The Vacation is Over
So lets start with an Apology
So, the “vacation” is over.
Took a small, short, rainy trip into western Montana to look around. I suspect there will be more of those trips coming as we get some personal and spiritual questions answered.
I got a lot of work done on my larger writing project. It takes a lot of pondering, reading, and waiting for the spirit to add his direction. I have read several theological papers that not only helped to shape my work, but in some cases corrected errors in my thinking. Lord willing, this project will be done within a year.
Sometimes I wish my mind were a bit more like an organized filing cabinet. When everything comes in, that it would kindly just file itself all in order, neatly, with a few bullet points. But it’s a bit more like trying to get your order in at a busy lunch counter with a few good ideas written on paper airplanes zipping past your head.
Then while you’re in some quiet corner, pondering if last night’s dream had any value at all, and you're attempting to keep the pickles from slipping out from under the bun. A bird lands to tap on the window glass near you, irritated you look to discover that something about the beauty of the bird itself is a message from the hand of God. And it’s an answer that has nothing to do with the questions you thought you needed answering.
Yep, that makes writing a challenge.
Other Stuff
Generally, I have pulled back. I have only responded to a few people during my “vacation” who had some serious information. There have been a few people who sent messages, and I have ignored them to focus much more on the bigger picture. That is, with the exception of one old friend.
I’ve got 15+ years of waiting on the Lord concerning some things, and unless I am getting overly wishful, I suspect that moment is coming.
When it does, a lot of what I am doing now will either end or drastically change, as my priorities will be shifting. I know I am currently being very vague, sorry, but it needs to be. The reason is very simple. In my experience, if you start publicly announcing things before everyone, the spiritual warfare increases a lot. So I don’t want to add anymore before it’s time.
My activity on Substack will change to what I don’t know. Unless the Lord has me shut it all the way down, I am hoping to increase its value to you with more things and options. I also hope to use it in some form for the ministry that will be created. At the bottom of this post, you will see some of the things that I might be adding to this Substack.
Let’s start with an Apology
For those of you who have been here a while, you can most likely see the journey and process I have been on. I have been fully engaged in exposing things connected to my former employer. This was partly good; it resulted in contact with various people, and I even got to help a few people make contact with attorneys and even YouTube channels to tell their stories.
There were some doors that opened as a result of some investigations into their financial dealings that happened, which looked extremely promising. But in my opinion, the detective who was once so very animated and ready to run with this… well, let me just say. Something happened, and he dropped it all like a hot potato. I think my former employer has longer fingers than we know. This same thing was then repeated with various reporters, all silent.
I tried to walk away, but I guess the irritation of the events got to me. So I believe I pushed beyond what I should have, and that’s where the apology comes in. I should have stopped; I should have left it all in the Lord’s hands and moved on. Opps.
A while back, the Lord started speaking to me about what I wrote. It was uncomfortable as I pondered it. So I went back and started rereading all those posts. Many of the later posts were all laced with 100% grade A gossip and not real reporting. And despite some people’s thinking, there is a real difference.
So I began editing. All the posts are still on Substack, but in the subject line you will see some say “Edited.” These are the ones that I went back and redacted all the parts I consider to be gossip. I also removed from the top of the main front page the “Icabod” tab that held them all. If people want to dig, they can still find it all. But this topic is no longer my prime focus.
Here is an excerpt from the book I am currently writing that connects to this.
May I learn my own lessons?
Warrior for God Mindset.
There is a big difference between “not being ignorant of his schemes” and the “Warrior for God” mindset that some have been ensnared in.
In the decades of walking with Jesus, I have observed an odd pattern that I have seen played out way too many times that always seems to end the same way. This pattern, regardless of whether you are an intercessor, prophet, teacher, or whatever, often starts with the desire to do good by exposing the traps of darkness. Then at some point, it takes on more and more momentum until the person takes on extreme behavior and pushes people away with their toxic attitude in the pursuit of confronting, exposing, and challenging the darkness.
My understanding of how this works goes like this. The basic nature of darkness is to hide, but once a child of God exposes the hiddenness (a good thing), the demonic changes tactics and starts supplying the information. This action is very smart on their part because it accomplishes two things at the same time.
1. Because the information is coming to you so easily now. You are being programmed to believe you have been given the grace/anointing for the position (Warrior for God) you assume you now have. This reprogramming is designed to feed your carnal nature of pride.
2. The second part is the far more dangerous part. Because you are so quickly accepting this, you are slowly being retrained to accept this new voice as the Holy Spirit.
In my early years, there was a female pastor who ran a good-sized ministry in our county. We talked many times via email, and her entire church was devoted to helping and rescuing people who got trapped in darkness. Sharon, unfortunately, kept digging deeper and deeper, and then one day, this “Warrior for God” appointed a new pastor in her place and stepped down and disappeared. A couple of years later, she showed up on the internet as a priestess of Isis.
Another example that is personal for me. After my departure from an East Coast ministry, I eventually started using my blog space as a kind of “therapy” to destress and detoxify. Part of it was that the Lord actually confronted me on the issue and that I needed to make my position clear. The second part was connected to Romans 16:17-18, where there is a process of taking note, keeping an eye on those whose teachings are causing problems. “… those who are causing the divisions and scandals…” v.17 WET, “…hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.” v.17 NASB
I wrote several posts, helped some people, but after a while, I found myself a bit fixated on the issue. Looking back and rereading some of my posts, I realize I was dancing around the edge of gossip in many of my later posts. So I started pulling and editing some of the posts. So please be advised, the Warrior for God mindset can push you, me, or anyone too far. So, I understand the subtle attraction that leads to fixation. It’s a self-righteous fixation that masquerades as the idea that only ‘you can do this.’ In reality, this is God’s job, not yours, because you can never pursue the path of life while looking at death.
“The eye is the lamp of the body; so then, if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23
By continually absorbing the “deep secrets of darkness” in an effort to take down the devil’s kingdom as a “Warrior for God,” you end up causing spiritual instability within yourself, increasing double-mindedness as you flirt with the start of mental illness.
This is a part of the devil’s pernicious plan, and he has used it very effectively many times. We are called to be aware and not ignorant of his schemes so as not to be tripped up as we pursue life in community with the Trinity. We are not called to swim in the devil’s swamp that he is enticing us towards. It is Jesus, in the end, who will ultimately take down the demonic kingdom. We are called to “We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” 2 Corinthians 10:5
How can all this happen? The Warrior for God and other mindsets are actually the flipside of 2 Corinthians 3:18, “But we all, with unveiled faces, looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.” If we can become transformed by beholding the Glory, then the reverse is true. If you behold darkness long enough, you will become the thing you behold
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Substack
There is so much happening in the world in both good and bad ways. And it’s amazing how much people don’t know. Many have disconnected from any news source, good or bad. And others are still getting their news feeds from untrusted sources.
I’ve seen ministries parroting overseas fake news as if it were fact, and because the news got recycled by a “ministry,” people trusted what they heard.
Case in point, so many are upset about what we’re doing in Iran, but did you know there are Iranians excited about what’s going on? They see the time coming when the last of the IRGC will come to an end because of Trump’s efforts, and their exiled prince will return to the throne.
On the other hand, do you know how dire the situation is in Canada, Ireland, or England? Do you have any idea why many in Europe are currently referring to England as a “dumpster fire”
This world is changing very quickly, and artificial news is what many are hearing now. Yes, this means I will be posting the occasional news post.
Next week's post, “An Update on the House Church Movement-2026”