As I was praying today, I contemplated the statement, “When you wish upon a star”, made famous by a Disney movie. In the Bible, Jesus Christ is literally called, “the Bright and Morning Star”.

The key to understanding the power of this phrase is to remember that Jesus is the star we “wish” upon. Remember, the government is upon his shoulders, and we are told to cast our cares upon him. If we do what this phrase instructs us to do, we have a literally turned the entire process over to Jesus. This means he is A to Z, the Alpha and Omega. Every step of your dreams coming to pass is literally given to Jesus Christ.

Usually the greatest revelation is found in the simplest of statements. Jesus told his disciplines over and over during the last supper, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” As we rest and wait upon the Lord, listen for the “A”, which is the first step, and then wait for the “B”, which is the next step. This process goes on until we finally come to the “Z”, or the completion of everything. Over the last few years, I have settled everything that has come against my dreams with this one Word from the Bright and Morning Star himself, “You know I am classy. I will take care of everything so do absolutely nothing.”

A key unlocks something that is precious; one of the most precious keys that a congregation possesses is their pastor.

Let me first give you a disclaimer:I am a pastor myself. Years ago, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Richard, it is your fault that your family is not together and it is your fault that the city of San Francisco is not saved. If you will let Me fix your family, the whole city would come to Me.” God spoke these words to me when I was feeling very confident that my family was already in good order. Obviously, by the way the Lord spoke to me, this was not so. During the past decade, I have contemplated this word from the Lord almost daily, especially as I have traveled the world and have observed hundreds of congregations.

The scripture concerning this which constantly came to me was from First Timothy, “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity; (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)” Every time I saw a healthy pastor with balanced, loving children, I saw a healthy and prosperous congregation.

I am not making a conclusion based a on congregation’s size or wealth, but simply based on the genuine love I felt from the families within the congregations when I met them. As a pastor, I want to see the city of San Francisco come to the Lord. God told me the key was my family.

This same key is actually more important for things I previously thought had no connection with the church  at all. Organizations such as companies, governments, and schools in a similar way have a familial structure. As the president, principal, or CEO goes, so goes the entire organization.

I was recently reading about the last days of Walt Disney, and was amazed to hear him talk about his regret of becoming addicted to cigarette smoking. The more I read, the more I saw that he was actually speaking about the Disney organization at large. Walt Disney’s regret was that the company was mirroring what he did, instead of what he had taught them to do.

I notice as a father and head of my family because I have embraced personal prayer and a love for God, my children embrace the very same things. Not things that I taught them to do, but things that I actually did.

Jesus’ teaching from the Message Bible in Matthew 7 says it all:

“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. “But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. “When Jesus concluded his address, the crowd burst into applause. They had never heard teaching like this.

 

The greatest teacher in life is action. As we let Him, the Lord makes our families and our churches perfect.

Many times the source of a word that is spoken sets the stage for the heart of the hearer to be open and receive the word in fresh innocence. Love for the messenger that has spoken fertilizes words into a potential harvest of blessing.

My daughter Misty Dejavu Gazowsky went through an experience this year that has truly made her a handmaiden of the Lord. A few days ago, she had a dream, and told us, “I saw a Renaissance fresco with the face of a man whose outstretched arm and fingers were pointing toward a sunset. On the top of the painting was written, ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’

Then I saw people who were completely bound and constricted up to their necks by twisted weeds and vines that wrapped around their bodies. Moses appeared before them with his staff and commanded, “Let my people go!”

Please pray about this dream; I believe it’s about you.

Pastor Richard

The ways of God are the treasure that unlocks the keys to His kingdom. God said, “They always go astray in their heart and they have not known My ways.” And remember that Isaiah said this about God’s way, “Nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth…” 

Today, I want to talk to you about one way of God that is extremely obvious, but just as the proverbial elephant in the room, we so often ignore it. It is the complete fulfillment of patience: waiting on God’s perfect intervention that completes the situation at hand. Jesus put it this way, “By your patience possess your souls.” 

If you take a moment to dissect the words that Jesus spoke in this Scripture to our generation, patience is the glue that holds our souls together until we possess the very promises that God is giving us ~ physical, spiritual, and relational.  God-given treasure is the gold and silver that will last forever. Yes, it could even be a career, if that career is the one God has called you to, and you have the patience to reach it. Then it will be a complete flowering fulfillment that will be historical not only to you and to your children, but to succeeding generations. 

Patience has to do with timing. How do you think when you wait? Are you resting, or are you running (worrying) mentally? Is there pressure coming from things you feel are delaying you, that you missed, and maybe are even past their expiration? God tries every aspect of our thought process in the process of “patience possessing our souls”. This sophisticated process of God testing us brings us into internal cleansing and spiritual purity, especially in the intellectual process of our mind. 

I do not want my explanation to make it complicated. Think as a little child ~ if Daddy says, “Wait”, we wait!  

 

 

 

Just before my mother and founder of our church, Pastor Emeritus Marilyn Gazowsky passed away, the clouds of pending trouble were hanging above our ministry. In 2015, I woke up one morning and stood next to my bed.  The Lord said, “You know I am classy. I will take care of everything so do absolutely nothing.” These simple words have strengthened me in a way that is hard to comprehend, especially His first statement ~ “You know I am classy.”
Synonyms for “classy” include elegant, sharp, exclusive, and select. A man full of class is called a gentleman.  I have been studying the ways of God; they are higher than our ways. This eye-opening revelation keeps blooming like a flower with each new level of understanding of His ways ~ how every decision, method, and point of contact from God in our lives is always full of class.
Let me give you this incredible example of God’s classiness. Our church in San Francisco, A Place To Meet Jesus, has gone through a traumatic event~ the loss of our traditional place of worship. Yet God comforted every single person in our congregation, even the children, in a way that only He could do. One particular way God offered comfort during this time of testing was through the animated movie, “Sing”.
Consider a few of the coincidences within this movie. The production company that made the cartoon movie is named Illumination, and the name of our youth group is Illumination. The characters in the film are animals from every species imaginable, as every member of our church is just as diverse a population. The main character wears a bowtie ~ which has been a trademark of mine since before the film was produced. And there are many more!
When you watch the movie “Sing,” you can see how each character represents a person in our church. It’s stunning to see the similarities. The humor is enlightening, because it shows us how heaven sees our situation. The main storyline in the movie involves the loss of their theater, which is a poignant storyline in our church’s recent history. The movie has a happy ending, for the theater and its characters are restored and assembled under the marquee. All is well because it ends well.
Time and time again my family and I have watched this movie “Sing”, and we have laughed as we see new insights into this wonderful journey we are on. Which brings into remembrance the words of God’s prophet Timothy Snodgrass, to maintain a spirit of “goof”. God has a way of letting you know what’s going to happen. This is why the Scriptures say, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
In some instances, God will not warn you when a negative “suddenly” occurs.  If God didn’t warn you first, the best thing you can do is to not respond to the fiery darts aimed at you. Instead, simply wait. God will speak about how to respond. Even when I have had to wait for two or three days for God to give me a response, His answer is full of class. Wow! His ways are so classy!

For a period of time I kept waking up early in the wee hours of the morning ~ and I would just sit up in my bed. At one afternoon lunch after church, I asked the great prophet of God from Africa, Victor Emenike, if there was some reason for God waking me up or was it just restlessness. He immediately shared with me this parable of Jesus:

“A man sowed good seed in his field: But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, ‘Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?’ He said unto them, ‘An enemy hath done this.’ The servants said unto him, ‘Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?’ But he said, ‘Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

I have spent a lot of time praying and interceding about the truth that Jesus lays out in this parable. One is that tares are sown only at seedtime and once they’re sown we cannot remove them until harvest time. Another is that even at harvest time only angels can do the removal and separation. So this puts a monumental importance upon our activities at seedtime. Which I might add is right now!

America is going through a transformation process like it has never faced in all of its history. The ancient prophet called it a time when, “The plowman shall overtake the reaper.” But let us, as laborers in the field, be watchful that we do not sleep and let the enemy sow more tares among the wheat. This seems simple: you just check the seed and make sure it does not have any tares among it.

Many times when Jesus was trying to warn us in parables of not making very dangerous and long-troubling mistakes, He referred to people as being sleepy, lazy, or drowsy. For example, the five foolish virgins slept and let their lamps go out. This means that you become so excited about getting a new vision for new seed (new money), that you don’t pray as a vigilantly when you were in poverty. The time for vigilance in prayer is now, because we are coming into a new seedtime. And Jesus said the seed was not money, but the word of God. It is so important that you make sure the word of God, that you are basing your future upon, is pure and has no fly in the apothecary’s ointment.

My word to you is slow down! Test the prophet, test the seed! I have seen this happen literally hundreds of times by Christians that make the mistake of being excited about a new job, venture, marriage, or opportunity. They have such zeal about the new thing that they start looking for signs to confirm to them that it is from God. This is one of Satan’s oldest tricks. This is how he sows tares among good wheat.

Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas.” This is something that is so clear in the Scripture ~ but very rarely understood by Christians. If you are looking for a confirmation or a sign, one will never be given to you. But if you’re not looking, just going about your business, and suddenly God speaks to you or confirms that whatever was said to you was His direction ~ then you know it’s from God. But you must have the honesty in your own thoughts, and the intents of your heart, to know you were not looking for it.

I must be honest and confess that I’ve had many bad seeds ~ ideas and words that I thought God had given to me. Under the test of time, as well as acid-accurate confirmations, and being vigilant not to sleep, they were proven tares. As the family of God in the kingdom of God let us look for a field in 2018 that is ready to harvest and has absolutely no tares.

God is cleansing America from the tares in its field. He is also cleansing your city, your house, company, and church. In fear and trembling, and with a watchful spiritual eye, I will not slumber or sleep during this time of harvest and reaping. I am praying for you daily, that our field of San Francisco has a bountiful harvest!

To set up this scenario appropriately, the situation must be filled with quiet expectancy. Matter-of-fact, the louder and stronger and more intense the expectancy is, the more that silence screams loudly with the thunderous impact of an earthquake.
If you have been reading my blogs consistently, then you know I am obsessed with learning the ways of God. One of the reasons for my extreme curiosity on this subject comes from the comment that Apostle Paul made in Hebrews about God’s observation: “They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known My ways.” Here, God identifies a common human error, an error in the heart. It is a deep-rooted misunderstanding about the ways of God.
Isaiah explains the difficulty in understanding the ways God: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Apostle Paul comments upon the complexity of this contradiction: “For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” He is simply saying the ways of God contradict everything the human flesh desires to do.
So it is almost on a perpetual scale ~ when the pressure increases to say something, silence then speaks volumes. Did not this occur when Jesus Christ was facing the judgment of His life concerning His own death, and Pilate asked Him a question in order for Him to defend Himself? And Jesus answered him not!
It is the power of silence that concludes the arguments, and becomes the evidence for one element that can turn heaven in your favor: “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” This belief is not something you say out loud, but it is the confidence that is in the intentions that come from a pure heart. And God can only discern that in your silence.
Now let me give you a practical parable to illustrate the divine importance of how the ways of God are found in keeping silence. God promised a young beautiful godly woman, who is at the perfect age to marry, that the perfect husband is coming and will overtake her. But each month she is tempted by little attacks that tell her the opposite. Her friends and family make jokes, and laughingly say things like, “Where is he?” or, “What about this one?”
Family pressure becomes so great that she finally realizes the only thing she can say is ~ nothing! At first, friends and family are offended by her lack of response. (Didn’t Jesus say, “And then shall many be offended”?) The silence month after month becomes almost unbearable for her. Then, on the day she is least expecting it, her dream man overtakes her, he is the perfect match, and all she has to say is, “Yes!”
This is the way of God.

The Lord spoke to me today to declare a fast for the next 7 days. Listen for the voice of God; He’ll tell you what to fast. We want to be in agreement with Heaven. When Daniel did his 21 day fast, he was in agreement with Gabriel and Michael, who were fighting against the prince of Persia. The Lord told me that there is a war going on in Heaven. Its very important that prayer warriors are in agreement with Heaven, in the war going on concerning America and Europe. This battle is raging right now, and the Lord said it helps Heaven that you and I are in prayer agreement and are fasting during this time. The only purpose of your fast is to be in agreement with Heaven, saying, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” We stand in the place of perfect agreement. Hallelujah!