Changing Bride
12/30/08

A Series of Words for 2009

Ginger and I have both been sensing words from the Lord for 2009. The following is a mix of what each of us has been sensing.

In early January of last year, the Lord said that He would be opening doors that we would not expect and that after weighing with Holy Spirit discernment, we would need to walk through them, however unexpected they might seem. I believe that this will continue and will become an increasingly normal way of life for the Spirit filled Christian in the years ahead. Look for opportunities when they seem unavailable this year. Faith and trust are key and the Holy Spirit will make it clear to you.

Many doors have opened in 2008 that we would not have expected. I can testify to this in my personal walk and in my job. The election of Barak Obama is a big example. His election, and that which he stands for, namely “change,” is prophetic. Heartfelt prayer and respect for President Obama will bring about God’s changes through him. This is not to say that we should stand by and condone ungodly, unscriptural or immoral decisions without exercising our voice of concern. It does mean, however, that when we come together to pray that the Lord will supernaturally encourage right decision-making from the top down. In this form of intercession, we will be greatly successful if we do so with love, respect and a true heart of encouragement towards our next president.

So it is with the church; it must change from what it was into what it is to become in the eyes of the Father. Thus, it is this concept of “change” that is the basis behind this following word for 2009:

This is a year for the merging (coming together) in the church of the reverent Holy, Holy, Holy of the Lord with the intimate love relationship between God and His Bride. While this is a thought that many of us have had for many years, I believe that the Lord is going to bring a fresh revelation and release of it this year.

The Lord is saying that this is a year for this alignment, and of an increasing level of unity in the Body of Christ that will result in an equipping that will greatly motivate the Bride to go out and do in the power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore a key word for 2009 is… GO! Intimacy coupled with the knowledge of a Holy God will result in a great willingness to sacrifice.

I see two meetings in the same church home: One, a ruckus wild joyful rejoicing in the Presence of the Holy Spirit; the second, a meeting in Holy silence for hours as the whole group of people are prostrate on the floor in the awesome Presence of Almighty God. And both meetings are pleasing to the Father. It is the merging of these two postures that will launch the church into a new place this year.

This Christmas was prophetic in our home. In a nutshell, we sensed that this would be the last year of “introversion”; not that this was a wrong thing in the eyes of the Father. We sensed that in the years ahead we would be taking Christmas outside of our home (outside of the church) by reaching out to bring the needy into our inner circles.

Most of our family got a watch as a gift. Later we realized this was prophetic. The Lord spoke, “It’s time! It’s time now to take what you have held within your family and to take it out.” So the Lord is saying to the church, “It’s time… time to change from introversion to extroversion, not by what you can do but by what I can do through you. It’s time to gain the fullness of My Presence and then move out in it.” We’ve always known our call is to go out, but we sense that this is a year of such an alignment with the Father that our going out will become a great joy and a deep desire.

A Few Other Related Words

One: This is a year for generational unity and trust in the Holy Spirit to work through children. The Bride includes all generations in the Body of Christ. As such I expect to hear great words and see great acts of the Holy Spirit this year through children and our youth. This will unite families and the Body in vision and purpose. Fires of passionate revival will break out as a result.

Two: Many have feared that the result of this election would cause the Spirit filled intercessors to revert to a position of defending ground rather than to gain ground. I say that the intercessors will do both the duties of defending ground and taking new ground. The devil thinks he has done a great thing by damaging the world economy and causing the election of an unexpected man. However, I do not believe that this is God’s assessment at all. For the world this may very well be true but not for the Spirit filled church. Because the Holy Spirit will move in great power this year, there will be an anointing to protect and to take ground not before seen. This will emerge from that place of “Holy Holy Holy intimacy” in a new way this year.

Three: What had been a curiosity in the manifestations of the Holy Spirit in years past will give way to an understanding that the works of the Holy Spirit are absolutely necessary. As such, there is a polarization coming between the religious Spiritless church and the Spirit filled miracle-working church that is emerging. With this in mind, may we all move in love and not in judgment? This is a year that the line has been drawn in the sand and we will need to choose to either move through that door of radical spirituality –or- stay in the place of status quo. But for those who gain a vision of the Bride we were made to be, this is a year that we will see wondrous supernatural confirmation as we reap in a new way. Likewise we will go out because we no longer will be able to contain it.

Four: One last thought of serious concern. I have heard numerous prophetic words in the last few weeks of impending disaster against America within one to two years. Any word of danger that is a true prophecy always has a way out or a way through either in the spiritual or the natural. Such a word should always include what will happen coupled with how we can either prevent such a thing, or if not, how to benefit the Kingdom of God through it. If a way out or a way through is not defined, I always discount the word.

However this time, I am concerned that this is a very real word of warning and which should be heeded carefully by all who are in the Body of Christ. In Revelation and other biblical words we know that the world is slated for great turmoil and the antichrist is going to come. We cannot prevent such things (unless the Lord gives us authority in a particular event to do so). What we can do is to prepare so as to be ready for disasters both in natural and spiritual ways. In this light, I encourage the reader to prepare with all haste. The Lord will help in this. Of the greatest things one can do, I would list six concerns below:

One: Be filled with the Holy Spirit and in a church home that seeks the same. And listen for the revealed word of the Lord as we move forward in time. In the Holy Spirit you will be equipped to handle all things through Christ who strengthens you. Christ does this from His throne by sending the Holy Spirit to meet your needs in supernatural ways.

Two: Get out of debt NOW! Simplify in as much as you are able. Then simplify further!

Three: Intercede, both personally and corporately. It is by intercession that angels are released. It is by intercession that devils become bound. Intimate intercession will bring you close to Father while the Father covers and protects you. Through intercession disasters are prevented. Or if not, disasters result in Kingdom opportunity. We must be prepared for either and the opportunities that are sure to result.

Four: Strategize to reap. When the shakings come, God uses that to open doors to reap, doors that would otherwise be closed. Be ready to go out. And this is a year to practice this going out!

Five: Have faith and trust in the Lord that He will provide for us regardless of what happens. Remembering that doors will open that we would not expect, we must be watchful for these unusual but supernatural provisions from the Lord in the days ahead.

Six: Doff mammon now. Disconnect from the world system of provision and connect with the Holy Spirit’s provision power for the future. In as much as we are disconnected from the world system is as much as we will not be disappointed and stifled when world systems fall.

I know this last word is sobering. However it must be spoken. Many times, what is good for the Kingdom of God is not good for worldly systems. Is disaster coming? As the world sees it, I would suggest… yes. But as we should see it, I suggest that it will become an opportunity to reap in ways never before seen. How prepared we get ourselves in the next year or two will have everything to do with our successes thereafter.

Love to all,

Ginger and T. Scott Morton
tscottmorton@hotmail.com
gingermorton@hotmail.com

12/1/08

A commentary in part as a response to the article “Beware of Strange Fire”, by Peter Horrobin. His essay appears in Charisma Magazine, dated September, 2008.

We are getting closer to the time when the supernatural will no longer just be a curiosity. It will become absolutely necessary. But there will always be those who will come against it, even when the miracle stands right before them. So it was also in the life of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago.

Forward

I have the greatest respect for Peter Horrobin. This forerunning man of God has been an inspiration to my wife and I when we delved some years ago into the ministry of deliverance. Peter broke the mold of religious thinkers that said that demonic manifestations were few and far between in our day. Through Peter, many have seen the light of truth of our authority in Jesus Christ to rightly wage war against the devil’s schemes, that the devil is fast at work in the world, and that people can be healed and delivered from these manifestations by dealing with root issues. In my opinion, his pair of books, Healing Through Deliverance, Part 1 and Part 2, are the books to read for those moving in the ministry of healing and deliverance.

What I write is more in addition to Peter’s writing than it is a critique. I hope you will take it in that vein of heart as you read? Peter raises some very important points regarding false manifestations in revival that we need to consider as we progress in successful end time ministry. However, there are even more important issues that I would respectfully debate and which I speak to herein.

Regarding Lakeland

I have been a study of revival for many years now. Having witnessed many events of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in many countries, I have become experientially convinced that this is the only right way for church to operate effectively in the world in the days ahead.

What I have found is that in as many places as the Holy Spirit has manifested, there have been great volumes of criticism from both the world and the church who had heard of what was happening in revival. Sadly there has been volumes more criticism then there has been affirmation of events of God’s manifest presence. Every experience of revival fire I have witness has come with radical, and when seen with worldly eyes, very controversial manifestations. However, without fail, every place I have witnessed the manifesting presence of God, I have found great evidences of healing, deliverance, the even the dead being raised and certainly large numbers of salvations. I have come to know that when God manifests his power in the earth it always offends the flesh of the people who hear of it, and certainly so when it visibly and forcibly displaces darkness. But why so much criticism when God’s manifestations have lead to so much supernatural godly change?

We have two forms of existence that are in constant enmity with what God does in the world. They are the devil and our own flesh that we each wrestle with in our members. Paul writes about this flesh curse that he personally dealt with in his letter to the Romans, chapter 7.

Sadly, I have found there to be far more questioning and judgment against such moves of God than there has been excitement and agreement. Even more disturbing are the critical words coming from the church rather than from the world.

It’s human nature to question that which we do not understand. Likewise it is biblical to question supernatural manifestations to ensure their origins. Certainly it is a good thing to weigh what we are witnessing from God. We must assure that what is happening aligns with the word of God coupled with Father’s revelation knowledge, so that those ministering are doing so under the authority of Holy Spirit filled apostolic coverage, and that they are doing so by revelation given by the Holy Spirit. However, the error in almost all critiques I have witnessed comes into play when people evaluate by what they think rather than by faith centered revelation. Many argue by their own interpretation of the Bible over revelation given through the Holy Spirit of that very word. The word alone is not enough. For events of supernatural change can only be understood and then accepted from a heart of faith rather than by logical conclusion or literal and legalistic translation. In fact everything of the Kingdom of God can only be understood within the context of faith and then revelation.

All down the history of the church, it has been the error of making cranial judgments outside of revelation knowledge that has silenced so many revivals since Jesus completed work on the cross.

Simply said, when we argue with our very limited mental conclusions, we do so from the flesh of what we think rather than from the revelation of what God knows. As such, one cannot police the flesh with the flesh. It must be done only by way of the revelation of the Holy Spirit coupled with the word of God. Otherwise we heap division upon division. Error, disunity, division and degradation result from such ways. What my flesh believes is in error might very well be of the Lord. So if I attempt to erroneously correct that which needs no correction, I establish division when such was not warranted. It is to this very serious issue of error that I speak.

On Discipleship

Generally speaking, discipleship can only be done one of two ways. Discipleship can be done of the law and which is based upon what man thinks. Or, discipleship can be done by people filled with the revelation wisdom given by the Holy Spirit which leads to a radical life of spiritual maturity. One leads to bondage, the latter leads to spiritual and supernatural growth in the Holy Spirit.

Either through teaching, impartation through words of knowledge and the prophetic, or impartation through the laying on of hands, indeed ministry through impartation is a critical part of discipleship and which is what Paul and the apostles regularly ministered in (Hebrews 6:1-3, Romans 1:11).

Those who disciple by the Holy Spirit act as transferring agents who take what they have received from the word, complete that knowledge by revelation understanding through the Holy Spirit, wait for the supernatural anointing and then give it away to the church according to each person’s need. At its’ most basic, the gospel of Jesus Christ and the basis of the very church of God is first to be received in power and then transferred to others. How can this be done without impartation in all its’ forms? The most basic call to the church is to “impart” truth supernaturally.

A leader that operates successfully in the Holy Spirit by revelation and anointing ministers out of the experiences of God. To minister out of what one has concluded alone is by a dead faith. For faith to result in real change requires the event of change we witness. That witness becomes our experience. The experience leads to a higher faith. Faith without experience therefore is dead. As such, discipleship from head knowledge is all but lifeless teaching.

Book knowledge alone is not enough, and so the Bible alone is not enough. However, when the Holy Spirit shows up with experiences of God, our faith is raised up and it becomes alive. It quickly transfers from babies level head knowledge to maturing heart knowledge, followed by the reception of anointing born from experiences in the Holy Spirit that lead people to Kingdom success. This form of discipleship is right discipleship and which is the only effective means to spiritual growth for those being discipled. For without the revelation knowledge of the Holy Spirit given in times of dependant intimacy, discipleship can only be by conclusions of the intelligence of the mind of people. It takes both the absolutely necessary word of God and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit coupled together to gain right discipleship. It is this latter ingredient that so many who speak of revival error so totally miss.

The word alone is not enough for right discipleship nor is it so for right correction. That is legalism by good sounding arguments and mental conclusions. The word and the Spirit are required for right understanding and right leadership. Discipleship then falls right in line with the heart of the Father in a radical Kingdom way rather than a limited worldly way.

It is this false notion of discipleship through the word and blind submission to authority that is the very root of so much division and woundedness in the Body of Christ today. It is a strategy that is demonic and which is how the devil controls large church structures to keep them powerless and devoid of the Holy Spirit. When we trust in the mind of man alone and willfully reject the manifestations of the Holy Spirit from a lack of understanding or for form of order, we cut off the lines of power from Heaven to earth and become dependent on people for spiritual growth rather than Father God. The result becomes a church full of many ideas and theological deviations born from the mind of people rather than by a singular supply of Kingdom truth that manifests by revelation of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit will not show up unless he is fully given the reins of control of our meetings. This is not a giving up of control as so many religious leaders would suggest, this is true biblical submission of a leadership to the authority of the Holy Spirit, a trusting in faith.

Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we would have all that we need to defeat satan in all that satan brings. According to John 15-16, Jesus left earth and ascended into Heaven, but would not leave us as orphans. He gave us the Holy Spirit in all his glory so that we would be rightly equipped to win every fight. Now, with Jesus back with the Father, the Holy Spirit would become the revealer of all truth. One then can easily see that the number one goal of satan is to render the church Spiritless. He knows that if he can do this, he can silence the flow of revelation knowledge, prevent spiritual growth and block the power to heal, deliver, and raise the dead. We lose faith, start to think and then think our way into lower lesser arguments that place man in control of our meetings instead of God.

If where the Holy Spirit is, there is liberty, then what does this say about places where the Holy Spirit is not? In a word… bondage. Therefore, satan’s number one goal is to put the fire out wherever and whenever the fire starts. Like an effective military general, the devil will strategize and attack with high priority places of high Kingdom effectiveness. So it is with satan against the Spirit filled church, or wherever the Holy Spirit shows up. Sadly, so it also is with most arguments that have been leveled against revival fire in Lakeland Florida and on down the ages of revival history.

By most accounts of Lakeland, millions of souls have been saved and/or affected in a godly way. Thousands of people have been confirmed healed. Many confirmed dead people were raised during the Lakeland Revival, and we are to call this strange fire? By whose argument are we declaring this so? Is this God’s argument or by the words of good sounding mental assumptions?

Beware of strange fire? As for me, I am far more concerned to expose the leaven of legalistic worldly arguments that put Holy Spirit fires out. Such arguments bring way too much credit to the ability of the devil to warp people’s minds. Somehow we have assumed that God is or has become incapable of silencing demonic forces whenever God decides to show up in meetings with supernatural power. We tend to far more fear that what is happening is demonic rather than to consider that what is happening is of Father God. We have decided that by our policing efforts, we can do better than the Holy Spirit at silencing the enemy’s strategies.

Likewise, one must be there and personally experience a thing to rightly discern the thing. There is a favorite bumper sticker I have seen and which holds true in regards to this discussion. It reads as follows: “If you haven’t been to Iraq or Afghanistan then shut up about it.” Harsh as this might sound, the same concept applies here. If one has not clearly heard from the Lord about it, then one has no place speaking of it.

In reality, when we step in front of God to silence what we presume are demonic manifestations, we grieve the Holy Spirit. Who actually departs is not the devil, but the Holy Spirit. And this is exactly what the devil wants. So I must then ask, whose argument are we making when we criticize unusual manifestations of the Holy Spirit by what we think rather than by what we have been revealed to?

Indeed there were errors in Lakeland and which has been so in every revival that ever was (…of which none of them are my place to judge). No person is without internal flaws. However, in shedding light on these errors, let us not throw the baby out with the bath water? Revival is messy. People’s issues get dealt with in mass, even leadership… God’s plan accelerates in ways we do not understand. Light get’s shown on the devil’s works and the devil does not like that at all. It’s a messy business. Indeed revival will never look like a dead religious church service that results in little or no ground gained. We just cannot apply our cranial conclusions to what God does and how he does it.

On the other hand we cannot stand by and allow the devil to infiltrate revival with any level of error. So how do we rightly discern and intervene? The answer is found in intimacy and dependency.

Intimacy leads to revelation knowledge straight from the throne room of God. When two become intimate with each other, both expose what is in their hearts. Our dependant heart results in Kingdom knowledge being purified by the desire to be sure that what we speak is Father’s truth alone, not our own. The result becomes what Father knows about us and his plans. It’s the very Father heart of God that becomes known in revival. And when we know what God thinks over what we think, the picture is always so much better, bigger, brighter and more beautiful. Independent thinking therefore blocks these truths, as it does Father’s heart, as it does revelation knowledge as it does supernatural manifestations! Independent thinking is a deadly way as to Kingdom business.

Discipleship can be ministered out of relationship or out of the law. One way leads to radical supernatural life. The other way leads to darkness and lifelessness. In essence, one can say that dependant intimacy leads to life from the dead. Certainly if intimacy leads to a vibrant unified marriage, is it not far more so the same with our intimacy with the Father and with King Jesus?

The entire process of spiritual growth is found not in the literal word of the law, but within the intimacy of relationship that manifests a deep relationship between people and Father God inside and then outside of the church. Intimacy leads to the deep thoughts of your partner… Then, God becomes pleased to let us know what’s in his heart.

Offendability from the Supernatural

I’ve seen just about every manifestation in the Holy Spirit we read about. Shakes, quakes, laughter, tears, simultaneous laughter and tears, flailing about, running, running in place, cat calls and the like. I’ve seen it all. Well, maybe not… But in every single event, my flesh was definitely challenged. Every single time it was as if the Lord was asking me, “Well son, what do you think about this?” In each event I had never once entertained the notion to allow evil to coexist in the room with what God was doing. So pure had been the manifestation of God’s heart in these experiences that I would not dare to presume to step in his way.

Still though, my flesh was offended by many things I saw. However, there had always been this wonderful sense that the Father and Jesus were in the room. I had no fear that darkness was anywhere near what was going on. Oh there were demons in the room, in people who were being healed. But they were being dealt with by the Holy Spirit and angels authoritatively resident in the room as well! Jesus was being testified to in an unmistakable way. I knew that when the Holy Spirit was in residence, that he was in control of the meeting, not man and certainly not the devil.

It was obvious to me that God created the devil and had all power over him. So I never feared the devil in these meetings, however strange the manifestations became. God was dealing with many of our issues, however that looked like. I wonder, come to think of it, what are those things supposed to look like?

When the Holy Spirit shows up, people’s issues get dealt with, and darkness flees. What does that look like in the natural eye? Well, I can testify… wonderfully wild! This is not an allowing of evil to coexist with good as some would suggest. It is an inviting of wounded people into Father’s loving presence who are dealing with issues to be set free from those demonic forces. Devils become exposed and then depart forcibly! Can you imagine how quiet a meeting would be if no one with demonic influence was allowed into our meetings? There would be no one to minister to! (This, by the way, also speaks to the need to take this radical Spirit filled way out into the streets!)

Now there were times that I had witnessed demonic interruption, but those times were patently obvious and very easily dealt with. Likewise when people were ministering out of the flesh or worse, that too was easily known by submitted leadership who were being made known of it by the Holy Spirit. The difference between darkness and light is spiritually obvious for those who are moving in the Holy Spirit. Even for those who are not Christian, the difference between love and hate, between Christ and antichrist, between light and darkness are very obvious.

Ultimately, the witness and revelation of what is of light or of darkness can be completely blocked by what we choose to think, by what we accept or reject or by what we believe or do not believe. Therefore the very key to an understanding of what is light or what is darkness is found not in the intelligence of what one thinks, but rather in the condition of one’s heart and the state of one’s faith. The unyeilded mind can do nothing but get in the way of God.

What I have found in every experience of the Holy Spirit were those who got it and those who judged it. For truly I have seen that it has always been and will always be that the manifestations of the Holy Spirit are a great offense to those who do not get it. This very truth was recorded in Acts as an end result of Pentecost. There were many people who were drunk in the Holy Spirit as Peter spoke of, but there were many who questioned what they were seeing and then rejected it. Reference Acts 2: 13

Discernment

I completely agree with the argument that we must never allow things that are demonic or fleshly to have safe passage within revival. But the problem is in how we discern what is or is not of God. The very essence of revival is the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit. However, when the Holy Spirit shows up, he does so almost always in ways that people would not expect. Just as Jesus showed up as a carpenter to confound the wise, so the Holy Spirit shows up with manifestations that also confound the wise. Herein is a key principle in that God always asks the question, “Who is in control of this meeting? Is it man or the Holy Spirit? Is it what you think or what I know?”

Certainly the devil works to counterfeit what God does so as to gain a divisive “in.” But when the Holy Spirit is moving in revival, the “Helper who leads us into all truth” makes known those strategies easily to those who are in charge by way of discernment. In such a case, we need to silence those voices. But we need to do so without getting in the way of God. And so the only way to rightly discern is to allow God to supernaturally lead from the heart. We hear his voice and only then do we act as the Spirit leads.

I cannot witness a manifestation and because of my offense say that this is not of God. I must be in connection with the Holy Spirit, hear what he says about it and only then take action according to his desire. In so doing I overcome my fleshly disagreement with God. This is what “testing and approving” is all about. Right testing and approving is found in the hearing, not by conclusion. It starts with the written word but then is finalized with the Spirit’s revelation; only then can right action be taken. When the Holy Spirit shows up, it’s easy to gain the truth. Darkness is very easy to discern in times of God’s manifest presence to those who lead.

In regards to “testing and approving”, those who use this argument to criticize spiritual manifestations almost always take the focus of this statement out of context. One must continue past 1 John 4:1 and read through to verse 6:

1 John 4:1-6 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

There is one and only test as to the validity of any ministry or manifestation. Does it testify the full gospel of Jesus Christ into a dying world? What is demonic will not testify to the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s that simple. We make it much harder than it really is by applying this concept falsely against those who are honestly ministering in the Lord. We go well beyond what this testing and approving means when we focus this argument against manifestations we do not understand. The simple question to ask those who manifest in the supernatural is this, “In what you are ministering, do you testify to Jesus Christ in all his truth?” Demoniacs will recoil when asked this question. Error is based in antichrist. It is easily found out. Using the above scripture to criticize against what is a God thing is an act of agreement with an antichrist argument.

An Example

What if someone were screaming on the floor in joy and tears? What if many were doing so? This sounds out of order and just plain weird doesn’t it? As a leader assessing the situation, I might be offended at what I am witnessing. It seems out of order. It just doesn’t feel right as I think of it. My fleshly response might very well be that these people are manifesting demons. And this very well might be true even when God has a plan in it all! But then the Holy Spirit tells me that he is “working something out in these people, leave them alone and let them release it.” If I choose, out of my offense to get up and move a certain person out of the meeting, what have I just done? I have just stepped in the way of God. Specifically, I have just placed a block between the Holy Spirit and this person who is being ministered to. On the larger scale, I have without discernment just said “no” to Holy Spirit manifesting what he wants to bring into the church meeting. How grievous is this error! This very error is the quickest way to stop the manifestation of God’s Presence in a place. The authority has just gotten in the way of The Authority for fear in whatever form.

Every revival that has ever been has been silenced in this very same way… someone in charge got in the way of God. Someone declared that which was of God as something that was of the flesh or demonic. This is a false accusation of the Holy Spirit. My goodness this is a form of blasphemy to the Holy Spirit! Let us not forget how many times Jesus was accused of being a demoniac. Jesus offended their thinking by what he did that was outside of their mental comfort zones.

We must understand that our flesh is in enmity with the Lord, however mature or however in submission we might be. Therefore we all deal with the flesh until the day we go to Heaven. True spiritual maturity is found in the sign of how well we keep our flesh in check. Paul calls this perseverance (among other things we persevere through). Therefore a key part of good discernment is found in the ability to persevere.

Inside the church circle, as leadership, our flesh will always be challenged by what the Holy Spirit brings. The Pharisees were confronted with the very same decision process. Was Jesus and his miraculous ways of God or not? For us, how offendable will we be when God shows up with the radical stuff? Will we get in his way by what we think, feel or fear? Or will we let God be God as he does his great works in our meetings? If God created the devil, does God not have all power and authority over whatever the devil might do? Indeed yes! But how we overcome the devil, in all his wares, is not by our own strength. As the Word says, “It is not by power, nor by might, but by the Holy Spirit, says the Lord!”

How very important is the position of leadership! How very important is a right understanding of discipleship based upon complete spiritual dependence. For the difference is life or death, liberty or bondage within the church, joy in the Holy Spirit or religious country club meetings of little worth. No wonder why satan is so interested to put the fire of the Holy Spirit out whenever it manifests!

By the way… Scriptures say that perfect love casts out fear. So when perfect love manifests in our meetings, what do we have to fear? Intimate dependent leadership discerns these things.

True Authority

God forever seeks to know from leadership if we are going to give up the reins of control or keep them for ourselves. True revival manifests only when we give up the reins of control in a willful state of complete dependence to the Lord. This is not giving up our need and biblical call to exercise authority in our meetings, rather this is a new way of understanding how to minister that control. This is right authority exercised in the church. The Bible says to submit to all authorities we are under. But for the authority structure of the church to be in right order, church leadership must themselves be under the direct authority of the Holy Spirit in every meeting.

Jesus exemplified pure authority in that he did nothing but what the Father willed. Likewise the Holy Spirit brings nothing but what Jesus speaks. The three are in agreement in everything. That agreement is born out of relationship. Relationship is born out of intimate dependence. Therefore, as goes the leader so goes the church. Spiritually, as a member of my church, I can only go as far as my leadership is willing to go. This is why when leadership buys into arguments that silence the Holy Spirit, the whole church gets silenced.

As to demonic forces, we know that the devil is fast at work to infiltrate the church with sin, good sounding arguments that introduce false leaven and forms of manipulation that lead to internal control. But how we are revealed to these strategies and how we successfully silence them can only be by the ongoing manifestation of the Holy Spirit to bring revelation knowledge that they even exist. If the church is devoid of the revival Spirit, it has become devoid of the only means to be made known of such demonic strategies! The result is that the church can only be in error as to how it deals with the demonic and the flesh. The result can only be forms of legalistic control by the mind of people. If the Holy Spirit is out of the church, the devil is most certainly in the church!

In order to keep the devil and the flesh of people out of our church meetings we must be seekers of intimate relationship with the Father, with Jesus and now more than ever with the Holy Spirit. Out of this relationship we gain the heart of the Father. When we gain his heart, we gain deep understandings of what he loves and what he hates. We start to see Father’s plans and then he shows us the plans of the devil that comes against him. God knows everything, including all of the devils schemes. Our spiritual eyesight becomes far clearer than it would be without Father’s presence and synergistically so. In a word, we gain discernment.

The scriptures are not the only means to gain right answers to these questions. Bill Johnson says, and I agree, “The Bible defines God, it does not contain him.” The devil knows the scriptures better than any person does. But does satan’s knowledge of scriptures make him right? He uses the scriptures legally to attempt to gain ground against people and the church. He succeeds in that when we come into agreement with his lower arguments. What we agree with, either knowingly or unknowingly is so very powerful as to our success in all things.

What the devil does not have is the revelation power of the Holy Spirit and the blood of Jesus. The church must recognize that Jesus did it all. His blood is our weapon and the release of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is our power behind this blood. Both are required for success against all things false. The blood is powerless without the Spirit. Jesus would not have been raised outside of the Holy Spirit’s power to be risen. If God is the entire flashlight and Jesus is the light bulb of truth, then the batteries that are the very power of the Holy Spirit are necessary to make it all work.

If I simply demand submission to authority by what I read and mentally conclude from the biblical word, without the blood and the manifesting presence of God, I can only be but in error. This, in time, results in the manifestation or religious demonic spirits who, through our flesh, control and manipulate the religious church by legalism and condescending authoritarianism.

Church leadership has no right to just demand parishioners to blindly “submit” without being in total submission to the Holy Spirit first in their own walk. That is not a right exercise of authority; it is more a form of legalistic dictatorship.

One Last Point

Take a very careful read of Romans Chapter 7. You know that Saul of Tarsus (Paul) was a murderer as he persecuted the Christians. Then God shed his supernatural light of revelation on Paul and Paul changed. But according to Romans 7 we are made clear to the fact that Paul still had issues he constantly dealt with. Here, Paul speaks to the law that reveals sin as sin. He then says that the law only has shed light on his miserable state. This was not a declaration of who he was as the former Saul; he spoke this of his present state.

Romans: 7:15-25 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living within me. I know that nothing good lives within me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!

Paul was transparently exposing his existing fleshly nature to the Roman church. By his honesty, he was showing us all how invaluable was the complete work of Jesus cross to his current soul. The simple truth is that Paul was not without sin, even while he was in the highest place of leadership.

When Todd Bentley made whatever mistake he made while at Lakeland, who are we to slap him down and say that this whole thing in Lakeland was “Strange Fire?” I can imagine how many critics there were of Paul’s ministry in his day that came against Paul with these same accusations, with Paul openly admitting that he was dealing with issues of the flesh.

If a prerequisite for leadership were perfection from sin, if all leadership were to be completely honest, there would be no church at all, and no one in Heaven. So maybe Todd blew it. And certainly there needs to be repentance. But to disqualify him is like saying to the apostle Paul, “Paul, here is where you sinned. Therefore, what you are manifesting is strange fire, and you are now disqualified to continue in ministry. Likewise we all need to beware of your strange fire.” This is great error.

Who is without sin today? Let him cast the first stone at Todd Bentley. As Jesus said to the Jews who were about to stone him in John 10:32, “I have shown you great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

Conclusion

Who is in control of our meetings? Is it the law or is it the Holy Spirit? When the Holy Spirit shows up in unique power how will we respond when the Lord asks the question, “Well, smarty pants, what do you think about that? Is this the devil or is it me?” Leadership must know, they will forever be asked these very questions.

Strange fires can only be exposed by revelation knowledge, not by what we think. Revelation knowledge comes only by way of the manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But if the Holy Spirit is not welcome because of “people in the way”, we are left with nothing but fine sounding arguments. This is what the Lord is warning us so seriously about in our day. Fine sounding arguments are no less than the tools the devil uses to silence God’s power in the earth. When the devil has done that, he traffics without check to bring division and destruction into the church. For the Holy Spirit is the power behind the light that sheds on darkness; no power… no light. We have to ask ourselves this very serious question, “Who are we arguing against when we judge revivals by what we think?”

Therefore, error is not found where the Holy Spirit manifests the Kingdom of God on earth in ways that confound people’s thinking, as was seen in Lakeland. Error is found where the Holy Spirit is not in residence. These places are where today’s Pharisees are found. These places are where there is so little Kingdom expression manifested outside church walls. Today, God is very much in the business of restoring his church to these radical Spirit filled standards as in Pentecost that resulted in such miracles as 3000 souls saved in a day.

Strange fire must be come against indeed. But it can only be revealed by Spirit filled people. Strange fire manifests in witch covens. It traffics in humanism, worldly spiritualism and in false cultic religions and to those who are deeply blinded by false doctrines. We know these false doctrines by who they testify to, Jesus or the world. Strange fire manifests to those who seek only what their itching ears want to hear. To apply this argument to those who love the Lord from the heart is way out of order.

There are many who would warn to beware of “strange fires.” When such warnings come by way of those truly moving in the Holy Spirit with revelation knowledge that has come from the Lord, then such warnings are critical. However, when such warnings come from those who are not operating in revelation, they do so of the flesh. To correct the flesh with the flesh is sure to put whatever fire is of God out. That which is supernatural is always in enmity with the flesh of man’s thinking.

I personally witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Lakeland. I watched the Holy Spirit do miracle after miracle, including for my mother and my wife. I personally know that what happened there was very much in line with the Father’s heart. Had the manifestation of “strange fires” occurred there, even the most casual of godly observers in residence would have recognized it.

T. Scott Morton
www.tscottmorton.wordpress.com
tscottmorton@hotmail.com

The election is over and the people have been heard. Our next president has been set in place. Now as the Christian base of this country we have but only one thing we are to say… “God bless our next president, Barak Obama.” And this we say with all our hearts.

Our call is very clear and the word of God makes this unmistakable. From this day forward we lift him up; we love on him and all those he places in office. We pray for him and we respect him in thought, word and deed. Consider the following scriptures:

Col 1:16 For by him (Jesus) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

Titus 3: 1-2 Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

Rom 13:1-2 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.

This does not mean that we simply forget the differences we have in principle and ideology. It becomes our absolute responsibility to know what God thinks on any particular issue. Rather than come against Barak with anger and judgment, we must “pray these truths in” and watch God make the necessary changes in the man or in those he puts into position.

Now more than ever our intercessions and prayers will make or break us as a nation. Consider the words of John McCain in last night’s concessionary speech:

“Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.”

These are great words and rightly spoken. We as the Christian right must take great heed and follow through just as John McCain exhorts. We must not make the mistake we made when the last democrat was president.

Rather than pray for Bill Clinton, we saw his mistakes and passed judgment. Then, rather than cry out for mercy and revelation for Bill Clinton, we threw stones at him. Truly not all Christian did this, but most did. Let this never be again! Let us never throw stones to those we disagree with who are in authority! If we do that, the fate of America stands far more in danger than it would be with strong intercessory prayer in place.

We are Americans and with a great mandate from the Lord to do great things. This mandate has not changed with the election of this new president. Again I would direct you again to the words of John McCain’s speech last night:

“I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

We never hide from history. We make history.”

So long as we hold fast to these God given ideals, our future as a nation remains secure. But if we pass judgment and throw stones, we bring curses to this nation and we will reap the reward for doing it, just as it happened in the years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.

Was Barak Obama God’s best choice for the presidency? Principally the answer to that question is an obvious no. Did God put Barak Obama in the seat of president, the answer is unmistakably yes. Why then did God not set in place John McCain? The answer is, “You have been given what you asked for.”

Now then we are surely in for a ride. We are in for great and terrible things. We stand to lose much ground that has been gained by many years of spiritual warfare. Ground gained is precious. Ground lost must be fought for to regain it. How much spiritual ground is lost in the next four years is a very sad prospect only God knows of. How much of it is effective over the long term once again has everything to do with how we intercede, pray for and respect this new president.

One thing I see and which is a very serious concern I speak to everyone in the Body of Christ. Everyone must prepare for an economic disaster of unprecedented proportions. We have maybe two years to prepare. Between one and a half to two years from now there will be an economic disaster of unprecedented proportions. How big it will be will have everything to do with how we pray.

This economic disaster will affect the entire world in profound ways. It will start the ball rolling with high speed to cause national leaders to come together to attempt to form a “One World” answer to the worldwide economy. It will cause many to begin to think on the level of a single worldwide government that will control all. It could be the basis upon which the antichrist would gain worldwide control. It would be the start of the end as described in Biblical prophesy. No I am not speaking to a date or an hour. What I am speaking of is the season of end time. It can only progress when ungodly leaders are in control of the highest offices.

Can God change the heart of Barak Obama to do his specific will, indeed God can. This is how we need to think. Not in manipulation but with resolve to see God’s plans come to pass in this world by God’s hand. We need to honor, respect, and love our next president. Without that, this nation is in line for a form of evil that it has never seen, nor will ever see again.

God promised a revival in America, and some would say that this revival has been aborted. Even I greatly feared this to be true. Certainly the devil would say that this morning. I say that it is not so! I believe that God is saying that it is not so. If the heart of Barak Obama is not all about the heart and will of Father God, then let’s pray this in and watch God do his thing with Barak. And as for the American Church, let’s press forward with new fervor to see the presence of God take hold of our meetings.

Until then we bless Barak Obama with our heart of love and encouragement and pray and hope for the light of life to be fully known in his heart. We do not judge him.

But as for the American Church, we prepare for the worst; not out of a lack of faith but in preparation for the reaping of souls. Get out of debt now! Position your finances to be protected even in economic fall much worse than what we are now in. Position yourself to go out into the nations now! If you do not have a ministry, get one. If you are not ready to reap, get ready! If you have issues of ungodliness, deal with them now! How much we prepare right now and for the next few years will have everything to do with how effective we will be then. Because in that day we will have little left to prepare with.

I say this with all my heart. If you are not prepared and ready for the economic disaster to come you will be left with nothing in hand and despair and misery will surely follow.

This is not a cursing word, it is… “what we have asked for.”

For the Christians in this country you have two years to prepare. Please make every effort to be ready, spiritually, positionally and financially. How bad this will be hinges very much on how ready we are and how willing we are to cry out to the Lord.

Remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians… In essence he said this walk in this world will not be a cake walk. There will always be trials and troubles of every kind. But we persevere in it all by giving it all away; in having nothing but possessing everything. Perhaps this is where the Lord is leading his church in the short days ahead? Read these words. Do they define where you are with the Lord right now? If not, I encourage you with all that is in me… prepare.

2 Cor 6:1-10 As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

I have two immediate critical words of concern. First for the American Church, second for the Worldwide Church. These regard the American elections and the worldwide economy.

First word: In the American presidential election, there is underway a demonic process to abort the Kingdom process that has been underway for the last eight years. Regardless of what we think in the natural of George W. Bush, in the spiritual Kingdom plan, this President has been all about the process of God’s plan in the world. Those without eyes to see have not seen it.

The demonic spirit of abortion is far more than about the horrendous killing of the unborn. It is a spirit that is all about the killing or cessation of what God is birthing into the world for the sake of the increase of God’s Kingdom on earth. This spirit is fast at work bringing havoc to the American economy (hence the worldwide economy) so that people, even the church, would be enticed by fear to vote for ungodliness in the White House. This is a spirit that must be dealt with now so that physical abortion and many other manifestations will be dealt the final blow. What has been started with George Bush either gets taken to the next level or gets aborted.

Over nine years ago, the Lord gave me the word that George W. Bush would be the next U.S president and that revival would begin to manifest through George W. Bush “if My people would pray.” That very same word is coming forth today through many prophetic voices.

The Lord told me almost two years before Bush was elected that in the years of the Bush presidency would be started the fires of revival that no man nor the devil would be able to put out. Indeed this revival has begun in America, but the spirit of abortion has been fast at work to silence it. Evidence the Lakeland Revival.

The devil is terribly afraid of the power of a Holy Spirit manifesting church! Ultimately the strategy is to put these fires out, to silence the economy responsible for funding worldwide mission ministries that would take these fires overseas, and to kill democracy in such a way as to begin the process of dictatorship in the world, starting with socialism.

Our prayers must now be filled with Holy Spirit revelation, and then we must repent and pray now and until the election is complete to see the man and woman of God, John McCain and Sarah Palin, to be our next Commanders-In-Chief.

Second Word: The fall of the American economy has brought proof to the world that the success of the worldwide economy hinges directly upon the foundation of the American free market economy. Unmistakably, the effect of the American economic downfall has directly affected every economy in the world.

What I say next is NOT from any form of American pride… The Lord has risen up the American system and America as a nation called to purvey liberty in all its forms into the world, first in the spirit and then in the natural. (Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty…)

America was formed as “One Nation Under God.” This nation has been made of the Lord as a vital ingredient in Father’s worldwide plan for the furtherance of the increase of the Kingdom of God on earth. However, many nations, and unfortunately many ministries outside of America, have brought cursing words against America and George W. Bush.

There needs to be worldwide repentance from the Worldwide Church for the false accusations and general anger and judgment brought against America as a nation and against George W. Bush. The scripture makes it clear that God raises up and sets down nations and leaders of nations. So it was with George W. Bush. All the judgments against President Bush, in reality, have been judgments against God and his plan; they have been judgments in error. Far away the greatest accomplishments of this President have been in forms within the unseen spiritual realm. What God has done through this President is invisible to the world and has so significantly furthered the plans of God for the world that few understand. Certainly the devil knows of this furtherance, hence all the fleshly accusations and hatred of America from both the ungodly insiders and very much from outside her borders. The Worldwide Church has picked up on this and rather than pray in faith for Bush and America as well as other world leaders, they have brought volumes of criticism.

These things must be repented of. Then a blessing from the heart and prayers for the financial stability of America must follow.

God raised up the United States of America to bless the world with the truth of Jesus Christ and with unparalleled provision into the world for the sending out of the same. To curse America for whatever reason, rather than to pray for her, is out of line and could reap the reward for doing so. Should any of God’s church take up such offenses born from the pits of hell? Almost always when the supernatural of God manifests, there will be criticism of it from the world.

Today we are seeing a small but unmistakable portion of the reward for this form of witchcraft cursing. Starting with the American economy and then rapidly manifesting into the world has been an economic downfall of unprecedented and direct affect on all worldwide ministries.

As Americans, we have much to repent for in our own right. But what we should never repent for is our call to bless and provide for the worldwide church in supernatural ways that confound the mind of man.

It comes down to this: America’s call is America’s call, just as Israel’s call is Israel’s call. American’s must accept and then move in it with humility and dependency in the Holy Spirit.

As for the nations, rather than to curse America with unfounded good sounding arguments, the Church must choose to bless it as something near and dear to the Father’s heart.

What will result, and in short order, is that if “the American Church within” continues to pass judgment on what the Lord has ordained in the White House, we shall surely fall into a great despair unprecedented since the day of the cross. As for the Worldwide Church outside of America, if there is not repentance for the judgment of America, there surely will be a worldwide economic fall so strong as has never before been seen. The result will be loss of life and economic failure that will lead to the rise of unspeakable demonic manifestations in the earth.

Such is the very same result if we do not bless Israel. Not that America has the same blessing as does Israel; theirs is far greater than ours. But when God decrees something over a nation, such a decree cannot be rescinded unless the people of that nation choose to disagree with God.

These two words go hand in hand. What stands before the Worldwide Church are blessings or curses beyond imagination. All of this hinges greatly on what happens in the American election just two weeks away.

And again the Lord says, “The intercession of just a few who do so in the Holy Spirit can literally change the coarse of a nation!”

T. Scott Morton

Separation of Church and State 9/29/08

(Note: While writing this word today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 778 points for an all time record point drop. It was not until this note was complete that I realized this event. This confirms in my heart the urgency for this letter. Please feel free to send it out as you see fit.)

Now more than ever is the time to uncover demonic strongholds and false arguements. It’s time to expose that which is a lie as being a lie. It’s time to expose that which has been in hiddenness and to strip those dark things of their power according to the will and timing of the Lord.

Now is time to expose good sounding arguments that are filled with the leaven of bondage. It’s time to come out of limited worldly understanding to a more complete Kingdom understanding in as much as the Lord is willing to reveal.

Col 2:2-4 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine sounding arguments.

2 Cor 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Now is the time to demolish antichrist arguments that render today’s church powerless against principalities, authorities and rulers in high places over America. It’s time to uncover strategies and tactics of satan that come against Kingdom ministries so that what has been will be no more. Likewise, it’s time to intercede like never before to crash down these old religious walls of limitations that have been standing for generations against America. It’s time to be filled with the Holy Spirit, gain what is truth by revelation, and fight this fight with all the authority and power that Christ died for us to have. The days of compromise and of fear to speak out for truth must come to an end.

With this in mind…

The concept of separation of church and state is a lie from the pits of hell. It was born generations ago from times of deep Spiritless religious error. In days when the church was operating in great error, the church brought condescending persecution against all who did not think as they. The church manipulated in brutal and worldly ways. The church was all but devoid of the Holy Spirit of God in those days. Rather than operating in and by the Holy Spirit with love and encouragement, the church operated with militant manipulation and worldly judgment. Thus the concept of the separation of church and state was born. It was a demonic strategy all along. It was a lie sown out of religious error and hate, defined by satan, raised in the flesh of men, readily accepted by the world and then adopted by the religious Spiritless church in America. Now for generations it has held. But it is patently false, and unmistakably so when one takes just a tertiary look at the founding documents of the United States of America.

The result has been measures of manifestations of the spirit of antichrist within the American government.

When God speaks a word, it becomes his bond. So when he declares and then writes down a principle, it becomes his bond. When God says something is a sin, it is forever a sin. When he declares a way, it is forever a way. Satan knows this better than any man. He is a legalist. He attempts to establish ways that are leavened with falsity so that when we believe in such falsities, we reap the cost for what we have chosen to believe. Hence the following strategy…

As to any government, when we separate the church from the state, that takes godliness out of the state. The state becomes independent of God. It becomes dependant on worldly ways. The state becomes free to enact antichrist policies and laws.

This follows then with the scriptural principle that all must submit to the state. Satan knows that whatever the state establishes, we must follow:

Rom 13:1 Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.

When the church has become irrelevant in a country, the government of that country departs from godliness. That is what the church reaps when it loses the vision of its place and call within a nation. Satan then works hard to take control of the government so as to enact legislation and persecution against the church and the Lord’s plan and call for a nation.

God establishes all leadership in the world. But God does so based on what the church asks for and how the church asks. Scripture is clear about the absolute necessity for the church to pray. If we agree with this notion of separation of church and state, we effectively silence our voices that ask and declare God’s plan for the direction of our nation. The result is no power to stop demonic infiltration.

When we do not ask, we get what we ask for. What we get is nothing. Better said, what we get is a lesser thing. We end up with less than what God wants for the nation.

What we have asked for when we do not intercede are ungodly leaders that enact ungodly policy. If we don’t speak the walls in place, the devil is free to pass. This is exactly what happened in the days of Bill Clinton. We did not ask. We did not collectively intercede. We got what we asked for. Then, to compound matters, the church did not pray for him. Rather we judged Bill Clinton as we threw him stones.

Then follows the bellow principle that never changes:

1 Peter 2:13-14a Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors…

Simply said, this principle becomes our bond of responsibility. Whether Godly or ungodly, we must submit to whatever leadership is in control of this country. So when we do not ask, we get what we ask for, ungodliness. Then we are charged to submit to it. When we do not ask, we get antichrist. We then reap the damage that follows. As goes the leader, so goes the nation!

This strategy has plaid itself out time and again over the generations since Jesus’ complete work of the cross.

Indifference is just as much in error as is the wrong choice. Indifference is a deadly way!

This is what happens when we do not ask (intercede):

James 4:1-3 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

Many errors are spoken of in the above scripture, but not asking is clearly defined as one of them. For us to not ask means that we have chosen to do it of our own strength. Indifference to the business of state means that we have either given up our responsibility to intercede for government, or we are doing things from our own motives and strength. Both ways are in great error.

What we get when we do not ask is division on a national scale.

This is what happens when we do ask from a right dependant heart:

Ma 21:22 If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit–fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.

This intercession, this asking, is written about over and over in the New Testament. It is this asking and receiving that is part of what Christ died on the cross to give to us.

When the Lord spoke prophetically in 1999 and 2000 to intercede for this next President, we DID ask. The church heard the word and we collectively got to the business of intercession in a way that had not been done for generations in America. We got what we asked for in the form of a humble man of God, George W. Bush. What was set in motion from January 2001 were plans of the Lord to prosper and restore America to her spiritual roots. Revival was promised. And here we are in this day as revival has begun across this land. God moved in ways we still do not fully understand. But what has begun is still in the beginning stages, and the devil knows it. This is why America is under attack in this hour financially.

When we don’t ask, the devil gets a free ride. When we do ask, the devil is displaced. Today in America, the Lord is calling us once again to ASK and DECLARE!

If we agree in this falsity of separation of church and state, we are agreeing with a demonic generational lie that has formed a wall of division between the church and the American government. Ultimately, this strategy is to prevent spiritual and church growth for generations. What we have bought into is the primary means for the enemy to take down this nation. The ultimate goal of satan to divide and destroy America has, as his primary strategy, this policy of separation of church and state.

What has been shaken since the end of 2000 is the very core of this demonic principle. Founded by visionaries who sounded the war cry, the church started to pray. Suddenly the tide began to turn. The prophetic word went forth for people to pray in the Holy Spirit. The Lord spoke through his servants the prophets what was about to happen, the church received it and did the work. Hence the very great spiritual battles of the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections.

Amos 3:7 Surely the Sovereign LORD does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets.

Suddenly it became a fight between two halves of this country. The Light began to shine in places of darkness. The division that has always been underlying became far more entrenched and far more visible. This fight between right and wrong, between the spiritual left and right, between antichrist and national revival ensued. The Kingdom of God began to rise up again in America as darkness was becoming displaced. And now today the battle royal wages on for the very heart and soul of America.

We have been in it now for eight years. 9/11 was a direct result of this shaking. Today we are under the gun for more shaking. The economy, strategies to bring terror to America, and strategies to increase division between ignorance and righteousness are all in the desire of God’s adversary.

Spiritual ground has been gained in the last eight years. But the spiritual left is hard at work to regain that ground.

Consider this scripture very seriously and with spiritual eyes:

Ecclesiastes 10:1-3 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell, so a little folly outweighs wisdom and honor. The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of the fool to the left. Even as he walks along the road, the fool lacks sense and shows everyone how stupid he is.

Ground once gained is very precious. When it is lost, there ensues a great battle to regain it. Likewise, when ground has been gained, it is far easier to maintain it than to retake it. How we gain ground and maintain ground is in prayer and intercession followed by enactment of that which has been revealed from the Lord.

So where are we today? I say this… we are on the edge! Here are a series of words for today, both revelatory and prophetic:

1) INTERCESSION: The Spirit of the Lord is hovering over America for good and for Kingdom destiny. But we must be praying these manifestations in, according to revelatory intercession. Prophetic intercession is critical NOW and will be from this day forth. In as much as we pray, we will succeed in the battles ahead. In as much as we don’t pray we will fail. I’m not talking legalistically here. I speak to the church-wide call that never changes, to pray in the Holy Spirit.
2) DIVISION AND UNITY: The Lord is dividing into a clear delineation the spiritual left from the spiritual right. This will increase to the point of violent persecution. On the right is righteousness and Kingdom things. On the left are antichrist, humanism, worldliness, lust, materialism and perversions of truth. On the right is liberty, on the left is ever increasing forms of manipulation and control, starting with sugar coated socialism and increasing to violent dictatorship (the antichrist spirit).
3) THE PRESIDENTIAL CHOICE: The Lord is rising up John McCain and Sarah Palin in this hour to be the next President and Vice-President of the United States. If we pray they will. If we don’t they won’t. Either way, we will get what we ask for. They are the chosen ones who will operate in the Spirit of the Lord with revelation knowledge and wisdom that is from the Kingdom of God. Sarah Palin will become the President in time. She will be in the center of many battles but she will show the American church what it is to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to hear the voice of God, to do the plans that the Father gives her, to show America what it is to be dependent on God, to see radical successes in times that it seems impossible and to move with God given authority not seen for generations. The Lord is using her to brake off religious spirits and the false religious mentality that women are lower than men. The Lord will use the foolishness of people to confound the wise through Sarah Palin. We must pray for them now in the Holy Spirit. We must get into relationship with the Father and from those times of intimacy, hear and speak what Father tells us. The result will be great battles won while prostrate on the floor. Like Moses in the day of Battle and the servant that held his arms up to the Lord, so it will be with the church in the days ahead that we will hold up the hands of our leaders unto the day of spiritual victories.
4) CHURCH LEADERS: The Lord is rising up many nameless faceless ones to do great exploits in America and from America to go around the world to minister the Kingdom of God on earth in power. Many who have rejected the work of the Holy Spirit will receive him with great joy, turn and then move deeply in the Holy Spirit. Miracles will happen in America as revival continues to manifest in power. Religious structures will fall as the Holy Spirit continues to pour out in America the restoration of the church. And the Spirit filled church will go for want of nothing as these days of reaping and ground shaking increase. We will have everything we need to succeed by way of the Holy Spirit and angelic manifestations. Revelation is about to increase synergistically.
5) ECONOMY: (written before the knowledge of today’s record drop) The devil knows these things are coming and has heard the prophetic word. Hell has been shaken and continues to shake as the Spirit of the Lord and angels win fight after fight. We can see this shaking on Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closing figures each day form what appears like a Richter scale register. It is flailing like in an earth quake. Hell has been shaken. The devil is strategizing against the American economy to take it down. He knows that if he can do this, then he can prevent the funding required to send revival fire out to the nations. The destruction of the American economy was the primary goal of satan at 9/11. Since that did not happen, he has resorted to other means to do it. Meanwhile the Lord is using this attack to destroy worldly means to gain wealth as it pertains to the Body of Christ. The Lord is using this to teach the Body of Christ that he is the provider and that ungodly means towards gain will succeed no longer. God is weaning the church off worldly provisionary means onto Kingdom provisionary means. Great ideas are going to come to the Spirit filled Body of Christ. The Holy Spirit filled church will be prospered in times of economic attack so that the word will flow from here to the harvest fields. But for now, the Lord is saying get out of debt by whatever godly means it takes to do so.
6) TERRORISM: There are plans and strategies to attack America with terrorism underway. Now more than in any time in the last eight years we are in danger of such an attack. What I am concerned about is an attack from within as much as an attack through other countries. We need to be praying about that. There are two reasons I see for increasing danger from terrorism. Primary Reason One: To cause more reason to bring accusation to President Bush and the spiritual right. The ultimate goal is to cause America to vote for Barack Obama for President. The devil knows that if he can get Obama in, there will be far more liberty for him (demonic forces) to traffic in the American government. Reason Two: The economy has buckled under the weight of demonic efforts against it. The enemy sees this as a prime opportunity to finish off our economy. To introduce great fear in times of economic turmoil might render the economy into a state of depression.
7) ON BARACK OBAMA: If Barack Obama becomes President of the United States, where ungodliness abounds, it will abound in far greater measure and in ever increasing ungodliness. There will be a manifestation of antichrist and economic disaster that will do great damage to the call and purpose of the United States for generations to come. (Though if we awake and pray during his presidency, much can be averted.) How we choose as the American Body of Christ over the next two months will cause America to turn in the direction of Kingdom greatness or in the direction of potential disaster. This leads me to the final point…
8)INTERCESSION (Point Two): It’s the key that will open the door or leave it locked to full Holy Spirit revival in America. As goes the leader, so goes the nation. It’s the most basic spiritual principle of all. In the hands of the Spirit filled Body of Christ in America in this hour rests the choice for our future. Will we pray or will we not? This now is in our hands to either win or lose. Stands before us now are blessings or curses, peace or war, liberty or bondage… revival or religion.

End Prophetic Words

Last Thoughts

1 Tim 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone–for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

What will we believe? Will it be an old dead religious way that says the church should have no effect in government? Shall we believe that we should remain silent as to God’s heart for American leadership? Certainly not! I hear the Spirit of the Lord making known the heart of the Father and the word of Jesus Christ. He says, “America is mine!” Now then, it is our responsibility to go forth in authority and in bold humility and to declare spiritual Kingdom truths right into the halls of Congress, the Senate and in the White House; not by what we think but by what we have been given! Going away are the days that we prayed in hiding and in the basement of these buildings. The day is short at hand that we will be praying from the podium and the front steps, hand in hand with those in responsibility.

To finalize these thoughts, here’s the very word of the Lord to America. I have replaced the word “you” with “America” in certain places for effect:

Deut 30:15-20 See, I set before (America) today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command (America) today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then (America) will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient (America), and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you (America) that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is (America’s) life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers…

America is on the very precipice, balanced on the very edge that can go either way… God’s glory, or man’s disaster. How America succeeds or fails has everything to do with right choices of the Holy Spirit filled Church in the days ahead. I pray with all my heart that by revelation knowledge and then our right choices, the seat of this Government will be the seat of Christ, not the seat of antichrist.

Timothy Scott Morton

I wrote on the Todd Bentley issue and the Lakeland Revival last week. If you have not read it and desire to do so, it is the previous post to this posting. Since this post relates directly to my previous post, I suggest please that you read it first before proceeding with the below posting.

Greetings friends!

I have had a response to my last posting on the Lakeland Revival that asks some very serious questions as to the validity and value of the complete Bible being the singular and only word of God. The brother brings up such a very important question that begs the need to discuss how the Lord speaks and how we hear what the Lord is trying to communicate to us.

His questions are so important in my mind that rather than posting an answer to his response, I would like to speak to this issue in a new posting.

This brother asks, “I hope I am misreading what you’ve written, but it appears you refer to God speaking outside or apart from the truth already revealed in scripture. I believe the Holy Spirit comes to reveal or quicken Gods truth as revealed in His word. To walk down a path that says God’s revelation to me can supersede scripture is, at the very least, dangerous.”

The main questions are these, “Is the Bible the only way that the Lord speaks to us today?” “Can the Lord speak something to us that is not referred to in the Bible?”

Indeed I agree with the brother in principle. The Bible is the complete word of God as to who he is and how he works. We cannot add to or take away from the word of God. To do so enters into the realm of cultic activity. Indeed that is not at all what I suggest in my writing.

True Kingdom revelation knowledge never supersedes the word of God as it is written. It just violates our understanding of the word as we think of it. The big problem then becomes a wrong conclusion followed quickly by man-made definitions of the scriptures that are in various levels of error; all because of an unwillingness to change.

The key is in our understanding of how the Lord wants us to comprehend the word he has given to us. Perception is everything! As to the word and its revelations, God clearly intended us to be in a state of personal and corporate complete dependence to the Holy Spirit to understand it. Without the Holy Spirit, we are left to conclude what the word means. The result can be nothing but error over time. Such arguments eventually lead to divisions that render the Body of Christ all but ineffective in the world.

Process of Revelation

Simply said, the Father wills a thing. Jesus speaks the thing. And the Holy Spirit makes the thing known and then manifested. The Father willed the Bible. Jesus spoke the Bible. But today the Holy Spirit must actively make the Bible known and manifested in our hearts to have its desired effect. In essence, the Bible is all but meaningless to those who do not (or choose not to) gain a revelation of what it means.

The very first scriptural purpose of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus known by revelation to a dyeing soul. When a lost soul picks up the Bible and reads about Jesus, if the heart is ready for change, that soul gets a revelation that the word is true.

Reading the word alone is not enough. The Holy Spirit’s revelation of Jesus, coupled with a ready heart is the spark that starts faith. Thus, necessary ingredients to start a person’s faith include the will of the Father over his/her life, the word of Jesus and the revelation of the Holy Spirit. God’s will, God’s word and God’s revelation of it all are required. The key to understanding the first of these two processes is the necessary power of revelation knowledge. Therefore our whole walk of faith starts and grows by revelation knowledge. The word and revelation are inseparable as to Kingdom truth. As scripture says in Col 2:2-4 (copied below) all mysteries of truth are hidden in Christ. This means that there must be a means to have those mysteries revealed.

As to the Bible, the word outlines the principles of God and which cannot change or be changed. The Bible is the complete word of God as to establishing benchmarks of who God is. However the Bible does not define what the Lord is doing in the here and now, besides scriptural prophesies that require revelation knowledge to understand. Interestingly, the last book of the Bible is all prophetic visionary materials, named “The Book of Revelation”.

Just before Jesus went to the cross, he said to the apostles (paraphrased from John 14-16 and Acts 1-2), “I will not leave you as orphans; I will give you the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth. When he comes he will make me known and then you will go out to all the ends of the earth and testify about me.” Jesus did not say, “Waite for the Bible to be written in full form, only then will you know what to do.”

Outside of revelation, the Bible remains open for interpretation and manipulation by those who are operating in what they think vise what they have been revealed to. The literal word, coupled with what people think, is the very cause of so many divisions among the Body of Christ. It is for this very reason there are so many denominations of Protestant beliefs.

The Bible does not contain God. This is a critical understanding! It means that God can operate outside of what we think whenever he wants to. He does this regularly. Just because I can’t find the literal word that defines what he has just done does not mean it was not God.

Two key scriptures: The first one says that the Lord is always doing a new thing that requires perception (Isa 43:19). The second scripture says that of the increase of his government and peace there is no end (Isa 9:6-7).

The new thing and increase. This means that there are things being done today that have never happened before. It means that when God does a new thing, it is bigger than what it was yesterday. These are key principles that the Bible cannot speak to in literal terms. These things must come by way of revelation. We have to be made known to what these things are through a trusting faith in the Helper (Holy Spirit) who leads us into all truth.

God did not stop doing new things at the point of completion of the Bible. Therefore what has happened since then and in the days ahead will require prophetic revelation for them to be made known.

A Testemony

When the Lord delivered me of smoking many years ago, he did it supernaturally. I literally felt the demons leaving me on the day that happened. After that day, I was completely released from that addiction, never again to touch cigarettes. What left me were demonic spirits of addiction that had right by my choice of sin.

The Bible outlined my sin. It outlined the rights demons have to take hold of me. It outlined that deliverance was available to me thru repentance. What the Bible did not do for me was to define when, were or how that deliverance would happen. Herein is a key point. The Bible speaks to who God is, but which is incomplete as to what, when, where and how God does it.

The Bible says this in Amos 3:7-8, “Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets…” This is an unchanging principle of the Lord (as are all declarative statements in the Bible). This makes it clear. What is about to happen must first be revealed to the prophet, spoken to the people and then will come to pass. Because of the completed work of the cross we all can prophesy, we all can hear the voice of the Lord. So this principle has been expanded beyond the choice few to us all. The point is that no one in the Body of Christ is exempt from hearing the voice of the Lord!

This makes clear that what God is about to do in our day is not spoken of anywhere else but thru prophetic release. The reason God makes foreknown what he is about to do by way of prophesy is this: The written word is not enough as to the complete picture of God. The whole picture includes more than just who and what he is.

Scripture also says to not go beyond what is written (1 Co 4:6). In this truth, we check everything to see if it aligns with the word of God. When a prophetic word comes that says something new, we check that it aligns with the principles within the word. Indeed this is true, God never violates his character.

However, everything I have seen of the Holy Spirit, including all the wild and radical experiences I have been privileged to experience have all aligned with the word of God; mainly as written in Acts. I am very careful to check alignment with the word. However that alignment must only be checked by way of Holy Spirit revelation combined with the word, not by what I think or by what I believe the word means.

The Bible is incomplete and meaningless without the revelation power that brings light to what it means for us today. The word becomes a tool to fulfill our own agendas when the Holy Spirit is shut out of this revelation process and purpose to reveal Jesus. The Bible reveals Jesus and the Father. It is not a box that we put them into. The religious box we form is what we think over revelation.

The pride of man’s correctness… it starts wars, divides nations, breeds hatred, destroys families and renders people’s hearts cold and calloused! We need the Holy Spirit to walk in one singular spiritual Kingdom truth as the Body of Christ. No wonder why Jesus made this known with such clear words in John 14-16 to the Apostles. He knew that without revelation knowledge, the flesh and the devil would have the means to silence his word to the nations for generations thru good sounding arguments!

Col 2:2-4 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

The spiritless lifeless religious church gives the world nothing but the written word and their interpretation of it. The power to make the word known to those who are dead is all but gone from the word. In such a way, the world gets nothing but fine-sounding arguments.

The Living Bible

I assure you that when the Holy Spirit manifests the heart of the Father and the word of the Son, the Bible comes alive in ways we can never know outside of this great gift called revelation.

I remember the first time I read the word after having been baptized in the Holy Spirit. I had this continuing ringing in my mind. God was speaking to me his desire… “Read my word.” Over and over again this statement rang in my mind. “Read my word.” My response was, “OK Lord, where do you want me to begin?” All I sensed was that the Holy Spirit was telling me to just pick up the Bible and start to read, and to just trust him.

So I bought one of those red One Year Bibles and I began. Oh my goodness! The word literally exploded before me in such an intimate way! It was one revelation release after another. I still have that Bible from back in 1997. It’s in pieces because the binding gave way; all marked with underlines and exclamations of joy. I devoured the Bible from cover to cover. It was such a deep time between me and the Father, with Jesus and with my beloved Holy Spirit! The Bible came alive to me where before it was all but lifeless in my eyes.

Without the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in and upon my heart that year, the Bible would not have come alive to me. I came out of the place of having to conclude into a place of being revealed to. I was gaining the knowledge of the mysteries of Christ as outlined in Col 2:2-4! I came out of independence into a place of dependence. Many of my paradigms shifted because revelation knowledge was shining thru. What I knew got changed. What I did not understand became understood. Much was left unknown, but my relationship with Father God and my Jesus just took off and soared! My faith grew ten-fold (read 1 Cor 12!). My love for the whole of God just exploded that year!

New Things of God

Consider this. If God is always doing a new thing as scripture declares, then what is happening right now in the Kingdom of God must be greater and larger than in the day that the Bible was complete. Though what happens today does not exceed the word of God as to principle, what God is doing in this day does. Such things may not be outlined in scripture except thru prophetic scriptures that might speak to these times. Likewise, God chooses to keep things hidden until he desires to make them known. Even in the word contains understandings yet revealed by the Father. Those words wait the right “Kyros” time for revelation to come forth. Kyros is a Greek word meaning a critical point in time.

Does the Lord operate outside of the Bible, indeed yes. Does the Bible define the existence of dinosaurs? Does the Bible define the expansion of the universe? Does the Bible define the existence of life under the seas? Does the Bible define the makeup of the atom? Did the Bible define who this current President would be? It says that God puts authorities in power but does not say who or how or when.

Prophesy and revelation giftings fills in where the Bible leaves off. Likewise, prophesy and revelation knowledge never conflicts with biblical principle.

However, what God does will not conflict with the word of God as HE defines the word, not as WE define it. The very great mystery that we must all come to terms with is what it means to be a “Living Bible”. Indeed the word is meaningless and dead of its own as exemplified by my testimony above. But when coupled with the Holy Spirit who brings understanding to it, it comes alive in every way. The word and the Spirit speak to me thru the word as I need it for the here and now.

Worldly Strategies

Satan knows the word better than any one of us. He uses the word for his gain. He is a legalist. We sin; he accuses us before the Lord according to the word of God.

“See God, here it is in your word! Here is the sin that Scott committed, now give me the rights you have outlined in your word.” Satan accuses us day and night with God’s word in hand (Rev 12:10). You see, the devil uses the Bible outside of God’s intent. He uses it to his purpose not God’s.

Are we not doing the very same thing if we reject supernatural revelation and interpret the word by our own intelligence? Could it be the very same with the religious lifeless church that rejects the Holy Spirit in its midst? Who defines the Bible if revelation knowledge has not come to reveal the word? The answer is the mind of man over the mind of Christ, and which is what I spoke of in my last writing. This is independence from God. It is a deadly way.

We can quote scriptures all day long and be absolutely right as to the literal meaning of it and be completely wrong as to the heart of the Father for us. This is what Paul was warning the Romans with (Romans 9:30-33) when he warned against works over mercy (by faith). The literal word drives us by what we do. The spiritual revelation of that word drives us by the revelation of who we are in the Father’s eyes.

Those bent on the literal word cry out for judgment. Those bent on gaining the Holy Spirit in their midst cry out in mercy and then find the face of Jesus Christ! Sin has its price, but we are so fast to forget that sin’s price was paid out of mercy and love. Religious people slam the word down on the desk and point the accusing finger to those in error when all the while the word is really pointing the loving finger of truth towards our own hearts.

Please know that I am by no means interested in deviating from the word of God. However, what I speak to is the revealed word, not the literal “logos” written word. “Rhema word”, or revealed word, is what drives the Spirit filled church. It is full of stuff that seems out of line with how the world thinks.

Read John 16:2-3 very closely. Jesus warns of the day that active Spirit filled Christians will be killed by church parishioners (those of the synagogue) who think they are offering a service to God. Jesus said of these killers, “They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.”

Those who cling to the written word alone, outside of revelation knowledge are the ones Jesus speaks of here. They define what they read by their own intelligence. When they see the radical things of the Lord, they come against it because they cannot understand it or define it. They say, “I don’t see that in my Bible.” In time, concern leads to division, division to hate, and then hate leads to violence. For those whose hearts are filled with pride, very great is the danger!

The literal word starts the thing. But the revealed word grows us up. The literal word is open for interpretation, the revealed word is not! The literal word leads to division when defined by the mind of man, but the revealed word establishes one truth and unity in the Holy Spirit.

We have to decide which road to go on. The wide highway that leads to destruction or the narrow winding spiritual road that leads to the Kingdom of God.

One last thought:

The world wants thoughts that can be defended in worldly terms. “If you can’t defend it, then it is either patently untrue or simply without credibility.”

But I cannot defend what is supernaturally given, revealed and activated. I don’t know how or with what worldly terms to do so. When a dead man is raised to life, how am I to explain that? (Mt 10:8) When someone is shaking in the Holy Spirit in a trance like state, how am I to explain that? (Acts 10:10, 11:5 and 22:17) All I am left to do is to steer someone to the word in hopes that they will see it by faith.

The Kingdom of God is pure supernatural existence. It’s all about what is unseen that is important.

I cannot defend God, he must defend himself by revelation. I can read it in the word all day long and never get it. This is why faith is so critical. Ultimately I must ask myself the question, “Am I operating in what I believe or in what I have dependently been shown.” These two ways are completely opposite of each other. They are in enmity with each other!

Therefore faith is critical to see anything of the Kingdom of God. I can’t explain it away by what I think or see in the natural. Nor can I do so with good sounding arguments that fall short of what really is supernatural unseen truth. All I can do is to act with my heart, take on the yoke of the mind of Christ and then respond with faith when the Lord asks me, “Did you see that? Do you believe?”

So long as we walk on the face of this earth in this lifetime, we will always be asked these two questions. God wants to know, is our faith in him or in our own ability to conclude? Therefore the word of God is but a guide to truth and only a very necessary part of the whole of God. It is not a box to place God in. Nor is it a tool to fulfill the agendas of any person.

To all who read these words: May the Lord richly bless you in the fullness of his heart for you and in your faith filled ministry works. I pray the fullness of love and the Holy Spirit’s revelation of Jesus love for you and the Father’s heart for you just as you are.

With love,

T. Scott Morton

It’s amazing to me how fast the religious are to denounce a sovereign move of God with the very first error they can find to justify their own preconceived viewpoints. Such is the case in rampant form regarding Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Revival.

One writer says, “I’m sad. I’m disappointed. And I’m angry.” I wonder just when those feelings began? I would guess long before this news of the Bentley’s issue was announced.

Such is the case with so many people in and out of the Body of Christ who have hated this thing from the start. (However, it is to the Body of Christ that I write.) These are people who will not yield the mind to be yoked to the Mind of Christ.

Conclusion Over Revelation

Those who think and conclude without revelation knowledge will always come against any move of God. The mind of Christ and thus the knowledge of the Kingdom of God is by its nature totally supernatural. The minds of people are carnal and worldly by nature and that by cause of the fall. Our minds are in enmity with the knowledge of the Kingdom of God lest we become one in unified dependence to the mind of Christ. The mind of the flesh can be nothing but in enmity with the mind of Christ.

What we think therefore must be in dependant alignment with the mind of Christ. The very first spiritual lesson we learn after salvation must be the very great wisdom and totality of dependence in every area of our walk. The only way to graduate off the baby’s bottle of basic truths into the consumption of rich spiritual foods starts and ends with dependence.

Indeed our walk in this life is filled with experiences of cul-de-sacs and wrong turns that we learn from and grow with. We all make mistakes in our lives. I am here to testify to that! Certainly the vast majority of these mistakes we make are born from events of independent thinking, or better said independent conclusion. “Well I was certain I was going down the right road but now see that my choice was in error.”

Once made known to error, we either turn in humility towards change or we dig in our heals in pride and stay the course. For the humble of heart, they turn in God’s love and mercy and repent, and then they take the revealed correct road and grow. But by its nature, what the Lord reveals of the Kingdom of God is radical and formerly unseen. To accept this kind of change requires trust and faith. It requires a person to be willing to move into what one has yet to see. Faith takes us off the map of what we know into uncharted territory. It is much more comfortable to stick with what one knows. This is the second biggest blocker to change that I see.

The greatest blocker to change I see is pride. There are so many in the Body of Christ who are certain of their rightness. Even when confronted by truth, they do not see it. Independence has given way to pride. Revelation knowledge is all but scoffed at. “I’ll take it to my grave that I am right.” They are the ones who speak the loudest of their rightness. They defend it to the hilt. They have no ears to hear. They’re stuck in what they see, taste, touch, hear and smell. They are stuck in what they have concluded. What a deadly way.

Unyoked thinking results in fleshly error every time. It’s about what we think rather than what God thinks. Those who have to formulate an answer to whatever God does are sure to enter into error, because what is concluded by the mind of man cannot be based in revelation knowledge. Conclusion must follow revelation, not precede it.

The greatest minds in the Body of Christ are the ones who understand the concept of supernatural revelation. No one is perfect at it. But those who are the closest to Kingdom truth understand that it comes by way of revelation knowledge in times of intimacy and relationship. Just reading the Bible is not enough. They understand that what is true in God’s mind so far outweighs what we conclude as truth here on earth. They understand that in order to be right in the Kingdom is to have first heard and then concluded.

But how is one to discern whether the voice they are hearing is that of the Holy Spirit or of the devil and the flesh? The answer is in experience that starts with faith. Those who experience what they read in the Bible are the ones who hunger and thirst for more of the Lord. They are the ones who hear the voice of love and know instantly the difference between the voice of love and light as compared to the voice of hate and darkness. But it takes the experience to even first hear the voice of the Father speaking thru the Son and by way of the Holy Spirit. One must be baptized in the Holy Spirit to know.

We have been hearing the voice of satan from the very beginning. We don’t need the Holy Spirit to hear the voice of the devil. It’s on our TV’s, on the radio, on street signs and in our every day walk on this earth. In the good sounding arguments we hear the voice of the devil.

But when the Holy Spirit has been invited in, we learn quickly to hear the “now” word of Jesus. By the Holy Spirit, the Father’s will is made known. In that moment and only after that moment can we even discern what is right as to the Kingdom of God. Those operating outside of the manifest presence of the Holy Spirit have no means of connection to the Kingdom of God. As such, without the Holy Spirit we speak arguments that can only be of the mind of man or the flesh or worse.

Now, more than ever, the church must come to terms with their religious error and be filled with the Holy Spirit. It does not make us perfect as evidenced by our dear brother Todd Bentley. I would add myself to that list. But what it does do is open our spiritual ears to hear Kingdom truth. It opens our eyes to the lies.

What is being come against in this whole Lakeland Revival issue is not the error of Todd Bentley. I tell you this… what is being come against is the very outpouring of the Holy Spirit!

If the church filled with the Holy Spirit results in great damage to satan’s works, does it not stand to reason that wherever the Holy Spirit is manifesting that satan will come against that with the greatest vigor?

I tell you this, only those moving deep in the Presence of God understand the difference between what is the argument of the world versus the truth of the Kingdom of God. It can be no other way. Jesus died for the release of this kind of revealed knowledge. He said, (paraphrased John 14-16)… “Unless I go, the Holy Spirit will not come. But if I go, he will come. I will not leave you as orphans. I will send the Holy Spirit who will lead you into all truth.” His death on the cross afforded us this great gift. To deny the need for revelation knowledge is to cheapen the cross of Christ!

It is impossible to know the heart of the Father unless you hear it. To read it only starts faith. But then it must mature by way of hearing! Those who operate in the flesh of what they think cannot be hearing from God. Since they fear error, they shut it all out and conclude independently. Key word… independence.

Mental independence is a sin. It is a form of pride. The very same thing that got satan kicked out of Heaven.

If the Holy Spirit is the Helper who leads us into all truth according to John 16, then there is no truth unless we are first revealed to it. This kind of supernatural revelation comes thru times of dependant relationship.

Regarding the Bentley issue, currently we are mostly hearing from all the independent thinkers.

Indeed, God gave me a mind to think with. However, God gave me this mind to first choose to die to it and then use it. True humility starts with the dyeing to self. This dependent way is all about humility. Then and only then can truth be made known and subsequently understood.

Those who reject the supernatural need to hear the voice of God are not hearing from God. Far greater is the danger from those who are not connected to the Holy Spirit than those who are. Don’t listen to their arguments, however good sounding they may be?

Simply said, those who are coming against this Lakeland Revival are those who remain under the law and who do not understand the power of the Cross of Christ that opened the door to grace. They are the ones fast at work placing the emphasis on performance over forgiveness. They are the ones in the business of promoting the mentality of what we do as of higher value than who and what we are.

It’s not about what we do that makes us the right Christian for the job. It’s about what’s in our heart coupled with what is in God’s heart. My goodness, if I were charged for every sinful error I made, I’d long ago been dead and in hell.

I wonder when was the last time any of these critical writers committed a sin? Notice they are the ones casting the first stones at Todd.

I wonder how flawless John the Baptist was? I wonder how flawless was Moses? I wonder how flawless was Mary, the mother of Jesus was (who thought her son was nuts prior to the Cross)? I wonder how flawless Saul of Tarsus was while he was ordering the killing of Christians. I wonder why God chose to use Paul anyway? Even after Paul’s conversion, he spoke of himself like this (paraphrased):

“I keep on doing the things I should not and don’t do the things I should. What a wretched man I AM.” How sinless do you think Paul was?

Don’t buy in to the arguments of those whose real motivation is to disqualify what they do not “understand.” Don’t believe the words of those who cannot control what they cannot put their finger on?

Rest assured, God will always challenge his people by the unknown manifestation. I have seen it time and again. God does something radical and then always asks the question, “Well then Mr. Smarty-pants, what do you think about that?”

God can show up in a rock if he wants to. He did that with Moses in the desert. It’s not about any man. Yes there is the chain of authority to which Jesus adhered and which is part and critical of normal church life. Indeed it is true that as goes the leader, so goes a church. But the leader is not the church. Jesus is the church. The Father is the church. And the Holy Spirit validates the church.

Those who put their trust in Todd Bentley (or any leader for that matter), who would accuse Todd with judgments… they are the ones who are wrong, and for the very same reason. They place their trust in man over God.

We live under grace not the law. Anyone who passes judgment on Todd is doing so under the law and is out of line. There is no one on earth yet adjudged. Therefore, who is any person to do so?

Revival Remains

I have read in many commentaries that say, “Lakeland WAS…” as if it’s all over and woe is us. No, Lakeland IS. It is not about a place, not about a church and not about any person. In all these ridiculous “commentaries” I have read about Todd in the last few days, there has been a connecting of the success of this revival to Todd (a person). Ultimately, it has nothing to do with Todd. Todd was willing. Todd was… and remains a vessel that God can use. But Todd is no bigger, no better nor is he more holy than any mature Spirit filled Christian in the Body of Christ. God just up and chose Todd to start this thing.

Does anyone think that God was not fully aware of Todd’s marriage issues before revival was birthed back in April?

Maybe God is trying to tell us something in all of this? I have a feeling I know what that little something might be. God will not give his glory to any person.

Those who discount the Lakeland revival, or say “it’s ended” because of the error of a person have lost focus on Who revival is. Revival has just begun!

What was started in Lakeland has spread and will continue to spread to the nameless faceless people who understand that when we meet, we do so to meet with God, not to please people.

What is being exposed here is not the sin or error of Todd Bentley, but the great error of those who believe that God comes only to and only thru the greatest and most holy people. Meanwhile, just now, the religious are bent on shackling God’s Presence by way of the flesh or demonic influence thru this instance. They are fast at work disqualifying this revival thru good sounding arguments not because of what has transpired between Todd and his wife, though that is the basis of the argument, but because of what the Holy Spirit is doing that they cannot define.

Consider this. If where the Spirit of the Lord there is liberty, then what resides in a place where the Spirit of the Lord is not? The answer is… bondage. Now if this is true, then the primary strategy of the devil is to put out the fire of God’s Presence wherever it rises up. This is the very history of revival all thru the years. The fire starts. Someone makes a mistake. The fire gets put out. You can go down for generations of revivals and find the same results… the same old tried and true satanic fleshly tactic.

The Holy Spirit will not show up to those who do not believe. Get the world to disbelieve by way of accusation and good sounding arguments and the fire dies because people stop believing. That’s the strategy in a nutshell.

To those who bring judgments, anger and criticism, I must ask this question. Just who are they working for if they are bringing criticism and judgment to this or any validated revival? When so many people have been healed, delivered and raised from the dead, confirmed, who is being criticized when one brings judgments and accusations? I can answer with this… it is not Todd.

Who was it that healed these many thousands of people? Again I can answer… it was not Todd. His faith and obedience to the Father was certainly a key, but it was not Todd who performed the healing.

We’re warned in the Bible and must be warned once again to be wise as to what is right and wrong in the days ahead. But I submit to you that were the error resides is not in where the spiritual hungry seekers traffic as the religious critics would suggest. The error is found with the religious Spiritless church, where the Holy Spirit does not reside. And great is that religious error!

Revival is here and here to stay. But revival is going to be about the Presence of God and nothing else. God just will not give his glory to any person, not to Todd, not to Paul, not to Moses nor any person. From the least of these to the heights of leadership, God get’s all the glory. Personally in my life, I want him to have it. Anyone who fears the Lord understands… the Lord and creator of all things deserves it! I know this for certain… Todd knew this well. He asked for no glory. He took no glory. People glorified him.

Now as to the furtherance of revival I am not worried at all except for where faith dies. It is my prayer that anyone who reads this would remain in faith for the radical experiences of the Lord.

As for Todd and his dear wife, I pray with brotherly love and heartfelt concern and compassion that they can make this work. I will also pray that the meddling of the loud masses will not work to prevent the healing they both need. With all my heart and love to these two dear servants of Christ!

With profound respect to Todd and the deepest heart of love to all who poured their hearts out in loving submission at Lakeland and who now fight for revival and the open manifestations of the Holy Spirit in their midst,

T. Scott Morton

The following is a simple word, of which I am most excited! Being one who loves creative and unique music…

In the short years ahead, as it was in the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s… a product of the Revival called the “Jesus Movement” of the late 60’s, so it will be in the days ahead.

In the form of anointing and “extra talent”, from the origination of the Kingdom of God, is about to come some of the most beautiful music we have ever heard. It will come from the church and from outside of the church. It will touch us right where we are at. It will speak to us the very heart of the Father in words and tunes that require revelation knowledge. Even the music alone will move our hearts.

From the pits of desperation to the joy of salvation on earth as it is in Heaven will come some of the most wonderful music! Souls will be saved because of it!

A great peace will come from such tunes of anointing that will help those who are walking thru the valley of the shadow of death. They will walk with Ipods on and laugh in the face of weak evil.

Here it comes! Now let’s pray it in and have ears to hear!

Even now it has begun. However, tomorrow it will be clear and shattering, extremely powerful though nameless… shifting, but not by any person… direct to those who are willing to accept the new thing of God.

There will be times when only the music will see certain people thru. For those who produce it, they need to know; their work is as valuable as those who step forth into the harvest fields.

Cases in point… Blue Merle, Jason Upton, and Pat Metheny, to name just a few…

Blessings!

Scott

I have found many times that what the Lord leads me to speak to is born from many years of wrestling with it in my own life. What I speak to here is indeed an issue I constantly go before the Lord with. He is always working on my prideful and cold heart! So as I write, know that I am speaking to myself as much as I am speaking to you. With that in mind… read on!

Whatever I think that is not in alignment with what the Spirit says to the churches combined with the revealed word of God (Bible) becomes the cause and substance of spiritual blindness.

Everything I have concluded outside of revelation knowledge is done so in independence rather than dependant revelation.

This is sin.

When I follow a theology that has not been given by the Holy Spirit, the devil gains a right against me to blind me to deeper Spirit given truths that God is trying to give me. A wall has been placed in my outer man (soul). I become unable to see deeper truth even if it stands right before me. What I am able to spiritually see becomes limited by what I think.

This is the primary tool and strategy of Satan, to dupe the world into false theologies by conclusion rather than revelation. Good sounding arguments born from the pride of what I think rather than revelation words that are born out of intimacy with the Heavenly Father thru Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

What is real in Heaven is absolute. In most cases it is absolutely contrary to what is “real” to the world. Heaven and Hell are absolute. Salvation and damnation are absolutes. The Bible is absolute in its literal “logos” written word. But to understand these absolutes in the fullest measure requires revelation knowledge born from a state of complete dependence. There is no other way to gain deep truth but by revelation knowledge that is expressly given by the Holy Spirit, “the Counselor who leads us into all truth.” (NIV)

Humility leads to a mind yoked in deep submission to the mind of Christ. Therefore the right way to use my mind is to first put on the yoke of the mind of Christ, and then to gain what he knows thru intimacy with him.

God gave me a mind to use. However the right way he intended for me to use it is to be in submission to him first! I must first die to my mind and then use it. The only way to be truly in submission is to start with a heart of humility. This is a lesson I am constantly learning!

Whatever I conclude must first be revealed to me. Not by voices in my head but by The Voice of The Word, namely the Holy Spirit who speaks the word into my being. There are NO other ways to truth.

Good sounding arguments are like an insidious disease. They come on subtly and hidden, and are almost unnoticed. Independent of the mind of Christ, they sound good but are devoid of any value as to the Kingdom of God. If I cling to what I know, before I recognize it such arguments become lethal and blinding.

Oh for the ongoing manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our churches that would shed light upon the lies of good sounding arguments! How great would the church become in manifest power and reaping if this were so! The only thing standing in the way of such power is the lack of willingness to die to self in manifest humility!

In the Kingdom of God, there is no way to gain revelation knowledge but thru the ones who are humble of heart. They are the ones who hear from the Lord. They are the ones who gain the deep most intimate things from the Throne Room of God. They are the ones who will move in mighty exploits here on earth!

There is something about the humble people of the Lord that draws the heart of the Father near. Humility is the means by which I gain entry into the inner courts of God. I am nothing so he can be everything to me and then thru me! This is plainly written in the Scriptures of the Bible.

Isa 66:2 Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Dan 10:12 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.

Zeph 2:3 Seek the LORD, all you humble of the land, you who do what he commands. Seek righteousness, seek humility; perhaps you will be sheltered
on the day of the LORD’s anger.

Luke 1:52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.

James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

1 Peter 5:5b-7 All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

The only road to truth and Kingdom knowledge is the road of selflessness and humility, in as much as we are able. The Lord says this again and again, “…lower and lower still.” We must become less and lower in humility so that He can be made known through us.

Ultimately, the road to salvation starts with humility. For it is true that one cannot see the need for a Savior unless one agrees to the need for him! Humility says I am a person in need. Then humility allows my heart to have faith. The result is a true love that is born from humility. True love is selfless. Therefore, true love requires true humility. If I am to love my Savior like I do, I must love him selflessly.

Even in marriage, success can be summed up in one word… selflessness. Those who have great marriages understand this truth.

The world hates this humility argument, because it sounds weak and helpless. It sounds like the way of slavery. But the truth is that humility leads to great liberty, not just for the ones who operate in it but also for the ones who receive love from it. True humility leads to an eternity in Heaven and a release to be used of on earth. And therefore, selflessness is the way to truth. Any other way is good sounding and deadly.

It is better to give than to receive. This starts with humility.

Humility leads to a selfless love that establishes a measure of intimacy by which we come to know our lover deeply. And so humility leads to love, which leads to intimacy that leads to revelation. Revelation leads to a desire to give to my lover my all. And so as to the Kingdom of God, love results in the reaping of a harvest of souls in manifesting power.

Therefore, humility leads us into power and great effectiveness. It is not weakness as the world would say, but humility is power that overcomes the lies of this world and that establishes the way by which the Kingdom of God manifests on earth.

Col 2:2-4 My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I tell you this so that no one may deceive you by fine-sounding arguments.

Rom 1:16-28 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature — have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.

Since humility leads to the revelation of what is Kingdom truth, the lack of humility leads to a depravity of the mind. In whatever measure we lack humility is the measure we are unable to see and move in the deep things of God for his purposes. The Holy Spirit awaits the humble of heart to come and express supernatural Kingdom truth by supernatural Kingdom revelation.

John 16:13-14 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

Gal 1:10-12 Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

To please people seeks to be seen and heard in order to gain something on earth for selfish purpose. But to please the Lord is selfless and rooted in love. It seeks to give rather than receive. It seeks the Kingdom of God over the Kingdom of this world to gain what is unseen over what is seen.

We must constantly revisit this need to go lower and lower of self with a heart of humility. In doing so, we will love the lost with a great love they can feel. In doing so we will gain a great harvest for Jesus Christ.

“Lord humble my heart, because I choose this lower way of self. I love you Father! I love you Jesus and I love you Holy Spirit! This day I choose to go even lower still so that you may be more greatly seen thru me. To you be all the glory and all the praise! Amen.”

My dear brother Paul has hit a milestone in his life-walk with his wife… 20 years of marriage. He emailed me a poem he wrote for his wife Melissa. Paul has such a big heart which you can plainly see in his words of love.

With Paul’s agreement, I thought is so wonderful to post this as a read for whoever might stumble upon this little site of ours.

Now Paul and I would love to invite you to add your own segment to this poem. Feel free to compose one or more additions to this little collection of life thoughts and send them to us as a post. I will add them to this blog for all to see.

Enjoy and much love to all whose hearts are moved in this selfless dance we call marriage!

Scott

Twenty years

In twenty years we’ve seen miracles
For twenty years weathered storms
In twenty years smelled roses
For twenty years you’ve adorn

In twenty years had tears
For twenty years of love
In twenty years seen sorrow
For twenty years faith above

In twenty years had fights
For twenty years taken risk
In twenty years eaten ice cream
For twenty years of bliss

In twenty years wrecked cars
For twenty years made a home
In twenty years mowed the lawn
For twenty years hugged hello

In twenty years lost loved ones
For twenty years made love
In twenty years had friends
For twenty years hand in glove

In twenty years had children
For twenty years they’ve grown
In twenty years of foundation
For twenty years of their own

In twenty years had fears
For twenty years waved goodbye
In twenty years seen the wonder
Twenty years of sunset sky

In twenty years what will be?
For twenty years on my mind
In twenty years and more…
I’ll love you all my life

For twenty years…

…and twenty more…
…and twenty more…

By Paul Daniel Morton