Greetings again my Brethren. Back in January of 2006 we began looking at
the critical need for us to follow after: communion, obedience, brokenness,
revelation, and authority to be able to move correctly with God and come into
correct relationship with God and man.
You know you cannot be in correct relationship with God and not with
man. What a joy it was monthly to put together this year long study of how God
desires for us to grow in Him and come to the knowledge of His prosperity and
health. John too had this joy and desire,
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper
and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
(3 John 2) Now please do not be deceived by the word of
faith and prosperity teachers of today.
John was not taking about getting things of this world (money, cars,
houses, even a big international ministry) oh no, John’s desire was for us to “prosper” or push forward in God (which
is the Biblical definition to prosper) and to “be in health” (“hugiaino” Strong’s #5198) soundness and wholeness
in our faith, our doctrines, and in our words.
It is a shame this verse has been twisted and perverted so by many in
the church for monetary gain and popularity.
If we are to prosper (get money and wealth) as our soul prospers there
would be a lot of sick Christians. My friend, our soul is sick, lost, and
desperately needing God’s type of health. Our soul is where our emotions,
intellect, feelings, the earthly nature of the natural man is found, and all need
to be brought into the captivity of Christ Jesus, into God’s type of
health. Our soul is where our flesh “lusteth” (wars, struggles, or fights) against
the Spirit. “This I say then,
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusteth against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to
the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Galatians 5:16-17) I feel sure John did not desire for our flesh (our soul) to prosper, but
to be put to death. Yet it is our soul
that is saved from sin and hell. “For
what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own
soul? 37Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark
Now
there are two ways for our soul to be cleansed.
The first is through affliction, anguish, distress, and inward
torment. The second is through the fire
of a burning love, a love impatient and hungry.
It is true that sometimes the Lord uses both of these ways to deal with
our souls. All revelation and insight
into God, all true experiential knowledge of God, arises from suffering, which
is the truest proof of love. I hope and
pray that we can understand the great good that comes out of tribulation. Tribulation cleanses our soul. The cleansing of our soul through tribulation
is what produces patience in us. And
within tribulation comes inflamed prayer.
In the mist of tribulation we can exercise the most sublime acts of love
and charity. To rejoice in the midst of tribulation brings
us near to God. It is tribulation which
annihilates and yet refines. It is that
which takes the earthly and transforms it to the heavenly. Out of the human it brings forth the divine
transforming one and bringing it to others, uniting them with the Lord. We must be constant and quiet in the fire of
tribulation. James gives us guidance
during this time of cleansing. “Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to
wrath:” (James
ARTICLE REVIEW:
Qualified But Not Authorized
I have just returned from
But today in the Church and around the world all we see is
gifted preachers. Just turn on Christian
TV and we hear swelling words of flattery that tickle our ears, humor (the
Gospel is not funny), and words that move our emotions, but we see no signs of
a broken and contrite heart or spirit.
Outward soft flowing tears and inward scars of weakness are the signs of
brokenness. We see preachers who are not
willing to inwardly endure God’s dealings and judgments to come to a place
whereby they are able to truly allow the Holy Spirit to flow through them to
the world. It is far easier to function
and operate with our emotions and feelings then to flow with the Holy Spirit.
To flow with God’s Spirit we must be reduced, under the mighty hand of God, of
all of our desires and ambition must be pulled down in our lives. This my
friend will kill us, but this is God’s intention for our lives. Jesus said, if
we lose our life for His sake, surely we shall find it. But, not too many
preachers want to lose because they think they are winners, well God thinks the
opposite. Our winning in God comes by
way of our losing. The more we can lose
of our self and of this world, the more we can win in God no more no less. It is odd to know God measures our gain in
Him not by what we have to give or what we have done for Him, but what we can
lose of our selfish, self-seeking nature, and of this world. To flow with God
we must not desire the approval of men, but be willing to turn our backs on the
world and the religious network of carnal Churches that prop up organized
Christianity around the world. Let us
never forget Jesus did not come to save the world, but He came to save those in
the world that are lost. What was the
burden of Paul’s prayers? It was for the
growth and development of Believer’s - the Body. It was not bringing in the kingdom and
getting this world set straight, nor was this the object of Jesus’ prayers in
John 17. His burden was bringing out of the world as many as possible into
salvation. “Go ye to the ends of the earth with the gospel message,” not to
Christianize the world, but to evangelize the world. And having evangelized the
world God can gather them together in what He calls the Body of Christ so we
can spend our efforts and time on this group not trying to save the world. Now
evangelizing is much more costly then Christianizing the world. It is much easier staying at home and
throwing money at the world. Even easier
than throwing money is to send a signal with a satellite that reaches the
world. But to evangelize one must “Go” and become a part of the people. One must be willing to get exhausted,
rejected, misunderstood, even sick. My friend diarrhea and sickness are some of
the many prices we pay to be able to evangelize the world whereby we are making
disciples. Not too many Christians want diarrhea, but it is a cost we must
unflinching be willing to pay. This too is why the Church of today is not
making disciples many are unwilling to go and suffer for the Gospel.
Brethren, our measure of brokenness will equal our level
of revelation which is the key to our authorization by God. It is revelation, how much we know of God and
how He operates, that allows us to function with Him. The more revelation we
possess the more we are authorized to function on God’s behalf. The Church of today seems to always go after
the power of God, to do signs and wonders, but the essence of God’s authority
and functioning in Him is not His power it is His revelation. Therefore, it is not about how much power we
have, but how much revelation we have.
And it all begins with us being broken before Him. The reason the one
who is qualified but not authorized is due to their lack of brokenness. We can see this precept true in almost all of
Saul’s life and at times in David’s life. One that is broken will always know
God’s will and would never no never want to do something that is not correct.
Within them there is a sense of righteousness that is offended with each act of
presumption; thinking they are moving correctly in God, but in reality are
getting further off track. Let us allow
God to so work in our lives and break us from our self-strength and ambitions.
Let us allow God to work in our lives not only to give us the qualifications
needed to become what He needs us to become, but also let us allow God to work
in our lives authorizing us to do the things He has purposed and planned for
our lives. Written by
David Stahl
THOUGHTS FROM KAREN:
Child-Like
Jesus said, “Verily
I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall
not enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
(Matthew 18:3) I never really understood that scripture until we went
up to visit our wonderful son David and his gracious wife Kristin after they
had Caleb our second grandchild. There I
got a small revelation of what that scripture meant. I was reading some “class-made” cards from
Kristin’s third grade class that they made for her and baby Caleb. Now she had only been with the children for
little over a week. It was really
touching some of the things that they had written to Kristin. Granted they did not have her as their
teacher for very long, yet they professed that they loved her and wanted to see
her and the baby as soon as possible. Those cards were a breath of fresh air to
me. Recently I have become jaded. I am
really tired of the back-stabbing, manipulation, look-at-me-I’m so holy crap.
And all of the bitterness, resentment, and jealousy flowing from Christian to
Christian. It really is depressing. Sometimes I do not even want to have anything
to do with other Christians, sounds bad I know. We are supposed to love and fellowship with
the Brethren, yet I can not stand it sometimes.
Some of them are great actors and actresses, but eventually their real
personality will come forth. You can
only keep a façade up for so long. Yet I
know I have “issues” too and I am no prize petunia myself, God forgive me.
Anyway, let us get back to the
children. Little children are not
religious. They are brutally honest. If
they have a disagreement they will fight like cats and dogs, get over it, and
then be friends again. They love freely,
impulsively, wholly, without any reservation. They can play with almost any
one. I think they all are color blind. They accept things at face value. They are trusting. (I trust some people as far as I can spit and
that is not very far!!) When children are mad, upset or jealous they act. After my brother Mark was born I was so
jealous that I snuck into his room and gave him a big whack as he lay in his
crib. Of course he started to cry and my
dear Mother came running into the room to see what was wrong. I looked up at
Mom with big innocent eyes and said, “he hit me first.” (My poor Mother God love her. What she had to contend with.) She did not buy that excuse for a minute and
I reaped what I sowed. Anyway children
are simple; give them structure, boundaries, routine, an encouraging word,
throw in a hug now and then, and they are good to go. Then they grow up, gheez what happened. They get too big for their britches. We blame everyone and anyone for our
problems. We talk too much, listen too
little, James tells us, “Wherefore, my
beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to
wrath:” (James
Yes we need to grow up!! Paul teaches us, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I
thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) But we should still have our child-like faith
in our Heavenly Father knowing He will take care of us no matter what. In Matthew 18:3, Jesus used a very special
word, “Except.” Now this word is unique because it has no
other way it can be translated it always means, “there is no other way.” Jesus was saying “There is no other way (Except) ye be converted, and become as little
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The way into the “
POETRY
CORNER:
The Simple Cross
By Karen Stahl
The sight of a
simple Cross,
a silent sign to
me.
Shows what Almighty God has
done,
for a sinner such as me.
A bare and stark reminder,
the precious Son who died.
Who took our sins upon
Himself,
And gave us eternal life.
So please do not take the
cross down,
Because it is hope for all to
see.
The promise of our Father
God,
To live with Him in eternity.
DEAR FRIENDS:
Well Friends it is hard to believe
another year has come and is almost gone.
It seems this time of the year we often reflect on our accomplishments
and what we NEED to do next year to improve our wondrous walk with the Lord.
Improvement in God comes first by way of
taking heed. We as a Body of Believers
(I include myself at times in this area) seem not to take heed to ourselves. God
told the Children of Israel, “Take heed to
yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other
gods, and worship them;” (Deuteronomy
My friends 2007 will be much like
2006, but more intense. Greater loss to the truth of the word of God will happen
yet Churches will grow and grow in numbers.
And sadly the value of life will continue to be lessened in the eyes of
man. Fear not, for those who are established in God and not in Church denomination,
traditions and religion of men will endure and be saved. We must take heed to our relationships; with
God, with our spouses and family, and brothers and sisters in Church. There is coming a time in
NEEDS NOT WANTS:
1. In
2. In
3. In
4. Pastor
Joseph Mutua in
5. Pastor
Mike Olufemi in the north of
6. Pastor
S. J. Peter, Founder of DAWN Ministries and Pastor Wilson and his son Pastor
Julian both near
7. Financial
support for the printing of: “Adventures with God.”
8. Pastor Metin Mintaz and the members of
Uskudar Son Buyruk Kilisesi in
9. Pastor
Elieti Msangi in Dar Es Salaam and Pastor Isreal Mutaitina in
10. Major Rob McIntosh, Chaplin,
11. Vivian’s Maternity and Child Care Clinic
project in
12. Pastor
Tek Dahl, his Church, and the radio station project in
13. Pastor Sharief Ramsis,
14. The Bishop John, Samuel Kamanzi (from the Congo), Mashuli Etienne, Emmanuel Ndolimana in Ruhengeli, Rwanda, and the plans for the Bible
School.
FUTURE SCHEDULE:
November:
December:
January: Local Ministry
I am still available to share what God has given me at
churches and/or home groups. If God
moves on your heart to bless the ministries I visit and share God’s love I
would be honored to make it possible for God and you. God told Abram, “I will bless those who bless
you and curse those who curse you.” (Genesis 12:3) If you want a blessing, then bless someone. Remember, God is to you what you are to God.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Address:
David and Karen
Stahl
Jacksonville , NC 28546
Phone:
Home: (910) 346-1739
FAX: (910) 346-1739
Email:
dstahl@ec.rr.com
Website:
I am
pleased to announce “God Still Performs Miracles: A Book of Personal Encouragement” is now
available and
If you
know someone you think would enjoy
receiving this newsletter or if you receive this newsletter and do not wish to
please let me know. Contributions to
this ministry is always appreciated and
needed the more time continues. Please feel free to contact me with the
above information. The cost is great, but the cost for not supporting to others
is even greater. And remember, all donations are tax deductible.
