Test Everything

Two weeks ago I took a 24 hour trip back to the states to meet up with a guy who is moving his family here from Florida. We had originally met this man and his wife back in November, 2010 when they came down for an exploratory visit to check out the city. We will call them Tim and Lori (not their real names). Tim had grown up in the Philippines. His dad was with the U.S. Air Force and his mom is Filipino. Tim and Lori have been wanting to experience living outside the U.S. for a number of years now and have been doing their due diligence.

I had originally made contact with them through an expat blog on the internet for all non-Mexican residents here in the Yucatan. When they came down in November I met them for coffee at Starbucks and answered many of their questions on what it was like to live in Merida. Because they have two small kids (7 and 4) and because I wanted to show them that it is possible to live here as a family, I invited them over for dinner to our home the next night. Things went as planned and as we hosted them in our home the next evening I felt led to offer to drive down with Tim if/when they decided to move down here.

About 3 months ago Tim called me and took me up on my offer. He paid for my plane ticket and flew me up to meet him in Houston on his drive from Florida. His mom was with him and we all stopped for lunch before dropping her off at the Greyhound bus station so she could get back to Orlando. While at lunch I noticed his mom was praying over her food. Later I asked her about her faith and she told me she was a Christian. She was very nervous for the safety of her son on this trip and I felt the Lord had placed me with Tim to help him on his journey. So we later dropped his mom off at the bus station and then headed for Corpus Christi, TX were we spent the night before our border crossing in Brownsville/Matamoris on Saturday morning. All was going as planned.

We got to the main crossing the next day and got his paperwork done. I noticed when we were at the border crossing checkpoint that there were more police and soldiers stationed there than when I had crossed the year before. I asked someone why and they explained to me there had been a gun battle at that exact location the day before. Consequently, they had a soldier positioned on top of his military Humvee with a loaded 50 Caliber machine gun pointed directly at cars as they came into the area. The Humvee was positioned amongst a small detachment of soldiers on foot. So we moved through the border crossing and headed for Tampico. That was our first destination on our first day of driving.

We made really good timing our first day inside Mexico and arrived in Tampico about 4:30 PM. We checked into a nice Holiday Inn on the northern outskirt of the city and got settled in. We got cleaned up and headed out for dinner and this was where things got extremely interesting. As we were driving down the main avenue through the heart of the city heading to TGIFridays we came upon a military convoy that was blocking off the street for about two blocks ahead of us. I immediately noticed that all of the soldiers had black masks on like what you see on T.V. when the media covers the Narco-Drug War events.

As we are looking at all of this Tim wanted to press on and find our way to the restaurant. He asked me to help him navigate a detour around this situation in front of us. I told him I didn't feel comfortable doing so as I did not know my way around Tampico except for the road we were on. This main artery of a highway would lead us into, through and out of the city with everything we needed (ATM's, Gas stations, hotels, restaurants). I told him I didn't feel comfortable venturing out like this, especially with his vehicle full of all of his possessions. He had his truck packed from top to bottom in the back seats and in the bed of the truck.

As I am processing this situation I felt a check about what we were doing. When I saw the roadblock I immediately felt the Lord was trying to send us back to the hotel. But Tim kept wanting to press on so I gave in and tried to accommodate him. I told him to take a right at the road block, drive about three blocks west, take a southerly road through a neighborhood, and loop back east to get back on the main highway on the other side of the road block. This was a big mistake. As we came out on the other side of the road block like we intended to we found ourselves looking at this....

And the guy with gun has it pointing right at us. You see, there had been a shooting on the main highway in Tampico right about the time we were taking showers in the hotel. And when we left the hotel and headed to go to eat we found ourselves driving up on the crime scene about a block down the road from us completely out of view from our vehicle. We didn't know exactly what was going on at the time. And when we drove through an adjoining neighborhood around the roadblock and came out on the other side we found ourselves driving right into a roaming detachment of Mexican soldiers that were doing block by block sweeps of the area looking for the gunmen. And when they saw us they pulled us over and asked for I.D. Well, Tim decided to leave his visa and passport in the hotel. Big Mistake. Huge Mistake.

First of all, Tim speaks absolutely no Spanish. Right now, I speak some conversational Spanish in the present tense. I can get buy and understand about 30 or 40% of what I hear but speaking it fluently takes time. The soldier in charge of his detachment makes us get out of the vehicle, he puts both of us on the hood with feet spread apart and they search both of us and the vehicle for weapons. Then, because Tim doesn't speak Spanish, the Mexican seargant proceeds to come around to me and interrogate me. I in turn offered to leave myself with him and let Tim return to the hotel and let him get his paperwork. He sat there and chewed me out in Spanish for about 60 seconds or so and then let us go.

So we get back in the truck and what does Tim want to do?.....He wants to keep heading to the restaurant. I was taken back a little. I told him we had better get back to the hotel ASAP and get his papers, that if they found us out again in an hour or so without I.D. we could end up in a military-style Mexican interroggation some where in an undisclosed location and when he got his vehicle back it could be stripped of all his possessions.

I finally talked him into going to the hotel. When we got back, as we were pulling into the parking lot at the Holiday Inn, I heard police sirens right behind us. I looked at Tim and told him that right now the city was tense and that we needed to stay at the hotel. I could tell he got frustrated with me. I explained to him that again, this ain't the good 'ol U.S. of A and that we were in a country that is in a perpetual state of martial law.

The rest of the trip took an additional two days of driving. We were back home within 48 hours. The rest of the drive and the trip was very smooth, mostly in part to God's grace and his parents and my family praying for us. You see, Tim's parent's are Christians. And I think the reason the Lord had me driving with him was to help him along the way. On the drive we told each other about our lives and I witnessed to him about the power of God and about relationship with the Lord. But when I got back home and practically kissed the ground in Merida, I had a flood of memories come back through my mind and along with them some emotions. Let me explain.

It has been my spiritual observation over the years that most people will lead you astray if you let them. They just will. And this applies to both believers and non-believers alike. Christians and non-Christians. Much of the advice, counsel, teaching and prophesy that comes to us from others is not coming from God. Not all of it, but alot of it. There are many forms of godliness out there with no real power in the Lord to validate it (2 Timothy 3:5).

"There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end it leads to death." Prov 16:25

The next morning after I had gotten back to Merida and got a good nights sleep, I came down stairs and sat down on the couch with a cup of coffee and started to pray and meditate. And as I did I found my mind flooding with scriptures and memories of times past when others, even Christians, tried to counself me to make decisions that ultimately weren't centered in God's will for me. And as I remembered these things in light of what happened to me in Tampico I started to get angry. I came to the realization that there have been so many key points in my life, so many key points in my walk with the Lord where other Christians have given me counsel and words of prophesy that, if I had listened to them, I would have gotten off course, missed God's will for my life and/or my family, and found myself in harm's way staring down the barrel of the proverbial 50 Caliber machine-gun (see picture above).

When I first came to the Lord my own mother called me a "religous-fanatic" and threatened to write me out of the will because of my Faith in Christ (Bad Counsel). When I first received the baptism of the Holy Spirit I was counseled by one of the ministry heads in our church that I needed to stop witnessing about my experience because I was sowing division amongst bretheren (Bad Counsel). After I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit I was counseled to get back under the law and honor the literal Sabath by a very well known Christian archaelogist/Senvth Day Adventist (Bad Counsel and Teaching). Many many years ago I was counseled by at least a half a dozen Christians, all of whom I still love to this day, many of whom I still have a great deal of respect for, to pursue a relationship with a particular young woman in Midland even though the Lord had counseled me otherwise (Bad Counsel). I was counseled to not leave my job in 2001 even though the Lord spoke to me several times to do so. Christine and I were counseled to not have more kids after we lost Elizabeth and had two more miscarriages. We later had Joel.

"Test Everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil." 1 Thess 5:21,22

Test everything Brethren. Everything. Every piece of advice you get, every prophecy you hear, every doctrine that is presented to you. Test it all. Every offer, every invite, every request. Go to the Lord and speak with him about everything. Everything. The enemy is working diligently to derail us. Test everything you receive from everyone. Test it all. Don't buy into it until the Lord says "Yes, it's me" and confirms it.  

"Let everything be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." 2 Cor 13:1

Let the Lord confirm it all, first with his peace within your heart, and if necessary, from outside signs and sources that he raises up.

"If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously  to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

"For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.... For wisdom will enter your heart and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul." Proverbs 2:6,10

"The wisdom that comes from from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving..." James 1:17

If we will be willing to test everything, every piece of counsel, every prophecy and doctrine, the Lord will generously give us wisdom, understanding (Plans and Strategies) and knowledge. These three things will come directly from his mouth, enter our hearts, and bring peace to our souls.

"I speak the truth in Christ. I am not lying. My conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit. I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart." Romans 9:1,2

Our consciences confirm the wisdom, understanding and knowledge that the Lord puts in our hearts. The conscience is the voice of the heart. Pray, talk to the Lord and listen to your conscience. Listen to the voice of your heart. When I first saw that roadblock in Tampico the Lord immediately spoke to my conscience to turn around and go back to the hotel and I did not listen. I went along with the carnal non-believer and almost wound up in jail for nothing.

This is the picture I get in my mind. See the football player pictured left? The running back that is clutching the ball is you and me. It's the Christian making his way through this world trying to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil. The ball that we clutch is our calling and our faith. The ball represents everything that God is telling us to do on a daily basis. It's the fullness of faith in our lives. Everything that God speaks to us is represented by that football. The enemy is #47. He is trying to take us down and strip the football. He wants to disrupt our momentum.

We have two responsibilities before the Lord. Protect the football (the faith) and resist the enemy.

"Resist him (the devil), standing firm in the faith." 1 Peter 5:9

Test everything. Pray about everything. Hold onto the good. Avoid every kind of evil. Protect the football brethren. Get violent and contend for the faith.

"Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life." Proverbs 4:23

Be Blessed,
J.E. Blackshear
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.

Inward Knots

Roughly 5 years ago I found myself at home on a weekend afternoon laying on the couch trying to take a nap. Like most people I don't sleep well in a room full of light and I noticed that the sunlight was coming in through a window, reflecting off of the T.V. and shining right in my face. I got up and walked over to the window and while attempting to lower the blinds I found myself unable to do so seeing as the 4 strings that made up the cord had wound themselves into a knot. You know the ones I am talking about. They looked similar to the ones pictured right, although the ones on our blinds had 4 of them.

They were all so bound up with one another that I was unable to completely lower the blinds and so there I was spending a few minutes trying to untie this huge knot. After a bit of wrestling I got frustrated, walked over to my wife's sowing table and picked up a pair of scissors and proceeded to cut the knot off. I cut so much string off of that I came close to completely ruining the blinds.

Now let's do the spiritual application here. This happened at a time in my life when the Lord had me deeply entrenched in a season of what we will call prophetic riddles. Look at the following scripture.

"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; he sees the form of the Lord." Numbers 12:6-8

The word used for "riddle" in this passage is Chiydah. It means a puzzle, a hard question, a proverb or riddles. Chiydah is derived from the Hebrew word Chuwd. Chuwd means to put forth a riddle or to tie into a knot.

Over the years I have heard the Lord speak to me in a multitude of ways as I am sure you have as well. Dreams, visions, clear spoken words into the ear, wisdom and understanding within the heart, .....But I have to tell you the most demanding way I believe God speaks to his people is within the realm of riddles.

 I say riddles because the Lord will often set his words in front of us in the form of some type of riddle and then force us to wrestle with it for extended periods of time until we get peaceful understanding on what He is really telling us. He will pull us out of our comfort zone (taking a nap) and set something before us (a knot) that requires our focus, steadfastness, repentance and spiritual determination in order that we might understand it. He gives us knots to untie. He speaks to us in riddles and then tells us to look to him for understanding to solve them. Some knots are untied quickly. Some take years to get unraveled.

I did not plan on saying this but this comes to me as I write. I think we, as people, are like knots and riddles to the Lord except that he completely understands how to untie us. He knows how we got in this mess in the first place and therefore he has complete understanding on how to help us get untied inwardly and see us through to complete repentance. That is why the scripture says:

"If any of you lacks wisdom he should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." James 1:5

The Lord has every intention of unraveling the complexity of our souls if only we will give ourselves over to him and let him lead us in continual levels of repentance and grace. Humans can be complicated, sensitive, impatient and unforgiving. Jesus offers us simple truth, a tender touch and patient forgiveness. We need to accept these opportunities for grace and power before the door closes on us and the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled (See Romans 11:25). We should be wise virgins and fill our lamps with the oil of repentance while there is yet time.

"As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, 'In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.'....I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 6:1,2

We are confined to the realm of time and within that time we need to take advantage of our opportunity for repentance and get unraveled inside ourselves. We need to get untied. We need to be solved and repent while there is still time. We need to humble ourselves now so God doesn't have to retroactively force humility on us. Let's take advantage of the time we do have and ask the Lord to search us inwardly.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23,24

I will leave you with this. In the late winter of 1997 the Lord took me to Midland, TX for six months to begin untying some of my internal knots. While out in the desert I began to see the complexity of my soul and how the enemy had complicated my life over the years. It began with a spirit of rejection in my childhood, led to ambition in my late teens and resulted in a consistent spirit of anger when I didn't get my way. Through the years the unfulfilled gaps of my soul were filled in with alcohol and bad relationships. The Lord began to untie me and continue the multi-year process of solving the riddle of my soul. What I couldn't see before I could now see.

"I was blind, but now I see." John 9:25

This internal unraveling, this process of inward revelation is an ongoing thing. It's a multi-year process that spans decades with many of us.

I guess what I am saying is that the Lord wants to shower us with prophetic riddles to solve (Dreams, Riddles, Prophetic Symbols and Similitudes). But he only does this in accordance with the level to which we allow him to solve the complexity of our own selves internally. Before he can trust us with riddles that relate to other people he must work on us first. First he solves our inward puzzle and then we shows us the prophetic puzzle of the world around us.

It was in my time in Midland, during that season of internal revelation and cleansing, that the Lord started giving me outward prophetic riddles that pertained to other things, both circumstances and people. So riddle-solving starts inwardly and then God moves outwardly into prophetic ministry. First inward, then outward in various forms of ministry.

In the next post I will talk more of some of the prophetic riddles the Lord has given me to solve over the past decade and how one in particular applies to events in the world today.

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

Yucatan Outreach & Early Childhood Development

This Month, the focus for the Outreach & Early Childhood Development training was on 2 year olds.

This is an excerpt I found from an America development site on 2 year olds.
"Your preschooler's brain is a beehive of activity as it forms countless new neural connections that help him understand the whats, whys, and hows of the world. To encourage an eager learner:

• Introduce him to a wide variety of playthings: big toys to push or ride, wind-up toys or jack-in-the-boxes (which show cause and effect), play sets and blocks that can be handled and stacked, puzzles, dress-up clothes, puppets, and art supplies. Rotate them to keep them fresh, storing some and bringing others out each week.
• Don't stop him from exploring things around the house.
• Stimulate all his senses. Include tactile toys (such as clay and sand) and musical toys (like a xylophone or maracas).
• Expose him to new places and experiences: a pool, a zoo, the airport.
• Always keep books around. Visit your local library often to restock."

Reality Check
Most of the Mom's we are involved with here in the Yucatan do not have the money to buy puzzles, art supplies, books, all the items listed above. They may not have a vehicle or the money to take there kids to the zoo, airport, etc.,  I think sometimes in America we take for granted what we have available for our children.

Marina, one of our good friends, is the mother of Andrew pictured above. I recently asked her about what kinds of toys she has for Andrew to play with. She looked at me very matter-of-factly and said that he played with pots and pans, tupperware and spoons. Toys are more expensive here than they are in the United States. This includes Wal Mart. Therefore, Marina spends money on diapers & food. She lives in the Yucatan without any air conditioning and in the months of May it can heat up to 110 degrees or more. Yet, she always has a smile on her face and will be the first to tell you of her love for the Lord and his provision in their lives. And when she does she is very sincere about it.

This month's Childhood Development Training was to support these Mom's in their desire to raise healthy children. We began with a time of worship together with Marina's gift of song and guitar. These ladies have a close bond with each other and you will see 3 generations of families in the meeings. Daughter, Mother & Grandmother all worshipping side by side.

Luz once again started the training with a power point presentation on the milestones and needs of a 2 year old, including eating, potty training, play time and discipline. Luz is a trained Childhood Developement Teacher and does a great job with her presentations. I watch these new mom's soaking in the information like they have never seen it before and the light bulb is going on. They are very excited about learning new information as they love there children and want the best for them.

We welcomed new baby "Diego" at the meeting, pictured here with his Grandma.  We always enjoy these 3 hour meetings together. Everyone brings a drink or food item so we can share a meal together and catch up with each others lives. I am very much an accepted member of this ladies group. Some of the younger moms now come to me for advice. We are now like family to some of them and will be babysitting for a few of these moms also to give them a break once in awhile.

One of the biggest Joys for me is when it is time to give these moms a gift. They have so little, so it is a huge present for them to receive for their children. I made these Winnie The Pooh bags that were stuffed with crayons and coloring books to keep those 2 year old hands busy. Tammy does a great job organizing and administrating the meetings. Honestly, the 3 hours goes by quick as we are all having so much fun. My spanish is still very limited, but I get by the best I can and there are several ladies that speak english & are happy to interpret for me.

Our next Outreach & Early Childhood Development will be 3-4 year olds. If you would like to support our efforts & help us reach these moms and their children you can either refer people to our Small Sprouts shop or make a donation by clicking on the yellow "Donate" button on the side bar of this blog.

God Bless,
Christine

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.

Yes!

Tonight I went with my family to buy groceries at Costco here in Merida. It is customary in Mexico to have men standing at the Exit doors waiting to help you with your groceries and load them into your car. It is just the opposite in the U.S. where we carry our own groceries to our cars.

Here, men must work for tips in this particular capacity when in the employ of Costco. Every time I walk out of the store I never make eye-contact with them. This is an indirect way of letting them know that I don't "need" help. But, in every instance, if they don't pay attention to my body language and ask me if they can help me, I always say "yes." I never tell them "no." The answer is almost always "yes."

"But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not 'Yes' and 'No.' For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not 'Yes' and 'No' but in him it has always been 'Yes.' For no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ." 2 Cor 1:18-20

God is waiting to say 'Yes' to the man or woman who hungers and thirsts for righteousness. Jairus the synagogue ruler. The woman with bleeding. The Two Blind Men. All are found in Matthew 9. All refused to hear 'No'. All insisted on hearing 'Yes.' The faith of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7. She refused to hear 'No' from the Lord. She wanted her daughter healed and was willing to suffer the humiliation of being considered a "dog" as long as the one she loved was "blessed" and delivered.

Do we see this level of faith today in believers? Mostly no. We have been told to sit down and be quiet. On the contrary, I believe God wants us to stand up and wrestle with him and become undignified in the process.

Tonight when I walked out of Costco every employee assigned to help load groceries let my indirect body language deter them from getting probably the biggest tip they would get all day. All but one man that is. After I walked through the crowd of men waiting to help, none asking me for anything, one man chased me down from behind and put his hand on my basket. I told him "yes". And I gave him probably the biggest tip he would receive all day. Why? Because I had the provision to do so and because the Lord told me to in advance. Why?............He simply refused to hear "No" when I was willing to say "Yes." In fact, I never said no. I was just never asked, except by him. Does any of this make sense?

"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3

How bad do we want to hear "Yes"? ........He is waiting to say "Yes."

Be Blessed,

JEB
http://www.miraclesinmerida.blogspot.com/
jayblackshear@yahoo.com

Brethren, He wants to say "Yes."

Rations

I'll just get right to the point......Yesterday morning the Lord put the following verse in my heart.

"Son of man, I will cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. The people will eat rationed food in anxiety and drink rationed water in despair, for food and water will be scarce." Eze 4:16,17

I did not know where it was in scripture yet the Lord caused me to turn right to it. Then my son Joel came and sat his breakfast down on the coffee table right in front of me and walked out of the room leaving me staring at it.

A half of a bowl of dry cheerios and a half glass of water. Looks like rations. I "noticed it". 

Ezekiel 14 outlines the manner in which God judges nations. First the staff of bread which is the economy and subsequent food supply. Secondly, wild beasts which symbolizes martial law and the coming police state. Thirdly and fourthly, the sword and plagues.

The staff of bread is being broken in America and subsequently other parts of the world right now. I'll pray about sharing more about this later.

Take these things to heart brethren. Judgment on America and subsequently the world has already started. Some people just aren't "feeling it yet."

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

The Black Swan

A new metaphor called The Black Swan Event was coined in the realm of macroeconomics by Nassim Nicholas Taleb in 2007. A Black Swan Event is simply an occurrence of a highly unpredictable event that has a major impact on nations and/or the worlds socio-economic structure. It is a high-impact, hard to predict event that has life-changing influence on every phase of our lives.

The rise of new technologies like the personal computer and the Internet, major world wars, natural disasters like earthquakes, terrorist events like 9-11...they all fit within the definition of the Black Swan Theory. These are all types of Black Swans. And each one has a high-degree of probability of influencing entire economies, overall social structure, politics on every level and all aspects of daily living.  

We live in the hour of the Black Swan. She has been laying her eggs and they are now starting to hatch with greater frequency and intensity. The dynamic of the Black Swan has taken over.

On March 10th my wife asked me to fix a default setting on our spreadsheet that we use to keep track of  our business orders for our company. The program was giving her a hard time so when I went to fix the problem on Microsoft Windows I found that I couldn't get the cell that she was typing in to accept the "Date" setting in part of one column. Every time we typed in the date 3/9/2011 and hit the [Enter] button on the laptop it would change the date to "9-11". I tried it over and over and it simply wouldn't take my commands as I tried to fix the problem. 

I finally looked at Christine and said, "9-11 was a Black Swan Event. Maybe the Lord is showing us that a Black Swan Event is about to occur." Later in the day I took the boys out to run some errands and while in one store a man came and stood in front of me with a dark-blue soccer jersey on. On the back of his jersey was the word, "JAPAN." Below the word across the back of his shirt was the #9. Without going into all the details, the #9 has always signified "change" to me.

In retrospect, when I connect the dots, what the Lord was showing me that day was that a Black Swan Event was about to occur in Japan that would bring inevitable change. I'm not making any of this up. I was actually seeing this, albeit at the time I was so caught up with our daily routine that I didn't stop and really identify it at the time. It wasn't until the next morning when we clicked on the news that we saw what had happened in Japan with the earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami that I then realized the Lord was showing this to us the day before.

Why do I share all of this with you? .....I guess for the following reason. The happenings in Japan are actually a part of a greater series of events that, when taken as a whole, symbolize a bigger picture that God is wanting to paint for us right now. Click on the following link and read the following blogpost by Joseph Herrin if you want to understand what I am referring to: The Ring of Fire.

Did you read it? If not go back and do so.

These things are the beginnings of birth pains. And the Japanese quake and the subsequent and ongoing fallout is not the last one we can expect. Read the following prophetic word to see what I am referring to:
A Big Earthquake.

Did you read it? I know I did....for about the 10th time. On March 24th, 2006, about 7 weeks after Michael came forth with that word, I walked out to my mailbox on that particular day to get the mail. On lo-and-behold the magazine pictured to the right was sitting in my mailbox. It was a brand new edition of the National Geographic still inside the plastic sealed bag, completely unopened. And the really strange thing was that it had no mailing address on it. It wasn't a neighbors piece of mail that was "accidentally" stuck in my mailbox. It had no mailing or forwarding address on it. Nothing. It just "showed up" in my mailbox. Confirmation? Absolutely.

Why do I bring all this up?......Expect more Black Swans. Quit worrying about petty things. The trivial things we allow to consume us today are going to pale in comparison to what we are about to see unfolding on the earth.

"...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1,2

We need to endure with JOY right now knowing that God has a plan for us and our children in spite of the sufferings of the world. God has a plan for us in this hour and we must pursue it with all manner of diligence. Pray and talk to the Lord about everything right now. Everything. Everything. Talk to the Lord. Pursue Him. Ask for Wisdom. Let us find our hearts swelling with God's voice on a level that we have never known. God is faithful. He will never leave us nor forsake us.

God is faithful.

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