|City on a Hill - Writings for Refuge

John 3:6 NKJV — “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Learning to discern between my ideas and God's ideas is the only way to become free from sin and death. Learning to discern between my strength and God's strength is the only way to become free from sin and death. I have to learn to recognize the vision of God's kingdom, the values of it, and choose the power of heaven (the cross is the power of the heavenly kingdom because it gets me out of the way and sets me under God). There is something God wants, and something God doesn't want, from man. If I just read the Bible and try to do what God wants, I will compete with God, not submit to Him. If I Iearn to discern the difference between faith and assumption/presumption, then I can start seeing what God really wants. If I learn to discern where I am tempted to push things I think God wants into being, and instead let Him conform my ways to His own, then I can begin wa...

The last days require a specific victory of those filled with the Holy Spirit: victory over self-leadership and self-saving. Without this victory, I can prophesy in Jesus' name, cast out demons in His name, do wonders... And He will say He never knew me. Yeshua already picked to: -love enemies -bless those who curse Him -pray for those that use Him -follow the father's leadership into the death of His flesh on the cross He invites anyone willing to follow Him. If I don't pick that same victory over the flesh for myself, by spending my time seeing who I really am, seeing who Yeshua really is, and mourning the difference until I am transformed, then I am a false witness of Jesus, not a true one. The more I teach from a place of true heart change... The more I share the true light... The more helpful I am as a true witness.  BUT, to teach about Jesus, talk about Jesus, identify as His while holding on to an anti-Jesus personality, that is the ultimate in being a fals...

If God is working all things for my good (Romans 8:28) then it really doesn't matter to me what the enemy of God is doing. If God is truly working all things for my good, then it really doesn't matter to me what human enemies are doing. If God is truly working all things for my good, then I don't need to worry about what my body is doing, my money is doing, the government is doing, the wind and the waves... God tests faith in adversity.  He also builds it in the very same way.  When my faith fails, there He is. When my faith holds out and grows... It was God. As long as I stay in the truth, I've got it made. A number of challenges all piled up in my mind yesterday.  This morning as I sat before God in the throne room of my heart, I had the most amazing thought:  "Here I am needing you, Abba, and you are more than enough. Thank you that I'm here needing YOU!" If I needed people to fix things, money, healing, opportunity, a break from trouble... If I needed ...

The weight of true salvation is not on the person being saved. The Cross is the power of the gospel. That means the flesh cannot save itself. False teachers place the weight of salvation on people. Change this, tweak this, stop this, do more of this… if only we had done this, then God would have done more… These are vain thoughts. God is looking for children to make saints, not saints to make children . The flesh is arrogant. It does not want to be weak. The flesh hates being needy. It hates being a child. This goes all the way back to the original sin. Adam and Eve wanted to be like God, but outside of His leading. This delusion has infected all flesh. It is why Jesus was born of the Holy Spirit AND David’s seed. David learned to embrace weakness and need. This was the true source of David’s strength: getting out of God’s way. Jesus took David’s flesh and submitted it fully to the Holy Spirit’s leadership… even unto death on a cross. The false Gospel wants to save man’s ...

I don't want to let anyone talk me out of self denial, including me. Why? Because I am warring against my own salvation in ways I cannot detect. Adam and Eve's rebellion introduced a virus to the human frame that goes undiagnosed until the sharp two-edged sword of the Spirit uncovers it. It hides in my thoughts, my emotions and my will. It takes everything good God wants and turns it into something I should do, rather than rely on God for. The flesh... All flesh... From the most trained, well known and ambitious theologian to the most depraved, addicted, and self-led beggar... FIGHTS God's will: Galatians 5:13-17 NKJV — For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another! I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and...

Doing things in faith is very different than doing things to make myself feel like a faithful person. Faith puts all the leadership on God. Jumping off of cliffs because I feel like I haven't been "faithful" enough doesn't please God. Believing He rewards those who seek Him... Who let Him lead them... That's the faith of the Bible. Self leadership in the name of God is still self leadership! If the whole world were led by God, everything would be good. I can let Him start with me.  No one else, and nothing else, needs to change for me to be faithful. Just me.  I need to change. Changing my circumstance isn't necessarily faithful, letting God change my heart is always faithful. The hardest thing to do is wait on God in faith.  The second hardest thing to do is move in obedience when HE says move. Both of these are required for faith. I know I am doing both when my character changes to be more like Yeshua. Jesus is patient, kind, hopeful, joyful, peaceful, self ...

At the end of 2022, God asked Samantha and I to leave a life we had known for many years. We had a successful business, a paid-off house and no debt, a small nest egg, family, friends, connections, purpose, and identities that we had established for 30 years together. We weren't ready to retire, but God was saying we needed to trust Him. (We haven't retired, just in case you are a client reading this :) ) It was hard to really even know where to start.  We didn't know where to start. But, two years later, I can say, "God knew." It isn't like I would have imagined.  I don't really know where/how it will end, but I know God is freeing me from lifelong fears about provision, control, and self-identity.  Sam and I are learning to trust God in a whole new way, and, to be honest, finding God to be more faithful, gentle, generous, and exciting than we knew. This morning He asked me to testify about this. It's hard to talk about, honestly. It's hard to exp...

The Antichrist is going to win a fleshy war against the saints.  But, the saints are going to win a SPIRITUAL war against Satan. The saints will win a war against shame, pride, impatience, doubt, fear, control, anger and lawlessness... The victory the saints win will determine their eternal destiny.  The war the flesh "wins" will also determine their eternal destiny. The flesh will win torment forever.  The Spirit will give life forever. I want to let God win me.  If I won't humble myself and let God win the world, and I insist on trying to win it, I'll end up competing with God and forfeit my soul. Am I getting ready to embrace the life Yeshua already picked? Yeshua already picked a fleshy loss and a Spiritual win.  He already picked the cross? He already picked the life He wants.  If I don't pick that same life, I will not be with Him forever.  Do I want the fellowship of His suffering? Or, do I want to cherry-pick His victories and leave Him alone o...

If I live prophetically, I'll pray prophetically.   My prayer life simply is a reflection of my practical decision making... My prayer life reflects the way I live.  The mouth reveals what's really in my heart, and prayer is really just talking to God. If I pray prophetically, I'll live prophetically.  My life is the fruit of my abiding in God. These two realities are intertwined. I can see how well I hear and rely on God in both the way I live and the way I pray. Talking at God isn't really prayer.  Talking with God is prayer.  That is all "prophetic" means: hearing God and believing what He says in faith that manifests in embracing the revelation He gives. The key to learning a prophetic prayer life is to learn a prophetic life in general.  We all get hundreds of choices to make every day.  We make choices in what we spend our time thinking about, what we fill our eyes, ears, and hearts with, how we treat spouses, children, friends, co-workers a...

People don't burn out from giving their lives to God.  People burn out from trying to live two lives. The truly free are broken open and poured out.  The earth has never seen a man more alive than Jesus.  He was just Himself. Everywhere He went. Nothing to prove, not trying to build/keep/protect an identity, not establishing anything other than a daily history of obedience that came from abiding in the Father. His unwillingness to be self willed ... To be weak and let God be strong... THAT, even to this day, IS His strength.  Who else can say this?: John 5:19 NLT — So Jesus explained, “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself. He does only what he sees the Father doing. Whatever the Father does, the Son also does. Because this is completely true for Yeshua, so is this: John 14:9 NLT — Jesus replied, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to...

There is a brokenness in my flesh that tends to try to be God instead of let God be God to me. "Wanting what God wants" doesn't make me loyal to God.  Even Satan wants what God wants: Isaiah 14:12-15 NLT — “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’ Instead, you will be brought down to the place of the dead, down to its lowest depths. Satan led Adam and Eve into this same delusion.  I must be honest that this wrong thinking operates in my soul. God made Adam and Eve children of the most high, but they wanted to be like the most high. Over and over, God gave His people everything they needed to worship Him, and over and over they took what God gave and...

The key of David is the key that unlocks the "wardrobe" of the white robes required to be part of the first resurrection. The white robes are the "righteous acts of the saints." BUT, only righteousness by FAITH is acceptable to God. This is because God is the only source of righteousness in creation: Romans 4:3-6 The scripture says, "Abraham believed God, and because of his faith God accepted him as righteous." (4) A person who works is paid wages, but they are not regarded as a gift; they are something that has been earned. (5) But those who depend on faith, not on deeds, and who believe in the God who declares the guilty to be innocent, it is this faith that God takes into account in order to put them right with himself. (6) This is what David meant when he spoke of the happiness of the person whom God accepts as righteous, apart from anything that person does: If God is truly the only good one, to find out what is “Good” and then try to do it in...

The power of the cross isn't power my flesh can use.  If I want the power so my flesh can prosper, then I truly want to replace Yeshua, not submit to Him. 1 Corinthians 1:17-18 NLT — For Christ didn’t send me to baptize, but to preach the Good News—and not with clever speech, for fear that the cross of Christ would lose its power. The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. Paul learned to let the great power he walked in be God's. He didn't decide what to do with it. He died to his own will, his own emotions, and his own thoughts about what was good or right, and yielded to God's will, emotions, and thoughts.  This was the process of his purification from the trip to Damascus until Rome. He got the crown before he died.  He died before he died! This is what he learned from Yeshua. Jesus only did what the Father did, which means Jesus recognized His will was different than t...

For the lawless, zeal is misplaced. For the lawful, zeal is rightly placed. Misplaced zeal only takes you to the wrong thing faster.  Good intentions are what make lawlessness go undetected in my heart. Rightly placed zeal conforms me to the right thing more thoroughly. 2 Thessalonians 2:7-17 NKJV — For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteo...

My flesh is at war with the Spirit of Jesus.  If I lose this war, I become who I really want to be: Galatians 5:16-18 NLT — So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. My flesh is naturally inclined to self-lead.  I don't have to try to self-lead.  I was made to be God-led, but the fall of man in Genesis 3 corrupted my soul... My mind, will, and emotions... To naturally see self leadership as good.  Man tried to be God, but isn't equipped to be God. That's why the world is so broken.  One diseases, but so many symptoms... So, I ha...

Faith is a bridge to grace, which is the only narrow road to righteousness. Romans 5:1-2 NKJV — Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God . Few will find this, because it requires we do something that seems weak.  Faith makes prayer powerful.  Prayer without faith seems like a waste of time.  The flesh says, "either I do nothing, or I do everything." But God made man for partnership.  We plant the seeds, God makes the miracle of growth happen. We can't do God's part, He won't do our part.  Our part is prayer, His part is power. Matthew 7:7-14 NKJV — “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. “Or what man is there among you who, if his son ...

 There is no such thing as a "cultural Christian." The very idea implies a false witness of Jesus, not a true one. Either you give your whole self to God, or you have given nothing to Him.  There is no in between.  God saves on His terms, not man's.  Matthew 7:15-23 NLT — “Beware of false prophets who come disguised as harmless sheep but are really vicious wolves. You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit. So every tree that does not produce good fruit is chopped down and thrown into the fire. Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. ...