In my own life it is during walks that God most often speaks to me. “You are selfish! How? By spending so much time thinking about yourself! But how? You are to set your mind on the things above. But you set your mind on the things below. The things below are not just sin. The things below include questioning past behaviors, decisions, wondering if you were a good father, a good husband, how much of the work was Mike-inspired and how much was God-inspired. These things come from below. And what are they to Me? If you did good in the morning, give God the glory. If you did bad, confess, but don’t bring it into the now. When your eyes are set above, you will be filled, and next your eyes will be on others. It is selfish to spend that much time on self.” Next a message came. Jesus is not a general with troops walking in lock step, fearful of making the wrong move. Jesus is the Shepherd, and He leads. He leads, and the sheep do what is natural. I had to ask myself the question, what do I do naturally? I disciple, lecture, and write. I could see that the sheep also eat the grass that looks good to them while the Shepherd leads. I am free to pick the grass while I am doing what I do naturally. What freedom! I can pick the grass I like; not all sheep pick the same grass. I can pick to go to Ukraine, Latvia, or anywhere if it looks good to me. For at the end of the day and the end of the year, I will have been led through what I do naturally to the exact spot I should be. Every believer is led to the exact spot. Now to receive freedom, we must have faith. Unbelief will always emphasize man’s role in getting to the right place in life by listening, plotting, seeking, trying to understand, and deciphering the signs. Is it good? Is it my wants or His wants? What will happen if I make a wrong move? It is bondage, but we think about it. Is it not truly simple because God is so big? As I finished my walk there was one more lesson. It glorifies God that we walk with Him because we want to. In that last day we will all stand before Him, and God can proclaim, “You chose to be here.” God does everything permissible to help us make the right choice. He will close all doors but one; however, ultimately walking through that one is our choice. He does everything He can to push us to the right place. I could see that all of creation had been stayed by the hand of God. Every tree and rock, if given the freedom to do so, would burst out with His praise. Jesus said the rocks were ready to shout, and David said the trees clap their hands. But God will only allow nature to whisper of its Creator, for any more would infringe on choice. But every created thing is proclaiming Jesus.

A lie can produce physical symptoms in a person.

“The father of lies”
I was being told of many people in Africa, believers and unbelievers alike, who suffered afflictions put on them by demons. I can understand a demon’s dwelling in an unbeliever; however, nowhere does any writer of the New Testament–despite dealing with a variety of sins, behaviors, and problems—refer to the casting out of demons as a way of deliverance for a believer. Paul had to deal with immorality, idol worship, and all the deeds of the flesh. His solution was to point people back to Jesus. Here there are visible signs of demonic attack among many of the believers: wounds, sores, and a variety of ailments that have beset them because of the demonic. However, I don’t think Satan is the primary cause of such oppression. Satan is the father of lies. When a father and mother divorce, the father is given a piece of paper that gives him the legal right to visit his children. A lie is Satan’s child; if you invite in a lie, Satan has the legal right to come and visit it. A lie can produce physical symptoms in a person. This is most obvious in the Aboriginal culture of Australia, wherein a witch doctor can “point the bone” at a man and the bone will start to grow in the man until it kills him. Doctors, though, have found a solution; they will give the man a local anesthesia, make a large cut, put on butterfly stitches, and give the man some unrelated random piece of bone as if it had been removed. At that the man gets well. The man had received a lie that manifested itself in physical symptoms that would lead to death. The same is taking place in Africa. Remove the lie and both Satan and the physical symptoms will leave. The lie that needs to be removed is that Satan has more power than God. The people have been taught this through parents, culture, and experience, and they have received it. Because of this false concept of God, the lie is received that Satan can harm the elect, a lie that is used by the enemy to steal joy, confidence, and victory. I would recommend that the focus on Satan might be removed and all such lies invited out, so the Christ within can flow freely to fill the void, and the father of lies can have no legal right to visit. Some believers focus on Satan and deliverance for the removal of the symptoms, and it is better to get deliverance from the source of all freedom, which is Christ. It is important that we all guard against any part of the lie that Christ is weak. Again, the revelation of the truth of Christ will fill the void left when the lie leaves, and the symptoms will go.

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.

He will never leave nor forsake me, and He understands everything about me.

Is. 59:2, But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God,
And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.

I hate the fact of separation. I invite in sin, so the glue (Jesus) that is holding me together begins to retreat from my mind, my will, and my emotions. I sense that I am losing something. I am out of sync. It is terrible. He doesn’t leave me but only retreats to give me what I thought I wanted: freedom from His will. The break between mind, will, and emotions and Him is really a state of neurosis. My life that is bound up in His attempted to break away. It is sickening, but it does work for Him, because eventually I can’t stand my will and cry out, “Thy will, not my will,” and invite the sin out. I invited it in; I can invite it out. Next He returns and I am complete once again. Well, all of that is of my own doing. Jesus has experienced the very same thing, but by our doing, not His own. The sins of the whole world were cast on Him to the degree that it drove His life out of Him. I am so happy that He has identified with me, that He knows this sick feeling that comes from separation, that He works and moves me back to Him, and that He always floods back through my whole being the moment I repent. He knows the joy of reconnecting with the Father, and He wants for me the same joy. He will never leave nor forsake me, and He understands everything about me. Though Jesus’ experience of being separated from God did not come by way of sin, it did come through the cross, and therefore He knows the feeling of separation. He has entered into our humanity completely.

If we do not invite Him today to live His life through us, we will discover that we have not changed, and God will use the ensuing failure to bring the point home.

Romans 7:18, For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

Because of how religion infiltrates the Church, so few have a doctrine of failure. There is one very big problem with this: We all will fail! Most are emphasizing a one-time fix, meaning that some understanding or some conference will free a person from all future conflict. It is not so with us. Our system not only allows for failure but plans for it. The Epistles are written because Christians are failing, they are not getting it, but most importantly they have moved away from their focus on Jesus. Without their failures we would not have those books. We have all learned as they did through their failures. If they learned through theirs, is it not true that we will learn from ours? Do any believe that the early Church didn’t have failures? Paul uses the occurrence of believers’ going to temple prostitutes to explain the principle of oneness. He didn’t tell them they were hopeless; he told them why they should not be doing it and to stop. Peter was a tremendous failure after being taught by Jesus for three-and-one-half years. What do we learn about soul strength in our attempts to serve God from his example? What did he learn? If you are prepared for failure, when it comes (and it will) you will not have to enter into condemnation, unbelief, and become a Galatian. The flesh doesn’t change, but that really is a beautiful thing, because if I don’t want to walk with Jesus, I will be the same mess I was before . . . well, actually worse. With Adam’s life in me, wearing sin was natural. With Christ’s life in me, wearing sin is very abnormal and miserable. The hardest thing to get across is that we are not improving, but only abiding longer. I know a man that was in a mental institution, came to see Christ as his life, and as Christ flowed from him, people could see Jesus. However, he believes in a one-time fix, and now when he isn’t abiding he still acts very psychotic, but now it is more of a Christian psychosis and more “acceptable.” Well, amen. An elephant can live up to 100 years, and the reason it dies is this: It has six set of teeth. As it wears out one set of teeth, the next set comes in, and so on until it has no teeth, can no longer eat, and it dies. We, like the elephant, have many sets of spiritual teeth for eating at different stages of our life. There are teeth for the milk of the early things and teeth for the later things, and one day we will leave this body. Until then there is always something to chew, and if we chew long enough we need a new set of teeth. We have chewed long enough on heaven vs. hell. It is time to chew on the fact that Christ is in us. As we by choice invite Him to live through us, He will today, but for today only. I am not saying He is coming and going; I am saying we must choose to relate to Him in a certain way. If we do not invite Him today to live His life through us, we will discover that we have not changed, and God will use the ensuing failure to bring the point home.

Over the course of the years I have attended, witnessed, and been told of a variety of meetings and experiences that simply cannot be witnessed to from the Scriptures. Attempts to verify and legitimize them through the Scriptures are made; however, most often this ends in a distortion of the Bible. So what about such meetings and experiences? Those that have such experiences will vehemently fight for them as valid experiences of the Spirit. Though the expressions are not consistent around the world, “other” type experiences are. Some witness to having teeth turn gold, others to a cross turning to gold, uncontrolled laughter, pictures of saints that exude a fragrant aroma that heals, falling down and passing out, prophecies, people turning to pigs through prayer, and much, much more. I have heard many accounts, all told with sincerity and conviction. Again, what about such meetings and experiences? First, I must keep it all in perspective. In short, I really don’t care. Why? Not because I don’t care for the people, but because even if the experience and meeting were legitimate, it wasn’t my meeting or my experience, so why would I argue a position? It is too easy for all of us to move into pride. While Jesus was with the disciples, they were one. Take Jesus out of the center of any conversation and there will be division. I wouldn’t sacrifice my relationship with Christians over an experience that someone else had. Therefore, we approach such experiences without an agenda. I am not trying to prove or disprove. In comparison with my fellowship with a believer, I don’t care. Therefore, I will often go quiet if I see that my observations would cause a division. This approach won’t satisfy those that want to fight for the truth. However, the truth is not any experience, but Jesus. This brings me to the second point: a meeting or an experience does not create a heart for Jesus, but it does reveal one. Camping on this point has helped me, for I see both types of people attending such meetings. One person goes for the spectacular, for the seeking of the experience, all in the hope of creating a heart for God or obtaining a shred of proof that he is acceptable to God. This person is most open to deception. Some with this attitude are even leading the meetings. Perhaps we could liken it to “Christian pornography.” The purpose of pornography is to stimulate the fleshly body, albeit unnaturally. The body is to be stimulated by one’s mate, not another in the form of a picture. In the same way, the mind, will, and emotions belong to God and are to be stimulated by His Spirit. However, Christian pornography would be allowing something other than God to stimulate the soul. Many in seminaries are addicted to “intellectual pornography,” for they are always looking for the thing that will stimulate the mind. Many organizations are driven by men who have their wills stimulated through fantasizing about great works, or “pornography for the will power.” Others are into “emotional pornography” through the stirring of the emotions in a meeting or an experience. It is unnatural to go to a meeting seeking something to stir the soul other than Jesus. When those with such a heart are describing the experience and are questioned, they will immediately shift course and say that it is all about Jesus. However, His name was never mentioned in the course of the description. Instead there was a forceful presentation of the experience and the meeting. This is a revelation of the heart. Remember that Jesus did miracles and generally told the people to be quiet about them. He didn’t want to attract people who were attracted by miracles. Actually, I believe that a false teacher is used of God to reveal false hearts. I don’t mind if people go running to them, for they are seeking something other Jesus. Christian pornography, those things that stir the soul, are like the picture; they are a substitute for the real Person. In talking to a Pentecostal Pastor and a Baptist Pastor, I asked the same question. “Go back 20 years and think of the people in your church. Where are they today? How many are still moving forward?” Both pastors gave the same percentage; both have the same “results.” One can only conclude that it is not doctrine that allows for forward movement, but the grace of God and the choice of man. Therefore, the doctrine of a meeting can be completely wrong, but we must not neglect those that attend such meetings, for the revelation of the motives of their hearts. Faith is an amazing thing. If you believe that God will meet you at the Baptist church, will He? If you believe that God will meet you at the Pentecostal church, will He? If you believe that you will meet Him in the mountains, will you? He is everywhere. He can be found in any place at any time. Therefore, good-hearted people go to strange meetings and meet Jesus. Their hearts are revealed. The proof is in their lives. I have known those that have had very abnormal experiences, and yet it is obvious they are moving up in Jesus, talking more about Jesus, promoting Jesus, and not pushing the experience. What do we say to such things? Well, amen! I don’t have to understand it to witness to it. I know people personally that were, outwardly, going nowhere until the experience came and something changed. They became Christ-centered. In conclusion, meetings do not create hearts, they reveal them. Go to any meeting with the right heart, and your heart will be revealed. Go to the weird meeting wanting to create some kind of heart, and any manner of thing can happen. That is why people with a right heart come away from really strange things blessed, and those with a wrong heart are led further astray.

Over the course of the years I have attended, witnessed, and been told of a variety of meetings and experiences that simply cannot be witnessed to from the Scriptures. Attempts to verify and legitimize them through the Scriptures are made; however, most often this ends in a distortion of the Bible. So what about such meetings and experiences? Those that have such experiences will vehemently fight for them as valid experiences of the Spirit. Though the expressions are not consistent around the world, “other” type experiences are. Some witness to having teeth turn gold, others to a cross turning to gold, uncontrolled laughter, pictures of saints that exude a fragrant aroma that heals, falling down and passing out, prophecies, people turning to pigs through prayer, and much, much more. I have heard many accounts, all told with sincerity and conviction. Again, what about such meetings and experiences? First, I must keep it all in perspective. In short, I really don’t care. Why? Not because I don’t care for the people, but because even if the experience and meeting were legitimate, it wasn’t my meeting or my experience, so why would I argue a position? It is too easy for all of us to move into pride. While Jesus was with the disciples, they were one. Take Jesus out of the center of any conversation and there will be division. I wouldn’t sacrifice my relationship with Christians over an experience that someone else had. Therefore, we approach such experiences without an agenda. I am not trying to prove or disprove. In comparison with my fellowship with a believer, I don’t care. Therefore, I will often go quiet if I see that my observations would cause a division. This approach won’t satisfy those that want to fight for the truth. However, the truth is not any experience, but Jesus. This brings me to the second point: a meeting or an experience does not create a heart for Jesus, but it does reveal one. Camping on this point has helped me, for I see both types of people attending such meetings. One person goes for the spectacular, for the seeking of the experience, all in the hope of creating a heart for God or obtaining a shred of proof that he is acceptable to God. This person is most open to deception. Some with this attitude are even leading the meetings. Perhaps we could liken it to “Christian pornography.” The purpose of pornography is to stimulate the fleshly body, albeit unnaturally. The body is to be stimulated by one’s mate, not another in the form of a picture. In the same way, the mind, will, and emotions belong to God and are to be stimulated by His Spirit. However, Christian pornography would be allowing something other than God to stimulate the soul. Many in seminaries are addicted to “intellectual pornography,” for they are always looking for the thing that will stimulate the mind. Many organizations are driven by men who have their wills stimulated through fantasizing about great works, or “pornography for the will power.” Others are into “emotional pornography” through the stirring of the emotions in a meeting or an experience. It is unnatural to go to a meeting seeking something to stir the soul other than Jesus. When those with such a heart are describing the experience and are questioned, they will immediately shift course and say that it is all about Jesus. However, His name was never mentioned in the course of the description. Instead there was a forceful presentation of the experience and the meeting. This is a revelation of the heart. Remember that Jesus did miracles and generally told the people to be quiet about them. He didn’t want to attract people who were attracted by miracles. Actually, I believe that a false teacher is used of God to reveal false hearts. I don’t mind if people go running to them, for they are seeking something other Jesus. Christian pornography, those things that stir the soul, are like the picture; they are a substitute for the real Person. In talking to a Pentecostal Pastor and a Baptist Pastor, I asked the same question. “Go back 20 years and think of the people in your church. Where are they today? How many are still moving forward?” Both pastors gave the same percentage; both have the same “results.” One can only conclude that it is not doctrine that allows for forward movement, but the grace of God and the choice of man. Therefore, the doctrine of a meeting can be completely wrong, but we must not neglect those that attend such meetings, for the revelation of the motives of their hearts. Faith is an amazing thing. If you believe that God will meet you at the Baptist church, will He? If you believe that God will meet you at the Pentecostal church, will He? If you believe that you will meet Him in the mountains, will you? He is everywhere. He can be found in any place at any time. Therefore, good-hearted people go to strange meetings and meet Jesus. Their hearts are revealed. The proof is in their lives. I have known those that have had very abnormal experiences, and yet it is obvious they are moving up in Jesus, talking more about Jesus, promoting Jesus, and not pushing the experience. What do we say to such things? Well, amen! I don’t have to understand it to witness to it. I know people personally that were, outwardly, going nowhere until the experience came and something changed. They became Christ-centered. In conclusion, meetings do not create hearts, they reveal them. Go to any meeting with the right heart, and your heart will be revealed. Go to the weird meeting wanting to create some kind of heart, and any manner of thing can happen. That is why people with a right heart come away from really strange things blessed, and those with a wrong heart are led further astray.

Micah 6:15, You will sow but you will not reap. Hosea 8:7, For they sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind. Luke 19:22, He said to him, “By your own words I will judge you, you worthless slave. Did you know that I am an exacting man, taking up what I did not lay down and reaping what I did not sow?” Galatians 6:8, For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

God is not as interested in your getting punished as He is in you.

Some sow and don’t reap, some sow and do reap, and others reap where they do not sow. Well, which is it? Actually all, in context, make perfect sense. However, I am looking at what it means to sow and reap. I believe there are three points. One, if you sow to the flesh you will reap of the flesh. I have witnessed those who sow to the flesh and in the end are given over to it to the point there is no distinction between the person and their flesh. Sin and flesh are one and the person merely manifests the sin. Second, there are those that forget that sowing is for a season. Every farmer would like it if they could sow once and reap for a lifetime. We can manipulate people by telling them that because of one mistake, they will be punished the rest of their lives. Third and finally, if you have sown to the flesh and repented, I believe that God can send a drought wherein there is no reaping and no fruit. The drought, the winter, the isolation, and the awareness of failure are not pleasant, but they keep the crop from growing. A temporary pain delivers a person from a season of pain. God is extra good to the heart that turns to Him. There is another thing that will keep a person from reaping what they have sown, and that is repentance. “Return, O faithless sons,” declares the LORD; “For I am a master to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you on knowledge and understanding.” Legalism wishes to control through fear, the fear of punishment before an act and the certainty of punishment after the act. However, God is not as interested in your getting punished as He is in you. I Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

We have mentioned it before, but it is worth noting again. God gives a promise, then comes the reversal, and finally the fulfillment. I have observed that God’s normal way of working is to make us dissatisfied with where we are before He opens another door. It makes sense, because few would walk through a door if they were totally satisfied with where they were.

However, after the open door comes the reversal. Joseph was given a promise, “The sun and moon and eleven stars would bow down at his feet.” After the promise came a stripping, a deep pit, being sold as a slave, and prison. But it was the pit and the prison that made him the type of person that could handle the fulfillment.

One day from his throne he looked out to see his eleven brothers bowing. And guess what? He could handle it, for his deep trials had made him a man of grace. Without the pit-and-prison preparation, the throne would have been a curse and his undoing. As it was, the throne became a place of salvation.

I will keep repeating myself until others can finish my sentence. One “praise God” before we understand His workings is worth a thousand “praise God’s” later when the trials are over.

“If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, he is conceited and understands nothing.” I Tim 6: 3, 4

Do we let people be deceived? There are four issues here. First, we are to confront those things that are false and warn others.

Second, a false teacher can be followed in two ways. We can follow and agree or we can follow the teacher to rebuke. Either way we end up following him and not Jesus.

Third, often false teachers are not creating wrong hearts but revealing wrong hearts. If a teacher gets a following of people when he teaches that Jesus wants us rich, what kind of people are they? What are their hearts for the Lord if they perceive the goal of Christ’s suffering as our wealth?

Fourth, everyone works for us. Let people follow what life will not support, and when they come to the end of themselves, and the end of their trust in others, we will be there to offer Jesus.

Leadership is an interesting thing. In the Bible we see that some are born to be leaders while others are chosen to lead. However, in the family every man is commanded to lead. The world in contrast has taught that the family is ruled via majority. The media has imposed upon men the idea that children should be consulted before making decisions, that the wife need only submit to the husband who is in mutual submission.

As an Irish brother once exclaimed, “What passage in the Bible are these teachers using?” Good question. Accepting this definition of leadership has produced a generation of Christian fathers who are what might commonly be called passive dads.

The father is not to rule through consensus; he does not take the counsel of children. Rather, he seeks God for guidance, and he will find it in every situation. A leader has followers; followers will always have high expectations of the leader, and rightfully so. When we submit to a leader we desire that he be better than us, for our identity becomes intertwined in his. If I submit to a righteous man, then my self-esteem goes up. I feel good about being his servant. In fact, I see the glory of being subjected to him. I respect, admire, and appreciate him. I also want his direction. My hope is that he might lead me to the place where he is.

Obviously, he knows the way and is respected for it. When he asks of me things I do not understand, I obey, for I know that somehow it will benefit me. Therefore, the two most frustrating things to a follower is a leader that cannot be respected and one who will not lead.