Prison Ministry Update

PRAISE GOD! I think He's finally given me a breakthrough with my prison ministry roadblock! He woke me up early one morning last week and told me, "You already have everything you need," as He revealed to me a vision of how to manage all the data I've been struggling with for months. With my skills in Excel and Word I can get everything rolling again with confidence. Thank you Lord for Your help and guidance. Now I just need to get test this new process. Say a prayer for me that all the issues have been addressed and anything that arises will be overcome quickly.

Prison Ministry Update

Hello readers. I just wanted to give you all a quick update on the prison ministry. As I stated in a previous blog I have been working on developing a new computer program to manage the printing and tracking of the subscriptions after Joseph's system crashed over a year ago. I have been making some serious attempts at getting this system up and running but no matter what I did I just couldn't find the right direction to go. After much prayer God sent me a brother named Timothy to help, yet still we experienced roadblocks every step of the way. In all honesty there were times where I wanted to throw my hands in the air and say, "Well, if God doesn't want to bless this ministry I don't know what to say!" I confess that in my frustration I laid the project down a few times for several weeks while inmates kept writing asking to be added to the list. I felt terrible but I didn't know what to do. All I could do was write some of them back individually but I didn't consider that honoring what I was supposed to be doing in God's eyes. I managed to get only 4 rounds of newsletters out in 9 months. Needless to say, I feel convicted this was just not my best performance by any stretch of the imagination.

Well, all things considered I had a nagging feeling that God was working some purpose in all the delays and the trials. Indeed I have come to find there are several issues with my mindset He wanted me to come to terms with. Not only that but there are several other activities God is leading me in regarding the local community. I won't elaborate on the full story at this time but suffice to say that everything is coming together just as He has planned it and I have found security in trusting His provision.

After an attitude adjustment I have hit the ground running with Timothy again, this time with a fresh approach to the concept of how to accomplish the goal at hand. I believe we are on the brink of a breakthrough and the lessons learned will benefit this ministry in tremendous ways. Keep us in your prayers please! May the Spirit bless and keep you in the light of Yah's love and truth my brothers and sisters in Christ!

Letter to a Prisoner - Pouring His Spirit on ALL

Dear James,

I have to say, the letter you sent gave me much to think about. There are a lot of things I’d like to respond to and I hope I can address them all. First, it is clear to me that, by your own admission, you do not know Yahweh. Be assured, friend, that he does want you to. He is our everlasting Father. By my own testimony I can declare faithfully that He is the father I never had. I won’t go into my whole life story but I’ve had some experiences in life that have made me question whether God even cares. Looking back now I can see that He was always there, even in my iniquity, nudging me back towards the right track. Through all the indecision I had about Him in my life I have come to find that He is pouring His Spirit out on ALL flesh James. It is up to us to receive Him and to continue receiving Him. He has given us that choice. He didn’t have to do that. If He were a tyrant He would have created everything perfect and not given us a choice. We are the ones who walk away from Him and because of that He turns us over to our own wickedly deceived hearts, allowing Satan to sift us as wheat so-to-speak, like Peter, who denied Christ 3 times before His crucifixion.

One of the mysteries of Yahweh is that He does in fact hate what mankind has become. He doesn’t hate us, His children. He hates what we think and what we do – that we worship the creation over the Creator. We have taken advantage of His gift to us. We have demanded our inheritance and squandered it away, like the parable of the prodigal son. Humans live for the flesh first, not for Him.

Let me make something clear: Yahweh does not want rote, mechanical praise. He wants us to love Him as He loves us but there is a barrier between us and Him, a barrier that was broken by Christ Yahshua, His salvation – His provision and propitiation for reconciliation. Fear of the LORD is the BEGINNING of wisdom. So then, what is the end result of wisdom? LOVE. God is love. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). His Spirit is truth. These two, His indwelling love and truth, agree as One and give us witness to His greatness. The only way to Him is by the narrow path He has provided, the Way of the cross. I know this seems cruel to most humans who love the flesh and seek to eliminate all unpleasurable things in life but it is the unpleasurable things that often help us to grow. I’m not advocating unnecessary suffering but just trying to communicate that suffering is a part of being reconciled to God, not by His will but by the nature of being a human in a fallen state. It is painful to see just how wicked we really are but once we get though that BY HIS POWER, there is freedom and peace in knowing Him, no matter the circumstances. Let us not impose our own humanitarian sense of fairness on this present age. There is an age to come where He will rule implicitly in all of our hearts, not as a dictator but as our Father, Friend and Advocate. This is His promise to those who show they truly desire Him. The prodigal son must come back on his knees as a servant but the Father welcomes him as a son.

His children, if they abide in Him, may ask whatever they want of Him and it will be done here in this age and in the age to come. We have an inheritance prepared for us in the age to come that is pure and truly beyond anything we can possibly comprehend in this flesh. Let us not discount what it is like to be allowed in God’s holy presence. Do you think any pleasure of this flesh could compare to that whether art, sex, marriage? Yah is the great artist and if He is the author of our ways we can experience something far greater than a mere parable of Him within His creation. We can experience HIM!

I understand your position. I have felt that way, like there was no proof of God’s existence, that every Christian I met was a hypocrite (and believe me I held it against them hypocritically), that I couldn’t do anything to help save someone else because I couldn’t save myself. I learned that I was saved THROUGH saving someone else by sacrifice and service, for there is no greater love than this: that one would lay down his life for his friends. The fruits of a true disciple’s labor are joy, peace, longsuffering, patience and self-control. By these virtues we are the lights for others to be guided into the truth. The truth is a two-edged sword because it divides between the soul and the spirit. It’s not comfortable but it is ultimately liberating. The lights who dwell in this dark world will not be snuffed out but as the battle rages and things get worse and worse towards the end of this age, the lights that do remain will shine brighter and brighter. The church is experiencing birth pangs my friend. She is laboring to bring forth the Christ child that lives IN us. Yes, most of the church has fallen into apostasy but I have found that this is no reason to condemn her nor divide myself from her. God Himself will bring us out of her through the painful process of labor as He works His purpose in us and purifies us by the fire of His Holy Spirit, as silver is purified and as gold is tried. This is the mystery of the curse placed on Eve in the garden. Just as there is a second Adam of the Spirit so too there is a second Eve and she will bring forth the true fruit of Yahweh, that is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

If I might, please let me call out some more academic topics addressed in your letter. There are some facts I would like to set straight using Scripture and historical evidence. I’ll try to go in order as I read through your letter again. There is no solid evidence the council of Nicea declared canonical Scriptures. Constantine did gather all available manuscripts and have them compiled into 50 Bibles but my research has revealed that there was no declaration of canonicity. Since about 50 years later we see the first declaration of Catholic canonical authority there is speculation these two events may be related. I do not believe there was a conspiracy to make the Bible 66 books for any numerological reason, although the number 6 is very important in Luciferian doctrine. I could talk about the occult significance of that number at length if you desire.

I noticed as symbol you drew in the word “fallacies” in your letter. It looks like this:

I was wondering why you drew it. It looks a lot like the symbol for air in 5 element magick, perhaps mixed with an arrow pointing downward towards the earth. It made me think of the esoteric philosophy of “as above, so below.” Needless to say I found it odd, perhaps even evidence of demonic influence in your life. I would be on guard and in prayer if I were you. Then again, maybe you put it on the word “fallacies” as a way to make a statement about this sort of philosophy. I’m not quite sure.

In response to your statement about people attaching a disclaimer as reverse psychology to discourage people from challenging their works I can tell you this is not the case with me. I say this because it is not only Scriptural but my hopes and intentions are for you to do your due diligence in seeking out the matter for yourself, like the Bereans, whom the apostle Paul honored for searching the Scriptures daily to see if these things were true. The Bible says you needn’t anyone to teach you if you have the Spirit. Sometimes we all need encouragement and none of us are perfect, so it is natural for me to want to encourage you to do as I and countless others have done – to seek the truth of God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength in patient prayer.

You said that you have never heard the voice of Yahweh or Satan audibly. I have heard Yahweh on a couple of occasions but if I hadn’t prayed and listened for an answer I wouldn’t have known He answered. Most of the time He doesn’t answer in voice. For me it was a voice in my head – yeah, now the crazy police will start beating down my door for sure. Most of the time I pray and He divinely orders my steps. I suppose in prison it might seem like God isn’t really present. I assure you He can manifest in any way He wants in His creation and He has declared His glory in all creation for all to see, in parables or images of Him, so that none are with excuse to deny Him. I think it is not a good thing to call Yah “it” in the manner you have because He has chosen to identify Himself in the male for a reason. “It” is in line with gnostic and New Age thinking, like God is some impersonal force to be tapped into. No, He is intimately involved with every aspect of life in His creation as a loving Father, whether we choose to see Him or not. Satan wants your eyes off of Him. Don’t give him that ground in your life. Resist the devil with all the goodness that God will give you if you only ask for it.

James, no matter what you’ve done He is faithful to forgive and receive you. I think you know that but you just won’t forgive yourself. Let Him be our judge and let us trust in His blood to cleanse us from evil conscience. Let our consciences be ruled by His mercy and grace. Never forget His mercy and grace and always remember to keep the blood of Christ applied to your life, that is the symbol of self denial and submission to what is greater than us: His perfect goodness, which we can all experience in our hearts here and now and into the age to come in greater ways than our minds can even comprehend. If you have denied Him, He will deny you, but if you declare Him and keep His words, He will declare you and stand by you before our Father at the great throne of judgment.

You stated that you do not know how to pray or even feel unworthy for God to even hear your prayers. I think that God hears us more when we have grown closer to Him. It is a two way street, but just as the prodigal son came slumping down the road to his father’s house after squandering away his inheritance the father came running to him.

I would like to give you a bit of a view of the promised inheritance for the saints who overcome this world of flesh and sin. The overcomers will rule and reign with Christ on His throne. They will teach the world His Way which is the only good way, not by human perception but by the truth and love of the One True God Almighty. There will be a New Heaven and a New Earth in the age to come, which means new heavenly hosts. Who do you think will be the heavenly hosts? Paul says, “Do you not know that we will judge angels?” I don’t think of angels as heavenly zombies, as you wrote, but as beings who experience the bliss of higher states of consciousness because they are very close to Yah. Doing His will is not duty. Does it feel like service if you enjoy it?

Our Father does not want us to have blind faith. That is why we were given Scriptures, but we must be dedicated to understanding them, not just as words but as a spiritual message meant to transform us inside now glory by glory until our full redemption. The good news is that Christ Yahshua came into the world to save sinners so that we can be reconciled to Yahweh.

You mentioned that it has been almost 2000 years since Christ promised to return and we have seen nothing of the sort. I would challenge you to consider carefully the following passages of Scripture:

Then Joshua rose early in the morning; and they set out from Acacia Grove and came to the Jordan, he and all the children of Israel, and lodged there before they crossed over. So it was, after three days, that the officers went through the camp; and they commanded the people, saying, “When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, and the priests, the Levites, bearing it, then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.”  And Joshua said to the people, “Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.”  Then Joshua spoke to the priests, saying, “Take up the ark of the covenant and cross over before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people. And the Lord said to Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. You shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, saying, ‘When you have come to the edge of the water of the Jordan, you shall stand in the Jordan.’ ” So Joshua said to the children of Israel, “Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God.” And Joshua said, “By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites: Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over before you into the Jordan. Now therefore, take for yourselves twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one man from every tribe. And it shall come to pass, as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, that the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off, the waters that come down from upstream, and they shall stand as a heap.” So it was, when the people set out from their camp to cross over the Jordan, with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, and as those who bore the ark came to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks during the whole time of harvest),   that the waters which came down from upstream stood still, and rose in a heap very far away at Adam, the city that is beside Zaretan. So the waters that went down into the Sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, failed, and were cut off; and the people crossed over opposite Jericho. Then the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan; and all Israel crossed over on dry ground, until all the people had crossed completely over the Jordan. Joshua 3

And by that same word, the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: With the Lord a day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as a day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:7-9

"Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth." Hosea 6:1-3

What do you think these prophesies are declaring? Moreover, HOW do you think Christ is returning? WHERE do you think He is returning? If you can answer that you will KNOW Yahweh’s plan of salvation.

...when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed. 2 Thes 1:10

And He said to me, ‘You are My servant, O Israel, In whom I will be glorified.’ Is 49:3

For the Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the place of His inheritance. Deu 32:9

Assuredly, I say to you, there are some standing here who shall not taste death till they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.” Mat 16:28

I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered; and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles. Ezek 20:41

Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 2 Cor 2:12

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. Rom 8:14

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. Rom 8:18-23

James, I want you to know that your letters are an encouragement to me in ways you can’t know. Maybe one day I’ll explain that. Yah is making good use of you whether you know it or not. I hope this message has been an encouragement. May the love of Yahweh shine true on your heart today and always. Reach out to me any time you need but more importantly, seek Yah with all your heart. I’ll leave you with the following Scripture:

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered that they be stripped and beaten with rods. And after striking them with many blows, they threw them into prison and ordered the jailer to guard them securely. On receiving this order, he placed them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison. At once all the doors flew open, and everyone’s chains came loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, presuming that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul called out in a loud voice, “Do not harm yourself! We are all here!” Calling for lights, the jailer rushed in and fell trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Acts 16

Sincerely,

George