Monday's Musings  from Meri Ford  March 6, 2016

With much talk of a fresh release of Holy Spirit across the USA, may we be reminded of a few things that come from those who work with the persecuted church.

It is helpful to remember this theme from the book of Acts: persecution does not necessarily cause church growth but church growth appears to cause persecution! 

Paul clearly warns the church in Galatia (Galatians 5:1) to stand firm in the midst of freedom. Freedom is not a time to relax. Freedom often creates a new kind of slavery. There is a price tag attached to freedom and we need to count the cost. It is time to open our hearts to the valuable lessons that we can learn from those that follow Christ in restricted countries—even to their death.

from Open Doors Newsletter March 6, 2017

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As more believers allow God to change them and begin to understand the authority that is Christ in them, we should not be surprised at the opposition.  This isn't a battle, as I see it, between right and wrong.  This is the battle that began with the temptation of Eve and the seduction of Adam.  It  is the manifestation of the victory that also began when the Lord said Satan would crush the heel of the seed of woman but that Seed would crush the head of Satan.

Sometimes I think we in the USA are so focused on our freedom and the American Dream, that we miss the reality of what God is actually doing and the opportunities that lie ahead as Christians begin to bear testimony in face of the assaults  that  come from various manifestations of wickedness.  This is a time to lay hands on the sick and heal them...not pray for their healing!!!  It's time we learned to rejoice when we are persecuted instead of necessarily calling a time of prayer and fasting to restore the "status quo."  Oh, is that what we are doing............I really don't know but sometimes it looks like that.  Are we at times just asking God to "fix us"  "protect us"?  We all want to be the Daniel who was saved from the lions den instead of one of the multitudes of Christians  that died in the lions dens for the delight of the Romans  or those hung up and burned to light the pathway into Rome at night. Is it our American thinking that it's a lack of faith and lack of proper intercession that these things happen?

i know there are times, as scripture notes, that the congregation is to be called to pray and fast. However,  I see much of our national problems and the demonic assault on the government both in the present administration and it's ease of entry in the past administration as something that rises from the corruptness and idolatry of the local congregations who name the name of Jesus. Aren't these things which must be dealt with at the root? Will lopping off the top branches help? Perhaps, but generally it is like what happened with Al Qaeda...lopping it's head off just created more heads and allowed it to seemingly regroup and actually become stronger since  its roots weren't cut. There was no severing of its access to resources and finances and the open borders around the world that allow its followers to move freely across borders in Europe and elsewhere. 

If we don't want these endemic attacks against the present Administration, then perhaps we must start at the roots and get rid of the idols from the ground up. Few are the people who even care about Harry Potter these days and yet the out and out witchcraft that is taught and portrayed in those movies, written by one who admits she does so with a spirit guide, has fueled a generation who now are doing protests like we've rarely seen and  young men and women who now are prey to vicious forces that lie quietly behind the scenes pulling their strings.  

While a few  folks are now beginning to speak up about Disney productions with their blatant TV commericals,  how many Christians kids sing the songs of Frozen and other children's programs that talk about curses and spells which go back even to my childhood to stories with curses and witches which scared the daylights out of me as a child and yet no one really wondered why?   How long has this undercurrent of idolatry and witchcraft been growing in the foundation of the "American way of life and gaining a stronghold in the congregation of the Lord?

Scripture says the ax is laid to the root.  Are we not called to speak Life and Light into situations where  where things are the darkest  and in the presence of that which the Word says is already defeated? Hopefully it is just a matter of words....but there is no competition between MY GOD and his creation of stones that once was one of the great powerful angelic beings named Lucifer. What a paradox....resist not evil but resist the devil by STANDING IN CHRIST..........having first submitted to God and what His plan and purpose is concerning the devil in that circumstance.

We are seeing nasty things coming to the surface both in this society and in local congregations.  They are often hurtful, unexplained things.  In Mark 13  it says....be on guard that you aren't deceived, don't be anxious...be alert, don't be found sleeping....these things MUST happen.....we will be put out of churches, in other places we will be found in court and not always being triumphant in terms of legal justice but always triumphant in Christ.   The earth itself is going to quake and things will be shaken. There is little man can do about it overall but a whole lot we can do in the midst of it in preparation for what may come and making sure that we have clean hearts and renewed minds according to Christ Jesus.  In given places we might have some respite for a period of time...but this isn't about us...it isn't about this little piece of history....it is about HIM...the one WHO CONQUERED...the battle is won...it's our privilege to walk it out until the final day when He comes back and engages in that final battle.  

Your questions, comments and other discussion is welcomed.

Meri Ford  merifordrh@gmail.com

http://meriford.blogspot.com/

Meri's Musings even Ramblings for Nov. 6, 2016

This is a quote from a recent article by Chris Anderson called Finding Protections from Vulnerability to Government....which you probably can find using Google.

"Prayer for the leaders of the beast system is what gives us prophetic authority over the beast system as the Lord's forerunner. This is the Lord's answer to our natural vulnerability as sheep amidst wolves."  

God's ways are so simple and if we are to be the strong body that God has purposed then we will be participating as the Spirit directs us in His ways.  As we head into Thanksgiving I am reminded of yet another aspect of His ways.

This morning the message in the service where I attended covered the aspect of Thanksgiving as it relates to relationship. It was a fresh view to me....thanksgiving acknowledges a relationship with the person to whom thanksgiving is addressed, both when it occurs in human relationships and when it occurs in our relationship with our Father God.

On the other side of thanksgiving, there is what the speaker called "false thanksgiving."  While he didn't cover all the depths of this, he said "false thanksgiving" always comes back to me.  If we take the scripture out of context and see thanksgiving as something we give thanks "for things" I question whether it doesn't most often come back to me and "I".  Scripture on the other hand doesn't speak about thanksgiving FOR things. It speaks of thanksgiving IN everything....give thanks IN every situation...nor for. The difference is when we give thanks to God because He is God IN every situation and every circumstance, we have literally released the power of the Spirit of God into the earth in that situation from the inside out.  It is about a relationship with the Father and Christ IN me....not just what God is doing for me or what God did "for" me or even that he will "with me"  but it is about WHO HE IS....in everything.

Ok, I admit....that what I am sharing is about "coming to a measure of maturity" IN Christ.  Many of us find ourselves still in childhood, thanking God for the stuff he does for us just like we  might have thanked our parents for the stuff they did for us.  A friend told me as we were talking about this  message this morning how thankful she is for all Christ has done "for her" in her life.  And there is nothing wrong with that...but that is like we are as children thanking our parents for all they do "for us."  The test of maturity IN CHRIST as we mature in relationship is whether we turn from what pleasure we get from what our parents do for us....to thankful hearts for who are parents are and not just what they did for us, is it not?

How many of you have been tested here with parents or children who haven't moved from what they wanted from you and wanted you to do to valuing who you are or who they were as human beings?  To do this means we are past the place where we need our "desires met", where we aren't just in a relationship of "meet my needs."

Dear Brothers and Sisters:  we are entering a day when we are going to be challenged in our faith and trust in the relationship we have with Christ Jesus to an extent none of us in America have had to be tested. It reminds me of what my dear friend told me where she began to learn this. She had trusted for years that "premise of faith"..I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Year after year He saw her through issues, gave her strength to see through things, helped her do things with her cows and horses that were beyond her human strength. Always there when she called to Him.  Then the day came when it fell to her to deliver a calf....and she called upon the Lord, as she always had. And she was unable to deliver the calf alive.  She realized she was beginning to grow up in her relationship with her Father.  He was beginning to ask her  and continues to ask her to trust Him to be who He is even when He "doesn't deliver her" any more than he delivers people around the world such as the people in NIgeria where ten churches were attacked, burned and sometimes only one or two people escaped the fire, the hatchet or the rapes.  Was God not with them  because He didn't deliver them?   What of the "blood of the saints" that goes down when Babylon is destroyed in an hour of a day?

What of the young child that is captured by sex traffickers of godly parents? Or the wives of godly men that are raped or their daughters? What of our homes that will be taken over by government because we  don't say the right thing or because we speak the power of Jesus Name and our children "turn us in" not only to lose our property but to incarcerate us?  Where is God" Where is our Thanksgiving? It won't be there if we in this hour aren't able to see and thank Him for being who He is in the midst of our day today. NOT WHO HE IS TO ME.....but WHO HE IS apart from what he does or doesn't do in my life circumstances!!

What he's done in the days past  in David's life is what David used to trust that He is the God that the TORAH said he was, that the prophets talked about..the God that is NOW whether we see his hand in today's circumstances, whether we lose our jobs, our family, our lives or our physical abilities to function healthily!!

I turned 71 yesterday Nov. 5. I have aches and pains that I have never known until this past year and "conditions" that under normal circumstances apart from the Lord's intervention will continue to deteriorate.  I have a new perspective today.  I have read of so many in the persecuted church throughout the world....who are trusting God after every kind of medical issue and atrocity in their lives.  Today my aches and pains only remind me to pray for those that are suffering for their aches and pains inflicted because they name the name of Christ. Mine are because I am aging and not always lived and eaten and motivated righteously and healthily...not because I have been persecuted. Do I thank God for my hurts and pains! NO, I thank God that He is God in the midst of the circumstances of hurt and pain and aches....HE IS LORD. 

Then we move from thanksgiving for WHO GOD IS and all He is doing ....to praise of WHO HE IS. Thanksgiving opens the door of relationship that allows me to worship Him in holiness....it is the fullness of the release of HIs Spirit through my spirit which begins with thanking HIm for all He has done...not just done for me...but what HE is doing. That means that I have paid the price to seek Him and find out what He is doing. How can I really thank God in this election time if I don't know what He is doing? Sometimes  it means like David, seen what He's done in the past, and trusting HE IS GOD and He is loving, kind and gracious but HE will accomplish His purpose in the earth in this late hour!!

I don't like what I see happening in this year....and as I seek Him, I am assured that what He is doing isn't limited to this election in two days but  what He is doing will continue to be seen in the days, months and weeks ahead IF YOU HAVE EYES TO SEE AND EARS TO HEAR by His Spirit. For He has said....eye hath not see nor ear heard....BUT I WILL TELL YOU BY MY SPIRIT!!!    

That is what thanksgiving is about.....understanding and knowing from relationship with Father in the Spirit...what He is doing....and then worshiping him as we praise Him for being the I AM who is, who was and who will be all He IS.

And then it comes down to the practical side of our hearts being willing to let go of everything we care about in order to see and hear and experience what God is doing.  A good friend was grieving this morning over the loss of a good friend she's had for many years...her dog Snap.  Seeing her distress, I went over to minister to her. And what I learned is a lesson for me......she was enjoying her emotional turmoil over her dog and was being empowered by it and not in the least yet willing to "Come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest."  I spoke His Peace and rest into her but knew that at the end of the time I spent with her...there was no witness.

Such "coming unto Him" follows thanksgiving and praise IN  the circumstances of our lives....because it requires we yield all I have, all I know, all I love and value to Who He is, recognizing apart from Him, nothing I care about can bear fruit of righteousness....if I am not "in His Rest, at Peace who is Himself."    The funny thing is the pastor hadn't covered these scriptures yet when I ministered to her.........so I really don't know if, by the end of the service, Holy Spirit had stirred her and called her to Himself in "relationship" through thanksgiving and praise.  Of course I questioned whether I was too early and she wasn't ready yet to hear.....but as I wrote this, just now I realized...the Word went forth to her as I ministered and while it appeared when I got done she went right back to verbalizing her emotional energy from the grief..........I don't know what Holy Spirit did when the very scriptures and principles that I had spoken to her were preached from the pulpit. Do any of you question yourselves?  But as I said...I just realized what I shared with the lady in prayer ended up being preached from the pulpit...within the next 30 min.   

When I taught "gratitude" as a counselor, I often said that the words of our mouth determine the direction our lives take. When the words of my mouth are filled with thanksgiving by the Spirit of God IN every situation...we literally release the Holy Spirit to work.  Even as I posted the quote at the beginning of this article, it important that we comprehend than when we begin to pray for the leaders of this nation, even those so fully identified with what is often called the Babylonian system, the rising or forerunner of the beast system...we have released the very power and angelic forces that provide us with a measure of  security and protection by those same angelic forces.  

The Kingdom of God is about CHRIST IN US....it is more than Christ is for us...we are His. He has poured Himself into us and invites "relationship" with Him BY HIS SPIRIT....which becomes evident by simple thanksgiving and praise and prayers for those in our lives. When I thank God that  He is God over my leaders...........I release His Spirit in me to deal with the relationship that I have, that I  will have with those leaders and even which perhaps my children may have!!  In everything give thanks for this is the will of God IN Christ Jesus concerning you.

Apart from Christ in us, it is all about "us". Salvation begins with what He did for us, that we might come to know who He is and grow up in the knowledge of Who He is, as we understand that we are in relationship to the God of the Universe and participate in  seeing His will accomplished on earth..............And it begins with trusting that relationship in the spirit as we thank Him for being God in all circumstances.

May Jesus Christ be praised!!!!

Meri

                       
Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church...just in case your congregation such as where I attended to day didn't mention it!! We are a part of a Body...and much of HIs Body is suffering under great persecution in this hour and yet are growing exponentially while the "church" in America is dwindling.......

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

These Times

I am most appreciative of the various articles folks have sent me, the personal opinions they have about the elections and the postings on Facebook. In considering the "lot of them" so to speak, and seeking to hear what the Lord is saying, what seems to be what I will call "the conclusion" is that the test of the hour has NOTHING to do with the candidates running for the highest elected office in the land. The test of the hour that we are faced with as Christians and as mature believers in Jesus Christ and sons and daughter of the King of Kings, is  first how we will treat each other with varying views of the candidates and the issues and secondly how we will be found talking about the elected officials and the candidates.  Will we be found with the Love of God in our mouths, will we be found with the Truth that Love speaks about even "our enemy", and will we be found saying of our brothers and sisters in Christ what our Father is saying about them.

Since we know judgement begins at the house of the Lord, perhaps what will happen in the USA isn't as dependent on which of the two candidates is elected but what shape the group of people called by the name of Christ are in before, during and after the election.  Have we, the determining force of any nation, been in some way responsible for the condition of the Supreme Court with our nay saying and complaining and negativity instead of our intercessions and thanksgivings for the Lord of the Universe being in charge?  Are we, as those who say we believe in Jesus Christ, allowed His Word to be what we have said about Obama and Trump and the other parties running for the highest office in the land?   That isn't to say I can't like or dislike one candidate over another...but what will I be found "saying" about that candidate?  Will it be what I have heard the Father say...how He has reacted to that candidate or is it my soul, my sense of right and wrong that I have been using as the basis of what I have been saying and doing, as if I weren't above all else seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus, if I weren't foremostly a member of the Kingdom of God and only temporarily a citizen of the kingdoms of the earth under the rule and reign of a prince, while I serve the King to whom that prince is accountable and whose plan that prince is ultimately playing out with most aspects of earthly government?

It brings us down to asking the question what is my role?   And I can't answer that for you or you for me, and to be quite frank, it kind of bothers me when I hear people telling other Christians what they think their Christian responsibility is when it comes to the election. Our responsibility is to hear from the Lord, to be a part of what He IS doing...not what I think I should be doing according to my sense of right and wrong. Righteousness is always life in Christ worked out in the natural..

I am learning there are things that are more grievous to my Father than lies and cheating...wickedness in some ways is far less a stench in my Father's nostrils than the person who like a king of old takes all the responsibility for what has happened or will happen in his kingdom and doesn't depend upon the Lord or honor the Lord in all he says and does.

I am learning that some forms of idolatry is more of a stench in the nostrils of my Father than blatant wickedness.  And I admittedly have learned some of these things as a result of some of the choices I made not understanding the Father's way of "seeing" things as I was seeing through standards of right and wrong instead of God's standard of righteousness which is always about Himself, the Lord God of the universe.  

And throughout the scriptures, He tells us that judgement comes, that we might know that HE IS THE LORD GOD!!

And it seems a bit ridiculous from a human standpoint that this appears to be the "test" for the hour for the Body of Christ....to teach US He is the Lord God!!  Our human understanding would tell us it is about government, and about the highest office in the land. Imagine what changes might have been in this nation in thelast 30 years if we who are called by his Name, really had functioned in the intimate knowledge that HE IS IN CHARGE, HIS WAY REIGNS, HIS WAY ENDURES?

There is much diversity of thought in the body of Christ...may we demonstrate as never before the reality that my fellow Christian has a Master and that fellow believer  is responsible to that Master...who is Lord of the Universe. May we be mindful and treat others, freeing them to operate by their conscience and be dealt with as we have been dealt with in due time by the hand of the Lord and the loving ways of our Good Good Father!!