Look Me In the Eye Part 1

Look Me in the Eye Part 1

A letter to the Organized Church and the Body of Christ

Marsha Deveaux Johnson, Living Joy Ministries, Inc. http://hepzibah40.blogspot.com

My previous message made a clear distinction between the organized church (wheat and tares) and the body of Christ (wheat only) (Matthew 13:24-30).   I have always listened for God’s voice in my walk with Him.  I have had the privilege of hearing His voice in confirming my actions and also in chastising my actions.  I think every member of His body has heard Him condone and/or chastise their actions ().  He does not deal with His children as bastards but sons to be corrected and conformed to His image and likeness (Hebrews 12:8).

When Barack Hussein Obama was elected for his first term as president of the United States of America, God said to me that it was a judgement on America’s race problem.   Throughout his eight years as president, many in the land condemned him not only for his decisions, policies (right and wrong), and actions, but also for the color of his skin.  Needless to say, the country as a whole dug in to its racism (systemic or otherwise) for one reason or another under his presidency.  America failed the test God gave it to deal with the racism issue.  The organized church was silent.

Fast forward to today.  God has brought us to the election time for the president of the United States of America and what is the number one issue on the agenda? Racism!  As a nation we did not hear God’s heart for the church world to unite under love, but instead it split under embedded, ignored, and quietly whispered racism. 

The organized church chose two sins (abortion/homosexuality) and sought a man who would condemn and legislate against those sins while exemplifying and practicing other sins. Please understand that abortion and homosexuality take their place as sin with all other sins in God’s eyes (Exodus 20:13), (Leviticus 18:22).  The Bible is clear, however not everyone knows what it says.  God speaks to His Believers and we follow His words in the Bible.

There are those who do not know God’s word and/or do not choose to obey His word.  Those who do not choose God are still created in His image and His likeness (Genesis 1:26) with free will to choose their lifestyle.

 The organized church skipped right over the scripture that says “All unrighteousness is sin” (1^st John 5:17) and excused lying, hatred, racism, put down/bullying, non-repentance, elitism, social classism, cursing African nations, cursing human beings, caging children, blasphemy, mistreatment of God’s creation, etc. (These actions are the documented ones with audio/video tapes to confirm). Only God knows what else has been perpetrated on the citizens of America. 

Christianity is based on repentance, confession, and change of life.    And yet the organized church praises and follows a leader who employs no Christian values.  This leader never admits to wrong doing and corrals all around him to become engaged in the same ungodly practices assuring damnation for their lives also. In fact, the organized church asserted that “you elect a saint/king and not a priest”.  Was this also applied when Obama was president or did this principle somehow surface with the subsequent president.

The organized church did not want to deal with, acknowledge, or dialogue with racism. It is Father God who has said it is on His agenda.   The current United States administration presents an overtly racist stance.  The organized church (wheat/tares) for the most part was complicit or remained silent.   God is now saying to America and the organized church that you are going to have to deal with racism as a nation.  The body of Christ (wheat) sees clearly.  Those of us who hear God’s heart understand what He is doing.  It is the organized church who has attempted to drown out the voices of Christ’s Body with politics, power, money, and arrogance.

 This earth is not the eternal home for the body of Christ (wheat). The organized church’s (wheat/tares) home is in the earth. The organized church will have no place (in Heaven) when the tares are stripped from it by the Lord of the Harvest. 

God has a documented proven plan (Bible) with prophetic words that have and are also yet to come to pass.   God’ word is the plumb line.  It is the final authority.  It is irrevocable, infallible, and irrefutable.  It does not belong to a man (regardless of the size of his/her ministry). God’s word is of no private interpretation (2^nd Peter 1:20).  It is to be read and accepted by all His chosen ones who heed His call.  We must remember that the “Lord of the Harvest” (Jesus) does the separation.  If a man condones a tare, he endangers himself to become a tare.  You cannot serve God and someone else.

Our biblical example of this is found in (1^st Kings 3:1).  Solomon made allegiance with kings by marrying and bringing into his household their daughters. This would in his mind elicit their loyalty to him.  He would get what he desired from foreign countries.  He found out to his dismay that these women brought their gods and practices into his godly kingdom and changed it totally.  The saddest part was that they changed Solomon’s heart toward the true and living God.  Solomon found that a deal with the devil is just that, a deal with the devil (Ecclesiastes Chapter 1).

Scripture says if you walk with wise men you will be wise, but a companion of fools will be destroyed (with the fools) (Proverbs 13:28).  Scripture further says, “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Whenever we reduce ourselves to aligning with evil to accomplish God’s will, we have crossed a deadly line.  We are now using our fleshly tactics to bring about God’s will.  God does not allow the works of flesh to bring about His will.  In the end as Solomon said, “all will be vanity”.

I once heard someone say, “Hold your nose and support this administration”.   I have read the Bible many times over and I can’t find this or its sentiment in the word of God.  God says all unrighteousness is sin (1^st John 5:17). This is never going to change.  Sin will not enter God’s Kingdom.  This won’t change no matter who commits the sin.  The wages of sin (in any form or fashion) is death (Romans 6:23).  

My view is biblical.  Find a sinner, make sure that they have an opportunity to see “real Christianity” in your life and allow the Holy Spirit and God’s word to minister life to the potential Believer (The Great Commission).  If you cannot reach a person for salvation with God’s love and the good news of the gospel then leave him to the power of prayer. You must always remember that you present Jesus to others and they have free will to accept or deny.  If he denies acceptance of Christ and His teachings no laws or judges will interfere with the choice of his lifestyle. He will sin regardless of your laws or your judges who will discriminate against him because of his lifestyle.  

I choose to stay on the line that Jesus drew.  He said “Whosoever will, let him come and drink of the Fountain of Life freely” (Revelation 22:17).  The God-life is produced when a heart is changed.  I’m sorry folks, laws and discrimination against people will not produce citizens of heaven. Only a heart change will.

I am a seventy (70+) year old Black Woman who has lived her life since the age of fourteen (14) following the teachings of Jesus Christ.  I am Spirit-filled and keep my ear close to the Father’s heart.  I have ministered to children and families in education as a school teacher, program consultant, and principal (30+ years).  After retirement God sent me to teach His word and rescue broken lives in drug rehab centers (I have volunteered there for 13+ years preaching His Gospel).  Not one of the lost souls (who were found and rehabilitated) regarded the color of my skin.  God’s Love and my love for them was the saving grace.   I have spiritual sons and daughters of other races.

 I take no personal woe from slavery, insult, slight, curse, or even put down as a Black person.  Once I found Jesus, I began to see men as men not as trees (Mark 8:24).  I forgive others before it becomes an issue in my own heart. I cancel out the works of the Devil regarding racism and any other lie that Satan brings by listening to God, reading and studying His word, practicing His word, and showing God’s love. God has frankly been marvelous to me.  I can hear His voice for my own life and also minister to others in love.  I live in peace. I love and am loved by God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, family, and many others.   

I say to the organized church look me in the eye and tell me:

That you believe that people should be discriminated against because of their skin color, nationality, religion, and lifestyle choice when God made and gave free will to all men.

That you did not know God’s heart (and the hearts of people of color) were bleeding from the racism in America.

That you did not know that the hurtful symbols of slavery and racism that surround people of color every day were offensive to them.

That you did not know that racism was an issue that the organized church in many instances refused to address and quietly swept it under the carpets of churches large and small in America.

Did you not know? Could you not hear or see? Did you not care? By the way, what was God saying to you about racism and what is He saying now?

Oneness, Union, Total Alignment with Father, Son, Holy...

Oneness, Union, Total Alignment

With Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (God-head)

Marsha Deveaux Johnson, Living Joy Ministries, Inc. http://hepzibah40.blogspot.com

God has His ordained way of bringing His will to pass.  My prayers for years have been for the body of Christ to enter into the oneness that Jesus prayed for in John 17:21, “That they all may be one; as thou Father art in Me, that they also be one in Us, that the world may believe that Thou hath sent Me.”(KJV)   Little did I know that God needed me to understand this prayer Jesus prayed and how it would be answered. 

My thoughts had always been that everyone naming the name of Jesus had to come together in unity in thoughts, deeds, and actions (Thank God I now know better).  God’s word is infallible, irrefutable, and irrevocable.  Our understanding of His word lies in the revelation of it to our spirit, soul, and body.  This revelation of His word comes as we read, meditate, be obedient, and live out His word in our lives daily.

During the increased time of sheltering in my home, I have been on a path of increased reading, studying, and writing God’s word.  This always leads to revelation pouring out of His word like sparks from a hot wood fire.  He began to speak to me about the word concerning the oneness of the body of Christ.

The first clarity came when I had to understand just who God said could be “One”.  God clearly made a distinction to me between the “organized church” and the “body of Christ”.  They are not one in the same.  This fact alone brings scripture illumination.  Jesus said in a parable about the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:30, “Let both grow together until the harvest:  and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers. Gather together first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them:  but gather the wheat into my barn.” (KJV) The organized church has wheat and tares all lumped together.  We are not charged with the separation of them nor to be at one with them.  The body of Christ consists only of wheat.  Wheat that must exist with tares while the Lord of the Harvest tarries.

Furthermore, God says in His word in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils?   and in thy name done many wonderful works?  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.” (KJV) Never means never, no oneness, no union, no total alignment with the God-head.

So, then we often see tares that are doing great “works” in the name of Jesus, and Jesus does not know them.  Their charade looks like, acts like, and proclaims to be wheat, but they are tares that cannot be one with Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. 

By the way tares distort God’s word, use it to promote dissention, factions, and hatred among brethren. Tares cannot exhibit true love to others (races, sinners, social classes, etc.).  They see these groups as threats to the Kingdom as opposed to potential sons and daughters of the Kingdom.  Tares are mean, callous, and hateful toward God’s creation all in the name of Jesus.  They have an agenda to cleanse the world and not change the world through the love of Jesus Christ. Tares cause Christianity to be viewed as Satan desires it to be viewed, divisive, racist, and elite.  “Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am chief” are the words of Apostle Paul who was changed from a tare to wheat. (  ) The body of Christ (wheat) can never be one with the tares.  Are you a wheat or a tare?  God knows who you are.  He forgives and restores.

Let me now tell you who enters into the oneness with the God-head.  John 14:23 says, “Jesus answered and said unto to him, if a man loves Me, he will keep my words:  and My Father will love him and make our abode with him.” (KJV) The oneness that Jesus spoke of is when each of us who receives Him obeys His words and the Father comes to make His abode in us.  It is at this time that the prayer of Jesus for us to become One (with Him, the Father, and the Holy Spirit) gets answered. 

This scripture has been clear all the time.  I thank God for bringing my understanding to this word. I do not need to seek alignment with the organized doctrines, attitudes, and practices that do not represent the heart of God.  Tares are not going to enter into God’s kingdom.  God says so.  When we are One with Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, we have entered into where God would have us to be.   God’s word says in Ephesians 4:13, “Till we all come in the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” (KJV) The perfection is not in the organized church but in the body of Christ.

Let me make three basic distinctions between the body of Christ and the organized church.  There are others, however these categories are basic and understandable as we watch the current situations play out in the earth.  When you review this, you will see why the church world is all over the map with practices, doctrines, teachings, priorities, and more.  It is only the body of Christ who is hearing what the Spirit of God is saying to the church and the world.  Be found in the body of Christ!

Body of Christ                                                         Organized Church

Wheat Only                                                                             Wheat and Tares

(Matthew 13:30)                                                                     (Matthew 13:30)

Entered into Oneness with                                                     Not all entered into

God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit                                                     Oneness with God, Jesus, and

Union, Total Alignment, (John 17:21)                                     Holy Spirit, different factions exist

Sees God’s word as final authority,                                        Seeks power from status, politics,

deliverance, and instruction for daily living                           worldly connections, man’s favor,

Trusts God for all outcomes                                                    and money (2^nd Timothy 2:4).

Manipulates God’s word for agendas

Make no mistake about this.  Tares will be judged and handled by the Lord of the Harvest. Abide as Wheat!

The Shut-In

The Shut-In

Marsha Deveaux Johnson, Living Joy Ministries, Inc. http://hepzibah40.blogspot.com

I grew up in a rich environment of faith where I saw faith lived out in my grandmother and my parents.  For a short period of time as a child I lived with my grandmother.  I look back now and I cherish those days when I saw right before my eyes simple faith exercised by these precious ones.  They believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and served Him with their whole heart.  Of course, as a child I did not realize the total value of what I was seeing in them but God knew.  God so loved me that He made it possible for me to have heroes of faith in the household where I grew as a child.

During the period of time I spent with my grandmother I experienced what was then called a “Shut-In”.  Men and women of God would set a time for this (usually overnight but it could also go on for days).  They would gather their bibles, some clothes (remember housecoats), and food (now referred to as snacks) for the children and go to the church for this event and it was an event.  Fasting, praying, singing, and repenting took place to the glory and honor of God.

I can remember the “saints” (we now call Christians or Believers) would lay blankets near the front of the church where the altar was and put the children there to sleep.  Although the prayers were loud and many of them walked around (in housecoats) with praise and adoration for God, the children slept sound.  I believe that the grace that is upon my life today was pronounced as I lay asleep as a child surrounded by the prayers of the righteous that avail much.

I also experienced this with my parents who pastored a church.  This same event was called “All Night Prayer”.  It took place in the church.  There is a childhood memory of one of these events.  We lived next door to the church in the parsonage.  I was the youngest of four children and my parents (then it was safe) left me asleep at home while my sisters and brother went with them to church next door.  Somehow, I awakened during the night and found my way to the church next door.   My mother recalled that she looked across the church and saw her toddler walking down the aisle on the opposite side of the church.  Needless to say, from then on, I was never excluded from all night prayer.

God has always summoned His people for a “Time Out” with Him.  It is the “Solemn Assembly”, the “Gathering”, the “Convocation”.  It is Him calling us to repentance, redirection, and love for the mission He has given us.

The Bible records a God ordained Shut-In for the children of Israel when they left Egypt.  They were instructed to apply the blood of a lamb to the doorposts of their houses and go inside and shut the door.  The death angel was passing by and would only spare those who were obedient to the instructions that they had been given by God (Exodus 12:13).

Moses was Shut-In or hidden in the cleft of the rock as God passed by to reveal Himself to His servant (Exodus 33:22). 

Perhaps the most famous Shut-In took place when the resurrected Savior of man(Jesus) told His disciples to go into an upper room in Jerusalem and wait until the Holy Spirit would descend from heaven (Acts Chapter 2).  After a Shut-In there will always be an unveiling of Truth, an unleashing of Power, a releasing in Anointing, all in the person of Jesus Christ to His body.

I can remember the refreshing that always accompanied the “Shut-Ins” and “All Night Prayers”.  Sometimes afterwards revivals would “break out” in the churches.  The bodies of Believers would be healed and lost loved ones would return home. These events served as a reset button for the lives of God’s people. 

We have one of these events now, a mandated “Shut-In”.  This one has been so ordered by our Heavenly Father.   Listen to Him.  Hear Him. Be refreshed by His ordinance and His power to change you and the world in which we live.  What has He been saying to you that you could not hear when you were not Shut-In?  Has your outlook on anything changed?  Have you begun to see current conditions, opinions, and attitudes in a different light?

I speak for myself and say that in this Shut-In Father God has moved in my life in a depth that He has ordained.  I am delighted to submerge myself in His logos (written) word and He is revealing Rhema (inspired) word to me.  I have grown to love the word of God even more than I have in the past.  I see His eternal plan more clearly. 

God’s plan makes the plan of man so small and insignificant that I am strengthened as a Believer to carry out the commission, “Go make disciples”.  I know that this “Shut-In” will yield a tremendous harvest for the Kingdom of God.  Don’t attend to the distractions.  They are just that.  Attend to God’s word and His promise of eternity.

At the beginning of the pandemic, God instructed me to pray for the people (all people) and to walk and talk with Him.  I remain faithful to this simple request that keeps me focused on God and what He is doing rather than the rhetoric of other voices in the earth. 

Years ago, God spoke to me about the “Underbelly” of this nation.  He is exposing it now for what it is.  It is not pretty but needs to be exposed and dealt with.   This reckoning is necessary for the release of His purposed revival for this nation.  We can only believe as Believers the truth as God sees it.  Not as we see it.   We must stop now and hear what Father is saying in this Shut-In.  Are you listening? 

Truth is going to prevail.  Align yourself with God’s plan, purpose, and desire or you will circle around in your own plan (or another man’s plan) as did His children in the wilderness.  His glory and revelation are now being revealed to His body.  Receive from this Shut-In all that God has ordained for you to receive.  Journal and write down what He is saying to you because He is speaking very loudly.  Pray for people, pray for blindness to be lifted from the body of Christ.