Archive for the ‘disciples life’ Category

Let Us Honour God’s Holy spirit (Protection Against Deception)

Posted: November 12, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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This is a first in a series of three messages. In this, No. 1, I’ll seek to analyze a problem that has arisen in many sections of the church and in many parts of the world. In the next message I’ll seek to analyze how the problem arose. And in the third message I’ll consider ways to guard against that problem arising again. The title of this first message is Let Us Honor God’s Holy Spirit.

There has been in recent years a worldwide explosion of signs and wonders. Some have been biblical and helpful.

Others have been bizarre and unbiblical. Signs and wonders are not new. They are recorded in various passage of the Bible, and in different periods of church history. However, the current explosion extends more widely than any other particular church or denomination, and has attracted worldwide attention in both the religious and the secular media. I want to make it plain that I have no personal prejudice or anxiety concerning unusual manifestations. In actual fact, I have in my own lifetime experienced quite a number of them. They do not frighten me. I’m not negative about them.

As I recorded in my booklet Uproar In The Church, my own personal encounter with Jesus in World War II began in a very unconventional way. In the middle of the night in the barrack room of the British Army, I spent more than an hour on my back on the floor with my body first racked by convulsive sobs, and then filled with a river of laughter which grew continually louder. Next morning I found myself a completely different person. Changed, not by any act of my will, but by yielding to the supernatural power that had flowed through me.

I then looked up various passages in the Bible that speak about laughter. To my surprise I discovered that, for God’s people, laughter is not primarily, as we imagine, a reaction to something comical, but rather an expression of triumph over our enemies. In Psalm 2:4 David actually depicts God, Himself, as laughing.

He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;

The LORD shall hold them in derision.

Here God’s laughter is not a reaction to some comedy that is being enacted on earth. Rather it is His response to the ridiculous human midgets who have the effrontery to oppose His purposes. It is His expression of triumph over all the forces of evil. Sometimes God fills us with His own laughter, that we may share in His triumph over those who are both His enemies and ours.

Later I pastored a fellowship in London that met on the top floor of a five-story building. One evening a lame man was miraculously healed and threw away his crutches. We all burst into spontaneous praise. At that moment the building began to tremble and shake with the power of God. The praise and the shaking continued for about 30 minutes. I realized that something similar was recorded of the early church in Acts 4:31.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

At that particular time our fellowship was conducting several evangelistic meetings each week in the streets of London, and we certainly needed more than natural boldness.
But with regard to any kind of manifestation there are two questions that I always want to ask:

Is it a manifestation of the Holy Spirit of God, or is it a manifestation of some other source?
And this is related to it, is the manifestation in question in harmony with scripture?

In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul says:
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God . . .

In other words, the Holy Spirit is the author of all Scripture, and He never says or does anything to contradict Himself. Every genuine manifestation of the Holy Spirit will in some way harmonize with Scripture.

Now I want to begin with some warnings of Jesus, particularly related to the End-time period in which I believe we are living. These are warnings against deception.

They are found in Matthew chapter 24, verses 4, 5, 11 and 24. In other words, four times in 21 verses, Jesus specifically warns us against deception in this period of the close of the age. The first thing Jesus said about the events leading up to His return in Matthew 24:4:

“. . . Take heed that no one deceives you. (5) For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ [the Messiah] and will deceive many. (11) Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. (24) For false christs [false Messiahs] and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.”

So Jesus warns us four times against deception. Anybody who shrugs off that warning or treats it lightly, does so at the risk of his own soul.

The greatest single danger in this End-time is not sickness, nor poverty, nor persecution. It is deception. If anybody says, “It could never happen to me!” it has already happened to that person, because that person is saying something could never happen that Jesus said would happen. That is a sufficient indication that such a person is deceived.

Next I want to say something important about signs and wonders. They do not determine truth. It’s very essential to understand that. Signs and wonders do not determine truth.

Truth is already determined and established, and it is the word of God. In John 17:17 Jesus is praying to the Father and He says, “. . . Your word is truth.”
In Psalm 119:89 the Psalmist says,
Forever, O, LORD,
Your word is settled in heaven.

Nothing that happens on earth can ever change the smallest little sign or letter of the word of God. It is forever settled in heaven.

Now the Bible speaks about signs and wonders. It says some things about them that are good and some that are very frightening. I want to turn to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and read a few verses there, beginning at verse 9—2 Thessalonians 2:9–12.

The coming of the lawless one [that’s the title of the anti-christ] is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

So Paul says here that there are such things as lying signs and wonders. There are true signs and there are lying signs. True signs attest the truth. Lying sign attest lies. Satan is fully capable of supernatural signs and wonders.

Unfortunately, many in the Charismatic movement had the attitude that if something is supernatural it must be from God. There is no scriptural basis for that assumption. Satan is perfectly capable of producing powerful signs and wonders to attest his lies. And the reason such people are deceived is because they did not receive the love of the truth. On such people, God will send strong delusion.

That’s one of the most frightening statements in the Bible. If God sends you strong delusion, you will be deluded. I think that is one of the most severe judgments of God recorded in Scripture, sending these people strong delusion. They will be condemned, these people, because they did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Therefore, signs and wonders are not a guarantee that something is the truth. There is only one sure way to know the truth—it is the word of God. Jesus said in John 8:32:
“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

There is no other way to be sure that we can escape deception in these days except that we know and apply the truth of God’s word, the Scripture.

In 1994 for the first time, I was brought into fairly direct contact with one of the groups where these manifestations were occurring. A group of leaders went to some of their meetings, and returned all excited saying that they had experienced something wonderful, and we all needed to experience it. They said, “Now you don’t test it. You don’t try it out. You don’t examine it. You just open up to it and receive it.”

That was the first time that I really began to be suspicious of some of these things. Such a statement is directly contrary to Scripture. In 1 Thessalonians 5:21, Paul says to Christians:

Test all things; hold fast what is good.

So if we do not test things we are disobeying Scripture. Anybody who tells us not to test things is, himself, not in harmony with Scripture. Our hearts cannot be relied upon to give us the truth. Proverbs 28:26 says:
He who trusts in his own heart is a fool . . .

So don’t be a fool. Do not trust your own heart. Do not rely upon what your heart tells you, because it is not reliable.
Again, Jeremiah 17:9 the prophet says:
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;

Who can know it?”

The word “deceitful” in the Hebrew is a very interesting word. In 1946 I was attending the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as a guest student, studying the nature or the law of the Hebrew language. I was listening to the head professor in this field at that time, talking about this verse, Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things.” He gave reason which I cannot carry over from Hebrew to show that this form of the word “deceitful” is active, not passive. It doesn’t mean that your heart is deceived—it means that your heart deceives you, so you cannot trust your own heart.

The professor gave a very vivid picture of what it means to find out the truth about your own heart. He said, “It’s like someone peeling an onion. You peel off skin after skin, but you never know when you’ve reached the last skin. And all the time your eyes are watering.” So that has remained with me now for fifty years. Such a vivid scriptural warning against relying on my own heart to tell me the truth. There is only one source of truth and that is the Scripture.

Now, I would like to give briefly my summation of this whole phenomenon, or movement, or whatever you want to call it.

Based partly on personal observation and partly on what I believe to be reliable reports.

My summation is very simple, it’s a mixture of spirits—both the Holy Spirit and unholy spirits. They are mixed together. In Leviticus 19:19 God warns us against mixture. He is opposed to mixture. God says this:

“‘You shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you.’”

So, God warns against three things—breeding mixed livestock, sowing with mixed seed, and wearing a mixed garment. We could say that sowing with mixed seed represents the message that we bring when it is partly truth and partly error.

Wearing a mixed garment would be like a lifestyle that is partly scriptural and partly of this world. Letting livestock breed with livestock of an incompatible kind would be equivalent to a Christian ministry or group aligning itself with a group or ministry that is non-Christian.

It’s an interesting thing about such breeding—its product is always sterile. For instance you can mate a horse with a donkey, and the product is a mule. But a mule is always sterile. It cannot reproduce. I think that’s one reason why there are so many sterile operations in Christendom. They are being bred with the wrong mate.

I’ve observed this carefully and I’ve had grievous experience of this condition of a mixture of spirits. I find that it is something which the Scripture warns us against.

For instance, there is a character in the Bible, King Saul, who had a mixture of spirits. At one time he prophesied in the Holy Spirit, at another time he prophesied in a demon.

His career is really a warning. He was a king who ruled for forty years. He was a successful military commander. He had a lot of successes, but mixture was his undoing, and his life closed with tragedy. On the last night of his life he went to consult a witch. The next day he committed suicide on the battle field. Surely that offers no encouragement to any of us to cultivate any kind of spiritual mixture in our lives.

I’ve observed that a result of mixture is two things; first of all confusion, and then division. For instance, we have this mixed message; part of which is true, part is which is false. People can respond in two ways:

Some will see the good and focus on it, and therefore accept the bad; some will focus on the bad, and therefore reject the good. In either case it does not accomplish God’s purposes.

Once upon a time I was a pastor, a long time ago, but I remember that the most difficult kind of people to deal with were people who were a mixture. I’ll give you a little imaginary example. We have Sister Jones in our congregation.

One Sunday she gives a beautiful prophetic message, and everyone is uplifted and excited. But two Sundays later she stands up and gives a revelation which she had in a dream.

The further she goes with this revelation, the more confused and confusing it becomes. Eventually, as pastor, I have to say to her, “Sister Jones, I thank you, but I really don’t believe that is from the Lord.” And she sits down.
But that is not the end.

After the meeting Sister White comes to me and says, “Brother Prince, how could you talk to Sister Jones like that? Don’t you remember that beautiful prophecy she gave two Sundays ago?” And when Sister White is gone Brother Black comes to me and he says, “If that’s the kind of revelation she has, I won’t listen to any more of her prophecies.”

So you see what we have? Confusion. And out of confusion, division. I believe that’s exactly what is happening in the church. Confusion resulting in division. Certainly there is tremendous division. I believe confusion will always produce division.

The Bible gives us no liberty to tolerate the incursion if evil into the church. We are not to be passive, we are not to be neutral. Proverbs 8:13 says:
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil . . .

It is sinful to compromise with evil. It is sinful to be neutral toward evil.

In John 10:10 Jesus spoke about the thief, the devil, who comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. We always need to remember whether it is an individual life or in a congregation, the devil only comes with three objectives—to steal, to kill, and to destroy.

I can remember many times I’ve been speaking with a person who needed deliverance from an evil spirit. I’ve said to that person, “Remember, the devil has three reasons for being in your life—to steal, to kill, and to destroy. You need to take a stand against him. Not be neutral. You must drive him out.” What is true of an individual is true of a congregation. It is true for the body of Christ worldwide.

Some of these unusual manifestations have been compared with unusual manifestations that accompany the ministry of John Wesley, George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, and Charles Finney. Undoubtedly there were unusual manifestations in the ministries of those four men, and I’ve studied some of them myself. But I think the differences are greater than the similarities with the present situation.

Let me point out to you three differences. First of all, all those men majored on the strong preaching of God’s word.

They hardly did anything until they had preached the word of God, or apart from preaching the word of God. Finney himself commented somewhere about his ministry. “I usually spoke an hour or two.” I don’t know how many contemporary Christians in the West would listen to a two hour sermon. But Finney gave the word in its purity and in its power.

Second difference—all those men made a strong call for repentance. That was their primary demand on the people to whom they ministered. Some people call what we are seeing today a refreshing, but in Acts 3:19 Peter says that refreshing must be preceded by repentance. Any refreshing that bypasses repentance is not scriptural.

The third difference is that in the ministry of those men, there is no record, so far as I know, that any of them laid hands on people. I’m not saying that it is unscriptural to lay hands on people, but there is a difference. There is a situation in which people received directly for themselves from the preached word, and another situation in which the people had hands laid on them by others.

If I could take a simple example. It’s like rain. If you’re out in the open and the rain falls upon you, you’ve received your rain direct from heaven. But, on the other hand, if rain is caught and stored in some kind of a cistern, then you are not receiving that rain direct from heaven. You have to take into account the cistern and the pipes through which you receive the rain.

This is very vivid for me, because my first wife, Lydia, and I lived in Kenya for five years in a house where our water came from rain caught on the roof and channeled into concrete cisterns. Although the water came from heaven, we quickly learned by experience that if it stayed for any length of time in the cistern, worms developed in it, and consequently we always had to boil our drinking water. There was nothing wrong with the rain as it came down, but something happened in the channel through which the rain came to us, and it was no longer pure.

I think this can be true of laying on of hands. It is a channel which is not always pure. Recently some ministers have moved from actually laying on hands to some other action of the hands, such as waving or pointing. However, this does not change the fact that something is being transmitted through the hands, otherwise there is no reason to use the hands at all. The important question, therefore, still remains—are those hands pure channels through which only the Holy Spirit can flow?

For instance, Ruth and I were in a meeting fairly recently where ministers deeply involved in the current move were speaking. We were sitting about two rows behind a woman who was having a terrible experience. She was like somebody continually trying to burp or trying to vomit, and she just went on and on and on. Eventually I said to Ruth, “I think we ought to try to help her.” So although, it was not a meeting for which we were responsible, we went over quietly and started to talk to her. We discovered very quickly that she was speaking in a tongue, but for both of us it was evident that it was a false tongue—it was not a Holy Spirit tongue. We challenged her to confess that Jesus is Lord and she was not willing or able to say that. So I conclude that she had a false spirit.

Later on the people who were with her came over and talked to us, and asked us what they should do about it. I asked them, “How did it happen?” They said, “Well, she went to a church that’s involved in this move and somebody laid hands on her, and this is the way she has been since then. But,” they said, “she’s convinced it’s from God. We can’t help her.” That’s just an example of rain that came through a cistern that was not pure.

Also, in the present move there is a great deal of emphasis on love. I agree that love is the greatest thing. But the trouble is that people are not always clear about the nature of love as it is described in the New Testament. First of all, love in us is expressed in obedience to the Lord. Any kind of love that does not result in obedience is unscriptural love. In John 14:15 Jesus said to His disciples:
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Or in a perhaps better text, “. . . you will keep my commandments.” In other words, what is the evidence that you love Him? The evidence is keeping His commandments. Then in verse 21, the first part, Jesus says:

“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me . . .”

And in 1 John 5:3 it says:

“For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments . . .”

Therefore, any kind of love that does not result in the obedience to the will of God revealed in His word, it is not scriptural love. It’s a counterfeit, a substitute for the real thing.

Then we need to consider the way that God expresses His love toward us. True, God is our Father and He loves us. But as a Father, if necessary, He is prepared to discipline us. In the messages to the seven churches depicted in Revelation, I would say that Laodicea is probably the one that corresponds most closely to the contemporary church in the West. And to that church the Lord said:

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.”

So God’s love is not sloppy. It’s not sentimental. It is right down to earth. If we are straying from His ways and if we are disobedient, His love is expressed in rebuking us and chastening us, and He commands us to repent. Once again we have the problem of trying to get what God promises, but bypassing the basic condition of repentance which is a deception.

I recently read the following comment by a British Bible teacher. “Some Christians take the text “God is love” and turn it around to mean “Love is God.” In other words, nothing can be wrong if it is rooted in love.

However, any love that comes between us and God is an illegitimate love. Likewise, any love that diverts us from obedience to God’s word is illegitimate.

In all of this that we are speaking about, this worldwide phenomenon, I believe there is one central underlying issue which is often obscured. In fact, very seldom do we really come to grips with this issue. This issue is the identity of the Holy Spirit. How do we recognize the Holy Spirit? How do we know what the Holy Spirit is like? How do we distinguish the Holy Spirit from other spirits?

I read a statement recently by some “New Ager” in which she said about the New Age, “When the Holy Spirit comes, then the New Age will be here.” Of course I’m sure most of you would understand that when she talks about the Holy Spirit, she is not talking about the same Holy Spirit that the Bible speaks about.

This is one of various indications that there is a counterfeit Holy Spirit. It’s nothing new for Satan to produce a religious counterfeit. Since the time of Jesus, history records a whole series of counterfeit messiahs who have risen among the Jewish people. All of them had a following. Some like Shabbetai Zvi had a widespread and enduring influence. The latest of them died in 1994.

Another religious counterfeit is the being titled “The
Blessed Virgin Mary.” With all the claims that have been made for her and all the titles that have been ascribed to her, she bear no resemblance to the humble Jewish maiden who became the mother of Jesus and later of His brothers and sisters. Yet over the centuries this counterfeit has claimed the devotion of millions of sincere Christians. We need to be on our guard, therefore, that we do not entertain a counterfeit Holy Spirit.

I want to suggest to you three ways to identify the Holy Spirit, to recognize who the Holy Spirit is. The first way I refer to in my little booklet Uproar In The Church, which I wrote about two years. I’ll just quote a few paragraphs.

Another danger that threatens those who minister in the supernatural realm is the temptation to use spiritual gifts to manipulate or exploit or dominate people. At one period in my ministry I found myself casting spirits of witchcraft out of church-going people. Eventually I asked the Lord to show me the true nature of witchcraft. I believe the Lord gave me the following definition: Witchcraft is the attempt to control people and get them to do what you want by the use of any spirit that is not the Holy Spirit.

After I digested this, the Lord added, “And if anyone has a spirit that he can use, it is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God and no one uses God.”

That is very important. The Holy Spirit is God and no one uses God.

Then I went on to say in the booklet:
Today I tremble inwardly when I see or hear of a person who claims that he has spiritual gifts which he is free to use just as he pleases. It is surely no accident that some of those who have made such claims have ended in serious doctrinal error.

It’s important to see that there is a difference between the Holy Spirit Himself as a person, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In Romans 11:29 Paul tells us that the gifts of God are irrevocable. In other words, once God has given us a gift He never takes it back. We are free to use it, not to use, or to misuse. But even if we misuse it, God does not take it back. Otherwise it would not be a genuine gift. It would only be a conditional loan.

It is a fact that people do misuse the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Paul provides a clear example in 1 Corinthians 13:1:
Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.

Obviously the Holy Spirit Himself does not become a clanging cymbal. But the gift of speaking in tongues, when misused, can become an empty, discordant noise. Unfortunately this often happens in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles. I believe it is possible to misuse other spiritual gifts, such as a word of knowledge or a gift of healing.

This can happen when a person uses a spiritual gift to achieve a result or promote a movement which is not in harmony with the will of God. One obvious misuse would be for personal. In such a situation our safeguard is to be able to recognize the Holy Spirit as a Person and to distinguish between Him and His gifts. This then is the first and most important fact about the Holy Spirit—He is God, and we knew to relate to Him and treat Him always as God.

The second fact about the Holy Spirit is that He is the servant of God the Father and God the Son. This is an exciting revelation because it gives such a high value to servanthood. Many people today despise the idea of being a servant. They feel it is demeaning and undignified to be a servant. But I think it’s wonderful that servanthood did not begin on earth. It began in eternity and it began in God. God the Holy Spirit, is the servant of the Father and the Son.

This does not demean Him or make Him less than God, but it is a fact that we have to recognize about Him which directs His activities and the things He does.

In John 16:13–14 Jesus gives us a glimpse of the Holy Spirit’s ministry and activity.

“However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, [literally speak from Himself] but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.”

So we see the Holy Spirit does not speak from Himself. He has no message of His own. Isn’t that remarkable. He only reports to us what He is hearing from the Father and the Son. Secondly His aim is not to glorify Himself nor to attract attention to Himself, but always He glorifies and focuses attention on Jesus. That is the second important way to identify the Holy Spirit.

Now I want you to listen to this carefully because it is revolutionary. Any spirit that focuses on the Holy Spirit and glorifies the Holy Spirit is not the Holy Spirit. It is contrary to His whole nature and purpose. Once you’ve grasped that it will open your eyes to many things which are going on in the church that are otherwise difficult to understand.

For example, we have a very beautiful chorus that we sing about the Father, the Son and the Spirit. The first verse says to the Father, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.” The second verse says to Jesus, the Son, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.” The third verse says to the Spirit, “Glorify Thy name in all the earth.” I love to sing the first two verses, but I decline to sing the third verse because I don’t believe it is scriptural. The Holy Spirit never does glorify His own name. His purpose is to glorify the One who sent Him.

Let me make another statement which may surprise you. I have not found in the Scripture anywhere an example of a prayer addressed to the Holy Spirit.

So far as I can understand, no one in the Scripture ever prayed to the Holy Spirit. You probably would do well to check that for yourself. But I have looked carefully and have not found one example. You might ask, “Why not?” And I would give you this answer. It’s a question of heavenly protocol. There’s so little respect now days for protocol on earth that we sometimes don’t realize that there is protocol in heaven. It is protocol relating to a master-servant relationship. In such a relationship when you are dealing with a servant, you do not speak to the servant but to the master. You ask the master to tell his servant what to do.

It is wrong to directly address a servant when the master is available for you to speak to. I believe that is heaven’s protocol. When you recognize the relationship of the Holy Spirit to God the Father and God the Son, you understand that we never give orders to the Holy Spirit. When we want the Holy Spirit to do something we address our request to the Father or to the Son.

When I was looking through this I found a passage in Ezekiel 37 which I thought at first was an exception. It’s part of Ezekiel’s well known vision of the valley full of dry bones with no life in them. First of all he prophesied and the bones came together, but they were still lifeless corpses.

Then in verses 9 and 10 it says,
Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army.

So I thought that the breath is really a picture of the wind or the Holy Spirit. And so Ezekiel was praying to the wind. But he was not praying. He was prophesying and it did not come from himself. He merely passed on to the wind a command that he had received from God Himself. Therefore, as far as

I have been able to discover, there is not a single example anywhere in the Scripture of praying to the Holy Spirit.

Now I am not seeking to make a big issue out of that. On the other hand, I think it is very important as we try to discern the nature and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. You would say to me, “Well, doesn’t God hear our prayer when we pray to the Holy Spirit?” I think He does, but we are not praying in full accord with heaven’s protocol. If we really want to please the Lord and show respect for Him, we will show respect for His protocol.

The third important fact about the Holy Spirit is what is indicated in His name. He is holy. This is His primary title, the Holy Spirit. In Hebrew it is “the Spirit of holiness.” He has many other titles, for instance; the Spirit of grace, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of power, and so on. But they are all subsidiary. His name and His primary title is the Holy Spirit. Anything that is unholy does not proceed from the Holy Spirit.

The Scripture also speaks of the beauty of holiness. There is a beauty in holiness when it proceeds from the Holy Spirit. It’s not necessarily external. It may be internal beauty. For instance in 1 Peter 3:4, Peter speaks about “the hidden person of the heart,” and he speaks about “the adornment of a meek and quiet spirit,” which in the sight of God is of great price. This is not external beauty. It is internal beauty which comes from the Holy Spirit.

I want to say, however, with the utmost emphasis, anything unholy or ugly does not proceed from the Holy Spirit. I’ll give you a list of twelve adjectives, all of which I believe cannot be applied to the Holy Spirit or to anything that is the product of the Holy Spirit. As I go through the list I suggest you check mentally and see if you agree with me.

Here then are the words that would never apply to the Holy Spirit.
Self-Exalting Insensitive
Self-Assertive Stupid
Vulgar Silly
Rude Flippant
Sham Degraded
Indecent Degrading

I’ll repeat that list just once more, and as I repeat the list just see if you agree with me. These are twelve adjectives, or twelve words that would never apply to the Holy Spirit or to anything that proceeds from the Holy Spirit. Here are the words; self-exalting, self-assertive, vulgar, rude, sham, indecent, insensitive, stupid, silly, flippant, degraded, and degrading.

I have in my heart if God wills and I live, to write a book at sometime of which I have already chosen the title. The title is this, Holiness Is Not Optional. Only God knows whether I will ever succeed in writing the book, but I want to say in any case, that the title states the exact truth.

In the Christian life holiness is not optional. Many Christians seem to think about holiness as if it is like something added to a car, such as fancy leather upholstery instead of the normal kind of plastic. But that is not true. Holiness is an essential part of salvation. In Hebrews 12:14 the writer says,

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:

What salvation do we have that does not bring us to see the Lord? But without holiness, no one will see the Lord.
We have in our contemporary Christianity a very incomplete picture of salvation. If I get saved and born again, and then I want to go on and be holy, I can do it, but it’s an option. I want to tell you that your salvation depends on your being holy, and holiness comes only from the Holy Spirit. There are many features of purported moves of the Holy Spirit that I could pick out and hold up as examples of things that are not holy, but I will only deal with one.

That is animal behavior in human beings attributed to the Holy Spirit. There are many such examples. Some I have witnessed and some have been reported.

First of all, there is no passage in Scripture that I know of where the Holy Spirit causes any human being to behave like an animal. There is the example of Balaam, but that is in strong contrast. God caused Balaam’s donkey to speak like a man, but he never caused Balaam to bray like a donkey.

There was one man whom God caused to behave like an animal—King Nebuchadnezzar. It says in Daniel 4:33,
. . . he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.

God certainly caused Nebuchadnezzar to behave like an animal. But that was God’s judgment, not His blessing.

Revelation 4:6–8 depicts four living creatures that surround the throne of God. They are there as representatives of what we might call the animal kingdom; a lion, a calf, and an eagle. But none of them make noises that express their animal nature. All of them alike proclaim the holiness of God in pure and beautiful speech. It is important to understand that there is an order in God’s creation. Man was created in the image and likeness of God to exercise authority over the animal kingdom. You can see that in Genesis 1:26.

Man is, in fact, the highest order of the creation described in the opening chapters of Genesis. This has a bearing on the way the Holy Spirit blesses us. He uplifts those whom He blesses. He will at times cause an animal to act in some ways like a human being, but He will never degrade a human being by causing him to act like an animal.

I have a certain amount of experience in this area because I’ve encountered animal spirits many times in Africa. I recall one particular deliverance service that I held in Zambia with about seven thousand Africans present. When I had finished the teaching and began to command the evil spirits to manifest themselves and come out of the people, there were all sorts of animal spirits that were let loose.

By animal spirits I mean evil demonic spirits that enter human beings and cause them to behave like animals.

The first thing that happened was that a man with a lion spirit tried to charge me, but someone tripped him up and he did not reach me. You need to know that the reason that Africans in this part of Africa have so many animal spirits, is because many of them are hunters of animals. They have this superstition that in order to hunt an animal successfully you have to get the spirit of the animal in you. So a man tends to have the spirit of the animal which he seeks to hunt. For instance the man who is hunting a lion will get a lion spirit. There are many others.

We dealt with spirits of wild boars that caused people to burrow in the earth with their noses like a wild boar rooting for something. Then there were many snake spirits.

These were mainly in women, and when they were manifested the women were flat on their bellies, slithering around like snakes. All these I actually witnessed myself. There was one other spirit that I did not witness, but I heard about from the missionary couple who organized the meeting. Later I met the lady concerned. She was a very sweet Christian lady, a school teacher, but her husband was an elephant hunter.

When she came to the missionary couple for deliverance, they commanded the elephant spirit to come out. Immediately she dropped on her hands and knees, crawled out through an open door, put her forehead up against a small tree, and began to try to push it down. Wasn’t that remarkable? Perhaps some well meaning Western Christian might have said, “Our sister is pushing a tree down for Jesus.” But that was not the explanation. The elephant spirit in her was causing her to do what elephants regularly do which is push down trees with their foreheads. As soon as she was delivered from that spirit she no longer had any urge to push down trees with her forehead.

In the West we sometimes tend to speak about the people in Africa as unsophisticated and to consider ourselves more sophisticated. However, I think in this realm of animal spirits, it is we in the West who are unsophisticated and the Africans who are sophisticated. They’ve lived for generations with such spirits, but until the gospel came with the power of the name of Jesus and the word of God, they had no way to deal with them. Thank God that many of them now know how to deal with them.

Another example of which various reports have been given, is people behaving like dogs. I am a dog lover, but I think dogs should be kept in their rightful place. I do not believe that the Holy Spirit ever causes anybody to bark or to run around like a dog or to do the other things that dogs do.

Where such manifestations of animal spirits have occurred, there are certain steps that we need to take. We cannot tolerate or encourage such manifestations, nor can we merely sweep all this under the carpet and go on as if nothing had happened. In Matthew 12:33 Jesus instructs us,
“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.”

Wherever there is bad fruit, it comes from a bad tree. It is not enough to get rid of the bad fruit, we must also cut down the bad tree that produced it. If we fail to do this, the bad tree will go on producing more bad fruit.

Undoubtedly the tree that produces animal behavior of this kind is some form of occult of pagan practice. For instance there are frequent manifestations of animal behavior in some parts of Africa and India. To cut down the tree requires that the leaders responsible identify the problem, confess it as sin, and repent of it.

No where in the Bible is there any ground to suppose that God will forgive sins that we are not willing to confess. Somebody has said, “The confession must be as wide as the transgression.” If leaders have tolerated these things in the presence of their people, then in the presence of their people they need to confess it as a sin and cancel it. Otherwise, if the bad tree is not cut down it will go on producing bad fruit.

In closing I want to give a little parable of my own construction which is about my relationship with my wife. In this parable my wife represents the Holy Spirit, and I represent God. Now, please understand, this is a very simple little parable and I’m fully aware that the Holy Spirit is not the wife of God, but with these cautions let me relate the parable.

A friend comes to me and says, “I saw you and your wife together on the platform the other evening and she looked so beautiful, so fresh, so full of the Holy Spirit.” So I say, “Thank you. That’s really how she is.”

Then a little later the same man comes to me and says, “Do you know yesterday I saw your wife in a bar with a man drinking.” And I say, “That was not my wife. My wife is a pure and godly woman. She does not go to bars and she does not drink with strangers. My wife was right here with me all day yesterday. Don’t speak that way about my wife.”

But a little later he comes to me and says, “Do you know I saw your wife yesterday sunbathing topless on the beach.” Then I get really angry. I say to him, “My wife was nowhere near the beach yesterday and she would never expose herself like that. If you want to remain my friend, you’ve got to come to the place where you don’t identify that loose, immoral woman as my wife, because that’s an insult to her and to me. If you want to remain my friend, you’ve got to change the way you speak about my wife.”

The application, of course, is this. If you want to remain a friend of God, you cannot afford to identify the Holy Spirit as something that is loose, or immoral, or ugly, or unholy, because that angers God intensely.

Now we come to one final Scripture which is Matthew 12:31–32. Jesus says,
“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit [the Holy Spirit] will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

That is a very solemn and frightening warning. We are warned by Jesus to be very, very careful how we speak about the Holy Spirit, how we represent the Holy Spirit. Jesus uses the word “blasphemy” and I decided to look it up in my big Greek lexicon. The primary meaning of “to blaspheme” is given in the lexicon as this, “to speak lightly or amiss of sacred things.” So when you “speak lightly or amiss” concerning the Holy Spirit or misrepresent the character of the Holy Spirit by definition, you are close to blaspheming.

If you have ever done that, or are prone to do it, or been associated with those who do it, I want to offer you some sincere advice. You need to repent. You need to settle that matter once and for all with God, and never again be guilty of misrepresenting God’s Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is holy and He is God.

By, Derek Prince

How can those who claim to be the “Church” neglect the poor?

Posted: November 9, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching
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Proverbs 28:27
He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

As I read many such verses in the Word of God I am astonished at how those in the Church can neglect the very principals of God and His Word. I have heard some say – the poor are not our assignment. To which I say if you think your assignment is greater than the Lords, whose assignment are you playing out.

I am not saying that we all become a homeless ministry, open a food pantry ( actually the House of God should have a store house from which Gods people are feed in times of need) yet they must hear and obey the Lords command in regard to the poor.

I could care less if you are in the top 1% of the most requested Pastoral speakers, if you are neglecting the ministry to the poor, you are out of alignment with Gods Kingdom message.

You can go to churches across the land or turn on the TV to a Christian show and listen to all kinds of messages about God blessing His people, God is raising up Millionaires in our body, give here because God wants to increase your wealth. Yet when it comes to the poor, we are only hearing ” Well Jesus said the poor will always be with us”. Yes He did say that, but to twist it into such a perverse statement meaning we are not to minister to the poor, to give to the poor is way outside of what the Lord has truly taught us. Look at what God really says in this regard:

“There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in your land”. (Deuteronomy 15:11)

Many “churches” to day are more concerned about the building project than the poor in the community or for that matter the poor within their own congregation. They resemble what was spoken of in Ezek :

Ezekiel 16:49
” ‘Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

Instead of listening to the counsel of the Lord in His Word :

He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.(Jeremiah 22:16)

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward your poor brother.(Deuteronomy 15:7)

Then we have such ministries who refuse to give to the poor – or they will give a round the Holidays to make it look good. Then they wonder why their ministry is always in financial turmoil, or the members of their church or ministry are always under attack and struggling. Number one the people are failing to study the Word themselves and are living on the watered down opinionated version of Gods truth – a lacking of spiritual vitamins. Their leaders will tell the people, lets press through, this is only the enemy coming against us because we are invading his land, Half truths!

Never once taking in to consideration what the Father has decreed over those who take from the people, putting it into His Storehouse, yet spending it on their dreams and aspirations instead of feeding Gods people and those in our gates. Gods storehouse is for the needs of the people, for those going forth carrying the Kingdom Message not for building projects to leave monuments unto men.. In the days of old when the temple was a building made with hands, there was a portion set aside for the up keep, yet there was also a portion for those in need. In our day often times upto 90% of that which comes in goes to the building expense, not to the missionaries, not to the needy and surely not into the storehouse for Gods people.

Today anyone in need has to come begging for help and often times will be told, we have not set anything aside for such things. And again you wonder why you struggle, why the people are sick, depressed and oppressed. Look again what the Word has pronounced over you and this is not an Old Testament thing that passed away and is now covered by grace:

He who gives to the poor will lack nothing, but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.( Proverbs 28:27)

The poor are mentioned all through the Bible and not in a manner that calls us to turn our back on them:

Arise, LORD ! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. — Psalm 10:12

You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall.(Isaiah 25:4)

The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. (Acts 10:5)

“After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. (Acts 24:17)

For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem. (Romans 15:26)

As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” (2 Corinthians 9:9)

The storehouse of God is being robbed in our day and it is not only in reference to those who are not giving into it – it is also because the keepers are plundering the Storehouses and building empires, getting fat themselves with big houses and such and then hide behind such things as does not the Lord want His people to prosper? Yes He does, yet that which the Lord refers to in reference to prosperity and that which the world views as prosperity are two different views.

It is a plague upon the House of God in this and other Nations that is not un-noticed in Heaven – The Lord is in the process of a mighty house cleaning, He is emptying those things which have attracted dust and dirt, those things which have left a stain upon His Sons name. He is removing and replacing many the Gate -keepers and the guards watching the doors of His storehouse because they have sold-out to the world.

This is a place that the House of God in this Nation needs to repent for, because it has plundered the Store House of Billions of dollars in the recent decades and build up worldly processions while the whole time neglecting the treasures of Heaven. They have played the part of the harlot and God is removing the adulterous spirit from His house in our day.

In the Masters Service,

Russ W

Let us shread the garments of DEAD-RELIGION!

Posted: November 5, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Parents, teaching, wilderness
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You know – my beloved brothers. Then let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. Therefore, getting rid of all moral filth and the wickedness that is so abundant, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. And be doers of the word and not only hearers who deceive themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for he looked at himself and has gone away and immediately forgot what kind of man he was. But the man who looked carefully into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continued to do so, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the deed, this man will be blessed in his performing it. (James 1:19-25)

A characteristic common to all of us is the loss of our initial enthusiasm. This is because our sinful nature quickly tires of what we have in the present and desires what we do not have. So we lose the excitement we had at first. In other words, the novelty wears off.

All of us have seen the children’s excitement at Christmas. Their eyes light up when they see their gifts. They play with their new toys for hours at a time. But after a few days, or a week, the novelty wears off. They lose interest in those new toys, dolls, and games, which end up lying in a corner of the closet untouched, and desire something else.

We adults are no different. I once talked with a neighbor who told me that some years before he had purchased a new boat. The first year, he said, his family went to the lake nearly every week. The following year they used the boat only a few times. After that the boat sat in their back yard unused. He then sold it. What had happened to him and his family? Their initial enthusiasm wore off and they lost interest in the boat.

Something like this has probably happened to us as well. When we purchased a new car, or computer, or whatever it was, we were quite excited about it. After a time, however, the novelty wore off and we lost our initial interest in it.

Unless we are careful, such loss of interest and enthusiasm can carry over into our Christianity as well. The initial joy of the gospel and our love for Christ, who saved us and gave us eternal life, can wear off. The message of Christ and the promise of salvation can become “old hat.” We can slip into coming to church where we hear the good news of God’s grace in Christ and yawn, like someone who is bored, “So what else is new?” In time Christianity can become a mere outward habit of going to church. Christianity can become a matter of the head but the heart is not in it, as it was with the Jews, about whom the Lord said in Matthew 15:8: “THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR FROM ME.” This happened to the Christians in ancient Ephesus, to whom Christ wrote in Revelation 2:4, 5: “But I have against you that you have abandoned your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; but if not, I am coming to you and I will remove your lampstand out of its place – unless you repent.”

The Lord in his graciousness has opened our ears to hear and our eyes to see his gospel of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. This sermon text encourages us to continue in the faith to which we were brought and warns us against losing our commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ and his Word. We are encouraged: “Guard Against A Dead Christianity. Humbly Accept The Word Planted In You. Do What The Word Says.”

James wrote for our learning: “Let every person be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. For a man’s anger does not bring about the righteousness of God. Therefore, getting rid of all moral filth and the wickedness that is so abundant, humbly receive the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.”

Heeding this word of our Lord, let us put away the sin in our life and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ, which has been planted in our hearts for our salvation. Our Lord urges us to get rid of all the moral filth and evil that is so commonplace in the world around us: the greed; the drunkenness; the sexually explicit magazines and videos; the internet pornography; the filthy language; the immorality; the dishonesty and cheating; the squabbling and fighting; and whatever else might be mentioned. This text specifically mentions the sin of unwarranted anger and the loss of one’s temper. Such abusive anger and temper tantrums do not bring about the righteous life that God wants to see in us.

Frequently sinful anger flares up in our Christian homes over the least little things. Someone in the family says or does something that ignites a sharp response from another family member. A simple misunderstanding of what was said, or someone’s not listening closely to what was said, sets off a family squabble that escalates into the banging of pots in the kitchen sink and the slamming of doors that rattles the whole house. Someone’s bad day that has brought one frustration after another erupts like a fiery volcano into an unleashing of red-hot anger and burning wrath that spews ashen words over everyone and everything in the house. Even the dog runs for cover and cowers under a chair. Such heated anger and unleashed tempers do not bring about the righteous life we are supposed to live as the Lord’s redeemed children who are righteous by faith.

Surely no one enjoys having their home ripped apart by bitterness, arguments, and fights. These things happen, however, when anger gains the upper hand so that the family communication breaks down. Family communication cannot exist where, because of anger, no one is listening to anyone else, and everyone is interrupting everyone else, and everyone is jumping to conclusions before the other person can finish what he is saying, and everyone is talking and yelling and arguing at the same time. Such a situation is chaos, not communication.

Our Lord has the solution for preserving our family communication that will maintain the peace and harmony we desire in our homes and the righteousness our Lord desires in us. He says that we all should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger. We should be quick to listen, that is, quick to bite our tongues and say nothing, in order to hear the other person out. Rather than jump to conclusions and interrupt, we should hear what the other person has to say and think it through before responding. As the Lord says, we should be slow to speak. When we are slow to speak, we take the time to think through what we will say before we say it, rather than just blurt out whatever comes to mind. When we blurt out whatever comes to mind, we run off at the mouth before engaging our brain and put our foot in our mouth.

We know these things. If we would only remember to do them when we need to do them. But we don’t. Our sinful nature has a hair trigger. Before we realize it, we have already opened our mouths and added fuel to the fires of anger, fanning the simple misunderstanding or disagreement into a heated argument. Spiritually we are weak and impatient. Let’s repent of our sinful behavior and pray for the patience and self-control that will enable us to be quick to listen and slow to speak.

Being the sinners that we are, let’s humble ourselves before God and accept his Word, which has been planted in us, for it can save us. His saving Word tells us in 1 John 2:1, 2: “My little children, I write these things so that you may not sin. And if anyone should sin, we have one who pleads our case with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. And he is the reconciling sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the sins of the whole world.”

We have sinned. But Jesus Christ, who was without sin himself and who gave his innocent life into death as the price for our sins, now sits at the right hand of God pleading our case as our defense attorney. As our advocate and high priest he pleads, “Father, forgive them, for I fulfilled the law as their substitute and suffered the punishment of their sins. Forgive their sins for my sake and do not hold their sins against them.”

This gospel of Jesus’ paying for our sins and reconciling us to God has been planted in our hearts in the past. Do we believe it today as we did when we first heard it? Do we still rejoice in it now as we once did? Or, has the novelty worn off, so that now it is only a head knowledge that is not heart felt? Our Christianity has not become a dead Christianity, has it? Do we know what the Word says but we do not take it to heart by putting our trust in it and finding comfort in it? Let us guard ourselves against a dead Christianity by humbly believing the gospel of salvation that has been planted in us and then doing what the Word says.

We read here in the passage, that the Lord thru James is telling us: “And be doers of the word and not only hearers who deceive themselves.” We are not to merely listen to God’s Word, and in the process deceive ourselves by thinking that merely listening to God’s Word makes us the kind of Christian we should be. No, the Lord tells us to do what it says. Merely listening to the Word without taking it to heart and doing what it says profits us nothing. The devil himself has heard the Word and can even quote it. Yet it does him no good. Likewise, the Pharisees heard the Word Jesus preached, but it profited them nothing, for they did not do what it said, namely repent of their self-righteous ways and sinful pride and believe in Jesus to be saved. If like them, we merely listen to the Word but fail to do what it says, thinking that in itself is enough for a God-pleasing Christianity, we are deceiving ourselves.

God’s Word says: “For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, this one is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for he looked at himself and has gone away and immediately forgot what kind of man he was.” We probably looked at ourselves in a mirror today. When we walked away, we forgot about the image of ourselves to concentrate on something else. Let’s not allow our Christianity to become like our looking in a mirror. Let’s guard ourselves against hearing his Word one moment and forgetting it the next. Let’s be careful that our hearing the Word does not become like an air duct with God’s Word going in one ear and immediately out the other, at no time sinking down into our heart to take root there. Let us ask ourselves: “Do I love the Lord’s Word and do what it says as I first did,” or, “have I lost that initial attachment and commitment to it?”

The last verse says: “But the man who looked carefully into the perfect law, the law of freedom, and continued to do so, not having become a forgetful hearer but a doer of the deed, this man will be blessed in his performing it.” The law of God when we follow it by faith frees us from the devil’s temptations and sin to serve our Savior God in the righteous living that he desires. When we hear that Word, not forgetting it but actually doing it, we are blessed in what we do. The Lord’s blessing rests on us and we find blessedness in doing what the Lord says.

So beginning now let us look intently into the Word of God that gives us freedom. In doing so, we will be taking the path to preserve our living faith for our salvation and to guard ourselves against a dead Christianity. We will be humbly accepting the Word planted in us and then doing what it says. Amen.

The Deeper Life

Posted: November 3, 2011 in disciples life, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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“For many are called, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:14

In every generation there are a few rare individuals who break free from mediocrity and apathy. These trailblazers are hungry for God and yield their lives to follow hard after Him. They yearn for something deeper and more meaningful than just a surface relationship with the Savior.

We know from Scripture that “wide is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is the way that leads to life.” Hell’s highway is wide and broad with people standing shoulder to shoulder, unknowingly edging toward the very edge of the abyss. But there is also a narrow road that leads to life, and if you were to sit under a tree beside the road and watch you would notice that only every so often does anyone pass that way.

There is also within the body of Christ a broader path called “status quo.” Many believers are on this road, saved, with heaven as their final destination, but they fail to seek God’s highest or best for their lives. Along this path there is also a narrow gate that leads a few of us down a path far less traveled. On this path are many twists and turns with bumps and awkward places that require a leap of faith to continue. This is the road called “sacrifice.” It is a long walk down this unpopular and lonely road and few want to go there.

Satisfaction in His Presence

On the road called “status quo,” travelers are content with what they’ve always had. They are enamored by the “blessings” of God. They seek Him for what He can do for them and become spiritually satisfied with the gifts of His hands. They desire a life of ease, comfort, and simplicity. They avoid those who preach about “carrying a cross” or “denying self.” It is far easier to seek a popular, “feel good” message.

A rare few travel the path called “sacrifice” and are not content merely to follow the multitudes down a crowded highway. For these saints the only place of deep satisfaction is in His manifest presence, where they can actually touch His face and feel His heartbeat. They’re absolutely convinced that He is the only One worth pursuing! They have a kingdom mindset and see things in light of eternity rather than being consumed only by what they see and hear. They cry out with passion, “Jesus I want the deeper life found only in you.”

So what does it mean to live the deeper life? It means walking a road far less-traveled where consecration, holiness, humility, intimacy, devotion, and sacrifice are treasured–where its travelers would rather invest themselves in pleasing God than in pleasing man. It is a place where the Lord rules and reigns in their hearts and they realize that crowns aren’t simply given as souvenirs, but are earned. Where taking up the cross and following hard after God, though difficult, still brings deep contentment to the soul-and is its own reward. To them pleasing God means everything.

A life of sacrifice and devotion is a virtue, a sweet fragrance that actually scents the throne room and blesses the heart of God. To be perfectly frank, anything less leaves us all feeling empty and dissatisfied. It is not good enough to think ourselves devout because of the number of prayers we pray. If we go home from church and are arrogant and angry toward those we say we love we are only deceiving ourselves. Spiritual maturity must be more than just a desire or an intention–it must be walked out.

We often fill our lives with empty things and shallow pursuits gradually growing weaker and colder in our souls until we have finally had enough. At that point a hunger from deep within is born and we rise up and say, “I’m desperate for more of God!”

Seeking a Fresh Encounter

Why does it take so long to realize our desperate state and seek the cure? Because it’s tough to face the truth we often conceal, even from ourselves-that the old way just doesn’t cut it anymore. When the Holy Spirit shows us how weak and wayward we are, we are then humbled and can only cry out with deep hunger for a fresh encounter with the living God, and nothing else will do. In fact, we feel like we’ll die without it. It’s only at the place where we will settle for nothing less that we are truly ready to go deep with God.

But be warned. Going hard after God will offend others. It is inevitable–the moment you press into God, Christian friends will show up with “words of encouragement” that are actually ordained by the enemy, designed to quench your fire and stifle the deep hunger inside you. And make no mistake about it, if you act on their words they will lead you back through that narrow gate and onto same old wide way. Better to lose a friend than the miss out on the incredible treasures of the Spirit of God.

And while you may offend those close to you by going hard after God He is pleased and excited by the deep hunger in your heart. That’s why you must silence the conflicting voices around you, of both humans and spirits–that urge you to settle for less than God’s best. In order to go deep you must determine in your heart to march to the beat of a different drummer leaving others behind who are not willing to walk the road of sacrifice.

Are you determined enough to arrest God’s attention-to say you won’t let go until you’ve pressed in? Are you tired of standing on the sidelines, a mere spectator while the passionate pass you by? Get desperate enough today to press in. Cry out with all your heart, refusing to settle for anything less than God’s best. Get hungry for the deeper things of God, moving beyond the status quo to touch His very heart.

Surrendering to God

Going hard after God will mean loving God not just in word but also in deed. Sweet surrender is the first step to empowerment and the anointing that comes only when we refuse to settle for anything less than serving God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength. It is hard to convince our finite minds that carrying a cross can bring peace and contentment, but because it is by His strength that we accomplish anything, He gets the glory and we are filled up in the process.

He is the sweet master, and in order to please Him we need only adore Him on this narrow path, even without fully understanding it all. By walking the path of sacrifice we finally realize that we can never become mature without first dying to the old selfish lifestyles that demand more and are never satisfied. In dying to our old man we become that fully developed “new man” that God intended-something that could never happen otherwise. As we walk down the narrow path of sacrifice He accomplishes His grand design for our lives. We become reliant on Him and He frees us from self by revealing our weaknesses by the power of the Holy Spirit. An intense desperation is created by the emptiness we find in all earthly things, which hold little appeal at that point. We discover the doorway to the deeper life by first being discontent with a shallow, egocentric existence.

The natural man would love to go deep in Christ and his pure love at no cost, but it is only his excessive self-love and pride that acts so childish and demanding in the first place. And while God’s fatherly heart takes no joy in seeing us struggle He knows the road of sacrifice brings about steadfastness and meekness, purifying our motives and intentions to the point where we are worthy to feel His deepest heart cries and carry His message of love to a lost and dying world.

Take heart, precious friend, when bearing the cross down the narrow and winding road of sacrifice, as you anticipate the joy that comes with pressing in. As you go hard after God, let me encourage you. You have set out on a journey of divine proportions, determined to settle for nothing less than touching the very heart of God, and I guarantee that in that place is fullness of joy, where you will find that He is altogether lovely and everything you ever wanted.

Steve Porter

Investing Christ into This World

Posted: November 2, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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As natural fallen human beings, we have a very tiny window of perhaps 86 years through which to view only a microscopic speck of the vast existence of creation from its origin to its end of time. Only a micro portion of created history is visible from our tiny natural window. The wisdom of the ages past and future is not in view through our tiny window.

The knowledge of natural man is less than trivial in the scope of all that is and was and shall be. Even with serious study of stored historical data and our best future casting that is based upon our limited understanding of the past, we remain clueless of the reality of the spiritual kingdom of God.

Spirit to Spirit Enlightenment

In great contrast to our fallen natural state is the redeemed state of becoming one with God in Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit of God. The wisdom of the ages past and future is opened and available to redeemed man. As a son of God, our available light from our spiritual window comes from the fullness of God from eternity past to eternity future. There is no end to the potential of available light of heavenly wisdom, love, and power flowing from the open-heaven connection in the Spirit of Christ Jesus.

Connecting, becoming one with the life and light of heaven is for those who truly and completely love God � those who have become living sacrifices unto God. The beauty of holiness is measured out in our love from God and for God. The more love, the more holiness � the more holiness, the more access to the potential of heaven now on earth. Holiness does not produce love; love produces holiness.

To live and walk in the Spirit is to live and walk in love with God. The walk of faith begins and ends with walking in God�s love. All wisdom and power are available to those who believe (walk in faith) � those who live and walk in the Spirit � those who walk in love with God.

With God all things are possible. If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes. ~ Jesus

The living Spirit of Christ in us is the only source of heavenly love, holiness, faith, wisdom, and power. This powerful heavenly Christ-Life in us always leads to true humility of soul. There is a complete absence of pride and fear. Perfect love removes all fear and pride and replaces it with humble rest in righteousness, peace, and joy. To live and walk in the Spirit is to live and walk in love with God.

Localized Tribal Villages of Love

The Spirit of Christ in us will draw us together with others who also live and walk in the Spirit. As we connect and gather with others walking in the Spirit, the presence of the glory of God increases. A spiritual radiant glow of the light of the life and love of God emanates from the villages and shines among men (Mat 5:14-16).

Sadly, many people in the world today have witnessed a lot of religious mixtures and counterfeits. Many will be greatly encouraged by experiencing the true manifestation of Christ appearing in His people on earth. Evangelism will be easy as people are drawn to the light and will seek out those who are walking in the Spirit to help them find the way to the fullness of Christ and become living sacrifices to God.

God�s investment will produce the fruit of the kingdom of God on earth.

God has invested the life of Christ Jesus into His many sons. Our lives are to be invested into serving one another in kingdom villages that are, in turn, invested into the world to establish the love economy of the kingdom of God on earth. God has also invested special spiritual gifts and holy angels (ministering spirits) to help us to disciple people into the reality of the kingdom of God under the headship of Christ.

God�s investments will pay off. All will not be lost. His word will not return to Him void. His purpose will be accomplished. However, we have a vital part in whether or not we will be part of what God is doing. It is possible for us to waste the investment God has put in our hands. The greatest investment is the cross and the potential of the resurrected Christ in us by the Holy Spirit.

In my opinion, one of the most grievous sins is to rob God of the offering of our lives as a living sacrifice to Him � to steal from God by wasting or misusing our lives and the gifts that He has given. Using our lives and gifts for the god of self or any other god is to waste God�s provision and sacrifice our God-given kingdom potential to another god. To turn our backs to the potential of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit and turn to fulfilling the lust of our flesh with the things of this world or to a man-centered religion that denies the Spirit of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit is grievous spiritual harlotry.

Many Christian people today are beginning to see that they are not walking in the reality of the kingdom in the Holy Spirit. They are beginning to sense that there are some among them who are filled with the Spirit of Christ and living a humble life of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit that they do not have. They are recognizing that their lives currently consist in the self-fulfillment of satisfying natural desires for self aggrandizement and pleasure. Ultimately, though, they do religious things; their life is wasted in a form of godliness without the reality of the life of Christ manifest in them by the Holy Spirit.

In the increasingly difficult times of judgments in the very near future, there will become a greater contrast and separation between those who both live in and walk in the Spirit and those who do not. The kingdom of God is in the Holy Spirit. There is no kingdom of God outside the Holy Spirit. There is a major difference from having only the earnest or gurantee of the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the Holy Spirit by being submersed, saturated, and filled with the Spirit of God. The difference is like the difference in having a seed or experiencing the full fruit of that which was in the seed.

Gal 5:24-25: And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Rom 8:9: � Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

Rom 14:17: for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Mark 1:8: “I (John the Baptist) indeed baptized you with water, but He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

We do not worship the gifts or the process. We worship the Giver and use the gifts wisely according to the leadership of Christ in us by the Holy Spirit.

Those who receive and are baptized in the Holy Spirit are filled with the fullness of the Spirit of Christ and have the potential to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, to establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

The Sword of the Lord comes,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Faith, Rest and Peace in Frontier Kingdom Tribal Villages

Posted: October 27, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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The frontier of kingdom of heaven life on earth is like small villages linked together in a wilderness of hostile environment. Inside the tribal villages of kingdom people, there is unity, agreement, and a sense of loving connection and godly protection. The flow of the glory of God fills the villages.

The tribal villages become as shining lights in the midst of the darkness of godless existence that is filled with evil of every sort. Pain and suffering fill the darkness of despair. False glory of fallen human prideful intelligence builds kingdoms of self-worship and the human folly of lustful pleasure-seeking that leads to deep depravity. Wars, strife, and killing of the innocent become normalized among the depraved people.

Some of the people who are seated in the darkness look up and see the light of the glory of God upon the villages of the kingdom people and begin to walk toward the light (Isa 60). They are cleansed of their ways of darkness as they move through the light toward the brightness of the glory of God. The love of God flowing through the tribal people receives them and guides them into the kingdom of heaven way of life.

However, multitudes in the darkness hate the light and will not come toward it (John 3:20-21). They also do all they can to stop others from entering the light of the kingdom of God (Luke 11:52). Their desire is to destroy the villages of light, but God is the protector of the kingdom villages (Psa 230). Driven by spirits of darkness the people of darkness wait outside the light to viciously attack anyone entering or leaving the villages of light. Those who are leaving the darkness to enter the kingdom light must press through the demonized forces seeking to prevent them from entering the real kingdom of God on earth from heaven (Mat 11:12).

Inside the kingdom tribal villages, cooperation leads to peace and prosperity. God working with them and their cooperation with one another, rather than competing with each other, leads to high levels of production of all that is needed in the village. There is no competition in the kingdom of God. The pure love of God motivates every person to serve and provide for one another. Giving is the way of the kingdom. Taking is the way of the fallen world.

Inside the kingdom tribal villages, there is rest to the soul as the Spirit of God working in the human spirit receives the responsibility for the well being of the soul and body. Our souls are at rest as our entire lives are in the hands of the Spirit of God. The powerful grace of God in Christ Jesus within us empowers us to live godly lives in peace and joy.

In the tribal village lifestyle, faith (believing and trusting) becomes normal to our lives of resting in the Spirit of God within and around us. Faith becomes reality of experience, and there is no longer doubt or fear. There is no need of striving to do or to be. God plants His desires in us and then guides us into full wisdom and empowerment to fulfill His desire. Holy angels are sent to work with us to affect all creation with the life and works of Christ Jesus.

Frontier kingdom tribal villages are temporary. They are kingdom seed organisms planted on earth from heaven. As the extreme judgments of God cleanse the earth of all that lifts itself against God, the kingdom of God will spread across the entire world. The frontier villagers will spread to replenish the earth with God’s kingdom people. The glory of God shall fill the earth.

In this current season, frontier kingdom tribal villages are set apart and self contained living organisms of relational life. They are forerunner colonies of the kingdom of heaven on earth. The economy within the villages is love-based, and the medium of exchange is loving service. Everyone seeks to provide equally for themselves and the other people of the village. All of the people work together, each providing their talent or gift to care for one another.

There will not be need to seek provision from the outside Babylonian world. God will help the kingdom tribal people to transfer the wealth of the wicked into the kingdom villages. As judgments fall the resulting harvest will cause many in the darkness to come to the light and bring the wealth of the world into the kingdom (Prov 13:22) (Isa 60:5) (Isa 60:11). Sons will come from afar returning to the spiritual mountain of God. The provisions of the harvest will be transported into the kingdom tribal villages (Isa 60:4).

One Head of the Tribal Villages

Christ Jesus flowing through the Holy Spirit is the only head of the kingdom tribal villages. Every mature soul looks to Christ Jesus for headship. Village elders are simply those who have walked longer with Christ Jesus by the Spirit and lead others to grow fully and intimately into the headship of Christ Jesus by the Spirit. Village elders lead the younger into following the headship of Christ.

Tribal elders are simply village elders led by the Spirit to move between the villages and carry the substance of God from village to village. Each of the village and tribal elders (mature sons) may function in the gifting of apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, or teacher or whatever gifting God desires for them.

We must look forward and not look back.

Faith, rest, and peace will fill our souls if we look upward and ahead to the reality of the kingdom of God. If we look to the dark circumstances of this world and the vast areas of darkness of the past, we will die where we stand. Lift up your eyes and look to the higher places of God and see the glory of God pouring out through the Spirit to grace us for this season of becoming the kingdom of heaven on earth (Psa 121-1). If we look back to the passing city of religious systems of false traditions of man and doctrines of demons, we will not enter into the forerunner villages of the kingdom of heaven that are forming by the Spirit on earth now (Phil 3:13).

If we will set our faces toward New Jerusalem, supernatural Spirit-of-God empowerment beyond where we have been and what we have seen is before us (Jer 51:50). We must set our mind’s affection on things above and not on the things of the earth (Col 3:2). There is a beautiful garden before us and ashes of a scorched earth behind us. Looking back will dissolve our strength, and we will crumble as a pillar of salt. Rock salt looks strong but will crumble under stress and collapse (Gen 19:26).

God is strengthening His kingdom people to enter into the promises of kingdom reality. For a number of years the trumpets have been blowing out the message to come out of Babylon. We should be prepared by now to cash in all of our investments in Babylon and prepare to invest in the journey into the promised kingdom of God. Prepare provision for the establishment of tribal kingdom villages with those of the love connections that God has been and is putting together.

Josh 1:9-11: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying, “Pass through the camp and command the people, saying, ‘Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you will cross over this Jordan, to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you to possess.'”

The Sword of the Lord comes,

Ron McGatlin

http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net

Will the true Prophets & Preist please stand up……………….

Posted: October 25, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, wilderness
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The passage from Jeremiah 23:9-16 serves as a profound warning not only to the people of ancient Israel but also to the contemporary Church. Jeremiah’s lamentation reflects a heart burdened by the weight of unfaithfulness and the corruption of those in positions of spiritual authority.

His vivid imagery of a soul shaken to its core, akin to a drunken man, captures the deep emotional anguish experienced when God’s truth is compromised by falsehoods and deceit.

As we delve into this scripture, it becomes evident that the message is not merely historical; it resonates powerfully with the spiritual landscape of today, urging us to heed the call for genuine faithfulness in our relationship with God. Jeremiah’s observations of the land—characterized by adultery and wickedness—highlight a spiritual malaise that transcends time.

The term “adulterers” is particularly striking, as it denotes a forsaking of God, the true Husband of Israel. This imagery illustrates a profound betrayal, one that echoes in the modern Church when its leaders and members turn away from the divine covenant. The consequences of such unfaithfulness are severe: a land that mourns, desolate pastures, and a populace consumed by wickedness.

We are reminded that, just as in Jeremiah’s time, the neglect of spiritual truths leads to societal decay and moral ambiguity. The condemnation of both false prophets and priests is clear—these leaders have allowed corruption to infiltrate even the sacred spaces of worship. Their ungodliness not only taints their ministry but also leads the people astray.

The Lord’s indictment against them emphasizes that true prophecy must arise from a sincere communion with God, rather than personal ambition or societal trends. Thus, the passage serves as a stark reminder that spiritual authority entails a weighty responsibility; leaders must act as genuine conduits of God’s truth, rather than perpetuators of lies.

Moreover, the warning against listening to false prophets resonates deeply today, where the proliferation of misleading teachings and empty promises can often obscure the authentic voice of God.

These voices fill the hearts of believers with vain hopes, offering peace to those who disregard God’s commandments. Jeremiah’s rhetorical questions challenge us to reflect on who among us truly stands in the council of the Lord, grasping the weight of His words and intentions.

This reflection beckons the Church to cultivate discernment and seek a deeper understanding of God’s will, rather than succumbing to the allure of comforting falsehoods. As we navigate the complexities of modern faith, the call for true watchmen emerges as a clarion call for our time. God seeks those who will stand in the gap, proclaiming His truth with authority and conviction.

The imagery of thunderous voices reminds us that the proclamation of God’s word is not a passive endeavor; it requires courage and resolute faith. This task is not solely for the clergy but is a collective responsibility of the entire Body of Christ to embrace their identity in Him and wield the authority granted to them.

In conclusion, Jeremiah 23:9-16 serves as a poignant reminder of the stakes involved in prophetic ministry and spiritual leadership. As the Bride of Christ, we are called to remain faithful, to listen deeply to the whispers of the Holy Spirit, and to align ourselves with God’s will.

The earnest pursuit of holiness and truth is essential, especially as we find ourselves in what many believe to be the last hours.

May we, therefore, arise as vigilant watchmen, unyielding in our commitment to uphold the integrity of God’s word, and steadfast in our mission to embody His truth in a world that desperately needs it.

Indeed, we serve an Awesome and Fearful God who will not rest until His perfect will is fulfilled on earth as it is in heaven.

~Pastor Russ Welch,

Mighty Arm Ministries 

The Mission of Watchmen

Posted: October 24, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, Prophetic, teaching, wilderness
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The Mission of Watchmen and Signs of the Present Time

A watchman is a person who keeps watch over something or someone. The mission of a watchman is to keep awake even while people are sleeping and to keep a close eye on things so that he can help people prepare themselves by telling them if there is any sign of an attack from the enemy or of a disaster.

God has entrusted the mission of a spiritual watchman to the children of Zion. The mission of a spiritual watchman is to awaken the world with the word of God, whether they listen or not, to help them escape disasters and to lead them to salvation (Eze 3:11, 17-18).

Various disasters that are occurring these days are the message of God’s warning to human beings. Considering this, we, the spiritual watchmen, must not remain mere spectators. We need to carefully study what the Bible prophesies about the current situation and how human beings can escape so many disasters they are facing today. By taking a close look at the teachings of God and the signs of the present time, we should make it known to all people.

This is an age when disasters are prevalent

Recently, unheard-of disasters have been rampant. Climate change caused by global warming and unpredictable disasters that occur consequently are being reported through various mass media outlets every day. Furthermore, earthquakes are occurring more frequently and causing greater damages than ever before.

According to a detailed report by the mass media, in Africa where the average annual low temperature used to be over 10°C [50°F], some people froze to death because the temperature dropped to below zero celsius [32°F]. On the contrary, Siberia, the frozen land, suffered from a record-breaking heat wave which caused multiple deaths. When people on one side of the earth were suffering from an unprecedented drought, those on the other side of the earth suffered from heavy rainfalls; torrential rains poured down even in dry desert areas, and many people died from floods. Antarctic glaciers and Mt. Kilimanjaro’s ice cap and the Himalayan glaciers are melting at a rapid and alarming rate, and island countries in the South Pacific are being submerged due to rising sea levels and most of the residents have moved to nearby countries. The world is now being driven into such abnormal situations.

Korea is not an exception. Its climate is gradually becoming subtropical. Cultivation of tropical fruits is increasing, whereas that of alpine plants is decreasing. As the temperature of the sea goes up, a catch of cold water fish species in the East Sea is drastically decreasing.

Since the situation is so serious, all the countries of the world are making efforts in various fields, convening international meetings to discuss countermeasures and concluding relevant treaties. However, there are not many countries that join the treaties because they promote their own national interest and the treaties are not so effective and restrictive.

God has already prophesied and warned of disasters occurring in this age, through the Bible. Let’s take a look at the related Bible prophecies, which give us insight into how to discern the present time, one after another.

An unheard-of disaster is coming

Isa 24:1-6 『See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants—it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant . . . The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.』

God says that the earth will be laid waste and devastated because its inhabitants have disobeyed His laws and broken His covenant. This generation is rushing into the situation prophesied. Considering the ongoing problems such as the extinction of many species of life caused by climate change and natural disasters and the rapid desertification because of drought and famine, we cannot help but pay closer attention to the prophecies of the Bible.

Eze 7:3-10 『”. . . This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Disaster! An unheard-of disaster is coming. The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. It has come! Doom has come upon you—you who dwell in the land. The time has come, the day is near; there is panic, not joy, upon the mountains. I am about to pour out my wrath on you and spend my anger against you; I will judge you according to your conduct and repay you for all your detestable practices. I will not look on you with pity or spare you; I will repay you in accordance with your conduct and the detestable practices among you. Then you will know that it is I the LORD who strikes the blow. The day is here! It has come! Doom has burst forth, the rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed!”』

Jer 25:31-33 『” ‘The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth, for the LORD will bring charges against the nations; he will bring judgment on all mankind and put the wicked to the sword,'” declares the LORD. This is what the LORD Almighty says:”Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth.” At that time those slain by the LORD will be everywhere—from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like refuse lying on the ground.』

According to God’s prophetic warnings, unheard-of and unprecedented disasters are now rampant all around us. As mentioned earlier, some villages are completely submerged in floods caused by runoff from melting glaciers, a heat wave is striking the frozen land, a cold wave is hitting Africa which has a tropical climate, and floods are occurring in deserts. All these are new disasters that human beings have never experienced or imagined before.

Moreover, as God said,”Disaster is spreading from nation to nation,” the disasters that are occurring today are rapidly spreading and affecting the whole world beyond national borders because of the air traffic development. SARS that started in China once scared the whole world, and now there are many infectious diseases caused by new viruses—AIDS which is called the plague of the 20th century, AI [Avian Influenza], BSE [Bovine Spongiform Encepalopathy], FMD [Foot and Mouth Disease] and H1N1. All these have already become global disasters, not just the problems of a certain region.

Christ’s prophecies concerning disasters

As there is a sign for everything, all things that are happening these days are the signs which awaken this generation and predict what is going to happen in the future (Lk 12:54-56). 2,000 years ago, Jesus told His disciples about the signs of disasters which would take place at the end of the age.

Mt 24:3-8 『As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.”Tell us,” they said,”when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” Jesus answered:”. . . You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”』

Lk 21:10-26 『Then he said to them:”Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven. . . . There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”』

As Jesus warned in the Bible, unheard-of disasters are now prevalent everywhere in the world and we are hearing of wars and rumors of wars through mass media. Australia’s worst drought in a thousand years, the reality that the Amazon, which has a tropical rainforest climate, is drying up because of drought, strong earthquakes that are occurring around the world, and a lot of new infectious diseases which are raging globally—all these are the fulfillment of the prophecies.

As if to prove the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy that”there will be signs in the sun, moon and stars,” scientists worry that an asteroid or comet might collide with the earth and that the human body will be directly exposed to the dangerous ultraviolet radiation from depletion of the ozone layer. And as Jesus said,”Nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea,” people are trembling in fear because of devastating tsunamis.

All these disasters are powerful enough to lay waste the earth and devastate it; they are not regional disasters but global ones that are spreading from nation to nation and coming upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth.

Looking at the seriousness of disasters happening in this age, we cannot help but think again how important our mission as watchmen is. Through the Bible, we have already realized the warnings God has given to human beings. So we should faithfully carry out our mission as watchmen to awaken the world.

Passover, the covenant through which we can escape disasters

God tells us that the time is near when He will judge all people as prophesied in the Bible. In this urgent situation, we, the spiritual watchmen, must tell people about the impending disaster and wake up the world like an alarm clock or a fire alarm. We must let people know how to escape disasters by telling them about the refuge of salvation God has prepared to save human beings. By doing so, we should quickly evacuate many people who are exposed to disasters in a defenseless state.

As God provided the ark for the people who would be saved when the world was destroyed by flood in the days of Noah, so He has prepared the refuge of salvation in case of an emergency which human beings are being faced with today. What is the way of salvation and the place of refuge God has promised? Let’s find out the answer in the Bible.

Ps 91:1-11 『He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD,”He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. . . . If you make the Most High your dwelling—even the LORD, who is my refuge—then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;』

The Bible prophesies that he who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will be saved from disasters. The refuge of salvation which God the Most High has established is”Zion” (Ps 87:5). Now, let’s see how God protects us in Zion which He Himself has established and how He lets no disaster come near us even though a thousand and ten thousand may fall.

Ex 12:11-13 『”This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD’s Passover. On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt.”』

Isa 33:20-22 『Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode, a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken. There the LORD will be our Mighty One, . . . For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; it is he who will save us.』

Zion is the church that keeps the feasts of God. God has given the promise of salvation to the people of Zion and let disasters pass over them through the Passover, which is one of His feasts.

Not only in the time of the Exodus but throughout all ages, people were saved from disasters when they kept the Passover, the covenant of God. Jesus has also established the law of the new covenant to give us the flesh and blood of God through the bread and wine of the Passover, and has put the seal of salvation on His children who keep the new covenant (Mt 26:17-28; Lk 22:7-20). Even though a disaster attacks, which spreads from nation to nation and lays waste the earth and devastates it, it will not befall those who celebrate the Passover in Zion, the city of God’s appointed feasts, just as God has promised.

Let us preach the good news of salvation by faithfully carrying out the mission of a watchman

It is the Passover of the new covenant that we must quickly preach to those who are trembling with fear and perplexity because of rampant disasters. We should blow loud the trumpet of salvation and lead all people in the world to Zion, the safe refuge, as soon as possible.

Jer 4:5-9 『”Announce in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say: ‘Sound the trumpet throughout the land!’ Cry aloud and say: ‘Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities!’ Raise the signal to go to Zion! Flee for safety without delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, even terrible destruction.” . . . Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant. So put on sackcloth, lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.”In that day,” declares the LORD,”the king and the officials will lose heart, the priests will be horrified, and the prophets will be appalled.”』

God warns us of an impending disaster. In this situation, let us all try our hardest to lead many people to Zion, the refuge of salvation, by blowing the trumpet of warning.

Now is the time to extend the hand of salvation to those who are trembling in fear for disasters, forsaking the selfish thought, ‘ I’ve already been saved and that’s enough.’ Also, now is high time to wake up the people who have fallen into a deep sleep spiritually without discerning this present time.

God said,”Flee to Zion without delay.” So we must not delay our mission to let people flee to Zion. As the watchmen of the truth, let us follow God’s command to save the world by leading all people to Zion where Elohim our Father and Mother dwell, who protect us from disasters through the Passover of the new covenant and give us the blessings of eternal life, so that we can repay Elohim for Their grace.

From: http://english.watv.org/

Called to be radically free from sin!!!

Posted: October 23, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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“Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14).

These two verses sum everything up. Our WHOLE duty is to fear God and keep His commandments. Yet, there are so many who claim that this is an impossible duty to fulfill. “Sure,” they say, “we can obey God sometimes, but of course we will still sin.”

They say this despite the fact that they have no Scripture to back up what they claim. So, many professing believers EXPECT to continue to sin and therefore they do because without faith in God to keep them from sin, they will surely fall–guaranteed. “They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him” (Titus 1:16). They have a form of godliness going to church every week and being “spiritual” MOST of the time, but when it comes down to it, they have not accepted God’s provision to overcome sin and thus they deny the power to be godly.

What is this provision that God has made for Christians to overcome sin? It is the grace given us by God sending His Son. Through the blood of Jesus, we can overcome, “for everyone born of God overcomes the world” (I John 5:4). Many professing believers have read passages like Romans 6 and I John 3 that state VERY CLEARLY that we are no longer slaves to sin and that those who are in Christ do NOT continue to sin:

“We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans 6:2

“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness” (Rom. 6:18).

“No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (I John 3:6).

Despite these and MANY other clear passages throughout the Bible, many do not have the faith to fully believe, so they may turn to a commentary or ask a friend or a “pastor” and it gets explained away for them. Then they FEEL much better thinking that they can continue in sin. So these people are like seed sown along a path: they “hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts” (Luke 8:12). So I ask you, do you have faith to believe the Bible? Have you accepted God’s provision to overcome sin in YOUR life? Do you really know what it means to be a SLAVE of righteousness? I pray that you will consider these things. I long to see more people living a victorious life in Christ overcoming sin.

John 8:31-47 contains an excellent lesson on being set free from sin. (What I write from here on will be better understood on your part if you have your Bible with you. If you don’t have a Bible, please read this message again when you have one with you.)

Jesus begins by talking to those who had BELIEVED him (v.31). And so I am writing this to those who believe in the Lord and I tell you what Jesus told them: if you hold to his teachings, you are really his disciples and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free (see v.31-32).

Similar to the Jews (in v.33), you may ask, “we are not slaves of anyone or anything, so what do you mean by telling us that the Truth will set us free? Free from what?”

My reply would be (see v.34-38): “do you sin? Don’t you know that, according to Jesus, EVERYONE who sins is a slave to sin? So if Jesus sets you free from sin, you will be ENTIRELY free — free indeed. I have told you this many times; in fact, you have probably read it in the Bible, but you refuse to believe it. Therefore you continue to sin, showing that your actual ‘father’ is the devil, not God.”

Some may not like my reply and may try to justify themselves like the Jews did in verse 39. Some may say, “Hey, wait a minute! I’m already a Christian.”

My reply would be much like Jesus’ reply in verses 39-41: “If you are a Christian, then why do you continue to do the things that the devil does (see v.41)? Why do you continue to sin? The whole world is under the control of the evil one and yet you love things that are in the world; therefore, God’s love is NOT in you (I John 2:15).” Then I would say, “Turn from your sin and realize that God provides a way for you to stand up under EVERY temptation (I Cor. 10:13). Have faith in God. Rely on Him. Make every effort to be holy (Heb. 12:14; I Peter 1:13-17) and His power will sustain you and keep you from falling (Jude 24; Eph. 3:20). I pray that you will listen and believe the Bible and come to true faith in God.”

“And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in EVERY way: bearing fruit in EVERY good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience…” Colossians 1:10-11

Let us be true students of the Word here friends, let Holy Ghost radically transform our thinking, shredding what man has said and adopting, living out the truth according to the Word of God:

He personally bore our sins in His [own] body on the tree [a][as on an altar and offered Himself on it], that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed. 2 Peter 2:24 AMP)

I like this interpretation as it proclaims that because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross, not only has sin been dealt a death blow, but through the empowerment of Grace from the Father disbursed by Holy Spirit, sealed in this truth, we have the power to to renounce sin, dying to self in order that sin SHALL cease to exist in our lives!!!

Oh, brothers & sister, Glory to God in the highest, for we who are true disciples, those who have radically surrendered their lives unto the Lamb of God can be sin free, radically sin free. Yes indeed we must not attempt to walk not in our righteousness rather in the Righteousness of Him who bore our sins on the cross that we should be freed with such a liberating freedom!

Today let us NOW live the sin-free life of a radical Christian today in the power and authority of Jesus Christ, in the complete freedom of a Spirit lived life

Thank you Jesus for such a wonderful freedom!!!!

For indeed we do serve an Awesome God!!!!!!

J u d g e N o t ?

Posted: October 22, 2011 in disciples life, Kingdom Teaching, teaching, wilderness
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With such deception in the church today, when it is spotted and pointed out, many that are deceived are rising up and calling the Watchman “judgmental” where a true Watchman enters into the situation armed with Authority of the Word of God, empowered by Holy Ghost to bring forth the surgical blade that cut’s through the hardened out layers and into the marrow of the deception to expose it for the darkness it is.

Is it a judgement against those who are proclaiming it? Some may see it this way yet in truth it is a judgement against the fruit that either that ministry or individual is producing.

The enemy would like nothing more than for the saints to sit back and allow such a perversion of the gospel to have free reign in the Bride!!!! ~ Russ Welch

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DO NOT SPEAK AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, brethren. He who speaks against a brother, or judges his brother, speaks against the law, and judges the law; but if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge of it (James 4:11).
Do not speak against one another. Do not speak against your brethren. Do not judge your brother. Is that what it says? Look at verse 4 of the same chapter.

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility to-ward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God (James 4:4).
You adulteresses!
Do not judge your brother!
From the pen of the same apostle, in the distance of a few paragraphs, in almost the same breath that he is saying “do not judge,” James calls worldly churches “adulteresses.”

SPIRITUAL ADULTERY
James is probably the oldest book of the New Testament. We know from its Hebraic background, from the way it draws on synagogue leadership structure and the Scriptures, that it was obviously written to Jewish Christians.
James is using the Hebrew concept of whoredom or harlotry. Whenever Israel went into idolatry, God calls it “adultery.” Idolatry equals spiritual adultery.
Israel was to be God’s woman, in much the same way as the church is the bride of Christ. The church being unfaithful is like Israel being unfaithful. That idolatry is called “adultery.” It is a very strong term in Hebrew, a very strong concept in the Jewish mind.

BY THEIR FRUIT…

Every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits (Matthew 7:17-20).

Jesus said that you can judge someone by their fruit. In the same chapter, He says, Do not judge lest you be judged (Matthew 7:1).

First it is, “Judge not lest you be judged,” yet He goes on to say, “You will know them by their fruits.” People involved with Toronto and Pensacola say, “You know Toronto/ Pensacola by its fruit and there is good fruit from it.”

Jesus never said that you would know a phenomena by its fruit. He said that you would know a person by their fruit.

More than that, even judging a phenomenon by its fruit, you can see that it is not the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is self-control, not drunkenness and lunacy.

CONTRADICTIONS?

Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgement (John 7:24).

First Jesus says, “Judge not lest you be judged,” but then He says, “Judge with right judgement.”

James appeared to contradict himself. Now Jesus seems to contradict himself. Jesus said, “Don’t do it,” then He tells you how to do it. James said, “Don’t do it,” straight after he did it.

Therefore you are without excuse, every one of you who passes judgement, for in that you would judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things (Romans 2:1).

Therefore do not go on passing judgement before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things that are hidden in darkness and disclose the motives of men’s hearts; and then each man’s praise will come to him from God (1 Corinthians 4:5).

But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God (Ro-mans 14:10).

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this [the guy in question here was involved in an incestu-ous relationship with his father’s wife ], as though I were present (1 Corinthians 5:3).

Over and over, Paul says, “Don’t judge.” But then he passes judgment.

Jesus says, “Don’t judge,” but then he says to do it and shows you how.

James says, “Don’t judge,” but then he does it.

Why the contradictions?

GOD IS THE JUDGE

If God says in the Bible that something is wrong, and we see someone or some church do that thing, we are not judging them, it is the Word of God that judges.

The Hebrew name, “Jehoshaphat” means Jehovah has judged. That is not me or you judging. We are simply acknowledging, “This is what God says.”

James was not calling worldly churches “adulteresses.” The Word of God says that, if we are attached to this world, we are an adulteress church.

Paul was not saying that the man involved with his step-mother was immoral. Paul was saying that the Word of God says that person was immoral.

If God says that something is plainly wrong, that is not you or me judging, that is God judging.

That is what it means when it says, “Judge with right judgement.” Judging with right judgement means judging with God’s judgement, not with our own.

There is a big problem here — there are things that I would not do, but which are not necessarily wrong for someone else.

PEOPLE’S OPINIONS

I know of a case where some believers, after their wedding, went to a discotheque. (I would not go to a discotheque unless it was to give out tracts.) I did not feel a peace about going, but I am not going to make a big deal out of it, no matter what my own misgivings or feelings.

I know of another case in Ireland where, at a Christian wedding, people danced. Other people became indignant and began yelling, “You’re backsliders,” and stormed out of the wedding, creating a big scene. It split a church. That is people judging.

The word “Laodicea” has to do in the Greek with “people’s opinions, people’s judgements.” We have no right to make a judgement of another person, but once God says something is right or wrong, that is not us judging.

ANAKRINO — TO DISCERN
The Greek word for “judge” is krino.
If you put the prefix “ana” in front of the word “krino,” you get a variation on the idea of judging, which is “to discern.”

But he who is spiritual judges [anakrino] all things, yet he himself is judged [anakrino] by no man (1 Corinthians 2:15).

God, in His Word, commands us to anakrino. It is not a right; it is not a privilege; it is not something that is advisable. We are commanded to do it. And if you do not discern, you lack wisdom.

There is a reason why false teachers will not stand up publicly.

People who will stand up and say, “That is not Scriptural.” “That is not right.” “I discern that this is not of God,” are practicing wisdom.

Those who practice wisdom, cannot themselves be judged by anyone. Because they anakrino, they cannot be
anakrino-ed. That is why those others are afraid of them.

DIAKRINO — TO DECIDE
I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide [diakrino] between his brethren? (1 Corinthians 6:5).

Another prefix which changes the meaning of krino is “dia.” Diakrino means to “render a decision.”

Is something right or wrong? Is someone’s behavior right or wrong morally? Is it Scriptural or unscriptural? Is it of God, or is it of the flesh, or of the devil?

The Holy Spirit speaking through Paul commands that we are to diakrino.

We are not permitted to diakrino. We are not advised to diakrino. We are not privileged to diakrino. We are commanded to diakrino. It is not that judging is acceptable. Rather, to fail to judge is unacceptable.

NOT ALLOWED TO GO TO THE SECULAR AUTHORITIES?

About two months ago a woman and her husband contacted us, very distressed. They had a four year old girl who was the victim of semi-penetrated sex in a church. She was molested by a fourteen year old boy, who was supposedly a Christian and whose parents had been going to that same church for years.

This little girl was devastated. She drew me a picture, and as soon as I saw the picture, I knew what it was.

Now, I do not have much time for secular psychology. I believe in Biblical psychology, but I do believe in psychology. Biblical psychology is based in the book of Proverbs.

If you want to know why human beings behave and act the way they do, and think the way they do, read Proverbs. That is the best book of sociology and psychology there is.

I can agree with human psychology to the degree that it is based on Biblical psychology. Secular psychology is godless, and sees man as a two dimensional being. It concerns me that so many evangelicals have gotten into secular psychology and pop psychology.

The little girl drew a picture of a house. Inside the house there were four windows and a door. Each face inside the house was female, there were no male faces.

And she drew a picture of herself, outside. There was no pelvis. There was no pubic area.

That, according to pediatric psychiatrists, is a very frequent characteristic of drawings by children who have been sexually abused.

Children of that age will say things with pictures and drawings that they cannot express verbally. No men and she herself had no mid-section.

Her parents told me, “We don’t know what to do. We go to a Baptist church and the pastor can’t advise us because this four-teen year old boy is a Christian, and, based on 1 Corinthians, we are not allowed to go to the secular authorities about another believer.

So, according to his parents, we can’t tell the police or the court what has happened. We are at our wit’s end; we don’t know what to do. Our daughter is traumatized.”

CIVIL LAW / CRIMINAL LAW

1 Corinthians 6 refers to Roman law. (The systems of jurisprudence in Britain, Australia and America are based on the original model in Rome.) 1 Corinthians 6 is talking about civil law, not criminal law; it is talking about suing someone under civil law, about litigation, it is not talking about criminal law.

It is 1 Corinthians 5 that talks about an immoral person.

I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother [any so-called Christian] if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler — not even to eat with such a one.

For what have I to do with judging [krino] outsiders? Do you not judge [krino] those who are within the church? (1 Corinthians 5:11-12)

We judge those who are within the church, who are guilty of immorality. Do not even associate with the person. Chapter 6 is not talking about criminal law. It is talking about civil law.

That fourteen-year-old should have been dealt with under the criminal law. His identity would have been
protected by the court because of his age.

If something was not done for that kid at the age of fourteen, by the age of eighteen his life would have been destroyed. He would have been in an institution for pedophiles.

But this fourteen-year-old had a chance. He should have been brought before the authorities for his own good, and also so that the little girl could have seen justice being done.

If this kind of stuff is not dealt with by the church immediately, what is going to happen when these people get older?

The victims are traumatized for their whole lives. It affects their sexuality when they grow up. And that church could not even give a Biblical answer!

(It was probably a good thing it was a Baptist minister. He could not give a biblical answer, but if it had been a Pentecostal minister, he probably would have tried to cast demons out of the little girl!)

I talked to my friend’s wife, who is a Christian pediatric psychiatrist, and I showed the pictures to a Christian pediatric psychologist. They both agreed with the advice I gave the parents. And the parents referred the matter to the criminal authorities.

But what were these other ones saying? “Do not judge.” “You cannot go to the authorities about another Christian and you cannot judge another Christian.”

What were they doing? Giving people a license to sexually abuse little kids?

This is what happens when the church goes away from God’s Word.

We are not allowed to diakrino, we are commanded to diakrino; but it has to do with more than just people.

JUDGING PROPHECY
And let two or three prophets speak, and let the others [diakrino] pass judgement (1 Corinthians 14:29). We are commanded to judge prophecy.

But the prophet who shall speak a word presumptuously in My name which I have not commanded him to speak, or which he shall speak in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.

And you may say in your heart, “How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?”

When a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not come about or come true, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken.

The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).

Jeremiah 14 and Jeremiah 28 says the same thing. Jesus warned that there would be many false prophets in the last days.

We do not stone them to death any more, but the sin is no less serious. They shall die if they do not repent.

We are not under the law, but under grace; but their “ministries” should be stoned. 1 Corinthians 14:29 does not say that we are entitled to diakrino prophets or prophecies, rather we are commanded to judge prophets and prophecies.

Now, that is not my judgement. I cannot krino anybody. The things that God has said will krino. I have to anakrino. I have to discern. Is this of God or is this of man?

No, it is not for me to judge. I have to diakrino, render a decision on whether it is morally right or wrong, by biblical standards.

The founders of the Mormon cult and the Jehovah Witnesses were false prophets; they predicted things that failed to happen. The Roman Catholic nun, Lucia, from Fatima, in Portugal, is a false prophet; she predicted things that failed to happen.

Do I have the right to say that? No, not the right, but the responsibility to say it, the command from my God in heaven to say it. That is not my judgment; it is what God says about these people.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” If you fail to diakrino, you are failing to keep His commandments. If you fail to diakrino, you will let these same people go on giving people “words” from their own flesh or from Satan. People like that should be brought to account.

JUDGE RIGHTEOUSLY
Then I charged your judges at that time, saying, “Hear the cases between your fellow countrymen, and judge righteously between a man and his fellow countrymen, or the alien who is with him” (Deuteronomy 1:16).

That was not advice; that was a command.

Just look at what has happened to our secular society.

Everybody is a “victim.”

It does not matter that he got blind drunk and he was driving at 90 miles an hour through a village and killed a little kid on a bicycle. He came from a broken home: he is a “victim.” It does not matter.

I tried to talk to a prostitute the other day. “I do this because my father hung himself.” That was her argument. “I came from a bad situation.” I said, “You just told me that your sister goes to university and she came from the same background, and she thinks that what you are doing is terrible. Isn’t she a victim, too?” Nobody is responsible for their own actions any more in society. But how can we expect society to live up to God’s standards, when the church will not live up to God’s standards.

I came from a bad situation. My father drank. I was a drug addict by the age of sixteen, and I have no doubt whatsoever that, if Jesus had not intervened in my life, I would be dead by now or a destroyed person of some kind.

It is only because of Him that I went to university and got married and did the things I have been privileged to do.
Left to myself, I would not have amounted to anything. Nonetheless, I am responsible for my own life and my own choices.

SALT AND LIGHT

If the church will not uphold God’s standards of responsibility, how can we expect our society to be any different?

If we are not upholding His standards, how can we be salt and light to a society that has turned it’s back on God?

No wonder there is crime! The main reason for the moral and social decline of our society is not because of the unsaved people; it is because of the lukewarm church.

KRISIS — HEAVEN OR HELL

There is a kind of judging that we are not called to do. The Greek word is krisis.

For not even the father judges anyone, but He has given all judgement [krisis] to the Son (John 5:22).

The ultimate determination of heaven and hell belongs to the Lord alone. We never krisis. We are forbidden to krisis.

KRITES — THE JUDGE OF ALL

But you have come… to the general assembly and church of the first born who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge [ krites ] of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect (Hebrews 12:23).
God is the judge of all. Yes, there are people who are called to judge, but God is the ultimate Judge of us all.

HUPO-KRITES — PHARISEES

If we are going to stand up and confront other people in the church about something being wrong, we had better make sure we are not guilty of the same thing, because that is another kind of judging we are forbidden to do.

Here the prefix hupo is added to krites, giving us the English word “hypocrites.”

This is what Jesus meant when he said, Do not judge lest you be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

And why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” and behold, the log is in your own eye?

You hypocrite [hupokrites], first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:1-5).

We do not krites and we especially do not hupo-krites.

KRITIKOS — TO DISCERN

For the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge [kritikos] the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

Cells called erythrocytes are stored in the red marrow of big bones, like the femur and the tibia. On the outside there is the bone and on the inside there is the marrow. But in between there is an area where, even with a microscope, it is very difficult to tell where the bone ends and where the marrow begins.

The Bible says that the relationship between soul and spirit is like that. Take prophecy: Was that from someone’s imagination, or was it God’s Spirit speaking through their spirit? It is very difficult to tell the difference.

Man is a three-dimensional being. You can separate a body from a soul; but you cannot easily tell where the soul ends and the spirit begins.

When people say, “The Lord showed me this” and “God told me that,” it is difficult to know if it is someone’s imagination or God’s Spirit speaking to their spirit. The mind is a good servant, but a dangerous master. Many people are caught up with things not overtly demonic, but they are prophesying from the futility of their own mind.

We are called to kritikos — to discern between the soulish and the spiritual. The Word of God enables us to separate the bone from the marrow, the spiritual from the purely soulish.

SUMMARY
Judge not? What does the Bible say?

1. We never judge from our opinions.

2. We are commanded to anakrino — we always seek to discern: “Is this of God, or is it of the flesh, or of the devil?”

3. We are commanded to diakrino — to render a decision as to whether something is morally right or wrong.

4. We do not krisis — the Lord alone decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.

5. We are sometimes appointed to krites — but we are to remember that the Lord is the Judge of all, and we are to judge righteously.

6. We never, ever, hupo-krites — before we take a speck out of our brother’s eye, we make sure we do not have the same speck in our own eye.

7. We always kritikos — we draw on the Word of God to discern between the things of the soul and the things of the spirit.

BY JACOB PRASCH

MORIEL — GOD IS MY TEACHER
This paper may be freely copied and distributed.
This paper was published by:
Moriel USA P.O. Box 11536 Pittsburgh PA 15238 United States of America
© Copyright Jacob Prasch 1998

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