right. We ask God's help to do all sorts of things that have nothing to do with His plan or his purpose...and since He is Father, He is Love, and He is good....he walks with us and in us...even as we go about our own business of doing what we think is right.   But it won't fill up the image of Christ in us!! He is interested in us trusting Him to be who He is in us and who we are in....that what IS in the heavenly realm in Him might be manifest in the earth, in the earth of my being....that Christ might be manifest upon the earth...in you and I as we walk through life. We need much encouragement as we learn His ways...and we are called to encourage those who are discouraged and who fear they missed God's plan.   He is calling us to the Rest that the Israelites didn't enter into....and it is in that Rest, which is Jesus Himself, that we will gain the confidence that "if we ask according to HIS WILL, we have whatever we ask."  His Word is spoken from the throne and as we speak forth and pray according the Word that is spoken from the throne, of course the Father will not only hear us but he will have already gone ahead and been accomplishing before we ask all that He has put in our hearts and minds.    Teach us Lord, your ways...to walk in You as You walk in and through us upon the earth!! Meri

1965 Prophecy except..Judgement in My House

Date: Jun 8, 2014 5:34 PM

This is an excerpt from a  1965 PROPHECY BY STANLEY FRODSHAM   posted  by  holyfireorg .........................I think the whole prophecy can be found at  http://theflamingherald.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/1965-prophecy-by-stanley-frodsham/ I just couldn't help but be drawn to the fact that there is a reason God is working in what this calls My House.....so that we can stand when judgement comes to our cities.   I can only wonder how many of us are really submitting to that judgement NOW so that we are equipped IN HIM for what lies ahead, that we are equipped to stand in Him.   Meri My wrath shall be manifested against all ungodliness. It shall come with great intensity. You have known my love but have not experienced My wrath or My severity. My judgments are literal and not a thing to be passed over lightly. Realize the severity of My judgments and My intense anger against the sin in My household. My judgments shall begin in My house, for I will cleanse My house that it be not a partaker of My wrath against the iniquities of the cities. Before I visit the nations in judgment; I will begin at My house. When I do cause My wrath to come upon the cities of the world, My people shall be separate. I desire a people without spot or wrinkle and such will be preserved by Me in the time of My wrath, which will be coming upon all iniquity and unrighteousness. I am going to prepare you for the coming days by a hard path that will cause many to cry out continually unto Me. For when the going is easy men do not seek Me, but rejoice in a temporary blessing. And when that blessing is removed they so often turn this way and that way but do not come to Me. I am showing you these things in order that you may seek Me continually and with great diligence. As you seek Me I will open up truths to you that you have not seen before, and these very truths will be such that will enable you to stand in these last days. As you are persecuted, reviled and rejected by your brethren then you will turn unto Me with all your heart and seek Me for that spiritual life that you need. So that when the tribulation comes you will have that which will enable you to stand. For many will be tossed to and fro, men's hearts shall fail them because of trouble on every hand. These days shall be very terrible, the likes of which have never been seen before.

Pentecost Sunday

Jun 8, 2014 4:54 PM

I write this on Pentecost Sunday...the day many of us are taught "the church was born."  All week I have traveled into what we call town, the Chehalis/Centralia area where we go to the gym, Walmart, doctors, etc,. and each time we've gone into town we pass a big new LED reader board sign from one of the the largest churches in our community. It's a big new sign that calls out to everyone that drives north on the I-5 corridor. For the past two weeks the sign has blazoned  with this saying: New Series Beginning,  BECOMING THE CHURCH.   I was intrigued by the title of the series and went up to the Internet to  see if they had a podcast or anything. One of the wives of the men that my husband has breakfast with attends that congregation and shared a bit of what the sermon was about last week so I had hoped it would be on podcast so I could get the full intent. I could locate none! So, as I write today I can't with any measure of truth, tell you what that congregation heard preached about "Becoming the Church." But it has intrigued me this week and stirred up my thinking about who we are.   I kept asking myself, Can I become what I already am? How do I become what I am?    In the last couple of years God has been unfolding in my life who I am in Christ and who Christ is in me.  It has never been about becoming something , but the unfolding of who I am...and who the I am is in me.   Christ is the head of His body, even the church.  How do I become the church?  Now if you were to ask me how I am to function being who I am...that might be another whole matter...and perhaps that is what the pastor's series is about...coming to understand how I walk out who I am in Christ Jesus...what are the ways that I am to "express" the reality of who Christ is in me and my relationship with Christ as He lives and dwells in other believers.  I hope that is what the sermon series is about.   I have grown up in the culture we call Christianity, my father being an American Baptist pastor and then when I was in 4th grade he had to return to the work as a public school teacher due to lack of available pastorates who wanted what was then a 55 year old man.   We've always been associated with those who call ourselves the church. And yet,  I can recall almost no awareness of us "functioning" as the body of Christ" or having any sense of identity in Christ Himself, other than, we were 'saved" by believing in the work of the cross and inviting Christ into our lives....and of course being baptized...and then eventually baptized with the Holy Spirit (in a Pentecostal congregation I attended in the evenings with my boyfriend..not at an American Baptist fellowship.) Most of my life was about "doing what I was supposed to do"   Doing what I thought God wanted me to do. Doing what was right versus wrong.  And since I so often fell down there was over the years that guilt and shame that  piled up because I didn't know who Christ was in me or who I was in Christ.  Did it mean He wasn't in me and I wasn't his son? Of course not!! Did it mean I wasn't a part of His body?  Of course not. But what it did mean, was I wasn't functioning in who I am and out of who Christ is in me.   I was still an infant, and at one stage probably a teenager testing out my own abilities apart from the governing powers of His Spirit. I didn't know who I am....the Son of the Living God...a son of the King...with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places....a joint heir with Christ, a co-laborer with Him in the gospel of the King...oh maybe should add..Kingdom. I didn't understand the gospel...even today I love asking folks...what gospel did Jesus preach?  If we say we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ then that must be the same gospel Jesus preached when he walked on the earth as a man.    If you had asked me this a year ago, I would have been dumbfounded ...without an answer...yep...Meri would have had no answer!! grin!!   I later began to study and found Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand...ok , so what.........the Kingdom of God is near...........I remember someone saying years ago after a brief conversation I had with them,  something about  being near the kingdom I didn't understand.  Oh, but here on this Pentecost Sunday 2014.....I understand a bit more..........I think I have some understanding today.  Jesus preached the good news of the kingdom of God...because he was the KING...and he manifested the power of the King of Kings in healing, deliverance, multiplication of food and and many other miracles.  The King is here.... Is that the message of Pentecost today?   We may not hear it in the service we attend but the reality is . the King is here!!!!  He was there alive i where I attended this morning in most of the saints that were crying out to Him...unaware that He is come...and we can "rest in Him" that HE IS OUR REST. As I left service, a song welled up in me...and since I don't remember song words worth a nickle when a song rises up I know it comes from my spirit through Holy Spirit .  it was ..Ps. 132:14...This is my Rest forever, here will I dwell, for I have desired it...for my habitation. I sensed many of those in the pews "crying out" wanted "visitation"...they were unaware that the church was already birthed in them... and that it is time to Rest in him that we might learn to co-labor with him, follow His leading and direction from the inside out.  I had such a peace during the service...and during the time of "praise and worship"...that Peace flooded my being with awareness of  situations where Holy Spirit was at work, places his Spirit was ministering, healing he was doing....wow...Seeing what He cares about and what He is doing by His Spirit, sure takes a load off my shoulders. which is why He says, Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light and I will give rest for your souls. As one of those "called according to His purposes"...as His Spirit leads and directs me, I can trust all things to work together. I can trust that He will show me where He is working and invite me to work along side him by His power, with his Words, with his heart and mind.  I spent my life "working for God", standing up against injustice and other social wrongs.   One time  I had a lady call me a crusader ...and I was...but I wasn't doing and saying what He was doing and saying, I was doing according to my sense of right and wrong.   And I will be faced with reckoning myself dead to my "old ways" and the "old man that ruled my old ways" and alive unto Christ in me and what He says and what HE is and who He is in me...until this body of flesh falls off or I am translated.   Jesus said that we were to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.....and that HE would "make us" fishers of men. The power of my own self-directed way of life I inherited from Adam is something I must deny access to  recognizing it is dead and produces death. And I will be going through that process of my humanity, being "put to death" so to speak, putting that to death, which is my cross, until I die....only as this is done can I follow Christ...for He is always on the other side of the cross...I am helpless to die myself. I can kill myself which is suicide, but I can only reckon myself dead in the face of all Jesus was and is and shall be...knowing that when this house of flesh falls off I shall be like him....as will you as you follow Christ as I let Him be who he is in me. Pentecost Sunday...the birth of the Church.....It is birthed...and it IS...and we are encouraged to allow Him to be formed in us...that all that He is come forth in us as we function as the church that we are in Christ Jesus.  Ok, that could be translated...becoming the church...but I'd rather say...I am becoming all that I am, was and ever shall be in Him who was and is and is to come.. and all that I am can only be fully developed as I have relationship with others who live and move and have their being in Him,The Lord Jesus Christ revealed in us by Holy Spirit himself. Meri