Tag: Spiritual

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Look Inwardly At Your Heart

39 And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. 40 You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? 41 But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.” ~ Luke 11:39-41

The same spirit that rose Jesus from the dead dwells in the Church, and the same spirit that kept the Pharisees from accepting the Messiah is still ravaging the Church as well. Spirits never die. They are immortal. They may interact with the world around them differently than they did in ancient times, but they are still around and very active today.

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day and age were not concerned with the Spirit, but with the physical. They looked at outward appearances, and not the heart. How could they look at the heart? By looking at the actions that people make and the words that they say. Too often in the Church we look the part, but we don’t act or speak the part. Instead, we are callous. We just let any cruelty and insult fly out of our mouths. We’re ready to send people to Hell and even wish it on them. We no longer walk in love.

Our love has grown cold. Why? Because we no longer look inward. When we look at the heart and really analyze our actions, we will be able to see whether or not we are of God and dwelling in His Spirit or not. I saw a video the other day of a young man who had tattoos all over his face and body. His hair was dreaded, and his clothes were a little baggy. He wasn’t what you would picture in your mind as ‘Christian,’ but his actions, his words, his heart was. He was patient, kind, loving, and truly understood grace (because he knew what it meant to receive it). He was speaking with another guy who was clean cut. Someone you would expect to be Christian and a good one at that. But he wasn’t. He instead couldn’t understand love or grace. In fact, it sounded like he wasn’t a believer at all because he didn’t understand grace.

See, it’s not always about our outward appearance. Yes, dressing modestly and honoring God with our bodies is important. But what’s even more important is honoring God with our heart. Whether or not we look the part outwardly isn’t what matters. What matters is, do we live the part?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Look Inwardly At Your Heart.

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Desire Righteously

10 And He said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. 11 Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” ~ Revelation 22:10-11

God is NOT about compromising His word for Bubba in the back row, who only wants his ears tickled. God is not about that! He doesn’t have time for that. Either you are for Him, or you are against Him. Either you accept Him, or you refuse Him.

God does not force anyone to be a part of His Kingdom, but He gives all the free opportunity to come to Him and be redeemed. Yes, the will of God is that all should be saved, but He never forces that will on anyone. Why? Because it would remove freewill. The freewill to either choose Him or reject Him. That freewill is a gift from God.

Therefore, He says that as the time gets closer and closer to His return, continue in how you live your life. I will give you over to your desires. If you desire me, you will have me. If you desire to be away from me, then you will no longer feel my pull. God will never force His desires onto us, but will always give us the desires of our hearts.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Desire Righteously.

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Even The Appearance of Evil

Every year many Christians dress up and go out trick’or’treating. Many churches even host a Trunk’or’Treat where they get their entire church involved in this event. All in the name of fun and discipleship. But if you have to be the world to the world in order to attract the world, are you still discipling? Winning souls? Spreading the Gospel? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the darkness we welcome in this time of year in his message, Even The Appearance of Evil.

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Be Sheep-tinct

16 … 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.” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:16b-18

God declares that He will make His dwelling among us… and walk among us… and be our God, but we must go out from their midst. We are to separate ourselves from the world, not link arms with the world and support/push evil. We are to be in the world but not of it. How can we be sure? Because He has called us out of the world. He has made us holy for Him.

There are no shades of gray in Christianity. Either you are for Jesus, or you are against Jesus. No one can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). And that is why the Church is so weak today. We mix the occult with the things of God. And we try to force Christ into accord with Belial. The Temple of God has no agreement with idols. It has no agreement with darkness of any kind.

Therefore, if you want to dwell with the LORD for all eternity, then we are to separate ourselves from the world in this life. We are to pick up our cross and follow Him. We are to crucify our flesh so that we can inherit His Kingdom forever. See, today the Church looks no different than the world. We embrace sin. We push darkness. And all in the name of love, while throwing out the True love of God as described in the Bible. This is why the Church will be separated into two groups: the goats and the sheep. If we aren’t careful, we’ll be on the wrong side of the separated.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Sheep-tinct.

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Pray For The Silenced

11 Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. ~ Proverbs 24:11

Today is Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity. Today we remember those who have been silenced before they even had a chance to breathe their first breath of air. Those who were silenced before they even had a chance to be born. As Christians, we aren’t called to turn a blind eye to this kind of evil. We are called to confront this evil and remove it from our land. What does that mean?

We are to pray for the LORD to move in our midst, forgive us for allowing it to go on for so long, and then we are to vote for those willing to change it. Willing to protect the unborn. That is our charge given to us from above.

Today, take some time to pray for those who are thinking of aborting their baby. Pray for those who have aborted their babies. And pray that those facilities that abort babies would no longer exist.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray For The Silenced.

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We Must Be About Our Father’s Business

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” In other words, faith alone won’t save you. We have to work. Why? Because faith without works is dead. You have to do something AFTER you have been redeemed because we aren’t saved by works but by grace through faith. So, what are we to do if faith alone isn’t enough? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the acceptable year of the LORD in his message, We Must Be About Our Father’s Business.

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Be Armed

[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.” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

I had a dream last night that I was walking from the living room to the stairs and the front door was wide open. I slowly walked to it and looked out. There was no one outside. Just a plastic bag blowing in the wind as it rained, yet I got this scared eerie feeling come over me. So I closed the door and crept up the stairs where I saw one other person in my home. He was keeping very low to the ground and told me he was the only one. He then handed me a box of tissues as a weapon. I thought immediately, no I need the BB gun in my side dresser. As I walked back down the stairs to find a better weapon, I woke up.

My home was in danger because the door was left unlocked and there were no defensive weapons in the home to get to. Each and every one of us is a home. A spiritual home. It’s where the Spirit of the LORD, God Himself wants to dwell, but He will never break in and force you. However, the enemy will always find a foothold.

We have to be on guard at all times. What we watch, listen to, thoughts we entertain, words that come out of our mouths, and the actions we make when we think no one’s watching. The enemy doesn’t need a formal invitation or any invitation for that matter in order to enter into your life and cause havoc. He just needs you to forget to lock the door or window. Forget to bring in the key. Forget to have your spiritual weapons on you at all times so that you might fight off his attacks.

We are to be on guard. Our enemy is not defeated to us. He is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Seeking someone to overcome. To destroy. To enslave. We, as Christians, are not immune to his attacks. On the contrary. His attacks are aimed at us with such force, that the majority of us are bound up.

The Church has just as much divorce, depression, adultery, fornication, lust, sexual immorality, hatred, and anger as the world. In fact, we can no longer even differentiate between the world and the Church. How can we say our enemy is defeated? We are under attack and the only weapon we’ve grabbed is a box of tissues. We need to pick up our Sword of the Spirit. We need to pick up our Shield of Faith and fight back against the enemy, instead of living our lives in a false security based on the lie that because I am saved, the enemy cannot do anything to me.

We can be saved and still open doors for the enemy to attack. We can be saved and still have our lives taken from us too soon, before our time. We can be saved and still have strongholds in our lives. These are not conflicting statements, that’s why the Church looks just like the world. Because we don’t address or tear down strongholds that open doors in our lives for the enemy to wreak havoc on us, in us, and through us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Armed.

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The New Indulgences

With each generation the world seemingly gets darker and darker. Running farther and farther away from God as fast as humanly possible. Yet if we pause and look around, we’ll notice that our generations are doing nothing new, we’ve just reclaimed the old and put our own spin on it. What does that mean? Join Reverend Kenny Yates as he opens our eyes to the Truth of King Solomon’s statement, “There is nothing new under the sun,” in his message, The New Indulgences.

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Hope In All His Rewards

4 Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the Word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. 6 Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with Him for a thousand years. ~ Revelation 20:4-6

One day we in Christ will reign with Him for one thousand years. When will this take place? This is after the Second Coming of the LORD, when the dead in Christ rise first, and those of us who are alive and remain are caught up to meet them and Jesus in the clouds, and we go into heaven for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb as every eye watches.

We are not told how long this celebration will last. However, in Jewish tradition, wedding feasts could last several days, and in some cases, they could last up to a week or more.

Therefore, we could be in heaven celebrating for up to seven years or more while the judgment of God is being poured out on the inhabitants of the earth. After the seven angels with the seven plagues have poured out their bowls, the wrath of God is finished, as per Revelation 15:1. So, once the wrath of God is complete, The Great Prostitute, The Beast, and that great city Babylon are all judged.

Then heaven will open and Jesus Himself, who is sitting on the white horse, will come to fight the last war, which at Armageddon. The beast and the kings of the earth with their armies are all gathered to make war against Him. But the beast and the false prophet are captured and thrown alive into the Lake of Fire.

Satan, that great dragon, will be bound with a great chain and thrown into the bottomless pit for a thousand years – the length of the Millennial reign of Christ. Then those who in Christ will reign with Christ for the thousand years. That is a great reward to look forward to. That alone, reigning with our God for a thousand years, is worth all of the strife of this world. What can compare on this earth to reigning with the LORD Jesus Christ Himself for one thousand years? With peace. Security. And no Satan on earth.

Nothing in this life could compare to that great reward, and that reward isn’t even the end of it. There is so much more to come, an eternity with Christ. An eternity of perfection. Where every tear will be wiped away and pain, suffering, and hurt will be no more. Where we will dwell with the LORD God and He will be our God and we will be His people.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hope In All His Rewards.

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Fire Sacrifice

36 For seven days you shall present food offerings to the Lord. On the eighth day you shall hold a holy convocation and present a food offering to the Lord. It is a solemn assembly; you shall not do any ordinary work. ~ Leviticus 23:36

It says that for seven days you shall present food offerings to the LORD. Here’s the thing though, that’s not what the original Hebrew says. When you go to the original Hebrew the words “food offerings” isn’t actually written, it was added in for “clarity.” But instead of adding clarity it actually changes the meaning of the verse. See, they knew Numbers 29:12-34 says in great detail the different sacrifices for each day, which they equated to being food offerings. The Hebrew word there is actually ‘iššeh which literally means “a fire offering” or “that which is burned.” Why does that change the meaning of the verse?

Because it’s an offering brought forth by fire not a food offering that they were commanded to bring to the LORD. Different offerings sacrificed by fire daily. Why does this matter? Because as Christians, we now follow a new and better covenant. The old is the predecessor and it was the physical foundation for a spiritual continuation. No longer do we sacrifice bulls and lambs because Christ has been sacrificed on our behalf as the final sacrifice.

If we read the New Testament we see this fulfilled, for even the Old Testament points to this.

[5] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; [6] in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. [7] Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’” [8] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), [9] then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. [10] And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:5-10

33 And to love Him [God]  with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

Mark 12:33

So, what does that mean for us Christians today?

[10]  According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. [11] For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. [12] Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— [13] each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. [14] If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. [15] If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

1 Corinthians 3:10-15

[6] In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, [7] so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1 Peter 1:6-7

Our actions, how we live our lives, that is now our offering by fire. We aren’t a did sacrifice. Our actions are not a food sacrifice, but they are an offering treated and brought forth through fire. Why? Because fire purifies. It puts the weight of something to the test. It sees what something is truly made of. That’s why the LORD is a consuming fire. For who can withstand Him and who can stand against His wrath?

Therefore, each day should be a different offering sacrificed by fire to the LORD. A different action and/or act of faith to the LORD. Why? The Fear of Booths was about remembering the importance of putting faith in the LORD and acting on that faith. For faith without actions is dead.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Fire Sacrifice.

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