Step up Leaders!

In America politicians are not the leaders neither are elected government officials. They are representatives, spokes persons, they are in effect temporary actors who act as the voice for the leaders. They are in truth servants to the public, hence the term public servitude. There is NO Caesar. In America the true leaders are  the private citizens, severally and collectively. Today I am praying for our nation’s leaders to step up, to seek truth and righteousness and to stand on it and voice it. Today I am praying for my Nation’s Leaders, the barber, the cab driver, the minister, the teacher, the business man, the working mom, the younger adults, the single moms and dads, the soldier, my brothers and sisters, my neighbors, We The People!  

So that ye may Marvel

The one major thing that we consistently pray for is simply to experience an ever greater measure of God’s presence. We invite the Holy Spirit to rain down upon us and lead us. True to His word, what we ask for believing, will come to pass. On a consistent basis we have been receiving testimony from people of healings, emotional and physical. We have cried out for guidance on certain matters and he has sent messengers to guide and encourage. We have witnessed His answering of prayers. We have witnessed his Spirit fall upon groups of people young and old, resulting in a move of the gifts of the Spirit, children coming to the Lord and cleansing evidenced by weeping. He has made us aware of Him bringing us victory in numerous battles we have faced. He has opened our eyes to a multitude of instances wherein He has showed us in a beautiful manner that we are tracking in the same Spirit as some others in ministry. Not too long ago we gathered with some youth and prayed for food supply. It began virtually out of the blue. Now we have been blessed with so much food that we are able to invite people in need to come and get groceries at first and now clothing. True to his word he has blessed the store house and fills it to overflowing.

A few weeks ago my daughter suffered a head injury that resulted in a concussion and temporary memory loss. We all prayed for her continuously and on one occasion we were in a room praying and my wife Tomika walked in. Tomika said that when she did, she at first thought the room was full of smoke but realized that it didn’t smell like smoke but that it must have been some sort of mist. Our daughter has fully recovered and is doing just fine.

Friday night we were worshiping and praying in the sanctuary. Again the focus of our prayers was simply to experience a greater measure of the presence of God and his Spirit in this place, in our lives and that he begin to manifest his presence on a greater scale. We prayed for miracles so that we may marvel, so that ye may marvel. Jesus said, “For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel”. John 5:20 (KJV), I Know God wants us to move in his power I know he wants His people to be miraculously healed and made whole and I believe that with that he wants us to witness and expirence miracles, signs and wonders so that we may marvel, because as we contemplate the why’s and the how’s of a miracle we become captured by the possibilities of God’s realness and are drawn into a quest for a deeper knowledge and understanding of Him and the love he has for us and most importantly we begin to grow in a relationship with Him. So that we may marvel, experience and testify to his goodness.

Saturday morning I was in the sanctuary preparing for service. I was alone, some worship music was playing I had just finished straightening some things and began to pray when my attention was diverted to one of the window seals where there were a couple of candles. As my gaze met one of the candles it seemed as though it began to flame so I went to it not completely sure of what I had just witnessed, sure enough, the candle was burning. There was a flame now when just moments before, there certainly was not. It seemed to have spontaneously lit. I stood there and marveled. Glory to God. I know an outpouring of His Spirit is on the rise.

Cleanse the Temple

In the Bibles’ New Testament there are accounts of Jesus coming into Jerusalem and entering into the temple there. When he enters into the structure he finds that men are using the temple for profit and gain by either selling merchandise or practicing banking. According to scripture, the Apostle John wrote in his gospel, “Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables;  And said unto them that sold doves,  “Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise”. (John 2:13-16 (KJV)

The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke also give similar accounts of the events that transpired on that day in the temple. Each account adding more pieces to the puzzle so that when one puts them all together a very detailed story emerges bringing to life a very powerful message. Jesus went into the temple and witnessed what was taking place. He disliked it so that he sought for and found the necessary materials to fashion a multi-stranded whip of small cords.  According to John he then “drove them all out of the temple”. When I read this I get the impression of Jesus meticulously weaving and tying these cords all the while carefully considering and planning his course of action. When ready, he took action and with the whip, he “drove them out”, to me this implies a level of violence was exhibited by Jesus as he passionately sought to rid his Father’s house of the merchandisers who were conducting their business therein. He drove them out with impunity and without prejudice as to the cause of the merchants, solely because they were using the temple for buying and selling.

According to Mark 11:15-18 (KJV), “And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves;  And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And he taught, saying unto them, is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy him: for they feared him, because all the people was astonished at his doctrine”.

Luke wrote, “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, Luke 19:45-47 (KJV)

According to Matthew, “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them. Matthew 21:12-14 (KJV)

Why do you still buy and sell merchandise in what you claim to be His temple? Why is there still so much emphasis put on money changing in where you claim His temple to be? Is it not to be known by all nations as a house of prayer? Are you lost, pretending or knowingly outright disobedient? Remember Jesus cast out the merchants with impunity and without prejudice to their cause, it did not matter why they were merchandising. He drove out them that bought as well. “Make not my Father's house an house of merchandise”! Did he not implore us to do as he did? I believe it is very important to note that after Jesus cleansed the temple, the chief priests and the scribes sought to destroy him because they feared him and were astonished by his doctrine. Why?, because it was righteous and righteousness was foreign to them. More importantly, however, Jesus, after he cleansed the temple, taught there daily and because it had been cleaned, the blind and the lame came in and he healed them.

 In 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 Paul wrote, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are”.

            We each are a temple. Make your temple worthy of the Holy Spirit. I believe that in most of us there is hiding a spirit of a merchant, a marketer, a banker. On a consistent basis they are working to penetrate our hearts and minds. These are of the world and seek to fool us into adopting their ways and misleading us to use their ways in guise of kingdom principles, such as, equating money with liberty, blessing, power, security and success. They speak to us trying to seduce us with notions like, “If you only had enough money you could be free to do this”. If you only had enough money you could be free to do that”. If I had enough money you could gain respect”, “If I had enough money I could get the car, then get the girl”, “With more money, people would think God is blessing your Church”. “Without money you are not secure”! This is done on such a level that if we are not careful we fall into a trap believing that the source of all that is pleasing, joyful and secure is rooted in wealth of money. If not careful very suddenly we find ourselves subtly shifting our focus on to money and a quest for it, so focused that we begin to lose sight of the promises of liberty, blessing, security and power in and through our creator. In this process we lose a great measure of Faith, maybe even so focused on money that we forget to think on Him first, and if we are not very careful, begin to worship money believing it to increase our status, or possibly we even fall to sin to obtain it.

“They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence”. 2 Kings 17:33 (KJV)

I am not saying that money has not been made a necessary component in some societies. I am merely re-revealing that money is an institution of man. Historically institutions of man fail. In our nation’s recent history this specific institution failed and money became virtually useless overnight. Those who had learned to put their trust in man and his institutions for their security suffered greatly, and those who had been truly taught and received the word of the Lord, to trust in the Lord believing, well they not only weathered those times but prospered because they were able to see his goodness all around them.

“Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17: 5-8 

I say that if we cleanse our inner temples and those we enter into, if we carefully consider, plan and take action we can effectively “drive them out”. Once clean the blind and the lame will come to us on the streets and in our church houses to be healed and taught daily of a relationship with our Creator and His Christ, Jesus.  I am sure that in the process the world will begin to hate us but remember what Jesus said in John 15:19, “If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you”.

  

The world may hate us but our father will be glorified and move, Jesus’ great sacrifice will not be in vain, people will marvel at the miracles signs and wonders and turn to Him, our ministry of reconciliation will spread like wild fire. Let the world hate, it will only be for a short time. I have been immersed in his glory, I have tasted it for an instant and “It Is Good”. I assure you it is unimaginably thrilling, breath taking, electrifying, it is what he has for all those who love him, who enter into a right relationship with Him, and a place is being prepared for us in one of our Father’s many mansions for eternity.

“If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin”. John 15:22-23 (KJV)

“Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage”? Gal 4:8-9 (KJV)

A Church that focuses too much on appearances will soon become only the appearance of a Church.