This message entitled “Abiding in Christ“ was given by Brother Cecil duCille in January 1971.
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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.
Posted in Christian Walk | Tagged Example to God's People, Flock of God, Peter 5, Preaching the Word of God | Leave a Comment »
Scripture reading: Matthew 6:11
Did you know that when a preacher preaches something wrong, the congregation should be able to tell him that he is wrong? The people are going to feel it that he is wrong. And when he is wrong, he must quickly correct his wrongness.
When my wife, Mavis, sits in the congregation and I give a word, every time that I make a slip (because sometimes you slip in your human thinking and say the wrong thing), she feels it. You see, once you are in the Spirit following the spiritual flow and somebody makes a break, you feel it right inside of you.
This is why I couldn’t go to the churches on Sunday morning. I made that mistake so often. It is so painful to go into a church and see them playing around, because it is all psychology, all humanness. A message comes forth and it is properly homiletically psychological message put together on Saturday night. Do you see what I mean? It blesses those who don’t have the discernment of the Spirit. The person with the discernment of the Spirit is turned off and hurt because what you were listening to was human and not God. They were talking the words of God, of course, but let me tell you something, that is not feeding the flock. Do you know why?
You can take the Word of God and say that you are going to feed the flock with the Word of God. You put the Word of God in such a way that it is saying something else than what Jesus Christ wanted to say to that congregation at that specific time. Maybe that word could have been preached at another time while God wanted to say something else to that same congregation. Therefore, it is only the mind of Christ that we can feed from. Do you understand me? The right food can only come from the mind of Christ.
It is like you have a taste for a certain food; you feel like you could eat fish today and you get fish and you feel satisfied. But tomorrow you don’t want fish; you want some steak or something like that. The next day you feel for chicken. It is so that God ordained your body and your body calls for the thing it needs. When you feel thirsty, what do you think is happening? Your body is crying out, your blood wants some liquids, some water. Do you see what I am saying? This sort of thing functions in the body of Christ. It is only the Holy Ghost that can really tell the body what message it needs right now, or tomorrow, or so and so. This is why I do not believe in fixing the message from the previous night. As far as I am concerned, I want the fresh bread flowing from heaven today.
(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 13-15)
Thought for today: The right food for the people of God can only come from the mind of Christ.
Posted in Spiritual Food | Tagged Bread from Heaven, Feed God's Flock, Matthew 6, Mind of Christ | Leave a Comment »
Scripture reading: Acts 20:28-29
Let us look today into Acts 20:28-29, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. 29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.” Praise God. Can you imagine Paul about to depart and saying that grievous wolves would come into the flock, tearing the flock? But somehow a flock that is well fed will not be caught by a wolf.
If you notice, the balance of nature is so ordained that when a lion comes to a flock to catch his prey, he generally will go after the weakest ones. He will either catch a weak one or he will catch an older one that is staggering at the back of the flock. So the prime of the flock is always saved because they have the strength to run and to get away. This same principle works in the spiritual realm: anybody that comes into your midst with a false teaching, he will try to get onto the women. I’m not saying that the women are weaker, but sometimes they get excited over things and spirits catch them.
I saw a man once come into a congregation. He preached on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Then Friday he dropped out a little bit of his reconciliation doctrine. But all the while, during the daytime, he was visiting with the women. He was getting them to believe in the love of God and the goodness of God. “God is so good that He wouldn’t be able to put you into hell.” He poisoned them to such a degree that eventually he broke the congregation right in two.
If those people were founded and well-grounded, they would not be able to be taken. Do you understand? They would not be able to be taken, because first of all, they would have known God. When you get to know God, you get to know what God would do from what God wouldn’t do. Do you see what I mean? It is the same God of love that poured fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah. God is not slack concerning His promises, or slack concerning order, or slack to allow sin to destroy a congregation when He can cut it short and deliver.
(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2011, pg. 9-10)
Thought for today: A flock that is well fed will not be caught by a wolf.
Posted in Spiritual Food | Tagged Founded in God, God's Flock, Grievous Wolves, Well-Grounded in God | Leave a Comment »
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