Cyber Truths By E-mail
9. Are You a Barbarian? (June 4, 2005)
Dear Friends,
We finally sent the revised Demolishing
Strongholds to the printers yesterday! After hundreds of hours
and a myriad of spiritual battles, it was a relief to finally
mail it off. Yesterday was a day in which it seemed like every
demon west of the Mississippi was waiting to do whatever it
could to stop us. What started out as a simple getting it all
together in the early morning ended up with the disc being
taken to the Post Office around 4 PM.
I ended up with chest pains and fever, so
we just kept praying. We've been there before when dealing with
this book! Spiritual warfare has raged around publishing
offices in the past who've tried to print this book, and even
to those who have helped us proof it.
We want to thank every one of you who
remembered us in your prayers. This would not be out the door
if it weren't for your prayers. And we want to thank those of
you who proofed Demolishing for us. One person went through
both her two year old daughter's broken arm, then a divine
healing after the arm was X-rayed and put in a cast. The very
next day after the family prayed, the cast fell off the little
girl's arm and she was completely healed!
Even before the book has come out in print,
almost 50% are being drop-shipped directly from the printer!
This is extraordinary. So many people want to be "squeaky
clean" with God so they can be fully available to lovingly
serve His purposes. (You can also download a free pdf copy of
the rewrite from our website. Click on "Books &
CD's", and then on the printer icon to the right of
Demolishing Strongholds.)
Encouragement In The Midst Of The Battle
Our Lord encouraged us to persevere in
completing the work on Demolishing Strongholds through a short
book we purchased from Voice of the Martyrs, "The
Barbarian Way". While only 141 pages, I found I had to
read it in short segments. It's book you have to read for
effect, and oh what an effect it had! It's not only
encouraging, but it brings deep conviction as you find where
you've gotten entangled in attitudes and pursuits that fall
short of your relationship with our Lord.
The author, Erwin Raphael McManus, derives
"barbarian" (referring to true followers of Jesus)
from the term the Romans used for anyone who was not Roman
— those who don't belong. And, we who trip and stumble to
follow Jesus no matter what the cost are barbarians not only to
the world, but also to the civilized Christian community who
have made their religious practice and programs something they
can be comfortable with.
As some of you know, I [Mike] came to
Christ as a "barbarian" after reading the Bible
twice. Then our Lord Jesus come to me one night to tell me what
I must do to follow Him. In those early days of my walk I
fellowshipped with others who also simply believed without
doubt what the Bible said, and believed that God still wanted
the same intimate trust and obedience from us today. If it was
in the Bible, we believed it! And we saw the same miraculous
intervention of our Lord as they did.
But then, influenced by two Navy chaplains,
I went off and got civilized. I attended seminary where we
learned how to talk "Christian" and to run
"Christian" programs. Over the years I filled a lot
of leadership positions in civilized "Christianity"
— far more committee meetings than I want to recount
— and too many sermons and Sunday school classes where it
seemed nobody did anything with what they learned.
To my own sorrow I watched the miraculous
disappear, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit impacted me less
and less. In running civilized programs you don't need His
specific guidance, and contrary to what many civilized
"Christians" say, no one REALLY wants the miraculous.
It's talked about from time-to-time, but in civilized
"Christianity" everyone would be frightened if the
miracles we see in the Bible came into our meetings! Few of the
clergy I've known would want to see their organized service
interrupted by some "outsider" so that a withered
hand or illness could be healed.
I remember a friend of mine sharing a story
about his denomination which was part of the Holiness Movement
of the 1800's. During their services the Holy Spirit would come
upon them for hours, and no one could move or speak. The
miraculous was commonplace! One Sunday morning he read aloud
about these events to his congregation, not telling them that
these miraculous events were part of their heritage. When he
finished telling a number of glorious stories of the meetings
it the 1800's, he asked his listeners, "Would any of you
like to see this happen here?" Everyone — Everyone!
declared a resounding "NO!"
Perhaps a more biblical way to describe the
"barbarian life" is that we would rather serve the
KING and extend His KINGDOM no matter what it costs.
"Barbarians" feel out of place in civilized religion
where congregations are held together more by a common
commitment to creed than to a loving and "reckless"
obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ.
We want to encourage those of you who have
embraced the Hebraic Foundations as our Father intended, as
truth He wants you to live by. Sue and I are humbled to be able
to share our Father's truths that restore the facets that
enabled the earliest followers of Jesus to be
"barbarians" among the religious establishment of
their time. Our call is "apostolic" in that our
sharing the Hebraic Foundations is to be with clarity. And our
Father's call for us is "prophetic" in that it
directs people back to a way of life that glorifies our Father.
Over the years as we've discussed the
Hebraic foundations with those of you who are journeying with
us in following Jesus, we've discovered a deprogramming from
civilized religion occurring. We just didn't recognize we were
becoming more "barbarian" as we lost our complacency
with the religious status quo. I remember one conversation
several months ago with my close friend, Tom Woodruff. Both of
us had come to Christ with the KINGDOM view He intended for us
and had lived as "barbarians". Yet over time we both
got seduced by the civilized "church system" and its
organized, well-developed programs.
" The Barbarian Way" book is like
God's mid-term exam to see how far from "religion"
you've come as you've moved into KINGDOM living. It's a
wonderful encouragement for those of you who are now undergoing
the isolation He designs so that He can deprogram you from
religious thought. It's also convicting if you enjoy civilized
religious programs in which you can be around others who enjoy
complacency, and are too fearful to follow Jesus
wholeheartedly. If this book doesn't change you, it will at
least make you feel sick about yourself as you realize that
Jesus never came to establish a civilized religious system. In
fact, He attacked the one of His time!
If you have courage enough to read it, you
can order "The Barbarian Way" from Voice of the
Martyrs by calling (918) 337-8015. We encourage you to get
copies for others close to you. If you're already on the
"barbarian way" with others, you'll all want to read
it and be encouraged together! If you're not on the
"barbarian way" yet and are willing to be convicted
and repent, then you're going to want others to come along with
you.
Our definition of a barbarian: A person who
doesn't belong to the values and goals of this world, and has
no desire to be comfortable in Christianity. Their only goal is
to pour themselves out as instruments of light into a dark
world, daily bringing glory to our Lord until they see Him
face-to face. That's a barbarian!
Journeying with you,
Mike & Sue Dowgiewicz
