“Houses of Worship” – Prophetic Word

I’m hearing the Lord release a strategy – an international strategy for the hosting of His glory and His presence.

And the Lord says this, “Have I not told you in my Scriptures that I am heavy?” He says, “Have I not described myself to you as the weighty God, who carries kavod (which is the Old Testament word for glory, but it means [heavy] weight)?” And the Spirit of the Lord says this:

“My eyes have been wandering to and fro across the earth, looking for a house that can bear my heaviness. I am struggling to find a building that I can sit in and not destroy it by my size.

What you have done in your nights of worship, and what you have done in your Sunday services, have only been able to hold the partial weight of who I am. They no longer satisfy you and they no longer satisfy me. For I want to be Emmanuel, the God who is with my people.

And the Lord says, “Oh! It is the day of my ‘glory weight’. It is the day of my seatedness in the midst of my people. But He says, “I have already told you, there is only one way that we build the throne. I told you that it was in worship and praise that a throne got built for me to sit in.”

And the Lord says, “Thank you for the houses of prayer!” But He says, “It is no longer their day”. He says, “Thank you for the healing rooms, and the miracle clinics, but they will no longer hold me”. He says, “Thank you for the prophetic centres, but know in this new season [that] my glory will come on the Levites in the house of worship.”

And the Spirit of the Lord says, “I am lassoing into place an international coalition of Levites who [will be] in every continent [so that] there will be houses of worship where I can sit. This is the day of the commissioning of the international houses of worship, and the gathering, the anointing, and the appointing of their leadership team in the earth – and of those who will populate the song and the sound”.

I am watching the globe, and I am watching it spin, and I am seeing where in the world (like little red lights) there are houses of worship. And the Lord says, “If you will give a sacrifice of worship around the clock to me, you will come into a level of my glory that you have not even begun to dream is possible, for all you know to ask me is, “Do it again”….

…[because] all you know to [ask] now is for a revival that you understand because you’ve read about it in history.” The Lord says, “I will not do that again. So stop asking me for it. You are praying in error by asking for a revival of the old. What I want to do is sit with glory, like I have never been able to do before on the earth in your history. And from that place… AND FROM THAT PLACE… will come the words, the healings, the miracles, the deliverances, the community transformation. It is from the house of worship that I will birth the next move of what I am doing in the earth.”

“These are your instructions. Build me a house of worship! Build me a house of worship!”, says the Lord.

And the Lord says, “Do you now see why there was such a fight over worship? Do you now see why you prophesied ‘new sound’, but you could never access it? Do you see that this was always the contention area – and satan knew it – because this is where I have chosen – and how I have chosen – to bring my throne.”

And the Lord says: “Musicians!” He says, “Musicians!” (I am watching those of low skill suddenly get this appetite for practice, and suddenly get a skilled “musicianary” capability. And those with expertise already [will also] get a sound and a fresh anointing. And the Lord says, “Oh worship leaders! The previous season capped you. You could see there was more but it was like glass above your heads. This day, as I release the instruction, the glass above you shatters – and you now know what you must build me.

I will have the European sound, and I will have the African sound, and I will have the Latin American sound. I will have the Asian sound, I will have the Antipodean sound. I will have the sound of the Arctic, and the sound of the people of Greenland – and Iceland. The Lord says, “Oh Reykjavik, from you there will be such a sound from the North, and Oh Cape Town, there will be such a sound from the South!”

And, “Oh America!”, He says, “I will burn your musicians first. I will rescue some from a franchise model, that a sound may come forth. And He says to your First Nations people, “There is an anointing of sound on you that was lost for hundreds of years, and the sound of the First Nations will come back into the limelight, and you will break the ground open for plantings of signs and wonders in this nation”, says the Lord.

And the Lord says, “Cairo, Cairo, Cairo! No longer will you be a place known for the pyramids, but you will be known for building me a house of worship. And these houses of worship will light up the grid and be joined up. And I will put my angels to fly between the houses of worship, and there will be a sharing – where one house breaks through, all the houses will break through together, for I will unify the houses of worship, and they will be a remnant army in the earth.

And they will share what they preach, and they will share their best practices, for I will have them not competitive, but I will have them rise, and I will have them rise!

And I will put worship apostles back in the earth”, says the Lord. “It is the anointing of the ‘apostles of worship’.” The Lord says this: “You thought that apostles just preached. You SHUT DOWN the apostolic grace from your musicians, you shut down the prophetic grace from your musicians.” And the Lord says right now, “I make apostolic and prophetic worship leaders. I am putting together apostolic and prophetic worship leaders, and they will be prophetically-apostolic and apostolically-prophetic.
They will lead, and they will LEAD, AND THEY WILL LEAD! And they will lead in the nations of the earth.” “Lagos”, God says, “Nigeria. Even in Lagos, there will be a sound that comes forth.”
And the Lord says, “I will not put these houses of worship in obvious places in America.”

—
[Emma comments]: Do you know what I’m most grieved about? I’ve not seen before that we’ve ripped the apostolic off worship leaders. So therefore they never had sound strategy, they just had sound. We did that to them. That is a sin.

So we bless you worship leaders to be apostolic. We bless you to be the sent ones with strategies of sound. You’re going to have strategies of sound. You’re going to have building grace, because apostles have building grace. You’re going to know what it is to build ‘sound mountains’ – ‘worship sound mountains’ in the earth. I don’t even know what that is but the Lord says that there are going to be ‘worship sound mountains’ in the earth that rise above all the other mountains. And the sound that comes from apostolic worship leaders will be a sign that many will flock to – to find Jesus.

Then the Lord says this, “Kanye West is a small first fruit”. The Lord says, “What satan gave to the Beatles, I will give the holy version to the apostolic worship leaders.”

"Houses of Worship" - Prophetic Word

Emma Stark

Fremont, CA June 10, 2022

Together for His Kingdom,
Emma and David Stark,

Glasgow, Scotland
https://www.propheticscots.com/houses-of-worship-prophetic-word-emma-stark/

(Note: Northern California is considered part of the “Pacific Northwest.”)

https://nwp.link/housesofworship ------------ She clarified afterwards:

Given in Fremont , CA on 10th June 2022.
To help you weigh, test and respond to this word, we have included some explanatory/interpretive comments in the footnotes. We only see in part and prophesy in part. We therefore urge you to pray and seek the Holy Spirit to help you understand, interpret and apply this prophecy.

The paragraph on the first page that mentions houses of prayer, healing, miracles, and prophecy has already generated a lot of discussion since the word was first published on social media. Therefore, in addition to the footnotes, we offer the following clarifying comment:

David and I love prayer, healing, miracles, and prophecy and the houses that have pioneered and specialised in these ministries, especially in recent decades. We deeply honour and thank God for those who serve and have served in these houses. We ourselves have led or served in such places over the years. We still do!

We believe that prayer, healing, miracles and prophecy must not cease in the body of Christ! In fact, they must increase! The term ‘house of prayer’ is completely Biblical and is found in Isaiah 56:7, and is referred to by Jesus. We affirm the work of house of prayer organisations all over the world!

It is our interpretation of this prophetic word that God is not criticising or condemning the work of houses of prayer (or the other ministries mentioned). On the contrary, in the prophetic word the Lord specifically thanks His servants for these places.

So, for clarity: this word is NOT about not praying or in any way demeaning the importance of prayer and those places that are specifically called to pray. The focus of the word is very clearly on something else - houses of worship - and the new wine structures where, as the word goes on to say,

“ ...from that place will come the words, the healings, the miracles, the deliverances, the community transformation. It is from the house of worship that I will birth the next move of what I am doing in the earth...” Prayer will be fundamental in this, of course!

When houses of prayer were pioneered on the earth following prophetic words, such as in the 1990-2000s, it did not mean the end of local churches, teaching ministries, worship and so on.

Similarly, to take this word as a word to end prayer, miracles, healing and prophetic ministries would be probably stretching it beyond its meaning.

Finally, at the end, when Emma is commenting on the word she has given, she urges us to not sow into places that are old wineskins or partnered with the political spirit. For the avoidance of doubt, please seek the Lord carefully and prayerfully before stopping your generous support of established ministries and ministers. Do not do this in haste and do not be quick to assume or judge what is an old

or new wineskin. Please continue to support those faithful Levites who have prayed without ceasing for you, your family, your city and your nation!

The word can be listened to in full online at https://fb.watch/dD8B24geco/
Together for His Kingdom,
Emma and David Stark, Glasgow, Scotland, 13 June 2022

Prophecy

“Houses of Worship” – Prophetic Word

I’m hearing the Lord release a strategy – an international strategy for the hosting of His glory and His presence.

"Houses of Worship" - Prophetic Word

Emma Stark

Fremont, CA June 10, 2022

Together for His Kingdom,
Emma and David Stark,

Glasgow, Scotland
https://www.propheticscots.com/houses-of-worship-prophetic-word-emma-stark/

(Note: Northern California is considered part of the “Pacific Northwest.”)

Letters

Led by Scripture?

This story has been bugging me:

Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. "For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,' "and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' " And Jesus answered and said to him, "It has been said, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' " - Luke 4:9-12

I’ve been taught, and I’ll bet you have too, to base my choices and my requests on Scripture. If I can support it from the pages of the Bible, I’m safe.

This passage puts the lie to that. In this story, Luci asks Jesus to do something, AND HE SUPPORTS IT WITH SCRIPTURE! This is the secret code we’ve been taught to trust blindly, and the devil is using it to tempt Jesus! 😲

In this story, it’s pretty clear that obeying this scriptural request was very much not God’s will:

• Luci (the debbil) was the one making the request.
• JC had a better understanding of the whole counsel of Scripture, and recognized that this use (with scripture!) violated the bigger issues.
• Jesus only did what he saw Father doing (John 5:19), and apparently Father wasn’t showing off by skydiving from a clifftop, waiting for God to rescue him from the law of gravity and from the consequences of his own choice.
• We could add that the quote (from Deuteronomy 8) was out of context, but the worst out-of-context quoter of Scripture that I know is Scripture itself. (But that’s another conversation).

I realize that I’ve done this. I’ve done this: I’ve taken verses as approval for my wishes and choices, and expected God to jump through my hoops. And then I’ve gotten angry or disappointed when he didn’t.

Principle: just because I can find somebody doing it in the Bible doesn’t mean it’s God’s will for my life. Or that it’s safe.

Principle: Yes, look for what Scripture says on the topic, but don’t stop there. Engage Holy Spirit, involve mature brothers & sisters.

Most importantly, know your Father’s heart, so when somebody tries to use Scripture to pull you away from his heart, you’ll know better and not follow that slimy trail.

Letters

Edification, Exhortation and Comfort: What Are They Really?

“But he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation and comfort to men.” - 1Corinthians 14:3

I’ve been chewing on this one for several months now. I’d like to invite you to process the verse with me.

At a fundamental level, this is the purpose of prophetic gifts: edification, exhortation and comfort, at least how it works under our New Covenant. (Old Covenant prophets were working from a different foundation, of course.)

When I studied the New Testament Greek in school, I learned that the last item in the series is the important one, the item that the language is emphasizing.

(Four verses earlier is a clear example of this: “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” The most important one in the list is usually the last one listed.)

And that’s how we’ve handled prophetic gifts most of the time, particularly when we’re training folks to prophesy: “Keep your prophetic words in the realm of edification, exhortation and especially comfort.” Then we hastily add, “Avoid judgment and avoid prophesying relationships at all times.”

But let’s look at these three purposes of the prophetic gifts a little more closely.

“Comfort” Paul uses the Greek word “paramythia,” and one of its key meanings is what we expect. It describes talk for the purpose of “calming and consoling.” And this is how we often teach it in the prophetic.

The other use of “paramythia,” particularly as used in other Greek writings, also includes the idea of “persuading, or of arousing and stimulating,” though we have to get that from Plato, Socrates and Josephus, as this verse is the ONLY place that the Bible uses the word, so we don’t get much help from looking up how it’s used in other passages. Comforting, persuading, arousing, stimulating. (Since this is on social media, I suppose it needs to be said: this has no sexual connotations whatsoever.)

“Exhortation” comes from the word “paraklēsis,” which is closely related to “paraklete,” the word the New Testament uses for the Holy Spirit himself. We usually translate that word as “Comforter,” though in the prophetic, it’s usually in the context of “a calling near, summons,” or “supplication, entreaty,” or “admonition.” In other words, this is an action word, not a warm & fuzzy word. “Come on, let’s go” would be an example of a paraklēsis word.

“Edification” isn’t a word we use outside of church these days, but we’ve figured out that “oikodomē ” talks about the desire and act of building others up.

All of this thinking is happening in the context (both in my own mind, and if I understand right, in the Corinthian church Paul was writing to) of getting away from using Jeremiah and Ezekiel as our models for prophetic ministry. Nowadays, we think in terms of ’Miah and Zeke’s example on one end of the prophetic spectrum, and Precious Moments merchandise for our example on the other end.

My take-away from all this is along those lines. I’m not disrespecting the Old Covenant prophets, nor the Precious Moments business model, but I don’t believe either is an acceptable foundation or model for New Covenant prophetic ministry. And yet both contain at least a hint of the right elements for us.

My conclusion (at least this week) is that New Covenant people are not in the business of fire and brimstone, and that sort of judgment does not belong in our prophetic expressions. In fact, I tend to get up and walk out on those sort of proclamations (which is pretty much metaphorical in the context of social media: I won’t submit myself to that spirit).

The other end of that spectrum, for which I use Precious Moments as a metaphor, strikes me as less harmful to its audience, though it presents an image of the prophetic that is no better.

Those who define prophecy by either example are deceived and badly shortchanged.

Rather, legitimate prophecy does include elements of comforting folks going through a hard time, but rather than a “There, there!” and a pat on the hand, it also includes (in the vocabulary of 1Corinthians 10:13) “a way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” It is not at all without sympathy (or empathy), but it most definitely doesn’t stop with that. And it certainly does not get in the way of personal responsibility.

And while legitimate prophecy completely avoids any vocabulary of God smiting or hating folks for what they’ve done (which was not uncommon under the Old Covenant), the concept of “You can do better,” or “Here’s the truth to replace the lie you’ve believed” is very appropriate, and is a solid example of “edification, exhortation and comfort to men.”

Another way of describing that change of focus when calling people higher is this: “Don’t declare the problem. Anybody can do that. The evening news does a pretty good job. That takes no faith. Declare the solution. Declare the Good News. Declare God’s point of view of “a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

Letters

Edification, Exhortation and Comfort: What Are They Really?

“But he who prophesies speaks edification, exhortation and comfort to men.” - 1Corinthians 14:3

Prophecy

Northwest Prophetic 2023-10-29 09:29:00

I saw an image in my spirit that had me stop and take notice. I saw a round fired from a rifle that traveled a great distance finally arriving at its intended target and punching a hole in the 10-ring. The image was very familiar to me.

Back in the day, I was a Combat Firearms Instructor. I watched thousands of rounds fired from handguns, shotguns, and rifles punch holes through paper targets at a variety of distances. Pulling the trigger and seeing a hit on a range target was a distinct and immediate experience. What I saw this morning was different.

The round I saw carried the bullet of a prayer of faith that had navigated a great distance over time and space through a variety of spiritual meteorological conditions. It never wavered in its course. As the trigger of that single prayer was pulled the bullet began its journey carried by the precise balance of proper bullet weight and construction and the powder load of God’s faithfulness. It was fired like a sniper who had worked up the dope of a single shot firing from a great distance and striking a target with lethal accuracy.

In the coming days, we will see Spirit-guided rounds of fulfilled prayer arrive and strike with precise accuracy inflicting fatal wounds to the plans of hell. Individuals and families will wake up in the morning free from a generational hostage situation that held the family line in a place of captivity. Over-confident dark spiritual forces that have taken control of governments and institutions of culture will be dropped by these incoming rounds.

Some of these prayers were fired from great distances, even centuries ago, not knowing their intended targets. At the time, the prayers seemed odd and unreal to the ones praying because they lacked a known context, but they prayed anyway. We will see and experience the results of their obedience.

Not every prayer promises an immediate strike in our lifetime. Some prayers must travel through vast expanses of time and space for a scheduled arrival somewhere in the future. Their impact will surprise all who are present to witness their unannounced arrivals.

Garris Elkins
Jacksonville, Oregon
garriselkins@gmail.com

Prophecy

Prayers Hitting the Target

Letters

Praying to Stop an Untrustworthy Person

I was praying recently about a man who has shown himself to be untrustworthy and whose efforts to control the world around him have caused a lot of harm to a lot of people. It could have been any of a number of folks, I suppose.

“Father, stop him!” I prayed, and as soon as I said it, I knew I’d missed his heart.

Two things came quickly into my mind:

• The principle I’ve held for a few years that it’s easier to pray for the storm to change its path than to stop it altogether,

• The image of a man on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians getting knocked off his ass and turned from a persecutor into a preacher. “I didn’t stop him,” Father whispered.

And I realized that I need to change my prayer from “Stop him!” to “Change his path,” and even “Redeem him.”

As I considered this some more, it occurred to me that my Father is awfully good at redeeming irredeemable people, and bringing good through them who formerly brought evil.

I realized, not for the first time, that when I pray against people that Jesus died for, I’m doing it alone, not with my Father; that a much wiser path is to pray for the people and for their redemption.

I have permission to pray against their work if it’s hurting folks, but I have his presence and even his partnership as I pray for their redemption.

Letters

The Miracle Car

May I share a testimony with you?

For years, I’ve had an older Toyota sedan. Recently, through circumstances that aren’t part of this story, the car died, and we replaced it with the same model, but a year or two newer. (What can I say? I like some of the classic Toyotas.) I hadn't had a chance to sell the busted one yet.

Then the newer one died. My daughter was driving her sister home in it, and suddenly it seemed that the engine exploded: steam and smoke and scary noises burst from under the hood; the girls jumped from the car, steered it into a parking lot and called me to come rescue them.

I was able to drive it home, but just barely. It was horrible: it chugged and snorted and belched great clouds of white smoke and threatened to die on the half mile trip home. A friend looked at the engine and hung his head: “Cracked head,” he murmured, and shook his head. I was horrified: that wasn’t worth repairing.

Father whispered to me: “You’ve learned to trust me in circumstances where My provision comes before the problem does. Now can you trust me where you see the problem, but you don’t yet see My provision?” Hmm. This might be interesting.

Then we had a brainstorm! We could use the cylinder head from the dead car on the new car! That might work! Let’s look closely, and see if we can figure out how to do that!

So four of us gathered around to examine it. Only two of us had experience working on cars: one on a Honda, the other on a Volkswagen; the third guy & I could maybe change the oil, if we were desperate.

We lifted the hood. There was rust spattered all over the engine like blood, and I was sad all over again. “Well, let’s see where it’s cracked.” and we stuck the garden hose to the empty radiator. The idea was to fill the radiator, start the car, and see where the water leaked out: that was where the crack would be.

But before we could start the engine, we found the leak: a long crack on the top of the radiator! That was a much easier repair.

The four of us ran to the old car and checked: yep! Same size radiator. So over the next several hours, we removed both radiators, tested both radiators, and installed the one from the dead car into the living car, and filled it up. We started the engine: the same chugging and snorting and great clouds of smoke belched from the exhaust. How discouraging.

But then one of the guys pointed at the loose wires on the distributor, and asked, “Would that make a difference?” Two of the cylinders weren’t even firing. We re-attached those spark plug wires, and started the car again: it purred like a happy kitten.

I was floored. We’d gone from a completely dead car to a completely happy car in half a day, without spending a single dime. I’ve never seen that happen before!

Then Father reminded me: “Son, I’ve told you that I am your provision. Do you believe me?”

For the record: No, I don’t get every need met that way. The first car was still dead. And no, I don’t get all of my needs met in the way I want them met (like getting my classic car repaired for no cost at all!). But yes, I’m learning.

Letters

Prophets of Doom or Comfort Porn Prophets

Somebody asked me recently about whether if a prophet speaks of a trouble, are they a prophet of God or a prophet of doom? “It worries me,” she said, “that some people spend so much time promoting these ‘words’ that they become self-fulfilling.”

Fair enough.

From my viewpoint, this really is a legitimate concern.

Having said that, to completely avoid any mention of trials, to become only a “warm and fuzzy prophet” (prophesying “comfort porn”) is equally errant. Both ditches are problems. And there are other “ditches” I suppose.

Yeah, there are a *whole lot* of publicized “words” that seem to me to be motivated by marketing, by a need to be “relevant” or “cutting edge,” or are merely coming from what appears to be a wounded soul.
Fake news among the prophetic community?

Yeah, that’s why God gave us the gift of discernment. It’s probably more needful now than ever before.

I observe, however, that many Biblical revelations did, in fact, acknowledge coming trials. It’s easy to find this in the Old Covenant, and it’s easy (and often appropriate) to write many of those warnings off as ministering under an inferior covenant.

At the same time, most of the prophetic words to Paul during the latter part of the book of Acts fit that category as well; Agabus is never even hinted as being a false prophet. Even Jesus prophesied warnings; have you read Matthew 24 recently?

If a “prophet of God” is legitimately speaking about troubles, I’d argue that there are some ways to discuss that topic that are more appropriate than others. “The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets,” after all.

It seems that prophets need to speak what God is actually saying, not from other (lesser) voices/motivations. But those who hear the words have no less need to hear God as we discern those words.

Letters

The Pendulum Swings to Mercy

It seems that the history of mankind can be described as a rush from one extreme position to another, like a pendulum gone. We’re doing it again.

For the past several decades, we’ve lost track of the promise at the end of James 2:13: “…Mercy triumphs over judgment.” For the past several decades, the church has earned a reputation as a house of judgment and intolerance, of narrow-mindedness and bigotry. Frankly, we’ve earned the reputation.

You’ve may have noticed, however, that the pendulum is swinging back, as is its wont. There are several changes that are happening in the church that reflect the pendulum’s return: one that I have observed over the past several years today is a rise, an increase, in the expression of mercy gifts among individuals in the church. It’s one reflection of the change in direction of the church: we’re becoming less judgmental, and more merciful.

We certainly need that change. The bad news is that the world has judged the church for being judgmental and out of touch, and that judgment has been appropriate. The good news is that the church is changing her heading, but it seems that we’re headed for increased turbulence with the corrections we’re making, not toward calmer waters.

The increase of the gift of mercy within the church, has not been well documented, and indeed it’s difficult to document and to analyze. You may or may not have seen what I have been observing for the past year; it is indeed subtle. Allow me to state my point fairly directly, and you can make your own observations.

Our text, then, is Romans 12:6-8:

“Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

First, let’s agree that mercy really is a gift, and by divine command, it is to be exercised with “cheerfulness” (literally hílarós, a root word that has become “hilarity” in English).

It’s my observation as one who has been a part of the church for a bunch of decades, that there are more people in the church now than there were a decade ago who are gifted with mercy, and the gift is more respected than it has been before. The church is more aware now than perhaps ever of the need to respond to sinners with understanding and empathy rather than a good clubbing with Old Testament Law. Our services often focus on meeting the needs of “pre Christians” rather than discussing sin and its consequences for “sinners.”

We have softened our approach to people-different-than-ourselves, and even many of our street evangelists are asking questions or meeting needs more than proclaiming judgment on street-corners.

That much is good.

The context for this growth in mercy, however, has been neither cheerfulness nor hilarity. The mercy that is growing in the church is growing without having been disciplined, it is mercy out of control, and it is becoming a destructive force in the church.

Pastors and other leaders are finding themselves confronted by their congregations for being too stern, too strict when confronting sloth or sin. Church discipline – ever the touchy subject – has become anathema: we’re afraid to go there.

Often, the confrontation is motivated at least in part by mercy: let’s not be too harsh. But it’s mercy out of control, mercy without discipline behind it, mercy without maturity. The resulting of the conversation – a pastor afraid to speak the truth – is not normally considered a step toward maturity. This is mercy guided by ignorance or (worse) rebellion.

For example, a friend of mine leads a worship band, and her drummer was getting lazy. He’d use the same riffs for nearly every song, and his playing had gotten boring: he was stagnant and worse than that, he was content with being stagnant. As the leader, she had spoken to him a couple of times privately, and they’d agreed on certain goals, and on the means to achieve those goals.

Once during rehearsal, he drifted back into his old, stagnant patterns, and she needed to remind him of the standards they had agreed to. But when she did, she was surprised to find several other members of the band getting in her face about how she had “judged” him. The other members thought they were being “merciful” (and indeed, they are known to be merciful people), but because their mercy was un-tempered by self-control, it brought division, not unity to their band. This was mercy guided by self-indulgence.

In 1 Samuel 15, God sent king Saul to destroy the Amelekites, with specific instruction to kill everything:

• “But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”

Saul musters the army and conquers the enemy, but instead of obeying God, he shows mercy:

• “But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them.”

Sure, there were other motivations; greed come to mind, but the act was merciful, whether it was mixed with lesser values or not.

The story concludes with God judging Saul, not because he was merciful (who is more merciful than God?), but because Saul’s mercy was undisciplined, and the fruit was disobedience. Saul feared the people more than he feared God; God could no longer trust him as king, and He fired him and began preparing David to replace him.

In our school district, very few students are “flunked” or “held back” because it’s considered bad for the student’s self-esteem. I’m all for being careful with kids’ tender hearts, but if a teacher feels pity for a capable-but-undisciplined student, and passes a failing student for whatever reason, that teacher is not doing the student any favors. If the kid can’t read his own high-school diploma because of well-meaning, but ultimately short-sighted policies, that student will still be illiterate and functionally unemployable, all because of his educators’ misguided mercy. This is mercy guided by shortsightedness, by fear of confrontation, or perhaps mercy without guidance at all.

For the past twenty years, the church has been getting used to the rebirth of prophetic gifts. We’ve seen Prophetic Schools and Prophetic Training Classes and Prophetic Conferences by the hundreds. All of this has been an attempt to teach the prophetic people how to minister their prophetic gifts: ultimately, it’s been aimed at producing mature prophets and prophetesses, who use their gifts responsibly: in other words, we’ve been breeding self-control into the prophetic movement, and I for one, am thankful for it. (Who wants to return to the prophetic poo-flinging and free-for-alls of the late ’80’s? Not I, thank you very much!)

So consider this a call (perhaps even a prophetic call?) to arms on behalf of the restoration of the gift of mercy. It’s time for mercy to come to the forefront in the church.

And it’s time that we begin to expect, even plan for, maturity in the gift of mercy.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mature mercy triumphs better.

Letters

The Pilgrimgram 2023-08-24 04:46:00

I’ve been thinking about something.

Sometimes when I need to think (“meditate”) on a topic or a verse, it helps me to do it “out loud.”

Some days, I go for a walk in the woods, and I teach on that topic to the trees and bushes. But it’s raining enough that the squirrels are marching two by two, so I’m using my other favorite method of “thinking out loud”: writing.

Hold still. Thinking might happen here. This might get messy.

Part 1: Our words carry power. We’re made in the image of the Creator God, who used his words to do all his creating. We carry some of that.

Part 2: God is in the business of blessing, not in the business of cursing. We’re in the family business (see above), so there’s a reason he has commanded us to “bless and curse not.”

Part 3: If we’re honest, there’s a lot of stuff around us, a lot of people around us, that maybe have earned their fair share of cursing. Some bad people doing bad things.

Observation 1: Take #1 above with #3 above. I suspect that the reason some cities (and increasingly, states) in America are so messed up is because Christians are cursing them so much. Think about the times you’ve heard Christians talking about Washington DC or Chicago or San Francisco. What is usually the topic of those conversations. When was the last time you heard Christians actually blessing Joe Biden or Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi?

And as a result of Christians (and others, but it’s the Christians’ words that are the big danger) declaring curses, these cities, these people are targeted by hell. And you can see it. Just look at them: they’re not actually doing well, are they? Hell is having a heyday with them.

Observation #2: Personal experience: whenever I have asked for prayer for an ill-favored person or place, the curses (“Oh, they’re a bad person!” or “They sure need to repent!”) outnumber the prayers by about two to one. (I suspect that this illustrates our need to grow in the Spirit’s fruit of self control.)

Hmmm #1: If we hear about “God is going to judge this city” (or state, or whatever), we often think of running away from that place. I’m thankful there have been fewer of these awful curses recently, but they make me think of Abe’s conversation with God in Genesis 18, where Abe argues for both mercy and justice. “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

Hmmm #2: I wonder if it might be a healthier response, when we hear a credible declaration of impending doom, for Christians to rush to that city or state. And maybe echo Abe’s conversation in the process. “Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you!”

Hmmm #3: If that’s a reasonable thought (and so far it seems to make sense), would the same apply to individuals? If we see someone whose actions make them a target for hell (or “judgment” or whatever), is it more Christ-like to get ourselves far away from them, or to get close to them, to bring God’s mercy to them?

Hmmm #4: What would that look like?

Hmmm #5: How would God look on that? How would the world look on that?

As I write these thoughts, a verse comes to mind. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend it.” I love the thought of confusing the darkness, but I like the idea of shining light into the lives caught in the darkness even better.

Letters

The Power of Listening

One of the more challenging skills in the age of social media is listening.

Listening is more than reading or hearing their words. It’s not a tool for finding fault with their statements or for winning arguments. In fact, listening reduces the need for actual arguments.

I was in a situation where someone and I saw things differently.

“Well, that’s hypocritical,” I muttered under my breath.

“Well, that’s one option,” Father whispered back. “What are some other options?”

(I hold that when God speaks, power is released in his words. So, among other things, when he asks me a question, I now have more power to answer the question than I did before he spoke.)

So we discussed other possibilities for why people do things I don’t understand.

• Yeah, hypocrisy is an option, though it’s probably less frequent than I imagine.

• Lack of knowledge. They may not know the things I know, so they are unequipped to come to my conclusions.

• Lack of awareness. This is a big one. Sometimes people have access to the data I have, but their attention is on other things. I confess I had to fight back the response of “How dare they!” but I quickly realized that their focus is almost certainly different than my focus.

• Different personal issues. The things going on in them, through which they consider the issue, are likely different than my issues. I know some folks who are tough to reason with before coffee. Or when they’re hungry. Or when their emotions are high.

• Different core beliefs. I believe (very intentionally) that God is good, that the best explanation of what he’s like is Jesus. Other people don’t know this yet, and so they’ll interpret “acts of God” much differently than I will.

The lesson is: listen and you might learn something. You might understand someone. You might end up wiser than you were before you listened.

Letters

Pacific Daily Times

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Tag Archives: 2023

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The Pilgrimgram 2023-08-24 04:46:00

The Power of Listening

The Power of Listening