|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

Unity is the desire of Jesus' heart...which means it is the desire of God's heart. God is multi-membered unity....the three in one. For God to be love and be self-sufficient, He must be multi-membered. The Father and the Spirit fully and perfectly love the Son. The Son and the Father fully and completely love the Spirit, and the Spirit and the Son fully love the Father. This is a wholly consumed and wholehearted love. This is our God! The burning love of the fellowship of the trinity has always been, is now, and always will be. Man was created to share in that love. Man was made to be with God face to face, living in the glorious burning light of the fire of love...the Bride reflecting the glory of the Groom having legal dominion in the garden of fellowship. Only a denial of love...choosing to explore life outside of the fully consumed relationship God always intended...tasting evil...the absence of God's presence...broke the fellowship of love God desires. God still desire...

What God is doing in the earth right now is simple. You don't need an MDiv to understand it. Uneducated fisherman...Peter, James, and John...were entrusted with the messages we pour over to understand what is happening. The Bible was given to all men and women, and the vast majority of all people on earth for the last 6,000 years have been poor, uneducated farmers. God didn't write the Bible to narrow our vision down to the views of a handful of scholars. God gave the word to engage our own conversations with Him about His heart for creation so He might use us to accomplish His will...not so we could be servants to those who claim to know God! I don't want to just know someone who knows God...I want to know God. Thankfully, He wants me to know Him too! We shouldn't be careless with the Word, but we should not boil it down to a secret science either. This is the classic mistake of every Pharisee....to think they have some sort of esoteric (secret) knowledge that can only...

There is a pattern of renewal laid out in the Bible. Jesus came to make all things new: Revelation 21:5 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful.” Jesus is a "gate" and a "way". There is legal position in God's kingdom...we call that "saved"...and then there is living condition...which the Bible calls "small" (or "least") and "great." Just like in the USA, there are many legal citizens in God's kingdom, but they will not all share the same status and living condition forever. There are great and small when Jesus returns: Revelation 19:5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!” Jesus said that if you want greatness, you "do and teach" holiness...not from a standpoint of discipline, but from one of fascination or grace. This is called...

False love is emotion. True love is obedience. John 15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. That means love is not a feeling, love is a choice! To extend love...to choose love... renews the mind will and emotions. Growing in love renews the heart and drives out all fear. To chose to love means to chose to obey God. There is not one drop of love in all of creation that was created outside of God. He is the "spring" of love. Love is a fruit of the presence of God. I John 4:18-19 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. To chose to love God...to obey Him...is to choose to tap into the river of love. This changes my thoughts, my feelings, and my desires and produces more love flowing through my life...the reward for love IS love...love expands. True love...

I hear the Lord saying we are entering the harvest season. Just as God brings a harvest season to the natural processes of the earth each fall, He is bringing a spiritual harvest season right now. What begins in the spiritual in the harvest season will finish in the natural. This is the movement from the "birth pangs" into the contractions of the end-time tribulation described by Jesus. This harvest season actually touches disciples of Jesus first. That means intensity is felt in the Church before the earth is aware of the harvest. This is intentional: Mark 13:7-13 But when you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be troubled; for such things must happen, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be earthquakes in various places, and there will be famines and troubles. These are the beginnings of sorrows. “But watch out for yourselves, for they will deliver you up to councils, and you will be beaten in the syna...

The Book of Revelation describes two camps vying for the same ground that will culminate in the most intense time earth has ever seen. The two camps are the camp of the Bride...the pure and rightful co-heir of the earth...and the harlot...the false bride....the imposter. Revelation 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, Revelation 19:7-8 Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. One has a right to partner with Jesus to rule the earth and one will offer herself to the earth apart from agreement with Jesus...apart from the covenant that renews the earth. This is the question that the earth is actually deciding that will grow in intensity over t...

The end of the age is the story of the emergence of truth. Truth is being born in to the earth. This is a divinely orchestrated process that has taken thousands of years...ever since Adam and Eve rebelled against the Truth, God immediately enacted a plan to restore the light of Truth to the earth. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes into the glorious presence...the Light of God...except through Him. This is the Truth: life is not possible apart from the Author of Life. I picture a tree. A tree cannot live apart from the sun. If you build a shed over a living and thriving tree, and block out the sun, the tree will surely die. The tree will continue to exist, but it will be lifeless wood...firewood. Mankind is no different. Mankind cannot live apart from the glory of God...the bright light of His presence. In the light of God's presence IS life...there are all the fruits of His presence in the very glory that emanates from His being...love, joy, peace, patience, k...

The Sermon on the Mount is a road map to the way Jesus walked. Jesus is a gate to salvation, but also a way to greatness in the kingdom. Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. (14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. The Sermon on the Mount is all about growing the Beatitudes in your life. The Beatitudes are a progression. They build one upon another. Recognizing my spiritual poverty is what gives me the insight to mourn the lack. The mourning of my lack...The crying out for God to make me more like Jesus...is the invitation to God to fill the lack, and then, as greatness is grown in response to my asking, seeking, and knocking to be more, meekness is required. The Beatitudes all build upon the one before it...the taste of progression in the Christian walk produces the hunger and thirst. The hunger and thir...

Be ready. Every time Jesus spoke of His return, He told His disciples to be ready. The warnings in the Bible are for believers. Unbelievers don't read or believe the Bible. Believers are the warning to unbelievers, and the Bible is the warning to believers...believers, Be Ready! Luke 12:39-40 “Understand this: If a homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would not permit his house to be broken into. You also must be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected.” You do not need to be ready to die. You do not need to be ready to get raptured. Neither of these require any help from you. You must be ready to endure. To live for Jesus is harder than dying for Him...that is why the brain of the believer, when told to be ready, instantly defaults to some imaginary scenario where a gun is to their head and someone demands they renounce Jesus...yes, this is intense, but much more intense is day in and day out laboring in the harvest in love while being ...

de·prav·i·ty /diˈpravitē/ - noun - moral corruption; wickedness. synonyms: corruption, vice, perversion, deviance, degeneracy, immorality, debauchery, dissipation, profligacy, licentiousness, lechery, prurience, 1. a wicked or morally corrupt act. 2. the innate corruption of human nature, due to original sin. 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 8-9 You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!.....These teachers oppose the truth just...

This is the heart of the person who endures the end time : I John 4:17-19 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. The goal: Boldness in the "day of judgment", which is the day of the Lord...the time period that surrounds the return of Jesus. My favorite Bible teacher, Mike Bickle, describes the day of the Lord like a hurricane: on the front end of the hurricane, the winds lash the land, then the eye of the storm...the day of Jesus' appearing...comes ashore, and then on the back end of the storm, there is more intensity as Jesus takes over every nation by force. This is all describing the return of Messiah to take physical possession of His kingdom. On the front end, birth pangs...the first stirrings o...