Boot Camp is a Must!!

“God never made a promise that was too good to be true.”
― D.L. Moody



   Prophecy is seldom ended with the word "now".  I know people who waited decades for prophecy to become reality.  Revelations is a book of prophecy that has not been completed and look how long ago it was written. 
     One of the saddest situations I see in the army God is building for this time is those who have been called to powerful positions in His military, but have no concept of His timing.  I would guess if a soldier at boot camp was told within his first few weeks that he will be a great general one day, he wouldn't expect it to happen before the year was through.  He would understand that boot camp and climbing the ranks would be a requirement to reach that goal.
     In God's army I see prophecy given all the time about powerful people and where God wants to take them.  When this happens, a person should first look for confirmation and then ask God the same question he would ask if he hadn't heard the prophetic word.  "Where do you want me now?"  The Lord will provide that training and I for one can say boot camp is not swimming, fishing and boating on the lake.  it feels more like drowning, starving, and storms.   Too many people want to lead before they have been trained to follow, eat from the tree before they plant the seed, and minister to others before they are willing to be ministered to.  They set there sights on where God wants to take them not realizing that there is a rough road of training that leads there. 
     Some people will need to realize that their journey is like Josephs and they will spend years as a slave, years in prison, be lied about and deceived before they even take the first steps into the position God promised.  Some people will have a journey like Jonah and head the wrong way.  How many years did David spend shepherding sheep before becoming a soldier and eventually shepherding people. 
     I know a woman, whom I highly respect, who is a general in the army of God. I am not the only one who received this word about her from the Lord.   She is a quiet woman.  She doesn't need attention, praise or glory.  She loves God, she loves her neighbor.  She is also transparent about her battles and the years of training she has endured.  She is highly respected by many people because they see her loyalty to her King.  She is not afraid to call you out if the Lord instructs and she is just as quick to hug you if those are the orders she receives.  This woman is over 60.  It did not come easy, but with the will of a true general she always kept her eye on the goal and kept moving forward.  God trusts her. 
     Before the Lord can even begin the training with you, you have to know who He is.  It's only when you enter a true relationship with Him that He can trust you to go through the training and recognize it is a must.   Prophecy is usually a word given so you are aware that the intense training in that area is about to begin.  It is not a notice to go wait in the car.

“...It is a proud privilege to be a soldier – a good soldier … [with] discipline, self-respect, pride in his unit and his country, a high sense of duty and obligation to comrades and to his superiors, and a self confidence born of demonstrated ability.”
― George S. Patton Jr.

Shame off you!!

“My case is urgent, and I do not see how I am to be delivered; but this is no business of mine. He who makes the promise will find ways and means of keeping it. It is mine to obey His commands; it is not mine to direct His counsels.”
― C.H. Spurgeon


      It is so important that people know there is no shame in being oppressed by a spirit. A true believer in Christ cannot be possessed but anyone of us can be oppressed.  Many people fight a battle and lose repeatedly.  For example addiction.  You try and try to put it down, but you relapse over and over.  Many churches preach forgiveness and grace and accountability, but they don't want to talk about demonic spirits.  But many times if you have tried repeatedly and given in, there is a spirit influencing you that needs to go, before you can be released.  I thank God the pastor I went to did not put shame on me.  In fact he stressed that this happens to many people and immediately pulled a team together to come to my house and help me.  Of course the shame was huge and I fought having them to my house for months, but what relief I found when they finally came and walked me through it.  They cleaned my house of tormenting spirits and prayed a few off me too. 
     Once I understood how they got into my life it freed me from the shame.  It is as simple as an unwanted pregnancy.  Maybe it's for financial reasons or being unmarried, but the moment a pregnant woman says anything about not wanting to be pregnant a door is opened to the demonic spirit of rejection.  We are living in the world and the enemy is the ruler of this world.  There are doors all around us that  can be opened to many demonic strongholds.  But there is a huge door above us we can open to the heavens, so Jesus may enter into our lives. 
     For example if a child is molested many doors are opened to the enemy.  This is why it is such a powerful tool for him to use.  Once it has happened many doors to many spirits are open.  The spirit of manipulation, trauma, deception, perversion, possibly even rape and many more spirits are granted access through the authority they have been given on earth.  How can we make a person feel ashamed of a spirit influencing them when they may have still been in the womb when the door was opened.
     I used to drive down the road and have thoughts I believed were mine, and it took months before I realized the voice I heard did not belong to me.  A demonic spirit was constantly trying to convince me that driving into a tree or off a cliff would solve all my problems and the war I felt I had been fighting every day of my life would be won.  What I didn't realize was the war was real, but it was spiritual and it was the enemy who would have won, not me. 
     I had the authority as a child of God to tell that spirit to go in the name of Jesus.  It took three friends and my willingness to finally make it go.  It was one of the more difficult to be rid of, but it is gone.
     Not all churches deal with this, but there are people out there who do.  Many cities have healing rooms filled with people who pray for the sick, the tormented and anyone else who needs emotional, spiritual, or physical healing.  To walk in there and say, "I think I am being tormented by spirits" could change your life.  The enemy will whisper in your ear that it is not him, it's you, but that should be your first clue.  Truth sets us free and this is part of finding that truth.


“Go out and heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons and preach the kingdom. But do it for only one reason. Your motive should be an overwhelming love and compassion for those in need. There is no other legitimate motive for healing.”
― Praying Medic, Divine Healing Made Simple

Do you love me?

Confrontation is an examination. It is a procedure that trusts another to look at some part of your life that you may not know about or understand. Healthy confrontation is necessary if we expect to build healthy lives and live in peace. - Danny Silk - Culture of Honor

      The Lord has been talking to me on many subjects and as I wait for the pieces to come together He said to start with this from His child.

     Do you love me enough to speak up?  You see my behavior changing.  You see me acting out.   You suspect that I am being abused, but will you ask if I am okay?  You see something in my eyes, is it fear, is it pain, will you help me?  But what if you do?  What if you address what you see?  Will I shrink away in shame, believing that somehow it is my fault they are hurting me?  Will you be the safe person who I feel comfortable to share that something is wrong?  If the abuse goes unchecked it will only get worse.  Not only will the wounds dig deeper into my soul, but others around me will begin to feel the effects of those wounds.


     We automatically think this is coming from a child being mistreated by an adult, but what if this was written by a child of God being abused by a demonic spirit?  Read it again.  We see it happening as they become filled with pride and arrogance or maybe they are shrinking away because of a spirit of fear.  We know they have so much to give and the enemy is keeping them from giving it. 

     There is the other side of this.  What if you are the one being tormented and you don't see it and a friend approaches you?  We can't take offense.  The most important commandment is to love each other.  To see a child being abused by an adult or a child of God being tormented by a demon and do nothing is allowing it to go on.  True love speaks up. 
     I have been that abused child.  I was abused for several years by several people and nobody ever asked.  I have been that child of God tormented by the enemy and I thank God He gave me friends to speak up.  If you love me you will confront.  After all, it is not the one being abused who is actually being confronted it is the abuser, the accuser, the liar, the tormentor who we war against.
     Being tormented by a demonic presence most often turns to sin.  A spirit of perversion can lead to an affair or pornography addiction.  A spirit of fear can lead to disobedience to God.  A spirit of control can turn into abusing and/or manipulating others. 
     God allowed you to see something that spoke to your heart and said "Something is wrong here."  He showed you for a reason.  Always ask if you are the one to confront or maybe you are called to pray.  Pray that the one called to confront hears His voice and steps out with courage.  Pray for His will to be done.  Pray for the abuser to be exposed.  Today people are so afraid to confront or get in other people's business, but we are called to love and no where in the bible does it say that love is easy.  But one thing love is... is action.

“Nothing can be more cruel than the leniency which abandons others to their sin. Nothing can be more compassionate than the severe reprimand which calls another Christian in one’s community back from the path of sin.”
― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Faith in Community    

Screwtape mentoring

“Surely you know that if a man can't be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that "suits" him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters


  I haven't written anything since the last time I wrote on this blog. Why? Because I don't want to. My desire to write, my passion for putting my thoughts into words has all but disappeared.  It's very strange as big as the feeling was it is gone now.  But, this causes a problem.  One of the ways the Lord communicates with me is by giving me pieces to a puzzle and then I spread them out on a table, get the edge pieces separated from the rest and then color code, etc. etc.  Well, words from Him are the pieces.  The page is my table.  I don't know another way to do this when He is giving me so many pieces to what is sure to be a very large puzzle.
     This morning I said to Him, "Where did the passion go?  I thought this was a gift?"  His answer?  "I don't take gifts back."  Hmm.  Maybe that was why He had me listening to the Screwtape Letters?  If you are unfamiliar with them, it is a series of letters written by Uncle Screwtape (demon) to his nephew Wormwood (a demon also) mentoring him in the fine art of manipulating the life of the person he is assigned to.  It's almost comical how puppet like people are.
     So I give God this picture of all these multi dimensional words He has been giving me as puzzle pieces stirring around in my brain and how impossible it looks to funnel them down through a pen.  It's just too hard.  Then He gives me His own picture of the top of my head coming off to expose all those puzzle pieces and a demon stirring it all up like a brew in a big black pot.  The author of confusion. 
     "Okay Lord, what do I do?"  He said, "Write.  Write something, anything, just write."  As I try to write the computer crashed, I hit my head and I knocked over a pile of books.  But I keep moving forward knowing who is fighting me, who has convinced me I am too tired, it is too hot, and it's really not important what I have to say.  And I succeed.  I have written.  Now we will see what can of worm(wood) it opens.  Ha.

“Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters