I sent this to various folk personally, but if there are any others who have been in prison, and in particular, have come to know Christ...this is for you.
Letter to Ex Offenders
subtitled “Burglars night in”
Elaine Waterfield kindly put me in touch with you guys.
First Steve Cattell, then others of you have been on my heart.
It’s taken many weeks to even be able to express what has been bubbling
away. I hope I can do this.
This is what I feel God saying.
A lot of you are being used to share your stories effectively to touch
people and bring them to the Lord. People are able to identify with you.
This is great. Keep on.
Just be aware that there are dangers in continually repeating your story,
going over the same ground.
God says again this:
“When you came to me I wiped everything at the Cross.
You are completely new creations.
Your frame of reference begins here.”
In a minute I want to share about the Tree of Good. I’ve just done a blogpost on this
but I want you to know the post came out of my thoughts for you, not the other
way round. That’s why I’ve been so long puzzling how to even put this on paper for you…. how on earth to explain these funny feelings concerning you.
You know….and I know God is in everything…but it is completely
random that each of you ended up in the sort of circumstances where
it became extremely likely that you would become offenders. I’m not letting you
off the hook…but it is also true that 80% of ALL those in prisons did not have
fathers while they were growing up.(Today’s gov’t statistics).
In relaying your from prison to Jesus testimonies know that this was just
God’s means of getting your attention. He allowed you to go through
this guff, in order that the Kingdom could break in on you, and through
the shattering experiences you could begin to glimpse spiritual realities,
that if you had been more comfortable you would never have seen.
But that was just His means for you.
When you were born again you received a completely different
name.
A completely different reputation.
A completely fresh start.
A completely fresh identity – actually, if you can receive it , you
completely died with Christ at your spirit centre, and He then
raised you up sort of interleaved/interwoven/hidden in Christ
as he ascended, and in your spirit now you are seated in the heavenlies
with Christ at the righthand of God the Father.
So this leads on to another subject.
Do not be conformed to this world but
be transformed……
You all know this verse in Romans 12 but what I have
to say is quite different from what you are used to hearing.
you’re all expecting me to talk about sin, and be transformed
away from sin.
But this is what God has put on my heart for you if you can weigh it up.
The world in Romans 12 IS NOT JUST talking about the common
understanding of evil. The stuff you go to prison for.
Ever since Genesis 3:5 we have been swindled into thinking
we are gods in our own right, perfectly able to find our own
way discerning between Good and Evil.
Now you are saved….DO NOT BE DECEIVED….the world
wants to suck you into its “Tree of Good”. That in the same way
as it tried to mould Cliff Richard into its image of the Tree of Good,
and was ultimately disappointed…..realise they are doing the same with you.
The Tree of Good is NOT the Tree of Life.
I’ll say that again….backwards
The Tree of Life is not the Tree of Good.
You have an alien life inside of you…because you are born again.
The world’s way of coping with it, is to try to force you to fit
its Tree of Good mould.
You are not good!
You are 100% righteous. You are ambassadors of a totally
different realm. Many times the things you stand for are not
considered good. Because the Tree of Good changes with every
generation. The Tree of Life is eternal.
Jesus overturning the moneychangers would not be considered
good. But Jesus never sinned. So we know this was a righteous act.
Some of you are getting secretly bored with the Christian life.
BUT IT IS NOT CHRIST THAT IS BORING YOU. Subtly
the devil has been squeezing you into Tree of Good situations
and calling it Christ….with the sole purpose of discouraging you.
“Well if that’s Christ…..count me out.” I can hear all this in the
Spirit.
Some of you are in Tree of Good churches.
Or with Tree of Good people.
You need to get out and find yourself some Tree of Life churches
Tree of Life people…before you’re blown right out of the Kingdom.
Some of you have literally only months before this becomes a
possibility.
Don’t believe the devil’s “Tree of Good “Lies.
The real Jesus is passionately nuts about you and He wants you
to trust Him as never before. There are several conversions in our
conversion. We continually need to be born again again.
If you see what I mean.
Any of you remember the guy that Jesus healed of blindness
within the synagogue precincts? The first stage of his conversion
was the healing….but later after his parents didn’t back him up
out of fear of the Tree of Good merchants…the religious elders,
he then made a confession “I don’t know about Jesus…but one thing
I know I was born blind and now I see.” Later Jesus came across Him
and he was ready to identify himself totally, which got him chucked out
of the synagogue.
Some of you are getting bored because you think you are waiting for Jesus.
For some of you He is waiting for that next step from you. Because He
knows what it’s going to cost you….some of you will be disowned…
because you are nolonger playing the “ex-offender converted to Jesus role”.
You are now cut loose from your past as an identity….
so no more bowed head
so no more shuffling of your feet
so no more prison identity
You may be still telling your story, but in your heart
YOU KNOW YOU HAVE RELOCATED
and you definitely ARE NOT TREE of GOOD people
You are Tree of Life people.
Do you understand what I’m saying?
God pack you with His Word and faith
Love Chris Welch
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