Well, Before I get started I must say that this article is not meant to make anyone mad or create strife. However, I know that because of the nature of the subject, it is likely that many will take issues with me on this matter.
My request to every reader however, is that before you right me off as strange and stuck in the mud or whatever, stop for a moment and consider the ideas presented in this article.
It seems to me that with each passing year the interest and participation in halloween is ever increasing. I even heard someone say two days ago that halloween is thier favorite annual holiday. We can see the signs of this increase as we drive around our communities. Houses decorated with witches, Jack-o-lanterns and ghost that rival Christmas decorations. To so many people it is a fun, family oriented holiday. But is it really?
Let's take the word holiday for starters. Holiday literally means "holy day" where something significant that God has done is to be celebrated. The original name for October 31st is "all hallows eve" or all saints day. But halloween has veered to the point that it represents nothing that is holy, or anything that is godly.
I wrote an article last year giving some details of the origin and meaning of some of the common events during this time. Instead of attacking the traditions of halloween, let us look at the practical side as it relates to Christians and our participation. I want to give 5 reasons most parents have for participating in this event. Along with these reasonings, let us also look at what the Word of God has to say.
1. It's Just Innocent fun
-Halloween has it's deepest roots in the occult. The Celtic New Year was on Nov. 1. On the evening before, Samhain, the lord of death, along with evil spirits, released disembodied spirits to go out and possess humans. Druid priest would go door to door asking for an animal or a human being for sacrifice to appease the evil spirits. If the people treated them with a sacrifice then they would not be tricked, or cursed. Now to me, that just sounds wicked. Well, this is the origin of trick or treat. (sela).
The word tells us to be imitators of God, not Druid priest. We should imitate all that is good and flee from all that is evil.
2. All My Friends Do It
-One of the major problems in the church world is to do what pleases people. There are Church leaders, including Pastors, that feel that they must do these things to keep the parents in the church happy. We have to many people pleasing pastors today. We have allowed the spirit of the world to dictate our agenda in order to keep these tithe paying families in our churches. God is calling out a people that will make a stand against the spirit of this age. If the church is going to change, it must start with leadership. If we have to make each family happy with our ministry to keep them, then they are following the wrong one. Who's ministry is it? Is Christ still building His Church, or has man taken over the project with our social skills and salesmanship. Bottom line. MAKE A STAND!
3. We Went Trick or Treating As Kids
-Everything we were taught as children, doesn't mean it's right today. I think trick or treating can send a wrong message to some kids. In today's world, we can't trust everyone in our neighborhoods. Our kids need to know that it's not ok to take things from a stranger. Our kids need to have real heros to imitate. (not superman, spiderman, witches, demon-looking creatures)
While our kids are learning these things during halloween ask yourself these questions. Do my kids know the 10 commandments? Do they know the Lord's prayer and it's meaning? Is Jesus the hero in thier lives?
4.We Don't Want Our Children's Friends To Think We Are Weird
-As stated before, the spirit of this age is after our children. We must take this very serious. Our forefathers of the faith made a stand against the evils of thier day. We must teach our children that we are seperated from the world. Yes, it's hard. But remember, there is a mastermind behind these evil schemes. He plays for keeps. If you love your children, teach them they are different than the world. Instill this in them early.
5. We Don't Want Our Children To Miss Out On All The Fun
-If the only fun our children have is wearing scary mask and scaring people and taking candy from strangers then we have serious problems.
Create your own family fun time. Oct. 31st. is the day that the Lord made, spend time rejoicing and enjoying family fun that teaches truth verses traditions that are rooted in the occult.
If it's the candy they want, Food Lion can hook you up.
I know this message is hard and somewhat offensive to many people. But think about the Holy days the Word of God speaks about. Do we consider them? My point is simple. If we are Bible believing children of God, let's practice what He has ordained, and shun what the world and centuries of tradition has handed down. If we don't stand for some things, we will fall for anything. Blessings to you all.
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Do we really know Jesus Christ?
Do we really know Jesus Christ. I know this sounds silly and even insulting. But please take a moment and read the rest of this article.
In the book of Ephesians, you can turn there and read these verses. Paul is talking to a believing church. In fact, he commended them for their faith and love. Then he begins to speak some very interesting these. I will be paraphrasing the verses. He says, I cease not to pray for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Paul's prayer was very precise. He prayed for those believers to receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Why such a prayer for people that already know Him. I believe this speaks to some of the major pitfalls in church today. First of all, Satan believes in Jesus. He even attends service regularly.
It's not enough to just believe and attend service. It's not enough to just read the Bible and pray. God is looking for a people to become intimately involved with His plan for the last days.
In verse 18 He says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know...... The understanding area in our life is the place we hunger, desire, feel, expect, ect. It is the heart of man. Interestingly enough, Paul says that area has eyes to see. Our natural eyes see when light shines into them and a reflection is made. The eyes of our heart must be flooded with the light of His Word. Please understand, not casual Bible reading. Not casual Church that fits our comfort level. Our heart must fall in love again with the creator of all things. This can only happen when we are focussed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like it or not, the heart of most people loves entertainment, and seeks to be gratified in any way possible. And what's worse is when the church uses these methods to appeal to this area of humanity to bring in a crowd of people.
We must allow the Spirit of God to use us to turn hearts towards Him. I love excitement and believe in radical church. But I believe when the dust settles and the flashing lights and wonderful sounds of praise and worship is over, we must know how to still focus our heart on the Lord. Are we hungry for Him. Is He the one we are most affectionate for. Does He have superiority over your plans even if you are a great leader with a lot of wisdom? Jesus is calling us to Himself. Let us hear, repent and draw nigh unto Him this week.
I don't intend to be critical, but what are we building in the so-called church.
I hear a lot of what I'm doing and my church. But in all that, my one major question is this: Do we really know Jesus Christ? If yes, tell others of His goodness. If no, talk to Him. He is there right now waiting to hear from you. God bless and good night!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
In the book of Ephesians, you can turn there and read these verses. Paul is talking to a believing church. In fact, he commended them for their faith and love. Then he begins to speak some very interesting these. I will be paraphrasing the verses. He says, I cease not to pray for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Paul's prayer was very precise. He prayed for those believers to receive a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him.
Why such a prayer for people that already know Him. I believe this speaks to some of the major pitfalls in church today. First of all, Satan believes in Jesus. He even attends service regularly.
It's not enough to just believe and attend service. It's not enough to just read the Bible and pray. God is looking for a people to become intimately involved with His plan for the last days.
In verse 18 He says the eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know...... The understanding area in our life is the place we hunger, desire, feel, expect, ect. It is the heart of man. Interestingly enough, Paul says that area has eyes to see. Our natural eyes see when light shines into them and a reflection is made. The eyes of our heart must be flooded with the light of His Word. Please understand, not casual Bible reading. Not casual Church that fits our comfort level. Our heart must fall in love again with the creator of all things. This can only happen when we are focussed on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Like it or not, the heart of most people loves entertainment, and seeks to be gratified in any way possible. And what's worse is when the church uses these methods to appeal to this area of humanity to bring in a crowd of people.
We must allow the Spirit of God to use us to turn hearts towards Him. I love excitement and believe in radical church. But I believe when the dust settles and the flashing lights and wonderful sounds of praise and worship is over, we must know how to still focus our heart on the Lord. Are we hungry for Him. Is He the one we are most affectionate for. Does He have superiority over your plans even if you are a great leader with a lot of wisdom? Jesus is calling us to Himself. Let us hear, repent and draw nigh unto Him this week.
I don't intend to be critical, but what are we building in the so-called church.
I hear a lot of what I'm doing and my church. But in all that, my one major question is this: Do we really know Jesus Christ? If yes, tell others of His goodness. If no, talk to Him. He is there right now waiting to hear from you. God bless and good night!!!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Supreme Dr,Lillington,United States
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Touching God's Heart: The Real Key to Favor and Blessing
Having been in ministry for about 23 years, I feel that I'm just now understanding God's purpose for my life. Everybody has a purpose for being. Finding true purpose is the discovery of real power and freedom. As a Pastor and traveling Minister, I want to know the mission of the ministry. In the book of Ephesians Paul gives us tremendous insight into this mission. In chapter 1 verse 10 he gives us the ultimate plan of God. To gather together into one all things in Christ. To bring creation back to the original plan. God's command and commission to the first Adam is now coming to completion in the last Adam. This is a tremendous task for the Church. Without being too critical, I wonder if the Church is consistently striving to accomplish His will. Sometimes it's questionable that we even know the real mission.
We have entered a time where leaders are more concerned about the number of people in the house, than the condition of the people in the house. I believe it is very risky to strategize church growth with things that appeal to the fleshly nature. The reason is they may come because of these strategies. But when challenged to change and become a son of God, separated from the world, will they still want to be a part. I have seen this trend building in America. The real problem is the temptation to NOT challenge people has caused the image of the Church to look more like the social club in town verses the house of God. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not being critical, but as a seer it's disturbing.
This has really been put on my heart because the Church is the work of the Lord. Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
It goes back to Paul's letter to Ephesus. God is gathering together all things in Christ. All tongues, tribes and nations coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Some might argue, no way, it will never happen! Sure, every person in the world will not accept Christ, but the mission of the Church is not to decide who will accept or reject. The mission is to preach the glorious gospel and let the Holy Spirit convict and draw people to Christ.
This mission is not easy considering the diversity in the earth. In fact, the heart of Paul's message is to teach the Gentiles that the Church is made up of Jew and Gentile. I believe this must become the focus of the Body of Christ today. Building the bridge between Jew and Gentile. This is God's heart. This is the true mission. We will write later more concerning this mission, but for now I want to shout aloud to every preacher, pastor, prophet or any leader. Discover His heart by seeing the true mission. Building this bridge between Jew and Gentile. We as Gentiles have come into great blessing because of the covenant promise He made with Abraham. Greater things are coming. The word of the Lord says to open the eyes of our understanding, receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Know Him intimately, and become connected to His plan and purpose for this hour. He will use the Church to open the eyes of blinded Jews. This is not a boast, we don't support the root, the root supports us. (Romans 11:18). When our heart is to see Israel turn to the Messiah (Jesus Christ) we are touching the heart of God. I pray that all who read this will become passionately in love with Jesus. I pray you examine your life and ministry and ask, am I in the mission to see all be gathered together as one in Christ? Do I have a passion for Israel to turn to the Messiah? If not, I pray God pour His heart into yours so that we all can join the eternal purpose of God to fill this Earth with His Glory. Every Nation hearing the only truth that will save their soul. Blessings to all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
We have entered a time where leaders are more concerned about the number of people in the house, than the condition of the people in the house. I believe it is very risky to strategize church growth with things that appeal to the fleshly nature. The reason is they may come because of these strategies. But when challenged to change and become a son of God, separated from the world, will they still want to be a part. I have seen this trend building in America. The real problem is the temptation to NOT challenge people has caused the image of the Church to look more like the social club in town verses the house of God. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not being critical, but as a seer it's disturbing.
This has really been put on my heart because the Church is the work of the Lord. Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
It goes back to Paul's letter to Ephesus. God is gathering together all things in Christ. All tongues, tribes and nations coming under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Some might argue, no way, it will never happen! Sure, every person in the world will not accept Christ, but the mission of the Church is not to decide who will accept or reject. The mission is to preach the glorious gospel and let the Holy Spirit convict and draw people to Christ.
This mission is not easy considering the diversity in the earth. In fact, the heart of Paul's message is to teach the Gentiles that the Church is made up of Jew and Gentile. I believe this must become the focus of the Body of Christ today. Building the bridge between Jew and Gentile. This is God's heart. This is the true mission. We will write later more concerning this mission, but for now I want to shout aloud to every preacher, pastor, prophet or any leader. Discover His heart by seeing the true mission. Building this bridge between Jew and Gentile. We as Gentiles have come into great blessing because of the covenant promise He made with Abraham. Greater things are coming. The word of the Lord says to open the eyes of our understanding, receive the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. Know Him intimately, and become connected to His plan and purpose for this hour. He will use the Church to open the eyes of blinded Jews. This is not a boast, we don't support the root, the root supports us. (Romans 11:18). When our heart is to see Israel turn to the Messiah (Jesus Christ) we are touching the heart of God. I pray that all who read this will become passionately in love with Jesus. I pray you examine your life and ministry and ask, am I in the mission to see all be gathered together as one in Christ? Do I have a passion for Israel to turn to the Messiah? If not, I pray God pour His heart into yours so that we all can join the eternal purpose of God to fill this Earth with His Glory. Every Nation hearing the only truth that will save their soul. Blessings to all.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Different Christmas Message
Each year we hear wonderful messages about the miraculous birth of our savior Jesus Christ. Out of all the celebrated holidays christmas is undoubtedly the best. I personally enjoy everything about christmas. Fun times with family, eating, and of course giving and receiving gifts. Of course we can't forget those wonderful christmas plays at church. What an awesome time of year to share the message of God's love for humanity. Unfortunatley in our world there seems to be a movement to snuff out anything that speaks of Christ. Instead of Christmas it's Xmas. Instead of this being a celebration of Christ' miraculous birth, it's just another day to eat and drink and be merry. The spirit of this age is working overtime to reduce the Bible to a mere fictional story book.
As much as they try, yet this book consistently and continuously arises and awakens the souls of depraved men. His word is alive, it speaks, it convicts and most importantly it reveals the one who came in the volume of the book to do the will of the Father. To everyone that would try to invalidate the Bible, what argument can be made against all the Old Testament messianic prophecies that find there fulfillment in the New Testament.
There are over 60 messianic prophecies that reveal our Saviors appearing. The Bible itself is evidence of His existence and Diety. Micah prophecied about His coming 700 years prior to Christ and it happened. (Micah 5:2) Isaiah prophecied 700 years BC about the ministry of John the Baptist, and it happened. (Isaiah 40:3). On and on I could go but the point is Christmas is just another sign that God's Word is Truth. There is no denying it. The Word is real, Jesus is real, Heaven is real, and Hell is real. BELIEVE HIS WORD AND LIVE!!! Keep Jesus in the center of all your celebrations and gatherings.
As much as they try, yet this book consistently and continuously arises and awakens the souls of depraved men. His word is alive, it speaks, it convicts and most importantly it reveals the one who came in the volume of the book to do the will of the Father. To everyone that would try to invalidate the Bible, what argument can be made against all the Old Testament messianic prophecies that find there fulfillment in the New Testament.
There are over 60 messianic prophecies that reveal our Saviors appearing. The Bible itself is evidence of His existence and Diety. Micah prophecied about His coming 700 years prior to Christ and it happened. (Micah 5:2) Isaiah prophecied 700 years BC about the ministry of John the Baptist, and it happened. (Isaiah 40:3). On and on I could go but the point is Christmas is just another sign that God's Word is Truth. There is no denying it. The Word is real, Jesus is real, Heaven is real, and Hell is real. BELIEVE HIS WORD AND LIVE!!! Keep Jesus in the center of all your celebrations and gatherings.
Monday, November 10, 2008
"LOVE & HATE" The Message of the Cross
When I think about the sacrificial death of our savior on the cross it reminds me of just how much He deserves my praise. He paid a debt that He did not owe. Oh how awesome is our God. But today I was meditating on the cross and the goodness of God, and begin to see some awesome things. In fact, I believe the real message of the cross is one of love and hate.
We know the classic verse of (John 3:16) "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begooten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Love and hate was the reason Jesus became a man. God loves His creation. He desires none to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2Pet.3:9) God loves every human being walking the Earth. However, one major problem hinders His love for us, sin. His desire is for all humanity to go to heaven. But contrary to Hollywood's theology, everyone doesn't go to heaven. Sin seperates man from God. Big or small, gross or not so gross sin is a terrible thing. In fact, I think we preachers would do our churches a much needed favor if we preached more about it. I know it's not the popular thing to do. I even realize the potential of losing some of the people as a result. But what are we trying to accomplish? Is our goal to pack a building or populate the Kingdom. I must say that in today's society there is a vast difference between the church house and the Kingdom of God. Now I'm not a negative gloom and doom person. But I am becoming increasingly concerned about the strategies of the Church.
I am a radical preacher that loves high energy contemporary style services. I teach our leadership to think outside the box of tradition and allow the spirit of creativity to flow. But I want to see a crowd of God chasers verses a crowd of thrill seekers. Let me clarify what I mean by thrill seekers. I'm not referring to the thrill of knowing God and experiencing His presence. These are the people we need to produce. Today we have a whole host of people that occupy our auditoriums that are thrilled by the display and the hype of our presentation. This does produce excitement but doesn't produce conversions. Now I know with statements like this, I may never be a keynote speaker in a modern day conference, but my goal is not to be the popular preacher. I love all God's servants. I commend every man and woman of God that labor in His Word. But as I study this book I see preachers in the book of Acts that were looking conversions not crowds. There will be many church members in hell. This bothers me!! Even worse, there will be preachers in hell!!! There is a message people coming from the cross!!!! God loves us. He loves us so much He nailed His only Son to an old rugged cross. But there is also a message of hate coming from that same cross. The reason Jesus laid His life down for us is because GOD HATES SIN!! Sin kept us from God. God made us to be with Him. Not just in heaven. But right now, God wants to commune and fellowship with us. Sin forbids this union. But thank God that on calvary's mountain, sin was defeated. Death lost it's sting. Hell was stripped of it's authority. Jesus died and rose the third day and said I will build a church and give them the keys to my Kingdom and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I say amen to every strategy that God grants. I support and admire every Pastor that reaches the masses for Christ. But because of the message that comes from the cross. Love for People and hate for sin, we must examine our methods to assure we are producing conversions and not just church members.
We know the classic verse of (John 3:16) "God so loved the world, that He gave His only begooten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." Love and hate was the reason Jesus became a man. God loves His creation. He desires none to perish, but all to come to repentance. (2Pet.3:9) God loves every human being walking the Earth. However, one major problem hinders His love for us, sin. His desire is for all humanity to go to heaven. But contrary to Hollywood's theology, everyone doesn't go to heaven. Sin seperates man from God. Big or small, gross or not so gross sin is a terrible thing. In fact, I think we preachers would do our churches a much needed favor if we preached more about it. I know it's not the popular thing to do. I even realize the potential of losing some of the people as a result. But what are we trying to accomplish? Is our goal to pack a building or populate the Kingdom. I must say that in today's society there is a vast difference between the church house and the Kingdom of God. Now I'm not a negative gloom and doom person. But I am becoming increasingly concerned about the strategies of the Church.
I am a radical preacher that loves high energy contemporary style services. I teach our leadership to think outside the box of tradition and allow the spirit of creativity to flow. But I want to see a crowd of God chasers verses a crowd of thrill seekers. Let me clarify what I mean by thrill seekers. I'm not referring to the thrill of knowing God and experiencing His presence. These are the people we need to produce. Today we have a whole host of people that occupy our auditoriums that are thrilled by the display and the hype of our presentation. This does produce excitement but doesn't produce conversions. Now I know with statements like this, I may never be a keynote speaker in a modern day conference, but my goal is not to be the popular preacher. I love all God's servants. I commend every man and woman of God that labor in His Word. But as I study this book I see preachers in the book of Acts that were looking conversions not crowds. There will be many church members in hell. This bothers me!! Even worse, there will be preachers in hell!!! There is a message people coming from the cross!!!! God loves us. He loves us so much He nailed His only Son to an old rugged cross. But there is also a message of hate coming from that same cross. The reason Jesus laid His life down for us is because GOD HATES SIN!! Sin kept us from God. God made us to be with Him. Not just in heaven. But right now, God wants to commune and fellowship with us. Sin forbids this union. But thank God that on calvary's mountain, sin was defeated. Death lost it's sting. Hell was stripped of it's authority. Jesus died and rose the third day and said I will build a church and give them the keys to my Kingdom and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
I say amen to every strategy that God grants. I support and admire every Pastor that reaches the masses for Christ. But because of the message that comes from the cross. Love for People and hate for sin, we must examine our methods to assure we are producing conversions and not just church members.
Friday, November 7, 2008
A Government within a Government
I know the title of this blog sounds a little strange, but I believe that's the picture of the Church. We know the scripture teaches about Christ in (Isaiah 9:6,7) that government shall be upon His shoulders. Government represents authority and management. It says in verse (7) that of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end. The strongest part of the two verses is the last sentence in verse 7 where it says: "the zeal of the Lord of host shall perform this." That means the jealousy of God shall cause this to happen. What does all this mean?
We know in the nation of America there is a move to stamp out everything God loves. There is a rise of political secularism that is unmatched in our history. God haters and Christian bashers are everywhere. The mainstream media is the platform that gives this group a voice. The world would love nothing more than to hush the mouth of every preacher, remove the pin from every christian author, and most of all close the door to every Bible preaching church. I must admit that I have never really been political minded at all, however, now is the time to not be ignorant of our leadership, and be a voice speaking the truth bound within the pages of our Bible.
I will say that I remain optimistic concerning my future. God's Word is clear about His people. "I've never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging bread." (Psalm 37:24) We have hope beyond the scope of politics.
Furthermore, it is the hour to be bold enough to declare wrong from right. Abortion is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. Lying is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Judging others is wrong. Let me stop and say a word. It is easy for the church to tell people outside of church what is wrong. But I'm speaking to the church. We cannot rule with authority and power if we ourselves are corrupt and defiled.
God is raising up His people to rule. We are His Body. (1Cor. 12:27) His government is upon the Church. We are called to be His voice. His light in darkness. The Church is God's instrument in His hands to bring about His will on Earth. We must not be intimidated or influenced by the worldly arena. Jesus was born to become sin, died to free us from sin, and rose from the dead to rule through His Church by His Spirit.
We are at war. Not with flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle. We must be armed with righteousness and clothed with humility to stand in His victory.
We know in the nation of America there is a move to stamp out everything God loves. There is a rise of political secularism that is unmatched in our history. God haters and Christian bashers are everywhere. The mainstream media is the platform that gives this group a voice. The world would love nothing more than to hush the mouth of every preacher, remove the pin from every christian author, and most of all close the door to every Bible preaching church. I must admit that I have never really been political minded at all, however, now is the time to not be ignorant of our leadership, and be a voice speaking the truth bound within the pages of our Bible.
I will say that I remain optimistic concerning my future. God's Word is clear about His people. "I've never seen the righteous forsaken or His seed begging bread." (Psalm 37:24) We have hope beyond the scope of politics.
Furthermore, it is the hour to be bold enough to declare wrong from right. Abortion is wrong. Homosexuality is wrong. Lying is wrong. Adultery is wrong. Judging others is wrong. Let me stop and say a word. It is easy for the church to tell people outside of church what is wrong. But I'm speaking to the church. We cannot rule with authority and power if we ourselves are corrupt and defiled.
God is raising up His people to rule. We are His Body. (1Cor. 12:27) His government is upon the Church. We are called to be His voice. His light in darkness. The Church is God's instrument in His hands to bring about His will on Earth. We must not be intimidated or influenced by the worldly arena. Jesus was born to become sin, died to free us from sin, and rose from the dead to rule through His Church by His Spirit.
We are at war. Not with flesh and blood. It is a spiritual battle. We must be armed with righteousness and clothed with humility to stand in His victory.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Times of Restoration
In the book of Malachi (last book of the Old Testament) God gave a promise that He would send the Prophet Elijah before the dreadful day of the Lord. It goes on to say that his ministry would be to turn people's hearts back. More specifically, the hearts of family members that Satan has caused to become harden and indifferent. In other words God was saying in the last days I will cause a spirit of restoration to occur. I think we would all agree that there are a lot of families that are torn apart today and children have become the victims of self-serving, pleasure seeking parents. Now it's not my intent to speak to the family crisis at this time. That's another post. However, I do want to explore the thought of restoration.
In (Acts 3:21) we find an interesting verse. In paraphrase it says heaven has received Christ and will not release Him to return until all of the prophetic things spoken have come to pass. Of course, there are prophecies that deal after the return of Christ. But this is referring to the prophesies that deal with the events prior to His return.
In other words there are some things that must take place before Christ can return. This is the reason God spoke through Malachi and said I will send Elijah the prophet.
Elijah was a mighty man of God. There is alot that could be said about him but for the sake of space I will limit my comments. I believe the spirit of Elijah is upon the Church now. Just like on John the Baptist, the spirit of Elijah was upon him. John was a forerunnner of Christ. The spirit of Elijah comes to usher in the Lord as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now you may be asking what is there to restore? Well, restoration has actually already begun. We know from reading the book of Acts we see God's church. That is the same church in the earth today. However, read closely and we will discover some major differences. The Spiritual church in Acts became the structured church during the dark ages. The spirit of religion took over and man grew further and further from God.
Beginning in 1500 we see God beginning the restoration movement. Martin Luther rose up and began a revolution. From Martin Luther's day until now there has been a series of moves of God. The holiness movement, latter rain movement, pentecostal movement, charismatic movement, Apostolic and Prophetic Movement. The problem is people that were apart of one movement don't want to embrace the truths of the next movement.
My position is this, I believe God was and is a part of all those movements. Now, that doesn't mean man hasn't come along and perverted it. That has always been our problem. We mess up what God does. I believe the next great move of God will be within the Body of Christ. In past we see God raising up an individual. We will now see God move through His mature Church called the Body of Christ. As He does, we will see miracles like in the book of Acts. In fact according to (John 14:12) we can expect the exploits to be even greater.
I know this is a long blog but I had to get this out. There is a mighty move of God coming to those that hunger for His Glory. Let's seek the Glory of God. Church He rent the veil inorder for us to receive His Glory. It's time to move from Glory to Glory. Don't be discouraged, or fearful, this is time for faith to be stirred and Saints to arise and be God's Army!!!! Blessings
In (Acts 3:21) we find an interesting verse. In paraphrase it says heaven has received Christ and will not release Him to return until all of the prophetic things spoken have come to pass. Of course, there are prophecies that deal after the return of Christ. But this is referring to the prophesies that deal with the events prior to His return.
In other words there are some things that must take place before Christ can return. This is the reason God spoke through Malachi and said I will send Elijah the prophet.
Elijah was a mighty man of God. There is alot that could be said about him but for the sake of space I will limit my comments. I believe the spirit of Elijah is upon the Church now. Just like on John the Baptist, the spirit of Elijah was upon him. John was a forerunnner of Christ. The spirit of Elijah comes to usher in the Lord as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Now you may be asking what is there to restore? Well, restoration has actually already begun. We know from reading the book of Acts we see God's church. That is the same church in the earth today. However, read closely and we will discover some major differences. The Spiritual church in Acts became the structured church during the dark ages. The spirit of religion took over and man grew further and further from God.
Beginning in 1500 we see God beginning the restoration movement. Martin Luther rose up and began a revolution. From Martin Luther's day until now there has been a series of moves of God. The holiness movement, latter rain movement, pentecostal movement, charismatic movement, Apostolic and Prophetic Movement. The problem is people that were apart of one movement don't want to embrace the truths of the next movement.
My position is this, I believe God was and is a part of all those movements. Now, that doesn't mean man hasn't come along and perverted it. That has always been our problem. We mess up what God does. I believe the next great move of God will be within the Body of Christ. In past we see God raising up an individual. We will now see God move through His mature Church called the Body of Christ. As He does, we will see miracles like in the book of Acts. In fact according to (John 14:12) we can expect the exploits to be even greater.
I know this is a long blog but I had to get this out. There is a mighty move of God coming to those that hunger for His Glory. Let's seek the Glory of God. Church He rent the veil inorder for us to receive His Glory. It's time to move from Glory to Glory. Don't be discouraged, or fearful, this is time for faith to be stirred and Saints to arise and be God's Army!!!! Blessings
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