Do You Live in Fear or Peace?

Most of us would probably argue that we would never trust the devil. But it might not occur to us that putting our faith in anyone or anything besides God creates only symptomatic cures and is actually idolatry. An idol is anything you trust more than you trust God, or anything you have to check with before you say yes to God.

In my own life, I have struggled at times with the fear of death. If I have some negative physical symptom, I immediately go to the doctor to find out what is wrong and what can be done to help cure me. Let me clearly state that I am in no way opposed to seeing a doctor when you are sick. Jesus Himself said that those who are sick need a […]

2/1/17  Gerri’s note:  I penned this, but I believe it is a word to all of God’s children.  He just wants your quiet, intimate fellowship.

Sitting by the fire, a gentle snow falls outside my window.  I hear the Father quietly say, “Come.”  I close my eyes and still my soul, and I call my spirit to go to His side.  Immediately I am in the secret place with Him.  His love for me is on me, in me, and washing through me.  It is warm and always inviting.  We just sit together in the silence for awhile.  Then He speaks, “I’m so glad you’ve come.  You know there is no one who can take your place.  I made no other just like you.  I love you so.  Thank you for coming.”  Abba

Daddy says: The judgment that is coming will produce the fruit that is ripe for picking; the homeless, the broken, the hopeless. This is how mercy and judgment can work together and produce good fruit. Destruction, pain, suffering and loss are fertile ground for love to blossom and capture hearts that are hurting. I have prepared My teams. Heaven and earth are ready in rescue mode. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth and at the same time tears and shouts of joy will fill the air as newborns are released from judgment’s grasp! The army grows!

In re-reading my journal, I came across this entry and I felt it should be posted now.

My Children:

There is a place where the air is pure. It has been decontaminated to enhance clarity of thought and purity of spirit. It is called My Kingdom. I have told you repeatedly that it is My good pleasure to give you the Kingdom, yet you seem to prefer the world and its contamination. What must I do to help you realize that your rightful place as My Child is My Kingdom? It is your inheritance from Me. It has been prepared for you in detail. This is a now thing and it is extremely important. I have warned you of very difficult days ahead, yet you do not listen. Your self-centeredness, your stubbornness, and your rebellion will involve you in the pain […]

This is an excellent, short video interview with Bill Johnson, Pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA.  It’s so worth a little over 3 minutes of your time to see what Bill has to say.  If you are not a Pastor or ministry leader, perhaps you know one who could use this message!  Surveys from Focus on the Family and others continue to show us that approximately 1,500 pastors are leaving the ministry EACH MONTH!  Religion leads to burnout.  Relationship with Father, Son and Holy Spirit leads to peace and rest.  Let’s help our leaders find that place of peace and rest!  Click the link below to see how Bill handles ministry and family!

How to Manage Ministry & Family – Bill Johnson

How does someone find a spiritual mother or father? I get this question so often. I know what it’s like to hunger for covering, a voice of wisdom, someone to share your accomplishments with and process difficult decisions with. And I’m encouraged to see a generation hungry for this as well! It all begins by positioning your heart as a son or daughter. Then you will attract spiritual parents.

 1) Find people who you value and who value you. Do this not because of what they give you and not for selfish reasons, but rather because of the fruit and experience you’ve seen in their lives that you could model yourself after. If you want to be a mechanic, hang around repair shops. If you want to be a pastor, hang around pastors and stack chairs.

 2) Serve well. Often in […]

Thankfulness and Humility

Thankfulness is the door to happiness, the gate of heaven, the cure of arrogance, and a force against the spirit of entitlement. Wow! What a powerful force that is! Thankfulness is a field that must be cultivated, weeded and seeded. But humility is the soil that makes up a field of a thankful heart. We must understand humility before we can truly cultivate thankfulness in our lives. Not only is humility the key to thankfulness, but it’s also the pathway to promotion!

The Fruit of Humility

Matthew 7:20 says that we can recognize people by their fruit. I love the way the New Living Translation puts it; “Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.” Humility produces beautiful fruit. These are some of the characteristics that will […]

Christmas Gifts for Your Spouse and Yourself

FOR YOUR SPOUSE –

We have been watching something very interesting for quite some time now in the Body of Christ. It is the lack of love, honor and respect that married couples give one another on a daily basis. It has become a disgrace to those who call themselves Christians, for it is the very foundational things upon which Christ called us to deliver to one another when we take our marriage vows. How often we break those sacred vows. Most often we see husbands who absolutely refuse to take the spiritual leadership in their households. When their mate attempts to lovingly approach them with spiritual matters, they refuse to listen. The wives we deal with here at PITFH often have spent many long hours in prayer for their mate unselfishly seeking the […]

The past few days I have been feeling the Lord really “zooming in” on anxiety. I saw high levels of anxiety that have been there for years and years, and anxiety that has come on because of this season and fear, the Lord is going after it.

I had a vision and I saw Jesus blowing upon the hearts and souls of His people and as He blew I watched the Spirit of God moving within God’s people to begin to deal with the root issues and chains of anxiety. As He blew, and the Spirit of God found the areas where the anxiety had taken root, I saw His breath turn to FIRE.

I watched as the fire of God consumed the anxiety BY RELEASING A REVELATION OF HIS LOVE!!!! The fire of His love was BREAKING the stronghold of […]

Thanksgiving Afternoon 2016 – watching football and Father began to speak to me (Roger) the following:

“Son, let’s talk to My other kids; hopefully some will listen! As your Father, I am concerned for you all. I watch as you repeatedly make wrong choices in life that deter fulfillment of your purpose and destiny. Some of you never consider that I have a purpose and destiny planned for you. You seldom demonstrate interest in My Kingdom or the supernatural life that is available to you. How could you possibly think that continuing to live a self-centered, worldly life will bring you more happiness and fulfillment than living in the benefits of being a born again child of God? Do you really believe that the world’s offerings compare with what I offer you? If you insist in remaining in your comfort […]

Are you striving for perfection in your relationship with God? Do you think He is expecting perfection from you? Do you really think He is so foolish that He would expect perfection from an imperfect source? If you think He is expecting perfection from you, then you are misjudging Him. If you are striving for perfection from yourself, you are on a self-defeating, dead end road! Constant failure and constant self-criticism and condemnation invite many other negative emotions that satan loves to exploit and beat you up with. You will wind up abusing yourself and those around you. You will fail God, yourself and your family and friends because performance for perfection is a relationship killer. […]

In 2008 my family and I went through one of the hardest, darkest seasons of our lives. After ten years of marriage, my son Jason found himself in a divorce. The pain seemed to swallow him up as every beautiful memory of his wife crumbled into disappointment. He was living in a nightmare, and as his father, the pain that he and my three grandchildren were going through hit my heart in the sharpest way. My heart broke for my family. I spiraled down into a state of hopelessness, exhaustion and depression, and couldn’t get off of the couch for three months. I had a choice to make. Would I continue to lie on the couch and let the situation envelop my entire being, or would I face the pain and process my grief with honesty and truth?

ARE YOU […]

My inbox is being filled with many, many emails – some from those I know and some from those I don’t know – about news, world events and election details.  I hear more and more folks saying, “I will be so glad when the election is over.  I am so sick of all the news.”  I couldn’t agree more.  Rog and I are listening to less and less news and world reports these days.  Don’t get me wrong, we do listen enough to stay well informed, but we have found it necessary to limit what we listen to and how much time we spend listening to all the negative balderdash! [balderdash – language, behavior, or ideas that are absurd and contrary to good sense].

This morning when I woke, as I was talking to Father, I heard Him say, “ONE VOICE.”  […]

We have been familiar with the ministry of Lana Vawser from Australia for a long while now. She is well respected and accurate in her postings. We received the one below this morning and feel it is a very important word that significantly affects us and PITFH. Please take time to read it and pray as the Father directs. THANKS!

10/28/16 Lana Vawser on praying for spiritual fathers:

Over the past few weeks the Lord has been highlighting “fathers” to me, and I wasn’t exactly sure why. Today as I was spending time with the Lord I felt the Lord give me clarity on what He was saying.
There is an attack on FATHERS right now, men of God that carry the heart of the Father and are called to be fathers in the body of Christ; the enemy is going after […]

Anyone who has not gone on journeys of powerlessness will invariably abuse power.

A good friend sent me a recent devotional from Richard Rohr, thinking I would love it!  I did!  I love the whole thing and how most ancient initiation rites led men into feelings of powerlessness so that he would not abuse that power, especially in male-dominated societies.

He goes on (emphases mine):
Jesus clearly taught the twelve disciples about surrender, the necessity of suffering, humility, servant leadership, and nonviolence. They resisted him every time, and so he finally had to make the journey himself and tell them, “Follow me!” But Christians have preferred to hear something Jesus never said: “Worship me.” Worship of Jesus is rather harmless and risk-free; following Jesus changes everything.
… I have often thought that this “non-preaching” of the Gospel was like a secret social contract between […]

Proverbs 29:18  “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
Robert Fritz wrote:  “It is not what a vision is; it’s what a vision does.”  What does a vision do?  Vision is the ability to see.  Helen Keller was asked, “Is there anything worse than being blind?”  “Yes,” she replied, “having eyesight but no vision.”
Vision is the stuff of the future.  Vision is the vivid image of the compelling future God wants to create through you.
What kind of vision do you have?
Myopic vision:  You are so nearsighted that you live only for today.  The vision of the future is fuzzy and you can barely see beyond your own nose.
Peripheral vision:    You are blindsided by side issues.  You are hampered in moving forward because you catch the threatening images of lurking problems […]

10/22/16 10 pm A Word from Father.

Halloween is approaching and the demonic hoards are antsy looking forward to their annual celebration. They feel comfortable in their victories and confident in more success ahead as humanity delves into the darkness unaware of the consequence. Over confidence makes one vulnerable to defeat, so this year we will strike a blow and rattle their cage! There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth in the demonic realm once again! Humanity that participates in the demonic celebrations will be shaken also, some severely even to the loss of life. Anyone who cares to look will see the parallels between the Godless choices the people of America have made and the increased participation in demonic celebrations. I’m going to honor those of you, My Children, who refuse to join in the darkness. If you […]

Shame is feeling unworthy. Guilt says, “I did a bad thing,” while shame says, “I am bad.”  There is a huge difference between a saint repenting of sin, and always feeling like a sinner. Shame erodes the core of our identity, so that we feel devalued, insignificant, deficient – worthless.

Shame is the belief that we are uniquely and fatally flawed; that we will never measure up to the standard for acceptance and approval. Shame declares that we are doomed for disappointment and disconnection.

Shame says:

“If others see the real you, they won’t accept you.”
“You are not good enough”
“You need to prove that you’re O.K. by doing more and getting it right”
“You are going to be embarrassed, humiliated, rejected, punished – alone”
“You will never overcome, succeed, prosper, flourish – thrive”

Ultimately, shame seeks to derail us from our […]

Marriage means to merge – the two become one flesh. It’s a mystery that begins with a blood covenant. It’s the reason why God gave women a hymen, so the covenant could be ratified before the children were conceived.

Some people marry, but never merge. Independence, fear, mistrust, selfishness, and unforgiveness become impregnable walls of division – a force field of indiscretion.
A mergerless marriage leaves Adam (husband and wife) “alone,” longing and yearning for connection, feeling incomplete, abandoned and isolated.

When the mystery of matrimony is nullified, marriage is reduced to a mere partnership; agreements exchanged, duties assigned, and territory surveyed.

Yet the unyielding wonder of one love, one body, and one spirit longs for expression. This passion for intimacy and need for connection woos us into the vortex of sacrifice where we finally experience life. The climax of marriage is experienced […]

The Apostle James wrote; “For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.” I have struggled with jealousy most of my life. Jealousy wears many masks. Sometimes it calls itself discernment as it searches the heart of its victim looking for reasons to discredit them. But the gift of discernment, anointed by the spirit of jealousy, is suspicion. Suspicion is discernment’s wicked stepsister. Jealousy is pure evil. It opens the door to demonic spirits in our life like no other sin. […]

The Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 4:16, “I urge you, then, be imitators of me.” Bill Johnson has been my leader for almost 40 years. It’s sort of the pauper meets the prince story. Bill, a 5th generation pastor from a healthy home meets Kris, a broken young man who recently met Christ. Here are 15 things I learned from Bill that transformed my life (there are many more). […]

I have a good friend who has an enemy; someone who is trying to discredit him and his ministry.  Among other things, this foe created an anonymous website wherein he posts inflammatory blogs, lodges complaints and misconstrues incidents.  Obviously, my friend is very bothered by this.  He asked me how he should respond to the attacks.  My emotions want to tell him to fight against the guy.  But reason prevailed and I had to prayerfully consider my counsel.
What would you tell someone who has an enemy?

The Scripture is replete with stories of God’s people having to deal with their enemies.  The New Testament offers solid advice on what to do and what not to do.  Here are some thoughts to consider when you are faced with the difficult challenge of having an enemy.

1.  Don’t go to war, go to […]
   

Leading people can be challenging at times, but if you do it well it will help you fulfill your destiny. Here are 9 keys to successful leading to help you on your way:

1. The depth of your success is determined by the quality of the people with you. Success is a team sport; no one ever succeeds alone. Therefore, the impact of your leadership ability is measured by the size of people you attract to lead alongside you.
2. Your capacity for success is determined by your courage to take great risks, and the wisdom to know when not to.
3. The sustainability of your success lies in the divine tension between having a short memory in the courage department of your mind when you fail, and a having long-term memory in the wisdom department of your mind so you don’t […]
   

This process of inner transformation is fascinating to watch, in my own life and others. It’s disorienting for many when their age-old religious practices start to shift. I know it was for me.  One day you’re doing a regimen of Bible reading and prayer, feeling good about yourself for ticking all the boxes. Then, they seem lifeless, or at least ineffective. Part of you says keep doing it no matter what, another part invites you down a journey away from religious obligation to discover what a real engagement with the Scriptures or God might be. I enjoy stories of those who take the road less traveled, and risk moving away from the lifeless status quo to discover a real relationship with God.

Transformation comes slowly. We may even been a bit naughty at the beginning since we’re not doing the things we’re […]