No Snappy Title--Just a Broken Heart Over America

Most people know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were 2 ultimately sinful cities. They had refused everything God presented to them. Their goal was pleasure and pleasure only. They were violent in their pursuit of their own pleasure. They had no respect for others or their “rights”. Perversion and violence of every form was accepted and tolerated. In their “sophistication” and knowledge they had lost wisdom along the way and the “stupidity” of exalting themselves above the lives God offered them was the norm. Every man was out for himself though they traveled in packs like wild animals and like wild animals they would easily turn on each other. No one was safe.

Let’s look at America today. We are a nation blessed of God, established by God with a Godly heritage and the opportunity to live as a nation seen under the hand and blessings of God. We walked in that for a time---then we became “sophisticated” arrogant in fact, forgetting that the blessings we were operating under were from God We began to think our “rights” were more important than those of our neighbor. We began to pursue our own pleasures. We began to call evil good and good evil. A big trigger point is abortion. If I say I think abortion is murder I am attacked. This is not murder. Until the child is born it is not a child but a “fetus” (not to be vulgar but what the heck is a “fetus” except an unborn child?). But if a woman with a large family wants to have another baby she is attacked because she should not bring another child onto this earth. If I kill a pregnant whale I am evil because I “murdered” a baby whale. See the inconsistencies here? Evil is good and good is evil. We are more concerned with personal pleasure than any truth that will jostle our wants, our desires, our “rights”. I use the whale because I truly believe that people consider the “baby” whale more important than a “fetus” is because people like to go whale watching. Call me crazy, call me conservative, call me whatever you want but I pray that the Lord of Lords will open your eyes and dig out your ears so that you hear and see truth versus “popular opinion” disguised as truth.

Piece by piece Americans have rejected the truths of God for our own pleasure pursuing endeavors. Many Americans want God out of our country—and he has done, as Khrushchev said to Kennedy in the ‘60’s, start with the children. Prayer in schools is outlawed. One person pushed until she got an entire nation to agree and a door was closed to God. The rejection of God was pushed to new heights in the children of America. The message they got was their wants and their desires were more important than the truths of God. They no longer had to acknowledge Him. Their wants and desires were more important than any god—especially the most high God who deserves our devotion.

We can see the results that quickly snowballed into the mess we have today. People out of work with little or no hope of finding one. The porno viewing pleasure of people in the library is more important than the rights of the child next to them because of free speech. A country where the criminals have more “rights” than their victims. We have deteriorated into a country that protects evil and supports criminals but tosses away the victims.

Genesis 18:16-29 (NIV)

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

¹⁶ When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. ¹⁷ Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? ¹⁸ Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.^[a] 19 For I have chosen him , so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹ that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

²² The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.^[b] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous  people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare^[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing —to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. ”

²⁷ Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, ²⁸ what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

²⁹ Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

As intercessors we have the responsibility to turn our nation back to God. It is our job, our duty, our calling and should be the desire of our hearts. He will hear and our country will not only stand a chance to resist but will have to bow it’s knee to the Creator of the Universe and prayerfully be a field for the harvest.

Are you Living Your Dreams or Just Having Nightmares?

What is your Dream?

We are in the final hours: are you living your dreams or just having nightmares?

Genesis 37:1-11

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

² This is the account of Jacob.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad reportabout them.

³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. ⁴ When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵ Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷ We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

⁸ His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

⁹ Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰ When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹ His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

God gives us the ability to dream. He plants our desires and our destiny is in His hands. Knowing that is such a relief. We don’t have to bother with plans of our own making (which easily turn into nightmares) we can just rely on the dreams He gives us.

Dreams start in your heart and grow into reality. Dreams are a part of our makeup from God. They are part of our spiritual DNA. He gives you the ability to walk in the dreams He provided. So many times we come up against something HARD and we think it isn’t God—stand back and behold His provision. In verse 5 Joseph shared his dream and his brothers hated him. Opposition is common. Hold to your dreams for the experiences we have are what prepares us to walk in our dreams. I could not intercede for the world if God had not given me dreams of the hearts of people individually, then in towns, in cities, in states, in countries, on continents, and throughout cultures. His preparations in our lives often sound like commands but it is the intensity of His love for us. It is us on his heart for our destiny—it is a stirring from inertia into a projection of the destiny we were created to fulfill.

2 Timothy 1:9

⁹ who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

You are called—the dreams are within you. 

Bonke: “Why do you play with marbles when you are called to move mountains.”

Warning. Warning.Warning. There is a demonic strategy, the attempt to sabotage the dream God gave you. He wants to:

        Steal the desires God gives you.

Kill the intent of your heart to walk in what God shows you.

Destroy the dream so destiny is thwarted.

Ephesians 6:12

 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

He is intent on the destruction of dreams. This is not a game and the enemy will stop at NOTHING to see you destroyed.

Genesis 39

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

² The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, ⁴ Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. ⁵ From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of theLord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. ⁶ So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.

Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, ⁷ and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

⁸ But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. ⁹ No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”¹⁰ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.

¹¹ One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. ¹² She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

¹³ When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house,¹⁴ she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed.¹⁵ When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

¹⁶ She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. ¹⁷ Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. ¹⁸ But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”

¹⁹ When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. ²⁰ Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.

But while Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹ the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. ²² So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. ²³ The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

What are some of the less obvious ways he attacks?

1.   Doubts regarding your calling.  

    Genesis 37:28 ²⁸ So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. 

   

    Joseph had to be wondering what his dream had to do with being in the cistern and being sold into slavery. Those thoughts, those doubts those supposed setbacks are just emotions. We are not moved by our emotions but by the word of God.

2.   Remember who the father of lies is.

John 8:44b

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

3.   Distractions and temptations in the form of materialism, daily activities and the cares of life.

4.   Assault you with problems, fears, curses, etc.  Paul had to remind Timothy to stir up, rekindle the calling—he was not called to fail but to move to fulfillment.

2 Timothy 1:6-7

            ⁶ For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is

        in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For God did not give us a 

        spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power,of love and of self-discipline.

Walking in the dreams God had given us gives us vision, joy, excitement, the ability to worship in spirit and in truth. Fulfilling God given dreams helps:

1.   Keep your heart right no matter how often you are wronged, no complaining, no backsliding, no going back. Keep your heart.

Proverbs 4:23

Above all else, guard your heart,
          for it is the wellspring of life.

2.   He had a relationship with God. He cared more about God than his dream. Lay hold of God. The Lord was with Joseph

Genesis 39:2

The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his 

Egyptian master.

Genesis 39:21

the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 

3.   Keep an active prayer life. Gain comes in devotion

1 Peter 5:7

 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

4.   Keeps as air of expectation.

Jeremiah 33:3

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great  and unsearchable things you 

do not know.’

5.   Stay faithful keeping the main thing the main thing.

6.   Keeps you focused so you don’t go left or right.

7.   Make right decisions.

8.   Makes God first everywhere in your life.

9.   Keeps you in the center of His rewards Matt 25.

What does this have to do with intercession? If you are not following your dreams how can you pray for others’ dreams. We have to walk in the boldness of the Holy Spirit, the fullness of our calling, the compassion of our savior. He never stops making intercession for us.

Do you know someone struggling with a dream? Someone who is burdened because they have such a strong desire to walk in their “calling” but they are stuck? Do you see people stumbling in their walk, a stubbed toe, a foot slipped to the side, a broken heart because they are too “old”, or their children are too small or…or…or…. Is your heart moved or do you just spout platitudes?

Help someone fulfill their dream. It might be hard work. You will probably never get credit except in heaven. No one will know, but you will see the fulfillment of God in life after life after life and after all, isn’t that what it is about?

Is Your Crown on Straight?

I married a man who proclaimed to be a Christian. I did all the right things. We counseled with his pastor (I had just moved to a new city and had not found a church). I asked all the right questions. I watched. I prayed. I fell in love. I sought God. I got married. . I am a Spirit-filled Christian. No matter what your “theology” is, no matter what our differences are, you cannot deny that I love the Lord and I know he loves me. And yet, I still found myself divorced, full of shame, alone—wounded. My family loved me but I was so covered with shame and so rejected by the church that I confused even my own family’s love with obligation. Sometimes God’s love for us is clouded, as it was here—and yet in the midst of criticism, shame and pain there came that voice, that loving voice, that voice I follow, that voice that calls to me continuously.

John 10:27

²⁷ My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

That voice that lets me know I am loved in the middle of judgment, condemnation, insecurity, inferiority and shame. Those hateful, critical words that are arrows into the heart from the ones who should love us the most…

Romans 15:5-7

⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,⁶ so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

The thing that struck me the most during this time of healing and restoration was not only the hateful critical words of the body but the arrogance of people who judged me with an iron hammer without mercy.

1 Corinthians 3:11-20

¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. ¹² If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, ¹³ his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. ¹⁴ If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. ¹⁵ If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.

¹⁶ Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? ¹⁷ If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.

¹⁸ Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise. ¹⁹ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; ²⁰ and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.” 

God’s love is life. Spiritual sophistication is death. Death to you and potential death to the ones you shoot the darts at…

 

 

1 Corinthians 4:12

¹² We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it.

When you are wounded you have to bless, you have to endure. If you use the same type of destructive, prideful words it becomes death to you.

Proverbs 13:10

¹⁰ Pride only breeds quarrels…

Proverbs 12:18

¹⁸ Reckless words pierce like a sword, 
    but the tongue of the wise brings healing.

 

Psalm 10:2-4

² In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,

Do you know someone weak right now? Someone who is under the bondage of shame? Some who is hurting for whatever reason? Do you know someone who has been persecuted by the church? Have you listened to the judgment of others over someone’s life? I think everyone knows someone in one of these categories. Are you interceding for them? Are you praying out of superiority and head knowledge or out of the heart of God?

In Esther 1 we learn about Queen Vashti and King Xeres. She was beautiful, titled, powerful and wealthy—all the things people strive for. The king was “having friends over”. Truthfully they had just celebrated his wealth and position for 6 months and now he was having a special 7 day celebration. He was drunk and sent the eunuchs for his queen. He wanted to show her off. She would undergo comments. She would be put on display to make him look good.

She refused to come. She had become confident in her power. Her wealth. Her title. She forgot that all of it came through the king. She got “too big for her britches”. He striped her of everything and banished her.

Whose Queen are you? The queen of your own making or are you His Queen? Does your heart melt at His voice? Does your own voice resonate in your ears louder than his voice? Whose voice are you obeying?

Revelation 12:11

¹¹ They overcame him
    by the blood of the Lamb 
    and by the word of their testimony; 
they did not love their lives so much
    as to shrink from death.

Are you walking in the realm of His power or in the pretense of your own power? Have you forgotten what it is all about?

1 Corinthians 4:20

²⁰ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.

Have you taken a stand against spiritual sophistication or are you joining forces with it?

Have you checked self-importance of the throne room door?

Have you heard you King calling his Queen? 

Who is on His heart today? 

Who is on yours?

How Passionate are You?????

Most people know the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. They were 2 ultimately sinful cities. They had refused everything God presented to them. Their goal was pleasure and pleasure only. They were violent in their pursuit of their own pleasure. They had no respect for others or their “rights”. Perversion and violence of every form was accepted and tolerated. In their “sophistication” and knowledge they had lost wisdom along the way and the “stupidity” of exalting themselves above the lives God offered then was the norm. Every man was out for himself though they traveled in packs like wild animals and like wild animals they would easily turn on each other. No one was safe.

Let’s look at America today. We are a nation blessed of God, established by God with a Godly heritage and the opportunity to live as a nation seen under the hand and blessings of God. We walked in that for a time---then we became “sophisticated” arrogant in fact, forgetting that the blessings we were operating under were from God We began to think our “rights” were more important than those of our neighbor. We began to pursue our own pleasures. We began to call evil good and good evil. A big trigger point is abortion. If I say I think abortion is murder I am attacked. This is not murder. Until the child is born it is not a child but a “fetus” (not to be vulgar but what the heck is a “fetus” except an unborn child?). But if a woman with a large family wants to have another baby she is attacked because she should not bring another child onto this earth. If I kill a pregnant whale I am evil because I “murdered” a baby whale. See the inconsistencies here? Evil is good and good is evil. We are more concerned with pleasure than any truth that will jostle our wants, our desires, our “rights”. I use the whale because I truly believe that people consider the “baby” whale more important than a “fetus” is because people like to go whale watching. Call me crazy, call me conservative, call me whatever you want but I pray that the Lord of Lords will open your eyes and dig out your ears so that you hear and see truth versus “popular opinion” disguised as truth.

Piece by piece Americans have rejected the truths of God for our own pleasure pursuing endeavors. America wants God out of the country—and he has done as Khrushchev said to Kennedy in the ‘60’s start with the children. Prayer in schools is outlawed. One person pushed until she got an entire nation to agree and a door was closed to God. The rejection of God was pushed to new heights in the children of America. The message they got was their wants and their desires were more important than the truths of God. They no longer had to acknowledge Him. Their wants and desires were more important than any god—especially the most high God who deserves our devotion.

We can see the results that quickly snowballed into the mess we have today. People out of work, the porno viewing pleasure of people more important than the rights of the child next to them,

Genesis 18:16-29 (NIV)

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

¹⁶ When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. ¹⁷ Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? ¹⁸ Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.^[a] 19 For I have chosen him , so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lordby doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

²⁰ Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹ that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

²² The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.^[b] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous . people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare^[c] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing —to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake. ”

²⁷ Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, ²⁸ what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

²⁹ Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

As intercessors we have the responsibility to turn our nation back to God. It is our job, our duty, our calling and should be the desire of our hearts. He will hear and our country will not only stand a chance but prayerfully be a field for the harvest.

Are you passionate enough about your Lord to plead for your country? As my friend Lee would say, "We are burning daylight here folks."