Prophecy

The OTHER Benefit of the New Covenant

Our history with God is a history of covenants. Covenants between God and mankind. This is how the mighty Creator King and the human species relate: through a covenant.

We do it too. We’re up-front about it with marriage covenants, and more subtle about other covenants. There is a powerful – unwritten – parenting covenant: violate that one and society takes your children away from you.

Now hold still, I’m going to talk directly about covenant for a minute. Necessarily, I will engage in willful oversimplification of some details in order to illustrate my point: the actual situation is much more complicated than this simple explanation.

A covenant is a “promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action.” Covenants are how people agree to relate to each other. Covenant is how God relates to humanity.

Noah had a covenant. Abraham had a covenant. David had a covenant. But the Big One was the Mosaic Covenant, often called The Old Covenant.

The Old Covenant was kind of a failure in before it ever got going, of course. God proposed a covenant to the people of Israel that had a lot of the elements of our New Covenant in it. Before there even were the Ten Commandments, God offered Israela covenant where every single person is a priest, every single person can come to God for himself or herself:

“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.” (Exodus 19:6-7)

“Kingdom of priests and a holy nation”? Twice in the book of Revelation, we’re described as “kings and priests unto our God” (1:6 & 5:10). God was offering that relationship to the Israelites four thousand years ago? (Can you imagine what the world would be like if we hadn’t had the last four thousand years of legalistic bondage? But I digress.)

But the people who were offered this intimate “everybody is a priest” relationship with God reject that offer in the very next chapter.

“Then they said to Moses, “You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” (Exodus 20:19)

The people had rejected a “kingdom of priests” covenant, and propose a covenant that requires a priesthood, and is based on obedience. Neither the Levitical priesthood, nor an obey-the-rules covenant, was God’s idea!

And so the “everybody is a priest” covenant was put aside, and was replaced with a covenant based on the people’s obedience. Any covenant that’s based on obeying will necessarily have consequences for disobedience. Thus this is a covenant about blessings for obedience, and punishment (sometimes called “curses”) for disobeying.

Deuteronomy 28 functions as kind of a summary: You’ll be blessed when you obey, and you’ll be cursed (or punished) if you disobey. Verses 1 through 14 outline the blessings. The rest of the chapter talks about the punishment for disobeying, and it’s God that is charged with that punishment.

Frankly, that was a lousy covenant, it’s a poor substitute for God’s first proposal, but it’s a covenant! Even that poor replacement was better than no relationship at all between God and man!

We remember that the terms and conditions of the Old Covenant (which we call “The Law”) were intended to constrain the behavior of the humans in this covenant relationship. But we tend to forget that the Old Covenant constrained the behavior of BOTH parties of the Covenant: God had chosen to bind himself to the Old Covenant as well.’

So when we read in Deuteronomy 28 about “If you disobey, you’ll be punished.” Guess who the punisher has to be. Yeah, that’s God. He has bound himself to this busted-up covenant, because it’s better than no covenant – no relationship – whatsoever. Moreover, this was the only covenant that the people would agree to, so this was the covenant that he bound himself to.

And this covenant, proposed by fearful men, required that God punish (or “curse”) the people that he loves so very much, every time they disobey. (Seriously, go read Deuteronomy 29!)

Now let’s remember that there was a third party loose on the Earth, who was not a party to the covenant between God and man. Lucifer had already demonstrated his eagerness to accuse God at every opportunity (see Genesis 3:4-5). And he’s up to his old tricks here as well.

So every time the people disobeyed (and that happened so very often!) and God was required by the people’s busted-up covenant to punish them, Lucifer steps up to the microphone and declares, “Look how mean God is! Look how bloodthirsty he is! Look how angry God is!” completely ignoring the fact that God is merely complying with the conditions of the covenant that mankind offered him.

That’s a hot mess. I’ve oversimplified the story in this short article, but it’s easy to see the mess that the Old Covenant is: seriously, the only one who benefited from that debacle was Lucifer, and that’s not actually what we’re aiming for.

Now skip forward until Jesus is sitting in the Upper Room, where Jesus is offering – for the second time – a covenant of an “everybody is a priest” relationship between man and God: “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 2 Corinthians 11:25.) But this time, the representatives (the twelve) accept the offer.

I still marvel at that cup, that biscuit. With that token meal, God removes us from the Old Covenant and makes us participants instead in the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:13 makes it clear: “In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete.”). And this is a covenant whose sole commandment (John 13:34) is to love each other.

What an amazing relief that is: in a single moment, these guys are plucked from a covenant of “If you obey, I’ll bless you; if you disobey, I’ll punish you!” and dropped into a Covenant of Love.

The seminal New Covenant verse, John 3:16, says it beautifully: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” And if that wasn’t clear enough, verse 17 clarifies that the New Covenant is not about punishment: “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” What a relief that is!

All that is amazing, spectacular, and otherwise completely awesome.

But it is also only half of the story. The Old Covenant is made obsolete, and we are released from its bondage, but we were not the only ones held in bondage by it.

With the passing of the Old Covenant, God Himself is no longer constrained by the Law to provide blessings when people obey, like treats for a dog that sits when you tell him. More importantly, God is no longer constrained by the Law to bring punishment, curses, judgment on the people that he so desperately loves.

When the Old Covenant was replaced by the New Covenant, humanity could give a great, corporate sigh of relief. We’re no longer under the law, but now we’re under grace, under love.

But the greater relief may not be ours. In the New Covenant, God is now free to love us with all that is in his heart, as he has longed to do since the day he said, “Let us make man in our own image.” (Genesis 1:26). God is now free from the Old Covenant, and he’s more excited about it than we are.

We are free. But more important, God Himself is free!

Prophecy

Church, Impropmptu

So the other evening, I invited a couple of guys over for an impromptu barbecue. And it turned into a glorious gathering of some of my favorite saints.

The four of us sat on the back porch, doing very un-churchy things, in the presence of God.

What kind of un-churchy things? Well we were eating New Yorksteak, fresh off the barbecue, for one. Some of us had a beer with the steak (a nice, black oatmeal stout, in fact!). And we were telling God stories: stories that makes God look good.

After we finished the steaks, a couple of us lit up our pipes, and we listened to the peaceful sound of the rain on the roof.

And we shared story after story of God intervening in our lives and lives of others we knew.

And we relaxed.

That was it. Nothing else. No signs and wonders. No offerings. No sermons (got close once, but we dodged it!). Didn’t even get out our Bibles. We just enjoyed God and each other.

I wanted to tell this story for a couple of reasons.

First, the evening really touched me pretty deeply. These are some of my favorite men, and I treasure their company. I just thought I’d share my joy with you.

Second, we sometimes still have the expectation that we need to be doing godly things to be in God’s presence. Bosh! The Incarnation put that one to death. God didn’t seem to be offended by good beer, good tobacco or even the occasional wide-eyed expletive in response to his amazing exploits.

There’s a third reason, and it may not make sense to everybody reading this, and that’s OK: In my world, there isn’t much that says “You’re off duty!” as much as an oatmeal stout and pipe full of Black Cavendish. And if we can’t be “off duty” in our Christian fellowship, then something is seriously wrong!

Yes, I’m suggesting that we put our religion away, far away, and build real relationships with real people in the real world. Those are the ones that will keep us strong in the long run.

Prophecy

Avoid Evil, not the Appearance of Evil

The Bible doesn’t actually tell us to avoid every appearance of evil.

It says to avoid evil, not the appearance of evil. We avoid the evil itself.

Yeah, the translation from 400 years ago (King James) mis-translates yet another passage. The language today is different than it was in 1611; the words mean different things nowadays. (This is why I cannot trust any teaching that relies on the KJV to support it.) This is one place where that change makes a difference.

Four hundred years ago, “every appearance” was kind of like “every kind” of evil. Our instruction is to avoid evil stuff. Avoid evil when it appears: avoid the appearance of evil: avoid every appearance of the evil.

And that’s how EVERY othermajor English translation of the Bible presents this: “Reject every kind of evil,” (NIV) or “Abstain from every form of evil” (NKJV and NASB). Even the King James usuallytranslates this word “shape.” “Avoid every shape of evil.”

We’re called to avoid evil. The call is not to avoid anything that looks like it might be considered as evil by somebody. Don’t be fussing about stuff that might look bad. Don’t be fussing about your reputation.

Jesus surely didn’t. He hung out with porn stars and filthy rich tax thieves and the most unacceptable people of his day. He went out of his way to connect with Zacchaeus the tax collector and all his tax-collector friends.

He wasn’t afraid to have a rich hooker spend thousands of dollars worth of perfume that she massaged into his bare feet, wiping them with her prostitute hair and kissing him all over his feet. When she was done, he smelled very much like a hooker, and he defended her actions!

Jesus avoided evil. He never sinned. But he spent so much of his time with the sinners that offended the “good Christians” of the day, that his reputation was “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’” Jesus had a reputation as a party-goer.

The reputation that Jesus had was that he was the favoriteguy of the people who were stuck in sin.

That’s our call: to bring life to those people. These are the people who need what we’re carrying!

Our call is NOT to avoid the appearance of evil and hang around with the good people. Church kids surely don’t need the grace that we’re carrying quite so much as the untouchable people who are caught in their sin.

That’s why he said, “Go ye, into all the world!” Because it’s allthe world that needs what we’re carrying.

Prophecy

Why Believers are Questioning Belief in Hell

All across the church, the move away from the doctrine of hell as “Eternal Conscious Torment” (“ECT”) is pretty consistent: many thinking believers are abandoning that doctrine as inconsistent with the character of Christ (who, after all, is the judge of the living and the dead).

This is the idea that God commands you to love him, and if you don’t he’ll throw you in a place of eternal torment, where you’ll be perpetually tortured for eternity. It’s what many Christians have been taught their whole life.

Frankly, most of the teaching I’ve heard on the ECT front has its foundation more in the writings of a Catholic monk from the dark ages than from the Bible (Dante’s Inferno,from The Divine Comedy). It’s really quite inconsistent with the glimpses that Scripture reveals of the afterlife, and it’s completely inconsistent with a God who loves us enough to die in our place.

But it preaches well in “evangelistic” sermons, which is why I suspect it has held on for so long.

But regardless of why people are abandoning the ECT doctrine, what they’re moving to is far less consistent.

Some whom I respect are landing on the idea of “Conditional Immortality.” Those that don’t enter Heaven are just un-made; this view is also referred to as Annihilationism. There’s good evidence to support this, though that’s beyond this post.

Others, whom I also respect, are seeing an extended time frame, and calling it “Ultimate Reconciliation”: that the omnipotent God who loved them in life enough to be murdered on their behalf won’t actually stoploving his haters just because they die, and He won’t stop wooing them throughout eternity. There is good evidence to support this idea as well.

There are other landing spots, but those are the two primary ones.

I’m not aware of anybody landing on basic Universalism: a free pass for everyone, regardless of what they did in life! Frankly, most of those who speak up about those who are rejecting Eternal Conscious Torment are accused of Universalism, sooner or later, by some of those who are NOT leaving ECT behind.

Don’t let people tell you that if you reject the idea that the lover of your soul is in league with your torturers then you therefore must be a Universalist. That’s just silly! Remind them that God is love, and that Jesus is perfect theology.

Many others, among whom I am numbered, haven’t landed anywhere yet. We don’t actually know what the reality is on this topic, and we’re aware that there’s less instruction in Scripture to inform us than we wish there was.

We’re saying, “Yeah, Eternal Conscious Torment clearly can’t be the long-term plan of a loving God, but I’m not sure what hell actually is.” I suppose you could say that we’re focusing more on heaven than on answering this (important) question. I’m not going to hell, and the people I’m leading aren’t going there. Let’s focus more on where we ARE going?

Yeah, it’s unbalanced, but that’s where a lot of folks are right now: questioning the things we were taught without trying to pretend we have all the answers.

It’s actually OK to not have all the answers yet.

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Prophecy

Terrorism: Father’s Grief

The most famous verse in the Bible declares that “For God so loved the world, that he gave…” God loves the world, the whole world.

Father brought that one back to me recently, as I was praying for his Spirit to move among the ISIS terrorists. “Son,” he said, “Christians are all worked up because the terrorists are killing Christians.”

I listened. “I love the Christians. But I love the terrorists just as much.”

That startled me a bit. And it brought back to my mind a conversation we’d had years ago about martyrs. “Do I not have the right to spend the lives of my servants in the way that I know is best?” I could hear tears in his voice as he said it.

And I realized something. While it’s an ugly thing that terrorists are killing Christians, while it’s a heinous act to crucify or behead women or children for any reason, there’s a reality behind it that is yet even worse.

When the Christians are brutally murdered, they go to run and jump and shout and play with Jesus. They go to a place full of light and love and wholeness and acceptance. The route there was evil, but the destination is glorious.

But for the terrorists, when they brutally murder a Christian, the demons that control him wrap their claws tighter around his soul. And when someone blows up a terrorist camp with a cruise missile, it is not to glory that the dead are destined, and it is most definitely not a flock of eager virgins that they will meet when they arrive.

Here’s what I learned today. I already knew that Father wept over his children’s murders, but I was reminded that their blood would, as it always has, be the seed of yet more revival on the earth. Every time a Christian’s blood is spilled, the grace of God is unleashed to bring even more people into the Kingdom.

Their murderers think they are doing evil, but they are sending individuals to glory and empowering revival upon the earth!

But I learned that my Father weeps more over the murderers than over the murdered. Because these do not know hope, because of what their sin does to their soul and how it enslaves them all the more, because when they are killed, their destiny is far away from Him who died that they could know Him. Father grieves because the terribly costly sacrifice of his Son has not yielded in them the benefit for which he paid that terrible price.

Father weeps more over the terrorists than the Christians they murder.

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Devotionals, Letters

False Teaching, or False Signs

The New Testament speaks time and time again about false doctrine, false teaching, false shepherds. We don’t really pay a whole lot of attention (as a larger community) to these issues, which the Bible emphasizes pretty heavily.

The Book mentions “false signs and wonders” only ONCE, but that’s the thing that gets the attention. And the definition has been expanded: “If you experience _____ during your intimate times with God, that’s a false sign! It’s of the devil!”

~~Bah!~~ Er… “No, that would be in error!”

The false teachers that those apostles were warning us about had one thing in common: they wanted to add some form of “works” to the message of grace. It came in various forms:

§ “Obey the Law!” (Or “Obey this part of the law.”) or

§ “Don’t eat meat!” (or some other dietary restriction) or

§ “Respect these Jewish holidays!” (or “…these new [age] holidays”) or

§ “Don’t drink alcohol!”

Fundamentally, the false things that the New Testament writers were warning us about generally were limitations to the freedoms that Jesus brings his people into! It was exactly this context into which Paul writes, “do not submit again to a yoke of slavery!” and he goes on in that context to say, “I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.” (See Galatians 5; it’s really quite graphic.)

This was the greatest danger to the new Church, and the one that so much of the New Testament epistles were specifically written to combat: that there would be people come into the congregations (called “savage wolves” in Acts 20:29) who would want to draw people away our freedom in Christ.

By contrast, we have very large numbers of congregations, where the leaders teach their favorite part of the Law (note that I did not mention tithing!), or about all restrictions about what good Christians should or shouldn’t do. Often, they preach an even more restrictive law to their leaders.

And many of them are warning their followers against what they’re calling “false signs and wonders,” but is really just brothers & sisters getting free.

Freedom. What a wonderful thing when we experience it. It’s jumping and dancing and celebrating; it’s shaking and falling over and being rocked by love; it’s worshipping with abandon; it’s healing the sick and casting out demons; it’s falling in love with the person of Jesus.

This is what we were made for! This is exactly why God said, “Let us make man!”: we were made for relationship!

We’re warned against these things, as if they were “false signs.” Nah. It’s just freedom. And freedom is our goal.

I don’t understand why this is sticking in my spirit so strongly today. Perhaps someone needs “permission” to hunger for God (if it matters, you have permission!). Maybe you’re asking why all the “Do this, don’t do that” rules are not fitting you well. This would be why: they’re not for you!

It’s easy: It is for freedom that Christ has set you free! Do not submit again to a yoke of slavery!

And maybe let me know if I was writing for you today?

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Prophecy

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

John Mark Pool, Baton Rouge, LA

“Payday Now!”

A “Tsunami of God’s Glory” is going to roll from the Northwest and into the US this year and into 2015, as it continues to usher in the glory of the Lord that will indeed fill the earth.

The Lord told me that another term for the Year 2015 is “PAYDAY!” It is now payday for God’s faithful messengers, intercessors, fivefold ministers, churches and family of God! It is no longer “payday someday,” for the Lord told me it is “Payday now!”

Psalm 79:12, “And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom the reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.”

As I was driving up to the Northwest (Washington state and Oregon region) the Lord showed me a huge tidal wave of His glory reversing the curses of the enemy, the doubters of the faith, and the lethargic Believers who have scoffed at God’s prophetic words being fulfilled.

While driving up to Seattle, it seemed a bit odd that on the very day God spoke to me and showed me all this, I drove past Longview, Washington where a tornado hit in that area. Furthermore, there was a school shooting in Marysville, WAthe very next day after God began to reveal this word.

It appears the enemy does not want God’s message to be planted into the hearts of His people. Remember when the enemy comes in “like” a flood, God brings in the “real deal”. When the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is about to roar, the enemy wants to steal the glory! But God will get all the glory and reign victoriously.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

Regardless of the circumstances, God’s tsunami of His glory is certainly going to fill this region and our nation in an even greater way than anyone can ever imagine! We will now again see the glory, the majesty, and the awesome power of Jehovah – the Most High God!

The Lord showed me all this in a vision as I drove along the western part of the US, and I saw a tumult of clouds rolling in below the mountains. It was as if it were a “tsunami of glory” rolling in and covering even the highest mountain. I knew the Lord was showing me that as the sea covers the earth, as the waves cover the mountains, this time it will indeed be the flood of His glory that covers the earth.

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14

The Lord said to tell our nation to “Get ready America; the Lord is about to pour out His tidal wave of glory that will fill your nation from border to border – that Glory Fire Wall will be the border security needed!”

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3

2015 Is a Year of Transforming Deliverance!

As we are in the Hebrew calendar of 5775, it is truly a year of being fully transformed from the old ways of doing things into the ways of the Lord to now multiply His Kingdom in earth as it is in Heaven!

If you look up the word Salvation in the Hebrew, it literally means “Deliverance.” When the Lord said He would step in and bring salvation (deliverance) to the whole earth, He has the authority, the power and the means to do just what He has promised. Isaiah and many of the patriarchs and prophets of old were declaring God’s Word – just hoping to be where the fiery messengers of this dispensation are now living!

Yes, this is the time for the anointed of the Lord to take their place as they have paved the way, as God’s plans will demonstrate that the Most High God is our “Deliverer!” Stand and see the splendor of the Lord and His “tsunami of His glory” engulf the earth. What God is pouring out throughout the Northwest United States, will grab the nation’s attention that a “flood of His glory presence” is about to cover the country, and a holy hunger is being poured out across this land.

Yes, this is certainly the timing of God to do exactly opposite of what the “doomsayers” have said. Yes, God is indeed who He says He is, and no amount of giving way to the spirit of fear will accomplish anything, for the glory waves will roll over both sinners and Believers together! God will overwhelm this land with the righteousness of His heart and this land will indeed turn back to the Father as the seas of His glory invade every crevice of the earth – which HE formed! (Photo via Wikipedia)

“God’s on His way again, retracing the old salvation route, coming up from the south through Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Skies are blazing with His splendor, His praises sounding through the earth, His cloud-brightness like dawn, exploding, spreading, forked-lightning shooting from His hand - what power hidden in that fist! Plague marches before Him, pestilence at His heels! He stops. He shakes Earth. He looks around. Nations tremble. The age-old mountains fall to pieces; ancient hills collapse like a spent balloon. The paths God takes are older than the oldest mountains and hills...” Habakkuk 3:3-7 MSG

When our land has been overwhelmed with the “spirit of Jezebel” it is time that the Lord fulfill His Word to “repay” that stronghold what she is due! We must allow the Lord to fill us with His glory and to understand that our Father takes care of His own.

Here is the way God takes care of His own, viewed from the pen of John in Revelation 18:5-7:

“For her sins have piled up as high as Heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’”

We will be delivered from the religious rules and regulations that offer “busyness with no results.” We must now become “aligned with God’s heart” and not the perspiring and toiling plans of man. We will no longer be able to show a false way of “appropriating the will of God by the sword of flesh!”

Purifying the Sons of Levi

“He will sit as a smelter and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord offerings in righteousness.” Malachi 3:3

This will be exchanged during this year of Purifying the Sons of Levi into becoming relentless pursuers of the intense relationship with Abba Father. We will be filled with the glory of God, and the amount of purification will predicate the amount of glory poured into each Believer. As this purification process takes place now in 5775, we will certainly experience the personal, communal, national and world-wide deliverance of God for His Kingdom.

As this Great Awakening continues, this purification will offer vessels to become the greatest testimonies of God’s glory to all those around. Others will see the “temple of God” rather than the carnal wrapper that has clouded the view of God’s hope to searching hearts.

I received a prophetic Word in 2002 from Dr. Bill Hamon, founder of Christian International, who is a “Father of the Prophetic Movement” that I would help “Purify the Sons of Levi.” I did not understand that word at first, but sought prophetic counsel and realized it is not to go about “as the Lord’s justice system to wrong leaders,” but as “the voice to offer loving help,” and be a prophetic voice of truth both to searching pastors and their churches, so they may prosper as Kingdom multipliers for their regions.

Through many ministry years and thousands of miles, God has placed us with many wonderful churches and ministry leaders who have shown much love with hearts to receive this fivefold ministry Kingdommessage. Make no mistake: God’s servants the prophets are to be the heart of our Father God for His kind of purifying sanctification – by holding up the arms of the “lonely leaders” and to put your arm around the hurting and wounded pastors; not judging, but rather giving the needed real prophetic, genuine love through the proper, prophetic gift.

This truly is the season, as the natural world looks the darkest, that God is absolutely now filling the earth with His glory! We have never ever gone where we are now entering, and all the prophets of old prophesied it and longed to see what we are about to see!

Prophetic Revelation for 2015

My Lord keeps telling me two things we will begin to see more each day of 2015:

1. The glory light will be on God’s people.

2. The hidden supernatural treasures no one has yet seen or experienced will be revealed!

A Scripture I hear often reveals this promise of God: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth and deep darkness the peoples; But the Lord will rise upon you and His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isaiah 60:1-3

The second verse my spirit hears God saying is, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

My fellow family of God, it is now time to decree and to be what God has planned for us as “deliverance has come to the people of God.” It is not a time to be complacent, but to press in more than ever to see things as never before and experience things no person has ever touched! It is indeed time to “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so” (Psalm 107:2).

We are now in a time of the “Tsunami of God’s Glory” filling this nation and turning it indeed back to the heart of the Father! Decree and expect to see the heart of God’s glory fill our land to demonstrate we are still one nation under God! We are the Christian Nation that will allow the tsunami of God’s glory to fill the whole earth!

We are excited to know that God’s love indicates the level of care to step in and pour out His Spirit upon all flesh, as a “Great Tsunami of God’s Glory” fills Americaand the nations of the earth. We will have NO FEAR in God’s presence with HIS perfect love. GOD will once again BLESS the USA! Amen.

John Mark Pool

Word to the World Ministries

Email: MarkandSandyPool@aol.com

Website: w2wmin.org

Come join the conversation, including applying 1 Corinthians 14:29 to this prophetic word, at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.

Prophecy

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

John Mark Pool, Baton Rouge, LA

“Payday Now!”

A “Tsunami of God’s Glory” is going to roll from the Northwest and into the US this year and into 2015, as it continues to usher in the glory of the Lord that will indeed fill the earth.

Psalm 79:12, “And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom the reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.”

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3

2015 Is a Year of Transforming Deliverance!

“God’s on His way again, retracing the old salvation route, coming up from the south through Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Skies are blazing with His splendor, His praises sounding through the earth, His cloud-brightness like dawn, exploding, spreading, forked-lightning shooting from His hand – what power hidden in that fist! Plague marches before Him, pestilence at His heels! He stops. He shakes Earth. He looks around. Nations tremble. The age-old mountains fall to pieces; ancient hills collapse like a spent balloon. The paths God takes are older than the oldest mountains and hills…” Habakkuk 3:3-7 MSG

Here is the way God takes care of His own, viewed from the pen of John in Revelation 18:5-7:

Purifying the Sons of Levi

Prophetic Revelation for 2015

My Lord keeps telling me two things we will begin to see more each day of 2015:

1. The glory light will be on God’s people.

2. The hidden supernatural treasures no one has yet seen or experienced will be revealed!

The second verse my spirit hears God saying is, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

John Mark Pool

Word to the World Ministries

Email: MarkandSandyPool@aol.com

Website: w2wmin.org

Come join the conversation, including applying 1 Corinthians 14:29 to this prophetic word, at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.

Prophecy

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

John Mark Pool, Baton Rouge, LA

“Payday Now!”

A “Tsunami of God’s Glory” is going to roll from the Northwest and into the US this year and into 2015, as it continues to usher in the glory of the Lord that will indeed fill the earth.

Psalm 79:12, “And return to our neighbors sevenfold into their bosom the reproach with which they have reproached You, O Lord.”

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” Habakkuk 2:14

And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3

2015 Is a Year of Transforming Deliverance!

Here is the way God takes care of His own, viewed from the pen of John in Revelation 18:5-7:

Purifying the Sons of Levi

Prophetic Revelation for 2015

My Lord keeps telling me two things we will begin to see more each day of 2015:

1. The glory light will be on God’s people.

2. The hidden supernatural treasures no one has yet seen or experienced will be revealed!

The second verse my spirit hears God saying is, “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know” (Jeremiah 33:3).

John Mark Pool

Word to the World Ministries

Email: MarkandSandyPool@aol.com

Website: w2wmin.org

Come join the conversation, including applying 1 Corinthians 14:29 to this prophetic word, at https://www.facebook.com/northwestprophetic.

Devotionals, Letters

The Ministry of Vitamin K

I was trying to understand some things – I’ll call them “some of the mysterious things” – that Father was doing and saying around me. In the midst of struggling to figure them out, I heard him whisper, “Vitamin K.”

I haven’t thought about Vitamin K for years, possibly decades.

I think he likes messing with my head. And I get that: dads – good dads – are like that: it’s more about making me think, inviting me to come close to hear more, than it’s about handing me answers.

Vitamin K, eh? Well, Wikipedia tells me that “Vitamin K is a group of structurally similar, fat-soluble vitamins that the human body needs for modification of certain proteins that are required for blood coagulation, and in bone and other tissue.”

I needed a little more revelation than that!

This is where we ended up: This is something that my body needs, actually needs fairly desperately. But my body gets all it needs without my paying attention to it, without my understanding it, without my doing anything at all with Vitamin K in mind.

Vitamin K does its job, clotting my blood when I cut myself, and doing whatever it does with my bones (“In bones, Vitamin K takes part in the post-translational modification as a cofactor in γ-carboxylation of vitamin K-dependant proteins (VKDPs).” Yeah. That.), and it doesn’t require the slightest bit of my conscious participation in the process.

I’ve never once needed to tell my body, “OK body. Today, I want you to absorb 120 micrograms (μg) of Vitamin K from the kale and broccoli and chicken breasts that I’m eating for dinner. Then I want you to use that Vitamin K to make my blood clot properly if I cut myself, but not unless I cut myself, and I want you to make my bones do whatever they do when you use Vitamin K on them! Make it so!”

I just trust that my body will digest the food, find the Vitamin K (and all the other nutrients) and apply them as needed. I don’t need to be conscious of the process for it to work well. For me, that means I need to eat lots of good veggies, some good meat, drink plenty of liquids, but I do that anyway: these are yummy!

So my lesson was this: I don’t actually need to stop and understand every little thing that Father is doing or even every thing that he’s saying to me or around me. In practical terms, that means that I eat healthily: the Word (reading, meditating, studying), in my prayer, in my praise, in my snuggling time, and Holy Spirit will apply them as needed, but I do that anyway: this is yummy stuff!

I don’t actually need to be conscious of the everything that God is doing or saying for it to work well, for it to build me up in my most holy faith.

Devotionals, Letters

Offense at God Stops the Promises

John the Baptist was aware, perhaps more than most people, that Jesus’ mandate (in Luke 4) included the anointing “To proclaim liberty to the captive…”.

But by Luke 7, John was himself a captive, a political prisoner rotting in a Roman jail, who presumably wanted his freedom. So he sent some boys ’round to ask Jesus, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?”

Jesus let them watch his ministry for a while, and then replied, “Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” In other words, “Yeah, I’m the one.”

And then he adds the kicker. He says to tell John, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”

And then Jesus goes on for fourteen verses – this is a pretty long speech for Him – who John is and why he’s awesome. “…there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist.” That’s pretty high praise from the Incarnate Son of God.

One of the greatest offenses we can ever experience is “Why does it happen to them, but not for me?” It’s not hard to get discouraged in those circumstances. It’s hard NOT to be offended. John was offended: Jesus’ cousin, and the prophet sent to announce him. If the greatest prophet in the world got offended, it’s possible that it happens to more people than admit of it.

It’s hard not to see someone else get healed of something that you’ve been asking for healing of. It’s difficult not to be jealous when someone else gets the financial breakthrough that you need so desperately.

And it’s almost impossible (almost – but not quite) to not be offended when the promises that God has declared for you sit there, unfulfilled, despite your best efforts, despite your faithfulness, despite the fact that you have personally prepared the way for that other person that got the fulfillment of YOUR prophecy!

It’s so easy to be offended because of Jesus, especially when he does things that are different than you think he ought to do. When he does things in different ways, with different people, than you think he ought.

And then he adds the kicker. He says to us, “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” Our blessing comes from avoiding that offense.

Said another way, being offended hinders our being blessed. One of the greatest hindrances to my promises being fulfilled is when I’m jealous of others’ blessings.

If my reaction to someone else getting a large amount of cash is to wish that it happened to me, then I am, by that offense, hindering God’s blessing in my own life.

If my response to your newfound ministry is to wish that it had come to me (“instead of to you,” or “as well as to you,” it doesn’t matter), then I’m hindering my own release. I’m demonstrating that I cannot yet “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), and therefore I’m not yet ready to be trusted with that blessing.

If I can rejoice with others, weep with others, without thinking of myself before I think of them, then I’m getting past being offended with Him.

Fundamentally, if I see your blessing and I think of my lack, that’s a manifestation of self-centeredness. If I see your sorrow, and I breathe a sigh of relief, that’s a manifestation of self-centeredness.

I suspect that Father is breathing on that verse right now: “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15)

If we want to keep up with what he’s doing, if we want to be part of what he’s doing, we’ll want to avoid being offended by Him, and rejoice – or weep – with others.

Devotionals, Letters

The Vision of the Wooden Spoon

The vision began with a quiet stream, in a quiet, green meadow; it reminded me of Narnia for some reason: that peaceful. The stream was wider than one could jump across, and deeper than you’d want to wade across, and its flow was smooth and fairly fast. All in all, it was a very peaceful environment. The birds were singing.

Then a giant hand appeared in the sky, holding a giant wooden spoon, the kind of spoon that people use in the kitchen to mix cookie dough. The spoon dipped into the stream and stirred.

For a while, nothing much happened, except the stream became more turbulent from the spoon’s motion. After a minute or two, the stream darkened, and soon I could see things in the muddy stream: old tires, boots, cans, bottles, sticks and stones, jars, bags of rubbish. The hand with the spoon withdrew into the heavens.

I was kind of appalled. This had been a peaceful stream, in a beautiful meadow, and now it was full of trash and garbage and muck and mess. Well, actually, the peaceful stream had always had the trash and muck and garbage and muck and mess, but it had been lying hidden in the mud on the bottom of the stream. Now the stuff was out in the open.

The vision continued, and the stream kept flowing, and then I saw it: the garbage was flowing downstream with the flow of stream. Some of what had been stirred up came to the top of the stream, and was carried far downstream, out of the picture. Other things, heavier things, were carried a little ways downstream but they settled back to the bottom of the stream. Soon the stream was clear and peaceful again, but I knew that old tires, discarded shoes, bottles and cans were still there, lying on the bottom of the stream.

The hand with the spoon appeared again, and stirred the water again, and again the stream darkened with mud, again tires, discarded shoes, bottles, cans, and other detritus were stirred up, and again they floated various distances downstream.

The cycle was repeated several times, until eventually, the stirring from the almighty spoon did not bring up muck and garbage.

The stream returned to peace, but it flowed smoother, faster, than it had before, and I realized that it flowed cleaner than it had before. The garbage on the stream bed had settled under so much mud that the stream flowed smoothly over it, but still the garbage had polluted the stream.

Now the stream was actually clean.

I believe that this is what Father is doing in some of our lives. He’s stirring things up in our lives, and it’s uncomfortable. It’s easy to be appalled or offended at what he’s doing, because he’s good at what he does. Things are being stirred up, memories, habits, relationships that have been in our lives are being stirred up from the dark depths of our lives, and brought into the light.

And the reality is that much of what he’s stirring up is garbage: shame, embarrassment, memories of foolishness, of sin, histories of unwise choices, character weaknesses. It’s easy to resent these coming to the surface after how many years of being hidden in history.

But he’s bringing them up in order to wash them away, in order to remedy the issues. Trust him. Have hope, rest in the confident assurance that he does know what he’s doing, and that he’s working for good in you, for the purity that we really have wanted. He’s answering our prayers.

We can trust the spoon. More specifically, we can trust the hand wielding the spoon.

Devotionals, Letters

Brass Heavens? Consider Some Options.

The phrase “brass heavens” comes from the King James translation of Deuteronomy 28:23. “And thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth that is under thee shall be iron.” It was part of the consequences that God warned Israel would experience if they wandered off and rejected God in their new Promised Land.

We use the term “brass heavens” to describe an environment where it’s tough to connect with the heavenly realms, it’s difficult to hear from God, rare to experience his presence. Fundamentally, it’s about our experience of interacting with heaven.

Have you ever felt like no matter what you did or prayed, nothing was happening? That’s what we’re talking about.

There are a number of reasons for us to experience brass heavens. Deuteronomy says it’s a natural consequence of abandoning God. Indeed, it’s hard to connect well with God when we’re avoiding him. It is also commonly inferred that if the population of a region rejects God, then the heavens in that area may become brazen to them, and also to anyone else who comes into the region. Hmm. Maybe.

Personally, I believe that sometimes the “brass heavens” are a lie. There are times that the enemy simply accuses God before us: “He didn’t respond to us quickly or personally enough. You must be on the outs with God!” No, the devil just talks louder and faster than Father does.

There are times (Daniel 10:13 is an illustration) where the “brass heavens” are the result of events in the heavenly realms which we cannot see. Job also experienced this. It’s real, and it happens. In fact, in the Bible, it appears to only happen to good people.

There are undoubtedly other causes for that sense that we have which we describe as a brass heaven. Hold that thought; we’ll be back in a minute. Right now, let’s take a detour through the woods.

Some time ago, I was walking in the woods, and my attention was captured by something I saw there. I saw the same conflict acted out in two different ways, in two different parts of the forest.

I saw a giant fir tree, a grandfather, perhaps eight feet in diameter. The only tree of its size in the area, it was accompanied by its adult children: thousands of mature fir trees two to three feet in diameter surrounded it.

But the detail that caught my attention was the third generation of trees. There were not many saplings in the shadow of the larger trees. There were only a few young ones there, but they were thin, weak and yellowed from never having seen the direct light of the sun, their source of life. There were many that had died.

As I walked further, I came to a part of the forest that was dominated by great maple trees. A few giants spread their canopies, well separated from each other, the light through their leaves coloring the undergrowth a bright green.

Unlike the fir trees, the grandfather maple trees were not closely surrounded by their children. Between the great trees was a bright meadow, thickly populated by shrubs and berry bushes, but not a single young tree was growing in the meadow, though the meadow was surrounded by younger maple trees competing with younger fir trees for the light.

I’ve studied botany a little, enough to know that both behaviors are defense mechanisms for the mature trees. The fir trees grow tightly together so that there is no light left for any competitors, even their own offspring. The grandfather fir trees, the old growth giants, have no need to hinder the growth of any competitors: they tower above all others, secure in their own capacity to reach the sunlight.

The great maple trees do it differently. The great giant trees give off a chemical that poisons the soil near them so that no tree can grow there, thus eliminating any competitors for the precious sunlight. Grandfather maple trees are broader, not taller, than their younger competitors. They cannot tower securely above the younger trees as the old growth firs can, so they must eliminate the competition.

Here’s a radical thought: what if the “brass heavens” over some people is the “forest canopy” of others?

I have lived among a metaphorical stand of fir trees. The community of saints were largely mature (both in age, and in their walk of faith), and they were so closely connected with others their age that there was no room for someone young in their faith to break in and discover the life that they needed to thrive.

Do you know how many churches have fights about the worship music? Just the question of “organ music or pop-rock music” has destroyed thousands of American churches. Other communities continually preach the same salvation message for sixty years, or, on the other extreme, the same marriage-and-family messages, ignoring the needs of the younger members, forcing them into the darkness, stunting their growth. The “brass heaven” there comes, at least in part, from the unwillingness of the adults to become parents, the inability to make room for the young ones.

I’ve also served the metaphorical mature maple trees, where the ministry is all about the one leader, and where no real growth is permitted among any other leaders who might challenge the position of the senior leader.

I’ve seen churches where the founding pastor is still the senior pastor 40 years later, but no youth pastor or worship leader is kept for more than 3 years, and the only associate pastors are those who’ve learned never to grow beyond a certain limit. The “brass heaven” in those places is, at least partly, the result of the senior leader’s ego.

As I’ve reflected on my lessons from the forest, I’ve been very grateful that I have feet instead of roots. I’ve used those feet to depart those deadly forests. There are thousands like me, unwilling to sacrifice my own growth for the comfort of the fathers and grandfathers that have gone before me. Unfortunately, there are millions more, lost in the shadows, withering, dying without the sun.

Of course, wherever I go, there is always the temptation to gather a tight group of friends who support each other, but really don’t make room for another generation to be part of the community. Or there’s the temptation to create my own forest, where I’m the reigning monarch, and everybody else is reduced in order to serve my own needs.

The old growth fir tree is easily the best model from this particular day in the forest: tall and strong, secure in his own relationship with the sun of life, he broadcasts seed, carried by wind, and he populates entire regions, reshapes the environment within his influence.

The drawback, of course, is that it is incredibly costly to become the old growth fir tree: costly in time. It requires, in the tree’s case, centuries of growth to reach that size, centuries of avoiding the forest fires and logging companies and diseases that are the end of so many of its peers.

But I suspect that we can, ideologically, at least, become the old-growth giant long before we’re either old or giant. Being creatures that (unlike the trees) are created in God’s image with a free will, we can exercise our will.

We can choose to not participate in the closed relationships that keep others at a distance. We can choose to let others grow and thrive around us, encouraging the ones that will eclipse our own growth or gifting, so that they become greater and more successful than we’ve ever been.

We can choose to raise up and release a generation that’s just now encountering the “brass heavens” of the saints.

Prophecy

Breaking Off Religious Bondage

“I am shattering and breaking religious mindsets off My people. I am shattering that thing to pieces and drawing them to Me in freedom.

Religion – it has been around for a long time; but now is My appointed time and hour to break off that religion from around My people; My precious children. It has held them back in bondage, in stocks, and has tied their hands.

With religion is no real power; but with freedom is great power. So I am breaking, breaking, breaking off its influence on My children’s lives and bringing them into greater freedom and life. It’s all about freedom.”

Kris Burks
Oregon

Pacific Daily Times

Know each other.

Tag Archives: freedom

The OTHER Benefit of the New Covenant

Church, Impropmptu

Avoid Evil, not the Appearance of Evil

Why Believers are Questioning Belief in Hell

Terrorism: Father’s Grief

False Teaching, or False Signs

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

A Tsunami of God is Coming From the Northwest to This Nation!

The Ministry of Vitamin K

Offense at God Stops the Promises

The Vision of the Wooden Spoon

Brass Heavens? Consider Some Options.

Breaking Off Religious Bondage