The Oak Initiative Weekly Nov. 06, 2009
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The Oak Initiative was born because Christian leaders from virtually across the spectrum of the body of Christ came together to confer about and address some of the great crises of our times. The quality, depth, and strength of those who came was most encouraging. They came to seek understanding, and then to take action. Powerful ministry and mission initiatives were born in different parts of the nation, and they are growing. This is basic to who we are: 1) To be those who will face the times and not hide from them. 2) To be those who seek an uncommon depth of understanding, 3) To be those who are willing to work with others in whatever Our goal is more than just helping God's people understand the times, and survive them—we want to see the army of God prevail in them. We also assume that if you have joined an organization like this you are a mature enough Christian to be able to handle serious facts and information, with soberness, but also through the eyes of faith that always see Jesus on His throne above any problems that we may be facing here. If we are going to live and stand for truth, we must be willing to see the truth. If we are going to be the light we are called to be we must have solutions to the world's pressing problems, which also means we need to understand them with some depth. If we are living at the end of this age we know that it will be the ultimate conflict between good and evil. We also know that without question good is going to prevail, and the ultimate result will be the nations coming to the light and glory of the Lord, as we see in Isaiah 60:1-3: "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. As we see here it is at the time when darkness is covering the earth, and deep darkness the peoples, that the glory of the Lord arises upon His people, and the result is that the nations come to the light on God's people. In all that we must address, we must keep this foremost in our hearts and minds—the truth is going to prevail. Light is going to cast out the darkness, and the nations are going to come to the light. Regardless of how dark it may seem at times, the light wins. However, we cannot fight victoriously if we refuse to see our enemy. Believe it or not, there are many Christians who do not believe there is a literal devil, or demons. Some might think that you cannot be a Christian without understanding that there is a devil, but nowhere does it say you have to believe in the devil to be saved. However, you cannot understand that The Bible is the word of God and not understand that there is a very real devil, and he has many demons obeying him. Unfortunately the Christians who do not believe this have been blinded by the very devil they do not believe in. The devil would obviously prefer that no Christians would believe in him because he dwells in darkness, and deception is his primary weapon against us. If we do not even believe he exists he does have a major advantage over us, and will use it when it best suits him. The fall of mankind was caused by the serpent getting Adam and Eve to doubt what God had said, and the beginning of the fall of many Christians starts with them beginning to doubt the sure word of God. If Jesus, who is The Word of God, would take His stand on "It is written!" when being tested how much more should we take our stand in life on the written word of God. The devil would have each of us question it with such thoughts as there are so many different interpretations, translations, opinions, so who could know what it really says? You can. And you do not have to be a theologian to know. The word of the Lord Jesus Himself has given us the promise that if we seek we will find. If we care about His truth enough to search for it we will surely find it. In truth, not many, and even not many Christians, care enough to seek it. Our goal for The Oak Initiative is that every member becomes so strong in the Lord that it does not matter what happens to The Oak Initiative, the leaders of OAK, or any others in your life, but even if we all were taken out, or fell away, you would just keep right on growing stronger in the Lord, and doing His will. Our goal is that each of you have your own roots, be devoted to constantly sinking them deeper, have your own revelation of the truth that you can stand on regardless of what happens to anyone else. This begins with a desire for God and His truth that is so strong that you seek Him and His truth. In Eph.6:10-13 we are exhorted to be strong in the Lord, and are then told how: 'Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might. The Lord uses His title "Lord of hosts," or "Lord of armies" more than 10 times as much as all of His other titles. He is a martial God. When He brought Israel out of Egypt He immediately had them marching in "martial array." We are in a war, and to win any way you have to know who your enemy is at the very least. The most successful warriors in history have also been wise enough to also understand their enemy, their enemy's strategy and tactics, and their strengths and weaknesses. A basic military adage is that if you do not know yourself, or your enemy you have no hope of victory. If you know yourself, but do not know your enemy, you may win half the time. If you know yourself and your enemy you may win all the time. In the text quoted above from Ephesians we see that we are not warring against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of wickedness. People are not our enemy. People may be used by the enemy, but our greatest victory is not conquering people, but rather setting them free. Our goal is not to wound but to heal. That is why we are told in II Cor. 10:3-5: 'For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, Our most powerful weapons are love and truth, and therefore the strongest warriors will be those who have a love for the truth. We will quit under pressure if we just have doctrine, but a person in love will never quit. In II Thes.2:10 we see that it is not just those who have truth who will not be deceived, but those who have a love for the truth. Someone in love will pursue. As I stated above, The Oak Initiative was born out of the alarm many Christian leaders felt because of the rising crises of our times. Because I have personally been addressing current events in more depth recently, I started to get more information from people who were in key positions to know about these crises. I confess that many times I would rather not have known what I have come to know in some areas, but feel that I have responsibility as a watchman to see what I need to see to help warn God's people of any threats or dangers, so I try to do the best job I can with it. I certainly would not claim to have always done this perfectly, or maybe even very well, but the response at least demonstrates a huge hunger for this among Christians. I'm compelled to share this from time to time because it is apparent that Christian leaders who have failed to address some of the huge looming issues of the times have started to lose credibility with their own flocks. They need to hear from their leaders about these issues, not just get all of their information from the media, or other worldly sources. Our nation was born because Christian leaders spoke out on the important issues of their times, and there is a desperate need now for those who will speak out boldly. We cannot allow any intimidation to keep us from giving clear direction for those we've been entrusted with during these times. In the rising confusion Christians are going to begin rallying more and more to where they are getting the most clarity. There have been long periods when I felt that every week I was shown that things are really much more serious than I had supposed, and have felt lately that they really could not get much more serious. Last week myself and several other OAK board members were given a two day briefing, and it is apparent that things are far, far, more serious than we have even been considering. This briefing came from top people who are used to brief the top people in our government, and others. They came with overwhelming proof of everything they shared. When it was over all that I could think was how all of the times I've said that we are in possibly the most serious times in our history even I had very little knowledge of just how true that statement is. We are going to be sharing this information with our OAK members. It is honestly so much, and so shocking in some ways, that it is going to take some time to process it and get it into a palatable form. However, there is no longer any doubt that our nation is in its greatest crisis ever. There is also no doubt that it can be our finest hour, and a victory over this crisis can bring a future brighter than anything in our past. We are promised that the Lord will always lead us in His triumph. Even though the battle did get far, far bigger in my understanding, so did the potential victory get much bigger in my vision.
Top management schools usually teach that if you are going to have a successful enterprise you must get rid of problem oriented people and replace them with solution-oriented people. If you are in leadership you know how trying it can be to endure the people who are always running up and dumping crises and problems on you. This is where the saying came from to not "shoot the messenger," because these messengers you really do want to shoot at times. For this reason I instituted a policy in our ministry that anyone can bring me a problem as long as they bring at least two solutions with it. This makes them think about the problems as opportunities for leadership instead of just doom. That is also what we want Oak to be known for—solutions. Of course, this is a principle, not a law. Principles have exceptions, and laws don't. In a serious emergency I want to know about the problem, and fast, and help work on the solution. Even so, I think you get the point. Many nations are in crisis right now. One of the definitions of "crisis" is the point in a disease in which it is determined if a patient will live or die. I have felt for sometime that the U.S. was fighting some crises at this time that could determine its continued existence as a Republic, a democracy, and after last week I no longer have any doubt about this. I am also convinced that a victory over what is facing us can result in a period of unprecedented stability and strength, which will also benefit many other nations that are now in crisis. Having spent forty years seeking to know God, and being continually in awe of Him, anything we do in the world is going to be boring in comparison. As I've shared its hard to get excited about the things the world esteems, and if we have seen the Lord then the greatest pomp of men seems remarkably petty and insignificant. I certainly did not enjoy being shown the constantly intensifying crises now besetting us, but every time I was shown bigger crises, I also felt an increasing grace for trusting in the Lord. I have so benefitted from this that I now embrace it more and see its importance. Heaven is much more fun to look at, but we are here at this time for a purpose. We may have been blessed to fight in the ultimate battle between light and darkness. The worst that can happen to us is that we die, and then go to heaven! How can we not enjoy this? So this week I've written to kind of brace you for some of the things we will address in the future. I expect that some of you will come up with the solutions, the way that we should confront them. We will need strategy and tactics on every level. As I have said, it will be a few weeks before we get to the most serious threat to our future that we are now facing because we do need to get it in order and present it right. While we're doing that we need to get as many true spiritual warriors in OAK that we can. As a Special Forces officer once told me, "There are many soldiers, but not many warriors." True warriors run to the sound of battle, not away from it. If you know others who love the truth, who are men or women of faith and courage, ask them to consider becoming part of The Oak Initiative. This is a mobilization of those who will be champions of the truth, who will stand for the truth without compromise, and who will never retreat before the enemies of the truth. The quickest way to sign up for The Oak Initiative is on our website, www.theoakinitiative.org, so please steer people to it in order to join. As members we hope you will notice the weekly upgrades we will be making to the site. Soon we will have a "Members' Only" section for getting the most critical information quickly. Thank you again for caring enough to be a part of this initiative, and our prayer for you is that you grow much stronger in the Lord continually.
In His Service,
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