How Good Can Life Get?

My dad’s story is not over. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll be writing about it 10 years from now.

I have a friend. She is married. I got to know her husband through her, and now he’s a friend, too. She keeps praying God will help him get closer to God. He’s a Christian, but he’s somewhat less gung-ho than she is.

She texted me and said he told his Mormon sister about the get-together we had when my dad died. People who tried to attend had injuries. My friend totaled her husband’s truck in her driveway. He told his sister something was trying to prevent people from coming, and she said she agreed. So now my dad’s story is reaching Mormons. Also, the person who told the sister was my friend’s husband, so he has been affected.

Mormonism is not Christianity. Mormons believe in salvation by works, and one of their “prophets” called salvation by faith a heresy. There are many, many problems with Mormonism. They think Jesus and Satan are brothers, and they believe God is an alien who lives on another planet. They believe black people will turn white when they start pleasing God. The Book of Mormon contains Hebrew-sounding names which, unlike the real Hebrew names of the Bible, are actually gibberish.

Mormons believe American Indians are actually descended from Jews. DNA testing proves there is no relationship. Jews and Indians share absolutely nothing. They look different. Their cultures are completely different. Indians worship strange spirits; Jews do not. Indian culture is illiterate; Jews have been literate for thousands of years. I feel silly arguing that Indians aren’t Jewish, because it’s so obvious.

Joseph Smith was a known confidence artist. Before he started his religion, he was arrested for charging people for his services as a diviner. He claimed he received the Book of Mormon from God, but when a lady stole his first version and he was forced to dictate it again, he warned that he might not dictate the exact same book. He promoted a hoax called the book of Abraham. He took an Egyptian writing about preparing bodies for death and claimed it was about Abraham, and Egyptologists have since debunked it thoroughly.

Mormon doctrine excluded blacks from the priesthood until 1974. Christianity is very different. Simeon, called Niger, was a prophet in the book of Acts. “Niger” means “black.” Jews have never excluded blacks from their religion or from religious office.

It’s frustrating to deal with Mormons, because they insist they’re Christians. Every real Christian denomination rejects that audacious and unfounded claim.

Including Jesus in your religion does not make you a Christian. There are certain fundamental beliefs you have to accept, and Mormonism doesn’t meet the standard.

Anyway, it would be nice to see Mormons awakened by my dad’s testimony. I have Mormon relatives. I don’t want to see them miss out on the real thing.

There are lots of nice Mormon people out there, but generally, they are not very open to Christianity. There is a real pride thing going on.

The big danger is that a Mormon who heard my dad’s testimony would say, “Wow, that’s definitely God’s hand. He is reaching out to you non-Mormons to bring you into the fold.” I can’t do anything about that. We aren’t responsible–not even a little bit–for the way other people receive things.

I don’t know who will be reached next. I look forward to finding out.

This morning I thought about it, and I remembered the story of Satan. He fell from heaven and drew a third of the angels down with him, with his tail. They chose him over God. My dad seems to be having the opposite effect. He is drawing people to heaven.

Speaking of heads and tails, God keeps confirming things he has told me. America is becoming an extremely foolish country, as everyone with any common sense knows. Increasingly, our leaders are silly people no person of quality would want to know. In the church, we now have “leaders” who wear $6000 sneakers and tell their flocks they need private jets.

For years, I’ve been telling people that a preacher who teaches lies is the tail, not the head. A preacher is supposed to lead, not follow. Prosperity preachers don’t listen to God. They listen to the crowd. The crowd wants to hear that God will make them rich in exchange for offerings. It wants to hear that God’s purpose is to make a man’s stupid, carnal plans come to pass. A preacher who hears from the Holy Spirit will never repeat these lies.

I looked at Isaiah 9 today, and saw this:

For the people do not turn to Him who strikes them,
Nor do they seek the Lord of hosts.
Therefore the Lord will cut off head and tail from Israel,
Palm branch and bulrush in one day.

The elder and honorable, he is the head;
The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.
For the leaders of this people cause them to err,
And those who are led by them are destroyed.

Therefore the Lord will have no joy in their young men,
Nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows;
For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer,
And every mouth speaks folly.

God was speaking of Israel. Notice how he punished them. He took away their wise leaders and gave them fools. Not only that, he said, “the prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail.”

It shows how powerful prayer in tongues is. I’ve been telling people this stuff about the head and the tail for years, and I didn’t get it from Isaiah. If you want knowledge and understanding, you really need prayer in tongues.

Your typical charismatic preacher thinks being the head means being in a position of dominance, so you can push people around and rule your enemies. It means owning several mansions and driving a G-Wagen. They are extremely ignorant. They don’t realize a person who is the head is a servant. When you’re the head, you carry the obligations of a leader. Leadership is a burden as well as a blessing, when it’s done right. All the money-lovers care about is control and wealth.

John Gray is ignorant. T.D. Jakes is ignorant. Paula White is ignorant. Kenneth Copeland is beyond ignorant; he appears to be deranged these days.

Take a look at this clip of Copeland and Jesse Duplantis, another greed preacher. They’re trying to justify buying multi-million-dollar jets. Describing the difficulty of getting to various places on commercial planes, Copeland says, “You can’t get there from here.” YOU CAN GET ANYWHERE FROM HERE, regardless of whether you have to use airlines. Everyone knows that. These men aren’t just wrong; to intelligent people, they look like mental cases. The Bible says God sends people “strong delusion.” There is no other way to explain the video. No one could be this crazy without supernatural help.

Paul traveled in random ships with ordinary passengers, and God used him to convert millions of people. Copeland and Duplantis can’t match that with private jets. They don’t even work for God. The people they “convert” don’t know God, and they may not even be saved.

I don’t want to spend an entire blog entry on criticism. My intention is to let people know that God is real and that his ways work. Prayer in tongues works. It’s very powerful, and you need to try to get it. It will protect you from people like Kenneth Copeland and John Gray. You may go off course, but prayer in tongues will bring you back.

I feel funny criticizing John Gray, having spent a considerable amount of time with him and having gotten along well with him. People really like him. He charms everyone. But look what he’s doing. He was known for premarital chastity, but he broke his marriage vow right away, and he then bought his wife a Lamborghini SUV. When people complained about the car, he wasn’t truthful about the reason he bought it, and he tried to shame his critics. That’s gaslighting; one of Satan’s biggest tools. He angrily, proudly resists correction. He keeps teaching the false money message. He is a mess. I wouldn’t go in his church to use the toilet if I had the stomach flu. I’d be afraid someone would recognize me.

You don’t have to end up like John Gray or Jesse Duplantis. Prayer in tongues will help you stay on track. No one can resist deception without the Holy Spirit. The Bible isn’t enough. The world is full of Bible scholars who are wrong about everything.

I’m sorry to see how things are going for American Christians on the whole. I’m very happy things are going well for me and for many people I know. Sometimes you have to sit on the ark and watch other people sink. That’s how life works. It can be hard to enjoy being blessed while observing the cursed.

My situation keeps improving. I feel more peace these days. I have days when joy fills me. I’m getting over the emotional damage from being a caregiver to an unsaved person, the grief of living with a loved one with dementia, and the grief of losing a beloved father, all at once. Life is suddenly full of open doors, and God is helping me get closer than ever.

I keep asking God to kill the old Steve and make the new Steve, modeled after Christ, thrive and take his place. It works, and it makes life much, much better.

I believe things will continue to improve.

Last night I had a dream. I was traveling with relatives. At some point, I found myself looking after my dad.

We were staying at a hotel. I had to accompany my dad on some kind of side trip. When I mentioned it to the staff at the hotel, suddenly everyone there wanted to go. We ended up in a long line of people.

I noticed my dad didn’t have his cane with him. I asked him where it was. He didn’t need it, though. We were in a line on an elevated platform we had reached via steps, and he was fine.

When we arrived at our destination, we found ourselves at the base of a very high wall that looked like the white limestone used in Jerusalem. While I was keeping an eye on my dad, I got a cell call. I answered it using the name of our old firm. A male with a sinister voice said he was about to tell me something, and I knew it was going to be bad news, like a threat. I waited, but he didn’t say anything more. I gave him a little while to speak, and I hung up. Something had prevented him from following through, and I didn’t care, because I didn’t want to hear his nonsense anyway.

I looked out at the horizon, and I saw 4 little tornadoes, like waterspouts. Waterspouts are usually slender and weak. They don’t cause the kinds of problems terrestrial tornadoes cause.

The tornadoes were coming toward us, and the started dividing. Eventually, there were maybe a dozen. I wasn’t particularly worried, but I took a precaution. I lay down at the base of the wall with my side against it. I knew that was the best protection in the area. I told my dad to lie down, too. He seemed oblivious, but he was cooperative.

The storms disappeared. It was as though the moved from this world into another dimension where they couldn’t hurt anyone. They dissolved into it. They never even got close.

I believe God was showing me that a surprising number of people will be drawn into the kingdom through my dad. They may not develop tremendous power and wisdom, but they’ll be able to walk with God without me having to carry them and spoon-feed them. Satan will try to threaten me, but God will prevent it. Problems may arise on the horizon, but they won’t reach me or the people God reaches through my dad.

The temple in Jerusalem is now represented by a single wall. Jesus referred to himself as a temple. I see using the wall as a refuge as putting my trust in Jesus and having him protect me.

It makes sense that God would use tornadoes to symbolize threats. A tornado is not like a hurricane. You can’t see a hurricane coming. In fact, the weather before hurricanes is peaceful in a creepy way. A tornado can be seen approaching you, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. It may wander this way and that, and you will be at the mercy of the winds that direct it. If it reaches you, it will be extremely destructive, and many man-made shelters aren’t strong enough to protect from tornadoes.

When a tornado approaches, and you see it, you have time to pray and repent.

Can it be that things will really go this well? I accept it. The Bible doesn’t say every Christian will be miserable. For that matter, many people in the Old Testament had good lives. Moses didn’t have a lot of problems (personally) after he was sent to confront Pharaoh. David’s life was pretty good, once he was established. John died peacefully at a very old age. He was boiled in oil, but he didn’t feel it, and he wasn’t hurt.

As far as we know, Jesus only had one bad day.

Psalm 23 says, “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.”

I expect persecution, but I don’t think of that as defeat or continuous suffering. God can give you a pleasant life in the midst of persecution. Psalm 23 says, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.” It may be that the Antichrist’s people will murder me eventually, but if you have years of happiness followed by a relatively quick execution and entrance into heaven, can you really say you had a bad life?

Psalm 91 says, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.”

Things look pretty good.

I’m not sure what’s next. I’m not sure why I’m here in this big house by myself. I think God may use it as a retreat. When people I know want to get away and connect with God, maybe they’ll come here and get help. That would be fantastic.

I am still thinking about Tennessee. The other day, I felt like I had to move there as soon as possible. The feeling was very strong. I went to Youtube and looked for videos shot in Appalachia, just so I could see the hills and creeks and mountain laurel and so on. I looked for rural properties that were for sale, and I drank the photos in.

Is it God or something else? Seems to be God.

If I move, I know I’ll love it. If not, I’m in a very nice place right now.