Word for Oregon

Today spontaneously while driving I heard the words, "I'm calling pioneers to be settlers in Oregon”.

This was troubling to me since I have always identified myself as a pioneer.

I'm aware that Oregon is known as a pioneer state, many have lost their lives taking the journey to settle Oregon.

However, what I was hearing was pioneering spiritually attached to an independent spirit. The Lord’s desire is for pioneers to become settling pioneers.

A settling pioneer is one who joins community and serves a larger corporate vision while still pioneering God's dreams for his city.

I then saw a picture of streams filling up the desert. This is a reference to Isaiah 35:6-7.

ISAIAH 35:6&7

Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs…

It's the Father's desire for the dry spiritual climate in Oregon to experience rivers of refreshing.

I asked the Lord how we as a body were to come into alignment with His heart?

I quickly heard the word, “worship.”

Worship will cause us to take our eyes off ourselves and put them on Jesus. Worshiping the Lord has the power to cause people to unite like nothing else I have personally ever seen. Independenceno longer becomes an issue in the Presence of the Lord.

I want to encourage pastors and leaders to begin to host worship gatherings where the priority is Christ being glorified with no other agenda. Times of worship where not only the local church gather but other churches in the region are invited to gather as well.

Regional worship gatherings will begin to form a war ship where the spirit of heaviness and apathy will be displaced.

It's time to awaken those that are sleeping spiritually and awaken to our inheritance as a state.

This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

Ivan Roman, Friend of God Ministries

March 2016

Prophecy

Word for Oregon

Today spontaneously while driving I heard the words, "I'm calling pioneers to be settlers in Oregon”.

This was troubling to me since I have always identified myself as a pioneer.

I'm aware that Oregon is known as a pioneer state, many have lost their lives taking the journey to settle Oregon.

However, what I was hearing was pioneering spiritually attached to an independent spirit. The Lord’s desire is for pioneers to become settling pioneers.

A settling pioneer is one who joins community and serves a larger corporate vision while still pioneering God's dreams for his city.

I then saw a picture of streams filling up the desert. This is a reference to Isaiah 35:6-7.

ISAIAH 35:6&7

Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the mute tongue shout for joy.

Water will gush forth in the wilderness

and streams in the desert.

The burning sand will become a pool,

the thirsty ground bubbling springs…

It's the Father's desire for the dry spiritual climate in Oregon to experience rivers of refreshing.

I asked the Lord how we as a body were to come into alignment with His heart?

I quickly heard the word, “worship.”

Regional worship gatherings will begin to form a war ship where the spirit of heaviness and apathy will be displaced.

It's time to awaken those that are sleeping spiritually and awaken to our inheritance as a state.

This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,

rise from the dead,

and Christ will shine on you.”

Ephesians 5:14

Ivan Roman, Friend of God Ministries

March 2016

Devotionals, Letters

Learn This Parable from the Fig Tree

I love it when God speaks through secular artists.

The Pixies have some strange songs. One begins with the lines,

“Meet me by the coppice stool

Before the sky takes back its jewels

Bring your life of memories

Before they sink into the seas.”

(https://youtu.be/IAxqFo59TBs)

There were two or three interesting thoughts in here, but it was the first line that spoke to me. “Meet me by the coppice stool.” What on earth is a “coppice stool”?

Some years ago, Father really challenged me from the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:

"A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. "Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, 'Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground?' "But he answered and said to him, 'Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. 'And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down.' " [Luke 13:6-9]

Honestly, the story scared me. Since he was talking about my life, he was talking about cutting me down! What’s up with that? I was serving Him as hard as I could!

(By the way, if you ever find yourself asking “why is there so much crap going on in my life?” remember that manure was the fertilizer that Jesus was speaking about digging into the life of the fig tree.)

I meditated on the parable, of course. Then one day, while I was driving, I saw a piece of property where the owner had cut down some trees, but the stump was sprouting again. Even the logs stacked next to the stump were sprouting, and I realized, that must be how fig trees work.

So I googled it, and found it’s true: you can’t actually kill a fig tree by cutting it down. When you cut a fig tree down, you give the tree a fresh start, several fresh starts, actually. Because within several months of cutting down the tree, you’ll have several new trees sprouting from the same roots, surrounding the trunk. Instead of one old, slow-growing tree, you’ll have several young, vigorously growing trees.

Coppiced trees.

This method of extreme pruning is called “coppicing.” And that dead stump, surrounded by live trees from the same roots, is called a “coppice stool.” It’s a recognized forest management technique. “As coppiced trees already have a fully developed root system, regrowth is rapid.” In fact, “trees which are periodically cut tend to live longer.” (http://www.coppice.co.uk/)

So one reason that God may cut someone off at the roots is to extend both the breadth and length of their ministry. Another reason may be to bring back “the joy of my salvation” to saints that have grown weary or complacent.

So if you’re feeling like God is cutting you down (or just digging crap into your life), take heart: he’s preparing you for growth and expansion.

Devotionals, Letters

Learn This Parable from the Fig Tree

I love it when God speaks through secular artists.

The Pixies have some strange songs. One begins with the lines,

“Meet me by the coppice stool

Before the sky takes back its jewels

Bring your life of memories

Before they sink into the seas.”

(https://youtu.be/IAxqFo59TBs)

There were two or three interesting thoughts in here, but it was the first line that spoke to me. “Meet me by the coppice stool.” What on earth is a “coppice stool”?

Some years ago, Father really challenged me from the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13:

Honestly, the story scared me. Since he was talking about my life, he was talking about cutting me down! What’s up with that? I was serving Him as hard as I could!

Coppiced trees.

So if you’re feeling like God is cutting you down (or just digging crap into your life), take heart: he’s preparing you for growth and expansion.

Devotionals, Letters

We Have Room to Grow in Our Prayers

I learned some things recently. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.

I’d started a discussion about “What one thing would you pray for Hillary Clinton?” (That conversation is here: http://nwp.link/FB-PFHillary .)

We had a handful of folks ignore the question and rage – sometimes for, mostly against – Hillary-the-Candidate. And we had a pretty substantial number of “prayers” that were political rants in disguise.

I get that: people have been trained to have strong opinions about this election. That always happens. Moving on…

The majority of people didn’t do that; the majority of folks prayed for Hillary, or described a hypothetical prayer. And that’s where my eyes were opened.

I was struck by the nature of those prayers. Out of a hundred or so responses, the vast majority (>90%+) of the responses apart from the political comments roughly fit into one of two religious categories:

Praying for Hillary Clinton

She needs to repent and stop supporting bad things! or
She needs to have a revelation of God and get saved!

Or some variation of these two. (Full disclosure: my own prayers were in these two categories too.) They were proper religious prayers. They’re the things we’re told we “should” be praying for.

These all begin with the assumption that “Mrs Clinton is messed up, and she needs me to fix her, and let me tell you how I’d fixer, cuz I’d fix her good!”

I’m not sure any of us would want to have a crowd praying those prayers for us. She doesn’t believe she’s doing bad things (give her the benefit of the doubt); she doesn’t believe she needs to be saved (her testimony of faith was documented in the conversation).

May I be honest? These feel a whole lot like we’ve been praying, “Make her more like us!”

And that always carries the intrinsic assumption of “You’re not as good as I am. You need to be better, like I am.”

Ewww. That is, by nature, something of a curse, not a blessing.

Reading through all the prayers (and I have, many, many times) leaves me feeling like I need a bath.

Relatively few responses were addressing actual issues that Mrs. Clinton is facing: health, destiny, goodness, protection, provision. These were so terribly refreshing! These carried life, hope, faith, and (dare I say it?) love. These were the prayers I found myself feeling proud of (and they weren’t my prayers!).

This draws my attention to at least one reason why political leaders don’t like to listen to Christians: our communication (to them, among ourselves about them) is pretty unambiguous: We think we’re better than you. We’re going to fix you with our talk, with our prayers.

Our interaction with “the world” is so very seldom actually focused on their needs, their wants, their situation. Our interaction is pretty strongly “all about us.”

And in reality, it isn’t even a little bit “all about us.” Not to them. It needs to be an awful lot “about them,” if we’re going to actually connect with them.

Otherwise, we’re wasting their time and ours.

--

The best part of the conversation will be on Facebook. Come join in.

Devotionals, Letters

We Have Room to Grow in Our Prayers

I learned some things recently. I probably shouldn’t be surprised, but I was.

I’d started a discussion about “What one thing would you pray for Hillary Clinton?” (That conversation is here: http://nwp.link/FB-PFHillary .)

I get that: people have been trained to have strong opinions about this election. That always happens. Moving on…

The majority of people didn’t do that; the majority of folks prayed for Hillary, or described a hypothetical prayer. And that’s where my eyes were opened.

Praying for Hillary Clinton

She needs to repent and stop supporting bad things! or
She needs to have a revelation of God and get saved!

These all begin with the assumption that “Mrs Clinton is messed up, and she needs me to fix her, and let me tell you how I’d fixer, cuz I’d fix her good!”

May I be honest? These feel a whole lot like we’ve been praying, “Make her more like us!”

And that always carries the intrinsic assumption of “You’re not as good as I am. You need to be better, like I am.”

Ewww. That is, by nature, something of a curse, not a blessing.

Reading through all the prayers (and I have, many, many times) leaves me feeling like I need a bath.

Our interaction with “the world” is so very seldom actually focused on their needs, their wants, their situation. Our interaction is pretty strongly “all about us.”

And in reality, it isn’t even a little bit “all about us.” Not to them. It needs to be an awful lot “about them,” if we’re going to actually connect with them.

Otherwise, we’re wasting their time and ours.

--

The best part of the conversation will be on Facebook. Come join in.

Devotionals, Letters

Contempt for God’s Kindness

This just ambushed my thought process.

Romans 2:4 says, “Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?”

He’s challenging the Roman believers for showing contempt for the riches of God’s kindness, forbearance and patience.

Yikes.

Who are the folks showing contempt for God’s kindness?

Well, this verse indicates part of that: the folks who don’t realize that it’s God’s kindness which leads to repentance. Folks who preach something other than God’s kindness? Yeah. Them.

The context makes it even more clear: those who “pass judgment on someone else” (v1) are the folks he’s addressing.

He’s very specific: “Do you think you will escape God’s judgment?” (v3) That’s pretty strong language there, Paul!

More specifically, Paul is saying that believers who condemn other believers, believers who emphasize something other than God’s kindness are “storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath.” (v5) That’s what it’s saying, isn’t it?

That’s kind of a problem.

You know these people: people who get in your face (in person, or on Facebook) and shout about how others are going to hell for their sin, or how a nation needs to repent in order to escape God’s wrath. There are folks who go around denouncing everybody who believes differently than they do as false.

Unfortunately, a whole lot of this garbage comes from pulpits around the country.

When you see them, first of all, don’t buy the manure that they’re selling. It’s not good for them and it’s SURE not good for you. In fact, if you’re able, don’t even let them spew that garbage on you. Walk away.

But more than that: pity them. Pray for mercy for them. Because the path they’re on is storing up wrath against themselves for the day of God’s wrath.

And most of all, do not go with them. That’s a pretty ugly destination they’re headed to. If they insist on going there, you do NOT need to go with them.

Show them kindness.

#PrayForGrace

Devotionals, Letters

Contempt for God’s Kindness

Devotionals, Letters

Not Reluctantly. Not Under Compulsion.

Not Reluctantly, or Under Compulsion

Should believers ever charge for their services, for the exercise of their God-given gifts?

Many people quote this verse (from 1 Corinthians 9), “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion.”

Then they use it to judge each other.

They use this verse, often quite forcefully, to say, “I should have the freedom to give you what I want for your services (or products). You should not make your prices compulsory!” The most frequent examples are authors, counselors and conference speakers: they are “reluctant” to pay $80 an hour for professional counselling, or $40 for a weekend of worship and teaching at a conference, so they pull out this verse to justify their outrage at having to pay for the services they voluntarily choose to make use of. “That’s a gift from God. How dare you charge me for what you got for free?”

Some have been audacious enough to suggest, “Well, if you don’t want to pay for that conference (or book, or counselling), don’t buy it. Nobody is forcing you.” This is generally met with yet more outrage. “It’s my right! Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!” (And this is an excellent illustration of a spirit of entitlement in action.)

It’s interesting that we can recognize the foolishness of this when we apply this “principle” in other places. “Walmart shouldn’t have prices. We should be free to pay whatever we want!” “Chick fil A shouldn’t have prices on its menu!” or “I’m going to have my car's engine rebuilt, but I don’t think I should pay the mechanic. After all, those skills are just a gift from God.” I’m pretty sure those wouldn’t be received well.

I find it curious that these people are not willing to let the conference speaker do the same thing they demand for themselves, to “decide in [her] own heart what to give.” Rather, these outraged consumers insist that authors and public speakers make their life work available for whatever they themselves have decided in their heart to give in exchange.

In other words, “It’s for ME to decide if I want to give you money, but YOU don’t get to decide if you want to give away your life’s work!”

Don’t we see the hypocrisy in this?

Perhaps it is significant that I’ve never heard anybody use this verse to defend someone else. If we’re going to apply it to ourselves, then it applies to our brothers and sisters, doesn’t it? Yet nobody has ever said, “This conference speaker should give what he has decided in his time to give, not reluctantly and not under compulsion. He should not be required to work for the rate that I want to pay him. That’s his choice, not mine!”

The verse in question (2 Corinthians 9:7) doesn’t actually apply in this conversation, anyway. Paul is not laying this down as a general principle for doing business in this. Not at all. He’s talking about receiving a voluntary offering for an impoverished church. He’s not talking about demanding things from other believers. He’s certainly not talking about how we demand others run their businesses and ministries!

Bigger picture: Are we not sons and daughters of the King of Kings? That makes us royalty, doesn’t it? Royalty never (not ever!) go around demanding goods and services for free. In fact, royalty goes out of their way to out-give others, to demonstrate generosity. That is our heritage, not shaming people trying to feed their family with the tools God has given them.

We, as sons & daughters of the greatest King of all, should behave like royalty, not like begrudging beggars, particularly with one another.

~nwp

Devotionals, Letters

Not Reluctantly. Not Under Compulsion.

Prophecy

An Important Key To A Future Blessed Government

To the degree that we choose to bless rather than curse, is the degree the order of heaven will be released upon on the earth.

An Important Key To A Future Blessed Government

I believe, we are now standing on the brink of a major resolve, one of which will usher in a new field of government, both in the natural and spirit. As I have stated multiple times before, the deterioration of an old government is making way for the new. The current display of division in this nation and the world is one of the greatest illusions of all time.

Its force of influence is instrumented through hate and fear.

Historically, fear and hatred bear record of harnessing countless people into believing the future is one of darkness and hopelessness, rather than light and promise.

It’s historically noted that the “gates of hell will not prevail.” Which means, the government of hate, disunity and darkness, cannot, and will not, overcome the government of love, unity and light.

In case you haven’t noticed, our government is being redefined. In terms of the natural realm, the government of the past will not be the government of the future. This is equally true concerning the government of the Spirit. We are not going back to the days of Adam and Eve. Contrary to popular belief, our birthright, thus our inheritance is born of the Spirit not the flesh.

“That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and

that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” (John 3:6)

It has long been my belief, that the Oval office of these United States will historically extend an unusual invite toward the men and women of God in spiritual leadership. Thus, a newfound residence of the government of heaven will emerge within the government of these United States at an unprecedented level.

Having said that, I believe God has shown me an important key that will ultimately unlock his governmental intent over the course of this remaining period as we draw closer to next elected President of these United States.

This key to a blessed government is through the power of blessing.

Regardless of our governmental stance toward Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, we must choose the road of blessing rather than cursing. Whether Hillary is your presidential choice or not, as mature sons and daughters of God, we must release blessings toward her and her family.

At the beginning of this year, during an MTI gathering, I shared the insight the Lord had given to me concerning Hillary Clinton’s physical state and other intense challenges in her life and family. This was prior to any public evidence. I sensed it was an appeal from the Lord for us to look beyond the natural realm and see the heart of God toward Hillary and her family from an eternal perspective.

In that moment, we prayed for Hillary’s health and well -being, as well as her family, asking God to reveal himself to them in a glorious way.

This same perspective must be applied to Donald Trump and his family as well. We must see them from the perspective of eternity, which is one of love and hope, not hatred and despair.

To the degree that we choose to bless rather than curse, is the degree the order of heaven will be released upon on the earth.

Anything less, will be the result of the enemy trying to lure the people of this nation into agreement with his evil demise toward this nation and other nations in the world.

God is looking for a people who will partner with him in love. When Hillary physically collapsed before the world, I knew this was one of the moments God had spoken to me about earlier.

As the world watched this event unfold, I could feel the sadness of God toward those who were rejoicing over her weakness and brief frailty. I believe moments like these are a limpet test for the body of Christ.

As lovers of God, we are afforded the opportunity to bless and pray for the well- being of all, in hope that they will be impacted by the reality of the governance of God’s heart toward them.

“To sum up, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly, kindhearted, and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing.” (1Peter 3:8-9)

In 2015, and prior years, I have leaned into this day, believing it would mark the beginning stages of an unusual restoration that would tear down the deceptive walls of division in this nation.

Also, year’s prior, I spoke about the “News Media” of this nation being impacted by the glory of God, to such extent, that the “good news” instead of “bad news” would become the popular desire of all nations.

We are now standing on the threshold that intended hour.

Throughout this governmental shift, I have maintained my stance that this elective period will, in the end, be a governmental landslide. I believe this will be the result of those getting involved an elective process in ways they had not before. You will also witness countless people secretly shifting sides from their normal political party. They will be highlighted as the “silent majority.”

In addition, the presumed “wealth of the wicked” will not be taken by others, but will willingly be surrendered over to the heart and mind of God, because of a major shift in their own heart toward the advancement of His kingdom.

As hard as it may be for most to believe, God is winning over the hearts of Billionaires worldwide.

Lastly, prior to 2012, I prophetically spoke about the highest office of this nation never being bought or sold again to the highest bidder. I have a sense that time is now here. What used to be the common denominator behind evil political intent will soon be no more. I’m not implying this will be the case a 100% of the time, but our goal should be a 100% nonetheless.

Kingdom Cheers,

Michael and Tamera Danforth