Asleep in Babylon

This was sent to me by my good friend Ray Ashmore who teaches at a seminary in Charlotte NC.

Hello folks. This is on a blog by one of my former students and minister, Kyle Fuller. Profound. But not understood by those who are sleep.

ASLEEP IN BABYLON by Kyle Fuller

Asleep in Babylon, they dream.  As the words of the Apostles and Prophets come alive around them, they dream on.

They are oblivious to the beginnings of the stirring of the beast, and the cry of, “Come out of her my people, and do not partake of her sins.” is but an echo of His voice meant for some generation long ago.

The days of the Spirit have ceased, and God no longer speaks. All that remains is to sleep, and wait for the gospel to permeate the world. It’s easy to ignore the writing on the wall when you’re convinced you know everything.

“Take the book and open the seals.”

Asleep in Babylon, they dream. Conferences and impartations, trivial pursuit is such a deadly game. They dream on.

Who is gonna reform the Reformers? Tired arguments, stale rhetoric, and doctrinal clichés doom the next generation to invent heresies. They know something is missing, but to admit what It is would blow their theology. Lullabies are plentiful in Babylon.

Institutionalized, mesmerized, idealized- It’s over guys! Yet, it’s business as usual, sleepwalking on the deck of the Titanic. There has to be some way to save all that we have built.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”

Asleep in Babylon, they dream. If you ignore the riders on their horses maybe they’ll just go away. They dream on.

Wholesale slaughter, a loaf of bread for a days wage, deception, war, and pestilence abound. You better not touch my Chick fil a. The world is on fire. I wonder if they have an app for that.

IPhones, ringtones, a trumpet blast, and we’ll all be gone, ‘cause you know God wouldn’t let his people suffer. Hey, our worship team just got a smoke machine. That’ll go great with the angel feathers and the glory cloud!

“I find your deeds incomplete in the sight of my God.”

Asleep in Babylon, they dream. I heard Jesus came back Saturday night. Never mind that; services start tomorrow at eleven.

The flow August 6, 2014

Date: Aug 6, 2014 11:19 AM

Hi Guys, I have so many questions and I hope that some of you will have some input to my questions about what I call "flow". Some people may describe what I am calling "flow or flows" as the different currents of the anointing of the Lord. that each of us bring as we gather together with the brethren.  I am not asking about the specific "flow of Holy Spirit" that moves through a body at any given time and location at least not in the beginning of this email. I noticed that when I was at the recent conference, that I seemed to be "coming from" or "moving in" a flow of expression that wasn't really common or known among the group I was with.  I am thankful that it was "welcomed" and on two occasions "invited" particularly.  My hands move a lot when I worship before the Lord and sometimes i know that the Holy Spirit is doing things for I am given understanding at times when I see Him wrapping his hands around people, sometimes see things broken, and I notice my hands will make sudden movements when things are spoken forth and at times I almost feel like a conductor, moving with some synchronization with music and the spoken Word both, though my hands do it, and it doesn't come from my understanding.  A lady shouted  with what I learned later was called a  war cry and my left hand spontaneously shot up as if cutting through the air.  I have sat during sermons and found my hands in my lap keeping the rhythm of the message and if that "flow" of the message stopped so did my hands. Some of these things are illuminating my understanding to some of the ways of the Holy Spirit. I was surprised when during the first evenings meeting I was asked to stand beside the speaker...I felt like I was on exhibition....but it was the Lord's way of saying....you are a part Meri...they are recognizing that I am working through you. Another time, a speaker, a precious bible teacher, looked at me and told me that I was "welcome" to do whatever anytime, that what I was doing was blessing to her. I think my hands had punctuated something she had said. It was almost like someone had said Amen! Ok, so what's the point of this post.  I am just asking for some of your insight into how we come together from different "expressions" of the move and power of Holy Spirit.   I was among some in Portland that moved in this same type of expression and the young woman next to me told me that I was "throwing fireballs" into certain locations and she had actually seen the fireballs land and knew the names of the towns where they landed!   News to me!!since I had no understanding of some of the actions that I was yielding to.  This young woman was also moving in this same "flow" which was nice for me as I didn't feel so weird.  She had a name for this type of "anointing" as she called it which would be a "flow" or "anointing" that was once upon one of the great men of God of another generation here in Washington State. One of the things that came forth in this conference was the concept of "holding the anointing". And learning to not just let the "emotion" that flows with the anointing at times to move us to action.  Training us "in the Spirit"....by the Spirit as we walk in fellowship with one another in the power of the Spirit. Boy do I know that I have sooooooooooooo much to learn about the Lord as His manifest presence rests upon a group!!! I am so thankful that the leader of this conference is a gentle woman who has a heart for teaching and training and nourishes as much as possible and doesn't "come down hard" on the children.  Reminds me of that scripture that says to parents to not be hard on your children...to not provoke them to anger. I wonder how many pastors and leaders have been hard on their congregants instead of providing leadership and training and the experience to fail and learn through doing? And again...when one gathers with saints in different parts of the country, one enters into the things that the Lord has been teaching and training them, which ultimately will harmonize with what He is doing in other parts IF we have learned Him and know His ways,  which is again, a process. The group that I was with have been taking back some of the things in our culture that the enemy has taken over and filled up with himself and his wicken minions  We know that in years past that many of us old timers  had great checks in our spirits about the "natural products" and 'natural ways" of doing things because we saw the extremes that the enemy had used and how the enemy had "hooked" people on things and got their focus on them away from the Lord God.   So we the body of Christ, then turned our back on thoses areas because we saw the devil's influence.  I still remember a dear friend who was into organic and natural foods 30 years ago. And I do believe she got her focus on those things and looked to them in a way that took her eyes off Jesus. And many of us thought the enemy's hold was intrinsic to the nature of the things...rather than a heart condition.   Today we know Holy Spirit is stirring many of us about our diets, the foods we eat and how they do or don't affect our bodies. And any of us that He is speaking to us about, know too well, how we can 'get off focus" and onto the stuff...in most any area of our lives!      Many today in the body are becoming aware of the role essential oils have played throughout history and how the physical body particularly responds to various oils differently.  Oils were used in various dimension in this conference and many of us had some real questions as they were introduced.  But the focus was ALWAYS JESUS....each oil used, only caused us to see Jesus and His desire to penetrate our physical bodies and our souls....the oils were often used as "anointing oils" so to speak...but knowing HE IS THE ANOINTED ONE. There was a session on Reflexology....yikes....many of us went to it with our walls of protection from the enemy UP HIGH! But we also let our discernment loose and several of us knew we "found our way in Christ" through the things that were shared. Yes, there are traps....but for every highway I have taken, there are pot holes, potential accidents, and tons of vehicles that could run into me or I into them....but that doesn't mean I am not to travel that highway as the Lord leads me. For some, the things introduced in the conference and in the days ahead will not "be profitable."  And each of us have areas of weakness where  we must be aware of the Lord's leading. There are things I can do others can't..things the Lord has told me not to do, that others are free and do under the leading of Holy Spirit.   Doesn't make them right and me wrong!!  or the things right or wrong. Our life is in Jesus! I really would like to have some of you share with this list your own experiences in being among those who express themselves differently and some of your own experiences in learning how to respond and react to the different ways Holy Spirit flows through meetings.   I talked with a precious teacher..Mary Sue Davis and her husband and they both told how as they went through graduate school (PhD)...the group that studied their "theology" with was a working group operating in the power of the Holy Spirit and they were practicing and learning through the very things that they were being taught.  Several of the group had the privilege of being in small group fellowships where they had freedom from religious norms and structures to move in the power of holy Spirit...and learn His ways. And some of these type of people were our speakers and leaders of this gathering.   Last year i attended a small gathering in Montana that had many mature saints and that moved together. I sure had a whole lot of not comfortable lessons to learn on a functioning level to work in harmony and in unity with those I didn't know and the ways Holy Spirit worked through them.  It was a process of me being conformed to Him as He moved and revealed himself in the saints. Please share with us some of your own struggles and understandings... 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

Our Response July 21, 2014

Our Response  July 21, 2014

Recently I was on a forum on the internet and I was greatly  pleased to hear the response of one of the leaders. It went like this: the group was invited to speak into one of the guest leaders life. A woman shared something and the guest leader's immediate response was: "Nope that doesn't fit."   The main leader then without adoo said to the guest something close to, "Here we say Thank You and move on."

In the recent months I have seen more and more of my inability and that of my fellow Christians to know how to respond in love to our fellow human beings.   Having some what of a prophetic bent in my life, I have tended (ha) to see things black or white, right or wrong, things fit or they don't fit.  And that has always been my focus of response and interaction with other people....seeing things through my "filter of right and wrong" or some other standard by which I am measuring what someone says or does.

I was so blessed to hear Jim Mellard on the Firestorm Forum mentioned above  quickly redirect response to one of the forum participants by saying,  here we say "Thank you and move on!"  The truth of this is, that if we quickly say NOPE, that doesn't fit, we have filtered what someone told us through our understanding most likely and not received it in a way that would allow Holy Spirit to stir something up in us beyond our understanding.  Oh how we like "our own understanding."

Part of me wants to scream and say...but what if it is wrong?    What if it doesn't fit?   And what I am learning is that it really makes no difference whether we think something is right or wrong if we have not "received another person."   To immediately respond to someone out of our own sense of "standards" is to be "impersonal" and to function as I have said many times, out of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  It may be true but it isn't Truth, for Truth Himself is loving and kind above all else "receives" the person with honor and dignity. And if I do this, I miss Truth Himself who is Love, and never receive HIm into my life to deal with whatever was said.

I quickly admit to you that this still is not always my first line of response.   When my husband says something, I am quick to put in "my opinion" even before he asks for it, before I express appreciation for the fact that he has shared something with me.   My focus tends to be on "what" he shares rather than focusing on the person who shared.   Yet most of us know when we are talking to someone whether they 'see us' or not.   Acknowledgment of ones person is something that the heart of every human being aches  for and it doesn't come naturally.   At the same time, I know people who put on the facade of acceptance because it is a prescribed behavior in the social field they work and that too often leaves people with a hollow feeling.   I am asking the Lord to "change my heart" so that I see people as He sees them!   

Recently I posted something out on Facebook and I noticed I got the same kind of response that most other people who post things of "substance" often get.  Either approval or disapproval of what is said.   And, yes, I tend to be guilty of same.   I did get one response that was a stark disagreement of what I said and I found myself easily thanking her for sharing her opinion.   It kind of tickled me because it is starting to come out without me having to process the thought...thank you Jesus.

Another interaction that I have come across lately is another thing so very similar to what I have just discussed,  that messes up our relationships both with our fellow Christians and others.   Have you ever considered as a Christian, what it means if you repeatedly tell someone you don't understand what they are saying after repeated effort on their part to clarify what they are saying?

Again....in this kind of response, we have first of all rejected the person who has shared something we don't understand. We have put "our understanding" above our appreciation for someone sharing something with us whether I understand it or not.  And as I have come to understand human defense mechanisms, to say repeatedly, I don't understand  is nothing more than a mechanism that keeps me from accepting the fact that I really don't want to seek out the understanding and can put the responsibility for explaining on someone else.  Frees me from the guilt and shame of not knowing something AND blocks any sense of responsibility for seeking the Lord to gain understanding.    A person can very graciously thank a person for their effort to explain something to them, and then take the responsibility of seek the Lord for understanding,  especially if it is in reference to something in ones own life.

This is not the mentality of the home I grew up in or that I raised my children in.  Things were right and wrong and it was so declared. And it is no wonder my son at ten years old told me one day that I was very judgemental.   I so clearly hear that 30 some years later and have thanked the Lord that sometime over those years He has revealed my judgmental heart to me and invited me declare it dead and paid for and to know His heart as He reveals it by Holy Spirit in me.

You can quickly hear this kind of relationship response  on any major  issue before us today...the issue of the war in Gaza, same sex marriage issues, and many more.  We are quick to disagree. Don't you realize MY OPINION is THE most important thing?  If I were Ray Ashmore I'd have some great quip to put in here...but will have to wait for him to share one with us!  The most important thing is not me or my opinion but the person to whom I am talking or who is talking to me.  And that takes a work of the Lord to work in us.And it  is much more than simple social skills, though they aren't too bad of a beginning any more than good manners are.  It took me a long time to understand good manners were about loving those at the table and presenting myself in an "undisgusting" manner by not slopping food up off my plate with my tongue, or drooling over the food, or eating with my fingers like an animal.  It isn't "law"...it is grace. It is presenting oneself in a manner that treats those at the table with you with worth and value instead of as dogs and animals...or as I often say, pigs.  Now if it comes to which fork and which spoon in the right order...that might be beyond the fundamentals of the value of manners!! That is socially correctness which may not have anything to do with love. Now that was a nice rabbitt trail! 

How often would you say, that those of you who attend services and who happen to still have a pastor standing at the door after service, have told the pastor that was a "great sermon?"   We love accolades and we love to give them without realizing most of what we share are traditional ways of expressing judgments.  Would you ever tell your pastor that it was a "bad sermon?" NO...because that would be judgemental...yet that is just a negative on your scale of standards while "good" means someone was on the upper positive side of your standards. Is it any less judgemental?   And any less impersonal? Of course not!

 How hard it is for us to be personal and express our appreciation for the preaching of the Word, for the pastor, without expressing a judgement?  The result of "good sermon" is to in many ways, ignore the messenger.   And how quickly we kill the messenger when the message isn't to our liking?  We do this  because we live with the filter of our own standards and opinions in front of our eyes instead of seeing Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  

The other side of this is addressing sin and error. But that is "the other side" and not pertinent to what I have mentioned here. That is left for another day and maybe another spokesperson.

May you seek the Lord for His insight and His wisdom and let his Light shine as it pertains to the things that are shared here.

Meri Ford

Meri Ford
516 Park Rd
Winlock, WA 98596
360 520 4503
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