A Royal Invitation

People have been enthralled by royalty for ages now. People have wanted to know everything there is to know about the lives of the kings, queens, princes, and princesses. In modern times this also includes celebrities because they function as American royalty.

Prior to the wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, so many were watching and waiting for every detail. Many of the ladies have been intrigued by the fashion and learning ways to make it their own. People swoon over and idolize royalty and Stars. Many are willing to spend a lot of money on a ticket in hopes of finding themselves in close proximity to one of their favorites.

So many are so caught up in a life they will never be a part of. But don’t you know? You have the King of all kings wanting YOUR attention! The Lord of all things longs for your love, for your acceptance, He wants YOU! Why do you wait? He offers eternity! He offers you the Cross! Through the cross forgiveness of sins, ALL sins can be had. What greater gift could you possibly receive? All He asks for in return is repentance and obedience. This in exchange for LIFE!

Cities in Ruin and a Message (A Dream)

This is the dream that I woke up from yesterday. I think my dream started out here at home. My mother was with me and it was evening time. We were looking out the window and mom was sharing some ideas about how to deter an intruder should they try to come through these windows. I remember looking out the windows and was drawn outside because there was more people out there than what there should be. We went outside to see what was going on and I noticed that the scenery outside wasn’t quite like that of what home should be. I thought this was a little strange because usually when I have a dream and the setting isn’t quite right I don’t notice this until after I wake up. But this time I was observing it in the dream. There was a certain amount of people walking around and driving though as if it were perfectly normal for so many to be there. In reality my road is typically very quiet and only occasionally traveled.

I looked around and noticed there was a very large and steep hill right in front of the house. As I observed this hill I became concerned because of there being a number of very large rocks on top of this hill right over the house. I mean these were like huge boulders, more than capable of crushing the house should they come falling down. While I was observing them the verse came to my mind about how in the day of the Lord men would be hiding themselves beneath rocks, begging that these rocks would fall down on them and hide them from the face of the Lamb.

As I began to look around some more I realized I was seeing a lot more than what I should be able to see. Mom was still with me and she was seeing them too. We were pointing things out to each other as we looked around. We could see images of various world landmarks all around us. I can’t remember what they all were, but I know that a few were from the United States. The ones I remember for sure was the statue of liberty. Another I saw and I said liberty building, I'm not sure if there is actually anything called liberty building. I’m thinking it was supposed to be the Freedom Tower that they are constructing in New York. The thing is every single landmark we saw was in ruin. Then I saw an image of a baby being held by its mother, mom saw it as two babies side by side because this is what she said to me in my dream. But we both saw a look of sadness on this baby's face.

Suddenly I’m in this building. I realize that I’m with a small group of people, but they aren’t in there with me. They are outside somewhere. We have contacts with other groups. I think we are preparing to meet up with one. While I’m in there this communication device starts ringing or buzzing or something. It reminded me of a fax machine at first, except it had a handset to answer it and you could speak through it like it was a radio. While this was ringing I had in mind one of my contacts who was a police officer. She was one of the group we were supposed to meet. While this radio or whatever it is keeps ringing I keep trying to turn it off. Every time I think it’s disconnected, it just starts ringing again. I keep disconnecting it over and over again, and it just keeps ringing. At one point during this I receive a voice mail on my phone. So I listen. I hear the voice of the police officer amid a lot of static saying that they wouldn’t be meeting with us. They got hit and they all died. She even said she died! I’m thinking to myself, "What? What do you mean you died? You’re leaving me a voice mail." I realize at this time it was this same thing that was trying to come across on the radio I kept trying to disconnect. Then I have a second voicemail. This time there is still static, but I can here her a little bit better. Again she says that her group was hit and they all died. But then she says that there was another group that was hit as well and they all died. She mentions another person who was killed. This person is someone I remember from youtube. She is a member of the military and the thought in my mind was a realization that she was our military contact. She then goes on to tell me information directly from God Himself. I don’t remember all of it, but I got the impression there was something for us to do. I specifically remember her mentioning that God was putting His mark on us, what crossed my mind was that God was spiritually putting His seal upon our foreheads. There was more that was said, but it wasn’t much more and I don’t remember what it was. In my dream I broke down balling because of all the sudden death of these people who were my friends. I intended to alert the rest of my group once I recovered my composure. It was at this time that I woke up.

This May Surprise You

I’m going to say some things here that will likely shock some of you. At the same time, I believe there are others on here who will find confirmation in it. Earlier this evening I had a thought put on my mind. I felt the Spirit was very insistent that I put this out here, and I’ve been trying to listen more to what the Spirit leads me in.

There are a multitude of people in this world who see Christianity as little more than a religion dead in its claims; one option among many; one path no different than the rest. They say why does the Bible speak of miracles yet we see nothing? Even many churches no longer believe in the capabilities of God. Doubt plagues the mind of even some believers. The Bible speaks of great things which many don’t expect to see today. Why is this?

Is it because God no longer does these things? Is He less capable today than He was then? No . . . He is just as capable as He has ever been. The problem is many of His people have forgotten. The Bible speaks of great things that would be demonstrated in the lives of believers. Jesus said that they would go on to perform exploits even greater than He did. The early church was on fire! The book of Acts shows many great things performed by the Spirit through the believers in Christ. Did these things pass away?

Would it surprise you if I told you many great things were occurring today in the Church in other areas of the world? The underground church in China has seen miracles on par with the book of Acts. This is only one such example. Why? Why do they see these things and those of us in the West, for the most part, have not? Because they have believed. They took Jesus at His word. When the Bible speaks of such things being possible, they believed it! Therefore they have seen it. These areas in the world have seen great revival because the believers know the Spirit is alive and active in this world. They know the Bible is true to its word, even in the areas that can prove hardest for people to believe. And they know if they do what the Bible teaches then God will come through.

The western Church tends to have trouble in some of these areas. Many try to find ways to make their faith fit with what the world expects. Many have been taught a watered down Gospel lacking the power of the Spirit. When they are told these things are not for today, they believe it. My suggestion is this. Stop listening to what you are being told. I don’t care who tells you. Stop listening. Pick up your Bible and read it for yourself. You might find yourself truly amazed at how different the teachings you have been hearing are from what you can find in the written Word of God. You will find Jesus teaches you to live a life quite different from what many churches practice. You will see a great importance placed on faith, prayer and fasting. And you will discover a variety of possible giftings of the Holy Spirit freely given to the believers in Christ to build up the spiritual lives of the believers; and to build up the Church.

We have not been utilizing these spiritual giftings. It’s because we lack the faith that they are there. For the most part churches have even stopped teaching them, or they have not been teaching them in their entirety. Now if this has surprised you so far, then I’m about to surprise you again.

When I say much of the western Church has been lacking in these ways, I’m not speaking about everyone. I say this not as a guess or assumption. I say this because of experience. I know the Spirit is still greatly active in this world because I have seen the results first hand. And I also know there are still many others even right here in the western church that has as well. I believe a number of you have as well, but we’ve not been talking about it. We’ve been afraid to share these things. We figure who will believe us, and so we keep quiet. I believe we should stop remaining quiet and start declaring the ways in which God has worked in our lives. Fully, not holding back because the world is skeptical. Part of the reason some are skeptical is because they have not learned of just how God has been moving still.

So I’m going to take my own advice here and put some things out there. I’ve had dreams, which I’ve recently mentioned on here once before, that I have no doubt were God given. It was such dreams that drew me to Christ to begin with. On one occasion my life and the life of my sister was spared when others insisted a car we were in should have burst into flames. Twice I’ve known first hand of miraculous instantaneous healings from those who were dying. One was a lady from a church I attended for years. She had cancer. Her stomach was eaten up by it and it was continuing to get worse. One day the pastor went up to her and her husband and told her she had been healed. They were in shock and didn’t quite understand what he was saying. So he said, “God has healed you. You no longer need your treatments.” This was confirmed when the doctor could no longer find her tumors. The second, and I know some of you will find this silly. Though it was something that was important to me and I believe if things are important to His children then it's important to God. A few years back I received this little puppy that after a little while became sick. I had been reading about Jesus talking about the importance of faith and how even faith the size of mustard seed could move mountains. So I decided to apply this lesson to my prayer and pray in full faith for the health of this pup. The very next day he was in perfect health. His sister however became sick and went down fast. We didn’t even have the chance to get her to the vet because we hadn’t realized she was so sick. The two slept in the same house and ate from the same food. After she died and the next started showing signs of this same illness we took him to a vet. This one was diagnosed with parvo and was treated. My puppy, the first to show symptoms, (and as it turns out were the later stage symptoms) was still doing well. When we described to them at the vets office how close he lived with the one which died and his age, they said there was no way he wouldn’t get sick and it was unlikely he would even survive it because he was so young. Yet he was in perfect health without even receiving veterinary assistance. All this time later I still have him, and he never did fall back into ill health. I call him my miracle dog.

Another instance of God at work is that a number of times God has provided for my family when we found ourselves in need at the exact time this help was needed. There was no previous indication that any form of help was coming and if it had not we would have been in trouble.

Another time I was in the room with my maternal grandmother as she passed away. Minutes before it happened the little dog which had been too afraid to come into this room for the whole week prior came running in with excitement. It stared at the space above my grandmother's bed, wagging its tale making happy puppy noises, and looking as if it wanted to approach before deciding to leave the room again. I believe it was watching something occur that the people in there could not see. These are only a few of the instances in which I’ve experienced something beyond what people tend to expect these days.

The interesting thing is, since coming online I have discovered that there are a number of others who are having these same types of experiences. I believe there are a lot more as well.

For so long I wouldn’t talk about these things unless I really trusted the person I was telling. I knew people wouldn’t believe me. Even members of the church wouldn’t believe me. I suspect that many of the people out there who have witnessed these things have had the same thoughts. “Why share? They’ll just think I’m lying or crazy.” But here is the thing. As long as we remain silent on these things then people are going to continue believing them impossible. The Bible mentions there will be certain attributes that will be seen in the lives of believers. Not for us to take pride in. But to serve as confirmation of the Gospel being preached. Will people disbelieve if you tell them these things? There are those who will. However the more willing we are to talk about the full extent of the things God is doing in our lives the more you may find others admitting these same things. Beloved don’t be afraid to share. Don’t be afraid to admit that your God still has power in this world. He is just as capable today as He was yesterday. The greater the faith of His people, the greater He will move among us. When God is moving, true revival follows. When Elijah stood before the prophets of Baal it was the God of Abraham that had the true power. And today when His people are faced with preaching the gospel in a disbelieving generation; a generation who believes that Jesus is no different than any other, it will again be our God that has the true power. His people just need to believe again and those who have witnessed it first hand need to be honest about what they have encountered.

The Church needs to come alive. Deception is taking hold of those around you. To those of you who have experienced the miraculous start talking about it. The Church needs to remember who their God is. He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. People should know there is still real spiritual power in the name of Christ. So beloved I urge you, if God has done something in your life beyond what people believe is possible, don’t hide it. If you’ve had a prayer answered, known someone healed or been healed yourself, been given a prophecy, spoken in tongues or any number of possibilities don’t be afraid to talk about it. Share it! Let people know this was done by your God and you serve a risen King.

It Will Cost You Everything

     I had a dream this morning. I went back and forward from thinking it was real, because it was very vivid and detailed to knowing it was a dream. Either way I felt it was important to pay attention.

     I was lying on the couch sleeping when I heard a motor. I got up to see what was going on when I spotted a UPS truck coming around the corner of the road. I thought it was a little unusual because I live on a little country road just outside of town and I don't order from somewhere that uses UPS only shipping because they have a hard time finding my house and the packages are left elsewhere.

     As I was watching I noticed a rather large package was being carted out and set up on the bank behind my house. When it was opened up there was something along the lines of a large radio. From what I could hear of the conversation of those up there (now it was more than just a single delivery man) I got the impression this radio was something being used to keep track of and spy on people. I heard a mention of the Census people as well. Like the excuse was to keep the Census takers safe when they came back through. (In real life when the Census takers came through there was one that was brutally murdered and strung up somewhere close to my area maybe a state over. The official report was suicide . . . )

     Then I noticed two men up there talking with each other. They were almost like parodies of what they were supposed to represent. One was like an old testament prophet complete with long white hair and beard and robes. The other was a modern Christian who looked a little like a hippie. He came off a bit on the ignorant side. Like he didn't really understand spiritual truths and was more parroting things he's heard. They were having a conversation. It was like the prophet was trying to teach things to the Christian, and he was having a hard time understanding. I remember the Christian asking the prophet if he had been baptized at one point. I also remember the prophet looking slightly annoyed, but still patient that he was having a hard time getting this man to understand the things he was trying to tell him. Although I heard the conversation in my dream, I've forgotten much of it. Though at the end they were talking about the cost. How much being a Christian would cost us. The Christian man still wasn't understanding the importance of the conversation. Then I heard a very clear voice-over saying, "It will cost you everything." It then flashed back to an image that was a closeup of this same Christian man's face. I realised that it was his head lying on the ground. He had been beheaded. It wasn't the prophet that had done it through. It was more along the lines of, this is what his future was. At this point I woke up.

What Are Your Intentions?

In what manner do we tend to approach God? Do we go to Him with a wanting mindset, or giving intentions? Which thought occupies more time? "What am I going to get out of my prayers this time?", or "Lord, what can I do for you?"

How many times do we find ourselves contemplating the rewards? Not that it is wrong to desire and seek growth. After all 1 Corinthians 14:1 tells us to eagerly desire gifts of the spirit. The thing is, this isn't so that we can advance and benefit ourselves. Instead it is to advance and buildup the body of believers in the world. It seems that many are spending much of their meditation on the different ways to grow from the perspective of the flesh rather than of the spirit.

Maybe we are going about things the wrong way. When you go before God in any manner, don't go with the expectation of receiving. Go with the intention of giving. Give God your praise, your worship. Give Him honor and glory. Give your concerns over to Him. Give your will to Him. Seek His will. Consider instead of praying for the different scenarios we wish to play out, pray instead for His will to be done.

Sometimes what we want and what God wants are contrary to each other. Even if the intention is not meant to be selfish, perhaps we spend so much time seeking things for ourselves that we neglect moving in God's will. When our focus waivers from letting God work through us in the manner He intends to, then we hamper our own spiritual growth as well as the works He could be doing through us. Don't be afraid to ask for the things needed though. There is a difference in asking out of need. Nor should you be hesitant to ask for God to grant you the ability to be more effective for His kingdom and any spiritual giftings that would allow for this.

It is hard to imagine just what God can do through a willing servant until it is experienced. He can move through you and your life in ways that you would have never expected. Before this can happen though, we need to learn to approach Him as a humble servant rather than checking off on a list of 'I want this' and 'I want that'.