Author: Ashley Gatewood

Catholic and Orthodox Conversations Online

On By Ashley GatewoodIn The Organic ChurchLeave a comment

Youtube Conversations

I’ve had some engaging online conversations recently concerning the Church. Some people were accommodating while others were highly offended, defensive and then robotic. By robotic I mean indoctrinated.

It really bothers me. On a fundamental level. I’ve prayed about it and asked God why I see these things when I don’t have the ability to fix them. It’s terribly frustrating. I’m fairly relaxed and easy-going, but not online and not concerning lies. I’m not a gentle, soft-spoken person online. Overall, I’m not afraid to say what I’m feeling and sometimes I can be too opinionated. I don’t mind a good tussle but at the same time, I’d rather not get involved at all – my carnal nature often interjects: ‘Who cares!?’ I wish I could believe it….so I could quit and feel justified.

Doctrines of Men

I get angry and disappointed when I see people who love Jesus and are so on fire for Him and they end up captured in these indoctrinated churches just spewing phrases they’ve been taught – as if they are scripture when they don’t remotely line up with scripture.

These doctrines box people in, “well, it’s not always about putting the word of God first,” and I say, there is no recourse with that kind of doctrine. It’s kingdom of God first and then all else. How can you win an argument with someone who isn’t even playing the same game?

God will have to show me how.

Why Do I Have To See It?

So I pray to God about this. Why do I have to see this when I can do nothing about it? But the Spirit won’t leave me alone. I think to myself that it must be for some future generation, once everything begins to fall apart they’ll be searching for answers.

But that’s silly, because surely I’m not the only one who sees this. People who know more than others tend to feel alone. I don’t just feel alone, I am alone in this. Somewhere there are the preverbal ‘7000’ that have not bent the knee and God has reserved for Himself. Maybe He will show me who they are because all my searches come up empty. No one seems to see it or think it matters.

So I think, then why should I?

Denominations, physical churches can be more easily captured than the ‘church which God writes His laws on their hearts.’ My heart is not easily captured, nor my thoughts. The Spirit is like the wind, He moves things around and you can see the affects of it, but you can’t see His Person. That’s the true Church.

No one understands this who also says that the denominated church is the one true church. This is a false narrative.

The Call Is Terrifying

So I have to move forward with this, and tell what I know about who the Church really is. How do you approach effectively discerning the church – counterfeit though it might be – that God has been using for millennia? With much reverence, trepidation, fear of the Lord and a boldness that only the Spirit of God could give me as I face this manmade construct. That’s how. God works all things together for good the scripture tells us, so He’s used this church overlay, the construct of mens’ imaginations, to further His purposes in the Earth. I think there are good reasons for that. One being that the fullness of the Gentiles had to come into the fold.

I suspect there’s no way this would have happened had the true Church, the Body of Christ been left unchecked in the earth. Satan is a balancing tool by the way. He buffered the Church, then captured it, once he figured everything out that had happened to him, ha, God is so brilliant. The Cross is the victory for us while making the devil a fool.

No One Has Brought A Legitimate Argument Against Me

One of the most interesting comments I received on my perspective was this:

I’d already been thinking about how the Body of Christ is comprised of multiple parts. It is one body with many elements and moving parts. We are all one in Him, but separate from each other. Yet, if we are moving and living and having our being within Him, then also we are one with each other. This is the spiritual mystery that Paul said marriage alludes to.

This commenter was arguing that by me calling the remaining church, (that would be either the Catholic or Orthodox Church since Protestant churches do not use the word ‘schism’), a denomination it wouldn’t be true because it is only the schismatic church that becomes the denomination.

But the Body of Christ cannot schism because all the elements are needed to make up the whole. This is where I can clearly see the ‘church’ which both these religions started are a construct of man.

Let’s Talk Elements

You cannot remove O from H2 and still have water. The Body of Christ has many elements which combine to show the ‘manifold wisdom of God’. So it is a combined element like water, it’s whole but made up of multiple parts. As soon as that first manmade church suffered schism, it became a part unto itself, it reverted to H2. And H2 alone isn’t water. So that argument also has been broken.

Creepy Indoctrination

The creepiest comments are the indoctrinated ones where a repeated phrase just keeps getting chanted in my comment section with little to know intellectual understanding:

“I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.”

and again by another commenter,

“There is only one holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church.”

But the worst? Oh it’s far more sinister. It makes me cringe. It angers me and I find it deeply disturbing: “Outside of the Catholic Church there can be no salvation.”

As if Christ died on the Cross and it meant nothing because it’s a church that does the saving, not the Son of Man….

I have no love in my heart for these types of comments. I can see exactly how Christ did not restrain Himself from calling out with great passion,

“You vipers!”

I must weave my whip. There is no other way I can do this without sinning. And if Christ had to weave one whip, then I must weave ten thousand.

“Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!”

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

I don’t want to do this…..

Through Broken Walls

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

A Nuanced Tone

I read a verse in scripture this morning where God is being sarcastic. I’ve never really noticed it before. Maybe it’s my own mood this morning but, it does seem to qualify for sarcasm. And it made me laugh even in the midst of such a chilling address by the Lord.

It’s Amos 4.1-5. This passage is quite terrifying because whatever God speaks accomplishes that which it’s sent to accomplish…and it prospers in its purpose. Gives me chills…

God doesn’t play around y’all.

There’s another verse that really moved me which I’ll get to in a moment. But the sarcasm is found in verses 4 and 5 where God uses a nuanced tone with them and says in essence, ‘Come on to Bethel and transgress! Bring those sacrifices every morning, proclaim and announce your offerings, go right ahead! Because this is who you are and this is what you love!”

Whewwww~ NOBODY wants God speaking sarcastically to them, oh my goodness…

Evildoers Miss the Straight Path

He’s addressing the land of Bashan in Samaria here. I don’t know all the history but one of my favorite lines in this section is as follows:

“You will go out through broken walls..”

No hint of sarcasm there. This is an amazing imagery and description of an exit of power, or a driving out of evil from a place it once inhabited but is being rejected from the land. The scripture says the Lord will make our paths straight. Our path is made easy when we choose God’s way. We may not think this is true, because life is strenuous and confusing at times. But the Lord always makes a way where there seems to be no way. Isaiah 43.16, God made a way through a sea, He made a way through transporting in the belly of a whale, He made a way from death to life for Christ and all of us. There is no path, not even the path through the heart of evil, that God cannot make a way for us to walk out on dry land – a straight path.

But those who are evil, well their way is out through broken crumbled walls, falling debris, stumbling and even dying of their wounds just trying to get away from whatever is pursuing them. It is their own sin that has crumbled the walls of their life and existence. The word of God is tremendous. I like that wording very much, it’s concise and deadly.

God Delivers Us, But Evildoers are Delivered to Their Fate

In Amos 3.11 He speaks another powerful word:

“An adversary shall be all around the land; He shall sap your strength from you, and your palaces shall be plundered.”

Our enemies don’t stand a change against God. However, against us alone…well that’s a different story. But, alas!, we are not alone! We don’t have to deliver ourselves all the time. If we can’t admit we need help, then the issue is far deeper than just trying to act strong. The strongest are able to receive help willingly.

Evil never slips out of the snare – there will always be a final snare that never lets them go. God will see to that. We don’t see to it, God sees to it.

Vengeance is Mine, and recompense;
Their foot shall slip in due time;
For the day of their calamity is at hand,
And the things to come hasten upon them.’

Deuteronomy 32.35

God works contrary to our understanding of the world. When we think we’ve won, we’ve actually lost. When we think it’s the end, it’s actually a newly created beginning. This only happens for those the Bible says are ‘hidden in Christ’. Hiding in any other way won’t save us from the exiting through crumbling walls. God protects and preserves His own, He watches over His word to perform it on our behalf.

Because God is just marvelous like that.

Featured Image by Pawel Czerwinski.

Cities and Stuff

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

Boston

I recently returned from a trip to Boston. I love big cities. They are always awake and always open for business. I also like the way of living far more than small town – each has its advantages I suppose – one offering a slower pace to life and one engaging and always beckoning attention and involvement.

I never clocked less than 10K steps a day while in Boston, and that’s without any extra dedicated time. In small towns, there’s no great possibility of walking or biking. Stores and destinations are just too far apart. In many instances, biking and driving took the same amount of time in Boston. Even in small ‘cities’ like Lexington, there is no decent public transportation that runs frequently enough without wasting an hour and a half waiting at bus terminals. A fifteen minute car drive is the only alternative.

We’re walking through the MIT tunnels to catch the rail to a 5K, not mine, just to be clear.

I was talking with a friend up there who stated it quite perfectly. He said that there’s an energy you can feel when walking the city. You always have other people bustling about, things are happening like deliveries, events, shows, students, other runners or cyclists on the city streets with you no matter the time of day. But to walk to a friends house in a suburb of a small town, all the houses shut up, curtains drawn, lawns are the same, row after row – it’s just an excruciatingly boring walk.

It’s true!

I do my best to walk daily – which I have to make time and drive to the park. But I have to work much harder to get 10K steps whereas the city seems to provide ample opportunity for healthy living without even trying.

Anyway, I guess I want too much just in general. Maybe we all do. We want everything that is good about all we’ve experienced combined for a perfect life. It’s just not going to happen.

I daydream about living in a big city. Who daydreams about something so mundane? Maybe I’m seeing a vision, this happens to me sometimes. Will have to pay more attention to these daydreams.

Motivators

I have to consider why something is being done, why I’m taking a particular action. Shouldn’t we all consider why we are doing certain things in our life? Jesus said to lay up treasures for ourselves in Heaven because the treasures of this world rot and disintegrate and pass away. Entropy. Even ideas that seem to propagate suffer deterioration if they aren’t of any eternal value.

I’ve noticed how much the wrong ideas about God propagate on social media. People who are Christians saying that what makes a shepherd inadequate is not preaching the goodness of a particular political party to their congregations. In other words, not using a position given by God to push your own political agenda is unacceptable as a Christian Pastor. Like, what kind of Hell-talk is this? Who is embodying the essence of the great Accuser of the Brethren here?

How is it that Christian influencers are falling into this treacherous language against Christ?

And then, as if just speaking it isn’t treacherous enough, we have loads of ‘avatars’ liking the post, not because they are Christians necessarily, but because their agenda lines up with the poster’s comment.

These Christians influencers will be held accountable.

Anything we say – especially if we have followers on a massive level – will be solely our responsibility come the Judgement. ‘But someone else taught me that!’ This argument, my friend, will hold no water with God almighty. He has already warned us, ‘My people perish for lack of knowledge.’ This is why I am so adamant, esp with those God has laid on my heart, in correcting when someone is going down the wrong path. I care for them AND I care for all those children of God they are leading astray. I say children because they may be the few who are exempt, though still they will perish at the hands of ill-informed leaders, if they are never correct and taught proper biblical truth.

This is why leaders will be judged with far more weight than the children they are leading and influencing.

Hence this warning given: ‘Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.’

Now we just as easily can put ‘influencers’ in place of teachers. Same thing, same process of passing along the wrong information about God in this example. Do I know everything? Of course not! Which is why I’m grateful (though maybe at first quite irritated) when I get corrected. Correction, admonishment, saves our lives!

Now that alone keeps me from stepping out as much as I might be, it’s a grave thing to have great influence and be dead wrong about something so grave as life and death of a person’s soul and body. That’s my issue I must overcome.

The Wicked Won’t Win, Even Though Now They Appear To Prosper

The wicked shall not prosper. There’s a verse that admonishes, ‘do not envy the prosperity of the wicked.’ And it’s easy to do that. This life on earth has many interesting and pleasurable things we could use our vessels to indulge in, yet this assuredly brings death. God knows the human’s psychological makeup better than anyone or anything. Even Satan understands human psychology better than humans do, duh..

Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Psalm 37.1-3

Everywhere I look anti-Christ organizations, corpse-porations and blasphemous God-haters seem to garner praise, financial gain and worldly clout. But like, who wants that kind of ROI?

Death of self would be our aim today, in this world of indulgent pleasures, including dopamine kicks-and-giggles that social media tends to deliver to our starving central nervous receptors. Sometimes I wonder if Christians aren’t saying these ridiculous things because they believe the more social media likes and praise they garner means somehow they are doing the right thing and are approved of God.

My God, people! This is such a trap. All of this misdirection must burn away. Self-centered ambitions must burn away. I know, far easier said than done – and I don’t have thousands of followers…God help me if I ever do. I might run away, which would result in zero benefit to anyone.

And there are always whales at-the-ready for servants of God who run….fantastic…

It’s a problem of space and time for me, I think. It’s a problem of losing. Losing things. And I hate losing things. I hate losing time and options. I need an eternal view, not a here-and-now view. Many who are smarter than I, keep correcting my thought on this: I must narrow my path which sacrifices all other paths I could walk and proceed with all focus in one direction. This is excruciating for me even though I know that to do otherwise just keeps the wheels spinning unproductively.

Everyday Witnesses Through Their Gifts

The Lord has been bringing unique individuals to my attention. People I would never find in the circle of interests I have, and these people are full-on dedicated to the work of God’s kingdom here on the earth. They aren’t formally in the ministry at all, they are chefs, or skateboarders, or comedians – all manner of professions but they never miss a beat to talk about God during an interview about their chosen profession or craft. It’s a beautiful thing to see.

And quite frankly, they speak with much more profound depth and authority about God than those who are in positions of prestige or power within the church (noun, place) today. I became disillusioned about the structure of church organizations and institutions since the mid-2000s.

Indeed, we all wrestle with God at some point.

God always calls the Gideon, or the David, or the Esther when they are known by few and obscure. I think this is amazing and I love to watch it unfold in a life; how the seemingly smallest is made the greatest among us, not by their own hand of power, but by offering all their strengths to God to use for His glory.

This kind of wrestling is among the most difficult because it is our weaknesses, the self, the ego, the intellect like Leviathans pushing forward within us for control when, perhaps one might say, the hero overcomes them to submit his or her vessel with all its inadequacies to the will of God, as Jesus did. It’s nothing short of miraculous. Indeed, without the Spirit of God, we could not possibly do it. Faith is a powerful thing when it’s witnessed working through an individuals life.

I’m seeing this more and more, in the most far away corners of the world; God’s people lighting up and flashing a signal, as it were, that God is ever present and available to save and guide into a more abundant and rewarding life. That is, if we can pay the price. There’s always a sacrifice.

God’s Refinery

God’s fire is all consuming. And whatever is not of Him burns off of our lives. God help those of us who have built much in this world but little in the kingdom of God. It’s no fun to walk through the fire, but in the end we are certainly better for it. The continual regeneration of life is an unmistakeable attribute of God. Without Him, there is no life-force. I can’t take this train of thought too far here, it’s one blog post, but it ties in with so many other aspects of the human-Christ-eternal dynamic.

MIT tunnel graffiti, hallway art.

If anyone abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

John 15.6

The above scripture is exactly how it is. But there are other scriptures which indicate that what isn’t burned up, remains.

Paul says that if our work is burned up, we will suffer loss – there’s my loss hang-up – though we will be saved, but only as through fire. So I would even go as far as saying if anyone doesn’t subject themselves to the fire to burn away what should not be there, then they themselves cannot be saved. Either we chose it voluntarily and in doing so we pass through it, or we succumb to it involuntarily and lose our lives as well.

Peter tells us that everything that makes up the universe will burn and be destroyed and that heaven will pass away. This informs the reader that everyone will pass through that fire; but some things aren’t burned up but remain, continue, live on. And in the case of Christ, that living is eternal.

And again, Paul states that there is coming a great shaking and everything that can be shaken will be. But what is of God and eternal will remain. So this ‘passing through’ is a phenomenon we all must subject ourselves to, I think it’s voluntary, first. But if we don’t do this, run from it or deny God, the fire still must be passed through and we will also lose ourselves, our inhabited vessels even to the flames.

Now let’s think about our lives and how much will be consumed by the fire, how much we’ve done for our own self-centered ambitions and striving to impress other humans in this world. That’s a difficult thought experiment. But let us importantly remind ourselves of this, we are saved not by our own hand but by Christ.

This is so because we are in Him, we abide in Him and guess what? He had no evil in Him so that when He passed through the flames of Hell taking the keys of death Hell and the grave from that pesky Cherub, everything who was Christ rose again. In other words, His body also, being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Nothing could hold Him, not even the death which was appointed to all of us to suffer, once. So indeed God’s words were true, Jesus suffered death, once as appointed to every man. But again,

 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

Acts 2.24

And again, this is one portion of our promise, having been adopted by Him as His own children, a prophecy that is the Spirit of Christ, we shall inherit life eternal:

…because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

Psalm 16.10

The grave couldn’t hold Him, nor will it hold us, dear brothers and sisters.

Okay, I can’t help but think how long it took me to write this one post. How does one measure time wasted or time spent productively?

Have a beautiful week, all you curious people. Or if you’re feeling adventurous; have a curious week, all you beautiful people~

Featured Image: Snapshot of more MIT graffiti, taken by yours truly~

The Cherub Shall Not Have Dominion

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Visions and ProphecyLeave a comment

To Whom Does Earth Belong?

“Then the sovereignty, the dominion, and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Highest One.”

Daniel 7.27

Read the above scripture again, deliberately, and out loud…

The Earth has a Rightful Inheritor

The Sun rising over Earth, our Earth, and it’s beautiful.

Billionaires want to claim Earth and space for themselves,

but they can’t have it.

Global elites want to claim Earth for themselves, the WEF, WHO, WB…they all think their power and wealth can establish them as rulers over the earth,

but they can’t have it.

An illegal Cherub who fell from grace, who cunningly stole the God-given seat of dominion and power from mankind and is intermediately reigning, being called the ‘Prince of this World’ thinks his stolen estate will somehow lawfully become his own – that he might take Earth from its God by a slight of hand and from its lawful human inhabitants with ease,

but the Cherub can’t have it.

This Earth belongs to us, to God’s sons and daughters, to the saints of the Most High God. Sounds silly doesn’t it – does it sound as silly as a ‘Doctor Evil’ trying to take control of the earth? A Klaus Schwab with his global elites working tirelessly to claim dominion over the earth? A multi-billionaire so full of pomps and vanities that Mars would be a better play-toy than this sparkling blue, living rock? An A.I. god utilized by humans taking hold of the rights to rule the whole planet?

Why would one think that somehow the saints would end up with Earth? Is it so difficult? In a way it is, we are taught to be meek, humble and unassuming. Subservient. It’s hard to stand up and speak with authority,

‘No, this earth belongs to us as children of God.’

But I think, perhaps it is time we speak up. It’s time to stop the false prophet and the evil narrative that’s being spun over the eyes of those who have been made in the image of God.

And perhaps, ironically, this is the exact reason why we are called upon to be the meekest, humblest and most loving of all – because indeed, my fellow spiritual siblings, our human race was destined for the throne, to take our rightful place as co-heirs of Christ to rule peaceably over this beautiful planet that was from the foundations of its existence formed and shaped specifically for us,

not illegal Cherubs

not any angelic being

not madmen

not any other being,

but humans and animals.

This Earth was Made for Human Beings

It will be the humblest and meekest of saints who rule over it, those who live in subjection to the love of Christ who in those days it is said, to the benefit of all humankind and every living thing and the whole earth,

listen carefully,

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life,bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

Revelation 22

“…and they will reign for ever and ever.”

Do you grasp the Metanarrative here:)

I do. And I’m piecing it together, slowly but surely.

Featured Image by:

CreditNASA Images By Reto Stöckli, Based On Data From NASA And NOAA

Future Longevity vs. Dishonesty

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

Why do people have to lie? How is it good business to do so? I was blatantly lied to by an individual who I assume thought I knew nothing about his particular area of expertise. But I did. If you’re trying to sell a product or service why not be honest and establish your company as a reputable entity that can be trusted? This way you can have repeated business in the future…man, I was so disappointed.

Then they get mad because I call them out and they have to backpedal; all for extra bucks today when had they been honest it could have been several thousand in future transactions, not to mention a stellar reputation to go along with it. I have to ask myself, what were they thinking? Maybe people aren’t very smart or they short-sell their credibility because it’s today that they are in desperate need for the extra money (or whatever it is they are lying about) and the future doesn’t matter if they aren’t around to see it.

I Could Not Say Anything

Going down a rabbit trail, I also wonder why I can’t just keep my mouth shut. I could’ve not let them know that I knew they were lying – I could’ve let it slide and still refused the service. I don’t like being lied to I guess, it pisses me off, and I also don’t like to be pushed around. My personality is quite happy-go-lucky. To some who are far more serious, it may seem an unbearable lightness of being, annoying even. But as I’ve heard it said before, I have far less play in me than one might initially think.

I don’t always know everything, (I say not always because I also can know anything there is to know by the omniscient God when He sees fit to share with me).

So then I think about myself and how there are so many things I don’t know so how might I have been taken advantage of in the past?

We May Not Understand Why Now, But the Future Reveals the Reason

Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”

John 13.7

Fear and high pressure sales do not work on me, at least not most of the time. Liars usually have to create an atmosphere first, perhaps of urgency or maybe confusion, before selling the narrative and zeroing in for the kill. One of my first jobs was selling cutlery – they are good knives too, I still have them and they are still sharp 30 years later. When what is being sold is of high quality, no dishonest tactics are needed to sell it. Being trained to sell those knives makes me chuckle today. The manager at that time, Rich Oakes, was a stellar guy, I think he’s started his own business today and doing great. He taught me a lot of things in that short fifteen month season that I’ll never forget and the knowledge has served me well.

Sometimes we wonder why we are where we are. We might think, why am I here doing this right now when I could be doing anything else? But wow, the thousands of dollars I have saved throughout my life having been taught how sales and marketing work at a cutlery office has been of utmost value to me.

Integrity Counts for More, Respect Brings a Better Harvest

Trust. Telling the truth can cost a company or an individual a lot of money, while on the other hand, being dishonest can increase a company’s bottom line. But at the expense of what? It’s a huge risk to bet on someone not uncovering the truth. I knew the truth, called the individual on his play, and still was pressured, as even their co-worker hopped in to reiterate the urgency of a situation which later turned out not to be so urgent, as I had already known.

I guess I feel disrespected somehow. There is a certain amount of respect that comes with having a husband to handle certain situations. But what I know that people who lie to me don’t know is that I have an all-knowing Husband who can follow them home, listen to them when they’re talking about me behind closed doors, and He delivers to me far more power than an earthly husband can provide. This makes me smile, because even though things would be somewhat easier being married, having an omnipotent God as a protector is unbeatable:)

The King and His Host

And when said Husband is also King, having a vast array of angelic host at His service, and I’m His wife, well dear children of God, we all also have a power that can manifest from the invisible to the visible – the spiritual realm is no different this very day as it was in 4000 B.C. or 1 A.D. when angels manifested to speak with Abraham or Lot or Mary – and I do believe, they manifest at will around us for whatever purpose our Lord and King – our Husband – deems appropriate.

Man, it’s hard to find people who are supportive and trustworthy. But thank God I do know some who are and have the privilege of doing business with them. You know when you’ve found an honest person when the decisions they make help you increase your wealth when it could have benefited them to say nothing at all or sell you something you don’t really need.

Sowing Trust, Integrity and Good Will Now for an Uncertain Future Ahead

Cast your bread upon the waters, for after many days you will find it again. Divide your portion among seven, or even eight, for you do not know what disaster may befall the land.…

Ecclesiastes 11.1-2

Generous, reliable and trustworthy people and companies are growing more scarce it seems. Could it be that one day, when I open to see who’s knocking, it will be a robot who’s come to fix the problem I’m having with the car, or HVAC, or refrigerator or……

God only knows where humanity is headed. But I for one am going to strive for as much honesty as possible knowing that man may kill the mortal body, but it is God who holds the soul.

Featured Image by Ronda Dorsey

Embracing Minimalism

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

After seeking the best way to simplify my life and clear my thinking so that it’s easier to be creative and in a flow, I’ve decided to embrace a partial minimalistic approach to my house including the arrangement of things within it. My house seems to function as a larger landscape of my cognitive functions. So it’s as if my mind is narrowing my environment for me, it’s providing an answer in a way, one I’ve been seeking for awhile.

Sounds ridiculous perhaps but I can’t seem to get away from the idea that sometimes we need to simplify and clear away extra distractions and clutter in our physical environment in order to find an inner calm conducive to creativity and receptivity.

My house is organized now, but that’s not really the point.

Sometimes inflowing and outflowing doors start closing, or narrowing, because God has something to say for which He needs our full attention. Distractions must go.

Minimal Social Media

This frame of mind is spilling over into social media as well. I’ve been taking more time to read the word of God and pray and the more I do this the more I’m pulled to cut ties with social media. I’m not sure how much but I can’t ignore the need to let go of it increasingly right now. I think more and more people are feeling the same.

We never know what is coming down the pipeline but God knows all things. Sometimes we need only obey what we are understanding God to be speaking to us. We never know how we might affect someone in a positive life-changing way and I’m thinking it is only best to take care of ourselves in order to better serve others. Attention is a valuable asset, both to have and to give.

Social media can be a complete, energy-zapping distraction at times.

Inspiration to Gain Traction

Also, the challenge and vision of minimalism is one of the few things that has sparked my curiosity and given me some small amount of inspiration and motivation to manage my surroundings. I don’t even understand that exactly, or why that’s so, but it’s what I feel so I shall move forward with it. Every room in my house, without variation, is off-white. Blah…

Time to clear some things out so my mind and relationship with God also will benefit. I like the idea. I don’t think one has to become the true essence of minimalism, but using it to make some small steps forward will be wholly beneficial. And plants, lots of green living plants:)

Featured Image by Samantha Gades.

Merging Technology with Homo sapiens: The Demonic Embodied

On By Ashley GatewoodIn The End TimesLeave a comment

Understanding the Times

What I have seen I can hardly understand or accept. I can’t write it, I can’t talk about it. Words fail me.

I thought I had time.

I have been wrong.

The scriptures foreshadow what’s lurking on the horizon of mankind. From Revelation Nine, the Fifth Trumpet.

The Fifth Trumpet

Firstly, preserve the earth, keep it green and flourishing because it is earth they intend to take from us. Dispense with all excess human life:

4And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.

There’s something deeper embedded in the idea of Artificial General Intelligence. It is technology now, tomorrow it will be infused with lies and merged with human flesh. Know now that any wo/man who joins themselves in any way with this unfolding evil, God will not take mercy. The merging of the inanimate with the biological will not be pleasant in the least. The Intelligence will need our fleshly autonomous organism to gain its agency. So then, let us become one being with it…alas, perhaps I am wrong….

5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man.

6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.

Death shall flee from them…there are worse things than death to which one can be be subjected.

It Isn’t Hard to Draw the Parallel

Listen to the Spirit describing the reality through a man’s visionary experience from the first century:

7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Ingersoll, Public Domain

Photo by Cash Macanaya, Unsplash

Nah, that’s too silly! Isn’t it….

Not Everything is as It Appears

11 And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Surely not….surely this is AI, the dream, the beauty of nature and technology…

There is a Shadow to everything, dear Homo sapiens…

Photo by Alex Shuper 

To God belongs all the earth, and to Him all the fullness thereof. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against His own.

Featured Image by Jorm Sangsorn

The Revelation of a Kingdom, Not a Denomination

On By Ashley GatewoodIn The Organic ChurchLeave a comment

God is not a Church, He isn’t a Denomination, nor is He a Religion

If you can understand the revelation Munroe is thowing out here, then you can understand why no denomination was God’s idea.

Denominations are not of God, they are of man.

The Catholic denomination is possibly the worst because they are prideful in saying they are the first church – and are blind to the fact that they are a denomination. Until we understand there is no such thing as denominations or brick and mortar churches in God’s Kingdom, we will never bring the Kingdom of God into the earth.

But I have faith in the true Church, the organic Bride of Christ, that she will bring the Kingdom of God into the earth in these last days.

Because there is nothing else that will be capable of rising up against the anti-christ in these last days.

It’s time to start reorienting ourselves in God, and bring the kingdom Christ taught and spoke of into the earth. And to prepare for much spiritual warfare when we do.

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, My servants would fight to prevent My arrest by the Jews. But now My kingdom is not of this realm.”

John 18

John 18 is one of the most fascinating conversations in the Bible, imo. And realizing what Munroe says, that Jesus didn’t even speak to the religious men who were ‘representing’ God, but did speak to a gentile sinner who was ruler over a kingdom just blows my spiritual mind.

The Kingdom of God Defined | Dr. Myles Munroe

My challenge I’m putting on myself this year is to live a fasted life and pursue the understanding and revelation of this Kingdom God is desiring to manifest into the earth. If I can channel His kingdom through my life, I’m here for it~

Featured Image by Johannes Plenio.

And The Sun Stood Still

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

Moses struck a rock and water flowed from it. He lifted up his staff, parted the sea and the ocean floor became dry ground. Elijah called down fire from the sky and it burned up people and earthly things – or in other words, Elijah’s prayer manifested a power that was seen and had effect in this earthly dimension. He didn’t start a fire, he called an already living fire down from an unseen location at the sound of his words.

And Joshua. He looked up and charged the sun, ‘Stand ye still!’ and the heavenly body obeyed.

How by scientific calculation can the earth continue to rotate on its axis and the sun remain still? Did the sun move, for this one day through space at the speed of earth’s rotation? Or did the earth turn vertically on its axis so that for those 24 hours Israel was situated as the North Pole, the sun never having to set? Did the earth indeed stop rotating?

In The Beginning Was The Word, Living Word

Can we even begin to imagine charging the natural world by decree and it obeying our word?

“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3.21-21

When God spoke, creation listened. Whatever He speaks, His creation listens. ‘Be fruitful and multiply.’ God spoke once and the decree never ceased, but multiplied exponentially.

“So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55.11

What would happen if we took God’s words into our mouth and spoke His words out into this earthly dimension having the faith that Jesus had? Or better yet, Jesus said all we needed was faith the size of a mustard seed and we would see mountains moved.

God’s Word Transforms Our Relationship To The Earth’s Rules

Jesus defied physics. He spoke to weather patterns and changed them instantly, leaving His fishermen friends in awe. ‘Have faith in God,’ He continually told them.

Elisha defied physics in the strangest and weirdest of ways. A worker dropped their axe head into the water and Elisha threw a stick and the axe head floated to the surface. God made the human being out of the earth; Jesus spit in a clump of clay and molded it around the hallow edges of a blind man’s eye socket, told him to go wash with water from the lake and there it was formed, a human eyeball where there was nothing.

We think about Jesus reaching out and touching people. Or people, like the woman with the issue of blood touching Him and being healed. But Peter’s shadow fell on the sick and they were healed. The man’s shadow, a simple scientific understanding of how light shining on an object creates a shadow, but the shadow is now imbued with the power to transform ailing bodies.

“As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.” Acts 5.15-16

What Is Going To Mean The Most To Us?

I ask you Church; what are we missing? What’s missing behind the decree that if I spoke today, nothing would happen? What are we missing on our words? What are we missing in our lives, what do we need for our shadows to fall on a passer-by and they immediately are set free from oppression or chronic sickness?

A different focus? Paul said, ‘Covet earnestly the best gifts.’ I don’t deny his wisdom. But he did go on to say the greatest of all is Love.

Might we be missing the only purpose needed to gain the power of the Spirit of God on our lives? That being Agape love? In one fell swoop, love cradles all that is needed to bring the human being into subjection to the higher order of God and the proper alignment with our neighbors.

What else is needed?

Maybe less time in front of a manmade screen and more time in front of God’s living word, learning ancient secrets, words that hold within them, like seeds, the transformative power of a living Spirit?

God is love the Bible says. How can we possibly become anything without total dedication to it, much less if we are trying to embody the idea of God’s Agape love. There is much to learn and much to put away simultaneously in order to take hold of God’s heart in this manner.

Draw Near to God and He Will Draw Near to You

(James 4.8)

God is hiding from us. Not so that we cannot find Him and lay hold of the power to do all the wonders that have already been manifest in the earth, but instead so that we will seek Him for those wonders.

If someone’s shadow could fall on you and heal you, would you accept that as a good thing? Or would you say, no, let me avoid being healed so easily. Would it not be a good thing then if it was our shadows freeing people?

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free..” Luke 4.18

…..’all these thing I do you also will do, and greater things….’

The Question of Purpose Has to be Asked and Answered

But I have to ask myself, why would we seek Him for these things? There’s no need for our sun to stand still. So what do we need? It goes back to love, no? Maybe I’m not thinking it through properly. But what other aim would not be pure arrogance? Doesn’t love cap ego? If our hearts aren’t focused on people, then what are we doing?

And once we determine that, we have to ask: are we making a Kingdom of Heaven decree to change the world for the better? Or to just amuse ourselves.

‘Call those things that be not as though they were,’ and ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven,’ and ‘..all these things that I have done you also will do, and greater than these will you do because I go to my Father.’

It seems to me that those who worked the greatest of signs and wonders were those God called the most humble and the meekest. So then, what can be done? What should be pursued?

An Important Key To Understanding A Woman

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Bread & Butter MorselsLeave a comment

This is the funniest thing to hear Myles Munroe deliver this message to the congregation, even the members couldn’t keep from laughing. It’s also dead serious and true. And that makes me laugh:) It doesn’t remove all responsibility from me, the woman, but it certainly doesn’t let the man off the hook either – I like that about God. He doesn’t let the man or the woman off the hook, as much as the man would love to blame only ‘this woman you gave me!’ for all his troubles:)

Life is serious, but sometimes, it’s best to take a step back, take a breath and learn to laugh, even the slightest bit, at ourselves. One of our family sayings is, ‘A family who laughs together, stays together.’ And it works for us.

We’ll live a far less anxious, fearful and offended life if we can let some beads of water run off our backs.

“Do not move an ancient boundary stone or encroach on the fields of the fatherless, for their Redeemer is strong; He will take up their case against you.…” Proverbs 23.10-11

The Man is the Father Figure

Munroe teaches that it is the man who is the father, since the woman came from the man – God formed one man from the dust of the earth and all other men and women came from that one man. God didn’t return to the earth again to create the woman – the woman came out of the man. And since he produced the woman, he is her father in essence. “A father sustains what he produces. If he’s not sustaining what he produces, then he’s not a father.”

So if he isn’t acting towards her as a father would, look out, proverbs tells us that God will take up her case against him. I like that I have a heavenly Protector who doesn’t let me off the hook, but who also defends me against those who would find it convenient for it to be all my fault….Adam…..

We’re all trying to figure this out together and for sure, a little bit of humor goes a long way dear brothers!

Listen to this, it’s just like a man to be completely taken aback by what a woman can do and then act surprised that he’s the reason for all his discomfort. Human behavior, including my own, makes me laugh:

Women Multiply What You Give Them

“Whatever you give a woman, she’ll receive it, multiply it, and give it back to you…..she’ll never give back what you gave to her, she’ll multiply it first. She’s designed that way….if you give her a house she’ll multiply it and give you a home. If you give her groceries she’ll multiply it and give you a meal. If you give her frustration she’ll multiply it and give you……right…….

“So brothers, if you don’t like what your getting, change what you’re giving.

“It’s ridiculous to say to a woman, ‘where did you get this from?’ He’s receiving back – multiplied – what he gave….tell your husband, ‘if you don’t like what I’m giving you, change what you’re giving me.'”

-Myles Munroe, The Azusa Fire Conference, 1994

Link to referenced section of quote: Myles Munroe – The Responsibility of Freedom (Azusa ’94)

I’ll be sharing much more from Munroe in the coming days, God has opened a floodgate of word through this man of God. Prayer and fasting for sure opens doors, opens our hearts and provides keys to receive from God.

Have a wonderful week all, be free, look up at the night sky, take up journeys~

Featured Drawing: Untitled by Ashley Gatewood, ~2014