BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, AUGUST 30-31, 2017

You’re aware of the devastating rains and flood waters of the last week or so of Hurricane Harvey as it rolled across the gulf into south Texas, and now ready to continue rolling across East and North Louisiana into the middle of the south as it makes its way north!

There was a University of Tampa professor who was quoted saying that the widespread devastation was caused by “instant karma” as a result of the conservative leaning of the Lone Star State voters who helped to put Trump into the White House! Thank God, I hear Florida leaders saw to it that he lost his job for his reckless stupidity! I do call him “a depraved mind”! He was one who “fought for” his socialist agenda but, praise the Lord, for those who “fight from” the mind and heart of Holy God!

I was reading this morning from a frequent mailing of James Cook entitled “Market Update” from Investment Rarities Incorporated. In the publication there was a statement by Laura Hollis who said, (p.4), “Ultimately, however, the left’s war, (the Left? That’s the socialist democrats, the communist leaners, the descending fragment-ers of Revelation Truth!), their war isn’t against Trump. It is with those of us who see socialism’s failures, and who refuse to sit back and watch while our freedoms are dismantled and our country is destroyed.”

I also found Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, so brave and to the point. He commented, “Artificial intelligence is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization.” And the problem? It’s the desire of a lot of fallen mankind with ‘artificial intelligence’ to be watched over by irresponsible overseers rather than be managed by Holy God! Depraved minds rain on a lot of communities, states, and national leadership, programs of economic disasters, even mental and moral chaos, and governmental looney tunes, mostly with wrong cords for wrong reasons, producing ‘weird music’ the fallen souls love!

I was so impressed when I read in “The Encyclopedia of Religious Quotations” edited by Frank S.Mead for the Fleming H.Revell Company, Westwood, New Jersey, (pps.196-197), words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in her “Aurora Leigh” publication, (Bk.IV, l.499), when she wrote:

“Good critics who have stamped out poet’s hope, Good statesmen who pulled ruin on the state, Good patriots who for a theory risked a cause, Good kings, who disemboweled for a tax, Good popes who brought all good to jeopardy, Good Christians who sat still in easy chairs And damned the general world for standing up. – Now may the good God pardon all good men!” And the last sentence may be a decent request, but I’m not sure Holy God has ever excused ‘fleshly goodness’ of ‘all good men’without the “new birth in Christ”! Most men across our known world just assume it’s OK to tread on God’s ordained earth without any responsibility of being yielded to His divine will, purpose, or pleasure: “We’ll handle our own desires, wants, and pleasures, thank You”, and tread on bravely in their godless worlds!

Do you understand “soul mismanagement”? Do you understand “home construction” without the necessary foundation? Is there “marriage management” that survives for years on end but void of the Lord’s true blessings? Can a good businessman build a prosperous company but void of a business giving glory to and honoring God? Can skilled physicians, surgeons, nurses, and hospitals be blessed of God in “care-giving” but look inward to themselves, patting themselves on their backs, and never even for a moment honor the “God-Gifter” for the skills He ingrained? It blows my mind when I read about schools, colleges, or universities, their overseers, teachers, deans, or boards, rejoicing in themselves for their schools high rankings, yet never consider Holy God as the “equipper, the trainer, the illuminator” of educational success!

Think of the masses of humanity, and especially those who major on common-sense carefulness, yes, apart from God-revealed wisdom, knowledge, and abiding Truth! “Life reviews” for the godless are ‘book reviews’ in infidelity, worries and frustrations, and academy award winners in ‘self-pleasure, self-indulgence, and ‘flesh-boosting’, even ‘honoring’ the best and the worst for what one chooses for himself as a reward winner – he/she is his/her own master and reward bestower, satisfied with his/her ‘life choice’!

The message of the gospel is the eternal hope able to take a sin-bound, natural man and transform, convert, regenerate him into the “vessel”, the “dwelling”, the “tabernacle or temple of Christ’s Resurrection Presence.” One is convicted by the Holy Spirit, convinced of ‘empty-vacuum living’ without Christ, but receiving the “Good News” of eternal life and hope in Him alone, and one turns away from the “depraved minds’ rain” and rests in the Promised “Divine-Mind Rule by the King of kings and Lord of Lords”!

In Matthew 6:25, Jesus speaking, saying to all ‘depraved, unbelieving, failing to trust God minds’, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life (Jesus crucified your godless, sinful, unbelieving life and mind on the Cross!), what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on? Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

To the “depraved minds” made wettable by the rains of unbelief, fooled by the fallen mind’s forethought of its own abilities, deceived by the sickness of only ‘self-interest’ void of the purpose of Holy God, paralyzed concerning ‘faith’ by Satan himself, and awakened by the Spirit as He exposes and reveals the inevitable result of despair without God as Savior and Lord, darkness in one’s walk on earth and a future destiny in Hell without God’s saving grace, and one realizes, “My best, without God in Christ as Lord and Savior, leaves my eternal destiny as bankrupt, spiritually poverty-stricken, and a subservient to Satan and his demon structure and location!” I’d say, when THAT dawns on you, by the Spirit, it’s time to run to Jesus as fast as you can and miss out on Hell’s hellish ways forever!

“Depraved minds” are of a ‘fallen world alienated and separated from God’, and are ‘governed by flesh-self-centeredness’, and are ‘deceived by Satan and his army of liars’, and just one of those descriptions just unveils not your death warrant in the future but your ‘death-state’ in the flesh, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”! That’s a “water-soaked-nature” of unbelief with the choice to be religious OR to be redeemed out of sin and death by the Blood of the Lamb of God!

It was Mabel Frost and B.B.McKinney in the old “Baptist Hymnal” of Broadman Press who had their hymn, “Come Home” published. It said: “O soul in the faraway country, A-weary, and famished, and sad, There’s rest in the home of your Father, His welcome will make your heart glad.

Arise and come back to your Father, He’ll meet you while yet on the way; Assured of His tender compassion, Oh, why will you longer delay?

Although you have sinned against heaven, And weak and unworthy may be, He offers you full restoration, And pardon abundant and free.

Come home…come home…Oh, why will you longer roam? Come home…come home…O prodigal child, come home.” Dare I tell you, His arms are opened wide to the truly convicted, broken hearted, sin-bound and now knows it, and senses the needs being met by the Master’s “Great Physician” skills! He says: “Come to Me, and I will give you rest.”

As the Spirit begins His holy work of divine conviction, one of those things to be exposed that Jesus dealt with on the Cross, is the abandonment of self-pleasure, self-will, and fleshly determination to be better on your own without any outside help!

The “flesh-best” men and women are filled with “thoughts”, “dreams”, and “visions” of what awaits them as they determine for themselves their fleshly destiny! That IS the attitude of unbelief in Heaven-revealed purposes and Power in making His vision for one’s life into a practical reality.

In Matthew 13:22 Jesus spoke of men who stumble and fall away from Heaven’s revealed Way, saying, “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.” Dare I tell you? THERE ARE NO BUMPER CROPS IN THE BEST OF FLESHLY LIVING WITHOUT GOD!

It was Bill Johnson, the anointed California pastor, in Redding, I believe, who I heard say, “Hosting the Presence of Christ is a man’s greatest calling,” and I thought when I heard it, and quickly wrote in my Bible, “Nothing more valuable than the Kingdom of God in the here and now!!” Kingdom rule is not an afterlife or when you get to Heaven someday experience, but, yes, a daily life of yielding to the Resurrected King and His reign through you in the here and now!

“Depraved minds rain – Divine Minds Rule”! And that’s by the Holy Spirit’s ministry in you! Now, concerning “Divine Minds Ruling”, consider what Jesus said in Luke 24:44-53! Then Jesus said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.” And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, AND that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. AND YOU ARE WITNESSES OF THESE THINGS. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and caught up into heaven. And they worshipped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. (OR “so be it”!).

And “Divine Minds Ruling”? Notice in Acts 4:29-31, Peter, having been filled with the Holy Spirit, (Acts 4:8, Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, spoke saying:), but notice also, in Verses 29-31, “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word, by stretching out Your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of Your holy Servant Jesus.” And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.”

Have YOU ever considered whether or not the church in a modern-day world still needs, must have, and faith for, yes, the baptism, the anointing, the in-filling of the Holy Spirit? Is there a word somewhere in Scripture that says, “You have not because you ask not?”

But notice what happened as the early church was anointed with the Holy Spirit! Acts 4:33, And with “Great Power” the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them ALL!”

A “depraved mind” is a dry creek-bed while a “Divine Mind Ruling” is the reality of Psalm 87:7 “All my fresh springs shall be in you,” meaning in YOU, a repenting, trusting, surrendering, yielding disciple who leans not to his/her own understanding but in all ways, days, decisions, ministries, acknowledges Him, yes, the reigning Holy Spirit who convicts, births, transforms, anoints, and guides whatever the Father would have YOU involved in!

It was Oswald Chambers who wrote, in his book, “My Utmost For His Highest”, (p.271), “The sign that God is at work in us is that He corrupts confidence in the natural virtues, because they are not promises of what we are going to be, but remnants of what God created man to be. We will cling to the natural virtues, while all the time God is trying to get us into contact with the life of Jesus Christ, which can never be described in terms of the natural virtues. It is the saddest thing to see people in the service of God depending on that which the grace of God never gave them, depending on what they have by the accident of heredity. God does not build up our natural virtues and transfigure them, because our natural virtues can never come anywhere near what Jesus wants. No natural love, no natural patience, no natural purity can ever come up to His demands. BUT as we bring every bit of our bodily life into harmony with the new life which God has put into us, He will exhibit in us the virtues that were characteristic of Christ Jesus.” And God does it in and through the Holy Spirit whom Jesus told us would come to inhabit, instruct, inspire every born-again disciple. Have YOU received the ministry of the Holy Spirit since you were genuinely and truly born again with a heart and mind desiring to glorify Christ, but you understand, without the Spirit, you will promote and follow the leadership of your ‘flesh’, ‘best flesh’ or not?

OMNIPOTENT PRESENCE AND PEACE?”

BY: J.FARRELL FISHER, Sept.8, 2017

A number of years ago, visiting a church and faithful friends of the Body of Christ in Utah, my wife and I found an old book store in Salt Lake City. Browsing, I saw a very old book someone had purchased in 1910. It was a book entitled “The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of her poetry from 1826-1844! I’ve treasured it over the years since I studied some of her writings in my English class at Baylor University in the mid to late 1950’s.

The last poem in the book, page 400, is entitled, “Weariness”. She wrote: “Mine eyes are weary of surveying The fairest things too soon decaying; Mine eyes are weary of receiving The kindest words – ah, past believing;

Weary my hope, of ebb and flow; Weary my pulse, of tunes of woe; My trusting heart is weariest! I would – I would, I were at rest!

For “me”, can earth refuse to fade? For “me”, can words be faithful made? Will “my” embittered hope be sweet? “My” pulse forego the human beat?

No! Darkness must consume mine eye – Silence, mine ear – hope cease – pulse die – And o’er mine heart a stone be pressed – Of vain this, – “Would I were at rest!”

There is a land of rest deferred; Nor eye has seen, nor ear has heard, Nor Hope has trod the precinct o’er; For Hope beheld is hope no more! There, human pulse forgets its tone – There, hearts may know as they are known; Oh, for dove’s wings, your dwelling blest, To fly to You, God, and be at rest!”

Dare I tell you? Believe I will! That, my friends, is one awesome piece of poetry! She faced the reality of life with its pains and sorrows, with its curses and its blessings, with its “ups and its downs”, with its wrongs and its rights, with its distresses and its deliverances, with its hopelessness and its Hope!

Is it “reality in life” that, at times, there ARE “overwhelming distresses”? I, personally, would be sincerely shocked if someone said to me, “I’ve never faced a ‘troubling’ day in my life,” or, “Overwhelming Distresses may exist for some, but for me, my family, my friends, we’ve only experienced ‘bliss’, not any ‘heavy burdens’,” or, you’ve heard it from some spiritually egotistical ‘believers’ (?), “Overwhelming distresses are for the worldly but not for believers,” and I want to “throw up!”

In Psalm 25:14-21, an inspired, Spirit-anointed word, from King David says: “Turn Yourself to me, and have mercy on me, for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart have enlarged; (Are ‘troubles’ an instrument, yes, of Holy God in eternally equipping us for more of life’s pending events to come?), bring me out of MY DISTRESSES! Look on my affliction and my pain, and forgive all my sins.

Consider my enemies, for they are many; and they hate me with cruel hatred. Keep my soul, and deliver me; let me not be ashamed, for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait for you.”

OH, then look at Psalm 30:7, when David also cried out from the midst of a troubled heart, “Lord, by Your favor You have made my mountain stand strong; You hid Your face, and I was troubled.” Yes! THERE ARE DARK MOMENTS IN A REDEEMED SOUL’S HEART AND MIND when it “seems” he/she has been totally forsaken by his/her Savior and Lord! Troubling times do come to true believers!

It’s why, in Psalm 46:1-7, a song of Korah, the Holy Word becomes so important in strengthening the “troubled” in their, yes, “moments” of despair and heartache! It says: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though its waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling.

There IS a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. (Do you understand, “in Christ”, YOU are now the ‘holy place’, the Temple, the Tabernacle of the Most High God, yes, the Resurrected Christ living IN YOU?). God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved; God shall help her, just at the break of dawn.

The nations raged, the kingdoms were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is WITH US; the God of Jacob is our REFUGE.”

But, at times, “overwhelming distresses” occur when one of the faith “drifts” or “falls away” from devotion to his/her Lord and Savior, or experiences ‘on-slaughts’ from the powers of darkness, and, as a result, Proverbs 25:26 says, “A righteous man who falters before the wicked IS LIKE a murky spring and a polluted well.” Have you affirmed that word disastrously in your own walk of faith at times or witnessed it in those you love and care for, but willing to alert, warn, and inspire others to BE the true witness in troubled times?

In 2 Corinthians 4:5-16 Paul, inspired in the Spirit, wrote: “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” God does, at times, ‘command light’ to shine ‘out of the darkness’ one has walked in or even presently is walking through? And Paul explains why in Verses 7-16 he wrote:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. WE ARE hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is working in us, but life in you.

And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore we speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things (DON’T DARE MISS THIS!!) are for YOUR SAKES, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound TO THE GLORY OF GOD. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, the inward man is being renewed day by day.”

Could it dare be that Holy God Himself allows, ordains, or opens the door to “Overwhelming Distresses” that you, as an immature child of faith, may be brought into His permissible will to perfect in you His Perfect Will, the door closed on you, but then opened to the glory of the Christ in you for the world around you to also discover Christ? Holy God is not interested in YOUR ‘house made in the flesh’ – He wants it gone, so that the Temple of the Lord may be established in you and through you! Amen?

The prophetic word in Isaiah 32 is so vital in understanding God’s intent in releasing, allowing, even ordaining “Overwhelming Distresses”! In Verses 1-15 the prophetic Word is unveiled! “Behold, a king will reign in righteousness, (Is that King Jesus?), and princes will rule with justice (Are You a ‘prince’, a ‘priest’, the bodily temple of the Resurrected Christ?). A man will be as a hiding place from the wind, and a cover from the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

The eyes of those who see will not be dimmed, and the ears of those who hear will listen. Also the heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

The foolish person will no longer be called generous (or noble), nor the miser said to be bountiful. For the foolish person will speak foolishness, and his heart will work iniquity: to practice ungodliness, to utter error against the Lord, to keep the hungry unsatisfied, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

Also the schemes of the schemer are evil; He devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaks justice. But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand. (The “standing-generosity-givers” are God-birthed, redeemed, and the reconciled invaded by the Resurrected Christ!). Rise up, you women, who are at ease, hear my voice; you complacent daughters, give ear to my speech. In a year and some days you will be troubled, you complacent women; for the vintage will fail, the gathering (of the “fruit” of other redeemed lives through these women’s example or witness!) will not come. Tremble, you women who are at ease. Be troubled, you complacent ones; Strip yourselves, make yourselves bare, and gird sackcloth on your waists.

People shall mourn upon their breasts FOR the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine. On the land of my people will come up thorns and briers, yes, on all the happy homes in the joyous city; because the palaces will be forsaken (that’s like the U.S. House and Senate, present, but vacant in heart and mind, because, yes, the majority, both democrats and republicans have forsaken God saying He has no place or part in human government! How stupid have they become!!), the bustling city will be deserted.

The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks – UNTIL the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is counted as a forest.”

Can a life, can a marriage, can a family, can a state or nation, can a ‘cold’ or ‘Spirit-less church’, truly become, by God’s grace and mercy, productive, God-honoring “fruitful fields”? Absolutely! Absolutely when they die to ‘self’ and are “raised” “In Christ alone”!

But, I have to tell you: I’m not sure how many ‘at-large’ churches “LIVE IN OMNIPOTENT PRESENCE AND PEACE” (OR “OMNIPOTENT POWER”)! I wish I could say, “They DO!”, but, sadly, in many fellowships, it’s fellowship without power – and, never a concern about the ‘empty container’ of the church of the “Released Presence of Spirit-Anointing and Empowerment”! And for some, it’s not only the Spirit’s “absence”, but a blindness and deafness and voluntary “abstinence” of “Spirit-Anointing” because it scares them or they witnessed “Spirit-abuse” in some ‘deranged disciples’ (?)!

The “abundance of grace” is not only seen in the purifying through the blood of the Lamb, but also in the ‘circumcision’ of the heart by the Spirit, born-again by the Spirit, equipped by the Spirit, and, yes, ANOINTED IN THE SPIRIT to fulfill one’s calling, not be “best effort” but by the “Blessed Spirit”!

What did Paul write in Romans 8:12-17? “Therefore, brethren, we are debtors – not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For IF YOU LIVE ACCORDING TO THE FLESH YOU WILL DIE; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many AS ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD, THESE ARE SONS OF GOD.

For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Are you aware of “the supply of the Holy Spirit” as His gracious Gift to His children? God knew we needed a “tutor”, He knew we needed a “guardian’, God knew we need a daily instructor and protector, God knew we’d need the Spirit “to pick us up” at times, God knew we’d need the Spirit “hovering over us and in us and through us” because of stormy waters at times, and God knew, in His birthing of humanity and touching His “new world” with grace and mercy, even in His giftings, that all the Body of Christ would need the Holy Spirit who fills us with wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and, (Get this!), in all manner of workmanship!”

Do you think God knew ‘humanity’, whether they loved and served God or not, needed the Holy Spirit to “gift”, “design”, “create even basic needs for all humanity”, plus God knew apart from Holy Spirit conviction there’d be no desire to know Him, serve Him, or follow Him, so He sent the Spirit!

But, there are natural men doing natural things on their own without any need of God or the Spirit, but there are spiritual men doing spiritual things, and they understand, “It’s not MY “best effort”, but the manifestation of the Spirit in me and through me!” And in Joel 2 God said: “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; (does that mean ‘all flesh’ having God’s Spirit poured out on them will receive it and yield to the will of God? I don’t think so!). Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams”. And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy.” Then God said: “I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the earth beneath…”, and whether in the high heavens of spiritual identity or simply “the streets of a daily walk, the Spirit of God is going to manifest the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”!

Have you ever sung the old hymn entitled “Have Thine Own Way, Lord”? The last verse of that hymn says: “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Hold o’er my being Absolute sway! Fill with Your Spirit Till all shall see Christ only, always, Living in me!”

I believe it needs to be a “new day” of refreshing, renewing, re-empowering and anointing of the Mighty Holy Spirit to honor and unveil Christ through you and me! Amen? Omnipotent Presence, Omnipotent Peace, Omnipotent Power! Will you receive Him and walk in Him?