Word From Vaughn- August 15, 2006
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I have had many thoughts as the storm clouds of global war gather over tiny Israel, the navel of the whole earth, the sign that we are attached to the Creator and Father God. I have the same feeling in my spirit that I did in August of 2001.
During the past two days I have had to fight feelings of fear and being overwhelmed. I have been very concerned for the safety of my wife and chlidren--I have been in intercession. I know that chaos will come deliberately. There will be a collapse and a depression. In many cities, those who have money will barricade themselves inside their homes. Feral people will roam the streets--there will be looting and rioting. I am sure, at least in the beginning stages, the crisis will be politicized as a great class struggle. Scapegoats will be sought; without the intervention of God, it will be akin to the "Cultural Revolution" of China in the 60's--those with education and money were persecuted.
During this intercession, the Lord has had to assure me that I will stand and to be stable.
It will take the authorities a short time to assess the situation and then the crisis will be used to cement government as Big Brother. Many urban areas will be regained by military action--whole sections will be "cleaned out".
Remember New Orleans.
Simultaneously, world events will explode which will convince even the most stubborn Christian that Jesus will soon return.
Everything that can be shaken will be shaken. Consider this passage from Hebrews 12:27-29,
"Now this expression,'Yet once more', indicates the final removal and transformation of all [that can be] shaken--that is, of that which has been created--in order that what cannot be shaken may remain and continue.
Let us therefore, receiving a kingdom that is firm and stable and cannot be shaken, offer to God pleasing service and acceptable worship, and with modesty and pious care and godly fear and awe;
For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire."
Not only will everything that can be shaken get shaken, but it NEEDS TO BE SHAKEN so that WE CAN ACCURATELY DISCERN THE ETERNAL KINGDOM THAT IS FIRM AND STABLE AND CANNOT BE SHAKEN. We are in the beginning stages of a powerful foundation check.
We are being taken back to the Bedrock, both of the Church and of this nation.
Secondly, American Christians are in somewhat of a dilemma on several arenas. We are horribly ethnocentric in our view of Christianity, and many of us Spirit-filled folks are waiting for a campmeeting with some magic preacher to usher in the last great move of God. We look for preachers who compete with revelation and anointing so that someone can tell us what to do, when the Holy Spirit is yearning for us to fine tune to be in synch with Him and to submit to being conformed to the image of Jesus, not popular ministry.
We look for the spout where the glory pours out, the right spot where the elite meet, so complete with pretty preacher, pretty church, pretty Jesus. So odd that the Scripture says of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2
"...there was no beauty in Him that we should desire Him."
Men that is how to score big with the women in your life. Just look at them and say,
"Baby, there is no beauty in you that I should desire you."
I prophesy to you that you will have a radical life-changing experience! You will feel the power of God coming upon you that will feel like someone upside your head!
All joking aside, this is a serious issue; we have a false image of Him.
Evidently, in his natural man, Jesus was nondescript. What drew people to Him was what came out of Him and what He did for and gave to people, and if we will be honest, not the people the religious establishment were crazy about.
Am I looking for the real Jesus, or an acceptable veneer, a false Christ who guarantees I can remain unchanged and fit in with the religious group of my own choosing? So much of our "faith" seems to be striving for acceptance, authority, and validation by others. Look at 2Corinthians 10:12,
"For we dare not class ourselves or compare ourselves with those who commend themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise."--NIV
We demand that Jesus plug in to our "God box" of choice and then hurry about adapting to the criteria for admittance to the inner circle and acceptance to salvation. I recently attended a service that was wonderfully refreshing--the pastor stood before the service and said something along these lines,
"Several of you here have only begun coming in the past few weeks; some of you have inquired about our requirements for church membership. You have wanted to know what programs our ministry expects you to go through before you can join the church. I want to be very plain and thorough about this. If Christ accepts you, so do we."
I was amazed at how easily we can walk away from the simplicity we have in Jesus, and place heavy burdens on folks who just want to learn to be like Him!
I also am questioning my own knowledge of Him--you see I have been a "professional" preacher for 20 years now.
I fear that many of us are looking for a different Jesus, a pretty, bland one that will guarantee us a permanent earthly kingdom called America as we have known it. The hard truth is that we are facing either the imminent return of Jesus Christ to the earth, or the end of life as we know it, or both.
We are to go outside the gates of man's ways and thoughts and societies and suffer His reproach (Hebrews 13:13).
Another hard truth is that many of us Believers are fornicators and adulterers with a system that opposes God.
When Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.", He wasn't talking about the dirt, the trees, and the sky; He was talking about the invisible world empire called Babylon. Spiritual Babylon is not one city, one nation, or one church; it is the kingdom of darkness which everyone calls a normal life. It is the great harlotry which controls mankind through money,fear, government, and religion. Babylon coaxes our souls away from Truth with the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life.
Babylon is the way of life in Western Civilization, and especially America.
I have been challenged by the Holy Spirit in the last few days with a passage of Scripture I have never seen in this light. Look at Revelation 2:-18-24
"And to the angel of the Church in Thyatira write, 'These things says the Son of God, Who has eyes like a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass: I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience, and as for your works, the last are more than the first.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and beguile my servants to commit sexual immorality, and to eat things sacrificed to idols.
And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches will know that I am He Who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each of you according to your works."
This is the New International Version.
What I am about to say, I do so with fear and trembling, for I know I am in some level on the receiving end of correction for idolatry and spiritual fornication--my heart is still being revealed to me as I write this.
Historically there was a false prophetess in the Thyatira Church operating in the Jezebel spirit. I believe this woman was a fornicator, encouraged others to commit fornication sexually, and spiritually with idols, and that she blended false teaching of Scripture with occult practices, for example the "depths of Satan", v24.
Many pagan temples had priestesses who served the community as cult prostitutes--fornication with them was an act of devotion and worship to the particular deity.
She may have been a cult prostitute who had been converted, or someone who fell into sin and was snared by the same occultic spirit. She would have flowed in demonic spiritual gifts that would have deceived carnal and immature believers. She was bold and brazen and occupied a seat of authority in the Body and was respected by most. Here was a preacher with a no cost philosophy--Thyatirans did not have to separate from pagan society or immorality. This evil woman may have taught that fornication brought people closer to God, as many cults did then and do today.
I will bluntly say that in many Churches, the single folks appear to have better sex lives than the married, and seem to be more fertile. Anyone who suggests they might choose otherwise, even in the kindest of terms, is viewed as condemning. Aside from this, internet pornography is epidemic among preachers and church goers alike.
I say this with no judgment of anyone else. I have not always thought or acted right morally, although I have not fallen, only by the grace of God. I have seen enough pollution creep into my own soul to scare me. I desire to be a holy and pure influence on the lives of others.
But I believe there is a more subtle application. I believe with all my heart God is sifting the power base of the Church in America. I believe He is judging what causes idolatry and spiritual fornication.
Before we go into this there seems to be two dynamics operating simultaneously. First, Satan is trying to sift the Church like wheat. Secondly, Jesus is baptizing us with fire, and is separating the chaff from the wheat. He is trying to remove from us any place Satan has in us to give Him legal authority to get to us. Jesus wants to protect us, but we have to let Him clean up our mess first. The hard part is because we are so deceived about Who Jesus really is and what it means to be a Christian, we are stubborn and spend a lot of our time being resisted by God: God resists the proud.
Unfortunately, this also opens the door to Satan. Many Christians live in such resultant confusion and division, they don't know whether to submit or fight, or just to fry out with frustration.
I believe that the spirit of Jezebel is a dominant force in Church life today. Ladies, breath easy; I realized years ago that a lot of men who loved to say that strong women were Jezebels were eaten up with this demon. The flesh and blood Jezebel was a pagan princess who controlled through sex, manipulation, sorcery, fear, and money--she hated the real people of God, even though she supported pagan priests and kept a band of eunuchs she had castrated: Jezebel enjoyed religious dominion.
Pagan royalty surrounded themselved with eunuchs because they were easy to control, did not need to lead a normal life, and posed no problem to the ascendance of the dynasty. Oxen make better workhorses than bulls!
The power base of Jezebel in the Church masquerades as the authority of God, but lulls Gods people into eating things sacrificed to idols--in modern application, making God's people believe that Godliness is a means of gain (ITimothy 6: 3-11). Let me say unequivocably that I believe with all my heart, God wants His people to prosper, but with the balance of seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. The Kingdom of God is not meat nor drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Our Kingdom is clearly not of this world.
The early faith teachers, especially Dr. Kenneth Hagin, taught this balance.
I have started asking preachers if they teach prosperity because they want the people to prosper, or if they want the people to prosper them. I do not mean that God's people should stop paying tithes and giving offerings, I MEAN WE NEED TO BE MORE DISCERNING AND BETTER STEWARDS IN THIS HOUR!
In even a more subtle application, I believe the power base of Jezebel in the Church also pulls people into an idolatry of and unnatural dependence on men and women who are anointed to minister. I had a disturbing vision around the beginning of 2006. In this vision I saw elegantly dressed ministers standing in fabulous facilities, weeping and preaching to empty buildings. They had given the people nothing to stand on in the day of adversity, but had drawn people with their teaching, gifting, and the power of the soul. The people left because the foundation was not on the Rock. There was nothing upon which they could stand and have peace and stability in the face of the coming storm!
Preachers cannot fix people--we serve as surrogates for a season to move God's people from our breast to His. The anointing that flows through ministers breaks the yoke; only walking with the Lord in intimacy with Him keeps His people.
There is an elitist mentality that seems to focus on and through highly gifted ministry that is able to draw through carnality. People want to be impressed. They want someone else to know God well enough to produce the supernatural and to tell them what to do. People are naturally drawn to spiritual gifts. Our natural man wants there to be another intercessor besides Christ Jesus. Our trouble is that we seek someone to worship we can see and touch.
I once had a Spirit-filled, New Testament believer say this to me,
"God has convicted me of sin. I made an appointment with the Bishop so I can confess my sin to him and be right with the Lord."
I do believe we are to confess our faults one to another that we may be healed (James 5: 16), but in no way accept anyone but Jesus as my Intercessor and Mediator!
Too many are not looking for the real Jesus, but for a man, a ministry, or a movement that has all the answers. Remember that the anti-Christ will be a spiritual leader who appears to have all the answers.
A mid-20th century psychologist observed the lack of balance in extremely intelligent, highly gifted people--of course many of these were notable folk in the secular arena. He said, "It appears the most beautiful fruit hangs upon the slenderest of twigs and is easily snapped." The Scriptural application of this is in 1Corinthians 1:26-31.
The truth is that no flesh can glory in His Presence.
We five-fold ministers must realize that out of that vast company of what is foolish, weak, base, and despised, the Lord has chosen us and applied 1Corinthians 12:23--those parts of the Body which lack honor He has bestowed the greater honor upon. We have been anointed to represent Jesus because we lacked honor and were below the rest who were foolish, weak, base, and despised.
What ever flows through me has to be Him!
The beautiful fruit that flows through us is His and hangs upon a twig [attached to the Vine] that will snap if we take the honor and glory. That twig is our obedience to give Him the glory and point others to Him--we must decrease so that He can increase. I have seen many twigs snap--my own has threatened to.
I now stand in congregations and tell folks if they're really messed up, they may be called!
People want to "follow me" because I am a prophet. I have had to discourage people from relocating to come to me to "sit at my feet". I know there may be times when the Holy Spirit engineers such things, but this is the exception rather than the rule. I would much rather God's people build stable lives in stable churches and walk in the New Testament as kings and priests before God.
I have watched countless sincere saints destitute themselves financially and spiritually to chase ministry. Some have literally died of exhaustion. There always seems to be a fresh crop of impressionable young people who have the stamina temporarily to believe it is the will of God for them to burn out. Many preachers encourage this idolatrous worship.
A "Plantation Mentality" has developed in sectors of the Body of Christ. The motto is "All for one and one for one!" Spiritual CEO's seemingly seek to build their own spiritual estates and empires, and doing it through spiritual slave labor (Jeremiah 22:13,1Peter 5:1-4).
Many preachers surround themselves with spiritual eunuchs---they don't cause any trouble, they can't bear any vision of their own (have been made incapable of spiritual reproduction), and they live to serve as workhorses.
The other ditch is a great vortex in which many saints seem to be able to divide and destroy with impunity--they rail on good authority and bite and devour as they desire with no apparent realization on the part of the rest of the flock it is wrong (Jude, Hebrews 13:17). They don't do anything suggested or requested by leadership unless it is what they "feel led to do". The funny thing about human nature is that we never feel led to do anything we don't want to do!
How many wonderful ministries have I seen derailed and ministers quenched for years through manipulation and destruction by lawless Christians who care nothing for the Godly authority the Lord has placed to help them grow up.
A great mystery to me is that most believers seem unaware or unwilling to check this behavior in the lives of those with whom they are in fellowship.
This lawlessness in the saints must be challenged. Sound Church government is from and for God, and for the people of God, not for the ministry. The ministry is to carry God's people, not to be carried on the backs of His people. The people of God are to honor and respect ministry, not worship it.
Carrying the anointing means paying a price. Christians must not discount the supernatural element in the lives of those God calls to ministry. The balance is the commonly shared altar of the fear of the Lord. Another balance is the written Word of God, of which many Christians are willfully ignorant. Many preachers, caught up in convenient winds of doctrine, wrest the Scripture to their own confusion and destruction, as well as the waylaying of those who follow them.
The Apostle Paul was addressing schism and elitism in the believers of Corinth, who, in their carnality, were congregating around different gifts of ministry. He chose his physically unattractive and lovingly abrasive self and the polished, eloguent Apollos as examples. Read 1Corinthians 4:6,
"Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us NOT TO THINK BEYOND WHAT IS WRITTEN [emphasis my own], that none of us may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other."--NIV
All of us have to get back to the whole counsel of God's Word to stay in the middle of the road and out of ditches. Unfortunately, it seems that many major on the minors, and that Full Gospel has become saints and preachers full of the Gospel they want to hear and preach.
The Word is the plumbline and the parameter for our opinions, words, thoughts, beliefs, teachings, and doctrines. Anything else is delusional, demonic, or pure stubborness. Read 2Corinthians 4:13,
"But since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, 'I believed and therefore I spoke,' we also believe and therefore speak.."--NIV
Today we seem to think our emotions, opinions, thoughts, likes, disagreements, and offenses are one with the Father. If I like it, so does God; if I don't neither does God. If I like someone, God's favor is on them; if I don't, they must be demon-possessed, and hell needs to open up and swallow them whole!
God help us all!
Preachers, many saints who love the Lord are trusting, simple folk who love you because they love Him. They will believe every word you say is from Him, whether it is or not. They will attach spiritual significance to every attitude and action. They will devote themselves to you.
You must not take this as a sign from God you have authority and power. We will pay a powerful price if we misguide and detour those for whom Jesus died!
I personally believe this kind of idolatry is the root of much immorality in the Body, because of the tendency to worship the creation and not the creator.
You are not highly exalted ones, or feudal lords, but servant examples to lift the sheep up. You are not the Pearl or the Prize, neither the Shield, or their Exceedingly Great Reward!
Saints, many of you have forced good preachers either out of the ministry or into depression with your rebellion. Some you have made to become the idols you demanded because of your pressure on them not to be real people in order to continue to support their families and vision. Still other Christians have discounted a preacher's heavenly appointment and gelded them to create ministry in your own image and opinion.
A lot of saints worship a preacher and force him into a position God never intended him to be. You get on the band wagon of ministry, and then get mad when you find out the preacher is not perfect or the ministry parade can not make "your life happen" the way you want it. No human being can bear this pressure for long! Many Christians who ought to be winning souls and making disciples [Jesus never discipled anyone more than 3 years without expecting them do duplicate Him]sit like olympic judges waiting for the preacher to thrill or offend. Read Titus1:15,
"To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure, but even their mind and conscience are defiled."
Whatever you believe in and put your meditation on will sift everything that comes into your soul and focus all that flows out. If you feed on lust, you will believe someone is coming on to you if they are just friendly. If you are filled with fear,or bitterness and unforgiveness, you are waiting for people and circumstances to duplicate triggers of similarity. Without standing on the Word, we recycle misery, pain, personal loss, and disappointment.
We then forge head on the wheel of the cycle of expectation, deformed by power struggle and pride. I have learned the hard way it does not pay to be a victim at my age and level of maturity--I know too much about the Lord and His ways, and too many people need me. I can't crash and burn. There is just no pay off for being a victim anymore. I can't dig a hole, crawl in, and pull it in after me. I must walk on in Truth--neither can I wrap myself in the mantle of my faith and ministry, nor can I claim immunity to what needs to be changed because I hurt.
Jesus does deliver!
Our discernment is determined by whatever power base we willingly or unwittingly choose.
Part of this power base challenge from God is the shaking of every foundation in which Deity has been assigned to flesh and blood. Another is God's finger of fire pointing into the midst of lawlssness and self-will.
Beyond repentance for moral impurity, I here the sound of thunder and a cry for God's people to return to their first love. I believe judgment for this Jezebel influence is a spiritual sickbed of heavenly castration. I believe there is tribulation of having no balance or stability--there can be no peace or comfort when proximity to and favor from the man of God is the goal.
No one can stand on someone else's walk with God.
Many saints are frustrated and don't know what the problem is. There seems to be a difference between what the Holy Spirit is saying and what their preachers are saying. The preacher can't be wrong, so the individual Christian agrees with the preacher at the expense of their own intimacy with God. If they dare to disagree, they lose favor and acceptance. They wander in the nether world of the Church with no hope, either mad with ministry, or believing they are failures.
Worse yet, they become mirror images of whatever idol they embrace. I do not speak of Godly imitation of those who reveal Jesus. I speak of God's people breaking themselves and being broken on an altar of flesh to be an acceptable disciple. I have seen prayer ministry I suspected was nothing more than one person's soul taking hold of another's. How much damage is done by labeling someone's desire to escape from control rebellion?
Good preachers give their lives sacrificially 24/7 to God's people only to see the sheep drawn away to what is superficially powerful. I have seen men and women more anointed than me nearly give up their desire to live because they have repetively had everything they have given their lives for melted away by the very people for whom they laid all down.
Too often, God's people run over preachers that walk in humiliy and act right, judging them to be weak, but yield themselved to dominant personalities who rule by the soul, twisting of Scripture, and the power of influence and human love. Many saints believe someone who is dominant and has a good stage presence is the mighty power of God.
Always remember that witchcraft, in its simplest and purest manifestation is rebellion against God, and trying to impose your will upon the will of another. Even God Himself gives man a free will.
Pastors, the most successful and peaceful men and women in ministry I know do not hold people who want to leave. They ask intelligent questions and try to help with guidance. They realize that if they try to hold someone who wants to go else where, then they hold by the power of the soul and destroy something within that believer belonging only to the Lord. They have learned by hard experience that if they bless them, release them, and maintain relationship, they can always return without consequence or shame if they have missed His guidance. They have also sorrowfully realized they instantly create "rebels" if the only option is to leave in disobedience to do the will of the Lord.
Many good preachers shoot themselves in the foot because they cut good saints off because they leave "their ministry". This may be the very people who open doors in the future, greatfully acknowledging your role in their success with God. They may be a great source of blessing. They may even provide for you in old age!
Preachers, do you believe that submission is someone surrendering their soul to you? Saints do you believe that liberty gives you the right to say and do what you will, even in the face of Godly, broken authority. My God, there has to be a breaking and a balance around the two altars of the fear of God and His written Word!
ONE OF THE PIVOTAL POINTS OF HUMAN NATURE IS TRY TO DESTROY WHAT WE CANNOT CONTROL.
Unless we repent of this idolatry and fornication many of our children will die spiritually because they are sick of the mess and don't want the things of God anymore. Can we not all ask the Lord to search the motivation of our hearts toward Him, man, and ministry? Can we not pray Psalms 51 and not leave until change comes?
The Good News is that God is raising up a standard for the End-Time Harvest! Look at Revelation 2:24-29,
"But to the rest of you in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching, who have not explored and know the depths of Satan, as they say--I tell you that I do not lay upon you any other [fresh] burden. Only hold fast to what you have until I come.
And he who overcomes (is victorious) and who obeys My commands to the [very] end [doing the works that please Me], I will give Him authority and power over the nations:
And he shall rule them with a sceptre (rod) of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces and [his power over them shall be]like that which I Myself have received from My Father;
And I will give him the Morning Star.
He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the [Holy] Spirit says to the assemblies (churches)."
Saints, accept the challenge from God to have your foundation checked. Repent of any idolatry with the world or false concepts of ministry and Jesus. Get over blaming preachers for all your troubles. Get into reality about the role of ministry in assisting your maturity.
Preachers, the sheep are not yours to control and eat alive. Don't curse the people of God by allowing them to control you, nor by being lords and kings over them. If you have fed His lambs with good food, many will grow up to move outside of your physical ministry. Don't alienate them with your disapproval or disappointment any more than you would reject your child who grows up to fufill his destiny and not yours! Be grateful for those the Lord leads to remain with you as well. Don't create elitism around your favor and disapproval.
Too many parents and preachers want to clone and not reproduce. Even identical twins have different personalities.
Preachers and saints, stop worshipping your own will and calling it God. Your stubborness is as much idolatry if you bowed before a golden calf--you, your ways, your desires, your goals, your emotions and personal opinions are your gods. Give the Lord His place to mold and mend beyond the parameters of your expectations; allow Him to break down the altars of the fortress of your convenient, self-protecting and fufilling soulishness.
I am in the midst of this time of crossing over myself--I really don't like it at all. I want to be able to hear. Faith begins when the will of God is known.
The part of me that trembles is that pocket I have reserved for me--do I really want to know? Do I want deliverance?
Truth is one price; acting on it has another--therein lies the essence of change.
Get ready to receive power for the nations!
In Jesus,
Vaughn Allen Clark
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