Everything sets the stage for the next stage. The work of the Lord is in motion. The process began in Genesis 1:1 and the end result has been in place since before the conception of creation.

Throughout history the Creator has been speaking His truth to the world. He is the One that predetermined that history would repeat itself over and over again because He designed us to learn through repetition. He designed us to learn because He does not want us to be uninformed. He has never been one to sneak around and be crafty. He has always openly displayed who He claimed to be.

Unlike others God has never had to use “smooth words”, He just speaks and we can take it or leave it. He remains who He is regardless of what we choose to believe. He speaks so that we can know Him. He has recorded His words in a book and the truth of them are validated by heaven and earth itself and even printed in secular books of history’s account and told through mouths in mythological stories and folklore all around the world in every nation and in every tongue… even in those nations who have never had His book of His-story to read when they were recording their own.

What’s coming is clear. What’s coming has been told before. What’s coming on a global scale has been seen over and over and over again in individual nations and tribes and peoples… we either see it or we buy it.

By smooth words he will turn to godlessness those who act wickedly toward the covenant, but the people who know their God will display strength and take action. Those who have insight among the people will give understanding to the many; yet they will fall by sword and by flame, by captivity and by plunder for many days. Now when they fall they will be granted a little help, and many will join with them in hypocrisy. Some of those who have insight will fall, in order to refine, purge and make them pure until the end time; because it is still to come at the appointed time.

“Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will speak monstrous things against the God of gods; and he will prosper until the indignation is finished, for that which is decreed will be done. He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will magnify himself above them all. But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, costly stones and treasures. He will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will cause them to rule over the many, and will parcel out land for a price.

Daniel 11:32-39

God is not surprised or shocked by anything that takes place in this world. He also does not expect those who love Him to be surprised or shocked because He has told us what is going to take place. It’s all there, written down, for anyone who wishes to know.

Genesis through Revelation… we either receive the truth or we reject it… but God will only allow us to flirt with it for so long.

Flirting With Truth Part 1

Flirting With Truth Part 2

I just know that as I stand in my day, I pray that I would be one who falls. I pray that I will display strength and take action. That I would reason as Paul and not bow like Daniel and that my integrity would be undeniable as Nehemiah’s even if I stand before pagan kings.

I pray my attitude would be one of trust in the convicting power of the Holy Spirit and that in my words and actions my value of life and the intrinsic worth of every single human soul would be clearly seen. I pray that as my flesh desires to grow frustrated over lack of faith and unbelief and even outright rejection that I would never forget that my enemy is that murderer, that deceiver, that serpent of old who is able to blind and that my battle would take place on my knees instead of through my gritted teeth.

For I too once was blind and deaf and dead. I too once was lost, confused, and floundering in the dark… it’s good to be found. Even if in being found I fall. If that be it, then Lord let me fall.

This July 4th morning as I sat down with my spiral bound notebook and began to pen out my prayer to the Lord, and wrote to Him my remorse for the way this nation, that He has so blessed with His mercy and grace, has turned her back to His commands, I asked that He would protect us from the evil one. As I penned this out the Spirit stirred in me.  He spoke to my heart and brought to my remembrance John 17:14-19...

I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

Here lately one of the Lord’s favorite message to me seems to be Nicole, what are you really asking? Read My Word again. Is that what I promised? What did I really say?

When Jesus prayed for me, and every other person on this planet that would believe in Him and be kept in His name, and He asked the Father to keep us from the evil one what was He asking? Was He praying that we would never know hurt or pain? Was He asking that we would have comfortable healthy lives? Was He praying that Satan would never be able to touch us the way he touched Job? I am sure that is what many of us would like to believe, but I just don’t think that is what Jesus was asking.

The word keep in the Greek is téreó and the use of this word in the context of John 17 is metaphorical and it means, to keep: one in that state in which he is, to keep in i. e. cause one to persevere or stand firm in a thing: by guarding to cause one to escape in safety out of etc, out of the power and assaults of Satan, not to leave, not to throw away, to show oneself to be actually holding a thing fast (Bible Hub). 

The word from in the Greek is ek or ex and in the context of John 17 it means any kind of separation or dissolution of connection with a thing or person, released from, set free from, by severing their connection with, etc. to keep one at a distance from etc., by conquest to free oneself from the power of one, to be so lifted up as to dissolve present relations to the earth (Bible Hub).

So when Jesus prayed that His Father would keep us from the evil one, it really wasn’t that we would never know hurt or pain, but that we would not be deceived by him, controlled by him, backed down by him, or identified with him.

In the world… but not of the world.

How can we be in the world, but not of the world? How can we be kept from the evil one if we live in his world? If we look back at Jesus’ prayer He tells us. His prayer to the Father asking Him to keep us from the evil one is sandwiched in between the how we are to be in the world, but not of it.

“I have given them Your word” (John 17:14)

and

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth” (John 17:17)

There is only one way that we can be kept from the evil one and that is by the Word of God. The Word of God is in opposition to the word of the evil one. In this world we have the One Way and we have the Evil One. The world contains them both…

One is truth and one is lie.

One is love and one is hate.

One is right and one is wrong.

One is life and one is death.

One is light and one is dark.

One is hope and one is despair.

One is faith and one is fear.

One is righteousness and one is relevance.

One is just and one is corrupt.

One is perfect and one is perverse.

One is in the world and one is of it.

So here we all are with two words, two voices, two “ones”… yet only one sanctifies. The other collects and conglomerates.

So as our nation begins to turn further and further away from being defined as “One Nation Under God” the poignance of the prayer of our Savior in John 17 resounds even louder in my soul. Yes, Lord that I would be in this world and not of it.

I must be in this world so that I might be Your Light shining in the darkness… and the greater the darkness the more brightly Your Light in me shall shine. This is not the time to hide my light in a bushel or to be lazy and found sleeping with not enough oil to keep my light burning bright. It is not time to wring my hands and cry woe is me what is our world coming too?  Nor is it time for me to rise up in unrighteous indignation and point fingers and call names and take earthly stands.

No.

It’s time to shine. It’s time to show myself sanctified. It’s time to rejoice that I might be considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

Act 5:41

Our American church has been so caught up in being “relevant”. In making sure the gospel is “relevant”. Yet, most have completely missed what makes the gospel relevant.

There is only one thing that makes the gospel relevant. Living it. That’s it. That is all that is needed to keep the gospel of Jesus Christ relevant in any day and age. Just live it.

So let us live it.

Let us trust that our Father in Heaven will honor the prayer of His Son and will keep us from the evil one. Let us trust that no matter what suffering we may face because of our sanctification in and by His Word, we can know that He will hold fast to us. Believing that He holds us we will persevere and be able to stand firm knowing that He sets guard about us and will deliver us from the assaults of Satan. Trusting that if for some reason we have stumbled along the way in the fight He will not leave us or throw us away, but He will indeed severe any connection or hold that the evil one attempts to get on us by supplying us with the power needed to be set free.

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth

Acts 1:8

Furthermore, I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and in the place of righteousness there is wickedness. I said to myself, “God will judge both the righteous man and the wicked man,” for a time for every matter and for every deed is there. I said to myself concerning the sons of men, “God has surely tested them in order for them to see that they are but beasts.”
Ecclesiastes 3:16-18

Are we ready to cry out yet?

Not are we ready to spew our venom in the world of social media, but are we ready to cry out to our God in repentance for forgiveness? I don’t mean those that are advocating and celebrating the latest American news story of the nationwide forced recognition of same-sex couples as legally married, nor do I mean those who are vehemently outraged and letting us all know it.

No.

I mean those who are NOT celebrating, those who are NOT angry, but instead are weeping. Weeping for the fact that the light we were supposed to be shining has become so dull that God has allowed the darkness to grow just so the light might be seen by those who are seeking Him.

But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

John 3:21

We have plenty of examples as how we, as the people of God, are to respond to ungodly leadership. We have plenty of examples as to how we are to love in an ungodly nation.

Daniel prayed and remained a man of high esteem.

Jeremiah wept and continued to stand firm.

Isaiah spoke and continued to prophesy.

Jesus longed to forgive, restore, and comfort and died so that He could.

I don’t want to “take my country back“.

No.

I want to see His Kingdom come.

O Lord, my heart is not proud, nor my eyes haughty;
Nor do I involve myself in great matters,
Or in things too difficult for me.
Surely I have composed and quieted my soul;
Like a weaned child rests against his mother,
My soul is like a weaned child within me.
O Israel, hope in the Lord
From this time forth and forever.

Psalm 131

This is the Scripture that came to my heart the moment I heard the news of the turn in our nation. This matter is too great for me. It is too difficult for me. There is no platform on which I have to stand to make anyone listen. What I do have is the peace that God is still on the throne. What I do have is the opportunity to rest in the Lord and to make certain that I am not deceived, but choose to believe the Word of God.

My heart grieved when I opened my email to see this message from whitehouse.gov in my inbox.

It was the picture of the rainbow White House that made my heart flip. Our entire nation before a watching world has just been defined by sexual preferences… as though this is all our nation is about. A nation that once was defined by her fervor to throw off the bands of tyranny has appeared to become a tyrant to her own. A government that was designed to be ruled by the people now ruling the people.

And we use the term “freedom” to validate it all. Now I wonder where will this stop?

Will this cause His people to become serious about their Father’s business?

Will this cause His people to cry out?

It’s a sad day. I am not even sure how to put into words the depths of the sorrow I feel, but at the same time I also feel this angst of anticipation that perhaps His coming is drawing nigh. Yet, I think we are simply seeing the beginning of what is to come.

My heart breaks in regard to our President, especially when I hear him slinging the word grace around as if he actually knows what it means. I hope that he is clueless of the blood that is on his hands. I hope that he does what he does because of the depth of the depravity of his soul and not because he purposes the destruction of the nation that he leads. The seduced one seduces others and the deceived ones deceive many.

But they did not listen, and Manasseh seduced them to do evil more than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

2 Kings 21:9

***

Thus Manasseh misled Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the sons of Israel.

The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon. When he was in distress, he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. When he prayed to Him, He was moved by his entreaty and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was God.

2 Chronicles 33:9-13

The political, educational, and spiritual choices of Manasseh carried on long past his reign. Even though Manasseh was brought to individual repentance and received the grace and mercy of God, his past actions would be the destruction of his nation. Yes, years would pass, and even times of revival would come, but God’s promise of judgment would not be forgotten.

I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 15:4

I pray for my children and my children’s children. I pray because even though revival might come to our nation our past choices consequences will run their course. What grips my soul is that these consequences will ripple not just through our nation, but through the world.

Manasseh did not have a camera on him that made his actions visible to an entire watching world. President Obama does. I don’t believe he realizes… for the sake of his eternal soul… I hope he does this out of ignorance and delusion. (However, it appears to me that he quotes, or misquotes, way too much Scripture to play the ignorant card, yet I suppose so did Saul of Tarsus before he saw the Light.)

Obama’s sphere of influence stretches far beyond our nation, thus so does his accountability before a holy God. He has much more to be concerned about than poll results.

If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.” 

John 12:47-50

The popular phrase “only God can judge me” is a terrifying thing to me. He can indeed judge and He will. Sadly those that use this as their motto seem to not understand that Jesus came so that we didn’t have to be judged by God… because apart from Christ there is no way we can be saved from His judgment which will come with the full extent of the law, that law being His Law not our own, and not our interpretation of His Law. 

However, until that time when He judges the earth how shall we who love Him respond?

It is really quite simple…

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.

Philippians 2:12-16

Hold fast the word of life beloved.

Hold fast.

But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.

Luke 8:15

Don’t allow this to cause you to live out the deeds of the flesh, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these,  because we have been advised and warned that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5:19-21).

Maintain self-control.

Remain gentle.

Remain faithful.

Remain good.

Remain kind.

Remain patient.

Keep peace.

Keep joy.

Live love.

For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

1 John 5:3

Be faithful in your own marriage. Be the spiritual heads of your own family. Be consistently involved in your own church and community. Be encouragers to your own children and to other children. Be diligent to pay your own bills. Hold fast your integrity and be men and women of high esteem. Do not be the reason that your family, your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors mock Jesus and His Church.

…for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.

1 Thessalonians 1:5

There was a time in my Christian walk that I was overwhelmed with the Spirit of God. I was so intimate with my Savior and obedient to the will of His Spirit that I have no doubt in my mind that when I asked Him where He was in the days of the Holocaust that day in Poland, as I prayed on my knees before the ashes of millions who had lost their lives in the gas chambers of Majdanek at the hands of Natzi Germany, that He sent hail and thunder to remind me that He was there and He had not forgotten what had happened in that place and He would indeed bring His wrath one day.

I was so close to Him and so sensitive to His Spirit that when He told me to leave the choir that Sunday morning in mid song and kneel and lay my hands on a dear friend and pray that her womb would be blessed and she would indeed have a child, that I did, and she did… not once but twice.

I know what it feels like to hear His voice and know His touch. I know what it is to walk in obedience to His Spirit even when it makes no sense. I know what it is to sound like a crazy woman and call someone and tell them that God has a message for them… and then to discover that God would use it to restore them to Himself and grow them like never before.

I know what it is to go and share my testimony at a church and have someone who I had never met and have never seen since speak “a word” over me that was a direct and specific prayer of my heart that I had only shared with God alone and too see that “word” come to fruition.

I know.

I know what it is to have God give you a vision of His calling on your life and then to stay in a place around those whose words and actions lead you to suppress that vision as silly dreams.

It leads to joy stealing and prayer killing and going through the motions living. It’s a miserable place. I have been trying to find my way out of this place… but as I continue through the book “Come and See” I am beginning to realize that it is not that I am needing to find my way out, but that I need to trust that God is bringing me through this place for a purpose.

The vision that I thought had died is being revived. The Lord is teaching me in and through this time. I was reminded of that as I read these words in chapter five…

So gun-shy were we of anything that smacked of Pentecostalism, with its emphasis upon the reality of the Holy Spirit- the living presence of The Lord Jesus continuing in His Church- that those who taught us passed quickly over the “foretelling” aspect of the gift to make certain we knew that “forthtelling” was probably the best understanding of the prophetic task as affects the Church today.

While there is most assuredly the element of “forthtelling” in the understanding of prophesy, such as, “speaking out for Jesus” or “preaching the Gospel,” within the power of the Holy Spirit, one must not overlook the element of “foretelling.” Those who prophesy have the ability when, under the influence of the Spirit of God, to address the future in ways that bring encouragement to the downhearted, hope for a better tomorrow, and a promise of God’s Presence shaping everything up ahead for good to those who love Him.

The other day in Sunday School, the topic of the lesson was the 9th Commandment, “thou shall not bear false witness” or “thou shall not lie” (Exodus 20:16), and of course when the topic of lying comes up in a couples class so does this question every time…

What about when your wife asks “does this make me look fat?” 

To have addressed this question fully would have detoured the point of the lesson… but I will do my best to address it now.

There are two view points to this question. The woman asking and the man answering. To the woman asking, as a woman, I say this question is an attempt to fish a compliment out of the husband. To the man answering, as a man, my husband says this question is an attempt to start a fight. Either way their is nothing edifying or encouraging coming from this question.

So to all the wives out there… DON’T ASK IT.

I don’t ask my husband this question. If I put an outfit on and I FEEL like it makes me look “fat”, then I state MY feelings, “I can’t wear this, today I feel like it makes me look fat.” I own my own feelings and my own perception of myself. Besides, as a female, whether or not you feel fat is simply a perception anyway, it really has nothing to with your size.

A grown woman who barely weighs 100 lbs soaking wet will have days when she feels “fat”. It’s really not about fat, its deeper than that.  It’s simply a day, a moment, when you can’t see clearly and the enemy of our souls has found a crack to sneak in his lies of insecurity and imaginary comparisons.

Not long ago I had one of these days. In reality due to my own health issues and the stress of our last year I have added some pounds to the scale and the clothes in my closet simply don’t fit right at this time. As I was in the midst of a meltdown and almost in tears as I searched for clothes to put on, through misting eyes of frustration I angrily said, “I’ve gotten too fat to fit into any of my clothes!”

My husband responded to my heart not my words.

He immediately went and grabbed a picture off of our dresser. It was the first family picture we had made as husband and wife. I, at that time, was in the best physical shape of my life. He grabbed that picture and brought it to me and said, “I want you to look at this woman. She was skinny as a rail, but she was miserable. You are more beautiful to me today than ever because you are happy and it shows in your eyes”

I wasn’t walking with the Lord in that picture and neither was my husband. Skinny doesn’t make happy. Skinny doesn’t make beautiful. The joy of the Lord does.

My husband, at that moment (as at many other moments) in our marriage, did a wonderful job of causing me to see myself through the mirror of his eyes instead of my own. My own mirror is always a skewed. My own mirror can be like those “fun” houses at the county fair. My own mirror changes according to hormones, comments, fads, and fiction.

So husbands if your wife makes the mistake of asking that dreaded deadly question. It’s really not about the 9th commandment and whether to lie or to tell the truth, because if all you see when you look at her is “fat” or “skinny” then that’s a whole separate huge issue. Just answer her heart and not her words. She doesn’t really need to know if she looks fat, she just needs to be reminded that to you she is beautiful and she is loved. She still might change that outfit, but it’s because you helped to change her heart.

And wives just don’t go there. Don’t put your husband in a position to say or do the wrong thing according to you. He’s not a mind reader and he most likely feels like he can’t answer that question in a way that you won’t be offended or snap back. To answer, “No” he expects to be accused of lying or not paying attention. To answer, “Yes” he expects to be accused of being insensitive and no longer attracted to you. If we as wives are going to ask questions like these, we better be prepared to accept the answer.