Witches! Now there’s a word that conjures up all sorts of images! ;>)

From bible times, to Shakespeare, to Hollywood, witchcraft has been both vilified and celebrated. There are ‘dark’ witches and covens, reviled for being linked to satanic practices. And there have been portrayals of ‘white’ witches with the new age movement, attempting to bring some sort of innocence to ‘magic’.

Whatever your paradigm, witchcraft is actually all around us, as prevalent today as in days of yore.

In Galatians 5:19-21, we are told: ¹⁹ ”The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”

Now there’s an interesting list! A list of poor life choices stemming from desires and acts of the flesh. Impulsive choices, habits and reactions steeped in our need to get what we want for ourselves instead of relying on God to give us our basic needs. And, there in the middle of all these fleshy reactions is witchcraft… Perhaps witchcraft has a much broader meaning…

Witchcraft is about using external forces to control and manipulate to rob someone of their free will. It is also about sowing fear in others to make them more controllable.

Our very words can be witchcraft!

Instead of asking someone to do something for us, we could gently and subtly manipulate them to try to get them to decide to do whatever for us, and do it so subtly that they think it is their own idea to do it. Witchcraft!

Instead of speaking facts about a situation to allow someone to decide their own outcome, we could use strong emotional language to influence the desired outcome that we want from them. Witchcraft!

Instead of instructing from a place of humility and truth, we could speak loudly, throwing the weight of our God-given authority behind what we are saying, to cause fear to come, to use our authority in an ungodly way to influence entire crowds of people towards believing in our agenda, instead of allowing them to think and decide for themselves using their own cognitive processes, trusting God to work through them by His spirit, revealing truth to them. That’s what Hitler did with an entire nation and look at the awful results! He made himself as a ‘god’ to his nation. Pure idolatry and witchcraft!

We must be responsible with our words. God made us in His image. He spoke, and there was creation. We speak, and we create our world all around us. We have such influence over people! It is a gift. It must be respected. We must be careful to let Holy Spirit do the convincing. We should let God be the one to influence the heart of man and not step into His place. Doing that, we make idols of ourselves. Witchcraft!

The root of witchcraft is in the flesh. Flesh is common to all of us. But praise God for Jesus! You can CHOOSE to operate out of your spirit instead of falling back to operating out of your soul and flesh. You can choose words of life and truth, rather than manipulating people to get what you want.

Let’s stop the witchcraft!

Be encouraged. Be empowered. Be delivered.

Glory Company

I had a horrible dream. At some point earlier in the dream I had left a flirty voicemail for another woman. It was now the end of the dream and I had forgotten the previous actions and I stood before my beloved wife whom I adore and cherish. She had a look of shock on her face. She spoke and told me that she’d heard the voicemails that I had left that were so flirty and playful, and as it dawned on her that they were for someone else, she was absolutely heartbroken. Betrayed! It was all over her face. The magnitude of what I had done hit me in the solar plexus… I woke suddenly…

Heaviness pressed on my heart. The feelings were so real. This was serious. I was trembling. I was 100% awake and focused. This was a God dream.

At first I thought it was simply a warning call to keep MY marriage pure. But it quickly sank in that I was also married to Him… 

He spoke to me. I don’t think I have ever heard Him so clearly. The Fear of the Lord came all over me. He appeared to me as a bright pinpoint of light in my shut vision. I trembled.

“This is how I feel when anyone betrays me… It hurts me deeply… Yes I have forgiven past present future sin by the Cross, by the Blood… But I see all, and I do not take habitual sin lightly… Nothing is hidden from my gaze… I am vulnerable to man’s choices and actions…”

I felt tears welling. My heart was frozen, beating, broken for Him… I was frightened at the power man has to hurt God’s heart… The Fear of the Lord tightened its grip…

Things began to flash through my mind from my personal choices over the past year. In the general scheme of things, perhaps none of these things were that awful in and of themselves. But each and every one was a knife in God’s back. And all of them together… unthinkable… How could I, a lover of Jesus, a partaker of Holy Spirit, pressing towards 24/7 awareness lifestyle… how could I… make so many poor choices… however large or small, however recent or far in the past…?

God wasn’t being horrible or overbearing with me, or manipulative. He was just being honest with me. Every poor choice was a betrayal…

I also saw faces of people who know and love and trust me. I saw how hurt and betrayed they would be should my little things ever become something bigger, something shameful and embarrassing to ‘the faith’… I was frightened at the power man has to hurt other men… No wonder we crucify any of our own kind when they have a fall from grace… We feel betrayed…

If we break trust in a marriage, the marriage suffers a huge setback. It is hard to recover from betrayal of any sort. Like a broken wine glass, you can glue it back together but is it ever fully the same?

How does God do it? How does He withstand knife after knife after knife in the back from those He loves and adores and cherishes so much that He would die for them to set them free to choose to receive Him?

This is a call to a different kind of Holiness. Not by self will power, do do… But by love motivation, to please the one we love. This is a marriage between us and God. We should never willingly choose to hurt the one we love!

Please don’t feel condemned by this. This is not me calling you to Holiness. The flesh and soul are weak. It’s impossible to be perfect in and of yourself.

But if you feel Holy Spirit conviction, if you feel your Husband’s heart on this matter, by all means, invite the Fear of the Lord… Allow Holy Spirit to dwell in ALL of those hidden parts of you. Let Him in. Let Him lead in the areas where you know you are weak, those places and habits hidden from the sight of everyone around you (you think and hope) but completely transparent to God.

Let His love for you motivate you to let Him be holy in and through you.

Do this from a place of rest, rather than striving. It is a simple choice and action.  

We become what we behold. Behold Him. Become aware of Holy Spirit and join with Him to live out of your spirit 24/7. No more reacting from flesh and soul memory. Invite and embrace the Fear of the Lord. Allow Holy Spirit to guide your responses and choices. Then you will be holy as He is Holy. And you will be far less prone to any more betrayals.

Be encouraged. Be empowered. Be delivered.

Glory Company 

Blogging from the heart again…

Back in 1804, President Jefferson set Lewis and Clark a task to pioneer across North America, to find the way to the Pacific Ocean, in order to open up a pathway for others to follow. This brave and bold move lead to further exploration of the great wide west, leading to the eventual expansion of the USA to its current known borders.

Imagine if Jefferson hadn’t pursued the idea, or if Lewis and Clark had said ‘No’…

Imagine if no one went adventuring. Ever.

New paths MUST be trod!

Did you know that sharks must constantly move forward in order for the water to rush past their gills to allow them to breathe so they can stay alive?

God’s Church is like a shark. It must continue to move forward to stay alive! Give us THIS DAY our daily bread… The Manna did not keep beyond one day. It would rot and turn maggoty if kept overnight, 6 days out of 7. 

We need a fresh revelation from Him every single morning. Doing again day after day what has always been done will not suffice any longer! 1 day a week, we get to rest and just soak and worship. The other 6 days, we need to spend time in His presence for the word for that day.

We must go adventuring. We must continue to pioneer. Or we are going to stagnate in what has always been and stop breathing and die!

The Church should be the most vibrant and amazing revelatory place on the planet! A place that everyone who looks on from the outside and sees… it births a hunger in them to be a part of that amazing, creative, constantly forward-moving, pioneering movement! Glory to God!

I want to be a part of that! I want us all to be a part of that! We have to move foward! That’s why it’s called a MOVEMENT! We move! As the pillar of fire or cloud moves, we move!

Let’s stop being stuck in the comfort of what has always been. Let’s move forward so that we can take the land that has always been destined for us, since the beginning of time.

Time to pioneer! Time to go adventuring with Holy Spirit! We have paths to make across the whole world so that others may follow and trod the path for more to follow!

Be encouraged! Be empowered! Be delivered!

Glory Company

Just blogging from the heart today.

We’ve been spending the start of the year seeking Papa’s face. We have only had hazy glimpses so far in our sanctified imagination. But we are greatly encouraged.

We continue to set time aside to seek His face, because we are more and more excited with each tiny glimpse, yet more and more unsatisfied that we are only glimpsing when we desire to totally behold and take in the beauty of His majesty and get lost in the glory and eternity in His eyes…

We’re doing this from a place of rest. We simply believe that we can see Him face to face and not die, and so we continue to fast media and tv and the like, to use that time to seek Him.

We use ‘seek’ loosely. We’re not striving in this. We’re simply spending as much time as we can out of our day to day lives to ‘position ourselves’ to meet with Him. We believe that we can. We believe that we have been invited in through the veil into the inner court of the Holy of Holies. We believe that He will meet us in a new way that we can experience, sense, feel, enjoy with our spirits/souls/bodies. We believe we will see Him and take a step closer to being counted by Him as a friend, like Moses, like Enoch, like Abraham, David, Jesus…

Even if we don’t feel like we met with Him on one particular instance, it doesn’t put us off. We know He never leaves us or forsakes us, so we know that the fullness of Him is resting with us at any given point, and that it is actually us, our poor perception, that is hindering us from the experience of more of Him. If our minds wander, again, that’s really us that’s the issue. He is with us always.

So, as Paul says: we ‘press in’ and ‘press on’ for more of Him…

But perhaps we need to invent a new language for this!

It’s more about us training ourselves to awaken to believe and receive what He already poured Himself out on the Cross to give us: All of Him. He opened the way through His flesh and blood. We just need to train ourselves to trod that open path through the torn veil.

That’s what this month of ‘seeking’ is really about. Re-training to be more and more aware. It’s an eye-opening experience, literally.

We trod down the ancient pathways of the saints of old who saw Him face to face. As we dare to believe more and more, our perception changes more and more.

This is a doable thing. He can do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ask or imagine through those who believe…

Do you dare believe you can look into God’s face and live?

Perhaps a part of you will die in the process. But that’s a good thing! Who wants to remain this way forever, when one glimpse of the King will change us more into His image?

We pray that as each of you reads this that you’ll also feel Papa’s call to you to position yourself for more of Him. You too can see Him face to face. Believe it!

Be encouraged, be empowered, be delivered…

Glory Company

Big Happy New Year to everyone!

As new year’s eve was approaching, I felt Papa begin to challenge Pearl and I, and so we put the same word He gave us to you, to see if it similarly stirs up something inside of you as well.

The challenge we felt Him lay down was to start the year by devoting the entire month of January to Him. Our firstfruits to Him. Give Him January, and watch what He does with the rest of our year.

The challenge He laid down to us was to reverse tithe our time… Fast television and entertainment and all other things that distract, and devote that time to Him instead. Instead of going to church one day a week and living the rest of the week at work and family and entertainment, He is calling us to swap it, and have 1 day a week for entertainment (with the kids, etc), but to otherwise devote any other possible time to seek His face. We can give Him our commute time, our lunchtime, our reading time. We can even Brother Lawrence our lives and give Him our time washing the dishes, vacuuming, making the bed… whatever! It’s more an awareness issue of His presence, to keep a constant state of communion with Him, an attitude of worship at all times… To seek His face, at every turn!

There is a lot of hoo-hah about ‘seeking’ and ‘fasting’ and ‘praying’ as big Do Do things. We preface this with the following: if you are reading this and you have no prompting in your heart from Holy Spirit about this, please, don’t do this thing. It will be fruitless without Holy Spirit quickening it in your heart. Don’t do this thing to please man. A fast like that for appearances sake will reap wind and air.

However. If you read this, and something jumps inside of you, if it resonates with you, and if you think that Papa asks this thing of you, well… you know that if Papa asks, it is because He has full intention of meeting with you in the secret place. It is not Do Do if it is Spirit lead. Never.

Psalm 27 says: ⁸ When You said, “Seek My face,”
My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will seek.”

Can you hear Him calling to you? Would you like to begin to see Him face to face, to walk with Him daily, like Moses, Enoch, Abraham, David or Jesus? Practice makes perfect! And we become what we behold, so why not dare to believe Him at His word and seek Him for a face to face friendship, the result of which will be that you carry more of Jesus with you wherever you go? What do you have to lose? You can’t out give God. If you give Him your time, He will pour out so much more back to you, a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, overflowing…

Think of this challenge not as a ‘fast’, but rather, as the start of a new habit, a lifestyle change. If you begin to see the fruit of it throughout January, you can always keep going into the rest of the year… ;>)

Be encouraged. Be empowered. Be delivered!

Glory Company