Burning ones, live fired up for God by catching sparks of intimate holy love for the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and then begin releasing fire in your spheres of influence!
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.
Take time in the secret place.
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!
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: 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.
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. Bosworth 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 baptismas 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.
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.
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.
“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
Fire Starter for Jesus 