---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 9/2/2010 6:50:58 AM
Subject: Who Are You?
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
By the banks of the River Jabbok Jacob wrestled with an unidentified man until dawn, and although Jacob was crippled in the fight, he held on to receive a blessing once he understood that the person he was fighting was supernatural (Gen. 32:22-32). The blessing God gave Jacob was a new name, literally, a whole new identity.
The scene at the banks of Jabbok deals with the question of, "Who are you?" Whether you are aware of it or not, you have been trying to answer that question for much of your life. Although you may have a tremendous purpose, calling, talents and anointing, until you settle this, you are going to be limited and frustrated in your heart and in all you put your hands to. There is and will always be a great battle over your identity.
The first recorded words Satan spoke to Jesus concerned His identity, “If You are the Son of God,” (Matt. 4:3). This was a clever attempt to cast doubt in Jesus’ mind concerning the identity He had just received from the Father (Matt. 3:17). The enemy knows if he can steal your identity and give you a false perception of who you are then he can derail your life.
The good news is that like Jacob, God has a vested interest in you knowing who you are and He will go to great lengths to give you the answer. Jabbok means passing over, a place of struggle and being emptied. Jabbok was a tributary of the Jordan. It was in a lonely, out of the way place. Our Jabbok, or our appointment with the Father must be faced alone (Gen. 32:34). No one else can do it for you. This is your private appointment between you and the Father.
I will never forget the day I unknowingly stumbled upon the banks of my Jabbok. There was a great conflict going on in my heart and for the first time I fully faced myself and in doing so I became aware of the spirit that always lurked in the shadows of my life and fed me with constant lies about who I was.
As this revelation was unfolding upon my heart, something happened; I came upon a birthday party in a park. A little boy was celebrating his 4th birthday with his family. What was interesting was it also my birthday that day. I knew it was a divine appointment when I was told this little boy’s name was Byron. What came next was a word from heaven. His middle name was Caleb.
In the Bible, Caleb was a man who had waited 45 years for his inheritance. When the day came for him to receive it he didn’t wait on Joshua to offer it, he pursued it, he went after it, he appealed to Joshua and he got it (Josh. 14:6-15). One of the meanings of the name Caleb is “forcible”. In the Father’s heart there is something that looks for us to pursue our blessing from Him and not let go of Him until He blesses us (Matt 11:12). Those who do so will be blessed with a new name (Rev. 2:17). The blessing of birthright and identity is a gift, but like Caleb we must reach out for it because all of hell is fighting to keep us from it.
The truth is our Joshua, Jesus Christ, hung on a Cross and was abandoned by the Father (Matt. 27:46). He became the ultimate orphan for us as He died so we could forever live as sons and daughters of the Father with the right to enjoy to the fullest extent our birthright and identity. Our greatest struggle is to enter into what He has already secured for us at the Cross.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 8/26/2010 8:14:49 AM
Subject: Come and See
Dear People Who Keep Company With God, In his book Wild At Heart, John Eldredge said, “…the reason most men live lives of quiet desperation is because men have been told that the reason God put them on earth is to be a good boy. To be nice." There is more in God’s heart for men and women than to simply ‘be good or nice’. God puts a yearning within our hearts to live intentionally and purposefully, to make sure that our lives count for something, for someone. Several years ago that desire drove me to go beyond where I had been spiritually. It has been a real fruitful journey. However, recently I have sensed a fresh stirring in my heart for more of what He created my life to be like. The first stirring began with a question, “Where are you?” I have discovered answering that question can lead to more healing and restoration or more frustration. It depends on how you see and relate to the Father. In answering the question I heard Him ask me another question, “What do you seek?” Jesus asked a couple of John’s disciples that question and I always felt the answer they gave was not very profound, “Where are you staying?” (John 1:38), however it opened a door into His world for them. Jesus told them, “Come and see.” This changed their lives forever. So answering these questions are vital for all of us. I find it fascinating that the key to answering the question came from what John said moments earlier about Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36) When the Bible speaks of the Lamb it is talking about the Passover Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, it is talking about the blood of Christ, the sufferings of Christ and the glory of Christ (Rev. 5). Unbeknownst to me, as God the Father began to ask me these questions He began to bring me back to the Cross. Beholding the Lamb will change you. It is the way into the spiritual realm. When translated, the Greek word for ‘behold’ in this verse carries a few different ideas with it. It means ‘to perceive, or take notice’, ‘to turn the eyes, the mind, the attention to something’, ‘to inspect, examine, gain knowledge of’, and ‘to have regard for and cherish’. John was saying to his two disciples, “Turn your eyes upon the Lamb of God! Perceive and understand that He is the Passover Lamb, the disfigured bloody Lamb. Cherish and embrace Him.” The fresh desire for more of what He created my life to be like was actually sown in my heart in a very dark moment last summer. The Chief of Police allowed me to sit on his car just outside of Matt and Angel’s home. It seemed that the hordes of hell had come like a whirlwind and were feasting on me (Hab. 3:14) as I tried to make sense as to why Matt’s murdered body lay inside. It was there that I first caught a glimpse of the slain Lamb. It was not a beautiful sight; in fact, He had forewarned me to not turn my face away as my natural man would instinctively turn from the sight. He wanted me to behold Him, to focus my attention on Him and see Him as a slain Lamb. It was there that I personally saw that, “His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Isaiah 52:14 A seed was planted in my heart in that dark moment and the Father has carefully guarded, watered and cared for it since then. Last month while I was in Argentina I had a very vivid and powerful vision. I saw Jesus on the cross dying and crying out, “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” (Matt. 27:46). At that moment I knew the answer to the most difficult question that we will ever ask God – why? Sometimes in our darkest moments God does His greatest works. He has not left us or abandoned us; the Lamb suffered that for us. In fact, I believe He is now inviting us into His world, to know and see Him, as we never have. I hear Him saying, “Come and see.” Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 8/19/2010 8:50:02 AM
Subject: Where Are You?
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
If you have a Bible with Jesus’ words in red, scan the red and you will be surprised at the number of question marks that show up. Jesus asked a lot of questions. We know when God asks a question He is not looking for information because He is God and knows everything. He is revealing something to us. So it makes sense that Jesus would ask a lot of questions. Some of His questions are very profound, but do not appear so at first, such as the time He asked a crowd of people who were pressing in on him, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30). The question made no sense on the surface, but it led to a miracle.
I also think some of His questions seem incongruous on the surface, like the time after His resurrection when He walked through a wall and after calming His frightened disciples and showing them He was not a ghost, He asked, “Have you any food here?” (Luke 24:41). Think about it, He walks through a wall and is asking if they have food. A guy who could walk through a wall would certainly know if there was food in the house. He wants us to be involved in what He is doing. Every question He asks is an invitation to come into His world.
I believe the first question in the Bible that God asked is on His heart right now. Late last year I had dream in which the Father appeared as a businessman and was doing evaluations with us. Some things have occurred in the natural recently that I saw in the dream. This indicates the timing of the dream is now and the Lord is doing evaluations. The evaluation is not to judge or admonish us, but to help us know where we are and where we are going (John 13:3). Answering “Where are you?” is the first step toward your true identity and destiny.
And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" Genesis 3:8-9
I want to share a couple of things He revealed to me in the question. I believe it will help you answer it.
First, the question absolutely debunks the notion that man is searching for God and He is hiding or aloof from us. God came looking for Adam. He was seeking the daily walk in the cool of the day with Adam that God so loved and looked forward to each day. God is seeking us like the prodigal son’s father who would go out every day and search across the horizon to see if his son perhaps was coming home (Luke 15:20). When we have failed or have become disappointed or angry with God and we run away and shrink from Him in our hearts while trying to make sense out of our life, He is still seeking us out desiring a relationship with us. He is a relational God.
Second, God did not need or have to ask the question. He could have acted in justice. He had warned them of the consequences of eating the fruit from the wrong tree. Yet He came to draw them out of their hiding place not to cast them out of His presence. He came as a voice of kindness (Rom. 2:4); it is the first revelation of grace in the Bible. He did not give to them what they deserved. He gave them opportunity to deal with what they had done. He was demonstrating His shepherding heart for the first time. He is a kind God. He is a restoring God (Ps. 23:3).
Later, God did remove them from the garden, but that was an act of mercy. He was protecting them from eating from the tree of life and being cursed to live for thousands of years in a fallen state. He is a very merciful God.
So He is asking, “Where are you?”
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 8/12/2010 6:44:43 AM
Subject: The Season of The Lions
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Early on a Sunday morning I had a vision of the valley of dry bones described in Ezekiel 37. After meditating on these scriptures I began to think about the men who had died in that battle. I thought of all the dreams and hopes those men carried in their hearts dying that day. I thought of the loss their families experienced. In my heart I knew the Lord was speaking to me about many of His valiant soldiers in the Body of Christ today. As I thought about this I sensed a spirit of prophecy rising from deep within and I began to roar over those dry bones (Amos 3:8). I knew the Lion of the tribe of Judah was roaring over the bleached bones of dead hopes and dreams. I believe this speaks of a time of restoration (Ps. 23:3) we are entering into. Only God can restore to us everything that He meant for us to have (Joel 2:25). Old things are passing and He is bringing us into a time of newness (2 Cor. 5:17).
Later in the day Jim Hill shared with me that the Lord had given him a word for our church concerning the season of the lions. That same morning during worship, Janet Moore also saw in the spirit realm lions roaming around in our church. I believe this word gives us practical wisdom on how we may begin to enter into this new season of restoration. Here is Jim’s word:
“I perceived in the spirit realm several lions walking about in the sanctuary. (It seemed that they had just arrived, but belonged there, and really “they were us.”) I heard, “The season has changed. The season of lions has just begun.” I remembered an old African proverb, “Remember, the daughter of a lion is also a lion.”
In a pride of lions the lionesses do the majority of the hunting. Their pro-active nature ensures the continuance of life within the extended family. In this same manner the women of RLF brought in a fresh season of Holy Spirit activity that has sustained this family for years now.
I was caught up in the Spirit and HE reminded me of a wildlife documentary about a pride of lions that I had watched with my father when I was young. The lionesses of the pride had cornered a warthog in a borough and were attacking him head on, but the hog was ripping the lionesses with his tusks and wounding them severely. I knew that these valiant huntresses could actually die from the infections that would result from these wounds. Selah!
Eventually the dominate male lion of the pride who had been observing all of this from the shade of a tree stood up, stretched, shook the dust from himself, and slowly walked over to the warthog’s den. He stood over the opening until the cornered warthog stuck his head out and with one fluid, powerful motion grabbed the hog with one paw, lifted it into the air and killed it almost instantly with one bite of his massive jaws.
As my father and I watched this show he slapped the arm of his chair and said, “When all else fails, call ole’ dad.” This became a proverbial saying my father would often repeat to me for the rest of his life. He always meant it to be a reminder that I should act like a man, not expecting someone else to take care of the difficult stuff.
I believe the Lord is saying, “The season has changed. RLF has entered a new season. The women have in the past, and will in the future continue to seek out and find that which will nourish and sustain the family. There will however be situations that could potentially harm and even take out, some of these women if the “fathers” do not stand up and fulfill their God given place in the family. Some have been resting in the shade, which now need to watch carefully with discernment, rise up, shake the dust off themselves, and be ready to take action. There are circumstances coming, which the women will tackle head on, but they may be seriously wounded if the men do not stand up and do what they were created to do.”
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 8/5/2010 8:03:54 AM
Subject: A New Revival
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
During worship a couple of Sunday’s ago I had a vision. I saw an altar in our church and an angel came with a burning coal and placed it on the altar. In the scripture we know altars are places that are designed and set apart for worship unto God (Gen. 22:5-10). Abraham built four altars during his life at special moments and each altar was significant in that it revealed an aspect of worship that brought Abraham more fully into his calling and purpose. I knew the vision was speaking of something the Lord desires for us to enter into.
A few days later I had a dream in which our church was gathered in an upper room. We then got into a multi passenger van and we were going to visit someone. We were going so fast in the van that we arrived at our destination in 1/3 of the time that it would normally take. It was a very scary ride. I was not even sure we would arrive alive. Several times I wanted to stop the driver and take over, but thankfully I didn’t. Then the dream shifted back to the upper room; there were people outside looking to come in. The dream ended with the worship team prophetically singing, “You have faith, you have faith, you have faith…”
As I was considering the dream I thought about John Kilpatrick’s church, which has recently experienced a fresh move of the Holy Spirit. In particular, I was thinking about the name of his church, The Church of His Presence. I was considering how this is the bottom line for church as far as I am concerned, the Presence of the Lord. He is the most important thing there is. I also was thankful for what the Lord has done in Becky’s life and mine since we visited the underground church back in the spring. We have experienced a very real renewal in our personal relationship with Him, a return to our first love. He is the most important person in our life and we have enjoyed growing in that over the past few months.
While I was pondering all of this, the Lord spoke to me – He told me, “The altar was worship and revival, and part of the calling for the church is to be a spring of revival.” I remembered words concerning revival we have received. I began to think about a revival that will lead to a national awakening, I believe that is on the Lord’s heart. I thought of the cost of revival on a church body. I thought of how God does not desire to pour new wine into old wineskin as you lose both the wineskin and the wine (Matt. 9:17). I thought of ways we could be a part of revival and continue to be a local church where the family is cared for and not become just a ministry that diminishes when the wave of revival subsides. I was thankful for the Holy Spirit River that has been so graciously given to us. We have become a new wineskin as a result of this grace; we are called to be a Father’s House.
In the dream the upper room speaks of our church family meeting together (Acts 1:13). The van ride speaks of acceleration and the wild and dangerous ride of revival. However, the church (wineskin) was not destroyed by the new revival (wine), but prospered.
Later in the day, I happened to be reading the scripture where the disciples said to the Lord, "Increase our faith" (Luke 17:5-10). It revealed to me that the vision, dream and the renewal of our first love are all connected.
I saw a strategy to do the things we know He has called us to do - labor in the field (evangelism and missions), tend the sheep (church life) and prepare His evening meal (revival/awakening, see John 4:7-42). I believe the Lord has given us the faith to do all of this as the prophetic song was proclaiming in the dream. The key is to continue in a loving relationship with Him – He will always be more important than everything and everyone. Altars are first and foremost for His worship. It is all for Him and His glory. So practically, right now the thing we should do is focus on worshipping and loving Him, while simply doing what He has set before us to do.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 7/29/2010 6:46:15 AM
Subject: Sleeping Beauty
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
One of the trends emerging in the Body of Christ is an increasing sense for the need of awakening in our nation. Not long ago the focus was more on revival in the church, but now things are taking on more of a serious tone. This is in part due to the direction our nation is headed politically and socially. It seems the alarm clocks of heaven are going off all across the nation and it is not a time to hit the snooze button.
Awakening is a common theme in the Bible because during trying times we tend to doze off and go to sleep due to the sorrow (Luke 22:45). This is clearly illustrated in Jesus’ final hours on this earth in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Matthew 26:40-41
Watching means to be awake and aware of surrounding realities. In the scriptures it means to be spiritually alert, having a mind that is renewed by divine realities and is a blessed state to be found in (Luke 12:37).
The Body of Christ is the true sleeping beauty in the earth and when we wake up to who we really are it will be the greatest awakening of all time. Sometime back I read an article by R.T. Kendall in which he made some observations about natural sleep and the parallel to spiritual sleep that has encouraged me to continually seek to wake up.
First, you do not know you are asleep until you wake up. I have personally experienced falling asleep while I was driving and did not know it until a tractor-trailer blasted its horn at me as I was drifting into his lane. That awakening saved me from serious injury or death. The Bible tells us even the wise virgins fell asleep waiting on the Bridegroom, so we all have areas of our lives in which we are dozing off (Matt. 25:5).
Second, when we are asleep we do things in our dreams that we would not or could not do if we were wide awake. We all have awakened from dreams and felt relief that it was only a dream. Right now I see almost a pandemic of marriages failing in the Body of Christ. It is no wonder as the family is the basic fabric that holds our society together. This is a sign that many sincere believers have fallen asleep and are living in a dream world, a very demonic dream world. It is a terrible deception when that dream world becomes our reality.
Lastly, when we are asleep we hate the sound of an alarm. We want to hit the snooze button and roll over and sleep more and not be disturbed. As things become more critical the alarms of heaven will become louder; that is mercy, not an annoyance. That tractor-trailer horn rudely and instantly jolted me out of my slumbering state, but it did save me. The Lord is committed to waking us up (John 11:11).
But make sure that you don't get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. Romans 13:11 from the Message Bible
It is interesting that on the one hand we can be so busy and absorbed doing our daily stuff that we completely doze off and miss the very presence and work of God happening all around us. However, we can be like Jacob who, waking from his sleep said, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it.” (Gen.28:16)
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 7/22/2010 6:16:14 AM
Subject: A Door of Hope
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
In our nation it seems a lot of believers are losing hope right now. I think some of it may have to do with the direction our nation is headed politically and economically. That is certainly a real concern we all share. Also in the past couple of years a lot of our personal dreams and hopes seemed to have gotten dashed. However, I am seeing these troubling times as a doorway for us to more fully come into our destiny. We all have prayed to live more of a miraculous lifestyle; this may be God’s answer to that prayer. “In the Valley of Achor (trouble) the Lord will give us a door of hope” Hosea 2:15. I believe the Lord’s desire is to renew and heal our hearts and restore to us hope so we can live out our destinies.
This is illustrated in the two disciples walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24). We can have the right hope but because it appears to have failed we get heartsick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. Prov. 13:1. If you note Jesus actually healed their hearts, that was the burning they experienced as Jesus spoke and explained the scripture to them as they walked (Luke 24:21, 32). So sometimes we have hope from God, but we have a wrong understanding of how and when the hope will be fulfilled. Jesus healed the understanding of their heart concerning the hope they had in Him (Luke 24:27) and then the eyes of their heart were opened to see what was really going on (Luke 24:31).
“God always hopes” (1 Cor. 13:7). This means God always has a confident expectation of future good for us. That is God’s plan for our lives regardless of what our past or present condition is. There are three things that will last forever- faith, hope and love (1 Cor. 13:13). They are eternal forces and these three are woven together. They do not function independent of each other and you cannot have one without the others. To have faith you must have hope (Heb. 11:1) and for faith to work you must have His love (Gal. 5:6). To have hope you must subjectively experience the Father’s love because love is the greatest of the three and the greater always includes the lesser.
But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. 1 Thess. 5:8
When we receive the eternal forces of faith and love upon our hearts and the helmet of hope upon our minds, healing, renewal and restoration will happen.
Take hold of the hope set before us. 19 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, Heb. 6:18-19.
The hope or confident expectation of future good that God has for each of us is something we must lay hold or put on. It is a choice because God has set it before us. It is not hope that springs from the heart of men, such as hoping in the economy, but it is hope that springs from the heart of the Lord. His hope will never disappoint us (Rom. 5:5), but the economy, government and our dreams based upon things from this world will certainly and are certainly disappointing us. So disappointment is having hope in the wrong place, wrong person, wrong way or wrong timing.
It says hope is an anchor, sure and steadfast to your soul, meaning it is the only way we can have peace of mind and emotional stability in a very disturbing and unstable world. Without hope we cannot enter into the heavenly realm because hope works upon the mind and the mind is the gateway to the heavenly realm. Our spiritual senses will become dull and our heart will get sick if it is not constantly being nourished and feeding on things from the heavenly realm (Eph 1:3). Hope protects our minds and thus our spiritual senses from becoming dull. If our heart is sick then the answer is His hope.
Happy is he…whose hope is in the Lord His God. Psalms 146:5
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 7/15/2010 11:18:03 AM
Subject: What Are You Thinking About?
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Becky had a dream in which the river of life was covered with books. She burst through the books and got into the river, but she realized it was polluted and immediately got out. I believe the books speak of the knowledge of man. God is not against knowledge; He is against knowledge apart from Him. We have to remember there were two trees in the garden. One was the tree of knowledge and the other the tree of life.
It is important to understand that the Bible tells us the fall of man begins in our intellect (Rom. 1:21). The Greek word used for mind in this particular verse is dialogismos, the reasoning or intellectual part of our minds. When we stop honoring God and being thankful with our intellect, our reasoning becomes futile, which means without purpose. Our thinking is cut off from our purpose in God. This leads to the eyes of our heart being darkened. A dark heart cannot perceive spiritual reality and cannot respond to the desires and affections of the Lord.
The outcome is our entire mind becomes depraved and our desires and affections become perverted (Rom. 1:28). The Greek word for mind in this verse is nous, the whole of the mind - the intellect, emotions and imagination. Our minds are suppose to house an attitude of gratefulness and thoughts that honor God, but are unable to because they are constantly being bombarded with toxic thoughts, emotions and pictures that are so readily available through the mass media such as TV, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Websites, etc. (Understand I am not saying these things are evil, but they can become tools of evil).
I believe the Lord was showing Becky that some of the activities of the popular culture that so occupy our minds has covered over and in some cases polluted the river of life in many sincere believers and as a consequence they have a very difficult time responding to the desires and affections of the Lord because it looks like foolishness to them as the Bible says it will (1 Cor. 2:14). We are clearly told that we will become what we put our minds on (2 Cor. 3:18). Since the average person has approximately 30,000 thoughts per day, we should be careful how much of the popular culture we allow to occupy our thinking.
The Bible gives us an answer, really a weapon to effectively deal with this flood of wickedness that is being poured out upon us (Rev. 12:15). It is the renewed mind. Paul said, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind” Rom. 12:2. That is your nous; your entire mind has to be renewed.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
Here is the great thing about our mind; God has given us access to a renewed mind that has the ability to control what enters it and what we think about. That is what a sound mind in this verse means in the Greek, it is a disciplined mind that has control of its boundaries. We have been deceived into thinking we cannot do anything about what goes on in our mind. Arm yourself with the knowledge that God has given you a powerful mind and start using it.
Make a practical choice to give the Lord some of the time you are spending in the popular culture and get before His presence and His living word will wash your mind of the toxins (Eph. 5:26) and you will discover Him weaving His thoughts, feelings, and images into your mind – I promise you this works.
What are you thinking about?
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 7/8/2010 6:56:00 AM
Subject: Tomorrow's Bread Today
Dear People Who Keep Company With God, There is an old song from the 1950’s that illustrates the mindset of many believers. “Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, the future's not ours to see, que sera, sera, what will be, will be.” That is the song of people whose dreams seemed to have died, but it is not the song of the kingdom of heaven. God created each of us with a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11) that He expects us to live from. The Wuest Expanded Translation of the New Testament, which is considered to be a very accurate translation, gives us some insight from the Lord’s Prayer. “Our bread, that for the coming day, give us today.” Matthew 6:9 Jesus told us to pray for tomorrow’s bread, provision to be given to us today! That is living from the future. Although there are many examples of people in the scripture who lived from the future, King David being one of the more notable, Jesus Himself is the greatest example. Jesus’ entire ministry of healing and deliverance was based on an event that had not actually occurred in time yet, the cross (Matt. 8:16-17). The Christian life is a life of faith from start to finish. The interesting thing concerning faith is in order to even have faith you must see into the future. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1. So what is hope? Hope lies in the future. Hope is what you see in the future, what is supposed to come. Something positive in your future is the definition of hope. Faith is not about the past. Since faith consists of the substance of things hoped for, then you need hope in order to have faith. The amount of faith we potentially can have depends on how much hope we have. The amount of hope we have depends on how much of our future that we see. We need a glimpse of the future before we can have faith and Jesus promised the Holy Spirit would give us those glimpses (John 16:12-15). By omission Paul warned us of the dangers of living from the past. He tells us that the love of God is so great that not even death can separate us from His love (Rom. 8:38-39). However, in terms of the love of God, our past has more power than death. The past has no power to change us, but it has great power to bind us. Our past can hinder us from receiving the love of God so we must deal with our past in order to live from the future because the past can affect the present, which affects our future. In the natural the past impacts the present, but in the spirit the future impacts the present. So, a key to living from the future is dealing with your past. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 Paul learned to lay down his past, to forgive himself and others, to let the failures and successes of yesterday go and keep reaching into the future. That is how he lived his Christian life. We are living in a time where everything is in flux, the natural world and spiritual world we have been living in is shifting. Everything is changing. If there ever was a time to reach forward to those things God has for us in our future that time is now. Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 7/1/2010 7:58:35 AM
Subject: Experiencing God
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Back in the 1990’s we did the Henry Blackaby course on knowing and doing the will of God, titled Experiencing God. It is an awesome teaching on this subject, perhaps one of the best. I have been learning again the lessons of knowing and doing the will of God and I want to share some of what God has been re-emphasizing to me.
Knowing and doing the will of God is a life long encounter because the Lord desires a relationship with us, not some type of arrangement based on methods and formulas. However, there are some truths He gives to help us that only fully work in the context of a relationship. One of those truths is God is always at work around us. Jesus never asked the Father what His will was rather, He always looked for what the Father was doing and joined Him (John 5:19-20). So it is not God’s highest for us to seek His will for our lives, but rather ask Him to reveal to you what He is doing so you can join Him. In what He reveals to you is the will of God for you. That is the way Jesus did it.
Paul said it like this, “Find out what pleases the Lord” (Eph. 5:10). In terms of doing the will of God I can tell you some of what pleases Him, He is pleased with what He is doing not what we are doing. We can have a vision from Him (knowing the will of God), but that does not mean we are going about accomplishing it in the way that pleases Him. We have to continually look at what He is doing and seek to do that with Him. Jesus said, “We get life from every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). Note it says proceeds not proceeded; it is what He is saying not necessarily what He said. It really is His way or the highway, the highway being frustration, added expense, delay, misunderstanding and in some cases we just walk away from the whole thing believing it was never His will or intent for us in the first place.
I came to that place recently with the vision for The Father’s House. I know the vision is from the heart of the Father, but almost everything I have done in the past two years has not worked. I got so frustrated with all the doing that was not working that I started to question the vision and if I had even heard God in the first place. That was not a good place to be. I finally settled in my heart that it was the way I was attempting to do the will of God that was not pleasing to Him.
I discovered through this that God is working, but He is not doing what I thought He should be doing. Blackaby calls this the crisis of belief; I was in full-blown crisis. When you find yourself in that crisis you have to make some decisions. Am I going to continue down the highway of frustration or shall I stop and ask the Lord for a fresh perspective, for a fresh proceeding word? In retrospect that looks like a no-brainer, but in the heat of the moment it was very difficult to say enough. I was afraid if I did the vision would die, but finally the pain of continuing was greater than the pain of risking failure. However, the moment I surrendered God began to show me what He was doing and I just needed to shift my strategy to that.
As Blackaby states, “You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing.”
We have to always make adjustments in our life to join God in what He is doing by His design. Knowing and doing the will of God really is a life long encounter with Him. That is one of the ways we have a relationship with Him, by consistently looking to what He is doing and adjusting ourselves to Him. God is calling all of us to stop and ask Him for a fresh perspective on our lives, for a fresh proceeding word. If we ever needed such a word it is now.
Many Blessings, BW