as i type these words to you, in my spirit and with the Enabling of The Holy Spirit, i pray for you, i pray for the comfort and peace that ONLY the Holy Spirit can bring, amen.
i also pray that any words i now write are engendered by the Holy Spirit, IN Jesus and IN His Love;
sometimes i feel that all of us, and i am guilty too, we sometimes fail to realize we all are "broken bread" as it were. we all suffer while in this vessel, we all fear, we all stumble, we all say or write things to one another that are not of Messiah.
i have been giving through study of late, reading and re-reading the Book of Proverbs. Proverbs, as i see it, with the Help of the Holy Spirit is a Book of "roads", the road of the righteous, the road of the wicked...and an appeal to the "simple" to walk the road of the righteous. After i finish this exercise, i want to then go into the Four Gospel Accounts.
i only tell you this, to let you know where "i'm at"...much the same as if we were having a conversation.
not 7 hours ago, i had the worst nightmare, i have ever had in my life. a bad dream nightmare, not the waking kind. i won't even detail it. Through my life i've had many dreams, many have been glimpses of the future, many have not.
but i keep my mouth shut, but no longer.
many men, some foolish, self proclaim themselves as "prophets". i would never do this, because i fear God, and would never deign to play games with Yahweh, i love Him, He has always shielded me, even from my own nature.
the world as we know it,is full of violence, hatred; both of humankind and God; lust, whether it be lust of pleasure, power, money, this world's "chess pieces" are moving. Foul spirits fill not only the heart of common man, but the hearts of rulers, whether they be "elected" or not....even those possessed by the "spirit of religion" are doing the devil's bidding by cuddling up with vain men, full of violence and greed, i don't care whether they call themselves "christians", "catholics", "muslims" "hindu's", "buddhists", or whatever deviant nomencalture they desire to attach to their outward appearances of religiousity. God knows their hearts, He knows their wicked schemes, and God, Who is so patient and so loving, is brimming with anger.
But YOU, HeartSong, dear child of His...do not fear. You know Jesus loves YOU, and loves all here, who are guileless of heart, and poor in spirit. Jesus Himself told you, in the Beautitudes of Matthew, how He loves you, and will never leave you, never forsake you...in that ONE GREAT HOPE, we rest and sup of His Body, cover ourselves in His Blood.......THIS IS OUR HOPE, and OUR FAITH, quiet, like a Rock.
Do we stumble? Yes, but like a fallen child, in child-like Faith, we know enough, just to reach our hand up, and there is the Hand of Jesus, who can resist such a Beautiful Hand?
When i was a wee lad, educated in the synagogue, i read many accounts of what we call the Shoah, referred to as the Holocaust in popular terminology, i was no more than 8 years old, saw many documentaries. At the same time, this was in the 1968 to 1972 time frame, (i was precocious, devoured book) i was also led to read every survivors account from the nuclear attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki i could lay my hands on.
Horrible vicious tales, that frequently filled my child dreams. As i grew i began to study nuclear war fighting. i was also led to study about petroleum. at a very age, 17, my first job was within the intelligence/military intelligence community, and was allowed, (by God) to see many things, without prejuidice, or presuppostion, i was allowed to see lies and hypocrisy, much to the breaking of my heart.
Then i entered the world of trade and finance, in many ways the same thing, as the hearts of men are dark, and so easily astray by the lust of money, power and pleasure. But by God's Grace and Guidance, my hands were never stained by the theivery that goes on in that world...it just "wasn't me"...not that i'm "perfect", but Praise Jesus, He really put two Posts in my heart, i never had a love or lust for money, and i have always striven to be what we term in Hebrew, a "tzadik", a "righteous man".
i know now that "none are righteous", which is why the Blood of Christ was shed.
(i am "going somewhere" with all this...bear with me)
i won't go into my third "career", but Praise God, i'm done with it, and God has saw fit to bless me with sufficient resource, and He has been giving me leadings for many years. i'm going to tell you where my heart leads me, and what i see, and i pray my words are true:
Heartsong, you remember after our Lord Jesus was hung on that tree?...and after the Day of Pentecost, a lot of the Early Church was in Jerusalem?....i'm referencing a period from the late 30's to the early to mid 60's...Jerusalem of course was occupied by the roman empire, and the city was just a hotbed of revolt and sedition....it was that way when Jesus was in His earthly ministry. Well, His followers, disciples, apostles, knew better than to get caught up in that foolishness.
i don't know for certain, but i do believe a great number of the Lord's, led by the Holy Spirit, got out of Jerusalem before the revolt that led to the City's destruction in the late 60's, by the romans.
my forthtelling is this, i can apprehend what many of these followers of Jesus, in those days, felt.
get out of the "city".
learn how not to be "dependent" on others to manufacture your food....learn the old skills of storing your food, to grow it.
regard the Word, the Logos, that Bible (or Praise God, BibleS, plural) as more sacred and precious as fine gold, for a day is coming when Bible ownership will be "illegal".
(while that might sound "horrible", it might be a case of satan overplaying his hand, because then the children of man would rightily place This Logos in the true import it deserves, which is to "eat" of the Word)
man's heart is dark, and every weapon he has fashioned, he will use again and again, therefore, i know not when, mankind will once again, wage war with nuclear weapons. But don't let fear grip you, because you are under God's Wing in His Faith. (Psalm 91)
Jesus told His followers, there will come a day, when you need to trade your cloak and buy a sword. Listen to Him. i will not say anything more than that.
"politics"...or "polis" is just a dead end road for followers of Jesus, to labor in this pursuit, is "wind", unfruitful exercise. This is just the way, the path that God the Holy Spirit has been leading me. avoid this wind, fore its "fruits" are bitterness, diviseness and rancor.
Bless God for the blessing of electricity, and for a sound automobile. but work towards a day when there are neither available.
Pray for God to send you other Holy Spirit filled followers of Jesus, when "out of the city" (if you have the same "get out" leading) we should also seek out Jesus' followers....go to appropriate churches, with agape love filling your heart. These dear saints the Lord sends you will be your "communitas" (i dearly love Bonhoeffer's book, "Life Together")
though this may on first blush, sound worldy, it might be wisdom, but as your purse allows, save real currency, distrust the "paper money". Time after time, in the Bible, we read reference of everyday trade being in silver, therefore as your purse, or wages allow, buy silver coins of american mintage, also stack away boxes of the lowly nickel, as they are the only coin left, that is actually instrinically worth its denomination. (and that will change soon as the govt will "debase" it) pre-1982 pennies, purely of copper, are now worth almost 3 cents, accumulate these also.
and finally, even in the darkest days, remember mercy, remember love, remember charity, keep and guard the Faith that has entrusted to you, to us, to everyone the Lord calls His Own, for in Christ Jesus is our All in ALL.
i send you my love and prayers in the Holy Spirit, n.
