Man Down!

First off, Rory and Wendy Alec's marriage is none of my business. Or anyone else's unless you are immediate family.

Saying that, the fallout of their recent marital split is arguably every believer's business because of the prominence the Alecs have, not only in Christian circles but in wider ones.

So here's my tuppence worth.

I met the Alecs many years ago when they were starting off. They visited a church I was involved in and were doing the rounds trying to whip up support and money. You couldn't doubt their fervency or fault their devotion to the cause.

I haven't always agreed with them and sometimes cringed at some things - Rory's dress sense, for one. I am not saying that to be nasty, just being honest. If ever a guy needed a makeover, it was Rory.

The one thing you could not decry them for was a lack of passion. They maintained the same childlike enthusiasm even when it could almost be expected that a more worldly wise cynicism would have crept in.

When they got excited - which seemed like every show - they were genuinely excited. Equally, you could sometimes see how much their hairy lifestyle pummelled them.

Cynics will say they have done well out of GOD TV and can perhaps now afford the luxurious lifestyle which is more conducive to affairs and such. Remember King David didn't see Bathsheba while he was out on manoeuvres with his men.

You can also wonder how much of viewer donations has helped fund Rory in his mid-life crisis affair.

Which sounds like I am putting the boot into the man. Far from it. I grieve for him and feel nothing but sympathy for him. He failed us all but that in itself elicits a heart response which shows us our own spiritual condition before the Lord. Are we decrying and condemning him for being a cur or are we grieving that one of our brothers has fallen? A brother who knows more than most what it is to bear the massive responsibility of a global ministry while under endless spiritual and human assault.

Rory Alec has shown that he is human. Superhuman and Christlike in his spirit as every believer is (adherence to WoF doctrine duly taken care of) but, as our own failures often remind us, we have such treasure in earthen vessels.

Every day I live I become more aware of how important it is that we live in the Word and confess who we are in Christ. But when you read of scandals like the one that has engulfed GOD TV it reminds us that everything we are and everything we have is by and through grace. And we live by His mercy.

Rory has clearly hit a wall and decided he has had enough of the never-ending pressure. That is easy to understand. His finding solace with another woman is harder to take but equally as understandable if we are being honest. That is no slight on Wendy in any way. It's just the brutal reality of a man who was expected to be perfect all the time. Only those who have known what it is to come to the end of themselves can know what it feels like to be in that position. You don't need to be a famous name but the fame compounds it.

Of course, Wendy has been betrayed and that isn't a light matter. She has been left the burden of running the ministry but will be able to draw on a lot of support in that. It remains to be seen whether she pays the price of Rory's failure in terms of viewer and donor support.

The bottom line is that the Alecs are victims in the war of the cosmos. As front-line soldiers, they have been dealt a very serious blow. Those who scoff at this and want to be Pharisaical are welcome to express those views where they will get the response they want.

The Christian life is all about the glory that is the indwelling Christ overcoming the weakness of the clay earth-suit we walk in. Sometimes the suit swallows the inner man and imprisons him. When that happens very visibly in others, we are told to meekly restore and pray for our brothers and sisters.

Sometimes this happens very publicly and spectacularly but it is the same for all, regardless.

We are perfect in Christ but not in our own flesh. When we step out of Christ, we can go splat on the pavement.

Rory Alec's fall is another reminder of the importance of staying in Christ. And we should pray for him, for Wendy and their children.

Personally, I will leave the condemnations and told-you-so's to others. Kicking a man when he is down is not in my remit.

Walking In Victory

Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. 1 JOHN 4:4

This is a wonderful verse but as I was reading it tonight the Lord showed me how I was reading it wrong.

Notice it doesn't say that the Greater One indwells you and so you will overcome the world. We tend to read it like that.

But it doesn't say we WILL overcome the world, it says we HAVE overcome the world.

Why is this distinction important? Because it means we don't have anything to do in order to overcome the world. You don't need to pray or fast to overcome the world. You don't need to do anything.

It has already been done for you. The Greater One indwells you. That means you will never encounter a situation you haven't already overcome.

There's no fight to it except the good fight of faith. There's no victory to be won; only the acceptance of being an overcomer. We don't go into situations to overcome them - we go into them as overcomers already. 

It's not about willpower - it's about faith. You are not striving to win - you rest in the victory.

The enemy of our souls wants to tease us into a battle. Why leave the winner's circle to go scrapping in the mud in a fight you don't have to engage in?

We are not here to win a war; we are here to walk in the victory.

The Greater One indwells you. That is all the victory you will ever need.

Say it over and over:- "The Greater One indwells me so I walk in victory all the time!"

Momentous Times

We live in momentous times.

This is a time of great darkness. It is also a time of great opportunity to shine forth the glory of God.

Events in the Middle East are hurtling planet earth towards a third world war. It looks like the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 17 will soon come to pass i.e. Damascus will become a ruinous heap.

This is not the time to be a slacker if you are a believer. The Middle East conflagration could quickly escalate into a global conflict and, if Russia and China get involved, this means we could literally be under direct and imminent threat of nuclear attack.

For those of us who remember the Cold War, with the TV warnings and the siren drills, it will seem strange going back to times when being wiped out by nuclear explosion was a real fear for many.

In our fellowship, some have had dreams and visions of awful events happening. They all seem to point to a nuclear attack. I myself had a very profound dream where I saw the terrible results of an attack from the air here in Scotland which could only possibly be a thermonuclear explosion.

Now it has to be said we are not gloom and doom people. We are very much Word of Faith and positive folks. We are looking to God for a mighty revival and total reformation of society. We are believers, not fearers!

But sometimes you just have to be honest. It has to be remembered that men like William Branham and A.A. Allen - men who couldn't remotely be described as anything other than positive in their ministries - were both given terrible visions of great disasters coming to America and the world.

As I say, God will only entrust people proven in a love and faith walk with such stuff  because there are too many sons of thunder running around gleefully looking for judgment.

We preach grace, mercy and love but we all must remember there is another side. Sadly, many who are presently preaching grace and mercy are telling us now that there is no other side, that God does not judge in this dispensation. Well, they have to airbrush quite a lot of the Bible out to get that idea afloat. And not just the Old Testament.

We also must remember that God's judgment on Babylon requires of us as believers to heap the double on her and rejoice in her fall. Sadly, today's Babylonian Christians would probably send food parcels and tweet messages of support for God's stricken enemy. That's if they are not included in her downfall, it has to be said.

When it all comes down to it, we are poised at this momentous time between two possible futures, one of great revival, restoration and reformation or one of horrific disaster and judgment. In reality, it will be both. Remember that God's light arises in times of gross darkness.

My own ministry is to Britain and I can only answer to God for that. So my responsibility is to implore God for mercy but allow Him to fulfill His own purpose in our land. If that involves times of great tribulation and even the manifestation of the portents of disaster many are seeing, then so it must be. 

Being a Christian carries with it an awesome responsibility. You can pretend all you want that when bad things happen to nations it is because the people there are reaping what they themselves have sown. Of course, that is true but it is only one side of the truth. The other reason judgment comes to nations is because of the Lord's Prayer.

Remember the heart of this prayer is: Thy Kingdom come; Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

When you really push God with the Lord's Prayer, He answers it. He answers it by its own terms. He removes the stuff on earth that isn't present in heaven. That includes bad people, bad leaders, bad systems, bad stuff.

Now this can be accomplished by revival and reformation. But what happens when people dig in and refuse to hear the Word of God? 

In other words, sooner or later - IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER - God will answer the Lord's Prayer.

When you think about it, the Second Advent of Jesus Christ is the ultimate answer to this prayer.

To many who are picking things up from the Holy Spirit, this is not a business-as-usual time, if ever there is or was such a time. This is a time when God's people need to really be God's people, rejecting the circus of distractions thrown up by the world to keep us from our God-ordained purpose. 

Will my terrifying vision, which really shook me up I have to say, come to pass i.e. will there be nuclear warheads exploding in Britain? Or was it just a warning?

I will only say this: if it wasn't just a warning, it was certainly a warning.

According to scholars, Damascus - a very ancient city - has never been a ruinous heap. This makes Isaiah's prophecy yet future at this time. There is also a prophecy in Jeremiah chapter 49 which speaks of the ruin of Aleppo. This is presently happening. I recommend Pastor Ken Davidson's excellent message on the importance of the current Syrian conflict. Here is the link:-

http://www.donaghcloneyelim.net/images/stories/media_files/may12/SyrianConflict_and_EndTimes.mp3

The Substance Of Things

We know that faith is the substance of things hoped for (Hebrews 11:1) and that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). We can then say that substance comes by hearing God's Word? So what is substance?

Substance in the Greek is hupostasis, which means "that which stands under" or the "real essence" of something. It means the very nature of something, that which is more real than its manifestation (check W.E. Vine's definition). In short, when a thing is in hupostasis form, it is more substantial i.e. has more substance than when it is in manifest form!!

Take healing, for example. Your healing exists in the glory realm. It cannot be tampered with or lost there. But you can lose your healing here. However, if you do, you can get it back anytime because it is in the glory realm! It's like those saints in Hebrews 10:34 who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods - they did so because they had in heaven a better and more enduring SUBSTANCE! They knew where they had got it and they knew how to get it back! Incidentally, the word "substance" used in Hebrews 10:34 is not hupostasis but it is a word that complements our understanding of hupostasis. It is huparxis and it means that which pre-exists. When you are healed here on earth it is because healing exists in the invisible realm.

The things you require here on earth exist already in another dimension - the glory realm. Your function here is to MANIFEST i.e. bring into the light these things. This means you are to bring them into the visible realm, where molecules are under the speed of light. Once you go past the speed of light you go into the invisible realm. All of reality is a spectrum. The speed of light is the point where the material, physical realm and the spiritual realm meet on the spectrum. God supplies all our needs according to the superabundance that is in the realm above the speed of light (Philippians 4:19).

Manifestation is simply the appearing of these things in the natural realm, the lower-than-lightspeed realm. Your part and mine is not to be a scientist and examine how God does this; it is simply to make sure we are full of substance (faith) so that it happens! It's not that the Lord doesn't reveal the how, it's just that you needn't know everything about it to use it. Millions of people who know nothing about the physics of electricity know how to boil their kettles, heat their homes and wash in their electric showers.

Your only toil under the New Covenant is to pack your inner man with substance. This means you cram God's Word into your heart by filling your mouth with it. The rest of faith is a rest of SUBSTANCE!! Once you have enough substance in you to fulfil your need or desire, you can sit back and let your faith (substance) manifest that need or desire for you. It is faith (substance) that does the job! Therefore, your only pressure is to make sure you are full of substance. Tank up on God's Word all the time to make sure you are full of substance.

Substance is heavenly materiality. When something is in faith form, it is actually more real than when it shows up in the physical. That is one reason why sometimes when we see our prayers answered in the physical it is actually quite matter of fact. Things in the glory are eternal; they are not subject to change as they are here in the natural. You can be robbed of a blessing here on earth but it is always there for you over there.

Receiving by faith is simply transferring the Word of God into our hearts. Take His Word and begin to speak it and you receive the answer to your prayer. Prayers aren't answered when the thing shows up in the natural dimension; they are answered when you receive substance from God's Word. That is why all His promises are yea and amen because all His promises are in His Word. God's promise is not "I will do it" - it is AMEN!!

It is done.

Fill up on substance today!

No Other Name...

Sometimes I come across things which provoke my spirit. Today I noticed an ongoing discussion in my Facebook ticker concerning whether or not people of other faiths could be considered brothers and sisters in Christ. A pastor friend of mine – Andy Dempsey of Freedom Church in Uddingston – was the discordant note in the conversation. He was arguing for the exclusivity of Christ. From what I could gather, those who opposed him and argued for the brotherhood with people of other faiths, were all people who regarded themselves as followers of Jesus Christ. I was stupefied. I try to shun “debates” on matters like this. As it was, I couldn’t contribute to the discussion anyway since I am not a Facebook friend of the person who started it.

Let me be clear about one thing. I am no hater of other faiths. I do think that there is a “witch hunt” approach to non-Christian faiths by some Christian people. I have even written a book called The Conspiracy Against Muslims. Unlike many Christians, I don’t see Muslims as a threat; quite the opposite. But I would never call any man or woman a brother or sister in Christ unless they were Christians. That is a fundamental to me. I don’t see how any Christian could see or say it otherwise. To call a Buddhist, a Judaizer, a Muslim or a Hindu “brother” is to denigrate Christ. To a genuine follower of Jesus, this is unthinkable. It’s not an issue of which faith is superior; it is an issue of who is Lord?

The Lordship of Christ is foundational and fundamental. It cannot be reasoned with or reasoned away. It is not in our remit to bargain it down by sharing it with Buddha, Mohammed or other created beings. Christ saves and He alone. Salvation is in no other Name. What is interesting about this online debate is it started with a reference to the Queen’s Christmas Day speech in which she boldly proclaimed the exclusive rights of Christ and His saving power. Many Christians traditionally get frustrated by the Queen’s Speech as it is often appallingly and disappointingly multi-faith. Yet on this occasion, Her Majesty delivered a potent message that exalts Christ and people who call themselves Christians immediately talk about being “brothers and sisters” with people of other faiths.

This reference to the brotherhood of man may seem harmless and to speak against it may appear trivial and petty. Yet the terms “brother” and “sister” applied to each other as Christians reflect the reality that we have been called from the darkness of this world into a special family where God is our Father. This could only happen by and in Christ Jesus. It is not for “good” people of all faiths or none. It is for people saved from sin. To say otherwise is to treat Christ’s death and sacrifice as meaningless. The Queen in her speech said we need a Saviour. Sadly, some who name the Name of Christ don’t seem to agree with her. Well done to Andy Dempsey for speaking out against this folly.

Let us remember that it is not arrogance to claim that Christ alone saves; it is arrogance to proclaim otherwise. Calling people of other faiths our brothers and sisters is to undermine who Christ is and what He has done for us. This is shocking arrogance and comes from an improper understanding of our relationship with the Lord. A lot of Christians today need to go back and get saved again the old-fashioned way! Jesus isn’t our guru – He is Lord of all!

Also there is absolutely no salvation in any other, because there is absolutely no other name under heaven given among men in which we must be saved.
ACTS 4:12 HERITAGE BIBLE

Your Primary Task

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,

for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.

For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

who desires all men to be saved and to come to a full true knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ

Jesus,

1TIMOTHY 2:1-5 VW

There is often a mentality in reading Scripture that means we read “religiously” i.e. we just see things as a collection of unrelated verses; we see neither theme nor cause and effect. This passage is a classic example. The proof that most Christians have no clue what these verses mean is all around us. The truth is, this passage is one of the most powerful passages in the whole Bible!

Paul says “FIRST OF ALL.” This is vital. It means what it says. It means this is your primary task! Your primary task is to use all kinds of prayer – supplications, prayers, intercessions, giving of thanks – for ALL MEN. This doesn’t mean everybody you know or all your Facebook buddies. Prayer for all men means prayer in accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant – that God would bless every nation and family on earth. It is prayer cover for the whole planet, ultimately. IT IS PRAYING FOR THE PURPOSE OF GOD THAT GOD MAY BE ALL IN ALL. Paul’s vision was “all Israel saved” (Romans 11:26). You could say it is prayer for revival.

Well most Christians are OK with that; prayer for revival is a great idea. So – with so many praying for revival, why isn’t it happening? I mean to the extent it should. The answer is many Christians neglect verse 2! You are supposed to pray for kings and for those who occupy high positions of authority. If you don’t, you are big-time missing the point. You see, verse 2 says that the result of such prayer is a culture of peace, tranquillity, godliness and dignity. The word “dignity” means honesty and probity. This means living in a nation free from crime, violence, corruption and depravity! Could you use some of that?

Then we read in verse 3 that such praying is good and acceptable in the sight of God. So it’s very simple: if you want to please God, pray for kings and people in authority. This creates an environment which is peaceful and godly. In other words, an atmosphere ready for revival! Verse 3 goes on to say that God desires all men to be saved and to come into full true knowledge of the truth. This means revelation knowledge. How plain do we need it? The key to revival is to pray for our national leaders! This is very biblical. Revivals in the Old Testament were led by kings of Judah – men like Josiah and Hezekiah.

This is the Key Of David in action. As we pray fervently for our monarch and other leaders, God responds by pouring out His spirit. We in the United Kingdom are blessed because we actually have a King/Queen to pray for. We are superabundantly blessed because our royal throne is the Throne of David in the earth. All men being saved and walking in revelation knowledge sure sounds like revival to me! And this is the reward for praying the Key Of David – praying for our royal throne and national leaders.

Verse 5 takes it further; it speaks of Christ being the only Mediator. This means we will live in a land free from idols and multi-faith mindsets. In other words, a Christian nation! God wants what we want – it’s just that we are not doing it HIS way. Simply praying for God to move is only part of the key, brothers and sisters.

Now I know some won’t accept this. Some won’t even see it. It is only the Church of Philadelphia that has the Key Of David revelation. Many will choose to stay in Sardis because it has a good name and great track record, despite it being dead. Some will try to prove me wrong and redouble their efforts to pray down revival by ignoring verse 2. At least they’ll be praying, I guess. But you can’t argue with God. Please remember that Paul was related to British royalty and that the church he wrote to in his Epistle to the Romans was the church that met in the Palatium Britannicum. Timothy was of British royal descent so both these men knew the importance of praying for kings and the importance of royalty itself in God’s strategic plan.

I hope you can see that hostility or ambivalence toward royalty is directly against the very heart of God and is, in itself, counter-productive to God moving. The solution is simple: repent and pray for our royal house and throne. Or be a carcass in the wilderness.

NB. This is written primarily to people in the British Isles. If you live in a country with no monarch, you can, of course, pray for ours! Certainly you can pray for your own national leaders and believe God to move in power.

True Foundations

And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets...

1 CORINTHIANS 12:28

The need for the recognition and releasing of apostolic and prophetic ministry is becoming ever more apparent in the Body of Christ. Those of us who see the Sardis/Philadelphia transition in the Body understand that only the full expression and implementation of these two offices will bring about the perfect man of Ephesians chapter 4. Yes, you can find the apostolic and prophetic in the Sardis paradigm but the full expression can only be in Philadelphia. Put bluntly, apostles and prophets must be given the ranking here ascribed by Paul. You can't fit these offices into pastor-driven structures; you must build the Church upon apostles and prophets (Ephesians 2:20).

You can have a successful church without these foundations but it must remain Sardis, which is dead; successful, that is, by the standards of Sardis. The Church of Philadelphia, the church of the perfect man, will only be built upon true foundations. There have been attempts to radically overhaul some churches in the Sardis paradigm by making them conform to apostolic principles but you can only build upon a true foundation. Altering the building doesn't change the foundation...

Many years ago I spectacularly failed the Lord by being embroiled in a big scandal. Getting right with God was easy - I repented and that was it. Some Christians don't know that if you foul up AFTER you are saved, the blood of Jesus still works! But I had sense enough to know that I had to deal with the horizontal, with my fellow believers. I knew one thing: no pastor could fully restore me. It would take an apostle directly above me in authority. In the leadership structure of the church I was in at that time, this man was over my immediate pastor and the man who pastored him. I had had no personal dealings with this man but I contacted him and after a period of time in which this man measured the level of my repentance and sincerity, he granted me full restoration under his apostolic authority. I also learned later that he sternly warned others not to give me a hard time for messing up and that I was the real deal.

Some things take apostles; it's that simple. I thank God for my upbringing spiritually in the Apostolic Church. The "Appy" was a forerunner to that which is to come but, like all other Sardis concepts of the apostolic, it's understanding of the office is too limited. What God will do through apostles and prophets in the coming years is mindblowing. Exciting times lie ahead, brothers and sisters!! 

A great example is Revelation 18:20 where apostles and prophets are mentioned in the destruction of the Babylonian order on planet earth. Those who long to see the fall of Babylon and the ushering in of God's Kingdom economy must recognise that this can only come about through the Body of Christ coming into its full and perfect expression. This necessitates the offices of apostle and prophet becoming the foundation of Church and not the extension.