The Day After The Tea Party Ends!

      I'd like to discuss two subjects: why "The Tea Party" will eventally end and why the "Christian Right" worldview of America is wrong. America was designed to be a "City Of Refuge" for persecuted Christians of various denominational faiths. As such, each faith group that came had to learn how to live and work together in cultural diversity and do justice. First, Christians in America should be  an example, to our brothers and sisters throughout the world on How to conduct ourselves in a culturally diverse world just as the early Jewish disciples had to work in Gentile nations - who did not share their Jewish faith and practice or share their God. The Church in America is failing to grasp and neglecting the serious call of the Lord to disciple our nation instead of trying to build a Augustinian kingdom based on faulty scriptural understandings of our role in culture.  Secondly, American Christians will never be able to "legislate" their religious views on a democratic republic, especially in this post-modern era. The system of government designed in America was designed to frustrate all groups at sometime or another.  Words like compromise, dissent, minority, tolerance, and reciprocal liberty are the main tenants of our country's constitution.  I'm certainly thankful that out of all the early colonial history God used William Penn and the Quaker frame of government to become the basis of our political system. 

William Penn meets with First Nations In Historic New Castle, Delaware

   Let me begin with my first point about our Christian responsibilities in reaching our culture for Christ. From the founding of our country, four major British cultures were established on the eastern shores of the United States.  The Boston culture was firmly established with Calvinistic Puritan ideas.  Those embedded ideas begin with the Total Depravity of humankind.  God is good - humanity is bad, therefore, we need to legislate people's behavior, life, ways, and customs. So, liberty was based on the Puritan ideas of order, discipline and conformity. If you didn't agree with that way of thinking you were purged or put to death by their system of government.  The Puritan's of New England based much of their thinking on Calvin's institutes and the failed policies of  Geneva, Switzerland under Calvin's rule. From the first-hand accounts, Oxford's Gillian Lewis notes, "The city of Geneva possessed a significance which was symbolic and mythical. Her friends saw her as the mirror and model of true piety, a haven of refuge, a roosting-place for fledglings, a stronghold to train and dispatch abroad soldiers of the Gospel and ministers of the Word." And yet, there were enemies as well, enemies who saw Geneva as "Satan's sanctuary, a source of heresy, atheism, and libertine and a center for the active dissemination of sedition."  Just as soon as Geneva embraced the Reformation officially and severed its loyalties to the bishop and Duke of Savoy, the city was flooded with refugees from all over Europe. Over night Geneva became, after Wittenberg, Zurich, and Strasbourg, a capitol of the Protestant faith. Foreign visitors expressed amazement as they observed both the theological and practical attractions of the city.  Later, as the Puritans of New England came to re-establish the failed Geneva experiment in Boston, they envisioned a Biblical state based on the same principles Calvin attempted to rule his culture on. Quakers, Baptists, and other radicals were a threat to the "City on the Hill" vision of John Winthrop.  Truth is they did not envision "separation of church and state."  They envisioned the church and it's Presbyterian government as a good foundation for government.  They believed in bringing about the Millennial reign of Christ through the righteous governing.  Thank God our nation never adopted these views.  But many Christians in America today hold these views and want to impose them on others. 

First consider the fact that Christ gave
himself up to death on our behalf
and became ours: therefore we ought to
give up ourselves for the good of all men,
not thinking that we are our own,
but that we belong to others.- Zwingli

     These same views were held in Virginia but were embedded in the Anglican Church established by the Cavaliers. Jamestown, Virginia was a business venture with one aim in mind - the Christianizing of the first nations culture in order to enslave the indigenous population, and dispossession of the land.  When this venture failed to accomplish this goal they introduced "African Slavery" only to further their business and economic benefits for the benefit of England's king.  Ideas of building a commonwealth to sustain the loses of the Cavaliers lost lifestyle in England was the goal and vision of the founding of the Virginia colony. When the Nasemond county and eastern shores of accomacke wanted to define their faith in light of Boston they were purged and forced to move to up the Chesapeake to establish a new colony in what is now called, Annapolis, Maryland.  Virginia's idea of "liberty" was that the government is who extends you the freedom and rights of liberty.  There was no liberty of conscience or freedom of worship in Virginia's founding.  This explains why groups like the "Tea Party" holds a worldview demanding to "conformity" of their understanding of the constitution. They have become a political entity engaged to "root out" anyone who disagrees with their version of a  "America" just as much as those who are on the extreme left do.  Our political system was not built on a  right republican, Whig, democrat, or Tea Party party worldview. Nor are we a nation of just white elites, native Americans or African Americans.  We are a diverse people and have been since the beginning of our country!  To reduce everything down to one p[articular statement of faith or be aligned to one a political party platform does not constitute a legitimate form of government. Governor Berkley's Virginian spirit still prevails 400 years after the founding of America.  In my view, this view is based on an anti-Christ spirit. It's arrogant, prideful, and intolerant of other Christian interpretations of Scripture and spirit directed movements that God has used throughout our history.  Could we regain the Quaker spirit that began in William Penn's government?  Reciprocal Liberty where DISSENT is honored?

    God calls us to be salt and light to the unchurched world.  However, that salt and light is not to be based in "Colonial Imperialistic Culture!"  Pocahontas died after she was bathed, put in a proper English dress, was forced to have a hair cut, and presented as a well dressed reformed English Christianized women to the English Crown.  The national Right winged thinking held in various part of Christian Culture too often has tried to impose their "colonial views" on the greater nation rather than do what Christ called us to do (see. Matt. 28:18-20). The United States has several histories.  Euro-centric, Native American, African-American, Asian American, and Latino stories form who we are as a country regardless of those who believe in the Euro-cententic fairy-tale of America's formation. Slaughtering 50 million Native American in the name of Jesus is not my idea of a Christian nation. The truth of our national history with it's slavery, racial hatred, and purging of first nations peoples is not exactly something I think of as the good ole days.  Our nation is an an experiment!  It's a movement that is called to teach the Shites and Sunnies how to live with one another in peace.  We are called to be that kind of people.  That's why I believe that the Christian Right is losing power because it seems that they just can't move our nation backwards to the good ole days.... whatever that may have been in their minds.  It's time for us to wake up - and realise what has been said before "you can't legislate" your statement of faith in a nation that was called to be a "HOLY EXPERIMENT" based on reciprocal liberty.  This is why the "Tea Party" will never succeed and eventually come to an end. My only hope is that the Church In America will get back to reflecting what our country was called to do in the first place... "endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace - until we come into the unity of the faith!

What To Do With The Quiet Moments In Your Life

Orlando Ridout (Direct descendant of John Ridout
 who sold Kunta Kinta in Annapolis) and Bill Haley Jr.
grandson of  Alex Haley  direct descendant of Kunta Kinta
May 2,  2014

 Over the last few years, I've had the ride of a lifetime ministering around the world, speaking in very special churches and conferences.  I have had great success in building a very important ministry in Annapolis, Maryland which has been developing a "strategic prayer" initiative that has been dismantling the "principalities, powers, and wickedness" in our city. We have been experiencing serious city transformation. This has resulted in breaking the spirit of slavery off our nation through indentificational repentance and reconciliation over the slave trade here in Annapolis. Annapolis was one of America's major slave ports - which is in fact where Alex Haley's (Author Of Roots) direct ancestor Kunta Kinta was sold on September 27, 1767.  I have concluded after witnessing God work through our ministry he is now directing us to do the redemptive work on making our city a center for addressing the plight of Modern Slavery and will be using our ministry to assist in those endeavors both here and abroad.  It's just like God to take a city's sin and turn it around to "Heal America's Wounds." So what does that have to do with "The Quiet Moments" of our lives?

In May of 2010, I had a very vivid dream/vision at 3am one morning.  It was a panoramic vision of a coming revival on Gen Y and the Millennials.  In the vision I was invited to come and minister to a group of young people.  They were laying all over the floors weeping, travailing, crying out to the Lord for mercy on their lives.  The presence Of God was so thick I was afraid to move.  I have been a part of several major outpourings in my lifetime but I had never experienced something like this.  I was literally afraid to move because I didn't want to be disruptive of God's work in their lives.  I asked a person who was standing in the vision along side of me "Why was I here?"  I felt privileged to be there but didn't understand "why."  Then a voice said, "We asked for you to come to help us because you are a Father."  "You understand the moving of the Holy Spirit."  I understood immediate what God was showing me was the next move of the Holy Spirit.  It will be an intense "Crying Out" from a generation that knows absolutely nothing about the Holy Spirit."  It's almost like the people in Acts 19 who said to Paul, "We have never heard of the Holy Spirit."  The Vision also was a warning.  Leaders who have encountered the Holy Spirit in past encounters need to be careful to not  assume they know how to proceed in this next revival.  There has never been anything like it and you cannot use your "pentecostal or charismatic wares" and just due business as usual and reteach old ways. Isaiah 43:18-19 proclaims, "remember not the former things nor consider the things of old. Behold I do a new thing.  God is not going to just give our churches and ministries a new infusion to do what has been done. He is going to use only those who have been stripped of "ministry know hows" and are sensitive and intimately acquainted with the Holy Spirit... and you cannot have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit with the busy instagram world we live in.  That's why God is stripping down churches, leaders, dispossessing and putting extreme pressure on all of us.  He is trying to get our attention to spend time with Him.  We need to get quiet, listen, discern and prepare ourselves for the next move of the Holy Spirit.  I believe this next move will begin in about five years from now.  currently, we are in a preparation period. If you don't prepare you won't be ready for when the Lord comes. (See Matthew 25:1-13)

Although we are witnessing the prophetic fulfillment of the promises given in the 1980's of massive mega churches emerging;  God has not called the contemporary church to be reduced down to be a part of the entertainment industry. I have been privileged in years gone by to speak into major movements within the contemporary church.  It has been an honor to be a part of this past emphasis.  However, God is not in the lights.  God is not in the music - even if it makes the Billboard charts.  God is not in the preaching or the great theatre complexes or stadiums that have been filled.  It's been a blast to witness the church's growth and play a small part in it.  However, God does not dwell in temples made with hands.  He is calling us to be filled in our hearts with his presence.  That presence calls us "to put off" the old nature, and be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and "put on" Christ.  God is calling for "relational holiness." He wants us to get our lives right with Him, within ourselves, and with those we share life with.  

Brokenness and humility will be the earmarks of the next move of the Holy Spirit. No Super star Apostles, Preachers of LA, or Great mega centers of Christian entertainment.  It's all coming down. It's all going to be stripped, and "political power" will be taken away from the church so that the church of the future will have similarities of the early church.  (See Zech. 4:6) You might ask why I say this?  Because the next move of the Holy Spirit is going to lead us into a new phase of whole cities coming to Christ.  Everyone currently serving in ministry has to be retooled and prepared to minister in places and among people groups they have never been a part of to lead them to Christ, help them to become disciple-makers themselves, and turn whole cultures of godless behavior around.  It's going to take the entire "Body Of Christ" to work together for the Great Harvest coming.  No one church, no movement of churches, or denominations will be able to capture this movement of God's Spirit among the nations. Whole nations will be swept by the Spirit of God in an instant and changed.  This is not my wishful or magical thinking. It is a prophetic promise in the Bible that's about to come upon the earth before the return of Christ.  (see Hab. 2:14; Psalm 102:18; Isaiah 40:5)

I have no idea what other ministries are up to or what the latest "word" is.  What I am witnessing is extreme pressure being placed on everyone including me.  It's referred to in the Bible as a "time of atonement." God's people are being called to "get their inner world and outer worlds aligned with Him. In order for that to happen He will strip and shake everything in our lives to complete that work in us. Phil. 1:6 says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus."  So,  when your world gets quiet and invitations are not being issued to have you come and be a part of the big celebrations right now... don't fret.  Get busy and use these quiet periods in your life to prepare yourself for the next period God is taking you to.  You may be called to write. You may be called to finish that theological degree.  You may be called to study, develop a prayer life or get those music lessons needed to make yourself an accomplished musician.  Whatever God is calling you to do... now is the time to take the moment to get ready.  Parties will come and go.  You're not missing out on anything because nothing is happening right now.  We are all just being called to "get quiet."  Here's a couple of cool verses: I Thessalonian 4:11 "aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands";  Psalm 75:6-7 "For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. For God is the judge! He brings one down and exalts another. " So don't worry about becoming a celebrity pastor, singer or worship leader.  James 3:16 explains to us, "For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." God wants to kill all that self ambition in us. He's going to tear down the idol of "My purpose, My dream" emphasis because it's His purpose, His Dream, His kingdom that he's building not ours. I am glad that in all my years preaching, teaching, and being invited to be a part of great moves of the Holy Spirit in the past I've never once had to ask someone to let me come and speak on their platforms or conference.  They invited me to come - I didn't go seeking celebrity pastor status. I just want a relationship with Jesus that makes Him pleased with me. God alone is the one who promotes.  He alone calls us to a quiet place with Him so that we can be intimately acquainted with The Holy Spirit.  Prayer and His word provides the foundation we need for any work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  Right now, God is giving us a reprive from "business as usual,"  He's giving us a quiet time to retool our lives and get ready for the "move of the Holy Spirit." 

The New American Universalism and Ultimate Reconciliation

Many years ago, my dear friend John Sandford, author of the Elijah Task, shared with our church what a false prophet is.  I've certainly heard lots of teaching on the prophetic but rarely have we heard people teach how to recognize a false prophet.  Some people think that a false prophet is a person who's prophecies do not come to pass.  Other's seem to attack those who teach theological views that differ from theirs as false prophets (I.e., premillenialism, post-millenism, Amillenialism etc).   However, John Sandford shared with us a very important scriptural understanding that "a false Prophet" is not a person whose prophecies don't come to pass, rather "a false prophet" is one who comes in miracles, signs, and wonders, and teaches a false doctrine.  Notice what I said, "Teaches A False Doctrine" after performing miracles.

There is no greater "false" prophets than those who teach "ultimate reconciliation" or "universersialism" and comes with lying signs and wonders.  William Branham and George Warnock were such men in the 1940's.  Universalism nor it's "Latter Rain Movement" counterpart of ultimate reconciliation is new in North America.  Basically, Universalism is a theological position that teaches the view that all human beings and ALL fallen creatures will ultimately be restored to right relationship with God and go to Heaven.  Some main proponents include that Lucifer will ultimate be forgiven and restored also.  The two central beliefs which distinguish Christian Universalism from mainstream Christianity are universal reconciliation (all will eventually be reconciled to God without exception, the penalty for sin is not everlasting, i.e. doctrines of everlasting damnation to hell and annihilationism are rejected) and theosis (all souls will ultimately be conformed to the image of divine perfection in Christ).   Those within the Pentecost- Latter Rain Movement taught that "The works that Jesus Did we will do also, even great works than these." (John 14:12)  They continued their position by stating that "When Jesus went to Hell (as found  in Acts 2:31; Eph. 4:9) he preached to those captive in hell (I Peter 3:18-19) then led those who recieved him back with him to Paradise as he promised to do with the thief on the cross (Luke 23:42).  In other words,  Jesus went to Hell between the cross and the resurrection and liberated those who died in faith.  Likewise, according to the ultimate reconciliation teachers of "Latter Rain" who fell in this error, we too will go to hell when we die as believers.  We will then preach to those who are still in the grips and hell.  We then, like Jesus will liberate those who hear us and lead them to Heaven with us once our work in Hell is done.  Recently, among the so called "Apostles and Prophets" gatherings here in the USA it has been proclaimed by several that the Body of Christ will go to grave yards in the future and raise people, who have been dead for 30+ years, and we will be given the opportunity to preach the gospel to them and lead them to Christ so that they don't have to spend ALL of eternity in captivity.  In fact, for those of you who have been around the "Charismatic/Petecostal" streams the last twenty years would be shocked at who is involved in teaching these heresies.  I'd like to believe there is no "Hell" too.  But, the scriptures neither teach ALL will be saved nor does it say anywhere we get a second chance for salvation after death.  

In a recent turn of events, even though the damage has been done, Rob Bell, the evangelical pastor who wrote the book "Love Wins" that has been a lightning rod for promoting Universalism, stated clearly in a recent interview that he believes in hell and no longer believes that everyone will be saved. (See: http://www.christianpost.com/news/rob-bell-i-believe-in-hell-now-and-after-you-die-49660/ ).  I wonder if Oprah would host him again to hear his new found positions.  

If you look into the Bio's of most who hold to these "fantasies" of no "Hell" or eternal punishment for rejecting Christ as their Lord, you find they never went to any credible or finished their theological seminary or got the necessary biblical or historical development of theology necessary to guide the Body Of Christ.  That's why most of these "so called" apostles/prophets find themselves in such heresey.  I'm growing quite concerned about the growing apostasy from those who have left the scriptures for their progressive revelations and beyond. I think it's time for the "church" to come to grips that just because we are called to reach popular culture doesn't mean that we are to preach a different gospel.  The culture may not like what the scrpitures teach but that does not make the "truth" of God's word relevative or subject "going beyond the scripitural norms" to fit our "post-modern" private interpretations.  Truth is truth.  Jesus died so that we do not have to go to Hell.  Reject Jesus you go to HELL.  If I'm wrong - no loss.  If it's true-  your loss!  Sorry!  The most important thing to recognize about those who are teaching and promoting this heresey is nowhere was there any mention of the Cross, Christ’s propitiation for our sins, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Pentecost or St Paul’s exhortations to the churches in their writings, teachings, or public expressions of their damnable heresies which are giving false hope to those who want to live their lives without any interference to their sinful pleasures.

Learning to Overcome

     Have you ever been told that you have a disease that is incurable?  So, I could have never imagine that my youngest daughter Olivia would be diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. Its pretty overwhelming to have your child sit in front of a doctor, give his pronouncement, and then tell you there is no cure.  The only hope he offers is a series of toxic drugs along with it's major list of side effects.  Wow!  What a test of faith for all of us in our family.  throughout life everyone of of us will be tested in our faith... usually letting us know God is God and we're not.  Only the Lord makes the impossible possible.  Hebrews 5:7 is an encouraging verse: "During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission."   I've had fervent crying and tears over the last few days.  It's flat out hard to face such hardship to see your kid hurt and you can do absolutely nothing to fix it yourself.  I have no idea how so many people make it through difficult moments like this.

       My life seems to be on trial.  A few years ago, I thought I could make it through my mom's fight with Lung Cancer (she never smoked a day in her life). She was so healthy, vibrant and fun to be around.  During her last moments with us, she tried to show courage, strength, and hope to our family.  But in the end she lost the battle.  Then within the next year we lost four more family members including my Dad and our only nephew who was killed by a girl texting and not paying attention to her driving.  Tough moments but we've been getting through it slowly.  On top of that, I've continued to pastor our church through a major legal battle against a company that has been seeking to steal our property so that can cover up their own illegal activity on Wall Street.  Fun stuff, Aye?  Now on the heels of that comes this news. So how do I handle it all?  Here's a few emotional ques helping me.

First,  Scream at God when you need to, tell Him its unfair, and get the anger out of your system.  Yelling at your family or friends will not help you.  God can take your yelling.  Doesn't mean you'll get much of a response but you can take it out on him.  He's not afraid of a little anger since he's prone to a little himself.  As we look at the Book of Psalms, we see that anger is an integral part of the prayer life of the psalmist. Anger is a recurring theme -- all kinds of anger: personal, national, political, and even anger toward God. One Third of the Psalms are expressions of people's anger.  It's okay to vent. God can take it.

Second,  recognize that every TESTIMONY begins with the word "TEST."  According to our understanding of the English word "test":  A test or examination is an assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topics (e.g., beliefs).  In other words, when we face a test we have the opportunity to find where our faith levels really are.  One of my favorite verses comes from I Samuel 30:6.  King David and his men had just lost everything they owned along with their families.  It was so bad that David had no one to encourage him so he encouraged himself.  I Sam. 30:6 says, "David encouraged himself in the Lord."  In my experience I usually find myself having to rehearse all the things in my past that God has done for me to encourage myself.  He's always been there and promises he will always be there through my future.  God is a good God!  All the Time.

Third,  rehearse God's promises to Him!   A few years ago a prophet named, David Minor, sat at a table and prophesied to me.  "You've gone from mountain top to mountain top. However, you've never been to a valley before.  God is sending you to a valley.  It will feel like you've been set on a shelf.  No one will call you.  No one will ask you to come.  You will be taken into a Valley.  You have met Jesus many times on the mountain tops but this time you are going to meet Jesus in the Valley. Then God will take you back up to the mountains and you'll go to greater place than you have ever been."  He is right and you know what it sucks being in a valley.  There are 4,290 valleys in the Bible.  In every valley you can find a promise from God.  There is:

The Valley Of Death  Ps. 23

The Valley Of Weeping  Ps. 84:6

The Valley of Decision Joel 3:14

The Valley of Dry Bones  Ezek. 37:1-14

Valleys of Battle Josh. 7:1-3; 8:1-29

plus many more...

Finally, try to learn from your problems what you don't know. Problems are our opportunities to grow!  With our family, we are praying and believing for Olivia's total healing.  However, her health begins with changing our diet together as a family.  In recent years, there have been tons of resources, movies like "Folks over knives,"  books on Dr. Gerson's cure for cancer that have all demonstrated our eating habits are hurting and damaging us.  So God is putting his finger on the importance of healthy eating.  Do you remember the beginning statements of the Hebrew Young Men in the Book Of Daniel?

Daniel Chapter 1

⁸ Daniel made up his mind not to harm himself by eating the king’s rich food and drinking the king’s wine. So he asked the chief-of-staff for permission not to harm himself in this way. ⁹ God made the chief-of-staff kind and compassionate toward Daniel. ¹⁰ The chief-of-staff told Daniel, “I’m afraid of my master, the king. The king determined what you should eat and drink. If he sees that you look worse than the other young men your age, he would have my head cut off.” ¹¹ The chief-of-staff put a supervisor in charge of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Daniel said to the supervisor, ¹² “Please test us for ten days. Give us only vegetables to eat and water to drink. ¹³ Then compare us to the young men who are eating the king’s rich food. Decide how to treat us on the basis of how we look.” ¹⁴ The supervisor listened to them about this matter and tested them for ten days. ¹⁵ After ten days they looked healthier and stronger than the young men who had been eating the king’s rich food. ¹⁶ So the supervisor took away the king’s rich food and wine and gave them vegetables.

Then in the New Testament the apostles charged with the Gentile mission were told to

To abstain from food polluted... and the meat of strangled animals and from blood. Acts 15:20

Why on earth was this "discussion" regarding what we eat so important to be included in the Bible?  It's because God designed our bodies to be able to eat certain things.  To many of us look for healing but then turn around and eat and drink all the wrong things.  The United States government is creating a "nutritional famine"  that is causing a Hugh profit for the health care industry. The pharmaceutical companies cannot make money if we eat the right things and let the body heal itself.  Who would have thought that our health would become the target for "profits" on Wall Street?  

Well, my life is becoming a story about overcoming.  I want to be found on the side of compassion, love for my family, staying true to knowing what is right.  On the one hand I am glad we have a name to "tag" for ourselves in prayer.  We can now pray for Olivia to be healed of Crohn's disease.  I also want you to know... that I am here to pray for you, no matter where you are, who you are, I have plenty of time to pray now that I'm sitting in a valley.  

Do you want to be healed?

     In John 5:1-17, we find Jesus standing along side of a man who was an invalid for thirty eight years at the pool of Bethesda.  The story explains that many people who suffered from blindness, crippling diseases, and the paralyzed were laying around the pool in anticipation of an angel to come down, stir the waters and cause healing for those who got in.  As we do a cursory reading of this text, we find a number of interesting statements made by the man.  (1)  I have no one to help me to get in the pool; (2) I keep trying to get in but people keep getting in my way; and (3)  Others keep me from getting my healing.  In other words, "I am not healed because of others."  Then Jesus says, "You get up, pick up your bed and walk."  Well, that seems a bit harsh doesn't it.  But there are some important thoughts behind "How Healing Begins."  

    Over the last 35 years of ministry, I've spent a lot of time praying for hundreds of people seeking both physical and inner healing.  I have listened to people share their struggles with addiction,  struggles with their health, their relationships, their sexual problems, and struggles in other areas of life.  I am often puzzled by "how many" don't get healed because they don't want healing. They just want to complain, blame others for their problems, remain stuck in their past hurts, and choose to remain in chaos rather than choose to be healed.  I have wondered sometimes why so many people want to remain addicted to chaos.

       Jesus asked a very important question in this passage that we all need to ask others before engaging

our time to praying for people, "Do you want to be healed?"  If so, Jesus says, Pick up your bed and walk!  I believe that unless you're prepared to stop licking your wounds, rehearsing your past over and over, and blaming others for your chaos or condition, you will never be healed.  You have to be willing to do something about it.  Some may get upset by my making this claim, however,  many people run to doctors (even, before they call for the elders of the church- James 5:14) quickly to get "medical treatments" in order to find relief from sickness, accidents, etc. There is no question people want to be healed when physical pain is afflicting them or they wouldn't being going to a doctor. The unfortunate thing is that so many people want their doctors to ease them of pain but don't want to address the real cause (poor eating habits, lack of exercise, etc) of their sickness and diseases. Too many don't want to change their lifestyle and bad habits that make them sick. Do you realize that the medical professionals serving us everyday, practice what Jesus commanded?  When you have an operation... within hours the nurse comes into the room and insists that you get up and try to walk as soon as your able.  They send you to physical therapy to get exercise. Heart patients are told to change their diets. It's a part of the healing process.

      Years ago, Kenneth Hagin Sr. was praying for people after a service and a woman came up who was unable to walk.  Dr. Hagin asked her,"why did she want to be healed?" Her response was that she wanted to go dancing in the bars again.  Dr. Hagin decided to not pray for her.  Why? Because her problem was a spiritual issue not just a physical issue.  Why should God heal people who aren't committed to living a transformed life?   I often wonder why people who don't want to change their diet should be seeking healing.  Those who come to be prayed for physical healing might find that if they changed their diets they might find that the right foods might produce the health they're seeking.

       I find many people who struggle with addiction too often won't join a 12 step program, or go to a rehab, or address the underlying reasons they are self-medicating.  Why? Because they really don't want to be healed!  You see "healing" requires something of you.  Instead of laying on a bed, complaining about what others are doing or have done to you, like this man at the pool of Bethesda, you have to do something to begin your process of healing.  During a major conference I was preaching in Atlanta years ago, I had a word of knowledge that someone was suffering with extreme pain in the lower back and couldn't walk or manage themselves well.  I shared what the Lord was speaking and called for the person to come forward to be prayed for.  A gentlemen came forward with a cane and before he had a chance to speak, I asked him, "DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?" He just said yes.  He could have started out by telling me "why he was in pain."  He could have told me about the steel rod in his back and how he could never be healed of his problem. But he didn't. I grabbed the cane by faith and threw it back onto the stage (not a normal thing for me) prayed, and then asked him to bend over.  He hesitated, so I asked him again to bend over.  You see he had to do something!  The man began to bend over. I had him do it over and over again.  The crowd started cheering. He started crying because God healed him - steel rod and all.  PTL.  The next day he came to the meeting, testified to the crowd how it was a miracle due to the operation he had and the steel rod placed in his back but now he was totally healed. Afterwards he came up and thanked me for praying for him because he and his wife had not had sex for two years due to his back problems. Then he explained that the night he was healed he and his wife joyfully enjoyed each other because he got his healing.  Wow.  God is a good God.  But again!  "Do you want to be healed?" is the question that we should ask people before we pray for them...  Those seeking healing need to ask "am I willing to make the changes necessary to live life differently." If you have a back condition that gets healed- you need to take care of your back and don't engage things that hurts your back again.  If not, maybe you really don't want healing.

      I think those "who"are emotionally crippled by life who really don't want healing have built their lives and identity around a culture of complaint, playing the blaming game because a new life, new habits, or holding positive perspectives in life requires something beyond a negative way of thinking (see Phil. 4:8).  Jesus is the only one who can speak to your condition but the real question is do you want to be healed?      Too many of us who are in the healing professions can continue to put band-aides on the problems, send people off to get medication, provide venues for their complaints, blaming God, others or even themselves or we can qualify them by asking one question. "DO YOU WANT TO BE HEALED?"  Questions like this could be asked,  What are you willing to do about your condition?  Do you really want to be sober? Do you really want to give up porn?  Do you really want to forgive those who hurt you?  Do you really want to change your diet and exercise?  Remember one thing about this passage in John 5:1-17  The man at the pool laid by the pool for 38 years.  Why did it take him 38 years to finally get up, pick up his own bed and walk?  Jesus didn't pray for him in this text.  Jesus didn't offer prayers for relief.  He told him "Get Up!"  Do something... just don't live in your bed.  Pick up that mat. Stop laying around for another year. Get up and walk.  

      Its time to commit yourself to a better life.  It's time to lose that weight. Stop smoking Cigarettes or pot.  It's time to get clean.  It's time to address your sexual addiction, friends with benefits affair, or your adultery.  Yes you were born with full capacity to live "sinfully."  But you can choose Jesus and let him heal you, deliver you, and set you free from anything that is crippling you emotionally, spiritually, mentally, socially, or physically.  But you've got to get out of your culture of excuses and complaint and activate a life of faith and healthy living.  You can overcome anything... and become a positive, inspiring person who demonstrates "yes I was once crippled, lost much, sat around near troubled people, but I made a decision to allow Jesus to heal me... whatever that looks like for you.  I'm at a point in my life that instead of laying around a pool, waiting for some sign and wonder, with people who have no vision, aren't moving forward to change their lives and remain paralyzed by their circumstances - I'm choosing to devote myself to people who want to be healed.  Life is too short to spend another 38 years with people who have no intention to do something for themselves.  DO YOU REALLY WANT TO BE HEALED?   If you do... Pray and ask the Lord for healing and what changes you need to make in your life to stayed healed.

(See Norman Vincent's Peale prayer for healing: http://www.guidepostsfoundation.org/files-gpf/PrayerForEveryNeed.pdf )

Rewrite Your Story!

Anyone who has ever taken the time to write knows very well that writing a book, a thesis, or a news article requires not only a first draft, but it also requires a rewrite several times long before it is even passed onto an editor.  Writing is a lot of work.  Sharing a perspective, writing out facts from a proper perspective, documenting your facts, researching your subject matter takes time, thoughfulness, and inspiration.  

When I was a freshman in college, I had to take a course on writing and composition.  My professor was an older lady who loved english and grammer.  I hated grammer, found writing difficult and was not a fan of doing full blown research writing.  One day she said in class, "you know, God maybe calling some of you to be writers one day."  I thought not me.  There is no way I'm going to spend my life writing I'm just going to preach the Gospel.  But, along the way in my studies in Theology, biblical research, church history and the like I found it necessary to write a book that striculated my theological beliefs.  As a result, I wrote a book before I was 22 years old entitled, "Foundation For Restoration" which was later edited by Carla Bruce from Phoenix, Arizona and published by Revival Press in Bedford, Texas c1984.  My close high school friend, Rick Carter, (current pastor of CFC Dallas, Texas) and my personal secretary Nancy Eckdahl spent countless hours assisting me reading, rewriting, and checking out the scriptures to ensure that the book was accurate and would give it's readers a good presentation of my views of the restoration of a New Testament Church.  I've got to tell you it was a gruelling experience. Nancy, Carla, and I spent 40 hours a week, over a 9 month period,  pouring over the manuscript just to get the language, grammer, and theological perspectives clear. Rewrites are very necessary to ensure that a book is as clear and understandable for your readers to enjoy.  I can tell you that here I am 40 years later and there is little I find myself disagreeing with or that which has changed my perspective since the publishing of the book.  I am very proud of that book and always look forward to having my early writings examined 40 years later by those who know me, my life and teaching as a minister of the Gospel.  It's a great book.

However, the focus of this article is not necessarily on the art of writing or publishing.  In this article I would like to take another look at the subject of how God rewrites our personal stories.  Most of us come from dysfunctional families who have left deep woundedness in our souls that might need to be re-examined, framed differently, and rewritten in our own minds.  I was raised by my mother, who divorced my father when I was a year and half years old.  My mother was a lasped christian and married my who father who was an atheist.  My father was a highly decorated career military man who volunteered and served in both the Korean conflict and Vietnam War.  He often told me, you find very few Christians in fox holes.  My parents were only married for 5 years when one night they came together to discuss the terms of their divorce.  That was the night I was concieved.  For years after my birth, I found myself having to navigate between to families (The Berry and Dunfee families), having to remain neutural about their views of each other.  The Berry's always disapproved of my mother's life, decisions, and handling my upbringing.  The Dunfee family made it very clear that they didn't like my father.  In fact, my grandmother dunfee told my mother that I was one grandchild she would never get close to because she disliked my father so much.  She later changed her view and loved me very much. I found having to navigate through my family's views very frustrating.  What it produced in me was the thought that "if I hadn't been born" these two (Mom and Dad) would not have had to remain connected throughout their lives and could have gone their separate ways never again having to fight over each other's movements and life decisions regarding my welfare.  So I viewed "my very existance" as it being my fault that they had to remain connected.  So if anything went wrong (in my perspective) it was my fault.  In fact, every thing that went wrong around me was my fault.  This is what I use to believe.  As a result it led to some very poor decisions in my teenage life and early adulthood.  I had poor self esteem, found that no matter how I tried to do all the right things I was always "at fault" for my family and relationship conflicts.  Wow!  Did this story need a rewrite.   The Scripture says:

If any man be in Christ

He is a new creation

Old things have passed away

All things become new

II Cor. 5:17

Between the day we recieve Christ and finding peace or wholeness within ourselves is a process called forgiveness.  In Ephesian 6:4, parents are commanded by the Lord to, "...not provoke your children to bitterness, but bring them up in the training and counsel of the Lord."  Bitterness is the result of all the unresolved conflicts experienced in our lives that were left unresolved by not talking through all these things, finding resolve and forgiveness.  So, you can be "Saved" or Born Again but have no peace within yourself because you have not forgiven your parents, your friends, your school mates, teachers or others in your life who offended and hurt you throughout your growing up years.  So  Salvation + forgiveness = peace.  No forgiveness... no peace. (See Matt 18:21ff)  These unresolved family relationships afftect all other relationships we have throughout life and often pass on the dysfunctionalionism.  Our family sins morph unless we allow God to incarnate himself into our perspectives and perceptions built in our childhood.  My grandfather, John Berry, who led me to Christ once said to me, "Mike, often those childhood hurts in our lives get blown out of proportion as we grow up. What was probably a small incident, as viewed from an adult perspective, gets blown out of proportion as we grow up because we have not forgiven those who hurt us." In fact, what I have learned over my 47 years of being a Christian is "Forgiveness is saying that you're more valuable to me than what you did."  If there is anyone who could speak as an expert in this matter it was my grandfather.  John Berry, who I loved dearly, was abandoned by his mother, Ida and placed in a children's orphanage after learning his father Obed was declared dead in World War I.  He had to learn forgiveness and found that forgiveness after recieving Christ as his Lord.  When we don't forgive others it only clouds our relationships, our decision making processes, or afford us the intimacy we could have with our heavenly father.

When we come to Christ God wants to rewrite the internal story you have written in your mind about your memories of hurt, unforgiveness, and woundedness.  He wants us to see that Old Things have really passed away.  If we our new creations in Christ then everything that is in our past need to be brought to the Cross Of Christ and put to death in the same place where Jesus took  all our sins and transgressions.  So I have come to see our salvation as a process of putting off the old nature... the old mindsets, the old woundedness, the unforgiveness, and offenses we all have through life that were built on the cracked foundations of our earliest memories. I am not responsible for what people did, do or don't do to me.  I am only responsible for my responses.  Our angers are nothing more than an emotion of a boundary crossed.  But it can also become a sinful action taken out against to retailate against those who I feel violated by. (See Eph. 4:26) Either way, Forgiveness is the only call of the Holy Spirit.  Remember Jesus said from the cross, "Father forgive them, for they don't know what their doing."  Most of the time, our parents only could do what they knew how to do in parenting us.  I'm sure most parents haven't taught their children "How" to forgive. We need to let people off the hook and allow God to rewrite our internal historical memories.  Anyone who has become a parent understands the importance of this... I have two wonderful daughters whose very existence calls me to be the best Dad I can be and requires me to ask them to forgive me for times when I wronged them.  The same holds true in marriage, friendship, and those we've hurt in our past.  Rewrites are necessary.

In fact, one night I heard the Holy Spirit prompt me to re-examine my view that had I not been born then things would be different for my parents and their families.  Knowing God, this story needed a rewrite and the Holy Spirit was about to become my co-writer and editor.  As I began to write down the story in my private journal about the night my parents came to discuss the terms of their divorce and the night I was concieved, I had a flood of scripture of scripture come to my mind.  Scriptures like:

Genesis 33: 5

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, 

he said, “Who are these with you?” Jacob said, 

“The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

Psalm 127:3

Children are an inheritance from the Lord.

    They are a reward from him.

Psalm 17:14

From men by your hand, O Lord, from men of the world whose portion is in this life. 

You fill their womb with treasure; they are satisfied with children, 

and they leave their abundance to their infants.

The scriptures teach that children are God's gift to their parents.  All of sudden I realized that God gifted my parents a child, ME, as a gift for their reconciliation with one another that night.  Then I realized, "it wasn't my fault" that my being concieved was the basis for them remaining together.  I was God's gift to them for their choice in forgiving each other and reconciliation.  I was a gift of reconciliation.  Then when the Holy Spirit pointed this out I realized that I love "reconciliation" and have spent my entire ministry years working principles of reconciliation. In fact, what I learned about myself is that I get very frustrated when I can't assist or work through things to reconcile them.  It's one of the most frustrating things I find in myself. I love reconciliation stories.  This is why I think we need to surrender our old interpretations of our life story and let God rewrite it.  He wants to make all things new.  Give the story his redemptive perspective.  Salvation is a family promise (Acts 16:11 "Believe on the the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your HOUSEHOLD)!

A few years ago, I had the wonderful gift of laying both my parents to rest.  I got to rewrite their story at the furnerals.  Both of them came to Christ and served the Lord in their last days. It's an awesome thing to know how both their lives were radically changed as a result of recieving Christ into their hearst. God rewrote their story,  He rewrote our family history, and is now rewriting our entire family history. As a result of their decision to follow Christ, their Christian testimony was expressed instead of their sinful past.  He promises to do the same for us if we let our salvation work in us to bring forgiveness in all our relationships so that we can find peace in yourself.  Rewriting our internal stories, beliefs, childhood memories and our intrepretation of those events are a necessary part of salvation - whether you had great parents or poor parenting. God has been at work in all of us since he planned for our coming into the world.  (See Palm 139:13-16)  Rewriting is very important!  Here's why it is so important: 

The writing process is never done--it is only finished when you need to hand something in or voluntarily discontinue working. If you were to pick up a piece of writing that you completed two years ago, you undoubtedly would see ways that you could improve it. Two years later, you could do the same thing. Because  perspectives on life and the world are always changing (even if we don't notice it), we will always look at our writing differently. We also learn more in the meantime, either about our writing or the topic that we are writing about, or just about ourselves. Nobody's writing is perfect. Nobody gets a piece "right" on the very first try, which is why writers go back many times and rework their writing so that it makes more sense, is clearer, and is more presentable to the reader.  My life is not over yet.  Every day that I wake up I find a new perspective.  The older I get the story gains fresh insights of God's redemptive work.  I'm grateful for God's incarnate work in my life and family story. He is a revisionist!  I love it and am grateful to be a writer today... especially for the on-going story within in the internal recesses of my heart.  It's amazing when you let God rewrite the story instead of letting the old story keep you entrapped by the past.

Maybe it's time to dust off that old story and rewrite it one more time