A little bit ago, I posted about Mary and how it must have been to be pregnant before she was married in a time when people were stoned for that sort of thing. I have also been wondering what it must have been like to be Joseph. Not much is really known about Joseph. We know that the Bible tells us that he was a righteous man and a carpenter, and not really much else. We also know that after seeing an angel in a dream, he took Mary as his wife and helped raise Jesus until at least Jesus was twelve years old and then nothing else is mentioned about him. But do we need to know more about him to understand what kind of man he was?

All of my brother-in-laws are carpenters, which affords me a certain unique perspective into the trade. Especially since I can barely hammer two boards together without hitting my own hand or aligning them correctly. In fact, it takes a great amount of skill to be a carpenter and fashion what really amount to sculptures out of wood from ordinary piles of two by fours. However, one of my brothers-in-laws, Raymond, is a bit different. Raymond worked as a carpenter all his life easily excelling at his trade to the rank of master carpenter. Several years ago, he ventured out starting his own business by getting his contracting license and now not only employs several people but also is one of the most sought after people in the whole area. My only complaint is that he is not close enough to us to build us our home.

But what is the difference between Raymond and other carpenters who swing a hammer. I mean all carpenters worth their nails can build a deck or repair a wall or raise a house, but what makes Raymond so different that he gains respect of his workers and garners a loyal following of his customers? I believe the difference is vision. Any carpenter should be able to look at a drawing or blueprint and determine about how much in materials is needed to do the job, but a visionary should be able to look at an empty back yard and see a deck. A visionary should be able to look at an empty lot and see a house. A visionary should be able to look at a small or run down house and not see an eye soar but the possibilities. This is the kind of man that Raymond is and why he is apart from the rest and why he is such a good contractor and businessman and one of the many reasons that I am proud to call him family.

I believe that Joseph was just such a man. After all, he had a dream in which he was visited by an angel. Now, I realize that it was not an ordinary dream, but it was still a dream and from that he got up and trust Mary. From that, he got up and believed that the baby was the Son of God. In order for that to happen, Joseph had to be a man of vision otherwise it would have been far too easy to dismiss the angel in the dream as nothing more then a fantasy. Think about the best most real and exciting dream you have ever had and then remember it was still a dream. The Bible tells us that it was a dream that the angel visited Joseph in and yet it changed him and I believe that was because Joseph was not an ordinary carpenter, he was like my brother-in-law Raymond, a visionary. In short, Joseph was the right man for the job, the job that God created him for.

In life, God calls us all to do things that he has created and called us to do making us the right man or woman for the job. When that moment comes, will we step up to the plate like Joseph did or will we shy away. Many times, just like Joseph, that moment may not be an easy one to walk through, but it will be the right one and remember that God walks through it with you.

I have been thinking a lot about the following verse:

The Bible tells us that God is love and I think that this is very important if not the important thing that we need to understand and realize about God. The reason begins with understanding that the Bible does not say that God just shows love although he does. Or that God just has love although he does. But that God is love. In other words, God’s nature is love meaning that it would be impossible for God to be separated from love. It is like the fact that we are humans. We are never not human and every minute of every day we are humans. Nothing we ever do will ever separate us from being human because it is in our nature it is in our being it is who we are. The same is true with God being love. It is in his nature it is in his being it is who he is. Therefore, God is never separated from being love. Every minute of every day, God is lover. Put another way, God never ever does anything without doing it in love.

For some of us that may come as a bit of a shock to think of God as always being and acting in love but that is the truth. We may not always understand how God’s actions relate to love at the moment we are in them, but they do. Take Mary, the mother of Jesus for example. When we think of her, we hold her with the highest of respect and reverence as well we should for she was chosen from all women from all time to carry the very son of God. Think about that for a moment, God looked down on the Earth throughout all time because God was not limited to a specific time and found Mary because, as the Bible says, she found favor with God (Luke 2:28-30) that alone deserves our respect. Then God placed his only begotten and unique son within her to carry and raise on this earth until it was time for him to be revealed to everyone who he was and what his mission was. But before Jesus was revealed think about what Mary had to go through. Sure today, we give reverence to her as the mother of Jesus and the great miracle she got to carry and raise, but think about what life was like for her after the angel left her. Think for a moment what the conversation with Joseph must have been like. Teenage pregnancy has become fairly accepted today in our society over two thousand years later, but think about what it must have been like way back. Heck only forty years ago women would have had to drop out of school and had been shunned with almost a scarlet letter pasted on their chest imagine what it would have been like over two thousand years ago. This is one of the reasons that the Bible tells us that Joseph had “being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.” (Matthew 1:19) The second reason would be that the punishment under the Mosaic Law would be death (Leviticus 19:20) because we must remember that in the time of Jesus’ birth a betrothal was seen to be just as binding as a marriage contract. So, in the eyes of the Jewish law, the Jewish society and even in the eyes of God, Mary and Joseph were for all intent and purposes married and if Mary had been with another man she under their law should be put to death. Now, we know that she had not been with another man, but that God supernaturally placed Jesus inside her, but whom do you think would believe her. If that even happened today who would believe you? And today you would have the benefit of at least the fact that it happened once before, but back then it had never before happened ever and here comes Mary, who was pure and innocent by all regards favored by God, telling her husband to be that God was the one who placed the baby in her belly. There is not a man that has ever lived who would have believed her prior to receiving the vision from God. In fact, Joseph would have had to be quite the man to not have blown up at her right there on the spot. And I am not speaking physically, just shouting at her at being a harlot for lying with another man because by all accounts in his mind she would have had to be with another man and the story about an angel was a cover. No matter how convincing she sounded, he would have felt betrayed and hurt and angry and yet this pregnancy was done out of love. But do think when Mary was standing there after explaining this to Joseph and having those condemning eyes staring back at her she was able to remember and hold on to that? Perhaps she was and perhaps that was why she was so favored by God, but I can saw it was not easy.

If that was not enough, imagine what it must have been like to be Mary. After the first three months of staying with Elizabeth, we can only assume that she returned to her home obviously showing. Whether married to Joseph at this time or not, you know that she was now know as the woman who was found to be with child. People then are as people are now and people will talk especially when there is gossip to be had and while I am sure that Joseph, a righteous man as the Bible declares, probably said the baby was his, people still murmured and rumored and whispered. How Mary must have felt as people constantly spoke behind her back and whispered and pointed towards her. Even after Jesus was born and they returned to their hometown, the people speaking and point as Mary had to endure because she knew in her heart that this was not only done out of love and that her son would save the world. Yet, how many times did it not look like it when she had to walk out her day to day. How many times did she have to hold on to the angels words and the things she treasured in her heart because of the way the enemy attacked to attempt to hide the fact that God was love and was moving on the face of the Earth in love. It must have been tough, it must have been unbearable and insurmountable and impossible to achieve on her own. But thank God that we never walk this walk on our own.

But look at how Mary was seen and treated after Jesus began his ministry. See how his disciples treated her as if she was the queen mother herself because after all she is the very Son of God, who is the King of Heaven’s, mother. Today, she is respected and revered and even in some circled unfortunately worshipped which is far more then God ever intended because for all she was she was never more then a servant of the most high God. But she did serve and no matter how hard the walk she had to face was she remember one important face as she walked and that was that God is love and that he never does anything apart from love because that is his very nature. That fact alone allowed her to walk through the darkest of valleys when the times were the toughest and people were the cruelest because she could see the light of love shining brightly in her spirit and in her heart and later in her son’s eyes. Oh, how we need to hold on to the very same things that Mary did and remember that everything that God does he does in love and hold on to that and see the shining light of Jesus’ love in our spirit as we walk through whatever he has called us to walk through.

I pray that I would be able to see that light of love as I continue to walk through what I am presently walking through and I pray that you can do the same.

INTRODUCTION

I am fortunate to have a good many friend who know more about the Bible then I do. I am equally fortunate to have friends who regularly receive great insight from God on matters contained within the Bible. Gerald Conrad is a member of both groups and you will soon see why. With his permission, I am presenting a great message to you from him on faith in God. Take a look.

FIERY FURNACE FAITH

Over the last 35 years I’ve learned that if you ask the average professing Christian if he has faith in God the answer will usually be a resounding YES!

Yet when I listen to the way some people pray I have to wonder. How many times have you heard a prayer end with “…if it be thy will…”? I’ve often wondered upon hearing this line why the prayer was even uttered.. I, for one, have no intention of asking for anything unless I’m fairly convinced that it is the will of God to provide it.

Jesus taught us that we should pray after this manner “…thy will be done.” This is an act of submission, not an attempt to give God an “out” for unanswered prayers. When I pray I always say “…let me be an instrument of your will here on Earth…”. I know that I will not always get my way but it’s God’s perfect will and plan that matters and I am willing to submit to that will, whatever it may be without thinking that God has failed me if MY will isn’t done.

So the question arises, “Why do we pray this way?” Well, after listening to some of my teachers over the years, and hearing the way they interpret some of scriptures I have no problem seeing how a touch of unbelief has crept in.

So how do we know if an interpretation of scripture is correct? I have a couple of simple rules.

1. If your interpretation doesn’t make sense YOU made a mistake.

2. If your interpretation contradicts another part of the Bible, once again it is YOU that messed up.

Now I know that God says in Isiah that his thoughts and ways are higher than ours. (Isa 55:9) and I’m also aware of the fact that the Bible tells us that “…the foolishness of God is wiser than men…” (1 Cor 1:25) but that is in the present tense.

When I say the our interpretation has to make sense I mean in the light of what we KNOW. Let me give you an example.

One of my favorite stories is found in the book of Daniel. We have all heard of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and the furnace but let’s look at it a little closer.

In this scripture we see Nebuchadnezzar make a statement to these three young men (vs 15) as to what his intentions are towards them.

When they answer the king it is interesting to note the first thing they said to him “…we are not careful to answer thee…” The word “careful” is khash-akh’ and it implies a sense of readiness, and that a reply isn’t necessary. (That must have made the king hot, just imagine these slaves telling him “we don’t even have to answer you”.)

These guys were “prayed up”. It is evident from their answer that God had made his will known to them so they told the king “If it be so…”(vs 17). Now ask yourself. “If WHAT be so?”

The answer: The kings decree or course.

So they proceed to tell the King how God will save them out of the furnace and out of his hand.

Now here comes the mistake in interpretation. The following is a direct quote from the New International Version and this is how these verses are often taught”

This doesn’t say the same thing as the KJV which says “But if not…” The NIV makes no sense, think about it…if God DOESN’T save them they will be a pile of ashes on the floor of the furnace so saying “…we will not serve your gods…” becomes a moot point. Now consider this.

When they say “But if not….” What are they talking about? Remember the subject of this conversation between them and Nebuchandnezzar was the kings decree, so DON’T CHANGE THE SUBJECT!!

They were not discussing whether or not God would save them, that was a done deal in their hearts. The question was whether or not the King was going to make good his threats.

So what they are telling him was “If what you say is so and you throw us into the furnace our God WILL save us, not only out of the fire but out of your hand, but if you’re trying to bluff us into falling down it won’t work, because even if you allow us to live there’s nothing you can do to make us pray to your gods.” Now, doesn’t that make more sense?

You see, these guys knew what faith was all about. They submitted themselves to the will of God and knew that they didn’t have to give him a “way out” should his word fail. They prayed about this way before it happened. In fact, I believe that these young men were on their knees several times a day. Remember they were one of the ones who refused to eat from the kings table and grew fat on “pulse”.

They were not “careful” to answer the king when the time came because they had ALREADY inquired of God what his will was and were convinced in their hearts that his answer was “Boys, if you don’t bow or bend I won’t let you burn.”

If you want the kind of “furnace faith” that these three men had you have to:

1. Be in prayer continually

2. Listen for the voice of God

3. Be willing to be the instrument of God’s will, even if it looks like death is about to devour you.

4. And never be influenced by what you see or hear but rather by what you KNOW. And that is, that God is faithful.

Remember we serve a God that “can not lie..” (Titus 1:2) so it isn’t necessary to make excuses for him. His way is always the perfect way. Our part is to submit to it and know that no matter what happens it is the will of God.

Upon further investigation I have come to realize that King Nebuchadnezzar couldn’t have picked a worse group to try burning up. You see, these guys were given new names when they were taken into captivity, their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. What does it matter? Names mean something.

Azariah means “He that hears the Lord”

Mishael means “who is asked for, or ‘lent’ “

Hananiah means “grace, mercy, gift of God.

Put these together and what I get is “He that hears the Lord is lent (or given) to show grace, the gift of God”

OOPS! This should have told the king something.

For us it says that if we will hear the Lord, and give ourselves over to him we will be saved from the flames (of hell) by his grace.

Ohh! I like that.

SCRIPTURE

God tells us that if we have faith, the faith the comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, and don’t doubt, then we can have what we ask for. This is the faith that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego had and the kind of faith we should also strive for. Then we will see the sick healed, the blind seeing, the lame walking, the demon possessed set free and much much more as God works through us to reach people for Jesus Christ.

CONCLUSION

God really is an awesome God who honors his word and keeps his promises. We can truly stand with him and on his word all the time.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

Since this subject matter is correlates to what I will be posting next about being under an attack from the enemy, I thought I would share the four types of people the enemy attacks.

Jesus came to give us life, but the enemy seeks to destroy not only that life, but also everyone he can. In his efforts to do so, I have discovered that there seem to be four types of people that he specifically targets.

THE FIRST TYPE

The first people the enemy attacks are those who are a threat to him those people who are actively doing the will of God.

In Job, we see that Job was a God fearing man who one could say was a threat to the enemy because he attributed his success to God and was thus a witness with a testimony. This threatened the enemy and he went to God to be able to destroy or attack Job in the hope of breaking him and destroying his power to affect others with a testimony. However, we know from the rest of the book that Job remained faithful and was rewarded in the end.

THE SECOND TYPE

The second people the enemy attacks is those who he is in danger of losing those people who the power of God is moving through their lives to lift them out of the torment the devil has put them in and set them on the road with God.

I realize this passage seems to refer to the end times, but I think it paints an important picture in that we are called to be constantly moving in Christ to save those who are perishing, those who are set for an eternity apart from God, which is the plan of the enemy for their life.

THE THIRD TYPE

The third people that the enemy attacks are those who will bring others down those people who are not wheat but tares and will bring others, even other Christians, down when they are brought down.

In the illustration of the wheat and tares, we see that it states that one may be “uproot the wheat with them (tares)” and the verse in Corinthians that bad company (tares) corrupt good morals (wheat), we can see that the enemy wants to use whomever he can to take down someone who is following God.

THE FOURTH TYPE

The fourth and final type of people that the enemy attacks are those who are already completely lost to him and he is literally trying to put the final nail in the coffin and seal their fate for eternity. Anyone outside of these categories, are not considered to be worth the effort on the enemies part to mess with or have resisted him and he is waiting for another opportune time to come and attack again

THE TYPE HE DOES NOT ATTACK

The type of person that the enemy does not attack is people, even Christians, who are of no harm or threat to his plan. In other words, Christian who are not on fire for Jesus Christ, not seeking to do God’s will, not attempting to advance the kingdom or people who do not know Jesus as their savior are the types of people the enemy does not waste his time attacking because he is happy with them right where they are.

CONCLUSION

Now, whether you agree or do not agree with my reasoning, one thing is for certain and that is that there are forces in the spiritual realm that are just as determined to take you down as there are forces that are determined to raise you up in Christ. All this said, I would rather be a threat to the enemy because I am doing God’s will and being a force for Christ and lifting people up.

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the FireKnights Round Table Report!! The first thing, I bet, you are asking yourself is what is a FireKnight and why is this blog the Round Table Report. Good questions, and I hope this initial post will answer them and more.

WHO AM I

First, a little bit about me, I was born into a family that believed as long as you attended church during one of the two major services (being Christmas and Easter) then you fulfilled your requirements for God and could live the rest of the year for yourself. Amazingly, or perhaps it was because I was a teenager rebelling against my parents, I did not conform to this style of thinking and believed that there had to be more to God then one thirty minute service a year. So, I began to look into what it meant to serve God. Unfortunately, at the time, I was in a church that taught that the only real servants of God were the priests and priests were not allowed to marry or have relations with women. Now, I did not know a lot about anything, but I knew enough that I would want those things and therefore turned away from any type of service towards God. If fact, I did what most red-blooded teenagers do in America and I went out to party and have a good time. As it would happen, I am allergic to alcohol so the partying was not so much fun.

It was many years later before I was really interested in God. In the meanwhile, I was not such a good person and was, in fact, on my way to becoming a not so good man. For starters, I had been addicted to porn since I was 11 when I first discovered my father’s stash of magazines. This had given me a twisted view of reality that was warping my ability to have normal relationships with woman. I had gotten it in my head that all woman everywhere no matter what position of marriage or stature had wanted to have intercourse and that all it took was some “Nudging.” Well, you can imagine how bad this idea was, but in the state I was in I did not see anything wrong with it. The bad news is that it didn’t stay just an idea. I began to act this concept in a very bad way. I would go out “seeking” someone to “nudge.” Now, I had not gotten to the point where I would have directly attacked someone, but it was just a step away and the thoughts were already there. The enemy was taking me through the ringer, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. To add to my twisted view, the feelings that I had even when nothing came of my actions were like a drug. I got a high, a rush, a feeling of euphoria that was lasting shorter and shorter each time prompting me to get more and more “adventurous” with my “nudging.” However, with each step for more, I was moving more and more towards, well to put it bluntly, rape. Sure, somewhere I knew it was wrong, but I couldn’t help wanting, desiring it and becoming willing to do anything to get more of that feeling. Eventually some of my actions got the attention of the police, as they should. I had been arrested and got out of everything I could with plea bargains.

That was until the summer of 1992. At this point in time, there was a guy hitting a mall parking lot and raping women at night as they left for work. They thought it was me, because after all I had a record and it was only a matter of time before I resorted to that type of behavior and even the police knew that. They picked me up for questioning and possible arrest. It was easy to prove that I was not the man they wanted; however, I was the man who had done exhibitionist stuff and they decided to press charges for that. I went and got a lawyer and she was concerned because the judge, to whose court I had been assigned, was known for the harshest punishments for any kind of sexual offense. I was terrified that I would go to jail and become someone’s “buddy.” On July 12, 1992, I entered a church with my wife. Outside, I had to put up a front to my wife that everything was all right. Inside, I was falling apart. I did the right thing by telling my lawyer everything, but that only lead to her telling me how little chance there was of me staying out of prison. The lawyer would try and comfort me by explaining that it would probably only be for six months or a year, but that only scared me more. That day in July of 1992, the pastor spoke on the physical death of Jesus Christ. He spoke about what it meant to be flogged with 39 lashes from a series of leather whips with metal claws at the end. How the average man would never heal right from a flogging. He discussed how they created a crown out of thorns and drove it into his head. Then he described, in detail, what it meant to be nailed to a tree and hung for all to see. Those who were crucified eventually died of drowning, as their lungs would fill with liquid as they struggled to breathe. Furthermore, it took the average man three days to die on a cross, but that Jesus was so beaten (remember he had been a carpenter and walked everywhere) that he only lasted three hours on that piece of wood. Finally, he talked about the fact that Jesus would have done that all if only I was the only one who ever believed in him. That he loved me that much. I could hardly believe it, but it is true. Jesus Christ took my sins on his cross and paid my debt so that I could have eternal life with God. Three days later (according to the Jewish day which seems to baffle most today) Jesus rose in the flesh as recorded in the scriptures breaking the bonds of death and sin over us.

At that moment in time, I could actually see Jesus being nailed to the cross with my sin. I could feel his love and his presence. I found myself in tears as I thought of the Son of God hanging for me. The pastor asked if there was anyone who wanted to receive the gift of forgiveness of sins that Jesus achieved on the cross and through his resurrection. I raised my hand and was lead in a short prayer committing my life to Jesus. I experienced the greatest high that I had ever known to that point in my life. I could feel the very presence of Jesus and God within me and I knew they were doing something from the inside out that would profoundly change me.

Two days later, I arrived at the courthouse early. I was nervous. Everything I experienced on Sunday was still fresh, but I also knew that in some way I deserved what I was about to receive. I deserved to be punished and sent away. I didn’t know the ramifications of my actions, but knew what I did was wrong. As I waited in an empty courtroom, a little old lady came and sat next to me. She started talking about her case, which had something to do with a landlord tenant dispute. Then in mid-sentence she turned to me and said, “God loves you and he is with you today.” As I sat there gapping mouth, she returned to what she had been saying as if what she told me had not even happened. Some time later, I was called before the judge. My lawyer had worked out a plea bargain with the DA, but they were not sure the judge would accept it. In New York State, you have to plead guilty and then the DA recommends the sentence of the plea and the Judge usually accepts it, but the judge has the power to override the sentence and give one of his own. Since this judge was known to be harsh on sexual offenses, the DA, the assistant DA, my lawyer and the head of my lawyers firm were all present to vouch for the plea bargain, recommend the sentence and attempt to convince the judge adheres to their recommendations. The plea bargain had been that I would not go to jail, but have three years probation and mandatory counseling. The judge heard my guilty plea and then reviewed the bargain. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally announced that he was not accepting the bargain and would impose a sentence of his own. Everyone went to work as I just stood there. There was nothing I could do and even though everything seemed wrong, I still felt that presence inside me that God was with me. I trusted him even though everything looked bleak. After a lot of arguing, the judge announced that he was remaining with his initial decree and would be changing the sentence to one of his own liking. At this moment, I prepared for the worst as the Judge announced the sentence. He reduced the sentence to only one-year probation with counseling and no jail time. You could have heard a pin drop in that courtroom. Everyone’s mouth was wide open. Later my lawyer said that was the first time in that judge’s courtroom since he had been on the bench (some really long time, but I forgot the length) that he reduced a plea. He was known for extending and adding to pleas, but that was not what happened with mine. I informed my lawyer of Jesus and how he had made the judge change his mind. She did not readily believe that it was Jesus, but did acknowledge that some kind of higher power was looking out for me.

Following this, God miraculously removed my twisted mind and gave me a new one. He also changed my heart so that I could love not only him better but also my wife and my future family.

And God didn’t stop there. He continued to do many miraculous things with me and through me, but I will leave that for another post so that I can describe what a FireKnight is and how I got charged with starting this whole thing.

THE FIREKNIGHTS

For the longest time, I knew that God wanted to do something with me and the Internet. I was not sure what, but I knew that given my skill set and the desires within me to reach people with the love and power of Jesus Christ that it would happen someday. Originally, I had owned and created websites for two previous domains (www.creativediversions.net and www.ice-breakerz.org neither are up anymore) that most people have not even heard of, and the main reason was that these sites focused on what I wanted to get out of the Internet. By this I mean the sites were a collecting house for the creative ideas that I come up with over my years as a Christian. I, with all and great delusion, had assumed people would want to pay to have. Even though I was a Christian, I was still living a bunch of my life for me and not for God. Naturally, those endeavors went nowhere.

About a year ago, a man who called himself a “revivalist” came to our church and held, of all things, a revival. During the time that he was present, I discovered the Holy Spirit and his manifestations in my life when I let him in. Now, I had been a charismatic Christian for some time and was even baptized by the Holy Spirit, only I had not realized the key to unlocking the mysterious of the manifestations listed in the Bible (Healing, Miracles, Faith, Words of Wisdom, Words of Knowledge, Discerning of Spirits, Prophecy, Tongues and Interpretation of Tongues). That key was that I had to not be seeking myself or to have some strange power like the force, but to be seeking Jesus, God and the Spirit and be open to what they want to tell me. When I realized that, I began to have visions of things within my mind as I prayed as if I was watching a movie before my eyes. As I shared some of these visions, it was evident that I was hearing from God and that he was using me to begin to reach people. I cannot tell you how exciting and exhilarating that is.

During this time, I received a vision that God would bring back to me several times. It is the vision that has become the foundation of what FireKnights is all about. The following is what I saw.

A VISION

I was standing on the shores of a beautiful mountain lake. In the background, snow-capped mountains painted a gorgeous scene of blue and white surrounded me. As I stood on the shore, I noticed that there was something in the water. Upon further inspection, I found that there were pieces of coal and splintered wood floating. I don’t know if coal really does float, but it was floating in the vision. As I watched, I could see that there was a current in this lake that was bringing the coal and wood slowly around mixing things up as each piece passed by. At this moment in time, I was suddenly aware that I was not alone. Not to far from me, up the shoreline, was an old man who was working next to a small campfire. I walked over towards the man, and as I approached I knew this man was God. Furthermore, I could see that he was doing something with the coals. When I arrived at God’s camp area, I saw several pieces of coal on the fire. As I watched, periodically God grabbed a piece of coal out of the water and place it on the fire, and took a piece of flaming coal and returned it to the lake where it continued to be one fire. Whenever a new piece of flaming coal would re-enter the water, it almost immediately would come into contact with the pieces of wood causing them to be burned up and destroyed. I asked God what he was doing and he had the following explanation:

“The water represents the world and the wood the workings of the devil. Each piece of coal is a soul in the world. As some call on my name, I take them out of the water and place them on my holy fire to ignite my spirit within them for the calling I have for them. When they are ready, I send them back into the world to do my will and destroy the works of the enemy.”

As God spoke to me, I noticed that he was crying. So, I asked him why he was crying. He grabbed my left hand and we floated up high in the sky so that I could see the entire lake. From this vantage point, I could see that the lake was mostly black and dark indicating that there were not many who were on fire with God’s holy fire. So, I, being an educated and astute man, determined why God was crying and said, “I see you are upset because so many have not turned to you.” God looked at me, smiled and replied, “That does upset me, but that is not why I am crying.” He then raised his left hand and pointed to a point on the lake. As high as I was, I could see clear as day and watched as a piece of coal that had been on fire, went out. “That is what makes me cry,” added God, “when someone I have touched turns away from my spirit.”

Following this vision, I wrote it down in my journal, but I didn’t know what to do with it. My church was already become unreceptive to the visions that I was receiving from God because, as the Pastor told me, “It made people uncomfortable.” So, I kept this vision in my journal and would periodically be reminded of it and many times returned to the vision itself during prayer. So, I began to seek out what did God want me to do with this vision. It was at this time a preacher came to our church who was a renowned prophet and powerful teacher. He related several testimonies of the miracles he had seen and then asked the question, “Why does the church as a whole not see the moving of the Holy Spirit like they did in Acts?” This was a good question since Jesus himself said that we would do greater then he did and in most parts we don’t even see a simple healing taking place let alone the raising of the dead. He claimed the answer was “Because most people do not believe the words in the Bible.” When he spoke, I was reminded of the vision and knew that it was not a coincidences that the two were speaking about the same truth, and that truth is that most Christians are not on fire with God’s spirit and therefore do not see the miraculous moving of God’s hand.

Before I continue, allow me to explain a little about what I mean about God’s spirit. When I say that most Christians are not on fire with God’s spirit, I do not mean the Holy Spirit. What I mean is that most Christians do not hold out and stand on God’s word as absolute truth and let other concepts remain in their thinking to cloud out the ability to perform miracles. These Christians could be filled with the Holy Spirit and may from time to time get clear words from God, but do not hold to the very basic truth that God’s word is absolutely true. To illustrate this, let us look at a common example dealing with money. Let’s say, that you wake up on Sunday with just enough money to pay your tithe and nothing extra. You have very little food in the house and it is not enough to feed your family until the next payday. Logic, and all we have been taught in school, says to keep the money because God is a forgiving God and get the food your home needs. However, the Bible says that if we are faithful, including the tithe, then we will not go without. Which do you follow? (By the way, I will share a cool testimony on this later). That is what I mean when I say that most are not on fire with God’s spirit.

Anyway, I decided that I was going to do something about that. Over the next couple of months, I prayed and got the name FireKnights. Knight comes from the fact that we are servants of God and a knight is a servant of a king and Jesus is the King of Kings. Fire comes from the vision, but also is used in relation to passionately or boldly going after something. So, when we put this together, FireKnights are those who are passionately and boldly serving the King of Kings.

WHERE ARE WE GOING

Know that we have a grasp of what a FireKnight is, I bet, you are wondering what I am expecting we are going to do with it. Well, that is the simple part. Starting with this blog and eventually moving to a PodCast (or both), I want to share with everyone testimonies of the power of the living God moving in this world. These testimonies will be anything that demonstrates the power of God and the power of his absolutely true word. I am envisioning that as this takes off, people will send their testimonies to me and I will post them created a definitive place where any Christian can come, read, and be built up knowing that God does move in the world today like he did in Acts. I am also hoping to tie each testimony to the Scriptures to demonstrate how the living word was relied on to see the powerful moving of Holy Spirit. Perhaps this is a lofty goal, but I have a really big God who performs miracles every day. I hope that you have stuck through this long introduction (which will also be the topic of the first PodCast when I get there) and are on fire with God’s spirit with me about this. However, even if you are not, or maybe you think I am a little nuts, hang around and let’s just see what God does. He may surprise you

Until Next Time,

I want to thank the great guys over at My Life Ministries (http://mylifeministries.org/) for encouraging me and hosting this blog. If you haven’t done so yet, hop over to http://mylifeministries.org/ and take a look around. Join the forums and become part of the family.

Also, if you have a testimony, email it to me at testify {at} fireknights {dot} net. I would love to hear it and I may just post it here on the blog.