Month: April 2016

Watching and Waiting

Global Economic Collapse

I was born again in 1983 and immediately God arranged a job that allowed for many hours of Bible reading as I rode public transit to and from work each day.

Reading the old testament revealed how God sent judgment when Israel neglected prayer, but also forgave, delivering them from oppression when they humbled themselves and called on him again. I was awed by a Creator who allowed free will, and yet upheld justice and righted wrongs, all while never letting his chosen people stray too far.

Then in 1986 I heard David Wilkerson’s prophecy of economic calamity (and other judgements) coming initially to nations that have turned away from God, but ultimately affecting the whole world. I stored all of that in the back of my mind for future reference.

Of course today, theories of looming economic and other disasters abound, especially on the internet. But by 1986, well before the world wide web was introduced, my wife and I had removed television and other news media from our home. And for over 20 years we limited ourselves to the word of God.

This is something we’re very thankful for. Because God alone holds the future, and meeting regularly with him in prayer has proven to be far more powerful and reliable than seeking out anyone else who claims to know what’s in store.

… and in the fall of 2000, God gave me a dream warning of a global economic collapse that will be the first of many world changing events.

Walking from my house to my carpentry shop to begin a typical day of work, everything about that morning was normal. The way I was dressed, the sights and sounds, the thoughts going through my mind, everything as usual until opening the door of the shop and stepping inside. It was completely empty! Not one machine, no raw materials or finished goods on the floor, the walls where the tools and the jigs hung – everything was bare, everything was gone. There was nothing for anyone to do!

This was not the natural ebb and flow of economic activity. No, I saw a devastating, times altering collapse of the entire system. Overnight, production came to a halt, and all employment vanished. Exactly what will cause commerce as we know it to suddenly cease was not revealed to me, but it will be a day that affects everyone.

The dream happened as I was waking, and the interpretation was given immediately. Then I held on to this knowledge for many years saying very little about it. But 18 months ago a word of knowledge led me to the book of Numbers chapter 33. And that scriptural truth convinced me – now is the time to speak out.

Global economic collapse is inevitable, because the Bible reveals that when God judges men for their sins, he judges them… and he judges their gods. “For the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, which the LORD had smitten among them: upon their gods also the LORD executed judgments.” (Num 33:4)

Now, I can only speak of the society I know, but look around and you will see it too. Store after store in mall after mall and city after city, promoted by advertisement upon advertisement, all promising more and bigger, better and cooler.

The lust to possess, our obsession with wealthy and famous people, the general abandonment of family for finances, these all point to one thing. We are a self centered society controlled by greed, that worships money… where MATERIALISM mostly shapes our sense of right and wrong – proving that IT IS OUR GOD. 

And our society is not unique, because the heart of man is the same worldwide.

Even the majority of false doctrines prevailing in our churches today are based on worldly gain. Wealth and success are held up as the true measure of God’s blessing and the evidence of great faith. And no one wants to expose covetousness or talk about a time when worldly prosperity could end.

But this false prosperity will end. Overnight it will end. Because the true and living God will judge and pull down the false gods we worship.

If you are hearing this message and have been wondering why recently the world is losing its lustre, be encouraged. Jesus is at work teaching your heart to divorce dreams and hold possessions loosely.

Learn to watch and pray. Then soon, when the time comes that many are counting their loss, you will be counting your gain as spiritual riches are multiplied to you by the Holy Spirit.

And if you are concerned about the very real suffering that will accompany the shaking of the nations, I was too until I considered the end result of unrestrained sin. God showed me that when he allows people to live exactly as they please, their sinful path becomes darker and their situation more desperate as time passes. Without the restraint of God’s judgments, lust only increases and Satan’s influence spreads conspiring to blind and enslave every soul and extinguish every last ray of hope.

Therefore, it is the mercy of God to send corrective, repemptive judgment on the world, to restrain lust, cut off the power of Satan, and set the captives free.

So don’t be confused or deceived when judgements begin.

He may rebuke and he may chasten. But Jesus is leading his people into a land flowing with milk and honey! And all of his sheep will come into the fold… not one will be lost!

Learn to fast and pray, and as the end of time approaches Jesus will increasingly empower and protect you in miraculous ways that reveal his mercy, power and light to this world.

And that means that those around you will see God in you and be saved!

“For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.” (Isaiah 60:2-3)

So don’t be afraid of the future.

Live the miraculous life, and let God have his way.

Challenging days are ahead… but God has everything under control.

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Watching and Waiting

What is Faith?

For a number of reasons I could not attend church until about three weeks after I was born again. By then I had read all four gospels and the Book of Acts in the New Testament. And when that Sunday morning arrived, I expected to see devils cast out and people being healed just like when Jesus and the apostles lived. On top of that I thought we would go home after church and pray all afternoon. I was really excited. I knew what God had done for me, and I could not wait to see him do the same for others.

But even though it is so clearly presented in the Bible, nothing like that happened at the church I attended that morning. I learned later that many Christians do not even believe that God performs miracles anymore. It’s difficult for me to reconcile that.

However God has never let my faith diminish. In fact my level of expectation has increased, and the more time I spend with him, the more the reality of God’s kingdom takes over in my heart and mind.

… I think that kind of faith needs to be explained.

The Bible describes faith as, “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” and this leads me to conclude that faith is a gift from God. How else can belief in the impossible be explained? How else could faith be described as ‘the substance?’ It is because the Eternal, Almighty God is the God who makes something from nothing… and that is the basis of faith. It has nothing to do with how strong we are, but has everything to do with the fact that the Holy Spirit has the ability to speak to the heart, and literally create faith in God.

There are many religious, mystical and moral disciplines that seek to govern the heart and mind, all claiming to bring peace, healing and order to their follower’s lives. They all require a type of faith and adherence to principles, but ultimately depend on the strength of the individuals that practice them. Have you ever been there? I have.

But Jesus taught that by seeking God, even the most undisciplined of us can find healing, peace and order in life.

First, when Jesus came to earth he demonstrated absolute command over nature, over disease, over demonic powers, and even over death, to prove that the kingdom of God exists and rules supremely. Then, when he left the earth, Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who is also called the Comforter, to “speak comfortably” to everyone that would decide to follow him.

Now the name Comforter, as it is used in the Bible, is perhaps the most beautiful word in all of the English language, because it describes the Holy Spirit’s unique ability to speak to the heart. Our tie to God is portrayed as a relationship of love, like a very tender marriage, and especially the prophet Hosea (Hosea 2:14-16) describes how God lovingly courts his ‘bride’, speaking “comfortably” or ‘to the heart’ of his people. And that literally means that the Holy Spirit tells us how much God loves us, and creates faith and love in our hearts and minds!

We all say that love is the greatest power in the universe, and we all know that we need more of it. We also know intuitively that love could solve every one of mankind’s individual and corporate problems. And when we say that, we are speaking truth and (whether we realize it or not) talking about the kingdom of God. But healing will never happen until we turn to God, because only the Comforter can create the love we need in our hearts.

So I ask you. Why would anyone refuse God’s offer of wholeness and conclude that faith in Jesus is foolish?

I honestly do not know.

Do you?

Watching and Waiting

Do You Want The Power of God?

I hope it is evident as I write about personal experiences, that this is not the story of what a man can do when he is in God. No, this is the testimony of what God can do when he is in a man. God can take your hand and carry you every step of the way, and your will witness so many miracles in the process that his praise will simply flow out of you.

Previous posts have told of being born again and baptised with the Holy Spirit. These are both vital experiences. We must be born again (there is a natural birth and there is a spiritual birth) because the Father’s true love can only be revealed to us by his Spirit. And we need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit to have power to live right and to battle dark powers.

And many Christians pursue the Holy Spirit and the spiritual blessings that come from above. But they find that there is a “stone” in the way. His name is Jesus, the Word of God, the “stone of stumbling.”

Now, I am going to present you with the words Jesus declared to me just hours after I was born again. Cross over this line, and you will see love and power from God like never before.

The day I was born again I started reading the bible at Matthew’s gospel. I loved what it said. It felt so familiar, and my new heart was a clean slate, ready for God to write his laws there. Maybe that day or the next, I came to Jesus’ words in Matthew 10:39, “He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.” Those words literally leapt off the page, going straight to my inner man with perfect clarity. And this may be a foreign concept to our modern minds, but from that moment forward I fully expected to someday die for Jesus and the gospel.

Does that sound crazy? No one would expect that, would they? But that is what Jesus said, and I’ll tell you why he said it. Jesus’ words are the dividing line between those who truly love God, and those who say they love God but in reality love themselves. And if you want the power of God you must love God with everything in you, love God even more than you love yourself, and then be ready to give yourself completely if necessary to serve God and to truly love your neighbour.

And Jesus did exactly that. Two thousand years ago, after four hundred years of prophetic silence, while the people of God debated the word of God, the Father sent Jesus into the world to do “among them the works that none other man did,” (John 15:24) rebuking theoretical preaching and false teaching with a display of miraculous power and selfless compassion unequaled in human history.

You see, before time began, Jesus agreed to lay down his life to rid the world of sin, to destroy the devil, and to demonstrate the love of God. And that decision brought the promise of God’s power to him.

And to this day, the revelation of Matthew 10:39 remains the most important ever given to us, because embracing death for the sake of Jesus and the gospel produces the promise of God’s power in us.

Now to believe and follow Jesus in this way is not strange. In fact it is the experience of many Christians in many parts of the world today, who are ready, before the end of time, to lay down their lives for Jesus in a final display of God’s miraculous power and unfailing love for lost souls in a dying world.

How do I know? Because Jesus said, “and this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.” (Matthew 24:14)

So, do you want God’s power?

First, if you catch yourself debating internally or with anyone else about God’s word, pray and deal with that first. Second, don’t try to figure out what your cross is, or understand every last detail of what dying for Jesus means. That kind of questioning is just another excuse for not stepping over the line.

Third, don’t be afraid. Let the word of God wash away all of your doubts. Oh… that is true freedom, when Jesus’ words become better to you than life itself.

Finally, step over the line.

It is a decision that you will not regret.

Watching and Waiting

The Baptism with the Holy Spirit

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:1-4)

Two weeks after being born again, I left the farm where I worked and started a new job as a purchasing agent for a mining exploration, equipment manufacturer. Two weeks later, another new employee started in the sales office, and about two weeks after that he came to my desk one morning with a big smile on his face.

“You’re a Christian, aren’t you?” he said. I was pleased that he noticed and responded, “Yes I’m a Christian.” Then with an even bigger smile and without any hesitation he said, “That’s nice, I’m a witch.”

And it turned out that he was very seriously the warlock of a witch’s coven, who also held a 7th degree black belt in the Korean martial art of Hapkido, and was fully immersed in the worship and power of Satan. He seemed a friendly person but pursued me for over a year, many times describing how Lucifer was the real power, and illuminated one, and that Jesus could never do for me what Lucifer did for him. He also demonstrated very real demonic power, particularly on two occasions, first “punching” me in the chest from about 40 feet away (hard enough to almost knock me down), and another time bringing a lightning strike onto a nearby high voltage hydro electric tower in the middle of the industrial park. Writing about them now sounds wild, but these things really happened.

Then one day on the bus to work, God stepped in. After reading John’s gospel where Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you and shall be in you,” I arrived at my stop, and closing my Bible, walked down the center aisle to the exit door praying, “Lord, I know you are with me – I want you in me.” I had nothing particular in mind, and just wanted to know God more than anything else in the world.

Immediately I was speaking in tongues (while walking down the steps of the transit bus to the street), singing in tongues, and praising God. Walking the rest of the way to work, the praises, the songs, and a language I had never learned continued to flow from within for almost fifteen minutes. It wasn’t that I could not stop, I just did not want to!

Now let me explain the reason for telling this story.

Remember the witch, empowered by worshiping Lucifer and practicing martial arts, who was sent to my desk every day for 15 months to cast doubt?

HE NEVER SPOKE TO ME AGAIN.

And from that day until the day I quit that job 5 months later, he never asked and I never told him what happened. But the demonic spirit in him recognized the Spirit of God in me, and never challenged the name of Jesus again.

God wants to fill you with his Holy Spirit.

Fast, pray, and seek Him.

God is the one to trust now.

Watching and Waiting

Nuclear Attack on the United States of America

A few mornings after being born again I was sitting on the edge of my bed dressing for the day and pulling on socks, when a vision came from God.

In the vision I was leaving the front door of the farmhouse where I lived and walking down the front steps to the paved sidewalk which led away from the house.

This farmhouse faced south, and the sidewalk led across the front lawn through a wooden gate to a graveled yard. Past that a large barn and a forested hill behind it completely blocked the view.

But in the vision the landscape was very different. To the south was a beautiful range of rolling hills “falling away.” My viewpoint was from high ground and the scene of cascading hills stretched out for many miles. It was summer, mid day, warm, and the fields were green.

In the vision, as I stepped onto the sidewalk three of the fastest fighter jets I had ever seen suddenly flew directly overhead. They came from the north, rocketing toward the south. My whole attention was now on the jet planes. But within seconds, and in perfect formation, they banked sharply 90 degrees to the left and vanished out of sight.

Then the massive flash of a nuclear explosion filled the sky. I dove face down onto the grassy lawn, covering my face and eyes with my hands to protect them as best I could, and waited.

But to my amazement I was not harmed, and the vision ended.

Immediately the Holy Spirit told me that sometime in the future there would be a nuclear attack on the United States of America originating in Russia.

What I saw and heard was crystal clear but I had only been a christian for a few days. So I did not tell the vision to anyone for a very, very long time.

Watching and Waiting

The Day I Was Born Again

My reason for blogging is very simple. Let me describe how loving, personal, faithful and tender God is. He is someone you can trust, give yourself to, and never be disappointed.

I was 22 years old when he began to do a miracle in my life. Not knowing God, I was drifting aimlessly and experimenting spiritually, going to dangerous extremes and flirting with disaster on many occasions, when God sent a person into my life that I respected and loved dearly. As a result I became curious about the Bible.

But nothing changed until one morning, sitting in the living room listening to some rock and roll, a voice came out of the music. The voice was speaking to me, but the words were mixing with the song, and unintelligible. The voice moved slowly from in front until it stood behind, then over my right shoulder, plain, loud words, “I have been waiting a long time for this day.”

Sensing what can only be described as pure evil, I jumped from my chair and literally ran out of the room to get away. Somehow it was clear that this “voice” wanted to possess me and take control of my life.

Now in the kitchen and feeling safe from whatever had threatened me, I decided to eat lunch. Then, lunch finished and crossing the living room to read the Bible a friend had given me just days before, God gave me a Vision of hell.

I was, without warning, in a place of total darkness, darkness I could feel. And I was alone, completely alone, yet aware of God. More precisely, I was aware of perpetually going farther and farther from God.

That realization shook me, but then I caught a glimpse of something even more alarming. In addition to the agonizing despair of separation from God, the destruction awaiting my soul in hell would be absolute – annihilation – as if I never existed!

In hell one is entirely alone, and ultimately, entirely forgotten.

Then suddenly I was back, standing in the living room again.

Immediately, mercifully, God showed me that my sin was taking me to hell, and in the same instant showed me to simply ask him for forgiveness. Without another thought I knelt and prayed, “God, forgive my sin, and please, don’t let my life come to nothing.”

As soon as those words were uttered, God took over. And when he did, every dark power scattered. Still on my knees praying, the feeling inside was like running and throwing my life completely at God in pure relief and abandon. There was no thought of holding back.

God truly carried me in that moment. How else could I have known what to do? How else could I have understood what was happening? He pulled me out of the dark prison I had made for myself, and set me free!

In practical terms, it was as if someone walked into the room and turned on the lights, putting an end to every evil in my past with the flip of a switch. My mind was instantly clear and I had real excitement and anticipation about the future. It sounds cliche, but suddenly there was light.

In spiritual terms, God became my Father. I was very literally born a second time, made his child, and given a new start.

I was a new person with a new life ahead. What that life would look like and where it would lead did not concern me. All I wanted was to know the one who had saved me, and I wanted to know him more than anything else.