BUD PRESS
Having a bad day? Do you feel alone and abandoned? Know that nothing is impossible with God. I am proud to say that Vinnie is my dear friend and brother in Christ.
Be blessed,
Bud
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
NEW BLOG
Hi All,
All blogs here, including comments, have now been exported to ONE BLOG.
http://tentsofissachar.wordpress.com/
Blessings,
Swarna Jha
Bombay-India
All blogs here, including comments, have now been exported to ONE BLOG.
http://tentsofissachar.wordpress.com/
Blessings,
Swarna Jha
Bombay-India
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
NEWS
Churches strategize to lessen parishioners' financial woes
by Randy Cordova - May. 25, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
In the current economic climate, churches are being squeezed. They need to do more for their members at a time when it's not necessarily easy to do more. Here are ways three churches are coping:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/05/25/20090525churchhelp0525.html
Use of Scripture linked to war documents troubles Jewish, Christian leaders
Classified files prepared for Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush reportedly quoted Bible
By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter
May 25, 2009
One passage plucked from the New Testament's Epistle to the Ephesians instructs believers to "put on the full armor of God." An excerpt from the Old Testament's Isaiah directs them to "open the gates that the righteous nation may enter."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rumsfeld-25-may25,0,4197784.story
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Should Malaysian Christians be allowed to refer to God as “Allah”?
An ongoing debate, now before a court, has been raging in Malaysia over whether Christians should be allowed to refer to God as “Allah”. Christians argue that this is the usual word for God in their native language and so they should be allowed to use it. Muslim leaders, on the other hand, contend that that referring to God as “Allah” should be restricted to Islam, concerned its use in other religions could lead to confusion and possible conversions from Islam to Christianity. As this BBC report rightly points, this is more than just a row about language, it is a matter of religious freedom.
http://persecutedchurch.blogspot.com/2009/05/should-malaysian-christians-be-allowed.html
by Randy Cordova - May. 25, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
In the current economic climate, churches are being squeezed. They need to do more for their members at a time when it's not necessarily easy to do more. Here are ways three churches are coping:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/arizonaliving/articles/2009/05/25/20090525churchhelp0525.html
Use of Scripture linked to war documents troubles Jewish, Christian leaders
Classified files prepared for Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush reportedly quoted Bible
By Manya A. Brachear Tribune reporter
May 25, 2009
One passage plucked from the New Testament's Epistle to the Ephesians instructs believers to "put on the full armor of God." An excerpt from the Old Testament's Isaiah directs them to "open the gates that the righteous nation may enter."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-rumsfeld-25-may25,0,4197784.story
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Should Malaysian Christians be allowed to refer to God as “Allah”?
An ongoing debate, now before a court, has been raging in Malaysia over whether Christians should be allowed to refer to God as “Allah”. Christians argue that this is the usual word for God in their native language and so they should be allowed to use it. Muslim leaders, on the other hand, contend that that referring to God as “Allah” should be restricted to Islam, concerned its use in other religions could lead to confusion and possible conversions from Islam to Christianity. As this BBC report rightly points, this is more than just a row about language, it is a matter of religious freedom.
http://persecutedchurch.blogspot.com/2009/05/should-malaysian-christians-be-allowed.html
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Some Firefighters Do the Dumbest Things
By Jason Poremba
When looking for firefighter videos, I typically search for high quality and high content clips. I try to focus my search on major fires, close calls and mishaps — generally things that firefighters will be interested in and can even learn from.
But in recent months I seem to be coming across more and more videos that take a whole new approach to firefighting and the profession at large. These videos feature firefighters performing various prank-like stunts that are often dangerous and crude. Maybe it is a generational thing; a "Jackass" mentality inspired by the TV show of the same name.
I can for no reason justify or quantify what these firefighters are partaking in. In the age where viral video rules, and everyone wants to be a star, I can only think their irresponsible actions are for pure shock value.
Read here/see videos
http://www.firerescue1.com/firefighter-safety/articles/484809-Some-Firefighters-Do-the-Dumbest-Things/
When looking for firefighter videos, I typically search for high quality and high content clips. I try to focus my search on major fires, close calls and mishaps — generally things that firefighters will be interested in and can even learn from.
But in recent months I seem to be coming across more and more videos that take a whole new approach to firefighting and the profession at large. These videos feature firefighters performing various prank-like stunts that are often dangerous and crude. Maybe it is a generational thing; a "Jackass" mentality inspired by the TV show of the same name.
I can for no reason justify or quantify what these firefighters are partaking in. In the age where viral video rules, and everyone wants to be a star, I can only think their irresponsible actions are for pure shock value.
Read here/see videos
http://www.firerescue1.com/firefighter-safety/articles/484809-Some-Firefighters-Do-the-Dumbest-Things/
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Gordon Comstock-Scott Sepanek
May 5, 2009 ⋅
Gordon Comstock-The Ministry Of Truth talks with Scott Sepanek about the wilderness walk of remnant believers, the state ofthe churches, sound (and unsound) doctrine and his personal testimony—highly worth hearing!
Ex-Marine-turned-Watcher-on-the-Wall Scott Sepanek appeared before the Ministry to discuss his website and what it’s like to be stranded and thirsty for the Truth in a spiritual desert. Download the audio
http://threshingfloor-radio.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/gordon-comstock-and-scott-sepanek/
Gordon Comstock-The Ministry Of Truth talks with Scott Sepanek about the wilderness walk of remnant believers, the state ofthe churches, sound (and unsound) doctrine and his personal testimony—highly worth hearing!
Ex-Marine-turned-Watcher-on-the-Wall Scott Sepanek appeared before the Ministry to discuss his website and what it’s like to be stranded and thirsty for the Truth in a spiritual desert. Download the audio
http://threshingfloor-radio.com/blog/index.php/2009/05/gordon-comstock-and-scott-sepanek/
Monday, May 4, 2009
Something Bad is going to Happen-Email from Joe D. Long
Something Bad is going to Happen
-Email from Joe D.Long, Texas, U.S.A
Date: Monday, May 4, 2009, 12:23 PM
Shalom Swarna,
Almost all attention has been drawn to the Swine Flu Pandemic... An Iranian General has stated that they can destroy Israel within 11 days... The American Govt is again sending an envoy to Assyria... Israel is blamed for anything that goes wrong in the Middle East... The news media do not report on the continuing rocket attacks on Israel... Our military are sitting ducks in the Middle East, as well as our Naval Forces... Iran can now install freighters with missiles which can be navigated within striking distance of a nations coastline...
The world chessboard is near complete setup for the checkmate signal on America... An old saying comes to mind... It is all over but the crying... Se'lah~
Blessings with HIS Love, Shalom, Grace, Mercy & Wisdom...
joe~
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
-Email from Joe D.Long, Texas, U.S.A
Shalom Swarna,
Almost all attention has been drawn to the Swine Flu Pandemic... An Iranian General has stated that they can destroy Israel within 11 days... The American Govt is again sending an envoy to Assyria... Israel is blamed for anything that goes wrong in the Middle East... The news media do not report on the continuing rocket attacks on Israel... Our military are sitting ducks in the Middle East, as well as our Naval Forces... Iran can now install freighters with missiles which can be navigated within striking distance of a nations coastline...
The world chessboard is near complete setup for the checkmate signal on America... An old saying comes to mind... It is all over but the crying... Se'lah~
Blessings with HIS Love, Shalom, Grace, Mercy & Wisdom...
joe~
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Friday, April 24, 2009
A "PROPHETIC WORD" for 2009-by S and M. Hill (Jan 4)
A "PROPHETIC WORD" for 2009!
-by S & M. Hill (Jan 4).
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge" I Cor 14:29
The flood of prophecies for 2009 have begun to come in. They sound remarkably similar to most I have been hearing for the past 15 years!
"This is the year of revival! This is the year of His power. This is the year of increase! This is the year of harvest." You mean it really, really, really is going to happen this time?
I cringe to remember giving "prophetic" words like that! We mistook emotional fervor and hype for anointing. There was no judgement!
There was no accountability. The only point was the "power" of the prophetic utterance in that moment. It was paid performance art pure and simple! Forgive us Lord!
There is a major problem with all of the prophecies about revival to come. It is a religious problem which Jesus encountered. Religion will get all excited about the Messiah to come but try to kill Him when He is standing in their midst (Luke 4:16- 30). Why? The Messiah in the future does not demand faith and obedience now!
The revival to come does not demand obedience now. We can feel all warm and fuzzy about the wonderful word and clap at what God will do while conveniently forgetting that where ever people are simply obeying Jesus they are seeing the Kingdom multiply now.
The future can be an escape from present responsibility!
Prophecies about revival to come lessen personal responsibility even further by emphasizing what God WILL do rather than what God has already done! If Jesus has dealt with all sin on the cross and if Jesus has all authority, then we are completely, totally and absolutely without excuse!
The problem is not with God! His work is finished! The problem is with the laborers! Jesus commanded us to pray for the laborers!
He did not ask us to pray for the harvest. He did not even ask us to pray against the demons! As a matter of record in Luke 10:18, Jesus saw "Satan fall like lightning from heaven" AFTER the disciples went out to befriend, demonstrate and declare the Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom only has power as it is demonstrated and declared outside the four walls of our comfort zones! Much of the fervor of the spiritual warfare movement is simply the avoidance of doing the now work in the fields.
In John 4, the disciples did not want to go through Samaria but Jesus did. He talked to a woman and had a revival in that town. Jesus pointed out the difference between Himself and the disciples.
It was a difference of vision!
"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest?' Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest", John 4:35.
The disciples saw bare, hard ground. Jesus saw white fields. Same view, different eyes, different vision! The problem was not with the harvest but with the laborers!
Harvest fields tend to be poor and difficult places. Harvesting is hard work where ever the field! You have to get dirty and involved. Sinners do not give honorariums. Discipleship is about one on one stuff! Jesus sent away the crowds in order to invest himself in the twelve. Revival is not about platforms and performances. It is about relationships, sacrifice and obedience.
I have a prophetic word for 2009. It is a prophetic word which as been accurate for about 2,000 years and which always will be accurate! It comes from Paul,
"Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." II Corinthians 6:2b
And you are right! This is the same as the "Prophetic Word for 2008"!
That was the most forwarded article of 2008 and I think it deserves a resend.
Be challenged afresh!
-SOURCE: http://www.harvest-now.org/
See our website and discussion board-
http://www.revivalschool.com/
-by S & M. Hill (Jan 4).
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge" I Cor 14:29
The flood of prophecies for 2009 have begun to come in. They sound remarkably similar to most I have been hearing for the past 15 years!
"This is the year of revival! This is the year of His power. This is the year of increase! This is the year of harvest." You mean it really, really, really is going to happen this time?
I cringe to remember giving "prophetic" words like that! We mistook emotional fervor and hype for anointing. There was no judgement!
There was no accountability. The only point was the "power" of the prophetic utterance in that moment. It was paid performance art pure and simple! Forgive us Lord!
There is a major problem with all of the prophecies about revival to come. It is a religious problem which Jesus encountered. Religion will get all excited about the Messiah to come but try to kill Him when He is standing in their midst (Luke 4:16- 30). Why? The Messiah in the future does not demand faith and obedience now!
The revival to come does not demand obedience now. We can feel all warm and fuzzy about the wonderful word and clap at what God will do while conveniently forgetting that where ever people are simply obeying Jesus they are seeing the Kingdom multiply now.
The future can be an escape from present responsibility!
Prophecies about revival to come lessen personal responsibility even further by emphasizing what God WILL do rather than what God has already done! If Jesus has dealt with all sin on the cross and if Jesus has all authority, then we are completely, totally and absolutely without excuse!
The problem is not with God! His work is finished! The problem is with the laborers! Jesus commanded us to pray for the laborers!
He did not ask us to pray for the harvest. He did not even ask us to pray against the demons! As a matter of record in Luke 10:18, Jesus saw "Satan fall like lightning from heaven" AFTER the disciples went out to befriend, demonstrate and declare the Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom only has power as it is demonstrated and declared outside the four walls of our comfort zones! Much of the fervor of the spiritual warfare movement is simply the avoidance of doing the now work in the fields.
In John 4, the disciples did not want to go through Samaria but Jesus did. He talked to a woman and had a revival in that town. Jesus pointed out the difference between Himself and the disciples.
It was a difference of vision!
"Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest?' Behold I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest", John 4:35.
The disciples saw bare, hard ground. Jesus saw white fields. Same view, different eyes, different vision! The problem was not with the harvest but with the laborers!
Harvest fields tend to be poor and difficult places. Harvesting is hard work where ever the field! You have to get dirty and involved. Sinners do not give honorariums. Discipleship is about one on one stuff! Jesus sent away the crowds in order to invest himself in the twelve. Revival is not about platforms and performances. It is about relationships, sacrifice and obedience.
I have a prophetic word for 2009. It is a prophetic word which as been accurate for about 2,000 years and which always will be accurate! It comes from Paul,
"Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation." II Corinthians 6:2b
And you are right! This is the same as the "Prophetic Word for 2008"!
That was the most forwarded article of 2008 and I think it deserves a resend.
Be challenged afresh!
-SOURCE: http://www.harvest-now.org/
See our website and discussion board-
http://www.revivalschool.com/
Thursday, April 23, 2009
<< Mark 15 >>King James Bible
6 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired.
7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.
8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.
9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. 12 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?
13 And they cried out again, Crucify him.
14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.
15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
6 Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired.
7 And there was one named Barabbas, which lay bound with them that had made insurrection with him, who had committed murder in the insurrection.
8 And the multitude crying aloud began to desire him to do as he had ever done unto them.
9 But Pilate answered them, saying, Will ye that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
10 For he knew that the chief priests had delivered him for envy.
11 But the chief priests moved the people, that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. 12 And Pilate answered and said again unto them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call the King of the Jews?
13 And they cried out again, Crucify him.
14 Then Pilate said unto them, Why, what evil hath he done? And they cried out the more exceedingly, Crucify him.
15 And so Pilate, willing to content the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus, when he had scourged him, to be crucified.
Friday, April 17, 2009
DREAM - The TWO TSUNAMI'S-Trenton Adams
[revival] WE Can SURF THESE WAVES!
Tuesday,
April 14, 2009 2:12 PM
DREAM - The TWO TSUNAMI'S -Trenton Adams.
On Sunday night, March 16th, 2008, I had a dream. First off, it seemed to me that I was viewing through someone else’s eyes through the entire dream.
In the dream I was driving down a freeway in some city. Some other people and I were going to either get a bite to eat, or go for coffee, or something like that. We got off the freeway, and
got out of the car. I looked back down the freeway, from the direction we had come, and there was water rushing down the freeway towards us. So, I jumped back into the car, and started
driving down the freeway as fast as possible. It seemed like everyone was scared. Eventually, the water caught up to me, and that part of the dream ended.
Suddenly I was somewhere else completely, on a beach somewhere. Some people were watching some big waves come in. They were talking about how the Tsunami would not affect them because they were protected by a land mass off the coast.
It seemed like maybe they were in an inlet of some sort perhaps. I saw top view for a moment, even to the details of what the land mass off the cost looked like.
I was a bit confused how they could be so confident that they would be unaffected by the coming Tsunami. Just then, a very large wave (maybe 20' high) approached at a very high rate of
speed, and no one was able to escape. As it was coming, I formulated a plan to duck under the wave, and swim to the top. So, I did just that, and I was surfing the wave, without a fear in
the world. In fact, I was actually enjoying myself. It seemed odd that I was having fun, which first made me wonder if it really was a dream from the Lord.
After the one wave was finished, a second wave was approaching very quickly. But this time, it was about 300' high. I had the same plan as before. It was a little more difficult, but again, I was able to get to the top, and surf the wave. I found that the wave was swallowing all of the big office buildings, and almost reached the very top of them, but not quite. Then, as I was floating on the top of the water, it began to subside, and go back out to sea.
I asked the Lord what it could mean, but I did not initially get an answer. As I was telling some friends about it, I said “It’s really odd, because usually the Lord gives me the interpretation to my dreams“. Just then, an interpretation formed in my mind.
The interpretation goes like this: I am unsure about the interpretation of the first part of the dream.
The second part of the dream was a similar situation. Many people were in denial about the coming economic collapse, and were thinking they would escape being touched by it. I was
confused at how they could just look the other way, as if nothing was going to happen. Suddenly, the first wave came, and I had a plan before it got there, and I was not afraid, but had peace.
In fact, I was enjoying it because I had the peace of God, and did not trust in material things.
Then the second larger wave came, and once again, I had a plan, and was not afraid. The wave reached the top of the big businesses, and almost destroyed many of them. There was very
little left.
Furthermore, the second HUGE wave will subside, but I believe our economies (Canada and the US) will never be the same.
For those who are in the rest of God, this time will just be another stepping stone to the coming Kingdom of God. I also believe that this dream is showing that there are going to be two significant events in the economic collapse. The second one will be HUGE, and the first will just be a pre-cursor to the big one.
-MAR 2008- http://blog.trentonadams.ca/2008/03/25/tsunami-dream
--
To subscribe, please send a 'subscribe' email to-
prophetic@revivalschool.com
Tuesday,
April 14, 2009 2:12 PM
DREAM - The TWO TSUNAMI'S -Trenton Adams.
On Sunday night, March 16th, 2008, I had a dream. First off, it seemed to me that I was viewing through someone else’s eyes through the entire dream.
In the dream I was driving down a freeway in some city. Some other people and I were going to either get a bite to eat, or go for coffee, or something like that. We got off the freeway, and
got out of the car. I looked back down the freeway, from the direction we had come, and there was water rushing down the freeway towards us. So, I jumped back into the car, and started
driving down the freeway as fast as possible. It seemed like everyone was scared. Eventually, the water caught up to me, and that part of the dream ended.
Suddenly I was somewhere else completely, on a beach somewhere. Some people were watching some big waves come in. They were talking about how the Tsunami would not affect them because they were protected by a land mass off the coast.
It seemed like maybe they were in an inlet of some sort perhaps. I saw top view for a moment, even to the details of what the land mass off the cost looked like.
I was a bit confused how they could be so confident that they would be unaffected by the coming Tsunami. Just then, a very large wave (maybe 20' high) approached at a very high rate of
speed, and no one was able to escape. As it was coming, I formulated a plan to duck under the wave, and swim to the top. So, I did just that, and I was surfing the wave, without a fear in
the world. In fact, I was actually enjoying myself. It seemed odd that I was having fun, which first made me wonder if it really was a dream from the Lord.
After the one wave was finished, a second wave was approaching very quickly. But this time, it was about 300' high. I had the same plan as before. It was a little more difficult, but again, I was able to get to the top, and surf the wave. I found that the wave was swallowing all of the big office buildings, and almost reached the very top of them, but not quite. Then, as I was floating on the top of the water, it began to subside, and go back out to sea.
I asked the Lord what it could mean, but I did not initially get an answer. As I was telling some friends about it, I said “It’s really odd, because usually the Lord gives me the interpretation to my dreams“. Just then, an interpretation formed in my mind.
The interpretation goes like this: I am unsure about the interpretation of the first part of the dream.
The second part of the dream was a similar situation. Many people were in denial about the coming economic collapse, and were thinking they would escape being touched by it. I was
confused at how they could just look the other way, as if nothing was going to happen. Suddenly, the first wave came, and I had a plan before it got there, and I was not afraid, but had peace.
In fact, I was enjoying it because I had the peace of God, and did not trust in material things.
Then the second larger wave came, and once again, I had a plan, and was not afraid. The wave reached the top of the big businesses, and almost destroyed many of them. There was very
little left.
Furthermore, the second HUGE wave will subside, but I believe our economies (Canada and the US) will never be the same.
For those who are in the rest of God, this time will just be another stepping stone to the coming Kingdom of God. I also believe that this dream is showing that there are going to be two significant events in the economic collapse. The second one will be HUGE, and the first will just be a pre-cursor to the big one.
-MAR 2008- http://blog.trentonadams.ca/2008/03/25/tsunami-dream
--
To subscribe, please send a 'subscribe' email to-
prophetic@revivalschool.com
Friday, April 10, 2009
THE LOST.. The LOST...by Cynthia Nichols
[revival] THE LOST.. The LOST...
Thursday, April 9, 2009 10:15 PM
From: "REVIVAL List"
THE LOST.. The LOST...
-Cynthia Nichols.
I thought you might be interested in the following. It was a dream that I feel is an admonition to todays' church.
Going With The Flow
I saw a wide stream flowing past where people stood on either side.As the murky black water neared a precipice it flowed faster and ran deeper. A strong undertow drew it to the point where it roared headlong over the edge.
In the gathering darkness, which made the stream appear even blacker, a girl came drifting past. Those watching saw her, and from where they stood, could quite easily have grabbed her before she reached the rapids above the falls. But they didn't.
They murmured and pointed, even referring to her by her name, but not one ventured to help pull her out of the currents' ever increasing strength.
They were still pointing and murmuring when she tumbled over the falls and was gone.
One piercing scream drifted back to their ears and for a brief moment, they looked a bit distressed. But, it was a very brief moment indeed and then they simply picked up where they left off -murmuring and pointing as yet another person drifted into view.....
--
http://www.revivalschool.com
Thursday, April 9, 2009 10:15 PM
From: "REVIVAL List"
THE LOST.. The LOST...
-Cynthia Nichols.
I thought you might be interested in the following. It was a dream that I feel is an admonition to todays' church.
Going With The Flow
I saw a wide stream flowing past where people stood on either side.As the murky black water neared a precipice it flowed faster and ran deeper. A strong undertow drew it to the point where it roared headlong over the edge.
In the gathering darkness, which made the stream appear even blacker, a girl came drifting past. Those watching saw her, and from where they stood, could quite easily have grabbed her before she reached the rapids above the falls. But they didn't.
They murmured and pointed, even referring to her by her name, but not one ventured to help pull her out of the currents' ever increasing strength.
They were still pointing and murmuring when she tumbled over the falls and was gone.
One piercing scream drifted back to their ears and for a brief moment, they looked a bit distressed. But, it was a very brief moment indeed and then they simply picked up where they left off -murmuring and pointing as yet another person drifted into view.....
--
http://www.revivalschool.com
Saturday, April 4, 2009
DANGERS of "DESPONDENCY"-Tammy Ricks
Thursday, April 2, 2009 8:12 PM
From: "REVIVAL List"
prophetic@revivalschool.com
DANGERS of "DESPONDENCY"
-Tammy Ricks.
Since you don't know me, may I share that I used to be zealous, on fire, strong in the name of the Lord. Up until the end of Dec 2008--I had become like cold--white-dead meat--without blood--
After a break-through I was Led by the spirit of God to reveal the assignment of the enemy used against me.
The word was, "Despondency".
I did not even know what that word meant--but when I looked it up in Webster's--it was so right on--- such a Word of knowledge--- and the antonyms for it was exactly what I had been praying for.
I wanted my joy back. My zeal, my strength, my hope,my faith, my energy.
I thought that I had just been caught in a cycle of grief, hopeless- ness and depression.
I believe that this is or will be used against the church in the last days along with its next of kin---"Lethargy".
So--pray about this if it is for the rest of the body as well- that we may be alert and vigilant and that the body of Christ may be aware of the assignment against it.
If it is not for the rest but just me--then hold me up in prayer.
But right now--Prophetically I pray that the eyes of our hearts be open to see and know---and I pray, In the Name of Jesus, that the Spirits Of Lethargy and Despondency loose and lose its hold on the Body of Christ, That she may be filled with the Spirit of Might and Power, and Zeal for the Lord. May we be so full and overflowing with the Spirit of God and the Gospel of Peace that
many run to His Light. I pray that God will fill us once again with courage, Faith and strength---filled with a tenacious spirit to do as God calls in these last days. May we be very strong and Brave and awake.
May we have eyes to see, ears to hear rightly what the Spirit Of The Lord is saying and may we have the gift of discernment and the faith to believe that God is able to speak to us and we hear properly. I break all self doubt and intimidation in Jesus' name and command the fruits of righteousness to break forth--- In Jesus' Mighty Name - Amen.
I also pray that where I was held back in time--that God, By His Spirit will put me rightly where I am supposed to be. Right Heart, Right Spirit, right time in Jesus' mighty Name--redeem the time - Amen.
From: "REVIVAL List"
prophetic@revivalschool.com
DANGERS of "DESPONDENCY"
-Tammy Ricks.
Since you don't know me, may I share that I used to be zealous, on fire, strong in the name of the Lord. Up until the end of Dec 2008--I had become like cold--white-dead meat--without blood--
After a break-through I was Led by the spirit of God to reveal the assignment of the enemy used against me.
The word was, "Despondency".
I did not even know what that word meant--but when I looked it up in Webster's--it was so right on--- such a Word of knowledge--- and the antonyms for it was exactly what I had been praying for.
I wanted my joy back. My zeal, my strength, my hope,my faith, my energy.
I thought that I had just been caught in a cycle of grief, hopeless- ness and depression.
I believe that this is or will be used against the church in the last days along with its next of kin---"Lethargy".
So--pray about this if it is for the rest of the body as well- that we may be alert and vigilant and that the body of Christ may be aware of the assignment against it.
If it is not for the rest but just me--then hold me up in prayer.
But right now--Prophetically I pray that the eyes of our hearts be open to see and know---and I pray, In the Name of Jesus, that the Spirits Of Lethargy and Despondency loose and lose its hold on the Body of Christ, That she may be filled with the Spirit of Might and Power, and Zeal for the Lord. May we be so full and overflowing with the Spirit of God and the Gospel of Peace that
many run to His Light. I pray that God will fill us once again with courage, Faith and strength---filled with a tenacious spirit to do as God calls in these last days. May we be very strong and Brave and awake.
May we have eyes to see, ears to hear rightly what the Spirit Of The Lord is saying and may we have the gift of discernment and the faith to believe that God is able to speak to us and we hear properly. I break all self doubt and intimidation in Jesus' name and command the fruits of righteousness to break forth--- In Jesus' Mighty Name - Amen.
I also pray that where I was held back in time--that God, By His Spirit will put me rightly where I am supposed to be. Right Heart, Right Spirit, right time in Jesus' mighty Name--redeem the time - Amen.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Sent From God -By Art Katz
Sent From God
By Art Katz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An edited transcript of message # K-IHOP-06.
(Kansas City, Jan. 2006)
(Art spoke at Kansas City, IHOP in 2006 )
This morning I feel impressed to share with you a new word that has come out of the recent ministry days in Mexico, and which I believe is going to be a significant arrow in the Lord’s quiver. I am not even sure of its full meaning, but can only say that it resonates and hints at significant things in our understanding of God. As with every word from heaven, you can get from it what you will, or you can just as equally get nothing at all. Or later on, all of a sudden, the word will spring to life in the sovereign purposes of God.
The text is from Isaiah 6.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.”
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I; send me.”
And He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.’ Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they sea with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
Then said I, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof” (Isaiah 6:1-13)
I was quite surprised when the Lord quickened this and underlined ways of perceiving the text not previously considered. But I think it is going to be one of those seminal messages that come forth every now and then, the rhema word of God that may not immediately be understandable to all to whom it comes. If it doesn’t fit right now, do not set it aside, but I do believe that what was suddenly and dramatically exposed in this sixth chapter was pivotal for all of Isaiah’s future prophetic use as well as the issue of Israel’s destiny.
Are you guilty with me of having too airily dismissed this account as some kind of mystic vision of the Lord? Somewhere high and lifted up with His train filling the temple in some kind of hyper-state of glory? Why would it affect the prophet so as to cause him to pronounce his being undone? My own suggestion is that the prophet saw the King in the greatest moment of His majesty. In other words, God in His deepest essence was brought to a point of such expression that anyone who contemplates that moment rightly has got to be altogether devastated and undone. With that in mind, I am led to believe Isaiah saw the crucifixion of the King, because nothing reveals the majesty of God more than in the depth of His suffering, experienced and borne for us as atonement!
You may ask how Isaiah could have seen the crucifixion of Jesus six or seven centuries before the actual event. Let us not forget that the Lord was ‘slain from before the foundations of the earth were laid.’ If we only see the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event in a point of time, we will be marred and limited in our Christian walk. Our walk will of necessity be with a minimal comprehension of the crucifixion as a body of doctrine to which we must agree, but we have not seen the glory. And unless we see the glory, there never will be any sending.
This is not just a chance episode in the life of the prophet; it is the unfolding of a remarkable pattern; a sequence of events by which the prophet, who already had a ministry and was already cautioning and warning the nation of its sin from the very first chapter of his book, now enters a new dimension. His subsequent ministry as one sent was no longer merely to warn or to caution, but to judge. His word would now constitute judgment. They will not hear, they will not see, their hearts will be dulled because the prophet has spoken to them in a new depth of urgency and weight and authority as one sent.
How many of us have sufficiently dwelt on the word sent as we ought? Do we understand the significance of the difference between one who went and the one who is sent? However well-meaning it might be, is not most of our Christian activity self-initiated or committee determined? Do we know, and I mean really know, what it is to be sent from the One who is enthroned?
My own observation is that the overwhelming majority of Christians have a self-motivated itch to go and to do, to be seen and to cut a swathe for themselves and their ministry, but we are not seeing sendings of the kind that initiated the early history of the Church. Those that were sent turned the world upside-down. Do we sufficiently honor and esteem the phenomenon of sending? Do we understand the difference between the consequences of the work that results from one sent in comparison to the work of one who is self-initiated in his going? Are we even assured that the world needs to be turned upside-down? Or do we see the world as needing merely to be modified and have some of its excesses reduced? Do we see the world as being evil? Are we chafed by its immorality, even its a-morality? Do we have the basis for comparison that would be ours once having seen the Lord high and lifted up?
Everything hinges upon seeing the Lord as the Lord, because after forty-one years in the faith and in world-wide ministry, touching and examining the Church in its best forms, I would have to say that my greatest grief over the condition of the Church, its leadership and its prominent ministers is that they do not know God as God. They do not know Him as He in fact is. Without this knowledge of God, we are condemned to a hollow counterfeit much more in harmony with our own approving ambition and intentions. Consequently, there is no fear of God, and we will find ourselves taking liberties and initiating conduct that was not sent from Heaven. Everything rests on seeing the Lord high and lifted up and enthroned in His majestic glory and brought to perfection in the moment of His most excruciating suffering at Calvary. That is what this prophet saw, and he cried out “I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips!”
The problem is not the unclean lips; but ‘I am a man.’ We do not know how deeply humanistic man is as man. We do not see how deeply the intrinsic nature of man is opposed to God. We do not see how our ambitions and self-initiated activity could possibly be an act of direct rebellion against God. We do not see our unwillingness to wait to be sent as being any particular offense. Isaiah saw himself. “Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man.” And if I am a man, of necessity my lips are going to be defiled, even though a prophet.
Until we agree and come to this low estimation of ourselves, we will always suffer the loss of the high exaltation of God. The two things are inextricably joined. Who of us thinks they can perceive the truth of themselves as man? Is not our estimation of ourselves far out of proportion to the way in which we really need to see ourselves? Is not the reason we are able to indulge such exaltation because we have no basis for comparison? Do we not see ourselves only in comparison to others? By so doing, are we not rather imagining our own superiority? When you see yourself in comparison to God, however, you become as a dead man.
This is the way of sanity; this is truth; this is reality; it is the foundation of any true sending. Why would God send half-baked believers anywhere into the world? What are they going to communicate? They cannot communicate anything that exceeds where they themselves are in their own estimation. Yes, they might bring some measure of good, but they are not going to turn anybody’s world upside-down. Only one who is sent from the Throne bears the authority and anointing of that One who sends.
“Who will go for us?” The word ‘who’ haunts me; it suggests very few candidates. How often do you find a believer who has risen above the prevailing culture and the correctness of his doctrine, and who really knows God as God, who sees God as terrifying, stupefying and vast? When was the last time you met someone who has seen God in His greatest act, namely, the revelation of the nature of God in His suffering and death, which had ever and always been His nature? The only thing that the Cross did was reveal what God always was and is. God is a servant. He is a sent one Himself from the Father.
What did it mean for this sent Son, who had lived eternally in the presence of the Father, to forsake that exalted and unimaginable condition of relationship, and to come down to this crusty globe and take upon himself the form of a man? He began life as a helpless infant laid in a manger and suffered everything that was required of an earthly, human existence as a Jew and as a son of David, a son of Abraham and as a son of Adam, so to speak. We do not know the humility of God until we have rightly pondered what it meant for the Son to come down into this Earth. It was the crucifixion before the crucifixion. Every instance of it, every act of it is the issue of self-denial; it is the issue of compassion and concern for other at the expense of oneself. We need to probe and examine this more than any other consideration, more than our yearnings to become sophisticated in understanding the Last Days movement of the Jews and the Church’s mandate during that time.
“Who shall go for us?” We are back to that piercing question. The only one who can go is the one who has seen, and having seen, comes to such a place of repulsion over himself that he is undone. This was Isaiah, the prince of the prophets speaking. If he could say, “I am undone” at the seeing of God as He really is in His glory, what shall we say? And until we say it with the same heart-piercing cry, we will never be a candidate for being sent. But, what does this whole cosmic drama wait on? The text itself tells us: “In the year that king Uzziah died.” What would the Lord be trying to say here? Did the Holy Spirit give that just as an historic index so we could date this event because we know the life-span of this king? Or does the death of the king have something to do with the revelation given to the prophet? What would you suspect?
My own intuition is that the death of the king is the decisive factor that set in motion the entire episode. But, why is this so important? Why does a death have to necessarily precede a revelation of this magnitude? This is a revelation that issues in a call, and the call issues in a judgment upon Israel by a prophet going forth as a sent one. And not only that, but it is a judgment upon Israel that is still valid to this day. Israel is still bound; its eyes are closed nationally-speaking; its heart is numb; it cannot see, cannot hear and cannot understand. Jews are civil and gracious on any other subject, but on this they become impenetrable because the judgment has been decreed.
Apart from a few ‘remnant’ Jews like myself, the nation itself presently stands under this judgment. You wonder why so many Christians eagerly believe God has called them to be prophets. That eagerness betrays their own over-estimation of themselves. What if your speaking would mean a necessary judgment for the hearers? Some measure of judgment goes forth in the prophetic proclamation that is designed to bring to death areas of the flesh that are impudent, untrained and undisciplined and need this judgment. It is not a pleasant task. Only those who are dead and see themselves as undone are the ones who are capable of going and pronouncing that kind of judgment. It is all the same to them whether the hearers are blessed or judged. The issue is obedience to a ‘Go, and say to them…’
We are moving towards a concluding episode in the salvational history of mankind with regards to the people Israel. Israel is under judgment through a prophetic word, but the judgment needs to be reversed and the people be released by another sending. If it took a sending to bring the judgment, in my opinion, it will take a sending to end the judgment. There needs to be a ‘prophetic’ company of believers as the Church of the Last Days, who have seen the Lord and know Him in His majesty, high and lifted up, and who are stricken to death at their own vain presumptions about themselves. They are those who see themselves ‘as good as dead,’ and unless a coal comes off the altar of God, they will not presume that they can speak for God.
From the text we know that God does not in any way placate the prophet; He is silent, but sends an angel with a coal from the altar, clearly implying that He is in complete agreement with the prophet’s own estimation of himself. The important point to note is the reaction of the prophet to the revelation of God in His resplendent majesty as crucified evoking such a sense of his own shame. Karl Barth, my favorite theologian, the great German-Swiss thinker clearly understood this reality when he wrote: “The reality of sin cannot be known or described except in relation to the one who has vanquished it.”
How many of us can say that we know the reality of sin? And I am absolutely assured that if we do not know the reality of sin as God sees it and as Isaiah saw it, we have no reality. The reality of sin is the necessary foundation of all human reality, and if we do not have it, all of our grandiose categories about redemption and the Cross are only just a vapor; they are ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.’ More than we know, we have unsuspectingly reduced our beliefs to a body of doctrine. Our agreement with certain evident truths will never effect anything in us or in the world. And why would God send anyone in that condition? Has He nothing better to do, no better candidate to send than someone with a shallow notion of sin? Why would He send anyone who has fallen short of the acknowledgement of His glory, and who has little knowledge of what atonement means or what He has paid to obtain it? Paul could say, “Paul knew the terror of the Lord with regard to sin, and therefore could persuade men.” This kind of knowing needs to be an object of our highest priority. How do we come to know the reality or the terror of sin, realizing that that is the underlay of everything? What did Jesus do and perform that was so consequential, worthy of our admiration, let alone our adoration if we do not understand what He met in His death?
Have we noticed how the world is dying, without foundations and oblivious to eternity? Has the world been told what sin is or what judgment and hell are? Has it not rather dispensed with Jesus as a peripheral nothing, celebrated at Christmas time to give the department stores the occasion for our orgies of buying? Even Japan has a Christmas. The world has turned the Advent of the birth of the Son, who met the sin problem in His death, into a culture for commerce. How is it that we are not chafed over that? How is it that we can so easily join the world right into those stores and indulge ourselves as much as any rather than boycott the event itself? Have we been able to persuade Jewish life of the terror of sin? Or do they look upon our celebration of Christmas as just a harmless, Gentile equivalent of their Chanukah? Is not their Chanukah as much a false piece of baloney as our Christmas? And the world continues to spiral down into death while these things are celebrated as being somehow real.
There needs to be a great cry going out from Christendom that we have not seen or perceived rightly the great, central event of history, the Advent of the Son from Heaven who took upon Himself the form of a man, Jewish man, and suffered the consequence for the sin of mankind in order to appease the honor of His Father, who had been disgraced by a sinful, covenant-breaking humanity. Until that revelation has broken upon our hearts and until we have seen sin in the context of the suffering, the humility and the anguish of His soul, we have not the knowledge of sin and therefore everything will suffer in proportion.
Do we really know how vile evil is? How intrinsic it is to man and to his nature? I don’t mean man’s most malicious things, but when he is acting at his best. To have an inadequate sense of sin is to have an inadequate sense of God. If we have a low estimation of sin how than can we exalt God? Is this not the thing that keeps us from adoration of God in its truest and deepest sense? When we do come to true adoration, we will have come to the ultimate place of relationship with God that is transcendent and breaks through in realms of worship and praise that cannot be imitated or effected in lesser places. I believe this is the place of reality that releases the authority and power of God on the basis that we can now be trusted by the Living God.
We need to have an esteem for the word ‘sent’ which comes through in the Greek word apostolos, meaning a ‘sent one.’ Will we be willing to wait, knowing that we are presently unqualified and that we have nothing really to communicate that would turn the world upside-down? Will we be willing to wait for God to impart to us an authority to face nations or peoples who are intrinsically hostile or indifferent to our message? The only way that anyone will begin to rightly hear us is dependent upon their recognition that indeed we are sent ones in the authority of God, bearing a sent word.
From the text we have seen that Israel’s present condition as a nation has been condemned to judgment, because a prophet came who was sent and spoke and performed it. Nothing has changed from that day to the present one. The ‘until’ has not yet come, and when it comes it will come in apocalyptic devastation and ruin in present-day Israel. My intuition is that the judgment that came by prophetic speaking needs to be relieved by prophetic speaking. Where are the Isaiahs of our generation? Where can we conceive of a corporate sending, a ‘corporate Isaiah’ who could be sent, whose speaking now will open eyes rather than close them, open hearts rather than close them, save rather than condemn?
I believe it is waiting for those who are sent, waiting for those who have seen the truth of their condition and have cried out over it, because they have seen the Lord as He is, high and lifted up. But what precipitates everything? The year that Uzziah dies! When we can say ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts’ and that ‘the whole earth is full of His glory,’ not just in triumphal moments, but in the moments of death and disappointment and what seem to be the severest contradictions of God, then we have arrived! We have come to the true knowledge; we have seen the Lord and we have seen ourselves as He sees us. Only then will He purge and send us.
Prayer:
I want to pray now, that if you do not know who your Uzziah is for you, that the Lord will show it. There are various forms of Uzziah: it could be a person, a ministry, some personal ambition. “My God, we have quoted that text; we have used it as sermons. We thought we knew it and understood it, but we ourselves were not affected and did not understand the supremacy of one sent from the throne of Heaven. We are so alive to our own itch ourselves that we have not wanted to wait for that. We have taken every door of opportunity to minister in response to the needs everywhere in the Earth that would welcome high-spirited and bright young believers to bring blessing. But the Earth yet remains in its curse and still needs to be turned on its head.
Lord, search us out and reveal to us who that Uzziah is. Is he likely not someone who is presumptuous in the realm of ministry and tries to usurp the function of priests because he is a king or leader, and we admired that one and wanted to be identified with that one? We therefore share something of his presumption, which is why he has to die for us and we have to die for him if we are to see the Lord as he in fact is, namely, high and lifted up.
Come and bring us into that agreement with the seraphim that qualifies us to be sent ones; those who do not bring a merely cultural, time-dated perspective but a timeless view of the angels of God who forever perceive the glory of God. Bring us to this apostolic and prophetic place, for Israel’s sake, needing to be freed from the judgment that has been imposed upon it by the speaking of a prophet, by a fresh and new speaking of a prophetic company who can be sent, whose speaking will open the blind eyes, open the deaf ears, open the closed hearts that they might be saved! What a destiny of the Church at the conclusion of the age! Thank you for the preciousness of the call, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Scripture verses from the Authorized Standard Version of the Bible
Transcription by Lars Wideberg
Editing for printing by Simon Hensman
By Art Katz
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An edited transcript of message # K-IHOP-06.
(Kansas City, Jan. 2006)
(Art spoke at Kansas City, IHOP in 2006 )
This morning I feel impressed to share with you a new word that has come out of the recent ministry days in Mexico, and which I believe is going to be a significant arrow in the Lord’s quiver. I am not even sure of its full meaning, but can only say that it resonates and hints at significant things in our understanding of God. As with every word from heaven, you can get from it what you will, or you can just as equally get nothing at all. Or later on, all of a sudden, the word will spring to life in the sovereign purposes of God.
The text is from Isaiah 6.
In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and His train filled the temple.
Above Him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Then said I, “Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.”
Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin forgiven.”
And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I; send me.”
And He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.’ Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they sea with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”
Then said I, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah has removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof” (Isaiah 6:1-13)
I was quite surprised when the Lord quickened this and underlined ways of perceiving the text not previously considered. But I think it is going to be one of those seminal messages that come forth every now and then, the rhema word of God that may not immediately be understandable to all to whom it comes. If it doesn’t fit right now, do not set it aside, but I do believe that what was suddenly and dramatically exposed in this sixth chapter was pivotal for all of Isaiah’s future prophetic use as well as the issue of Israel’s destiny.
Are you guilty with me of having too airily dismissed this account as some kind of mystic vision of the Lord? Somewhere high and lifted up with His train filling the temple in some kind of hyper-state of glory? Why would it affect the prophet so as to cause him to pronounce his being undone? My own suggestion is that the prophet saw the King in the greatest moment of His majesty. In other words, God in His deepest essence was brought to a point of such expression that anyone who contemplates that moment rightly has got to be altogether devastated and undone. With that in mind, I am led to believe Isaiah saw the crucifixion of the King, because nothing reveals the majesty of God more than in the depth of His suffering, experienced and borne for us as atonement!
You may ask how Isaiah could have seen the crucifixion of Jesus six or seven centuries before the actual event. Let us not forget that the Lord was ‘slain from before the foundations of the earth were laid.’ If we only see the crucifixion of Jesus as a historical event in a point of time, we will be marred and limited in our Christian walk. Our walk will of necessity be with a minimal comprehension of the crucifixion as a body of doctrine to which we must agree, but we have not seen the glory. And unless we see the glory, there never will be any sending.
This is not just a chance episode in the life of the prophet; it is the unfolding of a remarkable pattern; a sequence of events by which the prophet, who already had a ministry and was already cautioning and warning the nation of its sin from the very first chapter of his book, now enters a new dimension. His subsequent ministry as one sent was no longer merely to warn or to caution, but to judge. His word would now constitute judgment. They will not hear, they will not see, their hearts will be dulled because the prophet has spoken to them in a new depth of urgency and weight and authority as one sent.
How many of us have sufficiently dwelt on the word sent as we ought? Do we understand the significance of the difference between one who went and the one who is sent? However well-meaning it might be, is not most of our Christian activity self-initiated or committee determined? Do we know, and I mean really know, what it is to be sent from the One who is enthroned?
My own observation is that the overwhelming majority of Christians have a self-motivated itch to go and to do, to be seen and to cut a swathe for themselves and their ministry, but we are not seeing sendings of the kind that initiated the early history of the Church. Those that were sent turned the world upside-down. Do we sufficiently honor and esteem the phenomenon of sending? Do we understand the difference between the consequences of the work that results from one sent in comparison to the work of one who is self-initiated in his going? Are we even assured that the world needs to be turned upside-down? Or do we see the world as needing merely to be modified and have some of its excesses reduced? Do we see the world as being evil? Are we chafed by its immorality, even its a-morality? Do we have the basis for comparison that would be ours once having seen the Lord high and lifted up?
Everything hinges upon seeing the Lord as the Lord, because after forty-one years in the faith and in world-wide ministry, touching and examining the Church in its best forms, I would have to say that my greatest grief over the condition of the Church, its leadership and its prominent ministers is that they do not know God as God. They do not know Him as He in fact is. Without this knowledge of God, we are condemned to a hollow counterfeit much more in harmony with our own approving ambition and intentions. Consequently, there is no fear of God, and we will find ourselves taking liberties and initiating conduct that was not sent from Heaven. Everything rests on seeing the Lord high and lifted up and enthroned in His majestic glory and brought to perfection in the moment of His most excruciating suffering at Calvary. That is what this prophet saw, and he cried out “I am undone! I am a man of unclean lips!”
The problem is not the unclean lips; but ‘I am a man.’ We do not know how deeply humanistic man is as man. We do not see how deeply the intrinsic nature of man is opposed to God. We do not see how our ambitions and self-initiated activity could possibly be an act of direct rebellion against God. We do not see our unwillingness to wait to be sent as being any particular offense. Isaiah saw himself. “Woe is me, I am undone, I am a man.” And if I am a man, of necessity my lips are going to be defiled, even though a prophet.
Until we agree and come to this low estimation of ourselves, we will always suffer the loss of the high exaltation of God. The two things are inextricably joined. Who of us thinks they can perceive the truth of themselves as man? Is not our estimation of ourselves far out of proportion to the way in which we really need to see ourselves? Is not the reason we are able to indulge such exaltation because we have no basis for comparison? Do we not see ourselves only in comparison to others? By so doing, are we not rather imagining our own superiority? When you see yourself in comparison to God, however, you become as a dead man.
This is the way of sanity; this is truth; this is reality; it is the foundation of any true sending. Why would God send half-baked believers anywhere into the world? What are they going to communicate? They cannot communicate anything that exceeds where they themselves are in their own estimation. Yes, they might bring some measure of good, but they are not going to turn anybody’s world upside-down. Only one who is sent from the Throne bears the authority and anointing of that One who sends.
“Who will go for us?” The word ‘who’ haunts me; it suggests very few candidates. How often do you find a believer who has risen above the prevailing culture and the correctness of his doctrine, and who really knows God as God, who sees God as terrifying, stupefying and vast? When was the last time you met someone who has seen God in His greatest act, namely, the revelation of the nature of God in His suffering and death, which had ever and always been His nature? The only thing that the Cross did was reveal what God always was and is. God is a servant. He is a sent one Himself from the Father.
What did it mean for this sent Son, who had lived eternally in the presence of the Father, to forsake that exalted and unimaginable condition of relationship, and to come down to this crusty globe and take upon himself the form of a man? He began life as a helpless infant laid in a manger and suffered everything that was required of an earthly, human existence as a Jew and as a son of David, a son of Abraham and as a son of Adam, so to speak. We do not know the humility of God until we have rightly pondered what it meant for the Son to come down into this Earth. It was the crucifixion before the crucifixion. Every instance of it, every act of it is the issue of self-denial; it is the issue of compassion and concern for other at the expense of oneself. We need to probe and examine this more than any other consideration, more than our yearnings to become sophisticated in understanding the Last Days movement of the Jews and the Church’s mandate during that time.
“Who shall go for us?” We are back to that piercing question. The only one who can go is the one who has seen, and having seen, comes to such a place of repulsion over himself that he is undone. This was Isaiah, the prince of the prophets speaking. If he could say, “I am undone” at the seeing of God as He really is in His glory, what shall we say? And until we say it with the same heart-piercing cry, we will never be a candidate for being sent. But, what does this whole cosmic drama wait on? The text itself tells us: “In the year that king Uzziah died.” What would the Lord be trying to say here? Did the Holy Spirit give that just as an historic index so we could date this event because we know the life-span of this king? Or does the death of the king have something to do with the revelation given to the prophet? What would you suspect?
My own intuition is that the death of the king is the decisive factor that set in motion the entire episode. But, why is this so important? Why does a death have to necessarily precede a revelation of this magnitude? This is a revelation that issues in a call, and the call issues in a judgment upon Israel by a prophet going forth as a sent one. And not only that, but it is a judgment upon Israel that is still valid to this day. Israel is still bound; its eyes are closed nationally-speaking; its heart is numb; it cannot see, cannot hear and cannot understand. Jews are civil and gracious on any other subject, but on this they become impenetrable because the judgment has been decreed.
Apart from a few ‘remnant’ Jews like myself, the nation itself presently stands under this judgment. You wonder why so many Christians eagerly believe God has called them to be prophets. That eagerness betrays their own over-estimation of themselves. What if your speaking would mean a necessary judgment for the hearers? Some measure of judgment goes forth in the prophetic proclamation that is designed to bring to death areas of the flesh that are impudent, untrained and undisciplined and need this judgment. It is not a pleasant task. Only those who are dead and see themselves as undone are the ones who are capable of going and pronouncing that kind of judgment. It is all the same to them whether the hearers are blessed or judged. The issue is obedience to a ‘Go, and say to them…’
We are moving towards a concluding episode in the salvational history of mankind with regards to the people Israel. Israel is under judgment through a prophetic word, but the judgment needs to be reversed and the people be released by another sending. If it took a sending to bring the judgment, in my opinion, it will take a sending to end the judgment. There needs to be a ‘prophetic’ company of believers as the Church of the Last Days, who have seen the Lord and know Him in His majesty, high and lifted up, and who are stricken to death at their own vain presumptions about themselves. They are those who see themselves ‘as good as dead,’ and unless a coal comes off the altar of God, they will not presume that they can speak for God.
From the text we know that God does not in any way placate the prophet; He is silent, but sends an angel with a coal from the altar, clearly implying that He is in complete agreement with the prophet’s own estimation of himself. The important point to note is the reaction of the prophet to the revelation of God in His resplendent majesty as crucified evoking such a sense of his own shame. Karl Barth, my favorite theologian, the great German-Swiss thinker clearly understood this reality when he wrote: “The reality of sin cannot be known or described except in relation to the one who has vanquished it.”
How many of us can say that we know the reality of sin? And I am absolutely assured that if we do not know the reality of sin as God sees it and as Isaiah saw it, we have no reality. The reality of sin is the necessary foundation of all human reality, and if we do not have it, all of our grandiose categories about redemption and the Cross are only just a vapor; they are ‘sound and fury signifying nothing.’ More than we know, we have unsuspectingly reduced our beliefs to a body of doctrine. Our agreement with certain evident truths will never effect anything in us or in the world. And why would God send anyone in that condition? Has He nothing better to do, no better candidate to send than someone with a shallow notion of sin? Why would He send anyone who has fallen short of the acknowledgement of His glory, and who has little knowledge of what atonement means or what He has paid to obtain it? Paul could say, “Paul knew the terror of the Lord with regard to sin, and therefore could persuade men.” This kind of knowing needs to be an object of our highest priority. How do we come to know the reality or the terror of sin, realizing that that is the underlay of everything? What did Jesus do and perform that was so consequential, worthy of our admiration, let alone our adoration if we do not understand what He met in His death?
Have we noticed how the world is dying, without foundations and oblivious to eternity? Has the world been told what sin is or what judgment and hell are? Has it not rather dispensed with Jesus as a peripheral nothing, celebrated at Christmas time to give the department stores the occasion for our orgies of buying? Even Japan has a Christmas. The world has turned the Advent of the birth of the Son, who met the sin problem in His death, into a culture for commerce. How is it that we are not chafed over that? How is it that we can so easily join the world right into those stores and indulge ourselves as much as any rather than boycott the event itself? Have we been able to persuade Jewish life of the terror of sin? Or do they look upon our celebration of Christmas as just a harmless, Gentile equivalent of their Chanukah? Is not their Chanukah as much a false piece of baloney as our Christmas? And the world continues to spiral down into death while these things are celebrated as being somehow real.
There needs to be a great cry going out from Christendom that we have not seen or perceived rightly the great, central event of history, the Advent of the Son from Heaven who took upon Himself the form of a man, Jewish man, and suffered the consequence for the sin of mankind in order to appease the honor of His Father, who had been disgraced by a sinful, covenant-breaking humanity. Until that revelation has broken upon our hearts and until we have seen sin in the context of the suffering, the humility and the anguish of His soul, we have not the knowledge of sin and therefore everything will suffer in proportion.
Do we really know how vile evil is? How intrinsic it is to man and to his nature? I don’t mean man’s most malicious things, but when he is acting at his best. To have an inadequate sense of sin is to have an inadequate sense of God. If we have a low estimation of sin how than can we exalt God? Is this not the thing that keeps us from adoration of God in its truest and deepest sense? When we do come to true adoration, we will have come to the ultimate place of relationship with God that is transcendent and breaks through in realms of worship and praise that cannot be imitated or effected in lesser places. I believe this is the place of reality that releases the authority and power of God on the basis that we can now be trusted by the Living God.
We need to have an esteem for the word ‘sent’ which comes through in the Greek word apostolos, meaning a ‘sent one.’ Will we be willing to wait, knowing that we are presently unqualified and that we have nothing really to communicate that would turn the world upside-down? Will we be willing to wait for God to impart to us an authority to face nations or peoples who are intrinsically hostile or indifferent to our message? The only way that anyone will begin to rightly hear us is dependent upon their recognition that indeed we are sent ones in the authority of God, bearing a sent word.
From the text we have seen that Israel’s present condition as a nation has been condemned to judgment, because a prophet came who was sent and spoke and performed it. Nothing has changed from that day to the present one. The ‘until’ has not yet come, and when it comes it will come in apocalyptic devastation and ruin in present-day Israel. My intuition is that the judgment that came by prophetic speaking needs to be relieved by prophetic speaking. Where are the Isaiahs of our generation? Where can we conceive of a corporate sending, a ‘corporate Isaiah’ who could be sent, whose speaking now will open eyes rather than close them, open hearts rather than close them, save rather than condemn?
I believe it is waiting for those who are sent, waiting for those who have seen the truth of their condition and have cried out over it, because they have seen the Lord as He is, high and lifted up. But what precipitates everything? The year that Uzziah dies! When we can say ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts’ and that ‘the whole earth is full of His glory,’ not just in triumphal moments, but in the moments of death and disappointment and what seem to be the severest contradictions of God, then we have arrived! We have come to the true knowledge; we have seen the Lord and we have seen ourselves as He sees us. Only then will He purge and send us.
Prayer:
I want to pray now, that if you do not know who your Uzziah is for you, that the Lord will show it. There are various forms of Uzziah: it could be a person, a ministry, some personal ambition. “My God, we have quoted that text; we have used it as sermons. We thought we knew it and understood it, but we ourselves were not affected and did not understand the supremacy of one sent from the throne of Heaven. We are so alive to our own itch ourselves that we have not wanted to wait for that. We have taken every door of opportunity to minister in response to the needs everywhere in the Earth that would welcome high-spirited and bright young believers to bring blessing. But the Earth yet remains in its curse and still needs to be turned on its head.
Lord, search us out and reveal to us who that Uzziah is. Is he likely not someone who is presumptuous in the realm of ministry and tries to usurp the function of priests because he is a king or leader, and we admired that one and wanted to be identified with that one? We therefore share something of his presumption, which is why he has to die for us and we have to die for him if we are to see the Lord as he in fact is, namely, high and lifted up.
Come and bring us into that agreement with the seraphim that qualifies us to be sent ones; those who do not bring a merely cultural, time-dated perspective but a timeless view of the angels of God who forever perceive the glory of God. Bring us to this apostolic and prophetic place, for Israel’s sake, needing to be freed from the judgment that has been imposed upon it by the speaking of a prophet, by a fresh and new speaking of a prophetic company who can be sent, whose speaking will open the blind eyes, open the deaf ears, open the closed hearts that they might be saved! What a destiny of the Church at the conclusion of the age! Thank you for the preciousness of the call, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Scripture verses from the Authorized Standard Version of the Bible
Transcription by Lars Wideberg
Editing for printing by Simon Hensman
Thursday, March 26, 2009
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