Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins

Kim Clement on July 22, 2005: “New Orleans . . . a judgment is coming, says the Spirit of the Lord!”

• August 31st, 2005

This word is from July 22nd, 2005, in Houston, Texas, where Kim called out a Pastor friend (Garland Bilbo from New Orleans, LA), and the word seems to be pertaining to the impending damage from the coming Hurricane Katrina.

As you know, Kim is not one to prophesy judgment, and tonight in Hollywood, he had everyone in the meeting pray for MERCY for New Orleans. However, this was the word that came and has been taken seriously. Read the full article on the ElijahList

“Are You in a Difficult Situation? Rejoice!”

• August 21st, 2005

Since the Fall, the devil has had a boast that the Lord’s crowning creation, mankind, which He created especially to have fellowship and to dwell with, when given the choice, chose evil over righteousness, even when living in the most perfect conditions. Because of this, the devil boasts that, given the choice, all of creation will choose his ways over the Lord’s ways. Before the end comes, the Lord will have a people who will have ended this boast. Even in the darkest of times, in the worst conditions, against the onslaught of all that hell and the world can throw at them, they will remain faithful, choosing righteousness over evil to obey God rather than the evil one. In this way, they will even become witnesses to principalities and powers, as well as the rest of creation, that God and His truth will always ultimately triumph. - Read the full article on the ElijahList

“Follow Hard After Me!” — A Vision of Our Journey with the Lord

• August 21st, 2005

Jesus and I were walking very briskly through a heavily wooded area. We traveled for some time, He in front and I behind. I knew He was taking me somewhere, that we had a destination. He told me to follow hard after Him. I repeated His words to Him to show Him that I understood what He meant, but neglected the word “hard.” He corrected me, “Follow hard after me.” - Read the full article on the ElijahList

“GOOD NEWS! ‘THE REVERSAL PROCESS’ OF WHAT THE ENEMY HAD DONE ‘HAS BEGUN’!”

• August 10th, 2005

“When I awaken you in the night season, respond to Me, for this is a week of standing and protection. This is a week of watching, for I will show you a door that has seemed shut, and I will show you the path to get through the door. Watch carefully this week, for I am awake on your behalf; so you wake up.
“By October, I will raise a tent, and you will rejoice that the wilderness has let go of you. Have I not said this is a season of victory? Though testing is great, I am developing a sound of victory in My people. Get ready. Begin to say and shout victory, for in your spirit there are depths of victory you do not even know. I will give you favor. There are many changes. ” - Read the full article on the Elijah List

Avoiding spiritual junkfood

• August 6th, 2005

What if, we woke up in the morning, skipped breakfast, were too busy to have lunch and by around 3pm, we felt a little hollow inside – we’d find the nearest food source, quite possibly a vending machine and snack on a candy bar, perhaps cookies, and perhaps a soda to wash it all down. We can treat our spirit the same way, we need to take the time to analyze what’s going into our body and more importantly what is going into our spirit!

The connection
Throughout the scripture the analogy is made between spiritual food and physical food, Jesus told the woman at the well that “whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty again! On the contrary, the water I give him will become a spring of water inside him, welling up into eternal life!” (John 4:14) and again later on, “Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35) Jesus himself is the bread that satisfies. “All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You without money, come buy, and eat! Yes, come! Buy wine and milk without money – it’s free! Why spend you money on what isn’t food, your wages for what doesn’t satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:1-2) There is no excuse, even if you have no money, come and find and abundance of wine and milk. We are warned not to spend money at the spiritual vending machine. We all know the vending machine is loaded with junk food. So what is it that it has to offer? Convenience, it’s at arms reach and you can eat and run. The spiritual vending machine is the same, it offers only convenience, but it comes at a cost. We’ll take a look at the contents of the spiritual vending machine a little later on. “Listen carefully to me, and you will eat well, you will enjoy the fat of the land. Open your ears, and come to me; listen well, and you will live.” (Isaiah 55:2b-3a) It’s by listening to the words of the Father, by opening our ears that we receive the bread of heaven that we can be satisfied.

It’s of utmost importance that we have a good breakfast of spiritual bread, wine and water. By making sure we’re satisfied with quality sustenance, we’re easily able to bypass the vending machine because “A person who is full loathes a honeycomb; but to the hungry and bitter thing is sweet.” (Proverbs) This is why it is so important not to give the vending machine a chance, because all of the goodies look “sweet,” when we’re hungry we’re asking for trouble because we can’t tell what we’re eating, everything tastes sweet. Jesus said that if we filled up on Him that we would never be hungry, never be thirsty. The scripture has picturesque references to the extent to which the hungry person will go, “you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom Adonai your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will be without pity for his brother, his beloved wife or his surviving children, to the degree that he will refuse to share with any of them the flesh of his children whom he is eating” (Deuteronomy 28:53-55) It’s a terrible image, but we need to know what happens when spiritual hunger sets in. We would end up destroying everything we have and it would be “sweet.” I can’t imagine a worse situation, but so many of us are “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked!” (Revelation 3:17) The church to whom Jesus spoke was that of Laodicea where they were neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm and completely unaware of their spiritual state, in fact they kept saying, “I am rich, I have gotten rich, I don’t need a thing!” (Revelation 3:17). It took the words of Jesus to open their eyes so they could see their spiritual state. They were spiritualy hungry and began feeding off each other. The level to which Satan is able to deceive is actually quite amazing, the extent to which we would go and not even notice – we need to stop and take a look at what we’re feeding from. We need to buy from Jesus, “eyesalve to rub on your eyes, so that you may see.” (Revelation 3:18).

What’s in the vending machine?
The doctrines of demons. The spiritual vending machine is filled with: “sexual immorality, impurity and indecency; idol-worship and misuse of drugs in connection with the occult; in feuding, fighting, becoming jealous and getting angry; selfish ambition, factionalism, intrigue and envy; in drunkness, orgies and things like these,” (Galations 5:19) and these and the more major ones, but gossip, slander, malice, coveting other things, and the list goes on into other things. These things never satisfy, they always lead to more and more because Jesus is the only one who satisfies. Every tasty morsel in the vending machine only leads to more of the same.

What if, we woke up in the morning, skipped reading the word, were too busy to pray around midday and by around 3pm, we felt a little depressed, crabby perhaps – we’d find the spirutual food source, quite possibly a little bit of gossip, perhaps we’d buy something to overcome this feeling and perhaps a little bit of anger with our spouse and children wash it all down.

Did you ever notice that it’s sometimes almost impossible to get it right. God’s laws are just so hard and every day I try, but I just can’t keep them all together. It’s like looking at your body, thinking you need to lose weight, but it just won’t happen, but you just keep beating a path to the vending machine. We cannot muster up enough strength to turn away from the apparent delicacies behind the glass, perhaps we could for one day, maybe two, but we’re going to give up because when we’re hungry we can no longer tell the difference between the good and the bad, they’re all sweet, but one of them is convenient, the other requires the time to sit down.

The truth is that we don’t have the will power to avoid the junkfood and we weren’t designed that way, we have to eat regular healthy meals so that we may receive the crown of life.

Romans 10:17, “So trust comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through a word proclaimed about the Messiah.” The more we hear about Jesus, the more our faith is built, the more we look and act like Him. Get a healthy dose of Jesus in the morning.

Wait for me

• August 6th, 2005

It wasn’t so long ago when my idea of “waiting on the Lord” was the quiet time I have every morning waiting for a fresh word from heaven because it certainly seems what Psalm 46:10 was saying, “be still and know that I am God,” and also “those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31) I had pondered if there was more to this, since I had believed (not with much conviction I might add) that we are ships and God is like the rudder, if we don’t move he can’t steer us which really implies that it’s better to do anything than nothing. While this may be an acceptable approach for a season, I believe we can graduate to a bigger and better way of doing things…

Desist
From the Complete Jewish Bible, Psalm 46:10 is rendered, “desist and learn that I am God.” This is certainly stronger and moves beyond just being a state of mind. Desist implies that we stop and do nothing and thereby learn that He is God. It’s an interesting way to learn about God by desisting. It’s when we stop that we allow God to act and it’s then we can experience the power of His salvation.

David
God had said of David that he was “a man after my own heart.” () I believe it’s because he feared God and waited for him. For David, waiting on God was not optional, it was a requirement. Every battle, both those that David initiated and those initiated by the enemy took David into a place of prayer. This is so contrary to his predecessor Saul, for whom it was optional to inquire of the Lord, he was actually quite flippant about the process, the lack of the fear of the Lord was apparent. “The P’lishtim came and deployed in the Refa’im Valley. David consulted ADONAI, asking, “Should I attack the P’lishtim? Will you had them over to me?” ADONAI answered David, “Attack; I will certainly hand the P’lishtim over to you.”” (2 Samuel 5:18-19) I love how God answered David using the phrase, “I will certainly,” it would almost imply that there is no need to ask, because God is going to give David great success wherever he goes. Sure enough, God hands David’s enemy over to him, but what is really interesting is that David did the exact same thing again in the exact same situation, “The P’lishtim came up again and deployed in the Refa’im Valley.” (2 Samuel 5:22) Yes, verse 18 and 22 are exactly the same, it was probably within days, or perhaps even the same day when the Philistines regrouped in exactly the same place. David already inquired of God about an identical situation and God said he would “certainly” had them over. There doesn’t seem to be much need to check in with God again, but David does, “When David consulted ADONAI, he said, “Don’t attack! Circle behind them, and engage them opposite the balsam trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, advance; because then ADONAI has gone out ahead of you to defeat the army of the P’lishtim.” David did exactly as ADONAI had ordered him to do and pursued his attack on the P’lishtim from Geva all the way to Gezer.” (2 Samuel 5:23-25) It’s truly amazing that David inquired of God again, David certainly feared God and did not rely on his own strength, he knew his victory was coming from God. After all, it was David who said, “I lift up my eyes to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth,” () and he lived it out. God gave David different advice. It’s a sign of man when the same problems require the same solutions, but a sign of God when the same problem requires a different solution. For every event in our lives, there is a key which God holds. We need to get (wait for) the key to find the best possible way through and over our battles.

Saul
We can compare this with how Saul handled his battles, “Sha’ul said, “Let’s go after the P’lishtim by night. We’ll plunder them until dawn; we won’t leave one of them alive.” They answered, “Do whatever seems good to you.” But the cohen [priests] said, “Let’s approach God here.” Shaul consulted God: “Should I go down in pursuit of the P’lishtim? Will you hand them over to Isra’el?” But he didn’t answer him that day.” (1 Samuel 14:36-39) Saul took quite a different approach, he first devised his own plan and then at then just checked in with God because the priests asked him too. I think in today’s language Saul’s answer would have been, “Oh yes, good idea, we could check in with God and find out if my plan will work.” Saul relied greatly on his own strength and the strength of His army, “whenever Sha’ul saw any strong or courageous man, he recruited him into his service.” (1 Samuel 14:52)

Intimacy and trust
We’re reluctant to ask God and wait on Him when we hardly know him, when we need help we usually ask those closest to us, those we fellowship with regularly. We only feel comfortable inquiring of God enough to wait for him when we fellowship with Him daily. Too often we come up with our own plan first and then ask God if it will work, or perhaps even go ahead and ask him to bless our plans. Another approach we sometimes take (or at least I do), is to ask God and if there’s no response, I just go ahead with my plans anyway. God is the CEO of our little operation here on earth, if we hold a board meeting and he’s late, do we just make the decision anyway. Where is the fear of God? “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 1:7) God is taking us to the place where we can wait on Him for “He takes no delight in the strength of a horse, no pleasure in a runner’s speed. ADONAI takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who wait for his grace.” (Psalm 147:10) God is not impressed by our wealth, our armies, our qualifications, our skills, he just wants us to depend on Him. God chose the nation of Israel to become a demonstration of His power “not because they were the most powerful of nations, but because they were the weakest,” () that’s why Paul said, “I will boast all the more in my weakness, because when I am weak, He is strong.” () And again in Isaiah 64:4, “No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.” Wow. The bottom line is that if you get to a place where you realize you can’t save yourself, there is no one else who can either. There has never been a demonstration of salvation power other than that of our God, and He only acts when we don’t. Seems pretty simple, the hard part is coming to the place of realization that we cannot save ourself. As I grow older I surrender more of my efforts into His hands. Every failure becomes a victory because it takes me to the place of surrender. God is longing to demonstrate His power through us, to restore our faith and to display His power and glory to the unsaved world, “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9) I can just hear the Father at the council meeting asking passionately and anxiously if there is possibly anyone, anyone who wants Him to act on their behalf. God longs to demonstrate His power, but He needs you. God will save others through you by powerfully delivering you from your circumstances, just step aside and wait, wait for the mighty rushing wind.

Submit
“Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) We submit to God by waiting for him. Wait for further instruction. Don’t go rushing ahead. When David inquired of God the second time he received different instructions even in the same situation. Saul did win battles and many of them, but I think he lost way more men than he should of because he didn’t seek the council of God before each and every battle, “Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands.” (1 Samuel 18:7) We may not fail at everything we do, but we’re just not going to be efficient. Now, I would like to be ten times more efficient. Accomplish ten times more in the day, accomplish ten times more with my resources. Saul never had enough good men, he kept acquiring more. Do you need more hours in the day? Do you need more money in the bank? More money coming in? It may not be what you have, but that you’re not using what you have efficiently because you’re relying on your own strength. If you’re overwhelmed, tired and strung out. If you can’t give your family your undivided attention, then it’s time be one of “those who hope in ADONAI will renew their strength, they will soar as with eagles’ wings; when they are running they won’t grow weary, when they are walking they won’t get tired.” (Isaiah 40:31)