The flesh spoken of by Paul in Romans and Galatians is not our physical body. It is our old adamic nature and it inherited the sin nature from the fall. It has no positive value, none. It must die. It cannot be purified, tried, tested, proved, except to prove its worthlessness in matters pertaining to God.

There is but one thing we can do with our flesh that is positive and that is reckon it dead. Until we do that, we may attempt to grow into His likeness, obtain spiritual wisdom, oroduce fruits of the spirit, but it will end up simply tainted fleshly works. It is the self life, full of self love, self will, pride and worldly lusts, and yet how many do not know that their progress is truly roadblocked by the continued existance of the old self. How many argue for the necessity of keeping it alive, acting as if they are actually making progress in mortifying it bit by bit, when all that is really happening is we are transforming the deeds of the flesh from worldly carnal ones to religiously carnal ones.

Die, my brothers and sisters. it must die, and God has granted us in His amazing grace to reckon ourselves dead to sin, dead to the world, dead to self and selfishness...by FAITH! No longer do we have to slave in our efforts to keep our flesh "under control".

Instead, He offers all who come to Him and new and living way, an easy yoke, whereby we are given freely a brand new nature, a nature that can truly obey, a nature that can grow into His likeness not in a playlike attempt to pin spiritual fruits on our old natures like Christmas ornaments, but by abiding in the bosom of our glorious God, have the fruits of the spirit grow on us by having a new nature that simply does what it was created to do, become like Jesus.

How can we be content to continue in our efforts, our failing efforts, mind you, to please God, to become holy, when he has offered us a new and living way, a way of the easy yoke, where He has clearly promised to actually "cause us" to obey Him?

One day, that exact question will be posed to us.. did we believe in our Lord and His ability to save us from ourselves? Did we accept His free gift of a new nature or were we content to remain in ourselves and our efforts to please Him by our own righteousness. It is a mind-bogglingly important question and one worthy of our seeking an honest and totally soul-searching answer.

Bruce your face in the pic reminds me of "The Thinker." You are like a studier. And I know we all have lines in our aged faces....crows feet...ha ha..ok..just being silly, not offensive, you have no more crows feet than any of us!....But yours are...thinking! Studying!

And I am thinking...why is it that this guy is so focused on the weakness of Christianity...and granted brother, I know the realites...but what makes it concern you so much...

Don't start "thinking" yet! Because I am "hearing" you and trying to feel, not what my mind thinks, but what my spirit might see. We are members one of another yes?

Just as you talk about the yoke being lifted, I think God wants to lift one from you and smooth out those lines on your face...around your thinking eyes...and Refresh you with the "Free Spirit" of the Lord...the Spirit of Liberty...

I feel this as a word Bruce...and there's no offense coming at all...

The very Liberty of Spirit you keep talking about is what "you" may be needing...

Even the Letter can put us in bondage; it's the Spirit that makes us free...
So "subtly" my friend you know, satan wants to keep us "distracted"...and away from the Living Faith that makes us fly on Eagles wings...

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is ...Liberty! Amen?

It's as if you are oppressed under the yoke of the disappointments....While you cry for the church to come to Life....the cry may be your own....it often happens this way....and only the Spirit discerns it....

What are you doing in life at this time? That's a key question.

In the Spirit of the Liberator, the Encourager,
The One who sets our heart Free,
And seats us high up in heavenly places
With Christ, love PG

Originally Posted by preachergirl

Bruce your face in the pic reminds me of "The Thinker." You are like a studier. And I know we all have lines in our aged faces....crows feet...ha ha..ok..just being silly, not offensive, you have no more crows feet than any of us!....But yours are...thinking! Studying!

And I am thinking...why is it that this guy is so focused on the weakness of Christianity...and granted brother, I know the realites...but what makes it concern you so much...

Don't start "thinking" yet! Because I am "hearing" you and trying to feel, not what my mind thinks, but what my spirit might see. We are members one of another yes?

Just as you talk about the yoke being lifted, I think God wants to lift one from you and smooth out those lines on your face...around your thinking eyes...and Refresh you with the "Free Spirit" of the Lord...the Spirit of Liberty...

I feel this as a word Bruce...and there's no offense coming at all...

The very Liberty of Spirit you keep talking about is what "you" may be needing...

Even the Letter can put us in bondage; it's the Spirit that makes us free...
So "subtly" my friend you know, satan wants to keep us "distracted"...and away from the Living Faith that makes us fly on Eagles wings...

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is ...Liberty! Amen?

It's as if you are oppressed under the yoke of the disappointments....While you cry for the church to come to Life....the cry may be your own....it often happens this way....and only the Spirit discerns it....

What are you doing in life at this time? That's a key question.

In the Spirit of the Liberator, the Encourager,
The One who sets our heart Free,
And seats us high up in heavenly places
With Christ, love PG

Hi Kim, thank you for your comments and as to the crows feet, I earned each one! LOL.

As to your comments, it may help if you reada bit of my personal testimony on here. I have been on here quite a while and very open in my walk and what it was like and what it is like now.

So often I think the temptation is to try to pigeon hole someone becasue it is then easier not to really listen to what they are saying. I am not saying this about you at all Kim. I respect your perspective very much and you too it seems are a thinker and studier.

What I would suggest is looking up my testimony on here as to what my walk was like up to around 10 months ago, and what it has been since. Many have read it but with you being new, it might open your eyes a bit as to who I am inside and why I am like I am.'

I am fully aware that right now, I am not on the "mainstream" side of Christianity. Why do I concentrate so much on the condition of the church and try to wake it from its doldrums? Because if you truly saw what I see as the truth, you would too. Oh, you would put a different spin on it, I am sure, but the emphasis would be the same.

I have simply been awakened from a deep sleep and see differently from what other see. I see a God who promises victory and I see a church content without it, willing to walk on, year after year, eeking out a Christian walk with no vocotry, no joy, no holiness, just a ncie religious "don't rcok the boat" Christianity.

Kim, Jesus said this... "If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you." Do you think the world or satan looks at us as enough of a threat to worry about persecuting us? I know the answer. Something is amiss with the very basics of what we believe. It is simply not gospel. We believe on Jesus for forgiveness and then... that's all folks! Do we fight the good fight of faith? No. We do not even know there is a good fight of faith to be fought!

So what is it that God asks us believe? He asks us to put off our flesh, our old man, by faith, give up on trying to improve ourselves and see that the flesh cannot be improved..it must die. He asks us to accept as a free gift, the new creature, the new nature, that has defeated sin and self and to walk close to Him so that the fruits of the spirit can grow out of our walk with Him.

But Kim, the state of the church is not there. We as a whole are not believing God for anything else in ouyr walks and we have run back under the law of commandments to try to clean ourselves up. We have been deceived by the enemy and now are grinding out corn for the enemy as Samson did.

This is getting long winded but read my testimony. It will help a lot. This is not "theory" I preach. I have been allowed to taste and see that the Lord is good and that what He has promised, he is able also to perform. It has caused much misunderstanding, but I simply have to accept that as part and parcel with the deliverance God gives each of us.

I do appreciate your concern Kim and I truly believe you are being upfront in wanting to really understand where I am coming from. God bless. By the way, you will find my testimony under Christianity and Sexuality.

I will surely read it Bruce...soon. In the mean time, Maybe you and I both are missing just a wee. I tell you, I know that a person can be and have been on a deep and true experience in God....and still we "all" ...me too...often....need encouragement, and a "lift" personally...."up" into the place where our Spirit is truly free and walking and existing "above" these things...even though they are present and true.

I Know very very well Bruce the estate of much of the church....the power of God is not visible or felt or manifesting in much of it...true? The whole creation is "still" waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God...still!!
Much of those who name the name of Christianity are so carnal that unless they told you they are God's you'd never have an inkling! Even then you wonder. I truly do know Bruce....

Even the "christians" will turn away...will not "hear" your cry or "see" your need....but will go on instead to do their yard work or sit in their sunday chair and eat KFC...as some symbol of sunday holiness...a form of Godliness that denies the Power! Some will hate you!

Even today the "christians" will persecute you more than the world! Where is the heart of God? Is he really such a hard taskmaster?

Brother...I see it too like many do not and will not...but some do.

But "YOU" are Not to be "weighed down"...it's unto YOU that the yoke is to be easy....and take this to heart...I am not in any slight way implying that YOU do not deeply know the Lord...not at all....what I have said to you can be said and is said at times to the "Anointed!" Receive that.

This girl knows about how the people of God judge and devour each other....this is NOT my heart or intent....I feel it by the Spirit of God who LOVES you....."He" wants You to be Free of the burden...and walking in the clouds of his FREE Spirit....where He you know....carries that burden himself....while you...walk in the Spirit of Liberty....I will read your Testimony soon. kim

[Amadeus]

And here am I reading both of your words, Bruce and Kim. I was just praying and trying to find a way to understand what was wrong with me. In spite of my prayers, my own efforts, my attempts to surrender, to kill the old man, I continue to fail. The Lord gave me an answer and it was to read some of Bruce's posts because I knew that he was addressing the same issues.

I clicked on all of Bruce's post and this is the first one I came to. There it is here. There is Bruce and there is Kim working on the problem of everyone who seems to love God, but still falls short. I've read your testimony Bruce, but I will re-read and search until I find God's answer. I am sure I have read in scripture, but as you both know, reading scripture doesn't mean understanding all that God is saying. I need and He will not deny if I press on toward Him. Die? Yes, I want the old man to die, but without a doubt he still lives.

Has God blessed me and used me? Yes, but something vital is still lacking. I have been talking to God since my birthdays were counted in single digits. Now this coming December I will be 66. I have grown, Yes, and God has helped me, Yes, but this needs to be my garden of Gethsemene, overcoming the final obstacle. Pray for me in my search and I will also be praying for the two of you in your search. Glory to His name!

Originally Posted by preachergirl

I will surely read it Bruce...soon. In the mean time, Maybe you and I both are missing just a wee. I tell you, I know that a person can be and have been on a deep and true experience in God....and still we "all" ...me too...often....need encouragement, and a "lift" personally...."up" into the place where our Spirit is truly free and walking and existing "above" these things...even though they are present and true.

I Know very very well Bruce the estate of much of the church....the power of God is not visible or felt or manifesting in much of it...true? The whole creation is "still" waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God...still!!
Much of those who name the name of Christianity are so carnal that unless they told you they are God's you'd never have an inkling! Even then you wonder. I truly do know Bruce....

Even the "christians" will turn away...will not "hear" your cry or "see" your need....but will go on instead to do their yard work or sit in their sunday chair and eat KFC...as some symbol of sunday holiness...a form of Godliness that denies the Power! Some will hate you!

Even today the "christians" will persecute you more than the world! Where is the heart of God? Is he really such a hard taskmaster?

Brother...I see it too like many do not and will not...but some do.

But "YOU" are Not to be "weighed down"...it's unto YOU that the yoke is to be easy....and take this to heart...I am not in any slight way implying that YOU do not deeply know the Lord...not at all....what I have said to you can be said and is said at times to the "Anointed!" Receive that.

This girl knows about how the people of God judge and devour each other....this is NOT my heart or intent....I feel it by the Spirit of God who LOVES you....."He" wants You to be Free of the burden...and walking in the clouds of his FREE Spirit....where He you know....carries that burden himself....while you...walk in the Spirit of Liberty....I will read your Testimony soon. kim

Kim you have my utmost respect here, and have earned it in just a short time on the forum with your wisdom and spirit. I hope you do read my testimony. It will fill you in a lot as to where i am coming from.

I remember the testimony an evangelist I read about gave one time. He was getting ready to preach and the pastor ask if he would share his testimony as to how he found God. His answer stuck with me. He said simply "Well I will tell it like it is. I found God by running away from Him as fast and as hard as I could, and he ran up behind me, tackled me and loved me into the kingdom."

Kim, my testimony is not one of the "pretty" ones here. I was not desrving of anything from our Lord. I was not one of the "nice" ones. I was hard, proud, a pharisee of the pharisees, bound by secret sin, full of guilt, full of anger at myself, repentant and yet not knowing what to do or where to turn. Regular teachings in church offered little or no value in getting me free from the sin that bound me.

I came to the end of myself Kim, that is the only way I can put it. I realized after 37 years of walking with God, I was not free indeed. I was bound, a slave to sin. Trying to obey was misery, an impossibility and a night came when in my darkness I cried out to God to deliver me, to open my eyes as to how to walk pleasing to Him. I hated my sin, sexual lust, I mean HATED it, and yet it had me.

Some will say I could not have truly hated it, for if I did, I would simply have stopped. They are simply ignorant as to the power of sin in each of our lives. My sin was disgusting, but as I learned, all sin is to God coming short of the glory of God and none are better than others or more deserving.

Kim, a miracle happened. I cannot even put it into words. But I saw Him, and He showed me clearly in the scriptures why we have all fallen short. We have simply stopped in our walk of believing. Oh, we believe He rose from the dead, but our faith stops there. Is that all there is, and now we simply try to be "nice"? Kim, is this not what we really try to say is Christianity. Oh, we will say God helps us, but in truth, we are on our own and the results we experience show it.

Here is the scriptures He used to illuminate my spirit.

"Reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God"

"Unto us are given exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, we may be partakers of His divine nature."

and the whole of Ezekiel 36, one of the most revealing and prophetic chapters in all scripture, where we get a look inside the very mind of God as to what He intended the new covenant was to do for us.

The light bulb, dormant for 37 years as I labored under the law to try to "be good", to be pure, to be holy, came ON! I saw that I had never believed this truth that I was dead and my life was hid with Christ in God...ever. It was too high, too impossible, too bold, too presumptuous, and yet, that is exactly what faith calls for from every single one of us.

This is Peter saying "Bid me come" as He stepped out of the boat to walk on the water. People will poo poo the scene saying "well, he then sank!", but let us not take this away froPeter. Peter, a man, for a few steps in the raging storm, walked on water with God.

Like He did Peter, He bids us come today. He asks us to believe that NO temptation will defeat us, that we are always triumphant in Christ, that we are dead, not dying, and yet our faith by and large chokes on it, just as the faith of the Israelites choked when faced with the giants in the Promised Land.

Who went in and took the land? Two spies from the original 600,000! The others died in the wilderness. God wants to se his people FREE! But unbelief grips our hearts and we wilt in the heat. There is but one way to find the free indeed that God meant for every single one of his children. Faith. We must believe we receive and then we shall have. But in order to believe, we must be fully completely yielded to Him. Jesus said this when He walked the earth. "When the son of man returns, will He find faith on the earth?" He was not talking about faith in the ressurection. He was talking about the faith to claim what God bought for us...a new nature!

Whew! See what you do when you get me started? LOL. Anyway, you are now getting a bit of a peek into where I am coming from. One thing I want to reiterate. It has now been 10 months since I had what I can only term my "awakening". Willfull sin is gone. Defeat is not even within eyesight. I am finding the promises were meant to be believed and experienced. It is not to the strong, Kim. Our problem is in our minds we are TOO strong, and we need to see how really weak our flesh is and cry out for Him to do it for us. This is how God finished that amazing chaper in Ezekiel, chapter 36. He said this, after prophesying that H would cause us to walk after His statutes. In vs. 37 He says this... "I shall yet be inquired of by the house fo Israel to do it for them."

This is the God I serve...the God who desires to do it for us.

Originally Posted by Amadeus

And here am I reading both of your words, Bruce and Kim. I was just praying and trying to find a way to understand what was wrong with me. In spite of my prayers, my own efforts, my attempts to surrender, to kill the old man, I continue to fail. The Lord gave me an answer and it was to read some of Bruce's posts because I knew that he was addressing the same issues.

I clicked on all of Bruce's post and this is the first one I came to. There it is here. There is Bruce and there is Kim working on the problem of everyone who seems to love God, but still falls short. I've read your testimony Bruce, but I will re-read and search until I find God's answer. I am sure I have read in scripture, but as you both know, reading scripture doesn't mean understanding all that God is saying. I need and He will not deny if I press on toward Him. Die? Yes, I want the old man to die, but without a doubt he still lives.

Has God blessed me and used me? Yes, but something vital is still lacking. I have been talking to God since my birthdays were counted in single digits. Now this coming December I will be 66. I have grown, Yes, and God has helped me, Yes, but this needs to be my garden of Gethsemene, overcoming the final obstacle. Pray for me in my search and I will also be praying for the two of you in your search. Glory to His name!

John, you know how dear you are to me, I have made that perfectly clear. I so wish I could crawl inside your heart and turn on the light like Christ did for me. But all I can do is relay the message from God but it is He Himself who must breathe on our faith and illuminate our minds and hearts. He must awaken us. But prayer is a powerful thing and I want you to know that I am praying for you by name, my friend, and I trust God will answer my request. If there is ever anything I can explain or a question I might answer, I am available day or night. I hope you know that.

If we could deserve the grace of God, you deserve the enjoyment of the walk of faith far more than I do, but thank God it is for all, and He will not turn any away who will not be denied. You are in my heart.

Bruce and John, Oh now these words of both of you bless me so much this morning, and I read them "all," and I do not know if there is anything sweeter than the Sincere testimonies of the Saints, so that I am "knowing" this very moment how sweet are the thoughts of the Lord toward you. You hunger, and you will be filled; you thirst and God will satisfy your thirst...because it's he that seeks that will find and he that hungers who will be filled, with the eternal bread that gives life upon life...

Oh I am touched brother John by the hunger, the desire of your heart to have "more" of the Lord, more than all the things of this world...now you stand in the place where if we ask according to his will he answers, and you know that if we know he hears us, we know we receive the petitions we desire of him...so ask! ....that your Joy may be full...

My husband is 66 too, and this made me think of him and of being this age and of the things we consider at this age. I want to tell you...I have been in some truly heaven sent Revival meetings lately and I have heard the Lord's voice speaking to his people and I did perceive well how the Lord is very very attune to the seasons of our life and is very "present" in them, even now fullfilling significant purposes in us and in these seasons of our life...

I have "heard" too often lately that the Lord saves the best til last. So often we "remember" the sweet seasons with our first Love, and often so long to return to "those" places, but it seems that the latter house is greater than the first...

You ask him John, to make the most use of all this that he has invested in you in all these years...to make you his hand extended, to minister to his people...whoever they are and wherever they are...it's when we extend our life that we lose it...when we give it away...
You have a seasoned heart of humility, have you ever been in prison ministry? You are like Peter; the older of the Disciples, who did not count himself worthy enough to tend this flock, who also felt that he had not died enough for the Lord...but the Lord saw differently, and when this old man had just become content to dwell among the faithful, God, in Peter's later years, called him to go to Rome, and Peter did not want to go there, and it grieved his human heart, but he "knew" he was going, and he knew also he would die there...

"See"...let us all see, that the glory we seek is in our dying, Yes Bruce it's true, and true dying does bring grief... and you know, that the "Way" of the Lord is not as is portrayed upon stages of wealth and comfort, where popular preachers adorned in wealth preach an enticing word of earthly prosperity, saying, "We are the Kings' kids!"....but the Way of the Cross is not a comfortable one that gives ease and esteem in the eyes of men...

Bruce ....As it has always been, so will it always be, until the Lord returns to establish "His" Kingdom upon this earth...the story of Christ is a story of "Rejection." And as you see so much how not only the world but even those who say they Love him seem to not really have the time to, or the will to walk or pray with him for an hour, or to reach out one hand to God and the other to man..

It's always been this way from the beginning....that the few, not the many, will drink from this cup...so we can only walk alone sometimes, and rejoice in the times when we do meet fellow strangers along the way...to walk some of the miles with...and God tells us to seek to be in this small fellowship as much as possible as the days draw in...

Anyway, yes, I hear your testimony, and yes brother, cling to those thoughts of how the Lord so greatly delivered you, just as I also seek hard to never again become entangled with the affairs of this life, or the sins that so easily beset us...

Because you are right...the days of God winking at sin are past, and the time has come when judgement must being in the house of faith...As much as the Lord Loves us, a time of obedience must come, we cannot remain children forever but must move on into the callings wherewith we were called with a Holy Calling...

And the Lord did say this to me...I have delivered you again...but if you continue to fall back again I will not deliver you the next time...I think the days are short, and if we are going to work, we better do it now before the night comes...we don't want to take the Lord's Grace for granted one time too many....but yet at the same time, it's not my good works that the Lord desires of me, but my surrender and obedience to him...

And I am so reminded that it's He who builds the house...or we labour in vain....There is a "will" of God, and there is a will of man, and these are 2 separate things....and that is the Lord's word, not mine.

And "Still" man hardly perceives that word...he "still" associates his will with God's...he says to himself...."I" will get up on a certain day and "I" will do thus and so for the Lord....No!.....Peter did NOT want to go to Rome! Jesus did Not want to drink from that cup....and we do not want to do what the Lord wants, but what we want! A good way to know if we are doing what the Lord wants is if it is harder than doing what we want, amen?

I "heard" these words the other day, during a time when not only was the world around me very quiet, but my own mind/thoughts were also very still and quiet...."BE STILL, and (you will) KNOW that I AM God. Be Still...and you will KNOW it is My voice you are hearing...because My voice is very very quiet, and our "minds" must be very very quiet to hear it! If we dont' know the answers...is it flesh and blood that reveals them? Is it our own flesh and blood? No! The answers are not in the mind of man but in the mind of God! Amen and amen...May the Lord lift and lift us all
into the heavenly's where we are being compelled
to "Come UP" and sit with Christ in his Spirit..
And unto the faithful will signs and wonders follow
in this very day! Love, Sis Kim

Originally Posted by preachergirl

Bruce and John, Oh now these words of both of you bless me so much this morning, and I read them "all," and I do not know if there is anything sweeter than the Sincere testimonies of the Saints, so that I am "knowing" this very moment how sweet are the thoughts of the Lord toward you. You hunger, and you will be filled; you thirst and God will satisfy your thirst...because it's he that seeks that will find and he that hungers who will be filled, with the eternal bread that gives life upon life...

Oh I am touched brother John by the hunger, the desire of your heart to have "more" of the Lord, more than all the things of this world...now you stand in the place where if we ask according to his will he answers, and you know that if we know he hears us, we know we receive the petitions we desire of him...so ask! ....that your Joy may be full...

My husband is 66 too, and this made me think of him and of being this age and of the things we consider at this age. I want to tell you...I have been in some truly heaven sent Revival meetings lately and I have heard the Lord's voice speaking to his people and I did perceive well how the Lord is very very attune to the seasons of our life and is very "present" in them, even now fullfilling significant purposes in us and in these seasons of our life...

I have "heard" too often lately that the Lord saves the best til last. So often we "remember" the sweet seasons with our first Love, and often so long to return to "those" places, but it seems that the latter house is greater than the first...

You ask him John, to make the most use of all this that he has invested in you in all these years...to make you his hand extended, to minister to his people...whoever they are and wherever they are...it's when we extend our life that we lose it...when we give it away...
You have a seasoned heart of humility, have you ever been in prison ministry? You are like Peter; the older of the Disciples, who did not count himself worthy enough to tend this flock, who also felt that he had not died enough for the Lord...but the Lord saw differently, and when this old man had just become content to dwell among the faithful, God, in Peter's later years, called him to go to Rome, and Peter did not want to go there, and it grieved his human heart, but he "knew" he was going, and he knew also he would die there...

"See"...let us all see, that the glory we seek is in our dying, Yes Bruce it's true, and true dying does bring grief... and you know, that the "Way" of the Lord is not as is portrayed upon stages of wealth and comfort, where popular preachers adorned in wealth preach an enticing word of earthly prosperity, saying, "We are the Kings' kids!"....but the Way of the Cross is not a comfortable one that gives ease and esteem in the eyes of men...

Bruce ....As it has always been, so will it always be, until the Lord returns to establish "His" Kingdom upon this earth...the story of Christ is a story of "Rejection." And as you see so much how not only the world but even those who say they Love him seem to not really have the time to, or the will to walk or pray with him for an hour, or to reach out one hand to God and the other to man..

It's always been this way from the beginning....that the few, not the many, will drink from this cup...so we can only walk alone sometimes, and rejoice in the times when we do meet fellow strangers along the way...to walk some of the miles with...and God tells us to seek to be in this small fellowship as much as possible as the days draw in...

Anyway, yes, I hear your testimony, and yes brother, cling to those thoughts of how the Lord so greatly delivered you, just as I also seek hard to never again become entangled with the affairs of this life, or the sins that so easily beset us...

Because you are right...the days of God winking at sin are past, and the time has come when judgement must being in the house of faith...As much as the Lord Loves us, a time of obedience must come, we cannot remain children forever but must move on into the callings wherewith we were called with a Holy Calling...

And the Lord did say this to me...I have delivered you again...but if you continue to fall back again I will not deliver you the next time...I think the days are short, and if we are going to work, we better do it now before the night comes...we don't want to take the Lord's Grace for granted one time too many....but yet at the same time, it's not my good works that the Lord desires of me, but my surrender and obedience to him...

And I am so reminded that it's He who builds the house...or we labour in vain....There is a "will" of God, and there is a will of man, and these are 2 separate things....and that is the Lord's word, not mine.

And "Still" man hardly perceives that word...he "still" associates his will with God's...he says to himself...."I" will get up on a certain day and "I" will do thus and so for the Lord....No!.....Peter did NOT want to go to Rome! Jesus did Not want to drink from that cup....and we do not want to do what the Lord wants, but what we want! A good way to know if we are doing what the Lord wants is if it is harder than doing what we want, amen?

I "heard" these words the other day, during a time when not only was the world around me very quiet, but my own mind/thoughts were also very still and quiet...."BE STILL, and (you will) KNOW that I AM God. Be Still...and you will KNOW it is My voice you are hearing...because My voice is very very quiet, and our "minds" must be very very quiet to hear it! If we dont' know the answers...is it flesh and blood that reveals them? Is it our own flesh and blood? No! The answers are not in the mind of man but in the mind of God! Amen and amen...May the Lord lift and lift us all
into the heavenly's where we are being compelled
to "Come UP" and sit with Christ in his Spirit..
And unto the faithful will signs and wonders follow
in this very day! Love, Sis Kim

Hi Kim, and good morning. Thank you so much for your encouraging words. I am a "realist" when it comes to myself and am not blind that God has not made me a "son of consolation" like John. For years, I fretted that I did not have the soft exterior that we so typify in our minds as the "ideal" Christian. I do not have the nature of my sweet brother John nor even you, and my words get twisted often in trying to get across to my brothers and sisters in the Lord as to how good God truly wants to be to us, and how powerful He is when we but believe. I know I can come across as a "self-appointed prophet" and I hate it, becasue I do not want to ever give a man an excuse not to listen to the truths I share, for they are indeed their truths, that satan has succeeded for years in blinding them to them, so that they have to walk on in defeat.

But I have come to appreciate what He has created in me. Like all others, I myself am "fearfully and wonderfully made". It has taken the grace of God filling me to accept myself as exactly what God intented in creating me. I once thought men could not hear me because of my more "inflexible" exterior and dogmatic insistance on the promises of God being yea and amen, but I have since realized that God can use me and my particular personality just as well as any other. Each of us have our calling.

I sometimes fear that many will reject what I say because of how I am...that I do not fit in to their particular mental image of one totally free. To think that my progression (or lack thereof) in Him would cause one to reject the masters call to their freedom and glory of walking solely in the new creation He has provided, is a hard weight to bear. But God has assured me that it is truth that sets free, whether it come from the mouth of a son of consolation or a son of thunder. It they hear Him, they will hear me, or John or you or Israel.

Hungry hearts are searching for the way to freedom, and when one gets hungry enough, thank God, it does not matter any more who is the one with the food in their hand, or how attractive they are who offer it, it matters that it is life-giving food and it can set them free.

Forgive me if I sometimes come across as hard, single minded, or judgemental or as a know-it-all. I am not blind to how my words come across and yet, I speak the way God instructs me to, through the personality God has graciously given me. It is all I can do.

I simply pray people can look past me and see God, see the truth of the promises of God for them. I pray that God sets others free to be themselves, not cookie-cutter Christians but as themselves alone, faithfully reflecting the glory of God in the particular way God has made them.

Kim, thank you for "digging deeper" in your analysis of me and the words I speak and for not pigeon-holing me so that the words do no longer have any cutting or liberating effect.

If the ground is hard and fallow, it is not ready for the good seed and must be broken up. Often, that is the purpose of the words I speak, the ones I comes across as judgmenental or down on the church. You have not rejected me for thse and have tried to understand where I am coming from in my attempts to awaken the saints to their heritage, a heritage they have been robbed of their entire Christian walks. Thank you.

[Amadeus]

Originally Posted by preachergirl

Bruce and John, Oh now these words of both of you bless me so much this morning, and I read them "all," and I do not know if there is anything sweeter than the Sincere testimonies of the Saints, so that I am "knowing" this very moment how sweet are the thoughts of the Lord toward you. You hunger, and you will be filled; you thirst and God will satisfy your thirst...because it's he that seeks that will find and he that hungers who will be filled, with the eternal bread that gives life upon life...

It's about 103º F outside right now and my air conditioner is scarcely staying ahead of it, but a shiver just went through me, a shiver of the Holy Ghost. The joy of the Lord is in this place! Praised be His name!

Oh I am touched brother John by the hunger, the desire of your heart to have "more" of the Lord, more than all the things of this world...now you stand in the place where if we ask according to his will he answers, and you know that if we know he hears us, we know we receive the petitions we desire of him...so ask! ....that your Joy may be full...

Yes, dear sister, He hears us and He pays attention. All He wants is for us to pay attention as well. Glory to His name!

My husband is 66 too, and this made me think of him and of being this age and of the things we consider at this age. I want to tell you...I have been in some truly heaven sent Revival meetings lately and I have heard the Lord's voice speaking to his people and I did perceive well how the Lord is very very attune to the seasons of our life and is very "present" in them, even now fullfilling significant purposes in us and in these seasons of our life...

The Lord's Way is way high above our ways, but now we approach Him we are knowing more about His Way. We are leaving our own ways behind, which is His desire for us.

I have "heard" too often lately that the Lord saves the best til last. So often we "remember" the sweet seasons with our first Love, and often so long to return to "those" places, but it seems that the latter house is greater than the first...

And if we are the "latter house"? And if we are "greater than [at] the first"

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." I John 3:2

The being like Him is not all in the 'sweet bye and bye'. It is beginning in the here and now!

You ask him John, to make the most use of all this that he has invested in you in all these years...to make you his hand extended, to minister to his people...whoever they are and wherever they are...it's when we extend our life that we lose it...when we give it away...

Yes, sister Kim, He is working on me and even though the time in late, the end is not yet. Suddenly two young mormon boys are visiting me regularly and they are listening more than they are talking. Also the JWs though less enthusiastic, are visiting and re-visiting me. They want to win me to their way, but I very simply want to go the Lord's Way and will be glad to have anyone and everyone go along with me.

I only attend a regular service on Sunday mornings because of the distance (45 miles one way) and my limited night vision, but I always try to be as full of Him as I can when I go. God is not in the building. If He is anywhere, it's in the people. When I go in full, I come out overflowing. Glory to His name.

You have a seasoned heart of humility, have you ever been in prison ministry? You are like Peter; the older of the Disciples, who did not count himself worthy enough to tend this flock, who also felt that he had not died enough for the Lord...but the Lord saw differently, and when this old man had just become content to dwell among the faithful, God, in Peter's later years, called him to go to Rome, and Peter did not want to go there, and it grieved his human heart, but he "knew" he was going, and he knew also he would die there...

I don't know about going to Rome, but wherever the Lord calls me, that is where I want to be. I am able to drive again, and when my wife is released from the hospital in a few days all things will be as He wishes.

Natural death? I do not look forward to it soon, as I don't believe He is finished with me yet, but it will come soon enough in His time. Then I will see Him face to face. No going back, not anymore!

"See"...let us all see, that the glory we seek is in our dying, Yes Bruce it's true, and true dying does bring grief... and you know, that the "Way" of the Lord is not as is portrayed upon stages of wealth and comfort, where popular preachers adorned in wealth preach an enticing word of earthly prosperity, saying, "We are the Kings' kids!"....but the Way of the Cross is not a comfortable one that gives ease and esteem in the eyes of men...

Yes, sister, it is comfortable where the Comforter is, but not for our flesh. Our flesh will have to go where it is sent and we should not expect better than Jesus in that respect.

Bruce ....As it has always been, so will it always be, until the Lord returns to establish "His" Kingdom upon this earth...the story of Christ is a story of "Rejection." And as you see so much how not only the world but even those who say they Love him seem to not really have the time to, or the will to walk or pray with him for an hour, or to reach out one hand to God and the other to man..

In one sense He is already here working on His kingdom in our hearts. Those that are willing and submitting themselves are now becoming a part.

"And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me." John 17:22-23

It's always been this way from the beginning....that the few, not the many, will drink from this cup...so we can only walk alone sometimes, and rejoice in the times when we do meet fellow strangers along the way...to walk some of the miles with...and God tells us to seek to be in this small fellowship as much as possible as the days draw in...

"Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? [We] say unto him, We are able." Matt 20:22

Anyway, yes, I hear your testimony, and yes brother, cling to those thoughts of how the Lord so greatly delivered you, just as I also seek hard to never again become entangled with the affairs of this life, or the sins that so easily beset us...

Because you are right...the days of God winking at sin are past, and the time has come when judgement must be in the house of faith...As much as the Lord Loves us, a time of obedience must come, we cannot remain children forever but must move on into the callings wherewith we were called with a Holy Calling...

No, His winking is coming to and end. We are coming into Him as He is coming into us. We must prepare for Him a place where there is no sin and that place will be in our hearts. Come Lord Jesus, come as quickly as you can into the fullness that you have for each of us. Glory to Thy name!

And the Lord did say this to me...I have delivered you again...but if you continue to fall back again I will not deliver you the next time...I think the days are short, and if we are going to work, we better do it now before the night comes...we don't want to take the Lord's Grace for granted one time too many....but yet at the same time, it's not my good works that the Lord desires of me, but my surrender and obedience to him...

It will be I am certain as it was for natural Israel in the wilderness. Many will test Him one time too many and the way into His promises will be forever blocked. I want to go with Caleb and Joshua.

And I am so reminded that it's He who builds the house...or we labour in vain....There is a "will" of God, and there is a will of man, and these are 2 separate things....and that is the Lord's word, not mine.

"...nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt"

And "Still" man hardly perceives that word...he "still" associates his will with God's...he says to himself...."I" will get up on a certain day and "I" will do thus and so for the Lord....No!.....Peter did NOT want to go to Rome! Jesus did Not want to drink from that cup....and we do not want to do what the Lord wants, but what we want! A good way to know if we are doing what the Lord wants is if it is harder than doing what we want, amen?

"Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision." Joel 3:14

Soon there will be no more decisions! Those who decided wrongly or were too late will not enter into His kingdom. He will not be in them.

I "heard" these words the other day, during a time when not only was the world around me very quiet, but my own mind/thoughts were also very still and quiet...."BE STILL, and (you will) KNOW that I AM God. Be Still...and you will KNOW it is My voice you are hearing...because My voice is very very quiet, and our "minds" must be very very quiet to hear it! If we dont' know the answers...is it flesh and blood that reveals them? Is it our own flesh and blood? No! The answers are not in the mind of man but in the mind of God! Amen and amen...May the Lord lift and lift us all into the heavenly's where we are being compelled to "Come UP" and sit with Christ in his Spirit.. And unto the faithful will signs and wonders follow
in this very day! Love, Sis Kim

Glory to His name!