Brothers,

I’m using the old TURN 180 blog site to give you a word that God brought to me while watching a totally unusual video. I hope sometime soon to share what God revealed to me to the congregation and I will show the video at that time.  

During this unremarkable video, a member of a helicopter rescue team calmly states that a female hiker who has slid down the face of a cliff “has a good purchase.”  That statement immediately made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I felt an overwhelming sense of revelation.  I knew what the man was saying because I’d read it many times whenever we would read Psalm 40.  The Psalmist was telling of how he’d become mired in clay (despair) and how God rescued him by putting his feet on solid ground. (hope)  All of us stumble and fall at sometime in our lives, and we find ourselves grasping for a purchase from which to keep us from falling to our doom.

Over many generations the word “purchase” has come to mean a foothold or solid footing. This is especially true in the military, and in mountain climbing.  It means a small foothold from which you can stand firm, but more importantly from where you can advance.  A foothold is never a permanent place.  You cant stay there forever.  It is only a temporary place of safety from which you can launch out to more solid footing.  Yet, the past often becomes a place we cling to instead of calling for God's rescue chopper.

I’ve been working this over in my spirit ever since I saw the video, and over the last two weeks Holy Spirit has been showing me how we become locked in place because we are unwilling or afraid to let go of our foothold. This can often be seen in people who cling to the way things used to be or even the way they are right now. This was what kept the religious leaders of Christ's day from accepting that He was the Messiah. Many people who are locked in the past, don't even realize it. They are like the Apostle Paul who during his first imprisonment was allowed to walk around freely, but under constant guard by Roman soldiers. It is a scary place to be in, when you think you are free, but you aren't.  Even as a church, we can become stuck in the past clinging to old forms, and traditions. We'll tell new people that "it's just not done that way."  Or, we'll wrap our arms around our past glories and worship them instead of the God who led us through them.  "We should have never done that..." or "I wish we still had that..."  or even "Why'd we let that/ them go?"  It's easier to bemoan the past than to embrace the moment.   

This morning I couldn’t go for my usual morning walk at six because of the flood of revelation He was giving me.  I sat up in my bed with pen and paper and wrote down the thoughts that were coming into my spirit. After I felt a release, I texted you guys with a condensed version of what I’d received, got dressed and went on my walk.  Because you all have my text message, I’m going to launch out with what I feel God wants us to know. This isn’t for just ONE person, but for all of us, myself included. When Bro. John prayed last night, he said that the awakening would not be like anything that has come before. It was then that I knew it was time to release what I’d been given.  

Spiritually, for those of us who claim Christ Jesus as our savior, it is all too easy to become locked up on dogma, and even worship the traditions of men. Carnally, it is also all too easy for us to become locked up by regrets for bad choices we’ve made in the past. Emotionally, it is all too easy to fear letting go of past hurts, and injuries due to careless words, or actions.  Jesus says; Let Go!!!! He’s got you wrapped up in His arms, and He won’t let you fall!  Every one of us has made, and will make bad or stupid decisions. Sometimes it's because we don't listen to Holy Spirit, well...actually it's always because we don't listen to Holy Spirit. The beautiful thing is, God isn't surprised by, and isn't scared of anything we do, or don't do. His plan will unfold.  We can only lament the fact that we didn't get to be a part of what He wanted to do, or even miss the thing He did with what we perceived as failure.  I kinda think the entire Bible is a record of what He can do with our mess. 

When we become locked up in the past, we can’t see ourselves moving up or down. Like the woman who’d slid down the side of the cliff, you can only look up and see where you slid down from, or look down and see nothing but death and destruction below.  Jesus is your rescuer!! He is right in front of you telling you not to be fearful, but to relax and rest in Him. The problem is that we can be lulled into a false sense of security because we have a footing, but that footing is tenuous at best. You can’t stay there forever! The rock you are standing on is far below where you fell from even though it offers you a small amount of hope. You become imprisoned by the fear of letting go. You will die there if you don't accept your rescue. Instead of trusting the creator of Heaven and earth, you have convinced yourself that what has worked for you in the past will continue to work for you in the future. Even with Jesus telling you to trust Him, you cling to the emptiness of your past.  

I am here to tell you that when you focus on your past mistakes, broken dreams, and bashed hopes, you will never be happy. The tragedies of your past do not limit what God can, and will do right now. You have to let go, and trust that God has you. None of us can go back in time and redo anything!  Remorse is fine, and Godly sorrow is the solution to your past, but regret is a prison that keeps you from living every moment with joy, and hope.  

The Lord revealed to me that I too was locked up on a cliff face trying to hold on to what I’d known.  In my case it was mourning Glenda that had me all locked up. This is where He revealed to me that sometimes we cling to good things in the past and refuse to move on because we can’t imagine anything being better than where we are right now.  There isn’t a day I don’t think about Glenda, and all the good things she did, and the wonderful person she was. It wasn’t until I told a Chaplain I walk with in the morning that I would give anything to have her back again. 

"But you can't have her back again can you?"  He asked.  "You had a lot of years together, and it's normal to miss her, but you want something that you can't have. Sounds like you're stuck." It was right at that moment that I realized I’d become locked in the past just as much as that woman in the video. I’d become afraid that people wouldn’t think I loved her enough if I didn’t mourn her intensely.  A good thing in the past had become my prison, and kept me from living the good things I have right now. 

So, how do you know if you’re living in the past?  What are the clues to help you let go and trust Jesus to carry you off of your purchase?  Actually they’re pretty easy clues. Your conversations consist of:  “I wish I’d never…”  fill in the blank with whatever you wish you’d never done, or said.  I promise you that YOU CAN’T go back so it is fruitless to live in your land of wishes.  The inverse of this statement is: “I wish I’d had…” If you didn’t do it or say it, and you wish you had, then you are locked up on that moment.  Regrets reveal your lack of faith in Holy Spirit’s leading, and a lack of trust that God can work all things for your good.  Regret is simply a lack of faith.  Without faith it is impossible to please God. It’s a rock you can’t get yourself off of. HOWEVER, I promise you that Jesus is ready to put a rescue harness around you and take you back to where you fell from if you trust him and let go of the past. One of the greatest obstacles to the gospel being preached is the imprisonment of God’s people to the past.  It is impossible for a prisoner to preach freedom to the lost, if they are both in the same cell. We need to be a church that is free indeed. Many Christian's lives are often dictated by the past, instead of being led by Holy Spirit who knows our steps, and our hearts.

As a final offering of hope, I want everyone to know that I never want to diminish the power of remorse, or Godly sorrow.  “Godly sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance leads to salvation.”  Oh, wait a minute, that’s a scripture verse; 2 Corinthians 7:10.  

Mourning over your past sins and mistakes was never intended to be a continual state of mind. “There is now, NO CONDEMNATION, to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (the past), but after the Spirit.” (NOW!)  Romans 8:1

Rejoice brothers, let go of your tenuous purchase and find freedom standing on the the ROCK of your salvation, JESUS CHRIST! 

SPIRITUAL PREPARATION FOR MEN'S GROUP

 Those of you who've known me over the nearly 25 years we've been a fellowship, know that I try very hard not to motivate you with guilt, or fear. A life of guilt, fear, and retribution was the hallmark of my Christian experience in my childhood, and teenage years.  The fear of never doing enough, or living up to what people said I had to do, shaped my existence well into my early adulthood.  Even after coming into the freedom of Christ paying it all, I've had to fight against guilt throughout my adult life with some success, and then there are times I revert to my default 'training' from my youth. So, my desire for this blog is to encourage you to increase your spiritual preparation for our Sunday Bible study without putting you under the weight of feeling that you are a failure if you don't.  So, before I jump into how to spiritually prepare for our studies, I'm going to tell you to RELAX, enjoy the journey, and TRY to implement some of the ideas I'm going to put before you.  

In the last blog we discussed the physical items you might want to have available as you study our source material. I used these tools all my adult life, and have grown accustomed to having them 'out' and positioned for study. Believe it or not, this is a spiritual preparation. 

FIRST: Find a place, whether it's small, or an entire room where you can spread out your study tools.  I call this; Making Room.  Making room is simply setting aside a spiritual meeting place for you to read, write, and meditate upon what you are studying. I had a pastor while I was stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base who viewed his office as the tent of meeting, and his desk as the Holy place. The office space was where he sought Christ the light of the world, broke the bread of fellowship with staff and lay members. His desk became the Holy of Holies whenever he opened his Bible and began to seek God for a message for the next service.  He told all of us men to similarly seek a place where you are alone with God, free of distractions from the world, and able to lean back and close your eyes in prayer at any time.  He told us that he'd often fallen asleep in his office chair while praying for the message. There is no sin in falling asleep while in God's presence.   

POINT: Make Room, Find a Place, and purpose to meet God for a word from Him.

SECOND: Find a time!  During my adult years I always found a way to make a study space. It was always fun for me to do that.  I've emptied out closets, set aside corners of bedrooms, and at one point in my life, I even made myself an office space. It's always been easy to do. What wasn't and still isn't easy to do is find time.  Time is harder to give up than money, or things.  I can't count how many times I've heard someone say "I need some 'me' time."  or an even less selfish phrase like "I just don't have time."  I know when someone loves me if they are willing to give me time.  Your wife knows that, your children know that, and believe me God knows that.  I've told you all numerous times how much time I spend studying for our Sunday morning meetings.  I would be lying if I told you that over the last three years I've missed spending all that time studying for our men's group. So, let me make it bearable, and affordable if you give value to time.  Find time!  Whether it be thirty minutes, or an hour, dedicate yourself to as much time as you can afford to study.  

POINT: Make time, start small, enlarge your tent as you go.  

LASTLY: Pray to receive!  There are times I hate the word 'prayer' because of the negative connotations associated with it. Prayer is often portrayed as someone kneeling or sitting with hands clasped in a false display of reverence, with their faces contorted into a pained stoic expression.  Dear God in heaven, how would you feel if your wife looked at you like that when the two of you talked. (Long Pause here while you grasp what I'm alluding to.) Spiritual revelation doesn't come from how hard you squeeze your sphincter muscles and how eloquent your words are.  MY ADVICE for approaching God for revelation is a simple phrase that basically has this nugget at its core. "Hi God, I don't know anything without you revealing it to me. What do you want me to know."  Pause, which is polite way of saying shut up, read up, or speak up. Study time is not the time to solve all of the worlds problems and let God know your opinion on how to fix them. Your are the empty plate that He is going to put the bread of His word on, and the two of your are going to commune over it together.  

POINT: Open your mind, open your heart, and open your spirit to receive His Spirit.

Okay there you are!  Make space, make time, and open yourself up to receive.  Wow, too hard right? NOW, to absolve you of any guilt, and to place you in a position to live your life free of condemnation. You don't have to do anything I've written. None of my suggestions will affect your salvation, none of it will keep you from going up at the last trumpet. Any one of you can continue to come to our men's group without opening the study material during the week and still receive good stuff. I promise you, you'll be able to enjoy God's awesome word at no extra cost to you.  That is a promise.  No guilt, no condemnation, no shame.  You'll never hear any condemnation from my mouth.  

Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling, and skillfully teaching the word of truth.  2 Timothy 2:15  AMP      

Oops!  I didn't do that!  Bro. Paul did that.  I didn't tell him what to say, I promise.  I was trying real hard not to put you under any guilt or condemnation, but then he shows up.  I hate it when that happens.  I mean really, what did he know about life?  He didn't have a wife or kids, he didn't have a job, (well he was self-employed) but he was his own boss and didn't have to worry about pleasing anyone but God.  Well, now that I think of it, he did have those pesky Roman soldiers guarding him, and he was always being hounded by the Jewish religious leaders trying to kill him, or get him killed. Never mind how many letters he had to write to help gentiles understand this new Jewish sect called "the Way.'  Paul had no worries.  Just study and write.  Right?  

Unlike today's generation, there is no award for just showing up.  HOWEVER, there is amazing great joy when what you've prepared for bears fruit.  

STUDY PREPARATION

I wanted to prepare you guys for our next study. For those who remember, this blog was created in an effort to save copy paper and ink. Now it will be where I give my commentary on what we are studying, and also a means for you to know the direction the study will be going before you come.  The Lord willing, I will try to have the study notes posted on Fridays. If I have to say something critical of the book we're studying, I will opt for a lesson sheet like I used to do just to prevent the World from using my thoughts as a battering ram against Christian unity. If you don't believe it happens, just look at the struggles between the Apostle Paul, and the disciples. People amplified the 'works' focus of the Apostle James with the freewheeling grace of Paul. This debate continues well into our present day and has been the focus of many books. Even in our own midst, we all have varying ideas of how our life in Christ should look. To that I always say be gracious, and kind as much as possible, and punch each other out somewhere out of sight of others. (You'll figure that one out if you are at rest in your knowledge of Christ.) LOVE is always our guide. As all of you know, I often react negatively to new ideas when they are given without warning, and in a group environment.  It is only after I get alone and pray that I am able to hear from Holy Spirit whether that thought was valid or not.  My point being, be ready to give your thoughts on what we're studying, please respond when I ask for input, but know that my initial reaction may seem to be...tough.    

As always, my hearts desire for all of you is that you do take at least an hour at minimum to read the chapter we're in and make notes while you are reading.  As many of you know it can take us months to study a chapter, or we can zoom through one in two lessons. When you open up your books to study, ask Holy Spirit to give you revelation that will benefit and edify the entire group. To Resolve a couple of semantics, I will address Holy Spirit without the qualifier of "THE".  Until God reveals His name to us, I am uncomfortable referring to Holy Spirit as an object without feelings or individual attributes.  The 'the' in "the Holy Spirit" was created by us and we have failed to grasp how it denigrates Him to a lower status when He is an equal part of the triune godhead.  

TOOLS OF STUDY

Some of you remember my favorite study materials, but for those who never studied under me, I believe you should study with a yellow legal pad, or at least a spiral notebook to write YOUR thoughts down as they come. I also believe you should at least have one physical Bible with which to underline and highlight passages. Nothing thrills me more than a highly marked up Bible, it's better than chocolate.  I also believe you need a good five pack of highlighters so that you can isolate words, and phrases. Highlighters also give you a means to make your note taking remind you of what was important in your own notes. I also highly recommend a good physical edition of Strongs Exhaustive Concordance, Vines dictionary, and the Webster's 1828 Dictionary.  I also use the Complete Jewish New Testament commentary for greater insight into Jewish understanding of Jesus as the Jewish Messiah.    

BIBLES:  As I've stated many times before, the KJV isn't my study Bible. At the same time, I always default to the KJV whenever I am thinking of a scripture verse because I grew up reading it, and hearing it for well over twenty years when I was growing up. I won't knock it, nor demean it, but as someone who grew up reading the KJV, I have issues with how it was translated.  As you've heard me say hundreds of times, if you can read the KJV with comprehension, you can read anything written by man. BUT, For simple readability, I prefer the NLT.  For beauty, and the poetic style of the Bible, I love the ESV.  My go to Bible for understanding Hebrew culture and how it applies to the Word is the Complete Jewish Bible.  Before we leave the whole Bible issue, let me explain that the NIV was translated by men and women who wanted to provide a readable, contextual version of the Bible. Despite its many detractors, the NIV is currently the most popular English Translation. The NIV has often been criticized for emphasizing a more modern view of the Bible with emphasis upon living a 'spiritual' life. It always amazes me how many negative comments are made about the NIV on the internet, yet it is so popular with the masses. On my study table I have three versions of the Bible that I use for comparison.  I have the CJB for context and history, the NRSV for accuracy (New Revised Standard Version), and the ESV for flow and readability.  As a side note; the ESV is considered an academically satisfactory translation. Personally as I stated earlier, I love the way it translates the poetic style of the Old Testament passages. Please feel free to USE whatever translations you are comfortable with, but at least have the maturity to know what the pros and cons of your choices are. IF you think in English, and read in English, it doesn't matter what you choose, because they will all be translations.  EVERY 'version' of the Bible carries an inherent bias of the translator even when there are other translators 'checking' their translation. This has been one of the biggest complaints about the NIV for instance.  It's emphasis upon Spiritual life and favorable interpretations toward Pentecostalism, and Charismatic concepts is obvious.  Choose your sweet stuff and don't feel the need to defend it.  That is not what we are about. Feel free to bring whatever version you feel comfortable reading from.  Nobody in our study group will confront you about what you bring with you.

THE BOOK WE ARE STUDYING

Due to copy-write restrictions in this blog format, I will try everything within me to avoid mentioning in the blog the source material for what we are studying. Another reason for avoiding mentioning the author and the book is because the author, and the book have come under a lot of criticism from Christians.  (Go figure)  The fellowship the author pastors has also come under a great deal of criticism for their focus on the supernatural, and focus on Holy Spirit. This is a public blog, and I want to avoid as much outside controversy as possible over the internet. Trolls will troll, internet vandals will vandalize, and creeps will...creep. If someone wants to disagree, I'd prefer they be in our study, and have facts ready. We know what we are studying and don't need references to know where we are at. 

As far as my own criticisms of the material go, as you know from the last book we studied, I believe we can all have questions about an author's conclusions, and even find them to be incorrect.  That doesn't mean that the author isn't a mighty man of God with a spiritual experience I can only dream of.  However, there were a few times I took a dim view of some of his ideas.  The same is true of our coming study.  I don't agree with everything the author says. Actually, I agree with a lot more than I disagree with. We'll have those discussion in private in our study group because the enemy of the Church likes it when believers disagree with each other.  He enlarges it, feeds it, and then exhibits it to the world so that the powers of this world can use it to dismiss our faith. Disagreements in bias should never be reasons for believers to stop fellowship with one another.  At the same time, I want to encourage you to read the book with your spirit man listening to Holy Spirit. Let discernment and wisdom guide your study, and seek out deeper truths that can help us be renewed, transformed, and guided into deeper revelation of the Kingdom of God. When all else fails remember one word: EDIFICATION.  

Before we step into the study, please remember that much of what we battle with among one another is not actually interpretation of the Bible, but when an idea challenges long held 'traditions'.  The statement; 'That's the way we've always done it' is not acceptable. Traditions of men is exactly what Christ came to abolish. Please have the malleability to recognize when what you are clinging to might just be a tradition based upon scripture taken out of context.  Context is everything. 

I strongly encourage you to PRAY that what we are about to study will be added to our study of intercession, and that we will become the disciples that Jesus desires us to be.  I am seeing more and more fellowships being led by Holy Spirit into deep and abiding prayer.  It is in prayer that our minds are renewed, and that we are guided into all righteousness. It is no accident that we were led to study about intercessory prayer for the last two years. Nothing is done in the Spirit without a purpose.  If you believe we are in the last days, then act accordingly, and PRAY as the days become more and more evil.  It is easy to look at this present moment and think that good has overcome evil because our present government is amenable to Christianity.  Even now, the evil one is preparing his next attack, and we must be alert, praying, and interceding for those around us. Just as Jesus would go out alone and seek God for revelation about what He was supposed to do the next day, so too should we be given over to prayer as we see this world in need of the Kingdom power that is within each of us.  I still believe there will be one more great outpouring before the final page is turned. The one verse that has come to 'temper' my view of end time events is Matthew 24:14.  " And this gospel of the Kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." ESV

Let's get busy!