Cries of “help me, Lord, the enemy continues to assail me”, can be heard throughout the church.  The forces of darkness continue to pick at our weak spots, old wounds, doorways and footholds, seeking entry that they might destabilize our faith, destroy our joy and steal our abundant life.  Why is it when we are so armored by the righteousness, faith, truth, salvation, Spirit and Peace of Christ, that the enemy is capable of getting within our defenses?  We know emphatically, as indicated in the Book of Job, that the enemy needs permission and allowance to do anything of lasting effect in our lives.  Why then is God giving him access in to our lives?  Remember the enemy is part of God’s Plan for humanity.  For God knew before the beginning of time everything that the devil would ever do, and yet He still chose to create Lucifer.

One day I cried out to Christ.  I say one day but it seemed like a lifetime of days as I sought release from the personal prison of my own sin.  And True to His Faithfulness He showed up, but I was not yet ready for His entire filling of the Spirit, His entire move of sanctification, His overwhelming Grace and Peace.  So, I told Him that He could stay out in my garage and if He needed to talk to me or meet that He must first call, but only when the porch light was on, otherwise to leave me alone.  A few weeks later, I saw a light, a brilliant iridescence coming from the garage and when I went to see, I found it immaculate.  I was astounded and asked that Jesus, come and stay in my guest room, but He couldn’t have a key and He must call but only if the porch light was on, otherwise stay away.  A month had gone bye and I found that the hallway coming from the guest room began to shine, a warm approachable light that made me smile with gladness.

When this happened I told Jesus to take over the master bedroom so that I could enjoy the warmth, cleanliness and hope of the guest room, but He must only come when the porch light was on and I would leave a key that He must return to beneath the mat.  After another week I saw my master bedroom cleansed as the others and my heart broke as I realized how I had been treating the Creator of Life.  I came to Jesus with my set of keys and said, “Lord, here are the keys to Your House, I am going to live in the garage and to please call me if He needed anything.

What rooms are you keeping from Christ?  What areas of sin still remain untouched by the Hand of God, as you struggle to maintain a line between what is yours and what is God’s?  The enemy will be used repeatedly to point out these hidden areas of sin, until we confess and surrender them for sanctification and repair.  If you want to close the doors of enemy access you have but to surrender your whole life to Jesus and He will set you free.  His porch light is always on and He is waiting for you to come to Him for rest.

You want revival then open up the cupboards, storage rooms and keepsakes of your heart to the cleansing power of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.  Remember that awesome instant when you first found salvation, how freeing it was to be set loose of bondage to sin.  What sin, encumbrances, plans, idols and intentions have I collected since that wonderful day I met Jesus?  How much have I held on to, with clenched fists, my anger, worry, sexual impurity, thoughts of insecurity or inferiority?  What now holds me back from fully realizing God’s Plan for my life and am I honestly/truthfully willing to place it upon the altar of God’s Will for my life?

Does your church lack power?  Has the Holy Spirit been quenched to the point of irrelevance, giving way to “CAAS”, Church As A Service, the business facsimile of the intended Bride of Christ?  Are you discipling daily, weekly or is it rare that you see someone worthy of hearing the Saving Gospel of the Lord Jesus?  If you aren’t, which is typically the case these days then how can you expect God to bless your walk of disobedience to our primary service to the Kingdom?  Do you believe, does it make reasonable sense that if you began sharing the Gospel/fulfilling the great commission that God might see this service as humility, repentance of the sin of rebellion and turn His face to this land in healing and restoration?  Do you want to live in the Power and Authority of the Lord Jesus or do you simply want to come to church for a feel good inspirational social injection to last another week?  What is salvation to you?  What is indwelling of the Holy Spirit?  What is God’s redemption worth in terms of your surrender to His Will for this life?

Do you see God’s Gift of Grace wrapped up for you with a big, bright bow, sitting at rest upon the altar, calling, “take me with you into the world that all might be saved from judgment”?  Why have you left the power, authority and healing power of Spirit?  What fear or rebellion haunts you, causing you to disobey God’s commands, deciding not to spread the Holy Gospel?  Do you deceptively cry out to God to express His Will for your life because you are unwilling to do that which He has already directed?   If you are unwilling to exercise the free will choice of surrender to spreading the Good News, and if so is it rational to expect that God would consider you a suitable steward for further Kingdom Work?  Come on, I don’t want any of us to feel bad, but we as Christians have collective dropped the ball.  Repent of our disobedience, Love the lost enough to plant a seed for their salvation, Love God through demonstration of obedience to His Command for the church.

Then will our fire burn and the Spirit astound the world with His authority, healing and baptism.  Will you dry off your wood, allowing it to be cleansed and readied for baptism by fire of the Holy Spirit?  Are you flammable or damp?  Honesty in this instance means everything, so don’t hesitate, deflate, deflect or debate.  The Holy Spirit stands outside knocking waiting for us to open the door that He might come inside and sup with us.  Who will be the first to open that door?  You?

Holy, Holy, Holy is the proper response for the awesome revelation of God’s Glory and the gift of His unbelievable grace.  Again, we are called to “come out” from the practices and participation in worldly ritual and wants.  His Spirit resides within the Holy of Holies, each human heart having accepted, acknowledged and committed to His Truth.  What then are we do now Lord Jesus, with this knowledge, this indwelling, this Faith?

Come to the altar.  Lay it all down.  Give up your self designed plans, your cares, your wounds, worries and worldly concerns.  Then take with you His discerned Purpose for your specific creation and leave the confines of the church to “physically” execute His plan for your existence.  Certainly leave those designed for supporting roles within the church and others who are prepared to offer spiritual, medical and financial help to those who come to this Godly hospital.  The rest should only return for worship, re-equipping and encouragement before leaving on the next mission for Christ.  That is the calling to which we have committed.  That we become a new creation, realizing our own death upon the Cross of Calvary, re-created to live out Kingdom’s Call.

If you are sitting in the pews and you are a non-supporting church administrator or maintenance saint, then you are being disobedient to the great commission placed upon each Christian’s life.  Certainly, it is the responsibility of Church elders to prepare you to disciple, but once having done so it is now their responsibility to send you forth to plant, water and fertilize seeds for the harvest.  The church has lost the power of the Spirit because it is only necessary for work out on the road for Christ.  If we are not using the power and authority of King Jesus to seek to lame and the lost then we do not need the Holy Spirit’s Power.  The Holy Spirit has been quenched through ritual, through transformation of the church into a business and through our individual disobedience to commands of God upon our lives.  You know this to be truth, yet many will argue with me, even to the extent of trying to slander my name, incarcerate me or take my life in an effort to silence that truth.  That is the price of speaking the Truth of God’s Holy Word.  To do so is the greatest effort and fulfillment know to man, subsequently carrying the heaviest reward and the largest possible cost.

Father, cleanse our hearts for true, repeated and continual service to the Gift of Your Grace.  We are Holy, Pure and True, cleansed by Your Blood and Your imputed Righteousness to be princes and priests.  Now is the time to stand for the battle is upon us.  Go forth, prepared by good teachers, intercessory prayer warriors and healers to do the work of Christ.  Know this that each of us is as important as the rest, none elevated, none insignificant, all embraced by the Love of God.  Praise You Lord God for Your wondrous Glory in the name of Christ Jesus the King.

Mood’s change, money changes, living arrangement change, hearts, minds and situations all continue on a predictable order of flux and readjustment.  This world continues to revolve and there is solid argument as to whether it is morally evolving or simply devolving into calamity and chaos.  Men, believing themselves capable of making a quantum leap in human behavior are playing the stakes hoping that someday soon, enlightened thinking will take hold and overnight everyone will dedicate themselves to global good and sustained thinking.  Seasons race by, colder, hotter, drier or calmer, they seem misaligned with the pace of man’s decadence.  Or rather it is humanity who has become misaligned with the natural order of things, believing ourselves somehow outside of the logical underpinnings and universal norms.  The principles of tipping points, chaos theory predict a breaking point in history where the forces of decay will tip the scales of possibility, catapulting humanity toward cataclysm.  That is the story of despair, told throughout the ages by the enemies of God, hoping to lull men to sleep in belief that there is nothing that may be done.  For everything changes and other than grasping for every ounce of self satisfaction in this life we remain without any control of the inevitable demise of man.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

For there is a Rock upon which all is constructed that has and never will change.  This Rock of Ages is the beginning and the end of history, sustaining, creating, controlling, balancing all the laws upon which the universe revolves.  Through our dependence upon this Foundation Stone we may find peace in the One who never changes.  Isn’t that the best place to begin any building, bridge or worship.  Constructing upon the One who never moves, shakes or gives ground to worldly/heavenly forces.  I continue in a state of metamorphosis, being remade, shaped, trimmed, honed, polished and reworked by the Hand that made me.  Change is my lot in life.  How I accept His transformative influence, adjust, surrender and seek that Artistry determines the level of my anguish or joy.  It is truth to say that I could be dying of cancer and still remain positive, contagious and encouraging in the midst of my pain.  Though my life continue to be reshaped toward passage to another plane, I can remain in a state of understanding regarding my place in the world and the currents of change I navigate.  I change, God doesn’t and praise His Holy Name for that fact.  For though my life remain in a state of constant flux, my heart and mind remain anchored to the One who never moves.

Praise God’s Righteousness that never changes for from this goodness I may measure my steps.  Praise God’s Truth, for though all thought and substance be malleable, His Word remains unchallenged and steady.  Praise God for His kind of Love, for through it I am able to adore the horrid and be kind to the undeserving, in unconditional remembrance of His Sacrifice for mankind.  Praise God’s Faithfulness, for in those moments I believe to have quit the race, I am reminded that He never will.  Praise God for His salvation, for just as one man condemned all to sin, One set us all free through Purity, Sacrifice and Everlasting Redemption to a Perfect and Holy God.  Praise Him Who Never Changes, so that something remains reliable while all else spins in cacophony toward oblivion.  Jesus Be Praised.

No huge malls or buildings exist to commemorate my name and legacy.  There are no grand sonnets, plays, tragedy’s or cinemas dedicated in my honor from which people may wonder about my passing.  I have no children, to carry on my name, as an emblem of the arrows filling my quiver.  There are no great endowments left behind to remind people of my philanthropy.  I am no athlete, no historian, no leader, no parliamentarian.  There are no lasting pieces of art to remind people of my great talent as they look upon the things fashioned by my hand and imagination.  No well read books document my traversal through this world.  Yet what I have is more precious than any gold or silver ever held by man.  I have introduced many to the Lord Jesus Christ and lived to see them redeemed, cleansed and set upon the road to eternity.  That is my treasure, that is my headstone in this world, that I helped the Lord Jesus set them free from sin and death.  On that I may rest peacefully.

If I may give you one thing let it be God’s love for He waits patiently, intently upon each of us.  In Jesus Holy Name I pray for you to know Him in this world and the next.

Wickedness spreads its shadow as moral boundaries are forgotten or non existent.  New York City, the place where George Washington and Congressman consecrated this nation to God.  No wonder it is the location of an all out assault on public displays of oddity, desecration and human depravity.  The ethical relativist, which by itself is a strange word conglomerate, for how may we gauge the science of public morals if they have no pendulum boundary?  That is the nature of wickedness, for it requires the decadence of an unholy mind to provide validity and definition.  If I can think it, then it is acceptable public behavior is a dangerous place for a nation to reside.  We find ourselves at the juncture, one step away from a charismatic leader, like Hitler who determined genocide was necessary and perfectly explainable behavior, for the good of his version of mankind.

How Lord did we a believing, Judeo Christian, innocence loving nation so quickly resolve to a such an abominable position?  It seems improbable the speed with which our transformation resulted.  And what are we to believe is the next most likely future condition?  Scientists, the same scientists who would use ethical behavior to predict and study national circumstance, are frankly at a loss.  Unfortunately it appears they know the potential outcomes they just will not look at the obvious.  We are headed for a fall, tied firmly to our lack of shared moral footing and absolute truth.  No one can agree upon acceptable behavior, or simply upon what is right and wrong, so no healthy path forward may be collectively determined.  We are caught in the valley of indecision and the moving target of tolerable excesses.  From this mobile bullseye, chaos rules, leading eventually to a ruler who thrives in this lack of foundation.  If there are no collective rules, he will be free to write his own.  This would be the death of humanity as we are left to the “relativistic” determinism of a single, evil and totally ambitious man.  We all know what he is like, his head has shown throughout history, coincidentally each time man wandered away from God.

Don’t you want some limits to behavior?  Do you really want your children to see sexual images from the time of youth?  Do we truly want our young adults believing they are free to pursue whatever their minds may concoct, simply because freedom without constraints is now perceived the highest achievement?  Or are we too sold upon the value of a “no holds barred” mentality here in the United States?  Have we so quickly forgotten what made us different from the other nations in history, what “set us apart” from all other nations before us?  Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past for not remembering history’s lesson, as George Santayana so aptly queried?  There is a way forward that doesn’t include the self-imprisonment of decadence.  It is the way that leads via the Cross of Christ at Calvary.  Each of us may choose to be forgiven of all sin and be set free from the consequences of man’s wickedness and deceit.  Believe upon Christ Jesus and be cleansed by His perfect sacrifice of a life freely given for us upon Calvary’s Cross.  Believe and repent, then be remade in the likeness of God for all men to see, which glorifies His Holy Name.  Don’t be swayed by your own decadence, cry out to God and have the veil of your own delusion removed so that the truth is made clear.  Escape the judgment to come, in Jesus Holy Name I pray.