Prayer and the Holy Spirit

January 3rd was the last day I worked this year. A serious back injury which eventually led to surgery sidelined me and pulled me aside unto God. I almost wish every person could have a back injury and get sidelined the way I have been, because it would probably be a great time of spiritual growth in your life.

Truck driving is a very demanding job, (like many jobs), and now having had 4 months to focus on spiritual things has been one of the greatest blessings in my life. Do we have money for vacations, movies, eating out, new cars, and etc.? NO. But our bills are all paid and we have enough. It has been an incredible blessing.

During this time God has laid it on my heart to start something I’m calling, “Prayer School”, with a nickname of “Holy Spirit Dojo”. I have learned so much about prayer and the Holy Spirit during this time, that I am actually going to start a ministry around it. God opened my eyes to see that if my wife and I were willing to sacrifice a little, we could turn our living room into a school room and a sanctuary. Our house is becoming the building to launch “Prayer School”. We also have  a secluded area right behind the Prayer School that is like a Secret Garden that adds to the facility. I will get some pictures together to show you what we have, so you can monitor the transformation taking place, because there has been much work involved to change our house into this Prayer School facility.

The winter was rough, and when I went down with my back a lot of things got behind on our property. When God challenged me with the project, I looked around at everything that would need to be done and realized it was going to take time. If I jumped back in a job it would take even longer. Due to the nature of my back problem, we have not collected unemployment or Workman’s comp. My wife works part-time at Cracker Barrel, our only debt is our house, and we had a little savings. God has provided our needs and the government has been no help at all. (I found out I should have been carrying temporary disability along with everything else. Sheesh! The list never ends.) But anyway, we are still succeeding.

I’ve said all this in order to explain why this subject is going to be a very big part of this blogsite. One: God has given me a lot of revelation during these 4 months of isolation with Him. Two: I am literally starting a men’s ministry around this at this very time. I’m actually turning my house into Prayer School. So you can imagine this subject is consuming a lot of my thoughts. Also, it is a very important subject! Perhaps praying is the most important thing we need to learn as new born Christians! The reasons for that will be explained as articles are written.

PRAYER IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE NEED TO LEARN AS NEW BORN CHRISTIANS! BUT IS THAT WHAT WE ARE TAUGHT? WE’RE TOLD ABOUT IT, BUT MUCH IS LEFT UNDONE WHEN IT COMES TO PRAYER. THERE IS A GREAT NEED!

Eventually I will jump back into a job of some sort, and perhaps it might be interesting how God is working all these things out. Let me give you an example. Unbelievers will find this hard to believe, but if you could talk to my wife she would verify this. Since I was not working, I took my new knowledge and began praying earnestly for people to want to give their money to my wife! (As in the tips she would earn.) She has been our only source of income. Since praying daily for God’s favor on my wife’s labor, her hours have not gone up, but her income has increased by like 25%! It has been amazing!

However, prayer and the Holy Spirit is not a get rich quick scheme. God has been giving us just what we need to stay afloat and also progress on Prayer School. He has blessed us here and there with a meal out or occasional entertainment. God is so good I cannot put it to words, but so far we are not getting rich, nor is that my reason for seeking God. This brings us to the first point I would like to make concerning our new subject of “Prayer and the Holy Spirit”.

John Bevere makes an excellent point in his book: “Drawing Near”. If you go back in my articles you will find things I have written about a Civil War shaping up in the church. In his book he talks about two different kinds of Christians developing in the church.

1.) Those who follow God because of what he gives them.

2.) Those who follow God because of who he is.

Moses rescued a bunch of people from Egypt who wanted to follow God because of what he could give them, all of his blessings, as we say. But Moses was not such a person! He had already proven that he preferred the hardships of the desert, and the sufferings of Christ, to all the luxuries of Egypt! (Heb. 11:24-27)

So in Exodus chapter 33: 1-3 we find God so fed up with the Children of Israel that he tells Moses he is assigning an angel to take them the rest of the way to the promised land, because if he endures them any longer he will break forth on them in judgment! His holiness would wipe them all out! He said they were a stubborn and stiff-necked people, and the presence of God was not going to go with them!

John Bevere makes the point that these people would probably have jumped on that bargain with God. They just wanted out of the desert and into the land of milk and honey, and if that meant an angel would get them there, then who cares about the Presence of God? Sad to say, much of the church is infected with this same heart. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. How much time do you spend seeking the Presence of God? What sacrifices have you made for his Presence? What sins have you given up, and what sins have you clung to? Is he Lord? Master? Or are we like the Laodicean Church where man was running the church, not God! Jesus was on the outside, knocking on the door!

WE HAVE MADE JESUS TOO SMALL IN OUR OWN EYES!

Prayer School is about getting to know this one called the Holy Spirit. That can be more difficult than we think, because Jesus said in John 16:13 > “…for he (Holy Spirit) shall not speak of himself;…”

Hhmmm, so if the Holy Spirit does not speak of himself, then who is supposed to speak of him, and how do we learn of him, so that we can!

Moses was of a different spiritual makeup than those craving Egypt. In verse 15 he says > “If your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”

Moses had already made this choice once before. Are you willing to live in a harsh desert rather than a land flowing with milk and honey? If God’s Presence was only in the desert, would you be willing to live there? Would the choice be a difficult one for you? My wife and I are living on much less right now, in order to create a place where a strong Presence of God can grow. Many times we only need to choose the desert for a short period of time, while we are proving ourselves and developing a vision God has given. Be that as it may, God’s Presence is Priority One. Will there be a spiritual civil war between those who seek his Presence first, and those who seek his blessings first? I say the war has already begun. Are you sure which side you’re on?

Prayer School, Holy Spirit Dojo, is all about developing a greater Presence of God in our life. How can we overcome these things that seem to drag us down? Well, oddly enough, a greater measure of His Presence is actually the supernatural answer to our greatest challenges. So this concludes our first article on this subject, and I hope I have wetted your appetite for much more to come. This is quite possibly the most important thing we need to know.

If we teach a Christian how to pray, we have not fed them for a day, but for a lifetime!

DIVERGENT > “What’s in a name?”

As promised, here is the article, “What’s in a name”, as I continue my reading of the book, “Divergent”. After this article I intend to get into the subject of, “More Holy Spirit by way of prayer”. How can we know the Holy Spirit when he does not speak of himself? Satan has been systematically feminizing the Church, and those who recognize this and pull out of this spiritual nose-dive will be ready for the last days. Otherwise, good luck!

Okay, DIVERGENT! What’s in a name?

The first thing I would like to say is that: YOUR NAME IS WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT!

In the book, at the end of chapter six, Beatrice is asked: “What’s your name?” Then she is warned to “think about it” before she answers, because you don’t get to pick again. This should be a warning to us all. We may already have a name, but what do you want people to think of when they hear your name? In this we need to be careful! It can be very hard to RESTORE a lost name!

What do you think of when you hear the name Hitler? And while on the subject of a Jew hater, what about when you hear the name, Jesus? Very different, I’ll bet. What about Ronald Reagan, Payton Manning, Barry Manilow, Miley Cyrus, or Abraham Lincoln? How about a movie star? Keanu Reeves, or Hugh Jackman? Of course the list could go on and on, but do you see what I mean? The names instantly produce a certain image in our minds based on what we know of these people.

How about Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, or the Beatles? A name becomes what we make of it.

BEATRICE WAS ASKED WHAT SHE WANTED HER NAME TO BE?

She chose the name Tris, a name still having a connection to her original name, but it was now a blank sheet ready to be written on. She had just been the first to leap off a tall building into a dark pit! An act of both extreme bravery and foolishness too, but she had already begun to shape the image of her new name in the minds of her new family. And the choosing of this “shape of her name” would go on for many weeks and months before she would really have her new name, and what it would come to stand for.

THE BIBLE SAYS: “A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches…” (Prov. 22:a) ALSO: “The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot.” (Hitler?) (prov. 10:7) HOW ABOUT: “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” (Prov. 18:10)

NOW SPEAK YOUR OWN NAME.

Are you happy with what it stands for? What does God see when he speaks your name? When he speaks your name on that day, and calls you forward to give an account of your life, what is he going to show you, that he sees? While we are still alive we have the chance to choose our name! After we die it gets carved in a tombstone and is set in stone. There is no changing it then.

Beatrice becomes Tris, and I’m still reading about what her name will become. She has already stood in defiance of what the common opinion of a “stiff” is. She is gaining a reputation of not being a stiff, but being very Dauntless. She still has much ahead of her to choose and prove, just like so many of us today. Choose and prove wisely, for your name becomes what you make it.

I intend to do more articles on “Divergent”, but from here on out they will be mixed with the new path I am blazing in my life, that of developing a ministry called: “Prayer School”. Much progress has been made on the building. It was very run-down, and just after back surgery I have had to be very careful. For example, I hung two sheets of half-inch dry wall the other day. Shame on me, but we are progressing well and very excited about our new future.

Samurai Dog Says:

I don’t get to have a “Choosing Ceremony”? My master says I was born a dog and that I do a good job of being a dog. I like to get in our trash, bark at the mailman, guard our property, chase and retrieve sticks, and I hate baths in a tub! (Give me a creek anytime!) Anyway, hope you’re enjoying the DIVERGENT articles. They really have a lot to say about life, or so I’m told, I wouldn’t know cause I’m just a dog. Have fun being human, I have a terrible craving to fetch a stick right now. Know what I mean?

PLANET EARTH > “One Big Choosing Ceremony”

MOVIE: “DIVERSION”

I woke up this day thinking about what the Bible says about us being “SPIRIT BEINGS” and not “FLESH BEINGS”.

We temporarily live in a house of flesh, but we are not the house! We are the Spirit being that lives in the house, for however long that house lasts.

AND WHAT IS GOD’S PURPOSE IN THIS?

Every day we make countless choices that determine our future. Planet Earth is one big Choosing Ceremony!

EVERY CHOICE IS AN ACT OF “CREATION”.

Think about it. Every time you make a choice to take this fork of the road and not that one, you just created your future by choosing a certain destination. In these bodies we make choices everyday, and we speak our “intentions”, or whatever we want people to believe about us, with our mouth, but then, with our bodies we ACT! With our bodies our ACTIONS confirm if we have been truthful with our mouth, or not.

OUR BODIES SPEAK THE REAL TRUTH!

As they say: ACTIONS DO SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS.

EVERY CHOICE > AN ACT OF CREATION LIKE SEEDS SOWN IN THE GROUND. EVENTUALLY THOSE SEEDS BRING A HARVEST, BE IT GOOD, OR BAD.

WE NEED TO TAKE OUR CHOICES MORE SERIOUSLY, REALIZING THEY ARE ACTS OF CREATION.

REALIZING THEY DO DETERMINE OUR FUTURE, NOT ONLY IN THE EARTH, BUT ALSO ETERNITY.

Yes, we live in flesh bodies, but for what purpose? To have as much fun as we can until we die, and then go into a grave and never remember we ever existed? Something in me, probably my SOUL, simply does not believe that.

THERE IS TOO MUCH DESIGN TO WHAT WE ARE LIVING.

Planet Earth is a test. I never worried about a test I was prepared for. As a matter of fact, it was a chance to prove myself, and shine. The first words out of God’s mouth in the Bible is >

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

God does not want us in the dark as to what is going on in Planet Earth. All the answers are in his great book, the Bible. We can know what Planet Earth is about, a Choosing Ceremony.

BE WISE, AND SHINE! LET THERE BE LIGHT! GOD’S WORD ENLIGHTENS. TRUTH IS GOD’S WILL. IGNORANCE AND DECEPTION IS A FORM OF DARKNESS!

I think God was very intentional in what he wanted his first words to us to be. Those words reveal a great deal about God.

PLANET EARTH IS A LOT MORE THAN JUST FLESH AND BLOOD. IT IS SOUL AND SPIRIT. AND IT IS GOD.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom you will serve…” (Joshua 24:15a)

 

Movie: DIVERGENT > “Choosing You.”

I must admit I am doing these articles on “DIVERGENT” because I enjoy the subject matter. I think one of the greatest journeys we make in life is the “inner journey” of discovering who we are, and that can also change at various points of our life. Sometimes we fail to realize when we need to leave one thing in order to branch out into something new that we have “grown” into.

When I suddenly got struck with serious back problems at the beginning of this year, I did not at first realize it was God taking my life a new direction, but it did not take long for me to begin to suspect it. And so, I am now looking for a job with no heavy lifting and allows me to be “available” for more ministry oriented goals. My wife and I have cleared everything out of our living room and I am turning it into something called “Prayer School”. I am also putting more effort into getting my other 5 books that I have written, into the market somehow. I have a plan for all this, but it will unfold slowly.

Now as to the book, DIVERGENT, Beatrice is trapped in a society that has been divided into 5 factions, of which you better fit into one of them, or you’re in trouble! She does not know this culture of hers is a cage, a trap, a cookie-cutter prison of sorts, but as she is becoming an adult she is discovering it more and more.

Here are the 5 factions you must fit into: “Abnigation, which is the one she was born into and grown up in. This faction is known for being “selfless”. It could even be compared to some “religions” I have known where it is more about “religion” and “rules”, than it is about having a true “relationship” with Christ.

However, Beatrice surprises everyone when at the “Choosing Ceremony”, which happens at age 16, she does not choose to stay in Abnigation, but chooses to transfer to “Dauntless”, which requires completely leaving her family! She does not seem to realize it , but this is probably the most difficult faction to join, as there are many physical and emotional test you must overcome, or you end up “factionless”, a life of poverty and destitution! A transfer to “Dauntless” means risking everything, because they are the warriors! Above all they value “courage and bravery! So you can just imagine how easy it could be to fail one to many test, and be dropped as a failure.

The other three groups are “Candor”, which means being very frank and truthful with one’s opinions and comments. Then there is the “Erudite”, the seekers of wisdom and knowledge. They love intelligence above all else. And last but not least, the “Amity”, those who value “peace” above all. They are the very friendly and sociable. And there you have it. You either fit one of these or you end up regretting it.

How about yourself? Are you letting society push you around, force you into a mold that is not really you? Of course, you cannot really know what you want your “Common Point”, (see previous article), to be unless you have made that inner journey, and we all should be free to make that journey on our own. That is why even God’s offer of salvation in Christ is left up to your free will. God will not violate your right to choose. Free will is one of the things we got when God made us in his image.

I believe these are really cool things to think about, and also the things that make life very interesting and meaningful. At the end of chapter 6, Beatrice gets the chance to choose her new name. That will be the subject of the next article, “What’s in a name?”

If anyone would like to comment on how the movie was, and how it is doing in the box office, I would love to hear. I have not tried to follow any of that, I’ve just been enjoying the book. If you leave comments, I give you my thanks in advance. It is always good to get comments.

Next article should come soon.

 

Samurai Dog say:

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:6

Divergent is a cool movie about choosing our values in life. Some values come at a great price. Are we dauntless enough to stand for what we believe, no matter what? Hope you enjoy the articles my master is writing from the book: “DIVERGENT”!

 

Divergent / Common Point

DIVERGENT > TO MOVE OR EXTEND IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS FROM A COMMON POINT.

I think another good point to make is that in being divergent, in the act of choosing to be different, choosing a different direction than other pressures may be pressing you to go, it is not an act of being without any “COMMON POINT” with other people.

Actually, it is the leaving of one common point to join the people who belong to another common point. One group may be smaller than another, but there will always be those who see things in a similar way as you. Most of the time we choose a new path based on someone who is already doing it, or has done it before. They might even mentor you, or train you, as in the movie, Divergent. We see what someone else is recommending, or doing, and we think, “Yes, I want to do that too!”

It is actually the choosing of a new common point. As a Christian, I have a common point with all true followers of Christ. Someone who chooses a military life, separates themselves from the common point of civilian life, to enter into a common point of soldiers, a brotherhood of warriors. We all have at least a few common points in our life.

In the last post when we posed the question of our own personal choice, concerning diverging, it is not that we are choosing to live on an island and become a hermit.

WHEREVER OUR DIRECTION IS TAKING US, WE NEED TO CONSIDER THOSE WE ARE ENTERING INTO COMMON POINT WITH.

EVERY DIVERGENCE IS THE LEAVING OF ONE COMMON POINT, AND THE JOINING OF ANOTHER.

CHOOSE YOUR PEOPLE WELL.

 

 

“Divergent”

CURRENTLY HOOKED ON DIVERGENT!

For some reason when this movie came out I did not feel led to go see it, but to read the book! It is my hope to put out short blurps pertaining to this most fascinating story. It fascinates me for many reasons. ONE: It is about choosing who you are meant to be. Choosing what you feel is most IMPORTANT in life, and having the courage to BECOME that.

This blogsite is about being Samurai for Christ, and we are about to begin teaching what it means that Christ said: “I GO AWAY.” The material God is giving me is very RICH on this subject. My plan is to intermix short blogs about this book, Divergent, as I slowly read it. As long as the book continues to hold my unique attention, it will be a part of this blogsite while I’m reading it.

So…lets start here. WHAT DOES THE WORD, DIVERGENT, MEAN?

Divergent: To move or extend in different directions from a common point. To differ in character, form, or opinion.

Can anyone truly follow their heart without being divergent? In the world we live in, can anyone truly follow Christ without being divergent? We live in a world that wants to shape us to their mode. This is the definition of success! This is how you should dress! You’re not cool, or down, or bad, if you don’t fit this! Be like us or we won’t like you! If you want to be “popular”, you better wear these clothes, use these curse words, do these things, and on and on the peer pressure goes. Even parents trying to shape their children to be like them. But do we have the courage to seek out what our CREATOR put in us to be, and become that? That is to diverge from the common point! This is what everyone says is cool, but that is not what I value or choose for me!

My dad was very mechanical and worked in a factory all his life. He never read books. Did not like to read. Never tried to write anything. Could not stand in front of a crowd and speak if his life depended on it, and yet he wanted me to be like him.

I had to diverge. I hated factory work. (Became a truck driver and minister.) I love to read and write. But because of my upbringing, I had a great fear of speaking in front of people, so when God called me, it was one of my greatest challenges. Because of my upbringing I lost a lot of years finding the real me, but it was so worth the journey! My dad was only trying to help me, he meant well, but you know what I’m talking about. This is part of growing up.

In this story a young lady named Beatrice was born into a very conservative lifestyle. We will talk about the 5 factions on next blog, but it is in her heart for ADVENTURE! To run! To breathe hard, sweat, and be adventurous! She watches those who are called Dauntless, and something in her heart longs to be there! But she will have to leave her family, everything she has grown up with, and even face great danger and hardship, if she wants to be Dauntless. Will she do it? Can she do it? Can she become Dauntless? And of course, there is even a greater challenge she is going to discover that she does not currently know. She is already faced with being “divergent” to her family, but what of the challenge of being “divergent” to her whole society? An act of divergence that makes you an outlaw, a threat to society. Wow, this could get good!

But what about you? What about me? I’m 58 years old and am currently recovering from back surgery. I’ve made a decision to not return to truck driving, but to blaze a whole new trail. Perhaps I will interweave some of that story with these Divergent blurps, but for now, I think we have a good start here.

WHAT HAS GOD PUT IN YOU TO BE? DARE YOU TO SEEK THOSE ANSWERS? DARE YOU TO BECOME? THINK ABOUT IT.

Samurai Dog says:

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass darkly…”

Movie: “Winter Soldier” / S.H.I.E.L.D.

SPIRITUAL ANALOGY

Since this is a Christian blogsite dealing in spiritual things, I would like to draw a certain analogy from the “Winter Soldier” movie that fits what I have been teaching in my last three messages. (Samurai Vision Parts I, II, III)

I taught in those messages how todays Church may be headed for a great division which eventually leads to a great falling away. We also compared it to the division and civil war that took place in Israel which led to Ten Tribes of Israel being lost forever!

Now in this movie we have an agency known as SHIELD. It is supposed to be the “good guys”, a force against evil, even our superheroes team up with them, almost like mighty prophets of God to do warfare against evil. So in my eyes SHIELD is in the position of the Church, symbolically speaking. (Please understand this is only an analogy that might help us see a spiritual condition already developing. I’m not trying to say this is scripture, it’s only an analogy. Sometimes it is easier to visualize things in this way.)

The point is that we all know the Church has a certain number of people in it who are not really Christians. Maybe they claim to be, or maybe they do not. However, we are talking about something greater than that. An evil greater than that. The Bible speaks of a great falling away! SHIELD is discovered to be so completely compromised by Hydra that it needs to be blown up! SHIELD, in its old form, is no more!

Not only that, but I have spoken of the attack of the enemy on the Church to “feminize” it, and that we need to get back our MANHOOD, like Duck Dynasty! (As weird as that may sound, it is true!) Those who have ears to hear, let him hear!

If my childhood knowledge of comics is correct, the old leader of Hydra, the Red Skull, is passed. (Although he is not really dead.) The current leader of Hydra is a woman whose name is VIPER, but she is also called Lady Hydra. So the group that so infiltrated SHIELD that it had to be blown up, is led by a powerful and evil woman.

There you go. File this away for whatever it is worth to you. Trash if it means nothing. Keep it if the analogy helps you. Thanks for stopping in. Comments welcomed.