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FinnishEsperantoZechariah 4:10
THE RANGE FINDER:
"Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelope play. Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word, and the skies are not cloudy all day..."
For those of you who don't know, these are the lyrics of an old cowboy song frequently sung around the campfire. No it's not talking about heaven--but a life without discouragments sounds like heaven doesn't it? Like the days of heaven on earth God promised we'd have if we obey God's word. (Deut. 11:21)
GOD SAID TO ME: PICTURE THIS:
As God was about to share this prophetic communication with me, He said: Get out your camera and "picture this." I was a "shutter bug" when I was a kid. A camera is a nice thing to have. It records things so they don't get away from you. Tom and I both love to take photos of my family, and of the places we go. I also keep a prayer journal of those "spiritual rendevous" with God. I've been journaling for many years, and it's been so many years, that I can't even tell you when I first started. A Baptist pastor by the name of Vince first encouraged me to keep a prayer journal.
The principle is found in Habakkuk 2: God said to Habakkuk: "Write the vision, and make it plain on tables, that he may run that reads it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie. Though it tarry, wait for it because it will surely come. (The prophetic vision or word of prophecy seen while standing upon your spiritual watch-tower, i.e. "your time of waiting upon God in prayer") will come to pass) Don't judge a word by whether it comes to pass this day or this week, or even this month. Line it up with the written word of God. Abraham received a prophetic word that didn't come to pass for 25 years. Messianic prophecies incubated for hundreds of years. But at the end these spoke. They spoke when it was time for them to be fulfilled. The Syro-Phenicean woman had such great faith that she even reached over what some have called a dispensational barrier. This means that it was not even time for the prophetic word to be fulfilled and she reached out and appropriated healing for a Gentile.
He was saying "How's your "range finder?" God wanted me to make a record of the things that He was about to show me.
HOW'S YOUR RANGE FINDER?
God also spoke to me of the spiritual vision that He's given to His children as a "range finder." Do you ever hear people say: "I don't know what God wants me to do?" When a person has a relationship with God and he or she makes this statement, more often they mean: I know what God wants me to do, but it seems like a difficult task. I would like some specifics. Or, I don't know if I'm up to it or not." But this doubt and unbelief in God's power in us is of the adversary Satan. We can do all tings through Christ who strengthens us, the scriptures say! This is one reason God filled us with His precious Holy Spirit! But He even went a step further than this. He gave us this knowledge in His word that He has placed within His corporate body, certain manifestations, to help to jog our memory, or confirm to us the things God has said to us, to motivate, activate faith and challenge us in our faith to do those things that we are called to do.
BECOMING LIKE A LITTLE CHILD:
This picture is a great illustration. For some people, doing great things for God, begins with getting out from behind the tv set! Dave Wilkerson, tells how Teen Challenge was birthed when he sold his television set, and began to use those wasted hours of entertainment, for fervent prayer. We all enjoy watching heroes do great things. But the problem is that too many people are waiting for somebody else to be a hero!
Did any of you have cowboy hats and heroes like Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Annie Oakley, Poncho; The Cisco Kid, The Lone Ranger; Tonto, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid?
We thought that the life of a cowboy was probably the most exciting life there could ever be, and I'm glad my childhood heroes weren't racists because this example of unity between men and women who worked well together has had an impact on my life.
THE COWBOY WAS AN ABSOLUTE NECESSITY:
Have you ever pondered why the cowboy was such a hero? He didn't take his place in the hearts of those he became endeared to by accident. He filled a need at a very crucial time in history.
In this same manner, God has called YOU for this day and hour---But you must see your "range so to speak, through the eyes of the Spirit. As you Christian believers go about your day, God is in you, looking out at the world. He is seeing the needs and earnestly desiring to meet them, and is calling your attention as well as mine to these needs which He is full of compassion to meet. His leading in our lives will fill this desperate need in others lives, as we respond to God's hearts cry.
JUDGING BETWEEN CATTLE & CATTLE:
These are the days in which God is judging between "cattle and cattle." He is raising up those with His heart to seek the ones that are scattered, and to bind up those which are broken. God will discern between the fat cattle and the lean ones.
They shall be sought in all places where they have been scattered, the muddied waters shall be made clean and refreshing. They shall have ONE Shepherd, even Jesus; and abuses shall be brought to the light of the Lord, for the "eyes of the Lord range to and fro in the earth." (Ezek. 34)
TITLES AREN'T SO IMPORTANT: JUST GET THE JOB DONE:
Some 200 years ago, before the cowboy became known in the United States, there were Mexican vaqueros." In South America, the "gaucho appeared when the pampas was opened to farming in the 1850's.
Cowboys were called caballeros, wranglers, bronco busters and lots of other things. They were reputed for being brave and courageous and they weren't a bunch of cowards.
There are lots of job descriptions in the New Testament, and the main thing is that we obey the Lord and follow the leading of His Spirit. Any cowboy knew a "sugerfoot" when he saw one. Or a city slicker who lacked practical experience. Paul told Timothy to: "Make full proof of your ministry." (2 Tim. 4:5)
This term "proof" means "to fully know, believe, persuade, convince." It's related to the Greek word PHOREO meaning "To have a burden, to wear as clothing, or as a constant accompaniment." Is your ministry this important to you? It should be a divine calling and appointment.
IT WASN'T JUST A COSTUME: IT WAS HIS WORK CLOTHES:
As the American cowboy worked the open range of San Antonio, the ghost town of Indianola, to Brownsville and laredo where the plains and grasslands abounded, there was much work to be done to tend to the thousands of head of cattle.
Eventually the cowboy moved into other areas such as mountainous regions, and the clothing he wore wasn't just for show. It enabled him to get the job done.
He wore boots designed to leave the stirrup in a flash, and to protect his feet and ankles. That stetson hat had to stay on his head in many a violent windstorm, and the brim could not impede his vision.
His bright red or blue bandana didn't just add a dash of color to his "get up." He tied it around his neck in such a way that he could cover his nose quickly in a dust storm or screen his face from the burning rays of the sun.
THE CITY SLICKER DUDE:
Toward the end of the pioneering period, another kind of cowboy came on the scene. His horse, clothes, and tools of the trade made him seem romantic. Fiction writers clothed him in brocade and silk and put a deck of cards in his hand. With lots of leisure time on his hands for drinking and gambling, he hung around bars and picked fights.
There's a lesson in all of this about the full armour of God. It's ain't just for show. And we must wear it at all times. We need it. God's power isn't so we can stand like a little kid on the diving board in his new trunks, snorkle and flippers and say "Watch me everybody," but be too terrified to jump in and take the plunge.
DON'T STEER CLEAR OF THE THINGS GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO:
As part of God's communication as I was in prayer, He gave me a vision in which I saw a cowboy pursue a steer, wrestle it to the ground and tie it up.
What kind of intimidation does the devil use on each and every one of us to try to get us to steer clear of things? You can almost bank on the fact that there are going to be some "giants" of one sort or another to overcome. They may be real or imagined, but their real purpose is to detour us from our goal.
Then there are those "issues" needing to be dealt with. Don't "steer clear" of them, or you'll give place to the devil and buy more time for him to mess things up, and to entrench himself and his own purposes where God intends redemption to rule and reign. We don't know---Those forces may have recently moved in and dealing with them might be a snap, whereas if we let it lay it will grow worse.
Even if we know they've been there for a while it doesn't matter, because greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. If we have four days ago faith like Lazarus sister, saying to ourselves: Well if the Lord had just been here, we wouldn't have this problem,but now it's too late;" then we need to know that Jesus is the "Resurrection and the Life." Even if that situation contains not a single sign of life--yet life shall flow by the word of the Lord, and by the power of the Living Christ.
But we must be careful to do all that he tells us to do. In the case of Lazarus, there was a stone that had been placed over the mouth of the tomb, Jesus wanted man to remove it. Sometimes God will show us something that He wants us to do, so He can effect salvation, healing or deliverance in a life. There may be an obstacle that we or somebody else has placed there which must be removed, and then God will do the rest.
Tackle it by faith and don't be afraid. Have you ever been to a rodeo? Could you imagine the bronco buster moseying on up to that steer and not tackling the issue at hand? Hey, he leaps on his horse in a flash and with lightning speed, he goes to it and ties binds what needs binding, or looses up, or unbinds and unties what needs loosing!
Cowboys are trained to work quickly and efficiently. Why? Because there are lots more cows where that one came from. In God there's a Holy Ghost timing that is so right on because God knows the times and the seasons.
BE A SHERIFF WHO CANNOT BE BOUGHT:
In the old western movies, there is frequently some unscrupulous character that has a lot of pull; power or wealth, and he tries to convince the sheriff to fix things for him so he can keep on doing his little "under cover" job.
The devil has a whole host of ways in which to try and buy our silence, when truth needs to be said. We need to tell him that we're not for sale!
I don't care if you're a Christian desiring to share Christ with a co-worker, this is a ministry just like many of the job descriptions in the bible that people worked at for a livlihood. Aquila and Priscilla made tents, and were very active in "ministry" in spite of their jobs. They used their business influence to help spread the gospel.What sort of ministry were they engaged in? They discipled converts such as Apollos, who was Jewish; and they had a house church at their house in their home. Is a "house church" a real church? God's word says it is! So if you feel God calling you to start one, you'd better do it. (Acts 18:26, 1 Cor. 16:19)
You may be a pastor with a message that is difficult to bring. The devil tells you that if you bring this message God has placed on your heart, that people will get up and leave, you'll go under financially. Well, Jesus cleansed the temple and he didn't make any considerations as to what his popularity would be afterward. Some people did get up and leave, and that's a fact. But the temple was the better, for the cleansing, and so will be your church! And that's a fact!
Or you prophets and people in the church with a prophetic word: The Lord is saying to me: You husbands with a word for your wife --are you intimidated by her? Or by those kids? Follow the example of God's word without fear or favor:
"The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. He's the Saviour of the body. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. (Eph. 5:23-27) Learn to intercede over the areas of your families lives, like any good pastor does. That family is your own little congregation, Jesus is leading through you. If you could picture yourself as the pastor of that flock would it cause you to be more sensitive to the individual needs of members of your family, and caring how these are met?
