IS YOUR GOD HIGH AND LIFTED UP?

Praise the Lord everybody! For He is worthy to be praised!! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are blessed and were blessed today at the "Hour of power" service at our church and our Pastor Elder Johnny Green was anointed and brought forth a powerful message from Philippians chapter three called "Watch them dogs!" It was during that teaching that I began to think about how we perceive our behaviors and our sins based on how we perceive God.

You see it all around you in the body of Christ, "Christians" performing and condoning all kinds of ungodly acts. I think of myself and how many years ago I was a young, new convert just out of drug rehab. and answering the call into full time ministry. God was using me and it was great! for awhile anyway. Then I began to fall apart. When I fell I fell hard and my Pastor at the time had to sit me down, I was devastated he was disappointed. He said to me "Brother Darrell your problem is you don't fear God" I felt like he insulted me, "I fear God." I proclaimed. "I love the Lord as much as anyone!" I said. I did not understand what he meant at the time, I would learn later he was right.


Isaiah 6:1-5 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
² Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

³ And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

⁴ And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵ Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts

Isaiah feared the Lord. He saw the Lord for what He was and that reminded him of who he was in comparison. At that time I still had a lot of pride, I had a college degree in Nursing, I worked the emergency room at one of New York's best hospitals and I was good and I made a lot of money, I felt unstoppable and not even God could deny that I felt. Yes I loved God in my own way but I only needed Him to help me with stuff I couldn't handle myself or so I thought.

I was just like a lot of believers and even non believers, we tend to put God in a box and pull Him out when we need Him. We just refuse to believe we are not in control of our own paths in life. I did not see God "high and lifted up." I tried to bring him down to my level, an equal partner in our kingdom.
Then one day God let me know who He was. He Stripped me of the thing I treasured the most in my life at that time, my career. He shut me down and closed every door and this hot shot Nurse could not get a job as a nurse anywhere. He used a job as a telemarketer to to teach me the fear of the Lord.

It was the year that my ego died and I saw the Lord and for the first time I saw him and He was high and lifted up and his train filled this temple. It was then I realized I was not a Nurse but a man of unclean lips who was living among a people of unclean lips. I was not in charge, it was not my will but his will, it all became clear and when it did guess what? God gave me back my career, blessed be the name of the Lord!

The bible says in Proverbs 9: 10+11
¹⁰ The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

¹¹ For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.

Our lives are in His hands and it;s at His pleasure that we live and breath and have our being.
When you become aware of this you will fear Hod in all you do.
                             God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman

 

 

 

 

 

ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL!!

Praise the Lord everybody for he is worthy of all glory, honor and praise! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. This is the year, 2013, that my wife and I are expecting big things from the Lord concerning His church, our ministry and our healing. The year has just started and I feel him all over me. The following is one of many teachings God has already started dealing with me about. This year God wants to make it happen for you but you have to be in the right position to receive it. The position God wants you in.

Remember when you were a kid and you would see people on T.V. or in the movies or even in every day life. People like Firemen, Policemen, soldiers, athletes and also Doctors and Lawyers. After watching them in action you say to yourself "I want to be that!" and we set out to make ourselves into whatever "that" is.

We bring the same attitude into the Church. We see people in positions of authority and ministry we say "I want to be that!" and then we begin to plan how we are going get to be "that". but things don't quite work that way in the body of Christ.

Ephesians 2:10 says "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God
prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."

God has already given us our gifts and prepared works for us to walk in before the foundation of the earth. It is we who have to stop trying to fit our size nine Flintstones feet into somebody Else's size seven shoes. We do it all the time. We don't seek God for our own calling and place in the body of Christ and try to force our way into a position that God prepared for someone else. We have to get in line with God not He with us. God has a nice comfortable pair of shoes just for us, custom fitted, and all we have to do is ask Him for them.

The following scripture has caused many to pray amiss because they miss understood it.
Psalms 37: 4-6   Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
⁵ Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

⁶ And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday

A lot of  Christians read this scripture and run with it, thinking they can ask God for anything and He will give it to you and He can but if you look closely you will notice there is an all important clause. First of all you must "delight" yourself in the Lord and "commit thy way" to Him. If we do this our desires fall into line with His desires for us and if we commit our ways to Him then when we pray we will not pray for anything outside of His will for us. Whatever it is He will make it known to us.

So let's stop hurting our feet and hurting the body of Christ in turn by sticking our feet in the wrong shoes and Let us seek Gods plan for our lives and follow it and watch the body of Christ work like a well oiled machine.  
                      God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman









 





 

CHOICES: WE MAKE THEM or THEY WILL MAKE US

JOSHUA 24:14-16  CHOOSE YE THIS DAY
Praise the Lord everybody! because He is worthy to be praised. I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. My wife and I are growing together in the Lord more and more everyday. I would like everyone who knows how to pray to pray for my Pastor and his family as there have been four deaths in his family in the last three weeks. Even with all that he continues to choose every morning to put his trust in God and serve the Lord.

Every minute of every day of our lives we make choices, from what to eat, wear, say, do etc. But the most important choice we make is who are we going to serve. Every morning when we wake up we need to make a conscious effort to choose whom we are going to serve that day because if we don't our flesh will try and make it for us. In Joshua 24:15 the people are asked to choose and Joshua lets them know he has chosen.
¹⁵ And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

The world is full of distractions, live and electronic, all competing against God for our attention.
IN THE COMING YEAR MY RESOLUTION IS TO MAKE A CONSCIOUS CHOICE EVERY MORNING TO SERVE THE LORD!!!
^" Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good."(ISAIAH)
"THOUGH HE SLAY ME YET WILL I SERVE HIM!"(JOB)
"TO WHOM SHALL I GO FOR ONLY YOU HAVE THE WORDS OF LIFE!!"(PETER)
"NEVER THE LESS NOT MINE BUT THY WILL BE DONE!"(JESUS)
Just as they chose we must choose. It is not a natural instinct but a free will choice to serve God.

Every morning from here on I'm going to make a conscious choice to serve God in every decision I make. The bible is filled with men who made the wrong choices and served themselves or other Gods like Nebuchadnezzar, Judas Iscariot, Satan and many more and we know what happened to them. So remember Make the right choices don't let them make you!
                                                GOD BLESS YOU ALL, AND

                                         HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

                                                                                       BROTHER DARRELL

TAKE IT TO THE STREETS, IT'S HARVEST TIME!!!

Praise the Lord everybody! for He is worthy to be praised! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing as I and my wife are. We thank Him for what He is doing in our lives. It is a beautiful thing to be used by God and to totally trust Him in every aspect of your life. Here we are in these very exciting times, waiting on Him in these last days.

We believers have a mandate, Go out into the highways and byways and make disciples, the great commission we talked about in my last blog,"we are ground zero!". Luke 14: 16- 20 states
¹⁶ Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:
¹⁷ And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.
¹⁸ And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.
¹⁹ And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.
²⁰ And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

Jesus came at His fathers bidding to spread the good news of salvation and to be an example to us and after a three year ministry He turned things over to His disciples to go and fill His house for  his great supper, His coming back out party. Verse 18 says they all began to make excuses, all manner of excuses, refusing the invitation to the feast.

Today we as disciples face the same excuses. We offer the gift of salvation and we receive excuses like "Jesus is not God, He's just a man like me." or "Man wrote the bible, not God" or "I'm not ready to give up my sin yet and I don't want to be a hypocrite," Some can't forgive themselves and can't believe God is willing to forgive them of their sins either and some just don't believe there is a God. They question our faith and we must be constantly ready to defend and explain our reason for believing. often it is here that we fail.

Luke 14: 21- 23 states
²¹ So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
²² And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.
²³ And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

To compel according to the dictionary means to: bring pressure to bear upon, to burden, coerce, employ force, pressure or put under obligation. The word compel is a verb and a verb is an action word. We must take action. Take the gospel to the streets, the highways and hedges. One of the things that make our message compelling is our testimonies, what God has done for us and how we carry ourselves in our day to day lives. we are instructed in Matthew 5: 16
¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
It's Harvest Time! Every where you look you see people burdened down in sin and
 the cares of this world and we have what they need, the good news of Jesus the Christ who says
²⁸ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.(Matthew 11)

We have to pray them in, talk them in, walk them in and live them in. We need to study so we can answer their questions intelligently while still maintaining our spirituality. We have to leave our comfort zones and meet them wherever they're at, just like God does. It's harvest time! Let's take it to the streets!!
                                  God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman

 
 

WE ARE GROUND ZERO!

Praise the Lord, everybody and everything that have breath praise the Lord! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing. Ruth and I are seeking God even more fervently as we head to another level in our relationship with him. He has been showing us so much the last two weeks it's amazing.
God wants to do something big in these last days and He's just waiting for us to get ourselves (the body of Christ) together.


The largest organized military invasion was D-Day during world war II but the offensive God has planned for these last days far overshadows anything man could ever come up with and we are GROUND ZERO.

The world thinks of ground zero as the World Trade Center on 911. The dictionary says ground zero is: The center of rapid or intense development or change.
Two thousand years ago twelve men turned the world upside down, it was the beginning of a movement that would change the world. Today We are ground zero for the biggest harvest season ever faced by the body of Christ and just as Jesus said in Luke 10:2 
² Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

We are those laborers, It is time for Gods people to leave their cozy comfort zones and carry out Gods command of the great commission in Mark 16:15-18 
¹⁵ And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
¹⁶ He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be damned.
¹⁷ And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;
¹⁸ They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
We can no longer count on the church up the street to carry out the mission that God has called us all to do. Wherever God has planted us we must be ground zero for whatever He has planned for that area. The world in its search for love, peace, forgiveness, and salvation should be able to see through us that Christ is the answer, not welfare, Medicaid, the lotto or a hot streak in Las Vegas. It may sound cliched to some but Jesus is the answer for the world today and we are His instruments of change and god likes His instruments to be holy and set apart to Him, wholly dependent on God. How can the world trust God if His own people don't fully trust Him? How can we lead people to Christ when we are only halfheartedly following him. After all the miracles and signs and wonders Jesus said
¹² Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
 referring to His followers His disciples.(see John 14:12)

We are His disciples! We should be healing people with our shadows and be bringing back people from the dead, I don't believe that was only for the early church. It was for such a time as this! The enemy knows his time is short and he is trying to take as many souls to hell with him as possible and our job is to lead as many as we can to Christ and salvation. We are responsible for affecting change in our environments, through prayer, by the way, we live our lives and by active evangelism.

Brothers and sisters, let us not live depending on others to carry our load. Let's each live our lives with a "We are ground zero" mindset, doing our best to affect as much positive change in our environments as possible.
                                        God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman

"STRANGE FIRE" :STOP BLURRING THE LINE!

Praise the Lord everybody! For He is worthy to be praised! I pray everyone is enjoying Gods blessing just as Ruth and I are. We were blessed to get out to chgurch twice last week. We enjoyed our Pastors anniversary service last Sunday and God blessed us with a special anointing as He used my wife to sing a solo written by our church founder C.P. Jones called "Making the darkness light". Pastor Green really seemed to be touched by the service.

Eveybody was in a festive mood as they talked aqbout up coming holiday programs at their various churches and ministries. As I contemplated these things today God openrd my eyes and ears and began to speak some things and show me somethings. On the outside everything appeared in order, praises were going up, The spirit appeared to be flowing and ministering and everybody was pleased, except God. Some people were offering up "Strange fire"before the Lord.

The Lord put this scripture on my heart the next day as I was meditating on the previous days service. Leviticus 10:1+2  

10 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. 

² And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

I did not understand at first but God began to make it plain to me.  God has asked for us to serve Him, live for Him and worship him a certain way and some of us have decided that doesn't matter and just like Nadab and Abihu we are being disobedient and are following our own way and God is not happy. we have blurred the line between right and wrong. Unlike in Aaron's day we are all called to be a royal priesthood in 1st Peter 2:9 
⁹ But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
The sacrifice God now requires is ourselves, a living sacrifice, clean and holy unto him,( see Romans 12:1) and He has given us instructions on how to present our selves as sacrifices yet some of us are sending up "strange fire". We have decided to present ourselves before God wichever way we are comfortable with, ignoring His teachings. Thru -out the body of Christ the sin of disobediance is running rampant, homosexuality, adultry, fornacation, gossip, back bitting, unforgiveness, molestation and abuse. Not in the world but in the Church, not just in the pews but in positions of authority and ministry. People have decided that "God will understand, He loves me." they say when they decide to give in to temptation and disobey God.

We've all done it, myself included. We come before the Lord on Sunday after willfully sinning all week and then we have the nerve to come boldly before Gods thrown of grace and act like nothing has happened, singing and dancing, praising and worshipping and hoping He doesn't notice. God notices! He spoke it after the incident with Aarons sons in Leviticus 10:8+10
⁸ And the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, 
^10... And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;

God has ordained that there be a difference between holy and unholy, clean and unclean and He wants us to walk holy before Him. We must unblurr the lines between Holy and un-holy, clean and unclean. We must realize that God knows the condition of our hearts and He will not be mocked!
There is nothing wrong with humbling yourself before God in repentence, we need to stop hindering what God is trying to do through the Church. We need to stop being a stench in Gods nostril and be what His word says we are to be, Holy and acceptable unto Him. Not only on Sundays but every day. Let's stop blurring the lines!                                               God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman





 

HERE I STAND: MY MOUTH WIDE OPEN

P:raise the Lord everybody! because He is worthy to be praised! I pray every one is enjoying Gods blessing. I myself am enjoying what God is doing in my wife and I's life.

Sometimes God ask you to do something that you feel unqualified to do, something outside your so called "area of expertise" sort of like Moses must have felt when God asked him to lead his people. see Exodus 3:10 +11   
¹⁰ Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
¹¹ And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

Whenever God asks us to do something not in our wheelhouse we start to question God, "why me?" we ask. "There must be somebody better suited for this job." we say. we doubt ourselves and we doubt God. Has He not chosen us for a reason, can God be wrong? Who are we to question our creator? Would He give us an assignment to fail? I don't think so, God wants us to trust Him, to stand up by faith believing that we can do all things through Christ.

I can remember my former Pastor used to take me on some of his plumbing contractor jobs so I could make a little money when I would have one of my relapses. He knew it was hard for me go from being a professional Registered Nurse one day to a ditch digger digging up old sewer lines the next. He would say to me "Son you ain't much of a shovel man but what I like about you is your willing" That's all God wants from us, to be willing, to stand up by faith and be willing to let Him use us to carry out whatever it is We were called to do. Moses after trying to use his speech impediment as an excuse, finally became willing and went on to lead Gods people out of bondage.

Isaiah 1:19 states 
¹⁹ If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:

Sometimes we are willing but we don't know what to do or say next. The answer to that is we need to show our willingness by just opening our mouths, by taking that first step, by making that first move, not knowing what we are going to say or where we are going. I can remember giving my testimony when I first got into ministry. I was always nervous but I was willing. I never memorized my testimony only my opening line right before I went up so I would not be so nervous and freeze up. After that God would take over and He used my testimony to reach many.

Apostle Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:18-19   
¹⁸ Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
¹⁹ And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Like Paul we need to be willing to allow God to give us what to say and what to do. Are we willing to just open our mouths and allow the spirit of the living God speak through us. I remember once I was called up to sing a solo at church and as I walked up the isle I was so nervous my legs were shaking. This was not unusual for me but what was unusual was that I heard a soft voice in my right ear say "relax and let me sing." All I remember after that is opening my mouth and closing my mouth when it was all over. I to this day do not remember singing that song but people still say "you never sang it better" That's because I didn't sing it the Holy Spirit did. I just opened my mouth.

Are you willing? Then just open your mouth! Psalm 24:6-8 
⁶ This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
⁷ Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
⁸ Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.

                God bless you all, Brother Darrell, A Watchman