Archive for the 'holiness' Category

Teen Sex Slaves - Where is the Outrage?

Published
by
carl
on April 8, 2008
in Revival, holiness, mormonism and polygomy
. 2 Comments

Lots of churches in America are drumming up support regarding the slavery of Christians in Darfur but what about the sexual slavery of children in America? Where is the outrage from the Church about what is happening in Mormon compounds in the American West.

It is my prayer that our President is called on this by every foreign leader he meets until his term ends and then that it would begin again with the new president. This is a national embarrassment. Nobody could say we did not know this was happening. We all know that polygamous groups were systematically raping and enslaving teen girls to please the sexual fantasies of their owner/husbands and reap a new check from the government.

I am calling the church in America to repent of being silent. Fear of offending the Mormons has stolen the voice of the Church. It is our moral obligation to see that this stops. I know how passionate we are about ending abortion. We need to not stop that passion after birth.

What would you have done in the days of slavery? The same thing you are doing right now. What will you tell your children when this chapter of our history is retold in the future? Will you have a testimony or will you say you looked the other way?

Popularity: 47% [?]

Jerry Springer

Published
by
carl
on April 4, 2008
in Revival and holiness
. 0 Comments

I just watched Jerry Springer for 30 seconds and I feel defiled. How in the world do people watch that show?

My son is sick and I helped my wife get him out the door. I came back to watch a little Morning Joe and began to surf a little (red flag alert). I stopped on Springer because the person on stage looked so ridiculous I was curious if it was a costume or that was how they really looked. Then all kinds of unrighteousness broke out.

Forgive me Father for I have sinned.


Song by The Fam @ The Mission

Popularity: 30% [?]

8 Dollar Hotdog

Published
by
carl
on January 24, 2008
in Christianity, Missions and holiness
. 3 Comments

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Now playing: Christ For The Nations Institute - My Romance

Popularity: 19% [?]

Rape

Published
by
carl
on November 23, 2007
in Healing, Prophesy, Youth Ministry, holiness and visions
. 0 Comments

So I am working the altar the other day when I went to pray for a girl.  Instantly I knew that there was an unclean sexual spirit at work.  But I did not feel like she was in sin.  That may sound odd but that was my impression.  I asked her if there might be some sort of relationship that she was involved in that the Father may not be pleased with.  This was nothing heavy handed.  Just felt that I had to ask the question.

She was vehement that there was nothing.  I am ok with that.  I don’t run a cult, I am not going to make someone come up with something just to make me happy.   It’s the Holy Spirit that convicts, not me and it is the Holy Spirit that draws, not my words.  I left her alone and continued working the altar.

A little later I came back to her.  I felt like I had a little clearer picture.  I told her that I felt like something had happened and God wanted to heal it.  As I continued talking I told her that God would show her what I was talking about.  As we talked I knew she was seeing it.

Often as I counsel people they begin to receive revelation.  I frequently meet with people who want counsel and before they are done telling me the problem they know the answer.  That’s just how the gift works in me.

So as I was talking I could tell that she knew what I was talking about.  When I felt the time was right I laid my hands across her eyes and told her to see that situation.  This is not guided imagery.  I am not telling people to see anything.  I never tell people what to do or what to see.  I told her that I do not need to know what happened or what the memory was or any of that.  She had a memory that Jesus wanted to heal her heart of.  As soon as I told her to see whatever it was Jesus was pricking her heart about she started crying.  I asked her if she sees it and she answered that she did.

I then told her to look for Jesus.  The bible says that He will never leave us or forsake us. That He would be with us to the ends of the earth.  That means if we are His, He is with us.  When I told her to look for Jesus she started bawling uncontrollably.  I prayed till the peace of God overcame her.   I then asked if the memory had changed and to tell me what Jesus was doing to which she said,

“He is keeping my father from touching me.”

Selah

I wish I could tell you that I was shocked but I wasn’t.  You hear lots of statistics about girls getting touched inappropriately but when you start to see how it ruins girl’s lives the numbers take on a disturbing reality.

I was in prayer about preaching a few months ago and the Lord gave me a word of knowledge that He was going to bring healing to people who were molested.

At the end of my message I told the 150 or so youth the word of knowledge.  I did not pray for a minute before there were youth sobbing all over the building.  Boys and girls.  I wanted to just sit down and cry but I had an altar call for that and one other thing so they could have plausible deniability and the altar was full.  It seems like a majority of the girls that have relational issues that I counsel were molested.  I don’t know how many of the boys.

After the girl I ministered to this week regained her composure she began to make excuses for her dad, “I just want to let you know I did not get raped or anything.”  She was protecting him.  How sad is that.

I wish that I could hear preachers address this in service more often.  Just cut your giving message back a few minutes once a month and say something like, “Men, if you are touching your daughter inappropriately you need to repent and move out of the house until you get some professional help.  Girls and boys, if you are bing molested call the police.”  The fear of the Lord would come upon those who are contemplating it.

I don’t know this girl’s father, he does not attend our church.  I truly don’t know what I would do I he did.

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Now playing: Hillsong United - Lead Me To The Cross

Popularity: 22% [?]

The Walk of Faith

Published
by
carl
on September 11, 2007
in Christianity, Revival and holiness
. 11 Comments

I wanted to put a super-spiritual title to what amounts to a request for prayer. I post all the time about how awesome the power of God is and how wonderful it is to be used to further His kingdom but in all honesty there is another side to it. There is the cost.

About six weeks ago I got a word in prayer that I was under a satanic attack. If I remember correctly, I believe that He told me that someone was doing witchcraft against me. And when He said that, I understood that there was a witch, that was casting spells against me. This is not the kind of word that I rejoice over. A couple of days later I was on the way to my Friday night meeting and was feeling the effects of the attack. I only get headaches when I am under attack. This night they were splitting. I told the forty or so people at my meeting to pray for me because I was under a satanic attack. At the end of worship there was a prophetic anointing in the room and I told the group that the Holy Ghost was going to give visions. I prayed then asked everyone what they received

There is an interesting manifestation that happens in my meetings where several people will get visions. When I have the people share the visions, they spell out a complete message. And almost always, the message follows the order of the visions as they were shared.

The message came forward that there was an opposition to the anointing and that an evil spirit sat on top of a man made kingdom but in the end, Jesus would triumph over this thing.

After this I went into preaching on the Spirit of Elijah and the resistance to anointed ministry in the book of Acts. I ran through about five instances where people came against the anointed messengers ending with

These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, (Acts 17:6)

I declared that this is the testimony that I want. I want to be counted among the people that troubled the religious and the ungodly. That Hebrews 11 is not done because I am not in it. That I want to be listed with the great “apostates” of this day like Steve Hill, Benny Hinn, Reinhart Bonke, Rodney Howard Browne and the likes. I want people who are away from God to cry out, “That guy who turned the world upside down is here now! We have to do something!”

I then had an altar call after sharing a few words of knowledge. Just then a woman walked into the room. As the anointing fell in the room she began to manifest, and I don’t mean the Holy Ghost. This woman began to shake and almost yell, “This is not God. This is not God.” Her son was in the meeting and had answered the altar call. I prayed for him and he kind of stumbled backwards and fell. I am pretty sure he tripped but he went down none the less.

I found out later that she went to the senior pastor and told him that I grabbed her son and threw him into a stack of chairs. She said some other things but they are not important. (point of interest: her husband is a man of influence in the church).

I knew this was a manifestation of the demonic attack. I was praying this through and the Lord spoke to me. He actually toyed with me. He said, “Now where in the Bible does the immodest wife of a leader attack a prophetic minister?” I said, “Lord you know that was Jezebel and Elijah.” He then reminded me that I was preaching on the spirit of Elijah.

Selah

That whole thing blew over in a little more than a week. I knew the attack was coming. It came. I was ready. It blew over. Some would shout victory but I knew in my spirit that the enemy just went into hiding. He was going to attack again.

Not two weeks later we got a letter from our condo association stating that if we did not pay some back fees they are going to begin foreclosure on our home. About two weeks later my web server had major issues costing me almost a weeks pay. Funny timing huh? Tonight the neighbor who lives below me knocked on my door. It turns out that my washer was flooding his bathroom. Yeah, my washing machine flooding my bathroom so bad it flooded his bathroom.

Selah

On top of this I have had other issues that I don’t even want to enumerate. Last week I wondered if God was moving us out of this home into something better. If this storm was from Him. After tonight I believe firmly that this is the devil.

Would you pray for us? We need God to come through with a significant amount of money. At the same time we have felt like it is time to have another child but if we have another we cannot legally live in our home and will be forced out. At the same time as these, I feel like God wants me to launch a new ministry.

I have gotten a handful of prophetic words in the last year, more than one from David at RevivalJournal and Mark H at MadetoPraiseHim that make us feel like we are on the right path but this is not fun.

I know people don’t often share this stuff because it is embarrassing and they really don’t want a pep talk. But I think it is important to note that just because someone walks in a little anointing and sees a few bells and whistles that does not mean that they have a special God bubble around them. And while I hope someone can glean something from this, I hope greater than anything that I won’t lose my home.

Not sure how to end this post other than to ask you to pray.

—————-
Now playing: Shirley Caesar - Steal Away to Jesus (Prelude)

Popularity: 10% [?]

God is Sovereign

Published
by
carl
on June 22, 2007
in Christianity, Salvation Story and holiness
. 1 Comment

I had to come up with a witty headline and some copy to make this an actual post.

If you have a minute, and you obviously have nothing better to do if you are here on this blog, go read this story.

We never know where God is leading us. But He truly is sovereign.

 edit:  Wow, I used the wrong link and now I have no idea where this article was.  If you came here from a trackback, would you please let me know where this article is?

Popularity: 41% [?]

Funny Stuff

Published
by
carl
on May 12, 2007
in Christianity and holiness
. 0 Comments

Whether or not you are a Gary Lamb fan this is going to make you laugh.

hattip: randy

Popularity: 37% [?]

Thought For Today

Published
by
carl
on May 9, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Revival and holiness
. 0 Comments

Holiness is the habitation of God.

From the Smith Wigglesworth Devotional.

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Popularity: 44% [?]

What’s The Point?

Published
by
carl
on April 18, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Revival, holiness, ministry, salvation and visions
. 4 Comments

The three or four of you who have followed this blog know that I gave up trying to be a popular blog guy a long time ago. I post what God has been speaking to me. Well, here is what He has been talking to be about.

What is the point of your life? Reader, I am not asking you. I am telling you that is what God has been asking me.

We preach about eternity all the time but we live for the moment. We don’t really believe that life is a vapor. We worry about retirement as much as the world does. We worry about our reputations and are scared to startle the authorities in our lives with radical ideas.

Last week God began opening a ministry call to me. At first I could not get it out of my mind. I knew that God was in it. I was so excited what He would do. I knew that I would have to birth it in prayer but I was ready to commit my life to it. In the next couple days, I began to realize friction that it may cause.

That’s a real diplomatic way of saying that I was scared of the repercussions. I am worried what the leadership of my church would say. They have been inferring a very different direction for my ministry. One that I never bought into. I am worried what the people who hole my ministry credentials will say. Because of relationships involved, I would have to meet with them. And this has eaten at not only my excitement, it has taken a toll on my faith on what God would have me do. But God is sovereign.

I was listening to a sermon by Heidi Baker the last two days that stirred me. Then, while working on one of my other websites, I watched the video that is at the end of this post. Then it hit me.

Galatians 2:20 (Listen)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

I was no more a slave of God than the lost. I was no more His servant than those who mocked Him in the flesh. I was more worried about my reputation and comfort than I was for the people that He died to save.

I was in a spiritually abusive church for a while and allowed the controlling spirit channeled by the leader to begin to kill the prophetic word in me. Right before my final meeting with the leadership I swore to God that I would never again allow the gift of God in me to bow to a man again.

And yet I almost did it. But the man I was forcing the gift to bow to was myself. Unclean man that I am.

This may sound melodramatic but I am convicted and heartbroken. Convicted because I was sure I was more sold out to Jesus than that. Heartbroken because there are tens of thousands of people going to hell all around me and I am not giving my life to the cause that my Savior died for.

I do not plan to turn over any tables in the temple but I do plan to follow God. I invite you to come with me.

Christian Videos

Popularity: 58% [?]

One Thing People Need From Pastors

Published
by
carl
on April 16, 2007
in Christianity, Doctrine, Holy Spirit, Revival and holiness
. 10 Comments

There used to be a church in my town that had a real prophetic worship thing going on. The big name heavy hitters would come through and talk about how they were on the “cutting edge” of what God was doing.

sidenote: If you are in a church that is constantly hearing about how you are on the cutting edge, run. These words are meant to pump your ego and will blind you to correction from the Holy Ghost.

The church’s doctrine eventually went over the edge. Spiritual pride spread like a cancer, the roles of men and women got completely perverted (I am not a chauvinist, it was really whacked out), the pastor became a universalist then left his wife for another married woman in the congregation, divorce spread like wildfire and right before the total collapse of the congregation, they spread their sick and infected members to all the other churches in the area who then attempted to infect their new congregations with the “liberty” they now knew.

One such doctrine that was popular went like this:

It is good for me to display my liberty in Jesus so that if you are offended, Jesus can deal with your heart.

Does that sound crazy to you? People would get drunk, listen to debauchery, display their fake breasts and behave in unchristian ways with the liberty they found in Christ and with the understanding that the offense they bring will help others become mature.

I was at an engagement party where this was displayed in full force. One of the “mature” of this belief challenged me on my offense telling me that I need to go to God to see what was in my heart that allowed me to be offended. I told him,

I am not offended in the least. I just want you to repent so you don’t go to hell.

As odd as all this may seem I hear a version of this false doctrine all over the place today.

I remember hearing an old Leonard Ravenhill sermon where he talked about people who bragged about how they drank wine because they were not religious. He told them that they are sinners. And if you are a drunkard, you are not free in Christ, you are a sinner bound by the devil. The same if you are a pornographer, foul-mouthed, a liar, an adulterer, and the list goes on. I have to disagree with what has become popular and no it is not enough to “be on the path” with Jesus. You have to be born again. If you live a sinful life then you are not born again. Sorry. But it is the truth.

If I hear one more preacher brag about how they listen to the foul mouthed Bono and his band U2 I may scream. It seems as if it were some sort of spiritual test of maturity. Listen to praise and worship or contemporary Christian? Immature Christian. You listen to secular music? You are really mature. What kind of nonsense is this? God has not placed me in a position to determine Bono’s salvation, and I won’t. But I am equally sure he has not placed preachers in the pulpit to endorse his music over worship.

Preacher it is right and fitting to be relevant. God came down from heaven to speak in our terms. This is what he modeled for us. And while Paul became all things to all people, he never became a sinner to the sinners.

You know what is really relevant? The Gospel. Holiness. Seeking the face of God. Allowing Him to transform us. Listen to how John Piper puts it to pastors. (it’s less than three minutes long. You have the time)

Popularity: 53% [?]

Havin’ Church

Published
by
carl
on March 28, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Revival, holiness and salvation
. 4 Comments

As I bloged about earlier, I was invited to speak at the home group of some of the young men I disciple. They have a meeting at 10 p.m. in their garage and the expect God to show up every time.

The turnout was around 25 people all aged between 17 and 20.  About a third were completely unchurched.  Some were only churched.  And others were saved.

When I was preparing for the meeting, the Lord showed me an angel of deliverance that would be there.  If that makes you scratch you head it did the same for me. I mean, what are you supposed to do with that information? I can’t preach it since it is not explicitly in the Bible but I can’t act like I did not see it. Either way I had decided to preach Rev 1:18.

The key here is that Jesus has the keys to unlock us from bondage.  Most people are afraid to preach to unsaved young people.  I am not.  To me, there is nothing more exciting to me than a room full of unsaved thugs.     These people deal with the pains of life trying to act hard.  The Holy Ghost shows up and shows them who’s in charge every time.

So I read the Scripture then did a complete old testament survey 101 presentation starting with Adam, through the history of the jews into NT101 through the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus up to his visitation of John.

I then went into Romans 6 and preached the death with Jesus.  I told them that if they give their life to Jesus that He would set them free from the things that control their lives.  I knew deliverance was at hand.

I had a real altar call in that living room and about a dozen of them came forward and kneeled to receive the Lord.  Great right?  Well, apparently that was not enough because then I declared that we were going to have a water baptism.

So last night I had a Holy Ghost water baptism.  (That is the kind that takes longer than 15 seconds per person. Don’t tell anyone, but some got more than one dunk.)

About 10 people were buried with Him (Rom 6:4)  last night in a glorious but cold pool.

Popularity: 26% [?]

The Bapitsm in the Holy Ghost

Published
by
carl
on March 15, 2007
in Christianity, Holy Spirit, Prophesy, Revival, Salvation Story, Tongues, Youth Ministry, holiness, ministry and salvation
. 10 Comments

I really try to be nice to visitors. I try to think what it must have taken for one of my youth to get one of their secular school friends to come to church with them in the middle of the week. I went through elementary, high school, a stint and a half in the military, and half of college a heathen so I don’t know first hand what it takes for a ninth grader to witness in school but I remember what the peer pressure felt like so I really admire the work the kids are doing in bringing their friends.

We ran some numbers and in the last year we have gone from getting anywhere from 60 - 80 kids on Wednesday nights to averaging 125 now. We have baptized 26 so far this year alone. This leads to the point of this post.

Have you ever ministered to someone and at the end still could not tell if anything was accomplished? I trust that God is faithful to complete the work he began but sometimes I want a little evidence of the work of God.

We have all lead someone in a prayer of salvation and at the end were still not convinced that the person was saved. That’s right! I said it. And let me go one step further. I have seen to many outreaches that came back with a stack of decision cards but not a single convert.

I was in a church that had a month long city crusade that claimed something like 4,000 “decisions for Christ.” Not a single person got baptized from that crusade. What does that tell us? Nothing really. But if 3,000 people got joined to the church and got baptized in the next six weeks, we would call that revival.

So back to the visitors.

One of the young girls that I am discipling brought a girl last night. This girl has a Aimee Semple McPherson call on her life and is on fire for God.  Now like I said, life is hard enough for these kids so I try not to freak out the kids that they bring.  But sometimes the Holy Ghost is not as concerned about people freaking out.

Right in the middle of worship I got this burning buzzing prophet thing that came over me and I knew it was for this girl.  I asked her if she ever felt the presence of God (if you have never asked this question, just take the bewildered look as a no).  I promised her that by the end of worship that she would.

During the last song I went and laid hands on her head and the Glory of God began to be poured out on her.  Almost instantly she began sobbing.  To make a long story short I told here she was a hellbound sinner in need of a Savior.  She received Him and tried to describe to me the deliverance and salvation she had just experienced to no avail.

After service she answered the altar call (which was just a formality at this point) along with another visitor girl.  At the altar last night was that forceful fall in the spirit anointing.  It looked like people were getting “struck” by the Holy ghost instead of a gentle breeze.  You know what I am talking about.

I get to visitor girl #1.  Now this is the first time she has ever been to church.  She endured a hundred kids singing to God while some guy was casting the devil out of her.  She heard a message on the attack of the enemy, now she is standing in front of a stage and kids are falling all around her.  I don’t know that I would not have left.  I prayed fer her.  She went down.  She stayed down.

Now I get to visitor girl #2.  This is also the first time she ever went to church but the girl who brought her is not exactly a red hot ember.  I get up to them and immediately the both of them begin bawling uncontrollably.  It was really something.

I lead visitor #2 in the sinners prayer and began to pray for her and it was like heaven was opened above her.  She did that falling thing where people try to reach out to grab something to keep them from falling but they are already halfway down.  (That one always gives me a chuckle.  Its like they are looking for the guardrail or something.)

To keep another long story short, while #2 was on the ground twitching I had to cast the devil out of her friend.   After which I asked her, “How do you feel now?”  to which she said, “REALLY REALLY GOOD!”  (I call it sweet deliverance)

After a while her friend got up a little dazed.  I told her that now she needs power to live for God. And here is the point of this whole post.

Immediately she got baptized in the Holy Ghost and began to pray in tongues.  No doubt what happened to that girl that night.  One more added to the Kingdom.

Popularity: 47% [?]