Hi all,
Thank you for remembering us in your prayers and giving as we are about to start an even busier time than normal. As you read this we are preparing for our Denton, Texas meetings this weekend – 26th-27th.
A month after that, July 31-August 1 to Bozeman, Montana. About 5 weeks after that to the Netherlands for our Dutch (11th-12th) and Latvian (18th-19th) meetings. A little more than 2 weeks after we get home we gather for our October 8-10 New England meetings in Manchester, New Hampshire.
That is season of year the trees are turning their brilliant autumn colors, and I’m sure we will look back and wonder how the summer just flew by. Hope you can join us for one or more of these meetings! They are full of teaching, prophetic, personal ministry, deep worship, and meeting new friends who are on the ‘same spiritual page’.
Some have asked when our next Zoom web meetings will be. We’ll schedule those as we are able in time and energy, so we thank you for your patience.
Prophetic reminder
One of the things I had earlier shared from my time with the Lord was how the President would have what we would call ‘cognitive’ issues. The Lord had stated at the time: “…it will become increasingly more noticeable until it becomes obvious to all, and plans will be made behind the scenes how to transition.” As far as I was told then, we are in that time now and in the next few months where this will be seen. The last quarter of this year will be especially important on several levels.
He said to pray about these things, because the end result (where it was headed) would be a massive stroke that ‘makes the decision for everyone’, or it could be a matter of much debate and be drawn out over months. The request to pray for his health is for the nation – for the well-being of the nation, for peace, for He too wants us to pray for all in authority that we may live quiet and honest lives in godliness.
And frankly, the only reason I share this is for prayer because I take these visits very seriously and what He says. I don’t share everything because they are between He and I and therefore private. But some things I do – and this is one of them. It is a very serious time through this year where prayer can determine the direction the US takes.
People sometimes find it strange that in the visitations the Lord often asks for prayer about something. Of course, He did the same in the gospels but people don’t fully think it through. My favorite example is Matthew 24:20 where He talked of anti-Christ coming into the temple, and asked we pray it not happen in winter nor on the Sabbath. Prayer changes things – in that case the anti-Christ will come into the temple, that part is set in stone. What is subject to change is the season of year and day of the week that happens. Amazing grace and power of prayer. But even the Lord’s Prayer we are told to pray Father’s will be done on earth. The reason for prayer is to so that what He wants will be done – it is that simple, and so yes, prayer changes the paths of people and nations.
‘Woke’ culture and the body of Christ
“Woke” is a term that means a person is aware of social and racial injustices as ‘they’ see them, and combined with ‘cancel culture’, seeks to impose its will on society. It does this by intimidating people, corporations, and governments into acting as they define injustice. They seek to change history and traditions to right the error and wrongs inflicted on previous generations. There is a spirit behind it, which is why it is angry and aggressively imposing its will on the nation.
The spirit behind it is separating people into ‘tribes’ – gender, politics, religion – and has entered into the minds of many in the body of Christ. Specifically, about the November 2020 election in the US, and the vaccine (shot, if you prefer).
How do we know a spirit is involved?
One way to discern if a spirit is motivating someone or behind a cultural change is understanding James 1: 13-15. In that passage James is following up in v2’s statement to “…count it all joy when you fall into tests, trials, and temptations, knowing that the trying of your faith exercises patience…”
In v13 he wanted to make it clear: “When someone is being tempted, tested, or tried, don’t let anyone say God is doing it to them. For He is not tempted, tested, nor tried by evil, neither does He tempt, test, or try anyone with evil.”
And here is the key for us in v14:
“But every person is drawn away by his own lust (desire for sin) and enticed (what the demon does). And when lust (desire for sin) has conceived (with the enticer), it births sin. And when sin is finished, it produces death.” (A literal death, or death of a marriage, a death of relationships, friendships, jobs, God’s blessings, etc.)
What the Lord taught me many years ago, is that demons do the enticing as I put in parentheses above. The possibility and desire for sin is in every person for our bodies are of the earth. But it is a demon that ‘entices’ a person.
Think of Adam and Eve at the tree. The desire for sin was present, but Satan was enticing them by calling to their attention how pretty the fruit was, how good it must taste and such. As James said, when the lust for sin and the enticement combine, sin is conceived. Just as we saw with Adam and Eve.
When a spirit becomes involved in a person or a cultural movement therefore, the desire for sin is more intense, more invasive into a person’s thoughts, and it is a driving desire for that sin.
Some Christians have given themselves over to this spirit causing division in the world
That division into angry tribes, divided and stirred up by the ‘woke’ culture, is happening to some in the body of Christ. They see the body of Christ divided into tribes based on their stance on the ‘shot’ or based on politics, or even gender or racial issues perhaps.
Friendships have been broken off because one Christian takes a stand on one side of an issue, and their friend doesn’t, so they get angry – never realizing they are being enticed by a demon combined with their own wrong thoughts to do so. Their anger and action reveal they are as Paul said in I Timothy 4:1: Giving heed to ‘seducing spirits and teachings of demons’, which Paul said would be loosed in the last days. Shame on them.
The word ‘seducing’, ‘planos’ in the Greek, means to cause a person to wander, misleading information, imposter, deceiver’. Some have given themselves to misleading information not realizing a spirit is behind it. The key is this – are they in peace, for James 3 says the wisdom from the Lord is pure, peaceful, easily approached. But the wisdom of the world is not peaceful, and causes envy, strife, and confusion.
Of course a Christian merely has to repent, acknowledging the truth to whoever they cut off from their lives, and rebuke the spirit they gave heed to.
How to pray for them
My prayers for friends who have made themselves now ‘former’ friends, follows Ephesians 1: 17-19 and 3: 15-20: That the Father would give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that they would go deeper into their calling, their invitation to know deeper what the Lord has for them. And that the Father would strengthen them by His Spirit in their inner man, so they might have peace and know the unfathomable love of Christ.
Paul made the statement in II Timothy 2: 24-26 that the servant of the Lord must not be one given to strife. But one who prays for those who “oppose themselves for perhaps the Father will give them an opportunity to repent and acknowledge the truth, for now they are taken captive by the devil at his will.”
My prayer is that they would extricate themselves from that spirit that has taken hold of their mind and emotions.
Update Africa: Uganda and Kenya are under new lockdowns for the next month, so we are praying for them as many face hunger as supply chains are disrupted. We are donating as we can to help make sure those in the network at least have food.
We are well, and busy. Thank you for your prayers and giving. I pray for each person who donates and for all prayer requests made. You are greatly appreciated and we so appreciate you being in our lives!
Blessings and thanks!
John & Barb, Brian & Amy
