On and off faith?

Can the faith which is in your heart toward Jesus be switched on and off? In other words is there anything in your life which is not the result of your faith or the fruit of your faith in Jesus? We need to learn the difference between what we do in faith and what we do apart from faith: that which is of faith and that which is not of faith.

“Out of church” and outside the truth?

On Facebook i’m noticing a new breed of “out of church” Christian and they shred the Bible to pieces, and if you try and discuss a Bible truth with them, the way they talk (on any subject) is as if they were the first person to ever have the “full truth” about it, as if they are the center of all knowledge and God will consult them first, there is not much understanding of a common, shared faith, it is all “individual” now.

They don’t understand that the Apostles “had it all” and we are just learning what they learned. What people think is a new revelation (if it is true) is simply what the Apostles and all the genuine saints over the centuries already knew and walked in. If not, then it’s not true. That has to sink in. Anything else is simply the sin of pride.

The trend i see is that “out of church” often means “out of sound doctrine” and “out of fellowship”. For some of them the things they object to in the religious system are actually the good things, like commitment and self-sacrifice. “Out of church” has become for many a way to avoid the reality of commitment to relationship and to a sound, Biblical life and faith, loving the body of Christ.

Of course, no true saint is “out of Church”: Out of Babylon, yes, but not out of relationship with the brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, for true relationship in Christ is the basis of His Church and He is still building His Church.

There is no fence to sit on

“The Bible is filled with dichotomies. Today you are either saved or you are lost, under mercy or wrath, in darkness or in light, part of the just or the wicked, heading for Heaven or Hell. There are no in-betweens, no purgatory, no annihilation, or universal salvation. Don’t try and sit on the fence when it comes to your salvation, because there isn’t one.”

~ Ray Comfort

Letter to a brother with marriage problems

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A clash of spirits

The way things are going soon people won’t know the real Holy Spirit anymore as they will have become so accustomed to a counterfeit spirit. Bring Paul the Apostle back and put him behind the pulpit of a mega-church and then you would see a clash of “spirits”.

“Christian” wars and empires

Made this comment on FB re: “Christian” wars and empires: The present Kingdom of God is in His people and they live in this evil world and we need to know where we stand in this world: for example Scripture says to honor, obey and pray for civil authorities just as Jesus and the Apostles and the early church did: they never campaigned against the evils of Caesar, and yet on the other hand they never tried to merge the Church with the world or with politics, there was a strict separation until Emperor Constantine came along and gave birth to the “Church of Rome” and that became the Great Harlot of Rev. 17 and produced daughter organizations, and this corrupt form of Christianity merged with the world:

“...the great harlot that sits upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” (Rev. 17:2)

The fact that The Harlot is in relationship to the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:2) reveals that she is not a civil institution, she is a “Christian” religious power which interfaces with the secular political world and has great influence with the governments of the world.

Cessasionists and Continuationists

Cessasionists and Continuationists both have some valid points and both can have error: for example there are some things which don’t continue, as the Canon of Scripture is closed, and also the nature of Apostolic authority is different now than the authority given to the first Apostles. It would be a cult if any man came along today claiming to have the same authority in the Church which Paul had.

But how the Holy Spirit works in His people can never change. If people did certain things when they were filled with the Holy Spirit back then, then the same things will happen today.

Don’t change The Message

Unless we think we are superior to Jesus and the Apostles then we should preach exactly what they preached and also live the same quality of life they lived. It is the sheer pride and arrogance of man that he changes the message once delivered to the saints.

Be filled with the Holy Spirit

For the disciple of Jesus the command is there several times in the NT to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Just a few thoughts: To be filled with the Holy Spirit means you are filled with Him to the exclusion of being filled with other things, and especially to the exclusion of being filled with yourself: Like, That guy is so full of himself!

It is a mutually exclusive filling, a filling which excludes all else. The man filled with pride is not filled with the Spirit for the Holy Spirit hates the lofty pride of man. The man filled with the true Holy Spirit finds he has nothing to be proud of anymore and now the Holy Spirit focuses Him on Jesus and not on himself.

If anyone struggles with sin then you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so there is no vacuum in your soul for sin to fill. If you have demon problems you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that there is no room for any other spirit. When the Holy Spirit has filled the temple then there is no place any more for satan or the works of darkness.

Likewise, you have cares and worries: a good filling of the Holy Spirit will fill the void and leave no place for worry.

If you are filled with the love of the things of the world then you are not yet filled with the Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to be filled with Christ and conformed to His nature. All true ministry is done by Spirit-filled disciples who are filled to overflowing and out of their belly flows rivers of living water.

There is a sinner inside us

Our identity is now hidden in Christ’s identity and righteousness and we are to consider ourselves new creations in Him, and yet we still have our old man, the flesh, to deny, mortify and put off, and to put on the new man. The old man is indeed a sinner and that sinner is still inside us, BUT Jesus gave us the victory over him for we are crucified and risen with Christ. The doctrine of “the flesh” or “old man” is right thru Paul’s teachings and if Christians are not aware of it they get discouraged, when they confuse their old man with their new man.

So there is a sinner inside you, just don’t feed him or give him what he wants.

Spiritual Reality

Would you like to take a trip to heaven and see what it’s like? Would you like to see the Father, and His Son Jesus seated at His right hand? To see Him shining brighter than the midday sun? To see the twenty four elders and the living creatures and the multitudes of angels? To see our brethren who’ve gone there ahead of us?

It might be “interesting”, right?

But cmon, let’s be honest, very few are really interested, right? Bcos if they were their life and message would be so different.

Authentic grace and faith in Jesus Christ SEATS US up there with Him.

Even when we were dead in sins, has made us alive together with Christ, (by grace you are saved;) And has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus… Ephesians 2:5-6

This is the authentic Christian life: a life lived seated with Christ in the heavens and yet with our feet grounded in the realities of life on earth.

We’re going somewhere. Ask others to also come along to glory rather than go to hell.

Encourage the brothers and sisters to come boldly to the Throne of Grace and stay there, praying without ceasing.

The PROCESS of Church

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Some of our daughters

Becky, (cousin Aishu), Shmita and Esther.

Redemptive Judgment

If we judge sin then why should anyone take it personally, as if we were judging them? Anyway, we should speak the Words of God: God’s judgment against sin. If we warn a man that the way he is going leads to hell, but if he repents and turns to Jesus he will be saved then that is REDEMPTIVE and not judgmental. But if we omitted to warn him then that would be judgmental for our silence would condemn him. If you see a man about to walk over a cliff and you refuse to warn him then you are in fact condemning him by your silence.

In this sense the “modern love gospel” is one of condemnation and hate under the disguise of false love. If we refuse to preach the truth then we are condemning people and have no real love of Christ for them. The true love of Christ always produces a hatred for our sin.

Straight from the serpent’s mouth

“They complain,” the Pope said in his homily, because they say, “If he is not one of us, he cannot do good. If he is not of our party, he cannot do good.” And Jesus corrects them: “Do not hinder him, he says, let him do good.” The disciples, Pope Francis explains, “were a little intolerant,” closed off by the idea of ​​possessing the truth, convinced that “those who do not have the truth, cannot do good.” “This was wrong . . . Jesus broadens the horizon.” Pope Francis said, “The root of this possibility of doing good – that we all have – is in creation”

“The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. ‘But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.’ Yes, he can… “The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! ‘Father, the atheists?’ Even the atheists. Everyone!”.. We must meet one another doing good. ‘But I don’t believe, Father, I am an atheist!’ But do good: we will meet one another there.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/22/pope-francis-good-atheists_n_3320757.html

See the One World Religion emerging? What a slippery dude. He defines salvation as doing good and not doing evil. He says that Christ’s Atonement even applies to those who don’t believe, that a person’s beliefs are irrelevant just so long as they do good: that Jesus doesn’t require a person to believe and obey Him but only that they do “good”. So all religions can blend into one now that faith in Jesus is irrelevant.

Now, will he do miracles to “prove” that this new religion and new god is true? Certainly the timing is right as the dumbing-down process is nearly complete.

Faith is also what you believe

Faith is to trust God and this is specifically to trust Him concerning what He has promised. These days faith is many times thought of solely as a spiritual power one has in order to receive things from God, to pray in faith and receive an answer. This is certainly a part of what faith is, but it is much wider than that, it touches everything in our consciousness, for our faith is also what we believe and why we believe it. Our life (whether we like it or not) is spiritual and moral bcos God made us in His image, therefore everything we think and feel and aspire to, our very existence, is faith-based, for better or for worse: either revealing faith in God or faith in something other than God. All that we are and do is our faith. So for the twice-born new creation saint in Christ there is nothing in our life which we should separate from our faith in Christ: the just shall live by faith. Our faith is now who we are. It’s no longer a religious thing. Every part of our being now, in Christ, is of faith. What you think about, that is your faith. What you talk about, that is your faith. How you feel about others, that is your faith. And what you do with your time, that is your faith. What you think about the Scriptures, that is your faith. So then Scripture doctrine is exceedingly more than an intellectual interest, it is now your faith, and your faith is your life. So who we are cannot be separated from what we believe.

Conviction of sin

When a man gets very sick the pain drives him to the doctor. When a man gets truly convicted of his sins the pain and the guilt drives him to the Savior. Conviction means convinced. If the sick man was not convinced he’s in danger he may not take action, and only when a man is convinced by the Holy Spirit that he is lost and going to hell does he realize he needs a Savior. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit will convince of sin, righteousness and judgment, and this means that when people come under His conviction they realize they are sinners, they are fully convinced of it and thus they know they are lost and going to hell without a Savior. But there is a spirit at work in Christianity which does not do this and yet people think that spirit is the Holy Spirit.

God will have the last word

When I read the Book of Revelation I see that after the gospel has been preached to every tribe, tongue and nation then God will take over the “preaching”, He will speak from Heaven by shaking the foundations of the earth to its very core, and men will hide themselves in caves bcos they know who is speaking from Heaven. God will have the last word.

Christ builds His Church

When we consider that the true Christian life springs forth from a revelation of Christ, then the Church in exactly the same way springs forth from the same revelation of Christ, with His commands for Assembling and His order which came thru the Apostles. So, just as a person can’t be a true Christian without a revelation of Christ, in the same order, how can a group of people function together as a true Church unless there is a revelation of the Word of God concerning the Church? That is, in the context where man’s traditions predominate and are even quite fixed in people’s consciences, there has to come a revelation of the Church which is powerful enough to over-rule the rule of man. This is why the beginnings of such a corporate expression, the laying of the foundation, may be painfully slow, as we are talking about revelation, not something which can be imparted into people at our will.

Christos-centric or Anthropocentric?

I hope i’m not engaging in reduction-ism (oversimplification) but I want to make an observation. Many of my Facebook friends post videos and updates from popular preachers and one characteristic of most of them is that they are man-centered (anthropocentric).

They begin with man and end with man: like, man has a problem etc. and Jesus or God or “grace” or “favor” can be used to tackle that problem and bring blessing, with the goal being what is perceived to be a better life for YOU, or a more “successful” life: You should do these things bcos “it will be good for you” and avoid those things bcos “it will be bad for you” : YOU is still at the center. Christ is not the center of it, He is not the Alpha and Omega of such teaching, He is not the goal… Jesus is sometimes referred to or used, but HE IS NOT THE SUBSTANCE OF IT, it is all man from start to finish.

It very deceitfully and gradually replaces Jesus with YOU, and Jesus is gradually eliminated in very small increments and YOU replaces Him, not suddenly, but a very subtle shift and exchange.

It comes down to a “Christian” formula or methodology for apparent success: the Scriptures are interpreted as solely there to serve man’s greed and self-centered-ness, and the Person of Jesus Christ is rarely seen at all: it depends on what you’re looking for, whether you are man-centered or Christ-centered (Christos-centric).

Marketers know that all you need to do is find out what people want and then sell it to them. So that’s easy then when it comes to marketing a ministry, all you need to do is realize that most people are selfish, so if you can appeal to their selfishness or their pride or ego, and give them advice how, as Christians, they can still make SELF the main goal in life and yet still use Jesus name, then they buy it.

Years ago there was an advertisement for a bank and their slogan was “For the most important person in the world, YOU”. This hits home and embodies the same ethos and drive of popular modern preachers, it’s the same subtle man-centered and Christ-denying message.

For example:

Don’t speak any bad words bcos that will not be good for YOU. Speak good words and that will be good for YOU.

Give your money bcos that will be good for YOU, and if you don’t give your money that will be bad for YOU.

Confess the scriptures bcos that will give YOU favor and success, and if you don’t it won’t be good for YOU.

Forgive others and that will be good for YOU and if not that will be bad for YOU.

Don’t worry as that will be bad for YOU.

Sin will have bad consequences for YOU and doing good will be good for YOU.

Pray that things go well for YOU and that YOU have favor, otherwise it will not go well for YOU. Pray for others that they will give YOU favor and so that your friendship with them will be good for YOU.

Love yourself and that will be good for YOU. Love others and that will be good for YOU.

Think positive and that will be good for YOU.

Have a vision and dream and that will be good for YOU to achieve YOUR dreams.

THIS SUMS UP THE MESSAGE OF MOST MODERN TV PREACHERS. Now you know this you don’t need to waste your time and money on them anymore.

Be Christ-centered not man-centered. Consider what is good for HIM before you consider what is good for YOU.

One thing about 666 is that it represents the ultimate self glorification of man (six is the number of man) so a man-centered “gospel” or “church” is of the spirit of antichrist.