12. Confirming That You Truly Belong  (August 2, 2005)

As we continue to work on producing the video for Demolishing Strongholds we've certainly appreciated your prayers for us. We now have available on our website under the Jesus In Your Home Video 8 segments through the end of Chapter 1.

The work on re-writing the book and now the video has been a deeply spiritual experience for us. The revelation and guidance of the Holy Spirit has never been greater in either of us before. At the same time the demonic opposition is an all-out attack to stop us from persevering. The physical and technical attacks are a story in themselves. Please, continue in your prayers for us.

Confirming That You Belong?

In our entire project, Freedom In Jesus, we're trying to help people become attuned to the unseen world around them. Our minds can't help us comprehend the spirit world because our brain relies on our five senses in order to perceive the physical world. The mind and the five senses only connect you to the physical world.

Yet, because of the influence of Hellenism on Christianity over the centuries, so many who consider themselves "Christian" only rely on their minds in matters of faith practice. If it makes sense to them, or makes them feel good, they embrace it. Knowledge is the power of the mind. As in everything else the mind involves itself with, Hellenism influences people to seek God by learning more about Him — much like a student does in a classroom. In this manner God is taught from a pulpit, Sunday school class, or Bible study. People feel like good "Christians" because they've fed the quest of their mind and have more knowledge about God.

But sadly, from our Lord's vantage point, people who try to know about Him through their minds, aren't coming to know Him. He can only be known through the spirit in you. This is where those who are free of knowledge-based Hellenism, and are experiencing God through their spirit live entirely different from those who rely solely on their mind. As it pertains to truly following Jesus, the two groups have nothing in common. The first have been deceived by the principality of Hellenism into believing that knowledge about the God of all the universe enables them to be called "Christian". And even within this title most identify themselves by one of the Hellenist-influenced subtitles: "Catholic", "Presbyterian", "Baptist", etc. Each of these identifications is no more than an indication of their allegiance to a particular creed of which there are now over 22,000 competing Hellenist-inspired creeds.

The repeated phrase that the prophets use in the Bible is “knowledge of God”. It doesn't mean intellectual grasp. Its meaning is closer to the intimacy of sexual intercourse in our spirit. We are to be intertwined with our Lord, to live in Covenant union with Him through His Spirit.

The Indwelling Holy Spirit

"And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ" (Romans 8: 9).

In our last e-mail we wrote about four of the indicators that reveal the presence of the Holy Spirit in a person. Do you think that when God indwells you, such a marvelous situation is going to remain unnoticed? Not a chance! Just look at the Book of Acts.

The Spirit's presence opens the way for us to experience our Lord as He wants Himself to be known by His followers. The Spirit communicates through our spirit which God gave each of us at conception, along with our soul and body which we received from our parents. When we are born again we receive a second and more wonderful Spirit. HE is the guarantee that we are truly our Father's child.

"And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having trusted, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory" (Ephesians 1: 14).

" Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father” (Galatians 4:6).

During our work on Freedom In Jesus, the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me about my past. First, He showed me that the men who responded with bitterness and felt compelled to "shoot the messenger" did not have Him in them. The prophetic words only went to their minds, and were never discerned or tested in their spirits.

The Bible tells us that prophecy must be tested. "Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good" (1Thessalonians 5:19-21). "Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said" (1 Corinthians 14:29).

The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" 1Corinthians 2:13,14).

In His revelation to me, the Spirit also reminded me of the prophetic nature of the call He gave Sue and me to share the Hebraic foundations. I repented for grieving the Holy Spirit through keeping my mouth closed. In a moment a power in my spirit that had been absent for some time returned. Now, in a renewed spirit, please let me share something with you.

To all of you who are so used to the teaching pattern of Hellenism that leaves you more knowledgeable but no closer to our Lord, I encourage you. Hellenist teaching can never reach the spirit of a person, nor does it come from the Spirit. Paul realized that, and as a man given the ability to prophesy, he recognized the vital contribution and difference that prophetic gifting and prophecy make in the lives of our Father's children to strengthen their walk with Him. In that light Paul could write, "Follow the way of love and eagerly desire spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy" (1Corinthians 14:1). Consider his words as an exhortation to each of you reading this letter.

Prophecy, and the fruit of hearing and testing a prophet's words, is one of our Father's means to show you that you belong to Him. Prophecy comes from Him to you via the prophet. Because prophecy is of the Spirit, it must first be spiritually discerned. This is where the indwelling Holy Spirit does His work in you. • If it is a prophecy of warning or rebuke, the Spirit will convict you so that you can repent.

• And, if the prophecy calls for you to live a more righteous lifestyle, again, this is where the Holy Spirit will empower you. If you have the Spirit, you know you belong to Jesus Christ. Don't wait until the Judgment Throne to find out.

The Heart of A Prophet

When we were getting ready to go to Israel, we received prophecies that we were going there to receive "a prophetic message". While there, prophets came to us to reaffirm our purpose to go back to the US with a prophetic message. The Hebraic foundations we share are prophetic in that our Father is proclaiming something He wants restored to His children. You aren't receiving the Hebraic foundations from teachers, but from people who have a prophetic responsibility to fulfill. And, that's been a stumbling block for many who are use to Hellenist teachers who only add to their knowledge but don't stir them in their spirit to follow through with application and changed lives.

We are just two people who've been commanded by our Lord to share a prophetic message in a Hellenist religious culture. (And, we write this to encourage you prophets who read this.)

Men who resist the Spirit of God can't experience the freedom Jesus promises all that are His. Do you see: The opposite of freedom in Jesus is hardness of heart. And years of acquiring knowledge have hardened so many men to be dull to the Spirit (see Hebrews 3:7-12).

During my years of counseling congregation leaders, that's how the Lord used me. I'd be sent by Him to address faith communities in which sin had clogged their relationship with Jesus. He used me so often in this way that I got the nickname, "The Enema." I didn't especially like the nickname, but it clarified the prophetic role our Lord gave me at that time to unclog the problem.

I had the privilege of seeing congregations restored in fellowship with our Lord through tears of repentance and a heart yearning to return to His will and His way. I remember a congregation in Oklahoma that was on its knees for almost an hour in tearful determination to turn away from sin and return to Jesus. What a worship time we had after they repented!

On the other hand, I discovered that if people only acknowledged what I shared with them was true but didn't repent, the slander and character assassination came. Most prophetic people don't last in a region for more than a few years, until they are destroyed by those who love sin more than they care about fellowship with God. If they stay, they're often driven into isolation.

As Sue and I share this prophetic message that was given to us, we see ourselves in a role of once again revealing and clarifying God’s commands to mankind — in other words, from His concerned heart to those with whom He's concerned. He gave us what He wanted us to share and where He wanted us to go. This call is far different than Hellenism's method of teaching man’s ideas about God. Just go into any Christian bookstore and you will see far more books written about God than about man's responsibilities to and relationship with Him. Religious man likes to define God. Followers of Jesus want to live a life that glorifies our Father and leads others to the Lordship of Jesus. If you're a follower, then Someone is leading. And His leading is through the Spirit in each of His followers.

We're keenly sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His revelation of what He wants us to share. That which the Spirit shares with us comes forth in our prayer times, Bible readings, discussions with each other and with those close to us in this work, and even as we sit at our computers!

When we received our mission to share the Hebraic Restoration in Israel we were conscious of our Father's heart depth in wanting His people to return to the foundations that His children once embraced. One painful emotion He shared was in response to the number of children of divorce in the "Christian" community in the US. His pain was so great that it felt to us as though it was piercing Him as with a sword. His depth of compassion and mercy is beyond all understanding as He hears the cries of these wounded children.

To counteract the epidemic divorce rate, He prompted us to prepare the Gospel of the Covenant Is The Pilgrimage to Salvation. That biblical Gospel which the earliest Church embraced is the foundation for strong marriages. If you read it then you understand: Our Father wants the covenant of marriage to be the physical representation of the Covenant we have with Him through Jesus.

We've sadly come to recognize in the years we traveled the country sharing the Hebraic foundations at seminars that the majority of people who call themselves "Christian" are really "Deists". A Deist is a person who believes in the existence of God but does not see Him as intimately involved in the lives of His children. God is perceived much like a watchmaker. After the watchmaker produces the watch, he has nothing more to do with it.

Deists don't walk around calling themselves such. But an indicator is that they don't live in daily dependence on our Lord, nor do they demonstrate any desire for the Holy Spirit to dwell within and direct their lives. For them, in the battle of faith versus reason, reason wins hands down. Many of the Founding Fathers of this country were Deists. Our coins may state, "In God We Trust", but that's a meaningless expression to a Deist.

Like our Hebraic forefathers in the faith, Sue and I are grateful to experience a God Who is intimately concerned with His children and wants to reveal Himself in so many ways. We don't have to search for Him, for He is already in us through His Spirit. It only takes letting the Spirit be Himself in all the various ways the Word describes. One fruit of His presence in us is our growing dependency on our Lord, and our increasing childlike trust. And as Jesus proclaimed, each person who would enter His Kingdom needs to change from self-sufficient pursuit of the world's goals and values, and grow the trusting heart of a child!

Many who call themselves "Christian" desire intimacy with our Lord, but their pet sins and tolerated unrighteousness keeps this from happening. That's why we so often prophetically warn each of you that our holy God constrains His children regarding their fellowship. Remember, we're out of fellowship with Him when we have unconfessed sin (1 John 1:9).

When we are in fellowship with our Lord, He warns us to not walk in fellowship with others who are not in fellowship with Him (1 John 1:3). (NOTE: That doesn't mean we avoid those who have yet to encounter Jesus! A major purpose for being in fellowship with Him is so that His presence in us will draw unbelievers to Him through our words and deeds! For that to happen, building a relationship with them is needful.)

Because we enjoy having our prayers answered and sharing testimony of our Father's faithfulness, we only fellowship in the true sense of the word with others who want to uphold communal righteousness with us. This is the way of the earliest Church. They understood the spiritual intimacy implied by koinonia, and the constraint placed on all the Father's children in order for Him to answer their prayers.

When Sue and I commit ourselves in biblical fellowship with others, we're in effect saying, "We promise you that we won't harbor unconfessed sin so that the ability of our Father to answer your prayers won't be hindered by us." But as the years have passed, we've found fewer and fewer who've wanted to live within the freedom and boundaries of God's righteousness.

You may remember that we once wrote about asking those who came to our retreat center, “Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a number of how many hours a week He considers you righteous, that is, free from unconfessed sin.” There are 168 hours in a week. Do you know the average hours a week the Holy Spirit revealed they were free of unconfessed sin? Four! That means 164 hours a week people are holding onto sins. In other words, that’s how much they’re living outside God’s boundaries of righteousness. The fruit of clinging to personal sin was that there were no real testimonies to God's faithfulness.

As we've shared the Hebraic foundations and warned people about the painful, fruitless consequences of sinful lives, we've become increasingly aware of the DYNAMIC relationship between our Lord and His people. He's using those He's gifted with prophecy as messengers to warn you about your responsibility for righteousness as His child and as His representative. Just know that both His mercy and His anger demonstrate His ever-present care and involvement with His children.

So part of our prophetic purpose is to stir people to repent, to have a changed heart, and to REVIVE LOVE for God and reconciliation that pleases Him and serves His purposes. To a prophet, God’s anger is always a reaction to man’s disobedience. It's His righteous indignation, intended with redemptive motive to return man to a right relationship with Him — love-grounded obedient trust.

Our Lord is a Judge who is pained by man’s injustice, yet He is also long-suffering and patient. In the midst of man's disobedience, the prophet is sent to call people to repent. When the warning goes unheeded, God’s anger is aroused, because His love has been trampled on and His Name is being defamed. His anger can be averted by repentance. Repentance opens the door for our Lord to be merciful. Remember, God DELIGHTS in doing His people good. And we're keenly aware that we only have a short time to share these truths before the Dark Days of Chastisement come on this nation.

Finally, one last insight: prophetic identification with God's heart for His people. The emotional concern of our Father for mankind is a biblical reality. Prophets are stirred by our Lord's concern and His perspective about people. We don't feel we're just conveyers of a message He wants shared. We deliver the revelation He gives us with the emotional depth of heart that the heart of God delivers with it.

We're not sharing these truths out of some religious obligation, but out of a love relationship of heart, soul and strength that He's given us. The gauntlet of emotions in our Father's heart overtakes our heart and mind so that we find the COURAGE to face the resistance to this message. We are actively cooperating with the concerns of God for His children. As a result of our time in Israel, we understand His divine timing in restoring these important truths once again to His people. As He fulfills His promise to restore the Jewish people to Israel one last time, He is showing mercy to us Gentiles by revealing the Hebraic foundations — undoing centuries of Roman organization and Hellenistic syncretism (see Romans 11: 30-32). It is because of the heart of God for His own that we continue to share His message of Restoration.

We didn't ask our Lord to give us this message! In fact, after years of ministry that led up to our going to Israel, our marriage was barely hanging on by a thread. Yet, our Father in His divine selection recruited the two of us out to reveal to us His divine plan: to both restore the Jewish people to Israel one last time, and to restore to the Gentiles the foundations of the earliest Church. God's ongoing revelations to us of what and how to share often come suddenly and unexpectedly. And sometimes we shrink from going on because of the responsibility and the rejection we frequently face from people.

Unlike Hellenistic teachers who've been trained to present content, our prophetic insights aren't a learned ability but an act of our Lord's grace. So often as I worked with clergy over the years, they just couldn't grasp that God would speak prophetic words He wanted me to share. Like teachers in schools who develop and teach from curriculum and lesson plans, they couldn't understand that God would just breathe into the spirit that which He wanted spoken. Over the years that we've been sharing the Hebraic foundations, we've never seen our Lord recruit a teacher for this assignment. But He HAS raised up prophets to carry this message forth to other people.

But to those of you who aren't hiding in the religious system or in their pet sins, the prophetic counsel the Holy Spirit gives us to share with you is redemptive. In that, we mean it's given so that you can enjoy full fellowship with our Father and bear fruit that lasts. We trust you receive it as such!