When Bad Things Happen To Good People ~ Broadcast Transcript from May 31, 2020

Good morning blessings, thank you for joining me today on this ROF ministry broadcast.  Today is a solemn day it would seem.  A day in which we call for an assembly to gather around, to plead with the Father to intervene when the truth of man’s hearts are revealed to surface such hatred and murder – and I often wonder how much more heartbreak my own heart can withstand.  Jesus wept, being moved by compassion and my heart weeps these past few days due to compassion, as well.  I may be dressed right now, but spiritually I am wearing sackcloth and ashes – desperate times do call for desperate measures.  These certainly are the days of sorrows, aren’t they?  At the moment I don’t find anything funny, joyful or happy – the Lord has told us to mourn with those who mourn…  Sometimes I want to just walk right out of my skin – I was saying yesterday, how I am ashamed to be a white person.  If that is offensive to anyone, I am sorry – yet, not sorry.  Because it is how I am feeling and I like to keep things real.  Most of you know me by now…  I don’t put on religious fronts or spiritual coverings to look holy and high… I’m done with man telling me how to be, how to feel or even if I am to feel…  I pray you all are getting to that place too, where the only one you desire to please or the One Who formed you, fearfully and wonderfully – just as you are and who you are, the real you – that has emotions, dreams, is raw and bare, with all layers and facades – is who you really are – I love that person in you – just YOU, before the World told you who to be and man got his unholy fingertips on you, forming you into something tainted by influences outside of the forces of love.

Those who love…. Look weak and are perceived less than all the time.  I mean those who don’t just say love, but are love.  The peacemakers, the pure, the poor in spirit, those that mourn and hunger and thirst for righteousness, who show mercy at every turn and are persecuted for meekness and seek peace with all men.  They are reviled for innocence and never seek revenge or war.  These are those who always reflect within when turmoil comes to their doorstep, not seeing through the construct of offense.  They don’t provoke, as a matter of fact they often suffer in silence and will walk a mile to avoid an argument.  These are who we are going to talk a little about today because they are a few of you – very few, as a matter of fact and believe me you do not go unnoticed.  Not by me you don’t and if others would admit it – you are admired by many who you confound.  They want to be like you and can’t, so they try to manipulate and form you into their image.  Sometimes you do give way to the pressure don’t you but it is short lived because YOU are one of the little ones Jesus will never lose out of His hand.  You are precious in His sight and He continually watches over you – You have angels guarding your every move, insuring the innocence and purity of you stays intact.  When others mess with you, they are messing with the apple of His eye and one day, the whole World will be judged by how they treated you – good or bad, rewards and sentences will be handed out on your behalf.  In some sort of way you are the temptation to do good or evil people are presented with when they come face to face with you.  What is done to you – is actually done to Jesus, Himself.  Chances are you don’t even know this about yourself because you just simply follow the Lamb wherever He goes, having no guile or rather bitterness within the inside of you – no vengeance to repay, no axe to grind or hateful or snide remark.  You will find these little ones in the most secret of places.  They are hidden as the homeless on the streets, they are in bars and behind bars, they are prostitutes and drug addicts, they sit in pews and some are fearful to venture to places where man rules over others, they are disembodied and some are disabled, they are fatherless children and single mothers, widows who have been put away by many husbands and our broken brothers.  They are red and yellow and black and white – they are the castaways, Messiah’s misfits, the rejected and nullified… The ones that are no Earthly good, tossed and thrown away.  The religious see them as lepers – which can be spiritual or physical, wounds no priest or holy person desire to touch.  Whether that be of the heart or body, we are not too pretty to be placed upon the holy alters of the religious.  Inside us is a soul crying out – Can I just be me?  And all the religious echoes chime in – take up your bed and walk…  They spit words on us as they pass by to their self-imposed synagogues while they see the obvious sins of us – like wandering stars they hide their own.   If this is you – You are the beautiful ones, the blessed ones, you are the one who Jesus leaves all 99 for to come after just you.  That is just how precious you are as His lost sheep.  Do you know why?  Because of your heart.  Your heart is precious, it is meek and lowly, moldable in His hands – You are the exact one He seeks to use to be His hands and feet.  YOU are chosen to be entrusted with something He cannot trust another with.  Do you know what that is?  The hearts of those He so dearly loves.  He knows due to your sensitive nature to love, He can send His most prized possessions to you to love and cherish.  You have gone through so much in your own life and yet you seek no one to blame.  You have seen God and died, to the flesh that is, because you know already you not worthy to be saved.  You are the ones who pick up your cross of suffering daily, the one in the crowd who would only stand up to carry the cross of another if it meant they could take another step.  You are seen by Him and not heard by the masses as competition does not rule in your ego, knowing there is only One Who is right and He is way above your paygrade.  You avoid debate and strife while your heart cries out on behalf of those caught in the crosshairs of death.  Chances are this very moment your heart is breaking for the chaos and confusion, crying come Lord Jesus come and you don’t have words to describe His appearing or dictating how – just pleading for His intervention to deliver and rescue a lost a dying World that you certainly do not belong in, but here you are.  You do not seek to save your own life and know this World is not your home, you never fit in with the ways of the World or the devices of men.  You are homesick almost every day, with a longing no human can explain and yet are shamed for it.  You are His, He is yours – you have truly found the one who your soul loves – Jesus, being redeemed out of the World, although still in it, you whole-heartedly are not of it. 

If I described you just now… I have a promise for you, found in Mathew 5 called The Beatitudes.  These are special words Jesus spoke to His very close and personal friends… His disciples, the called out ones, the chosen ones, the ones He handpicked by the gauge of their hearts – those who had a heart of a servant which reflected His own, moldable, free of preconceived religious knowledge or were wise in their own eyes. 

Before Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount – as many call it, the Word calls these, the Beatitudes – He passed through the multitudes of people who were following Him, going up onto the mountain, inviting only His disciples to join Him that day.  So that is what I am going to do, as well…  This message is more for my fellow disciples of Christ.  The word disciple actually stems from the word “discipline.”  A disciple of Jesus, simply has a student’s servant’s heart for Him as teacher and longs for the discipline of the Lord.  Of course, we can add a lot more to that statement, but in simplicity a disciple sits at His feet in surrendered submission inwardly of the heart. 

So He gathered only them around Himself and began to speak to them what it looks like to “reflect the mark of the higher calling.”  And with that higher calling one loses their own mind, will, emotions, desires, plans – pulled into the Kingdom of Heaven, leaving all things behind to follow Jesus.  It is not just words, it is action – a walk to lay down your life fully – no longer your own, having been bought with a price – knowing the only reward you will receive on this side of Heaven is Jesus.  It is for those who can hold onto that promise each and everyday when the boat is rockin in the storm of your life. 

One of the reasons I love the Beatitudes is how comforting the message here is to the soul.  When reading this Scripture one must let go of the mind, becoming one in heart and soul with Jesus.  With each portion of this scripture there is an anointed promise to those who follow Him and seek Him within the innermost part of our beings – which is the seat of desire – our hearts.

Only the pure in heart can see Him because He is pure.  All flesh is destroyed in His presence, no flesh is saved in the presence of holiness of the incorruptible.  The word tells us to guard our hearts because out of it flows all our issues.  I guess you could say our hearts speak the truth of us in ways words do not, our actions are led by the heart, reflective in all that we do.  Actions define what resides within us as truth.  We may say we love Jesus or even others, but our hearts are far from Him and others when our actions do not align with our speech.  This is why I do not like empty promises… the intent of something is not the truth unless it manifests the fruit promised or spoken, otherwise it is an idle word, falling to the ground, withered and dead. 

• When we are after God’s own heart – we follow after HIM, we hunger for more of Him in that we become God centric and all our desires set us apart from the World – what we hunger for, dream about, thirst for reflect His righteous ways.  The Lord desires our whole hearts to be His, not just a portion of us, but all of us.
• Rules are seated in the mind along with knowledge – to know about the Lord or His word is not definitive of a relationship of knowing HIM – knowing about Him does not replace knowing Him.  Knowledge about Him is good of course, but remember He is after the heart, not the mind.  Analytical minds are confounded by His ways, words, teachings, etc…  But those who worship Him in spirit and truth have nothing held back from them because they receive of Him fully.
• The Word tells us the Lord judges the intentions of our hearts – meaning is what we say and do sincere or for self-gain.  Is it for His glory alone because He has His rightful placement on the throne of our hearts?
• When He is on the throne – our love is deepened towards Him and others, He becomes the single object of our affection over anyone else – He stirs this awakened longing within us as we seek Him so that we may thirst and be quenched by the source of love itself – Him, so that we are satisfied, never looking for other lovers to fill that void, which only He can sustain.
• The closer we get to Jesus – we supernaturally begin to separate from all that does not align with Him – it is a freeing and breaking process that is need based as we sever all ties with unholy alliances, unpermitted in the Kingdom of God.
• Trials of this life draw us ever so nearer to Jesus so this love is genuine within us, when the heart is pure – exposure no longer is an issue because darkness cannot remain where light resides.  In this process we let go and let God, no longer seeking to hide in fear of darkness exposed.  Those with nothing to hide, hide nothing, including being exposed.  It is the deceit of the heart which seeks to remain hidden and yet all stand before Him with unveiled faces, laid bare and exposed so the truth of who we are remains.  Idols are stripped in that no self, pride or hierarchy objects have placement over Him.  Trials purify anything not of Him out of us.
• The purity of the heart is as maintained by the Holy Spirit as gills are to fish in order to breathe as everything must cross the barrier of the Holy Spirit to enter inside us after we have surrendered to Him.  To the pure all things are pure by this principal.
• The new creature is overjoyed by His presence in new ways, as who the Lord sets free is free indeed – free from all that binds and tears down, moving by and with the Holy Spirit.  Often saying no, when we want to say yes or sitting still when we want to go.  I have found the Spirit is quite often in opposition with what I want to say or do.
• Our pleasure is found secretly in righteousness, the passion of the Lord is very sweetly gentle and unmatched here on Earth and we don’t really have Earthly words to describe it to another – it is just a knowing, once you’ve tasted His presence of the Heavenly gift.  And how do you know?  Well, I can always tell who has been in His presence and touched by how they respond in adversity.  A heart that has been touched by Him, responds way differently than one which was not when faced with stressful situations.  Many speak of being in His presence, but when the pressure comes the truthful offense spills out.
• The called out ones deny men to embrace Jesus and He will not deny us before His Father in Heaven, just as He promised.
• Our hearts are the only thing of preciousness we have to offer to our Lord which is worth anything of value to Him.  Once our heart is securely in His hands it becomes the seat we sit upon in which we desire to please only Him, in order we overcome all temptation here on Earth.
• When we actually see God as He is, we begin to choose to serve Him each and everyday.  He is the first thing on our minds in the morning and the last thing on them before we go to sleep at night.  It is in Him we move and have our being.  Our eyes are then opened to see Him just as He is – present in every storm we trust He is Sovereign and all knees bow before Him whether they want to or not.  Every tongues confesses He is Lord whether they recognize it or not.  Every creature that has breath praises Him whether they choose to or not… No one or no thing can actually deny His Sovereignty, even though they try with all their might – HE STILL AND ALWAYS WILL permit all things to exist and prevail or fail by His own design.  He is God and we are not.  Period. 
• His disciples believe in the mind and worship Him with the heart – different, but same all at the same time.  Unity of the Spirit unto perfection.

The Word in Mathew 5 goes on to explain how we are the –

Salt of the Earth – just right to season, not too much – people turn away, we are too harsh and too bold.  Not too little – where we do or say nothing, non-effective and mundane.  But just right… speaking when we are to speak, keeping silent when it is time to be silent.

It also speaks of being a “light” to the World – not hidden under a bushel where no one can see but to light up the whole house.  Again – do we hide silent scared to speak the truth in love?  No, we are to let our light shine before men, so they may see our good works to glorify who?  Our Father in Heaven – not to glorify self, but only Him.  Speaking of works, He gave me a word the other day saying… “Do we have works or does works have us?”  In other words – anything we do or say should be glorifying only to Him, if we are doing or saying anything to elevate us personally – works has a grip on us.  Our works here on Earth are actually to be rewarded in Heaven where they cannot be destroyed.  Anything Earthly bound will be consumed and destroyed – including works.  Remember, He is going to reward us openly one day in view of all men.  Amen.

He reminds us in verse 17 that He did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfill it – which means to abide by it – many like to teach we are off the hook from the Law, no we aren’t…. We just simply have an easier way in Jesus to follow it now and coverage of mercy and grace when we can’t or fall into sin, which is practically every single day.  We now have an advocate with the Father when we fail and continually fall short of His glory.  We cannot ignore or bypass the Law, we just are covered to accomplish it now, in Jesus it is easy to fulfill the Law and when we don’t He picks us up, cleans us off and we keep walking with Him, step by step, day by day, forgiven and free for His mercies are new every morning.

Verse 18 has a severe warning we must heed – If we do break a commandment or even teach others to do so we will be the least in the Kingdom – but if we DO and TEACH THEM – we are called great in the Kingdom.  Verse 19 says unless our righteousness EXCEEDS the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  So let’s back up a minute… remember we talked at the beginning about Jesus passing through the multitudes and speaking directly to the disciples?  We are finally seeing the solution….  The Multitudes represent those who speak the righteous talk and don’t walk it out (self-righteous) – the disciples are disciplined, remember?  They do and teach the commandments and point to Jesus every single time as the covering of sin – sealed in His righteousness – we may still sin occasionally, but confess and learn by His disciplining hand, freedom to go and sin no more.  Going and sinning no more is a royalty of those in the Kingdom when the desire to sin is removed, rather than the object of the sin being removed.  One is surrendered the other is to rule over.

For example – we do not murder due to lack of opportunity, but rather due to a changed heart that never seeks to murder someone.  ALL SIN IS THE SAME.  Yes?  The Father does not grade sin, sin is sin, whether it be murder or provoking someone…  So inch by inch for some of us slow learners, we are learning to go and sin no more not because it is covered but because it is purged.  Once purged we despise that which tainted us so much we will never go back to it – that is true deliverance to be free from death and the sin which so easy ensnares us.  Once this truth is show just once – just one time – if you can see it, every temptation is surrendered to Jesus and overcome in and through His assistance to be whole in that area and fully healed.

Okay – in light of all that has recently bubbled to the surface this past week, although heartbreaking some of us have witnessed this already among the brethren to a smaller degree with heartbrokenness often going unspoken.  Let’s switch gears for a moment, okay?

We will finish up the rest of the broadcast still in Mathew 5 but in verses 21-23 but before we go there I am going to ask that everyone listening to me place within themselves a covering of empathy.  To forget your own strength of being an overcomer and to actually place yourself in the shoes of those less fortunate – the broken, least of these.  For some of us that is a natural residing place, but for many it is not.  So I am asking the Lord to help me paint a picture of understanding for those who struggle to relate to the mournful souls and castaways – I do not even know how to articulate what is seen spiritually to a carnal mind who is convinced they are above the fray, but I am going to try with all that I am.  The religious have lost all empathy at this point for the love of many is waxing colder and colder as natural affections are drying up, people are turning against one another no longer able to be compassionate enough to mourn with those who are mourning.  So let me sit for awhile with those the Worldly church has cast away and invite you to join with me for a moment.  Not to rule over or prop them up, but to anoint their wounds with your tears of love to comfort them as a good Samaritan would do on this journey called life.

The good Samaritan story in the bible I love, lets read it quick –

Luke 10

²⁵ On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶ “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

²⁷ He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’^[a]; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[b]”

²⁸ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

²⁹ But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

³⁰ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. ³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. ³⁵ The next day he took out two denarii^[c] and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

³⁶ “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

³⁷ The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

This is brotherly love.  This is empathy – feeling sorry for someone who is hurting and taking the time to love them back to health.  It is not loud, demanding, forcing one to get up and walk – but carrying someone who is broken and wounded – it is comfort, not fixing someone but tending to them – it is treating others the way you would want to be treated in your time of need but keep this in mind – the good Samaritan does not need to have the heartbreak already to have the love and compassion towards someone who is broken – they only need the heart of Jesus to be moved to assist.  Love alone covers a multitude of sins someone has, love is the healing balm we carry to apply to one another’s wounds.  Brotherly love and empathy is why right now I am ashamed to be white and is also why quite often I am embarrassed to be a Christian.  I prefer to be called a Christ sufferer, no other label seems to fit at the moment. 

The Bible tells us to be angry and sin not – it also says, vengeance is mine and I will repay says the Lord.  The truth is I am angry at the evil ways human choose to live on this Earth.  It is man’s evil ways that kindle the anger of our Father and as His child – How can you not be angry at evil, unless you are calling evil good in some small way or at the very least tolerating it operating?  Evil is not a person, it is an entity.  We also have faith the Father will invoke His vengeance in perfect timing and will – so it is not the person we are angry at, it is the acts of violence, betrayal, hatred and all sorts of murder plotted – whether carried out or not that angers me.  And it is increasing by the day.  Ungodly ways are being uplifted as the church stays unlit and silent covering their own reputations hidden under baskets, losing their savor as salt.  Anger is not forbidden, vengeance is – taking matters into our own hands, rather than falling on our knees in repentance and pleading for our Father to have mercy on us, forgiving our sins and healing us.  Operating in mercy and grace does not mean we cover a lie to tolerate evil – it means we draw upon empathy from Jesus understanding how broken another is, offering them love with a sincere heart.

Okay, to finish up – lets go back to Mathew 5 verses 21-22 ~

You have already heard thou shall not kill and if you do kill you will be in danger of judgment.  Now this is Jesus talking, by the way.  He then says – I tell you myself – “whoever is angry with his brother WITHOUT A CAUSE, shall be in danger of the judgment and whoever says to his brother raca (which was a derogatory slang word meaning worthless) or call them a fool shall be in danger of hell’s fire.

Now… This is a perfect Scripture of all that is currently going on in our Nation at the moment.  Raca is the same as a racial slur or even how women are looked upon as less than – I feel it a lot within the church myself, males who still hold a grudge against Eve are often mean to us or look down upon us… but anyway, that is not my point. 

This is Jesus talking and He is not overlooking, glossing over or tolerating then or now the derogatory speech of anyone no matter how much we like to sweep it under the rug – we better wake up out of this religious derision and quick.  I mean, my word… How much more fire needs to be released from the Heavens before we repent?  I even saw a twitter repost from our own President upholding someone who said the only good democrat is a dead one.  Are you kidding me?  Seriously?  That’s raca and it is from the top down and the bottom up… While the Church is lulled to sleep in derision, the ship is sinking while the worship band plays on.  To clump together a particular group of people and think themselves to be lower than you in any fashion is offensive to the Lord and will kindle His anger towards you, whether you hide behind a cloak of religion, status, gender, race, etc…  Do you realize how many people have to come me the past six months assuming and unable to see with Spiritual eyes that I have fallen away because I do not sit 24-7 in a chatroom?  Not realizing I am extremely busy visiting prisons with a team of servants who are not seen or heard by anyone others than inmates?  And please, do not get me wrong, I am not offended whatsoever, I get it – I used to be of a very religious mindset, humble and grateful the Lord disciplined me out of that pit.  So on a way smaller scale, I understand what it feels like to be a minority, as do many of you listening to my voice at this moment.

So, I had to go to Jesus with all this…  I had to seek Him for His peace which surpasses all my frailties and low level understanding.  I had to ask Him what would He do?  What would He say?  And of course, ask Him for His comforting hand to be upon us all.  The first thing He said to me is that He would sit us down quietly and introduce us to one another.  He actually started giving me names, like Paul this is Silas, Timothy meet your brother Mark and so forth.  He began telling me how we do not need to trust one another like we thought, but only trust Him.  He then began to show me different and diverse colors of skin tones, saying it is this they seek to destroy – the created image of man in My own diverse image.  He then told me, I would next point out to one another just how similar they are created and focus on what the commonalities are to pull us together rather than focusing on what is different to pull us apart.  He told me He would question those in His midst, asking them to share what similar traits they have in common – making long lists of each, what is the same and what is different and He showed me the greater of the two lists would be what we share as created beings….  On the list He showed me, eyes, ears, hair, hands, feet, all the internal organs and so forth.  He began to instruct me on how our differences are a construct in our minds only realized after we can perceive what we see with the natural eyes and that up until that point we understand all men/women truly are created equal until told otherwise.  He told me if we were all blind in sight the list of differences would greatly diminish to practically nothing.  He told me to walk by faith and not sight means to trust Him with how He formed us together in our mother’s womb and these characteristics are used to draw people unto Himself through us.  They were never purposed to fortify mobs of people who look the same externally into clans, one against the other and how this grieves Him, making Him very sad – so much so He repents at times for making the human race.  Lastly, before He left my Spiritual presence He told me – introduce them to one another and I said how Lord and He left… giving me no answer. 

So I have no idea what I am doing and yet I can see so clearly what is dividing us all – it feels like to me a runaway train no human can stop.  But I do believe 100% it can stop with us – individually and collectively.  That today we can make it a commitment to not be divisive in our thoughts or speech any longer.  To seek Jesus continually, in that we see one another through His eyes and actually look for opportunities to love on each other.  To increase and grow the list which binds, rather than search for descriptive tones to divide and that change begins in the one place we can control… ourselves.  And when approached to mock or tear down or even listen to a negative comment we remain silent at the least or speak up in the boldness of the Holy Spirit at best. 

The truth is the brethren is right before you – look around… those next to you everywhere you go are your mother, father, brother, sister and so forth.  Spiritually speaking, those in the Kingdom whether that be today or in a time to come are our family.  When Jesus said – let the little children come to Me…  He was saying, if someone is seeking Me – do not stand in their way – let them come and let them enter in first, hold the door open, you enter in last…  So that is where we are today, in love and peace ushering in the Kingdom, so to speak.  The harvest is plentiful, the workers are few…  so the Spirit and the Bride say… Come!  Amen.

Let’s pray the Lord’s Prayer in unison as one –

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation;
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.

I pray the Lord Jesus continue to draw you close to Himself in a most precious and intimate way.  May He comfort your heart and quiet your troubled mind.  May you be quenched in your soul by the One Who loves you in a most permanent and everlasting way.  Amen.

Well, thank you all very much for joining me today – I so appreciate your time, sharing love and worship of Jesus together is one rare and priceless commodity these days.

Please continue to lift ROF Ministries up to the Lord in prayer for covering and provision to keep surrendered fully to our Father as His hands and feet healing hearts His way.