Physical Sight and Spiritual Sight

Luke 17: 20-21:  “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  Neither shall they say,  Lo here! or, lo there!  for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Luke 17: 30:  “Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”  This Scripture does not say, when the Son of man is seen or observed (revelation knowledge is not the same thing as physical sight).

If someone reads the Bible, a newspaper article or a book with their physical eyes, this is not revelation.  When you come across a certain Scripture or a sentence in a newspaper article or a book and something is quickened in your spirit by the Holy Ghost—this is revelation from God.  The Lord is shining His light (revelation) upon that Scripture or that sentence—it may even be one word—so that we can better understand it.  Some people call this a Rhema Word or the Spoken Word.

“The kingdom of God cometh not with [physical] observation.”  The kingdom of God comes to purified vessels and is perceived by the spirit by the Holy Ghost.  It is a spiritual kingdom; it is not a physical kingdom that you can see with your physical eyes.

The Second Coming is not a physical Jesus coming through some physical clouds for His bride to be seen through the physical eyes.  The Second Coming is the Holy Ghost revealing the Lordship of Jesus Christ to purified vessels (dead to self) who can see with their spiritual eyes.  These people are not into the letter, but the Spirit, because the letter kills and the Spirit gives life.

Let’s say that the natural, unsaved man can see for twenty miles.  Your basic believer in Christ should be able to see for fifty miles (I am speaking figuratively).  The Christian believer is spiritually alive and should have spiritual insights that the unbeliever cannot have because the unbeliever is dead in his trespasses and sins.   Your basic prophetic Christian should be able to see one hundred miles or five hundred miles ahead of him--or you could say that the prophet can see five years or ten years or five hundred years into the future (this is why prophets are hated so much and are thought to be crazy—they see things way before other people see things and their lives and words convict people of sin).

Revelation from God is spiritual, but the Lord uses our physical bodies/senses/eyesight for His will.  The physical body is the temple of the Holy Ghost.  Our physical body/temple is used by the Lord, so that He can reveal His will to us, so that we can obey His will--this is how we develop and strengthen our spiritual sight.

In 2007, I bought my first pair of reading glasses.  As I get older, my physical sight (for reading) is growing weaker, but my spiritual sight is growing stronger.  I must decrease, so that He can increase.

A Prophet's Eyes
The Second Coming
The Kingdom of Heaven
The Prophet by A.S. Pushkin 
Breaking off the Greek mindset

“The man whom Christ illuminates with His message has eyes, and that resolves the old difficulty of blindness; but he must use his new eyes in a blind world, and that creates another problem. The world in its blindness resents his claim to sight and will go to any lengths to discredit the claim. The truth of Christ brings assurance and so removes the former problem of fear and uncertainty, but that assurance will be interpreted as bigotry by the fear-ridden multitudes. And sooner or later this misunderstanding will get the man of God into trouble. And so with many other of the blessed benefits of the gospel. As long as we remain in this twisted world, these benefits will create their own problems. We cannot escape them.
But no instructed Christian will complain. He will rather accept his problems as opportunities for the exercise of spiritual virtues. He will turn them into useful disciplines for the purification of his life and will rejoice that he is permitted to suffer with his Lord. For however severe may be a Christian’s trials, they cannot last very long, and the blessed fruit they bear will last while the ages endure.”

--A. W. Tozer

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem

Luke 13: 34-35:  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!  Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord."

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee."

O American Churchianity, which killest (reject) the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee.

When I think about Superstorm Sandy and the destruction of New York City and other parts of the eastern seaboard this past week, I can't help but think about a Christian I met in Nebraska back in 2008.  His name was LaVerle [Van Houten] and he picked me up hitchhiking three times in one month ("in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established"--so LaVerle's picking me up three times in one month means something).

LaVerle worked in western Nebraska and, on his days off, he would use his own money and fly to New York City and do street ministry.  One of his last times in NYC, he met these two prophets.  They told LaVerle that they were pulling out of New York because people weren't repenting of their sin.

In my travels, I would have to say that New York City, San Francisco and Las Vegas are probably the most secular, Godless cities in the United States.  Superstorm Sandy was the Lord's judgment on a wicked city (NYC).

Years ago, I was hitchhiking through Tennessee and these two Christians picked me up and took me to Nashville.  They let me stay overnight at their place.  They took me to a restaurant for supper.

One of the guys looked at me, smiled and said, "Nashville, Tennessee:  a church on every corner."

I looked at him and didn't say anything.

How many Christian churches are in New York City?  How many people in New York City are surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ?

Luke 13: 35:  "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate."

Luke 13: 33:  "Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following:  for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem."

For it cannot be that a prophet perish out of American Churchianity.

II Kings 17: 13-14:  "Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.  Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God."

He Beheld the City and Wept Over It
God Hates Us, but . . .
Sandy Damages--$150-$250 Billion
John McTernan's Insights
Wrath of God--Barbara W. Tuchman
The Biblical significance of Sandy

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
10 February 2009

Last night I had a dream where I was reading this newspaper. In small headlines I saw something like “LaVerle Van Houten is in Peru.”

Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
1 March 2009

Two days ago, I hitchhiked from Helena, Montana to Murdo, South Dakota. Yesterday, I hitchhiked from Murdo to Chadron, Nebraska. It was around O degrees F when I started walking south out of Murdo on U.S. 83. I walked around four miles and then got a ride to Mission, South Dakota. Ice had formed on my eyebrows, so I was very grateful to finally get a ride.

After Mission, I walked south a few miles and got a ride in the back of a pickup to Valentine, Nebraska. I checked my e-mail at the public library in Valentine and then started walking west on U.S. 20. I then got a ride to Chadron.

On the way east from Montana, I thought, “It would be great if LaVerle saw me walking down the road.” I got dropped off on the west side of Chadron and walked over a half mile heading west when guess who picked me up? LaVerle.

The Lord works in strange ways. I told LaVerle that this is the fourth time he has picked me up. He just got back from a mission trip to Peru. He flew back to Houston, then to Denver and drove back to western Nebraska the day before. LaVerle was in Peru for a month. He drove me to a Taco John’s restaurant and bought me something to eat. We talked for quite some time.

One of the important things that LaVerle said was that the Lord told him not to go back to New York City. LaVerle has been to New York several times on mission trips. He told me that a number of prophets have pulled out of New York because people aren’t repenting of sin and destruction is coming.

I told LaVerle that the Lord had me hitchhike from Ames, Iowa to New York City (actually, I hitchhiked to New Hamburg, New York and took a train the rest of the way into Manhattan) in 1998. I visited David Wilkerson’s church at Times Square. I was in the sanctuary for two hours and I started weeping in the Spirit. I left the church building (formerly the Mark Hellinger Theater) and the Holy Ghost fell powerfully on me. I walked to the Hudson River. I believe the Lord was telling me not to go back to David Wilkerson’s church. That evening I went back to the seven o’clock service and the Lord chastened me for being there. Something must have been out of order; the leadership of that church (not necessarily David Wilkerson) may have been resisting the Holy Ghost.

I can go to a church of believers, but if they reject the power of the Holy Ghost, then it is a sin for me to be there. “Come out from among them and be ye separate.” “They had a form of Godliness, but denied the power thereof; from such turn away.” “Obedience is better than sacrifice.”

I crawled into a sleeper of a tractor-trailer outside of Chadron and slept there last night. It got down to 20 degrees F, but it felt colder.

Dreams from the LORD
New York Deathscape

The God of Perfect Timing

In my hitchhiking travels, I think it is amazing how I seem to show up at the right place at the right time.  Around the end of September, I hitchhiked into the Kooskia, Idaho neighborhood from Montana and stayed at my friends' place for a couple of nights.  Kim had mentioned to his wife a day or two before that he wished Tim would show up so that he could help him put some rafters up for his new wood shop he was building.  I helped put rafters on his roof for a day or two and then I hit the road.

A few days later, I showed up at my friends' place in northern California.  A few days after I arrived, I helped them vaccinate 95 calves in Nevada.  It was perfect timing; they appreciated one extra guy running the calves through the corral and down the chute.  Back in 2010, I arrived a day before we had to brand over a hundred calves near Fall River Mills, California.

Just yesterday, I hitchhiked from southern Oregon to northern California.  Later that day, I helped vaccinate 120 calves.  Today I helped preg test and vaccinate 150 cows.  God's timing is always perfect.

Those who are led by the Spirit shall be called sons.