December 2, 2018

The pious king Hezekiah made a military decision to oppose Assyria and its new successor to the throne, Sennacherib. His father Ahaz had been passive in dealings with the idolaters, but Hezekiah trusted God and refused to be passively idle. He looked for an alliance that would alleviate the threat of Assyrian invasion. Hezekiah had decisively destroyed the wicked, demonic filled remnants of idols. He cut down Asherah poles, aggressively smashed the 960 year old brazen serpent from Moses day, prejudicially demolished every shrine standing in idolatrous mockery of Jehovah.

Here’s something peculiar about these intriguing idols. The brazen serpent was called Nehushtan. It meant “the brass thing”. They didn’t want to call it the serpent, even though it obviously was a serpent. Just because you call it something else doesn’t take away the poison of the apostasy. It’s still a snake. The serpent still bites with demonic deception. The fangs of un-thankfulness still punctured the hearts of the Jews. That’s the way deception works: it will have you worshipping something that doesn’t seem so bad by the way it is described, or by its seemingly less intrusive euphemism. You can call a snake a sheep, but when the venom is released into your mind and soul you will know innocence was lost. You can call a snake a shepherd, but when you fall into a snake pit you will understand that this was no caring Shepherd, but a deceptive serpent taking advantage of your vulnerabilities…

…You can pick on God’s people but to your own peril. You can stab them with demonic insults until the blood of shame oozes to the ground, but the wounds will bring the warring God to the forefront. And when He enacts Justice there is none to stand in His way. He is Fair. He is Fire. He is our Father. And when the fever of trouble is strong and the sweat of anxiety drips from your chin, mixed with salty tears of anguish, He will lift up your head and you will sing in the gates of Zion. Listen now…

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November 25, 2018

God does not honor our self-made righteousness. God doesn’t honor our self-made name in any area of our lives. God measures success based on our obedience. God clearly tells us that when we humble ourselves, He will lift us up. When we do it ourselves, it just doesn’t work. In Matthew 23:12 Jesus said, “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” God desires to bless us when we humble ourselves and obey, but will bring low those who lift themselves up. There are two illustrations in Genesis that clearly drive this point home. Lets look at Genesis 11:1-4:
1 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech.
2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
3 Then they said to one another, Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.
4 And they said, Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Next look at Genesis 12:1-2:
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you.
2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing.

Genesis 11 is the story of the Tower of Babel. Their sin was not that they desired to make an architectural marvel. Their sin is found at the end of verse 4, “let us make a name for ourselves”. Compare this to Genesis 12. Then end of verse 2 says, “I will bless you and make your name great”. The point the scriptures makes is that we don’t have the right to make our name great, but when we humble ourselves and follow God, He delights in making our name great. The glory of that great name belongs to God. It is important for us to learn this point. Jesus lead by example. The bible tells us that Jesus humbled himself as an example to us. Look at Philippians 2:5-9:
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God,
7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.
9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name

Listen now…

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November 18, 2018

Ever feel disconnected? Do you think you are so distant from your dream it is impossible to ever see it come to pass? Do you have old hopes laying in a graveyard of grief? Ezekiel’s story of being carried away in the Spirit to a valley of dry bones is both inspirational and instructional. You can be amazed by the supernatural reconnecting and motivated by a personal application of a similar renewing. God is a God of the living. If something is dead in your heart, let Him breathe upon it. If the proverbial skeletons in your closet still haunt the soul, let Him breathe upon those skeletons, and let Him heal something that was hurtful and dreadful; gain another chance to do it better this time. God is a God of the living and of second chances. Can these bones live? Yes. The Author and Finisher of faith can revise the negative end to a story in your life and rebirth it with a better ending. Give grace a chance. Let God restore. And let the army of faith rise to victory in your heart.

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November 11, 2018

Jesus went unto them. He is coming. Between the mountain and the ship was a miracle path. The disciples don’t understand this yet; they are too busy wrestling waves. Weeping may endure for a night (the first three watches) but joy comes in the morning (the fourth watch). Are you looking for joy, or are you pressed by pessimism? Are you watching for the sunrise, or do the waves block out the blessing? My friend, who is coming is more important than what’s coming. The clouds will part. The kingly horse will descend. The mountains will quake. Satan’s kingdom will topple. Forces of light and darkness will climatically clash. And the King of Kings will stake his claim to the most powerful throne in the History of the World.

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November 3, 2018

Drumming sounds of horses riding hard went along with the orchestra of the wind howling in different pitches through the rocks and valleys. Dust clouds swirled. Soldiers yelled impassioned by the blood of war, their contorted faces revealing the hatred of demons. Ai came strong. Not a man was left in Bethel or Ai. Yet, this arrogant king was oblivious to the pincer move Joshua had set up. You see, my friend, your enemy has a plan. But God’s plan is always better. Even when it looks at first like defeat is at hand.

Joshua played his role to perfection. The raging enemies of Ai came with relentless intent to kill. Joshua and his men turned and retreated. Farther and farther they ran away, posing as coward too afraid to fight. Onward and onward the presumptuous predators hunted their prey, the king of Ail wanting to behead Joshua and celebrate for weeks this great campaign. But then something changed. What was the general of Israel doing? Why had he suddenly stopped? And why was he pointing a sword toward what appeared to be behind him?

The ambush had worked. The remaining soldiers tucked away to the west of town darted out of their hiding places when they saw their leader give the sword raising sign to go. Oh, how appropriate that the raising of the sword would unleash the secret attack.

The bible says that the Word of God is sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

When God raises His sword, his word, he can release a host of heaven to come to your aid. Angels are sent to minister for heirs of salvation. So, don’t be afraid of what’s after you. For soon the pursuer will be the pursued. The one who thinks to bind you in bitterness will be defeated by your humility and God’s breaking of the chains. Listen now…

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October 28, 2018

I can please myself or I can please the Savior. Often these two platelets of thought and action collide, creating earthquakes in emotions, tremors in relationships, and damage to superficial unsteady beliefs. Everyone is going to arrive at crossroad decision moments. Do I stay or do I go? Should I sell it or keep it? Should I go right or left? We hesitate for fear of losing control. We avoid tough questions as they may reveal that too many steps already taken have been waywardly walked. We guess, when honest, soul searching, introspective prayer would make it simpler and plainer. But clarity is lost is stumbling stubbornness. We think we see it detailed and clear enough, so we journey ahead. We become like Lot of Genesis 13; we survey the land, we life what we see, we calculate the earthly possibilities of prosperity, but we forget to discernably hear what God thinks about it.

Lot chose the twin cities of future destruction because he had no sense of warning in him, only want. Eve proves the deceptive nature of desire, for she desired the forbidden fruit and then desired for her husband to participate in her discovery; afterward, the Lord told her that her desire would be for her husband. In other words, desire lost in the forbidden would be divinely adjusted to be submissive through faithfulness to her husband. Wrong desire get things out of order. And so, Lot, as Eve, saw something good (not godly) in Sodom and Gomorrah. He saw something that favored the legendary extinct Garden of Eden, but didn’t necessarily have the favor of God on it.

You see, you must have faith at the Faultline. You see, a fault is a “planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock=mass movement.” Or as Webster’s defines it, “a fracture in the crust of the earth accompanied by a displacement of one side of the fracture with respect to the other usually in a direction parallel to the fracture.” And with that in mind the fault line is a place where the fault can be seen or mapped on the surface.

Spiritually, fault lines deal with what is seen and heard from opposing sources. One being the Word; the other being the World. And we must have faith at the fault line. We must trust God to know what goes deeper than we can see; for instance, we can brag about our One God belief, but the Word states that the “devils also believe, and tremble.”So, you see, one can tremble and not have truth; one can shake with extreme fear of God and in the end not submit to His will. One can even be horrified by possible outcomes of what it means to reject God and still do nothing about it. So, don’t just be shaken; be changed. Don’t just be stirred by a convicting Word; let it transform your thinking; let it redirect your misguided path; let it counsel you away from the dangerous edge of…listen now.

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October 21, 2018

You may feel at times that you don’t have the capacity for tenacity. Why? Sometimes beginning again looks like going again. Another cycle of disappointed. Another season of setbacks. Another moment of missing dreams. Another fruitless field ploughed for no gain. Another discussion ending in fury and pain. Another investment reaping weeds and thorns of disappointment. So why even try again? Why put in the sweat and toil when the results will only cause your blood to boil? Why push ahead with expectation when the last few times of doing so has brought only frustration and negation. You feel emptied by siphoning let downs. You feel uninspired by countless failures. You think negatively because consistent droughts in your land of dreams and you laugh within yourself when rain is forecast. But, when you know the promise came from God, then your persistence is based on continuing with a cause beyond your comprehension; moving forward despite the outward signs of encouragement or discouragement. You simply understand that at some point the journey’s path will lead to the opening of true joy. You will get that promotion, because your hard work with pay off; you will see Revival in your family, because every prayer will continue to persistently accumulate before the throne of God until fire descends, faith wins, and souls are changed. To persist you often have to resist.

Resist the temptation to quit. Resist the detour signs of earthly shortcuts and humanistic self help methods that may be contradictory to the Word of God. You see, we resist the Devil so that he will flee from us, James 4:7; but we persist with God so that he will come to us and through for us, Matthew 7:7. Resist the lies that would tell you the place you are trying to get to doesn’t exist (if the woman with the issue of blood had believed this she would never have persisted in falling to the ground, weaving her way through the crowd to touch the hem of the garment she believed to have her cure, Mark 5); the faith you are fighting for is inconveniently too far to achieve (if this were so then Abraham would have exhaustedly told God he could no longer pursue a city whose builder and maker was God; for there were so many altars built and desert lands traveled and mountains explored; but he staggered not at the promises of God, Romans 4:20); and your lack of worth will cause you to be rejected once you arrive (if this was true then the woman at the well in John 4 and the woman caught in adultery and shoved along ungraciously by the Kangaroo court of Pharisees, these women would never have received the well of living water and the mercy given by Jesus).

When the roof of your faith is leaking, keep seeking. Persist in the peace of what God has promised. Listen Now…

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