This is from the blog White Raiment:

“I believe that if we are living in the radiance of Divine Life, there will be something of it betrayed by our faces. At any rate, the world will know something if we are really living in touch with the Lord, and there will be a language which only the spiritual can enjoy and understand. There will be those spiritual counterparts of the seed of Abraham, a people different from all the rest. Now the tragedy of what is called “the Church” has so often been, and perhaps is more today than ever, that that distinctiveness is being lost. It seems today as if a set is being made in some way to remove all the offence and all the difference, and to get us near to people without anything that clashes, in the hope of winning them. Yes, that is what is going on in the religious world around; it is a conforming to this age. But what came in at Pentecost is fundamentally this, that this people of the Spirit are so utterly different in the very center of their being, different altogether from all other peoples, and their power and influence lie in that fact. You cannot fit them in with other things, and it is not because they are awkward and difficult and deliberately irritate people, but there is that which by reason of their spiritual constitution marks them off; and if they did but know it, this is the secret of their influence in the world.

“The progress and increase of spiritual Life means this, that the gap widens all the time between the children of God and those in the world who are not such. That is not to be taken literally in this sense, that we begin a mistaken system of hiving off, shutting ourselves up, getting out of touch. That is a wrong application of the principle. The Lord Jesus is preeminently our example in that He could move in any circle, and He did so deliberately, publicans and sinners, all classes, He moved amongst them, but His power over them was in His basic difference from them. Let us be careful how we are caught in this great movement of conforming to this age. To conform is to lose spiritual power.”

–T. Austin-Sparks from: Government by the Holy Spirit.

“Christ will not stand competition. This vain world should have no pull on us at any level at all.”

–Leonard Ravenhill

The Wild Truth
By Carine McCandless

It took a lot of courage to write this book. I am sure it brought back a lot of painful memories. It was well-written and I hope more people read The Wild Truth by Carine McCandless.

After reading this book, the reader gets deeper insights into why Chris McCandless chose to sever all ties with his family and wander into the wilderness of Alaska. You don’t have to survive a firefight in the jungles of Vietnam or the deserts of Iraq to suffer from trauma. You can experience trauma in your own family. Chris McCandless had had enough physical and emotional abuse for one lifetime, left family and friends behind and drifted. His life was short, but he lived life to the fullest. Chris McCandless had an undefeatable spirit.

Not all who wander are lost.

Hebrews 11: 37-38:  “. . . they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.”

[Several years ago I was hitchhiking in western South Dakota and this lady picked me. She told me that she and her boyfriend had picked up Chris McCandless while he was hitchhiking through South Dakota in the early 1990s. She said that he went by a different name.]

The Boston Globe
Carine McCandless and the Hidden Story Behind “Into the Wild”

Into The Wild Documentary – Return to the Wild

Ainsworth, Nebraska

Hitchhiking on U.S. 20 in Nebraska.

[25 February 2010]

Yesterday I was walking east on U.S. 20 between Bassett and Stuart, Nebraska when this car pulled over to give me a ride. This guy’s name was Shawn and he was going to Atkinson on an errand. We got to talking and he just got back from a mission trip to Mexico. Shawn used to be a pastor at a few churches. He recently lived in the Star Valley area of western Wyoming. He now lived in Valentine, Nebraska with his wife Theresa.

After Atkinson, we drove to Ainsworth to pick up his wife. We stayed at their friends’ place for supper and then drove west of Ainsworth to this farm to see a couple that they knew. We walked to the house and the man motioned for us to come inside. I looked at the man and he looked familiar. His name was Greg and his wife was Marla.

We talked for a while and Shawn told Greg and Marla that he had picked me up on the road earlier that day. I think Shawn then asked Greg if he had ever picked up any hitchhikers. Greg said that he and his wife picked up this hitchhiker in Idaho four or five years ago and that the hitchhiker had written a book. They dropped the hitchhiker off in Missoula, Montana.

Greg then said that the hitchhiker sent him a copy of his book. He searched for a short while and then produced the book [typescript]. It was my book! (High Plains Drifter)

It was a photocopy that this lady in Lewiston, Idaho had sent to them. She picked me up hitchhiking in the fall of 2004 and told me to give me a floppy disk of my book and that she would make some photocopies and then send it to anyone I wanted. She owned a print shop in Lewiston.

I told Greg that he probably picked me up on U.S. 12 somewhere between Kooskia and Lolo Pass, Idaho in the fall of 2004. We talked about it some more and I believe he picked me up at a gas station at Lowell or Syringa, Idaho.

We stayed at Greg and Marla’s place for an hour or so and had some excellent fellowship.

It’s a small world.

[Published by Digihitch–July 26, 2011]

Nebraska
Author/Hitchhiker
A Ride in Nebraska, Blue Highways and William Least Heat-Moon

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Joshua 5:13: When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” (ESV)

Standing with sword drawn, is a posture showing readiness for action. We all need to live emotionally, mentally and spiritually at alert.

In the focus verse, it was an angel who was with a sword drawn at the beginning of the conquest of the land of Canaan gives a lot of confidence to the earthly captain of the host, Joshua (Joshua 1). With that revelation, it was the icing on the cake of the words that he has heard from God that he should not be afraid in his new assignment.

But naturally-speaking, he had every reason to be afraid. Moses, the “backbone of Israel” the man of signs and wonders, the man with unalloyed communication with God, with the amazing track record of the supernatural was now off the scene.

It was a new season for the children of Israel and Joshua, the new leader of Israel, who had experience with Moses (being his minister, servant) of how difficult the children of Israel can be, felt that he really had his plate full. Added to that is fact that the Israelites were largely inexperienced in battle. And there they were, about to take on entrenched and well developed nations.

He needed all the help he could get to successfully carry out the mind of God. And just as he was going to have to take the initiative to take over Canaan land, he was encouraged by the revelation of the angel with a sword drawn, ready to help in the battle.

To keep the sword sheathed in the time of battle is to commit a crime, and to risk God’s rejection. It means you do not want to move at God’s command.

That was what happened a few decades before Joshua became leader in Israel. Then when God wanted the children of Israel to move on the land of Canaan to battle the people for their land, the majority of the people were more fearful of their lives than they were of not disobeying God (Numbers 13-14). And they experienced the wrath of God, wondering for years in the wilderness, till that generation wasted away.

When God calls us to the battle front in any area, in any context, we should obey, prepare and take prompt action. We cannot afford not to be ready when God is ready, when God is on the move and we are also on the move, we take delivery of his abundant grace.

Otherwise we would be rebels. When Jesus called a man to follow him and he said that he wants to first bury his father, he was told to let the dead bury their dead but that he needed to follow immediately (Luke 9:59-60).

Prompt action when God gives instruction should be the norm (Genesis 22:1-3). That is what it means to walk with God. Anyone in a relationship with God is called to walk with him, to line up with his word, with his dictates.

When we do that we become God’s agents of change just as Joshua was when he led the Israelites to conquer of the land of Israel. Realise that you are serving a king Jesus who have been promised the ends of the earth for his possession (Psalm 2). In this age, the church does not conquer by the use of arms, but spiritually and by knowledge. By being the light we vanquish darkness (John 1:1-5).

The bible is a book of battles. There was a spiritual battle in the Garden of Eden, but Eve did not have “her sword” drawn and was conquered by the enemy (Genesis 3). Fast forward to the wilderness where Jesus was in a temptation battle with the devil just as Eve was (Matthew 4:1-11).

Jesus, equipped with the word of God, the sword of the spirit (Ephesians 6:17), came out victorious. At the end, Jesus told the devil, depart from me. He put the devil in his place, not giving him any inch of space, or influence in his life because he had his sword drawn.

The first law of combat is to recognise who the enemy is. If the enemy can successfully disguise himself, or if he can get us to focus on the wrong enemy, then defeat is almost sure.

Paul informed that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers and all other wicked forces (Ephesians 6:10-18) arrayed against the knowledge of Christ, arrayed against us (2Corinthians 10:1-4). He said: I fought with beasts in Ephesus (1Corinthians 15:32), adding that if we are ignorant of the devices of the enemy he might deal a deadly blow to us (2Corinthians 2:11).

We need to live with our sword drawn, with our spiritual sensitivity heightened, to gain divine direction and to defeat satanic opposition.

Sword drawn means you are ready to take more territories for God. The bible says that we need to have our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. God told Joshua: everywhere the sole of your feet touches, I have given to you. In another place we read: the God of peace will soon trample underfoot the enemy (Romans 16:20).

As mentioned earlier, the bible says that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. So while I quote the scriptures, what may be seen coming out from my mouth in the spirit is a sword. Jesus was depicted in the book of revelation as having sword in his mouth (Revelation 19:15). So the victory is through the mouth.

How did Jesus send demons oppressing people packing while he was on earth? It was not by being silent, but by issuing words of command. We bear that same authority as we have been given power to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of the enemy (Luke 10:19), through the words of our mouth (Mark 16:15-18).

Jesus said that all powers have been given to him, as he sends us forth to preach the gospel to all creatures. Paul said that it pleased God to save some through the preaching of the gospel (1Corinthians 1:21). Those people so saved are like territories taken from the enemy.

How are they saved? Through the preaching of the word, which is the sword of the spirit which cuts away at the web of lies that the enemy had them in, and free them to come into the light from the darkness.

Light is a weapon to fight darkness. The sword of the word of God is a sword of light, sword of truth, because what the devil has are lies, darkness. Jesus called him the father of lies whose very nature is lies (John 8:44). The battle with fight is with truth (Psalm 45:1-6), through which we get the people to submit to Christ as they are saved.

Strongholds

This is from the blog Touching the King:

I am about to write a prophetic word that the LORD gave me this evening at around 10.00 pm UK time. It is for the nation of America.

*******************************************************************************************************************

My wound is grievous, My wound is grievous, for I must bring Judgment down from the heavens. It is in my in-tray, pending with the names which I must blot out from the Book of Life. I have waited, I have given much time for many to repent of their sins. I have left the ground fallow for 7 years but I find there are no figs on the tree, there is no fruit of repentance.

My wound is grievous, my wound is grievous. Yet I have kept for Myself a remnant, a small remnant who shall bring Glory to My Name.

Yes, My wound is grievous. Judgment is imminent. I have heard a great outcry from the nation, yes O America, which was My nation built up from nothing.

Oh America! believe me it is grievous what I am about to do and it brings me no pleasure. But I am Wisdom, I am Just, I am Fair. For My own Names sake I must take out the evil as it is spreading to distant nations. I am to sever this branch which was from My Branch.

The cries of the innocent have reached My ears. The cries of the little ones have reached My heart. My anger at the injustice of the fatherless, the homeless, the widows alone. Yes, I have heard their cries into the heavens. I called many to do menial simple
acts of kindness but as there were not anyone to see them do these acts they have neglected and despised those whom are mine. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God. Oh America you have despised the poor and in so doing have mocked their Maker. I am the LORD.

My Hand of blessing is now being lifted. My Holy Spirit which I have restrained time and time again is to be restrained no longer.

This is a last trumpet call for many who choose to belong to this world but profess to follow the LORD. There is no discernment between the holy and unholy. There is no wisdom to choose right from wrong. There is no discernment within the Body of Christ. I am to remove many lamp stands away and I say ‘Go walk in your own light for truly you are blind guides’.

Many prophecies are to finish. Many tongues are to be stilled. Many so-called ‘ministries’ that do indeed belong to this world though they profess to know Me. I say to you know ‘I never knew you’. Yes many are to fall from a great height indeed.

But I have saved My Remnant, and it is a small remnant. I tell the truth Oh America you are worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. The imaginations of men’s hearts and minds has defied the incredulous.

Calamity is upon you O America!

Calamity is upon you!

Calamity is come!

Woe …….. Woe ……… Woe ……

The time for repentance has passed for those whom destruction was destined for from the beginning of time.

Yes, I am now to deal with the false teachers, and false prophets Myself.

They have scoffed at My chosen prophets who are nothing in the eyes both of the world neither the Church. Many have scoffed at what they see as ‘prophets of doom’ for I tell thee doom is about to come knocking at your door this very evening. Oh false prophets your time has come. Your reckoning has come. I am come down Myself to see for I know you are found wanting indeed.

For those who think they will by-pass the tribulation you are in grave error, indeed it is NOW come upon you! What you have feared deep in your heart is too knocking at your door! For I the LORD am come knocking at your door.

Sackcloth and Ashes

Mourning

Mourning

Woe ……. Woe …….. Woe …..

Oh America! Woe …..

My Sword Shall Be Bathed in Heaven
Word of God for America
This is Sodom! This is Sodom!

This is from the blog Touching the King:

Late evening on 3rd November I sat quietly before the LORD and He showed me three visible roads that forked off a main road. The picture the LORD gave me was very clear He spoke to my heart in all seriousness. His mood somber for a critical juncture is approaching for many.

The LORD said that the party of blessings which has centered on things of this world has for the most part shipwrecked the church. He showed me this picture to share with those who have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches at this time. The emphasis is not hearing with your ears but with the Spirit. God is Spirit.

The LORD showed me this picture because He knows the spiritual climate that is ahead and it is a warning.

Here is the picture I saw …. I will describe it as best I can ……

I saw three roads. One was very obviously the wide road to destruction but the middle road which I felt equals middle ground are those who sit in churches but in fact sit on the fence of any real commitment to following Jesus Christ. This road is easy too and demands little of sacrifice. Most will now know this as churchianity but even this does not describe the deception as many still call themselves Christians this incorporates many different denominations.

Then I saw a very small rough track with small bushes as though in the countryside. It seemed authentic. It wasn’t hidden as such but it had the appearance of humility a road less traveled in the worldly sense. This road the LORD said is one of the most deceptive roads for Christians. No worldly goods, quite bare and again the appearance of humility. But the LORD emphasised that this too is not the track to following Him as the humility is false, very deceptive. Many well-known preachers of godly renown are on and have been on this path such is the deception. The truth of this path which for many believe is right is wrong. If God told you the truth you wouldn’t believe Him unless you walk very closely to Him, such is the deception.

Then the LORD showed me another track and this was not visible to the human eye in any way. This is a spiritual path that is opened up to us if we walk literally by faith and not by sight. It is very unseen by us but seen by God. This path is not shown beforehand to any Christian until the Good Shepherd guides you by His Voice and He says ‘Walk in it’. I have seen this path myself in a vision the LORD gave me many weeks ago. I have seen it in the spiritual but not as yet in the material. I know it is coming and I am myself having to wait for the LORD. I’ve already been rescued from many paths some in the churches. God will show you as you seek Him on this. I am testing every spirit daily from the LORD.

The LORD showed me that an absolute test of obedience is so essential at this time. Hearing His Voice alone out of the many Christians and Christian preachers is essential as all are not of the LORD. This unseen road is the narrow path and it is very steep and is following Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. It is not of this world at all even though many true believers are still in the world.

The LORD spoke that it is essential to wait for His voice patiently. He knows you are tired and weary but keep very close to Him through prayer and His Word in stillness.

This poem is from the blog Touching the King:

The Wages of Sin is Death
By Jacqui

There is a church
Made by man
Bought with money
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Merchandise is its name
Bought with status
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Idolatry is its name
Its manna but worms
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Witchcraft is its name
Rebellion is its mark
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Its crime is self
Its home is this world
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Where the flock are fat
Their lips are smooth
Their ears pierced with gold
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Where the men speak lies
They are heard as truth
Their cross for all to see
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Where the path is wide
Where comfort is the blanket
But the wages of sin
Is death

There is a church
Made by man
Where Satan holds his kingdom
Pride is seated
But the wages of sin
Is death

I tell thee the truth
There is a Church
Whose God is Jesus
The lively stones
Living with the Cornerstone
Where humility adorns
Where suffering is glorified
The wages of their sin
Bought and paid for
By the blood of suffering
By a Son of Man
Despised
Rejected
Nailed
Hammered to a cross

Yes there is a Church
Called True and Faithful
The Bridegroom cometh
He has paid the price
The Gate is narrow
The Path is straight
Where money is not the god
Idolatry silenced
Rebellion
Surrendered to Truth

I tell thee the Truth, Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man can cometh to the Father except by Him.

Shiloh

Smith Wigglesworth, 1859-1947

Zechariah 4: 6:  “This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.”

I Corinthians 4: 20:  “For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.”

I Thessalonians 1: 5:  “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.”

There is a well-known story about Smith Wigglesworth while he was riding in a passenger train.  Wigglesworth was a British evangelist and faith healer in the early and mid 1900s.  The train stopped at this station and this man got on board and walked into the train car that Smith Wigglesworth was sitting in.  Smith was just sitting there—maybe he was reading something or maybe he was looking out of the window.  The man walked near where Smith was sitting, looked at Smith and cried out, “You convict me of sin!”  He then ran out of the car.  Smith never said a word; it was the Power of the Holy Ghost that convicted that man of sin.

Wikipedia 

George Fox and the Power of God
Smith Wigglesworth’s Vision for the UK and Cindy Jacob’s word from the Lord