My Covenant with God

My covenant with God is pretty simple. I felt a calling to this area in 1996, but I kept denying the pull the Spirit to come to this area. In 2006-2007, my life in Ohio disintegrated with the loss of my marriage, my contact with my stepson (closest thing to my own child), my job, my ministry as a priest in my church, and I was in the process of losing my house. I was depressed and felt lost–going through that “wilderness” experience of feeling separated from God. I refused to take communion in my shame and guilt over the fallout from my failed marriage and due to getting involved with women that I should not have. Every door in Ohio closed so that the only door open was to come to Missouri.

A little over 3 years later, I am in a completely different place. I testify that God is good, so very good. My covenant is simple: I focus on the dreams of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I have placed my personal dreams (of family, children, ministry) and my wants in His hands; my focus in my life is on His dreams, His dreams for His people, for this city, for ministry. He takes better care of my dreams and needs than I can and ever have. For example, since the end of 2006, I desired to go on a mission trip to Mexico with a group with whom I am associated. This trip came to pass in 2009 just as God promised the year before in 2008.

It is a struggle, at times, because my desires and my will still subtly try to “sneak” into His Will and my actions. I do not give into feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, depression, and despair the way that I used to do. In place of these, my Lord and King calls me to intercession, calls me to prayer, calls me to walk out my faith. He has blessed me so much with a grace for fasting and mighty prayer (“prayer the Spirit works through you”), grace for a prophetic walk with dreams and spiritual experiences, grace for my calling as a priest, prophet, and prayer warrior, grace for seeking, finding, and building, grace for preaching hope and Jesus as the Living Word, grace for being with the right persons at the right time–Faith Bible College, Ebony & Ivory Ministries, Contemporary Christian Ministries, and more.

My passion is for endowment which is based on Luke 24:49–“...tarry ye in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high...” I know this as endowment, but it can have many names such as outpouring of the Spirit, anointing, unction, revival, mighty move of God, baptism of the Spirit and fire and more. My life and prayers center on this concept and seeking, knocking, asking, and claiming in the name of Jesus Christ

My church has a prophetic background and history. Part of the background is a calling for a “school of prophets”. This, unfortunately, has not been realized. However, I feel blessed by the Spirit and an inquisitive friend in being led to Faith Bible College as a “school of Spirit” and “school of prophets”. In a few short months, I have been blessed with physical, emotional, and spiritual healings, blessed with a place of new friends and family and teachers, blessed with walking in a calling on my life for many years, blessed in having the gift of tongues opened to me, blessed in being challenged in my stewardship and tithing of time, talent, treasure, and truth (thanks Rev. Dr. Moody), and being blessed with a desire to walk out my baptismal (water, Spirit, fire) covenant, callings, discipleship, and vision with new friends, mentors, and fellow students and teachers at Faith Bible College. My gratitude and thanksgiving in God and the leading of the Spirit grows with my life “Be-attitudes” and blessings..

Covenants vs. Vision

Covenants vs. Vision

I thought about Proverbs 29:18 KJV–“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law happy is he.” You can translate “vision” for prophecy, prophetic insight, and more. You can translate “perish” to become unruly, lawless, without (moral) constraint. I want to stick with “Where there is no vision, the people perish...”(Proverbs 29:18 KJV). I started out thinking that covenants are the bare minimum we are called to do while vision (prophecy) is the larger picture of where God desires to take us. I almost made them into an adversarial role with the “versus” as vision is where we are heading whereas covenants is about present and past agreements.

I changed my mind, and I believe that covenants and vision go hand in hand with each other. I want to use the examples of Caleb and Joshua. 12 “spies” (scouts, tribal leading men) were sent into the promised land. (See Numbers chapters 13 & 14.) 10 out of the 12 spies/scouts brought discouragement to the covenant people of Israel, and they had no faith in God to help them take the land. Caleb stated, “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it.” (Numbers 13:30 NRSV). The spies, other than Joshua (formerly Hoshea), said, “We are not able....” These discouraging, disbelieving tribal leaders focused on the size of the towns and giants among the land rather than the size of their God and His faithfulness to His covenants with them. The Lord God of Israel had brought them out of Egypt in a mighty way (Ex. 7:15-12:36, Ps. 78:12, 42-51), parted the Red Sea (Ex. 14:15-22, Ps. 78:13), drowned Pharoah’s chasing armies (Ex. 15:28-30, Ps. 78:53), guided them to the promised land (Num. 9:18, Ps. 78:14, 52), established the law and covenants through Moses (Ex. 19:1-31:18), fed them with manna and quails (Ex. 16, Num. 11, Ps. 78:23-29) yet they gave into disbelief. All of the scouts were leaders and followed the covenants of God. Only Joshua and Caleb had the vision and faith (Hebrews 11:1–“Assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen...”) to take the “big step” that God was calling them to take. Everyone, without the vision/prophetic insight, died in the wilderness including the 10 discouraging spies/ tribal leaders and their followers. “Where there is no vision, the people perish....” literally and figuratively. Caleb remained faithful and young, strong, and healthy–same at 85 as he was at 40 (Joshua 14:11).

In conclusion, I believe that the covenants and vision go together like two hands or even two legs, and one can do more and get further with the two together then with only one by itself. Vision draws us forward into the prophetic promises of God while covenants keeps us grounded in how we are supposed to live out our relationship with God in our daily lives.