In the village next to the Niger River I had noticed a cage holding one lone, odd-looking eagle. All the basic features were there; the body, neck, and two-thirds of the wings were white. Yet the end of the wings and the head were black. I was told, “That is a white eagle.” You could understand my confusion, since it had black on its wings, and the head was completely black. Upon questioning I was told, “It is a young white eagle; as the bird grows, the white will push its way to the tip of the wings and beak. The mature bird will be completely white in the end.” Again, all things created are preaching Jesus. The DNA of the bird dictates that it will be a white bird. As the bird grows, it expands into what it really is in fact: a white eagle. It doesn’t become a white eagle; it is a white eagle even when the black is on it. Growth and maturity will force out what does not belong to the very nature of the bird. The head is where the thoughts of the flesh hide in hopes of manifesting themselves. The black on the wings, our unbelief, is the only thing associating us with earthly living. Would it in any way be possible to stop the growth of this bird? No, but if it remained caged, the expression and exercise of its growth and maturity will never be seen. This white eagle gives me hope. First, it will grow, and what it is will be revealed; it has no choice. Second, God will not keep it captive. There will be a mounting up in the fullness of time. Imagine giving birth to a child if it were up to you to make it grow. Wouldn’t you be a nervous wreck? You can’t make a child grow, for that is God’s work. Likewise, you don’t make yourself grow spiritually! That is God’s work, a work that He has ordained by writing into your very DNA that you are a child of God. In the end, you cannot make one hair [one feather] black or white. Your “color” is the outgrowth of the new nature that He has given you. Christ’s life is written into your very nature. By the way, eagles devour the serpent and are feared by all the other little creatures that sneak about.

The fear is simple, that we will preach one thing and then do another, and thus discredit our message.

I Cor 9: 27 “But I keep charge of my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
This is a beautiful, love-filled, strong warning by Paul, whose concern is legitimate. The fear is simple, that we will preach one thing and then do another, and thus discredit our message. As you know, we stand and fall on our definitions. The common definition given to that passage would lead one to believe that Paul was preaching law and judging his lack of hypocrisy by his ability to keep the law. I would be willing to assert that most who preach on this passage use it to set a standard that they don’t even keep, then draw the contrast between what the listeners do and what Paul did, and leave everyone bleeding on the ground as hopeless hypocrites. But what was Paul preaching that he didn’t want to go against? Are you preaching the same thing that Paul was preaching? Is your standard different from his? For Paul was preaching grace, love, mercy, hope, and, more than anything, a devotion to Jesus. I believe it is these things, being preached regularly, that he was afraid not to do and disqualify himself. Many preach grace, but then when they fail, they move farther away from Jesus. They have just disqualified themselves from the message they preach. When a Christian fails he must get up and move forward in the love of God. If he cannot, there is a big problem. In short, Christianity is different, much different.

Eph 6:12, For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

We attended a bullfight in Spain. I can’t say that it is an enjoyable experience, but it is an interesting one. Having grown up on and around a farm, the kill before butchering was never something that I looked forward to. Some would argue that the death of the bull in a bullfight is as humane as the death in a slaughterhouse. Well, amen, they both happen. After watching six bulls fight the matadors, my admiration for bulls has gone way up.

Religion is religion, and Jesus isn’t a religion, He is a relationship.

As a child, I was never allowed to even touch a bull. There was the temptation when feeding the cows and petting them to do the same to the bull. However, any advance toward the bull was met with a strong rebuke from my grandfather. He had hauled several and seen men gored; he never trusted any bull. The bulls in Spain enter the arena full of attitude, strength, and catlike quickness. They look for anything that is moving and immediately charge. The power is awe-inspiring to witness; they send every matador scrambling behind a thick wooden wall, and then they hammer the wall with their horns. I just had never witnessed that in a bull, nor had I seen that kind of endurance. It is impressive.

Because of the bull’s strength and superiority, the fight would take hours if the bull were not slowed down. Nothing about a bullfight is fair (the only way to make it less fair would be to remove one of the bull’s legs). Carrying a spear, a horseman rides in on a heavily padded and blindfolded horse. The bull will immediately head for the horse. The first bull we saw actually knocked the horse over and was able to gore it, even as the rider, falling down, drove the spear deep into the bull. Next, four matadors begin to wear the bull down by having the bull make a series of charges at the pink cape. When the bull is sufficiently tiring, another matador will come with two colorful skewers. He will let the bull charge him straight on and then jump, driving the skewers into the back of the bull and maneuvering sideways just in time to be missed by the horns. This is repeated three times. Still, the stamina of the bull at this point is awing. The matador, with his large, red cape, will now come out to work the bull until it finally has its strength bled out of it. With an air of satisfaction he draws a sword; the great beast bows its head, ready to charge one more time at the rag that has given it so much grief, and the matador drives the sword into the heart of the great beast. Some are better at this than others, but ideally, the bull’s demise is quick, and it drops, immediately dead. The whole exhibition takes around 15 minutes.
Personally, I think the matadors should wear little tight pants because they fight like girls.

OK, why all this talk of bullfights? I couldn’t help but think about our fight against the “rulers, powers, forces of darkness, and spiritual forces of wickedness.” In Christ, the battle is won. On the cross He did not say, “To be continued!” He said, “It is finished.” We in Christ, like the bull, have the superior strength. However, the bull makes one fatal mistake by thinking the cape, a simple piece of lifeless rag, is the enemy, the source of its pain! I kept thinking to myself, If only you would stop fighting the rag, stop looking down, look up at the head, and move eighteen inches to the right! The battle would be yours. Even to its dying breath, the bull was eyeing the rag as the matador drove the sword deep into his heart. A physically superior creature defeated because of a wrong focus. How often in our spiritual battles the enemy has our focus on something other than him; we never pay attention to his ugly head.

So many times I have talked to couples ready to divorce over absolutely nothing but a rag. However, the enemy keeps poking and making them think that the rag is what is hurting them. It isn’t the rag! It is the one behind the rag. Move eighteen inches to the right, go for the head, and you will see the truth of it. Many times, I will stop in the middle of a situation and just say, “The Lord rebuke you!” I know the issue isn’t the issue; there is someone behind the issue and I want to go for the head. The believer has the superior strength, but it will do no good if it is focused in the wrong place. So many just bow and let the enemy drive the sword deep into the heart. There will nearly always be the need for 20% improvement in any relationship (the rag). Why let the 20% steal the 80% joy? On any given day, you should immediately be able to say three things that are right about your situation and about your mate. Well, again, we need grace to go for the head.

The believers in Spain, as in Portugal, have to labor. Christians are not embraced; Catholicism, with its religious spirit, has driven the least little desire out of the people to look for something spiritual. Therefore, Jesus just isn’t easily considered. I can’t say the people are hardhearted; it is just that their definition of Jesus includes suffering, crawling, misery, bondage, lack of joy, confinement, and total deadness. With that definition, why look any further into the prospect? Our friends have worked here for 12 years, and the end result, in part, is this little meeting that we are going to have in the morning. They have invited their friends and coworkers. They have done everything to make it a beautiful experience for them.

We are to be in a small room in a new “meditation” lodge. We will have four hours of teaching and then a vegetarian meal. Nine people arrive. Two are unbelievers. I have been told by the Lord the direction to take in the teaching. I will spend the first three hours talking about how we live, how we feel, what we think, and the struggles of man. I will not mention Jesus until the end. After three hours, it was obvious that Jesus had, as He always does, the right people there. If He gets all the glory, then He must do all the work, and He does. As I talk about Jesus, everything must be redefined, for the words that we commonly use have one meaning to us but another to them. Nearly every term has a distorted religious meaning. I just stick to Jesus, His uniqueness, His love, His difference, His life, and all that He is. Then we talk about His being our life. Not praying, “Jesus, help me,” but praying, “Jesus, come and be my words, my life, my love, my joy, my everything.” I wasn’t saying anything that I have not said a hundred times before, and yet, when I looked up, there were only a few dry eyes. The one girl, an unbeliever, came immediately up to me, and crying said, “Something has awakened in me! I knew I needed something; I knew I was being called!” The fellow, who we were really surprised even came, was right into it.

As we shifted to dinner, the topic was Jesus. One brother, with a beautiful heart, has labored for years and only has a few couples around Spain that have come to Jesus. He was excited and said, “This approach of life, of getting in the person’s skin, of showing in that context the need for Jesus, will be received. We will pray about putting a conference together for the couples I know around Spain.” Well, amen, I am also tagging along, building on the work of others.

Next we move to the house. I wanted to show my friends how the approach worked individually. That was great fun. Then the two “former” unbelievers showed up with dinner. We talked about Jesus until nearly 1:00 a.m. As I was being driven home, my friend turned to me, “In twelve years, that is the most openness that I have ever experienced with a group of people. It is the deepest conversation that we have ever had.” It excited me, and yet it vexed me, for I could see how he and his wife had suffered here in loneliness, going it by themselves, how much they forfeited to be with these people and to labor in such a religious environment. Again, the ugliest religion in the world is Christianity. There is nothing that will kill the spirit of man like the Christian religion. Why? Every other religion is made to be a religion. Christianity is centered in a great God Who lives through us. Try to make it a religion of lists, and the standard will become so high that the people will be wiped out; they then will focus on some insignificant speck that they CAN accomplish, as though it were of ultimate importance, in order to avoid the fact of their failure to be “like” Jesus. It becomes so obvious that at some time and place during the history of the Catholic Church, it became expedient, to the carnal, to have a “Christian religion.” This religion would stir the pride of the masses and make them forget that they should not be fighting for the earthly kingdom of a man and actually forsaking Jesus. The whole thing tends to sicken us in light of the fact that Jesus is alive (mind you, we wouldn’t have that light without the revelation of the Spirit, and this will always soften our criticism).

I have a silent disgust for all things religious. I suppose that I shouldn’t, in fairness, contain it to the Catholics, but Jesus is not a religion. He never wrote anything, and His emphasis was that there was no obstacle between man and God. Religion is religion, and Jesus isn’t a religion, He is a relationship.

I Tim. 2:5, For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.

This will make us stop trying to change it and put it on the shelf called flesh.

We believe that if we have a negative in our lives, others can feed enough positives to make it go away. Therefore, we are always trying to make a positive out of others or hope they will admit the negative that they have put in our lives. In reality we need another negative to feed the negative in order to make the original negative become so large that we will, by revelation, see the stupidity of trying to get undone the negatives in life. This will make us stop trying to change it and put it on the shelf called flesh. I see many dissatisfied believers, and often they are motivated not by need but want. They see their lack of goods as a negative and want to get a positive. Some cheat to do so. After their accomplishment of milking a positive out of someone, they remain a negative. I have a friend in Africa; to many it appears that he has many negatives. He asks for nothing. He is not materialistic but is Christ-minded. He is very positive, for he doesn’t see his situation as a negative, he sees Jesus. One time I gave him a computer, and later I was erroneously thinking that I had sent two. I wrote and asked that he give one away to another brother. He immediately wrote that he would. Then I discovered my mistake and explained it, told him to keep the computer, and said I would purchase one for the other brother. But I asked the question, “How could you so easily give back the computer you need so much?” His response was, “When you mother cooks a large meal and asks for some of it, would you not give it to her?” He is a full and free man not trying to change the negatives. In fact, at the highest revelation of Christ in you, there are no negatives, for He is working all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

His faith will be the faith out of which I live.

Often I read with amazement the stories of the great men of faith: Abraham and the sacrifice of his son, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, and Noah and the building of the ark. How could these men stand? How did they have the faith that could be counted to them as righteousness? To even think of building an ark when there had never been a flood boggles the mind. I must admit that after close examination, I just don’t have that kind of faith. Because of the recognition of my lack of faith, Galatians 2:20 means so much to me. I like Darby’s translation that gets closer to the meaning of the original, “20I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I,_ but Christ lives in me; but [in] that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the [faith] of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me. 21I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness [is] by law, then Christ has died for nothing.” What a blessing to know that I can live out of His faith. His faith is even superior to that of Abraham, Moses, and Noah. Again, the lesser truth will give way to the greater truth. He is the greater truth. If I move in my recognition that I am in Him and He is in me, His faith will be the faith out of which I live. He is the Vine, I am a branch; if that is true, then the faith of the Vine must flow into the branch, thus allowing me to live out of His faith. It is refreshing that I don’t have to generate faith, and I can simply live out of His. Amen!

“One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

Mark 10: 21, Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, “One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” I recently received an indoctrination concerning saving and financial responsibility. Well, amen, many have been stupid with their credit cards. Some have, in reality, stolen money through poor management. There is no question that they need to rein in their spending habits. However, reining in probably isn’t the root issue. More often than not I find that those with high debt are attempting to meet a need through the physical world. Some feel empowered with what they can purchase. Others have a false sense of control. Still others have been so hurt by relationships that they find more security in things. And there are those just meeting an obsession or compulsion. Having said that, when does the teaching of financial responsibility merely become a mask for carnal living? When does it cross the line and cause an obsession with money and security and even create unbelief? As I look at the books written on this topic, I generally find authors who are more obsessed with money than with Jesus; their security actually appears to be in money. I wonder what these authors would do if Jesus approached them and said, “One thing you lack; go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” The man talking to me had taken financial responsibility too far. It was time that the Master reined him in. At any point He may, in a like manner, rein us in.

“but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die.” Gen. 2:17

Many are surprised when they fall; they were doing so well, they just didn’t see it coming. There was nothing evil in their lives. In accordance with deliverance teaching, everything evil had been “dealt” with in their lives. How did they fall? Instead of looking for the place of evil where evil began, they should go back and look at the place of good where evil began, where they decided that their flesh had improved so much that they didn’t think about abiding when they entered their house, went on vacation, arrived at work, or taught the Bible study.

What “good-looking” flesh had they been involved in? Was it living to people instead of loving them, people pleasing, manipulating, reworking the portfolio, counting the savings, or lusting for the latest from the material world? Were they agreeing to pacify others, while staying silent to avoid conflict? Did they avoid telling the truth? Again, once the gate to the corral is open, not only the black horse will leave. Anyone who begins to walk in the “good” deeds of the flesh will soon find himself in evil deeds. Each day resolve not to just turn away from evil, but to turn away from good, from what you can do in the natural, to avoid all strength, and turn to Jesus.

“Not that I speak from want; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Phil. 4:11

We are to be content. He gives, in His love, the exact things that will make us contented persons.

Can you be content, or does He owe you something that will make you content? Does He owe you a better marriage, children, or vocation? If LIFE has cheated you, then LIFE must owe you something that will make you content.

The Christian community has fed the believers’ lack of contentment. We are actually taught not to be content. Many seminars are calculated to make us feel discontented. I have seen many men who love God in their jobs. However, a speaker comes and tells them that they should be in ministry, making the men discontent. I have seen women in difficult marriage situations; others feed discontent by telling them they wouldn’t put up with such behavior or position.

I have discovered that being content in my situation is not as difficult as having others content with my situation. Beware that you do not make another person discontented in his situation. Encourage him to seek and praise Jesus.

“But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.” Jude 10

I looked out the window to watch a huge black bear, sitting up, paws in the air, sniffing and watching as two little cubs ate out of the deer feeder. The cubs ate until stuffed and spent until 3:00 AM rolling around on the deck chasing each other. So cute! But I remembered my grandfather’s words. No way was I going out. I don’t believe that you can reason with a wild animal. Instinct would kick in and she would protect, actually protecting the cubs from nothing for I would mean no harm.

When someone is being carnal, they are being animal. They are living by instinct. You can’t reason with them, nor do you know what they will do next. My advice, just avoid them in words, actions, and interaction. It is amazing how quickly you can be pushed into a carnal state yourself. At that point, there are two unreasoning people in the room.

However, if there is pride in me, it will well up within, I will move into instinct self-protection and give a defense. Then, he reacts, I, him, I, him, and so on. The only thing that is accomplished is that where there was one carnal man, now stands two!

The next morning I think, “I didn’t even care what the man thought! Why in the world did I spend that much time arguing?” When we are making excuses, defending self, defending our creditability, clarifying our position, getting another on our side, or trying to gain approval, we are carnal and unreasoning beasts!

Think about it for just a minute. The contentious relative, the neighbors, the teacher, or leader that you made a defense to, what you really wanted was for them to understand your position, and you wanted them to know your real motive. Do you really want them to think so well of you that they stay around all the time judging you? I promise you: fix one issue with the carnal and another will arise.

When someone finishes chewing (harsh, critical, condemning, judgmental) me up I often say, “Given that, you would be well advised to stay as far away from me as you can! If you see me coming you should turn and run!” If I won that person as a friend, what would I have won? Don’t enter into their carnality; let it work for you to push them away.

Jesus didn’t try to reason with the carnal,

(John 13:27): And after the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Jesus, therefore, said to him, “What you do, do quickly.”

I am not begging people to let Christ live through them. It is a privilege!

When I first started traveling around the world, there were many instances where the atrocities of the white man, specifically Americans, were brought to my attention. I really didn’t care, for I was there to preach Christ. However, as the accusations and condemnation continued, I would eventually find myself defending white people. What a stupid thing it is to defend the flesh of another man!

One day I came away saying to the Lord, “Jesus, I came to preach You, not defend man. I know it is stupid to get drawn in to that discussion. Why do I let myself?” He was gracious to whisper the answer, “Pride.”

I have been in hundreds of homes around the world. Every family worries about the same things: their relationship with God, their marriage, their children, and finances. We are not different. The answer is Jesus. And there, in that place, with so much in common with the folks around me, I find myself talking about something that couldn’t matter a bit: white people! How could you believe yourself better than another if not for pride? Why would you try to prove yourself as good as another if not for pride? Pride makes us live to man in one way or another. Pride keeps the Liberal from inviting the teenager who is a skinhead to his home. If he were invited, it might be discovered that the boy’s home is a wreck, he has never been loved, he only knows how to hate, and he is full of pride. Would you have done better growing up in his home?

A black man’s son wants to marry a beautiful Christian who is white. At the family reunion, out of earshot, she is judged and condemned by the other women. Why? Pride!

An elderly man in England often verbally abused me. One day, after a few years, he came to me. “I just hated you because you were an American. The Americans came to the war late.” Pride!

The root of racism is not so much believing that your color is better than another color; the root is believing that you are better than another, any other!

The root of racism is not so much believing that your color is better than another color; the root is believing that you are better than another, any other! Are you? Are you better because of your understanding, your politics, your wealth, your education, your color, your anti-racist stand, where you grew up, your national heritage, your family history, or your “open mindedness”? People really don’t want equality. Everyone in some shape or form wants to be better than and believe they are better than someone else. This attitude of pride is all the justification that carnal man needs to abuse another.

There is no need beating a dead horse; history is replete with examples, i.e., results of pride. I don’t believe that it is possible to educate people out of pride. It is interesting that we feed pride in people and then wonder why they think they are better than others. Well, Jesus comes and equalizes all men, but not in the way we think He should bring equality! He makes all men equal in two ways. First, Rom. 3:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Oh yes, all men are EXACTLY the same. All in their pride have sinned! More than anything else you have this in common with every person of every race. You are sinners. It is a greater title that includes the lesser. If you can accept this, you have accepted your pride, and you are ready for entrance into the second category of equality. “For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one.” He has made us one! We are equal in Him, all sons, all gifted, all accepted, all holy, all righteous, and all humble.

You must admit where you are to leave where you are. Are you willing to admit that you are a racist? To be a racist you need only have the attitude that you are better than just one other person. Are you willing to admit to pride? If so, start preaching Christ; He is the cure for the cause.

One last thing, if you have been on the receiving end of racism, do not develop a victim mentality. Becoming a victim makes the victimizer your god, the one that ultimately controls your thought life, your happiness, and your future. Refuse to live that way and see God in it. John 19:11, “Jesus answered, ‘You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me up to you has {the} greater sin.’” Bless those that curse you. God is not fighting wicked people but using them in your life. You will have your reward in heaven when your oneness is revealed to all!