A Request

12/16/1990

BEFORE GOD, MY FRIENDS, as far as my feeble heart can do such a Godly thing, I love you. This book is in no way intended to be insulting. God has been very, very merciful to me in spite of the foolishness and sin that I have given myself over to, at times, in rebellion to my Lord. I don’t, and cannot, make any claims for myself. I stand only by the same unmerited favor by which He saved me in the first place. And so, I ask your forgiveness if I have hurt anyone or have been the catalyst of any foolish reactionism in immature disciples. I have no glee in having spoken so frankly.

“I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren…”

If you’ve been enraged by and are indignant at the thoughts contained in this book because you’ve read it with a darkened heart, intentionally trying to find items that you can take exception to, that’s not good. If you’ve read dishonestly that you might attempt to “prove” otherwise — to save your clergy job or lazy lifestyle, or to protect the memory of “good ole Grandpa Clevis, the churchman,” then there is nothing that I can say to you. Except “may God have mercy on you (and all of us), and may He protect others from your influence as long as you are such.”

But if you are just thoroughly confused because of my poor communication skills, or bordering on despair since the answers to “What should I do next?” are not obvious right now, then I want you to know that it’s okay. You can be frustrated with me, or angry, and I don’t blame you at all.101 I dumped a truckload on you all at once. Had I been with you, I would have walked you into higher ground rather than just pointing at the fruitless, withered fig tree and telling you of a Higher way. Nevertheless, if you purposely forget all that you have just read and continue on your way, please, at least, don’t ever settle for less than what our Father desires for you personally, your family, and the believers of which you are a part. Ever? Okay?

Hebrews 11:9-16, applied

“By faith your heart has made its home in the Promised Land of God’s Truth like a stranger in a foreign country. You live, for now, in tents (a total contradiction of what your heart has longed for), as do so many fellow heirs of the same promise. For you are looking forward to the City with Foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God Himself.

“Though all the facts, and all of your personal history may scream out that it’s too late, you’re barren and it can’t be done — you will be enabled to bear fruit from Heaven, because you continue to consider Him faithful Who has made the Promise. And so from mere men like yourself, men as good as dead, will come descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

“And all these people will live by faith, if even until death. If they do not receive the things promised, they only see them and welcome them from a distance — they will press on. And they will admit that they are aliens and strangers on this planet.

“People who say such things show that they themselves are looking relentlessly for the Kingdom of our Lord, the expression of His Reign in His People. If they had been thinking of the worldly pleasures, security, and the religion of this age that they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they are longing for a better country — one clearly “Born of God,” a Church that the gates of Hell can no longer prevail against. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a City for them.”

Hang tough, pilgrims!102 As our brother Isaiah has said, “God does not bring to the point of birth, and not give delivery!” As we pray the prayer that Jesus called out to His Father, “Father! Glorify your Name!” we can joyfully and expectantly await a similar answer from our Father, “I have glorified it. And I’ll glorify it again!”

In keeping with that heart, please remember that none of this was written so that a new generation of fault-finders, revolutionaries, and “experts” in “how to have church” might arise. It was written to give a Vision and Hope to God’s true-hearted People. It was written to “divide between soul and Spirit”…to expose motives, contend with the flesh that lingers in each of us, and to allow the folly of Jannes and Jambres, Korah, Ichabod, Nicholas, Diotrephes, and others to be “evident to all.”

And it is essential that I say goodbye to you by reminding you that our battle is not with ideas and formats.

Ephesians 6:12

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

And that being the case, the only place Victory over those principalities and powers can be attained…is at the Cross.

Colossians 2:15

“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

Our course is secure because it is cemented in a tenacious, bold, peace-filled, night-and-day Hope…made sure by the Blood of Christ. No matter what else happens! And a cross that you pick up for others, “while they’re yet sinners.”

There will be no Victory based on good ideas; only on your cross for others and by your total Trust in Jesus and His Atonement, will Satan be made a spectacle and publicly humiliated.

You’ll know who cares, who is genuine in their desire to follow Jesus, but is just needing help. Stand by those guys. And you’ll know who the charlatans are by whom you must not allow yourself to be shackled and blackmailed. Judge for yourselves whether it’s better to obey God or mere men.

Towards those who truly desire to follow our Lord Jesus, offer your unlimited love as you work out the preceding Truths. And we’ll see y’all at Home sometime soon.

Romans 15:1-7

“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please Himself but, as it is written: ‘The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.’ For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have Hope.

“May the God Who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to be like minded toward one another, as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the Glory of God.”

Mountains and Skies Open Up to Our Gaze

What if everyone took “an eye for an eye”?

The World would be blind, no mountains, no sky.

If everyone waited to be liked, noticed or served,

No love would exist, no kinship preserved.

Jesus has opened a Way called the Cross

Inviting you In, “counting all things but loss.”

He walked that Way, too--giving life without pause.

No “twelve legions of Angels” to entitle His Cause.

He loved the un-noticing, the unkind, and the rude

Now, Repentance to self for those He’ll Include.

He invites you to join this small happy band:

The selfless, the servants--not religion “on sand.”

Daily Life is His Call, with His Banner held high

Not clouding His Standard, always willing to die.

If “an eye for an eye” is not allowed in our hearts

And serving in love is the Life He imparts

Then Mountains and Skies open up to our gaze

We’ll share in His Family, His Beauty ablaze.

— Michael

Living in Open Heaven

I have with my People a solemn contention

Too many live bound by lower Dimension.

Hear My heart, oh My Offspring, with committed retention!

You’re Called together in My Life of unshackled Ascension.

What I speak of that follows — I Myself have shown:

When I was queried or suspect to outsiders unKnown

I never cowered or stammered with apology tone!

My heart was aFlame, with Life my Father had grown.

When on trial for Truth by thugs and misguided

Do you cower and falter as if THEY presided?

The Truth of My Words — are already Decided;

But these make-believe judges have mocked and derided.

I hold this against thee when thou feelst some small stress:

When attacked by pretenders who My Will oft transgress -

Don’t bend to their folly, nor at all acquiesce.

You’re a Kingdom of Priests, sent to Reveal and to Bless!

Why would you respond apologetically weak

While My Honor and Truths you’re entrusted to speak?

Yes of course speak in love, as My Children are meek,

But the evil aren’t your jurors - they’re unfit to critique.

WHO is the head, and who is the tail?

Are THEY not the ones who’ll be weighed on My Scale?

It is not MY People they should dare to assail

And if you won’t Stand — MY Honor you’ll fail.

I have fed you My Word and given My Life!

Religious world-loving accusers — won’t be My Wife.

So, if you still crumble under the slightest of strife

You will tarnish My Testimony, meant to be rife.

Filled with MY Spirit, inflamed by MY Fire

You’ll turn back naysayers, woo those who inquire.

Dark, empty lives play judge, looter and liar

But My Purpose for YOU draws you higher and higher.

The mountaintop Eagle appears small - to those unable to fly,

Just as name-calling comes easy from lives deformed and awry.

Don’t hide and don’t stammer with Divine Appointments nearby:

Invite men to See ME — that they too may soar High!

— Michael

Get This Job Done (We Are The Army) 

We were born to alien outcasts 

Driven by a Realm that outlasts

This fallen world

And all it brings

Questioning the status quo

No place they could call home

They gave their children 

To the King

We all watched as they cleared the way

For us to grow and be His one day

Lose our lives to the King’s domain

We made our choice with a price to pay

We Are the Army 

On the shoulders of giants

We are the next generation

With fight in our eyes

We are the Doers

With the Dreamers who dared before us

Fruit of the Labor

We spend our lives on You, Jesus

We spend our lives on You 

We’ll never take for granted

The Love and Seeds they planted

We’re going faster

And stronger, yeah!

We’re the Arrows for this War

Set loose by the ones before 

To pierce the heart

Of the Enemy

Pledged at birth to the Holy One

We chose to follow His only Son

They kept walking so we could run

We vow to get this Job done

We Are the Army 

On the shoulders of giants

We are the next generation

With fight in our eyes

We are the Doers

With the Dreamers who dared before us

Fruit of the Labor

We spend our lives on You, Jesus

We spend our lives on You 

We declare to the Heavens

We’ll finish strong this fight

Saving souls from the Darkness

We make ready Your Bride!

We Are the Army 

On the shoulders of giants

We are the next generation

With fight in our eyes!

We are the Doers

With the Dreamers who dared before us

Fruit of the Labor

We spend our lives on You, Jesus

We spend our lives on You 

We Are the Army 

On the shoulders of giants

We are the next generation

With fight in our eyes

We are the Doers

With the Dreamers who dared before us

Fruit of the Labor

We spend our lives on You, Jesus

We spend our lives on You

— Second Generation

Footnotes

101 However, just a thought about a subject that few have considered, since books seem to be such impersonal things. Remember for others’ sake, and your own, that people who write books are sometimes your brothers and sisters. Don’t treat them as a faceless name that expresses ideas. For Jesus’ sake, treat them and the words that they have risked to offer to you with the respect that Christ has called us to offer one another. They may never know what you’ve said, and that really is not important anyway, but keep your record clean with the Holy Spirit whenever you speak of another. For the Testimony of Jesus. Back

102 The pouring out of God’s Glory in an unmistakable way is a very Sovereign thing. Though faithfulness and absolute obedience to Jesus is the only choice we would ever desire as followers of His, all of the faithfulness in the world cannot make God blow the whole show wide open as He did in the first century. When God is “shaking everything that can be shaken,” a simple fisherman’s rebuttal to an accusation that he had a drinking problem results in three thousand conversions in a matter of hours (Acts 2:1-47). Handkerchiefs and mere men’s shadows become instruments of devastation to the enemy’s strongholds (Acts 5:15, 19:11-12). That kind of manifestation of Power is God’s Sovereign choice.

The good news is this: God has fulfilled two of the three Jewish Feasts, Passover and Pentecost, in a profound and very visible way. There is much reason from Scripture to anticipate that the final and greatest of the three Feasts, Tabernacles, will be every bit as profound and visible. (Read The Church Alive if this is of interest to you.) Expect another season of awesome Glory. Prepare the way.

Until that time, as one brother has said, don’t be bought, compromised, detoured, delayed, or deluded. Don’t flinch in the face of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.

Though the victories, apart from God’s outpouring, will be much more demanding, carry on — basing the convictions of your heart on Truth alone. Be relentless and Faithful in carrying on God’s Work. Regardless of results, press on. No matter how few your companions, stand in the gap. Though you may feel as if you are trying to bail out the Titanic “a thimbleful at a time,” bail on! For Jesus’ sake.

History has known times of little Glory. Even Paul encountered some of this in his last days when he was rejected by “everyone in the province of Asia” — not long after he had spent three years warning them “night and day, in tears.” Yet we press faithfully on, with our hands to the plow and no rear-view mirrors.

In times of little Sovereign Glory, we’ll fight the enemy for men’s souls in hand-to-hand combat, with short daggers. But, oh, for the return of the days where God equips us with hand grenades. Then, like Jesus, and as in the early days of the Church, we can blow up the enemy — and we don’t even have to be there! Multi-thousands can be instantly brought to a maturity level that doesn’t piddle around with foolishness, but, on day one, “all the believers are together and have all things in common,” fully “devoted to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.” God did that once already (Acts 2:38-47; 4:32-35; Ezek.36:26-27, 37:1-10). Is the Arm of the Lord too short? Prepare your life and heart for Tabernacles! Make straight paths for the Coming of the Lord. Back

•  Chapter 33: A Request