Treasures In My Storehouse

^{Matthew 13:52 - Amplified Bible}

⁵²He said to them, Therefore every ^[a]teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings who has been instructed about and trained for the kingdom of heaven and has ^[b]become a disciple is like a householder who brings forth out of his storehouse treasure that is new and [treasure that is] old [the fresh as well as the familiar].

Jesus, as we know, was very adept at teaching through parables, basic stories comparing the deeply spiritual truths of the Kingdom of God with everyday situations already familiar. This is one of my favorites. This one is for preachers.

The KJV reads "every scribe." The word scribe often has a negative connotation because usually Jesus was rebuking them right along with the Pharisees of his day. In this case, the Amplified translation brings a lot to the surface. Scribe: "every teacher and interpreter of the Sacred Writings (Scripture)..." Here Jesus is speaking not only to the twelve preachers that stood before him that day, but to us. Apostles, prophets, pastors, evangelists, and teachers; Christ looked down through the portal of time and saw this generation standing behind the pulpit on the platform of the world's stage, carrying with it the same sacred writings...Now that we are here, Christ asks us this question: do we have the treasure necessary to reach our generation?

Preachers, there is a process we must go through as it concerns the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, if you will. Its lifelong. First, we must be taught, secondly, we must be trained, finally, we must become disciples...All this in the area of the Kingdom of God...

We must LEARN the Word of God. We must know what it says. We must become familiar, nay, intimate with its doctrines. We must LEARN the Oneness of God, we must LEARN baptism in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins...on down the line to holiness, healing, and wonderful gift and works of the Holy Spirit - In short, we must "study to show ourselves approved..." I may be a bit old fashioned, but I don't think there's a better place we can go, when we have been called on to preach, than this most sacred of books we call the Bible...

Furthermore, we must never stop learning, we must continue to be taught and to teach ourselves throughout our days here. God's Word is so immense, and there is so much material, even in just a single verse, a single pearl if you will, that is so multi functional and so multi-dimensional that no matter how old we get, we will still need to be taught. We must learn of this place called the Kingdom...Every time I learn something, or every time something I already "know" is affirmed in a new way, its a treasure to put in my storehouse...

Secondly we must be TRAINED. We cannot be mavericks. We cannot go it alone, we must be trained by the generation that has proceeded us. We must lock arms with and sit at the feet of the men who have gone before us to plant and pastor churches, evangelize communities and nations. We must gain from the prophets that still walk among us like Lee Stoneking and Jeff Arnold - we must look at the greatest churches among us that have had continual revival and not be so ignorant to think we can just do it on our own... I don't think we need to discount those old preaching tapes we have in our garages either...I think we need to take the time, when we have opportunity, to listen to what CM Becton, and GA Mangun had to say - it mattered then, it still matters now.

We need to submit to the men of God in our lives - we need to build God's Kingdom, not our own little kingdoms. We need to serve in our local churches. Every time we are trained, and we are trained how to do, if you will, ministry in this kingdom, we gain great, priceless treasure to place in our storehouse.

Thirdly, we must become disciples...We must, ourselves, live out in our daily lives the things pertaining to the kingdom that we have been taught and trained for. If we have been taught to pray, and we have been trained to pray, now we simply must pray. If we have learned to preach, and we have been trained to preach, NOW we must preach...If we have learned how to reach out to the lost, and we have been trained how to reach out to the lost, now we must, actively, actually reach out to them. The gifts of the Spirit are a great example of this principle: we must learn of them, we must be trained by those that have mastered them, and then we must operate in these gifts...our churches and our world needs them. Oh yes we do, we need healing, miracles, prophecy, tongues and interpretation of tongues, and the words of knowledge and wisdom in our churches...For there is a generation coming up behind us that will need these as well, and if we don't have it in the storehouse to give to them, they will go without - GET IT IN YOUR STOREHOUSE!

So, what do you have in your storehouse? What do we have in our arsenal when we go to spiritual war? We have treasure. We have so much treasure. We have both old and new.

I've got some OLD treasures in my storehouse, and let this generation hear this one preacher's voice: I WILL NOT GET RID OF THEM JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE OLD! The preaching of the Cross is old. The preaching of the gospel to old. The baptism of the Holy Ghost dates much further back than 1901 Topeka, Kansas. No my friend, its old, but its a TREASURE, and it still works just as well as it always did - the Cross still cries out to the sinner, the blood still washes away my sins, there is STILL POWER IN THAT NAME OF JESUS, the Holy Ghost still fills, and empowers, and sanctifies, and leads and guides into all truth...

I've still got preaching tapes and mp3's dating back to the seventies...yeah they're old, but they still uplift my soul...They are treasure.

But we have some NEW things in the storehouse...We have some new methods. We don't always do things the exact same way, or say things the same way we've always said them. We still say them, but we find NEW ways to relate it to this generation. If revival is a new thing to you, preach the new thing! If reaching out into your community is a new thing to you, let it be new! If you've sat on the pew for twenty five years and INVOLVEMENT is a new thing to you, live the new thing - its a treasure. A revelation is just the light switch coming on revealing what's been in the room the whole time, but if I've never seen it before, it NEW to me, and its a treasure...

New is a good thing.

II Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Romans 12:2

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

Titus 3:4-6

⁴But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared,

⁵Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

⁶Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Romans 6:4

We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.

Bring forth your treasure, preach them, old and new preacher; the OLD rugged cross that causes a NEW and abundant life! What do you have in your storehouse?

The Example of the Rechabites

Ran across what I feel to very interesting and eye opening passage from the Old Testament the other day during my lunch/study time at work. Jeremiah chapter 35 highlights an interesting clan or family of people known as the Rechabites...apparently the decendents of Jonadab, and members of the larger Kenite clan - all the background information on them is neither here nor their... Really, there's not even a whole lot of detail about them in history, though Wikipedia does have a brief article on them and their possible decendants. I said all that to say this: I would like to highlight a few brief points that we can all benefit from in Jeremiah's thirty fifth chapter regarding this otherwise mysterious group of people known as the Rechabites.

²Go to the house of the Rechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers; then give them [who are pledged to drink no wine] some wine to drink.

First thing we should go ahead and make note of here is that God is using the Rechabites as an example, or more so a contrast to the Israelites, who at the time were of course backslid and headed into the Babylonian captivity. Now I find the setting here interesting. I think it would be easy at first glance just to think that God and Jeremiah are setting up to tempt the Rechabites to sin, but I think we would be too cautious to negate God's obvious sense of humor and irony; He's really saying to Jeremiah: "hey, watch this. I'm going to give you a good example of obedience and loyalty." Much like when he told the devil "Have you considered my servant Job..." Sometimes what may be a tempting situation is just putting you in a better position to be God's example (will you pass the test?) I digress...

Main point: more than two hundred years previously, the patriarch of the Rechabites had basically established for his family a principle or standard of living that they had been completly loyal to. They did not drink wine, namely. (They had established a few other traditions as well, of which we will mention momentarily.)

⁵And I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, Drink wine.

⁶But they said, We will drink no wine, for Jonadab son of Rechab, our father, commanded us: You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons, forever.

Here is a people, with an opportunity, at the invite of the man of God, to basically forsake all they had ever stood for for two hundred plus years: but notate, please highlight this in your Bible, their response - WE WILL DRINK NO WINE. It was a flat, curt, maybe even rude response - but it was immediate, and their was no wavering; we just don't do that, we havn't done it yet, we're not going to do it now...why? Because "our father commanded us..."

So where are the Christians? And what traditions shall we hold to and not compromise? What commands has our Father passed on to us that we, as His children, should loyally obey? The Rechabites, even though they were not technically considered Jews, were exactly by the example given what God was looking for from His people.

Christ spoke to us so clearly in John 14:15, the Father robed in flesh stated, almost in the form of a challenge: "If you love me, keep my commandments..."

Compromise them? Throw them away? Discard them as outdated and non relevant traditions? Put them on a display shelf to speak of, but not actually pull down off the shelf and apply to the daily living part of our lives, much less our hearts? KEEP THEM! LIVE THEM!

Read how the chapter ends: (taken from the Amplified translation)

¹³Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to My words and obey them? says the Lord.

¹⁴The command which Jonadab son of Rechab gave to his sons not to drink wine, has been carried out and established [as a custom for more than two hundred years]. To this day they drink no wine, but they have obeyed their father's command. But I, even I, have persistently spoken to you, but you have not listened to and obeyed Me.

¹⁵I have sent also to you all My servants the prophets earnestly and persistently, saying, Return now every man from his evil way and amend your doings and go not after other gods to serve them; and then you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers. But you did not submit and consent to Me or listen to and obey Me.

¹⁶Since the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab have fulfilled and established the command of their father which he commanded them, but these people have not listened to and obeyed Me,

¹⁷Therefore thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

¹⁸And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and have kept all his precepts and have done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab son of Rechab shall never fail [to have] a man [descendant] to stand before Me.

Look at the reward for those that were obedient. God promised them a place - a place of right standing with Him, a place of ministry - and that too can be ours if we will simply KEEP the commandments already given; as Jude put it "THE FAITH that was ONCE delivered unto the saints..."

Let it not be said of us, God's true church:

I have spoken to them, but they have not listened, and I have called to them, but they have not answered.

Are we listening? Are we answering the call? I'm not just referring to alcohol usage, although that would not be out of context. I'm not just referring to NOT doing the things that God hates, but what about DOING the things He has commanded we do?

To Be Continued....

UPDATE!!! I AM ALIVE!

Well, I just wrote a great blog, but I accidently erased it. Sorry, we'll try it again tomorrow when I am not INCREDIBLY upset with this computer. I love all of you. Friends, family, fellowmembers of the church, I had a lot of great stuff to say about all of you. But I erased it. I had a lot of great stuff to say about all the neat stuff going on in my life right now, but I erased it. I waxed philosophically eloquent about time and not having enough of it, but, that has also been erased. Woops. I also gave a sneak peak at an upcoming Blog Series I am going to do about Shepherd and sheep relations in the Bible, but you guessed it, gone. Like Gone With The Wind. Frankly my dear, I am going to sleep, and I will attempt to do it again soon...I tried.

Random Musings #2 - People I Love Part 2

When last we left our young, fearless preacher hero...

Just kidding. Kind of.

I feel it, as I stated before, vital that for you the reader to understand me better as a person, you must understand those that have had close and personal relationships with myself. We are shaped by, if nothing less, the relationships we hold in life. We have spoken at length of my immediate family; Candice my wife, and my two great boys, Isaiah and Jeremiah. I then spoke briefly about my parents. Perhaps at another point in time I will delve deeply into the personalities of my mother and father, but I do not feel to write about it at this time...

I thought I would take some time to mention a very special person in my life. God blessed me with a little brother growing up. When I was 2 1/2 years old, Shawn Casey Armey came into the world. The last of my parents children, and at the time, my worst enemy (according to the recollection of our mother.)

My earliest honest memories of him don't really begin until I was already close to four years old. I suppose, besides being blood related, our closest thread growing up, and really until this day has been that of professional wrestling. I know, I know. Just, suspend your disgust with me momentarily...although, I could quip on the few things positive about wrestling I will probably save that for another blog. Now that you all think less of me, I will continue on with the mainthought. In about mid-1990 I can remember watching wrestling with my brother as much as we could, only having an antenna you understand. We didn't get cable until 1994, and even then I think we only had 30 channels, but my brother and I would find wrestling.

Soon, we started wrestling. I know. Don't try this at home. Looking back at it retrospectively, and sometimes reviewing some of the surviving video tapes I realize how lucky we were to never be seriously injured. Ironically, my brother started to train to actually wrestle professionally this year and totally blew his knee out during training. Now don't get me wrong. There were plenty of bumps and bruises to go around, but we never wound up in the hospital or anything (though there were probably a few times we should have gone.)

I would be remiss not to mention the famous among us nuance of our mutually binding hobby called the FWF. Better known as the Figures Wrestling Federation. We would get all of our wrestling figures together and actually put on little shows with them, complete with ongoing storylines, champions, and predetemined outcomes for the matches. (I think so much to the point that I passed it on genetically to my youngest son Jeremiah...) I still vividly recall the first 4 inch Hasbro WWF figures we purchased when they first came out. We were going to buy Hulk Hogan, but the first week we went to the Wal Mart in Palatka they didn't have the Hulkster so we got Andre the Giant. Now, if I had any foresight at all, Iwould have kept at least a few of these in the package (some of them are now worth in the hundreds of dollars in the package!)But of course we didn't....we played with those things until the arms and legs fell off. Show after show.

I would say the bulk majority of our time spent together growing up was spent either watching wrestling, putting on wrestling shows with our action figures, or wrestling each other in the backyard in one of several homemade wrestling rings, or playing a wrestling based video game. When we got a video camera for Christmas of 1994 we began to tape our in ring exploits frequently...by spring of 1995 we had built our first off the ground ring complete with posts and ropes (though not well enough constructed that we could actually bounce off the ropes, mind you...) That summer we had a bunch of our friends over for a wrestling party that we called "Crash Carnival..." a tape that I just got through converting to DVD a few days ago...

I guess there is some pyschological warmth of feeling I have for the 'sport' despite some of the things about it that are not of redeemable value because it is hard for me to differentiate between memories of my brother and memories of wrestling. For the most part, they go hand in hand.

There is one major thing I do recall however, that involves me and my brother outside of the realm of professional wrestling. In the summer of 1995 mom and dad were dragging us to a home Bible study at one of my dad's friends' house...for most of these lessons we stayed in the back bedroom playing their Nintendo, you guessed it: 'Pro Wrestling.' However, when it came time for Bro. Finley (another person of whom I have much to say, though I will not at this point to be out of context) to teach the lesson on water baptism in Jesus' name mom and dad requested our presence at the dinner table.

Sadly, I recall no specifics of the lesson itself, only a terrible feeling in my gut: why didn't they teach us this at the Church of God? What am I going to do? These were thoughts, and I kept them to myself. It was just Shawn and myself standing outside on the small porch, together sharing no doubt the same feelings on the inside...it was my brother that spoke up. "I think we need to be baptized in Jesus' name..." Would I have had the courage to say anything at all had my brother not spoken up when he did? I honestly do not know. His resoluteness lead to our baptisms on October 1st 1995 in Gainesville, by Bro Finley, under the ministry of Jeff Arnold. When I came out of the water, God filled me with the Holy Ghost with the supernatural evidence of speaking with tongues, (of men or angels, I did not discern.) It was the greatest spiritual event of my life, but I really don't know if I would have had the courage to step in the water if Shawn had not vocalized what I was holding inside. I am forever indebted to him. I have always admired that part of him...

In high school we drifted apart to some degree. I was girl crazy. I had two or three 'serious' relationships that at the time I put above everything in my life, including God, and especially my brother. He began to hang out with kind of a gothic, punk rock crowd, and I just wasn't in to that scene. We still wrestled, but there was one year in high school that I remember going the whole year without stepping in the ring, or spending much time together at all. We had two separate lives. But it was my fault. I was neglecting him for my own selfish ambitions. I later apologized to him for this in a letter a few years ago. If I had it to do over again, I would have spent more time with my brother. For that matter, I would have spent more time with all of my family. But him especially.

Life happens so fast. After graduating I moved to Gainesville a year later, and a year after that I was in Texas, and a year after that I was married, and a year after that I was a father...And in that span of time I saw him only two or three times for the physical distance between us. He came to my wedding in 2003, along with my parents.

Now I'm 28. Still in Texas, clearly, trying to mow down the path that God wants for me. My childhood, I have realized, has come and gone. But my heart is still filled with years worth of memories, and it seems like Shawn is in all the good ones.

He has since married a wonderful girl named Amanda, and God has blessed him with twins, Kennedy and Alyssa - both of whom I got to hold the last time I was in Florida to visit. They are two now. They really were miracle babies. But do you see what I mean? How fast life goes by. I know that's not really the theme of this article, but it seems it could be.

Since moving away from Florida, Shawn and I have grown much closer. Via the magic of the telephone, we talk quite a bit. In fact, I talk to Shawn on the phone more than anyone else in my family. Something I should have spent time doing the last two years of high school. Anyway. I once told my brother in a letter, and I reiterate the point here, that the bulk majority of my favorite childhood memories involve the presence and relationship with my brother...and now that we are grown we spend time often reminiscing about those moments, but we talk about pretty much anything. I love and respect him, and he will always be my brother. Shawn, if you're reading this, I am very proud of you, and proud to call you brother.

Random Musings #1 "People I Love"

From time to time I am going to write a blog that is not really centrally focused on a single topic. A bit of freewrite if you will. Today is Mother's Day, and of course my thoughts went to mom on many occasions today during church and other goings on. Not sure if I have really put in print how I feel about my mother, or my father for that matter. I thought today a good Random Musings topic would be about people that are of great importance to me in my life, that way if I happen to mention them in a later blog, and you don't know who I am referring, perhaps you may be able to refer back to this page for some background info...

Now these are as they relate to me. These are not all encompassing bio-pics to be sure of these wonderful people, but I will give you a little window into who they are and why I love them...why don't we start when some family members.

FAMILY
Wife, companion, and best friend on earth: Candice.

There is not a more important soul to me than that of my lovely wife. We have been married for over six happy years, and every year it gets better. I become a better husband, she is continuing to be a great wife, and our marriage is as strong as ever. I look at Candice and see so many deep levels of real beauty that few people possess. Oh, yes, she is gorgeous to look it, but her value to me goes so much deeper than just what I see on the surface. Every look in her wistful brown eyes is soft reminder of how kind, and patient, forgiving, and self-sacrificing she has been to me, and those reminders of how lucky I am our like precious diamonds and jewels that I keep on a display, reminding of how valuable she really is. I will no doubt speak far more of my wife in future blogs, but I just thought you would like to know up front that without her, I would not be who I am.

Isaiah - My Oldest Son
When Candice told me we were going to have a baby just six short months into our marriage, I was more than a bit overwhelmed. I was making about $150 a week back then in a good week. I was not sure how I would afford him. I was still extremely childish myself; how was I going to teach him how to be a man? Nevertheless, Isaiah Omar arrived into our world on February 15th, 2005. We took him home a few days later and my life has never been the same since then. Marriage does not really change a person to a high degree. It can motivate you to change, but having a child really forces you to grow up.

I remember many a night I spent in the small bathroom in our two bedroom apartment with the shower turned on to provide some soothing background noise while I rocked our little Zaybo and sang to him to get him to go to sleep night after night. I remember vividly when he was about four months holding him one night and seeing how big he got so quick and just weeping, knowing one day I would miss him being this small, and that the growing wasn't going to stop anytime soon. Children have a unique way of teaching us to live in the moment, for it will soon pass into the realm of memories. I have so many memories of Isaiah, and he adds new ones every day. He is now at the pivotal age of five. Out of that toddler stage for the most park, talking in full sentences, having a very defined personality already. I see so much of me in him, and Candice, but I see so much in him that is unique, hard to identify exactly who he got it from. I know he is going to be able to be and do whatever he applies himself to one day. Its going to be hard to watch him grow into young man, but at the same time I can think of no greater accomplishment than to see that he succeeds in becoming that godly young man. No matter how old he gets, he'll always be my first child, I will always call him "Bobi," and I will always have precious memories to replay of sleepless nights, wobbly first steps, and Christmas's no longer about what I was getting, but about what I was giving. Thank you Isaiah, for all you have done for me as a person...

PS: He LOVES Thomas The Train...first it was Blues Clues, but Thomas has pretty effectively taken that title away for a few years now. I am so proud of him!

Jeremiah - My Youngest Boy
Oh Lord, where do I even start? The truth of the matter is, though I love him, Isaiah was Candice's idea. When Isaiah turned three, this time it was me that wanted another baby. We got Jeremiah. I was not all that helpful in the early going with Isaiah because I really didn't know what I was doing. But when JJ came along, I did my best to get up with him, rock him back to sleep, change diapers...I remember holding him in my arms one service at the altar just weeping over him. I asked for it, I got it. Now I've got to raise it, and raise it right. Daddy grew up a little bit more in that moment.

I remember the panic we felt not knowing what that bump on his skull was. Of course, it turned out to be just a calcific hematoma, nothing to worry about, common with c-sectioned babies. But I now know what its like to sit in the neourosurgeon's office and wait for news that could be not just bad news, but sometimes the worst just runs through you're mind. What if? What if he needs surgery? Am I really prepared to loose the child I prayed for? How do you handle that degree of loss? If I ever lost JJ, I would never be the same.

He likes to be held a certain way. He always has to lay his head in the nape of my neck. He won't let me hold him any other way. 'He feels safe' I think to myself. He trusts me. My prayer is: Lord don't ever let me make a mistake that would damage that trust, no matter how old he gets.

He likes hot dogs, professional wrestling ('wammo' in baby language), and crawling in bed with mommy and daddy in the middle of the night...

He's the perfect little brother for Isaiah. I love watching there relationship unfold right before my eyes. God has blessed with me with the two best boys a father could ever want.

MY PARENTS: Jack and Linda

My parents are, if nothing else, unique. They parented four of us, Melanie, then Mary, then Me, and then my little brother Shawn. Dad was born in Fort Wayne Indiana to a church of God preacher and wife; Willard and Glenna Armey. My father served in Vietnam in 1968 and saw some very heavy combat (which I didn't really know until a few years ago, he never talked about it when were kids...) Shortly after coming home from the war and moving to Florida he met my mother. Mom was the baby of her family, the youngest of five children. In 1972 they were married. I love my parents very much. Were they perfect? No. But they both did their best to see to it that we were well taken care of, happy children. I had a great childhood. As a matter of fact, I will devoting some blog space later on hopefully to a memoir of my childhood. They still live in Florida...in the same house my mom grew up in. Dad still likes guns and fixing things...Mom is still mom, doing her best to make everyone happy, making every dollar stretch as far as it will go. I'll say this much, I think my parents were very giving growing up. I don't remember them buying much for themselves. Seems they were always giving in to the whimsical fancies of us boys...plus necessities. I guess there just never was much left for them to do much fun stuff. I don't recall them going shopping, or going on date nights or anything like that. They both lived for us kids. Dad worked for us...Mom did everything she could to see that we were well adjusted children. She never let on that we were poor, though they themselves to this day are low maintenance, easy to please people...So if I'm not impressed your fancy clothes, house, car, food, you know where I got it from...

Think I'll stop there for the night...on the next random musings I will talk more about my siblings, and some very close friends and highly influential people on my life...until next time!

Working On Some New Stuff

Greetings in Jesus' name blog reading friends! It has been a few weeks, and I apologize for the delay in updating you all...I am currently settling in to my new job as a customer service specialist at Mardel ( a Christian book store/office supply joint,) helping out with some projects at Life Tabernacle and the usual stuff of spending time with my wonderful family...

Having said that, let me give you a few thoughts to chew on. Mark chapter 9 verses 14-29, read it. Amazing portion of scripture, and I think we have overlooked some things that will help us in our pursuit of helping others.

Having some trouble pasting the scrips, oh well, better to avoid copyright infringement I suppose...

Verses fourteen through eighteen give us the situation. We have a scribe, a group of disciples, and a boy possessed with a devil that is, among other things causing the boy to not be able to speak. From what I understand, the scribe brought the boy to the disciples hoping for the devil to be cast out, and the disciples were unable to do it. This is the message relayed to Jesus.

There are still particular devils today that wish to silence you. Just a sidebar.

Let's take a look at the list of things this devil does to this poor boy, for we ourselves could learn a thing or two: this is the devil's will for your life. God has a will for your life, so does the devil. Here's what he would like to do to you, according to verse 18:

1.) He taketh him (he seizes, grabs control)
2.) He teareth him (breaking, rending, tearing)
3.) He foameth (foaming at the mouth)
4.) Gnashes with his teeth (literal, but can spiritually represent bitterness.)
5.) Pineth away. This is the devil's ultimate will in your life: for you to dry up spiritually and wither away.

Problem: Jesus' boys couldn't get it done.

In verse 19, we get Jesus' initial response. He rebukes. He rebukes the disciples for their lack of faith. You need to note that: LACK OF FAITH, because he expounds on that statement later. He said "how long shall I suffer you..." Scriptural principle: 'without faith it is impossible to please God' - lack of faith GREIVES the Spirit. It frustrates him. It irritates the Holy Ghost when we demonstrate a lack of faith.

Let's jump ahead to the end, and then we will come back to the text. The disciples later asked Jesus why they were unable to cast out the devil. He said 'this kind comes forth only by PRAYER and FASTING. Can we make a connection. First vital connection: your level of FAITH is effected by your level of PRAYER and FASTING. Prayer is an excercise of faith. It strenghtens faith. You fail to pray, you can atrophe spiritually in the faith department. He also said, FASTING. Fasting is an act of faith, and a dying out to the will of your flesh. Because it takes FAITH to trust in God, your flesh can get in the way via you depending on you instead. FASTING says: I can't do anything in it of myself, HE must do the work IN me and THROUGH me, and he can't do that if the flesh is in the way.

So we have a lack of faith, prayer, and fasting on the part of the disciples, and at this juncture, we still have a boy possessed with a devil.

In verse 20, they bring the boy to Jesus. Notice how the devil in him acts up as they get in God's presence. The devil acting up in your life or in a church's life is a good sign that he knows that Jesus is getting ready to drive him out. Devils have a keen sense of when their time is up. This is when they act up the most. It is a defense mechanism, a last ditch effort at intimidation.

Jesus turns to the boys father next and asks how long the boy had been this way...chalk this up to LENGTH of CONDITION is no matter to God. If you've been bound for ten, twenty, thirty years, Jesus troubles the water wherever he goes, and he is not bothered by how bad things are, or how long they've been that way. The answer: since he was a child.

Now the next few verses are crucial, and I think they contain the things that we have previously may have missed.

Verse 22 gives a good picture of the work of Satan vs the work of God: the devil would throw the boy into both the water and the fire TO DESTROY him. Remember, John 10:10 - 'the theif cometh not but for to steal, kill, and DESTROY. Be it by water or fire. Two totally opposite things. He'll get some with sins, he'll get others with success. He'll get some with devils, he'll get others with distractions.

'But if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us'

The devil desires to destroy, but it is God's will to do, the have compassion, and to help.

But now we're getting into the greater issue. I want you to note two things: one, this scribe was struggling with his faith: he said IF. He didn't ask for a sterile, simple religious fix, he asked for compassion, and for help. He was unsure of his faith, but he was quite sure of his need. Wow. I find it observationally humorous that Jesus rebuke the disciples for a lack of faith, but this guy gets off clean, even though he was struggling with his faith: MOTIVE. The scribe wanted compassion and help, the disciples wanted CREDIT.

Jesus responds in verse 23: watch, there is a credential for an answer here: "if you can believe, all things are possible..."

We know he's struggling with his faith, but its almost like Jesus cheering him on: just believe, just a little bit, just a mustard seed...if you can have just a little faith I can help you: watch the honesty of this man.

The bible says this man 'cried out with tears, Lord I believe, help thou my unbelief...'

And that man got a miracle. Why? The twelve had the power. The twelve had the authority. They had the credentials, they couldn't help this guy. But the scribe gets a miracle...I think I figured out why. He cried out with tears: that man loved his son, and Jesus was able to instantly read that in his tears...combined with the struggling 'I believe.' Don't you get it...Galatians said that faith worketh by love...not by pretense, or authority, or power, no it works by love...the scribe wanted the miracle for the right reasons, though he stuggled in his faith, his spirit matched that of God's - our spirit must match his, that's why motive is SO SO IMPORTANT in ministry. Because if our motive is wrong, we can have all the power and authority and position in the world, and none of that will help us when the rubber meets the road of real ministry...WE MUST LOVE PEOPLE! BECAUSE GOD LOVES PEOPLE...and he wants to love people through us. Your faith is not the biggest issue, the issue is wether your faith is working by pretense or by love.

Compassion, help, that's the motive for ministry. If its anything less, we are in the wrong field. This is why it is so key to be in tune with the will of the Holy Ghost in a service, and out...if we just do out of pretense we won't see much in the miraculous, but if we can follow his lead, he show us people that need to be loved, and shown the love of God. Friend, you have got to let it flow through you out of love: for God and for your neighbor.

How? How do I love those that I do not know. 'This kind comes forth not but by prayer and fasting...' You can't love in the flesh. Period. Real love, God love, faith that worketh by love love, it has to come from God's spirit in us, and can't be fake or conjured up in the flesh, so we have got to move the flesh out of the way to allow the Spirit to do what we cannot do: love sinners.

Prayer and Fasting weakens the flesh, and strenghthens not only your faith, but the Spirit in you is allowed to work with more liberty. The will of the Spirit is to love...get your flesh out of the way and let him do it...that's why the disciples were rebuked and unable to help, flesh was in the way. Could fake it real nice, call on the name, operate in pretense and religiosity, but couldn't help...Yes power comes by prayer and fasting, but power is not the issue. Remember, this guy was struggling with unbelief...what we need out of our prayer and fasting is compassion, and the desire to HELP.

Isaiah 58:6-8

it was never about power,

"Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?

Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?

it is all acts of mercy, and love, and compassion, and deliverance...not just faith...

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy health shall spring forth speedily: and they righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward...

Great will be the reward of a church that prays, that fasts, and that whose faith works by love. No devil can stand up to a person of God filled with holy, awesome love and compassion...especially when that love and compassion gets mingled with faith...then we see awesome things happen!

From Bound To Revival

Hey folks, I am working on a message tentatively entitled "From Bound To Revival..." I want to share with you some notes and thoughts and get some feedback. This is by no means a finished set of notes, but rather just some thoughts I want to jot down before they pass through the exit door of my brain...



Judges 15:12-19 (New King James Version)
12 But they said to him, “We have come down to arrest you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samson said to them, “Swear to me that you will not kill me yourselves.”

13 So they spoke to him, saying, “No, but we will tie you securely and deliver you into their hand; but we will surely not kill you.” And they bound him with two new ropes and brought him up from the rock.

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting against him. Then the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him; and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that is burned with fire, and his bonds broke loose from his hands.

15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and killed a thousand men with it.

16 Then Samson said: “With the jawbone of a donkey, Heaps upon heaps, With the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men!”
17 And so it was, when he had finished speaking, that he threw the jawbone from his hand, and called that place Ramath Lehi.[a]

18 Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”

19 So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi,[b] and water came out, and he drank; and his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore he called its name En Hakkore,[c] which is in Lehi to this day.



A brief background, Samson just got through burning down the wheatfields of the Philistines because his father in law gave away his wife to one of his friends...(some friends.) Well, the Philistines in return burned down the house of the father in law and estranged wife. Next, the Philistines show up in Judah and start attacking people. Judah in turn, not wanting to suffer the loss for the cause of one man proceed to turn Samson over to the Philistines...that brings us to this passage. Judah selling out Samson for the sake of peace. Sheesh.



The Bible explains that Samson was basically hiding in the cave of a rock. Then Judah came to him and said: "we are come down to bind thee and to deliver thee to the Philistines..."



It was not the Philistines that bound him, it was Judah. Lets get on the same wavelength. The Philistines represent the enemy, Satan, sin, evil, etc. It was not the enemy that came to bind Samson, who is a representative type of the church, it was Judah. Judah was God's people in a broken, backslid, carnal condition. Man of God, saint of God, church of God, it is not the devil that comes to bind you. Its worldliness, carnality, the hint of a backslidden heart. Its not even sin that comes to bind you, its weights.



There is a two step process that will attempt to stifle you from doing damage to the enemy. The first thing that happens that prevents you from praying like you should, worshipping like you should, preaching like you shoud is you get BOUND by carnality and worldiness; by the condition of a backslid heart.



The second thing that happens is what has you BOUND attemtpts to deliver you to the ENEMY: Satan, sin, total backsliddeness. This is why weights are so dangerous, why carnality is so dangerous, because if you get bound by something, then you can easily be led away from your ROCK, your GOD, your place of safety. And this unfortunate happenstance befalls Samson in our text: he is bound, and then he is led away from the ROCK by a condition of backwards prioritied people.



Samson made the men of Judah promise not to kill him. Weights are not what kills you spiritually. Weights are what lead you astray to things that CAN kill you spiritually. That is why being bound is so dangerous. First weights and worldliness and distractions bind you, and then they lead you away to a place called DEATH...or at least that is the process that enemy wants to engage you in. It is too dangerous of an attitude to have: well, its not really that bad, its not really that sinful, so it won't kill me...IT DOESN'T HAVE TO KILL YOU, all it has to do is BIND you, and then you are spiritually useless and vunerable to an attack from the enemy...



In verse fourteen Samson arrives bound in Lehi. Now this is where the encouragement for you and I comes. He shows up in a place that would seem to be a situation of certain doom. He's bound, and the enemy is his way to take him out, but pay close attention. In verse fourteen, the Bible says that the Philistines "shouted" against Samson, but when they shouted, the Bible says that the Spirit of the Lord came MIGHTILY upon Samson. Here is a message you need to hear: the enemy has a voice, be we have a SPIRIT...This is why the book says "greater is he that is IN you than he that is in the world..." he that is in the world has a VOICE, but YOU have a SPIRIT inside of you...



The voice is dangerous ONLY if you listen to it. Satan used his words to deceive Eve, and she listened. Woops. The devil talks to you all the time. He breathes out threatenings, he is the accuser of the brethren. Its that voice that is always disagreeing with what God told you. He is trying to get you to believe his false, negative report, but he can only use his VOICE. BUT YOU CAN YOU TAP INTO THE SPIRIT IN YOU....



The Philistines shouted victory against Samson, but the Spirit of God came on Samson, and when it did the word says "and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands."



Saint of God, preahcer of God, hear me, the solution to unbinding you from what has you bound is the SPIRIT coming mightily upon you...remember what John the Baptist said: ''he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and FIRE..." Remember on the day of Pentecost "there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of FIRE..." Remember that the writer of Hebrews said that "our God is a consuming FIRE..." If you need to get unbound, put yourself in the middle of a red hot apostolic prayer meeting, put yourself in the middle of a red hot, Holy Ghost saturated altar call and let HIS SPIRIT come on you MIGHTILY because John said the Spirit, the fire, will burn up the chaff; thats the waste, the weight, the sinful part that has you bound...



Church, we have got to get unbound or we will lose this fight against the enemy...we have got to get a fresh touch of Holy Ghost fire, we have got to pray through, worship through, preach through...we have got to let that FIRE come on us MIGHTILY to get us unbound...physical fire burns things, so does Spiritual fire...it BURNS things that BIND you. If we can get unbound, we can fight!



So once you get unbound, you have got to get an instrument in your hands by which you can fight the enemy. Samson picked up a freshly deposited jawbone of a donkey. HE PICKED UP THE FIRST THING THAT HE SAW! Maybe you can help me figure out what it means. I'm not what if anything that jawbone represents. Who killed the donkey? I don't know. Did it die of natural causes; did it starve? I'm not sure, I just know that because it died, because it gave up or lost its life, it was right were God wanted it, and right where Samson needed it. Maybe we're not Samson, maybe you're the donkey. If you're willing to sacrifice, lay down your life if you will, then you could be in a God-ordained position to be used by a man of God in a fight against the enemy. It was just a jawbone, but it was available, and in the hands of an UNLOOSED man of God, it became the instrument by which Samson dropped 1,000 Philistines in one fight.



So get unbound, pick up a fresh weapon. Pick up a fresh prayer. Pick up a fresh session of praise and worship. Pick up a fresh sermon, preacher. Pick up a fresh WORD...the sword of the Spirit, your offensive weapon against the enemy is the WORD of GOD...pick up a fresh WORD and start swinging it: "no weapon formed against me shall prosper..." "rejoice not against o mine enemy for when I shall fall, I shall arise..." and WATCH THE ENEMY FALL AT YOUR FEET. Sin will fall, devils will come out, sickness will leave, addictions have to go when you get UNBOUND, and you start swinging that God ordained instrument...my my.



After the victory, Samson sang about it. He had himself a praise session about his victory. We need some more of those in our churches.



Samson named that place Jawbone Hill. We need to name our victories. We need to landmark them. We need to remember them.



Now, this is where we need to go. Read verse 18 again, here I'll paste it so you don't have to scroll back up:



"Then he became very thirsty; so he cried out to the LORD and said, “You have given this great deliverance by the hand of Your servant; and now shall I die of thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?”



Friend here me, we can't miss this truth. Your greatest moments of spiritual vunerability come immediatley following your greatest victories. Listen to me prayer warriors: spiritual warfare will deplete your spiritual energy...virtue goes out. You get thirsty. You become weak. When you are thirsty and weak you are just as vulnerable as when you were bound...but Samson cries out to God. I find this interesting, when he was getting put into a position in which he needed to fight, the Spirit came MIGHTILY upon him, but when he needed something in himself, for himself, HE cried out to GOD. God will equip you for the battle, loose you, provide a weapon for you, but when it is a relationship aspect between you and God, he is a gentleman. He wants you to call out to him. Jesus, I need you, I'm spiritually spent and dry, I need you.

Watch verse nineteen:

"So God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out, and he drank, and his spirit returned, and he revived..."

This is the dangerous mistake we can make if we are not careful: we cannot affor to mistake or replace revival with just a spiritual victory over sin and or the enemy...Getting loosed is not revival. Victory over the enemy is not revival. Getting loosed and defeating sin and weights and devils are PREDECESSORS to REAL REVIVAL...

Samson, even after his great victory over the Philistines cried out to God "I THIRST!" And maybe you are in that place...Lord I don't understand, I've been loosed from weights and sins, I've prevailed in prayer over the enemy, WHY DO I FEEL SO EMPTY AND THIRSTY??? Its because God never wants your deliverance and your exploits spiritually to replace your relationship with Him...Your victories are given to lead you to a place where he can refresh YOU with living water. Not to fight, not to do some great exploit, but just to refresh YOU.

The Bible says that when Samson drank of that water that God caused to spring up from the ground at Lehi, a representative type of the living water spoken of in John chapter seven, he revived. Friend, real revival is a place beyond victory, beyond Jawbone Hill...we must ge to the place called En Hakkore - which means "The Spring of the Caller..." Getting loosed and gaining victories will put us in a place to call out to God in desperation "I thirst..." and there in that place the waters of the Holy Ghost can refill us, and refresh us personally. Don't stop at getting loosed. Don't stop at gaining the victory...CALL OUT TO HIM, and will refresh, and revive...The spring is "in Lehi to this day..." that place will be a landmark for you, greater than victory, a landmark of relationship between you and your God.

I hope this helps someone...if you have feedback, let me know. God bless.