It has been a long time since you have seen or heard anything from this minstrel who used to take time to share his thoughts and hopeful not just mine but thoughts that come from God’s heart and mind to you as a ministering musician. I have felt for a week now I need to begin blogging again. Listening to John Ramirez ex-satanist now evangelist testimony of Jesus intervention in his life this last hour, hearing a testimony today of a young woman who Satan deceived into meditation, astral projection, and subsequent demonization and Jesus rescue of her, and finally looking at media reports following President Trumps successful order to kill a top Iranian General through a U.S. military drone has me thinking about war a lot today.
The apostle Paul says clearly in his letter to the Ephesian church starting with chapter 6:10 the Message version – “That about wraps it up. God is strong and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. Be prepared. You’re up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it’s all over but the shouting you’ll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You’ll need them throughout your life. God’s Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out. And don’t forget to pray for me. Pray that I’ll know what to say and have the courage to say it at the right time, telling the mystery to one and all, the Message that I, jailbird preacher that I am responsible for getting out.
This year I have felt the Lord urging me to move forward in develop the music minstrel umbrella organization to act as a covering for a ministry that focuses on preparing the church for God’s coming Kingdom and our coming Bridegroom King and equally so I have felt the need to proclaim the love of Jesus Christ for all people that they would know and understand and feel the love of Jesus for them personally as they listen to the testimony of Jesus in Spirit-filled music. Music has a way of carrying both thought and emotion that goes with it whether it be our thoughts or the Holy Spirit’s thoughts through us as God’s servants. It is an important medium through which God the Father and the Son express themselves to us and we to the Father and the Son and to our fellow human beings through the Spirit. I struggle to move forward knowing that moving forward means potential misunderstandings, challenges, the possibility of physical, and emotional pain, financial cost, physical energy drain, time spent investing outside of what I currently am committed to doing which is running a farm business, and being involved in local and some ministry beyond Beechy. However, the Lord continues to ask me and tell me that it is the time to move forward so move forward I have and move forward I will by His help. If you are interested in praying for this ministry I will share vision for the ministry via a private facebook group, please comment and I will connect you. My most urgent need as Paul lists here is prayer, I ask that you would pray for grace to overcome all obstacles to get through the planning process for this ministry as well as conviction and follow through to do the ministry assignments the Lord gives me as I work on building the organization this year. I will need a 3 member board to begin with and I am praying for 3 kinds of people one who is administrative, one who is a mature prophetic-intercessor and an accountant. I will be setting up a private facebook group to communicate with those of you who feel called to pray for this ministry as it goes through it’s designing and building process. This is not going to be easy but I know the one who calls me is faithful and so I will trust and obey knowing everything I need will be provided.
There have been some major things the Lord has been doing in my life these last 2 years while I’ve been away from the blog. I have gone through a healing discipleship ministry called Freedom Sessions which the Lord has used to do a lot of healing in my heart and others in the Beechy area. I’m going through it again and I felt the Lord wanted me to focus this time on the hurts which happened which resulted in me aborting the plan to launch this ministry in 1999-2000 when I first tried to do this. The armour of God that is listed in Ephesians 6 is what we need to successfully fight the devil and overcome him and do the work which Christ has called us to do on earth before His coming. We need to believe God’s word and confess it out loud after hearing it. We need to obey God’s word taking action on it. We need to trust in the righteousness of Christ to cover our sins and our heart from being wounded by the accuser. We need to rest in the knowledge that we are saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved from all that the enemy will bring against us and the sins that so easily beset us, because Christ is victor and He is our Lord. We also need to move in the Spirit’s ways of peace in our relationships with those who know Jesus and those who don’t yet. Why, because people are not our enemy even though the enemy uses people to cause us pain and those we love. The last thing I want to say is praise is a weapon. Remember that brothers and sisters when you feel under attack. Fix your thoughts on Jesus the author and perfecter of your faith by praising Him with all your soul, mind and strength. Give Him thanks, exalt His name the name that is above every other name. For at the name of Jesus demons flee and at the name of Jesus all heaven and earth will bow because He is King and rightful ruler of earth no matter what is going on right now. He will work for good the painful things going on in your life because He has promised to do that for those who love Him even though now it’s painful. Paul and Silas praised and worshipped our Lord and Saviour in jail after being beaten. There is something powerful that happens when God hears suffering saints worship and praise Him, somehow He is moved and He does things on earth as it is in heaven when we worship and praise Him in the midst of our trials and struggles. God is delighted to bring deliverance from our enemies because He delights in us and he actually has an entire angel army that is quite capable of getting done what needs to be done without our help. Because that is their job to serve and minister to those who will inherit God’s salvation. Isn’t our King Jesus amazing. So whatever you are going through right now I pray that God will give you strength to obey and persevere and bring Jesus glory wherever you live.
Today’s song is a song I sang last Sunday when I was teaching on the resurrection of Jesus and our death and resurrection with Him that places us in a place of victory over all our enemies. May you experience the victory of Christ over all your enemies as you follow your Father in heaven’s leadership and walk in His joy over you in 2020.
