Near Tuscon, AZ 

Divine Delays

The last twelve (12) weeks have been punctuated by human need, demonic opposition, and my deep ongoing reach for solutions in prayer. God’s prior directive which brought me out of California into Arizona was defined by specific passages of Scripture that ultimately landed me in Glendale the week before Christmas 2010. Every passage God took me too pointed me toward “wintering in Phoenix.” At first, I was puzzled by this one somewhat out-of-the-ordinary facet of God’s direction. But, I learned it was definitely from Him as heaven’s details unfolded before me over subsequent weeks following my return to Arizona after the Christmas holidays.  From my vantage point, I thought my return to the southern deserts of Arizona would resume my walk following my Christmas time with family. Yet, I soon learned that God had other plans….

 I Just Landed God!

Three days after I touched down in Phoenix between Christmas and New Years…God suddenly dispatched me back out-of-state again without warning to the side of one being destroyed in a lifestyle danger, despair, and deep oppression. I soon arrived to my destination and locked myself away in a hotel room where I entered deep into prayer for more than 3 weeks before breakthrough and liberation came. The next several weeks led me from one location to another as God kept me in the game to move toward complete victory.   Challenges dotted the course on a daily basis, but gave way to God’s ongoing mercy and intervention. Finally, I made my way back to Phoenix for several days only to have God send me out-of-state in an opposite direction to help another one caught in the crossfire between losing all and dispair. Over the next several weeks…each day shed more light on the unfolding stories of those I traveled to assist. Their life sagas are far from over…so, please pray earnestly for God’s incredible love, mercy, intervention, and complete liberty to be theirs without delay in Jesus’ name.

The Way Everlasting

Life challenges eventually bring us all to places of brokenness as we re-consider our course, question our theology, and find ourselves being taken deeper into God’s inner courts on behalf of others. As we venture out in our quest to bring life to others, we unexpectedly realize God’s loving intent was to do His re-creating work within our own hearts…first.   I’m not sure what you have experienced…but I find that crying out to God for others to be delivered typically only gains redemptive power as we give Jesus permission to wash our own lives clean in His life-giving blood.   Being God’s ambassadors of reconciliation to those in need can bring heartache, imposed isolation, a call to prayer during the third watch of the night, our plans to nothing as we help others, a call to love without expectation, or agony to our souls. Yet, nothing of value comes without cost. Once paid however…the price of loving others ushers us deeper into the presence of God filling us with joy, peace, hope, mercy, and the blessing of our Master as His tender touch to those who live and love with His heart… 

Historically…all freedom is purchased by blood, self-sacrifice, and unconditional forgiveness determined to love the unlovable, forgive the unforgiveable, and deliver those bound by hell’s entrenchments at any cost. Both human and spiritual battlefields pit good against evil, light against darkness, life against death, and heaven against hell. Fighting in heaven’s army is not for wimps, complainers, control freaks, or religionists.   No, gaining victory in eternity’s war zone is for those who know who they are in Christ, who made willing life-long commitments, and focus on seeking and saving the lost wherever it takes and whatever it costs them…period! True Christianity is embodied by the lives of those impassioned to extend the selfless and unconditional love of God to others as their personal gift in romancing their King…Jesus. True Christianity is the blood red rose of surrender handed by the indwelling Lord of Glory through a persecuted life to its accuser...humbly silent. Our lives are not simply random trails of discretionary decision meandering aimlessly down the corridors of human existence. Instead; our lives were created with purpose, designed to bring honor, dispatched to save others, and are to be driven by passion to marry Heaven’s Bridegroom our King.    

Message Of The Hour

As I travel the course set before me…it has become increasingly obvious that this walk across America is very unlike my prior one of 9 years ago. Where my last trek put me on a more regimented pathway dotted by miles and daily progress, this walk has unfolded to reveal that my presence in different areas I pass through is defined by who and what I encounter while there.   My time in one place may be mere days, while my landing in another may linger for months.   The difference between the two journeys gains definition as human need, entrenched strongholds, levels of hunger, and emerging destinies converge in their cry for God’s message of the hour.   My path crosses with others I have never met each day… Many of them draw deeply from all God has deposited in my faith through my time with Him amid dark hours of my soul over many years. To some, my reach is an encouraging word to a weary warrior…to another, it is an unwitting delivery of revelation…and to another, it is helping find the right questions to ask God as they test and approve His perfect will for their individual life.   Either way, God’s message of the hour lands in the laps through different words in response to various needs to achieve inconceivable tasks to glorify the One True God in His loving reach to a dying world….

The real message of the hour is summed up in the word “intimacy.”   In a nutshell…we came from Old Testament obligation to the law…through New Testament appreciation for life in Jesus Christ…and are now called to cross over from powerless religion into a passionate and romantic bridal intimacy with Jesus at the wedding feast of the Lamb. One must only take a casual look at the world’s social, economic, geographic, and spiritual condition to see that it is just like the bible tells us we’ll see as we enter the season of Christ’s return. Nations are rising against nations, earthquakes are growing more frequent, disasters are infecting our ecosystem, economic crashes plunder world banks, cultural idealisms are clashing, and spiritualities devoid of Christ are devouring those searching for life…

Yet, Revelation chapter two tells us that God has one main issue against His people…that they have lost their first love for Him. Do you remember what it was like when you first laid eyes on your woman or man with whom you wanted to spend the rest of your life? I’m sure you did not romance your wife-to-be by saying, “I’m difficult, I snore, I wear sweat pants on dates, I chew tobacco, I don’t brush my teeth, or asking if you can buy bargain cheeseburgers for dinner.” Instead, you worked 20 hours a day, drove 50 extra miles, combed your hair 20 times, ate breath mints, lost 30 pounds, polished your car, and dined at the best restaurants because you were in love…   Love looks beyond the cost never caring about the price it pays. Relational boredom weighs the cost always looking at what it lost. Why is it…that we made a cast-in-stone decision to love our mate or Jesus long ago never caring about the cost only to one day realize that we have become immobilized by our perceived…cost of loving? The answer: we lost our first love…

Time Of Decision

Yes, I know you have likely heard messages at church similar to this one. Sadly however, most of them changed nothing or no one. Our human complacency, selfishness, and indulgent attitudes have cast us adrift on the sea of secular humanism leaving us at eternal risk. If you are like most people…you have probably heard yourself say that I will lose weight, work longer, cut my credit cards in half, or repent in Jesus’ name…later. TIME IS NEARLY GONE……. We no longer have millennia, centuries, decades, years, or fleeting moments to waste because of our love affair with a “me first” mentality is tolerated within. God’s word is clear that we can recognize the “season” of Christ’s return. It is marked by certain historical events, human condition, and an “appointed time” set by God for His Son’s return.

Six (6) months ago, America’s leaders projected a peace agreement in Israel to be struck within 18 months. Just two weeks ago…these same officials declared that this same peace agreement may come as early as in the next 3 to 4 months. We know that a peace accord between Israel and its enemies will mark the beginning of the “Great Tribulation”…an unparalleled seven year or 84 month period littered with chaos and suffering just preceding Jesus riding in on the clouds to gather His Bride.   Many around you have probably dismantled such viewpoints as crazy, sensationalist, wrong theology, or heretical teaching. Yet, 2^nd Peter 3:3-4, 11 (NIV) says, “…you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires…they will say, where is this coming he promised... what kind of people ought you to be?” There are always naysayers. But, are you willing to entrust your eternal destiny to their views?

How’s Your Love Life

Does your relationship with Jesus resemble the passion level in your marriage to your wife or husband…is it as hot, steamy, or “I want to tell the whole world about it” as it was at the beginning? Or, is it cold, distracted, disinterested, and distant? If your physical or spiritual love life has lost its zeal…trouble lurks on your horizon as heaven’s banquet hall door begins to open in preparation for the wedding feast of the Lamb. What is needed to restore or even go beyond the love you once had for your lady leading to your honeymoon? What do you need to regain that tender embrace of your Lord and King? Do you need time in His presence for refreshing…refocusing…refining…or laying your burdens down through repentance? Or…do you need to forgive one who offended you, bless one who used you, or restore one who violated you to full privilege in Jesus’ name. One thing is sure dear friend…Jesus has His eye on the Bride of His dreams… Are you in His gaze? Or, will He look beyond you and your hope to marry your Savior and King? Is it time for you to fall in love again…