AND THE ANSWER IS…

How did you react to the US Supreme Court’s ruling, imposing immorality on American society? They did it in the Roe Vs Wade decision and now they have done it again. All God’s people should have seen this as that. Shouldn't the eagle in the seal be replaced with a buzzard? The question is what can we do about it?

This morning's had an article about a county clerk in KY who refused to issue any marriage licenses at all. She is being sued and the ACLU is involved. We should applaud her actions and pray for her to have the finances to fight this suit. The problem is that she is violating her terms of employment as a public servant and could face jail time for that. Perhaps her superiors could reassign her to another position, with no loss of pay but that probably won’t happen. 

Pastors must speak out against immorality and I encourage every church leader train their people as to what is right and wrong. I am so thankful for the pastors who help me through that transition. Have you heard the angry preachers on talk radio shows, screaming against the Sodomites. We share his fear of the judgment that fell on Sodom for this immorality. Unfortunately his tactics are no longer effective in the American culture of these times.

One thing we must do as Christians is to exercise our right to vote and to be politically active. We cannot stand idly by and watch Queen Hillary ascend to power in this land. The church stuck it’s head in the political sand, we did not take a stand after we saw the acceptance of Darwin’s false theories challenging what is true and right. It’s been a downhill slide that has continuously accelerated over the last 100 years. Now we see our great nation spinning in the toilet, along with much of the world that the United States has not stood by. But political activism alone will not turn this tide.

We lament and feel terrible. We read and say things on social media in hopes of influencing some people of the urgency of the hour. This too is important but alone this will change but a few people’s minds at best.

AND THE ANSWER IS…

God has been speaking His method to bring change for a long time now. Some have heard the call and are being faithful to follow His solution. The following Scriptures are simply profound and specific. If we take the completeness of the message step by step we will be motivated, and empowered by the Lord, to take whatever specific actions the Lord leads. The only hope for America is another Great Awakening. May the light bulbs turn on in the hearts and minds of millions, may the Lord raise up His army and defeat the evil enemy that is laying his dark blanket of destruction and death across the world.

Matthew 4:17   From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

1 Cor.6:9    Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites,

10    nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

2 Chronicles 7:14    if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Isaiah 59:19    So shall they fear The name of the Lord from the west, And His glory from the rising of the sun; When the enemy comes in, like a flood The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

The crux of what God has been calling His church to is found in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let’s break it down and see the 5 steps involved.

1.    IF My people who are called by My name – Are you a Jew or a born again Christian? Than He is speaking to you. I’m both so I better hear the message. There is a conditional promise, we have a part in making it happen.

2.    …will humble themselves – there is no room for personal pride in the Kingdom of God, we realize that our life is in HIM, not in ourselves. We must realize that in and of ourselves we are powerless to please the Living God and powerless to effect real change in the right direction on the world.

3.    …and pray – He is not talking about wrote prayers, vain repetitions of something memorized. He is talking about heart to heart communication with the Almighty. The urgency of the hour should be sufficient motivation to heart felt fervency to petition the throne of God for ourselves, our families, the people within our circles and for our nation.

4.    …and seek My face – if you have never experienced the intimacy, the love of God, HIS touch in your heart seek Him for it. So much happens when we do. Think of Moses hidden in the cleft of the rock. A changing experience alone with God is our source of motivation and power.

5.    … and turn from their wicked ways – Repentance is a daily experience. We should be asking God to search our hearts and show us things we need to turn from all the time.

6.    … then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land – CONDITIONS MET, WE WILL RECEIVE THIS PROMISE.

FEAR NOT, DRAW NEAR TO GOD

A NOW WORD TO CHRISTIANS AND JEWS EVERYWHERE, written by a Jewish man, originally from Brooklyn, inspired by the Spirit of the Lord.

Isaiah 59:19:     So shall they fear

The name of the Lord from the west,

And His glory from the rising of the sun;

When the enemy comes in,

 like a flood The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.

We are seeing and hearing the enemy breath out many incredibly threatening things. We are hearing of much trouble for Christians, Jews and other God fearing people who hold to Biblical morality. Many preachers are describing things that make it appear the time of the 2nd coming of the Lord is near. We’ve heard threats against morality from our government. We hear threats of death and institution of the horrors of Sharia Law daily on the news. We see our national leaders marching to the beat of the enemy’s drum, denying we even have an enemy. There are threats from those on the left who are tearing down American foundations, desiring to transform America into something it was never intended to be. In WWII we had 2 enemies simultaneously, Japan and Germany. Now we have the evil ideologies of the Islam and of Progressivism competing against the Righteous for world control.

The Lord is drawing HIS people closer, HE created us for a relationship with HIMSELF that transcends circumstances (good or bad). In such a relationship time and location do no mean much because we hear HIS heartbeat and follow our Great Shepherd who will get us to the right place at the right time for us be; wherever and whenever that may be. And where is it that a shepherd leads the flock? Sometimes to pleasant meadows to graze, sometimes through dark valleys or on steep narrow footpaths on mountain sides with no railing. It may be an uphill climb through a dry place on a scorching hot day. But through all that and everything else we follow our Great  Shepherd for we know He leads to the mountain top.

PREVENTATIVE IMPERATIVES: Evil need not triumph, the church must not cower down and expect the worst. We must stand on God’s promises to HIS people and do what the MASTER has told us to do.

1.    Obey the WORD. The Lord has been declaring these verses repeatedly for many years. Perhaps you have heard it and seen it on the internet so many times you can quote it. I know that God has been screaming 2 Chron 7:14 to HIS church for many years and perhaps these threats are what it must take for the to knock the wax out of its ears. Christians and Jews everywhere need to heed all of it:

2 Chronicles 7:14  if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Romans 12:1   I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

2   And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

2.   Pray for our governmental leaders.

1 Timothy 2:1   Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,

2    for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.

3    For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,

4   who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Tim 2:4 is the goal, it states the reason for the journey the Great Shepherd leads us on. As we parade through all the stuff of life our life becomes God’s love letter to mankind. Look back up and see the phrases I underlined in 2 Chron 7:14 and Rom. 12:1 & 2

3.   Fight the good fight God’s way, like David beat Goliath.

                    2 Cor. 10:3     For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the                        flesh.

4    For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,

5    casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Ezekiel 36:27    I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Galatians 5:16    I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Acts 9:31    Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

We really have little idea as to when Jesus will return, be we can be certain that HE will. Therefore we should heed what the preachers have been declaring for generations,

GET READY, BE READY, STAY READY.

LIVE LIFE IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH

It’s Saturday morning, the one morning in the week I can usually sleep as late as I want. Let’s just say it is 6:20 AM and I’ve been up for an hour with this message bubbling inside. I am excited to share these principles that help us understand the a much higher way of living. How we react to those things our flesh doesn’t appreciate is often a matter of life and death, especially concerning relationships and offending others we love.

Like the old chorus says,

“If we walk in the Spirit of the Spirit we reap life. If we walk in the flesh we reap sorrow. “

Our flesh and our spirit are in a constant battle. My spirit really doesn’t care about the following but my flesh really doesn’t appreciate

• Waking up earlier than I want to.
• Being the slightest bit hungry
• Being sweaty
• Fatigue
• Self control
• Getting picked on,
• Being bullied or put down
• A full bladder or rectal pressure
• Pain of any kind
• Physical or emotional injury
• People who complain too much
• NOT GETTING IT’S OWN WAY

 …and your probably doesn’t either.

I believe way to many who consider themselves to be Christians have far too little understanding of the Holy Spirit. HE is experienced far more than what can be taught. The old expression is completely true, “It’s better felt than telt.”

WHERE THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS
THERE IS FREEDOM

Walking in the Spirit is not something unique to Pentecostals, Charismatic’s, Holy Rollers, or whatever else people call people like me. In the Charismatic Move in the 1970s blew away many of the divisions within Christendom. I am so thankful that the Lord moved in such a way as to get the church to repent of their ostracism of each other. Pentecostals are no longer “those crazy people on the wrong side of the tracks.” The commands of the following Scriptures are for all believers and bring us all, no matter what the title is on the sign outside the building, into the realm of the Spirit of the Lord,

2 Corinthians 3:17   Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Please take some time to meditate on the verses that follow. Roll them over in your mind and heart. It is my prayer that as you read the following verses that the Lord will touch your heart. We need to constantly yield to the Spirit of the Lord in order to walk in the liberty that results from obedience to the Lord. We need more than the wonderful indwelling of the Spirit received at Salvation, we need the promised Baptism of the Holy Spirit so that we receive the power to become living witnesses of Jesus in all the world and in all circumstances.

            All verses are New King James Version

John 4:23    But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.

John 4:24    God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Philippians 3:3    For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh,

Galatians 5:16     I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Ezekiel 36:27    I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

Acts 9:31   Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Romans 8:1    There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:4   that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Galatians 5:16     I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

Galatians 5:25    If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:1    And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins,

2   in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience,

3    among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

Acts 1:8   But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 2:4   And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Gal. 5:16    I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

17    For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19    Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,

20    idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,

21    envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22    But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

23    gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.

24    And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25    If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

IS YOUR DESIRE TO LOVE MORE?

Hope and commitment for 2015: May we draw closer to Jesus and consequently to our families and each other. May God’s people live up to the scripture, Dan. 11:32b    …but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.           The more we get to know Him the more we fall in love with Him.

Jesus longs for us to desire to know Him as a person, rather than only for what He can provide. He is standing, knocking at our heart's door, patiently waiting for our response. What He really wants is a rapid response when it is not convenient for us to do so.

Many people know a lot about God, they can quote scripture and perhaps preach an interesting sermon. Others know Him as a provider and have received their needs met. But that is not what He died and rose again for. He broke the curse of sin that mankind would enter into a relationship with Him as the lover of their souls. He longs for a people who hear His heart and respond with all their heart. Jesus is developing a people who follow His lead because of their desire to respond to the love they experience in their relationship with Him. Such response will affect every aspect of their individual lives and consequently the church. This comes from a heart that prays, Song of Solomon 1:4 Draw me, we will run after thee:…

Paul puts this same concept another way, (emphasis added)

Philippians 3:10   that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, …

12   Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

13   Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

14   I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Step 2 ( verse 12) must always be preceded by Step 1 ( verse 10). We must personally know Him, enjoy the closeness of His Manifest Presence and learn of Him as He opens the Scriptures in a personal way. The Epiphany is a holiday that has lost its popularity in America. The literal definition of the word epiphany is a sudden and profound understanding of something. It also refers to those supernatural experiences when God appears to someone. If you are a Christian, than at some point in your life you have had at least 1 of these experiences and responded by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. With that simplest understanding that you gained by personally hearing from God you responded and did the most marvelous exploit, you got saved. You took the first step of a life long process. (Romans 10:17    So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God). You got a hold of the 1st thing that Jesus got a hold of your for.

After many years of walking close to Jesus Paul cries out from  his heart, “that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Paul had accomplished many amazing, leading countless people to Jesus, founding churches and raising up leaders. His writings have affected the lives of untold billions of people over the last almost 2,000 years. And yet he knew that there was more that the Lord had for him. That first Epiphany Paul had on the road to Damascus was totally life changing, but Paul knew that the Lord had much more to teach him, to reveal to him through the relationship that started that day. We can be sure there were many more light bulbs turned on in Paul’s mind and heart as his relationship with Jesus grew over the years.

Undoubtedly Paul knew the verse from Daniel about knowing God and consequently doing exploits. I believe every believer is similarly charged by God to do great things. Have the “God breathed” principles of the following verses become very real in your heart?

1 John 4:7    Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

8    But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9    God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

Matt. 28:18    Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

19   Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

20   Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NLT)

It grieves the heart of God when people stop at the first step of the Christian life. He has such a longing for His people to know Him more, for His people to become empowered to change the world by working together with Him to accomplish exploits. The more we get to know Him the more we fall in love with Him. Consequently the better able we are to function with Him in His plan for our lives and for mankind.