Jimm

brethrenit is with great joy that i announce to you all that my brother-in-law James (Jimm) left early this morning to return to Zimbabwe to begin the ministry which the lord has called Him to. The Lord has been dealing with him and gracefully giving him increase in the Spirit for this task. I ask that if the Lord brudens you with it to be in prayer for him.thanks

Thanks for the notice IRONMAN,We will keep him in prayer. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!MC

i thank you both for your prayers in advance and also i thank the Lord that He would have you pray for him. God has made it plain that the enemy would pour out his wrath on James and that the work would be difficult however, the Lord said He would sustain him untill it is done. We all know that when God says something, His word will not return untill it has acomplished that which God purposed in Himself. Praise God for His great faithfulness in holding up those whom He has called to the various offices. Praise Him also that He has made it so that we despite being sinnners can become partakers in the coming of the Kingdom.AMEN

If it is in His will you will end up in India at some point.

wow, it seems there is a pandemic of such child labour all over the world... i will take that to the Lord in prayer that His will may be done in you and through you.

Hey GuysI do not have much internet time (its a blessing that i am even on sermonindex now...long story). Thank you all for your prayers and your considerations and sighs, even for your "nodding of the head". In Christ your acknowlegdement is a blessing to me.Friends I must be brief. There is a move and a hunger for God here that is unprecedented. The oppression from the enemy is heavy in all areas, form famine and disease, to moral degredation and corruption. In some cases, blatant spirtual oppression evident and demon possesion manifesting itself in, screaming, body-tremors and foaming from the mouth and such things. This is not for the faint-hearted and I must muster every ounce of faith I have to keep from being offended in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord is prevailing in these cases, but the laborers are desperately few. Yes the Lord has preserved me and will preserve me, for I have commited myself and His ministry to Him.Pray dear saints. Pray! Satan is manifest differently in different places, and i assure you that your people in the America are just as bound as mine. May the Lord open our eyes to the work that is at hand.Your son in ChristJames

Holding you up in prayer.

Hey guysWell good people, I don't really have a specific theme to write on, but I feel moved to just express a few things on the personal side. I am discovering that there can be too much self even in "good intentions". One man said, "the road to hell is paved with 'good intentions'". I never fully appreciated the full impact of this statement, until I got so caught up in trying to do for God, what God was trying to do through me. I need patience to let spiritual maturity develop naturally through Christ. I would love to be well rounded and easy in the Spirit, but what should be natural, in me is maintained not by the leadings of the Spirit but by shear force and self-will...these things ought not so to be.I was convicted when I was in one of my prayers, intensely seeking God and praying well. The prayer was not theologically wrong or selfish (the words were not selfish) but the heart out of which it was prayed lacked a submission to the Lordship of Christ. I was praying religously and not spiritually! There were many 'important' things that I was asking of God when the Spirit said to me, "be still", right in the midst of great sweat and fevor and utterance in touges. Be still... Okay... What now? I was iching "to do" something, maybe sing a song or praise God and He came again, this time He was more convicting. Be still... "Oh I know that verse!", I thought to myself, "Be still and know that I am God...right?". I soon began to realise that this was not a test of my knowledge of scriptures but a simple request for obedience. Are you able to be still, simply because you were to to do so, without explanation or reward or the prospect of spritual growth; without recieving some spiritual gift or authority, JAMES BE STILL!My feet began to ache within seconds. I was wrestless. I felt sleepy. I was definately in the Spirit but I did not want to be there anymore. I wanted to go and read my Bible. I thought of a message I could tell a Brother I was staying with. I wanted to listen sit down, I wanted to talk, I wanted to be somewhere else; anything dear Lord, anything but BE STILL. The task seemed enormous, and impossible. I was acutely aware of my on frailty as I felt itch and twitch and as three flies began to buzz around my head... BE STILL.I lasted 15 minutes before I excused myself on the grounds tiredness. Pathetic! Absolutely pityful. Had my prayer been uninterupted by the Spirit I would have lasted hours, very easily. The conviction from the experience was so deep that my Brother was moved to comment on how humbled I looked when he saw me. He saw the face of a man who had spoken the right words and vocabulary but the life out of which he lived was not that of Christ but his own. It is a very sobering and disquieting experience.James

Hey brother James! ...Good to see you're "keepin on" in Christ ... Man can i identify with what you've said about being still, but first let me hit on the first thing that jumped out at me in your post ... Where you said "natural" i saw "supernatural" ...Quote:"I need patience to let spiritual maturity develop supernaturally through Christ". "I would love to be well rounded and easy in the Spirit, but what should be supernatural, in me is maintained not by the leadings of the Spirit but by shear force and self-will"...That sheer will and force is our "natural" man, like Jacob's, straining, coniving, surplanting and doing whatever we think it'll take to obtain the promise of God, when in fact we already have it - the problem being it just doesn't seem to be happening fast enough for us - so we go all out to attempt to make it happen ... As i've stated before, the OT in particular is full of examples of the unnecessary consequences we saints will have to face in our attempting to "help" God ... If we ever learn to be fully rested and or stilled in God via our new supernatural man, our new indwealt of the Holy Ghost empowered man, we'd always be so very comfortable in our being still and beholding the salvation of our Lord ... i can tell you as an older saint it has taken me all of these 25 years in Him to even begin to scratch the surface of what it means to "be still" and just rest in Him ... We quote these scriptures all of the time, but our actions clearly define that we've only skimmed the surface of their meaning (if that) ...Phil.1[6] Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:Heb.12[2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.A person truly connected into being confident in, and looking unto Jesus to perform/finish His good work in/thru us, and not our good work in/thru Him, would truly be as you stated earlier "spiritually mature" and "well rounded and easy in the Spirit" ... There used to be an old commercial for an antiacid called Tums that asked, "How do you spell relief"? ... Spiritually i'd have to say it would be "being easy in the Spirit" ...Your next quote ... "There were many 'important' things that I was asking of God when the Spirit said to me, "be still", right in the midst of great sweat and fevor and utterance in touges."...greatly reminded me of when i was recently in the throes of many 'important' things that I was asking of God when the Spirit said to me, "Just be"... Had that directive of Holy Spirit come at a point much younger in my life it would have caused me the same reaction as yours to "be still" ... But because it came at the end time of my long "perspiration instead of inspiration" period, a point where i was much to weary, beat up and spent in trying to "help God" anymore, i was so thankful to hear it ...Let me share something with you that Holy Spirit just recently dropped on me ... In order for us to move on earth in our "already seated in heavenly places with Christ Jesus" supernatural power toward the furtherance of His kingdom, we've first got to die to our own flesh on the cross with Christ ... Think about the fact that God the Son hung on that cross until His flesh (His natural man) just couldn't take it anymore ... Think about all the pain and suffering Christ went thru in His body and soul, but yet the will to live was so strong in both that it endured until it just could'nt endure anymore, and then what did Christ say when He knew He was spiritually/supernaturally about to get away from the natural that kept Him bound still to this low plane of earth? ... Luke.23[46] And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.John.19[30] When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.All this to say that what Holy Spirit has informed me of is that we're really of no furtherance of supernatural use to Him if we're still down here struggling to live on our cross by enduring the excruciating pain of attempting to hold on to our life in this natural world - for the reason we're on our cross is to eventually totally sap the strength and will of our natural man to the point of killing him, in order that we may escape the burly bonds of this world to becoming the spiritually free saint that He can now supernaturally use to free other bondservants of this world and it's god ...Gal.2[20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.Bottom line conclusion for me is that once i embraced Christ by my faith as His being the only means of my salvation i spiritually died with Him on Calvary's cross, and that i rose with Him and am in fact right now ... spiritually ... seated with Him in heaven ... But! ... have i done so naturally ... Have i ceeded over my "natural man" to God by acknowledging his finishing to death on the cross? ... Sad to say no, not all the way, for theres still some breath in him yet that occasionally struggles at the nails ... but i'm close, so close to that necessary death ... i can see that bridge!Lastly, in my conversing with Ironman, i've told him that my life in Christ thus far has been like setting out on a long distance cross country trip with Him by car ... Initially when we started off He was driving and that was all good by me ... But then somewhere along the road i got restless and began asking, "Lord where are we going"? ... Then, "Lord how much further"? ... Then, "Lord when are we gonna get there'? ... Then "Lord can You kinda give me a hint as to where we're going"? ... So He pulls out His map for my life and gives me a vision, and says you'll know when we're just about there when we come out into a large clearing and you will see the big suspension bridge that seperates My will for your life from your will for your life" ... That satisfied me for about a minute then i said, "Lord You know You're driving much to slow, let me drive"! ... So He did ... And i drove, and i drove, breaking all kinds of speed laws but i never seemed to be getting to the destination of His will for my life (duhh), and then i began to get distracted by satan's road signs, and the next thing you know the frustration of the length of the trip had me pulling off where i had no business, and taking what i thought surely to be some good short cuts that only prolonged the trip ... It's just been in this last year that i said to our Lord, "Jesus, i'm just so tired of driving ... i can't do this anymore ... You drive" ... So He got back into the drivers seat, i back on the passenger side, and guess what's happened? ... We've pulled out into this wide open space, and i see the bridge! ... My first inclination was to tell Jesus to "step on it", but i choked it down ... Jesus always does His own speed limit, and He'll shoot me out across that bridge and over to the other side when it's His proper time ... In the meanwhile i'm "just being" and "being still" in the passenger seat, humming happily in my spirit ... i see the bridge! ... i see the bridge! ... Glory Halleleujah i see the bridge! ... What a gracious God we serve ... Be still brother James ... Peace - be still ... Amen ... :beard:

Hello allThank you all for your patient replies. My time is limmited today so this is just a quick note to ackowlegde and bear witness to your timely words. I am very convicted and uplifted. I hope to return with more soon, but for now, may the Lord shine His countenance towards you in Christ.James

Greetings fellow saints!Dorcas said:I always find it lifts me out of the world and reminds my head to allow 3D reality to take second place - no matter what is going on there (head or 3D reality) - until the next verse comes along 'I am the Lord that healeth Thee'; then the final and crowning glory 'In Thee O Lord do I put my trust'. And that's the end of all striving, is it not?I like that. Do you have the words to the whole song? I know the tune, I just do not have the words.Rahman said: Good to see you're "keepin on" in Christ ... Man can i identify with what you've said about being still, but first let me hit on the first thing that jumped out at me in your post ... Where you said "natural" i saw "supernatural" ...That sheer will and force is our "natural" man, like Jacob's, straining, coniving, surplanting and doing whatever we think it'll take to obtain the promise of God, when in fact we already have it - the problem being it just doesn't seem to be happening fast enough for us - so we go all out to attempt to make it happen ... As i've stated before, the OT in particular is full of examples of the unnecessary consequences we saints will have to face in our attempting to "help" God ...Brother Rahman, that was awesome. I have actually been quoting you in my humble ministry, and many have been helped by your words. Thank you. If we ever learn to be fully rested and or stilled in God via our new supernatural man, our new indwealt of the Holy Ghost empowered man, we'd always be so very comfortable in our being still and beholding the salvation of our Lord ... i can tell you as an older saint it has taken me all of these 25 years in Him to even begin to scratch the surface of what it means to "be still" and just rest in Him ... We quote these scriptures all of the time, but our actions clearly define that we've only skimmed the surface of their meaning (if that) ...That is all too true. Watchman Nee, speaks of the outward disciplining work of the Holy Spirit, where by our Lord orders circumstances in our lives so that the inward revelation becomes an outward reality. I “knew” this lesson (be still) well enough but I had not experienced the necessity of it. We are all so eager “to do”, but we are not quiet as eager “to obey”. The difference between doing and obeying is literally the difference between spiritual life (in Christ) and spiritual death (in self). One major difference between old covenant saints and us if the risen and ascended life of Christ which is only available on the basis of death; resurrection must be proceeded by death. The death of Christ has accomplished him as the “quickening Spirit” who gives life to the dead. It is therefore not only the death of Christ which is an absolute necessity for the newness of life, but the death of self too. “I am crucified in Christ”, is not a phrase for the casual believer, or the mere bible scholar, it is a phrase whose impact and meaning is only understood to those who have given up their rights to themselves and have handed them over to the Living Messiah. May God all might have mercy on us all, for even the ability to die to self must never come from self but from His grace. Many of us are trying to kill ourselves so that we can experience the newness of life in a deeper way, but the revelation and reality is that we are dead already. There is a definite outworking of this reality, and a strengthening of the arms of faith to bear the weight of such light, but I am grateful that even that strengthening comes from Him through the glory of His Son. Brother Rahman, I am experiencing Christ in a way that brings tears to my eyes and the eyes of others. I am by no means, where I want to be, and where I need to be, but I praise the God of faithfulness who is both will and able to accomplish His purposes through us in Christ.Bottom line conclusion for me is that once i embraced Christ by my faith as His being the only means of my salvation i spiritually died with Him on Calvary's cross, and that i rose with Him and am in fact right now ... spiritually ... seated with Him in heaven ... But! ... have i done so naturally ... Have i ceeded over my "natural man" to God by acknowledging his finishing to death on the cross? ... Sad to say no, not all the way, for theres still some breath in him yet that occasionally struggles at the nails ... but i'm close, so close to that necessary death ... i can see that bridge!Too true. One thing that has been dropped into me lately is that fact of Jesus being not only the Door into peace and new pastures but he is the Shepherd that leads me to this Door. In other words it is Jesus who leads me to Jesus. I do not have to repent of my own self, but Jesus is my repentance, all I have to do is confess and trust Him to work His grace though me. He doesn’t need my help! What a marvelous relief this has been. Faith is not passive but it is such a fine line between faith (in Chrsit) and presumption (in self). May God All-Mighty help us to have an active faith in Christ and not faith in faith, such faith is based on self what lies in me, but faith in Christ, relies on Christ, and what lies in Him. What a dangerously fine line!

Hello againWell I though it would be good to update you on the Lord’s work in Zimbabwe. I am finding that at the end of the day, the burden on the Church, and Her struggle remains the same no matter where you go. The world the flesh and the devil, are infiltrating the Church, watering down the gospel, and blaspheming God’s Holy name. As for me, I am learning to guard my heart and not to be surprised and the state of Church, for these are the things which according to God’s word “must shortly come to pass”. Dearly beloved, these are the last days!!!Accepting that these are the last days is the quintessential state of ever believers heart. Let us not beloved, fight against the inevitable, but let us realize that we are here for one purpose and one purpose only, that is to express a relationship with Christ: to express Life. “The earnest expectation of the creature” and the expectation of our Lord Jesus Christ wait for the revelation of the sons of God. I have divorced myself from the institutional church, that I may be betrothed to another, even Jesus Christ. Not that I have stopped attending, for even within the institutional Church you will, if search, find earnest saints groaning together with you, the creation, and with the Spirit.What are we birthing in our travail you may ask? Simply put, “the Lord cometh”. Anyone who loses sight of this eternal purpose of God looses purpose with His call and with His relationship with God. Let this reality become a burning important issue in your chest and you will be less shaken (I say this both to you and to myself). A radical motivation for souls, and for “the Church” are nothing if they are not based on this foundation; they will both fizzle out as the souls you reach for rebel against you, and you look in vain to find a “true expression of the Church”. But that the Lord will come is a reality that will never die change or loose its urgency. It (the coming of the Lord) was desperately urgent to the early church, though they were 2000 years further away from it then we are, and thus they were caught up into eternity. As for us, we look at the temporal success, and the healing of bodies which will decay anyway with great awe. We have become so caught up with our ministries, that the fact of the Lord’s return has become just another category our affirmation of faith. Does this sound like your country? Believe it or not I speak of my own country. The state of Christianity is the same globally. The urgent shortage is one of a lack of an authentic relationship with Christ within the saints. It is not so much doctrines, as these begin to loose the significance as Christ becomes more real in your life and your cling to Him more than your precious ideas. It is not so much denominations, for any body which meets once a week, and whose members are alien to each other is ipso-facto, not the Church. Forget about doctrines, forget about denominations, these are petty issues- smoke screens which exist because of the inherent corruption which is in man, and the evil in the rulers of darkness. “Evil men and seducers will wax worse and worse”, but what about you and your relationship with Christ. Is your very Life in Christ a statement against darkness, a statement that requires no words and one which invites martyrdom. If not then you may do well to point the finger within your own heart, and point by point, re-consecrate yourself to Christ by the grace of the great Shepherd, the only potentate, JESUS THE ANOINTED ONE. There may be many anointed ones whom we admire and chase after, but unless you admire and chase after Christ, you are running in vain, you will not find Christ in others if you cannot find Him in yourself first, for it is Christ who bears witness with Himself in others. Beware of false “anointed ones”, false Christ’s who, though they do not actively blaspheme, they promote themselves and not Christ. Without your own measure of Christ you are in danger. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come… But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men”. We must not attempt to manifest folly by our own selves, but when light is manifest, folly will be discovered. Seek therefore to walk in the light of Christ. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”James

Dear James...My friend, O how well you have given expression to the very same sentiments that have been eking out of this foolish man as well. Interesting that I had not seen thread this until now...Be still... Okay... What now? I was iching "to do" something, maybe sing a song or praise God and He came again, this time He was more convicting. Be still... "Oh I know that verse!", I thought to myself, "Be still and know that I am God...right?". I soon began to realise that this was not a test of my knowledge of scriptures but a simple request for obedience. Are you able to be still, simply because you were to to do so, without explanation or reward or the prospect of spritual growth; without recieving some spiritual gift or authority, JAMES BE STILL!My feet began to ache within seconds. I was wrestless. I felt sleepy. I was definately in the Spirit but I did not want to be there anymore. I wanted to go and read my Bible. I thought of a message I could tell a Brother I was staying with. I wanted to listen sit down, I wanted to talk, I wanted to be somewhere else; anything dear Lord, anything but BE STILL. The task seemed enormous, and impossible. I was acutely aware of my on frailty as I felt itch and twitch and as three flies began to buzz around my head... BE STILL.He saw the face of a man who had spoken the right words and vocabulary but the life out of which he lived was not that of Christ but his own.I read all this and it caused me to raise my arms and my eyes to heaven, Yes! Exactly! It is a very sobering and disquieting experience.That is not to discount this, far from it. It is to rejoice in that honesty, very much the same smiting I felt for my own proclivities, the constant chattering of the machinery of the mind in prayer... Wondering though, since then what became of, or if the same sentiments arose in those moments of being still. Not to influence anything but personally it often causes a worship and an awe, praise to just percolate from deep within, the closet expression is just ... 'Oh' It makes the whole understanding of " there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour", best qualify that, it gives flight to the possibilities of what might be wrought in that Holy half hour. Just as well, to be still is also often troubling to the flesh, where that other flight instinct can kick in. Maybe the rejoicing just comes from your honesty here, it's so endearing.

Rahman, brotherMiss your quirkiness, so unconventional.It's just been in this last year that i said to our Lord, "Jesus, i'm just so tired of driving ... i can't do this anymore ... You drive" ... So He got back into the drivers seat, i back on the passenger side, and guess what's happened? ... We've pulled out into this wide open space, and i see the bridge! ... My first inclination was to tell Jesus to "step on it", but i choked it down ... Jesus always does His own speed limit, and He'll shoot me out across that bridge and over to the other side when it's His proper time ... In the meanwhile i'm "just being" and "being still" in the passenger seat, humming happily in my spirit ... i see the bridge! ... i see the bridge! ... Glory Halleleujah i see the bridge! ... Couldn't help it, but, remember this?He's like a fellow driving up in a big Cadillac you know, to someone standing at a filling station saying “Fill her up, Bud, with the highest octane you got.” Well, that’s the way it looked, he wanted power for his program. And God is not going to be a means to anyone’s end. I said, “I’m awfully sorry, I don’t think I can help you." He said “Why?” "I don’t think you’re ready. Well suppose, you consider yourself coming up with a Cadillac, you’ve talked about your program, you’ve talked about your radio, you’ve talked about your Sunday school and church. Very good. You’ve done wonderfully well without the power of the Holy Spirit.” That’s what the Chinese Christian said you know when he got back to China. “What impressed you most about America?” He said, “The great things Americans can accomplish without God.” And he’d accomplished a great deal, admittedly, without God. And now he’s wanted something, power, to accomplish his end even further.I said “No. No. You’re gonna, you're sitting behind the wheel and you’re saying to God, 'Give me power so I can go.' You won't work, you gotta slide over." But I knew that rascal, 'cause I knew me. I said, “No it’ll never do. You gotta get in the back seat.” And I could see him leaning over and grabbing the wheel. “No,” I said. “It’ll never do in the back seat.” I said “Before God’ll do anything for you, you know what you gotta do?” And he said, “What?” I said, “You gotta get out of the car, take the keys around, open up the trunk lid, hand the keys to the Lord Jesus, get inside the trunk, slam the lid down, whisper through the keyhole, ‘Lord, look, fill her up with anything You want and You drive, it’s up to You from now on.’”That’s why so many people, you know, do not enter into the fullness of Christ because they want to become a Levite with ten shekels and a shirt. They’ve been serving Micah but they think if they had the power of the Holy Ghost they could serve the tribe of Dan. It will never work, never work. There’s only one reason for God meeting you, and that’s to bring you to the place where, in repentance, you’ve been pardoned for His glory, and in victory, you’ve been brought to the place of death that He might reign and in His fullness Jesus Christ is able to live and walk in you. And your attitude is the attitude of the Lord Himself, who said, “I could do nothing of Myself." I can’t speak of myself. I don’t make plans for myself. My only reason for being is the glory of God in Jesus Christ.Paris Reidhead Ten Shekels and a ShirtThe Revival Hymn