Tag: Awaken From Spiritual Slumber

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Earnestly Pray For Your Promise

[1] When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. [2] And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ~ Acts 2:1-2

After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the apostles for forty days. Then He told them to wait for the Holy Spirit to come, and ascended into Heaven. So, the next ten days they spent devoted in prayer. See, the Holy Spirit didn’t come down as soon as Jesus ascended. No. It took them earnestly praying in one accord for ten days for the Holy Spirit to come down.

We are each given promises, but just because we’re given promises, doesn’t mean we no longer have any responsibility in the matter. We have to fight for our promises. They don’t always happen overnight, in fact, the majority of times it takes many days or even years.

If they had not prayed earnestly, I’m not so sure that the Spirit would have been poured out on all flesh. It takes someone to stand in the gap. It takes someone to pray, come LORD come. They spent ten days devoted in prayer, today we struggle to pray for ten minutes, and then wonder why we don’t see the same power they did. We even make excuses saying it just wasn’t for us, but for them alone.

The Church today has become lazy. We will stay up all night working for money, but not to see the glory of God. Not to be filled with His Holy Spirit. I’m not against money, I’m against putting everything into making it but putting nothing into the Kingdom of God. That is the difference between today’s Church and the first century Church. That is why we don’t see the same miracles, signs, and wonders. Because we’ve become lazy to point of death. Spiritual death.

There is only a few days left until Pentecost. Don’t let another Pentecost Sunday pass you by without seeking the LORD. Earnestly seeking Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Earnestly Pray For Your Promise.

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Choose The She-Bear

Proverbs 17:12,

12 Let a man meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs rather than a fool in his folly.

King Solomon, the wisest fully human who ever lived, wrote that it was better to meet a she-bear whose cubs had been taken than a fool in his folly. Why? I believe there could be multiple reasons. Solomon often wrote about the anger of the fool and how unhinged it was, so that could be a reason. But I think it might be more so that the fool in his folly is deceptive, as he also wrote.

See, when you don’t know the Truth or why you believe it, you can easily be less astray. You can easily be deceived. You can easily become Eve in the Garden of Eden. Ignorance is probably the biggest killer of souls in the Church today. We have the most and the easiest access to the Bible than any other generation before us, yet we read it the least. Our Bibles on our phones, tablets, computers, etc. even read to us, yet for some reason we still refuse to read it.

This makes us a perfect victim for the fool in his folly. The she-bear might take our life, but the fool in his folly might just take our soul. I know people who, though they were raised in a Christian household, have easily been led astray by foolishness that makes no sense. Why? Because they never read their Bibles. They still refuse to read it in its entirety. Instead, they chose to listen to the fool who cherry picks and half quotes Scripture.

Now, in they have become a fool in their folly. Consumed. Drenched in deception that can only be removed by the Holy Spirit. That can only be removed by the reading of the ENTIRE Scripture, and not just picking and choosing random verses out context.

The Scripture builds a shield around you, lest you be deceived. Lest you be spiritually killed by the fool in his folly. Therefore, read and study to show yourself approved. To show yourself righteous. To be safe from the deception that has destroyed so many in the Church.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Choose The She-Bear.

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Stop Embracing The World

2 Corinthians 6:14-18 ESV

[14]  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? [15] What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? [16] What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [17] Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, [18]  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

I recently heard a celebrity say he was raising his child to have good Hindu values. This was said by someone who not only was raised in a Christian household, but whose father was an Assembly of God Pastor. We, as the Church, so badly want to be a part of the world, one with the world, and enjoy the world that we will reject our own faith and God to achieve it. See, it wasn’t enough to overlook and be tolerant of the religion of his wife, he had to embrace it and teach it to their child. How sad.

You had the words of Life. The hope of Christ. The good news that is The Gospel, yet you threw it away for a woman. Now, your child will grow up never knowing Truth. She’ll grow up with the value system that created the extreme poverty within India. The extreme filth and waste that the lower classes live in. And worst of all she’ll grow up with the value system that has no true hope because it’s based solely on how good you can be.

We are human. Flawed. Unworthy. Never able to reach perfection, let alone the presence of the Creator God. There is no do over. No second chance. No rebirth once we die. That’s it. It is appointed man once to die, and then the Judgment. Why would you take away the hope, joy, and security that is Christ? The love of God that has taken away the sin of the world?

The final Church in the Book of Revelation is a Church that is rich and well off in material things, but poor in spirit and in Truth. They are rich in the temporary, but poor in the eternal. They are lukewarm, refusing to be either hot or cold. Refusing to choose Christ or the World. This is the richest the Church has ever been, yet this is the poorest spiritually we have ever been. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. We can’t call ourselves Christians, while not only embracing an entirely different religion but raising our children in its values and not the values of the LORD God Almighty.

It’s time the Church stands up for righteousness and makes a choice. A decision. Time is running out. We can’t afford to keep playing on the fence, as if the LORD will be pleased by us replacing Him because He prioritizes tolerance. The LORD has never condoned, pushed, or even overlooked tolerance of sin. So why do we keep pushing it? We want our cake and eat it too. Today is the Day of Salvation. Tomorrow is promised to no man. Therefore, choose life. Choose Truth. Choose Christ.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stop Embracing The World.

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Don’t Hit Snooze

Jeremiah 8:20 ESV

20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.”

Look around at the condition of the Church— or the so-called Church: We have mega-church pastors championing a godless agenda, pushing racism, and defending the right to slaughter helpless unborn babies in their mothers’ wombs. We have “bishops” boldly stating that they “are of the opinion that we need a third Testament, because the Bible has become problematic.” The Church is in a mess and it’s as if we don’t even realize it.

We don’t recognize the times that we are in and when we do, we do nothing to prepare ourselves or others. The Church, we as a whole, has been lulled to sleep. It’s as if the alarm has gone off and we keep hitting snooze. The alarm may quiet for us in those few moments before sounding again (until it eventually stops all together) but the times continue. No matter how many times we hit snooze, time keeps propelling us forward at a high rate of speed.

The LORD said that the fields were white on to harvest. In other words, the fields are so ready to be harvested that it is at the point where the crop could go bad and be lost. Jeremiah and his people missed the harvest. They went into captivity because of their sin. Their transgression. Their slumber. The Church is no different.

A time is coming when there will be tribulation on the earth like never before. Man’s wrath on the Church let loose without restraint. All because we fall asleep in times of safety and prosperity. It’s in these times that we have to awaken and prepare. We have to get ourselves ready. We have to make sure our family is ready. We have to wake up and pay attention to the times. Because the end is right around the corner.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Hit Snooze.

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Who Will Go For Me?

16 Who will rise up for Me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for Me against evildoers? (Psalm 94:16).

This is a very pertinent question: God is asking, “Who will?” God has given us dominion over the earth. We have been commissioned to rule and to reign, to subdue, and to correct and to bring into submission to our God all inhabitants of the earth. Teaching what is right and correcting what is wrong by the Word of our God. We are the hands and the feet of Jesus, often referred to as His body. Now He is asking, “Who will rise up for Me against the Wicked?”

But instead of rising up, the Church has submitted its authority. We’ve compromised with the enemy and have gone to sleep on our watch. We no longer sound the alarm when the enemy is approaching. We no longer tell of the goodness of God. But why is that? Are we too busy trying to be like the world that we no longer are trying to save the world?

Church leaders are guilty of the same sins the world is guilty of, and some have taken it even further. God instructed His people, His Church, to come out from among them and touch no unclean thing. But the Church has stained her garments with the juices from the fruit of evil. Once in the book of Isaiah, God looked around for one man to stand in the gap to intercede for the nation so that He might not destroy it, but He found no one either willing or able. So, in Isaiah 6, He asks again, “Whom shall I send and who will go for us?”

God is always looking for someone to rise up, someone to stand up, and someone to go and tell. Is that someone you? Will you rise up? Will you stand up when no one else will? When all are satisfied slumbering, will you get up and seek the face of God on behalf of someone, maybe a close relation, or a good friend? Maybe for your country and your government leaders. Do you complain about what’s happening in the world and especially in your country, or are you seeking the LORD, are you standing in the gap for your country and calling upon His Name that He might not destroy or bring His wrath? Will you say, here am I, use me?

Father, here am I, if You can use anything, use me. I will go where You send me, and I will say what You tell me; only be close to me and help me hear and understand Your voice and instructions, in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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The Lack of Vision

18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he KJV (Proverbs 29:18).

This is one of the most misused or misinterpreted verses in the Bible. It is widely used as a call for leadership to cast vision or as a confirmation to set goals and objectives. But this word, translated “vision,” is not from an earthly source but rather a God-given vision or revelation.

It’s actually a subtle call for pastors and church elders to humble themselves and seek the LORD for a fresh word from His lips and new anointing from His hands. It’s a call to study the Scriptures and show yourself approved. It’s a call for holy men and women everywhere to lift their hands in worship and seek, and knock, and ask, and then when you receive, to obey.

God is not interested in just giving a vision or a revelation for the sake of giving. He is interested in what you do with it. How you handle His commands. God is not in the habit of speaking just to hear Himself talk. It is for our own good and our own spiritual growth. Many times God will speak no more until the last instructions that He gave are followed. And truly, what is the use of someone giving fresh, new instructions or revelations when the receiver treats them as common and not worth the follow-through?

And the word translated “perish” actually means people become morally unrestrained, lawless, or run wild without God’s guidance. So, the writer is saying that when God’s word is neglected or rare, as in the days of Eli, the people will throw off God’s restraint and run wild, as they did in Aaron’s day when they made the golden calf. In the days of Eli, Eli’s two sons were without restraint, sleeping with the women who served at the Tent of Meeting, taking the sacrificial meat, and sometimes by force. They did things that greatly displeased the LORD, and He put them to death for it.

Then, the verse finishes with, but happy, or blessed is he or she who keeps God’s laws. Our command from Jesus is to love one another, love our neighbor, and love even our enemy. We are instructed to bear fruit and to win souls. Are you doing that today? Are you sharing the Good News with friends and family? Are you taking someone with you when our LORD Jesus returns to get us? If not, you need to.

Father, give us revelation lest we run wild. Restrain our mortal flesh that is prone to leave the God that we love, and who first loved us. Help us to see, hear, and obey the revelation that you give or send, or that we receive. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

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My Blind Servant

Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD? (Isaiah 42:19 NASB1995)

If you think about this statement by the LORD, it is pretty frightening. He is not talking about the blindness or the deafness of the heathens, or those who hate Him. No, God is talking about His own people, His own servants. The one who is supposed to be working for Him. The one who should have a close relationship with Him. But instead of closeness, we find distance. Instead of intimacy, we find lukewarmness.

Just because we claim a relationship with the Almighty God does not mean we have one. God’s people, the ones who should know Him intimately and serve Him wholeheartedly, are the very ones who are trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot and making the Name of the Holy One something common. That’s why God asks the question in Isaiah 1:5, “Why will you be struck anymore?”

In other words, why continue to rebel after, with His own blood, He has washed you, cleansed you, and made you His own. Why rebel? Why disobey and receive just punishment, punishment that He takes no pleasure in?

It is not God’s will that anyone perish, but all come to repentance. But many people refuse to come, while others refuse to draw close to God because they love the pleasures of the world too much.

Let us forsake evil and turn from rebellion and lukewarmness and cling to God and pursue holiness.

Father, forgive me for not seeking You. Forgive me for not drawing close to You. Help me to know who You are, and how to draw close. Help me to turn from the things that glitter and sparkle. The things that draw me away from my God. Please open my eyes so that I am no longer blind or deaf. Thank You, Father. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

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Put Some Effort Into It

[12] Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. [13] And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart NKJV (Jeremiah 29:12-13).

What if God actually means what He says? What if, when He says, “When you search for Me with all your heart, you will find Me?” This might sound crazy, but what if, when God said “with all your heart,” He actually meant “with ALL your heart,” and not some metaphorical application? Yes, it’s an invitation, but not an invitation to lukewarmness or some watered-down no-effort therapeutic season, but a whole-hearted effort to seek the LORD.

Why is it so difficult for us to believe that the God who sent His only begotten Son to bear the sins of the whole world by being nailed to a tree wants us to put some effort into our worship and our seeking? Why is that so difficult to believe? And then to say “to seek God” is not about perfection, but about learning to stay close and learning to live with Him is sending mixed signals at best and contradictory at worst. God says, “Be holy for I am holy.” We are called to be like God, and you cannot be like God without some effort.

And then to say that you have no idea if you are seeking the LORD with all of your heart, therefore, implying that since you don’t know, then it cannot mean that is a poor, poor excuse for spiritual laziness. How about we get up out of our nice, warm beds early in the morning, as our Savior did, before the sun comes up, and pray, worship, and sing songs of praise to our LORD. How about we push ourselves away from the dinner table every now and then instead of feeding one of our pleasures of life, we feed our souls, and let our spirit commune with His Spirit. How about that? Have we tried that?

And how about this, let us stop using the excuse that we are only human, we cannot do better. And let us step up boldly and come with boldness and confidence into the Presence of our God. Come straight to His mercy seat and kneel in worship at His feet. How about showing some humility and share the Gospel face to face with our friends, our neighbors, and our coworkers. Then, maybe then, we might begin to seek the LORD with ALL of our heart. But we will never meet that command unless we put some effort into it.

Father, forgive us for our lukewarmness and our complacency. Please do not withhold good things from us, like how we withhold our full and complete worship of You. Strengthen our hands for spiritual warfare, and lead us into paths of righteousness for Your Name’s sake, in Jesus’ Name, amen.

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Plug Your Ears

Lamentations 1:12-16

[12] “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger. [13] From on high he sent fire; into my bones he made it descend; he spread a net for my feet; he turned me back; he has left me stunned, faint all the day long. [14] My transgressions were bound into a yoke; by his hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck; he caused my strength to fail; the Lord gave me into the hands of those whom I cannot withstand. [15] The Lord rejected all my mighty men in my midst; he summoned an assembly against me to crush my young men; the Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah. [16] For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.”

Jeremiah starts the book Lamentations mourning for Judah going into exile and Jerusalem being destroyed and ransacked. Then he says to the people “Is it nothing to you, all who pass by?” Jeremiah then switches his focus to himself and those pass by him without care, worry, or concern.

See, Jeremiah had just spent years prophesying warnings to the people of Judah and they did not listen, now God’s judgment had fallen on them. He had been persecuted by their own hands for his prophecies, and now that they have come to pass, they still have no care for him. Today, the Church is very similar.

Missionaries go to places we don’t want to go in order to share the Gospel, yet we, as a whole, have no care for them or their anguish. Some of us even belittle them and if they die, say it’s their own fault. It has become nothing to us to see the Church persecuted, oppressed, and/or killed.

We turn a blind eye to it. Why? Apathy. If it does not directly affect us, we don’t care. Our love has begun to grow cold. Jesus said, “They (the world) will know you by your love for one another,” yet, we love only ourselves. We are like those who passed by Jeremiah without even giving him out the situation a second thought.

See, apathy lulls its victims to sleep so that they never even feel their own spiritual death. It’s like the scene in the Jungle Book. Mowgli is lulled to sleep by Kaa so that when Kaa went to strike and devour Mowgli he was unaware. Completely subdued, unable to fight back or defend himself. It takes Bagheera intervening to save Mowgli.

Apathy is a dangerous foe. It doesn’t beat you down like other strongholds. It plays the ally as it seduces you. So, quiet its lullaby. Follow the words of Christ and love your brother/sister. Pray for missionaries and the Underground Church. Don’t turn a blind eye to them or their pain.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Plug Your Ears To Their Lullabies.

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Don’t Be Distracted

6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. ~ Proverbs 22:6

I recently saw a short of a rabbit who was lured out of its den by a large carrot. As the rabbit nibbled on the carrot, people reached into its den and took out its young babies. This is how the enemy works. He distracts us from protecting, raising, guiding, and leading our children. Work, life, entertainment, etc. gets in the way.

If the enemy can keep us distracted, then he can be the one to raise our children. And once he had the children, he has the world. It takes one generation to completely change society. Children don’t just raise themselves. Someone or something always has a hand in guiding them.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Be Distracted.

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