Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

Co-Saints,

RESPONSE TO ONE OR MORE READERS FROM NIGERIA WHO “STOPPED BY” YESTERDAY:

I always check where my visitors are viewing from around the world. Yesterday, I noticed there were 5 “views” (by one or more people) from Nigeria. I was suddenly “burdened,” you might put it, to pray for whomever you are. I was brought to tears, actually, which does not happen often for me. This prayer came strongly to mind for you: “God, I ask you to wrap Your arms around whoever this is (or whoever these are) with Your comfort (picturing as I prayed this the “safety of His Wings” as described in Psalm 91). I pray for Your strength to embolden them and Your peace to suffuse them.” Indeed, it brings tears to my eyes again today as I remember this. God bless you.

RESPONSE TO COMMENTER, “HOOT1926”:

I am excited to see how the Lord will lead in this series. As soon as the thought came to me to do this (yesterday morning) a host of topics flooded my mind that have been “in the air” of late in my small fellowship and, it seems, in the Christian world at large. You will likely recognize the same thing.

Coincidence? We think not.

One feature, I hope, will be a series of Youtube videos my sister Claire has just started to put together on what the Holy Spirit has shown her since 2010 regarding patterns of prophecy which appear now in her tri-folds–beautifully designed graphic representations of the patterns in prophecy and Jewish feasts and much more that all seem to be converging in our day in some very significant ways. These are, of course, available on my “free downloads” page. Pretty soon we are going to feature them more visibly. Much of what she presents in this format is what we believe the Holy Spirit has also inspired others to realize in God’s Word, but there are several items that have not yet been “discussed” as thoroughly, yet, as she does in her graphics and tables.

Insofar as I can ever say “I have heard from the Lord on this or that project” (no audible “voice,” just a thought that seems to align with His Word and the “doors of ministry” He seems to have opened for me in my life, the first and foremost being that of an encourager “in the Body of Christ”) I believe He has called me to this series along with the other posts I have written.

I always ask my fellowship to do “heresy hunts” to make sure I am not leading anyone astray, however ;). We are committed to the critical “ministry of the Bereans,” as it were, who studied, studied, studied. I could tell you some funny stories where being off just one line or word in a text has lead to some highly amusing interpretations. Thus, I believe, one of the needs for “iron to sharpen iron,” i.e., Christians to “fellowship together”!

And I am always learning from those who generously comment on my blog, too. Many of my posts, including today’s are inspired from thoughts found there.

RE: the form and format of the “remnant churches” now, many of us are thinking the plan has shifted BACK to the early days of the church (small groups meeting in homes). We are hearing that in many other places, too.

But it IS hard to shake loose from the normalcy bias, as it were, of what “church” has become through these many centuries since those first years.

It IS hard to process past what has been a part (not only spiritually but emotionally, familially [if that is a word] and culturally) of the fabric of our individual and collective spiritual experiences.

I sometimes think a kind of grieving has to take place as we, most of us with great sadness, leave denominations that have really “left us” rather, have left the Word of God for other people’s words. And there is so much more that has bound us, for the good and the not so good, to the old days and the old places.

(Ah, for the soft scent of incense in a jeweled sanctuary as the sun streams through the stained glass and sparkles the golden tip of some ornate and ancient vessel of worship while the choir embellishes the strains of “To God Be the Glory”… everybody in their Sunday Best…Mom and Dad flanking the family in safety…the Trusted Priest/Minister proclaiming the noble Words of God, Himself , it seems, from a polished pulpit placed on high while from the basement kitchen the smell of a pot luck feast begins to tickle the nose and whet the appetite as the service draws to a close…)

(Meanwhile, however, unfortunately, many of us might be so lost in the glitz, ritual, and community we lose sight of the figure, in the literary sense, and The Figure, in the flesh and blood, God and Man sense, of the cross…)

When one studies the history of the church, that is, the living breathing, walking, talking, born-again, spirit-filled LIVE church (“temples of the Holy Spirit” we are called after we have received the spirit of Jesus Christ at our second birth) as represented by saved, fallible human beings as opposed to brick and mortar edifices (and, dare I say, brick and mortar thinking?) it is clear the institutional church as we have known it for some centuries is NOT the original pattern.

Although, of course, most of us first became aware of Jesus Christ in those edifices. And for that, thanks be to God.

Believers at first met in small groups in homes wherein everyone present had orderly opportunities to speak, preach, teach, prophesy, give a “word of knowledge,” speak in “another tongue as the Spirit gave utterance,” interpret same, lay hands on one another for healing/miracles, break bread in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice, and discuss more practical matters in service to each other and the world at large.

Prophecy scholar Chuck Missler calls the first really institutionalized church organization as we know it now the “Medieval Church” meaning, of course, the Roman Catholic system which wrested control, aligned with “the state,” and began changing definitions, meanings, the Scriptures themselves–even the calendar [1].

And that was just the beginning! There have been many morphs since, many christs, many “roads to Rome” and other “Romes”…

Fortunately, God is not mocked, neither is He subject to change and politics, charlatans and (new) paradigms.

And in these days when the “headlines” are reflecting, more and more, day by day, minute by minute in some cases, the “prophecy lines,” as it were, in that Old Book, a lot of us are paying much closer attention.

And asking “where are those of like mind?”

Well, we are here, and Online and down the street and in living rooms and kitchens (or even with just one other; for example, like my sister and brother-in-law who read through the Bible each morning with coffee on the patio and then discuss and pray together).

And we have the comfort of knowing that, as noted in the first post of this series, “where two or more are gathered together in (Jesus’) name,” He is with us, too.

Essential fellowship in the days ahead which do not promise to be easy…

(But not to forsake everything of days past, like some of that yummy “pot luck” ;)).

POST SCRIPT:

From Proverbs 1 (on this first day of September, 2015, a month many think is of particular importance, prophetically speaking [2]):

The fear (yirah: fearfulness, exceeding reverence…) of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1:7, NASB).

I often look to “the day’s Proverb” (there are, handily, 31 of them, one for each day of the month, you might say) for very practical guidance.

***

[1] Missler’s chronology of Church history is embedded with his multi-part series on the Book of Revelation. The episodes can be found Online on Youtube, or purchased through his ministry. There are, of course, numerous scholarly sources of Church history to access should the researcher desire cross references.

[2] More and more of the remnant have been citing the many, many seemingly prophetic events scheduled to happen this very month (up to 33!) such as the “super blood moon,” all of the meetings at the United Nations, in Washington D.C., and elsewhere where the so-called “world elite” may well be putting ink to the particulars of the so-called “New World Order,” or, as prophecy labels it, end-times “One World governmental and religious system.” A simple Google search using key words “prophecies, September 2015,” and the like will reveal much information. HOWEVER, and be encouraged by this! As my sister believes the Holy Spirit was “telling” her, be careful to note what is being ginned up by the elites or whomever wants to wrest control of everything these days, which could be labeled “threats,” and what are actually sure or possible natural events, some call “acts of God.” And, along with that “word,” as always, we are still called to peace and “the joy of the Lord which is our strength.”