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Posts Tagged ‘Spiritual’

Are we living in the end times? Is Armageddon upon us? If God’s two witnesses came proclaiming the message that we were in the final seven years of our present day world, would anyone listen?

Are Christians being given the full message of the Gospel? Or are the Clergy choosing to keep some information to itself? Is the church in a huge cover up because they are so involved with building bigger churches and directing more people to their television ministries? Has money become the bottom line and teaching people how to hear from God the last thing on their agenda?

I am an author of a Christian book. In my endeavor to spread God’s message I naturally felt that my market should be directed to the churches. So I began by mailing a picture of my book cover and information on how to purchase my book to the surrounding churches in my state. Months passed and hundreds of mailings were sent out. The majority of the churches would not post my information on their bulletin boards.

I was shocked and I questioned why they wouldn’t give their church members access to this book. Maybe it was because I was a woman? Or could it be because I had been an upholster for the past thirty-two years. Of course it could be because I had no theologian education. As I questioned their lack of interest many biblical stories came to my mind.

Amos was a farmer, David a shepherd, Peter a fisherman, Paul a tent maker, yet they were all called by God. Jesus was a carpenter and He was the very Son of God and the Savior of the world. It seemed that according to the Bible I didn’t need any credentials, just a calling from God.

If this is the case then why weren’t the churches allowing their congregations the knowledge that my book existed? Here is the letter I mailed out to the churches:

Dear Church Leader,
I wanted to personally invite you and your congregation to read this book, It answers in detail the reason for our present day life experiences, using my life as an illustration. We want all churches from all religious backgrounds to post the cover and how to purchase this book on their bulletin boards.

So many Christians are depressed and they play the blame game when something bad happens to them in their life. They are worried and upset over the unbelief of some of their family members. They are concerned about raising their children in a world filled with chaos. Christians want to know why they have cancer or why their child died in Iraq. This book answers all of these questions using my life and biblical truths.

This book is filled with encouragements and answers to the hard questions we face in life. Families will be brought together, parents will understand their teenagers, and it will teach us not to judge. This book eliminates the debates over homosexuality, divorce, and abortion. It is clear and easy to understand; it will break down the barriers of misunderstanding and reveals a truth that is being hidden.

This book will help your leaders and teachers be better councilors and deliver messages that are more effective to the congregation. It will draw more people into your church so God can meet the needs of the church less people. The words in this book will explode into revelation that will ignite a fire in the hearts of all mature Christians who need the right ingredients in order to meet the needs of their unchurched family members and friends.

Then a letter came and I was excited. A chief under-shepherd of a large church was kind enough to answer my questions. He gave seven reason why he wasn’t going to let anyone know about my book. Here’s what he wrote:

1. I don’t know what message your presenting.

2. You seem to place ‘my life’ first and biblical truths’ second, in terms of sources for truth.

3. I’m always suspicious when someone tells me they’ve found ‘hidden truth’.

4. I’m also suspicious when someone tells me that a book (other than the Bible) will draw people, make messages better, or explode into revelation.

5. I don’t know your denominational affiliation. Are you Mormon, Jehovah’s Witness, Moonie, 7th Day Adventist?

6. I’m leery of people who say “GOD TALKED TO ME”, because those words often precede words that contradict scripture.

7. I’m also hesitant because you’ve mentioned the issue of homosexuality, but give little indication of where you stand.

He concluded his letter with these final words. “In short I can’t recommend a book that I don’t know. Hope this has been helpful.”

Why are Christian people not being given the resources that are available so they can make up their own mind? Are the pastors afraid of new teachings? Or are all Christian lay people incapable of making good decisions, so the pastor’s need to keep their congregations in the dark?

Maybe we live in the dark ages where the Priest did all of their sermons and scripture readings in Latin, because they didn’t want the ordinary, uneducated people to understand “The Words of God”. This way the people had to believe what they said was the proper way to serve and worship God.

On Judgement Day, all the people were queuing up to enter heaven. God decided to divide the people into three lines. The first line was for the men who were dominated by their wives while living on earth. The second line was for the men who dominated their wives during their lives on earth. The third line was for all the women. God looked at the first two lines and saw that one was longer than the other.

The first queue was really long and God was greatly disappointed to see that there were so many men who failed to fulfil their destiny set by God as the head of the household. Their lives were completely controlled by their wives. But God saw that there was one man in the second line. Finally, there was one man who lived up to his calling. God turned to all the men in the first queue and told them to follow the good example of the one man in the second line. However, God was really curious as to how he did it. He turned to the man and asked him for his secret formula on how he managed to control his wife and not let her dominate his life. The man turned to God and said, “I don’t know, God. My wife told me to stand in this line so I obeyed.”

Marriage is long instituted by God. It was created by God in the Garden of Eden. When God instituted marriage, it was not meant for Christians alone but for all people. King Solomon told us in Ecclesiastes 9:9 (New Living Translation) to “live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you under the sun. The wife, God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil”. Clearly, even King Solomon understood the meaning of marriage and to live happily with the woman that God has rewarded you for you your hardworks. King Solomon wants us to enjoy the marriage that God has instituted in our lives.

Marriage is important to God and to use. It represents how God loves us and our relationship with God. The Bible likens us as the brides of Christ. If we say that our marriage is not working, then we are saying that our relationship with God is not working. All His marriage institutions then are failure. This is not a good representation of God’s love for His people. There are many divorces in this world. We are Christians have a role to play and that is to show God’s love is real. We must ensure our marriage is successful as it is our message to the world that God’s love is real and our relationship with God is real.Ephesians 5:22-25; Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.The Role and Responsibilities of a Husband1. To be a leader

The husband is to be a prophet, priest and king to his wife. The husband is the leader and head of the household. As the leader and the head, men are called to have vision and to provide direction. Why is the man called to be the head? On the head, lie the eyes. The purpose of the eyes is to see far and near, to see ahead with vision. When God created the world, He created the man first and God gave man the responsibility of work to look after the garden and the animals. God left man with the accountability and command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil before God created woman.

However, since sin entered the world through Adam, men began to fall away from God. Today, men are so busy working. They do not have time to pray. They do not have time to serve in the church. They do not have time to read the bible. They do not have time to provide spiritual food to their wives and children. How then is the man going to fulfil his role as the priest and king to his wife?

As the priest, the role is to lead the people of God into the presence of God. As the priest to your wife, your responsibility is to provide spiritual food and guidance to your wife, and to lead her into the spiritual presence of God.

A king always carries himself with dignity and authority. He is supposed to lead like the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit leads God’s people. He does not drive or push the people to meet God’s goals. The king rules the kingdom wisely and reigns among his people.2. To love his wife

A wise and loving king will put his kingdom and people first before himself. Similarly, as the husband, you are to lead your wife and family but not by force or by thumbing your wife down. A wise and loving husband will govern his household wisely and reigns. His family will respect him and obey him as he puts his wife and family first before himself. A husband must love his wife, be willing to give of yourself and lay down your life for your wife.

Every time we backslide or sin, we grieve God. But He never gives up on us. He saddles us with His love and lovingly holds us in His arms. God remains faithful even if we are unfaithful. In every way, the husband is to be like Jesus who loves the church and gave of Himself for our salvation. In the same way, the husband is to love his wife and give of himself to her.The Role and Responsibilities of a Wife1. To be a helper to her husbandGenesis 2:28; And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

God told Adam the reason why Eve was created. When God created the world, God said that everything He created was good. When He created man, He said that it was not good enough. God said that something was missing and it was not good for man to be alone. Although when God created Adam, he has a job to look after the Garden of Eden but God realised that it was not healthy for Adam to be alone. By being alone, Adam will not have a healthy character development. Hence, God created woman to be a helper and comparable in every way to Adam in order to assist him.

How then is the woman to help man to fulfil the visions and dreams given to him by the Holy Spirit? How is the wife to help her husband to see the visions and dreams from God? For the wife to be a helper, she must know the husband’s vision. It is the husband’s responsibility to share his visions and dreams with his wife. If your wife believes that the visions and dreams come from the Holy Spirit, she will believe in you. It is the wife’s role to help her husband to achieve his visions and dreams. As a wife, you are to be a dream enabler, not a dream stealer or destroyer. You are to encourage your husband and to render help to make the visions and dreams come true.2. To submit to her husbandEphesians 5:24; Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

The responsibility of a wife is to submit to her husband. When the Bible says that a wife is to be submissive to her husband, it does not mean that she becomes a slave, to be thumbed down, to be ordered around or to be abused. A wife is to be encouraging, supportive and helpful. In turn, she is to be loved, treasured and respected by her husband. As a wife, you are to submit to your husband in everything.

If a man is married to a woman, who is high powered, more educated than him, and earned much higher, he must do his duty as a husband and as head of the household before she is willing to submit to your authority. Think about it. If you first love your wife and shower her with your agape love, you will find your wife loving you willingly in return. Just as God first loves us, as husband, you are to love your wife first.

Why does marriage fail and Woman dominate over Man? Let’s see in the part 2.

THE SCALE OF THE ALMIGHTYDr. D. K. Olukoya

It is one thing to call yourself something; it is another thing for God to call you something. One of our elders in the Lord said, “You may decide to call yourself a pastor or an apostle or an evangelist, but in the book of God, which is the only book that matters, He writes that you are a messenger.” It is not what you call yourself that matters; it is what God calls you.

Daniel 5:1-2: “Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank the wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, whiles he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem, that the king and his princes, his wives, and his concubines might drink therein.”

The party went on for a long time. Then all of a sudden, probably because of the effect of alcohol, the king ordered his servants to bring the vessels that were taken from the temple in Jerusalem. At that level, he overstepped his boundary. I pray that you will not overstep your boundary, in Jesus’ name. He went too far. A person can go too far. He can push himself to a level where the Spirit of God no longer strives with him, a level where God gives up on him. At a time the Spirit would be urging you to pray, read the Bible, watch your temper, etc. But a time will come when the Spirit would no longer strive with you. Once a person gets to that level, destruction is certain. I pray, that that will not be your lot, in Jesus’ name.

Daniel 5: 3-7 : “Then they brought the golden vessels that were taken out of the temple of the house of God, which was at Jerusalem, and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines, drank in them. They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood and of stone. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man’s hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king’s palace: (Why did the fingers go to the plaister of the wall? Because there was some light there and the writing would be seen clearly. It was like watching a cinema show) and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king’s countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him. (He knew that whatever that writing might be, it would not bring a good message) so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another. The king cried aloud to bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans, and the soothsayers. And the king spake and said to the wise men of Babylon. Whosoever shall read this writing, and shew me the interpretation thereof shall be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about his neck and shall be the third ruler in the kingdom. Then came all the king’s wise men, but they could not read the handwriting, nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof. Then was king Belshazzar greatly troubled and his countenance was changed in him and his lords were astonied.” They brought Daniel who said in verses 25-28, “And this is the writing that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL UPHARSIN. This is the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. (Look at so many words crammed into one word.) TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.”

At the time Daniel was interpreting the writing, it was too late for the king to change the situation. Those who would destroy his kingdom were already banging at the door, because he had gone down on the scale of the Almighty. He had failed completely on the balance of God.

We are in the habit of making one mistake or the other when we weigh things. But there is one balance in heaven which is absolutely perfect. It does not make mistakes. A pastor could make a mistake; he may say that you are the best person around and give you a spiritual assignment. But there is a balance in heaven which never makes mistakes. Other balances can get out of order. Their chains may break or one thing or the other may go wrong, so that when you measure something and it says it is one kilogram, the measurement is not really one kilogram. It may be less a little bit or more. But the balance of God never loses its judgment. In God’s balance, one kilogram is one kilogram. No mistakes.

The incident we are discussing happened in the kingdom of Babylon. Babylon was a paradise of architecture. In fact, in all the kingdoms or empires in the world, there was none greater in splendour than Babylon. The most elaborate structures of modern times that we see around are mere shadows of what was found in Babylon. The most sophisticated architectural design of these days would not compare to those in Babylon before its fell. Millions of men were employed to build the walls around the city which was 60 miles in circumference and had 25 gates of solid brass on each side of the square city. Some houses in Babylon did not join one another on the ground, but a bridge passed from house to house. It had many other fantastic structures. But as beautiful as it was, when it was weighed on the scale it was found wanting and it fell.

Our God has the knowledge that is beyond human reasoning. His ways of doing things are very strange to the human mind. God has His own way of detecting counterfeit or genuine services. If the service you are rendering to God now is counterfeit, He knows how to measure it. If it is for show, He knows. If you are just an actor, when He puts your acting on the balance, it will go down.

Many years ago, a sister prayed certain prayer points and God told her to just watch and see. All of a sudden, she saw a picture of rapture and everybody was being caught up. She was looking but could not go up, although she had attended a Bible college. At first she thought it might be because she was fat, but when she looked up she saw people double her size going. She tried to jump but something held her. She started crying and an angel came to her and said, “I want to show you your mark on the balance of the Almighty.” The angel gave her a piece of paper which read 22 per cent. It was completely inadequate, so she could not go anywhere.

When you are serving the Lord, He tries your service by fire. He has His own method of testing you. According to I Corinthians 3:13, if you are singing, it will be made manifest, if you are preaching, it will be made manifest. Whatever you are doing would manifest. If you like, do the work of God deceitfully, it shall be made manifest. If you like, be stealing materials from the house of God, it shall be made manifest. The day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire, which shall try every man’s work.

God has His own way of measuring our financial contribution. The way He measures is different from ours. Mark 12:43-44: “And he called unto him his disciples, and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that poor widow hath cast more in than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” God measures your tithes and offerings by how much you keep for yourself. So, you must take heed to yourself so that you do not offer the gospel to others, while you remain a stranger. Take heed so that you do not become a human signboard or a spiritual tout, shouting various bus stops, but never taking to take a seat inside the bus. Be careful beloved that you do not perish while you are warning others not to perish. Take heed so that after warning others to run away from hell fire you do not enter the place yourself. Do not be a tailor who goes about in rags while you are cutting and sewing clothes for people everyday. Think about it. God has His own way of measurement. He took three million Jews into the wilderness and took just two of them into the promised land. As far as His own judgement was concerned, that was a success. Man would say, what a fantastic failure but God was not worried. After all, the Bible says that God would not mind turning a whole nation into hell fire if necessary.

There is the story of that brother who was interpreting in the church and suddenly fell down and died. His wife sent to his people to come and bury him. On the fourth day, when they came to collect his body from the mortuary, they found tears in his eyes and all of a sudden, he opened his eyes and started talking. He said that immediately he died, he found himself in a pit of darkness, that the darkness was so thick that you could cut it with a knife. But inside there was a narrow path, so narrow that it took one leg to move at a time. He said that by the side of the narrow path was a wide road and there were lots of people on it but at the end of it was a big hole burning with fire. He said that the rate at which people including school girls were going inside was as if a tipper was dropping sand. But he did not find another person on the narrow path which he said, led to a very high mountain. He said that occasionally he would nearly fall but someone would appear before him and say, “Do not fall,” and he kept moving until he got to the top where there were angels who had one small television set, the size of a shoe polish can. He said that immediately one arrived there they asked his name. And on his mentioning his name, every sin he had committed, right from when he was an infant, would appear on the television set. He said that at a stage while they were relaying the sins of a certain man, including the incest he committed with his younger sister, the man cried: “Please, switch it off. I don’t want to look at it again. Switch it off because it is terrible.” However, anything that you confessed and called the blood of Jesus to cleanse would not be shown, unless you went back to the sin. When the angels switched off the television set and asked the man, “What is in your pocket?” he put his hand in his pocket and brought out anger. The angels said, “Since you call yourself a Christian, how come these things are in your life?” The man said, “I am sorry, it is the devil.” They shouted, “Lucifer” and all of a sudden, he showed up, laughing.

The brother said that he also heard the scream of another sister who had died in his church about three years back and used to sing a special number. This sister was boiling and shouting with her soprano voice in hell fire. When the brother heard it he started crying. That was when he shed the tears that his people saw at the mortuary.

If the Lord begins to weigh you today, where do you stand? That rich man said, “My soul, rejoice and be glad, I still have many years.” But God said, “This night, your soul shall be taken away from you.” All the things you had gathered, to whom shall they belong? All you had acquired by running around, who shall have them when you are gone?

I have often said that there are two places where sermons are effective: the cemetery and the leprosy colony. In fact, one of the best altar calls I have ever seen was at a cemetery. The preacher began: “Three days ago, this man was drinking Coke in my house. I did not know that in three days time, he would have gone. But he is here now. One day, whether you like it or not, whether you refuse to grow old, whether you are polishing your hair and carrying your body cream everywhere you go, one day, you will land here too. And other people will say, Oh, he has gone home. But who knows where you are going? Who really knows?”

God’s balance weighs many things. David’s father had many sons, some huge and handsome and some who looked respectable and holy. They seemed qualified to be the king of Israel, and Samuel almost made a mistake when he saw Eliab coming. He said, “Surely, this is him.” But the Lord said to him, “Look not at his countenance nor his frame for the Lord looketh not as man looketh, a man looketh at the surface but I the Lord, I look at the heart.” So, God had looked at the heart of all the sons of Jesse, weighed all of them and only David measured up. In fact, David was not allowed to come. He was the smallest son and was looking after the sheep. But Samuel said, “Go and bring him, we will not sit down till he comes.” And he remained standing with his anointing oil looking for the head to pour it on.

Many people lift up their hands and pray, “Anointing fall on me.” Some of them are goats and the heavens are saying, “You want anointing, but there are horns on your head, break the horns, so that you can become a lamb, then we can anoint you.” One goat would say, “No, anointing fall on me.” The heavens would say, “Okay, since we said, break your horns and you refuse, we will pour the oil on your horns.” Then the person will begin false prophecy. He would pray, pray and pray but two spirits will be quarrelling inside him. He would be preaching to thousands of people and at the same time he would be sleeping with a spirit wife. Two things would combine themselves in his life. He would sit down and read the Bible, up to the point that people will be saying that he is running mad, but at the same time, when he sleeps, he could be playing with masquerades. So, there are two conflicting things in his life.

The balance of God can weigh men and determine their integrity. Job 31:6 says, “Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity.” God’s balance can weigh men of low degree and high degree. Psalm 62:9 says, “Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie; to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity.” Vanity is zero. But the scripture says that somebody can weigh less than zero. There are many like that in the house of God. God is weighing you. He is looking at you and because He is looking at you, you are taking Him for a ride. That is because the Bible says that He does not want anybody to perish. He is long-suffering, so you take Him for granted.

Recently, before one girl died she came to see me, and she wrote a list of 40 men she had slept with. What pained me most was the last man. He was the one who converted her to Christianity in a holiness-preaching church. The man slept with her, who was a new convert not knowing that she had HIV. So, he signed a death sentence for himself. The same brother would jump forward and scream, “Without holiness, no man shall see God.” He would come forward and say, “Holiness is our watchword” and would sing in bass tone. But God is weighing him, and all those his songs will stand against him on the day of judgement. He will be asked, “Did you not sing these songs?” Did you understand what you were singing?” He will reply, “I sang. I understood.” The angels will now ask him, “Then what happened?” He will say, “I don’t know.” The angels will say, “Get him away, let him join the goats at the left side.”

In any church, there are two groups of people: the goat and the sheep. The goats go to the left hand while the lamb go to the right hand. A lamb is a foolish animal. It does what you want it to do. It appears like a fool, but it does not perish as easily as the goat.

God can weigh men of low degree and those of high degree. Eventually, some of the big men will realise that in heaven, unlike on the path of life, there is no first class person. No, it is not like the way things are done here. No angel can change what he has written about you because you say, “When I was in the world, I was living in a reserved area. God is weighing you everyday. If a person allows himself to get to zero level, the devil will come quickly and kill him and he will go to hell.

God’s balance can weigh the paths and the ways of men. It can weigh your path, the way you go, all the people you visit, the kind of relationship you have with your fiancée, etc. So, you can see that the balances of the Lord are very interesting. It is the same balance too that is written about in Job 28: “To make the weight for the winds, and he weigheth the waters by measure.” God can weigh the wind. In Proverbs 16:2 we also read about the balances: “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit.” He can weigh your spirit. I Samuel 2:3 says, “Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.”

Beloved, if you want to experience the power that the apostles experienced, you should examine yourself carefully. If God were to weigh your spirit now, do you think that you are up to the required standard? Some raise their hands everyday and pray, “O God, heal me, heal me, I will serve you till I die.” And God says, “Okay, receive your healing.” They collect their healing and that is the last day you see them in church.

God weighs our actions. If He weighs your actions now, do you think you will be up to standard? The scarcity of the power of God in any generation is not the fault of God but the unavailability of men and women that He can use. By the time God grabs a person and says, “I want to use this one,” He has seen that it is the kind of person He can use. If God were to weigh your integrity as a Christian, are you up to the standard? This is the question to ask yourself.

One of our ministers prayed for a certain rich man who had a bad leg and the Lord healed him. Later, the rich man gave the minister a very nice brief case which he was carrying about proudly. One day, he offended the man who gave it to him and the man began to speak against him and reported him to me. He said, “My wife used to prepare tea for this pastor. She used to do this or that for him. I used to carry him about in my car. He is an ungrateful person. I gave him a brief case.” At a point the pastor said, “G.O., what can I do?” I said, “This is why I warn you pastors running around some rich people? You see yourself now. Prostrate and beg him.” The pastor prostrated saying, “I am sorry sir,” and the man said,” That is all right. You can stand up.” This was a person who had no leg to walk and now he could walk.

If God was to measure your financial contributions, do you think you will be up to standard? Somebody prayed and the Lord blessed him with 20,000 dollars but to pay the tithe of 2,000 dollars was hard for him. He said, “It is hard.” Of course, the Lord allowed the devil to create problem that made him spend that money. Eventually devourers were released upon the money that he had thought was heavy. For a person to steal from God, he must be a fantastic thief and a dangerous person to live with. If your husband is stealing from God, you have married a dangerous man. If your business is stealing from God, it will soon become a graveyard, unless you quickly do restitution. If God were to weigh your financial contribution, where do you go? You are a student. Yes, they give you pocket money, you should pay tithe on it. If not, ordinary malaria can squander the pocket money.

If God were to weigh your zeal for lost souls, will you be up to this standard? If God were to weigh your spiritual activities in the church, do you think it will be up to standard? If God were to weigh your love for others, do you think it will be up to His standard? If God were to weigh your zeal for the house of God, do you think it will be up to His standard? Human beings may be dishonest about their balances or about their measurement cups. You can knock your cup inside, but not God’s. The balances of God will not make mistakes.

“Thou art weighed and found wanting,” were the words that came to Belshazzar. You may be born in the church or dedicated in the house of God. Your father may be a pastor, your mother may be a prophetess, but the day you are found wanting on that scale, that is it. Belshazzar did not get a second chance. His time was up, he had gone too far. His mistakes were many. He lived in pleasure and alcohol, just as some people who come to church are still drinking and saying, “I’m not a heavy drinker, the Bible doesn’t say, ‘Don’t drink,’ it says, ‘Don’t get drunk.” Is that really what it says? Such people are putting a curse on themselves. The Bible says, “If you want to be a prophet of God, a priest unto God, you should not drink. But if you want to perish, drink.” The book of Revelation says that if after you have read it and you decide to be doing evil, continue and if you decide to be doing good, continue. But behold, Jesus is coming quickly and His reward is with Him to give to every man according to his works. This means that after reading it you may continue in iniquity. The Bible says, “Give wine to those who want to perish.” If you insist on taking alcoholic drinks, all the prayer points, “I fire back every arrow of witchcraft” you are praying are only a joke. Demons will say, “Which arrow is he firing back? He drinks the arrow every night.”

Belshazzar loved alcohol and parties. There are some people who like going to parties. Some do not go, but they would send their children. Some put on their little girls trousers and earrings that they themselves do not wear and send them to a party. The earrings could be those they inherited from their grandmothers who died of cancer. They push their teenage daughters to parties and they come back and say, “This is my boyfriend.” You now say, “No, don’t do that kind of thing in our family.” But you pushed her too far.

Sometime ago, a woman pushed her daughter who was under 15 to me, saying, “This one is not serious, she doesn’t pray at home. When we pray at home, she sleeps.” Immediately I was about to pray, the Holy Spirit said, “She’s not sick, she’s pregnant.” I told her mother that she was not sick and that the reason she could not pray was that she was pregnant. The woman screamed, So, I said, “Madam, don’t cry, even you, you are with your fifth husband, so she has just collected your anointing.” When she heard me, she stopped crying.

Belshazzar cared very little about God. He decided to insult God. He was a proud man. He said, “Art thou Daniel of the Hebrew slaves that my father brought?” The man said. “Daniel would have said, “Yes, I am Daniel, but listen, I am not interested in becoming the third in command. The kingdom will fall anyway, but listen, your father, Nebuchadnezar, suffered. God threw him into the forest to suffer for seven years and made him eat grass like animals so that he might know that God is the ruler of men. You, the son, you were alive, you saw it and in spite of the fact that you saw it, you refused to learn from your father’s mistakes, so the hand that wrote the ten commandments of Moses now came down.”

There are two sins that the Bible says cannot be forgiven:1. Sin against the Holy Spirit.2. Willful sin.

Willful sins will attract punishment and sometimes without remedy. Sin against the Holy Spirit will attract punishment sometimes without remedy. When the Holy Spirit says, “Thus saith the Lord” and you say, “No, I will not follow it,” or “Thus saith the Lord, and you say, “It is a demon that is saying it,” there would be no remedy for your punishment. If you offend the Father, the Son will beg for you, or you offend the Son, you can ask the Holy Spirit for your forgiveness. But if you offend the Holy Spirit, you are finished. Belshazzar knew all these things but he continued in sin. Do you know that many churchgoers are like that? Since I got born again, I have learnt something from counselling. The sins that glue people to themselves are fornication and adultery. Such people feel sorry for themselves while hearing the word of God, only to fall back into sin soon after.

Forget the notion that it is only handsome men and beautiful women that commit fornication. No, that spirit has nothing to do with beauty and being handsome. Sometimes, it is easier to get a witch delivered, because once that anointing of fornication and adultery comes upon a man, he forgets that the person somebody is his house help. He forgets that this is the younger sister of his wife. He forgets that this one is his relative. He completely forgets that he has a family, that he has eight children to feed and that a new baby or wife will be an additional problem. When this anointing falls on him, he completely forgets that there is something called gonorrhea. He forgets its repercussion He does it and after about ten minutes, regret sets in. If the person has the Holy Spirit at all, he will be like someone mourning the dead. If he wants to pray, the Holy Spirit will not rise with him. If he reads the Bible, it will not be clear again. He goes for deliverance and prays only to fall back in sin again. Unless such a person cries unto the Lord now, the handwriting will soon be on the wall against him: “Mene, mene, tekel, peres upharsin” he is weighed and found wanting.

Somebody put in his room the emblem, ‘Angels on guard,’ Christian books, tapes of messages of holiness by men of God and he is committing sin in the same room. The Lord will not listen to excuses such as “everybody has weaknesses, my weakness is women.” He will not listen to excuses such as “there is a limit to human-endurance.” He won’t listen to excuses such as “I tried but I failed.” He won’t not listen to “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He would not listen to any excuse. The only sin that God forgives is that not preplanned. Once it is a willful sin, it reduces your weight in the balance of God. Willful sins include anger, pride, lying, gossiping, bitterness, envy, backsliding, etc.

Every good word we say goes to the balance. All our spiritual actions go there. All our offerings go there. Every gesture we make goes there. Every help we render goes there. They all add up to help us against the day of reckoning. All the good things you do are increasing your weight in the balance of God. But when you begin to commit willful sin, it begins to cancel your weights and one day you may commit a single sin which can wipe off all the good you have done all your life. A single willful sin may make the balance to read zero. What do you weigh on the balance of the Almighty?

A man had a vision which revolutionized and revised his spiritual life. He had prayed many times asking for spiritual power. He did not see any changes in his life. He bought books on how to work on the supernatural and found that it did not work. He bought books on “Power from high,” He found that power did not come from anywhere. He tried fasting and prayer but before he broke his fast, somebody would bring food for him to eat in the dream. He broke his fast in the dream.

One night in his room, he prayed and saw a vision of an angel of God who came to him and showed him his mark recorded in heaven: Love 2 per cent, patience 1 per cent, gentleness 10 per cent, faith 5 per cent, self-control 3 per cent, evangelism 0 per cent, useful praying 10 per cent, holiness 1 per cent, doubt 30 per cent, love of praise 70 per cent, pride 69 per cent, useless praying 90 per cent, anger 90 per cent, bad thought 80 per cent. It was seriously below standard. The angel that came to show him the paper looked at him, shook his head, folded the paper, threw it at him and went away in anger. What do you weigh in the balance of the Almighty?

God has no regard for persons. Obedience is better than being religious. The Lord is looking for vessels to fill. Many vessels have disappointed Him. He is looking for people who will become His battle axe. So, if you are reading this magazine and you don’t have control over your thought, your balance may be reading zero, if you find it hard to break from any bad habit, your balance may be reading zero. If you cannot identify what you have done for the Lord, your balance may be reading zero. If your spiritual life is going up and down, your balance may be reading zero. If your main purpose of coming to the house of God is for prosperity and protection, your balance may be reading zero now. If you don’t have the joy of salvation, your balance may be reading zero. If you are not interested in soul-winning, your balance may be reading zero. If you have been avoiding paying your tithes or you have people you don’t greet or you keep malice against people, or you live a life of fornication, your balance may be reading zero.

If we have to go back to our roots, we must go back to the foundation and bring quality repentance unto the Lord, so that we can become what He wants us to become. Talk to the Lord about your life. Say, “Lord, what do I have? Where do I stand? I may have been calling myself one thing and you are calling me another. I don’t want to continue this life of nothing. Time is going. I am not getting any younger. Something must happen in my life. I know that this is not the best thing you have for me.

It can be very sad if you have been coming to the meetings of the old pathway and your life has not started to move in the old path. Settle it before the Lord. There are prayers to pray. But if as you are reading this message you have not given your life to Christ and you want to do so now, declare this loud and clear: “Lord, I thank you. I surrender my life to You. Forgive me my sins and cleanse me with your blood. I ask you to come into my life and make me a new person as from today. Thank you Jesus, in Jesus’ name.”

I have seen many people in the spirit struggling. If only they will allow the Lord to break off the horns of the goat so that they will become a lamb, the enemy holding onto that horn will have no more horn to hold. It is because there is horn on the head that the battle is still strong. The day you become what God wants you to become, all the warfare that you are fighting will surely come to an end and you would have victory over your enemy, and the enemy will have no landing place in your life again. But when you prepare a loophole for the enemy, he will take full position.

The Psalmist says, “The day that I cried unto the Lord, then shall my enemy turn back, this I know, for God is with me.” The reason some people are doing deliverance upon deliverance is because they refuse to depart from their sins. Some people will say, “Well, by the grace of God, I am living a life of holiness.” Holy life and there is malice in their lives. Holy life and there are people they don’t greet. Holy life when they are just holding their anger inside. Holy life and they are still stealing money from where they work. Holy life when they borrow money from the cooperative and they don’t want to pay back. Holy life when they buy things on credit and refuse to pay back. Don’t deceive yourself, bring quality repentance unto the Lord and your life will not remain the same.

PRAYER POINTS

1. O Lord, deliver me from the spirit of hell fire, in the name of Jesus.2. O Lord, show me where I stand, in the name of Jesus.3. My inner man, receive fire, in Jesus’ name.4. Every witchcraft deposit in my life, die, in Jesus’ name.5. Every power pursuing me out of the way of life, die, in Jesus’ name.  

“And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes….Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine.” – Ezekiel 47:9, 12

It is very interesting but have you ever stand next to a river and take a look at the surrounding environment around the river bank? I never really did until one day when I drove across a bridge over a deep river on my way to my mother-in-law’s house. The children were swimming freely in the river. Further down, I saw some women washing their clothes in the river. Some men were enjoying an afternoon of fishing activity, undisturbed by the noises coming from the playful children. I noticed lots of trees, bushes, flowers and plantations along the river bank. These were green, healthy plants blooming with life. Along the river bank, there is life.

It was then, I heard this distinct voice said, “where the river flows, it brings life.” Yes, indeed, I began to understand what it means when I looked at the people and activities along the river bank. We have a river within us, too. Whether this river is alive and flowing or mashes of swamps in our lives. Ezekiel 47:1-12 describes this river within us that flows from the sanctuary of God. God was showing Ezekiel the meaning and the purpose of the river.

The Source of the River

Ezekiel 47:1 tells us that the source of the river comes from the sanctuary of God. In the Old Testament, the sanctuary is a physical temple of God. But God moves Himself from a physical temple into our heart. The Bible says that our body is the Temple of the Holy Spirit. He is here to stay in us when we accepted Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour. The Holy Spirit is a seal of our identity as the child of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. Now, in us, flows this river and the source of the river is the Holy Spirit. But this river must flow out of us and whether it is gushing out of us, will depend on our spiritual walk with our Father. In order for the river to gush out of us, we must make room for the Holy Spirit to fill us and lead us in our walk everyday. We can stop the Holy Spirit or we can allow the Holy Spirit to take control of us.

The Course of the River

Ezekiel was shown the river. He was also led by the angel out from the temple into the river. First, the water was up to his ankles. Then as he walked deeper into the river, the water came up to his knees. He walked further into the river, the water came up to his waist and eventually it was too deep for him to walk in the river. He has to swim. As the river flows, it does not get widen and widen. Instead, as it flows, it cuts deeper and deeper into the land. As we choose to walk with God, you will find that your life becomes stronger and deeply rooted in God and His words. It also means that you begin to trust God more and more because in the deep river, you cannot walk and touch the ground, you can only swim. When there are no more steps to stand on, we need to let go of ourselves and learn to rely on God to guide you across the river. Depth and substance are what God wants to build in us, not width and more material wealth. These are just the by-products of seeking God first. If we are not anchored in God, we will find ourselves struggling to keep alive by swimming but eventually our strength will wear out and we will drown from fatigue.

The Mashes and Swamps that Stop the River Flows

As the river flows, there will be obstacles and hindrances that prevent the river from flowing on. When the river stops to flow, it forms into lake, swamps and mashes. These dead sea is no good to anyone as the water is too salty for any use. It cannot be used for drinking. It cannot be used for providing nutrients to the growth of plants and food. It is basically useless. In our lives, we must beware of swamps and mashes that hinder our personal relationship with God. These swamps and mashes prevent the power of the Holy Spirit flowing through us to others. When these swamps and mashes are built up over time, nothing living can grow in it. When we walk away from God and refuse the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we are like the swamps and mashes. No life will flow from us and everything we touch does not bring life and draw others to God.

There is power in the flow of the river. The force of the river brings life. The amount of flow will depend on how much we are willing to allow the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.

There must also be life in us. If the force of a flowing river is powerful, all kinds of plants will grow alongside it and bear fruits. These fruits become food for us. The leaves become medicine for healing. When we walk with God, our lives will become fruitful as we do good works. Through our good works, it becomes food for our spiritual growth and for others to be helped and encouraged. We become “medicine” for others who needed a helping hand, a listening ear, and a shoulder to cry on. As we help the poor and needy, we bring healing to their souls through our kindness, love, compassion. They will see God and the goodness of God through you. But if you are a dead sea, there is no output from dead sea except lots of salt. And we know the more salt you take, the thirstier you become, and you will die from lack of water.

God has positioned us where we can become the channel for the river of life to flow through and out of us to bring life to others around us. Ask yourself whether your life is full of swamps, mashes or a dead sea. Or, is your life a flowing river or a still river? If you have not allowed the Holy Spirit to take control of your life today, will you go before God and ask Him to fill you with His Spirit to make you a living river? It is never too late to do so.

Heb 11:1 – Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

‘Substance’ here refers to the foundation that supports you in your life. Your faith is going to carry you through 2008. ‘Evidence’ means ‘confidence’. Faith is being confident of what you are going to achieve based on what you see right now. It is an attitude and a posture of confidence that God is leading you all the way.

Faith is having the confidence of holding yourself or your own when you are with powerful people, bosses, colleagues, subordinates and even family or strangers. God wants us to walk in confidence. Hebrew 10 tells us to hold on to our confidence and not to throw it away.

Without confidence, means without faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. This confidence is not about arrogance but trusting God and knowing that He will see you through. God’s power travels through an atmosphere of faith. Faith comes by hearing the Word of God. When God’s words are preached, deliverance, healing and all signs of miracles is performed and confirmed through faith. The anointing power travels through our confidence in God. Have confidence that God is with you. With an attitude change, your ministry is changed by having confidence and walking in confidence.

Your confidence is the cable where God’s power travels like a live wire from heaven to you. When Jesus was attacked by the devil in the desert, he was tempted in the realm of His confidence. Satan was interested in Jesus’ life and His confidence. In Matthew 4:1-3, 5-6, 8-9 – especially verses 3, 6, 9 – notice the words ‘if you are the Son of God’ that Satan used. Satan was testing Jesus’ confidence as the Son of God. He was daring Jesus to prove that He was the Son of God by doing what Satan wanted Him to do. It was necessary for Jesus to show who He was. Satan uses the same techniques on us, too. The devil will tempt us that ‘if we are the children of God, then do this and that’. The devil will always test and shake our confidence again and again in our faith as the child of God.

The devil is a scholar of Bible School. He knows the scriptures very well but he twisted it. To defeat the devil, we have to know the bible too. Years ago, there was a newspaper article featuring two young men of a local church who was killed by a drunken driver on their way home from church. The pastor of the church started this church not too long before the accident. After the accident, a Christian friend of the pastor from his previous church came to mock at the pastor. This friend was telling the pastor that ‘if the divine blessing of God was upon you and your church, why was there no divine protection upon your congregation?” We know that this is not true. We live in a broken world. Satan attacks not only an individual, he will try to attack the whole church’s confidence as well. When we do God’s works, the devil will do everything he can to shake your confidence. The devil was trying to shake the pastor’s confidence in believing that the church he pastor was not under God’s will. But this church, today, stands strong and is still growing.

The devil is very cunning and will make you doubt who you are in God. But the beautiful thing is when Jesus was tempted, Jesus did not have to prove to the devil, his enemies or even his disciples that He is the Son of God. It is the ultimate confidence He has in who He is. He did not have to prove Himself. The same goes for us.

When we are impacting the realms of arts, media, entertainments, business, education, and so forth, the devil will try to break your confidence and ask you to prove yourself and to men. Even Christians will ask you to prove that God is with you especially in the midst of negative events. But when you worry, the more you will worry. When you focus on the negative, the negative will expand. When you give reason and react to fear, you loose your confidence.

In Matthew 11, Jesus wants us to be the light of the world. He mingled and make friends with the tax collector, the sinners, the prostitutes, and the fisherman. He shocked the conservatives of His times. Jesus sent His disciples into the world, to reach out to the world which is directly opposite from what the holy men of His times taught. They taught the people to get out of the world/darkness into the light. They told the “holy men” not to mix around with the sinners of the world because they were defiled. Jesus did just the opposite. His disciples went into the world, to go as sheep among the wolves.

Even John the Baptist doubted Jesus. John the holy prophet sent his disciple to ask Jesus whether He was truly the Son of God (Matt 11:5). But Jesus did not prove Himself to John or his disciple by performing miracles before them. Instead, He responded by telling John to look at the fruits of His life where the sick were healed, the blind saw, the lame walked. He said to John, “Blessed are those who were not stumbled because of Me”. Jesus was not bothered with what people thought of Him. He simply did what the Father wanted Him to do. This is the confidence He had of who He is.