Experiencing the Father’s Love: Learning to Love, Part 3 of an Interview with Bill Boone

December 7, 2025December 21, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

Me: So, how do you do that, Bill?

Bill: How do I father people? How do you disciple, father? It’s interesting because for us, it’s not really complicated. You just hang out with people. You make yourself available to people. We’ve got a number of relationships with different people, but it’s also learning to do that. I mean, I’ve got a couple different groups that I hang out with mostly on Zoom and then I’ve got relationships with…. Actually, the book, “Always Loved,” by Brent Lokker. I meet with him, probably almost once a month. He’s a father to me. And so, it’s really opening yourself up to relationship with people around. You don’t have to be older. I think Brent Lokker is probably my age. So, it’s not an age thing. It’s a heart thing.

Me: Also, you know, we’re supposed to be the body of Christ. This is my little preach now, It’s not all about one way giving all the time. Sometimes I can have a friend, and in some areas they’re ahead of me and I can learn from them. But in other areas, maybe I’m ahead of them and they can learn from me. So, it’s not like we have to rank people based on who’s ahead, who’s behind, who’s the father, and who’s the child. But it is more about learning how to be interwoven; how to love and give what we have, and be humble; to be able to learn when we don’t know something and honor one another. I think that’s important.

Bill: Absolutely. I think a lot of that, Mary, comes with maturity. When you’re young, you’re passionate about what you’ve got and you’re pursuing to be heard. You’re also pursuing to understand. And some of us who are more verbal processor types like myself, I like to hear myself talk. Not because I’ve got this ego thing but just so I can understand a little more of what I’m feeling and thinking and processing. So, sometimes I’ve got a good friend that I’m working with now that we’re walking out a process of relationship. I don’t always agree with what he has to offer, what he has to share, but I have to honor what he has. And so that’s part of the rub. Iron sharpens iron in walking with people. You have to realize that you’re not the center of the universe. You’ve got to give place to other people, what they think and feel and what they’re walking through.

Me: That’s good. So, how do you honor what you don’t agree with? What do you do?

Bill: Well, you listen. You give people a chance to voice what’s in their heart without a preconceived judgment. I think that’s the struggle for me. I still have different perspectives and different ideas. I have to guard myself from reacting to some of the things people say that I don’t agree with. I have to set all that stuff aside when relating to people. Is that okay?

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I don’t see it the way they do, but why am I reacting to what they said? You know, if I’m reacting, that’s not their problem. That’s mine. What problem do I have with that? And so, I try to try to let the Lord work that process out. Otherwise, I end up messing up that relationship by becoming critical and judgmental. And I don’t want that. We should war against judging other people from face value. We should war against that. We should not allow that.

Me: That’s good, Bill. Wow.

So, it sounds like, when you’re warring against that… This is a question I’m posing: It sounds like you’re self-observant about your reactions and able to exercise the fruit of self-control. You pull yourself back from saying things that would be judgmental or critical of someone, and you choose to listen and not get offended. You don’t put your own opinion in there. You’re learning to be self-aware enough in the moment someone is saying something that is sort of a rub for you, that you’re able to go, okay, self, just listen and let them go ahead and talk. You don’t get in there and say something. That’s the fruit of the Spirit. That’s kindness and self-control, gentleness, love, and peace. It’s the lack of peace that pushes people to react with whatever.

Bill: Don’t you think that is based on the fact that you don’t really feel secure in yourself? The reaction is that somehow I’ve got to defend myself. I’ve got to guard myself from something I don’t agree with, because I don’t feel safe in my own skin.

This brings up four basic needs. This originally came from Jack Frost as well. It’s the need for love, the need for security, the need for affirmation and a need for purpose. Not having those things. You live Missy Shush. You live as an orphan. You’re not comforted. There are needs that are not being met. And that thing of security, I think for me, if I’m safe in my skin, go ahead and judge me. You don’t know me. If you’re going to judge me….

So, generally speaking, I learned the realities are, “Judge not lest you be judged.” Judging comes from a place of reacting to all the things that have happened to us. We react and so we end up judging. Before you know it, the very things that we’ve judged start coming back on us.

Especially over the last 10 years, my wife and I teach people to forgive people but deal with their reactions. Because every time we’re hurt, we react and it’s usually in an ungodly way. We set things in emotion that just don’t go away unless we actively deal with it. It’s important to try to. After a while of doing that, you realize that any reaction you have is based on something you’ve reacted to in the past and it needs to get dealt with. Otherwise, you’re going to be reacting to everything that comes down the pike. Your reaction is your problem.

Me: Right. You’re talking about sowing and reaping.

Bill: Exactly.

Me: So, if you sow a reaction to something and it was an ungodly reaction, and you don’t repent from it, then you’re going to start getting it back.

Bill: Yes.

Me: And you’re going to get it back bigger, and bigger, and bigger, until you recognize what you sowed and apply the blood of Jesus to it. Repent, forgive yourself and others and clean it up. Then actually you become more self-aware, to not continue to react that way. Because chances are, when we have an ungodly reaction to something, if we have never recognized that it was wrong, we’ve probably done it more than once.

Bill: But usually, they’re surrounded by a way in which we were hurt years ago. That’s my discovery. I’m still discovering things to this day. Okay, I can see why I reacted, oh, way back there when I was so-and-so age, I reacted to that situation. Children, when they’re young, just react out of the situation, not thinking of the consequences to that reaction. And all those reactions, they don’t go away unless we actually physically see them and deal with them, because they’re laws.

It’s just like the law of gravity. If I was to jump off the roof of this house, I could say all I want to say about not hitting the ground; that it’s not going to happen. “It’s not going to. I’m not going to hit the ground.” But the fact remains. It’s a law and I will hit the ground hard. And so, it’s like sowing and reaping, the law of judging. ‘Judge not lest you be judged.” Because you end up receiving the consequences.

Also, there’s honoring our parents, that’s a law. When we dishonor our parents…. All those times of rebellion that I had growing up as a kid, I ended up reaping that for a season until I learned to deal with all that stuff. It’s a law. Laws are laws and they’re not reversed unless you actually get to them, deal with them, repent, move on, and put it under blood.

Me: Without getting too personal about it, that really prods my curiosity. Can you give an example or two?

Bill: Yeah, I can. I can give you a perfect example. This was probably in 2008. I had gotten home from a conference. I was in Canada. We were being taught about bitter judgments and bitter expectancies. I got home and my wife Linda asked me to take out the garbage. I just reamemed her upside upside and down. I was mad at her. I said, “Yada yada yada yada!” And I was just brutal. Then, of course, I stopped and I went, “Oh my, what in the world is that?”

The next morning as I’m spending time with the Lord, I get a vision. I see myself sitting in front of the house, one of the houses that I grew up in, cross-legged, pulling weeds out of the front yard. It’s dry. I grew up in California so everything’s really dry. Trying to pull these weeds was very painful; trying to get these things out of the ground. Of course, if I had watered the ground, it would have been a lot easier. But anyway, I was a kid. I was very angry that I had to be out there pulling these weeds while my friends up the street were playing football. I couldn’t be a part of that. So, out of my mouth, I was cussing and swearing lots of profanity towards my parents. How mad I was at everything.

And I went, “Oh my,” when I saw that. I went, “Father, forgive me for dishonoring my parents with my mouth and all that stuff.” I was probably 12 years old when this happened. And so, I asked God to forgive me and cleanse me. I took authority over the things that I had said. Anyway, then the whole experience ended.

A day, or two or three later, my wife asked me to do something around the house again, which usually would have caused me to erupt in anger. All of a sudden, matter of fact, I started taking the garbage out on my own. I started doing things around the house. Then one day I stopped and I thought, “Where’s the anger? Where’s the rage that typically would come? It’s because I took authority over that. I repented. I went to God for it. That whole reaction thing left. Now I’m a help around the house without all the reaction. By the way, my wife, one of her primary love languages is acts of service. So, boy, did that fit.

Me: Yeah, that’s beautiful.

I’m teaching a group of students and one of the principles we have touched on is the sowing and reaping principle. So, it’s interesting our conversation here wandered into that.

Bill: Grace and forgiveness, by John and Carol Arnott. That is an extremely good book. We buy bunches of them. We give them away because in there are principles with much more on those two first principles, forgiveness and bitter judgments. And they have testimonies, especially Carol’s whole experience with her mother. She saw tremendous healing. It took a three-year process for her to walk through, but she saw tremendous healing and restoration with her mother who was very brutal, very abusive to her growing up as a kid. She was fully restored before she went on to be with Jesus and stuff. And so through that, through a revelation of all that stuff. Yeah. See, I’ve studied that, too. But it’s really helpful to have resources to use to teach from. So yeah, that’s a good one. That’s one we highly recommend.

That book probably, I don’t know, probably has sold tens of millions of copies. It has gone out, all over the planet, that book. There are different versions. It used to be called, “The Importance of Forgiveness.” Now they’ve got it called, “Grace…” and they’ve added more to it, some amazing stuff on how to live in the grace of God.

Me: Excellent. Okay. So, briefly, back to soaking again. If you were to talk to someone who really hadn’t encountered the Lord much, they’ve heard about him, maybe heard some Bible stories or something, but they haven’t really encountered his presence. It sounds like you’re saying worship is a good place for them to encounter God. And being around others who know him can help open the way for a beginner to know him better. So, in a sense, it’s easier to encounter him in a group than it is to do all by yourself.

Bill: My experience has been that way. My wife has been different. My wife, much of her relationship was her and God alone. She’s been walking with the Lord for over 50 years, and she’s probably got 40 years of journals filled with daily writing. She’s written words in there that she’s gotten from the Lord. And and the main message that she got through the hardest times in her life was, “My daughter, I love you.” It was like a broken record, daily, because that’s what she needed to hear.

Most of us, even if we’ve had good parents, and sometimes people with good parents are the hardest to convince of their need for love. But it’s for all of us. That is really the core message of it all; it’s helping people to learn to be loved by God. And you know we are amazed a lot of times when we just hug people, and they experience the love of God.

Yeah, I would say for most people, it’s being around people who carry this love. These are the ones that come into that experience much quicker than the ones who don’t. It’s just being around people that carry the Father’s love. There’s a number of people, ministries out there, that minister this. And some people that are not really in ministry; they just emulate it because they’ve stepped into that whole arena.

For most people, it’s all about Jesus. And that’s a good thing. We really want to know Jesus. But see, even Jesus said, “It’s not about me. It’s about you coming to know the father.” Yeah.

And soaking, really simply, is learning to be comfortable in the Father’s presence. For a lot of us, it’s not a comfortable place because of all the abuse and all the pain that they’ve experienced. People have a hard time trusting. So, they have to find somebody with skin on, you know, that touches their life. I think the way to help people is to learn how to spark the hunger in people’s hearts. When I start talking about the Father’s love, people start getting hungry for it.

We had a series of meetings, this was probably 15 years ago. We were just sharing our story. A man, probably in his 70s, started balling. He walked up, right in the middle of my meeting, interrupted my sharing. I’ll tell you, he was just balling saying, “I’ve never known this love and I really want to know!” All I could do was hug him. For, the next two or three days while we were there sharing and ministering, this guy was on the floor crying, crying and crying and crying and encountering wave, after wave after wave of the Father’s love.

It’s the testimony that people carry, a lot of times, that really helps others see something more than where they’re at. What does book of Revelation say? “The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” When you testify what God has done, you become an open heaven for that very thing (that you’ve experienced) for that person you’re sharing your testimony with.

Me: Yes.

Bill: I expect that, as people hear my story; not because I’m a great orator, but because I’ve had a revelation of his father’s love. They’re going to experience the Father in a different way. Or, they’re going to experience a hunger that’s deep inside of them. I’m gonna pull on a wire on the inside of them that says I don’t know, I may not understand what that is, but there’s something about that. I have that, and the only reason is because, very simply, love cannot fail.

Me: Amen.

Bill: It cannot. So, when you give away God’s love, it cannot fail. It will bridge core issues in people’s lives. It’ll go down to the core. And whether you feel it, or see it, or experience it at the moment, it’s working because God cannot fail. So his love cannot fail.

Me: Great. Very nice.

Well, it seems like this is a good place to wrap things up.

Yeah, I just felt the power of the Lord on this conversation that we’ve had, and this word about love. And I believe God is releasing love into the very fabric of this recording, so that when people watch they will be receiving God’s transformative love.

Bill: Thank you, Papa.

Me: Yeah. So, I thank you for your time.

Bill: Spend Can I pray for everybody that might be, please?

Me: Yes.

Bill: Yeah. Father, I just thank you so much for your amazing love. Yeah. That’s unfailing, unconditional, unrelenting, always chasing after us, always pursuing us, always looking for us, always engaging us. Father, I pray that there be a greater release of the love that you are pouring out. Father, would you begin to, even for those listening to this recording? God, that they would be deeply impacted by your incredible love, that is wooing them to you.

Father, I bless each heart. I bless those who watch this with a deeper hunger to know our heavenly father’s love. Yeah. That spirit of adoption, that spirit that’s within us all, that cries Abba Father. It’s that cry. I want to know you as Papa, you as Daddy, you as the love, the lover of our soul. Father. So, I bless each one. I thank you for the opportunity, once again to share your incredible love and talk about the impact that’s had on our lives.

Let it go deeper, farther, further than ever before, Father, in those who hear this. And let it be such a unquenchable pursuit to know, at the core of each of our lives, that we might know the height, the width, the length, the depth, of the love of Christ which passes knowledge. That we might be filled with the fullness of God. And do beyond what we could ever ask, or think, Father, according to your spirit that works within us; who is always shedding abroad your love within our hearts, cascading wave after wave, after wave, in our hearts, Father, by your Spirit, in Jesus name. Thank you, Father, for this time. We bless you, Papa. You are so good. Amen.

Me: Amen. Praise the Lord. Thank you for carving out time in your life for this interview.

Bill: It’s not hard to do something you love.

Me: Well, God bless you and God bless Linda, your house and your family and your grandchildren. Thank you.

Bill: I receive that. Yeah.

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Link to Part 1: https://firestarterforjesus.com/2025/11/18/experiencing-the-fathers-love-with-bill-boone-part-1-crisis-encounters/

Link to Part 2: https://firestarterforjesus.com/2025/11/30/experiencing-the-fathers-love-a-transformative-journey-part-2-of-an-interview-with-bill-boone/

Link to Bill’s website: Bill Boone’s website: https://www.encounterhislove.com/

Safety and Peace in Troubled Times

December 3, 2025December 18, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

Link to watch on YouTube

We are living in tumultuous times when disturbing things happen on a frequent basis. I have heard one prophet declare that Martial Law will be coming to the USA in all 50 states. Regardless of whether or not it happens, there are often unsettling or downright troublesome things suddenly arising in the world.

How do we stand firm trusting God, keeping a sound mind when we feel the shaking? We learn to abide in his presence as we have special times with him. Then we learn to carry that connection we’ve developed with him throughout all that’s going on during the rest of the day. God becomes our anchor in the storm, our light in the darkness.

To develop the ability to abide, spend special times with the Most High God. Trust him. Draw close to him by yielding continuously in your spirit. The epicenter of your spirit is located in your Bible heart deep within you, not in your head. Special times can be spent in worship, by reading and meditating on scripture, or by talking with him in prayer. You can simply sit silently in his presence as he comes to you. Any or all of these are good, alone or in combination.

He’s already reaching out to you and me. He’s speaking. As you and I get better at being still before him, as we practice tuning into his frequencies, we learn to discern his presence. We come to recognize his voice. We grow in hearing him more clearly. We become more aware that he is with us. We abide with him and live by the Spirit more. So, since you’re hungry for God, persist and you’ll receive increase.

My special times vary from season to season. Sometimes I meet the Lord in the morning. Sometimes in the evening. Sometimes it’s both! Sometimes I am more focused on scripture and at other times I am more focused on prayer. Either way, I’m seeking encounters with him. Needs and seasons change. My patterns do too. Regular, frequent meetings with him build this relationship. They equip me to stay in fellowship with the presence of God throughout the rest of the day.

Hopefully you’re enjoying special times with the Lord already. If not, start now! As you seek him with your whole heart, give him permission to do what he wants to do in your time together. Connect to him with your heart and your head will follow along. Your spiritual senses will develop. Your understanding will expand. Deeper fellowship with him will follow. You’ll move into that place of abiding. There’s always more!

Your special times with the Spirit of the Lord anchor you in God’s love. Persist! If you miss a few (or a lot), just briefly receive forgiveness and get back to connecting with him. It’s the long haul that counts. Focus on the present and the future, not the past. Be kind because he is.

Your intimacy with God equips you for the storms that come. If a certain routine in your time with him becomes dry, then try something else. He’s after your heart not religious performance. Be after his heart too, as the biblical David exampled!

One way to practice abiding in the secret place of his presence is to memorize and meditate on Psalm 91. Consider personalizing the scripture as I have done here. Recite the passage out loud. Your confidence will deepen. Then, when you need help, you’ll be ready to recite his promises, reassured that he’ll keep his word. That’ll give you peace in the storm and influence the spiritual world in your favor. Learn to live in the secret place. As it says in verses one and two, and the promises found in the rest of the Psalm will be yours.

God bless you as you take time to be still before him. Enter the secret place, and put your trust in Him! Sometimes you’ll discover that you have entered in and didn’t even realize it! (That’s happened to me.) Most supernatural is too quiet for our flesh, as Dennis Clark likes to say. So, keep at it! Practice brings increase. When you look back, you’ll see your growth, probably more clearly than in the moment. God sees all. Blessings!

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Experiencing the Father’s Love: A Transformative Journey, Part 2 of an Interview with Bill Boone

November 30, 2025December 4, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / 1 Comment

Me: There’s a couple different directions I could go from all the things we’ve talked about (in Part 1). Clearly you said that your wife said, before a certain point in time you were kind of hard to live with, but then you encountered this love. And so, it sounds like there’s been some radical changes in your life. And I don’t know if it’s possible to go into that a little bit more, if you want.

Bill: Sure. Okay. When you don’t know you are loved, you try to look for ways to be loved. You look for ways to be affirmed. You look for ways to achieve love. You look for ways to earn love. You try to do things. It’s like the story of Jesus being with Martha and Mary. Martha was so busy trying to please Jesus with her activity. She was driven to try to please Jesus through her service; where Mary just wanted to sit and listen and soak and receive from Jesus.

There’s this performance drive that lives on the inside of all of us. Until the Father makes his love real to us. Then, all of a sudden, you realize there’s absolutely nothing you can do, nothing you’ve ever done, or ever will be able to do, to be able to achieve, to earn, or deserve his love. He just loves. He just loves. He loves you unconditionally. So, we do a lot of things for a lot of the wrong reasons. Well, we do it for the right reasons, but they’re wrong in what we do.

I was very, very hard. I was a driven person, a performance driven person. So, I sought that in other people. I was very hard on Linda. I expected my wife to be a certain way and do certain things; it was very hard and difficult to live with. But when that happened to me – the realization was, there’s nothing I can do to achieve or perform. He just loves me. It blew me out of the water. For a couple of years, I had to reorient my whole way of seeing things because what was in me, that had been driving me, was gone. Now I was this person… all I wanted to do was spend time with him. From that place, fruit started to happen. I started to love people more.

There was a price that I paid because of that driven lifestyle, before that Father encounter. While raising my daughter, I was unemotional towards her. I was disconnected. I was non-relational. I was non-touchy feeling. So, she was raised by a man that was exactly like my dad, just un-relational. Well, after that encounter, all of a sudden, all I wanted to do is find ways to reach out, find ways to…. Matter of fact, I wrote a letter to her of apology, telling her that I hadn’t realized what I was like. She has kept that letter to this day. She lives with us here in Montana, along with her eight kids. We all live together. That could not have been possible before this encounter with the Father, because I was just a very, very hard person to live with.

I’ll say this too. When your insides are unlocked from all the bondage emotionally, you have a season that you’re going to have to learn how to live in those new emotions because you’ve never experienced them before. So, there was a bit of a roller coaster while walking it out. But yet, I was always aware of his presence and his love for me as I walked through that. There’s been a lot of challenges since that time, since that encounter, but I’m not alone, ever. So, I hope that’s helpful.

Me: It’s beautiful. That’s very good. Thank you.

So, your daughter lives with you, along with eight kids. Wow! Do they do soaking prayer with you?

Bill: Some of the grandkids do. Yes, some of them do. They come out. There’s a couple of them that come out occasionally, some more regularly than the others. But yes, absolutely.

Me: How old are these kids?

Bill: The youngest is about 10 months and the oldest is 12.

Me: Okay. So, we have a real gamut of ages here.

Bill: Yes.

Me: And they’re on the young end for sure. So, how about that 12-year-old? Does the 12-year-old ever come?

Bill: She comes occasionally. She likes it probably more when we worship. We meet on Tuesday nights for soaking and sometimes for intercession. But we also meet on Saturday nights. That’s when we have worship and teaching.

Me: Very cool.

Bill: Well, know this, Mary, we built this building that we’re in right now. We built this when we moved to Montana. It’s strictly a house of prayer. For the last two and a half years, we’ve had nothing but worship going on 24/7 inside here. We meet here and God’s just so good. His presence is so wonderful!

Me: I remember, before you moved, you talked about wanting to build that place.

Bill: Or something like it, because churches for the most part, always lack room. Most church buildings are multiuse. I just wanted a place that was strictly his, where his presence could be here. There wouldn’t necessarily be socials here. It’s a place of his presence.

It always was a dream of mine. When we moved here, there was a concrete slab on the ground. I didn’t know what to do with it. So, I started asking the Lord about it. Two years later, we’ve got this building that houses the presence of the Lord. It’s amazing actually.

Me: Did you build it?

Bill: I put about 60% of the work into it. I had about 40% assistance and help from others that actually knew what they were doing. And it took two years.

Me: That’s good.

Bill: Yep.

Well, going back to the soaking topic, or experiencing God; let’s just call it that. Back to the experiencing God side of things. If you were to talk to someone, it doesn’t matter their age, young or older people who have never experienced God; they’ve heard about him, but they haven’t really met him, or not very deeply anyway. Say they’re hungry for that. What would you tell a person like that to do, in order to position themselves to encounter God, to experience God?

Bill: Well, I know for me because I’m wired towards physical touch… I would say, seek out people who do the presence of the Lord, or ministries that carry the presence of the Lord. For most people, their first encounters with the presence (I’m not saying all people but for most); their encounters with the presence of the Lord happen during worship. They’ll go to a service, or a meeting, and they’ll feel something that they know is not them. Some people call it goosebumps. Other people, experience different signals of God’s presence.

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Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water, the Bible says. A lot of times you’ll feel peace deep on the inside of you. Part of it is recognizing his presence. Always presence is related to peace. You can’t have his presence without peace. That’s a real safe understanding of the presence of God.

When I started to feel his presence on the inside of me…. Now people sometimes struggle with that word feel. I guess you got to get over it. We are created with spirit, soul, and body. Every part of us was God’s idea. And so, you and I were meant to experience the presence of God.

Part of it is building a faith that believes it is the will of God for you to experience God. There’s a lot of things that I could share from the word that can help facilitate that, but we’re limited in time. The key, I think, is something I remember F.F. Boss saying, “Faith begins where the will of God is known.”

You must first believe that God really wants you to experience him. We have a book that we give out everywhere we go. It’s all about experiencing him. My wife, also, wrote a book on learning how to experience God. There are areas of intimacy where simple little practical tools to learn how to experience God can be helpful. He wants so badly to talk to each one of us. Matter of fact, he’s always talking to us, but we’ve just not turned the dial on the tuner to be able to hear because, in general, initially we don’t really believe the God of universe wants to talk to us. We think, “Why would he want to spend time with me?”

A lot of things that have happened in my life have occurred because of encounters with God. It’s where I’ve experienced something significant that changed everything. And so, I encourage people initially, to go places, and be with people that carry a heart to experience God’s presence. A corporate gathering is typically where people will experience him for the first time. That doesn’t limit him to only that, but it does help folks who want to learn how to experience God.

Think of the Bible. We always say, “What is the Bible? It’s the word of God.” And that is true. But if you look at it, the Bible is a bunch of stories about people experiencing God. It is all about experiencing him. And I think once you’ve tasted and seen that the Lord is good, something on the inside of you won’t let go….

Me: Bill, do you happen to have the titles, or even the book itself that you could put up to the camera? (He holds it up.)

The title reads, “Always Loved; You are God’s Treasure, not His Project.” The author is Brent Lokker.

Bill: That’s our favorite book. We give that away everywhere. This is my wife’s book. (He holds it up.)

Me: “Intimate Life Lessons,” by Linda Boone. Can people order those on Amazon if they want?

Bill: Probably not “Intimate Life Lessons.” You have to go to our website for that, which is encounterhislove.com.

Me: Didn’t even know you had a website. That’s great!

Bill: Yeah. You can order it there. I’ll package it up and send it out, for that particular book. Yeah. Like I said, I’m probably going to box up a bunch of books for you, so you can give some to your Nepali friends and so you can have some.

Me: That’s very generous. Thank you.

Well, we were talking about how people can experience God through their love language, and you said probably your top love language is feeling. Do you have any examples of what it’s like for somebody with a different love language to experience God?

Bill: Well, if you describe the five love languages, you’ve got: gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, and acts of service. Obviously with physical touch, it’s my sense of feel of the presence of God. It took me a while to realize, when I felt the presence of the Lord, that was him loving me. The simplicity of that. When I sense and feel that presence, not just read about it scripturally. I can quote the scripture, “He’ll never leave me or forsake me,” but to actually feel and experience that presence: it’s him loving me.

It’s not hard to see his love. You can use the experience of Jesus at his baptism as an example. There you can see aspects of those five love languages. What did the Father say to the Son? “You are my Son in whom I’m well pleased.” He then had the Holy Spirit come on him as a dove. Jesus felt something. He heard something. Those were keys, I believe, to set the pace for his ministry.

Jesus had to hear that. It wasn’t about ministry. He loves him. It wasn’t about ministry when Jesus experienced his Father’s presence. It was about the fact, that’s how the Father felt about his Son. The words “beloved son” means to be loved. So, you can see some of those kinds of things. That’s affirmation, hearing the words, the words of affirmation.

Me: I’m just thinking about the dove descending. It’s an example of the gift-giving love language. The Father spoke an encouraging word.

Bill: Yeah. But also, Jesus felt that presence, and so there’s touch in there.

I have another teaching, when it comes to our basic needs as human beings, that fits even more readily into that whole relationship Jesus had with the father, that we see exampled in the in the baptism. I think it was Bill Johnson who said perfect theology is Jesus. Look at Jesus’s life. You want to know what perfect theology is? Look at his life. You can get pretty much every pattern that exists by looking at the life of Jesus.

This is a primary thing: many are focused so much on Jesus (which is a good thing) but who did Jesus focus on? If you look at the New Testament, the Father. Jesus didn’t come to reveal Jesus’s will. Jesus came to reveal the Father, the will of the Father, to show what the Father was like. And so, the destination, as it says in John 14, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” And later Phillip is saying, “Show us the father and it’ll be good enough for us.” But really, Jesus is going, “Phillip, Phillip, dude, when you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” So, the essence of this whole thing that we’re walking is, Jesus never meant for you just to focus in on him. He meant for you to see who the Father was like, what he’s like, and how crazy he is about who you are. So that you could be the son or the daughter that he wants you to become. But that only comes by knowing and hearing and understanding his love.

So, endeavoring to come into a place, like I said, a lot of it’s keyed to being around people who carry his presence and his love. We were never meant to walk alone. We’re to be fathered and mothered in the kingdom. You know, finding those people who will actually disciple us and walk with us, and father and mother us into the things of God.

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Link to Part 1: https://firestarterforjesus.com/2025/11/18/experiencing-the-fathers-love-with-bill-boone-part-1-crisis-encounters/

Link to Bil Boone’s website: https://www.encounterhislove.com/

Experiencing the Father’s Love: Crisis Encounters, Part 1 of an Interview with Bill Boone

November 18, 2025November 30, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / 2 Comments

Me: Hi, I’m Mary, “Fire Starter for Jesus,” for online publishing. Welcome. I’m glad you’re reading this post. Consider watching while you read.

Me: Good morning.

Bill: Yeah. Hi, Mary.

Me: I am here with my friend Bill whom I met at Seattle Revival Center a bunch of years ago.

Bill: It’s been a while, probably ten years at least.

Me: Yeah, at least. Bill was leading a soaking prayer class at the time.

Bill, when I was in your class, we met in a couple of different spaces, maybe more, maybe three. Sometimes it was in the prayer room and sometimes it was up in the sanctuary. (People were laying on the chairs, bringing blankets and pillows.) Sometimes there was another room near the prayer room downstairs where we were meeting. So, over the years I experienced you leading “Soaking” as well as doing some Saturday morning, even all-day Saturday teaching seminars, on different topics that were related to developing one’s relationship with God.

You did a lot of leading in different ways. I appreciate you and your ministry and the spirit that you carry; the kindness and the gentleness that you lead with, and the way you help people encounter Jesus Christ. And I thought it would be good for the people reading to have a chance to meet you in this way and hear something about your story; how you began this journey of drawing close to God and then helping other people learn how to encounter God. So, would you like to tell your story?

Bill: Sure. Thanks Mary. I met Jesus in 1981. My relationship began out of crisis, dramatic crisis. I cried out to God. It wasn’t a deep commitment. He didn’t become Lord. I was just scared, simply scared, and I had no way out.

Initially I don’t honestly remember feeling anything during those first couple years. It wasn’t until later, in crisis mode, that I finally made a decision for Christ. That was where it began. It was probably around July of 1982, that I just said, “If you can do something with this life, do something.” I felt absolutely nothing.

About a year later after hanging out a lot with Christian brothers, all of a sudden I felt something! Something became real on the inside of me, which began a real journey and a quest to experience this person that was so distant.

I had grown up in a Lutheran church, and I had some perspective of God, but I didn’t know him. Yet I was craving for more of a relationship with God.

About a year or so after that, I was crying out to God, “What do I do with this thing, this relationship?”

Someone handed me a structured way of developing prayer, which I needed. I needed structure. I had known no structure most of my life. I had never held a job for more than three months. I was a mess in the military. Nothing was stable in my life. And so, I got handed this ministry that had structure at some level, making it possible for me to begin this relationship, pretty much one-sided, but it established me in a lifestyle of spending time with God that I’ve been able to maintain for the last 44 years.

It began to open up in me such a drive to know God. So, I spent gobs and gobs and gobs of time in the word. I spent gobs and gobs of time listening to ministries that helped establish me in a relationship with God. For the next 10 years I was grounded in God’s word. That was probably one of the most important things, to get grounded in God’s word. So, I had a sense of security and safety; knowing what and where I was going was focused on God. It was helpful during that season.

Probably about three, maybe even four years into this this initial relationship with God, I started to experience the presence of God. That’s kind of like hook and sinker for me.

There is a ministry out there by a guy, Chapman, called Five Love Languages. He talks about five different ways people are wired to be loved, and what really activates knowing that you are loved. One of those love languages which was a primary for me, I discovered, was physical touch. Without realizing until later, I just had this insatiable hunger for God’s presence.

So, late at night I’d have my pillow up against my face and I’d listen to old cassette tapes while wearing headphones. I would be worshiping the Lord as loud as I could, with my face in the pillow, and the presence of God would show up. I would have these amazing encounters with God!

That set the stage for my passion and quest. Who is this? Who is this presence? Who is this person? The word tells us God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Well, I wondered, what does all that mean? I had this quest to know. For several years, I found this presence in the things that I did. Yet I still, inside, felt very empty. There was something missing. I was searching for something that I couldn’t seem to acquire, even with all the time I would spend praying in the Spirit and time in the mornings with the Lord every day. I still felt there was something inside that was missing.

Photo by Antoni Shkraba Studio on Pexels.com

It keyed off in 1994. God started to pour his Spirit out in Toronto. I was just gloriously impacted and freed and delivered of a lot of stuff that I’d carried all of my life. I think the Lord told me 20 years of guilt and shame were instantly wiped from my life during that encounter. But even afterward there was still something missing.

About 12 years later I was in a series of meetings in Canada when the Father himself met me. I had been a Christian already 26 years. The experience I had been looking for all my life, I had just now found. Before that time, I was a very driven, hard person. My wife, Linda, would have said that I was really, really, hard. Hard to live with until that time. I had an intense passion for God, there was no question about that. I had incredible hunger for God during all those years. But it wasn’t until that encounter with the Father and knowing how much he loved me… that was the simple message from that encounter, he loved me. And all I could do was cry because I couldn’t believe what I was experiencing at that moment. I couldn’t believe that there was anybody who could love me this much.

Even though I had such a quest and a hunger for the presence of the Lord before that time, that is when the revelation of soaking prayer became a real thing to me. All I wanted to do was to soak, spend time, absorb, embrace, drink, feed on this incredible love that the Father had for me.

Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric on Pexels.com

As a kid growing up, I never knew a father’s love. I never knew, really, a mother’s love. I saw… and during a divorce, there was all sorts of chaos. I became an orphan in my own home. So, I had no connection with real parents at all. I remember high school years were just horrible! Horribly alone! I’m surprised I didn’t intend to commit suicide during those times because I was so alone. So, I got into lots of drugs, lots of pornography, lots of anything that could somehow numb this pain that was on the inside of me.

But at that moment, in April 2006 when I had the encounter of the Father, something all came together. At that point in time. All of a sudden it was like, “Oh my God, I finally found you!” All I wanted to do for years is live in this experience of him loving me. That became the primary thing and largely since that time, to know that he loves me.

I have a particular scripture that I love: 1 John 4:16, “And we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.”

The discovery for me here was: 1) Know by experience. 2) And believe. Now, I believed God loved me before then, but I had never known the experience of it in a deep intimate way. The focus was not on me loving him; it was a focus on him loving me. This verse says, “God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God abides in him.” If you see the context there, he’s talking about us abiding in his love for us.

That is so key to understand. It’s all about him loving us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his son.” It’s all one purpose, one focus, from the beginning, and it goes on to eternity. It’s all about being loved by God because from there comes all the fruit. I remember a pastor leader spoke on this a number of years ago. His name was Jack Frost. He said, “The revelation of the Father’s love for you and I is the bookshelf where all the rest of the books rest!”

So everything’s founded on the fact that he loves us. James Jordan said, “It’s learning to live in the ongoing experience of him loving you.” That’s key. You want to know about the meaning of John Chapter 15, the vine and the branches and the bearing fruit passage? True fruit flows from an understanding of him loving you. Also, it’s in 1 John Chapter 4, “We love because he first loved us.” We know that the first commandment is love God. Love our neighbors as ourselves. But you can’t give something that you haven’t received. You can’t walk in something you don’t know. And so, this becomes the essence of what soaking prayer is about: learning just how to receive.

He is more excited and hungry to spend time with you and I than we could possibly imagine. So, when we soak in prayer and become still before him, he becomes the God who loves us on a personal level. “Be still and know that I’m God.” Learning to be still in a receiving mode gives you the ability to encounter him. And you know what? We are built to encounter God! It really begins from a place of intimacy, where he comes to us and reveals himself. And you know what? Our lives become an ongoing, one after another, encounter of him. First and foremost, him loving us. Then we have the grace of God to love others and do the ministry that he has for us.

So soaking prayer is simply learning how to receive. When you’re an infant, the first few years you don’t give a whole lot, except the kinds of things that come out of your body that you really don’t want, you know? As a child, we learn how to receive. Soaking prayer is just learning how to be a child again and just receive in simplicity, the heavenly Father’s love, the love that he has for us because that’s how it’s all built. So anyway, that’s my two cents and the short version of my testimony.

There’re so many things we’ve seen, so many miracles. We’ve seen people healed. We’ve seen people delivered. We’ve seen all sorts of things in a group setting. And we still to this day we do Tuesday nights. We do a soaking prayer because we value learning how to receive from God.

Part 2 will be coming soon. Check back or sign up to receive notifications. Consider sending this to someone you know.

Links:
Bill’s website: https://www.encounterhislove.com/

Entire video interview: https://youtu.be/KewCM5SGPlI

Reviving Lives: The Impact of Jesus Coffee House in Spokane, an Interview with Linda Meissner

October 16, 2025November 18, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

Me: We are here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. I am with my precious and dear friend, Linda Meissner. We’ve known each other since Linda returned from Europe. What year was that?

Linda: 2013.

Me: So, twelve years. We used to work in ministry together, in Tacoma particularly, doing a whole variety of things. Linda and her family moved to Idaho during the time that COVID hit.

Linda: Yes.

Me: They moved to continue to serve the Lord, because everything they did was stopped by the government. They came to a place where they could continue their various ministries. Linda’s son Dan is a gifted musician. He was giving music lessons that couldn’t continue. Altogether, we were starting a church in Tacoma. Suddenly, we weren’t supposed to meet. So, it just got awkward, painful and difficult. So, Dan, leading his family, decided to move here (not to Coeur d’Alene) but to Post Falls, Idaho. Linda set up a brand-new coffee house in the Spokane area. Dan went looking for God’s opportunity for him in various places. What has come out of that search is a new school called River Tech in Post Falls. It’s been running for about how long now?

Linda: I think this is the fourth year. We’re very thankful for this school. We’ve seen the hand of God. Beginning with nothing, God showed us the location. Then after putting up some posters for the idea, God has really blessed it. Especially going into the fourth year. We have 77 students and seven teachers. We’re seeing not only academically, the youth growing and learning, but also spiritually. We’ve seen broken families come back together. My granddaughter Evelyn (who’s 13) and her friend have been very evangelistic. They’ve gotten about 13 kids from the school to attend the youth group in our church. It’s a new church plant here in Post Falls called Sun City. Luke, my oldest my oldest grandson at 19; he is a full-time teacher in our school, River Tech. And he’s very active in the new church plant, also worship team, youth group, etc.

Me: He’s amazing. Went on a mission trip this summer, right, this last summer?

Linda: Right. He went to Africa.

Me: Lake Victoria, right?

Linda: Yes, in Uganda. Lake Victoria is gigantic. Out in that lake there are many islands. Luke, together with a little team, went out to those islands and preached the gospel. It was very effective, and they were really happy to have that team. Luke plays nearly all the instruments. He had his guitar, and they sang to the kids. They found witchcraft there. They had to pray the prayer-of-faith and power to get that out of the way.

Me: I bet he has some great stories.

Linda: Yeah, he does. Now he’s planning to take a mission trip to Mexico around Thanksgiving time. He really cares about the people. He helps me at the coffee house a lot. And the coffee house, of course, is for the homeless and for the poor. I’m glad that he has a heart for the people that Jesus has a heart for. So, it’s wonderful!

Me: Let’s tell the people about the coffee house a bit more.

Linda: Well, God is great! When we came here, I didn’t know anybody and had nothing except our own stuff. The first thing that happened was that God miraculously gave us a location in a church that didn’t require any rent. I knew one person. That one person introduced me to another person and that’s how it went. Without having a team, or knowing anybody, one by one God bought brought volunteers or missionaries to help with the people in the street.

Spokane is a desperate city with 2,000 homeless and fentanyl is the killer here. We had nearly 400 people die on the street last year from fentanyl. We also have a lot of suicide here. They jump over the Spokane Bridge. I talked to a man whose job it was to throw dead bodies out of the Spokane River. He said he pulled one out, one or two out, every day. And now fentanyl has even a worse chemical that they can add to it. I don’t remember its name, but it’s a fast killer.

We have a great burden for these people. God loves them and we love them. God miraculously not only gave us a team, but he has given us two Jesus vans that hold 15 passengers. We have two drivers and two co-pilots. They drive to the very worst locations where the homeless are laying in the street, on drugs, and it’s most awful. They drive there, pick up a van load, and bring them to the coffee house. God has expanded us so that we were serving hot meals, and donuts and coffee, and bottles of water.

Friday before last we fed 200. Last Friday we fed about 150. There aren’t very many places now in Spokane that feed the poor. So, we’re really needed. We’ve added clothes to it. I didn’t have any way to get clothes, but miraculously people bring by bags of clothes, blankets, sleeping bags, and shoes. One family bought us a whole big box of socks from Amazon. Whenever the clothes get low, don’t you worry, somebody comes to the door bringing a new bunch of clothes.

Me: He’s also been bringing the food to you.

Linda: Oh, he brings the food to us, too! We don’t have to buy very much food. We have a different cook every Friday that cooks three big oven pans full of food. But that’s not enough because we’ve doubled in number since December. So, the church, Full Gospel Mission for All Nations, Pastor Steve Cannon; they also cook food on Friday. So, we have different cooks from the north, south, east and west that cook for it. Then we have the church also making food. And we get this food free from Dream Center, which is a terrific church and a terrific rehab place.

I used to buy the donuts; but Dan and I get these four dozen donuts free from The Dream Center. And God just provides. Also, people bring by things like chips, or a cake that they’ve made, or a pie that they’ve made. Yeah. It’s a wonderful feeling to give!

Me: So, the people are picked up in a van. The driver takes them to the church where you have the coffee house laid out with tables, an area for clothes, an area for food, and up front you have worship.

Linda: Yes. But we’ve had to enlarge our facility. The pastor is so good. He has a folding wall between our location and the church sanctuary. I kind of grin, because at the beginning he wouldn’t allow one soul in the sanctuary. But now, when he sees what God has done with the different individuals and how many there, he lets us fold down that wall. We have moved the clothes, the music, and the microphone into the sanctuary. This gives us two more long tables for people to have space to eat.

Me: I get it. So, you’ve reoriented the focus from this way to that way. It’ll be fun to see it tomorrow night when I go there and check out all the changes.

Linda: Yes. The front is still where we have a microphone, where we have terrific testimonies of people that have been living in the street a long time, been on drugs, you know, been in jail. They tell how God has delivered them, set them free. They volunteer in the coffee house, telling people about Jesus. We always have someone bring the word of God. I’m really insistent that we give an altar call in which we ask everyone to be quiet.

I ask everyone to bow their heads. I ask, “Is this the day that you will make a change, that you’ll invite Jesus in your heart? If you need prayer, raise your hand.” And then several raise their hand every week.

Me: And so, what happens? What happens when they’re ready to get off the street?

Linda: Yeah. Well, first I say, “Now I’m going to ask you to do something very courageous. You’ve raised your hand, but now I want you to come up here in front and sit in a chair in front of me.” And we always have four to eight or whatever. They come up. They sit in a chair and the Spirit of the Lord touches them really double heavy. Most of them cry. And I have a counselor work with each one. I shut the whole coffee house down as far as feeding and the clothes are concerned. I ask all the volunteers to move around the homeless, to meet a friend, and talk to them about Jesus.

So, we have those eight in front getting prayer. Then we have different ones that didn’t come up getting prayer. At that point in the coffee house, it’s very wow! The conviction of God is very strong. The love of God is very strong. It’s a marvelous thing to see!

Then, workers are down around the tables and up in front with the chairs; they’re talking to the people individually. They’re able to ask the men, “Are you living in the street?” And they’ll say yes. Then we’re so happy for the Lord’s Ranch and the Director, Janice Simili. Any there who say, “We want off the street, and we want rehab, and we want to follow God.” The Lord’s Ranch comes down with a big van every Friday with men to help us with security and to evangelize. If the homeless men want that change, they can just go with the van 40 miles north to a beautiful place where there’s animals and fresh air and Bible study every day, clean clothes, and food three times a day.

The truth is, not every single one we send up there, stays. But even when half of them stay, it’s still a win-win. The others that say they want to go back down to the street, they’ve got in the back of their mind; there is a place I can go… Often then, they make a second choice to go back, they stay. We’re so thankful for the Lord’s Ranch. That’s a good solution for the men.

We also have women that are weeping. Their condition in the streets of Spokane is even worse. They’re being used by the men in the street. They have to sell their bodies to get money to get food. Some of them are trafficked. They have to obey their boss, whoever’s got them. We have these women too; they weep before the Lord, and they cry out to us, and tell us their situation.

I had a person tell me this week and it broke my heart. They said, “Oh, well those people are just lazy.”

No, no, no, no, no! Each one of them has a story. And their story will break your heart. They’re living in great trauma: No dad, no home, parents – alcoholics, parents – drug addicts, no one to take care of them even from a young age, on drugs. Their stories are just heartbreaking, and the women’s stories are especially heartbreaking to me.

Excuse me while I tell you that it’s very heartbreaking because we have no place to send the women. After they’ve prayed and really met God for two hours at the coffee house, then they have to walk out the door. The van takes them back down to that street where they were laying, and its hell!

Well, I can testify that some of them have made it even without going to rehab. We’ve had many make it and go to the church where we’re located. Others that come back every week, the coffee house being like their church; they have pulled themselves through. They look tremendously better, comparing the first time we met them with three months later. Yeah, but we have no rehab for them.

And you say, “Linda, are there no women’s rehabs?” I’m telling you just the raw truth. Yes, there’s a Union Gospel Mission. They have a good rehab. And Teen Challenge has a good rehab. The Dream Center has a good rehab. Salvation Army has a good rehab. Well, you say, then what’s the problem?

The problem is, there’s such a long distance between where we’ve picked them up, from laying in the street on drugs, from bringing them to the coffee house. Now they’re going to choose a new life. They’ve still got drugs in their veins. They’re not good enough.

Me: What do you mean?

Linda: They’re not good enough to go to these good Christian rehabs! They will not take them unless they’ve been drug-free for such a long time. They can’t smoke. They can’t use their phone. They must have recommendations. They must have an ID, which is good. I’m I mean, I’m for it all. But our kids that just come in that night to our coffee house, they don’t have that.

We need a transition place, or we need a down-traffic place. Well, yes, there is a down-traffic place in Spokane, but the report I get from everyone is, it’s full of drug addicts. I mean they don’t get any help there. Drugs are everywhere in that place. They’ve got to go to a place where they can down traffic, where it’s clean. We desperately need this place. We thought that we had found one this time, that time, that time, and that time. But no. None of them ever worked.

Me: So, it needs to be a unique place where people can come while they’re detoxing from the drugs, where they won’t be able to get more drugs while they’re there, and where they can get some help getting ID. What else would they need, to be able to get into one of these other places? They need ID. They need to be drug free. Is there anything else?

Linda: They’re not going to be able to smoke. That’s not so bad. Just a few things, like that, a recommendation.

Me: So, somebody who’s good at getting people free of addictions would need to be able to run a place like this, and have the skills to know how to work with these people, and keep them safe.

Linda: if they’ve been trafficked, keep them safe from the men that have been using them and the temptations that are in the street. It’s a transition house, actually. If we could get a transition house, as soon as they go through it, now they’re free of drugs. Now we help them get ID. Now we can recommend them, and da da da da da. Then they could fit into the Dream Center or into the Union Gospel Mission or into other places like that.

Me: Many years ago, back in the 60s when you were working with David Wilkersonson in New York City, didn’t you do that with that ministry? I mean, you’ve seen that happen successfully, correct?

Linda: Yes. We did it right at Teen Challenge. We worked the streets several hours a day, six days a week, and when we found one that was on drugs, we could bring them home with us. We had a special room in Teen Challenge, the detox room. We had good Christian music in the detox room. It was comfortable. We had different ones of us on Dave Wilkerson’s team. One or two of us would stay by their side. For example, if you’re on heroin in 72 hours, you would have broken the habit basically and then of course you have to be taken care of after that. But we did that right among us. But nobody will do that here.

Me: Do you know why?

Linda: No. We thought we could try it. I mean Dream Center’s been really good to us. They give us the food. They thought they would try it. They took…. They tried it; taking them from our place, the coffee house, over to their place, to their women’s center. But it didn’t work out positive for them because our women were so.… No, it just didn’t work. And finally, they had to say to us, we just can’t do this.

But the pastor there, a youth pastor, Rosie Peterson, she’s fantastic! She has spoken with me now. And I have another couple that work… I have many couples, but a certain couple that works at the coffee house; they have worked at Union Gospel Mission for almost 39 years. So, they’re really professional with the homeless. We’ve talked, “We’ve got to get our own place. We have to get our own transition house.”

The problem is, when we found a place, they wanted me to run it; to put it through my nonprofit, Faithful Five. But I am already booked to the full. I have so many people around me. So many people calling me and texting me; so many people to take care of, because I have 30 people on the team. I have their phone numbers, and I keep track of them. I talk to them and help them through their problems. And then we have a whole bunch of the first-fruits, many newly saved ones. And I get to have their phone number and help them through their situations.

And then just people calling: “It’s about my son. Can you help him? He’s in the street and da, da, da, da!” I’m in a full-time ministry right now. And I can’t be overseeing a transition place; just can’t do it. And I don’t have the money to do it. But this prayer which we’ve been praying…. All the other prayers, they get answered. Here comes the food. Here comes the clothes. Here comes the singer. Here comes the workers. Here comes the vans. Here comes the people to drive the vans. Here comes the security guys. Everything we’ve needed to run this thing. And it’s a big thing now. But no answer, no answer for the women! And winter’s coming.

This really breaks my heart. The winter’s coming! Its not fun to sleep out in the street when the winter’s coming. Spokane has closed down so many shelters. There’s not enough shelters at all! We need 1,500 more shelters to cover for Spokane.

Me: You mean 1,500 beds?

Linda: Yes. We have very few shelters. The city has not been good. That’s what I’m trying to say. It’s been closing down shelters instead of increasing the shelters and closing down the places where they can get fed food. Shalom feeds them. We feed them.

Me: Has the city been good for you, working with you in this feeding project that you’re doing?

Linda: Well, I have not had much contact with them until recently. They began to hear about it; that the Jesus Coffee House is picking these people up and bringing them in and giving them food, but we are not on their official list of helps.

Me: I see.

Linda: But we are going to knock that one, just automatically, because our first fentanyl addict was living in a hell and I’ve been working with her now for two and a half years. She’s been clean and she’s very well spoken, you know. Now we have other fentanyl addicts and other jailbirds.

Me: And I think I’ve met her, that one.

Linda: Oh, yeah. Well, she’s really strong now compared to them. And she works, she gets her money from a place that helps the homeless find housing. God’s been so good on housing. When they really pray to Jesus, he gets them housing, even without the rehab. So, God is working even without the rehab. We see many of them getting their housing, getting a job.

Me: But what you’re saying is there’s still a need.

Linda: Oh, there’s a gigantic need. I I don’t understand why God hasn’t answered this need. I’m just being personal. He’s no doubt working on something that just hasn’t appeared yet. And we say, “That’s great God, but hurry up, the winter’s coming!”

This is a beautiful sunny day here in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, North Idaho. And it’s not bad to sleep out here in a sleeping bag; but I’m telling you, the winter winds. They say we’re going to have a tough winter this winter. Um yeah, we need help.

Me: And if you have a sleeping bag, but you’re on the street and it rains, you’ve got a wet sleeping bag.

Linda: That’s it. That’s absolutely right.

Me: Wet clothes, no dryer, no roof.

Linda: The thing here is not just to classify them as the homeless. Talk to them! I encourage you. Meet some of them. Talk to them. Ask them, “How did you end up here?” Some of them had nice houses. One of our ladies had a nice job in the city. She has four children.

Ask, “How did you get here?” It’s a heartbreaking story; step by step, by step, how they got down there. It could happen to anybody. Yeah, I love those people and I’m not ashamed of it. And beside the rehab part of it, we’re doing what God wants us to do.

Jesus said, “I was hungry, you fed me. I was thirsty, you gave me a drink. I was naked, you clothed me.” So just on that level, we’re hitting the mark according to Jesus’ teachings. And then, as you’ve heard, we are discipling them and seeing them change.

I sat at the church where the coffee house is located a couple Sundays ago. I visited them. I sat in the back row, and looked around. Wow! I looked around. He’s been in jail. He’s been on drugs. They’ve been in jail. I counted 10 people sitting in the church pew that Sunday that I had met when they were in hell, in jail, on drugs, da, da, da, da, da! All of them were sitting there praising the Lord. That was so fantastic, I tell you!

So, I’m enthused about what we do and it’s growing! First, we were just our team with the coffee house. But now many other ministries and churches are helping us in manpower or by bringing clothes. or food. We’re six, maybe eight. We’re seeing a great love among the brethren. No division, about what denomination; we never ask that. It’s whether you have a burden for the lost and you want to help Jesus put some clothes on these people. We all work together in great love. The street people always tell us when they get back in the van to go home, “Oh, we felt so much love. Oh, we just love that place!” I mean, they love us. And they’re spreading the word. They’re spreading the news that we’re located there.

Me: That’s great! That’s beautiful.

Well, for our people who are watching this interview, there’s at least a couple of applications, if not more, to the story. One of them is, there may be somebody out there who would like to help by providing the transitional housing for women who need it in Spokane. Somebody who has the skills and would come and be a part of the answer to that.

There may be somebody else who has financing who would like to help purchase a property that could be used in this situation. There may be somebody out there working for the Spokane government who knows how to get through the legal loopholes and how to guide the ministry toward making this happen. Those are all really practical things that apply directly to what you’re doing.

But there’s also the general story that Linda has of this passion on her heart; how she came here to the Spokane, Idaho border area. She started this ministry to reach people who need it, and God has provided every single thing she’s needed; including a place without being charged any rent, including workers, including food and clothing. God has built this step by step. I have seen you do this more than once.

She did this in the King County area, too. More than once.

So, you may have some sort of vision on your mind, passion God has given you. It may be in the area of the homeless. It may be in some entirely different area of society. But you may be thinking, I want to do this… but I don’t have the resources. And Linda’s example is stepping out. As she steps out, God has been bringing solution after solution, over and over again, for years, to meet the need because he’s called her to do this.

Linda: Yes.

Me: If God has called you to do the vision that’s on your heart, then step out and begin moving forward in it. And may God bring to you all the resources you need in order to establish what he wants to do through you on planet Earth. We all have a purpose. We all have a destiny. We all have work to do to bring heaven to earth in a greater way. Every single person was created with a purpose, including you. And so, we want to encourage you to live for the Lord and serve him. Be blessed. And see the mighty eternal reward you will build in heaven that no one can steal from you or take from you, as you choose to lay your life down for him.

There’s a scripture that says something about how if we want to save our lives, we need to lose them. If we lose our lives for Christ’s sake, then we will find them. It’s this dynamic principle of the kingdom: Live for yourself; it doesn’t work out. Live for the Lord and vistas open before you because God is on your side to help you. You’ll get to know him better in the process of serving him in whatever capacity he’s called you, because it becomes a supernatural thing.

Linda: Amen. I’d like to say that if you would like to reach me, I am on Facebook, Linda Meissner, and Messenger. One way you can help, I have a few sponsors and that helps me with buying the utensils, coffee cups, coffee creamer; all the things we need every week. You can help us financially. If you ask me on Facebook Messenger, I can tell you how. My nonprofit is called Faithful Five. You can help that way. Also, I get many letters on Facebook. You may have a son or a grandchild that’s in a situation, or maybe my counsel, or maybe I can help you. So, don’t be afraid to reach out to me. Yeah, we could connect.

Me: Very good.

Linda: We did it!

Me: We did! So, go, go, go, go, and serve the Lord!

Linda: Yes! Amen. Amen. Amen.

Me: Bye!

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Note: Pictures are from the ministry, websites, or from pixabay.com.

RESOURCES

Websites:

Linda Meissner’s Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/linda.meissner.7

Faithful Five Nonprofit: https://www.faithfulfive.org/

The Lord’s Ranch, Spokane: http://www.worldharvestmissions.org/current/lords-ranch.html

River Tech School: https://www.rivertechschool.com/

Video playlists of the time Linda and I worked together in Western Washington:

Evangelism Team Training by Linda Meissner – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvnCyOxFUyqwB3bxRQW_yBTr

Catacombs at Tacoma Faith, Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvkhV_OlscHIuxCyzuYcsOIk

Tacoma Gospel Choir’s First Performance Ever, Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvm6J4b8hpMwqhIpeyfVtduH

Testimonies, Preaching, Etc @ Jesus People Coffee House with Linda Meissner, Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvltqD-bLt-PZcg2QmicTN9r

Prayers and Prophecies @ Jesus People Coffee House with Linda Meissner, Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvnCyOxFUyqwB3bxRQW_yBTr

Worship by the Evening @ Jesus People Coffee House, Playlist – https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3omWYhSBhvlKElisit86RESvLpPaX2pL

Heidi Skagen’s Journey: From Loss to Lavender Farm Success

September 5, 2025November 18, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

Listen to Heidi’s interview on YouTube, or read this shortened summary here, or both!

You’re about to be introduced to Heidi Skagen. She has a new business; it’s the fulfillment of a long-term dream of hers. Hopefully this story of her dream becoming a reality will inspire you to embrace your big dreams for the Kingdom of God. You are an influencer whatever you do and wherever you go. You were created with talents and a purpose from God. You can use your career to serve Jesus and bring glory to him, while piling up eternal rewards in heaven! Maybe her journey will inspire you to trust God and take a leap forward in your endeavors! Perhaps you’ll be motivated to try something new or find a different way of doing what you’re currently involved with that brings greater glory to God.

Heidi’s Story:

Me: Heidi, you have created a lavender farm here on your property. Yes. What inspired you to do that?

Heidi: This has been a dream of mine for over 30 years. And frankly, I thought it had died. The reason I thought so was because in 2006 my husband was tragically killed. I had five children. I just thought, ‘I’ve got to get a job.’ And so, that dream of someday getting property to create this lavender herb farm… I just thought, well, that’s a dead dream. So, I went back to school, got my landscape design degree, and a c certification in horticulture, (ornamental horticulture) and started a business. I ran a landscape design business for many years.

Then in 2021, I moved out here to Kent, to this beautiful 10 acres. I got remarried to my husband David. Our living room overlooked this huge field. And I was standing there one day; it was like a little spark, I think the Lord was putting a little spark within. Maybe that dream is not dead. So, I asked David, “Could I plant something in that field?” And he’s so sweet. He said, “Sure.”

I don’t know if he had any idea what I had in mind or how serious I was about it, but I was serious. I immediately started designing it and implementing it. I realized this dream of a lavender herb farm had been resurrected. You know there’s timing for everything under heaven. So, this is it.

Me: So, when did you start preparing the field for your lavender farm which, by the way, is right back here.

In 2022, I started implementing it. The first six months of that year I spent coming up with a design. I wanted it in the shape of a labyrinth. I didn’t want one that I found in a book or something. I wanted my own unique one. So, I studied lots and lots of labyrinths and came up with my own design.

Me: So, for those who don’t know what is a labyrin? It’s hard even to say…. Go ahead.

Heidi: A labyrinth. Thank you. A labyrinth is an intricate pathway. It’s not a maze because it doesn’t have dead ends and you can’t get lost. As long as you’re going forward, you are on a journey to get to the destination. And it labyrinths have been around for centuries.… Cathedrals would put these labyrinths in, and they are symbolic of going on a journey to grow closer to the Lord. I have created mine because ultimately that’s what I want. I want people to feel drawn to the Lord without ever having to go step inside of a church or hear a sermon. They can go out there and feel the Lord’s presence without even realizing it. And it’s a place to meditate, to pray, to think about life; and it represents a journey….

Me: So, this year you opened your field for the very first time. Before that, it was preparation, right? It was clearing the land and bringing in soil and then ordering a multitude of plants and planting them… correct?

Heidi: Yes. In the garden world, there’s this little poem. It says that when you’re planting your garden, “first year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps.” So, the first year I don’t know if they got that much sleep, because right after I got the plants in (they were tiny)…. I had a young friend that wanted to get married here on the property. So, we hosted a wedding here, and then (later) we had a concert. So, that was our first year.

The second year, amazingly, the lavender had grown quite a bit, almost completely covering the landscape fabric I had out there, which surprised me! So, it did more than creep, I thought. And we had another concert. I did decide to open up for one weekend, just to see what would happen and who would come. And I just put signs out on the road. I had people the whole day on both days, a constant flow of people coming just from seeing our signs. And every single one of them would comment on the peace they felt here, and the beauty they felt here, and how they couldn’t believe there was something like this in Kent! So, they were really excited about that.

This third year I opened up from June to August on Fridays and Saturdays. I just put out my signs and I put some notifications out on social media. Again, I had a constant group of people flowing through here from all over the world. That was interesting! I got to know a lot of people from the community around here, but there were people from India, from Hungary, from China, and a few others, the Ukraine. So, that was exciting!

Me: That’s amazing! Just from signs along the road.

Heidi: Yeah. Yeah. So, that was super fun! I was kind of … it’s coming to an end, but next year. So that was 2025. Yes.

Me: And during 2025 though you had it open on Fridays and Saturdays for a period of hours, so people could stop by. You had a table set up. You were selling some lavender-oriented things. What were those?

Heidi: Yeah, I had some linens, some candles, soaps and things I had made from the lavender buds. A lady came. (All lavender is edible, but some varieties are more desired for cooking). And so, she was excited to buy some of that to make sourdough bread. Then she brought me a couple loaves of that bread the following week. It was so good! Yeah, so that was fun to have the stand. Mainly everybody would come and do a u-pick. They would go out into the field, walk to the labyrinth and pick whatever different varieties of lavender they wanted and then I’d wrap it up for them to take home.

Me: Very nice. I also saw you had little bags that people could put lavender in. Were those for perfuming drawers or what?

Heidi: Yeah, they could make their own sachets. You can put them in your drawer or wherever you want the scent to be. I actually put mine in my pillowcase, so I smell it while I’m sleeping. It’s really great!

Me: Good idea.

Heidi: Yeah. Yeah. I have bees out here, too. I’m fostering some bees out in the field. The beekeeper had some products that I was able to put out. She had made them from her beeswax and stuff.

Me: Wow. Yeah. Awesome. So, tell us about the name of your farm and how you came up with it.

Heidi: That took a long time. My husband and I could never agree on anything. So, it was very frustrating. That’s probably the main reason I didn’t open last year more than just one weekend: I didn’t have a name for the farm…. And I wanted to have a name that was different from any other lavender farm. And I wanted it to have a good meaning. I wanted it to be unique to me. So finally, I was just frustrated frankly. And I thought, you know, Dr. Seuss makes up his own words. Why don’t I just make up my own word? So, I started making up my own words and I found one that I’d liked. I thought, well, I’m going to run it through Google in case it is a real word. I just want to make sure I know what it means if it is a real word. And so, I put it in. Google replies, “Did you mean Synnove?” And I looked at it. I just love how it looks even spelled out. But I wondered, do I mean Synnove? What does it mean? As it turns out, it’s a Norwegian word. It means kissed by the sun or gift from the sun, which I absolutely loved! And, when I mentioned it to David, he said, “Wow, yeah, that could work!” And I’m like, “Okay, I’m taking it.” So, I went with that word. And now I can’t even remember what my fake word was, because it led me to where I needed to go; bringing me to the right name.

Me: Excellent! So, what are your hopes for the future and what will you do during the winter?

Heidi: Well, we are in the process of doing some renovations around the farm. One of the renovations will be to add a place to do classes. And that’s what I would really like to do eventually. What I’ll probably do this winter is plan out the kind of classes I’ll do. And then next year hopefully I’ll have a place where I can hold classes throughout the year, and maybe even bring in some other artisans to teach different skills.

ME: So that would be great! You did have a craft day this summer. I came!

Heidi: Yes, that was another part of that leap. I forgot to mention that. We had the concert, and I had my open days. We also had a women’s event. It was a creative art experience where the women could go out into the labyrinth and listen to what the Lord was saying to them about how he sees them and what he calls them. Then we did a project related to that. It was impactful and fun.

Me: That was fun. The very next day, you had a concert here with a local musician and you had a huge turnout.

Heidi: Yeah, it was definitely a leap. It was a bigger turnout than any of our other concerts, so far.

Me: Yeah. And you’ve redesigned your parking area here, expanding it so more people can fit. That day of the concert, you had people going clear around here to park their cars. So, you can fit a lot of visitors here.

Heidi: Yes. Yes, we can. And that brings up one of my goals; in the future, be more streamlined with our parking arrangements. So, yeah, we’ll just see how that goes.

Me: That’s great. So, what would you like to tell the people about living life, lavender farms, or the Lord?

Heidi: …Well, one thing that’s special about this labyrinth, and it was something I had always wanted to do as a landscape designer, (but I always worked with small residential yards up in the Seattle area) I wanted to design something that could be seen in its own unique way from up above, like in an airplane…. And so, in designing this labyrinth I made it in the shape of a giant flower. So, if you were up in an airplane flying over, you’d look down and you’d see this humongous flower in the middle of this field.

And what I love about labyrinths is they’re a reminder, if you’re looking down, that life’s is a journey. When you’re in it, you smell the fragrance. You are walking forward. You hear the happy bees buzzing around you. Um, but you don’t have the big picture from up above, because you’re in it. You get to experience all this stuff. And as long as you’re going forward in life, you’re going to get to where you need to go.

And I want to leave the audience with this: If you have a dream or a goal on your heart, this is what happens in a labyrinth. You could be only one row away from that middle section, the goal of where you’re getting. You turn and the path will take you in a completely different area. It will take a lot longer now to get to that goal. You think you’re so close and then and then you turn. That happens a lot in life. We have a goal. We think we’re almost there. Then something kind of turns us in a different direction and it may take us a lot longer to get there.

But I can tell you in my experience, all those years of landscaping and planning gardens for other people, learning about plants; I am way more prepared now to be doing this farm than I would have been back in the early 2000s when me and my first husband were dreaming about something like this.

So, when the Lord puts something on your heart and it seems like it’s far away or maybe you’ve given up on it, or you feel like you should just give up on it; be in the present and ask him what he wants you to learn as you go on your journey, because you may end up revisiting that dream. That dream may be resurrected and you’ll be better prepared for it.

Me: God doesn’t waste anything.

Heidi: No, he doesn’t.

So that’s what I would want to say: Follow your dreams.

Me: Yeah. And let the Lord set the timing of your dreams and do whatever you do to bring honor and glory to him, to build his kingdom because God cares about every part of life. He cares about businesses. He cares about government. He cares about family. He cares about the church. He cares about media and entertainment, health care, and education. He cares about every sphere of life. He wants his people there being representatives of him. Somewhere in scripture it says we are ambassadors for Christ. Yeah. So, wherever you are, you’re an ambassador for the kingdom of God. And we bless you whatever your dream is and where you’re headed and what you’re doing. So thank you for watching (or reading) and God bless.

Note to the reader: This isn’t an exact transcript of the video interview, but it covers the dialogue well. If you watch YouTube, you’ll hear exactly what went on. Hope you enjoyed this.

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Forgiving for Healing ~ Letting Go of Pain

August 26, 2025November 18, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

Listen on YouTube while you read.

“Mercy! Forgiving when it’s Hard” covered certain misconceptions about forgiveness, misunderstandings that get in the way of our willingness to forgive. It was written primarily to help us take down strongholds of the will and strongholds in our understanding, so we will hopefully let go and take the forgiveness plunge.

This second post on forgiveness focuses more on the emotional aspect: forgiveness in situations that are loaded with heartache and trauma! As we learn how to release what we’ve been carrying around emotionally regarding specific forgiveness situations, whole memories can be redeemed. Then our emotional reactions in the present can change. No more “faking it until you make it!” Real change is accomplished by the Holy Spirit. It’s quick and easy once we decide we’re ready to let go and know how!

We release our painful emotions to God. He takes them and gives us his loving emotions in their place. We can receive deep cleansing. We can be set free, restored and made even stronger. We can give him our hurts. Then Lord can then remove ugly buttons from our hearts; buttons that get pushed and set us off in the present because of something unhealed in our past.

As we entrust him with washing out our hurts, we’re taking intimacy with God deeper, moving our relationship with him to a whole new level. We’re moving in childlike faith. We’re exposing those painful emotions associated with our memories to his tender loving, healing, cleansing river. Then God can wash us on an emotional level. We’re cleansed and more able to express the beautiful fruit of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit more of the time.

"How do I change the way I feel?" you may wonder. Without the Lord, you probably can't! All you can do is push the pain back down...to have it pop back up later. But God within you can!

“How do I change the way I feel?” you may wonder. Without the Lord, you probably can’t! All you can do is push the pain back down into the subconscious to have it pop back up later. But GOD within you can if you’ll let him! He can remove any emotion we’re willing to give him. He can change our hearts. He can do it in seconds. He can put the opposite emotion in its place, and he will do it when we make room for him to work within our hearts and ask. What an amazing trade! Beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, a garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness! What a trade! What love! Will we trust him enough to let him do it?

Ready to let God move? Great! Pray this way: “God, I trust you with my heart. Lord, change me. I let go of what happened. I set all others free and I set myself free of this memory and its pain. I give you my feeling of _____. I don’t want it anymore. Not just the idea, but from my gut I give you the actual feeling itself. The new me, the completely healed me seated in heavenly places with Christ does not have this feeling, so I don’t want it in me here on earth either. I give you permission to do emotional surgery on me and remove what does not belong. Release your holy river and wash through my innermost being.

I won’t hide my feelings from you or try to manage them on my own, I give it all to you…. (*Now wait in silence with an open heart until you feel an emotional shift. It only takes a moment. It may help to imagine God’s river washing through your belly. You’ll know when it happens. You’ll feel the shift.) I receive your peace and your joy. Thank you for taking that emotional burden away. Thank you for giving me the courage to trust you with all this. Thank you for helping me let go. Thank you for this new ___ feeling inside. I feel so much better!”

Isaiah 61:3 ESV

…to grant to those who mourn in Zion— to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified.

Comment below was added based on private reader feedback:

*The shift that can be felt, at minimum, is, that icky feeling in the person draining away. If they feel nothing afterward, keep in mind, nothing is a big improvement. Nonetheless, when the hurt is gone, the person can receive the opposite feeling by faith and thank God. It’s done.

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Resources for further study:
Live Free (paperback) by Dennis and Jennifer Clark

Emotional Healing Made Simple by Praying Medic

Your Path to Spiritual Maturity: Embrace the Journey

August 11, 2025November 18, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / 6 Comments

Listen while you read with this YouTube link.

There’s always more to the journey! But let’s start at the beginning. Are you familiar with the term “being born again?” Some are not. Let’s cover what that is for those who don’t know.

Somewhere along your spiritual journey you encounter Truth in the person Jesus Christ. You become convinced He is the only way to genuine love and lasting life. You encounter His presence. Your heart tells you it’s true that He gave His lifeblood to pay the price for everybody’s mess-ups, even yours. Thankful for His generous sacrifice, you take Him up on His offer.

You say “yes” to the invitation to receive the seed of His presence. Jesus plants it in the soil of your heart. He introduces you to His Father, your Creator, who becomes your Father too. The seed of God is planted in your heart and now you’re in what the Bible calls a covenant. You’re adopted into His forever family. You receive a new heart and a new spirit. You’re born again!

In the natural world when a baby is born, if the child is fed and cared for s/he grows up and becomes an adult. This natural development parallels what happens in the spiritual world. By spending time with God and consuming His word, you grow on the inside. The God-who-sees you accompanies you everywhere you go, so you’re never alone. You begin getting to know Him. You learn how to receive forgiveness, and how to forgive. You begin releasing to Him the hurts within you heart. Incrementally you are filled with more light. The soil of your heart gets free from rocks and weeds. Your relationship with Him which began small, like a seedling popping out of the ground, is growing.

At some point along your journey you encounter challenges. You discover that you have spiritual enemies that want to drag you down and destroy you. It’s no joke! You enter training with spiritual weapons and begin learning how to fight. You practice defeating dark entities. Your knowledge of who you are and who He is expands, along with your growing authority and power in Him.

Your relational journey is like the growth of a little tree reaching for heaven. You’re like a young tree making progress under the protection of larger trees. You’re shaded, nourished, and shielded.

One day after much practice, you discover you have learned to live in victory in an ongoing way. Congratulations! You have matured to young adulthood in the Spirit. Your relationship has grown like a tree that is now too big to be stepped on, hopped over, or chopped down and put in someone’s living room for Christmas.

You’re wearing spiritual armor, and you’re practiced in using it. You hear God’s voice speaking, and you’ve learned to trust Him more than yourself or anybody else. You live yielded to His direction. You know who y ou are and you’re fulfilling your purpose. You use the gifts He gave you to build His Kingdom. God has become your best friend. You are strong! You’ve learned how to live victoriously.

After much adulting in the Kingdom of God, you become a father or mother in the Kingdom. You know God deeply. You have great spiritual authority and walk in God’s power. You’re no longer focused on yourself and what you can do because you’ve got that down well enough. Your eyes have turned to the younger ones. Your heart is with them. Rather than feeling excited about doing the stuff, you get more excited about helping younger ones know God, discover who they are, heal from their hurts, and get free to do what they are called to accomplish. You think multi-generationally.

You are part of the corporate body of Christ. You understand oneness. You see beyond yourself and your generation to the bigger picture of the Kingdom of heaven coming to earth. Oftentimes you love the way God loves. You have built a reward in heaven that no one can take away and it’s growing larger.

You are like a grand tree in the forest; the kind people will drive miles to gaze at with amazement. But you hardly notice. It’s all about the Kingdom of God now!

This is a rudimentary description of growing up by the Spirit to become a mature son or daughter of God. The Bible tells us the earth and all of creation are groaning, moaning, and crying out for the mature sons and daughters of God to walk the earth. Be an answer to that cry! Don’t get stunted in your spiritual life. Keep growing! You are needed! We are all called, have purpose, and a destiny to fulfill. The reward of being on track with your destiny is greater than any other reward. So, stay on the journey to adulthood in the Kingdom! There is always more to your spiritual journey. As long as you are here on the planet, God has MORE for you. God is THAT BIG.

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Willing to Trust?

September 23, 2024August 13, 2025 / Fire Starter for Jesus / 2 Comments

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.” Matthew 23:37 NASB 95

Are we willing to trust, to come closer, to snuggle under the shadow of the Lord’s wings and stay there?

When He spoke these words, Jesus knew difficult days were coming. He longed to gather God’s people together, close to himself, and protect them. Yet He finished His statement by making this sad comment, “and you were unwilling.”

Recently I had a strange dream. I saw a man-sized hen walking among people some distance away. Suddenly she was in my face. It startled me – to suddenly be eye to eye with a huge chicken. That chicken was in my personal space and close enough to peck my face! Unnerved, I looked in her eyes. The tenderness that was in the hen’s eyes became apparent. Maybe this hen likes me. But could I trust her, or should I flee? I awoke with the dream’s memory freshly intact and feelings of uncertainty swirling.

That chicken reminded me of a traumatic childhood incident. While walking through my neighborhood a German Shepherd approached me wagging its tail. I liked dogs so began petting it. Suddenly that dog stopped wagging, bared its teeth and lunged for my arm. He tore a big swath out of my coat. The experience deeply frightened me. Would this chicken be unpredictable and turn vicious as that dog did? Could I trust it?

The eyes of that hen looked strangely familiar. Lord, was that You? Did You come to me in the form of a hen, in my dream? Dreams can be strange that way! As I researched and pondered the possible meanings of this dream, I came across the Matthew 23:37 and the dream began to make sense.

In Psalm 91 it says: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty, will say to the LORD, “My refuge and my fortress; my God, in whom I trust. For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence; he will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler.” Psalm 91:1-4 RSV

Tumultuous times began before the Presidential election of 2020. They continue into this 2024 Presidential election cycle. We live in unprecedented times. Unusual events are happening and they are not over. The closer the people of God can get to the heart of God and to each other, the more deeply we can trust in the Lord, the safer we will all be from any coming storm.

Let us receive healing from our past traumas and anything else that causes us to remain aloof from the One whom we should trust. Let us put our trust more fully in the Lord. Let us find our resting place close to God, remaining stable and fixed under His wings, near each other, safe from any oncoming trouble.

There is much deception out there these days. Whose report do we believe? Is this or that real? What is the truth? “Jesus said…, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6 ESV

My suggestion to you is to draw near to the author of Truth. Put your trust in Him. Shed all internal misgivings you feel toward Him. God is absolutely good! Avoid what distracts from building that trust. Get closer to Him. Stay under His wings! How? Keep reading and you’ll find one suggestion.

For help with heart issues consider utilizing the Praying Medic’s relatively new book entitled, “Emotional Healing Made Simple.” I have found it helpful. The author doesn’t know I am suggesting his book to you. May the Prince of Peace be with you in ever increasing ways!

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:6-7 NLT

Jesus loves you and wants to gather you under His wings like a hen gathers her chicks!

Note: Bible references taken from blueletterbible.org

Day of Atonement Basics for Believers in Jesus

October 4, 2022October 6, 2022 / Fire Starter for Jesus / Leave a comment

**Yom Kippur** Begins in the Evening. New Days Start around Sunset in Genesis

The story of God’s great rescue of mankind from destruction begins in the Old Testament. There the preeminence of Jesus Christ is foreshadowed throughout His Story. Hidden among many other nuggets pointing to Christ are the annual Jewish Appointed Times that take place in the Spring and the Fall Seasons. Considered by practicing Jews as the most holy of all, the Day of Atonement is one of them. It’s also called Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur 2022 begins Tuesday evening October 4.

The book of Leviticus specifies that on this special day the Israelis are to gather at the temple in Jerusalem, rest from all of their work, afflicted themselves, and cleanse their souls from sin. Back when there was a temple in Jerusalem, the priests would offer animal sacrifices on Yom Kippur as specified, including two male goats. The goats were sin offerings of one sort or another. (See Leviticus 16: 7-22).

Here’s what happened back then with the goats: A priest would offer up one goat as a sin offering at the temple in the usual way and use its blood to cleanse certain places as well as all the people from their uncleanness.

Later Aaron would put his hands on the second goat’s head and confess the people’s sins, imputing their sins into that goat. Then the goat would be dropped off in some remote wilderness area. It would not be able to find its way back to their camp and probably would not survive. This practice of shunning and casting away one goat that is bearing the sin of the group is where the term “scapegoat” came from.

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