Author: theparacleteshammer

Didina Batmelek, a precious friend and one of my sisters, writes:

Rant alert.

Brothers, dont call me a sister in Messiah unless you plan to treat me like one.

When my little brother and I get together there are hugs and noogies and jokes, wrestling and sitting and talking till 3am about deep heart issues in each other’s lives. I miss him terribly when we do not connect and I love his beautiful wife and my nieces and nephews incredibly.

My husband is never jealous when I spend time with my brother. He never worries that something is going to happen. He never worries about infidelity. I mean seriously… Ewwww that is my brother……. he smiles and cherishes when I get to see him and he rejoices with us.

When my husband goes out with his little sister, there is no jealousy or worry that something could happen. It is his little sister for crying out loud!!!!

Can we all go out for coffee together or have both my brother and his wife over? Abso-freaking-lutely!! But it is not a requirement for relationship.

If we actually viewed each other accordingly, as actual family and brother and sisters in Messiah, there would never be an issue with sexual infidelity or jealousy or worry.

And, yes, I do understand that people do the wrong thing and there is a very disgusting reality if incestuous relationships within families, BELIEVE ME I UNDERSTAND.
BUT that didn’t mean that we should let the enemy’s twisting of what is good and right in the eyes of Messiah, create a path of fear for us to walk instead.

Fear rules the heart of the church and I am so flippin sick of it. I’m sick of how it plays out in nearly every aspect of the church life to the point that it isn’t church “life” anymore, it is dying and people within the church body are dying for lack of relationship.

We need to be the true version of what the enemy has twisted in the world. Where families lie broken and shattered around us, we need to become TRUE FAMILY.

Stop cowering in fear and start acting like a family United in Yeshua Messiah and HUG EACH OTHER. Take each other out for coffee no matter what gender you or they are. Daughters need fathers just as much as mothers. Sons need mothers just as much as fathers.

SHOW TRUE AND UNHINDERED LOVE!!

#ubiquity #diamondbusinessDNA #HARDReality

I um…..this is the Window of Reconciliation with G-d.

And I can’t stop weeping at this.

Gang. Dave Ramsey started selling real estate in September 1978, and he filed bankruptcy on September 22, 1988.

He met G-d on the way up…

and. got. to. know. Him. on. the. way. down.

Reconciliation….with His Designer

The reason so many of us may be feeling the hardness in September is because He is drawing us to know Him more deeply in intimacy.

The fuel and gas of the principles, the gas that drives everything that is the real spirit of prophecy, and this is not only the mission of the Lampo Group, it is the mission of TPH and everything that drives me, is hope.

You will never have true prophecy, or the design of a Redemptive Gift of Prophet, or the office of Prophet, without hope.

This Exhorter carries it, and when he focuses on relationships, and sells based on trust and realtionships, he grows, and this company grows.

My team, my tribe, my family, my church, this….this is one testimony of someone who Reconciled with His Maker.

And for your sakes, we must run through and take care of the root of all of these issues. It’s about Father wanting to draw us each more deeply into His embrace, and His affection.

And for the record, Dave went on the air June 25, 1992, during another Window of Reconciliation.

The Window of Reconciliation with Land.

After going bankrupt for dealing badly with poor stewardship of land, he was….reconciled.

The fullness of the Teacher is radically important to the possession of their birthright.

I will probably intermix a whole lot of thoughts in the next series of posts on the teacher in order to express more fully what I understand about them.

In Teacher Cities, we have a few other expressions of their gift.

1. First, in most Teacher Cities is found a division into two major parts. THE MOST COMMON–not necessarily the only–boundary is with a river. Nashville; Kansas City; Jacksonville; and Springfield, Massachusetts. The expression of this in Scripture is in the Old Testament, the Teacher priestly class, the Levites made a distinction between clean and unclean, defiled and undefiled, holy and unholy, molded and unmolded, serving G-d or serving idols, a single crop versus a multi crop. They were charged to make distinctions everywhere. Now, Springfield, MO is divided into two parts not with a river but with a road, named Division St., and the city is divided into two parts, each with its own distinctive feel.
2. Teacher Cities are hubs of transportation with many roads, railroads, and other forms of transport entering and exiting them. Frequently transportation arteries come through Teacher Cities.
3. Teacher Cities usually have some form of Military Presence, but not a primary (Infantry or Battle) presence. More like a secondary or support military presence (think Quartermasters, and search and rescue, and transport presence, or supply presence).
4. Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings BOOKS (not the movies, the books. Get off of your duff and read a book, you who cannot be bothered to do anything except watch movies because the books take too long) exemplifies the best of the Teacher gift with this one statement “the hands of the king are healing hands.” Teacher are known, over and over and over again for pairing well with gifts of healing, reconciliation, and restoration. Because they are safe and their hands are safe, they are capable of bringing broken and wounded people within a hand’s breadth of the healing powre of G-d, and the principles tied up in medicine (all branches, including the best of allopathic medicine, a comment I say at the risk of being stoned).

Why am I so incessantly zealous for the Teacher tribe?

Because I know that when they have that moment of encounter with the Word of G-d Himself, or His representative, it ruins them for the normal.

The Scripture moves from being a rack on which to hang their perfectly-executed sermons, to a living and breathing book that comes ALIVE to them.

They then become more effectively equipped with a larger and broader set of tools with which to mine the gems of the Scriptures, or whatever their chosen trade is, and to hand those finely-hewn precious gifts to others in a place of safety.

As I said in another place:

A theophany,

A strong pneumasomatic encounter with the Word of G-d himself or his representative.

Some undeniable mark that demonstrates they do not see the text as just a point of reference to hang their 25-point sermon on anymore, but something that shakes them.

Samuel’s encounter was in 1 Samuel 3.

Luke’s writings from 4:14 demonstrate he had an encounter with G-d.

Mary’s encounter with the angel Gabriel, and with her Son, repeatedly. (For those who still think she is a Giver, I don’t know what to tell you. Enjoy that viewpoint, I am still holding fast to Teacher for her).

Isaiah’s encounter with the glory of G-d in Chapter 6.

Those are the four major encounters of Teachers that are illustrated or demonstrated in Scripture.

You want to know why I am so passionate about Teachers. This is part of the reason.

When a Teacher gets wrecked by the moment of encounter with the living G-d, he or she becomes a formidable force. I know when a Teacher has had that. I can feel the mark on them.

Craig Keener is one example of someone who has that mark. It breathes throughout ALL of his writings.

Just some late afternoon thoughts as I go pick up my daughter.

Thoughts?

NOTE: If you are joining us from the previous post on the Teacher, welcome, and we hope this blesses you deeply.

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“You stood by my side all these years while I reaped the benefits of destruction. Now that I’m trying to protect the people I’ve put in harm’s way, you’re going to walk out?”

Tony Stark, Iron Man

I have received a few questions along the lines of something like: What happens if I have more than one gift?

There is at least one thing I would check before assuming you have more than one gift. That is, what kind of major emotional or spiritual wounds have been left unhealed?

Healing A Major Wound

Have the major places in your life, major life events encountered a large measure of deep healing? Often times, when more than one gift gets presented at the front, some part of us has been so traumatized that the real us cannot step forward, and therefore the real us has not been recognized. Allow me to illustrate this with my own life.

I was a rather soft and introspective kid who gravitated toward those that were not universally acclaimed by the rest of the society. I grew up with this crazy instinct to connect with the person who was probably the most hurt or wounded and in their woundedness bringing them with me into the rest of the group.

Somehow, in the course of time, that soft (some of you would have thought me effeminate) and gentle kid went into hiding and out came this wounded, outgoing kid who just wanted to fit in.

And even in my attempts at fitting in, I had this latent capacity to pick out the one needy or wounded person in the bunch of people and either I would gravitate to them, or they to me. Even when that capacity was ignored because all people saw or wanted to see was my capacity to draw a crowd, I knew I was not quite designed to work with crowds.

Design doesn’t stay buried permanently. It always comes back to the surface. Even in the middle of massive wounding. Even when it is flipping inconvenient and makes you look incongruent.

My design did just that. And like feelings that are buried alive, design never dies.

Another aspect of my own design in finding my own gift is realizing that I was not just made to fix a problem, but rather I was programmed for deepest understanding of a problem. Any problem I was interested in, I wanted to know what went into making that problem what it was. To this day, whenever I have a conversation with an allopathic doctor, one of my qualities that drives them up a tree is how all the parts of an issue are interconnected with portions of my body that they are not analyzing. How does this solution affect the rest of the environment of my body or my family member’s body in a deep way?

Because I presented as a introspect and a touch feminine, none of the male figures in my life ever invited me into their world to fix a problem. Not one. And I know I can solve problems (I spent three years as the top helper at a commercial electrical shop; where else like construction are you faced with repeated problems to solve for which no one wants to accept responsibility?) , but I was never given a place to learn how to solve problems and fail magnificently. I was never encouraged to learn the process to solve problems. I never got to take the widget apart, understand what goes into that widget, put it back together, turn it on. Fix the lawn mower, change the oil, answer the question, consider the relationship, use the wrench.

It wasn’t until I got into construction that I understood how hand tools work together, and was given permission, nay, instruction, to use them to solve a problem.

The Reason I Brought Up Problems In A Post On The Redemptive Gifts

Problems do not ultimately come from the enemy, in my experience. They come from the Lord to grow us and to instruct us and to mature us. We do our best maturing when we are weaving together principles, and solving problems that are complex. Each of the Redemptive Gifts have a set of problems for which they were made. The Exhorter is no exception, and his problems to solve pertain mostly to the missing pieces of truth pertaining to the nature of G-d.

The Meat and Potatoes of the Post: Behavioral Characteristics Of The Exhorter

So, the Exhorter….

1. Exhorters are social and relational. Of all the gifts, when they are the healthiest, they are the one gift that will interact with people in quantities that might put the other gifts on overload.
2. Exhorters hunt relentlessly for the key to a person’s heart in order to have an on-ramp to engage relationally at a deep level with people.
3. Exhorters know how to network, and make vast number of relationships to quickly build communities.
4. Their capacity to influence other people and marshal other people to their cause is often overwhelming. They typically enjoy a large personality that is hard to ignore and makes a strong impression. Think Elvis Presley.
5. Because of this, many Exhorters are outstanding at the resource of relationships. They have a built-in capacity to draw people into their sphere of influence. Therefore, as a result of their design, their lives, in the words of my ex-pastor, are “one big network”. Odds are, if they don’t know how to fix the problem you have, then they will know someone, or they will know someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who will be an expert in your given problem. It is in this capacity to network, that we find a great strength and a a great weakness.
6. On the negative side, Exhorters, if they are not walking in a high level of character and integrity, can (please note I did not say WILL, as there is no guarantee any of us will or will not stumble) default to the pitfall of controlling others through that influence.
7. Many Exhorters that function in a low level can often move from a place where they are peers to a place where they are in charge. With the Aztecs, who were Exhorter as a group, “generally conquest followed commerce”.
8. Exhorters, for all their community building and many, many, do not excel at being fathers. Ed Silvoso, the founder of Harvest Evangelism and the International Transformation Network (organizations that both focus on transformation of large geographic regions, cities, and nations), is known for large networks and social transformation, but because of that cavernous horizontal capacity, he does not do a lot of vertical father/son mentoring. Mentoring and fathering, while not being foreign words to Exhorters, are foreign realities in fullness to Exhorters. They are not looking for individuals. Rather they are looking for the greatest reach horizontally for their effort. And they are capable of influencing those people easily.
9. Typically, Exhorters can crack open the Bible and grab the revelation that is missing from an embryonic body of truth. They are good at crafting the harsh and blunt message that the Prophet first conceives, in order that it would be more palatable to the audience. This parallels their love of right presentation.
10. They are, in a nutshell, the most horizontal of the gifts.
11. Exhorters are frequently not focused on one task or one objective, unless that goal is very broad. They wear many hats, and simultaneously work for many goals. Social change over individual connection is their preference. Consequently, that can leave them functioning very shallowly.
12. Exhorters are the master communicators of all the gifts, especially when it comes to communicating the concepts of the spirit in the language of the soul. They translate and relanguage, usually with great finesse and skill in order to get people understanding and on board with whatever they are pursuing.
13. While Prophets have the license to hunt, Exhorters use a fisherman’s net. While a Prophet might drive a HumVee or a sports car, depending on what is necessary, Exhorters will drive a double-decker, bright red colorful bus.
14. Turning from the individual application to the institutional application, the Exhorter’s capacity to influence the large groups is embodied by the Hollywood film industry in all of its entertainment glory.
15. In an Exhorter organization, the treasure that is unpacked in its varied flavors is the treasure of Ubiquity. That is, the product of an Exhorter company has a global reach that is easily recognizable from culture to culture and nation to nation: the product is everywhere. The Disney brand is easily one of the most ubiquitous brands anywhere.
16. Exhorters, as well as Prophets, and I would argue Mercies, are the most verbal of the gifts. While Mercies need to ascertain the trustworth of the audience in question, and Prophets typically speak without reference to the opinions of their audience, Exhorters will take their daily unused quota of words, build a relationship with someone very quickly and engage in expanding their circle of influence. There is little more they enjoy more than a good conversation, and they will form communities with even the smallest of time allotments.
17. Back on the personal and the positive side of things, the Exhorter usually puts a premium on the concept of presentation. They like to present a package that looks good, is appealing to the eye, is stylish, etc. There is a concern for not just THAT they are presenting themselves, but also the MANNER in which they are presenting themselves. Exhorters have a thing with appearance, and the initial visibility.
18. Lots of sparkle, an affinity for jewelry. Bling.
19. Institutionally, the cars of the American automotive industry, out of Detroit the Exhorter City, are also Exhorter, when taken as a whole. They are built to impress or get a certain image across. The Mustang, the Corvette, the muscle cars. The Fast and the Furious franchise. Very much huge in presentation.
20. Because they are obsessive with presentation, Exhorters often have have a highly-polished brand image, which also results in people beating down the doors to work for those companies like dogs and burn out in service to them.
21. One sign you are in an Exhorter organization is that the employees are usually all exhausted and overburdened with more projects than they can manage, because the Exhorter’s capacity to dream runs way ahead of the capacity of his workforce to keep up with the workload. Oftentimes, the enemy will test the Exhorter in the area of “walking in reality”, and the Exhorter will think that his people can handle more than they actually can. Walt Disney, and the related Pixar were notorious for burning out their employees and moving onto the next, in their relentless drive for better, larger, faster, stronger, harder, more. Because Walt’s vision ran larger than the money came in, his brother Roy had to work from week to week to keep the company solvent.
22. This highlights another capacity of the Exhorter. They frequently think more can be achieved than really can with a given set of resources.
23. Exhorters are one of the visionary gifts typically.
24. Exhorters frequently find themselves, because of their capacity for vision, to making others serve the vision.
25. Exhorters, in order to be wildly successful, must demand of themselves a relentless answer to the question “Is this realistic? Am I in denial?”
26. Because of the issues with dreaming, vision, and non-reality, combined with their capacity to easily make relationships and connections, Exhorters can often find themselves in ethical and moral failure.
27. They can also find themselves in a place where they move the boundary markers in the area of relationships.
28. An Exhorter, when they play a game with friends or opponents, frequently has a path to winning that includes destabilizing their opponents psychologically.
29. If the opponent is truly perceived as a threat to the Exhorter, then they Exhorter might resort to attempting to humiliate the opponent or gaslighting. Exhorters are not known for being willing to make sacrifices unless it makes them look good. There are exceptions to this rule, in which case you have a really mature Exhorter, but….
30. In order for Exhorters to excel, they must without exception embrace pain and reality in order to have a large return on investment. The preeminent example of an Exhorter in film is Tony Stark/Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Especially telling are four scenes from the movie that reveal the Exhorter-ness of the character (see below this checklist).
31. The Exhorter said, “Jarvis, sometimes you gotta run before you walk.” Move into their revelation or vision and ask questions later pertaining to execution later.
32. The Exhorter flies too high first, leaps before he or she looks. Tony Stark, Iron Man.
33. The Exhorter, with flair and presentation, gives a large demonstration of the Jericho Missile, and BOOM! FLASH! SPARKLE!, and never missing a beat, has the perfect spread of the champagne after the fact. Again, Tony Stark.
34. The Exhorter, when they finally decide to embrace their principle, and embrace the pain of sowing and reaping and reality, may sometimes be called to make the ultimate sacrifice of themselves, in order to move the needle massively for those around them. Tony Stark, again. “I am going to stop them, even if it means I die.” And there is usually a flash that only they can do, in which they take care of others at expense to themselves. They are meant to give themselves to a cause often at great expense to themselves.
35. When the Exhorter makes themselves, not their followers, vulnerable, the organizations they lead thrust forward in a positive fashion.
36. The L-rd will NOT directly confront the Exhorter over the issue of Reality because the Exhorter has to choose to put his or her sacrifice first and care for his or her employees before he thinks about asking them to sacrifice. This is just like the L-rd will not directly confront a Prophet over the issue of fractured relationships because the Prophet has to learn how to lay their free will down in order to create a win/win where the needs of the one AND the needs of the many are met AND where they choose a place of vulnerability and humility with their friends.
37. I think there is a principle there. See my next smaller post.
38. Exhorters, just like their benchmark, Jesus, have to grow to maturity and learn how to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring life to others. They have to embrace Reality in order to receive their disproportionate harvest of Reality from sowing into that principle.
39. The Principle for the Exhorter is threefold in its manifestation. First, the Principle of Pain and Suffering. Second, the Principle of Sowing and Reaping. Third, the Principle of Reality. If the Exhorter does not have a firm and strong willingness to walk in Reality, hunt for Reality, understand Sowing and Reaping, and then embrace the pain, then most of the negative manifestations will rear their ugly heads. There has to be a staunch hunting for a realistic vision and a realistic understanding of how long a particular vision is going to take to execute, or else the Exhorter is going to find a great deal of frustration.
40. Exhorters are designed to understand and work in principles and make those cause-and-effect relationships known to others in the body. Moses, Solomon, and Paul were designed and expressed huge gluts of principles in the bodies of Scripture that they authored, precisely because principles are what make up reality.
41. When a peer relationship is upended because one of the parties pulls out in front and grabs for a superior position in what was once a thriving horizontal relationship, the upending of that relationship can feel like a betrayal. Exhorters of all the gifts have this problem the most. This is a place where the Exhorter has to be careful and demonstrate a huge amount of self-control.
42. They have an astounding ability to form community quickly. They are the social glue that helps build community easily in a group situation.
43. The big movement is that this is G-d’s choice for the world-changers. They can draw in and communicate to a large cross-section of diverse people, and they cross every kind of barrier, cultural, religious, social, economic, and make friends easily.
44. When an Exhorter is high-functioning, their capacity for influencing the crowds becomes full of one Sowing-and-Reaping, Pain-and-Suffering, and Reality-Laced obsession: What is the vision of G-d for this group of people?
45. In the Believer’s Armor in Ephesians 6, the fourth item is the Shield of Faith. This is the Faith delivered once for all to the saints. This Shield of Faith is repeatedly seen in early Christian iconography (See below)
46. This points to the Exhorter’s major strength in teaching, which is unpacking the part of the truth pertaining to the nature of G-d that is missing from the complete package. The Exhorter gift has a whole host of patterns of 3 that show up regularly in their lives and in the passages of Scripture. Their principle (Pain and Suffering, Sowing and Reaping, Reality) is threefold, their day with the sun, moon, and stars is threefold, and their unpacking revelation is threefold (The Trinity).
47. Exhorters are frequently known for moving boundary lines, creating an oppressive workload, changing peer relationships to leader/follower relationships, and treating what was true in a previous season as untrue in following seasons.
48. A reason for this is that Exhorters don’t realize they are doing it, and they don’t do it with a bad intention. It often has to be pointed out, and if they are going to have healthy relationships, then they need to be able to have relationships with people from whom they can receive real and blunt correction.
49. Expanding on the reason for this, unless the Exhorter is willing to walk in their principle (which I will get to later), there is often a disconnect between reality, actions, and intentions, Bill Clinton’s behavior during the Lewinsky Scandal was vintage Exhorter walking in non-reality, “It wasn’t adultery because I didn’t mean it as adultery”. Many times, a low-level Exhorter does not view their actions as wrong because there is no malice in their heart toward the person with whom they are interacting.
50. I think part of the reason Exhorters don’t understand or realize or have a difficulty walking in the threefold Exhorter Principle, is that their root iniquity is the opposite of Reality, which is Denial. There is a denial that kills the best of the Exhorter. Walt Disney had it, Hitler had it, FDR had it, and others.
51. In order to combat these sorts of non-realities, they have to hunt relentlessly for a realistic sowing and a realistic situation and a realistic solution to a complex problem. They will often want to present an oversimplified solution to a problem and as a result can create an eroded trust in their capacity to lead.
52. And when they are unhealthy, Exhorter anger can be pretty full of rage and harmful and abusive.
53. For unhealthy Exhorters, we look at Jezebel.
54. And for healthy Exhorters, Moses, Paul, Jeremiah the Prophet, Deborah the Prophet, Solomon the King, and of course, the Lord Yeshua.
55. Exhorters have a strong penchant for group cohesion, unity, and the principles of fair play, when they are healthy.
56. The above pictures reflect the Exhorter tribe, for better or worse. They are, in order, Adolf Hitler, Jeroboam Son of Nebat, our current President Donald Trump, California, Napoleon Bonaparte, FDR, Winston Churchill, Hollywood, King Solomon, Walt Disney, Jesus, Doug Addison, Ed Silvoso, and Todd Bentley. In addition, the City of Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and the Automotive Industry are all Exhorter.

Giver

This is just a brief unpacking of the gift, gang. And while there is more, be aware that you, Exhorter Tribe, are designed to “shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.”

With that, we proceed to the next in sequence, the Giver.

I have a few things to say on this, because this issue just will not die, even though it should be laid to rest and the biblical and spiritual solution is pretty obvious.

Todd Bentley has again been found to engage in foolish behavior sexually and morally, and unfortunately, in some cases, this has only come to light YEARS after the fact.

Why are we just finding out, as a church? Attitudes that didn’t just repeat themselves years after Todd stopped with the revival in Lakeland, but years ago, and continued up until recently.

Granted, charges that are years old, if they are repented of, can be made right, and restoration and reconciliation should be made when at all possible.

The issue, however, is that, instead of repenting in accordance with the level of his influence, the majority of the charges have been denied by Todd and others, and the rest has been swept under the rug by many people that should be holding him accountable by coming clean with the scores of us that they have led, and bringing him to the place where he can seek reconciliation with those people whom he has betrayed.

And if the person is penitent when they repent, then they really need a protracted season off. In Todd’s case, I agree with Loren Sandford that that season should be permanent.

Rick Joyner and others, instead of apologizing for the way in which the matter was handled, defended the method and the majority corporate response of both Fresh Fire and MorningStar. And repeatedly, some of those people, instead of repenting to the victims and handing out olive branches, have engaged in behavior that borders on gaslighting those affirming the charges, and minimized Todd and Jessa’s sin.

The reason people don’t take the church seriously in the midst of these behaviors has little to do with how easily and readily we hand grace to the unrepentant, but rather how quickly we defend those who engage in serial predatory behavior.

Rick, Todd, and others, instead of walking in humility and repentance since 2008, and instead of leading Todd rightly to reconcile with his first wife, chose to just gloss over this nonsense, and allow Todd to run away to marry the woman with whom he cheated.

And, I hate to say this, but Rick has shirked his responsibility to embrace the fullness of the Principle of Responsibility. Todd was his responsibility. This is not about, “oh I didn’t want it and I took it because Peter Wagner implored me to do so.”

Huh-uh. Rick was responsible to father this man, and he refused that responsibility.

My ex-wife who committed adultery a number of years back, had she been in Todd’s shoes, would have likely been treated with the same cavalier attitude toward her sin and restored to ministry and credibility.

Adulterers who continue in an unrepentant and chronic pattern of behavior that is covered up in the church will fall, and the church’s insistence on covering up instead of dealing with the sin, will DRIVE PEOPLE WHO ARE LOST AWAY FROM WHAT SHOULD BE THE LIGHT IN THE COMMUNITY.

THE ISSUE is not whether or not Todd should be restored, but where should he be restored.

The answer is that Todd should be restored to G-d and his family. But not to full-time ministry.

Todd has proven that he cannot handle the responsibility of leading a ministry without chronic dalliances.

There is a difference between a person for whom sin is the exception to the rule, as it should be for Christians who move from glory to glory, and a person who accepts a low-grade chronic fever of iniquity as “just the way he was made and flawed”. The church is not looking for people with presentation and power and presence.

Rather the church is looking for people who pursue the fullness of Christ in not just His miracles, but also his command that we walk in holiness in five levels: time, land, community, birthright, and offices.

Todd’s defilement of both his community, and his offices of husband, father, and evangelist are becoming mounting proof that he is not fit to be released back into ministry UNTIL HE COMPLETELY FIXES the fullness of the mess that he has made and sits with leadership that keeps his feet to the fire.

Holiness, without which no man will see G-d.

The church is supposed to judge (meaning decide) concerning cases of its own who predate young men and women. The substantiated charges of predation are charges up with which we will not put.

My generation is flat-out freaking sick with Hophni and Phineas preaching behind the pulpit and screwing at the door of the tent of the L-rd, making a mockery of the grace that is handed to us by embracing the hypocrisy against which the Son of G-d railed.

The issue with the Pharisees was not their legalism as much as it was their hypocrisy.

This is not about slamming the kingdom in Todd’s face.

Rather it is about dealing with the crutch of false legitimacy that Todd has constructed for himself. That legitimacy crutch is his own ministry and following that legitimizes him.

He is not legitimate because people want to be near him and follow him.

As a card-carrying Exhorter, Todd has got to learn and embrace the Reality of the Principle for the Exhorter instead of embracing the stronghold of denial that is causing him to self-destruct.

Pain and Suffering.

Sowing and Reaping.

Reality.

The other crutch that Todd plainly carries is a crutch that forces him to walk with an ungodly limp: an uncrucified sexuality.

EUNUCHS THAT DAMAGE THE BODY OF CHRIST

On a eeriely-related note, there was a prophetic word release in MorningStar that the ministry that occupied the old PTL property would be a spiritual eunuch that was incapable of bringing harm to the Bride of Christ.

I am sorry, but that word is crap.

Eunuchs (royal servants that are castrated) can still do harm to women…

If they use implements other than their removed manhood.

And further, we have an issue with the fact that leaders in the Charismatic Movement restored this man to a position of leadership in the Church without seeing him first restored to his family (including his first wife) with a crucified sexuality and robust contrition, the way King David repented.

That the man fornicated and ran away with his mistress and married her, and was subsequently restored to ministry responsibility without so much as a public dismissal because of that sin added on top of his other sins, demonstrates a lack of sound judgment on the part of a number of men.

My friend, Loren Sandford writes:

This video I made has caused quite a stir. The overwhelming majority have responded positively while some few have accused me of rushing to judgment or being accusatory, as if the facts were somehow in question. I will say simply that I am now privy to firsthand information via someone who was in our church youth group a number of years ago. This person was an intern with Todd Bentley’s ministry and saw the inappropriate sexually charged texts sent by Todd to at least one female intern. That female intern left Todd’s organization over these advances, as did the one who saw the texts. From other research I’ve done, it seems clear that a culture of compromise and immorality surrounds Todd. So I’m reposting this video. Leaders are called to a higher standard, to be above reproach.
I Timothy 3:2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3:3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money.
Some have complained about making all this public, airing our dirty laundry openly. So here’s another applicable passage of Scripture: I Timothy 5:19 Do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses.
5:20 Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.
I rest my case…. Holiness matters, especially in leadership.
https://youtu.be/b2ZCv6ofZAE

Our responsibility, tribe, is to define restoration specifically in terms of our relationship to G-d and fellow man.

Not to the sacred cow of ministry.

It is time to call these ministries that will not hold our ministers accountable to a place of moral responsibility.

THE LAND SPEAKS

When I was in the process of picking up a friend and found out about this debacle, I was on the land, and could not explain why, but the land on which Fresh Fire Ministries is located was writhing in both pain and revulsion. That land has, as long as I have known it, has always been discomforting to be on.

Now I understand.

This is a situation where the land is independently giving us a clue that deep land work has not been done. The land vomited Jim Bakker out of it. And I am willing to bet money that no one did thorough work in order to address the pain that the land has been in for years.

Our job, gang, is to deal with the iniquity, not just from a corporate standpoint, but also from the standpoint of what the L-rd wants to do in bringing deep life and healing to the land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 is clear. The LAND is what will get healed when we turn from wickedness.

And wickedness is not the predisposition of a believer.

Wickedness is a choice.

And the Fourth Principle applies here.

Be not deceived…..

G-d is not mocked….

Whatsoever a man sows, that also shall he reap.

And harvest time is drawing near.

It is time to walk more cleanly and way more above board with those whom we lead.

And it is time to embrace the fullness of what repentance and the Fear of the L-rd means.

Jim Bakker had this rightly when he repented and was restored, a process that Rick Joyner had a hand in.

Jim said that he never stopped loving G-d, but he did stop fearing Him.

There is the issue of us embracing more of the reverential fear of the L-rd that keeps us in a place of safety.

Our job is twofold.

To love Him and to fear him.

The Love of G-d may be the end of wisdom….

But the Fear of the L-rd is the beginning of that same wisdom…

Our job is to embrace both….

And predators are responsible first to G-d, second to their families and their victims….

And honestly, ministry is no guarantee.

It is possible for one to lose their birthright.

And we should be fearful for Todd.

Narrow is the gate.

And it is time for us to judge rightly. And we are called to judge (to decide).

And the church needs to get on its hands and knees and repent for protecting sexual and ritualistic predators.

Enough with the ritualistic abuse from both the satanic community and the Christian community.

Purity. Reality. Responsibility.

And an actual Culture of Honor (looking at you, Redding and Fort Mill, who released this man back into ministry and called him safe) that HONORS the victims and rushes towards them.

That is the end of my rant, gang.

Thoughts to consider.

May your dreams be sweet.

Dear Cindy

Several broad points from this native Floridian for your consideration, separated by topic:

1. I think there are a number of principles we ha e routinely violated with impunity in this nation as believers. And identifying those principles that we have violated and coming in the opposites spirit to our patterns of behavior might help better than just saying, “storm, begone”. The Charismatic Movement has routinely violated the Principle of Authority and how we handle the larger Apostolic office

2. As a native Floridian, there is the matter of aquifers that do need the occasional hurricane to properly fill up. Hurricanes are a natural part of G-d’s larger system for drought prevention.

3. I am not sure Category 5 hurricanes were included in that design.

4. This may be tied up in part in the second head of Leviathan, which parallels the second day of creation, the Head of Weather. Meaning that we have violated the Principle that parallels the Redemptive Gift of Servant, the Principle of Authority. And one of the things we might do to effectively get freed of that negative Second Head, in order to really effectively handle hurricanes, would be to change how we relate to the Authority we wield as believers. Namely, have there been times when we have used our authority to fix problems that have violated our comfort instead of increasing and expanding G-d’s kingdom rule in the earth. If we have used authority with the aim of making our lives more comfortable rather than to uplift the glory and honor of our King, then we might consider how we can walk that process out better, beyond repentance and simple rebuke.

5. I think you are onto something especially with respect to the need of the intercessors to stand up and hear the voice of the L-rd in this situation. With that said, we need to be careful not merely to rebuke the storm because it threatens our comfort. Rather, we need to rebuke a storm if it threatens the advancement of His kingdom. This means, we meed to step up and hear if this hurricane is not the result of a curse or a legal right: a curse without a cause will not alight, or if this hurricane serves a larger purpose of G-d That is, with skill and humility we step into the courtrooms and find out precisely what Father’s design for this cyclone is.

6. And if we as a nation or as a church have stepped into covenants that were hasty or ill-advised, that we would hear from the Judge’s bench what we have done, and the process needed to undo the devouring that is happening.

7. While I do think asking Father to turn away unnecessary storms is wise, I rather think that we need to answer the question of whether or not this storm is in that category.

8. This is not about apostolic intercession as you define it, especially given most leaders in the Charismatic Movement do not understand or grasp the purposes of either the apostolic or intercession. Governing according to the old season of Ruler Protocol without the new spiritual authority of Intimacy and vulnerability that defines the Mercy Season is a sure way to alienate the church you and your colleagues seek to protect.

Mrs. Jacobs, we are done with the old command-and-control with edicts issued from the men and women at the top who are not vulnerably in the trenches with us in humility, or willing to be held accountable by other believers whose authority you do not recognize.

The latest debacle with Todd Bentley that remained hidden from the church until years after it happened is proof of this abuse.

I look forward to your response, while you and other leaders figure out what the apostolic and the prophetic truly mean.

Kindest regards from a brother in the L-rd,

David Michael MacNelley

The Paraclete’s Hammer

Arthur writes:

THE SUBSTITUTE LEADER

Our training on how to dialog WITH the human spirit instead of speaking AT the spirit has begun.

The first exercise was very basic. Talk your partner through the seven portions of their spirit to see who is home and who is not. Then find out who the leader is.

In almost every case, the portion that matched the soul’s redemptive gift was not leading for one reason or another, and another portion had stepped up to fill the empty space.

Imagine a band where the lead guitarist smashed his fingers and can’t play for the event tonight. You can take the bass player and move him over to the guitar.

Doable?

I suppose. All strings, right?

Wrong.

There IS a difference between a guitar and a bass.

So the devil works overtime to take out the leader of your spirit. There are so many different ways to do it. THEN some other portion is going to step to the front and drive the driverless car, just out of self-preservation.

However, the other portions of the spirit will not respect the substitute leader, will not partner with him or her the way they should, and the whole functionality of the spirit will be compromised.

The “concert” will go on, but it won’t be a world class performance.

This also explains why some people cannot determine their redemptive gift, or they are adamant in claiming a gift that is not theirs.

If the portion of the spirit who is leading is strong and heavy handed, it will define a lot of the choices the person makes through their world view, not the reality of the soul’s redemptive gift.

All told, having the leader who God designed to be in charge is better than any alternative, although we ARE grateful for whoever drove the driverless car for a while.

Sunday morning has grown excessively defiled in time for my family because, for years, we were used to following around a religious spirit that equated attendance in the institutional church with righteousness.

You can attend an institutional church and still be violating Hebrews 10:25.

And no where does Hebrews 10:25 equate attendance in an institutional church with righteousness.

Those of us who have come into Life After Church are connected with believers in other ways.

And some of us, regardless of the inelegant way of saying it, are called to pastor in the institutional church.

And, furthermore, just because “institutional church” is the Arthur Burk designator I grabbed onto and used, does not mean I think of anyone as institutionalized.

If you connect with other believers in some regular fashion, whether that is in the institutional church or outside of it in an informal setting, that gathering is not more eor less righteous.

And just because you are paid as a pastor, and just because that model has been used for abuse of other believers does not invalidate that form or structure.

Your preferred method of ecclesiology, whether congregational, episcopalian, or presbyterian, or fivefold, or connexialist, or single pastor, or elder team, or Redemptive Gift team model, or some variant of the life after church model, is not more righteous or holy than the next.

And pretending like the mass exodus of 1.5 to 2 million of believers per year is nothing more than rebellion against the command of Hebrews 10:25, or that it doesn’t matter, or that going to church on Sunday or synagogue on Saturday is the most righteous expression shows you don’t understand Hebrews 10:25.

And you might need to let go of your pet interpretation of Hebrews 10:25 for a season while you interact with those sergeants who have been dishonored by church leadership and are not coming back because of the dishonor.

If you have been dishonored by church leadership, then the offense can be killing you.

And if you have dishonored those who are mature and gifted enough to lead whole portions but you didn’t release them after you equipped them, it might be a good thing to go to them and repent for dishonoring.

Some of us are completely trained and do not need to run through your pipeline and vetted through your process.

And some us us that have been called to pastor, some of those in institutional church leadership did not set in place.

Now, I will say this. I have personally encountered rare men and women who have trusted me enough to let me help them with the establishing of churches.

And I am grateful for that grace.

So, as we come in to the Institutional Church, know the mark of grace is upon us, and quit placing undue yokes upon us, and do not look down your noses collectively on those that have been dishonored, got tired of perpetual dishonor, and are now without.

And those who have left the Institutional Church, do not snub those that are within.

Be blessed, gang.

In love with both those in the Institutional Church and without, while denying the idea of being Institutionalized,

David MacNelley

What you do not deal with in one season will come back with compounded interest and penalties in a future season.

What you bury alive will die and sprout a crop.

When you violate the principles, you will reap the harvest of that violation.

The lives in which you sow destruction will serve as the grounds upon which you will reap destruction.

If you shed blood, worship idols or persist in adultery or fornication, eventually the land will spew you out.

If you attempt to protect someone who violates the principles from the consequences, the effects of those consequences will cause the land to vomit you out.

Repentance and humility help bring fruitfulness. Stubbornness and stiffneckedness bring destruction.

I don’t care what your opinion about this or that big name speaker is. Everything that is done in darkness will be brought to the light. And if we do not cultivate a culture of humility, authenticity, intimacy, and transparency, the L-rd will bring the plumbline into our lives. I do not have a dog in the race when it comes to this or that popular speaker, but I will say this as one who walks in the office of a pastor.

When we refuse a position of vulnerability with those whom we lead, and we hide ourselves with leaders from the people, we can open the door to all kinds of Ishmaelite nonsense.

The problems that we face in the Charismatic Movement are a direct result of our paradigm when it comes to treating the Fivefold Ministry as a protocol for oversight.

I have said it before and I will say it again. “Apostolic oversight” is a contradiction in terms. Overseers oversee from a position of accountability. Apostles examine foundations, suffer, work miracles, and embrace a grubby position of repeated death, while working in the unglamorous work of digging in the trenches.

The current Fivefold Ministry model of hierarchical leadership with apostles at the top that has allowed for the hiding away of figures like Todd Bentley for years with zero accountability to the church, zero transparency before the sergeants in the body of Christ (those of us who have enough experience, integrity, and trustworthiness to help steer the body while not possessing political authority to make decisions), 100% possession of all the authority to make decisions, and covering and old like discipleship models that came out in the Shepherding Movement, is a sacred cow.

And as dead and gone as the founders of the Shepherding Movement are, this hierarchical nonsense that we use to define the Fivefold by way of Covering and allow them to rule the peeons is also going to die.

Sacred cows make the best hamburger.

And without affection and love and vulnerability and transparency coming to the body of Christ, G-d might just handle this by shining His light in places where we do not want it shone.
If a leader has sinned, then the L-rd will deal with it.

If a ministry has covered a leader’s persistent sin up, then the L-rd will deal with that ministry, possibly surgically.
In order for a eunuch to be safe around those who are in their charge, they not only have to be castrated, but they also have to exercise free will to choose not to abuse those in their care with instruments. Being incapable of violating people is one thing. Choosing not to violate them with other means even after you have been castrated is another.

I have family members who were sexually abused by both church leadership and family members.
So, I understand what is on the line, especially when it. comes to having friends who are survivors of Satanic Ritual Abuse and Christian Ritual Abuse. And many of those have DID, and I have to minister to them carefully and gently.

This is no laughing matter.

If abuse has come to the body of Christ, the Judge will stand at the door and execute.

If gossip has come to the body of Christ, the Judge will stand at the door and execute.

We are absolutely not going to tolerate prostitution to happen in the house of G-d, or cover-ups on the one hand, nor are we going to tolerate gossip on the other hand.

Hypocrisy has NO place in the temple of the Living G-d.

A reminder of our history in this land. Ministers like Jerry Falwell took advantage of the vulnerability of Jim Bakker.

And the land writhed in anguish over the events.

If that sin is repeating itself in the land, it will show us that we have not yet learned how to steward what the L-r has given us.

G-d wants to trash the counterfeit, Ishmaelite version of the Fivefold ministry, and He wants, and we in the Mercy Season, born after 1976, are demanding authenticity of those who are leaders in the church.

Few authentic and vulnerable leaders, like my pastor in Massachusetts, and my friend in Spartanburg, remain.

Now is the time for us to grieve and repent, and get really transparent.