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Are You in the Kingdom of God?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on December 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:8-10

Have you ever thought about why God said to Abraham to get out of his country, from his kindred, and from his father’s house? And also, why is He telling us the same thing? The reason is that if you do not get out, you will not get in. Let me say it again: If you do not get out, you will not get in! God is calling men and women and children into His kingdom and He said, “I offer you a holy priesthood. I offer you royalty.” However, you must come out if you are to come into what God is giving.

Now, this is no joke! This is not some preaching that we are putting over you. This is reality! The other things you are dealing with are not reality! They are for a time. They will pass away! Your color will pass away. Your nationality will pass away. All these things that you have in you that you believe are real—they are unreal!

“I offer you a royal priesthood, a holy nationality!” God said. God is recruiting people unto the heavenly Kingdom, but unless you get out of the kingdom under which you are ruled, you will never get into the Kingdom of God.

The question is, “When I get saved and I get baptized in the Holy Spirit, am I not in the kingdom of God?” We teach and we preach on this subject, but most of the brethren with which we fellowship do not believe this one point that I am bringing to you now. You are born again; there is no doubt about it. Jesus shed His Blood for you. He came, you opened yourself to Him, He baptized you with the Holy Spirit, and your spirit is completely taken by God. Now you have a spirit that is not yours. You cannot control your spirit for your spirit is taken by God. So then, your spirit will always be coming against the wrong things that you do. But are you in the Kingdom of God? The Kingdom of God is in you, but are you in the Kingdom of God? What is the meaning of this question? The only way we can find if we are in the Kingdom of God is if we understand what being in the Kingdom of God means.

Let us let us take it from the natural. We are in the kingdom of the United States of America. We have to obey the laws. Every one of you who came here by motor vehicle had to have a license. You have to pay for your license by the year. Your license has your photograph, your identity, and it is all done by the government under this kingdom where you are. Now, you can drive without a license, but it is called a crime. They will arrest you for driving without a license. You say, “I didn’t do anything! I only drove without a license,” but you are in this kingdom and so you must obey the laws and the rules of this kingdom or else your actions are illegal and criminal. That means that you are under the headship of the government of the United States, and whether you like him or not, the President of the United States is the head of the government of the United States. You do not have to like him, but what he says is going to affect you.

Now, let us go to the spiritual. To be in the Kingdom of God you have to be under the headship of Jesus Christ. That is, you have to be obeying the laws of Jesus. You have to be a citizen in good standing and not a criminal, because, as in our previous example, a criminal is still in the kingdom of the United States, but he is either in prison or he is working against the law and the law is working against him and sooner or later he is going to get hit and taken. Do you understand?

So, in order to be in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus, you must be under the headship of Christ Jesus. Now, are there Christians who are not under the headship of Jesus Christ? Yes! There are people who are born again and saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ, but they are not under the headship of Jesus Christ. They are against the very Kingdom that has redeemed them and purchased them.

We are saying then that to be in the Kingdom of Jesus you have to come out of the kingdom of the enemy.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 1998, pg. 7-9)

Thought for today: Let us come under the headship of Jesus Christ by the simple fact of obedience to His leading so that we may be found in the Kingdom of God.

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Relinquishing Your National Identity

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on December 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 12:1-5

I am going to read something for you that God said to Abraham, but it is something that is being said to you. It applies in a way differently to you than it did to Abraham, but it is the same word and it has the same meaning. We are going to look for what God meant when He said these things to Abraham. This is what we call “exegesis.” Always look for the exegesis: God said so and so, but what did He mean?

Let us go to Genesis 12:1, “Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.”

The Lord said this to Abraham and we want to know what the meaning of this is. Why did He put this in the Bible?  Why should I be interested in what God said to Abraham?  Do you follow what I mean?

This is your Bible. God put it in the Bible. Men fought to take it out. Men wanted to destroy the Bible. Men killed and did their best to destroy it and it could not be destroyed. They took some of the scrolls and burned them! Yet, the people who burned them are past and gone and the scrolls remain. Hallelujah! They never did get it.

So, I am asking you, does this word about Abraham mean something to you, or to us? Why did God put it in the Word? Why did God fight so hard that this word could come to us? God is saying to you here in this verse that you must relinquish your national identity.

That is hard. That is very, very hard. If you are born a black man, you like being a black man. Some people do not know that. Some of you, brethren, do not know that the people who are black like to be black. If you could give them the choice to be white, they would not want it, because there is a certain feeling that you have inside, that you are something special.

When my brothers and I grew up, we felt that we were made out of iron. We were strong. We were fighters. We were on top of the world. I know the people in Africa feel that way too. But then I found out afterwards that everybody feels that way! You on one side, you are feeling your feeling, and you do not know what the other person is feeling on his side. I know that the Germans feel that way, and the Russians feel that way. Everybody feels that way and nobody is finding out what the other person feels.

So, there will be wars until Jesus comes, because war is in the heart of man and it is the spirit of the antichrist. I want you to take this—do not take it with a grain of salt. Take it and believe it: it is the spirit of the antichrist that makes men want to reign and rule over one another. Anywhere you find men who want to rule and reign and be the boss and be tops, it is the spirit of the antichrist. That is, unless it is where you want to be tops in Christ—then you are bottom.

Those who want to be tops in Christ—they are the least. They go around washing everybody’s feet and letting people walk on them. Oh, you do not like that, but that is the way you are tops in Christ. “Recompense to no man evil for evil…but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:17,21). That is being tops in Christ. God worked it out that the spirit of the antichrist is the one that likes to rule and reign over others and the Spirit of Christ is the one that wants to rule and reign with Christ.

Genesis says, “Get thee out of thy country (thy national identity)…!” Do not be an American anymore! Do not be a Kenyan anymore. Do not be a Jamaican anymore. Do not be a Polish anymore. Do not be a German anymore. Just belong to the new nation, the royal priesthood, the peculiar people. My God! Isn’t this what God is asking us to do? He approached Abraham with this, and He said, “Get out Abraham! Get out of here and stay out of here!” Abraham knew it was God who spoke to him.

Now, I am not saying that it is easy. It is difficult not to be black, when you are black. God sent me to His people. He did not send me to a color. I have to recognize God’s people regardless of their color. There is something else that we need to recognize and that is that you really do not have any color! Your color is a deception! It is an outward facade that you are wearing to deceive everybody that you are black or white when really you are supposed to be a spirit. A spirit does not have any color! Do you understand? You are not what you seem to be.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 1998, pg. 2-3, 6-7)

Thought for today: Have you relinquished your national identity yet or are you still holding on to the roots of your inheritance? Bring this matter before the Lord and have Him speak to you so that at the end of the day you are counted among those who have overcome.

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Righteous from Deep Inside

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on December 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Ecclesiastes 7:21-22

We are thinking about the life of Abraham, how God dealt with Abraham and how God deals with us. There is a peculiar thing in God, in that the way He dealt with the people of the Old Testament is the exact pattern of how He will deal with us. Therefore, we do not need to worry about what God will do or how He will do it. If we just look at the Old Testament, the promises that God has given to Israel are the promises that He is giving to you. Somebody said, “But that is Old Testament.” It is Old Testament, but it is God. God is never old! So what God did through these people, He is now doing through you.

Everything that you believe, you should believe it because it is in the Bible. You must have proof as to why you believe so and so, and you must know your Bible and where to prove it from the Bible. If you do not have proof, find out from those who have studied the Bible and let them show you where the proof is, because we are not supposed to preach any doctrine or any dogma that does not have solid biblical foundation. To have solid foundation means in most cases that you must find it in your Bible at least three times. Now, most of your Bible is implied. It is written “So, and so, and so;” but it is implied “So, so, so.” That means that God will imply more in the Bible than what is actually written in words, because He said in John 21:25 that if all that Jesus said and did was to be written in books, the world could not hold the books. Do you understand? So then, for solid working truth you must have biblical foundation.

Unless you have a pure heart, you will never come to truth. Truth is so elusive that it only comes to those whose hearts are pure. In other words, I can convince myself that I am right, but it does not mean that I am right. There are many things that we believe are true that are not true. We believe that we are right, and because we believe that we are right we will go to lengths with it, but it will never bring forth life for the only thing that brings forth life is “truth.” I am just laying down some principles for you: There are many things that are true, but they are not truth.

Every one of us has skeletons in the closet. Yes! We have some skeletons down there. We lock the door, seal it, and forget them. Now, if you should come and take the platform and begin to preach about the skeletons that I have in the closet from way down yonder, it would be true things that you are saying, but it would not be truth. Truth glorifies Jesus! You may know something about somebody and you tell it to somebody else, but when the person hears it, it disturbs him. It does not lift him up. It does not take him near to Jesus, but it sinks him. If this is so, then it is not truth; and the bearer of evil tidings is working as an emissary of the devil.

There are some things that we know that we should not talk about. I will prove it to you. Let us say that we know some secrets, some dark deeds that were done in our family. Do we go around talking about them? No, we do not; and if this is so, then why should we talk about somebody else’s secrets?

God is bringing up a people. He said, “Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the Lord’s servant?” (Isaiah 42:19)

Also, in Ecclesiastes 7:21 He said that if your servant curses you, you should pretend that you do not hear. Do you know why? The reason is given in the next verse. It is because sometimes you have likewise cursed others.

God gives us a clear path and it is a little bit narrow, isn’t it? You do not have any leeway. You are not as free as a sinner. But it is the path of righteousness and the Word says, “…few there be that find it” (Matthew 7:14). There are not many Christians who walk the Christian way.

You say, “Brother Cecil, these are people who are not going to heaven,” but you are wrong! A lot of wicked people go to heaven. That sounds bad, doesn’t it; but was the thief on the cross a righteous person? He made it though, because he repented at the last edge and he was saved although his shirt was singed with the fire of hell. He was saved.

So, as righteous people, we have to be righteous from deep down inside.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 1998, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let us examine our walk before the Lord and see to it that we walk the true Christian way.

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God, the Number One in Your Life

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , on October 27, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Mark 12:30

God says in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.”

This is the first rule we were given, the first law: Love God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength.” (Mark 12:30) In order to love God, you must love Him as number one in your life; that is what He means. In other words, God is not saying that you have a mighty capacity to love like God loves. Your love might be like a little thimble in comparison to a big ocean, but if you put God first, if God is number one in your life, then you love God as much as God wants you to love Him. Do you understand? God is not asking you to do any impossible tasks. All He is asking you to do is to love Him as number one.

A little girl once said, “I love you, I love you way up in the sky.” Amen. She knew above her head was Number One. God wants you to have Him as number one.

Brethren, let us think about “number one” for a while. Many times God takes second place in our lives because we have other things that we count more important. The reason why you come to the meetings is not because you didn’t have anything else to do. Many of us have many other things to do and we could do them, we could enjoy these other things, but because we have a priority upon one thing, then we use the time to do that one thing. Sometimes you are tired; sometimes you are upset; sometimes you are in no condition to come to service, but to you it is important and so you sweep everything away and put it as number one. But there are other times when number one is something else for us. We are temper-mental – sometimes God is number one in our lives and sometimes He is not. We need to have a steady understanding. I would encourage you to take the Bible and read the law of the firstfruits. God has placed this law in the Bible because through it He is telling you that He should be number one. So whereas the Israelites would have firstfruits once a year, or in case of animals several times a year when the animals had their offspring, you have it every day. Your firstfruit is an everyday thing that God is giving you.

Every morning you say, “God…” When you go to bed at night you say, “God…” At midday it is, “God…” It is “God…” all through the day. If you notice the scripture says in Daniel that Daniel used to pray every morning, every midday and every evening. The Jews were taught to pray in the morning and at sunset. You are in a different order; you are called to something entirely different. God said, “Pray without ceasing.” It means that when you are going to do so and so, you say, “God…be with me.” You start to think about something and you say, “God…” Even in your dreams you will dream God first because it is ingrained, it is marked, it is carved in you like a carving on a chair. It is cut in, carved into your consciousness and your soul will come out with the brand of Jesus first. That is, if you continue to practice God first.

(Excerpt from “Led of the Spirit”, Foundational Teachings #077)

Thought for today: In order to love God, you must love Him as number one in your life.

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The Jawbone of an Ass

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , on October 26, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Judges 15:9-17

Let us look at the following story today: Samson, after destroying the corn fields of the Philistines, went into a rock Etam, stayed there and the Philistines came to arrest him. I trust you understand that I am not talking about Samson. What am I talking about then? I am talking about the church hiding in the rock. And I am talking about the brethren of the church who give up the others. Some of us give up the others. Some of us are weak, afraid of the enemy. The Israelites went up, arrested Samson and delivered him to the Philistines; the church delivering up church.

So the Israelites bound Samson with new cords, took him down and delivered him over to the Philistines so that the Philistines would not hurt them. The church system is about ready to deliver those who are different from them, who won’t conform to their ways. Deliver them up to the world to be destroyed.

Samson went down bound before the Philistines. The Philistines began to celebrate their victory and God said, “They shouted against Samson and against God.” I want you to understand that a shout symbolizes a certain going forth of energy in whatever you are doing. They were praising their god for giving them Samson. Now remember that I am not talking about Samson. They shouted against him and the Bible recorded that when they shouted, God came upon him. In other words, Samson needed a move of God to move. God is saying that we need the move and when we feel the move, we must move. When this move hit Samson, the Bible said that the ropes were burned as if by fire. The fire of the Holy Ghost is going to lose your bands and set you free. And when your bands are loosed, you must know what to do; you must do the right thing. The first thing Samson did was to look around for a weapon, something to fight with. There was an old dead jackass. His bones were bleached white, bleached dry bones, and there was his jawbone.

Let us look at the spiritual meanings of all this: Samson means the body of Christ; the rope is the bondage that they have put upon us; His brethren are the other Christians who don’t like us. So what is the jawbone of an ass?

Your Bible is a beautiful, marvelous book. There is no book like it in the world. When you read your Bible, you know it could not be written by a man. Moreover, there were several men that God used to write it and there was no way those men could have gotten together to discuss it, because they lived in different ages of time. Go in your Bible and read about the jackass. The first reference I can think of is in the law – the firstfruits belong to God. You must take the firstfruits of your field and carry them to God. You must take the first animal you have from the doe, or she-ass, or anything else and it belongs to God. But God doesn’t want a jackass to be offered up as a sacrifice. So what do you do with the jackass? You redeem it with a lamb. If you don’t redeem the ass, then you must break its neck, because it belongs to the Lord.

When you take that right along, you will see that the ass is referring to you. We are the ass and God says that “out of the mouth of babes and suckling He hath ordained strength” (Psalm 8:2). In the end time, God shows a picture of a sharp two-edged sword coming out of the mouth of the church and destroying his enemy. In Revelation 11 we see the two witnesses and the fire, the word of their mouth, was coming out to destroy their enemies. So you want to know now what the jawbone of a jackass is? God is talking about our mouth! Oh, yes! Samson said, “With the jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men.” (Jg 15:16) The ass is redeemed. The ass was bleached dry bone, but it was redeemed by Samson picking it up in the name of the Lord. And he slew 1,000 men with the jawbone of an ass.

So we see God doing something in our time. Samson couldn’t do anything unless the Lord came down on him. God had to give him a special anointing for every job he was going to do. Brethren, it is the same with you. If you think that you can get up and run out there and do your own thing, you are making a sad mistake. We must have that special anointing of God to do what we need to do, but we have to understand that He has certain rules by which the anointing is given and we must go by these rules.

(Excerpt from “Led of the Spirit”, Foundational Teachings #077)

Thought for today: God has certain rules by which the anointing is given and we must go by these rules.

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