Introduction

Modern day apostleship is a very controversial subject within today's Christianity. The vast majority of professing Christians believe that there are no apostles being sent by Jesus on missions today but many others dispute that opinion. I am one of the Christians who dispute it and I feel led by God to here give you the reasons that I have for so doing.

Romans 15:18 - For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me....

Here I am testifying about
what I believe to have been Jesus Christ's supernatural workings to inform me of my apostolic appointment and then to guide me in it for over 35+ years! So here I have substantiated everything that I have written about my apostlic mission with what I believe are rightly divided Biblical verses and teachings. And here I have also given some very unique testimonies about the Lord's powerful substantiating movements within my life and also within the lives of other Christians with whom He has led me to fellowship.

I ask you the reader to approach these teachings and testimonies with an open mind and a humble and prayerful spirit, desiring only to find God's truth, not mine, about modern day apostleship.

Isaiah 1: 18 "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord....

So please set aside all of your preconceived notions on this subject and permit God to speak to you in a way that you can understand and believe, as to whether or not this spiritual church office gift is for Christians today (as I am here contending that it is).

Every one of my teachings which are within this blog are open to being corrected and / or improved upon thru thoughtful responses from you, the readers whom God has sent here. You may post your constructive criticisms and / or suggestions in a comment at the bottom of each teaching's entry or you may e-mail them privately to me at - anonymousapostle@gmail.com.

Periodically, I will revisit every teaching within this blog in order to add more pertinent testimonies and / or more substantiating Scriptures to it and also to make corrections and / or improve it. That's when I will update each of them with any truths that I find God giving me from within your comments about them.

James 3:17 - The wisdom from above is first pure...

My prayer is that everything written on this blog is now (or will ultimately become thru editing), completely true to God and His word so that through it everyone that reads its entries may gain wisdom that it is Scripturally pure.

If this is your first visit here, please start with the first two Archive entries in March 2008 below because these are foundational teachings regarding modern day apostleship. Please also read the 3rd entry for substantiating testimonial evidence of my own apostolic ministry.

All entries beyond these first 3 contain various teachings and testimonies which I feel that God has moved me (in my apostolic role) to bring forth to edify you, my readers. The sum total of all of these entries are the ongoing annals of this anonymous modern day apostle who humbly strives to serve our glorious Lord Jesus Christ because...

Isaiah 61:10 - I delight greatly in the Lord...

Thank you.

Thursday, September 18, 2008

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Thursday, August 21, 2008

21. The Spirit led Life

In both the Old and New Testaments, commandments are repeatedly mentioned and we are repeatedly exhorted to obey and follow them. So why do Christians not need to obey and follow the 10 commandments from Moses (or any other Biblical commandments for that matter)?

Romans 8:2 - ...through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set (us) free from the law of sin and death.

I believe that these commandments have been revealed by Jesus to be guidances to be obeyed only at those times when the Holy Spirit moves upon us to do so.


Ecclesiastes 3:1 - 8 - There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven--
A time to give birth and a time to die;
A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted.
A time to kill and a time to heal;
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.
A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing.
A time to search and a time to give up as lost;
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear apart and a time to sew together;
A time to be silent and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate;
A time for war and a time for peace.

I believe that they are not and cannot be commands for us to follow at all times because first of all we could not truly do so and second, many of them would then become contradictory. Instead I believe that we are to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in our minds and just follow Him.

Romans 8:3 - 14 - For...(we) do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

The mind (allowed by us to be) controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

...(for our inherently)... sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.

You, however, (should allow yourself to be) controlled...by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you....

Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it...(but instead, to live) by the Spirit (so that) you (can) put to death the misdeeds of the body...

because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

Only God's Holy Spirit is wise enough to guide and direct us safely through the dangerous spiritual battlefield that is hidden within what is called our daily lives here on earth. He's wise enough to lead us because He is all knowing and all present and all powerful in all of our affairs so nothing eludes His mind or His perceptions of our affairs.

Then when we follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and things don't seem to go well for us we can be rest assured that God has a purpose for those problems, whatever they may be. But when we follow our own course and things don't seem to be going right for us we can only berate ourselves for not listening to Him and repent of our foolishness in going down our own path.

Friday, July 18, 2008

20. Appropriating the power of God.

Christian's desire for God's power to solve their problems.

Ephesians 1:18 - 19 - I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is...the surpassing greatness of His power...

All Christians recognize and believe that God is Almighty in His very nature and well able to use His immense power to accomplish anything that He might wish to accomplish.

Psalm 62:11b - ...(for all) power belongs to God.

So, besides Christians' basic faith in Jesus to use His surpassingly great power to save them from the power of death and give them eternal life, all Christians also desire to appropriate His power to work for them to better their lives here, just as did Gideon when he wanted to see God's power manifest itself in his life.

Judges 5:13b - ...Where are all His (God's) wonders that our fathers told us about...?

Christians all believe that at any time the Lord can send focused power to solve their problems, which they themselves just don't have the ability to solve.

Zechariah 4:6 - Not by (man's) might nor by (man's) power, but by (power from) My Spirit.

So Christians universally trust in God to eventually do the things that they can't do for themselves but which they feel need to be done in order to solve their problems and / or to deliver them from their adversities.

Isaiah 59: 1 - Behold, the LORD'S hand is not so short that it cannot save...


Prerequisites for appropriating God's power.

Many Christians believe as I do, that our heavenly Father wants for us, His beloved children, to merely ask Him for the things that we need so that He can give them to us.

James 4:2b - ...you don’t have what you want because you don’t ASK God for it.

Amazingly, God promises to give His children anything at all for which they pray and ask and then believe that He has already granted to them, anything!

Mark 11:
24 - ...ALL THINGS for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you!

In these promise verses God seems to box Himself in to us. These verses seem to advise us that any Christian who prays and asks and believes for something from God will bring forth His mighty power to make that something happen!


Then why doesn't His promised power always manifest?

To find this out, more pertinent prerequisite Scriptures on the subject need to be brought into play....

James 4:3 -
[Or] you do ask [God] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with WRONG PURPOSE and EVIL, SELFISH MOTIVES.

Though God is boxing Himself in to giving us our requests, He won't grant us the powerful movements we are looking for from Him when He perceives that our asking is coming from a heart harboring selfish motives or because we're asking with wrong purposes.

So we need to be searching our hearts deeply for unrecognized selfishness which may underlie our requests and we also need to be checking for deep seated evil motives in our requests. As we become more mature in our Christian faith, we will learn to do this before we pray and ask God for any powerful movements on our behalf.

Another hindrance to receiving the power that we request from God may be that our request is just plain not within His will for us or for the circumstance.

I John 5:14 - 15 - This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL, He hears us.

And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.


More than likely the powerful movement which we have requested from the Almighty doesn't come because it just isn't something that is within His will to do for us. So we Christians are exhorted by God to cherish ALL OF HIS WORD within our minds so that thru His Word we can become better able to deduce His will for ourselves regarding the various problems in our lives. Then we can pray more properly for His power to solve them.

Deuteronomy 8:3b - ...man lives by EVERY WORD that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.

Just knowing ALL THAT HIS WORD SAYS about the various matters in our lives will lead us to improving our prayer requests for power, because then we won't ask for things that we might have asked for had we been ignorant of what His Word says about that particular matter.

John 15:
7 - "If you abide in Me, and MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Once we remove selfish, evil motives and wrong purposes from our requests and once we find His will thru the correct interpretation of His Word for a particular situation, then we are sure to receive His powerful movement which we are believing for.

This is the way in which God has led me over the years to receive so many powerful movements from Him (some of which I testify about within this blog) to solve my own problems.


God receives glory whenever we meet His criteria for receiving His power and then get it.

What many Christians don't realize is that it actually brings glory to God the Father for His son Jesus to make powerful movements on our behalf, after we have met all of His criteria to do so.

John 14:13 - 14 - Whatever you ask in My (Jesus) name, that will I do, so that THE FATHER MIGHT BE GLORIFIED in the Son.

If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

God the Father is glorified whenever Jesus makes powerful movements on our behalf whenever we ask Him to do so in His name! So, if for no other reason than to glorify the Father, the Lord Jesus certainly wants to do the powerful things for us that we request of Him.


So then, why is it that Jesus does not always do the powerful things for us that we request of Him. when we meet His criteria to do so?

Even though we may feel that we have met all of His criteria to bring forth His hand to move in some way on our behalf, why does He still not give us our requests?

Matthew 22:27 - ...You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.

In my experience I have learned to view the failure to receive anything for which I have fervently prayed, asked and believed for as actually being a powerful preliminary movement of God on my behalf! How so? Well, I have come to realize that whenever there is no apparent powerful movement on God's part to do that which He has promised and I have requested, that this failure to move is actually a powerful signal to me from God that I have not yet searched my heart enough and /or rightly interpreted the Word of God and / or truly discovered His will for that matter!

II Timothy 2:15 - Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved...correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.

Since He is boxed in by His promises to give me whatever I ask, I have learned to see His apparent failure to honor them as a strong signal to me that I need to further fix all of the above in order to determine His true will for me for that particular matter.

Revelation 3:8b - ...Behold, I have put before you an open door...because you have a little power, and have kept My word...

Whenever I have not received the big powerful movement from God which I have requested for a particular matter, my faith that God's failure to act is a powerful signal to me, is actually internal power from Him that informs me that He has established an open door for me to search further within my heart and the Scriptures to find the hidden wisdom by which to eventually bring forth His problem solving power for that matter.

Habakkuk 3:4b - ...there is the hiding of His power.

Let me say it another way - the wisdom of interpreting the fact that I have not been given that power which I'm looking for from God - is actually a powerful signal to me to see if I can find more Scriptures that might apply to that particular situation, so that my faith in these new verses might then bring forth His power. Failure to receive therefore, is an automatic call from God for me to search for the power Scripture(s) that fit that particular situation.

Luke 1:37 - ...for no word from God shall be without power...

Let me give you an example - one time I was ministering the Word to a wonderful, devout older lady of the Catholic faith in her home. She was telling me that there were a number of issues about which she had been praying for years and years but they still remained unresolved and they were bothersome enough to her to make her doubt God at times.

So the first thing that I felt led to ask her was if she was submissive to her husband. Over the years I have come to believe that female submission is one of a woman's prerequisites for receiving power from God and I wondered if failure on her part to be submissive was hindering her prayers, especially because I knew that her husband was a rather difficult man.

She answered by telling me that she was from the old school, therefore she believed that God wanted women to be very submissive to their husbands, pretty much no matter what. This was a good answer that led me to ask her if she symbolized her submissive attitude by praying in church with her head covered as old school Catholics did? She said that she did not because no one in her church did that anymore therefore she didn't think that it mattered.


So I read to her the part of I Corinthians 11 wherein the head covering is described as a symbol of female submission to God, His holy angels and man and therefore it is described as a source of supernatural power from God thru His angels for her (this is a controversial interpretation of this section of Scripture).

II Peter 2:11 - ...angels who are greater (than humans) in might and power...

Then I suggested that in the future she might try praying about her issues with her head covered to symbolize her submissiveness to her husband and to her guardian angels.


Numbers 11:23 - ..."Is the LORD'S power limited? Now you shall see whether My word will come true for you or not...

So she put on a head covering the very next time she was in church and immediately a series of rapid fire events occurred within her life to resolve for the better all of the issues about which she had been praying!

The next time I saw her she was rejoicing about all of her new-found good fortune and claiming that she'd never pray again without her shawl on her head, in or out of church. She also declared that she was going to read the Bible now for herself (something most Catholics don't do and are not encouraged to do) and that she was also telling all of her friends about the head covering and some of them had already tried it and had reported similar powerful results!


I Corinthians 2:5 - ...so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

Here, this woman was given the particular power Scripture that God wanted her and her friends to learn and believe for these particular life situations of theirs. This was a Scripture that they did not know, but it was the one that this ancient tradition of their church had been predicated upon and that they were now willing to retry.

When they did this God moved rapidly and powerfully on their behalf to substantiate their timid, initial faith in following it.

II Timothy 1: 7 - For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power...

His powerful movements in all of their lives proved to these women that by being submissive to their husbands and by symbolically declaring this to God and His angels in covering their heads in public prayer, they would get power from the angels to solve some of their problems. They learned that they should have faith in I Corinthians 11 and stick to this church tradition as being truly from God, not from men.

I Corinthians 11:2 - Now I praise you because you...hold firmly to the (Biblical, not men's) traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

This testimony shows that we will not find His power for a situation if we don't yet know and haven't yet studied and believed all of the pertinent Scriptures regarding it. God sent me as His vessel and mouthpiece to this righteous woman in honor of her faithfulness to Him and her obedience of Him in being submissiveness to her difficult husband whom He had given her.

My job was to show her the open door that He had for her to now solve some of her more persistent problems.


Teachings of knowledge, wisdom and understanding often precede receipt of miraculous powers

I have learned in my own many failures to actually receive asked for and promised powers from God for particular problems (after searching my heart for evil and having sought out, found and correctly interpreted all of the pertinent Scriptures that I could about those problems) that God has been faithful to bring forth a powerful teaching movement upon me from His Holy Spirit to comfort me with an explanation as to why that power had not yet come forth.

John 14:26 - But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf],

He will teach you all things.


I have found that when I am frustrated by some failure on God's part to do that for which I have asked and expected Him to do, His will for that situation at that time is to teach me the underlying reason as to why He didn't move on my behalf. This knowledge then gives me His inner man power to overcome my frustration with Him and to patiently endure the situation's unresolved duration.

Proverbs 24:5b - ...a man of knowledge increases (his inner man) power.

God's Holy Spirit is also faithful to enter into intercessory prayer with the Father God for me while I am going thru this usually miserable state of affairs.

Romans 8:26b - ...we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us...

Somewhere along this path He comforts me by reminding me that His ways are much better than mine, even though at the time, I can't yet see how or why they are better for that particular matter.

Isaiah 55:8 - 9 - For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

He also comforts me with the thought that His power to solve my problems is as nothing to Him, a mere snap of His mighty fingers so to speak, compared to the exertion of so much of His mighty power during the creation.

Isaiah 40:26 - Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars - the One who leads forth their host by number! He calls them all by name; because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power.

His comforting Holy Spirit takes me into a mental place wherein I gain His perspective of things. There, He reminds me that He can solve any of my problems at any time but for good reasons of His own, He has not yet chosen to do so.

Job 38:4 - 11 - Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who set its measurements? ...Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Or who enclosed the sea with doors when... I placed boundaries on it and set a bolt and doors, and I said, "Thus far you shall come, but no farther; and here shall your proud waves stop"?

Wow! These awe inspiring thoughts of His immense power to accomplish such huge things become a soothing mental balm to my emotional hurt when He hasn't yet done the small miraculous thing that I am seeking for Him to do for me. These thoughts elevate me beyond my tiny little problems into the enormity of His almighty power!

Psalm 66:3b - ...How awesome are Your works...because of the (fantastic) greatness of Your power...

Especially when a difficult situation is long lasting and I am getting weary with it (as my faith is tried over and over again in it) and as I wait upon Him to bring forth some powerful solution for it.

Isaiah 40:29 - He gives (inner) strength to the weary and to him who lacks might He increases power.

In order to humble me so that I am mentally ready for one of His powerful movements, the Holy Spirit also shames me into realizing my own inevitable hidden self-centeredness in the matter.

Genesis 4:6 -7 - ...why do you look sad and depressed and dejected? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.

He reminds me that mastering my sinful ego in a matter can only be done by seeking His humility because the desire for self-inflation is always present in any of my requests for power.

Romans 7:21b - ...when I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

One way He teaches me to accept a difficult situation until He moves powerfully to fix it is by reminding me of Shadrack's, Meshack's and Abednego's faith to the death in God's power to deliver them.

Daniel 3:17 - 18 - our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

BUT EVEN IF HE DOES NOT
, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up (even though it may mean our gruesome death!)."

These 3 men didn't feel that they had to receive power from God to overcome the terrible difficulty of their immediate imminent death by fire because they believed that He had the power to protect them in death if He didn't save them from it.

I Peter 1:4b - 5a - ...you...are protected (whether in this life or thru death) by the power of God through faith...

This explains why did He not save the many Christian martyrs that the Romans fed to the lions when obviously they had met His criteria for Him to powerfully answer their desperate prayers to do so.

Hebrews 11: 13 - All these died in faith, without receiving the promises...

God approved of their dying faith but for reasons of His own, which we cannot possibly fully understand even to this day, He did not elect to answer their requests to spare their lives from this terrible suffering.

Hebrews 11:39 - 40 - And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, because God had provided something better...

All they knew at the time was that if God did not answer their prayers for deliverance, He must have something better awaiting them in heaven. Empathizing with them and their terrible suffering in not receiving the promises from God for deliverance, humbles me.

And God goes on to remind me of all of the Hall of Faith heroes mentioned in Hebrews 11 who, on this earth, never did receive all that He had promised them.

Hebrew 11:13a - All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.

The Holy Spirit also humbles me by reminding me of Job's terrible suffering and his contrite, accepting attitude when he realizes that God might never restore him back to his accustomed health and wealth on this earth.

Job 1:15 - Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him.

All of these verses explaining God's failure to act on people's behalf even though He has apparently boxed Himself in to do so, are brought to my remembrance by the Holy Spirit to humble me. In this manner I may become fit to receive His mighty power for a situation, should it become His will to send it to me here on this earth.

James 4:6b - God...gives (power thru) grace [continually] to the lowly (who, thru their humility, will be able to receive it)

The Holy Spirit brings me into remembrance of the principles of these kinds of verses to reaffirm to me that He is powerfully working on things much better for me than I can yet perceive.

Isaiah 50:2b - ...have I no power to deliver?

Remembrance of these verses eases my internal mental struggle over His apparent failure to move as I have requested for Him to move and as He has promised me in His Word that He will move for me.

John 14:26 - the Helper, the Holy Spirit... will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance ALL that I said (in the Word of God).

The remembrance of all of these humbling thoughts from God's Word helps me to put my call upon Him to honor His promises to me into the proper, eternal perspective where it belongs.

Colossians 1:10 - 12 ...so that (I) will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;

strengthened with all power (in my inner man), according to His glorious might,

for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father (even and especially when He does not give me that for which I ask)...(personalized)


These humbling thoughts also work together to give me a more powerful faith than I have had before, whenever I am called by God to patiently wait upon Him to powerfully move on my behalf.

Ephesians 3:14 - 16 - For this reason I bow my knees before the Father...that He...(has)...granted me...to be strengthened with power through His Spirit - in my inner man...(personalized)

This humble acceptance of any bad situation until God decides to move is actually His Holy Spirit power already being manifested to me within my inner being!

Luke 4:14 - ...in the power of the Spirit...

My belief from Him in all of these verses is His manifested power within me by which for me to be strong and powerful minded about my unresolved problems and to not whine, whimper or turn away from Him over not getting a requested miracle from Him that I requested to solve them.

Psalm 68:35b - ...God...Himself gives strength and power to the people.

This self control truly is to me, His Holy Spirit given, inner man power and strength!

Acts 1: 8 - ...but you will receive (not only outward but also inner) power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you...(personalized)

His power is manifested to me, not in granting me the powerful movements for which I have been seeking, but rather in strengthening me within my inner being to endure my difficulties until He does or until I'm in heaven!

Ephesians 6:10a - be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]...

With this power of His within me, I can humbly and patiently do the good work of waiting upon Him to move in the way that I have asked or to move in a much better way than I can yet envision, to solve my problems.

Colossians 1: 29 - For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

The following is a true story told to me by a Christian of whom I know which well describes this entire process at work.

This Christian man's wife started and owned their family business and when he joined it she looked to him to lead and run it for her. He did this and did this well because they became quite profitable. He was her 3rd husband and she was his 2nd wife so she had children when he married her. When her oldest boy turned 16 she had him employ the boy and she gave him a very good rate of pay for a person his age.

But the boy resented his step-father because he always believed that his own biological father would have been a much better father for him to have around. The boy wanted a father who would be his companion to hunt and fish with him but this step-father was a city person and too much involved in their business to do things like that with him. Besides, he did not really enjoy doing those outdoor things and would not have been good at them.

So, because of the boy's inherent resentment of his step-father and his upset with his mother for marrying him, he dragged his feet in all of his work, arriving late and leaving as early as possible while being pretty uncooperative. But he was always right there to get his big paycheck on Friday afternoons.

The other employees who were doing their jobs well all grumbled and complained to this man about the boy's poor work behavior because they had to do his work when he didn't do it. So the man went to his wife and explained the situation to her. But she responded by accusing him of picking on the poor kid. This wasn't true but that's how she chose to see it because she was projecting upon this man a fear of abuse of this boy, because her 2nd husband had abused him.

The man went back to her a number of times to try to convince her that she was wrong about the matter telling her that the boy needed to go and work somewhere else until he matured enough to appreciate what they were doing for him. But she still reacted in the same manner, being overly protective of the boy. Nothing he would say could change her mind.

So finally, after months of arguing about this matter the man gave up on trying to reason with her any further and just prayed it out and left it all at God's throne. He then took the humble attitude that until God moved he would just endure the situation, even if it never changed!

Psalm 54:1b - ...(Oh Lord,) vindicate me by Your power.

Though his wife was wrong about him in the whole matter, he loved her deeply and he desired no further arguments with her over the boy. So he resigned himself to permanently suffering in the situation so that they could stay loving towards one another.

John 15:13 - No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life...

The man sensed the boy gloating at his powerlessness to deal with him but he loved his wife enough to even endure that! He just resigned himself to the boy's bad behavior and hoped that eventually the boy would grow up or that she'd open her eyes to realize what was going on.

Numbers 12:2c - 4a - ...the LORD heard it (someone poorly speaking of God's man). Now the man...was very humble more than any man...Suddenly the LORD...(moved on his behalf)...

When this man reached the point where he humbly resigned himself to accepting this abuse for the rest of his life, then he was humble enough for the Lord to move on his behalf, which He did rapidly and powerfully in bringing about a series of events which righted this very wrong situation.

Isaiah 51:22 - 23 - This is what the Sovereign Lord, your God and Defender, says: “See, I have taken the terrible cup from your hands. You will drink no more of (it).

Instead, I will hand that cup to your tormentors, those who said, ‘We will trample you into the dust and walk on your backs.’”


About 3 a.m. one Saturday morning the man and his wife received a phone call from the police telling them that their company vehicle, which the boy was using that Friday night, was sitting on a knocked down light pole on the edge of town with no driver anywhere to be found. The police said that there was blood on the steering wheel and they were searching the surrounding corn fields to see if the driver had staggered off and passed out! They suspected drunken driving because of empty beer cans in the car and they thought that the driver must have hit his head on the steering wheel at impact, leaving blood on it. The police told them that they had notified the local hospitals to report to them if anyone came in with a head injury.

So he and his wife immediately dressed and drove over to the place of the accident. Having by then conducted a thorough search of the area, the police found no one. So the man's wife became deeply distraught about the situation and very worried about the boy's well-being. But at the same time she was angry with the boy because he had already had a number of traffic problems and a couple of accidents resulting in their insurance company warning her that one more incident from him would cancel their policy.Consequently, she had put the boy on notice to be very careful whenever he was in the company car.

Therefore, she was quite upset about the incident because not only was her son possibly severely injured somewhere but
, so as to avoid being dropped by them, she would now have to pay big-time for everything involved so as to not report it to the insurance company.

So, they arranged to have the car towed to a repair facility and got the information they needed to determine the cost from the city to repair its light pole. They then went back home hoping that he was ok and that he had just fled the scene to avoid be given a DUI ticket from the police. They both hoped that he would soon call to allay their fears and let them know where he was and if he had been severely injured.

However, they did not receive a call from him that night or the next day, or the next, or the next? But the next day his younger brother told them that he had been in touch with him and that he was only scratched up, otherwise he was fine. His mother asked why he was avoiding her and his brother told her that he had secretly purchased a motorcycle months ago and that he was on it on his way to another state to find his biological father!

Well, she was dead set against any of her children having or riding motorcycles because they were so dangerous, so his disobedience in buying one and now driving it all the way to another state plus the fact that he did not call her to inform her of his condition made her become very angry with him. Her fears for his well-being were now completely replaced by very strong anger towards him. So she told her husband that because of the car accident and his behavior towards her that she had decided that he was just too irresponsible to come back to work at the company!

Isaiah 8:11 - ...the LORD spoke to ...(this man in this event) with mighty power...

This man was very pleased about this turn of events and felt that he saw God's mighty hand bringing it about for him.

Meanwhile, the boy did not call his mother for a couple of months. But during that time he told his brother that he had found his biological father and that they were having a grand time hunting and fishing together and that he liked his father's wife and that he considered the two of them to be a better family for him than the family of his own mother and step-father!

When this man's wife heard this, she hit the roof, declaring that the boy was a lazy, ungrateful son and did not deserve all that she had done for him or to have such a good step-father like her husband!

I Chronicles 29:12 - in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great...

Wow! It just kept getting better and better for this man! Everything about which he had argued for months with her concerning the boy and which she had rejected was now coming out of her own mouth!

Luke 5:17c - ...the power of the Lord was present...

When the man heard her say all of this, all that he could see was God's mighty power working on his behalf to exonerate him and establish his own goodness in the affair.

I Peter 5:6 - Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Well, finally she got a call from the boy, asking if he could come back home? She asked him why he wanted to do that since his other family was so wonderful? He then told her that at first that was what he thought. But his biological father was a biker and had a biker bar and a couple of dangerous events had happened to him there. He confessed that his father had not been at all protective of him in these situations and had left him to fend for himself.

He also felt that the man was a rip-off, having cheated him out of some labor money on a job that he was to be paid for and out of some other money on a purchase that he made from him. Then He declared that he knew his stepfather would never do those kind of things to him and he was sorry about the way he had treated him and he had now come to appreciate him.


Luke 10: 19 - "Behold, I have given you authority...over all the power of the enemy.

So she told him that he could come home but that she would not employ him again until he matured enough to be a worthwhile employee (which did not happen for 4 long years).

Thru these mighty events God substantiated this man's advice and counsel to his wife about the boy while He also worked on the boy to show him the truth about his biological father and about this man being a benevolent step-father.

Psalm 145: 6 - Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts...

This man joked with me about this chain of events, declaring that he came to realize that he could have tied them both up and beaten them half to death with whips and chains and never, no never have gotten any of these changes done within their minds. But God, in His wisdom and knowledge of all of their hearts, mightily accomplished this seemingly impossible task in ways of which he, in a million, billion, trillion years could never have thought or dreamed!

II Peter 1:3a - ...His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us...

The true knowledge of God for this situation was that God engineered this situation so that He could display His mighty power to the man.

Exodus 9:16 - for this reason I have allowed you (the stubborn wife) to remain (stubborn), in order to show...My power.

God had called this man to first love his wife above himself even though she was being evil towards him by stubbornly and falsely accusing him. Then his self sacrificial love for her forced him into a position of weakness in regards to her and the boy, a situation where the devil, using his step-son, could mock him. But because of the man's love, humility and persistent patience in that weak and abused position, God could then exerted His power on his behalf.

Luke 24:49 - "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but...(wait)...until you are clothed with power from on high."

To the man later, his suffering in the situation seemed similar in a way to Christ's own saving work for everyone on the cross, because even though Jesus endured much pain, everyone involved was eventually saved from this evil.

II Corinthians 13:4 - For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God, for we also are weak in Him, yet we will live with Him because of the power of God.

God's wise and mighty power for the situation worked perfectly to solve all of their problems in this situation in one fell swoop of powerful events!

II Corinthians 12:9 - for (His) power is perfected in (my) weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

All this man could see at first was the evil being directed towards him by the boy and his wife's evil reaction. He didn't really sympathize with the evil position that his wife's fear of the boy's abuse forced her into (by Satan). And because of his own misery at the boy's hand, he didn't empathize with the boy's pain at not having his real father when he felt that he needed him. But Jesus saw all of this and knew just what to wisely do to right all of these wrongs.

I Corinthians 1:23 - ...Christ; the power of God and the wisdom of God.

In God's brilliance, He used Satan's temporary victory over each of them to humble this good man before He would bring forth His mighty power for this complicated situation's solution.

Jeremiah 32: 17 - Ah Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You!

Then He brought forth His wise and mighty power to bring about the events that solved these problems.

Matthew 6:13 - For Thine is...the power...

He brought it forth thru this man's heartfelt prayer and his faithful and humble eventual release to Him of the problem.

Romans 15:18 - ...what Christ has accomplished through (him)...in the power of the Spirit...(personalized)

This beautiful, powerful solution to this complicated problem led all 3 of these people into a new and much better (in a way even heavenly) relationship which they did not have before Satan brought these problems forth.

I Corinthians 14:22 - For the kingdom of heaven (within us) consists not in word but in power.

God never said, "No - period" to the man's request for deliverance from this family problem, He instead said, "No, not now because in the future I have something better for you. For now just humble yourself to the situation and wait upon Me to move on your behalf."

Romans 8: 18 - ...consider...(your) present sufferings...not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed...(personalized)

All the while God gave Satan the power to continue to uphold this bad situation until this suffering man got into the right place of humility and under the right Scriptural principles for God's problem solving power to gloriously manifest.

Hebrews 1:3 - ...He...upholds all things by the Word of His power...

He had to turn from his own evil, argumentative way in order to get Jesus to deal powerfully to solve their problems.

II Corinthians 4:6 -
7 - For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power (for all of our problems) will be of God and not from ourselves.


When this man turned away from using the evil of anger and argumentation in his efforts to correct his wife and instead humbled himself and prayed and sought for God and God alone to solve the problem, then God moved wisely and powerfully on his behalf.

II Chronicles 7:14 - If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their (spiritual) land (their situations).

Can it not truly be said about the verse above, that in this circumstance...

Hebrew 4:12 - ...the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]

This is how I feel that I have been led by God to teach everyone to find the power of God to solve their immediate problems. When God doesn't move immediately on our behalf we need to see this failure to move as a demonstration of His Spirit and an adequate dose of His power for us to believe that He will reward us with better things for enduring our problems now, in the future and into eternity.

I Corinthians 2:4 - and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.

God hides his powerful movements from us until He has accomplished everything that He wants to accomplish in our difficult situations, then He reveals His power to solve them.

Habakkuk 3:4b - ...there is the hiding of His power.

I believe that Jesus has given me this unusual teaching as a gift of His mighty grace and that He wants me to here record it for others.

Jeremiah 30:2 - Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Write all the words that I have spoken to you...

I believe that the Lord wants this teaching to be a gift to all of you who read it just as it was to me.

Ephesians 3:7 - I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

I believe that all of the power of this teaching comes from Him and Him alone.

Luke 6:19 - ...power was coming from Him...

It is yours because of your belief in the pertinence of the here a little, there a little Scriptural interpretations that have been used here.

Isaiah 28:9 - 10 - "To whom would He teach knowledge, and to whom would He interpret the message? "For He says...a little here, a little there.'"

Even though I know none of you personally who read this, it is my prayer that you will begin to incorporate this teaching into your own affairs.

II Thessalonians 1:11 - 12 - To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling,

and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power,

so that the name of our Lord Jesus will be glorified in you...


I pray that this teaching of always getting what we ask for or getting something better in the future with which He has blessed me, benefits all whom God brings here.

Ephesians 1:18 - 19 - I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know

...what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

(This is) in accordance with the working of the strength of His might.

This teaching can become a mighty spiritual weapon for you to utilize in your own lives' spiritual battles.

II Corinthians 10:4 - 5 - for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God...

I believe that this is an apostolic teaching because of its powerful substantiating verses and testimonies and because of its great hidden power for Christians.

Acts 4: 33 - ...and with great power the apostles were giving testimony

I believe that thru your belief in this teaching, you too can experience many powerful movements of God thru your prayers. Then, just as did Moses, you will find that God will give you the power to perform awesome wonders.

Exodus 4:21 - ...see that you perform...all of the wonders which I have put in your power...

Always remember that God can and will do what we ask from Him or that He will be forced by all of His promises found within His Word to always and only do something better for us than we could think of to ask of Him.

Phillipians 3:21 - by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

This is the true box in which I believe that our good God has placed Himself! When you ask for something He must give it to you or He must eventually do something better for you that will completely offset your long suffering as you patiently wait forthat for which you asked!

Ephesians 3:20 - 21 - Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Friday, April 25, 2008

19. God speaks to us thru miracles

We have discussed signs and wonders and healings which are miracles whereby, in their own way, God speaks to us.

Here we will discuss and testify to many other kinds of miraculous events like angelic appearances, super strength, prayerfully overcoming powerful thugs and rapists, unexpected monetary blessings, etc.

These subjects will then conclude my teaching on the ways in which God speaks to us.

Thank you.

18. God speaks to us thru trial-and-error.

In the book of Acts, it is pointed out that Paul sought God's will for his next ministerial move by using the trial and error method.

Acts 16:6 - 8 - Then they passed thru Phrygia and the Galatian region, having been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the Word in Asia.

And having come down to the borders of Mysia, by a trial and error method they kept on attempting to discover whether it was right to go to Bithynia. But the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them to do so...(Wuest's Expanded Translation of the New Testament)

One way to discover God's will in a matter is to try to do what seems right to you but at the same time, to be fully prepared to back off from it if God should send some kind of a hindrance to point out your error.

The story of Balaam and his donkey (Numbers 22 thru 24) is a great example of God speaking by sending hindrances to a man, to try to correct his misguided course of action. Had he not been so stubborn in his evil course, he would have seen these hindrances as God's signal of error in his actions and he would have backed away from them. But he didn't, so later he paid the price of his own death for that stubborn pursuit of an erroneous pathway (Joshuah 13:22).



Thank you.

17. God speaks to us thru 2 or more witnesses.

II Corinthians 13:1b - ...every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

God has elected to occasionally speak to us thru the agreeing testimony of more than one witness.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 - 12 -Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?
And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

When Jesus was being tried by the Sanhedrin, no two agreeing witnesses could be found because the devil and his forces are so divisive that they cannot agree on anything, even something as important to him as prosecuting Jesus Christ.

Mark 14:55 - 59 - Now the chief priests and the whole Council kept trying to obtain testimony against Jesus to put Him to death, and they were not finding any. For many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent.

Some stood up and began to give false testimony against Him, saying,
"We heard Him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will build another made without hands.'"

Not even in this respect was their testimony consistent.

So, God can elect speak to us thru the consistent testimony of two or more witnesses to give us the truth on some matters.

Thank you.

16. God speaks to us thru many counselors

Wise counselors are men and women who are given special insights by God to be good advisers on certain issues. These people are made available by God to those making decisions in life so that they may choose wise and prudent courses of action for their affairs which will better them and as many of those involved with them as possible.

Proverbs 15:22 - Without consultation, plans are frustrated, but with many counselors they succeed.

Wise people will seek out, carefully listen to and then seriously consider the advice of all of those that they can find who might be knowledgeable of their circumstances and needs.

Proverbs 11: 14 -Without good direction, people lose their way; the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances.

They will realize that God Himself could be using the mouths of any of these advisers to enlighten them about and to wisely guide them thru their affairs of life. So, in this manner God can speak to the wise.


15. God speaks to us thru all of our authorities

John 19:11 - ...You would not have any power or authority whatsoever...if it were not given you from above.

According to Jesus, all human power and authority comes down from God. It is distributed to each according to God's will, which all know can be so inscrutable.

Isaiah 55:8 - For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

So God says in His Word that we are to position ourselves under all of the authorities and powers which He places over us so that he may richly bless us and not punish us.

Romans 13:
1 - 7 - Let every person be loyally subject to the governing (civil) authorities. For there is no authority except from God [by His permission, His sanction], and those that exist do so by God's appointment.

Therefore he who resists and sets himself up against the authorities resists what God has appointed and arranged [in divine order]. And those who resist will bring down judgment upon themselves [receiving the penalty due them]

For civil authorities are not a terror to [people of] good conduct, but to [those of] bad behavior. Would you have no dread of him who is in authority? Then do what is right and you will receive his approval and commendation. For he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, [you should dread him and] be afraid, for he does not bear and wear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant to execute His wrath (punishment, vengeance) on the wrongdoer.

Therefore one must be subject, not only to avoid God's wrath and escape punishment, but also as a matter of principle and for the sake of conscience.

God constantly works in the lives of men and women thru the powers and authorities which He places over us thru Divinely ordained life circumstances. This is a huge subject and one to which, over time, I will keep adding more Scriptures and testimonies. Suffice to say for now that we need to see anyone who is over us in any way (even if that person or those people are being difficult to deal with) as being a divinely ordained minister for our good!

So, learn to hear God speaking to you in the words and actions of any of your authorities including all civil authorities and...

parents

older relatives

older siblings

your boss(es) at work

any administrator(s) over you

your church officers

etc.

In fact, Jesus admonished us to go so far as to consider ourselves as being servants of all if we wished to be great in God's sight!




14. God speaks to us in healings.

I Corinthians 4: 20 - For the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power.

God is actually speaking to us in power, not in words, whenever He brings about a miraculous healing. By giving us a powerful healing He is telling us that He exists and He is helping us. In the book of Acts a number of miraculous healings and even some resurrections from the dead are described. In every case, the observers of the miraculous event confessed that they saw God's working in it. So, can it not be said that God spoke to them in power in these events?

One time I was visiting my mother and she mentioned to me about how she had lost most of her pep recently and she was becoming very distraught about it. So I responded that I would pray for her to get it back but in the meantime, perhaps she should go to a doctor for a checkup.

A couple of days later I was visiting her again and she exclaimed to me how the next morning after I told her that I would pray for her, all of her old pep came back! We both saw this as a miracle from God and rejoiced together in it. To me this was a wonderful, welcome message from God, saying to her that...


Hebrews 11:6b - ...He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him.

Another time a woman who worked with me told me that her mother-in-law was seriously ill and riddled with cancer and that she was about to be operated upon the next day. She then told me how much she valued and appreciated her mother-in-law and could not imagine life without her and she was terrified that she would die soon. She told me that the whole family revolved around her wonderful goodness and that her loss would be a disaster for all of them. So I asked her if she could believe that God would heal her?

She responded that she believed that of course God could do it but she did not have any faith that He would do it. So I asked her if she could just have faith that He might heal her. "Yes" she said, she could believe
that He might heal her but not that He would for sure heal her. So we prayed together in agreement on that, humbly asking God if He might heal her.

James 4:6b - God...gives grace to the humble.

The day after the operation she came to work rejoicing. She said that when the surgeon opened her mother-in-law up there was not one trace of any cancer being present. He even asked the hospital personnel if they had the right woman on his operating table!

Deuteronomy 32:39b -
...I wound, and I heal...

We both saw this as an event in which God spoke to us in power.

Here is another example of the Lord speaking to us in the power of a miraculous healing.

A lady that I know of had very sore knees. She thought that it was arthritis but I sensed that perhaps a demon was in them. So boldly I commanded
the demon to come out of her knees in the name of Jesus and instantly the pain left them. Then I encouraged her to get up and walk around. She did so, no longer hindered in any way.

Again, God spoke to us in the miraculous removal of her pain and discomfort saying that demons can immobilize people but God can remove them. The Lord speaks to us in every healing (or any other miracle for that matter) but He speaks in power, not in words because the kingdom of God consists in power. We just need to learn to hear Him in His manifested power.



13. God speaks to us thru the casting of lots.

Proverbs 16:33 - The lot is cast into the lap, but the decision is wholly of the Lord [even the events that seem accidental are really ordered by Him].

Is the flipping of coins a viable way to hear from God today? David used something similar (the Urim and the Thumim) to repeatedly inquire of God as to when or how to do battle.

The priests would use
this device to determine the guilt or innocence of parties to crimes unseen by humans.

The first apostles resorted to the lot to inquire of God
as to which of the accompanying disciples was to replace Judas and become known as one of the twelve apostles.

Acts 1:26 - And they drew lots [between the two], and the lot fell on Matthias

In my own life I feel that I have been moved by the Lord to utilize the casting of lots to help me to find God's will for many, many different events. I have cast lots hundreds of times over the past 25 years of ministry using the yes or no answer symbolized by a coin flip of heads or tails.

However, in order to be sure that God truly wanted to so speak to me whenever I felt moved to cast a lot on an issue, the first coin flip was to ask Him if He did want to so speak to me (heads = yes, tails = no). Whenever I received a tails = no answer to that first coin flip I would then proceed the hard way
to act in that event about which I was inquiring. I took that path in order to be sure that I was not self gratifying in my actions.

If I was given the heads = yes answer to go ahead cast another lot on the issue and then I received a tails = no answer, I did the same thing. If I received a heads = yes answer to my query, I would proceed down that path and if it was the easier path I would proceed without fear of self gratification. Either way, in following this procedure, I always reached peace about the matter of which I was inquiring and I always ended up blessed in my subsequent actions.


I do not recommend this method of seeking God's will to anyone who is not absolutely wholehearted to do His will. Remember that after Saul ceased to be sold out to God, he could no longer find the Lord's will thru his use of the Urim and the Thummim!

I Samuel 28:4 - 6 - So the Philistines gathered together and came and camped in Shunem; and Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped in Gilboa.

When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly.

When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets.

Also remember that we are not fighting enemies of flesh and blood but we are standing against evil enemies of the spirit world who wish to misdirect us in all of our affairs. So, tools like this one and others like dreams and visions appear like foolishness to the worldly wise who have fallen into their mind trap. But they are actually brilliantly designed faith weapons from God which in certain circumstances are the only means that God will use to show us to not fall for their misdirections!

Never underestimate any of these spiritual devices and not utilize or follow them or you may be very sorry!

12. God speaks to us thru signs and wonders.

God may elect at any time to speak to His believers thru signs and wonders that He will create by which for them to believe more strongly in Him. Signs and wonders are only for believers and they accompany the correct preaching and teaching of God's Word.

Mark 16:20b - ..the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.

Like sign posts on a road they can become remembrance points in our lives to remind us of His directions to us for some of our affairs. The following testimonies about signs and wonders from God are in that vein.


Marriage within God's will.

This is a story about a prophetic sign God that gave to one of the brethren in our home fellowship when he was struggling over marrying within God's will.

One evening a few of the brethren and I were driving on a toll road just outside of Chicago coming back from a fruitful ministry in southern Wisconsin. One of the brothers was contemplating marriage to a girl who did not believe in Jesus as her personal Savior. So he asked us whether he should marry her unsaved and then work on her salvation or whether he should wait until she was saved before he married her.

We discussed the pros and the cons of unequal yoking for a while then we all prayed together for guidance. Just as we opened our eyes, we found ourselves driving up to a huge roadside commercial billboard that was emblazoned with lights that announced in the darkness -

ZENITH - THE QUALITY GOES IN BEFORE THE NAME GOES ON!

Immediately it entered my mind and I told him that I felt that this billboard was a sign from God to him.

Habakkuk 2:2 - "Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance...(the Living Bible)

I felt that we had been guided by God to see this message as applying to his situation, just after we prayed about the matter.

Hebrews 4:12 - for the word of God is living and active...

I felt that God was speaking a word right to him thru the billboard, telling him that in order for him to have a zenith marriage, a really top quality marriage, he should first make sure that the girl was saved before he married her, whereby she would assume his name!

Habakkuk 2:2 - Write it out in big block letters so that it can be read on the run.
This vision-message is a witness - pointing to what's coming... (the Message Bible).

I also told him that I felt that the billboard's bright lights were a sign that when he did this, he'd have a wonderful marriage in the darkness of so many bad marriages occurring in our times.


He looked with huge eyes at that sign and he heard my interpretation of it and he knew in his heart that this was a prophetic word to him from God and that my interpretation of it was right. But he still struggled because he wanted to get married to her as soon as possible in order to vent his incessant passions.

Habakkuk 2:3 - It aches for the coming—it can hardly wait! And it doesn't lie.
If it seems slow in coming, just wait. It's on its way. It will come right on time (the Message Bible).

He knew in his heart and was convicted that he was being called by God to wait for Him to do His saving work with her, even though it might be a painful, long wait for him. Finally, he quit struggling against the message and agreed that he would wait for her salvation to happen first, before proposing marriage to her.


As he confessed this, I felt moved to expound to him that sometimes Jesus, as the master fisherman, uses an attractive man or woman as bait to allure a potential mate into their salvation. He uses that unsaved person's unfulfilled desires which are pressing upon them (just as they are upon the saved person), to cause him or her to really listen to the gospel message coming forth from that strongly desired but resistant, potential Christian mate.

God then led me to go on and mention to him that on the other hand, He may want to use some other minister to do the job of leading that unbeliever to Christ, while the saved potential mate stonewalls and suffers and waits, because any suffering on the part of one of the Father's dear children moves strongly upon Him to deliver that child from it.


Forgiveness

Here's another example of a wonderful message from God given in a sign that could be read on the run...

One day I was very upset with myself because I had accidentally betrayed a confidence with my uncontrolled mouth. Ever since I was a young person I had always talked too much and over the years as a Christian I felt that I had been getting this problem under control. But this night, as I drove along, I was under great conviction about this still recurring flaw and I was bawling like a baby before the Lord about it and its consequences. Suddenly a car pulled right in front of me and my tear filled eyes fell upon its license plate which said -

IEXCUSU

At the sight of those words and the realization that they were a sign to me, sent from God; a prophetic word by which He was reassuring me and comforting me, all of my tears of repentance turned into tears of joy.

Then I began praising God for this wonderful message of forgiveness to me in my heartfelt distress. I also began pondering and then marveling at all that He had to do in order to to put that particular car with that particular license plate right in front of me at that particular moment! Truly this sign on the run was a wonder for me to behold!


Deliverance and Freedom

This is a major testimony of a convergence of many signs and wonders that were in the spirit of Moses in Egypt sent to announce the deliverance of an entire fellowship from personal and financial bondage!


A new apostle of whom I know was married to a woman who went to church and to Bible studies with him for a year or so. But after she confessed to him that she felt the call from God to tithe, she then resisted that call, hardened her heart and abandoned all of their Bible studies together and her church attendance.

She claimed to be a Christian herself just as he was, but insisted that she wanted to just stay a normal Catholic (which she claimed was a nationality, not just a religion). She wanted to be able to smoke and drink and have good times with her friends and keep all of their money for her own purposes.


I Timothy 6:10 - for the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith...


So it wasn't long before the devil had her mocking and ridiculing him about his continued growing faith in the Word of God. She said that she felt that he was going way off the deep end with his Biblical religion. She said this because, he had confided to her about his apostolic calling and how he was experiencing many of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit and a whole variety of signs and wonders. The devil now firmly ensconced within her snidely asked him which apostle he felt that he was; Peter, Paul, James or John?


This couple had been struggling financially for a long time and they were just beginning to prosper in their business. So she did not want to give away any of their new-found prosperity into tithing. Therefore, in order to continue to justify herself and fight off God's call to her, she would constantly negate any and all of her husband's testimonies of God's workings in his life by attributing them to pure coincidence or to his imagination or to chance.

When someone she knew very well had a doctor certified healing from cancer right after that person had prayed for a healing with her husband, she said to him that he just got lucky?!? So her hardened heart just kept getting harder and harder towards him and towards God.
One day she encountered a Catholic priest who, upon hearing her complaint about him, told her that he had ministered for years in a religious psychiatric institution and that he had seen much of this kind of apostle-delusion and that it was invariably incurable. He informed her that, from what she was telling him, he felt that her husband was probably going into this same kind of delusional psychosis.So she latched onto that opinion to further justify herself against him and then she secretly began divorce proceedings.

In the meantime, his life with her just got more and more difficult and bitter, which led him to pray long and hard for God to improve their situation and show him how best to deal with her until things did get better.


Ecclesiastes 7:26a - ...more bitter than death is the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains.


One day a freak hailstorm hit their neighborhood and big hailstones shattered all of the front windows in their house. She told him that she was at home alone when it happened and the shattering windows frightened her so badly that she hid behind the sofa in terror until the storm passed!


Next, a small plague of fruit flies which she could not eradicate infested their kitchen for a while. After that he came upon about 20 or so small dead frog carcasses on the floor in his daughter's bedroom! When he showed them to his wife and asked her where these could have come from she told him that unbeknownst to him their daughter had bought some tadpoles. She said that the child probably forgot about them and they must have grown big enough to jump out of their bowl and die from starvation right there on the bedroom floor.
Then God gave him a revelation that these unique events were signs to him telling him that his wife had entered into the pharaoh spirit of hardheartedness and stubbornness. He also felt God telling him to not entertain any bitterness towards her over her resistance to Him but that humility was the way for him to deal with her pharaoh spirit, just as Moses had humility towards the Egyptian Pharaoh and it led to Israel's deliverance.
Numbers 12:3 - Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man on the face of the earth.

One evening shortly thereafter, a windy autumn rain storm hit the area. This apostle was fellowshipping in an old, drafty house with his small and impoverished church group. They were engaging in a prayer session seeking financial help from God to pay the electric bill so that the house's electricity could be turned back on (after being shut off all summer for lack of funds). The gas bill had been paid and gas was available on their stove but the city inspectors said that it was against the law to heat a house from the stoves burners. So, after a few warnings, they said they'd be back to condemn the house the very next day, if its forced air heater's electric fan was not working, so that the heater could function to warm the house instead of the stove.


During the events leading up to this potentially disastrous day a prophet in the group had been given the verse...
Romans 8:1 - There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.


The whole fellowship had confirmed this verse's quickening within each of them as applying to the forthcoming day's home condemnation. So prayers of belief and faith in that verse's validity for their situation ensued.


Suddenly someone noticed that 2 of the wallpapered walls in the main room were almost entirely glossing over with roof leak water from the rainstorm. As one of their prophets saw it, he exclaimed, "Walls of water! I believe that God is using these wet walls to signal us that tomorrow we'll all be delivered from our problems, just as Israel was!"


Well, the next morning the renter of the house was unexpectedly handed a few hundred dollars! It came as a loan from a person who had refused to lend any money to him before, but who that morning had a change of heart and brought the loan to him. It was more than enough cash to pay the electric bill, which he immediately did!


He came back home with the paid receipt just as the city inspectors arrived. So he showed them this document which said the electric would be turned on that day (which it was). This receipt stopped the inspector's condemnation so just as the word of knowledge said - there was no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus!

What money was left also tided him over until the court settlement check that he was expecting any day, came in (and from which the loan was easily and quickly repaid).


That same morning, this apostle's fully backslidden (at best) wife drove over to further disrespect him and after she left, her car's brakes failed and totally immobilized her car, leaving her stranded on the highway. He found out about it later that day and this was interpreted as a sign from the Lord telling him that just as God knocked off the wheels of the Egyptian Pharaoh's army chariots when they went between the walls of water, He had similarly done that to her car's wheels for coming by the holy place where He had formed the wallpapered walls of water.
Ecclesiastes 7:26b, (a) - One who is pleasing to the Lord will be freed from (the woman whose heart is snares and nets, whose hands are chains)


Right after that, the divorce proceedings from her (which that apostle knew nothing about) came up for trial. When he got over his surprise and initial hurt as he was notified of the proceedings, he felt moved by God to not attend them nor contest the divorce in any way. So during the court proceedings, he was freed by the judge from his marriage to his now demonic wife but without their home or their business which were both in her name alone and all of which she had requested in the divorce suit.

Because he did not attend she won the divorce and both of these properties by default. He had put both of them exclusively into her name because he loved her and if he died, he wanted her to have both of them without having to go thru state probate. So, even though she was killing him out of her life with this divorce and he was hurt terribly by it, he still loved her greatly and he still wanted her to be happy and to have the house and the business in spite of everything. Therefore, in his heart he approved of all of his loss that God permitted to occur.


John 15:13 - Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.


But to her chagrin, on one item the judge did rule unexpectedly in his favor. That was to give him all of his IRA retirement money which they had been saving and which, in her now ravenous, devilish greed, she was trying to keep for herself!
With those unanticipated and greatly appreciated funds combined with the other brother's anticipated settlement funds (which he soon received), this small fellowship pulled entirely out of all of their financial distress. Between both of these monetary miracles they had enough money to buy a full ensemble of musical instruments and recording equipment for their music ministry for which they had been praying. They also had enough left over for a six month deposit on a new, modern, well heated, rental townhouse big enough for the apostle and the hosting family to live in!
Opening the Bible to the page
Many Christians have testified to opening to the exact page in the Bible which contained a verse or a passage that directly spoke to them on a matter in their life. The most famous of these that I know of is the testimony of the World War I American hero, Sergeant York. He had His Bible open when he was praying and the wind blew its pages until it stopped on a page with a verse that answered his question to God about whether or not he should go to war.
So here is my testimony about just such an event...

One evening, just after I had just finished reading the whole Bible for the first time, I got into a conversation about it with a Catholic relative of mine. In the course of our conversation I mentioned to her how surprised I was to read that God had moved 2 of His prophets walk around naked, as a testimony against Israel and Judah. To this she responded, "I read my Bible all of the time and I've never read anything like that in there. You must be nuts!"
Well, I just happened to have a brand new copy of the Good News Bible with me, so I pulled it out and told her I'd try to find the verse. Of course, she smugly stated that I'd never find it because it wasn't there!
So I pulled off its cellophane wrapping and flipped it open towards the middle where the prophetic books are located.
Then I looked at the page that I happened to open to and in shock I exclaimed, "Look, it's right here on this page (Isaiah 20:1)! I opened right to the page! Can you believe that! 1200+ pages in this brand spanking new Bible and I just happened to open it right to the exact page! This is a miracle! God opened it to this page for me because I didn't really know where to find it. So, now do you believe it's in your Bible?"
She was embarrassed in front of the whole family, but she stubbornly stuck to her guns by trying to close the subject with, "I know that that verse is not in my Catholic Bible!" So I let her off the hook by responding, "When you go home, look up Isaiah chapter 20, verse 1, in your Catholic Bible and see if it's not there!" Of course, she's never told me whether she did this or not and I've never asked.
Proverbs 9:8 - So don't waste your time on a scoffer; all you'll get for your pains is abuse.

The outcome of a Christian's Dissipations

This is a testimony of how living and active even a very small, obscure passage in the Word of God can really be!


There was an occasion where some of the brothers in the fellowship and I were visiting my relative at a drug abuse program and ministering the gospel to all of those whom we met there. As we hopped into my van to leave, an old man came up to us and asked us for a ride to a suburb over 50 miles away. He said that he had no money and that he had no way to get home.
Well, I had a full tank of gas and we all had the rest of the afternoon free so we talked it over amongst ourselves and agreed to take him there. During the ride we preached to him about salvation and he assured us that he had already received the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior many, many years ago. Then he told us that he was in reduced circumstances and he could only get short-lasting part time jobs or occasional odd jobs. He said that he went to church regularly but he was always broke so he had to live with one of his relatives to whom we were taking him. We then asked him why he thought that God was not letting him prosper?

Sheepishly, he responded that he'd probably never get ahead because he was a habitual frequenter of prostitutes. We asked him how he could do that as a Christian and why he didn't stop it and just look for a wife of his own? He then confessed that he probably would never do that because no matter how many times he repented of it, there was just something about the working girls that got to him on and every time he had any money at all, he was compelled to run right over to one and give it to her for her services.
Of course we then counseled him to seek addiction help from a church counselor or his minister.
As we finished this discussion we arrived at the place to which he was going. So we let him out and told him that we'd be praying for him. He thanked us for that and then asked if we had any food in the van because he was hungry and he didn't think there was any food where he was going.
Well, we were all broke but I had purchased a loaf of bread earlier for my house with my last couple of dollars and that's all that we had with us. So I offered it to him and he took it gratefully and left.
The next day I happened to read the following verse...
Proverbs 6:26 - For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread!

Truly, even this small passage in the word of God was living and active in this case, wasn't it?

Here's another testimony that is similar in nature.

Again, some of the brethren and I were driving in my van. This time we had a new convert on board whom we were carrying to one of our meetings. As we came to a stop sign there was a very pretty girl standing on the corner. This new convert was sitting in the front passenger seat so he noticed her first as we pulled up to the corner and he said, "Hey, look at that cutie!" Then, as we stopped at the crossing, she saw him and she smiled and called to him and beckoned him alluringly by posing and crooking her finger, signaling him to get out of the van and join her.

At that he exclaimed, "Do you see that! She wants me! That pretty thing wants me!" to which I felt led to respond, "But so does God! The question now is which one do you want, He who created that cutie or her, one of his creations?" So he looked at her and then he looked at me and then he looked at her again, to which she then made an exaggerated kiss gesture at him and mouthed, "Come here!" while still wiggling her finger.

"God Almighty she's a doll and she wants me!" he blurted out struggling with the temptation. I felt led to go on, "Then maybe I should just drop you off here so she can have you. But if I do, just remember this, that very God Almighty that you just mentioned in your excitement only reaches out so much to each person and if you leave now you may never be given another chance from Him to come back to Him! That girl could actually be Satan standing right there, using her beauty to lure you right now into eternal damnation!"
He struggled for a moment longer and then finally decided to stick with us and said,"Ah, let's just go!" As we drove off, in my rear view mirror I could see the devil making sure that she showed that she was not too pleased by disgustedly waving him off. But thank God that this young man made the right choice!
Proverbs 9:13 - 18 - A prostitute is loud and brash...she stands at the street corners of the city, whispering to men going by..."Come home with me," she urges simpletons, "Stolen melons are the sweetest; stolen apples taste best!"

But they don't realize that her former guests are now citizens of hell!(the Living Bible)


Again, here in this event, the Word of God was living and active.


Giving the Lord His due

One day one of my younger relatives mentioned to me how he had just purchased a speed boat and how he was going to spend his summer weekends on it. Suspecting that he was backslidden, I then asked him when he was going to go to be able to go church if all of his weekends were so occupied? He replied that he didn't feel that he needed to go to church.


So I then pointed out to him that it seemed to me that in the Bible the Lord asks His true believers to give Him at least a seventh of their time and a tenth of their money. He responded that he didn't think that my beliefs applied to him. So I let the conversation end on that note.

That weekend he got into a boating accident and his new boat was completely ruined! Some drunk in a bigger boat rammed his boat in a spot that made it irreparable. When he told me about it I suggested that maybe he was mistaken about churching and tithing and perhaps the Lord was using this loss to get him to reconsider his beliefs. He responded smugly that he hadn't lost anything because his boat insurance was going to totally replace it, so he didn't see this event as any reason to reconsider his beliefs.

A couple of weeks later he received his new boat and went off again on Friday for another of his boating weekends. A few hours later he came back thoroughly disgruntled. When he encountered me he bitterly snarled, "The Lord got His tithe!" and he stormed away from me.
It seems that as he was driving to the river with his boat cover wadded up inside his boat, a passing smart aleck motorist must have flipped a lit cigarette into it and that set it afire! When he noticed the smoke in his rear-view mirror he pulled right over, just happening to stop right in front of a church. So he ran to the church door for help but the old maintenance man there said that he could not help him.

My relative saw a fire extinguisher hanging there on a wall of the church but the maintenance guy would not let him use it. He would only let him use the phone to call the fire department which he did but by the time they arrived, the boat was utterly destroyed.

So when he told me the whole story later I mentioned to him that when we are not doing that which we know that we should be doing with God, we can lose some of our protection from evil and this can result in these kinds of bad things occurring.

Demonic Truck Driver

One of the men in the first church that I attended upon my conversion to Christ told me this story of his conversion.

Late one night after he'd been on a drunken binge for over a week, he was driving his tractor trailer on an interstate in a very remote area in one of the northwest states. As he proceeded in this dark, barren area he approached another tractor trailer. So he went to pass it and as he did so he looked over to wave to its driver.
To his utter horror there was a huge, terribly ugly frog driving that truck and leering at him!
In shock he finished passing it, trembling uncontrollably yet not really believing what he'd just seen. Then it sped up and began to pass him. He looked over again at the driver and sure enough, there was that horrible, ugly, evil frog leering at him. So he slowed down to let it go by but it slowed down right with him, scaring him immeasurably.

For quite a few miles he could not shake it. It just stayed right even with him no matter how he drove with its demon driver learing evilly at him. Now he was in abject terror. He began to feel like maybe he had died and gone to hell! So he began to think of his dissipated life and how it had led to this terrifying experience.

After about a half an hour, which felt like a lifetime to him, he saw a motel sign off of the road to the right so he exited right to it. Fortunately, the other truck was in the left lane so it just kept on going. When he parked, he grabbed his gun from the truck just in case it came after him and he took a room there.
When he entered the room, there was a Gideon Bible sitting out on the dresser. Well, he said that he grabbed it and began reading it and praying and repenting like crazy and begging God to save him! He said that he never wanted to see that horrible frog ever again and he knew right then and there that he needed Jesus Christ in his life from then on in order to forever avoid it.

If you think about the timing and manifestation of all of these signs and wonders for a while, you will begin to realize and then believe that these things could not be just coincidental! And to further inspire you, I will be putting up many, many more of these kinds of testimonies here as they come back to mind. So, please come back to this entry occasionally to read the new testimonies that I'll be tacking into it.

Thank you
and may God richly bless you.

The method of instruction utilized here.

Here, you will learn the wonderful truths regarding each entry's subject with which I feel that God has rewarded me over the years.

Hebrews 11:6b - ...He rewards those who DILIGENTLY seek Him!

I believe that the truths found within each of these Biblical teachings have been given to me by God as gifts for seeking Him with all of my heart.

Jeremiah 29:13 - You will seek Me and you will find Me when you seek Me with all of your heart.

I also believe that these truths have been accompanied by all of the supernatural substantiations from Him to which I here testify. These teachings and testimonies will not be found anywhere else that I know of.

Psalm 119:9
9 - I have better understandings and deeper insights than all of my teachers because Your testimonies are my meditation.

However, whenever I am led by God to encounter a really good Internet teaching which has been authored by another(that fits within the context of one of my own teachings), I will inform you of it and I will provide you with a link to it. It is not important to me if any of the information here that God wants to be shared with you is authored by me or by someone else. What is important to me is that you be given true teachings of God and His Word, no matter whom He uses to bring them forth.

All of these doctrinal studies are being compiled here just as I believe that God says in His Word that they are to be compiled.

Isaiah 28:9 - 10a - ...to whom shall He teach knowledge? And whom shall He make to understand doctrine?

...
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept...

I believe that God's Word in context is the first thing that is to be presented about each subject that is discussed. Next, I believe that freedom of the Word is also to be employed in any doctrinal study.

Isaiah 29:10b - ...line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little

This is where the Holy Spirit moves to give us inspiration from various Scriptures and/or their principles
from all over the Bible (and in many different translations) regarding each subject. Here a little, there a little Scriptural precept plucking is a precedent set by the Holy Spirit in the Word where He often inspired the men who wrote the New Testament to so pull and quote Scriptures from the Old Testament.

These holy men were moved to utilize all or parts of
many Old Testament passages and verses (some completely out of context and/or seemingly totally unrelated) in their pastoral letters to Scripturally substantiate the things that they taught. They also did this frequently within the 4 gospel accounts of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and within the book of Acts. The original apostles truly had freedom in the Word!

Whenever I have actually
experienced for myself manifestations of the truth of any of these doctrines, my personal testimonies of those happenings are employed by me here to illustrate and / or to further substantiate them. When others have experienced them and told me about their experiences, I utilize their testimonies. Either way, these testimonies all contribute immensely to the truth and hopefully they will contribute to the acceptance of each teaching.