Whoa, this is Long! But I Promise, it's Worth It!

I read a post the other day that started, “Because we were made to worship…” but the rest of the sentence didn’t make sense. (Ironically, I can’t remember what it was!) I thought to myself, wow, look at how people say things that they don’t even understand, and others will “react” through “liking” even though the concept makes no sense. As hard as I tried to shake it, I kept thinking about these things until I realized where I was stuck.

We were made to worship. God created the Heavens and the earth. He created all living beings. He created a set of beings called angels, and among them, one was rebellious and took a faction with him to cause destruction. Some people want to use logic and deduce that it must mean that God created evil, and that can only lead to God is evil (and we know this is not true). Child of God, don’t let silly syllogisms rob you from your heritage. God is not the author of evil, in Him there is only good, and before you go demanding proof let me remind you that the mere concept of our Triune God is barely fathomable- we are not equipped with the brain capacity to know, understand or receive proof. And yet in His love and desire to walk beside us, He presses in and allows certain things to be known. So approach these things with appropriate humility and reverence.

We were created to worship in a way that is similar to angels, but not limited to their capabilities. Like many of you, I have not as yet seen an angel, and I would welcome the experience. Angels are heavenly beings who have a clear purpose and mandate: they are messengers of God, meant to assist in helping us and Him as needed and they live to worship God. These truths we gain from reading scripture. They too were created to worship and to work. I don’t know what angels think, whether their thoughts belong to them or if they are only from God, but I know that when the enemy infiltrated heaven, he managed to convince some of them to join him. There had to be some space in their being for something other than what God put there.

If you think about that, the fact that the order of angels was created before us, it makes sense that God was determined to do it differently with human beings. As with all things created, God designed us for His pleasure and desires our worship. Although He knew what it could lead to, He allowed for free will (or the ability to choose) to be a unique feature of our design. It’s the same way that you young ladies (myself included), have intense out-of-your-league crushes, and your heart long for that person to reciprocate, or reflect back to you that he feels the same way, and that he chooses you too. What joy to know that the one you chose also chooses you!

 I am here to break it to you: this is the imprint of God on your heart, lady! He could have made you with a permanent desire to love Him and serve Him every day of your life. But He didn’t want a robot! As the development of artificial intelligence catches fire in our culture, I am reminded that God didn’t want His children to be programmed. Sadly, some interpretations of Christian religion missed out on that understanding. God made you with the ability to choose because He wants you to want Him. Because He already wants you!

When we choose to partner with Him in life, in decision making, in obedience and in community fellowship, He increases our capacity to know Him and also to withstand His glory. God’s glory is heavy! Remember how Moses’ face shone long after His mountain experience? God can build more RAM and memory in you so that you can experience more of Him, but that only comes when you have a functioning relationship with Him.

So yes, while we were made to worship Him, He does not need our worship. He desires it. I hope that so far, this post warms your heart. The next part is not so nice: as much as the ability to choose can be liberating, it can also cause pain to the chooser and those who are affected by the choice. Let’s go back to the crush example. It’s called a crush because at first you feel shy at the effect this cutie has on you, so you crush yourself inwardly and hope he can’t see! Someone else might add it’s a crush because that’s what usually happens by the end… you see him with the person he really loves, or else you realize that he’s too old for you et cetera. Ask a girl who has lived it: crushes can hurt. When we choose something or someone, and the feeling is not reciprocated, the effect can be mild pain or utter devastation. Probably if you read this blog, you lean more towards the devastation part. That pain will make you do things that are not characteristic of who you are, and yet you are acting out against the rejection.

Rejection has to happen. It’s part of life. It’s okay to acknowledge it when it comes and to feel the feels that go with it. That’s healthy! But then you have to let it go.

Onto the next big idea: Christians are human too. Accepting Jesus into your life is a wonderful move forward into living the purpose that God has for you. No matter how “mature” we get, in God’s eyes, we are still human. Since He can see straight to the heart of our intentions and motives, He knows that unchecked pride can cause a lot of damage to humans and the humans around who are dependant. Men and women of God, who are in ministry, are still human. It should be our common goal to be more like Jesus, but aware that although He can give us the ability to live more like Him, every day we are swimming in a sea of contamination that is sin. Sometimes, we will be influenced by that sin. We may fall into it.

Recently, a group of prophets posted public apologies on their social media, asking for forgiveness for bringing forth an incorrect word about who would win the US presidency in 2020. The apologies looked similar to each other, acknowledging that they were wrong in having led people to believe something that was not true. Almost EVERY apology was followed by an advertisement to buy a book by the apologizer, or here are the new tour dates when you can go out to see the apologizer. This whole thing really hurt me.

As I have mentioned before, I am not a prophet, but have experienced prophetic leading by God in certain situations. Even the most basic prophetic training will tell you be very careful to not give a careless word to anyone about who they will marry, whether they will have children and when the world will end. God can tell you all kinds of things! It doesn’t mean He wants you to tell everyone. I have seen how excited people get the first time they truly hear from Him and they are bursting to testify. That’s great! Encourage new believers in this. But also, make sure that when they are testifying, you have mature elders included, who know how to discern, who can also step in and with the grace of God say NO when it is apparent that the person has not heard from God. You need elders who have tact. I know that can be a rare thing to find and I myself have been hurt by elders who heard from God but were also mean. This is one of the modern day problems we have with the church: people want to hear that everything they say is correct, when it should be apparent that just because you feel it, doesn’t make it theologically sound.

Remember the prophet Jeremiah? He was not a popular guy. He had some hard words to deliver to God’s people and they didn’t want to hear it. God permitted and inspired Jeremiah to do some wild things, like break pots, to demonstrate to the people in analogous ways what He wanted them to know. Jeremiah was also called the weeping prophet. He was moved by the painful words that God gave Him. Being emotional was meant to be a signal to the people that they have grieved the heart of the One who created them. Jeremiah struggled in his relationship with God in that he knew that God wanted to use him in this way, but he felt the weight of the burden that accompanied the message.

These days, It feels like there are fake Jeremiahs on every corner. There are prophets who only give these hard words, who were also careless and had to make the apology I wrote about. There are Christians who are so caught up in their emotional experience of God, that you can’t tell them what they are describing is not actually God, but from themselves. These people use scripture out of context only to propel themselves deeper into their delusions. God help us.

Those who are truly called to be prophets like Jeremiah will have a secret struggle where they go the extra mile in fasting and praying to make sure that it really is God they are hearing from because they understand how crucial it is that they only speak exactly what God has asked them to.

Give me a moment to connect some dots here. Every human being has the capacity to choose and has choices to make every day. We teach children to be critical thinkers and evaluate all of their sources, explore all of their options, so that they will make the most informed decisions, and not just be swayed by feelings. Yet feelings are powerful! They can cloud human judgment so that you don’t choose what is right or what is best, but you choose what feels good. Sis, take this on good advice: you don’t prophesy to people who they will marry because as much as her heart says I choose him, he also has a choice in the matter, and his heart may say something else. (Wait, let me go there… his heart may be telling him yes, but his mouth and mind have the right to say NO. Let that sink in.) You don’t prophesy to people when they will have a baby unless you are directly instructed by God to go there because in order to conceive, a lot of things have to line up and be in place! I have tried to get pregnant. It’s not as easy as it looks. Some youngin’ is saying to herself, yeah but it happened to me without trying, well again, you made choices and were unaware that God appointed that life to be conceived. It is better for everyone to let nature take its course.

Now here we go. You don’t prophesy who will win an election. Even if God tells you, keep it to yourself! We are humans who are free to choose and the power of voting is that everyone gets to make a choice. I was so sad when I saw numerous examples of people trying to shame each other into voting a certain way. Friends, do not let secular morality dictate your choices. Be in relationship with God, talk to Him regularly, and choose what you know is right for you. I thought that was self-explanatory! Both candidates have their limitations and their drawbacks. Sometimes, neither one is good! In Canada, we vote for the party’s platform, not so much the individual. In the US, elections are very personal and candidates are critiqued on everything from their track record to their choice of clothing and eventually their political platform. If it really is a democracy, then every person has the right to choose who they will vote for and the culmination of all votes will show the will of the people.

I look at how people judged each other in this process. It’s not up to you to look at someone and decide who they are voting for. And if you are clergy or a church leader, it is not for you to tell people who to vote for! The idea behind voting is that each person is capable of understanding the issues, informing themselves and deserves the chance to make a choice through casting an individual ballot.

I don’t know who taught any of the people I saw misbehaving on the news. I don’t know who parented the people who took it upon themselves to desecrate government buildings. But I also don’t know who told their children one day, when you don’t like what you see and you don’t get what you want, set the whole city on fire. Sorry if this makes you mad, you need to hear it: from the outside, you people don’t have it so bad. I am not saying that there is not poverty or injustice. Social problems affect all countries. Generally speaking, North Americans are faring well from a global perspective.

Let me come back to the prophets. All of a sudden, prophets who were bold enough to declare who would win and so on found themselves faced with possible legal action for radicalizing the public to take the inappropriate actions that were taken by some. I think it’s ridiculous that individuals who have the nerve to take such drastic measures can escape the weight of responsibility by claiming that it’s the fault of someone else who inspired them to act. We need to encourage people to be full-time adults. Example: if I don’t wear a mask, and I catch coronavirus, I cannot blame anyone- the government, the anti-maskers, the church- I must take responsibility for the fact that I made a choice not to wear a mask! When you are tricked into believing that a figurehead like a politician is directly responsible for what goes wrong in your life, you are missing out on a whole lot of information that probably points to a set of indicators that should also be factored in, whether you like it or not. It’s too easy to excuse our bad behaviour without recognizing that if you as an individual allowed yourself to get riled up and act based on what someone says, you are responsible for your actions.

Those apologies were not heart-felt. They were legal disclaimers to make sure that ministries that survive off of your money can continue to do so. I am so mad that they had the nerve to try and promote themselves in the same post or shortly after. With permission from God, I will not support or subscribe to any ministry that needed to apologize. I’m cutting off everyone who has a word from me and then wants me to buy vitamins from their wife. I’m cutting off everyone who made this apology and then thinks I should drop $5000 to attend their School of Ministry, where they will “activate” me.

God “activated” me when I said “I do” to Him. He walked closer to me the closer I walked to Him, meaning we built a relationship together that is intimate. I tell Him my secrets and He tells me His. When we got to the point where I was ready for more responsibility, He opened up my spiritual gifts and told me not only how to use them but who they are meant for. They are meant for you, the church, the body of Christ, and He has already paid for it, you don’t have to pay people. By all means God wants you to support the church financially. It is your community of fellowship, and if we don’t take care of the community things, no one else will. If you don’t have a church but you follow a ministry, by all means you are right to make a financial contribution. Those are the ones who are feeding you Godly things right now, and if it’s ministering to you, support it by donating.

I have seen too much prophetic mess in my life that I worry for you sis, and what you might be exposed to. I know this is already long, but I want to caution you to beware people who focus too much on God’s power in exercising spiritual gifts. Some of the techniques that these people use are pumped heavily in the occult, and I have seen Godly people become strange by pumping the gifts like a well instead of partnering with God who is the Source. All people of God, leaders especially, must see themselves as conduits of His presence first. It is our responsibility to bring His presence to every situation in our lives and every minute of our hectic days. This is where creative ideas, energy and true ministry that reaches the heart of unsaved people will stem from. Seven days of dry-fast for the purpose of seeing God write in the sky is not a realistic or a good goal to have. It is better to desire to hear Him authentically in a way that you recognize him. People who try to sell you this are SO very off. Love them and let them go, please!

Since I’m already killing the word count, let me go further with some of my concerns. I have seen prophetic people lie, that is, they say that something is from God when it is really from themselves. True prophecy is not available “on tap”. Consider yourself blessed if its true and good and comes from the real Source. Word of knowledge is when someone gets details about your life that they would not otherwise know. While this involves hearing from God, this is not prophecy. So many people are fooled by this, like a party game, it has gone from a mild curiosity for me to something that makes me angry. Of course I want to know that God sees my life and wants to communicate with me. I can’t limit Him to speaking through a person I don’t know, and I can’t trust that word unless I have been in regular communicate with Him through Bible study and prayer in my own life. I have seen people who may have had a grace for the prophetic, pump the gift and come up empty, and still they manage to say something general and ecumenical to please people around. I honestly would have more respect for them if they stopped everything and said, “I love y’all, but I don’t have a word right now. Can we just worship God and spend some time with Him?” I can count on one hand how many times I’ve seen that done. Some of those prophets are playing with fire, daring God to make their words come true. If you love God and really respect Him, you won’t do this nonsense. But also, this is the invitation that the enemy is waiting for to come in and cause confusion for the one who is pumping that gift. The source of the knowledge is now corrupted.

In the same way that all Christians have the responsibility to spread the gospel and testify what God has done in their lives, we also have the responsibility to be honest to people and not transfer our spiritual garbage to them. There will be days when, if you really are honest, you are not fit for ministry and the human being who is weak and needs Jesus would be better off spending time sitting at His feet. I wish we had enough transparency to say, “Guys, today I can’t” and that someone else would say, “Okay, let me step in for today”. Imagine what ministry in a team like that would be? I have tried it and sadly, it doesn’t work because of the hollow towers God’s leaders are building these days create too much distance to be real people. We have to be able to trust that our leaders are mature Christians who have sound judgment. But we also have to know that they are human like us and when they need time to address something big with God, they ought to have the right and privacy to do so. When they return, they don’t have to tell us what happened, but they do have to show that their maturity and capacity to lead are still intact and that they are seeking God on behalf of the ministry. That’s all.

We have to take the fame and fan-boy/fan-girl out of ministry stuff. Of course there are men and women of God that I don’t know personally but love from a distance. I have the responsibility to keep my “church crushes” in check. I should keep my thoughts and gossip between me and Jesus. He will always find a way to bring back those thoughts and comments to my own relationship with Him, because His goal is make me a better person. I have tried to live and work with people in the church in the ways I have described and I am sorely disappointed by how many cannot get their heads through the door, the ego is unreal. We let these people build hallow towers from which to address us, and now everything that has a shaky foundation will collapse because they are unrepentant. It’s not too late, but they need to humble themselves now.

I’ve made posts before about the cost of ministry. When I was writing this, I heard this phase: people want activation, but they don’t want to pay the real cost. Folks, save your money. Any prophet who wants to train you for financial gain isn’t doing it right. I do deliverance with people, and if I did this for money, the enemy would have a field day with me. Spiritual things are not transactional in the way that our mere human minds understand it. You are wasting money to try and smell the aroma of someone else’s soul so you don’t have to deal with what is stinking up your own life. Don’t let this be you.

God bless you- this was long! Thanks for making it to the end.