---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 3/11/2010 7:57:51 AM
Subject: The Cries Of The Perishing
Dear People Who Keep Company With God, When the Lord came into my room in a dream and prayed for me, I not only experienced the hidden wisdom of God, I also heard the cries of the perishing. What I was hearing is really hard to explain, but I knew it was people who were suffering and dying. At the end of the dream, I experienced what I was hearing, but it did not happen in a way that I expected. In the last part of the dream I found myself in our church on a Sunday morning and I was standing at the door greeting people as they came in. I reached out my hand to greet a lady whom I did not recognize and when our hands touched I instantly knew everything about her. I was totally caught off guard by this. As I thought about this part of the dream I remembered a vision I had several years ago; in the vision I saw a man and I could see His physical insides. I saw all his internal organs and the Lord spoke to me, “bowels of compassion”(1 John 3:17 KJV). When I had the vision I did not really understand it, but when I connected the vision to the dream, I understood. Seeing the insides of people was really a gift to make way for His compassion. Of all the experiences that we could have in this life, I believe experiencing His heart of compassion flowing through us may be one of the greatest of all. Charles Spurgeon said, “If you would sum up the whole character of Christ in reference to ourselves, it might be gathered into this one sentence, ’He was moved with compassion’.” Compassion is one of the great mysteries of God; we can’t understand compassion with the natural mind. In fact the Greek word for compassion is a word that first appears in the Bible. The gospel writers used a word someone made up to describe what they were seeing when Jesus was moved by compassion. Think about it - they could not find one word in the whole Greek language that suited their purpose, so they had to make up one. That tells you how mysterious compassion really is. Compassion is not something we can make happen, it is not sympathy or human sorrow; we know from the Bible that compassion releases a power that changes circumstance, heals bodies and minds, and sets people free. So compassion is a virtue inherent in Christ that can release the power and creative force of God. "But if you had known what this means, ' I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT A SACRIFICE,' you would not have condemned the innocent" Matthew 12:7. Without compassion you will tend to see the bad in people, be repulsed and be tempted to fall into an unrighteous judgment. When I touched that woman there was a lot I did not want to see or know, and my first response was to draw back from her. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? 1 John 3:17 KJV I have found that you can actually get in the way of what God is doing in someone’s life by trying to help out. It’s like helping the butterfly get out of the cocoon; it does more harm than good. However, we can also hinder compassion from flowing in our lives. Being compassionate is a choice (Col. 2:12); we have to be careful to not turn our faces away from weakness, infirmities, pain and sorrow. Flowing in compassion is not going to be neat and tidy; in fact, it is going to be real messy and inconvenient at times. You are going to get your hands dirty. If we value being in order and convenience too much we will miss His heart of compassion. The greatest key to compassion is personally experiencing and continually walking in the Father’s heart of love. Compassion really is His love in action. Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 3/4/2010 7:54:49 AM
Subject: The Hidden Wisdom of God
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
In a dream, the Lord Jesus came into my room and prayed for me. As He prayed I felt, heard and saw what I can best describe as the wisdom of the ages. I heard communication; it was knowledge and insight being communicated concerning diplomacy, politics, economy and leadership of nations as God had designed it to be. I heard voices; it was the voice of wisdom for the most complex problems we face on earth such as energy, agriculture, water supplies, disease, finances, climate and so on. I saw mathematical formulas that solve highly complex problems related to emerging medical breakthroughs and new technologies.
Somehow I understood all this as He was praying for me. It felt exhilarating and the purity and cleanness of it was nothing like I have ever experienced. This all happened in an instant and it was symbolic, of course, because the only man in existence who can contain all of this is the Lord Himself. Yet, it is His plan to make His wisdom known through the church (Eph. 3:10).
This dream spoke to me about our mindset, we have to get out of a mindset of lack and into a mindset of abundance (Matt. 13:12). However, it cannot be an abundance focused solely on our own little world. If you look at the Bible as a whole you will realize it is not just about our vertical spiritual life and personal prosperity, but about fulfilling God’s original commission to man to expand the garden of God into all the earth (Gen. 1:28). God has never withdrawn the commission and over the course of history individuals would emerge and experience the hidden wisdom of God (2 Cor. 2:7) and would impact nations and history. Daniel is an example of such an individual.
"This was because an extraordinary spirit, knowledge and insight, interpretation of dreams, explanation of enigmas and solving of difficult problems were found in this Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar. Daniel 5:12
I see Daniel as one of the Old Testament types and shadow of what the church is to become. We have an extraordinary Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and I believe the key to receiving that knowledge and wisdom like Daniel did is having the mind of Christ (2 Cor. 2:16). Several years ago the Lord began to teach me how to tap into His mind in a practical way.
As a pastor I am frequently called upon to help people with issues and problems they are facing. I quickly learned that my opinion, psychology and cookbook answers do not produce biblical level results. Over a period of time the Lord taught me to do what I call grace counseling. Just before I would meet with someone I would surrender to the Lord my opinions and thoughts about the person and their situation. I would then simply listen to the person and as they talked the Holy Spirit, who is the Counselor, would point out things to me and I would just tell the person what He was revealing. If the person cooperates there is success, because His love never fails. I called it grace counseling because I was laying down my opinion and the knowledge of man and receiving by faith the mind of Christ. I knew it would work, because God loves people and wants to help them.
I took what I learned in receiving His mind while counseling people and began to apply it to other areas of my life. I will admit it has been an uphill battle at times, especially when it comes to things that affect me personally, but through faith and patience I have been able to tap into His mind more consistently than at any time of my life. One of the outcomes I am beginning to experience is a shift from a mindset of lack to the mindset of abundance.
Briefly, this is how I tap into the mind of Christ. Jesus told us to repent because the kingdom was at hand; repent means change the way you think. We change the way we think by ceasing judging and making decisions apart from Him, and then by faith we can access His thoughts and the knowledge of His ways (Matt. 5:17). So our minds are renewed as we surrender our thoughts and opinions and exchange them for His thoughts and opinions. It is a divine exchange – ours for His.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 2/25/2010 8:03:22 AM
Subject: Be Very Careful With This
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Paul had what I believe to be the highest level of spiritual experience recorded in the Bible when he was caught up into Paradise, yet Paul as brilliant and spiritually astute as he was could not explain if this experience occurred in a vision or if he literally went to Paradise (2 Cor. 12:1-4). This is the way the spiritual world works, we will never be able to fully or adequately explain our experiences in the spiritual world. That takes humility. We have to be willing to not understand everything and at times be misunderstood by others if we are to go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.
The Lord actually sent a messenger of Satan to torment Paul; the word torment literally means to beat with the fist. God allowed the enemy to beat up Paul in order to keep him from falling into pride over His great revelations and experiences in the spiritual world (2 Cor. 12:7). That tells me God will go to great lengths to protect us from pride, yet in the end we still get to choose to humble ourselves or allow pride to deceive us. Paul concluded that if he were to be proud about anything, it would be in his weakness since this is how the power of Christ would be revealed in Him.
I had a dream that seemed so real that I kept asking myself if this was a dream or was it really happening. I was conscious or at least I though I was conscious through the entire dream. In the dream, I was laying in my bed when two angels came into my room and got me out of the bed. Then the Lord came up behind me as I stood between the angels and laid His hands on my forehead over my eyes, and I heard what I can best describe as the wisdom of the ages; I heard voices and communication, I saw mathematical formulas, and I heard the cry of the perishing. It felt like the waters of a rushing waterfall pouring into me. Then I was alone and I looked around and saw that I was in heaven. I was really excited because I have wanted to visit heaven for a long time. I saw a group of people I knew on earth who had passed on - family, friends, etc. They seemed concerned for me, which was surprising. Then my daughter, Hannah Joy, who has been in heaven from birth, came up to me with a serious look on her face. She said, “You have to be very careful with this, do you understand me?” I was looking into her big brown eyes and I said, “You are beautiful I love you so much.” She said, “I love you, but you must understand what I am saying.” Then my dad came up, he has been in heaven over ten years, and I said, “Daddy, you look wonderful, I love you, I miss you.” He said, “I love you; did you hear what she said? You must pay attention to what she said.”
At first I was caught up thinking about the download I was going to receive from Jesus and how wonderful it was to see and talk to my daughter and daddy. That was a real blessing, but I think the real message of the dream was pride. Think about this, here I was in heaven looking into the eyes of my daughter and telling her how beautiful she is and how much I love her, something I never had the opportunity to do on earth and she is warning me about pride. And just to make sure my daddy came over to re-enforce what she was saying. I think this was a very serious warning from the Lord concerning pride.
I believe the Lord plans to download into us the wisdom of the ages (Eph. 3:10) and a great compassion for the perishing, but honestly this does not make us anything (1 Cor. 13:1-3). We can be the best at something or be very powerfully used by God, but that could become our undoing. Wisdom and evangelism are very important, but Jesus made it clear that something greater than evangelism or wisdom is here, that something is the Lord Jesus Himself (Matt. 12:41-42). If we want to be proud about something, let’s be proud of the Lord Jesus Christ and His cross (Gal. 6:14). Let’s remember our goal in this life is not success, riches or recognition but to do what the Father is doing (John 5:19-20).
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 2/18/2010 7:37:21 AM
Subject: Spiritual Information Superhighway
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
The Internet has impacted and changed the way we live, work, play, learn, profit, govern, socialize, and communicate. There is no part of our society that has not been touched in some way by the Internet. How much more will the words that proceed from the mouth of God impact and change our lives when we receive them (Matt. 4:4). In the past 20 years we have received much needed teaching on hearing God and it has borne much fruit. However, we are in a time where God wants us to experience more of His infinite wisdom and boundless love and He is releasing a whole new level of communication from heaven (Luke 24:27-31).
I began to experience this about 3 years ago as I was praying with some friends. Suddenly I felt and heard information and scriptures from heaven concerning what we were praying about flowing in the room. I want to emphasize that I was not having a typical prophetic experience, a word of knowledge or word of wisdom. This was different; I was experiencing being a son of the kingdom. I had connected to a flow of communication that I can best describe as the Spiritual Information Superhighway.
As dynamic as that experience was it is not the norm for me. On occasion in a meeting or ministering to someone I will experience a dynamic flow of words, thoughts or scriptures, but day in and day out I do not. However, even though you cannot see the Internet broadband frequencies in the natural we know they exist and work as we connect to them. I am learning how to tap into the heavenly highway and receive from the heavenly realm. Here are some basic keys to being a good receiver of heavens communication.
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. 18But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; THEIR VOICE HAS GONE OUT INTO ALL THE EARTH, AND THEIR WORDS TO THE ENDS OF THE WORLD." Romans 10:17-18
It says that the voice of God has gone forth throughout all the earth even to the ends of the world. There it is in the Bible, the Spiritual Information Superhighway is everywhere in the world. The Bible also tells us that the heavens declare the glory of the Lord (Psa. 97:6), and Jesus said His kingdom is at hand, right around us (Matt. 4:17). God has already made provision to communicate that which is in heaven to us on the earth.
It also says faith is released when we receive His communication. That is one of the great keys to knowing if you have connected with the frequencies of heaven. Did faith get released into your heart? If it did, then you have tapped into the highway. If it didn’t, God will confirm His word, just ask Him. Many times we are receiving communication from heaven, but doubt is hindering our reception (Matt. 14:31). When it comes to the supernatural doubt is the default mode of the natural mind. The way to get out of default mode is by changing your mind (Matt. 4:17).
Like in the natural, heavenly communication comes in many different ways. You must be open to the various ways in which He chooses to communicate. Sometimes, the heavenly highway is routed through people, places, circumstances or things. He wants us always to depend on Him, not any method, way or person except the person of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Sometimes we become so established and so familiar with the way God does things that when He changes them we fail to change with Him.
Finally, It takes humility to tap into the heavenly highway. One of the most unlikely places I discovered the heavenly highway was in a trash can! I stopped at a convenience store and as I got out of the car I clearly heard the Lord say, “ I have a message for you and it is in the trash can.” so it was first within me (Luke 17:21). I walked over to the trash can and my eyes were drawn to a little balled up piece of paper amongst all the other trash, I picked it up and opened it and written on the paper was, “I am with you” Jer. 1:8. On that particular day I really needed to hear that.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 2/11/2010 8:18:47 AM
Subject: Mistaken Identity
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
When I graduated from high school, the pastor of the Presbyterian Church my parent’s attended gave me a book titled Mistaken Identity as a graduation gift. It is a book of poems about mankind’s failure to know God as He really is. I completely forgot the book existed, until I found it recently as I was looking through a box of photographs, newspaper clippings, etc. from my childhood that my parents kept for me.
As I looked at the book and some of the photographs from that time in my life I was in awe of how good the Lord really is. It is the devil’s most successful strategy to paint a picture of God in our minds that is totally not true. The basic lie is this: God is not good. He did that with Eve in the garden (Gen. 3:1-5) and does it to this day. When we buy into the lie that God is not good, then we also buy into a lie that we are not good. If God is not good, then His creation (and we are the crown of His creation) is no good.
I remembered what I felt in my heart about myself in those days. It wasn’t good. As I looked at those photographs with the eyes I now have, I see myself completely different and the reason I see myself completely different is I see God completely different. I see Him as a loving and good Father.
It stood out that God has always been speaking to me even in my most rebellious moments. The problem was I did not have the eyes to see, the ears to hear, nor the heart to understand what He was saying (Matt. 13:13). It was hidden from me. If we do not believe that God is good then much of what God does and says remains hidden. Yet He still spoke to me because He loved me and saw my future. He saw this very day when I could hear, see and understand, so He kept the book hidden for me for thirty-seven years.
In the book was a hand written message from the pastor; God was revealing my life’s destiny to me.
“Life is more than we see in a mirror, dimly. You have begun to see life as it is – but always remember, YOU are here to help make life what it should be.”
It is only in the past few years that I began to see what life should be. For many years as a believer something hindered me. I finally discovered what it was; it was my thinking, reasoning and understanding. It was always an argument with God, I was always asking how and because I could not understand I struggled. It was only when I more fully discovered the renewed mind of Christ that my life really began to be transformed (Rom. 12:1-2). Only the renewed mind can see what life should be.
There is a thought of Christ that has been circulating through my mind for months now, “It is time to become the dream of God.” That thought has captured my heart. I do not want to ever go back to being who I once was. Not even who I was three years ago. It is not that any of us have arrived, that is not the point; it is time for all of us to lay hold of that for which we were laid hold of by Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12). Someone recently said, “I am not claiming, but I am aiming.” That is a great way to say it.
It is amazing that thirty-seven years ago God spoke to me and told me, “You are here to help make life what it should be.” That is the dream of God for every believer. That is why we are on this earth. That is what Jesus did when He was here. That is our true destiny. He also revealed to me the key to the dream – our Father is a good and loving God and His creation is good, and we are the best of His creation. You can crush the enemy with that.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 2/4/2010 7:47:15 AM
Subject: Thirteen
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
In 2003, a movie came out titled Thirteen. It was an autobiographical film based on one of the co-writers’ life at age 12 and 13. It was controversial because it dealt with underage sex, drug and alcohol abuse and self-mutilation. I caught a portion of an interview with the writers on a popular TV talk show in which they stated they wanted parents to know what was really going on with young teens in our nation. As I was listening to their discussion, the Lord spoke to my heart. He said, “There is coming a day when a flood of morally bankrupt young women, much like the woman at the well will come to the church looking for help. Will you be ready?”
Toward the end of 2009 the Lord reminded me of what He told me. We had a ministry time on a Sunday morning and there were a lot of people who came forward to receive ministry. My eye caught a young teen girl who I had never seen before. I felt the compassion of the Lord rise in me so I approached her and asked if I could pray for her. I sensed two things, a lot of pain in her heart and a tremendous sense of destiny over her life. It was at that moment that I remembered the movie Thirteen and what the Lord had spoken to me. I believe this young woman and the friend who brought her have a destiny to minster to a younger generation of desperate, broken and hurting people that God desires to bring into His kingdom.
If you look at the story of Jesus and the woman at the well (John 4:7-42) there are some things that stick out to me in regards to this. First, there was thirst on the woman’s part. She had lived her life seeking to quench that thirst through relationships and those relationships almost destroyed her. I see this in the younger generation in our nation today; they may be the most relational generation yet, which is an indication of a deep thirst in their souls. Jesus told the woman that He was the only well that could truly satisfy her thirst. God is calling us to be a well of the same living waters.
Another thing you will notice is that Jesus operated from heaven – He spoke of heavenly things and because of this, and in the woman’s word “He told me all things I have done.” Jesus knew what it sounded like, felt like and looked like when heaven came down. He knew heaven because He came from heaven. We are from heaven because we too are born from above (John 3:3). Many times when I sense heaven it makes me feel like crying because I have come in contact with home. Sometimes we are so familiar and comfortable with this world that when our true home shows up, we miss it. God is calling us to cultivate an atmosphere of heaven in our church.
The woman at the well in spite of her lifestyle wanted to discuss worship. Worship will always be a part of heaven therefore will always be subject to discussion, arguments and divisions on earth. My son, Philip, had a dream in which my daddy, who has been in heaven over 10 years, came back to earth for a day. Daddy told Philip that there is always music in heaven and spontaneous roars break out regularly. I believe the Father will find the worshippers He has always looked for in this younger generation.
Because of her encounter with Jesus the woman at the well became a very powerful evangelist. She was a harvester. The first wave of the coming harvest will be to harvest the harvesters. I believe the contemporary women at the well will also be a major force in harvesting their generation.
A few days after I prayed for the young woman I learned her father had tried to kill both her and her mother last year. He is now in prison. Two weeks later this young woman received Christ – God really does have a plan for the younger generation. I believe we are in a time of a great shift. The Holy Spirit has been preparing our hearts for the desperate, hurting and broken. We have received so much of His love. The time has come to release His love, His compassion.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 1/28/2010 8:03:10 AM
Subject: Programming Your Mind
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
Many years ago I received a word from Bob Jones that the Lord had given me a gift to heal people’s minds and vision. I immediately put this gift to work by praying for people’s minds and saw some miraculous results, however I did not keep pursuing and developing this gift in me. When the Lord gave us a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit River some years ago this gift was immediately activated in me. Not only did I begin to pray for minds and vision again, but I also became a student of what the Bible says about our mind so I could use the gift more effectively. If I had to sum up in one sentence what I have learned over the past few years about the mind, it is that the Bible considers thoughts, ideas and imagination as a real and living power.
Two years ago I had a short open vision in which I saw into the spiritual realm. I saw what I knew to be the thoughts of the Lord (Jer. 29:11). His thoughts appeared in a geometric pattern and had a feeling of pure love around them. Unlike us, He does not think linearly; I saw multiple thoughts coming from Him at one time. I saw thoughts of healing, miracles, resurrections, revival and a desire for the care of the perishing. I also saw other thoughts that had to do with natural science and economy.
Last year I had a dream in which I saw the thoughts of the enemy. In the dream the spiritual world was open to me and I could see both angels and demons. I felt safe in the dream as I saw a war-like angel who I knew was there to protect me. I saw many demons and one of them came right in front of me, inches away and I could see that it was made up of a tightly woven pattern of dark substance that had the appearance of fishing line. I knew these were thought patterns from hell that this demon was trying to put into my mind. I knew these thoughts had the power to bind and imprison me.
Every thought that we have in our mind has the potential to transform our lives, the lives of people, and even the course of nations. When we allow a thought into our mind we are actually allowing a pattern of thinking into our mind. That is how the Lord transforms our lives and it is how the enemy builds strongholds in our minds and destroys lives. I read the following story in God’s Little Devotional Bible that so clearly illustrates this.
“As a teen, Megan arrived home from school just in time to watch an hour of soap operas before doing her homework. She enjoyed the escape into the TV world and wasn’t really aware that the programs were creating in her an inordinate amount of sexual curiosity. Over the months and years of watching her “soaps,” Megan’s perspective on life shifted. She began to think, “Relationships don’t need to be pure, and in fact the impure ones seem more exciting. Fidelity doesn’t matter, as long as a person is “happy”. As a college student, Megan found it easy to participate in “one-night stands.” Then, after a short marriage ended in catastrophe as a result of her infidelity, she sought help from a counselor. At the outset, it was difficult for the counselor to understand why Megan had engaged in extramarital affairs. As far as her public behavior was concerned, she had been a model teenager at home, at church, and at school. Finally, the counselor discovered the source of temptation that drove Meagan to participate in her hidden life. What we see on TV inevitably becomes a part of our memory bank, becoming background information for justifying our behavior. If what you see isn’t what you want to do, then change what you see!”
The Bible tells of a time when the serpent will open his mouth and water will pour out in order to cause a flood to sweep away the righteous (Rev. 12:15). This is happening right now, there is a flood of thoughts, ideas and imaginations from Satan currently being poured out in the earth. We are living in a time where the media such as the Internet, wireless phones, movies and TV has readily made available this flood of filth. That does not mean the media is wicked – it means the enemy is using the media to destroy lives and the future of nations. Many of our young people are being programmed right now for their future destruction. But God has a plan.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 1/21/2010 9:01:23 AM
Subject: Overcoming Psychological Attacks
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
I had a dream in which I was in the field behind our church building, I heard a sound and it was a St. Bernard who appeared to be rabid charging toward me. I knew the dog was capable of killing me. I had in my hand a devotional on the blood of Christ that I am currently reading. I took the book and vigorously swung at the dog and ordered it to leave. As I was doing this I was thinking, this is just a book; it is no weapon to defend myself against this dog. At that the dream ended and I woke up with my heart pounding.
When I got over the emotions, I remembered a movie titled Cujo that came out in the early eighties. I looked up the movie in Wikipedia and below is an excerpt from the article.
“Cujo (1981) is a psychological horror novel by Stephen King. The novel was made into a film of the same name in 1983. It was about a family who was terrorized by Cujo, a rabid. St. Bernard.”
The thing that stuck out to me was the fact that it was a psychological horror. I believe that is what the Lord was revealing in the dream. The enemy is attacking people psychologically, which means he is attacking people in the realm of their mind and emotions. The Lord has given us a weapon against these attacks, the blood of Jesus Christ.
I thought of the Passover ceremony, which was God’s provision for deliverance and salvation for Israel (Exodus 12:21-27). The father of each family had to kill a lamb and catch its blood in a container. The blood then had to be applied to the doorway of the home. This is how we can protect our minds from the psychological attacks by the enemy. We apply the blood of Christ to the doorway of our mind.
They dressed Him up in purple, and after twisting a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; 18 and they began to acclaim Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 They kept beating His head with a reed, and spitting on Him, and kneeling and bowing before Him. Mark 15:17-19
Scalp and head wounds bleed a lot. When the soldiers put that crown of thorns on Jesus’ head and kept beating Him in the head, His blood flowed profusely for the healing, deliverance and psychological protection (1 Th. 5:8) of our mind and emotions, but we must apply the blood. As in the Passover ceremony, the blood had to be applied to the door for it to protect the home.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary Psalms 107:2
There have been some excesses and abuses when it comes to the faith confession. However, when it comes to confession concerning the blood of Jesus there has been outright neglect. The Bible tells us we overcome Satan by the blood of Christ, our testimony and not loving our self-life (Rev. 12:11). We apply the blood to our lives by confession. We confess or say we are redeemed from the hand of the enemy by the finished work of the cross (Col. 2:13-15). This applies to every area of our lives, including our mind and emotions.
I had a devotional on the blood of Jesus that I used against the Cujo demon. The word devotional comes from the word devotion. I believe we are being summoned into a greater devotion to the Lord Himself and His shed blood in this season.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 1/14/2010 8:26:01 AM
Subject: Vessels Of Honor
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
We have inherited a particular spiritual DNA and part of the function of our church is to pass that DNA to the generations. It really is a sacred trust and it is awe inspiring that God gave us such a significant heavenly assignment. We want to be wise stewards of our destiny and recently in a pastor’s meeting as we wrestled over some of the practical out workings of this, the Lord gave me a scripture that I had not considered in over 15 years.
"Moab has been at ease since his youth; He has also been undisturbed, like wine on its dregs, and he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, nor has he gone into exile. Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed. 12 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will send to him those who tip vessels, and they will tip him over, and they will empty his vessels and shatter his jars. Jeremiah 48:11-12
In these verses the Holy Spirit used an illustration of wine making to describe some of His ways. In the ancient time, the wine-maker would pour the wine into a bottle and it would stand for a period of time and the dregs (sediment) would settle to the bottom. The wine-maker would then pour the wine into a different vessel leaving the dregs in the original bottle. They would do this over and over until the wine was pure of any dregs.
The first thing that stood out to me was the word ease. He desires to teach us how to be at rest in our hearts, but not be at ease like Moab. Ease in this context is carnal, deceptive and resistive of the Holy Spirit, however we are to be diligent to enter into His rest (Heb. 4:10-11). This is a key to recognizing where and on whom the dove of the Holy Spirit is resting (Mark 1:9). Like attracts like in the spiritual world. When we are abiding in His rest we will instinctively know the vessel He is resting on and we can readily submit and give place to the voice of that vessel. When we are only at ease we tend to listen to the voices that protect what we are comfortable with or what we have passion about. The end result will be shattering.
The next thing that stood out to me was the vessels. The vessels can be people as the Lord puts His wine into people and uses people (2 Cor. 4:7) to accomplish His purposes. People, like bottles, have different purposes and uses but we are all meant to be vessels of honor (2 Tim. 2:20-21). We are learning about three types of vessels that need to have a voice in our church if we are to fulfill our destiny. They are community, cause and corporate vessels.
The corporate vessel’s primary passion is to provide the infrastructure that will facilitate and sustain the home (community) and the mission (cause). However, if we allow the corporate vessel to always have their way we will become an institution that is focused primarily on the bottom line. The institution will become more important than the family and the mission. That is the dregs of the corporate vessel and it speaks of coldness and dead spirituality.
In the same way if we allow the community vessel, whose primary passion is the local congregation, fellowship and caring for the needs of the family to always have their way we will become in grown and inward focused. That is the dregs of the community vessel and in the spiritual world that has the scent of death on it. Our children will grow up, leave and the house will be left empty and we will become lifeless and irrelevant.
If we allow the cause vessel, whose primary passion is missions and outreach to always have their way we will forsake the most important nature of God, that is the dregs of the cause vessel. God is first a Father and a family man. We will become more of an army than a family and over time our hearts will become hardened through all the warfare.
We do not need an equal balance, but rather balance upon whomever the dove of the Spirit is resting. If we will abide in His rest we will be enabled to honor and submit to whatever vessel He desires to use regardless of our personal passions and callings.
Many Blessings, BW
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Byron Wicker
To: People Who Keep Company with God
Date: 1/7/2010 8:31:26 AM
Subject: Springs Of Joy
Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
New Years has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It's a time to reflect on the changes we would like or need to make and resolve to follow through on those changes. This year, as I was reflecting on these types of things the Holy Spirit began to speak to me about what brings me pleasure. He reminded me of a song we sang early in my Christian life that came from Psalms 87. One of the lines in the song said, “Jesus, O Jesus, the Son of God, all my springs of joy are found in You.” God has created the spiritual world and the natural world for our enjoyment, however, sometimes we get pleasure from things that may not be wrong in themselves, but are wrong for us.
You may know that the brain has a pleasure center that lets us know when something is enjoyable and reinforces the desire for us to perform the same pleasurable action again. This is also called the reward circuit. Normally, the reward circuit responds to pleasurable experiences by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine, which creates feelings of pleasure and tells the brain that this is something important, pay attention to it, remember it and pursue it. Drug, alcohol and nicotine abuse are some things that hijack the reward circuit, causing unusually large amounts of dopamine to flood the brain. This flood of dopamine is a major contributing factor that leads to addictions.
Addictions of any type dominate our lives, negatively affect our family, friends, and in some cases are life threatening. It is one of Satan’s most brilliant strategies, hijacking a part of us that God created so we could enjoy and take pleasure in the things of this life and pervert it in order to destroy us. But God has given us the authority and power to destroy and undo the works of Satan.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
Not all of us suffer with addictions, but many sincere believers’ minds are preoccupied or filled with something or someone to such an extent that it becomes unhealthy and produces compulsive behavior. We do not know if a preoccupied mind alters the brain’s pleasure center, however, we must treat any such thoughts as our enemy because they are death (Rom. 8:6-7). One thing I have seen in the spiritual world is that one thought from hell is part of a group and pattern of thoughts. So, when we welcome such a thought into our mind, a group of thoughts and a pattern of thinking will soon be established in our lives. Paul was revealing the origins of compulsions, obsessions and addictions long before medical science was able to verify the truth in what he wrote. This is why He said we are to destroy fortresses (strongholds), speculations (arguments), lofty thoughts, and capture every thought.
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Isaiah 26:3
If we will have a mind-set toward things above (Col. 3:1) then our lives will be filled with peace. Shalom, the word for peace is likely one of the most powerful words in the entire bible. It’s meaning includes completeness, soundness, security, contentment, prosperity and well being of the total person.
I encourage you to invite the Holy Spirit into your mind and into your brain’s pleasure center and give us thoughts that please Him. No more orphan thoughts.
“All my springs of joy are found in You” Psalms 87:7
Many Blessings, BW