Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Overcome’

Overcoming the Mind of Man

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , , on July 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

Scripture reading: Isaiah 26:3, Psalm 119:11 & 105

The mind of man is like the head of a person. The Bible tells us that if your mind is stayed on God, then you will have perfect peace. If you have any kind of problem in your life that attacks you from the body and you have tried many ways to control it and you cannot, the reason is that you are NOT using the right tool, THE WORD OF GOD. Psalm 119:11, “Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Verse 105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

There is only one way of sustaining yourself in God and that is by saturating your mind with the Word of God. If you can keep your mind stayed on God, then you have the victory won. It is difficult. The mind cannot keep the mind. Unless we apply the science of God as God showed it to us in the Word, we are in trouble. You kneel down to pray and one thousand things bombard you. You say that you are going to pray through and you find yourself thinking about something else. You say that you must try again. You start to pray and again something else happens. The mind has to be strengthened by the SPIRIT OF GOD HIMSELF.

Sometimes it is almost impossible for you to get the Word of God into your mind. I remember when I was in that condition as a young man. I asked God, “What can I do to keep my mind stayed on You?” I was an avid reader and was always interested in a good story. God said to me, “Read all the stories in the Bible and meditate on them.” So I did. I would ask, “What was the meaning of this? Why was this story put into the Bible? Why did this happen?” The moment you begin to search the Word of God in your heart and mind, the Spirit of God WILL COME to your aid and instruct you and have fellowship with you. When the day is done, you will find that you have been meditating on the things of God. THIS IS A GOOD SPIRITUAL HABIT. When you get into the habit of meditating on the Word of God, you will find that you will begin to associate everything you see with the Word.

Years ago I worked in an office with many men. Some of them would tell dirty jokes in my hearing and watch my reaction. One of them told a joke about a man who streaked (ran naked) across a stage. I seized the opportunity to interject immediately Isaiah 20:2 where God told the prophet Isaiah to go naked in the streets of Israel to get their attention, to reveal to them their SPIRITUAL NAKEDNESS. The man who told the joke was hit so hard by my opportunistic preaching that he said, “You probably know every scripture in the Bible.” From that time on they kept all their jokes out of my hearing. It was a blessing to me.

Begin to associate everything you see and hear with Scriptural references for most of what is happening now has already happened in your Bible.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 78-79)

Thought for today: Develop a Good Spiritual Habit. Saturate your mind with the Word of God.

Read Full Post »

God’s Order in the Church

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , , , on June 14, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: I Timothy 3:1-13

Let us look into God’s order for the church. His order is that the church should be ruled by elders appointed. It is a plural ministry that God appoints in the church. You might say to me that the word “bishop” is in the Bible. Let us read the King James Version in I Timothy 3:1, “This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.” The whole verse is incorrectly translated. NOTHING IS WRONG WITH THE WORD OF GOD. What is wrong is what man says the Word of God says. Let us look at the Greek. The following is from the Textus Receptus by J. P. Green. I Timothy 3:1, “Faithful the word. If anyone overseership aspires to a good work.” This says that if a man has a desire to take care of God’s flock, God’s people, he desires “a good work.” Notice, there is no word in the Greek which suggests a HIERARCHY or an OFFICE called “bishop.” Also, nothing is said about being a bishop. The word is “overseership.” The word “bishop” is another Latin word that comes in to promote the idea of a hierarchy. The word “bishop” came into the denominations from the Roman Catholic church that ordained a hierarchical set-up, from the Pope on down to the Cardinals, Bishops, etc. This reveals how much the church has departed from God. Divine order, which God set in the church, has been destroyed by traditions.

Let us look at the Greek word “episkopas,” erroneously translated in I Timothy 3:1 as “bishop,” in another place in the Scriptures. In Acts 20, Paul is about to bid a final farewell to the brethren in Ephesus. He was not going to be coming back for he was going to Jerusalem to be offered up. He knew it was the end and he was giving the last message to the church. Acts 20:17, “And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.” The message he is giving them concludes with verse 28, “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.” In this case, the same word “episkopas” is translated “overseers,” where as in I Timothy 3:1 it was translated “bishop” bringing in that hierarchical concept.

I Timothy 3:12, “Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well.” This word “deacons” was coined from the Greek word “deakonon” which means “servant,” and in this specific place was called “deacons.” There is no such thing as a “deacon.” It should be translated a “servant.” All servants of God should “be the husbands of one wife” and rule their own household.

From the above scriptures we can see that there has been much error brought into the church. Nevertheless, God’s Word prevails.

Revelation 2:7, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.”

God always has His overcomers. He is revealing to us that even in this Ephesian church, where some people had fallen away and lost their first love, there were some who were going to be overcomers. We see two churches in the one church – one as overcomers and one as those who do not overcome. This is a picture of all of the churches throughout all of the ages even unto our time. Make your calling and election sure for you can either be an overcomer or a loser.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 34-35)

Thought for today: May we strive to walk in God’s divine order so that we overcome and are blessed to eat of the tree of life.

Read Full Post »

Faith in the Blood

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , , , on June 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Matthew 27:27-37

The next weapon I am going to deal with is the weapon called the BLOOD.  I will tell you the truth and confess to you that I did not know that the Blood was a weapon.  I knew the song, “The Blood that cleanses me from day to day shall never lose its power,” but I did not know that I had the greatest weapon in the arsenal of God.  In order to operate the Blood weapon effectively, you must have this thing built in you.  You have to take the Blood passages from the Bible and you have to read them.  You have to memorize them; get them in your heart; get them in your mind.  You have to get them so that they will come forth unconsciously and fight for you. 

When I was a young Christian, I used to fast and pray.  Sometimes twenty-one days; sometimes ten days or two weeks; one time it was forty days.  I was just fasting—continuously fasting.  I had to fast, because I had lust, and desires, and evil things that I hated in my body!  I do not think you have those things in you and that is probably why you do not fast, but the things that I hated were the things that I had in me.  A young man asked me one day, “Do you mean, Brother Ces, that I am going to have to be fighting lust all through my life?”  I said, “No.  I got rid of lust when I was a young man and you can get rid of it in your youth, too.”  What does the Bible say about youthful lusts?  “Flee!”  That means you must run, for “flee” means to “run away from.”  It says, “Flee also youthful lusts” (II Timothy 2:22), and “…abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul” (I Peter 2:11).  Youthful lusts destroy the power of God in your ministry and in your life.  I do not know if you know that, but I got rid of it when I was young; God trained me; I did not go to Bible school.  That is why I want to train you and set you up now for the biggest battle of your life. 

Jesus came to me one day and said to me, “Come with Me.  I want to show you Calvary.”  I want you to hear what I am saying.  Jesus wanted to show me Calvary.  He took me from the time they gave Him the first blow (when the centurion slapped Him on His face with the back of his hand) to the crucifixion.  After the centurion’s blow, they beat Him with the cat-o’-nine tails.  That thing strips your back.  That was how the first Blood was drawn.  Then they took thorns and twisted them into a crown.  I do not know what you call it, but they are thorns that grow on a long string and you can wind the string into a crown.  Some people call it “crown of thorns,” some call it “Jerusalem thorn,” or something similar.  So, they made a crown of thorns and put it on His head.  A man took a rod, hit Him on the head (Matthew 27:29-30), and it fastened down like a pincushion—right through the flesh of the scalp. 

I am telling you what He showed me.  You need to be able to read the account of Jesus’ crucifixion and understand how the Blood was shed.  You need to get it embedded into your mind and into your heart.  Christ said that when we come to communion, we are to remember Him and this Blood (I Corinthians 11:24-26).  Remember!  Remember!  These are God-created barriers of memory in your soul.  Remember!  We are psychological creatures and there is no need to try to get away from that and there are certain things that have to be done to us in our minds in order to get us to be ready to move in God. 

The Blood came through the skin at the base of the head.  That is the first vision He gave me.  He then showed me all the abuse.  He showed me how they abused Him on the way with the cross and how He fell beneath the cross.  He told me that the worst thing that hurt Him was when one man spat in His face and He could not even wipe the saliva because His hands were bound.  Again, another time, one raised a hand and cried, “Crucify him!  Crucify Him!” and the hand that was raised was a hand that He had healed. 

I am just telling you how I learned the Blood.  He showed me all this concerning the time when He went to Calvary and how He was hung on the tree.  Brethren, after that got into my mind and I read through the account in the Bible, it became a permanent foundation in my heart. 

You need a permanent foundation of the Blood in you!  Do you know why?  The Blood is your life!  The Blood is your life!  God said that we in the last days are going to fight the last fight.  He said that you are going to fight.  Did you hear that?  The last fight—which God is ordaining a church to fight—He said that it is “…by the Blood” that you are going to overcome the enemy!  And it is not just the Blood alone, but He said, “…and by the word of their (your) testimony” (Revelation 12:11).

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 13-15)

Thought for today: Read about the Blood of Jesus Christ in the Word and meditate on it until it becomes a permanent foundation in your heart. Only then you can face the greatest battle of mankind that is right ahead of us and be an overcomer.

Read Full Post »

Get a Bigger Gun!

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , on June 3, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: II Thessalonians 2:1-10

God is bringing forth an army and this army is going to face some things that the men of old did not face.  Paul said in I Corinthians 15:32 that he fought “with beasts at Ephesus…after the manner (similitude) of men.”  Paul, however, never faced some of the things and the kind and the quality of man beasts that we are going to have to face in our time and in this end of the age.  God put it in the Word that it is at the end of the age that “the beast” is formed.  It is “THE” beast, not “a” beast.  Not “one of” the beasts, but the epitome of all the beasts—the beast of beasts.  The “666” is going to be formed before you come forth in Christ.  That means we have to face him before we get the deliverance.  We are asking God, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done…” in this earth, Lord God, “…as it is in heaven.”  We are going to have to face the beast before we get that deliverance!

Now what are we talking about?  We are talking about “666”—the fullness of man—all that man can be.  This will be the greatest man that ever walked the face of the earth.  This will be the man that is scientifically wise.  That is, he will be physically, mentally, and psychologically wise; powerful, and strong.  This man that is being created is the man who will have the fullness of all that man can be.  This is the man we face. 

We are facing this man in the people and in the very minds of the children.  The government now is fighting for the minds of the children.  If they can, they are going to make laws to get your children.  Home schooling is a bother to the government and to the plans of the One World Government.  Soon there will be no home schooling.  Soon they will take your children from you and teach them what they must know and your children will have such scientific knowledge that they will be so high above you that you will not be even able to cope with what they teach them.  Look at what the kids can do with computers.  When you were kids, you did not know anything about that, but the thing is coming to a head.  Therefore, God told me some secrets concerning the man He wants us to be, in order to be able to combat the “man of sin” (Ref. II Thessalonians 2:3-4) and to combat everything that is coming forth in the world to overtake and overcome us. 

They do not believe they are going to be overcome by us.  They believe they are going to overcome us!  We, therefore, must know that we were born to be the dwelling place of God!  We were born to be the home of the Spirit of God.  We must know that no man can cope with a man who is filled with the Spirit.  A man who is filled with the Spirit is absolutely not even man.  He is beyond man!  He will perceive what man cannot perceive.  He will rise to any occasion. 

We think of Daniel.  They were going to kill him, because the order went out to kill all the wise men (the magicians and soothsayers) and they had classified Daniel among these.  They said, “Kill them!”  The man who was to kill him came to him to tell him what his fate was.  Daniel said, “Tell the king not to be so hasty, but to give me a little time.”  Daniel believed in his God.  I want you to hear what Daniel said.  He said, “Give me a little time and I will tell him what his dream was.”  Daniel had no doubt that his God was going to tell him so he went down into prayer and fasting and God came to him in the night and told him and He showed him the dream of Nebuchadnezzar.  Daniel was immediately exalted above humans.  He was exalted above the scientists.  He was exalted above the great soothsayers.

Did I talk about different guns?  Different weapons of warfare?  Different men who handle different weapons?  If tanks are coming against you, do you grab your rifle and shoot the tanks?  No!  You had better get out of the way and get something heavier.  You had better get somebody who handles a heavier thing like a bazooka or something similar to it in order to hit those tanks.  You do not stand up and shoot a tank with your little gun.  This is the reason why God is telling us now the secrets of how to get our guns to be bigger and how to fight the warfare that He is preparing for us. 

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, January 1997, pg. 4-6)

Thought for today: We cannot fight our enemy in these last days with the small weapons we have been using so far. Let us go before God and have Him increase the power of our guns so that we will overcome the enemy and not be overcome by him.

Read Full Post »

War on the Saints

Posted in Spiritual Warfare, tagged , , , , , , , on May 27, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Scripture reading: Revelation 12:7-11). 

In every type of warfare, in order to be effective and to win, one must know the enemy.  There are two basic tricks that Satan plays on humanity:

1.  He appeals to the carnal mind to deny his existence and hides his work to convince the carnal mind that it is just natural and sometimes coincidental.  He did it to Eve, and tried it with Jesus. 

2.  He intimidates some, convincing them of the greatness of his prowess.

The time has come as never before in the history of mankind for the saints to fight and to overcome the devil.  In the heat of the battle, when one is oppressed with all manner of circumstances and what seems to be coincidences, one is apt to think, “Why me?”  When, however, we understand the nature of the battle, we will rejoice at the wonderful implications which it portends. 

The first glorious implication that we will deal with in the passage of scripture from Revelation 12 is that portion where it is written, “…neither was their place found any more in heaven.”  If we rightly assume that the word “heaven” in this rendition is speaking of the kingdom of God and that this dimension of the kingdom is referring to the kingdom within us (Ref. Luke 17:21), then this verse would be saying that Satan and his angels had a place in us, but that at some time in the history of the Church they will lose that place.  If then, time is so far spent that we are at the end of the sixth day and within a few short years the seventh day or seventh millennium must dawn, then it is now time for us to be totally delivered from every evil spirit of darkness. 

In order to achieve this, there must be a travail (Revelation 12:2).  The travail of the Church is the war that we are experiencing at this time.  The only pattern that this attack has is that it is satanic.  The war has no boundaries, nor venue.  The enemy is using every element, every devil, and every person who can be used against us.  The war is total.  Every weakness, which in time past was permitted to lodge within us and had a place in us, is being exploited and there is no place to hide.  The families are under attack as never before.  The children are under attack as never before.  The husbands who could hide their weakness behind the skirts of their wives are being exposed and the wives who were hiding behind the masculinity of their husbands are being exposed.  Our only hiding place now is in Christ. 

Sin has lost its hiding place in us.  Only true repentance will set us free from imbibed or besetting sin, for now is the time when the fullness of salvation shall come to us.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, December 1991, pg. 1-2)

Thought for today: Let us fall before the Lord and repent before Him from every sin which doth so easily beset us so that we may find our hiding place in Christ.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts