Pate 9
The Staff and Sword Ministry
April 30, 2010
I was on the road for some weeks after this meeting and when I returned to Chicago for a brief rest I found a number of letters from those 25 new intercessors. It seems a local pastor heard of the meeting and called a second meeting the following day during which he attacked me with accusations of deception and evil doing and that I'd come to Albuquerque to destroy their spiritual lives in hellfire. In letter after letter I read hot and angry words calling me everything you could imagine, all 25 new intercessor resigned. The young woman who had come to JESUS because of my testimony and was saved refused to go along with the others and she became the
target of unwanted attention by brethren who accused her and came against her in many ways. Lastly, badly wounded and besieged, she quit the N.O.P. and belief in God. I wrote a few of those brethren only to remind them that they had invited me to come and to explain about the Net of Prayer; more, that they had seen JESUS and heard Him ask them to join the Net of Prayer. However, I recognized that if a person could see and hear JESUS and then hold the views of a man over the Son of God, a letter by me would be pointless. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you."
(JESUS in John 15: 18)
On a human level, I began to ponder just why these so called "Church leaders" had such disdain for JESUS, why they, with regularity, rejected Him, His Word and His Truth. The answer is found in Matthew 27: 18: "For he (Pilate) knew that for
env y
they (the chief Priests) had delivered Him
(JESUS)." (Matthew 27: 18)
Early in the ministry I noted a certain behavior in ministers and elders, and even among certain brethren that mystified me. In pondering it I came to the realization that they were either jealous or envious of me, an insight that left me even more curious if not puzzled on why. Why were they envious of me? Those who were envious had standing in the community, recognition as Ministers, they had a congregation, a nice church, were well dressed and carried the proverbial sheepskin from a respected Seminary or Bible college. On the other hand, I had none of this and one minister called me (rightly so) a poor itinerant prophet. If I looked at myself I remained puzzled; but when I took a step back it became