Dear One,

The Lord bless you!

I have a word for you evangelists – why aren’t we winning leaders? Someone once said, why should the devil have all the good music? I say, why should the devil have all the good leaders? Why are we not focusing on these men and women and leading them to Christ? My wife looked at that guy El-Sayed in Michigan and said, he has charisma! Not that she liked him, but she saw he was a leader. You can say what you want about AOC, but she is a very effective leader. If we want to change society, we must develop real leaders on our side and win the devils leaders. Saul was a very effective leader in the devil’s army, but someone must have been praying for him, as nothing happens by chance, because the Lord intercepted him and changed all of history. He’ll do the same today if we will cooperate with Him! Also, don’t say, ‘God did this’ regarding the midterms. God didn’t do that! The devil did that. ABBA permitted it, as he permits a lot of things in this present age, like the perversity on the beaches of Mykonos, Greece or in the Castro District in San Francisco. If I did to my children what God is accused of doing to His children, they would throw me in jail. God didn’t do what happened in the midterms, He permitted it. If anything, the responsibility falls on the man in the mirror, you and I, the Church. Lets start thinking and acting strategically about winning societies to the Lord!

I’m going on two trips, if we get the money for them prior to traveling, one to Sweden this month and one to Uganda next month. The Sweden trip is covered, but I’m trusting the Lord for help with the Uganda trip. Both trips I have deemed necessary and vital to our overall mission, but the Lord gets the final say through what gets sponsored. We don’t send ourselves…the Lord through the Church sends us. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Love you! KRP

OF RIOTS AND RESURRECTIONS – Peter and Paul in Acts

I love troublemakers. Paul was one, and so was Peter. People who have a fire in them just must let it out, and sometimes that causes trouble for others. They comfort the troubled, and trouble the comfortable. The devil loves to make people comfortable with his presence. Then one of God’s troublemakers shows up, and things get interesting. Sometimes the comfortable who get troubled start riots, using certain lewd fellows of the baser sort (Acts 17:5 KJV), just like today. There is an idea out there that when the gospel is preached, everything will be sweetness and light, but that is not always the case. God’s troublemakers say, if you want to fight, we are not going anywhere. We will stand our ground and see the salvation of our God!

Now it happened in Iconium that they went together to the synagogue of the Jews, and so spoke that a great multitude both of the Jews and of the Greeks believed. 2 But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren. 3 Therefore they stayed there a long time, speaking boldly in the Lord, who was bearing witness to the word of His grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands. Acts 14:1-3 NKJV

What kind of miracles were present in the early Church? What is the theological basis for miracles? And are they once in a lifetime events for special people, or should they be routine occurrences in lives of all believers? My friend Bill has written a book entitled EVERY BELIEVER A HEALER. I went out to a flea market with him in San Diego and I saw people get healed of maladies they had suffered for thirty-five years, right there in the flea market! He gets them to testify immediately, and he has hundreds of these recordings.

Let’s look at the elements of Peter as a troublemaker – preaching the Word, doing miracles, obeying God rather than men. This is a word for all our women as well as our men. You can all be troublemakers! Preaching the word can lead to doing miracles, but sometimes the miracles lead to preaching.

Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.  2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 

How do you do a miracle like this? If every believer is a healer, as Bill asserts, then how do you heal the lame man? First thing we notice is that Peter and John were following their regular routine of life. They weren’t out trying to heal people. Some times you can go out as a training exercise, but this wasn’t that. They had already been trained in healing under Jesus’ tutelage. This man was laid daily at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. He wasn’t poor, he was laid there by his servants. He wasn’t begging for money like he was penniless, he was humbling himself to receive healing by asking alms. Humble people are ready to get healed!

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them — walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. Acts 3:1-10 NKJV

This was a spontaneous demonstration of the power of the resurrected One, Jesus by one of His servants. You, as the demonstrator simply walk with a deep awareness of the presence of God in you, Christ in you, and when opportunities arise to demonstrate His glory, you simply walk them out. The key is your awareness of His presence. John G. Lake, a modern day Pentecostal troublemaker, used to dress well and stand in front of a mirror and declare, ‘God dwells in that suit of clothes, and wherever that suit of clothes goes, God goes with it.’

Now Peter’s miracle led to an opportunity to preach. I’d like for some evangelist to write the book EVERY BELIEVER A PREACHER because that is the truth. You can preach! All you need is a fire on the inside. One time a preacher said, jokingly, ‘I’ll pray for your heartburn!’ – meaning, he would pray that their hearts would burn with the fire of God! In Bible college, we took a course on public speaking. Do you know the two elements of effective public speaking? Having something to say, and a burning desire to say it. Those make you effective every time!

Now Peter’s ministry never led to a riot – that was Paul’s specialty – but he did get a resurrection. You ought to read the whole record in Acts Nine.

And turning to the body he said, “Tabitha, arise.” And she opened her eyes, and when she saw Peter she sat up. 41 Then he gave her his hand and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and widows, he presented her alive. 42 And it became known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord. Acts 9:40-43 NKJV

In our ministry we have had a modern Peter, our brother Kule, who raised his daughter from the dead and led his whole village to the Lord and got them filled with the Holy Spirit. Same God today as in the book of Acts, but we need troublemakers who cooperate with Him and bring His glory to the people!

Now let’s look at Paul the troublemaker…

Now after many days were past, the Jews plotted to kill him. 24 But their plot became known to Saul. And they watched the gates day and night, to kill him. 25 Then the disciples took him by night and let him down through the wall in a large basket. Acts 9:23-25 NKJV

He started causing trouble by preaching the gospel almost as soon as he got born again, and then they tried to kill him. But believers don’t die easily! Now Paul DOES get killed in Acts 14 but he gets raised by the believers and has such a dramatic thorough healing after stoning – you can imagine that the injuries from stoning would take months to recover, if you lived – that he is able to travel and teach. You can make a case that Paul’s faith grew to the point that he had a very blessed end season of his life in a rented cottage in Rome, where he had all the protections of citizenship. I can just imagine a white picket fence and a rocking chair on the porch for the aged Paul, still ready to teach and love people – wouldn’t you have liked to sit with him? – superstar saint of the first century Church!

Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, 31 preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him. Acts 28:30-31NKJV

Paul’s ministry included riots and resurrections. He was persecuted at Antioch and Iconium while having tremendous ministry, then killed in Lystra and raised by the believers. He goes to Derbe for great ministry then goes BACK – you have to love Paul! – to the young saints at Lystra, Iconium and Antioch. He gets jailed in Philippi after the Macedonia call, has a riot in Thessalonica, and finally the great riot in Ephesus after the wonderful season of reaching all Asia minor in two years and three months with the school of ministry he established there. He raises Eutychus at Troas, mistakenly goes to Jerusalem, has a riot and gets arrested and almost killed again. Then almost killed on the boat to Rome in the hurricane. His attitude about all the trouble indicated he kept his eyes on the Lord and the hope of heaven!

And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, 22 strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:21-23 NKJV

Dear one, pray that God gives us troublemakers like Peter and Paul. God is giving us ones like Kule and Collins and Noshee and others I could name, but we need many more.

Then He said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Luke 10:2-3 NKJV

Are you a troublemaker? Let me pray for your heartburn! Don’t fight back and defend yourself. Go on the offense and prophesy the love and grace of God to those who would oppose you. God will give you the right words to speak into that dear ones life and all the power of God will defend you. The sword of the Spirit is the RHEMA word of God coming out of your mouth when you speak in love even under duress. We need more riots and resurrections as the world has grown cold and comfortable with the presence of evil, and it starts right in your family, your neighborhood, your city. Let’s go do it together! Amen? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Fathers business…