I have seen a bunch of goofy prophecies in my day.  But I am a little confused about some that are in circulation.

Though there are several variations, they have the common theme that God wants the McCain/Palin ticket to win because Sarah Palin is the chosen one.  They generally have an addendum that God is tricking America to vote for McCain so His plan for a President Palin can come to fruition.

Does this seem odd to anyone else? Does God desire for President McCain to be replaced by impeachment or death?  Has God become so week that he has to use subterfuge to get something done?  Should John tank the election so that he can avoid public humiliation or even worse death?

What says you?

I sometimes wonder what happens to Christians around election times.  I support democracy in America.  But more importantly, I am first a subject in a holy kingdom.  The rules of that kingdom supersede the rules of this kingdom.  In that kingdom, gossip, slander and lies are against the rules. So is hatred, idolatry and fear mongering.  Kris Valleton recently called fear mongering the spirit of terrorism.

So election times come around and I am reminded of the words of Paul when he said that unbelievers don’t act the way some Christians are acting.  The willful ignorance, half truths, and arguing by people who claim to have membership in the Kingdom of Heaven is a fearful thing.

I hate to get scriptural but the bible says

Yikes!

Let me make it plain.  If you are a Christian you can not slander people.  You can disagree with someone’s record.  You can disagree with their qualifications and their platform.  You are not allowed to demonize people because they have a D or a R after their name.  That is sin.

If you are slandering a person, you need to repent.  If you are a minsiter of the Gospel and you have done it publically, you need to repent publically.  You have been modeling and condoning sin.  It is not just politics.  We are in this world but not of it. Unless you aren’t.

Here are a couple things I have wanted to post about but have not had the time to give each their own post.

Perry Noble, put this out.  I am going to post it without comment.

One of the lessons I’ve learned while being in the ministry for the past 17 years is sometimes what people say isn’t exactly true…things such as…

(WARNING…you will probably only like this post if you are a pastor or a staff member of a church!)

What They Say:  “I’m looking for a church that preaches the Word!â€

What They Mean: “I’m looking for a church that preaches MY view of the Word.  I think the BLANK translation should be used…I think BLANK should be talked about a lot while BLANK should be ignored.  And if you ever stop preaching my view of the Word I will leave and tell others that you don’t preach the Word!â€

What They Say:  “Lot’s of people have been coming to me and saying they don’t like is…â€

What They Mean: “I basically only have three friends…and all of them think exactly like me.  The other night we were enjoying a time of self righteousness because, after all, we are right about everything…and were also slandering you (in the form of prayer requests) and thought it would be wise to approach you with our pet peeve.  We’ve actually talked to no one else about this but said “lots†because we wanted to validate our dysfunction.â€

What They Say: “I’m leaving the church.â€

What They Mean: “Beg me to stay.  If you will just ask me I will share with you several ways you can compromise God’s vision that He’s given you, thus becoming nothing more than a people pleasing pastor who is more interested in popularity than obedience.  If you don’t bow to my demands I will remind you that I tithe and that the church needs my money, reducing you to a mere preaching whore…one who is paid for a service for the pleasure of another person.â€

What They Say: “I want a church that is more focused on discipleship.â€

What They Mean: “I want a church where everyone knows me and how important I am!  I don’t want to reach people who are different from me, be it economic class or race or even musical preference.  I already know WAY more than I do…but I somehow equate spirituality with knowledge rather than application and I rather enjoy feeling intellectually superior to those who don’t know as much as me.â€

What They Say: “Don’t take this personally…but…â€

What They Mean: “I am about to lower the BOOM on you…but you can’t get angry because I told you not to take it personally.  Even though you have dedicated your life to this and pretty much invest every ounce of energy you have to this cause…and I think about it once or twice a week…you need to receive my attacks, even when they are personal…and you cannot retaliate because, remember, it’s not personal.â€

OKAY, that was fun!  I typed it all with a smile.  Trust me…I’m not mad or frustrated with anyone…I just thought a pastor or two MIGHT get a smile out of this. 

I just signed up for a free grant money thingy.  It is like $3 to ship the cd.  It gives you a 7 day trial to their database.  I was not sure about this so I thought I would take some screenshots.

Here is the offer I used.

I got taken to a page that looked like this

After I added my info, I was taken to a page that asked for the payment for the $2.95.  After you pay you are given an option for several offers.  I was told by my friend that there is a vacation one that I should check.  Basically, you get a call that tries to up sell you, I say no, then I get the free vacation.  I am really looking forward to this.

After confirming my info I was given a link to this page:

I was able to sign in and see literally hundreds of programs.  It is a little overwhelming.

I will let you know if anything pans out.

I know that most of the people that read this blog are in Spirit filled churches but some may not.  Sometimes when the anointing drops in a service it takes people by surprise.

For those that have only heard a prophecy on TBN or by the big name prophets, let me share a secret with you.  Very few genuine, weighty, accurate prophecies are spoken by the seasoned prophets in a poetic, eloquent cantor.  As a matter of fact, I am more likely to put faith in the words of a person who bursts forth in speaking with a stammer and great humility than the finely crafted oratory of a wordsmith.

When I first got saved, I attended a church that had one guy in the whole church who would prophesy.  He was viewed as the super-spiritual one.  When I was sent out from that church, he was still the only one that brought prophetic words.

Part of my passion is to see people function in their giftings.  And I feel all should be able to get a word from God because all are called to hear from God.

In the service a few months ago the anointing entered the room, then Serge, my worship leader, began to pray in tongues.  That is not that odd.  But this time I knew it was a prophetic tongue.  I was hoping there would be an interpretation.  A little later I saw the anointing come over Khamille, another singer (and now Serg’s wife).  I was encouraging her to speak the word but to my knowledge she had never brought a prophetic message in song.  I do not believe she thought she was interpreting a tongue.  She was just overcome with the Spirit of the Lord.

In the audio you hear her yield for a second, then get nervous.  A minute later, she begins to yield again.  This brought forth a word of encouragement from the Lord.  At the end of the recording you hear a thud.  That was Khamille hitting the ground.  She stayed there for a pretty long time.

I really feel like this was the Word of the Lord for us.  It really agreed with everyone who heard it and the anointing dropped like a ton of bricks while it was happening.

Part of what the Church needs to be is a safe place for people to discover and practice their gifts.  I let people I know operate in gifts they have not mastered yet.  I am not afraid what might happen.  If Khamille got it wrong, I would speak on the mic what I think the Lord was actually saying. It’s not that big of a deal.

Are the people in your ministry used to seeing people develop their gifts?  Do people gossip or freak out when someone gets it wrong?  Or do they understand this is part of the process?

I believe Khamille got it right and I am posting this purely for educational purposes.  I hate to write this but I will not be entertaining any comments questioning the modern gift of prophecy, tongues, or the validity of the message.  You will have to drink hateraid somewhere else.

This week there was a big multi-site conference where church leaders come to learn about doing church on several campuses.  The underlying belief is that you don’t have to be in the same room as the teacher to gain the information being taught.

And they believe the best way to teach this is to have people from all over the country fly into their location to learn it.

The irony of this never ceases to make me laugh.