So, what's at stake? hmmm...

To me, everything that we do as Christians employs a touch of the “prophetic”, from salvation on through our transformative walk with the Lord. Many might argue, but hear my heart on this first. To believe in God is an act of faith, but to accept Jesus as Lord of your life requires understanding that surpasses knowledge – because there is no “natural” proof. That, by “my definition”, is prophetic understanding. He said, “You did not choose me, I chose you”. We must sometimes hear to receive.

As we spend time with Him (in silence), there can be times when we know exactly what He wants to say to us, yet no audible word is spoken. The scripture “be still, and know that I am God” comes to mind. Until recently, I can honestly admit that I never heard an audible voice, though I would often use the phrase “He said” when describing this occurrence within me.

On June 22nd (2008), I heard an audible voice that interrupted my sleep in the middle of the night that said, “Drive the head of the stake, and ground will be established”. Not sure exactly what to make of all this, I contacted some of my friends (that have strong prophetic gifts) to pray into that word. I knew this wasn’t my own idea, because I thought that the “head” of a stake was the pointed end, like an arrow head, for example. I had to look it up online for this to make any sense at all to me.

Soon, my friend, Hinkley Tuller, had come to the rescue – “…yup it’s the Lord, and I’m getting a lot on this”, he said. Well in the four years that I have known Hinkley, when he says he’s getting “a lot”… there’s something in my spirit that says “it’s time to fire up the intercessors” again…cause we’re goin’ for a ride!

I have noticed that there are many “prophetic” people that “see” with a specialized eye. Just as not all physicians are internists, prophetic people are specialists too. Hinkley has an understanding of the land and spiritual principalities that occupy regions. I saw that on him on the first day that we met. He is a swordsman with authority in heavenly places – so much so, that I have suffered some ridicule in my support of him, and his “way out there” anointing.

Hinkley was soon to meet with me, for the first time in many months. The instruction was to physically drive a stake in the ground in the tri-state line where Vermont, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire come together. I sent him a map and he went out before me to establish the exact location where the stake would go, calling on God who actually assisted with the help of a red-tailed Hawk. On the way out he said the Lord told him to look down, and as he did, he spotted a Blue Jay feather, that the Lord would also tell him to pick up, and give it to me along with one of his hats – and that I was to wear this when driving the stake. (The Blue Jay feather symbolizes authority, light, joy, healing, prosperity)

Thirty days later on July 22nd, we were joined by another prophetic friend, Lee Johndrow, who also “sensed” the Lord moving in this. The “River Stake” was placed as instructed to claim New England and New York for the King, the habitat, and the people therein. As we drove this beautifly crafted wooden stake into the ground (Hinkley's creation) on the Connecticut River bank, the top of the stake split into four equal square splinters pointing toward North, South, East, and West. I felt that this too was a sign that we had established the central point of His domain, rather than marking the edge of territory, in keeping with our original understanding - more symbolism.

This was the second task that the Lord had us perform on that day, as this followed similar proclamations from Mount Ascutney, VT – a five mile (round trip) mountain climb to rid the region of cancer and other spiritual strongholds.

At one point of our climb, Lee said, “I just felt a shift” – two minutes later, Lee got a call from another prophetic friend (Randy) visiting the Lakeland, FL outpouring. “What are you doing there? I just felt a shift!”

When I got home there was a message on my voicemail from Hinkley’s wife, “What did you guys do? I can already feel a change!”.

I asked the Lord for a sign that would validate His will regarding financial words we had received and were proclaimed that day. When I was home reflecting on the journey, I said – Lord give me a sign, make my cell phone ring acknowledging the release of the millions that I am expecting for the kingdom of God. Within a few minutes, my cell phone rang. It was “Chad”, another drummer, and son to a good friend who is a deacon in a local Catholic church, looking to buy two of my “cymbals”. The seed of $160.00 is a far cry from the "millions" but it was evident that this was a simple confirmation tagged by God’s eternal sense of humor to use cymbals as “symbols”.


Perhaps we were sent to cleanse the area - but even if this is true, your prayers are needed to keep the trespassers away. As a body, our duty is to pray for the kingdom of God, our habitat, and the people in our regions - continually affirming His authority and dominion over us. I don't think God would have taken the time to send us out on such a mission if it wasn't important to us and Him on several levels.

PLEASE PRAY FOR NEW ENGLAND AND NEW YORK TO KEEP THE TRESPASSERS (demonic) OUT - THE KING IS HERE!

Lakeland, Florida Revival?

Anticipation

Anticipation is the word for today. Many of us are standing ready with anticipation of what God is going to do next, and can we please, please, please, somehow have a roll in it. Lord??? It doesn’t matter if it is personal or corporate, a touch from God in a supernatural way is what we all need and desperately seek, isn’t it?

I have written about love, unity, testifying, obedience, transformation, prayer, and many other topics, but intimacy with God is my favorite because even as I write, His intimate presence seems to push thoughts (as they come) onto the keyboard, and all is sealed according to His presence within me.

Columns of Life

It is a concentrated goo-like intimacy with God that I anticipate – a presence that is thick like honey but full of power and light and purpose…without burden. I have seen this in my spirit… a presence of God interacting with people in specific geographical locations that God referred to as “My Domains” and “My Camps” in a vision several years ago in Peterborough, New Hampshire.

This is a great hour to live in New Hampshire, though we are yet dry as a state (spiritually speaking). Anticipation in my heart is intensifying as revival closes in on us. It has already started, and many us have been broken time and time again as God teaches us to yield to Him, and lean on Him - depend solely upon Him.

Dependency

The unusual things of God make many uncomfortable, but God has never been “usual”, has He? The more we learn about God, the more we realize how little we know Him, and, the more we enter into His presence, the more we need to go deeper, and the dryer we seem to get if we lose the sense of the intensity of His presence – even though we sense Him within us. We simply need more and more of Him, don’t we?

Sound like a “Holy Spirit” addiction? Yes, it most certainly is in some ways, but yet it is healthy and right because God provides us with a supernatural balance of both dependence and independence. Dependence destroys the enemy’s strongholds on pride, religion, exclusivity and bigotry. Independence builds confidence and helps to personalize our transformation processes. Both are required to build a strong individual and a strong corporate body. Please join with me in anticipation of what God has in store for us here in New Hampshire, and all up and down the east coast.

Leviathan

A few years ago, I was faced with having to battle with a territorial enemy. A few warriors were sent to me, and a mission became evident. Take the land – reclaim it for God’s kingdom. This mission was not given to me directly, but it was placed in my care, and Net2Church became engaged in a battle to claim the Monadnock region for the Kingdom of God.

What we did was dangerous and unknown. We were all clueless of what God was asking from us as a team. The only expert we could find to guide us was a man that I had never heard of – Todd Bentley (Fresh Fire Ministries). Todd’s writings on the topic was all that we could find to guide us in our understanding of what and who we were facing. Who is Leviathan? The battle was so feared by some intercessors that some pastors/intercessors warned us that we might not be covered in prayer well enough to survive. (Few people knew about the magnitude of what we were doing)

When the mission was complete, I asked those who were risking the most, “What do you think this was all about?” The answer came back, “Dave, we were laughing all morning, we get it now – It was all about what you had been saying – it was all about love and getting us to the point that we understand love more closely…”

Swirl Winds of Love

Fast-forward a year or so, God showed me a holy tornado in my spirit. Swirling winds and lights contained in a very small area near the front of a church sanctuary about halfway between the ceiling and the floor, perhaps three or four feet wide. Again, I asked Him what this was, and I understood Him to say these will be called “holy tornados, swirls of lights, and winds of love”.

It wasn’t long after that when a man testified in my church that he had seen angels in a swirl of lights, like a tornado, and another man by the name of James Levesque had seen something similar and was scheduled to visit the White Horse Café’ in Vermont as an itinerant speaker (naturally, I had to go).

My good friend Pastor Lee Johndrow (New England Flame) of Springfield Vermont assured me that both Todd and James were his friends and none of what I said seemed too far-fetched. Lee was part of the worship team that night in Hartford, Vermont.

Heaven’s Portal

Lee later invited me to travel to Connecticut for a visit at the Apostolic Resource Center where a speaker by the name of Bob Jones was scheduled to speak. I had never heard of this Bob Jones – but I went along because I sensed that God was in it. There were about 130 Christian pastors and leaders present that day. Each one was prayed for individually by Bob Jones as he silently requested that each person would have heavenly experiences, encounters with God in His kingdom. It was the best service I attended that year – one of my all-time best experiences watching another man minister to others in silence.

But, please, understand that this was still over a year ago. What about today?

Lakeland Florida

Lee called me a few weeks ago – “Dave, have you heard about what is going on in Lakeland Florida?” “No”, I sheepishly replied. “Todd Bentley and James Levesque, and Bob Jones are in Lakeland, and revival is breaking out!”, he said, and added a week later, “I’ve been glued to the Internet, watching the videos every night – asking God if I should go!” …Lee sent me an email from Lakeland Monday night.

The Net2Church ministry has always been about unity. When we come together in relationship, God delivers a purpose, each of us carrying a small piece of the puzzle. I don’t think that it is a coincidence that Todd, James, Bob, and Lee have each independently (and usually unknowingly) had a major role to play in my ministry work. To see them all together in Lakeland Florida causes me to wonder what Lee might be bringing back to New England – The New England Flame just might have taken on a whole new meaning!

Wait with ears to hear

Our Role in revival is to be like Christ. He said, “I do what I see my Father doing.” We need to ask God to guide us, and wait with ears to hear. Should we go to Lakeland, or to another place? Should I prepare a place to come home to – for those that traveled away? Each of us has to ask the same question that Lee asked – when I see you move, Father, will you send me to be with you there, Lord? Will I carry a torch back home with me if I go? What is your will, Lord?

Blessings!

Dave

Feb 10, 2008

Love is…

There is a Spiritual gift referred to in the bible as the gift of love. When I was a child, I prayed for that gift, and received it, much the same way one receives salvation, or tongues, or prophetic gifts (although in the broader sense, all gifts are prophetic – especially salvation). I felt an understanding come over me, confirming that I had received that gift at about age seven. I received many words from God at that age including the knowledge that I would be called into ministry, but that it would be different than the role of my pastor – so I accepted that, though I didn’t understand it. Age seven was the beginning of my spiritual awakening, which began as an intimate walk with the God of my understanding.

The gift of love has no real explanation in the bible. We are told what love is, but how is that a gift? If it is a single gift, then it is more like a “gift set”, like a pen and pencil set, or a set of towels or something, right? A set of attributes and attitudes…hmmm…sounds dangerous! Sounds like transformation, trials, and pain to me! Yuck! Who wants ­that?!!!

Abraham had an easy life, right? As did Moses, Noah, Joseph…you get the picture. What if I were to suggest to you that these men all had something in common that went well beyond their faith and favor with God – but also included those things as well? Would I have your attention for a moment? Can you identify it?

Concepts are taught to us by Holy Spirit (another hard lesson that I learned in my zest for biblical understanding). If we prayerfully read the bible, “understanding that surpasses knowledge” is able to renew our minds. If we read the bible as we would any other book, then it’s little more than a history lesson along with “how to” lessons. Can we agree on that?

What if we set the bible down, and continue to allow God to place concepts on our heart in our daily walk with Him, instead? What if we learn to listen in our prayer time, rather than speak? What if we begin to see that the bible is NOT the forth member of the Trinity? What if we begin to become dependent on the person of God and not solely on the written word? What if intimacy begins to outweigh principle, and relationship outweighs righteousness? Can we trust in that?

If we can, then we can begin to understand the gift of love, and we can begin to see how “that current” flows in a different stream than most conservative evangelical traditions are able to allow by design. A stream that says all things must mirror and line up with the bible (and our interpretation thereof) or it is discarded as a form of unrighteousness or Ungodliness, etc. Let’s just say that we find it “wrong”.

The automobile industry learned long ago that form (design) had to follow function (use). Cars evolved. God is the function (way, truth, life), the bible is the form (design, handbook, etc). He is the creator, we (and the bible) are the created. The author is found in his works, but the works can NOT accurately define and reflect all of who the author is, NOR can the works become a replacement of actually knowing the author and learning the concepts that He wants us to learn – in the order in, and in the complete understanding what and how He wants us to learn and to grow individually - the perfection of His proper transformation process.

God is infinite, and even according to the bible, INCOMPREHENDABLE… so why then, do we hold on to the form, and reject the function in the process, as the pharoses did? I am not writing this to pick on any one group. Rather, it is my hope to encourage those that would be courageous and willing to step outside the traditional self-perpetuating mindset of religious institutions, and into the freedom of salvation and transformation found only in relationship with God (it is for “freedom” that Christ set us free). Let us, as Christians, with the understanding of Christ, and His love, listen to the instructions of our Father, and trust in “those instructions”, perhaps even when they conflict with our own biblical understanding (ouch that hurts). Let us pose the question “What would love do?” in all of our understanding.

God wants to remove us from the illusions that we cling to. Yes – It is for freedom that Christ set us free! So, getting back to the real question here, CAN YOU IDENIFY THE COMMONALITY OF OUR GREAT SPIRITUAL LEADERS?

The answer is right in front of us. Here’s a big clue.. Enoch! Not much said about him, is there? But of all the biblical characters, wouldn’t you have loved to be Him? Other than “He walked with God” and “God took him” there’s not much to go on, is there? THIS IS THE BIG CLUE!!!

Didn’t God (according to Genesis) create us for his own fellowship????? ALL of these great leaders willingly and knowingly sought out God to fellowship with. They didn’t need a bible, they didn’t need a pastor, they didn’t need a church structure or hierarchy to identify “position” or “authority” or other illusionary concepts perpetuated by pretentious religious nonsense.

What is the gift of love? The burning desire to fellowship with, and to become one with God Himself.

It is understanding the call of Christ is not just to love God our Father, and our neighbors (as ourselves), but to also want to become one with Christ and all that is His, according to His own prayer for us, and to seek the fellowship with God, as Enoch, love as Christ loved, and live by the teachings of Holy Spirit as He speaks directly through us and in us.

Now, if we pick up the bible, and appreciate it for the glory of God that lies within it – without allowing it to become a substitute teacher (when the real one resides within us), we can begin to have a holy awareness of the person of God as he reveals Himself to us through His Spirit AND His works. For to do this, is to authorize Holy Spirit and His presence and power to work in our lives by His design. And…to walk with Him, even as Enoch did.

It is for freedom that Christ set us free! The gift of love, is the gift of freedom to walk with God, and to lose the illusions of religion and false doctrines that binds us to all else.

God bless you,
David R. Thayer

Energy (and mastering control of it)

As I searched my heart for a blog topic for Net2Church, “Energy” seemed to be the response. I will have to rely on Holy Spirit to help me as I type this out, for I have nothing really pre-planned to say, other than I noticed that it has been one year since I wrote anything here, and that is most definitely an energy issue with me.

Good Intentions
My original intent in creating this blog back in 2006, was to post a monthly article to share my observations of how I see God moving, and where I see myself and others with respect to that. In January of 2006, due to my own personal marital and financial struggles, I began to back out from all of my ministry and church commitments (and including this blog), excluding my live Sunday morning radio broadcast (this became my version of Sunday morning worship, which I took on in May of that year). I did this for two reasons. First to put my energy into saving my marriage, and secondly, that others wouldn’t accuse me of abandonment of my marriage for the pursuit of religion (which naturally, some did anyway).

Well, after a year of separation, and a prolonged financial drought, I was yet unable to keep my wife, and sadly, we divorced after 30 years of marriage. Although the stated reasons for her departure were financial abandonment, I put all of my energy into income development and worked exclusively on finding viable ways to provide for my family. I was, however, unsuccessful in that, and also in saving my marriage, and ultimately my reputation as a local Christian “leader”. After all, who wants to follow anyone who’s own personal life is a mess? Hmmm… I could write volumes on that subject of Christian mis perceptions.

So, what does all of this have to do with energy? Everything! Visions take energy, relationships take energy - passions of all forms take energy. When we start the day, we have a bucketful of energy each and every day. The thoughts, passions, and all of the “to-do’s” begin to use up that resource, before we even begin to apply ourselves physically to accomplish anything. Merely by thinking about them – our time and energy have already absorbed portions of our daily energy supply.

Negative energy cycles
Much of this is “negative” energy, as was the case in my personal life’s story above. Time, and energy, focused on negative situations, hurting relationships, and unfortunate circumstances, each taking a piece of that energy and helping to “block” the positive energy wanting to come to the rescue. In my case , employing lots of daily meditative prayer, along with following the suggestions below, are the activities that helped me to remain focused on the solutions and not on the problems.

Our unwanted thinking of the negative issues in our lives actually steals the blessings of God away from us. In other words, we begin a negative energy cycle that prolongs our own suffering and actually worsens it – until we either change it on our own, or reach out to God to do it for us/with us. Either way we must come to the point that we say “NO MORE OF THIS”, and actively pursue the life that God intends for us to live – in each tiny moment of every day.

Breaking the cycle of energy depletion
Breaking this cycle even takes energy. We need to focus first on this word - Jesus said, think on these things (Philippians 4:8, kjv); “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest (noble), whatsoever things are just (right), whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue (excellence), and if there be any praise (praise worthy), think on these things.” Focus? Yes, concentrate on continually asking ourselves if the very things that are taking up our mental energy and focus fall into these spiritual categories. If not, then we are squandering our daily energy supply, and literally giving it to the forces of darkness. (The whole 4^th chapter is worth a reread)

The second thing that we must do is to separate ourselves from negative conversations, and relationship issues, or if necessary, from those who bring us into these negative cycles (as they are enabling us to fail). If we don’t do this, then God will do it for us, in order to help us reach the provisioning that we are always asking from Him – and “that” may not always be a gentle nudge if we are resisting Him.

Forgiveness
The third thing is forgiveness. When we find ourselves thinking about interactions with others (real or imagined) that are not of good report, and do not portray the other(s) as worthy of our kind and gentle love – we are then holding unforgiveness in our heart, and we need to stop immediately, asking God to help us to forgive.

Praise, thanks, and desires for unity
Next, I would say to you pray always with thoughts, words, behavior, and deeds, and I would ask you to remember Galatians 5:22 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such there is no law (and think about what that means in terms of breaking strongholds). Jesus tells us how to master our energy supply according to what we think about.

Additionally, we need to continually give thanks and praise to God in all of our thoughts and ways (Phil 4:6,7) and acknowledge Him as our Lord as we endeavor to become one with Him, this would be our responsive answer to Jesus’ prayer in John:20, 21; My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.