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Praise Opens the Hearts of Men

September 22, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: Revelation 5:8-10

The beasts and the elders in Revelation 5 had “harps, and golden vials.” When we look in the Hebrew language, we find that JUDAH means PRAISE. The harp is made for praising God. Harps mean God-harps that are praising Him. Many ask if God really needs us to praise Him saying that He is a wonderful God or that He is great and marvelous. No. That is not praise. You could say “God is marvelous” all day and all night and you would not spend one hour praising God.

Praise comes from the heart and heals the heart. It is an instrument of God to create the glory of God within the individual. When the angels in heaven praise God, it is like their dinner time. When they open their hearts to praise God and to glorify God for the things He has done and for who He is, then the glory of God flows in. Praise is a KEY that opens the hearts of angels and of men. When we apply the key to the heart, God flows into it. It is not possible for the devil to come in when we are praising God in Spirit and in truth. There is a contact and a flow of energy which comes from God to man when man opens up his heart to God and the enemy, Satan, cannot interfere. He has to keep far away. This is why God says we are to pray and praise. “Praise is comely,” the Bible says. It is not everybody who can praise. Your whole being must be attuned to God and to praise. There is a praise, and there is a Praise, and there is a PRAISE! There is high Praise and glorious PRAISE.

I remember years ago, some brethren brought in a thing they called “high praise.” It grieved me because it was the lowest form of praise I had ever heard. The kind that takes you down emotionally rather than up. It was the kind of thing you could see for years and years in some of the churches. People would stomp their feet, bam, bam, bam, and everyone began to go bam, bam, bam. Drums began to beat together and the people began to jump together and there were no words. Brethren, man cannot praise God without words. We must have words to praise God. If we begin to sing a song and we are only going by the beat or by the music, we are shutting out God. The only way to have God join you in your praise is for your heart to respond to God and to His Word. You start singing a song “I thank you Lord, I thank you Jesus” – a simple song without many words to it. “I thank you Jesus, for you have brought me out a mighty long way, a mighty long way, thank you Lord.” When I begin to sing, I begin to remember the depths of hell I was in and how God reached down and pulled me out.

This thought brings me back to a vision I had in the days just before salvation, when I found myself down in this GREAT PIT. It was hopeless. I could hardly see the sky for the distance; I was down in the pit. The sides were sheer and straight and I would fight and claw my way up only to reach a point and then I would fall back down. It was hopeless, but I was still fighting. Then suddenly there was a sound like a wind and it came down into the pit, swooped me up like a whirlwind and threw me way up on the side of the pit. As I clung on, still only half way up, another surge came and took me up and carried me right out. I landed in woodland where great big globs of honeycomb were up in the trees, and the honey was just dropping from the trees.

I remember these things as I sing a song thanking Jesus. It means something to me. It lifts my soul and the energy of God begins to flow into me, because I am praising God.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 90-91)

Thought for today: Let us use the key of praise to open our hearts up to God.

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I Must Watch Myself!

September 21, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: Ephesians 4:26-27

Ephesians 4:26a says, “Be ye angry, and sin not.” I know what it is to get hit hard with words. You should quickly submit yourself to God. We must be under the control of God! The anger must never come to fruition, never show itself or manifest. We must be able to conquer right in the midst of the tribulation. This is what God is saying to us.

Every time I read about the coming of Jesus, I see the warning, “Watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Watch! Watch! Watch! What is the meaning of watching? It means I MUST WATCH MYSELF. I must watch my mind, what I think, what I believe, and what I submit to. I must watch the thoughts coming from the outside. I must watch the bombardment. Bless be to God, I must be delivered from my besetting sin or my familiar spirits, the spirits my mother had, or my father had, which made them do things contrary to God. These I must overcome by the power of God, by the Spirit of God.

Your first move, brother, sister, is to believe this word! Once you believe it, you can receive it. If you do not believe it, you will never receive it no matter how much you read your Bible.

The four beasts mentioned in Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 4 are natures that are planted in the human realm, within us. They are in our flesh and in our souls trying to destroy the soul. But praise God, “what is good for the goose is good for the gander.” The Spirit of God comes and bombards the soul with radiation, with lights of glory. He bombards the soul night and day, while you are asleep and while you are awake. You only have to leave your God door open. He sets a watch over you. There are guardian angels that watch over you. You should rise up in the morning and say to God that you are vulnerable and ask Him to see to it that you do not sin this day, to see to it that you think no evil or do no wrong this day! Then every time the incidence of evil approaches you, or you think to commit an evil act, or have an evil thought, SOMETHING WILL PRICK YOU, and you will remember that prayer. Sometimes we sin unconsciously. We are so accustomed to sinning that we do not have to think to sin. We just go right ahead and sin. We are not even conscious of it, but the God of heaven has set a watchman within you to make you conscious.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 83)

Thought for today: Watch, Watch, Watch! Pray that you might not enter into temptation.

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Overcoming the Will

September 20, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: Luke 22:39-43

Notice the beasts in Ezekiel versus the beasts in Revelation. The beast that was called an OX in Ezekiel 1 was changed to a CALF in Revelation 4. The implication is, instead of a big, old stubborn ox pulling a plow, we have a calf, humble and willing to suck milk. God is saying, the area of YOUR WILL is to become a calf. Jesus Christ told the disciples that all power was given unto Him in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus had that power and He gave that authority. He was in full charge of His will. A short time before, while in the garden of Gethsemane, He said to the Father, “Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me.” In other words, “Couldn’t we do it another way? Couldn’t we finish the devil right here and now?” Then He said, “Nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.”

The only hope for us and our will is that it be subject to the will of the Father.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 80)

Thought for today: Let our prayer be as our Lord’s, “O Father, Not My Will, but Thine Be Done.”

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What Is Life? – Part 2

September 19, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: John 1:4-5

The devil must be really mad to know that there is such a thing named LIFE! It is written in John 1:4-5, “IN HIM WAS LIFE AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.” 

In this passage, the word translated “comprehended” could be better rendered “overcame.” The devil cannot overcome life for the life is the light. We are actually taking in more and more of the light and the life, which is more and more of Christ which is our resurrection. BY OUR DAILY SPIRITUAL GROWTH, WE ARE ACTUALLY TAKING IN CHRIST. WE ARE TAKING IN OUR RESURRECTION. THE MORE YOU OPEN UP TO GOD, THE MORE THE CHRIST COMES IN. CHRIST IS OUR LIFE! (See Colossians 3:4.)

Imagine a picture of the Great Almighty God, Author and Possessor of this great reservoir called LIFE. The name of God’s LIFE is Christ (Messiah). He dipped into His bosom and took out “Messiah,” and let Him loose in the earth. The life came down as an entity in the person of Jesus Christ. God can divide Himself in as many parts as He wants to since He has power over all things and all things are subject to His will.

In Luke 1, the Holy Ghost overshadowed Mary with her consent. The conversation that the angel had with her was designed to get her consent. When Mary accepted what the angel said, he departed. He was only the messenger. The Holy Ghost then came and overshadowed her, meaning to say that the Holy Ghost planted the seed of Life in her, and she became pregnant, because that was the will of God. Some ignorant people felt this was a sexual thing. God is the Creator. He created Adam and Eve. He created the first man, and He was in the process of creating the second man. The first man, “Adam,” was a full-grown man; the second man was born in a manger, sired of God, born of a woman. The first man, “Adam,” was a natural man, and the second man, “the Lord from heaven.” (See I Corinthians 15:47).

May God bless our understanding. God put Jesus into Mary and Christ into Jesus. Therefore, when Mary birthed Jesus as a babe, she brought forth Christ in the earth. Since Christ is the Messiah, the second person of the Godhead from before the foundation of the world, then the birth of Jesus Christ was the entrance of God as a member of the human race.

When we receive Christ in us through the action of the Holy Spirit, then we are on par with Jesus when He was born of Mary in Bethlehem of Judea. Jesus, therefore, did not need to be born again, since He was never born of corruptible seed. Because we were born of corruptible seed, we need to be born again.

You were first born in Adam, then you were born in Christ. A charge of LIFE came into the earth in Jesus Christ, and then the charge came into you as an individual. This life is eternal; it cannot die.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1996, pg. 4-5)

Thought for today: Let us grow daily in God in order to take in Christ, to take in our resurrection. The more you open up to God, the more the Christ comes in. Christ is our life!

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What Is Life? – Part 1

September 18, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: John 11:21-27

We do not fully understand what life is. If you do not understand what life is, then you do not understand what death is, either. LIFE IS GOD. Jesus says in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” This means that life cannot be killed. Resurrection life means that even one who has been blasted into smithereens, so that you could never find any two pieces of his body together, is then seen sitting in this room smiling at you, complete and whole. Death had been conquered; it had no power over him. This is what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.”

Do we understand how powerful life is? We know the awesome power of destruction. We have seen things like the atom bomb blast in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which brings terror to the human mind, but the power of life is greater because it reverses the power of death and destruction. The Bible says in Revelation 20:13 that the elements will give up the dead, “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” 

We are comprised of so much air, so many gasses, so much water, minerals and all the different substances, but we also have LIFE in us, and the life determines that we must remain an entity for eternity. In the interim between our physical life and eternity, old time gets a hold of us and we die, and our body goes to the earth. We see the gasses and the entire physical body yield to the earth and join this great reservoir of elements in the earth and sea.

The Word says the sea gave up her dead, and the earth gave up its dead, the air and the ashes gave up their dead. The soul (which is the real man) slips back into its body like a man putting on his clothes. He is raised up—not another man, not another flesh—but the same man is raised up, and he looks at the devil and all the forces of destruction and death and says, “Aha!” The devil and all his forces are beaten; all that he has done to humanity over the ages has been in vain. “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (I Corinthians 15:54b-55).

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1996, pg. 2-3)

Thought for today: Ask God to give you a personal revelation of what it means when Jesus says, “I am the resurrection, and the life.” Then, hold on to this eternal life and never let go.

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Earnestly Contending for the Faith

September 16, 2017 by Admin

This message entitled “Earnestly Contending for the Faith“ was given by Brother Cecil duCille in Oklahoma in November 1981.

For more audio messages please visit Audio Messages – Foundational Teachings.

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The Power of Life

September 15, 2017 by Admin

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 2:11-18

God’s loving kindness reaches out to us even in our lowest estate. It says in Hebrews 2:14-15, Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 AND DELIVER THEM WHO THROUGH FEAR OF DEATH WERE ALL THEIR LIFETIME SUBJECT TO BONDAGE.

Jesus Christ is in the process of conquering death in us and through us, His body. If a man walks into the room and puts a gun to your head demanding that you open the safe or he will blow out your brains, because of fear you would do what he says with the hope that you would preserve your life. It was the fear of death that caused you to obey his command. If you did not fear death, he would have no power over you. His power lies in your being afraid. If, on the other hand, when he says, “Give me your money or I will kill you,” you answer, “I am not afraid of you killing me,” then when he kills you, he still does not get your money. He would soon learn that he is not going to get anything from people who are not afraid to die. The thing that appeases him and makes the spirit strong in him is when you get up, get the money and give it to him. He goes to the next house and expects the same human behavior. He will never stop doing this. If, however, he knew that none of these people were going to give him what he demands, because they are not afraid of him or of death, then the power would be taken out of his hands.

The power of death lies in fear. If we are not afraid of death, then we are not afraid of anything. The power of fear is the power of the devil and that is what makes him function. Christ abolished death, yet death is a great big thing for us. We are afraid of death. WHAT GOD IS DOING FOR US NOW IN CHRIST JESUS, IS GETTING US INTO A PLACE WHERE WE WILL LOSE THE FEAR OF DEATH, AND INSTEAD WELCOME IT, AND DESTROY IT THROUGH THE POWER OF LIFE. When Jesus Christ was on earth, He had life and immortality dwelling in Him as a human being.

II Timothy 1:9-10, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began; 10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, WHO HATH ABOLISHED DEATH, AND HATH BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITY TO LIGHT THROUGH THE GOSPEL.”

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1996, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: There is a place in God where we can be free from the fear of death. Ask God to bring you to that place and He will.

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