BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Today, God’s people carry an anointing similar to that of Elijah and John the Baptist. God has empowered His Body to be the force in the earth to make people ready and prepare them for the Lord. What a glorious mission this is! In every nation around the world, the Spirit of God is breathing something very fresh and powerful into the Body of Christ, and into those He has set in positions of leadership in His Body. Once again, in the history of the Church, God has placed His people on the crest of the wave in making people ready to receive the Lord! It’s Nothing New I say once again because throughout history, as we have seen in the days of Elijah and in the time of John, in every nation, in both the Church and in the world, humanity has gone through periods of darkness. People have experienced times of hopelessness and despair. But God knows people. He knows how they respond to circumstances. Ecclesiastes 1:9 tells us there is nothing new under the sun. God has always been faithful to anoint people to make those existing in darkness and despair ready on the inside to receive Him and the deliverance He has prepared for them. When I compare the times we’re living in today with those of my early years, I see many similarities. The ’60s and ’70s were crazy times! The war in Vietnam was dragging on, and lives were being destroyed—both on the battlefield and at home. Lives were lost during the early days of the U.S. Apollo space program. And, as a nation, we were still recovering from the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. In the wake of these tragic events, America experienced dark days for many years. And there were some personal challenges for me as well. Growing up in Southern California, in my early teens I experienced firsthand the violence and horrific unrest that took place in the streets of Los Angeles and Watts in the midst of racial violence. I was introduced to marijuana at age 11, and when I was 13 my life was all but shattered when my father took his own life. Then, my life was about as crazy as it could get. It was a life of hopelessness, darkness and despair. But the truth is, I was not alone. I was just one of hundreds of thousands around the world who was walking blindly into destruction—living under the influence of darkness, not even seeking the light. Those were desperate times! Something New The good news, though, is that God was never oblivious to any of the things that our country, nor I, personally, was going through. He was not surprised by any of those things. He’s always on the scene—ready to raise up His people in messed-up America, and around the whole messed-up world, to make them ready to meet their Lord! For years, I was lost! I was a confused kid with no direction. But God was out to save me and get me on His path of life! In 1967, something new was going on in America that I knew nothing about. It was called the Jesus Movement. Their way of living, and the message they carried of God’s love, prepared people for the Lord. Even I was being influenced by the Jesus people who were on a mission to give people hope for their lives and for the world. Like so many others, I was confused about my own life and the world around me. I had no clue that my answers could be found in the Lord. I certainly wasn’t looking for answers in the Church. I was living the life my father had warned me about when I was 12: that if I started using pot at a young age, it would lead to other things, possibly even heroin. In 1971, I found myself exactly where my dad had “prophesied” I would be—waking up from a heroin-induced stupor. When my first thought that morning was, I want to do that again, right now, I remembered his words and at that moment I realized I needed help. I realized I needed Jesus in my life! I began my pursuit of the things of God, and He guided me every step of the way! And guess where He took me? He took me to church! He connected me with a church deacon who took me under his wing. This man and the people of that church welcomed me and made me ready to meet the Lord. They helped me to know my heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ. And they led me to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit. 20 : BVOV

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