I KNOW WHY GOD CALLS US HIS CHILDREN

Praise the Lord everybody because He alone is worthy to be praised! I pray you all are enjoying God's blessing. My wife Ruth and I are slowly but surely being led out of the wilderness by God as He gets us ready to takes us to another level in our physical and spiritual renovation. Our foundations are solid but we needed to have our framework and plumbing rehabbed. For myself I know there had been corrosion and dry rot caused by years of riding out storms and ship wrecks without going into Holy Ghost dry dock for repairs during those quiet periods in between.

While God has me in "dry dock" as He scrapes the barnacles off my hull, I have had time to reflect back over the years of our relationship. I remember the first time God spoke to me, I was about 8 years old and on the roof of the old five story walk up I grew up in in the Bronx. I was up there flying one of my home made kite's when the string broke and I took off chasing it without a thought for my safety. All I could think about was all the work I had put into this kite and as I ran just before running right off the edge a voice said "stop" just like that, and just like that I stopped just in time to see my kite slowly float down to the court yard seven stories below.

I did not know God or His voice then but He knew me. It all could have ended right there for me but God said "stop", it was not one of those commands you hear but you don't obey. God said "stop" and just like He said "let there be light" and there was light with that same authority He said "stop" and I had to stop. God had a plan for my life.

As a child my mother made me go to church and I sang in the Children's Choir and went to Sunday school and yet after years I still had no idea who my Father in Heaven was. Like most children in the beginning I knew who my mother was because she was always there for me, feeding and caring for me and dragging me to church but I had trouble making a connection with my Father God. I had no time for Him. I attributed that voice that said "stop" and saved my life to MY subconscious mind and did not put the God at church and the voice on the roof together. But like a true father God had patience with me. He knew the plans He had for me.

When I reached 14 years old my mom gave me a choice on weather or not I had to go to church any more and I chose to stay home. Like the Prodigal Son I decided it was time for me to move on from my Fathers house, the fact that He was the reason for my very existence and had provided for my every need meant  nothing to me at the time. As the years went by I piled up accomplishments including writing and producing records to gaining college degrees and becoming a Nurse. I thought I could accomplish anything I put my mind to. I was the center of my own universe I gave no thought to God's favor or grace. I ignored my Father because I felt I didn't need my Father. Soon that would all change.

God gives us all free will and like children when they first discover they have the ability to say "no" we want to exercise that ability as much as we can. Just like earthly fathers God allows us some leeway by convicting us and gently prodding us in the right direction until we go to far bringing chastisement our way. That is what happened to me. God began calling me back home to Him in the late 1980's, I felt Him drawing me. All of a sudden after many years I had the desire to  go to church. I kept making plans to go every Sunday, even talked to my mother about it but every Sunday morning I couldn't get myself out of bed.

Here I was rushing toward the edge of the roof again with God saying "stop" again but now as an adult with free will He allowed me to run off the edge. As I "ran" through God's stop sign I stepped off the roof and fell head long into the abyss of crack addiction. I could feel God saying like many fathers have to "this is why I was calling you, drawing you, I knew where you were headed. Now you must face the consequences of your decisions." He sent me to my room, the crack house, to think about what I had done.

In the eyes The Great I Am, The Alpha and the Omega we are nothing but a quick glimpse out of the corner of His eye, to call us children is being generous.

I was a spoiled, disobedient child taking for granted my Fathers love and favor. When He allowed me to "fall" into drugs God gave me a wonderful gift, A Testimony. TO BE CONTINUED...

    Till next time, God Bless you All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall        

TAKE HEART: THERE IS A RIGHTEOUS BRANCH!!

Praise the Lord everybody! because He alone is worthy of all praise! I pray you all are enjoying God's blessing. He is truly a wonder to my soul, a strong tower that I can run into and be safe. With so much going on in the world, shootings almost daily in schools, murders, kidnappings, sex crimes and "mental illness" ever increasing, it is comforting to know we have a savior that is more than able to keep us even when the cares of this world try to disrupt the peace of mind that God has provided for His people.

As we look around and see the body of Christ being watered down by weakened Christians who are bringing in ideas and doctrine infected with worldly values. it is easy to wonder where are the "true worshippers" Jesus mentioned in John 4:23. Some seem to think the word of God is like the Constitution of the United States in that if enough people vote for something it can be added as an amendment to God's word. Some are pushing for an amendment that makes homosexuality no longer a sin. once you do that you might as well throw the whole book away.

It is easy to feel like Elijah these days who after being used by God and living zealously in His service and battling the prophets of Baal began to feel all alone after Jezebel threatened his life and the world clung to evil instead of good. In 1st Kings 19: 14  14 And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.

The body of Christ is under attack from without and within and it is easy for a "true worshipper" to feel persecuted and alone. But God said to Elijah in verse
18 Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.

God wanted him to know that he was not standing alone and that his labors were not in vane. God is saying the same thing today to all the uncompromising holy men of God preaching and Pastoring in little store front churches, on street corners and around the corner and in the shadow of dead dry mega churches that are turning out dead dry "faux" Christians. This may sound harsh to some but this is life and death and I pray we are not all to far gone to see that!

As evil abounds everywhere despite your efforts to be a holy light unto the world, don't worry about who is standing with you and who will ascend unto God's holy hill if you fall. You just stand! Stand knowing that God has set aside others that He can put his trust in at such a time as this. God spoke in Jeremiah 23:1-6 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.

Keep living holy, Keep preaching holiness and the full council of God, keep fighting the good fight and take heart you are not alone!

                     God bless you All, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall

WHEN THE DEVIL COMES KNOCKING: LET JESUS ANSWER THE DOOR!!

Praise the Lord everybody!! All glory and honor belongs to Him, He alone is worthy! God is surely moving by His spirit in my life and I need to tell somebody about His goodness and mercy.I wrote in my last post, that I was consecrating until God moved on my wife and I's situation and It worked. After seven days of consecration God Has answered our prayers concerning insurance for my wife, Giving her favor concerning her disability claim and granting us increases in our other financial income, hallelujah!! He also did some life changing work in me concerning my personal walk with Him, God cares and is long suffering, I am a witness.

"WHO IS THE STRONG MAN IN YOUR HOUSE?" A question I felt God begin to deal with me about recently when I continued to struggle with something I had been asking for deliverance from for the past few years. Every time I appeared to be delivered I would fall back into that old behavior and then have to  start all over and try and put that thing back in it's grave where it belonged.

Jesus said in Mark 3:27  27 No man can enter into a strong man's house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.
The reason why the devil had been able to come into my life( my house) seemingly at will and disrupt what God was trying to do in my life was the fact That at times I have relieved God from his position as the strong man in my life and replaced Him from time to time with my self. Let me tell you the flesh is no match for the devil. If God by His spirit is not the strong man in your "house" then you can be sure that your house will not be able to stand when the enemy comes around huffing and puffing trying to blow your "house" down.

To make matters worse every time The enemy gets put out and then is allowed back in things get worst. Jesus said in Luke 11:24-26    24 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out.

25 And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished.

26 Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. 

A lot of times when we find ourselves in sinking sand with no apparent way out it is because the lamp that guides our feet, God's word, has been turned off. We decide to walk by what we see and not by faith, it's no wonder we wind up in a ditch.
I had to learn that God doesn't need any down time to get recharged, He is always on duty. I had to remember not to keep trying to beat Jesus to the door every time the doorbell rang. When I was a child I would do the same thing and my father would snatch me back and scold me, reminding me about the dangers and that he was the man of the house. When the enemy brings temptation to your door, relax and let Jesus, the strong man, answer it. He can't fail.

                     God bless you all, Brother Darrell, Speaking Off The Wall