I Will Fight To The death For My Son

The other night I had a dream.  I was sitting in a fast food restaurant and my son, Levi, was present with me.  There were dark and demonic spirits present, black and floating, kind of like Dementors from the Harry Potter stories.  These evil spirits were trying to infect my son in some way and I was fully aware of it.  I said in my mind “I will fight to the death for my son.”  As I did this, these spirits changed their focus from Levi to me.  I felt a cold hand on my back, yet inside my back, gently pushing me forward.  I will fight to the death for my son was still repeating in my mind.  I was unaware of the exact aim of these creatures but I knew it was evil.  I was allowing myself to be manipulated by them waiting for just the right moment to spring out and utterly destroy them all.  I was not angry or filled with any king of rage, but it was love for my son that drove me.  I was then awakened by Levi’s crying and did not get to finish the dream.

I must tell you that my heart was greatly strengthened.  I knew that nothing can come against my son that I am not fully willing to and fully capable to defeat.  I only regret I woke up before administering my wrath against these dark forms.  My love for my son is greater than death, and the anthem has not left my heart that I will fight to the death for my son.

Now my thoughts are turned to Jesus.  He is fully God and as such all of creation is His, He is the everlasting Father.  The Father’s heart toward His sons (us) is “I will fight to the death for my son.”  In Jesus He did just that.  The cross is God fighting to the death for us to be fully liberated from the darkness.  What a glorious message!!  That our Father, at just the right moment, endured the sting of death to set us free and then rose from the grave proclaiming I will have you for Myself….See how great My love for you is.

Revival?

Many things in Christianity get a bad rap.  Most judgment comes from within the church; ministry against ministry and minister against minister, conservative against liberal, charismatic against traditional; denomination against denomination.  Why do we even need enemies outside the faith, we are just a bunch of backbiting slanderers.  The only thing that I am 100% sure of is that we need a revelation of Jesus!  He said it would be better for us if He goes away because if He goes away He would send the Comforter.  Who is comforted?  I long for a family of people that really love Jesus.  It seems like everyone is clamoring for position, power and influence in the body of Christ and I just want to hug someone. 

You are a God of love!!  Where are Your people of love?  You are a God of light!!  Where are the sons of the light?  Am I blind?  I surely hope so; blind to evil.  But I am afraid I am not blind, but because I say I can see my sin remains.  I am a hopeless finger pointer.  Right now I am pointing it at you, Mr. Christian.  Are you pointing your finger at me?  We must put away the pointing of the finger.  Sometimes I think we need a good strong dose of persecution here in the U.S. of A.  We have it too easy, way too easy for our own good.  What will it take for us to cast aside our foolishness?

Now it feels like I am continually trapped in styles of ministry.  Like I have to choose in what way I am to serve Jesus.  How much water is in the wine?  His glory is so watered down that it is barely recognizable.  We get one hallelujah and we think that revival is about to break out, and yet everyone goes home to their secret lives virtually absent of God.  There I go finger pointing again.

What is it though?  Revival.  Is it an animated preacher?  Is it signs & wonders?  Is it worship that really gets the crowd jumpin’?  Seriously, what is it and why do we want it?  Nobody likes walls (unless they are the kind of walls that keep out the enemy).  Revival can destroy walls (lies).  Everything is so twisted.  Good is spoken evil of while evil is praised as good. 

I want to take that word “revival” and hold it in my imagination, turn it around, examine it from the inside out and ask the Lord what it is we are all looking for.  When the meetings are over and everyone goes back to their life, what does it look like?  What is true cultural transformation?  What does it mean to “shift spiritual atmospheres”, and what does it look like when it happens?  I am dead serious folks!!  Is it enough to have a few healings, a miracle and someone raised from the dead?  Ouch!

When I examine revival what do I see?  I see love.  I see orphans and widows being fathered.  I see real equality expressed from the hearts of men toward all.  I see sin being repented of, for good, and righteousness prevailing, because people want to be righteous, not because they have had the hell scared out of them.  I see joy in the eyes of all no matter what they are doing!!  Happiness is I believe, the real mark of transformation.  Happiness in the middle of anything.

Need of the Hour

  When trouble enters your life it is an opportunity to seek the Lord.  We should prepare our hearts to seek the Lord when there is no trouble but if times of trouble come (and they will) we must gather together and seek the Lord with fasting and prayer.  During these times we must refrain from action until the Lord releases a prophetic word for us to stand upon in faith.  This is a much neglected step in our fasting and prayer, for we regularly look to the Scripture to obtain a word based upon similar situations, but we neglect that the Lord is alive and speaking today into our individual, corporate and governmental issues.  We have no right to judge the righteousness of our own hearts to be able to ascertain what the Lord is doing.  Who can know the mind of the Lord instinctively?  No one, He must reveal it by His Spirit.  To act otherwise is to prophesy out of our own imagination or to act presumptuously.  Tarry until. 

  Now when the word of the Lord is truly revealed concerning a situation we then no longer need to pray but move into praise and then strict obedience.  This is a great time of testing because outcomes may take more time then our hearts can bear, and troubles may not be abated but endured.  We can only endure these times of testing when we have a current word to stand upon in faith otherwise we are on shaky ground that would require returning to the Lord.  What I am saying is that if we have no word from the Lord we have no ground to stand on.  Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord.

  This time of waiting is the time of counting it all joy!!  Until the outcome of a situation is revealed we must refrain from leaving the fasting and prayer stage.  We are so deaf to the voice of the Lord that this process is almost unbearable causing us to listen to any voice that proclaims something favorable.  We don’t test the word nor do we continue to stand on it in faith but we just cease from seeking the Lord and go about business as usual claiming the Lord has spoken.  When the outcome does not pan out we are so hard hearted that we cannot seem to see or even care about our error.  No wonder our lives never enter into the deliverance stage and even better the plundering stage when we abound in joy and abundance. 

  We are in trouble.  So much sin and disobedience is in the land that we probably will not be able to avert judgment (See how God deals with the shedding of innocent blood 2 Kings 23:26).  Yet God is still calling us to truly seek Him.  This is no easy task and not for the fainthearted.  This is not time to cling to your religious systems and traditions, honestly what have those things done for us?  Right now I am listening to a prophetic worship set that is speaking that we are entering the time of singing, but what is the word of the Lord concerning our deliverance?  We cannot pass by issues that are not dealt with; we cannot skip ahead to results without entering into the work of repentance and prayer and fasting.  We need to do something differently!  It doesn’t matter how “cool” or “prophetic” your ministry is, what matters is faith in God and love.  It is high time we come together and wait for the release of a real prophetic word.

Overcoming Sorrow

Sorrow is an indicator of a loss of confidence in God.  Can this statement be absolutely true or are there circumstances that allow for sorrow that is not a result of a loss of confidence in God.  The first question we must ask ourselves is “is there anything that God cannot handle?”  Clearly we must conclude that nothing is impossible for God.  But what about something that catches God unaware or that was unexpected, does that have the power to leave you without His protection?  Beloved, there is nothing that can catch God unaware.  For the God whom I serve is fully aware of all things both past, present and future.  His eye is upon all things at all times all at once.  With this knowledge, there is nothing God cannot handle and there is nothing that will catch Him unaware then there is only one reason left that could cause us to have sorrow: We do not believe God is good.  Again, friends, I must announce to you now that God is perfectly good and there is no wickedness in Him.  There is no occasion possible that can move God to wickedness.  As a matter of fact we could logically reason that just as darkness is the absence of light, wickedness is the absence of good, and more still, since God is light then the presence of wickedness must mean that God is not present.  As the wickedness of men is unleashed upon creation, God is not present.  The very presence of God in any form and any amount would by the nature of God disrupt the wickedness at some level.  Jesus said about Himself that as long as He was in the world He is the light of the world.  The Lord of glory goes on to tell us that we are the light of the world.  As children of God and the bride of Christ we carry a deposit of the divine nature in the Holy Spirit making us ones that disrupt wickedness.  If we at any time find that we are not disrupting wickedness then we ought to reasonably conclude that God is not with us at that time, He has withdrawn Himself. 

Now let us again consider our opening statement: Sorrow is an indicator of a loss of confidence in God.  In serving the Lord is there room for sorrow if we believe?  Does not the Scripture speak of mourning?  Does not the Lord Himself grieve?  Are not tears a weapon of intercession of an invaluable worth?  Are not these things the substance of sorrow?  Is it not godly sorrow that leads us to repentance?  Yes, and Amen to all.  But can we not see that this sorrow in all instances requires that we turn to God?  Even in the case of Jesus, His sorrow was for the purpose of coming to joy, was for the purpose of overcoming the flesh, and was for overcoming the weakness of man while waiting for the strength of God to manifest.  Remember it is not the sorrow but the joy of the Lord that is our strength.  Sorrow is the product of living in a fallen world that lies under the sway or influence of the wicked manipulator who has only his own interests in mind; a world that at every turn is working ceaselessly and tirelessly to break the human spirit, a world that squashes attempts at good and generosity and righteousness. 

But what is the difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow?  While the latter longs for position above men, the former is looking for the favor and rule of God over all life.  Sorrow comes for the ungodly when they find their flesh and mind dissatisfied.  Sorrow comes for the godly when they recognize that their lives fall short of the righteousness and glory of God.  The ungodly restrain themselves from almost no ends to achieve their goal.  While the righteous use great restraint in order to see the goodness of God manifest itself in the land of the living, in the hope of a righteous world coming under the rule of a righteous king, namely Jesus.  Godly sorrow is a holy disconnect between what God says and what man sees.  In this place of believing by faith, it becomes necessary to exercise our agreement with the prophetic promises of God daily or we will lose confidence.  The enemy of our soul does not relent in his desire to deceive us concerning these prophetic promises.  Likewise, our Bridegroom God does not relent in His intercession to God for revelation of His beautiful nature to be revealed to His own.  Why does Satan directly attack while Jesus simply intercedes?  It would seem a much more effective strategy to aggressively and relentlessly destroy Satan and all wickedness than to ever live to make intercession for us.  Scripture says concerning Jesus that He is to sit at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made His footstool.  Who is making light of the enemies?  The Father; to whom Jesus is making intercession.  What does His intercession sound like?  Oh that we could hear the glorious sounds of Jesus’ intercession to the Father concerning us; the heavenly words, the display of emotions, the desire of His soul lay bare.  We cannot imagine the zeal and power and wisdom of His endless cry to His Father for a pure and spotless bride.  Father, I desire…, the John 17 prayer continued in the very throne room of heaven from a man passionately in love.  The world is dark, full of wickedness and cruelty, yet unlike Noah’s day, God has become an everlasting man who can sympathize with our infirmities and is waiting…waiting…waiting.  Wrath is delayed against wickedness and mercy is poured out like blood.  How long O Lord will the wicked prosper, how long will you keep back Your return?  Vindicate me Lord, for my life is falling apart, the world sits in accusation against me, my own household counts me a dog, yet You are my Rock.  You are the brightness of my countenance, the strength in my bones and the life of my blood.  Apart from You I can do nothing.  Let Your silence end, strengthen my soul to perform Your will for my life.

One day the sky is going to roll up like a scroll at the command of a king.  One day Jesus is going to descend from His place in heaven with a shout, the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God, and all the dead in Christ shall rise and we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them (the dead in Christ) in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  This is what all our preparation in this life is about!  We are not preparing ourselves just to endure hardships, but to receive and be received by our glorious bridegroom.  “The Spirit and the bride say come…” (Rev 22:17).  In longing for this day we enter into godly sorrow, mourning for the bridegroom, knowing that there is nothing we can either gain or lose in this life that can compare to the glory of the age to come.

Day of the Lord

16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore comfort one another with these words. - 1Th 4:16-18 NKJV


Imagine what this day will look like!! O glorious savior I long for the day when You come and take me into Your arms forever.