Father’s Blessing!

Today is Father’s Day and our heavenly Father gave us a heavenly treat tonight at our home groups.  Ron and Sherry Ravenscroft are good friends with Maurice Sklar and he offered a concert for their friends in the area.  Other great musicians were also there and played, too, and God ministered much love and healings and ministry.  I will enclose a few pictures to record the joy. 

Britt on the piano, playing classics

Maurice with Ron and Sherry

  Some of the guests there: Gordon & Laura Tessler, Art & Ann Roundtree, Carolyn Thomas, Bernita Conway, others

 
Maurice and John Beall in classical duet

Maurice and Britt after playing together.

Life is Big

The Lord blessed me with a great faith in His Resurrection.  He IS the Resurrection and the Life!  I went to a funeral once where they did not say that – it was Jewish – and oh the difference it made!  As a Christian I just always took those words for granted in the mourning – but there is a God who is bigger than this life and He has a dwelling place!

Death is Satan’s glory.  All forms of it, leading up to it, the whole design there is to make you not believe in God.  Sometimes it’s pretty effective.  But even faith is greater and this world was not meant for our total control.   We couldn’t do anything like it if we tried!  It’s amazing that we get the powers that we do, as much as we mess things up.

But while we have plenty of reasons to worry in our limitations, God is not worried at all!  We get to choose Life.  Choosing Life is bigger than walking down an aisle of some church building.  It’s bigger than singing in the choir or even preaching.  Life is Big.

Choosing life is bigger than a bunch of rules.  And it’s bigger than doing your own thing!  There is a Spirit to choosing Life.  I know a lot of so called Christians who carry a lot of death in them.  I know some who are very indifferent to God’s Plan for man.

Even Proverbs says that a good man cares for his animals.  A good man knows right from wrong.  He cares about the land.  A good man who knows God knows how to hear from God and make his voice heard.  Some of the most humble expressions is incredibly powerful in God.

A good man knows how to cooperate with God in His Plan.  A good man values others.  He can prefer others without losing himself in the mix.  There is so much bad doctrine today on losing yourself and dying to the flesh and not having any rights of your own.  It never causes you to find Life!  It’s satanic because it wipes you out, as if you weren’t in the Plan.  It devalues the work done on the Cross.  There is a way to do that that lives Life but many can’t see it.

If Jesus died to save sinners and such a one was me, then there was a reason.   Another great evil is those who think they are above others.  They feel they are “the chosen” and have been elected to speak into everyone else’s life as the sovereign Voice of God.  They make all of us sick!  They got a little enlightenment and it is exposing their pride.

 When you worry about others more than you worry about your own relationship with God, there is a problem.  We all have “our things” that we have to work out in this life, but Life is Big.  And you are either with God’s program for good, or you aren’t.  It’s not about your intellect.  That is a tool for your spirit. 

When you want to destroy other people for selfish ambition, when you want to limit other people for selfish gain, there is a problem.  And when you let other people demean you and defile you and limit your walk with others and God – who is Life – there is a problem!!!

Life is good.  Death is bad.  But one of my favorite verses out of the Living Bible in Job says:  “Could God govern if He hated justice?”  Life will rule!  And apparently from the Bible I read, He will eliminate people who eliminate Life.  Or He will take them on to a better place.  He can do that and He does.

Now I hope you don’t think this means I am a plant worshipper.  But if you understand the eco-system, which I believe even goes into the heavens, there is a Plan going on that supports Life.  When I consider it all, I need a God!!!

Since I have a brain and somewhat of an education, and a body that still can move around somewhat, and some life tools, I can still make a difference, just as you who are reading this can.  I am not going to be willingly put in a box that offers no reward of the bigger Life of God.   Many have wanted to parent me, but only because it makes “them” feel more comfortable.  They just wanted to channel my energy.

When some folks really insisit, I let them do it for a season (within reason) just to see if they offer something more.  To date, they haven’t.  Part of that is because they don’t see what God put in me.  They see the places where I willingly hold back and they think I am weak.   When I speak to them of Life things, they don’t understand.  His sheep hear His Voice, right?  And another they will not follow.  I have invested in wrong things but I got something out of the investing because of the spirit behind it.

People do respond to God different ways and I am not trying to tell anyone else how to do that.  It’s a choice.  Christians are charged with giving the good news, but as the expression goes, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink!”

Jesus said there are some who KNOW what they do and it isn’t Him.  Many today feel the freedom to game play with the things of God.  Our society has become very lax and history does not record pleasant things for those who do that.  But only God can give the wake up call.

Will the real Jesus please stand up?  I believe He will.  And it will be a soul stirring work, but I really believe He is tearing down the current structure – and it’s messy! – to establish the true.  Just like revamping an old house, a lot of basic things need to be gutted and replaced but the foundation of the Plan still holds.  We are the parts, and if found worthy, we will be placed back into the building when it’s redone.  The rejoicing will be great when our “parts” work!

Right now, we can’t make them “work.”  Sometimes we are put to the side until it’s time to re-enter the Plan in ways where things will function effectively.  Life is big and the more you see that, the more you can find your functionality.  There is a pile of stuff that is going to be burned.  Like rotten food in the refrigerator that once was good, it’s going to be thrown out.  Your spirit man must grow.  If it doesn’t, then you have limitations.

Life is big.  Fly high.  Enjoy it in the true and Living (!) God.  I am!

Unhealthy Soul Ties

I am a sucker sometimes for affection.  I like giving and receiving nurture.  But sometimes relationships turn out to be booby traps!  Since it has happened more than once in my life, there are still things I need to figure out.

Usually I get this creeping feeling that something is not right.  Something is not true.  On the surface it looks that way but on the back side, it’s another.   I’ve seen way too many people manipulate people to the point that it makes me cynical.  I hate that.  I have really backed off of a lot of things over that.

 Even the “body of Christ” seems full of these kind of people.  You believe that you are united in a cause only to become (1) their slave or (2) their clone.  Of course Jesus warned that there are wheat and tares.  The tares are those that look like the truth but really aren’t.

Freedom is a precious thing – not only physical freedom but also psychological freedom.   The soul has need to express itself.  It also needs to have self control in order to get along with others.  The Body of Christ has standards that unite it in One Cause, and that Cause is Jesus, and His will.

He is a Spirit and so discerning the Spirit becomes the challenge when you find you have to fight off the controlling spirits of others.   First you feel smothered and then you feel managed and then you find that you are manipulated against your will.  Some have more limitations on you than others do, but will is revealed.

It all manifests in the negative words of others, and sometimes actions, but you don’t always hear those words or realize it right away.  You sense head games and then you see strange fruit and life isn’t what you thought it was!  All you can do is do your best to get away from it and then pray the backlash won’t be too bad.  I have experienced some bad backlash before.

Sometimes it’s a job, like a boss or co-worker, sometimes it’s a good friend (you thought) or even a fellow church member.  Sometimes it’s family members!  That is even more challenging.  I have seen people totally sell their minds out to someone else. 

But to me, Love is about choice.  It’s about having your own identity and being able to cherish that in the wonder of its creation.  There are things in this life that want to steal that.  I grew up with a lot of freedom that allowed me to discover who I was.  Some people have to really fight for theirs.

But once you ever taste and know it, you can’t go back and say something is better when it isn’t.  There are con jobs that try to make you say giving up all your rights is right - some of those  followed Jim Jones and drank poison Kool-Aid doing that – others have done similar things – but they didn’t place a value on their own lives.

When I met God, He met me where I was the real me!  And He has been faithful to that.  So I have trouble when people try to manage me and I find they are unhealthy soul ties that I have to break off.  I find that God listens and honors what I have to say.  I am never demeaned as a person, even if I am not right.  Some violent spirits are just that!

Circumstances may change my mind to things but the Spirit has always honored my free will to choose.  I believe God honors the soul.  That’s why He wants to save it!  He meets you where you see it His way.  A Spiritual transaction takes place and you know you are blessed.  Even cherished.

There are a lot of heartaches in church lives.  But the true and lasting deliverances that I have seen in it have been because people were given the true freedom to be who they are and make a choice.  Take away the choice, take away the freedom, and the deliverance is only a facade.

I’ve seen people healed of many things, including cancer.  I’ve seen people throw off oppressions.  It all comes from making peace with God and finding the acceptance of yourself in Him.  His will for you is good!

When you no longer have to manage other people to find peace, you have true peace.  I get sick of people trying to manage my life because of the gifts they see that they want for themselves.

 The only real Manager is God and He seems pretty free!  I recently had a prayer meeting going on – seemed to be going well – when suddenly in the middle of fervant praying a person stopped the whole proceedings to say they didn’t believe God liked the way we were praying.  Never mind that He had been answering the prayers!

Not wanting to make a bigger scene, I just gave the rest of the meeting over to them to prove their points.  I wasn’t impressed.  Later they just took our whole program down the road, behind the scenes of course.  I just happened to be at a place where I found out it was going on.

What can  you do?  Just give it to God.   I didn’t start the thing, I didn’t end the thing – He did.  But it does make you cynical about love in the Body.  Where is the integrity?  I was offered to come be a part, but the Spirit strongly told me no.  It was about the “hill people” as one person said – those on the top of the hill lording it over those on the bottom.  Not the true Body!

Thank goodness not every person is like that!  But there is a lot of quiet desperation these days, and frustration.  We are at that place where we can only wait on God and He will move.  I just dread the ones who latch on and defile it.  I have seen it way too often.

I have wondered if every positive force has to have a negative force to counteract it for energy.  Maybe so.  If you want to be in the cutting edge, it’s something I guess you have to understand.  I just know that I have seen more of the negative than I want to!

I am tired of the things that defile and make me lose heart.  So many say have the solutions that don’t turn out to be the solution at all.  But I do have peace with God, so I will wait on Him there.  All is well.

The Call to Ministry

People think the call to ministry is a great thing.  They think it is a place of great favor, and in some ways you can look at it like that, IF you love God!

But ministry is hard and often thankless.  If you are doing it for the people, you will burn out for sure.  If you are doing it for God, you may hang in there.

People make incredible demands on you.  They want you to speak for God, to have favor with Him, and perform upon demand.  They don’t always see ministry as a relationship, but as a skill or resource they can utilize at the best bargain or price.

They want YOU to  hold back the tide of evil.  They want YOU to make their life easier and more prosperous.   And they don’t care too much if you are poor, in fact, that mindset often works real well for some (many).

They want YOU to make their relatives or friends or enemies to DO what THEY want.  They want YOUR PRAYERS to make the sick well or their bad situation to get better or their wayward loved ones to be rescued.

And if you knock yourself out for them, is their any reward for you?  Often, not much at all.  They want to define you, too, and put you in the box of THEIR liking.  And if you get out of that box, they will surely castigate you as not being right – they will judge you.

You will deal with selfishness head on.  They will work often to con you.  They will use you as a tool against others.   They will talk behind your back to make you the same or less than them, while using your efforts to gain their advantage.  They will want you to fight their battles while they hide behind your back.

If you are not doing ministry for God, you will bail out.  If you are doing it to be seen or to gain advantage, you better be skilled in the ways of the world because that is how you will have to compete.  And compete you will!

It’s true that some ministers do things wrong and it’s very true that some are pure con artists.  People will argue over that one, as they will like the ones who “tickle their ears” and tell them what they want or even need to hear.  It’s not hard to get a war going or escalated in the “religious” camp!

Some imitate the true and act like politicians, smooth and polished. 

But if you are called to ministry by God for God, it can be a very lonely, painful walk.  You will know that not all your rewards are here on this earth!  You will see your own failures!

If you are doing it for any other reason than God, you may get discouraged.

People love the prophecies that they will lead and do great things for God.  They can’t wait for someone to open the door for them!  They don’t realize that they are the door!  People want what YOU have!  They want to feed off of you. 

But if you really want to do great things FOR God, you will get crucified.

The Message

The first of the month is often the better part of the month – can some of you relate to that?

My little kitty baby is recovering marvelously from her fall out of the tree.  Praise the Lord.

You know, or maybe you don’t, it becomes very hard to post on the internet.  The nutbirds and people who want to bring other people down are out there en masse. 

I have a chatroom but have to consider if I am going to keep that again because of the crazies who want to post their garbage.  We have had such good times in there – with worship, prayer, salvations, ministry and online friendships, but the enemy “just has” to spoil it all…

When I see all the abuse that is out there now, not just on the internet but in the world at large, I get convinced at times that God has lifted His Spirit from this nation.  People can find little conclaves of believers but that is not always the easiest thing for people to do.

Before when ministers would say “Just find a church and get faithful,”  they had no idea where some people could end up!  There is a lot of abuse out there and people have their guards up.  Even the media has joined in on the bandwagon.

Because of things I have gone through, I am personally not selling my soul out to an organization.  While I have MANY friends in the Lord, I have yet to find an organization that I am giving my soul to.  Now THAT DOES NOT MEAN that I will not support organizations or go to church!  It just means I am not giving them my soul.  Some ask for it.

There is a difference.  Not many try to think like the Lord does, but I do wonder if He has not lifted His Spirit from things that bear His Name because they don’t represent Him.

In Amos, He says:

21 ”I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies.
22 Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.
23 Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments.
24 But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.
Amos 5:21-24 (NKJ)

I really think that is His message today to many.   We have lost the fear of the Lord in many respects.  Some have never known it.  Today people do not know how to act in church.  Sometimes not anywhere! 

Some think God’s meetings are a democracy.  While everyone should be able to share in some form or fashion, many do not discern Spiritual order.  There is a challenging line between God’s order and freedom. 

I don’t have all the solutions, but I do know order and Godliness when I see it.  We are just in end times where things are polarizing.  Add ignorance in the midst of that and you have some big challenges.

Jeremiah talked about a land that was not sown.

1 Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 ”Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
3 Israel was holiness to the LORD, the firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD.’ “
Jeremiah 2:1-3 (NKJ)

 I believe we are coming to a time like that again.  There are people who know the Lord but we are as if we are in a land not sown with the Gospel.  Many are believing for God to send Revival and I pray that He does.  You see outbreaks of it here and there for a season, but nothing that He is sustaining without the efforts of men.

God rewards the righteous!  I guess I am spoiled because I have been in meetings and places where His Spirit truly dominated.  It happened because He could work with men.  When people believe God is a democracy, it invites the spirit of competition and God cannot work with that.  It’s not how He does it. 

Even groups compete with other groups.  People fight over who is the best leader and so man is seeing man and is blind to the Spirit in the unseen.  Balaam was there, you know…. riding along until God opened his eyes to see the angel with the sword.  The donkey saw better than he did!  And God gave it a voice!  (Numbers 22)  It’s a good story.

And Balaam knew the Lord, but had departed, and didn’t become a prophet who was wrong, but in the end became a false prophet.  The ways of the world attracted him to the point of Spiritual death it seems.

Do you have eyes to see what the Lord is doing or do you only see what man is doing?  God is doing some incredible things today!  Even though I have some personal discouragement,  I am not faithless to what I see and know that God is doing.  I am really excited to see the groundwork He is laying through many people – things He has shown me in times past are happening before my eyes.

It is an exciting day in which to live.  It’s also a season of a lot trials, but praise God, we win because He does!