Wednesday, June 26, 2013

The Darker The Night...

It is very easy to become discouraged at the events happening in our land today. The news out of Washing DC is never good anymore. It seems the United States of America is not very united anymore. It is also becoming very evident that the moral values of her leaders are no longer eroding...they are simply and completely non-existent.

So how does that effect me? I am a follower of Christ. I live by the Word of the living God. The Word of God said what is happening would happen. (See 1 Timothy 4: 1-3; and 2 Timothy 3 1-5). What the Bible has prophesied is being fulfilled right before our very eyes. Are we to be passive because it is happening? Absolutely not! Are we to accept that evil is triumphing over good? Again, absolutely not!

There is something about God's church that amazes me. When times get rough and tough, she stands up and flourishes. But when things go our way, and life itself is easy, we tend to coast and even acquiesce as Christ-followers. It truly hurts to see the degradation of our society. It is frustrating to see the morality of a once Christian nation being drained as water being let out of a pool. But the Bible said it would happen. So that brings me to the point of this post.

Our trust cannot be in man or government. The greatest need for the church in America (please love me as I say this) is to be weaned off her dependence on our government. When our confidence and our trust is in God alone, God will move mightily. But in order for us to get there things might get a little more touchy!

We are coming to a time in which it is not about Washington, the United States of America, or any earthly government. It is all about Jesus Christ. It must be that way! I am truly fond of Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 2: 2-5), "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 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." I am convinced my friend, that the darker it gets, the more power of God you and I will experience. The darker the night, the brighter the light.

I remember as a young child going to a cavern in North Carolina with my family. We hiked a mile and a half back into the mountain. It was incredible. The walls were enormous. Then at one point our guide turned off all of the lights. Keep in mind we were a mile and a half into a mountain. When the lights went off, we experienced total darkness. He gave us about 5 minutes for our eyes to adjust and then instructed us to put one hand over our face. Could I see it? Nope. Total darkness. Actually it was a little scary since I had never experienced such a scenario. Then our guide struck and lit a match! It was blinding! I stood amazed at how much blinding light one little match could give off in total darkness...in an enormous room!

Could it be that the darker things become in our nation, the brighter the light will shine from those who stand for Jesus, and understand what is happening? Could this be the purpose for your generation? To be a blinding, healing light in the midst of a very dark and perverse generation? I think so. Now is the time to understand our purpose in this world. It is not to change our government. It is to be lights in a very dark world.

If you are frustrated because humans in high places are ruining our world...stop it! You carry the Light of the world. The light that dispels evil darkness with the power of our mighty God! You carry the very Light that millions of those caught up in the darkness will see and will be drawn to.

Finally, please understand that I am not saying not to be involved in politics or any level of government. Light is needed amidst the darkness flowing into our government...right now! Please get involved in any way He leads. Be involved not to change our government, but to establish His!


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Chronicles Of A Missionary (India Part 4)

It was late February and I had just arrived in India. This was my third visit to the great nation. I had gone through the usual routine of getting into the Mumbai in the wee hours of the morning. This time I tried something new. I booked a hotel room for a few hours to shower, shave, and catch a quick nap before heading back to the airport for the flight from Mumbai to Hyderabad about 6:30 in the morning. I managed to accomplish two of the afore mentions tasks. I did shower and I did manage to shave!

When I arrived in Hyderabad I was picked up by Pastor G.R. Purushotham, the pastor I had been working with in India. We were taken to a friend's house in the city where I managed to complete the third task mentioned above...catch a nap. About 5 o'clock that evening we boarded a train for a city near the east coast. It was a 15 hour overnighter. I did (with the help of some motion sickness tabs) get a fairly good night's sleep. Note: This was only a 10 day trip overall which was shorter than my usual 14+ day trips. And due to the distance to this city, and the time it took to get there and back to Hyderabad, I only spoke in this city. We were there about 4 days. I did speak many times during this gathering.

This was probably the most physically taxing of all my travels to India...mainly because of my time limitations and the distance we traveled within India. We arrived in Vizianagaram the day after my arrival in Hyderabad. It was about 7:00 am. I had the rest of the day to rest before the meeting that evening in which I would preach.

I cannot accurately describe the hunger of the people in India for the preaching of the Word. What I can say is that it draws the anointing upon you to a higher level. As a result, not only did I preach like a house-a-fire, but the Holy Spirit manifested in more ways and with much more power than I had experienced in the States. It was extremely awesome...to say the very least.

One particular evening I preached on healing. It was a powerful service and my message was very powerful. Even though I was exhausted sitting on the platform, waiting to preach, I felt like superman as I preached under the anointing. Preaching through a translator can be challenging at times, but not this night. All flowed wonderfully. What I didn't tell Pastor Purushotham and those who so diligently took care of me was that I was going to have an altar call for healing. Made perfect sense right? Preach on healing. Give the folks a change to be healed through prayer. So at the end of my message I jumped (flat-footed) off the front of the platform and said something like, "If you want God to heal you, come NOW!" I looked up and there was a cloud of dust stirred up as a wall of desperate folks came right for me. The crowd had just began to press me up against the platform when I felt the arms of several pastors pull me back up onto the platform....to safety! I told them to let me back down and they did, but after the pastors made a buffer for me out of their human bodies.

God moved mightily as he touched the bodies and the lives of those spiritually hungry people in India. I've seen lame folks healed. Sick folks made well. Demoniacs set free and much more. Bareness is quite prevalent in India among young women. God has used me many times to pray for young married women who at the time were barren. On return trips to India I learned that many of them were healed! Yes, life is precious to God!

Every trip to India was filled with unique events...each that changed my life. I am eagerly awaiting God's direction for my next trip to India. I ask that you pray for me. Thanks!

The Chronicles Of A Missionary (India Part 1)
The Chronicles Of A Missionary (India Part 2)
The Chronicles Of A Missionary (India Part 3)


Is Divine Healing For Today?

There are two ways to learn from Jesus. One is to feed upon His teaching. Life flowed from His lips as He taught. The other way to learn from Jesus is to observe the way He lived and served while He was here on the earth. We can learn so much about our walk with Jesus from simply studying the life of Jesus. As we observe and study His ways, we learn how we are to live in His incredible Kingdom, and so on the earth.

Check out this scripture from Matthew 4:23. "Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people." Jesus always taught or proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God. Then he reinforced His teaching with action.

When Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom, He proclaimed a superior realm with superior laws. Superior to what? Superior to all the kingdoms of this world. For example, Matthew 4:23 (among other Scriptures) proclaims there is absolutely no sickness and disease in the Kingdom of God. Jesus not only proclaimed this, He demonstrated it! He brought it...if you will!

Many folks believe and proclaim healing and wholeness are not realized until one dies and reaches heaven. Others believe God heals today...but only when He sovereignly decides to heal. I cannot embrace these views because of my example...Jesus Christ. The Scripture clearly says Jesus "...went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil." (Acts 10:38). The Holy Spirit uses words like "all" and "every", words that included everyone and everything! Listen to I John 4:17b. "...as He is, so are we in this world." He is our example!

So, if healing is for today and for everyone, why do some Christians not get healed? The truth? The way Jesus proclaimed the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the way we perceive, receive and respond to it are two different things. The way we perceive God's Word is heavily affected by the way it is taught by our teachers. Some teach against divine healing, while others teach that it once existed, but now no longer does since the church is established. Some teach that divine healing is completely based on God's sovereignty, and that God can heal (or not heal) whomever He wants to.

There is no question that our mighty God is sovereign. However He makes many things crystal clear to us through the examples given us in the Word. Jesus clearly demonstrated that His work on the cross would deal with every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Listen to Matthew 8:17, "This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: "HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES." Jesus came healing and delivering so that through the cross we would experience healing and deliverance.

Paul says we walk by faith, not by the way things appear. (See 2 Cor. 5:7). Faith is vital to any Christian walk! We begin by faith, continue by faith, and end by faith! Faith is the key. Paul also says faith is obtained by hearing the Word of God. The more of the Word...the greater our faith! Many followers of Jesus lack the faith to be healed or even to walk in victory. Many followers of Christ are governed more by sight (appearance) than what God's Word proclaims. You and I have a responsibility to search out the Word, pray over the Word, learn the Word, know the Word, and apply the Word to our lives and our families lives. It won't make us completely invulnerable to the elements of our fallen society, but it will make the difference that others will desire! It will produce a noticeable victory in our lives that brings undeniable glory to our King. Live for Jesus! Live in victory! Let others see Him in you and desire the life you have!