We Need God’s Divine Direction

We Need God’s Divine Direction
The nations, Governments, Humanity, Education, Families, Churches and Leaders

God has not made His Word too complicated that humanity cannot understand His instructions. If He says DO - we do. If He says DON’T DO - We know not to do it. II Corinthians 5:7 tells us that we walk by faith. Romans 1:17 says that the just shall LIVE by faith. Mark 11:22 says to have faith in God.

The word “faith” is God’s calling us to TAKE HOLD of all we can of Him. We are eternal beings and we must set our life in God by faith in His Word, for it is our life, and keeping power NOW and FOREVER, eternally.

Every day we are challenged either to turn to the flesh OR to take hold of God by faith. That requires us to seek God for our WAY, to gather manna daily for we encounter major World problems that no man can handle without God. Many have tried it, but the ending proves that without God’s direction and obeying it, people perish for a lack of knowledge. Destroyed for a lack of knowledge. Hosea 4:6

Psalm 139:24: Lead me in Your Way everlasting. Isaiah 30:21 : You hear His voice say: this is the way walk ye in it. Isaiah 45:13: God will direct ALL our ways. John 14:6: I am the Way, the Truth and Life. I Corinthians 10:13: In all things I make a Way for your escape from evil.

A BULLETIN TO THE WORLD to the gates of hell, to the tried People of God, the Church, to all who read:
Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4: Man, humans, ALL People shall not live by bread alone, natural food alone, but every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Almighty. A steady stream.

We are individual beings with individual souls, spirits and bodies. Get it all into God’s hands or Perish. Don’t be a fool.
Psalm 14:1 says that a fool said in his heart there is no God. Proverbs 10:21 tells us that a fool dies for lacking of wisdom. Game playing is coming to an end. The door of mercy and grace will close at the end of that time, that dispensation, then the Rapture will take the READY Church out. Matthew 25:10: Five wise virgins will taken and the five foolish virgins were not. II Chronicles l7:14: IF My People that are called by My Name, will humble themselves, PRAY and seek MY face and TURN from their wicked ways THEN I will hear from Heaven, forgive their sin and heal their land.

PEOPLE, WE MUST GET SERIOUS WITH GOD! There is no way for “blessing” except from God. Outside of God is the curse. We must get the Blood of the Lamb (Jesus) over our homes, our substance our families, and nation or we perish. Revelation 12:11 We are made overcomers by the Blood of the Lamb (Jesus’ shed Blood on the cross of Calvary) and set free….Raised with Him in His resurrected Life, waiting for His Return.. Put away haughty, religious, stubborn foolishness. Get saved and STAY saved.

God will not be mocked. Believe in God’s Word and LIVE or doubt and do without. NOW is the day of Salvation. Either we are headed for Heaven or Hell. We all enter planet Earth by birth, we will all EXIT by death or the Rapture. Choose your destiny NOW. God’s Word is our SALVATION TICKET. A ticket that is free of cost.

Alma Lampp
M. G. T. Ministries

Finish The Race With Prayer

If you'd rather see the video of this message, it may be found HERE. (MP3 is also available.) Find the listing for April 3, 2011.

This article is used with permission.


FINISH THE RACE WITH PRAYER
by Carter Conlon

“And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them” (Mark 11:22–24).

Considering these words of Jesus, one cannot help but wonder why it is so hard for many of God’s people to pray. After all, if we truly believed these three verses of Scripture, wouldn’t we be running into the prayer closet every day? Wouldn’t prayer be the very essence of our life? Imagine having a friend with a billion dollars tell you, “Whenever you have a need, call me and it will be yours.” Don’t you think you would dial that number once in a while? Yet we have the very God of the universe saying, “I will move anything out of your way that hinders you. I will give you all you desire if you pray and believe.”

I don’t know about you, but I want to finish the race with prayer. I have seen the fruit of prayer in great measure over the years, but I never want to get to the point of concluding that I have received enough. If God has more of His life for me, more ways that He can glorify Himself through me, I would be a fool to stop praying and start relying on something other than the words that come from the very heart of God.

So why is it so hard to pray? Obviously the devil is against prayer. All through the Scriptures we see what happened as a result of prayer—babies were conceived in barren wombs, the old were made strong, the miraculous abounded—so, of course, Satan is going to oppose us whenever we decide to pray. However, is it possible that there is something in our own hearts that hinders us as well?


OUR OWN HEARTS CONDEMN US

I believe that many people cannot pray because they constantly feel condemned. Imagine how difficult it would be to visit a friend who always magnified your faults and criticized your most sincere efforts. Although you come in happy, suddenly your spirits are dampened as this friend starts pointing out everything that you are not doing right.

Have you ever encountered something similar in the prayer closet? When I was a young Christian, I had a difficult time with this. If I prayed fifty-eight minutes, I would walk away and a small voice would say, “What? Could you not pray with Me one hour?” If I prayed an hour and five minutes, the voice would say, “Is that all of the twenty-four hours of your day that you can spare for the Lord?”

Of course, this constant condemnation was from my own heart, although it is easy for us to mistakenly attribute such thoughts to God. Because of this, we enter the prayer closet in a manner much like Peter in Acts 10. The Scripture says that Peter went up on a rooftop, and as he began to pray, a sheet was let down by its four corners and contained all kinds of unclean beasts, birds and insects. This is exactly what our prayer life can be like—as we go into that secret place and get on our knees to pray, immediately a sheet comes down containing all our failings, faults, struggles and shortcomings.

Does this sound familiar? All the things you did wrong, all the places where you fell short as a Christian, all these little things come to your mind—as if that is all God remembers. However, notice that the Lord instructed Peter, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat” (Acts 10:13). In other words, “Be nourished, Peter. Strengthen yourself during this time of revelation that I am giving to you.” Peter insisted, “No, I can’t do that because there is such uncleanness here.” In a similar way, many people today cannot grow in grace or lay hold of the promises of God because of a constant awareness of their uncleanness.

The Lord replied to Peter, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (Acts 10:15). When we go into the prayer closet, we must understand that we have been cleansed from all sin by the blood of Jesus Christ, and we are not to call ourselves unclean anymore. The Bible says that in Christ we are the righteousness of God. In other words, we are as clean as God is—which would actually seem almost blasphemous if it were not written in the Scriptures.

I thank God for the covering of the blood of Jesus Christ. I thank God that I do not have to be strong to go into the prayer closet. As a matter of fact, the book of Hebrews tells me that it is in my time of need that I should go to the throne of God. It is when I need strength, direction, empowerment and help that I should go boldly to the throne of grace (see Hebrews 4:16). As His children, we have an open invitation to come into the presence of our heavenly Father.

Remember that the apostle Paul said, “Be careful for nothing...” In other words, do not be weighed down; do not let the enemy or your own heart condemn you. “...but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). How can we come into the prayer closet with thanksgiving if we do not believe that we are already received of God? We must be convinced that it is God’s delight to manifest the life of His Son in us—to give us the things that we need to represent Him on the earth. That is the key to praying with thanksgiving.


ASKING AMISS

Another reason we may have difficulty praying is because our desires are not in line with God’s desires for us. “...Ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2–3). You and I are left on the earth to make known the love of God—the love that sent His Son to a cross—and to glorify the Son. Christ bought the redemption, but we are to bring the reality of that redemption—the reality of the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Yet when we forget this purpose, we ask amiss, and then we wonder why our prayers are not answered.

Think for a moment of what can result when we pray in line with God’s desires. When the 120 came out of the Upper Room in the Book of Acts, God had supplied them with the strength that they had prayed for—a supernatural strength that replaced mountains of fear and unbelief. There they were, 120 predominantly uneducated people, simply bursting into the marketplace among those who still had the blood of anger on their lips toward followers of Jesus Christ. Yet these disciples were filled with boldness and the presence of God.

The Greek word megaleios means they were speaking of the anticipated outworking of the inward life of God. They were speaking about what God was going to do, what He had given them, the faith that was alive in their hearts. The religious looked at this and essentially said, “Wow! There is nothing of our religion that has ever given us anything like this! What must we do to be saved?”

Or consider the story in Genesis 24 where Abraham told his servant to go back to his country and find a bride for his son Isaac. This servant journeyed out to the land of Abraham’s family and prayed, “Lord, if You have prospered my journey, and if You are going to be favorable to my master, lead me to the bride for his son” (see Genesis 24:12–14).

The Scripture says that before he was done speaking, Rebekah came out with her pitcher on her shoulder (Genesis 24:15) before he was done speaking! This servant had traveled a long distance, was in a very large place among a crowd of strangers, and did not even know where Abraham’s family was. However, he prayed, and the miraculous began to unlock. I thank God that Abraham’s servant was not a strategist. I thank God there were no phone books or cell phones available. In that generation he did what every man should do—he prayed! And when he prayed, God sovereignly began to answer that prayer. Rebekah was grafted into the lineage of Jesus Christ, and from this came Jacob, the patriarchs of Israel, and ultimately the Son of God Himself. What incredible results we see when we do not ask amiss.


FEAR OF WHAT GOD MAY ASK

Many times we cannot pray because we are unwilling to follow the pathway that may open up before us. We are afraid that God is going to ask something of us that we are not willing to give up. In Acts 8, we read the account of a man named Philip who had a marvelous ministry in Samaria. Multitudes were being saved and healed and even the original apostles had taken notice of his ministry. Yet, while in prayer, Philip was asked to leave what most would view as security and success—all to go to a barren place, into a situation he did not understand.

You and I tend to have a view of what our lives should be and what success is. Therefore we are not willing to go into the prayer closet lest God ask us to do something that is not on our agenda. That is why some churches today are filled with people who are simply using Jesus Christ to further their own agenda rather than the will of God.

Philip chose to obey God and left Samaria for a desert place. It was in that desert that he experienced a miracle—a man of authority from Ethiopia being brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ. After baptizing this Ethiopian eunuch, the Scripture says that Philip was translated by the Spirit of God. The Lord just took him and placed him in another city about thirty miles away! Obedience to leave what we view as success can actually be what opens to us the supernatural.

Of course, that does not mean that once we have a willingness to obey, we suddenly understand the full picture. God simply calls us to take that first step of obedience by faith. Philip’s obedience brought the gospel—the first record we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ—into the northern parts of Africa. As we walk in obedience to the will of God and our desires are in line with His, we have the right to come into the prayer closet and say, “Lord, I need this” and suddenly we see the miraculous begin to unfold.

Later in the book of Acts we find the story of a disciple named Ananias. As Ananias was praying one day, God said to him, “There is a man called Saul of Tarsus staying down at his house on Straight Street. I want you to go down and lay hands on him. I am going to heal him and fill him with the Holy Ghost” (see Acts 9:11–12). Ananias essentially replied, “Lord, is this the same Saul that has done great harm to Your people in Jerusalem? I have heard that he has authority from the priests to put in prison all who call upon Your name. Now You are asking me to go lay hands on this man?”

Nevertheless, Ananias obeyed the word he received in prayer. As he prayed for Paul, scales fell from Paul’s eyes and he soon began to go out and preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ. Thank God for Ananias’ obedience! What if he had not obeyed God—if he had gone into the prayer closet and pushed out of his mind everything that was detrimental to his own safety and security?

I cannot get over the thought of the incredible, explosive power that is available if we have the courage to go to prayer and ask, “Lord, what would You have me to do?”—and then have a heart that is willing to obey whatever God asks of us.


SPEAK TO THE MOUNTAIN

Just preceding our opening Scripture (Mark 11:22), Jesus had cursed a fig tree that had an appearance of fruitfulness but was actually barren. He had come to what was a type of religion, a type of a relationship with God. He looked for life on it, but there was none. The fig tree represents everything within us that has no ability to let the power and strength of Jesus be manifested through us to others—everything in us that hinders, everything that does not represent the life of God, all that falls short of His glory. Remember, it was fig leaves that Adam and Eve used to cover themselves in the Garden of Eden. You and I have the power in Christ to curse this—to speak to this area in our own hearts and say, “No longer will you govern me.”

“For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith” (Mark 11:23). Jesus said we have the authority to speak not only to the fig tree but also to the mountain. The mountain is the soil—that which gives life and allows things that do not represent God to survive. We have the power to cast into the sea everything that feeds this powerlessness and allows God look-alikes to flourish in our lives. We can cast them away and expect God to replace them with what we need to glorify Him on the earth.

In other words, whatever the devil has said you cannot do, whatever your own heart says will never change, whatever fear there is within you—that is the mountain. That is where you must stand and say, “I do not believe the lie—I believe what Jesus has spoken. Today I speak to this mountain, and I command it in the name of Jesus Christ to be cast away from me and planted in the midst of the sea!”

It is time to have faith in God. It is time to pray and expect the Lord to answer. Oh, what an hour to rise up and be the Church again! What an hour to go into the prayer closet with boldness despite all our weaknesses and come out with the strength of God. What an hour to have a clear mind, a clean heart, a fresh vision for the future, new strength that comes from God alone. What an hour to be equipped with the power of God.


Thank God that as we come to Him in faith, He will hear our prayers and give us strength. He will open our mouths to speak His Word. He will vanquish our enemies, endow us with giftings that we do not naturally have and enable us to face the days that we are living in now. There is going to be a new song in our hearts, and we are going to finish the race with prayer!



Carter Conlon
©2011 Times Square Church

The Day That Jesus Left His Friends

THE DAY THAT JESUS LEFT HIS FRIENDS
by Carter Conlon
This article is used by permission, and can be found at:http://www.tscnyc.org/

I am so thankful for friends and fellowship in the body of Jesus Christ. It is wonderful to be able to encourage one another, to spur each other on to continue in the faith, to have a word that might help lift another’s burden. The Bible clearly exhorts us not to forsake assembling together— in even greater measure as we see the Lord’s return drawing nearer (see Hebrews 10:25). Yes, I have enjoyed many marvelous moments of friendship over the years. Nevertheless, I also have found that God often calls me to a place where I must journey alone.

“And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. And when they had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives” (Matthew 26:26–30).

Here we see fellowship around a table, with Jesus openly declaring His intent to obey the calling of His Father, regardless of the personal cost. He was essentially telling them, “As you see this bread broken, I am going to be broken for you. Not only for you, but for all people who will turn to God through Me. Just as you see this juice being poured out, My blood is going to be spilled upon the ground for the redemption of all humanity.”

I am sure many of us have openly declared our desire to obey God to the fullest. We have gone to an altar and prayed, “Oh, God, take me the full journey; use my life for Your glory. Make me into what You want me to be!”

Six months after praying a prayer like that, you may have found yourself screaming, “Lord, what are you doing to me?” And the Lord answers, “Well, I am just answering your prayer. You said you wanted to take up your cross and follow Me, so that is what you are doing!” It is not merely a theological cross that you take up, of course. There must be a practical inward and outward working of it.


UNFULFILLED PROMISES

“Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended...Likewise also said all the disciples” (Matthew 26:31–35).

We have all had friends say, “I am in this with you; we are going over the finish line together!” I cannot help but wonder if, in this context, Jesus was tempted to lean on His friends for this final and most pivotal part of His earthly journey. Hebrews 4:15 tells us Jesus fully understands and feels our struggles and weaknesses, for He “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” The God side of Jesus Christ could not be tempted, but the man side of Him could be.

“Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy” (Matthew 26:36–37). Jesus was approaching that final moment when He would give His life for all the sins of humanity. Into this place of prayer He chose to take Peter, James and John—His closest friends on earth, His inner circle. They had seen His transformation; they had been with Him when He raised the dead—they knew who He was.

As Jesus took them into the garden of Gethsemane with Him, He shared with them the agony of His heart. “...My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me” (Matthew 26:38). In other words, “I am going into a time of intense agony, and I am asking you to be with Me. I am asking for your support, your prayer, your help. You promised Me that you would not deny Me. You promised Me that you would stand with Me, even unto death. You promised Me that no matter how difficult it got, you would not walk away from Me. Now I am asking you to stay here with Me.”

Jesus went a little farther beyond them into the garden and began to pray, His sweat dripping as blood because of the agony that lay ahead. I find it very interesting because He then got up and went back to His inner circle. Although Jesus was seeking strength from His Father—the only source of true strength—He also went back to His disciples. When He found them asleep, He said to Peter, “...What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40). Do you think Jesus could have been tempted to be disillusioned, perhaps even bitter, with His friends? He could have been tempted to question Peter, James and John, “After pouring My heart and life into you for over three years, could you not have given Me one hour when I needed you most?”

During our journey, there will be places where God calls us to go individually. However, it is during those times that we will often be faced with the temptation to lean on our friends. While we theologically know that our only source of strength is God, we all have the human tendency to come back and lean on people. You and I run into a crisis and go into the prayer closet—yet we are not even halfway through our prayers when suddenly we are on the telephone calling somebody seeking counsel. We are looking for strength from God, but we also are looking to people for what only God can give. And there is a temptation in the heart to get bitter when we are looking in a dual place.

Remember that the Bible says, “...Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm...” (Jeremiah 17:5). Flesh will always fail. As wonderful as fellowship is, as wonderful as the promises that we have made to each other are, we simply are not capable of keeping those promises, for we are all built of the same frail cloth. The disciples were not at a place in their spiritual journey where they could share in or understand what Jesus was asking them to do.

“He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy” (Matthew 26:42–43). I see this as a last backward glance for the help of man. After all, why did Jesus come back a second time instead of just staying there to pray? It is as if He simply was looking for help, for companionship, for strength—only to find His disciples asleep.

It is only my opinion, but I believe that the Father in His mercy put them to sleep, for it was the strength of God alone that could take Jesus on this last and final step of His journey. There are times in our lives when God calls each child of His into his or her own Gethsemane, and nobody else can understand it; nobody else can help them there. People may offer words of encouragement and promise, but ultimately they will end up asleep because it is not their moment.


NECESSARY WOUNDS

A specific tree in Israel normally yields large amounts of fruit, yet sometimes it starts bearing less than it should. In our natural compassion we would start reading manuals about how to encourage this tree, how to go around the root system, how to give it certain types of fertilizer to help it grow and bear more fruit. Yet the true keeper of the vineyard comes with a huge machete in his hand and literally hacks the tree full swing on the side, causing the sap within to bleed out. At that point the tree has only two choices—it either goes down deep to find water or it dies. Most of the trees go down deep and eventually the wound heals because it finds itself in a root system drawing water from depths that ordinary trees cannot reach.

Similarly, if you desire to walk as Jesus did, you will not escape the classroom of being wounded. People you trusted will fall short. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend...” Faithful. Did you know that God will even assign people to wound you—to fail you, to fall short of what you think friendship should be—in order to get your roots to go down deeper? Are you convinced that all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose? (See Romans 8:28.) We tend to spend so much time rehearsing wounds of the past that we fail to understand that God is the author of these things in order that we might bear much fruit in His kingdom.

“And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words” (Matthew 26:44). Jesus left them! There simply comes a point when you have to leave your friends. You must leave this reliance on flesh and move into that place where the Holy Spirit is calling you—a place deeper and farther than natural man can go. It might even be a small journey from where you are today—just a small step. It does not mean that you leave your friends behind. It means that you come back and are more committed to them than ever.


RETURNING IN POWER

The last part of the journey is where you and I are called to be fully given for all people in spite of their response to us. Nobody but God can give us the strength to go to that place—to the place where we come back. The Scripture says that Jesus left the disciples, and when He later returned, He said to them, “...Sleep on now...” (Matthew 26:45). Jesus was not looking for strength from them, but instead He returned with the strength of God in Himself for them.

Note that when Jesus came back this third time, He was not bitter or indifferent. In fact, the fellowship was about to become sweeter. Genuinely sweet fellowship in the church of Jesus Christ is when I am not looking for anything from you, nor are you looking for anything from me. Instead, we are both given for each other. That is the sweetest fellowship there is.

Jesus Himself said, “No one that the Father has given me is going to perish except the son of perdition” (see John 17:12). Chosen to wound Him; chosen to betray Him—that was all part of the plan of God. Yet how many people fail at this point? How many get saved, walk with God, attend Bible studies, embrace the Scriptures, sing the hymns of Zion, but fail right at the finish line because they cannot accept that this kingdom is all about being given for other people? It is all about a God who is good to the unthankful and the unholy; who sends rain on the just and on the unjust. We are called to represent Him in the earth, yet how can we do so if we do not carry the heart of God within us? How will we ever make a difference unless we have been empowered by God Himself to come back and, whether or not it is ever reciprocated, be given for all people?

Remember that Jesus had to endure the betrayal of all His disciples, who fled in fearfulness. Yet God ultimately brought Him to a point where He could come back and enter an upper room full of those who had denied Him and simply say, “...Peace be unto you” (John 20:19). Jesus then breathed on His disciples, saying, “...Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22), and sent them out as the Father had sent Him.

And what do they end up doing? They go back to their fishing! Nevertheless, Jesus returned to them and was on the shore baking bread and cooking fish—calling them in, talking about love. He had come to a place where He was fully given for His friends.


LETTING GO OF GRIEVANCES

It is time for us to leave behind those moments when we were failed by the people we needed. Perhaps for you it was parents in your youth, a marriage partner who walked out, or church leaders who disappointed you. Whatever the circumstance, you must get beyond the grievances of man—beyond harboring and nurturing in your mind the failures of humanity.

Over the years I have seen that many people never get beyond that point. They sit in church, but when you dig down deep, it becomes apparent that they still have an inner grievance against people, particularly those they once considered to be their friends in church. They can still sing the songs, still clap their hands and say, “Praise the Lord”—as long as the one who betrayed them stays about five feet away. Their fellowship becomes selective, and they start seeking out people they believe will not hurt them again. Unfortunately, they do not realize how far short of the glory of God they have fallen.

When we choose to press in to find the strength that only God can give, we will no longer have our list of grievances. Instead, we will have a heart that says, “Slap my face if you will, but by the power of God I shall be given for all people. Put me in jail, laugh me out of the workplace, but God has given me the strength to be given for others.”

There is a time when we must leave our friends for just a moment and find strength that can come only from God. God forbid that in this hour you and I should stop just near the end of the journey—that short distance of going from leaning on people to coming back in the power of God.

When we return in the power of God, we do not come back aloof or with resentment toward others. We come back ready to be given for all men, even our enemies. We are no longer looking to draw from others, and therefore we return to experience a fellowship that is much deeper and sweeter—the true fellowship of Christ!

Carter Conlon
©2011 Times Square Church

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Father, thank You for HELPING US to lean upon YOUR EVERLASTING ARMS, in Jesus' Name.

I AM is speaking....

God said: CRY (The prophets answered) What shall I cry?

My prophets do not come forth from their abodes,with their learning, and their own desires. My prophets come forth from My PRESENCE.

From the hidden, Secret Place - the wilderness, the desert and Secret Places. My prophets depend on Me and speak only what I say.

Not religion - not according to men’s ways, wants or desires. I, the Lord, bring forth Light. I am the Sustainer of all Living. I breathe on My Creation - It Lives.

Watch, Watch. I shall speak at the appointed time, with Divine Visitation, Divine Words for a world of appointed people.

My prophets see, hear, speak, think as I do. They speak My heart.

Return to your first Love. Return, return, repent, call for My cleansing, healing, refreshing, Life, presence. Call, sin is exposed, nakedness appears. Don’t hide in darkness. Come to Me and live. I am the Savior, Restorer, Life Giver. I am the Gracious Father God. I forgive, I heal, I Love, I Save. Come Children, Come to Me.

All have sinned and come short of the Glory of My Presence, but My Love has brought forth a Savior, My Son, Jesus Christ the Lord.

You are tired, weary, beaten, broken, sick, sad, disappointed, heavy with care. Come, My weary people, to Me. I am moved with compassion for you.

I gave My Life-Blood and was raised from the dead for you.
The enemy of the cross of Calvary, ravishes, lies, captivates, but call, cry, come. I set you free.
My arms of Love, Healing and Keeping are for you!
Come,. Come to Me!!

I speak, I thunder among satans loud bashing, brazen parade of destruction that he peddles. In the highways and by ways to the lost, dying, starving souls of humanity. He promises them everything and gives them DEATH. They speak death, sing death, thinks death, they wear death on their bodies, the marks of satan. They run to death, they revel in death, plunging into eternity, entangled in the death windings of satan. On the brink of hell, eternity, lost.

I cry aloud in the midst of the worlds last days, “Come to Me and be saved.” I cry to humanity, I cry to souls, I cry to a backslidden people. I cry to a cold, fornicating, adulterous church. “Your time is short!” I cry to you, “Cry out to Me, Come, Repent, Return, Recover.”

My prophets will say it, pray it, shout it. My prophets will sting the flesh, shake the soul, trouble the spirit saying, “Repent, Come, Return!”

Love cries to all. COME!

The Sabbath

This is, by far, the best article I've ever seen on the subject of "The Sabbath."
It was retrieved from: http://www.jackhayford.org/articles1-473/TheSabbath

The Sabbath
by Jack Hayford

And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. - Genesis 2:2-3

What a memory it is. I have never had my wife take a knife and hold it up in front of me except on that day. She wasn't going to stab me, but Anna was, in fact, preparing lunch in our kitchen, and when she made this point, she pounded a knife she was using on the butcher block. It was not characteristic of my wife to make a point that way, and eventually, we both started laughing.

"You cannot do this summer like that again!" She was talking about how I'd planned our vacations for the first twenty years of our life in ministry. I would accept speaking engagements at conferences, and our family would all pack up, get in the car and go. The kids would meet other kids and have fun. It was great travel. We went all over the country doing this, and en route we'd go to Yellowstone, Yosemite, or the Grand Canyon, or stop at places in the Midwest. We did this summer after summer. The kids never complained; it was a way of life. That's all they ever knew. Anna had never complained.

But this day, she'd finally said to me, "You're crazy if you think that's a rest." Her concern wasn't that we hadn't enjoyed our vacations together; her concern was for my well-being. We were, by this time, seven years deep in the phenomenon of The Church On The Way, and, without a proper time of rest, the enormous miracle of God taking place at our church was also taking a toll on me. Our home had begun to feel the pressure, and Anna was right; there was a need for a break that was truly a rest.

That summer, I took time to really look into the issue of the Sabbath in the Scriptures. I began with the Ten Commandments, where I realized God not only said for us to observe it because He did, but also He declared a blessing if we would.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God...For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. - Exodus 20:8-11

Friend, let me ask you a question: What do you think about the Sabbath? The question is important because we often forget that the Sabbath isn't merely a suggestion; it's a commandment. So let's look at some of the most commonly asked questions concerning it.

Which day of the week should the Sabbath be observed?

I believe it's been a classic ruse of the enemy to focus the Sabbath question on the difference of opinion or tradition as to which day of the week it is observed. The Bible says in Romans 14:5-6 that argument is unnecessary. Speaking to Gentiles during the early Church's controversy over historical religious observances, the Apostle Paul makes clear that it isn't which specific day we observe, but that we observe a day.

The basic idea of "Sabbath" is "to cease or rest," literally "to stop." The idea is beautifully expressed in the word "intermission" as the interruption of one's own effort. That definition comes from the meaning of the Hebrew word in the original language of Scripture. As God modeled for us at creation, He is saying that His people must observe one day in seven as a day of rest from their own labors-a day for a change of pace.

What's the Sabbath for?

That the Sabbath be "sanctified," that is, set apart unto the Lord, does not mean in and of itself that the Sabbath was intended to be the day we go to church or even a day dedicated to worship. Worship is a way of life, an attitude of heart, not a one-day-in-seven mindset. Sanctification has to do with the restoration of wholeness, "holiness," to our lives; it isn't something we do to improve ourselves or try to earn points with God.

So if the focus of the Sabbath isn't worshiping God, then what's it for? It's for the purpose of altering our usual pattern in order that something regenerative, renewing, and re-creative would take place in us physically, mentally, and spiritually. That we would be restored to the wholeness God intends for us-in relationship with Him, in our behavior, in our bodies and minds, and in everything we do. That incorporates the need to be in His presence, it incorporates what we think of as worship expressions, and it incorporates time in His Word. It could incorporate "church," but we don't need to be in church for 24 hours in order to fulfill the Sabbath.

Do Christians still need to observe the Sabbath?

The Lord sanctified and blessed the Sabbath before the Law (the Ten Commandments) was established. Then in the Law, He reaffirmed it and indicated it is a high priority issue with Him. The New Testament has not dismantled that. Jesus makes it clear that we don't keep the Law in order to be acceptable before God or redeemed in His sight, but having been redeemed and restored to Him, the Law is significant for its practical, purposeful value in our lives. In fact, Jesus declares in the Gospel of Matthew that He comes not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it, and that whoever breaks the commandments shall be called "least in the kingdom of heaven" (5:17-19).

Rather than mere legalism, God is saying to us: You can't live without a Sabbath. You can't survive effectively in this portion of My creation called Earth unless you observe a day set apart. You need the rest, you need the change, and you need the transformation that comes about because of it.

Why did God observe the Sabbath?

In that summer season when my precious wife brought this matter to my attention, the Lord showed me what an idolatrous (and that's a tough word to use) thing it was to suppose I could survive with strength and effectiveness without observing one of the fundamental ordinances God had set forth. I was 42 years old and still feeling the vibrancy of youth. I didn't feel I needed to take a day of rest. So God asked me, "Jack, do you think I observed the Sabbath because I was tired?" Of course not. The Creator did it to model the Sabbath for us.

That was a revelation. God was not telling me to observe a change of pace because I was tired, but because I am human. To try to live any other way is to presume I can serve Him on my own terms and in my own strength.

How can I take time for the Sabbath when there's so much to do?

One of the most common arguments we have for not taking a day of rest is that we have so much work to do. When the Bible says the Lord blessed the Sabbath, He illustrated it in the distribution of the miracle of the manna. For six days the manna appeared on the ground. God told His people they would find and gather twice as much on the sixth day, and the next day, it wouldn't appear. He wanted to see if they would obey Him. Still, there were those who witnessed the miracle, and yet went out looking for it on the seventh day. Some of us continue to do that.

We are provided with direct guidelines in Scripture in which the Lord says, "If you'll do this, I'll bless it." The Sabbath is one of them. Over the years, I've come to learn that when I don't observe my Sabbath, my other days are not as productive. When I observe it, He blesses the rest of my days. It's like tithing. You give a tenth to the Lord, and He multiplies the rest beyond what it would be if it included that tenth. When you observe the one day in seven, He'll bless you with more wholeness and productivity than you could possibly attain by not taking a day of rest.

Enter into His rest

The concept of entering into the "rest of the Lord" summons our whole being-heart, mind, and body. Taking a "Sabbath break" is not only one day out of the week. In the Old Testament, there were assigned seasons of feasts in which God's people observed an "intermission" of their work. Some feasts were heart-searching, and others were just plain festive.

The Sabbath is woven through all of Scripture and carries covenant with it. Not the covenant of salvation but the covenant of refreshing on God's terms. In chapter four of Hebrews, the writer develops the whole episode of Israel's failure in the wilderness-a generation perished there, and the explanation given is that "they refused to enter into My rest."

The "rest of the Lord" is the place of being sustained by His power, of dependency on what He can do beyond what you or I can do-the place where we recognize He is the One who makes it happen. It's the covenant of possessing the land of His promised purpose in us by His power, not by our energy.

God's Word says there is a need for these times of breaking with routine. We are commanded to rest, whether we're talking about one day a week or a season of vacation. I thank Him for that day in the kitchen with Anna that brought this great commandment (and blessing) of God into purposeful, practical perspective for me.

Now I hope I've done that for you.

Copyright © 2009 by Jack W. Hayford, Jack Hayford Ministries