The Master Craftsman

November 2003

My son, I am an unlimited God, and there are no boundaries to the depth of My treasures for My people who desire to visit Me in the Spirit. My greatest treasure are people who do.

I know where the diamonds are in the earth, and I am willing to spend the effort to dig for them. I am willing to gently clean the debris, the sediment, and the dust away. But a diamond doesn’t become brilliant by simply cleansing away dirt. A diamond – My precious handiwork – requires cutting.

Grinding, cutting for maximum brilliance, polishing out imperfections – this takes time, it takes patience, and it takes exquisite detail and persistence. But I am all knowing. I know the precious jewel that will be your result. I see you reflecting My glory with a radiance that I can only tell you about now. But when you see the work that I am doing in your life, you will gasp in awe. For I have created you to become found. I have created you to be transformed into the reflected essence of My Being. Though for a season My work seems painful, the stars in the night sky do not have the brilliance of the light that you will have.

You must understand that I work inside of your heart. I work as quickly or as slowly as your willingness lets Me. Sometimes, having just carefully polished a surface, an imperfection is exposed, and I must begin afresh with a new cutting, a new grinding, and a new polishing. But I never give up on you.

I know your heart, and I know each step in the process of your refinement. With each step, you are being made more like Me in My image.

Oh people, if I am patient to await your lifetime of shaping, shouldn’t you also patiently rejoice? What you see as failures, disappointments, and setbacks are, to Me, times of improvement, enhancement, and refreshment as I polish out imperfection. [So] let your heart glory in this – that you know and understand Me[1] and My ways upon the earth.[2] Let your heart glory in this – that you surrender yourself to My craftsmanship in your life, that you trust Me through each facet of My work in you.

I don’t work this way with any other creations in the universe. I created the earth and all creatures, including angels, once. I do not change these which I have created for service. But I work for all eternity to build and perfect that which I have created specially for fellowship with Me. You are the object of My desire, and the object of My continuing craftsmanship. And you will reflect My glory for all eternity in the brilliant, exquisite light of My presence, My majesty, and My glory. This is why I fore-ordained and elected you. Until now, you have felt My presence. Soon you will see My glory.

(What wonderful things the Lord teaches us in the secret place of the Most High! Seek appointments with Him each day, and His words to you will be as they were to David -- sweet as honey -- and you will enjoy the kind of refreshing that our Lord is always eager to give to every one who labors to enter His rest.
---Paul Norcross)

God’s richest blessings to you in the wonderful name of Jesus Christ, our King! How awesome are His workings in us as we learn to spend time with Him.

Ministering Trips

This past summer has been a precious time of building and growing. Since my last newsletter to you in August (which was sent only by e-mail) so many wonderful events have taken place. First, Pastor Carl Fox of Christian Faith International Ministries and I spent a week ministering together in various fellowships in Maine, followed by a series of campfire meetings at our farm in Massachusetts. In Maine as well as at the campfire meetings, Pastor Carl taught on breaking free of the bastard curse of Deuteronomy 23:2-4 and Hebrews 12:6-8. From my perspective as a pastor observing the impact on a congregation, I would have to say that these series of meetings were like setting off explosives to break up logs jammed in a river! The positive impact was enormous as people became set free from this latent and often generational curse. I later taught this material also, endeavoring to make it my own. I saw the same powerful effect. The bastard curse has had very real impact on the Body of Christ, and getting free from it brings amazing blessings to congregations because this curse has been a root cause of rebellion, offense, and lack of intimacy with the Lord.

In September I traveled to North Central Pennsylvania to minister. I t was a joy to meet with many pastors and share on using the powerful manifestation of speaking in tongues with aggressiveness. This tool of the Holy Spirit is vital to dynamic, fruitful ministry! I like to encourage saints to do as Smith Wigglesworth used to do – speak in tongues for themselves each day. He would do it two hours a day, focusing on interceding for himself during this whole time. I want to tell you – something powerful happens on the inside when you pass the 20 minute point. This perfect prayer releases enormous power and deliverance in your heart – it adjusts your Christ-mindedness, and feeds your spirit with amazing power! It fixes whatever is wrong in your heart in a hurry.

From Pennsylvania it was on to Toronto to minister with an Indian congregation. I spent four nights preaching in churches, and from dawn until well after midnight each night ministering healing and sharing the awesome love, plan, and destiny God has for His people. This congregation in Toronto is full of love, and the Lord is moving in them mightily! One man was healed from needing a heart operation. The word of the Lord was that he would not need it, and sure enough, two weeks later as he was being prepared for the operation, as the doctors began exploring their strategy for the arterial ballooning procedures, they suddenly realized the man was now no longer in need of any such operation! God is so good! (Nearly the same thing happened the following week with another man prayed for over the telephone – the doctors sent him home from his planned heart operation too. They couldn’t figure out how his heart grew new arteries!)

During a Saturday afternoon we had some time to play tourist. I had never seen the famous Niagra Falls, so we jumped in the car for the two hour ride south. Along the way, my wonderful hosts were asking me to teach them about speaking in tongues. In the middle of the ride, I saw the Lord creating faith in their hearts, and I couldn’t help but cry with tears of thankfulness at what He was doing in the Spirit. I knew He wanted me to lead them into speaking in tongues, and I asked the Lord if I could do it when we got to the Falls. He gave me permission. I couldn’t wait to get there!

Half an hour later, standing beside the thunderous, majestic Niagra Falls, I had the privilege of ministering the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Falls was nothing compared to the power of the Holy Spirit as it gushed forth from this pastor and his wife in the supernatural tongues of men and angels!

From Toronto it was on the road two hours further north to visit a precious friend and fellow pastor whom the Lord is preparing for the next phase of his growth. In the middle of sharing together one night, the Lord asked me to invite this pastor to travel with me on a mission trip to Ghana next year. I almost choked as the Lord told me this, but as I shared it, the information was confirmed in his spirit as well – a big step for anyone going on their first mission trip!

October was going to be staying at home to finish building a barn to house the horse we acquired this summer for my daughter (a long story!). We’ve been cutting timber and sawing it into boards here on the farm with the help of my two wonderful young men-of-God sons. What God is doing in their lives is truly amazing as they keep their hearts devoted to Him.

In the middle of the barn building, a call came in from two Indian families in Detroit, relatives of the man whose heart the Lord healed in Toronto. Their need was great, and I couldn’t say no to the Lord’s insistence that I go to minister deliverance to these two families. When I arrived and after getting through the urgent spiritual matters, the Lord began building. Now a church of four families has just sprung up in the very house that satan had been trying to afflict! God is just amazing!

A short week back home and it is off to Romania (November 6-19) for the privilege again of working with Pastor Carl Fox and a powerful team of ministers: Steve Roy, Brenda Perreault, Lee Camacho, and MJ Carroll. Please pray for this mission, primarily to Gypsy congregations. We will do a great deal of evangelizing on the streets in villages and the inner city, starting ministry to children’s groups in both established churches and villages where there are no churches – Steve Roy will be spearheading this program and I look forward to sharing more news with you by e-mail from Romania. Other projects include the formal legal establishment of a foundation to run our own Christian orphanage, as well as continuing to minister to dedicated small village pastors. These are folks who are moving by the power of the Holy Spirit some of them have PLANTED more churches than you have people attending in your church!

New Publications

In the midst of all this activity, the Lord gave me a new book called “The Voice Upon The Waters” concerning how to drink from the Fountain of Living Waters, Jesus Christ. It’s a powerful little booklet that is an eye-opener to all who thirst. You are welcome to order it if you like.

NEW BOOK RELEASE:

The Voice Upon The Waters

This booklet outlines what it means to drink from the Fountain of Living Water. It is an extremely powerful blessing to all those who seek a deeper relationship with the Lord, the Wellspring of everlasting life. As one dear saint shared recently, “it drips with the anointing of the Holy Spirit.” Forty six pages, it is easy to read and easy to give away. It is, in essence, what the Lord has taught Paul about hearing His voice since the Dining At The Master’s Table: Learning to Hear the Voice of the Lord book was first published. To order, please send $6 or more as a donation to cover the costs, and send to the ministry address noted below. Another booklet will follow shortly on the spirit and power of Elijah. Glory to God.

Free Teaching Tapes Offer

The Holy Spirit does such awesome things in the Sunday services in our home church, Maranatha Bible Chapel. So many believers have desired to “tune in” on a regular basis.

Therefore the congregation is so blessed to announce that audio cassettes of Sunday morning service teachings are available to all who send us a stack of self addressed, stamped envelopes ($.60 domestic postage on regular small letter-sized envelopes). The tapes are duplicated and sent at the end of each service, and they have been a blessing to believers all over the world. We believe they will be a blessing to you as well. We will let you know when we are down to the next to last envelop. Send pre-stamped, addressed envelopes to:

Maranatha Bible Chapel
PO Box 332
Charlemont, MA 01339
USA