Amen Brad.

Vicki

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "MV" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, February 04, 2007 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: [ECHURCH-USA] What Jesus Taught Me this Week


> Sounds like the peace of God passing all our  understanding. If we'd only 
> get to that  point before we exhaust our own ideals. What a balance 
> between doing our part in life and letting God take the ball when we 
> aren't moving it forward anymore.
>
> Brad
>
>
> At 10:16 PM 2/4/2007, you wrote:
>
>>      For many months, if not years overall, I have been tuning
>>into radio Bible teaching in hopes I would discover something new
>>about financial blessings in the life of a Christian.  I even
>>purchased some tapes I thought were good from one of my favorite
>>Bible teachers on the radio.
>>
>>      If you listen to Pentecostals, Charismatics, Baptists, and
>>other fundamentalist type preaching and teaching, they all begin
>>at the same place and that is tithing.  I've known this since the
>>womb, practically, because it is all I have heard all my life.
>>Until, that is, I began questioning the Lord myself, on my knees,
>>with an open Braille Bible 25 years ago.  The thing that freaked
>>me out the most, at that time, was that the Holy Spirit, I was, by
>>now, used to hearing and recognizing His voice, kept telling me
>>that He did not need my money.  This puzzled me.  I know He, God,
>>didn't need it but if I didn't give 10 percent of my income, I was
>>taught that He, God, can't bless me.  So now what do I do?  Still,
>>He kept saying, "I don't need your money."  Every time I tried to
>>tithe, my income diminished.  When I quit tithing, my income
>>increased.  Finally, out of desperation, I gave up and stopped
>>giving anything.  Not one dime.  My bills started getting paid,
>>the income perpetually increased, my business continually
>>improved, and four years later, although I had been renting, the
>>Lord made it possible, without any down payment on my behalf, to
>>purchase a home and with monthly payments the same as my rent had
>>been.  That was almost 24 years ago.  I still live in the same
>>home.  So go figure.  I was more confused than before, but I
>>eventually studied until I found my answer in the Scriptures.
>>This, however, has almost nothing to do with what I want to tell
>>you now.
>>
>>      Four years ago, or perhaps more, Jesus told me, not called
>>me, not anointed me, but literally told me, what I would be
>>doing.  this I didn't like.  Not because I wanted to disobey the
>>Lord but I simply was not interested, nor did I have any training,
>>in what the Lord was telling me I would be doing.  What was that?
>>He said, "You will be working with sexually abused women and those
>>suffering from multiple personality disorders, which is now
>>called, Dissociative Identity Disorder.  First, this did not mean
>>that's all I would be doing but it would be something He was
>>instructing me, or appointing me, to do in His name.  At present,
>>I work with several sexually abused women and I have worked with
>>many of those, men and women, who are multiple personality.
>>Before this ministry began, the Holy Spirit also told me that I
>>would be a father to the fatherless.  I won't go into detail about
>>this now but needless to say, this is something that is now being
>>fulfilled daily.  This is something I never dreamed in a million
>>years I would be doing but doing it I am.  Now back to my main
>>topic.  I have said all of this thus far to lay background for
>>what I am going to tell you next.
>>
>>      As most of you know on this list, financially, things haven't
>>been going all that well of late.  this is largely due to being a
>>poor steward, or said another way, not being a very good business
>>man.  Simply stated, over the last two or three years, I've made
>>some poor mistakes.  One, for example, is that I took out loans
>>and mortgages because, I thought, Jesus would bless the ministry
>>to which He had called me, or better stated, the ministry to which
>>He had assigned me or appointed me.  This isn't faith; it's
>>confidence.  Confidence is a poor substitute for faith no matter
>>how you cut it.  This is not to say that Jesus won't finance His
>>ministries but I am just trying to point out the difference
>>between confidence in the Lord and faith in God.  If you can't see
>>the difference, you easily make the wrong mistakes.
>>
>>      As I began to say, out of desperation, a terrible state in
>>which to find yourself as a Christian, I was hunting and hunting
>>for an answer.  I wanted to know how to get money out of God or in
>>a more spiritual way of putting it, I wanted to find out how to be
>>financially blessed of God.  Well, that's what it truly boiled
>>down to as sorry as that sounds for such a Godly man as I.  I'm
>>joking, of course, because Godliness isn't what we think it is but
>>that's for another time.  Anyhow, I often punched on my radio just
>>in case somebody was teaching on finances and I might hear the
>>secret to getting God to cough up some money.  Besides, He owed
>>me.  right?  I mean, He put me into this ministry.  right?  So
>>shouldn't He be paying for it, too, regardless of all the
>>financial boo boos I made in the past?  I mean, what kind of a God
>>is He if He doesn't finance, or bank roll, what He has created?
>>Right?  He owns the cattle on a thousands hills and all the gold
>>under those hills.  Right?  So why don't I have any of that?
>>confusing to say the least.
>>
>>      My radio experience, plus 1200 audio cassettes I have in my
>>library, wasn't producing a single thing; not one.  this
>>frustrated me to no end because these are big names preachers and
>>if anybody should know, it should be then.  right?  Well, it
>>wasn't working.  I mean, I wasn't finding the answer.  I still am
>>not claiming I know the final answer so don't get excited.  I do
>>want you to know what Jesus has told me so far.
>>
>>      One thing I have learned over the last 25 years is that
>>whatever I am asking the Lord, the answer is always, every single
>>time, incredibly simple.  I have always figured the answers from
>>the God of the universe, the Creator of all things, has got to be
>>super complex, theologically complicated, and spiritually
>>unfathomable.  Shoot, I barely made it out of high school, I only
>>have a three year Bible college general theological degree, and I
>>know my IQ can't be very high.  Yet, time and time again, God has
>>shown me things about my relationship with Him and they are
>>always, 100 percent of the time, so simple, a child could
>>understand.  this makes me mad and humble at the same time.  Mad,
>>because I always hope that I will learn some big godly secret that
>>will catapult me into magnificent and glorious Christian stardom.
>>Humility speaks for itself.  No, humility doesn't mean you are
>>worthless and valueless, in fact, it means just the opposite in
>>God's eyes.  Think simple and it will make sense.
>>
>>      So, the other day, as I have been trying to say all along, I
>>was scanning the radio dial, I have 32 memories on my radio so I
>>can punch stations up rapidly and one right after another if I am
>>bored or displeased with what I am hearing, looking for somebody
>>smarter than I am and concerning the subject of finances.
>>Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  They all, every single one of them,
>>dad gum it, were teaching the exact same thing.  Days, weeks,
>>months, and years passed and they all taught the same thing.  why,
>>you may ask, didn't I believe them and follow their example?  I
>>had tried everything they taught already and it flat out did not
>>work.  I even proved it didn't work by eliminating my tithes and
>>offerings over a period of four years and God blessed me even more
>>than if I had been giving.  Well, that's all water over the dam or
>>under the bridge or whatever.  Now you can understand why pastors
>>don't ask me to speak for them any longer; they are afraid I might
>>teach on the wrong subject.  Let me tell you what Jesus told me
>>just recently.
>>
>>      turning off the radio out of frustration, I sat back in my
>>chair totally bummed.  "Come on, Lord," I complained, "I don't get
>>it.  I don't even know the question, let alone the answer, so
>>what is the freaking answer?"  then I suddenly heard it.  One
>>word.  One elementary, rudimental, simple, uncomplicated, plain,
>>kindergarten, and simplistic, word.  "Prayer."
>>
>>      I almost jumped as if I had been touch with a live electrical
>>wire.  "Pray!" I shouted into the spirit realm.  I was surprised,
>>not because I heard it but because I felt it.  Yes, felt it.  I am
>>perfectly familiar with day dreaming, having become a professional
>>at it during school days, but this was not a day dream.  You don't
>>feel a day dream; you just picture it in your mind.  I was not
>>meditating, calculating, figuring, hallucinating, pondering,
>>contemplating, or speculating.  I was asking!  What shocked me, as
>>it always does, the Lord answered me.  Once again, so help me God,
>>my hand on His bible, it was the most simplistic of answers and I
>>felt the answer, not heard it, but felt it.
>>
>>      I realize this may be a new concept for many Christians,
>>feeling the answer that is, but that is the way it always works
>>for me.  Some people sense emotional, in their thought patterns,
>>the Holy Spirit talking or speaking something to them.  For some,
>>not me, but for some, it is so real, they describe it as actual
>>hearing something.  That happens to some people, too, literally
>>hearing the Lord speak, but it isn't common and you should not
>>seek for such an auditory response.  Why?  It isn't necessary.
>>Plus, demons can speak out loud so there is no sense in making
>>things worse.  Others just sense communication is occurring and
>>they formulate words.  I have experience both, that is, words
>>spoken into my thoughts, or formed in my thoughts, and more often
>>than not, I feel what is being spoken.  Don't ask me why because I
>>don't know why it is different from person to person.  It is
>>likely due to our unique individuality as far as God is concerned.
>>You know?  No two alike?  I am usually hit with a feeling which
>>contains meaning.  thus, the words are my words of explanation.
>>Sometimes, on the other hand, I actually see the words as if they
>>are being imprinted on my mind or in my thoughts.  both happened
>>this time.  I saw and felt the word "prayer" at the same time the
>>full and complete meaning burst in my spirit.
>>
>>      When the Holy Spirit spoke to me the single word "prayer,"
>>an extended meaning and translation of what the Lord meant
>>detonated inside of me spiritually.  I knew instantly what Jesus
>>was telling me.  No, he wasn't talking about petitionary prayer
>>where you make your request known on to God.  I already know how
>>to do that.  No, He was not talking about praising His name and
>>giving Him glory because I already know how to do that and have
>>been doing that most of my life.  furthermore, I know how to pray
>>without ceasing and that is a regular part of my daily life.  I
>>also know how to pray in my sleep so that's not what the Lord was
>>telling me either.  So what was He talking about?  I'm glad you
>>asked.
>>
>>      There is another form of prayer that many, I dare say most,
>>do not accept as valid.  They are fearful of it, don't believe it
>>is viable in the church today, and they will do anything and
>>everything to avoid this form of prayer.  Yet, it is a gift of the
>>Holy Spirit.  By now, you likely have guessed it is the gift of
>>speaking in tongues.
>>
>>      I am not going to exegetically, or textually critically
>>analyze, Acts chapter one, Chapter two, chapter ten, chapter
>>nineteen, or even First Corinthians chapter fourteen, not to
>>mention many other related passages because I have done this
>>already in many articles, booklets, and at least one book.  So if
>>you want to read, and you have doubts, the bible is the first
>>place to begin.  That's what I had to do to prove to myself the
>>gift of tongues is for today's church.  If you choose not to
>>believe, it won't damage our friendship at all.  At least not on
>>my part.  You don't have to speak in tongues to go to Heaven but
>>you do have to be saved.
>>
>>      As I started to say, when the single word "prayer" burst in
>>upon my thoughts, a feeling crashed in behind it.  If I had been
>>standing, it could have possibly knocked me over.  Yes, it was
>>that powerful.  I've had this happened before but I am always
>>spiritually surprised when it happens.
>>
>>      The feeling that accompanied the word to pray, filled my
>>spirit, that is to say, it impressed itself deeply upon my
>>spiritual being.  I couldn't deny the truth of it, in other words,
>>even if I had tried.  Yes, it was that real.  This illumination,
>>or spiritual insight, simply said, "Every time the feeling of
>>financial hopelessness, or financial defeat, or monetary lack, or
>>even God's inability to provide comes to mind, pray in tongues."
>>How simple.  Sure, I had the gift of tongues but how could this
>>help my situation?  I thought you had to be somebody spiritual, or
>>a theological giant, or a powerful man of God, or a well educated
>>Biblical scholar, or a well known theologian, or the pastor of a
>>megachurch, or at least a missionary nobody has ever heard of.
>>Me?  That's what I'm supposed to do?
>>
>>      Because this spiritual enlightenment came to me during the
>>mid morning hours of the day, I figured I'd start that very day
>>and so I did.  No, it was far from easy.  I walked around the
>>house throughout that entire day, praying out loud in tongues.
>>Yes, I felt stupid and silly and ridiculous.  Yes, I wondered what
>>my wife, or daughter, or grandchildren, or anyone else thought,
>>who might have heard me.  Sure, it felt dumb to pray like that as
>>I watched TV late that night and the financial feelings of doom
>>came upon me.  I did it anyway.  I did it until I went to bed
>>fully expecting to repeat the whole weird scenario the next day.
>>Something different occurred, however, that next day.  The
>>negative and ominous thoughts were fewer in number and intensity.
>>It had to be my hyper spiritual Charismatic/Baptist imagination.
>>I prayed anyhow clear up until I went to bed.  Yes, every time a
>>thought came; I never missed praying.  Why?  Jesus said to so I
>>did what He said.  On the third day, the negative thoughts of doom
>>and gloom were gone.  No fooling.  Just totally gone.  I prayed
>>anyhow but now I prayed because I was free to do so and I have
>>been doing exactly that since.  Where did the thoughts go you ask?
>>I think you know.
>>
>>      This, of course, is far from the end of the story.  No, it
>>doesn't mean I suddenly became a millionaire.  I haven't won the
>>Power Ball, especially since I don't even play that or the
>>lottery.  No, nothing has changed.  I take that back; something
>>has changed.  Me.  Jesus is still the same as always.  Does this
>>mean I now will become rich?  No.  Wealthy?  No.  Well to do?  Not
>>necessarily.  It means Jesus is Lord.  Did you expect Him to be
>>more?
>>
>>Phil.