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The Ability to Perceive

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on July 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Psalm 98:1

I believe that we will have a church where the apostolic vision will be clear and plain and straight, where the prophets will prophecy, where the evangelists will evangelize, where the shepherds will shepherd, where the teachers will teach, and they will all say the same thing. Hallelujah. This is what God says He is going to have before Jesus comes. He is not saying that He is going to have it when Jesus comes. He is going to have it before His appearance. Let me put it that way, because “Jesus comes” can mean more than one thing. Before the “appearing,” or “parousia” (G3952) of Jesus Christ, He will have a church without spot, without blemish, without wrinkle, or any such thing (Ephesians 5:27). Hallelujah.

The LORD began to speak to me about a certain situation. I saw my right hand, and I know that God has a right hand and a left hand. The right hand always depicts the Spirit, and the left hand always depicts the natural. It is easy for me to pick my Bible up with my right hand, but if I am going to pick the podium up, I need two hands. He began to show me a peculiar thing, and I saw all of you brethren participating. Can everybody hold on to your thumb for me? Take your left hand and hold your right thumb. Now feel how awkward it is to try to lift up anything, to do anything without your thumb. Now hold the other finger that represents the prophet (index finger), and see what happens? It is not as bad when you hold that finger, but it is awfully awkward. Now hold the evangelist (middle finger). Then hold the other fingers. It seems to me that ALL of them are essential, and God would not have a church without them. But the one finger that is there, maybe it functions halfway but it is painful and it is hard to lift. You still can work it, but you have pain when you work it. Some arthritis or something is in the finger and it doesn’t work very well. Nevertheless, unless it is a chronic situation, nobody would know.

Let us turn to Psalm 110:1, “The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” Psalm 98:1, “O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” “His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.” Sometimes we repeat scriptures and we never think very much about them. What is God’s right hand anyhow? We also need to consider that if God has a right hand, then He has a left hand. He said, “Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” So we see then that God’s right hand is a Spirit hand. The peculiar thing is that God wants the left hand to be in with the right hand to bring forth the victory. David went forth into battle, and it was he that went in to slaughter the enemy, but when he came out, he said that it was His right hand that had gotten them the victory.

God wants to be in us. A revelation came to me some months ago. God was walking in the garden every evening with Adam, and somehow or the other, God had an intention. He had an intention. He longed not only to walk in the garden, but also to walk in the garden that was inside of Adam. God wanted to be in Adam. Now, Adam was walking with God in the evening. Did it ever occur to you that none of us know how long that happened? We do not know how long it happened. All we know is that there was a relationship between God and man wherein was all the perspicacity, the perceptiveness of man, the ability to perceive, to know, to understand, to see, and to be fully conscious of both spiritual and natural. THAT ability was in Adam, for we understand from medical science that the portion of the brain that is used is quite small compared to the total mass. It was not so in the beginning. Adam lost about 75% of his brain when he fell. There is a part of us that isn’t used at all – the ability to perceive.

One time I was in a meeting and I saw people moving up and down in the congregation. Some of them started getting mad when some of the others were surrendering themselves to God, and they walked out. God said, “If you will resist the devil, he will flee from you” (James 4:7). The Word of God says that one day, when the Sons of God gathered together, Satan came also (Job 1:6, 2:1). Did you ever understand that the Bible used the word also? “…the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them.”

When we gather together, there are things in us that do not please God. There are spirits in us; there are movements in us that are not of God. When you begin to praise God, these things begin to leave! Do you know why? Because darkness cannot stand when light comes in, and the moment that you open up yourself to God, light begins to flood into you and everything that is not of God begins to leave. Sometimes their movement motivates your feet to carry them out of the light. Sometimes they will leave on their own and wait outside the door for you. When you get outside, then you get back your idiosyncrasies, your bad ways. God is saying to us that something is happening to us at this time, in this age, to this people, and He wants a people to be awake and alive!

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, December 2006, pg. 3-4)

Thought for today: Darkness cannot stand when light comes in. The moment you open up yourself to God, light begins to flood into you and everything that is not of God begins to leave.

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There Is a Time…

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on July 2, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Isaiah 55:11

There is a time, a tenure that is given to me. A tenure in which I should attain to what God has ordained for me to be. There is also a tenure that you have, a time. What are you doing in your time to achieve that which God has ordained for you to be? It says in Ecclesiastes 3:2 that there is a time appointed, a time to live, and a time to die. Look at all the beautiful little children – there is a time for them to die. But guess what? They are going to be given enough time to accomplish that which God has ordained for the sons of God to do. Hebrews 11:40 says, “God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” They had a tenure, a time, an area of time in which the grace of God would bring man, humanity, to a certain spot in his development. You have a piece. Everybody has his part.

Moses also had his part; he had to bring the Jews, their order, their lives, their suffering, for the sake of all humanity, to a certain point of their development. There were the hosts of hell, demons, devils who were working contrary to this and God would not intervene. God would not intervene! What did God do? God gave Moses the power. God gave us the power. The Bible says, “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Romans 5:14). My God, how can I understand that? “…death reigned from Adam to Moses.” Why didn’t the Bible say, “Death reigned from Adam to Jesus?” The Bible said, “death reigned from Adam to Moses.” That means that Moses had a time. God gave him 120 years and in his tenure he was to stop death by the power that God had given him. Now, what power did God give Moses? He gave him the power of the law. Amen. Because the Bible said that every word of God is yea and amen and it must accomplish that whereunto God had sent it (II Corinthians 1:20, Isaiah 55:11). So God sent Moses with the law. Now, before the law, sin could not be imputed (Romans 5:13). Did you know that? Nobody could go to hell. That is a hard one to swallow, but none of the wicked men could go into a permanent condition of everlasting torment. But then, nobody could go to heaven, either.

What am I talking about? I am talking about the condition. The Bible said that before the law, sin could not be imputed to man (Romans 5:13). Do you know why? You were born in sin. You were shapen in iniquity (Psalm 51:5). You had nothing to do with it. You were born that way. Can I send you to hell because you were born a sinner? No, sir. I have to give you the power to overthrow sin; you have to become responsible and then you have to fail; only then you become guilty. So without a law, there could be no guilt established.

So then, God gave Moses the law and Moses, now actually being the keeper of the law, found life within the law. He found deliverance within the law. Why? Because it was God’s Word and God’s Word must have deliverance and must have life. Moses found that there was one escape, one loophole from sin in the law. What did Moses do to stop the devil from taking him? Three times a year, every Israelite would take a lamb to the priest. He would offer a sacrifice and his sins were forgiven right there (Leviticus 16:34). God came to Moses and said, “Moses, you are to go up into the mountain and there you shall die” (Deuteronomy 32:48-50). Now Moses, in his law, says that no man must come before the Lord without an offering, so we do know that Moses had a little lamb under his arm. Moses could not face God without an offering. He was going to die when he made that offering. He killed the lamb, died immediately and his sins were forgiven. When the devil came and wanted the body of Moses, the angel rebuked him (Jude 9). So through the blood of the lamb, he was delivered from death and found life.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 36-38, 40-41)

Thought for today: There is a time, a tenure that is given to you. A tenure in which you should attain to what God has ordained for you to be.

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Preaching without Words

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , on June 15, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 2 Corinthians 3:3

Let us talk a little bit more about FEEDING THE FLOCK OF GOD by being examples unto the flock. You feed the flock by example. Let me tell you something: people are hardly hearing what you say, they hear what you do. Oh, yes! They are hardly hearing what you say. You believe me that of what you hear me speak only 20% is going to stay with you, unless the Holy Ghost brings something back to you. But you are addicted to doing what you see me do.

Many times my wife, Mavis, and I will walk into a place and say nothing at all. We go in, we say good night, we go to bed, and the people are blessed and delivered. Oh, yes! We went into a house one time and it was late night. We went to bed, we slept, we got up, and we came out the next morning. By the next morning the telephone rang and the brother, the man of the house, was told what a horrible set of people we are. He said, “No, it is not true! These people came into my house and I had problems in my house. But since they came the problems left and we have been delivered.”

Why? Because there is a spirit that goes with you. If you just finished quarreling at home and beating your wife and go to the church and preach, that whole thing is going to let loose on that congregation without your knowing it. That spirit is going to take charge of them. Do you see what I am saying?

I am saying, brethren, that we preach, WE FEED THE FLOCK BY EXAMPLE. An example is the greatest method of feeding the flock and there is no way you can deceive the flock. The flock tastes the food and it is bitter. They don’t know why it is bitter; you don’t know why it is bitter. The words were right, everything was quite in order, but the flock tasted a little bitterish taste. God is saying that as we begin to be careful one with another so that we feed one another in the Spirit, we are going to find that the very person that you just finished feeding turns around and is a strength to you and feeds you back.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 18-19)

Thought for today: People are hardly hearing what you say, they hear what you do.

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“I Just Don’t Feel Right about It”

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , on June 14, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 2:18-23

Let us talk today about being an example to the flock of God. You know, my wife and I have been married for over thirty years and we have never had a quarrel. We have had disagreements wherein I said, “This is black,” and she said, “This is white.” When this happens, immediately I want to find out why she should say that it is white when it is black and she is proving to me that it is white. We say, “Okay, let us see whether it is white or black. We will find out soon.” Then we agree to go either white or black. Needless to say, most of the times I am on the losing side. Oh, yes!

So I learned to lose. You see, the image that a man goes into his home with is generally that he is always right. Sometimes you are ashamed that you are wrong, but you shouldn’t be ashamed. You asked God for a helpmeet and here you have another brain just as active as yours, another spirit just as active as yours, another soul connected with God, and this is where your strength lies. But if you dare to overpower this child of God, this son of God in your house, so that you are always on top, you have destroyed your sanctuary. That is just what God said about Satan, “You have destroyed your sanctuaries” (Ezekiel 28:18). In other words God gave you a woman, God gave the woman a man so that between both of them no devil in hell, no nothing can proceed and conquer. Because you see, the two of you are a whole man. One of you is only a piece of a man.

Let me tell you, I thought I had great discernment. Oh man, I could see through a nine inch wall. But I found out that I was absolutely blind in some places. I asked God, “But I can’t understand how can I see in this realm so much and be so blind in this other area?”

Like in the realm of the Word; I will see in the realm of the Word beyond almost any man that I know. The moment God shows me the word, I can see way out there. I can see other things, too; I have discernment of spirits. I am sleeping on one side and a spirit comes through the door on the other side and I see him. I know exactly what he is, what he is in here for, everything like that. Yet, I discovered that I was absolutely blind in some sections and I asked God about it.

God said that is the way He made me. He asked me, “Can you see in the back of your head?”

You haven’t got a good idea of what your head looks like in the back, yet your wife has to put up with it every day. She sees the back of your head all the while and knows it intimately. The moment you discover that you are weak in certain areas, you will give way. You will go to your wife and say, “What do you think about this? How do you feel?”

There is another thing too that men lose out with – spiritual feelings. Did you know that the five senses that you have – smelling, hearing, seeing, feeling, and tasting – are five spiritual senses? God would never have made you with anything natural that isn’t spiritual. The natural senses are only teaching you that there are five spiritual senses and you might be very good at seeing, yet be kind of deaf in the ears. Anything you see or feel, check it out with your wife.

These women, brothers, (women, this is not for you now, I am talking to the men) have got a feeling sense that sometimes is very senseless. You ask her and she says, “I don’t feel right about that.”

You say, “Why don’t you feel right about it? Isn’t it the Word of God? Doesn’t it look right?” And so and so – everything is right.

“But I just don’t feel right about it.”

She can’t explain why she doesn’t feel right; it has no sense, it has no reason. Don’t step over it, brothers! Don’t step over that little funny feeling. There is a thing called, “I have a check.” If you are going to move this chair and you don’t feel 100% right about it, don’t touch it. It is something that the Holy Ghost is putting into you so that you might not move out of spirit. If you don’t pay attention to it, you will always get burned.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 16-18)

Thought for today: God gave the man a woman and God gave the woman a man so that between both of them no devil in hell can proceed and conquer.

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Feed the Flock by Example

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on June 13, 2018| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 1 Peter 5:1-3

We know that God is saying that those who are given the oversight of the flock of God, which He hath purchased with His own Blood, must feed the flock (Acts 20:28).

So feed the flock. However, there is a possibility of you feeding the flock and yet you not being fed. You can be a feeder and not an eater; you just take the food and give it, take the food and give it. Yes!

I never forgot the night when God told me, “Appropriate it before you export it.” I thought He was giving me a message to give to you, but He was actually giving me a message for me. Amen. I was burning with fever and Jesus came to me and spoke to me. You know it is always exciting when the Lord comes and speaks to you. I jumped for my pencil. I was going to write down what He was saying so that I wouldn’t forget it and be able to preach it in the service the next morning.

But He said, “No. No. Put that pencil aside. YOU APPROPRIATE IT.”

I began to repeat what He said and repeat what He said, until it began to sink into my heart. The fever, the cold, my throat, everything went immediately. I got up completely well the next morning. It was a lesson that He was giving me, but I was going to export it before I used it. I was thinking it was for you and not for me.

Let us go to 1st Peter 5:1-3, “The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: 2Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; 3Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.”

You feed the flock by example.

There is no way that a brother should come in the congregation, begin to preach and tell the brethren how to behave at home with their wives, when he is not behaving at home with his wife. Yet, this thing goes on all the while.

There was a man, a Counselor, a Divorce Counselor and in the midst of his counseling he got divorced. Do you see what I mean? He was counseling, yet he had not counseled himself.

We are going to realize that preaching the Word of God is not jumping up and giving a message. Preaching the Word of God is being the example.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 15-16)

Thought for today: Being an example goes further than words or actions.

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