Finally

I took a trip back to the U.S. in July/August that lasted almost 4 weeks. I got back on Aug 4th. My wife told me that it rained almost every day that I was gone. This kept her and one of my sons from having to water the yard by hand throughout the time I was gone. This was a blessing. In Mexico most homes don't have enough water pressure to even run a water sprinkler effectively. Instead you either, 1) pray for rain, or 2) water by hand. In our case, we take a kid's swimming pool and fill it up with a water hose and dump it on the backyard. Primitive? Yes. Less Time consuming? Absolutely. It just requires more effort than enjoying the ongoing rains we get this time of year.

We'll, as the story goes, when I got back on August 4th the rains suddenly stopped. It rained practically  everyday when I was gone and when I get back the daily rains cease for 2 weeks. Everyday I prayed and waited for it to rain and nothing happened. In the silence of my heart I finally said to the Lord, "Lord, I always ask you to make it rain when I need to water the yard and you have answered several times. This is my final day of asking. If you don't make it rain today I am going to have to start watering on my own. I have turned to you for this Lord. This is my last day of waiting. The grass is dying. It needs water today."

Well, that same day, the very day I felt that my time of waiting had to finally end, the rains started and it has rained at least an hour almost everyday for the past week. The grass has been restored and is filling back out again.

When I see things like this happening I have learned to ask the Lord, "Lord, what it going on? Is there something you are trying to teach me spiritually through natural things? What is it? Is this just nothing or is there something to this?"

This is the response I believe I received from the Lord. Take a look at Acts 16.

"Once when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future. She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, 'These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.' She kept this up for many days. Finally Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, 'In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her!' At that moment the spirit left her." Acts 16:16-18

It's pretty straight forward. Before God could set things in order he had to wait for Paul to get fed up with the status-quo. When he finally got troubled to the point that he would take action, the Kingdom of God came forth and the will of God was fulfilled. Let's look at another example of this spiritual dynamic: Jesus and the clearing of the temple.

"When it was almost time of the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market!" John 2:13-16

Let's put this into perspective. Most present-day historians and theologians believe that Jesus was crucified and buried at age 33 simply because Jesus began his ministry at age 30 and the Gospel of John accounts for 3 yearly Passover feasts (John 2:12-16, John 6:4, John 11:55). Whether this is true and can be proved is subject to debate. But let's just say for a minute it is true, that the cruxificion of our Lord took place at age 33. Per the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, the clearing of the temple occurred just after Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to the shouts of "Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest." This occurred just prior to his cruxificion. This tells us that Jesus had attended Passovers before and obviously had witnessed the obvious mismanagement of the things of God. This wasn't the first time he had witnessed "merchandising" going on in his Father's House. 

Joseph and Mary had attended Passover with Jesus ever since he was a little boy. When they returned from Egypt they settled in Nazareth, a roughly 70 mile trip from Jerusalem.

"Every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the Feast of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the Feast, according to the custom." Luke 2:41

Jesus was in Jerusalem with his parents every year for Passover. In fact, the law required that they appear at the Temple in Jerusalem three times a year, not just once.

"Three times a year all your men must appear before the Lord your God at the place he will choose: at the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover), the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacle. No man should appear before the Lord empty-handed: Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you." Deut 16:16,17

I am assuming Joseph attended all three feasts on an annual basis. That means Jesus was in the temple three times a year. Let's just assume they had moved back to Nazareth from Egypt by the time Jesus was 10 years old. 33-10=23. That means from age to 10 to age 33, a period of 23 years, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the three aforementioned feasts at least 69 total times. That means he had witnessed merchandising in the temple dozens of times in his life. Yet he didn't clear out the money changers until close to the end of his life, just prior to his cruxificion. Why? Why the wait?

I think he finally got fed up. I think he had come to the end of his rope with this situation and responded in kind. I think he was finally boiling over. I think Paul finally got fed up with the demon in the slave girl and took authority and walked by a greater measure of faith. He had finally had enough. Jesus had also finally had enough. 

Over the past months I have been coming to the place where I have finally gotten tired in an area. I am finally tired of spiritual fellowship that is devoid of power and prophecy. The only reason anyone listened to Jesus' teaching and doctrine was because he was both prophetic and powerful with regards to signs, wonders and miracles. The beginning of his ministry was marked by such things as turning water into wine and prophesying to the woman at the well. These types of experiences are what should mark the church. Today in most fellowship circles these are uncommon occurrences.

Our faith is to rest in the power of God (1 Cor 2:5) and our lives should be marked by the power of God (1 Cor 4:20). Scripture is clear about it. We have to find our way in this. The power of God manifests with greater ease when the body is allowed to be the body. That means people are allowed to function in their gifts. What I have learned over the past 17 years is that quite a number of bodies of fellowship don't permit the body to be the body, to allow fellowship to center around everyone being equipped for and participating in ministry as God moves among us.

"...so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully." Romans 12:5-8

The scriptures say, "let him, let him, let him." "Let him do it, let him do it."  It's repetitious in the above verse. This is very applicable with both the gift of the teacher and the gift of the prophetic. The scriptures say.....

"...if it is teaching, let him teach." Romans 12:7

"...by this time you ought to be teachers." Hebrews 5:12

If someone is a teacher they should be allowed to teach as long as their doctrine is accurate. Why? Because most often the best teachings are the ones that come unplanned, straight out of the heart, off-the-cuff by shooting-from-the-hip at a moment's notice. Depending on the size of a body of believers in a meeting you may have anywhere from 2 to 10 teachers in a room, maybe more. There has to be a liberty in the Lord for anyone to teach at a moment's notice as long as it fits with the order and flow of what the Lord is doing in the meeting.

What about prophecy? I am not talking about the office of the Prophet. I am just talking about the general flow of prophecy in the body. Do you every wonder about this, about why you see so little if any of it in the church today?

"Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged." 1 Cor 14:29-31

"...be eager to prophesy..." 1 Cor 14:39

First, we should be eager to prophesy. And secondly, we should experience seasons of prophecy. If we are not, something is wrong. It's one thing to believe in prophecy for today. It is another thing altogether to emphasize, equip and watch people actively grow in it. Yet it is very rare for church bodies today. Very rare. Yes, your church may have had a prophet come in for prophetic ministry. But God wants more than the Prophet prophesying. He wants the Prophets to equip the people to prophesy. The gift of the Prophet is an equipping gift. Everyone is to prophesy. God wants us all prophesying.

This only comes as apostles and prophets equip the church foundationaly for the work of the ministry. Read 1 Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 2:20, Ephesians 4 and the entire book of Acts. The scriptures are stunningly clear on this dynamic.

I think I have come to a point in time where I have realized the "spiritual grass" has to be watered today. We are the grass and we need to be watered by the washing of the water of his word.

"A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?'
'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are as grass.
The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever." Isaiah 40:6-8

"Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the the word." Ephesians 5:25,26

Things have to change. I have got to pursue this. And I believe the Lord is trying to bring his entire body to this point, a place of finally wanting things more and more as they should be.

Be Blessed,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/

Know and Understand

The Lord told the prophet Daniel something very profound when he said:

Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin

"Know and understand...." Daniel 9:25

The prophet lived a life that was saturated in dreams, visions and spiritual happenings. Many were his own while others where received by those around him. Nebuchadnezzar's dream of an enormous statue, Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a tree, the mysterious hand appearing before King Belshazzar and writing on the wall, Daniel's dream of Four Beasts, his vision of a Ram and a Goat, the Seventy Sevens, and finally Daniel's Vision of a Man. All of these things were profound. And all of them required not just knowing but understanding.

Understanding has two applications in scripture. One is the unfolding of plans and strategies as it follows the wisdom that God gives us. I wrote about that in detail HERE.

The second application of understanding is simply this: to interpret that which God has already spoken. King Nebuchadnezzar knew what he had dreamed in Daniel 2. He just didn't know what it meant.

"....Nebuchadnezzar said to his astrologers, 'I have had a dream that troubles me and I want to know what it means.' Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, 'O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream (knowledge), and we will interpret it (understanding)......The King replied to the astrologers, "This is what I have firmly decided: If you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble. But if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me." Daniel 2:3-5

Do you see the dynamic? It is one thing to know what the Lord has said. But it is another thing altogether to understand it. Knowing and Understanding are two different things. Even the wicked know what God says at times. The difference often between faith and unbelief is understanding that which already has been said. That is where the real reward is...in understanding.

"Jesus replied, 'The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: 'Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's hearts have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them." Matthew 13:11-15

Jesus himself drew the distinction between knowing and understanding. The wicked at times know what God has said. But they never understand it. Understanding is a sign of growth in God. It is a sign that God's work is progressing in our lives. Proverbs speaks often of the man of understanding.

"...though is cost all you have get understanding." Proverbs 4:7

Pharaoh knew what he had dreamed. He just didn't understand it. Only Joseph could interpret it. Only Joseph could understand it. Interpretation = Understanding. Because Joseph understood, because he could interpret, he was rewarded. Nebuchadnezzar promised death to his astrologers if they failed to interpret/understand and at the same time he guaranteed wealth, honor and riches to those that did.

I am not advocating materialism. I'm preaching provision. God's provision rests in the laps of those that both hear and understand. Remember, God showers his people with riddles as he speaks to them. He always has.

"When a prophet of the Lord is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams. But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house. With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles." Numbers 12:6-8

Yes, the Lord often speaks to us plainly. But he also often speaks to us in riddle form that requires interpretation and understanding. Daniel had to interpret the writing on the wall even though everyone "knew" what the words were. We need to both know and understand when the Lord speaks through symbols, riddles, types and shadows. We need to Know and Understand.

Be Blessed,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

Without Ceasing

In the summer of 2008 the Lord moved my family and I to San Antonio for a two year stint to finish prepping us for our move to Mexico. We moved there via a management transfer with my company at the time, Sam's Club. As our time in San Antonio continued to unfold I ended up having a run-in with my boss at work. She accused me of doing something I did not do and it became obvious in the course of time I was being pushed out, ableit by the Lord. Believing that the Lord had told us that we would only be in San Antonio for 2 years, and seeing that I may not make it the full two years in San Antonio with Sam's, I started looking for another job where I could make comparable money.

In the course of time I realized that this was God's will. He opened a door for me to go to work in sales for Frito Lay in our final 8 months of our time in the U.S. The Lord had a very specific reason for doing this although I did not realize why until this afternoon.

Typically my prayer life has centered heavily around spending large amounts of time in prayer and study in one sitting and then going about my day full force. To explain this in a physical parallel, this would be like someone eating only one large meal a day and then not eating another bite of food until the following day's large single feast. It's just been the way I have functioned over the years. I know some people say that they pray throughout the day. I have never been one of those people. I will sit down and pray for 2 to 4 hours at a time and then if I do pray at another time in the day I just pray in tongues or at very specific breaks of time. But never in a conversational pattern throughout the day.

This is not to say I haven't had conversations with the Lord or meditated throughout the day. I do. But I typically wouldn't pray about every step I took. I did that before I stepped out of the house and then I would go all-out while trying to be discerning as I went along. Well, this was why the Lord sent me to work for Frito Lay. He was trying to break me out of the deficiency of this pattern by eating smaller meals throughout the day instead of one large meal in the morning with a couple of very small snacks in the day. Let me explain how.

When the Lord opened the door for me at Frito Lay I was hired in as sales rep. Starting out in this job, your primary responsibility is to cover sales/delivery routes for the other reps that are on vacation or leave-of-absence. It's sounds easy on the surface and the base pay is good for what you do. But the job has many difficult variables that I've never experienced in any job I have ever had. Right after I started my immediate supervisor told me that this would be the toughest job I would ever have. He was right. Let me explain why.

• Frito Lay pays their sales reps a base salary plus variable-over-time (VROT). VROT is calculated as your base salary divided by all hours worked that week, divided by two. This determines your wage rate for every hour worked over 40 hours. There is no time-and-a-half for Overtime with VROT. This means the longer you work, the less you get paid per hour of overtime worked. This means you become cheap labor. The longer you work the less the company has to pay out in labor per man hour. This means they give you an extraordinary amount of work each day/week and there are no state or federal overtime laws regulating how much work they can dump on you. 
• Your normal work load keeps you in the field at least 60 hours per week with some holiday weeks easily taking you over 70 hours. I had one week where I worked over 70 hours in 5 days. One of the reps that I trained with worked 80 hours in 5 days.
• The average sales route has 10 to 12 deliveries a day, each taking at least an hour on average. This does not include your drive time to and from the plant across town in traffic plus your drive time to and from work in your own vehicle.
• Covering routes for other reps means your routes change every week. This means you have to learn a new route every week. This puts you in different geographic areas of the city each week. It feels like you are starting a new job every week. In fact, you are starting a new job each week, week-in and week-out.
• They don't provide you with GPS. You work everything off of your own maps that you provide for yourself after you get home from working your 70 hours.
• Every delivery truck drives differently and many are built differently. Just when you get used to driving one truck they put you in a different one. And the backs of the trucks are made of aluminum and don't have heating or air conditioning. This means that between deliveries you are either sweating to death in your polo-shirt and dress slacks or you are freezing like a pop-sickle. 
• Driving safety is a major company priority and liability. This means if you get in a wreck you are probably going to be looking for another job right after you get back to the plant. The risk is high.  
• All retailers (large and small) have different check in procedures. Target, Valero, Exxon, Sam's, HEB, Costco, all local mom and pop gas stations and grocery chains, .........They all vary and all have their own cut-off times for delivery. If you are not familiar with their systems it can set you back substantially.
• Every manager of every store can impose certain check-in and delivery stipulations beyond company policy. This means that two Exxon managers may have two different ways of checking in based on their personal preferences.
• When you do show up for delivery you may not get checked in right away, losing precious minutes to get through the rest of your route.
• Most employees that work in receiving departments of food retailers have poor people skills. That is why they have been moved to the back of the store....so they don't have to deal with the public. That means when you show up they treat you with very little if any respect.
• You are constantly rotating dated product on the shelves seeing as you are selling food items with sell through dates. Most of the routes that I covered for the full-time reps on vacation or LOA were neglected with regards to product rotation. This meant that I had to report back to their supervisors that their routes were not being properly managed. And then guess who had to spend extra time on each stop fixing and rotating all of the dated product? That would be me. Almost every bag has to be touched, popped and laced on the front row. It's very tedious once your start merchandising. It's boring and mind-numbing work.
• Products are often displayed in each store in unknown and unfamiliar locations. Every time you show up at a new location you have to spend valuable minutes locating displays and shelves, locating your product because this is not your usual route. It's like cooking in someone else's kitchen every day and asking, "Where do you keep the steak knives? Where do you keep the salt? Where do you keep......"
• You are having to order for each store for the following delivery without any knowledge of their selling patterns. Each store has different sell-through patterns on various products and the ordering system Frito Lay gave us to use on our handheld computers was often unreliable and useless in forcasting sales trends and ordering requirements.  
• It's overall physically rigorous. You move around hundreds of pounds of freight every day. You are constantly moving from standing back to kneeling back and then back to standing positions while stocking. You are up and down all day long. You are constantly on the move. In the San Antonio plant we had 150 sales reps total. 148 were men.  After I started I lost close to 10 pounds. My immune system was severely challenged for about 4 weeks. Every time I blew my nose blood would just spurt out from the sinus infections I had contracted while working.



Fun for who exactly????


The job had nothing but obstacles, obstacles, obstacles. The stress was unending from week to week. Never had I needed God more in my work from situation to situation, moment to moment, delivery to delivery, day to day, week to week.

"No discipline seems pleasant at the time but painful." Hebrews 12:11

The pattern of familiarity that develops in most jobs was gone. Just when you would get used to the nuances of one sales route the company would move you to another one with a whole new set of obstacles and challenges. The pay was great but the stress and demands were unending. You could never get into a pattern of predictability and it was frustrating for me beyond anything I had ever experienced in any job (Olive Garden management, Real Estate Sales, Sam's Club Management). The sales managers were constantly on us to meet ridiculous corporate sales quotas that were being set by home office in Plano, TX. The hours were incredibly long. And to top it all off the plant was on the other side of the city from our home meaning I drove to and from work at least 30 to 45 minutes one-way.

I could just keep going. I was grateful for the pay. I was grateful to have a job. But the job was mind-numbing and difficult in just about every way imaginable. At 40 years old I was feeling physically outmatched for the first time in my work life. I try to stay in good shape by running and swimming but this job was whipping my back side.

Through all of this I found that I didn't have time to pray like I used to. I didn't have time to gorge on the presence of the Lord everyday, fill up and go out with my stomach full of God's wisdom and power. Granted I was off on the weekends but I was so beat up physically and mentally I just wanted to sleep in and veg for two days on Saturday and Sunday.

"We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead." 2 Corinthians 8,9

The Lord had me under a type and measure of pressure that I had never faced and because of it I found myself relying on God like never before. There were so many things that could go wrong on any given day that I could only cry out to the Lord for deliverance from day to day, shift to shift, delivery to delivery, check-in to check-in. I found myself praying about things all of the time throughout every day. Truck safety, traffic, knowledge of routes, unloading of freight, check-in efficiency, favor with managers, favor with employees working in receiving departments, stocking proficiency, merchandising efficiency, ordering efficiency, meeting sales quotas from week to week, getting to each delivery with speed and ease, ......I found myself praying over details of my efforts on an ongoing-basis like never before in anything I had ever done.

All of this difficulty was there in my life by God's design to teach me to spread out the icing on the cake. The Lord was forcing me to pray without ceasing throughout my day. He was forcing me to change.

"But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Luke 5:16
"Be faithful in prayer." Romans 12:12
"I keep asking...." Ephesians 1:17
"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests." Ephesians 6:18
"Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful." Colossians 4:2
"Night and day we pray most earnestly...." 1 Thessalonians 3:10
"...pray continually; ..." 1 Thessalonians 5:17

This dynamic has been critical for us in Mexico. I needed to learn this on a really deep level before we came down here. It is one of the main things we have had to learn to walk in on a regular basis out of sheer necessity. Safety in driving, finances, physical safety, protection from corruption, our immigration status, making friends, learning Spanish, speaking and communicating in every situation, paying bills, setting up our lives in every area, raising our kids in a foreign country ............All the things we took for granted in the United States we can no longer take for granted.

We find ourselves praying over things we never prayed over throughout our days and not just in our prayer times in the morning. And why? Stuff appears before us over the course of our day. Needs arise over the course of the day. The Lord shepherds us over the course of a day. Our focus is over the course of a day and throughout a day. We are called to function with Him over the course of a day. Psalms 23 bears witness to it.

I normally only write in the mornings but I felt that the Lord had me sit down this evening and put this out there, prophetically if you will. If you find yourself reading this in the Lord, and you have yet to have this worked into your life, then the Lord is going to bring a change in the circumstances of your life to bring about this level of relational prayer and faith. Changes are coming to the Body of Christ throughout the world to increase our intimacy and faith in God. And this will be a good thing in God.

Be Blessed,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/

Talitha Koum!

Last week I flew up to Houston to make the three day drive back down to Merida with someone who is moving his family here from Florida. While the trip was an adventure in and of itself, warranting it's own post on this blog, I feel compelled to share a story pertaining to a family in Nashville, TN that Christine and I know personally. The family I am speaking of is the daughter and the son-in-law of my former pastor and still close friend and spiritual father Ron Crosby. Ron performed mine and Christine's wedding ceremony thirteen years ago and the family I am speaking of was also in attendance at our wedding. 

As the story goes.....I was on my first day's driving between Corpus Christi, TX and Tampico, Mexico last Saturday when I got a phone call from my wife. She explained to me that she had talked with Ron and that Ron's youngest granddaughter Elizabeth had drowned in the swimming pool at home. Elizabeth is two years old and the youngest of 9 children. Michael and Tammy are her parents. Tammy is Ron's daughter.

Apparently the gate to the pool at Michael and Tammy's house had been accidentally left open and Elizabeth had wandered away and slipped in through the gate and had fallen into the pool and drowned. When they found her they pulled her out of the pool, and as Ron relayed the story to me, she had turned blue and swollen and was completely dead. Tammy told Ron that when she looked into Elizabeth's eyes she could see that she was completely dead. She wasn't there anymore. She had no vitals, her heart was not beating and her body had completely shut down.

Michael, Elizabeth's dad and Ron's son-in-law, began to pray over her and rebuke the spirit of death and speak life back into his daughter. In that time Tammy had called her dad and asked him to pray for them. While doing so they asked the Lord to remove all water from her lungs, restart her heart, put oxygen back into her blood and cause her blood to recirculate. All of this happened exactly as they had prayed and Elizabeth came back to life. In all she was apparently dead for about 20 minutes.  

"For the kingdom of God is not about talk, it's about power." 1 Corinthians 4:20

Why do I share this with you? In February we had a several of our Mexican friends from church over for a dinner party and I shared with them testimony of the power of God and how God can even raise men from the dead, even today. I told them I knew of an American businessman whom God told to move to Guadalajara, Mexico many years ago. This man had shared with Ron and I how he had seen God move powerfully amongst the Mexican people, even in ways he had never seen in America. His stories of power and faith in the church in Mexico always intrigued me.

As I shared these things with these brethren in our home I could see openness in several of them. The Lord's desire is that our faith rest not in the wisdom of man but in God's power.

"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power." 1 Corinthians 2:4,5

Michael and Tammy's faith rest in the power of God. When tested, they turned to the Lord. Yes, they called 911 and the EMT's eventually showed up. But they exercised their faith, prayed and wielded the sword of the Spirit as the first option. They prayed and they moved in faith.

"You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did." James 2:22

Their faith was in God. And he did not fail them. By the time the ambulance showed up Elizabeth had come back to life.

"Talitha koum!" Mark 5:41

As we all move forward in the realm of time we need mountain-moving faith in context of our relational faith. We have a relationship with the Lord and within that relational faith the Lord gives us mountain-moving faith from time to time. In Relational Faith God says, "Go here. Take this job. Do this. Do that. Marry this person. Start this business. Take this vacation. Raise your kids like this. Buy this car. Prepare for this trial. Sell this item or give money to that person." Those are relational commands. That is relational faith. That is hearing God on a relational basis and doing what we are told to do.

"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in God must walk as Jesus did." 1 John 2:3-6

And how did Jesus walk? Simply put....he walked in relational faith with God the Father.

"I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does." John 5:19 

"For I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know what his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." John 12:49,50

"I and the Father are one." John 10:30

Jesus and the Father are one through relational faith. And as we walk as Jesus did we become one with both he and the Father. In our oneness with him we have the embodiment of relational faith. We hear God and act relationally. Faith is hearing God and acting (Romans 10:17). And within that relationship we need to believe in the Power of God. We need to have mountain-moving faith within that relational-faith.

"I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. he will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." John 14:12

"And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well." Mark 16:17,18

We move in miracles, signs and wonders within the relational faith that we have in him. Relationship encompasses miracles. Relationship breeds power. And the power of God validates the depth of our relationship with him.

There are two types of faith. First relational faith, then mountain-moving faith. First relationship. Then power.
Be Blessed,

JEB

www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com.

Conforming Desires

I think the one thing I have been hearing over the past week or so is that, simply put, the Lord is changing the desires of his people. We can look forward to the fact that if we submit to him in every area of our lives we shall surely be satisfied. Why? Because the Lord has every intention of not only changing the desires of our hearts according to his good, pleasing and perfect will but he also has every intention of fulfilling those desires that he places within us.

"Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee." Psalm 38:9

"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart." Psalm 37:4

"He fulfills the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cry and saves them." Psalm 145:19

Look at those three verses. One, we set our desires before him. We set our hearts before him and ask him to strip us of our fleshly desires. That is Psalm 38:9. Secondly, the Lord gives us the desires of our hearts. Said another way, he puts his desires within us. We come to desire what he desires. That is Psalm 37:4. Thirdly, he fulfills the very desires that he places within us. That is Psalm 145:19.

Brethren, by this process we can't lose. We are guaranteed to win, to be content, to be at peace, to find real Joy in the Lord. We are guaranteed to be full of the life of God and the peace of God. We just need to have our desires changed and Trust him in the process.

When I was 24 years old I felt that the Lord was revealing to me that my calling was to eventually wind up in full-time ministry at some point in my life. The conventional path for most young men to fulfill that calling is to simply go to seminary, get their masters in theology and apply for jobs with churches somewhere. That was the path I tried to pursue initially. But I can tell you the Lord changed that desire in me very quickly.

I remember during that season of my life getting a verbal commitment from my church to academically sponsor me to attend a large Christian seminary in Ft. Worth, TX. I was quite elated about this. But in the waiting period of application and enrollment for the next years studies my heart began to suddenly change, but not by my own doing. You see, the Lord took away all desire from my heart to pursue that "conventional" path. I graduated Cum Laude from Midwestern State in 4 years with the equivalent of a double major in 1993. I like to study and learn. That wasn't the problem. The problem became the desires of my heart.

The Lord unexpectedly altered my course by changing my desires within. He changed the desires of my heart and in the process directed me to not attend that seminary and pursue a conventional path. In order to help facilitate the circumstances of that decision he baptized me in the Holy Spirit about 6 months later and had me receive the left foot of fellowship from my church.....I look back now and have no regrets.

The point I am making is that we are guaranteed peace, joy, contentment, a feeling of fullness and satisfaction in Christ when we settle down, open wide our hearts to him, allow him to cut away carnality through circumcision, change our desires in the process and then participate with Him through obedience in allowing him to fulfill those desires. That means we walk by faith according to his desires within us.

"Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word (Rhema) of God." Romans 10:17

We walk by Faith. We hear God and obey what we are told to do, according to His desires within us. When we do this we are assured of victory in the Lord. We can't lose, except that we stop desiring change within us.

"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?" James 4:1

Desire what he desires and all will be well, both in this life and in the life to come. Stop struggling and desire His desires. What does he desire for us?

Lord change our desires. Cause us to desire what you desire for us.

Be Blessed,
JEB
www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com.

Shadow World

"The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours.'" Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'" Luke 4:5-8

Satan offered Jesus authority over the kingdoms of the world for they were his to give. The word he uses for authority is Exousia. It means "jurisdiction." Satan offered Jesus jurisdiction over the systems of the world. He offered him political, economic, military and social jurisdiction. The interesting thing to me is that Jesus never disputed the statement. Jesus knew it was true. Jesus knew that it was Satan's to offer....for the time being. Jesus simply refused the offer.

Satan has jurisdiction over the earth for the time being. God's authority is plenary and eternal. But Satan has temporary authority over the nations of the world. Ephesians 2:2 calls him "the ruler of the kingdom of the air" (NIV) or the "prince of the power of the air ." (KJV)  And Satan gives out his authority to men who will work on his behalf to corrupt humanity and oppose God's redemptive work in Christ Jesus.

"Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One." Psalms 2:1,2

The nations, peoples, kings and rulers of this world are scheming against God. Progressively the systems of the world have been corrupted and controlled by the prince of the power of the air. In order for the enemy to continue this process of corruption and control he must at times engage in deception along the way so that people and nations will relinquish God given control. Satan did this to Adam. And he has done this to the United States along the way. I believe that America once had the majority of its roots in God. Read The Light and The Glory by Peter Marshall and you will see this. Not all of our roots (The slave trade), but many of our roots where in God at one time. But not anymore. Many or most of them have been pulled up and replaced as we have abdicated God given jurisdiction that at one time trumped the devil's authority.

America is no longer the country that we want to believe that it is. America is not truly like what is being  presented by most of our politicians and most of the main-stream media. Most everything we are seeing with regards to economics, politics (foreign and domestic), media and social issues, is actually a deceptive spin on what is really happening. Everything we are seeing at this point are in fact shadows, not the reality of things themselves. Consider the following verse:

"These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."  Colossians 2:17

Shadows are a reflection of something else that is real. The shadows are not real. They are not reality. We see types and shadows in God's kingdom and in the fallen world itself. God's intentions, through the types and shadows found in the Old Covenant, were for our redemption and holiness through the reality of Christ Jesus. Satan's intentions, through the shadows he creates in the systems of the world, are for our deception and destruction. Satan has created shadows just as God has. Let me explain what I mean.



The Federal Reserve Bank

As previously noted, Satan has the controlling shares of the levers of governments, economies, media, militaries and social movements. He progressively influences and controls these venues as God allows and/or as man abdicates his God-given dominion over these sectors of society. I think there is one main institution among many in our country that can be easily researched and discovered to be satanically inspired. That institution is the Federal Reserve Bank. All other aspects of satanic corruption and deceit in society work out from there IMHO. The Federal Reserve Bank is the epitome of unjust and dishonest trade. This was Satan's original sin.

"You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald...You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings. By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries." Ezekiel 28:13-18

This prophecy by Ezekiel in chapter 28, although on the surface is a condemnation of the King of Tyre, evolves into condemnation of Satan himself, who apparently was possessing the King of Tyre. Satan was in Eden, and although anointed with wisdom and full of beauty, became violent through corrupt trade. And he was driven from the mount of God because of it. Notice that the prophecy mentions trade twice. The Hebrew word used here is Rekullah. It means "trading" or "merchandising." It comes from the Hebrew word Rakal which means "a traveling merchant." Satan's sins began with corrupt trading and business.

The citizens of the United States have been fighting against and  suffering from the efforts of central bankers as far back as the days preceding the the Revolutionary War (1776-1783). Benjamin Franklin stated himself that this was the case (see right). From that period all the way to our present day, the international banking elite have been operating in corrupt widespread trade (Rekullah) and it has slowly killed off our sovereignty. In 1832, U.S. President Andrew Jackson's re-election campaign slogan was, "JACKSON and NO BANK."  "NO BANK" is a direct reference to the resistance of central bankers and their European counterparts, specifically in England and France. In 1835 Jackson actually paid the last installment on the national debt that had been foolishly incurred by allowing banks to issue currency in exchange for government bonds. In taking his stand against incurring further National Debt from Central Bankers, an attempt to assassinate Jackson was conducted by Richard Lawrence two weeks after the debt was paid back. Lawrence later admitted he did so at the behest of "wealthy Europeans."

During 1961 Abraham Lincoln was faced with the enormous task of confronting the cessation of the southern States. In need of money to finance the Northern campaign in the war, Lincoln and his secretary of Treasury Solomon P. Chase went to private bankers in the US to see what the cost of funding would be. They offered Lincoln loans at 24% to 36% interest. Lincoln refused the offer. He subsequently sought counsel with a trusted colleague, Colonel Dick Taylor of Chicago. Taylor advised Lincoln to spur Congress to pass a bill using it's Constitutional rights to print treasury notes without interest to pay for the war. Congress did so and in turn kept the government out of debt and out of the temporary reach of the bankers once more. See here for details.

In 1862 and 1863 Congress printed the $450 million in interest-free "Green Backs" and saved the Union. The London Times condemned the US Congressional action and called it a threat to not only Britain but every monarchy around the globe. Their article went on to say that the US financial system must be destroyed. After Lincoln's assassination, Otto Van Bismarck, the great Prussian Prime Minister and 1st Chancellor of the newly United Germany, knew Lincoln had been done in at the hands of powerful banking interests. He later made the following statement:

"The death of Lincoln was a disaster for Christendom. I fear that the bankers with their craftiness and torturous tricks, will entirely control the exuberant riches of America, and use it systematically to corrupt modern civilization. They will not hesitate to plunge the whole world of Christendom into wars and chaos in order that the earth should become their inheritance."

J.P. Morgan

In the years after Lincoln's death it appears that the nation and it's growing companies continued to slip into the control of powerful banking interests with roots in Europe. By 1907 the four most powerful banking families in America were the Rockefellers, the Warburgs, the Rothschilds and the Morgans. J.P. Morgan was a very powerful banking financier from Connecticut who was increasingly consolidating US banking interests and various industries like steel companies under his control.

In October of 1907, J. P. Morgan created a disinformation campaign by circulating rumors that a large New York Bank was insolvent (bankrupt). This created mass panic in the public with depositors and a run on the banks ensued as a result. Many banks were forced to call in their loans. This led to many personal bankruptcies as well as foreclosures by many Americans. This covertly contrived instability in the financial markets was the pretext that the Big 4 banking families needed in order to create fear in Congress and the voting public in general and get them to accept the need for a new U.S. private central bank to control the money supply and bring back perceived "stability" in the markets. The plan eventually worked on behalf of the bankers.

In 1910 the aforementioned bankers held their infamous meeting on Jekyll Island off of the coast of Brunswick, Georgia. It was there that legislation was drafted, not by U.S. Congressional members, but by the bankers themselves for a proposed US Central Bank. These same men used their frontman in Congress, Senator Nelson Aldrich, to formally propose the bill on their behalf. Aldrich, himself a member of the Rockefeller family through marriage, introduced into Congress supposedly "his" version of the Federal Reserve Act. Although Aldrich left the Senate in 1911, Senator Robert Owen continued to run with the legislation on behalf of the bankers and in May of 1913 he introduced what we know today as the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. The bill, having just barely made it through Congress, was quickly signed into law by the banker-backed Democratic President Woodrow Wilson. The money-changers had officially taken over the levers of power in the U.S. Government.

"Give me control of a nation's money supply and I care not who writes it's laws." Mayer Amschel Rothschild

In regards to his willingness to sign the Federal Reserve Act, President Woodrow Wilson was later quoted as saying the following:

"I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is privately concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world. No longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men." -Woodrow Wilson

Now remember, this piece of legislation was supposed to bring stability to our financial markets, stability to our national currency and help maintain it's value and purchasing power within our borders and around the globe. Let's just see how the bankers did from 1913 on. Remember, this was going to be a good thing....Right???

1914-1920 - In the first six full years of it's existence the Federal Reserve Bank (The Fed) had increased the money supply by 100%. Then suddenly in 1920, the FED called in huge percentages of the US money supply. Member banks (banks that borrow from the FED) called in their loans from common everyday people. This led to a massive # of bankruptcies. The total number of small banks that failed was 5,400. And to top it all off the value of the U.S. Dollar was literally cut in half. In six short years it cost twice as many dollars to buy something as before the time when the FED was created. WOW! In response to this Senator Charles Lindbergh stated:

"Under the Federal Reserve Act, panics are scientifically created. The Present Panic is the first scientifically created one, worked out as we figure a mathematical equation." Senator Charles Lindbergh

Do you think maybe the good Senator understood that the "bankers" were doing this on purpose to concentrate the nations wealth in the hands of a few men? Do you? How is the FED doing so far? Let's look at the next leg of time.

1921-1929 - The FED increased the money supply by another 62% by making loans to the public via member banks. They also introduced what was called "Margin Loans." A Margin Loan was a loan that allowed a stock investor to have ten to one leverage on all stock investments. That's 10:1. The Catch......A Margin Loan could be called in at a moment's notice by the issuing bank and had to be legally paid back within 24 hours. No Exceptions! This is called a Margin Call. In order to pay back a Margin Call Loan the borrower would usually sell off the stock they had purchased with the loan itself.

After helping to fuel the Roaring 20's with Margin Loans, the large New York based financiers called in the Margin Loans in 1929, but not before the Rockefellers quietly exited their large positions in the stock markets. This is called "Insider Trading." It's Illegal.

So the banks call in their Margin Loans in 1929. This triggered massive bank runs and over 16,000 banks collapsed in the US in one year. Black Tuesday ensued on October 29, 1929 and the Dow Jones subsequently lost over 40% of its value over the next 3 years. The Crash of 1929 was under way. It took another 34 years for the Dow just to recover to its pre-1929 levels. This downturn also enabled the controlling investors in the FED to enter back into the Markets and buy up rival banks and large companies at pennies on the dollar.

So how is the privately controlled, privately owned FED doing so far? Or better yet, what are they doing? Not just "how" but "what?" Remember what we just qouted Senator Charles Lindbergh as saying: "Panics are scientifically created...worked out as we figure a mathematical equation."

While all of this is going on most Democrats and Republicans are quietly sitting by watching it happen. Then to top it all off, the FED contracted the money supply to increase unemployment and fuel the depression even worse. In response to all of this Congressman Louis McFadden demanded impeachment of the Fed Reserve Board. Afterwards he endured two failed assassination attempts. He was then subsequently poisoned at a banquet and died. This is what happens to men who speak out. They die. Then to top this whole fiasco off.....

1933 - By 1933 the value of the dollar had actually regained 30% of it's original value. Do you know why? Simple. We were still on the Gold Standard. Well, leave it to the FED to do something about that. The  Federal Reserve Bankers demanded that Franklin D. Roosevelt, their FDR, issue Executive Order 6102 on April 3, 1933 demanding seizure of all gold in the United States. This enabled the FED bankers to fully manipulate downward the value of the US Dollar at any time without restraint. The result.....The US Dollar again went into a steady decline and has been ever since. By 1971 the US Dollar was only worth .24 cents of its original value in 1912. In less than 60 years the value of the dollar lost over 75% of it's value. Is the FED doing a good job? I don't think so. The value of the U.S. Dollar today is worth 4.5% of what it was in 1913. In almost 100 years the US dollar has lost 95% of it's value. Look at the chart I posted to the right.

Let me ask you this question. How do you know that an apple tree is an apple tree? Simple. It's grows apples. And if it's a good apple tree it grows good apples. Bad apple trees grow bad apples. Simple as that.

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them.....Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit....Thus by their fruit you will recognize them." Matthew 7:15-17,20

What kind of fruit has the FED born? The Morgans, Rockefellers......? What kind of fruit? Are you mad yet? Let's move on.

1963 - On June 4th, 1963, one last attempt was made to strip the FED of it's power. President John F. Kennedy issued his little known Executive Order No. 11110. This in effect restored the power to issue currency to the U.S. Government just as Lincoln had chosen for the nation in his time. Silver certificates were issued against all silver bullion in the Treasury. Kennedy put $4.3 billion worth of new U.S. notes into circulation. Unlike the FED notes, the new notes were backed by silver. The FED's notes are not backed by anything. They are Fiat money.

The result....President Kennedy was assassinated just 5 months later. You oppose the FED and you get killed or at least they attempt to kill you. First President Andrew Jackson. Then President Abraham Lincoln. Then Congressman Louis McFadden. Then President John F. Kennedy. Remember, violence and corrupt trade go hand in hand.

"Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence, and you sinned." Ezekiel 28:16

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy...." John 10:10

"The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, 'I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to." Luke 4:5,6

"Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it." Woodrow Wilson , September 4, 1912.

The Fed is a private bank. It is owned by private stockholders. It is not a government institution. It is not ruled by our government. It rules our government. It steals, kills and destroys because it gets it's power and authority from the one who Jesus said ultimately steals, kills and destroys. The Fed is ruled and run by the enemy himself. And the enemy, through the FED, is taking our currency down to a value of zero. He is completely bankrupting our country. Total insolvency. Total.

The Federal Reserve Bank is a shadow of a greater force working behind the scenes. The FED is a shadow, not the reality itself. The Fed is killing America to help prepare the world for a New World Order. Novus Ordo Seclorum. The New Order of the Ages.

More to come. We will get into some Macroeconomics next....if I don't feel led to talk about the CIA. We'll see. Folks, pay attention because we are going to eventually give all of this a greater context in light of scripture and talk about how the Lord wants us to respond. This applies to all of us and it is about what the Lord wants for us, our spouses and our children. This affects all of us.

God Bless,
Jay Blackshear
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

P.S. Sorry it took me a whole week to do another post. I realized after I started putting this together that I actually had to brush up on my past research. I was a little rusty and actually had to work more than I thought I would have to. Thank you for your patience.

Collision Course

When I was 21 years old I was involved in an accident that almost killed another person.  I was playing in a college soccer game in the district playoffs my junior year at Midwestern State University in 1991. We found ourselves going up against Hardin Simmons University from Abilene, Texas. At one point in the second half I found myself jumping into the air to head the ball back towards our front line about 35 yard away from our opponents goal. When I began my descent back down all of the sudden the lights turned off. The next thing I knew I was trying to pick myself off of the ground, barely conscious. I didn't know what had happened or what hit me. I tried to stand up only to find myself just collapse back down to the ground. Two of my teammates came and helped me to my feet and got me to the sidelines where the trainers and medical staff could take a look at me.

While they were helping me off the field I heard one of my teammates say, "Look at that guy!" I couldn't turn around as I was barely conscious. I found out later, post concussion, that after I had jumped up to head the ball, while coming down, another player from the other team had jumped with me and in the process the left side of my skull made full contact with the back side of his head on the way down. The other player was knocked completely unconscious. He stopped breathing, swallowed his tongue, began going into convulsions and started foaming at the mouth while turning blue in the face. If the paramedics had not been there to revive him it would most likely have killed him.

As we start 2011 we enter into our annual time of looking forward.  I have thought long and hard for a few weeks as to how the Lord would have me start out writing. And in the process I have come to the conclusion that there are some things that need to be said about the United States and the direction it is ultimately heading in. I feel like I have been hiding in a closet and avoiding talking about things that should be obvious to everyone. America, and subsequently the world, is on a collision course with complete and total collapse. The skull of America is about to receive an unforseen blow that is going to cause it to stop breathing, swallow its tongue and go into mouth-foaming convulsions. The only difference between America and the player that I banged heads with is that there will be no paramedics to revive and restore it. The scripture says the following about Samson:

"He awoke from his sleep and thought, 'I'll go out as before and shake myself free.' But he did not know that the Lord had left him." Judges 16:20

The Lord had left Samson, but he was not aware of it. I believe God has left America, but most within her do not know it. Most do not believe it could ever happen. In the coming weeks I want to share some things with you that I feel the Lord has shown me over the years. We are going to cover doctrine, prophesy, counsel and current events. We are going to talk of the following subjects over the next several blogposts:

• The Shadow World
• Ezekiel 14 and Four-fold judgment.
• Macroeconomics 
• Leviticus 18
• The Broken Hammer
• The Last 5 Kings of Israel and Judah
• Josiah's Reign and the Prophet Jeremiah
• Ezekiel 21:15 and Nahum 3:13
• Jereboam II and the Prophet Amos
• Prophetic Confirmation of Leviticus 18
• The Boy Prophet, Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken
• The Purpose of 2011
• The Current Spiritual Climate
• The Fear of the Lord and Wisdom...Building an Ark

The list may change. I don't know exactly if things will come out in that order. But I feel that it is important to know, for both you and your loved ones, that life as we know it in both America and subsequently in the world is about to change dramatically. Our lives as Christians always change, hopefully for the better. But the world is changing in a very bad way. Understand, I don't write this with any sense of joyful contentment or feelings of "I told you so!" My wife and I have two young boys that we are trying to raise along with one that is already grown and out on his own. I have 11 neices and nephews. I want to believe that this world we live in will be stable and growing for generations to come. But I don't think that is the case. I believe the Lord has shown me differently over the last 20 years or so.

Things are already changing in America in case you haven't noticed. And it isn't for the better. America and most of the world have been in spiritual free-fall for well over a century now and especially over the last 40 years. You don't believe it? I am going to show you. I am going to show you that the current state of our country is exactly in line with the nation of Judah during Jeremiah's and Ezekiel's ministry. I am going to prove it doctrinally and then I am going to point out how God has already confirmed it through His prophets and various signs in the natural realm.

America is already experiencing the four-fold pattern of judgment as discussed in Ezekiel 14. He is already breaking the staff of bread. He is already cutting off America's food supply and raising up the wild beasts.  It's already started. And right now, as Christians, we need to be cutting lumber, swinging the hammer and coating our Ark with pitch inside and out. Remember the following verse:

"The prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it." Proverbs 22:3 & Proverbs 27:12

The same verse is written in two different places in Proverbs. It must have been important for Solomon to say it twice. This isn't a time for us to put our heads in the sand. This is the time to fear the Lord, hear the Lord, and trust God for his provision and protection for ourselves, our spouses and our children. But it starts with acknowledging what is happening, acknowledging what the Lord has been saying about it, and asking the right questions in prayer and then moving with a sense of urgency to prepare for what is about to happen not only to America but subsequently most nations in the world. Now is the time to hear God and move in obedience without reservation. Now is the time. It's time.

There is more to come. Watch for more posts. It will all make sense when I map it out and connect some dots.

In Christ,
J.E. Blackshear
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

Remembering

This is the time of year when people tend to look back on things and want to remember. If you read the news you will see articles talking about the many aspects of life within 2010 or the entire decade itself. The Top Ten Sports moments, Top Ten Movies of the Year, News Events, Politics, Technology, Crime, Scandals, People who Died, People who "Changed" things, ......The List goes on. At the end of a year and the end of a decade our news-based cultures become nostalgic and reflective in various ways. People want to remember.

Within God's Kingdom, remembering takes on a whole new dynamic. For us, remembering comes in two forms. First, it's about remembering our past in light of God's work. That's the first part of it.

"Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced." Psalm 105:5

We need to remember what and how he has done things in our lives. We need to remember the miracles, the provision, the words, the relationships and yes, we need to be mindful of his judgments. God judges his people through discipline and love. He judges our flesh and cleanses us from sin through discipline.

"But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world." 1 Corinthians 11:31,32

"For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?" 1 Peter 4:17

We need to remember what the Lord has taken us through, what he has changed in us and how bad it sometimes hurt. We need not repeat the same mistakes and slow down our development. We need to remember what has taken place in context of our relationship with the Lord. Sometimes for me, the easiest way for me to remember is to both talk to the Lord and ask him to remind me. And with that, sometimes the way he reminds us is through each other. I am often spurred in my memory by conversations with my close friends and with my wife. We need to sit down with others, specifically with our spouses, have a cup of joe-joe and prayerfully talk about the past. This helps us to remember. This is the first aspect of "remembering."

But in God's kingdom their is a second aspect of remembering. This is the one I am eager to discuss. Let me tell you a story.

In August of 1997 I found myself being moved by the Lord to Albuquerque, New Mexico. While doing so I went to re-register my car insurance with a state of NM insurance agent. When they processed my application they told me that my insurance would run a certain amount a month. I felt that the quote was a little to high for the make and model of my car. The lady at the insurance agency explained to me that the reason the quote was higher than normal was that I had had two speeding tickets in the past few years. I told her that there must be some mistake, that I could only remember having one speeding ticket in the past several years, not two. She showed me the driving records and it stated that the second ticket was received in Plano, TX about 2 years before. I was a little perplexed as I couldn't remember when I had gotten this ticket.

I went home and prayed about it. I was standing between the dining room and the kitchen when all of the sudden I saw myself driving east bound on Plano Pkwy in Plano, TX during the summer of 1995. Right before I got to the Coit Rd. intersection I could see a police officer step out from behind the bushes on the south side of the road right in front of a real estate office and direct me into the parking lot where another officer would be waiting to write me a speeding ticket. All of the sudden, I remembered. I remembered when and how it happened. The Holy Spirit reminded me by spurring my memory. The Holy Spirit wants to control and directs all data storage in our brains and he can draw up memories as it serves the Lord's purpose for our lives. Why do you think the scriptures say the following?

"But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26

The Holy Spirit reminds us. We remember, by the Spirit. We hear God's voice at times simply by remembering something. Remembering is a way of God talking to us in the present moment. Let me give you two examples in scripture of this happening to God's servants. Take a look.

"Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, 'You are spies!'" Genesis 42:8


"As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.'" Acts 11:15,16

By the Spirit we see Joseph, now Prime Minister of Egypt, remembering his dreams so he has an understanding of why he is finally seeing his brothers after all these years. He remembered his dreams and saw them bowing before him as a fulfillment of what God had once spoken to him over twenty years before. Joseph was remembering by the Spirit. He heard the Spirit speaking to him through a spirit of remembrance.

By the Spirit we see Peter remembering what Jesus had once spoken to him in person. This gave him the understanding to be accepting of the situation which was the very fact that God was opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, specifically at Cornelius' house. God was moving around him and helped him to accept things by remembering what was once spoken to him. Peter remembered by the Spirit. He heard the Spirit speaking to him through a spirit of remembrance

Remembering is a way that God talks to his people. We pray and then remember where we set our car keys. We remember that we forgot to lock the front door before driving to the store. We remember to pray for someone who is having surgery today. We remember, we remember, we remember. God speaks to us and we remember. He reminds us.

Ask the Lord to help you remember. And as you remember, pay attention and rejoice. This is God's voice. Remember.

Be Blessed,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

If things are tight...

We'll, it's the holiday season and I have good news for those of you that are financially strapped or running on a tight budget. Use your tithe on your Holiday Needs!!! The Israelites did.

"Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the Lord your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the Lord your God always. But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the Lord your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the Lord will choose to put his Name is so far away), then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the Lord your God will choose. Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice." Deuteronomy 14:22-26

Did you see that? The Israelites were commanded to eat the tithe and to buy whatever they wanted for themselves and rejoice in the presence of the Lord. They were commanded to spend their tithe on themselves as they appeared before the Lord at their festivals. Which festivals? The Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering. See Exodus 23:14-19. And when they appeared in Jerusalem for these festivals they were commanded to use their tithes for both sacrifices (gifts to the Lord) and for their personal needs. That's right. Personal needs.

It's one thing to be a millionaire. It's another thing all togther to be living month-to-month. If things are tight and yet God has placed it on your heart to hold dinner at your house or buy your kids presents or buy gifts for the poor.....be open to using your tithe money to do so. The scriptures say this is ok with God as long as the Spirit leads you to it. Obviously, we need to pray and ask about all things. I am not encouraging anyone to skip that step. What I am saying is to be open to hear the Lord say this to you. In the past he has spoken it to others. I believe he still does so in the present.

"Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality." 2 Corinthians 8:13

If things are tight, and yet you have need to spend the money, I believe it is ok to hear the Lord on this. But again, you need to pray because ultimately everything that does not come from faith is sin (Romans 14:23).

"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches." Revelation 2:7


Greetings and God Bless during this holiday season.

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

Children's Outreach

Last Saturday Christine and the kids and I went with a group from our church to minister to a neighborhood of children on the southside of Merida. A lady in our church knows a woman in this neighborhood who runs a food pantry for children in her community. Many Meridian families are very poor and because of this meals can be skipped. The lady who runs the food pantry feeds about 80 children each day straight out of her own home. The food she feeds the children come straight from donations through both local businesses and from the Mexican government. Let me show you some pictures of how the night unfolded.

This is our group upon arrival. We are standing in front of the home where the food pantry is run. The building....i.e. her home can be seen directly behind the fence on the right hand side. Joseph is in the front. Joel and I are in the back on the right.

Apologies for the lack of resolution on the picture. We are using Joseph's Nintendo DS which has a camera option on it.

The lady standing in the front on the far left in the blue and white shirt is the one who runs the pantry from her home.

This is our group setting up for a puppet show. It was a basic set up with PVC pipe and cloth curtains to hide behind. It took about 45 minutes to set up because the guy that designed it didn't come with us and no one else had set it up before.

This actually worked in our favor as it gave us more time to see a larger crowd gather around us for the presentation of the gospel.

The place where we are setting up is a public park directly across the street from the food pantry.

The puppet show got up and running (above left), but not until some of our group sang and danced with the children (above right). We brought our own stereo/sound equipment (not pictured). It was very loud and the sound of the music just brought people from everywhere.

About half way through we stopped and passed out candy while we set up for the second half of the presentation. The little boy on the right was getting overlooked in the mad dash for the candy so I took him by the hand and walked him through the crowd to get his share. He is a very handsome little fella. I think his name was Roberto.

This is Roberto's mother and little sister, Vanessa Jacqueline. I don't know if you can tell but she has no fingers on her right hand. Her mother was explaining to me that when Vanessa turns two the doctors want to operate on her hand.

She asked me if I wanted to hold her so of course I did. We took her hand and prayed over her that God would heal her. Her mother was very attached to Christine. She wanted to know all about us and why we were there. She just wanted to be around Christine the whole time even though they couldn't communicate very well.

At this point we set up and presented the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. We had a tri-pod set up with flanel graph pictures showing step-by-step spiritual principles: the fall of man into sin, our seperation from God through sin, God's love for humanity and his plan of redemption for us through his son Jesus Christ.

I think it is safe to assume this is the first time these people (adults and children) had heard the gospel being shared with them. This is a Roman Catholic culture historically. Many of the children raised their hands to receive Jesus.

I was invited to attend a pastor's conference in Kentucky back in 2002. Rocky Malloy with Mission Generation was invited to preach at this gathering of ministers. Rocky and his wife Joske and their children live in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. They founded Rio de Vida church in Santa Cruz many years ago.

While at the conference he told us that most people in Bolivia live in houses about the size of a master bathroom or bedroom. It was always difficult for me to picture the reality of this in my mind until I moved to Mexico with my family this year. This is a picture of a house across the street from the park. These are the types of homes that most of the children pictured  above actually live in. This home is about the size of a small bedroom. This was typical of the entire area. Many of these homes have broken windows, holes in walls..... Material poverty is common in Latin America.

The picture to the left is of the inside of the courtyard/fence of the lady who feeds these children. The picture above right is where the children eat. She feeds 80 kids on average each day.

This is our group from Iglesia Bautista Norte after finishing up. The lady on the back right is the one who feeds the local children.

She was very gracious to invite us in. Jesus told the disciples that when they entered a new town or area to look for the one who would welcome them (Matthew 10:11-14). Even though she is not a Christian she did welcome us. This can only be God's favor.

Pray for us that God would continue to give us favor and open doors for our message (Colossians 4:3).

"I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for the harvest." Matthew 11:35

After we went to this event I told my wife that I don't think I had ever seen a group of people, entire neighborhoods, that were as ready to receive as this one. Pray for us that we would go forth in power representing the Lord well. We need you to pray for us.

God Bless,
J.E. and family
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.