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April 16, 2015

May the Lord's sweet presence be with you.

Tonight we have a special treat. Ezekiel, I'm going to interview Ezekiel after I share with you the word the Lord gave me just a moment ago. I've had a couple people ask me why I keep such late hours. I just wanted to clarify - we have a mission here in Taos, New Mexico and we feed the homeless and the poor. During the day there's a lot of interruptions. We go out to collect food is one thing, and also with Fibromyalgia it seems my body doesn't wake up until late evening. Same for Ezekiel, he has the same issues, too. So, we end up working into the wee small hours of the morning and sleeping part of the day. But it's normal for us. It's not that we're burning the candle at both ends, I don't think our bodies would handle that.

But tonight, the Lord came to me with a very short message.

Jesus began:

"There are a lot of men holding out on Me saying, 'Ah, this is a woman's thing, it isn't for guys.' Nothing could be further from the truth. John rested his head on My bosom, quite regularly. He listened to the Heartbeat of God, he hungered for His God and he found Me. He wasn't about to let Me go.

 

"Understand that women are a little more disposed to this simple intimacy, which hasn't a hint of carnality behind it. It is the purest love of God a soul can have in a female earthly body or a male earthly body. Is it not written that "...in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven? Matt. 22:30

"Therefore there is no excuse for shunning closeness to Me."

And I had a thought, I said, "Lord may I...."

"Yes, you may."

What I wanted to say is that this is a purely spiritual relationship - if you are experiencing anything sexual you are not with Jesus, you are being beguiled by a familiar spirit. In the Lord's presence there is perfect purity. And if anything like that begins to occur, you can be sure it is demonic, and you should rebuke it and seek the Lord on why He allowed that in your prayer time. It could very well be because He is humbling you. At least that's the way I take it.

"I loved John with a love so pure, few on Earth will ever comprehend it. But in Heaven it shall be obvious to all. So to you, Bride of Christ, I say do not allow anything to lie or condemn you for loving Me and wanting to rest your head upon My Heart."

And that was the end of His message.

So, I want to introduce Ezekiel now.

Ezekiel: Well, hi. Good evening. It's been awhile since I've been with you guys. I want to first thank some many of you for praying for me when I was down with a couple bouts of illness. Beginning to get a little eyesight back in the left eye and the abdomen is coming back along, here and there. But as Clare says, "I'm HERE!"

I wanted to comment also, you that David said when he speaks of his friend Jonathan, "Your love to me was sweeter than that of a woman." There's nothing perverse about that. We just have taken love and made it such a carnal, fleshly YUCK...we've really sullied it.

Clare: Yeah - it's not love anymore, it's just lust.

Ezekiel: I mean...

Clare: And they cite that Scripture sometimes, people will cite that Scripture as a justification for homosexuality. And that's not at all what it's about.

Ezekiel: No. There's a lot...a comrade on a football team or soccer, they'll come up and pat each other or hug each other or whatever. Guys on the street, even gang members come up and hug and do their little gang sign. The European communities for ages and centuries, it's been customary for men, like in Greece or Italy, to come up and give a light kiss on either cheek. And the Arab nations as well. And that's a little strange for us in the States here.

But I remember growing up..

Clare: A kiss on the mouth is in some cultures a sign on friendship...

Ezekiel: Yeah, yeah

Clare: We're just very perverse over here in America.

Ezekiel: That's a little more than I think I want to do....I came up through the post WWII generation, fathers hugged their sons. You know, men could be men and come up and give a good football/baseball hug or whatever. It's like - where's your heart at, you know? There's nothing for the enemy to feed on, then you're gonna get out of it what you put into it. It's gonna filter out. I think the filter is the heart, and I think sometimes, as Clare said, there may be a time of discipline or humbling...correction. Did I judge someone? What has caused this door to open?

But away from the negative and on to the positive aspects. This whole thing. I had to listen to today's video two or three times because my computer kept stalling on me. But it caused me to spend a lot more time and attention on it. And what I'd like to say is, when I entered my prayer time, the very first thing the Lord gave me was Psalm 23. And He speaks to me personally through the Scriptures, in other words, "I AM your Shepherd, YOU'LL want for nothing". And I immediately remember, there's a book to the side of our little prayer altar, with a picture of Jesus as the Shepherd sitting under a large tree. Jerusalem's in the background. And there's this beautiful little lamb walking up to Him, you know?

We raised sheep, I know what it's like to birth those babies and to hug 'em and have 'em run up and jump with their hard little hooves in your lap, climb on your back. I know what it is to love a lamb, little lambs and sheep. I just asked the Lord, "Can I be Your little lamb? Can I come to You like this?"

It's kinda been...I tend to be in the background on productions and things like this we do.

Clare: You're my prayer backup.

Ezekiel: Prayer support.

Clare: Absolutely!

Ezekiel: Trying to offer up things when I'm not feeling good or whatever.

Clare: Fast offerings.

Ezekiel: Yeah, support work.

Clare: When you're not praying behind me, nothing happens. I'm sorry, but it's true!

Ezekiel: The Lord's grace working through all of us. But I'm not one whose given to seeing and hearing from the Lord on a regular basis. There was a time and a season, that's where the book Chronicles of the Bride came from. But then, He tends to taper off with those things. Or maybe I do, I don't know.

So, I've really been pressing in to the Lord more lately, I wanted to come to Him in a more familiar way.

Clare: This is about what you heard this morning, right? He started to spark something in you?

Ezekiel: Well, this afternoon, on a food bank run from a hospital I began to reflect again on what Clare said in the video, and family and relatives began to come to mind. Just a sense and a feeling to let them go. They've not been all wonderful, Cinderella-land relationships in my family. But because of some of the hard and harsh things that happened, I guess I tend to forget the good things.

So, I had to go through a lot of letting go myself in surrendering: family, friends, relatives that I probably haven't heard from for some 25 almost 30 years.

Clare: This is while you were driving home?

Ezekiel: Yeah. Just when I was driving home from the food bank.

Well, tonight I came in, and I normally have a little prayer service, little kind of time of confession and interceding and communion while Clare is in praise and worship, then she sits with the Lord. Well, tonight I just felt like I wanted to be closer to Him. I wanted to be in His presence in a more relaxed, different way. More kinda like she does.

So, as the music began to play, I just stood here and began to just let myself go and picture the Lord, try to be here in His presence. And I was thinking, 'Well, gosh, Lord. You know, our administrator, Carol, has been really desiring to seeing and hearing from You in a special way - and You beautifully came through for her yesterday! Clare sees and hears from ya - I haven't seen You or heard from You in a long time. And it wasn't any big, deep prayer, I just said, "Can I see You?" And I just let it go at that.

Well, I'm sitting here and I'm feeling moved by the Holy Spirit and I'm real relaxed, calm, a supernatural peaceful way - because I've had some real stressful days. And I just didn't feel like that - it was a real, supernatural peace settled in on me. I went to the Scriptures, right after asking that, "Can I see You?" And He gave me two Scriptures. The first one was John 14:18 - I will not leave you comfortless. (or orphaned, in other translations.) I will come to you.

Clare: That's the Scripture that He give to me every time I would go to discernment, to check with Him, "Lord is this REALLY You speaking to me?" That's the very Scripture He gives me.

Ezekiel: Huh! Wow... Well then the second Scripture He gave me was Isaiah 43:4 You are precious in My sight. You have been honorable and I have loved you. And that moved me so much, because we've been through our struggles lately, as Clare shared with you - had to really rise above and beyond some heroic charity. And when I would feel irritated or frustrated or angry, used, put-upon or whatever, the Lord would cause me to go and do something good for this person. Instead of saying anything. Instead of doing what I'd like to do, say what I'd like to say.

Clare: Oh, the flesh...

Ezekiel: Time and time again He made me, CAUSED me, gave me the grace to take a soda out to her and just sit and talk with her, in the midst of the stress and all that.

So, when He said, "You've been honorable." Man! It's not real often that we get "atta boys" from the Lord, that we know of. I'm sure He maybe gives them to us more, and we just don't hear it, but sometimes you just really need to hear that the Lord's pleased with you.

So, at that point, I was so moved, I just got on my knees. Praise and worship's going on, Clare's sitting before the Lord, I'm back here in a corner on my knees - and instantly, I saw myself as a little lamb. And I remembered your quoting of the Psalm last night.

Clare: He'll lead the young ones?

Ezekiel: Yeah. And how you talked about the green grass and beautiful water and Psalm 23, you know. "Lead you to fresh green pastures, lead you beside still waters."

So, I see myself as a little lamb. There's green grass and cool, fresh water. And Jesus is sitting with His legs kinda off of a grassy bank into this little river. And I'm a little lamb, right? And I go right up to Him, He puts His arm out and I tuck right up into His right shoulder, just right up like tucked under His wing. And it felt so nice and warm, and I felt so little and innocent and pure.

I really needed His covering, and His safety and protection. A sense of feeling secure lately with all the news of wars and this thing and that thing. It can get to ya after a while, you know? And I started getting into some fear. So, I really - Daddy showed up, God the Father a couple of times today and reassured me. Sometimes I'll walk by the clock and it'll say 111 - it's like "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!" 222, it's Jesus! 333 it's ALL of You guys!! Holy Spirit and everybody...

So, Daddy showed up and was there, too. So, while I'm the little lamb, feeling and needing this protection and covering, Jesus would transform into God the Father. And He'd be a Daddy, and I'd be like a little child, a little boy. And He'd just wrap His mantle around me and pull me in close. And I started remembering, "You know, my dad wasn't ALWAYS all that bad, or this thing or that thing. Gosh, I remember many times now when it really counted, when I was really hurting - I mean, really, terrorized, afraid, you name it - he'd drop whatever he was doing and put his arm around me and pull me up close and I felt secure. But a lot of the hard, harsh memories kinda push that out. And it started coming back today.

What I'm getting at here is, there's a process going on between surrendering and then how quickly the Lord begins to restore and bring things back that you may have just surrendered yesterday. So, the water swirls up over the bank and around the grass. And it's Jesus, and I'm the little lamb again. And it swirls around us and forms like a loveseat, and it's just this beautiful wall of warm water around us and I'm a little boy again, like 14 maybe. Oh, it felt so warm and so fresh, sometimes it seems more like I was 7. But just a little kid, cut-off shorts, no shoes, no shirt just like I used to be when I ran around. I grew up on the water and so I ran around like that as a kid.

Clare: Well, before this you said you were releasing - the family came to mind but you were releasing them to the Lord?

Ezekiel: I was on the ride home, I was releasing them to the Lord. And little did I know that tonight He was gonna show up as the good shepherd, by the water and the little lamb, then I'm the little child...and all of a sudden, the first thing that came up was - I don't share this often - I lost two little boys many years ago, little blond-haired, blue-eyed beautiful children. I won't get into all the details, the Lord has promised me I'd see them in Heaven.

Other than that, the very first thing that happened was, here come my two little boys. And I'm no longer 7 or 20 years old, I'm like - 26 years old, 30 years old, something. And here's my two little blue-eyed, blond-haired boys. And they come up and tuck one under each shoulder of my arms, while Jesus has His arm around me and all of us. And I just relished that for a minute. I didn't break down crying, it didn't freak me out - it just felt so natural, so warm and so restoring. And I just knew this was how it was going to be in Heaven, that they would be restored to me.

Clare: wow, that's beautiful...

Ezekiel: The years that the locust, the one who kills and destroys - all those things would be restored, to them and to me. And so, I had JUST gotten used to hear my little boys cuddled up in my arms, and all of a sudden my mother and father walk around to the left side of Jesus. And here's this water still swirling around, the couch is getting bigger! Water swirling, love-seat thing... And my mom and dad come around, who've gone to be with the Lord many years ago. And they're younger and all of a sudden, I'm probably...I don't know...in my 20's, still with the little boys here. Their names are Christopher and Brendan, by the way. And so, here I am with my boys and my mom and dad are there. I'm starting to think, 'Wow." I have felt for YEARS, I've probably walked around almost 25 years feeling like such an orphan, because most of my family is died, and is gone. Thank God for Clare! I have one living brother and that's it.

Clare: And then, when you became a Christian you lost a lot of your family, alienated from them, you were alienated by that.

Ezekiel: yeah, even those who were close and loved me, cared about me. I had a very close family at one time. But I guess you block that out. We lived on the water, uncles and aunts and cousins would drive states away to be there, do little family reunions, fish and swim for about four days.

Clare: In the bayou.

Ezekiel: Bayous of Louisiana. But it was really pretty, a really nice place. A lot of that had been kind of "fuzzied out". So, all of a sudden, you mentioned my relatives and that. My two brothers, the living and the deceased both come walking up. And my younger brother, who is 54 now, is just this little 10 year old kid and I'm like a 14 year old kid - just like we were when we ran up and down the banks of the bayou, played in the water, did all that stuff. Jumpin' off rope swings from Cyprus trees. You can imagine, I could write a book! I wish I could do the illustrations, they'd be beautiful pictures.

So, here's my little brother. And HE comes up and HE tucks under my arm. And here's a 14 year old little kid and his 10 year old brother cuddling up together. And that's like, Wow!

Clare: really special!

Ezekiel: yeah. And then my older brother comes from the left side, and he's younger - he's probably 20 something at this point. He was 60 something when he died. And he puts his arms around me. And so, here I am with the Lord, my two little boys, my mom and my dad, both my brothers and all of a sudden, all of these loving relatives that I had long forgotten about start to come. One by one. And put their arms around me. Pretty soon the children were playing, I was a little child, I was running and playing and jumping in the meadow - flowery meadows with Jesus. Lots of little animals, lots of baby animals. For some reason, He just chose to make a lot of the animals baby animals, I guess 'cause I was a kid and it would really be cute.

It would be so sweet because we'd be kind of on the ground, sometimes we'd be up in the air a little bit suspended, maybe kinda flying, twirling around. It's like, Wow! And the little animals would laugh, little tigers and little baby bears, a baby elephant. And they'd jump in the air, laugh and "wee"...it sounds like a children's story! Little suspended animals and children playing and frolicking and Jesus is right in the middle with all of us. And I began to recognize childhood friends, when they were little kids, when I was a little kid. And cousins that were young that I used to play with at these reunions.

The coolest part for me was, about this time, this really pretty little blond-haired girl comes up with pigtails, she looked like the little Swiss girl, little Heidi or something...and it was Clare. And she was a little girl! And I'm a little boy! And I just, I couldn't wait to take her around and show her to everyone, introduce her to everyone. I kept telling them, "This is my special friend! And she's a GIRL! So she's my GIRL- FRIEND, my special girl friend!" (both laughing) And here I am...this is just going on and on and on

Clare: How long did this go on?

Ezekiel: This started about midnight, I'm dead-dog tired, I've been up since this morning, worked all day, been in here. And this open vision/dream just keeps going on and on and on. In fact, I would nod off to sleep, and it would continue as a dream. I'd wake up, and it would continue on as kinda an after open vision. And I'd nod off and it would pick right back up. For three solid hours! This went on, this running and playing and children. Little kids, animals - the last thing I saw when I began to come to myself, or wake up again at just about 3 o'clock. We were coming in HIGH altitude, over...like if you were flying into Heaven somehow, or coming in off a ski lift, or better yet, coming in on a jet into an approaching area, and the trees got bigger and the landscape got more defined.

We're still little children and we're holding onto, like, Maple leaves, almost like a little Walt Disney thing, right? And we're just kind of like parachuting down, floating down into...it was specifically like, right after the Rapture. It was like we were coming in for a landing after the Rapture, after we'd been raptured and been caught up with the Lord. We're coming into Heaven and it's our arrival. We're just coming in so beautifully and oh, my gosh - you know, it almost looked like the Emerald City, the Kingdom and the golden streets and all that. Yellow Brick Road, so to speak, all the way up. And the meadows and the flowers.

Clare: Wow....

Ezekiel: I could not have made this up or drawn it or cartooned or colored it any better, and it's had a profound effect on me. I work in the back room, like I said. I listen to the messages, I try to help with comments and pray for you guys and all of us. But I don't normally get the goodies like this. And I have to say, Wow! 'Cause I had a three hour visitation tonight that just really... I asked the Lord, "Please, could I not lose it this time? Could I kinda have this and finish out like this?"

So, I just wanted to share that with you tonight, and be encouraged.

Clare: It all started in worship, which is why I keep telling everybody. I've got so many people writing to me and asking me, "How do I get into this? How do I worship?" I put up a playlist, a couple playlists, but basically there's four or five songs that we listen to, repetitively. And sometimes we'll play one song over and over again. Jesus, Holy Jesus, and then Praise Him, and then I Surrender All and All For Jesus. Surely the Presence of the Lord is In This Place. And those are all Terry MacAlmon's songs.

Once I turn those on, we just sit here and enter into worship. The music takes you out of yourself, takes you out of your everyday mood and all - I mean, it takes me probably 10 minutes to get rid of all the thoughts in my mind and really, really enter into worship, and to be in the Lord's presence. And then we stay there for an hour, two hours, three hours - however long the Lord wants to be with us. Normally, like He gave you this beautiful vision, that was during my nap time. Normally, He'll stop me and He'll say, "okay, I want to talk to you now." And that's how I end up writing down the visions. But what you had tonight was just really, really special, very healing. And that's how you know, this is a sign of authenticity - when there's healing, when there's peace, when there's joy - look for the fruit. If you want to discern if an experience is from God or from your own mind, or from the enemy - look for the fruit that it produces. If it's pure and there's no carnality in it. If it's pure. If it's gentle. If it's consoling. If it's healing - all those are signs that it's an authentic experience from the Lord.

Ezekiel: And lasting fruit. I'd like to say that we're so 30-second commercial oriented in this country that we need to be constantly hearing, seeing, reading, entertained - whatever. And too much information is too much information. Some of us have gotten into trouble sometimes by looking at too many websites and we get confused and afraid. The Lord allows simple things best. Mother Theresa was fond of saying that. And it's true. When you find something that ministers to your heart and soul, even if you're in the Scriptures - you don't have to make a study of it, just read until some verses stand out to you and stop there. And chew on it. Ruminate, spend some time with that.

Clare: And many times the Lord will come in on the tail end of a Scripture and begin to talk to you. It's NOT your imagination, it's the Lord.

Ezekiel: And for those like me who tend to be tired when they come in, you turn on praise and worship, what's the first thing you do? You fall asleep. It's like, "Oh, Lord! Please!" And I remember, now that I remember...duh. I can almost hear the little Jewish aunts saying, "You could ask!"

I forget to ask Him, "Lord, could You NOT let me fall asleep? Could You help me to be alert, to be awake?"

And just like tonight, I just said, "Could I see You?" I didn't make a big prayer, I didn't really expect a whole lot to be honest with you. But I forget to ask. And if we ask, first of all He's the one who probably put the desire in our heart, so He's gonna see it fulfilled. But it IS up to Him as to His time and when and where and how.

So, this caught me out of left field tonight, I didn't expect it, it was just a gift. But I tell you what, I'm gonna be having my radar antennas up and I'm gonna be looking for this gift a lot more. And I'm gonna be going back to these places a lot more now.

Clare: Well, and that kinda comes full circle around to the message the Lord gave me, that some of you guys are not pressing in with the Lord, because you think it's not a "guy thing". So, you know, it IS definitely kosher to spend time with the Lord in a pure and simple way and to envision Him there and to rest your head over His heart. It's PURE, it's beautiful and that's how He accomplishes healings. And that's how He fills us with love, so that we can come out and minister to other people.

When you feel alienated from the Lord, you don't have that fullness of joy and that presence of God IN you. When you go into prayer and worship and He fills you and you're overflowing - THEN when you go out to reach someone, they're really touched with the overflowing joy that the Lord's given you. But if you don't have that time, then there's still some reticence and some fear and some emptiness there. We have to fill up on His presence and His love in order to reach out to other people with His love.

Ezekiel: Oh, I remember many years ago, when I first experienced the Lord in this way, I felt I had sinned. I thought, 'Oh, my gosh, I've gotten too close to the Lord!' You know, I had kind of a dream/vision - I was actually driving on a freeway in San Antonio, Texas, middle of the business rush hour and I had to pull off on the median, just because this was such a passionate, real experience. And I drifted off into one of these places where the Lord comes into the picture and He puts His arm around you and you're close. And that was basically all it was, He just held me and it was beautiful!

But I...instantly, the enemy comes in and, "He's God Almighty! How dare you come so close. You should be on your face, 10 feet away from the throne." I went to a pastor and said, "What have I done? I'm afraid I've sinned, I've gotten too close to the Lord!" And he said...I said...he's a guy, I'm a guy, it's kinda like yeah we want to play ball and deck a few marines and do "manly" stuff, you know? It's not like...I wasn't used to this being held and hugged like that, for years.

And this wonderful pastor looked at me, with his big Irish full-back, line-back muscles in his eyes, and he says, "Aw and it's beautiful, what a beautiful experience yu've had. Oh, this is hot fire from Heaven, though! You have to be careful who you share this with, they'll get burned. But no, there's every bit of reverence when ye get close to the Laird like that, you know?" Excuse my Irish accent... He gave me the freedom to say there's so much reverence and holiness in John placing his head on the heart of Jesus.

Clare: Amen, amen.

Ezekiel: Just as much as the beggar and the woman crying at His feet. There's reverence that brings love, and love is what He's looking for.

Clare: Amen. That's beautiful. Thank you, Honey. Thank you, Ezekiel, for sharing that.

Ezekiel: Thank you, Family, for all your love and support and prayers and wow. This is just real special.

Clare: Alright - the Lord bless you and we pray that anyone who is standing off from the Lord and is afraid, that they'll be encouraged and they'll be able to enter in to worship. And if they see the Lord, they'll be able to embrace Him without any fear or shame.

The Lord bless you. And thank you for tuning in.