Spoudazo and Qara

Spoudazo. It's a Greek word that means, "to do something speedily, to make an effort, to be earnest, diligent labouring, to study." In layman's terms it means "to apply yourself to something with all diligence."

"Study (spoudazo) to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15 (KJV)

Personally, I like to do research. I like to take the time to study out areas of interest and in turn take my findings and present all the facts to others. Others have told me, my wife included, that I should have been an attorney. From what I have heard from past friends that have been to law school I am not sure I would have survived the humiliation of law school alone. But I do like to search things out. As believers we need to be diligent to search out truth, do some basic reading and know the real facts. With that said, there is a passage of scripture that has at times baffled me. It is the following.

"As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, 'Have mercy on us, Son of David!' When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, 'Do you believe that I am able to do this?' 'Yes, Lord,' they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, 'According to your faith will it be done to you,' and their sight was restored. Matthew 9:27-30

Do you see what just happened? Two things occurred. One, Jesus healed two blind men. That fact is obvious. He did stuff like that all the time. But more importantly, he made two blind guys pursue him prior to their deliverance. He made them exhibit spoudazo. He made them study to show themselves approved prior to their breakthrough. He made them exhibit diligence, he made them labour, he made them make an effort. He made two blind guys chase him down the street, locate the house where he entered, weave their way through the crowd outside, then inside they had to find their way to him and then make their request. He made them pursue him before he did anything for them. He made them look for him and search for him like gold and silver. This is why the scriptures say the following?

"Without faith it is impossible to please God....he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

"And if you call out (qara) for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God." Proverbs 2:3-5

These scriptures are speaking of seeking truth in earnest. In the passage in Proverbs the writer uses the Hebrew word qara for "call out" (NIV) or "criest" in the KJV. Qara is better defined in a word picture. It means one person being accosted by another or one person begging another for something. Do you remember the story of Jairus, the synagogue ruler who's daughter died and was later raised back to life by Jesus (Matthew 9, Mark 5, Luke 8)? This same Jairus exhibited qara. He accosted the the Lord for deliverance and understanding. This was the same qara exhibited when Jacob wrestled with the angel of the Lord and the Lord subsequently changed his name to Israel, signifying that he had wrestled with God and with men and had overcome. Jacob was an overcomer. Jairus and Jacob where the same kind of men, albeit at two different stages in their faith. But both were cut from the same spiritual cloth.

This morning when I awoke I felt something impressed on me. It is simply this. I can't pursue understanding for another person. I can't have spoudaza and qara for someone else. I can't want this for you or for anyone else. You have to want this for yourself, for you and your family. I can pray for others. I can serve others in humility and write, pray and speak as directed just like any other member of the Body. But my desire for God's will in your life can't suffice without you having the desire yourself. You have to possess your own measure of spoudaza and qara. The same applies to me. I have to want it for myself.

So in the spirit of Matthew 9:27-30, I am going to point others to the men and the content of their ministries and let others decide how far they want to pursue. To put it in the words of my last General Manager at Sam's Club, "Jay, you can't want this more than your employees. They have to want it for themselves." I am going to do some pointing out and then others are going to have to click on the links that I will provide  and then do their own reading. I can't replicate decades of prophetic ministry in one blog post. It's impossible. You have to be willing to take your own personal time and read up on these men.

As we noted in the last post, you need to read the two previous posts on Full Measure and America's Full Measure. If not you may have a harder time following this post. This post is a prophetic overlay of both the doctrine and the statistical foundations we laid in those two previous posts. If you have not read them you need to back up and do so.

As we discussed in the post on Water, biblical scholars and historians tend to group the Old Testament prophets into either the "Major" or "Minor" category due to the length of their books. The "majors prophets" were Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. All the others were considered "minor." I thought maybe that might be a good benchmark to distinguish the following people in what we are about to discuss. The Lord has entrusted some with more than others in certain areas. Sometimes it has more to do with gifting and calling. Sometimes it's more about simple "character development." In the end it always has to do with both.

As it pertains to the prophetic message of God's judgment towards nations, well, he usually entrusts that message to only two or three people at a time. In our generation, as it pertains to the spiritual activity of the U.S. over the past 25 years or so, I think God has picked his three main guys to "deliver the mail." And along with that I think the Lord has picked several "minor" prophets along the way. I believe God has already prophetically confirmed his message of judgment to the United States through three "majors" and, for the sake of this writing, at least two "minor" prophets in our time. I am going to talk of 5 men whom I believe God has raised up to speak according to our doctrinal foundation that we have just discussed in "Full Measure." Here we go.

Dumitru Duduman

A very powerful man of God who went to be with the Lord in May of 1997. I saw him preach sometime in December of 1995 in Dallas, TX. He prayed over me and my best friend to be delivered from nicotine addiction (myself chewing tobacco, my friend cigarettes.) Tortured by Romanian police for 6 months for smuggling bibles in and out of Russia, he ministered prophetically in the United States from 1984 to 1997. You can read about his testimony Here. You can start reading his prophetic writings Here.

Henry Gruver

I love this man. I, along with the same friend mentioned before, both had an opportunity to meet and travel with Henry to Waco, TX a few months after seeing Dumitru speak. This guy walks in holiness and power. Some of the dreams and visions that Henry had perfectly overlap Dumitru's visions. You can see this same type of prophetic overlap occurring between Micah and Isaiah and later with Jeremiah, Uriah and Ezekiel. God has not changed. He still confirms his word through two or three witnesses. His website is Here. Because Henry does not list all of his dreams and visions on his website, I had to do some additional research. Click Here for his first vision. Click Here for all the others.

Michael Boldea

He is Dumitru Duduman's grandson and former translator. The Lord has used him to pick up where his grandad left off. His testimony is Here. His dreams and visions are Here. I have personally seen him speak twice, once in 1995 and once around 2007.  My personal judgment is that he very much knows the Lord and walks closely with him. I do not know him personally but he has a personal testimony that can only stem from a close walk with the Lord. That is my judgment of him. You would do well to read his words of prophecy on the link I provided. In addition to his ministry duties he also continues to help run and direct the orphanage that his grandad started in Botosani, Romania. Hand of Help Ministries also helps to start churches in Romania along with conducting benevolence outreach to those in need.

Efim Gerasemovitch Klubniken

Also referred to as the Boy Prophet. You can read of his story Here.  He was instrumental in helping a remnant of Armenians flee to safety in the United States prior to the Armenian Genocide that was conducted at the hands of the Turkish government in 1914. The Muslim Turks slaughtered over a million Armenian Christians. The nature and contents of his sealed prophecy for the United States can be read about Here.

Benjamin Baruch

I first learned of Benjamin less than 2 years ago. I have listened to him enough now that I believe he walks with the Lord. He shows consistent signs of consecration and holiness. Some years ago the Lord gave him an open-eyed vision of the second phase of judgment on America (the wild beasts of Ezekiel 14). You can listen to that vision Here. He has since written the book The Day of the Lord is at Hand.

This is not a comprehensive list of every prophetic ministry that has spoken along these lines. I am sure there are others. But these are the three majors and two of the minors in my judgment. I pass this all along in hopes that it will help to confirm the doctrine and the statistical analysis of what we have discussed in previous posts. I hope this helps you.

In Christ,
JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/.

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/.