A Pastor Has to Have Guts

Yesterday morning, my pastor sent people a text. He said the Holy Spirit had come over him and given him visions concerning certain people in the church. He was planning to talk about it at the evening service.

I thought that was pretty exciting. It’s much better than the mundane, disappointing communications I received at my old church.

At the service, he told us he had been taken to a place where there was a table. A man was sitting at the table. He introduced himself as “Mr. Fire” and said he had been waiting to meet my pastor for a long time.

He took him directly into the church, and from the front, they watched people praying and worshiping. I don’t have the recording of the service, so I don’t remember everything, but he pointed out three women. One had some kind of purpose related to worship, another was anointed to pray for the salvation of the city, and the third was going to have a ministry in which she basically set people straight, speaking the truth for God’s sake.

As my pastor talked about the anointings people had received, he called them up so he could talk to them face to face. He called me up and told me he had seen me with an American flag draped over my shoulders and a sword in my hand. He said the sword became a pen. I was anointed to be a prophet, and I would write God’s word down and help Americans come back to God. He said he saw me at a book signing with people lined up to see me. There were also people who hated me and wanted to get at me, but God was holding them back, so they couldn’t do anything.

I was a little freaked out. I am not used to getting attention at church. At my old church, you had to get with the positive thinking program or get used to being ignored. I spoke up about things that were not right, so I was perceived as someone who could not be relied upon to echo the party line. At New Dawn, people treat me with a surprising amount of respect, and while I am honored–and somewhat relieved–to be taken seriously, I don’t feel comfortable as the center of attention. It’s good to get up there, do whatever God wants, and go back and sit down.

It may seem strange that a character with a name like “Mr. Fire” would appear in a vision from God, but wisdom and wickedness have been described prophetically as individuals, as have conquest, famine, and so on.

At a recent service, an apostle named Byron Walters came and criticized modern churches for having no guts. My old church was run by anti-abortion, anti-homosexuality conservatives who praised Obama in front of their mostly black congregation. Apostle Walters would not have liked that too much. He criticized churches that showed secular movies and then interrupted them so motivational speakers masquerading as preachers could comment. My old church did that, and my former pastor has billed himself as a motivational speaker.

It looks like the movement to which my church belongs is being used by God to correct the foolishness of mainstream charismatic churches. That suits me fine, since I’m appalled at the way prosperity preachers and positive thinkers enslave people in order to get their tithes and offerings. The “fire” message we received yesterday is just part of this new assignment. In the Bible, fire is often mentioned in connection with righteous anger, zeal for God’s house, cleansing, punishment, and the destruction of God’s enemies.

I looked at Matthew 3 while the pastor was talking. In that chapter, John the Baptist said Jesus would baptize us with water–the living water of tongues and so on–but he also said Jesus would baptize us with fire. I hadn’t thought much about that in the past.

Fire is part of God’s heart. It is motivation. It is energy. When it’s inside you, it may feel pleasant. But to the people you deal with, it may not be pleasant. If you’re full of God’s fire, you’re going to correct and criticize when you have to. Like Samson, when he sent foxes to set fire to the harvest of the Philistines, you will burn the enemy’s crops. Like Jeremiah, who said the word of God was like an uncontainable fire in his bones, you will say things that turn carnal people against you.

During the service, I noticed something. Fire tends to come after water. John mentioned fire after water. God destroyed mankind with water, but when he destroys the world again, it will be with fire. After the service, my pastor and I were talking, and he mentioned Elijah, who poured water on a sacrifice which was then consumed by fire. Fire represents a decrease in God’s patience. This is why fire was used to burn the flesh of sacrificed animals.

I looked at Jeremiah today. Jeremiah kept telling people God’s wishes and passing on God’s critiques, and generally, he was punished for it. He was not a POSITIVE THINKER. He refused to tell people God was going to bring them PROSPERITY. At my old church, I was just like Jeremiah.

You wouldn’t believe how people twisted the Bible in hopes of shutting me down. They quoted Matthew 7:1; “Judge not,” etcetera. They quoted Matthew 7:3; I needed to look at the beam in my own eye. Those are fine scriptures, but these people were abusing them.

It is essential that we speak up when things are going wrong, especially when people who speak for God are endorsing evil and condemning good. The soft, mushy people who are hung up on Matthew 7:1 and 7:3 didn’t get that way because they don’t judge or because they always consider their own faults. They got that way because they love having a weapon to use against people who say things that require them to repent.

If you think Matthew 7:1 is the highest law in the Bible, and that anyone who criticizes is “judging,” then you should never use it to correct someone, because if you do, you’re judging. Think about it. If you tell me I have a beam in my eye because I criticize, doesn’t that mean you have a beam in your eye?

It looks like God is bringing the Jeremiah anointing back, in hopes of saving America. And the only weapons weak Christians can use to fight God are his own words from Matthew 7. We’re going to hear them over and over and over.

Jeremiah lived under Josiah, the last righteous king. Then he lived under the kings who were beaten by Nebuchadnezzar. The last king, Zedekiah, had to watch while the Babylonians murdered his children, and that was the last thing he ever saw, because they then held him down and cut his eyes out. Jerusalem was razed, the Temple was destroyed, the most successful people were carried off as slaves, and the sons of nobles, including Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, were castrated and turned into servants.

This is what Jeremiah, the most hated man in Judah, was trying to prevent. I’m sure he wished he could speak words of comfort and warmth, but by the time Josiah’s successor made it to the throne, it was too late for that. It was time for God to get out the belt. Zedekiah should have listened instead of tormenting the prophet who brought him God’s guidance.

The Jews could have retained power in Jerusalem. The Temple could have been preserved, and within it, the priests could have continued to receive God’s guidance. The nation would have prospered. But they preferred idolatry and arrogance. They preferred shooting the messenger, even while acknowledging that the messenger spoke God’s word.

The Osteens and Schullers of the world are building churches just like the palace of Zedekiah. If it’s not soft and mushy, they don’t want to hear it. Guidance is “division.” I guess that’s true. It divides people from their own stupidity.

America needs Jeremiahs. Secular America is beyond hope. People behave as if homosexuality, greed, and arrogance were vital virtues. Christian America is headed in the same direction. We talk about love, love, love…not because we love, but because it makes more money for preachers. If you take out judgment, you get bigger crowds, and that means more money. And it also means adopting secular values. It won’t be long before a charismatic megachurch preacher goes on TV and tells us Jesus may have been gay.

If you really love people, you tell them what they need to hear, and that doesn’t mean kissing their rear ends. The only love the feelgood preachers really possess is love for admiration and money.

The non-Christian establishment is gaining power very quickly. Government officials are persecuting us openly now. Romney is not a Christian, but he’s a friend of Christians, and the press is going after him with a fresh surge of venom and dishonesty. People who should be standing firm are kneeling down. Even Chick-fil-A has crumbled. Their charity arm no longer contributes to the fight against homosexual marriage. We need Jeremiahs to stand up and speak. We need fire. And as John the Baptist pointed out, it only comes from one place: the baptism with the Holy Spirit. If you don’t have it, you are not going to stand. You will deny God just as Peter did. Many of our most popular TV preachers deny him every day, in front of nonthreatening Christians. If they can’t tell the truth to Christians–if they are that cowardly–we already know what they’ll do when non-Christian persecutors show up. They won’t be heirs to Jeremiah. They’ll be heirs to Judas. And for the same reason: love of money.

It’s going to be interesting to see where God goes with this. One thing is for sure: it’s better to have God’s fire inside you while you live than to be bathed in it after you die.