Wake Up Call

Dec. 2, 2015

I picked up an old journal hoping it had a lot of blank pages in it and found myself going through some of the things I had written in 2009. This one entry stirred me so that it seems to call out to be shared.

The first part was written right after the Fort Hood Texas shooting in which 12 were killed and 31 wounded. The last part I have added in response:

The article begins:

Day by Day we hear the death toll around the world and now in our own land we hear of the loss of men and women serving in our armed forces on our own military bases.

It seems very clear that the covering of the Lord's hand of protection is being lifted off parts of the US military (and other parts of this nation.) Italics indicate something I added.

What then can we do as "concerned citizens of the USA?"

NOTHING! Absolutely nothing can change what is happening.

There is no power or authority as a US citizen to move the hand of God. 

Yet time and time again I encounter those who are expending great energy seeking to change and repair the breach.

The only authority that can affect the "breach" is what we have in Jesus Christ as we walk in Him. How many of us would want the "breach closed" that allows our soldiers to die without changing the heart of America,  leading her into yet further destruction?

The Breach that allowed 12 killed and 31 wounded at Food Hood Texas on my 64th birthday (Nov. 5, 2009) is a wake up call to this nation.  Its a  high price a whole generation or two is paying for being at war; PTSD, TBI, physical injuries, death suicides, domestic violence..and much more.

The wake up call is to help us see our helplessness and turn to God instead of war to deal with the control and protection  of the world's oil supply, to deal with our health care needs instead looking to the government, and to help us learn of the value of trusting God and sacrifice rather than going into debt for provision.

The Breach is  not an administration issue,

This is not a right vs wrong issue or a

Christians against Muslim issue,or 

Evil versus good.

It is simply a God issue.  Will we trust Him to be in control?

Will we follow his leading or will we be focused on every other issue and be consumed by it?

Many of the legislative issues in states and in the courts have stirred national awareness.

These are not in themselves the issue: They are wake up calls to America that we are losing our freedoms because we are out meeting our own needs with men/women, drugs, food, clothing and religious issues of all kinds instead of God Himself..

While we rally around legislative and court issues as if they were the problems, Christian marriages are failing daily as men and women are caught in pornography and online sex and caught up in other sexual lies and deceptions. Yet we as Christians dare to speak to the world and gay community when our own houses are filled with similar garbage?

Wake Up! The house is falling down around us and we fail to see that it is our house, the house that we built. It is not the gays or the administration or government or Islam or China. It's our foundation that isn't laid; its our cornerstone that isn't in place. 

We are to be salt and light and yet our salt has lost its savor because of exposure we chose to all the things in the world that we love more than God.

The  light of our lives is dimmed by the deteriorating walls and ceilings of the structures we have built to protect ourselves instead of being built on the foundation of Jesus Christ and being furnished and equipped by Him the builder and furnisher of faith.

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Dec. 2, 2015

2 Chronicles 7:14   speaks to His People who are called by His Name...not to the world, not to secular governments...

God has issued many wake up calls since the Ft. Hood incident. Just today 14 more killed in San Bernadino and many more injured and last week it was in another place.  

My Brother and Sisters we who call ourselves Christians: there is a price to be paid to respond to the wake up call...and attending another big conference isn't the answer though it may stir a few folks to go home and begin to let God do the work that He is calling and pressing us to let Him do in us....yep..in us, you and I.

It isn't enough to name His name, Yes, He is PAPA and the most powerful name on earth is Jesus, the Christ the Son of the living God, but we are being called to be conformed to HIS IMAGE....from the inside out......so that His nature and character are formed in us so that we can be used of him to destroy on the earth the works of the enemy who is seeking to take over this nation and much of the world.  We ,each of us, were created to be so shaped and formed as we walk in Christ that He would be enabled to be in and through us something unlike anyone else...and together we would form a body that working in 2s and 3s could accomplish things never accomplished on earth before.  

As a friend of mine said today ISIS is doing God's work on earth.........destroying many of the Christian idols, things Christians have looked to rather than to the Lord God Himself.  Why?  If Christians won't repent of their idolatry then God will use the enemy to destroy those things that are keeping his people from looking to him. When God uses the heathen to accomplish His will it is usually because His Chosen ones have gotten deaf and blind and He knows it would take some major destructive force to awaken them to once again cry out to Him, hear His voice and in the fear of the Lord God Almighty to surrender the control of their lives to Him.

America's security is being eroded day in and day out and the breaches have created a "city without secure walls."  So it seems  this has happened because much of the "Christian world" no longer knows the walls and protection of His Presence and Power because we have chosen something else for our provision and protection.

OUR GOD desires that those who are called by His name be so shaped and formed by His hand through the circumstances of their lives and the leading of His Spirit that they could and would participate in bringing the will of God as it is in heaven into earth's realm and circumstances. That wake up call still awaits us on December 2, 2015.....His Spirit is still moving, still calling. Yes, the price is getting higher and higher and the time getting shorter and shorter....but the purpose of God still awaits those who will participate in it.  Where will you be found today?

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

No Beggars in the Kingdom

No Beggars in the Kingdom  by Meri Ford

I read this post by David Orton yesterday afternoon...and it helped put in place something that had been stirring in my spirit since I had heard a sermon talking about us being "beggars at the cross." I will post this article and then add more of my thoughts.

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" … beginnings determine endings. We have started with man and therefore we end with man. We have bought the line that goes something like this, “Jesus came to die for our sins; therefore our mission as the church is to get this message out to the world.” You say, “Sounds fine to me, what’s wrong with that?” The problem is, it’s the part and not the whole. Paul in his farewell message to the elders of the church in Ephesus declared that he had not neglected to teach them “the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27 NASB). As we will see in a moment, rescuing man from the Fall and its horrific effects is partof God’s purpose and not the whole. Even so, experience of contemporary church life tells us the part has become the whole. We have taken the Fall of man and his resulting condition as God’s starting point. God, therefore, sent His Son to save man. Consequently, He and the church exist to help our recovery. God Himself is domesticated—He is repackaged as the “heavenly therapist” whose main assignment is to help us on the road to recovery. Therefore, man and his rescue from the damage and dysfunction of sin becomes central to God’s purpose in history. But is this true apostolic Christianity? Is it really God’s starting point?

Paul provides the answer when he describes God as “the Father, from whom all things came” (1 Corinthians 8:6). Our starting point is not found in the Fall, in the human condition, but in God the Father, from whom all things come (Eph 1:3-5, 11). Regardless of what our stance may be on predestination, one thing is clear—God’s saving intent did not begin at the Fall, but in the Father before time began—“before the creation of the world.” This makes the Father the determining factor of history, not the Fall. God begins in Himself—in His own nature and will, not in the human situation: “In the beginning God” (Gen 1:1)."

Excerpt from  "Snakes in the Temple: Unmasking Idolatry in Today's Church"
Snakes in the Temple: Unmasking Idolatry in Today's Church was re-released in September 2015 in the USA for worldwide distribution through Destiny Image. 

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More of Meri's thoughts:

Some time ago someone shared a dream that went like this, and I may have referred to this before also. A man was standing before the throne of God and he was begging God for something...pleading with him..Please God, I beg of you..... And God motioned for someone to come into the room...and a large soldier in full regalia came in and followed Gods order to take the beggar out and put him in chains.  God was asked, Why are you doing this?  And God replied. There are NO BEGGARS in my Kingdom. All my children are MY SONS, they have inherited all that I have and am. They have no need of begging.

I continually hear people begging God in prayer for healing and deliverance...and I must admit at times I have prayed similarly and may well have for many years of my life...If only God, you would do such and such.....

Orton's message is that while we begin at the cross...we don't live there. We live as FULLY ADOPTED SONS OF THE FATHER!!  "Our Father."   Imagine how it hurts the Father's heart when we have access to all that the Father is and has, to come begging as if we were not His Sons.  Even the prodigal who was willing to take the role of a servant having squandered away his "inheritance"  was restored to full status as a beloved son of the Father, in whose eyes the son had never lost that status. And the Elder Son  didn't understand his own inheritance and his status with His Father  either or he too would have welcomed the prodigal brother recognizing the graciousness of His Father's love and the nature of their common inheritance.

So where does that leave us who have grown up in the evangelical and charismatic or even the sacramental churches?  Perhaps what it tells us is that like David Orton says...we've just seen a part of what God has for us IN CHRIST JESUS.   The congregation that I have been attending is very evangelical oriented and nary a service where an invitation to accept Jesus isn't given. And it is a growing congregation in numbers.  They truly love the Lord.  Yet I sense that as David Orton says....there is something missing....Our identity as a Much Beloved Son of the Father....

True...some of us are babes...just coming to the knowledge that Jesus is our Saviour....and just born again of the Spirit...without having much idea of what downpayment on our inheritance the Holy Spirit brings into our life...much less what that "inheritance" is all about.

But are we discipling the babes...that they might grow up as Sons of the Father walking in the provision that is theirs, or are they still under guardians....the law....instead of being skilled and trained to understand all it means to be a Son and to "do the works of the Father"?

A friend this morning told of a lady in her bible study group that sometimes the others in the group want to choke because she frequently "interrupts" with a comment...but a comment my friend said that has weight and bearing and one you never forget.  And I know the feeling that woman must sense and at times thought some in the groups I have been in would prefer I didn't say a word.  I often wonder too how often "my words live on"...how much of the Spirit of God empowered them to be heard time and time again perhaps in other dimensions of people's lives?  Where are the teachers that understand God's word when it says when the Spirit is moving...one who is speaking is to YIELD  to another that the Spirit is moving on?  Oh but we have agendas and a leader will say I have a sermon and a lesson to teach and only 45 minutes before the sermon is to be over..... Scripture doesn't say that does it?  Yes, there is order, but I have wonderfully noticed that Holy Spirit's order is often not what congregations put into place. God's order says the one speaking YIELDS to another one stirred by the Spirit....while our church  rules of "order" are the so different...you wait until one is done to share something or check it out with leadership before speaking....NOT GOD"S WAY......ouch!!!  Does it mean we can be polite and not intrusive? Of course...but we will "interrupt" when the Spirit moves us regardless of Roberts or the Boards rules of order!!

Sons function so differently than servants.  Little children that don't know how much their parents have provided for them, beg and throw temper tantrums not realizing the provision that is already made for them.   How often we discipline kids who beg and throw temper tantrums because they are uncomfortable for us!How often to we explain to them who THEY are and what is provided for them not only by their parents but by our Father?   Oops...seems I didn't know this stuff when I raised kids....and at almost 70 I am just learning about my "inheritance" and who I am and who Christ is in me....and what Papa has provided for me because of Christ in me!!

I warn you reading this....this understanding will mess up your current way of responding to people in more ways than I can explain!!  All those religious, social good deeds  that we do are "not wrong"...but they will begin to look differently when you see those we "serve" as fellow sons of the Father...all a part of the family, brothers and sisters.  What do I see when I see you? Do I see my Father's daughter or son and all the love He has for me and  you?

I don't want to get into issues of the meaning of judgment...but the minute we fail to see others as equal recipients of God's love as our Father...we are no longer seeing each other as recipients of His power and authority in Christ Jesus....otherwise known as Grace.....we don't deserve to have Christ live in us....Him living in us and us in Him is not deserved....but that power in us, that Life of Christ in us IS GRACE....grace isn't something...it is the undeserved Life of Christ living in us and me in Him......manifested in whatever behavior that come out of that trusted relationship.

A close apostolic friend of mine is forever "harping"  (used generously) on the Fear of the Lord.   When we understand God's Grace is LIFE itself which Is Christ in Us....we will begin to understand the "fear of the Lord" and what it means to be alive....and apart from HIm, the life of Christ in us is DEATH......there is no Life apart from the power of God in us and in this world. That is the GOOD NEWS that it is available TO ALL...Jew and Gentile..male and female, green and yellow black and white...human beings....WE ARE SONS of the FATHER....we lost our awareness of being sons as we joined Adam's progeny in DIY activities.  We have been restored to SonShip IN CHRIST JESUS!!   It isn't about begging at the cross...it even isn't about confessing my sins.........I will confess my failure to trust HIm when I SEE WHO HE IS....He has accomplished the full restoration/reconciliation of all of Adam's children in the second Adam  JESUS CHRIST>......THAT IS GOOD NEWS......not that my sins are forgiven and I'm going to heaven...BUT I am not long alone...having to fight for myself to survive...an orphan, lost and alone......BUT A FULL SON OF THE FATHER...the King of Kings and Lord of Lords....we are NOT to be found as beggars.  Healing is in Christ...I live in HIm, He lives in Me....I do need fathers here on earth to help me understand and be disciplined in the ways of my Heavenly Father....I need brothers and sisters who I see appropriating their inheritance and sharing it with others who have yet to realize who they are in the eyes of the Father.....

That means.....learning how to let God be God...to yield to the Holy Spirit...laying hands on the sick and healing them, raising the dead, casting out demons.....

Never do you see Paul saying God healed so and so...Paul healed the sick.....Paul is the Son of the Father....with the same power and authority of the Father. Learning HOW TO walk in that inheritance is another issue and I am just beginning to walk in even the awareness of it, and still gingerly laying on hands, praying into situations instead of praying for, speaking into situations instead of speaking about them.....

And dear friends............the economy where most of us live is not conducive to this kind of living....it is contrary to all the rules and regulations of man...BUT IT IS LOVE and Love is never "against the law of God.".....God is Love...my Papa, my Abba is Love, and we are being invited to walk in His Inheritance in the Saints....He wants His power and His authority to flow out to all those who are his sons that don't know it yet because we labeled them according to whether or not they knew this or knew that or acted this way or that.

God is calling out to us to Know Him and be Known of Him as our Papa...OUR FATHER, the privilege that is ours because of the cross....I am not a sinner saved by grace......I am a Son who was once a sinner until Grace Himself found me!!  Do I still sin? Of course....but my life now is in Christ and sin has no power to destroy my life in Christ...the guilt the shame, the destructive power of it is broken Once for All at the cross!!   

We died with Christ and may we rise to live our lives out daily, hourly in HIS RESURRECTION LIFE  made available to us by Holy Spirit joined with our spirits when we were born again of the Spirit of God....BORN AGAIN of the Father...even as man was in the beginning before the Fall....restored to Sonship.

Meri Ford

                    Meri
Ford 516 Park Rd Winlock, WA

                     98596
360 520 4503 Blogs

                     http://meriford.blogspot.com/

Trumpets

I came across this entry from last month in my journal this morning. May you hear what the Lord is saying to you as you read this post.  Meri Ford

August 23, 2015

God may use a trumpet to speak forth truth but do not follow the trumpet but rather seek to know the power that gave the trumpet voice.

In this hour we see true things being spoken by many political and religious spokesmen. We recognize that some of these things that are spoken forth are true.

This morning I was reading in Isaiah 22:9-10. They accurately saw “how many breaches there were in the City of David” so they tore some houses down to fortify the wall and protect their water supply.

HOWEVER, it pleased not the God of the Angel Armies, Adonai Elohim, Tzva'ot, the Lord God of Hosts, because they “didn't look to Him who made these things.” They “had no respect for Him who fashioned them long ago.” And the ruler in charge was building a fancy tomb/inheritance for his own image.

In a day when many voices are speaking, trumpeting forth in various ways what they see that is wrong in this nation as they surveyed this country's borders and economy, may we remember, it is not the trumpet we are to follow or applaud. What the trumpet sees may be true and then again it may sound discord. Either way, we are to look to the Lord God of Hosts who made the earth and all who dwell within it and who has redeemed the earth for His purposes.

It is likely men will, in the midst of the noise of the trumpets, miss the sweet little flute playing the melody of heaven amidst the clamour of the multitudes of competing trumpets all declaring true things they see and their recommended solutions.

In the Presence of God

From My Vantage Point looking out my window.....Meri Ford August 13, 2015

"For we are not, as so many, peddling the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as from God, we speak in the sight of God in Christ" (2 Cor. 2:17).

Another translation puts it...”we speak in the presence of God......”

This jogged my attention this morning. And got me to thinking of the recent David Orton piece that discussed the difference between the prophet and the prophetic minister saying something like the latter share a word from God, and the prophet speaks the word of God.

As NT Christians indwelt with the presence of God, when we speak, we truly speak in God's presence whether we realize it or not. What an awesome awareness or reality! Lately as I have traveled I have not been praying for God to be with me, etc. Rather I have been thanking Him for being there and for the angels which are there ministering “to the heirs of salvation.” As I learn to live in the Presence I see things differently.

This whole sense of what is real as Christ lives in us and we live in Him is changing so many of the ways I see things. Healing is seen in a whole different perspective as is so many other aspects of “life in Christ.” If I live in Christ and he lives in me, where is healing? I am gaining a fresh insight into Sabbath Rest! Learning to live daily on earth knowing Christ who is not just my healer but my healing and my health lives in me and I live in Him, my focus begins to be to rest in Him, to trust Him to be all that He is in and through me.

Some call this kind of thinking “kingdom thinking”....and it does seem to line up to that kind of definition as one learns to walk out day by day what is the reality it in the Heavens and learn to rule and reign here on earth in and out of the reality of who Christ is in me and who I am in Christ.

Someone shared a dream some time back a in which the man saw a man standing before God begging him for His blessings. God seemed to be ignoring the beggar as he pleaded with God for what he was wanting God to do for him. Then in walked what appeared to be a soldier in full dress uniform and weapons. He was greeted by the Lord and give orders to take the beggar out and kill him. The man observing this asked God why he had the beggar killed and God replied. There are no beggars in my kingdom. All that I have is given you.

Learning to not just mentally assent to my status as a son of the King, but learning to actually rest in the King and allow his life and power, wisdom and counsel to flow through me is somewhat of a new part of my journey with the Lord.

I've been following the saga of little Justus' fight for life at Children's Hospital in Portland through Pray for Justus #TeamJustus.(Pray For Justus #TeamJustus)  I have literally read posts of those who write saying they are begging God for healing for Justus!   My heart cringes and I weep realizing so many of us don't know yet the generosity of our Father. My heart has broken in prayer groups when I hear the beggar's cry from those who are so wanting the blessings of God's love in some way that they don't have. Almost as sad was hearing others affirm those beggar prayers as their own! I won't say much more other than I am just learning to walk in the security of His love and don't often see much “flow” of His supernatural nature “out of my own life” into situations. Granted I don't always “see” what is happening when I speak/pray into situations and rarely have those holy shivers that some have indicating God's Spirit is mightily at work. But in increasing manner I am learning to “let” God as I focus on things that I trust He's brought into my awareness that He is working in. Letting God often means a conscious focus on resting in Him and releasing who He is into a given situation sometimes by words but often just by total resting in Himself...knowing HE IS there.

I sit in services in congregations and am learning just how wonderful it is to be together with those who name the name of Jesus. That half don't really believe that God is among us, so what? I can rejoice that HE IS among us, that he is there and I don't have to plead or do some religious mechanics or sing so many worship songs to get Holy Spirit to be present. Yes, I may have to do some heart work to quiet myself so as to become aware that HE is there and to allow Him to not just “be there” but be in me all He is and to be in the midst of His people all he is.” And my “prophetic” nature can easily see everything that isn't what I think it ought to be rather than it can see what “Is”....and HE IS!!! In my current “assignment” I have been sent to a place to rest in Him and allow Him to be in the congregation what He wants to be. My focus is just on Him. Yes, it means sometimes seeing things that are out of alignment, but He sees them too and He has said He is at work, so I can truly rest in Him knowing He's told me He's in charge and He is doing what He wants to do as I rest in Him!! And that is the labor that I am expected to do...to labor to rest in him, casting down every thought (and as a prophetic I really have lots and mostly critical ones...grin!) that exalts itself before the throne of God...before what God wants and is doing in that place!!!

Where does this fit with “ask and keep on asking, knock and keep on knocking and it will be opened unto you?” Somehow I think this has more to do with our seeking Himself than “getting him to answer our prayers.” At the same time, I see my God doing stuff because of the generosity of His heart and not because we are in any “right order”. Does that change the fact that He's at work to bring us into maturity as His sons in Christ Jesus? I am reminded here that in various stages of our journey with Christ as we are being conformed to His image, God deals with us in different ways. Things I did when first filled with Holy Spirit in 1970s He will not find acceptable today. And He didn't expect me to do things I know He is doing today back in the 1970s.

As I read the many prayers for little Justus, I remember we are all in different stages of this journey. And there are “mature three year olds” and mature teen agers and then there are mature adults. I don't expect a mature three year old to be a mature adult! He is still at three year old!! But mature adults no longer act like three year olds. When I became a man a put away childish things. I can be conformed to His image as a three year old as well as a 70 year old.....doesn't mean I am perfected or you wouldn't see me still hanging around earth's corridors.

So as God looks at his body he surely sees us in the “stages of growth” that we are in. And He knows just what measure of Christ each is given to be conformed/filled with. (Thanks Mario Liu for that article on Stages of Growth!)

At the same time, my heart longs for us to begin to come together in new ways as members of His body, learning to allow Him to be and do through us what only He can do. How often we want Him to do something “separate” from his body. And sometimes it seems that he does...or does he only work where someone has gone before and prayed...maybe a grandmother or great aunt, or maybe someone prayed in the spirit in China for something God wanted to do in little Justus' life in Portland Oregon?

Part of this means learning what it is God is doing and what he wants to accomplish in a given situation versus what our human hearts long to see done.

From my vantage point looking out my window..........

Meri Ford

August 13, 2015

Light in the Darkness

The Light Shines in the Darkness

 March 31, 2015

What an exciting day we live in. For the promise is to us that as things get darker and darker in this world, Light will shine brighter..and those who walk in the light will shine brighter. However, we might also remember, that when Light shines in the darkness, there are those who prefer their deeds they do in the darkness more than the responsibility of living in the Light and the freedom it gives. Light always brings separation from the darkness and shows a way out for those that want to walk out.



Years ago I had a dream and in that dream I was reminded, don’t fight the darkness, just SHINE. The greatest thing we can do in this day as it seems the darkness is enveloping the earth and especially this nation in the minds and attitudes of men is to let our Light shine and not put it under a bushel. Yes, the Light doesn't come to bring peace, but it comes as a sword to cut through the darkness even as a laser cuts through the object it shines on and through. For as many as are looking for a way out of the darkness that envelops their lives, Light will be seen as a Saviour and a big Exit sign which gives Hope and a Future for God still has a plan for those that are even now seemingly trapped in darkness of mind and deed and understanding.




Let us not be seen attacking the darkness but shining the light of God grace and mercy and even more so His Power to deliver as many as desire to escape the bondage of darkness. So great is the power of Light…of Him who said He was the Light and the Life of men and that we who believe in Him are the Light of this world that we live in. And his name is Yeshua the Christ, the Son of the Living God…the full image and reflection, the fullness of the Godhead personally….

A View From History

March 19, 2015  

     I don't often read books that are considered top sellers, but for Christmas I bought several copies of Killing Patton for friends and my husband, people who tend to read that type of books. My husband hadn't spent much time reading it and I figured I could read it before he got back to reading it.  After all, didn't want it to go unread after I spent money on it. LOL!

     Even though I was a history/political science major in college, I can't say that I knew much about WWII other than what I have seen in the movies and from glimpses of things I've picked up over the years. Reading this book is like being given a fresh perspective on the world's condition in 2015. I trust the Lord has a very specific purpose in my reading it. I have almost no stomach for violence and my husband knows I don't knowingly watch movies that have much violent content. As a babe in arms, my folks went to see South Pacific and got to the theater before the first movie was over.  Some of you will remember they often had a war movie on before the second feature which was the prime feature. Such was the case that night.  Despite the fact that I was in my father's arms, I was so wiped out by the war scenes that I screamed and screamed. And still so affected by the end of the war movie, I seemed to have found everything in the beginning of South Pacific to be terrifying  including when the main actor was singing and walking through the corn field.

     So my sensitivity to the brutality that is recorded in Killing Patton is rather heightened along with the prediction of the future of relationships with Russia that are so clearly defined in the book.   This brings me to make a few points which the book has stirred in my mind:

     ISIS or ISIL is not a new phenomenon and it's savagery is little different from what I read that the Germans and the Russians did during WWII, and which sadly, on some occasions American soldiers also did. As we listen to the news today, I realize ISIS is little different from many of the Middle Eastern soldiers fighting against ISIS or what other armies throughout history have done in war.  They are fighting for supremacy and such at attitude always justifies the use of whatever necessary force or brutality to secure personal and military supremacy. When you combine that with the religious fervor that is present on both the Sunni and Shia sides, nothing is outside the real of possibility.Such an attitude opens the door, no matter the nationality, to the forces of evil to come in and inhabit a person and feed them with the insatiable desire for conquest both of individuals and nations at any expense.  Maybe I am a latecomer to this knowledge, but to be frank, I had not seen the ISIS issue as a common aspect of humanity which we are now seeing also in the Iraqis and Iranian forces battling ISIS. We have already seen some of this in the Syrian forces with their use of gases and other type of control mechanisms used to destroy the power of human resistance.  It doesn't take much to look back through history as I have been doing to see this isn't anything new, though today perhaps is more publicized and ultimately affecting much more of humanity due to the modes of travel and communication we have in the 21st Century. As I reread what I have written, I wonder when I  realize that an American military leader might be similarly disposed to deal with the American people if they were to rebel and threatened the supremacy of the ruling powers of this nation and/or global economy.

     Another point which reading this book has stirred in my understanding is something  General Patton said;  "Keeping our forces intact. Let's keep our boots polished, bayonets sharpened, and present a picture of force and strength to these people. This is the only language they understand and respect.  If you fail to do this, then I would like to say that when we have had a victory over the Germans we have lost the war."  He was of course referring to the Russians, for he understood that even as now,"they were relentless in its quest to control as much of Europe as possible, with Stalin taking full advantage of Dwight eisenhower's timidity. The Russians are seizing more land, and more people are coming under their occupation."  (page 260 Killing Patton) And we can see today that this is true, and that even today in the face of the timidity of the West, that the Russian bear is creeping into much of the area that it formerly held, led by a man who headed the KGB during the Cold War, an agency known to do the most vilest of atrocities to those who it disliked or that it distrusted, behavior which still is being engaged in today in the secrecy which only such totalitarian leadership can maintain.

     Another thing I found to be most intriguing was the comparison that Patton made of himself to King David.  While Patton was very much of a vulgar man in many ways, arrogant, and self-centered, he had a standing dependence upon The Almighty as he referred to Him, regularly seeking His direction and help in time of battle. And according to this book, and Patton's journal, the Almighty regularly was involved in the battles that Patton engaged in, not always in the way Patton expected!  Some of the military strategies that were so successful were often given in specific and full detail in dreams which Patton attributed to The Almighty.  

     How this stirs me in amazement at the nature of our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!  Patton regularly relied upon the Lord, cried out to Him, shared his heart with Him, and not just the good stuff but much of the behavior which he himself knew was not godly he shared with the Almighty.  And Patton made great enemies of those that had goals other than the success of the overall success of the Allies.  While Patton was an egotist and wanted the honor that he thought he deserved, he wasn't a compromiser and paid a high price for being a man who spoke truth.  That isn't to say he didn't lie at times, for which there were always some consequence which he acknowledged at times.


     As I read this book, I was also amazed at the similarity to the news broadcasts/media  of the time of WWII and what we have today and the lack of "truth" that comes forth.  I realize that much of politics is like sausage, you don't want to see the process by which it is made.  And the end product is what most human beings want to hear, not the ways that it was achieved or lost.

    So what are my conclusions as I come to the end of this commentary?  The time of the enemy is drawing close to an end and there is an acceleration of his plan to establish a global  kingdom on this earth. And much of what we are seeing around the world today is the fulfillment of that goal that isn't going to be so different from the areas where the enemy of our souls got hold of governments and powers in days past, except it will be on a much wider, more global scale.  Similarly there is an acceleration of the refining of the Sons of God for their role in the Kingdom of Heaven for its rule and reign upon the earth one day. As darkness increases so does the value and ability to see even a small light in the increasing darkness.   

     God's  Kingdom was neither  in the Allies or Axis camp during WWII, nor is it ISIL or Iraqis or Iranian or USA or Russian.   The Kingdom of Heaven is within His people and they will shine as lights wherever they are and will stand as Light even amidst organizations that may embody the depths of darkness. And as we move on into the closing of this age, it behooves us as those who are called by His Name, to consider the ways of the Lord. For they surely are not the ways most of us as human beings have come to practice throughout history.  It is our nature as humans to criticize those who violate truth: men such as FDR who gave away much of Europe in compromise with the Russians, a price we are still paying today with a weak Europe.  We readily criticize government officials who are timid for one reason or another in the face of the onslaught of a religious fanaticism that is destroying lives around the world.  

     Yet, what are we as men and women who live in and dwell in Christ Jesus to be doing?  How do we proclaim Truth without criticizing and attacking those who differ in motivation and awareness from us?  I have been reading and rereading Jeremiah.  He didn't criticize the kings. He spoke only the Word of the Lord. He spoke what God said God was going to do.  Sometimes I wonder if we (I) hear the Word of the Lord good enough to be confident that we (I)  even know what God is doing?  This comes to a really sticky point when we talk about Israel today, so divided is the "understanding" of  the plan and purpose of God in relationship to Israel among even devout believers in Jesus Christ.  Yet, how much of it is our human understanding, even our "biblical" understanding and not the insight and "word of the Lord" as spoken and revealed to our hearts by Holy Spirit?

     As I close I call upon the name of Jesus, and ask  You, Father, that You give each of those who read this post a hunger to hear from You, and the desire to share their own heart with You, the good bad and the ugly, that  You might "know them", and empower them to lay down every aspect of their own understanding at the cross of Jesus Christ, that Your Word might find entrance to their minds and they might gain Your understanding to the praise of the name of Jesus that they indeed might shine as Light in a dark and evil world. Amen and Amen!

His servant,

Meri Ford

   

Meri Ford

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The Lord Weeps    Meri Ford   February 20, 2015

How often do folks wonder what the Lord is doing in a time like we are in when hundreds are being killed, beheaded and made a public spectacle by insolent rebels who kill and destroy in the name of a god unlike the Lord God?  Today as I was reading I came across this scripture that stirred my heart.

Jeremiah 13:15---

Listen and pay attention;don't be proud!

For Adonai has spoken:

Give Glory to Adonai your God

before the darkness falls,

before your feet stumble

on the mountains in the twilight

and, while you are seeking light,

he turns it into deathlike shadows 

and makes it completely dark.

But if you will not hear this warning,

I will weep secretly because of your pride:

my eyes will weep bitterly, streaming with tears,

because Adonai's  flock is carried away captive........

When he sets over you as rulers

those you trained to be allies,

what will you say?  Won't pains seize you

like those of a woman in labor?

And if you ask yourself

"Why have these things happened to me?"

It is because of your many sins

that your skirts are pulled up and you have been violated.

....

This is....the portion I measure out to you 

because you have forgotten me

and trusted in the lie.

I myself will lift your skirts above your face

and your privates will be exposed. 

On the hills and in the fields,

I have seen your abominations,----

your adulteries, your lustful neighings

your shameless prostitutions.

Woe to you................

You refuse to be purified!

Won't you ever allow it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many aspects of this seem so pertinent to the day we live in....

When he sets over you as rulers, those you trained to be allies?  

How often must we see this played out

in the Middle East before we realize something is amiss in these United States of America? How many more 

and questionable behaviors must be exposed before we realize and repent of our wicked and evil ways? We 

whine a complain about the corruptness and lies that come from government but have you looked on the

streets of any city today to see the corruption in the hearts and minds of the people?  Look at the movies, at the book

stores, at the pot shops and liquor stores and the porn stores?  Do we think that the Lord God doesn't see our

idolatries and our lustful behaviors.  It is true, we can no more change our wickedness than a leopard can change its spots as Jeremiah 13: 23 says, but the Lord God can work change in our lives through Holy Spirit as we are willing to give Him the praise and honor due the creator of the Universe, the one who holds the stars in place, the one who controls the four winds and sets boundaries for the sea that it cannot cross.  

We whine and fuss over health care and advertise our idolatries, one of which in America is our health and our lives. We are fitness and health food junkies thinking we can live one more day and fight the battle against inevitable death. As a result we have put into place the most primitive, abusive, controlling legislation to replace God as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord our Healer. He is our Life and in Him we have no fear of death. Yet we in America are so afraid of death and the dying process that we have opened the door for oppressive legislation that is in many ways is becoming the undoing of Americans.  Yes,,,,our skirts are being pulled up and we are being violated...and the Lord God says, I myself will lift your skirts above your face and your privates will be exposed.  

Prophetic word after prophetic word have gone forth the last ten years saying that He was going to bring to the surface hidden sins and the rottenness that is buried in the lives of this nation and the corruptness that is in the halls of our legislature and halls of justice and in the houses of worship. And we read about it daily in the paper and point our fingers at those "wicked" people. Yet they are just a mirror of the condition that we all find ourselves in apart from Himself, Adonai, Jehovah Jesus!!

And why? They would not give the honor and respect to the Lord God that belongs to Him, but chose to use their energies to meet the needs of their own pride and lusts.  And so it is with all of us apart from living and having our dwelling IN CHRIST.

He welcomes all who come to Him, who believe that because of the blood of Jesus, The Lord God sees us as His Sons, the object of His eternal love.  He longs to pour out the greatness of His love and power upon His people. But to those who choose not to honor Him, they will receive the fruit of their worship, the benefits of the gods they serve, which is nothing less than death and destruction.

 And what with the Eternal wise God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ be doing while all this is happening?

He will be weeping "secretly because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, streaming with tears, because Adonai's flock is carried away captive."

We are the sheep of His pasture and He cares for us, but He also gave us a choice to either recognize the greatness of His love and provision and guidance or to operate out of our own lusts and pride and run our own lives, even when it means running them into the ground, exposing ourselves to unseen enemies. And while He is weeping over the condition of His people, He will at the same time be  lifting our skits over our faces and exposing our private parts, that we might turn to Him and be restored and set free to be the sons of God that we were created to be and walk in the fullness of everlasting love that never fails.  Our shortcomings don't change God any more than seeing our young children fall while taking their first steps would turn our hearts against our young children. So our Father God, is a God of mercy...not giving us what we deserve, and of grace, giving us the fullness of His love that we don't deserve because of the sacrifice of His own begotten Son Jesus whose blood serves as a covering for our sins once and for all, that we might be seen as the perfect son of His Love!!

As the day grows dim and we continue to enter the darkness of this day, may we be reminded that He is Light, in Him is Light and in Him is no darkness. All the darkness that is in our souls and lives will flee as the Light of His Eternal Love shines into our hearts as we are willing to receive Him and honor Him...as the All Mighty, All knowing,seeing, Eternal, Every present God!

Meri Ford   February 20, 2015