It's Just That Simple

Some have been wondering why there have not been many posts lately.  I have always stated that if the Lord is not giving me something to say, then I will say nothing.  When I post, it is because I am led to post.  When I don't, it is because God has not given me what to say. If I never post here again, that is truly fine with me. 

The following video was shared with me, and I felt it kind of summed up my thoughts in this area.  It is a short documentary about the ministry of a woman referred to as "The Preacher Lady of Riverdale, GA".   At one point in the video, the minister, Mary James, is speaking to a man in his car, asking him if he is saved.  He replies, "Nah, I ain't saved baby."  Now, I have to admit that this put me off.  Not that he called her baby, but that she didn't correct him.  How can you have a sober conversation with someone about the Lord when they are calling you "Baby"?

Folks, saving souls is serious business.  The things of God command respect & honor because He is holy.  If we do not understand this, then how can we expect anyone to take us - or God - seriously?  I honestly cannot picture the Apostles ignoring someone calling them, "Pimp" or "Dog" while they are trying to lead them to Christ.  Nonetheless, she asks the young man to repeat after her as she proceeds to recite a sinner's prayer, which he does.  Then she says, "It's just that simple.  Welcome to the family of God."

Friends, nothing could be farther from the truth. I don't care what words you recite, if you are not drawn by the Holy Spirit of God to have a heartfelt change through repentance from sin - and are walking in that truth daily -  then you are not saved.  You cannot come to faith in Jesus Christ apart from such brokenness (repentance).  Where in Scripture does it talk about "inviting Jesus into your heart"?  What does that even mean? 

I am not against street preaching.  We are commanded by Jesus to go into all the world and proclaim the good news; even from the highways to the byways, compelling people to come to Jesus.  However, if our works (preaching on the street, writing on a blog, giving a sermon in church, feeding the hungry, etc.) are not inspired by the Lord, then they are all dead works.  It is just that simple.  The evidence that a work is born of God is that it generates life in the hearer.

"...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."John 10:10b

Further, if God calls us for a work, then He will prepare us for it and it will be fruitful.  It will prosper to accomplish His purposes because God is performing the work through you.  I am not talking about worldly standards of success.  In fact, just look to Gideon's army as an example of how God prospers (Judges Chapter 7).  His ways are often counter to the ways of the world; He chooses what looks foolish to the world in order to confound the wisdom of the wise.  This way, it will be known that God alone - and not flesh - has performed it. My point is that you can have lots of activity, speak really loudly, possess lots of zeal, use lots of charisma, have lots of supporters...and still be promoting nothing but a dead work. 

Look around you on the streets today.  People are spiritually dead and they are continuously feeding on death by partaking of the things of the world.  Even in many churches, people sit bound while the minister yells, screams, tunes ups, and squalls...only to have them leave in the same condition (or worse) then when they came.  This is salvation??

People need the life of Jesus Christ to transform them, but who has that life within in order to share it with them?  If we are not literally imparting the power of the life of Christ to others, then what are we doing really?  And this pertains to everything that we do.  What are we really doing?  Are we just going through the motions of religion or are we truly being led and fed by the Spirit of God?  Do we even desire to be?

"For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you." II Corinthians 4:11-12

By the way, by no means do I intend to hold this woman up to ridicule.  She is doing more than many others who claim to believe.  However, possessing the life of Christ within is about more than activity and emotion.  You can be sincere in your efforts and still be sincerely wrong.   When you are looking at people bound by grief, addiction, idolatry, sickness, perversion...religion is just a woefully poor substitute.  It takes more than a sinner's prayer and a pep talk about love to convert a soul.  It takes the power of a Living God; a power which slams into our very being, confronts us with the truth, and brings us to naught when we finally see ourselves for who we really are before a holy God: a wretched soul in need of a Savior. This is the power that saves souls, and this is the power which needs to be at work in us if we are His witnesses.

"Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known." Psalm 106:8

UPDATE:  This article explains why the message being taught in the video is so misleading.

Those Who Wait Upon the Lord

A song from Esther Mui based upon Isaiah 40:25-31.

"To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God? Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding. 

He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."

The Maestro of Music

A woman I know recently took her children to see the Justin Bieber concert.  I personally know nothing about him and could not name even one song he sings.  My pastor has mentioned in previous sermons how he has a fingernail polish line, but beyond that I am clueless.

Nonetheless, the woman shared some pictures she took at the concert and one really stood out at me.  It was an image of Justin Bieber floating above the crowd wearing angel's wings.  While that in and of itself may not be particularly interesting, what the wings were made of was: the wings are made of music.

If you look closely at the construction of the wings, you can see that they are made of piano keys, drum cymbals, speakers, guitars...  Bieber is literally presented as the angel of music, who we know was Lucifer.

"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created." Ezekiel 28:13

Interestingly enough, the theme of the Justin Bieber tour is "Believe".  I wondered what a young man presenting himself as Satan would want his fans to "Believe."  It was easy enough to find out because the angel entry is the opening part of the tour and is accompanied by a voice over about the importance of "believing".  In what can only be described as a serpentine, hypnotic voice, the announcer says:

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.  Now you are entering into another world.  A world that has no limits.  No rules. Only endless possibilities.  

Can you hear it?  The vibration of the beat?  The rhythm of your heart and the electricity running in through your veins?  Allow your imagination to skyrocket; your dreams to be released. Let go of everything, but this moment.  Be strong.  Be brave, but most importantly, Believe."

Notice how he speaks about feeling the frequency of the beats in your body?  We have discussed this technique before, and it's use by a company called I-Doser to alter brain function.  It has even found its way into the church.  Compare the words from Bieber's concert to the words from Patricia King's Ekstasis Worship ministry:

"This generation longs to experience God in a way, in an abandoned way like never before...The music as you are jumping and dancing and moving around, well the words we are speaking become one at a cellular level in your body.

And it is not like you're learning it, it's part of who you are. It's no longer that you have to study the word, but when you are inside of an infused atmosphere with dancing and your body is moving and the word is coming and the music, it becomes part of you...

With the rhythm, the sound, and the repetitiveness of the music the word is driven into your body, not just your mind, not just your soul, but the whole mind, body and soul. Ekstasis Worship is worship that you go outside of your mind and just release yourself into the abandoned worship of God."

This is all witchcraft, using sound/light frequencies to alter a person's state of consciousness.  Folks, this is real, and it is happening right in front of our eyes.  Satan is the Maestro of Music and he will use that stealthily in order to sow seeds of rebellion in the heart. All music is not evil of course, but you have to understand the spirit behind the music.  God never requires us to disengage from our minds in order to fellowship with Him.  Rather, he wants to reason together with us (Isaiah 1:18).  Satan will use every avenue he has to drive you out of your senses so that he can make you into what he is: one damned to Hell.  If you don't understand the powerful influence Satan can exert via this medium, I encourage you to watch the video, "The Power of a Selfless Life".

There is a children's Bible song that say, "Be careful little ears what you hear."  We must be wise in these last days; wise about what we hear and what we allow our children to listen to.  The spiritual war we fight against the enemy is getting hotter each day, but it is also becoming more blatant.  Make sure you are not bewitched so that you have eyes to see.

For THERE the LORD Commanded the Blessing

Omega Spring Gathering 

"[A Song of degrees of David.] Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! 

It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; 

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." Psalm 133:1-2

It is something very special to have God's people dwelling together in unity.  As was shared in a previous post, a number of God's promises are only realized when the saints come together in one mind and purpose (unity).

To quote Min. David Pawson, "God doesn't want to just fill individuals with His Spirit, but His Body, His family."  This is the imagery we see in Psalm 133, where God's anointing covers the whole Body and all of Zion.  It is in such a setting of unity that our Lord commands His blessings to come forth.

In the comments section of another post, there has been discussion about the covenant believers have with one another.  While many know that we are in covenant with the Lord, it may not be understood that we are also in covenant with each other, our fellow believers.  This is simply a concept with which many are not familiar.  Therefore, I wanted to share a few teachings by Min. Derek Prince on this topic:

• Covenant Relationships are Horizontal, Too
• Laying Down Our Lives
• The New Lifestyle—Koinonia
• The Covenant Meal
• Conduct that Undermines Covenant

I pray you can take the time to read the teachings above as it might give new life and meaning to your understanding of what true fellowship is.

That said, I also wanted to extend an invitation for you to fellowship with us at the Omega Church & Ministries Center spring gathering. It will be in Atlanta, GA from April 26th - 28th.

Click here to register or obtain more information about this gathering.

It is my prayer that this fellowship be a time of refreshing, a time of unity, a time where the blessings of God will pour forth on and through every participant.  I am not speaking of simply earthly prosperity.  I am speaking of the life of Jesus Christ (in all its power, majesty, and grace) being made manifest in the lives of believers so that each person leaves with a deeper revelation of Christ within.  The days are dark, and getting darker, but that simply means the light of Christ must shine brighter within us all.  If you consider coming, please devote some time to fasting & prayer prior to the conference so that God will prepare our hearts for what He endeavors to accomplish at that time.  If you are unable to come, please pray nonetheless that God use this time to create a true & lasting unity by His Spirit which emboldens us all to be ministers of the Gospel (doers of His word).

100% Wrong?

We recently spoke about discerning the difference between the true and false church. Today, I received the following message from Pastor Zac Poonen and felt it was appropriate to share.

Pastor Poonen has often said that the opinion of man - whether good or bad - is fit for nothing but the trash can, and I couldn't agree more.  In these evil days where many name the name of Jesus, but very few it seems are true believers in His words - seek to have the mind of Christ.  Seek to hear as God hears and see as He sees.  Don't be led by emotions, charisma, or even fear.  Neither be concerned about what others think of you.  Simply follow as God leads and let Him take care of the rest.

With apostasy increasing all around us, it is going to be more important than ever before that you know (and submit to) the truth for yourselves.  As you do, you will know those who are of the Lord and those who are not by His Spirit.  The righteous are not identified by the loudest talkers or the biggest crowds, but those transformed to bear the life & power of the Son of God within.

May we all be counted in that number by God's grace.
____

The Opinion That 99% of Our Fellow-Believers Have About Us Can Be 100% Wrong
by Zac Poonen

In Rev 3:1 we read; and to the angel of the church in Sardis write; He who has the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars says this; ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.'

The messenger in Sardis was one who had built up a tremendous reputation before others as a spiritual man. But the Lord’s opinion of him was the exact opposite of that of his fellow-believers in Sardis. This shows how carnal and gullible most believers in Sardis were.

More than 90% of believers are unable to differentiate between a carnal preacher and a spiritual one. And more than 99% of believers are unable to distinguish between human-soul-power and Holy-Spirit-power.

Most believers are impressed by the display and exercise of spiritual gifts and that is how they evaluate a preacher or an elder. And that is how they are deceived. God however looks at the heart. The messenger at Sardis may have had the gifts of the Spirit. But he was spiritually dead.

This is a warning for all of us to take heed to: The opinion that 99% of our fellow-believers have about us can be 100% wrong! God’s opinion about us could be the exact opposite of their opinion.

The same applies to a church. Others may consider a church to be “spiritually alive”. But God may know it to be spiritually dead. And vice-versa. Churches that God considers spiritually alive could be considered dead by undiscerning men.

Most believers evaluate a church by the warmth of the welcome they receive when they come to the meetings, the size of the congregation, the amount of noise and emotion in the meetings, the musical quality of the singing, the intellectual content of the sermon and the amount of the offering!! But God isn’t impressed by any of these things.

God evaluates a church by the Christlike humility, purity and love and the freedom from self-centredness that He finds in the hearts of its members. God’s evaluation and man’s evaluation of a church can therefore be at total variance with each other. In fact, they usually are.

The Power of a Selfless Life

Jesus, Either a Fence or Offense

You can walk peacefully with many brothers and sisters - and even with those in the world - until the topic of sin comes up.  This is why Jesus is a rock of offense to so many (Romans 9:33; I Peter 2:7-8), even to some who claim to serve Him.  They don't want sin exposed. 

"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.  But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin." John 15:20-22

Jesus' existence necessitates dealing with sin for such is why He came, to pay for the sin of the world and pave the way for our victory over it.  His very presence removes any cloak man might seek for sin.  For the believer, that is good news!   In fact, as believers walk with God, He will point out more and more within us which is not pleasing to Him as we are perfected in Him.  It is a continual walk of faith, but also of repentance. We must be sure not to be offended by this for that offense is the evidence of things contrary to God within our hearts.

God is making us a vineyard whereby our fellowship with Him, and the flow of His life through us, can continue uninterrupted.

"Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. 

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? 

And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down: And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." Isaiah 5:1-6

Jesus has fenced us unto Himself and cleared out the debris in our hearts so that we can bring forth much fruit.  Yet, when He looks at the vineyard, it is producing wild fruit.  The question then becomes, "What is perverting the fruit?"  It is certainly nothing the Lord has done, or left undone.  He asks, "What more could have been done to equip my vineyard to bring forth good fruit?"

"Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." Isaiah 5:24

The problem is that the vine is feeding from a source other than the life of God.  Instead of being rooted in God's word (our bread of life), the people are portrayed in the Chapter as being drunken - which is often symbolic in Scripture of entertaining the wisdom of the world.  The result is that the people are overrun with sin and the fence or hedge of protection Jesus placed around us is removed. 

How foolish would we be to have been planted the "choicest" of vines, and yet seek nourishment from the filth and degradation of the world, expecting it to generate life in us.  Rather, we will be feeding death to our souls and will be given over to a life of sin.

The following sermon is from Pastor Gary C. Price of Omega Church & Ministries Center called "The Power of a Selfless Life", as he deals with what sin is, where it came from, and how to overcome it.

All Things That Ever I Did

The Beauty of Jacob's Well

"Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour. 

There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. 

The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. 

The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father. Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. 

The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her? The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" John 4:5-29

I have been getting a number of comments lately questioning whether Christians are supposed to address sin or error.  Some say it is not "loving" to do so, and we have talked about that in the past.  However, recently it was said that Jesus never pointed out people's sin; that Christians are only supposed to talk about the sin of believers...and some say we should not even address that!  It was also suggested that pointing out sin to sinners is akin to casting pearls before swine.  I have found none of these assertions to be Scriptural and believe the story of the woman at the well is quite relevant to these assertions.

The woman at the well was a Samaritan, and the Jews were to have no dealings with them.  The Samaritans were a people mixed with the Gentiles and who shared a number of their idolatrous practices.  Part of the sanctification of the Jewish people included separating themselves from Samaritans.   This is why the woman at the well was so surprised that Jesus (obviously a Jew) would speak to her.  Notice as well that this was not simply a distinction the Samaritan woman made, but one that Jesus also recognized for He comments that she is ignorant of salvation which is "of the Jews".

The interesting thing to consider however, is that the Samaritan woman was really of the lineage of Israel, she was of Jacob's loins. This is why the woman refers to Jacob (Israel) as her "father" who had given her people this well.  Her fellow Samaritans were cousins to the Jews residing in Judea.

Although God had called them unto Himself to come out of the world (through the covenant with Jacob), the Samaritans had instead become mixed with in with the Gentiles over the generations, whereby they were almost indistinguishable from them.

This is a picture of God's people who are still in Babylon.  They are for all intents and purposes "of the world", enslaved in sin, and ignorant of the salvation by which God is calling them unto Himself.  They are in need of living water that only Jesus Christ can provide, but He must be revealed to them before they can receive it.

The city where this well is located is called "Sychar" which means "drunken".  The woman is like the inhabitants of the earth depicted in Revelation, being "drunk" from the wine of the fornication of the world (Revelation 14:8, 17:2). God has a people who are still in Babylon, and He is calling them to come out of it (Revelation 18:4).  As with those in Babylon, this woman outwardly appeared not to be a Jew.  Even the condition of her life being filled with sin and fornication would contest any assertion that she is one called of God.  Yet Jesus offers her living water.

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:17

Such is the beauty of Jacob's well.  It is for all who would come and thirst, including those who right now might appear to be sinners lost in the world (as we also once appeared).  It comes with a message to turn from the wine of the world which makes you drunk and be filled instead with living waters from the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18)!

Yet, notice as well how Jesus was revealed to this woman and what convinced her that He was indeed the Messiah.  Jesus was clearly loving and wise, yet one thing stood out: Jesus told her about herself, including her sin.

"Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" John 4:29

I read the book of Micah last week and it is filled with God's judgment against sin.  He will 'tread upon the high places, 'beat down the idols', 'make the exalted lands a heap'...  Yet as I read, I noticed myself in agreement with these judgments saying in my heart to God, "Yes Lord, tear down every false way in me.  Destroy every idol.  Break in pieces every high thing in my heart."  I don't share that to say, "Oh, look how humble I am."  I share it because it just brought home to me how God's work in judging sin is a blessing to His people!  These judgments I saw as promises from God that He will not leave us in the filth and degradation we were born into in the world.  The beauty of Jacob's well is not only that it gives us living water, but that it deals with our sin!  That is a good thing!

Don't you want to be cleansed and purged to be more like Jesus every day?  Don't you want Him to expose the secret things of the heart which keep us from true intimacy with Him?  Don't you want Him to put His finger on those things which plant seeds of the world in our hearts?  Such is the yearning of true believers.

"Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." Psalm 139:23-24

Jesus dealt with sin, even the sin of those who would be considered "of the world".  Such should not be done in condemnation (John 8:3-9) or hypocrisy (Matthew 7:1-5).  However, exposing sin is certainly part of the Gospel.  That is why John the Baptist (in the spirit of Elijah) comes first to preach repentance and that men make their pathways straight in preparation for the coming of the Lord.  We are called to warn the wicked and the righteous so that men may come to repentance and believe God (Ezekiel 3:18-21).