Jan | 28 | Riding the chariots of Amminadib

DESTINY

Riding the chariots of Amminadib

Song of Solomon 6:10-12
Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners? I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded. Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib. KJV

The bridegroom, in every way, has been ‘delighting’ in his most delectable of brides. He is a happy man, for even after a night of love the morning shall burst forth for him like sharp and naked, scimitar rocking moon bathing in fresh yellow sunshine of another decidedly and delicious day. Indeed, when he looks at his bride in the morning after the long and happy night before, her beauty is nothing short of the double dose of the dawn to him. Do not underestimate the power of the poetry of passion in these verses for the bride’s beauty entices him all the morning to seek some further loving, and whatever allusion you will make of nuts, vines and pomegranates, the bridegroom went into his garden to get some. Moving on quickly now before we get too hot under the physical collar here, allow me to rightly spiritualize these red-hot words.

 This garden is of course the church. The bridegroom is of course her Master, Jesus Christ the Lord and our Savior, my friends, goes into His garden in the cool of the day expecting that He might delight Himself further on the satisfying fruit of ecstatic fellowship. Now I am pleased to say right here that He is not disappointed! On the contrary, His experience of His garden, the church, makes His heart race. He is like a man stepping from a double seat Ferrari, after being driven by a member of the McLaren Mercedes team around Monte Carlo on a blue-sky afternoon, only to then be met by a diamond-bedecked beauty, bearing a bag full of brown poker chips from the Casino, and twirling a golden key to a penthouse bedroom in the Metropole. Look now: Amminadib might indeed mean something like ‘my people of generous nobility’ but here it is used as a proper name and this geezer was obviously renowned for owning a set of wheels that ate up the ground of Jerusalem in glorious wheel spinning wonder, causing excitement and comment wherever he went. How would you like to ride that chariot?

Two quick points then, for our contemplation today. 

The greater point is again the great statement of fact that ‘in the age to come the Church glorified, of which we Christians in part together form the whole, is THE MOST EXCITING object in the heavens and THE MAJOR thing of beauty that occupies the heart and eye of the Savior.’ Saint of God, you must learn then to live right now as a thing of inestimable beauty, value and delight to the heart of God. This very fact should make even your drab day Mondays twinkle in the mists of expectancy. Think about that.

The lesser point is that souls which are ‘sent’, have had a roaring engine put into them and I tell you now, if what ‘sends’ you is both right and good, then whatever your ‘chariot of Amminadib’ might be, get on it, or get in it, and with exultant joy, go as fast as you can. Oh, and do not spare the horses! Tell me Christian; what is that makes your heart race?

Listen:- Return, return, O Shulamite; Return, return, that we may look upon you! Song of Solomon 6:13 NKJV

Pray: -  Father, in the age to come I know that I shall so surely shine! I know that the church shall be the glory of the coming ages. I know that to gaze upon us will not only be Your chief delight but even that the rest of Creation will this time groan with continual disappointment whenever we leave its view, indeed, all creation, even the angels, shall shout for the display of that fantastic future glory which You shall forever reveal in us! Ah but this morning O my Lord, ah but this side of the adoption my Father, please, for this another day, send me a chariot from the garage of Amminadib that I might at least blaze past the local bus stop and turn a few heads there. Amen and amen.

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Nov | 29 | Of Holy Hop Pickers

Dream Word – DESTINY

Amos 7:14 Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I was no prophet, Nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. NKJV.

Of Holy Hop Pickers

I went to a Christian men’s breakfast meeting the other day in a local pub. The smell of urine, cakes, bacon fat, and stale ale, filled the morning air, mingling itself with the smoke of the burning maple logs lazily humming on the open fire.

Interestingly, the pub was next door to a Christian retreat centre, an old 'Hopping' hospital situated in the gardens of Kent. Hops are of course part of the Cannabis family and are picked from bines in the fall of the year and used to add bitterness, texture, taste and aroma to various brewed ales. Unfortunately, due to mechanisation, it was in the 1960’s that the annual migration of thousands upon thousands of seasonal hop pickers to the gardens of Kent virtually ceased. Gypsies, locals and Londoners all, travelled to Kent to stay some six weeks in the meagre Hopping Houses and pick themselves some seasonal cash. Unless you are from the former Eastern block countries, the life of the working class, uneducated common migrant worker, the travelling working man, is for the present, all over in England.

Training for the ministry is a common thing nowadays. In America, the academic completion of Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Doctoral training can at best maybe take ten to twelve years. These trained folk are ten a penny at the moment and many of them cannot get jobs in the religious industry at the salary they expect because of the seminary churned ensuing glut in the labour force. Now don’t get me wrong here, I am not into decrying education, good grief, if you have a brain then use it! No, what I am saying is this, academic education may qualify you for the service of men, but it does not qualify you for the service of God. Yes indeed, there are many called men that would never get a job in a church because they fail the qualifications of men.

Amos the 'iron man; was a kind of Hopper. A seasonal migrant worker if you will. He may have owned herds and fruit gardens but the context of his prophecy is indicative of a migrant and rural preparation for ministry. Amos had no professional credentials but he had a calling, courage and a well conditioned character and I tell you, that might not get you a job, but it will get you a ministry, that might not get you a salary, but it will put you in the sincere service of the Most High God.

Amaziah, the professionally trained scribe serving in the Royal Court having completed his most thorough education, thought little of this sun browned kind of ‘Holy Hopper’ from Tekoa. Amos however, had a Holy Spirit, red-hot, burning, cow-catcher fixed on the front of his words and they scooped old Amaziah up and just threw him out of the way. You know, conviction, courage, and a conditioned character when it is coupled with a true calling from God, always has the tendency to do that!

Make sure you’ve got the latter, for in comparison, pieces of paper are easily gotten.

Listen: - Then Amaziah said to Amos: "Go, you seer! Flee to the land of Judah. There eat bread, and there prophesy. But never again prophesy at Bethel, for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the royal residence." Then Amos answered, and said to Amaziah: "I was no prophet, nor was I a son of a prophet, but I was a sheepbreeder and a tender of sycamore fruit. Then the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said to me, 'Go, prophesy to My people Israel.' Now therefore, hear the word of the Lord: ( Amos 7:12,16a NKJV.)

Pray:- Lord, come be my coach, my tutor, my sergeant major and my blacksmith for the fight. Train me, teach me, arm me, send me, in Jesus name I ask it, amen.

Nov | 06 | Scattered, Smothered & Covered

Dream Word – DESTINY

Acts 8:1-5 ... At that time a great persecution arose against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial, and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison. Therefore those who were scattered went everywhere preaching the word. NKJV.

Scattered, Covered & Smothered.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again:
"I love ‘Waffle House!’"

Started in 1955 in Georgia, those low-rent, yellow restaurants at the side of the road not only serve over half a million eggs per day, but their daily offering of sausage patties alone, if stacked on top of one another would be higher than the Empire State building! In addition to this, Waffle House waitresses are a breed apart, they are to be experienced rather than to be described, God bless their hearts! The fun part of their food order delivery to the ever-frying short order cook, is in turn a never to be forgotten short order diner dictation service! Hashed brown potatoes for example, are called in as “scattered” (spread on the grill), “smothered” (with onions), or “covered” (with cheese), and oh by the way, everything is covered in cheese in America! Now there’s a three-point Waffle House sermon if ever these was one! “The Church:: Scattered, Smothered and Covered!”


Our text for tonight informs us that God allowed a 'Religious Rottweiler' to be let loose within the gentle flock of His church and his name was Saul of Tarsus. As he ripped the flock apart like a rabid mastiff, not only were body parts and blood scattered all over the place, but the very people of God themselves were also scattered like speaking seeds across the face of the then known world, smothering it with the Good News about Jesus. Yes, even in the face of such terrible persecution, these early followers of 'The Way' smothered the demographic landscape with the savoury knowledge of God’s goodness toward us in Jesus and covered the land with the spicy practice of the all gracious and all-forgiving love of God. 

 It is obvious to me, that God even used this 'Religious Rottweiler' to harry his sheep into obeying His command to take the Gospel into the entire world. So, if you are being ‘chunked.’ ‘diced,’ ‘peppered,’ ‘capped,’ and ‘topped,’ all along your tired way today, then I have to tell you tonight, that God maybe also has a purpose for all the 'Religious Rottweiler’s' that are in your life at the moment, for though they may be destroying some stuff, they are also pushing you somewhere. Tell me, where are they driving you tonight? Maybe that’s where you should be going? After all, maybe you are part of the church which is scattered, smothered and covered?

Listen: - Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city. (Acts 8:5-8 NKJV.)

Pray: - Lord, use these 'Religious Rottweiler’s' in my life to make me a city-cleaner, a sidewalk healer and a certain joy-giver. Please put me where You want me, in Your great name I ask it, amen.

Oct | 29 | God's Russian Dolls Are Always Opened In Reverse

Dream Word – DESTINY

Psalm 47:1-4 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! For the Lord Most High is awesome; He is a great King over all the earth. He will subdue the peoples under us, And the nations under our feet. He will choose our inheritance for us, The excellence of Jacob whom He loves. NKJV

God’s Russian Dolls Are Always Opened In Reverse

True Karmic destiny is to be content with your position and calling in life, even if you’re gifted as a doctor, but still cleaning out the elephant cages! Breaking Karmic destiny, creating bad Karma by ceasing to be an elephant keeper and actually becoming a doctor, can have grave consequences for both you and your family both now and in all future life cycles. So is the understanding on one ‘world view’ held by countless millions in other parts of this weird and weary world.

Tonight I do want to talk about receiving an inheritance, but in cosmic proportions and not in Karmic propensity. In others words, when God gives us an inheritance, though it has location with respect to boundaries, both materially and metaphysically, it also has within it, infinite room for eternal growth which can only be gained through a continuing conquest of personal faith. Yes, spiritual acquisition always takes faith, strength and courage! When this trident of pursuance is stabbed into the rear end of all our resistant enemies, they will eventually fall back screaming or be destroyed in the possession! Faith and the need to walk and act by faith is an eternal necessity for the pleasure of God most High. You are not as limited to where and who you think you are or for that matter, even what you do.
When God divides to us our inheritance, we still have the possibility, the need, the desire, even I believe, the expectation of God to also say to Him, “Give me this mountain!” Or, “Give me also springs of water!” Or “Give me also this better gift which I seek,” Or,..well you get the picture.

That possession God has divided to you is an unfolding, never-ending, expanding universe of conquest and discovery. There is no need to envy another person’s inheritance, when whole continents, planets, star systems and universes, lay waiting for the discovery in that particular inheritance which is yours. God’s gifts, you see, are like Russian dolls, the opening of which goes on forever and forever, amen. So, stop whining about your seeming inadequacies and instead start discovering the unfolding of all God's good gifts to you. There is more in you and more to come out of you than you ever imagined! Gods gifts to you, you see, are like Russian Dolls, except when you open them up and take out the next gift and shining possibility, the one inside is always bigger than the one it came from. Believe this and begin to enjoy your discoveries, for at His right hand are pleasures for ever more.

Listen: - For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Romans 11:29-30 NKJV

Pray: - Lord, what wonders lay waiting, all wrapped in sparkling paper, within Your purposeful and never ending gifts to me? Give me O Lord, a spirit of adventure to seek these out and help me take full possession of all Your inheritance divided in love to me, in Jesus name I pray, amen!

Oct | 07 | Seeing and Sailing

Dream Word – DESTINY

Numbers 11:29,30
Then Moses said to him, "Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" NKJV

Seeing and Sailing

Just so you don’t think last night’s meditation was a call to simply “Eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die,” tonight, I want to unfold to you the incredible power we have over the future! Yes, we are under the curse of the fall of man, yes we shall die and yes, we shall have little choice in the manner of our departure but maybe, just maybe, we shall have some? I wonder if in the parameters of life and death, that we do in fact have some choice in our future? Let me unpack this by beginning a long time ago in my high school years, in fact, in the type of school now long since gone, that did my nation good; a ‘Grammar School.’

I was never a good student. My main problem was in fact two-fold. Firstly, I honestly did not have a clue about how to study and secondly, I had no motivation whatsoever to do so! Indeed, one of my school reports remarked something along the lines that “I was content to let things come” and that I “Had an overly optimistic viewpoint regarding my future.” Both of these observations were wrong of course. The fact is that I was a slave to the future, the fact is that I had no idea whatsoever that from a human perspective, I had the power in my own hands to manipulate my future. Yes, I had the capacity to inculcate change into my time-line, yes, I had the means to somewhat set the agenda for my life and to become the hero in my own story, but I didn’t really understand that! There is no twist here friend! There is no bait and switch in words, nope, what I am telling you is absolutely true. You have power over your future. Imagine that!


In 2007, Nicolas Cage starred in a film called ‘Next,’ the story of a man who could see two minutes into his own future, whose gifting was then hunted, captured and later utilized to save the world. Same old, same old really, yet the tag line and the bookend statement made by the main character at the beginning and end of the film really captivated my attention. The tag line for the film called 'Next' is “If you can see the future, you can save it,” and the film’s bookend statement goes like this: “Here’s the thing about the future. Every time you look at it, it changes, because you looked at it! And that, changes everything else.”

Some of us are ignorant of this capacity to form our future. Some of us are fearful of this capacity to form our future, not wanting to foil God’s plans. As if! Conversely, for those aware of this capacity, some of them are ‘fed up’ in forming their own future because it has been so costly, so exhausting and so disappointing in the trying. So fed up in fact, that they allow the winds of time to take them where ever they desire. Lastly there are those of us who are forgetful regarding this power to form our future, because we have been locked into someone else’s future, have been made passive, made timid, made tame, made lame, never to be the same, again…….

Yet, the desire of Moses the man of God was that all of God’s people might be prophets, might be seers if you will. Indeed, I want to say this tonight, that God does not wish it, but rather demands that you become a seer in your own life! Tonight, I do not call you to become the master of your own ship, but I do call you to become the master of your own ship under the command of the Great First Sea Lord, Christ Jesus Himself! Subject to Him, serving Him and under His sailing orders, yes, but you, you, you SEEING and you SAILING!

Enough of this cowardly, forgetful, fearful and passive approach to the future of your own dear life. Tonight, dream about your tomorrows. Dream BIG! Then, each day forward, in all righteousness, see the good future you have and make some course changes to so reach it!

“Bridge to helm! Right full rudder!”

Listen: - I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NKJV

Pray: Yes Lord, give me strength to lengthen the scope of my looking glass, and strength to man my sails and stay my course. I am under Your sailing orders O Lord and I am sailing. Amen.

Oct | 05 | Heavenly Abduction

Dream Word –DESTINY

Genesis 5:24 And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him. NKJV

Heavenly Abduction

Our text tonight is one of two instances of abduction and may I say, “What a way to go!”

The first to be abducted was Enoch, taken in the cool of a long day whilst walking along with God. Maybe finding himself far from home that one particular evening, God might have turned and said to him,  

“Enoch, man we’ve chatted the day away and eaten well into the evening hours, why not stay over at my place tonight?”
“Why not” says Enoch, “Thank You very much indeed!”

After breakfast the next day, no doubt God spilled all the beans about the new job, the necessity of Enoch’s skill set, and long story short, Enoch decides to stay.

The second case of abduction is regarding the prophet Elijah, where in 2 Kings 2:11 we read, “Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.” This was no case of Elijah walking along in the desert whistling a happy tune when boom! An out of control chariot driver, racing his ‘street cred’ wheels whilst drunk on Beulah’s grapes, swerved out of his dimension and bumped right into Elijah, accidently knocking him off his feet and scooping him up and over the rim of the fiery chariot, spinning and whirling him up into the clouds, where, along with the out of control chariot, he would shortly crash into heaven’s gates and come to a shuddering halt, with splinters of chariot wheels, pearl and chunks of mangled gold, would now lay strewn all over the place, around the big feet of a “tut, tut, tutting” and head-shaking angelic state trooper! No, it wasn’t like that, this was Elijah waiting for a bus. He was well aware of his forthcoming departure, yes indeed, he knew along with all the other prophets hooked into the heavenly internet listening to the eternal chatter, that a ticket had been purchased and the wheels were on the way!

Now the truth is friends, that neither of these abductions was an accident. No, both indeed were well planned. It is my opinion that these two prophets shall plant their earthly feet once more on the top side of this spinning globe, where, at the time of the end, these two walking olive trees, these two fiery lamp stands, shall fulfill their ministry of turmoil, shall deliver their ministry of soul tormenting fiery words, fired at an out of control and whoring nation, laid on its back with open legs and panting for the devil, and shall in turn, be later slaughtered for it and left dead and rotting on the streets. Two rotting carcasses, shall cause a whoring planet to rejoice, even to the beginning of brand new Christmas-type celebration for the peoples of the earth. However, that’s another story, for another day.

“Anyways” says God to Enoch, “The reason I asked you to stay over is that I have two future prophetic positions opening up and one of them is reserved for you, so…….” “Yes,” says God to Elijah, “Welcome, now let’s get to business. May I introduce you to Enoch? Good. Enough of the shaking of hands already! Now boys, now here’s the deal…..”
Meanwhile, along this line of space and time, we imagine these two prophets waiting millennia, either partying in heaven, or hanging in a neat little bag, freeze dried in some heavenly pantry, waiting to breathed upon once more and then released to their future mission in Jerusalem. I wonder though, if Enoch and Elijah’s step out of the space time line, was in fact met at a single point of present reality and to them both, no time has passed, no time that is until they set their feet on earths hoary shores once more and the clock starts clicking again. I wonder if, after what they both consider to be an exceptionally short stay in heaven, they shall appear long time after, here on earth, endued with special power from on high to complete their ministries? I wonder...

A friend of mine wrote me yesterday, regarding his being made redundant from his long-held position. Rather than being seemingly thrown out with all the other cost-cutting garbage, I wonder if it is that God, like he did with Elijah and with Enoch, has abducted him as well, and has done so, only to carry him somewhere else in the Spirit, to plant his feet some other place on the topside of this earth, to carry out a more important mission? I wonder if he was attentive to the heavenly presence, that he would feel the arm of God, slip around his shuddering shoulder and hear Him say, “You see Dave, it's me that's re-structuring and the thing is, I’ve got this opening, and …….”
Maybe you have been abducted today, last week, this month, yes just abducted, for there is no redundancy in Gods economy, just relocation, retraining and recommissioning. Remember that.

Listen: - These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands standing before the God of the earth. And if anyone wants to harm them, fire proceeds from their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this manner. These have power to shut heaven, so that no rain falls in the days of their prophecy; and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to strike the earth with all plagues, as often as they desire. Revelation 11:4-6 NKJV

Pray: Lord, time is on my hands and it drips like shed blood into the waiting earth. Lord, time is on my hands, help me to make use of these sands slipping slowly through my fingers. Lord, time is on my hands, help me hear Your voice, know Your new commission, learn quickly from the training You are giving me for Lord, time is on my hands and it drips like precious shed blood into the waiting earth. O help me hear You today. Amen.

Jul | 22 | The Re-Naming Of The Shrew

Dream Word – DESTINY

Judges 6:12  And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, "The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valour!" NKJV

The Re-Naming of The Shrew

Whatever you think of Gideon, he was, upon the receipt of our text for tonight, both a hiding and a quivering before the rampant Midianite swarm. Never the less, it was to him that the angel of the Lord appeared with a description of Gideon’s character and action, that as far as we know, bore no resemblance whatsoever to either his past or present condition! Even so, he was, according to the angel, and therefore could be and would be, nothing less than A MIGHTY MAN OF VALOUR. How wonderful.

I love the way that God consistently calls into being those things which are not! Well, not YET anyway. Especially people. So 'Jacob the Twister' is called Israel, 'Prince with God', yet frankly, you don’t get a glimpse of this until many years later, even on his death bed when he is praying and prophesying over his sons. So with Saul. Saul the accessory to murder and I suppose the instigator of the murder of a multitude of others, Saul the Paul, though immediately commissioned as an apostle to the Gentiles, did not for many years fulfil that calling. Yet he was an apostle, even in the quiet and studious repentant years of preparation! God tells and God calls it and so it surely shall be.

So when God gives new names to projects and to peoples, to dreams and to visions, they most thoroughly encapsulate much, much more of what those things shall be, rather than what they at present are. Indeed, their future shall resemble little to their present, never mind their past. Yes, with both a new name and a Divine declaration, a hope and a future can be birthed by such prophetic proclamation. Yes, with a name and a declaration, God can change a shrew into a samurai and a mouse into a magnificent knight. Go ask Reepicheep!

Listen: - And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 16:18-19 NKJV.)

Pray:- Lord, call me forth, to a resurrected life and a designated destiny of a proclaimed path. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

                                                                                                         

Feb | 27 | A Consideration of Destiny or Saving & Shaping

Dream Word – DESTINY

Lamentations 1:9 Her uncleanness is in her skirts; She did not consider her destiny; Therefore her collapse was awesome; She had no comforter. "O Lord, behold my affliction, For the enemy is exalted!" NKJV

A Consideration of Destiny or Saving & Shaping

The current commercials on television tell me that with the cost of one cup of coffee per month, I can help save the lives of ten million children each year. That’s pretty dramatic? That’s pretty wonderful. It got me thinking though, I mean what would those countries do with ten million more children per year?

There is no question that life should be saved, especially if it is saved so cheaply. However, it is just not enough to stop there, for the challenges that saved lives present are enormous. I helped my wife set up and run a crisis pregnancy centre and was involved in counselling some of the exceptionally young fathers, so I know that lives saved from an abortionists knife, though being precious and wonderful in themselves, never the less, present the parents, the wider family and the State, with some remarkable challenges of support, mentoring, training and releasing!


Yes, of course we should save lives of all people created in the image of God, but it doesn’t stop there, it can’t stop there! It is easy to string a straight line from a starting point to an end point, but if all you have is a starting point, then all you have is a string that goes nowhere. We need to have an end game.

We have the same problem in the church. We sometimes are privileged to be involved in seeing people saved among us, but we don’t really have an end game for them. Yes I tell you, if having Christ formed in us is simply a matter of getting folks to read their Bible a few minutes in a morning, then turn up at all our meetings, sit up and listen, shut up and pay up, then we do not have an end game, we do not have a destination to pin our line on. This happens in the church, mostly because we as individuals do not have a destination, a personal destiny if you will, We are not travelling along a straight line from good beginnings to achieved destiny. If that is the case for most of us, then just how can we assist others in finding and pursuing their own manifest destiny in Jesus?

It seems to me that if you save a life, you also have the duty to shape a life. I think so and in light of that, I shall leave you with these challenging thoughts tonight: Where are you going? How are you going to get there? How is your shaping of your own life, as well as the lives of other people you are somewhat responsible for, well, how is it going? Consider your destiny and the destiny of those you give help bring into life, for if you do not, the dizzy and meandering collapse of you and those individuals will be awful and only the enemy shall be exalted when that happens. So, just what is your manifest destiny in life? Find it, then pursue it.

Listen: - "See, O Lord, and consider! To whom have You done this? Should the women eat their offspring, The children they have cuddled? Lamentations 2:20a NKJV

Pray:- Lord, help us to have such a seen destiny for ourselves and for those we give life to, that we would pray and plan, sow and reap, step and keep on Your chosen, directed path of growth for us. Help us to be wise in this, that we might never have to end up consuming ourselves in irrelevance and eating our own offspring with directionless and unfruitful living, in Jesus name I pray, amen.

Feb | 26 | The Making, The Breaking & The Branding of Mavericks

Dream Word – DESTINY

Exodus 3:1-2 Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. KJV.

The Making, The Breaking & The Branding of Mavericks

Even though they are rarely wanted by the rest of the herd, there has always been a need for the unorthodox, the unconventional and the non-conformist. The banding together of cattle in herd mentality, might for many, lead to safety, acceptance, corporate fellowship and copulation, but for the unbranded bull, all the mooing hides, the hoofed-up dust and the half eaten grass by muddy and well trampled waters, offers little consolation for their pioneer spirit. So, they leave the herd or are ejected from it, and plough their own trails on the roads less travelled, through the high sierras and down the rocky crags. It’s a lonely life being a maverick, but it is only the mavericks that forge the newer tracks amongst God’s green and rolling hills, yes, it is only the mavericks that find the mount of the Most High God and return to the herd with a message. All true prophets are of necessity, mavericks.
I have often wondered whether mavericks are made or born? I believe it can be either. I believe it can be both. Pity the born maverick then, penned in by the herd, the deep furrows of the track, the fences, the tall tales of fearful giants and the taller tales of safer days, ‘herdside’, for I tell you that that bull shall die on his frustrated feet, long, long before his horns shall ever hit the dust. Pity the made maverick as well then, who, while longing not to be so unacceptable, and seeking earnestly some respectable conformity, nevertheless, when exhibiting the signs of some seeming, mad cow disease, is rejected and derided, excluded and divided, from those he longs to be with. Forgive me for mixing my animals, but maverick bulls are often the scapegoats that are sent away into the desert with a flea in their ear, carrying the sins of the people.

Yes, mavericks are both born and made, but both must, one way or another, embrace the loneliness of the backside of the desert. Moses was such a man, born and made a maverick. John the Baptiser was such a man, born and made a maverick. Hosea was such a man, Jeremiah, Amos, Paul, and tens of thousands of others, named and unnamed, were all mavericks, each of them returning to the herd with a burning message from Horeb, that only a maverick man might get!

A maverick with a message is hated by the enemy and he will always try and break him. Remember, that there was once a maverick Levite, (Judges 17:7 onwards) who left the herd at Bethlehem only later to sell his maverick soul for ten shekels and a shirt. Once the transaction was done, he found it easier to sell it again and again, for a little more money each time. The consequences of this breaking of a maverick bull, was that the man and his message was marred beyond recovery. Yes, there are two things that break a maverick and ruin his message once he gets it: First, money and secondly, the need for herd respectability. Yes, money and the need for affirmation from the other animals are the two siren scimitars which might slice the maverick man in two. Demas was cut in two by the former (2 Tim 4:10) and God help us, Peter and Barnabas were both sliced and diced by the latter. (Galatians 2:11-21)

The original and popular use of the word ‘Maverick’ referred to ‘wayward calves and cattle, who wandered the range, unbranded.’ Such cattle when found, hardy and well fed, became the property of the first person to put their own brand upon them. Broken Mavericks are always branded in the end. Yes, often times, many religious leaders throughout the ages, even Popes and Senior Pastors all, have all discovered that the best way to deal with a boisterous bull, is to brand him first and then cut his balls off, for mavericks always disturb the herd.

Mavericks in the making, wandering in the backside of the desert before they arrive at the Mount of God, before the fire of the burning bush is given into their bosom, might be some of the loneliest, frustrated and disconsolate people I have ever met, but oh my God, oh dear Lord deliver us, those now branded bulls, former mavericks of old, now wandering around without their balls but accepted by the herd, are some of the saddest animals in the world, sporting both bad meat for the butcher and polluted manure for the ground. For once the branding took the light from their eyes, they also lost their flavour, their singing salty savour and became respectful, ruined and absolutely rotten. There is no recovery from this.

May God grant His flock, many a mighty maverick, both born and made and may such mavericks, avoid both the branding iron and the plush pliers of the caring castrators. In all their wide and windswept wanderings, may they find the Mount of God, see the burning bush, receive the majestic message in their hearts and from such burning and lonely furnaces of affliction, deal death to Pharaoh’s everywhere and reveal the safe paths of deliverance to all the flock of God. Amen.

Listen: - "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5 NKJV

Then the Lord put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the Lord said to me: "Behold, I have put My words in your mouth. See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant." Jeremiah 1:9-10 NKJV

For behold, I have made you this day A fortified city and an iron pillar, And bronze walls against the whole land — Against the kings of Judah, Against its princes, Against its priests, And against the people of the land. They will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you," says the Lord, "to deliver you." Jeremiah 1:18-19 NKJV

Pray:- Help us O Lord, to arm our mavericks and not to harm them. May they find new paths, hidden trails, fresh waters, and for their own heart's sake and for our continued deliverance, may they find both The Mount and The Message, in Jesus name we pray, amen.