We call upon you to move in the power of Your might. We recognize our nation has gone the way of Baal and idolatry, and You are justified in Your judgments. We recognize the slaughter of the innocent demands a reckoning. We don’t come before you as a righteous nation, one that is intent on upholding the ways of the Kingdom of God, but one instead that is groaning under the weight of corruption and wickedness. We know that there are none righteous, no not one, apart from the atonement of Christ.
We recognize that the institutional church has compromised its calling to bring the lost to salvation, and has partnered with the systems of the world. And yet, my Lord, You have reserved a people who have not compromised, who have practiced repentance and the ways of Your kingdom.
Father, You remain faithful even when we are faithless, for You cannot deny yourself. Forgive us our complacency, our compromise, our apathy. Forgive us our inaction and our weaknesses. Restore the fear of the Lord in our land, in our homes and in our hearts. Transfer power from the works of darkness to the Kingdom of God, and give us the wisdom and abilities to wield it with the wisdom of Heaven and the authority of Christ.
Father have mercy on our nation, for our rulers are wicked and have partnered with the works of darkness. They have deceived the simple-minded and weak-willed; they have pacified and distracted even the strong and mindful. They have been empowered by abhorrent deeds of wickedness in their partnership to the gods of darkness. They have compromised our government, our society, our culture, our families, our public and private venues and installed cultural evils, works of iniquity, and a culture of sin from diabolical orders of evil in nearly every realm.
Spirit of the Living God, send your angelic hosts of heaven to war on our behalf. Enable the righteous to partner with heaven and its Kingdom of righteousness to bring down the giants deployed in our land. Anoint your Davids and Deborahs and the children of Your kingdom. Raise up and release Elijahs to confront the priests and servants of Baal and expose their impotence.
Do not abandon us to the powers of darkness in our hour of need. If you do not intervene our nation will be lost, and yet we know You care about the hearts of men. Rescue us from the tyrants around us. Remove the ungodly persons’ power, those bent on the works of flesh and the works of darkness. Bring them to repentance, and if they will not repent, bring them to judgment. Deliver us from our oppressors and let Your Spirit embolden us to walk in the authority of Christ who redeemed us from the works of darkness.
Render Your verdict, King of Glory, upon our land. Shut the mouth of the enemy. Expose the hidden works of darkness, and release the light of Your Kingdom in our hearts, our homes, in the byways and highways, in the public and private arenas. May the sons and daughters of God arise in the authority of the King of kings and slay the giants opposing the Living God, and make open spectacles of the priests and servants of wickedness, for Your Great Name, and for Your Glory.
We call upon You, Ancient of Days, to arrest the wickedness in our land, deliver Your people, and release Your power and glory. Let God arise and His enemies be scattered. May the children of God arise and shatter the works of darkness that all may know Yahweh is God and there is none other, that Christ is the King of kings and holds the title deed of earth and has come to set the captives free, to heal the broken, and to save the lost to reconcile mankind to the Creator, Jehovah.
If I was running for office in America today, I’d prefer to run as an independent, unaffiliated candidate. Of course, that’s not an option in our political system so I would be forced to choose one that doesn’t really reflect or represent who I am or what I specifically stand for, considering the two primary party’s current platforms.
With that said, I would run on that party’s platform that I could closest relate to, which would be a poor representation of my beliefs.
If I were running today, I would run on the following principles…
A representative, not a politician
I would run as a representative of the people as close to the truest intent of representation as I could do. My goal and my aim would be to be a voice for the people I was elected to represent (district, municipal, county, state, etc.). My primary objective would not be to bring my personal interests into the legislative and/or governmental arenas. My primary objective would be to be a voice for the people of my given arena.
I would have two basic qualifiers for my representation of the will of the people:
Does it preserve personal liberty? (without causing harm)
Does it violate the U.S. Constitution?
Whatever legislation or matter was on the governmental table at the time of my service, those would be my baseline criteria.
Does it violate someone’s personal liberty? Let’s define that: the ability to make choices for your own life without causing harm to another or violating another’s ability to make choices for their own life.
Does it fall within the U.S. Constitution’s guidelines or does it violate them in any fashion? I recognize there is a lot of gray area in some of these realms, and that’s where the discussion needs to occur, both in the community and in the political arenas. (But basically anything that violates the Bill of Rights I could never endorse.)
How would I attempt to represent my constituents?
I would set up a transparent forum, probably multiple forums [phone, email, social media, etc.], where my constituents, the people who elected me, could voice their concerns on any matter. If there’s pending legislation, even past legislation, or proposed future legislation, I want to hear from the people I’m representing. I want to be their voice. If they have concerns, if they’re angry, worried, happy, whatever, I want to hear it. If they have suggestions, I want to hear it.
I will publicly post my position on said matter and if at least fifty percent of my constituents do not voice or in some way record their will in the matter in difference (or opposition), I will vote according to my publicly posted stance.
As an issue arises, I will represent the will of the people in my area insomuch as they have communicated with me. I will represent the majority with my vote – even if I disagree with the majority – as long as it falls within the two guidelines mentioned prior. (It cannot violate the U.S. Constitution and cannot infringe personal liberty).
I would be, after all, hired to represent the will of the people in my area. That’s what representing their voice means.
What about the minority?
This is where the public discussion and dialogue needs and in fact, must, take place. The minority voice must be heard (at least by me). I will meet with those with a minority voice to hear their concerns and try to form viable options or solutions to their concerns with other legislation or otherwise solution-oriented actions.
I will be as accessible as possible, will encourage town hall meetings or otherwise public gatherings for public discussion, and/or will have an online forum for discussion and (appropriate) debate. I will seek to find outlets, people and/or organizations to hear, address, and actively pursue solutions to relevant needs represented by people groups in my area, as much as humanly possible.
Often meeting the needs of the majority can create difficulties for the minority, or leave glaring voids in the needs of the minority. One man’s solution can become another man’s obstacle or even detriment. Representing Americans means representing as many as possible, not just the majority. I would strive to find or form viable solutions for as many as possible, insofar as the government is able. I would not rest with merely representing the majority.
I would even seek to find solutions outside the government as much as I could. Most of the times the private sector has handled problem solving far more efficiently than the government.
Speaking of discussion….
The public arena has become less and less a venue for viable discussion on societal concerns. It used to be in America that people gathered in homes, in churches, in parks and other places to discuss matters concerning public life.
Today social media has taken the place of many of those public gatherings, for the most part. That would be acceptable if all voices could be heard. But such is not the case anymore. Because of growing censorship, there are now qualifiers for statements, punishments for contradictory statements, and a lack of basic good manners over all. People are quickly losing the ability to have a public discussion with multiple perspectives being discoursed.
Regardless of methodology, the discussion must happen for societal growth. Bad ideas are exposed when they are fleshed out and challenged. Good ideas are birthed from exposure to multiple perspectives of an issue.
Possible conflicts….
I am a Christian. I happen to believe there’s a better way for a lot of the issues that are out there today.
That said, if I were to be honest, I’d assess that America is a post-Christian nation. While there may seem to be a majority of Americans that profess to be Christians, they don’t necessarily follow the tenets and principles of the faith as outlined in the Scriptures. Most don’t seem knowledgeable about the principles of God, the character of God, or the will of God. Most seem ignorant of even the written Word of God. Calling oneself a Christian isn’t a benchmark for reflecting Christian principles in one’s life.
That’s not a judgment; it’s just an observation of our nation today. I find America to be a post-Christian nation.
I realize that my Christian convictions and beliefs would be archaic to some, out of touch to others, restrictive to many, and any number of other criticisms you could think of. But I would not be running for office as a Christian; I’d be running as an American that believes in the voice of the people within the parameters of the U.S. Constitution and the principles of freedom, personal liberty.
If a matter of legislation was to be voted on that countered my Christian principles, I would vocally dissent to the matter with explanation. But if the majority of my constituents were in favor of the legislation I disputed, I would vote with my constituents, unless it violated the U.S. Constitution or one’s personal liberty.
I’m not God. As a Christian I am an ambassador for Christ. That means I represent the kingdom of God to the kingdom of the world. The kingdom of the world can reject God’s kingdom, and choose ways contrary to God’s kingdom. I, as a Christian, choose not to. But I’m not here to tell you what to choose, only to show you what I understand God’s will in any given matter. The choice is still yours. That’s part of the burden and privilege of freedom.
Let’s talk about freedom for a minute.
Freedom is precious to Christians, and it should be precious to Americans. Until recently, we have had the right to criticize our rulers, to challenge what we interpret as injustice, and to congregate to affect change (to name a few). That is not possible without fear of repercussions (some quite severe) in most other nations of the world. (and is quickly becoming the same here)
Freedom is the basic tenet of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States of America, and especially the Bill of Rights. Freedom is what sets America apart from almost all the other countries of the world. Freedom is what drives millions of people from other nations to seek refuge and citizenship in America. Without freedom, we are just another European, South American, or Asian country.
The ability to make one’s own decisions, to determine one’s life course insomuch as it does no harm to another and does not impede another’s abilities to make decisions for their own life, is freedom in its purest form. That’s what America was founded upon. Remove the guarantee and foundation of freedom and you kill America.
There are a lot of laws in America that impede freedom right now. There are a lot of laws in America that promote immorality. As a Christian, I oppose both. I could glean from my understanding of God to help shape public policy insofar as my constituents would allow. But understand this: God allows us the freedom to choose our own welfare, to choose life and death, to choose straight or crooked, to choose health or sickness. And with every choice comes a consequence.
As a Christian we learn that it is for freedom’s sake itself that Christ sets us free. (Galatians 5:1) We’re admonished to stand firm in our freedoms or we can unwittingly be placed into bondage, serving something or someone against our will. This is most precious to every serious Christian, and is reflective in the principles of America as well. Freedom is the highest ideal. If it’s the premise of our nation, I allow you the freedom to choose your path and convictions, just as you allow me mine. We don’t have to agree or be the same, but the sake of freedom allows us to — up to the point we infringe on another’s ability to be free (without causing harm).
Scripture tells us that as a Christian all things are permissible (because we are free) but not all things are beneficial (healthy). So we choose to limit some of our freedoms and to exercise restraint against things that hinder health and growth. (1 Corinthians 6:12, 10:23) This reiterates there is a law of cause and effect, choice and consequence of choice.
For example, sexual sins carry the weight of sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy, physical illnesses, seared consciences that lead to depravity like pedophilia and child trafficking, etc. Those are just some of the consequences for choices that counter the principles of God.
Redefining humanity, human DNA, human biology, etc. apart from God’s design comes with its own consequences, some of which we may not discover until the damage is done.
Failing to enforce the sanctity of life, whether it be the security to live in one’s own home, on one’s own land, or the preservation of the frail and weak, or differences in culture, or any number of other scenarios of honoring life comes with consequences of violence, death, destruction and societal disruptions.
Freedom is choice and choices have consequences — some instant, most not. The choice to murder the unborn carries consequences that pollute the land, but most are unwilling or unable to see such. Being in a post-Christian nation does not easily allow Christian truths to enter the public arena for much more than ridicule. But ignoring or disregarding such truths does not eliminate the consequences of them.
Americans may indeed choose to legislate immorally, and as a Christian I may understand there is a better way. I’m happy to share what I’ve learned and understand of God’s higher ways, but the freedom to choose them is even more important than the value of the higher ways. It is the highest emulation of the love of God to allow freedom, for that is both what God has given us and who God is.
As an elected representative, one is supposed to represent the will of the people within the parameters of the Constitution of the United States, and to preserve the liberty of Americans’ personal lives. It would be my hope as a Christian these are not exclusive to the principles of Christianity, but if we’re rightly governing America and America should choose to establish immoral laws, my freedom as an American Christian should enable me to follow my God morally even in the midst of an immoral society. That is, after all, what liberty in America is about.
Who hasn’t been exposed to the ongoing boomer and millennial bashing? I’m sure there are insults to other generational demographics, I just can’t think of any right now. But slamming a “boomer” or a “millennial” is sure trendy today. And it’s exhausting. Seriously.
For those of us who have been laboring to bring unity in an ever increasing divided states of America, to say this is counterproductive would be a tragic understatement. What’s to be gained by this besides more schisms, fractures and dissension? Generation bashing is the equivalent of racism but in a different demographic. One has no more control over the time one is born than they do the place or the parents or the culture they are born into.
And I’m not a boomer, let’s be clear. But I’m married to one. And yesterday I was walking past a park where they were taking down a diseased oak tree. I mentioned it to my husband in case they would be willing to let him pick up the wood. We parted ways to run errands and when I returned, I found the pickup loaded with these logs that filled up the length of the full size truck bed.
He picked them up himself – all by himself, loaded them into the truck and will soon cut and split them. Again, he loaded these logs by himself, without complaint or request for assistance. This boomer does the work of someone half his age on any given day, and hasn’t felt a need to wage war on another generation less inclined. He came from a background of poverty, got his first job at twelve throwing papers from his bike after school, worked his way through college with a bachelor’s of science in education K-12, and has worked the last 33 years for UPS in daily manual labor because it paid better than teaching.
He has worked 50-60 hour manual labor work weeks for over three decades to provide for his family of six. He didn’t require his children to get jobs at twelve years old because it was hard for him when he was that age. He sacrificed to give them what he never had in an effort to make their lives somehow better than his own with better opportunities. [And just like my boomer husband doesn’t fit the stereotypical assessment of boomers, our millennial daughter doesn’t fit the stereotypical assessment of millennials.]
So when I see statements like this, I’m reminded that ignorance and indoctrination is alive and well in America. To think someone thinks this a sound argument is a scary barometer for the current climate and culture of America.
It somehow ignores the realities of numerous factors, none of which have anything to do with being a “boomer” or not. What his statistics prove is the devaluing of the dollar and economic duress of a nation under bad policies. What it ignores is the responsibility of the individual to his personal commitments. In most cases, debt is still a choice, especially debt for a secondary “education” (and I use that term with tongue in cheek).
If the cost of inflation is the qualifier for debt “forgiveness”, then let’s forgive the mortgages and car loans while we’re at it. But it’s not about offsetting the inflation our politicians caused. It’s about transferring wealth from the middle class taxpayers. Let’s be clear, the banks aren’t forgiving the debt and swallowing the losses. They’re just stealing from working class Americans to pay it back, with interest.
What is also abhorrent in this argument is that now somehow certain selected individuals who make certain (maybe poor) choices can be bailed out irrespective of contract or commitment. When did signing names in an agreement between two parties become discretionary to the U.S. Government? Have we really fallen this far as a nation as to think the U.S. Government has the right to absolve personal responsibilities and put the responsibility upon unrelated individuals? Are honor and responsibility out of fashion? Is integrity passé?
If the U.S. Government wants to take responsibility for its insane “lending” practices, then take the money from the U.S. Government institutions that created the problem, not the taxpayer. Absolve the IRS’s new 87,000 salaried roles, or the Department of Education, or any other useless U.S. bureaucracy and its inflated budget to pay for their bad policies, but don’t use U.S. taxpayers to “fix” the problem they created.
But back to the boomer argument. A nation so entrenched in fighting each other is a nation on the brink of its enemy’s victory. Divide to conquer is one of the oldest strategies of war. Take an inventory of the ever-growing schisms of America. [race, socio-economic classes, religion, sexual orientation, etc.] If our enemy can keep us consumed with defending our particular life definition, we fail to see the need to defend and protect our neighbor. This is basic Christianity 101. Love your neighbor. This is the premise of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
The raging against a generation of people is misguided rage against a system that has been deployed to destroy the fabric of America. You’re not mad at boomers, you’re mad at policies from the boomer era that have hamstrung economic progress, and you’ve misapplied them to your neighbors because they use simplistic language to express their own frustrations. It’s like yelling at the mighty Oz on the screen, but you ought to be mad at the controller behind the curtain.
Boomers are the last generation with the old traditions of America. They were raised for the most part by two parent families, by the sweat of the brow, at a time moral integrity was still a virtue, and overcoming difficulties was a challenge they took with pride. They endeavored to make their world a better place for their posterity, and by world I mean family life. So when they see things in place today in a society they don’t recognize or want, they revert back to what they had to do to overcome. (hard work, personal sacrifice, refocus on the basics, faith) They were so busy making a living and building their family life that they didn’t realize their elected officials were selling out to the highest bidder, and that there was a conglomerate intent on dismantling the principles of the land they loved. They existed at a time the subterfuge was still underground, and they thought America was still wholesome and moral. They didn’t know what they didn’t know.
Every generation from the boomers forward has its own set of difficulties or trials, mistakes and failures. At some point we have to stop blaming people groups and realize how badly we’ve all been duped by the powers that be, and unite for the sake of our future as free people.
The destruction of America has been plotted systematically for generations, and each generation the cabal has made its attack on the institutions that would prevent its end goal. They’ve made substantial gains at significant times, and to place the brunt of the responsibility on the generation some of the worst gains were accomplished is to turn on your fellow Americans.
I would wager a guess that person for person in each generation would find the boomer generation has the most guns per capita of their generation than any other generation. They probably have the most patriots who still genuinely care about the nation and would be willing to lay down their lives for it. Why would you alienate these people because they can be lumped with a time some of the most damage via policies was done?
For the love of America, please stop. Please stop assuming every millennial is lazy and unmotivated. Please stop assuming every boomer is archaic, has destroyed our economy, and is out of touch. Every era has policies we’re still paying for as Americans. (The Fed was instilled before the boomers were born, and it is one of our nation’s greatest evils and enemies.)
Every generation has learned things unique to its generation. Every generation has skills and principles of value as well as liabilities and failures. We have so much to learn from each other. Just as there is really just one race, the human race, there is one generation, the living generation. Let’s not turn on one another and further the divide. We need one another. America needs us united. Its enemies need us divided.
There’s a charlatan running for State Representative in Kansas. By profession and testimony he is a “Christian pastor” of a “Christian Church” in Topeka, Kansas. Allegedly they use the same Bible as the Christian faith, and profess to be “Christians”, adherents of the teachings of Christ. In practice they endorse same sex marriage and abortion.
Whether he has also deceived himself as well as his followers is uncertain yet, but it appears he has deceived himself to believe that a follower of Christ is to openly practice sin, even murder, and to also endorse it as a tenet of the Christian faith.
I expect such a belief system in the Democratic party (and other political ideologies), but it is counter to the principles of the Christian faith. And if Tobias Schlingensiepen was just another Democratic candidate, I would not bother to point out the heinous fallacies of his posturing for the redundancy of the current political climate. But it is because he alleges to be a spokesperson for the God I serve, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the God of Christ, I am compelled to contend for the faith and expose the deception at work.
To espouse such political ideology as congruent with Christianity indicates either a gross ignorance of the Christian faith or a deliberate perversion of it. Those using a paid and titled position of leadership in an alleged so-called Christian church to deceive those entrusted to one’s care are reminiscent of the Pharisees of Christ’s day.
To be clear, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is also the God of Creation and the Father of Christ. This is one and the same God of the Christian Bible. God established a created order at Creation that is neither ambivalent nor vague. The established created order by the Creator of all life created humanity as two genders necessary for one another for procreation on the earth. Any other union is not sanctioned by God and rejected as a perversion to the created order.
[The gods of the world (Baal, Moloch, Isis, Rah, Zeus, etc.) openly practice such perversions because they defy the Supreme God and seek to pollute the world with fruits of darkness in their effort to usurp God by entrenching the world in darkness. Study Baal-Peor rituals and worship to understand the origins of no-boundary sex1. Scripture is PLAIN about God’s views of such.]
The days of Noah were precisely of this scenario. The sons of God, the presumed fallen deity of the divine council of Psalm 82, schemed to corrupt God’s creation of mankind. Enoch lays it out plainly, telling us they came down in the days of Jared to corrupt human flesh, and made a pact together for their actions. Moses speaks of it in Genesis as well. Most of modern Christendom doesn’t delve into the origins like this. Most Christians are content to just accept God at His word that certain acts are sin, separate from the will of God.
Sin separates us from God, which is why the powers of darkness deceive humanity in order to enslave them…. “Did God really say?” [Genesis 3:1] Once we rebel from God’s authority and embrace whatever seems right to us or desirable for us, the power of darkness succeeds at estranging humanity from God. We become enslaved to powers of darkness, which pollutes the land and increases the (spiritual) darkness in the land.
You cannot read Leviticus 18:22 (what Tobias followers call the “Klobber passages”) and be hazy on the intentions. The act of homosexual sex is abhorrent to God, an abomination, and perverts the created order of procreation (and is impossible for procreation). This was given to Moses from God Himself, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the same God of the whole Bible.
You cannot read Romans 1:18-32 and be hazy on the intentions of the writer (Paul). These “lusts of impurity” – spelled out plainly and called “degrading passions” – are the result of rejecting the rule of God and His established order in one’s life. Such people see fit to not acknowledge God and His ways, and as a result, God gives them over to their lusts and depraved minds.
Tobias Schlingensiepen openly marries gays in his church (or wherever they choose) in a state that does not acknowledge gay marriage and in fact, still has laws against it2. He does so as an alleged spokesperson of the Christian church. He openly flies the gay flag and adorns his pulpit with it, all while proclaiming this is “love”. No. It is disobedience to the precepts of God. It is rebellion. It is perversion. It is a lot of things, but it is not representative of God whatsoever, no matter how much you object that it is.
Schlingensiepen supports abortion, even advocates for it as “women’s healthcare”. Yet when I commented on his Facebook page and asked if he would advocate for all women and their healthcare needs such as women who do not want a vaccination, my comment disappeared shortly after with no answer or explanation.
How disingenuous to label unrestrained abortion as “healthcare”. Maybe before the sonogram we could be excused for such ignorance, but no more. Everyone who knows anything knows a baby is murdered to obtain an abortion. [If it’s not a baby, you’re not pregnant.] Before that baby has done good or bad, it is cruelly dismembered, or burned, or otherwise tortured and murdered. THAT is innocent blood on the hands of men and women, industries, legislators, and a whole host of willing participants.
You don’t have to look long or hard in Scripture to know what God thinks of the shedding of innocent blood. At the very first murder we are told the blood of the victim cried out to God from the ground. There is an accounting for innocent bloodshed, and God is neither blind nor deaf to it. To promote it as a Christian principle and a human liberty is to disregard and mock every principle of God’s created order. To feign love or Christianity through the advocacy of baby murder is not just disingenuous but wicked and deceptive. (I would think an honest heart would see through such a façade, but alas, even honest hearts are led astray with the cunning lies of smooth lips and darkened hearts.)
So in District 55 of Kansas, near the center of Topeka itself, sits an alleged Christian church with a salaried pastor who not only condones and applauds homosexual marriages, but also performs them in defiance of state law and God’s law, and who also advocates for the murder of babies under the lie of “healthcare”. He proudly promotes his beliefs under the hypocrisy of “Christian”, and runs his political campaign with such beliefs heralded. (as a democrat, of course)
I openly call upon Mr. Schlingensiepen to repent of his lies about God and who God is, and to change his mind and turn from an open advocacy for sin and murder. Repent and stop leading others astray from the path of righteousness. Repent, and if you won’t do that, resign from a position of leadership in the arena of Christianity. Your heralded beliefs are an affront to the laws of God and Christ, and do not represent the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ and the Bible.
Know, Mr. Schlingensiepen, that God loves you and has provided you an opportunity to repent from maligning His Name and leading the simple and wayward from God and His Ways. Know that God is merciful and will extend mercy to you if you just repent and align with His Word.
If you will neither repent nor resign, I call upon the Ancient of Days and I make my appeal to the God of Creation, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and to Christ Himself to judge and remove the rebellious imposter of the Christian faith in whatever manner Heaven sees fit. I make my appeal to Heaven and to the courts of Heaven to reign sovereign in this matter, that all those in District 55 of Kansas may know and see there is a God in Heaven who is merciful and gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, but by no means clearing the guilty3.
I call on the Supreme God to reign supreme over the works of Baal and the workers of darkness pretending to be servants of God, but instead promoting the works of darkness. I ask God to make a distinction between those who serve Him and those who do not, and I beseech the Ancient of Days to rule against the unholiness of Mr. Schlingensiepen if he refuses to repent. This is my appeal to Heaven.
1Message me if you want more information on Baal-Peor and the customs and rituals connected to it, and how it ties to sexual perversions and lauds licentious acts for its rituals. The motive behind such action is to corrupt the pure order God established for humanity and to corrupt humanity itself. Some articles are explicit so I have chosen to share them by request only.
2The Kansas Constitution, in Article 15, subsection 16 (page 27 of link), the Kansas Constitution defines marriage “between one man and one woman only” and classifies any other union as void. This has neither been repealed or amended. The DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) reinforced the state laws, but individual counties are choosing to not enforce the law. And this article touches on the issue specific to Kansas as well.
I’ve gotten a lot of things wrong in my life, and I’d wager I’ve had more wrong than right. I would have bet a lot of money that Trump was going to be re-elected in 2020. I held my ground on that long past the election right up to the inauguration. I gave (and still give) serious merit to the Devolution theory. I believed Q was a White Hat operation and was for the awakening of the patriots and those seeking good and righteousness.
I believe Trump did indeed win the election, and have maintained that it was a matter of presenting the evidence. Eighteen months later now, and I am definitely second guessing myself. [2000 Mules has come and gone and still no change. Project Veritas has exposed countless media and corporate deceptions and still no change. Exposes have been written, documentaries have been produced, witnesses murdered, and still no change.]
At different points along the way I would hear bits from God, and other times bear witness to what others shared they had heard from God. Trying to weave together the different bits and pieces into a whole picture sometimes has proved frustrating and even fruitless. Other times it has helped bring clarity. What is it Paul says? Oh yes, we know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the impartial disappears.
We are still in the imperfect part. Especially me. I know I am still learning bit by bit, and a lot of the time I am unlearning more than I am learning.
I settled down to rethink everything, took a step back, went back over my notes trying to figure out what I’ve missed and where. I got waylaid by some family tragedies, some deaths, some betrayals, a lot of questions….
The past several months, I feel like God has led me in a direction to engage in our community in a way that brings restoration to broken lives and revival to community and our local economy. Whether Trump comes back on the scene or not seems almost irrelevant for what I feel I am to be busy with. I’m not convinced Trump is what our country needs right now, but I certainly know he would be better than what we have.
There are still many unanswered questions I have about Trump, and I don’t know that they’ll ever be answered. The point is, our country needs its people not its leaders. America’s government is wickedly corrupt, and its leaders are incapable and unwilling to lead in righteousness and justice. It is up to We the People. If we can bring a course correction without a civil war, we will be fortunate indeed.
I’ve spent some time seeking God, trying to discern His heart, His will, and how to partner with Heaven for my life and my nation. I don’t know if the things He showed me and I wrote about in January were possibilities or realities. I thought they were inevitable, but maybe I’m wrong. Maybe the things I saw can be changed? And if they can be changed, it won’t be by doing nothing.
There are a lot of “prophetic voices” out there and usually they start to muddy the water for me. Sometimes it’s a fine line between prophet and profit. I implore fellow Christians to examine prophetic utterances in this article, and give examples of some current words making the headlines that I have serious questions about.
That said, I’d like to examine a word from Tim Sheets that does bear witness with me. On June 19, Tim gave a word to his church with the title and/or instruction: Proceed. The essence of the word is that we are entering an intense season of warfare in our nation that will remain fierce up through the midterm elections. We are told to prepare for escalated warfare in the spiritual and natural realms.
Tim relayed this, “An agitated spirit realm will stir violence in the natural realm.” He said hell will try to vex Christianity, and has declared open season on Christians. The ekklesia are to engage in the battle, using their authority to wage war on the powers of darkness on our altars of prayer, decrees and worship.
He said that in this war season the functioning ekklesia will rise to operate in higher realms of authority, and its advance will be very rapid. Rapid strikes will come against hindering spirits, government tyranny, and cultural systemic evils.
Simultaneously the world will see both the deployment of Heaven’s armies and the fierceness of hell’s battling. He said the fierceness of hell’s battling of God’s kingdom will be superseded by the fierceness of God’s wrath against their allegiance to Baal. God’s fierce deployment will engage and intercessors and the angelic will deploy strike missions to break strongholds of darkness and to wither iniquitous roots.
He admonishes us to not fear the war season but to anticipate the victories. This is a season when the ekklesia of God’s kingdom will elevate in greater levels of the dominion mandate, and an increase in bold authority from believers will be manifest.
God’s word to the ekklesia for this season is this: “Stop looking at your options. I am your option. I am your map. I am your guide. I have plans you have not seen yet but now will see.”
In this season, prophetic dreams and visions are connecting to their moment. Individual destiny is connecting to its moment. Plans for the time are connecting to their moment.
Tim said God has commissioned Michael to release sufficient warriors from his army to assist God’s ekklesia, and to assist this nation. We will fuel this angelic warfare which will lead to victories by our decrees of faith. It’s imperative we understand the Word and will of God, so that we are making righteous, powerful and timely decrees at the right time and place.
We are not to fear the giants in the land, but hunt them. We have to move into offensive positions against the enemies of God in the spiritual realm (which will often then manifest in the natural realm).
In this season of war, the ekklesia must come into agreement with the plans of God. How do we come into agreement with the plans of God? We must position ourselves to see His hand and hear His voice. Additionally, we must position ourselves firmly in the shelter of the Most High and under the shadow of the Almighty for our protection as hell and its minions declare open season on Christians. Our obedience to God and our intimacy with Christ are the guarantees of our protection. If we lose track of that and lose our positions in Him, we are vulnerable to the violence being waged in the spiritual that will indeed manifest in the natural.
A few months ago, the Spirit began moving me into an offensive position in a specific arena, and has been steadily giving me direction for how I am to proceed. Mine is not a unique position. God is doing that with His people all over our land. We are responsible not for “saving our nation”, but for obeying the direction of God for the realm He has given us authority in. While we hope and pray America can be saved from the destruction of its wicked rulers, we must focus individually on the battle field God has placed us personally in, and is equipping us for.
I’d encourage believers and disciples of Christ to seek Him about this word about a season of warfare before us, and how we’re to engage. If you missed the link to the word given by Tim Sheets, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/TZ2LSQ5Yd9k
People keep posting alleged prophetic words and videos, and quoting the professed “prophets”. I’m going to reference a couple that stood out to me, then I’m going to tell you what I think is a real prophetic word for the hour we’re in.
1 Thess 5:19-20 tells us: “Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances.”
And oh wow, how that likes to be used when someone has questions about a word or mouthpiece with the label “prophetic”. The context of Paul’s thought, however, continues: “But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good; abstain from every form of evil.”
Absolutely do not despise prophetic utterings, BUT…. BUT…. Examine everything carefully!
We are to examine such utterances. Other versions say “prove” or “test” them carefully. Look at what Jamieson, Fauccet & Brown instruct with this passage:
You ought indeed not to “quench the Spirit” nor “despise prophesyings;” ‘but,’ at the same time, do not take “all” as genuine which professes to be so; ‘prove (test) them all.’ Means of testing existed in the Church: some had the “discerning of spirits” (1 Cor 12:10; 14:29; 1 John 4:1). Another test, which we also have, is to try the professed revelation whether it accord with Scripture, as the noble Bereans did (Isa 8:20; Acts 17:11; Gal 1:8-9). This negatives Rome’s assumption of infallibly laying down the law: the laity have the right of private judgment, and are bound to exercise it in testing every human teaching by Scripture. Locke, ‘Those who are for laying aside reason in matters of revelation resemble one who should put out his eyes to use a telescope.’
We have a right for private judgment – and a better word there would be “personal”, as opposed to just accepting what a corporate body or council would lead us to believe.
That said, when I read some recent words by Julie Green, (alleged and professed prophet), and I examined them against the Word of God, I had trouble in my spirit accepting them as the rhema word of God.
First I had trouble with the phrase, “They took it, and you will see them give it all back.” I’m assuming the “they” is the “evil system”, but who is that in particular? Banks? Politicians and legislators? What did they “take” in relation to the housing market? And what will they “give back”? Anyone carefully observing the economy and the housing bubble we’re in can probably accurately predict a market crash – and they have been doing so for months if not years now. But what has been taken and is going to be returned by whom?
I could kind of shrug this one off a bit as general speech instead of specific, but then I really struggled with the next part: “You will financially know a life free from debt and lack.” Who will? All of God’s children? It’s prefaced with “My children”. So is this a promise for every child of God regardless of their decisions in their life? If they’ve become a slave to the lender (Proverbs 22:7), is this an emancipation then just because they’re indebted? What if they chose to buy an expensive house, car, wardrobe, vacation and voluntarily indebted him/herself to a credit master? Is that now whisked away and absolved? What if some of God’s children are ruled by greed and they are in debt because of greed? Is that just swept away too? What if some of God’s children are in lack because of addictions that have whittled away their income pockets? Are they suddenly no longer going to be in lack but recompensed from the consequences of their own actions?
How does this work? What will this look like? There were no qualifiers on this statement. It reads like a carte blanche sweeping “reset” for anyone that’s a child of God. Is that Biblical in the real world in real time? Why did Christ tell us the poor we would always have with us if he meant there to no longer be lack or debt for His people? Are the poor not God’s children?
And this third part practically undid me! All of a sudden EVERY sickness of the body will be vanquished! When?? When is this magic corporate healing supposed to happen?? And don’t we already have that in the victory of the Cross and the Resurrection? Isn’t that why we’re instructed as Christ’s disciples to “heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper”??? If God’s just going to wave His hand or whisper a word to do this miraculous corporate healing of every sickness and every need for medication, why have we been praying and laying hands and petitioning Heaven in obedience to Christ’s instructions? Why do we have to wait? I’ve laid hands and prayed for many people who have been healed (including myself). It sure would be easier if I didn’t have to do that anymore.
This word does not pass an examination of the Word of God or the character of God in His Word. I am responsible for examining it!
One more:
So if I’m understanding this “prophecy” correctly, there will only be mass deaths of unbelievers? Because it says God is protecting His children from these mass deaths and separating His children from the rest of the world. It looks like here only the “enemies of God” will suffer in these mass deaths. And what are these mass deaths from? It sounds here like it’s a judgment from God that will cause them. This utterance was from December. We’re seven months later now…
And then we’re told if you took the covid vaccine and are concerned about the side effects, God’s going to render them harmless for you. When? Does that mean no believers have died from the vaccine or complications of its vaccine since this word was uttered? Wow. What about the believers who have already died from it? Will they be resurrected? Or is it just from date the utterance was made in December? What Biblical precedence do we have for this? Why has God overlooked the GMO food poisoning, the water and air poisoning, the pharmaceutical poisoning, and even the prior vaccine poisoning (see the increase in autism, autoimmune disorders, etc.) and we’ve suffered the consequences of these evils but THIS time…NOW….with this covid vaccine, we don’t have to suffer the consequences of our actions? Is this consistent to the Word of God? The character of God? The history of God’s children?
I’m admonished to test or examine or prove the utterances alleged to be prophetic. These don’t pass the test for me.
I’m not saying to throw the baby out with the bath water. Just test the words. Reject what doesn’t pass examination and receive what the Spirit gives. God’s speaking through His children and not just those with national platforms. He’s speaking through the common man and woman both in the church and out of the church. He’s speaking through and to the young as well as the old.
It’s important we learn how to hear the Voice of God ourselves and not become dependent on other people for hearing from God. We don’t need to chase after the prophets. We do need to seek God and be open to every way He wants to speak to us, including through others.
And it’s important we sharpen our discernment and not blindly accept everything said from every mouthpiece that claims to be “prophetic”.
Let’s try to learn from one more example in Scripture. Go to 1 Kings 13 and read about the prophet from Judah who got a clear word about judgment coming to Jeroboam for his idol worship and a righteous king, Josiah, will be raised up to tear down the corruption of Jeroboam and the priests’ idolatry. When the King attempted to seize the prophet for the declaration against him and his people, the king’s had withered. King Jeroboam begged the prophet to pray for his hand, which the prophet did and it was restored. At his healing, the King asked the prophet to come eat with him and we learn a very important detail: the prophet was given specific instruction on how to give the prophetic word, and how to leave. He was not to eat or drink anything, and he was to return home a different way than he came.
Then an interesting thing happened. An old prophet in the area heard about this event and intercepted the prophet and implored him to come home and eat and drink with him. The prophet reiterated his instructions from God, then look what the old prophet replied,
1 Kings 13:18-19
“I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'” But he lied to him. So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.”
So the prophet ate and drank with the old prophet and as he was finishing the (real) word of God came through the old prophet and he decreed the prophet’s destruction for disobeying God’s command by eating and drinking. The prophet departed and was killed by a lion on the road.
Now think about this for a minute. The word of the nameless prophet from Judah was a genuine word from God that was accompanied with signs and wonders. The old prophet who deceived the new prophet outright lied. We’re not told if the Spirit led the old prophet to test the prophet from Judah, or if he did it of his own accord. We only know it happened. A prophet lied. After that a genuine prophetic utterance came to the same prophet that just lied and deceived.
We can learn so much from this. You can get truth and lies from a mouthpiece of God. You can get flesh and spirit from a mouthpiece of God. We have got to learn how to hold fast to that which God has shown us, and to test the prophetic utterances that we not be deceived.
I’ll address what I think is a real prophetic word for this hour in the next post.
A new friend in the faith asked me a couple days ago how I got to this point in my faith (of praying, trusting, and believing for my health). I just want to explain it so I don’t look so superhuman. I am not.
My background taught me there was no human I could rely on. My parents were not safe; my siblings were not safe; my friends were not of any depth or substance. I was seeking something to send roots into because I was tired of being tossed around by all the chaos and turmoil in my life. God seemed the safest bet. So in a way, God has been the only sure thing for me, the thing I could say was consistent. After observing hundreds of lives in the crossroads of my own, I do think not having a solid foundation was the epitome of Romans 8:28 for me. The void of no one to trust or protect caused me to seek the One who could.
Who made your body?
I think it all began for me in 1995, when I was in a situation I needed to be awake at a certain time and I had no electricity where I was and no way to set an alarm. I was probably more stressed about it than I should have been, but I was actually praying about it and the Spirit said, “Who made your body?” [It resonated as the Voice that asked Moses, “Who made man’s mouth?”] I replied with the obvious, “You did.” To which God responded, “If I made your body, don’t you think I can wake it?”
When He said it like that I felt pretty silly. Of course God can wake me. So I turned that over to Him that evening. He woke me at the right time to get home, showered and to work like I needed. That night I was back in my bed (with electricity), and as I reached to set my alarm it seemed silly. If God could wake me that morning, why couldn’t He wake me every morning? It seemed going backwards in faith to now set my alarm. So I didn’t. And God woke me, as He has done faithfully for 27+ years now. I have never set an alarm and He has never failed me, regardless of what time I needed to be up.
This set a precedent for me of trusting God. In a place where I have learned to trust Him, it seems backwards, counterproductive, and failure of faith to return to the systems of the world. The key here is “in the place where I have learned to trust Him”. There are still many places I have not learned to trust Him, but I am knocking them out one by one.
I started here first…
So in the case of health and healing, I actually started with my mental health. After a childhood of dysfunction and abuse, I was quite conflicted with severe issues of anger and rage, insecurity and self-loathing, wrong thinking and fortified defenses, and many other things. I could not find peace no matter what my intellectual mind did for learning and understanding. So I sought God. Without going into that journey, I will highlight one particular point.
A worship song was playing in my home as I went about my chores. As I crossed the threshold from the dining room to the kitchen, the Lord asked, “Do you trust Me, Michelle?” What a redundant question, I thought! As I went to respond with the obvious “of course”, I checked myself and realized I couldn’t say it with complete honesty. After a pause, I heard myself say, “I don’t think I do. I want to, but I don’t think I do, God.”
And that was the beginning of my great deliverance – when I realized I didn’t even trust God. I knew I didn’t trust any human (Bill was close, though). But I did not realize I had reserves of caution and distrust toward God.
As He spent the next several months exposing mindsets and self-sabotages, I gradually learned to trust Him. He led me out of the prisons of my heart and mind and I was released from my captivity into the exciting narrow path of walking with Him. Hinds’ Feet on High Places by Hannah Hurnard is particularly dear to me for the parallels I could draw.
Some time after that I embarked on a journey of learning to trust Him with my physical needs.
My initial learning process
The precursor for it actually started before my deliverance when a neighbor knocked on our door and said, “I know you’re a praying family. We have a cousin who’s dying. Will you pray for her?” Amy was 32 with a husband and young son, and had something happen to her brain that left her in a coma and they were told she would be dying in a matter of days. I responded yes and we set a time in a couple days to go pray for her in the evening when Bill got off work.
In the meantime I searched the Scripture and I fasted. I wrote down every place Jesus healed someone, raised the dead, or otherwise performed a miracle. I meditated on these things and recalled that Christ said we would do even greater works. I recalled that our mandate is to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the leper, cast out demons. By the time we went to pray for Amy my body was fasted, my faith was solid, and I was convinced God would heal her. We prayed for hours over her unconscious body and finally left. I waited to see what God would do. A few days later Amy died.
This was one of a few crises of faith I had. This one resulted in me yelling at God, throwing my Bible in a heap on the floor, and walking away. For two weeks… until I got past the rage, the disappointment, the dismay. The Lord beckoned me to meet with Him. I angrily stomped up the stairs and picked up the now bent-up Bible off the floor where I had thrown it two weeks earlier, and I went to sit before Him with one question, “Why?”
He did answer. He said, “Say Proverbs 3:5-6.” Man that made me angry! I retorted something along the lines of that being one of the most basic Scriptures that everyone knew. He waited. Finally I angrily and quickly said aloud, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.” He said, “Say it again.” I repeated it. He said, “Say it again.”
This time when I said it…. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…” He said “STOP. Repeat that part again.” I repeated it. Then He said, “Repeat that last part again.”
“Lean not on your own understanding.” Say it again, He said. Lean not on your own understanding. Say it again, He said again. Lean not on your own understanding. Now the tears were streaming down my face. I did not know then why Amy had to die. She was so young with a very young son. But I learned what I needed to learn at that point in my faith walk. I must not lean on my own understanding.
I studied God’s Word and the life of Jesus. I applied His truths as I understood them. I was sure He was going to heal Amy and He didn’t. My understanding failed; not God.
The health road on my journey
This would be the backdrop that I would frame my healing adventures years later after my trauma healing. Years later our family embarked on a journey of learning how to pray for healing. For a decade we did not go to the doctor for an illness. We prayed until we got our healing. This is very hard to do with small children. It’s one thing to suffer in pain until you get the breakthrough; it’s quite another to watch your small child suffer.
It seemed each time we were on the brink of giving in and going to the doctor, we’d have a breakthrough. I remember a time Isabelle was maybe three or four and had an ear infection, high fever and was crying quite a bit. I knew four o’clock was the latest I could wait before taking her to our doctor. I called Bill on his UPS route and arranged to meet him in a parking lot. I thought maybe we needed stronger prayer agreement and two of us together would help. I resolved that if it didn’t I would take her to the doctor, but I sought God’s healing fervently. I parked the car, brought Isabelle to the hood of the car and set her down. Bill walked up, laid his hand on her forehead and commanded her healing. She felt a pop in her ear, stopped crying and started talking. Her fever was gone as well as the pain.
I have dozens of stories like this. We simply learned how to pray, how to persevere, and how to listen. I’ve held a woman’s foot in my hand and commanded her leg to grow and watched it grow two inches in my hand. She had special shoes and had to discard her shoes after that. I’ve prayed for two people on their death bed who turned around and lived after that. I’ve also failed to bring instant healing through prayer many times, but watched God bring healing through a process of days, weeks and months.
I haven’t been to a doctor for illness in about twenty three years, (with three exceptions worth their own stories but not enough time here). I’ve also studied how to walk in health and use natural means for healing, but that’s another story too.
This is my personal journey
I don’t expect anyone else to have the same convictions I do, and I have no judgment for anyone for going to a doctor. I happen to believe in the concept of personal freedom and sovereignty. I’d like to follow hard after my God according to my faith and allow others to do the same.
This faith journey I’m on is less about healing and more about trust. I am learning how to trust God with as much of my life and every aspect of my life that I can. I didn’t come out of the womb with these convictions; they have grown as my walk with Him has. Everyone is at their own place in faith (or no place), and to expect another to have the same convictions as I is a religious spirit. (I have no time for religion. The opposite of religion is freedom, and it is for freedom Christ has set us free.) God is personal. He knows His children individually. While He has a Book of instructions, it is filled with nuances and seeming paradoxes. As we grow in our relationship with Him, He illuminates understanding and if we are serious about following Him, we submit to His leadership.
This year I’ve had a kidney stone and later appendicitis. I prayed for my healing, and then I had to walk it out. It took some time and I suffered for a while. If at any point God had instructed me to get medical intervention, I would have obeyed Him. He did not, and so I sought His healing and He healed me.
My personal conviction is God is my God of every aspect of my life. Maybe I haven’t surrendered every aspect to Him and there are areas that still need revealed to me, but for the ones I am cognizant of, I seek His counsel and place myself under His leadership.
I don’t expect anyone to share my convictions. This isn’t written to condemn or exhort another to just stand in faith. This was written to share my account in hopes it will encourage other believers to see the faithfulness of God and His trustworthiness. God can be trusted.
Lastly…
I remember Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego stood on their convictions which led to being thrown in the fiery furnace. They said their God was able to save them, but even if He didn’t, they would not bow the knee to the false gods of Babylon.
That always struck me. God can, but He may not. Nevertheless my convictions will fall on trusting God and staying true to His supreme sovereignty, and I will accept the fate that comes. I laid in my bed the night my appendix had been inflamed for twenty hours and counting and the pain was increasing, and I recognized that it may rupture in the night and I may very well die. The medical community is very clear on that reality. And I yielded back to my God. I’d trusted Him with numerous ailments over the years. Was this going to be the one that I acquiesced to? Was this the one that was too big for my God? How could I go from trusting Him to seeking the wisdom and hand of man? I could not.
I met Henry Gruver in person. I heard his account of falling and breaking his leg and commanding it to be healed and put back in right order. I knew he refused to go to the doctor. For days he dragged his useless leg around, in pain, commanding it to be restored. I can’t remember if it was five or fifteen days later that it was healed, but it was.
Russell Conwell committed to working sixteen hours every day, eight for his own life and another eight for John Ring’s (who gave his life in the war to save his). He went on to write, practice law and real estate, become an esteemed national speaker, and found Temple University with those sixteen hour days.
Brother Yun was languishing in a Chinese prison and went an impossible 72 days without food or water, praying for the deliverance of God. The prison doors were opened (like they were for Paul and Silas) and he walked out to an awaiting taxi, and then went on to strengthen the underground Chinese church.
John Lake refused to accept the inheritance of infirmity that ran through his family. He labored in prayer and seeking the Word for his healing. When he got it, he turned his attention on bringing that same healing to all around him.
It seems to me that the systems of the world are devoid of the power of God, and that the average status quo Christian is but a reflection of the world. We don’t change it by looking like it, or succumbing to its tenets, principles and rules. We’re not supposed to be a mirror but light and salt. The radical believers who refuse to adhere to the world’s systems, whether they be medical, political, social, etc. are the ones who bring the changes and demonstrate there is a superior kingdom to the inferior kingdom of earth.
I’d just encourage believers today to trust God for the thing before them. Whatever the mountain, you can speak to it. But first, take your eyes off the obstacle and reach the unseen hand of God. Tell Him you trust Him. Seek His wisdom and direction for the thing you’re dealing with. Resist the temptation to resort to the familiar systems you’ve been inundated with in this world, and seek instead God’s ways. They rarely if ever look like the world. Make it a matter of trust and then the faith will come.
I’m working on some theories and still need to organize my notes. But I’m going to put a few thoughts out here in the hope that it will spur others to weigh in on some of my thoughts in case I have some blind spots that are preventing better perspective. I’m going to touch on three things that aren’t necessarily connected but may well be. I think you’ll see where I’m going.
I’m going to present in broad strokes.
Devolution, President-in-Exile, and Donald J. Trump
I’ve been off the beaten path on this topic enough to know it holds merit and could very well be true. There’s enough circumstantial evidence to allow hope that it is true, and if true, it still seems like the best option for the immediate future for America.
The current alleged U.S. administration is taking us on a crash course to complete tyranny under the pretty guise of inclusion and perceived safety (from government promoted threats), among other things. There is no happy future for America in the true spirit of America on our current path. I am well aware of that.
I understand some of the tactics of war that are confusing for the foot soldier and observers. For example, appearing weak when you are strong (and vice versa), disinformation to hide or mislead from your movements and intentions to gain ground and the element of surprise, theatrics for illusion, etc. That said I believe all of that is going on.
The front man (woman, whoever is the public lead) of the “side” one is on, must instill confidence and trust to his/her counterparts in the battle. There are times we’ll be confused, times we won’t understand the strategy on the board. I understand that is all part of the war.
Two main things (there are lesser things as well) give me pause about Trump’s leadership for the cause of liberty and national sovereignty in America: his relentless push for the covid vaccine, and his seeming ineptness for January 6.
Knowing what we know about the vaccine and the thousands who have been harmed by it and even killed, why would he push it as “good”? Why not just stay silent? Why not just reiterate we’re still the United States of America, founded on independent sovereignty and personal liberty, and remove himself from the public argument? His base does not agree with his stance and have made it clear. I’ve heard the argument that “Operation Warp Speed” was code name for a military operation. (insert eye roll) I’ve heard the argument that he had to hurry a vaccine to quell the growing public fear. While elements of that argument make some sense in the scheme of politics, the ruse could have been dropped after the election and it was reinforced.
Even now public information on the vaccines has been coming out of grave consequences. This would be the perfect time to feign shock and recant your stance. But he doesn’t. Why?
Trump knew the FBI set up the “insurrection” narrative for January 6. Why did he encourage his group to go to the Capitol? Why has he allowed average American citizens be put through the American gulag system and be left there almost defenseless, under abuse and suffering? Didn’t he campaign on statements like this:
VOA tells us a Presidential pardon for all persons involved January 6 was an option on the table.
While we still have American patriots suffering without Constitutional provisions (6th and 14th Amendments for due process and a speedy trial), while evidence is being hidden and not permitted, and Revolver has been relentless on its reporting of the injustice of it all, why has DJT remained relatively silent through it? Why weren’t there pardons or public statements of weight? Why is there continued silence?
These aren’t small matters to me. These are literal life and death matters of American people. People are dying and facing grave health concerns for the promotion of a serum that has not proven effective for the thing it was allegedly created for. People who did not commit crimes have been set up by a corrupt judicial and legislative system in the American government and are languishing as political prisoners in the alleged home of the free and brave. These aren’t inconsequential oversights. Are these people just casualties of the war?
[This doesn’t even touch on Ivanka’s membership in the World Economic Forum or Jared’s monetary ties to serious conflicts of freedom’s interests. I don’t have time for that and I give it a surface pass because it’s not Trump personally.]
The powers that be are intent on recreating their version of prophecy
Study will show that modern Israel was founded by Rothschilds and their cohorts. I totally understand that God can use the wicked as pieces on a chess board to accomplish his purposes, and this may be that. But hang with me a minute because this will lead to the next thing, and remember, these are just working theories I’m looking for other insight for.
Why would the powers in the shadows want to recreate prophecy? That ties to my third theory, so we’ll table it for just a moment.
How difficult would it be to recreate a version of Biblical prophecy if you held sway over the major political players of the world? What if you held sway over, say, the religious institution as well? If what was being taught and relatively wide-spread learned across the vehicle of Christian churches was a general apocalyptic rapture, future tribulation, future antichrist scenario, then orchestrating that wouldn’t be that difficult. Just spend some time thinking about that and I think you’ll be able to see it.
Look at the current Ukraine-Russia conflict and see how many people and places are saying Russia is the antichrist or Russia is Magog and Putin is Gog, or similar proclamations. Only (and I don’t have time to prove this now but I will soon) Magog is Ukraine, not Russia.
Just think about this for a minute. If you’re the enemy of God and your endeavors are works for darkness, wouldn’t you want to subvert the truths of God and especially the prophecies? After all, these are things that work against you and the kingdom of darkness. If you could divert attention to arenas you painted as targets, the activities going on in other arenas would fade into the background. This would be a reason (not the only reason) for recreating prophecy.
Again, I’m speaking in broad strokes right now, but I will hone it down in the coming weeks.
Ultimately life on terrestrial earth is the epic battle between light and dark, the friends of God and the enemies of God. The only middle ground is ignorance. Let’s be real. The vast majority of humanity is happy in the middle ground of nominal awareness of the spiritual forces around them. As long as their basic needs are met and they are sufficiently entertained or otherwise distracted, involvement in the spiritual arena is not at the forefront.
Regardless, as long as I’ve been alive there has been talk about the end of the earth, the coming apocalypse, a ten headed beast, an antichrist and his kingdom, a mark in the forehead, etc. What are the chances the powers of darkness can utilize the prophecies for their agenda? Would they try? Wouldn’t they just somehow suppress the truths of the Scripture – a kind of 1984 tyranny that prevents disclosure? If they couldn’t do that, then wouldn’t another strategy be to pervert it?
Which leads me to my third realm of hypothesis….
What are the chances we’re post-millennial?
I used to scoff at this idea. (I was, after all, raised in the religious institution with its systems and constructs.) I used to think that was ludicrous. If Christ was reigning on the earth, wouldn’t the earth know it??? It’s still a valid question. But there have been things that have blown some holes into my original thoughts.
So before you poo-poo this or mark me off as some radical fringe person, think about some of these things….
Rev 20:7-8 (NASU)
“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.”
In that one sentence, how much time is it covering? How long do you think it will take Satan to deceive the nations after the world had been sitting under Christ’s millennial reign? A few years?
What would have to occur to convince the inhabitants of the earth that they should reject the rule of righteousness in exchange for ….what? What are they exchanging it for? How does this transition happen?
How do you go from the righteous reign of Christ on the earth to the nations assembling for battle against God? How long would it take to get from point A (righteous reign) to point B (demonic rule)? Prophecy sums up the whole thing in one sentence. How many years, decades or centuries does that one sentence span?
The word used there is deceive not conquer. So Satan is getting out of the abyss and heading back to the inhabitants of earth to “trick, mislead, hide the truth” from them. How long would that take if they were under righteous rule? Satan won’t have the authority over earth, remember? He no longer holds the title deed to earth; Christ does. His only M.O. will have to be deception because he’s been stripped of his legal authority. How will he deceive the nations?
Another question, where is Christ when this happens? If Christ has set up an earthly reign – reigning here on earth from some physical location – where is he when Satan is released from the abyss? Why isn’t there a confrontation when this happens? If Christ’s millennial reign is physically on the earth, what happens to it when Satan is released? Is Christ physically reigning on the earth and Satan just kind of slithers around the background whispering lies in people’s ears?
There are really only two possibilities here: Either Christ’s millennial reign is spiritual, or it is physical.
If it’s spiritual, then Christ rules from Heaven through His saints on earth (and in heaven) at the time of the millennial. If it’s physical, then He reigns from a physical location on earth. Who really thinks that in a physical reign of Christ on the earth that Satan is going to be able to come on the scene and deceive people away from peace and righteousness while Christ is still ruling on the earth? What extraordinary circumstances would enable that scenario? And if such a scenario would occur, where is Christ in the time Satan is deceiving the world? Is He still on earth? Or is He in heaven?
These questions matter. That one sentence doesn’t give us any of those answers. How can we find them?
Let’s evaluate this:
Revelation 12:9 tells us Satan was thrown down to the earth. Who saw that happen? Was that a physical occurrence or a spiritual? Could we see it with our physical eyes? Did Satan suddenly appear on the earth with a host of fallen angels with him? If we didn’t see it with our eyes and there isn’t a historical record of it in the annals of time from witnesses (apart from Scripture), how did it happen? When did it happen? Where did he set up camp on earth? Don’t we just automatically assume or recognize that this happened in the spiritual dimension hidden from our eyes?
Rev 20:1-3
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.
Is this release after the bondage in the Abyss any different? Is Satan suddenly going to manifest physically NOW? Or are we still talking about the spirit realm that corresponds and parallels life on earth, but must be discerned apart from our five senses?
And IF Satan’s appearance on earth is in the spiritual realm, and these occurrences are connected with Christ’s reign “on earth”, could Christ’s reign be in the spirit realm as well?
For the sake of hypotheses and theories, let’s assume Christ’s millennial reign is in the spirit realm, just as Satan’s deception operates from the spirit realm. Now how does life on terrestrial earth look? Revelation 20:6 tells us the saints of God will reign as priests of God and Christ during the millennial. But the saints John is telling us of are those faithful during the mark of the beast that “came to life”, meaning they had physically died. So are they reigning with Christ from Heaven or in physical form on the earth?
If resurrected saints and the resurrected Christ are reigning on earth in physical form, how is the dragon from the abyss going to be able to deceive the nations? And where are the reigning Christ and his saints when the dragon of old comes to deceive the earth? If they’re still on the earth, how are people deceived?
For these reasons and more I have yet to get into, I am pursuing the possibility that we are post millennial. I’ll spend time on that in another article, but for the sake of running down this theory, let’s pretend this working theory is correct for now and wind it back to my second point.
IF we’re post-millennial and we’re in the season of Satan deceiving the earth, why would he want to recreate the end time prophecies of Revelation, Daniel, Isaiah, etc.? I suggest it would be part of the deception. The Word of God is not absent post-millennial. We have no indication from Scripture that it is struck from the public record. What we do know is God’s adversary will deceive earth’s inhabitants.
We know Satan’s end time game is to deceive the nations and “gather them for the war”. I’ll get into this in detail in the coming weeks, but for now, just mull over in your head how Satan could derail Christians in his scheme. If he can’t all out get them to join him in the deception, what could he do to mislead them (a variant of the word deceive)? I’m contemplating the possibility that he uses the prophecies to recreate a scenario that keeps the children of God from rightly perceiving the hour at hand for the purpose of establishing an army we can’t recognize for what it is. More on that to come….
Which wraps us around to the first point of inconsistencies or discrepancies in DJT. Why would the anti-establishment president support and promote a vaccine that we now have the increasing data is neither benevolent nor beneficial? Either he’s playing a war game too strategic for my brain to understand at the cost of millions of lives, or he himself is deceived, or he’s part of the end time game.
This is the part where I ask for your input.
These are theories that have been percolating in my brain for a couple years now, as I’ve been scraping together miscellaneous data points to try to bring clarity to the picture. I’ve presented in broad strokes but in the coming days I’ll start honing down with finer pictures and hope to bring it from an impressionist painting to more of either a tenebrism or viewpoint painting.
If you have thoughts that would either cast light or even doubt on these thoughts, I welcome them.
In my own life I have learned to view the circumstances of my life as potential learning avenues for my spirit. Over time I have come to understand that God can and does speak to us through just about anything; we just have to learn to listen, to watch, and to wait. When there is a variance to my daily routine, I’ve learned to be especially alert, inquisitive, and curious.
Long ago I learned a phrase “the natural parallels the spiritual” that has been an accurate guide for my life. It basically means that things going on in the natural world around me are frequently a parallel to things happening in the spirit world around me. So when there is a disturbance in the normal flow of activity, my antennas are up and I am seeking the Spirit to see if there’s something I am supposed to be learning or doing.
A few weeks ago, I went from normal to intense pain in the span of a few hours. Two days later we learned I had a kidney stone. As a general rule I walk in excellent health and have not been to a doctor in over two decades. (two exceptions, another story) So when this occurred and I was finally able to concentrate apart from pain management, I began to seek God for understanding. This is what I learned was going on in my spirit that my body paralleled.
First, understand the parts and roles of the scenario before you.
The kidney’s job is to filter your blood. All the blood in your body passes through the kidney about forty times a day. The kidneys remove waste in the blood, control the body’s fluid balance, keep electrolytes at the proper level, and adjust salt, water and minerals as needed, as a quick overview. In my own thinking, it’s one of the primary waste processing plants of your body.
The waste that gets filtered out at the kidney is turned into urine, and drains to the bladder where it exits the body. The kidney has a million tiny filters called nephrons.
Kidney stones (nephrolithiasis) are formed in the kidneys when minerals in the urine form crystals (stones). They can grow large enough to block urine flow if they are not excreted through the urine when small enough. They grow in size when there’s not enough water passing through the kidney to roll them through, and additional crystals layer upon existing crystals, making larger “stones”.
Some additional breakdown
Blood is the life force to the human body. Here are some primary functions of blood:
Provides oxygen and removes carbon dioxide
Transports nutrients and vitamins
Brings waste products to the liver and kidneys
Regulates body temperature
Basically blood is the conduit for life to the human body and the kidneys are processing plants for removing waste from the blood.
Kidney stones hinder the kidneys work and can obstruct the flow of waste leaving the body.
“The natural parallels the spiritual” concept
The life force of my spirit has to run through a purifying filter (representative of the kidney) to remove impurities and things that hinder growth or may cause disease. Our blood transports all the things our bodies are exposed to, whether from food, water or air. In like manner, our spirits must be cleansed of contaminants in thought, word and deed, external forces, etc. This happens through a variety of processes, like confession, repentance, tearing down strongholds of thought, deliverance from dark spirits, etc.
When we have extra stuff that doesn’t get flushed out by the water, it can lodge in our spirits. If it stays long, stuff akin to the original material begins to layer upon it, sticking to the original crystal (thoughts, attitudes, whatever it is that is unhealthy) and it grows, hindering the cleansing process eventually and preventing a thorough elimination of waste from our spirit.
When I asked what my kidney stone represented in my own spiritual welfare, the Spirit showed me it was a rock of cynicism or distrust from the disappointments of the last few years. Instead of allowing the Spirit to wash them out of me, I held onto a few of them and they have compounded with additional losses and disappointments over time. The Body of Christ in its formal structure (the institution of the church) has dealt me some serious blows over time that have hardened me to the institutional church and bred great distrust in me of its members. The wounds from those I call family over the last few years have hardened me toward trusting people in general and feeling safe to engage in intimate friendships of depth or trust.
Interestingly, kidney stones are formed from excess minerals in your blood. Do you know what minerals are?
In other words, components of daily life. And some of these daily life components have crystalized in my spirit. Loss and failure and rejection and misunderstandings are common in life.
What cleanses us from the things that may be crystalizing in our spirits? The water. What is the water? The water is Christ.
Let’s dig a little deeper…
John 4:10 tells us Christ is the Living Water and verse 14 tells us that whoever drinks of the water that Christ gives will never thirst again. The water that Christ gives will become a well of water spring up to eternal life.
This water WASHES… [from my journal:] And I wonder if I’ve been so busy, so preoccupied that I haven’t been filled with the Living Water to wash these deposits of earthly debris from my spirit. And have they been rolling around in my spirit, crystallizing with other earthly debris – getting larger and larger – impeding the purifying of the Spirit’s washing….
We know that on the great day, the last day of the feast, that Jesus stood up and cried, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
[from my journal:] And I wonder can I say that Christ’s living waters are flowing out of my heart? For we know from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. And my mouth has at times been polluted with foul language – and has at times been cynical and untrusting…. It has been wary and weary and even hopeless at times. Not all the time, mind you. But enough to make the case that my heart is polluted, at least with some things that are unChristlike. Sometimes I sound like the world.
1John 5:18 tells us there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water, and the blood. Now really ponder this. In the body the blood brings nutrients to the body for performance and function and is a carrier for life and the carrier to remove harmful substances.
The water is what washes the harmful substances out of and away from the body. It cleanses and purifies.
Two of the three testimonies are analogous to the human body.
Revelation 7:17, 21:6, 22:1 and 22:17 tell us about the “water of life”.
Ephesians 5:26 tell us Christ “cleansed her (the ekklesia) by the washing of water with the word” – which tells me the Word of God and Christ Himself are vital for cleansing.
“washed by the water” is said by the great theologians to be symbolic of our baptism into faith.
Barnes tells us water is the emblem of purifying, that it cleanses the heart from pollutants. He says it is the work of the Spirit by the process of purifying, which is commenced in the soul.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tell us it’s the putting away of sins by repentance (by which baptism is the sacramental seal). He warns that in being washed we are not to return to our filth.
“washing of regeneration” is another term used in Scripture and by the theologians. They say it is the process of washing away your sins.
Titus 3:5 speaks of this. “…he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.”
This refers to the cleansing, purifying influences of the Spirit of God and His grace that cleanses and purifies.
The word in Titus 3:5 “washing” goes back to the vocabulary for bath, bathing, cleansing.
When cross-referenced with 1 Peter 3:21, “Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
Pause to process
So what has been happening with me is these daily life minerals, excess disappointments and failures, etc. have not been washed away by Christ and His Word because I have not been immersed in Him and His Word enough to wash some of these especially hard things out and away. The solution is simple, confess and repent of the stone, and allow Christ to move it. Chug a lot of water, immerse myself on what His Word says about these things, and let them move the hindrance out and away.
Let’s revisit 1 Peter because there’s something else there
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”
What was the “this” Peter was speaking of that corresponds with baptism? Look at the preceding verses and we’ll learn it was Noah and his family being saved out of the flood. Apply this! Washing, purifying through regeneration that comes from the Spirit saves us out of the judgment on the world.
God in His infinite mercy sent me some temporary pain to help me get my spirit regenerated to keep me from judgments coming on the world. Oh His mercy is so great! His love is so perfect! I am in awe of Him.
And this removal of this stone, (this hardness of my own heart that has become too wary to be an instrument at times for God because it sits in cynicism and distrust that blinds me at times to what God is doing), creates a pathway for a good conscience before God by the power of Christ’s resurrection. It makes me clean and purified, able to be preserved from worldly judgments and kept by Christ Himself.
A few weeks ago I was greeted with some lower left back pain. We had just gotten done cutting wood where I was carrying some stumps, so I just assumed I had pulled a lower back muscle. When the pain intensified, I was perplexed, but it was a weekend so I thought I’d just take some Tylenol and wait it out.
After a really good back massage by my husband, the pain quit and I slept well and thought it was taken care of. About mid-morning the next day, Sunday, the back pain started coming back. By early afternoon there was also abdominal pain. We had some left over hydrocodone from a child’s earlier script, and I took one. About an hour later I took another. Nothing seemed to help. The pain was as intense as labor pains and I had now begun vomiting. We began to suspect a kidney stone.
After watching me writhe in pain for over five hours, my husband couldn’t take it anymore and made the executive decision that I would be going to the Emergency Room, where a shot of morphine took care of my pain and a CT scan confirmed I had a 4.7mm stone about half way down the ureter.
On that same Sunday I had awakened with a dream that my unofficial “mom” had died. A phone call later that day confirmed it. The funeral was pushed to two weekends later.
There was a lot of apprehension for me about the upcoming funeral. Marilyn and I had met online, both of us writers, and we had developed a friendship. As the time passed, she extended a genuine offer to adopt me. We kind of laughed about it fondly, as the thought appealed to both of us for how our relationship had grown. Then she said, “No I’m serious Michelle. I want to adopt you.”
I told her, “You don’t have to do that. You’re like the mom I never had, and that is enough. I simply love you.” She did not let it go, and called me even one day and said she wanted to make it official and do it legally. I was overwhelmed. I put her off for a few months until she required an answer. I explained to her that I didn’t want to interfere with her own family. I had come into the picture quite late in the game (when she was 80 or so), and it was okay. Besides, why ruin what we had? [I have a history of family offers that ultimately failed, so this caused me anxiety to make it official.]
I knew that her children didn’t really know me. She had spoken about me to them and they knew of me. They are wonderful people, truly wonderful. I entered Marilyn’s life at a time they had more distant relationships, and they lived in other parts of the country. Marilyn and I probably bonded even more because she was longing for deeper connection with her children and I had no mother.
So when she died and we were traveling to get to her funeral, I had some anxiety. I knew what we had, but others did not. Our relationship would most likely seem quaint or nostalgic to others, and not real. But it was real to me. It was real to Marilyn. She had spoken to me many times about her death, had offered to give me her house (and I had deferred her back to her children), and some other things…
By the time of the funeral, none of the things Marilyn had spoken with me about had been conveyed to me by her children. I was not in a love relationship with Marilyn for her things, so I refused to address them. I thought one of the things was written in the will, but nothing was said to me. When I arrived to the town of the funeral and fellowshipped with the friends around, some other things came to light of places of honor for others in the glaring emptiness for me.
The day of the funeral there were two “Reserved” rows at the funeral. Two people sat in them. And I sat with Bill apart from them in the general crowd. It was a beautiful service and Marilyn was honored for the truly amazing person she is. It was a privilege and honor to be there.
That night I awoke to Bill getting out of bed around two a.m. When he didn’t come back to bed, I found him sitting in the dark. I asked him if he was sick or if something was wrong. He couldn’t sleep. He said he was so bothered. We got on the road and drove the twelve hours home. And this is what he said to me…
He said he couldn’t sleep because he didn’t feel like I was honored the way Marilyn loved me and honored me. He was hurt for me. He knows my pain. He knew I stood in the foyer of my own mother’s funeral where six hundred people attended and there was standing room only. I was not seated with the family. I was not acknowledged as a daughter. He knows all the grandparents and aunts and uncles who have died and refused to acknowledge me as a daughter, granddaughter, great-granddaughter, niece, etc. He has seen my pain of being orphaned and abandoned and rejected that I have carried over and over and over, and he thought this time it would be different. He knew how Marilyn loved me and I her. He knew the commitments we had made to one another, and this was too much.
He couldn’t understand how her children did not honor me as such. He wanted to say something to them, but I had forbidden it before. But now, now that it was over, he wanted to say something. We both acknowledged they probably simply didn’t know. They didn’t understand what we had, and if they did, they saw it differently than I obviously did.
I listened. I heard his pain for me in his voice. I saw it in his eyes and in the strain on his face. I said, “It’s okay, Bill. God knows.” He couldn’t understand why nothing was extended or offered to me. To him it was wrong, and he of all people would understand the pain it would cause me. I prayed. Finally I said…
“I’m going to need you to kidney stone this.” Bewildered he said, “What does that mean?”
“You’re hurt because I’m hurt. You know me so well you know the damage this does to me, the old pains it resurrects, the rejection and abandonment it reiterates. There’s still not a place for me of honor as a daughter. And this grieves you for me. But probably the children didn’t know or understand the conversations we’ve had, the commitments we had made to one another. (There’s no way they could know the rejection of my own mother(s).) If they didn’t know, telling them may cause them pain, feelings of guilt or shame and would change nothing and add burden. I don’t want to do that. That’s not helpful. If they did know, well, I don’t want to know that. It’s between them and God.
“Just like you watched me writhe in debilitating pain with a kidney stone, you were helpless to help me. There was really nothing you could do for me but support me, help me, hold me, carry me to help. It’s the same here. You see my pain. Come along beside me and support me, help me work through the pain. You can’t fix it and you can’t help it. Voicing it to those you feel wronged me may make you feel better for a moment but you’ll feel worse after – because what’s been done can’t be changed and you will have dumped possible pain on others who probably did not mean to cause pain. God has been faithful to heal me every time and this time will be no different. Just help me carry the burden a little longer, love and support me while I heal. This too will pass, just like the kidney stone.”
He agreed.
Later that day it hit me. I think Bill hurt more for me this time than even I hurt for myself. He was sleepless for the dishonor he thought was done to me. He was in anguish for the pain he knew such rejection brings to me. It was not okay to him, and he rose up like the protector he is to try to defend my honor. Because I saw Bill’s pain at my pain, my own pain was somehow lessened. He had shouldered that burden for me just by acknowledging and expressing it.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her…
Eph 5:14 NASU
What a demonstration of Christ’s love for us. See, Christ’s love is perfect. He sees all and knows all. He knows the painful disappointments and hurts of our lives and how they have crippled us at times. He hurts when we hurt. His love understands all the nuances and variances that impact us, and why.
But Christ also “kidney stones” it, not because He is powerless, but because He is perfect. The order of life here on earth is fraught with misunderstandings and mistakes that create the ripple effect, impacting all that overlap with those involved. Christ knows to respond to everything that hurts us by confrontation to the people the hurt came through may bring damage to the other people, people He loves as well, people who may have misunderstood or been negligent, or simply did not know. He sees the whole picture. He responds in love to all of us, all the time. It just doesn’t always feel like love at the time.
While Bill is human and without the omniscience of God, he lays down his life for me in a myriad of ways almost daily. But Christ is perfect. What Bill beautifully attempts to do for me, Christ perfectly does for us.
So Bill and my new phrase for when we need one another’s love and support but not an action of defense is “Gonna need you to kidney stone this”. And we’ll have a visual reminder of the one we love in intense pain (physical, mental, emotional, whatever) that cannot be solved by our actions, so we must relent to stand alongside in prayer and love and create a place to heal for the other, relying on the perfect Love of Christ for the situation, so as to not create more damage.
This is a lesson a long time coming for me; one I wish I had known years and years ago. It has made Christ’s words in Matthew 11:28-30 even more meaningful to me:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
To be human on this earth is to endure pain and suffering, the only difference is degree and detail. We are called to bear one another’s burdens to fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2). We do this because He does this for us.
There are times wrongs are to be confronted and actions are to be taken, but we must be slow to react and quick to seek the heart of Christ in those situations.
This particular experience was not that someone set out to wound me or carelessly injure, but it was a simple human misunderstanding and disappointments that the enemy capitalized on because of my past pain. The enemy of my soul used some circumstances to try to cripple me back to the point of damage from rejection in a very vulnerable area for me. This is why when I prayed when Bill wanted to engage in action to defend my honor, the Spirit led me to my recent experience (kidney stone) to help me understand.
If we are serious about being conformed to the image of Christ, we must be serious about allowing the experiences of our lives to be used to help conform us. If I react inappropriately, I miss the opportunity for me to be conformed into Christ’s image, and I bring potential damage to another child of God. I have done this in my life more times than I can probably count. I must be determined to learn what I need to learn.
Ecclesiastes 3 tells us there are times for certain actions, just as there are times for the exact opposite actions. I must seek God for understanding the appropriate action for my particular situation. I have failed this so many times. I pray I begin to succeed in this more in the days and years ahead.
But the beautiful lesson in this for me is that Christ loves us perfectly. There are times He Himself has risen to my defense, and there are other times He appears immobile and silent. He sees what we do not see. But He has always loved me through the pain and brought me the healing I need, and He is able to do this without damaging another.
