A Pillar In The Temple Of My God, Part Two

The workings of the Spirit in the life of the believer are never quick or painless. There are no instant formulas for success when it comes to Christian victory and becoming pliable in the hands of the Spirit. King David, who is a type of a Christ, invaded the Land of Zobah, defeated Hadarezer, which means "my demon-helper," freed the land from the dominion of demon spirits and brought back "much brass," to Jerusalem, which would ultimately be used in the construction of the temples of Solomon's temple, which was what the Lord Jesus had in mind when He made this great promise to the over comer as He addressed the church at Philadelphia in the book of Revelation. The Lord Jesus wants to MAKE us a pillar in the temple of God and write His new name upon our lives. All of this was made possible because of what He accomplished at the Cross.

By Chris McDonald

TEXT: 1 Chronicles 18:8
Likewise from Tibhath, and from Chun, cities of Hadarezer, brought David very much brass, wherewith Solomon made the brasen sea, and the pillars, and the vessels of brass.

Rev. 3:21
To him that overcomes will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

Man was created out of love, and therefore, redeemed in the same manner. That tells us today that God did not create man because God needed man but because love desired much. When man fell, love demanded that man be redeemed!

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
 

When Jesus addressed the church at Philadelphia, He gave a promise to the overcomer, that He would "make him a pillar in the temple of His God." The "overcomer," is one who trust explicitly in Christ and what he did for us at the Cross.  The word "overcomes," is linked back to the word, "crown," and through the word "crown," we are told that the Believer can overcome only through Faith in Christ and His Cross, and in no other way. Those statements anger many today, including many in the Church world today.

This great plan of redemption includes the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, which is never an instantaneous, fast, quick work through any stretch of one's imagination. This journal is to encourage those whom the Holy Spirit is "making," into a temple in the Pillar of God. Some of you know exactly what I speak of and are right in the middle of this great, yet painful process at times. This will help you understand why this process can be so hurtful, yet FULLY in the Plan of God for all those who are born again and name the name of Jesus Christ.

Going back to our first journal, let me restate again that David was given the great plans for the Temple we speak but would not be allowed to actually build it; that task would fall to David's son, Solomon. In the 8th verse of 1 Chronicles the Bible says that David brought back "very much brass," from the land of Zobah he invaded. As we discussed in the first part of this journal, David is a type of Christ, and as such his defeat of Hadarezer, whose name meant "my demon helper," was a type of the Lord's great victory over every single demon power at the Cross. The Lord's Finished Work at Calvary does not need anything added to it or anything taken away! He has SPOILED PRINCIPALITIES and powers, making a show of them OPENLY and TRIUMPHING over them in it.

Col. 2:13-15
And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; [14] Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; [15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

For every one reading this journal there was a time that our Heavenly David invaded our life and set us free from all sorts of sin and bondage. Some of you reading this would have died a cocaine addict's death but Jesus Christ set you free. Some of you reading this would have died an alcoholic's death but Jesus Christ set you free. Some of you reading this was bound by lust, hate, greed, malice, envy, jealousy, but Jesus Christ set you free. There is only ONE way for man to be free and that is through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ!

This "brass" that David brought back typifies mankind which brings us to the subject of this lesson. It does not say it in this Scripture, but David took the brass he gained through his exploits in Zobah and placed it in warehouses in the city of Jerusalem to await the construction of the great temple that has to be built by his son Solomon. Gold typifies God while brass typifies fallen, flawed humanity. Brass is beautiful when it is kept polished, but it will tarnish very easily also. Oddly enough with ALL the gold that was to go into this great temple, the PILLARS were to be made of brass. They were to be a type, in the mind of God, of you and me, God's children.

The brass was placed in these houses of safekeeping for the coming time when the temple would be built and then God would give the architectural design of the Temple to David for the construction of the temple. He gave the plan in total detail; every single part of the Temple was designed by God and there were to be NO changes whatsoever in those instructions.

We know from Scripture that Solomon's Temple was an exact replica of a temple that is actually in Heaven and we will see it when we get there one day. Just as God had a plan for Solomon's temple, He too has a plan for our lives today! Our lives are not just haphazard, they are not to just meander off with no design in mind. When God saved us, He set out to MOLD us, to SCULPTURE us, to FASHION us - IN HIS IMAGE; an image of POWER, an image of righteousness, an image of holiness, and purity, an image of truthfulness, and all the great things that go with godliness. The Apostle Peter declares to us the Lord has given us ALL things that pertain to godliness through the MINISTRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, i.e. 'his divine power.'

2 Peter 1:1-3
Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: [2] Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, [3] According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
 

This speaks to us that God has designed a plan in Heaven for every single life. He does not look at his children en masse. We are not just faceless objects to Him, but we are individuals. He knows our personalities, He knows our strengths, and He knows our weaknesses. he has designed a plan for everyone of us and understand 'HIS PLAN' is a plan of victory, power, understanding and OVERCOMING glory. This idea that God has a plan for man has been taken by some to mean that man can come up with his own purpose seek to fulfill it outside the power of the Holy Spirit and being truly in the will of God.

Let the reader be clear of one all important fact concerning the plan of God. Believers really aren't needed in the great Plan of God, but hat we have been redeemed, and that we have all that we have in Christ, simply because God loves us. Man was created out of love, and therefore, redeemed in the same manner. This means that God didn't create man because God needed man, but because love desired such! When man fell, love also demanded that man be redeemed.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The pillars Jesus spoke of were made of brass, which we will deal with shortly in this message, and as the sun shone on them, they were exceedingly bright. During the days of Solomon, traders came from all over that part of Jerusalem, that oftentimes they spend the night outside the city close by the Mount of Olives. There they would await the rising of the sun the next morning, for when it burst above Olivet, shining directly on the Temple, which faced the east, these two pillars, would blaze with light, a reflection of the sun. That sums up ALL of man's purpose - to reflect the glory of Christ.

Powerful religious forces behind a well known best seller have tried to pervert the term "purpose," by claiming man finds his purpose through good works and understanding that he has something to "do."  All of man's "doing," can't redeem him nor can it bring man into the image of Christ and make him what God wants us to be through the work of His Son and the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

We as believers are to shine brightly, but not because of any brilliance on our part, but rather to be a reflection of the SON.

Everything in Solomon's Temple, including the PILLARS,  POINTED to CHRIST. That tells us that the plan of God centers around CHRIST, not man!!! Man is part of the plan of God for sure but only as man submits himself to God and puts his faith in Christ.

The modern gospel has removed Christ from it's central theme and replaced it with man's ideas and purpose, which is a false gospel. No matter who one is, if they submit themselves to the working of the Holy Spirit, they will be molded and fashioned in the Master's loving hand and as a result, God's plan will be realized in one's heart and life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father wants to MAKE us,  MOLD us, and FASHION us in the image of His Son Jesus Christ and make us what we ought to be IN CHRIST. I ask the reader today, "are you where you need to be in this process; are we what we ought to be in Him??"

That is what true purpose is when it comes to godly living, not the false concept of purpose pushed by a national best seller where it's claimed that offers a claim of righteousness to all religions as long as they perform good works and fulfill some type of earthly purpose. Good works do not produce favor and righteousness from God which is what this modern craze has basically taught and projected. Millions are busy doing good works but are not born again.

There has never been a time when the church world has not boasted of it's "good works," as it does today. Good works are the RESULT of true saving faith, not the means by which we get faith. None of our good works can produce the righteousness of Christ which only God is pleased with and comes ONLY through justification by faith, one admitting they are a SINNER, repenting of their sins, and placing their entire trust, faith and hope in the Finished Work of Christ and what He did for us at the Cross! That is the greatest error of this fallacy is one can be a Muslim, or a Buddhist, or a Shintoist or part of any other false religion and if they will just find their purpose in life then God will more than pleased with them. Neighbor that is damnable and false to the utmost degree! That angers many and it causes many to wince at the thought that the call of the gospel can be so narrow, but narrow the call of the gospel it is!!

Matthew 7:13-14
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: [14] Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

The true gospel has never attracted many to its demands which involve this process of sanctification which is extremely hard at times. Sometimes the Holy Spirit's work is mild and is done in a soft manner; other times the Spirit gets a sword and starts cutting areas of our flesh that make us want to just find a hole and hide. When the Spirit gets finished with us sometime there is not much left which is exactly what He seeks to do- NONE OF US - ALL OF CHRIST.

When one is born again God's work in our lives begins. Gods plan is a great plan and if one will keep their faith anchored in Christ, it will be a plan of victory and not defeat!

Gods prescribed order of victory for the Saint is Faith in Christ and what He did for us at the Cross. This necessitated the pouring out of His precious blood. For the believer who has his faith in Christ is spiritually seated in the same place Christ sits this very moment, "in heavenly places," just as Christ sits at the Right hand of the Father.

Ephes. 2:6
And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Ephes. 1:3
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

The great plan of God goes FAR beyond the believer's good works; it includes the culmination of all things pertaining to where the Saints will abide forever, and actually all that God is. The "pillars" in the temple of God had in mind Solomon's temple of old and was a figure of the great plan of God we speak for ALL believers!

The Brass

Solomon is the one who actually built the Temple, even though it was to David, who the Lord gave the plans, and who actually prepared the materials for its construction. That preparation is very interesting, especially as it refers to the pillars, and gives us insight in which the Lord prepares us. After David established his kingdom, he smote Hadarezer and as a type of Christ presented a picture of how Christ came into our domain, which ultimately brought about our Salvation. As David threw back the enemy by force, so did Christ, BY FORCE, on our behalf, break the powers of darkness, demon spirits, and all bondages and addictions that held us before we were born again.

David brought back the brass, which had been used by this heathen king to make his idols, plus all the work in heathen temples. So the "brass," which Solomon used to make the pillars had once been used in the fashioning of the idols, and the making of many and varied vessels and ornamentation which had to do with those idols. This is a perfect picture of the Believer! Before we were saved, we were dedicated to the things of the Evil One. We served Satan in his capacity of idol worship in one way or the other.

David Dedicated The Silver, Gold and STORED the Brass in Warehouses

1 Chron. 18:11
Them also king David dedicated unto the Lord, with the silver and the gold that he brought from all these nations; from Edom, and from Moab, and from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines, and from Amalek.

In effect, David, "dedicated," all of this material by bringing it back to Jerusalem and STORING it in warehouses.

This is a perfect picture of the individual who comes to Christ, and is then baptized in the Holy Ghost. All too often, such believers, fresh from the world, or from denominationalism, set themselves up immediately as teachers of the Word, etc. when they actually aren't ready. Such causes great harm. Even though the new believer is now saved, and even Spirit-filled, which he certainly can be of service to the Lord at that stage, it can only be in a limited way. There is still much of the old ways in ALL us i.e. "the flesh," which MUST be eradicated so one can be made into the image of Christ.

This process does not come easily or quickly, hence David placing all of this material in warehouses. From the 1960's forward, many thousands of denominational people, such as Baptists, Methodists, and others came into the mighty baptism with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Many of these people, newly filled with the Spirit, and thereby experiencing the great joy that has always accompanied such immediately set themselves up as Teachers and did great harm to the work of God.  They little understood, even as possibly all of us little understand, that to walk fully in the Spirit-led life, is a process which requires MUCH work and MUCH TIME by the Holy Ghost. Any effort to circumvent this process, which again is rooted in faith in the Cross, can prove to be disastrous both for the minister AND for the ones under their influence.

John 16:13-15
Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. [14] He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. [15] All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
 

Galatians 5:25-26
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. [26] Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

Walking in the Spirit, and LIVING in the Spirit are not done quickly and in many times never takes place in the lives of many Christians who are carried away after fads and movements instead of placing their faith and anchoring in what Christ did for us 2,000 years ago at Calvary.

I remember in 1989, two years after I got baptized in the Holy Spirit, I was so zealous to work for God. I had felt the call of God on my life going back to late 1985 when I had went to my Baptist pastor at the time and told him I felt the call to preach. His answer was "you need to find you a good Baptist seminary and learn all about how the Baptists build churches." Well the Lord had other things in mind and took me out of that church and placed me in a Full-Gospel interdenominational church in early 1987. It was that same year I had a supernatural encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ when He gloriously baptized me in the Spirit and confirmed the call to preach the gospel through a prophetic utterance over me laying on my back in the kitchen of my aunt's house in Atlanta, Georgia.

I was so excited about this call; so full of zeal but still very immature and not ready. In the fall of 1988 I was licensed by the denomination I had joined a year earlier and in early 1989 went to my then pastor, the late Rev. Joe Price, and told him I needed a church. He got on the phone, called headquarters and they said, "we have a place just for you." It was a small church in Grand Ridge, Florida that had just had a split and was looking for a pastor. The church had about 30 people coming, most of which were comprised of one family and a few other couples and would have at this point in the church's history because of the split hired anyone to preach for them - including a 23 year old snot nosed know-it-all kid preacher from a church 50 miles away in Southern Georgia. I know that there are never any mistakes in God's plan for our life and I don't look at Grand Ridge as a mistake but my wife and I at the time were very immature and not ready to take on a situation that seasoned pastors before us AND after us had been unable to reconcile and handle.

I had sat under Rev. Price as his youth pastor and associate for nearly 2 years and because of impatience felt like I was ready to take on this burden without giving thought OR prayer as to what I was getting myself and my family into. I can say these things 18 years later and see I wasn't ready but at the time I'm not sure Jesus Christ Himself could have come and told me otherwise. That's what happens when zeal gets ahead of the plan and will of God for one's life and it happens more than we care to admit. Denominations have a way of sending young men to churches based on headquarters' wishes instead of the Holy Ghost's leading. I've always said that if we'd get rid of our pulpit committees and the church come together in prayer and ask the Spirit of God to send us the shepherd HE wants for our churches we'd NOT get the hirelings that so many churches wind up with!!!! (I know all you Church Growth and religious folks don't agree with that and smirk and laugh at such a "simplistic" view of church government; but I can be sure that many who have been hurt by these hirelings who had no more business pastoring certain churches than my dog did would probably agree!)

Paul warned Timothy in his instruction to him warned of not "calling a novice" or one young in the faith or inexperienced in the ministry to pastor sheep; he did this because the Holy Spirit KNOWS the tremendous burden pastoral ministry brings; it's not just a job as so many had made it out to be - it's a God-given and God-ordained CALL upon which many, including my precious dad, have been hurt and hurt and hurt beyond words can describe, yet these true shepherds have remained faithful over many years despite setback after setback and the unbearable burdens and pain the call brings with it at times. This goes for both the seasoned AND the un-seasoned!

1 Tim. 3:1-7
This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. [2] A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach; [3] Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous; [4] One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; [5] (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?) [6] Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil. [7] Moreover he must have a good report of them which are without; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.
 

Paul speaks of several things in this passage to young Timothy but it is when he speaks of one being a novice that the warning is attached the minister can easily fall into the condemnation of the devil.

I got a call in January right before I officially took the church from my late aunt who prophesied to me over the phone saying, "you're headed into a hard place and if you do not depend totally on God you will surely fail." That sounds real easy but friend when you're 23 and full of youthful pride, zeal and arrogance, it's a sure fire recipe for disaster!

We went to Florida despite the pleadings of my in-laws at the time we were not ready for what lay ahead and within 3 months realized the difficult task was truly more than we ever thought it would be. The church had issues with preachers who had been divorced and remarried and when even though I myself at the time had not been divorced, I got up one Sunday and said we needed to treat those who had fallen into such situation with love and respect and I did not see any reason biblically we should keep such men from pastoring as long as the fruits of repentance and humility were evident in their life. Friend as the old saying goes, after that Sunday, the honeymoon was OVER! It was interesting and sad at the same time (we don't say this with any glee but we do say it to make a serious point) that the daughter of the couple who was one of the most judgmental of those divorced and remarried in the ministry experienced FOUR marriage breakups over the next 5 years. Let the reader be crystal clear - whatever you lay at the foot of another in judgment friend, it's coming back home to you! What you mete out - be it mercy, understanding, or what this family did to those in the ministry and divorced - that will be meted out to you!

Anyway, let me get back to my original point in sharing this experience with you. My pride and arrogance would not let me admit I had gotten in over my head so I winged things in my own strength for another 18 months which were without a doubt the hardest 18 month stretch of any period of my life hands down. I remember standing in the yard of one of my members at the height of this tremendous place of difficulty we found ourself in whom I respected but was not sure if he wanted me to stay either at the time tell me: "if the Spirit of God don't move soon here you need to pray about leaving." Pretty blunt words and believe me they stung a young man whose heart had been sincere in wanting to take the church but not being in God's perfect timing and not being fully prepared to deal with such issues we faced was lost as lost could be on what to do.

I went home that night, fell on my face to God and said, "Lord if you don't move quick, I am not going to be able to survive here."

Well the Lord heard my cry that night for in the coming weeks after that incident the Spirit of God DID move. I'm still not sure to this day whether it was God's mercy to me or His wanting to let me fully see the folly and results of getting ahead of Him; at that point in this adventure I didn't care but just thankful I was getting some assistance from heaven when we actually saw some growth in the church in the months ahead. Despite my lack of maturity before coming to Grand Ridge, the Lord gave me a burden for the city there immediately upon coming and preaching my first sermon at this church.  I had a deep desire to see souls brought into the Kingdom of God while I was there and didn't even care if they came to our church but as long as I knew I was instrumental in leading someone to Christ while there all the heartaches ahead would be worth it. I began visiting the schools, helping out in various community activities and actually was given favor among the un-churched in the city. The Lord brought two poor families into the church after the incidents with this life-time core family, who incidentally pulled out of the church for the remaining 18 months I would stay there, and shortly thereafter both families were saved including the mother and father, their 3 daughters, then the mom's mom and her sister and before we knew it the 30 we had coming were no longer just one family but many the Lord was "adding as such should be saved."

The mom's mom of one family was a practicing Catholic who came for a while before she got saved. She always asked me if she would offend me if she brought her prayer beads to church with her and her sister. She told me that she felt uncomfortable coming down front when we prayed and would feel better if she sat on her pew in the back. My response was always the same when I smiled and said, "I don't care if you bring the Pope, just come and receive what the Holy Spirit has for you - He can work on you on the back row just like He can on the front row;! those beads don't offend me one bit - I care about YOU." She smiled and laughed at that statement but came faithfully over the next 90 days; it was during this time we talked a great deal at times about the Catholic faith, of which I learned first hand of the hunger and thirst for the things of God in many hearts among those in Catholicism.

About 3 months after she had first attended services, we called people down front for prayer for healing that morning. I was praying for a dear saint on the end when I looked up and didn't see her in the back but looked to my left and realized she had come down, weeping, no beads in hand, wanting to get saved and ask God to heal her body.  She never brought those beads back to church ever again after that Sunday. I had the privilege of preaching her husband's funeral a few years later and was told by many who knew this couple that the husband to their knowledge was not saved for most of his life but something happened after she got saved and he changed. I don't know 100% sure if she was able to get him to come to Christ but I know this - JESUS CHRIST invaded her life and it would be hard for him to resist the Spirit of God in her from that day forward! I pray he is in heaven.

About 6 months later a former Mormon walked into the church on a Sunday night, slipped me a note at the end of the service and said, "come over to my house tomorrow night if you can I have many questions." He told me 24 hours later that he was driving down the road by our church and something spoke to him as audibly as he felt he could describe the voice and told him to stop and go in. I talked with him for nearly 5 hours that night about the Lord but he did not give his heart to Jesus before I left. I told him to call me when he was ready to do that and I would be there to help him.

Three nights later my phone rang, it was him and he said, "can you come over right now." Upon arriving he handed me a 10-page testimony of how the same night I had spoke to him about Jesus he had dreamed and in the dream an angel appeared to him and told him that the answers he sought could be found if he asked his wife who was in the dream with him and asleep in the bed beside him. He kept asking the angel, "what do I ask her?" The angel replied, "she will know what to tell you to do, if you will ask her what you're supposed to do." The next morning he did just that. Got his wife out of bed, and said, "I had a dream last night and I think I saw an angel in this dream and he told me to ask you what to do."

His wife was a Spirit-filled tongue-talking child of God who thank God knew about the things of the Spirit and began to weep profusely over her husband, whom she had prayed for many years since he had went into Mormonism and had never asked one single time about being saved in any fashion. She told him how to be saved and he knelt with her by their bedside and gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ for the first time ever renouncing Mormonism and declaring himself a born-again child of God.

This was what my heart beat for every day I was in Grand Ridge and 18 years later it's still what my heart beats for as we write these messages on Spirit Journals.

A month after this incident, a homeless family from Montana showed up on our church doorstep and we helped them as much as we felt we could but in doing so aroused the anger of the same core of people who resisted us a year earlier who had remained to "keep an eye on things." It was about a month after this the core family came back sniffing "blood" sort of speak and sensing our time there was about up and they would control the church once more very soon.

I again came to a crossroads again in the fall of 1990, nearly 20 months after taking this church in January 1989, but this go around I had taken enough blows over that 24-month time frame that I just lost all the desire to fight the resistance any longer. In mid December 1990 I finally resigned and decided to head back home to South Georgia even though my heart knew these new converts would not survive 3 days in this atmosphere of control. I left knowing that despite all the failure in our getting ahead of God, the Lord touched some folks, saved some folks, healed some folks and we know He got some glory for our being there.

It took me quite a bit of time to come to grips with why things didn't work out and believe me for a prideful, arrogant young man, it stung hard to realize that most, not all, but most of the problems stemmed from my own immaturity at times and not being adequately prepared to take on the task of pastoring a church with such a serious split and an element of control so embedded in the church that as we've stated, seasoned pastors after us and before us had come against and all had failed to move the church closer to God.

I share these things with you the reader, but hoping that this is going to help the young pastor out there, the young evangelist, the young teacher, the young prophet, the young apostle, who is so zealous to work for God yet is not in God's perfect timing for that work!

I can tell you 18 years after this happened looking back NOW that my wife and I at the time were not ready to pastor that church by any stretch of the imagination. The strain of those two years followed us back home and within 10 months the stress and strain of what happened in Florida took its toil on our marriage which ended in divorce. No, and a thousand times no, I've never blamed the church issues we faced on the divorce but the strain of what took place those 24 months didn't help.

After all this took place, I spent the next 6 years evangelizing, teaching, preaching when the doors would open never seeking or wanting a pastorate because of the hurt I experienced in those two years from 1989-1990. The Spirit of God blessed us and helped us as much as He could but we had just gotten so ahead of God that as I write these words in 2007 I know whatever the Lord's plans were for our lives those plans were at the very least delayed and in many ways frustrated and hindered in a great way. I hope you're listening to these words young man of God. Satan is the one who "pushes," and exerts pressure to get you to "jump out," there and have at it; God puts you  in a warehouse and seasons you for the seasons ahead!! 

After Grand Ridge, I went briefly into journalism writing religious articles for a local hometown newspaper, evangelizing, teaching, preaching when the door opened which was not that often; in 1993 I was hired by an international missions group, United Evangelical Churches, where I became the administrative assistant. It was during this season 1993-1996 that I had the privilege to preach overseas for the first time ever in the city streets of Kampala, Uganda, and Nairobi, Kenya seeing 1500 come to Christ one night in rainy Kampala.

Our time at UEC was a blessed time but became turbulent soon after we started because of the failing health of the president of the organization and his wife, whom we served and loved dearly. Let me tell you this. Whenever the Lord sets out to cut away the flesh He always has a 73-year old Rev. Hardin to put over a now 30-year old know-it-all like He did to us in 1993! Looking back at that time in our life's history, I see that as rough as it was at times relating to him and him to me that this was yet another effort by the Lord to cut away more flesh and pride from my life putting me in many situations where I had to humble myself and seek God's face constantly.

I remember one fall when Rev. Hardin left for a trip I was expecting him to give some great tasks to do in his absence; his 'great task,' was handing me a water pot and saying, "make sure you water my flowers out front." I remember stomping and snorting the first day thinking to myself, "I'm the administrative assistant here, not the water boy."  I remember what the Lord spoke to me that day too like it was yesterday; it was an overcast, dreary day and my heart was just as overcast and dreary. As I watered those flowers the Spirit of God came over me and He spoke a simple word to me, "unless you can humble yourself and water these flowers as unto Me, you'll never be able to pastor my sheep." I broke down crying that afternoon and told the Lord I'd serve the organization until the time and season ended there and if serving meant watering flowers, then watering flowers would be done with a willing heart.

The season at UEC ended in the spring of 1996 when because of health concerns Rev. Hardin's family came in and moved him and his wife back to the West Coast and closed the office where I worked. At that moment I found myself out of work, out of hope, out of ideas and quickly succumbing to this sense God no longer had a plan for my life and the dream of being in full time ministry again was slowing slipping away. Even at this point I did not want to get back into pastoring feeling the Lord had "called me into evangelism," but not addressing a glaring problem - when the Lord calls one to evangelize the doors are opened without you having to beat bushes and open them!!! Again pride and arrogance clouded my reasoning. At this point it had been nearly 10 years since I had received the baptism in the Holy Spirit and was first prophesied over that I would preach the gospel; those events of 1987 seemed like a million miles away and hope was slowing oozing out of this young man at the time.

During the summer of 1996 I had gotten so far away from God's original plan for my life and out of disappointment and hurt just quit all ministry desires to be frank not ever being sure what the Lord wanted with me any more and not really caring. I remember sitting in a Dairy Queen in Cairo, Georgia, telling my younger brother of this when he looked at me and said, "you're headed for a Jonah experience if you don't turn around," and I remembering sitting there wishing the Lord would send a whale or something to just take me out of the way. I remember always having a fear of flying before 1996 but when I flew out to see my brother out west that summer I was so hurt over the UEC situation and other family matters at the time that there were moments while flying in that plane the thought would come over and over that I wished the plane would just crash and end this hurt. That is as transparent as one can be but it's the truth and it again shows I pray what happens to you when you get out of God's timing; a domino effect takes place in one's life and the dominos seldom stop until everything around you is destroyed and gone.

Instead of dealing with the hurt and facing this situation through prayer and humbling myself before the Lord, I took off for Atlanta and eventually wound up in Lexington, Kentucky and Dayton, Ohio by late 1998. In Dayton, the Lord had His people there who would confront me once more with the call on my life and through a prophetic word in January 1999 I knew the Lord was not through with this preacher. It was during 1999 that the Spirit Journals website was birthed to serve as a pulpit for our thoughts, journals and whatever the Lord laid on our heart. Usually when the Lord births things such as this website it's always during a time of great adversity, and great adversity was certainly the highlight of that time!

In March 1999 I had started working with a church directory company and through those travels came to Knoxville, Tn where I met my beautiful wife Lisa in a supernatural series of events. We were married in May of that year and have never looked back since.  Even after getting married, settling down here in Knoxville and getting my heart right with God, I thought within myself  "boy Lord, I'm ready to go now and get back into the ministry full time!"  I've learned the hard way, whenever you say "I'm ready," let this writer assure you "you're not!!"

A few doors did open here and there the first year or so after Lisa and I were married but they would close just as quick. I stayed in secular work on the side selling portraits but was gone from home more and more traveling all over the nation from Maine to California. In early 1999 right after my coming here to Knoxville, we launched this website which we used to write out the things on our heart - some of the hurt from years past, but mainly messages of edification, encouragement and exhortation along with bible studies and special sections. We felt at the time we had to do something constructive for the Kingdom while we find ourselves in this holding pattern that remains even to this moment in early 2007.

Even this past fall in 2006 we got anxious again thinking the Lord was opening a way for us to rent a building downtown to open a church in the heart of downtown Knoxville only to see the whole deal fall through the day before we were supposed to sign the lease. In addition to the door closing on the building, two doors of ministry where we'd been given some freedom to preach over the past 12 months closed abruptly as well. Sometimes when the doors shut the sting is undeniable but they way we know God has shut the door is the peace that follows and peace is what we feel right now.

Friend, it's best when God puts the "brass," in the warehouse to let it sit to NOT open that door ourselves but let the LORD open the door and take the brass out!  There is a reason why the Lord takes us aside and allow us to wait on His best for our lives. I know the price one pays for wanting to beat the door down and get out of God's warehouse and it's very very high! Yes the flesh squirms and questions God during these times. Yes, you feel like no one cares and you don't have a friend in the entire world. That's how we feel at this moment as we continue to seek God's face for the direction He'd have us go. As much as we thank God for the close ministry associates He's placed over us that have given great encouragement and support over the past few weeks it still does not solve the lingering issue of "when God" is all of this going to end and we're going to be brought out of the warehouse and used in Your Kingdom full time once again?

Sometimes that answer never comes and even when it does come it's not a clear direct word. Sometimes it does come clear and when that word comes we MUST obey that word from the Lord!
 

I shared my personal experiences on what it means to circumvent the warehouse experience to speak now to many young pastors, evangelists, teachers, or even prophets, both male and female, the Lord has touched and who may have stumbled onto this website. Some of you reading this are in your early 20s perhaps, full of fire and zeal wanting to change the world for Jesus and head strong ready to blaze a trail to "make a name for yourself" in the ministry. Let me tell you first hand that if you're truly called by God there will not be any "making a name for yourself!" Most of the time if He has truly called you for an important and eternal work in His Kingdom you're headed for the warehouse before you're headed for the spotlight!!! To be frank there is no spotlight in God's Kingdom - true servants avoid the spotlight at all cost and if they get the spotlight, they quickly turn away the spotlight and give ALL GLORY to JESUS not to themselves!

I know of several young men the Lord has brought across our path recently with so much zeal, so much passion and yes, so much immaturity in seeking to understand why they feel such a call on their life, yet nothing is happening in their ministry. The reason is friend you're in the Father's "warehouse," and He's preparing to make you into a pillar in the Temple of God! When the "brass" used to make the pillars in the temple of God is brought into the Kingdom many times, it's not put out for display quickly, but over TIME and in some cases a LONG time. Very very very few have paid the price of waiting on God but those who have have seen eternal results from that which the Lord has done through them. I'm at a stage in my own life right now I'm tired of seeing temporal, quick fix results that religion offers; I want to see God's power displayed and eternal results brought forth in the lives of those we come in contact with! 

WAIT on the Lord, young man. Jesus accomplished more in 3 years than most accomplish in 50 years because when Jesus stepped out in ministry, it was God's perfect timing and in God's perfect timing, one always finds God's perfect ANOINTING! The anointing is what brought about the results we read of in the gospels and how the Lord Jesus went about "doing good and healing ALL that were oppressed of Satan." It's the same anointing we must have on us as the New Covenant church, most of which is rejected outright by the modern seeker-sensitive worldly saturated apostate system.

Acts 10:38
How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.

Young man, you may have all your seminary training, your business cards glossed and shiny, your marketing gurus telling you they have all the right gadgets to get you recognized, your contacts and "networking" all lined up, your denomination bragging on you and telling folks you're the next "rising star" among their ranks, but I'm telling you today under the anointing of the Holy Ghost that if you're truly called of God true spiritual promotion, maturity and anointing will NEVER come through those means!

He's going to set you on a shelf to prepare you for what He has called you to do. Jesus spent 30 years of preparation for 3 years of ministry; Paul never talked to the church at large in Jerusalem until he spent 3 years in Arabian desert, much of which the Bible remains silent about as to what took place during that time in Paul's life that I'm sure was very lonely and without many friends. The Patriarchs of the Old Covenant - Abraham, Noah, Jacob, Joseph, David, Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah - ALL had extended times of loneliness, hardship and WAITING before they received many of the promises we see God fulfilling in their lives through Scripture. The book of Hebrews tells us that many died in faith "never receiving the promise," but yet believing, were persuaded of them, embraced them and CONFESSED they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

Hebrews 11:12 - 14 - These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. [14] For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. [15] And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say that true abiding faith, which is always rooted in PATIENCE, is never easy and is always accompanied by tremendous difficulty:

Hebrews 11:33-40 - Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, [34] Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. [35] Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: [36] And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: [37] They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; [38] (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. [39] And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: [40] God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

I don't care of the promise of the big congregation, the big money coffers, the popularity among the heathen the Purpose Driven Life or Purpose Driven Church "module," of ministry promises you if you follow their "plan" and "purpose," - you're not going to answer to Rick Warren for your ministry young man - you are going to answer to God!

Better to wait in the warehouse and be in God's will than to get ahead of God and destroy your life, family and ultimately your ministry because you arrogantly think you have enough talent and ability in your own strength or have faith in a man-made module to draw crowds and build big churches. To be honest, you actually may have the talent to do just that - draw crowds. But you won't have anything in your soul or any anointing of the Spirit on your life to truly HELP the crowd!

That is what is wrong with this modern gospel today. It is so full of vain philosophy and wicked deceit that we've made it very acceptable to the non-believer and redefined the message of the first century apostles and church, a church FULL of the HOLY GHOST! True biblical ministry will NEVER appeal to a sinful, Christ-rejecting, God-blaspheming world - NEVER!. Our job is not to appeal to a world system but to preach the gospel and ask the Holy Spirit to bring men OUT from underneath this world system!

That which you think is popular among the world system is often if not always putrid and repulsive in the sight of God. That which is usually repulsive and rejected by the church world is usually what God anoints and is pleased with. If we cease to preach the OFFENSE of the Cross, then the  POWER that will change men's hearts also ceases!

If our techniques are being applauded by the church system and it's seeker-sensitive crowds I would suggest we change your techniques! They may have people swooning and just standing in "awe" of our great ability, but if we're not preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus without fear and favor under the anointing of the Holy Ghost, then friend those swooning may swoon, but their souls are headed to Hell if they're not born again.  I know that sounds rough to some but young man when you stand and preach the souls of those listening to you are on YOUR account when it comes to God! You will be held accountable to God for what you preach and teach to others.

Ezekiel 3:17-18
Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. [18] When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
 

If the church system tells you the true preaching of the gospel is not welcomed any longer in their "scheme" of things and as a result you thus are no longer welcome there - don't cry - REJOICE! If you've given the wicked warning and they reject, they will die in their iniquity but YOU will save your soul! Kick the dust off your feet, throw your hands in the air and say "thank you Jesus for getting me out of this godless system of religion!" REJOICE and again I say REJOICE for if they persecute you FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS sake, which in reality means they are persecuting you for preaching the only source of God's righteousness - the Cross - then know they so too persecuted the prophets and the Lord Jesus Himself before you. If they persecuted the Master, the servant will NEVER be above the Master!

Matthew 5:6-11
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. [7] Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. [8] Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. [9] Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. [10] Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [11] Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

The church world and its apostate godless system and movement may call you "divisive," a "trouble maker," and all sorts of other names; the Lord Jesus calls you "blessed!" Hear me, oh, man of God! You're not preaching for man's approval but for God's! If you're truly called of God and seeking HIS approval chances are you won't be very liked by this entertainment-idol worshiping, selfish egotism of the 21rst Century version we call the American church. On the flip side, if man is pleased with what you're saying chances are you're not preaching a whole lot regardless of how much they cheer and applaud;  you're NOT finding God's approval if you're seeking man'sl! While we don't preach to purposely offend on trivial matters, it's when they revile you and spit on you because you're preaching the true gospel that then you can say you're getting close to preaching what is pleasing to God!

I know how hard this waiting period can be. I'm in it right now. I'm in the warehouse and not sure when the door is going to open and the Lord say's "it's time - I'm ready for you to pastor again." He knows my heart that whenever that times comes, I am willing to go where ever and whenever He says go. Someone asked me the other day, "well, you say you're willing but are you ready for what is coming?" Neighbor, NONE of us are really ever ready for what the Lord is going to do in us and through us in these coming days. This writer is not arrogant nor stupid enough to believe he is ready for anything in his own strength and wisdom, but he does know that THROUGH CHRIST and the emphasis is THROUGH CHRIST, we can do all things in His strength, not ours. His strength is made perfect when we are weak because that is where the Holy Spirit abides, dwells and works. I'm not ready for anything but the HOLY GHOST inside is ready for EVERYTHING and we're in this great fight of faith with HIM! Oh, Glory to God.

Philip. 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. [14] Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did communicate with my affliction.
 

Young man and young lady, if you "think you're ready," you're very very far from it and need to take a hard look within and ask the Lord to remove this proud spirit from your heart and life!! God resists the proud, but gives GRACE to the humble.

James 4:4-10
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. [5] Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? [6] But he gives more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but gives grace unto the humble. [7] Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. [8] Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. [9] Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. [10] Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

A Dream I Had A Few Weeks Back

I shared this dream in our monthly column on our family ministry site but I feel the need to share it again here as we close this journal on how the Lord is "making us a pillar in the temple of God." I don't have prophetic dreams often to be frank; Lisa my wife on the other hands has a ton, but this dream I had a few weeks back however was so riveting I feel led to share it with you today for it speaks to the need for God's warehouse to get arrogance out of the hearts of many new born believers and especially those who are just saved and the Lord has called into the ministry!

To understand the dream let me share with you an experience I had while playing baseball as a junior in high school many years back (coughing, ok, ok 1982 - you happy now - you know how old I am:) That year of 1982 followed a year I played junior varsity baseball at Cairo High School and won the most valuable player award for hitting and fielding at first base. The summer of 1981 was supposed to have been a summer where all those on the junior varsity team came out and participated in summer league baseball to secure their spot on the varsity team the following year. Well instead of doing that I chose to stay home, work and play "softball" with my church arrogantly thinking I could make the team in the spring of the next year because of my MVP award and merit in 1981.

On the second day of school in 1982 I was summoned to the head baseball coach's office who asked me why I didn't come and play summer league and prepare myself for this upcoming year's season. I didn't have an answer for him but even then felt I could do it. He looked at me and said "you're going to have a hard time making the team because of your hitting. You have the glove to do it but we're not sure you have the skills to hit like we need for you to play or start."

Well six months later I went out for the team and sure enough struggled all spring during practice hitting the ball. When taking batting practice I struck out often not keeping my eye on the ball and never asking the coach for help but continuing to arrogantly think I could make the team on my own merit of being MVP the year before as a junior varsity player.

When I was cut from the team before the season started it stung hard but was pretty much predicted by the head coach six months before for the very reason he stated - my hitting.

With that in mind, let me share with you a dream I had that I believe will speak to many people reading this.

In this dream, I was at the plate hitting but was 42 instead of a 16 year old snot nose know it all kid in 1982. My old high school baseball coach was behind me and I again was swinging and missing every single ball that was coming into the catcher's mit. In the dream I heard the voice of the Holy Spirit say, "You never asked for help while you were in high school, and that is why you were cut from the team; if you had just asked for his help he would have done more to see you make the team and play for him."

At those words in the dream, I felt this loving urge to humble myself which I did and then turned to the coach and asked, "can you teach me how to hit the ball; what am I doing wrong and how can I improve?" Those were words I never asked 25 years ago because of pride and arrogance yet when I heard myself asking them in the dream I began to feel my self weeping as I was humbling myself to him and seeking help. He walked up to me and said "you're not keeping your eye on the ball; you're swinging into the air; stay focused on the ball and watch it come into the bat."

After he told me that I stepped back into the batters box, and this time started hitting the ball each time it was thrown. No matter how hard or how tricky the pitcher threw the ball I hit the ball hard and many times hit it over the fence. I felt such relief in the dream that I had found out why I was swinging and missing. If there was a time I'd swing and miss this go around I'd turn to the coach behind me and say "what did I do wrong there?" Each time he'd tell me without hesitation; he never grew impatient and was pleased that I was asking him for help instead of arrogantly thinking I could hit on my own just because I was an MVP of the team a year before.

When I woke up I was weeping profusely on my pillow remembering the failures I had throughout my life both personally and in the ministry realizing that the attitude I had in high school concerning my hitting had followed all these years. Arrogance and pride always come before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

I lay there weeping and weeping and finally asked the Lord, "what did this dream mean Lord?"  He said "you already know," and I said, "yes Lord I do." Through the years I've had a coach so willing to help me not swing and miss the ball of life but because of arrogance and pride so many times I kept on trying in my own strength to hit and gain victory only to go down in defeat. That's all the Lord said to me that morning but I continued to ponder the dream the rest of the day.

Later that afternoon about 4 PM I was driving home when I began to realize what the other elements of the dream meant. The coach was a type of the Holy Spirit; the pitcher was the enemy who tries to keep us from hitting the ball; the ball was victory over sin, and then I asked the question, "Lord what was the bat, I don't know what that meant, all I know was in the dream it was made of wood."

The Lord immediately spoke to my heart and He said, "so was my Cross." I burst into tears in my car when He said that realizing that it all made sense. We keep our focus on  victory by hitting the ball with a wooden bat, which represents the cross. We cannot hit the ball in real life without a bat; in our spiritual walk we cannot realize victory and "hit" the ball outside putting faith in the Cross of Christ and LISTENING to the coach behind us and inside us who will tell us how to do so without swinging and missing and going down in defeat and failure!

I don't care if you think you're the MVP of the Body of Christ and God's gift to the planet when it comes to ministry. You had better listen to the coach inside of you and anchor your faith in the Cross during these last days. Millions are swinging and missing and not knowing how to stop the cycle of failure.  The enemy will always throw his fastballs, his curve balls and maybe even throw a change up from time to time to hide his true colors; he's an expert at disguising himself as an angel of light;

But if we listen to our coach - which is not a human "life" coach which so many so-called preachers and teachers of the gospel now claim the are - but a supernatural one - GOD THE HOLY GHOST - he will help us find the right grip on the bat - THE CROSS OF CHRIST - and He will guide us and help HIT THE BALL and bring the enemy's game to an end! The Holy Ghost can sort out the messes of our lives MORE than 10,000 of human life coaches and won't charge us $125 a unit for it either. (Those who do such need to be rebuked and exposed but instead are paraded on a well known television network as a leader and bastion of faith)

And if we get tired and weary from hitting the ball so much, there will always be a pinch hitter from time to time the Lord will send for relief- but the pinch hitter will only be for a season - till we can get back in the game and play ball for the Kingdom of God!!!! God doesn't want to cut us from the team and the only thing that will get us cut is PRIDE AND ARROGANCE!

LET THIS SINK IN TODAY FRIEND AND HELP YOU IN YOUR WALK WITH GOD. Each time the Lord brings this dream to mind I weep because it speaks to this writer deeply at how many times he's swung and missed and could have just taken a minute or two to turn to the coach and ask, "what I am doing wrong?" He'd gladly told me and helped me. I guarantee you now that before I tie my shoes in the morning or my feet even hit the floor for that matter I'm asking the Holy Spirit, "what do you want me to do today?" He can do the same for you today if you'll let him!

The Warehouse Gets Pride/Arrogance Out Of The Way

God resists the proud but gives GRACE, help, anointing, assistance, blessing, instruction, deliverance and HIS game plan, not ours, to the HUMBLE! Young man, young lady, whom the Lord has called, heed the warnings in this journal today. I just saw a website of a lady who has rapidly become a house hold name among Christian circles today, which was nothing but a shameful promotion of HER and nothing on the site that glorified Christ and what He did for us at the Cross 2,000 years ago. In one area of the website it proclaimed this lady had been named "one of the most influential Christians among evangelicals in 2007," without shame or any thought that this was blatant pride and egotism and not the humility that the Spirit of God anoints.

Women by the score are carried away with her charisma and clamor after what they perceive as the "anointing," on her life. No, I'm not going to be stupid and question whether this lady's anointing is legit or not - I'll leave that between her and God - but I know there is a humility that comes with all TRUE ministry anointing and this lady don't have it neighbor! I don't have to have an angelic visitation to help me discern that or a doctorate degree to recognize PRIDE and EGO!

She may have charisma, a following, and may even do many great works as I read on one site where her methods were being questioned and her defenders were saying all the "good" her and her husband were doing. Again, I'll leave the final say on her anointing to God but the fact people point to her good works to justify whether she is anointed or not tells me a lot of the spiritual state of the church. It's ashamed that someone can be arrogant, rude and obnoxious in ministry and because they do a few good deeds the church world says, "well that is just part of the anointing on their life."  My point in this is not the lady so please don't email us and accuse us of trying to tear down another minister.

My purpose in stating these things is that when God puts you in the warehouse of His care for a season to fashion the brass, you won't have arrogance, ego and pride when you come out. You will be stripped down so much as to depend totally on Him that if a 8 year old kid walks up and says "I want to pray for you," you gladly kneel down and say "lay your hand right here," and you let him pray. If a new born saint who has been saved 10 minutes says, "I want to pray for you," you gladly receive and humbly receive their prayers and encouragement. You don't think of yourself more "highly," than you ought to think and in arrogance treat people of lesser faith perhaps or those without your knowledge as a piece of trash. That's not the anointing - that's what we call rudeness.

That is the purpose of the warehouse - to get the FLESH out of the way so the Spirit of God can flow through you to a lost and dying world and in essence make your hands the hands of Jesus reaching out to others; to make your voice the voice of Jesus speaking grace and pleading with sinful man to repent before it's too late uplifting the Cross of Christ as man's only hope of deliverance and salvation, not some insanity from the godless thinking and vain philosophies of a new-age guru who influences those on the New York Times bestseller list.

I have a dear friend in North Georgia who is on staff at one of the largest Charismatic churches in the area there. This church works hand in hand with one of the largest Pentecostal colleges in Tennessee in assisting new preachers get their feet wet in ministry who come out of this college's seminary program; many of these young men and women serve on staff there as trainees as the senior pastors mentor them and help them learn the ins and outs of true Bible-based, Spirit-led and anointed ministry.

My friend told a few months back of how shocked and absolutely repulsed he's been over the past few years with the recent crop of young men and women who have come out of the seminary recently (and this is true really for  ALL seminaries across America for the most part)  with attitudes that reek of selfishness, self-promotion and this feeling they're not here for the ministry and to do "all things for the gospel's sake," but that the ministry is here for them.

Most of these kids expect success in the ministry to be a big church, a nice car, big expense account, exposure to the big names in the denomination and all sorts of other things waiting for them after they finish seminary and their training; these things have nothing to do with success and true ministry.  Sadly, many of these young men will never make it because when reality sets in, it will sting so hard compared to this illusion seminaries are instilling in their students that numbers are how we measure success not the depth of true spirituality within the souls of those under our care. We can thank Mr. Warren's Purpose Drive Church movement's mentality for that erroneous thinking.

When dealing with our young men and women called of God, we've circumvented the warehouse season for the "brass." Many find themselves on the shelf later on involuntary because of failure which could have been avoided sooner had there been a simple humbling of themselves under the mighty hand of God who would have raised them up "in due time," in HIS time and under HIS anointing and power.

We need a fundamental change in how we train preachers today, we really do. The church world today wants education, charisma and "presence," as I heard one denominational leader tell me just last week. This leader said the church needs men with a "presence," so as not to "bore," people on Sunday. I beg to differ sir and say that it doesn't matter whether sinners needing to repent are bored or not! The church needs someone full of the Holy Ghost who is preaching the Cross of Christ! If that is boring the people the problem is not the preacher, or the message, the problem is the people listening need to get saved and filled with the Holy Ghost! That which is Biblical Christianity the world and most of the church system will ALWAYS hate and reject.

The brass, of which we all are a type, had to be STORED and then fashioned and molded before it can become a PILLAR in the Temple of God. And we who come to Christ MUST be stored at times for God to make us what He wants us be in His ministry and service.  In our next journal, we're going to look at this molding process a bit closer for if we not molded and fashioned correctly at the hands of the Spirit, we may utter a lot of things but our hearers will experience death and not life. Allow the Holy Spirit to do what He seeks and desires to do today in Your life. In Jesus name, we pray:

Heavenly Father, I ask you today to take all those reading this journal and reveal Your perfect timing and will for their lives today. Lord, this process has been very difficult in my own life over the past several years but as hard and difficult as it has been I know there is a greater plan in mind that will be known in due season. Give us the grace to wait in your perfect timing and help us not get ahead and delay the Spirit's plans for our life by our impatience. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Questions, Comments

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