Just a Shout Away From Transformation

Mark 10:46-52 (KJV)

⁶ And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

⁴⁷ And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

⁴⁸ And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me.

⁴⁹ And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

⁵⁰ And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

⁵¹ And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

⁵² And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

This passage of scripture begins by telling us that Jesus Came to Jericho, and then immediately it transitions to Him leaving the city with His disciples. What a marvelous truth is revealed here for those that pay attention to detail; what a wonderful way for the lord to illustrate to us the importance of preparing ourselves for His coming. Just like Jesus di in this passage, He will come quickly He says in the book of Revelations, and if we are not prepared for it we will forfeit the opportunity to be touched by His presence and we’ll receive nothing.

Only one man in this story was desperate enough to reveal his true condition, He was willing to let down the walls that kept him from God’s blessing and admit his true emptiness.  He was beyond caring what anyone thought of him, what they might whisper behind his back, and he was prepared to endure their persecution for admitting that he had a need.

It say,” And when he heard that it was Jesus.” He was blind and couldn’t see, but he could hear! Praise God!  The Lord always gives provides us a path to His presence, He always makes a way in the wilderness for us to find Him. Jesu always gives us something to work with. He was blind and could not see, but he could hear He couldn’t see, but he still had a voice, and so he worked with what God gave him.

Bartimaeus had come to the point of desperation and he was willing to admit he was powerless. His condition had cultivated within him a spirit of desperation.  His shouts for mercy were cries of desperation for deliverance.

Meanwhile all the “good” followers of Jesus told him to shut up, after all he was a beggar and they were the true followers. But he was desperate, nothing was going to stand in his way, and so he shouted even louder. It was his shouts for mercy that stopped Jesus in his tracks.

 “And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.”

His garment was a symbol of his past, of the lifestyle that he had lived in this garment, the life of a blind beggar. It represented his restrictions, his limitations and the impossibilities of the infirmed life that he had been stuck in and it was symbolic of the mentality that had held him captive and led to his desperately determined actions.  This robe said, “I am blind therefore I am helpless, I am unable to do anything for myself, to provide anything for myself, I am a beggar, my life and my existence are determined by the generosity of those who can see.”

I wonder, how many are spiritually blind to the things of God and are spiritual beggars in God’s Kingdom.  How many in the Church know nothing of the spirit of revelation, and truth made alive within their spirits through the Holy Ghost.  Too many of God’s people choose to live like beggars and settle for receiving everything second hand.  They are blind by choice.  Why?  Because when their eyes are opened, God calls on them to change! There is an obligation for those that say they love God to obey His Word.

Bartimaeus knew that to receive his sight would end his right to beg. He would now have to work and provide for himself, and he publicly made that decision. Jesus called him beyond his condition and convinced him of a fuller life. His faith gave him spiritual sight and he began to see himself whole.  He threw off the bondage of his past and he rose and came to Jesus.  He chose to be changed, he made a determination to be different, and he made a declaration of his desire to be healed.  He was leaving the position that defined him as Hopeless, he was leaving the condition that defined him as a beggar, and he was stepping into the unknown.

Every phase of growth in our spiritual lives requires us to step into the unknown, like Capt. Kirk, we have to go where we’ve never not gone before, to leave the comfort zone for the opportunity to receive a greater blessing.

As the children of Israel prepared to cross the Jordan into their inheritance, they were told to leave a space between them and the ark so they could see which way to go because they had never passed that way before. So many are missing what God wants for them because they are not willing to trust Him, if they cannot see or make sense of what He is asking, they refuse to follow.

Because they are not willing to throw off the robes of their past, Jesus said you can’t put new wine into old wineskins, we have to be willing to let go of the old to receive the new.  As Elijah’s mantle fell to the ground Elisha took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.  What was he doing? He was removing the old to make room for the new.

If you are trapped in a life of spiritual blindness, you must be willing to admit that you live in spiritual poverty, and you must be willing to fulfill your obligation to God to repent of your sin before He begins the process of true change in your life.

So many are trapped in spiritual blindness because they are not willing to surrender to God.

True healing can only take place when we are desperate enough to shout to the Lord, loud enough to stop Him in His tracks, admit our desperate need for His touch, and then once we are at His feet we throw off the past and allow the presence of the Holy Ghost to bring real change and to remove the scales from our eyes.  Do you want Jesus to stand still where you are?  Are you willing to do what it takes to get him to stop in His tracks?

Then your healing is just a shout away from you!

Shepherd's Blog: My Faith is Fireproof!

Shepherd's Blog: My Faith is Fireproof!: Dan 3:2-30 This morning, as I was praying, the Lord directed my attention to this passage of scripture in the book of Daniel.  It didn...

My Faith is Fireproof!

Dan 3:2-30

This morning, as I was praying, the Lord directed my attention to this passage of scripture in the book of Daniel.  It didn’t take much convincing for me to turn and read it, since it has always been one of my favorite stories from the OT. 

I have been going through a trial with my health. I won’t bore you with the details, but I have been struggling to understand it, and honestly I’m feeling a bit defeated.  As I read this passage I felt the Lord speaking to me through the Holy Spirit, “Hold on child, something good is coming out of this.  It may seem like you’re in the fire right now, but what you ought to be doing is praising me that you made it to the fire.”

He reminded me that there are others who never even made it to the fire, many have simply died at the door of the furnace.  In this story three of the king’s mightiest warriors died at the door.  

The Holy Spirit showed me that it is a miracle that I made it this far. By all rights I should have never come this far.  I should have died of a drug overdose.  There have been times that I had more than enough drugs and alcohol in my body to kill me, but God pulled me through it and brought me to the fire.

By all rights I should have been in prison for some of the things that I’ve done.  There are people who are there right now that are less guilty than me, but God led me to the fire.

I should have died that night on that road in Meridian Mississippi when I hit head on with a minivan on my motorcycle at 40 mph.  The police officers said no one should have survived that collision.   It’s a miracle that I made it this far. I shouldn’t be here, but God delivered me and brought me to this fire.  The Lord has been merciful to me time and time again. 

God showed me today, and I want to share with someone who may be going through some similar struggles and feeling defeated, that you ought to be praising Him that you made it to the fire because some have died at the door.

These three mighty warriors that died throwing the Hebrews into the furnace may represent the three most popular kids in school, the three most likely to succeed, the three greatest athletes, or the three smartest in their class.  Of all the people around you, by all exterior appearances they should have made it, but they died at the door.

On the other hand no one ever expected you to make it. Family and ‘friends’ had written you off as hopeless.  I was a disgraced pastor who even after standing in pulpits and preaching to others, decided to become familiar with the taste of my own vomit (Proverbs 26:11). I chose to pursue a season of sin, and it nearly, killed me. But here I am, alive and serving God again and filled with the Holy Ghost! I shouldn’t be complaining, I should be praising Him that I made it to the fire and didn’t die at the door!

I nearly lost my wife and family, but God had his hand on me and I made it to the fire!  I wasn’t serving him but he was keeping his hand on me. He sent his angels to deliver me.  I don’t know about you, but I wasn’t the strongest one, I wasn’t the smartest one, I wasn’t the most popular one, I wasn’t the one expected to make it, but I made it, and there’s no other explanation but God.

The fact that you are going through these current struggles shouldn’t concern you, if God brought you to the fire, He is going to bring you through the fire.  He didn’t bring you this far to leave you now.  The fact that you are in the furnace now is proof that you are coming out. Your miracle started at the door, if God wasn’t going to bring you out, you would have died at the door.  You would have never made it to the fire.  Tell the devil right now, “In the mighty name of Jesus, I’m coming out!

I know God gave me this word to share with you and some of you are going through the struggles of your life right now, you are going through the fire, you’re feeling the heat, the fire is real, and you’re pain is real, but God is bigger than your fire.

I know some of you are going through the greatest fire of your life.  It could be a financial fire, may be you’re struggling with sickness, maybe your marriage is in trouble, or perhaps you’re struggling with addiction.  God can bring you out!

I know right now that sounds like insanity, because there is no visible, tangible, physical evidence of anything good in this fire.  But I declare to you by the authority of God’s Word, and in the name of Jesus, something good is going to come out of this!   You are going to make it, and you are not going to burn up in the fire!

You’re not going to come out crawling on your hands and your knees. Listen to me!  Satan is a liar! When you come out of this fire you’re coming out blessed, you’re coming out healed, and you’re coming out delivered by the powerful hand of God! I declare it the might name of Jesus! I plead the blood of Jesus over you right now!

The king chose his three best men, they were his “special forces.”  The strongest most powerful weapons he had at his disposal so as to guarantee God’s servants would perish in the fire. These three men of God had challenged his authority and he was going to show them who they were dealing with.

Right now it may feel to you as though you’re struggle is on a different level, it may feel like the enemy is stronger than ever before and you feel like you can’t hold on much longer, but Satan wouldn’t be bringing out his best if you weren’t a threat to him. The fact that he is bringing out his “special forces” to attack you and me, tells me that we must be a threat to him, and that we’re getting close to our destiny! We are closer than ever to walking in our purpose, and we’re getting ready to step into a greater anointing than we’ve ever had in our life, and so the enemy of our souls is trying to intimidate and back us down!

The thing that brings Satan the greatest grief is to see the children of God walking and living in their liberty, expressing themselves in joy and peace, and worshiping and praising God without constraint, without fear or reservation.  So he sends things our way to back us up, to quiet our praise, to get us all tangled up in fear, anxiety and worry, because he knows the power in our praise.

I know we’re supposed to be people of faith I don’t want to be negative, but how many would just be honest enough to tell the truth and say, “I been knocked to the mat a time or two?”  Come on and just admit it, since you started your walk with Christ you have fallen down a time or maybe two. The fact is sometimes Satan hits us with a sucker punch, and it knocks the wind out of us, then we find ourselves lying on the ground asking, “What happened?”

These three Hebrew men found themselves lying on the ground bound in the midst of the fire. I’m so glad the story doesn’t end there, because it says that wicked king looked into the furnace and he was astonished.  What he expected to see was three men lying on the ground turning into crispy critters, but instead he saw them up on their feet, they were freed from what bound them and they were walking around in the fire praising God and the king saw a fourth man who it says, “looked like the Son of God.”  They were not alone, and neither are we. We must remember, Jesus goes with us into the fire!

Recently Satan may have thought he had me, he may have thought because he hurt me and made me cry it was over.  My enemy saw me go into the fire, and took pleasure in it and thought I’d never make it, that I’d be burnt up in the fire.  He may have believed that alcohol and drugs would kill me, but let me tell you something devil, I’m still here!  I am a born again, Holy Ghost filled, tongue talking, devil stomping child of the Most High God and the fires of this world can’t touch me!

Yeah I may have taken a stroll through hell, but I’m still here!  Satan hit me hard, and I went down, it hurt me and I cried for a while, but I’m still here!  And I have a news flash for the devil - I’m up again, I’m on my feet again, and I been set free from my chains.  I got my joy back, I got my peace back, I got my dance back, and I got my praise back.

During this current fire, I’ve been working on my praise, I’ve been working on my shout, I’ve been working on my dance, and I’m getting ready to praise like I’ve never praised before! I’m ready to shout and dance like I’ve never danced before. Because now I know, that the God I serve keeps me from evil and from the traps that the devil sets for me. I have found that my faith is fireproof! Now I understand that my God can walk right into the middle of my fiery trial, right into the middle of the hell I’m going through, and he can lift me up and he can liberate me in the middle of my pain!

The Window Seat Disaster

Acts 20:7-12 (KJV)

“And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

8 And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.

9 And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

10 And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

11 When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

12 And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.”

When I am writing these messages, I try to be as positive as I can be and to speak a word that will encourage people in their faith and lift them up and help them to place themselves in a position so they can receive all the promises of God.  Sometimes in order to receive the blessings God wants for us, we have to be corrected so that we can make some adjustments.

I have a strong feeling that this word may be critical for someone.  I don’t know who you are, but what you do with this word is going to either open a door to blessing, or it’s going to open a door of opportunity for your enemy to prosper instead.

My goal in writing this is that anyone who reads it and finds that they have been sitting in the window, sleeping, will awake and move off the window sill before they fall.

In a spiritual sense there are many in the church today, like this young man, that are sitting in this most dangerous place.

We could assume any number of reasons that he finds himself in this place

* The place was crowded and there was no place to sit

* It was hot and stuffy and he wanted some fresh air

But I tend to believe that he had begun to become disinterested in what was taking place inside, the preacher was long-winded and so he had lost his desire for the things of God, the Word of God was no longer exciting to him and he had stopped being entertained and so he drifted farther and farther away from the presence of the Spirit and Word.

The window is the Place where you can be inside and still see what’s going on outside.  In this context then the window represents that condition of drawing back.

Hebrews 10:39

“But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.”

Today in our churches there is a very obvious “draw back” spirit.  It is the spirit that wants all the blessings of God, healing, miracles, prosperity, but without making a commitment.  If it’s the blessing line they’re first to the front, but if it’s the commitment line, the dedication line, or the consecration line, for some strange reason their bladder goes to acting up, or they have to step out and make a phone call.

This is the spiritual condition that I want to call the “Window Seat”

From the window seat it appears that you have a spectacular view.  The People who are in the window seat can see all the problems in the church.  They can hear every sour note, see how everything should be done, they know right away what kind of praise we should have, they know when the preacher preaches a dud, and they can see all the weaknesses and faults of others.

You still have a great view of all the things that you left outside from the “Window Seat.”  The things that the Lord brought you out of come back into view.  You know what I’m talking about, habits that you had shut the door on, the things that were killing you, hurting your marriage, sins that were causing division in your family and turning your children from God, all of a sudden they become visible again, and from the window seat they don’t appear to be as bad as you remember.  The window seat is a very dangerous place to be, and there are so many that are deceived into believing that they can look at those things and it won’t affect them.  They believe they can stare at it as long as they don’t touch it.

I’m strong I won’t fall out of the window.  It doesn’t kill you to look, right?

It all starts with a flirtatious thought, “Man wouldn’t a cold beer taste really good right now?  Wouldn’t it be fun to smoke just one more joint, or maybe watch one of those dirty movies, just one more time?  Of course I would never do that they think to themselves, I’m just window shopping, just taking a peek, just having a moment of imagination.

Another word that we equate with the word window is “opportunity” and we are told in scripture not to give opportunity to the devil.

Eutychus never intended to fall out of the window.

Hebrews 2:3

“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him;”

Why did Eutychus fall to his death?

He neglected his passion for the things of God

He was more out than he was in

At midnight he fell from his window seat: all through the scripture midnight is a very critical time:

It was midnight when the death angel passed through Egypt and smote the first born

It was midnight when the cry was made that woke the sleeping virgins

It was midnight when Paul and Silas turned the corner and turned their pain into praise.

“Midnight” is where your situation can go either way, “Midnight” speaks of decision time.

The “window seat” is very uncomfortable at first.  When we first begin to turn our thoughts back on the things of the world we feel shame, we think, “How could I even be thinking about those things.” 

But the more you allow yourself to think about it the more comfortable, it becomes, then without any warning you’re falling.  You’re falling back into that lust, back into those old associations, falling back into your old ways of talking, back into desires that you thought were dead, back into those flirtatious ways, falling back into the habits that the Lord delivered you from.

I am speaking to those who have known the goodness of the Lord, but for one reason or another you have found yourself in the window seat and now you’re more out than you are in.  Please come back inside, get out of the window before you fall and find yourself dead on the street.  There may not be a Paul to bring you back in.