Lift Up The Forerunners!

These last days and weeks my spirit has been hyper-focused on the forerunners of our faith. Of course, we are all familiar with the forerunners in the Bible ... John the Baptist, who cleared the way for the Lord to bring the Gospel of the Kingdom and Salvation to all mankind. He was a "voice calling in the wilderness" (Isaiah 40:3). Jesus is proclaimed "as our forerunner, [who] has gone in before us. He is now and forever our royal Priest like Melchizedek" (Hebrews 6:20). 

In fact, this is the only verse in the Bible that actually uses the word forerunner. As explained in the Passion Translation, forerunner means "trailblazer." Jesus has blazed a trail for us to enter into the sacred chamber and seize the hope that has been fulfilled in His eyes already; to have a company of king-priests who will dwell with Him in the Holiest of Holies and minister from there out to the nations of the earth. The clear implication of verse 20 is that He takes us in to share His throne and His ministry as the royal Priest. 

But did you know that God has anointed forerunners in every generation to lead the way to the knowledge of Him and His redemptive work through His Son, Jesus Christ? You see, forerunner signifies one who comes to a place in advance of the rest who are to follow; one who acts as a scout or guide to prepare the way for the King. As you can imagine, it looks different in every generation, depending on the state of the world and God's timeline for the nations and the world. Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul are just a few examples of the forerunners who God anointed to prepare the way for the work He would do in freeing the Israelites from their Egyptian bondage; to prepare for their captivity in Babylon; and to prepare for the growth of the Church Age. 

Therefore, we can and should acknowledge the forerunners of our generation. They are those who receive and accept the anointing God has put on their lives in the measure of rule and authority He has given them to prepare the way for whatever it is He wants to do in that generation. And I will tell you, I discern that it is particularly difficult for the forerunners in this generation of our nation. Our nation is 245 years, and history has shown us that empires rarely last beyond 250 years. As pointed out in an article on medium.com, "God is a God of order. He has ordained systems, patterns, cycles, and processes in His Creation. Sir John Bagot Glubb, an Army General and historian, studied 11 empires from the Assyrians in 859 B.C. until the demise of the British empire in 1950. He found a remarkably similar pattern in their length of existence. Each spanned a period of about ten generations, and each went through these seven stages in their empires: the age of pioneers, the age of conquest, the age of commerce, the age of affluence, the age of intellect, the age of decadence, and finally, the age of decline and collapse". 

I believe we are fast approaching that last stage. Just in my lifetime, I have seen the 1960s begin an age of decadence that has gone from "free love" to 2021 and transgenderism and human/monkey chimera embryos. If you doubt we're there, here are the characteristics that Sir Glubb said marked the second-to-last age: defensiveness, pessimism, materialism, frivolity, an influx of foreigners, the Welfare State, and a weakening of religion. The forerunners of this generation are seeing what the rest of the nation and the Church isn't. They are awake and shouting from the rooftops that we are in serious jeopardy of no longer being "one nation under God". But is anyone listening?

Like Moses, Jeremiah, and Paul before them, this generation's forerunners are often scoffed at, maligned, persecuted, and discredited. And like these earlier forerunners, this generation will look different from each other. God will anoint some to be on the front lines of the spiritual battle [with the Enemy] to determine tactics and strategies. Others will be called to be watchmen on the wall, positioned in the towers to watch for what's coming and to warn the people. Still others will be anointed as prayer warriors and intercessors -- all of them to bring about God's plan and purposes for the nations, including ours. 

The forerunners of this generation are in full cooperation with the Father. They know and see the signs of the coming collapse because they see the decline so clearly. And they are all under spiritual attack as the Enemy prepares to bring his final blows. The attacks are coming against their businesses, their families, their health, their marriages, their reputations, and their ministries. I have such great regard for them as I see them come together to support and reinforce each other, intercede for each other, and appeal for Heaven's justice for each other. I will be honest ... it also pains me to see these men and women, who are putting everything on the line for the Lord and His Kingdom receiving no encouragement from the Body of Christ. Instead of appreciating the anointing that these forerunners walk in, the Body distances themselves from them because they don't "fit the norm", they preach a different message than the lukewarm Church, or they just plain make the Body of Christ uncomfortable. 

Maybe you are sensing that our nation and the world are different. You are no longer able to recognize your community, state or country as it was when you were growing up. And hopefully, your spirits are discerning that all of what you're seeing is not what God intended for His relationship with mankind. If so, then I urge you to lift up the forerunners in this generation! The Kingdom of Heaven, as spoken of in Matthew 11:12, is "suffering violence, and the violent take it by force". That difficult verse has been so misinterpreted, but it actually means that as the Kingdom of Heaven bursts forth into this world [violently because the Enemy is defending his kingdom], people who are passionate in seeing it defeat the kingdom of darkness will step into their anointing and have an effect on bringing it into existence. That is the purpose of the forerunner, and I am so thankful to be witness to mighty forerunners in this generation! They stand together, shoulder-to-shoulder, to prepare the way for the return of our King as He prepares to ride to bring Heaven's Justice to this declining and collapsing world. Will you join me in lifting up the 21st century forerunners? May they mount up on wings of eagles to bring the word of God's redemptive purpose for the world, and may they run and not grow weary, and may they walk and not grow faint! Father, strengthen them for the work they are to do for You, and reward them when they come into Your Heavenly Kingdom. Amen!

 Luke 1:76     And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways 

How Would Our Nation Be Different If The Church Acted Like The Ekklesia?

I would like to submit to you that there is not a single citizen of our great nation who would testify that nothing has changed in our country. And in the eyes of the righteous of the nation, there are many demonic strongholds that are attacking the fundamentally Christian foundation of our homeland... and appear to be winning!

But what would it look like if the Church/Body of Christ actually followed Jesus's instructions that He gave to His disciples in Matthew 16:18-19? Before we consider how those instructions could be carried out in the 21st century, let's remember the verses and their context ... Jesus says, "on this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades (death) will not overpower it. I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind [forbid, declare to be improper and unlawful] on earth will  have [already] been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose [permit, declare lawful] on earth will have [already] been loosed in heaven.”  

To begin, there are a couple of ways that we can discern who or what "the rock" is that Jesus is referring to. It could be Himself, who is the foundational rock and cornerstone of the body of believers who are to become the church. Alternatively, the place they were standing [in Caesarea Philippi], was at the rocky base of Mount Hermon, the exact location where the Fallen Angels descended to corrupt humankind by mating with human women. Then there is the fact that instead of the word "church", Jesus actually used the Greek word (adopted by the Romans) of Ekklesia. Jesus very deliberately used this word, and it means “legislative assembly” or “selected ones.” This is not a religious term at all, but a political and governmental term that is used many times in classical Greek for a group of people who have been summoned and gathered together to govern the affairs of a city. For Jesus to use this term means He is giving the keys of governmental authority in his kingdom on earth to the believers who will follow His commands and His Father's form of heavenly government. 

This area [and those terms] would have made Peter and his fellow disciples very uneasy.  They knew they were standing on ground that the Nephilim had inhabited, and in Jewish theology, the spirits of these dead warrior-kings were demons.  They believed that this area, with its connection to Fallen Angels and temples dedicated to Zeus and Baal worship, was the entryway to the underworld -- the gates of Sheol, which simply means “the place of the dead” or “the place of departed souls/spirits.”  (The New Testament Greek equivalent is Hades).  In this case, with its history involving Fallen Angels, it was an area of evil departed spirits, or demons.

Therefore, Peter might have understood what Jesus was saying in this way -- that when He referred to "the rock" on which He would build His Church, He did not mean either Peter or Himself.  Peter and the other Disciples knew Jesus was talking about the very rock on which they were standing -- the foot of Mount Hermon, the demonic headquarters of the Old Testament and the Greek world. And they were to be obedient to taking back dominion and authority of the earth from the demonic influence and strongholds to which they were in bondage.  Nothing has changed in 2000 years. That was the disciples' mandate, and it's ours, too.

So, now back to my original question .... what would it look like if we were to step into that mandate as the true Ekklesia? What is our responsibility to effect change on this earth; to take back territories from the kingdom of darkness and transfer them into the jurisdiction of our Father's Kingdom in Heaven? What if the Ekklesia was to divide up into small groups of 5 or 6 and across the Southern border states, thousands of these groups met to determine the areas in their communities and counties that are under bondage to the strongholds that are orchestrating an invasion of our land ... and what if each of these groups met at a particular place on the map and prayed and confessed the sins that have been committed in and on the land, asked God for forgiveness, then prayed for reconciliation, restitution and restoration? What if tens of thousands of the Ekklesia were committed to doing that and to consecrating the land [with holy oil] to break the strongholds of Freemasonry, human trafficking, drug addiction, poverty, murder, and the breakdown of the family unit?

 

I know that just in the section of the Southern border where I live, the land is saturated with the influence of false gods from the generational iniquity of worshiping the pagan war gods of the Mezo-American era; it has literally been bathed in the blood of human sacrifice for centuries and generations. The Ekklesia groups in the East and the Deep South could do the same, confessing the sins over the land that were committed during the Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and covering those bloody grounds with holy oil and the Blood of Jesus. And so it would go throughout our nation -- from the war-torn cities of Chicago across the plains of our nation's mid-section to the West Coast -- every person who calls themselves a Christian confessing and repenting for the state of our country due to the neglect of the Body of Christ to steward it, protect it, and repent when we have sinned. 

Take a slow, deliberate look at this oft-quoted verse in 2 Chronicles, chapter seven: [If] My people, who are called by My Name, humble themselves, and pray and seek (crave, require as a necessity) My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear [them] from heaven, and forgive their sin and heal their land. Our nation stands no chance of being healed unless we can confess our wicked ways in the here and now, and own up to our generational and historical iniquity! I've heard the excuse that the pastors are tired ... but if they are unable to lead the remnant of their flocks to be obedient to 2 Chronicles 7:14, then are they perhaps guilty of not equipping and training their church members to do the ministry of God in the world (Ephesians 4:11-12)? Shouldn't there at least be a remnant that is capable and willing to pray, confess, repent, and turn from the wicked ways of the world, and ask God to forgive us and heal the land?

We are commanded by Jesus to preach the good news of the Kingdom of God that is on earth and in heaven; to make disciples; and to baptize those who receive Christ as their Savior. That is doing the work of the ministry of the Father and Son. But when it becomes clear that our communities and cities across the nation have fallen from God's original design, and our families are in bondage to strongholds that result in addiction, persecution, murder and death, then there is no excuse for the Body of Christ failing to be the Ekklesia and governmental authority of the Kingdom of God in people's lives. If everyone who professed faith in Jesus was committed to joining with a remnant of fellow believers to confess their sins and the sins of the nation -- and then repent and ask for forgiveness -- and then bless the land and ask God to heal it, just think of the impact that would have against the kingdom of darkness!

And for all of you who are walking this out already, God bless you! Join with me to pray that this will become a wave of revival among the Body of Christ, and that we will begin to see this nation be freed from the demonic strongholds that threaten to bring us down. I believe that there are legions of Heaven's angelic army just waiting for us to ask that they be unleashed to fight in the spiritual realms. Let us partner with them, under the leadership of Jehovah Sabaoth, the Commander of this mighty heavenly army, and may we see the darkness defeated in our generation. Amen!

Hosea 14:9     Whoever is [spiritually] wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is [spiritually] discerning and understanding, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But transgressors will stumble and fall in them.

 

The Lord Will Remove The Strongholds Over The Nation! Listen For Your Instructions!

Do you feel it? The heaviness that lies over our nation, as if we are slowly drowning, trying to keep our head above water. We sense that our global enemies are biding their time, waiting for us to implode from oppressive debt, or explode from internally orchestrated tension. Christians are feeling the pressure and praying for God to rescue us. I can only imagine how non-believers are coping. But there is something every man, woman, and child in this country needs to understand ... we were created for this time and sent here to earth to partner with our Creator to defend and uphold the ground we've been given authority over!

Did you know that you existed in Heaven from the foundations of the world? That you were created before the world even existed? And did you know that God determined when He would send you to this earth to a specific place, for a specific purpose, and in a specific time? I know it's kind of a weird thought, but consider that, in a way, we are placeholders, if you will, for the territory we occupy. And we are to hold it until Jesus returns to claim ownership and dominion [authority] of the earth. In other words, we are a symbol or expression of Him, who has the right of possession of the earth because He created it. That's our assignment ... to hold the ground until He comes.

But what do we do when an ancient spiritual Enemy also claims dominion of the earth, and men are only too willing to cede ownership of ground that doesn't actually belong to them? That's a story that is as old as the earth itself and one in which our nation finds itself mired in today. And I can tell you that there is no ground that is more embroiled in that ancient battle than our southern border. Whatever you are hearing on your nightly news doesn't even scratch the surface of what we are experiencing regarding the smuggling of drugs and human trafficking. The violence is too horrific to report and there is a very real concern that the public would panic if they knew the truth. So, again, what do we do about it? We look to the Word for the ways the Lord has fought for His people -- and we pray and declare that the Lord will break demonic strongholds -- and we war in the spirit by anointing the land and applying the blood of Jesus as a boundary to keep out the Enemy and his hordes. 

We exhort our fellow citizens to believe and declare, just as Joshua did before he led the Israelites into the Promised Land ... The Lord our God is even now providing this land as a place of rest and He will give it into our hand. Please join me in praying through the following strategies, as I listen to the Lord encourage us to see Him as our stronghold; our place of safety that is inaccessible by the Enemy. He tells me that we will not be frightened nor will we be dismayed for, as Jehovah Nissi, He goes before us into battle with the enemies of this land. 

Lord, just as You did for the Israelites at the Red Sea, destroy our enemies who seek to overtake this land, and we declare that You will deliver the innocent from the clutches of the Enemy. Dry up the resources that fund the evil ones and rule over them with Your Holy Justice because You are the God of both Heaven and Earth, and all belongs to You!

Lord, You are the Living God, who created this land to be lived under Your dominion and rule. Drive out the lawless and the violent; drive out those who trade in human souls and bodies, and free the captives, Father! Let Your Holy blood, Lord Jesus, redeem the human blood that cries out for justice. Cleanse the land, Father, and set a blood boundary around this country, that will repel the Enemy and turn back the wicked from entering.

Father, You are Jehovah Sabaoth, Commander of the Army of the Lord, who leads the angelic legions in victorious battle so that we might declare, "This land belongs to the Lord Almighty!" Father, stretch out your hand and redeem this land and bring it into the jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God. For You are Jehovah Gibbor Milchamah, the Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord mighty in battle; King of Glory; the Lord of Hosts. You cause us to be part of this generation that seeks Your return. 

Sanctify this land unto Your Holy Name, Jehovah M'Kaddesh, who consecrates and sets us apart for His holy purpose. Likewise, return this land to holiness; set it apart for You!  Show us the ways to partner with You. We do not want to merely cower in the corner, praying for help and safety, but we also know the battle is Yours! You will fight against the principalities and powers and rulers of wickedness on our behalf. But we have a part to play, too! So show us how we are to pray in the spirit; where to tear down the altars in the spirit; where to stand and blow the shofar to summon the Heavenly Host! Give us discernment and wisdom. Lift our spirits to be courageous and bold. Guide us into effective partnership with the angels of Mercy and Might! And it is in the powerful and sovereign name of Jesus Christ, the King and Ruler of the Universe, that we bless this land to be a beacon of hope and light until His glorious return! AMEN!

 Exodus 15:6-7      Your right hand, O Lord, is glorious in power;  Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of Your majesty You overthrow and annihilate those [adversaries] who rise [in rebellion] against You; You send out Your fury, and it consumes them like chaff.

Passover and Resurrection Day: God's Holy Alignment in 2021!

I want to begin this post by saying that today, I unequivocally celebrate the resurrection of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from Death into Life, and I praise Him for making that possible for me, too! And as you know, if you have followed this blog for any length of time, that I love researching the Word for historical and theological context. So, it is with awe and wonder that I find that our Christian celebration of Easter this year coincides with the last day of the Jewish faith's Passover celebration. Let me share with you how the two come together to show the glory and sovereignty of YHWH, the Creator of the Universe and the Most High God.

In our Christian faith, Easter has come to mean the celebration of the resurrection of Christ three days after His crucifixion. It is the oldest Christian holiday and the most important day of the church year because of what Christ did for us.  His willingness to pay the debt owed by all mankind throughout history, for the sins we have committed, culminates at the Cross.  He endured God's wrath so that we don't have to and could be forgiven our sins and reconciled with God, our Father in heaven.  Christ's crucifixion and resurrection constitutes the single most important event upon which Christianity is based.

I have written many posts about the corrupted history of Easter and how it came to be in the traditions of our faith and the Church. You can enter the word "Easter" in the search bar of this blog and peruse those, if you are interested. For the purpose of this post, here is a short summary of that history: In 325 AD, Emperor Constantine, at the Nicean Council, ordered all Churches to celebrate the Resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday.  The early Church had celebrated the Resurrection during the Passover, beginning on the 14th day of the Hebrew month called Nisan, which could fall on any day of the week [being governed by the Jewish lunar year].  But the Churches near Rome had abandoned the practice because they hated the Jews, blaming them for the death of Jesus, so they fixed the date to the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring, which coincided with the ancient Roman celebration called ‘Easter’, after the pagan goddess of Spring, Eostre. It helps to know that Constantine, before his self-professed conversion, was a pagan who worshiped the Sun God, hence his desire to move the celebration of Christ's resurrection to "Sunday". 

His Satan-induced hatred of the Jews caused the Jewish influence (in the form of the Feasts) to be erased from the Church.  Here is a direct quote from Constantine himself:   “And truly, in the first place, it seems to everyone a most unworthy thing that we should follow the customs of the Jews in the celebration of this most holy solemnity, who, polluted wretches! having stained their hands with a nefarious crime, are justly blinded in their minds. It is fit, therefore, that rejecting the practice of this people, we should perpetuate to all future ages the celebration of this rite, in a more legitimate order, which we have kept from the first day of our "Lord's" passion even to the present times. Let us then have nothing in common with the most hostile rabble of the Jews.” (Council of Nicea, pg. 52.)

Now that you have that background, I hope you can appreciate the importance of Christian acknowledgement of the Lord's Feasts (they are not "the Jewish feasts"), especially the celebration of the Feast of Passover, including the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of First Fruits. There is actually so much significance that ties the Jewish Passover celebration and the Christian celebration of Easter, or Resurrection Day, as it is becoming more popularly known.  And there is an interesting correlation between the two this year.

First of all, there are eight days assigned to the Feast of Passover by YHWH. And in the Christian tradition, there are eight days from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Day/Easter. The last day of Passover is celebrated in commemoration of the crossing of the Red Sea [or the Sea of Reeds, as some versions of the Bible call it].  Eighty years prior to this event, the infant Moses was delivered from the waters of the Nile River, after the Pharaoh of Egypt decreed that all Hebrew sons born to the Israelite slaves should be drowned. Eighty years later, this same man called Moses, would be instrumental in delivering the nation of Israel from the waters of the Red Sea. This experience is known in the Bible as the Exodus; when Israel is delivered out of their bondage of slavery in Egypt into a new birth, or existence, if you will. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 10:2 tells us that in crossing through the Red Sea "all Israel were baptized into Moses [into his safekeeping as their leader]... That event is what is being celebrated around the world today, on Resurrection Day, by millions of Jews. 

In a similar manner, today we Christians celebrate that we are baptized into Christ, united with Him in His death and burial [as our sins are crucified and buried through His sacrifice on the Cross] and in His resurrection [as the Forerunner of our own birth into a future resurrected life]. He is the First Fruit of the Harvest of believers into an eternal resurrected life. This year, the Feast of First Fruits falls on the same day as Resurrection Day/Easter! I do not believe this is a coincidence in 2021! This year, I believe YHWH is calling the attention of His faithful to His Holy calendar. I believe we are coming close to His ordained time when we will be united in the worship of our Redeemer, the Jewish King of the Universe. This year, whether Jew or Christian, we will all be celebrating our deliverance from bondage into God's Grace and His strong will and desire to save us all and transfer us into His Kingdom on earth. So, join me, in praising God for bringing our faiths into alignment this year, as we pray that His promise of dwelling with us on earth will soon come to pass. Happy Pesach and Happy Resurrection Day!

Romans 8:11    Yes, God raised Jesus to life! And since God’s Spirit of Resurrection lives in you, He will also raise your dying body to life by the same Spirit that breathes life into you!

 

Hearing God's Voice In The Hours Before Dawn

We live such busy lives in this 21st Century. That's 2,000 years after Christ walked this earth, and 2,000 years further away from His human presence and influence. That's quite a span of time for the Enemy to develop ways to distract us, and to encourage us to separate ourselves unto our selfish desires. It has also been such a span of time that he has been successful in convincing us that we no longer need to consult with our Creator about how to deal with the crises in the world. He's done a pretty good job at separating us from the most important relationship in our lives. So, it shouldn't surprise us that our days are filled with so much activity that we rarely stop to have a conversation with the Lord, or to ask Him what He thinks and wants to do about a particular situation in our life or the world. 

It has become the nature of my relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit that they often wake me sometime in the third watch of the night (from midnight to 3 am) and continue to speak to me into the fourth watch (3 am to 6 am). So, it was the other night. 

When I wake up and cannot easily go back to sleep, I have become aware that it usually means I am to spend that wakefulness by talking to Father about the things on my heart, or asking Him if there's something He wants me to know. And I have a lot of questions for Him these days. It is difficult to see the decline in our moral values and standards in this nation, and to see the deterioration in the identity of Christians. It is frightening to see the collapse of law and order as the violence on our city streets increases; and heart-breaking to see the suffering that brings millions of refugees to our southern border. Believe me, if you knew the extent of what we in the border states are facing from the lawlessness of the Enemy, you would understand why there is very real fear and many sleepless nights. Wickedness and evil have penetrated the spiritual boundaries of our nation and only God and the Heavenly Host can [and will] protect us! 

You can imagine the questions I have for the Father in the midst of the Third Watch. But I remember what someone spoke over me one time .... "You have so many questions, that you never give Father time to answer one of them before you are asking the next". Guilty as charged! So, I am trying to be intentionally silent, and letting Him know that I am ready to hear what He wants me to know. Mind you, I have to keep my soul in check because it is always ready to usurp my spirit's desire to just sit in intimacy with my Lord. But this night, I am obedient to wait on the Lord.

And then these words began pouring out of my spirit and I knew I was supposed to write them down. So I got up in the midst of the dark night and began transcribing. Here is what my spirit heard .... In the darkness of the morning hours my spirit seeks Your Presence. The world sees the encroaching Evil and fears; crying out for escape. My flesh and soul wrap themselves in steely resolve, while my spirit ascends to its appointed seat in the Heavenlies. There, I rest in You, who fills me with Your strength and authority. You impart to me Your Wisdom and Your Might. "Tell them My Truth," You say. " I AM their refuge in times of trouble. I AM their shield and their stronghold. Tell them not to fear, for I AM is with them to the end of the age." I wait for more, but my spirit hears, "That is enough for now. I AM all you need. Tell them".

So, my spirit returned to me in the middle of that night, and I laid awake until the dark gave way to the morning light. I longed to remain in that place of comfort and strength with the Father, but I knew I had to rise to another day on this earth, joining all those who wait in confident anticipation and committed obedience to see His glorious return and reign. But what about those who aren't so confident? Those who struggle with how we are to fight against these physical and spiritual forces of wickedness? I will tell you that I have many Christian friends who are dismayed at the boldness of Evil being displayed in our midst -- the horror of which you are not, and will not, see reported on your nightly news. 

It would be easy to curl up in a corner and just cry out to God to take care of it, but that's not how we are to defeat it. God wants to work with us through mighty and powerful prayer, worship, and spiritual warfare, which means we must get on the battlefield to fight alongside the Heavenly Host as Lord Sabaoth, who is Mighty in battle, goes before us to victory! And how are we to pray? Well, Scripture is the way that Jesus fought against the wiles of the Enemy and here are just a few examples from the Word that you can use to begin to war in the spiritual realms ... Father, may our enemies come against us one way, and flee before us seven ways (Deuteronomy 28:7) ... Lord, You will stretch out your hand against the wrath of our enemies and let Your right hand deliver us (Psalm 138:7) ... Father, we trust that You will disarm the cosmic powers that rule the Evildoers and put them to shame and triumph over them! (Colossians 2:15) ... Lord, we ask You to command Your Heavenly Host to rescue the innocent children from the hands of foreigners whose mouths speak lies to them and whose right hands are right hands of falsehood (Psalm 144:11) ... You are Jehovah, who defends the afflicted and executes Your judgment against the wicked. You uphold justice for the needy (Psalm 140:12) for You are the Lord who will take up their case and plunder those who rob them (Proverbs 22:23). 

As you can see, there is no stronger way to battle in the spirit than to seek the Lord for what He wants to say to you and then follow His lead. And you will find that His Word backs up everything you hear and everything He shows you. And yes, the Enemy likes to work in the Third Watch of the night, too. But when you know who you are in Christ, and that you fight with the Power of Heaven at your side, you have nothing to fear from the darkness. The Cosmic War is beginning to spill over to this earthly realm and it is time that those of us who proclaim our loyalty to the King of the Universe cinch up our spiritual armor and stand up in our identity. It is time to be counted with the Heavenly Host as we refuse to surrender the earth to the kingdom of darkness. The dominion of the earth belongs to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! And it is our assignment to join in that victory! Hallelujah!

Psalm 27:8    "Seek My face." My heart says to You, "Your face, Lord, do I seek."

Passover 2021

The evening of Saturday, March 27th begins the Passover feast days, which ends at nightfall on Sunday, April 4th, which happens to be the Christian celebration of Easter this year. But, as a Christian, I find the celebration of Passover and the Spring Feasts extremely meaningful because it shows us just how Jesus fulfills the Biblical prophecies of the Bible at His first coming, and how the Fall Feasts are a dress rehearsal for His second coming. 

Within these eight Holy days, God ordained the Feast of Pesach, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, and the Feast of Fruit Fruits -- all in commemoration of what He did in delivering the Israelites out of bondage in Egypt AND as a foreshadowing of the work He would do through His Son, Jesus Christ, in delivering us out of a life of bondage to sin. Within these eight days of Passover, Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected, and each Feast speaks of Him and His redemptive work on our behalf.

And yes, God ordained these Feast Days, and they are His Holy Days, not just Jewish holidays, as the Church has mistakenly believed. In Leviticus 23, God proclaimed them as My Feasts and that they would be a perpetual statute among all your generations in all your dwelling places.  And because we are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, these Feasts not only have meaning to us, but I believe that we are to celebrate them, too.  After all, Abraham is the "father" of our faith, and as Galatians 3:29 says, If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 

The eight days that make up the Festival of Passover are actually recorded in Exodus, Chapter 12. Here we find three separate Feasts, all under the umbrella of "the Feast of Passover". The first day of the Festival, and the first of the Feasts, is called Pesach, which means "spare" or "exempt" in Hebrew, and which our English Bibles translate as "pass over".  Therefore, it has become known as the Feast of Passover in our time. 

It is the foundation of all three Feasts, and commemorates the Lord's direction to the Israelites to sacrifice an unblemished and spotless lamb, applying it's blood to the side doorposts and top lentil of each home. [It is important to note, that this application made the motion of the Cross]. The Lord promised that the Angel of Death would pass over homes where the blood of the lamb had been applied.  The lambs were the substitutes for the people, sparing them [and saving them] from death and judgment by the Lord. Each house marked by the blood of the lamb would be a haven of salvation, a place safe from the judgment that was about to come upon Egypt. Those Egyptian homes, where there was no application of the blood, would suffer the judgment of the Angel of Death at Midnight. NOTE: the Lord has recently shown me that those homes marked by the blood were more than just safe havens of salvation, but were under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Kingdom of God. The Egyptians' homes, which remained unmarked by the blood of a sacrificial lamb, belonged to the kingdom of darkness in the world, in which Satan was god.

We know the rest of this story... the Israelites were spared, while the first born in every Egyptian home died that night, causing Pharaoh to issue a decree that the Israelites be released and allowed to leave.  For the Jewish people, the focus of the Passover observance is remembering YHWH's deliverance of Israel out of Egypt. "Remember" -- that is the key word for this week of celebration.

For us Christians, who are Abraham's seed of the New Covenant, the Feast of Passover is a call to remember the Redemption we have received through Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.  He is our Passover who takes away the sin of the world.  We are redeemed with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. Just as the first Passover proved to be the Power of God to release the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt, Jesus is the Power of God to release us from our bondage to the pleasures of the flesh in this world, and the penalty of our sins. We can now step into His Repentance, His Love, Life, Freedom, Liberty, AND into the Kingdom of God as Kingdom citizens. Jesus IS the manifestation of the Passover Lamb, and He was crucified on the Feast of Passover.

The second feast of the Passover Festival is the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which lasts seven days, from sundown on Sunday, March 28th until sundown on April 4th.  Historically, it is a call to remember the quick exodus from Egypt, when the Israelites were instructed to make bread without leaven (yeast) because they didn't have time to wait for it to rise. In addition, yeast, or leaven, in the Bible always referred to any corrupting influence in the nation of Israel.  In this instance, God was telling them to leave behind the unholy influences of Egypt -- the worship of false Egyptian gods, and the rituals and traditions that had corrupted Israel's relationship with their God during their 430 years of captivity. They were to spend that week in worship and reflection for what God had done for them, and for their relationship with Him that they were privileged to experience. They were to remove any leaven [or sin] that was corrupting their present relationship; it was to be a time of absolute separation from leaven in any form.

I can't help but see the correlation to our present situation. In the midst of all that seems to be spiraling out of control in our country -- debates over vaccinations, continued isolation and forms of lockdown, rising inflation, food shortages, division and discord among the populace, escalating violence, and the crisis on our Southern border -- we need to spend this week in intentional worship and reflection for what God has done for us, and what He wants to accomplish in the midst of this national quagmire. Our country is at a crossroads and I don't have a lot of faith that we can get ourselves out of it. We are no different from the adulterous nation of Israel in 1451 B.C. As a nation, we have abandoned our relationship with the One True God in favor of following false prophets who are leading us into the corrupted belief systems of Socialism, Communism, Social Justice, Racism, Social Media, Debt, Universalism, and Ecumenicalism.  And it isn't hard to see that the Dark Side is pushing us ever further towards "absolute separation" from being a Godly nation. This Passover week is a perfect time to reflect on how things need to change in our world and how we, as Kingdom ambassadors and citizens, are to meet the challenges that seem to be unavoidable in the near future.

That is why our celebration of the third feast of Passover week, the Feast of First Fruits, should stir our spirits into action. It begins at sundown on April 3rd and ends at sundown on April 4th. In the Old Covenant, it acknowledged the Lord as the giver of the harvest, and commemorated Adam's son, Abel, bringing the first of his flock as an offering to the Lord. This Feast speaks volumes of Christ as the first of God's Harvest of souls and is a shadow of what Christ has done for us and the promises [of a greater harvest, as well as judgment] that He has yet to do. It is important to know that Jesus is the offering presented to the Heavenly Father as the first fruit of the harvest.  But just as important, He is the guarantee that more resurrections will follow.  In His first fruits offering, we see the blessing and the setting apart [or sanctifying] of the entire harvest to the Father, and a preview of what the resurrection will be like for every Believer.  Because He overcame death and lives today, every born-again follower of Christ is connected to Him and His power. 

Furthermore, that connection is real and it is needed today more than ever! God sent His Son to establish a Kingdom [and a family of sons] to rule His Kingdom for Him! Jesus didn't die and return to Heaven so that we would wait to join Him there. He came to restore to us our leadership authority that God gave us in Genesis 1 [dominion over the earth]. There is a fullness and expectancy of the Kingdom of God coming to earth that accompanies the celebration of the Festival of Passover.  It is Biblical and it is Holy.  It is a remembrance of things God has already accomplished for us and a hope of what we can accomplish for the Kingdom.

Ultimately, this season of Passover is a celebration and a remembrance; an acknowledgment of God's desire to restore us to our original design and the earth to His original purpose. Yes, Jesus came as a sacrificial lamb, but He is our King, who came to establish His Father's rulership and authority over the earth He created. In the Passover celebration God shows us His plan for the redemption of mankind. But we can't stop there. We weren't redeemed to continue to let the kingdom of Satan influence the earth. Fifty days after the feasts of Passover, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in us to help us walk out our authority as ambassadors of the Kingdom. Jesus's assignment is now our assignment!

So this Passover season, be thankful for your victory in Yeshua -- for the cancellation of your sins, and for your hope of resurrection. Then seek the Kingdom and a renewal of your mind as to your position as an Ambassador for the King of the Universe! Reconnect to that original relationship and authority and power you were made for. Yes, we have a rich heritage in the Feasts of the Lord, but our portion of the Lord goes back further than the Exodus story. It goes all the way back to Genesis 1 when God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth.  

Will we take advantage of this Holy season to emerge from the pandemic and our national trials with a new Kingdom mindset of how we want our families, our communities, our nation, and the world to look? Or will we continue to remain dormant, waiting for the world to go back to "business as usual" and return to our old ways. I pray that each of you will renew your mind and heart to receive God's desire for your life and His will for the earth. Let's show Evil that we will no longer remain idle in the face of its onslaught. We are sons and daughters of the King of the Universe, who have been delivered out of bondage by His Holy sacrifice. And in the spirit of praise and worship of my King and His Kingdom, I say "Pesach Same'ach (Happy Passover)! 

Exodus 12:13     The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt.

 

The Power of Jesus's Outstretched Arm

 

I'm inviting you along for the ride as the Lord schools me on a bigger picture of His redeeming power. I'm not sure what the Holy Spirit is going to reveal during my "thinking out loud in the spirit". But, as I write this post, it is my prayer that His revelation will be a blessing to us all.

I'm in the middle of reading a really interesting book, titled Redeeming Your Timeline, by Pastor Troy Brewer of OpenDoor Church in Burleson, Texas. He presents an interesting concept of Jesus as a Time Traveler, being able to move in and out of the timelines of our lives, healing us in the past, the present, and the future. This book intrigued me because it fits so nicely with what I have experienced with the Lord in the Inner Healing and Deliverance ministry He has brought Mark and I. It has been my privilege to witness Jesus appearing in the memories of a person's wounded past to liberate them from the spirits of shame, guilt, unworthiness, etc, and then speaking to them [in the present] of their new identity as a valuable [and much loved] child of God. It's always a beautiful picture of what "being supernaturally redeemed" looks like.  

Pastor Brewer takes this idea of supernatural redemption a little further, explaining that Jesus can not only heal our past wounds, but can relieve our fears about the future, and help us to remain calm in the present. In fact, when He delivers us from the captivity of our past, it actually changes our now and our future! Our entire timeline can be redeemed! 

Before I go any further, I think we need to come to a mutual understanding of what "redeemed" or "redemption" actually means. I know, for myself, that I have sometimes been confused about the significance of such Scriptural words because they were never fully explained to me. So, I want to make sure we are all on the same page. I would venture to say that most Christians think of redemption as a New Testament concept; that it exemplifies Jesus's sacrificial death on the Cross. And it certainly does point to the fact that Jesus brings us deliverance from the guilt and power of sin through His death. But when researching deeper and accurate meanings of the words "redeem" or "redemption" in Strong's Concordance, I found that those words actually appeared far more often in the Old Testament! And the meanings have so much relevance for us today!

These are the meanings assigned to the words redeem, redeemed, Redeemer: 1) deliverance from captivity; 2) preserving the integrity, life, property, and family name of a close relative; and 3) complete sovereign freedom to liberate human beings. And we see these understandings in passages like Exodus 6:6, which says, "Therefore, say to the children of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will free you from their bondage. I will redeem and rescue you with an outstretched (vigorous, powerful) arm and with great acts of judgment [against Egypt]". Then there is Psalm 77:15, which reads, "You have with Your [great] arm redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph".  This concept of Jesus as redeeming with an outstretched arm will broaden our understanding of how He heals in the timelines of our lives.

But first, I want to point out Job, which is considered by many theologians to be the oldest book in the Bible. Job is quoted as saying, "For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at the last He will take His stand upon the earth" (Job 19:25). That is a picture of Jesus being in the past, thousands of years before He was actually born, as well as a prophesy about what He will do in a future we haven't experienced yet! In Isaiah 48:17, Jesus speaks to the prophet Isaiah, identifying Himself as "your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel". And in Isaiah 48:12 Jesus calls Himself "the First and the Last", which coincides with His identity as "the Alpha and Omega" in Revelation 1:8. So, here we once again see Jesus in the past and the future. The point I want to get across is this: Scripture tells us Jesus is the One who is, who was, and who is to come. But we must not see that truth through an impersonal lens, as if it is a nice theological concept, but somewhat distant in relevance to our own lives. On the contrary, Jesus can actually enter into the timelines of our lives -- past, present, and future -- and redeem them. And here is what is even more amazing ... when Jesus heals that wound in your past, it is actually re-written in your Book of life, which creates a new present and a new future!

Take for example, the man with leprosy that Jesus healed in Mark 1:40-45. Scripture says, Moved with compassion [for his suffering], Jesus reached out with His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” Once again, there is that act of reaching out His hand in power.  In the Greek, that act is the word "ekkteino".  Ek means "coming out of place, time, or cause". Kteino means "to put to death". So, we can understand that, in the power that was in Him, Jesus entered into the timeline of the man with leprosy [to the place, time, and cause of his disease] and healed him [put to death what the Enemy had sent against him]. In effect, that changed the man's identity, which transformed his life in the present, and into his future. 

And guess what? He can do the same for me and you! He can actually redeem us through His outstretched arm [just as He did for the Israelites in the aforementioned passages in Exodus and Psalms]. He can travel through the times of our lives [past, present, and future] and free us from the effects of sin, transgression, and iniquity; and in the process, give us a new destiny, transforming our lives to reconcile with what He wrote in our Book of Life before He even created the world! The question becomes if we will allow Him to do that. Can we see how inviting Him into our past can profoundly change our present and lead us into a glorious future? We must understand that Jesus created Time, so it is an environment that He has sovereignty over, and He can change what happens there. He has the power to confront our past and redeem it; delivering us from the captivity and bondage of sin, preserving our integrity and who He designed us to be, and propelling us into a future that glorifies Him and His Kingdom! That portion of time that contained the sin has been cleansed and a new portion of time has been established. And we can operate in this new timeline knowing our Lord, our Redeemer, has sanctified us to walk out our purpose. No looking back -- let Him stretch out His powerful arm and receive your redemption!

Isaiah 46:10     Declaring the end and the result from the beginning, And from ancient times the things which have not [yet] been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will do all that pleases Me and fulfills My purpose,’

Release the Artificial Dam and Let the Blessings Flow!

This post is going to fall into the category of personal, but I believe it is meant to bring freedom to so many other people. This is my story alone, but I have no doubt that many of you will identify with it. For some time now, I have been crying out and seeking for more intimacy with my Father in Heaven. And to be honest, I couldn't quite describe what I was lacking, I just discerned my relationship with Him wasn't all I wanted or needed it to be. Something was missing and it was coming from me, not Him.

I thought I was in a real relationship with Him -- I was able to talk to Abba Father about all He was doing in mine and Mark's ministry and praise Him for allowing us to work with Him to help others. And I had no problem praying for others, or asking for blessings in their lives, or for resources they needed to move into the greater purpose of who they were created to be. I was able to partner with Jesus to see them receive a level of intimacy with their Savior that they had never experienced before, and I often found myself in tears of joy and awe as I watched it transform their lives. 

I did know a level of intimacy that was way more than before I asked Jesus to be my Savior. Yet, why couldn't I experience the full measure of intimacy that I knew was just out of reach? God began to unravel my confusion in a series of "reveals" that began as I took part in a study on the portions of our spirit (see email link at the end of this post to embark on your own "Spirit Bootcamp"). My spirit recognized and was in harmony with the portions Prophet, Servant, Exhorter, and Teacher. But when we got to Giver, I struggled with understanding how it related to the others and to God. When I learned it is the portion of my spirit that grants access to God, I knew I was going to need to deal with this question of intimacy. After all, if there was something hindering access to Father, how could I expect to experience intimacy? Then I also discovered that it also is involved in releasing the Father's blessings on others while receiving the blessings and resources He has for us. Ouch! That hit a tender spot in my spirit. But why?

I then embarked on some deep conversations with my spirit, requiring it to be vulnerable and honest with how I relate to my Heavenly Father. Of course, that took me to a place where I had to open the spiritual vaults to my relationship with my earthly father, which was more complicated than I wanted to admit. As a little girl, I remember a warm and loving daddy, who was nurturing, supportive, affectionate, had no problem saying he loved me, and championed all my activities in school. He was strict but never abusive. As the oldest and a girl, I realized as I grew older, that my brothers garnered more of his time and enjoyed more freedom. He was protective of his daughters as was usual for that time growing up in the 60's and 70's. But our relationship changed as I went off to college and became my own person, with my own ideas and dreams, which didn't always meet with the support I had known as a little girl. He still easily told me he loved me, but my spirit began to acknowledge the times I expressed my dreams and goals and was met with a dismissal or disapproval ... girls couldn't possibly travel the world like Hemingway and be a writer; how would you pay your bills? You need to get "a real job". All I wanted was acknowledgment that he approved of my passion to write, and believed in me as a writer. Subsequently, it would be 36 years before I gave myself permission to write just for the joy of it. I don't want to list a litany of the wounds that my spirit shared with me because I don't want to dishonor the memory of my father. But this was my spirit sharing memories from its perspective, so that gave them some credibility. 

So, as I wept before the Lord that I had been unaware that my spirit had been hurting from the words and actions of my earthly father, I forgave my dad again because I knew he didn't deliberately cause me pain. And I asked my Heavenly Father to forgive me for transferring my image of my earthly father onto Him. After all, I was well aware that this is a common deception that the devil whispers to us humans (both men and women alike), and I intellectually rejected that possibility for myself -- I knew the love of the Father and didn't compare it to my dad's ... or did I? And then I remembered what I had learned about the Giver portion of my spirit ... it is responsible for granting access to Father God and receiving the blessings and resources that He has destined for me! Here I was fervently praying for intimacy and all the resources I knew were mine and asking God to reveal what was blocking them so I could partner with Him in the Spirit to see them released --- and it was looking like I was the one blocking access! 

When my dad could not [or would not; for whatever reason] give me his blessings that I longed for, I was subconsciously applying that denial to Father God. My hopes and desires for blessings and resources had been dammed up by my dad's refusal and I couldn't separate that from my Father's heart. I didn't need to do anything to win His approval or change what I was asking for (feeling as if maybe I wasn't somehow worthy); I just needed to open myself to receive what He has had predestined for me from the foundations of the world and that are written in my Book of Life! That dam holding back access and blessings had been erected over years in my childhood and young adulthood, and I had failed to recognize that it didn't exist in my Father's heavenly realm. It was an unnatural, artificial spiritual dam that I had allowed to exist, keeping me from accepting and receiving all that Father God wanted to give me! The problem was, I had been asking with the wrong heart and eventually hesitated to even ask, feeling somehow guilty for asking. After all, didn't the Bible tell me I was supposed to be content in whatever situation I found myself? It was now time to deal with this once and for all. So, I submitted everything to my Abba Father, and allowed Him to heal me.

I experienced such a profound emotional connection between my spirit and my Heavenly Father, casting off the rejection my spirit had been feeling [and I was unaware of]. I knew the blessings and resources were real and they could now be released in the spiritual realms and manifest in the natural! They are real and they are mine and they are on their way! I hadn't realized that my spirit was keeping me distanced from the love, affection and intimacy with Father God because it was afraid of being disappointed. But now I know that it is His heart to give His children all that is good... Do you know of any parent who would give his hungry child, who asked for food, a plate of rocks instead? Or when asked for a piece of fish, what parent would offer his child a snake instead?  If you, imperfect as you are, know how to lovingly take care of your children and give them what’s best, how much more ready is your heavenly Father to give wonderful gifts to those who ask Him?” (Matthew 7:9-11).

I now am able to give myself what I have partnered with Jesus to give to others. I no longer dwell on past experiences or allow the Enemy to start building another spiritual dam to stop the flow of blessings and resources. I am no longer tentative about approaching Father with my joys, my sorrows, my desires or disappointments. I know He desires me to be all He made me to be; never holding back His blessings, or denying me the resources that He has stored up for me in Heaven. As I've told so many who have come to our table for ministry... this journey to wholeness is a process. And I'm not too proud to admit that I'm still in the midst of my own sanctifying process. I am thankful for the letting go, and I rejoice in the receiving.  I rush into my Abba's arms, sharing my dreams and goals and needs and He listens! If what I ask for does not align with His will, He makes my spirit aware that He has something better in mind; there's no judgment or condemnation... and nothing hurts. 

So, here's the good news ... because I am confident in my intimacy with Him, I have been able to share my healing with other women, who are reporting that they are dealing with this same issue and He is healing us all! As one good friend related, the Lord told her, "You know me as God, but I've been hindered as [your] Father". How many of us --  whether men or women -- have subconsciously colored our vision of Abba with our memories of our fathers [even though we know better]? How many of us have allowed Satan to hand us the bricks that we've then used to build our own dam to hold back intimacy and blessings? Join with me and let's tear those obstructions down! And then let's run into the arms of Father God who delights in us and our dreams and desires! He is removing all obstacles as He prepares to take us into a demanding, arduous [yet fruitful] season of defending the Kingdom. We thank you, Father, for your faithfulness to perfect us in Your image. And we bless You, the One from whom all blessings flow! Amen!

Contact Sharonvanhorn@gmail.com to receive information about the next opportunity to partake in a "Spirit Bootcamp". 

1 John 5:14-15   This is the [remarkable degree of] confidence which we [as believers are entitled to] have before Him: that if we ask anything according to His will, [that is, consistent with His plan and purpose] He hears us. And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.

A Call To The Ekklesia: Stand Against False Gods & Fallen Angels!

There is a stark reality we must face in our nation. We are all aware that for 60 years or more, we have been pushing God out of our national identity -- culturally, socially, and legally. But if we create a vacancy, it is the law of nature, that something will fill that space. Do you remember in 2015, when the powers that be in New York gave permission to an art exhibition called "Projecting Change" to impose the image of Hindu demon goddess Kali on the side of the Empire State Building? Kali is the goddess of Destruction and Dissolution in Hinduism and is known for destroying ignorance. Her name means "The Black One". The meaning of Dissolution, by the way, is termination, demise, extinction. And just five years later, in 2020, we now witness the State of New York updating the number of nursing home deaths from Covid-19 to an astounding 15,000!

When a nation removes God from His central and foundational position, then other "little g" gods are only too willing to take His place. And there are dangerous consequences when we let that happen. I want to make you aware of a new and menacing threat to the Christian underpinning of our country. An article on The Gateway Pundit website on March 10, reported that the state of California has proposed an "ethnic studies" curriculum that calls for the "decolonization" of American society and a "counter-genocide" of white Christians. Now, if we want to, we can just chalk that up to another generation discovering their ethnic roots and wanting to throw off the shackles of "American imperialism". But a more in-depth look at this issue finds a curriculum that includes the worship of Aztec gods and chants that call for human sacrifice and cannibalism.

If you are spiritually attuned to Satan's agenda, his goal is to corrupt and destroy human relationship with the Most High God, and substitute the worship of his company of false gods and fallen angels. It's been his plan since he was expelled from El Elyon's heavenly throne room. And the human race has been so easily tempted to abandon righteousness for wickedness. Beginning with the Book of Genesis, the Bible clearly shows us this precept, and the world's history backs it up. 

The curriculum materials will tell you that the goal is "name, speak to, resist, and transform America's cultural identity of dominance through white European neo-colonial policies". The suggestion is to see a transformation towards "social justice" through ethnic resistance. How is that accomplished? Would you believe that the curriculum teaches that students can become "warriors" of social justice by appealing to the Aztec gods to release a spirit of "revolution"? The problem is, these gods are real!!!  We don't even have to approach the obvious conversation -- that this form of "education" doesn't seek to reconcile and unite the various ethnic groups in our rich American heritage, but rather, to alienate and estrange us from each other.

This is the kind of Anti-Christ agenda that, as the Ekklesia, we must determine to see defeated. This Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum [as it is known] instructs teachers to help students challenge "racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperial/colonial beliefs" and recommends that they lead their students in a series of indigenous songs, chants, and affirmations, including what is known as the "In Lak Ech Affirmation" which appeals directly to the Aztec gods. Students first chant and clap to the god Tezcatlipoca, whom the Aztecs traditionally worshiped with human sacrifice and cannibalism. Often considered as the supreme god, he took on a bewildering array of names and manifestations depending on where and by whom he was worshiped. Invisible and omnipotent, he was known as a Creator god, the god of sustenance, a patron of warriors and as the bringer of both good and evil, he was the very embodiment of change through conflict. He was seen as a god of war, and in one of the special ceremonies honoring him, a prisoner of war was sacrificed and his heart removed to honor this god.

But Tezcatlipoca is not the only false god to be summoned during this Ethnic Studies curriculum. Students are also taught to chant to Tezcatlipoca's brothers, the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtili, and Xipe Totek. These gods are all supreme deities in the pantheon of Mesoamerican creator gods. All are associated with death, war and human sacrifices, whose blood would feed and strengthen the gods. I ask you, do you see any redeeming value to teaching students to chant and summon these fallen angels-turned into false gods? The chanting comes to a climax when students declare "liberation, transformation, and decolonization" as they are convinced they need to pursue "critical consciousness" of their oppressed state in society. 

But here's what is even more concerning ... this curriculum is not only suggested for college-age students, but also for primary and secondary schools, serving a population of 6 million students! With the ever-increasing number of refugees from Central America [the very countries these gods had influence over], California could see racial tensions and gross social upheaval in its population -- which is exactly what Satan has in mind! It is imperative the Ekklesia stand guard against the gates of Hades who would impose this evil curriculum in our nation's schools! Lest you think these gods are just harmless mythological characters, I will tell you that, as Inner Healing Ministers, the Lord has shown Mark and I their very real presence in the iniquity we find in generational bloodlines of Hispanic Beloveds. 

We have seen tremendous freedom come when we expose the covenants made with these fallen heavenly powers by ancestors, and then stamp them with the blood of Jesus and command the altars be destroyed.  Most people don't know the origin of their bloodlines, so we cover the major ancient civilizations by cleansing their bloodlines with Living Water, and renouncing and returning every form of counterfeit inheritance from the Aztec god Queztalcoatl; the Mayan gods Ah Puch and Kul Kul Kan; and the Incan god Viracocha. As I said earlier, the influence of these gods is still in the world, and their wickedness can be summoned through chants, dance, sacrifice and other forms of worship -- even if you call it "education" or "social justice". Ekklesia, this is a call to fulfill our mandate: to stand in the gates of righteous government for the Kingdom, and to prevail [triumph, overcome, rule] against the forces of evil that would come against God's desire for this nation. This agenda will not succeed!

Isaiah 59:7-8    Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace. 

Do You Identify As The Ekklesia Or The Church? It Makes A Difference!

Do you know the difference between the Ekklesia and the Church? Can you tell the difference? About two years ago I heard a teaching by Pastor Dutch Sheets that put into words what my spirit has been discerning for some time, but was struggling to put into perspective. He was able to clarify the two ways that the Body of Christ operates... as both a Family and a Kingdom government. 

For example, as the Family of God, the Church sees Jesus as the Good Shepherd, the Bridegroom, and the First-born Heir (as the Son of God). In God's Kingdom government, Jesus is King, Lord, and Master. In our Church Families, we are part of Jesus's flock. According to God's Kingdom government on earth, we are the Lord's army. In the Church Family, we are healers and have rights and privileges. In the Kingdom government, we have responsibilities to be destroyers by tearing down strongholds and principalities. As the Church, we are to grow the Family of God until Jesus comes again. As the Ekklesia, we are to grow and extend God's Kingdom and its culture until Jesus returns. As the Family, we worship. As the Ekklesia, we govern. Starting to get the picture?

For awhile now, I have discerned that we have been operating solely as the Family of God [in our capacity as the Church]. It is past time that we mature and grow into our responsibilities as the Ekklesia. All we have to do is look at the state of our nation and the world to understand that God doesn't want [or need] a Church that is willing to compromise with the world. Look at where that's gotten us! The Church has remained fairly silent about ungodly strongholds of abortion, gay marriage, child trafficking, racism, human slavery, corrupt politicians and governments, etc. Oh, we speak up within the four walls of our buildings, but we have little effect on the morality of our culture outside our four walls. Take a look at our nation's laws... do they show the fruit of the Church's representation of Heaven's laws?

I believe that in this age and season, God wants [and needs] an Ekklesia that is taking down strongholds in the spiritual realms and reclaiming territory from Satan's kingdom of darkness on the earth. Since the Book of Acts, the Church has been given great power and authority to act on behalf of God's Kingdom. But to be honest, they don't know they've been entrusted with doing the works Jesus did to destroy the works of the devil. Far too many pastors and teachers don't train or equip their flocks to battle in the spirit, which is where Satan does most of his work! In recent centuries, the knowledge of the Church's power and authority has been eliminated from their identity; they no longer know how to walk in it. Instead they minister to each other, and Satan keeps the Family of God satisfied in the building, and ineffective in the world. Meanwhile the souls outside the building are spiritually dying.

I want to be clear ... God isn't finished with His Family! But He wants His children to change the atmosphere in their homes, their towns, their schools, their nations, and the world. He wants them to be willing to speak prophecy of His promises in the Bible to the dying, the hurt and the wounded. He wants them to do prophetic acts as representatives of the Kingdom of God on earth. The Church should look like the Church did in the First Century -- healing the sick; raising the dead; declaring prophecy over government leaders; baptizing and making disciples; carrying the Gospels of Salvation and the Kingdom to the far corners of the earth. 

The Church [as Family] should know the powerful tool of prophecy and understand how it works in the spiritual realms, because it can have a profound effect upon the works of the devil. But I'm not even sure we know what a prophetic act is or how it works. A prophetic word is when the Holy Spirit enables one to hear directly from God and you receive a message that is to be spoken to an individual, or a congregation, or even a nation and the world. The key is to discern that what you are hearing is actually from the Holy Spirit. And that requires a maturity that comes from experience with the Holy Spirit and being filled with Him. When that rightly discerned word is spoken, it actually opens up a portal over a region so that God can see His word manifested -- in His timing and His sovereignty.

Thankfully, I believe the Ekklesia is beginning to grow and mature into its identity and function [to see God's justice done on the earth]. We are beginning to show the Family of God that He is more than Love, Mercy and Grace (as powerful as those attributes are in their own right). But, as His Word tells us, God's cup of wrath will one day soon be filled up and He will tell Jesus to mount up on His white horse and dispense His Righteous Judgment upon the earth's wicked and evil. At that time the Church will have finished its mandate to reproduce and grow the Family of God; the number of those who will receive Jesus as King has been reached. It will be time to bring the fullness of the restoration of God's Kingdom on earth that He began in Genesis. Mankind will step into its dominion role and the Kingdom will truly "come on earth, as it is in Heaven". We will see reformation come upon the earth, as we leave the Church age behind, and enter the age of the Millennial Kingdom. That transformation and reformation is beginning now. 

That's why it's important to know how you identify yourself. Because I will tell you that Satan and the citizens of his kingdom of darkness will not easily give up the reign they have enjoyed these thousands of years. And frankly, as the Family, the Church is not equipped to defeat him or his minions. How can they expect to, if they are not walking in their power and authority? But the Good News is that, as we are growing into our identity as the Ekklesia, we are beginning to come together as powerful cohesive groups. And it is amazing to see what a remnant can do when they are equipped with 1) God's Divine strategies; 2) the weapons of our warfare [the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit, the prophetic word of how to bring down strongholds, and the authority to call on the Heavenly Host to assist us, among others]; and 3) the keys to the Kingdom [forgiveness, prayer, fasting, binding/loosing, etc]. 

But perhaps the most powerful thing we, as the Ekklesia, have going for us is our righteous zeal -- our tireless devotion and determination to see the cause of Jesus and His Kingdom firmly and irrevocably established on the earth. That my brothers and sisters, should be the heart of both the Church and the Ekklesia. But the Church has not taken the necessary risks to see the Kingdom established. Instead, they have reconciled and compromised with the world. Their 501(C)3 status has kept them largely on the sidelines as our families, schools, and nation have abandoned Godly principles. Yes, Jesus is our Savior, the Lamb of God, and our Advocate. But it is time we see Him in His identity as the Lord, King, and Judge of the earth. I honor the Church and all it has accomplished throughout time. But I am excited to welcome the remnant within its walls that sees the truth of the Gospel of the Kingdom and is willing to become the Ekklesia. The world will not welcome us, and our mission will be arduous and not without conflict. But may our faithfulness and fortitude (courage in the midst of pain and adversity) usher in the glorious return of the King of Heaven and Earth!

Isaiah 40:10      Look, the Sovereign Lord comes as a victorious warrior; His military power establishes His rule. Look, His reward is with Him; His prize goes before Him.