Hi all,
Thank you for your prayers. I had my old pacemaker replaced with a new one on election day, the 5th. It was the easiest surgery I’ve ever had, thank you! We voted in the morning, went to the hospital at 1:30, had the surgery, and went home that evening.
I got the pacemaker in the summer of 2019, and it lasted 5 years. (In 2018 I had become severely overheated while working in the hot Oklahoma sun, on a ‘feels like 115’ day’, causing atrial fibrillation.)
The US election
Most of you will recall some of the things the Father has spoken to me about this nation. One of those was: “The collapse will come when conservatives are in charge.” He also said about the spirit of socialism: “It can be delayed, but it won’t be stopped.” I had told many to watch for Republicans to control Congress and the White House, and that I believe this would be the delay the Father talked about. The Lord has not yet been specific with me about it, other than year 3 and especially the last year of the new administration, would have bad things happen outside of the direct control of those in charge. More of an accumulation of things coinciding to effect dramatic change for the worse. It will be more the result of things set in motion long before, by outside forces.
Remember also the Father had said; “When the collapse comes (economic, moral), it will be like the waters of Medano Creek.” Medano Creek is a seasonal creek that runs through the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. It is a sand creek bed, which causes an underwater dam to be built up against the flow. This backs up the flow of the creek for several seconds until the underwater sand dam collapses, causing a large wave to move straight downstream. I’ve stood in that creek at peak springtime flow when the creek can be 1′ deep, but the waves unleashed can be 3’ tall and knock a person down. When the economic and moral collapse happens, conservatives, Christians, and Jews will be blamed.
My point is that for those of us looking forward to a time of a better economy, morals, and a restoration of common sense, it isn’t a time to relax. The next 3 years is a time to deepen our relationships in Christ, to get out of debt, to ‘redeem the time because the days are evil.’ I cannot emphasize this point enough. The next 3 years in the US and to a large extent the world, is not a time to be lazy. It is on us by the Spirit of God to be about the Father’s work. To set our lives and house in order. And this is not panic, it is merely recognizing the times and seasons in which we live. Walk in peace, but wisely, as scripture says.
That’s what I’m so excited about the next 3 years – it has little to do with politics, but I know the Lord’s grace will be poured out in amazing ways to prepare His body for a time to come. I’m always looking to see what He is doing rather than what the devil is doing.
Identity
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he wrote in 5:16-17: “From this point on, we don’t know anyone by the flesh, but by the spirit, for if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have gone away, and look! All things have become new and those all things are of God…”
Paul was talking about a change of identity for that person who now knows God. That person has had their spirit recreated by the Spirit of God, and that is how we measure a person, how we know a person. But who they are now in Christ, not by who they used to be nor by human measurements of status, education level, or position in life.
Throughout his letters we see Paul urging them to think of themselves differently. In I Corinthians 6: 9-11 he lists who they used to be, and it is a long list of sins that were a lifestyle for them before being born again. After listing these things he writes: “And such were some of you. But now you are washed. Now you are sanctified (set apart for God’s use). Now are you justified (a condition in which God not only washed away sins but considers them never to have existed in the first place) in the name of the Lord Jesus…
Throughout Ephesians, but especially in chapter 4, he again lists some things of who they used to be, then says to ‘put on Christ’. He even tells a thief to ‘steal no more, but get a job so he has some money to help those in need’.
In Hebrews 11: 24-27 he writes of Moses and the choice he made to be identified as a Jewish man rather than a member of the royal household because he esteemed the stigma of being identified as Jewish of greater value than the riches of Egypt and the passing sins it offered.
When Satan tempted Adam and Eve in Genesis 3: 1-5, it was an attack on their identity. He told them they could, in so many words, change who they identified with, for if they ate of the tree they would be like God. That’s a change of identity. A change of who they identified as and who with.
When Satan tempted Jesus in Luke 4: 5-8 by offering to give Him all the kingdoms of the world if He would worship Satan, it was an offer to change identities. In v9-12, it was an offer to change His identity as well. Satan brought Him to a high pinnacle of the temple and tempted Him to jump off and prove to everyone who He was. In each temptation Jesus refused to exchange who He was and what He was called to in favor of a short cut that would not accomplish the purpose for which He was sent.
He came into this world to live as a Spirit-filled but perfect Man, and die for the sins of the world, not to change who He was with a shortcut.
When a demon attacks someone through the anger or hatred of someone, which is persecution, the reason is to intimidate that person into either changing who they are in Christ, or to distract them from who they are in Christ. We are new creations in Christ. We have Christ in us. We have the mind of Christ. That is who we are.
Satan wants to steal that awareness which gives us authority to use the Name to cast demons out. They want us to change our identity, to that of a weak and powerless person subject to demonic attack. Or they want to burden us with memories of what we have done in the past, how we have missed God, and fill our thoughts with ideas of God rejecting us on that day we stand before Him. All of that is an attempt to get a person to change identities.
Your true identity is a child of God, adopted by the Father through the agency of Jesus’ blood, born again in your spirit, endowed with the authority to use the name of Jesus against demons, to lay hands on the sick, and with direct access to the throne of the Father God where you may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.
That’s your identity. A new creation in Christ. Don’t let demons, don’t let society, don’t let friends, don’t let culture, don’t let media, sway you about who you are in Christ. Reject as Jesus did, thoughts and temptations to change your identity. New Testament reality Satan is that it is too late! I’ve already got the Holy Spirit! I’ve already been recreated in my spirit by the Holy Spirit! I already have Christ in me! I already have the mind of Christ! That is who I am! Walk in that, redirect thoughts to NT realities. Fight back in your thoughts.
When Peter and John were released in Acts 4:23, it says ‘they went to their own people’. When Peter was released from prison in Acts 12: 12, he went directly to the house of Mary, mother of John Mark the author of the gospel of Mark. There a group of people were praying for him.
My question is this: Do you have ‘your own people’ to go to in time of crisis? If you were released from prison or in a crisis situation, do you have people you know you could go to? Do you have people you identify with, who know you, who are your safety net?
Kids Without Walls International of Uganda and Kenya. Thank you for your generous support! Enough donations have been received to be able to fund the transition to the dorms AND pay for a Christmas party for the KWOWI kids in both nations, with enough to also provide Christmas presents for them. Thank you!
In this season of Thanksgiving, you are truly included in our giving of thanks to the Father – thank you for being in our lives!
We appreciate you.
John & Barb, Brian & Amy
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