Characteristics of the Jezebel Spirit and Restoring ourselves to Intimate Relationship with Jesus

"Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

 

You are here because you have encountered a "Jezebel".   

These resources, studies, blog post and teachings are here to help you.  

For a detailed list of blog posts, teachings, book recommendations etc CLICK HERE

Kingdom Warfare and Discernment Series:

Amazingly consistent traits of the Jezebel Spirit -  
blog Post 
Characteristics of the Jezebel Spirit - is below.

 

Everything Jezebel - Resources in Word and Spirit - 

www.jeffreynoldsministries.com - Jezebel page

The Kingdom of God is an occupying and invading force.
The Kingdom is a government expressing the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the earth. (Isa 9:7) It smashes into and against the strongholds, powers and spiritual forces of evil resident in the world.  It dislodges them with “weapons not of this world.” (II Cor 10:4)

In stark contrast, with cunning deception, the Jezebel spirit seeks to silence the voice of the prophetic testimony of the Lord Jesus.  (Rev 2;20; 19:10)
Engaging through relationship
Embedding through association and deception
Exploding when everything is connected
Recognize this spirit. Defeat this spirit. 
(excerpts from the soon to be released 
 - The Jezebel Spirit: Recognize and Defeat It) 

Unmasking the Jezebel Spirit – book by John Paul Jackson.  Highly recommended."Jezebel is a spirit, but it has found access through un-crucified flesh."Although the Jezebel spirit seems to be more prevalent in women, there is no doubt that it functions just as proficiently through men. (page 59) John Paul Jackson

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use it, it will be measured to you.” Matt 7:1-5   Learn the traits and characteristics of the Jezebel and grow in discernment! Learn the power of the Kingdom and grow in deliverance and healing and in overcoming evil in the power of the love of Jesus.

 

“I just want to let you know you have a Jezebel spirit”, we want to say.   This is not the way of love and represents fighting with Jezebel’s weapons.  You will loose and most likely bring more harm than good with this approach.   Primarily, it is about you and I walking in our authority as a believer and our divine calling.  The authority that comes with that calling should be fully engaged and walked in or a vacuum is created for Jezebel to “take that authority” as her own.  Jezebel has no authority unless it is surrendered.   She has a false soulish power that is not generated by the Spirit.   This can be discerned by listening closely for the Spirit.  He, Jezebel, can only move into the void of authority figures that are not exercising their Divine calling (Ahab).   Jezebel intimidates.  You will feel the fear when she confronts you and think about your own survival.  Treats, clear attacks and character assassination are her weapons of choice.  This is a sure sign you are confronting this spirit, fear and self-preservation becomes your focus.   Jezebel confuses.  You cannot reason with this spirit.  It’s power is not derived from reason, rather it is soulish control and very subtle manipulation.  Trust the Lord.  He is your deliverer.  Ps 35 is an excellent prayer tool to pray when confronted by this spirit.   John Bevere’s book Breaking Intimidation is a brilliant source to explore walking in your calling and authority. 

Jezebel thrives in environments where divine authorities relinquish their authority. Where wounds and hurts are fed, embraced and then the enemy’s lies are adopted as truth.  Once the lies are internalized and linked to the wounds and hurts of the past, Jezebel will manifest with greater and greater power.  

Prophets expose.  Kings defeat.  

Elijah exposed the hearts of Israel and confronted the false worship of the Baal priests.  The power encounter set the stage for the fall of Jezebel.  But the king Jehu defeated her.   Today the prophetic voice has risen up in the Church with amazing beauty and power.    


The voice of the Spirit is declaring that first priority is worship; first love with deeper and deeper intimacy with the Lord Jesus.   As the prophets defeat the worship of Baal through the power encounter of “fire” and the restoration of awe and wonder of the Lord, the Kings can arise to regain the divine authority granted to them and defeat Jezebel herself.  

Revelation 2:18-29  N.T. – Jesus rebukes the Thyatira church saying,  “you tolerate that woman Jezebel.”  The Jezebel puts up a serious attack on intimacy (sexual immorality) and worship (eating food sacrificed to idols).   In ancient Israel, through Ahab’s abdication of authority, she corrupted Israel’s worship by introducing sexual and sensual false worship of BAAL and Asherah (fertility gods).   Very subtle, the hearts of Israel were diverted from intimacy with the Father and away to sexual and intimate perversion in the form of worship.  Jezebel destroys intimate devotion to Christ by sowing fear and intimidation.  He causes us to focus on our preservation and ourselves and in response we seek to fight back with the same type of weapons.  Remember, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world.  On the contrary, we have divine power to demolish strongholds.” II Cor 10:4   What is the weapon that conquered the world?   LOVE.  Nothing in all creation is as powerful as the love of God and love for God in bringing down the Jezebel spirit.   But we must restore worship and our sexuality.  It must be surrendered to Jesus.  

Jezebel established Baal worship in Israel.  Elijah confronted 400 prophets of Baal. He was one of few remaining prophetic voices in Israel at the time.  What was Baal worship about?  

Baal worship and the fight for the heart, pure and true sensual life and divine sexuality are at WAR.  Viewer be advised, this youtube video is very specific, but you may come to understand the spirit at work and recognize that the ancient demonic spirits are alive and well.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6yjTBlrSiI

The following list is John Paul Jackson's work.  - You can purchase his book through my web site at Amazon.com   -  www.jeffreynoldsministries.com. 
We are an Amazon Affiliate and if you purchase through us we will receive an affiliate percentage of the sale.  These proceeds go directly to supporting the ministry. 

I put it into first person because when we are confronted by a Jezebel any fear we have must be submitted to the Holy Spirit.  We are also in the process of being freed when fear rise up in us.  We have something to loose!  We fear loosing it.  This points to how we may have gained it in the first place.   Submit all fears to Jesus and ask him to free you and reveal the underlying issues. 

Do I….

1. Refuse to admit guilt or wrong

A Jezebel spirit is never wrong, unless it is a temporary admittance of guilt to gain "favor" with someone. To accept responsibility would violate the core of insecurity and pride from which it operates. When a Jezebel apologizes it is never in true repentance or acknowledgment of wrongdoing but rather "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt."

2. Take credit for everything

While a strong trait of Jezebel is to never take responsibility for his wrong actions or behavior, he also is quick to take credit for benefits for which he contributed no effort.

3. Use people to accomplish my agenda

The Jezebel spirit lets others do its dirty work. The Jezebel gets another person's emotions stirred up, then lets that person go into a rage. The Jezebel sits back looking innocent, saying "Who me? What did I do?" This behavior makes it difficult for even the most ardent truth seekers to pin one down. The Jezebel spirit is clever in its agenda.

4. Withhold information

This is a form of control. A Jezebel wields power over you by knowing something you don't know in a situation. In the eyes of a Jezebel, having information you don't have is a powerful weapon of control.

5. Talk in confusion

It is impossible to converse with a Jezebel in logic. One pastor wrote a six-page letter to his elders about a situation in the church. The context was so vague that no one was without confusion. This is a way to maintain control and domination. When confronting a Jezebel, the subject may be changed five times in one minute. Confusion keeps them "undiscovered" and unexposed.

6. Volunteer for anything

A Jezebel volunteers in order to establish control. He seemingly has endless (nervous) energy and eagerly looks for opportunities to be in charge of projects. Although he will work hard, his motive is never pure, and eventually his secret agenda cannot be hidden.

7. Lie

A Jezebel lies convincingly. No one can lie better than he can. He can turn on the charm and make you believe blue is red. He always fools those whom he's just met while those who have been victimized by his tactics stand by helplessly. The fact that Jezebel can look you in the eye and lie just shows how strong and adamant this rebellious and recalcitrant spirit is.

8. Ignore people

A classic ploy of a controller is to ignore you when you disagree with him. This tactic is frequently used by leaders when someone doesn't agree with their plans, and they isolate the person by ignoring him. Some in these situations have been ignored for months, just because they chose not to be a puppet and say to every idea or whim. This puts the person out of the leader's grace and forces him to either "come around" to the leader's way of thinking or be indefinitely ignored. One is not free to disagree with a controller.

9. Never give credit or show gratitude

A Jezebel will rarely acknowledge another person's actions, not even for something that turned out to greatly benefit the Jezebel. He just cannot bring himself to say thank you or to acknowledge that someone else did something right. There are those who have gone out of their way to bless a Jezebel by being the catalyst of sending him on a trip or giving a gift. Yet never will there be a thank you. This again puts the controller in a position of power.

10. Criticize everyone

This is a characteristic of a controller. He has to be the one who looks good, so he will quickly sharply criticize anyone who makes a suggestion or plan. Even though he likes the plan, he can only criticize it because the idea did not originate from him. Criticizing others elevates the controller in his own mind.

11. One-upmanship

A person with a Jezebel spirit will always upstage another person. He feels threatened by anyone who dares to steal the limelight or anyone who is a threat to his power and control. If you are with such a person and tell of your accomplishment or victory, you can be assured he will quickly tell of something he has accomplished.

12. Sequester information

A Jezebel loves to be in control of information. If there is ever a situation where information is important, he will push to be the "first" to know it. He seems to know everything about everyone. Where he gets all his information is beyond comprehension, but he can dictate to you data and details about people's lives and actions in mass quantities.

13. Use information

A Jezebel uses information as a leverage for power and then shares tidbits with you, often things told him in confidence. This gives him a sense of power, even to the point of trying to impress people by "knowing things" that others do not.

14. Talk incessantly

Many people talk habitually, but a Jezebel uses talking as a form of control. In a typical conversation, he does all the talking, whether it is about sports, the weather or the Kingdom of God. Because of this form of control, he is unable to receive input from anyone in his life. All conversation with him is one-sided. You are doing the listening.

15. Spiritualize everything

When a controller is confronted, he commonly spiritualizes the situation, explaining it off on God. This prevents him from owning up to responsibility required of him. The implication is always, "You've got a problem; I don't."

16. Act insubordinate

A Jezebel never takes the side of the employer or a person in authority, unless it is a temporary action to make herself look good. He often will take credit for someone else's idea. His main desire is for power and control. There is no conscience when an opportunity for recognition presents itself.

17. Act pushy and domineering

A person with a Jezebel spirit pressures you to do things, seemingly ripping from you your right to choose or make a decision for yourself. He makes others feel as though they don't have enough sense to think for themselves.

18. Act clairvoyant

Many who operate with a spirit of control also have a clairvoyant spirit. A Jezebel has supernatural help in knowing and sensing information. If he uses this against you, he may say "I can't tell you how I know this. I just know it." This is not the Holy Spirit, but the help of a clairvoyant or familiar spirit. Clairvoyance may be defined as the power to perceive things that are out of the range of human senses.

19. Use the element of surprise

A Jezebel's main thrust is to be in control, and a large part of control is catching you off guard. Therefore, the element of surprise works well when he shows up a day early for a meeting, etc.

20. Sows seeds of discord

A Jezebel will continually belittle another person in the most subtle way. The strategy is to "gain" control by minimizing the value of another person. It is common for him to tell half-truths to implicate another person in your eyes. By sowing these seeds, he hopes to eventually reap a harvest of destruction, improving his position of power.

21. Command attention

A Jezebel likes to be the center of attention and doesn't like to see others recognized and lauded. When someone else is recognized, he will quickly undermine the person's accomplishments verbally.

22. Act vengeful

Since a Jezebel is never wrong, if you contradict or confront one, get ready to become his worst enemy. As long as you are in agreement with her, all is fine. But if you confront or challenge him, then look out. You are the target of her fiercest venom. A Jezebel will stop at nothing to destroy your reputation.

23. Attempt to make others look like they are the Jezebel

A Jezebel spirit is difficult to pin down. If the person is near to being confronted, he or she will skillfully twist the entire situation, trying to make the innocent person look like the one who is attempting to control. As always, the Jezebel will do anything to look like the one who is right.  If you confront Jezebel with control you will see this ploy.  Weapons of the world are not going to defeat her.

24. Insinuate disapproval

A Jezebel will often imply disapproval to those under his or her control. The controlled person feels no freedom to express an opinion, for fear of disapproval. This often manifests in a marriage or in a working environment.

25. Know it all

A Jezebel is usually blatant regarding his knowledge of everything. Quick to express his opinion in any area, he leaves little room for anyone to point out the other side of an issue. He has made idols of his opinions.

26. Act ambitious

The Jezebel has strong desire, but all for self. "I want what I want when I want it," describes his worship of self-will. A Jezebel leader will never use the words, "We have a vision," but rather, "My vision is thus and so."

27. Gift giving

Gift giving is a form of manipulation a Jezebel uses that always makes you feel obligated to him. It also compromises the victim from speaking direct and confrontive truth. Naturally, not everyone who gives gifts is guilty of control, but gift giving is a tactic used by those who have a need to control.

28. Act independent

No one has input in a Jezebel's life. He fraternizes with no one unless it is to get you to "cooperate" with his agenda.

29. Act religious

A Jezebel dwells in the local church but doesn't like authority unless he is in the position of authority.

30. Hide

We all want to believe that the person with a Jezebel spirit is delivered. The person may seem "normal" for a period, exhibiting none of the classic traits. Then suddenly without warning a situation will arise, once again with the spirit taking control and wreaking havoc over lives. Hopefully, true repentance will come. Only then will the person be delivered.

The good news is that God gives each individual person the freedom of choice. Everyone has the freedom to make decisions, to make mistakes, to think for himself, to communicate, to like or dislike and to express his taste and creativity.

Those who control are in worship of their own wills and their own ways. Thank God for freedom.

If you recognize any of these traits in your own life, begin by praying this prayer.

Father, I acknowlege that I have yielded myself to the spirit of Jezebel.I come to you, humbling myself before you. I desire your standard of righteousness and holiness. I ask you to forgive me for my tolerance of the Jezebel spirit and for being sympathetic to its ways. Please forgive me for every way I have opened myself up to this spirit. Help me to ruthlessly reject every type of this thinking and the desire to control and manipulate other people. I renounce and bind this demon of Jezebel, and I pull down this stronghold in my life. Through the Holy Spirit I will live by your standard of righteousness, holiness and conduct. Open my eyes and cause Your light to expose any darkness, and help me to walk in humility and truth. In Jesus Name, AMEN! (page 69)

 

Old Calling New Commissioning - Amazing times as Heaven and Earth Meet

Kelley and I were at Glacier National Park celebrating our 25^th anniversary this past summer.   Looking out over a breathtaking St. Mary’s lake, the Lord spoke to us.   In a mystery, over the course of a week, through a painting, Jesus revealed heaven and earth touching each other.  

It was sunny, a warm and cool wind was blowing.   A wonder filled day.   We were enjoying a short hike and came out upon this view.

Places like these tie the earth, heaven and the soul and spirit together and reverberate with the glory of God.  I was feeling my spirit strings singing as the Lord’s bow rolled over me.

Up from the bottom of the lake, magnificent peaks of granite climbed to touch the firmament.   The tops of the peaks tore holes in the bluest sky.    As I stood looking out at the peaks, Kelley climbed up the rock we were on and looked at a kiosk declaring the names of the Mountains before us.   Surrounding the Lake to the right were four Mountains.     Directly in front and center of the lake was one of the most well known peaks in Glacier.  It looks like the Matterhorn in Switzerland.   Amazing.   Kelley called out to me and said, “The center peak is called Reynolds Mountain”.   

Heaven invaded my soul and spirit and my mind trailed after in a stupor.   The wind stood still.   The sky broke open.  The rocks started singing out from their deep red and green granite power.  Time disappeared.  All I could see was my Lord Jesus, everywhere.  Rocks and water and skyscraper peaks were bowing to Him.   His voice moved like a silk scarf in and through me and out and through the rocks and up to the tops of the peaks and back down into my spirit.  In a flash, the blink of an eye,  the prophetic sound.   Heaven on earth as it is in Heaven. 

 I said, “what?  No way?”.   She answered in her special voice for me when I am “seeing the prophetic in everything”.    “Yesss”, she said.   I was curious and asked what the names of the other mountains were.    Next to the right was “Running Hard”.   And then a large sweeping beautiful valley, which curved the earth and rose up to the sky in “Going to the Sun”.   Finally to the right of this mountain was “Goat Mtn”.   

As the names unfolded I got more committed to the voice of the Lord and His amazing encouragement.   

This earth and heaven prophetic encouragement is actually Part B.   This trip to Glacier was planned log before another trip we took only days earlier.  We spent 3 days at Bethel Church in Redding.    You may be saying, “nice story, but what is the big deal?”.   
I would agree without Part A. 

Part A.   
About 5 days earlier, Kelly and I were with the Merrill’s at Bethel Church in Redding CA.   We spent 3 eventful days in the Spirit drinking in armloads of inheritance blessing and encouragement.  So many things occurred there that I would love to tell you about, but I need to finish this piece first.   

On Saturday The Merrill’s, our treasured friends of the King and amazing hosts for the weekend, took us to the encounter room and healing room at Bethel.  Upon arriving we met Sonya Day, a prophetic painter who was painting in the encounter room.   She said the Lord told her Don and Shari were coming and she started a painting with them in mind.  She also brought along her LION painting.   While we were standing there talking, Shari blurts out to me, “You are a Lion”.   I was taken back because two weeks earlier in Sisters Oregon a young man gave me a drawing of a lion as a prophetic word for me.  Sonya then says,  “The Lord told me to bring the Lion painting today.  See it is right in front up there with the worship team.”  

Heaven invaded my soul and spirit and my mind trailed after in

a stupor.  Ha!

I didn’t really comment.  I drifted away to the front seats by the worship team and entered into an hour plus of tears, revelation, joy, laughter, and the Lord’s voice giving me direction and calling.    I meditated on the Lion painting and heard wonderful things from the Lord about our relationship and how I should walk with Him.  

The worship team played sounds that the voice of the Lord seemed to float on.   Like a river of sound His voice penetrated to the depths of my soul and spirit.    The key task the Lord imparted was that I should go back and get on the Mountains around central Oregon and call forth rivers, streams, lakes and ponds among all the rainbow colors of his church.   

Breaking forth renewal and revival, the heart of the Lord had already decreed this.  I was to do it with all those who were willing to proclaim a “new day in the Lord”.   This settled in my spirit like all the recent directives for the church plant and Spirit ministry I had received.  Tears of joy flowed. 

My time in the healing room came up…   That is a story in and of itself, but again the main point needs to get finished.  

I eventually came back into the encounter room and was making sure to write down my experience there.  Sitting with my back to the painting area, I was full of tears as intimacy and the love of the Lord overwhelming me.   I was seeing the vast riches of HIS love and HIS Kingdom and the inheritance of the Saints.  The Lord’s dominion is full of wealth and beauty.   During my time of revelation I was calling down my inheritance in the Lord.  Calling forth the special signs of Kingdom wealth and beauty the Lord had blessed me with over the years.  One of the things He spoke to me was, “the place of rest/worship is my inheritance.  The Lion roars from a place of knowing the ONE.” 

As I sat there writing what amounted to a page in my journal, I thought I should look over my shoulder and see how Sonya’s painting turned out.   I glanced over……

Heaven invaded my soul and spirit and my mind trailed after in a stupor.   Ha Ha!

My eyes fell on a completely different painting than the one she started.   It was a painting of mountains, blue-sky, purple, white clouds, majesty.    It was my vision on canvas.    I broke wide open pouring out new tears.   
A sword of His love crashed down on my collarbone and split me in two.   

My mind trailed along unable to see.  My spirit was in the heavenlies seated with Christ.    Heaven on earth as it is in Heaven.

The wind stood still.   The sky broke open.  The rocks started singing out from their deep red and green granite power.  Time disappeared.  All I could see was my Lord Jesus, everywhere.  Rocks and water and skyscraper peaks were bowing to Him.   His voice moved like a silk scarf in and through me and out and through the rocks and up to the tops of the peaks and back down into my spirit.  In a flash, the blink of an eye, the prophetic sound.   Heaven on earth as it is in Heaven. 

I went and found Don Merrill and told him what had happened.  He smiled that great smile of satisfaction that flows out of love for all that Jesus does.  

I was a mess.  As we walked out of the encounter room and down the hall a little ways, Sonya came hobbling after us. (She had a brace on her leg).   She said, “Are you going to make me chase you.”   I see now that this was the literal voice of the Lord to me.   In HIS love he has chased me all my life.   Then she said, “The Lord wants me to give you that painting”.   I nearly fell over and burst into uncontrollable tears as my Father expressed love that spoke over years of knowing HIM.   Inheritance.  My Daddy.   Inheritance witness.  Soul touch.   Jesus.  Jesus.  Jesus. 

The painting was still wet.  Sonya signed it and wrote the name on it.   Love as the Canvas.    (The mountain painting was painted over the original started painting.  Sonya told us she felt the atmosphere change and in response she painted over what she started earlier.)   

Majestic calling finds its foundation in the love of God.  It is unity of heart with the Son in His love for the world.  Over the course of a few hours the re-commissioning and revelation of HIS love, rest and calling flooded my mind, body, soul and spirit.   
I stumbled out of the house of the Lord delirious with wonder. 

Who could not love you, Oh Lord among gods?

I have 3 rocks from the mountain lake, red fire granite shavings, on my desk.    I have the reality of Jesus’ love flooding my soul months in and months since.  Needless to say, my mind has been trailing after all these things in a stupor.   

HA!  Heaven laughs at the wisdom of men and rejoices in the revelation of the SON and HIS Son’s and Daughters.

 Part A and part B join together to reveal the Kingdom of God as Kel and I celebrated our 25^th wedding anniversary.   In all the earth, full of wonder and majestic beauty the Son of God is the diamond.  
His Kingdom is spirit and truth.   With the power of His voice he formed the granite peaks and the human spirit.   
His voice plays the bow that resonates the sound that sings through both heaven and earth.  This is His Kingdom.  Part A.  Part B.    Reach with the confidence of a son or daughter for the inheritance only you and he knows resonates in your soul.  Let it sing out.

Thank you's to Don, Shari, Sonya, and Kelley.    What an awesome role you played in the King’s love.  See more of Sonya's work here:  http://www.redding.com/news/2011/may/05/artist-spotlight-sonya-day/

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 25 yrs.   August 23, 1986

Themes for 2012 

- Wedding Feast of the Lamb - Salvation and Honoring the Son of God

- Mirrored Intimacy with Jesus - Marriage

What Glory is waiting to get out of you? Have fears, failure or weakness limited you?

What glory is waiting to get out of you?  What fears of failure, weakness and falling short has limited you from throwing yourself on the King of Glory?    

Open the Gates.  Let the King of Glory come in.   Let grace have its way in you.  Shed the past in the fires of HIS unending love.   He will meet you at the point of your desire.  

OK so I am coming clean.  

I have always wanted to be the champion of those saints who were willing to throw it all on the line.  Stepping out in faith and going for that crazy thing the Lord had spoken to them.   My understanding of the Kingdom is that it calls out reckless abandon in the Saints as the King of Glory enthralls them.    

Why do we draw back?   What inside us turns us away from open heavens?

I think I as I reflect on this, that I have sought to encourage myself.   I have believed from the first that Jesus was the only  “most valuable” thing I’ve had in life.  And in so doing I have encouraged others to live for the highest ideals of the kingdom of God.  To run after Jesus as the end and sum total of what living is about.   To adore him and worship him with no constraints and follow him literally in this world, in this life, is the true meaning of life and living.  

As much as I have set my life to encourage that kind of devotion in the heart of those I love and walk with, I believe I’ve only seen the curtain drawn back partially in over 33 years.   Nothing has made me happier than the smile of a Saint that has been captured new and fresh with the love and presence of Jesus.  When the revelation lands on them with joy and a smile, and the revelation knowledge that they belonging to Him and He to them settles on them, I rejoice deeply.    Heaven seems to resound in those moments.

Never before have I had the opportunity to walk into “what I have always felt my life in His Kingdom to be about”.    Today, I am standing on the threshold.  And in seeing that doorway before me, I am completely humbled and emptied.   It is not a way that I can affect.  It is heaven coming to earth not earth reaching to heaven.   As I stand before all this and “see into the heavens” the earth in me, which is such a disappointment, rises.   As the wine press of HIS love tightens and constricts my flesh, I inevitably see the biter and earth minded rise to the top of my life.    Again, my King scrapes away the dross and new life appropriate for the time leaps up and envelops my soul.   The Father is completely good. 

There is sweet wine on the way!

When that dross expresses itself among the people of the King I am undone.   I am talking about the sin of not walking in the calling I’ve received for fear, the wine press that comes with it, and sheer weakness.   I’ve not experienced weakness like I have over the past 4 months.   The magnitude of revelation has dwarfed me.   I have to admit that I have failed more than succeeded in walking in the revelation and in the new.     His strength is perfected in weakness.   This I know all to well. 

Even perceiving heaven, I constantly want to move out of that place of weakness and into my strength.  It is here at the foot of Jacobs ladder that I have been wrestling with the Spirit of the Lord.   My flesh rising and screaming for prominence and my Spirit reveling in the true Son of God; day to day, I have fallen short.   Thus my confession.

When I am really outside my anointing and the life giving love of Christ’s gaze, I see my actions and weep.   Anyone close to me in ministry has seen my blemishes and I repent to the Lord for those distortions of his glory.   Standing juxtaposed against the amazing revelation of the Lord and the desire to be one of HIS mighty men, dross is painful and disappointing to the core.    Over the years I have delivered my share of dross to the table of the Saints.   My heart breaks over this.  

The revelation.  I’ve tasted it.  Here for a moment.  Here for a day.   Here for a weekend.  Here for weeks on end.  Revelating with the Spirit and lost in worship,  I want to walk in it every moment.   I’ve seen the vision and I want to walk in it.   It presented itself as a door before me.   I ran in.  I determined to run with no hesitation; to throw off every hindrance and abandon myself to the Love of the Son. 

Trying to explain the deeper things is like trying to order food in a different language.   A phrase and a line but never the ability to lay out the whole order. 

 

And then my own limitations and fears rise up.   The wine press has kicked in and I have failed on occasion to deliver the revelation as delivered to me for my dross and fears.  Trying to explain the deeper things is like trying to order food in a different language.   A phrase and a line but never the ability to lay out the whole order.    Kingdom calling is at times very lonely.     Mercy and love triumph over judgment.    

The culture of honor is the environment that releases the beauty of the King.   Everyone benefits in an environment where failing is allowed and our goal is Christ glorified and his servants honored in their station.  

So, the time is up.  It is time to come clean and spill my guts.   I’ve hidden in the respectable place for far to long.   I said to the Lord, “I am willing to be your fool” and I have to commit myself to doing and saying and speaking what he has revealed.  Foolish as it may be.  Tough as it may be.  I need to let out the reality of what God is doing and not hold back.   I’ve been too interested in pastoral acceptance and the praise that comes with following the norm and the acceptable paths of the day.  Frankly, those paths are dead wood.  The tree has but a few green branches and we are living in the past.   New revelation has come and the prophetic word of Malachi 3:1-4 is alive and happening now in the Body of Christ.   There is a way that leads to glory and flows out of the knowledge of the Lord and is from faith to faith to faith.    Time to move in and let it out.   Time to end the hiding place.  Time to give up the hiding place.  I am going to continue to press into all that the Lord opens up.    Run with abandon.   He said he would meet us at our point of desire?   All my requests are being answered as they relate to heaven and desire to see.   

What requests are stored up in your heart?  What heaven do you long to see?

For me, coming clean means really letting everyone who knows me know that I realize I am weak, poor, naked and blind.   I’ve made more mistakes in ministry than in any other sphere of life, or so it seems.  My failings here are so much to bear against the Love of Jesus and his sacrifice.   Maybe they stick out more clearly because of the equal love I have for the Saints and the Bride.  I realize that nothing good has drifted off my lips or out of my heart that had life outside of the Spirit and the ministry of Jesus.   

It amazes me that the Spirit would use me at all.   Do you ever feel that way?  I know what he knows, all of it.   And he is able to take that broken tattered vessel and in matchless grace sow seeds of grace, freedom and love into the Saints.   Life is rising out of the ashes of the zombie.   I’ve been short sighted and bumbled on God’s precious people.   I’ve been short sighted and or answered out of my limitations and have misdirected the people of the King.    I walk with a limp.  

Coming clean – sounding like a fool…. yes and amen.  I need to commit to the crazy and wonderful full disclosure of what the Lord is doing in me and through me to his glory.    I kept things quiet.  I need to step up and let some of it out.   Here we go.

What about you?   Can you come clean?   Are you ready to live in the glory and let some of that glory out? 

The Bride is transformed as each part does it’s work. 

What glory is waiting to get out of you?  What fears of failure, weakness and falling short has limited you from throwing yourself on the King of Glory?    

Open the Gates.  Let the King of Glory come in.   He will meet you at the point of your desire.  

Running free in the palace of HIS presence - Come away with me

I've tapped into something lately that has exploded my freedom.    I am a son in the Father's palace.  Yea. Sounds simple, and truly it is.  Until that revelation lands in your heart without logic and expands the story of a relationship with Christ that fills all things in every way.    things like this sit in our minds and spirits for years and then with one vision key unlock and release a torrent of revelation of the Son of God.   The catalyst?   A love encounter with the Lord Jesus that breaks open what laid dormant and quiet.  A love encounter?    An encounter with the fire of HIS love.   An encounter with Jesus Christ. 

For years I've understood that the Father's presence was the very living reality of every good thing in HIS Kingdom.   That HIS presence was the place to be in life.   In HIS presence.... My heart is longing to be with HIM.  Truly deep calls to deeper more compelling desire.  I want to be lost in a love that cannot be satisfied except by more of HIS presence.   Heaven is open and the beauty of the redemptive power of Christ is the very air we breathe.    HIS presence is intoxicating.  Christ is the most beautiful vision life can offer.   He presence both manifest and hidden fills the highest heaven and the depths of earths darkest places.   The opportunity of the Father is everywhere.   The Kingdom of our Lord and Christ is everywhere.  

I've lived in the place of longing and searching for my King while life's disappointments and bruising lingered in my heart, on my body, in my day to day.   The enemy of my freedom seeks to oppress my passion with the seeming contradictions of HIS love in my life.   The church has lost sight of an important truth.  The love relationship with Christ is our inheritance and our place of rest.   It is always ours in any and every circumstance.   This love is not hindered by the brokenness of the world.  In fact it laughs as the worlds empty offerings and attempts to quiet the BEAUTY.   It is ours in weakness and strength.  We can always run to the place of rest in our Savior, our Rock eternal.  The hope of glory is Christ in us, living, informing, inviting us to deeper love and wider vision of a Kingdom that fills the universe with redemptive power and love.  As nothing is impossible with God, so nothing is outside his authority, power and freedom.    Matter itself along with trees, rocks, dirt, sing the praise of the ONE whose love cannot be quenched.  

Just being in the Father's presence opens such an expansive view of the Kingdom and of the Father's heart; my wounds heal,  my disappointments fade in light of the hope that cascades into your soul.  Under the waterfall of hope we can laugh, celebrate, dance and drink overwhelmed by HIM.

I loved worshipping with the Church from the first days of knowing the Lord.   I sensed and have seen so much of the incredible reality of all that the Kingdom is about - In HIS presence.  But I did not see myself as a son.  Adopted yes.   Part of this Palace, yes.   I did not see that this is my inheritance.  That the Kingdom growing inside me and connecting with the reality of the heavenlies was finding a more tangible expressions in my life, heart, mind, will and emotions.   His presence was spilling out into my every day.  His love is the current of the wind I ride upon.   I am seeing that the inheritance needs to be called down into my life.   Captured in faith and understood with the key of Christ, I need to call into my heart and soul the truth of who I am in Jesus.    

Now I can see farther, deeper into the inheritance of the Saints in Christ Jesus.   The Prince of Peace, seated in opens heavens pours out His inheritance to us.  The Palace of my Father is rich beyond compare.  More than a wonder of the world, it is a wonder of the heavens and angels; filled with the majesty of the King who reigns over all.  

It is time for the saints to let go of the worthless trappings of the world and gain the riches of the Kingdom of our God and King.   To walk in the inheritance of the King.  To ramble, run, dance, shout, celebrate in the vast palace of the presence of Christ Jesus. 

Come away with me

He Imagined our Freedom Flowing in a River of Love and Grace.

Is it possible to imagine our lives from a place of love and not condemnation; to construct a vision of ourselves on a canvas of love?  Brush strokes, paint, color, growing each day into an image of love and intimacy with the Father that cannot be quenched?  

Imagine!  Try and imagine.  It can be difficult for us. 

HE imagined it first.  And He imagines you in love. 

Love is envisioning and imagining power.  It flows as an enveloping current, like a river crystal clear.  In the eye of the ONE we are jasper and rubies translucent.  The waters of love tumbling over us shape us into beauty, calling us ever deeper into HIS love; into knowing HIM.   HE dresses us in a grace that quenches fear and makes it an outcast.  

Love, surges out from the heart of the Father, swirls and foams with creative energies beyond our imaginations.   More compelling than earth's mighty powers, Love shaped the earth’s every molecule.   And so it groans for the Saints to be revealed, for the day when earth, stars, space, heaven and humanity will be ONE.  We are surrounded by HIS love in every moment as all of creation was fashioned to spark desire, longing and witness to HIS pounding heart of love.  

The Imaginative ONE has imagined you in love and grace.    

 

Heavenly beings are graced with love.  Flowing like blood it courses through their bodies out to their touch where their lives meet the substance of the world of Heaven.   They know nothing of the ONE but love, awe, joy.   A love so deep it defies their understanding.  The mystery is played out before their eyes.   Our destiny flows in the same river.  

The ONE who imagines us in love sparked the power to make HIS creation live in love.   

You will live.  Condemnation, the imagining power of hell, does not have the creative power to hold one touched by a drop of HIS love.    The power of blood and perfect sacrifice, the power of a life laid down for friends, the power of grace envelopes the willing soul with the garment of freedom.   Yes, the blood of Jesus is enough.  It is the power that turns away the rot and decay.   HE imagined you as HE hung above the earth, our freedom born in a river of love.   Nothing has the power or authority in all creation to separate you from HIS love.  

Your BELOVED calls out, "Come into the Rivers of MY LOVE"   

Float on the currents.    "Come away with ME"  "Come away with ME"

Imagine yourself from the HEART of LOVE that formed you.   The heart that calls out to you.  

Now is the time to steal away with your beloved and float on the river of love.

 www.mycapstone.org

Hunger and Longing for God: Encounters that Wrench the Depths of the Soul

In the 32 years I have followed Christ there have been only a handful of overwhelming divine encounters.  Like a branding of my spirit each encounter burned deep in my spirit and left the mark of God.   Years apart, these encounters appear to have come at random moments in my walk.  They slash away the dead wood of entire seasons and leave me with a fresh inner skin. 
I've had many much more regular experiences with the Lord.  Spiritual happenings that are amazing but they do not compare to the wrenching of the depths I have known on a few ocassions. 

Just a few weeks ago I found myself alone at home.  My wife and boys were gone to grandma's house and I had the day to myself.   The night before I spent reveling in the awe of the Lord with two brothers in what has now been dubbed "meat night".  Steak in the natural and steak in the spiritual.   Meat night provided a very powerful level of revelation.    The Lord had been talking with each of us and we unpacked, listened and shared our hearts.   One of the men had a 2011 word he felt was for the fellowship (www.mycapstone.org).   We were talking through the many dreams and words we had received over the past few months and shared our stories in regards to the new fellowship the Lord was forming.    
 
Meat night lead to an encounter the next day.  

I slept in just a little and headed downstairs about 7:30 a.m.  Went into the back room and started praying and seeking the Lord.   I threw on some worship music and as I often do and opened up a prayer and reflection word doc on my computer.   As I began to focus into the Lord I was overcome with His Presence.   So overwhelming was the power of the Lord I found my body convulsing.  My spirit was overwhelved with the reality of the Love of Jesus Christ.   Tears began to flow and I continued to move into greater and greater levels of both revelation and effect on my body.   I was lost in the amazing beauty and love of God in such a way that I could not control my emotions or even the incredible shaking of my spirit.   I would stop, breath, gather myself and as soon as I re-engaged I was overwhelmed again. 

I thought of the salvations I was praying for and brought that to the Lord.  The response was a revelation of his heart for me and all those he loved the same way.   Then I found myself looking at the past years of my life in the Lord.   They looked like dead wood compared to the vision I was receiving.  Repentance filled my heart and I saw my walk with God compared to the beauty of the Lord.   All I could do was cry,  repent and ask for more of HIS love.   Nothing compares with Jesus.  Seeing more of him is the awesome reward of the Saints. 

His love was showing me so many things while at the same time blessing me deeply.   Total freedom swept over me.   I grabbed my guitar and started writing a worship song in the midst of tears.   I had been reading Ezekiel and listening to the song about Skeleton Bones.  "skeleton bones stand at the sound of eternity on the lips of the found."   I called for the skeleton bones in the Central Oregon valley to rise up.   I agreed with the Lord and HIS love poured out to save the world. 

More into the depths I went.  As I responded and moved with the things being spoken in me, I found myself moving into other revelations.    Seeing into heaven,  I could feel the love of Jesus.  Vast.  Powerful.  Full of authority.  Another way of living, relating and being flooded into my heart.   All I wanted to do was please HIM,  be with HIM, know HIM.   My recreation.  My joy.  My life.

I started getting hungry, as I did not eat anything before I started praying and looked at the clock.  12:30 in the afternoon.   I thought about taking a break and getting some food but the song that was flowing out of me kept coming and I didn't want to miss writing it down.   I played the worship song over and over and moved in the words.  One section says, "Get UP you dry bones".   And the chorus cries, We desire YOU, Desire YOU.  Nothing else can satisfy.  You are my hearts cry.  No one else can satisfy our hearts.    

The dry bones of my christian life were melting away for the new fire of God's grace and power.  It felt as if I had never been saved at all.  That 30 some years of walking with Jesus were dead and dry bones in the face of His love and beauty.   I wanted to start out, get going all over again. 

The reality.  New revelation leads the heart, mind and spiritual sight to new and amazing heights.   Nothing compares to knowing Christ Jesus.   Nothing on this earth can fill up the soul like the love of God.   In recounting this I feel the pangs of my shortcomings and weaknesses.   And I remember the penetrating power pouring through my spirit calling me to step ever closer to the LORD of GLORY and to believe for radical and amazing streams of salvation in Central Oregon and beyond.