A Vision of Jesus

By an anonymous friend of David Hobbs

During October (2012) at the "Embassy of Heaven" campus in building #200 at the Church of Glad Tidings (Yuba City, Calif.), there were 10 days set aside for concentrated worship, fasting, and prayer led by the new AHOP (Ascending House of Prayer) group. On the last 3 days the worship went round-the-clock, using pre-recorded music from 10:00 p.m. until musicians came the next day. 

On Thursday morning October 25th around 1:00 a.m. I had a vision of the LORD dancing to the music of Kimberly and Alberto Rivera, from what I believe is their "Royalty" CD. There were others in the room but they had all fallen asleep. I was the only one who saw the vision. When He appeared I could no longer hear snoring in the room. The stage, light bars, instruments, and carpet were gone. The center of the round room ceiling has large wood support columns that join together at what looks like a tinted window, but these vanished also. A bright light was shining through the center of the ceiling upon the LORD as He danced to the Rivera's music. I had the sense that the Father was looking down on Him with delight.

He (the Lord Jesus) was dressed in unusual clothing. He was wearing what appeared to be a white gown similar to what men wore in the 1800s when they slept. Over the gown was a plain, white, four-cornered garment like a prayer shawl, but with a hole in the center which the LORD had placed His head through. It had strings hanging down from each corner. He danced in the bright spot light with His arms under the garment, using them to create a wing effect. He danced, spun completely around, danced some more, then spun back around the other way. He didn't seem to have sandals on. But the most unusual part of the whole vision was his height; He looked to be 11 or 12 feet tall! 

While watching I was overwhelmed at how beautiful the Lord is! But the "beauty" I experienced was not, "Wow! Look how pretty He and this whole scene is." This "beauty" involved a preciousness, a purity, a simplicity, a level of my senses being awakened to what I didn't even know existed. The Lord, the clothing, the colors, the light, the music were all peacefully singing "life..." "life..." "life..." "life...." During this early morning vision I saw "eternal life" from a new perspective. I was thinking, "Wow, what we have here [on earth] is so lifeless compared to what He has waiting for us!"

I started crying, and after blowing my nose and wiping my eyes it was over. Later that morning I left resolute to set my heart and mind on the living "things above" rather than so much on lifeless "earthly things." It's been a few months since this occurred, and I thank the Lord for giving more time and practice to cultivate this attitude.           

Connecticut Shootings

By David Hobbs

I must admit to some ambivalence to the tragic news of the shootings in Connecticut. On the one hand I grieve over the innocent children, so suddenly and horrifically cut off from this world, leaving behind traumatized parents, siblings, friends, extended family members, even the entire community. On the other hand, I also grieve over the national hypocrisy so blatantly on display to everyone but the participants.

There has been an outpouring of such overwhelming sadness it could almost be called an “orgy of grief.” There is even talk of never reopening the school where it happened. Yet where is the national mourning over the 20 babies brutally aborted 180 times every day of every year for the last 40 years since abortion was legalized? Where is the grief over them?

Our national blindness is staggering. And yet no one dares mention that the emperor has no clothes.  “But Brother Hobbs, Brother Hobbs, those babies in Sandy Hook were cruelly shot, numerous times.” Tell me an abortion that is not violent and vicious! Partial birth, where the skull is punctured and the brains vacuumed out? D&E, where the baby is dismembered and the pieces vacuumed or removed with forceps? Saline solution, where a powerful saline solution is injected into the womb and the baby is chemically burned to death before evacuation?

We respect the grief of those involved in Sandy Hook, but how about the grief of God over the brutal deaths of 53 million babies in just the U.S. in the 40 years since Roe Vs. Wade? Each baby was given conception by the Holy Spirit and entrusted into the care of man. Each one came with gifts and talents, potentialities for greatness, callings and a destiny it could achieve with proper nurturing and care. Think of the baby Jesus, entrusted into the care of Mary and Joseph, with the calling and destiny to save mankind. Though Jesus was unique, yet He is also a picture of every baby that comes into the world—a gift of God to mankind for its good. The Bible confirms this: “Behold, children are a gift (or heritage) of the Lord,
 [t]he fruit of the womb is a reward.” [Psalm 127:3 NAS].

“But Brother Hobbs, Brother Hobbs, abortions are not my fault; don’t blame me!” Neither is Sandy Hook, yet we all grieve over the loss and look for ways to prevent its reoccurrence. Approximately 15,000 abortions have happened (U.S.) in the week since the shootings took place. Who is mourning them?

Useless Prayer Meetings

By David Hobbs

Last post we looked at clueless church meetings, especially as they pertained to improper protocol in praise and worship. God is so gracious; He overlooks a lot of things. But we should never let that be an excuse to continue in cluelessness. Make no mistake—as much as He loves us—our cluelessness and failure to rightly apply His word do limit what He can do through us. Paul said, “Brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant… (1 Cor. 10:1). Cluelessness and ignorance can be pitied and passed over, but they can never be blessed!

The topic this post—The Church Prayer Meeting.

Though God loves prayer, and commands us to “pray always and not lose heart,” I think it’s a close call on whether the average church prayer meeting does more harm than good.

Here’s the bugaboo: in the Kingdom, everything rises or falls on faith. Only prayers prayed in faith accomplish anything. Without faith it’s impossible to please God.

But here’s how the average church prayer meeting operates: The pastor asks for prayer requests. In a small church he might go around the room. And each person probably has two or three requests.

Each request brings up a problem: “My Aunt Bea just learned she has cancer.”

“O No!” thinks the congregation in their hearts.

The next person says, “Pray for our nation.”

(“Yeah, this country’s in a mess!”)

“Pray for my co-worker John, his wife just left him.”

(“Oh No!”)

“Pray for my son Bill, he just got picked up for robbing a liquor store to buy drugs.”

(“Acch that’s terrible!!”)

“Pray for me, I’ve still got stomach ulcers.”

(“Still? Oh no!”)

And so it goes. By the time we get done taking the requests and are ready to pray, the congregation’s heads are filled with these serious problems, many the same as the last prayer meeting. Who still has faith to pray to Jesus and expect it to make a difference? We may have come out of the praise and worship part of the meeting touched by the Holy Spirit, our eyes on Jesus, filled with faith in His power and goodness, believing He can do anything. But now our eyes are focused back on the problems of the world, and all that faith and power of the Holy Spirit has drained right out of us. When we finally go to prayer, it’s more of a wail than a prayer because our hearts are overwhelmed by the problems (that even with our prayers we don't seem to be able to fix).

We actually end up praying prayers of unbelief containing unspoken accusations. While we’re praying,  we're thinking in our hearts, “Lord I’m going to pray for this again even though I’ve already prayed for it umpteen times and you haven’t answered yet. You must not care about me or this problem; either my prayer’s too weak or you’re unable to handle it or maybe you’re just indifferent; but I’ll pray anyway because I’m such a soldier…” And God’s up in heaven holding His nose against the stench of our self-pity and unbelief!

That’s why I said that our prayer meetings can do more harm than good. They can actually foster unbelief, murmuring and doubts in the hearts of the believers. Why should we do satan’s work for him?

In the Bible we are exhorted to examine our ways. That’s what the Book of Malachi is all about: the prophet takes Israel to task through case after case where their worship practices are doing more harm than good. In Malachi 1:10 God cries out for one man who would rise up and “shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!” (Sounds like many churches" prayer meetings!)

We have to find ways that will foster faith, not unbelief in God’s people. In my monthly, intercessory prayer meeting for the National Governor’s Prayer Team, we start out the hour-long meeting with a tithe of 6 minutes of silence, allowing time for each person to slow down, get in touch with God: examine their own life and repent as needed, and have opportunity to entreat the Holy Spirit to come and pray God’s burdens through us. When it's time to pray out loud we pray as the Holy Spirit leads, without listing all the problems.

I’m using that as an example, not saying that’s what everyone should do. It’s too easy to simply adopt someone else’s practices rather than waiting on God to develop our own.

Those of us responsible need to search our ways with the help of the Holy Spirit, let Him identify the problems and give us strategies to overcome them. Just because churches have always done it one way is no reason to continue, especially when it’s counter-productive! It’s time to take the practices of our church meetings to higher levels so He can manifest Himself in greater ways.

In the Old Testament, they only burned a “memorial portion” of all the grain offerings on the altar (see Lev. 2). I’m convinced this has a spiritual application with our prayers. We don’t need to pray for every single need. God knows them far better than we do and is well able to handle them all. He doesn’t need our prayers, but does want us to pray so we experience the joy of partnering with Him. We pray for the “memorial portion” of our needs as He puts them on our hearts and trust Him with the rest.