UPDATE: See my July 16, 2016 post entitled "Pulling Weeds." I have made edits/comments to the text, below, where I believe the Holy Spirit wants me to make changes. All changes are in the color of this paragraph.
Please bear with me. Writing about things is one way the Holy Spirit helps me process what He is teaching me. [I would like to add that I love you, and want you to experience the joy that I have! That was always my intention before, but I'm afraid I did not always make that clear, or express it, as I should. We should always come from a place of love!]
I've been through most of the Pioneer School and some things are more clear to me now -- things I had read about and knew in my head, but had not reached my heart.
As a disciple of Jesus, I am commanded to heal the sick and cast out demons. I can do that because I have the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that was with Jesus when He walked the earth, and raised Him from the dead. I have the complete package; I just have to believe it and use it. [I believe this is all accurate. Where I see things that are accurate, I will make no comments. If I think things are accurate, but I said them in a wrong way, I may make a comment. I have left the disclaimer at the top of the page about this being written before I was set free, so please keep that in mind and forgive me if I leave some words that seem "insensitive." Thanks!]
People are receptive to the Gospel when they see miracles, and the most effective miracles are those that impact them directly. When Jesus changes your life by freeing you from pain, sickness and spiritual bondage, you are thankful, and that is when you are ready to believe. This is why healing is paired with sharing the Gospel. Supernatural deliverance also proves the Bible is true, and eliminates academic debate with those who see. More importantly, it is how God does His work. Paul pointed out to the Corinthians that he demonstrated the Spirit and power when he introduced them to God and the Gospel. He did not use words.
My words may be effective with those who have the Holy Spirit, but they are ineffective with those who don't. That is why I have not had success in reaching people. I need to heal and demonstrate God's power. How foolish of me! [I think the demons and unclean spirits that were in me were also significantly contributing to my ineffectiveness, by messing with my mind, planting doubt in me, and telling lies about me to others.]
Those with "the gifts" are those who are especially talented in particular spiritual tools, and their job is to equip the saints. In other words, they are to show other disciples of Jesus how to let the Holy Spirit produce fruit. They are mentors. Everybody who believes has all the tools already. When there is a need, we don't need to wait for someone with a particular gift to show up because God provides us all things through His Spirit. We will all be like Jesus, and we will do greater things than He did when He was here! [Much of this is teaching I got from "The Last Reformation" folks.]
God enables me to do things in His timing, not my timing. I must ask for things and He will bring them about, perhaps right away, but probably later. His Spirit will prompt me what to ask for and will put things on my heart to pray about. [Some things weren't happening because I had sin in my life.]
The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, so we must ask the Lord of the Harvest to send out workers into His harvest field, and we must ask to be one of those workers. It is not our project. It is His project. We have roles to play, and He will show us what to do as we follow Him.
Our job as "the Church," or the Assembly, is threefold:
- Love God.
- Love our neighbor.
- Make disciples.
Period. That's it. Nothing else.
We have lots of knowledge, but our obedience is lacking. We don't need to wait to be perfected before we can start working in the Harvest. We just need to do it. Yes, we will feel clumsy and make mistakes, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that we do it; that we obey. Disobedience is lack of faith, and lack of faith is sin.
We do not need to leave our family and travel to the other side of the world in order to love God, love our neighbor and make disciples. We can do that right where we are. Yes, God may take us elsewhere, and we will suffer persecution no matter where we are if we do His work, but His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and the Harvest is all around us. We just need to look for it and let the Holy Spirit lead us. God has us right where He wants us.
Chapters 6 and 8 of the book of Romans describe how those who have been immersed in water in the Name of Jesus have been buried with Jesus and resurrected with Jesus when it comes to sin. The old person is dead and they are free from sin. That does not mean they have a license to sin, but they are no longer in bondage to sin. In other words, not only does God not hold them accountable anymore for their sin (because He holds Jesus accountable for it), but they can turn away from sin and not do it anymore when they are tempted. Many institutional churches teach that Romans 7 is the current state of Christians, that they are condemned to fight sin for the rest of their days on this earth, but Paul is talking about how he used to be, before he was immersed in water into Jesus! This means we do not need to keep asking for forgiveness when we fall, but that we simply acknowledge that it is sin and stop doing it.
The reason many people in institutional churches do not feel free from sin, and continue to sin, is they have not been buried and resurrected with Jesus through immersion in water in the Name of Jesus, as the Bible commands. They also do not have the Holy Spirit to assist them. They are still lost and they are deceived. An enemy has done this, and it is despicable! [All true!]
Having the Holy Spirit as a counselor is critical to this new life because we need Him inside us to take advantage of the freedom from sin. Not only does the Holy Spirit help us to understand what the Scriptures say and what He is trying to teach us, He helps us recognize what is sin and helps us turn away from it. He does far more than that, however, and as we get to know Him we will learn to follow His leading and learn from Him. He goes with us, whether we realize it or not, and He is there to help us. In the past year, I have become more and more overjoyed as I realize just Who is living in me and how I can relate with Him minute-by-minute during every day. It is like getting to know your spouse and being with them all the time, talking with them and just being with them. That is how it is. God has given us so many examples in our physical world that help us understand the spiritual world. Oh, it is so wonderful!!! [I believe the Holy Spirit was certainly influencing me, but so were the demons and unclean spirits I was not aware of. Spiritual blindness! It is by grace you are saved!]
Making disciples and collecting religious-club members are two completely different things. Institutional churches are mixtures of a few saints who are bewildered and many non-believers who are deceived into thinking they have a ticket to heaven. This is just the way the enemies of Jesus want it.
Many pastors and religious leaders enter the ministry for noble reasons and because they love God and want to serve Him, but they submit themselves to systems that teach half-truths and groom them to fit into neat boxes where they can be controlled along with those who become their congregants. The enemies of Jesus have had two thousand years to figure out how to lure the saints into traps that make them think they are doing the right thing and that they are okay, but are actually dead ends that lead to death. These traps substitute error taught by men for Truth taught by the Holy Spirit, and they are known as "churches," "seminaries," and other institutions, cultures, philosophies and enterprises. [God pulled me out of that, and I believe He has given me my experiences so I can help others escape from it, too.]
Can we lose our salvation after we believe? Yes... and no. Yes, because salvation is a life-long endeavor that we work out until we are allowed to eat from the Tree of Life. Hearing the Word, repenting, being immersed in the Name of Jesus, receiving the Holy Spirit, falling, bearing fruit, singing and crying, being persecuted and rescued, all of these things are part of living a life in Jesus and following Him. If we get weary and give up, and if we start to intentionally sin, the Holy Spirit will leave us, and there will be no way back. The book of Hebrews discusses this in detail. Saying that, God is faithful, and he knows who His "elect" are. He knows the End from the Beginning, but we don't. Even the Apostle Paul doubted and did not make judgements about himself. God will test us, will bring persecutions and will take us to the breaking point, but he will provide a way back, and our recourse is to get on our faces and plead with Him to help us understand, repent, confess our sins and leave it to Him. When we are at our lowest is when He is the strongest, and He wants us to know that He is the one saving us. Life following God is HARD. If things are easy, we probably aren't doing it right and there is a problem. If we give up, we will not get the prize. But, oh the JOY! when He lifts us out of the depths!!! [This is all true, but I will add that I now see every person as someone who will spend eternity somewhere, and that God does not want anyone to perish! Rather than see sinful persons as someone to avoid and lament over, I now see them all as an opportunity to pray for, to heal, to set free, to preach the Gospel to, and to make into disciples so they can do the same! With God, all things are possible! Saying that, I will always look for a "person of peace," and try to avoid "poking a hornet's nest." I hope to discuss more about that in the future.]
I am convinced that our purpose in life is to learn exactly what Jesus has done for us. Many will be saved, but many, many more will not. It's sobering and heartbreaking, but at the same time absolutely wonderful.
Everyone will hate us, but those who are in Jesus will love us. And God loves us far more than these!!! [Satan will hate us, and those who are influenced by him will hate us, but if we always come from a place of love, many will listen to us.]
The people living during the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were still living under the Old Covenant of the Law, since Jesus had not yet died and been resurrected, and the Holy Spirit had not been poured out at Pentecost. The Law needed to be fulfilled by someone, and Jesus came to "get it done." Consequently, we should not model our behavior on the disciples as they are depicted in the Gospels, but instead should look at what they did in the Book of Acts when they had been immersed into Jesus and been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were written by the same person, Luke, and to the same person, the "most excellent Theophilus." Theophilus was probably a lawyer, and the two books were probably written for use in Paul's defense in Rome. The Book of Acts is not about the "acts of the Apostles," as the institutional church teaches, but is essentially Paul's diary. More accurately, it is Paul's story and the backstory explaining Paul's behavior. To defend Paul in court, one would need to explain Who Jesus is, where He came from and what He was doing in order for Paul's story to make any sense.
The Gospels of Luke and Mark, along with the Book of Acts, are written for non-believers. The Gospels of Matthew and John, and all the letters in the New Testament, are for believers, those who have the Holy Spirit. We should bear this in mind when we preach the Gospel, especially when talking about love.
Teaching non-believers that "God is love" does not help them. In fact, it hinders them coming to faith. Yes, it is true that God is love, but He is also righteous and holy. People already love themselves, and if they hear that God loves them it just feeds their narcissism. They need to understand that God is holy and that they are not, and that they are separated from God for that reason, and that they need to repent. Where there is no repentance there is no forgiveness, and many people have been taught lies and half-truths about this. An enemy has done this. God kills people. He destroyed everyone and everything with the Flood, except for what He spared in Noah's Ark. He killed the firstborn in Egypt, and He killed thousands at the Golden Calf, Korah's Rebellion and events leading to the Exile. In the New Testament, He killed Ananias and Sapphira for simply lying to the Holy Spirit. He loved Jacob but hated Esau. God created us, and He can do what He wants with us. He can do that and still be a holy and good God. Some people ask how a loving God could send people to hell forever? The converse can also be asked: Why would a holy and righteous God put up with rebellion and unbelief? He doesn't, and people need to realize this, and it is why it is important to apply the correct tools for the job and not play into the enemy's hands by preaching "God is love."
We compare our sin with the sin of others, and think we aren't that bad. We need to compare ourselves to a holy God instead. If we lie to our young child, there isn't much consequence because our child has no power over us, but if we lie to our spouse, the consequence can be divorce. If we lie to our employer, we can get fired, and if we lie to the government, we can be put in jail, or worse. If we lie to a holy and righteous God who created us and has the right to do whatever He pleases with us, the consequences will be that much greater. God has infinite worth, and to reject him requires infinite punishment. That is sobering, and that is what people need to hear.
Jesus is our judge, not the Pope, not Billy Graham, not the Apostle Paul, not your pastor, not Moses, not Ghandi, not Muhammad, not Buddah, not the President of the United States, not Tom Cruise, not Richard Dawkins, not me and certainly not you. Jesus is the one you need to get to know, and you will do so only by obeying what is written in the Bible. There are no other options. It is checkmate and you lose, unless you choose wisely and choose Him. [All true, but not said with love. Please forgive me.]
I am not making this up, any of it. [Unnecessary. Please forgive me.]
The Bible is not God and we should not worship it. It can become an idol just like anything else. It is a collection of writings by people inspired by the Holy Spirit who were writing for specific reasons to specific people at specific times in languages and dialects we probably do not know. It is, however, sufficient to get us going in a life with Jesus and His Holy Spirit, and anything that is of God will be consistent with what was originally written in the original languages. God has made sure of this, although we need to be aware that translations can be deceptive and the chapter/verse demarcations can prevent us from seeing the whole picture and make it easy to choose to see what we want to see. With this in mind, reading the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit should be what we turn to when we need to know for sure what God is telling us. This is because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, and His Word is likewise consistent.
Are there other writings that are just as holy as the things in the Bible? Yes. The Bible itself proves this. In Paul's letter to the Church in Colosse, he tells them to share the letter with the saints in Laodicea, and for those in Colosse to read the one he wrote to Laodicea (Colossians 4:16). Surely he wrote similar, Holy-Spirit-inspired things to the Laodiceans, but we do not have that letter. It is lost, and there were surely others. Likewise, the end of the book of John talks about the many, many things Jesus did that were not recorded in that particular Gospel. The Holy Spirit has been working since Creation, and many things have been written about His works, but there is much deception in this fallen world. When I tried to read the Book of Mormon and the Koran, I could not understand a single word, and I have always stayed away from the apocryphal books because others have judged them to not be inspired by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has always directed me to only look at "the real thing." The Bible is an important tool, but was not available to the saints during the first three centuries, when the Church was most energetic, vibrant and growing. Someone once said that the Holy Spirit had been chased into a book, and when that happened much of His blessings went away. Again, an enemy has done this. Don't get me wrong. I love the Bible!!! Its words are written on my heart, but it is the Holy Spirit we should worship, not the product of His influence. Worship the Creator, not the created.
I have not cited the the Scriptures that back these things up because the Holy Spirit already used them to show me what is true. Again, I am really writing this more for me than for anybody else. You need to seek Him and let Him teach you, too, through His Word and His Spirit.
I did not realize many of these things because of my "religious glasses." I saw things, and still continue to see things, through the teachings and traditions I was exposed to over many years from "words of men." Those words of men were taught in the institutional churches, and by our culture in general, relentlessly, and they do nothing but entangle, distract, detour, wear out, discourage, and disenfranchise the saints to make them ineffective. The Holy Spirit rescued me from that trap, but the effects are debilitating and cannot be eradicated without His help. I continue in this struggle. It is part of life in Jesus. [One of the unclean spirits that was driven out of me was a "religious spirit." I am no longer doing things like daily Bible reading, praying for help in everything I do, looking at daily Bible verses, etc. These are all things taught by men as "vital spiritual habits." I don't need them, and, in fact, they revolt me because they revolt the Holy Spirit. Amazing!]
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the Church! Not the institution, or the culture or the philosophy or the enterprise, but the Assembly of believers depicted in the Book of Acts. I also love pastors, and anyone else who loves Jesus and wants to follow Him. Many of those folks are caught up and entangled in situations that make them ineffective, and frankly have them deceived. They are in peril, and I want to help them. I love everyone, even those who hate me and persecute me. Is it easy to do that? Absolutely not, but I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me. [I want to help those people even more now! They are just like me -- in love with God but led down an unproductive, dangerous path. God wants to set them free, but there are many things that bind them. I believe God is going to help me help them. I believe my experiences will help me empathize with them, and my testimony will help them realize what they must do. It will not be easy.]
Please reach out to God and plead with Him to touch you and encounter you personally. Tell Him you want to know Him, to follow Him, to be his disciple. He is faithful and He will do it! He does not want anyone to be lost, nor do I! The Lake of Fire was prepared for the devil and his angels, and that is where they will go, along with all human souls who do not believe and who persist in unbelief. It was not created for people, but that is where they are destined to go if they want to have nothing to do with God. There is no other choice. It is not your project. It is His. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. Choose wisely. Act today, right now, this instant, while you still have time!!!!!!!
I pray you will do that. [I tell you these things because I love you, and I want you to have the joy that I do!!!]
[Thank you for being patient with me. Please forgive me if anything I have said has hurt you or sent you in the wrong direction. Please seek God about all this. That is all I am asking!]
All glory to God!
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UPDATE, August 5, 2022...
Wow. What a difference between then and now. God is good.
I changed the color of the former updates to make them not so harsh on the eyes.
I was telling a spiritual sister yesterday that her disabilities are actually a blessing. It is a hard message to get across because she has struggled all of her life and has had to develop a strong character just to survive.
She cannot walk and has difficulty speaking. Most people just look past her because all they see is her accessibility equipment and not her; and they do not have the patience to carry on a conversation because it takes her a lot of effort to get her words out. She is very spiritually connected, however, and understands a lot. When I talk about spiritual matters she is like a sponge and eagerly soaks up whatever the Holy Spirit leads me to tell her. He uses her to teach me, too. It's a lot of fun.
She often expresses frustration that nobody ever told her the things I am telling her, but I think that is good because it means the world did not bother to indoctrinate her. Any religious training she got made no sense to her, and the school system just passed her along because she did not fit into their conveyor-belt system for molding and shaping the masses of people who ultimately produce wealth as part of "the machine." In some ways, she is like a blank slate. There are few errors and false teachings to overcome.
God has done a similar thing with me. I received college-level training in engineering, but absolutely no formal religious training at all. I did not attend a seminary or bible school, and therefore have not been programmed with "religious glasses" to serve as one of the machine's controllers of people who are inclined to follow Jesus. God raised me up. I had to unlearn some things, but to a large extent I was also a blank slate, like my spiritual sister.
The dangerous thing about seminaries is they prepare people to be religious professionals. The Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes, and teachers of the Law were all religious professionals. That is how they made their living, and it affected their work. Jesus said you cannot serve two masters; you cannot serve both God and money. In most cases, when it becomes an occupation we are serving money.
I encourage everyone who loves Jesus to prayerfully consider their training and their calling. Please be aware that we have all been incredibly programmed, and that much of what we think we know is actually error. The more training we have received, the further from the Truth we are probably operating.
UPDATE, August 19, 2022...
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| TLR Map as of August 19, 2022 (Click to enlarge) |
I like what The Last Reformation has been doing, as you can tell from various posts on my blog, but I have not joined their movement. I have not been led to join and have never even put my name on their map. Their core people have never come close to Michigan as far as I know, and as you can see from this screen shot there is really nobody around here (Midland) who is involved. I have checked from time to time since 2016 and the pins have always been sparse.
I really like the founder and think God has used him to wake up a lot of people, including me, but I have been concerned about the actual movement from early on.
At the kickstart we attended in Jacksonville, the founder stated he was going to step down from being the focus of the effort, and I agreed at the time it was a wise move. But as I recall, about a week later he reversed course and accelerated what he had been doing. Soon after that, one of the producers of The Beginning movie packed up and left. I think he had been coaching the founder and was concerned the movement was going to turn into something worldly. I am afraid he was probably right. The prince of this world loves to have it so.
Since then, I have seen some of the other people who were involved also leave the movement, although I do understand that happens. The movement was very big in Europe, and the founder got a lot of media attention in his home country. Eventually, the government there took some steps to curtail what the founder had been doing and he fled the country. He came to America and applied for asylum in the United States. I am sure U.S. Citizens assured him he would have freedom of religion and freedom of speech while on our shores.
I have learned that notion is naive and mistaken. Those who are seeking political asylum in the U.S. actually have no rights and can be arrested at any time for no reason at all. I discussed this in some detail in updates to my Authority post. And, unfortunately, that is exactly what happened -- apparently on July 4 of this year. Isn't that ironic? You can check out the details on the TLR website.
I have been watching this all happen since Jacksonville. Facebook was full of good things early on, and I made a lot of FB friends, but then things all of a sudden got nasty. I remember saying in one post it was like a bomb went off in the headquarters tent. It was very distressing, but God used it to teach me things and I wrote about some of them in several posts in late 2016 (I am not Paul, Because I Love Him, Eyes, and Keys to the Kingdom). Then I took a break for a year (2017) to do other things.
I think the founder is missing something key, and I have tried to help him but he will not listen to me. It is about authority and what we need to understand in order to be under the right authority. It is one of the key things I push on this blog, and I think the clearest statement is here. I also think this post and this post are particularly applicable.
Seven months later, the founder went into Mexico and was arrested for smuggling weapons after he came back into the States. They were false charges, of course, but the Darkness had an opportunity to attack and it did. And God allowed it.
He sits in jail and does not understand why this happened. I'll tell you why. Daniel 4. God can, and will, humble anyone.
I hope some of his friends will realize these things and counsel him to repent. I think he has been advancing the Kingdom, but The Show is not about him. It is about Yeshua.
...and that is why I am content to follow Him quietly and humbly, ... as humbly as I can.
By the way, I added up the gematria of the TLR initials:
T = 20, L = 12, R = 18
20 + 12 + 18 = 50
5 + 0 = 5
5
Of course it is. You can't make this stuff up...
UPDATE, January 16, 2023...
The founder of TLR is interviewed in this video. His incarceration as an asylum seeker (and therefore a citizen of the United States) has confirmed for me that reclaiming my political status as an American is the right thing for me to do at this time.
UPDATE, January 20, 2023...
Why would God want to humble someone? Surely He has His reasons.
Undoubtedly, God is working in the life of the TLR founder, and that is between them. I have no comments about that.
I believe there are things for us to learn. What are they?
People get into "comfort zones," and become set in their ways. God allows persecutions to move us. For example, the stoning of Stephen was the beginning of a persecution and God used it to do amazing things...
On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. (Acts 8:1 NIV)
Nobody had gone to Samaria yet, but Philip did because of the persecution...
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Messiah there. When the crowds heard Philip and saw the signs he performed, they all paid close attention to what he said. For with shrieks, impure spirits came out of many, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. So there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:4-8 NIV)
When people who stayed behind in Jerusalem heard news that God was moving in Samaria, they sent help...
When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:14-17 NIV)
If the persecution had not happened, everyone would have stayed in Jerusalem, and the good news would have remained isolated.
If you read the other posts on this blog, you will learn that I believe evil people in positions of perceived authority around the world are committing genocide to cull billions and kill off their creditors. This happened on a small scale in Europe during the so-called "second world war." Perhaps that was a trial run.
Jesus heals all diseases and sicknesses, but people turn to idols instead. Those "idols" have been used against them, and many have died. Many more will die.
The Darkness knows about TLR. The LORD has used that movement to wake people up and prepare them to do the work of Jesus. I believe many have been idolizing the founder of TLR and are waiting for him to come and rescue them, just as many are waiting for the "U.S. Military" to save the day. I have news for people: The cavalry ain't coming...
There is only Jesus (Yehoshua), and He responds to faith.
UPDATE, August 9, 2023...
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| Click to enlarge |
There is one thing the diagram leaves out. I'll call it "organized religion," and it belongs under "World Population Control."
There are many religions in this world and all of them are on the wrong track, including institutional "Christianity." We must be careful about who, and what, we follow.