In the hour when right is wrong and wrong is right

This morning I come to encourage you who are called by the name of Christ, the Lord Jesus, to be aware of a pit that lies in front of us as believers.

In this day when right seems wrong and wrong seems right, when what we have know to be true is seen as error, when governments around the world seem to be operating out of a veiled sense of truth, and voices that are  raised up against that which is covered and hidden are ridiculed, may we be aware that our stand in the Anointed One of the Father must not be on standards even of right and wrong. But our stand must be in Him, in Him who is Truth,.

In this hour it is necessary that we hear what the Lord is saying about this hour. and not lean on our sense of right and wrong even  though it is  thoroughly grounded in our knowledge of the written scriptures. Secondly, there is the necessity to be reminded that HE IS LORD and NOTHING escapes his involvement. He is in charge. Whatever is transpiring in the world today, is according to His plan not initiated at the last moment to take care of some evil person that suddenly arrived on the scene, but is a part of His plan which He knew before the foundation of the world and which may have been set in motion years, maybe even centuries ago, to rise to the surface in the manifestation that we see it today.

What does this mean? It means that we who know our Father and the greatness of His power and authority, that he is indeed Him infinite, incorruptible-mortal, invisible, the ONLY God....that all power and authority IS HIS , that we do not need to be shaken by the forces of men. The choices of righteous men may differ according to how the Father is executing HIS plan at this time.

In the affairs of a nation, our God often works from various perspectives, towards the fulfillment of His plan. Sometimes our Father is as interested in those who perhaps may  “vote against” a matter as  well as those that “vote for”. He is often interested in the “numbers” as well as theo outcome. Our God's way are uniquely calculated in and with a form of numbers/math mostly still beyond man's comprehension/understanding. I know righteous, godly men who voted in various elections very contrary to what was my “moral vote.” Did they vote the “moral vote” or did they vote as the Lord directed? I didn't vote the way the Lord spoke....I voted "morally."  OUCH!! Could it be the Lord, while fulfilling a purpose for the USA actually raised up a President that so many godly people despise? Would a “godly” person vote for such an individual....YES, if the Lord so directed according to HIS purposes. And other godly people might vote against the same man. God's ways are NOT our ways.

I am thankful I do not see the plan of God completely. My  flesh would not be able to comprehend ,much less handle in any way, the full knowledge of the plan of God for the world in this hour. I only know what His Spirit leads me. I have a choice:follow what His Spirit leads.,or follow what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil tells me. Strangely, both may have “justification” in the written word. For the written word apart from the Spirit of God has power, holds a measure of truth but will kill. And it is the nature of God to use those who will respond to this hour in our nation out of either His Spirit or out of the “other tree.” He will have His purpose. fulfilled. 

 What then is my role or the role of His Body? To allow Him to BE in us what He is and follow after what He is doing in this hour. If we don't know what He is doing, then it is necessary that we wait upon Him, seek His Face, express our deep inadequacies and inabilities to even know Truth apart from His Spirit, and direct our attention to Him and His Spirit....THEN he promises to hear us and heal the land....IN HIS TIME!!!

We have the promise....He will never leave us or forsake us. Though he may “hide his face” for a season, He still journey's with us, He is still Truth and our abiding place is in Him. And that is where we must let others be.....those who know Christ and those who fight against Him tooth and nail. He is in charge. But if my heart isn't at rest, if my heart isn't confident that He is in charge, then I will be found striving. What side of God's plan do I want to be on?

In the Hordes of Hell, that vision from years ago, it tells of Christians riding the backs of demons attacking other Christians. AND it is USED of God to accomplish a purpose...NOTHING is outside the involvement of God. We just need to seek His Face and hear His voice and stay quiet and receptive in our spirits to Him , lest we operate out of our minds/understanding and the spirit that has always worked through the human soul that is in opposition to the Love of God in Christ Jesus. YET....He will use even our failures to accomplish His plan. He will use the reprobate and ignorant “church” to bring in the end-time One World Government; he will use our “ignorance” and our “right stands on truth” apart from hearing His voice to bring forth that end time kingdom that is finally destroyed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

I do not want to be found praying against that which God is raising up.....no matter how ugly it might be. I don't want to be found criticizing those who don't stand for what I think is the “best choice” in this hour when I haven't heard what God is saying about His plan and purpose and whether or not those who disagree with my take on truth, might also be used of the Lord to accomplish an end that I may not really like.

What then can I do? Most of all it behooves me to stay quiet before the Lord, to stay submissive to His voice, his direction for me, sharing my heart and struggles (submitting them) to him in that relationship of intimacy that only He affords and in which He is similarly free to respond to me. That is the only place of Life and which will allow us to discern His voice either personally to us or through His creation, including our fellow man.

In a time when there is much anger...may we be found “without anger” having repented when we come before Him to worship...so we can “lift up HOLY hands” trusting, secure in Him...ONED in Him. Anger always says...it should have been, it shouldn't have been, it ought to have...it ought not to have....and when God is our focus...our anger is seen as coming from the lack of vision of what IS, what HE is doing and the knowledge that NOTHING is outside His plan and purpose for mankind...and it will culminate with the return of our Lord Jesus, the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon the earth. 

May we learn to live in accord with that Kingdom now...a Kingdom that is present, a Kingdom that does exist and is being formed and shaped even in the hearts of men...and WILL NEVER END.....but will come to fulfillment. May we be found serving that Kingdom, going forth, making disciples of the nations, baptizing them, healing, casting out demons...all in the powerful name of our God, Yaweh, Jehovah, Jesus, Yeshua....Elohim....but I call Him Lord.

When I was a child....

11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.

1 Corinthians 13:11

This scripture has been very strong in my understanding the last couple weeks since I heard someone preach on it. Little by little the Lord has been bringing to my attention things that I “did as a child." Ways of thinking that resulted in behaviors, many of which didn't have the most positive results, have been brought to mind that I can  now “put away” as behavior that I engaged in as a child. I was reminded through  that message that Our Father understands us as our human fathers do, and He expects us to be children and that He doesn't expect children to act like adults and doesn't punish us for acting like children. When we disobey as children, yes, we get taught about consequences and our choices which is called being  disciplined.
Even as human fathers and mothers we focus, hopefully, on teaching our children “from their mistakes.” Mistakes and shortsightedness are two of the characteristics of children and from such failures we as parents work to help them to see what were the choices they had and why they suffered the kind of consequences they did. But sometimes children just don't have the mental equipment or emotional stability to even comprehend some of the things happening around them. And it may take time for them to grow up to really compehend some of the things that they need to learn. Until then, we as parents often are called to minimize the consequences or ramifications of behaviors in our children's lives.

So Papa, as Our Father, understands the situations we have gone through, the mind sets that we had, and our need “to grow up.” Growing up is a process...a two year old doens't become an 8 year old by an act of his will or by the teaching of a parent. A two year old may be a mature two year old...meaning he is working with the equipment he has and making decisions appropriate for his age and understanding according to how he has been taught. We don't expect him to see life the way an 8 year old or a teenager would and don't punish him when he doesn't act older than he is.

Similiarly my Father saw the things I did 30 years ago in a similar light. I don't know about some of you but I had very limited visiion 30 years ago...narrow maybe. But I did see and I did have vision and I did have divine insight and revelation. But it was that of a child in the spirit without a broad understanding of the things that were going on in the circumstances. I think of a situation in which I waited two weeks upon the Lord to write down some things a wife asked me to put on paper that we had talked about on the phone, saying she wasn't really capable to share the things I shared with her with her husband. And trusting the Lord I put together a letter with the things she and I talked about and gave it to the husband at church. It was just a full explanation of the things the wife and I had talked about regarding things going on in their lives which the wife had set really lined up with their circumstances. Little did I know or see that the husband had had a history of alcoholism and was tied in with the very spirit  with which I lived with in my home. Little did I know that that spirit would react to the Word of the Lord even though I did not in any way address alcoholism or wife abuse which I was totally unaware existed in that home. I was blind, ignorant. I was also not aware that the foul spirit would be loosed to the eldership of that congregation of which the husband was a member and it would blind the eyes of the pastor and the elders, again unaware that   the enemy had  some ground  within that group of brethren. The end result for me was 6 months of “ church discipline” because it was said that since “only God knew what was going on in their lives, Meri must be of the devil.” I had no problem with that 6 months...and sometime later ask to be relieved of that discipline and was never able to get them to lift it for reasons that it took me years to really comprehend.

Not only I was a chld...and thought like a child...but I have come to understand others were childish in their thinking and allowed demonic forces to affect them, some of which I might have actually been carrying. I carried some of the scars from that interaction for 30 years, as some of the threads that were woven into the lives of those elders that day were still affecting them 30 years later and were elders in a congregation that I was a part of. It has taken this understanding of being a child and growing up to help me to see that I have no reason to look back on the situation and feel guilty or ashamed or carry any kind of animosity towards anyone else....we were children...sometimes blind and deaf to the value of other human beings and sometimes consumed with our own importance. I think of how my own grandchildren are a bit “careless” of how they play at times and inevitablity someone gets hurt. Sometimes their mouths release things of which which have meaning they are totally unaware of.  Since they have a good mom, she will work with them to help them to see the value of their siblings and how a bit of carelessness can hurt them or what the meaning of certain words are and why they aren't acceptable talk.

In the 1980's there were none of the kind of overseers or counselors that are around in my life today to help me understand what my “siblings” had done. And I am sure many of you hearing this, realize that in many ways, many of us were “orphans.” Learning to lay aside the “orphan mentality” with which we grew up,  particularly as prophetic people, is one of the “demands” of maturity if we are to grow up into Christ as sons.

I am also seeing that many of us who were “children”   have gone through some hard battles in the growing up process. Church splits, moves, divorce, strokes,major rejections,  long term diseases, cancer, drug addiction issues in the famiily: some of these  things affected not just “them” but  have happened in my life  also. It is my hope that others that I knew as a child have grown up in Christ through the suffering they have gone through and are facing these difficult days in this nation as a more mature son and no long a child. My effort to seek reconciliation with some has not been successful. However, I am not a child anymore and I can leave others in His hand knowing I am accountable to Him and trust others into His loving Father care. I didn't realize I had some of these things to clear up until one of the parties from thirty years ago moved back into this area and everywhere I turn I run into someone associated with that situation 30 years ago.  There is therefore now no condemnation for them that are in Christ....and it is a joy to know that today I know in Whom I live and move and have my being!

Today, I am free.  Sometime I'd love to be able to talk to some of the people and maybe we can laugh about our “childishness”...and see what each of us have learned. But then that is believing that each of the parties has been dealt with in the same areas as I have been. I am not childish enough today to think that has necessarily happened in each person's life which may be why effort to address the incident 30 years ago was not met with a response even though I know it was received.

We aren't all growing in the same areas. Someone said the other day that each of us has a blind spot when it comes to “ourselves.” Prophetic people are great at seeing what is happening in other people's lives, but not always able to see what is present  in their own. I am not sure that isn't true of most people and especially those in the five fold ministries where there is such expectations to perform and be accurate as relates to others.

This  is why whether we are little children, teenagers, or mature adults, we need accountability. We desperately  need those who watch over our souls and are willing to speak into our lives when or if they see us engaging in behaviors or thinking that could bring us or others injury whether we are still children or are still being perfected in the image of Christ.

 I am thankful today that my Father also meets my needs as a husband who watches over me as a wife and mother....whether He does it through my earthly husband or in other ways. I am not left alone these days....though there may be few people that I encounter in my circumstances throughout a month who are there to speak into my life. I am thankful for Holy Spirit who is my guide, my teacher, the mentor that my life was missing for years as He reveals the Father's love to me and the Lordship of Jesus Christ over my life and the world. He's my Father and I am growing in Him as a part of the corporate body of Christ that He has ordained to come forth in these last days!

Meri Ford

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.

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

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
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Winlock, WA 98596
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