Pastor Don gave this Bible study the day before Thanksgiving so he gave some history about our country that might be interesting for you.

A year before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, the first settlers that came to our country landed at a place on the shores of the James River, that was later called the Berkeley Plantation, but they didn’t have as big a publicity agent as Plymouth Rock. When they landed, 12 or 15 men they got off of the boat, hit the ground, and gave thanks. They declared that day a Thanksgiving Day for God, for a safe journey across the ocean. But they also were thanking God for this land. The captain of the ship, in his opening prayer, dedicated this land to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Berkeley Plantation didn’t get notoriety because a few years after that they came under attack by the Indians and much of the plantation was destroyed. Twelve or thirteen people died in this attack, the rest left for awhile, leaving the plantation uncared for. A few years later they started to rebuild Berkeley Plantation and about 138 people built a settlement there.

Pastor Don told us that Berkeley Plantation is a beautiful place and some of the foundations of the original houses are there. He and Cynthia  found the Plantation by chance. In the past they had always gone to Williamsburg. But a lot of times when you go to Williamsburg you don’t look at the deeper history and some of the main tourist sights get notoriety. Pastor Don asked one of the Williamsburg tour guides where the first Thanksgiving occurred. The tour guide told him that everybody thinks it was up in Massachusetts, but it was actually at Berkeley Plantation a year before the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock celebrated. Pastor Don and Cynthia went to Berkeley Plantation, which is a little further down the James River than the popular spots. The Plantation has archived records and statues. Historians have verified its history. So the United States was dedicated at the Berkeley Plantation a year before Plymouth Rock.

Pastor Don asked us to turn to 2 Samuel 9 so that we could get some spiritual food in us. In Second Samuel we pick up the story of King David. King David was very successful because he knew how to both praise God and give thanks to God. He had never lost track of the reality of where he came from. Therefore he was grateful for where he was, but he also had a sense of respect and honor for the graciousness of God that had brought him to a special place.

The graciousness of God can be lined up with the mercy of God. We say God is merciful and gracious unto us in some of our hymns, Psalms, etc. The word “mercy” is another word for kindness, or an extension of niceties to people. But the graciousness of God goes beyond that. In kindness, you may spare someone harm, but if you are going to be gracious to them you are going to give them something which takes them, not just from harm, but also empowers them. So when we say, “that God has been gracious to me or has shown me grace,” it means that He has shown you not only mercy, but He has also gone one step better. He has empowered you and placed you in position to do something about your circumstances and your situation. Now, inherent in that definition is a reality that, if the person realizes that someone has been gracious to them, they respond to that graciousness with a wonderful attribute –GRATITUDE. In other words, if someone has been gracious to you, the next expression after that graciousness should be gratitude. You expect an attitude of gratitude especially when someone shows you kindness. But if that kindness has empowered you, as graciousness does, the response should be one of gratitude expressed.

Sadly there are people that do not have the capacity to express gratitude. It’s unfortunate. But there are people, that, because of their pain or their personal stuff, find it difficult to express gratitude. It’s difficult for them to acknowledge their own shortness, weakness, or limitations. Therefore when they have been treated graciously, there’s no gratitude coming back. Gratitude is something that we try to teach or instill into our children. We tell little kids to be polite and say, “Please.” Yet “please” isn’t as important as “thank you” is.  “Please” can still leave the door open for lack of gratitude. With “please,” you are asking for something to be bestowed upon you. But it is actually gratitude that reflects your response to graciousness.

So for the most part we would much rather see an expression of gratitude than an expression of politeness. I may be very polite if I say, “Janine, please give me a pen.” It’s wonderful that I was polite about it, because I said, “please.” But after I get it, there’s the potential for Janine to be taken for granted. Yes I said, “please”  but if I don’t respond with graciousness, I’m not grateful. I need to extend graciousness to her. Graciousness empowers her. When I say “thank you,” I have empowered her. Because, I have expressed her greatness to me and her ability to have solved a situation, or pleased a situation, or breathed something into it and therefore she feels better having done it because of my gratitude, my graciousness.

Empowerment is very simply this. When you acknowledge that someone has done something for you and that you appreciate it, you are basically saying to that person, “You did something for me that I didn’t do, or couldn’t do for myself. Therefore in this relationship, it is implied that they are the greater one. So if I say, “Thank you for baking the bread,” well, what am I saying? I’m saying that you accomplished something that I did not do myself and therefore I am grateful to you.

The word “grace” implies that the greater one did something for the lesser one. And therefore, the greater one has further empowered himself because the lesser then shows gratitude to the one who provided it. That’s why grace and the full understanding of it is so important. (Heather’s note: Pastor Don is in the process of writing a book about Grace. When it comes out I will let you know.) Part of the Greek definition for the word “grace” is gratitude. To be gracious to someone will cause gratitude to be made manifest. If I’m gracious to you, if I do something for you in a graceful manner and it blesses you, your response should be one gratitude. When you show gratitude to a person who’s done something for you, they become elevated.

For example, Jesus comes on the scene and the blind man, Bartimaeus says, “Son of David, have mercy on me. Son of David, have mercy on me.”  When we look up the Greek word for “mercy” in this passage, we realize that Bartimaeus is asking the Lord Jesus Christ for a grace. He is saying, “Lord Jesus be gracious to me. Show me a grace.” And we know that a grace is a gift and a power. Jesus shows Bartimaeus the grace of healing, the response from Bartimaeus in terms of graciousness is to show gratitude. The demoniac of the Gaderines, wants to be set free. Jesus sets him free. His response to Jesus, immediately after receiving the grace of deliverance was, “Let me go travel with you.” And Jesus’ response was, “No, go to your own people in your own town and tell them the wondrous, gracious things that God has done for you. What were these two men expressing, they were expressing that the Greater One blessed a lesser one, and therefore, gratitude and gratefulness was made manifest.

Gratitude shows the content of the heart. If someone is gracious to you, and you do not express gratitude, in your heart you are not accepting the fact that someone greater than you has blessed you. When graciousness or grace is given, the recipient should always express or make manifest gratitude. Gratitude is very different from, “Please.” Please is just politeness. I can say “please” because I want to get what I want and still be an ungrateful person. Can you see the difference? It is a matter of the heart, we are taught to say,”Please,” but that does not mean that they are thankful or grateful. The reality of the situation is that there are a lot of people who will say “please” to get what they want, but they won’t turn around and say, “Thank you,” and be grateful.

Someone mentioned that for many the two hardest words to say are “thank you.” Pastor Don says that the reason is, when you say “thank you,” your response is humbling. It’s just innate that when I say, “thank you” I am humbling myself because you did something for me. That’s why, although it is important to teach children to say “please”, the most important lesson you need to teach the child is to be gracious. Can you get them to learn to say, “Thank you”? Why do we look for “thank you?” We look for that because we are created in the image of God. After God blesses us and gives us grace, God is expecting a thank you. Here’s why, the Greater One (God) is not obligated to give grace. So when He extends grace to us, “thank you” is in order.

Someone brought up the healing that Jesus did for the 10 lepers, and commented that only one came back to thank Jesus. Pastor Don said, so what does Jesus express to the one? He says, “OK, well, you’ve been blessed, go your way and be healed,” which sort of implies that the nine will probably lose their healing somewhere along the way. Because why? They didn’t have the right response, which was the healing grace they received should manifest gratitude. Gratitude is inherent in the word “gracious.” Gratitude is a very powerful thing. You can measure the way that people are by what’s in their hearts. A lot of times we make the mistake of wanting people to be polite to us, but politeness is not necessarily an expression of gratitude. Because, you say, “please, please, please,” doesn’t mean you are grateful, it means you are begging. But when you say, “thank you, thank you, thank you,“ you are praising. That’s why, inherent in what we are going to be able to get from God, is this natural relationship of the power of praise. Praise is more powerful than begging, because in praise we’re giving adoration, we’re giving thanks, we’re giving gratitude. We’re reaching back to God with, “Thank you Lord, thank you, thank you.” God is then acknowledged as being the Greater One, He’s acknowledged as being the stronger one, He’s acknowledged as being gracious, He’s acknowledged as being kind, all in your saying, “Thank you.” That’s why His response to “Thank you,” causes more grace to come. It’s powerful. You want or need something from God, if you praise Him, you’re basically encouraging Him to give you more. That’s why people that are ungrateful and don’t believe that God is gracious don’t receive so much, because they stay in please, which doesn’t produce grace. Please will maybe produce compassion, but not always. “Thank you” will always produce compassion because you are admitting that they are greater, that they are powerful, that they have an abundance, therefore you are admitting that they can do something for you that you can’t do for yourself. Please is just begging and all begging does is announce the depravity of your condition.

Someone pointed out that the way grace empowers is similar to two mirrors facing each other and the image keeps replicating itself into infinity so grace empowers and  increases the value of the whole thing. Remember, please is an expression of a need, shows that you are begging, and is an action of politeness. So we teach our kids to say please and give us an action of politeness. But please does not have the power of  thank you which is the expression of graciousness, grace, and gratitude. You need to remember “thank you”  in your prayer life. God is not looking for you to say, “Please God.” Because inherent in the relationship is that He’s already expressed that He is merciful. He is waiting for “thanks” because when you say, “Thanks,” you are saying, “God I acknowledge you did something for me that I could not do for myself. I acknowledge that without your help it may not have been done. I acknowledge that You are the Greater One. I am the lesser one. God is a gracious God. What does that mean? It means that God does for the lesser out of the abundance of His ability, and He empowers the lesser. What does He expect back? The only payment you can really give Him is “Thank you.” Please is not a payment. Please is the establishment of a quasi debt.

For example when I say, “Please may I use your pen.,” inherent in that “please” is the expression that she has something I want and I am trying to get it from her. She has a pen and I want her pen. “Please give me your pen.” Someone pointed out that you might  just be borrowing the pen, but Pastor Don indicated that still Janine had the pen and he wanted it. When he went to Janine and asked her to please give him her pen, a debt is transferred. She feels indebted because I said, “Please give it to me.” What am I saying? I am saying, “She’s got it, I want to possess it, please give it to me.”

Puzzled, someone asked, “So what is the option to command it?” Pastor Don said, yes we can do that but like this, “Thank you. May I have your pen?”

Another person mentioned that this goes against everything she grew up with. Pastor Don told her that he is showing her how to grow in the Lord. If you want to get more from the Lord, then you go to the Lord who has everything and say, “Thank you for a pen. Thank you, I really appreciate it Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you. Thank you.” Why? Because God’s position is that He already knows He has everything, which includes everything you are going to ask for from God. What does the Bible say? What did Jesus say? Your heavenly Father knows before you ask. So what does He know before you ask? He knows that you need it. So what is the function of even asking for it? The function of asking for it is the expression of yourself as a needy one. And what is the response of you being needy? Gratitude – Thank you. Thank you, because faith says what? Does faith say that He’s going to give it to you? Or does faith say He’s not going to give it to you. He says the reason you are not receiving when you ask is because you are begging in the hope of receiving it. You need to ask, with gratitude before it manifests.. Call those things which be not as though they were. So thank you.  Paul says it this way, “In all things, with all prayer,” give thanks. See this Christian thing is different from politeness. You can be extremely polite but ungracious. God says it’s already yours, the minute that you ask me for it He says that He has already done it for you. That He’s going to give it to you because it’s His good pleasure to give things to you. All God asks is that we be gracious to Him. He asks us for gratitude, before we get it. So Paul says, in all things, in anything you ask for, with all prayer and all supplication, let your thanks be made known. So He’s actually saying, when you ask, thank God for it.

There’s another prayer that Jesus prayed, that is similar. Jesus says that before you ask, give thanks to God. God is so kind, so merciful and so great, that if you go to Him, thanking Him for what you are asking for, He’s already going to provide it because He knows before you ask. So what is God measuring then? He is measuring your gratitude, not your politeness. He’s not even concerned about your politeness. He’s concerned about your gratitude. Why did they put Jesus on the cross? The first main reason that they decided to crucify Christ was because Jesus called God, “Father.” They wanted Jesus to use all of the names and the same politeness that they used toward God? And Jesus says, “I don’t have to, He’s my Father. “ And they say, “We’re going to kill you.”  Why? Because, for anything that Jesus asked for from His Father, He said, “Thanks.” And Jesus said that the only reason He is saying this is so that they can hear me, but I already thank You, Father that it’s already done.

Someone thought of the example of  when Jesus raised Lazarus as an example of Him giving thanks before Lazarus was raised from the dead. Pastor Don pointed out that nowhere do you see any manifestation of Jesus begging God for anything. He doesn’t beg. He says, “Daddy, thank you for it. Daddy, thank you for it. Thank you. Daddy thank you for it.” See, we have to, as believers, go to God in an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude for His graciousness, acknowledging that He is more powerful, and acknowledging that we appreciate it. When we say, “Thank you” we are making a faith statement. Even if your faith isn’t there yet, make the faith statement of saying “Thank you.” Thank you says, I believe I’ve received. I appreciate it now, even though I don’t see it, I believe I’ve received.

But begging is like that old James Brown song, “Please, please, please, please.” Begging elicits a totally different response. Have you ever had a little kid pulling on your pants going, “Please, please, please, please?” Makes you want to push him away. But little kids that are smart and know their Bible will go up to you and say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you and you haven’t even put it on the offering plate. Trust me that kid’s going to get it. Because he said thank you before its even been manifested.

Pastor Don said that he could prove it in the Bible. Mary goes up to Jesus at the wedding of Cana. She doesn’t go “please, please, please, please make some wine so the wedding’s a success.” She states the problem, “They’re out of wine.” Jesus’ response is, “So what, what’s that to me.” And then Mary goes to the servants, “Do whatever He says.” But what was she saying? She was saying, “I know He’s going to do it. I’m grateful for it. You guys, do what He says.” Meaning I’m already counting it done. I’m already counting it done.

Pastor Don then summarized about King David – who was one of the greatest kings and he was the only king that God said was after God’s own heart. 2 Samuel 9 covers the story of  King David and a guy named Mephibosheth. In this situation David has risen to become the greater one, Mephibosheth is the lesser. Mephibosheth is in even more trouble than many others of those lesser than David because he is a descendant of King Saul’s son, Jonathan. 

Anyone in position of KING doesn’t have to get caught in the dichotomy or the difficulty of balancing please against thank you because neither response is required on the king’s part. A king doesn’t have to say please for something, the king doesn’t even have to say thank you for something.

The tradition in the Bible is very clear about what happens to surviving relatives of a former king. For example, according to the tradition in the Bible, if Queen Ethel (Ethel is someone in our Bible study) dies and Cynthia is her successor, Cynthia then becomes the queen. Traditionally Cynthia will then kill all of Ethel’s relatives, wipe them all out. Why? Because they might make a claim to the kingdom. And if they are a descendant, a son, a daughter, a sister or related person, they pose a definite threat to the solidity of Cynthia’s kingdom. There is one other option, which is what David’s about to do. By David’s actions he can make someone so indebted to him that they will pose no threat. The only way you can do that is through grace. In other words, if Cynthia shows so much grace to some of Ethel’s descendants, they will become so indebted because of that grace, that kindness, that mercy, that they would say, “I’m never going to overthrow Cynthia, she was kind to me when I was in a bad situation.”

King David knows that he did not put himself on the throne, therefore he knows that he owes a debt to God. Now, can he pay God back?  Some people in our Bible study suggested that he could thank God, be obedient, or be kind to Mephibosheth. These are all good answers, but not the one Pastor Don wanted. In the book of Ezekiel, God says, “I will be debtor to no man.” In the book of King Solomon, God says,that any debt, or any help, or any assistance, or any graciousness, or any kindness that you show to a weaker or a lesser vessel, that cannot pay you back, God says, “I will be the debtor.”  So if you give something, or do something for someone who cannot pay you back, then God says, “I will pay you back.” That’s why charity works. That’s the reason we (our church) want to help India, Africa, next door neighbors, members of the church. The reason that you want to do good for someone is very simply this, because you want to put God in debt to you. It’s just because of bad teaching we have some stupid ideas that are not biblical. Altruism pays a benefit. You don’t do something for somebody and expect not to be paid back, if you think that through, that’s phoniness. The reality is, if I help Ethel, I expect Ethel to help me back. If Ethel can’t help me, I expect God to help me back, because Ethel can’t help me back. In other words, there is a selfish motive to all action in life. Someone suggested that a thank you is a payback and Pastor Don agreed.  So if you say thank you, you recognize that the person is higher than you, and therefore they were expressing kindness to you, they were demonstrating grace to you, and therefore, they got paid back.

It’s just that the devil wants us to believe these lies that we’ve worked up in our heads that we do good for no reason other than the fact that we did good. Dumb, unbiblical. We do good because it works, because it makes sense, and it has the highest rate of return. That’s why we do good. And if you don’t get that straight you will never be able to work the system. It’s a system, that’s the way God designed it. Jesus took the lowest seat in order to get what? The highest seat. Jesus became a servant to all, in order to what? That at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord over all. Jesus died for all so he could be elevated above all. It’s just that the devil wants you to think that’s selfish. It’s only selfish if, when you become all, your motive is to destroy those that are the lesser. But if your motive is to bless all that are indebted to you, you’re being like God. God who is the greatest put His word above Himself, He humbled Himself to His own word, why, because the only way to the top is to take the lower seat. What did Jesus say? When you come into the banquet hall don’t go to the front, take the back seat, take the lowest seat. Why? So you’ll be called up to the front to take the highest seat. What did Jesus do? Jesus came into the world as a man, what seat did He take? He didn’t own anything, He didn’t have anything, He became a servant to all. Who did He die for? Everybody. Jesus died for the poor and the rich. Why? Because He wanted to be the greatest of all. But we have these stupid phoney ideas. Pastor Don stated that he knows that if he helps people, benefits are coming back to him.

Someone asked about salvation and good works. Pastor Don replied that good works would get you a better seat in Heaven if they were done with the right heart, that it’s all about motive. Good works will get you position (and crowns) in heaven, but good works won’t buy you salvation. Salvation is bought by faith.

Pastor Don stated that he has faith in the system  that the more people he helps the better it is for him. So, that’s his motive, a good motive. The good motive is that God’s going to bless me because I bless others. That works, that’s the law. The law of faith. Now if I do good works because I believe that, truly believe it, then the good works will be counted to me as righteousness. Someone asked Pastor Don about getting praises for good works. He replied, Yeah, I want praises, I’m not going to go to heaven and not lay something at the feet of Jesus. But I don’t want the praise of the world. That’s the difference. Whose praise do I want? Jesus’ praise. I don’t care about what the people in the planet say, I don’t care if they name a street after me in Albany. I don’t care about that. I don’t care if they put my face on a plaque in the Living Word Chapel. I’m not playing for that. I have no investment in that. I could go buy my own plaque. I’m playing for the plaque in heaven. I’m playing for Jesus Christ. I’m playing with a sincere heart to reach and help as many people as I can, teach people out of confusion, and phoney politeness. I want people to get to heaven based on the real deal of the Word of God. And the Word of God says that if God has been gracious to me, I am obligated now to be gracious to someone else. And if I’ll do that, guess what, He will make me the greater one in the kingdom.

Pastor Don then went to discuss 2 Samuel 9, which I will share with you tomorrow.

Praying your day is blessed. Mine was, I got to attend my children’s band concert. They played beautifully.

Heather

This is a continuation of Pastor Forte’s teaching on offences, you can find Part 1 here.

If you happen to be in the Ohio area, here is the address of Pastor Forte’s church.

5. Offences create spiritual and emotional sunburns. The moment they are touched you know it. Have you ever had a sunburn? A few days go by and you couldn’t tell by skin color that you had a sunburn, but if you touch the area it lights up. Many of us have been offended and the offence caused emotional sunburns. All it takes is somebody coming along and touching that area in your life and you will go back in your skin and be offended. For example, beautiful women who are harassed and judged because of their beauty, don’t want anyone to say they are pretty anymore, because it brings criticism. judgment, and jealousy from others. It hits a sunburn area and they are offended from that point on. We’ve got to allow these sunburned areas to be healed on the inside of us because God wants us to move on past these areas of pain. Most often, probably 99% of the time, these sunburns are touched innocently or by accident– not intentionally. Divorcees carry sunburns all the time. All it takes is someone asking you to move to the next level in a relationship, but you don’t want to do that because you haven’t gotten over your last relationship. By getting close to those hurt areas, it hits the sunburn. Instead of you allowing God to provide you with someone who can restore and heal you, you guard the sore. You are so unsure of yourself, you are guarded. You fear being betrayed.

6. Offences create the birth place for inner valves and bitterroot judgments. Inner valves are those types of experiences that cause you to say, when you are offended things like, “I’ll never get married again.” You put up a mental block. You may have had trouble with a former marriage, so you decide that for you all marriage is off limits. Yet everything in you is crying out for a mate. Your inner valve lets one person who hurt you once become the standard for all marriages. So because one relationship didn’t work out, you reject marriages. If the truth were told you married at too young an age, weren’t ready for marriage. Often partners  came from good homes and because they had everything provided for them, their maturity level was not at a point where they were ready for marriage. You make an inner vow to never marry a man like my father, and you end looking for the same type of man. If your father was neglectful, you will find someone who is neglectful. If he was verbally abusive you’ll find someone who is also verbally abusive. You don’t look for these traits consciously – it is subconscious. Inner valves tell you to never marry another woman again because the last one ran off with someone from the internet, and you take it even further vowing to never have a computer at home. You try a sport and fail, so you make an inner valve and don’t try the sport again for fear of failing. For example Payton (sp) (a famous football player), as a youth, joined the track team and lost a race. He stopped racing until years later in college when he was challenged by a football player to a race. Payton wins, and is spotted by the football coach. The coach convinces him to leave marching band and play football, ultimately he became one of the best football players. Had he not taken that opportunity football would have not had such a valuable player. All it took was the coach to come and break the inner valve, then Payton was able to become great.

Bitter root judgments are normally prejudicial judgments against entire people groups. One person does something to you and you judge all in that same category to be similar. One white man does something against you and you conclude that all white men are no good. One black woman says something to you and you decide all of them ain’t no good. Regarding the current immigrant issue – who isn’t an immigrant? No one can claim this land but Native Americans. to them the whole world is an immigrant. Pastor Forte’ told us that we are paranoid of anybody not born in New York or Ohio or whatever state we are from. We are doing the same thing right now making bitter root judgments against Iraq, Iran, Cuba, etc. Not all people from those countries are bad. We should not accept that lie. When we come into the Body of Christ, we are connected with all these different people, for we are One Body In Christ. Yet these little offences are the doorway that lets the mess in. We need to stop making bitter root judgments, stop taking offence so easily and begin to function as the One Body In Christ that God wants.

It is interesting that, the United States produces 90% of the evangelists. Yet, the United States only makes up 10% of the World’s population.  Of the US evangelists produced, 90% of them stay in the United States instead of reaching out to other countries. If the rest of the world produces 10% of the evangelists, and only 10% of United States evangelists leave the states, that means that 90% of the world is being evangelized by 20% of the evangelists in the Body of Christ. The reason we don’t go to some of the places that really need the Gospel is that we have national bitterroot judgments against entire nations.

What do we do about it?

We need to analyze the offences. Was it about you? About you personally? Take time to examine why we are offended. Was it touching a wounded, bleeding unhealed place in your life? Or maybe the person did what they did because they were wounded. There is a reason why that woman was cold to you, she might have been molested. There’s a reason why they don’t want to go to the family reunion – maybe someone did something in the family that they don’t want to talk about. Maybe when they went looking for help they got judged so they are very private, and you are offended because they don’t open up to you. Or they are speaking out of intimidation, insecurity, or jealousy or envy. Why does it have to be something personally about you? Are you so much the center of your world that everything evolves around you? Do you think they got up that morning, stayed up all night long to find a way to offend you? Ask yourself why does this one thing continually keep pushing my buttons? Have all these people gotten together and decided to push my buttons or could it be my thing is hanging out there and I need to do something about it? If you get the truth, you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. Sometimes the truth is offensive. Why doesn’t someone want to fellowship with me? It may be that you have bad breath – need mouthwash, or you have a critical spirit. When a person shares the reason with you, figure out if they are telling you that to offend you or to empower you so you can get set free. Sometimes the truth hurts. When Pastor Forte’ addresses sensitive situations between blacks and whites sometimes people can get squeamish – when all Pastor Forte’ is trying to do is to teach people ways to stop offending one another, to help them not to hurt each other.

We in the United States, in the Church, have so much prosperity that poor people offend us. We say little stupid stuff like, “They must not have enough faith or they would have what I have.” That’s offensive to someone who is believing God, to whole nations who may not have a summer home, two or three cars, a closet full of clothes or surplus food but they have enough faith to raise the dead. With all our health care we can’t get over the flu. We are offended when some girl has had two or three abortions and comes into our church. Instead of saying God brought her here to for us to heal her, love, embrace her, put her on the right path we become judgmental. The last person Jesus did a miracle for was Mary Magdalene. Jesus cast seven devils out of her and she was the first one to see Him risen. She was the first one to preach the Gospel, before even the disciples preached it. The Gospel is the good news that He is risen. Jesus told her to tell the ignorant disciples and that lying Peter. She told the disciples and they took offence because she told them that they almost knocked her down to run down to the tomb to see if she was telling the truth. If they really had believed Jesus, they would have gone to the place He told them to go and waited for him there. They were offended that Jesus used her to deliver the message.

Our offences blind us. Our offences keep us in bondage. Church we have to wake up in 2008 God wants to loose us.

Pastor Forte’ called Pastor Don to the front of the church and had Pastor Don hit him with a handkerchief – that handkerchief became a symbol of the offence. Pastor Forte’ could get mad at Pastor and hold the offence to his account. (He held the handkerchief on Pastor Don’s back) and pointed out as Pastor Don walked all around the pulpit that Pastor Forte’ was not able to go where he wanted to go because he was so busy holding the offence (handkerchief )on Pastor Don. Once he released the handkerchief he was free and could go where he wanted to go. Pastor Forte’ pointed out that once the offence was released he was free and so was Pastor Don – they could both go where they wanted. He asked us, “So who was holding who in bondage?” When we hold an offence against a person, that refusal to let go keeps us in bondage. What is sad is that the person may not know they had offended me. We can choose to be offended and hold onto the offence or we can choose to let go of the offence and gain our freedom.

Jesus said why take the thought saying…In other words, you don’t have to receive every attempted offence in your life. We need to learn the difference between your role and your identity. If you are an usher your role is to direct traffic – to tell a person to take a baby to baby room or be quiet in the lobby – that is your role as usher. A person can choose to be offended at the person because of their doing their job. But it was not the person who offended you, it was the fact that they were performing their role. What you may not realize is that the man who, as usher told you to take your baby to the baby room, may be the one who comes in your life to be the man to take your boy to do scouting and fishing and teach him to be a man. If you hold onto the offence you may not allow this man/usher to be what he is supposed to be and your boy will miss having a father figure in his life.

God showed Pastor Forte’ that God was going to give us an opportunity to be set free. We were told to take a piece of paper and crumple it up. The paper was to represent offences in our lives. Pastor Forte’ had Pastor Don hold a basket that represented the Blood and the Lord. We were to give our offences to the Lord (drop them in the basket). But we were warned to only do that if we really were ready to release the offences. Many in the church brought their offences to the altar. We were told if we put our offences in the basket we couldn’t take them back and that we may have to forgive somebody.  As people dropped their offences into the basket, Pastor Forte’ prophesied over many in the house. There are not enough words to describe how much his prophesy impacted each and every person, myself included.

It was truly a turning point in my life, and I am sure in many others’ lives. God is so good, and we were blessed to have this man of God minister to us.

Praying your day is blessed.

Heather

During Praise and Worship, one of our dancers did a heartfelt dance to the song Alabaster Box. After the dance, Pastor Forte’ told us that God still desires the alabaster box today, but you are the alabaster box. In order to get what God desires, we have to be broken because what is inside of us is precious. There is a line in the song that says, “You don’t know the cost of the Alabaster Box.”

Pastor Forte’ told us that he remembers a Tom Cruise movie where Tom was interrogating Jack Nickelson, and Jack Nickelson asks Tom Cruise, ”What do you want?”, and Tom replies, “I want the truth.” And the Nickelson tells Tom, “You can’t handle the truth.” Pastor Forte’ loves that line because it is so true.

If you know what some of the people around you have been through, you’d love Jesus even more. But most importantly you would understand why some people will dance and worship the way the dancer at our church danced. Her dance shows how great Jesus is, and no one else could show it the same way. Pastor Forte’ told us that he did not have to know what she went through, her dance with such love and passion tells the story of what Jesus did for her.

Pastor Forte’ talked about how many churches talk about multiculturalism. He talked about how in these supposed multicultural churches the black folks sing and play music  and entertain, the Hispanics usher, the are no women in the pulpit – only white males, and then they have multicultural nights, although at times they call them “urban” nights. There may be three or four separate churches in the same building, but until you can sit shoulder to shoulder with people, you’re not ready to receive the fullness of who God is. Pastor Forte’ said our church is a true multicultural church. The very Jesus we worship looks as Hispanic as He does white and Black as well. Pastor Forte’ said that you don’t run around the desert without at least getting a tan. The Bible describes Jesus with wooly hair – that’s an afro any way you think of it, he was a Jew so he had the original curl activator. Pastor Forte’ told us that our church looks like what God looks like, we have achieved something that they are paying thousands of dollars to bring experts in to get, and we got it just by loving.

Pastor Forte’ told us that there was deliverance in the room tonight. (Heather’s comment, he was accurate.)

Luke 17:1-4 Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

Jesus was talking to the disciples. The biggest hinderance to the Body of Christ going forward is dealing with offences. If we are growing in God, if we are learning about who we are, what our assignment is, if we know who we are and who we are not, we ought to expect certain things to come against us, simply because we are going in the right direction. If we are fish swimming in the water we would be like the trout swimming against the current. So it is impossible, Jesus said speaking to his disciples – which includes us, to have no offences. If you are doing what you are called to do you will encounter offence and be offensive to someone else. If not, you are staying at home too much or you are a hermit and your family doesn’t come over. We won’t find a shortage of offenses. How you handle offenses matters. When you are going to a new level you will experience the phenomenon of: Higher Levels/Higher Devils. You have to learn how to deal with offenses because they are coming. The body of Christ is becoming a group of whiners when things are not going their own way.

We are becoming isolationists. Salt cannot make impact until it has contact. We can’t get salt out of a salt shaker by trying to stick a french fry into the little hole in the shaker, we have to shake the salt out of the shaker. When God shakes us up, we have to get out of the shaker. When God shakes us up the Church tries to scoop us up and put us back into the shaker before we melt. We are supposed to melt. We are supposed to be the anchovy on the devil’s pizza. What we want is our salt to give the devil high blood pressure. We are the salt of the earth. We preach might but practice flight. It doesn’t take a whole lot of devil to get to us, you just have to say something. If people don’t look at you the right way, if they are singing the wrong song, come on TV the wrong way we get offended. Don’t cuss at us because that will make us totally offended, but we act like we never cuss. If we got money for every time we cussed after we got saved, we would have enough money for every ministry in the church. Offences are going to come. This is not Ozzi and Harriet or the Huckstables, If we are married we will get get offended, sooner or later we will offend people or get offended by people. Even with your best friend you will be offended.

How do we handle offense.

In the Greek, the word for offence is skandalon. It means a trap, to snare, cause of displeasure, cause to fall, stumbling block. The New Testament uses this term metaphorically of anything that arouses prejudice or becomes a hinderance to others or causes them to fall by the way. Webster’s Dictionary defines it as transgression, sin, insult, wrong, resentment, a cause of displeasure.

Pastor Forte’ asked us how many were offended today (hands went up), yesterday (hands went up). He then told us that if you raised your hands it was that you were living with your offence or working with it. I think everyone was honest so every hand went up.

In every multicultural body offences really can come. Everybody doesn’t do what you do, the way you do it, clap the way you clap, like the song you like. Each has a different expression of praising God or showing love to the brethren. In a multicultural community serving many nationalities you cannot have a store that doesn’t have a shelf that contains curry power for various cultures, hot sauce for others.  We have different ways that we express even in how we love one another, and we can get offended in little ways.

For example, Pastor Forte’ had us laughing when he said that sometimes asking for volunteers is like cussing in Church. And it is only certain people that come forward. Pastor Forte’ said that in his church, while he is trying to develop his TV program, and his church is located near a school that teaches media, many of those who are taking media studies do not volunteer to help. A member told Pastor Forte’ that he needs to stop asking and start appointing. He asked a woman to help in the nursery and she got offended because she had her doctorate. She didn’t realize that Pastor Forte’ was blessing her, because one of the biggest blessings is helping children grow in God. Taking care of little ones is one of the best ways to sow seed.

He told us that one of his members never looked him in the eye, and then later he found out that Native Americans have a tradition of not looking leadership eye to eye, so the man was showing great respect, but if he didn’t know that, he could have taken offence or felt that he had offended this person. As Americans we are all brought up differently, and our standards are different, so others can rub us the wrong way because they do not model our standards, and that can cause offense.

Even in church, if the wrong black child asks a right white child out there is a problem while we are singing songs about the blood being the great equalizer. We feel that everything is ok until it gets to my family, until it gets personal.

In church we try to FAITH IT AWAY – but that is another name for denial.

Or we say, I DON’T RECEIVE THAT. Imagine facing a pit bull who is growling and showing its teeth, with it’s eyes bugging out and try saying to it, “I don’t receive you.” You will be picking your appendages out of its teeth. You need to back up slowly and find a weapon and make sure that you are protected.

Christians go into denial, we act like things don’t hurt us, and we use little excuses. We decide that we have to move to a different church instead of dealing with offences. Usually the statement made is, “I think my season here is over.” People get offended when the pastor asks someone else instead of them, thinking, can’t he see that the anointing is all over me?

Offences do this:

1. They trap and stagnate a person in a moment in time and it freezes them in the place of the offence. One person, tells a seven year old child that the child has nobby knees and ever since that statement was made, because of the offence, the person never wore shorts, hid their legs under long dresses, doesn’t want anyone to say anything about a knee to them or they get offended. They are still caught in the memory of that statement made when they were seven years old. And all of us, as children, from early on, when we were tender are very vulnerable to offenses. It stagnates you in that moment. The offence has the ability to stop you from where you are going. The way a child’s mind works is like a library card catalog. Many of us have card catalogues of offences and we put the offence on a card in the back of our catalog, buried and it stays there. So at the appointed time, when we are mature enough to handle it, God comes along and pulls it out, and tells us that for where we are going this card is taking up space, and it is time to get rid of it. It’s time to get on with it. The reason it goes far in the back is that it allows the child to continue to grow until they are able or mature enough to handle dealing with the issue. It is important to remember that because we are now in a particular level of spiritual growth, God is bringing up certain things to our remembrance that we had put behind us. If we don’t deal with these things we will never be who we are called to be because that thing is standing in our way. We can get stagnated if we don’t deal with it. We are like a tape player with the pause button still engaged. The player is still on, but the tape isn’t going anywhere, for it is paused in that one position, until something comes to hit the play button. Sometimes God pauses us in certain places in our lives, sort of like the SELAH in the Psalms, to pause and reflect, and not go forward until you have meditated on what you just read. So there are some times you have to camp out at a a particular place. But forced campouts due to prejudice, insult, and injury that victimize us by offence and holds us captive and holds up progress. The offence, NOT the person, for the person sometimes doesn’t even realize that they have offended you. A person cuts in front of you, and you carry the anger of that for the rest of the day. Some of us tell the devil how to offend us. “If that woman comes over to my desk and touches my stapler, one more time, I’ll give her a piece of my mind.” Sure enough the devil brings someone to our desk so we can share how wonderful Sunday’s church service was, and how we were blessed, and then that woman comes over and takes the stapler with an attitude that pushes our buttons, and we give her that piece of our mind, totally destroying our testimony. And you told the devil how to do that.

2. Offences cause the victim to become a steward of a negative experience. We rehearse and nurse the offence. Saying things like I can’t believe that they did that to me. We nurse and rehearse, and we have a support group that keeps tearing the scab off. Christians don’t gossip, they share, we nurse and rehearse. Jealous friends who remind you that your boyfriend left, or reminds you of a damaging issue that stagnates your progress. Be careful of offences for they keep you from growing. I can’t believe they let me down. When those offences come we have to guard your eye gate and your ear gate. Several of the big ministries are going down to divorce. We have to remember that love covers a multitude of sins. The Greek word for cover is “Kalupto” which means the bark around the meat of the tree. The bark protects the white wood of the tree. The whole trunk of a tree is not brown, there is a white inner core that is protected by the bark. Your average Christian TV or radio station always wants to talk about the latest divorce or debacle, and keeps tearing the scab off so the offence never heals. The reason that entertains us is because we don’t go to that church, but we have the same offences in our home churches. We have a seed of criticism, been practicing our bitterness because of how the media repeatedly talks about the situations, so when it comes up in our churches,  instead of ministering grace and mercy, we administer judgment. And this is at a time when there are more divorces inside the church than outside. We are supposed to be vicars of love and we can’t stay married. We are spiritually old enough that we ought to be able to handle offences, and we have a younger generation watching us handle or mishandle offences and the younger generation is going to imitate us.

3. It builds walls of separation and division between the offender and the offended. Someone said something to you one time when you first started going to church and you have been mad at them ever since. Now you need a healing and the person who offended you may be carrying  your healing, but because you are offended, not because the devil is there, we blame the devil for everything. They may be the person carrying your deliverance, but because you won’t give them access to you because you are offended, they don’t give their blessing and you stay bound. A whole attitude all goofed up, and they might carry your deliverance, healing. They preach something you don’t like, you don’t listen to them anymore and they may preach something to bless you all your life, and you won’t hear it. If you judge me on a one time encounter, you may miss some important opportunities. You are walking in pride, you have judged somebody and think that that one thing defines them. They may be carrying a prophetic word for you, they may be singing a song that frees you. You are so busy being offended you miss your blessing. It happens in every church and it keeps people from moving forward. This message, Pastor Forte’ is preaching not to beat us up, but to empower us to move forward. There may be a financial blessing waiting for you, but your pride does not allow the person with that blessing to have access to you.

4. Offences distort, perverts the victim’s perception of not only themselves but of who the offender truly is. It distorts your perception of who you are and who your offender is. When you are offended by your spouse it will color how you see that person and ultimately will affect your marriage, giving an atmosphere of separation. An offence is just like the devil – in the Garden of Eden the devil was a snake, by the end of Revelation it has grown into a dragon – somebody’s been feeding him. We need to stop him while he is a little garden snake, before he grows to the size of Godzilla and burns up my city. It distorts your vision, and you don’t realize it. Many young men marry women like their mother – and women marry men like their fathers. Pastor Forte’s daughter is the first African American to earn the Appalatian Scholarship – which pays for all four years of her college, she called her father first, not her mother.  We tend to receive better from the parent of the opposite sex when they tell us we are handsome/pretty, etc. When people get married, a boy will usually pick someone that is similar to his mother as a standard of what a woman is so the boy goes out and looks for his mother. Some of the stuff he rejects from his wife is not because of her, but because he is trying to get his mother out of the situation. Some of us are goofed up in our marriage because there is no father in our house and we don’t know how to relate to a man in the first place.

 Pastor Forte’ told us that our church is so successful because it has order. Most churches have more of a matriarchal spirit, than a patriarchal spirit because the churches are made up of people who come from broken homes and mama has been authority figure and they don’t know how to accept authority from a male. We end up getting offended because someone responds one way, another in a different way, and it is because they are carrying things from their past. They are mimicking how they grew up, and if we don’t watch it we can get caught up in disfunction when God wants to set us free.  Lets say you hate your mom and you allow your wife to become your mom. She doesn’t want to sleep with a man that seems like her son. we end up doing stuff that gets in the way and we all get offended. He won’t lead – you won’t let him lead, you tell him everything to do, not letting him lead – that’s his mother, not his companion.

3 things a woman marries when she gets married.

1. A father figure, she looks for someone to affirm who she is. When a father gives the bride’s hand in marriage, at that moment a spiritual exchange takes place. I was her provider and protection and nurturer, now you are to do these things, and also bring the next generation from her. A covering.

2. Lover -somebody she can be naked and not ashamed with. When God made man he made him in his image. Pastor Forte’ talked about Adam and Eve using a couple from the congregation. Dust of earth, created in the image of God, God breathed on him and he became a living soul, just like God. He made him a grown man – not a child. When God made things God gave Adam the job of naming them. Man began to see that the animals all had mates, but not himself, heifer and bull makes a calf, mare and stallion, a pony. He tells God, I don’t have anyone like me. God says it’s not right that man should be alone. ALL ONE. Not all self-contained. God put man asleep, and took from a rib (DNA, Cell) separates female entity from the male entity of God. Closes the man back up and God presented the woman to the man. He had to receive her and when he received her, he said something parental – bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. She is like me. Adam gave birth to her. Adam and Eve used to be all one – biology 101 – don’t be offended. He has an appendage that hangs from him, she has a chasm not fulfilled – this makes sex so sacred. Pastor Forte’ told the youth your virginity is something you can only give one person in your lifetime – guard it. God, when the two of them are together can see himself as He originally made him. They create something from nothing in the dark. The enemy wants to offend them so they cannot continue to reproduce little ones. Very important – if his mother has done something, every time he gets near that,  it is an offence. They leave their mother and father and cleave to each other.

Pastor Forte’ told us three points and only shared two – if I can, I will ask him for the third point.

Pastor Forte’ shared more things that offences do, which I will share in the next entry. I wish you could have heard him speak, for he is such a blessing and delivers a powerful message. So much of what he shared resonated with me, and I know with others as well.

I pray your Sunday is blessed.

Heather

Do you know the problem about sitting under great Bible teachers like Pastor Don and Pastor Forte’? There is so much you want to share NOW, but you know that if you put it out in a huge “sound bite” it is too much all at once, so I end up with a backlog of great teachings to share with you. I am going to complete the first teaching, but my fingers are also itching to type last night’s teaching. GOD IS SOOOOOO GOOD!

If you did not read Part 1 I suggest doing that.

The Word we looked at was Matthew 9:18-22 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples. And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

The woman with the issue of blood had to build herself up, to be ready to do what no one else will do. Take your situation to God. Because she was alone with her situation which isolated her in her day (remember, having a flow of blood meant she couldn’t go to the Temple or be around people. If she had been detected she would have been stoned to death for touching her would have made people ceremonially impure), she had to be ready if no one else will.

Pastor Forte’ told us that what we have to do is to discern the FACTS from the TRUTH.

The FACTS may be that you have cancer in your lungs.
The TRUTH is that by His stripes we are healed.

We have a CHOICE – do we line up with the FACTS or the TRUTH? If we line up with the TRUTH we are ahead of the game.

Pastor Forte’ shared with us that he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. A normal heart beats about 60 times a minute, and his heart was beating 27 times a minute. He had the choice of believing the facts about congestive heart failure or agreeing with the truth. What he did is that he looked over all the prophetic words that had been spoken over him – all guaranteed him long life and a ministry. The heart failure would have cut those prophesies short.

1 Timothy 1:19  having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,

He was not going to be shipwrecked, he repeated all that God spoke over him. God told him that he would see his children and grandchildren, seeing three generations. Pastor Forte’ told us that he ran 3 miles a day, and during that time had had two silent heart attacks. Yes, the facts were in place, but he chose to deal with the TRUTH. His daughter came to him and asked him, “How am I to pray for you.” She did not want to lose him to the facts, so God used his daughter to give him a grip on the truth. He prayed the TRUTH and now his heart beats 63 times a minute. It was not a sickness unto death.

Pastor Forte’ then told us that the Church has congestive heart failure and needs to seek God’s TRUTH.

What the woman with the issue of blood did was to not wait for someone else’s’ help. She PLANNED HER WORK AND WORKED HER PLAN. Some things you have to do SOLO. Do what the Holy Ghost tells you. The woman did what the Holy Ghost told her, she trusted God with all and did not lean on her own understanding. 

So often we lean on our own intellect and learning. We are the way we are because of why we are. Trust our instinct and let it guide us.

The hyperfaith movement told us to not trust our instincts and emotions. This is an over reaction. Why would God give us something and then tell us not to use it? We need to discern when to trust our instincts and when not to trust them.

We also need to know that we all have gifts, we all have something to bring to the table. A pastor may not be a prophet, a teacher may not do the role of a pastor. He told us that we are not to try and become a stew – where everything is boiled out and becomes the same. Rather we are more like a Holy Ghost tossed salad – the broccoli, onions, raisins, carrots, all distinct. God puts the sauce on that He likes and eats it His way. We chuckled when Pastor Forte’ told us that there are some nuts sprinkled in this Holy Ghost salad. God likes nuts.

The woman with the issue of blood did not seek someone else’s approval for her plan. If you seek another’s approval maybe Sister Jealous will try and talk you out of God’s plan for your life. Brother Envy will tell you there is no scripture for your plan.

We also have to KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS. It is time to get to the place to worship  and touch the Hem of His garment? Do not listen to others who tell you not do this plan. The woman went through the crowd, pushing past those in her way to reach out and touch His hem.

Jesus, our ULTIMATE HIGH PRIEST, was not wearing ceremonial gowns with bells sewn on the bottom. Pastor Forte’ said, Jesus was not wearing bell bottoms. Some teach that he was wearing a tallit. We try to get caught up in religious traditions to explain what the woman touched, but we miss the simplicity. SHE reached out and touched the hem of His garment. To touch the hem of his garment she had to be down in the worship position. She could not stand and touch His hem. When she did reach out and touch His hem, Jesus felt it. In another Gospel the disciples point out that Jesus is in the middle of a crowd of people so naturally he would be touched, but Jesus knew that anointing had flowed out of Him.

The woman SAID, and then she DID. And she was MADE WELL FROM THAT HOUR. IMMEDIATELY the blood dried up.

Pastor Forte’ told us that you have got to know BEFORE you get there.

We need to get to the house of God and touch His hem. God did not make it that hard to get saved, He did not make it hard to get healed.

Pastor Forte’ has a wonderful sense of humor, and so many of his deeper teachings are taught through laughter. He had us imagine if Mary and Joseph would have come to a church today with the story. “I am pregnant. Joseph did not make me pregnant. The Holy Ghost made me pregnant.” Pastor Forte’ told us that the brothers would take Joseph aside and get into his face to get him to confess to the truth of what he did to Mary. That Mary would be taken by the ladies and told that she would have to repent, and she would be treated differently because of her presenting “sin.” Her Kid would not be allowed to play or date other kids because of her ill repute.

God takes us with the messes we have made. God will help me with Grace and Mercy. We have to admit where we are, the emptiness is not that you are losing, it is that you are in transition. So often the church beats up a person for one mistake. Love does not beat you up for one time. When God empties us out of the old, He has to, for He can’t put fresh water in a full cup. You have to empty out the cup so that the fresh water will fill up the cup.

God wants us totally dependent on Him. When we are desperate, we then come in the House of God, ready for Him to pour into us.

Jesus is not limited. When Jesus was walking toward the ruler’s house, the woman touched Him, and He realized that something had gone out from Him. There is enough of Jesus for everybody, after the woman with the issue of blood was healed, Jesus still went on to the ruler’s house and raised up his daughter.

Pastor Forte’ told us that regardless of their economic conditions, that both the ruler and the woman were desperate. There was an emptiness and they needed God. God acted in their lives when they were in the worship position.

Pastor Forte’ told us that we cannot care what anyone else thinks, we have to worship God. How bad do you want God? God wants to redefine your situation.

God also wants to redefine the reputation of our region. We live in a beautiful area – the reservoir, trees, and natural land makes this a place of serenity, of peace. But our area is not known for peace, it is known by a famous rock concert that was performed here years ago, for the rock and roll concert. Yet, Pastor Forte’ told us that none were killed during Woodstock, and perhaps some of those who attended the concert saw something no one else saw.

The next generation saw something. God wants to change how you see yourself. There are lies that we are believing that need to change. We even perceive God through the lies we are believing and do not get an accurate picture of God.

Pastor Forte’ told us that anytime he needed something from God, God withheld it. This kept happening until Pastor Forte’ stopped needing THINGS and began needing HIM, then God gave Pastor Forte’ what he needed in abundance.

We need to see God in our life. See Him in the usher of the church, in the person parking cars, in your home, in your pastor, in the person who checks your groceries.

God has fashioned our days for us, and that also includes permitting the troubles that we are facing. Someone may be testing you. Others may be watching how you face the tests that God is giving you. As you go through the test, then you have a testimony of how God got you through. And this experience and how you got through will bring glory to God.

So many of us, when troubles come, end up rebuking the devil when the devil is not in it. We need to be desperate and reach out to God. Pastor Forte then asked people who were desperate to stand up. What followed was an incredible session of personal prophesy for everyone who stood up. Pastor Forte’ spoke words over people, and all were blessed. I was going to type many, but I know it was ALL. His words were true and accurate for the people’s lives, confirmed much of what Pastor Don had already told people, and you could see the power of God touching lives. As people apply what was prophesied over them, their lives will be dramatically different in 2008.

I am not going to share individual prophesies, for those are personal, but occasionally within the prophesy was a bit of Bible teaching and I want to share a few tidbits that spoke to me.

Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt that had never been ridden before, and with that colt, you know the mama came too.

When David was hiding in the wilderness, three types of people came to David, everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented gathered to him (1 Samuel 22). How did David transform these people into the mighty men of valor? What did David do? He did NOTHING. These men watched David. They watched him worship God, watched him praise God. The men saw that God provided for David and for them, and they began to imitate David. That was when they became mighty men of valor.

Whatever HE tells you, just do it!!!!

God’s commandment is His enablement.

After the prophesy, Pastor Forte’ concluded by telling us that God is waiting for us to get into the worship position. He has something for us, and he wants to provide for us, for His glory.

It was an awesome teaching, and I can’t wait to share what Pastor Forte’ taught on last night. Praying your day is blessed!

Heather

Prepare to be blessed! Prophet and Pastor Leon Forte’ shared a powerful message with us tonight. If you are anywhere near Kingston, New York, he is also speaking at Living Word Chapel tonight (12/05/07) and you would be abundantly blessed to attend. He has spoken to our church in the past (see links) and his teachings are incredibly deep and sound.

Tonight Pastor Don reminded us that when we come to church we should come expecting to hear from God. You may not hear directly from the prophet, but God can also speak through music, through his Word, through another person in the church or through our inner witness. We need to be receptive to when God is speaking, and not judge the way He delivers the message. Come believing to receive.

Pastor Forte’ has such a sense of humor that we were chuckling through the entire teaching. Our church is very diverse, with many nationalities and races represented, so Pastor Forte’ told us that our church looks like Joseph’s Robe. Multiculturalism is so important, and he told us that if we are not prepared for multiculturalism don’t go to heaven. When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, there were mixed multitudes. We were told that right now the church is on the verge of going to another level of spirituality, and that everyone has a call from God for something in their lives.

Pastor Forte’ told us that we were going to read a very familiar passage in the Bible, and at times familiarity and religion prevent us from hearing a fresh revelation from God for a passage. Remember the Word became flesh, and as we read the Word, it too becomes part of our flesh. He mentioned that one pastor he knew always had a new Bible each year. When asked why a new Bible the pastor said that he is always expecting a fresh Word from God, and because he writes in his margins, he needed a new Bible so that he was not leaning on last year’s revelation. Our minds need to be opened because the Word of God is like a prism, and when viewed from various angles sends out different lights.

The Word we looked at tonight was Matthew 9:18-22 While He spoke these things to them, behold, a ruler came and worshiped Him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” So Jesus arose and followed him, and so did His disciples. And suddenly, a woman who had a flow of blood for twelve years came from behind and touched the hem of His garment. For she said to herself, “If only I may touch His garment, I shall be made well.” But Jesus turned around, and when He saw her He said, “Be of good cheer, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

Pastor Forte’ told us that if we all told the truth, most of us are at the end of this year are tired, half mad, and dried up. He told us that God is emptying out people at the end of 2007 so that they are ready to be filled when 2008 begins. If you are still filled up with 04, 05, 06, and 07 God won’t have room to full you with fresh anointing. We want to be in control, to be the architect and have God do it the way we think it needs to be done in the natural. We think that if we are to have a promotion we have to do works. But things do not always work the way we think they should. We get to the place where we become the architect of our own life, we think that if we praise, tithe, go to church then God will bless me. God is trying to reshape the paradigm.

We come to Jesus in this passage after he had recruited the tax collector Matthew, and dealt with some attitudes of the people regarding fasting. Then the ruler came and worshipped Jesus. We do know that the ruler was in a position of authority, and not a beggar. We don’t know if the ruler was Jewish, pagan or what the ruler’s ethnic background is, we just know that he had authority, was a leader, and yet he bent down and worshiped Jesus. In Greek the word for worship assumes the person was in a worship posture, and regardless of his leadership status, he bowed down and worshipped Jesus.

We can tell the kind of worship that the ruler was doing by listening to what he was saying. Tonight at Living Word Chapel we did a lot of different kinds of praise and worship. We sang, dancers danced, there was praise and prayers, and what we were doing was powerful for the presence of God was very strong in the sanctuary. Pastor Forte’ told us that our praise blessed God, and since we have God within, it also blessed God within us. Christians do not always like to admit that they have stuff in their lives to deal with, they pretend that things are ok, are outwardly praising God, but inwardly hurting.

Pastor Forte’ told us that worship differs from praise. Even satan praised God -worship occurs IN THE PRESENCE OF JESUS.

What the ruler said shows us the type of worship. He said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” He was in the right position and worship came out of his mouth, that she will live. He had belief that God would raise his daughter from the dead – and by stating that Jesus touching her would raise her from the dead, he was acknowledging that Jesus was God.

That which I gave life to is dead and I can’t do a thing about it. I got self esteem, am carrying more than I can deal with, I put it together in my own understanding and it is dead. I can’t do anything with it. The ministry is not God breathed. Pastor Forte’ said that we are not breathing, that we have bad breath, we have been anointed with so much anointing oil that we could grease a chicken, and yet the ministry is dead, the finances are in trouble, the marriage is shaken, the children are disobedient, there are problems with your job. What we are doing is ineffective, and not working anymore – it’s dead. I’m in a mess and I can’t fix it. Yet when we come to church we are actors. Our house can fall apart, we can have a spirit of homicide on us, and yet we smile, bless others, and put on an outward show.

There is a history of the devil fighting you, and we think we don’t have to be honest in the face of the One Person who can help us, Jesus. We won’t get what we want from God unless we are honest to the face of God. This ruler interrupted Jesus. What is worship? Worship takes you from the outer court and brings you face to face with God. Why in the world would you not tell Him what you want? When God asks a question He’s not seeking information – He knows. He wants us in His presence, face to face.

This ruler had realized who Jesus really was – Pastor Forte’ said that Jesus was like a mega minister today – and all the local priests were jealous that this upstart with only 3 1/2 years of ministry experience was attracting huge crowds. The ruler had to get past his mindset and get into worship for he was desperate. God will sometimes put you in desperate situations to get you to the point where you reach out to Him in worship.

Pastor Forte’ told us that once we know the mechanics of worship, the hymns, the songs, the dance we can worship by rote – only when we are desperate does worship take on a whole new role. Then we see Jesus from a whole different point of view.

Neither the ruler’s money or authority would change his daughter from being dead to being alive. His worship for Jesus came out of his emptiness. God permits you to get to that point sometimes so that your worship is purified.

The man asked that Jesus would put His hands on the girl and she would live. The ruler’s request showed that he no longer viewed Jesus as just a little rabbi, but as God, for he was asking something that only God could do. In our situations there are things that only God can change. Pastor Forte’ told us that we have to see God in the people in our world, that we need to be desperate for us to see that the person sitting next to you in church is carrying God within them, so is your wife, husband, worship leader, Pastor. There could be God on the inside.

Pastor Forte’ talked about how he can only see with his glasses. If there is oil on the lenses he won’t see clearly, he has to clean the glasses, and only God can totally clean the glasses of our senses so that we can see clearly.

There are a lot of people who have stuff from 2007 in them that God wants to clean out in preparation for 2008. Worship is the vehicle, not an offering, not supporting a faith ministry, sending in a love gift, becoming a monthly supporter, God just wants worship in its purest form. Some of us are out to praise. Worship will take us further than praise. In these verses the ruler came to Jesus to worship Him.

Jesus responds to the worship, and it says that Jesus rose (which means that he was in a sitting position while the ruler was at his feet.) Jesus responded, he and the church (disciples) with him. Jesus followed the ruler and so did the disciples.

Then SUDDENLY A WOMAN. (The way Pastor Forte said that, rolling his eyes, and with an expression that had all the men in the church laughing). He said that suddenly when we finally begin to get to God, to pray, when we have been suffering enough, are in a state of loneliness, or down in depression we FINALLY get to God, then everyone comes over, calls you on the phone, the kids talk to you, your husband comes to you with that special cologne and wants to get alone with you, or whatever interruption that is trying to come between you and that time with God.

This woman had a flow of blood for 12 years. In the book of Mark the Bible tells us that she had been to everyone’s clinic, had taken those Christian vitamins, the Noni juice, every herb but (reefer), had done everything, seen every doctor, she was broke and had no health care plan. She was deficient, empty, desperate, totally desperate. She was in the same predicament as the ruler.

We laughed so hard when Pastor Forte’ spoke to the various ministers in our church about Granola Ministry – the fruits, nuts and flakes, wondering why God does not send some people with sense and money. But then he pointed out that your ministry reflects where God has put you, and what you allow. (Heather’s comment, granola ministries sound a lot more exciting than bland ministries).

This woman had her flow of blood for twelve years. Because she was bleeding she was ceremonially unclean, and couldn’t go to Temple (Church) where she could get healed. So she had NO WAY OF BEING HEALED. If someone in the crowd had caught a whiff of her blood, they would have had the right to stone her to death.

The church should be a place where a person can come to be healed. Yet in the Church there are wounded animals hurting other wounded animals. What does the Church do when homosexuals come? When that girl that had an abortion comes in? Or the drug addict comes? We, as the Church, have a reputation of hating – not helping. We are not attracting the very people who need us. Until the Church changes and repents the hurting will not come to our doors. If we repent of this attitude, our churches would be overflowing with those who come to be healed. We need to remember what we were like before we got saved. We used to be drunks, whores, hooked on pornography, in the old days people went to “art theaters” now people can get hooked on pornography from their computers. So many live double lives – housewife in the morning/hooker on the internet at night. It is the same for men – men seek younger women on the internet. A pregnant girl comes to church and we look down. There is sexual immorality in all churches, but we like to point to the Catholic priests as if they were the only ones.

James 1:12  Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.

To endure means that we have gone through something and been approved. A person who spent all of their life sanctified, in the church, never doing anything wrong is not going to be able to help someone who has gone through something tough- for they have nothing to relate to. People need a person who has been through stuff. We need to share, boast and praise what Jesus did.

Today in the church we stone with our mouths, our looks, we treat differently, isolate, label, not let our children get involved with their children. This kind of treatment of those who are hurting in our churches NEEDS TO DIE and not be brought into 2008. If we can cease condemning others, the Church of God will not be able to contain the number of people who come to the church.

Pastor Forte’ asked who was the generation X in the church – then he said that we are all “X” something.

Notice in the above Bible passage that the woman SAID TO HERSELF. She did not say to ANYONE ELSE. It is important what we say to ourselves. Sixty percent of the effectiveness of medicine is what the person believes, what they have faith to receive from the medicine. We need to listen to what I am saying about myself. Don’t put your hand in the destiny of anyone else. Be careful who you listen to.

The president of MENSA was told that he should drop out of school – get a job and survive for he would never succeed in school. So for 16 years he shaved a dummy, dressed a dummy, and looked in the mirror at the dummy. He went through 100 jobs in 16 years. The 101st job gave him a aptitude test and this man tested out as a genius. So from that moment on he shaved a genius, dressed a genius and looked in the mirror at the genius. He ended up making 11 US patents. He had allowed someone else to define him. DO NOT ACCEPT THE LIMITATIONS PUT ON YOU BY OTHER MEN. Pastor Forte’ looked at all the young people in the sanctuary and told them not to accept the limitations.

Pastor Forte said that the church people do not GOSSIP – they SHARE.  Remember that there are situations that are only between you and God.

The woman with the issue of blood had to build herself up, to be ready to do what no one else will do. Take your situation to God.

Pastor Forte’ continued his teaching with more about the woman with the issue of blood. I will share this tomorrow – and also share what he teaches tonight. I pray that, if you get a chance, that you come to Living Word Chapel to hear him yourself. This man is truly a prophet of God.

Have a blessed day!

Heather

Continuation from the previous three entries.

Acts 16:6-12 Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them. Therefore, sailing from Troas, we ran a straight course to Samothrace, and the next day came to Neapolis, and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days.

The Supernatural comes through to the Natural. The natural eyes see naturally. Paul had a burden to preach the Word in Asia. Some people get super religious and feel that they should preach the Gospel anywhere, anytime that they want to preach the Gospel. But NO, that is not the way it works. God knows the right time when a person will be receptive to the Gospel, when they can be reached. It is not our job to do the business of the Holy Spirit. We are human and we want the victory NOW, but the Holy Spirit knows the right timing. If we are not working under the leading of the Holy Spirit we are spinning our wheels. Boldness can turn people off, and harden their hearts more. We need to sow seed at the command of the Head Farmer. The Lord leads by the Spirit when it is time to sow seed. People need to get in the presence of the Holy Spirit and ask, “Is it now Lord?” When it is the right time the other person will open the door for you. When that door is opened, then it is easy for God.

Initially, Paul was forbidden to go to Asia. Pastor Don said that for him when the Holy Spirit wants him to hold his peace it is like a silent hand comes over his mouth, or in his heart, and a feeling of “don’t say that.” Sometimes he has gone to the pulpit with a message already prepared, and God tells him not to preach that message. The Holy Spirit will forbid it in a still small voice, an inner witness. When that happens Pastor Don waits, listens for God, and then God gives him the sermon He wants preached, complete with references, and Pastor Don preaches what God tells him to preach.

If the Holy Spirit tells us not to open the door, not to cross the street at a particular time, obey Him. Pastor Don told us about a time when his father was going to cross the street, but he had a feeling to not step off the curb. But the light had changed, the walk light was on, and no cars were in sight. He stepped off the curb, and felt invisible hands pulling him up and back onto the curb just as a car raced by. Had those angelic hands not pulled him back to the curb, he would have died. But Pastor Don warned that not always when we disobey the Spirit, will God prevent the “accident” from happening – It is better when we hear the inner witness to obey instantly.

Pastor Don once asked his father how to determine if something was good to do or not. His dad told him, “If the thought crosses your mind that maybe you shouldn’t do it, don’t.” If it was an opportunity that you should take, God will present it again, but listen to the check of the Spirit.

If you develop your ability to hear the inner voice the first time, then a whole lot of stuff that isn’t in your best interest can be avoided.

Pastor Don then told us that if the conflict of doubt is standing in the way of your faith, then DO. Don’t let the doubts of flesh limit God’s Possibility. If the Holy Spirit tells us to do it, then do it in faith. When you have prayed and waited, and then receive the answer of the Spirit, obey the Spirit.

If we need confirmation about what we have heard from the Holy Ghost, we need to trust that God will confirm it, if we hesitate for Spiritual reasons. If we hesitate for the flesh, God is not in that, and we need to obey the Word of the Spirit.

Then (in the the above passage of Acts) we see that God spoke in a vision. We must learn to wait for God’s timing, if there is a conflict and we are not hearing from the inner witness, the Holy Spirit may speak a different way – for Paul in this case it was a vision. God can correct and lead in visions and dreams. He will approach us in a way that we can receive His Word, and He will use that to part the Veil between the Natural and the Supernatural.

Pastor Don asked how Paul knew that the men were men from Macedonia. It was because of their dress and speech. God did not want Paul to visit initially because God had to put some things into place first. God will sometimes have us wait until the right timing, when all the pieces of the puzzle are put together.

At other times there are things going on in the Heavenlies that we are not aware of. Daniel prayed and fasted for 21 days waiting on the Lord. God sent an angel, and the angel told Daniel that God had sent him from the moment the prayer went up, but that there was opposition in the Heavenlies, and the angel had to ask for reinforcements before he could come to Daniel with God’s answer.

We are in the midst of warfare in the heavenlies. When we pray and God does not seem to be answering when we want Him to, there could be reasons we don’t even perceive that is delaying the answer. Keep praying.

When an answer is not coming we need to meditate, check out ourselves, see if there is hidden sin, if we are doing what we are supposed to be doing, if we are where God wants us to be, when we realize we are doing all the right things and the answer is not appearing to come, we have to trust that God is responding, and we need to wait and pray. If we start speaking doubt, begin thinking that God isn’t going to answer this prayer, that God is remote and not involved, or any other lie that satan wants to throw at us to pull us away from the truth of God, we can defeat our prayer.

Satan will then help us to think that we are inadequate or unworthy of God’s intervention. When he succeeds in that he has won the battle. When doubts creep in, hold onto the Word of God, don’t put your self emotionally into the mix. God could make something happen instantly. God is sovereign, but at times with earthly things He can’t act for He places His Word above Himself. Adam and Eve messed it up. God plays by the rules He set down.

We are under the Abrahamic Covenant where God will bless those who bless us and curse those who curse us.

Pastor Don also pointed out that sometimes when we are sick we kind of want to be sick – ie not want to go to work, take a few days off, get sympathy. But he told us that we should not volunteer ourselves to the devil through a lie.

Back to Acts 16 – Pastor Don pointed out that Paul was obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

HERE IS THE KEY OF ACTS 16

Acts 16:13-15 And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us.

God orchestrated Paul’s journey so he would meet Lydia – the woman who sold purple, and she was rich, thus able to help support the ministry. By following the Spirit of God, Paul through the Holy Spirit converted her, her household (which was many members) and God also gave them a place to stay and provision.

Sometimes when God puts our prayers on hold, or doesn’t seem to answer them, it is not always a sin issue, but it may be God putting all the pieces in order to move big in our lives.

As the battle wages, God found a place for Paul to stay, a place where he can be protected. Had he gone earlier, Paul might not have met Lydia and those people might not have gotten saved.

God will provide for us.

Acts 16:16-17  Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.”

Pastor Don had us look at this girl who followed God. He asked us, Is there a spirit in the girl? Yes. Is it a Spirit from God? No.  Yet this spirit is proclaiming truth – that Paul and his followers were servants of the Most High God, and that they were to proclaim the way of salvation. The devil will give mostly true facts, and then throw in a little lie to pull people off of course. He is not going to go with a boldfaced lie. Satan, familiar spirits, and other spirits that are not from God are aware of the truth and will use it against believers. But the source of this pronouncement is not a desirable source, for it will take glory from God.

Pastor Don said that the devil will wrap a lie in the truth.  Kind of like putting a little bit of poison in a good piece of meat – over time the poison will kill you but you won’t detect it at first.

We need to be able to discern, to wait through the confusion of life, to actively wait. If someone is trying to sell you something that sounds too good to be true, it is best to be patient and find out all the fine print, for probably it is too good to be true.

In the last days we must be discerning people, because many lies will be coming at us. If a preacher says that if you believe the way that I believe than you are better than other Christians, they are saying a lie. If they begin to believe that only those who belong to me and are mine are going to be saved, the rest aren’t. It isn’t a good teaching. A person and their tenents are not the answer to salvation – there is only one way to salvation – Jesus Christ.

Pastor Don gave the example of a police line-up, where a person has to select one person from the lineup. There is only ONE way to salvation, we must pick Jesus Christ.

Pastor Don asked us, if there were fifty ways to believe God, why did God only send one savior? We need to ask God what is the truth when we receive a teaching, and also ask God to show us if there is a lie. Most cults appeal to PRIDE. They want you to think that you are hot stuff when you go through their system.

Acts 16:18 And this she did for many days. But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour.

 Notice in this verse that Paul spoke to THE SPIRIT, He did not condemn the Girl! We need to remember that with everyone who is suffering with the demonic, we address the spirit in the person. The spirit duped the person to open the door for possession. 

Pastor Don told us that with spiritual warfare it is not the person. We are to stay in authority in the Name of Jesus Christ. When we walk in the Name of Jesus we can walk in love with everybody. The devil can’t stop us because God gives us authority, we are on assignment.

The spirit in the woman reacted to the Spirit of God, and the supernatural forces are wrestling for the influence of the woman. She could be caught in a battle. The Lord wold not permit her to to interfere with His servants who were sharing the Gospel. The Supernatural Force from God drove the evil spirit out of the woman. Pastor Don also told us that Paul did not recognize that this woman was possessed with an evil spirit, but over time Paul’s Holy Spirit showed him the truth and Paul then took action to cast out the evil spirit.

Pastor Don prays to God that God gives him enough time to finish the assignment that God has for him. We too have assignments from God. And there is a spiritual battle that is going on, trying to prevent our success for God’s kingdom. If the things affecting us are not from God, they are making us a mess and they have to go in the Name of Jesus.

Praying your day is blessed! My kids went to bed hoping for a snowday or at least a two hour delay.

Heather

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