Friday in San Francisco (Change!)

This happened last friday in San Francisco's Castro District. The people being escorted by the police are people that I know. They have been in San Francisco for three years praying for mercy on the city and revival in the homosexual community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsxojbyAQGI

http://worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=81310

Preaching the Gospel

Jesus said in Mark 16:15 to "go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." In verse 17 he goes on to list all the signs that will follow those that believe. (cast out demons, speak with new tongues, etc.) The salvation of people must always be our primary objective over seeing signs & wonders because the signs & wonders follow the preaching of the gospel.

To Get Ourselves Clean

In John 13 Jesus is washing the disciples' feet & Peter does not want his feet washed by Jesus.  Jesus answers him "if I do not wash you, you have no part with me." Peter then wants his hands and head washed as well. But Jesus said to him, "The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you."  Then later in the chapter Jesus commands us to wash each others feet.

So there is a concept presented that we are to keep ourselves clean ("he who has washed" implies having washed) and wash each others feet to keep each others' feet clean. When we wash each others feet (literally)  we not only become the servant of all like Jesus was, but our hands become clean while we wash one another's feet. This applies spiritually as well.

Psalm 24 says that he who has clean hands and a pure heart may ascend the hill of the Lord. We can get our hands clean by serving the body, and we can keep our hearts pure by "washing (or bathing) ourselves with the word."* There is responsibility corporately & to get ourselves clean. 

 

*Ephesians 5:26

Abundant Supplier

In the summer of 2007 Carla Etheridge (who is Lamplighter Ministries missionary in Uganda) was back here in the U.S. and she told her friend Ruth Lynn that she should learn to play the guitar and when she came to Uganda she could teach the Pastor there to play and leave the guitar with him. Ruth kind of laughed about it and didn't think about it very much after that. 

Then this February Ruth came to Auburn during a weekend when another ministry was using our church building for a conference. The conference was primarily Andy Glover speaking on the Father Heart of God. But Bob & Yvonne Gerhardt were also there doing smaller prophetic ministry times. And during the last one Yvonne called out Ruth and said she was going to have "beautiful melodies are going to come forth from her heart and she would share them with others" and that "it would astonish some and even you (Ruth)" and at the end she was told to "not try to figure it out but leave it in the Lord's hands and in time it will yield more and more fruit."

After that I told Ruth that Pastor Abi was selling a guitar that retailed for over 1,100 dollars for 400 and that it would be a very good investment for the money. Ruth's response was,"if God gives me a guitar maybe then I'll do this."

The next week I was in Columbus (GA) for a guitar lesson. Kevin (my guitar teacher) was asking how the previous week had been and I told him about the conference and also about the words Ruth had gotten from Carla and Yvonne.

Now a few weeks earlier he had mentioned that one of his students had left and he was talking about how the owner of the guitar is in the Army and he was stationed at Fort Benning and was taking lessons while he was in Columbus but was moved to Texas and left the guitar behind. Kevin was asking one of the guy's friends about the guitar and trying to get an address so he could ship it to him. But his friend's response was, "if he left it here he probably wants you to keep it." So Kevin called the guy who owned the guitar to ask if he still wanted the guitar and he said he did not.

And after all of that Kevin said he didn't need the guitar and he would be more that happy to give it to Ruth. So the second week in March we were driving to Mexico and on the way we stopped in Pensacola FL (where Ruth lives) and were able to give her the guitar which will be going to Uganda with her at the end of May.

But the coolest part about this story is that the guitar in manufactured by Dean Guitars. And I have never really been interested in Deans but since it was free and an answer to prayer I was just excited that it wasn't from Wal-Mart. But I find names and their meaning very fascinating and a few weeks after we had given Ruth the guitar I finally realized that there might be something prophetic about the name. So I looked up the name Dean and the definition was...

Abundant Supplier or

Prosperous One

This is an amazing testimony of how our Heavenly Father gives good gifts to those who diligently seek him. 

Matthew 7:11

Matthew 12:35

Spiritual Fatherhood, Part 2

However, when you have an earthly spiritual father (a human being like yourself) you can also inherit negative characteristics as well as positive ones. Some Biblical examples of this are:

Abraham--- Genesis 12:10-20, Genesis 20

Isaac--- Genesis 26

So through spiritual fathers we have both good and bad things passed down to us. So it would seem that we are just to take the good and bad and live with them both. However, God has called us to be "holy as he is holy" (1 Peter 1:16). So how can we achieve this if we have to take the good and the bad from our spiritual fathers? The answer is to put ourselves in a position to be "fathered by God". The benefit of this is that God is perfect and has no bad characteristics in him.

The Bible says in 1 Samuel 3 that Eli "was lying down in his own place" and Samuel "was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was." So here we have Samuel living with Eli (who was the High Priest at the time) who is supposed to be the closest man to God in Israel but is doing his own thing and serving God when it is convenient for him. This could have been very detrimental to Samuel's prophetic destiny, but Samuel placed himself to be fathered by God. (1 Samuel 3:3) The result of this is seen later in this chapter where we read, "The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground." Which is something no other human has ever done for another human...

Joshua--- Exodus 33:11

Samuel--- 1 Samuel 3

Spiritual Fatherhood, Part 1

A "spiritual father" is really a pioneer who goes ahead and takes possession of a territory (or a kingdom concept) so that others can follow. Many "spiritual fathers" are unnoticed because what they did (or do) was done in secret, but everyone else has reaped the benefits in public.

"Spiritual sons" are also like natural children as well, in that children are ignorant of the process that their fathers had to go through to obtain the promise (inheritance) that they are now living in. Some Biblical examples of sons reaping the rewards of their fathers gain are:

Abraham & Isaac---Genesis 15,17

Isaac & Israel---Genesis 22

Israel & His Sons---Genesis 28:10-22

Hannah & Samuel---1 Samuel 1:8-18

Zacharias & John the Baptist---Luke 1:13

So "spiritual fatherhood" is living righteously in the secret place so that others can reap the rewards in public, whether you get noticed or not.

(You probably will not get noticed by men, but that is the best thing in the world that could happen to you (Matthew 6))