Prophecy

Rack Up

Recently I had a series of dreams that I feel have significant spiritual perspectives. This is a bit long but please bear with me.

In the first scene I was observing a group of men in various locations around a coastal community. It was if I had infiltrated their group and was able to see and hear what they were discussing.

In this scene there were several meetings were these meeting were discussing jihad and were clearly residents/citizens of this community (i.e. not somewhere in the Middle East). They were discussing ways on how to spread their message of Islamic jihad and their responsibilities to wage jihad. There were several very strong willed individuals who were able to persuade the majority of the men, even those who were not sold fully on the concepts of waging war on their neighbors, friends, and in some cases family.

In the second scene I was a recently discharged military member from appeared to be Special Forces. I was at an outside coffee café, sitting at a table with a couple of friend, just chatting and enjoying the nice weather. We watched as a couple of UAVs (drones) flew overhead towards the beach area when all of a sudden two gray, unmarked, fighter jets flew in and attacked and destroyed the drones from a rear attack and then flew off.

In the next scene we jumped up realizing that we were under attack by forces with significant power (i.e. jet fighters) and that they were able to launch attacks unexpectedly and with precision.

I yelled at the men with me “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”. As we ran to get our gear we encountered other groups of similar soldiers – some in 2s and 3s, others in 10 – 20, and I yelled the same thing at them “We need to RACK UP – go get your gear (weapons) and meet back at this corner in 20 minutes”.

I then saw the men in their BDUs (battle dress uniforms) with their automatic weapons, extra ammo magazines, etc – in other words – we were ready for the war that was being brought upon us.

While many of you will see things in this from your conversations with Holy Spirit, this is what I got when I spoke to Him. Some of this I have had in previous dreams and shared with certain individuals – but Holy Spirit has released me to share in a wider venue because of the impending circumstances.

This is representative of the battle that is being brought upon the land by the spirit behind Islam. It is a battle that has been developing for centuries and only since the recent decades have this circumstances and opportunities been provided to this spirit to bring this war to America and the rest of the world. This is a primary element in satan’s strategy to destroy Israeland God’s plan.

Holy Spirit shared that the reason America is in the cross hairs is because of its historic support of Israel…but the spirit of Islam (jihad) has only been able to obtain a beachhead in America because the “church” has lost its focus and has allowed spirits that support the spirit of Islam (i.e. progressive liberalism – yes there is a spirit behind this) to significantly reduce the churches ability to be an effective force for good.

If you have not already seen or felt it, in the days ahead you will see a shift in the way the church operates. The first battles have already been lost, but we are in a war so the Lord has been realigning many individuals out of the institutional church environment into the organic church environment – and now He is establishing the foundations of the underground church here in America.

This war is a reality, it is going to be messy, it is not going to be fun as we have known it – but we will win and overcome. HOWEVER, we ALL need to RACK UP all of our weapons (peace, joy, praise, giving, loving, healing, setting captives free, etc) and we need EVERYONE to rack up.

The days of just pastors doing ministry stuff are over.

from Martin Best

Prophecy

Wielding Authority to Change the World

I have been reflecting on the changes going on in the United States and in the world. Those are both many and substantial.

But my thoughts focus not on what those changes are, but rather how we should respond to them.

Let us assume, for the sake of this conversation, that many of the changes are inappropriate, even evil, and should be opposed or reversed.

The question at hand is this: how shall we oppose the things we need to oppose. More specifically, what kind of power shall we exercise.

The changes are being made by the exercise of political power, the power of manipulation and intimidation, the power of deception, the power of public opinion, and some would argue that spiritual power is involved. Many of the changes have been by the use of a combination of these forces.

The question that appears to be neglected so often is this: what kind of power shall we wield as believers, to oppose the inappropriate or evil works in our land? Shall we exercise political power, or manipulation? Shall we wield the power of public opinion with petitions?

Let’s back up for just a moment, and ask a slightly more foundational question? What power has God given us? Or what kind of authority has he given us to exercise on his behalf?

In this whole conversation, I’d argue for these truths:

· Some forms of power are simply not appropriate for sons and daughters of the Kingdom to use: deception and intimidation, for example.

· The primary tool Jesus gave us was authority, which is not the same as power (that’s a topic for another article), and the authority he gave us is in the realm of the Spirit. Let’s acknowledge, however, that authority wielded in the spirit realm will manifest as changes in the physical realm.

· Having said that, there are some believers (I emphasize: not all believers) who are specifically called by God to represent his Kingdom in the political realm. These brothers & sisters have the right to exercise authority in that realm.

My tentative conclusion, therefore, is this: we as believers, when we see a political crisis (such as laws against Christians) or the exercise of violence (I think of ISIS or Hamas), we are not called to exercise the same force that is being used for evil. We are, instead, called to exercise authority in the spiritual realm, with the result of change in the natural realm.

This is the model of the New Testament.

When they experienced a political crisis (for example, Peter jailed, in Acts 12), their response was not to petition the government, and it was not a prison break); rather, they exercised spiritual authority in prayer, and angels were released to carry out the results of that authority in the natural realm.

The result was, ironically, a prison break of sorts, which was what the believers had been praying for, but also a testimony of supernatural power, which spread throughout both the church and the government.

And when they experienced violence (in the person of the Pharisee, Saul persecuting believers), they again went to prayer. In this case, Jesus himself appeared to Saul on the Damascusroad (Acts 9), knocked Saul off his ass, and confronted his erroneous ways.

The result was a conversion, which stopped Saul’s “threats & murder” (Acts 9:1), which was what they were praying for, but it also resulted in arguably the greatest preacher of the gospel that has ever walked this planet: the apostle Paul.

I know that we have brothers and sisters who are called to exercise authority in the realms of political power, or of public opinion, or other forms of power. I contend that these are few, and are specifically called by God to those positions of authority.

But all of us, the whole Body of Christ, we have all been given authority to wield in the Spirit. We learned long ago how to wield that authority to lead others out of sin and into salvation. We’ve learned more recently how to wield that authority to heal the sick and raise the dead.

It is time to wield the authority that God has given us – and by doing so, to lay down the power and authority of the world – in the spiritual realm on behalf of nations, and people groups and regions.

It’s time for us to walk away from the weapons of the flesh, and to pick up the weapons that God has given us, and with them, to change the world.

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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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Prophecy

A Vision of the Puddle.

I was visiting with a friend the other day, talking about what God was up to on the earth today, and I envisioned this picture. (In Churchspeak, “I had a vision.”)

I saw the devil, and he was watching you. And as he saw you emerging from your hidden place, as he saw you beginning to walk in your identity as a child, as an heir, of God, as he watched you shake off “every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares you,” I realized he was standing in a puddle. A yellow puddle. A warm yellow puddle.

Around the planet, the saints of God are coming out of their hiding places; they’re shaking off the snares of the enemy. Around the world, believers are beginning to believe, and are devouring the Word and learning who they really are, and what they’re really armed with. Around the Earth, wounded ones are healing the sick and raising the dead; some of them, without being healed themselves, are healing others in great numbers and with great determination.

And it’s scaring the piss out of hell.

This is one of the main reasons that “all hell is breaking loose” in some places: because all hell is terrified of the people of God growing from just being “Christians,” to becoming “Sons of God.” This is hell’s “fight or flight” mechanism kicking in, except that they have no place to run, nowhere to hide, so they have to fight.

This is also why we’re seeing so many earthquakes, so many storms, on the earth, in my viewpoint. These are the birth pains of the mature sons of God. And it’s also why so many believers are groaning, crying out for more, no longer content with sitting on a wooden pew once a week to be the primary manifestation of their relationship with God.

Romans 8 declares, “For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body.”

This is happening today, right now. This is going on in you, today, right now. If you’re one of the ones wanting more of God – whether you want more of his presence, more healings, more people to know him, more signs and wonders: whatever! – then you’re one of the ones that are making the devil piss his pants.

Good for you! Keep up the good work! Don’t let down your guard, but keep pressing in! Keep manifesting heaven on earth!

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Nehemiah 4:17: “Those who built on the wall, and those who carried burdens, loaded themselves so that with one hand they worked at construction, and with the other held a weapon.”

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Prophecy

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

Over the years Abba has taken to giving me “a” word for the upcoming year. In the beginning they were paragraphs and now they’ve come to be a single word and over the time Holy Spirit provides dreams and visions to support the word.

For 2013 the word was “TRUST” and I must say that if I knew everything that was going to happen in 2013 and into 2014 (Abba gave me a two year for one word deal) I might have asked for a new word.

But HE knows what we need before we ask so I’ve learned over the decades to simply TRUST (there’s that word again).

For 2015 He gave me the word FOCUS

As I meditated on the word the first part of the lesson Holy Spirit gave me was a flash back to the first “Karate Kid” movie.

The scene is just before Danielson’s final opponent – Daniel has been beat to heck, he’s hurting, he can barely stand, and HE IS AFRAID.

Mr. Miyagi, in his typical fashion – sternly looks and speaks

“Focus Danielson, Focus…the battle is not there (pointing to mat)…it is in here (taps Daniel on his head)…focus…”

Daniel had the skill, the training, the knowledge but he had lost his focus on his sensei.

Daniel struggles back to the mat, assumes a crane stance to the wonderment of his opponent and then as the opponent proceeds to attack him he leaps into the air and delivers a snap kick to his opponent’s head and wins the match.

Many of us have been through many matches and battles in prior years – just like Danielson – and we are approaching the point of the final battle in this tournament and we’re tired, hurting, and can barely stand. And fear has found its way back into our mindsets after being absent for many years.

Yet we have a battle that can and must be won – we must FOCUS on our sensei – Jesus our Rabbi and teacher – and we need to stand up and firm no matter what is going on around us and FOCUS on everything He has taught us and like Danielson in the final match – we may be called upon to take a stance that is different than what we have used before, that is different than what our opponents are expecting, but what He has been training us for all along.

So for 2015 – FOCUS on Jesus – knowing that the battle has been won and we are to fear not.

Martin Best
Whirlwind Ministries

Prophecy

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

Over the years Abba has taken to giving me “a” word for the upcoming year. In the beginning they were paragraphs and now they've come to be a single word and over the time Holy Spirit provides dreams and visions to support the word.

For 2013 the word was “TRUST” and I must say that if I knew everything that was going to happen in 2013 and into 2014 (Abba gave me a two year for one word deal) I might have asked for a new word.

But HE knows what we need before we ask so I've learned over the decades to simply TRUST (there’s that word again).

For 2015 He gave me the word FOCUS

As I meditated on the word the first part of the lesson Holy Spirit gave me was a flash back to the first “Karate Kid” movie.

The scene is just before Danielson’s final opponent - Daniel has been beat to heck, he’s hurting, he can barely stand, and HE IS AFRAID.

Mr. Miyagi, in his typical fashion – sternly looks and speaks

“Focus Danielson, Focus…the battle is not there (pointing to mat)…it is in here (taps Daniel on his head)…focus…”

Daniel had the skill, the training, the knowledge but he had lost his focus on his sensei.

Daniel struggles back to the mat, assumes a crane stance to the wonderment of his opponent and then as the opponent proceeds to attack him he leaps into the air and delivers a snap kick to his opponent’s head and wins the match.

Many of us have been through many matches and battles in prior years – just like Danielson – and we are approaching the point of the final battle in this tournament and we’re tired, hurting, and can barely stand. And fear has found its way back into our mindsets after being absent for many years.

Yet we have a battle that can and must be won – we must FOCUS on our sensei – Jesus our Rabbi and teacher – and we need to stand up and firm no matter what is going on around us and FOCUS on everything He has taught us and like Danielson in the final match – we may be called upon to take a stance that is different than what we have used before, that is different than what our opponents are expecting, but what He has been training us for all along.

So for 2015 – FOCUS on Jesus - knowing that the battle has been won and we are to fear not.

Martin Best
Whirlwind Ministries

Prophecy

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

Prophecy

The Elijah Season

I was first introduced to the Pentecostal church environment during the early 1990’s. It was fun, vibrant, and exciting…you could feel God doing things and it was SO different than the church environment I grew up in. Finally, I thought I’ll find my destiny that God gave me when I was 7 years old.

During this decade and beyond it seems that everyone was a prophet…there are even lines in songs about it. This was ok as God’s abundance was splashing on everyone and besides Paul tells us that we should all prophecy – right?

Then one weekend I had three different leaders come up to me and call me a Prophet – to be honest I wasn’t sure what the heck they were talking about because Papa had shown me this was only one facet of what He had set in place for me…but what the heck and it was a great learning season for me…

But as many have noticed when He pours out there is a “correction” that almost immediately comes from the main stream denominations…some of it well deserved – but more of it was due to a power and control issue…can’t have anyone but the Pastor hearing from God you know…

So there has been a noticeable drop-off, a quiet almost in the prophetic. It hasn’t stopped for there are still those that God continues to speak through and they continue to share – but it’s been “different” for almost 12 – 15 years.

So yesterday afternoon Holy Spirit and I were chatting and I was reminiscing on some of the past times and He took me in a vision to the creek and cave Elijah was in following his battle with the priests of Ahab and his escape from Jezebel…it was a time in the land following a great demonstration of God’s power that the push-back from the leadership caused many to flee (sound familiar?)…

But it was also a season of great preparation for the coming power demonstration of God…

Then God shared with me:

“This Elijah Season that has been upon my prophets is ending and soon it will be like a volcano of truth of the Word of the Lord – as it flows forth with power and might and fire it will be like nothing ever seen or heard on this planet before…for the times of hiding are over and the times of preparation are over and the times of testing are over now the times of battle in the truth of my love have begun…and watch as MY LOVE moves MY Prophets as never before…

Selah.

Martin Best

Whirlwind Ministries.

Quoted in a prophetic community on www.mewe.com.

Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestpropheticand at https://mewe.com/join/northwestprophetic.

Prophecy

The Elijah Season

But it was also a season of great preparation for the coming power demonstration of God…

Then God shared with me:

Selah.

Martin Best

Whirlwind Ministries.

Quoted in a prophetic community on www.mewe.com.

Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestpropheticand at https://mewe.com/join/northwestprophetic.

Prophecy

The Elijah Season

But it was also a season of great preparation for the coming power demonstration of God…

Then God shared with me:

Selah.

Martin Best

Whirlwind Ministries.

Quoted in a prophetic community on www.mewe.com.

Come join the conversation at https://www.facebook.com/northwestpropheticand at https://mewe.com/join/northwestprophetic.

Devotionals, Letters

Terms and Conditions for Trick or Treating

Have you ever seen the fine print on some of the websites out there: “Your use of this website constitutes your agreement to comply, and be bound to, the following terms and conditions…” If there’s ever a legal issue, the case will be decided by how well you and the other party comply with the terms and conditions of the website where the legal issue occurred.

These terms and conditions are very often tricky to find. Sometimes they’re in very small print at the bottom of the page. Sometimes they’re not even on the page you see, but are hidden away on a “Terms and conditions” page that nobody ever sees. But they are binding nonetheless, on every visitor to the website.

1 Corinthians 15:46 says “However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.” So let’s take this natural principle and apply it spiritually.

I expect to have a larger than average number of visitors to my home tomorrow night. I expect that many of them will be wearing costumes that they think of as valiant or funny or scary. (I expect that I’ll think they’re mostly “cute.”) And some of them will be adults waiting on the sidewalk for their beloved munchkin to return with candy.

But I’ve been setting up some “terms and conditions” that apply to every single person that sets foot on my porch, or my walkway, or even my lawn tomorrow night. (And I may leave them in place indefinitely.) They are not posted publicly, but they will be binding nonetheless, on every visitor to my property.

The terms and conditions that affect them include the following:

● Every visitor to my neighborhood is welcome to bring the Holy Spirit with him or her, their own human spirit, and any angels that submit who are in service to the God of Heaven, but any other spiritual beings, any fallen angels, any demons, must be checked at the gates to my neighborhood, and are not permitted in. (This one’s old news: http://bit.ly/gatekeeping)

● Every visitor to my own property, by setting foot on my property (which by legal definition extends to the centerline of the street, so it includes many of those driving by as well) agrees, by coming onto my property, to be targeted for grace and mercy by the Kingdom of Heaven.

● Every family and every household that receives candy or other nourishment from our home agrees, by receiving from us, to receive nourishment from the Spirit of God and from the Word of God, and to receive New Life from the Creator of Life. If anyone receives something from us by theft, they are still agreeing, by receiving from us, to receive the same nourishment, and the same Life.

● Every guest to our property agrees, by coming onto our property, to receive an angel or angels as their guests and guards, to lead them to the King of Kings, to teach them the ways of the Kingdom of God, and to protect them from harm.

● Every guest on our property, by coming onto our property, receives freely and without cost or obligation, our blessing upon their lives, their future, their family, and their family’s future, blessing for peace, and not for evil, to give them a future and a hope.

● These terms and conditions are subject to change and can be modified at any time without notice. Changes may be effective retroactively. Check with the Holy Spirit for the latest terms and conditions in effect.

So I encourage y’all to set up similar “terms and conditions” for your own property.

Here’s a hint that I’ve learned: I’m relying on the resources of the Kingdom to carry out the terms and conditions I’ve specified. The metaphor of “terms and conditions” was something I worked out with Father in prayer, which was also where these specific terms and conditions were formed.

Have fun. Wreak glory upon your guests!

(Feel free to share this idea with your friends and co-conspirators if you wish.)

Devotionals, Letters

The Cleaning Lady

I’d like to tell you the story of a friend of mine, whom I’ll call Chantelle.

Chantelle had just found a roommate and a nice apartment, and they were in the early stages of moving in, when she called me. “I’d like your help in praying over our apartment before we move in.” She and I had dealt with some things together before, and she understood that teamwork is valuable.

So we began to pray. We prayed over the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and declared the destiny we heard Father speaking about for the rooms and their activity. During the prayer time, I slipped away, and tossed a large handful of Dove’s chocolates into her empty room, just so she’s find a nice surprise.

When we finished praying about the public rooms, we headed down the hallway, and we both felt something strange, an unhealthy, unclean presence back there, and we both felt it at the same point, right as the hallway turned the corner.

Cool! A teachable moment! So we discussed it, discussed what it felt like, and I proposed that we check the back rooms individually for more sense of it.

We checked her room first, and there was no sense of that particular darkness, but there were wrapped dark chocolates scattered on the floor. She laughed and picked up a couple of them, and we agreed that this room wasn’t the source for the sense of the unclean that we felt. She offered me a chocolate and we moved on.

We prayed over the bathroom, blessed it, and ruled it out as a source of darkness, and moved on, while she nibbled her chocolate.

The roommate’s room. As Chantelle opened her roommate’s door, we felt the unclean darkness inside. “Aha! I suspect we’ve found a clue!” The roommate wasn’t home, of course; she wasn’t a believer, and wouldn’t understand what we were doing. In fact, there was just a small stack of boxes in the middle of the room.

We discussed the situation. We both sensed that there was uncleanness on the walls, though they appeared a clean white to our eyes. Chantelle stepped into the room, spiritual senses wide open, looking to sense where the unclean stuff was coming from. The closet? Nope. The window? Nope? This place where the bed obviously went? Nope.

That left the boxes in the middle of the room. They were just moving boxes, and only two or three of them; they looked innocuous enough. She popped the last of the chocolate in her mouth and touched the top box. Bingo! This is where the darkness came from! As we talked about the source of the presence, she straightened out the foil that had wrapped her chocolate, and read the quote it contained: “You are exactly where you are supposed to be.” We laughed!

We didn’t get into the boxes; they weren’t our property, but we felt the need to address the darkness, particularly, the darkness clinging to the walls. So we prayed that it would be removed. Nothing happened. We commanded it to leave. Nothing. We prophesied blessing on the room and its future. Nada.

I had an idea. “Chantelle, why don’t you ask Father for the right weapon to remove the darkness?” She gave me a funny look, but we’d done stranger things than this together. She prayed, and I could see from the look on her face that she’d seen Him give her something.

“What is it? What did he give you?” She scowled. “A washrag.” We laughed some more.

But she began to wield the washrag that she saw in the Spirit against the darkness. In reality, she began to wash the walls with it, and it was the first time that we saw the darkness give way, though it was a fight.

After a few minutes, we recognized that this was going to take all night, and I couldn’t help her, as I was still standing in the hallway (out of respect for someone else’s room).

Another thought presented itself. “I wonder if that washrag is for you to wield, or if it’s for someone else?” We prayed. “An angel is to wield it.” “OK. Why don’t you invite that angel in?” She did, and she laughed. “What do you see?” “A cleaning lady!” We laughed some more.

So Chantelle handed the washrag to the cleaning lady angel, and invited her to wield the weapon. Immediately, she began washing the walls, and by the time Chantelle had reached the door to the room, the first wall was halfway clean; we could both feel the darkness lifting. That was better! We blessed the cleaning lady, and invited her to stay. It seemed to us that her assignment was the back of the apartment, particularly the hallway and the bedrooms.

We felt the freedom to invite a couple other angles to the house. A big armed one was stationed outside the downstairs entrance, and Chantelle assigned another, whom she named Cheese Grater Guy, to the front door, to remove any “Klingons” from guests to the home.

When we left, we looked back at the bedroom windows, and we both discerned what appeared to be a cleaning lady waving happily to us from the roommate’s window. We laughed and waved back.

The really fun part of the story came weeks later, when the roommate cautiously reported that she “could feel a presence” in the back hallway. Chantelle replied, “Yep, and she’s staying here! We’re not going to get rid of that one!”

And the cleaning lady likes cats. Both Chantelle and the roommate had pet cats, kittens, really, who loved to play with them. But from time to time, both women could see the cats in the hallway, playing with someone they couldn’t see with their natural eyes.

Devotionals, Letters

Some Experiences with Judgment in the Courts of Heaven

Some years ago, Jesus took me to a new place that I hadn’t expected: it was a tall, oak, judge’s bench. He took me around the back of the bench, and up the stairs behind it. But rather than sit down himself, he sat me in the great chair behind the bench, and when I sat, I was wearing black robes and I had a wooden gavel in my right hand.

I’ve learned to trust him in that place, and so I didn’t resist him, though my sitting in that chair was more of a novelty that first time than it was about actually judging anything. Since then, I’ve begun to learn some things about judgment, how important it is, how powerful it is, and especially how very good it is.

I was charged with judging my brothers and sisters, but judging from Heaven’s perspective, from the perspective of a King who’s madly in love with them, who’s unreasonably proud of them, who’s amazed and overjoyed with their every step of faith. So the judgments that I’ve been invited to pronounce are about God’s favor on his children; I’ve been charged with finding them guilty of pleasing their Father, and sentencing them to be loved and adored for all their natural lives, and beyond! It’s better work than I first feared it would be; I’ve actually come to love that bench.

But some of the judicial work has been darker than that. Once, I was praying intensely for a dear sister against whom hell was having a measure of success. Jesus brought me around to the stairs and up to the bench. I could see more clearly from up there, and with his help, I saw the cloud of filthy spirits that were harassing my sister. “Judge them,” he said, and I understood.

I began to recognize their crimes, and as I identified them – the spirits and their crimes – I spoke its name. As I did, it was as if the gavel moved on its own, gently tapping, “Guilty!” to each charge. With each tap, a demon was bound and hauled of. Soon, I got into it, reaching into the Spirit for the discernment of each spirit and shouting its name, its crime: the gavel banged and the demon was bound. This, too, was judgment I could get excited about.

I needed to be careful, in my exuberance, to still judge accurately, according to what was true, not merely because I felt bad for my sister’s misery: this was a matter of justice, not pity, and it was a mighty justice that was handed down that day, and other days like it. I’ve developed the opinion that this judge’s bench is an excellent place for intercession.

There was one day, though, that I still shake my head about. It happened some years back, and I’m only now understanding what may have actually gone on.

God the Father somberly walked up to me, and he was looking really quite serious: he was cloaked in a rich black judge’s robe, and his eyes were as intense and alive with fire as I’ve ever seen them. With his eyes fixed on mine, he slowly opened his robe. I was surprised to see a red plaid shirt underneath, but before I had opportunity to react in surprise, he pulled a shotgun from the depths of his open robe, and handed it to me. Startled, I took it from him and glanced at it. Yep, that’s a shotgun, all right.

I looked up again, and now the robe was gone, and with it, the stern look from Father’s face. Instead, he sported a red hunter’s cap and a huge grin, and he held up a shotgun of his own. Movement caught my eye, and I saw Jesus, similarly attired with plaid shirt, red hat, grin and shotgun. Father asked, “You ready, Son?” but before I could answer, the air above our heads was suddenly filled with demons, their leathery wings flapping franticly as they zigged and zagged about the room.

Father laughed mightily, hoisted his shotgun and fired; a demon exploded into a black cloud. Jesus cheered and blasted another one. Soon all three of us were shouting and hollering and laughing uproariously. And blasting demons to tiny black dust. Shotgun blasts were interspersed with shouts of encouragement, great fits of laughter and the soft splatter of the demons shards. They had met their maker, and it had not gone well for them. He is a very good shot, actually.

I had enjoyed this experience so much that I hadn’t stopped to ask what it meant until recently; the answer wasn’t particularly surprising; something about “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” But the experience was, frankly, a great deal of fun. “Spiritual warfare” and “fun”: two concepts I never expected to put together.

That hunting party only happened the one time. I think it was more about teaching me a lesson than a regular part of our business in that place. He’s a good teacher, by the way: I’ve never forgotten that experience, though I’ve been slower to learn its lesson.

Devotionals, Letters

An Upgrade by way of a Dream

I had a dream. The next morning I told it to a friend, and as I told it, I realized that God was speaking to me.

In the dream, I had visited with my family, at my parents’ home. At the end of that visit, someone
across the way started shooting at us from the undergrowth. Because of the danger, everyone else left, and as he drove off, my dad told me that he had a weapon I could use. It was in the hall closet.

I ran to the closet, and searched under the bed linens. I remember checking the shelf from left to right; I found a tiny handgun, a pea-shooter, really. It didn’t even look like a gun; it looked like a tiny tambourine. It was obviously not going to be accurate at any distance beyond a yard or so, and wouldn’t pack much punch. It was a weapon, but not as powerful a weapon as I needed.

After a great deal of hard work and persistence, which were not part of the dream, I overcame the enemy.

Later, as the family was driving back up the driveway, I realized I stopped looking before exploring the whole closet. I dug into the linen closet again. On the same shelf, a bit farther to the right, I found another weapon: a large, semi-automatic pistol, probably a .45 caliber. Next to it was a package of extra ammunition wrapped to protect it from age. It had been there all along for me to use.

On reviewing the dream, I believe God was telling me that He has made another weapon available to me, beyond the weapon of worship that I’d been using, a new weapon that I hadn’t yet. It was a much larger & more powerful weapon. (And indeed, that was my experience.)

I suspect there’s a fair bit of this going on, God upgrading his kids’ weaponry, training our hands to war.

Pacific Daily Times

Know each other.

Tag Archives: warfare

Rack Up

Wielding Authority to Change the World

Terrorism: Father’s Grief

A Vision of the Puddle.

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

“FOCUS” – a word for 2015

The Elijah Season

The Elijah Season

The Elijah Season

Terms and Conditions for Trick or Treating

The Cleaning Lady

The Cleaning Lady

Some Experiences with Judgment in the Courts of Heaven

An Upgrade by way of a Dream