Don’t be seduced or lulled into accepting a cushy non offensive whitewashed version of the gospel that leaves you harmless and sedated.
We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine… Eph 4
One of the things that has always puzzled, and concerned me, is the propensity of the church at large to be caught up in fads–hoopla whatever you want to call it—basically jumping on whatever band wagon is passing by that seems to be carrying the most of our brothers and sisters. The wagons with the shiniest horns, the biggest smiles, the loftiest promises, the biggest sellers, the largest crowd drawers—surely this is what God is doing right now so we better get on board!
I always wondered if I was just too skeptical or was I really feeling a check in my spirit that was coming from His Spirit?
I’ve been around a while and I have seen a lot of them. From the Prayer of Jabez, the Left Behind Series, to the Mega church TV superstar pastors, high profile prophets and healers, and more recently super star music and prayer ministries and on and on. I’ve seen and heard local preachers teach from their books, stream their music, take pilgrimages to their events and so on.
I’m not saying they’re all bad, it just worries me when there is more excitement and more attention given to anything or anybody—more attention paid and greater influence allowed into the heart of the church than there is to the Holy Word and the influence and reality of the Holy Spirit in the heart of a believer. (How many “Bible studies” have you been to where the Bible is not actually the book being studied?)
I guess what it comes down to is that we have become disciples of men rather than disciples of God. And, sadly, many of those institutions and people that we have put so much faith in, given so much credence to, have fallen or are just a bit short, or a lot short, of being entirely accurate.
All this leaves the church unprepared and impotent. As was made abundantly clear during the dress rehearsal for the reign of the antichrist and his beast that we called the Covid pandemic.
Because a common denominator in most all popular movements that are not Spirit led and whole gospel driven is that they all promise sunshine and roses to the adherents if they just take to heart the message they are selling. And I mean literally selling.
On the other hand. I have seen of late a lot of angry voices (social media is rife with them) dire warnings given in accusatory tones with ‘everyone else is wrong and leading you to hell’ attitudes that only turn people away from whatever truth they may be espousing, and causing fractions in the body of Christ.
We must know the manner of the spirit we are of.
54 And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?”
55 But He turned and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. Luke 9:54-55
People are lost. People are confused. People are hurting and they need truth, they need answers—ones that hold up when their world falls apart. We need church leaders that don’t lay down and shut up, hide their faces behind masks and put away the elemnts of communion when the authories say so. That don’t stop teaching truth because Facebook and trolls deem them offensive. And look around you people, the world is falling apart, polite society is crumbling, and we cannot just hide away any longer, ignore the news, and pretend that all is well if we just read the right books, listen to the right songs and support the popular churches.
All those things may soon be either gone, outlawed or tainted and controlled by the enemy of our souls—if they are not already.
Then what do we have? –We have truth, at least those left standing have truth because that will be the only reason they are standing! When the glitz and glamour are stripped away, truth stands bare and stark—yet indeed it stands. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Eph 6:13
We, as the church, as believers—ambassadors for Christ—must speak truth in love. That is the Spirit we are of, that is the armor we bear that keeps us standing, that is what will save others from deceit and the deceiver. Don’t be seduced or lulled into accepting a cushy non offensive whitewashed version of the gospel that leaves you harmless and sedated.
Seek and speak truth! As I said in my previous blog, because it was impressed on me by the Holy Spirit, is that a truth that is spoken in love is a truth that is heard. There cannot be malice behind your words but neither can there be fear. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of courage and strength.
But we forget that, we choose to ignore the Spirit and focus on the words, the feelings, the culture, on what’s popular and accepted–sheep following the Judas goat to our own slaughter.
If people are offended by scriptural truth than so be it.
It may seem that the wicked prosper as the righteous suffer unheeded, that evil is rewarded and love punished in this wicked world we live in but that’s for two reasons: the devil is ramping up his attacks knowing his time is short and that our flesh grows weaker and weaker as we get farther away from the whole gospel, or any knowledge of the gospel. And because God is patient not desiring that any should perish but that all would come to know Him.
In other words; God has not struck all evil doers down like was so often the case under the old covenant because He is patient, longsuffering, wanting to ensure that all who have the opportunity to receive forgiveness and grace through the blood of His Son will do so.
Any suffering that comes to His people as a result in the meantime will seem but a flash, the briefest of moments, in the light of eternity in his presence.
That puts the responsibility on us to share His love and His truth with a dying world.
Don’t be deceived. Don’t be distracted. Don’t be discouraged. Our God wins, and has won. And the enemy knows it. A cornered animal is always the most dangerous. But all the enemy can do is roar–he is toothless. Our souls, our eternity’s are secure and greater is He who is in us that he who is in the world!
Ask the hard questions of your spiritual leaders. Don’t settle for platitudes and because I said so’s. Search the scriptures and have honest prayerful conversations with the Lord. And challenge one another in love. The days are short. The day of the Lord is coming, and justice will be served.
“He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Mat 3:11
11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him… Eph 4
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about my role as pastor, or is it former pastor? I do not currently have a formal pulpit in a church. I am not currently licensed with a denomination. Back in 2006 I was ordained by the denomination that had previously given me the training and the license to be called a pastor within their organization– so am I still “ordained”?
According to the denomination that gave me the pieces of paper and the accompanying ceremonies for my licensing and subsequent ordination, I need to be serving in an officially recognized pastoral role and current on my annual fee to be called pastor. So be it. I will not argue that I am not currently a recognized “pastor” within that body as I closed the doors to my church two years ago and (by the Holy Spirit’s promptings) have not renewed my license with the denomination.
And other than the annoying “Do not reply” automated emails reminding me to send in my renewal fees, I have not heard anything from them—confirmation.
Originally, when I was discussing the prospect of closing the church after having hit a wall, being exhausted after twenty years of Bi-vocational ministry and listening to the council of my superiors who suggested I take a break… (For the record, I did not want to close the church, I was initially asking for help to carry the load but none was forthcoming and when it was suggested that I close the church my spirit bore witness that it was time.) Anyway, while I was being counseled to take a break I was told that it may take a couple years to recover, or that I “might never be called pastor again.”
That line seared itself into my mind and stayed there-“You might never be called pastor again…”. At the time, as exhausted and discouraged as I was, I wasn’t sure I wanted to argue the point. But it sure didn’t sit right with me.
In a formal sense, within that organization, it may very well be true. But, bottom line, It is not man who called me, it is not man who ordained me, it is God, whom through His Holy Spirit began calling and preparing me many years before the position became official and affirmed many times and in many ways that it is so.
I did not seek this title/position in the body of Christ, not did I want it. In the years proceeding my answering the call, the more I learned of the incredible responsibility and challenges of this office in the body of Christ, the more determined I became to skirt my calling.
But I could not continue to kick against the goads and I embraced the title, and the three years of night classes, as a gift to the one who saved me, me a barbarian with a Bible who was gifted so much forgiveness and mercy. I had to share what I was so freely given and if it was in a pastoral role, so be it.
At my ordination ceremony, in a large a room full of others being ordained with all their families attending, I had a supernatural experience that mere words cannot come close to describing, but I’ll try. In short, I found myself to be in the Spirit during the worship that preceded the message and commissioning, and found myself in the presence of the Lord in a place where there was no time, yet we were in all time at once. I did not see Him but I felt His presence and heard His voice. He covenanted with me that I was being set apart for this purpose and that I could never be separated from Him nor negate my call.
So, I have no doubt that I am still Pastor.
This is not a point of pride, nor of boasting. It is an enormous responsibility and that is what I wrestle with. Because, in spite of what was told me by church leadership, many still call me pastor.
It is a responsibility I cannot not hide from, as much as I sometimes think I would like to. But when those whom I have had the privilege of ministering to over the years still look to me as a pastor, seeking comfort, fellowship, answers—when I see and sense the hunger in the souls of those I have come to love, those I have invested in, I cannot but ache to love them for Jesus, to shepherd for The Shepherd.
Everywhere I go, whether people knew me when I was preaching every Sunday, or whether they just recently came to know me, when they find out that I was a pastor, they somehow totally miss the was part, jump right into the current tense and expect me to have the answer to their questions concerning anything biblical or the challenges they are facing.
And I try to always give an answer for the hope that is in me, as all us who believe are commanded to do. But, as pastor, I feel the weight of my answers so much heavier because so many put a lot of stock in my words. Which, I suppose is why God gave us pastors among the many gifts he gave the church-to provide some answers and, more importantly, point to the One who has them.
…some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, Eph 4
What about you?
Might I be so presumptuous as to suggest that all of us who love Christ should find ourselves in one of those categories? Are you being called to pastor, to teach, to evangelize, to prophecy?
Step up, answer the call; train, work, practice, get godly advice, study the word, pray, spend time in prayer and fasting—and do it. Speak the truth in love. A truth spoken in love is a truth that is heard!
Do not let man nor institutions hold you back. Do not let fear hold you back. If He can use this barbarian he can use you! The one who calls us is faithful and true, and He knows us far better than we know ourselves. The Kingdom needs you, the church needs you. We need each other and there is a whole world out there who needs Jesus!
People are hungry. Those who know Jesus are hungry for truth and direction, and those who don’t know Jesus are hungry for truth and purpose. God calls us to help point everyone to Him. The sorry state of the church today is not a lack of thirsty souls, it is a lack of those pointing the way, honestly, truthfully and lovingly, to the Living Water!
That said, please pray for me brothers and sisters as I seek the face of the Lord for direction in this next season. I am pastor, and I want to be where my King needs me to be. I am but a humble servant who’s heart breaks for those whom the Lord’s heart breaks.
For the record, I hold no ill feelings toward the denomination that I served in for nearly four decades, even long before I was called pastor, but the Kingdom is so much bigger than a denomination, so whether it’s there or elsewhere, I just need to preach. I have no right, as servant called of God, not to.
Again; Speak the truth in love. A truth spoken in love is a truth that is heard!
Step up and answer His call no matter what they say.
“Tongues is a way for us to pray without our own ‘this is what I want and this is what you are going to do’ name it and claim it tendencies getting in the way of what God has in mind–what He wants to do, what only He can see from his perspective, it is praying for what He wants us to contend for.”
So what is this Holy Spirit baptism we’ve been talking about? For those who don’t know, here’s a little Holy Spirit 101.
When we receive Jesus, confess that we believe in Him and ask forgiveness for our sins, what Jesus referred to as being born again, we receive the Holy Spirit. It is the guarantee of our salvation, literally receiving new life that can never die. But there is more, Jesus also makes available, and desires us to have more— to be completely immersed in his Spirit, to be baptized in it— or him. To not just be saved, but also to be equipped and empowered.
Jesus himself makes it quite clear that there is a distinction between receiving the Holy Spiritand his salvation and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and his power.
The first time Jesus saw the apostles the day of his resurrection he said to them:
“Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:21-23
Right away Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit, breathes life into their very souls giving them eternal life— salvation! But then later Jesus tells them there is more to come, he didn’t just come to seal their eternity— he had come to bring the very Kingdom of Godinto their lives– a few weeks after his first meeting, just before he leaves to return to heaven them he tells them:
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. 5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” Acts 1:4-5
Remember what John the Baptist said?
“I baptize you with water but there is one coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire!”
So here they are They had just received the Holy Spirit the breath of life from the creator himself— but now Jesus is telling them, the good stuff is yet to come, you now have life but the gift I have been telling you about is yet to come.
And so, after they watch Jesus ascend into the clouds they do just as Jesus asked them to do, they hang out in Jerusalem and on the Jewish feast day called Pentecost, while they are all together praying, not just the apostles but 120 disciples-
Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.Acts 2:2-4
Jews from all over the world who were in Jerusalem celebrating Pentecost heard all the commotion and came to see what all the fuss was about, they heard all these Galilean Jews speaking in the languages of the countries they came from proclaiming the wonders of God and were amazed, some thought they were just drunk but Peter stood up and said “We are not Drunk as you suppose-“
16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy. Acts 2:16-18
“In the last days I will pour out my Spirit…” We are in the last days and God has indeed poured out his Spirit, the last days certainly did not end with the apostles, that would make no sense at all, how could they be the recipients of the outpouring of the Spirit in the last days and we are not, there cannot be another age, what the dispensationalists call the church age, after the last days. Either these are the last days, of this present earth, or they are not. Either the Holy Spirit has been poured out or it has not.
I know it has because the scriptures say it has and because it has been poured out on me, I have not only received his Spirit because I have believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord as Savior but I have also had the Spirit poured out on me, I have been immersed in the Spirit, I have been baptized in the Spirit. And I have tried my best to live and to follow in the power and the leading of the Spirit— to be a witness using the gifts he entrusted me with, looking at the world through his eyes and always going back to the source of my strength.
To have lived the life I lived, to have made it through the challenges and trials of life, to have even come anywhere near my hope of being a good person, of making a difference in this world, of being able to love my children and my wife sacrificially, to be able to endure the pain both physical and emotional, illness both physiological and psychological, to do more than just survive but to thrive— none of that would be possible without the power the Lord so freely gives me simply because I asked. You need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit otherwise you are just spitting in the wind and wondering why you keep getting wet! Life is hard, why face it powerless!?
Jesus said I am giving you the power so you can be my witnesses. We witness by loving people— All people. If you are filled and moving in the power of the Spirit, and you get yourself out into the world, they will be drawn to you. It still amazes me when people I barely know pour out their hearts to me. Everyone is hurting and needs to know they are loved. Real love can only come from Jesus—via His Holy Spirit through us.
So what about this tongues thing?
When we are baptized in His Spirit one of the main gifts made available to us is tongues. Which is nothing more than a handy word that means speaking in a language other than our own. It is literally a prayer language, a language that is not one we understand. It is one we control, I only speak in tongues when I choose to and for as long as I choose to– just as I do my own tongue— English.
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. 2 For anyone who speaks in a tongue does not speak to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. 3 But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouraging and comfort. 4 Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 I would like every one of you to speak in tongues, but I would rather have you prophesy. 1 or 14:1-5
Paul says here; I would like every one of you to speak in tongues… The gift of our prayer language is a way to pray straight from the heart without our minds interfering— straight from our heart to God’s. A perfect prayer releasing his power, seeking his perfect will and plan without our own agendas getting in the way, without our own to do lists for God confusing God’s will for us.
Tongues is a way for us to pray without our own this is what I want and this is what you are going to do name it and claim ittendencies getting in the way of what God has in mind–what He wants to do, what only He can see from his perspective–it is praying for what He wants us to contend for.
It is a way to effectively engage in the spiritual battles going on all aroundin a way that all our prayers of understanding never could in our doubting, frightened and self-seeking flesh.
Praying in tongues releases the power of God into whatever situation, whatever person we are praying for. When I had my daughter come up front in our church to pray for her babies as I shared with you last time, I finished by praying in tongues. That wasn’t for the church, that wasn’t for me, that was for the Holy Spirit who wanted to be released into Cally’s womb in power to take care of those babies and that is why those babies were no longer choked off from growing anymore, that is why Cally and her husband both felt the love and the presence of the Lord in the last, what could have been very scary and painful, weeks of her pregnancy with two little miracles growing within her being formed and blessed by God.
And if things had gone awry, we would have still trusted God and known that ultimately those babies were still in his care and that in the end we would all be together. And even in our grief– what would seem to be inconsolable grief to those looking in– there would have been a peace, a peace beyond comprehension. Why? Because we, because Cally has been baptized in the Holy Spirit and the power of our God is our comfort and our counselor. Our peace does not come from what goes on around us, it comes from within.
We need that power, God wants us to have that power, Jesus died to make that power available to you!
We can’t be messing around church, we need God’s power or we are going to lose this world and all that are in it, the time for lukewarm Christianity is over.
So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. …Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. Rev 3:16, 20
If we want to bring the Holy Spirit’s presence, the Kingdom power, with all its healing, saving, life changing, sin convicting, heart healing power, back into our churches, we need to stop with the seeker sensitive nonsense—gathering in our churches and putting on a show with the goal of making everyone want to come back with friends and never doing anything that might offend—and start getting real with one another and with our God.
Yes we need to come together as the church, to be empowered by the word, by the Holy Spirit and then we need get out there and be the seekers— we have found what the world needs, what the world is dying for and we need to share it. We can’t just sit here with a feel good message, a polished worship team to entertain and a building made to impress waiting for seekers to wander in— people don’t even know what they are seeking any more.
We are living in a post Christian society— people no longer even know that there is a real God who cares let alone loves them, people have no idea what’s in the Bible and it’s being portrayed by the ignorant masses as bigoted and outdated hate speech that makes people judgmental. Jesus is portrayed as just another in a long line of mystic holy men and prophets from centuries past who said some nice things just like Confucius, Buddha, Mohammed and Moses.
Jesus is not another prophet or just one of several ways to spiritual enlightenment. Jesus is real, he is here and he is everything- but unless we are moving in his power—taking it to them, seeking people to witness to, then we will be the last Christian generation— maybe the last generation period.
We need to go witness Jesus to people.By witness I don’t mean quoting scriptures to people and pointing out their sin. People no longer know what sin is nor do they believe there is such a thing. But what they do know is that they’re miserable and they are running out of things to turn to— everything they were promised would bring them joy turned out to be a lie.
We have the truth, we have Jesus! The way, the truth and the life. We need to be full of that life—we need to be Spirit filled, we need to seek it and then continue to keep being refreshed in the Lord.
Ever since the Lord set me free and overwhelmed me with His presence and unfailing love it has been my desire I for everyone to know the joy that I have found, the deep down soul satisfying, nothing or no one can steal or destroy the hope that is in me, peace that lives in my heart and is there for no other reason than that I have trusted Jesus for my salvation and then asked for and received the baptism of his Holy Spirit—surrendering my life and my heart to Jesus.
Out of my distress I called on the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free. With the Lord on my side I do not fear. What can man do to me? Psalm 118:5,6
Renewed in worship
I love to gather with fellow believers who delight in worship and have often felt myself surrounded and infilled by the incredible love of God as I let myself worship in spirit and in truth, guided by Spirit anointed worship leaders. This can usually only happen in a place where the Spirit is invited and allowed to move freely and all are focused on glorifying the Lord.
I love to feel wave after wave of the Holy Spirit coming over me as I am renewed, strengthened and blessed anew by the Spirit of our mighty God simply because I have opened myself up to it and received it—standing before my God with my arms open wide and my hands lifted high praying- “Lord fill me, empty me of all the junk that has piled up in my heart and gotten in the way of what you want to do in me, what you want to do through me and fill me anew!” and He does, it’s that simple.
Be baptized and continue to seek refreshment in Him. Don’t let your spirit dry up for lack of coming to the living water. In cooperate worship, or in quiet moments alone on the mountain.
But you have to be brave enough to ask for it. And your place of worship does not facilitate that—you are in the wrong place. I’m sorry but there is a big differance between singing songs about God, and singing praises to God. Praising God opens the heart to recieve.
As a pastor and teacher I am loath to preach or teach without first joining those to whom I am speaking in worship. If you know–you know.
I have tasted the goodness of the Lord and I have been walking in the power and the freedom of our Lord for many years so I know, I want to keep going back to the well and getting refilled, even Jesus went up the mountain once in a while to pray— to be recharged by his Father. We only need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit once, but we must seek to be refreshed and renewed in His Presence.
“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” -Jesus Mat 18:20
When I first preached this message to my church a few years ago it was on the heels of an incident, an example of Kingdom power facilitated by Spirit filled believers coming together in worship. One of my daughters, Cally, was pregnant with twins, and they were breech, long after they should have turned around in preparation for birth.
Two or three days before a worried doctor had scheduled a C section before the babies were in serious trouble we had my daughter and her husband come forward after worship to be prayed for. We laid hands on Cally and prayed–and I prayed with my mind and with my Spirit.
15 What should I do then? I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also; I will sing praise with the spirit, but I will sing praise with the mind also. 1 Cor 14:15
— yes I prayed for her in tongues, my prayer language given to me when I first received the Baptism — and two days later the doctor told her the babies were in the right position, were growing again and a few weeks later she delivered two strong and healthy babies.
Why? Why were those babies healed, why did that womb that was cramping the growth of those babies suddenly become the safe place it was supposed to be— Because Holy Spirit baptized believers moving in the power of the Holy Spirit given to us by Jesus Christ prayed for her— that’s why! — Because Jesus Loves Cally, because Jesus loves those babies and he loves us enough to give us the power to take care of those he loves, that’s why.
That’s why He makes that available to us, not so we can impress each other with how spiritual we are, it’s not a competition to see who is more spiritual, to harangue one another or cause division in the church as we either institutionalize or diminish the gifts— but so we can take care of one another, so that the world will know that he is real and that he cares.
Next time we’ll look more at how the Holy Spirit baptism squares with our salvation and being born again.
you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses -Jesus
Today I want to talk about something that has been prominent on my mind, and often in conversations, as I have been privileged to visit several churches lately and experienced the various responses different church families have to the person, presence and doctrine of the Holy Spirit—primarily as concerns the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
There are those that embrace it and those that shy away from it, and those who just don’t know what it is. But even among those that do claim to embrace it, there are varied responses to the power and gifts that are released by the baptism of the Spirit.
Getting it? Normally this baptism of fire comes upon us by the laying on of hands. Once you have it, and moved in it, it is really hard to ignore and pretend it’s not important or relevant. Yet too often it happens. I too often run into believers whom I know have recieved this gift that don’t seem to realize they may be embracing a church culture that squelches this power…
But back to the hands thing–There is a discernable power that is released in us by the laying on of hands, reminiscent of when Paul was reminding Timothy to …fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Tim 1:6 — Consequently spiritual battles are affected, healings are rendered, and gifts are released when the baptism of the Holy Spirit is facilitated by one who has been baptized in the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands.
As it was then so it is today. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. Heb 11:8
The baptism of the Holy Spirit, simply put, is the Releasing of the power. The New Testament talks a lot about this so it’s pretty hard to ignore— yet many still manage to do so. We are going to look at an example where Paul had traveled to Ephesus and found some believers who had not yet had the power released in them and he wasted no time in taking care of that laying of hands on them and Baptizing them in the Holy Spirit. Paul knew that without this, just like the first disciples before the day of Pentecost, they would simply be living life, perhaps saved— but powerless, fearful, and at completely at the mercy of the world they lived in.
We see in Acts 19:
While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6
When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all. Acts 19
Ephesus, where this takes place, was a Greek and very pagan town but, because the power of the Holy Spirit was released there, a church would arise that would become a major player in winning the world for Jesus. Paul would write to that church later; Ephesians chapt. 1:
15 For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you ,… 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, …19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
It was only by his power, His incomparably great power, that those believers could take a pagan city for Jesus. It is only by that power that we can take our cities, our families, our world— for Jesus.
Jesus has been pouring out his Spirit on His Bride, on those who are willing, and He wants to continue pouring out his power, He wants to take this land and he wants to use us, to use you to do it. But you have to receive the Power, and if you have— you need to choose to move in it.
Receive the Power
The Father wants to fill you from head to toe with his Spirit of power, He wants to immerse you in his love so that you can be his witnesses, witnesses of his love, living proof that he cares about us. He never asked you to go through life alone. He never asked you to love and serve him and your neighbor in your own power. When Jesus said, love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself, he knew we could not do that in our own strength, if we could he never would have come. He died for us so that we could become the Temple of his Spirit, so that we could be empowered to love others into the kingdom.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Why would you not want to live in the power, to live in the power of God, to move in the power of our God, to conquer and overcome all that the enemy and this world would throw at us to discourage, to destroy, to minimalize us to the point where we are no threat to his grip on this world, his grip on our loved ones, his grip on our way of thinking— why would anyone not want to live in the power of the Holy Spirit?
Yet many people, even many believers— even born again; “Jesus is my Savior, his Spirit lives within me and I am saved by the grace of God” believers— fear the power of the Holy Spirit. And I don’t understand that, not for a minute. If you truly love God, and want to live free, want to make a difference in this world, want to live a life— to exist in this miserable fallen world— without just being kicked around by whatever whim the flesh and circumstances throw at you, why would you not want all that God has to offer you?
God’s power is for real, God’s power is for today, God’s power is for you!
Fear the Power?
Why would you fear the power, the power to love as Jesus loves. Because that is what it really is all about— the power to love the way Jesus loves, to see others with the eyes of Jesus and then have the power to make a difference in their lives, to deny the gifts, to not seek them out, to not desire to live in the fullness of all that God offers you is a selfishness that grieves the Lord.
He has called us to be his hands and feet, to be his voice and have his heart so that the lost and dying world that he suffered and died to redeem can indeed be redeemed!
If all that world ever sees is us struggling, worrying and fretting, trying to live this life in our own strength— no different from what they are already doing, than why should they bother or care a whit about our Jesus? That’s not a witness for Jesus, that’s a witness for a powerless religion. ‘Well, I don’t want people to think I’m weird!’— Really? How is loving a person that no one else loves weird? How is telling a person that God sees their struggles— even naming their struggles by a prophetic gift or a word of knowledge weird? How is praying for someone who is sick and having them healed or recognizing that a person is being harassed by an evil spirit and freeing that person from that influence weird?
How is recognizing a need and having a burden to do something about it when no one else cares and then having the talents to serve, to build, to fix and encourage whatever that need— how is that weird? Calling yourself a follower of Christ and not earnestly desiring the gifts and the power of his Spirit— that’s weird! If loving and healing the hurting is weird then let me be a freak for Jesus!
Let me point out the obvious here— people are not lining up to come to church anymore. People are not drawn to religion, people are not drawn to nicey-nice, smile in their face, lure them in with fancy programs and then throw a yoke of guilt and expectation on them church anymore. People are drawn to the power of the Holy Spirit— people are drawn by the power of the Holy Spirit.
People need— theworld is looking for— something real, something that will actually change their life, that will set them free, give them a reason, give them hope; people are looking for Jesus, and Jesus gave us the power to reveal him, to be his witnesses— witnesses of his love, of his mercy, of his desire to heal and deliver, to set the captive free, to proclaim good news to the poor, to bring sight to the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, we can have that power if we’ll just receive it— ask for it and receive it. All of that comes from being baptized in the Holy Spirit!
Enough of the seeker friendly already
We are running out of time. The days of seeker sensitive church are over and that model is no longer working. When things got real, like during the great government and fear driven shutdowns and riots of 2020, people left those churches in droves, which wasn’t hard for most of them had shut their doors anyway–just when we needed them most.
I am not accusing anyone, I was among them—at least for a time. Until it became obvious that the shutdowns were being orchestrated and encouraged by the enemy of our souls and the spirit of the Antichrist prevailing. We cannot let that happen again, we cannot stand down. We must love in the power; fearless, equipped and empowered. That can only come from the Holy Spirit of our God.
“…so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.“
The following is the first part of message I preached to my church back in 2015. Since I wrote these words of warning and encouragement the battles and the ground lost lost to the enemy have grown exponentially and things unimaginable a few years ago are being shoved down our throats as we are forced to not only tolerate, but to celebrate the evil and perversion of all things good and right. We see this nation, founded on Biblical values, being torn apart from the inside while the fundimental right to pursue and espouse Judeo/Christian values is being openly and ruthlessly mocked and destroyed.
But there are signs of hope. The Spirit is on the move and a people hungry for truth, who have found nothing but dispair and angst in the promises of this present darkness, are turning to him in breakout pockets of revival—revival marked by repentance, worship and humility. The time for entertainmant based, you’re all wonderful just the way you are “church” is over. The young of this world are thirsty for the Living Water, and those of us who know where to get it, to find Him who is that Living Water, must take our stand, to proclaim His name, and to live as victors even in the face of unabashed opposistion and evil no matter the pretty costumes the agents of the enemy may wear, so that those seeking truth may ask us to answer for the hope that is in us, and we will unapolgetically aswer; ‘JESUS!’
With that, we revisit the timely and still relevant message the Lord inspired me to share 7 years ago, on the occasion of gay marraige being recognized and condoned by the highest court of the land. It was only the beginning…
Take Your Stand
Interesting times we are living in. Do you feel like you have lost track of everything, like you’re living in the Twilight Zone as more and more, faster than we can keep up with or even pay attention to, things are changing? I do. I keep expecting Rod Serling to show up saying “You have entered a dimension of sound of sight and of mind…” at least then I would know it’s not supposed to make sense.
Technology, politics, culture, laws, the face of the whole world is changing things are happening, things that, if you are paying attention, can scare the daylights out of you— especially if you are familiar with the prophecies found in scripture.
Come to think of it, many of the things the old Twilight Zone series from the 60’s put out there to scare us are indeed happening both technologically and societal. So perhaps we are in the Twilight Zone, or more likely, the Twilight of this present age. Whatever it is, it’s not a TV show and it’s not just far off prophecies and warnings anymore, it is happening.
It’s gotten to the point where things that we thought were unthinkable, things we never would have tolerated or believed anyone could get away with are happening so frequently and seemingly without consequence that we have kind of gotten numb to it all. To some extent we have had to or it would drive us plumb insane with fear, indignation and despair.
Madness
Babylon the great
the mother of prostitutes
and of the abominations of the earth.
6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. Rev 17
The whole world has gone mad! Mad with lust for power, for position, for riches, for human flesh, and drunk with a wholly irrational desire to destroy us, the church. Everything we used to think was good is under attack, and anyone who holds to what we all used to agree was right and true is marked for destruction.
The truths put forth in scriptures are under attack from every quarter- whether it be the new covenant or the old, Jew or Christian- by everyone from ISIS to Hollywood, Iran to the ACLU, from Washington DC to the local newspapers— everywhere we turn the principles put forth in the Word of our God are being maligned and discredited as are those who dare to espouse them. The enemy has tasted blood, and he will not stop.
But we cannot ignore the world around us and we cannot get discouraged or use ignorance as an excuse, we are commanded to take a stand. You have to know what you are standing for, what you are standing against and what you are standing on. Or you will fall— no ifs and or buts.
The good news is, in the end we win and we will share in the victory, if we stand, if we are strong. We, the church in America have enjoyed unprecedented prosperity, freedoms and blessings but we will lose those things if we are not strong, if we are not praying, believing and standing on the word of God and in his mighty Power.
Because this is not a game. We are on the fast track to joining the church in most of the rest of the world in becoming the truly persecuted church, I say truly because being laughed at and scorned does not count as martyrdom when our brothers and sisters around the world are being slaughtered.
Let’s look at a familiar passage with those eyes, the eyes of the persecuted, the eyes of the original recipients as they knew that their new found faith in Christ would make them very unpopular in their “anything goes” pagan culture and perhaps even a target for the Romans who were beginning an all-out campaign of destruction against Israel and all things Jewish, including this new sect who followed this Jewish Messiah— Jesus.
Words written by a man who was already in chains for daring to stand up and proclaim truth, the Apostle Paul. Eph 6:10-20
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
As we go forth into what I believe is a new season of time for the church, the church in America and in the world at large, we need to know this. This is not just a cutesy knight in shining armor illustration to hang on your Sunday school wall, these are words that may very well save your soul, that may save the church and the next generation. This is also not a call to arms, at least not the kind that we wield against our fellow man, this is however a call to arms against the enemy of our souls. This is a call to choose the hill we are willing to die on, from which we will engage the enemy —in prayer and by loving those who are deceived and are being used by the enemy to try and destroy us and all of God’s people.
You must choose today the ground on which you will stand or tomorrow, when it is time to make a stand, you will fall. There can only be one truth and it does not change.
We have to be willing to climb to the top of that hill wearing the shoes of the gospel of peace where we will brandish the Sword of the Spirit which is always ready at hand as it is carried at our waste, scabbarded on the belt of truth, God’s word. We must lock our shield of faith with those next to us as we come under attack, the flaming darts coming from every direction as we have one another’s backs, the backs of all those who love the word of God and choose to live in its’ principles no matter their brand of faith.
And above all we must have on our breastplate of righteousness, form fitted just for us by our Savior who is our righteousness knowing that no matter what happens, even if we drop our shield and our sword arm grows weary and misses a parry or strikes an errant blow, our breastplate is always secure, our helmet is still in place as our salvation, our righteousness cannot be stripped from us no matter what the enemy throws at us, even death itself cannot remove our Kevlar because the soul within belongs to Jesus. And if we choose to stand on the rock, we will stand- for eternity.
We do not attack, we stand. Hear that church, look carefully at the scripture we just read, we are commanded to take a stand, never to attack. The world can label us haters all day long but we cannot act hatefully, the day we do that is the day the enemy defeats us. We do not need to attack a defeated foe, but we do need to protect what we already have, the victory in Jesus, and we need to keep standing, to keep defending and to keep proclaiming to all those still enslaved by the enemy that they too can be free. We cannot be ashamed to wear that helmet of Salvation no matter how conspicuous it makes us. We must defend our freedom, freedom from deceit, from the slavery of sin, from the fear of death. Freedom is a tenuous thing- it must always be claimed and defended.
The final istallment taken from my book; To My Girls. Be blessed!
What do you want to do? If we are in Christ— moving in the Spirit, reading his Word, seeking his heart—we will have his heart.
Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Psalms 139:16
I know you are at the age where you are asking yourselves, “What am I going to do with my life? How do I prepare: college, seminary, trades, missions, job experience?” It’s a tough call, and indeed, decisions you make today can affect your life and the lives of those who love you for years to come. These decisions can even affect eternity. We only get one chance at this life. (Feeling better yet?) I know that was pretty weighty, but I know this has not escaped your notice, so I want to be totally honest with you.
Being born-again, Holy Spirit-filled believers, we expect and strive to hear the voice of the Lord to guide our decision-making because we know that he does have a plan for us. The tough part is, he usually doesn’t lay it out for us to see in advance, so it comes down to a day-by-day, sometimes a minute-by-minute following of the Lord. This serves to keep us close to him because if we lose sight of him we won’t know how to get where he is taking us. If he tells us ahead of time, as he sometimes does, we may get ahead of him, take the wrong path, and only be frustrated when we realize we are no closer than we ever were to our goal.
So far I have not given you any great revelations to solving this mystery of knowing God’s plan for us. If I could say, “This is how you know for sure this is what the Lord wants you to do,” I could write a book that would sell millions. The truth is, God works differently in every person. He reveals himself to us in different ways and gives each of us different limits of individual choices within the parameters of his plan for us. We can even choose to walk outside of those parameters and go our own way. He will still love us, but we will be missing out on the incredible blessing of a life lived in him.
The first thing you have to decide is are you going to say, “Thanks Lord for saving me,” and then go on your merry way living out your own plans while Jesus sits on a shelf in your heart, to be taken out on Sunday morning and in case of emergencies? Or are you going to make a commitment to follow him into the plan he has for you, even if it means setting aside your own ideas of a great life, putting your own plans on the shelf, not to be forgotten, but to be brought out only if they fit into God’s perfect plan for you? The first option (“thanks for saving me”) may give you a comfortable life, but you will never be fulfilled. The second option (“following him”) will leave you somewhat uncomfortable but fulfilled. I have heard it said that being in the center of God’s will is a dangerous place to be, not because we have to fear his plan but because the world we live in is vehemently opposed to anyone who would presume to follow the Savior, the Savior who came to turn this world upside down. Jesus is more concerned with who we are than with what we are. His primary concern is that we are growing closer and closer to the Father.
It is important to listen to the still small voice within. The Holy Spirit is there to guide us and counsel us. But for the life-changing decisions, we need to also be attentive to the prophets in our lives, the people God puts into our lives to speak his truth into us, to confirm what he is telling us. I won’t make a big move without an outside confirmation because when I have been nudged by the Spirit to do something, even if I did not want to, it has always been accompanied by too many “coincidental” confirmations to ignore. Conversely, I have put things aside that I was relatively sure came from the Lord when I received no confirmation whatsoever. I know we all want to believe that we can truly discern the voice of the Spirit, but I have made enough mistakes to know that my own spirit, or flesh, often deceives me or gets in the way of what the true Spirit is telling me.
I know people who seem to have a new plan every week, a plan that they are just sure came from the Lord even though it contradicts the plan they claimed he gave them earlier or worse yet, contradicts his Word. They never stay in one place long enough to really accomplish anything. On the other hand, I know people who won’t do anything because they are not sure of what God wants them to do, or they refuse to move on even after the Lord has called them to something else. These people eventually dry up and tip over; the anointing is gone and they become bitter.
What do you want to do? If we are in Christ— moving in the Spirit, reading his Word, seeking his heart—we will have his heart. Therefore our hearts’ desires are his heart’s desires, and his heart’s desires are our hearts’ desires. His passion becomes our passion, and we find ourselves just naturally walking into the plan he has for us. That’s the wonder of our Lord— that we can become one with him and have the mind of Christ. This is a mind that comes from a relationship that must be continuously nurtured, because the flesh is dreadfully deceitful and continually tries to regain control. This oneness with Christ comes by time spent with God in his Word, in prayer, and my favorite, in worship. Little gives me greater pleasure than watching you girls worship the Lord with song; if it gives me joy just imagine the joy the heavenly Father experiences as you come into his presence with the pure beauty of a heart and voice lifted up to him!
I have seldom heard the voice of the Lord more clearly than I have while engaged in worship, corporate worship. I have experienced virtually all of my life-changing encounters with God while lost in worship to my King. God truly lives in the praises of his people. You want to know what God wants you to do? Worship him.
Discover your gifts both spiritual and inherited by trial and error; discover your passions by paying attention to what moves you. Then pursue a direction that allows you to use your gifts to affect your passion as guided by the Spirit, and pay attention when the Lord corrects your course. He often leaves us much room within the parameters of his plan for us to make our own choices. That is the beauty of our God—that he loves us enough to allow us to pursue the dreams he places in our hearts. He would not ask you to pursue a course outside of who he created you to be. He made you who you are for a reason; he gave you your talents for a reason; he entrusted you with his gifts for a reason, and if you are not living in him and walking in his path for you, you will be ineffective and miserable.
Follow your heart; follow your gifting. Listen to the Spirit and godly counsel, and God will honor and bless your choices and you in them. He is gracious and loving and honors those who seek him. If God has planted a seed in your heart, hang on to it, be patient, and wait for it. If it is indeed from the Lord, he will open the door at the right time. His time is usually nowhere near our time, and that seed will grow into something beautiful in the proper season, something beautiful as you are beautiful. Be true to the little girl inside of you. You are God’s little girl, and a father’s greatest joy comes from blessing his daughter, making her smile.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it’” (Isaiah 30:21).
Thoughts for My Adopted Girls
We are all children in the Lord’s eyes, and if you think about it, the person inside, the real you, never changes. We all become ragged around the edges and can become hardened and defensive as we grow and experience the pain and disappointments of life, but deep in our core we are still the same children we have always been. This is the core that the heavenly Father sees when he looks at you. He sees the little girl hiding behind the walls she has built to keep him and the world from seeing the things she may be embarrassed by.
What that little girl hiding deep inside of you needs to realize is that the Father wants to take away all that stuff and come in and be with you. Jesus said, “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). We must come to the Father with a childlike faith and innocence and just accept his love for us. It is the stuff we accumulate as we grow older that prevents us from entering into his presence where we can discover his plan for us, where we can receive his love and grace; the love and grace that gives us the confidence to live the life he intended for us; to believe in and expect his plan for us to be fulfilling and meaningful. And know that if you stumble or even fall, he will be there to catch you and help you up. He will be there to kiss the boo-boos and encourage you to try again. That’s what a daddy does.
Before I let you go I want to pray with you, a different kind of prayer—not a prayer of words but more of a prayer of being, being in the presence of the Lord.
Come with me …
You walk quietly into the room, your bare feet not making a sound on the floor that seems somehow warm and soft in spite of its crystalline appearance. You hesitate when you see the one sitting on the throne. Then you see a lamb that somehow tells you without words that it is okay … go ahead. You walk up to the one on the throne, and he holds his arms out to you. You extend your arms to him, and he lifts you into his lap. He didn’t seem that much bigger than you, but you fit into his lap like a small child as he pulls you sideways across his lap so that your head is resting on his chest. The fabric of his tunic feels soft like brushed cotton against your left cheek. Your back rests against his right arm as he gives you a squeeze, and you nestle into his embrace, an embrace that belies incredible strength yet feels so gentle that you feel safer than you have ever felt before.
You lift your head to look up into his eyes, and he smiles, his smile causing little crinkles, laugh lines, at the corners of his eyes—loving eyes that seem strangely familiar. You hear an angel standing on one side of the room quietly remark to another, “Look, she has her daddy’s eyes.” You suddenly feel embarrassed because you just remembered something you had said and done and you know he knows about it; but he says gently to you in a voice that resonates through the heavens yet is as gentle as a kitten’s purr, “It’s okay, sweetie. Daddy still loves you. Don’t ever forget that.” The tears flow as you melt into his arms and time stands still just for you, and you hear faintly as your head is pressed against his chest, the comforting rhythm … of the Father’s heart.
Ta Ta for Now
And so I bring this letter to a close. There is so much more I could tell you, but I felt these were the most pressing things I needed you to know for now. And so I chose Tigger’s infamous farewell: TTFN! To say this is not by any means the end of our relationship but just one more day in the promise of many more opportunities to share this life’s journey together. This life is indeed a grand adventure, and the choices you make will determine whether or not you enjoy the journey.
If you get anything out of this letter, I pray that more than anything you know that God loves you. He loves you more than you can ever fathom, and as I said at the start of this letter, he has also written you a letter, the ultimate letter that makes mine look pretty pathetic; it is the Holy Bible. It is his letter, his Holy Word that will guide you into all the good places along the way. Please make it a habit to read it daily. Study it, memorize it, and let it become part of your life. The Bible is the DNA of Jesus, who is the Word become flesh. Pray for his Spirit to breathe life into his Word while you read, and it will speak life into your very soul. Trust your heart to Jesus. As much as I love you, I may let you down; he never will.
“I am with you always to the very end of the age.”
“Ironically, I had received the power of the Holy Spirit while denying the divine authority giver. Yet the Father still loved me in my ignorance, and I know now that the Spirit was praying for my deliverance from my ignorance and my drug abuse every time I used my prayer language, which I did every night as part of my routine prayers. …”
From To My Girls Chapter 5 by Dan Swaningson
The Good Kid
November 15, 1979, I was sitting on a Greyhound bus watching the then unfamiliar Montana winter landscape roll by through the window and wondering what I was getting into. I was headed west across the state to Anaconda. I had enrolled in the Job Corps training program, and that’s where I would spend the next year and a half. I had just turned seventeen, and I was scared. I was leaving everything and everyone I knew behind. I only knew that from this point on I was on my own. I remember praying silently to the Lord that he would be with me and help me. I knew who I was and I knew God was with me because I had read the Bible enough to know who Jesus was. And I believed with all my heart that I was saved and that he loved me, like my own father, from a distance.
Bottom line: I knew the rules, and I was confident I could keep them as I always had; I was a good kid.
What I didn’t know was how my flesh would soon lead me astray. I didn’t know that what the flesh desires is vehemently opposed to what the Spirit desires. Like I said, I had always done my best to follow the rules; I never gave my mom any reason to worry about me. I had done some drinking, but that was usually with my latest step-dad and his buddies, so even that was following the rules. My idea of following Jesus was largely based on the Sermon on the Mount (one of the few parts of the Bible I had read and that made sense to me at that time). While this taught me to be a good person, it did not teach me about the dangers of partying. I knew drugs were bad; that had been drummed into my head ever since as a kid I watched the drugged-out, mud-covered hippies being evacuated by the National Guard helicopters from Woodstock on the evening news. ButI was really never told why drugs were bad, other than drug users would have deformed babies, have long hair, and lice.
Once at the Job Corps center, I put on a tough-guy act to hide my fear. I had usually been the odd man out in school, and I wanted a new start. I was big enough to get away with the act, and I ended up hanging with the “cool” guys, the guys that nobody messed with. Problem was, most of them were stoners. Weird, they didn’t have long hair (we had to keep it cut in the heavy equipment training program), and they didn’t have lice or smell bad. In fact, they seemed quite normal. It wasn’t long before I let them talk me into smoking weed with them. I was not going to be the geek again, and it didn’t seem to be any worse than the beer I had been drinking before I came up. So, sitting there in that circle of guys, hiding in the trees halfway up the mountain behind the dorms, I took my first hit of marijuana, several hits in fact and … nothing. I didn’t feel a thing, except tired. I went back to the dorm and took a nap, thinking, What’s the big deal? I didn’t get crazed and run through the woods naked, and I didn’t lose all desire to bathe. The devil didn’t steal my soul, and I certainly wasn’t an addict. I still wore cowboy boots, and I still listened to Waylon and Willie.
So just for something to do and to be accepted, I tried it again. Whoo-ee! This time I got high! I had never felt anything like it. I laughed harder than I had ever laughed in my life, and I didn’t feel sick like I did after too much beer; this was great. It wasn’t long before I was smoking every chance I got and was soon buying my own weed, smuggling it in when I came back from leave or buying it from others who had smuggled it in. I was getting stoned several times a day, often starting my day hiding in the furnace room with a pipe full of pot. What I didn’t realize was that I was playing right into the hands of the enemy; I thought I was in control and no one could tell me what to do or not do. In a place where everything we did was determined by the schedule and people were always looking for a reason to discipline us, it was exciting to get away with something. And besides, being stoned felt so good. How could it possibly be wrong, even in God’s eyes?
All the while, I continued to pray every night and seek the Lord to help me cope with being in this difficult place, and he did, in spite of my destructive behavior. It was during this time of isolation and confusion that the Father revealed himself to me as a Father who is with me, not just watching from a distance. I even received the baptism of the Holy Spirit during this period, but the so-called Christian group I was mixed up with at the time taught me to distrust all other Christians and even convinced me that Jesus was not Lord, that he was not God, thus taking away the significance of his sacrifice for me. Ironically, I had received the power of the Holy Spirit while denying the divine authority giver. Yet the Father still loved me in my ignorance, and I know now that the Spirit was praying for my deliverance from my ignorance and my drug abuse every time I used my prayer language, which I did every night as part of my routine prayers.
After getting out of the Job Corps at the age of eighteen, I soon let myself get talked into every drug I could get my hands on. I continued to smoke weed from morning till night every day, while still managing to hold down a job, and I drank nearly every night. I was using speed or crank quite often to get me through the workday, and on the weekends I was doing the harder stuff. I really went overboard with the acid (LSD), often getting so high I was seeing demons. I got the hell scared out of me one night after tripping on mushrooms. I was lying on the couch coming down from the high after the party when the enemy, the devil himself, started talking to me from my stereo speakers after the hard rock album I was listening to was over. I don’t know how I knew it was him, but I had no doubt at the time. He may not have stolen my soul, but he was certainly stealing my life.
I had gotten to a point where I thought I just wanted to jump a freight train and disappear to a place where no one—my boss, my friends, and especially my family—could tell me what to do. I would just embark on a never-ending quest for the next high. It seemed I couldn’t drink enough or get high enough to be satisfied, and I wanted nothing to do with anyone who might hinder my quest for that high. I could never seem to recreate the sheer bliss of that first high in those mountains, and I could never recreate that high I experienced the first time I dropped acid when I had laughed and laughed with my good friends. I could never recreate that feeling of fellowship I had with those friends when we first started getting high together. Being high ultimately became a very lonely place where it was easier to hear the enemy than it was to hear God. I had almost entirely stopped praying because I was ashamed to pray when I was high, and I was almost always high. On the outside I seemed to have it together, but inside was chaos. All because I decided one day on a mountainside near Anaconda, “What the heck? A little toke can’t hurt me.” I didn’t wake up one day and decide I was going to be a druggie, but that is where I ended up because a good kid decided to compromise just a little to be cool.
How ironic that when I was old enough to make my own decisions I chose to pursue a course that destroyed the dream of just wanting to be a part of a “normal family.” I was trying to kill the little boy inside of me and his vow to someday be a father to children who would never have to know what it was like to grow up without Dad around; more accurately, perhaps, the enemy was trying to kill the dream and the family-to-be in the process. I was still pretending to be normal. Then God stepped in.
My girls have heard the story, but for the sake of having it in writing and for the glory of God, here we go: It was becoming increasingly difficult to convince myself that I was having a good time. My encounter with the devil had mostly scared me away from the acid and ’shrooms, but I was still smoking, drinking, and speeding on a regular basis. I had a good-paying job, lots of friends, and toys, but I could not shake this feeling growing inside of me that God was not pleased with the way I was living. My sister, who at one point was as messed up as I was, dragged me to the church where she had “got right with God.” Since I was still professing to be a Holy Spirit-baptized Christian, I had to check out this church full of other Spirit-filled people. I had been taught by the cult group I had been involved in back in the Job Corps to avoid churches because supposedly they all rejected this continuing move of the Spirit in people’s lives, so hearing that there was a church full of Spirit-baptized believers intrigued me.
So one Sunday morning I smoked some weed and went to church. The preacher was telling me how God had a plan for my life, and I was stunned:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
Jeremiah 29:11
I went back the following two Sundays, still stoned, and he was still preaching on the same verse: “I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.” I could not stop thinking about it. If it was in the Bible, it had to be true. I began to realize that I could never find out what God’s plan for me was if I was stoned all the time. My own plan was not working. I made a decision: I was going to stop getting high for one month just to see what it was like. (I still could not fathom giving up getting high for good.) Well, I didn’t make it through the first day before I thought I was going to explode from the anxiety. Out of desperation, I opened my long-neglected Bible and was deeply convicted by the first words I saw:
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. Everything is permissible for me—but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me—but I will not be mastered by anything.
1 Corinthians 6:9–13
In that moment I realized that the freedom I pretended I was living in was nothing more than an illusion, I was a slave, and a slave has no inheritance, no joy, and no future. I then turned to Psalm 118 purely by chance (yeah, right) and read these words:
In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?
Psalm 118:5
These words set me free in the time it took to read them. I realized what I had to do; I had to trust God with my everything—my life, my happiness, my future—not just my salvation. I was so overcome at that moment by his presence, his love and forgiveness, the pure joy of him that I knew I never wanted to lose it. I felt his presence so strongly that I forgot about the anxiety caused by the withdrawals that were wracking my body, and his presence and his Word gave me the strength to overcome the addictions in the following days; I did not want to lose his presence … never again. And I never again turned to the drugs. I never again used my freedom to become a slave. For freedom I was set free(Galatians 5:1).
Not only did God give me back my life, but a few short years later he gave me my restored dream: a family. I remember standing in the hospital room after Cally was born; her mom was holding her and I was standing behind them with my arms around them and marveling at this miracle (suddenly we were a family) and the goodness of God. It is a mental snapshot I will carry for all eternity. He gave me back the dream, and he helped me fulfill it.
That is why God is first in my life and why your present and your future, girls, are more important to me than my own and always will be. That is why I am writing you this letter. Who you are and who you choose to be is a matter of who you choose to follow—your own flesh and its wicked desires, or your heavenly Father, who has nothing but good planned for you. We have no idea the destructive nature of our own flesh until it’s too late. And we have no idea of the power of God’s love until we trust it completely.
When we are young we think we can handle anything, but when faced with a temptation, it is never as easy to say no as we think it will be. Temptations always make sense at the moment, which is why they are called temptations; they tempt us. “What’s a little weed gonna hurt? What’s a beer gonna hurt? Everyone here is doing it, and I know when to say when.” “What’s a little lie gonna hurt?” “What’s one cigarette gonna hurt?” “What’s a little kiss gonna hurt?” The answer is probably nothing. The catch is: it makes it easier the next time. A little more soon becomes a lot more; then it becomes an addiction. Then it hurts a lot. It hurts your relationships with everyone you love, including your relationship with God, and you even start to hate yourself. Just don’t go there. Set boundaries; don’t get into situations where you have to say no because you never know until it’s too late if you really will. We are seldom as strong as we think we are. Compromise leads to slavery. The cheese in the trap doesn’t hurt the mouse until it snaps shut and he can’t get loose.
The longer I live the more I realize how weak I am, and it is only by admitting this and depending on God’s grace that I can remain free. I will not be alone with any other women behind closed doors, even at church. I will not go to bars or hang out with drug users. I have people in my life who I have asked to hold me accountable for what I do and say, for what I look at on the Internet, for what medications I may be taking; and I live in constant fear—fear that drives me to Jesus in prayer constantly—fear that I will one day fall back into slavery, because I know that nothing good lives inside of me, except for the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit that comes with trusting him daily to guide me. Paul wrote to the church in Rome:
I do not understand what I do, for what I want to do I do not do but what I hate, I do … I know that nothing good lives in me, that is my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good but I cannot carry it out.
Romans 7:15, 18
If the Apostle Paul was not always strong enough to resist, who are we?
“Who then will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24b, 25).
We must recognize that we need a Savior, not just to get us to heaven but to get us through this life, day by day. And if you fall, get back up by getting on your knees and receiving the grace of him who loves you and lets you start over, no matter how many times you have fallen.
Don’t look at my life and say, “Well, he did all those crazy things, and he turned out all right. Why can’t I have my fun?”
First of all, it wasn’t fun. Remembering those days is literally like remembering a nightmare, except that I have to live with the realization that it wasn’t a nightmare; it was real and it left real scars. I wasted at least five of the best years of my life, and I influenced many other “good kids” to do the things I was doing. I don’t know how many of them are still messed up. It is only by the grace of God that I didn’t get killed by an overdose, a car wreck, or an angry drug dealer; and it is only by the grace of God that I am not in jail or living on the streets. All those people holding cardboard signs and asking for handouts so they can get their daily buzz may also have been “good kids” at one time.
My job now is to present the choices to you as clearly as possible and to help you build the character to stand strong in your decision, and to pray for you. Growing up loving Jesus and never straying from his side is a far more miraculous testimony in this evil world than the most dramatic sinner’s redemption story you have ever heard. You do not want to have to look your kids in the eye one day and explain to them why you once did things you pray they will never do. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was to admit to my girls that I was once weak and foolish enough to have abused drugs and alcohol. God’s Word set me free, and God’s Word helps keep me free.
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11).
Thoughts for My Adopted Girls
In a world that teaches us that all of us, including women, need to be strong and independent, it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking we don’t need anyone else: “I can handle it.” The Bible teaches us that we all make mistakes, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Messing up is normal; we all have done it and will do it again—a different day, a different mistake. That is why we need to be accountable to someone, a trusted friend who loves Jesus, a youth leader, a pastor, a parent, someone who loves you.
Share your thoughts, hopes and dreams. Share your mistakes, fears, and worries and then honestly and prayerfully listen to what they have to say. My sister and I spent many happy hours together talking about how the Lord had rescued us from our self-destructive ways, and we delighted in seeing and sharing what our heavenly Father was doing in our lives. I now also have trusted friends with whom to share burdens and triumphs as we face the trials of life.
It is okay to be weak. The more we admit that we need Jesus, the more his grace empowers us, and true strength comes from Jesus. We also need to spend time with him, and one of the best ways to spend time with Jesus and to know the Father’s love is by reading his Word, the Bible. It is so much more than just words on a page. It is strength, it is life, it is love.
Life is seldom easy, but it does not have to be lonely. Your Father is here.
Be blessed; you are loved! -Dan
If you are enjoying these excerpts from To My Girls, you will also like my more recent book-Barbarioans in the Kingdom. Available from most online book sellers.
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would approach God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6
I want to share with you the fulfillment of a promise, a promise made to me, a humble unworthy servant, by an awesome and faithful God. I hesitate to share this tale because I do in fact feel wholly unworthy of the blessing it heralds knowing that more deserving people in the family of God are suffering and in need even as I enjoy what seems to me to be the riches of heaven pouring down on me, and my wife, who is without question my greatest blessing, and surely deserving if anyone is.
But, despite my reluctance to share the greatness of my blessings when I know so many are still waiting for relief, I also know that I must be faithful to give God the glory and the credit where credit is due. For it is not by my power nor by my wisdom that I have what I have. I also must testify to His goodness, as we all must, as a way to encourage others to hang on to the promises knowing that God is faithful and never forgets his promises, His word never returns back to Him void, and he never stops looking for ways to bless and grow His children.
So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. Is 55:11
A few years after having started our church in Red Lodge MT I decided I just needed to spend a few hours seeking the Lord. So I found some back roads and drove and prayed, stopping occasionally to look up scripture and just sit quietly listening in the beautiful foothills of the Beartooth Mountains.
As often happened my thoughts and prayers turned to my desire to want to live closer to my church. But land in this part of the state is very expensive, and good paying jobs scarce. And of course paying a mortgage or rent has always been a big factor in my not being able to be full time ministry, anywhere, as I was convinced for far too long was what I was supposed to be–a full time pastor. I was still working full time construction in Billings to earn a living as I pastored our small church.
I remember exactly where I was parked on that back road when I heard the Lord say to me; “I will give you a piece of land.” Afraid I had not heard that right, while at the same time knowing that I had, I questioned the Lord; “Why? Why would you give me land?” while thinking surely there are those more deserving and I can’t imagine how I could just be given some land… The response I got was“Land is a warriors reward.”
This is true, it is and has been in many cultures. Back to Roman times many of those who fought in the legions and faithfully served out their enlistments were rewarded with land and farms. In more modern times US soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary, Civil, and all wars in between, were granted land as reward for their service. So I knew exactly what this meant.
So I stopped arguing and questioning. I had always identified as a soldier in the Lord’s army, fighting against the enemy to rescue those taken captive to the enemy’s deceits and claimed as his to destroy. I was after all, as I have often said, just a barbarian with a bible.
Well, almost a decade later, as much as I looked for, prayed for and patiently waited for– I was not getting any free land. I was still living 25 miles from the church and still working in Billings, 25 miles the other way. But, after having fought some of the most intense spiritual battles I could imagine with their devastating consequences and manifestations in the natural, some battles won, others merely survived, and some sadly, seemingly lost–for now, I recently found myself in a place where I feel blessed beyond measure.
In my job, in my marriage, and especially in my family, I was content, except for the painful realization that my ministry in Red Lodge was coming to a close. The Lord was moving me in another direction, and offering me a chance (more like coercing me) to take a breather in the meantime.
Still…no land. Oh well, maybe I misheard, and there is always my fall back–maybe in the millennium–reasoning. But what I was hearing now was (and had been for a while) “You need to do something in Bridger. There is a harvest to be had for Me in Bridger.”
Bridger is a small town east of Red Lodge in the Clarks Fork River drainage. On the dry side of the mountains where land is cheaper, simply because there is more sage brush than pine trees. The necks are a little redder and the tourist dollars not so abundant. And best of all, two of my daughters and five of my grandchildren live over there.
A few of years ago the Lord had put it on our hearts to buy a piece of land near Bridger, perhaps to build on and retire to, eventually. But last year we decided it was time. Long story short, we found a twenty-acre lot just outside of town and just a few miles from family. The land had been for sale for several years, but Bridger, like many small Montana towns a little too far from the mountains, was a dying town—until recently.
Suddenly, with Covid, riots, crime and politicians out of control, people began fleeing the big cities and looking to Montana. Land and home prices doubled, tripled… Land and houses were, and still are to some extent, sparking bidding wars and selling the very day they hit the market.
But, we found our land, at a reasonable price and got locked into a buy sell agreement just before the land market went totally nuts. In fact, we found out later that the owners were hoping we would back out so they could relist at a higher price.
We borrowed money against the equity in the home we had bought nine years earlier, and had equity to spare. Within a few months of closing on the property we discovered that our humble home was worth MUCH more than we had paid for it. So we decided we had to sell, it would be foolish not to. We could pay off the land and still have money to put towards building our new homw.
So began a hectic time of fixing up and getting the current house ready to sell. Upon listing it took five days to get an offer, (we were worried that it was taking so long), but the offer we got was for more than we were asking–much, much more than we had paid for it–we took it.
We found a place to rent near where we were building (a last minute miracle in itself in a market where everyone was selling their rentals or turning them into Air BNB’s) paid off the land and put the rest in the bank.
This spring we started building a house and are now about halfway done (if you figure in all the site work) and we haven’t borrowed a dime—so far. I am literally framing it myself on weekends, with help from family, which is why I haven’t had much time for blogging.
Now, I’m a little slow sometimes in seeing things. In my thoughts I had basically given up on the free land thing, the gift I was expecting from the Lord. I hadn’t forgotten, but like Abraham waiting for his son, I just thought if it hasn’t happened by now, it probably won’t. I had better do something.
Except in my case, my doing something was being orchestrated completely by the Lord to accomplish His purpose and fulfill His promise to me. I believe the Lord seldom expects us to just sit on our hands and wait for miracles.Wait on the Lord and believe-yes, but keep following the nudges of His Spirit, and using the brain he gave you in the meantime. And I am only skimming the surface here of the depth of His hand on us through this time as we just kept taking the next step, largely in faith.
Now, the reason I said I am a little slow sometimes, is because, even though God’s hand was so evident in all of this, it was well after all the dust of buying, selling, renting and moving had settled that I realized that the Lord had a kept His promise (Having to close a church I had poured my everything into for twelve years in the midst of this was a little distracting!) He had given me a piece of land–A beautiful piece of Montana with a view that I will never grow tired of.
I had been expecting someone to walk up to me one day and say “Here’s a title for a piece of property the Lord wanted me to give you.” Or some such scenario. But the Lord and done something even more amazing. He increased the value of what I had, exponentially, making the home I was in worth so much that I could sell it–a blessing to another family who wanted to get out of a state gone politically insane–giving us enough money to pay off our mortgage, pay off the land, and with the capital invested along with the increased property values–have money left over.
That money we made on the house, that was above and beyond what we financially invested, was free money. Plain and simple.
Let me break it down further; Free money used to buy land equals free land. GOD is GOOD! And He is faithful to those who put their hope in Him. I have received the warriors reward as promised.
Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, Heb 10:23-24
What has the Lord promised you? Are you still waiting, still hoping? More importantly; are you keeping your eyes and ears open for the little series of miracles that may get you there? Or are you just sitting in a lonely corner waiting for the giant miracle to knock on your door? It could happen that way, but in my experience, the Lord rewards those who keep looking for the day to day, who trust for the day to day guidance, while keeping their eyes looking forward in anticipation of THE DAY.
8 But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night… 1 Peter 3:8-10
Then, even if that (seeing the Lord come to take us home) is all we ever get, it will be everything! The true and ultimate warriors reward. And one that awaits us all. Indeed, The Lord is not slack concerning His promises!
“The night of my water baptism I went to bed and slept the sleep of the redeemed. And then I had a dream. . . “
I want to touch today on the topic of dreams. Not that I am an expert, in fact, it is the part of the prophetic gift set in which I am probably the least adept. I am more of a waking vision guy. But, then again, according to Joel’s prophecy, fulfilled and reiterated by Peter on the day of Pentecost, I have probably reached the “Old men shall dream dreams stage” as it is the young who are having the visions. I heard a preacher say one time that it is probably because the old men cannot stay awake long enough to have visions. (That was a joke—I think.)
‘Andit shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; And they shall prophesy. Acts 2:17—18
So, I had planned to talk this week about the vision aspect of the prophetic gifting but I was inspired by the blog of my sister in Christ, Eva Ngelista, (Come Against It) who did an excellent piece on dreams and their spiritual significance, to tell the story I touched on in my reply to her blog. So I will take a quick sidetrack here from my regularly scheduled blog—really, is there any such thing when you are being Spirit led anyway?— and share the story the Lord has me burning to tell.
Because, as the prophet Jeremiah found out, to ignore the promptings of the Holy Spirit is not a good option for the prophets he chooses to share His story.
If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,
”there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot Jer 20:9
Freedom
On January 22, 1985, when I was 23, the Holy Spirit came crashing into my life, at my invitation, and filled me with such an overwhelming sense of His loving presence that I was able to swear off the drugs that had been my daily sustenance for over five years. I had literally been stoned on Marijuana everyday for that period. I had started drinking long before that time frame at age 15.
The drinking set me up for the weed smoking, and the smoking set me up for pretty much any other drug under the sun. Anything to recreate that feeling of euphoria that always seems so elusive beyond the first few experiences. Mushrooms, LSD, PCP, speed, crank, and, my personal favorite, Mescaline—a very powerful hallucinogenic that keeps you flying all night long.
Ultimately I had very real demonic experiences with the harder stuff that left me terrified and eventually I settled for just being stoned on weed every waking hour and drunk every evening. (Sounds like a Charlie Daniels song—I get stoned in the morning, I get drunk in the afternoon) Well, even the long haired country boy, Charlie, discovered after a time that this lifestyle will destroy everything good in your life and leave you alone, desperate and hopeless.
My deliverance is an amazing story, but for now, suffice it to say that I was literally delivered in an instant, and woke up the next morning clear eyed and full of hope, ready to discover life as a freed child of God who no longer had the fog of mind altering substances muting my hearing of the voice of my Lord.
I felt truly free, except for at night. In my dreams I would be sitting with friends and the joint would be passed, and I would smoke, knowing full well that I shouldn’t, and worse, did not want to, but I couldn’t stop myself. Some nights it was just someone passing me a can of chewing tobacco, something I had quit even before the drugs, and I would stuff a pinch between my cheek and gum. Again, against my better judgement.
Night after night, it was always something in my dreams, drugs, drink, tobacco, illicit sex, and I would wake up feeling horrible—guilty and condemned, until I could convince myself that it was only a dream and that God was not disappointed in me—but I was.
A few months into my deliverance I was confronted in my church with the issue of baptism. ‘Well, I was baptized as an infant, in the good ‘ol protestant style. I was brought up front by loving parents, sprinkled, prayed for and the whole nine yards. Why would I need to do it again?’
So, never one to believe everything I hear just because someone with a title said it, I went on a mission of research. I searched out the Bible on my own to determine if I was covered or if I should get into this Foursquare Church tank of water and get dunked. Well, there is not a lot of evidence for infant baptism in the Bible, baby dedication, yes. But baptism was always a choice one made after receiving Jesus as Savior, and in fact was an act of obedience to Christ, who was Himself baptized even though He was dedicated on the eighth day in the Temple of His Father.
But then I came across Hebrews chapter one, and this is the verse that really spoke to me:
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Heb 1:22
‘I need this, I want this, I need a clear conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water sounds like a full on dunking to me.’
I eagerly signed on for the next baptism session at our church. At a Sunday night service I put on the robe, went into the tank, got prayed over, got dunked, went to dinner with my sister and my brother in law Clint, who also got baptized that evening, and went home. No big thing, just doing what I thought was right to honor the Lord.
But then, I had the dream.
Dream Jesus
The night of my water baptism I went to bed and slept the sleep of the redeemed. And then I had a dream, and I remember this like it was yesterday. I saw Jesus. I never saw His face, I think that may be a joy reserved for our homecoming, but I knew it was Him nonetheless. I was somehow seeing Him from behind even though I was standing before him.
I could see His robe, His long brown wavy hair, and He had His hands at His sides, kind of held out away from Him with open palms turned towards me. I then heard His voice say, “Run, you are free!” Still the most beautiful words from the most loving voice I have ever heard.
Suddenly I was no longer seeing Him from behind, but I was now fully in myself and running and leaping like the lame man He had healed at the Temple gate called Beautiful. It was a feeling of pure ecstasy and buoyancy like I had never experienced. I had the urge to just run and run, so I did. What made it so wonderful was that I was experiencing something I had never ever experience in my dreams before—the ability to run period.
Always, when I tried to run, as in my many dreams where I was being pursued from everything from dinosaurs to monsters—to my more mature dreams of late—from angry drug dealers, pushers and demons, I would always feel like I was trying to run through quick sand. My feet would suddenly weigh almost more than I could lift and my legs would just not respond to my brains frantic pleas for them to carry me away from the dangers.
What I didn’t realize until a several nights had passed without a single dream about being coerced to indulge the flesh in things that left me feeling guilty, was that what the Lord was freeing me from, what I was now free to run from, was the enemy. I was no longer tormented by the enemy of our souls, I was no longer tormented by the flesh reminding me of who I was and I was no longer condemned by a guilty conscious. I was truly free, awake or not, I was free!
My heart was cleansed from an evil conscience when my body was washed with pure water. Heb 1:22 My Jesus set me free, and He never fails to amaze me at how He can show up when we truly need Him, if we are open and obedient to His word and promptings.
Reflecting on this whole dream thing the last few days, in light of that dream Jesusexperience. I remembered some more recent dreams I have been having. A recurring dream experience over the last few years where I am running in my dreams, yes I still can, even though in real life my back and knee issues make that a real challenge. As I now recover from a recent knee replacement surgery, these days I am happy to manage a brisk walk!
But in these dreams where I am running, I am not just running, I am able to leap great distances. I can leap for instance, over wide creeks by going stone to stone even though they may be ten feet apart. Or, if there are no stones at all, I can literally skip across the water, barely touching down just enough to push off again without getting wet.
It is more akin to flying than running. In the latest dreams I have even been able to just stay in the air, a couple feet off the ground, to where I have to make a conscious effort to get back on the ground before someone notices and thinks it strange.
And every time I have these dreams I get the strong sense, both in the dreams and upon waking, that this ability to run/float is a wonderful gift from the Lord. And I literally am convinced, when I wake up, that there is no reason I can’t do that in real life. These dreams are just so real and the feeling so wonderful!
But alas, reality soon sets in and I am still firmly grounded to this earth, all two hundred plus pounds of me.
Now, I do not consider myself to be a dream interpreter, there are those who have that gift, as I said before, some “specialize” in differing gifts, but in light of my long ago Jesus dream, I believe it is the Lord’s way of reminding me that I am still free, reaffirming me in Him, and even blessing me with the assurance that better things await.
I know one day, in spite of the many challenges I have faced, and surely will, that there will be a day when we are free from the bonds of this earth and this corrupt flesh. And what a day that will be!
Until then I will keep telling the story and praying for all the power of that here and coming Kingdom to move in me, and through, me as much as I can be entrusted to handle!
Glory to Jesus who sets us free!
P.S. If any of you thinks you may have a prophetic interpretaion of my “flying” dreams I would sure love to hear it.
DanSwaningsonWordsAndWit 