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He That Overcometh

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Scripture reading: Revelation 2:8-11

We find the church being split in two. Part of them will overcome and the other part will not overcome. There are overcomers and there are losers. Sometimes words do not convey the strength of meaning to us when we hear them. For instance, you hear the word overcomers and you wonder to yourself what is to be overcome. Overcomers first of all overcome their own natures. They overcome the mind of the world, the mind of the flesh, the mind they inherited from their families, and they overcome strong emotions. If you do not overcome your emotions and have them under control, then they will overcome you and destroy you. Overcomers overcome their own will and their own desires.

This is a battle royal when a person overcomes himself through the Blood of Jesus Christ and the power which God has given. For indeed, the Spirit of God has given us power to overcome familiar spirits, old family ties, things that pull us down and make us losers. We are not to go out and overcome other people. We need to overcome the flesh, the devil, and the world. This is what we mean by “he that overcometh.

I John 2:15-17, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

What is the love of the world? One day I went to the supermarket and observed the people. They all looked alike. I knew somehow that some Christians had come in, but there was no difference between the way the Christians looked and the way the sinners looked. They all seemed to be part of the sexual revolution. They were showing as much of their bodies as they could, both men and women, young and old. The mind of the flesh had been ministered from Hollywood, Paris, London, and from other fashion places to the minds of these people. The people have become one with this mind of demonic spirits that control the world.

We must realize that the ways of the world, the thoughts of the world, the emotions of the world, and the desires of the world ARE NOT OF GOD. The people of God ARE EXPECTED to resist these things and to be different. It is difficult, but the Holy Spirit in us will help us to be different. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

We have many songs that say, “I love you, Lord Jesus” and the songs are so beautiful. When you hear the people of God singing, you hope and wish their love was true but there is very little truth in it, because those who love the world do not love God. The quicker we realize we do not love God, the quicker we will come to repentance and say, “Oh God, I have discovered that I love the world and I do not love you. Give me Your love.” God will pour out His Spirit upon you. “He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.” This is the promise to the overcomer.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 36-37)

Thought for today: Remember it is your own nature that you must overcome in order to be the overcomer.

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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.

The Jawbone of an Ass

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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.

This message entitled “The Revelation of Jesus Christ“ was given by Brother Cecil duCille in Auguast 1973.

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

Rise up and Do

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Scripture reading: Psalm 40:7-8

As the days go by, we find God changing the word that comes forth. This is one of the reasons we cannot preach “canned” sermons, because the “can” would be producing the same thing that it produced last year. But we find the word changing and the clarity of it is increasing. Even the same old word is coming more alive. I believe you are finding the same thing: that there is liveliness about the word of God that is coming forth in the body of Christ.

The body of Christ must be alive. The body must minister. God does not have a class of people called ministers. Did you know that? He does not have a class of people called ministers. God has set in the body apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. But where is the ministry? The ministry is in the body. This means there is no one who can come and say, “God sent me to minister to you,” unless he is a functioning part of the body. We are only different parts of the body of Christ. The finger is as alive as the toe, but the finger cannot do what the toe does; neither can the toe do what the finger does; but it is just as much alive.

God is directing us to an even more detailed understanding of what the body of Christ really is. He wants us to begin to walk in the body and live in the body. That is, if you cannot live as a body member, you are not of the body. We have too many dead members. Or, let’s put it a little better: members that will not exercise their rights to move and to live and to do what God wants us to do. In other words, God is feeding us more energy now; more life is coming forth now into the body than there was before, because this is the time when we are going to have to rise up and do.

(Excerpt from Led of the Spirit, Foundational Teachings #F077)

Thought for today: This is the time when we are going to have to rise up and do what God wants us to do.