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Posts Tagged ‘Obedience to God’

What Do You Get Blessed of God for?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , on September 19, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: I Corinthians 3:6-15

Let us look at another important subject. This time it is “works.” All the men that have the big works, the big hospitals, the big colleges, the big churches with thousands and thousands of members – they will be getting all the crowns from God because they are ministering to millions of people. There will be hardly any crowns left for the poor us, right? You can look, for example, at the 700 Club which has a viewing of many millions of people. So, it would be difficult for any of us to get any of these crowns if all the brothers that have all this equipment can send their voices over the whole earth and reach so many people.

But that is not true!

Do you know a secret? You only get blessed of God for what God tells you to do. Isn’t that terrible? You go to all the trouble, brother, to have a school to teach Christians; you bring up ministers and send them out to preach; you do this, you do that, you do the other, and you get paid for nothing. Unless God told you to do it – you are a loser. Oh my, God, it is terrible! When you think of it, it is really terrible.

Here comes a man who says, “Lord, I have got a million souls in heaven.” God replies, “…Wood, hay, stubble” (I Corinthians 3:12).

On the other hand, here is a little old lady, a sister that is burdened with the housework. All she can do is pray. She has no time to go out and win souls. She has no time to do this, to do that, or to do the other. The only thing she has is her little time to pray. When God calls her to pray, she goes in to pray humbly.

God says, “Gold, silver, precious stones…” (I Corinthians 3:12).

Don’t you see where God brings the equilibrium, where He balances out the whole deal? Unless God tells you to do it, your work is in vain.

God may tell you, “Sister, sweep the floor. I want you to sweep the floor.” And you get your broom, go down, sweep up, and mop up everything. God says, “Gold.”

But God goes and tells the other man, “Travel across the United States to Los Angeles and preach to a thousand (or ten thousand) people.” The man gets the same pay as you do for sweeping the floor. For God is paying you for obedience.

God tells somebody else, “Go and stand in the street over there.” The person stands out in the street corner. He doesn’t see anything, he doesn’t hear anything, and he doesn’t do anything. But lo and behold, God says, “Gold.” He went there because God told him to do so. Because of his obedience, God had His spirits out there doing what they had to do in order to build His Kingdom with one man standing in that particular place.

Don’t you understand that this is like an army with a General directing His troops? The troops don’t know where they are going; they are not seeing what is going on out there. The troops only know that they are being directed by somebody who is seeing the battle and knows what is best to do.

(Excerpt from The Contract with God, an audio message #1983-03-06)

Thought for today: Obey God in what He tells you to do so that you may receive your crown of glory.

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How Shall We Escape the Judgment?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , on June 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Ezekiel 9:6

Ezekiel 9:6, “Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.”

The picture of Ezekiel 9 is the same picture of the Ten Virgins in Matthew 25 from another angle. In the dark hour of God’s judgment He will make a difference between sheep and sheep and shepherd and shepherd. While one group is protected and safe with the Lord, the other will be out in the darkness probably sealing their testimonies with their blood. In the verse quoted above, the situation is put in all its rawness and for the person who does not understand the language of God, it would be hard to see in these words a loving and merciful God. In spite of this the explanation is however, that those who are outside of OBEDIENCE to God in the moment of crisis, stand in an indefensible position, and not even God Himself can break His own rules to save them. This is the reason it is written in Revelations 11:2 that the “Outer Court” will be utterly destroyed. THE MARK IN THE FOREHEAD, which in symbolic language means the Mind of Christ in our minds, will be the saving portion in the day of God’s judgment.

Many times the Scripture describes God’s judgment as nothing more than retribution being brought upon man by his own actions, and in some cases the army of the heathen coming against his people who were not able to win because their God had withdrawn from them. Actually, they were not better fighters than the heathen around them, and their victories only came through their obedience to God. It would therefore be natural that when the Lord withdrew from them that the enemy would overcome them, and that would be their punishment for disobedience. NEVERTHELESS IN GOD’S JUDGMENT ON HIS CHURCH there never was utter destruction and there never will be. “God will save her and that right early.” (Psalm 46:5).

The judgments of God are upon us, and there will be a continuous increase of God’s judgment upon the church unto a final cataclysmic end, when the church will be purified:

Malachi 3:3, “And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: And he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

It is not all bad news – THE GOOD NEWS FAR OUTWEIGHS the bad. This will produce the greatest revival of righteousness in the earth.

Daniel 12:1, “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people:  and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that time:  and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.”

I believe we are living in the time when the Great Accountant of Heaven is making a final balancing of His accounts. Any of our work, which is not motivated by righteousness, will be burnt up as hay, wood, and stubble. Those works, which are ordered and directed by the Holy Spirit, are gold, silver, and precious stones; that is all that matters. Many little Christians shut away in some non-descript corner will be receiving great rewards for their obedience in prayer, while some of the mighty men in the limelight of Christianity will only be saved as if by fire. May the Lord bless you to be among those who God honors at the final summation.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, June 1982)

Thought for today: Only those works, which are ordered and directed by the Holy Spirit, are gold, silver, and precious stones; that is all that matters.

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What Is God Judging You for?

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on April 8, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Matthew 25:6-13

When you get baptized in the Holy Ghost, the Spirit of God comes into your spirit. He does not come into your soul. So when you get baptized in the Holy Ghost the Spirit of God is in your spirit. When you consider the wise virgins in Matthew 25, they had God’s Spirit in their spirit and God’s Spirit in their soul. Let me tell you what I mean. The Lord begins to say, “So and so, do so and so, don’t do so and so, do so and so,” and you begin to obey the Lord. Do you know what happens to you? The Spirit of God gets into your mind, and obedience to God becomes a part of your life. You walk with God, and it becomes part of your nature. That means that if you are even sleeping, you will dream that you obey God! The Spirit that is in your spirit must move in your soul, that means in your mind. The way you think has a great deal to do with your whole life function. I am telling you, none of us naturally think the way of the Lord. We have to continuously struggle to keep our thoughts in the way of God for the bombardment of the thoughts from everywhere are coming upon us, and we have to continually, continually repeat the Word of God. The Word of God will drive the devils out of your mind.

A brother once told me, “Brother, I am just devastated by carnality. Before I was saved, I used to love to read pornography magazines. I have never been able to get rid of it. It comes popping up before me. When I see the sisters, the pornography comes before me.” Many times the sisters feel bad when I say they need to dress properly because there is a certain amount of temptation that goes to the brothers. I want you to know that there are brothers who are saved but still have trouble. Maybe some sisters have trouble, too. They have to fight in their minds to get out the pornography that was there from years ago. God said it can be done by the Blood of Jesus Christ. And also, some kind cometh not out but by fasting and prayer (Matthew 17:21). You have to fast and pray until God purifies your mind. Some people say, “Well, maybe I need to get married.” It is the worst thing you could do! If you are suffering from carnality, the worst thing you could do is to marry, because you will be taking the carnality home, and you will be training it. Amen.

It is like the foolish virgins. They did not get their souls fixed. Get the things that are in your soul fixed NOW! The things that are in your mind, your emotions. Some people’s emotions run away with them! God Almighty wants you to fix your emotions! If a person finds that he gets angry, whether it be easily or not, don’t take it simple. For God’s sake, right now, get down on it! Do not allow anger to reign in your being, because anger is a sign that a devil is ministering death to you! It is a sign. Remember now, anger is only a manifestation. What is causing it? It is something in your emotions for which your soul wants some oil. Amen. The man who gets angry is the same man whose emotions are out of control. That will lead him into fornication and other different areas. Therefore, you cannot allow anger to continue. Tell God today, “I don’t want anger in my being anymore!” Many of us have gifts of the Spirit but the gifts are being hindered by the things that we allow in our souls. Do not allow anything in your soul anymore that is not of God. If your mind is slipping off unto carnality, see to it that it is stopped, don’t let it continue.

I know some sisters that wear long dresses to service, because of course, they believe that’s the norm. But as they get home, they take it off and put on shorts. What’s the meaning of that? The meaning is that there is something in the mind that you have not overcome. You want to be feeling worldly, looking worldly, but because you are in an association where people will look at you, you pretend while you are with them. You might as well wear the shorts to service. At least we will all know what the problem is.

You need to understand that God is not judging you for how you look right now. God is judging you for what’s in the mind, and what is manifesting in the mind, is what God is saying. Somebody asks, “Oh, I want to be among the wise virgins.” The wise virgins paid for their oil. They didn’t get it for nothing. You have to suffer to get rid of the things that are in you that are not pleasing to God. You have to suffer. I remember the days when I said to God, “Kill me. This thing is not going to destroy my spiritual life. For I see Jesus, I see God, I see righteousness, this is what I want. I do not want the other thing!” So, do we have a people who are willing to give up their lives to receive life? To give up what you like, what you want to do, what you feel like inside in order to have the life of God, to be among the wise virgins?

Do you believe there is a time when the door is going to be closed, and there will be nobody else accepted to be in the bride class? If you believe there is such a time, when do you believe the time is going to be? Let me tell you something else, too. There are some people who are disqualified before the selection. Disqualified before the selection! The reason is, they have crossed the line and made up their mind that they are not going to make it, so they just go. That cannot be done unless you are motivated by the devil. For God is doing everything possible to make His people be the first fruits! Everybody! And, He is doing everything possible for you, too.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, April 28, 2002)

Thought for today: God is not judging you for how you look but for what is in your mind and what is manifesting in your mind.

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Death Has a Demand

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , on March 22, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Romans 8:2

Have you ever considered the fact that sometimes obedience to the Holy Spirit clashes with what was the righteousness of the law? Let us look at that thought. Jesus was walking through the corn field on the Sabbath day. He actually disobeyed the law of their time by picking corn and eating. David disobeyed the law by going in and eating, and giving to his men to eat, the shewbread, because they were hungry. That shewbread, according to the law, was only supposed to be eaten by the priests.

Let us look at the difference between the righteousness that is of the law and the righteousness that is of Christ. The righteousness which is of Christ says that I must obey the Spirit of God. “I must walk in the Spirit and I will not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16). We find, then, that there are two laws working one against another: the law of righteousness of the Spirit, and the righteousness that is of the law that was given to Moses.

Now, it is all well and good to be a philanthropist, but it profits me exactly nothing if my motivation in giving is that I might be a great name as a philanthropist and be looked up to and respected by people. My motivation makes the very act of righteousness unrighteous. It cancels the righteousness that I would actually do. So, then, I have no redress from God for my righteousness, and because of this, sin, therefore, is no longer an abstract thing, but it becomes very personal. Sometimes sin will even reason with you because sin is the opposite of God and the opposite of God is Satan. So, Satan is the master of sin and he works in sin and in sinners. Paul, speaking to us in Romans 7:22, says that he sees another law. “For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.”

Now, the law of sin is also the law of death (Romans 8:2). The law of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death become personal and active since the Spirit of God uses the law of life and the spirit of Satan uses the law of death. Let’s go over that then. The law of life in Christ Jesus cancels out the power of the law of sin and death and it makes me free from the other law of sin and death. Now, what is the difference? If I am in the law of Christ and I make a mistake and do the wrong thing which normally is called sin – the law of life chips in and says you need to do something immediately to cancel the wages that are coming to you from that death, from that mistake. So immediately I would repent and the law of life would come into focus and cancel the effect or the wages that would normally or naturally come upon me for the sin.

Let us look a little deeper into the situation of these two laws. Why are the wages of sin death? The wages of sin is death because it is a transgression against God and God Himself has laid it down that every transgression against God must be paid for by life. In other words, death has a demand. It has a demand that “this person is mine because he did so and so and so and so. Because he fell, he belongs to me.” Jesus said, “No, I redeem him by life – I pay for it, I pay for the debt.” So, what we are doing is demanding from God a certain amount of payment for the things that we do.

Now, you ask yourself the question, “What kind of a thing is this? How is it that Jesus is going to pay?” The scriptures say that Jesus Christ came and by His Blood He paid for every man that cometh into the world. My goodness! He pays for every man, every sin, every wickedness, and every error that comes into the world. When He pays, the man himself has to accept the payment or else he is still in debt, so that some human beings have a preponderance of debt hanging over them. They have become bankrupt in the world of the spirit so that the wages that they owe are so great that they are in debt. They have become a slave to death and they no longer are free as human beings. But the Blood of Jesus is available for everyone who accepts the payment.

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, September, 2009)

Thought for today: The law of life in Christ Jesus cancels out the power of the law of sin and death and it makes me free from the other law of sin and death.

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How to Receive the Holy Ghost

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on January 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 14:23

We receive the Holy Ghost by obedience to the blood. Some groups teach that by obedience to the ministry we receive the Spirit and other attributes of God, but this is error. This is the same error which the Catholic Church and all the other denominations preach, when they say they are the only true church, and unless you belong to their ranks you cannot make heaven.

God’s order of things is that one obeys the Word of God to receive the blood of Christ, which is the life of God. The next step is to obey that which you have received, to receive that which you desire. We obey the blood, and we receive the Holy Ghost. When we obey the Holy Ghost, we receive the fullness. This is clearly defined by Jesus Himself in John 14:23,

“Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

The Holy Ghost causes people to speak in tongues, but not everyone who speaks in tongues is filled with the Holy Ghost. In some places, devil worshippers speak in tongues. There are unclean churches who believe in abominable living, preaching and teaching abomination for doctrines, yet speak in tongues. People can speak in tongues psychologically. There are three types of tongues:

(a) Tongues from God
(b) Tongues from the devil
(c) Tongues from the mind of the individual.

God knows that we need the Holy Ghost so that Christ would be formed in us. Therefore, if you obey the blood, you will receive the Holy Ghost.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 126)

Thought for today: We receive the Holy Ghost by obedience to the blood.

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