|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Heart-level agreement with God is what He wants: Psalm 51:5-7 NKJV — Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Practically, this means changing my behavior cannot make me clean in God's eyes. God making me clean will change my behavior, though. Because arrogance has taken root in mankind's thinking, when we hear what God wants, we actually approach the execution of God's requirements backwards! Romans 7:15 NKJV — For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. Knowing what God wants provokes man's arrogant flesh to try to be God, Instead of humbling myself and seeing I NEED God. This is the natural reaction to the awareness of the life God wants to give me, until it isn't. The g...

F alsely asserting peace, when God is judging and refining a people for their good hurts faith. Wrong expectations don't increase faith... They increase offense with God. God spoke through Jeremiah real vision that preceded real refining... 70 years of it, to be exact. Jeremiah 29:8-14 ESV — For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the LORD. “For thus says the LORD: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. ...

The wisest thing a person could do right now is ask God what to expect next. Things are not about to calm down. That is a wrong expectation. What is happening is a massive transition in the government of creation. Jesus is coming. His coming was always promised to be with tribulation. John 16:19-22 NKJV — Now Jesus knew that they desired to ask Him, and He said to them, “Are you inquiring among yourselves about what I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see Me; and again a little while, and you will see Me’? “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. “A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. “Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will t...

God's authority is complete. Consider these two verses: “Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” -1 John 4:4. “Behold, I give unto you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall by any means hurt you.” - Luke 10:19 The implication of this truth should reach to my vision of what God is actually doing to rescue me from death. In the current circumstances, in the body of Jesus, I mostly hear teaching of a fear of man, the devil, and demons... With an asterisk on the fear of the Lord (and even the fear of the Lord being reduced to something other people that don't seem to know the Holy Spirit should somehow have!). If God is sovereign over all, then wasting any time pointing out any other being as problematic is a complete redirection. If God is sovereign, then truly the only thing that I have any say in that needs to be born again is ME. If I get the log out of my eye, then I can help others do the sa...

A church is barren and lifeless  where there is no Holy Spirit leadership,  although it may be extravagant and a huge production designed to engage the flesh. The lack of the Spirit's leadership = a lack of authority.  A lack of authority = a lack of power. You could attend every day of your life and nothing would actually change in your submission to God and enjoyment of His peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self control. We are born again by grace/power, not information. If you are in a barren church, don't just leave!  Ask God what to do. He might have you there to bring life!  Walking in power is simply learning to walk in authority.  Walking in authority is simply seeing God and what He is doing and submitting to His will in faith. Any Spirit-filled believer can bring life to a body of believers if they make their lives about God and not themselves, or even others.  Mostly we go to church hoping things will be the way we like...

When I ignore heavenly authority I do so unto my own death.  This happens mostly on accident.  It is why Jesus warns over and over, "do not be deceived." The reason we resist heavenly authority is our own will and the earthly authority structures all around us.  Satan is the "king of this world." John 14:30-31 NLT — “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going. Consider: Pontius Pilate was fully in His authority to execute Jesus.  He literally did nothing wrong and dutifully exercised his responsibility from Rome's perspective.  Same with the Pharisees.  They were within their authority and responsibility from Judaism's perspective. But they both violated HEAVENLY authority because they didn't understand it. John 18:33-40 NLT — Then Pilate went back into his headquarter...