4/25/2016
Fellow patriots, please listen to this short, inspiring message from General Flynn. General Michael Flynn exemplifies patriotism, courage, and love of God and country - despite some of his own countrymen relentlessly attacking him. Donations for his defense are greatly appreciated. If you can only give $5.00, please do so - every little bit helps. Thank you so much, and God bless.
Letter from General Flynn.
16 “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock [and] one shepherd. …”
27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” [John 10:16, 27 NKJV]
Last night I found myself decompressing from my weekend. My pastor hosted an internationally known, and well respected prophet. The man and his close friends spent time prophesying to each church member present, and Sunday morning was climactic for many. I enjoyed hearing the word of God given to each, and my brief association with this brother and his team was satisfying and good. Better yet, we spoiled them with good Mexican food, and in that sense, we sent them home different than how they arrived! A good time for all, indeed. And yet…
I awoke at 0123 hours this morning, one of my set times to pray, and as I prayed, I became aroused and hungry in my spirit. My church has hosted others with prophetic ministries, and although we had a blowout good time during those times, I have to say the actual change in us, and in me, seemed to be disappointingly small, in proportion to the fun we had, and the “high” we briefly enjoyed.
It is true that God is primarily interested in hearts, and He seems to be eternally underwhelmed by our circumstances. How can we miss this truth so consistently? No matter the height of our mountain top experiences, God judges the experiences, (and I think ministries) by how many heart-changes were wrought, and sad to say, very often in spite of the heights attained, and in spite of the accuracy of the words given, few, if any changes are evident afterwards.
I am not in any way diminishing the ministry of the prophet we hosted this last weekend, in fact, quite the opposite. I am saying, that after he has obeyed God with his presentations, the rest is up to the recipients, and most often, that’s where things go wrong.
Many times we view events like last weekend as entertainment, albeit entertainment of a holy nature – but still, just entertainment. Isn’t it true? How often have you left a conference or a riveting ministry presentation of some sort, only to wonder a few days later what it was all about? At the time of the event, we felt God was right there, speaking to us….but a week later it was history, and beginning to gather dust in our minds.
How many times in the zeal of the moment, have we shelled out hundreds of dollars for books and materials at the book tables of our favorite speakers, teachers and prophets, only to fill our bookshelves with good books we’ll never read; a garage sale waiting to happen? At least expensive exercise equipment can later be used for towel racks, but books!? But the feeling’s the same, isn’t it?
My mother made and collected hundreds of flats of cassette tapes of every speaker and teacher she heard in the last 25 years of her life, but she never re-listened to any of them, and we threw them all away in the dumpster when we moved her into the nursing home she later died in. I’m sure just having them made her feel more “secure”, but just having them did her no good.
With an apparently impeccable track record for accuracy, I have no doubts about the prophecies we received this weekend, but none of what was spoken is immutable, for much now rests on us. For example, if we received a word that we will acquire great riches to be used for the good of the Kingdom, and yet instead choose to invest our time and money in unrighteous, selfish pursuits, of what consequence was the spoken word? If we hear how we are great people of God, and yet choose to carouse about in lust and seek out adulterous relationships, can we reasonably expect the words of God to manifest as righteous living in our lives?
Indeed, the spoken words should ignite in us a sense of responsibility, for in guarding and nurturing the words of God in our hearts, we can facilitate the necessary heart-changes for those words to take root and grow. Guarding our hearts is always our responsibility – not God’s.
In Jesus Christ, God has given each of us an opportunity to grasp the salvation we cannot acquire any other way, but many, perhaps most of us, will squander the opportunity and spend eternity in the hell we have chosen for ourselves. God never was looking for ways to punish us – in fact, He has always sought to reconcile us to Himself, that He may finally have a family again.
But in this, as in prophetic words, the responsibility is now ours. There is absolutely nothing more God needs to do…
The ball is in our court.
John
Ouch. I find this true at times in my own life. I hear a fabulous sermon, walk out and an hour later can’t remember what it was about. Maybe it’s old age or maybe it touched a nerve I don’t want touched so shove it far away so I don’t have to deal with it. Anyway, I hope I don’t forget this one because it did speak to the nerve. 🙂
Yes it does doesn’t it.