Do not fear anyone except God

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both the soul and the body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them shall fall on the ground apart from the will of your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Therefore do not fear; you are worth more than many sparrows.
(Mat 10:28-31)

Jesus commands us not to fear those who hate us and want to kill us. With the command comes the grace to obey. Knowing the Father and His power and care, in true Holy fear and trust, takes away all our fears of men.

It did nothing for ME!

One Christian, when asking another about what they thought about that morning’s church service, received this answer,

‘The worship was not very good. It did nothing for ME.’

Albert Einstein

“In view of such harmony in the cosmos, which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support of such views.”
– Albert Einstein

It began the day ministry became a job

Two current quotes from Harold Smith:

Mr. Bentley has admitted to numerous affairs of adultery committed against his wife over a prolonged period of time – all before and during the height of the “revival” taking place by his hand and under the supposed “watch” of men of ranking within the Body. These men (who knew of his extra-marital exploits) had turned a blind eye so as to not tamper with this “phenomenon” that, with the help of GodTV, was elevating them all to a place of world attention where the cash rolled in. They are to be held in as much, if not more, accountability as Mr. Bentley.

Also:

How did we come to this? And this is by no means an isolated incident. We keep seeing “godly” men who hold aloft the banner of sanctity and point to the signs and wonders at their hands as evidence of their favor with God, repeatedly fall at the feet of greed, depravity and idolatry from Florida to Texas to Colorado to Toronto to England and beyond. How did this happen?

It began the day ministry became a job.

It started the day we looked at the the way the world was ruled and decided that would be a great “template” to use to “protect” the flock to be sure they weren’t “scattered” and left in danger. The day that world hierarchy was brought into the Body of Christ and it became accepted as the “normal way to conduct affairs” was the day the Spirit of God was compromised by the church into becoming a business and business requires a certain code of conduct.

From: http://hethathasanear.com/Compromise.html

It will happen soon

Last night i got drawn to read Ezekiel 38 & 39 again, and i feel it’s going to be fulfilled soon.

Notes on this passage:

a) The whole of this points to the coming of our Lord and the beginning of His millennial reign. There’s no thought here of this present earth and cosmos being consumed (melted) with fire, as will happen at the end of the millennium, when there will be a new heaven and new earth.

b) The theme toward the end of the passage outlines the relationship between Israel and all the nations; how the events at the end of this present age, in Israel, will cause the whole world to fear and glorify God. It also outlines Israel’s continuing possession of the land after they have been brought back from the diaspora, and also how they restore the land and bury all the dead (their enemies) whom God kills.

c) Here God uses the term “the land of Israel”. Many spiritualize such scriptures as these, and say that Israel is now the church and that the present day political Israel is not the Israel the Bible refers to here. The very least these ones should acknowledge is the name by which God calls the land from the Jordan to the sea; He calls it THE LAND OF ISRAEL – meaning that God says it belongs to the descendants of Jacob/Israel and not anyone else. Say it out loud, “Its the Land of Israel!” – you’ll feel good all over bcos you’ll be agreeing with the God of Israel.

When God calls that land “the land of Israel” then who has the audacity to challenge Him and say it’s not the land of Israel?

Rejoice evermore, for this is the will of God!

But concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know accurately that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, just as labor pains upon the woman that is pregnant, and they shall by no means escape. But you, brothers, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness.

Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those getting drunk, are drunk at night. But we, since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on a breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to the obtaining of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, in order that whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.

Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

And we request of you, brothers, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and instruct you, and to regard them beyond all measure in love, because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves.

Now we exhort you, brothers, admonish the disorderly, encourage the discouraged, be supportive of the weak, be patient toward all. See that no one pays back evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue that which is good, both for one another and for all.

Rejoice always!

Pray without ceasing!

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Do not quench the Spirit.

Do not despise prophecies. But test all things; hold fast that which is good.

Abstain from every form of evil.

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do this.

Brothers, pray for us. Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss. I adjure you by the Lord for this letter to be read to all the holy brothers. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.
(1Thess 5:1-28)

Our sufficiency is from God

…Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to consider anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God… 2 Cor. 3:5

Selah.

There’s more vital truth contained in this one verse than a thousand books put together.

Violence in India

For those who care about us and pray for us: just to let you know that we’re ok here, the violence in Orissa state hasn’t spread beyond localized areas.

The news media here has virtually ignored the violence and murder, which in one sense is a good thing, as when fanatical Hindus in other places see on TV Hindus killing and rampaging and getting away with it they may copycat it. Its a political and nationalistic-religious passion. Christians are painted as the great threat to India trying to conquer them just as the British did before. When you read the unvarnished history of India its one long trail of misery, of continual conflict and wars, and conquest and brutality.

The sovereign God of Israel rules over the Kings of the earth, and He restrains the wicked from doing all that they might want to do, when they think that they can get away with it without consequences.

Reportedly a number of Christians have been murdered in Orissa over the last week. You may have read the news releases from GFA or VOM.

This is a repeat of what happened earlier this year, nearly identical circumstances. Then it was proved that Catholics were taking revenge on Hindus and burning down houses.

Here, i feel my hands are tied, except for upholding the brethren there in prayer. Personally i can’t go there and defend the brethren or make appeals to the Govt for justice, even though i would love to. My tenure here in India is by a slim thread anyway. If i get involved i get deported, simple as that.

ian.

OBAMA terrorist connection?

From:

http://fmpolitics.blogspot.com/2008/08/meet-bill-ayers-judgment-matters.html

In 1995, Barack Obama’s political career was launched at a fundraiser held in Bill Ayers’ home.

Bill Ayers co-founded a terrorist organization known as the ‘Weather Underground’ in the late 1960s that bombed – among other targets – the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Capitol and a New York City Police Department precinct headquarters. In 1970, the Weathermen declared war on the United States after a fellow terrorist was killed in a police raid in Chicago.

In 1980, terrorism-related charges were dropped against Bill Ayers – not because he was innocent; but because of prosecutorial misconduct. Ayers has never denied his involvement in committing acts of terror against Americans; in fact, he’s proud of it. In 2001, Ayers told a New York Times reporter: “I don’t regret setting bombs; I feel we didn’t do enough.”

unquote

Ian writes:  More proof will need to appear to verify Obama having the fundraiser in Ayers house.

How’s this for a coincidence?

OSAMA BIN LADEN
OBAMA BI_  __DEN

Hearing Jesus’ voice

“Most assuredly I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold through the door, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But he who enters through the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. But they will by no means follow a stranger, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

(John 10:1-5)

What is the nature of the Shepherd’s voice? Simply, if you know you are saved by the shed blood of this Shepherd, Jesus Christ the Lamb of God, with the PROOF that you love the brethren (which is the main proof you’re saved – 1 John 3:14) then you’ve heard His voice and heeded His voice AND you’ve rejected all other “voices” – the voices of “strangers”.

Q. “Hey, I didn’t hear any voices??”

A. What kind of voice were you expecting to hear?

The nature of His voice always has, at the least, 2 aspects:

a) The hearing of His voice is a transaction of faith. To hear an audible voice requires no faith.

b) The hearing of His voice involves and engages our understanding – particularly our understanding of His nature, character and way; otherwise it’s of no eternal value concerning our character – conforming us to Christ. Compare/contrast with remote controlling a robot.

Genuine faith more precious than gold

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and unfading, reserved in the heavens for you, who by the power of God are being guarded through faith for the salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In which you greatly rejoice, though for a little while now, if need be, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, though being tested with fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Whom not having seen, you love, in whom now not seeing, but believing, you rejoice with inexpressible joy and glorified, obtaining for yourselves the outcome your faith–the salvation of your souls.
(1Peter 1:3-9)

A DEADLY FANTASY

A top AOG pastor in Australia confesses his sins. If anyone’s interested they can find out about him, Michael Guglielmucci, here:

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24230912-5006301,00.html

The thing that this incident exposes is the fact that one doesn’t need the real Holy Spirit and one doesn’t need to know Jesus in order to reach the top of the AOG and gain the respect of its leaders.

True.

The Lord Jesus has revealed the truth in this incident for the benefit of His own who are still in that cult, so that it is patently clear to them that the leadership responsible for and associated with Michael G are spiritually blind and negligent (at best).

The AOG will only get worse. After this incident the majority will only slip deeper into fantasy realms – unreality, and they will accuse anyone who brings out the truth about the AOG as “casting stones”.

Michael G is to be commended for his confession.

His bondage to erotic fantasies was symptomatic of the spiritual fantasizing which the AOG and many other groups promote.

E.g. The main leader of the AOG in Oz, i understand, is Brian Housten. If you watch a video of him preaching it becomes clear that this guy loves money and is covetous. The covetous have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ, says God. But the AOG promotes it. This is a deadly fantasy game, and God will judge.

Hating God

“Atheists, don’t hate any god, fairy, leprechaun, unicorn or other fictional being. It’s impossible to hate something that does not exist. Try to get this burned in your mind this time. Repeat it a few thousand times if that helps.”

That’s right. Atheists don’t hate fairies, leprechauns or unicorns, because they don’t exist. It is impossible to hate something that doesn’t exist. And that makes the point. You hate God because He does exist. You spend your time thinking about Him, then arguing about Him, then blaspheming His name (what greater hatred can you have for a person than to use their name as a cuss word?), and showing contempt for, and ridicule of, those that love Him.

You have the axiomatic evidence of creation and of your conscience, and you are therefore without excuse. By professing the blindness of atheism you are denying the God-given light that He has given each of us.

There are some cultures that will show so much contempt for a family member that has wronged them, they actually deny his existence. They refuse to acknowledge that he existed as a son. They don’t want to see him, hear from him, or talk to him. That’s what the professing atheist does with God, and his or her reason for doing so is moral. It’s not intellectual. If it was an intellectual issue there wouldn’t be any argument. But because you love your sins and you know that God requires an account for every action and every word (including your thought-life), you can’t stand that thought, and so you deny His existence.

Subtle change of paradigm

Someone asks:  Is there one sound Charismatic teacher or ministry out there?

Fair question for all the schisms within christendom.

In relation to that i would say prophetically that these are not the days in which to even seek to find a “sound teacher or ministry” ; these are the very last days of this age, and ALL the saints, those who are faithful to Jesus Christ, need to get back into the Word themselves, tutored by the Holy Spirit Himself, sitting under The Teacher, submitting to the words of our Lord Jesus, and teachers like Paul the Apostle, by taking their words into us just as our brethren did at the beginning.

E.g. When Paul’s letters were sent to the churches, like Ephesus for example, the saints would listen as the whole letter was read out. Paul was writing to mostly illiterate and uneducated people and EXPECTING them to understand everything he said, and most did. He wasn’t speaking over their heads with any airs, in what’s become to be known as a “theological”paradigm.

Paul was expecting the illiterate to understand him DIRECTLY by the Holy Spirit in them, without the intermediary of a theologian to interpret it for them.

NO ONE who was there when Paul’s letters (Scripture) were first read out to the church would have said, “That’s theological stuff. Paul’s into theology, but it’s too deep for me.”

Are there apostles today?

A brother writes: “There are no apostles today, period.”

Ian replied:  Just consider, if the original Apostles could come back to Christianity today, they would not be recognized or received as the Apostles they are. Yes?

Therefore, if there are “small a” apostles today, who continue to do the work of apostles (but holding to the closed Canon of Scripture) and if these guys have the same Christian character and life as the original Apostles, then hardly anyone is going to receive them, right? They will be persona non grata to the religion industry. And loving it.

From Theo’s Blog :-)

It is written through the whole of the Scriptures that spiritual power and spiritual fullness are not bound up with receiving the Holy Spirit as such. It is in that, but that is not it in itself. You see, we concentrate upon either receiving the Holy Spirit or being filled with the Spirit or having a baptism of the Spirit, and we think that is power and fullness.

In a sense that is quite true; but we have to see the meaning of the Holy Spirit. It is not just that we receive the Spirit or are filled with the Spirit. It is what the Holy Spirit means by filling us: and what does He mean?

He means the establishment of the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ in us. We cannot have the real value without the real meaning. That is why it is so necessary that, to know the power and fullness of the Spirit, there should be an utter emptying and breaking down of everything in us to make way for the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Now, before I pass on, have we grasped this fact, that our spiritual enlargement, our spiritual increase, our spiritual wealth, our spiritual fullness and spiritual power is not a matter of gifts as such? It is a matter of the Lord Jesus being really and truly Lord within and throughout in every part.

Excerpt from: http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/001867.html

(Thanks to Bill)

The real nature of Islam

On March 21, 2007, in the Nigerian state of Gombe, a 32-year-old schoolteacher named Christiana Oluwasesin collected books and school bags from her high school class and placed them in the front of the room so she could administer a test. A Muslim girl accused the teacher of desecrating her copy of the Quran, and all the students began to shout “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is great!”). They soon started a riot.

Some teachers came to Christiana’s aid and rushed her to the principal’s office for safety, but by that time more students had joined the ruckus. The mob demanded that Christiana be released to them. When she was, the teenagers hit her with an iron club, stripped her naked and beat her until a 12-year-old boy slit her throat with a knife. The students then soaked her body with gasoline and set her on fire.

Christiana was a Spirit-filled Christian who had been outspoken about her faith in Jesus. Her two young children—a 3-year-old girl and a 10-month-old boy—are now left in the care of her husband, Michael. His last memory of his wife was of her burnt remains, which had been taken to a morgue in Gombe.

Eyewitnesses of the incident said the Muslim students actually tried to kill Christiana’s baby as well, but an unidentified woman smuggled the child off school property by concealing him under her clothes.

No one ever found the copy of the Quran that was supposedly desecrated by Christiana.

From: http://forums.charismamag.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2209&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0

Please click “comments” to read more.

You have overcome THEM

…and every spirit which does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard that it is coming, and now is already in the world. You are of God, little children, and you have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world: on account of this they speak of the world, and the world hears them.

(1John 4:3-5)

The spirit that is in the world is connected here with those of the world. The child of God has overcome them by faith; that is, overcome the spirit that is in the world, and consequently, the people of the world, in whom the spirit of antichrist works.

It’s in this context that John says, …Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.

We’ve often only understood this in terms of overcoming the devil, whereas John says you have overcome THEM: those whom the devil uses to try and bring you down.

Therefore, when we make the glorious and triumphant affirmation of the truth, bcos we believe it, that Christ in us is far greater than he that is in the world, we should also understand it in terms of Him having overcome the world, not just the devil.

Do you let people bring you down? Do you let them defeat you? Do you let them get to you? Do you let them get under your skin and rob your joy? Do you let them throw cold water on your fire?

You have overcome THEM. Greater is He that is in you than He that is in the world.

In other words, NO ONE pushes you around any more. You’re no longer a victim. You stand firm in faith, on Christ the immovable Rock, and Christ in you is your victory; the One who has overcome the world and is greater than the world and its dark prince.

We fail to grasp the magnitude of God

We tend to underestimate God.

The Father sees a sparrow fall; He numbers the hairs on our head.

How much more precious to Him are we?

Sleazy “christian” criminals before the throne of God

For this you know, that no fornicator, or unclean person, nor covetous person, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not be participants with them. (Eph 5:5-7) (Also: 1 Cor.5:11, 1 Cor. 6:10)

J L Grady, the editor of Charisma magazine, has lately been lauded in many circles for being “brave” enough to question some of the activities of Todd Bentley.

But even the Catholic church reins in its extremists. We don’t deem such actions as credible bcos they refuse to repent of idolatry; they don’t put the axe to the roots.

Similarly, Grady is going headlong to judgment whilst he continues to run ads for deceivers and con-men.

Of note, they are currently running advertising for an upcoming “prosperity” (covetousness-idolatry-love of money) conference in London called “Gathering of Champions”. They are not champions of faith, they are leeches. If a person begs for money, or prostitutes the things of God for money, it shows they have ZERO faith.

In the Kingdom of Heaven, such profiteers are just sleazy criminals; that is, before the judgment throne of God. In God’s court room they are criminals, guilty of smearing Jesus’ name and shipwrecking the faith of many. (Millstone around the neck).

Grady is just as guilty as the sleaziest grasping con-man he promotes.

JL Grady, lay down these abominations and follow Jesus.