Pray for those that want to fix the church... that they will die to themselves and lovingly do so...
It's interesting that those with critical judgmental spirits that want to fix the church can’t even fix themselves... If I have seen it once I have seen it a hundred times... in fact I have even been one of those critics trapped in a place of anger and judgment. Sound like strong words? Sometimes we need strong words to draw attention to our own misgivings.
So we think we have all of the answers, that the church is not doing things right, that it is behind, that it is ineffective, that it is religious, that it is dead, that it is not doing its job, that it is devoid of the Holy Spirit, etc... Pick your criticism, your anger, your gripe, your complaint, etc.
Now look real hard in the mirror and begin to fix the church. You might see the very Pharisee you were complaining about. :) Until you die first you will be of little to no value in fixing anything. Learn to die daily, to love others, to have a kind spirit, not judging, not condemning, not criticizing... just a humble loving spirit. Then God can empower you, can use you to do all of those things HE wants to do to make HIS Bride spotless.
And if you get in that angry, critical, judgmental spirit just remember whose Bride you are addressing. Food For Thought... Strongly spoken but in love:) Be very blessed.
Pastor Dan
The Fallen Son
You once spoke the Word with anointing, power, and authority in prayer. Your gift to do battle in the spirit was given by His Spirit. Your heart was tender, your mind renewed, you walked adorned with the full armor, a shining warrior not knowing defeat! Your gift(s) filled you above your boundaries. Hearts were moved minds renewed by His Word passing through your lips. You kissed His feet He renewed your strength. Your love for Him was likened to David’s you danced before the Lord, your heart, your lips filled with praise!
Where is His shining warrior now? As in the garden He seeks you early in the cool of the morning and you are not to be found. He longs to empower your prayers. He looks for your tender humble heart. You are not to be found like the prodigal son you have embraced your inheritance to throw before the dogs. Your gift given to the swine, your heart is hardened and grows cold. Jezebel seduces you Pride embraces you. You rise up the standard of new gods and your actions reject Him. His heart is broken. Is it your hands that thrust the spear into His side? Why do you now reject Him?
Your breastplate pierced in battle, your helmet dashed to the ground. Where is the shining Sword you wield? Who shoe’s your feet now? You the beloved son defeated in battle. You run to the hills hidden in a cave to lick your wounds as a dog. Pride fills the temple. Humility has hidden its face from you. Eyes blind, ears cut away, once a warrior sounding the battle cry, now given to the depths of the earth, hidden to pine away. How His heart cries out to you! How He longs to embrace you once again! Beyond despair you must go, deep into the sea of despond you are.
Fall upon your knees, lay prostrate before Him. He longs to be glorified in your restoration. His heart pangs are felt throughout His body. All of its members weep. Travail they do in mourning they are. Return, return, return is their cry! Restore the priesthood of the home. Teach your children of His loving mercies that they may know His abounding grace! Look no more into yourself. Deny your fleshly desires. Humility, humility, humility brings you again to His feet. A time of restoration fill His hands showing before your face.
Your steed has thrown you now captured by the enemy. Grab your bridle, regain your mount. Lay you armor before the Smith, plunge the Sword into the Fire. Temper and polish shall restore your armor; humility will restore your gift. Increased, increased, increased your gift shall be. Throw your saddle across his back, bridled in full armor, nostrils flaring, pawing at the earth waiting for your leg to throw over his spine. Don your armor in His glory you will shine once more. Sound the shofar let the enemy tremble. His son has returned. The barley abib, ripe for the taking. Now, now, now is the time speak the Word of the Lord ever watchful of the enemy’s campaigns. Wielding His Sword once more proclaim there is no defeat. Early you will seek Him, daily He will renew you, ever guarding the precious gifts in your home.
You kiss her head she blesses you. Place your hands upon your children’s heads teach them the ways of the Lord, He will never depart from them. In this your battle begins. In this He shall strengthen you. He longs for His warrior to be restored. Do not proclaim defeat. Not every battle is won. Perfection is not wrought in the battle, but rather claimed in victory at the End of the war. He is the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the End!
You are a beloved son! Warrior son rise up!
Return, return, return!
In Christ Jesus name return.
~ Pastor Dan Goddard ~
Saved For A Purpose
Often religion is cruel and boring. It bottles up the creative impulse God has put inside of every person. Many Christians miss out on God encounters because they are satisfied with good theology. Don't be satisfied with opinions of men search out the fullness of what God has for you. You are God's favorite one through Christ. He died for you... Food for thought.
Be blessed
Pastor Dan
Where Is The Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is not only alive and well but much needed in America today. When we pursue kingdom principles above His presence, we are looking for the kingdom without a king. Food for thought...
Be blessed
Pastor Dan
What Is Your Destiny?
When Heaven stops manifesting itself in the Church, Christians have to prove somehow that they are reasonable for following Jesus. What defines Greatness is doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way. The Holy Spirit empowers the Church to be more then it is as an institution and to operate in an extraordinary way. Be the Church, let Heaven manifest through you, and operate in extraordinary ways. You have the power of God inside of you through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Be possessed by Him. Food for thought. :)
Be blessed
Pastor Dan
Revival Comes!
Revival comes to those who pray not those who wait:) Quotes for thought :)
“No erudition, no purity of diction, no width of mental outlook, no flowers of eloquence, no grace of person can atone for lack of fire. Prayer ascends by fire. Flame gives prayer access as well as wings, acceptance as well as energy. There is no incense without fire; no prayer without flame.” --- E. M. Bounds
“Bear up the hands that hang down, by faith and prayer; support the tottering knees. Have you any days of fasting and prayer? Storm the throne of grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.” ---John Wesley
“Oh that believers would become eternity conscious! If we could live every moment of every day under the eye of God, if we did every act in the light of the judgment seat, if we sold every article in the light of the judgment seat. If we prayed every prayer in the light of the judgment seat, if we tithed all our possessions in the light of the judgment seat, if we preachers prepared every sermon with one eye on damned humanity and the other on the judgment seat – them we would have a Holy Ghost revival that would shake this earth and that, in no time at all, would liberate millions of precious souls.” --- Leonard Ravenhill
Until self-effacing men return again to spiritual leadership, we may expect a progressive deterioration in the quality of popular Christianity year after year till we reach the point where the grieved Holy Spirit withdraws – like the Shekinah from the Temple. --- Dr. A. W. Tozer
“Our praying, however, needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.” --- E. M. Bounds
Be blessed
Pastor Dan :)
Freewill Meets Sovereignty... Who Is In Control And Who Is In Charge?
We have to redefine what we mean by the sovereignty of God… There’s a difference between being in charge and being in control. God is in charge, but to think He’s in charge of everything is sad because that means He sponsored Hitler… God is not willing that any should perish, yet people are perishing. That means not everything is His will.
From David R. Bauer's Article "God Is Responsive"
The Bible does not consider that God’s practice of sometimes changing his mind in response to human initiative suggests a limitation of God’s sovereignty. The Bible indicates that God’s sovereignty is large enough to include a measure of human freedom and initiative. God sovereignly wills the divine-human relationship as described in the Bible, and has thus constituted his human creatures as true persons who possess the capacity for moral freedom.
I do not believe that the doctrine of the sovereignty of God means that God has predestined everything, in the sense that God absolutely and directly causes it to happen. Rather, God’s sovereignty means that the universe has meaning and order. There are some things that must happen, such as the fulfillment of prophecy in accordance with God’s purposes. There are many things that may happen, given the freedom God has bestowed upon humanity. But God is sovereignly at work in all these things, so that each in its own way contributes to the realization of God’s good purposes (Romans 8:28). The responsiveness of God, then, expresses God’s sovereignty and serves the purposes of God’s love.
The Irresistible God
Jesus was the desire of the nations. His body – us – should be the desire of the nations because He’s irresistible. It’s a great time to be alive. It’s probably a great time to be dead too – I don’t know. I'm not dead. So many of us act as though we are dead and not alive. How in the world is the world going to think us irresistible because we serve the irresistible God? We turn to TV, movies, video games, texting, computers, food, alcohol, drugs, porn, impure sex, and many other questionable activities searching to be fulfilled somehow.
If we discover the irresistible love of Christ, and follow this irresistible God then all these things become unfulfilling and resistible. Become an irresistible person/people. Be alive not dead do something that God's truly stirring you to do. Do it in love. Be irresistible. Food for thought. Be blessed.
Pastor Dan
ON SICKNESS SIN AND DEATH
Once I was asked if God desires one to be sick for a purpose. My response was never. This provoked the question "then what about this sick person or that sick person that God has used in a mighty way"? My reply was this -
What is the will of God? On earth as it is in heaven. If it doesn’t exist there, it’s not supposed to exist here. If it does exist there, it’s supposed to exist here. I can’t promise that every person I pray for is going to be healed. I’m not at that place yet. But I can ensure that they’re going to be loved. Do you know why we pray for the sick? Because we want Jesus to get what he paid for. We’re just passing along a check that somebody else wrote. When Jesus performed miracles, he wasn’t demonstrating what God can do, but what God can do through a man.
Everyone Jesus prayed for to be healed was healed. God's perfect will is that we win the battles in life that we take the power He has given us to win the war. The battles against sickness, sin, and death are just that... battles. We lose battles but we have the power of God within us which never fails. Even empowered man walks somewhere between total victory in every battle and the possibility of failure... but we can win if we persist and do not grow weary. I say never stop praying and believing for total victory in every battle, against every sickness, against every sin, and for every salvation. God desires that no one should parish and that all should live a totally victorious life. Food for thought:)
Be blessed
Pastor Dan
From Dr Michael Brown's "The Jesus Manifesto"
This is our sacred moment, our solemn time for action. If we will unshackle ourselves from the love of this world – from our lusts, our addictions, our obsessions – and give ourselves wholly to the purposes of God, we can shake this nation. If we learn the principle that to save our lives is to lose our lives, while to lose our lives for the Lord is to save our lives, then we can really live. As Martin Luther King declared in 1965, “A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right; a man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice; a man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true.” It’s time we take our stand!
Food For Thought
Pastor Dan
