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Monthly Archives: April 2018


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The Call of God

We read in the NT of Jesus calling individuals to follow him.  Peter, Andrew, James, and John, fishermen of the Sea of Galilee.  Matthew, the tax collector. We read of Jesus praying on the mount all night and then choosing twelve apostles.  In more modern times we hear of individuals like Hudson Taylor, D.L. Moody, and Billy Graham being called to ministry.  Missionaries, evangelists, and many others.

In my own experience I believe that there is a call today to a prophet ministry. One day I was praying downstairs in the basement of our family home.  During those earlier times I was trying to pray an hour a day.  I was not working in a job.  I was a stay-at-home mother of two young children.  Suddenly, during my prayer time I heard a voice that was not audible in the room say ‘prophet’.  I heard it inside my head, or my heart, so to speak.  I was stopped short.  This voice had interrupted my prayer.  I began to cry.  This calling of prophet was confirmed several months later by a visitor to our church.  He laid his hands on me and declared my calling to me.  I had not mentioned my experience previous to this in the church or to my family.  After the service he invited me to go with him to Russia.  He was taking a small group of young prophets to minister to believers there.  I chose to not go because of my young family situation.  This may have been a grave mistake on my part.

What does this mean exactly?  I’m thinking that for me it means something like Jeremiah’s experience in the OT.  He tried to stop being a watchman or give warnings to the people of Israel, but as he watched the Israelites in their error(s) he was compelled to speak out and exhort them.  This caused him a lot of trouble.  Jeremiah had so much trouble that he lamented before God that he had ever been born.  The apostle Paul states that God has placed the apostles last.  It was while they were being beaten down and trodden upon that the church in his day prospered.

I have difficulty when I hear someone in a Christian teaching ministry say that the time of apostles and prophets has ended.  To me, this teaching is just not true.  I think this is due to my own experience and reading in the Bible that the ministries spoken of in the NT are to build up and encourage the saints.  In the book of Ephesians it says that the city is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles.  We cannot decide that we will accept some NT ministries and make a decision that others listed within the same sentence in scripture are not for our day.

The prophet is never going away as we see demonstrated today.  Many false prophets are abounding in influence and power in the church, in Christian TV, or in other ministry.   This can be partly attributed to the false teaching of our day that we believers cannot judge those among us.  We read in the NT that  believers and elders in the church are to judge and test the spirits of those who lead us.  We read in I and II Corinthians that we are to execute discipline upon the sinful behavior of those in the church.  In Corinthians Paul’s instructions concerning  the gross sexual sins of an individual were to put him out of the assembly.   When and if repentance is demonstrated by the offending individual the church can then go forward with reconciliation.   Today Christian leaders seem to be saying that we don’t need to do this.  Instead, we are to encourage this individual who is committing gross sexual sin to stay in the church. God’s grace has covered over his sin in God’s eyes, and hopefully someday his thinking and actions will change when he sees what a great bunch of people we are.

 


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An experience in prophecy

The circumstances surrounding this experience of prophecy was a group of ministry students came to our church from a nearby college to do a church service.  While the music team was ministering I felt to go forward to prophecy at the microphone that was set up for this purpose in the church.  The  ministry team had been singing something about ‘once more’ which stood out to me.  My thoughts went to Samson and his request to God, “let me do this once more”.  The OT story goes on to say that Samson used his God given strength to push out two pillars and the whole house collapsed around him and he destroyed more of God’s enemies in his death then he did during his lifetime.

I went forward apprehensively.   The church was packed.  There was a capacity for about 800 people in this building and it was full.  I had nothing to prophecy except the ‘once more theme’.  I began with this.  While I was prophesying I was taken over by the Spirit of God.  It was like I blanked out for a short period of time.  I knew I was speaking but I couldn’t hear what I was saying.  This happened for a few seconds of time.  When this ended I was still trying to carry on with my prophecy, so to speak.  I stopped.  The whole congregation was responding to what had been said just a few seconds earlier.  It was very incredible to hear this response.  It was like a guttural response that happened as a group spontaneously from from the people.  I am not aware of what I said.  It was only a few words, I think.  I asked for the tape afterwards and was told that the prophecy had not been recorded.  No one talked to me about what had been said in the prophecy, not even my own husband, and I was afraid to ask.  I had been having struggles in that church with the long established lay leadership for a period of four years.   I was not popular.

In my next post I will give my testimony of the ‘Call of God’ for a purpose or ministry that a person may receive.

 


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A Deliverance from God

I have some understanding when I read in scripture that people can be blinded spiritually.  In my case what I experienced during my deliverance was something ‘whooshing’ off the top of my head.  My hearing was blocked for a few seconds.  I could hear the ‘whooshing’ sound but not the people talking around me.  It felt like a large weight had been removed from the top of my head when whatever it was left me.

This happened when I was standing during a church worship service.   I was calling out to God silently in my heart to help me.  My husband and I had come to this church as  new believers nine years earlier.  In this local church the pastor was using manipulative methods in order to control the congregants.   Legalism and the use of fear were some of the methods he used.  I was in a difficult conflict within myself of whether to submit to him and his wife in order to try and get along in the church.  I was asking God to help me in this way so that I might do what he wanted me to do.  It was at this moment that I experienced the deliverance from him. This was the last church service that I attended at this church.  The bond and hold the pastor had developed upon me was gone.

At home later  that evening my husband and I turned on the radio and listened to a Christian program being broadcast called Night Sounds.  The topic that evening was about spiritual abuse.  We were ministered to by this program, recognizing that we were relating well to what was being said by this person.  Then, a couple of days later we visited a Christian bookstore and I found a book on spiritual abuse titled ‘The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse’.  This book helped to confirm that we were in an abusive situation with the pastor and the church.  We were able to relate to the explanations and examples of spiritual abuse given in it and were able to identify and understand what had been happening to us.

I do believe that without the deliverance from the oppressive spiritual thing that came off my head, I would not have been able to find freedom and leave this church with confidence.

My next post will be about an experience I had while prophesying in a large church.

 

 

 


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Miracles

In my own experience there are miracles that God does in our modern day.  An example that I can give that I would consider a true healing miracle involves my daughter.  She was diagnosed with Juvenile Diabetes when she was four years old.  When she was nine years old she  got up in the morning and her left knee was locked.  It took several hours each day before she could walk properly.  The doctor said she was likely experiencing a type of osteoarthritis in her knee.  This situation went on for several weeks.

One day during this time I was in prayer in the basement of our family home.  I was distressed and crying out to God about my daughter’s situation.  Suddenly, in an instant, my emotions were brought down independent of my effort or will, to an astounding calm that I can try to describe as being as smooth as glass or like water that is so still that it reflects it’s natural surroundings like a mirror.  I was stunned.  I immediately stopped crying.  I couldn’t speak for a minute or two.  I got up and interpreted this experience as God telling me that he was aware of the situation and that whatever happened he would provide what we needed.  I was not assured of a miracle.

My daughter got up the next morning with a locked knee again.  But the following morning after that one her knee was considerably better.  She could walk down the stairs from her bedroom quite comfortably.  By the third morning her knee was completely better and healed.  She walked normally after this and to my knowledge she has had no difficulty with her knee since that time.  She is over thirty years old today.

In my next post I will give a testimony about a deliverance that I received from God.


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Popular Teachings about Righteousness

In North America one of the popular teachings about righteousness is that once you have declared Christ as your Saviour you can sin, and your punishment for this sin and other sins (past and future) has already been paid for by Jesus Christ through his atoning death on the cross.  This belief and teaching is contrary to all teachings about righteousness in the OT and the NT.  The books of the Bible teach repentance and a turning away or ceasing from our sins and a reception of what is good and right that we strive for each day and apply to our lives.  This rejection of sin in our lives and hearts is enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit and produces life in us and an inheritance in Christ Jesus.

We live in the present with God.  If we are doing what is wrong  in the present day and time, we are heading to an appointment with death.  If we are doing what is right in the present day and time, then we are entering into life and the rest of God.  This kind of teaching about righteousness is clear in the book of Ezekiel and in the teachings about righteousness taught in the apostles letters to believers in the NT.  There is no other way to interpret these teachings.  We must be striving toward righteousness.  It is while we are striving for what is good and right that the grace of God is given to us believers to provide us with an imputed righteousness until we come to the fullness of the measure of the stature of Christ.

We need to separate ourselves as believers in Christ from the world so that we can attain victory over sin.  Ezekiel teaches in chapter eighteen that we cannot indulge in the common sins of man and our society and please God.   We cannot involve ourselves in sexual sins or sins of greed or in oppression of the poor and weak.  We have to continually choose what is right and good in our day to day lives.  The Holy Spirit enables this choice for believers.  If this is not working for you then you should pray and ask God to give you the Holy Spirit and be ready to change your mind and accept what is it that God presents to you as from himself.


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The Need to Slay our own sin

Sin produces changes in us.  Our mind changes, our heart changes, our actions and beliefs change.  Churches and Christian leaders who tell us that we don’t have choice or power over our own sin are teaching us to change from Christ, and to look toward something (or someone) else as our God.  A blog posting that I read today suggests that if our leaders in government choose morally right paths we will incur more and more social unrest. Why?  Because people are being overcome with sin in North America and anything that tries to restrict sin will incur wrath from people.  We see this today from particular groups. Hollywood is in an uproar over anyone or anything that interferes with their liberal beliefs.  LGBTQ is in an uproar over anyone who interferes with their beliefs and lifestyle decisions.  Many  young people are in an uproar over anything that interferes with their socialist and entitlement beliefs. This oftentimes includes disallowing people to speak publicly if they have contrary arguments.  It doesn’t matter what the facts are, or what the truth is, these are not authorities in the minds of people today in our Western culture.  What people want to believe is what is real to them.  It seems these constructs in their minds override even obvious realities.

The blog I was reading today says for Christians to expect persecution and lawlessness in the days ahead. We are already getting glimpses of this hatred toward Christ from our culture.  Many people can’t stand Jesus, or what he represents, or what he requires from them.  They absolutely reject him and anyone who follows him.  “Christians are the problem”, they say.  ‘They’ are often leaders who rule over us in the West.  Here in Canada we see the education of children changing dramatically.  Parents are not to be informed of what is being taught in school as more laws and legislation are being passed to enforce this trend.  Governments are forcing ideologies onto people through punishments or loss of societal benefits if they refuse.  Acceptable speech is being forced onto people.  Acceptable speech here in Canada means no judgments are to be made publicly about a behavior or ideology outside of those approved by political sanctions.

What does this mean for us as Christians?  It means that we are not going to get help to conquer our sin through our churches or our governments. We are going to have to do this alone through Christ and his Holy Spirit.  Even many believers will not be able to help us because they follow the ‘teaching of the day’ that says sin is undefeatable within us and in our day to day lives.  Read your Bible and follow what is says. You have the power to defeat all your sin in Christ.  Sin results in death the Bible says.  We have excellent reasons to believe God as he has instructed us on why and how to defeat sin in the NT.