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For most of my fifty-seven years of life I honestly thought I knew, and was living, God’s perfect will. But during this last year God has begun to take the scales off my eyes and I’m still going through this process. If you would have approached me at any time during the last thirty years, I would’ve adamantly disagreed with the statement I just made. But over the last eighteen years, God has slowly convinced me of my ignorance of the subject of doing His perfect will. At the same time He has begun to teach me how to find His perfect will, how to know it, and to live by it.

In truth the matter is really pretty simple. It just requires that you approach the subject in a completely childlike manner. If you do this, you will easily find it. But the problem is, we are not children; we are grown, intelligent adults. Many of us are still harboring the residues of college education, numerous business seminars, and other teachings by men and women who were convinced that their ideas were truly the will of God for your life. All these things in our minds becomes a barrage of confusion that can blind us from the real truth that simple childlike belief in the will of God for us is actually easy to find.

It’s said in the Word, “Though a fool be a wayfaring man he shall not err therein.” So even a fool, (and by this I don’t think it just means a person who acts foolishly but one who is also mentally simple) can understand what God’s will is. The secret to all of this is found in the words of Jesus who said that all we have to do is, “Ask, seek, and knock.” These are simple, yet powerful, words that Jesus mentioned numerous times in the Scriptures. If you want to know what God’s plans are for you, you need to ask Him, seek (in other words, take more time because the answer won’t come as you expect it), and knock (which is doing a symbolic physical act to inquire of God what His plans are for you).

We also know that Scripture says that, “God does nothing unless He tells His prophets first.” It’s so important that you realize that God does absolutely nothing unless He reveals it to somebody who is listening to Him on this earth. The trouble is, Christians are surrounded by religious spirits that are literally blocking their ability to hear from God. People make statements such as:

“God doesn’t talk to me like that.”

“That person isn’t godly, so I won’t listen to anything they say.”

“I saw a mistake that person made, so they shouldn’t be speaking the Word of God.”

“God never talks to me.”

And so on… Rash grumbling like this can literally go on forever. It’s conjured up by religious spirits whose sole purpose is to confuse you so you won’t listen to the simple words of revelation that God is trying to give you about your future.

Oh, how often I see this kind of confusion fill peoples’ minds! Yet the simple solution to everything is becoming like a little child. Children are full of trusting belief, believe just about everything you say, and usually reject criticism. That’s why any criticism that satan is sending your way to bring confusion needs to be eliminated. Isn’t satan’s job description laid out as, “the division-causer among the brethren”? So, the solution to him is simple! Any thought that comes to your mind that divides you from any other person, (because you are commanded to love everybody) is to be ignored. Now you are like a little child and ready to believe!

Something we need to understand about God is that He is very detailed concerning His plans for your future. He wants you to get every facet finished so that you can walk into your future with no hinderances. For example, God went through great efforts to call Moses to go to Egypt to set His people free from Egyptian slavery. The Lord used a burning bush, a rod that turned into a snake, and leprosy that appeared on Moses’ hand . All of these signs and wonders were at God’s disposal to convince Moses the weightiness of his call to go to Egypt. You have to admit that God was pretty creative in his effort to convince Moses.

Then look what happened just a little while later. As Moses is traveling to Egypt, an angel from God comes down without warning and seeks to kill Moses. Moses’ wife, Zipporah, figures out the reason for the death angel’s visit, quickly circumcises Moses’ son, and saves the great leader’s life. This dramatic example shows us is that God was very concerned about Moses completing the detail of circumcision upon his own son. In fact, God was willing to let Moses die instead of allowing him to go to Egypt with this flaw in his leadership. This ought to be sufficient evidence that God is extremely concerned that you and I complete all of the details that He has asked us to do in our lives. He will not pass us on to the next grade level until we pass all the tests.

There is no fudging in God’s kingdom. Every detail must be done, no matter how long it takes. Even though God’s perfect will is wonderful and glorious, every detail that God has asked us to do to get there must still be accomplished. Wow! I’ve just said a mouthful! But it’s something that has taken me years to begin to understand. Of course, if I would’ve looked at this subject as a little child, it would’ve been obvious much earlier. A child knows that he can’t make it to second grade until he has passed all of the tests in the first grade. It’s us intelligent college-educated people that think there is some way we can circumvent the required tasks and still get there anyhow. The trouble is, it just can’t be done.

It is true that since Jesus died on the cross, mercy met judgment and mercy won out. In other words, God is more than willing to forgive and forget our mistakes. But He still wants us to travel on His preordained pathway. So even though the mistakes are forgotten, we still have to complete the journey down the right roadway. That’s the reason many times we think God is taking too long to get us to our destinations. When the truth is, we are the ones who’ve been wasting time because we weren’t doing the things He had originally asked us to do. Instead, we tried to take shortcuts leading to confusion and disaster. It’s much better for us to slow down and let God call the journey– which brings us back to the asking, seeking, and knocking. Every day I now fill my prayer life with asking God questions. I’m adamant about needing to know what His instructions are for me every single day. And yes, it’s true that not all of His instructions are pleasant. For example, this year He told me to go to the hospital; He told me that the doctor’s diagnosis was going to be very true and that I had to listen to all of the medical instructions given to me. I ended up spending a total of thirteen days in the hospital, and I’m still having to meet and listen to the medical instructions of the doctors. I have to listen and obey, eating only certain foods, and exercising a certain amount of time every day. Though not all these activities are pleasant, the results are incredibly joyful when it comes to my health.

These are instructions from the Lord that I must obey to reach the destination that He has purposed in my life. Unfortunately, a lot of this was put on me because I made the mistake of following my own pathway when it came to my personal health. So, like Moses, I faced the angel of death and it was my wife who saved my life because she heard the instructions from the Lord. But the reason I’m on this pathway is because I keep asking, seeking, and knocking… and, of course, listening is the end result– which leads to doing. Get it? It’s as simple as instructions to a little child. This is how to find God’s perfect will and to live in it. When you do, wow! A whole vista of wonderment lies before you to enjoy.

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Dealing With Principalities At Parties” ~ To subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net

If you aren’t careful, you can be completely unaware that demons have the ability to listen into your normal conversations so they can conjure up ways to influence your daily way of life. (Of course this subject will only be important to those Christians who are dedicated to walking the pathways of faith that are directed by God.) In this blog we will look into many things regarding this area, and their importance to you and your future.

Jesus made it extremely clear, many times throughout the Scriptures, that, “The Son can do nothing unless He sees the Father doing it first.” This is an important principle that Jesus was trying to teach us by example. It’s also the reason why the Lord said He is, “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.” We must fully understand that this statement is absolute in its influence over our lives. You and I should do nothing unless God first initiates the activity, guides us in the activity daily, and ends the activity with His Word. Moses put it this way: “Man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” Jesus reemphasized these instructions in the New Testament. I’m absolutely convinced that every Godly person who is planning on being successful (especially during the next two years), must abide by these principles one hundred percent of the time.

You also need to be aware that satanic forces are constantly warring against you obeying God’s voice. I mentioned to you, in last week’s blog, about the importance of first “securing” a room by removing demons, before you verbally share with anyone what God has instructed you personally to do. I want to go further on this subject, because it’s very intense how satanic influence affects you daily. And, if satan is not actually aware of God’s specific plans for your life, there are other methods he can use to try to infiltrate God’s designs.

The most common method satan uses is to author confusion. The devil doesn’t know God’s plans, but as soon as he gets a suggestion of what they might be, he is very clever at causing confusion. This is an extremely simple concept and is done commonly to all of us. For example, God recently gave me a word that I was to receive a car. Immediately I had a friend come and offer to sell me a car that was really cheap. But I knew right away, it wasn’t the car that God prophesied about. Then a salesman offered to give me a special deal, but it was the wrong kind of car. Then, almost on cue, another deal presented itself in the mail!

I was initially confused by all of these similar offers that came to me from various sources. But when I went to prayer I realized that the purpose of the deluge was to cause confusion concerning the original word that had been given to me from the Lord. That’s why it’s so important to realize (as Isaiah put it) that words from God must be, “Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” This spiritual alignment is extremely important in order to accurately distinguish between the words that are from God, and confusion that is from the enemy. Remember, God is never the author of confusion.

The next method satan uses to try to steal God’s words from us, is dealt with by Jesus, in John 14:30. He said, “I’ll not be talking with you much more like this because the chief of this godless world is about to attack. But don’t worry ~ he has nothing on Me, no claim on Me,” (The Message Bible). Here Jesus makes it clear that the way He defeated the devil’s attacks on His personal life was that satan had no claim on Him. This means that there was no part of the flesh of Jesus that wanted anything from satan.

For example, Jesus didn’t allow His need for money to influence Him. If He didn’t have any funds at the time, He was still completely happy. In that same manner, Jesus didn’t care what people thought about Him. If someone threatened the Lord’s reputation, He felt no need to go out and defend it. Jesus called satan the “father of liars.” One of the devil’s favorite ways of attacking you is to lie about you by calling you a liar. If you fall for his lie, the hook is suddenly in your jaw and demons can easily reel you into their net of confusion because of that made-up accusation.

There are literally hundreds of areas in your flesh that can be attacked in this manner. That’s why it’s important to die to every one of them: pride, lust, the love of money or reputation, etc. Each of these areas must be put to rest. Then we will be protected from all attacks that come against our lives.

This leads us to an even more intense area of our lives where satan attacks, and that is self-condemnation. Christ’s way of dealing with it is similar to the wonderful modern invention of the automobile GPS mapping system. Think how horrible it would be if your car’s GPS condemned you for making a wrong turn, called you names, and viciously accused you. But it doesn’t do that. Instead, it simply recalculates a new pathway to set you once again on the road to your expected destination.

That’s exactly how God works. For, “in Him there is no condemnation.” God doesn’t put you down when you make a mistake. He just shows you an alternate way to get you back on the right pathway. Condemnation’s only source is either from your own flesh or from satanic influences. In other words, you should never listen to any of it! Condemnation is 100% wrong. In no instance does it ever accomplish any good, no matter how right thinking the source of it may appear to be.

I’ve discovered that this is the purpose of the spiritual fruit called “longsuffering.” It’s the Holy Spirit’s internal defensive mechanism that gives you the ability to endure condemnation, some of which may be coming from sources very close to you. (You might not be able to get rid of the condemnation so easily because you’re married to the perpetrator!) There is another spiritual defensive mechanism that the Holy Spirit offers you, and that is peace. Praying in tongues releases an incredible Spirit of peace that neutralizes the effects of condemnation. God’s Holy Spirit logarithm operates internally in your spirit. It’s also incredibly wise because it provides an environment for the reception of even more prophetic words to guide each new day.

Let me close by talking to you about the last spiritual offense against attacking spirits, and that is the power of patience. Patience constantly provides you with an environmental device that begins, as James put it, “Fulfilling all things so that you lack nothing.” Patience has a “perfect work” to complete in you. It’s an offensive weapon because it’s making sure the gift you are about to receive from God has all the bells and whistles and luxuries that He planned for you. And, it’s your enjoyment throughout the process of patience that actually overcomes all stress that the attacks are trying to bring on you.

As I have begun to bask in “God’s joy that is set before me,” I can “endure the pain” of temporary delays and difficulties that are part of my current situation. Oh, if I could only tell you how wonderful this new kind of scenario I’m experiencing is. It’s so crazily good and bubblicious that it will make you just want to dance (which I’ve found myself doing lately). Oh, the joy that is set before us! As Peter said, “It is joy unspeakable and full of glory!”

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Moving Ahead In Spite Of Resistance” ~ To subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net for info!

There is a very complex spiritual warfare scenario that is happening to us, and it’s how heaven secretly communicates things about our future. The Scriptures make it very clear, “God does nothing unless He reveals it to His prophets first.” This means that knowledge concerning our future is available to us, if we’ll just learn how to tap into heaven’s resources. There are multiple ways that heaven uses to communicate to us. Some are very personal, while others come to us through resources that God has made available. For example, God will use dreams, messages in our hearts, signs and wonders, and other personal types of communications to inform us about our future.

Heaven also uses prophets, apostles, teachers, and spiritual leaders to communicate things to us. One Scripture that sets down the basic rules concerning this art of communication is Isaiah, Chapter 28: “It will be line upon line precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.” This is very similar to the secret communications that our government makes to its spies in other countries. They only communicate part of a subject. That way, if it’s intercepted by the enemy they’ll only have a part of the complete message and they won’t be able to figure out what is being said. This is also how heaven communicates with us concerning our futures.

The reason heaven communicates like this is because there are enemies that are trying to listen in so they can stop heaven’s communications with us. These enemies are spirits ~ demon angels. In this blog I’m going to make an attempt to explain to you how this warfare occurs, and how you and your family can protect the heavenly messages sent to you. Believe me, this threat is very real.

The Bible shows us that one-third of God’s angels followed lucifer. But even though his forces are a smaller percentage than heaven’s, they aren’t bound by the same rule structure as God’s angels. Heaven’s angels must follow the fruits of the Spirit, while demons can break every rule there is. Demons listen in on every available conversation they can, for the purpose of figuring out what God is planning for your life. Then what they do is set up spiritual landmines, obstacles, and difficulties in your pathway so they can delay and hinder you. Their sole purpose is to get you just a little off track so they can make you miss God’s perfect fulfillment. Oftentimes it’s the smallest hindrance that can cause the worst disaster you’ve ever experienced.

But be encouraged! If you are saved and filled with the Spirit, Jesus has given you all power over demons. You also possess the ability of removing them from the area you are in so they won’t listen to your conversations. I believe this is extremely important because you need to keep hell ignorant of what God is planning to do in your life. That means, before you share your plans with anyone, it’s vital that you spiritually secure the room or the place that you are in. This is simply done by using the name of Jesus to remove all of the demons or listening spirits in the area.

You also need to be aware that demons have the capability of hitching a ride with animals, and I mean all kinds: bugs, flies, birds, dogs and whatever… Examples of this are found in the Scriptures: Solomon talked about birds listening into a private conversation, the book of Revelation talks about frogs and birds, and Jesus cast demons into pigs. Since this is a very real possibility, it’s important to be aware of these things for your spiritual protection. Remember, knowledge of what God’s plans are in your life is extremely valuable because it can be used to make or break your journey.

This area of warfare I’m discussing needs to be understood so you can receive successful communications about your future. Jesus said that He has revealed things to simple people because the wise and the prudent are not capable of understanding His messages ~ they are too simple! Heaven’s method of communication is always straightforward and obvious. Though God will never try to trick you, He does allow communications to be fuzzy. The purpose of this is so that you’ll only be able see the full message after you’ve put, “Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little.” Only then will the message become crystal clear and obvious.

God had been giving me these types of communications for years, but I didn’t know it. It’s only lately that I’ve begun to understand the simplicity of His method of sharing the most vital secrets concerning my future. I have much more to say on this subject and am planning to make a multiple-CD teaching series available on my website. We also intend to publish a book veering this whole area and hopefully it will become a great asset for your personal library.

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Finding Your True Prophet” ~ To subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net for more info!

In the Book of Revelation there is a prophecy that says in the last days there will be a time when we must put on our shoes and march through the streets declaring our victory because the “frog demons” have been stopped (Revelation 16:14; 18:2 ~ Message Bible). These “frogs” are propaganda demons, and they are telling you and I that all hope is gone. But its time to declare that your message has been heard and hope has arrived!

This morning my two daughters and I were walking near our home and suddenly a frog leaped in our pathway, and it was enormous in size. We felt that God wanted to give us a message. Then we saw a pair of lady’s dress shoes discarded on the side of the road. At that point it started to rain. The message seemed so clear.

I know a prophetess who hails from Singapore. She is like my Chinese younger sister and I love her like my own family. But some of the strongest words I’ve ever received from God have issued forth from her lips. Last October she told my family that we were not to go on an expensive European vacation that had already been totally prepaid. It was an extended luxurious trip and my family’s lifelong dream. This word was very hard for us to receive but we knew the word was not from her, but was a true word from God.

Soon after that I became very ill and, as many of you know, I was forced to go to the hospital for thirteen days. My legs had seventeen oozing sores on them, and the prophet Timothy told me each sore represented each of the years I’d been struggling with my call to the movie industry (which happened to be that exact amount of time). But now all is being healed and, like Job, I’m going to receive an extension of my life! Timothy told me it was time for me to dress up and rejoice, for His joy had come!

This is the message I want to give to my prophetic sister in the East: “You have borne the weight of Jeremiah. Many of the prophecies you have given us and the people of China have been heavy weights upon your shoulders and you have suffered greatly. But your suffering is over. We just saw your discarded shoes on the side of the road, the frog is conquered, and it’s time for you to get up and rejoice! You’re going to see that everyone who received your words from God, has not only been blessed by them, but the glory of God now covers their lives. I’m now shouting to the world (this blog is received in over a hundred nations) that the glory of God is upon you and it’s time, as it says in the book of Revelation, for the Apostles and prophets to rejoice, for your time has come!”

As I look at the rain falling upon my windshield while I drive the streets of San Francisco, I realize that God’s holy rain has begun to fall. It’s a time for rejoicing, it’s a time for harvest! In the Book of Revelation it talks about the kingdom of our Lord and Christ, and that it shall last for a thousand years after the spirit of Babylon is defeated. I believe those thousand years have already begun. A new renaissance is being declared around the world.

The stories that will be told are going to live much deeper in our social systems than ever before. That is why this period of renaissance is so important. We will build cities around these stories, which will work into the human fabric of our lifestyles, communications, and entertainment. And this is only the beginning! The stories of Christ, which have been told throughout the kingdoms of Europe, were declared in the first Renaissance in churches and public buildings everywhere. New and better stories are going to be told.

Even the election of our next president (which I feel will be Mitt Romney) will be a prophetic fulfillment. When President Obama met recently with religious leaders in Los Angeles, he declared that he no longer seems to have effective leadership over America. The U.N. is now dictating what we can do as a country (especially concerning issues like energy policy and global economic growth). But Europe’s economy is rapidly falling into disaster because of these policies.

I believe all this is a clear Biblical prophecy of Daniel’s image, which began in Babylon and started out with ten toes of iron and clay (the original Common Market countries). The Bible also declares that the kingdoms of this world will be destroyed by a Stone that is hewn out of a mountain. That stone is Jesus Christ, who is going to establish the kingdom of our Lord and Christ. The Book of Revelation declares that this will be the start of the millennium reign of Jesus Christ, and that the last thousand years of earth’s history is going to be glorious, wonderful, and prosperous beyond our wildest imaginations!

I believe we are entering into this period prophesied in Revelation, which will soon be the thirteenth year of this current millennium. As everyone knows, Mitt Romney is a Mormon. But his church’s beliefs concerning the millennium fall in line with exactly what the Bible prophecies will happen. Most of the religious dogma that has been taught in the Church over the last hundred years has come from the European understanding of the Scriptures, and not from a fresh view of the Word of God. That is why their emphasis has always been about the anti-Christ and his reign. But that reign has come, gone, and failed.

Everything the spirit of the anti-Christ has tried to do in Europe has been nothing but a failure. It’s time for the kingdom of our Lord and Christ to arise. This is a kingdom of great prosperity, where the United States and other godly nations will become the largest producers of energy around the world. They will, in turn, help Europe become independent and also be under the reign of Christ. South America and Africa will further explore and use their own natural resources and will also come into their own full reigns of blessing. Asia and India will one day see the glory of the Lord fill their stadiums with worshipers of Christ. For the Bible boldly declares that the whole earth is going to be filled with His glory!

I believe it’s time for us to honor true prophets of God, such as Joy, Timothy Snodgrass, and countless others who have been declaring God’s truth. Even though some words have been painful (as in my case), we should still receive them with joy. We now celebrate this time, with the rising of the comet Lovejoy, because it’s a way of expressing God’s wonderment that He is bringing in this age. Rejoice, and again I say, rejoice, for your time is come!

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Building A Rock-Solid Base” ~ To subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net!

There’s no difference between winning the war of religion or politics ~ either one is controlled by strong spirits. The Bible refers to them as “spiritual wickedness in high places.” The important thing for us to understand is, to win this battle, godly people must have a presence in both arenas. But this warfare can never be won by the methods the world employs. The most popular tactic used today by political adversaries is to speak evil of one another. This method is completely forbidden by Christian principles.

Christians are taught to speak about things that are just, honest, of good report, and have praise or virtue in them. This means speaking good about everyone, including President Obama and Mitt Romney, his opposing candidate. The thing that the Lord wants to achieve in each of us is to have us give up and quit fighting the battle on our own. We must and turn the contest over to Christ. That means God is to control our vote. One righteous vote done in this manner will put a thousand unrighteous votes to flight, and two votes (e.g. from a husband and wife) will put ten thousand to flight. It’s this method that will end up putting righteous men and women in office.

God founded America with the prayers of strong Christian men who prayerfully penned the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of our Constitution was not to limit the rights of the people, but to limit the government. Every line of the Constitution was written to restrict the U.S. government, to tell it what it could and could not do to us. This is why we desperately need godly men and women in office. For only they can fully understand the principles of true liberty are to set us free not chain us down. Only God-led political leaders should be empowered to implement this type of government.

God is not Republican, Democrat, or member of any other party. All parties to Him are equal, just as the Lord is not a Catholic, Baptist, or Pentecostal. We are all Christians and children of the same Father. It’s time for the believers in one Lord to lay down the divisions that separate us and become one in Christ ~ and work together to elect godly leaders. It starts with your local school board, assemblyperson, mayor, state senator, and national leaders.

I believe God is calling us not only to revive our churches, but to revive our government, and lead it back to the founding principles of our Constitution. Christians are currently meeting around the state of California to form local groups that will begin this process of putting godly leaders into office ~ no matter what their religious affiliation or political party. The same thing is also happening within the Christian Church. God is bringing a spiritual revival to all of us, no matter what denomination we belong to. It’s time to recognize the godly men and women who can lead us into the obedience of Christ.

This website (and others like it) will be announcing these grass root meetings, starting first in California and hopefully across our great country. Our main focus will be the entertainment industry. There is something very simple you can do. And that’s to ask your friends to become subscribers to this free blog. Each week we will do our best to encourage everyone in this process of becoming a part of the spiritual renewal of our nation!

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Starting With Nothing” – To subscribe, email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net

One of the fascinating things about God is His method of taking you on a uniquely adventurous journey. He always gives you a destination, but very rarely does He explain how to get there. It’s an awesome way for an adventure to begin! In 1995, the Lord started me on an adventurous journey to start a movie company. Seven years later I discovered that not only was going the wrong way, but the company I was attempting to build would end up becoming a total embarrassment!

The thing that shocked me, was that God cared enough for me to tell me what I was doing wrong. And, oh boy, did I learn a lot in the process! It truly was a training pathway. After that incident, God sent me on a second journey (and lasted eight years), which ended last year. It was a search to discover what true excellence was, or you could say, finding the gold that was tried in the fire.

Here I am, after 17 years, starting the adventure again. The goal is still the same, to launch a movie company. But wow! The journey, the results, and the destination have completely and radically changed. I now understand what God means by true quality. I’m also seeing the kind of time it takes to develop that degree of quality. It makes everything change! I feel what is happening today is similar to what transpired during the period of the Renaissance in Italy in the 1500′s.

There were two inventions that caught the attention of the artisans of that age. The first had to do with the discovery of a revolutionary new type of paint. Novel oils were created, from the pigments of flowers, which would keep their brilliance for over a thousand years. Before this time, oil paints would lose their luster in the daylight in less than 40 years, so there was less motivation to paint masterpieces that would last for generations. The new paints radically changed everything.

The second invention was the understanding of perspective of drawing through the addition of mathematics and geometric angles. Artists learned how pictures diverged to the horizontal line. This gave them the ability to draw people and buildings that looked natural and real, with the accuracy of real life. It was this second invention that gave such a stark realism to their artwork. It was unfortunate for those previous men, of exceptional wisdom and talent, who spent years perfecting a painting ~ knowing that it would last not much longer than their lifetimes.

But now, five hundred years later, the breathtaking transcendence of such great works, as the Sistine Chapel and The Last Supper, look as vibrant as the day they were originally created. Generations upon generations have gazed admiringly at those masterpieces and relish their unmatched beauty. Yet it’s a paradox that the skills of the past masters have disappeared, even though artisans today have the accumulated ability to perform even better. The reason is, very few masters are willing to spend four years to paint one ceiling. But during the Renaissance there was a country full of such dedicated craftsmen.

I believe that we are seeing the same type of transformation occurring today, only it’s regarding the art of movie-making ~ which is very similar to art of painting except it’s in the form of film. In the past the quality of a movie was able to last maybe forty years on celluloid film. But the invention of digital technology has given filmmakers the ability to make permanent record of the color and richness of a moving picture ~ far beyond the detail that celluloid could ever capture.

A second revolutionary invention is the ability to reproduce living practical sets, where only through high resolution does the perspective appear genuine (notice that I said practical sets, not digital sets). Don’t let the digital sets fool you. Cheap reproductions also appeared in Renaissance paintings, but they all wound up in the garbage, just like old video games do today.

The thing that will make this new kind of movie-making different will be the unique quality of the sets, cameras, acting, and sound. This gold line will infuse a movie with such quality that its life-impacting story will last for a myriad of generations. I believe the movies that will be made in the next forty years will literally redefine the generations to come. Story properties will become golden assets and will characterize the highly prized capital of future billionaires.

Never have there been financial opportunities set before businesses as there are today. And, like the Italian Renaissance, it’s a chance for godly people to tell the greatest stories that have ever been told. I think it’s time we get busy!

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The next Monday Morning Blog: “Slowing Down; And It’s Effect On Quality” – To subscribe, please email us at wysiwygsf@earthlink.net

A few weeks ago the Lord told me to write a book about my recent hospital experience. As I started on the first chapter I realized that the main core element of the book was me discovering the treasure that I had in my own family. The larger subject of the book is about my first experience of staying in a hospital, and what interaction happened between America’s healthcare system and me. The book is called “Kaiser Castle”. After three rewrites of just the first chapter, the Lord began dealing with me about how I was introducing my wife as a character in the book.

After much prayer, God showed me what I really didn’t know about Sandy. I was amazed as He began to reveal to me layers of blindness that I had formed concerning her personality. It was almost as if she was communicating to me on, say, Channel 7 on the radio, and I was communicating to her on Channel 5. Because I hadn’t switched to the same channel she was thinking on, we had problems of miscommunication. All of this thought process was going through my mind in prayer as I tried to write the paragraph that would introduce Sandy to my readers.

First, I need you to understand the context that I’m writing the book in. The actual events happened just a month ago in the City of San Francisco. I’m writing the book in the descriptive context of medieval England, with the old British class system laid over the modern healthcare class system that exists in hospitals today. I present Sandy as royalty, as she interacts with those of the same class in the San Francisco healthcare system. This is the descriptive paragraph the Lord eventually gave me.

Richard fell in love with Miss Lovable at the tender age of eighteen, though he had several choices of young ladies to pursue. It was Miss Lovable who captured him with her warm and understanding heart. She was the one who was willing to listen to a young man’s ramblings concerning his future dreams and pursuits. They met while attending the Cathedral of Praise, called the Voice of Pentecost. Two years later, on a double date at a small laborers’ pub named Pam Pam’s, in the notorious tenderloin district of San Francisco, Richard became hopelessly smitten with love.

Never before had he met a person like Miss Lovable, who was able to listen with such sincere candor. For the first time if his life he opened his heart, revealing its entire contents to Miss Lovable. With her attentive concentration her eyes sparkled, her cheeks became rosy, and her intoxicating smile pulled him in. She was like a teddy bear as she listened to him share private things between just the two of them. Miss Lovable was like a little girl who’d just been given a free pass to Disneyland. She was full of wonder, like a balloon ready for a flight of adventure into the happy ever after.

The revelation that had hit me was this: the Channel 5 that I’d been communicating with Sandy on in our marriage was one that broadcasted a WWF (World Boxing Federation) event, so my communication style was always confrontational. But Sandy was listening on Channel 7, the lovable teddy bear channel. That meant that transmission between the two channels was hard for both of us. Then, just a week ago, my eyes were unexpectedly opened and I suddenly decided to switch channels. It’s incredible, because I discovered how much I love my wife and how easy it now is to communicate with her on her teddy bear channel. (I’m not yet an expert at it, but I’m definitely learning how to operate on the correct frequency.)

The most fascinating part of this story is that I’ve discovered similar revelations regarding my two daughters and son. It’s quite wonderful because the more I discover about those who are closest to me, the more God clears up the communications between us. I don’t know how far this revelation will go, but I’m beginning to realize that God’s purpose in my life is to clear up these channels so God’s love can flow unobstructed between us. What is going on in my life, and with the relationships I have, is a direct reflection of what has been going on with my physical body. I believe that’s the reason I had to spend so much time in the hospital.

My daughter, Rocki, was with me on the day the doctors photographed my heart and discovered that the problems in my body were caused by high blood pressure. And though the symptoms my body was experiencing at first seemed to point to something different, the real problem was my heart. That first night in the hospital, as I was about to go to sleep, Rocki was sitting in the chair beside my bed. She opened up the Bible to Psalms 95:10 and read this Scripture: “Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, ‘It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’”

Whoa! As that word from God hung there in the air of the hospital room, it felt like the two of us were suddenly transported before the Supreme Court in heaven. There may be lots of other things that appear to be the reasons for the problems in our lives, but when it’s all said and done, it all comes down to the errors in our hearts. I felt like God was saying, “Fix your heart and everything will come together.” Wow! The word hit me like a nuclear explosion that occurs at the moment of critical mass!

Suddenly it was time for me to change everything in my life, from the way I eat to the way I treat my wife. My communication with her was going to change completely because God was going to change my heart. Most of my life I’ve zealously protected the parts of me that would cause this intimate of a change. I thought that to do so would take my fight and vigor away and cause me to have a milk-toast style of personality. I wouldn’t be able to have that cutting-edge style of leadership of always being willing to take chances.

But now that I’m a few weeks into it, I’m discovering that it’s just not true. I haven’t lost my hunger for the cutting edge, for the sweet taste of a win, or to experience things that are exotic. As my heart is being healed I’ve simply recognized that God didn’t put me in this race to run alone. He has put my family, friends, associates and business partners in the race with me, so that collectively we can form a unique kind of fellowship. The Greeks called it “Koinonia”, which is what occurs when the Holy Spirit binds people together.

It’s my prayer that each person that is reading this blog can find the same treasure in the relationships around them.

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

Monday Morning Blog: Controlling The Darkness Of The Flesh – To subscribe, email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net

For the last month I’ve spent time being hospitalized and convalescing in my own home. This made it pretty much impossible for me to run my organization as I’d previously done for the last 22 years. It is in a difficult time such as this that many fine points of those you work with are revealed. I’m happy to say that I’ve seen in my son, Sunny, who is the youth pastor of the church, and in Chris Rossetti, who has temporarily taken my place as pastor, incredible displays of self-restraint in leadership. I saw the birthing of new levels of trust in those two leaders.

My son was faced with a decision regarding the church building, and also what his role was regarding certain visitors who were coming to the church. In both instances it would’ve been entirely proper for Sunny to make the decisions himself. No one would’ve questioned his actions. Instead, Sunny went to the Lord and felt God tell him that he must restrain his desire to make the decisions and present the situations to me to decide. I was amazed at his willingness to restrain himself in such a way. David said in the Bible that he refused to exercise himself in matters that were too lofty for him. To see this characteristic in my own son really impressed me.

Chris Rossetti has worked with me in the ministry for about seventeen years. During the last month he was also confronted with situations that would’ve been proper and appropriate for him to decide. Even though he felt he knew what my decision would have been, he restrained himself and at the appropriate time asked me for my advice as to what to do. As a leader I was thrilled to see both of these men showing such self-restraint. I realized that a foundation of loyalty was being forged between us that would make the structure of our whole organization strong and secure for many generations to come.

The reason I bring this subject up is because early on in my ministry I was taught by spiritual mentors around me (who appeared to be successful pastors) to do just the opposite. Their suggestions had been that whenever I saw a weakness by someone else in authority, I was to show my strength as a leader by using the opportunity to increase the power of my own church, instead of theirs. This, I was told, was entirely permissible (though it wasn’t right in a strict moral sense). I’m now finding out that the morality of an action is worth way beyond any value of advancement the action might give.

Let me explain what I’m talking about by relating a simple story that happened to me. A nearby pastor of a church was put into a place of weakness because of their personal health. Satan began to attack him, and members of his church started criticizing him for what appeared to be flaws in his ministry. Some of these parishioners started coming to my church to get away from the trouble. Though our two churches were pretty much on the same level spiritually, I felt that it would be morally wrong to accept these people as members. Instead, I received them as friends but began teaching a class about spiritual authority and how important it was for church members to submit themselves to the influence of the spiritual parents who birthed them.

Suddenly I began receiving advice, criticizing my actions, from some very influential pastors. They told me, “You should take advantage of the situation and bring the disgruntled people into your church and use them as scaffolding for a while in order to help you build up your core ministry.” By “scaffolding” they meant people who come to church temporarily but leave later on because their usefulness has passed. It was the first time I’d ever heard terms like this used by other ministers. They were talking about people’s commitments to the Lord and their relationship to church that God had sent them to!

To me this all seemed vulgar and wrong, though I realized these tactics were being adopted by many successful ministers, not to mention those who used the identical concepts in the business community. But I believe that God doesn’t use people as stepping-stones. Even if God has to use an evil king to render a decision or perform a certain duty, God is still concerned about the evil king’s life and his eternal destiny. You find this many times in the Bible. For even Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, was loved by God.

Regarding the crisis of the nearby church, and the saints who were attending my congregation, after six months they all wisely decided to go back to their home church. The event that I just described to you happened over twenty years ago. I’m happy to say that one of those people is now the assistant pastor of the church, which is still successfully blooming in San Francisco. In case any of you are wondering what benefit I got out of this, I’ll tell you. My son and Chris Rossetti are perfect examples of what you get out of self-restraint: incredible loyalty within your own staff.

This week our nation has seen an incredible example of self-restraint by the Supreme Court of the United States of America. The Court chose to review a major case concerning the health care bill, and the lawyers for the administration brought before the Court three major questions. The first was the argument that the health care bill, and its mandate that everyone buy into it, was not a tax but a penalty. This point is very important to the freedoms that we have here in America because the Federal Government is restricted by the Constitution from forcing just anything it wants upon American citizens. In this case it was to purchase health care.

One of the things that make America so great is the freedom it gives citizens to say “No”, even to the government itself. Communist and socialist countries don’t have this same kind of freedom. The founders of our country perceived how dangerous it was when you give government so much power that it can force anything it wants upon the people. Then all freedom is lost. This is why the writers of the Constitution constantly admonished us that the purpose of the U.S. Constitution is to restrain the government from having unlimited power over the people. And how precious this one thing is.

The second question that the Supreme Court had to deal with was the constitutionality of the Federal Government to punish us because we choose not to buy their mandated health insurance. The answer to this question became obvious as the Court answered the question. That’s because the whole purpose of the Constitution is to stop federal and state governments from interfering with certain inalienable rights of the people. The third question presented to the Supreme Court was more intriguing than the other two combined. The administration was essentially saying, “Okay, our laws concerning health care were written incorrectly, so now we ask you, the nine Supreme Court justices, to scrutinize the 2,700 pages of the laws we passed and rewrite them so they conform to the Constitution.”

The response that the majority of Supreme Court justices gave the administration’s lawyers stunned the news media. They couldn’t understand how the conservative justices could’ve shown such judicial restraint when offered such power. The media was confused because they believe when you are given power to make a decision you just take it and do it. But the conservative justices on the Supreme Court realized that if they were to rewrite the health care law they would have begun to operate in the breakup of the balance of power that was set up by the Constitution itself. The Court has never been given the absolute power to write laws or create laws. That power alone is reserved to the executive and the legislative branches. The court is to only decide the legality of a law, but never to write, make, or issue one.

I’m sorry to say that not all of the justices held this opinion, as four of them felt that they had a right to make new laws. But thank God five of the justices understood what the framers of the Constitution meant when they created the balances of power. These justices have literally saved our country from an incredible catastrophe that could’ve sent us over a precipice that would have plummeted the whole country to the pits of governmental control. That’s what is happening now in Russia, China, and other countries that are controlled by unruly governments.

You and I have just witnessed one of the closest calls that the United States has ever faced concerning a fall of our beloved liberties. Though no guns were brandished, the results could’ve been much worse than if they were. For example, the decision whether you live or die should not be put in the hands of a governmental bureaucrat. Instead, that question rests in the hands of you and your family. This is only one example of thousands of decisions that are trying to be taken out of your family’s hands and put under the control of governmental bureaucrats ~ people you know little or nothing about, who don’t have the same belief systems you do, and who care more about their own jobs and whether or not their rule book is followed. Thank God our liberty is still preserved.

As you can see, the restraint of power many times has more ramifications than the release of power. There are so many areas in our lives where this unrecognized force is so vitally important. So think about yourself, and how many times you need to restrain your own power so true justice can be served. At first it may look like the personal payoff to you is very low. But I wish to admonish you that God sees everything, and He will reward you greatly for your restraint. His payback will be much more than you could ever wish for.

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

In the film “Bruce Almighty” starring Jim Carrey, there’s a famous scene where Bruce is driving down the road, screaming at the top of his lungs, “God, show me a sign!” There’s a truck directly in front of Bruce carrying signs that say, “Turn around”, “Don’t go this way”, and “You’re making a mistake”. Bruce continues yelling, “God, please, don’t be silent. Let me know your will. Speak to me!” In a few moments, God has to physically put Bruce in a life and death situation to get his attention. This scene in the movie is exactly what is occurring in America today. I am shocked by how many “signs” are happening around us, telling us that we’re going the wrong way and that we need to stop. Everything is declaring this same message from the news agencies to the White House to happenings in Europe and even to nature itself. Even in the movie theaters the movies are saying, “Stop, you’re going the wrong way.”

Let’s just look at a few of the messages that God is sending us through popular culture. The movie “Kung Fu Panda 2″ tells us about the incredible search that we are making to find our own nation’s heritage and to rediscover the truth of our constitutional fathers. “Cars 2″ tells us how in the field of energy the earth is going the wrong way because we are all following deceptions. The movie sends a message that it is time to be innocent and pure. Mater the Tow-Truck in his innocent simple child-like faith exposes all of the evils in the energy industry. Harry Potter is the end of the ancient evil. Transformers shows us deceptions that have been around for years that are just now being exposed. We know that the power of God can overcome extreme odds. I know the metaphors I’m showing you are loose, and that it takes an extreme Godly view to pull them out, but the message God is sending us is extremely clear. There are signs that evil’s day has ended, and the seduction of the past is being exposed.

The Lord gave us a word and said, “Pray, and ask the Lord to stop the war.” This word first came to my wife Sandy through a dream, and was then confirmed four times through other sources. It seems simple, but is very accurate. It seems that satan is now unveiling his true plan to start class warfare around the world. Over twenty Arab nations are currently engaged in these type of riots. China has recorded now over 180,000 riots and protests in the last year. Europe and Greece are on fire. And obviously satan is wanting this spirit to spread throughout the rest of Europe. This week political leaders in America began their dialogue to separate and divide Americans. This is satan’s early plans to start class warfare in America. Except we pray and stop the spirit that is behind all this it will enter into every household and family. I will not spend time in this blog quoting the rhetoric, because it will only make you choose a side. It is time for us to read God’s signs that are saying STOP, you’re making a mistake, turn around, don’t go this way. It’s simple, how you do this. Just stop and pray right now, “God, will You stop the war in our country” Then go have a lot fun as a family in some theme park or grab a comedy movie tonight as a family.

You and I are instructed to laugh our way through what satan has designed as a horrible war, but guess what it won’t be. I see everyone who is planning to march in the streets and protest will change their mind, grab a McDonald’s hamburger, get a nice book, and spend a midsummer night reading an adventure story. You and I don’t even know the wonderful future God has planned for us. Oil is going to be so cheap that it will feel like it’s free. To travel the world by plane will be nothing more than a family pleasure. Things in the future will feel so good that you’ll feel just like a billionaire. WOW! That’s the future that God has planned for you. Just turn around.

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”

The title of the Monday Morning Blog is: “A New Level Of Quality Is About To Mark Future Consumers”. – If you want to subscribe, email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net!

The Apostle Paul talks about strongholds that exist in people’s minds collectively as a nation, and we usually attribute this to cultural thinking. Over the last 40-50 years there has been a huge movement to change the cultural thinking of Americans. Over a year ago, the Lord spoke to me prophetically and said that these strongholds were coming down. It was God who placed America’s current leadership in power and allowed them to bring to a head the reality of the results of this stronghold. God permitted them to reach their pinnacles of power so that America could see what their real intentions were.

This type of spiritual outcome has happened many times in the Bible. For example, in the Israeli tribe of Benjamin there rose up a stronghold of immorality. This stronghold became so prevalent that the whole tribe went to battle to defend those who were in that sin. God had them slaughtered, but in the process the shedding of light upon the situation caused the mental stronghold to be removed from Israel for thousands of years. There is currently such a prevalence of anti-God thinking in our country that the issue is being forced to the forefront. Very near in the future things are going to radically change. Suddenly those in leadership who listen to the voice of God will no longer be shunned, publicly embarrassed, or claimed to be kooks because they took counsel from the Creator of the universe. I once heard one politician say that he was shocked to see so many candidates win in the House of Representatives, based totally on their ability to hear the voice of God. The same politician also made the mistake of saying that it would never work in national politics, only at local levels.

I firmly believe that not only will real Christianity work at the national level, but it is God’s destiny for our whole nation. God is about to remove all of the strongholds that have tried to shut up His voice from directing leadership. Every American will suddenly feel peace, rest, and security in their spirits when they finally hear the President of this great country say things like, “I prayed about it, I heard from God, and this what we are going to do.” Any Republican or Democratic politician who says they fear a man or woman who talks like that is a sure sign they will eventually be removed from office, because their true purpose is to stop the word of God from leading our nation. This is a wonderful thing, because it will give citizens a clear sign who is for God and who is against Him. No longer will voting be a guessing game.

Not only is this transformation going to happen in political realms, but it’s going to bleed over to areas of employment and every place where people culturally interact with each other. God is dramatically shifting the cultural thinking of Americans. He is breaking the stronghold that has tried to make it unacceptable to ask God, to hear from God, and to then to act upon what God says to do. This is the new America that the Lord is bringing to us. More than two years ago, Paul Cain, who has a prophetic ministry, came to give me a word after undergoing a traumatic series of events. It took four days, but he finally contacted me from a hospital bed! He prophesied that the highways in California had been “deconstructed”, meaning that they were without spiritual connections. But God was going to reconnect the highways and that I must be careful, because each highway connection could be a life or death decision. Paul Cain’s word was given so powerfully that it left an indelible impression upon my spirit. Since then, I have tried to be very cautious about each connection I make in my personal and business relationships.

Later, I had a vision about the deconstructed highway Paul Cain saw spiritually, except that on this highway the cars had to suddenly change direction and it caused traffic jams of incalculable proportions. I realized I was seeing the exact time that the mental strongholds in people’s minds had collapsed, and for a moment there was incredible confusion about what direction everyone should go. But as I looked closer at the vision, I realized that the center of the new highway had a carpool lane. Those drivers who had partnered up with others were able to access this special lane and were moving down the highway ten times faster than those stuck in the congestion. Wow! I believe it’s time for you and I to link up with those who have already seen the advantage of this new way of cultural thinking that God is bringing to our country.

I once found myself in a conversation with a movie company executive in Hollywood; he and I shared how valuable the word of God was in our lives. During this animated conversation we suddenly looked at each other, amazed and shocked that we were talking so openly about the subject, especially since we were right in the middle of Hollywood. Months before, there hadn’t have been this kind of freedom. At that moment we both realized that something was changing in the atmosphere over the whole industry. The strongman of Hollywood was losing his grip on the airwaves and the freedom of godly speech was being realized. For the next 30 minutes we talked about Christians in the industry who were beginning to step out of the shadows and exert God’s righteousness into their programs and feature films. This is a most exciting time to be alive. Honestly, I can hardly wait to wake up tomorrow to see what new thing God has placed on my agenda…

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To learn how you can subscribe to The Monday Morning Blog, please email us at: wysiwygsf@earthlink.net.

Richard Gazowsky pastors a church in San Francisco called The Voice of Pentecost, and is also president of Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. He has directed the films, “Guardians” and “The Roman Trilogy.”