God’s Provision is not Always Obvious

Today, once more, I got up and use the giant new living room TV for worship. I enjoyed the freedom. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it.

I made a change in what I do.

For years, God has been giving me phrases and sentences. Isaiah got chapters; I get phrases and sentences. I suppose no one will ever call me a prophet! It’s very good, though, and if you think about it, the book of Proverbs is made up, for the most part, of discrete sentences. I may not be up there with Jeremiah, but Solomon would be very good company. Before he fell into idolatry and died in disgrace, I mean.

I created Word documents (it just occurred to me how funny it is that I used a program with that name) to preserve the phrases in a convenient way. I take these documents out and recite the things God told me. I claim them and ask God to make them come to pass, when appropriate. Not all of the phrases involve things that can come to pass. Some just contain information.

When things aren’t going well, God always tells me the same thing: “If you’re not doing what I’ve already taught you to do, why are you bothering me? Go back and do what I told you.” My practice of going over my lists is something he told me to do. When I do it, he gives me peace. Often, I start to fall asleep while I’m doing it.

Yesterday, I felt a lot of grief. On the one hand, I wish my dad could live longer so I would not have to part with him. On the other, I don’t want to spend another 5 years watching him die. Normally, grief is a short-term thing. Most people take less than a year to die. Their loved ones then experience a short spell of intense grief, and then they move on, unless they’re trapped in the past or desperate for attention. With a dementia patient, death can take decades, and loved ones may grieve the whole time.

I started wondering if I should join a support group. I’m reluctant to do things like that. I feel like it would be an unequal yoking. First thing you know, I’d be sitting in a circle of people led by a 23-year-old transsexual lesbian teaching them to do yoga breathing and advising them to smoke dope. Perhaps I exaggerate, but I would expect to receive non-Christian solutions or incorrect Christian solutions. I am also reluctant to give up on God’s one-on-one help. I always tell people about the great things God does for me. How can I take myself seriously if I say things like that and then run to shrinks and witch doctors for help? If I can’t get through this with God’s help, something must be wrong.

When I went to bed, I knew I was going to pray, as always. I thought about God’s advice, which was like a “sticky” in an Internet forum: “Before you give up on me, do what I told you to do.”

I started going through my lists, and I used other tools God had given men. Before long, I fell asleep.

This morning, I made sure I took my lists to the living room with me, and I went over them.

Before I did that, I watched part of a Derek Prince video. He talked about “the word of God.” He said something I already knew: “the word of God” doesn’t just mean the Bible. Abraham had no Bible, but he had the word of God, because God spoke to him. Early Christians had no New Testament, but they had the word of God because they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and able to receive knowledge from God.

When the Old Testament says, “the word of God,” it’s not referring to the Bible. I think reading that would set a lot of wigs on fire, but it has to be true. If the Bible doesn’t exist yet, and you mention “the word of God,” you can’t be talking about the Bible.

If “the word of God” isn’t scripture in the Old Testament, then it can’t always mean scripture in the New Testament. Think about that.

Prince said the word of God may be scripture, but it includes things that haven’t been written down (“scripture” is a word that means written language).

I’m always amazed to hear Derek Prince confirm things God has shown me privately. Derek Prince died in 2003, and many of the messages I’ve watched date back well over 20 years, yet he confirms the “new” things God has told me since 2007. I always wonder why his teachings didn’t catch on. Charismatics have been frantically wasting their lives on the prosperity gospel and the feel-good gospel, and they have listened to utter fools, but they let Derek Prince blow right by them, and he said things that could have saved them.

It reminds me of something Rabelais said about Parisians:

Some days after they had finished their refreshments, Gargantua went to see the sights of the town, and everyone stared at him in great wonder. For the Parisians are such simpletons, such gapers, and such feckless idiots that a buffoon, a peddler of indulgences, a mule with bells on its collar, or a fiddler at a crossroad will draw a greater crowd than a good preacher of the Gospel.

TBN has a lot of mules with bells on their collars, and they certainly have peddlers of indulgences. Give God your tax refund, and he’ll help you buy a new bass boat.

Prince pointed out that the Bible calls Jesus himself “the Word.”

I’m a big proponent of prayer in tongues. Yahweh speaks things, Jesus speaks them to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit speaks them to us, and they come out as tongues. I always say that tongues are the word of God. It’s axiomatic. If the Holy Spirit says something, and the Holy Spirit is God, then what he says is the word of God.

It must also be true that the phrases God gives me are the word of God. Prince gave me confirmation that I was right to add them to my morning activities.

Prince said some things that surprised me. He mentioned these words of Jesus:

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

This confirms that Jesus repeats what Yahweh says. It also tells me this: if the Holy Spirit tells me something, I’m supposed to write it down or at least memorize it. The Greek word translated “keep” means “guard,” “maintain,” or “preserve.” By writing down my lists, I have been keeping God’s word! That means Jesus and the Father will come to me and make their home with me.

If you’re not hearing things from God on your own, you still have the Bible. You should be very familiar with it. You should have many, many important bits of it in your memory. If not, how are you “keeping” God’s word?

I’ve failed to record things God has said to me. That’s horrifying. I have to stop being wasteful if I want to keep receiving things.

If you’re not keeping God’s word, how can you love God? Jesus said, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” You will take care of anything you really care about.

I’ve let myself become spoiled. I figured the words kept coming, so it wasn’t that big a deal if I let some of them slip by me. But the vast majority of people, including tongue-talking Christians, don’t receive anything at all. Remember what our parents used to say when we wouldn’t eat liver: “There are kids in China who would do anything for a nice piece of liver.” You have to appreciate what you have.

I still hate liver. I want to make that clear before I go on. I’ll bet Chinese kids hate it, too.

It’s remarkable how the Bible starts to make sense when you spend time with the Holy Spirit. It’s also remarkable how wrong traditional carnal interpretations are. Men’s wild guesses have always caused problems after being transformed into doctrine.

I’m glad there is more room in my house for God now. Things keep improving. Today I bathed the birds (imagine their gratitude), did a lot of dusting, and laundered some of my dad’s bedclothes over again. I feel that the Holy Spirit is bringing order.

Dusting is surprisingly important. Even if you have superficial order, if you don’t dust, your house will start to feel smaller and less peaceful.

I told a friend of mine how things were getting ordered, and she sent me a Damon Thompson MP3. He said something about how each of us needed a place where we could host the Holy Spirit. If I understood him, he meant that a Christian should have a chair or a room or something, set apart for God. I can’t quite go along with that.

If you’re Spirit-led, your entire house should belong to God, and you should be able to spend time with him there. On the other hand, you should be able to be in God’s presence ANYWHERE. As happy as I am to be able to worship in the living room, I don’t depend on it. God is kind enough to show me his presence wherever I am. I would be in trouble if I literally had a prayer closet I had to sit in when I wanted to be with God. You can’t carry a prayer closet around with you.

I like having the new TV and the nice room in which it sits, but I can’t say I NEED them.

I’m not a huge Damon Thompson fan. It always seems like he’s trying to show off his intellect. Christianity is not like rabbinic Judaism. It’s not a faith where only the brilliant can excel. Your native intelligence means nothing to God. You can be a powerful Christian no matter what your IQ is. We’re supposed to have the mind of Christ on tap, and I can tell you that it works. I’ve seen very simple people teach perfectly, from revelation they received on their own.

The reason God created the universe is love. We get very proud of our revelations, as though we came up with them ourselves, and we forget about love. God used ignorant people to shame the arrogant teachers who disagreed with Jesus. There was a reason why he chose fishermen and a beggar instead of priests. He wanted to embarrass the proud in public.

When we finally understand the entire Bible, we are going to see that many things we were sure were true are nonsense. If you can hear from God on your own, he will help you find the truth and detect error. Then you won’t have to rely on human beings. That’s the state to which we are supposed to aspire. We should be so connected with God, it wouldn’t matter if every Bible on earth were burned or deleted. Abraham and Enoch got by with God himself, so we know it can be done.