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Posts Tagged ‘Righteousness’

Standard of Righteousness

Posted in Faith in God, tagged , , , , on March 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Genesis 22:1-14

I want us to look at the place God is bringing us to. When you look in Genesis 22:1-14, you can read a little story about a flesh and blood man who pleased God. As you read through it, you will notice that verse 5 is a very peculiar verse. Just imagine: Abraham is carrying the boy to kill him, to offer him as a sacrifice, and he is telling the young men who was with them that, “He (Isaac) and I will come back.” Amen! Hallelujah! Now, that is some sort of faith! He was going to kill his son believing that God would raise him again from the dead.

Now there are a few other things that God has been showing me concerning this story. First of all, God made Abraham choose a site in the middle of Jerusalem. There was no Jerusalem there at the time, and on that site right now, the Mosque of Omar is covering the stone where Abraham offered up his son. I believe God preserved the site because He has something else to teach us. God did not want any Jewish temple to be put over it, and so He made the Arabs come along and put an abomination over the stone so that the Jews might not worship the ground.

The Lord is speaking to us through this story. What I want to talk to you about is “righteousness.” Righteousness! Abraham, as a physical, natural man, was not righteous; but the Bible said that because Abraham obeyed [believed] God, it was counted to him for righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3). So obedience became the standard of righteousness for us.

Now, if you obey God, you will also be righteous. As a matter of fact, you cannot be righteous without obeying God, and you cannot be holy without obeying God. Holiness is a requirement for seeing God. The Bible says in Hebrews 12:14 that you cannot see God unless you are holy. I am asking you, how many of you here are holy? Raise your hands. So then, you will not see God! Isn’t that what it says? I should think so! I should think that the Bible is saying that without being holy, “NO MAN SHALL SEE GOD!” Without holiness, no man shall see God, and without righteousness, you cannot serve God.

So, what are we looking at? What are we talking about? We are talking about God calling a people to the place of an altar. Do you know that the altar that Abraham built for his son was a type of the Golden Altar in the Tabernacle? Right there he was ready to kill him, but did he kill him? He did. Yes, he did. Amen! Jesus was slain from before the foundation of the world, yet Jesus walked up and down in Galilee and in Israel until He was slain on a cross. In other words, when a thing is done in the Spirit, it is done! God knew that Abraham was not fooling. He was coming down with that knife, because he knew that God said he should do it. God said he should do it, and so he was coming down with the knife. Now, God is talking to you about your Isaac!

We were discussing things that God would allow if God is good. If God knows everything I am going to do tomorrow, then, you see, as a fatalist, I can say, “Well, everything is all right. There’s nothing I can do! I really cannot do anything!” And yet, the Almighty God, Who made the heaven and the earth and all men, said to you, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Why should God be telling me that I should be perfect even as God is perfect if I cannot do anything about it? Don’t you see that you have the handle and you can do something about it?

There is something that God wants us to understand, and that is that we are unfinished work. I am not finished. I am an unfinished work, and God says the only way I can be finished is if I will do what He tells me to do to finish the work.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, November 1999, pg. 4-7)

Thought for today: Choose to obey God today so that it would be counted to you for righteousness.

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What Is in the Forefront of Your Mind?

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , on December 30, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Ezekiel 8:1

Let us look at the following issue: Satan discovered the function of the human body and the human being, and he decided he was going to get us to think a certain way. For if he could get you to think a certain way, then he would get you to do what he wants you to do. So, in the world we began to think a certain way. The thinking of the man of sin is that he becomes a sexual creature and his wife becomes a thing to be used. I am not saying that some women are not like that also, but I am saying that if the men take the lead in anything, they are going to make a difference, for the women cannot overcome this situation alone.

People who get married have certain ideas planted in their minds. “I am marrying so that I can have a picnic; so that I can have a ball; so that I can live morning, noon, and night to satisfy my carnal desires.” Do you know what happens? You find that sometimes you are talking to a person, but something is in his mind apart from what you are saying. He wants to get home. Why does he want to get home quickly? Because he has something in his mind – he wants to have a good time with his wife.

I am talking about Christians! You see, I was very shocked when God revealed to me that Christians are involved in sexual promiscuity just as the world is and that they are committing sin in their lives, as Christians, believing that they have a license to do that which should have been the world’s business! Do you understand me?

I have discovered a certain condition among the brethren – the men are “dull.” They are not leaders in the things of God. They are not coming forth as God leads men into righteousness and into glory and into power. They are not marching upon the hilltop. It is because there is an image in their mind. Let us read about it. Turn with me to Ezekiel 8:1.

“And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.”

What is he saying in this verse? You read this chapter and how it says that this happened in the sixth month of the sixth year, and on the fifth day of the month—you must know that it has a meaning. God is not going to waste words. He is talking about man (six), man (six), and ministry (five)! Yes! He is saying it is the sixth month of the sixth year and the fifth day of the month. Now, six speaks of “man,” and five of “ministry,” so Ahh!—the ministry! He is going to deal in this chapter with the ministry. He said, “…the elders of Judah sat before me,” and “the hand of the Lord fell there upon me.” It is like Jesus talking to His disciples and seeing house business rising up in their minds while he is talking. What a terrible thing it is! What a terrible thing it is to have the flesh in the forefront of one’s mind. The Lord told the Jews to bind the “Word” upon their foreheads. They did it literally; we should do it spiritually.

This is why God has not given us that “clear” vision that we could see through one another. Some of us would not have the strength. We would despise one another for what we are. You see, some of us only love one another because we do not know one another. Some of us are only buddy-buddy, nicey-nicey, because we do not know the thoughts that go through one another’s mind. Thank God, that we do not know it, but one day we will know as we are known. When things are purer, we will be able to take it more.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2000, pg. 31-32)

Thought for today: We are commanded to bind the Word of God upon our foreheads. Therefore, let us fill our mind with His Word so that we would not be found straying from righteousness.

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Get Your House in Order

Posted in Overcoming, tagged , , , on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: II Corinthians 10:3-6

We are now in the time when the devil will have his day; when the “man of sin” must come to his full (666); and the Christ to His fullness in a people who must grow “to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Ref. Ephesians 4:13). We now pray, “Thank you, Lord, that the Kingdom is now coming within us.”

We know definitely that the deliverance is coming; it is coming WITHIN us. God is bringing to pass His holy Word. We are seeing it manifested through His people, right here in our congregations. God is fulfilling His word to us concerning our children. It may take trials and tribulations, and the travailing of a family, but as the Church travails she shall bring forth:

“For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8).

Get your house in order! Get things straightened in your minds and in your hearts! Make up your mind who you will serve. Make up your mind that you are going to follow God and his righteousness. For the hour is come when the Lord is bringing first cleansing to the church. 

How do you think we are going to rebuke the devils of hell if we ourselves have devils? We must get rid of familiar spirits. One time a brother from Germany preached and as he did, we could see that he was hitting at familiar spirits that have no boundaries. He was talking about the Prussian spirits, but the influence of the principalities and powers in the satanic realm spread their power over the whole world. Each person can speak of his or her own area and we will discover that all the nations (no matter what country we are from) exhibit the same tarnish of soul and demonic bondages. The Holy Ghost, however, is given of God to indwell our spirits so that these strongholds in our soul (our mind, emotions, will, and desires) can be broken and cast out, that Christ may reign within.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, April 1997, pg. 24-25)

Thought for today: Make up your mind that you are going to follow God and His righteousness and by the power of God pull down the strongholds in your soul.

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The Great Tribulation

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , , , on November 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:8-10

We are now entering into the end of the Great Tribulation, which is the worst part of the tribulation and when many things are going to happen, like losing our houses, our bank accounts, and our present way of life that we know and love so much. In this time, we must still hold fast to the promises of God and carry on His work for the deliverance of men. God is strengthening us at this time in our walk with Him. God is not expecting us to do it by our own will, but He is expecting us to believe Him.

Somebody was sharing about Abraham and depicted him as an ordinary person, which he was. But at the same time God testified of him several times in the Scriptures that “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.” Abraham was righteous in his generation, although the requirements in his day were not what God would require of us today. The Blood of Jesus was not yet shed and the Holy Ghost was not yet given. How blessed we are!

In order for us to be found in the same heavenly places where faithful Abraham was, we have to be part of what the Bible calls the Firstfruits company. Some of us might be saying to ourselves, “I do not know if I am in the Firstfruits company. I do not know if I am worthy. I do not know if I will make it. I probably am not because I slipped and fell last week, and nobody knows. The people in church do not suspect that I get mad sometimes, and curse other times, etc., etc.” All these thoughts are designed by the devil to convince us that we are not of God. But the truth is that for us to be worthy, we only have to trust God. God has a different design. God’s design is that by faith we can lay hold of His promises and that by faith we can enter into His everlasting Kingdom. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ; and with the remission of sins comes purity and holiness.

God is not asking you to do it by your integrity or by your own personal character. God is asking you to put your character, integrity and abilities aside, by faith lay hold of the promises, and like the publican (Ref. Luke 18:13) to drop on your knees and admit your unworthiness. Ask God to help you and to save you from the traps and snares of the devil; and say, “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief.”

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, April 1997, pg. 14-15)

Thought for today: Remember it is by faith that we can lay hold of His promises and by faith we can enter into His everlasting Kingdom.

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True Fruit Bearing – Part One

Posted in Christian Walk, tagged , , , , on September 23, 2022| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 15:1-6

Revelation 3:1, “And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.”

This church was situated in the city of Sardis, the capital city of Lydia. Sardis was a very luxurious place. The church had a name that it was alive, yet it was dead. The church was very well populated. It had many members full of the world and the things of the world, but the fruit of the Spirit was not evident.

Let us look again at the Tabernacle that God instructed Moses to build. The entrance into the Tabernacle was through the gate. The Brazen Altar of sacrifice was the first piece of furniture inside the gate. In type, this is where church begins. Outside of the gate of the Tabernacle there is no church. The SEVEN CHURCHES referred to in Revelation are typed by the SEVEN PIECES OF FURNITURE in the Tabernacle. If this is true, then the church that was outside of the gate of the Tabernacle was a dead church. Sardis was NAMED by God as one of the seven churches. Therefore, this church was supposed to have been alive, but because it had ceased to produce fruit, it was dead. John 15:1-6 tells us that the fruit bearing of a church or an individual must come through the connection to the vine, which is Christ.

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” A DEAD CHURCH is a church that is no longer attached to the vine.

In the Tabernacle, the symbol of the church is the Candlestick, or the Lampstand. The oil is poured into the Lampstand and comes up and feeds all the seven lamps. If something should happen and one of the arms is cut off, then no oil would go into that arm and no oil would go to that lamp. Consequently, that lamp would be dead and would have to be removed, according to the Word of God. “Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead.” I want to remind you again that these churches are typical of the WHOLE CHURCH AGE from the time of Christ until now. Some of us are involved in these churches, every one of these seven churches. Today there is a church which seems to have life but yet it is dead.

The fruit of the Spirit and fruit bearing do NOT mean winning souls, having miracles, or doing works. God will do His work in spite of us. The church that is saving souls says that they are doing well because souls are being saved. Souls are being saved because God wants to save people. Wherever the Word of God is preached He will save people. Even in places where they do not believe in salvation (churches that play around with the Word) the Word produces deliverance in the people. The fact that souls are being saved, people are being delivered, and lives are being changed DOES NOT NECESSARILY MEAN the church is fulfilling its function before God. God said there are “seven Spirits” working with the seven different churches regardless of what their spiritual condition is. God is still working with them because God must bring forth salvation to His people.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 1, pg. 54-55)

Thought for today:  Jesus is the vine. Are you and your church connected to the vine so that you may bear the fruit of righteousness?

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