The Hand Of the Lord Org
The Hand Of the Lord Org
Part of a reprint from a paper that I wrote last year!
You know, I write a lot of ‘Papers,’ that I post on my websites. Nonetheless, normally I will write a paper, and possibly correct or add to it up to a day or perhaps, two days later. Well, then once I start on the next paper, the one before that is usually forgotten. In the past, in some instances, I filled most every available page. Nonetheless, on occasion I may get distracted with other issues in my life and I don’t even remember what I had posted in those previous months or weeks.
You see, I very rarely go through my individual or collective websites to see if they are still relevant.
I am sorry, but most of the time, I feel as if my writings were helped by the Holy Spirit and spoken “what” had been needed to be said at the time. Therefore, I seldom will ever go back to a paper written before to make it more appealing or to doctor it up that it may be more “accepting,” to whoever the Holy Spirit intended it for.
In other words, I write what God has placed on my heart, not so that any individual “Paper,” is meant to please man.
If you don’t like it, I couldn’t care in the least, then don’t read it please. But I am not going to “coddle,” any message to please any man.
And so, in the past, I have been known to even ‘post’ something forget completely about my websites, and then to my surprise months later I will find something written in which I had completely forgotten about.
Nonetheless, recently I recall writing a paper concerning my many years in the Dallas area. Many are not aware but there was a period where the Metro-plex was one of the driest cities around the nation “spiritually.”
You see, it was at the height when this “Tithing,” teaching took the country by storm. For years, it was taught by a particular group or “Stream,” of the body. Nonetheless, as many of these “Prosperity groups,” prospered, it was noticed by many other denominations and churches. Soon, the concept had been adopted by all kinds of churches, who also wanted to be “financially,” blessed.
Many were not even favorable to the “Prosperity Message,” yet they were not stupid. As they saw all these other churches “Prosper greatly,” by preaching the concept of the ‘tithe,’ they joined in with that part of the message, and some were, at the time, even “preaching,” against those which preached “Prosperity.”
Nonetheless, what I am trying to point out here was that there was a period of a few years, where I could not find one church in order to “hear,” from the Holy Ghost.
You see, I had always developed in my Prayer and praise life to a point where I could generally walk into a church and then during “Worship,” I could help pray down the Holy Spirit who in turn would anoint the speaker, to make his “words,” to become “alive.”
Well, if anyone has been in a true “Worship,” environment where the Holy Spirit is given priority, then they would know exactly what I am talking about.
You see, I could walk into a church where the “Pastor,” had been one of the worst “Preachers,” on the planet, yet after “anointed worship,” the man would have been transformed into a “Spurgeon,” straight out of the nineteenth century.
This is what the Holy Spirit does. It is part of his role in the church. It is to make that “word of God,” to become alive in the hands of every preacher or speaker.
Well, as I said, there was a period where the church had been so obsessed with the “Tithe,” message, that for the longest time, I couldn’t even “Pray down,” the Holy spirit, in order for God to transform the “Man,” meaning the preacher into another more “gifted or anointed,” man, as should be in the church.
The reason for this fact was that even after I would help “Pray down,” the Holy Spirit to do his work, the speakers would have already tied the hands of God because they had all of these “legalistic sermons,” in which they preached “word for word,” to manipulate their congregations to “Tithe.”
I recall a particular time after my mother had passed away. She was Catholic and I never ever heard her accept “Jesus,” as her Lord and Savoir.
Well, she passed away on a Saturday, as I recall, but the next day I was in the first church early in the morning. As worship started, I gave it all in order to hear God yet heard nothing.
I went to another church with a ten O’clock service I believe. Again, I gave it all to hear from my friend, the Holy Spirit, I couldn’t hear anything. Finally, that morning, I went to a third service and again in “Prayer,” I gave it all, and I prayed in a manner in which I had learned to Pray in order to bring the Presence of God into the atmosphere or for me to ascend to a ‘spiritual realm,’ where I had been used to hearing from God.
Finally, in a moment during deep worship, there was a breakthrough, and I heard Jesus and could almost see him standing in heaven with my mother by his side. And He answered me, and he said, “John, not only is your mother right here beside me, but so is your Father.”
Well, that was all that I came for, the service was concluded for me. I walked out of there barely holding back my tears and thanking the Lord for his wonderful and merciful “goodness.”
So, anyway, as I stated, there for the longest period, the Dallas Metro-plex had been the driest “spiritually,” for the longest time. Nevertheless, God was always so good to me. You see, there was always a Bible School in which I could take refuge in called Christ for the Nations Bible School. It started way back in the seventies I believe by Gordon and Freda Lindsay.
A Rabbit Trail:
Gordon Lindsay’s small bio here mentions some of the most “anointed,” men of God which carried powerful “Healing gifts” in this latter past century of the church. I even see that he was converted through Charles Parham’s ministry, who was “in a sense,” the Father of William Seymour, the noted “Father” of the Azusa Street Revival.
Following taken from: https://revival-library.org/heroes/gordon-lindsay/
Gordon Lindsay’s parents were members of J. A. Dowie’s Zion City, Illinois when he was born. The city’s financial difficulties forced the family west in 1904, where they temporarily joined another Christian-based community led by Finis Yoakum at Pisgah Grande, California. When similar problems emerged the family moved to Oregon after only a few months. From here the family moved to Portland, Oregon where Lindsay attended high school and was converted during a Charles F. Parham evangelistic campaign.
During his youth he came under the influence of John G. Lake, former resident of Zion City, missionary to South Africa, and founder of the Divine Healing missions in Spokane, Washington, and Portland, Oregon in 1920. Lindsay joined the healing and evangelistic campaigns of Lake, traveling throughout California and the southern states.
Lindsay began his own ministry in California as pastor of small churches in Avenal and San Fernando and for the next eighteen years, he travelled across the country holding revivals in full gospel churches. This period of travel prepared him as perhaps no other man in the nation to establish communication among a variety of Pentecostals….
… By 1947 he had witnessed the extraordinary ministry of William Branham and responded to the invitation to become Branham’s manager. His managerial skills were soon obvious in the Branham campaigns, and in April 1948, he furthered the cause of the revival when he produced the first issue of “The Voice of Healing,” specifically to promote Branham’s ministry. To Lindsay’s great surprise Branham announced that he “would not continue on the field more than a few weeks more.”
At great financial cost Lindsay decided to continue the publication of the new magazine in cooperation with his long-time friends, Jack Moore and his talented daughter Anna Jeanne Moore. He broadened the scope of the magazine by including more of the lesser known healing evangelists who were beginning to hold campaigns and were drawing large audiences…. By March 1949 The Voice of Healing circulation had grown to nearly 30,000 per month and had clearly become the voice of the healing movement. It’s pages successfully spread the message of the Salvation-Deliverance-Healing revival across the world.
In December 1949, Lindsay arranged the first convention of healing revivalists in Dallas, Texas. The assembly was addressed by Branham, Lindsay, Moore, old-timers such as F. F. Bosworth and Raymond T. Richey, and a number of rising revivalists including O. L. Jaggers, Gayle Jackson, Velmer Gardner, and Clifton Erickson. This historic conference symbolized the vitality and cohesion of the revival.
The following year, the convention, now about 1,000 strong, met in Kansas City, with virtually every important revivalist in the nation, with the notable exceptions of William Branham and Oral Roberts. Lindsay exercised great skill and wisdom exposing several points of danger and tension in the movement proposed guidelines for the future. Lindsay understood the fears of the older Pentecostal denominations and leaders and tried his utmost to deal with the offending issues…..
… The Voice of Healing family of evangelists flowered in the early 1950s. Lindsay continued to publicize Branham’s work, although he was not formally associated with the organization; the nucleus of the fellowship was an influential clique which included O. L. Jaggers, William Freeman, Jack Coe, T. L. Osborn, A. A. Allen, and Velmer Gardner.
So, what I am saying is that this man had influence with some of the greatest “movers and shakers,” of the early Pentecostal movement.
Sorry for that Rabit Trail, but I get excited just writing about the influence in which these men had in the “Spirit Filled Church.”
Of course, I hope you would realize that all these “anointed men,” were “precursors” to the modern Charismatic Movements of today.
Dictionary
Definitions from Oxford Languages
pre·cur·sor
/ˈprēˌkərsər/
noun
plural noun: precursors
Each one was a “Forerunner,” of the very last days in which Christ will return to the Earth. We would not have a “spiritual church,” without the ministries of many of these men.
Anyway, as I said, even though I could find no “Spiritual life,” in the Metro-Plex for years, there was always Christ for the Nations.
Many times, at the beginning of the year, I would see these kids, some very enthusiastic, but others, most likely were the PK’s, who had parents in which had been devoted to the school for one reason or another. This is how many Ministry parents are in the church, they want their kids to follow them into the same ministry that they came out of, and the truth is that perhaps their children “were never even called to minister.”
Perhaps, they could do better in a university fulfilling their “dreams,” of becoming a great sports legend.”
I don’t believe any parent ought to force their children into “ministry.”
Years ago, I attended a thriving trending Bible School filled with Preacher’s kids. I am sorry, but many were the most rebellious ungrateful individuals attending the school.
I don’t want to swear to this, as fact, but once I was told that a number of them had had a contest in which the winner would be the person who “laid the most young ladies attending the school.”
And now you have to understand that at the time, these were those considered the "Trending," the "Coolest."
These were considered the "Elite," among faculty, staff and even by many of their peers."
They were the "righteous," because they came from "Preacher," families.
Well, I have another description of the families that they must have come out of.
One of the things they did by rejecting me because of my “giftings,” was to cause me to “Backslide.”
Well, after I grew up, I realized that it wasn’t their fault, but it was my immaturity. Nevertheless, when I walked away from school that year, I just refused to be a part of any church while living a life of “sin.”
You see, if I were to do that, then I would've been exactly like them.
So, I just told God, "God I will never deny that you saved me from a life of drugs and sin, but as far as this 'Church thing," forget it. For the next four or so years, I was living in "sin," but I refused to be part of a church, as one of my former examples all pretended to be.
And there have been many times in my life where I have told an individual that if you are going to live a double life, one of sin, all the time while attending an active church or pretending to be a Christian, then you ought to quit going to church.
You see, you are not doing God any good, your brothers and sisters any good, or even yourself any good because you are searing your conscience.
And I am not talking of Christians who are struggling with sin, but those who wallow in it.
What you need to do is to get that out of your system and then once you purposely decide to give it your all again, then return to the church.
But you see, we have in the modern-day church too many individuals, as those Preacher Kids, in my former Bible School. They are good for no one, least of all to the Lord. They attend church as wolves all trying to prey on other Christians or leading to other Christian’s backsliding.
Then if they go on in leadership they normally have no other purpose, but to use the ministry for their own gain. If they seriously cared for people, they would have never entered ministry, nonetheless, many come from families where the parents just expected that they would “follow,” in daddy’s footsteps,
Well, they have and that is why the church is as screwed up as it is. No, what I suggest if you are a backslidden Christian just walking a Pharisee life where your only purpose in following God is to see what kind of “career,” you can make out of it, then please, “Get the hell out of the ministry until you grow up and make a personal decision to follow Christ, not because of mommy or daddy, but because you care for others.”
You see, it’s not rocket science!
More than likely, this is one of the reasons why the American church is so screwed up.
We have PK kids who were forced to follow their parents in some form of ministry and which they have or had no interest yet have been indoctrinated to understand that this is their “allotted portion,” in life.
Well, maybe it wasn’t, if you don’t wish to serve God’s children for the right purpose, then get the hell out of ministry. Ministry was not created for a class of people to be served by those who are under them which have not attained “Clergy-ship.”
The ministry is not a “Career,” it is a “calling,” and “if I have never heard a call from God to serve his people,” then I would go back and either decide to love God’s people, or I would get a real job in which you might be qualified this next time.
I recall one year when I was at a Tuesday night meeting where I always sat in the very back, as my voice normally carries all through a congregation or building. But these young men were talking all through the service and I will never forget this one ‘dude,’ he had his leg resting over the back of the chair in front of him, as if he were playing some video game or resting or whatever?
Nonetheless, normally within a few months the students would become more united and enthusiastic with “Praise and Worship.”
Then it was always a pleasure for me to drop by the school to re-charge my “Spirit,” having just spent the last few weeks in a couple of cities (Fort Worth, Arlington, and Dallas) which had become the driest “spiritually,” most likely of the Nation.
But again, by mentioning those few students, my point is that many times all that it takes to disrupt or to grieve the Holy Spirit is a few selfish men as I have mentioned above.
Nonetheless, this is why sometimes it is the responsibility of the students to approach those few who devils, and God forbid, but you may find it extremely gratifying and then “God help us!”
(That was a joke, maybe?)
Music Link: https://youtu.be/okyaXlWB1X4
For lyrics click "more."
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