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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I've spent some time in prayer and reflection and here is me being as open and transparent as I know to be...
For many, many years I have had enjoyed my prophetic gifting. It has often protected me from people with impure motives, it has literally kept me sane through multiple years of the modern church and political attacks on my family and I. It is how God spoke to me over the years about Grace and Wisdom, two deep revelations that both times literally rewrote my personality and changed me. Having "spirit eyes" has literally became part of my identity but at some point my ability to completely and cleanly forgive others (and by extension my ability to live free of bitterness) has been compromised and that bitterness, like a drop of red food coloring in a glass of otherwise pure water, has lightly tainted the entire glass of my life and God has dealt with me about that... and He did it by using Donald Trump. I prayed and prayed coming into this election and just could not find a witness from God's spirit on a Trump victory. In fact all I kept seeing was a different type of figure that I didn't recognize at all and God spoke to me very early the morning after Trump won that the person I didn't recognize was actually myself. In short, God pulled a Paul on me and left me temporarily blinded. That blindness has humbled me and that is ultimately a very good thing. Now, when I hear people talking about the Trump victory, I have no temptation to gloat or to boast, I have no desire to "rub it in" to political opponents but instead it is a glorious reminder of how easy it can be to let Pride cheat myself out of a state of perpetual yielding that is indeed the cross that every prophetic person learns to embrace and ultimately come to love. I also have an even deeper respect for Lance Walnau who is undoubtedly a modern Prophet over the United States of America. His personal revelation of Donald Trump being God's "chaos candidate" appears to now be validated with what can only be described as a supernatural victory. There were also many prophetic voices that saw this coming and in true prophetic style tried to tell everyone else what God was up to. Prophetic voices like Reeni Mederos and several others should be applauded for their boldness. Those are some of my thoughts as a Christian. As an AMERICAN, I am reenergized with HOPE for our country. The tens of millions of conservative leaning people who voted Trump have always been here, they just were finally pushed one step too far. The average American doesn't really mind Republicans or Democrats in office but in recent years the Democratic party was hijacked and converted into a globalism based far-left attempt to delegitimize basic American exceptionalism including trying to destroy traditional marriage, make abortion on demand a normal and even a celebrated thing and indoctrinate kids using the public schools. JFK's democratic party of the 60s would be considered far right by those standards. Yesterday, America collectively pushed back on ALL of that by delivering a Republican President, Republican House of Representatives and a Republican Senate and God has once again showed great Mercy to the United States of America. I also feel that one way to interpret the person I did not recognize winning the election was to say that the real person of Donald Trump was never really shown to America. Over $100 million in advertising was spent for months on end to create a racist, bigoted monster all while hiding who the man really is. I believe the Donald Trump that will take office in January will be the real Donald Trump, not the fake one that the far left tried to introduce. Finally, Trumps win is a big blow against the antichrist agenda commonly referred to as "globalism". Everyone is not the same, some countries have more people, more money, more weapons... some do better at various things. This whole idea that every country is the same is at best a denial of common sense based reality...yet it is what the far left uses repeatedly to advance it's antichrist agenda. Because of this, I expect protests and riots to continue, at least for a while. Remember, most of them are not well informed, honest people. The ones organizing it all are paid activists and most of the participants are the fringe of humanity angered by their false perception of Trump that the media and far left has spoon fed them for the last 6 months. Pray for them, that they would all come to know and feel God's mercy and love in a very personal way so that they can have His beautiful peace in their hearts. More soon, Mark I have heard prophetic voice after prophetic voice say repeatedly that they feel Donald Trump is God's man of Faith and Power for this time and most have gone on to predict a Trump victory on November 8th. I have personally prayed on this myself and I have to be honest with you, I do not have a witness on that. While I absolutely endorse Trump/Pense and encourage everyone to vote for them, as I pray I just do not have that unmistakeable peace that accompanies something from the Holy Spirit. That is not to say he won't win but it is to say that whatever credibility I may personally have as a Prophet of God in the earth today, I cannot honestly add my agreement to the claims that God says Trump will win.
I want to stress that I do indeed hope for a trump victory. I will be voting for Donald Trump and encourage everyone else to as well if for no other reason but to save the Supreme Court from a liberal take over setting the country back morally even farther than it has already been set back... but I cannot claim God said He will win. I do realize that if he does win people will point me out and say I missed God on this one. To that I say so be it. I would much rather be known as the Prophet of Grace who speaks life to those whose hearts are tired, frustrated or wounded as a result of this entire election process as opposed to one of the Prophets who called the 2016 election correctly...and to be clear, I am not saying that Hillary will win as I don't have a witness on that either. It's weird, almost as if a third person not running will win..is my perception. If it is Donald or Hillary, I would almost say that between now and the time they are sworn in they will be a completely different person. But that aside... The reason I support Trump is largely because of the wonderful men and women he has surrounded himself with. Gov Mike Pence is an outspoken born again Christian publicly proclaiming his loyalty and allegiance to Jesus Christ. What a wonderful thing for this country to finally have a bold, unapologetic Christian in such a high office. I believe Chris Christie would be great in the Department of Justice. I believe Ben Carson would be incredible as the Surgeon General of the United States. I think a White House staff made up largely of moral and conservative people is something we have not seen in America in far too long so obviously that would be very thrilling for me personally, but I just can't honestly say "thus saith the Lord" that Trump will actually win. Months ago I saw Ted Cruz in person and I felt like God did indeed show me Ted standing in the White House in a very high position. That was so strong to me that I was looking for Donald to name Ted as a VP pick but clearly he did not. Maybe that will happen in 2020 or 2024, I don't know. What I do know is this... we that claim the awesome and holy name of Jesus and further we that claim to speak words on His behalf need to take extraordinary care to never publish something we claim that he is saying unless we are absolutely sure He is indeed saying it. If November 9th comes and Trump is the President elect, I will humbly admit that i have missed God on foreseeing his election or for whatever divine reason God didn't show it to me personally. On the other hand if Hillary Clinton is the President elect, the majority of "God's Prophets" that assured everyone of a Trump victory will have so much egg on their face you would think they just got drug thru a large hen house. I hope they are all correct and Trump wins.. I really do. Lastly, while I don't have God's vision on who will win, I do believe I have my pulse on His heart as far as a desire to heal individual hearts. This division we see in our country is fruit of the incredible division we currently have in the church. Self appointed leaders are building man made kingdoms left and right and as a result, people are being hurt and disenfranchised in large numbers. True Apostles and Prophets are going to need to step up and minister LIFE to hurting hearts regardless of who wins on November 8th and that is something I can indeed say "thus saith the Lord" to. More soon Mark I went to Kindergarten in Florida before my family relocated to Ohio. Mrs Blevens was an older black woman who had been a teacher for many years. She navigated our 5 year old minds with the care and precision of a surgeon, at least it felt like it every day, especially around nap time when we all got our blankets out. Any tears were quickly offset by a warm hug and assurances that it was going to be alright. I haven't blogged in about 3 months or so. My apologies to the regular readers, with so many things going through my mind recently, I felt it wise to not go public with a lot of it and just try to work through much of it without blogging about it. Turns out this blog is a bit more therapeutic than I realized. ;) This is a challenging time for me personally as I watch the United States descend into even greater unrest. When I was little growing up in church they would always talk about the New World Order, the mark of the beast, the antiChrist coming and things that always had me looking for Satan to bust on the scene with a vengeance and capture the masses against their will to enslave them. As I have gotten older I have come to believe that the majority of people will not be taken against their will but will be slowly and craftily lulled into a place fueled by the lethal combination of selfishness and ignorance to where they will all too willingly actually insist that these these things come to pass. As one example, I have been knee deep in state level education law and policy over the last couple of years and one thing I have learned is how the education of our kids is being slowly changing away from traditional and conservative values and more toward a one world government, antiChrist methodology. Perhaps one of the most amazing facts for me has been to see so many otherwise well meaning Christians who just go along with it or who feel that it is somehow inevitable. Another example is how gay rights has been framed in our country over the last few years. There have always been people who felt themselves to be gay and practiced that lifestyle dating back to biblical times. Homosexuality is certainly nothing new but the reason what we are doing is so devastating and dangerous is that the strength and bedrock of our society is the traditional family unit and in recent years we have seen a complete undermining of that unit. People mistakenly ask me sometimes why I am against "gay rights"... they don't know how to answer when I tell them I'm not against gay rights at all, what I am against is the cheapening of the traditional family unit. See, I grew up never knowing who my real father was. To this day I still don't know for sure. If you don't think that messes with you in some very terrible ways, you are delusional. This is the danger at mislabeling something. Equal treatment under the law is something that as an American i completely support but trying to redefine marriage isn't really about redefining marriage, it is an attempt to attack, weaken and undermine the traditional family unit and that is what I am against. I don't ever want to see a little boy or a little girl grow up without a father but if they have two mommies, that is exactly what happens. I never knew my birth mother until recently when we had a wonderful reunion but for 45 years I was in the dark on that and again, if you don't think that messes with you, you are delusional. I don't ever want to see a little boy or a little girl grow up without a mother but that is exactly what happens if they have two daddies. Honest child psychologists without a political opinion have said for decades that the traditional family unit is the best place for a small child for a litany of reasons. I agree completely with the settled science, even though it is increasingly politically incorrect. I follow and worship a God who chose to reveal Himself as an olive skinned Jewish man who remained a virgin His entire life and was constantly misunderstood, made fun of, threatened and ultimately was found to be so politically dangerous that he was put to death publicly. I don't need lectures about tolerance because this Jewish man has fully captured the heart of this white American fool. He has accepted me when no one else would, He has taught me that forgiving others is the right thing to do. He has made it clear that wherever HIS Kingdom is established, there is no more bigotry, racism or other fear based reactions... so of course that is my ultimate goal to see His Kingdom come to pass in the earth... and since the part of the earth that I currently occupy is America, that is where my focus resides. There is nothing wrong with our nation that a real and true spiritual awakening would not fix and to that end I start in on my closing point today.. the bait and switch of Christianity. We spend considerable time, money and resources to get a message out to everyone who will hear it that basically says "Hey, you are loved without condition by the God of the Universe and He has a wonderful plan for your life" and on that promise or "bait" we bring in "whosoever will" and start to encourage them in the Faith. Unfortunately, too often in our modern churches we then bring in the "switch". What is the switch? The switch is placing expectations on other's lifestyles and behaviours. Example: God help you (because no one else will) if you are openly gay, openly in adultery, divorced (often with or without good reason) or if you have some other thing going on in your life that would be considered sinful by biblical standards. The bait and switch is how we tell people to come "just as they are" and then place ultimatums on basic relationships with them. God is not on that mess and it needs to stop in the modern church. Did you know many churches have a black list? It's a group of people, usually locals that they feel are dangerous or too sinfully minded to risk mixing them in with the average church goer. If you have ever been asked to leave a church or been given the clear message (spoken or not) that you needed to go, you are likely on that church's blacklist. Many modern Prophets fall into this category, my wife and I included. Homosexuals get lumped into the blacklist regularly. Blacks in many white churches and many whites in black churches are on the respective blacklists. Exposing the blacklists can be tricky because churches will fight and fight hard to protect that secret. Like many modern politicians they will swear on a stack of bibles that no such list exists yet it does and what's more, often church leaders gossip back and forth to each other trading names and stories about others they have placed on their individual blacklists. Despite clear biblical warning against gossip, the blacklist market in the modern church is alive and well fueled by Satan's smear merchants. Oh, it's done in the name of compassion and concern.. Hi Pastor Bob.. It's Pastor Jim. Hey man, Sue Smith visited us over the last two weeks and she prophesies and waves flags in worship and we feel that is distractive. We mentioned it to her and she didn't take the hint so we think she has a Jezebel Spirit so if she shows up at your place, be sure to keep an eye on her and deal with her quickly. Now, the bible calls that gossip and manipulation but many leaders feel they are above the authority of scripture because "God called them". They are wrong and greatly deceived. Here's another example... My wife and I were invited to a church in 2014 to help them by the Sr leader. After 18 months of using me for my giftings and talents both on the platform and behind the scenes, they learned that I was prophetic and had a deeper revelation on money, giving and finances than the rest of the staff had so they sat me down and said because I didn't believe in the Old Covenant version of the tithe that I had a different vision and I couldn't stay at their church. Never mind that we had given a fair amount of cash in their offerings... cash on purpose so they would not be tempted to treat us differently knowing it came from us.. but the point is that as soon as they figured out that we would not be controlled by them, we were put on their blacklist. Most people who were our friends were called and "warned" to stay away from us. Blogs were written warning the body about "false prophets in sheep's clothing" making veiled reference to us and of course other churches were contacted to warn them about how "dangerous" we were... all to protect their own sin. Other churches have done that and even worse to us and friends of ours and because of my place in running our online ministries, I have inboxes full of some of the most devastating stories of how churches of created horrendous and terrible situations for others who they felt justified in trying to destroy. Now, that does not make us victims. In fact, it strengthens my personal resolve to bring HEALING into the Earth. I saw a meme the other day that describes what we have been through... it said they tried to bury us alive and forget about us as though we were dead... they didn't realize that we were actually seeds and burying us actually activated us to bring forth what God had planted deep within us from the start. All of that to say we need to stop using the bait and switch stuff. if you are going to tell someone they are family and you are going to love them, you had better start meaning that with people. If you can't love others like that then for Heaven's sakes, get out of the ministry entirely where you can stop leaving a trail of broken lives behind you. Far better to have one less church in a town that already has too many...than to have leaders who can't even begin to love others without condition. More soon, M- I was adopted at three days of age by a loving family who had been praying for a son. At 12 I learned that I was adopted and for many years I was curious about that. About 10 years ago when I ran the online community called GraceBoards I had made a post about my birth mother whom I had not met yet at that time. I took that post from Graceboards and rolled it into a larger blog entry on this site some 2 years ago now that was very popular with readers. You can read that original post here. This is a picture of me with my adoptive parents Last year I did a blog entry detailing the incredible milestone in my life of reconnecting with my birth mother who I learned is a beautiful woman that I did indeed get to meet in person last year and now talk with regularly through Facebook. That blog I called The Reunion and to say it was an emotional would be an understatement to be sure. It is available here. As incredible and joyful as this was, it happened at a time in my life with many other things going wrong and while others were personally attacking my wife and I. Though I tried to keep that aspect from my birth mom, it affected our relationship a bit too but she has been very gracious and I love that I now have both women in my life who are both moms to me. I have two other women in my life who I consider spiritual moms as well. To all of these incredible ladies, I say Happy Mothers Day. My wife Lori is the mother of our three sons and is the embodiment of an incredible mother in every measurable way. Sadly, her own mother's health had been slowly declining for some time now and Thursday she got a call at work to go and be with her mother for what would be the last time. As Lori shared scripture at her bedside, her mom passed away as the presence of Jesus oversaw a unique generational transition. In the short term there is great sorrow and of course the news of her mom's passing on Mother's day weekend is not an easy burden to bear for any of the family but under the cold and harsh grief flanked by the fear of loss is a quiet but powerful seed of peace that passes all understanding. There is a rose of hope that slowly rises from the ashes of what used to be familiar and the Lord remains ever faithful and ever true in the entire journey in ways that only those who have walked the same path before would begin to understand. To Mothers everywhere of all ages and situations, on behalf of Lori and I we wish you the very best Mother's Day this weekend. Treasure those with you still on this side of eternity and if your mom has passed on already, treasure the memories and knowledge that God is honored as you honor your Mother and Father. More soon... Mark I'm not sure when it happened but at some point in my life I went from enjoying and expecting to be in full time ministry within the modern church to no longer even wanting to be associated with most of what is considered modern Christianity. Looking back now I feel like very few people were really honest with me as a little child and into my teen years about matters of the Faith in general. Maybe the folks I was around didn't understand it themselves, maybe they didn't feel like I could handle the truth of it all, I don't know. What I do know is that slowly as the years have turned into decades, I have found my heart at odds with a cold organization that far too often places itself above the hearts of others. Imagine with me for a moment if part of your job was to spot fraud inside of hospitals. You go in, look around at the books, interview people and then you discover some fraud so you report it. Then imagine the people who you reported for fraud turn around and tell everyone they know they you are anti-hospital and you actually don't want anyone to be able to go to a hospital at all. In fact, it is said of you that you are actively trying to destroy all modern hospitals. Sounds crazy doesn't it? But sadly, this is what happens to modern Prophets and Prophetesses all the time. They plug in, and by the nature of their callings they uncover unrighteous dealings with others. They then call it out and instead of a thank you from those in charge, they are often painted as the bad guy (or bad gal as the case may be) just because they brought it up. Prophets are created in the womb to prize and value the Word of the Lord above everything else. By the nature of their personality they cannot stand willful deception or manipulation. It is this disdain that fuels their discernment and is usually why prophetic people can spot the fake far off before the rest of the body. I've been put in the same position that a litany of other prophetic souls have been put in over recent years, that being the choice to sell out my conscience, calling and personal convictions to fit into the modern church mold or to remain true to the person of Jesus and remain estranged from the modern church which increasingly drifts farther and farther away from its founder's heart and intentioned purposes for a variety of reasons, not the least of which being that they elevate people claiming to be prophets that by the biblical standard are not. As I enter into private times of Praise and Worship, my heart burns for those I know and others I have yet to meet. The desire to see people truly healed and delivered is something that I cannot escape and believe me, I have tried just as many of you reading this have. My heart is humble before the Lord and that is why the anointing on my life for Healing remains pronounced and stronger than ever before... but like Jesus my lover before me, I don't really extend large amounts of mercy to those who try to trick or "expose" me. So the question becomes "Where do we go from here?" I still take invitation to minister everywhere from home groups to larger gatherings because my heart and goal is still to minister in the power of the Spirit and see people's hearts and lives truly changed...and that always happens when i am allowed to flow freely in a meeting of any size. I will still oversee our Internet ministries where tens of thousands a month tune in and enjoy our stations and special streaming offerings. Please join me in praying about doing some live meetings where I partner with some like minded prophetic souls to minister and make a real difference in people's lives without the inbuilt commercial for blind allegiance to a given church. I don't care of people identify as Baptists, Catholics, or Charismatics. I don't care of people identify as homosexuals, atheists or even (wait for it... ) one of those dreaded Internet bloggers. :o :o :o All i know is that Jesus died for EVERYONE and anyone who asks me for ministry with an honest heart to receive is going to get it, even if the modern church has declared them no good or to be shunned/avoided. Bring me everyone who has been wounded and hurt by the modern church because I want to see them HEALED... not so they can go back to the same place that wounded them... but so they can be released into their true identity and in many cases released into their own healing based ministry. More soon... Mark Several years back I offered a subscription service called The Healing Letter. For $10 a month you could get weekly updates similar in layout to this blog. Eventually the Lord challenged me to make the opportunity to give known more to others instead of charging directly and that led to the creation of my first official public blog. That blog was active for a couple of years before it gave way to this one. When I was still writing The Healing Letter back in 2010 I talked about Donald Trump who had been rumored off and on for years to potentially run for president.I remember it so well because even back then it generated a lot of feedback that honestly I didn't really expect at that time. Many challenged my idea that Trump could tap into a non-establishment vein of the general public because of his celebrity and win handily just like President Obama had done before. When you strip away the politics and look objectively, President Obama was not elected because he was such a policy wonk or an accomplished senator. Instead the primary thing that got him elected was his ability to TALK and come across as real with people. I commented to my wife several times how then Senator Obama reminded me of Duane Johnson aka The Rock in the WWE. Go back and listen to President Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic convention with your eyes closed and you would swear it was Duane Johnson doing the voice over. So here we are all these years later and Donald Trump is making world wide news as he inches closer and closer to the Republican nomination but that is no surprise to me. See, in the last year and a half I have morphed into somewhat of an educational activist. I have began to take deep looks at some of the popular curriculum in our public schools and it was a real wake up call for sure. The teaching of the basics about the pilgrims being radical Christians being willing to relocate to worship Jesus freely is whitewashed. American exceptionalism is generally undermined by indoctrination about how America is actually the cause of most of the world's problems. There is much more but he point is to say that many of this generation don't have a realistic or honest world view. They feel that things like anarchy and ad-nauseam attacks are actually the day by day way that people should get their ideas across. In the interest of full disclosure, I like Ted Cruz personally... but I am not writing today to endorse anyone, I am writing in part to talk about how so many Christians are letting the politics of the moment steal away personal authority and dominion from their lives. There are Christians all over Social Media platforms and many are saying the same thing... God is ______ (insert happy adjective if you support Bernie or Hillary, insert sad adjective if you support Donald or Ted) about this country right now so He is going to cause _______ (insert the name of their favorite candidate) to win the general election. My friends, this is Moose CaCa and needs to stop. We cheapen real prophetic words when we say and do stuff like this, not to mention we placate to the spirit of fear which drives politics in a general sense. Prophetic maturity is going to address what God is doing more so than who he is going to use to get it done. Of the hundreds of prophesies about Jesus coming forth, only one gave his actual name. Today we have that reversed as most prophesy names of candidates and only a precious few talk about what God is trying to get accomplished. Remember the fruits of the Spirit such as Peace, Joy, Love, Patience, Kindness, Longsuffering and others. Does the candidate that you support endanger these to work within you? If not, perhaps you are not being led by the Holy Spirit to support the candidate of your choice after all. More soon, Mark The word "authority" appears 91 times in the bible. There is absolutely no question we are called again and again in scripture to submit to authority. The question must be raised however of who or what authority looks like so we know two things clearly. The first thing we need to learn is who and what to submit to. The second thing we need to learn is who and what we are not supposed to submit to. The biggest mistake we make in this area is assuming that just because a person is in charge of something that they have Heaven's authority to be doing that thing. The bible clearly draws a line between a person's position or title of earthly Authority and their Heaven given authority. In Matthew 7, Jesus has no earthly title. He is not in charge of anything or anyone. No one of earthly authority has given him any authority mantle yet the scripture says in verses 28 & 29, "And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, 29 for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Even the people of that time did not understand the difference between earthly and heavenly authority. People miss stories like when David was the King and yet Nathan being a Prophet didn't roll over and submit to him. In fact, Nathan came and brought a prophetic word of correction to him. Nathan was indeed a man of great Heavenly Authority and while Nathan respected the office of the King, He held the honor of God's throne above that of David's as is common in real prophets. This helps burst the bubble of bad doctrine that suggests a real prophet will submit to a local Pastor or board of elders as it's not even an issue about submission. On the contrary, it is the local pastors or boards that should be listening very carefully to the prophets because heavenly authority always trumps earthly authority when the two collide. In Matthew 21, the religious leaders in charge counted on everyone believing they were the ones put in place by God with God's Authority. This is one reason why they publicly challenged Jesus' authority flat out by asking in whose authority Jesus was operating in and who gave it to Him. This was their way of saying "Hey, we are the only ones God uses here and this guy is not submitted to us". They were just trying to raise doubts about the validity of Jesus authority in the minds of the crowds. Jesus knowing their hearts refused to directly answer but instead gave them a riddle of His own and basically outsmarted them and left them standing there looking like fools which again is something a real prophet often does to the religious elite even today. Point is that even though they had earthly authority, Jesus did not honor them as leaders with Heavenly Authority because they didn't have any. In Matthew 28 Jesus declared “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth". This is critical to see as it puts Jesus in the driver's seat meaning that He and only He dells out the authority of Heaven to others. After all, He's the only one that has any to give at that point and you can only give what you have. Luke 7 is where Jesus heals the Centurion's servant. In it we see a couple very powerful things. One, we see one of the only times a person makes Jesus marvel. How would you like to be a person that it can be said about that you made Jesus marvel over you? Well, this guy did just that. It was because the Centurion completely understood earthly authority and by default understood its limitations. Accordingly He knew Jesus didn't even have to be there in person, Jesus could just give the instruction and Jesus' authority would empower the word and bring the healing and that is exactly what happened. In Luke 10 authority is given to empower people to do certain things. In Luke 19 authority is given as a reward of being faithful. Romans 13 is where many get messed up. Here are verses 1, 2, and 3. 1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. Notice that it does NOT say there is no one in charge that is not put there by God. It says there is no AUTHORITY except from God. Big difference. Hitler ruled Nazi Germany and slaughtered countless millions but he certainly did not have the authority of God, even though he was clearly in charge. Jim Jones, David Koresh and many like them have been in charge of their given organizations, but they had no true Heavenly Authority. If a person rents a police uniform for a costume party, they may look just like a police officer in every way, but in reality they have no real authority. At the same time, if a leader in the church has the title of Pastor or Elder or whatever, that in no way automatically gives them Heaven's authority. In the later chapters of Revelation, we see that the dragon gives out "earthy authority" (or the ability to be in charge of things) to the beast. This is not Heavenly Authority from God spoken of in Romans 13. The authority of Heaven is only handed out by Jesus Himself since He is the one who has it all in the first place. When a person has authority, they have the right to represent and act on behalf of. For married couples, Paul uses authority as an example in 1st Corinthians. "The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does" It's important to see too that authority will one day be done away with. Heaven is not ran by authority as God is God and doesn't need us to represent Him in Heaven as He is there in the fullness of His Glory all the time. It is only within the sin stained walls of earth that we are in need of Heaven's authority. (1st Corinthians 15) In summary, it becomes very important to see the difference between someone simply being in charge of something and someone being anointed with real authority from Heaven. what does that mean on a practical level? It means this... when a person (church leader or otherwise) tries to insist that you submit to them because they have authority from God, you cannot take their title or position into consideration. Just because someone says "I am the pastor here, you must submit to me and those I appoint"... does not necessarily square with the teachings in scripture. Consider that Jesus is on trial with only the basics of human rights. Absolutely no title, position or earthly authority whatsoever. Pilot tries to flex his political authority by threatening Jesus reminding the Lord that he could free him or have Jesus crucified. Jesus, standing there broken, beaten unrecognizable and bleeding onto the floor squints through eyes partially swollen shut from the beatings and says to Pilot "you have no authority over me that wasn't given unto you from above, therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of an even greater sin". (John 19 10,- 12) I could keep giving many other examples, but the point is, a leader is not a leader just because they call themselves one. GOD has to call them and anoint them personally before they have true Heaven given authority. our churches are SUPPOSED to be submitted to and ran by HEAVENLY authority and instead most run by earthly authority and that is the biggest reason we do not have a move of God's spirit in our churches and a revival in the United States currently. The message to those who do have positions of earthly authority should be obvious... submit yourselves to those who have genuine HEAVENLY authority. SIt down and get out of their way because they will likely never try to force themselves. In many cases those truly anointed with Heaven's authority are sitting on the back rows far too humble to even request a microphone. Heaven's warriors are often those you have banished away from your fellowships because you felt they wouldn't submit to you... in reality they saw the danger in submitting to someone with no heavenly authority and refused to do that.. so the price they paid for their proper discernment was banishment. I absolutely believe in accountability but that has to be mutual. When a leader wants you to answer to them and they will not answer to you, that is a red flag that you are dealing with a leader with earthly authority and no real heavenly authority. This is why the disciples resisted when Jesus wanted to wash their feet and the Lord's reply was so very telling... I must wash your feet or you can have no part of me. In that day the feet were the most dirty and disgusting part of the body. Any leader asking you to submit to them who is unwilling to be mutually humble with the dirtiest parts of their soul does not really possess heavenly authority. Remember that my friends... More soon, Mark One of the biggest blind spots that most Christians struggle with is the sovereignty of God and what that really means. People say it all the time.. "God is in control".. and He is in control in an ultimate sort of way but that divine sovereignty and our free will are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the both coexist in a very Godly and marvelous way. The WILL of God is that none should perish, yet people still go to Hell every day. The desire of God is to bless and prosper you even as your soul prospers, yet plenty of people are not prospering today. The heart of God is revealed in that He loves everyone, but many do not feel loved by God. I could go on and on but the point is that in this earth realm, God has given His dominion to US as humans. So now WE HUMANS have the dominion in the earth. (Gen 1:26, 27). This is why Jesus had to come in human form.. God in Spirit form could not save the people of the earth, only God in human form could do that because only a human has authority in the earth. Paul says its no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me. I'm not walking around waiting for Jesus to show up in a given place or a given situation... I know wherever I am, there He is too because even down to the genetic level, He is now alive in me and I am only alive in Him so where I am, He is naturally there as well.. UNLESS I choose to deny His leading and pacify my flesh. When I do that, He is still alive in me but He is not manifesting through me any longer. The devil wants you to hate yourself. He wants you to see yourself as a little speck completely irrelevant and worthless. He propagates that thru a lie of omission in telling you that God is in control of everything... after all, if God is truly in control of everything, we and our choices become irrelevant and not needed. Jesus died BECAUSE we are of great value to Him... not because we are not needed. You DO matter, you DO have a plan for your life and ONLY YOU can fulfill that plan in just the way that you can. God did not make a mistake in giving you a free will. His heart is pleasured when we choose to bring ourselves into agreement with His divine sovereignty. More soon... M- |
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June 2022
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