A SPIRIT OF ADOPTION
(There is an Adobe Reader version of this file at www.jesusinfocus.org/downloads/adoption.pdf)

In the 1990s I lived in Guatemala and worked as a missionary to other missionaries. That is a story in itself. But the account to be related here began with a reminder from the Lord of something that has part of its basis in Romans 8:16. Here it is in the New American Standard Version:

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”
16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, …

There are a few other scriptures to mention, but this one is fundamental and a good introduction to this account. It began one day as I sat ruminating on the things of the Lord. Pictures of people I know in Guatemala and with whom I have regular contact in the US were playing across my mind. It was my practice to pray for friends and supporters in this way. “God bless Kendon and Wendy and their children (I helped them produce their monthly newsletter on the computer) and God bless Sam and Janie Stewart and their children (I helped them home school Charlie) and … well, you get the picture.

Occasionally one of them would linger and it was important to wait and hear what the intercessions of Jesus are for this one or that one. This normally joyful time of prayer and reflection periodically became rather serious as God would prompt deeper and sustained prayer for certain individuals, families, mission organizations or their enemies. But this day was to hold something different, something I have not yet known of God’s nature, not this way.
God broke in on my reflections and easy prayers today saying, “I have given you a spirit of adoption.”

Acknowledging the Lord in a rather off-handed way I quoted Romans 8:15 to Him saying, “Yes, Lord, by which I call You Daddy. Thank you for that.”

But again the Lord said, “I have given you the Spirit of Adoption and you are not hearing Me!”


Asleep at the wheel as I was, I answered the Lord in a similar offhanded way with more thanksgiving, but without pausing to consider Him. He was trying to show me something, something important.

Again He said, “I HAVE GIVE YOU A HOLY SPIRIT OF ADOPTION AND YOU NEED TO LISTEN TO ME!

Sitting bolt upright, He had my attention now. All I could do was apologize and still my inner man. Confessing my interest in His effort to open the spirit of my mind I turned all of my attention to The One Who rewards those who diligently seek Him.

Picking up the account now, let’s go on.

Asking if I was noticing the people that He was parading before my mind’s eye I said that I was and asked myself if I should be praying for them as usual. His answer did not seem direct. He simply said, “I want you to take responsibility for each of them.”

I argued because I did not see that I have any authority in the lives of these people. “I am their servant, Lord, even towards the children. How can I do what You ask?” I said.

His answer still did not fit my paradigm very well. These days I am less surprised when God opens my mind to things that don’t fit my religious training and upbringing. In fact, the refinements He is working in me are really perfecting what was begun by other faithful leaders and friends and now I am coming to KNOW HIM by His Spirit and what great wonders are opening to me now. I am finding more and more people who are experiencing God in the same way.

Anyway, His answer is, “I did not ask you to authority over them. I asked you to take responsibility for them.”

That’s a short answer isn’t it? But all it did was generate more questions. Isn’t that the way children are? Every answer leads to more inquiry. That’s ok, though. God has proven to many of us that He loves inquiry. I think it is because He loves us, like a Father, a Heavenly Father.

So now we are getting more engaged and it is really great how little self-conscious timidity creeps in to stifle the moment. It is becoming easier and easier to flow with it when God engages us because perfect love casts out fear.

“So what does it mean to take responsibility for my friends? “

“It means I want you to adopt them. And just as you call me Father and Daddy I want you to receive them and treat them as your family. Make them your brothers and sisters just as you made me your Father.”

Next came a really strange saying, “I did not make Myself your Father. You had to do that. I adopted you and that made you my child, but you had to make me your Father. You called me Father before you made me FATHER, your FATHER.”

This gave me much pause. I know He was right, but I am not sure when it happened. I remember when I made Jesus my Savior. I don’t remember when, but I remember making God my Lord and became concerned with His will for me and His way. But I do not clearly remember making Him my Heavenly Father and He says I did. I know that I love God more now than I could have at salvation or even when I made Him Lord. I guess I can remember in 1979 a day when I asked God to show me Who He is as my Heavenly Father and the things that happened after that, at least, some of them.

Well, after ruminating on this for awhile I turned again to the Lord learn more about this new insight.
“You have called others in My house brother and sister before, but you do so because they are members of my household. Now I want you to make the ones I am showing part of your household. I want you to adopt them”

“You must take responsibility for them. You must seek them out and let them know you. You must apply yourself to know them. You must keep sharp vigil on their lives to learn from them what I have put in them and help those things to develop. You must learn from them the things that you lack and receive them into your life as vessels that I have filled with good things, some of them for you.”

“You must seek what is best for them, always with my interest in them uppermost in your thoughts. You must protect them to the loss of your own life. Remember my Son’s words, “No greater love has any man than this than he lay down his life for his friends.”

“You must seek them out and pick them up when they fall and never ignore them or hold grudges or let anger determine your love for them. You must never take any bitter reaction from them personally and let a root of bitterness overtake you

“I did not tell you to take authority over them, but to take responsibility FOR them, like a brother. The time may come when I will give you authority to rear some of them. On that day you will have proven that you will rear them as My Son would rear them.” On that day I will say of you, Behold my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

“FOR NOW, ADOPT YOUR BROTHER AND ADOPT YOUR SISTER. Treat them well. Keep them safe. Teach them whatsoever I have commanded you and when you are done, they will be more Mine than they ever were before, just like you.”

There is more, but the book is still being written. This has been set down with the sincere hope that you will be inspired to ask God to show you who He is as YOUR Father and that you would adopt Him as your Father. Maybe you might adopt me as your brother, too.

One last thing... In an effort at humor I have modified the word Doctor and now, in my own little circle, I call myself DOPTOR Bill... do you get it???

Love,
William Word (Bill), Corpus Christi, Texas
wmwordjr@yahoo.com

DO WHAT LOVE WOULD DO

DO WHAT LOVE WOULD DO?

Do what faith requires, That's what Jesus does towards you,
Do what faith requires, Follow God.
Do What faith requires, Don't be led just by your eyes,
Crucify the flesh with its desires, In you.

Do what hope demands, Humble yourself under God's hand,
Do what hope demands, Believe the Lord,
Do what hope demands, By the Spirit of the Son of Man,
God's promises are yea and amen, For you.

Do what love would do, As God forgives, You forgive, too,
Do what love would do, God will judge,
Do what love would do, Be salt & light, Be good news,
Goodness and mercy will surely follow you, Yes you!

God has given me songs for years now. I hardly ever say I wrote this song or that song. Usually, I say I received this or that song. After giving me a song, the Lord usually instructs me in what He has given me so that I learn more of Him, see more of Him afterwards. Hopefully, He HAS more of me afterwards, too.

J. Vernon McGhee says that Jesus spoke just once that we must be born again. He said that we must follow him ninety seven times. My human senses don’t help me all that much in my quest to follow Jesus until they are in subjection to my spirit through His Spirit. To subjugate my senses I have to crucify them because they answer to my appetites, my lusts and my feelings. I choose daily whether to follow the urges of my flesh or the gentle prompts of His Spirit. Faith is my response to God which results in following Him.

What is the basis of faith, I asked one day. He answered as I reflected on this song’s second stanza. It is hope. Hope is the trust I have in the unseen, unfulfilled promises of God. He gives me a living hope through His resurrection, that is, a hope which He empowers by His many fulfilled promises and by the breath of His living Spirit within me which convinces me of spiritual realities that only He can reveal and confirm. My part is to believe. Jesus said that if we could not believe on the basis of His words then we should believe on the basis of His works. But we must believe. I have begun to see what I believe, but as through a glass darkly. I see enough to believe what I don’t see because He is Faithful Who promised.

Devotion is love set in motion. I learned that from a spiritual song, too. Love does stuff, good stuff, because God does good stuff. Love can’t be depicted only in what one does NOT do, but in what one DOES DO. Jesus entire ministry life is summed up in one verse of scripture. Acts 10:38 says that Jesus was anointed with power and with the Holy Spirit and He went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed of the devil for God was with Him.

A great deal can be done to advance the cause of Christ if it doesn’t matter to us who gets the credit. So forget about your brother and what is wrong with them and what they do. Let God deal with them just like you let Him deal with you. And GO. Be salt. Be light. Be good news to the folks in your own universe. Surely goodness and mercy will FOLLOW YOU and He set a table for you before your enemies because, GOD IS WITH YOU WHEN YOU FOLLOW HIM.

SURPRISES

Barry called Sunday. During the conversation he offered to give me his 99 Suburban. Wow.

Today, 9/27, Tuesday, Catherine Burton called to invite me to Dallas this weekend. She offered a Southwest Airlines ticket for Sat. till Tuesday or Wednesday. Wow.

This afternoon, same day as above, Rod Howard called to offer a ticket to visit him and Katieann in Utah. Wow.

Jack Rothenflue and I talked today and he is going towards house church. We talked about the order and authoity to authenticate such a move for a careful spiritual man. He and his associates are ready now for a spiritual leadership conference where matters like this may hashed out in fellowship. Fellowship, it seems, happens around purposes and goals and quests and exploits.

I shared with him about the lessons from the days of the American Revolution.

Wow. Surprises.

RUN THE RACE SO AS TO WIN: RUN IT TO THE FINISH

This has been an eventful 2 weeks. Last week I ushered a fellow around Corpus Christi to meet some of our apostles of The City. It was part of the assignment the Lord gave me in the hospital last May to minister a prophetic word to, at first four and ultimately six, area apostles. Each one of them came to me at the hospital or nursing home and received the word on the stipulation that they recognized that they were apostles and that the one delivering the word was a prophet. This was important to the Lord because it goes to their accountability for what they receive. I put the word into a context and then ministered the part that they were then responsible to take to the Lord for illumination and interpretation.

It has been almost a year since the last of the Corpus Christi apostles came to receive the word and take it to the Lord to let it percolate into their spirits through their relationships with Him.

One of the men is from Fort Worth and he did not fully receive the word until January of this year. He is the one I ushered around The City last week.

As we met with the last of the apostles, near the end of the time, the room seemed to fill with a wonderful composure. I felt the Father’s presence very near and I heard Him say, “You have finished this assignment now. You have run the race to the finish. Well done.” I almost started crying. Carrying that assignment for that period of time was full of conflicts and tumults, but the Lord gave me fortitude that was not human and now He is saying I have finished the job. Boy that was a great affirmation.

It is not as though the work that is started is over, but now the work falls to the men that I had a part in gathering into a fellowship of leaders. Today, at a gathering of these and some other men of their kind whom they know, they actually put their hands on it for the first time in order to give it structure or to begin to do that.

One of the men with whom this group associates is a Priest who, 12 months ago, began teaching life in the Spirit classes. He had to limit participation to 500 Catholics (right now it is restricted that way). The classes are 12 weeks long. In the middle of each class, in the 6th week, they lead everyone who is willing (meaning everyone – God bless the Catholics) to receive Jesus as personal Lord and Savior. At the end of each 12 week class period they lead them into the infilling of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. He has completed three of these classes, 1500 people.

I do not know yet for sure, but I think they are using the same booklet you sent me.

Towards the will of God…
Bill Word, Facilitator
Fellowship of Brothers
(361) 241-9939
www.fellowshipofbrothers.org

DARING PRAISE AND FEARLESS WORSHIP
(This one is long...)

Wildfire in the Kingdom of God is sort of scary. The idea of it has been most frequently associated with perceived excesses in praise and worship. Maybe we've all seen excesses and fringe behavior that we vowed not to duplicate or permit. But we cannot survive as spiritual beings and impose sweeping limits on celebration and worship of God. Michal, David's wife, got offended at David's liberty. You should hear my friend, Steve Samford, talk about her.

The consequences of her reaction to David's dance cost her dearly. Her distaste did not stop at the worship and celebration. She despised David himself. Herein is the danger of reacting to those who turn over new ground in worship and praise. If it offends you the danger is in that you may come to despise even those who are closest to you. Your reward will be barrenness and loneliness and very awkward aloneness.

David said something prophetic in his words to Michal. He said it will get more vile than this ... but it will turn to honor before those for whom you pretend to be embarrassed, Michal.

Isn't it clear that God confirmed David? HE heard David's words to Michal. HE didn't correct David. David had lots of children, BUT his wife, Michal, had none of them. David had children with those hand maidens and with Bathsheba. Michal wilted all alone.

I don't have a picture of how David's words to Michal were fulfilled, but I know what He said has come to pass in the generations of and since David. David told Michal that it would get more vile than whatever she accused him of. Whatever else that means, it says that the senses of those who cooperate with and serve the anti-Christ spirit have only just begun to be affronted. Religion has not even yet begun to hear and see what will happen as God continues to break new ground in celebration.

Praise has become and will yet become more daring. I know that some of you translate daring into defiant, but, remember, God confirmed David and punished Michal. He confirmed worship and crushed man-made religion. David's words to Michal even betray that he knew what he was doing. He said, "I will abase myself even more and even before my own eyes."

Perhaps a synonym for daring is boldness or vice-versa. But God is limbering up a bunch of us old folks and freeing up a bunch of you young folks to break new ground in celebration praise. New instruments and new implements even some of the old ones are vibrating with the life of the Holy Spirit and breaking out. It's like fire on dry kindling, WILD but not exactly the kind of wildfire that so many of the spiritual police of man-made religion are scared of.

It is the heat of desire for God that is making us fuel for a heavenly pyre - it won't be quenched - it will just keep breaking out because this is the season of Revelations 4 when the worship that takes place in eternity will touch ground flame.

At the core of this celebration is fearless worship. Again, the terminology might be scary to some. I am sure Michal trembled at David's retort if she knew her husband even a little. He was good to his word and so is Father God. HE is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and Truth and He intends to tabernacle with these brazen, bold, daring types - NOW - not in some far-off dreamscape of the city foursquare.

Those who will dare to embark on fearless worship will shun human inhibitions in order to draw nearer and nearer and nearer to the Father God and Lover of their souls.

There is always some ignorance that must be overcome to draw near. We have been coached for eons that no one may draw near to God or see God and live. After all, He lives in unapproachable light. Right?

That terrible incantation has for too long dampened the desire of those who would dare to think that God really did want ALL of Israel to go up the mountain with Moses. And why didn't all of them go? They said it themselves. You go, Moses, we are scared.

Well, the new breed that is rising to the quickening of the Holy Spirit are finding a strengthening to overcome the fear AND the ignorance. They are making for the Holiest of Holies, the lap of Father God and we are in the fullness of time to reach the secret place of the stairs. A very important prophetic understanding of scripture is breaking on the landscape and it is hidden, like so many other of the Lord's "mysteries," right in plain sight.

Proverbs 25:2 says "It is the glory of God to conceal a matter. It is the glory of Kings to search it out." That's IT. That's the prophetic understanding. Do you get it or am I imagining this? There is a promise in Hebrews 11:6. "Without faith it is impossible to please God, but those who would see God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him."

If He rewards those who seek Him, what is the reward? Wouldn't it be to FIND Him and even to FIND HIM OUT and His mysteries and His glories? Woldn't it be to actually come to the knowledge of the Lord? Wouldn't that outstrip simple knowledge of the Bible?

While everyone who has ever believed is included in the NT verse that says we are Kings and Priests unto our God, there is yet a new breed who are reaching to apprehend that reality, to take custody of it because that is why they, and we, have been taken into the custody of the Holy Spirit. We were not apprehended for no cause nor for any unworthy claim upon our lives.

We have given ourselves into love-slavery because the Kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ and He is worthy. He has made a way and we will draw near in devoted, pronounced, daring and fearless exultation.

The tactics of man-made religion charge us to count the cost as though the cost is the righteous center of focus. This is not so. And the new breed isn’t buying it. For us, counting the cost means comparing the price the prize. We have been freely given the currency with which to make the transaction. It comes in three denominations: faith, hope and love.

When one gets even a dim view of the prize, fellowship on earth that is with The Father and with The Son, the price doesn't count. Even a simple man finding a pearl of great price in a field will go and sell all that he has in order to purchase the field so he may claim the prize. How much more we who catch even a glimpse of the glory of God much less the promise of beholding Him now, full of grace and truth.

If I must die to behold him, slay me in all my flesh and the deeds of the flesh now. HE is worthy. Out of the offering of a grateful heart I will bring to Him daring praise and fearless worship. I will seek His pleasure to break new ground in daring praise and fearless worship within me. HE is worthy. And I know He will do it in us. He has exhorted us to reach for it. He has promised to fit us and outfit us for it. Paul wrote in 1 Thess. "The Lord sanctify you completely in body soul and sprit and He will do it."

How many of us, hearing God testify of David that he is a man after God's own heart ... Did our hearts not burn within us to be worthy of that testimony of God over us. Well, that desire in us did not originate with us. It originated with God. He put it in us so He could fulfill it.

Take up the chase. Run the race. Feed your appetite for the person of Jesus, Don't starve it or ignore it, especially on the word of some jealous religious institution whose claim on us can only make us twice more sons of hell than we ever were. It is no longer a matter of walking the walk or talking the talk or any combination of the two. TODAY, WE RUN THE RACE. We run so as to win, laying aside every weight and sin that does so easily beset us. We run the race to finish. We have another Comforter. Whom should we fear?

Catherine Russell, my friend and a practicing Pastor of the Kingdom, a worshipper with eternity in her mouth, taught me this riddle,

"If you chase HIM, HE will catch you."

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.

It is the glory of Kings to search it out.

You know what to do .. Oh God, please catch us and catch us up until we are whole heartedly lost in the knowledge of Your glory and caught in the folds of Your will. Do it Father...

Bill Word, Facilitator
The Fellowship of Brothers
www.fellowshipofbrothers.org
wmwordjr@yahoo.com
(361) 241.9939

INTERDEPENDENCE DAY

The American Independence Day has become a reminder to me of something that is as high on the rungs of important remembrance as anything could possibly be. It is that as a freeman, made free by the free gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ, I have the choice to be independent, self sufficient and self governing and self determining or I can choose to be dependent as long as I can find a way for someone else to take responsibility for my life and needs.

OR I can be INTERDEPENDENT, united and in accord with and present to be counted among people of like precious faith and even those of NO faith, to whom and with whom I can pledge my worldly goods and my sacred honor for the common good.

Sometimes I think July 4th should be called Interdependence Day.

There is a sound file here (http://tricordsupport.com/media/rs-pledg.wav) by Red Skelton on the Pledge of Allegiance. It is just one of a few things that made me cry a little over the last few days leading up to July 4th.

In closing I just want to thank you for the part you play in my life.

Shalom,
(A word which depicts God’s authority to destroy all chaos)
William Word, Jr. (Bill)
Fellowship of Brothers
http://www.fellowshipofbrothers.org/

Please write to learn more about the liberty and freedom that is offered through the free gift of salvation and a life of following God to do His will.

The Ministry of Mirth

While in Guatemala as a missionry, I learned to laugh and to know the joy of the Lord at a level that others had hoped I would over the years. My face usually showed the depts of my ponerous thoughts and my it (my face) did not know that I was happy in my thoughts. So people didn't either. I used to hear comments frequently fromm people who saw me at a traffic light and waved and honked their horn and shouted and I just did not notice them. I would explain each time that I was deep in thought, especially at a traffic light where it was safer to engage my thoughts freely.

Life for a missionary in Guatemala, however, can stretch you pretty good and it is good to learn to laugh - at life - at traffic - at diesel smoke - at humanity - at everything.

I so came to appreciate a merry heart and the joy that comes from the KNOWING the Lord's presence that, as a way to enhance my personal worship, I made a request of the Lord. This was the second time I had asked the Lord for something just for the purpose of enhancing my personal worship. The first time I asked the Lord for the skill to play a guitar. I wanted to make music with a part of my body that left my mouth free to sing at the same time. In 1981 he used a special agant of His named Janice Underwood to supply me with a guitar. He then used another special agent of His named Holy Spirit to teach my fingers to make war on the guitar. Then he started giving me songs.

This time, however, I did not know if I wanted to ask of the Lord did or should exist. I asked the Lord that if there is such a thing as the ministry of mirth, may I have it.

Well, I am a trasformed man and I can enter a room and God uses me to bring light and lightness into it. The joy of the Lord, to my very great and grateful surprise just spills out. God engages me at the level of humor so much in my own privacy and then He lets it flow even when I am around others. Few people know%2

Do Rightesouness

Can doing right ever be wrong? Can doing wrong ever be right? The answer to both questions is yes. That is the problem with living life at the level of what is right and wrong. Life should be lived at the level of what is good and evil, righteous and wicked

Right and wrong are subjective, that is, they are based on your code of conduct, your own moralty. If you do not have a real standard as a basis for your moral compass then your code is exclusive. It may be public or private as you choose, but it will not be stable because it will change with your feelings, your experiences and your interpretation of these factors.

People without their own moral standard for their own code resent the idea and refecxt it that there is a set of absolutes to serve as a moral compass. If they even meet someone who holds out that there is a universal standard and that there is a reliable and searchable code, even if they only say that they have come to grips with that idea for themselves alone, the typical response is adaversarial and instant. The usual comment is, "Who are you to put your morality on me!"

A friend once said that society is brutal to those who are different. With repsect to morality, if you live below society's standard, society will prosecute you. If you live above their standard they will persecute you.
and
What is really quite absurd is that it has become a standard to have no standard or to have a standard called "my morality" meant to be taken as a strictly relative term.

For this reason I propse that the test of a code of conduct is not a moral one, but a test of righteousness. A righteous code would appear to be Godlike or the way God would conduct Himself. Conduct outside of that yardstick, rather than being wrong, would be evil. Righteious behavior would model that found in God and in His presence. Evil conduct would be found outside of the presence and influence of God.

Since God won't make your choices for you, I urge you to choose God. There is a way to relate to Him which He has provided through Jesus Christ. If you want to know more send email to salvation@tricordsupport.com.