Monday, March 18, 2024

Dr Daniel C Juster comments on IHOPKC

INTERNATIONAL HOUSE OF PRAYER, KANSAS CITY, A PERSONAL RESPONSE

By Daniel C Juster, 
Restoration from Zion

Not long ago I signed onto a joint statement on the present situation at IHOPKC.  However, my main emphasis and reason in supporting this statement was again to call for an impartial judicial eldership board.  Only this can finally bring judgement and clarity at a level that will settle the controversy, for we now see people on both sides in social media pressing their views, though the larger number is anti-IHOP and Mike Bickle.  

I am not happy about how either side is handling this, either IHOPKC or the Advocates that have taken up the grievances against Mike Bickle and IHOP.   Both sides should have called for an objective panel of elders that was so credible that all sides would submit to their decisions on guilt, innocence, discipline and restitution.  They would oversee an objective investigator if still needed. This is the main issue in my view. It shows how far the modern churches and ministries are from biblical standards of justice and judicial process (Deut. 1, 16, Matthew 16, 18 and I Cor. 6).  This was well established in many Protestant denominations and is also today found in some new church streams. 

In the statement that we put out, some misunderstood the idea that the accusers’ testimonies were credible.  Credible does not mean proven but sufficiently serious and with enough description and corroboration that they should be taken seriously and heard in a fair court.  But unless there is a court with cross examination, we can have views, can think something looks credible, but conclusive judgement requires a court.  Again, this was common process in many historic Protestant denominations.   In civic law an indictment does not mean the accused is guilty but that there is enough evidence to bring a trial, but the accused is still innocent until proven guilty in such fair court.  Therefore, we have written, called, and cajoled, but it is still not clear that this to finally be done.  

And what is happening now?  Trial by social media continues.  There is a contingent that is now on a feeding frenzy that is discrediting the prophets that were part of the early days Kansas City Fellowship (the predecessor of IHOP) from 30- 40 years ago.   Some who related to IHOP are in a full confession mode, but their confession includes why they were sucked in, but at the same time their confession is full of severe judgments and accusations.  It does not seem only a confession.  Another contingent, smaller but also very strong, is blasting the accusers and seeking to discredit them.  One video that was sent was about a primary accuser being mentally ill and needing intervention.  If true, how sad, and if not true how painful to the accuser!  Actually it is painful in either case!

We do know that Mike Bickle has repented of somethings that are serious.  We know that IHOPKC has drawn conclusions on Mike’s sin as the overseers of IHOPKC today oand their conclusions are credible and may be seen has having judicial weight.  However, there is much more that has not been disclosed including the life that Mike Bickle and some other leaders have lived over more than the last 20 years.  That is foggy.  IHOPKC has also admitted a woefully inadequate government structure of accountability.  

However, I want to speak to the feeding frenzy of attack against IHOP and its history.  First, the leaders’ falling into sin does not mean that mighty things were not done through IHOPKC and Kansas City Fellowship and through its leaders.  I do believe in New Testament standards for qualification and discipline but do want to say something about examples from the Hebrew Bible.  Did God work through Aaron, the brother of Moses, in the Exodus? He was the voice to Pharaoh. He was witness as an instrument of the most amazing signs and wonders, amazing prophecy and more. Yet, he gave himself to make the golden calf and then was in denial as if it happened without his agency.  God nevertheless restored him after his repentance.  Did Mike Bickle sin more than King David?  Not only did David commit adultery but murdered the husband.   He was restored by God and made the preparations for the building of the Temple.  However, his sin was probably the cause of much of the division and civil war that ensued under his son Absalom.  Great tragedy was experienced!  Yet, David unified Israel and established so much and is the ancestor of the Messiah. I am not writing this to say that those who sinned and covered up should be restored. I am writing about what God obviously did through Kansas City Fellowship and later through IHOPKC.   I personally experienced some amazing times of holiness there over 33 years ago including supernatural signs and wonders.  There was a holy fear of the Lord in His presence. 

Now there is a deep revulsion and rejection of the Kansas City prophets by those who were themselves involved with them.  And this leads to the idea that no great work of God was done as a result of the leadership of Mike and his prophets.  I was there in the Vineyard Conference in Anaheim in January 1989 when John Wimber introduced Paul Cain.  His word to John before coming to visit John was an amazing supernatural word that John confirmed.  His ministry in January 1989 came with signs and wonders and a presence of God that was the greatest I ever experienced.  There was a holy Presence that gave rise to deep reverence and fear.  The Holy Spirit electricity in the air even set off the fire alarms. Should I deny this because Paul Cain later fell into sin and refused the directions that were given to him for repentance and restoration?   Then there were the other prophets, ones that to our knowledge never fell into sin who prophesied over our ministry and its future, Jim Goll and John Paul Jackson are two I will name.  I don’t think they have any skeletons in their closets.  John Paul wrote a great book on avoiding wrong ways and the casualties from wrong prophetic order.  Then there is the discrediting of Bob Jones.  Did Bob really prophecy that Mike Bickle’s ministry would focus on Israel and its greatest task and fulfillment would be raising 100 million intercessors for Israel?  Yes, he did. Did he do this before Mike had a clue about Israel?  Yes.  Did his later fall did discredit the amazing prophetic happenings and signs and wonders in the early 80s.  The history is in Anglican Bishop David Pytches’s book Some Said it Thundered. It is credible and happened.   The later sins of some did not discredit what happened.  I was a witness to some of this.  As for Bob Jones, he did not have a history of sexual sin to my knowledge, stepped down form ministry for a season and was fully restored under a well known national leader who does repentance, discipline and restoration.   

For me, it is amazing how many forget that the greatest prayer meeting for Israel’s protection and salvation took place on May 28.  Are we forgetting this so quickly.  Without any knowledge of this date, my son led a gathering of leaders in Januray 2023 and called for fasting and prayer on May 28.  The word from Bob Jones form 40 years ago was amazingly fulfilled and that some years after his death.  It seems to me that God allowed Mike Bickle’s sin to be hidden until this word was amazingly fulfilled.  IHOPKC and the early prophecy was a key to launching great prayer worldwide for the salvation of Israel, prayer houses, integrated 24/7 prayer with congregations and more.   The pattern of Zinzendorf’s Moravians was resurrected in many nations.  Some even have said they want to destroy IHOPKC.  I think that would be terribly wrong.  Shall God destroy the innocent with the righteous? Abraham plead.

Do I still want fair judgement for those women who are bringing the accusations against Mike Bickle and IHOP?  Yes!   Do I grieve over abuses?  Yes.  Do I want to see an opportunity for cross examination if there is a desire for a defense to be made by Mike and the former leaders of IHOPKC who are charged?  Yes! Then he and others can be found guilty of what they did do and not guilty for what they did not do.   Do I want to see other charges of manipulation and the use of prophecy for controlling others to be heard with cross examination?  Yes!  But that is a bit harder to prove.  Strong prophetic gifts can cause people to fall in line.  We too easily forget the responsibility of all believers in the New Covenant to hear the Spirit and to confirm prophetic words for their own individual lives and corporately as well.  Yes, we have to constantly emphasize this.  But none of this discredits that a mighty work was done worldwide though IHOPKC and Mike Bickle.  Again, prayer ministries have been raised up all over the world that pray for Israel and the Messianic Jews.  Also, let us not forget the many who for years served at IHOPKC.  They were not in gross sin, but morally righteous.  They served under a bad leadership structure according to IHOPKC’s present evaluation.  Some of these are now on the Advocates side in this battle.  Also, many were blessed, renewed in strength and sent out to serve the Kingdom after leading to walk in the power of the Spirit. 

So here I am, like a voice in the wilderness. I am calling for two things.  Do not discredit what God did through Kansas City Fellowship and through IHOPKC.   This is independent of the sin of leaders.  Secondly, let there be fair judgement.  And please stop the prosecution through social media from both detractors and supporters.  I wait and wait for IHOPKC to publicly declare themselves as committed to this objective fair eldership judiciary.

FOR A BOOK THAT PRESENTS THE CASE FOR ELDERS AND THE WHAT, HOW AND WHY OF THEIR JUDICIAL FUNCTION, DO ORDER AND READ MY BOOK "DUE PROCESS, A PLEA FOR BIBLICAL JUSTICE AMONG GOD'S PEOPLE.".

 

Saturday, March 16, 2024

I have not forgotten


I have not forgotten.

I have not forgotten my calling is to the Israeli ministries. I work on that every day.

My draw to such a focus on the things at IHOPKC are based on Mike's dual-mandate for 24/7 prayer and worship AND praying for Israel. I believe God raised up that house in Kansas City and the network internationally for such a time as this: Christians praying for the salvation of Israel. With Israel at the height of warfare, so is IHOP.

As I have looked deeper into those gathered against Bickle and IHOP as a whole, I have seen God is exposing far more sins than just sexual sin. Same as the sins of the nations, the undercurrent of international antisemitism has been exposed by the brutal terrorist war launched by Hamas. And nation after nation failing to stand with Israel but demanding Israel let up on those murderers seeking to annihilate Israel. Many Christians are among those who believe Israel deserves what Hamas gave it. They are indoctrinated in lies. Don't have a handle on the truth of the in the least. 

I have wondered from the beginning if that was not paralleled in the attack on Mike Bickle and IHOP. Murder and character assassination are closely related sins from God's position. Is this why the accusers will not allow their charges to be examined and cross examined within the spiritual leadership of the body of Christ? Surely there are international leaders who possess enough integrity to judge this matter. But they insist it must be in secular courts so the unrighteous can judge us. This is where bitter unforgiveness has led us - far from God's heart for restoration of ALL. 

We have an inheritance that in this time we are to walk in, in a greater degree than ever before. Those who are allowing themselves to be "transformed" into the likeness of Jesus, walking as He walked in the flesh, are going to begin to lay hold more of the "inheritance" that Yeshua spoke of, "Truly, I say unto you, Except you turn, and become as little children, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven." 

Further down in Matthew 18 and Yeshua goes on in the parable in verse 32-34 to say: "32 Then the master summoned him and declared, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave all your debt because you begged me. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master turned him over to the prison of torments to be tortured, until he should repay all that he owed.

In 1 Corinthians 6:9  Paul talks about the things that stand in the way of Christians and Messianic Jews entering into the **full inheritance** on earth of Yeshua's kingdom:

9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 

That blows the social justice Christians viewpoints on what is sin right out of the water. It is not just about sexual sins either. Search out who will not see or inherit the kingdom of Heaven and you will see many things that are practiced by many Christians that will stop us from even being able to see our full inheritance in Him!

I have been guilty of many things as a Christian, but I am pressing in to become like Yeshua, walking in such a way that I will be able to walk in the full inheritance given to those who will be transformed completely. I pay special attention to becoming unforgiving. I have already failed in that before and there is no way I want to EVER fail in that again. God is gracious to restore, but the price paid is steep.

The intolerance, even hatred expressed of those supporting accusers of Mike Bickle and IHOP is the thing no one is really talking about.

It is no wonder so many of the IHOP musicians and singers have abandoned their time there - the pressure coming from all those who support the accusers is INTENSE. It is n
o wonder there is such oppression on everyone who have remained in place at IHOP. There is oppression beamed at them day and night from the accusers a group and those that have gathered with them to condemn Bickle and IHOP. This is true of especially female woke activists who are beating on IHOP and Bickle day and night on social media. 


Those words amount to Christians spewing curses - oppression on the target is the result. It is the sin of witchcraft.

Just a few days of going to X - watching only what X curated "for you" to watch - I have little by little seen that what is motivating the  intensity of many. It is past personal experience that have become bitterness in their own lives.

One is so bitter against IHOP because her son died after she claims people at IHOP told him it was a sin to take his medication. Many times in the past, before this broke out at IHOP, I was prompted to talk to her about perhaps all her continual sicknesses were related to unforgiveness. I should have spoken to her then.

I have run into many people in charismatic circles in my life don't believe in doctors and medications, but God gave us the Holy Spirit within our hearts to guide us. God never told us to follow what other Christians had to say about our personal decisions. We all have faith for different things in our walk and lack faith in other areas, because we are not made perfect as soon as we believe. We grow in faith. No one should presume to tell anyone else not to take medication or go to a doctor. If you have faith have it to yourself. But also we cannot blame others if we listen to their advice on these faith issues and don't follow what are own hearts tell us.

Another still is angry because her accusations of abuse against her Baptist pastor father resulted in the church board calling for her to be put out of church. Although I feel for how she was not protected, I also understand she cannot let what happened in that instance make her so certain of every woman's accusations. Women also lie for their own reasons. 

When our cups overflow from all the sins piling up because God will not continue to forgive us when we harbor unforgivness of others, according to Matthew 18, that is when we begin to experience all sort of torments from physical to mental illnesses. This one chapter, Matthew 18 is where Jesus spoke entirely on something most of us don't even realize God demands of us 

Yesterday a woman told the Cancel Culture crowd that I was guilty of doxxing and called for people to report me to X.

The charge of doxxing was because I used the #1 accusers initials in a tweet. Of course the whole name is found on a parody account on X and the woman's identified in Google searches for JaneDoe#1. The grop also do not hold themselves to the same standards of "doxxing" because one accusers initials are used routinely. The ex-wife of another person they unmasked as a skirt chaser. Hypocrisy usually accompanies bullying tactics.

Another from the accusers informal support group tweeted that I am a liar and told their followers that on Facebook I posted from the beginning that I would never believe anything against Mike Bickle. Too bad she didn't include the proviso that I would not accept accusations without proof via due process for Mike.

Meanwhile Dr. Michael Brown is in their cross hairs big time. They aer going after him hammer and tong. To them, if you are not on board with their all out acceptance of accusations of Mike Bickle and rooting for the doors closing at IHOP, then you are their enemy. 

I have no problem being the enemy of such actions...but I don't want to listen to them every time I log in on X either. Mute is a fine feature on the platform.


 

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Speak life, not a fiery death

I post this picture ONLY BECAUSE it depicts what I believe SO MANY have in their mind for IHOP. May in never be, in Jesus' name.

I am listening to the live #IHOPKC with Sarah Edwards singing some Matt Redman songs I fell in love with in the mid-2000's when I was seriously wondering what was going on. God was rebuilding me after a major stumbling that I was so ashamed of that I could not forgive myself, even realizing God had. A friend gave me some Matt Redman music and those songs were songs of life to me. They continually told me God loved me.
Do not follow in the path of those with such bitter, victim-images of themselves that they believe it will serve the Body of Christ if IHOP is burnt to the ground. I just saw a post on X by the sister of the accuser who claims she was abused at age 14. They are speaking death over IHOP. Join me in speaking life over IHOP and RESTORATION of all - including Mike. If you are wondering what my sin was, it was bitter unforgiveness.

 

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Where I differ from the holier than Mike crowd

Where I differ from the many ministers, many my friends, on the subject of Mike Bickle's sins, is that I do not believe most of the accusations against him have been proven. The sins he has admitted to - with light petting, not sexual or oral intercourse - Mike has said it happened over 20 years ago, he repented and it was he thought under the blood. To repent doesn't just mean confessing he was sinning, it means turning from that sin. Bickle indicated that he had and had been walking free of it in the 20+ years since.
For me, that means God forgave him, and scripture says that the things God forgives He remembers no more, they are dropped into the "sea of forgetfulness" - Micah 7:18-19
18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? 19 He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.
People are the ones who cannot let past sins go and believe that people should be set aside forever, even for a sin that is in the past and under the blood. I cannot tell you how that bothered me in the beginning of all this, because if Bickle was honest in his admission, and people could still drive him from ministry by exposing his forgiven sins, where does that leave the rest of us who have repented of sins that we no longer walk in but have overcome? It means we are fair game for unforgiving Christians to destroy us, pull us from further ministry, slander us far and wide.
As far as I am concerned Mike Bickles' word is just as acceptable as the words of those who have accused him. Since sexual accusation became a weapon of Feminists, I am not swayed by multiple 'support accusers' with no-evidence accusations.
I look at the array of accusations that have multiplied and spread like wildfire throughout the body of the Messiah/Christ and I see people willing to ignore what Bickle exactly confessed to willing to conflate them in wild assertions that are magnified, overblown and embellished. Conflated is the word I'm searching for and is the problem in all of this. His confessed sin has been conflated to every sexual sin that ever took place at IHOP by any other people. Bickle is charged now to the point that he is held responsible for every other sexual sin. The original accuser is not even held responsible for her choice, dismissed as a child, not the young adult she was. The accusation dump-it-all-on-Mike have so enflamed people to the point they are ready to burn Mike at the stake and raze the IHOP ministry as well.
This tells me THE Accuser of the brethren is very much attached to one side of this. It makes me recoil from the lot of them. How can I trust them when they approve of the rampant portrayal of Bickle and IHOP as a predator haven for the sexual grooming and exploitation of girls.
I think that everyone is turning a blind eye to how many young church going women (and men of course) are secretly sexually active Christians. What if every pastor of every church where this was the case was held responsible for their sins, saying it was the spiritual climate that the pastor fostered? Well in fact, because the contemporary church does not preach about sins very much, social media standards do dictate a lot of the sinful choices that even Christian young people choose. They even deny the sins are sins.
Also, the Advocacy Group are all about blaming Mike for the sins of young people in the IHOP arena. Why didn't they do anything about the misgivings they had over how things were handled? Did holding onto their jobs mean more to them than pleasing God?
Mike has remained silent in the face of all these accusations by friends - close and not so close. He is doing what I have seen others do in the face of accusation against them. If he truly has long ago repented and turned from walking free of the sin before God, than God will arise for him at some point, but God will also allow the due judgments to fall on false accusers too.
When King David sinned with Bathsheba, sending her husband who was faithful to the king into a position that mean certain death for Uriah so David could have her as his wife, God confronted David. First by David's counselor telling him he was doing wrong by Uriah, and after the fact by sending the prophet Nathan, to tell him God's displeasure and how David would pay for it.
Yes, David did repent and God did forgive, and the consequences were borne by David. 2 Samuel 12:
13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”
We all have to pay for our sins - even believers - when we repent we are forgiven by God but there are consequences we will pay personally and we "HAVE GIVEN GREAT OCCASION TO THE ENEMIES OF THE LORD TO BLASPHEME". That is exactly what the enemies of the LORD are doing in this case, and don't think a legal civil or criminal case against Mike will not result in more of the same: more enemies of God given occasion to blaspheme.
That is the real tragedy here - blown far out of proportion to Mike's actual sin because of the days we are in. unproven accusations are now the standard of evidence.

 

Sunday, March 10, 2024

A Warning to the Shebna's of Today from Isaiah 22

 

In his article The Nail of theLord, Garris Elkins brought a great insight about Shebna from Isaiah 22:19. I couldn't place the name, so I did a search and see he was in Hezekiah's time.

Garris was talking about how Shebna was such a high up person in Hezekiah's reign that he considered himself in a sure position...but the word of the Lord came that although he thought he was a nail in a sure place, he was going to removed and the Lord would raise up another of Hezekiah's governmental leaders Elikim, son of Hilkiah. Shebna is referred to as the "treasurer" and consequently, this is a common reason for men to fail, for the love of money. Judas was the treasurer for Yeshua and His apostolic team.

In Isaiah 21 God is speaking a prophetic word the defeat of all the enemies of Israel: Babylon, Edom and Arabia.

Then in Isaiah 22 God gives a prophetic word to the Valley of Vision (hizzayon, vision properly means prophecy or revelation)

God speaks of an enemy that comes against His people: Elam. In Isaiah 11:11 Elam is called the abode of dispersed Israelites (many Persian Jews have returned to Israel since Israel became a modern state.

In verse Isaiah 22: 8 God says that, "And he (Elam) discovered the covering of Judah, and thou did look in that day to the armour (weapons) of the (bayit ya'ar') house of the Forest."

Bayit ya'ar can also mean House of the "honeycomb" and in a spiritual sense, this speaks to me of the House of the Remnant (Jewish believers in Yeshua) in Israel whose "armour" is the prophetic Word of God. This is the opposite of what God is about to take exception to when dealing with Shebna.

Shebna is a "major domos" of Hezekiah (One definition of Shebna's position is a "majordomo is a person who speaks, makes arrangements, or takes charge FOR ANOTHER ...the highest person...acts on behalf of the owner (KING)....oversees the day-to-day responsibilities." This was Hezekiah's right hand man in the palace and in governing the nation. This is the role Shebna played.

God says of this Shebna, "On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. 9 You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. 10 You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. 11 You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, BUT YOU DID NOT LOOK TO THE ONE WHO MADE IT, OR CONSIDER HIM WHO PLANNED IT LONG AGO.

Then God says, verse 12-13: 12 On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth. 13 But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

God was looking for sorrowing, for fasting and prayer, but instead what He saw was them looking to the arm of the flesh to defend Jerusalem, and the fatalistic, "Party on Garth, because we will be dead tomorrow."

Now God addresses Shebna by name and remember this man ran things in King Hezekiah's stead. ..his job that was entrusted to him by King Hezekiah: 15 This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: 16 What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?"


The Tombs of the Kings in Jerusalem

In his pride and ambition, Shebna presumed to carve a sepulcher out for himself in the place where the kings of the City of David were buried: "a collection of tombs in the form of chambers in the rocks" on the "east of Jerusalem, on the western slope of the Mount of Olives, and in the wall of rock to the west of Jerusalem."

God rebukes Shebna: "17 Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, 18 roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master. 19 I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position." (See The Saga of Shebna about an interesting archaelogical find)

Shebna was to be taken captive and would die in a foreign land, called by God "a disgrace to the house of your master."

20 On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah.
(Eliakim means "God raises" or "God sets up")

21 I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Shebna failed because of his ambition and having his head turned by the amount of money he had control over as the King's treasurer. He came to regard the large sums of money as belonging to him.

That's not what God was looking for - someone who spent huge amounts on misguided building of the City of David, not according to the plans God had given. Also spending a huge amount on his own "legacy" burial place among the kings of David. What God was looking for was a man to act as a "father" to the people living in Jerusalem and the house of Judah.

22 I will place on his (Eliakim's) shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.b

23 I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

This promise of "the key to the house of David" is the same key that Yeshua-Jesus was given by God, and in turn, the keys that He gave to His apostles, and by extension all who follow him.


The gaping mouth of the Gates of Hell

As Yeshua was preparing the apostles for His coming death in Jerusalem, he took them up to Caesarea Philippi, near the southwestern base of Mount Hermon. There looking upwards one sees the gaping hole in the mountain known as Banias, or "the gates of hell." It was a place of idol worship and human sacrifice in Israel. In the view of this place is where Yeshua told His apostles that He was going to give them "the keys of kingdom" based on the revelation that He is the Messiah.

The key to the house of David - that which opens doors no man can close, and closes doors no man can open is a prophetic foreshadow of the key that would be laid on Yeshua, as the Messiah of Israel. When He passed the key to His apostles, He called it keys - keys that would restrict things from hell on earth and release things from Heaven on earth. The key became multiple and was given by revelation of who Jesus is.

Matthew 16:18-19 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock (revelation) I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

I see applications of this some current situations, but it is not for this post, except to say that these keys to the kingdom are certainly for the Remnant of Israel, the believers in Israel, and also for those who will stand with them in these times - binding the hell coming against them, and loosing the will of HEAVEN toward the salvation of all Israel.

Thursday, March 7, 2024

A Thyatira Moment

 


A Thyatira Moment | by Donna Diorio

My thoughts in the early morning hours. Yesterday I was online searching and was exposed to a great deal of Christians speaking bitterly against someone. Later I watched a British movie called The Victim that again highlighted the self-destructive path of seeking our own vengeance instead of doing as Jesus told us about in Matthew 18, especially how He lays it out in parabolic form in the last half of chapter 18.

Christians don't realize the damage they do to themselves by failing to forgive others and leaving judgment at the Cross. In the world of unbelievers, we are seeing how bitterness and unforgiveness is literally driving people mad and plunging them into illness, both physical and mental. Christians think that because they are saved they are safe from this happening to them. Sadly they are wrong, and Jesus told us this exactly in Matthew 18. We are forgiven by our Master, but we still need ongoing forgiveness as we walk out this life that is fraught by betrayals, woundings, sins and trespasses against us. 

Our most intense failing after we come to the LORD is not forgiving others, knowing how much God has forgiven us. Jesus said after we are saved, when we don't forgive then God stops forgiving our ongoing need for forgiveness, especially the bitterness that starts forming in our hearts because of those we refuse to forgive and release for the "debts" we feel they owe us. A debt to apologize for what they did, how they treated us, stole from us, marked us for disregard - whatever it is. 

Automatically those begin to fill our cup, and as they do, demons are attracted to our vulnerability to sin. Many begin to fall ill and can't figure out why their health is so terrible, never considering what Jesus said in the Matthew 18 parable applies to them. Many begin to suffer various forms of mental illness. We cannot hold bitterness in our hearts without it corrupting all of our mental capacity. Demons flock to wounds that we refuse to release to the LORD completely. Wherever the dying body is, there the vultures gather. (Luke 17:36)

In Revelation 2:21, in the letter to Thyatira, Yeshua tells them He is aware of the praiseworthiness of their lives living for Him, but He has against them that they "tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess." We are talking about in the congregations of the saints the spirit of Jezebel is greatly tolerated. Jezebel is the "patron demon" not only of our sexually-saturated society, but sex is only a tool for power-hungry control. 

Yes, it forms in women and men who have felt powerless, but they did not process this wounding at the Cross. They did not lay that down at the altar, but kept it locked up in their heart. We do that easily. We think we deserve to hang on to this one bitter unforgiveness...but it just attracts more demons to us. Feminism in this country is the spirit of Jezebel and Cancel Culture is her weapon of revenge. Accusation is the tool to get what we want ourselves. God has no part in it, no matter how religiously we frame it for public consumption.

But Jesus said to the church, verses 21-23: "Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. 22 Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds. 23 Then I will strike her children dead, and all the churches will know that I am the One who searches minds and hearts, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds."

The immorality of Jezebel is not only sexual. The Church is held responsible for allowing those with a Jezebel spirit to teach. This is not about women teaching, it is about allowing those with controlling Jezebel spirits to teach without discerning it and disallowing the woman or man to teach the congregation. It's not so hard to recognize, but many have become dependent upon those operating in a Jezebel spirit. They fill roles that leadership does not want to have to fill with someone else. Highly capable people, gifted with manipulating others' support, deceptive enough to keep their own influence hidden under the radar...except from those who exercise discernment.

Jezebel in the leadership of the congregation will instruct others in her devious ways, her immorality will be duplicated in others - immorality that is not always sexual - and to spiritually consume "food sacrificed to idols" - that which is passed off as the prophetic from the throne of God, but is not. "Prophecy" that turns people into following a spiritual life full of idolatry. What is idolatry but following fake signs, wonders, and parlor tricks instead of focus on the one thing that protects us against such things: being transformed into the likeness of Yeshua, who is the express image of God in the flesh. 

The whole prophetic movement is having a Thyatria moment. Only those who lay bitterness at the Cross, who forgive as they have been forgiven, will come out of this still walking with God. Those who stand accused by the Jezebel spirit will not all be like Naboth who was murdered so Jezebel could give her weak husband King Ahab Naboth's vineyard. It was Naboth's inheritance she stole by manipulative, deceptive means. 

Jesus means us to course correct from what He told the church at Thyatira. If we will not, He has told us illness and even death await.


 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Captives in Gaza



Isaiah 52:5 And now what have I here? declares the LORD. For My people have been taken without cause; those who have power over them taunt, declares the LORD, and My name is blasphemed continually all day long.
6 Therefore My people will know My name; therefore they will know on that day that I am He who speaks. Here I am!(*Is 8:17-19)
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
8 Listen! Your watchmen shall lift up the voice, with the voice together shall they sing. For they shall see eye to eye when the LORD shall bring again Zion. GOD WILL DO THIS FOR HIS OWN GLORY

Our support of Israel should be wrapped up in God's intent that "all Israel shall be saved" and our support should express itself FIRST with the Israeli Body of Messiah who live in Israel, are Jewish believers in Jesus, His feet as spoken of as beautiful in Isaiah 52:7

* Isaiah 8:17-18 17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. 18 Here I am, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of Armies, who dwells on Mount Zion.