Thursday, September 30, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
THIS IS A MUST READ!!!!
> -by Phil Buck.
>
> January 27, 2010 - Prayer time for the Church, at our home.
>
> I heard a word in my mind saying, There’s coming an earthquake
> of the magnitude 7.0 that was experienced in Haiti, only it is
> coming to the Church. I have sent many warnings down through
> the portals of time, that this day was coming, and now is here,
> even at the door. The earthquake will start from outside the Church,
> and then will permeate the Church from within. Prepare, prepare,
> there will be destruction as would never have been imagined.
>
> The rubble of the buildings of man will crumble to the ground. The
> teachings of man will have come full circle. There will be people
> that have bought into the man system and will be destroyed in
> the rubble of the collapse, some spiritually and others both
> spiritually and physically. For they have believed a lie and will
> suffer the consequences of their doing.
>
> Of those that have escaped, I see a long line extending beyond
> my vision to see. They are the walking wounded from all religious
> persuasions, that were not caught up totally in the man-centered
> religious system of beliefs. But being exposed to the system has
> left its mark in various forms on each one.
>
> I see this line in my minds eye, people lined up at the entrance to
> a white tent. This is where they are coming to receive life spiritual
> life from inside the tent. Those inside the tent are like doctors
> and nurses, ministering to the wounded, hurting spirits of each
> one. As they help them heal, with the proper perspective and focus
> of the gifts they have to offer, then they are sent from the tent
> whole and ready to minister to others as they were ministered to.
>
> "Now behold the ones on the inside of the tent, before they stepped
> inside the tent they had nothing to offer in and of themselves, but
> as they stepped in they received the power to work the works for
> which I have call them to. This is a special people that have closed
> themselves up with me. Yes, and some have been in preparation
> all their lives for this time and this mission".
>
> "I want you to see those in the tent, for they are those that have
> given everything to Me. These are they that this day I’m calling
> my people to come out of the religious systems of man and into
> the marvelous light of my Son Jesus. Will you be counted as
> numbered among those in the tent? Or will you be one of the
> many in the long line?"
>
> "Come away with me this day and give your all to me for the line
> is long and is now just beginning to form. They need your gifts,
> your love & your sacrifice of service. Will you be there for them?
> Or will you be among them?"
Monday, September 6, 2010
renew me
Renew Me
I cry out to you from the depths
My soul is troubled and in pain
My sin has been raised before my eyes
And I see what your hand has revealed
Tell me oh Lord how to be clean and pure once again
Lord I need a clean heart
I need my spirit to be renewed
Please don’t turn away your child for I’m crying out tonight
Return the Joy I’ve lost and lift me up in your arms
All of my strength is gone and I need your love to rescue me
Lord renew me, Lord renew me
Is it too late, have I done too much?
Have I disqualified myself from grace
Will you still wash me in your river
Can you still cleanse me from the mess
It there still mercy waiting for me?
Lord I need a clean heart
I need my spirit to be renewed
Please don’t turn away your child for I’m crying out tonight
Return the Joy I’ve lost and lift me up in your arms
All of my strength is gone and I need your love to rescue me
Lord renew me, Lord renew me
Your hand reach’s out and calls me closer
I’m aware of your glory all around
Forgiveness covers me and love washes away my sin
My Daddy still loves me and is waiting for my embrace
Lord I need a clean heart
I need my spirit to be renewed
Please don’t turn away your child for I’m crying out tonight
Return the Joy I’ve lost and lift me up in your arms
All of my strength is gone and I need your love to rescue me
Lord renew me, Lord renew me
Sunday, September 5, 2010
An Unexpected Encounter
An Unexpected Encounter
This is an interesting story that I want to share. A couple of weeks ago I was just leaving my house to hang out with a friend of mine. It was about 9:30pm. I decided to go the back way to my friend’s house because it runs by a Starbucks and I wanted a drink.
On my way out of my neighborhood I realized that I was 10 miles or so OVER having an empty gas tank. I started to pray that God would help me get to a gas station. It wasn’t too long after that my car began to sputter a little and then it gave up completely.
I coasted for a couple of blocks and came to a stop. I looked to my left and there was a gas station just over the median. I thanked God and then pumped some gas into my five gallon gas tank and took it back to my car. I put enough to get me across the street and after a couple of minutes; I was pumping gas into my car from the pump.
As I was pumping I happened to look up and there, sitting on the gas pump, was somebody’s wallet. I picked it up and looked at it closer. There was plenty of cash inside with just about everything they tell you never to carry in your wallet like account numbers etc. I just knew whoever left it there was going crazy looking for it.
I finished filling my gas tank and thought I would check inside in case anyone had stopped by to ask about it. The attendants told me nobody had asked. They asked to see the ID just in case they recognized him and they said they didn’t.
At this point I am starting to understand what God was orchestrating this whole night to be. I sensed that God wanted me to go get my friend before I took the wallet back so 10 minutes later I arrived at my friend’s house. He was less than enthusiastic about taking someone’s wallet back so late at night but I was finally able to drag him out of the house. We looked up the wallet owner’s address and soon we were slowly making our way down his street.
When we arrived at the correct address, the owner (we will call him Frank) was standing in the driveway. My friend and I got out of the car and approached Frank holding out his wallet. Frank was overcome with relief and told us how he had been back to that gas station looking for it. Frank said that he didn’t have much hope that he would ever see it again. I looked at Frank and began to explain to him how God had orchestrated this whole thing. I told him how I went a way I don’t normally go to get to my friend’s house and how I ran out of gas right next to the gas station where he left his wallet. I told Frank that God had worked this entire night out just to let him know that He still cares for you and is protecting you.
Frank was overcome with the revelation and he began to tell us about how things were going so poorly in his life. There were hardships in his work, marriage, relationships and just everything he was blaming himself for. He was also dealing with some health issues so losing his wallet was the back-breaker for him. On a side note….Do you want to know when God is pushing you to minister to people? A big indicator is when strangers begin to pour out their hearts to you.
Standing before my friend and I was a broken man…a stranger to us….a precious child to God. God began to speak. We asked Frank if we could pray for him and what followed was amazing. There was healing, prophetic, repentance and deliverance all in Frank’s driveway. As we ministered according to how the Holy Spirit was leading us we saw a broken man being put back together again as hope and perfect love from the Father found a resting place deep within him. He was visibly shaken by what God was doing inside of him. A peace washed over him and he said he hadn’t felt peace in a very long time. We talked with Frank for a couple more minutes and then left. What an awesome night!
I encourage all of you be willing vessels for God and ask Him to use you. If you ask Him He will give you opportunities. May our testimonies go forth to encourage and exhort all of us! God bless!
Jesse Birkey
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Who is your counsel?
Who are you getting your counsel from?
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin: That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. Isaiah 30:1-3
I have been spending some time in Isaiah lately and I came across this passage. I think there may be some important questions we should ask ourselves. Those might be "Who am I getting my financial counsel from?" "Who am I getting my spiritual counsel from?" "Who am I getting my legal counsel from?"
Today it seems that many things are up in the air especially with all of the economic issues swirling about. Many are losing or have lost their homes and many others are facing possible bankruptcy. Then there are also many who are drowning in debt, facing legal issues, spiritual struggles and relationship hardships.Are you getting your counsel from Egypt or are you getting it from God? I think that may be a hard question to answer but I do think there may be something to line up our counsel against. In this passage in Isaiah the Lord says that the counsel from Egypt leads to shame and confusion. Are your choices bringing you peace like Jesus promised you can have no matter what the circumstance, or are your choices bringing or have brought shame and confusion to your life?
I believe that in every situation we encounter we have an opportunity to take the counsel of God or turn to Egypt and Pharaoh for our answers. The one thing we know is that we can’t have it both ways. If you take any counsel from Egypt you are making a rebellious choice against the counsel of God. I think we could all agree that God doesn’t want to share with the wisdom of the world.
But what is Egypt? I think it’s different in every situation but I do think Egypt consists of people, organizations and anything else which leads us away from complete trust and dependence on God. I believe Egypt will consistently lead us to trust in ourselves and our own ability to solve our problems and prepare for our future.
These are important days and the calamities are only increasing in the world and in our lives as we begin to see things slip away in the world and in our personal lives as well. We need to be wise only taking counsel from God and those He has sent to speak into our lives. Let’s be testing and discerning recognizing that many who claim to have a message from God have only their own opinions and beliefs to give.
Maybe we think we need Egypt in our lives because we can’t hear God speaking to us. But God promises that He will never leave us and that if we trust in Him, He will work all things out for good. If we are asking Him He is trying to answer us! If we can’t hear Him then maybe there is something that needs to be corrected in our lives!
Sometimes it’s hard to let go of things and so we take counsel of people trying our best to hold on. God wants to bring restoration to our lives and I have witnessed the Lord giving back things people have given up freely in order to be refined but the thing is that God cannot restore something we haven’t given up. Many times we can lose something but we haven’t really let it go. I encourage you to trust in the Lord and if there is something brining you shame and confusion just let it go and see what the Lord does in your life. If you don’t, I fear the first part of this passage is for you! It was for me for many years. God bless!
Jesse Birkey
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Woe to the Rebellious Children!
Woe to the Rebellious Children!
Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.
Isa 30:1-3
I have been reading in Isaiah lately and I came across this passage. This is a very powerful passage and it should cause us to stop and consider it. In some of my earlier posts I have said that I consider Egypt to be the “world” today. I have talked about how when God calls us to the wilderness He urges us not to go back to Egypt and to stay on the path to the Promised Land.
There are many issues affecting so many of us today. I am going to address some of them here and in doing that may cause some controversy. My goal is not to judge anyone but only to raise questions in the interest of continuing on the path of transformation.
“Christians” today are at many different points in their journeys. Some of them have crossed into the Promised Land, some are trudging forward in the wilderness, some are lost in the wilderness, some have turned back to Egypt and some haven’t even trusted God enough to leave Egypt at all.
I think that it’s important to realize that the progress made on the journey of transformation leading to the Promised Land depends entirely on you. It is our choice and ours alone to advance, stall or backtrack through the wilderness. It is certainly our choice to enter it in the first place. For all of you crying “Heresy” right now don’t worry. Once we make the choice to move forward we depend on the strength, might, wisdom and love of God to get us through. What I am saying is that God is not going to pull us kicking and screaming. If you want to stop you will most certainly stop.
By nature, the wilderness is a dry and hard place to be. It’s the only place where God purges and refines us. It’s also the place where God comes closer to us than we could have ever hoped for. I have already written on that in my “Ishi” blog. What makes the wilderness such a hard place is all of the choices we have to make. Those choices are never easy and are almost certain to bring some kind of pain. It hurts to be refined. Is that pain God’s fault? No it’s our own because if we didn’t make the unrighteous decisions we wouldn’t have to go through the pain of having the unrighteousness rooted out of us.
The question posed to you right now is “when it’s time to make difficult choices, regardless of where you are on the journey, whose counsel do you take?” Who’s your counsel in your finances? Who’s your counsel in your realty? Who’s your counsel in your marriage and other relationships? Who’s your counsel at your job? Who’s your counsel in your entertainment? Who’s your counsel in what you believe about God?
Let’s try to define Egypt. Egypt is anything you’re going to for counsel before you go to God and anything telling you to do things that contradict how God tells us to live. That might include financial planners, lawyers, therapists, pastors, supervisors and so on.
What is your financial planner telling you? Are they telling you how to invest and to save appropriately? Sure they are if they are doing their jobs. But why? Doesn’t Jesus say that He will provide our daily needs? If you believe that why are you trying to prepare your future financially? Why do you need a savings account? We have been told that it’s wise to have savings. Why? Is it because it’s nice to have a plan “B” just in case God doesn’t come through for you? Jesus said “give us our daily bread.” He didn’t ask Father to set him up for life financially. It’s because Faith is one step at a time!
What are your lawyers telling you? Are they telling you about “loop holes” that will allow you to keep things you aren’t paying for? Are they telling you to file bankruptcy? Personally I don’t believe bankruptcy is a Godly option. Do you? If you have agreed to pay for something and then can’t but keep it anyway, how is that different from stealing? Does it sound like a more Godly option to sell those things you can’t pay for and then try and pay the debt? If you’re saying “I owe too much” don’t you believe that God can make the “impossible” possible?
There are so many people going through the pain of losing their homes. If you’re still reading at this point, can you answer this question? “If you have agreed to pay for your home and aren’t, but still living there how is that different from stealing?” Does it seem like a more Godly option to just move out and trust God to provide a place? Maybe you’re saying “we are trusting God to work something out so that we can keep the house.” Maybe He will but I ask “Why would He?” If you are living in a house you owe money for but aren’t paying for it then isn’t that sin? You have broken a contract but still expect to keep the possession. Why would God bless that? You might be surprised what God might do for you the day you move out!
What are your pastors telling you when you go to them with your problems? Are they telling you to pray more, come to special programs, fast, buy things or read the bible more? Where’s the teaching about repentance? Where’s the teaching about being delivered from the things afflicting us by actively engaging in spiritual warfare taking on the authority Jesus gave us to cast out demons? Where’s the teaching about obedience and that after being set free it’s the only way to stay free?
Why do so many therapists and counselors give us superficial exercises to fix our relationships while ignoring the existing spiritual battle at the root of our issues?
If you are being taught these things by people they are not helping you to trust in God they are helping you to trust in Egypt! If that’s you, you are called by God in the passage above “rebellious.” And according to the Lord through Isaiah these things providing your counsel will instead be your shame and your confusion and through them you are adding sin to sin!
I do believe that God loves to restore things we have lost but God can only restore something back that has been lost or taken. 1 more thing is required, that you give it up freely. Many of us have lost or had something taken but have never truly given it up. We must willingly separate ourselves from things and release them to God in order Him to restore them.
THERE ARE EXPECTIONS AND some pastors, lawyers and counselors can help you walk in truth and do, in fact, speak the Word of God but it seems like the majority can only help you walk in the strength of Egypt. Does that sound too harsh? Jesus said only a “few” would find the path leading to the kingdom.
I would love to hear some of your comments on this. Just please try and keep it civil if I have really upset you with this blog. I could be wrong about all of this. Also I am not talking without knowledge of how God can provide. I have been a part of many testimonies of God delivering me from debt, asking me to give away my savings and to remove any financial planning for the future. Since then God has never failed to supply my daily bread. Again even though it may sound like it, I judge nobody. I only hope to raise questions and through them we can all hopefully progress down the path God has laid out for us. God bless!
Jesse Birkey
