(Editor's note: I have chosen to edit this blog article and put in the actual states where this situation happened, mainly because the district superintendent in this particular situation was an honorable man and I feel did what was right ethically and morally. I do this because in over 30 years in Pentecost, that is a FIRST!)
I have not put pen to paper or hand to keyboard to write in nearly 4 months. For the few of you who follow my blogs, I'm sorry. I will not say the Lord has not spoken...but much of what I've endured the last 10 months has been more of a personal nature and I've always felt the best messages were the ones that worked over the minister first before feeding any flock! Let it stew a little bit…it will only get better. I've withdrawn for a time to reflect and seek shelter from the storm and the attacks of men and false brethren...and even false ministers. I expect to be attacked by wolves, not by shepherds! We are definitely in the very last of the last days.
When I first entered this storm in February 2009, there were several things brought to my attention in the Spirit and as the storm grew in intensity, several tongues and interpretations and prophesies followed. As things grew worse on the home front with my wife, following 2 miscarriages and her apparent infidelity, culminating with her running off in June 2009...after only 9 months of marriage, I began to see many things take place in my life and walk with God.
For 15 months now, I have sat, unused, in the church where I currently attend. I left a church in Virginia where I had worked tirelessly for 3 years, trying to pay my dues and pour water on the hands of the ministry and be the best right-hand man my pastor could ever have. However, after confronting him quietly in private about setting aside biblical holiness and matters concerning licensing of ministers in the UPCI, he chose to lie to me and tell me that his presbyter, district board and District Superintendent knew about his violations and condoned them, saying they "knew of it, they do not disagree." It took only 2 phone calls to determine that this was a blatant lie against his leadership on the sectional and district levels. Still, his presbyter angrily told me (his words) to “seek licensing in another organization, because you won't fit in with the UPC."
Now that is a relief!
The district Bishop in the state was notably upset when I called and brought the entire matter to his attention, especially at hearing that the presbyter told me to find another organization to be licensed with...in a district struggling to find young ministers to Pastor and start new churches. I was even a part of their Timothy Group of aspiring young ministers and he knew this. He instructed me to move my membership outside the state and sit under my current pastor, a man he knew to be strong in the Word and doctrine. He told me he knew by talking to me that I knew the Word and had been among us a long time and that I would do well in his church.
I told him about the former minister who was under his leadership following me out of state to the new church and ran to our current pastor in private before we even got to sit down and talk with him. He told me to ask the new pastor if I was in good standing and if I was told no...to leave and find another church where I was in good standing…difficult as there were no other churches in a 50 mile radius in the UPC that I had not been to or where the former pastor did not have close minister friends. Man I hate politicians!
During the time my wife was here though, she watched that former pastor turn against me for confronting him in private for leaving holiness. I told him that God had dealt with me that I was not the first person to confront him on that issue. He immediately called me a liar, declared I was bearing false witness against him (to his face?) and said that no one had ever left his church because of him leaving holiness. That day on the way home I took my wife out to eat and there in the restaurant sat the family that God had showed me had left the church 8 months before because of him no longer preaching holiness and allowing any kind of dress even on the platform. They explained their reasons for leaving…and God confirmed his Word and the prophecy while my wife was there to see it happen.
She later saw our former pastor follow me to the new church as mentioned above (after calling me and yelling at me for 2 hours during one service until my cell battery died). He didn’t just go to the new pastor before we got to sit down with him at our first conference…He also discarded ethics and discussed the matter with a visiting evangelist...who then decided to speak to yet another visiting evangelist about the matter.
I guess they figured they had me boxed-in because the evangelist took it on himself to take shots at me from the pulpit several times, steadily growing bolder with each service. The new pastor immediately pulled me aside and directed me not to tell anyone at all about what had happened to me in my last church! Hmm, Paul didn't have a problem telling when he suffered at the hands of false brethren, had someone leave him or abuse him. He told the whole world in his letters and counted it as loss, suffering all his afflictions for the cross.
My final word on that subject is this...Sorry, but you might micromanage things in your congregation, but over a year later I have not applied for even general membership in your local assembly, let alone "covenant membership." As I told you that day, I've been a covenant member with Jesus Chris now for over 30 years. I don't need your piece of paper and that goes all the way up to the top, your license, your fellowship, or your individual or organizational approval. I'll be here when the organization is a thing of the past. I'm only seeking one man's approval and you aren't him, judging by the lack of nail scars in your hands and whip marks on your back.
Oh, and P.S....no one will ever silence my testimony again, ever! Not you, not anyone. Mark it down. One man tried years ago. He's now paying for it dearly. If my God took me through my storm, then this is MY testimony. If you don't like it, I'm sorry. As a former pastor of mine would say, go sit in the corner and suck your thumb over your paper cut. I'm going to tell my testimony everywhere I go. God took me through my storm, not you, Jack! If you want to try to black-ball me, go right ahead.
Sorry, brethren, I've been through worse...FAR WORSE! I had and have a front row seat in watching how God handled this one. I took your beatings five years ago and again this year...until my Dad stopped by and paid a visit and slapped all your little petty obstacles aside. He proved he could whip your dad nearly 2000 years ago. Never lost a battle...before, or since! I love it when he flexes his muscles. When this blog is done I'm going to publish the one I wrote from my personal Euroclydon down in Florida. It's been waiting in the wings long enough. Friends in the PAW told me I should document my testimony of all God brought me through, so I did. It makes the situations of this past year pale in comparison...but back to the current distress.... ;)
One night my new pastor was out of town and that visiting evangelist decided to grind his axe further. Based on the lies my former pastor told him, he took a full-frontal swipe at me during a sermon as he was stepping down off the top of the platform toward the floor of the sanctuary in mid-sermon…the Holy Ghost slapped him in mid-step and knocked him back up on the platform, defying the law of gravity! The look on his face was a priceless one I'll never forget -- as the lights came on in his eyes! Maybe he'd had something like that happen before in his ministry, or possibly he just knew he'd over-stepped, because the look in his eyes was like…UHOH!
(My wife had had a dream the night before that this evangelist and his wife would ultimately attempt to divide the church there against our new pastor and told me the details of it. Giving credit where credit is due...With all her failures, I learned later on that my wife's dreams were in tune...probably because the dreams didn't come from her!)
I think about that time in his sermon, this visiting evangelist realized what he had done something wrong, either he'd been fed some misinformation...or he was up against something he shouldn't be up against. My wife looked at me and said, "He meant that as a swipe at you." I just turned and looked at her and said, "He won't make that mistake again."
Now I've seen preachers knocked completely out of the pulpit for that sort of thing in the past, both in my childhood when my father was attacked from the pulpit by a backslidden minister who didn’t like his holiness standards and attacked him on his convictions, but also when I came back to God after 10 years out of church and something I said rubbed the fur of a pastor the wrong way who was stealing from his church...and while it had not happened every single time I'd come under attack, it happened enough to make an impression on my life!
The funny thing is I didn’t get to read Frank Bartleman’s book on Azusa Street until 2005…only to realize many of the events he described as happening at Azusa had been going on in my life since I was a child. Even though I'd told my wife about those situations before we were married, she knew about them...but seeing is believing and she got to see this happen first-hand that night!
I bowed my head while the evangelist followed up on his frontal attack and tried taking several indirect jabs at me as he continued his sermon and I prayed a simple but blunt prayer, "God, I'm not going to mess with this little peacock and his UPC backdoor politics, perfect DA haircut and $2,000 suits any more. He's got the pastor's ear here, and even though they were lied to and don't know it yet, I'm not going to put up with any more of his attacks. Please remove this idiot from the congregation however you have to do it!" (Sorry for the bluntness, but I'm real when I pray. I don't mince words and God doesn't mince His actions. Food for thought, but read on.)
It was only a few minutes later and the tone of the sermon changed and the evangelist got onto the subject of money and financing his "Holy Ghost Crusade," ... and a lengthier stay at the church for him and his wife and I felt a great big belly flop happen in the Spirit. Several people immediately got up and stormed out and it got back to the pastor that week. The meetings were canceled and the peacock and his wife moved on...and the pastor had the dubious honor of getting up during the next service and apologizing for the evangelist being "taken wrong" at what he had said and how the way he was taken was not what he had meant. It's amazing the things we gloss over in Pentecost. I like it better when God labels things. He calls a spade a spade and leaves it at that. We just stick to politics as usual and try to make everything white...or just gray areas. ;) Jesus called Herod a fox. It stuck.
In a subsequent meeting with our new pastor in Maryland, several things happened that set the wheels turning in my life to launch me into another direction. I never did discuss what happened with my previous pastor in Virginia…or his conversation with my current pastor. I did however detail many of the things that had happened in my life since coming back to church in December 2003, and although many of my ministerial friends in the PAW stood in awe at what God had done in my life and the testimony he gave me, the new pastor looked at me and in a deeply sarcastic tone said, “I’m just shocked that you think that this is the will of God for your life.”
When I told him I would not even be in the UPC except that God had dealt with me back in 2004 and told me to stay, that he had something for me to do, he rebutted, “Yes and it’s been 5 years and you still haven’t accomplished it!” He said he had doubts about my calling and I told him I had none. God settled that many years ago, leaving no doubt about the matter. You don’t argue with God when he decides to openly reveal and confirm your calling in open court and before the ministry. He had no way of knowing that though.
On the drive home, my wife commented that the new pastor had been very antagonistic toward me and even rude with me during the brief meeting and wondered why I didn’t bring up the conversation we both knew he had with the former pastor. I told her it was because that was what they were expecting…and I had been admonished to be silent about it. A few weeks later we had another sit-down with him and he ignored me the entire time and seemed to be going after my wife, digging into her past.
He told me later he had not intended to be antagonistic, or prying (I do not believe that to this day. He was definitely antagonistic, but I’ve given the benefit of the doubt while waiting to see what God is doing) but said he had merely wanted to learn about her history. In so doing she revealed bitterness against an elderly pastor I knew in Illinois, that she had been under 13 years ago. She had been accused of dressing inappropriately by a member of the church and he had withheld sending a recommendation to a bible college in Oregon. She had left the church angry and went into rebellion.
Howbeit a friend of mine in the PAW and Chicago got the same read off of it, that the college had been in trouble and God was protecting her…and she took it as an affront, not God’s grace. I discussed this with the pastor months later and he revealed there had been false doctrine and immorality in that college before its charter was revoked. (This is why I have a different take on many matters in the church today…to the chagrin of many of my friends and the humor of other! Oh the doors God has opened for me in the past due to the bitter wounding of a foe that wrought some good in my life. What man means for evil, God always means for good as you will see.)
My wife had a miscarriage a few weeks after coming to the new church. She had another a few weeks after our second meeting with the new pastor. (Not bitter about it. God has unusual ways of protecting us. Look at Joseph.) Several times she blew up at me at home, screaming at me even in front of her son the last 30-40 days before she finally left. I found out about an apparent infidelity against me, and she revealed another one she committed against her ex-husband, even after denying having ever committed such actions when we were going through marriage counseling with her pastor in Ohio.
Whether her actions were from emotional pain from the miscarriages, or those of someone who did not want her past revealed, she grew increasingly more confrontational and left following the Sunday morning service June 14, 2009…right after our pastor preached on how he would feel if his wife were to leave him. She fidgeted all through the morning sermon as he described how devastated he would be.
June 28, 2009, just 2 weeks after my wife took off, I called an evangelist, Bro. Freddy Clark, a well known minister in the Apostolic movement for his Gifts of the Spirit Seminars and tent meeting healing and miracle campaigns. He had helped me out several times in the past and he always gave me a solid word from God, that always came to pass, even though it was not always what I wanted to hear. I told him about my problems and he stopped me and began to prophesy in the name of the Lord over me:
“Start over and do not worry about your wife, she is a broken tooth and a foot out of joint and even if you restore the marriage she will only leave you again and you will go through all the hell and heartache all over again. Today is a new day for you, a new beginning. Start over. Mark this day on your calendar. Stop banging your head against closed doors that will not open. Walk softly before the Lord and walk through the small doors, and behind the small doors there will always be a larger door. Go through those too. The UPCI will not accept you because prophets and politicians do not mix…this is because prophets get their authority from God and politicians get their authority from the people…and the people do not know God.”
“They will respect you at a distance, but will not associate closely with you, because when you walk into their churches the skeletons fall out of the closet. They will come to you for help and counsel when in trouble, but will avoid you publically, but do not be offended, because it is not you they fear, but it is the anointing that they are afraid of. Instead of focusing your ministry toward one organization, focus it at the Apostolic movement as a whole, because we need you. Do not accept any office or position from them. If you do, they will control you, and you don't need that. You have to be free to say what God gives you to say.”
“You are running out of churches to send your new converts and the people you win to God, because there are many ministers in the area who have left the doctrines and truths. Eventually you will begin to pastor the people you win to God directly from your home and they will flood to your home to be ministered to. Walk with God just like you did in your yesterdays. Do you understand this prophesy that is spoken over you?” (He was talking about years past.)
(My wife had a vision of this very same prophesy before she had her first miscarriage. My home appraiser, a Spirit-filled woman from a non-denominational church stopped by in July and prophesied the same thing to me after we prayed in the Spirit for several minutes after my home inspection. Yes, odd things happen at my home.) ;) This mighty man of God talked to me for nearly an hour, and told me prophesies over the Apostolic movement and the UPC. He’s well up in years now and I asked him who was going to take his place when he was gone. I didn’t like the answer.
The following week at church I told my pastor (who knows this evangelist just like all my former pastors do) about the prophesy…or at least part of it…the part about my wife…but nothing about the words spoken over me about my calling, because of his comments in the office months before. I laughed as his eyes lit up and he wanted to know what the prophet had spoken over me. I merely thought it odd that a man who openly doubted my calling would want to know about what an elderly prophet said about that calling! That time will come…just not today.
Several other prophesies were made known to me while I was going through this mess. My friend, Joe, a PAW preacher in Chicago told me God spoke to him and told him that he was going to take me to a new dimension and level of power in my ministry when I come through this storm. A mutual friend of ours, Tony, a young man in North Carolina that we’ve both known a long time called me a week later and told me he saw a vision of me walking into a spiritual hurricane that was tremendous, but that I was now walking through it alone, Jesus Christ was walking right in the hurricane with me! A week later there was a tongues message at church that said, “I’ve seen your hurt and your pain and I am going to walk with you through this storm closer than I have ever walked with you before.”
Sadly I’ve friends I grew up on Pentecostal pews with and went to camp with every year that have been through struggles like mine on a much smaller scale, who say they have never had God show up like he has in my life. I asked them, but did you ask him to show up, shine forth and show off for HIS glory? Inevitably, they all said, “No.”
I was finishing up a 40 day fast at Ohio Camp meeting, July 31, 2009, (the anniversary of the day I’d proposed to my wife the year before at that same camp meeting), a sheriff’s patrol car pulled up at the Millersport Ohio Campgrounds and a deputy headed for the office building where a closed-door ministers’ meeting was being held. I was outside talking to several friends of mine from the area churches and was quickened that he was there for me, not some noise issue. I said as much to my friends and seconds later my name was called over the public address system to come to the office. I walked in and all the district officials turned to look as my wife’s pastor, another minister and the deputy took me aside into another office and presented a DVRO against me from my wife!
I told them then that I’d faced at least 3 or 4 of these in the past in North Carolina and Florida and that the God who had delivered me from all of them would deliver me from this one as well. Both ministers stood there with their mouths hanging open. It’s fun to read things like that in some book from the Pentecostal Publishing House. I guess it’s not as much fun when you are seeing it happen right in front of your eyes!
Her pastor stayed after and told me he had heard about her plans the night before and confronted her and her parents on the phone, telling her she was living in a dream world and that I had never done her any harm, and the only reason she was doing this was to embarrass me in front of the church and ministry. While he was talking, so was another voice I knew well…telling me that although this pastor had said one thing to me, like any good politician, he would say the opposite to her…and that he was not going to correct the sin at hand. There was too much money and trouble involved. I asked him to judge the matter and to keep justice and judgment.
When I returned home, I told my pastor about what happened as I was leaving service and met him in the altar, and he looked at me and said, “You’ve been through this before, haven’t you?” I replied “the exact same thing!”
I contacted Bro. Doug Klinedinst via email about my situation and he gave me a Word as well, telling me that he was strongly impressed of the Lord that her true colors would come out in court and not to worry about it. He was spot - with that one!
Exactly one week later I returned to Ohio for court and the pastor there refused to present himself to testify and set the matter right before the courts. My parents drove in from Missouri to testify if need be, but never had to. When they pulled up to the courthouse, my father said the same thing to me that God had spoken to me in Millersport. Dad told me outside the courthouse, “Son, the spirit of the ministry in this town will not correct sin. He will not take a stand. Don’t expect any help from him.”
(Note: Yes, I know that Ohio courts, especially a local magistrate, have no jurisdiction over anything that happened in Virginia...but I have nothing to hide and wanted to clear the air in whatever venue was available...besides the judgment God was performing was against a ministry in Ohio, not Virginia for those that have an ear to hear....) The local magistrate gave me free reign to cross examine all testimony and block any testimony from any witnesses not present to be cross-examined. That infuriated my wife.
Given my recent history I was comfortable in a court setting, having acted pro se many times in the past, and the magistrate took notice of my questions and the answers given and began to ask very pointed questions of her own...a few short moments later she asked bluntly about the abuse allegations made against me...and my estranged wife told her affirmatively, “He’s never put a hand on me ever!” Raised eyebrows from the female judge….
The judge immediately dismissed the case when my wife admitted she was using the allegations under false pretense to keep me from trying to reconcile our marriage. My wife stormed off out of the courtroom in a fit of absolute rage. My parents saw her come out…dad later described her as being angry as a wet hen and said he knew when he saw her face she had lost. It’s amazing what a desire to control will push a person to try. (LIKE PEOPLE, LIKE PRIEST!)
The following Monday, as expected, when notified about her actions and the admissions, her pastor chose to do nothing, despite her father also making the same allegations to both my pastor and her pastor in an email a few weeks before. I emailed them an electronic PDF of the court’s dismissal document the following Monday letting them know that my father-in-law and spouse didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to tell them the truth and give them the paperwork their selves.
The following month in September 2009, I again asked her pastor in Ohio to bring judgment before the church on three of his church members for violating the Word, filing false allegations and committing fraud and perjury. I presented my case to him and instead of getting any sort of understanding or reasonable action from him, he turned on me, declaring his "elders" instructed him that as the matter was "done in private to leave it in private."
However, this was not the case...it had been done publically...and he knew this, as the main perpetrator in the actions mentioned, my estranged wife, had served me court paperwork right in front of the Ohio District Board while they sat at a closed-door ministers' meeting last year at the Ohio Camp meeting just two months prior.
Somehow I don’t think the Apostle Paul put that caveat on the believers. The Word even says those things done in private will be revealed publically. We’ve just got too many politicians among us that bear no allegiance whatsoever to following the word of God. They serve a God who suggests, but never commands…You know, the peaceful, loving, Hippy-Jesus, who turns no one away, and desperately accepts anyone regardless of their actions because he doesn’t have a choice. Not hardly!
I reminded her pastor of the prophecy about God overturning her allegations after the hearing. It didn’t faze him in the slightest. He’d already made up his mind to avoid the situation entirely.
After several attempts of discussing the matter with him, he grew extremely agitated as I gave scripture after scripture supporting bringing the matter to the church. He kept bringing up my "past failures" from a year before , or what he perceived was my failures (he knew nothing of the full situation), and said that he would get back with me in one week and let me know whether he would bring the matter before the church for judgment. I went to prayer because I knew exactly what he was going to do, sadly enough. It was going to be a long week….
(Pardon the following lengthy scriptural passage, but it is needful.)
Jeremiah 23
[1] Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.
[2] Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the LORD.
[3] And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
[4] And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the LORD.
[5] Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.
[6] In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
[7] Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that they shall no more say, The LORD liveth, which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
[8] But, The LORD liveth, which brought up and which led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all countries whither I had driven them; and they shall dwell in their own land.
[9] Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.
[10] For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.
[11] For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.
[12] Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.
[13] And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
[14] I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
[15] Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
[16] Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
[17] They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
[18] For who hath stood in the counsel of the LORD, and hath perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it?
[19] Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD is gone forth in fury, even a grievous whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked.
[20] The anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
[21] I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
[22] But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.
[23] Am I a God at hand, saith the LORD, and not a God afar off?
[24] Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the LORD. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the LORD.
[25] I have heard what the prophets said, that prophesy lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have dreamed.
[26] How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies? yea, they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart;
[27] Which think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbour, as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal.
[28] The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
[29] Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
[30] Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that steal my words every one from his neighbour.
[31] Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the LORD, that use their tongues, and say, He saith.
[32] Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD.
[33] And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden? I will even forsake you, saith the LORD.
[34] And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The burden of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house.
[35] Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
[36] And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden; for ye have perverted the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God.
[37] Thus shalt thou say to the prophet, What hath the LORD answered thee? and, What hath the LORD spoken?
[38] But since ye say, The burden of the LORD; therefore thus saith the LORD; Because ye say this word, The burden of the LORD, and I have sent unto you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the LORD;
[39] Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, and I will forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and cast you out of my presence:
[40] And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.
On September 8th, 2009 at 2pm, the day before her pastor was to call me back I felt something fall like a deluge in the Spirit and knew that judgment had fallen. My simple prayer a week before was that when that minister determined in his heart that he would not judge the matter according to the Word of God that the judgment of God would fall on him before it even came out of his mouth to tell me he would not do so. I immediately contacted my pastor to let him know what had happened.
To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. Proverbs 21:3
Days went by...but no phone calls. Finally on the weekend I tried to call, getting only voicemail...this continued for weeks on end. Finally one day he answered and his voice was icy as he told me what "his elders" told him to do, and I let him know what I felt God had given me to say to him. He grew angrier by the minute and when I told him that the next year in his church was going to be hell on earth for him, he hung up in a rage.
A prophetess in his church warned me that he would react that way as he was not going to punish a large tither in "his" congregation. Money is not the root of all evil, but the love of money is the root of all evil. I realize it must be difficult to even think about bringing judgment on someone in a church when the family in question is a large donation source. Don't count on them for much longer though, Hireling, the IRS is breathing down their necks and will catch up with them shortly. I put two and two together when I saw the notices come in the mail last time I was there in their home. My wife tried to cover them up quickly, but I saw them. A shepherd can't give safe passage to a wolf...feed him all you want...when he's hungry or you are down, he will turn on you and devour you.
While we are on the subject, there is a difference between a shepherd and a hireling...remember that when the ones you thought you were "protecting" turn on you like wild animals! Also do not mistake licensing with an organization or marriage into the family of a prophet as a call of God on your life...I recognized that quickly enough while sitting in your services, Hireling!
When a visiting minister has to warn you that one of your saints is giving false tongues and interpretations and prophecies tearing down the preached Word just delivered by your assistant pastor only minutes before...and you are blind to the fact....the reason rests in your anointing or lack thereof. Enough said. I believe this needs no explanation. You'll hear about it at camp meeting this summer. Are you so starved for the operation of the Spirit in your life that you would let a spirit of Ashtoreth operate in your church? Just curious.
On that note, I wish our bible colleges would stop calling men to preach and let God do his own work!
But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. John 10:12-13
By their fruits ye shall know them...right? Get ready. I might have sat silently like a sheared sheep these 9 months, but someone else hasn't. Get ready for a wake-up call. I just hope your actions do not bring a stop to revival in Ohio like the principal characters in Acts chapter 5 did! In their case, it was their death that brought fear of God onto the church and miracles followed.
If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they. Ecclesiastes 5:8
For several months now I’ve been beaten to a pulp emotionally, mentally and spiritually, all the while being pushed aside to see if I’ll just die or go away of my own free will. Unfortunately for those in the know, God is not constrained by our weaknesses, failures, disqualifications or other criteria we lack. We are nothing without Him as he has shown me so often of recent.
By January 2010 I had come to the end of my rope and was going to pack up and leave the local assembly and try and find an assembly close by that didn’t require an hour drive to church. I was weary, beaten down...I was done. Still I went one last time. I walked in right after the choir finished singing on a Sunday morning.
Late? Yes, get over it. God is always right on time.
The associate pastor preached and I felt the Spirit move to speak in the vocal gifts (that’s a change in this place) …but he would not shut up. He just kept rambling on in the pulpit.
I felt it again and a sister sitting down on the lower floor waited for a pause and then began to give a tongues message…but the minister in the pulpit continued to speak over her, either not hearing her, or unaccustomed to the operation of the gifts, or God forbid deliberately trying to talk over her! I've seen a little bit of everything in Pentecost.
In my usual candor, I prayed again, “God I feel you want to speak to me... you please shut him up.” Instantly he began to cough and wheeze in the pulpit and the sister gave the tongues message once again and before he could get his breath a brother on the lower left of the sanctuary, below the balcony, bellowed out like a bull with the interpretation.
“Do not leave me. Do not go. Do not walk out. I am not finished with you here yet.”
The pastor stepped up and grabbed the microphone to rescue the speaker that morning and said God wanted us to come to the altar and that he was speaking to "everybody." He said that not a pew should be full that God was speaking to all of us to come to the altar.
Liar.
Look, I know that works for some people, but why do we always do that in Pentecost? If God is speaking to one man or woman, let him. Don’t tell every other person in the building that God is talking to them…you will confuse them if He isn’t talking to them. No wonder we have so many confused people in Pentecost!
Let God talk to those of us rocks that he needs to speak to bluntly and be done with it…without bloodying the waters, or worse, making what passes for "Apostolic" ministry in this generation look like spiritual morons and buffoons in front of the entire congregation…as in this instance.
(Sorry, I did it again!) Yes, I closed my eyes, bowed my head and prayed again…(forgive the candor).
“God, why is it in Pentecost when you speak we try to say God is speaking to the entire church? If you are talking to this entire assembly, then so be it, but if you are speaking directly to me alone, please confirm your word so there is no mistake here. I need to know.”
And God in his typical candor did it again. You guessed it…the same brother who gave the interpretation to the original tongues message bellowed out on the tail of the pastor’s words and said:
“I’m speaking directly to you. You asked me to do so. What more do you want me to do?”
I love it when God has a sense of humor. It doesn’t matter who he calls a liar…as long as he speaks. Yes, I guess I’m here for a little longer. I’m not done here until everyone gets their parting shots in I guess. Let the beatings continue! It doesn’t lessen the pain of the wounds, but the replies from above are very therapeutic!
(Final editorial note: In less than 4 months I am being moved to another state. A pastor there has asked me to come visit his church. Before I leave this article is going to the district superintendants of three districts and the pastors and evangelists involved. This is for the knowledge of those bishops only. I am NOT asking for judgment. There is a reason why I did not turn this over to you and I will explain.
If I left this at the pastoral level and those men continued to sin and do nothing to correct that sin, the death of their ministries and their churches fell on their heads LOCALLY. If I had turned it over to the presbytery level or district level and you had done nothing, then it would have killed the revivals in your entire districts and great men, Godly men, would have had their revivals stifled through now fault of their own...because as you taught me for years, everything rises and falls on leadership. Spiritual leadership, not physical leadership. It does not follow the card system you carry in your pockets. Sorry.
I contacted my current pastor 4 months ago via email and asked him who was responsible for the death of a man who was shoved into a tank full of sharks...the man who pushed him only...or the three men standing by watching with life preservers and ropes in their hands with the ability to pull him out, but who would not do so. He did not respond to my email...then told me he didn't get it in an email, so I sent it again. He got it and again did not respond.
I have sat here for 2 years...one year since that tongues message, waiting to die spiritually...held under water until I drown. I was going to pack it in and leave, but as you well know, I was directed to stay, and to die, because I prayed and asked God to tie my situation to your new building campaign which the Holy Ghost brought to a screeching stop from the very month I walked into your congregation 2 years ago. The economy had nothing to do with it, sir.
My reasons for not bringing it before you in judgment and suffering the loss is this, secondly because of the prophecy by the prophet to let her go and start over, but primarily (only naming a few names that I know) because great men of God like Apostle Aaron Bounds, in Zainesville, Ohio, or the bishops of Ohio, Virginia or Maryland would have lost great revivals not only in their cities, but throughout their entire states if I had done so and corrective action was pushed aside for the politics of "the card."
I did not do you any favors by doing this though...and I was merely trying to keep better men from being wronged. Sometimes you have to take and suffer a great loss to protect the bride. I have been mandated to do nothing, but simply to stand by and see the judgment of God fall after I leave this district, much as it did in Florida before I left there 6 years ago under similar circumstances. You said you did not believe that my calling was what I thought it was. I knew it had been confirmed long before I met you and was reaffirmed by the prophet within months of you saying this. I do not know if he will simply chastise you, remove you from your office, or let your entire works crumble, but I fear it will be greater than that. I am truly sorry. I did not come here for this. But according to what he told me and was spoken in prophecy over me, it is what I was mandated to stay here for. If I had my say, I'd have left months after arriving here. However, some of us do not have that privilege. At any rate, you have what you desired, my spiritual death, pastor. I hope and pray this is what you and the three ministers you spoke to in private desired...because I don't think you are going to like God's response.
I've taken a posture and stance for two years now that leaves me as no threat to you. I am not licensed with you. The prophet told me to never accept a position from you or and office, and I will not. He told me that I had to be free to speak what God gave me and that no man in this organization will associate me because of the calling that is on me. He did however promise me that I no longer have to stand in your pulpits as I did in years gone by, but from now on all I have to do is walk into your assemblies an everything will be revealed. He prophesied that nothing will ever be able to be hidden from me from now on when I walk into Apostolic churches.
Write me off as dead among you. I seek neither your sympathy, actions, reactions or judgment. I will however, rise again and start over and rebuild what David, William, Sam and you decided to strip from me. I am sorry for the lack of titles and sir names. They won't mean much to you anyway. As Jesus Christ said, beware that no man steal your crown. In this case you robbed yourselves. Every work the three of you have done since the time you chose behind closed doors and over the phone to work this work has been sealed in judgment and will burn up in the last and final judgment.
This is the beginning of the end of UPCI backdoor politics as you know it. Other oneness organizations have other issues. This one can be considered dealt with and not at my hands. The blood of the prophets is on the hands of the United Pentecostal Church.)
