This is the same mental process that happens with the drunk driver.  He can’t navigate, plan, record, or control the course or the position of their automobile because they drive according to where they are instead of where they wants to go.  It is like trying to run 50 miles an hour staring at your feet.  Drunks don’t look down the road they look over the hood.

Don’t be too quick to point fingers at drug addicts or alcoholics as the dregs of society.  According to Jesus in Luke 21:34-36, overeating and worry are just as addictive and equally as destructive.  People afflicted with these either don’t like where they are going or don’t know where they are going. In either case, it is an excuse to inebriate oneself instead of facing the fears of the future.  Overeating and worry are indulgences that lead to the same place of death as chemical dependence: doubt in oneself and unbelief in God.

I have been hearing a great deal of pessimism concerning America’s future – from Christians!

The economy is going south, the war is going to be our end, the market is going to collapse, our infrastructure is falling apart, life as we know it is going to end, nuclear war is eminent, we are doomed!  Worry replays scenarios of death and destruction over and over again until we are absolutely intoxicated.  According to Jesus, overweight and stressed out people are just as drunk as chemically dependent people.  The doomsday preachers and news commentators are either ignorant of what the Bible says or don’t believe it.  No different than any other addict, they are so intoxicated with the present they can’t see the future.

I have always found the advice in Eph 5:18-20 to be especially profound.  Get drunk in the Spirit and forget about everything else. That doesn’t mean be ignorant of the times or stupid when it comes to money management or financial security.  It means to be filled with the Word of God, dependent on Jesus and addicted to His presence.

Jesus clearly says that if we don’t overeat, drink or worry we will qualify to escape everything the end times can throw at us (Luke 21: 34-36)!  In every generation since the flood there as been a remnant that has survived to inherit the earth!  Put the odds in your favor!  Stay focused on your purpose; don’t break rank with the Holy Ghost.  Walk right though the middle of everybody else freaking out, drying up, going bankrupt, or diseased without a scratch (Psalms 91)!  You can walk though the fire of the end times and without smelling like smoke (Dan 3:27)!  The next time you hear bad news about the future laugh out loud and say, “Praise God I am a Holy vessel chosen to fulfill my destiny in Christ and no devil from hell can stop me!”  “I am increased in a time of decrease to be a light unto the world!”   Relax and enjoy the ride, you are going to make it to a victorious end!

Rocky J. Malloy

There was another great man in history that also had the audacity to enter into an overwhelming situation.  His name was Aaron, the brother of Moses.  After an extended ritual Aaron entered the Holy of Holies where he stood totally transparent in the presence of God!  He faced death dressed in a beautiful long robe with golden bells sown onto hem and a cord tied around his ankle.  The bells dragged along the floor signaling to those in the outer chamber that he was still alive; however if any sin was found in him he would have dropped dead.  The cord in that case would have been used to drag him out of the chamber.  To be sure, it was a brazen act of boldness much more daring than Frederick the Great to stand bare before your Creator.

It is all about a pure heart.  As the Creator, God knows how we work.  The reason we need a pure heart to approach God is not because He is ‘The Law’ but because He is The Father.  He is absolutely pure.  He is love.  He is forgiveness.  When we step into His presence without a pure heart He hears us alright and desires to give us our every desire but unfortunately we don’t believe it.  If we don’t believe it we can’t receive it.

Unanswered prayer gets down to mechanics.  The paradox is created when we come to God in need but don’t allow Him to help.  Like Adam we feel too guilty.  Sin creates the guilt.  We feel like we don’t merit help but that doesn’t stop us from asking.

The book of Revelations gives us a great picture.  Jesus is standing at the door of our heart knocking (Rev 3:20-4:1).  He wants to come in but we have the key.  We are calling for help but He can’t do anything unless we open the door.  But we don’t want to open the door because that would expose our messy little lives.

Unfortunately this door is the only way that help can come because it is the door to the things of the Spirit.  Every single thing that God gives to us must come though this door because God is Spirit.  Every thing begins in the Spirit, our healing, our joy and even that new car.  Spiritual things manifest themselves into the flesh.  That is how Jesus was born of Mary; the Spirit becoming flesh.

So we go though the vanity of asking God for stuff we don’t think we can receive.  We keep asking and asking, going through all kinds of formulas and gyrations but with the safety of having the door locked.  God gets a bad rap about not caring or being cruel when we are the ones at fault.

Aaron gave us a great example.  He cleaned up before an audience with the King.  He went through a complete cleansing, sanctification, purification process to insure that he was right with God which meant that he was right with himself.  This is what gave him the confidence to talk with God and the faith to receive.  Even though the tabernacle in the wilderness was under the law, it is a great way to rehearse what Jesus has provided for us in the Spirit.

Rocky J. Malloy

Too many times in my life I have seen people give in or give up too quickly.  How many times have I heard people say, “God said” only later to hear that God changed his mind?  How many marriages have ended in divorce because one of both parties gave in too quickly?  How many people have given in to the pain of sickness or disease and died hours before a turn around?  How many great ideas have failed because they were never acted upon or given up before proving themselves?  How many people have entered eternity without their reward because they gave in to the circumstance, peer pressure and the status quo never achieving what the Lord had for them?

Paul gives us the Word of God in Hebrews 12:1-4 on how to finish our race never giving in to the negative circumstances or demonic attacks:

• Analyze and investigate others that have gone where you want to go.
• Stop everything that would distract you, slow you down or take you off course.
• Know that the devil knows exactly what would cause you to quit.
• Understand that time is a necessary ingredient to success.

• Jesus wrote your life plan and he has empowered you to fulfill it.
• Look past the reasons to quit to the thrill of victory waiting on the other side.
• Draw energy and strength from the forces arrayed against you.
• Hate the resistance but love the challenge
• Use Jesus as your ultimate example; He overcame the world in his quest for the throne even though it caused his own blood to flow.

As a missionary I have had wonderful opportunities to quit!  Living in another country, speaking another language and dealing with different customs have brought me to my knees in frustration many times.

I have come to understand that worry is one of the devil’s greatest weapons.  It creates anxiety and gives birth to doubt and unbelief.  It destroys self confidence and opens the door to discouragement!  Worry is nothing more than belief in an undetermined future event.  I believe more people have given up because of worry, the mere anticipation of failure, than failure itself.

To stay in the fight and finish strong one must understand that worry is nothing but torment from the devil; it is never an alert from God. God does not communicate that way.

If the devil was going to do anything to you he would never warn you; he would just do it.  Remember Goliath screamed and threatened but he never killed anyone.  The temptation to worry then actually brings relief because it reveals that the devil is incapable of defeating you.

Faith never quits it out lives the problem!

Rocky J. Malloy

Tolstoy built an entire novel on this one sentence.  He demonstrated that in order to be happy, a marriage must succeed in many different respects: sexual attraction, agreement about money, child discipline, religion, in-laws, and other vital issues.  Failure in any one essential element can doom a marriage even if all the other ingredients needed for success and happiness are present.  All it takes to drive a relationship to destruction is one missing element!  However when all the pieces are present the whole is greater than the sum of the parts creating a relationship that radiates love and harmony.  This same principle can be extended to understand much more about life than just marriage.

The path to success actually requires avoiding many separate possible causes of failure.  Navigation is the most complex of all thought processes because it does not just involve arriving at a predetermined location it also means not choosing millions of other possibilities.  Because avoiding many separate possibilities of failure is much more mentally fatiguing than concentrating on a single factor we have a tendency to assume that “success” is somewhere we arrive instead of the many places we don’t go.  Maybe that is why so few people actually experience the kind of success they think they are capable of achieving.  They have never learned that success is saying “no” a thousand times for every “yes”.

Unfortunately we tend to seek easy, single–factor explanations for success in any area of life.  Millions have bought into “get rich quick” schemes because they are so much more appealing than the real work of discipline and discernment!  The same philosophy has been used to sell weight loss programs, body building supplements, medications and drugs in general.  Even spirituality has many times been approached with the same concept of one size fits all!

Some are so convinced that success was due to a magic bullet because that was the critical factor they were missing.  They generally think that what brought them success is the solution for everybody else.  A powerful personal testimony combined with the evidence of success makes it tempting to buy into “their solution” instead of asking God what you need.

One of the greatest obstacles to success, achieving our dreams or accomplishing our goals is blindness to our own weak link(s): our imperfections or character flaws.  Stress increases and the internal pressures build as we keep working harder and harder only to fall prey to the law of diminishing returns all the while blinded to the answer.

The solution brings us back to the family both terrestrial and celestial.  Marriage came before the fall, survived sin and is waiting for us in heaven because it identifies our weaknesses and gives us an opportunity to grow mentally, emotionally and spiritually.  According to extensive research the happiest and most successful people in life have been in a long term relationship.  A man and woman submitted to each other are more humble, open-minded and capable of being educated and changed than either one alone.

Friends are closer than family when they risk telling us the truth in love.  We need the perspective of someone we trust to help us see the gap in our lives that is creating failure.

Rocky J. Malloy

Step one – Do what you have to do.

Then – eventually

Step Two – Do what you want to do.

We start hearing about this plan early in life with expressions like: Walk before you run, no peas no pie, and pay your dues.  All implying that what we must do is necessarily different from what we want to do.  Somehow we grow up believing that the must of life finance our wants.

In the deferred life plan the second step, the life we defer, cannot exist, does not deserve to exist, without first doing something unsatisfying.  We are trained from childhood that in order to get desert we must eat our vegetables.

The deferred life plan dictates that we divorce who we are and what we do in the first step to become who we really are and what we really want do in the second.  Fueled by ambition and greed, we hope that in the end we will be judged by our accomplishments and not by who we are.  Most people never become who they are because they are too busy being who they need to be because they are too worried about the money.  They go to the grave without ever having bloomed into their glory.

Why?  It all stems from the unrighteousness of sin conscious and is driven by fear and peer pressure.  Why not work hard because it is meaningful and fulfilling?  Why not live step two now instead of waiting until you retire?

The distinction between drive and passion is crucial.  Passion pulls you toward something you cannot resist.  Drive pushes you toward something you feel compelled or obligated to do.  If you know nothing about yourself or God you cannot tell the difference and you fall prey to emotional con games in and out of the church.

Knowing the difference between drive and passion is the difference between success and failure.  It is not about quotas or bonuses or cashing out.  That’s drive!  Passion is doing something you love to do.  True commitment can only come with passion.  That is why serving God can only come with passion and never obligation.

Deferred life dominates the lives of most of the people I know.  The vast majority of them are working so hard they don’t see the trap.  They have accepted must do as status quo never imaging that what they want to do can fund their needs.  The joy of doing what you want can bring with it great success.  But what if it doesn’t?  Would it be so bad living your life doing what you wanted to do instead of what you had to?

Those who get to step two many times find themselves aimless without direction.  Either they never really knew what they wanted or they spent so much time in step one they are completely lost without it.

In the deferred life plan, drive pushes you through the first step.  The second step, the deferred life itself, is the home of passion if we ever get there.  Don’t wait, step into your passion now and start doing what you want to do.  Don’t chase money chase God and your dream will chase you. That is what Jesus said in Matt 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

One of the reasons I have such great passion for what I do and who I am is that I know I help other people enjoy who they are and what they do.  If all I did was work to pay my bills and buy toys I would be the most miserable man on earth.

I know that by giving to missions many people find meaning and greater fulfillment in their life.  They work with more purpose and joy knowing that they are helping others on a scale that would be impossible in America.

Have Fun – Serve God.

Rocky J. Malloy

Recently much information has come out about the biblical numerology and hidden codes.  Although I think much of this information is out of balance numbers are very important to God.  After all He named the fourth book of Bible Numbers.  God makes extensive use of numbers in order to be exact.

A single number defines absolutely, quantitatively and qualitatively like no other word can.  Anybody can observe if someone has hair or not but when Jesus said my Father knows the exact number of hairs, He got peoples attention.  Why?  There is great power in numbers.  It establishes an absolute truth.

Understanding the biblical use of numbers helps us delve deeper into the meaning of the Word of God.  If we are careful not to read in something where there is nothing we can observation how the use of numbers ads significantly to our understanding of the Bible.

A case in point:  The number Six denotes the number of man (Rev 13:18).  His creation fell on the sixth-day.  The first occurrence of the number makes it and all multiples of it the hallmark of all connected with man.  He works six days a week and the hours of his day are multiples of six.  This number emphatically marks the great men who have stood in defiance of God like Goliath and the Anti-Christ and others whose names add up to 6 or some multiple there of.  (In Hebrew and Greek the letters of their alphabet also represent numbers.  Imagine if in English ‘A’ meant 1 and ‘J’ meant 10 and ‘T’ meant 100.)

An interesting note is that the bricks used to construct the tower of Babel were all stamped 666.  Many of those Bricks are still around today.  Alexander the Great excavated the tower with the expectation of rebuilding it.  He died suddenly before construction could begin.  In Iraq there is a 120’ deep pit where the tower once stood.  Around which is a small community whose houses are constructed with the tower bricks; which still bear the seal.

Six did not start has a ‘bad’ number however it simply identified man.  When he fell he changed his sonship to Satan and six then identified him with rebellion and death.

Eight denotes resurrection, regeneration, a new beginning or commencement. The eighth really means a new first.  Hence the octave in music, color, days of the week etc.  Eight or its multiple is impressed on all that has to do with the Lord’s names, the Lord’s people and the Lord’s work.  The name of Jesus adds up to 888.  He rose on the eighth or the new first day.  Old Testament circumcision took place on the eighth day as a sign of His future resurrection.

Six hundred sixty six absolutely, quantitatively and qualitatively means dead in spirit, soul and body where as Eight hundred eighty eight means resurrected or regenerated in spirit, soul and body.  We have not just recovered what Adam lost when he sinned we have taken on even greater dimensions in Christ.  We have been promoted from a 6 to an 8.  Mathematically speaking an increase of two dimensions would be equal to infinity x 12 x 2.  Jesus walked through walls, on water and flew into the clouds.  I wonder if Adam could do all of that?  He was only a six.

Rocky J.  Malloy

Children have an awareness of time.  They will later discover that the universe and everything in it is confined to a single, finite line of time that is moving forward and can never be reversed or stopped.  Grownups call this fourth dimension a time/space continuum or a time line.

Even the simple logic of a child understands there is cause and effect associated with time.  Parents use that understanding to explain to their children that if they do bad there is consequence and if they do good there is reward.  But when we tell them about God we break the chain of logic by saying, “He just was.”

It is easy to see why a child recognizes the ‘poor’ logic immediately.  And the old question arises, “If God (the cause) created the universe (the effect) what caused God to be effected?

The necessity of God having a beginning, however, would apply only if He, too, were confined to the same time dimension as we are.  But according to Titus 1:2 and the theory of general relativity, He is not.  (General relativity says that the space and time dimensions of the universe had the origins as matter and energy.)  Titus 1:2 says however that God existed before there was matter and therefore He existed before our time continuum.

Our time continuum is one of the four dimensions that we live in.  (The other three are height, width and depth.)  Time is the realm in which cause and effect rule.

Because God created the dimension of time that we live in, He must operate in a time dimension that is independent of us, one existing before the creation of the universe.

Scripture tells us that time, as we know it, has a beginning.  And that God operated in cause and effect before that time dimension began (Titus 1:2; 2 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 1:4; 1 Peter 1:20).  Bible evidence backed up with general relativity revels that there must be at least one other time dimension in which God exist.

We also know that there must be at least one other time continuum for God because both science and mathematics teach us that anything on a single time continuum must have a starting point or a beginning, like our universe for instance.  And if there were only one time continuum that too would mean that God had a beginning, but he didn’t.

God operating in two or more dimensions of time has no need of a beginning.  Simply stated a duel-dimensional Being exists not on a time line but on a time plane where an infinite number of times lines running in an infinite number of directions would be possible.

God moves and operates along an infinite number of time lines independent of the time/space continuum of our universe.  He therefore has no beginning and will never have an end (John 1:3 and Colossians 1:16,17).  That is why He told Moses, “I Am that I Am” or “I am the cause that put all things into effect therefore I Be” (Ex. 3:14).

Anyway, that is why we just tell our children, “He was!”

Rocky J. Malloy

The greatest misconceptions seem to be over what is and what is not the Will of God. Historically there have been two points of view on the issue of God’s will, ‘election’ and ‘free will.’

There is so much ignorance about God because most people view Him through the lenses of  ‘election’ referred to as Calvinism or ‘free will’ referred to as Armenianism.  Churches tend to be in one camp or the other.  Churches aligned with denominations tend to be Calvinist in nature.  Independent churches tend to be Armenian in nature.

Calvinist believe that God ‘elects’ or predestines every minute detail of our life, good or bad, explaining everything that happens as preordained by God.  Each man’s destiny is in Gods hands.  Armenianism or ‘free will’ believes that man is in control of his own life and destiny.  God participates by providing a map through his word and direction though his Holy Spirit.

Without getting into a major exposition it will suffice to say that both camps need to move toward the middle, Calvinism more so than Armenianism, if we are to understand both the wisdom and grace of God toward his creation.

Election acknowledges the omni presence and power of God but goes too far by blaming God for man’s errors and rebellion, even going so far as to state that God planned sin to test man.

Free will, which acknowledges that man’s fall was a result of his rebellion, goes too far by limiting God’s participation in redemption.

People get trapped and ensnared by their opinions and doctrines of God.  They forget about the love of God.  Relationship is the path, not religion.  The only true perspective is to see the different doctrinal positions as complimenting each.  That is why I personally try to avoid being labeled and why I love Calvinist as much as I do Armenians.  I love people who love God no matter what their label.  I enjoy the freedom and liberty to work with anyone that confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior.

The Truth is more than just the facts; truth is Jesus.  The ‘Truth’ is constantly working on our behalf.  He wants the best for mankind.  Truth took on the form of a human so that is could suffer for all of man’s rebellion, making a way for man to restore his relationship to God.  When sin entered the world calamity became default.  Bad happens when man rejects God or rebels against his word.   Never distrust the goodness of God!

If in doubt, go to the beginning.  When Adam and Eve had the forbidden fruit in their hand God didn’t knock it out.  He gave them their own free will even though it had terrible consequences.  He limited himself in the affairs of man while at the same time taking an active role their restoration.

In an attempt to answer tough questions about the calamities of life we forget about relationship and fall into religion.  We say things that sound right but have no life.  When talking about God don’t blame him for bad things.  Man’s lack of relationship with God is our fault not His.  Remember love never fails and God is love.

Rocky J. Malloy

Acknowledging situations or things by calling them like they are requires no faith and Paul called that sin (Rom. 14:23) because it is of fear.  Calling things that are not as though they were requires faith because it is of love.  Anybody can look at a bad report and agree with it. It takes faith to look at the same situation and call it what God calls it.

People fear faith.  They prefer to wrap themselves tightly in verifiable facts calling it security.  They deny the existence of that which cannot be tested, proven, or measured.  Those in fear shout the loudest about the foolishness of faith in a world of science.

There is a physical reality, a perceptual reality and a spiritual reality.  One is based on the facts, the other on opinion and the last on the truth.  The truth is always greater than the facts or opinions.

Anytime we are faced with a fact or an opinion that is not TRUE we must act in faith.  Not by denying the facts or opposing opinion but by declaring the truth.  In other words we must have more faith in the truth than we have in facts or opinions.

We are so conditioned to act in fear based on circumstances that we find it fearful to act in faith based on truth.

Romans 8:15 says that, “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.”

Being sons of God we operate on a higher plane than physical reality.  We soar in the high places of spiritual reality.  “We have the same spirit of faith (that God has), according as it is written, I believe and therefore have I spoken; we also believe and therefore speak” (2 Cor. 4:13).

Living by faith means believing and speaking the truth no matter the facts or opinions.  In order to believe and speak the truth we must first hear the truth (Rom. 10:17).  That is why in Mark 4:24 that Jesus warned us about what we hear.  Listening to doubt and unbelief will cause you to speak doubt and unbelief; which will “again put you back into the bondage of fear.”

Being a Christian carries with it a great responsibility of believing and speaking the truth all the time.  Believing the truth and speaking the truth is called love and it drives out all fear, doubt and unbelief (1 Jn. 4:18).

We go to church, read the Bible and pray to fill ourselves with the love of God so that we can always believe and speak the truth.

The next time you are faced with a situation that requires the declaration of truth and the spirit of fear comes on you like a chill on a cold night what are you going to do?  Operate in the spirit of fear or the spirit of faith?  Speaking the truth in love will grow you into all things even Christ (Eph. 4:15).

I say that you are of the spirit of faith and that no doubt or unbelief can be found in you thereby denying the devil all access to your life.

Rocky J. Malloy

Lourdes and her husband were in a horrible car wreck. Her husband almost bled to death, her two-year-old baby girl was killed and she was declared brain dead when she arrived at the hospital.

I went to Lourdes’ hospital room believing God for a miracle and her family went to a funeral parlor to make arrangements for her death. They actually purchased her coffin.

The differences between religion and relation were never so clear to me. Her parents, like many religious Christians, were responding to crisis by agreeing with the devil instead of with God. Instead of confronting death her friends and family accepting it as if it was from God.

Religion doesn’t resist the devil rather it justifies demonic acts as ‘coming from’ or ‘being approved of’ by God. Religion destroys our resolve to fight because it complicates the will of God to the point where we no longer understand it. It becomes something that defies logic.

The religious elite tells us that God’s ways are not always our ways and that sometimes means illness, accidents and even premature death. But that is not what the Bible says, rather it says His ways are higher, more loving and forgiving than our ways (Isa. 55:7-9)

The problem with religious people is that they do not understand what it means when God gives His word. He cannot break His word like men do (Heb.6:18). For instance God said, “Do not kill” (Ex.20:17). If He could kill why didn’t He just kill the devil and all of his demons? Why didn’t God kill Adam and Eve and just start over or why doesn’t God just kill people that reject Him instead of sending them to hell?

The answer is: God gives life not death (Mat. 10:10). He cannot give something he does not have.

I know religion goes crazy with this recalling all of the times were God ‘killed’ people. Unfortunately that is simply not true. In every case people rebelled against the word of God choosing death over life just like Adam and Eve did. When that happened the destroyer moved in for the kill (I Cor. 10:10).

Religion is death because it separates us from the love of God with ridged rules and rituals. Relationship on the other hand is life because it communicates with God. It is not complicated to know the will of God in any situation. Anything that interrupts communication with God and life is not from Him. Hunger, illness, poverty and confusion all lead to death and away from God. Faith understands ‘God’s will’ is always abundant life. Faith acts on that knowledge. We are told by God to resist the devil because every thing in his bag of tricks is meant to separate us from God.

Lourdes was released from the hospital just two weeks after her accident. Today Lourdes’ empty coffin is a testimony to the goodness of God and the trust we can have in His word. “If we can only believe, God’s word, all things are possible (Mark 9:23).

Rocky J. Malloy