If Jesus should appear right now, or death should close your eyes; are you ready?
Have you made your calling and election sure, or are you still living with the pigs and happy with having to repent daily?
Are you still a sinner saved by grace, or a holy people bound to a holy and sinless God?
Are you happy to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, or are you seeking a more indepth relationship with Christ where sin cannot dwell?
Perhaps the lure of the crowd still can persuade you to lie down with the devil and abuse the temple of the Holy Ghost?
Know that Jesus is coming back for a people who look like him. 1 John 3:2 states: Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. The bold text implies that when Jesus shall appear we shall be like him, signafying that we shall not see him until we are like him. Therefore, just like him we must be sinless, righteous, and loving. He must be our only focus, our only dedication, and our only love. This means that we must die to our own way of doing things, we must die to the nature of our flesh, we must die to the “I” in ourselves, and live to Christ in the spirit.
Are you ready?
Are you still finding pleasure in that which God has commanded us not to do? Fornication, Adultry, hatred, murder, backbiting and the like? Is your heart telling a different story than the one you pertray? for God looks at our heart, not the outer apearance. Therefore, when you come into the presence of God and he begins to search your heart, please let the story match your actions.
ARE YOU READY?
Greetings in the Precious name of Jesus,
Today we see all kinds of news about the state of this worlds economy, men hearts are failing, because many have lost possessions, and are uncertain about the future. However, this is not my economy.
In my economy, God uses gold as building blocks, diamonds and pearls are used for gates, and crystal is used for rivers. In my economy, God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and I have need of nothing. If this seems hard for you to swallow, perhaps you should look very closely at where you live.
I live in a kingdom and the King is responsible for my well being. I do not depend on the Democracy we are of for I am in the world, but not of the world. Therefore, my every need is supplied by our Lord and King Jesus the Christ. This worlds economy is subject to mans frailties and faults, but God is not subject to anyone, and therefore, has given us the ability to speak those things that be not as though they were. As though they were; is past tense, he didn’t say as though they are, but as though they were; meaning they already exist if we have the faith to believe it.
We are a people subject to the world our eyes see and therefore, are made subject to the limitations of our vision. However, Jesus died to correct our vision that the world through him might look to that which is not seen, rather than that which is. If you are born of God meaning you have been baptized by the Spirit of God (Holy Ghost); you are no longer in a democracy, but a kingdom. This means that we are no longer subject to the limitations of this worlds governments, but are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. When was the last time a son or daughter of the King went without their basic needs.
Perhaps you need to change your vision. Perhaps if we were not attempting to make ourselves comfortable in this world, our eyes would look to the world that is to come. Set your affections on things above, not on things of the earth. It is God’s pleasure to meet all of your needs, and he does it based on His riches in glory, not the worlds riches which are limited.
If you are stressing over the worlds economy, your vision is impaired, if the bills are getting you down, your affections are in the wrong direction. look to the hills from which comes your help. If its not coming from the Lord where is it coming from? As God clothe the lily He can clothe you, as He feeds the birds of the air, he can feed you. Whose report are you believing? The news will always give you bad news, but Jesus has good news for you; I AM. He says I am everything you need.
Is there anything too hard for God? No good thing will he withhold from them who walk uprightly. Look out, what do you see? Do you see confusion, or do you see order? Does your wallet move with the World’s economy, or God’s? Your situation will change based on your vision. If your vision is limited so will your outcome be limited; in other words, you are limited only by your vision. Do you need healing? Then your vision can’t be limited by your sickness. Do you need a home? Don’t limit your vision by your inability to afford one. All things are possible to them who believe and walk according to the will of the Lord.
Believe and you SHALL receive. Receive it before you see it and it is yours. Be relentless in your faith, and God will be relentless in the answer. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own vision (Understanding). Let God’s economy supersede this world’s economy, and you will have lack of nothing. When God is all you need, He is all you will receive, and that is everything.
I pray these words of encouragement will fill you and empower you. Feel free to pass this along if you like and remember, we are not waiting on God, He is waiting on our vision to change.
God bless.
Several weeks ago, the Lord woke me up at 1:00am and began to reveal to me that he is on his way back. It was a Fierce urgency of him moving closer and close to us. It was a warning to get our house in order. To move beyond the petty things we setup to separate us from one another.
The Lord is coming back for spirit and soul, therefore, you may believe you are a good person, but if you don’t have the spirit of God; you will not be going back with him, and if you don’t accept him as your personal savior; you will not be going back with him. If you are still engaging in sex beyond marriage; you will not be going back with him. If you are masturbating to get a release; you will not be going back with him. If you are holding anger against someone who have wrong you; you are not going back with him. For how can he forgive you, when you can’t forgive your fellow man? How can you love God whom you can’t see, and hate your brother whom you see everyday?
The Lord is preparing his people for his soon return. And that’s why you can’t engage in the sins of the flesh, and expect to go back with God. That’s why preacher, you can’t have sex with all the women in the congregation, and expect to go back with Christ. That’s why ladies, you can’t come before God with all your stuff hanging out for the world to see, and expect that he accepts it.
So for some of you who will say: “What an all loving God who will leave people behind, or cast them into hell.” Well, an all loving God sent his mercy which is renewed everyday, to give you space to repent, and you wouldn’t. An all loving God sent his son, to die for you on a cross, taking the curse that was meant for you, and laying it on himself; whom you have rejected. An all loving God sends his sons and daughters everyday to tell you of his love, his grace, and of his peace; and you think them crazy. Yet, he is still reaching out to you, he is still sending his sons and daughters out to you. Will you receive him, or will you continue to reject him?
This is real and Jesus is coming back. Will you be ready, or will you continue to be complacent? Will you continue to reject him, or will you reach out to him and let him save your soul?
The Lord is ready to receive you; please don’t put this off. If death closes your eyes tonight, Jesus has come for you. Will you be ready? Yes, someone will have to go to hell, but that someone does not have to be you. Please accept him as your personal Savior today, right now, ask him to come into your heart and change you from within. Confess your faults before him and ask for forgiveness; he will forgive you.
This is not religious rhetoric, this is about your salvation, and in salvation religion has no legs to stand on. I pray you will make Jesus your choice.
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Whew, what a year its been and its not over yet. From homelessness to joblessness; this year started seemingly with not much to hope for.
As you may or may not know, this year started with me being homeless and jobless, but God in his infinite wisdom and in His divine purpose walked me through it; while breaking me, strengthening, and rebuilding me. We don’t know or understand the purpose of a thing until we reach the other side. Because I have waited on God, He has moved me into a job, a home, and seeing the birthing of a new book (Black Sheep Secret). He has blessed me to have my first book signing, along with allowing me to look back at where He has brought me from, with the ability to praise him for the struggle it took to get me here.
Perhaps now you are in a time of testing and tribulation, and it just does not seem like you are going to come out of it. I am living proof that what God begins in you He is able to complete it against that day. The enemy will try to persuade you that it won’t be done, can’t be done, and that God has forgotten you; still, hold on to the promises of God for they stand sure.
Right now the economy is in such disrepair that even the people of God are experiencing major set backs. However, God is not limited by mans economy. We serve a God who uses gold as building blocks, pearls as gates, and crystal for rivers; He is more than capable of meeting your needs even in this economy. Too many times we spend our time looking at what we don’t have, instead of what we do have. We begin to look outwardly, instead of inward where God resides and is waiting on our call. There are no situation you are in that God can’t solve. There are no needs God can’t meet.
Understand that God is with you even in your darkest moments. Even now I am in need, because though I have a job and a roof over my head it is a constant struggle to keep them. Yet I know that I gave myself nothing, and nothing can be taken away without the Lord willing it so. Everything I have or will have has been given by God and will be given by God.
When there was no one I could run to, the Lord stepped in. When there was no food, God spread a table before me in the presence of my enemies. When I needed a jacket for the winter, the Lord rained a jacked down for me, in front of me. Where there was no job, the Lord created one, and gave me favor in it. When I was in need of shelter, the Lord supplied.
What am I saying? Hold on, loose control and let God take control. Realize that in you there is no hope, but in Christ all hope abounds. Express your needs and expect Him to provide them. Until we get to the point that we can do nothing we tie the Lords hands; because we become busy trying to work everything out. However, when we come to the knowledge of our frailties; that is when the Lord steps in and does everything we need. When we become as little children depending on Him for everything, this is when we begin to see the powerful move of God.
I am a living witness and a testament, that God is simply waiting for us to get to the point where we throw up our hands, surrender our wills and accept that He is in control. Then and only then will we experience Him completely in all areas of our lives.
Fortunately, in order to get us to the place were we will surrender our wills, He has to put us in a place were we can do nothing else. In a place where all the doors are closed, every move we make puts us in front of another closed door. People around us start to suggest places we could go for help, and that door is closed as well. In our frustration and anguish, we call out to the Lord, and then realize this is all we had to do in the first place. In this place is where relationship is built and praise is perfected.
Be encouraged my friends. God has not forgotten you.
In a time when everything is going awry it is easy to fall into a stupor and doubt god. In the face of the economies down spiral and high gas prices, the struggle to maintain bills, and jobs being lost on a daily basis it would seem almost justified to doubt god’s ability to meet every need.
However, God’s economy is not limited to the world’s economy. His provision is not limited to your bank account, or to the Federal deficit. He still has cattle on a thousand hills, he is still the God that fed Ezekiel
in the wilderness: “And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to
feed thee there” 1 Kings 17:4. If God commanded the ravens to feed Ezekiel, do you not think that he will command provision in your season?
Isn’t it so easy to trust God in the time of plenty? When He places a hedge around you, and rebukes the devourer for your sake. However, when the time of testing comes we begin to forget the time that God hedged us in on every side. When he provided for us and kept us. Where is your faith?
Where is confidence you had in Christ when the rains flowed freely, when the showers of blessings flowed in
abundance, and you wanted for nothing? Where is the faith that says: If he brought me through that, he can take me through this? Child of God where is your faith?
I get it. You can only trust God when all is well. Your faith can only stand when everything is going your way, however, when the time comes to carry your own cross now God has not done anything for you. Now we
can’t remember how he brought us through. Is it true that we only have sight for the here and now or for the right now? Whose report do you believe? So what if they are laying off on your job, so what if they are downsizing your job? So what? Either God is going to be your provider or he’s not. Either God is going to be your source or he’s not. You decide.
As for me and my house we will serve the Lord. We have vowed to believe beyond belief, to trust beyond trust, and to stand beyond our ability to stand. What has your faith done for you lately.
The term is meant to represent persons who either don’t know as much as someone else, say like a pastor, or has no assigned function during service. In any meaning it is not a biblical term, nor is it representative of Christ. For which part of Christ’s body does not have a function? Every member of the body of Christ has a function, a calling, and a responsibility in the service and in the world. If not, it is cast aside and burned in the fire.
This term is responsible for alienating a whole group of people who feel like they have no part in the congregation, or that their only function is to be seated in order for the pastor to have someone to minister to. Therefore, we have some who come to service and do nothing, because they feel like they are not needed, or not accepted as those who work, or hold an office in the congregation. Jesus rejected this notion when he spoke against the Pharisees who thought they were more important because they had a great position in the temple. Nay, the people who are more important are the people who don’t hold any position in the congregation, because they meet newcomers first. Therefore, the way they are treated is the way they will treat guests. If you make them feel less important, in order to feel important they; will make the guest feel less important.
Rather, we must empower this group of people who are in fact the forerunners in the congregation. Their life, the way they present themselves, and the way they treat guest will determine if the guest stays, or returns. Furthermore, the purpose of the so called lay member is to learn the ways of Christ, and then perform them. They are to grow in Christ and become leaders themselves. Not stay in a particular congregation all their life and never grow beyond the four walls of one worship center.
The worship center should be a revolving door where new people come in, learn to follow, hear, and obey Christ on their own. Then when God says it’s time, they should leave, begin their own ministry (not necessarily a congregation) and make room for someone else to take their place.
Pastors, we must delight in the sending forth of new leaders into the vineyard, but instead we have become people hogs. We want to keep everyone to ourselves, and then let none go. You are, and have hindered many who God has sent forth. Many who would have been a great help to you, you have denied their gifting, and diminished their anointing in order to make yourself look good. God have mercy on your soul, for he has never given you people to rule, but to lead, to teach, and to empower. The congregation, and thereby the worship center is a learning center for all people. I challenge you to throw out the term “Lay Members”, and empower all people to serve God in the way he has chosen them to serve him. It’s not about us, but about Him.
A better term would be Students Of The Kingdom, because they are being groomed by the Lord. They are having their senses exercised to discern between good and evil, and we never stop being students of the kingdom.
However, don’t fool yourself, not all those who don’t hold an office, or are not on the choir stand, and the usher board. Some of them God himself have placed them there to pray you through, to carry you in the spirit, to combat demons who seek to interrupt the flow of God, and to interceed and cover new believers. Not from the pulpit, not from the choir and not from the ministrerial Staff, but right from the pew. They war in the spirit; they are there during service, and as soon as the benediction is done they are in the wind; because they are on a mission from God, and they can’t sit around chit-chatting about nothing.
We must change our view of those who we feel are not working in the service. Some of them are working, only not in ways that you can measure.
Promise, this word gives us hope and strength to endure the long road ahead. We shout over the promise, lift our voices because of the promise, and then we abort the promise. We create our own promise and call it God’s promise, and then when God starts to move to answer the promise we begin to side step the promise. You see the process to receiving the promise is not a bed of roses; it’s not the joys in life that shapes us, but the struggle that makes us. You see somethings can’t come through until we go through; there are gifts in you that God can’t get to you, because you won’t suffer, and suffering is a promise.
You want to be great in the Kingdom of Heaven? Suffer. You want to be used by God to impact this world? Endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You want to be “Real”? Deny yourself, pickup and carry your own cross. Learn to rejoice in the time of trial and tribulation in spite of what you are going through. Take examples from our dear Apostles and prophets who suffered for Christ, and went away rejoicing because of their suffering. They embraced their trials, because they trusted in the promise of a greater hope. What promise have you aborted because you won’t suffer shame, you won’t suffer yourself to be defrauded, and you have to have the last word in arguments?
God is not looking for a winner, He is looking for a looser that He can turn into a winner. He is looking for a fool that He can make wise. Therefore, when you go about showing yourself as someone who can put people in their place; remember that a seed doesn’t grow until it dies. We must die to our way of doing things, to our thought, and to our will of being in control. Until we lose control we will never receive God’s true promise.
It is not the devil when people attack you for seemingly no reason. It is not the devil when your loved ones turn their backs on you. It is not the devil when someone begins to correct you forcibly, and you begin to feel small. It is not the devil, but God making you over again, renewing your spirit, and building the promise in you. You were not created just to receive a promise, but to be the promise. You are not saved just to have a ministry, but to be a ministry, and you were not saved to simply attend service, but to be a service. This is the promise God wants to get to you. Therefore, stop aborting the promise.
First of all let’s stop calling what we do in service church. Church is not a service, it’s a people called out for God’s purpose; people who are filled with the Spirit of God, and washed in the blood of the Lamb.
Second, lets start being honest with the people of God. Stop trying to show our self as some great prophet, pastor, leader, and put God’s Spirit back in the drivers’ seat. Stop making people more obedient to us more than they are to God; and carry our own briefcase. Put more of the responsibility to serve God where it belongs; in the hands of God’s people. Teach God’s people to go to God for themselves, rather than making them come to us for all the answers.
God sent His Spirit that we may be one with Him; sons and daughters partakers of His divine presence. He chose pastors over His flock to teach us how to come closer to Him, and then allow us to depend on Him. Put freedom back into our time of worship, and stop holding people to our scheduled service. Give people back their free will. If they don’t want to attend service they don’t have to.
Third, please abolish membership. The house of worship should be a place where we come to share with each other the wonderful workings of God. Not be obligated to attend services every time the doors open, and if we are not in attendance we are counted as backsliders, or looked upon as if we are doing something wrong. I am the church; therefore, I take my body where ever the Lord leads me.
Fourth, can we please have a central place where everyone can put their offering; instead of having an open offering where people who do not have an offering are made to feel less than those who do. Put a container at the door of the sanctuary, and let those who are giving; place their offering into it without any fanfare. Then assign the ushers to watch it while worship is going on. Furthermore, please stop with the hundred dollar lines; where we parade people around who are giving their hundred dollars. Giving should be between the person giving, and the Lord. This way our time of worship can be unhindered by these customs and traditions we hold for our own benefit.
Fifth, for goodness sake, can we please stop selling dinners after service, and allow people to come and eat freely. There are a lot of people who don’t have the money to buy food from the store, let alone buy it from us. This is not another opportunity to steal money from God’s people. Freely you have received freely give.Certainly we could involve the young people in our service, make them feel like they are apart of our worship. How will they learn worship if they never see it, if they are not seeing it at home, they should certainly see it in our times together.
Let me share with you what the church was supposed to be. First of all the church is not a building. It’s a people dedicated to the spirit of Christ. A people filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Holy Spirit, and committed to the building of the Kingdom of God. In this way the church is not a religion. “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?(1 Corinthians 6:19) The church is not and was never meant to be a building of brick and mortar. Over the years people have thought of the church as something you join, or something you have. How many times have you heard someone say: “Oh, we had church today”? Making the church something one has, instead of something one is, or possesses. When Paul addressed the church he was addressing people. “Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my well-beloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.” (Romans 16:5) Therefore, the church is where ever you, the spirit filled believer is. It is not a stationary, lifeless, cold, lukewarm building. “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3:16) Wherefore, if you do not bring the spirit into your place of worship; He will not be there.
Because the church is a people, it is imperative that we treat our bodies (temple) as such. As you know when we go into the place of worship; we take great care of it. We make sure the floors are vacuumed, the bathrooms are cleaned, the sanctuary is beautiful and other such things we do and should do. However, should not we take the same care of our own temples (bodies) the same way? “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.” (1 Corinthians 3:17) If you are still smoking; you are defiling the temple. If you are having sex outside of marriage; you are defiling the temple. “Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18) Get the picture?
One other thing, we are members of the body of Christ. “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” (Ephesians 5:30) Therefore, why do we need continued membership affiliation with an organization? Should we not be able to go to a particular service, and not be expected to join, or become a member of that organization; since we are the members of Christ. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.” (1 Corinthians 6:15) Is there any mention in the Bible, of us becoming members of an organization in order to be true believers? No! Not one. Why can’t we just come together as they did in the Bible; and simply worship God? The church has changed completely from what it was meant to be. We care more about our buildings, more than we care about the true churches of Jesus Christ; you. Jesus did not die for a building; He died for you and I that the word of God might be written on our hearts, that we would be living epistles of His grace. The Lord wanted a living, breathing, and blood flowing temple. A temple not made with hands.
Yet I hear people saying: “I know that my body is the temple.” However, if we know this, why are we sleeping with ministers, and pastors behind the congregation’s back? If we know we are the temple of God, why are we having children out of wedlock in the congregation in record numbers? If we know this, why are we fighting, bickering, and hating one another? Since we know we are the temple of Christ, why are we talking about one another in the midst of the congregation? Why? We are destroying the temple of God willingly? Well said the scripture: “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” (2 Timothy 3:2-5)
If I know that my body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; shouldn’t I then present my body as such? “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” (Romans 12:1)
When you ask: How the church needs changing? The church will only change when we change, because we are the church individually.
For decades human kind has debated the purpose, and need for religion. Based on this, our current definitions on religion is flawed.
Fundamentally religion means: to do something over and over again. This means that anything or anyone can be a religion; therefore anything starting with the premise of religion will be false. What Christ offered us on the cross was not religion, but salvation.
In religion there is the opportunity for more than one interpretation. Hence the many religions we have in the word, based on any given person’s interpretation of their sacred writings. For every scripture written there could be a religion attached to it, because one person will interpret it differently from someone else. In salvation there is no interpretations only revelation revealed by the Spirit of Christ, therefore, there is only one revelation.
Religion is simply a way for people to do their own thing with an organization to back it up. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3). “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils” (1 Timothy 4:1). Religion, much like the law for the Jews, is a cloak to keep us from the true salvation found only in Christ Jesus; a school master if you will, until the true salvation appeared.
In the Bible time we could us religion as a premise, because they were dedicated to its foundation. “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this; To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27). If religion did this for us today, we would be in a far better place, however, religion has failed us, because we have miss used it, and through it have turned the truth of God into a lie.
Salvation is a far better premise because it is not dependent on anyone’s interpretation. It is only dependent on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Therefore, whether you believe or not does not make salvation void, furthermore, salvation is not by works, but by faith. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Religion is thought as something you work towards while salvation is given through the faith of Jesus Christ. Therefore, religion is something you do, but salvation is something you receive through faith, and salvation can never be thought of as a crutch.
According to the Encarta Dictionary, crutch means: something that sustains or supports somebody or something that is otherwise liable to collapse, fail, or falter. By this definition we should not look at religion or salvation as a crutch, but the Lord himself. This is exactly what He is asking us to do: to lean and depend completely on Him, in other words; to be supported by Him. “Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment” (Matthew 6:25)? Certainly without Christ we will collapse, fail, and falter. Therefore I take great pride in saying that Christ is my crutch.
