The Moment to Moment Walk With God

The Lord just gave me an addition to the previous post (find the Spirit of God). As we act to follow the Spirit of God, we do that on a moment to moment basis. Remember "give us this day our daily bread?" Breakfast is served in the morning, not at noon or in the evening, likewise lunch is not served in the morning. Breakfast? Lunch? Yes, the right thing served at the right time.

He also impressed me with the need for us to overcome ourselves. That means doing things when most of the time we don't "feel like it." If we act in spite of the fact that we don't "feel like it," the Lord will honor that and reward us every time. If we act in spite of ourselves, the Lord will provide. Once we take that first step past "I don't feel like it," the Lord steps in and begins providing stregth, motivation and everything else we need to do what has to be done.

Another point brought to my mind has to do with being "overweight." There is a physical example that illustrates a deeper truth. This writer has recently lost around 30 pounds. The Lord pointed out to me how my face and body have changed in the process. As I lose all the "excess weight" I come closer and closer into alignment with who I am supposed to be. When I see how I was supposed to be, I have more joy, I am in a state that gives me equilibrium, inside world matches outside world. The point here is that there is more to "weight down" a person than fat around the midsection. There are many "weights" that we are to shed to become light and free, what we are supposed to be. Here, this is illustrated for us:

Luke 21:34“Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap. 35For it will come upon all those who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be always on the watch, and pray that you may be able to escape all that is about to happen, and that you may be able to stand before the Son of Man.”

Do you see those key words in there? WEIGHED DOWN....Seems to me that many of us need to go on "diets." What causes us to become anxious about life? The entire mass media corptocracy? Yea? Then get rid of it. When we are weighed down, we are not who we are supposed to be, just as I look and feel different when I am 30 pounds lighter, so this applies with everything else..

What is weighing us down? Whatever it is, it is stealing from us, and it may deprive us from being counted worthy of the escape from all the IS coming, you can bet on it.

I had to write this before I forgot what was given. grace and peace

Find the Spirit of God

Recently I believe the Lord impressed on me the need for us to be seeking..daily for the Spirit of God. Why, you might ask, do we need to "find him" daily? Because our God is doing new things daily, that's why. Our God is moving and doing in marvelous new ways each and every day, but the people who become mired in their ways, also known as "ruts" and "denominations" and every other organization made by man, they tend to find something, even things of God, then build walls and trenches around it and denominationalize it. This is especially true of the "non denominational" churches who like to point the finger at everyone else and say "see! We aren't like those old fogey methodists or lutherans or catholics, no...we're different see!" Different? Not really, all toay's "non denominational" churches have done is build "micro denominations" around their rock star "pastors" or whatever they call themselves these days, then proceed to build the same walls and fences around themselves to glorify themselves and whatever truth they may have found in our God.

The Spirit of God is living and active, and we must find him. Really? Yep, read this:

Romans 8:14because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.

To be led, means you are going somewhere...and todays micro-denomination "non-denomination" churches have walls and trenches dug around them so nobody will escape them. What happens when the Spirit of God wants to do something new, somewhere else? Then what? Then the walls of todays churches become tombs where the living dead meet where the Spirit of God has gone somewhere else, doing something else. The nicolatian pastors and priests find themselves trapped by this because to say that the Spirit has moved on to do something else, somewhere else, would be to collapse the walls of their multi-million dollar buildings and "their" ministries, and "their" kingdoms etc etc. When the Spirit moves on, the people who have set themselves up as leaders must become followers again, which results in a loss of pride, money (oh no!), glory, etc etc. Which is why these people build walls, and which is why they inhabit grave yards. Humility is one of the keys to being accepted by our God, without it, the race is over before it started:

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, these O God, You will not despise." (Ps. 51:17)

We must find the Spirit of God, we must maintain humble and contrite hearts before him so we are not despised of the very God we seek.

Prov 8:34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.

We are to be watching daily at his doors...why? Why wait at his doors and not our doors? Because when his door is opened and he goes one way or another, we need to be there to see what he's doing and where he is going. It is true that the Lord may pitch a camp for a time and stay in one place doing a certain thing, but he can "pull up stakes" and move down the road to do something new at any time. He can do this and He does do this.

This leads me to a second point that the Lord has impressed upon me recently. That is, how can it seem like the Spirit of God is speaking and moving amongst apostate churches? Is it true that the Lord still walks and talks among churches who are filled with people that will not inherit salvation, will not be counted worthy of the escape from all (luke 21:36) etc etc?

It wasn't until recently that the Lord showed me that he indeed does work in churches that are completely apostate from the ground up. That was a real revelation to me, and it is not an endorsement of apostate christianity today, rather its a terribly frightening warning. What kind of deception is it when people can "go to church" and see the real, true, authentic Spirit of God moving among them, and yet their souls are in real danger of being lost forever? It looks real, sounds real, feels real, but its not real. The Spirit is real, but everything else is not..how can that be?

There are many places in the bible where we are shown how this works:

Matt 13:24Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27“The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29“‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. 30Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Notice the words Jesus uses here, let them both grow together until the harvest, the good and the bad...Now notice specifically, they both grow together. If they are both growing together that means that the same sun, water, fertilizer, etc is used on both the wheat and the tare. The same Spirit of God that waters and gives light to the wheat, is also given to the tare.

Mark 13:22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect--if that were possible.

Now this is going to take us right back to a foundational issue for why this writing was started years ago. It began with a question "WHY will so few be saved?" WHY is the road so narrow? WHY will MANY go through the wide gate that leads to destruction? WHY was only a remnant saved out of Israel again and again and again throughout its history?

How deceptive is it when the true Spirit of God speaks through wicked men? Go back and read the story of Balaam, he started out decent enough, he refused to curse the people of Israel, but eventually his story ends up with us reading this of him

2 Peter 2:15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to ... They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

What happens when people follow men instead of the Spirit of God? Balaam spoke with the very Spirit of the living God speaking through him, but what would happen to all those who followed BALAAM instead of the Spirit of God?

For those who would argue, "but that was Old Testament brother D, that can't happen to us anymore, we're different!" I submit this for your consideration:

Rev 2:14Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. 15Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. 16Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

Wow, double whammy here, the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans, the Lord does not appear pleased....these are not separate problems, they are two sides of the same coin, following MEN instead of the Spirit of God will cause you some real trouble at some time in the future..

Find the Spirit of God

The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. And what if the Spirit tells you to leave your "church" or your "social circle" or any of a number of other things that may be putting you in danger of being cutoff from the vine (John 15)? Then what?

Find the Spirit of God, wait daily at his doors. You owe it to yourself and others to do this. It is in your own best interest to do this, not because you "have to." The word of God and the Spirit of God are the lights of mankind. Do a bible search on the words "lamp" and "light" because that's an entire study of its own. If we want that light in our life, if we want life, then we must find the Spirit, what is He doing today? Where is he going? What is He saying? Seek, ask, knock and the door will be opened to you....In Him, we find everything that our soul thirsts for today. In him we find peace, and joy. Everything that mankind does today is a search for something, anything to fill the void within, to somehow with sex, money pleasure, things etc to "be happy." Our God offeres us joy and peace right now, for the small price of waiting at his door to see where He is going and what He is doing, for the price of following the Spirit.

Small Conclusion

We covered two things here: the great deception that exists today in the churches, that is, the Spirit of God speaking even in dead churches and the false confirmation it gives to men

and

Following the Spirit of God. The sons of God are led to the Spirit of God.

Sorry for the long post, may the Lord bless you and keep you and may his face shine upon you....grace and peace

Perplexed, But Not in Despair

2 Cor 4:7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

I would like to encourage you today with the Words written to us above. The highlighted portion is where I feel myself at today...perplexed, but not in despair. I want to encourage you to renew your committment to the Lord Jesus today. Get rid of everything and anything that has found its way between you and Him. That includes your "pastor" "church" "social circle" "denomination" and all the other things holding people back in this world from knowing, and being known by the Lord.

The solution to all our problems is simple...the solution is being found "in Christ." "In Christ" "in him" and all the variations on those two words are THE most powerful and among the most frequently used paired words in the bible..coincidence? We know better than that.

What we need today is more Jesus...period. We need more of his Spirit and his presence. Have you ever felt the presence of the Lord before? Really...have you? If you have then you know, 10 seconds in the presence of this God blows away years worth of any drug you might want to name. He's that great. The experience goes beyond words, because it is beyond words. We who believe need to remember the times when we know that we know that we KNOW we have been standing in the presence of Almighty God on earth.

We need to remember period. Remember all that He has done for you. Give thanks, praise him. He is our answer...for everything. You don't have to know what to do, when to do it, who, what, when, where, how. If you are still breathing today, the game is not over yet, and if its not over yet then we still have time to see one more GREAT answer from our God. Let's ask him, seek, and knock on his door with patience and persistence today. Let us be encouraged to not give up. Let us take the attitudes of soldiers who understand that suffering and hardship are not something extraordinary to us, they are the life of the soldier.

Let's expect answers from our God (Mark 11:24). Today I am perplexed by many things, but the miracle is, I'm not in despair. Our God has seen to that. He has vindicated his Word in the eyes of this servant therefore this servant commends the Word of God to you. He is faithful. If he said he would do something, we must take the attitude of Abraham and expect that He who promised is faithful and will do what He said he will do.

Let us encourage one another today while it is still called today. We hear from every corner "the end is near!" but what if its NOT? and....what if it is? We must be prepared for both. Lets run with endurance the race marked out for us. If we cannot run, then let us walk, if we cannot walk then let us set our faces like flint and DRAG ourselves forward 1 more inch, for one more day. Who knows what answers to prayer will manifest for us tomorrow? Our Lord knows, so let us persist.

Your perplexed brother who is writing to you today is encouraged by you. I am one who is crawling my way forward by an inch or less per day, perplexed, but not in despair. Hold on to what you have for one more day. Seek, ask and knock today so that tomorrow you may receive what you ask for. Believe. Tomorrow you may be the answer to someone else's prayer and they may be the answer to yours. Keep the faith.

grace and peace

5/8/2010

Small update, the post on May 4 kind of bothered me a little when I re-read it so it was reshaped a bit.

Too much of "I" or "me" reflected in it. The point of the second part of the post was that the Lord gave a small confirmation of the things written here in the past, and that was encouraging to this writer.

Do We Know Him?

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

As I was reading this the some days ago, it struck me that our Lord tells us that he has already given to us all things we need for life and godliness. Now think about this...we have been given all things, not some...all. Some people would say to this "yea, will it sure doesn't look like he's provided everything to me!" To that I would ask...."How well do you know the Lord?" What? Let me ask it again, how well do you know the Lord? Why do I ask? Because the Holy Word tells us that we are provided everything through our knowledge of him...

3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Its so easy to just read right through that and not catch it. To those who may think this is a minor detail, think again. Us knowing the Lord, and more importantly, the Lord knowing us is a really really big deal. Consider this statement:

Matt 7:21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ 23Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

On a different note..

It was posted on this site earlier that I rarely feel the urge to write about apostate christianity anymore. It was also written here that the Lord has led me to grow, to become more each day than the day before (parable of the talents, Matt 25..do something with what you've been given). In light of these things, I asked the Lord whether this small growth away from writing about apostasy means things written here before should be removed? like...the idolatry of the pastoral system, what has been called "churchianity" etc, should I delete these things from the site?

The answer that I perceived went along the lines of "the reason you do not sense the urge to write on some things now is because the things needed to be written about pastors, church "services" "tithing" the nicolaitanism of todays christianity etc etc, have been written. Delete nothing."

The Lord greatly encouraged this writer by confirming in a small way that the writings posted on this site have been (at least in some fashion) inspired by Him, although the tone of some of the messages could have been toned down, I do believe with my whole heart that the Spirit of God inspired at least some of the writing here with the goal of reaching some who can be reached. To him be the glory.

With this confirmation, let me restate some points the Spirit has impresssed upon this writer:

The rapture/escape of the church will be before the tribulation/time of Jacob's trouble etc. The old testament is a pattern that confirms things in the New Testament. Enoch was caught up to heaven before Noah and Noah was in the ark during the flood. Likewise, Lot was spared all the fire and brimstone of his day. The key word is "all."

The overwhelming majority of what calls itself christianity today is nicolaitan and idolatrous to its core. The pastoral system setup by men is human government inserted to replace the government of the Holy Spirit. Men have time and time again, rejected God for their own ways, and the Lord lets men have their way...for awhile. The sons of God are led by the Spirit of God...period. The sons of God are not led by pastors, bishops, priests or popes, they are led by the Spirit of God. Yet the overwhelming majority of people today voluntarily place themselves under the human governments within churches to be ruled by "pastors" and their ilk. Why?

Our God does not think the way men think. Men want one way, God wants another. The wise will follow the Spirit of God and his unusual ways regardless of how much it cuts against the grain of humanity's customs traditions and doctrines. Following the Spirit will cost men many of the things that people cherish in this life, but it will gain them CHRIST JESUS.

When a person walks away from the babylonian, anti-christ, nicolaitan form of christianity present in the world today, questions naturally arise. For every question that arises, like "how does the church work without a pastor?" The answer every single time is "follow the Spirit of God." That will take faith, discipline, and patience, all of which are in short supply in today's world.

The path that leads to life is a narrow path (re-read Matt 7:13-28). There are few people on that narrow path (Jesus' words, not mine). So when people look around at the other people on their path, do they see few or many? The answer should be very revealing. Make every effort to "know God" so that "everything you need for life and godliness" is there for you. Let us all pray that we are "known by God" so on that day that we stand before him we are not sorely dissapointed.

grace and peace