Pastor’s Blog 5.15.19

Isaiah 28:23-29

23 Give ear and hear my voice , Listen and hear my speech.

24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?

25 When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow the black cummin And scatter the cummin, Plant the wheat in rows, The barley in the appointed place, And the spelt in its place?

26 For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him.

27 For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, And the cummin with a rod.

28 Bread flour must be ground; Therefore he does not thresh it forever, Break it with his cartwheel, Or crush it with his horsemen.

29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance. NKJV

Tonight I am starting a new series called “Hearing and Discerning the Voice of God”. I chose this passage of scripture to expound on the fact that the Lord wants to lead and instruct us daily. He teaches a farmer how to sow and reap, and I believe we are daily instructed through intuition and inward knowing in the affairs of life. At the same time, I also hear so many things being called the voice of God which clearly aren’t. Why? They violate His word, His nature and don’t come to fulfillment.

One of the most difficult things you will ever learn as a believer is truly discerning when God is speaking or not. I have spent a lifetime trying to discern the voice of God and the longer I live the slower I speak. Oftentimes, I am more apt to make the call after the fact. If I believe I have heard the voice of God, I will wait until total confirmation before I speak. Some would call this a lack of faith, I choose to call it a decision from years of experience.

Psalm 95:7-11

7 For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture, And the sheep of His hand. Today, if you will hear His voice:

8 “Do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion,  As in the day of trial in the wilderness,

9 When your fathers tested Me; They tried Me, though they saw My work.

10 For forty years I was grieved with that generation, And said, ‘It is a people who go astray in their hearts, And they do not know My ways.’

11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.'” NKJV

Four times in the scriptures, three times in the New Testament, this verse is given. Today, If you will hear His voice…, why? The older I get and the longer I live as a follower of Jesus, the more I am skeptical of those, “hearing the voice of God.” For thirty five years I lived in the Pentecostal side of faith and observed the fallacies of many who said “God told me.” I have enough history in my own life to tell you not everything I believed was the voice of God at the time, was in fact the voice of God. I have learned to really search for the confirmations before I jump and go on public record that, “Thus saith the Lord”.

So every day I have to work not to harden my heart as I have seen many others do. I have watched many over the last 35 years throw in the towel on the present day voice of God because of people missing it. I have had to guard my heart with all diligence as well. I grew up spiritually in a Church culture of hunger and thirst for the presence and power of God. The Charismatic movement was a reformation against traditional, formalized Christianity. Now we culturally are a move in the opposite direction. I think the way of discernment is in understanding the motive of a movement.

If the fear of the Lord is not the motive, I have to question the movement. Questions I ask about a movement are things like:

  • Does this movement begin like the Gospel began, with a call to repentance?
  • Does this movement call me to a higher level of holiness and sanctification?
  • Does this movement place the emphasis on my personal relationship with the Lord?
  • Does this movement acknowledge that the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us and equips us to walk in the present day?
  • Does this movement diminish the role of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives?
  • Does this movement compromise the word of God to please people?

These are the questions that we must address before we embrace a new wind of doctrine or Church culture.

Hearing the voice of God is a fundamental part of the New Covenant and I want to lead from the front on this, and not to being led astray by the popular voice of culture even in the church. I cry out to God constantly for discernment, to be led by His voice, and not the voice of another as I pray we all do.

I’ll end with this- the true voice of God will always have a “come to pass” and not an excuse why it didn’t. The true voice of God can withstand scrutiny because it will always be confirmed in the end.

I am really looking forward to digging in on this teaching and hope you will join us!

Pastor’s Blog 5.8.19

Last Wednesday night, I was ministering on “The struggle is real” and I was referring to the fact that if you believe and practice the teachings of the early church, and the Apostles doctrine, that you will be a “freak show in the world system”. Think about it. The scripture says:

1 Peter 4:1-6

4:1 Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin,

2 that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles — when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you. 

5 They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

6 For this reason the gospel was preached also to those who are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. NKJV

I don’t laugh at the filthy jokes of the world any more do you? What they call entertainment we are offended by. Look at the following passage:

2 Peter 2:4-3:1 Doom of False Teachers

4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;

7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked

8(for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) — 

9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,

10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,

11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.

12 Depravity of False Teachers But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,

13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you,

14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.  

18 Deceptions of False Teachers For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.

19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”  NKJV

There are so many warnings in the scriptures about living in sin. I was listening to one of the most popular Bible teachers in America the other day and he said, “Your spirit is perfect when you are born again and your spirit is like “vacuum sealed” by the Holy Spirit, therefore, no sin you commit in your soul or body can affect your spirit.” He went on to say, “That doesn’t mean you should live in sin because that will give the devil access to your soul and body”. What about this verse:

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1

14 Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

15 And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever?

16 And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them  And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.”  

17 Therefore “Come out from among them  And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.”  

18’I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty.”  

2 Corinthians 7

7:1 Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. NKJV

Someone made the comment, “Your notes and blogs are mostly just scriptures”.

You bet! You see, I am called to teach you the Bible, not my opinion. I am trying to call attention to the truth in context. I don’t like plucking a verse out of context and then creating my own interpretation of it by pulling a couple other scriptures out of context and writing my own Bible. That’s “Kingdom fake news.” If I can get you to read and give attention to the Bible and read the whole thought of the original intent, I have done my job.

Recently, another very popular Christian leader said that he no longer used sayings like, “the scripture says”, or “the Bible says”, he went on to say that “offends people.” Really? Hasn’t Jesus been offending people for 2000 years?

One thing about these “new breed of preachers” they will never have to worry about much persecution or martyrdom, because they never say anything that could offend anyone. If Jesus had done that he would not have been crucified. Think about that!

Pastor’s Blog 5.1.19

The struggle is real! From the moment we are born, to the moment we are born again, we fight the fight! Each day we live we strive to overcome the adversities of living in a fallen world. The enemy never stops trying to distract us from our purpose and call. Paul summed it up very well in the following passage:

Philippians 3:9-16 TPT

My passion is to be consumed with him and not clinging to my own “righteousness” based in keeping the written Law. My “righteousness” will be his, based on the faithfulness of Jesus Christ—the very righteousness that comes from God. And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me. I will be one with him in his sufferings and I will be one with him in his death. Only then will I be able to experience complete oneness with him in his resurrection from the realm of death.

I admit that I haven’t yet acquired the absolute fullness that I’m pursuing, but I run with passion into his abundance so that I may reach the purpose that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to discover. I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. I run straight for the divine invitation of reaching the heavenly goal and gaining the victory-prize through the anointing of Jesus. So let all who are fully mature have this same passion, and if anyone is not yet gripped by these desires, God will reveal it to them. And let us all advance together to reach this victory-prize, following one path with one passion.

We truly have to die to self to live to Him! And once we are in union with Him through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are given the strength to overcome and persevere.

Galatians 2:19-21:

For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ  lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.” NKJV

There are many in the body of Christ today that have either not grasped this concept or have been led back to living in the flesh by the deceiver. It is no longer I who live? How deep is this revelation in your heart? Paul said, “And I continually long to know the wonders of Jesus more fully and to experience the overflowing power of his resurrection working in me.”

Experience is a key to walking in the Spirit. To be led by the Spirit of God doesn’t mean we become flakey people who follow every thought that comes into our mind as the voice of God, it means we search to discover His will and purpose in our daily lives. It means we are strengthened for the battle daily and we are inspired to continue in the faith by His life in us.

People of Pentecostal faith are sometimes made fun of because of ridiculous claims of the leading of God. Remember all the Apostles and the early church were Pentecostal! The Holy Spirit only speaks truth and this is the real test to see if it is He who is leading. Remember the Holy Spirit is here to help us in our struggles and weaknesses. He is a friend that is closer than a brother. He will never leave us or forsake us and when called upon in faith He is ready to help us overcome whatever we are facing!

Jude 20-21

Maintain Your Life with God But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. NKJV

There is a reason I spend usually an hour a day or more prying in the Spirit, He infuses me with a “don’t quit spirit” and gives me the strength to just keep doing what I know is right. I now live in a place of victory and my greatest disappointment is in others who won’t lay hold of eternal life. I long to see every person live in the power and strength of God! Don’t you? I wish I could help more people make the daily choices to lead them into the victory of Christ, so I pray. I pray in the Spirit and I pray with the understanding. Also, I shout from the housetops that Jesus is the way the truth and the life and I keep believing the same work that God has done in me, will be done in others. I try to share my victory as an example that if the Lord can do it through me He can do it through anybody!

Be blessed!

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