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Posts Tagged ‘Faith in God’

The Dispensation of Innocence

Posted in Faith in God, tagged , , , on February 6, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 5:21-24

God has separated our time into three dispensations. Let us look at the first dispensation today. We call it “The dispensation of innocence,” but it can be called any other name. During this time, Adam began to teach his children what happened to him when he walked in the garden with God Almighty. Have you ever thought of it? The privilege of walking with the Living God? Adam had this experience and he began to teach his children. He taught them hundreds of years and then, after somewhere around nine hundred years, somebody got the message. One man! The man Enoch had the capacity, the determination, and the power of faith to break through into the presence of God and to COMMAND the deliverance!

“And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Genesis 5:23-24).

Adam taught Enoch, and the Bible says here that it took 365 years. The number 365 looks somewhat suspicious, doesn’t it? 365 days make one solar year. So then, in 365 years one man got the message. God translated Enoch when he was 365 years old, and thereby, by type showed us what is going to happen at the end of time when God will bring man into the fullness.

“…And Enoch walked with God….” The first man that we read of that walked with God was Adam. It says that Adam walked with God. He taught Enoch, and Enoch learned to walk with God. And Enoch’s wife said, “Enoch walked with God and is not for God took him.” For the Bible says that Enoch had sons and daughters (Genesis 5:22). That shows that the man was a natural, normal man who had a wife and children, and a home. And it says that he walked with God!

“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”

Now, Enoch’s wife didn’t mourn. She wasn’t crying and weeping that she lost him, because she didn’t lose him. She gained him! Enoch “walked with God,” and she said, “Enoch is not.” That means to say that, “He is no longer here. He is no longer a natural, carnal, physical man. He has ASCENDED!” And the Bible tells us that he did it by faith!

“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5).

He walked with God by faith, and it said, “And…God took him.” What would make God want a man? Can you imagine how much God must have loved that man? See him walking like the perfect NEW CREATION MAN! God had a plan to make us into a new creation man, so when Adam fell it did not bother God. For God saw this same Adam that fell ahead at the end of the day WALKING IN POWER AND GLORY! Amen!

So then, God said to Enoch, “Would you like to come with Me?” And Enoch said, “That is what I want.” Amen! “Nothing else would satisfy me. The reason I live is to worship Thee!” Amen! Yes! “The reason I live is to worship Thee, God!”

“And Enoch… was not; for God took him.”

This was absolutely amazing! I cannot imagine how it must have seemed. He just stepped from natural into supernatural. Enoch never died but is alive this very day. He just went from natural into supernatural. Amen!

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2003, pg. 7-8)

Thought for today: Let the following be the confession of our mouths and hearts: “Nothing else will satisfy me, Lord, but to come away with Thee. The reason I live is to worship Thee!”

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Faith in the Blood of Christ – Part 1

Posted in The Blood of Jesus, tagged , , , , on November 14, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Leviticus 17:10-11

We are told that we are saved by the Blood of Jesus Christ. Let us see what is meant by being “saved by the Blood.” In Leviticus 17, God is speaking about the blood and the life of an animal. The principle laid down is that “the life…is in the blood.” The animal’s life is in the animal’s blood. My life is in my blood. It is as simple as God laid it out. If the blood is to make atonement for a soul and this blood is only a type of the true Blood of Jesus Christ, therefore, by faith it was applied and it worked. In Egypt, we are told, the blood was put on the doorposts and on the lintel. When the devils, the spirits of darkness and of death, came to the house and saw the blood on the door, they could not face the blood, because it was shining with the faith of the person who had applied the blood. It was FAITH IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST. Remember, we are talking about DIVINE PRINCIPLES.

If each creature’s blood has energy, a life in itself, then the Blood of Jesus Christ has the life of God in it. The life of God is something devils cannot face. They cannot overcome. When a man sins, he has been transferred from light into darkness. God made Adam and Adam was in the light. Adam sinned and Adam fell from the light into the kingdom of darkness. There are TWO KINGDOMS – the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. Jesus comes and His intention is to translate us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. (See Colossians 1:13-14 and Ephesians 5:8.) Because God wants to translate us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, there is something WE MUST DO. This something involves the Blood.

First of all, when Adam sinned, he lost his rulership, his power, his energy of God. Jesus Christ came to restore Adam’s fallen race thus bringing the energy of God’s life within the reach of man. When God says you must accept Jesus Christ as your Savior in order to receive HIS BLOOD, it means you are making your choice. We were all part of the kingdom of darkness, born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and belonging to the kingdom of darkness without doing anything. If you were born and were never born again, you are part of the kingdom of darkness, no matter how good or how nice a person you might be. You might go to church a thousand times, pay your tithes, take a million communions, and preach the Word like Paul, but if you are not born again, you are still in the kingdom of darkness. Therefore, those who are in the kingdom of darkness, in order to be translated according to the Word of God into the kingdom of light, must first do something. They must exercise their freewill choice. We did not exercise our freewill choice to be sinners – we were born sinners. Therefore, God must make a way for every human being to exercise his freewill choice to be in the kingdom of light.

In Romans 10:9-10, God said that all that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. By exercising this freewill choice, we call upon the name of the Lord asking Jesus to save us, knowing we are sinners, not wanting to be sinners. God then, according to His law, His rule, must save you. How then is He going to save us? He saves us by touching our souls with the Blood of Jesus Christ. As the Blood of Jesus Christ touches the realm of human existence, called the soul, man is quickened and comes alive. He was dead, dead in trespasses and sin, and he is now alive. God made Adam a living soul and Adam died. To bring Adam back to life, Jesus Christ must remake the man a living soul. As He touches your soul with the Blood, your soul becomes alive.

What do I mean alive? Your soul becomes conscious and now wants different food. It does not want to feed anymore upon the things of the world, the trash, the darkness. IT WANTS LIGHT. This is the basic difference between the person who is saved and one who is not saved. One wants life. It does not mean he is perfect. He is just as imperfect the moment he called on Jesus Christ as he was the moment before, but he has changed his position and now he is in the kingdom of light. He has a right to the tree of life. The TREE OF LIFE, which is CHRIST JESUS, begins to feed him through the Holy Spirit. New energy begins to flow into his being. His mind begins to think differently. His emotions begin to feel differently. His will is beginning to change. His desires are no longer after the flesh. This is the difference between the man who is saved and the man who is not saved.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 101-103)

Thought for today: Has your soul been touched by the Blood of Christ? Then feed on a different food than the world has to offer; feed on the Tree of Life, which is Jesus Christ.

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Lay Hold of the Power and the Victory

Posted in The Power of God, tagged , , , , on November 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Daniel 7:27-28

The Christian church has been given a rule book called the Bible. A victorious book, which has stood fast from the time of Genesis to the present, and has conquered the devils right along the whole passage of time. We have seen some mighty deeds of men. In the example of Job, the book showed us man (stripped of God) conquering the devil. When Job conquered Satan, it was all on his own, since God had withdrawn from him; and the natural man kept his integrity before God and was able to beat the devil. In Job 2:4, Satan said, “skin for skin,” in disdain of man, but the man whom he scorned defeated him; to the glory of God!

Sometimes, when we get into accidents and have devastating experiences, we wonder how God would allow these things to happen to us. These, however, are a part of the challenges that we must face as workers together with God against the powers of darkness. It is not necessarily so, that we made some mistake or committed any sin. We should come out praising God more than ever before, because though the outward man perishes, the glory of God rises inside, and is a light to others and a defeat to the powers of darkness. The enemy never learns. The more he gets beaten, the more he keeps coming. This action makes us stronger and more determined to see the battle to the end.

All these stories in the Bible that God has been showing us, of David’s mighty men, Samson, Esther (a frail woman who was used of God to save the Jewish nation), Deborah the prophetess, Gideon with his 300 men defeating the Midianites, Shamgar with his ox goad defeating the enemy (Judges 3:31), and so many others, have been preserved in the Word for a purpose. There is a people who will never be conquered, but will conquer through the power of their testimony and the Blood of the Lamb. The evil weapons of the enemy’s warfare have now come under the judgment of God, and God has given us power over the power of the enemy. As we rise more and more in the strength of faith and understanding, the great weapons of terror, which the enemy used in the past against the people of God, are losing their effectiveness. We must bear in mind that, “…Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (II Corinthians 10:3-6).

We need to realize that God has given the church the power over the power of the world and the devil. Let us walk in the Spirit and in the faith of the living God. By faith, we will tread upon serpents; by faith, we will bring deliverance to this generation of people by the power of God and the Blood of Jesus Christ. 

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, April 1997, pg. 26-28)

Thought for today: Remember that there is a people who will never be conquered, but will conquer through the power of their testimony and the Blood of the Lamb. Determine in your heart that you will be amongst this people.

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Foundation to Our Faith

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , on September 1, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:1-6

Faith! You must have faith, but your faith must be in something. In other words, faith is a subsidiary weapon that cannot work by itself. Let me say it again: Faith cannot work by itself! You cannot have wild faith like the “Name It and Claim It” type. That is a wild faith and it does not have substance in anything. So, therefore, you have faith in a word. I am going to give you an example.

God anointed David to be king from when he was a young boy. He told David, “You will be king over Israel.” Now David knows that if God said he would be king then God could not allow him to be killed. So later, young David faced Goliath with impunity knowing that his God will bring Goliath down. He knew this, because God had told him he was supposed to be king down the road.

Have you ever gotten a prophecy? Do you remember in your mind what the prophecy said? Do you know that the devil cannot kill you, because God gave you a prophecy that down the road you are going to be somebody? Now, God does not say you can be presumptuous, go throw yourself over a precipice and say, “Well, God said I am going to be king (or queen), so therefore let me throw myself over this precipice, because God will keep me up.” Presumptuous sin is against God.

So therefore, you have a word from God. If you do not have a word from God, go to God and get yourself a word. Did you hear me? Let every man of God, woman of God, child of God get a word from God that is absolutely, completely yours; and hold that word because there is a song that says, “When the storms of life are raging and you are tossed o’er sea and land, you will find a place of refuge in the hollow of His hand.” 

If you will take refuge under that word that God has given you, it will be “a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path” (Ref. Psalm 119:105). It also says in Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”  Glory to God!

If God gives you a word, the word becomes a fortress and a weapon and something to hold on to. And so, you must have faith in something. You must have faith in a word of God and anybody who does not have a word, get one!

I will give you a word. When I was freshly saved, I did not know what salvation was and I did not know who God was. When God came into my room, He gave me a word and He has given me the same word seven times. He said, “As I was with Moses, so will I be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you.” He also said, “No man shall stand before you all the days of your life. Anywhere the soles of your feet tread upon that will I give to you.” That is what He spoke to Joshua, but Jesus came to my room and He said it to me seven times. There is no way or possibility of anybody ever discouraging me—any demon, any devil, any man! Do you hear me? The word of God has become a fortress and a monument in my soul.

Because of the word, the soul of man becomes a bulwark of God! Do you hear me? Your soul becomes a bulwark for God! A walking, talking, conquering soul; not able to be defeated, because you have a word of God.

So then, the faith of God must work with the word of God. If God gives you a word, then you have faith. If God gives you no word, then you have no faith. You cannot have faith without having some foundation to your faith.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 18-20)

Thought for today: Stand in faith on the word God has spoken to you. If you have not a word or prophecy from Him, then go to God and let Him give you a personal word so that you can have foundation to your faith.

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First Step Towards Being Dead in Christ

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on July 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 6:10-13

The beginning of every spiritual achievement is founded in FAITH. From the depths of our sin-prone estate we look to the dizzy heights of Christ-like achievements like being “dead in Christ,” and some of us feel a deep kind of despair in that such an achievement is humanly unattainable. Humanly, yes, but IN CHRIST we can make it.

The first question therefore is how do I do it? The answer is loud and clear in the above passage in Romans 6 – by faith reckon it so. This is not some kind of mental or metaphysical exercise of the will, but a God given ability to believe God. The reckoning of the death of Jesus Christ to be my death can only be brought about by the knowledge of His life being my life, and the sure faith that the life of Christ in me will kill the Adamic life, which is ever present in the form of sin within my members.

One of the greatest signs of the life of Christ in me is the fact that I can see the Adamic nature within my own members.

There was a day in my youth when I went to God with the feeling that I thought I was free from all sin. But He said to me that I should sanctify myself. Naturally I asked Him how, and He told me to watch my members and keep them free from sin. The first few hours were disastrous…. I had sinned with my feet, my ears, my mind, my mouth, and my eyes – there was lusting, idleness, carnal mind, prying ears, and evil speaking. It was quite a shock for someone who thought he was holy. Only the Holy Ghost can reveal one’s sin to himself. The difference between God revealing sin, and the devil doing it, is that when God reveals sin it blesses the believer, the motive being to lift him up. When the devil does it, it is to cast down and deride.

If therefore, we are to reckon ourselves dead, we need first to know that we are not dead (dead to sin), but that we desire to be, and that this is attainable through the death of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

If we believe that we are joined to Jesus Christ by His death, and that His death is the death of the carnal man within us, then our reckoning this to be so will create within us the death to sin which we desire.

This is the first step towards being “dead in Christ”. In our next devotional we will deal with the second step that follows.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, August 1984)

Thought for today: Even though being “dead in Christ” is humanly unattainable, it is reachable IN CHRIST by faith.

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