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The Holy Spirit is teaching me things, and writing about them helps me to learn. Jesus says I should freely give to others the things I have been freely given, so I am making my writings public in order to share them with you. If you think I am wrong about something, please ask God to gently correct me. Blessings.1
What does it mean, to worship? The people of this world "worship" in many different ways. They do special things in special ways for special reasons at special times and in special places towards something special. Often, the object of worship is a deity, but it can be anything, including nature, sports teams, commercial brands, celebrities, and even the worshiper themselves.
The Bible says the object of our worship must be YHVH, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel (Jacob), who said to Israel's descendants...
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods besides me. (Exodus 20:1-3 ESV)The Bible says Jesus is Israel's Messiah, and I follow Jesus. What does he have to say about this? In Scripture, there are only three situations where Jesus uses words that have been translated into the English word, "worship:"
1) When he rebuked Satan.
"It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" (Matthew 4:10; Luke 4:8 NIV)
Some translations presume Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:13 in that statement...
Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. (Deuteronomy 6:13 NIV)2) When he rebuked religious people.
“Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:3) When he talked with the Samaritan woman at the well.
“‘These people honor me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain;
their teachings are merely human rules.’
You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” (Mark 6-8; Matthew 15:6-9 NIV)
But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24 ESV)So, Jesus reiterates the Old Testament commandment to worship God and serve him only, and he does not want me to follow human rules instead of God's commands. I think those things are pretty clear, but what about the third statement? What is worshiping in spirit and truth? That is what I want to understand.
Spirit and Truth
This is what Jesus says...“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17 ESV)The "Helper" is the Holy Spirit, who is in me. God gave him to me after I was baptized, and I know him. He dwells in me, and I am getting to know him better each day. He is the "Spirit of truth." Notice the statement, above, says "whom the world cannot receive." "Whom" means the Holy Spirit is a person. So, this is about a relationship with a person who lives (dwells) in me.
Notice it says "the world cannot receive" the Spirit of truth because "it neither sees him nor knows him." But it says that I know him, and I do. I am learning to distinguish his voice from those of others, including my own voice and thoughts.
"But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." (John 14:26 ESV)The Holy Spirit teaches me all things, and reminds me what God has said to me. I really don't need the Bible because I have him, but what he teaches me will be consistent with the Bible, because he was also with the people who wrote the Bible. God does not contradict himself. He is not a liar; he is the truth.
“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me." (John 15:26 ESV)One of the purposes of the Holy Spirit is to bear witness about Jesus. That is why the Holy Spirit is in me, to help me tell people about Jesus. That is my job, to tell people about Jesus.
“And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.” (John 16:8-11 ESV)The Holy Spirit has other jobs, according to Jesus, and they are to convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. I do not understand those things, but the Holy Spirit has explained to me that it is not my job to understand those things because they are not my responsibility. They are his responsibility -- what he is doing with the world. I am not the world. He will help me understand those things if, and when, I need to understand them, and I am content with that.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16:12-15 ESV)Jesus tells us what we need to know when we need to know it, and I should be content with that. The Holy Spirit will guide me into all the truth, not just part of the truth, but everything I need to know about a particular situation. He will not leave me guessing, so I need to stop guessing. He will tell me the things that are to come that he wants me to know about. I need to be content with just knowing about the things he wants me to know about, and leave the rest to him.
I have learned I cannot handle knowing about what is to come, or what I think is going to come. In the past, when I thought I knew what was coming, I became very distressed, and in the end it turned out I was wrong. (You can read about one of those times here.) When I did, in fact, know things ahead of time, I did not realize it until they actually happened, and then I was amazed as I looked back on what I had been given beforehand. I told about some of those things in earlier posts. God is so good!
Most importantly, the Holy Spirit is going to glorify Jesus, and he is going to do that by taking what Jesus and the Father have and declaring those things to me. This is important because Jesus says it twice. I do not know what those things are going to be because the Holy Spirit has not told me yet, and I don't need to know right now, but when I need to know those things the Holy Spirit will reveal them to me. I am content with that.
What about truth?
"...your word is truth." (John 17:17 NIV)If God's word is truth, then I must believe it. If I believe it, then I must act on it. If I do not do something God's word commands me to do, then I am being disobedient towards God. Disobedience is unbelief. Both are sin, and I risk incurring God's wrath if I sin.
Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says:The Holy Spirit has strategically used the following statement from Hebrews and Psalm 95 in my life a number of times to get me to obey and do something I am not comfortable doing:
“Today, if you will hear His voice,
Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
In the day of trial in the wilderness,
Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me,
And saw My works forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart,
And they have not known My ways.’
So I swore in My wrath,
‘They shall not enter My rest.’”
Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God." (Hebrews 3:7-12 NKJV)
“Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” (Hebrews 3:7-8, 3:15, 4:7, Psalm 95:7-8 NKJV)This literally "strikes the fear of God into me." I obey because I am afraid of not entering into his rest. I also obey because I love God and I love the truth. I love Jesus, and I want to do what he tells me to do. I am his disciple, and I know he knows what is best.
“If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32 NIV)Jesus set me free from my sin through baptism, and the Holy Spirit helps me live a holy life.
The Bible says more about these things, but I have concluded "worshiping in spirit and truth" is listening to and following the Holy Spirit, believing the truth and obeying what Jesus has commanded me to do. Jesus demonstrated all of those things when he walked the earth.
Living With the Holy Spirit2
Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, so he had him from the beginning of his life on earth. Jesus was also baptized in the Holy Spirit immediately after he was baptized in water by John the Baptist. One of his purposes was to demonstrate to us how we should behave, and what we should do. He predicted that we will do even greater things than he did...“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." (John 14:12 ESV)When Jesus was talking to the Samaritan woman, I believe he was demonstrating what it is like to worship in spirit and truth, to live with the Holy Spirit. He listened to, and followed, the Holy Spirit as he walked and did normal, everyday things. For example, he was tired and thirsty, so he sat down at the well...
So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour. (John 4:5-6 ESV)Jesus spoke to the woman who was there. He asked her for a drink...
A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) (John 4:7-9 ESV)Seeing that she was willing to talk, he engaged her in conversation, as the Holy Spirit led him...
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10 ESV)She responded...
The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” (John 4:11-12 ESV)The Holy Spirit then led him to give her a spiritual truth...
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:13-14 ESV)He had gotten her interested, although she didn't yet know what he was really talking about...
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” (John 4:15 ESV)Then, he really got her attention...
Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. (John 4:16-19 ESV)How did he know she'd had five husbands? The Holy Spirit told him.
Jesus then proceeded to tell the woman he was the Messiah, and other important spiritual truths. She believed because Jesus had listened to the Holy Spirit, who told him about her personal situation and things only she knew about. Her testimony led to others believing, because she was a person of peace...
Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42 ESV)Jesus had the same Holy Spirit who lives in all of those who believe in him, and who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit. What he was doing is what I see other disciples doing around the world today. They are regularly seeing supernatural things in their own lives because they are following the Holy Spirit. They are seeing people healed miraculously, demons cast out and people baptized in water and spirit, just as Jesus commanded, because they are stepping out and being obedient to Jesus. That is what I want, so I am watching those people and learning from them. They are discipling me. Yes, it is through the Internet, at a distance, but that is better than nothing.
What About "Church?"
During his conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus stated that other forms of worship would become invalid, even the form prescribed by Moses for Israel...The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:19-24 ESV)The first disciples did what Jesus commanded, and their example can be found in the Book of Acts. I want to say that I love the Church, the assembly of believers who follow Jesus, but I do not like what the the world has created and led people to believe is the Church.
The early disciples in Israel had a fellowship and the Holy Spirit was with them. Later, what became known as Christianity, found its way to Greece, where it became a philosophy. When it got to Rome, it became an institution. In Europe, it became a culture, and in America it has become an enterprise. These things are a long way from what Jesus intended. Miracles are rare, and God's power is not demonstrated. Paul foresaw some of these things in his second letter to Timothy, when he said: "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power." (2 Timothy 3:5 ESV) He cautioned Timothy to stay away from such things and such people.
I want to live a life interacting with the Supernatural, and the Holy Spirit does that with me. If we obey Jesus, we will see supernatural things -- miracles, and the power of God. I have seen many amazing things, and I have written about some of them in this blog. It has not always been that way for me.
When I was a child, my parents took me to church. It was a special place where we did special things on a special day, and they told me we were worshiping God, but I didn't get much out of it. When I was an adult, I took my family to church because something inside of me told me I should. I was hungry to know God, and I wanted what was best for my family. We went back to where I had gone as a child, but it was the same as before, so we went to a different special place and did similar special things. We sang special songs, listened to a special person talk about special things and occasionally ate very small portions of special food and drink, and we were told we were worshiping God. But I rarely saw anything supernatural happen in that place.
I did learn a lot there, however, because the Holy Spirit was working in my life, and he made sure I got what I needed, but once that was done, he took us out of there. We went to a different place for a while, but I did not see the Supernatural there either.
Jesus calls us to, first of all, love God, and then to love our neighbors and make disciples. This is "doing church," and is what he wants his assembly, his "body," to do.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV)
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV)And he tells us how to make disciples in Luke 10...
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town." (Luke 10:2-12 ESV)After the disciples were all baptized with the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, the gospel message changed from "[repent,] the kingdom of God has come near you" to what Peter proclaimed:
Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call. (Acts 2:38-39 NKJV)These are all teachings of Jesus, and what he has commanded his "body" to do.
But, we have taken that "body" and put it into a box. The "box" consists of a building, a staff, programs and a budget. Those things stifle the body, and the body cannot work as it should. It cannot go out, it cannot involve everybody the way Jesus wants to involve them, and it cannot grow. This is not right. These things all started about 300 years after the Resurrection, and they have been with us ever since. They are simply traditions based on human rules, and there is no basis for any of it under the New Covenant, or in anything Jesus taught.
Some will say, "how will we meet if we do not have a building?" Homes. We can meet in homes. The first disciples met in homes to disciple each other and fellowship with God. They went out into the community, wherever people were, to evangelize, and they met in homes to be with God and build each other up. Jesus never told anyone to "go to church." We are the church.
"For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matthew 18:20 ESV)Most churches hire staff to do ministry, and the rest of the people just show up on Sunday to be spectators. That is not the model Jesus gave us. We are all called to do ministry, all the time. Here is a good explanation...
Programs. Jesus has already given us a program, and we just need to follow it. There is nothing wrong with doing "good works," but if we do them while neglecting what Jesus has called us to do, we are being disobedient. We are all going to stand before Jesus, and he is going to grade us. I want be obedient and do what he has commanded me to do.
The early Church did not have a budget. We only need a budget when we have to pay for a building, and staff, and programs. Jesus and the early disciples had nothing, and they let God provide for their needs. They did not give from their excess, but instead gave everything and relied on God to come up with the rest. That is a spirit-led life, and one that is by faith. Moving only when we have saved up enough money is not living in faith, nor is putting ourselves into the debt of a bank.
I am not going to argue with people about this. I know what God wants me to do, and he is the one I want to please. I love God, and I love Jesus, and the Holy Spirit lives in me, and all I want to do is follow him. If all he has me do right now is write things on this blog to help me learn what he is teaching me, then I am content with that. I am sure there will be much more soon. I am so excited to see what God has in store for me each day, and every night I go to sleep knowing he will have new things for me in the morning.
Right now, the Holy Spirit is teaching me things, and he is having me learn from a Danish man, someone the Spirit led me to on the Internet. This man is discipling me, because there is nobody to do it here where I live. The video, below, is an example of what that man has been doing, and what I have been starting to do. I love it. It is effective, and it is what Jesus commands us all to do. It is worship, true worship, in spirit and in truth...
You can tell a tree by its fruit, and this is good fruit (Matthew 7:15-20; Luke 6:43-45). This is where the Father is working, and it is where I must be also (John 5:19-21).
UPDATE September 04, 2020: The above video is missing. It disappeared around the time that the Danish man was driven from his own country for preaching the Gospel. I believe the content showed him healing people on a street and casting out demons. He had been talking about it on their national television, and then he came under persecution. I am leaving the link here in case things change and it shows up again, although it looks like it has been scrubbed from YouTube.
UPDATE October 20, 2020: It's back!
Thank you, Jesus for making this all possible! I love you so much!
All glory to God!!!
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UPDATE, May 10, 2022...
1 For another take on this, please read Colin Thompson's discussion Why Go To Church? I think it provides a good perspective from someone who lives in a different part of the world from me.
UPDATE, August 13, 2022...
2 I feel led to give some examples of how I believe I worship in Spirit and in Truth. For me, this is Life and what I live for. I believe the apparent coincidences I describe, below, are manifestations of the Kingdom of Heaven.
The evening before my wife died (a year and a half ago), I was led to some information comparing the differences between what we have all been taught and the actual realities of history and government. I subsequently found the source of that information here. About six months later, I found the Anna von Reitz website, and subsequently found the website of the Actual American Government, which I discussed in other posts.
Being fascinated with what I had found, I began reading it to my wife that evening before her death. She tried to listen but was very tired, so I eventually realized it was time to stop. That is all she ever heard about those things, which have become such a big part of my life after her (so far).
I picked out a DVD to watch from our collection: The Verdict. Quoting parts of the Wikipedia article...
The case involves a young woman given general anesthesia during childbirth at a Catholic hospital, after which she choked on her vomit and was left comatose and on a ventilator.
...the nurse who admitted [the woman] to the hospital... testifies that she wrote that the patient ate a full meal one hour before being admitted, contradicting her original note of nine hours.
At a critical point in the movie, she states she was forced to change the "1" to a "9" on the form.
A little more than twelve hours after we watched that movie, I witnessed a nurse asking my own wife how many hours it had been since she had last eaten, as they prepared her for surgery while in the emergency room.
I learned from the information about history and government that I was born an American, but have been influenced to identify as a U.S. Citizen. U.S. Citizens register to vote and are subject to serve as jurors in Territorial and Municipal courts. American State Nationals and American State Citizens don't because they have different political statuses and operate in Land/Soil Jurisdiction. (I explained all of that in an update to my Authority post.)
In June after my wife died, I got a notice that I had been picked to be a potential juror during 2022. I filled out the form and returned it. I have filled out those forms before, but have never actually served on a jury and only had to show up in the courthouse for jury selection once.
They notified me I had been drawn to be on one of the panels of the County of Midland, Michigan's 42nd Circuit Court for the month of August, 2022.
The actual American Government issued this statement recently...
Public and International Notice to the Bar Associations -- 30 Day Warning
[It goes into a significant amount of background first.]
These housekeeping issues and understandings are being brought to your attention to prevent Trespass against the American people and their property. We should also like to bring the issues surrounding deceitful court practices to your attention.
It is illegal and unlawful in this country to use a Legal Name or LEGAL NAME for purposes of deceitful prosecution, impersonation, unlawful conversion, or barratry and we find all of these and more criminal activities going on in the courts under Bar Association Administration.
American babies have been subjected to a process of coerced and undisclosed registration by Mothers and Fathers given no disclosure of the consequences. This has led to millions of Americans being falsely registered as British Territorial Foreign Situs Trusts; the assets of these purloined infant decedent estates have then been used as collateral funding the British Territorial United States, sometimes called the Insular United States Government.
The Bar Associations and their Members have been complicit in knowingly administering these fraudulent estate holdings, often against the better interest of the unwitting victims whose identity has been stolen and whose political status has been downgraded to that of a bonded servant.
These are acts of unlawful conversion identified as capital crimes under both the Geneva and Hague Conventions, as well as our Public Law--- and the members of the Bar Associations have been going along with this and operating under color of law, misaddressing Americans as British Territorial Foreign Situs Trusts and infant decedent estates with impunity.
Not only that, members of the Bar have been complicit in further acts of impersonation and barratry against their actual Employers and Benefactors when operating Municipal COURTS. In a similarly undisclosed registration process, millions of American babies have been additionally registered as Municipal CORPORATIONS and misaddressed as such.
The Members of the Bar Associations are presumed to know the Law and to be aware of the gravity of this Trespass against the Public Law and against Man and against Nature. Personage, barratry, and acting as privateers under color of law are white collar forms of piracy. No pretense of war protects your actions.
The Members of the Bar Associations are hereby given this 30 Day Warning to correct your operations and Legal Presumptions; people are not rendered things by any act of Government nor are they obligated by any act or contract undertaken under conditions of deceit or non-disclosure, adhesion, or force.
All prosecution of living people under false premise and precedent must end, misapplication of mortgages and other foreign debts, property taxes, income taxes, and registration requirements misaddressed to Americans, must cease and desist, along with the crimes of personage and barratry being used to implement these False Claims.
Any American coming before your courts or any officer of your court claiming their true nature and identity as an American State National must immediately be recognized as a preferential creditor and held harmless from any supposition that he or she is guilty of anything, a pauper, dependent, corporation, Subject Matter, debtor, enemy, political asylum seeker or anyone or anything in any way responsible for acts of personage, barratry, racketeering or extortion under color of law because Bar Association Members have "mistakenly" misaddressed your Employers, Creditors, and Benefactors.
You have until 10 August 2022 to bring your operations into full compliance with the Public and International Law. Any court or court officer found complicit in these acts of misconduct after that date will be held to treble liability standards for causing harm to living people and no pretense otherwise will save you and your organizations from the most dire consequences.
Notice to Agents is Notice to Principals; Notice to Principals is Notice to Agents. Evasion of Notice will be taken as Acquiescence.
Notice served by: Anna Maria Riezinger, Fiduciary The United States of America
What are the odds I would get jury duty during the exact month of the deadline for compliance?
My panel was notified our particular judge was going to use remote access (Zoom) for jury selection, and that there would be a practice session on August 12. Neither of the other two judges were doing this, and it seemed unprecedented to me. The court required us all to position our cameras, choose our backgrounds, and wear court-appropriate clothing to ensure respectful attendance. I had recently used that particular computer app to listen to Michigan Assembly meetings, but I had not worried about how I presented myself. This court requirement pushed me to make better arrangements.
About a week before the practice session, I was driving to my mother's apartment to fix her some breakfast, as I have been doing for the past several months. I do it every day because of her increased confusion. All of a sudden it hit me -- I can't participate on a jury because I have to take care of my mom! I have had my afternoons free, and since the practice session was going to be at noon I figured I could do it. I called the court and confirmed actual court trials can go all day long and I would not be able to help my mom if I sat on a jury. They suggested I come down and fill out a jury duty excuse form.
As I walked through the courthouse it was pretty obvious there was hardly anyone there. During summertime, many people are on vacation and I would expect lower activity than usual, but the place was almost deserted A few employees were there, but hardly anyone else was, except for a group of three people obtaining passports. I filled out the excuse form and a court representative called me the following Monday to tell me I had been excused.
On August 11, the day after the deadline for compliance in the American Government communications, I called the jury information hotline to see what was happening with my panel, even though I did not need to attend. The recording said my panel was dismissed for the rest of the month. Two other judges were still active, however.
I am convinced I had this experience for a number of reasons. I know the courts in my county are still operating as usual, despite the 30 Day Warning. I am now set up to better participate in Michigan Assembly meetings. Any chance of being summoned for jury duty has been eliminated for at least the next year. This is opening the door for me to continue working to reclaim my political status as an American. The Father apparently wants me to eventually do that, and I think I understand why.
In the eleventh (11) month after my wife's death, on December 8 (12/8, 1 + 2 + 8 = 11), I found myself in a coffee shop sponsored by a church, and within minutes I knew I was supposed to be there. The server's first name is the same as my wife's and her brother's is the same as mine. Since then, I have gotten to know many of the people who regularly go in there and who work there.
One of those people is a young woman who I have been discipling. She is not involved with any church, but she wants to be baptized. She asked the people who run the coffee shop to baptize her, and they have scheduled to do it on the upcoming 11th day of September (9/11). When I explained the significance of that date to her she was amazed, just as I am. In fact, she is a bit "spooked" by it. I don't blame her!!
Another woman I know from the coffee shop is currently on a mission trip overseas. Her flights were changed during her outbound trip because of a foreign work stoppage. She was rerouted through Newark. The digits of her revised transcontinental flight number added up to 17. That flight left from gate C110. She arrived in her foreign destination at gate A11. I was prompted to check her destination on Google Earth Pro and her round trip is just over 17,000 miles 'as the crow flies' from Midland.
I was prompted to re-watch the movie United 93 the evening after my friend arrived at her destination. That is the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania near where we stopped on our trip home from Washington, D.C. While watching the movie, I saw that Flight 93 left from Newark Gate A17. (Note also: A + 1 + 7 = 9.)
It seems my friends are experiencing some strange things, too.
These are just a few examples of how I see the Kingdom manifesting in my everyday life. On their own, these "coincidences" could be just that. Coincidences. But when they keep happening over and over and over again, the probability of it being coincidence is effectively nil.
I believe God has been communicating with me. Only He can bring these things about. Paul said...
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28 NIV)
I think this is what Paul was talking about.
This is an amazing life. 😊
UPDATE, August 21, 2022...
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To be more precise, the middle of her house is exactly 720 feet (7 + 2 = 9) from the middle of the Sunday school classroom where I was teaching Fifth Graders when I had a major disagreement with the church leadership about authority. (I used Google Earth Pro to calculate the distance.) That disagreement ultimately led to us leaving that church. The tornado ripped vinyl siding off of the building directly outside of the classroom. It happened three years prior to our disagreement. To my knowledge, that was the only significant damage done to that building.
The friend on the mission trip and I ate together in a restaurant with two other friends on February 9 (2/9; 2 + 9 = 11). It is the only time we have eaten together. I was going to pay for mine with cash, but decided to use my credit card due to circumstances. The time stamp of my payment was 7:19 PM. We all went home afterwards and I drove south; the others went in other directions. I did not get very far before I realized I had driven into a blackout. The traffic lights and street lights were not working most of the way home, but my house still had power. I checked out the utility company's website and the blackout was quite extensive, but it did not cover where my friends would have gone. The time stamp for the beginning of the blackout was 7:28 PM. The digits of both of those times each add up to 17. Nine (9) minutes elapsed between when I paid for my food and when the blackout occurred. I believe this is very significant and have some ideas about what it might mean, but I do not know for sure. I have definitely observed that the Darkness has consistently been preventing my friend and me from talking about our common interests in spiritual matters.
This stuff is just crazy!
UPDATE, November 4, 2023...
3 Added the image of the tornado path, coffee shop, and my friend's house. She no longer lives there.