Power...

My God, the power of prayer
exists through faith in the Creator
My love, my hope, my strength
the power to endure sickness
the power to endure trial
the power to love when love seems surreal
So real that power is from above
a place that is unseen yet
I seen truth in him
In him so deep that I am drowning from
the power of his presence
Engulfed in his strength
from the virtue of his garments
"Who touched me?" He asked
Wow what power? Even in the midst of flesh
he recognizes me?
Be strong in the Lord
And in the power of His might

....Raptured in the peace of HIS loving arms...

Love's Strength...

It's patient yet tried
It covers yet can't break
How does it stand the times?
Many struggle to embrace it
Many label it but it is simply
LOVE
You can't name but you can identify it
There are breakups, discords, disputes
Yet Love stands the test of time
Time runs out and expires yet
Love is patient
I have yet to figure it out
Sometimes you want out but
Love is true and doesn't act
unbecomingly
What is it?
I am spent in trying to discover but
I do know that it is perfect
LOVE....

In Spirit & truth....

If you asked someone how their life was going they would answer based off of their perception. Perception is everything but most people don't realize it.

One's perception is their act or faculty of apprehending by means of the senses or of the mind; cognition; understanding. Their understanding of how things are. The way one reaches a sense of reality based off their mental apprehensions is their perception. Perception is basically how everyone perceives life and everything in it. If this is so then perception is not necessary in contray to reality. Perception is reality.

In essence how I understand life is by what I realize about life. So my reality is based off of my perception of it. If I see life as a challenge then the reality of my life is that it is challenging.

I believe the same goes for a life in the Spirit. "Them that worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth", stated in John 4. Here a distinction is made between two realities. One reality is one that is not the spirit or truth while another is the spirit and truth. SO however the people or Samaritans were worshipping before was not the way that God required for him to be worshipped. The author has to distinguish God's reality from man's. "God is spirit ."

This is suggest that in order to worship God. To express his worthship or even to perceive who he is; one must be in the spirit. God is spirit therefor one must be in God in order to truly worship God. How we normally perceive life or worship is not how God sees it. Worship is for, through and in HIM. This is the reality that God has called his people to live in. The truth versus our perception. What we believe should only be understood by a mind set on and in spiritual things. So what I am or who I am becoming lies in the mind of the spirit. So for me to reach my true reality I must be IN the spirit.

TRUTH is here always but it can only be obtained in the spirit of God.
For these are the ones that the Father desires, true worshippers.

What's your reality?

...A voice crying out from the Wilderness...

"

Salvation FROM OUR ENEMIES,
And FROM THE HAND OF ALL WHO HATE US; To show mercy toward our fathers,And to remember His holy covenant, The oath which He swore to Abraham our father, To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. 'And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on BEFORE THE LORD TO PREPARE HIS WAYS; To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins, Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high will visit us, TO SHINE UPON THOSE WHO SIT IN DARKNESS AND THE SHADOW OF DEATH, To guide our feet into the way of peace." And the child continued to grow and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

when O lord? I will sit and watch and obey.

Sons of Disobedience

Facing a season or seasons of trying and testing. What is truly in this vessel. A great prophetess once said that you are presented with sin to see if righteousness is truly in you. You are presented with WRONG to see if RIGHT is truly within you.

That speaks to my current season. All the wrong that I have been presented how much of it have I resisted. Paul says "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience." Here is the challenge. My mind has been conditioned by society to understand that I am only human which is a cop out. The more I focus on my humanity I operate in my human capacity and miss God. According to Paul, I am dead to a life of humanity or flesh. If I only believe that what I do is expected because of my humanity then I am already dead to sin but I was revived or awakened from that state of mind. So whats the problem?

Paul says that this spirit of the Prince of the power of the air in in the sons of disobedience. So this wretched mindset that is presented by society is of Satan. If I accept that it is ok to sin and trespass against God then I have agreed with the enemy and have accepted his spirit. But I have been instructed that those who are sons of God do not sin. It is not in their nature but in the nature of the children of Satan, the fahter of lies. SO could it be that I struggle because I am believing the lies of Satan and not the truths of God. Here is the divide, the warring and tugging inside of me.

The truth is the truth and nothing else. It does not fail. So why do I? If I am an heir to righteousness and throne of God. If I have been adopted into a kingdom of light why do I fail at living a life full of purpose and godliness. WE have been given everything that pertains to life and all godliness. Why, o why do I fail? Is Christ truly alive in me? Who am I? O wretched man that I am who will deliver from this body of death?

My mind is running. I am never settled because I want my father. I need my savior. I want to bask and smell his presence. I want to be so consumed that this life is no more and I live as spirit in human flesh and not as human trying to embrace the spirit. "What can watch away my sin...Nothing but the blood of Jesus! What can make me whole again...Nothing but ther blood of Jesus!" Yes, the blood. O precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount' I know...



My God cleanse me from the inside out. Whatever lot you have given me it is well with my soul. For my soul is anchored in the Lord. The cries of the early saints. God I need a refining. Make me face holiness. I want to be right in your eyes.

It is Christ who saved and redeemed me from the walk of darkness into the light. I was ignorant but now found, by grace.

"No other fount' I know, nothing BUT the blood of Jesus!" His spirit leads me to all truths which is the power of his might that keeps me and empowers me to OBEY. For I am a son of the ALmighty God.

What I am saying to encourage myself to press...I....am....a....SON! Yet I hold on.

Bon Appetite!

Anyone who knows me understands that I love to eat. I enjoy a well cooked meal. A full course meal to me consists of: tender, juicy entree with flavor-packed sides and something refreshing to drink. This is what satisfies my soul and strengthens me for the journey of the day.

However when I receive a meal, which I ordered, that is was thrown together I become grieved. Something that I waited for that I am in need of is not seasoned or throughly prepared when I finally get it. The meat is overcooker or tough (indigestible) and sides are in disproportion and I have no drink. At this point I am ready to eat somewhere else or settle for some junk food; just a temporary cure for my permanent thirst and hunger. So (and Adrienne knows me well) I either send it back or don't eat at all. How FRUSTRATING! I am in a place of feeding and the chef cannot properly prepare a meal. And not just prepare a meal for anybody but for me just the way I like it or can digest it! Has anyone been here?

Well if you said yes then good & if you said no then you should probably think about it again. This is the place where many sheep have been in the church, on the pastures of God. This weekend or encounter in the mountains opened my eyes to a heartbreaking reality, I AM NOT AS SKILLED OR PREPARED AS I SHOULD BE.

I have preached, taught and mentored yet I am not prepared as I thought. Throughout the OT I have read about sheep that were left without shepherds or either died from being mistreated/guided by false prophets/teachers (wolves) or such. The REALity is that sheep grow unruly because of their lack of guidance and feeding. Cattle and livestock die or wander when there is no food or they are in a dry place and cannot find food or drink. What a shame to be full off your own cooking yet your sheep are choking, hungry or disgusted by it.

As a shepherd it is imperative rather crucial that I ready myself in season and out not just for myself but for the people. I never know when someone will come to define so I should always have my storehouse FULL. I have to prepare meals for the people but in a manner that they can receive and digest. The most fulfilling meal is not tough or undercooked but tender and SEASONED well. Meat is seasoned well the longer it sits. It is my job to season the Word in me so that I can feed the sheep.

Every leader should be able to cut the meat rightly and divide it. No true chef wants to feel shamed because he was not prepared to serve.

Alas for the day!
For the day of the LORD is near,
And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Has not food been cut off before our eyes,
Gladness and joy from the house of our God?
The seeds shrivel under their clods;
The storehouses are desolate,
The barns are torn down,
For the grain is dried up.
How the beasts groan!
The herds of cattle wander aimlessly
Because there is no pasture for them;
Even the flocks of sheep suffer.
To You, O LORD, I cry;
For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness
And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.
Even the beasts of the field pant for You;
For the water brooks are dried up
And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. Joel 1

To the Chefs prepare yourselves. Go back into the institutions of culinary arts and study because there is an art to it. Let the Master Chef bestow wisdom and sharpen your knives. Season well, clean your plates, prepare your ingredients and study your craft, every leader, because a herd is coming and we cannot afford to lose the herd because of malnutrition or our enability to properly feed. So let's cook!

~junior chef bishop

Intense....Stretching

intendere to stretch out


**marked by or expressive of great zeal, energy, determination, or concentration

This weekend was truly a testament of great anticipation and fulfillment of promises. God showed himself mightily this weekend at the Intense Worship Service. It was a blessing to see God's earnest desire to inhabit the praise of His people even when they've been unfaithful. The intensity of the Spirit captivated the spirit and mind of many on this night.

God in his sovereignty displayed great power and release on this night. Webster describes intensity as expressing grat zeal or determination. I truly believe that is what happened this weekend. WE go and go and sometimes we need to just release in the presence of God and let the Spirit move freely (always).

I am reminded of the day of Pentecost that is illustrated in Acts 2. This was a authentic movement of the Spirit. The bible says that there was a a "rushing mighty wind" which describes the breath of God. The Spirit moved among the people and they began to speak in unrecognizable languages. The apostles were thought to be drunk or possessed becuase they was so ingulfed in the power of the Spirit. This movement also began the establishment of the first churches. People were baptized in the Holy Spirit which was prophesied centuries before by Joel. God fulfilled his promise and poured out his spirit on all flesh.

Here we are in a fresh movement of the Spirit. Flowing and being led under the Apostolic umbrella that has been established by our forefathers and released to us to carry. Intense can only do what it was designed to do bring about a strong movement of the Spirit and convert and lead many to Christ in turn adding thousands to the church. We do not realize what has begun and what we are apart of.

This is about a stretching out. To stretch means to 1) to draw up (one's body) from a relaxed position, 2) to amplify or enlarge beyond natural or proper limits. Whew! God must stretch each of us until we are no longer complacent and operate and see beyond all natural conception. Spiritually motivated, moved and minded. There is no complacency in the Spirit. We must be pressed out (of our natural selves) and filled with His overflow of living water that others will get drenched upon contact. When you are wringing out a towel you get soaked and everything that it near the towel.

THE INTENSITY OF HIS SPIRIT! We have experienced a HOLY VISITATION! Prophecy is coming to fruition. God swore by Himself & HE will no longer delay for by His name sake He performs. The vision tarries no longer!

Go and FIND YOUR PLACE OF WORSHIP!

~ pj