“Living In The Place Of Perfection”

The Lord woke me up and said, “I am calling your family and you personally to do an extreme prophetic act and intercession.” As I sat there on my bed I realized that the last 20 events that have been happening to my family and me this year have been leading to this one command. Even though a lot of unexpected distractions have happened and caused personal stress to my family and me, I knew all along God was in control and He was directing this event in my life for my place of perfection in God’s excellent will.
To be in God’s perfect will (or as brother Timothy Snodgrass would put it, being at the right place at the right time) is so important that it causes every other event of your life to fall back into the ashen-grey background of mere existence ~ so the true flamboyant coordinated colors of obedience are all you can truly see. And these colors are so magical that they are complementary and satisfying to all your sights and sounds ~ like the ringing of harmonious bells of cathedrals throughout the world. This is what the presence of God’s perfection is like.
I know what I am speaking about here appears to be metaphorical, but I am wanting each one of you to understand how complete the perfect will of God is, especially if you are finding that place of perfect perfection. Yet there can be incredible tension and stress if you are trusting in your flesh to understand what’s going on. But if you will simply trust like a little child, you’ll find that God has everything in perfect order.
Rarely does God tell us all of the details in advance, because if He did the enemy would also find out and try to mess up the details. So God’s reason for silence is not to hinder you, but instead to stop the attacks that would come against you. All you have to do is wait for His blessings. His blessing will overtake you and load you up with benefits you never could conceive of. (As matter of fact, I believe many of you this Sunday are receiving His blessings while you are reading this blog ~ so go ahead get blessed!)
And more blessings are coming, and more, and MORE! Do you realize that every single day of the rest of your life is going to be a day where you will experience God’s wealth of benefits that come from His blessings? And this is will go far beyond the possession of wealth, but includes the riches of family, health, peace of mind, family unity, money, houses, lands, possessions, grandchildren, great-grandchildren… everything ~ including the nation of America being blessed.
I said all of this to come to the key part of this message. And that is, to receive the full complete blessing of God you need to do some things that are very detailed and sometimes difficult. In the Scriptures many times it would have saved the king to obey the Lord, but he did not remove the idol groves. This detail was important to God but obviously it was not to the king.
Recently the Lord spoke to Timothy Snodgrass and said, “Pastor Richard has not done a small detail that I asked him to do last year. Tell him to obey everything.” When Timothy gave this message to me he also counseled me by saying, “Pastor Richard, sometimes to you it might not seem important, and you might be able to reason away with your human understanding for why you should not obey God. But this is where obedience comes into play.”
The thing that God had told me to do was to buy someone a gift that was very expensive ~ and the person did not even have the ability to presently use the gift. At the same time someone very close to them needed the exact same gift! I know this sounds confusing, but I want you to see the stress I was going through because my mind was reasoning against my commitment to obey the simple command of God. No wonder the apostle Paul said, “Oh wretched man that I am.” But in Paul’s case he obeyed the Lord and did what He said, like the great Old Testament kings of Israel.
To be honest with you, it was difficult on my part but I did finally obey the Lord involving this one subject. There was, however, another area that Brother Timothy warned me about. But on this one I am still waiting for the situation to completely play out regarding the matter of time it’s going to take. Only then will I truly know if I obeyed the Lord completely.
I am very excited to share all of this with you because obedience to God is so precious to me. And since I am your pastor I want you to know the value that I put on finding the perfect will of God in my life in every situation. I am hoping that you, too, will make a commitment to perfectly obey Him in everything you do.

Time To Lose Friends

We are not only entering into the springtime of 2015, but for some of us it is the springtime of our entire life. Jesus taught us in the parable of the sower that the farmer will have to deal with problems that the enemy sets as snares in order to protect good seed in good soil. One such problem is friends that appear asymptomatic, but carry the disease of doubt that may infect you and try to destroy the faith that will cause your seed to grow.
In the early 1900’s there lived an Irish immigrant woman who carried a dangerous disease in her body, but she herself was never sick with the disease. History has named this woman, “Typhoid Mary,” and she worked as a cook for many of the wealthy families in New York City. The first family she worked for came down with typhoid fever and some of the family members died from it. She subsequently lost her job but she never realized it was because of her that they died. She immediately got another cooking job with a very wealthy family ~ and again the same thing happened. This time three members of the family succumbed to the disease.
 
This woman continued to move around from house to house and when people died she just moved to a new residence, still not realizing she was carrying a very deadly disease. So many people were dying in New York City from this typhoid fever outbreak that the head of the New York City health department started doing research and began to trace back when the outbreak first occurred. He found out that in every family where people died there was one common denominator ~ this Irishwoman was their cook. Doctors then questioned the woman about her part in all these deaths.
 
“That is ridiculous!” she replied. “I’ve never been sick and I’m not sick now. How could I have caused the disease?” She would not submit to any test and continued to cook for families that soon became sick. When the members died she just quit and found another job. Finally, so many people died that the New York health department arrested her and put her in quarantine. After they jailed her they discovered she had typhoid fever living in her gallbladder. But the woman still maintained it was not her problem. After she was incarcerated for three years she agreed to always wash her hands and not to work ever again as a cook.
 
But soon after being released Typhoid Mary changed her name and resumed her job as a cook. Sure enough, she did not wash her hands and people began to die again. What gave the investigators a clue was that people were dying in the neighborhood of the city that had no history of typhoid fever. Now suddenly this new epidemic was happening. When they again caught the woman she was placed in permanent quarantine and lived there till the end of her life.
 
This example shows us how dangerous doubt really is. It is a disease that completely destroys your ability to receive miracles and blessings from God. It is so dangerous that it actually worked against Jesus Christ Himself when He was ministering in a local neighborhood in His hometown. Jesus had been invited to stand up in the synagogue and read from the Scriptures. It was the prophecy of Isaiah talking about Him and what He was going to do for Israel: “God’s Spirit is on Me; He’s chosen Me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent Me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, ‘This is God’s year to act!’”
 
The Scripture then goes on to say that Christ “closed the book, gave it to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on Him and He began to say unto them, ‘This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.’ And all bear Him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth.” At this historic moment, while Jesus stood before His entire hometown, had they been filled with faith and miracles there’s no telling what could’ve happened! But just then a person with just a little bit of doubt said these words, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”
 
Suddenly the typhoid fever of poisonous doubt filled the hearts of the people of that town. After just a few moments, “They were filled with wrath, and rose up, thrust Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of a hill where upon their city was built, that they might cast Him down headlong. But He passed through the midst of them went His way.” This is one of the most shocking examples of how dangerous a friend can be that carries the spirit and ideas of doubt, and how its infection can spread as quickly as a mass electrocution in poisoning you and your friends hearts from their ability to carry innocent child-like faith.
 
Being asymptomatic is carrying disease but never catching it yourself. You might know someone who never experiences the symptoms of doubt yet they poison you and people you love. Remember, this works through doubt that is given to you through their communication. They made use phrases like, “I’m just playing the devil’s advocate it,” or “You’ve got to look at both sides of the issue to be balanced.”
 
Please listen very carefully to what I am saying. We all need counsel. But it must come from those people who love us, who care for us, and have attained wisdom from living in the realm of faith for most of their lives. There’s a big difference when somebody constantly has the disease of doubt. It is time for you to lose this kind of dangerous friendship.
 
Jonah was friendly, but became dangerous to the point of being deadly. He had an asymptomatic condition that was caused by his disobedience to the word of the Lord. He had joined himself to a ship that was full of innocent travelers going to their appropriate destinations, when suddenly they found themselves in a deadly stormy sea. The ship was going to sink and all of the lives onboard were going to be lost!
 
When the crewmembers cast a lot and discovered that Jonah was the problem, they threw him into the sea, the ship was saved, and everyone was able to continue successfully on their journey. The next part of the story shows us what a gentleman God is, because He prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah so he wouldn’t drown.
 
The whale ended up transporting Jonah to his original destination. When he got there not only was the disease of disobedience gone, but he also became the savior of the city of Nineveh.
 
Sometimes you have to cast your friendship into the sea and never see them again. But God will catch them and put them in the proper pathway so they will be in His perfect will fulfilling their destiny in life. So letting go of some friends that are diseased with doubt might even save them.
 
The important message that you and I must receive is simply this. If a friend brings doubt to you, let them go. Be kind, but still let them go. If we are going to trust God for miracles that we all desperately need, we must also trust Him to provide the fish to save the people that you must throw overboard and out of your life. This requires a real active faith.
 
It also takes strong courage mixed with kindness and gentleness. I remember when the mayor of San Francisco was dealing with very hostile protesters. He simply instructed the police officers to put their steel hands in velvet gloves as they dealt with the people inciting violence. This example shows how you and I must deal with dangerous friendships ~ steel hands inside velvet gloves.
Pastor Richard Gazowsky

“God’s Perfection is in the Details”

I love holding my iPhone 6 + and feeling the smooth, highly polished edges slide in their perfectly honed construction through my fingers.  Each time I do this, my mind considers how perfectly God fits my daily schedule into His perfect symmetry of necessary relationships and activities. Of course, this complexity of relational unity can only occur by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, a guidance that is so simple it must be approached in a childlike manner.
This week I heard that one of the candidates who is running for President of the United States announced that he wanted to change the tax laws so you can fill out your tax forms on a simple postcard and be done. I stopped and thought for a few minutes, remembering when I first became a pastor and filled out my tax forms they consisted of two pages and took about two days to do. Now that form is 68 pages long, weighs about 5 pounds and took 2 1/2 months to fill all of the necessary documents. Wow! A postcard sounds wonderful!

This is exactly what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life, take every complex problem that mankind is throwing at you and turn it into a simple trust in God! A few years ago I experienced the pressure of so many complex challenges that it sent me to the hospital and I had to face the reality that I couldn’t fix it. At that point I could do nothing but give it all to God.  As Jesus said, “When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don’t worry about defending yourselves-what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”  It’s amazing how the handcrafted words of God fix your personal problems with highly honed and elegant perfection.

If my day’s schedule was something that I could place in my hand, it would be smooth and elegant and full of quality just like my iPhone 6 +.  The reason I am using this physical example is because your spirit is similar to the iPhone in its programming.  If you learn to use the Holy Spirit’s simple software inside of you, you will find where real spiritual perfection can be experienced. When you purchase your iPhone, one of the first things you learn is to turn off software or applications that you are not using so they do not drain power from your phone’s batteries.  This is the same truth that you learn when you power up and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit inside your human interface.  You must learn to turn off all unnecessary software so it doesn’t drain the love, peace and joy of the Holy Ghost from you. Turn off hate, vengeance, and all the wicked works of the flesh and turn on the simplicity of God to deal with everything.  That simplicity is found in one word, “Love.”
It’s amazing how simple and powerful love is when you use this spiritual software that the Holy Ghost has put in your heart.  Suddenly, all worry, stress and problems literally disappear and you find yourself in a finely tuned environment of love, joy and peace.
One thing that I have noticed over the years is that most people desire these three things: love, joy and peace. Many of them have gotten hijacked along the way and have sought these things through money, power, friends, and possessions. If you have ever relied on any of these things, you know that they’re not all that they’re cracked up to be.  The real method of finding love, joy and peace is by listening to the simple, daily words of God and then as you go to bed at night you will feel His love for your obedience, His peace in your obedience, and His joy and satisfaction in your obedience.

Bringing All Things Into Remembrance

Today as we were talking, my daughter Rocki, mentioned an event that happened to me 11 years ago, on May 1 2004, I remembered the prophet Timothy Snodgrass mentioning over the last few weeks how important this nearing day was. Now, I realized it was 11 years since that major event occurred in my life. Over years of experience with the prophetic word and the exact timing of the Holy Spirit, I realize that events often occur that appear to be random but are actually fulfilling His promises with an elegance of accurate timing.
On May 1st eleven years ago my family and I had made a major decision in our lives and we had given something very precious to the Lord. I was walking down the stairs of my house and suddenly I was handed an envelope in which there was a very large sum of money that I had promised to give to the Lord.  As if it was planned, my personal phone rang at the same time and an angry and manipulative bill collector was on the phone demanding that I give him the exact amount of money that I had just received and was holding in my hand. It was almost as if the gentleman on the phone who was demanding the money actually saw the post office deliver the check and then instantly phoned to claim it.  Of course, it was actually impossible for anyone but my wife and I to know the exact amount of money that was in the check.

I stood on the stairs and literally started laughing because for the first time in my life I knew that there were invisible spirits watching all of my actions, and that these invisible spirits knew the exact timing of everything. This was a selfie moment in the spiritual realm; I would have to make the decision to obey God or obey the voice of man who was on the phone threatening me. To be honest, I did consider it for about 30 seconds before the decision was made.  I made my decision to obey the voice of God no matter what came against me and so I told the gentleman on the phone he would not get the money, but would have to wait like everyone else for the proper time of payment. The end of the bill collector story is that I actually did not owe the money that he was saying I owed, and the entire bill was eventually dropped. I knew at the time it was warfare in the invisible realm that was trying to block me from my obedience to the Lord.
Many of you are facing very similar situations in your own lives.  The Holy Spirit is about to bless you with the incredible finances necessary so you can complete the journey that God has sent you on.  It’s important that you do not let invisible forces distract you from fulfilling the purpose that God has given you to complete His perfect will.  Many biblical stories can be referred to that have similar situations. In each one of them the people of God were warned to not get distracted.  Jesus sent to His apostles on an errand saying, “Do not talk to anyone in the way.” What Jesus was saying was to not let anyone distract you from the mission that He is sending you on. Each one of you is in perfect alignment to be wonderfully blessed by God. God is launching the big Renaissance that is going to move the earth into the future and it is important that you and I stay narrowly focused upon the task that the Lord told us to do.

Recently I have received frequent invitations to do different “God projects”, to go somewhere to meet some desperate need, or to get involved with a great apocalyptic need. To get involved in each one of these needs seems so necessary and the salesman that is trying to convince me is pleading that the whole earth will be lost if I don’t help him meet them, but this is a distraction from the enemy trying to pull me away from what God called me to do.
Now listen to me; you know that this message is not only for me, it is for you, to do the tasks that Jesus called you to do personally. Don’t let some preacher or evangelist or missionary get you involved in his mission by making you forget your own. You need to do the mission that God has sent you to do in this earth; you need to obey what He’s told you to do. Mothers, it might be for you to raise your children. Fathers, it might be for you to just go to work today. I do not know what God has told each one of us to do as individuals, but I do know, after all of these years, that I’ll be hearing salesmen trying to get us involved in their “God projects”. I am through with it; I want to know what God want me to do. You’ve got to hear the same thing.

Read this scripture in the message Bible, especially noting its pungent words, “I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love. You were running superbly! Who cut in on you, deflecting you from the true course of obedience? This detour doesn’t come from the One who called you into the race in the first place. And please don’t toss this off as insignificant. It only takes a minute amount of yeast, you know, to permeate an entire loaf of bread.” In plain English God is prompting us to listen to the voice of Jesus.  Didn’t Jesus say, “My sheep know my voice and another they will not hear.”? Start listening to God Himself and then let your preacher or pastor or evangelist confirm that you have heard the word of God.  Yes, we do need to listen to the preacher, but in confirmation that you have truly heard from the Lord himself.

It is now 11 years since the monumental event occurred in my family’s life.  On May 1, 2015 we are coming to the day of fulfillment, The number 11 stands for the end of something epic. Ministers and prophets knew on 11/11/11 at the Rose Bowl that it was a sign to the entire body of Christ that something epic in history was ending, but I realized that, this was when God began to birth the new Renaissance. The word Renaissance means a new birthing of the entire society. It gave us Martin Luther, Christopher Columbus, Leonardo da Vinci and the list goes on of the men that God anointed to birth what we now call the Modern age.

Years ago I was ridiculed for saying publicly that we were the generation that was going to colonize another planet.  A few weeks ago it was announced that 50 women and 50 men have been chosen, some from the city of San Francisco, to colonize the planet Mars in 2024. The training for this mission has already begun. Look out; the future is upon you!  It is no wonder that some of the greatest men of God proclaimed what each one of us must do; “Obey the voice of Jesus and what He is personally telling you to do.  This is the mission of mankind.”   

Keep Steady on the Road

Timothy Snodgrass gave two words to the church that are going to be significant to the success and completion of your journey. They were like the words of counsel given by an ancient sage to a sea captain who is facing a perilous journey. You, the sea captain, have already faced incredible difficulties through turbulent tornadoes, but now the tornadoes are subsiding and distractions may come to take you from your journey.
The first warning is that things are going to slow down. Take this time to rest, especially in prayer, meditate upon and contemplate each move before you make it. The instructions that have been given to slow down are just as important as the instructions that warned you about things speeding up, because you are to keep the ship, your very life, steady on the course that God originally called you upon. Remember, that original call is your purpose. So many times a smooth-talking preacher or friend can get you excited about his or her vision to a point that you lose sight of the vision that God gave to you. In first 13th chapter of I Kings, the young prophet of God was sent to prophesy to the king of Israel, and the Lord instructed him not to take time to sit down and eat a meal with anyone. When the king asked the prophet to come to his house and eat, the prophet told him, “I cannot, even for a moment, eat with you almighty king.” Then an older prophet heard about the young prophet and hunted him down and told him that he also was a prophet of God and that an Angel told him to tell the young man to come to his house and eat. The young prophet forgot the original word that God had given him and went to the older prophet’s house and as they were eating dinner, the older prophet stood up saying, “The Lord says, you have disobeyed.” Sure enough, when the young prophet left the older prophet’s house a lion killed him and the old prophet ran to his dead body, crying and said, “Alas, my brother!” Then he buried him in his own grave. Think about how heavy this story is. Do not leave the call that God has given. This is why I emphasize in every service how important it is for you to hear the voice of God in your heart. Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice and another they will not hear.”
Timothy’s second warning is likened unto the first. Many distractions are going to come to you. Some of the things that you might interpret to be distractions might actually be blessings in disguise, and although this might sound confusing to you at first, God has said that we are coming into a whirlwind. A whirlwind always appears to be confusing at first but when you stay steady on the course you find it to be a strong wind against your back pushing you in the direction you’re supposed to go.
Recently I was on a trip with Timothy and we ate at a nice restaurant. Timothy paid for the meal. The next day he could not find his credit cards. Together he and my family looked everywhere his car had been without finding the cards. In the meantime a lot of confusion that we were both dealing with was being cleared up. Finally, when the last piece of confusion was cleared, Timothy and I understood exactly what we were supposed to do. Suddenly at that time, Timothy was told by the Lord to go to the refrigerator in his hotel room and get some juice to drink. When he opened up the refrigerator, there next to the juice (which he had not purchased) was a stack of all of his missing credit cards. We all were shocked by the phenomenon of them appearing out of nowhere. This brought back to memory a time when Paul Cain was in Kansas City and lost his driver’s license and credit cards. A few months later when he was speaking at our church in San Francisco, one of the young prophets prophesied that Paul Cain was about to receive his identity. After speaking Paul Cain went to his hotel room and there miraculously was his lost wallet with his driver’s license lying on the bed. I believe that now is the time that God is revealing lost identity and wealth through unexpected miracles.
It is God’s goodness that is directing your life and it’s important that you stay on course every day! Keep your compass headed to the point of North, which is the word of God for your life. If you do this every day, your life will be full of every delight that God is sending to you, even as a little child.

“Love, A Key That unlocks Favor”

It is an obvious observation that when you love those who are close to you you receive favor from them. But something that is often overlooked is that there is a much more hidden way with love that will cause you to receive favor from potential enemies and even actual confrontational adversaries.

Love is such a powerful force that Jesus is using it to control the entire universe, for He is “In charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from His rule.” If we’re not careful, we grown-ups can act childish, reacting to every discomfort with an instant fleshly desire and response. When we become mature and rise to full adulthood, we learn to measure our responses to everything also to and stay clear of enemies and things or people that would cause discomfort.

Sometimes we find it unavoidable to have interaction with enemies, and this is the point where love is the secret key to favor. This kind of love cannot be faked or worn like a mask. It must come from the innermost essence of our souls which have been influenced by the holy spirit. Gods love, which is referred to in the Bible by the Greek word agape means, “Love without reason; a love feast.”

There was once a very harmful politician who stood on the opposite side of many moral issues that I stood for as a pastor in San Francisco. One day I was faced with the meeting him in his office. Before this meeting I found myself praying in the Holy Spirit for God’s love towards this influential man. When I arrived in his office and saw him for the first time alone, in private without any other witnesses, I suddenly felt the love of God for this man pouring out of my spirit and began to prophesy good things over him. I knew that many of my contemporaries would be upset that I was not rebuking him, but instead I felt moved to bless him with the love of God.

Weeks later the same man came to speak publicly in the church I pastor. To be truthful with you, when he stood in front of the congregation he said some of the most honest things I have ever heard from any man. He said, “My mother has gone to be with the Lord and I know you people here are real Christians. My mother would be ashamed of some of the things I have done, so please never waiver from what you are. The city of San Francisco needs you.” This man that I thought was an enemy, was actually extending favor to us because we did stand differently on many issues.

Jesus made this clear when He said, “But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” So think about this for a moment. How often do we choose to use our anger or other fleshly responses to situations for our own personal need for justice, when favor would be a much more appropriate response and blessing is done through the power of love?

God is love. The very essence of God’s person is love itself. The closer I personally have been able to move into the Lord’s presence, the more I am overwhelmed by the love and favor that permeates every action that occurs in His presence. What I am talking about is not so very far from you. All you need to do is open your heart right now and ask Jesus to help you. It is that simple. You have not, because you asked not.

Favor Not Justice

I have learned that the journey you are on can be determined by your mindset, and how you look upon every situation that you face. “Do you want to favor or do you want justice?” My grandfather used to have a saying, “Poor people have poor ways.” As I grew older and wiser, I began to see this unfortunate characteristic in my own life, because many times I was always seeking justice, or “things to be fair,” but my results were that I would always end up getting the least amount of blessing that I could possibly receive. And to make things worse, my result in getting complete justice meant that which I already had was sometimes taken away.
 
Justice had always been taught to me by my British family heritage, and the proper English desire to be biblically correct and to live by the law. But I’ve discovered, “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” Following the rules is always the pathway to justice, but following favor is the way of the Spirit. 
 
Years ago I wanted justice when it came to the income tax, and I would literally spend months of time collecting receipts and filling out my tax forms ~ and every year I was audited. It was so stressful and I caused my family to experience much of my stress. At that time my children were very young so they didn’t know what mom and dad were fussing over. To make the tax situation even worse, for three years in a row the IRS agent who audited my taxes would wear dark sunglasses when he met with me. This made him seem so spooky that it just freaked me out.
 
I finally cried out before the Lord and said, “Help me, God! I need Your favor. What do You want me to do?” After about six months the Lord talked to me about a certain Christian accounting firm and I hired them to do my taxes. I dropped my opinion of wanting things to be “fair.” I just wanted to gain the favor of God. Guess what it happened? They began begin doing my taxes I started to forget about the stress. It was that easy.  For the last 25 years I have been living in the favor of God and tax time is no longer stressful. It actually is kind of fun to see how God’s favor always follows me ~ even with someone like the taxman.
The spirit of poverty is a work of the flesh, and we know, “The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Anytime your flesh (or carnal mind) is seeking justice, it is actually seeking the lowest reward you can possibly receive ~ which is judgment. That is why Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. His life is always discovered through the seeking of divine favor.
 
A person I know was working at a large company at a low level position that dealt with the maintenance of very complex machines. One day the company faced an incredible conflict because the machines were in disrepair and not maintained correctly. Everybody in their department was looking for justice. Who could they blame for the problems and how could they defend themselves so that they did not lose their jobs? But the person I knew, who was a divine favor-seeking Christian, looked at the situation completely differently, and began to look for God’s favor on how to fix the problem forever. Soon God gave him an answer, which included a way to make up for everybody’s mistakes. The result was that they were all promoted, their paychecks were doubled, and they were advanced to management-level positions.
 
Favor is the way to obtain rulership. Remember that Moses taught this truth to the people of Israel, when he prophesied, “And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath.” This prophecy is still real today and is God’s true purpose over your life. In other words it is still a live promise. It wasn’t canceled at the time of Joshua. Otherwise God wouldn’t keep renewing the appointment for “today.” The promise of “arrival” and “rest” is still there for God’s people.” 
 
The thing about favor is that it is so cool and so relaxing. It is like living every day on a vacation beach with cup of tea and a sparkling slice of lemon in it ~ smiling and giggling because you are on a vacation resting in the favor of God. To meditate more upon this subject, read Hebrews the fourth chapter in the Message Bible this week.

God Is Willing To Show You The Future Of Technology

One of the greatest times in history, with the most adventures, was when innovative inventions were released within the first Renaissance, which happened in the 1500’s. During this time the world saw the exploits of Christopher Columbus, the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci ~ and of course the revolutionary release of the Gutenberg printing press, which led to Martin Luther’s transformation of all the religious sects within Europe. Galileo’s telescopes unveiled distant stars, Newton discovered the laws of physics ~ and the list goes on and on regarding the incredibly new areas of science that such men were exploring.

It took a period of time for the rest of the world to realize that each of the visions given to these individuals would later become a reality that the average citizen in the future would experience. For example, Christopher Columbus made the first dangerous journey of discovering the New World, which we know as America. Now any middle-class European family can make a trip to America and experience all of its natural wonders. What was dangerous, rare, and the most exotic new venture imaginable ~ is a common summer vacation today. To take the example further, most of us reading this blog live in America, the land Christopher Columbus discovered.

To even make it more absurd, I live in a place called California, the name that was given to it by a Spanish author in 1510, “Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo.” He described this “island” called California, where the women were more beautiful, the knights stronger, the castles taller ~ a type of a heavenly island! So in a way you could say the conquistadors of 500 years ago considered the neighborhood I live in like heaven!

And if I add the modern technologies and conveniences to that picture, it actually becomes even more realistic: the powerful advancements of the cell phone, supersonic air travel, high-tech cars, and designer clothes conveniently purchased from a local mall. And don’t forget the year-round ability to purchase any kind of fruit, coffee, or exotic spice simply by passing by the nearest food establishment.

What I’m saying is that we are about to journey on an adventure that is just as exciting and breathtaking as those adventures the Christians went on in the 1500’s. The only difference is, their undertakings were on Earth. Our new enterprises will soon allow us to walk into outer space! Like Christopher Columbus of old, the Apollo spacecraft traveled all the way to the moon. There had been a space of time where those on earth waited and contemplated the future. But at the end of 2014 the European space probe landed on small rock beyond the moon and a new mysterious journey began. At my last count there are 19 private companies that are building a new kind of rockets (or I guess we could call them ships to sail into outer space).

Yes, this present generation is going to take us into the greatest adventure that mankind could ever experience ~ and that is exploring God’s wonderful universe that He has prepared for all of us. Don’t worry! Just like the first Renaissance, some leaders will become upset and say negative things about our exploration. Christopher Columbus faced the same opposition.

But Jesus gave us the answer in what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” (which is actually a model for us always to pray): “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We all have daily been praying that earth is going to become like heaven so we can visit and see how wonderful heaven actually is!

This is why the whole earth is coming to Jesus Christ and His wonderful ways ~ so we can go into outer space and experience the exploration of God’s wonderful heaven. You can just look at pictures of the galaxies, nebulas, and star clouds to see how wonderful heaven is! Heaven is so magnificent that even Jesus, God’s Son, visited heaven on the day He rose again from the dead.

For why else would Jesus make such a journey on such a day? He told Mary, who saw Him at the tomb just moments after He rose again, “Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God.'” So where was Jesus going?

The amazing thing is, that Jesus at the cross not only rectified us so we could explore, but He also rectified heaven so we could visit the stars. Look at this quote in Colossians: “For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things He might have the preeminence.”

Actually what this is saying is very simple. The gospel of Jesus Christ is going into every nation on earth and God is saving every single human being so we as a people can visit God’s wonderful universe. Get ready! We are about to go into outer space! But stop! Don’t quit reading this blog! Because there’s one more thing I believe you must understand in order to realize how easy this is going to be for you and I.

Scientists currently tell us that the earthlike planets they are currently finding in outer space are too far away for you and I to get to in a lifetime. And yes, according to current inventions this is true. But I declare to you that Jesus traveled to deep outer space (or what the Bible calls “deep heaven”) in just a few hours and returned back to Jerusalem for supper with His disciples in the Upper Room. And that was where He allowed doubting Thomas to reach his finger and touch His side that was wounded at the cross.

What I am simply saying is European travel to America that used to take over a half a year, today takes less than half a day. As dramatic as that change in travel time is, today it is not considered to be dangerous or something we even discuss. It’s just the way it is ~ it’s almost as simple as walking down the street. I am telling you that God’s vision of the future is going to be so wonderful that you and I are going to travel and colonize planets and be back in San Francisco by dinnertime!

In the last series of meetings that we have held (which started on Valentine’s Day) the prophets Timothy Snodgrass and Gershom Sikaala have been taking us into a Renaissance of the Spirit ~ where the future God has planned for the Christian body on earth is being laid out before us. At the same time Jesus is healing all of our diseases, including reversing our ages so we can live longer to experience this incredible adventure! To be honest with you, for me to now go to church is like a child’s first visit to Disneyland. God is showing us such great adventures and wonders that I find myself giggling like a little boy in the presence and power of God. All my life I have dreamt about going on these kinds of adventures and now it’s happening!

So how do you prepare to see God’s future of technology? Well that’s the purpose of the Renaissance Revival that these two men of God are preaching about in San Francisco. When you come to a service date, the worship songs will usher you into the presence of God and then Timothy and Gershom will share with you the visions and teachings that God has given them, to prepare you for the future. What I’ve discovered, as a person, is the best way for me to individually prepare myself to receive what God is desiring to give me, is to exercise the fruit of the Spirit which comes from the Holy Ghost living inside my tummy ~ and that is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance.

Probably the richest and most exciting thing about this revelation is that God is teaching you to enjoy wealth. And I really mean this He is going to make you rich and add no sorrow to it. That means every day you live is not only going to be joyful and exciting, but is going to be prosperous and full of first-class riches! Wow! That’s living in the perfect will of God! Come on and enjoy the adventure!

Getting Close To Someone

I would like to share with you something that is very personal ~ how I’ve learned to get close to God through getting close to others. To be honest, when God first told me this it did not make sense. He said, “When you learn to love your personal family then you will learn to love Me”.  
 
I knew that loving my family was important. It was a strong principle that I had been taught while becoming a minister, because the Scripture says, “that if a man cannot rule his own house how can he rule the church?” But through the years I discovered that the only true way to success is to be close to God personally, and this was an understanding that I just didn’t quite get.
 
When I was young I was raised in a very strong conservative religious family and truthfully, God was pretty scary. The first religious experience I can remember was when I woke up one night from a dream where I was left behind while every Christian had gone to heaven. I was stuck on earth with the people that were not saved. I was about seven years old at the time. I walked in to see my mother, who was a famous choir director and also a well-known woman evangelist.
 
I asked my mother what the dream meant. She explained to me that I needed to be saved and if I wasn’t I wouldn’t go with God to heaven. I recalled telling her, “Wow! If God gave that dream to me I must really be special.” As I grew up (I was finally saved at 10 years old) my relationship with Jesus was very distant. Though I wanted to obey Him I also wanted to be successful in business.
 
As I became a young man my desire for success became the preeminent factor that motivated my life. But something I didn’t count on was me continually being “interrupted” by God as He steered me to the proper process that would lead me to the real success I desired. His process was very confusing and discombobulating to an observer, but to me it was my life. Finally, in my late 50’s, it all came to a head when God spoke to me and said, “You need to learn to love your family, and in the process you will learn to love Me.”
 
Now this was a real shocker, because God was telling me that He wanted to be close to me, but He needed me to change the way I dealt with my family so I could be close to Him. This was when I received the revelation about the importance of the fruits of the Spirit in my life. They were not just something I could just casually add on to my personality, but I was to discover they were literally the doorway to everything I was seeking spiritually.
 
What I’m describing to you is a process (it has taken me three years to reach this point) and I’m still trying to learn more on a day-to-day basis. And the thing that amazes me is how many powerful, influential people ~ and even prominent religious people ~ have lost the importance of the fruits of the Spirit. Did not Jesus say that if He came to a tree that wasn’t bearing fruit He would cut it off and throw it into the fire? But fruit is not “gifts.”
 
This is why Jesus said there would be many who would come to Him and say, “Have not we cast out demons, healed the sick, and done other grandiose miracles?”, and He would say to them “Depart from Me I never knew you.” And you can see that this truth has been verified by how many powerful people have fallen from favor because certain flaws were found in their characters.
 
I am telling you that love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meekness, kindness, and temperance ~ against such there is no law. It is important that you have these fruits so your fruit, your tree, and your success ~ will remain.
 
The thing that is most amazing about the fruit of the Spirit is that it helps you get close to people ~ and especially to God. The last few years I have been awestruck by how classy, amazingly loving, and gentle that Jesus is. It’s hard to describe the immensity of the experience that being close to Him is. Jesus is so awesome and His presence so breathtaking that it is like walking next to the largest African elephant.
 
But at the same time Christ can retreat if He senses even the slightest bit of self-will in me. And He moves quickly, like a hummingbird. But what’s amazing is that I never even know when He has left. The only way I can stay close to Him is by constantly keeping my feelers on in my spirit, seeking for His perfect will and obeying Him as accurately as I physically can.
 
Now here’s the real secret. The more I obey Him in the little things, the closer I end up getting to Him. It is at this point that the most amazing occurrences happen ~ doors open up to new relationships. So by getting closer to God I get close to others. Wow! What an incredible blessing that is!
 
Just last night Sandy and I were in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and were walking through a mall. Suddenly I gently heard the Lord say, “Look at the jacket in that store.” His voice was so gentle but I knew the elephant moved like a hummingbird and He could go away in an instant if I did not obey His voice. I saw that the entrance to the store was locked. As I was looking inside through the window, suddenly the owner saw my interest and ran over, opened the door, and Sandy and I entered.
 
The owner greeted us warmly and we responded with much love and friendliness. Then I told him I was interested in the cashmere business jacket that was hanging in the window. Though the jacket in the display did not fit me, he knew the precise amount of the check I was going to need and told me he could order me the right size and it would be there in a few days. Then at the last minute he suddenly turned to me.
 
“You know,” he said, “I own that same jacket and I think it is exactly your size. I just bought it myself, and if you want I’ll give it to you at an incredibly discounted price.” I looked and the tags were still on the jacket! It was amazing, but he really was willing to sell me his own jacket at a lower price even though it was brand-new!
 
After I paid for the item, and as Sandy and I were getting ready to leave the store, the owner told me his wife was ill and that it was a very serious sickness. While he was speaking the Lord showed me a prophetic act his wife should do, and if she did the simple thing, when he got home she would be healed.
 
The gentleman literally choked up and had a hard time speaking. He said he would do it and Sandy and I left. We had almost gotten to our car when the Lord spoke to Sandy to go back and slip a piece of paper with our phone number on it under the store door in case he wanted to call us later. This morning, while I was at the hotel working out in the gym, my phone rang. I did not recognize the number but when I answered, it was the gentleman from the store and he sounded very emotional.
 
He told me his wife had done the prophetic act last night and then she went to sleep. She woke up this morning and was feeling so good she couldn’t stop crying. She ran out of the door and said, “Dear husband, I’m going to my doctor. I want him to inspect me and see what God has done!” The gentleman was so moved he could hardly speak on the phone.
 
I realize the story is not yet over, but God had just introduced Sandy and me to another family friend in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Please may every one of you lovely and wonderful people let your relationship with God introduce you to new friends. Just listen and obey His still small voice. What He’s trying to do is introduce you to your future relationships.

God Is The Smooth Operator


Over the past year I have done my level best to obey God in every minute detail. To my amazement things have gone so incredibly smooth ~ to the point that I’m beginning to call God the “Smooth Operator”. I am finding that a day where I obey totally what the Lord tells me to do, everything goes incredibly smooth ~ the contacts are perfect, the results are perfect, and I am always brought to an expected end. But now comes the mystery of the whole entire process, and that is: “wisdom is known by her children”.
 
This was the Scripture that was given to me last year when God expressed to me this great truth: “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.” But the issue that was discombobulating my thoughts was that I thought God’s ways could be reasoned out by my simple human mind.
 
But the way God really does things is completely different from our thinking, because the Lord’s ways are pure and completely respectable. In other words, they will last for generations. Wow! I know that’s a mouthful to understand. It means obedience to God is to do actions that sometimes can only be understood over time ~ like how long it takes for a mother to raise her children. In fact, His ways are so perfect that people around you who love you cannot even understand the actions that you are performing.
 
And I use the word “perform” because obedience to God is like being on a stage and performing His perfect will. For example, Moses obeying God and doing everything He told him to do resulted in his starring role being stuck at a dead end ~ with the Red Sea in front of them and the Egyptian army behind. At that moment this catch-22 situation made Moses look ridiculous to every single person in Israel ~ especially the intelligent ones (and some of them started verbally attacking Moses).
 
Now take a moment and think about the action that the Lord told Moses to do. In response to their criticism he was to take his shepherd’s rod, walk to the edge of the Red Sea, and put the staff in the water. Any intelligent reasonable person would’ve questioned, “Moses, are you crazy? What is that going to do to help your desperate situation?” This is the perfect situation where only the wisdom of Jesus explains the actions of an obedient leader ~ “wisdom is known by her children.”
 
At first, when the whirlwind of God began to hit our local church, I was confused ~ but still doing my best to be obedient to the exact will of God ~ even though many of the things that God told me to do did not make any sense to me. Now that we have been in the whirlwind for about nine months, I am beginning to understand how far ahead of my thinking the wisdom of God was. I am realizing that the wisest thing I can do is obey God. Even though I cannot understand God, or reason out His actions in my own human mind, I must just be obedient and face the criticism that I may get for obeying Him ~ and trust that wisdom will be known by her children…