If your readings this as a born again believer you know that; unsaved people need to accept
Christ into their lives to even begin to understand the Spiritual world of God. Therefore, we as Christians know that, we
need to be doing the work of an evangelist with a calling to be leading people to Christ. It's
easy to understand unsaved people and what they do. They're slaves to their appetites of the carnal flesh and give in
to those impulses. Therefore, it's a no brainer in understanding them; they're true to their calling. If you think
about this for a moment, sinners or the unsaved are addicted in their souls to sin and it has control over them. We, who know
the Lord, need to become addicted to the Righteous Spirit that God put in us and continue to be nourished by His Spirit daily.
This is a difference between day and night.
When Christians who have the righteousness
of God in them and are still living as addicted people as slaves to sinful thoughts, purposes and actions, it's because
they are still living with thoughts of their own self-righteousness. When this happens, it makes the sacrifice of Jesus of
non-effect in their lives.
We asked the question earlier. Can we in our ignorance
be participating in witchcraft, stubbornness, iniquity or idolatry unawares? The word witchcraft in the Hebrew and Greek is
qucem: and pharmakeia: It means us receiving medication from a supernatural agent, or a magical spell.
The word stubbornness is patsar: It means to be pressed in upon, become dull of hearing and to be
nagged at. The word iniquity is aven: It means to be vain, wicked and show respect for something that is false. Vanity in
its many forms is nothing more than pride and having an excessive importants of oneself and it has no eternal purposes in
our relationship with God. This is man becoming independent in him self and having no need for God. We see here that this
is far more devastating then just having our own ideas of how we are to approach God. What we have here is demonic spiritual
forces that can come against us and stop up our spiritual ears, so that we will not understand how to walk in obedience to
the Holy Spirit and from living in God's Righteous Spirit given to us by Him, the day we became born again. Here are some
examples how born again believers were misled to go back after they were saved and live in Old Testament covenant practices.
Gen. 3:1 tells us that the word for serpent in the Hebrew is nashash: which is a spellbinder
and a divine enchanter. He put a spell over Eve's mind and got her to have a séance with him. In turn, she gave
up her secure position with God and came out of the protective hedge that he had around her.
In 11Corinthians chapter 11, Paul was rebuking these people because they had submitted to the authority of
false teachings other then the Gospel that he gave them when he says. "Just as Eve was beguiled by the cunningness of
the devil from a wholehearted and pure devotion to Christ, they were also being beguiled." He goes on to say that, "Satan
masquerades as an angel of light."
In Gal.5:4-9 Paul also warns these people
when he says. "If you try to stay justified and be declared righteous with God by trying to live by laws of do's
and don'ts, you have been brought to nothing and have severed your relationship with God, because you have fallen away
from receiving His grace, which is His gracious favor and blessing that you do not have to earn.
We are no longer to live by the law, but we are to rely on the Holy Spirit speaking to us and living by what
Jesus did for us alone and His righteousness Spirit that He put in us. If we are in Christ Jesus we are not to live by rituals
like the Jewish people believing that, they had to be circumcised. We are to live through a relationship with God, which was
based on love and His unmerited favor alone. You were doing a noble job at this and who sidetracked you into believing that;
you have to help God out with your rituals.
He goes on to say. They were under
the influence of an evil persuasion and this leading did not come from the heart of God. When we receive a slight inclination
to error by listening to false teachings like this; the whole church becomes infected by it and does not continue to live
by faith."
Paul also warns and states this to the Colossians in 2:16-23 "Let
no one sit in judgment on you in matters of what food to eat and in regards to what special feast days to observe or certain
days of worship. These things were only a shadow of things that were to come, and these things have no symbolic value. Now
what does have value is found in our new covenant in Christ. Don't let anyone act as a umpire and defraud you and make
you unfit to reach your full maturity by telling you that, you have to do penance for your sins or the worshipping of dead
saints that have already died or taking a stand on special visions that have happened. These are people who have become puffed
up with unspiritual thoughts and have fallen in love with their own self-importance. This type of thinking does not hold fast
to God's ways of thinking and we cannot grow and be knit together in true love and fellowship.
Now if you're saved and have died with Christ on the cross then, you should have escaped from these crude
and elementary notions and teachings of externalism.
Instead, you have gone back
and submitted your selves to rules and regulations such as don't handle this, don't taste that and don't even
touch them. All these things waste away to nothing as you are doing them. When you do this you are following the precepts
and doctrines of mans ideas of reaching for God. To the outward appearance, these things are popular and they are looked on
as wise things to do. Instead, they only promote self-imposed rigor of devotion and a delight in self-humiliation and severity
of discipline of the body, but they have no value in checking the indulgences of the flesh, which is our lower nature. These
things do not honor God." I said earlier that there is a continual theme through out all the books of the bible where
man in his endeavor to be like God tries to make Him into their own image.
Paul
tells Timothy in 1Tim.4:1. "The Holy Spirit very distinctly revealed to him that in the last days, that some will depart
from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. They will be speaking lies in hypocrisy: having their
consciences seared with a hot iron. Saying things like you shouldn't get married and don't eat certain foods. God
made everything for us to enjoy and we need to stay thankful and to interpret what the truth of the scriptures mean. Constantly
put people in remembrance of God's way of looking at things and refuse all these doctrines and old wives tales and concentrate
on living as a righteous person as God sees you."
You will notice here that
he says these people have departed from the faith. Therefore, they must have been born again believers if they departed. When
we depart, we fall back from receiving God's grace, which is His power to live the Christian life. We do not back slide
and go to hell as it is being preached in many pulpits today.
In 11Peter 3:17-18
he states " Let me warn you so that you are not carried away by error and fall prey to anything not subjected or obedient
to the understanding of God's commitment to you. Stay committed and firm by being determined in your mind to grow only
in grace and knowledge, which is God's undeserved favor operating in our lives. In this way we will have, spiritual strength
because, we recognizing and understand Jesus who is to be both Savior and Lord over our lives."
Jesus talking to His disciples tells them. "Not to be afraid of anything but if they were His disciples
they needed to follow His lead and be like Him, for the day will come when all the secret things going on in men's hearts
will be revealed. So what the Holy Spirit tells you in your meditating and in your prayer time be bold and talk about it with
people as you travel in the market places of life. Don't concern yourself with being physically killed for my sake, but
concern yourself with people who can kill your soul and body." Our souls can only be killed when we are being seduced
by doctrines of devils and seducing spirits meaning,
False teachings in any form
telling us that, we have to help God out to keep our salvation.
We are living
in that day when the Holy Spirit is revealing to the Church of Jesus Christ (His children) things that have been buried with
in themselves, meaning motives that have laid dormant for years, that have had the majority of the Church living as infants
and slaves to crippling attitudes that have hindered their desires for more of God. Disobedience will continue as long as
we teach about the rotten fruit behavior of our lives and not deal with the root and attitudes of our hearts.
This is what keeps people under control and keeps them reminded of their sins as the people were
reminded in the Old Testament when the Levites would offer the sacrifices of animals. Unless we, who have been called to teach
and preach the Gospel of love and righteousness stay true to this message, we will be ushering many crippled Christians into
the kingdom of heaven never reaching their potential in Christ. Obedience to Christ all starts with understanding our righteousness
in Jesus and if we will just remind and teach with that foundation, people will flock to the Lord because, we will have learned
what it means to lift up the Lord and not our own religious agendas.
The spirit
of law is still very strong in the Christian circles of todays born again churches. I said it's a no brainer in understanding
that churches that are not teaching that Jesus is the center and meaning to life have no concept of what righteousness means.
However, to still have born again believing churches preaching law, it is a constant grieving of the Holy Spirit and they
are holding back the supernatural move of God to those who are looking for it to operate in their lives.
Paul in his second letter to the Corinthian church in 3:6 makes it very clear when he states, "God
qualified and called me to minister and dispense a New Covenant of salvation through Jesus Christ. Not by ministering in a
written code of conduct, but by a power in him made possible by the inner working of the Holy Spirit." The working of
the Holy Spirit makes people alive while the law kills. When we are being killed, it separates and pulls us away from the
power we need to over come and use God‘s given power to draw close to Christ Jesus.
I
have come to believe by my interacting with the Lord and people over these many years that, there are millions of people who
desperately want a relationship with God, but not through the old format of church activity and the building of towers of
Babel agendas that have nothing to do with God's will. Let's not get caught up with outward appearances of good music,
packed sanctuaries, and loud singing etc. God's head only turns to take notice when He hears a passion and a crying after
Him.
A recent survey just taken tells us that at as many as twenty million born
again believers will not go back into the church setting because, there are no miraculous things taking place but the same
old same old. This should not be so. The body of Christ is more then enough everywhere because; the Holy Spirit has gifted
it.
Samuel confronted Saul with his disobedience and we have many ministries that
teach on different aspects of our carnal nature and works contrary to scriptural ways of right and wrong. These define our
un- godly fruit in our life however; we must go beyond this and allow the Holy Ghost to heal our heart. These things must
be taught to remind us of Satan‘s plan to blind and addict us to fleshly cravings. These things if we listen and allow
the Holy Spirit to check us out and see if we have any harmful or wicked way in us is the process of growing and live in the
spirit of repentance and not lean towards our own understanding of scripture and have our mind changed and follow His leading.
When we in any form through manipulation insinuate that God is displeased and
holds ought against us in any form. This brings people into an attitude of continually being taught and never coming to the
truth that Jesus loves and accepts them with out them having to measure up.
This
is why so many Pastors are having continual counseling sessions with many people and they never change. It's the anointing
of God in our lives that breaks these strongholds that the devil may have in us. It's the holding power of God through
righteous thinking that makes the anointing work.
Just this last Sunday at our
dinner table with part of my family, my daughter in law was relating to me that the church she was attending with her teenage
boys is having a huge drive on building a twenty five thousand seating sanctuary. However, she was heartsick and searching
for answers because, the teaching was on tithing and giving to God's work, but it was being taught with guilt ridden tactics
and condemning rhetoric, using Old Testament concepts as a base of the teaching.
She
brought her neighbor with her because, she has just been saved and she has a hunger for God and she trusts my daughter-law.
It disturbed me that she asked me the question. "How can I continue to go to this church with my children and take other
people with me that I witness to during the week when I feel that I have to measure up to a system of Old Testament teaching
to be accepted and to belong in fellowship with these people." We need to stop soliciting for people to be a part of
our fellowship and being taught our personal denominational beliefs.
We need
to start teaching how righteous we are in Christ so we can make people free to make choices without being manipulated and
feel obligated with guilt and know the difference between the devil's condemnation and the chastisements of the Lord.
The devil ridicules and brings judgment where; God the Father gives us a vision and hope of our potential with mercy and compassion
and total acceptance.
We can see that Samuels's spirit did not compromise
in fulfilling God's command and he hewed Agag the king to pieces in front of the people as an example that, this Christian
life is a matter of life and death and no compromise can be tolerated. Agag the king represents a spirit of anti-christ type
teaching that cannot be tolerated and is a demonic influence on the hearts and minds of God's anointed people. Some of
the gospel preaching and denominationalism going on in Christian television is a disgrace and should not be so. These people
love God, but have not the true knowledge of God's ways and we need to forgive them for they don't know what their
doing. It's only by experiencing God's grace that can break the demonic influences that have brought many of the body
of Christ into bondage.
Let me make this clear, as I have heard this from many
people. I am not giving anyone a license to sin. Where more disobedience abounds, more of Christ's grace is available
so we can walk in obedience to God's commands. If you believe that what you have heard in this article is a license to
sin, you have missed it all together.
God who is perfect love says, "While
you were still sinning and living out of a relationship with me; I decided to come out of heaven and become human and die
for you, so I could meet you where ever you're at and understand your needs and wants. I want nothing from you other then
for you to allow me to totally restore you to a place of safety and wholeness at my side. I gave you my most loved and prized
possession by giving up my only begotten Son so that you could be set free from demonic influences that have kept you away
from ME FAR TO LONG."
