Regain your First Love

Lord: For about sixty generations now, my church has been passing on the good news about Jesus, but there are many corners of the world that are still untouched by the good news. Even after all these generations, and after all the effort, the church is distracted from living and preaching the good news, by focusing upon things that are nothing to do with the gospel and do not give life to my people. I did not come to earth to found a building preservation society, nor did I come to form and support a church of surrogates, priests and ministers, who do all the work while the people do nothing!

When I called you to me, I filled your hearts with excitement as you realised the truth and committed yourselves to me. I opened your eyes, to see what I was doing in the lives and hearts of men and women, as they turned to me for salvation. I laid needs upon your hearts to pray for. I allowed my Holy Spirit to use you in prophecy, knowledge, discernment, tongues and healing. I filled your hearts with love for those around you, and your voices with praise and worship for me.

I have not changed! The gospel has not changed! The Holy Spirit is still there, but I do not hear the worship that comes from the heart. I do not see any more the excitement of seeing me at work! Where is that love you had for me when you first believed?

Has the last 2,000 years watered down the gospel? No! My word stands forever and for all time. You, my people have allowed the clamour and senseless mutterings of the world to distract and deceive you! You have listened to the lies of the Evil One, and have let go of My commandments and my statutes. You have turned your eyes away from Jesus and have allowed the bright lights and loud music of the world to distract you, and lead you away from my path. As you have wandered further away from me you have become deaf to my voice, and oblivious of my call. Even your leaders have been listening too much to the world's wisdom, which is not wisdom at all, and have created a theology to fit the world's ideas, instead of allowing the world to see the truth.

As the institutions of worldly power are shaken by my hand, and many become fearful for their future as the props they were leaning on fall, you my people, must stand firm on the rock which is not shaken and which cannot be moved. That rock is Jesus! Hold tightly to the truth revealed in Jesus and spread abroad the Gospel! Turn your eyes upon Jesus, and listen, as I speak to you through Him. Learn well, how to hear my voice, and remain obedient to me, for only those who hold on to me will not be shaken in the days and month ahead, as I shake again and again, the institutions of men.

Hold on firmly to my truth, and my commandments. Endure the laughter and mockery of the world for a little longer, for before the year is out, many of the rocks and safe places, in which they trust, and on which they have based their whole lives, will shake, crumble and fall into a pile of dust!

Be ready to reach out your hands to help those who fall and draw them to the safety of the rock, which is Jesus. Do not reprove them. It is for My Holy Spirit to do the convicting Reach out and draw them home. Nourish them with the words of life. Live out the gospel of peace and love ,and regain and relive the love you had for me when you first believed. Regain the excitement you felt when you first saw me working and lift your hearts and your voices in praise and worship to me.

Let your light shine brightly in the darkness of the world. Be a lighthouse, a beacon, to draw all men to me. Do not waiver or be daunted by the task, for I have equipped you and will provide for all your needs and all the needs of those to whom you minister. I am the Lord your provider, and I love you.

Language of the heart

Me: Good morning Lord. Thank you for waking me this morning and for our walk and your company. Thank you for listening to all my ramblings and concerns and for the wonderful peace you give me when I have unloaded it. I love you Lord.

Lord: Good morning Martin. Welcome to the club this morning and thank you for your company. I love to listen to your ramblings. I always love it when my children talk to me out of their hearts. I would rather hear one faltering prayer from the heart than an hour of prayers written by another. The prayer from the heart doesn't need to be well composed or even coherent, I know what you are saying because I read your heart.

That is why praying in tongues is so helpful. You don't need an accurate word for word translation, as long as it flows from your innermost being. Think of it a bit like a computer. You can feed into the keyboard your English words and symbols, but inside the message is racing around the chips in a totally different language. Were you able to slow it down to a speed you could decipher it you would still not understand it unless you first learn to decode, or interpret it. The language of the heart is a spiritual language that is used in Heaven. You can feel it, and understand it, but you don't actually need to run it through the intellect or language centre in your brain to understand it. You only need to do that if you want to describe it to another person. Like the language of love it needs no words. This is why the good news about salvation is universal. You don't need to be a great intellectual to receive it, and often the highly intellectual person finds it hard to receive, because it doesn't always conform to human understanding and knowledge.

You will remember from your childhood a saying that was very common: 'Feelings ain't Facts.' Well I want to tell you that feelings are a very important part of the language of love and the Kingdom. I gave man the ability to feel. I also gave him another sense which the world calls instinct. Nine times out of ten what you think of as instinct is a spiritual nudge from me. Learn to discern what is from me, and don't be afraid to ask me. There are so many gifts and abilities I have given to mankind that still lie dormant because he has grasped knowledge above life. Knowledge does not give life, but living life brings knowledge. The tree of Life was more important than the tree of Knowledge. Choose Life!

So, pray your prayers from the heart. Don't be concerned about their composition or beauty, just pour them out to me. I love to hear them and I honour and hold precious, every prayer from the heart, prayed by anyone. Listen to the prayers of others, and hear in them the love that wells up from the heart, and be glad that your Heavenly Father hears, through the tears and the sighs. He hears through the pain and the hurt, and he alone reaches into that secret place and delivers healing, warmth and comfort. Open the door to let his love in. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Whoever opens the door of their heart to me, will find I come in, and with My Heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit, we make our dwelling within you. Why? Because we love you.

The Gifts of My Spirit

Me: Good morning Lord. Thank you for waking me this morning and for this new and beautiful morning. I love you Lord.

Lord: Good morning Martin. Welcome to the 5 O'clock Club this morning and thank you for joining us on our tour of the estate. We love you too.

I want you all to get to know My Spirit, for in the days to come you are going to need My Spirit with you all the time, working closely with you, and directing your pathway. It is through My Spirit that you are able to take up the battle cry Jesus is Lord! Let My Spirit be in your speaking. Commit every word you say to me and let My Spirit put the words into your mouths. As you allow the Spirit to speak through you, you will begin to notice the prophetic nature of your words. It is the prophetic word, the word from me, that will break down the barriers the Evil One has built up, that keep the children of men from hearing me speak to them. The prophetic word will smash through those barriers and speak comfort to those who tremble and are afraid.

It is My Spirit who gives you all the gifts and tools that you need in ministry. It is My Spirit who equips you to walk the Christian walk. Out of my store house He gives the very latest and most advanced tools to help you break down the works of the Evil One, and build up and strengthen the faint hearted.

It is through My Spirit that I dispense wisdom and knowledge. Notice how I group those two gifts together! Wisdom gives you the ability to use knowledge and to discern truth. When mankind stretched out his hand and took the fruit of the tree of knowledge, he acted without wisdom. Wisdom helps you to use and understand knowledge. The gifts that I give through My Spirit are very special and the wisdom I give is not worldly wisdom, but divine. Into a specific situation I will drop a word of wisdom or a work of knowledge. Use them carefully and in a timely way. By that I mean use them when I direct. Speak into the appropriate moment, for my words are spoken into the 'now!' An undue delay can mean that the word loses its power, because the moment has passed. So exercise wisdom as you speak the word of knowledge.

My Spirit also distributes the gift of faith. Now here I am not speaking of the faith to believe in Jesus, although that is also given by me. No, this is a specific gift, given by My Spirit to those who already believe in me. It gives to the receiver the ability to hold on and believe for, the things he cannot see, the things others hold as impossible. That is why I am linking faith with  gifts of healing. One of the reasons the church does not see as much healing as I want to perform, is that it lacks the faith to ask! I want all my children to have the faith to ask me, and to believe that I hear every prayer, for it is when the church believes that I am Almighty, that miracles and healing follow.

Healing is a special gift. Those who deliver the gift of healing exercise faith, while not being the recipient. The gift is specifically for another, the one who needs healing. It is wrong to think of one person as a healer. Jesus is the healer, the Holy Spirit is the bearer of the gift, and one with faith delivers it. Sometimes it requires faith on the part of the receiver, but that is unusual. The main requirement of the one to be healed is that they are open to the love offered as the gift is given.

The ability to speak in other tongues and to interpret them is also a gift of My Spirit. Once again this should not be confused with the natural ability to speak in foreign languages. Speaking in tongues is directly related to speaking My Word. It may be used in prayer, or to deliver prophecy or wisdom, or on rare occasions it may be used to preach to a congregation who speak a different language. The gift of interpretation is specific to prayers and words given in tongues, and is not just the ability to translate other languages.

I want to deal lastly with distinguishing between spirits. The western world has largely ignored the spiritual realm for so long now, that it has forgotten that there is a battle going on all the time between good and evil. This battle takes place in the spiritual realm, because there are spirits of evil as well as the Spirit of God. Many things are spoken and done, not by the Spirit of God, but by the Spirit of Darkness. He can be very hard to distinguish because so much of what he says is lies that tickle the fancy. Some of his lies are what people think they want to hear. Distinguishing  the spirits is therefore a vital tool for all believers. When a voice inside you says, "Hey, hang on, that doesn't feel right," that is the moment to stop and re-evaluate the situation. You may think that sounds like conscience. Well it is. I put man's conscience there in the first place when I breathed into him the breath of life, so the God shaped bit of man responds to the gift of My Spirit.

In the coming months as I work in the world, all the gifts which My Spirit has distributed amongst believers will be needed. Accept them thankfully and learn from me how to use them. They all require an element of faith to use, but I have already supplied you with enough to use what I am giving. Be bold be strong, and be courageous. I am with you, Jesus is with you, the Holy Spirit is with you. We love you.

Dreams and Visions

2010
Friday, 22 January
05:00:36

Lord: Have you noticed, as you read the scriptures, even the hard passages, how I put pictures into your mind. All scripture is pictures, and your speaking and teaching is most effective when you use pictures. Visions or pictures bring light and colour to your mind as well as understanding. There are several things I want to say about visions.

Wait with them. Expect my word to conjure up pictures for you. As you read the Word or as you listen to me speak, let the pictures form in your mind and be displayed on the screen of your inner eye. Gaze on it, study it and recall it, so that its meaning can dawn on you. Vision and pictures are a common part of the learning process for children, but for some reason it is not thought appropriate for adults, who are encouraged to think in abstract thoughts and words. Adults also think using pictures, and behind every great writing is a picture. Make pictures in your mind's eye part of everyday life. Learn to read the picture, in the same way you take in any scene in life. Ask yourself what is happening in this picture, who is there and what are they doing. Draw your first conclusion from the obvious, then look at the detail, and see if that changes the meaning. If the meaning or the reason for the picture is unclear, then prayerfully ask for clearer vision or clarification. I give visions because I want you to understand something, or to hear what I am saying. If you don't see what it means, I will give you another vision. Those who focus on me and see their visions as coming from me, will learn to read them and understand them.

As you look at the pictures and begin to see what they are about, ask yourself two questions:

Does this picture apply to me? And if so how?

Does this picture apply to others or more generally? If so,to whom, and how?

Visions and pictures are, at some point, to share. When others hear about your vision their mind's eye also catches the light and sees the detail. It is good to share visions and pictures with other believers, so that they, prayerfully, can test out your interpretation and perhaps add to it. When others share their pictures with you, do not dismiss them but treat them as from me, and wait on the meaning until it is fully understood. Write them down or record them in some way.

In the coming months and years I am going to use the visual gifts more and more in revealing truth to my people. It will be both an encouragement to the believer, and a sign for the unbeliever.

The visionary and the dreamer of dreams are as important to the church as any other ministry, and should be prayerfully encouraged and listened to. I am already speaking to others about dreams and visions, as I am speaking to you about prophecy and preaching.

This sort of inspired sight should not be watered down or confused with people who are full of good ideas. Those gifts are good also, but are more a natural gift of seeing possibilities, and are the product of an active alert mind, not necessarily me speaking to the Church.

Where I give vision, I also give understanding. Sometimes it is important that the interpretation and understanding comes from another person, as with the gift of tongues, where one speaks and another interprets. This is not however a rule! Many of my visionaries understand and interpret themselves.

Be always open for the many ways I am speaking and teaching my people in these days, for I am doing a new work in your land. I am mobilising a might army and equipping them for action. Prayer warriors awake, Soldiers of Christ arise, Prophets listen and speak as the Lord leads, Visionaries and Dreamers open the eyes of your spirit and let me show you. My church must be ready to move when they hear My battle cry, Jesus is Lord!