The God of Fire

Praise the Lord everyone!
      I am writing my first post from the country of Latvia, and am very happy to be doing so.  The Lord has truly moved on our behalf and has opened doors that only he can open.  A few months ago I was privileged to attend a Revival by design conference in Baltimore MD.  It was during this conference that the Lord began to speak to me about why (in a three year period) we were not fulfilling what I believed to be Gods will for our lives.
    He spoke very clearly and definitively during this time and gave me the story in first Kings chapter 18 where Elijah called all the prophets of Baal together and told them you build your alter, offer your sacrifice and call on your God.  When you are done I will build mine and call on my God, and whichever God answers by fire, let him be God.  Well you certainly know the story and how it ended.  The Lord simply said to me," its time for you to stop talking about these things happening and see them done." He said, "If you believe me to be the same yesterday today and forever, then I am The God of fire for you just as I was to Elijah."
     So we began to plan what we felt was God's will for our lives without any visible answer on the horizon and only a knowledge that the God we serve would come through when we needed him the most.  We set the date for our departure Jan. 14, 2013, and purchased our airline tickets all in faith that God would supply according to his will that which we needed.  I wish I could tell you that I had no fears or anxieties during this time, however, that would simply not be true.  Although I had a certainty and a willingness inside that I was determined to see "The God of Fire" work or I would become the biggest failure there was.  God never has and never will let his people down!
     On the 4th of January we began the difficult task of moving all of our personal belongings into a storage unit and trying to clean the home so that we could leave on the 14th.  That morning as I was sitting in the living room looking at all the chaos that moving creates trying to come to grips with what was truly happening.  I don't mind telling you that I had every range of emotion sweep over me as I sat there and  tried to figure out my own self to no avail.  It was then I remembered that if "The God of Fire" was in charge then I had nothing to fear.
     So I said a simple prayer that he would answer my prayer that day and bring me a buyer or leaser for the  house that day, not tomorrow but today.  I finished my prayer, got up and walked into the bedroom to begin the day and the phone rang.  It was a man who worked for the city of Claremore.  He said that he had someone who wanted to look at the house that very moment.  Well I decided that it would probably be better for him to see the house on the following day (the house was a wreck) rather than right now.  So I hung the phone up and the Lord immediately told me "you said today" so I called him back and said that now would be fine, they agreed to come the next morning.  He was there ten minutes and agreed to pay full asking price for the home!
     During the two and a half years that we tried to sell the home prior to walking in faith, we showed the home a grand total of two times.  Each time it was in immaculate condition, but during the period in which faith was exercised it was shown only once while the house was in total chaos and yet we received a contract none the less.  The Lord told me that I could not sell it in nearly three years with all of the fancy decorations and furniture, but that he could sell it in a few minutes with only a single piece of furniture and in total disarray.
     So no matter what your situation looks like, no matter what the enemy says, no matter how impossible or hopeless the situation looks remember that "The God of Fire" is always on time.  When you do not care what others think about you except, that you belong to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, when you get desperate enough and decide to let him prove himself to you.  No matter how much water you pour on the fire "The God of Fire" will always be right on time!
   

Angels

Upon learning that I was going to be granted an early exit from the trade show and do what no one else was allowed to do -- leave my entire bussiness and complete inventory unattended and sitting on the expo floor with thousands of people walking by-- so I could attend a revival that I felt God had spoken to me about,  I had no worries or fears as to whether my things would be there the next morning when I returned. As I went  to pick up my helper the next morning  (he was going to help me load all of the heavy items), I discovered that he was sick and was not going to be able to help.  As I drove away, I said a simple prayer about my situation.  The Lord said, "for me not to worry, He would provide the sacrifice".  I went on and drove my truck and enclosed trailer into the expo building.  There sat all of my things out in the middle of that enormous empty building without a single soul to be seen except for one man in the farthest end of the building. I could not help but look around in the empty building and wonder where this "sacrifice" might be.  I backed up to all of the furniture to begin loading. I got out of the truck and walked to the rear of the trailer, unlocked the door and folded it down, turned around and there were three men walking up to me.  I was so startled by their appearance; I could not believe it. (They were not there a few minutes before.)  I asked them what they were doing.  They replied "We are waiting on our boss to get here." Those three men loaded every single piece of furniture into my trailer without me so much as even touching it. When they were done, I thanked them profusely and asked them, if they knew Jesus Christ.   I made certain I explained the plan of salvation to them in detail.("...for thereby some have entertained angels unawares" Heb 13:2). I believe when a man or woman determines in their heart to go after God with everything they have and put him first, He is obligated and will go to great lengths to reveal Himself to them. And I believe having left all my things overnight with no one to look after them, those angels were guarding them until I returned, for not one single item was missing!!
                                                                       to be continued ...

THE MARK OF GOD ~~ By Jonathan Dougherty

Praise the Lord everyone.
God is so good. My first post to the blog I wanted to share a story with you that was monumental in my experiencing the difference between knowing about God, and knowing God! I believe God wants to reveal himself to men and women everywhere and show them Jer. 33:3.  If we seek, we shall find, and if we knock, he will open to us spiritual treasures that are priceless and are beyond human understanding and reasoning. 
I have always loved the Lord and served him since my youth. I have had the Holy Ghost since I was six years old, but about five years ago I began to search after God, and call upon him in a way that I had never done before. Since that day, the Lord started me on a journey and I have never been the same. 
I had already made arrangements to be in a trade show that week. In the time between signing the contract for the show and the actual event, the church had scheduled a revival. Well, you cannot just back out of these tradeshows if you ever want to get back in again. So I had a dilemma. I wanted to be at revival, but I had already signed a contract and paid my money to be in this show. It did not look like I would be able to be at the revival. Revival started at six o’clock, and the show was not over until five o’clock. In addition, I would have to load up all of my things at the same time everyone else was, that is usually quite time consuming. It usually takes three to four hours. So I told the Lord, “Lord I know that it’s Your will for me to go to this revival, so if it’s Your will, you are going to have to make a way for me to get there”. So I started asking the show manager about noon if there would be any way I could leave early that day. He told me “absolutely not”  because they had to have the expo building empty that night and I would not be able to remove my things if I left early. I asked the manager several more times throughout the day if it would be possible for me to leave early.  Each time, he told me the same thing, “no”. So I just started singing the song, under my breath, all day long “I’M DEPENDING ON YOU LORD”. About three o’clock, the show manager came over to my booth and said he did not understand it, but they had decided to let me leave early and leave all of my things in the expo building until the next morning. He said they had never let anyone do that. So, I made it to revival that night. It was at that revival that the Lord started talking to me very clearly.  My whole life had been focused on myself and gaining things of this world and financial success, because of that, I failed to realize what God really wanted for my life.  So as I knelt that night I prayed, “Dear God, I want Your divine will to be manifest in my life. Lord, more than anything else, I want Your mark to be upon my life!  I want people to know that I am sold out for You and I will never be swayed by things of this world again, and I meant it!”  When all of a sudden in an audible voice, that came from no where yet seemed to come from everywhere, as though I were inside the voice, I heard the Lord say (and He called me by my name) “Jonathan, I have had my mark upon you since you were born! “  I wept uncontrollably.  
That night I had two dreams.  The first dream, I saw a little tiny bubbling spring of water coming out of dry and parched ground.  As I watched the bubble of water, it got a little bigger.  As I kept watching, it was soon about two to three feet tall, then six to seven feet, then eight to ten feet.  I kept watching until it was an enormous geyser of water over a hundred feet tall.  It was then that  the Lord gave me the scripture in St. John 7:38 “He that believeth on me as the scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”  Well I could not sleep after that, but finally after about an hour I was able to drift off.  I had just gotten to sleep when the second dream began.  I heard a deep base drum, like a drum used for battle, way off in the distance.  It came closer and closer and closer until it finally woke me up.  I jumped up out of bed to see if there was someone out there making all that noise.  The Lord immediately told me (again by my name) “Jonathan put on your armor, because I am moving you from the rear of the battle to the front lines.”  Since that day, I have not been the same!  And I never will be again!                  TO BE CONTINUED...