(via Wikipedia)

The times we are in remind me of the old Byrd’s hit song- ‘Turn! Turn! Turn!’ (Based on Eccl. 3:1).

The first line is particularly poignant:

“To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”

We are in a time of transition in the natural with fall in our midst and Winter on the way.  Actually out here in So. California, September is usually an extension of Summer when it comes to hot weather. Now with October, the change is finally happening and cooler weather and rain is on the way.

On the Spiritual front, we are in the midst of the Biblical (Jewish) holy week with Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) coming on Saturday. It is a week of transition from the old year to the new. In the older covenant, believers would consider their lives over the last 12 months and seek God’s forgiveness for any shortcomings and dedicate themselves to improvement for the year ahead.

Lot’s of Christians over the years have noticed that changes in their ministry seem to take place usually around this time of the year. I can see that pattern in my own life and ministry. In fact, several that I know in prophetic ministry specifically believe that during this week they ‘go under the Shepherd’s rod’ and are evaluated by The Master.

When you look at what is happening around the world it is easy to see that we are in a time of transition and no one seems to really know how it is all going to play out in the next year or so. Is America going down like so many seem to think and is China really going to replace us as the new ‘super power’?

In the Middle East, everything has been thrown up in the air following the so-called ‘Arab Spring’.  Iran wants to destroy Israel and they will probably have nuclear weapons sometime in the next year or two. The Iranian Supreme leader says that the 12th Imam is appearing to him and is coming soon to lead the Muslims to world domination. Turkey is now styling itself as a new ‘Islamic power’ on the rise and their leaders are talking about establishing a new Muslim Caliphate. Their goal is to dominate the World and bring on one world religion –Islam.

Notice that no one wants to be friends with Israel anymore. Even the USA seems to be turning it’s back on the Holy Land. Are we entering the end of the ‘end-times’?

The nations are in turmoil, natural calamities have risen to Biblical levels. The world economy is in shambles. The whole world is looking for a leader or some group to rise up and solve all of these impossible problems both politically and economically.

Look at the current state of the American Church. The mainline churches have turned their back on Biblical teaching –even now the Presbyterians. The Southern Baptists have been losing members and are now considering a name change. A week doesn’t seem to go by without a new scandal rising up concerning one Charismatic or Pentecostal preacher or another.

We are definitely in a time of transition. Old leaders and denominations are falling and new ones will rise up to take their place. God is setting his church in order.

Right now is a good time for all of us in the ministry to get down on our knees and seek a clear understanding and vision of where we are right now and where the lord wants to take us. If changes need to take place in our lives- now is the time to make them.

Now is the time to repent of past failures and seek a closer relationship with the Master. it is His church after all. We keep praying –”thy Kingdom Come, thy will be done” -It is now time to really mean it and truly understand what we are asking for. Now is the season to Turn, Turn, Turn.            *Top

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Matt 6:9-13
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.   -KJV

The “Hallowed” part is something I glossed over quickly for years without understanding that it was really a declaration of worship. I knew it meant that God was ‘holy’ but never gave it much thought. I was always in a hurry to get to the “give us” part.

The actual words in the Greek text are in this order:

“Let it be hallowed- the- name- of thee”

It really is a statement of praise and worship of God. What it literally means is- ‘God let your name be known and consecrated and set apart as holy or sacred.’

In our culture today nothing is considered sacred or holy anymore and the name of God is commonly used in the marketplace and in many homes as an expression of surprise or worse yet in the form of a curse. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are some Muslim countries today where if the name of ‘Allah’ is defamed in any way heads will literally roll.

To put it all in perspective, Jesus taught that the greatest commandment of all is to Love God. Obviously if we truly love God we will treat his name with respect:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” –Matt.22:37-38

Wow! This means that we should be thinking about God and that he needs to be on our minds and actually apart of everything we do daily.

For most of my life I have honored and worshipped God on Sundays and have prayed to him every day at least when I remember too. Also I have made a point of honoring his name and have not used it in ‘vain’. But have I really honored him daily by including him in my daily life? Not always, particularly at work where I have usually forgotten all about him most of the day even though I have always tried to be a ‘good’ Christian.

Obviously a change is way over due.

I believe that we are entering a time when ‘business as usual’ is no longer going to be an option for those who bear the name of Christ. In the dominant Western culture, God has been removed from the schools and the marketplaces, and many of our courts are removing him from the public square entirely. Now it is even a struggle just to keep him in our busy homes.

Nevertheless, I believe that we are called to honor God daily. In fact we literally need too for our own good. If God our Father is in our daily life then it becomes easier to receive his blessings, reject the temptations of the enemy, and receive of the happy abundant life that God intends for us to have. Sure we are still going to have ‘bad’ days, get sick, and experience a tragedy or two but for once we are not going to be alone.

Therefore, we actually need to think about God and His name needs to be set apart and consecrated or ‘hallowed’ in our daily living—if we truly love him.

But how and where?

Where? In our homes, at our jobs and work, on the freeways driving, and at the malls and shopping centers. Everywhere that life carries us we need to honor God and serve him in all that we do.

How? Jesus is really our example and he teaches us how to Love, worship, and honor God every day. More on that later, but we need to learn how to live a ‘red letter’ life and allow the very words of the Son of God to enliven us and inspire us to include His Father –Our Father–in our daily journey.               *Top

I said–but Lord, how can you call this a ‘good’ day—it was one of my worst days in sales that I can remember. Business was so bad that I ended up calling on 3 days worth of customers in 1 day with hardly any sales to show for it. How can that be good?

Then the Lord told me:

1. You could have wasted 3 days and 3 tanks of gas instead of just one.

2. More important you actually listened to me.

Then the Lord reminded me that around noon when I had run through all of the customers that I had originally planned for the day I was ready to quit but listened to His Spirit and kept on going instead and ran through all of the customers that I planned for the next day also.

By then it was 2pm and it started to rain and I was going to call it quits and put the lousy day behind me. After all I had a Bible study project I was working on at home that I wanted to get to. Then came the surprising impression to keep on going.

I kept on going thinking that maybe I would be rewarded with a big sale that would make my day but it never came. Instead I quickly ran through what would normally be another days work and was done by 4pm.

Normally I do 6-8 customer visits a day but this day I did 21 stops with very little in sales to show for it. Each call went rather quickly since business was so terrible for my customers that only a few needed anything at all.

Normally it would have been a discouraging day to say the least. But as I headed home I found myself praising God and being thankful instead.

After all I had saved 2 tanks of gas, gained two days, and had the Lord with me all day. It was a ‘good’ day after all, a very good day indeed. Praise God!                 

 

Matt 6:9-13
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11 Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.   -KJV

Last Friday night it was raining as I was rushing to be on time for a Marketplace Conference at church. Still half a mile away I impatiently waited for the light to change and then took off for the next. Before I got half a block ahead to the next light, The Lord had downloaded to me a better understanding of the Lord’s Prayer. After that I was no longer in a hurry except to get as much of the new insights down as possible.

In essence the Lord told me: “you have been praying the Lord’s Prayer all of your life…now it’s time to live it!” Within the prayer itself is a summary for victorious ‘Kingdom living’. Funny thing is that none of it is really new and its been there all the time and a lot of this stuff you probably already know.

Anyway I going to put up an outline of some of these thoughts in a series of posts. 

“Our Father…which art in Heaven”

Jesus didn’t say “my” father or “the” father, though most of the time we look upon God as being ‘The’ Almighty God and Father of creation. But Jesus specifically said “our” Father and included his disciples as part of his family—the family of God.

This had to sound strange to folks raised upon the Old Testament scriptures and at a time when Priests didn’t dare enter the Holy of Holies in the Temple without repenting and fasting first and even then without having a rope tied around their ankle so that they could be pulled out in case the Lord God zapped them. In fact it sounded rather heretical to the scribes and Pharisees.

We hear the words ‘our Father’ so much in church that it is way too familiar. Sometimes the real implications of those words do not properly sink in. In Jesus Christ every believer becomes part of the family of God. His Father is now our Father and we are supposed to be brothers and sisters in Christ. Yup, and sometimes we fight just like a family too!

But think about it—the Creator of the universe is our Father. Remember Jesus said that he doesn’t give rocks to his children when they need bread. He really does take care of his creation, the birds, the flowers, and even more so he only wants the best for his children.

In our day the title ‘father’ is so messed up for many of us because of the way we were treated or ignored by our natural parents. Also some of us were orphans and never did really experience a father in our lives while others of us wish that we hadn’t.

Because of our past, many of us have trust issues that make it difficult to receive the Love of Our Father in Heaven. therefore intimacy with God doesn’t come all that easy and we end up putting Him in a box that will only be unwrapped after our death.

Yet when Jesus died on the cross the curtain separating the people from their God in Holy of Holies in the temple was slit in two for all time. In Jesus intimacy becomes possible and the almighty creator touches us and dwells within us with his own Spirit and we become members of his family and the new temple of God.

It is time for the church to get this down—all of the church. I believe that the ‘Fatherhood of God’ and greater intimacy will be part of the Kingdom message of a ‘New Awakening’ coming soon near you. All of creation awaits for the church to understand more fully what it means to be and act like the children of God and cry out—Abba Father! (Romans 8:12-19).            *Top

The following is part of the Mitchell’s intro to this video:

“What’s God’s Heart for Jerusalem? How does lasting fruitfulness in ministry happen? These are some of the questions Heidi Baker answers…

Heidi’s passion for Jesus rings out as she talks about the joy of spending time with Him.”

*Top

(Wigglesworth via Wikipedia)

Received from Charisma Online-

Another great  message by Smith Wigglesworth to start off the week by:

Do you hear the ringing of the prayer bells? The Father is waiting in the prayer tower of your soul, waiting and longing to have a talk with you. He wants you to know Him as intimately as the Old Testament prophets knew Him. You can confidently enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus. (See Hebrews 10:19.) He is the way to the Father.
Moses, an Old Testament prophet, knew God, and he knew the ways of God. He was not afraid to reveal his disappointments, frustrations, anger, and fears to the God in whose presence he dwelled. David, who wrote many of the psalms, expressed his innermost thoughts to Jehovah God even while declaring his trust in Him. In Lamentations 3:17, the prophet Jeremiah expressed his true feelings of despair. This opened the door for him to receive hope and confidence.

You can talk openly with God—your wonderful Counselor, your Prince of Peace—about anything. Tell Him your innermost thoughts. Describe your fondest dreams. Expose your true feelings, desires, wants, and needs. Express your love and gratitude to Him with thanksgiving. It may be possible to hide your true feelings from others or even from yourself, but it is impossible to hide your feelings from God.

Often feelings are a barometer, alerting us to a need for change in our thought life and attitudes. Unfortunately, we sometimes misuse the Scriptures as a cover-up for a feeling we perceive as wrong instead of acknowledging the feeling and expecting answers from the Lord to determine the cause and the remedy. God is concerned about everything that concerns you (Ps. 138:8). Ask Him for what you believe you need. Allow Him the time to speak to you and to show you your real need.

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE:
But as for me, I will come into your Temple protected by your mercy and your love; I will worship you with deepest awe.—Psalm 5:7, tlb

TODAY’S PRAYER:
Lord, You are my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in You, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy, and I will give thanks to You. Thank You for arming me with strength and making my way perfect. In the name of Jesus, I can face challenges with wisdom, understanding, intelligence, and supernatural ability because Your Word dwells in me richly. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.            *Top 

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Mike Bickle via Wikipedia

Another great devotional from Charisma OnLine to start out week with.

Today’s message is from Mike Bickle:

Some people think the will of God is always hard, but that’s not true. The will of God is good, satisfying and perfect (Rom. 12:2). We find tremendous pleasure, fulfillment and joy in the will of God.

On the other hand, there are times when we must say no to the desires of our flesh, times when our own carnal passions conflict with the will of God. At such times, we must deny ourselves.

That is what Jesus meant when He said, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me” (Luke 9:23, NAS). He said we cannot be His disciples if we don’t do this.

If we want to be colaborers with Jesus, fulfilling His purposes in the earth, we must step out of the comfort zone and move into the life of faith where our only source is the invisible God and the integrity of His Word.

TODAY’S PRAYER:
Lord, today I choose to deny my own fleshly desires so that I can follow Your perfect will. Make me a faithful disciple of Jesus.

Response: Responding to the ‘perfect will of God’ for us is at the very heart, and beginning of our participation in a revival culture. Increasingly I am seeing the importance for each one to experience individual revival as we respond to the Holy Spirit and God’s perfect will for us each day. It can only happen as we increase our intimacy with our Lord.           *Top

“You cannot carbon-copy yourself after anything you see with your natural eyes. There will be no model that you can follow; there will be no model that you can copy. Because what I will do in the days ahead will be so new and different that you will have to hear My voice to know which direction to move.”

*Top

Jill Austin,founder of Master Potter Ministries, exhorts believers not to become stagnant in their walk with Christ. She reminds us that God is constantly calling us closer to Himself and that we must pursue Him with fervor.

I feel the Lord is constantly saying, “I want you to want Me more. I want you to be more hungry for Me.” –To read the whole message click here–>

I feel the Lord is crying out for us to be more hungry for Him. It’s so easy to get into programs and meetings. Even during the time of Moses, it was very easy for them to fall into a form of religion without having a hunger and a fire for the presence of the living God.

There is a cry in each one of us to not be an empty shell. We so need His fire in the depths of who we are! We need our bones to burn because we love Him so much. We need our blood to boil, so to speak. We need a divine hunger put into the depths of who we are. We need the Lord to grab hold of us and shake off apathy and complacency until there is a fresh love for Jesus Christ our Lord.

We can never hear enough about returning to our first love. We can never hear the voice of the Bridegroom and the reminder that He is coming enough. Do you remember when you first met Him? Do you remember the passion you had? Do you remember when He would barely whisper and you quickly responded? Will you let Him ignite a burning passion of first love in the depths of your heart once again?

Is there a void and emptiness in you, even though you know how to pray for people, even though you move in leadership and know how to train and equip people? Will you come back to Him, to your first love? Is the fire inside of you like the Shekinah glory of the living God? Is there a resurrection anointing and the fire of Jesus touching you?

I feel the Lord is constantly saying, “I want you to want Me more. I want you to be more hungry for Me. As soon as you start feeling that you have arrived, you start to lose your cutting edge. We somehow begin to be satisfied with the shallow end and there are no longer those deep cries and remembrances of when the gold came, when the Shekinah glory and heavy weight was in our meetings. We forget about the healed minds and healed bodies. Lord, help us not to forget Your presence!

I really believe that this is a good picture of where we (the church) actually stand at the beginning of the new year. I believe that our Lord wants greater intimacy with his church and his people in 2007. ‘Greater intimacy with God’ is the one message that I have heard and read over and over again from numerous prophetic sources in reference to the new year.

I was reminded last night that Rev. 3:20 really applies in context to the church, when I read a word for 2007 posted by David Copeland of Revival Journal. Since then this picture keeps coming back to me.

It reminds me of a word that I received a few years ago. The ‘Left Behind’ book series was popular at the time and many Christians were talking about how Jesus would soon be coming back for his church. I was in church one morning thinking about how this was all going to work out, after all, the gospel needed to be preached in every nation, and many of us were hoping for and expecting a major world revival. Then a clear word came to me:

I am coming soon, but this is not the day when I am coming for my church, this is a day when I am coming to it.

I believe that Jesus is coming to his church in a special way in 2007, open the doors and let him in.

*Top