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Posts Tagged ‘Blood of Jesus’

Oneness of the Church

Posted in Being One, tagged , , , on May 31, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 1 John 3:2-3

Have you ever thought about the oneness of the church? Do you know what God is doing with us to make us one? Let me explain it to you. You see, when God is talking about walking with Him, He means taking it step by step by step. That’s how God designed it. When we start out our walk with the Lord, we are just creeping. I would say, “Brother Shepherd, how are you?” He would respond, “I’m just crawling.” I would say, “Brother, keep crawling! Don’t stop crawling!” But the story is that God gave the Blood of Jesus Christ, which is His Blood, in order for it to become a nexus, a joining between us.

Then, He gives us families. You see, I was as wild as they come. I had no intention of marrying, settling down, having a wife. First of all, I didn’t believe anybody loved me. But when God gave me a wife, especially a woman that loves God so much, so gentle, able to bear with some of my rough ways, and sometimes my misbehavior, I felt honored. And I still do! Honored beyond measure. You know, the marriage vow says to love, to cherish, and to honor. When a person turns to their wife or husband and says a rough word, something out of order, that honor is being breached. You don’t have the honor that you should have for her/him. But God is saying to us, “It is time now! It is a late hour. It is time now for you to grow up! For if you cannot be one with your wife/husband, you will not be one with My Body!”

That is what is affecting the Body of Christ. There is no alternative. God is not giving you an alternative as to whether you want to or not. God has given you a wife, God has given you children, and He is making you. He is actually making you! You have to be made into what God wants you to be, for He says, “When He shall appear, you will be like Him” (1 John 3:2b).

One time, the Lord had been talking to me all night about love. And He had been showing me some of you. He had been saying to me, “Let us get back to our first love.” It is sometimes very easy to get used to the person. You get used to the people and forget that the first step in love is to love one another as Christ loved us and gave Himself for us.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 6-7)

Thought for today: Work on being one with your wife/husband so that you may be one with His Body.

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Seven Particular Traits of Babylon – Part One

Posted in Modern Babylon, tagged , , , , on May 9, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Galatians 4:9-11

Let us talk about Babylon today. Modern Babylon, which I will compare point by point with the ancient Babylon, is hated of God. I cannot give you all the points, but I will give you some of them.

  1. Confession. In Babylon, the Chaldic mysteries demanded that there be priests who were the keys to these mysteries. The Chaldic priests were supposed to take confessions from the people. This gave them a certain amount of power over the people, because they knew everybody’s business. They knew who killed who, or who did this or that. They held these secrets as a means of power to force men to obey them. The mysteries of Babylon, therefore, were held by the keepers, the priests.
    So it is in our modern church system. There are churches that demand a certain amount of confession from their adherents. The Catholic Church says that in order to get forgiveness from sins, you must confess your sins to the priest and the priest must absolve you from the sins. This is entirely contrary to the Word of God. 1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” The office of priest was immediately abolished when Jesus Christ came as a “mediator.”
    James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” This scripture did not say you must confess to a priest. If you confess to the priest, then the priest would have to confess back to you. “Your faults” mean when you do wrong against another, you must confess your faults to that one. There is no license here for having a confessor, a priest, to which people must confess their faults.
  2. In Chaldean rites, there was penance where people had to flagellate themselves, beat themselves over the back, and pay for their sins. Even now the Muslims beat themselves for the sins that they have committed. They must say, “It was my fault, it was my most grievous fault.” This practice is done also in the Catholic Church. Although some of us do not do this, secretly we believe that we have to pay somehow for our sins. God says that the Blood of Jesus Christ removes our sins far from us, “as the east is from the west,” and it will not come back to torment us. See Psalm 103:12. God takes away sin. Jesus Christ is the sin-bearer, and He takes away sin from those who repent of their sins.
  3. Under the Chaldic mysteries, there were holy days. Anyone found doing anything on those days, working or otherwise, would be slain. The Christian faith should have no holy days, according to the Word of God. In other words, we become holy by the coming of the Holy Ghost into the person, the individual. No day is holy, but every day is supposed to be kept holy by living holy unto God. In the modern church system, they also have holy days. They say that Sunday is a holy day and that you must keep Sunday. In history, many were maimed, killed, slain, and burned at the stake by the zealous inquisitors because they did not keep Sunday. Sunday was forced upon people by the law of the church that they should keep that day as a holy day.
    Galatians 3 begins with, “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?“ Galatians 4:9-11, “But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.” If you should go into the churches today and tell them that the Bible says that Sunday is not a holy day, you would most likely be thrown out. Yes, “the law was (a) schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.” After we have come to Christ, we do not go back under the “schoolmaster.” See Galatians 3:24 and 25.

Brethren, let us consider these things as we present ourselves before the Lord so that we would be found free of Babylon, which is hated of God, both in our minds and daily operations.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 155-157)

Thought for today: Remember, after we have come to Christ, we do not go back under the “schoolmaster.”

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The Weapon That Overcomes Satan

Posted in The Blood of Jesus, tagged , , on April 18, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 12:10-11

The reason we know that Satan’s head was bruised at Calvary is that the Blood of Jesus Christ WAS AND IS the key to the destruction of Satan. Revelation 12:11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.” You ask, how did Christ’s Blood overcome Satan? In Exodus 12, God told the Israelites to kill the lamb and put the blood on “the lintel and the two side posts” (over the post top and on the sides of the posts). When the evil spirits came, they could not enter the houses that had blood on the top and on the sides of their doors.

The reason is that the blood was put there BY FAITH. It was only the blood of an animal but with the faith in Christ that He would come and deliver them. The blood of the animal shone with the power of God from the door posts and the lintel so that it struck the evil angels which God sent into Egypt. It struck them and they had to flee from every house that had this blood and could only enter into the houses that were not protected by the blood.

The Blood of Jesus Christ becomes a weapon of warfare for the children of God. CALL UPON THE BLOOD, BRETHREN. Any time you are in trouble, call to God to send the Blood of Jesus Christ to stand up for you. You will see the power of God come to you, because the Blood is right here, right over us, hovering over us, waiting for us to utilize it for our defense. The Blood of Jesus Christ then became the weapon to the church that finally will destroy Satan and deliver the earth out of his hand. Praise be to God!

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 53-54)

Thought for today: Any time you are in trouble, call to God to send the Blood of Jesus Christ to stand up for you!

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Where the Chief Thief Lives…

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , on April 11, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 13:3-4

We thank God for bringing us all through so many days of problems, days of suffering, and days of hope. The Spirit of God has brought us from many circumstances that could have been disastrous for us; from accidents that did not happen. Some of us have even been brought through accidents. But we thank God.

I was touched by the prayer of a brother one time where he thanked God for the little things—for the bread that we get to eat, and for the sun that shines. It was kind of a revelation to see that sometimes we take God for granted, and because we have these things so freely, we never seem to realize that we need to thank God for them.

Today, I want you to carefully assess how you have received the word. You see, while the word is going forth, there is an “anointing.”  By “anointing” we mean that the Spirit of God is touching your mind and saying something to you. So remember how you have received the word. Paul spoke of it, that you must remember how you received it, because when you step out, there are some agents that come into play. These are agents of deception, agents of the devil, thieves!

Do you know where the chief thief lives? The chief thief lives inside of you! Upstairs, in your mind! The chief thief of the Word of God is in your mind. It is human reasoning! Logic! Logic says, “Well, if this is this, then this is supposed to be that.” With logic you will come to a logical conclusion, which may turn out to be a lie.

Have you ever heard of a logical conclusion being a lie? You have a person saying, “Jesus Christ is the son of Mary. Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God, and therefore Mary is the mother of God.” The conclusion is a lie, because God was before Mary, and God made Mary, so Mary could not be God’s mother. Nevertheless, logic says, “Yes, she is.”

That which is “true” is not always “truth.” Truth is Christ! It may be true that a brother cheated on his income tax, but publishing the fact does not glorify God. It is not truth.

Matthew 13:3-4 says, “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up.”

The word is in the mind, delivered by the messenger, but the black birds come in and take away the seed. I have known some people who act as these black birds. Read Leviticus 11 and you will find out that when it makes mention of predator birds, it is referring to people. Birds defy the forces of gravity and fly above earth, so they are a type of spiritual people. This chapter in Leviticus mentions the hawk, the cuckoo, the eagle, and others, and it says to us concerning these birds, “Do not eat them!” The word “eat” in Scripture means “become one with.” In John 6, Jesus said, “Eat Me, for My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.” When you eat Jesus, you become “one” with Jesus.

So, let us not become one with those who take away the seed of the word from us, but let us eat Jesus so that we would become one with Him.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1997, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Remember how you have received the word and don’t let the birds steal it from you.

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The Outer Court Is Gone

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on March 17, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Revelation 11:1-2

The outer court in this last-day church that we are looking at in Revelation 11:1-2 IS GONE. It is going to be gone. It will be “given unto the Gentiles” and they will “tread (it down) under foot forty and two months” – for three and a half years. There must be a reason, of course. The outer court is indefensible. God cannot defend the outer court. Why?

Let me explain to you what the outer court is. God told Moses to build a Tabernacle with a gate. This gate led into a big yard which was 100 cubits by 50 cubits. This yard had a fence around it and was called the outer court. In this place there was sometimes a lot of confusion with animals being killed and sacrificed, animals fighting for their lives, and men holding the animals, roping them onto the horns of the altar. Sometimes there was shouting and struggling in the outer court and a lot of blood. They would kill the animal and take out the guts and dung and wrap it into the skin of the animal and take that outside the camp to burn. It was not a nice smelling, beautiful place like a temple should be. The outer court was where all the preparation was made.

Let us now apply this to the gospel. The outer court church, therefore, is where the believer is being prepared to go into Christ. Some churches have camped in the outer court and have no intention of going any further because their doctrines say they have got it all. God is a God of progress. There was no way that God was going to give you everything at one time, and perfect you, in the outer court. When you accept Jesus Christ, you are fresh from sin, A FRESH SINNER. You come right into God and God washes you with the Blood of Jesus, but when He washes you with His Blood, He also has to LEAVE A SPACE for you to apply what He has given you, and for you to MAINTAIN the Christian, godly cleanliness which He gave.

Many brethren, after they accept Jesus as their Saviour, relax and do any old thing and feel that Jesus Christ will take care of it. One sister told me that she would divorce her husband and then go to God and pray about it. You cannot deliberately sin and go and pray about it. That is called presumptuous sin, and there is very little leeway for you to repent. You have to go down in sackcloth and ashes and repent of that sort of behavior before you can go any further in God.

The majority of the church is in the outer court. When we talk about church, when we talk about Christianity, the majority of Christians are in the outer court. There are two works of grace in the outer court. First, accepting Jesus’ Blood that was shed and giving our hearts to God. The second work of grace is beginning to clean up that which we have had from the world, which God came in to clean. He calls it baptism. At baptism, we have to die a death. Only salvation (accepting Jesus) is a free gift. You were as dirty, as wretched, as awful as a human being could be, in sin, and Jesus came and He applied the Blood and INSTANTANEOUSLY your sins were forgiven, but your NATURE was not completely changed. It has been arrested. The Blood of Jesus Christ is a tool given to you to clean up your mind, your emotions, your will, and your desires.

Some Christians let their emotions loose in a freedom that is not Christian. Even married people sometimes do not understand that they cannot behave any old way with their partners. They need to restrain and control and train their emotions and their desires and their will. The mind is not the mind of Christ. It is still the human mind. You have the tool to work it out and make it the mind of Christ. Consecration and sanctification are part of this cleaning.

The believer in the outer court is expected of God to prepare himself or herself for going into the holy place – to prepare himself or herself for going through the door, going into Christ, becoming a part of Christ’s body and a part of Christ’s function in the earth. Then you are really set to go places with God. However, if you have a doctrine that you must not receive the fullness of baptism (some say water baptism is not necessary), then you cut yourself off. Not being obedient to righteousness gives you nothing. You say that there is no baptism, and therefore you cuss, drink, commit any sin, and feel that you are all right because you have no covenant with God. Baptism is a covenant that the believer makes with God and it is permanent.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pg. 2-5)

Thought for today: Let us prepare ourselves in sanctification and consecration in order for us to go into Christ.

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