we're so wonderful!!! ?????

As we look at the early signs of revival in our times, we should be more inspired than ever to see this move of God go to the deepest echelons of every society and furthest corners of the earth. Through this baptism of confidence wrought in the place of prayer and intimacy, we will awaken to the reality that we are the fulfillment of the glory of the Lord being poured out all over the earth. “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 Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). As He shines on our hearts, we shine on the world, and the Kingdom that is “in us” is released everywhere we go. We are waking up to the reality that whenever we step out our front door, glory has arrived on the streets. Whenever we step off a plane, glory has arrived in the region. No matter how dark or hard it may be, this confident Bride filled with the power and glory of God will prevail.

Byrd, Andy; Feucht, Sean (2010-09-01). Fire and Fragrance (Kindle Locations 1500-1507). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.

As a general rule, when someone takes a single verse like this, it's good to look at it in some context. So, here's some context for II Corinthians 4:6.

2 CORINTHIANS 4
Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with l ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ

.

A more telling example of the distance between the Bible and these Fire and Fragrance frauds could not be asked for. Concerning the F&F frauds, all they talk about is themselves and people like themselves, the supposedly radical and raw and extreme types. All they talk about is how superior they are to those who came before them. They brag about how they do things differently now, how their ways are superior to the old ways. They brag about how they preaching becomes secondary to them in their quest for experiences.

And Paul? He did not proclaim himself, and those with him did not proclaim themselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. They were the servants of those they were preaching to for the sake of Jesus.

We do not see such arrogance in this biblical passage as Feucht and Byrd exhibit throughout their book, including the above excerpt. Can you imagine the overwhelming arrogance behind a statement like "we are the fulfillment of the glory of the Lord being poured out all over the earth"? And that they would try to take II Corinthians 4:6 to support that claim?

Let me give a bit more context.

7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; 10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. 11 For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So death is at work in us, but life in you.

We are not the "fulfillment of the glory of the Lord being poured out all over the earth". Glory has not arrived when we go somewhere. That's arrogance. We are sinful people, jars of clay, earthen vessels. Whatever power we have is from God. And let us not think that this power will make us victorious, as the world considers victory or even far too many supposedly in the church. We will be mistreated, persecuted, and every day we come closer to death.

Finally, take a look at the earlier verses, where it is written "We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word". I would contend that the things Paul and those with him were refusing to do are the very things Byrd and Feucht are doing. They are trying to tamper with God's word, to put a meaning into the text that isn't there by taking a statement out of context and claiming to have found some strange, foreign meaning in that statement.

So, put aside these aberrant teachings that fill your ego and tickle your ears. Do not listen to those who lift you up in pride and arrogance, but rather to those who speak the truth to you, that you are a sinner, all of your works of righteousness are like the most vile of rags. You will never become righteous by trying to keep the Law. But there is a righteous that God has revealed to us, a righteousness that is not to be gained by trying to keep the Law, and indeed trying to earn it that way is doomed to failure. It is through belief in Christ that a person is given that righteousness. This is good news, but it isn't the kind of good news that makes us look at ourselves in arrogance at what fine persons we are, but rather it makes us look to God because of His great love for us, that while we were still sinners and enemies of God, Christ died for us.

mike bickle is a nut (and that's not a compliment)

Last night I just kind of gave an all-over-the-map introduction of Daniel chapter 10, we didn't really go into it, but I gave just a couple of ideas about it, and I would like to go into it a little bit this morning. But I want to say this, for those of you unfamiliar with Daniel 10. It is one of the unique chapters in the Bible for the prayer movement. Daniel 10 draws back the curtain and gives us an insight into the spirit realm, and how intercession moves things in the spirit realm. Angels and demons, how it impacts the cosmic conflict of angels and demons. Daniel 10 is very unique in that it pulls back the curtain to let us see into the realm of the spirit the conflict between angels and demons, but the important part is how the conflict is carried on related to intercession. It's not enought to know angels and demons clash, that's not the message of Daniel 10 that angels and demons clash, the message of Daniel 10 is that angels and demons clash ONLY when there's intercession on the Earth. Beloved, I want to stress that. Governmental angels move in governmental ways in the spirit only in response to intercession on the Earth. So the equation, the spiritual equation of this chapter, goes something like this. The angel comes to give Daniel revelation, this revelation invigorates his intercession. The great problem, the great need is the better way to say it, in the prayer movement, is the lack of revelation. Revelation invigorates the human spirit, makes the human spirit mighty in intercession. Intercession causes the angelic armies to move. The conflict in the spirit realm, with angels moving, dislodging demonic powers from their positions of dominance in history. Then, political events happen upon the Earth, and spiritual events happen in the natural related to that cosmic conflict. Let me say it again, because I want you to get this, this is the premise of Daniel 10. Intercessors pray, angels then move, they wait for prayer, they do not move in a governmental way without prayer. The angels then move, the demons are disrupted, the conflict happens in the spirit, then it is manifest in the natural, and history is changed. We want history to be changed by acting in the natural only, and we have to act in the natural, we have to act in the natural, everybody knows that part. History is filled with men and women acting in natural ways. But history will not be changed in its God-ordained path in the natural without the conflict in the spirit happening in the right way. Angels have to go into conflict against demons, and they will not except in response to intercession. That's part of God's governmental administration of the created order. He say "My heart with my people is so important, the entire cosmic battle is in the balance of how my people interact with my heart. If they interact with my heart, I dispatch angels. If they quit interacting with me, I tell the angels to wait."
Mike Bickle, from a video called Introduction to the IHOP-KC Structure and Model, beginning in the first few seconds.

First, here's the chapter in question.

Daniel 10

Wow. Just. Wow.

Ok, where to begin...

Almost the only thing he said here that I have anything approaching agreement with is that Daniel 10 does give us a bit of a glimpse into spiritual conflict. The angel that came to Daniel to deliver the message does say that it had been fighting, and after it left Daniel would continue to fight again. So, there is a modicum of information about this spiritual conflict.

But after acknowledging this bit of agreement, from this point on out, Bickle takes a header off the deep end.

Let's look at some of his statements.

"the message of Daniel 10 is that angels and demons clash ONLY when there's intercession on the Earth."

I've linked to the chapter above, so perhaps you can read it, and see where the chapter says that. Because I'm not seeing it.

Governmental angels move in governmental ways in the spirit only in response to intercession on the Earth.

So, where does the Bible say anything about "governmental angels"? I can't think of much of any mention about that. The closest I can think of is in Daniel 12, when it mentions the angel Michael being "the great prince who has charge of your people." And that's it. There is nothing else about such things.

So the equation, the spiritual equation of this chapter, goes something like this. The angel comes to give Daniel revelation, this revelation invigorates his intercession.

Read Daniel 10-12, or at least look through those chapters quickly. This visit by the angel to Daniel is the last event recorded in the book. There is nothing recorded in the book about anything Daniel did after this. There is nothing said about his prayers of intercession being "invigorated". The only thing the angel tells him to do is in chapter 12, verse 9, when he says "Go your way, Daniel...", and something similar at the very end of the chapter and book, "13 But go your way till the end. And you shall rest and shall stand in your allotted place at the end of the days.”

Revelation invigorates the human spirit, makes the human spirit mighty in intercession. Intercession causes the angelic armies to move.

So, because one angel came in response to Daniel's words, we can conclude that armies of angels move when we intercede? There's a jump in logic, or, dare I say, illogic.

Intercessors pray, angels then move, they wait for prayer, they do not move in a governmental way without prayer.

So, where does this chapter say that? In fact, where does the Bible say anywhere that angels essentially have their hands tied unless someone is praying?

He says, "My heart with my people is so important, the entire cosmic battle is in the balance of how my people interact with my heart. If they interact with my heart, I dispatch angels. If they quit interacting with me, I tell the angels to wait."

This is the most questionable part. True, the quotes are my own insertion, but you can see from his language that Bickle is talking as if God said this. Whether it is a direct quote or a summation, Bickle is still saying that God said this.

Now, where did God say that?

Does this Bible contain those phrases? Where, for example, does the Bible say anything about the importance of "my heart with my people" having any sort of influence on spiritual conflict? Where does the Bible say that God will "dispatch angels" if His people "interact with my heart"?

You can read Daniel 10 again, and see plainly that it ain't there, despite what Bickle claims.

Bickle goes on in this speech about how crucial this chapter is to the church, and how it addresses the modern-day "prayer movement", even comparing his own House of Prayer in Kansas City to the Temple. While this passage in Daniel is important, because it is in the Bible and is a prophetic message, one may wonder why, if it is so important, the New Testament writers do not stress it? While there is teaching in the epistles about the end times, little if any of it references Daniel 10-12.

And if you read Daniel 10-12, you can see why. This prophecy addresses things that relate to Daniel's people, Israel. But so far as I can tell, the Church is basically a non-entity in the things prophecied about, except insofar as it early in Daniel 12 it mentions those whose names "shall be found written in the book", and of those who have died being raised, and some of them "to everlasting life".

How can something who spews such nonsense gain a position of leadership in the church? How can anyone even take him seriously? His words are not in the Bible, they aren't taught there, they aren't even a reasonable supposition from the events in the chapter. This is pathetic. Bickle is shameful, and the church should be ashamed to have allowed this nut to spew his filth in the church.

now this is confirmation

ht: How to Manipulate a Bloke Into "Revival"

I don't know if I would have put it like this before hearing what this guy says in this video, though I was aware of it to some degree. But I've gotten to the point where I'm think things like this...

That what most people mean by "revival" is little more than manipulation.

That what most people mean by things like "God showed up" and "The Spirit was really present" is little more than psychological manipulations--getting people to sing your little songs, do the rah-rah thing to get them psyched, get them expecting something to happen by among other things saying something will happen, and such things.

As Pringle makes clear, you shame people into joining in. If they aren't joining in, if the aren't jumping around and speaking meaningless gibberish, or crawling around barkning like a dog, or whatever the manifestation-of-the-month may be, then something's wrong with them.

So all that is created are a bunch of easily-led and easily-misled followers of experiences.

confirmation of...what???

With all this madness happening around me and the deep emotion being released from the inner core of my being, I frantically opened up my Bible to see if I could possibly find anything to bring confirmation or validation to all this. As I thumbed open the page, this was the very first line I read in that moment: “You have overwhelmed me with all your waves” (Ps. 88:7 NIV).

Byrd, Andy; Feucht, Sean (2010-09-01). Fire and Fragrance (Kindle Locations 1305-1308). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.

This excerpt has a context. The writer (the book has two co-authors, I'm not sure which one is writing here) was in Australia, and has walked to a beach, and has some kind of experience, which I seriously doubt was from God. One reason has to do with this verse that he thinks confirms what he heard in this experience.

First, there is simply the fact that he played the game of "Flip Open the Bible and Read the First Thing You See". Assuming that it really happened this way, that he simply opened up his Bible and, lo and behold, the first thing his eyes lighted upon was this verse fragment about waves, then...so what? There is no attempt to try to look at this sentence in context, there is no attempt to understand what it's really saying. What makes this in any way significantly different from, say, tarot cards or ouija boards? After all, even the Devil can take the Bible out-of-context to mislead someone, which is what happened when he tried to tempt Christ. No, this is simply a form of divination, which the Bible severely frowns upon.

Second, let's have some context. He's only looking at a part of the verse. Here is all of it, from the ESV.

7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah

Well, that kind of puts a different take on things. "Waves" are related to "wrath". How about a bit more context.

88 O LORD, God of my salvation; I cry out day and night before you.
2 Let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry!
3 For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength,
5 like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
8 You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9 my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon you, O LORD; I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
13 But I, O LORD, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O LORD, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
16 Your wrath has swept over me; your dreadful assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long; they close in on me together.
18 You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me; my companions have become darkness.

This isn't a happy Psalm. The one writing it, perhaps one of the Sons of Korah, is not having a good time. He's having problems, and serious ones. When he wrote that God's waves were overwhelming him, he wasn't thinking about a nice day at the beach and splashing around in the surf. He was writing about serious troubles, things that were drowning him.

If this verse is a confirmation of some vision you've had, you'd best be careful. If you think this verse is telling you that waves are coming, you may want to start doing some serious repenting, in the hope that maybe God will let those waves pass you by.

uninvited intruders

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His Glory” (Isaiah 6:1-3).

So not only do we have the promise of God and the petition of Solomon, but now the perspective of Heaven! As the inhabitants of Heaven look down on the earth from the throne room of God, they can’t help but declare the holiness of the God of the armies of Heaven! Their perspective of our planet in the context of their surroundings is, “The whole earth is full of His glory.” In their eyes, His glory is already covering the earth and all that separates us from seeing this is a thin veil of unbelief, the weight of sin, and our human, earthly perspectives. Once again, heroes are made when they can lift the temporary veil of earthly perspective and peer through the eyes of Heaven on the glory of God that even now covers the earth! Then they will be able to call this glory forth like lava from the depths! These moments are what we call revival, a miracle, or the Kingdom breaking in! Oh, to live constantly in this reality of Heaven!

Byrd, Andy; Feucht, Sean (2010-09-01). Fire and Fragrance (Kindle Locations 788-798). Destiny Image. Kindle Edition.

I'll give these writers partial credit for some truth here. The rightly point out that the angels said that the Earth is already filled with God's glory. From that point on, though, they seem to have gone loco.

For example, the passage says nothing about this, "all that separates us from seeing this is a thin veil of unbelief, the weight of sin, and our human, earthly perspectives." Was the prophet Isaiah also a human, did he not suffer from things like unbelief, sin, and being human? God visited him in this way, in spite of these thing. He visited other prophets, such as Ezekial, in the same way. He visited Abraham, despite the fact that he was a liar and showed a lack of faith when he had a child by his wife's maidservant. He gave Jacob a vision of a ladder, despite Jacob being a deceiver, even one who deceived his own blind father.

These and others whom God spoke to were not able to make themselves good enough. They could not cure their own unbeliefs, the could not clean even the smallest of their own sins.

And this is important, because look at what these pitiful writers say. "Once again, heroes are made when they can lift the temporary veil of earthly perspective and peer through the eyes of Heaven on the glory of God that even now covers the earth!" It is as if they are saying that Isaiah, Ezekial, Abraham, Moses, any prophet, did the work of lifting this veil on their own, as if all they had to do was to do some X actions and then God will give them a sneak peak of spiritual matters.

That's not what happened. I can't think of any time in the Bible when a person was allowed to attempt to breach the veil into spiritual things. It is always God's sovereign decision to speak to a person, or to give that person a dream or vision, or to send an angel to them. When Peter was rescued from prison by an angel, or when he received a vision concerning the Gentiles, he had nothing to do with trying to cause those events to happen. It was all God. Saul was not looking for Jesus when Jesus knocked him down near to Damascus, and he had nothing with trying to have the vision that told him to Macedonia.

God sent visions to pagans like Pharoah in Genesis and to Nebuchanezzar in Daniel. God sent an angel to the greedy prophet Balaam, and even let his donkey speak to him. He sent prophets to good kings and bad. He even sent a dream to Pilate's wife as a warning.

It is not our job to "lift the temporary veil of earthly perspective". We cannot do that. It is not our job to "call this glory forth like lava from the depths!", nor are we able to do such things. It is nigh unto blasphemous to say that we are able to do such things, if not all the way there. No Scripture ever tells us to do those things, and I would say that there is a danger in doing them, because it is all about works, all about our own efforts.

the esther guilt trip

Urgent Message from Lou Engle

I want to take this opportunity to bear my heart with you all, friends and partners of TheCall. In just a couple of weeks we are holding TheEstherCall on Good Friday to pray for an undeserved mercy in America, the rescuing of our children and healing of women. When Esther fasted and prayed it had life and death urgency to it. The sound of that urgency today and particularly for TheEstherCall has not yet been recognized. Our registration is low, and that could be due to it being Good Friday, Easter weekend and that it is a call to women alone, except for the 2,000“Mordecais” we are calling to pray alongside the women

Yes, people (especially you women), feel GUILTY because you don't want to travel to wherever this event is (was) happening!! How DARE you NOT come!! You want to be with your own families for Good Friday? Do things at your OWN church? The SHAME, the DISGRACE!!

(Plus, if you don't show up and buy tickets, how is Engle going to have enough money to pay for the next big meaningless gathering, not to mention what is he going to brag about on his website, so that people can think that he's doing something big and grand and, on the off-chance, godly?)

On Good Friday, the Esthers will apply the blood of Jesus to the doorposts of our national guilt and pray for mercy in the nation.

The guilt trip was bad enough, but this is just blasphemous. We do not apply the blood of Jesus to anything, and to suggest that we do is sickening.

when satire starts to become reality

I suppose that, at it's best, satire is at least reality-based. On the other hand, one does hope that reality would stop somewhere short of the satire.

In "Rigor", the hero finds himself making a brief stop in a Mega. After the "service", he has this little chat with one of the people at the Mega.

"I thought the live make-out session was really powerful."

Chase was almost too afraid to ask. "How?"

"Because it so raw, so real, so...relevant. There was no doubt that the couples making out were really into the experience."

"Yeah. I'll...agree with that." Rather too much into it, Chase thought.

“And the pole dancers during worship. That was incredible.”

“Sure.” Chase had tried to focus on the bulletin while that was going on.
(Kindle Locations 584-587).

Sadly, my satire seems to be becoming something like reality.

Ohio Pastor Puts Stripper Pole Next to Pulpit to Talk Sex

With a bed and a stripper pole placed next to his pulpit, a pastor in Ohio is all set to begin a series of sermons on sex and relationships beginning Sunday.

Ready to start a new sermon series called "Battle of the Sexes," Pastor Mike Scruggs at the Light of Word Ministries in White Oak, Ohio, has put a stripper pole, video games and sports equipment on one side of the pulpit, representing what men desire. On the other side, he has set up a bed with candies, teddy bears, roses and a bottle of wine to depict what women want.

On all Sundays in April, Scruggs will share about best practices in bedroom, keeping intimacy alive and the need to build and maintain trust. "Right now we're having single people having too much sex and married people not having enough sex," he told Fox19.