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FISHIN’ FOR MEN
By Dickey Porter
The
Coming of the Lord
December
2001
“Behold, He
cometh with clouds…” Revelation
1:7a
When you think of
the coming of the Lord, what images are conjured up in your mind? Do you
picture a gloomy, overcast day or possibly a partly, sunny day with big, fluffy,
white clouds? Do you see yourself outside and hearing a sound of a trumpet and
looking up, you suddenly see Jesus descending from heaven with a shout? Do you
almost feel yourself being transformed instantly and rising powerfully into the
sky to meet the Lord in the air? Can you almost sense the incredible joy that
surges through your spirit as He takes you up? Or are you really expecting Him
to appear in His body in the earth before this glorious day that we have spoken
of, takes place?
“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses…” Hebrews 12:1
Entertain this thought for a moment. Let your
imagination take you to a place where you can see Jesus greatly desiring to
manifest Himself through his church. His church, not some man-made denomination
that segregates, separates, sifts you like wheat, and then throws you away when
you fail to measure up to their standards. What condition would we need to be
in, in order for Jesus to manifest Himself through us? Holiness! How do we get
to that condition?
“For they verily for a few days chastened us after
their own pleasure, but He for our profit, that we might be partakers of His
holiness…” Hebrews
12:10
Chastening is not a fun thing to go through. But if
the Lord loves us, then He will chasten us and will scourge every son whom He
receives. It is the 3rd step in the order of the breaking of bread.
First, He takes us; secondly, He blesses us; thirdly, He breaks us, so that
fourthly, He can give us to the world. (He can manifest His life and glory to
the world). But how will the world see Jesus and His glory through us?
“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without
which no man shall see the Lord.” Hebrews 12:14
This is not necessarily talking about me being holy
so that I can see the Lord, but that the world can see the Lord. If I’m not
holy, then the world will never see Jesus through me. Jesus will never appear
with me in glory (Colossians 3:4) unless I am walking in His holiness.
Lord, help me
to mortify my members, which are upon the earth, so that you can be glorified
in my life. When You appear, then shall I also appear with You in glory. Amen.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
A
New Day
November
2001
A new day is dawning and the best is yet to come. In
spite of the gross darkness that is surrounding us, the new day will bring the
light of glorious revelation of the Kingdom of God with power. Out of the chaos
of a world that is out of order, will come ‘angels’ with a clear word from the
throne room that will cause thunderings, lightnings, and earthquakes in many
places.
The new world order will not be an order that has
been spawned in the minds and wills of men, but will be an order that has been
birthed by the groanings of creation and induced by the labor pains of a woman
pregnant with a ‘Manchild’.
I feel the pangs of labor in my spirit. I sense a
travail is coming that will usher in that which we have all longed for. I have a
loneliness in my spirit that only wrestling with God can alleviate. It is not
the time to despair! It is a time to press! Press into the Kingdom of God. Take
on the burden of an intercessor.
We were born into the Kingdom for such a time as
this. God chose us to be the vehicle of deliverance. God chose us before the
foundations of the world were laid to be the ones that He could move through in
this great time. Bear your burdens in prayer and remember, that weeping may
endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning!
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
The Secret Place
October 2001
With the events
that took place on September 11th of this year, and with the ongoing
responses by our government and others concerning these perilous times, I would
be remiss if I didn’t bring to you what is going on in my spirit today.
The news media is
constantly bombarding us with images of war, suffering, and destruction. We are
under an incessant barrage by fear mongers who are warning us of anthrax,
chemical and/or biological warfare. The threat to our nuclear plants, water
supplies, and/or dam systems is spoken of freely on our local news broadcasts
and in our newspapers. Terrorists have declared ‘Jihad’, or holy war upon the
United States. This is an attempt to paralyze us with fear. All of the ‘What
If’ scenarios are intended to take our peace from us. They will not succeed! I
am concerned with current events, but I will never be fearful and I exhort you
to not be afraid of what you see coming on the earth.
I had a lucid dream
in color several years ago. Let me relate the dream to you, as best I can. In
my dream, I was sitting on top of the riprap (rocks) that fortify the banks of
the river below Watts Bar dam, on the western side of the river. Overhead, the
sky was black and ominous with only a slight sliver of light on the eastern
horizon. Below me, the water was raging in turmoil. There were rows upon rows
of waterspouts with evil faces that appeared to be about 4 or 5 feet high,
marching back and forth, up and down on the water and seemed bent on
destruction. I perceived them to be demons. On the eastern shoreline, I could
see these waterspouts crashing upon the rocks and rising up and ripping limbs
off the trees that lined the banks of the river. It was a very violent scene.
After a few minutes
of watching this, I was drawn to gaze at one particular waterspout, and as I
was watching it intently, it (he) suddenly noticed that I was looking at it and
started moving in my direction and I really felt threatened. I was wearing a
green pullover sweatshirt with a hood and as this waterspout hit the edge of
the river and began to rise up over me, I spun around with my back to the water
and pulled the hood up over my head. As I did this, a very large shadow came
down over me and I thought in my mind that this was the waterspout and it was
about to rip into me. But when the water hit me, it was only a very cool
sprinkle that landed softly on my head and ran down my face and was so
refreshing that I laughed out loud. Then, I heard this Scripture thunder in my
spirit: “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall
abide under the shadow of the Almighty.”
I spun back around
to see what was going on and I was amazed by what I saw. I saw calm, emerald
green water, a clear, blue sky with bright sunshine, and no sign of any
turmoil. Every thing was peaceful and serene. I know the interpretation of this
dream now.
I leave you today
with these words from the Bible:
“He that
dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress; in Him
will I trust.’ Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and
from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers and under
His wings shalt thou trust; His truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou
shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by
day. Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction
that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at
thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt
thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.”
Peace I leave with
you today.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
Seeking the Righteousness of God
October 2001
“… but seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be
added unto you.”
If we are
Christians, then we have repented from our sins, but many of us have yet to
repent unto the kingdom of God. Many think that the church is the kingdom of
God, when in reality, the church is only a part of the overall kingdom of God.
We think that ‘we’ are the end for which Jesus died and when we believe that,
then we become the stopping place for the movement of God in the earth instead of
being a conduit through which the blessings of God can flow to all the world.
After all, didn’t Jesus die for the sins of the whole world? Then why do we
think that we are the final result? We are not the harvest of God. We are the
seed that is sown into the world.
We have sought for
‘all these things’ more than seeking for the righteousness of God and then we
wonder why all these things were not added unto us. We have majored on minor
things and let the major things (His righteousness) go unattended. We have
slumbered through opportunity after opportunity of being His glorious church in
the earth. Isn’t it time that we awake to righteousness and sin not? If we will
awake from our slumber, then Christ will give us light (Eph 5:14).
We need to change
our thinking about righteousness and that is exactly what the Greek word for
repentance means – to change your mind. But we are so conscious of our sins
that are past, that we have trouble believing that we are righteous right now.
We attempt to show our piety by saying things like, I’m just a sinner,
saved by grace, but what that does is paralyze us by believing a lie
and falling into the trap of the enemy. It is true – we were sinners and we
were saved by grace, but the Bible says that we are now the righteousness of
God in Christ Jesus. God said that we are saints, not sinners. God said that we
are made spotless by the precious blood of Jesus. God said that He will
remember our sins no more.
“Thou art
snared by the words of thy mouth. Thou art taken by the words of thy mouth.” Words are more powerful than
atomic bombs. They are more powerful than the winds or ocean tides. Words set
in motion the course of events in our lives. Our successes or failures today
are a direct or indirect result of words that we have spoken in the past. Once
they are spoken, they can’t be retrieved. One little slip of the tongue can
forever kill a lifelong relationship. It is easier to take a walled city than
to recover a brother that has been offended by things we have said.
We must receive
with meekness the engrafted Word that is able to save our souls. The engrafted
Word is what will convince us that we are righteous. The engrafted Word is the
anchor of our souls. The engrafted Word will comfort us when we mess up (and we
will mess up from time to time), because the engrafted Word will tell us that
we have a mediator on the right hand of the Father, who will pray for us and
forgive us when we confess our sins.
Finally, the
message from the 3rd dimension of the kingdom of God is that “It is
finished!” It is a done deal. The greatest revelation coming to the church is
not what God is going to do for us, but what He has already done. It is
finished! And all is well.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
Judgment and the Hidden Things of Darkness
May 2001
1 Corinthians 4:5 –
“Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both
will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the
counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God.”
I used to cringe
when I would read this Scripture and think about all the little hidden things
that I think about and the temptations that I am faced with everyday and
realized that nothing is hidden from the Lord. My own mind would condemn me for
thinking about things that I would never voice and I would hope that I never
face the tests that I conjured up in my own imaginations. Oh, the wiles of the
enemy!
Then one day, Jesus
brought revelation to me concerning this passage of Scripture and I have never
worried about this matter since. To fully understand this Scripture, we must
not take it out of context, but we must connect it with chapter 3 as well.
We find in chapter
3 that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. We
find out that we are laborers together with God, that we are God’s husbandry,
that we are God’s garden. The foundation that we build on is Jesus Christ, and
what we build upon this foundation is what 1 Corinthians 4:5 is talking about.
Do we build upon
this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, or with wood, hay and
stubble? Every man’s work will be tried with fire (our God is a consuming
fire). If our works stand the ‘fire’ test, then we shall receive the reward,
but if our works are consumed by the fire, then we lose our reward, but we do
save our lives.
This judgment is at
the Judgment Seat (bema) of Christ and is not a judgment of sin. The Great
White Throne Judgment is the judgment against sin and sinners. Our sins have
gone on before us (we are covered by the blood of the Lamb) and God will never
remember our sins.
So, what are the
hidden things of darkness and manifest counsels of the heart? It is simply
this: Every time that you had compassion on someone and did something for them
without letting the whole world know about it, but rather kept it to yourself,
it is a hidden thing that Jesus is going to reveal to everyone at this great
Judgment Seat. This is gold, silver, and precious stones in His eyes.
But everything that
we did for someone and let the whole world know about it (to let them know how
great we are) is wood, hay, and stubble. Anything that we do to exalt ourselves
rather than letting God exalt us is wood, hay , and stubble. Works up in
flames! Lost reward! Tears in Heaven! Thank goodness that our souls are saved.
Works (hidden
things of darkness) and motives (counsels of the heart) will be revealed at
this time. I once heard a preacher say that this was the time when God says, Thanks.
The time when God says to us, You did just right. You followed My
plan exactly.
When I finally
realized that God is not going to bring up anything to embarrass or condemn me
on that day, that’s the day that I realized that my flesh is my greatest enemy.
Satan is already defeated. God has already put him under our feet. The greatest
struggle that we have is with ourselves.
Grow! Be perfect!
Become a believer!
Jesus, I
thank You for Your never-ending love, Your abounding grace, Your everlasting
mercy, and Your constant supply of the Spirit by which I live, move, and have
my being.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
Counting
It All Joy
March 2001
James 1:2 “My
brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this,
that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her
perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you
lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and
upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”
Oh yes, process!
That series of events that comes into our everyday lives whether we are
believers or not, whether we are in the faith or not, whether we are mature or
not, it comes to us all. Many in the Christian faith have called this a
‘wilderness’ experience and sadly, many have cursed their wilderness. But God
didn’t tell us to curse our wilderness or blame it on the devil. Blaming the
devil for something God is working out of our character is to inadvertently
glorify the enemy of our soul. I don’t know about you, but I for one refuse to
knowingly glorify the devil or give him any credit for being anything except
persistently evil.
One never chooses
the time of his testing or temptation. We just ‘fall’ into it. Anything that we
put before God, will invoke an immediate test, temptation, or trial in our
lives, from which there is only one escape (1 Corinthians 10:13, 14). Then
sometimes, it just might be that God is bragging on us and we have a ‘Job’
experience. Either way, we are to count it all joy. The Word didn’t say that it
was joy, but we are to count it as joy. We are to reckon it to be joy. We are
to make a calculation, a conscious decision that this is joy, no matter how it
hurts or pains us.
There have been
times in my life when I was so sorely tested, so disgusted with people, places,
and events, that I could just scream. And suddenly I would remember this
Scripture and would leap for joy, and there would come such a surge of the
Spirit in me, that I could run through a troop or leap over a wall. Have you
ever had an experience like that? Most of the time, there was something in me
that I had to adjust. There was something in me that wasn’t like Jesus and I
had to get it out of my heart. One can quickly make a spiritual adjustment when
one knows what the will of the Lord is in the matter.
Process is the
trying of our faith. Process is the working out our salvation with fear and
trembling. Working it out of our flesh. If we say that we are Christians, then
we ought to be like Christ. How are we going to manifest Christ to the world,
if we are full of bitterness, debate, strife, and envy? It is no wonder that
the world doesn’t come running to us or lay their sick in the streets so that
our shadows can heal them as we pass by, when they see us cutting each other to
pieces and damning everyone to hell if they don’t believe just like we do.
Jesus, I have
located the problem and it is me. I’m the one walking in the counsel of the
ungodly. I’m the one standing in the way of sinners. I’m the one sitting in the
seat of the scornful. Woe is me, oh Lord, for I’m a man of unclean lips and I
dwell in the middle of people of unclean lips. My God, have mercy on men. Make
my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if gracious words cannot flow from my
lips to the people with whom I have to deal. I’d rather be dumb the rest of my
life than to have perverse language spew forth from my lips.
It is time that we
took the responsibility for our own actions, words, and deeds. Quit blaming the
devil, your pastor, or the church down the street for our failures. Recognize
that it is me (us) standing in need of prayer. If we are going to change our
world, then it must begin in our own spirit. This gospel must first be preached
in Jerusalem (my heart), then Judea (my family), Samaria (my city), and then to
the uttermost parts of the earth. Our trouble is that we are trying to win the
world and we are still in a mess. It doesn’t work that way. Let everything be
done decently and in order. Get the order right.
I don’t apologize
for getting ‘preachy’. What I have written, so let it be written. I know that
the time for the manifestation of the sons of God is upon us, and I want to be
a part of it. It ain’t gonna happen if I don’t repent unto the Kingdom. It
ain’t gonna happen to me, if I don’t get it right. I know that I’m not using
good grammar, and I’m doing that on purpose to make a point. The manifestation
of the sons of God will happen. I just won’t be a part of it if I don’t wake
up, shake myself from my slumber, and get about my Father’s business.
Whatever it
takes, oh Lord, whatever it takes.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
Third
Dimension Living
February 2001
Colossians 3:1-4 ‘If
ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on the things above, not
on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
him in glory.”
As I meditate upon
the above passage of Scripture, I see it as pertaining to the 3rd
dimension of grace. Allow me, in my halting way, to share a few thoughts with
you about this passage from the book of Colossians.
Following the order
of God (death, burial, resurrection) we understand that Paul was speaking about
mature Christians who have gone on to perfection. “If ye then be risen
with Christ” is a direct reference to resurrection which is the
3rd dimension of Moses’ tabernacle. You remember that the tabernacle
of Moses was the pattern for things to come, even Christ.
“Seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God”… in that dimension of the
Spirit, our entire prayer life changes. No longer do we beg and plead with God
to come and do something about our situation. We no longer ask Him for things
that gratify our flesh, but our prayer becomes, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy
will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”
Not on earth, but
in earth. “We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency
of the power might be of God and not of us.”
“Set your
affection on things above…” what is your affection? What does the word
affection mean to you? Ask you spouse if you are affectionate. Is it your love?
Your passion? Is it a pursuit? Are we trying to apprehend that for which we
were apprehended? Just how much do we really want Jesus to manifest in our
lives? As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs for Thee, oh
God!
“For ye are
dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Before we ever reach that
ascended place in God, that place where we all desire to be, there has to be a
death. There has to be the separation of the soul and the spirit (Heb 4:12).
Our souls must lay under the Golden Altar that is just before the veil which is
our flesh and our spirits being led by the Holy Spirit must take its correct
ascended place in our lives. Mature sons of God are led by the Spirit of God (Rom
8:14).
Our lives are
hidden with Christ (the anointed One) in God. The anointing of God must be so
powerful in our lives, that it actually hides our flesh. We must be so totally
led by the Spirit of God, that we cease to labor and enter into His rest. We
quit doing our ‘stuff’ and begin to function in the Kingdom of God. We must let
God set us in the Body as it pleases Him. Let God kill all the religion that
has been ingrained in us.
“When Christ,
who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” Exaltation is not a bad
thing unless it is self-exaltation. When God exalts us, it is for His glory.
Don’t ever forget that! When Jesus does a mighty notable miracle through your
hands (and He is going to begin to manifest that in our midst very shortly)
then we must at all costs have this attitude and spirit about us that says, “Why
marvel ye at this or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power
or holiness we had made this man to walk?” We have to give all
the glory to Jesus.
When God begins to
do these marvelous exploits in our lives, it would be easy to get an attitude
of pride or arrogance. I implore you to forever resist that temptation. I
really don’t care whom God uses, just as long as the Kingdom of God is advanced
in our city.
Thank you for
letting me speak into your life a little. I trust that you will get something
useful from this letter.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
The
Holy of Holies
February 2001
Hebrews 4:12 ‘For
the Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and
marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Little did we know
when we were passing through the Charismatic movement and the Word and Faith
movements that this verse was more than just a catchy Scripture that everyone
could quote. Back in those days, believers would quote Scriptures like this
just to impress each other with their knowledge of the Word. It became like a
‘buzzword’ and the more that you could quote, the more ‘anointed’ that you had
become.
It never dawned
upon our ‘lightning’ quick minds that this Scripture was actually telling us
how to enter into the Holy of Holies. Nearly all could quote Heb 4:12, but no
one knew what Heb 4:11 said. “Let us labor therefore to enter into that
rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” We
could go all the way back to Heb 4:1 and say, “Let us therefore fear,
lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem
to come short of it.”
Putting the entire
4th chapter of Hebrews into context, we see that this passage is
about entering into the Holy of Holies, the 3rd dimension of grace,
or the 7th day of God, which is His rest. We want so much to have
the mind of Christ and the only way to get it is in the 3rd
dimension of grace. “Let us therefore, go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, or of faith toward God, of
the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, and of the resurrection of the
dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits.”
Sadly, not all will
enter into His rest. Many are called, but few are chosen. Many will choose to
remain in the 2nd dimension where there is ‘light’ from the
candlestick, ‘faith’ from the bread of the table, and ‘praise and worship’ at
the golden altar, and never submit to the ‘sword’ of Heb 4:12 which in essence,
is a death certificate to all our man-made ideas and our presupposed
religiosity, and our own agenda. We are so busy building our own ministries and
houses that the House of the Lord is laying waste.
I, for one am
praying for my ‘death’. No, not death in the physical sense that the world
thinks of death, but death to all of the religion, idols, man thoughts, things
that I want to do, all the motives that are not like Christ in my life. I want
to transcend time today and seek those things that are above where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God. I want to see Jesus.
Come, rise from
your seat of complacency and go with me unto the throne of grace that we may
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey
Filling
the Earth With His Glory
January 2001
In the sermon,
‘Filling the Earth With His Glory’, Mark was taking his text from Isaiah 6 and
was talking about the mandate to fill the earth with His glory. “The
whole earth is filled with His glory.” ‘Is filled’ in the Hebrew text
is in the imperative sense. That is something that we must do. We are the glory
producers and we are mandated to fill the earth with His glory. Praise the
Lord.
Mark also talked
about God not sharing His glory with anyone else. He talked about angels being
ministering spirits to those who are heirs of salvation. He said that God does
not manifest power outside of His glory. Then he talked about 1 putting 1,000
to flight and 2 putting 10,000 to flight and the revelation of what he just
said floored me.
All of my life, I
had associated that particular Scripture to 1,000 enemies and how 1 Christian
can put 1,000 to flight. When we agree with another Christian, then we can put
10,000 demons to flight. I altar services this Scripture is mentioned a lot and
the inference is always on the enemy.
When Mark said that
God would rather have one of His saints praise and worship Him than 1,000
angels, then the revelation hit me of what the Lord was saying and meaning.
Mark said that angles are commanded to praise God at all times in order for the
glory to be produced. God dwelt between the faces of the cherubim in the Holy
of Holies.
He said that when
we praise Him, then we release 1,000 angels to come to the earth and minister
for us as we take their place in the Spirit and produce glory. When 2 of us get
together and speak to each other about the goodness of God, then 10,000 angels
are released to minister for and to our needs. Praise God. Do you see what I’m
talking about?
Since God finished
the work from the foundation of the world, then there are angels that are
earmarked to come to our aid and accomplish what God has planned all along for
our lives, but we must produce the glory of God to manifest His power. WE MUST
FILL THE EARHT WITH HIS GLORY. IT IS A MANDATE.
This revelation is
the key to unleashing all the power of God in our lives and is what we must do
to fulfill our destiny. Fill the earth with His glory.
About the Father’s Business
Dickey