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Mushrooming and hearing God

And other ramblings and stories

The other day I discovered a book about how God does not speak with us.  The author (a pastor) firmly believes that Christians cannot hear from God directly.  I didn’t read it.  The title itself, and advance knowledge of the general thesis was nauseating enough for me.  Publishing a book like that is kind of like popping a high-five with the devil, celebrating keeping people spiritually deaf.  It’s like a relationship where you get to read The Letter of God all you want, but by no means are you allowed to ever have the audacity to pickup the phone and call Him.  Jesus said “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Matthew 4:4  It’s important to point out what Jesus did not say.  He did not say “…but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.”  He used the word proceedeth which is ongoing.  By no means am I saying that in any way, shape, or form something should be added to the holy canon of scripture.  But the heavenly manna that we all need is the ongoing, continued, every-day word of God proceeding from His mouth!

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The Great Jailbreak

A prophetic declaration about plundering hell

You don’t need resurrection power unless something is dead.

The resurrection of Jesus is the center of Christianity, and it’s the center of what we believe.

If Jesus never rose from the dead our faith would be pointless.

I believe God wants to do some renewing of our minds.

I believe that God wants to shift the way we view darkness.

Often Christians are too afraid of the dark. Much like little children can be afraid of the dark.

Several legitimate reasons:

1. Creepy.

2. Dangerous – literal danger.

3. Spiritually dangerous – Temptation etc.

4. Afraid of spiritual attacks, or “catching something unclean”.

One of the great shifts from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, is that in the old covenant, if you touched something unclean, it made you unclean.

If you touched a leprous person, you became leprous. In the New Covenant, Jesus touched lepers and made them clean.

It’s an important shift.

But nevertheless we often we think more like the old covenant.

We have to believe what we carry. Why is it that we can say “oh, don’t go over there; there’s a very powerful demonic atmosphere there, and it might get on you”. I don’t see people saying “Oh, don’t go over there near that Christian because that purity thing on him could really affect you.” If they can do that on us, then I can do that on them.” — Wendy Backlund

Jesus went into hell, and led captives captive!

The leader of the greatest prison break in history (Jesus the Messiah) broke through death and blazed a trail for his precious children to freedom!

The gates of hell in fact did not prevail. (Matthew 16:18)

 

If you have confidence in the Holy Spirit living inside of you, then you don’t avoid darkness.

You run toward it.

Jesus set an example of going into darkness.

He did not avoid it. He ate with sinners.

He talked with women, even women of questionable conduct.

Then, it would seem that He surrendered himself to be imprisoned as everyone else who sinned, in death and hell.

But that wasn’t the end!

When Jesus told Peter, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail”, that always confused me a bit.

How can something that is built with rock, something stationary somehow attack the gates of hell, and the gates of hell don’t prevail?

It’s like mixing two different metaphors, that don’t seem to be particularly compatible.

Here’s the key.

Jesus didn’t intend for churches to be built in pretty neighborhoods.

His plan was to send us, His church of LIVING stones, right into the many branches of hell the devil has established all around the planet, and plant us right in the middle of that darkness.

Right inside the prison.

And then make a prison break!

And the gates of hell will not prevail!

I believe scripture shows us that the gates are intended to be busted open from the inside.

Jesus said “I send you as lambs among wolves.”

I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” Matthew 10:16

We see a dramatic ilustration of this in the example of the Moravian missionaries who sold themselves into slavery in order to get to the Danish West Indies (St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. John) to preach the gospel to the slaves there.

In 1732 these brothers felt like God called them to minister to the African slaves there.

Nobody would give them access to that slave colony, no matter what they tried.

They realized that the only way for them to come to those people was to sell themselves into actual slavery, and work alongside those slaves, and probably live as slaves till their death.

But that was worth it to them if they could only bring the gospel to those slaves.

As the ship pulled away from the docks, they called out to their loved ones on shore,

“May the Lamb that was slain receive the reward of His suffering!”

Interesting note:

5 years prior to them being called to minister to the Slaves, the 100 year 24/7 prayer meeting had started. (August 13, 1727)

I believe we’re supposed to raid hell every day. 

Every day.

Every day.

Every day you raid hell every day.

And you take from ’em as much as you can.

And then you start over tomorrow.” – David Hogan (Missionary in Mexico who has seen many people raised from the dead, among other miracles)

Jesus went into hell, and led captives captive!

The leader of the greatest prison break in history (Jesus the Messiah) broke through death and blazed a trail for his precious children to freedom! The gates of hell in fact did not prevail. (Matthew 16:18)

The Breaker [the Messiah] will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it, and their King will pass on before them, the Lord at their head.” Micah 2:13 AMPC

The gates of hell will not prevail, because we will bust them out from within!

We will go right into the darkness to save people from death.

We are the enemy line breakers!

The following is from a conversation that happened during  WWII between George Rice, 10th Armored division providing some ammunition to to Richard Winters, commander of Easy Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, part of the 101st Airborne Division.

George:

“A panzer divsion is about to cut the road south. It looks like you’ll be surounded”

Winters:

“We’re paratroopers. We’re supposed to be surrounded.”

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My encounter with the Russian mafia

The battle between love and fear

We were all bundled up trying to fend off the cold Russian winter air as we stood waiting for our train that would take us from Moscow, Russia to Kharkov, Ukraine. As the train approached the platform, my dad, and our team started getting the tickets out, and maneuvering along the platform trying to gauge where our wagon would finally stop. Other than the creepy, dark atmosphere of Russian train stations, everything seemed normal, until I noticed the conductor of the train examining our tickets started getting into a heated conversation with my dad, and the translator. After finally finding someone who was willing to inform the only non-Russian-speaking eleven-year-old on our team what was going on, I learned that something was wrong with our tickets, and they weren’t letting us on the train. What could be wrong with our tickets? Something was really fishy, and I had no idea what was really going on, but seconds before the train started moving for departure, my dad made the executive decision that we were getting on, no matter what.

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Kris Vallotton: I don’t think the Coronavirus is the worst thing that’s happening

There's something spreading around the planet, and it's more dangerous than the Coronavirus

There’s something spreading around the planet, and it’s more dangerous than the Coronavirus. This was transcribed from a message by Kris Vallotton called The Obedience of Faith. Kris Vallotton is a prophet, and the senior associate leader of Bethel Church, Redding, CA.  I wholeheartedly agree with this word!  The following is from Kris Vallotton’s message.
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The KGB car chase

A tribute to my dad (true story)

Because of their strong belief in how God speaks to us and God’s guidance through prophetic words, mom and dad knew for a number of years that one day they would be doing ministry beyond the “Iron Curtain” of the Soviet Union. My dad, spending a significant part of his life smuggling drugs, traveling the world, thought “Why not join Brother Andrew and help them smuggle bibles into nations closed to the gospel?” He went on one such a trip in March, 1980.
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4 DANGERS OF THE ROCKSTAR CULTURE IN MINISTRY TODAY

A PROPHETIC VISION

This was a vision I saw as I was praying. In the vision I saw Jesus in my church, standing in front of the stage at a table, with a large ladle in His hands. He was serving our church hot soup. It was warming, and really hit the spot, like hot soup on a cold winter day. People were walking around enjoying the soup with smiles on their faces, content with the warmth in thier bellies.  Then all the sudden, in a blur, Jesus was drawn up and disappeared, like he ascended to heaven suddenly. Now there was a steaming pot of soup with a left-behind ladle still rocking back and forth from when Jesus dropped it. In a few moments, it became apparent, that there was nobody to serve the soup. Eventually people in the church started complaining that they weren’t getting any soup (because no one was being served).  In the vision, not being in the situation, but seeing it from above, I was thinking “Oh, will someone should just pick up the ladle and start serving the soup. No big deal.”  However, to my surprise, people would walk by the abandoned ladle and say things like “Oh, I’m not going to do that!” It was somehow too low for them. “That’s not a job I want to do.”  When I saw that in the vision I started to weep bitterly.  I was deeply grieved at what I saw.  As I wept, what came to mind was what the apostle John experienced when he started to weep as he realized that nobody was worthy to open the seals of the scroll described in the book of Revelation. That very accurately reflects what I was experiencing in the vision.

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Interrupt some great people

Start believing you're good soil!

All of us have self doubt.  And our biggest fear is not encountering a Grizzly bear on a hike, but rather the fear of failure. So we all need help. We need parents, mentors, friends and fellow fighters to spur us on, and encourage us and teach us. Most of us are aware of some exceptional people in our lives that are not necessarily involved in our lives, but are in enough proximity for us to realize how we would benefit from their influence. It could be a teacher, a friend of a friend, a businessman, a pastor. Anyone you admire enough that you recognize you could benefit from a connection them. In my life, the invisible wall that keeps me from connecting with them can be a bit elusive, and difficult to put the hammer to.

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Man trapped behind bars rescued from starving to death

A personal true story

At the moment, I’m still processing some strong aftermath emotions as a result of something that happened the week following the Feast of Love.  This was the third such event we did.  It’s one of the greatest things we’ve ever done with homeless people.  You can watch some highlights of the last one we did here. For several months we had started to feed the poor at two different recycle centers where needy people bring bottles, paper, metal and other materials they can get money for.  We were building relationship with them, and inviting them to our upcoming Feast of Love event.  A celebration where the poor are treated like kings and queens.  On this particular Saturday, I wasn’t going to go to the second recycle center, because I had to go prepare for preaching the following Sunday.  Tanya and the team had just left, and I was making my way to our church office, which is located in a way that we have to go through the back courtyard of our building to get to our office. As I climbed the stairway to the landing where our office entrance is, I glanced over to where we had found a homeless guy and gave him some food, hoping to get him to come to the Feast of Love a couple weeks prior. Near where we had found him, there was an open manhole that was an access point to a basement in the high-rise apartment building not far from our building.  When we met him, he told us he was living in that basement.  I stopped as I looked over at the manhole, half expecting to see that homeless guy.  It was about 50 yards from me.  Here I realized that the manhole had been closed off with a metal grate welded out of rebar. “They must have closed it off, so homeless people don’t live in that basement”, I thought.  I wasn’t surprised.  Not that long ago, there was a horrible stench around the entrance to our office, and it turned out that in the basement of the adjacent building close to our office, a corpse was discovered.  The body had had been there so long, that there was a strong stench all around the area.  It was likely a homeless person who died down there, who nobody knew about. I was about to open the office door, and go about my business, but I noticed something.   Fingers.

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The Hope Factor

How it can make a 24000% difference

Curt Richter had a special relationship with rats. In 1950 he put rats in a bucket with circulating water, to see how long they could swim before they would sink. Under normal conditions, a rat could swim for an average of 15 minutes before giving up and sinking. However, if he rescued the rats just before drowning, dried them off and let them rest briefly, and then put them back into the same buckets of circulating water, the rats could swim an average of 60 hours before drowning. If a rat was temporarily saved, it would survive 240 times longer than if it was not temporarily saved. That’s the same as 24,000% longer. A little hope goes a long way. The rats that had HOPE kept swimming.

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Preaching the Gospel is Preaching the Gospel

Not drilling wells

Jesus didn’t send his disciples into cities, and say   “When you go, be nice, trendy, hard-working, law-abiding citizens, start successful businesses, be super culturally relevant, and pray…   And wait…   Wait for that moment.  That moment someone asks you why you’re such a great person and why you’re so successful. Then, and only then, preach the gospel to them.” Actually he told them to preach the gospel, heal the sick, cleanse lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Matthew 10:8   It’s dumb for us to do everything that helps us spread the gospel, but never actually preach the gospel. That’s just dumb. I understand that there are many “covert ministries”, and spheres where much wisdom is required, and I’m thankful for Christians who God has positioned to bring influence in the various mountains of culture. And I understand that in most cases, it would not be a good idea to jump up onto the table and start proclaiming a blistering bible message. However, I’m afraid that we’ve become kind of like hunters sitting in our hunting blinds, and we’re so preoccupied with the process of sitting in waiting and perfecting our animal calls, that we never take the shot. We just watch the game stroll by and we pat each other on the back, and pride ourselves in how close they got to us without getting spooked.