Real St. Patrick

Happy St. Patrick's Day (March 17, 2011): Persons love to wear green, have parties with green hats, green beer, have St. Paddy's Day parades etc. BUT

The real St. Patrick was a slave, kidnapped by marauders in England who took him to Ireland. He lived 6 years as a slave....

He (St. Patrick) relates in his "Confessio": "But after I reached Hibernia I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the Love of God, and my fear of Him and faith increase, and my spirit was... moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time".

This reminds me of the stories of the Native American missionary David Brainerd who would pray outside in the cold and snow for hours. David Brainerd ended up inspiring Jonathan Edwards--critical in the 1st Great Awakening (?) in America and later inspired Mike Bickle, who founded IHOP-KC.

Look at St. Patrick's "Breastplate":

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

St. Patrick as as slave became a man of prayer which led to him being a mighty man of God who then got preparation and then went back to his former captors. Persons question his getting the "snakes" (demons, pagan practices) out of Ireland. We should not see this as literal legend, but it was about a man called of God to be a missionary to his enemies, witnesss for Christ, and wage mighty spiritual warfare on the powers of darkness in Ireland. The real St. Patrick is definitely a hero of mine and inspires me in the calling of God on my life!

Windtalker/Code-talker (preacher, intercessor)

I want to write a little post about the revelation that came to me on 3/1 or 3/2. This was another thing that I had to share with Peggy right away.

I just had the revelation from my friend Bill on Sunday on the way home that I am speaking Navajo in my prayer language. I was not sure until the Spirit confirmed it when he said it and said that he had friends that spoke it, and it sure sounded like Navajo. This was an interesting development. Before taking back "Windtalkers" (the movie) to Blockbuster, I began to watch it again...sure enough in the very first scene with one of the main characters Yahzee getting on the bus, and they are greeting one another with "Yah-tey" which is what I have been using in prayers especially prayers of healing. I am wondering what the deeper meaning is to the Navajo greeting beyond "hello" or something superficial like that.

Well, anyways, it just occurred to me that the Windtalkers (Navajo Code-talkers) were marines and front-line troops. The motto for marines is "Semper Fi"-always faithful. This is the calling to the Centerplace of Zion--always faithful to God and Christ and the Spirit. I also know of my calling to be a forerunner and trail-blazer in regards to the promotion of prayer furnaces (24/7/365) in Zion/Independence. These Windtalkers were also called into tough positions and then to communicate and direct where the "big guns" were directed. They also were called to prevent friendly fire (church vs. church?) and were masters of communicating urgent information at the right time in the right way in a short time. This too is my calling both as a prophetic intercessor and as a Spirit-filled preacher. I do not consider it an accident but a God-incidence that an analogy for the Spirit (Ruach in OT, Pneuma in NT) is the wind--Pentecost--Spirit came like a mighty rushing wind.

Vision of wall and demon over Independence

Testimony given at Independence Christian Center, Oct. 10, 1999, by Paul Tucker, missionary,
recently ministering to the Ojibwa Indians in Canada.

My message this morning deals with ‘Reaching Your Destiny.’ Now, I don’t know what I’m
going to preach, but that’s my sermon topic. You know, during the course of a service anything
can change. But I’ve learned one thing, that there are certain keys that we need to recognize in a
service. And we’ve had several this morning.

The first things I’m going to tell you about is a little insight the Lord gave me in the first service.
As we were worshipping the Lord, suddenly, I saw what I described as an invisible wall that
seemed to be surrounding this community, this whole community. And I call it invisible simply
because we couldn’t see it. It was very real to me. It was a very high wall, a very thick wall,
but I saw this wall being dismantled bit by bit, piece by piece, board by board, post by post,
I saw it being dismantled. And I though in my mind, What is causing this to be dismantled, and
suddenly I saw a group of people that were praying. And I believe that somebody in this church,
a group of people, has been praying_how many have been praying?_there’s some kind of a
wall that’s coming down_I want you to know that_that’s being torn down.

And then the scene was changed and I saw a throne over this community, like a throne, a big
seat; and a big, dark, ugly looking character was sitting on this throne, and he was looking down
on this church with a big frown upon his face, at this church. He was very unhappy with what
was happening here, a look of disgust and disdain and disappointment, and as this group of
people over here was praying I suddenly saw a figure come to where this throne was at, which
I believe was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, He’s the King of kings, and He’s the king over
every throne, and over every dominion_how many know that this morning?_and I saw Him
just kind of sit on this seat and go like this (bump)_you know_and suddenly this figure exited,
he was pushed off the throne, hallelujah, and I believe that God is bringing down principalities
and powers.

Oh, one other thing: I saw, in the Spirit I saw, that this wall had been built, erected generations
in the past because somebody, some generation in the past, did not take their rightful place and
did not hold on to the inheritance that God gave them and so an outside invader came in and
took possession of the territory that really belonged to God. How many know this community
belongs to God? Amen. I’m talking about the one true living God. And I’m not talking about
syncretism, if you know what syncretism is. That’s a mixture of all kind of conglomerates.
How many know that God doesn’t like mixed drinks? Amen. He likes the pure stuff, Amen?
Hallelujah. And so God is not content to have a lot of false leaven in the bread. So I believe
that God is establishing purity, and the Lord has a real destiny for this church, hallelujah.

And this former generation of people that relinquished what God gave them, the Lord gave me
a verse for this church, 1Peter two and verse nine, which says, You are a chosen generation.
This is the generation that’s going to make an impact on this community, hallelujah, Amen.
This is the generation right here, you’re the generation, praise the Lord. You’re the chosen
generation. God has a special mission for you. You are a people on a mission impossible,
hallelujah. How many of you want to a part of that team, Mission Impossible? Well, we’re
going to call it Mission Possible, because all things are possible with God. And God is going
to change the course of things.