Deception!

DECEPTION: the action of deceiving someone.

• a thing that deceives."a range of elaborate deceptions"synonyms:deceit, deceitfulness, duplicity, double-dealing, fraud, cheating, trickery, chicanery, deviousness, slyness, wiliness, guile, bluff, lying, pretense, treachery;

Not a very pretty word and for sure not a very pretty action, yet many practice it daily. Satan is a master at deception and yet the bible tells us that he was transformed into an angel of light. In other words, he appeared to be something he wasn’t! For some reason mankind has come to believe that he can hide himself behind a mask of deception. I want to assure you that this can’t be done. Some will be fooled, some will not believe the truth once it is discovered, but there will be some that are never fooled. There is a gift called discernment that God gives to his children so that they will not be deceived. Many in the church today are living behind a mask of deception and while they are fooling many of the brothers and sisters in Christ, they never have and never will fool God. The bible teaches us that he knows the very intents of our hearts. It is better for these type of people to remain out in sin than to live a life of deception because God will not accept a lukewarm Christian!

2 Corinthians 11:14 And no marvel: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 1 Corinthians 12:10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy/ to another the discerning of spirits; Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Revelations 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Our churches today no longer see the gifts of God being used due to deception. The sick are being prayed for but few are being healed. We don’t see men and women of God standing and giving a word of knowledge to the church. We don’t hear prophecies and we don’t see the miracles that we should be seeing all because of deception! This is not a new thing, Joshua faced it with the children of Israel long ago. Have you by chance read about the battle he fought with Ai? When he sent men to spy on their camp and they came back telling him they were few in number and that they could be beaten with just a few thousand. Joshua sent a few thousand men to battle and some lost their lives, the rest were driven back by the Amorites. Joshua rent his clothes and cried out to God and God let him know real quickly to arise, that Israel had sinned and as long as there was sin in the camp they would not be victorious! Joshua had to bring the tribes before him and then take them by family and then man by man until he came to Achan and the sin was discovered. Achan and all his family were destroyed that day for his sins. I do not believe this was an easy thing for Joshua to do, in fact it was probably one of the hardest things he ever did, but God had given him a commandment to get the sin out of Israel or he would not be there with them. They would not be able to stand against their enemies as long as the sin remained among them! Read Joshua, Chapter 7 to get full details of this event in Joshua’s life.

The church today accepts sin and some even encourage it, but sin is never acceptable with God. It’s never easy to call someone out that you know is committing sin and if or when you do, it should always be done in love and for the Glory of God to benefit the good of that person and to reconcile that person back to God. If you can’t love that person and want them to do good and be reconciled to God, then you are better to stay away from them, because if you don’t do this in love, then you are part of the problem! The bible teaches us that if we go to someone and they hear us, that we have gained a brother or sister in Christ. If he will not hear you, then take witnesses with you so that what is being said can be confirmed. As a last resort the person should be brought before the church and the sin be made public and if he or she still refuse to repent, then we are to put them out of the church and have no more dealings with them. The church today is too acceptable of sin and welcomes anyone to be part of their congregation, when the truth is, we are to welcome all sinners into our church, we are to witness to them, pray for them and if they repent, we are to accept them into our congregation, but we are not to tolerate sin. We must get sin out of our churches if we are ever to be pleasing to God.

Mathew 18:15 Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

Keeping the commandments of God

Leviticus 26:2-4 KJV

2 Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.

3 If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

4 Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

We serve a never changing God. He expects something from his people. He longs to have relationship with his children. He wants to bless you!!

Deuteronomy 5:29

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!

Jesus told us to show our love for him by keeping his commandments. We often wonder why our prayers go unanswered. Well maybe, just maybe it's because we do all the asking but not the keeping. We have the power within ourselves to speak life and death but we MUST keep God's commandments, we must live by them and honor them.

John 14:14-16

14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

We can't say we Love God and serve him and not keep his commandments.

John 14:21

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

We can't be half way Christians. God expects all or nothing from us.

Revelation 3:16

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Love isn't always easy!

Mathew 5:44-46 KJV

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do god to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

It’s easy to love those that love you. Our goal in life should be to love the ones that hate us that persecute us that speak lies about us. Not only that, but we should seek to love those that love us with an even deeper, unselfish kind of love. The bible teaches us that true love will even cover a multitude of sins. In other words, if God sees us truly loving people, he will forgive us for all our other sins.

1 Peter 4:8

And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.

Jesus Christ showed us by example how we should love. When it came time for him to know he was facing death on the cross and he went into the garden of Gethsamane to pray. He prayed so hard that his sweat became as great drops of blood and he ask the Father to take that cup from him. He knew the pain that awaited him on that cross. He knew he was going to be beaten, ridiculed and spit upon. He knew that the pain he would feel would be excruciating, but he pushed past all that and loved us anyway. He knew all this and still prayed, not my will but thy will be done.

Luke 22:41-44

And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

Jesus showed us by example that the greatest love we can give is not loving someone that is close to us. That great love, that beyond understanding love is when we can love when we don’t want to, love when it hurts us, love where there is no love. When we can master the flesh and put it under subjection to our will and love those that hate us and persecute us. That is the kind of love Christ expects from us. If you want to please God, begin to love your enemies, pray for those that hate you and persecute you. I have heard many say, pray for your enemies and heap coals of fire upon their heads and yes, the bible does say this but what Paul is trying to teach us is that it is our job to love and it’s God’s job to avenge. If we love the way Christ expects us to love we will win souls and many of those we thought were enemies will be saved.

Roman 12:18-21

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Set a goal for yourself today. Begin to love someone that you feel you can never love. Begin to pray for that person with a pure heart. You may never see a change in that person, but I guarantee you that you will see a change in yourself. A change for the better.

A little wine!

I don't drink, but I do believe that wine has a medicinal purpose. Jesus turned water into wine and the bible says they saved the best for last. I believe the bible to be absolute truth, so I can't do away with this scripture just because I may think it's wrong to drink.

1 Timothy 5:23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine often infirmities.

I do however know that the bible also teaches us to be not drunken.

Romans 13:13 Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

People can pick one verse and make a sermon around it, but I believe God's word is all or nothing. You must take his whole word as truth and know that it will never contradict itself. If it teaches that wine is good for our infirmities, then it is good for our infirmities and if it tells us to be not drunken, then we should have enough common sense to know that to be drunken is not good for us in any way. I believe when it says "A little wine" that is what it means because anything more than a little would no longer be medicinal, but would make you drunken. You can not be drunken and still be in God’s will.

A Prayer of Faith!

James taught us in chapter five that if there are any sick among us that we are to call the elders of the church and let them anoint us with oil and pray for us that we might be healed. The oil is not what heals us. The prayer is not what heals us. It’s the FAITH IN GOD that heals us. He taught us that the “Prayer of Faith” shall save the sick. We can pray all day long but if we don’t have faith in God, that prayer will never go anywhere. There is more to James’ teaching here that many people don’t realize or choose to ignore. He also taught that if that person we are praying for has sinned, those sins shall be forgiven. Now we are getting into some deep water here. James is telling us that the prayers of the elders and their faith in God will reach God and he will forgive someone’s else’s sins. This means the one’s doing the praying has become an advocate for the person that is sick. This is a big responsibility on the elders and prayer warriors. Our churches today are lacking in both. We pray for people and often wonder why they are not being healed. It’s not just one thing that stops the prayers from being answered. I believe one of the biggest faults in churches today is that we see people asking for prayer but it’s not usually the elders that does the praying. You will see many brothers and sisters in Christ gather to pray for them and that is good, but it’s not in line with what the bible teaches us to do. We need our elders to take a bigger role in the church. We need our prayer warriors to step up and we need for others to step down. Now let me say this, you don’t have to be and elder in age to be an elder in the church. I believe an elder is someone that has served God for enough years to have built up a close relationship with him and has the faith that can reach heaven’s throne. I believe an elder is someone that lives within God’s will 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, not just when they walk into the church building. The title of elder is not to be taken lightly. It is an honor and something to be cherished. We all need to strive to become elders, to build our faith and relationship with God so that when we pray, we will see the results of those prayers.

James 5:14 Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15 And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Stay Rapture Ready!

The one thing I know and trust to be the truth is that Jesus said I go to prepare a place for you and if I go away, I will come again to receive you unto myself. I know he is coming back for me and you. The rapture or calling away of the church could take place at any moment. I believe we are closer to his coming than we have ever been. I believe Jesus Christ is going to step out on the clouds of glory and call his children home. People are waiting for the coming when he steps his feet upon the Mounts of Olives, but when he comes at that time, he will be bringing an army with him to do battle...that army my friend, is you and me....the church....He told us to watch the signs...the signs are slapping us in the face. Look up, your redemption draweth nigh...

All of the scriptures are confusing to some because some of them are speaking of the rapture and others are speaking of when Christ actually comes and sets his feet upon the earth again. I believe these are two different events and we just need to get them clear and know which scripture is speaking of which event.

John 14:2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. John 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 25 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring;

26 Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

27 And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

28 And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh. Psalm 130:7 Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

Tending the fallow ground

My son has preached many times about “The Fallow Ground” and today I am thinking about the apostles and why there was so many miracles and such outpouring of God’s power. Can I tell you that they were preaching on “Fallow Ground”. They had the opportunity to preach the Gospel to people that had never heard it before, to tell them about a Savior that they had never dreamed would be real. Their hearts was completely fallow ground and when you plant seeds in fallow ground you get a good crop! They faced rejection, persecution and conflict, but it didn’t stop them from telling people about Jesus!! Today as Christians, we need to look for that person that we might meet that has not heard of Jesus, we need to go out into the world and start sharing the gospel with those whose hearts are fallow ground. We will face rejection and ridicule, but Jesus told the apostles to spread the gospel and friend, if you are a child of God, then you too are an apostle of Jesus Christ. He told us to go out into the world and tell them the gospel. He didn’t say just stay within the safe walls of our churches.

Mathew 28: 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

This old world is soon to become new again. Christ said, I go away to prepare a place for you and if I go away, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. He is coming back for his people and if you are like me, then you have many loved ones that have not accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. We need to be fasting and praying for them. We need to be telling them every single day how much Jesus loves them. We need to be telling the stranger we meet at the supermarket and the people we run into everywhere in our daily lives. We need to go out into the highways and byways and find someone that needs Jesus and then we need to share the gospel with them. Finally and more importantly, we need to let them meet him. How you might ask can we do that? It’s simple, Christ lives in me and he lives in you. If we are going to be his apostles and spread his gospel, then we need to walk in his footsteps. Our lives need to reflect his love for all people. When that drunkard that you are talking to about the Lord looks at you, he needs to see something in you that he longs for. When they can see Christ in your life and my life and see our JOY, then and only then will they want to have what we have. We need to build their faith in Christ and seek the salvation of their souls! Our faith will be tested and tried, but like Gold that only gets better when it goes through the fire, we will become stronger in Christ each time we go out into the world and share his gospel!

1 Peter 1:7-9

7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

I challenge you today to go out and find just one person and tell them about Jesus. Tell them about a man that loved them so much that he died that they might live.