A Vision for the City

Recently I attended a conference is Syracuse that was organized by a dear Sister in the Lord Rose Prunoske. She brought together a group of Christians from the general area to hear some extremely "gifted" men of God.

These servants of Christ were impressive as they ministered in the "gifts" of the Spirit and in the Word of God. My heart was profoundly stirred. During one of the morning sessions the Holy Spirit came upon me and allow me not only to hear the "voice" of the Father, but to "see" what God was doing and about to do in Syracuse. I saw what appeared to be beams of light that were shooting out of the clouds over the region of Syracuse. The beams of light were like laser beams that "lasted". First there were a few across the region. They would flash as they appeared and then they would sustain themselves. More and more beams of light would flash and continue burning. Again and again more would flash until the beams of light were many and all over the region. The whole area was being "visited" by the Glory of God and the "visitation" was growing and being sustained by hungry believers who were "yielding" to the Holy Spirit.

We began the services at 10:00 a.m. in the mornings and there was no effort to hurry things along. The morning service would continue even into lunch time. The next service would begin at 2:00 p.m. and continue until it was over. In the evenings again there was no rush. We did not worry about time, we just soaked in the Glory of God and allow the Holy Spirit to take us where He wanted to take us. There were some dramatic healings and many of them.

I just soaked it all in. I began to see several things. It would be very difficult for a local church to try to sustain such a move of God were it to come to the city and continue. The multiple services, the length of the services and with the meeting going on day after day would require multiple worship teams, usher teams, technical people to run the sound system in different time slots, and a team made up of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to train the people for the works of ministry and allow everyone on the team time off to attain to their marriages, families and churches.

The church in our cities need the five-fold ministry to come together to build the body of Christ so that the people in our local congregations can do the work of the ministry in the market place. I really feel that this type of movement could begin in a local church but it could not continue in any local church without a sustained community effort by the larger body of Christ in the city.

Marriages and families should not be neglected by those who attend the meetings. I believe that God would be pleased if we all spent days at a time soaking in this glorious visitation of the Holy Spirit in a rich environment of the five-fold ministry. But, not to the end that we neglect our marriages, families or businesses and careers. What I "see" is we all need this type of "visitation" produced by the five-fold ministry. But, it would serve the broader community on a demand type basis or a rotation approach, which provides constant "visitation" with each individual making a commitment according to a Holy Spirit directed duration.

Would it not be wonderful to provide a continuous five-fold ministry visitation of the Holy Spirit in our cities that is pure and unadulterated with carnality? Imagine being able to go any day, afternoon or evening to a center place where the worship and ministry never stops. I am talking about mature Spirit-directed ministry by Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastor, and Teacher. Men and Women under the direction of the Holy Spirit moving in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as He directs. Oh Father, deliver us from trying to take any honor from You.

What I "see" is a five-fold ministry that teach the Body of believers by moving in the "gifts" of the Spirit themselves. I see the team functioning as a team. Like a relay team, first one shares and then another. Would it not be a "beautiful" thing to see shared "ministry" where the person with the "word" from God shares fully what God lays upon the heart and then stops and another person begins to share as the Holy Spirit leads them. Perhaps even a tag team approach. We would of course have to learn how to do this under the direction of the Holy Spirit, but what a glorious thing it would be if we just let the Holy Spirit take us into what ever He chooses. Now, there would be a need for discernment and spiritual judgment to keep things on track and to keep out of the picture those who are full of themselves and full of "religious" spirits. Any time there is a valid move of God there needs to be great freedom in the Holy Spirit, but at the same time a careful attendance to the evil one's attempt to gain attention and frustrate the movement of the Holy Spirit.

To participant in such a visitation of God the leaders and the believers should be certain to walk in purity and integrity before both God and men. Many leaders and believers have fallen under the power of their sin-natures or the evil one and have become spoilers of revival, renewal or a visitation of God.

There is so much more that I want to write on this subject. I think it would be good to close down the meetings entirely upon Sunday mornings and insist that all the local believers and visitors attend the local congregations that support the work. I think that notices should be posted that the tithe should be given to the local church and only offerings are to be given during the meetings. These offerings should be used to offset the expenses of the "gatherings" and to support the five-fold ministry and pastors of the local churches who participate.

This is what I "see" what do you see?

How to Journal and Hear God's Voice!

This is a subject that is of great interest to me and to many other Christians. How can I hear the voice of God? How can I be certain that it is really God speaking to me and not some demon or just myself?

We need a quick foundation: Without faith it is impossible to please God. Jesus said, "My sheep know my voice." Genuine faith touches the "reality" of God's Presence. True faith repents of any known sin. Once sin is under the blood of Christ and we sense that we are forgiven we can sense the Presence and Favor of God. Then we are ready to listen to what He might say to us through the Holy Spirit who dwells within our hearts.

I usually begin my journaling sessions with praise and worship and if needed repentance. Then, once I am sensing God's Presence I simply ask, "Father have you got any thing that You want to say to me right now. Without exception He begins to speak to my heart and mind. I simply write down all the words that come to me.

(An important note here: the reason that I focus on writing these words down is that it frees me from needing to judge or analyze immediately what is being said. Later I will apply three major tests to the text: First are the words that I am hearing Biblically sound and second is there a dark spiritual element in any part of what I have written. The devil is the father of lies and he cannot speak the truth without corrupting it. Thirdly, I test it to see if is just my own thoughts or really the heavenly Father speaking to me. So if there is something unscriptural in the text or the text simply inflates human ego or selfish desires I will reject it. Finally, if the text has passed the other tests and I sense God's peace and presence when I am writing and in reading the text over I have an inner confidence in my heart that it is accurate and reliable.)

I have taught a good number of people how to keep a spiritual journal in this manner. Another helpful hint is to share what you feel the Father has shared with you with another believer whom you feel listens to His Voice as well and lives a godly life style.

Almost always when the Father begins to speak to me He addresses me as "My son". He is after all our heavenly Father and we are His children through faith in Jesus Christ. Many times He explains the scriptures to me in a fresh and powerful way. The Word of God comes alive under the direction of the Holy Spirit as we hear His Voice speaking within our hearts and mind.

One example of the explanation of scripture was a journaling session in which He told me that, "You are in Christ and Christ is in you! You are One with Me through faith." When I heard these words spoken in my heart and mind, the Presence of God was so strong I felt an incredible Oneness with Him in that moment of time. There are literally hundreds of things that I have learned through this process of journaling and listening for His Voice.

So I encourage you to "invest in faith" some quality time with God in prayer and worship. Relax and soak in His Glory and listen respectfully for His Voice. When you feel His Presence ask for more of a saturation of His fullness.

But, by all means be careful to apply the scriptural and common sense tests to make certain you are not just talking to yourself or even worse hearing some other spirit not from God. Many people have deceived themselves and have not genuinely repented before God. It is very dangerous to try to hear from God when you are unrepentant and self-centered. We have all heard the accounts of people telling other people that god told them to do some awful thing, "that god" was not the True and Living God.

Be careful when asking the Father about something you want very badly regardless of what it is because our emotional element in the matter can open us up to deception. The best way to deal with these types of issues is to genuinely submit these desires to Him and ask Him to show us His perfect will. He is God, Almighty and He loves us so much He will protect us from ourselves if we will let Him. You can be certain His Master Plan for your life is better than anything you can dream up on your own.

First Day

The picture is one of my family on a vacation we took this past year in the Smokey Mountains.


I have thought about setting up a blog for some time and I am finally doing it. My son Tracey is helping me set it up. Before I really start to set down some of my thoughts I am having Tracey teach me more about the system.

While we have been working on this blog, we are also setting up a web site to help promote some of the Christian booklets I plan to publish.

Please feel free to leave a comment!