Jeff Strong shares a conversation he had with the Lord in 1997:
This was time between times, between the Lord and myself.
There is a sense of change in the Air. A culmination of a great adventure in which the final chapter has come to and End.
Yes, what do you see my son?
I see the expectancy and to some degree the dread of mankind. It is expressed in the actions of daily life and the growing lack of Hope, and the loss of Joy.
True my son , but what I see, is that the Music of my people and in particular the young, their songs from their heart contain no Joy; neither in lyric or the instrumentation. It is dead and therefore has no strength. The Music of the Bride today, styles itself after the world, Melodic thrumming and drumming and wails and rants. These come from the Kingdom of Darkness.
Yes Lord, it seems your church has become seduced by the spirit of technology. I seem to remember your description of idols and it seems that we have now created one that Sees, Hears, and will soon Speak.
Heh, heh heh, so it would seem, but it is still only filled with their knowledge. ( he speaks with a grin)
The Pastors, (the Lord still speaking) and I use the term lightly, have strapped themselves with the ball and chains of Cellular phones and beepers and Laptops. Time must now be filled with recorded time to prove their time is well spent. Turning to me He says, do you remember the time when Time was a friend. He still is if you let Him be one, He says with a wink!
But the Pastors of this era have forgotten and therefore Time for them has become a task master. It is another deception that our adversary has fed my church and they have embraced it with open arms.......sighing No Peace no peace no peace............
Lord, I said, I myself, for now am not burden with such chains, and I really have no desires to be so. And with your help I can stay free.
He smiles and our time comes to and end!
10 22 97
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
The Mission of the Church
I received this teaching from the Spirit in 2004:
The ultimate purpose of the church is to establish an alternative nation to those who are in the world, based on the life and teaching of Jesus. It shall not be established by carpenters, city-planners or rulers. Rather, it will be established by God’s power and revelation.
The current Mission of God’s church is to restore God’s people to himself.
God’s people who are:
The lost
The poor
The destroyed
The demonized
The mentally ill
The sick
The oppressed
Those who are taught wrong
In other words, all who are downcast and lacking in faith, and yet are soft-hearted toward God. There are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus who want to be restored to God—they just don’t know how. There are Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mennonites, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics, Orthodox and those of every Christian stripe and kind who want to be restored. It is our goal to seek out the soft-hearted—wherever and whoever they may be—and restore them.
The church’s mission is not to:
-Keep the faithful entertained and interested in God
-Call those firmly against the Lord (This is the Lord’s arena, not the church’s)
There are churches and missions who train people to be hard-hearted to God and to God’s Spirit. They are training them in superiority, in judgement, in self-exaltation, in focusing on the idols and tasks of this age. They are all rejected. Most Christian rehabs are trainers of the soft-hearted to be hard-hearted.
A few true training facilities: Some Amish, the Bruderhof, Jesus People USA, Reba Place, etc.
But they need to realize that their purpose is not to maintain a community of brothers and sisters in the Lord. Their purpose is to have a community which will train God’s people how to live, behave and work in God’s kingdom.
The Lord rejects:
Plush facilities
Expensive conferences
Christian concerts
The entertaining and care and feeding of the hard-hearted “faithful”
The church is pouring out money into efforts where they can see a “bottom line”—usually in terms of numbers of people or of financial resources. In God’s work there is no “bottom line” apart from the work of the Spirit and the living out of God’s word.
The purity of the church is important, but it is not the purity of the perfect that God seeks, but the purity of the soft-hearted, those moldable by God. Those who are soft hearted will be conformed, in time, as long as the trainers are not too impatient. But the hard-hearted, although they seem to conform in all the outward ways, will never be God’s.
There is a way to tell the difference between the soft hearted and the hard hearted—by looking at their devotion and faith.
The soft hearted are devoted to God and to his ways.
The hard hearted are devoted to their principles and to their desires.
The soft hearted are obedient to God and obey his commands.
The hard hearted are obedient to principles that do not focus on God’s command. They are usually more strict than God’s commands, and insist that others follow their decrees.
The soft hearted are dependant on God and on his power.
The hard hearted will pray, but are dependant on the ways and power of mankind.
The soft hearted believe in God’s promises and will do anything to receive them.
The hard hearted desire their own goals and are often angry at God for not fulfilling their desires.
They speak of God’s promises, but do not think that conformity to the conditions will gain them the promises.
The soft hearted love others and help them toward the Father and with their needs.
The hard hearted think that it is enough to focus on God, and find reasons to judge other followers of God. The hard hearted see their own needs and desires and use them as an excuse to not help others.
The soft hearted are humble, recognizing their own lowliness before God and mankind. They rejoice in that humility and seek to be lowly.
The hard hearted believes that humility is a tragedy at all times and they complain, mourn, and cry every time they are dishonored or suffer. They reject those who reject them and seek self-exaltation at every opportunity, proclaiming it the blessing of God.
The soft hearted are persistent in their devotion to God—obedience, faith, love and humility—and no circumstance or sin against them will turn them away from this way.
The hard hearted are double-minded—desiring both the ways of God and the ways of the world. They often seem to change their minds in what they really want, but what they really want is the ways of the world. In the end, the judgement of the world is what they will receive.
Bringing Back the Lost
We need to go out to them
We need to coax them back
We need to teach them the truth
We need to encourage them to be devoted to God
We need to pray for them and listen to the Spirit for them
We need to train them in focusing on the One Voice, not the multitude of voices around and within them
We need to maintain them (but the focus of the church should not be in matainance, but on restoring.
We need to train them to take up the cross.
The ultimate purpose of the church is to establish an alternative nation to those who are in the world, based on the life and teaching of Jesus. It shall not be established by carpenters, city-planners or rulers. Rather, it will be established by God’s power and revelation.
The current Mission of God’s church is to restore God’s people to himself.
God’s people who are:
The lost
The poor
The destroyed
The demonized
The mentally ill
The sick
The oppressed
Those who are taught wrong
In other words, all who are downcast and lacking in faith, and yet are soft-hearted toward God. There are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus who want to be restored to God—they just don’t know how. There are Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mennonites, Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists, Catholics, Orthodox and those of every Christian stripe and kind who want to be restored. It is our goal to seek out the soft-hearted—wherever and whoever they may be—and restore them.
The church’s mission is not to:
-Keep the faithful entertained and interested in God
-Call those firmly against the Lord (This is the Lord’s arena, not the church’s)
There are churches and missions who train people to be hard-hearted to God and to God’s Spirit. They are training them in superiority, in judgement, in self-exaltation, in focusing on the idols and tasks of this age. They are all rejected. Most Christian rehabs are trainers of the soft-hearted to be hard-hearted.
A few true training facilities: Some Amish, the Bruderhof, Jesus People USA, Reba Place, etc.
But they need to realize that their purpose is not to maintain a community of brothers and sisters in the Lord. Their purpose is to have a community which will train God’s people how to live, behave and work in God’s kingdom.
The Lord rejects:
Plush facilities
Expensive conferences
Christian concerts
The entertaining and care and feeding of the hard-hearted “faithful”
The church is pouring out money into efforts where they can see a “bottom line”—usually in terms of numbers of people or of financial resources. In God’s work there is no “bottom line” apart from the work of the Spirit and the living out of God’s word.
The purity of the church is important, but it is not the purity of the perfect that God seeks, but the purity of the soft-hearted, those moldable by God. Those who are soft hearted will be conformed, in time, as long as the trainers are not too impatient. But the hard-hearted, although they seem to conform in all the outward ways, will never be God’s.
There is a way to tell the difference between the soft hearted and the hard hearted—by looking at their devotion and faith.
The soft hearted are devoted to God and to his ways.
The hard hearted are devoted to their principles and to their desires.
The soft hearted are obedient to God and obey his commands.
The hard hearted are obedient to principles that do not focus on God’s command. They are usually more strict than God’s commands, and insist that others follow their decrees.
The soft hearted are dependant on God and on his power.
The hard hearted will pray, but are dependant on the ways and power of mankind.
The soft hearted believe in God’s promises and will do anything to receive them.
The hard hearted desire their own goals and are often angry at God for not fulfilling their desires.
They speak of God’s promises, but do not think that conformity to the conditions will gain them the promises.
The soft hearted love others and help them toward the Father and with their needs.
The hard hearted think that it is enough to focus on God, and find reasons to judge other followers of God. The hard hearted see their own needs and desires and use them as an excuse to not help others.
The soft hearted are humble, recognizing their own lowliness before God and mankind. They rejoice in that humility and seek to be lowly.
The hard hearted believes that humility is a tragedy at all times and they complain, mourn, and cry every time they are dishonored or suffer. They reject those who reject them and seek self-exaltation at every opportunity, proclaiming it the blessing of God.
The soft hearted are persistent in their devotion to God—obedience, faith, love and humility—and no circumstance or sin against them will turn them away from this way.
The hard hearted are double-minded—desiring both the ways of God and the ways of the world. They often seem to change their minds in what they really want, but what they really want is the ways of the world. In the end, the judgement of the world is what they will receive.
Bringing Back the Lost
We need to go out to them
We need to coax them back
We need to teach them the truth
We need to encourage them to be devoted to God
We need to pray for them and listen to the Spirit for them
We need to train them in focusing on the One Voice, not the multitude of voices around and within them
We need to maintain them (but the focus of the church should not be in matainance, but on restoring.
We need to train them to take up the cross.
Dream on Halloween
This is from Jeff Strong, associate pastor of Anawim. If you want to find out more about him, check out:
Walking down a road, through a city of desolation and on the out skirts of the city I encountered women dressed in shimmering gowns.
Philosophies of this world were upon their lips like sweet honey they purred out invitations to come join them on their beds and lie with them.
Further down the road I see a bridge engulfed in flame and large billowing clouds of smoke. Black Smoke oozing from its sides and I feel a beckoning to enter the flames and cross the bridge. As I draw near a personage rises up before me and attempts to dissuade me from my course and a debate ensues; eventually I resolve to enter in and walk past the personage and into the flames.
Immediately my clothes are consumed and as I proceed other properties that I have acquired in my journeys are also consumed by the flames. Upon reaching the other side, I find myself clothed in the shining Armor of Light and a friend waiting for me. As we greet each other we turn into a gate where the Gatekeeper greets us both and then announced us to the guest inside and we entered in.
-October 31, 1993
Walking down a road, through a city of desolation and on the out skirts of the city I encountered women dressed in shimmering gowns.
Philosophies of this world were upon their lips like sweet honey they purred out invitations to come join them on their beds and lie with them.
Further down the road I see a bridge engulfed in flame and large billowing clouds of smoke. Black Smoke oozing from its sides and I feel a beckoning to enter the flames and cross the bridge. As I draw near a personage rises up before me and attempts to dissuade me from my course and a debate ensues; eventually I resolve to enter in and walk past the personage and into the flames.
Immediately my clothes are consumed and as I proceed other properties that I have acquired in my journeys are also consumed by the flames. Upon reaching the other side, I find myself clothed in the shining Armor of Light and a friend waiting for me. As we greet each other we turn into a gate where the Gatekeeper greets us both and then announced us to the guest inside and we entered in.
-October 31, 1993
Introduction
I've been receiving more communications from the Spirit world, people who have heard from the Spirit world or who have claimed to. I'll post more teaching on this at a later date, but the important thing with prophecies is that they need to be tested by Scripture and by prayer. So read with an open mind and then test them through confirmation.
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