The Rich Family in Church

By Eddie Ogan

I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12, and my older sister Darlene 16. We lived at home with our mother, and the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died five years before, leaving mom with seven school kids to raise and with no money.

By 1946 my older sisters were married and my brothers had left home. A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save and give sacrificially. When we got home, we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50 pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to save $20.00 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we kept our electric lights out as much as possible and didn’t listen to the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got as many house- and yard-cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us baby-sat for everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make three pot holders to sell for $1.00. We made $20.00 on pot holders. That month was one of the best of our lives.

Every day we counted the money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be twenty times that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor reminded everyone to save for the sacrificial offering.

The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager to give us three crisp, $20.00 bills and one $10.00 bill for all our change. We ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep. We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70.00 for the sacrificial offering.

We could hardly wait to get to church! On Sunday morning rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the church was over a mile away from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet; but we sat in church proudly. I heard some teenagers talking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses. I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.

When the sacrificial offering was taken, we were sitting on the second row from the front. Mom put in the $10.00, and each of us kids put in a $20.00. As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter eggs with our fried potatoes!

Late that afternoon the minister drove up in his car. Mom went to the door, talked to him for a moment, and then came back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money. There were three crisp, $20.00 bills, one $10.00 and seventeen $1.00 bills. Mom put the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at the floor. We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash. We kids had such a happy life that we felt sorry for anyone who didn’t have our mom and dad for parents and a house full of brothers and sisters and other kids visiting constantly. We thought it was fun to share silverware and see whether we got the spoon or the fork that night. We had two knives that we passed around to whoever needed them. I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never thought we were poor.

That Easter day I found out we were. The minister had brought us the money for the poor family, so we must be poor. I didn’t like being poor. I looked at my dress and worn-out shoes and felt so ashamed—I didn’t even want to go back to church. Everyone there probably already knew we were poor! I thought about school. I was in the ninth grade and at the top of my class of over 100 students. I wondered if the kids at school knew that we were poor. I decided that I could quit school since I had finished the eighth grade and that was all the law required at that time. We sat in silence for a long time. Then it got dark and we went to bed.

All that week we girls went to school and came home, and no one talked much. Finally, on Saturday, Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known we were poor.

We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday, but Mom said we had to. Although it was a sunny day, we didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing, but no one joined in and she only sang one verse.

At church we had a missionary speaker. He talked about how churches in Africa made buildings out of sun-dried bricks, but they needed money to buy roofs. He said $100.00 would put a roof on a church. The minister said “Can’t we all sacrifice to help these poor people?” We looked at each other and smiled for the first time in a week. Mom reached into her purse and pulled out the envelope. She passed it to Darlene, Darlene gave it to me, and I handed it to Ocy. Ocy put it in the offering.

When the offering was counted, the minister announced that it was a little over $100.00. The missionary was excited. He hadn’t expected such a large offering from our small church. He said, “You must have some rich people in this church.” Suddenly it struck us! We had given $87.00 of that “little over $100.00.” We were the rich family in church! Hadn’t the missionary said so? From that day on I’ve never been poor again. I’ve always remembered how rich I am because I have Jesus!

Jesus Meek and Mild?

By David Hobbs

We all know the classic stereotype of the church—how God the Father is this vindictive tyrant of the Old testament, commanding His people to fight wars of bloody extermination and penalizing the gathering of sticks on the Sabbath with death (Num. 15:35). Jesus, on the other hand, is the meek and mild version of God seen in the New Testament. Jesus is the lover of mankind, the gentle Savior who forgave the woman caught in adultery, who will not break the bruised reed nor snuff out the smoldering wick (Mt. 12:20). Yes we all know the stereotype, but how many of us know the truth!?

Back when I first got saved, I wrote to the minister of the liberal church I grew up in, telling her about the glorious thing that had happened to me when I met Jesus. She wrote back saying that she loved Jesus too, that it was so wonderful how He came to bring “peace on earth” and “good will toward men.” [Luke 2:14, KJV]

But by this time I had gotten into the Bible and what it really said, as opposed to what we’ve been led to believe. I had to write her back, saying that the King James Version’s translation of that verse was misleading. Instead of “good will toward men,” referring to a generalized peace to everybody, it more accurately reads “Peace on earth to men of good will.” Not just to everybody, but to men whose hearts are right with God. As The Message puts it: “Glory to God in the heavenly heights, (p)eace to all men and women on earth who please him.” And how do we please Him? By accepting His gift of Christ our Savior.

But I had to go on from there to quote Mt. 10:34+ which deals directly with the idea of Jesus coming as this gentle influence wafting peace over the earth. There Jesus said,

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— 36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’"

Well that kind of dealt with those stereotypes, and I didn’t hear from her again.

Then there’s a parable in Luke 19 which we’re familiar with: the parable about “12 a man of noble birth who went to a distant country to have himself appointed king and then to return.” Jesus went on to say, “14 But his subjects hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We don’t want this man to be our king.’”

Most of the parable deals with the nobleman (Jesus) giving out money to his servants to be put to work until his return. And how one turned a mina into 10 minas, another into 5, etc. We get so caught up in the drama of the servants and their money that we tend to miss the subplot of the citizens who sent the delegation to express their opposition to his kingship. In the very last verse of the parable, after Jesus is finished dealing with the money and the servants and their stewardship and the lessons to be learned, there is this one, almost throwaway line: "27 But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them—bring them here and kill them in front of me.” Whaaaat?? You want to say that again Jesus? Kill them. In front of you? My stereotypes are spinning! Meek and mild Jesus? “Kill them in front of me.” This sounds an awful lot like the God of the Old Testament, as in Deut. 7:10 (NKJV)—“ [God] repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.”

I mentioned this verse to a Christian friend of mine, the editor of a Christian newspaper, and he said he’d never heard it before, and had no idea it was in the Bible. But it is in the Bible, in red, just like John 3:16.

Yes, meek and mild Jesus. The same Jesus that in Rev. 19 “treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty” and slays the armies of the antichrist with the sword that comes from His mouth; the same Jesus who slew Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit, the same Jesus whom the evil spirits many times begged not to torture them (Luke 8:28).

Friends, the Bible has a lot to say about the fear of the Lord: that it’s the beginning of wisdom; that it’s clean, enduring forever; how the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments; how God accepts men from every nation who fear Him and do what is right; etc. etc. But how can we fear a God of “sloppy agape grace” as we have made Jesus out to be in the New Testament? If there is nothing to fear about such a God, then we have none of the benefits given to those who fear God either!

We need to get back to the whole counsel of God as taught in the Bible, and abandon our modern church stereotypes. Yes He loves us with an everlasting love, but it’s a love not to be trifled with!

The Most Beautiful Song in Heaven

By David Hobbs

I have only experienced the supernatural through my physical senses one time in my life. Many years ago, not long after being saved, I heard the voices of angels singing during a baptism down at the Yuba River (the full experience is described in my recent book, Walking in the Spirit, chapter 11, starting on page 104). Without a doubt it was the most beautiful song I have ever heard; literally, it was indescribable. Only two of us present at the baptism heard it, and it lasted just a short time before it was drowned out by a low-flying, “demon directed,” crop dusting airplane, out working on Sunday.

I’ve never heard it since, though I’ve begged God in prayer that He would let me hear it again, or better yet, let me see Him. And I know that day is coming.

But lately I have realized that as beautiful as that song was, even though more beautiful than any song on earth could possibly be, still it was not the most beautiful song in heaven. And though I might be willing to give my right arm to hear it again, there is another song that God is yearning to hear even more, one that caused Him to give up not His right arm, but His only Son. The Bible calls it the “Song of the Redeemed.” That’s what God is yearning to hear! The beauty of that song will vindicate all the sacrifice of the cross and the work of redemption that has stretched on for the last 6000 years.

Listen, can you hear it? It’s first mentioned in Isa. 35:9 (see also Isa. 51:11 and Rev. 14:4)

8 And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness….
9 … only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

What kind of song will these ransomed sing? These “ransomed” who are the only part of creation that has experienced the full gamut of being lost in sin, being “without hope and without God in the world;” to being saved yet still subject to sin and death, finally having hope but not yet the fullness of salvation, being sealed with the promise of deliverance but still suffering daily the weaknesses of being a vessel made of clay--to now at last entering the portals of heaven fully delivered: never again to suffer temptation or the weakness of human flesh; never again to wrestle with the carnal nature and its passions, lusts and fears; never again to groan “How long O Lord, how long?” Never again to suffer calamity after calamity. What kind of song will they be singing? To the ears of heaven that will be the most beautiful song ever. That’s what God has been waiting for all these years. That’s what is more beautiful than the songs of angels who have never known the agony of sin and the thrill of redemption.

Rev. 14 makes it plain that no one else can “learn” the song—not that they couldn’t learn notes or words—but they couldn’t duplicate the depth of expression the song called for (like white churches can’t “learn” negro spirituals).

Rev. 14:1--Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. 2 And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. 3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they kept themselves pure. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.

Can you hear it? Are you ready? Are you ready to sing? Are you ready to sing for your Lord in the greatest command performance the universe will ever see? Are you ready to pour out the depths of your heart and soul to the One who gave His very life to snatch you out of the clutches of hell? Get ready. Get ready to sing church!

In Pursuit of Divine Healing

By David Hobbs

Do I believe in divine healing? I have seen many people in the church over the years afflicted with terminal illnesses. While some have died, some have been miraculously healed.

Mark was a lawyer. He and his family were in our home group when he was suddenly afflicted with a brain tumor at the age of about 40. A brain tumor is considered terminal. You can operate and cut it out, but it will grow back. That’s what happened to Mark. The brain tumor was cut out, it grew back, it was cut out again, it came back again….

Now the human body can only withstand so many brain surgeries. When further operations were ruled out, Mark, increasingly desperate, began seeking out alternative treatments, grasping at straws you might say. All the while, of course, the church was praying for him. But death was rapidly approaching.

His life insurance policies had a provision that in the case of a terminal illness, within the last few months of life they would pay the death benefit early to help with medical costs.

His life insurance policies paid off. Then God miraculously intervened and healed him! That was 10-15 years ago and he’s still walking around today, perfectly whole, though without any life insurance.

Then there was Ronnie: “Mr. Tough Guy,” ex-Green Beret. He was not serving God, but God was dealing with him. He came down with lung cancer, throat cancer, and emphysema, rapidly getting worse with no hope of recovery. There came a night in the hospital when they expected him to die before morning. His wife was there, and said the smell of death was in the room.

Then Jesus showed up, appearing to Ronnie in bright light and healing him. After his healing, Ronnie started a ministry to the homeless people living in the river bottoms. His church services now are bigger than most of the regular church services in town.

I hardly knew Ronnie before his healing. He had only started coming to church and was known mainly to our pastor, though we prayed for him in men’s prayer meetings. With Mark, though he was in my home group, I didn’t get actively involved with him either. That was before my personal revival, and to be honest, when I first heard of his brain tumor, I was overwhelmed by the seriousness of it, and whatever faith I had went right out the window. I prayed, but with no conviction he’d be healed. And it was to my shame but secret relief that the Lord moved him out of my home group to be around others with more faith.

But there were two people that I actively contended for and got personally involved in the spiritual battle for their lives. Bill a lovable man, again about 40, got Lou Gehrig’s disease (ALS). I joined the fight for him for years. They put him in a support group of others with the disease. He outlasted them all. He hung on for 5 years as we desperately prayed and hoped for healing. But then he died: a bitter blow to all of us.

And then there was Julia, a small but feisty, on-fire-for-Jesus gal in her 40s. Julia had a heart of love (sometimes "tough love") and was one of the most selfless people I have ever known.

She got cancer in her internal organs and at first they battled it mostly within the family. After an intense prayer fight it went into remission and we praised God for the victory. But a year later it came back. This time I threw myself into the fight. I was experiencing revival in my life at the time and was eager to see what the Lord would do in answer to our prayers.

Her husband Steve, as good a man as you’ll ever find anywhere, had prayer meetings in his house several times a week. We would pray for Julia, but also praise and worship to elicit the presence of the Lord. Steve even taught himself to play the piano so he’d never lack for a musician in the house. We had wonderful times of worship, the presence and love of Jesus often being so thick you could “cut it with a knife.”

I kept looking for the ultimate position from which to pray for her healing. One way was to claim the promises in the Bible: “By His stripes we are healed;” “He sent His word and healed them;” “[He] forgiveth all thine iniquities; [he] healeth all thy diseases,” etc. Another way was to make faith declarations to her: “Be healed in Jesus’ Name;” “Jesus heals thee; go in peace.” Then there were different variations of fighting the enemy such as cursing the cancer cells, binding the power of cancer and death, and resisting the work of the devil in her life. Then there was proclaiming the destiny of God being fulfilled in her life, and prohibiting anything from interfering in that. There was bringing forth the presence of God and His anointing through our worship, filling the house with the Holy Spirit and then praying Him to hover over and heal her; and also asking the Holy Spirit within her to rise up and throw off the disease and rebuke death on her behalf. We claimed healing, commanded healing, spoke healing, asked for healing, defied the devil…. Each thing we tried seemed a little better than the last, but then there was always something else that came along that looked even surer.

Finally, one evening I was sure I had found the ultimate stance to take; this could not be improved on. “Here I take my stand.” I even told Pastor Dave I thought I had finally found the ultimate prayer position from which to claim her healing. The next morning she died.

The irony of the timing was not lost on me. I was trying to apply human thinking to a spiritual situation and definitely came up short. (His thoughts are not our thoughts and our thoughts are not His thoughts.)

So the two people in whom I invested the most of myself, died; while the two people that I judged way beyond my level of faith were healed. In all cases it seemed like God did what He wanted to do and our prayers—while important , and though He commands us to pray—were not the determining factor whether they were healed or not.

What would I do differently today? I think that one person seeking God for His will and then praying accordingly with total conviction, is more powerful than a church full of people praying without discernment. The default position that the church has used with prayer for so long—if they’re sick pray for healing, if they’re in trouble pray for deliverance, etc.—needs to be re-thought. We need the mind of the Lord!

But yes I believe in divine healing. I’ve seen it too many times not to.

Miserable Christianity

By David Hobbs

Some of the saddest people around are young people who have been raised as Christians, yet have never met the Christ they profess. They try to follow the Christian moral code, while secretly longing for the fun their non-Christian friends seem to be having all the time. They’re torn inside, feeling that Christianity and its code of conduct are right, but wondering why whoever designed Christianity couldn’t have designed a little more fun into it! Their prayers don’t seem to get answered all that often, and they hope they don’t have to stand up in class and defend creationism over evolution while their classmates snicker and their teacher scoffs. And Please, please don’t make me explain why God sends people to hell forever just for not believing in Him!

Yes this Christianity can be a miserable business can’t it?

Paul touched on this when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:19—If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

There is no way to win the war of “Christianity vs. the World,” as long as we are locked into the natural realm. In the natural—the physical realm—what the world offers looks pretty attractive compared to Christianity. Strip away eternal life, final judgment, our heavenly home, divine approval, peace within, and Jesus’ atonement for our sins, and what are you left with? What the Bible calls the pleasures of sin for a season. As long as you don’t see outside the "season," it all looks pretty good.

And also as long as you’re in the realm of the human intellect, you will always be at a disadvantage when dealing with the power of worldly temptation. You can have all your intellectual arguments lined up why sex outside of marriage is wrong, but when a seductive face is inches from yours and your hormones are raging, those arguments don’t hold much restraining power!

So what’s the answer?

The answer, my friend, lies not in knowing about Christ, but in meeting Christ. It’s all in the meeting! When Jesus revealed Himself to me on that log pile off in the woods near the fire fighting barracks in Union Creek, Oregon that still, August evening of 1974, it revolutionized my life [P. 286 Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed]. I met the God of Power, the God who exists outside of creation and time, the God who not only created all things, but who is also upholding all things by the word of His power [Heb. 1:3].

I found I didn’t have to defend God and why He does what He does; He’s God. He can do whatever He wants. Why is there a hell? Who knows? Why does God send people to hell? I don’t know that either, He didn’t check with me first! But He does. Read the Bible for yourself and see how you interpret it! But that’s not the important thing; the important thing is that He made a way for us to escape and spend eternity with Him in heaven and it’s a free gift. Do you want to know how?

When you truly meet Christ, He comes into you and starts living His life through you. That’s when Christianity becomes the most exciting thing that life offers. What’s more exciting, a drunken binge with raging hangover the next day, or having Jesus heal somebody through you after letting you feel His deep compassion for them? What’s better, having sexual relationships one after another that always promise more then they deliver; or feeling Jesus’ white hot passion for you in a love that will go on throughout eternity?

You will be amazed at how the things of the Lord easily outstrip anything the world can offer, but only to those who meet Him and let Him live through them; only to those who yield their lives to Him and allow His divine life to flow out of them.

Keys to Breakthrough

By David Hobbs

When we find ourselves afflicted and oppressed, there is sometimes a spiritual key that, when inserted into the lock of our oppression, releases us just like a key releasing a lock. It's like a missing puzzle piece, that when placed in its spot in the puzzle, completes the electrical circuit of our healing and allows deliverance to “spring forth speedily” (Isa. 58:8). [Isaiah 58 is full of these spiritual keys for unlocking oppression and bringing God’s blessing down to our lives.]

Consider our friend Job in the Bible. As oppressed and afflicted as he was, yet the Bible says “After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosperous again and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10). Praying for his friends, who had falsely accused and maligned him, was the key that immediately freed him from all his troubles and returned him to God’s favor.

In my just-published book, Walking in the Spirit, I experienced a similar key to deliverance in chapter 13: “Demonic Opposition: Graduate School,” in the story “The War Raging Around Us” (pages 130-134). This was an intense spiritual battle which sidelined me while we were having a breakthrough worship conference at our church, leaving me totally unable to enter in. After struggling for the whole weekend, by the last meeting I was too weak to stand or sing along. All I could do was sit in my chair, tap my feet to the music, and raise my hands. But doing those two things which I could do proved to be the key to unlock my deliverance. As I continued doing those two things, the Holy Spirit began pouring into me until I could make some sounds, then sing along to the music, then sing louder, then stand, and by the end of the meeting I was totally restored like the whole thing had never happened!

I’m sure if I had sat through the meeting like a bump on a log feeling sorry for myself, the deliverance would not have occurred. But somehow, by God’s grace, I was able to meet that condition of His deliverance, and it happened miraculously from there on.

I bring all this up because I had a similar experience about 2 weeks ago which showed me again the power of this concept.

I was at our church’s Men’s Camp, which we have once a year about this time. I was desperately hoping for a breakthrough. For a long time I had been feeling rundown, tired and weak. I was finding it difficult to muster up enough strength to pray. I wasn’t able to get up and pray in the middle of the night like I had for so many years because of this fatigue. Even when I could make it out to the church, I was too tired to walk around and sing or pray or worship. All I could do was sit in silence and eventually fall asleep. Bummer! The hypochondriac in me was fearing Chronic Fatigue Syndrone. Satan was leering, “Here you’re coming out with this book on prayer, encouraging other people to pray and seek God and you can’t even do it yourself! Hah! What a hypocrite!”

So I was desperate for a breakthrough at Men’s Camp to restore my strength. Doesn’t the Bible say if we wait on the Lord He will renew our strength so we rise up on wings as eagles? And I was sure waiting on the Lord. In fact in my weakened state that’s about all I could do!

But still it didn’t happen. I was entering in as best I could, but feeling as weak as ever. I got to thinking “How long is this going to be? Am I always going to be this weak from now on? Will I never again feel the power of God’s anointing lifting me as the wind beneath my wings?” Had I been as bold as David of old I would have been praying these things as he did in the Psalms. But I was just thinking them to myself.

The second day came and I was still going through the motions. Then, I’m not sure how it happened, but during the worship service the thought came to me that though I was longing for total strength to be able to worship God in power, yet-yet-yet God said “you are giving Me more glory right now by worshipping Me in your weakness, than you would if you were shouting it from the rooftops in total power!”

“OK,” I said to myself, “if this weak output really glorifies God, then let’s get it on!” I started singing out with all the intensity I could muster, now that I was sure it was pleasing to Him. And lo and behold, I had found the key to unlock my prison! Suddenly I could feel the power of God entering me again and that horrible spirit of weakness draining out of me like water being soaked up by dry sand.

Sometimes, in addition to praying for deliverance, we should pray that God would open our eyes to discover the key to the deliverance. It might just be as simple as that!

Failure and Success

By David Hobbs

Failure and success are intertwined in life. While you can have failure all by itself, it is safe to say you can’t have success without failure. The greatest homerun hitters in baseball also listed high on the all-time strikeout list: Babe Ruth was 95th on the list, Barry Bonds 39th, Mark McGuire 32nd, Mickey Mantle 21st, Sammy Sousa 3rd, and so on.

In the Bible also, some of the greatest figures also had spectacular failures. Moses, though he delivered Israel from Egyptian bondage, received the law from God, built the tabernacle in the wilderness, brought forth quail and manna from heaven, and water from the rock to sustain them, and led them through the wilderness for 40 years up to the Promised Land… yet the whole generation he brought out of Egypt died in the wilderness without entering the Promised Land, nor was Moses able to go in himself. And perhaps his biggest failure was an inability to change the hearts of the people he was leading. As God told him shortly before his death, in Deut. 31:16 … “You are going to rest with your fathers, and these people will soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake me and break the covenant I made with them.” Moses himself said the same thing to the people in verse 29: “For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you.”

So while one part of Moses’ mission was a smashing success, another part was a sad failure.

And so it goes through the Bible. The Apostle Paul was such a success he “turned the world upside down.” Yet at the end of his ministry he said that “everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me (2 Tim. 1:15).” And when he was brought to trial in Rome, “At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me (2 Tim. 4:16).”

Jacob, after fathering the 12 patriarchs who would become the 12 tribes of Israel, told Pharaoh at the end of his life that “My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers (Gen. 47:9).”

But the most spectacular mission failure was Jesus! Though we concentrate on His successes (and rightly so), it’s easy to forget that His original mission was to save the "lost sheep of the house of Israel." In spite of His powerful, unparalleled ministry (The temple guards testified, “No one ever spoke the way this man does” [John 7:46]; the blind man testified, “Nobody has ever heard of the opening of the eyes of a man born blind” [John 9:32]; when He healed the paralytic, the crowd testified, “We have never seen anything like this!” [Mark 2:12]; and “people brought to him all [my emphasis] who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them [Mt. 4:24]”—in spite of all this and much more, at the end of His public ministry the Bible says in John 12:37—“Even after Jesus had done all these miraculous signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.”

There was a purpose behind the healings and signs Jesus did. The purpose was to turn the nation back to God. This is shown in Mt. 11:20, where “Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent [my emphasis].” And though He was successful in doing the miracles, the desired result never occurred—the nation didn’t turn back to God, but rejected the One God had sent.

This is clearly shown in a prophetic conversation between Jesus and the Father recorded in Isaiah 49, hundreds of years before Jesus came to the earth. After giving the background of His equipping and call in verses 1-3, Jesus says in verse 4, “But I said, ‘I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.’” Though Jesus did everything the Father told Him to say and do, yet it didn’t have its intended effect. Jesus successfully completed His assignment, yet the mission failed!


And what was the Father’s response? “Oh no, I misjudged the people?” “Sorry. I gave you faulty instructions?” “The devil got the better of me this time?”

You gotta love this. The Father said, “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the lost tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth (Isa. 49:6).” The Father said that Jesus was so great and His mission went so well, it was worthy of way more than just bringing the Jewish nation back to Him. Instead God would expand its achievement from saving the Jews to bringing salvation to the whole world! God allowed His first mission to fail, even caused it to fail by hardening Israel’s hearts (John 12:39-40), so that it could be expanded many times over and we Gentiles might be brought in. You have to love the way God works. With Him, failure is never what it seems. God is the master of the “Phoenix Effect,” raising out of the ashes of failure a grand scheme of glory and victory.

Jesus and Helicopters

By David Hobbs

Here are three entries that relate Jesus with the flying of helicopters

#1—The “Jesus Nut”
I spent 4 years on a helicopter crew on the Klamath National Forest in far Northern California. Though I wasn’t saved at the time, I found that Jesus and helicopters were intertwined. Ever hear of the “Jesus Nut?” The Jesus Nut refers to the nut that holds the main rotor on the rotor shaft. Virtually anything else can go wrong with the helicopter in flight, and there’s still a good chance of landing safely. This includes blowing an engine, losing the tail rotor, running out of fuel, etc. (I personally saw a crash landing of a helicopter that had blown an engine, in my first year. The pilot walked away without a scratch, though the helicopter was totaled [see Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed, pp 46-49]).

But if anything happens to the Jesus Nut and the main rotor separates from the helicopter, it’s “game over.” No more control over the craft is possible and it drops like a stone.

It was so named by Igor Sikorsky, who invented the helicopter in 1939. One story is that before taking off for the very first time, one of his mechanics was heard to say, “We better pray to Jesus that nut holds the whole thing together!”
(http://www.thejesusnut.com/JesusNutStory.html.)

Another account has Sikorsky, a highly religious man, explaining that “should this small bit of machined metal fail in flight, the crew and anyone else aboard would be meeting Jesus as a bonus for suffering a horrible death.” (http://texino.blogspot.com/2008/07/jesus-nut.html). The Bible says that Jesus is the force “that uphold[s] all things by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3).”

#2—Translational Lift
Then there is the phenomenon of “translational lift.” This is a force that kicks in, usually as the helicopter is taking off, that lifts and transitions it from earth-bound to airborne. Seeing it in operation never ceased to amaze me around our Hueys.

Now the Huey with its two, floppy rotors, is not good at taking off straight up. It needs a “runway” to build up a little speed to break the bands of earth. The runway could be a brush patch, field, water, whatever. It just had to be close to ground level.

It was like this: a loaded Huey, upon takeoff, lifted into a hover, and then started to inch forward. While in a hover, the helicopter sits on a cushion of recirculating air from the rotors. But when the rotors are tilted forward to begin moving ahead, the rotors start blowing the cushion of air out the back. Without this cushion holding it up, the helicopter starts to drop toward the earth (it’s only maybe 10 feet off the ground at the time).

Just when you think it’s going down, this translational lift kicks in and it’s like an invisible hand lifts it up when there’s no reason for it to go up. You can sense it while riding in it during takeoff as well. As you start to move forward, you can feel the helicopter begin falling toward the earth. But again, something that feels like a giant hand suddenly pushes you upwards and you’re airborne. Even unsaved, I couldn’t help but think of it as the hand of God.

Now I think of it as a picture of God’s power we all need to slip the bands of this earth and soar with Him into heavenly places. As we seek Him we get lifted up a little, but then we need to encounter His power lifting us the rest of the way—that gigantic, invisible hand of God lifting us out of the bands of the earth and seating us with Him in heavenly places (Col. 3:1-3).

#3—Awesome Power
We were on a fire in Lake Chelan in Central Washington in 1970. The fire was on one side of the lake and the fire camp was on the other, so we had every Huey the Forest service could get its hands on throughout the Western U.S. (including one from Alaska) working the fire.

One day I was riding “shotgun” in our Huey when they made up a slingload of supplies and asked us to take it over to a helispot near the fire. Now our pilots didn’t like long sling loads because too many things could go wrong, so we opted for about 50 feet max. But the place we were putting it into was a flat area covered with 200-300 foot tall trees. They had cut down enough trees to make a clearing (probably with enough board feet in them to build a small subdivision!), and we were going to have to lower our sling load into this clearing. The pilot asked me to talk him down over the intercom while looking through the bubble on the bottom of the craft, while he looked straight ahead and kept us level in the middle of the opening.

I kept saying “Lower! Lower” as the guys waving on the fallen trees below grew from tiny specks to close enough that I could see the beards on their faces and the “whites” (boots) on their feet. Finally the load flopped down on a log and the rope grew slack. “Let ‘er go,” I shouted into the intercom, and the pilot released the cargo hook and I saw the rope land in a pile on top of the load.

Then I took my eyes off the drama below and looked out the windshield straight ahead again. I was shocked! Instead of sky, all I could see was trees! We were 100 feet or more down in this narrow shaft in the tree canopy, like being in a well. Something like a claustrophobic panic clawed at me, kind of like what Jonah must have experienced when he was thrown overboard and sunk to the bottom of the ocean—“The earth with her bars was about me for ever (Jonah 2:6).”

Then the pilot applied pitch to the rotors, fuel surged into the engine and again, it was like this giant hand lifted us straight out of that deep well and launched us back into the sky. What a glorious feeling to experience that power rush, that “wind beneath our wings” lifting us! I imagine that’s what the Rapture will feel like, and what Jesus experienced as the Father’s power lifted Him out of the lowest hell and “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come (Eph. 1:21).” Praise the Lord for His power!

(This story was reluctantly deleted from the final version of Out of the Fire, A Life Radically Changed due to space considerations. For more on the Lake Chelan fire, see p. 150 +. Also read David’s latest book, Walking in the Spirit, [4L Press] out in Aug. 2011)

Real Christianity

By David Hobbs

There is some question about what is real Christianity. Ninety percent of Americans claim to believe in God, something like 75% claim to be born again, many wear Christian jewelry. How many of these who profess the title "Christian" are the genuine article? How many would Christ say were His own if he were to return today?

To be a lot of things, like say to be a Democrat or a Republican, it requires adherence to a set of beliefs: government is the answer/private enterprise is the answer; taxes are either “our fair share” or “illegal confiscation of citizen wealth;” morality is important/is not important… you know the issues that separate one from the other.

Likewise, to call yourself an environmentalist, you need to ascribe to what they believe in. The same with evolutionist, feminist, birther… whatever it might be. To call yourself one, you need to believe what they believe, to hold their doctrines as truth.

So to be a Christian, you need to believe in what…? The Ten Commandments? Creationism? The Bible? TheTrinity?

Ah but that’s where Christianity is different. You can believe in all the Christian doctrines and even call yourself a Christian, and still not be one in the eyes of Jesus! Jesus said we must be born-again; we must be born of the Spirit. But many even who claim to be born-again, I doubt if their names are written in heaven. Jesus said

“Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. [Matt. 7:13-14]

Not long ago I was at my church for one of my late-night prayer times. I was worshipping and waiting on the Lord when I sang one of my favorite songs by my friend Mike Payne, “When He was on the Cross, I was on His Mind.”

A look of love was on His face, the thorns upon His head
His blood fell on that scarlet robe, and stained it crimson red
Though His eyes were on the crowd that day, He looked ahead in time
When He was on that cross, I was on His mind.

As I sang it I began weeping, as I often do, as I saw in my mind’s eye Jesus, on the cross, with all the pain and agony He was suffering: and all the drama swirlinmg around Him: people cursing Him, disciples abandoning Him, priests mocking Him, crowd rejecting Him… still He had the presence of mind to rise above the pain and drama and look down over two thousand years of history and see me, David Hobbs, and my need of a Savior, and see Himself reaching out to rescue me in love--all made possible by what He was going through right then on the cross.

The Bible says “for the joy set before Him he endured the cross, scorning its shame” [Heb. 12:2]. What was that joy set before Him? To be united again with His Father in heaven? To be given a resurrected body that could go through walls and never die or suffer? No! It was the joy of seeing you and me forgiven and cleansed from our old way of life, and living with Him forever.
And it was all done out of love, with no assurance that any of us would ever accept Him and what He did for us. The Bible says that while we were still enemies of God, Christ died for us [Rom. 5:8], in faith, that we would someday accept His offered gift of eternal life and be born-again.

As I was experiencing this again in my prayer closet like I have so many times before, the thought came to me that this was what differentiates the real Christians—at some point in time they have this revelation and lay hold of it. It’s not really a doctrine to believe in; it’s a revelation of God’s love for you expressed through His death on the cross that you see and embrace: for you, personally and individually—when He was on that cross, you were on His mind.
All the trappings of Christianity—the jewelry, vestments, incense, bells, candles, altar calls, shouting evangelists, tent meetings, prayer meetings, steeples, cathedrals, sanctuaries… well they all fit in there somewhere, but none of them are the main event that separates a true Christian from a “name-only” Christian. To cross over that line requires a revelation—“when He was on that cross, I was on His mind.”

The Source of Life

By David Hobbs

On a missionary trip to India several years ago, I was in a healing/evangelistic meeting as an altar worker (picture above). When the people were called up for prayer, a demon-possessed young man was brought up for deliverance. But before we could do anything, a couple of native, older women came up with huge Bibles and began pushing them into the face of the demon-possessed, as if the physical Bible itself had the power to cast out the evil spirits.

We might chuckle at that display of ignorance, but Jesus had to confront the Jews about a very similar misconception. In John 5:39 (NIV) He told them:

"You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life."

The Jews thought that by carefully studying their Scriptures, that would somehow qualify them for heaven. But when Jesus showed up, who was “the Word made flesh” and the very author of life, they wanted nothing to do with Him. Their hope for eternal life was in the Scriptures alone. Yet the Scriptures by themselves are the letter of the law. And we know that “the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor. 3:6 NIV).

Recently the Holy Spirit quickened to me that much of the Christian church is in the same place today. Our hope and trust are in our Bibles as though they would grant us eternal life. You know, like the salvation Scriptures we quote all the time:

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Eph. 2:8-9 NIV)

If it is the gift of God, then we must come to God to receive it! The Bible does not bestow it—Jesus bestows it. (The Bible promises, but Jesus bestows.)

Jesus went on to say about the Scriptures: "These are the Scriptures that testify about me". The main purpose of the Scriptures is to be a huge flashing signpost with a thousand arrows all pointing to Jesus. And yet we think eternal life is in the signpost! "You think that by them you possess eternal life. "

Too many Christians, once they come to Jesus for salvation, are content to read their Bibles, say prayers, go to church—none of which impart life. Yet they won’t develop an ongoing relationship with Jesus: the Giver, the Creator of life.

2 Tim. 3:16-17 (NIV) says about the Scriptures:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

The Scriptures are God-breathed, and useful for many things. But by themselves they don't have the power to impart life. That power is reserved for the Godhead, as Jesus declared earlier, in John 5:21:

"For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it."

What am I saying? Life comes through our relationship with Jesus, not from how diligently we study the Bible, memorize its verses, or even believe its promises. The Bible is a signpost, pointing us to Jesus. ("These are the Scriptures that testify about me") Yet we’re content to haul around our signposts, instead of going to the One they point to!

What is eternal life anyway? Most Christians look at it as an admittance ticket to heaven. Yet Jesus said:

"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3 NIV)

Our “Free Admittance Ticket to Heaven” analogy for eternal life is flawed. A better analogy is the vine and the branches. As long and as deep as the branches are sunk in the vine, the more life-giving sap of the Holy Spirit will flow into them, imparting the same life Jesus has. It’s not a onetime deal—either one time when we’re born again, or one time at death—but an ongoing process like the golden pipes in the Old Testament constantly imparting oil to the candlestick which burned before the Lord (see Zech. 4). [“Salvation,” or being born again, is when those branches are first grafted into the vine. But they are to be continually flowing with sap as our love relationship with the Lord grows and deepens.]
We need to be continually coming to Jesus in prayer: not only making requests, but building relationship. After all, since we’re going to be His bride throughout eternity; shouldn’t we be getting to know Him now? Or putting it another way: how can we ever hope to be His bride throughout eternity if we're indifferent to Him now?

Are You Prepared for Heaven?

By David Hobbs

Most Christians are longing for heaven. Quite a number are expecting the Rapture to take them there momentarily. The fact that brother Camping is predicting Jesus’ return for this May 21st (about a week from now) has more people than usual thinking about eternity. But are we ready? How much in sync are our lives with the flow of life in heaven?
Most people are clueless to what heaven is all about. They think it’s like life here on earth except on a higher level. So up there we will have WWF wrestling with mighty angels instead of Hulk Hogan types. We’ll have TV programs about voting an angel off a galaxy every week, and competitions to see if angels can sing better than the redeemed. And who knows, probably some kind of sports’ contests….
As we think about all this (to the extent we do at all), Jesus doesn’t seem to play much of a role. We might need Him if there is a disputed contest, or if an angel starts acting up. But in the normal course of activities, we don’t see Him showing up much, just like He plays no role in events down here on earth. We don’t expect Jesus to show up at a NASCAR race, or an NFL game—we’ll catch up with Him at church Sunday morning before the Sunday afternoon golf match and boat regatta.
People of this mindset are about as prepared for heaven as a slug is prepared to swim the English Channel.
While it’s true there is a lot about heaven we don’t know, there are many things we do know. In heaven, the focus of everything is on Jesus: who He is and what He’s done. Here on earth in church, we sometimes have a time where people can stand up and give a testimony for the Lord. In heaven that goes on all the time. On earth, in church, we sing a few songs and have an opportunity to worship the Lord. In heaven, full-blown worship goes on nonstop. On earth we try to get good seats at sporting contests—we try to get close to the 50 yard line or home plate. In heaven, it’s all about getting close to Jesus.
1 Peter 1:10-12 says the former prophets and the angels in heaven are longing to understand the mysteries of redemption: the suffering of Christ on the cross and the glory of the resurrection that followed. Psalm 145:4 gives us another picture of life in heaven when it says, “One generation shall praise thy works to another, and shall declare thy mighty acts.” Now that will be a testimony service!
The Book of Revelation gives us a better picture of life in heaven than anywhere else in the Bible. We see tremendous praise and worship services like in Chapter 5:11:

“And I beheld, and I heard the voices of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands; 12Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. 13And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

How much of your time last week did you spend in worshipping the Lord? How much in giving and receiving testimony about what He’s done?

Rev. 7:15 talks about those who were saved out of the Great Tribulation serving God day and night in His temple…. When was the last time you were at an all night prayer meeting? How much did you enjoy it?

People say, “But even if I don’t do those things on earth, once I get to heaven it’ll be different.” In her book The Priestly Bride, Anna Rountree was taken to heaven and spent much time with Jesus. On page 22 she had this conversation with Him:

[Jesus] lifted my chin. “Anna, look at me,” He said. “Even a king wishes to be loved for Himself, not for the gifts He bestows.” He smiled at me, “If you do not enjoy being with me now [on earth], why do you believe you will enjoy my company for eternity?”

Jesus is the same forever. He won’t be any different in heaven than He is now. How much do we enjoy spending time with Him now, not only in asking for things, but spending time with Him because we enjoy it? How much time have you spent with Him this week? What makes you think it will be different in heaven?

Everybody wants to go to heaven. But the big question is, are you prepared for heaven? There won’t be all the pleasures we enjoy on earth—no TV or movies or video games or junk food or sports, not even marriage and sex (let alone sexual activities outside marriage!). We may have a mansion on a hill on the streets of gold, but we won’t be watching American Idol in that mansion. We may be able to eat from the tree of life, but not from McDonalds or Starbucks! Are you ready? Have you re-programmed your desires from the earthly to the heavenly? Have you crucified yourself to the desires of the flesh? Do you already enjoy what heaven offers? If not what are you going to do about it? (If you've never given yourself to the Lord, that's where you need to start!)

Surprising Victory from Total Defeat

By David Hobbs

Not long ago I awoke early in the morning to go out to the church to pray. I was tired and would have preferred going back to bed. But I really wanted to meet with the Lord so I pushed through that, got dressed, and made my way out to the church, a 15 minute drive away.

Once at the church, things didn’t get much better. I sat and waited on the Lord for awhile, invited the Holy Spirit, felt His presence come to a certain degree, enjoyed what measure I had.... But I was still tired and couldn’t muster any energy. I didn’t have the strength to pray, sing, or even walk around. I could say there was a lot of spiritual oppression, but then some dear saint would correct me, “Why do you always have to make everything spiritual? Wasn’t it just plain old physical tiredness from too early in the morning?”

I have found that the enemy will take any negative condition we’re in and multiply it against us. If we’re sad about something he will try to turn it into depression. If we’re disgusted about how we’ve failed God and fallen short, he’ll turn it into condemnation. And if we’re weak or tired, he’ll multiply that into spiritual oppression.

So yes I was tired, but that wasn’t the whole story. That was just the beginning of the story. When we’re stymied in prayer, we rarely know why. We know we can’t break through, but have no idea what we’re up against because we can’t see.
Daniel didn’t know why he couldn’t break through in prayer for 21 days, even though he was fasting and doing everything right. He had no idea he was being resisted by the mighty spirit prince of Persia, until the angel Gabriel was able, with Michael’s help, to break through and tell him (Daniel 10).

So that morning I had no idea to what extent the resistance I was experiencing was from my tired flesh or from some spiritual power outside myself.

I tried as hard as I could to focus on God in my thoughts, to at least give Him my time and attention, even if I couldn’t bring forth any praise or worship. But it was a losing battle. I got up and moved to a different location, still trying, but still facing a brick wall.

Well into the second hour I started losing focus and falling asleep. Once you enter that stage, there’s little chance of recovery.

I finally gave up, turned off the lights, locked up and headed for home. I had been there an hour and a half, said nothing, sang nothing, prayed nothing did nothing. From my perspective it had been a total loss. I had not prayed any prayers, walked in the Spirit, received anything from God, experienced the anointing, or accomplished anything in the spirit realm. If I had judged my performance I would have given myself an “F” for “Total Failure.”
I went home and went back to bed.

So what’s the story? Why am I even telling this? Don’t we all fail like this in life over and over? Welcome to the real world, Hobbs!

Ah but here’s the rub. Later that morning when I started my day’s work—which this day was calling Christian school librarians about sending them a copy of my Out of the Fire book—as soon as I started calling, the heavens opened and the blessing came down! For two hours everybody I called was available and everybody I talked to was enthusiastic. I was sending out books right and left. I’d been doing this for over a year, and had never had a series of responses like that—it was off the chart. To my thinking it was a better answer from heaven than I would have expected if I had had a smashingly successful prayer time: shouting out praises and victory declarations; taking song requests from angels; falling on my knees in joyous worship... the whole nine yards.

I was greatly encouraged, and greatly humbled, to see once more that God is sovereign; He can do as He pleases. And He was pleased to bless my prayer offering that day, even though it appeared pitifully small. He does not always judge success the way we do. I was not being flaky or lazy or apathetic. I really was giving Him all I had, though it seemed pathetically weak. I imagine there might have been great, unseen forces arrayed against me that day, but who knows?

What I felt the Holy Spirit telling me through this experience was, “Pray on, my son! Pray on!

The Third Testament Discovered!

By David Hobbs

Have you heard about the Third Testament Theory? It holds that there was a third Testament produced around the time of Constantine. Scholars call it “The Gamma Testament,” Gamma being the third letter of the Greek alphabet. No manuscripts have been found, which has led some to debunk the theory. What is the proof then of its existence? * * * * *It is really no different than the source “Q”—which most scholars believe existed and furnished some of the material for the synoptic gospels of Matthew and Luke—though no manuscripts have ever been found. * * * * *This Gamma Testament theory sprang out of the difficulty of reconciling modern American church practices with the New Testament. For instance, where in the New Testament does Jesus or any of the canonical writers command the church to build church buildings? Yet they have been faithfully built, even huge cathedrals and basilicas. How did the church know to do this? Would they just take it upon themselves, in spite of the fact the N.T. Christians met from house to house? * * * * *How about the building of steeples on top of the churches? Where did that come from? And how about the wearing of special robes like choir robes and vestments? Where was that commanded? Scholars have puzzled over these things for years as they’ve become so pervasive they practically define Christianity in America. * * * * *And how about the church service itself? From the ubiquitous Mass in Catholicism and the high church to the standardized services most protestant churches follow—where did they originate? Certainly not the New Testament. * * * * *In the New Testament there was one church per city—“The church at Ephesus” etc., now there are hundreds of churches of all different denominations in even moderate-sized towns. And speaking of denominations, where did Jesus or Paul command that? * * * * *I could go on and on. How about evangelizing? From what book of the New Testament did the “4 Spiritual Laws” come from? Where did the disciples demand the lost to “ask Jesus into your hearts?”* * * * *And surprisingly, some of the things the New Testament church did clearly do are now condemned by American Christianity—things like the baptism in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, the spiritual gifts of 1 Corinthians 12, faith healing, casting out demons, and the like. These practices, instead of being routinely followed as in New Testament days, are now identified as “works of hell” in some modern churches. * * * * *For years I have struggled trying to understand these gigantic contradictions, but now, with the discovery of the Gamma Testament, it all makes perfect sense, sort of. * * * * *You see, Jesus came and delivered this third Testament about the time of Constantine to give the church more clarity about its practices. “I made kind of a mistake,” the Preface to this Gamma Testament starts out, “by speaking too much of eternal things while I was on the earth—like loving your neighbor as yourself and seeking first the Kingdom of God— and giving short shrift to other topics, especially how to conduct your day-to-day affairs in your churches.* * * * *“At the same time I realized I was being too hard on the devil, by giving you all that power to cast demons out of people, to heal diseases, to give supernatural words of knowledge and wisdom, and power to do miracles. Sure I want the devil defeated as much as anyone, but we have to give him a decent shake.* * * * *"So I’m withdrawing the power of the Holy Spirit. People will no longer be translated from place to place like Philip was, my angels will no longer direct your affairs or give supernatural deliverances like in Acts 12:7, and there will not be the supernatural gifts of the Spirit functioning as spoken of in 1 Cor. 12. (I know not all churches will get this word, and some will still try and function in these things, but let grace cover their 'multitude of sins'!)* * * * *“At the same time I will greatly expand you in the areas of church meetings, church buildings and church government, so you will have things to keep you occupied, since you won’t be out exercising the gifts and evangelizing the world. (And instead of confirming the word you do preach with supernatural signs following like in Mark 16:20, I will give you new tools of evangelism like the “The 4 Spiritual Laws,” Billy Graham Crusades, and Evangelism Explosion. It’ll all work out, you’ll see). * * * * *“However, to save the Apostle Paul and other New Testament writers from possible embarrassment, I command you to keep this Gamma Testament secret. High church leaders can refer to it from time to time to keep the churches on track, but it is not for general dissemination to the church as a whole, lest Paul and the others feel disrespected and contradicted. Like I said, it wasn’t their fault—they only said what I told them to say at the time. * * * * *But I’ve had more opportunity to think and reflect up here in heaven, and I think in the pressure of all that was going on on earth then… I got some of my emphases wrong. And satan has been complaining that I didn’t give him a fighting chance, so I feel bad about that too. So hopefully these changes will straighten everything out. If not I might be back with a Fourth Testament (or I might just let you muddle through).” * * * * *
Then follows the text of the Testament itself, where these and other practices are spelled out in more detail.* * * * *I’m glad this Gamma Testament has been discovered. It clears up a lot of confusion and so many questions. And though it doesn’t adequately explain how some have gotten off the reservation from time to time and started massive revivals, we can be thankful that sanity eventually prevailed in these situations and brought everything back to the normal as expounded in this new book. * * * * *I wish this Gamma Testament could be disseminated more widely (which is what I’m trying to do here). What a great relief it brings us in the American church. See, we’re not backslidden after all; we’re just following the canards of the Gamma Gospel!

What's our GRAND PRIZE?

By David Hobbs

Philippians 3:14--I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

My question is: what is that great prize for which we have been called heavenward? A prize so great that Paul counted everything else but rubbish compared to it; the prize for which he was straining with everything he had in him? In fact, from the language he uses, it seems to have become the whole goal of his walk in Christ--The GRAND PRIZE of his Christian Life. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP In asking this question around, one of the answers I have gotten is salvation—eternal life. Yet Paul had been born again and serving God for years. Paul already had eternal life. Besides, eternal life is not something that is earned by effort. How could Paul be hoping to win eternal life by his great efforts? PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Another answer is our glorified bodies. That’s something he doesn’t have yet and is hoping for. True, but won’t every believer receive a glorified body? Was Paul hoping for a special one? Hmm. Could be, but where else is that supported in Scripture? PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Then what else could it be? What was that prize that so motivated him? PPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

Back when I was first called into a life of prayer, the Lord gave me the verse: “Anyone who comes to [God] must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him” [Heb. 11:6]. So all the time I was praying and seeking Him, I kept wondering what my reward would be. Would it be some great gift of healing, that would cause cancer to flee at my command? Would it be great wealth that I could use to bankroll the Kingdom? All the while I was having great experiences with God—singing and worshipping and pouring out my heart to Him, being overcome by revelations of His goodness and mercy (there were times I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t even sing—all I could do was cry, rendered mute with gratefulness and wonder). I learned to bring down the anointing of God by lifting up my voice with praise and declarations of His victory and power, feeling that same power surge through me and route the enemy. And all the time I kept wondering what my reward would be and eagerly anticipating when it would appear. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP It took years before the Lord opened my dense mind that, duh, “I am your reward and you’ve been receiving it all along!!” Wow! Talk about a paradigm shift! PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP The longer I prayed and the deeper I got in Him, the more I realized the truth of that statement. Like God said to Abraham in Genesis 15:1—“I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” Did that just apply to Abraham? Or was it for all of us? Could that be the great prize that Paul was striving toward in Phil. 3? PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Actually I’ve been teasing you. Paul answers his own question in chapter 2 just before: 7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP But Paul was saved. Didn’t he already have Christ? I submit to you there is a difference. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP To be saved, one has Christ as Savior. But that is not the fullness of Christ. That’s not even necessarily Christ as Lord. The more a person is conformed to the image of Christ, the more that person has Christ. Paul wanted to be so conformed to Christ’s image that he shared in the fellowship of Christ’s sufferings even to the point of being made conformable to His death, so that he could also share in the power of Christ’s resurrection and attain to the resurrection of the dead. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Now some could argue that attaining to the resurrection of the dead and getting his glorified body was the great prize Paul was striving for. But I would ask: Was Paul trying to use Christ to gain his glorified body? Or was Paul wanting to use the resurrection and his glorified body to gain the fullness of Christ? What was the ultimate goal—a glorified body or Christ Himself? Think with me here. What is greater, a part of the creation, or the creator? PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP God is offering us Himself as our ultimate prize. No created thing, no matter how exalted, could possibly compare to that! (And if you think it could … seriously, you need to have a radical restructuring in your thinking processes.) PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP That’s one of the great weaknesses in American church theology and it shows up everywhere. We don’t understand the fullness of who Jesus is and we don’t understand what our inheritance is in Him. We’re happy to settle for a "mansion over there" on the "streets of gold" when we’ve been promised the King of the Universe! PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP I may have a mansion in heaven, but don’t come looking for me there. I won’t be in it unless by some chance Jesus is there as my house guest. Otherwise I’ll be where Jesus is. Just look for where the glory light is shining brightest, where the cheers are most exuberant, where the angels are circling in thick clouds, where the trumpets are blowing, where the singing is loudest…. that will be where Jesus is! And you will find me as close as I can possibly get, hopefully as part of His bride who is always at His side. PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP Hang the mansion! Forget the streets of gold! Keep the angels! Pass on the 73 virgins! I want Jesus!! He’s the GRAND PRIZE for which I'm being called heavenward! Brethren, In His presence there is fullness of joy, at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore! Don't settle for anything less!!

Surrender My Bride!

By David Hobbs

God rarely corrects or rebukes me personally. Usually He’ll use a message in a sermon or a book that the Holy Spirit will work through to convict me of wrong doing. Other times He’ll let my own foolishness correct me (“thy backslidings shall reprove thee” [Jer. 2:19]), or use my wife, a brother, elder or pastor to speak into my life. Therefore the following caught me off guard:

I was on my book tour in the summer of 2009. I had gotten as far as the Denver area where I was staying with my cousin Colleen.

Now I’ve got to admit that I have a problem with being full of myself at times. It’s spawned a joke I have with my wife. When I come home, I announce dramatically, “Marcine, I’m home! You can relax now; everything’s going to be all right.” The idea behind it being: whatever I'm personally in charge of would be fine; it’s the things I’m not in charge of where the trouble comes from. The Lord has had to show me over the years that actually my biggest problems come from exactly those things I am in control of!
The idea that I had starting out on the tour was that the church was broken and part of my task was to fix it. I had to get the Bride ready to meet her Bridegroom in the very near future. Right now she was a mess, but if I could just get opportunity to speak into her life, I could bring some much-needed correction to her.
Thus I was caught off-guard, even startled, to hear the Lord’s voice speak suddenly to me one evening, “KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY WOMAN!”
At first I thought He must be joking, “Ha-ha, right, sure Lord” He wasn’t joking.
Then I thought He must be speaking in hyperbole, you know, like “if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee”—exaggerating to make a point. He wasn’t speaking hyperbolically either.

“KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY WOMAN!” There was nothing kidding about it, and nothing to indicate He was “just trying to get my attention.” He did not back off or soften in the slightest. And He was not smiling.
His use of the vernacular “my woman” was deliberate. It invoked images of a jealous red-neck who didn’t want any other man even talking to “his woman,” let alone trying any funny business.
But the more I thought about it, the more life-giving (instead of condemning) it became to me. I realized God doesn’t look at the church the way we do. To Him, the church is not this hopelessly dysfunctional entity we all shake our heads over. God looks at her with a passionate, all-consuming love that overlooks all her faults, and He has no doubt whatsoever of His own ability to fix them. He doesn’t need my help or anybody else’s to fix the church, and He doesn’t want anyone messing around with her, even while claiming to be trying to help her.

He doesn’t need our help. He doesn’t want our help. He doesn’t want the glory of preparing her for her Groom to go to anyone but Him. She is His. He purchased her with His own spilled blood. Mess with her at your peril! If it would be better for someone who caused one of His little ones to stumble to have a millstone tied around their neck and be thrown into the sea, what must the punishment be for someone who messes around with His bride—His woman! And though on the one hand I stood sternly rebuked; on the other hand--I’m also part of that bride He loves so much!

About a year later, back home in church we were singing a song I hadn’t heard before. But the lyrics were kind of an “in-your-face” to satan. The part I do remember was where it went, “surrender my bride!” Wow! Suddenly that whole story came back and I knew it was a prophetic “hot button” of the moment. I obtained permission from the pastor and addressed the church, telling them the story. Then I said “I believe this is the demand of the Spirit to satan, and now that we know the passionate, possessive love behind it, I think we should declare it to satan prophetically right now.” And we did. I led the whole church in a thunderous, anointed, prophetic demand to the satanic realm: “SURRENDER MY BRIDE! SURRENDER MY BRIDE! SURRENDER MY BRIDE!” The gates of hell were shaking that night! There was no place to hide. The Lion was roaring!

Encountering the Mysterious

By David Hobbs

It was a Sat. afternoon in Sept. of 2006 and I was having my first book signing at our local Christian Bookstore for my just-published book, Out of the Fire. All my friends from church came out and bought copies, which meant I sold more than I’ve ever sold since in a signing.

Half way through the event a woman came up to my table. I think she said her name was Chris or Christine, but like everything else about her, there is some question about that now. I took her to be around 40 years old but I couldn’t begin to describe her. No mental picture comes to mind. She was a white woman, that’s all I know for sure.

She said she worked for the Marysville Fire Dept. across the river--in the office, not as a fire fighter. She told me that God had her there in part to help the fire fighters with their marriages and relationships. We talked about the high percentage of fire fighters’ marriages that end in divorce, and some of the reasons behind it.

The more we talked, the deeper into spiritual things we got, and the more fascinated I became. She said she knew about divorce firsthand. She and her former husband had married as Christians, but he fell away and put her through all kinds of hell. Still she didn’t feel released by the Lord to divorce him, but rather to wage war against the devil for his soul, even as the attacks of the enemy through him grew stronger.

But there came a day when, as he was about to strike her, she looked into his eyes and suddenly heard the Holy Spirit speak out of her: “Charles, I have given you ample opportunity to repent, but you have refused. This is your final call. Fall on your knees before me now and cry out for forgiveness. You will not have another chance.” The words were calm and measured, but every hair on her body stood up, and Charles’ red, angry face turned ashen. He froze in place, unable to speak. Finally tears began streaming down his face and he choked out, “I can’t! I can’t!”

They got divorced soon after that, and Charles’ life went rapidly downhill from there until his death not long after. (Sorry I can’t remember those details.)

I was still reeling from that story when she started telling me about her son. He was a special gift from God, though I no longer recall the circumstances of his birth. But I do remember this: when he was about 18 months old and barely able to talk, one day she noticed he was looking at her in a strange way. “What is it, son?” She asked.
“There it is Mommy,” he said, pointing at her. He was talking clear and plain like he’d been doing it all his life.
“There what is?”
“That look you had on your face.”
“Look? Well .…What ….”
“That’s the same look you had when I pointed you out to Jesus in heaven and asked if I could have you as my mommy.”

She was really blowing my mind now! I didn’t even know what that doctrine was called, but I was sure we didn’t believe in it. But she wasn’t trying to convince me of doctrine. She was just telling me what had happened with her son.

We talked about other things that I no longer recall. After she left, all I could think about was her and what she had said. “The ladies in our church need to hear her speak,” I thought. She had spoken so calmly yet with simple, profound conviction. I wanted to speak with her again: write her stories down; make sure I had heard them right; see what else she had to say.

On Monday I went over to the Marysville Fire Dept. No one there had heard of her. They didn’t have any employees that came close to matching her description. I thought maybe I had heard the name of the department wrong. I went to the Yuba City Fire Dept. and others in the area, all with the same results.

Every book I sold had gone through me. The people had given me money, and I had written their names down and given them a book. But she was not on my list. Then I remembered: she wanted to buy the book with a credit card, and had to do so at the counter, since I didn’t have a credit card machine. Hers was the only book I had no record of. I never saw her again, nor was I able to get any information on her, even to confirm her name.

Many of you might dismiss this story out-of-hand, which we tend to do with anything we don’t understand. That’s your prerogative; but then it’s not your story. But what was its effect of me, the recipient?

I felt it was a supernatural visitation of some kind that was meant to encourage and inspire me.

After all, it had taken 16½ years to write my book. It had been a long, difficult road, but also a maturing process. As I worked on the book, the Holy Spirit worked on me. Now, after all that struggle, setbacks and travail, the book was finally seeing the light of day in its first public unveiling. I think God sent someone as His representative to the event. After all, the book was dedicated to Him: it was the story of all He took me through to show me He was real, and that he loved me. And my desire was that it would steer many others His way. I had finished it at His direction, and published it according to His command. Why wouldn’t He send a representative to acknowledge the event and show His pleasure?

But then who was she, this representative of God? My guess is: an angel. The Bible talks a lot about that. But how about her story of working for the fire dept.? She said God had her working there and I believe that was true. But as an angel she works for Him and not for them and is usually invisible (so she wouldn’t exactly be on the payroll). But how about her husband and child? Do angels marry? Don’t try to form doctrine based on this story! That’s the flaw of the western, rational mind. She might have been the guardian angel for the woman in the encounter she was telling me about. There is no way of knowing, which means that’s not the point of the story. The Holy Spirit's purpose is not to stir up idle and unprovable speculation.

To me it is a treasured experience, just as the Bible says that Mary treasured up experiences in her heart, most of which she didn’t understand.

The Bible says that “deep calls unto deep,” and when I have experiences like that, they call up deep things in my spirit. They stir a hunger deep inside me, a yearning for that realm, the realm of the eternal, the supernatural--the realm of the habitation of God.

Old Folk's Church

By David Hobbs

The question I pose to you today is: Are you attending an “Old Folk’s Church”?

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
40 years ago, our community, like others, had many small, outwardly vibrant churches. But they weren’t reproducing. Then God moved sovereignly through the Jesus’ Movement which swept many new converts (including me) into the Kingdom and toward the churches. But many churches refused to accept what God was doing in their day and wouldn’t let the new believers in unless they cleaned up their acts and became like the established church members first. The trouble was, the church members, though well-appointed in this life with clothes, cars, casas and careers, were far behind the new converts in passion and commitment. So the hippie converts started their own churches (which have prospered), leaving the older people’s churches (where their spiritual life and energy was so badly needed) high and dry. They didn’t stop having church, but they kept aging until now there are many small churches where the average believer is 70 years old or more. The ones left love the Lord and are sweet people, but their future is dim because there’s no one coming behind to take their places; when enough die off their churches face closure and extinction.

But the question remains, how can you tell if you are in an Old Folk’s church or not? I attend two churches, one is “Old Folks,” the other not. They both have some older people and some younger people, so to the untrained layman the answer might not be readily apparent. But is there a quick way to tell, rather than spending years at some far-off seminary?
Yes there is, and the answer came to me suddenly in revelatory form last week: My Old Folk’s church is always hot—you never want to wear a sweater, suit jacket, or even long sleeve shirt unless it’s the thinnest material. At my other church you can wear all of the above, but ix-nay on the short-sleeve shirt in the winter.
So it was obviously the temperature that was the indicator, but what exactly was the cutoff point, after which you morphed from one church to another? After diligent research and extensive analysis I can now positively affirm that the cutoff point is 70°. If the sanctuary is kept below 70°, you are in a regular church. But if the temperature is 70° or above (usually the 72°-74° range), you are in an Old Folk’s church.
Happily, the Lord attends both!

God in the Mundane--"Hey, Get Your Car Serviced!"

By David Hobbs

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I bought our ‘05 Expedition 5 years ago, back in the days when I still needed a tax write-off. It had 34,000 miles on it then, over 120,000 miles now. In all those 5 years I basically did nothing to it other than what the Jiffy Lube did: change the oil, filters, fluids checked, etc. (In the last couple of years when money’s been tight, I even quit taking it to Jiffy Lube—too expensive. Just some place cheap to change the oil.)

I had to get the air conditioner rebuilt this spring, but other than that I’ve crossed the country several times just setting it on Cruise Control, keeping the tank full, and letting it run and run. For 5 years it’s been one faithful machine, one of the best engines Ford’s ever built.
But even the modern, efficient engines need servicing some time. I thought around 100,000 miles they needed tuned up. So that was on my mind, yet another 20,000 miles had come and gone without me doing anything about it—the procrastination factor!
We were driving to Woodland for Thanksgiving when out of the blue it began missing. It only did it briefly, when I accelerated from a slowdown at a stop light. But it stuttered and the “check engine” came on briefly. Then it was back to normal.
But that was enough for me to finally get it into my mechanic, who asked me to bring all the records of what had been done to it since I bought it. He called me a day later. “This car of yours, you haven’t been keeping up with the maintenance. There’s a list of things to do at 90,000 miles, 100,000 miles, and 120,000 miles. All you’ve done is get the oil changed and changed out the fuel filter a couple of times.” Then he rattled off all the other items needing attended to: “The spark plugs need to be changed at 90,000 miles or they start building up carbon inside which makes them hard to remove. Sometimes they’ll break and pieces will fall down into the cylinder in which case you have to take the whole engine apart. You don’t want to know what that would cost you!”
The spark plugs, a couple of them, did break taking them out. But no pieces fell into the engine. We had gotten to it in time, barely.
He ended up putting about$1000.00 into the car: replacing all the fluids, spark plugs, and the many other things due and overdue for maintenance.
“Do you do much 4-wheel driving?”
“No not much.”
“Good. Your 4 wheel drive transfer case was dry.”
About the same time I was out at the church at drama practice one Sunday afternoon. When I went to start the car the battery was dead. This car, which for 5 years had never given me any trouble, wouldn’t start. But there were plenty of others around to give me a jump. Once started I drove straight to the automotive dept. of the big box store and had them put in a new battery. I got a couple of new tires as well.
It did feel good to know the car was back in good running shape. I drove it for a week around town. But on the day I drove to Sacramento and back for the capital prayer meeting: once back into Marysville I had to stop at the first stoplight. As I sat there idling, it started missing again. When the light turned green and I drove off it ran fine. But when I had to stop at a light again it began missing. “Wow, I wonder what this is? I should take it to the mechanic’s shop again. After all, it’s right on the way home. Oh but then I'll have to drop it off and leave it, find a ride home, be without it for a day....” I just didn’t want to have to deal with it right then. As I passed the mechanic’s shop, sure enough it looked like he was busy. There were a lot of cars clustered around. “That confirms it, I’ll go later,” I thought. (Once again the procrastination factor!)
But as soon as I passed the shop (without stopping), the car started going “ape” on me. It was missing all over the place; huffing and chugging and lurching; the “check engine” light came on and stayed on. It was obvious something had to be done right away. I immediately recognized the hand of the Lord. Since I hadn’t responded to His gentle prodding, He was going to make sure I didn’t miss it. “OK Lord, I get it!” I found a place to pull a U-turn and came back to the shop. I did have to leave the car, but my wife was still home, and she came out and picked me up.
“I just assumed when we did all that other work that that took care of the original problem,” the mechanic said later. “But the problem was in the third cylinder. There is this assembly above the cylinder that feeds the spark to the plug at the right time. It’s secured by a little spring. But in your case the spring was unhooked. I re-hooked it and it seems to run fine. Try it out and let me know. It’s nothing to charge you for.”
Sure enough the car ran fine from that time on.
The whole episode caused me to marvel at the working of the hand of God. He could see me procrastinating on getting the car serviced so He unhooked that little spring, causing the car to run ragged just enough to get me in to the shop. His timing at every step was perfect. It didn’t strand us or ruin our Thanksgiving outing. Even the death of the battery came at an opportune time.
Once all the work had been done, He still had to get the spring re-hooked. Again the timing was perfect—as I was returning to town after a 90 mile trip. Only when I missed His cue and decided to wait till later did He up the ante by increasing the problem enough so I had to deal with it immediately. Then it turned out to be, not another major problem, but the final touch on the old one.
Thus God watches over our lives, and helps us do what we need to do, when we need to do it. His working can be so subtle that we miss it, or attribute it to random circumstances. If you have surrendered your life to Christ, God is at work in your life as well. Pray to God that He open your eyes like He did mine, to see His work. What an exciting thing to realize that God really does love you and is busy working in your life for your good and His glory!

For those who follow this blog, I am working on writing another book, about walking in the Spirit. This blog post will be in it as one of the many stories where God has worked supernaturally in my life, as part of the chapter on "mundane things." DH