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Posts Tagged ‘Matthew 25’

The Sleeping Church

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , on November 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Matthew 25:1-6

I want to talk to you today about “The Sleeping Church.” Turn your Bibles with me to Matthew and we are going to read from Matthew 25, beginning with Verse 1, “Then shall the kingdom of heaven (the church) be likened unto ten virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.”

It is interesting: you talk to the people—everybody—and they all say, “We are waiting! Jesus will soon come! We are waiting for Jesus!” All the denominations are waiting for Jesus! But it is going to be “…weeping and gnashing of teeth!” (See Matthew 8:12, 24:51, 25:30).

It goes on in Verse 2, “And five of them were wise and five were foolish.” Spiritually, it is not saying that half of them were wise and half of them were foolish. If half of the church was wise and half was foolish, it would be a wonderful thing. But it is not even ten percent of the church that is wise. There is not even ten percent! So, therefore, we are dealing with all foolish people. Foolish ministries! Foolish congregations!

Let me explain to you what “foolish” means, because sometimes you have to say what the meaning of “is” is. The Bible says in Psalm 14:1, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.” It says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. But here am I (saved, sanctified, baptized in the Holy Spirit) and still I will hide and do sin. I still will tell a lie. When you do this, you are saying that there is no God. You are saying that there is no God! But God is standing up looking at you while you are lying and thinking that you are hiding because the other person does not know about it. Because the people do not know, you feel quite confident that you and your situation are hidden. You come to church, straighten up, and try to sing—but you do not fool the Holy Spirit! Amen!

Let me tell you this: if we came in the congregation and our hearts were pure before God, then when we would open our mouths to sing, the whole area would be shaken! Yes! I am telling you we had had prayer meetings where we would go through the whole night. Then when we would get to three o’clock in the morning (for some reason the Spirit would always fall at that time), people in the town would come running out of their beds to the altar. They wanted Jesus! They would always tell the same stories—they could not sleep. “I was tormented! I had to come!” they would say.

So then, the glory of God and the power of God is getting into you and fastening right there, but it is not coming out. If the power of God was let loose in us, our meeting places would not be able to not hold the number of people. This whole town would be shaken! Sinners would be shaken! Oh, yes!

Forgive me please to deviate, but I have seen sorcerers to destroy churches. I don’t think you believe in sorcery. But if you do not believe in sorcery, if you do not believe that there is a living devil, then you do not believe God. For God said that there is a living devil. Let me say it again: if you do not believe in sorcery, then you do not believe God, for the Bible says that there is sorcery. Amen! In Ephesians it speaks of “…spiritual wickedness in high places.” What do you think He is talking about?

I have seen sorcerers oppress a whole church. Yes! They make the leaders of the church get sick, or some go crazy and out of their minds while the people are praising God, clapping, singing, jumping, and leaping. With all that, they cannot overcome the spirit of sorcery that was let loose upon them.

So, I am saying to you that the church is SLEEPING, but it is a time now to wake it up.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 2003, pg. 2-3)

Thought for today: Is the glory and the power of God coming into you but not able to come out? Then, stop hiding your sin but let the Blood of Jesus cleanse you so that you might be part of the five wise virgin company.

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The Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins

Posted in Time of the End, tagged , , , , on September 26, 2011| 1 Comment »

Scripture reading: Matthew 25:1-13

Matthew 25 tells us that there were ten virgins. The number ten speaks of Divine rulership. These ten were appointed to be divine rulers of God’s business, God’s work. Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise. The difference between the foolish and the wise was one little point. They were dressed alike and were clothed properly. They had oil in their lamps and their lamps were lighted. Oil in their lamps means the Spirit of God in their spirits, because the Bible says that the spirit of man is the lamp of God (Proverbs 20:27).  That is where it is supposed to be. This Spirit power is supposed to fill the soul. If the soul is empty at midnight, it means that you did not store the oil in your soul, which is the place that God wants the oil anyhow. For the soul is the vessel and the vessel is the person and the person is his mind, his emotions, his will, and his desires.

If when you are in church, when you are reading the Bible, when you are among Christians, while things are all right, you have a lot of God and you can sing and pray and you can quicken people with the power of God, and yet HAVE NOTHING IN YOUR SOUL WHEN TRIBULATION HITS, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO SURVIVE. This is what we mean by MIDNIGHT. At midnight, there was a cry made “Behold, the bridegroom cometh” and the virgins that were wise got up and trimmed their lamps, because at midnight people’s lamps are low. When you are in trouble, when you are in distress, your lamp is low and you need a resurgence of power coming from the oil you have stored up in your soul nature. THE OIL IN THE SOUL IS WHAT MATTERS. This the foolish virgins did not have. At midnight when the bridegroom came, they were left outside.

Matthew 25:10, “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” Now remember, these people were there waiting for the bridegroom. They were patiently waiting and ready and well-equipped but something happened. They heard the following cry: “Behold, the bridegroom cometh.” They ALL heard it. That means the whole church is going to hear, “Behold, the bridegroom cometh” and THEY WILL BELIEVE IT. They will turn around to get themselves ready for the bridegroom for their lamps were out, their vessels were out, and they have to rush outside to the store to see if they can get oil to buy. “And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.” A very sad note: “the door was shut.”

Verses 11 and 12, “Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But He answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.” In other words, He was saying that He had not had intimate relationship with them. They are not known to Him. This word “know” here suggests intimate relationship.

The Lord concludes, “Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” God is telling us to WATCH. Whom do we watch? We need to watch ourselves. God wants every man, every woman, every child to begin to watch his own thoughts, his own mind, because only you and God know what you are thinking. Sometimes very weird thoughts come into people’s minds who are supposed to be sanctified and you had better know these weird thoughts (hidden from everyone else) should not be entertained. These thoughts will come to you and if you entertain them, because nobody knows, you will come back again and get into the same line of thinking. I want each of us to go to God and ask Him to take away these weird thoughts or else teach us how to handle them.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pages 141-142)

Thought for today: Let us be watchful with our thoughts in our mind. Let us store up oil in our soul so that we are of the wise virgins ready to meet our Lord at the midnight hour.

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