Outsmarted and Rescued

John 3:16. I was in need of scripture. I needed comfort and assurance. I needed direction. The LORD/Yahweh has said to look up John 3:16 before. I get exasperated. I know that one. I’ve known that verse since I was a child. “It’s childish,” I think to myself. Too basic. I need something more. I ask Him again for His incredible verse to give to me for what I am desperate for now. Right now! Not when I was seven. C’mon LORD, give me a verse!

 “John 3:16.”

Me: FINE!

I go and look it up in my Bible thinking maybe I marked something exquisitely insightful or wrote something in the margins. Nope. I look at an old book mark I had there. Nope. I read a note from the last time I spoke from that same page when I was evangelizing. Nope.

I read it. John 3:16. I read further: 17, 18, 19, 20,21. Nope. No major revelation. Then I went back and read John 3:16 again, this time trying to enunciate in my head the words so that maybe something would rescue me. Nothing. It was all my effort.

Then He spoke.

“Love”

It is in My love that you find peace.

It is in My love that you find comfort.

It is in My love that you hold my hand and draw near.

It is in My love that I show you the way.

It is in My love that my will is made known.

It is in My love that the hurt goes away.

It is in My love that I heal you.

It is in My love that you find strength.

It is in My love that I have called you Chosen.

It is in My love that I send you forward.

It is in My love that I have great delight for you.

It is in My love that I have not forsaken you.

It is in My love that I forgive you.

It is in My love that I save you, Child.

 All that I am for you in all that you are, is in My love.

Find My love and you will find all that you need.

Yep.  John 3:16

Aramaic Bible in Plain English  For God loved the world in this way: so much that he would give up his Son, The Only One, so that everyone who trusts in him shall not be lost, but he shall have eternal life.

Someone Has to Say It

 

 









 

Someone has to name what is going on so it can start to be addressed. Someone has to start talking about it.

Dear Church, Environmentalists, Social Justice seekers,

The people and the land are hurting…bad.

This is going to be on two subjects that rarely are placed in the same place these days: Spirituality and the physicality of the  land. There are very few people in the Church or among environmentalists that combine the two. We have a mess that needs help and it impacts us all.

This will stretch your spirituality, this will burden your heart, this has rocked me to the core and those that catch a glimpse of it; brace yourself. Open your heart if you pray. Open your mind if you don’t. The two are connected.

Our riversides and waterways have been getting sick. The soil is sick and man has been destroying himself.  Environmentalists, I know you are listening. Church, listen! I was walking with a friend who pointed out all of the buckthorn growing in a Refuge. Among it were plantings, weeds, unproductive plant life under the guise of “forest” depleting the soil and choking out this 300 year old oak. “This oak knew the elk, the bison, the carrier pigeon and the people who lived beneath it.” My heart was pierced. “This all used to be savannah,” he said.

I prayed. I prayed for two days asking God to help me with this. I grew up in a conservative home; one of faith, but one of progress, science and financial acquisition.  The things that somehow foreshadowed me back then for what I am burdened and passionate for today was that I had a painting of Jesus over my childhood twin bed and a decal of the Ecology flag I put on my bed room window by the shelves of the plants I grew in the south facing window instead of using my allowance to buy candy.

I walk in a relationship with God where I hear Him speak. To some of you who may be environmentalists: Yes, I’m being for real. To some of you who are the Church: Yes, I’m being for real. He speaks.

This is what He said, “As the Nation cries out for repentance, they have been going up the wrong trees. Repentance needs to go back to the Land and what was done to the people on it and the blood that was shed.” Our brothers and sisters!  This is what has been a two year journey that God has taken me on, reworking my mind and heart to see as He does through the very people of this land who are BOTH Spiritual AND Land honoring.

This is the time to write in short, the plea to see!

I have just returned from Standing Rock. Please, listen.

This is more than about the pipeline; it’s that the pipeline is bringing our attention to this place that God wants us to see. It’s about the water, the people and the land. It’s a microcosm of the whole and how we have been doing things and why.

The rivers are where life is derived from. Water. We need it to live. We are made mostly of water. Church, the places of great events and life and living happened on the rivers. The Nile, the Euphrates, the Jordan. The Egyptian writings are there in the hieroglyphs. Life, people, history, culture, worship and ancestry happened there. We tour there to see where Jesus was baptized, the Sea of Galilee where they fished, the Nile and its ancient cities and reflect at times gone by.

First Nations people lived along the rivers here. Ancient writings are in the petroglyphs around this country. Life, people, history, culture, worship and ancestry happened here with the same thousands of years worth of history. We are appalled at the decimation of sacred places taking place in the Middle East. It’s happening here. Paleontologists have sites in Standing Rock. From a building devoted to it and a Casino with dinosaur bones displayed in a window shelf along with ancestral artifacts to name a few. This is one reservation. And bulldozers have been tearing apart the land as its dust rises up.

Do a search on the Cannonball River. Read the history. The tribes spanning centuries of life and death and life again along that river that flows into the Missouri River is historic and ancestral and part of families’ heritage. I have driven between Bismarck, North Dakota and Standing Rock. The route is altered because of the pipeline and protest site. The drive takes an hour. Driving through mostly prairie between hills, and badland rock formations, and mountains far in the distance; this drive through this land has few dwellings. Then, entering in, one can see the pipeline area. It is in the area of these men and women’s history; the Cannonball River, the Missouri River, Lake Oahe and in easy eyeshot is the greatest concentration of Standing Rock citizens’ homes, businesses and Tribal Government center. To say this pipeline location is not infringing is a gross lie. It is before them after driving an hour’s span of miles from a town and land that rejected the pipeline, past vast spaces with little to no dwelling areas to be horrifically displayed in the very backyard of lives and living of the people of the community of Standing Rock. The land the pipeline is on is scarcely beyond the shrunken border of what is currently a broken Treaty, and in blatant eyesight of those who have their lives there and derive their life from these waters. It is upsetting in every way to a culture that lives with the land and honors it. Who in faith see spiritually the land, its life, and their own all connected by a Creator, a culture and people that regards with great respect, ancestors, heritage and that they survived nearly being destroyed.

The Standing Rock youth began to protect their water. Environmental protectors arrived. Social Justice protectors arrived, people from Tribes all over the country arrived and those who pray. Some came in with arrogance and rude behavior that exasperated and antagonized the police force called in. It was not the intent of the people of Standing Rock to behave like that. Theirs was a call to honor, prayer and a peaceful protest because of the priority of remaining humble. One of the Tribal members prays for her people and their families and prays for the police and their families and the governing people and their families. It is a blanket of honor of love and the desire that all would see one another and be one in that kind of love. Even among the tanks, armored trucks, pepper spray, helicopters and psychological intimidation that has been brought into this place of what must have been seen as  out of the way and no one will notice. The people who live in Standing Rock insisted on prayer. That this has received the attention it has and the support it has must be an act of God. So many other land atrocities have been swept under the rug.

I believe with all my heart God is saying, “Look!”

Many argue that it is within the legal rights of private land to run this pipeline. Whose legal rights, I ask? Which Government?

The land is sacred to people who have lived off of it in honor and understanding that as the earth lives, so do they. As Creator created us He created this living land. The Church let go of that.

Repentance.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
 

The Cannonball River is the border between the Nation of Standing Rock and the European occupation of Turtle Island, now called the United States of America and in particular, North Dakota. These words may be foreign to you. We didn’t get taught our true history. We heard about settlers coming, the Gold Rush expanding the west and immigrants seeking a better life.

Why?

They wanted to come to a new land and to gain wealth They came under the guise of Manifest Destiny.

Please listen. Church, listen please, I beg you.

Manifest Destiny is a spirit; an evil one. Europeans partnered with this thing and tried to call it good. Coming here to settle and tame the land and live off its riches at the expense of those already living here.  Jesus said in John 10:10 “The Thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, I have come to give life and life abundantly.”

Land was taken for wealth, gold, silver and the best hunting and farming grounds, promises broken, people killed and cultures nearly destroyed. Manifest Destiny is a spirit not of Christ, but of Satan. In the spiritual part of my knowledge of generational spiritual strongholds, I asked God to deliver me from Manifest Destiny. He did. I felt a softening within my muscles as a sense of striving left me and a far deeper peace and contentment came upon me. My mind yielded and a sense of bull-headedness left me. Cooperation, listening, compassion, sharing and giving became strengthened. Yes, really.

I told my son about it and asked if he would want to be prayed for and be delivered from it if it was a part of him. He agreed. As I prayed and God touched him, he relaxed next to me. The very next day he came home from school and said, “Mom, guess what?! We learned about Manifest Destiny today! America was horrible.”

Now the land and atmosphere is being compromised for oil and people are put down for money.

We are seeing what is happening to our water. Kids try to take a drink with a cup at the beach and we knock it away and say, "Don't drink that!" Soil is contaminated with pesticides and more. We’ve seen extinctions. Now we are seeing dramatic weather changes that are affecting us all. Environmentalists can’t sleep at night listening to the premature snow melting and dripping from roofs. They know the value of the land and how we are all dependent on it. We need a miracle. We all need to pray and repent for what we have done to this land and what we have done to one another and get set free from the evils that have been driving us to our own destruction.

My friend is on his fifth tour of running/walking across the United States with the American Indian Movement’s Longest Walk 5.2. It will be completed again in Washington DC in July 2017. Currently in Nevada, he recently spent time on the Paiute-Shoshone Reservation where he said they have a sad history of nuclear waste and testing/flight practices. Our brothers’ and sisters’ scarce portions of land retained, is used by the U.S. Government to experiment on for weapons of destruction. Water is at a minimum and somehow, the Paiute-Shoshone have managed to remain there and survive. One text he sent came alone. The words, “Man is destroying himself.”

A piece about the Paiute-Shoshone Nye County written in the Las Vegas Review Journal  by Keith Rogers, posted January 11, 2014 reads: Time has left its mark on the land. From etchings in stone and symbolic paintings left on walls of wind caves by Ancient American Indians to remnants from gold and silver mines, to hundreds of pock marks- subsidence craters- from underground nuclear weapons tests, Nye County’s past and recent history are preserved in its landscape.

Everything we have comes from the Earth; physically everything. Spiritually, we have a gage or conscience that knows mostly what is right or wrong. If we see a child about to fall off of something we run and try to catch them before they do. We have a sense for the value of well-being and life. It’s within us, an invisible. Another invisible is that sense that wells up for social justice; identifying evil and desiring what is right and good and fair. This is spirituality with a winning side where the majority of humans ultimately want what’s right. God, a good God, our Creator and Savior Yeshua is intertwined as He taught us to pray, “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  

In an article that tried to switch focus from the pipeline, they wrote about the trash accumulated at the protest camp. The words were that when the snow melts and the river floods, all those people who say they are environmentalists and protesting the protection of the water, are going to be polluting it.

I was just there. The clean-up is done.

The real clean-up needs to be done within ourselves, created in the image of God and living with one another on this one extraordinary place of living earth where our own lives and our children's are dependent.

I watched Indigenous people repent out loud for things they did to each other, for wrongful worship of animism, witchcraft, and for unforgiveness, anger etc. People stood in the gap for abuse, addictions and more. A man who came from Ireland repented for the conflicts between Catholics and Protestants and the religious spirit and abuses that came through and stood in the place of that. It was powerful. We will see something come of this. Standing Rock, in its very name, carries prophetic things.  Psalm 18:2 Yahweh/the LORD is my solid rock, my fortress, my rescuer. My God is my rock- I take refuge in Him! He's my shield, my salvation's strength, my place of safety.

Church, listen to this verse again. It has been your battle cry when you have been crying out for the Nation’s repentance.

2 Chronicles 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Environmentalists, the Word in the Bible agrees with what you see and know in regards to the land. The head knowledge is also His heart. You are a blessing as you have persevered against financial greed and work to bring about restoration. The ways of what was first instilled is what works. Grazing kept the healthy cycle for soil, plants, water and animal life. Destroying nearly to extinction, the bison and the people living along the waters, has us environmentally feeling it now. Industrialization brought productivity and also produced pollution that is having detrimental effects.

This is a link to some experiments regarding reintroduction to grazing. Our thoughts need to return to what was and what worked and learn from the original design. Observing nature can teach us so much. A man says he learned how to lead by watching his horses. He is a pastor and has been leading many to Christ by following the way of leadership he learned from his horses.  

Isaiah 32:20 ESV “Happy are you who sow beside all waters, who let the feet of the ox and the donkey range free.”

Praying, humbling ourselves, turning from wicked ways, listening, efforts to understand cultures and love one another and truly observing and honoring the LORD and this living earth; God says He will heal this land. First Nations people  humbled themselves at the Inter-Tribal Prayer Gathering and Indigenous Healing the Land Conference at Standing Rock last week. We are believing in Him for His word.

May we all begin to look and see and understand right up to our President, so that when the Church cries out in repentance regarding the Nation, that it goes back to the depths of the heart of God where He has not forgotten those whom He had first established the Nations on this land.

Romans 8:19-21 ESV  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain freedom of the glory of the children of God.
 

The more you read and research the history of indigenous people along the rivers and waterways, and study environmental research and search your own heart, you will see. Start a relationship or renew one with God. Pray. We can’t do this without Him. He loves us all. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

·        If you are feeling prayerful, listen to this song “Called by My Name” by Robby Cummings. It was sung by he and Alex Costillo in worship at the Inter-Tribal Prayer Gathering and Indigenous Healing the Land Conference at Standing Rock March 3-7, 2017

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wondering



Preparing for a Christmas message, I was led to a verse location not knowing what I would find.

 It was Luke 2:18.

And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.

We wonder. From the first time we are told about Christ we wonder about it. Could that be true? How could it? Are they crazy? That’s weird. That’s wild. That could be wonderful. Does that Christ know me? Is there really a heaven? Angels can just appear? Words sent from heaven? Really?

 Mary heard the things the shepherds had to say and in verse 19 it says, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”

The angels had burst on the scene to shepherds in the middle of the night. The angels declared what they knew. They knew Him! They knew the glory! They knew the love! They knew the peace! They knew the joy! They knew the promise made and now the promise being kept! They knew the glories of heaven, His nature, and this great thing for all men with whom He has found pleasure. That peace that the angels knew first-hand was being released on earth! Christ was here! They were rejoicing, exclaiming and thrilled that they were the ones to bring the news; the news that they knew! They knew Him in all those ways.

But the shepherds didn’t know Him yet, they only knew the message sent by the angels that they had personally encountered. The angels told how they would know Him, “And this will be a sign to you, you will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.” Because at this point, Jesus was not able to reveal Himself except for what was done to Him and told about Him; wrapped and placed in a manger.

The Son of God of the Universe, the Holy one, the one there at the beginning, the Living Word had left the grandeur and reign in His great glory and came to us in this least expectant way. Yet, a young woman expected. Expected the birth and expected the things that the shepherds spoke of in a way that she held onto those words and pondered them.

Christ had not revealed Himself yet. As He grew He began to reveal Himself. He revealed wisdom as a child talking to the teachers in the synagogue. He started to perform miracles; water into wine, blind to see, deaf to hear, lame to walk, demons cast out. He began to show Himself as one who blesses children. He showed Himself as one who multiplied food. He showed Himself as one who loved women and let the ones who were thought of as unclean to touch Him and draw near, He taught them when women weren’t allowed to be taught, He protected one from stoning by pointing out that no one else was better. He delivered people from demons and evil. He showed unconditional love to thieves and a soldier who was taking Him away by restoring an ear cut off by a sword. He showed He raised dead people to life. As He showed Himself, more people knew Him. His disciples got to see Him in all these ways. The ones who followed after Him got to know Him.

Word spread of Him. Jesus is written about in the history of the Romans and the Greeks; He walked this earth.

At the end of His time here, He revealed Himself again by what was done to Him. He was placed on the cross. Humility. Sacrifice.

Then He rose again and showed Himself alive.

We wonder through first hearing and then going through life until we get to know Him in those ways that He would show Himself. As He does, we know Him more. He provides, He blesses, He delivers, He heals, He protects, He says do not be afraid and He gives His peace. He takes our sin and shame and guilt and releases us from it when we accept that He did give His life on the cross because He loves us. Grace. He lets us get to know Him through our life and He is letting us know Him more and more. But in knowing Him in these ways, we had to go through the hardships in seeing our need for Him. He reveals Himself and we have fresh hope each time because we get to know Him again in another way.

 Those who have had the experiences of knowing Him in life-changing ways are often those who declare like the angels in great joy, who He is, His love and that He is here and there is peace! Peace in every situation, every circumstance when we are caught up in the worst of emotions and earthly hardships a moment in prayer can open His peace to you even in what is the most torrential storm. His words, “Peace, be still.”

We wonder.

We ponder.

And the more we follow Him, looking for Him, He reveals Himself in our lives. We get to know Him and become like those angels who can’t help but tell of Him with the joy and love of the good news.

The LORD of heaven in all its vastness of eternity loves you with His love that is as expansive as the universe. That kind of love to make Himself real to us in a humility no other king could or would ever do except Him because He loves you that much, that large, that powerfully, that fully and that beautifully to give you Peace. It’s not the peace the world gives, but the peace from a timeless eternity Who has no limits of love for you. In our loneliness, He is still with us. In sorrow, He comforts. In our bad choices, He shows mercy and grace. A line in a David Crowder song says, "He is brighter than the dark in us."

The vastness of I Am to say to you today, “I love you,” from the glory of God in the Highest.

 

Forgiveness Rising

 

 

 

 

 

“Avoid Bismarck, they make it hard on anyone going into Standing Rock.” That was the plan on Nov. 28^th, but the Creator of the first big snowstorm of the year said differently. Bismarck was where I would find myself snowed in and being hosted by an enrolled member of the Standing Rock Nation; a woman I had never met before until that day. This was also the date that Tribal Chairman David Archambault ll and Gracey Claymore would be speaking at the Public Library for the first community forum with the people of Bismarck. Because of this blinding snowstorm that placed me in the right place at the right time, I was able to really see.

Entering the room, it was filled with people; mostly white people. We were in Bismarck. There was an air of tension and also a sense that people were ready to sound-off. In plans to meet and see people at the camp and hear the story, I could not believe that instead, I was going to be listening and meeting the Tribal Chair himself.  At this point, I still had no idea who my host was other than a revered woman of faith, intercessor and prophetess to a group called Warrior’s Circle.

Finding a pair of empty chairs, we were limited to the back rows. The meeting opened in prayer by one of the local priests from Bismarck. As Tribal Chairman David Archambault ll began to speak, I noticed how worn out and tired he looked. The months, weeks and days had been taking a toll on this very real person. His voice was gentle and clear. He was not rushed or angry. He spoke peacefully, fluidly, like the river itself he was giving his all for.

Laying out the ground work for understanding, he said he has set out to keep Standing Rock in a prayerful, peaceful, courageous and polite way. “This is about water, that’s it, water. Distractions have come and it has evolved into so many other things.” His voice maintained a gentleness and a humility. One can only truly know the heart and spirit of one who is humble by being in there presence. This was a leader in a place of unplanned leadership who stepped through the hurts of the historic trauma and marked each case with truth. Much was heard for the first time on the ears of the white citizens present in this room. He explained that in these times of broken Treaties and Laws it broke the people. Alcoholism tried to patch the pain and loss. Abuse and Hopelessness and loss of a future became poverty, drop-outs of education and other untold behaviors. “We are oppressed and we are still dealing with this.”  He explained that this pipeline coming in the way that it is, is a reminder of the historic trauma, a continuation of the same.

As I sat in my chair and silence gripped the room, this is where I saw it in person. It is the lack of understanding for culture. It is the lack of effort to sit down and listen to the host people of this nation and really listen.

Peace begins with listening.

Through grace he shared that the many entities of the Federal Government and the State Government did their parts independent of one another. “The Army Corps of Engineering followed their rules and called it blessed because they had the permits. They never sat down Government to Government with the Standing Rock Nation Government. Meaningful consultation did not ever take place. If they said they did, It’s a lie.”

“Meaningful consultation in our government is showing proposals, scope, planning and calling in the leader decision makers from all parts all together to listen and let the Governments each take a time to listen, then speak, then reflect and say it all back what they had heard and then after that, work together for a conclusion. That never happened,” he said. This is where the strength of the man rose up in his voice; still humble and gentle but strong and representative of his people, he wore his peoples’ dignity.

This was it, I thought to myself, this is the definition of how cultures must come together and work together. It is the order of protocol, it is the order of respect, it is the order of peace. Peace begins by listening.

“They say they contacted us 389 times. They said they tried.” He explained these counts were phone call attempts, emails, public hearings posted in papers they don’t get, individuals, branches and information passing that said this is what we are doing. He said that as he shared with each different entity he let them know that they would come up with resistance. He explained that it would not be resistance in a bad way, but resistance by opposing it.

He shared with the people of Bismarck who had not heard these things. He shared the legalities in which the Army Corps acted, but neglected the entities. “The EA (Environmental Assessment) could check the box. It met their standards. It was at the maximum limit of being 500 feet away. This is the minimum to run by any National Park. They pressed it to the limit and got their permit. They called it blessed”. (referring to the permit) The EPA is the group that looks at how this environmentally could impact the people. The Army Corps of engineering wouldn’t listen. The Historic Preservation entity of the Government told the Army Corps, but they wouldn’t listen. As he shared the greater clarity of the truth, it began to make itself seen. The steps were cleared. He had dates, groups and efforts made as he had escorted individuals through the land to show them the sacred places. What was missing became clear; the coming together for meaningful consultation never took place. The cultural protocol of our host people was never understood, never honored. Never taken to heart.

“What are you up against?” he said he was asked. He paused. “North Dakota has experienced oil.”

The state has always worked well with us in the past, he went on to say. We had not had issues, but now there are State Representatives who are experiencing oil.

The obvious didn’t need to be stated. I heard him. It was money.

“Our people, when given allotments of land chose the land along the river. The river is life. The river had the trees with fruit, it had the game.”

There was still a bit of tension in the air as those who listened grappled with what they were hearing. Then he said, “We have to forgive. We live in misery if we don’t forgive.” The atmosphere changed in that moment. Resistance towards one another fled the room as forgiveness rose up. The transformation was as delicate as a butterfly coming out of its cocoon, but in its gentility and fragility. Feeble, but beautiful as its wings begin to receive the warm sun and its fullness starts to take shape. Forgiveness is rising.

He introduced Gracey Claymore, the youth who was instrumental in beginning to share the news of the fight for their water, their river. She had collected with other youth 160,000 signatures on a petition to stop the pipeline from crossing the river. It had taken off because of their use of social media. The youth also organized a run from Cannonball, North Dakota to Washington D.C. to present to President Obama the petition. They did the run in spite of the racial opposition they encountered along the way. The youth see and know that their lives depend on clean water. They acted in protection with a wisdom beyond their years. It is in their efforts where the Standing Rock camp has come to in this day. It was not their intention to be anything more than water. As Gracey spoke, her voice shook. She shared her fear of when she comes to Bismarck because of the color of her skin, because she wears a shirt because she sees “people doing something beautiful, real, real beautiful.”(Water is Life shirt)  She spoke to Bismarck as her neighbor. She said, “It hurts to hear you call us poor or less. It is heart breaking. We just wanted to protect our water, protect our land. We simply wanted a future. We want to live; white, black, brown, and put that aside.  I don’t want to come to Bismarck and be afraid. I want to come to Bismarck and say to all of you, ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Hi’ to all of you.”

The floor opened for conversation. A white woman stood up and shared her fear because people had put her picture up on social media and her license information. I don’t know if she was a police or related to one.  The Tribal Chairman spoke, “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m sorry for the violence to you. Words are violent. None of us want that. We are prayerful and peaceful.” She received it. She received the apology as everyone else did in there. We witnessed the beauty of understanding of peace and of forgiveness. We witnessed relationship of love and compassion and the room beat with a new heart. A heart wounded, but soft toward another.

He said, “After the constructors leave, and the company leaves, and the protectors leave and after the police leave we will still be here. Standing Rock and its people will be here. Bismarck will be here. Morton County will be here. We have to live together to have unity together. We will all still be here after all of this is gone.”

As my host then stood up and spoke, she shared from her ancestry the real story of real people. She told about a tree that is alone on the top of a hill. It was her grandfather’s favorite tree. He would point it out to her when she was a child and talk of the tree. It was the lonely tree. “People don’t pray there anymore. He said when people pray, we aren’t lonely because we are in relationship with God.” This tree on the hill is now surrounded by razor barbed wire and the hill is scheduled to be torn down to run the pipeline. She wept for the place of her grandfather, for the tree that stands alone, for the prayers that have not been said enough and the loneliness of the people who need their relationship with the LORD. She shared her belief in the Bible and in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Moses. That this God of theirs, YHVH, was who her Grandfather prayed to.

She declared that Standing Rock is blessed. “Blessed, blessed, blessed!” “Our people are blessed, our children are blessed, we will pray, we will stand. Our children, your children are blessed!”

She prays. She has brought in Nigiel Bigpond, Willie Jock and others who have done forgiveness prayers and the breaking of the curses on the host people and lands across America. Oct. 21^st they publically prayed in Washington D.C. lifting up forgiveness of the U.S. Government for the breaking of the Treaties and other atrocities. She prays for the police and says, “We need to pray for them, for their families, we need to pray for the protectors and for their families, we need to pray for our government leaders and their families. We need to pray! What man makes will fall, but what God makes will stand.” She handed out scripture to the Chairman and to the Governor. Psalm 91. She leads groups into Standing Rock no matter who they are and prays and openly shares who she serves, Yeshua, the One who showed the ultimate forgiveness on a cross.

But, she had a vision. She saw a black snake. The black snake was not what we would have thought. She said the black snake was “Lust for the land. From that is the root of bitterness, pride, and unforgiveness. We can’t kill it she said, only Yeshua can.”

 As I know that in that forgiveness of Yeshua there is resurrection life. It was our faith that connected me to be hosted by this most loving and valiant prayer warrior I have ever met. I was hosted by a host nation woman in the heart of all Standing Rock is. Forgiveness is rising. New life is on the horizon. We will see the host people of this Nation rise like never before.

If the eyes for repentance in the United States open up; as we go and ask forgiveness from our hosts, we will see a beautiful thing. We will see the butterflies rise from the eagles.

That morning, the morning of my departure she shared from her devotion book. Here, she said, I think you will like this… with the snow and all.

Psalm 51:7-9 “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. 8. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.” (NIV)

My three days in Bismarck were coming to a conclusion. My car was snowed in and stuck. My dear friend and protector, a native, was pushing with all his might, but it wasn’t enough to get my car out. I saw a man driving a bobcat and moving snow. I ran over to him and asked if he would come and help push me out. I needed more man power. He came, but begrudgingly. He was a white man. As I sat in my car I saw these two men. A native and a white man along side each other. Their backs bent over, their heads down and together with all their strength and in unison, they pushed me free.

 

 

 





On Guard ~ The Word (part 3 of 3)

 

 

It is one of the things that Satan puts a lot of effort into: destroying the Word of God and its credibility... or trying to. I hear it first hand from people. They bought into the lie. “The Bible can’t be accurate after all of that time and all of those different translations.” This is one of the largest lies that many of the younger generation believes. They are taught this.

Some years ago the Dead Sea Scrolls made their way to an exhibit at the Minnesota Science Museum. These scrolls were discovered in Qumran not all that long ago when you comprehend the scope of time; 1946. They had been kept in clay jars and preserved; hidden in dry desert caves for approximately 2000 years. The discovery is incredible. Shortly after they were found and taken out of those perfect conditions of preservation, there was some deterioration. Still, many scrolls and parts were well in tack.

Standing before these precious pieces of written words at the museum were passages from Isaiah. The parts I saw were written perfectly concise to the Hebrew. There was no change. The book of Isaiah had been originally written another 600 years before this collection of scrolls were written and tucked into the cave for another 2000 years. I can open Bible sites and find Isaiah written in Hebrew and the various English words translating that unchanged Hebrew word which was written over and over again for thousands of years.

 The word was precious; guarded with their lives. Scribes took on lives of monks, giving their life to do nothing but transcribe it perfectly and beautifully because there were no printing presses to duplicate it. Whole lives were dedicated to transcribing it exactly as written. The holiness was worth a life commitment of deepest reverence and care for a message worthy of producing more.  The same is with the New Testament books in care and duplication of the text.

Here is a chart depicting major Greek writings including the New Testament and the number of copies transcribed. Notice, we do not dispute the works of Aristotle or Homer, yet the New Testament work has been painstakingly copied a multitude of times with greater accuracy by comparison to the other texts duplicated and written by other authors. The very nature of the historic documentation, the consistencies between authors of the gospels, and the occurrences of Christ’s life that are nothing short of miraculous prophetic fulfillments of that amazing book of Isaiah, are knee-bending and head-bowing!

Author	Date Written	Earliest Copy	Approximate Time Span between original & copy	Number of Copies	Accuracy of Copies
Lucretius	died 55 or 53 B.C.		1,100 yrs	2	----
Pliny	A.D. 61-113	A.D. 850	750 yrs	7	----
Plato	427-347 B.C.	A.D. 900	1,200 yrs	7	----
Demosthenes	4th Cent. B.C.	A.D. 1100	800 yrs	8	----
Herodotus	480-425 B.C.	A.D. 900	1,300 yrs	8	----
Suetonius	A.D. 75-160	A.D. 950	800 yrs	8	----
Thucydides	460-400 B.C.	A.D. 900	1,300 yrs	8	----
Euripides	480-406 B.C.	A.D. 1100	1,300 yrs	9	----
Aristophanes	450-385 B.C.	A.D. 900	1200	10	----
Caesar	100-44 B.C.	A.D. 900	1,000	10	----
Livy	59 BC-AD 17	----	???	20	----
Tacitus	circa A.D. 100	A.D. 1100	1,000 yrs	20	----
Aristotle	384-322 B.C.	A.D. 1100	1,400	49	----
Sophocles	496-406 B.C.	A.D. 1000	1,400 yrs	193	----
Homer (Iliad)	900 B.C.	400 B.C.	500 yrs	643	95%
New Testament	1st Cent. A.D. (A.D. 50-100)	2nd Cent. A.D. (c. A.D. 130 f.)	less than 100 years	5600	99.5%

(Source: CARM)

Matthew 5:17-18  "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven…”

It’s serious. The Word is of vital importance and it stands. From the beginning, the Enemy was after discrediting the Word of God. Slyly insinuating doubt to Eve from God's words about not eating the fruit, “Did God really say that?” Then the Enemy said that the reason God told her she shouldn’t eat from the tree is because He didn’t want them to become like God. But what has God always sought out? He sought out for us to do the things He is doing.

John 14:12 "Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father."

 We potentially have years more than His three of ministry on this earth. He calls us into relationship and a life that never ends in Paradise and then a new and perfect earth. It isn’t fantasy. One only needs to read Isaiah to see how Jesus fulfilled what was said would be. There is more said that will be. The Promises. God’s Word is Promise as all Promises are words. Fulfilling them is the character of God.

He is a truth-keeper and a truth maker.

John 14:6  Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The graying of the Word is smoke and mirrors. It’s sly deceit to try and take away what it really says. Satan tempted Jesus in the desert by distorting God’s word or trying to feed him and fill him with something else. Jesus’ response:  But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:4

Destroying the Word is Satan’s attempt at destroying God Himself. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

Being on guard with eyes opened in clarity to seeing the attempts of the many who are trying to discredit the Word, is a way to remain armed. The Word is your great weapon against evil, because this is a spiritual battle, not a flesh and blood one. Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I have seen when the Word of God is spoken or read or prayed that demons are cast out, that healings happen, victories are won and that peace comes and joy returns even when turmoil may be stirred around them. The Word is the breath of God and it is His living power. It is the weapon against evil when you speak it in fullness of faith in Christ Jesus’ Holy Spirit. Because,…this is a spiritual battle.

I recently met a young man who had just been in a very real spiritual battle. He was invited in to party and hang out with people through a cousin of his. He quickly discovered they were practicing witchcraft. He had slipped back into taking some drugs and he was taking them with those who were proclaimed witches. He was traumatized and still visibly shaken as he spilled his experience out to me, but he was exuberant at how real the Holy Spirit was too. He said he saw the pills in his hand take on the form of demons. He knew the drugs and those around him were steeped with evil.

 He had his small Bible with him that he kept in his backpack. Drugged, weakened and scared, he heard God speak to him and tell him to take it out and start reading from it. He read from where He was hearing God telling him to read and that he was to read it out loud. As he read, the drugs started losing their power, he was able to run out of there. His eyes were bright with excitement and revelation as he told me about it. He said he put his backpack back on and he felt a burning like he was on fire. He heard God say that he had a curse placed on him and they used an object to do it that was in his backpack. He found a CD inside of it and God gave him the words to speak against it and break the curse. He said he immediately said those words and then ran and threw his entire backpack into a public trash can. He said the burning stopped. He was exuberant over the Word of God, the power of God and the power of His Spirit.

He got up later and shared with the group with eyes bright and clear and a smile as wide as I have seen as someone meets with the power of God, he exclaimed, “God is REAL!!! The HOLY SPIRIT IS REAL!”  This young man has a call to go into those dark places now and bring others out. He knows how to do battle and he has seen the enemy. As these words for him were being spoken, another man, not hearing any of the previous conversation said those exact same words for his calling. He’s to go back and bring others out. This is what God does. He confirms His Word.

His story is up there on the intensity level, but these stories are out there and the people are sharing them directly to me, not secondhand. I hear other stories and lived some too, where the demons are so subtle that we have given them other names like bad habits or character flaws, etc.  The deliverance ministry is one drastically lacking in our country and churches. Other countries are familiar with them, especially in Africa.

A man from the Congo that I heard last week said that a lot of the demons have left Africa for America because we don’t recognize them as such. The Word of God is the power against these things. Jesus cast them out with a Word. He was tossing demons out all over the place. He did it peacefully and powerfully and by His words. Jesus never shamed any of the people, but brought them back to a life of freedom and healing. Mary Magdalene was brought to a place of Jesus’ inner circle.  People here tend to fear them more than they should or not acknowledge it. If one has faith in the goodness of Christ, we also need to know that on the spiritual flipside is the evil of Satan and that he is destroyed by the weapon of the Word of the Spirit of God. Unarmed, without our swords, he runs amuck. Of course he is going to try and discredit the Word.

Let’s step up our time in His Word and sharpening our ears to hear the LORD speak directly to us. Watch those who are moving in the power of His Spirit and learn from them. But more so, start having conversations with God yourself. Let Him talk too. He can take years worth of frustration, confusion or mishandled behaviors and change them in an instant by guiding you with His truths and love and in that comes incredible freedom, power and strength through His grace.