Impressions for 2017 plus The Blacklist

If you look back in this very blog from one year ago you will see I shared this about 2016...

Especially in the 2016 Election cycle as the backdrop, I hear the Lord saying that He and He alone is going to cause some things to take place that will "clear the path" for America once again.  The giant trees of an antichrist agenda have blocked many paths but the Lord is not going to heal those trees to live again but instead He is going to saw them in half and separate them for all to see the real agendas of the godless.

I believe we have seen that come to pass.

I also shared this one year ago...

 Also passing in 2016 will be several "generals" of the Faith and to the undiscerning eye this will look like loss but it is actually a clearing, a changing of the guard so to speak.

I was reminded of that impression as Kim Clement passed away last month as well as Breitbart reporting that tens of thousands of Christians had been killed in 2016, many of them local leaders.

As I consider 2017 I hear the Lord saying that many things will be restarted and recreated this year that cannot be limmitted to just one year. The fingerprints of God will again become more obvious in the media. The tresures of wealth will begin to be considered as blessings instead of curses but the danger for many will be to assume more blessing equates to more personal intimacy with the Holy Spirit and that is not always teh case.

The conviction of the Holy Spirit is going to fall hard on the United States as the nation is prepped for a large scale awakening but like so many things from God, many will not recognize it for what it is.  The eyes placed on Washington DC are misplaced says the Lord. The eyes of the Lord are the ones that roam the earth so as a result, our eyes need only be focused on Him. It reminds me of the young Jesus in scripture. From His parents perspective Jesus had wondered away and gotten lost but from His perspetive, He knew exactly where He was and why He was there. 

Now, having said all of that, let's get to my blog post for today... The Blacklist!

A few years back we were at a church where I was reluctantly being used for my gifts. I say reluctantly because some of the congregation and leadership enjoyed me and were very encouraging while others found my gifts so radical that in their ignorance they felt I was channeling demons and had to be gotten rid of.

The Prophetic Office carries with it a certain level of exposure of people's BS and especially political BS..and believe me, there is a lot of that in the modern church. Anyway...

Lori (my wife) actually had several women come up to her and actively try to push her to get a divorce from me. Our marriage was doing great, we were happy with three kids all living at home yet because of the unholy spirits at work in their lives, they sought to bring our marriage to an end. When she pushed back against those attacks, she too was labeled as one who had to be removed at any cost.

Several of those who didn't like us went to the Sr Pastor and said if he didn't kick us out, they would stop giving and start rumors about that church to try and keep others away. This created a small skism between leaders there but in the end they caved into the pressure. We were asked to come to a private meeting. The reason we were given was to get a progress report on how overall ministry was going with us. Once we sat down it was a two hour series of false accusations and attacks concluding with us being told to leave and never come back. They also warned us to never expose what had just taken place or we "would never attend another local church around here".

See, there is a church blacklist that most Charismatic Church leaders keep. It's not written down anywhere and it's never admitted to publicly but it absolutely exists and if by chance anyone from the blacklist walks into their church, Red Alert is called and in some cases so is the sheriff. Ushers will attempt to escort you from the building.

The church is supposed to be a place of Healing and Refuge. It is supposed to be like a Spiritual Hospital, a Rehab Facility for the soul... but in too many churches today if you wont compromise what you believe or blindly trust and submit even intimate details of your life to the leaders, you are labeled as rebellious or a troublemaker and added to the blacklist.

How do you get off of the blacklist? You basically have to perpetually lie. You have to go and pretend to "repent" to the leaders so they can then "restore" you to the church. In many cases you have to stand before the church and confess you were wrong about the leaders (even though you were not). Of course they just use the words "repent" and "restore" to sound biblical but I assure you, that type of messing with people's lives is not something any real and called leader would ever engage in.

I have watched my incredible wife begin to form relationships with other women time and time again only to discover later that those were not honest relationships at all as the other women had selfish motives. Lori has a husband of 25 years who loves her, a successful career, 3 incredible kids, lives in a new house, drives a new car, is in perfect health and works out regularly to stay in shape to say nothing of her long list of spiritual gifts... I have watched woman after woman seethe with jealousy over her as they act innocent behind a religious "Hi sister, God Bless You".

Consider this... True, biblical "submission" is the permission to protect. if you hired bodyguards, you would submit to what they said to do and where they said to go because that is their job. When a church leader asks you to submit to them, especially when they do not really know you that well, that is a giant red flag. How do you know if they can truly protect you or not? For that matter, how would THEY know if they could?

Lori and I are not easy relationships to sustain because we are very real. Some of that is the nature of the prophetic flow we both move in but part of that is our personalities. While we value gentleness, we also value being incredibly direct when the situations call for that...and while most Christians SAY they want that in their lives, I have found that very few can truly handle that... and most church leaders really don't know what to do with that at all. Instead they just add us to their blacklist.

I have come in recent years to better understand this blacklist and I will be addressing it much more as we get deeper into 2017. In the meantime, have you blacklisted anyone in your own heart?

Separating from someone or setting a healthy boundary is not blacklisting. Blacklisting is coming to the conclusion that God could not possibly use that person regardless of the situation or circumstance. It is stealing away their personal dignity before God in your own mind. It says much more about you than it does them. It says you need set free from retaliation and bitterness as it relates to that person.

More soon..

M-

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