22
2011
I CORINTHIANS 15:34-36 “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. But some will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, do you not know that what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.”
If there is anything in this world that man cannot explain in the natural, it is love. If a man has never fallen head over heels in love for a woman, then it is not possible for him to understand how the passions of love move a man. If a person has no children, then he or she cannot possibly understand the love that parents have for their children. I have three children that are well into their adulthood, and I also have five grandchildren. All three of my children have been affected by the economy, especially my two daughters because they are married to men that are in the home building industry. So, you can imagine my concerns there. All three of my children have also been called by the Lord, and their faiths, just like the rest of us, has greatly been under attack. Seeing that I am much older in my faith than they are, the Lord has matured me in the faith that he has not yet matured them; and for this reason, I can see things in their faith that they still lack. But I know that it is not I that works in their belief, nor is it that can increase their faith, for it only the Lord himself that is able to do that. I also know that the Lord will provide for all that which they lack in due time, if they continue to seek him.
1 Corinthians 3:6 “I have planted, Apollos watered; but it is God that gives the increase.”
Luke 17:5 “And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
Recently, I had one of the most restless nights of sleep that I have had in many years; and the reason was my worries for my children. The next morning, while I was praying out of my worries for my children, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Mitt, you really have a perverted relationship of love with your children.” Obviously, this really surprised me to hear the Lord say this; and so I asked, “How so, Lord?” He then said, “You have been measuring how much you love your children by how much you worry about them. And I have revealed to you that all worry comes from the spirit of fear; and there is no fear in love!” This word immediately pierced my heart, for I knew that it was truth. I was stunned when I heard these words because it has been many years since the Lord had revealed to me that all worry, all panic, all anxiety, and all stress come forth from the spirit of fear. Many, many times I have judged these miserable fears for what they were, lies from Satan that come forth to torment me. Just as the scripture instructs us, I have bound them up, professing before God that none of these thoughts are right in his sight, and that I no longer had any desire for any of these lies to have any power, or any kind of influence over my thinking at all. I would then profess, “Lord, I am yours, and you are mine, and I ask for you to also bind up these unclean spirits for me, and let your love cast them out of my mind. And so he has faithfully done, as I have sought and asked for him to.
I Corinthians 4:5 “Therefore judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who will then bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.”
Matthew 16:19 “Jesus said to them, “And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall also be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall also be loosed in heaven.”
Psalm 34:4 “I sought the Lord and he heard me, and then delivered me from all my fears.”
I John 4:18 “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear because fear torments. He that fears is not made perfect in love.”
It is amazing that when God speaks just a couple of sentences to us, it has the power to unveil your eyes to see things that you have never seen before. I was so stunned to hear this word from the Lord that one verse of scripture just kept repeating itself over and over in my mind, “There is “no” fear in love”; “There is “no” fear in love”; “There is “no” fear in love.” All that I could do then was confirm what the Lord had revealed to me, and confess, “Lord, you are so right; I have truly perverted the definition of love by accounting my worries for my children to be acts of love. Lord, I have never considered that any of these worries were anything other than what a good parent should do for his children. But I now know and clearly see that all of these worries are not acts of love, but the works of fear. Now that I was able to see my worries for what they truly are, I began to bind these fears up; and asking the Lord to bind them up in heaven also. I do not believe that I have ever believed a lie to be truth that left me feeling so violated how I felt at that moment; deceived into believing that these worries were acts of love. My mind was so wrapped around all of these fears that I had for my children that I began to question what it would be like to love my children without the presence of any worry for them. I mean, does it not appear that if you do not worry for someone, then it seems like you do not care about them either?
It was then that the Spirit of the Lord quickened to me the story in the scriptures about when the apostles were with Jesus in that boat, and how dire their situation had become. Many of these apostles were fisherman, and I am sure that they had all gone through many storms before. But this storm was obviously different in the worst way; so bad that their boat had become swamped out with water. Now where was Jesus during this storm? Where was the one that loved them without any worry? And look at what his apostles said to him, “Master, do you “not care” that we are perishing?” Would they have said these words if they saw Jesus worrying about their situation in the same manner they were worried about it? We all know where Jesus was, peacefully asleep without any worries of fear to torment him. Where was the storm in my life, but in the worries that I had for my children, giving me anything but a peaceful sleep. I then saw that I was not the only one measuring love by worry because that is exactly how the apostles tried to measure the love that Jesus had for them when they said to him, “Do you not care”. Again the Lord had proved to me that my thoughts are not as his thoughts because I had thought that worry was an act of love.
As I thought on these things that the Lord had just spoken to me, I thought how ironic it was that I have had many people tell me that they have the love of God in them; and in turn, I would ask them what the Lord had once asked me when I thought that I had the love of God in me, “Oh, so the Lord has delivered you from all your fears, all of your worries, all of your anxieties, all of frets, all of your dreads, and all of your stress because you know that it is written there is no fear in love. Now here the Lord was exposing more fears in me that I had been deceived into believing were acts of love. Let me make this clear, there is a difference between coming to know that God loves you, from having the love of God as your very nature. I have known for many years that God loves me; and out of his love for me I have seen him help me, provide for me, do great and mighty things for me, teach me, heal me, care for me, guide me, and forgive me. Even so, he is still working to perfect my nature with his love. The love of God only dwells in the spiritual mind, and the spiritual mind is where no fear is able to dwell.
When the Lord had first opened my eyes to see and understand that all of my worries, and stress, and anxieties were nothing but lying counsels coming from the spirit of fear, it had become fairly easy for me to recognize these lies would show up in my imaginations, to tempt me to follow them because of the worry and anxiety that would accompany their counsels. I had seen, and rightly judged, these fears when they came to me concerning the failing economy, my health, the events of tomorrow, suffering, rejection, other people’s judgments of me, etc…..but this was different. This fear had come to me disguised as love, deceiving me into believing that every good parent should worry about his or her children because if you did not worry about them, then you do not care about them. I know that Satan has deceived the world, and that he tries to imitate the nature, the characteristics, and the power of God, but I would have never dreamed that all of my worries for my children, and other people, were nothing but carefully crafted lies that they had come so cleverly disguised that I even used them to help me define my role as a loving parent.
Then the Lord gave me a vision of this very large cemetery; and in this vision the cemetery that I saw was shrouded with a thick fog. It was also very strange because it was as the darkness of night everywhere, yet there was just enough light that allowed for me to barely be able to read the inscriptions on the gravestones. This cemetery seemed to be so old that it did not appear as though anyone had been buried in it for at least two hundred years. Most of the tombstones were covered with green and black mildew, and many of them had tilted on their side so bad that it seemed like they could fall over at any moment. It did not appear as though anyone had even step foot in this cemetery for quite some time. I did not see any flowers on any of the graves. Not only did the cemetery itself feel creepy, and eerie, and spooky, but it was also as if the air itself felt heavy and haunting. I then asked the Lord the reason that he was giving to me this vision. He then answered me and said, “Each one of these graves that you see in this cemetery represents one of the dead thoughts that lodges in the conscience of the carnal mind. And I brought you here so that you could see where you are going every time you choose to worry about any of your children; a place where you will find no light of life.” I then realized that the Lord was showing to me that this cemetery was actually the conscience of the carnal mind; the place where death reigns. And surely there is no life in worry.
Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
Romans 8:6 “The carnal mind is death, and the spiritual mind is life and peace.”
I then began to examine the part of the cemetery that I was standing in, and the first thing that I noticed was this tall stone monument that was about ten feet tall. I noticed that it was not marking any of the graves, but it rather seemed to be one of those stones that identify the name of the family that is buried in that area of the cemetery. It was so foggy and dark that I had to walk right before this monument before I could read the engraved on it; and it read: IMMANI: THE SPIRIT OF FEAR. I then turned around and began examining the names on the gravestones that were immediately surrounding me, and the name written on each of the gravestones in my immediate area was “Worry”. I then walked over to the gravestone closest to me so that I read the epitaph engraved beneath the name that described that which I was had been worried about. The first three gravestones that I read was a gravestone for each one of my children; and the epitaph written on each one described the worries that I had for them. I also saw epitaphs written on other gravestones that had described the worries that I previously had about my health; the worries I had about getting old; the worries that I had about what people thought about me, and how they might judge me; the worries that I had about offending people; the worries that I had about my financial state; and etc.
II Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given to us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”
Matthew 6:25-34 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or, “What shall we wear?” For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; and your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But you seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
Proverbs 16:3 “Commit your work to the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established.”
I then noticed that before some of these gravestones, the ground had been dug out like it was waiting on a casket to be placed in it. But then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “The reason that this graveyard and these gravestones appear so old is because there is nothing new under the sun; that is, there is nothing that has worried you that has not worried all men since the fall of Adam. Is it not written that I set before you a choice every day, a choice between life and death, blessing and cursing? Know that every time that choose to believe any of the counsels that come from fears of your worries, then the darkness and death that fills this cemetery will be the darkness and death that fills the conscience of your mind; a conscientiousness that is filled with dead thoughts that bring forth dead works. What have the worries of your fears worked in you anything other than unrest, misery and torment? Again, I say to you, choose life; and I will call you forth from the grave, and set you free from all these dead thoughts. I am the resurrection and the life. Choose me!”
Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”
John 11:25-27 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this? She said to him, “Yes, Lord: I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.”
I Corinthians 15:34-37 “Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies.”
Romans 8:6 “The carnal mind is death, and the spiritual mind is life and peace.”
I then walked along reading all of these epitaphs, and my eyes were clearly opened to see how fear had not only worked in me to bring forth things that I should worry about, but I also saw how this same fear worked in me to bring forth things that I should be afraid of. And things that brought panic upon me, and things that I was apprehensive about, and things that brought stress upon me, and things that frightened me, and of course I saw many things that had brought anxiety upon me. I then understood how easy it is for people to become paranoid or to become subject to all of these phobias that oppress men in their thoughts. Truly, Satan is after our heart and our mind, and he knows well how to deceive us. Did not Jesus say of Satan that this was your adversary? When the Lord would judge these fears for me, he would bring them into the light so that I could clearly see them for what they truly are: vanity and death. And once I saw them in the manner that the Lord saw them, it was easy for me to lay these thoughts on the altar and ask God to come and destroy them with his consuming fire.
I was still in this vision, walking throughout the cemetery of my dead thoughts, examining all of the names and the epitaphs that were written on each gravestone. I was also asking the Lord to open my eyes so that I could clearly see the death and the vanity of all these thoughts. I passed by gravestones that identified such thoughts in me as pride, unbelief, confusion, bitterness, doubt, judging and accusing others, strife, depression, bitterness, arguments, loneliness, dread, contention, dissatisfaction, hopelessness, rebellion, and impatience. Truly, I say to you, I have seen all of these types of thoughts working in my mind; and they are all vanity, worthless, and empty of life. Truly, just as the scriptures say in Psalm 94:11 “The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.” l find it amazing that all I did was to ask the Lord to judge me, to open my eyes so that I could see the thoughts of heart in the same manner that he sees them, and boom; whenever my eyes are opened, the blindness of vanity just seems to dissolve away.
It was then that I realized that I had been so focused on seeing what was written on these gravestones that I had not noticed that many of the graves themselves had been opened. I then realized that these open graves were all of the dead thoughts that I had previously called out to Jesus to from the death that had ruled over my mind. I was walking along still looking at what was written on these epitaphs when all of a sudden a brilliant light shined from behind me. I immediately turned and saw this brilliant light shining on all three of those gravestones that contained the dead thoughts of my worries about my children. Then I heard a loud voice come from within that light that said, “Mitt, come forth!” Immediately all three graves opened up, and I felt, standing there watching this, like this sudden great weight of heaviness just lift off of me. Glory be to God. I was dead in my thoughts, serving these miserable fears, and now I am alive, freed from all of these thoughts. I had been worried for all these years about the destiny of my three children… and here God revealing to me that my prayers were coming forth from my fears. Jesus was has been asleep on the pillow the entire time, waiting for me to raise up.
Paul wrote in II Timothy 4:18 “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom”. How is he going to do this except by the word of his mouth? The Lord has called each one of us to come out of the darkness of our ignorance of him; the ignorance that has alienated us from his fellowship and separated us from his love. Even though each one of us has this calling, the darkness still comes in it’s attempts to turn us away from God, enticing us to come back to that old nature of darkness that has no fellowship with God. Even now, it is just like it was when Israel was coming out from their bondage in Egypt, that many get very excited that God had freed them. But the first moment they face adversity, Satan is there again to deceive many of them with his lies; and the deceived began to declare, “Take us back to Egypt, for God has brought us out here to destroy us.” Who among us, when faced with some kind of tribulation or adversity has not heard those same lying spirits speaking into our thoughts that say such things as, “God does not love you.”; or, “God will not hear you”; or, “God does not care about you”; or, “God is not going to help you”; or, “Do not think that God will be faithful to you”. If the darkness was going to just let us go freely to God, then none of us would ever be tempted to believe any lies that Satan speaks to us about God. No matter what state we are in, God still gives us free choice; the choice of what we are going to believe.
We know that it is written that whatever we ask of God believing, it will be done. But if ask anything doubting, then let him not expect to receive anything of God. Where would these doubts and unbelief come from except through the lies of these spirits of darkness? Like the wind that moves about, filled with these lies that are ready to give any a reason not to believe God’s words, or to doubt Father’s love, or to not trust in his faithfulness. They only way that these spirits can find entrance into the hearts and minds of man is for man to “believe” that their lies are right and true. Satan and his demons are like those roaring lions that go about seeking who they can devour with their lies. And just like in the natural, they seek out the weak and the young of the flock. When is the a member of the flock at his weakest but when some manner of trouble, or adversity, or tribulation, or temptation arises. It is then that these lying spirits see their opportunity to tempt the children of God with their lies; lies that are only designed to alienate and separate from God: “You do not think that if God truly loved you that you would be experiencing this adversity or tribulation?”
Matthew 13:20-22 “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles because he is offended.”
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the Devil (the one who
accuses God with his lies), as a roaring lion, walks about seeking whom he may devour.”
Psalm 52:4 “You love all devouring words, you deceitful tongue.”
Speaking only for myself, many times in my own adversity and troubles, when the weaknesses of unbelief, and doubt, and fear are exposed in my trials, God does not come to help me as speedily as I hoped he would. But the Lord, by his wondrous love, has taught me that in these times, I simply have to come to him first, and ask for him to help me overcome the lies that have conceived this unbelief and doubt. Then once the Lord has worked in me to belief and increased my faith, then he performs that which I had first asked for him to help me with. Has not the Lord said that we are all his workmanship? Is it not written that it is God who works in us to believe? When I believe, his love comes; and when his love comes, my relationship with him just grows stronger and stronger. And when my relationship with him grows stronger, the storms of unrest in my mind cease, and he fills me with joy and peace. And so it shall be until that which is perfect comes, when God comes to finish the works that he began in us. But until that say, God is always there for those who draw near to him, calling on his name. Did not Paul say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith”?
Ecclesiastes 8:11 “Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
Hebrews 3:12 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 “And he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
There is nothing that oppresses a man more the unrest that fills thoughts of our minds. Jesus came to set us free from our oppressors with the promise that he would give us a new heart and new mind; and that new heart and new mind would love only the truth about God. And it would be the truth of his love that will set us free from ever being tempted again to believe any of the lies that could alienate us from God’s fellowship and separate us from his love. This is the freedom that Jesus Christ came into this world to give to us, not the freedom that a democratic form of government promises. Did not Jesus say that his kingdom was not of this world? Several years ago, when the economy started going bad, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Mitt, I did not come into this world to save the American way of life, but I came to save your soul.” Save it from what? The spirits of this world that continually oppress men in their thoughts with storms of unrest, and trouble, and torment, as well as keeping them separated from the love of God. The promise was not a new government ruled over by men, but a new heart and new mind where the spirit of God reigned over the thoughts of the heart with faith, and wisdom, and truth, and peace, and love.
Luke 17:21 “Neither shall they say, “Lo here!” or, “Lo there!”, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”
Colossians 3:15 “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which you also are called in one body; and be you thankful.”
Isaiah 57:20-21 “But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest,
whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace to the wicked”, says my God.
Acts 2:2-4 “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
John 3:5-8 “Jesus answered, “Truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again.” The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Mitt Jeffords
May 22, 2011
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