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Life is full of the unexpected good and positive. As a spirit filled believer who seeks to see the Lord or hear Him or better yet see and hear HIm together I do not readily accept the unexpected to be random coincidence. I look for the link between what God has or has not said to what might happen out of the blue. I look for the link in the small picture and the big picture. I consider the conversation I might have had with someone that evolves into concern and prayer and an event that drops out of the blue that has application to that conversation to connect with purpose. I often then can pull away and view such from a larger perspective that allows me to see what I saw on one level on multiple levels. I can be like a blood hood with this but I feel it to be important. Because I want to relate to God every which way I can. Even when I am pressed down I still have anticipation. All this to say we are in crisis mode. And now I will enlarge this on multiple levels. And I hope it is seen and heard on multiple levels and perspectives.

I will here describe a serious of events that are personal to me but I have reason to think have greater application.

This week I had breakfast with a friend. He asked me about some things we were seeking the Lord about that concerned what we believe to be a portion of our calling. I updated him on what was and what was not. How things had surged forward and came to a stall and this enlarged to telling him some stories of similar patterns that had surged and stalled over just the past eight years. He was baffled and said, man the life of everything you attempt to do is squeezed out right before it is ready to come forth. He asked no wonder you guys feel like your not home at times, you are being purposely warn down. You have, he said, just enough to live and no more. But you can’t go beyond that no matter what you do. Its like a python spirit. I agreed but also shared how we have felt isolated in this battle because the body is distracted. People are not men and women of their word and distrust is a virus that has weakened much. Relationships are frail because people can’t see beyond the moment so the grander persuasion is still disjointing most community effort at building life in Christ.

Now let me jump a few days forward. I see that a church about an hour an half a way has been holding services for a week and that the Lord had been healing folks. Someone had posted this on face book. Now typically I have not attended meetings in this season because most are lifeless. But I at this time looked at my life and said, bud, you need to soak in the corporate presence of God. So I take the trek to attend this meeting. I get there and there is no meeting they had ended the night before. Honestly, I thought man it seems like I just can’t get there when I need to. I prayed Lord, You know why I drove up here so I ask You to give me what I need. So I am now driving back home. And my cell phone rings. In New York where I live you are not allowed to talk and drive so I usually discard calls but I picked it up not looking at the number thinking maybe my wife was calling. Now my cell phone is on the do not call list so I typically do not get random phone calls. In fact I get about three calls a week outside of family. I am on the do not call list and I do not give my number out. But as I pick up to answer this pentecostal type preacher begins to rattle off how and why he got my number, it was a taped message that went something like this. I am calling because I got your number knowing you are in crisis and you with thousands of others are not able to get to the place that God is calling you to. You are trapped and you are in need of a break through. I have thousands who are right now praying for breakthrough with me and we will pray for you. If you want to enter the breakthrough prayer room you can commit to partner with me and the thousands who are praying by pressing zero now. Then another voice from another country comes on and says, if you wish to be removed from this list press three. I pressed three.

Honestly at first I thought an old friend from my past was playing a prank on me. But as I hung up I was rattled. You might say why? Because I had just made a trek for an hour an a half to a meeting that was over and I was thinking about the breakfast conversation and other less then stellar things I had been trogging through. And I get what appears to be a random call. Or was it? I prayerfully considered the content of the call and had to think, Lord I asked you to give me what I needed is the a link to that? I say yes it was a piece of wisdom.

When I got home I shared with the family about my interesting night and the phone call. I then find that several people had gotten the same call but had laughed it off. I went to bed that night never expecting to think much about it again. But this morning I woke with it on the fore front of my thoughts with a gathering of accumulated thoughts attached. These are the thoughts that had accumulated through the night waiting for me to wake.

Yes, you are in a crisis, but so are those who think they are not. No one is immune to crisis today though some live life with no regard for tomorrow but today is revealing tomorrow. Many have no idea they are in crisis and insulate themselves in various ways to prevent inclusion of this into their sphere.

Many who are in crisis know they are called to move forward and have not been able to. Many of these carry strategic portions of wisdom and life for the greater body but they cant be placed properly. It will take a concerted effort that is maintained with a vigilance to break thorough.The body fails to see the relevance of the functioning body, they have been distracted and diluted. Much is misplaced, relationally and provisionally. Most will not wait on Me even when I have spoken they are given to change. Most have forgotten how to walk in faith and by faith. The leaders have battered the integrity needed to live in faith. It must again be renewed by those willing to step forward when most remain still or disjointed.

Men and women do not keep the vows they make. This is like a cancer to my church. It is catastrophic in nature. It is revealed in the sphere of relationship from families, communities, business and government. A mans word is based on connivence often and is corrupted by offense and deception. People disregard commitments easily. They not only do not count the cost before the speak they do not count the cost of breaking their word or the relevance it holds to others. What is said is not what is meant and this is considered normal and it is manipulative, it is witchcraft and sorcery. It has saturated the character of most who call on My name. They have adapted to a culture that is foreign from My ways.

The crisis is diversionary in character, it is filled with innuendo and half truths that cut the legs away from those who are called to come forth and supply life to others. A spirit that creates doubt and unbelief even among husbands and wives is running wild and weakening the unity of once united marriages. People are worn down and emotionally frail from the consistent contending. Unfortunately the strength found in the encouragement from others tragically is becoming absent because of the relational disfunction. We have not taught insight into the value of relationship building in the church. It is a spirit that sows thoughts in the minds that fester lies about those we have 

know for years. Seeking to destroy the unity of the faith.The inability to commit to build with purpose has been dissolved by the lack of true repentance among those who have ravaged my church with disregard.

We have not created followers of Christ in the church. We have turned discipleship into a negative. We have not reproduced life. Yes there have been pockets here and there, but we have an epidemic on our hands that masquerades and eludes us. We do not want to let go of our comfort zones. What are they? They are defined vastly and each of us are captured in different ways. It may be ministry and the identity it brings, it may be our homes or our bank account, our investments. It may be our expectations of how we feel things should happen.The offense some hold  towards others can be a comfort zone. We may have mind sets that are entrenched and immovable that are not bridges to the life of Christ but religious prisons. Some speak of their Christianity like the trigger points of motivational speeches. That comfort you with ethereal props but have no grounding. It is a treacherous deception these comfort zones among us that deny a place that invites God to come more fully among us.

I heard a call saying. It is time to not only return to Me but also to remain and allow Me to remove that which has restrained you from life in Me. Call rebellion for what it is, and become single in mind and purpose. Rent your hearts and if you can not ask Me to for My mercy is Yours.

Yes, this is a crisis that sets over mankind and only the Lord can deliver us from this evil.

And yes it is time to come together in prayer. Prayer that goes beyond our comfort zones and into a place that allows the Holy Spirit to pray among us and through us. We must come and not retreat and remain vigilant. If you think you are not in crisis then I pray that God rocks your world. I pray that He confronts you by pulling back the deception that blinds you. The land we live in is in crisis! Good is called evil and evil is called good. People exalt the dark and reject the good man. Those among us make all manor of excuse to justify who they are. It is time to come to the prayer room on behalf of each other. God wants us to lean on Him because we follow HIm and we walk in His strength and vision. Let this be so.

My friends I have reason to think that abrupt change may confront our nation and this world in the next short season. It will challenge everything and much will be redefined. It is time to enable the Lord to flow among His body and free us, heal us and cleanse us of all that has distracted and afflicted us so that we are who we are called to be and where we are called to be in the days ahead.