Well, I am from that same mountain stock... my daddy used to say that we were Mountain Williams and not Hill Billies! He had a good sense of humor. We do actually live in some of the most beautiful places that I have seen in the USA, and I have seen the west and the north and the south... its just a beautiful place to live, and especially right now when everything is in bloom and green... I don't know, I left it time and time again, and it seems to just pull me back and back somehow.

This is not a "common" or even a "normal" message. Well, none really should be, but this is a very special and personal message to me. God had me preach it to the Totz Church of God one night after going through a traumatic time actually... and God said live, and revival broke out and kept going after I left and the next pastor was there enjoying it (he's a friend of mine). Ask Doug what our church was like... there was always this force working against us in the community... it was weird... people would come and say... "I've never felt or seen this much of the glory poured out in a place... and the preaching was so rich... why isn't more people here and we will be back!" I almost hated to hear those last words because 99% of the time, they weren't back after saying them.

There might be a few reasons for that... we had a family that had run the church for 30 years that knew a lot of people that literally had left... I didn't run them off... I treated them with love, just not better than anyone else. It was the Word of God that became unbearable and something I won't talk about that the Lord brought about. But they couldn't explain it all. But I do know this, when you get into that kind of presence of God... with the Word... and the glory together, there is this conviction that takes hold and suddenly you see yourself in God's light. Its like Isaiah in Isaiah 6 sometimes... woe is me, for I am undone. Because those that were there went through that before that move of God came.

But church was wonderful then... and healthy. I mean, it was actually fun to go to church. I could not wait to see who God would save or set free or heal... I mean, it became an adventure that was wonderful... alive and dynamic... reminded one of the church in Acts. And we grew... oh, the depth of the teaching of the Word of God grew. God gave me so much and I grew in knowledge so much then... I mean it was supernatural the pure understanding of God's Word that was given to me. It came so alive... and God gifted me in teaching then as I had never been before. God honed it in another spiritual environment at Monticello with much "battle" basically. But this originally was a message that God gave to me to give to that church at Totz. And it came alive... we all did! I miss it so much, I just can't tell you. It was that church that you hear at the end of Doug's song, Holy worshiping. I almost hurt to have a worship environment like that again.

I have seen that scripture used that way as well and the bleeding stop.

God gave it to me one other time to give it to Monticello, but it was totally different and we won't go there... but it was still very powerful and needful there.

This time, it is for me. God is saying to live and not die to me and some things connected to me.

And I wanted to share it just here... and knew that whoever needed to read it would find it.

Jim


Quote:
Philippians 3:8-10 " 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;


Please visit us at Warriors of God

Voice of the Watchman