Dreams from the LORD 2003-2006
21 August 2006
I Kings 17: 17-18: “And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?”
I Kings 18: 7-9: “And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him: and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered him, I am: go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me?”
I Kings 18: 17-18: “And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.”
Luke 4: 33-34: “And in the synagogue there was a man, which had a spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art; the Holy One of God.”
The previous four verses remind me of when I was living in Ames, Iowa back in 1989. I was living in this Christian household and the elders of the church that my roommates attended kicked me out of the house. They kicked me out of the house because I was preaching the Baptism of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in tongues; I was also preaching that Christians can have demons in them and that the Lord had delivered me from many demons. My roommates’ church hated the power of the Holy Ghost; they preached salvation and then pretty much stopped there; a lot of bondage and churchy churchianity in that church: it was such a relief to be kicked out of that house.
I was told to leave the house on a Saturday. The next day when my roommates went to church, I packed up my things and moved three doors up the street to move in with a Christian who was into the Holy Ghost. That night the Holy Ghost fell on me so powerfully and so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was like the Holy Ghost was healing me from rejection. It was very, very powerful. I ended up staying in that house for five months and then I moved back into the former household and stayed there till 1994. It was God’s will for me to be there even though most of the guys in that household weren’t very hungry for God. If it is God’s will for you to be some place, it is very hard to fight against God.
It is sad that when the power of the Holy Ghost flows through a man, that not only do unbelievers reject you, but believers (young believers, carnal believers) also reject you. I remember after I got kicked out of the house, that I would meet someone from that church and they would say, “Oh, oh, here comes trouble.” That happened several times. It was as if these people were saying, “Leave us alone: we like being conformed to the world. We do not want to be a peculiar people. We love being in bondage; we are comfortable in our sin. How dare you bring the power of the Holy Ghost into our congregation to shine His Light on our lukewarm lives.”
Cockroaches love the darkness.
The day that I was told to leave the house, this deacon (whom I had great respect for—he was running the errand for the pastor) talked with me and told me to stop preaching about the Holy Ghost and about Christians having demons. He put me down and the church I was attending (a Pentecostal church) and, all of a sudden, I blurted out, “The Lord is going the spew the lukewarm church out of his mouth!” The deacon started shaking all over, immediately stood up, gave me a hug and ran out of the house. What I had just said was absolutely unpremeditated: the Holy Ghost put the words in my mouth and I let him have it.
I Kings 18: 38: “Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.”
I wasn’t a burnt sacrifice, but I was definitely a living sacrifice—and I pray that I continue to be a living sacrifice till my Father’s work in me is done on this earth.
“Then the fire of the Lord fell.”
Obedience: The Bondage Breaker
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