Wash Your Windshield: Seeing God’S Purpose for Your Life

By Richard Paul Weddle

This book was written because God told me I want you to put on paper what Ive been showing you. These words bring life, not condemnation; truth, not deception; hope, not despair. They are words from the Tree of Life, giving us hope, value, identity, and purpose. Many of the counterfeit religious thoughts, misconceptions, faulty human reasoning, and lies that may be embraced are exposed. These things prevent us from seeing ourselves as God sees us and from seeing the vision God has for us. Much of the church has adopted a worldly mindset, leading us to irrelevancy. As each member in the body of Christ focuses their mind on Jesus, hearts and minds are renewed, and vision is restored. We must be like-minded, united in spirit and purpose, so we ultimately finish what Jesus started.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jun 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512790191

Richard Paul Weddle

Richard may not be materially affluent, but he is a wealthy man. He and his best friend Peggy have been married since 1966. His wife, children, and grandchildren are the joy of his life. He comes from a long line of fervent believers and preachers, and grew up in the church. In 1975, a powerful encounter with God radically transformed his life. He became convinced there was nothing he and God couldn’t do together, including helping others through encouraging their personal relationship with Jesus. He has been a leader and elder in his church for many years. Most of his life has been spent mentoring and discipling others. He has the heart of a teacher. Richard is passionate about taking back this world for Christ. By listening to Jesus and “speaking what he listens,” Richard is storing up treasures in heaven.

Book preview

PART ONE

And God said …

CHAPTER 1

The Assignment

Make me know Your ways, O Lord; Teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; for You I wait all the day. (Psalms 25:4-5 NASB)

I noticed something forming just under the ceiling above the couch when I was in my farmhouse living room one afternoon, sitting in my favorite chair. I saw what looked like a wheel suspended horizontally with beams crossing at right angles at the center of the wheel. It was about three feet across and made out of swirling fog. I had the sense it was a portal; it reminded me of the stargate on the movie Starga te. ¹

A quiet voice proceeded from within me which, in combination with the object I was seeing, convinced me something of significance was happening. The voice said, I want you to put on paper what I’ve been showing you. I knew instantly who it was and what He wanted and also knew it was a done deal, yet at the same time I didn’t know how it was going to happen.

I find it significant God didn’t ask me to put on paper what He had been telling me or what I had memorized. We both knew He had been showing me things. I have made every effort to be faithful to His original request to put down on paper what He has been showing me, but I have absolutely no interest in being politically or religiously correct. At the same time, I intensely desire to have everything I share with you be supported with a solid scriptural foundation.

I am not a writer, a theologian, or even a college graduate. I don’t need to be any of those things because I, as a friend, am simply choosing to do what He asks. God didn’t ask me or require me to be an expert on anything. He has taken me through many experiences and shown me many things concerning who He is and His ways, a process both excruciating and joyful, and now my assignment is just to share with others what He has shown, and still continues to show, to me.

This brings me to the title of this book. There is a good reason for the title Wash Your Windshield. Originally, I really thought the title of the book would be Parallel Realities in the Battle for Global Dominion. There is such an influence from the dark side in all of society. There are many seducing thought patterns infiltrating the minds of God’s people and adversely affecting them. Many people have been robbed of hope, and the church has become largely irrelevant. This is not what God intended for His people. There is a war going on, a battle for individual lives, communities, and nations. If you don’t already see this, you will, once you allow Him to wash over you with the water of the Word.

But one night as I was sitting in front of the computer doing some more writing on this book, I realized I had never asked God what He thought the name of His book should be. Very plainly I heard Him say, Wash your windshield. At first, I was confused why that would be the title. I felt strongly people needed to see and understand there is an ongoing battle for global dominion. But I found myself being refocused on my writing, and I realized some things are better caught than taught.

My hope is you will be inspired to see more clearly what He is showing you, because without vision we are lost. Once we experience even a partially clean windshield, there is a profound impact on our thinking because of what we can now see. It’s difficult to be depressed when the reality of life fills your heart, as Jesus comes to trust you by sharing His heart with you. It’s my heartfelt desire you will be able to see the kingdom message being delivered, and also that the same Spirit who stirred me up will also increasingly stir up your spirit. I pray that by the end of this book, you will be full of hope and excited about who you are and why you are on this earth.

Good hunting!

CHAPTER 2

Words Matter

And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13 NIV)

The power of words

W ords matter. Words have the power to both destroy and to build up. ¹ We know the tongue has the power of life and death. ² Acknowledging Jesus is the Son of God, matters. Walking in love and obedience so His words abide in you, ³ matters. Speaking God’s word faithfully and truthfully, matters. We’re told in 1 Peter if any man speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God, ⁴ speaking the very words of God. Angels, both good and evil, are listening. They instinctively know when they are loosed and when they are bound because of words. We can tell a lot about people by the words they use, and we can learn a lot about God by the words He uses.

Jesus is the Word of God

God’s word tells us:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1,14 NASB)

When comparing the verse, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,⁵ to the verse, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,⁶ we see a critical relationship. Jesus is God. He always has been and always will be. Jesus became flesh and lived among us.⁷ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.⁸ That’s a lot to wrap one’s head around, but going even deeper, we see Jesus is the Word.

What does Jesus is the Word mean? How can a person be a word? Jesus was sent to reveal the Father’s heart and mind, to be a physical manifestation of an invisible God. It’s like how what we say reveals what our personality is and what we think. Jesus is the Word, the personified and spoken word and testimony of God. Scriptures say, His name is the Word of God.⁹

Jesus’ words are the expression of Himself. They bring life, because He is life.¹⁰ He is the light of the world.¹¹ He is the fulfillment of prophesied words, and is God’s message to man. Because there is so much integrity between who Jesus is and what He says, the words He uses are always reflections of Him. Jesus is integrity defined. He speaks only truth because He is truth. There are many who stumble over His words because His words are always truth.

Sharing words of life

Many years ago, I was sitting in an adult Sunday school class when the question came up, How do you measure what kind of a Christian you are, and how do you decide if someone is a good Christian or not? I said to the class, I began to understand that early on in my Christian experience after I heard God say in His still, quiet voice, ‘The measure of a Christian is his willingness to hear the truth against himself.’ The whole room was quieter than a church mouse for perhaps half a minute, although to me it seemed like half an hour. Not one person responded to what I said. Then the class continued as though I had said nothing. Apparently, nobody knew what to do with what I had just shared. Regardless, I’ve carried those words with me all these years.

Jesus promises where even two or three are gathered in His name, He will be in the midst of them.¹² Motivating fellow believers in the body of Christ toward love and good works¹³ can happen by fellowshipping with them.¹⁴ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.¹⁵

Seeds and the word of God

The word of God instructs, rebukes, judges, and corrects, giving us wisdom leading to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.¹⁶ For the word of God is alive and active … it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart"¹⁷As we know from reading the Parable of the Sower, the seed is the word of God being scattered about.¹⁸ The seed only yields a crop—reproduces after its own kind—if it falls on fertile soil, takes root and stays rooted, and gets the nutrients it needs to grow to maturity. In the New Testament, there are over forty Scriptures where the Greek word sperma is translated seed.¹⁹ It’s the same Greek word from which the English word sperm is derived,²⁰ so using the illustration of a seed is also a comparison to conception. A seed must first be planted before conception can take place. Just as sperm brings forth life physically, we have the power to bring forth life in our words. The word of God requires a germination process in our lives which takes time and can’t be avoided. We don’t just hear the word of God one day and become fully mature the next.

His seed is looking for a receptive host, a heart that warmly welcomes Him. When we freely accept, agree with, and nourish His seed which comes in spirit form, we empower the seed to take root in us. Because seeds reproduce after their own kind, the word of God is advancing the kingdom of God one heart at a time. We become more like Him. It’s life flowing from His heart to ours. When a spiritual father produces good fruit which grows to maturity, he has reproduced himself. This process allows for and initiates born again experiences.

Simply stated, the Word of God is about relationship. For each person who has embraced the Word of God, it’s the beginning of a personal relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. It’s an amazing and awesome thing to even consider; the God of heaven and earth is interested in taking up residence in us. It takes faith to have a relationship with someone who is seemingly so incomprehensible. To actually see both worlds (the spiritual heavenly world and the physical earthly world) takes a born again experience.

Jesus uses parables to compare how the word of God is to the kingdom of God what natural seed is to a harvest.²¹ He compares His word to an unchangeable law of nature, rather than to man-made rules or institutions which are changeable and fallible. The time of seedtime and harvest, or the order in which they occur, can’t be changed.

Washed by the water of the word

What does it take to see? It takes a washing of water by the word.²² It takes a constant flow of His present utterances pouring over us to see what He wants us to see. His very presence transforms us. Being washed by the water of the word can happen as we pour over the Scriptures as He quickens His word to us or simply as we come to the garden alone … where He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own.²³

After Saul’s road to Damascus experience, before he was renamed Paul, God used Ananias to restore Saul’s sight.²⁴ Later, after Paul was seized in Jerusalem, he was telling his story to the crowd and said:

A certain Ananias, a man who was devout by the standard of the Law, and well spoken of by all the Jews who lived there, came to me, and standing near said to me, Brother Saul, receive your sight! And at that very time I looked up at him. "And he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear an utterance from His mouth. For you will be a witness for Him to all men of what you have seen and heard. Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.’ (Acts 22:12-16 NASB)

Paul was washed by the water of the word. Only then could he see everything with clarity, so he could be the kind of witness to all men God wanted him to be. The unveiling by the Holy Spirit is a lifelong adventure. In my experience, it can take months and even years to comprehend the significance of some encounters. We can only hope our minds can keep up with the activity of this Jesus who lives in our hearts.

I pray your mind and heart will be renewed as you are washed by the water of the word, and all those things hindering your sight will be washed away. I encourage you to lay down your own thoughts about who He is, what He thinks, and why He does what He does, and just abide in Him. His thoughts can become your thoughts, at least the ones He shares with you. Take in a fresh batch of seeds from His heart to yours. Allow His seeds to become deeply rooted, water them with His flow of life into yours, and see the fruit grow to maturity. You can be fruitful and multiply, bearing good fruit for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom.

As the Apostle Peter said so well,

Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. For, All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was preached to you. (1Peter 1:22-25 NASB)

CHAPTER 3

Wendy

My people are being destroyed from a lack of knowledge. (Hosea 4:6a King James Version)

T his is the true story of a friend of mine who I am going to call Wendy. It was an early Monday morning when Wendy’s husband contacted the authorities to report his wife was missing. Shortly after, a friend found Wendy’s coat at the end of a bridge in town, and a hole was soon spotted in the ice-covered river directly below the bridge. Two days later, fears were confirmed when a police officer found Wendy’s body a few hundred yards downriver.

The week before she jumped off the bridge, she had waded into that same icy river but had been talked out of the water by a passing motorist. Wendy had many friends in the community who were concerned for her. Everyone I knew who knew Wendy seemed to love her, but no one seemed to know how to help her, including me. I had believed real help was on the way, but it came too late. This is not okay. This kind of thing seems to happen way too often and we need to do something about it. I know we can do better.

Wendy married one of my best friends; I’d known her for over 20 years. She was a 44-year-old wife, mother, and Christian with a long history of Bipolar Disorder. Having a diagnosis and being prescribed a handful of meds to take regularly didn’t fix anything; it only allowed her to have something of a manageable day-to-day life. She was one of those rare, special people who had a very tender heart. It was obvious Wendy loved and deeply respected her husband. She fiercely loved each of her six children. She tenderly loved God. I’ll always remember her as a sweet person who loved her family.

I had called Wendy the previous Thursday afternoon hoping to talk to both Wendy and her husband together; however, he had stepped out. I brought to her attention how she was embracing a stream of thoughts coming from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—the tree of death, right and wrong, the reasoning tree. I asked her if she could, please, just feed from the tree of life until we got back Sunday night.

I wasn’t even sure if she knew what I meant but I didn’t know what else to tell her. Then we talked about my wife and I meeting with her every day for two weeks to give her a different spiritual diet, and Wendy agreed. But when I asked her if she could avoid reasoning things in her life just for a few days, she replied, No, I don’t think so. I was alarmed by her answer, but just told her we’d see her on Monday. That was the last time we spoke.

For up to a year before Wendy’s suicide and especially in the later months she kept saying she was the antichrist, and she truly believed it. From my conversations with Wendy, I know she saw herself as a potentially destructive agent. It terrified her to think she might do something to hurt God, her family, or her friends. I knew Wendy failed to see the natural was driven by the spiritual. She was only thinking in two dimensions.

Our ability to govern our lives is sabotaged if our ability to judge is diminished, and it affects every process of life. Wendy’s internal government, most importantly her judicial branch (ability to judge), had been weakened so much it was virtually non-existent. Because she couldn’t judge life and death in the seeds of thought coming her way, her behavior was driven by emotion and not truth or wisdom. I believe Wendy’s ability to judge had been diminished largely because she had been told by both Christians and non-Christians not to judge. Her thinking process had been seduced by the enemy without her even knowing it. This is not okay.

There are things keeping us from seeing clearly so we can help someone like Wendy, and there are things people embrace in their thinking leaving them vulnerable to seducing spirits. Wendy was unaware accusing thoughts—even if technically correct—never, ever come from God. Accusations always come from our enemy. Since she believed she was the source of all her thoughts, she blamed herself for every right and wrong thought and took responsibility. She equated truth with being right. She did not see herself as God saw her. She was limited to hearing and believing whatever came to her without seeing the bigger picture. She had no idea the demonic thoughts—the fruit of death—was destroying her.

I believe all Wendy could see in front of her was bad, all bad. She saw herself as a bad person with no hope for change. Wendy had so much bird poop and bug splatter on her windshield she couldn’t see clearly. There was an increasing, irreconcilable separation between who she was in her heart and what was happening in her mind. Her emotions eventually became stronger than any understanding or wisdom she could muster. Because of those things, she was driven to suicide.

I was coming into an understanding of how important it is for all of us to know the source of our thoughts. Jesus didn’t come to condemn. Rather, He came so we might have life, and have it more abundantly.¹ It is Satan, by nature and by name, who is the accuser of the brethren,² not Jesus. There should be no place for Satan’s thinking in our lives. Misconceptions about the nature of God can hurt us. Not knowing the right way to think also hurts us and those around us.

A question I have been asked is, Did Wendy go to heaven? I know without a doubt she is with Jesus. She was not of sound mind to have changed the covenant contract she had entered into when she received Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Wendy sincerely, but mistakenly, believed she was doing God a favor and saving those she loved by ending her life. That was not okay, but being with Jesus is.

Earlier in my life, I also thought in only two dimensions. I thought if I just read the Scriptures and prayed for understanding then my thoughts would be right. I had read if you destroy the temple of God—which we all are—then you, rightfully, would be destroyed. If someone had asked me back then if Wendy would have gone to heaven after committing suicide, I may have said no. Back then, I believed being right was the most important thing. I’ve since learned the truth is far more important