Where Does Your Allegiance Lie?

The Spirit calls me today as I am watching the shake up of my world. The battle rages and lines are being drawn. Jesus has said, "I did not come to bring peace but a sword" and that sword will divide some of our most cherished relationships. Matt. 10:34.

The question we face is where does our loyalty lie? To whom will we pledge our allegiance when the battle comes to our door or worse yet when it strikes our closest relationships?

We, in America, know little about the "rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world" or the "Spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms" spoken of in Eph 6:12. The strategy of evil here in America seems to be to neutralize the Church and her Warrior calling.

The enemy tries to drown out the call to war coming out of Heaven, with polite and pleasant "works" while administering sleep inducing sedatives. He is deceiving the army of God with perks and benefits that would cause them to trade in their powerful weapons and "beat their swords into plowshares" before time, while the battle is still raging.

The Spirit speaks daily about the danger of "unholy alliances" we are tempted to enter into. Today He calls me to consider the original call to compromise that was made in the Garden of Eden.

Eve was the delight of Adam's heart and made in a likeness of beauty that pleased all his senses. She was given as a gift and the flesh and blood completion of him as a man.

All was well until temptation to disobey God's only command and reject His stark warning was presented and, in an act of her free will, Eve chose the fruit of dark rebellion. Once the act of disobedience was complete, Adam was invited to join in Eve's wickedness and partake of the forbidden fruit.

Adam's decision was a different one. Beyond the forbidden fruit, Adam had to choose between his relationship with His Creator God and his relationship with Eve. Adam's allegiance was tested and it fell to his flesh. We all may well say, "well, who could blame him?" Yet, looking back, generations of people since that day would likely say, "Why did you throw away your amazing life and future just to please your senses?" (For Adam it was an issue of failed leadership but that is a subject for another day.)

Betrayal of the Creator may represent the ancient dilemma that caused the original fall of man, but that is the same dilemma we will all face in our lives today.

Compromise threatens all of us and not just in doing things that call us to repentance. The real threat of compromise is in the place of our allegiance and loyalty to the One who died for us.


The Spirit is calling, asking, in the battle that is raging, "Where does your allegiance lie?" When the sword of Christ begins to divide and decisions of loyalty must be made, where do we take our stand? Does our Lord and Savior have His rightful place in our life and does He have our undivided, unwavering loyalty, where we will forsake all others and stand with Him? Or do we forsake Him and align ourselves with those who walk in the ways of this fallen world?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Where Have You Pitched Your Tent?

The Spirit calls me this morning. Life has been so hectic and chaotic for months and lives have been forever changed. My blog has sat silent but the Spirit continues to speak to me each and every morning.

The dust of the battlefield is finally clearing, so I can spend time processing the wisdom and putting the details together in my mind.

As the Lord's arrival is imminent, we are all being called to give careful thought to our ways. We are all being shaken down and out. We are being tested to see what is in our hearts, before we are called to have audience with our King where we will be required to give an account of how we lived our lives here on earth.

Most fail to realize the seriousness of our choices. Jesus has said, narrow is the way that leads to life eternal. Grace has been reduced in our minds through some teachers to a distortion of true accountability.

Perfect love and perfect justice come together under Grace. Liberties have been taken and the dread associated with a Holy God has rarely, if ever, been felt.

The Spirit calls me this morning to look at Lot's life and where he pitched his tent. Lot was Abraham's nephew. He had moved with Abraham, and spent years in the presence of the Patriarch, God's chosen.

The day came when the Lord had so blessed them with livestock and other things, they needed to separate. In Gen 13, Abraham and Lot discussed the division, and Lot was given the choice of the land. Gen 13:12, "So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordon and set out for the east." Vs 12, "Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tent near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord."

As the account continues, we fast forward to Gen 18. In this chapter Abraham gets a visit. Gen 18:1-2, "the Lord appeared to Abraham. Abraham looked up and saw 3 men standing nearby."

Abraham was privileged to have an encounter with the Trinity, and the Lord revealed the purpose for His visitation. "Then the Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous, that I will go down and see if what they have done is a bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know it."

The Lord came to Abraham, His friend, shared with him the Divine purpose about to be fulfilled and even the "why" behind it.

Abraham was given the great privilege of a visit, but we can also see though this account a picture of the intimate relationship between God and His covenant people. We, in Christ Jesus, are God's covenant people and have access and privilege before our God to intercede and voice our thoughts, concerns and fears for others in the pathway of God's Divine judgement.

But today, the Holy Spirit calls me to look at Lot's life and where he chose to pitch his tent.

The wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah was so great that the outcry against it reached God's ears. Lot chose to live just outside the city, perhaps thinking that he could live with the perks without the liability. It is quite obvious that this close proximity to such wickedness had an impact on Lot's life and his family suffered as a result of where he pitched his tent.

When the angels of destruction were given the assignment to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the real devastation of the family unit was revealed. Lot attempted to barter his virgin daughters to the crowd of depraved men about to assault the "heavenly" visitors sent to destroy them.

As I look at Lot's life, I realize the ultimate risk of living in such a place of compromise. For whatever the reason, Lot had no impact on the place of wickedness. Conversely, that place of wickedness seemed to have a great impact on him and his family. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah was about to be destroyed, not even Lot's pledged sons-in-law were willing to listen and leave town with him and his family which included their wives-to-be. Lot was not able to persuade anyone, that judgment was about to fall.

God's mercy was the only thing that spared Lot and his family from being destroyed along with everyone else in that corrupt place. With judgement about to be executed, Lot was still hesitant. Gen 19 says, "when he hesitated, the men grasped his hands and the hands of his wife and of his 2 daughters and led them safely out of the city.

God is so faithful up to the last minute providing a merciful rescue even to those who might hesitate in fear.

But once the family was on the road to safety, God's command and warning, "flee for your lives. Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere on the plain", was not heeded nor obeyed and Lot's wife died along with all the others associated with the ungodly city.

God's mercy has an expiration date and we don't know when it will arrived until it is too late. There was a day on the calendar when the door of Noah's ark closed and all those outside the ark perished in the flood of God's judgment.

The Spirit is calling to all of us, "beware where you pitch your tent". The world is full of evil. Temptations abound for us to participate at different levels of life. Yet, we as believers are called to be separate, bound to our God and His principles of Holiness.

Today the Spirit has revealed truth about the dangers of living on the borders of wickedness: compromise with wickedness, tolerance of wickedness, apathy toward wickedness. Lot apparently did not have the reputation for witnessing the truth about a Holy God to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. At the moment of Lot's appeal to the depraved citizens of Sodom to leave his guests alone, they told him to get out of their way, saying further that Lot had come to them as an alien and now, "wants to play the judge".

God warns His people, "give careful thought to your ways". In these end times, knowing the judgement to come, we must all consider where we have pitched our tents. Are we in that border town, having no Godly impact on those around us and in danger of the judgement that will come upon the earth?

Are we bartering our children to the whims and demands of the world, failing to protect them from worldly dangers whether by assault or acceptance of ungodly principles of living?

Are we so entrenched in the lifestyle of the world that we cannot leave it's perks even if our eternal lives depend on it?

Where have you pitched your tent?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Build Up the Temple

The Spirit calls to me this morning. I have been on a personal journey, surveying what may well be called the "ruins", symbolic of lives shattered by trials. The Holy One calls me to read His Word of indictment spoken through the prophet Haggai.

The heat is up under all of God's people as well as the world we inhabit for yet a while longer. Truly there is a new world coming, but for now, we live in a fallen one and are subject to painful trials.

The Lord spoke to His people in the days of Haggai and I hear Him speaking to us today as well. The Lord was asking them to give careful thought to their ways, their life choices, and their priorities. The people of God then, as many are today, were compromised and conflicted.

This is a call to give priority to the One True God we are called to honor, worship and obey. The Lord speaks to us and says, "give careful thought to your ways". "Is it a time for you to be living in your paneled houses while the house, (God's Temple) remains a ruin?"

Since the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Savior, the Savior of the world of those who believe,our bodies have become the temple of our God. Our hearts have become the "Holiest of Holies", the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and His Throne of authority and power within.

But seriously, how many of us give thought to our ways when we focus on the outward adornment of our lives represented by the physical while the temple of Holiness within remains a ruin?

We rise up each and every morning pressured to do the bidding of our bodies and the world around us, while the Holy Spirit is ignored and left out of our daily choices, decisions, and activities.

What a mistake and Oh how we suffer for it. God's Word says, "you expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why? declares the Lord Almighty, because of My house that remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house."

The symbolism is really so clear. And as the Word through Haggai continues, God said to His people then, "I am with you". When the remnant of His people began to connect the dots, and recognize the correlation between their sinful attitude and a defeated life, they stood in fear I.E. worship of their Holy God. The Lord was then pleased to move and scripture says, He "stirred up" the Spirit of the remnant to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God.

At this turning point, the ancient people of our Holy God were given the promise of blessing as they obeyed His Word to them, giving priority to His Temple and His Presence in their lives.

It was a call to Holiness
It was a call to prioritize the Lord and His Glory
It was a call to return to covenant and obey their end of the contract

God is speaking the same message to you and I today.

We need to focus on the temple of His Holiness.
We need to do that which builds up His dwelling place within.
We need to bring Honor and Glory to the Lord God Almighty as the priority of our lives.
We need to learn from our circumstances and not fear or become discouraged only "work".

"Be strong for I am with you", says the Lord God of the universe. "A time is coming (or may well be here) when I will once more shake the heavens and the earth and I will fill this House with Glory" (the Glory of His Presence). "The glory of this present house with be greater than the glory of the former house and in this place I will grant peace."

For those of us who believe, the Holy Spirit is the indwelling Glory of the Lord Himself. As we work on making the Holy Place of God's Presence (His Temple/our Bodies)a fit habitation through our obedience and yieldedness to His Will, He will be Glorified and we will flow in the gracious peace that only God Himself can provide.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Jesus and Our Dirty Feet

The Holy One calls me today. The life of Job is the subject of our early morning conference. I have asked the Holy One to help me understand the purpose behind the heat of my life circumstances. He has already spoken that it's not ever about "why me?", but rather "what am I to learn and how will it glorify my Heavenly Father and my Lord?"

Ask the right questions and answers abound.

Today the Holy One leads me through Job's seemingly disastrous life. Passing through the understanding that Satan is the perpetrator of every evil thing, Job's venting his agony and his friends offering merciless counsel, I come to Job chapters 32-38 and the words of Elihu. While not "perfect" in wisdom, Elihu seems to come closer to the understanding of the Almighty than Job's other friends.

Elihu became angry in listening to the men. He was angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. He was angry with Job's friends because they found no way to refute Job yet condemned him.

After patiently listening to the older men, Elihu speaks through the next chapters and upholds the integrity and Righteous Sovereignty of our Holy God. He seem to cut through the "self-righteous" arguments of self-pity and victimization at the hands of an indifferent Creator.

His discourse sets the stage for Holiness Himself to speak, beginning in Chapter 38. But back to the wisdom brought through Elihu's counsel, I glean important points to ponder and apply to my life circumstances today.

Once again, the words of the ancients speak to our issues and problems of today. The Lord's indictment has been to me and those who are in despair over apparent victories being afforded the darkness. Like Job, it has been so tempting to shout "but I'm the good-guy here. Why have You allowed this sorrow to come to the good guys?" "Why are the hands that desire to do good things tied and being put subject to those of evil intent?"

Job 34:33, "Should God then reward you on your own terms when you refuse to repent?"

Repent? Am I guilty and in need of repentance? The heat of every situation reveals something wrong in the heart. The Holy One has scrutinized me and found something amiss.

Peter had need for the Lord to wash his feet. The Lord told him he didn't need a bath but only to have his feet washed. The feet walk the fallen earth and become dusty and dirty in the process. To wash the feet of the dirt we pick up along the path is somewhat like our need for daily repentance.  The symbolism of this act is not lost on me. 

As Christians, even Disciples, we are subject to wrong thoughts which if allowed to remain unchecked can take us deeper onto muddy pathways. (dirty feet) To allow the Holy Spirit to scrutinize and correct us is imperative to our journey with Jesus unto our eternal destination along the highway of Holiness.

The Holy One points me to Job 35:9, "Men cry out under a load of oppression, they plead for relief from the arms of the powerful, but no one says, "Where is God my Maker, who gives me songs in the night?" He goes on to say, "God doesn't answer nor listen to their empty pleas when men cry out, because of the arrogance of the wicked."

How much less should we expect answers, when we, who claim to "know Him" say, "it looks like evil doers prosper, the arrogant are blessed, even those who challenge God escape or that God does not take the least notice of wickedness" without the thought of God's Righteous and Sovereign timing for justice, His supreme authority and His control over all the issues of men and nations. It is the utmost arrogance to cry the blues on one hand and yet refuse to Honor His Supremacy when we do not understand His ways.

How dare we question the ways of our Holy God and Judge the Judge of all things as being indifferent, apathetic, care-less or any one of a myriad of adjectives that are an affront to His majesty and His mercy and especially His love.

God comes in awesome Majesty
The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power.
In His justice and great righteousness, He does not oppress.

In the presence of men and unseen witnesses, we are called to testify. Our lives bear witness to what we believe about our God. Has the awe and wonder of our Sovereign Creator given way to dark depression over the temporary circumstances of life.

Has our testimony of His love been jaded by the lies of Satan working through difficult times? (dirty feet) Have we gotten into the sinful habit of saying or thinking that God is not just or that His arm is too short to save us? (dirty feet) If so, we are agreeing with the dark and despicable traitor of our King.

I must shift my focus off circumstances and dwell upon His Majesty. Having been indicted for self-righteousness, (dirty feet) I come to cry out for mercy not justice. I must be willing to wait patiently and watch for what will reveal His Glory in my life circumstances. It is His righteousness that is beyond reproach and I will do well to remember this next time I question His ways.

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

Surrender

For the last days, the Holy One has allowed me to feel the buildup in my frustration over my personal agendas being thwarted. He calls me this morning to talk about these issues.

Life circumstances have become dicey lately. I am well aware of how my daily life is so affected by the choices and decisions of other people. We talk about "free will" and the personal consequences we suffer at the decisions others make in the course of them exercising their "free will".

My life choices have seemed to boil down to how to deal with the circumstances that occur as others around me choose to go through life. Trials that represent suffering hit hard and fast and they all seem to emanate out of decision's others have made that touch my life.

But is that really true?

The Holy Spirit eases me into the subject of this morning counseling session through His grace and mercy in the acknowledgment that He understands. He points to all the things lately that have frustrated me and I know in my heart that I have audience in His chamber. I can sense He receives my grievance and complaints without judgment as we just relate heart-to-heart. He agrees with the fact that I "feel" like I do, but then He has called me to change my perspective which ultimately changes my emotions.

When the Holy One begins to speak His wisdom to me, I understand that I must move in agreement with truth and come willingly to His side of the issue.

He begins with the "free will" truth. While I might be reeling with the free will of others, He points out that my "free will" to follow Him is the more important factor in my life situations. It is not their free will bringing forth the strain, but rather my free will to walk with my Savior that has emphasized the distance from them and brought forth the pain.

As a Christian and Disciple of Christ I have made a commitment to my Savior. I must follow Him and His Word. As those I know and love choose otherwise, relational strain will occur and even goals and agendas will be different.

The Holy One begins to walk me through the frustration and I see His point of view. Even if the agenda I am pursuing happens to be a plan sent from heaven, I must stop trying to achieve it in my own strength as it will never happen that way.

Even if those I love seem so far removed from the truth, I am not their savior nor do I possess the role or title of "Holy Spirit" in their lives.

I agree with my Lord on both points and I see the wisdom. Now comes the hard part for a controlling person like myself: release control! Funny that He just pointed out very subtly that I have no control anyway. But now He tells me to "release" what I do not have. How easy is that?

Perspective, it's all about perspective!

And, He reminds me that I am a bond slave of my Master, responsible only to do HIS will. I have chosen to be His disciple and my free will should have been completely discharged in that direction from that point forward. My free will is to be His servant and serve in whatever capacity He calls me to serve.

All those frustrating situations will melt away if I surrender each one to the "control" of the One I serve and then live with whatever He chooses to do in each situation I face.

Contentment follows surrender and each situation in life requires the surrender of my will to serve my Beloved, as I promised on the day I accepted Him as my Savior and Lord.

Are you agonizing and frustrated by thwarted personal agendas or other people in your life? Is it time for you to surrender?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

For Those Who Fear the Lord and Honor His Name

Circumstances in life have been so difficult lately. As I look around, it seems that evil is dominating the battlefield. Justice doesn't seem to fall to the "just" in any situation. The "good guys" seem to be suffering at the hands of the "bad guys" and those who are shaking their fists in God's face seem to be getting away with walking a dark pathway without consequence.

The Spirit calls me this morning to set the record straight. He takes me back to His Word and the book of Malachi.

Life with the Holy One in charge means He has permission to enter the deepest caverns of my mind and move through the thoughts that are hiding there, even and especially those thoughts that are at cross purpose with Truth.

The Holy One is able to expose them to His light. The mind has a whole cabinet of lies deposited there by the enemy of our soul. The Indwelling Holy pirit will seek and destroy those lies but we must trust Him and allow our ungodly thoughts to be challenged and exposed without fear.

The pressure to "appear" righteous from the outside can be so great that we deceive ourselves from within. On a human level we filter what we allow our friends to know about us from the fear that "if they really knew the real me, they wouldn't want to be my friend".

We learn early that if we want to be accepted, we must appear to be what we think others will accept. The Holy Spirit cannot be so fooled. He knows every hair on our head and every thought in our mind. There is no point in attempting to deny our vagrant thoughts to Him and so deceive ourselves.

This morning He points me to Malachi 3:13-18. While I am so full of a form of righteous indignation for what I see, as He speaks to those thoughts, I understand that they represent impatient betrayal of my Beloved.

"You have said harsh things against Me", says the Lord. Yet you ask, "what have we said against You? You have said it is futile to serve God." (Is this what I was really thinking?) "What did we gain by carrying out His requirements and going about like mourners before the Lord? But now we call the arrogant blessed. Certainly the evildoers prosper and even those who challenge God escape".

Wow what a picture of my deepest thoughts painted on the pages of the Holy Scriptures. The thoughts are real even though very subtle and not fully formed. Yet as I focus on God's assessment of my unspoken thoughts, He tells me that these "things" represent the "harsh things" that are being said against Him and that unchecked they can travel the pathway of deeper doubt.

These thoughts do not belong in my mind for I have the Indwelling Spirit who provides for me the very Mind of Christ Jesus. The lies, the deception, the unbelief, shuffle out as the bright light of Holiness exposes the dark corners of my mind.

The standard for right thinking is established. There must be no compromise with doubt or cynicism or complaining about God's handling of life circumstances even if it appears that those who challenge God's rule escape unscathed.

Malachi 3:16 gave the game plan for believers in how to deal with the unfair issues of life. "then those who feared the Lord talked with each other." "Those who feared the Lord and honored His name". If ever there were days and times for the Body of Christ to talk about the Resurrected Savior and His coming Kingdom, it is now.

The days are surely full of evil and the darkness is coming, yet we walk in the Light. For yet a little while longer we have time to bring the encouragement of our eternal destination provided by the Love of God through Jesus to the lost and dying world. For yet a while longer, we have the freedom to gather and encourage each other with the truth about our loving and merciful Creator God. For yet a little while longer we have the promises to look forward to thus proving our faith before they become fact where faith is no longer required.

To operate in faith is a privileged and limited opportunity.

God says of those who fear Him and talk with each other for mutual encouragement in the faith, "They will be mine, says the Lord Almighty, in the day when I make up my treasured possession, I will spare them just as a man spares his son who serves him. And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked between those who serve God and those who do not."

As we await the ultimate fulfillment of this promise when Christ comes to claim His own, may we find the encouragement to hold firm to the promises of our merciful God in the day to day events that take place all around us. Is it time to speak to others who fear the Lord and Honor His Name reminding ourselves and them that all God's promises for His people are yes and Amen?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?

"Behold I Am Comming Soon"***

The return of the Lord is imminent. The hand writing is on the wall. The signs are all around us. The whole world is in chaos. We are living in the days the prophets dreamed about. We are a chosen generation to be sure.

While these are exciting times from an eternal perspective, with all that is being shaken down, it is easy to get discouraged. The Spirit calls me this morning to talk about my focus. I guess He was noticing my discouragement.

He said, "Unless you are focusing on the end game and the Return of the King, you will suffer under discouragement, and apathy will soon follow." So the next question is about how to refuse to be discouraged and avoid the drift into apathy.

The early church was energized and the Gospel of Jesus Christ spread like wildfire. Interestingly enough, it wasn't the crucifixion of the Lord that captured the hearts and minds and imagination of the people in those days, but rather the resurrection of the Man called Jesus. Many were crucified in those dark days, but none were raised from the dead.

Their focus was on the hope of eternal life through the fact of the resurrection of the once dead Savior of mankind. As I look around the Body of Christ I am saddened by the apathy so many have to the greatest news to hit our planet.

Not only did our Savior rise from the dead, but He left here promising to return. In the view of many witnesses, Jesus ascended toward Heaven.

Acts 1:9 "After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes and a cloud hid Him from their sight. They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly 2 men dressed in white, stood beside them. "Men of Galilee", they said,"Why do you stand there looking into the sky? This same Jesus who has been taken from you will come back in the same way you have seen Him go."

How can I become apathetic or discouraged when that kind of message has been given to us? The message of Christ's return should surely cure any case of "apathy" as we anticipate it at any moment. As I let those words sink into my brain, I can feel a surge of encouragement coming up from the Holy One within.

Rev 22:12, in the words of Christ Jesus to John, His beloved disciple: "Behold I am coming soon. My reward is with Me. I will give to everyone according to what he has done." The King of Glory has promised to return and then....promised a reward, according to what we have "done".

Do we think that we will earn any reward for being asleep at the switch? For having missed great opportunities due to apathy or indifference? The question then becomes, "What in the "world" am I doing with so great a message entrusted to those of us who know Him?"

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us and He is coming back soon to pick us up.

Are you ready? Are all your friends and family ready?

The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?