Edition 107. January 30th 2012
Who is a believer?
News events and comment.
●Economists now predict a train smash for the world economy late in 2013. If so this will prime the world for the a financial control system to come into place by 2014 or soon afterwards. Some of you know why that's important!
●Syria and Iran continue to dominate the news right now. Both have a significant place in Bible prophecy (edition 99) Iran is the bigger player, but we will most likely see prophecy unfold for Syria first of all. Both will not be far apart.
●Iran continues to threaten to use its oil supply as a weapon against the world economy. There is a direct relationship between the oil price and world GDP. The very fragile world economy will not be able to sustain any new major shocks like a hefty oil price.
●Leader of the Catholic church, Ratzinger, releases two white "peace doves" while calling for "Holy land peace". The doves turn and fly back inside. Now isn't that a story full of symbolism?
●International so-called Christian leaders to meet in Bethlehem for meeting tagged "Christ at the checkpoint." These so-called leaders will be in partnership with radical Arab leaders. Their agenda is to target Christian Zionists and the theology that supports Gods prophetic plan for Israel and the Jews. This is nothing but hostile replacement theology in action. It is fact just the sort of thing I've been warning against for many years saying "replacement theology leads to replacement reality". It is the seeds and root of war and not peace.
Who is a believer.
There are two plans for your life. One is a perfectly tailor-made plan just for you, made by our Lord before the foundations of the earth. The other is the plan of Satan, the counterfeiter.
Of course there is a third plan and that is a mixture of the two. One leads to blessing, one leads to hell and the third leads to partial blessing and victory.
Before we go any further let's define exactly what a believer is. He or she is a person who has made our Lord Yeshua / Jesus the Lord of his or her life through the finished work of the cross. They have surrendered their lives to our Messiah and His word. They have been ●born again by the Spirit of God, ●baptised in water as an adult, ●baptised in the Spirit as a separate work and ●accepted the Bible as the inerrant Word of God.
A true believer has taken on the finished work of the cross of Christ and is also taking up his own cross daily. He has within him a growing desire to know the one whom he says he now loves.
Be aware that there is "another Jesus" out there according to 2Corinthians 11:4 and he has huge following of counterfeit Christians!
A "tree is known by its fruit."
Galatians 2:20 "I've been crucified to the world and the world to me."
A crucified person has one major characteristic: He's dead! As believers once we have accepted the finished work of the cross of our Messiah, we must take up our cross and apply it to every area of our lives. Death then works in us to produce new resurrection life. This new life is always on the far side of the cross. The cross needs to be applied to three main areas of our lives. Death to the world, the flesh (self life) and the demonic. These are the three areas the devil attacks and gains entry into the believers life. These are the three areas in which the cross must do it's deadly work
It's not automatic, it has to be done through a deliberate act of choice and will.
Do you have the fruit of victory in your life over the devil in these three areas? Are you bound and consumed by the world's ways. Is celebrity and Hollywood a big influence in your life? Are you dominated by pride and self-will? does the demonic control your lusts?
My friends, there is glorious victory available out there.
Acts 4:23 "And being left alone they went to their own companions.."
This verse is very insightful. When you're alone and out of the gaze of other believers, where do you go and what do you do?
A believer is not what a person says he is. A true believer is what you are in the inner core. A true believer is one who has or has had a war on the go inside. He's had to deal with the great identity-crisis. We all need to break from an identity with the world and it's ways and to move into a new identity revealed in the word of God. The Spirit of God will lead us into a transformed life and this new identity if we'll hand over the reins of our lives to our Lord.
Today many believers have more in character with Judas than anything else. Are you a Judas? When the pressure is really on, who will you go to and what will you do?
A true believer will be surrendered to our Lord, will love His word and will fight with the word of the devil and his ways!
The counterfeit:
Too many think they're Christians, but they're the god of their own lives. They are judge and jury of the living God and His word. They refuse to submit to Him and His ways, but yet they call themselves Christians.
Many people don't want to know the full truth because it shatters their deluded illusions of self-importance and their own presumed god-status.
Many are quite comfortable in the world. They're blind to its god, Satan. The world and it's ever changing variable value system is a terrible substitute for the fruits of the Spirit and the glory of the living God.
Today the new normal is the exact opposite of Gods ways and word. The new normal is the majority view, but that does not make it right or okay. The new normal has departed from truth with everything being relative and variable. The new normal coexists comfortably with the world. The old normal is based on immovable eternal truth and is worlds apart from the world's ways.
Most people today have a solid foundation of deception, and pure error. Many church leaders want you to believe what they believe even though it's a departure from truth. True leaders are servants of the Lord, directing the sheep into the everlasting arms of the King of Kings.
This is modern man's problem! He really thinks he is king of his life. He is full of self-importance, ego and pride. His views of himself, God, and Bible are devoid of truth.
Be sure of this: Rejecting the living God and all of His ways makes you your own god, but it's Satan who is really your god.
Job 41:34..."He (Satan) is king over all the children of pride."
Who is not a believer:
Catholics are not true believers. They believe that church membership saves you. Calvinists are not true believers. They believe that no choice is involved as God makes the choices for you. The denominational churches may have a few true believers in them, but by and large they are not. They don't practice the new birth, adult water baptism and Spirit baptism.
We must see signs of regeneration in a believers life. He or she must be able to say: "Once I was like this and now since being born again, I'm on the road to complete change."
It's a shocking thing to read God's assessment of the church and who He thinks is saved and who is not! This is in the messages to the seven churches in the Revelation.
The counterfeit believer may have all the right words, but his inner heart is stone dead. Eventually though the tree does reveal it's fruit!
I know one person who claims to be a believer. He loves to fellowship with others, but he can't say "Jesus is the Lord of my life."
Ezekiel 13:11 "Say to those who plaster (the wall) with untempered mortar that it will fall. There shall be flooding rain...and it will fall"
The above verse is really insightful into the counterfeit Christian. He has the walls of his heart plastered with a weak mixture of cement. The wall will fall when the storms come and come they will. This is like the person who wants both God and the world. Sorry, that mixture won't stand.
You can argue with me, but you can't argue with God. If you are a human being, you will stand before our Lord. If you were truly saved, you will be welcomed into eternity as family. If not you will stand before God in judgment. You will have no argument or excuse and you'll have to say "amen" to your own judgment.
Most ministries today cater for and to their people rather than the living God. They're centred on self-motivational and self gratifying ministry based on shallow half truths. In fact the most blasphemous and evil doctrines of Kingdom dominionism and its brother replacement theology are common-place in most churches today.
How to know if you're a true believer:
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths."
What a wonderful verse! Imagine having the King of the universe directing your path! Well it's available, but the condition mentioned have to be met.
Do you want to really move forward with our Lord? You will end up being very different to the world and very different to modern bubble-gum Christianity.
Are you prepared to forsake error and pursue truth. Let me tell you, it's a lot easier to have the false peace of the world and its god. The soon-coming antichrist comes making peace. You can have that peace too, but you will forever regret it! To have the peace the devil offers, you'll have to forsake the cross of Christ. Oh, you can still have Christ, but it will be a cross-less Christ without salvation! It will be "another Jesus"
You can move on with our Lord as just as far as you want to. You can be a compromised half-baked Christian that's just like the masses. Or you can be as on fire for our Lord as your heart desires.
The one real way to know if you're going in the right direction is this: Psalm119:165 "Great peace have that love your word and nothing causes them to stumble."
As you become more and more of an oddball, you will have a deep inner peace that will keep you stable and on track.
If you're a true believer you'll love the Lord and His word. If you really love our Lord how on earth can you be silent about that? You'll have a passion to share Him and also to warn of the dangers ahead.
Clean up your life.
Who in their right mind doesn't want to get clean after falling into a hole full of mud? Being clean is wonderful.
As believers we need to be careful of the dirt of the world creeping up on us.
Legalism is a dangerous thing that we must cast down. But this doesn't mean we're free to do as we like. The key is being led by the Spirit within our hearts. He will always lead us in line with His word.
Getting rid of the witchcraft of legalism is liberating, but let's remember that if we're going get rid of legalism we must be fair and throw out the legalism of keeping Christmas, Easter and other pagan festivals.
Some say get rid of Jewish legalism, but keep the Babylon-rooted, Catholic and Calvinist legalism of Christmas and Easter.
Acts 20:27 "For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God"
Verse 29-30 is a continuation of this thought: "For I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves."
Can you see the importance of the having a passion for the truth?
This is the tragedy of many:
Jeremiah 42:21-22 "I have this day declared it to you, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God...now therefore you shall die..."
Destroy the idols in your life:
Hosea 8:4 "They set up kings but not by Me...and they made idols for themselves, that they might be cut off."
Ezekiel 14:3 "These men have set up idols in their hearts and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity..."
Ezekiel 14:6 "Therefore say to the house of Israel, "Thus says the Lord God : Repent and turn away from your idols..."
An idol, by definition is anything that is a substitution of what is created for the Creator. Idols are associated with immediate pleasure but because there is a strong satanic element in idols they have within them an element of bondage and control.
Deuteronomy 12:2-4 "You shall utterly destroy all the places where the nations which you shall dispossess served their gods...and you shall destroy their alters, break their sacred pillars and burn their wooden images with fire; you shall cut down the carved images of their gods and destroy their names from that place. You shall not worship the Lord your God with such things."
Today most people have a great collection of idols in their lives. If you touch the idols in people's lives you make them very angry. The idols of Christmas and Easter for example, make many people blindly furious if you challenge these demonic idols.
Placing anything or anyone in a supreme place in your heart as an object of admiration or worship is idolatry.
Almost the entire Christian world today is a feeding off of the world's idolatry.
Examples of idols to be destroyed:
Some of the following are just fine. They become idols when obsession and over-balance comes in.
Politicians, political systems, power, celebrity, money and related excessive materialism, nature, sport, food, illegitimate sex, computer games, movies, intellectualism, the poor as a social entity and many more. False doctrine can be a very strong idol as well.
Idolatry always goes hand in hand with the demonic!
The answer is to identify honestly the idols in your life, and consciously break from them. Renounce them and reject them. Because of the demonic control involved in idols, it is often very difficult for believers to break free. Get rid of and even burn contact items.
1 John 5:21 "Little children, keep yourselves from idols."
Beware the beast!
If your church does not teach or preach on end -time events...get out!
I had a shocking encounter with one of the leaders of a mega-church that has really lost its way and got sidetracked into the multi-faith movement. This church used to preach and teach end-time things ages ago. This guy said to me: "We don't preach that beast stuff anymore."
They don't preach that "beast stuff," but the beast has walked right in camouflaged as Jesus and they can't see it!
The beast is coming believe it or not and he's coming to bring peace to the world. Will you see Satan behind love-bringer and peacemaker?
As believers we must be vigilant. This obviously involves having knowledge, wisdom and understanding of these things, especially now that we're right on the door-step of the greatest times of deception the world has known.
Why is all of this important?
This may come as a shock to you.
I've read many accounts of people dying and going to heaven, then coming back into their bodies after being resuscitated.
Many of these stories are really dubious and questionable, but we dare not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
One old account really struck me. It was that of a young 11 year-old Catholic Italian girl. I normally would reject anything Catholic right up front. This girl says she was taken by a huge angel and shown portions of heaven and hell. She said that she saw the popes there in hell. She also said that there was a huge amount of so-called Christians and their leaders in hell. She said there were many things she was not permitted to see.
Of course we don't put a lot a emphasis on extra-Biblical issues, but what if this girl was only vaguely right?
You see prophetically, the Bible lines up with her experiences. Believe her or not, the Bible reveals the shocking end of all those not truly born again.
Great masses will go to hell, including many professing "Christians"
Those surrendered and submitted to the living God will see our great and glorious Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, blood stained, but resurrected and risen on every page of the Bible! They will see Him, know Him and know He is coming again very soon. They will be getting themselves ready for eternity!
What is success?
Oh, that must be the life of Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates or Oprah. I've got news for you! Those are amongst the biggest failures in the world.
To live and die for yourself is failure. Of course our Lord would have us be excellent at what He's called us to do, that's a different thing.
You will be rewarded in eternity for all eternity according to what your life's motivation was and your answer to God's call on your life.
You can't say to God, "My life's motivation was to be good." Sorry, that doesn't crack it.
The dying words of Steve Jobs were "Oh wow, oh wow!" Imagine the absolute stupidity of living your entire life for the glorification of self and then knowing you're about to die, say "oh wow" Do you know what God will say to him at the Great White Throne judgement, where the unsaved "small and great" will be judged? It will be something along these lines: "Depart from me you cursed, into everlasting fire."
If your name is not in the Lamb's book of life, you will stand before the living God on your own works. You may think you've been good, but the passing grade is 100%!...Oops!!
But, you can have the 100% of our Lord and Messiah given to you as a free gift!...How about that!
Success, is surrendering you life to our Lord and His plan for your life...and doing it!
A truly successful believer is one who has recognised and dethroned he authority of Satan in his life. He has welcomed the authority of the living God onto the throne of his life and he now has that very authority emanating from his life.
Then of course you can be really truly, amazingly successful by being a radical! Of course, I'm not talking about politics, but being radical for the true God. You see, the word 'radical' means 'from the root' or 'getting to the root' The root is deep and it's responsible for the fruit.
The superficial Christian may be able to drift into heaven, but I wouldn't bet on it!
Finally:
There is one type of person that will never be able to sucked into the world's doomed kingdom. This type will always be hated by the masses. This is the one who has the scars and marks of the cross of Christ on his life.
Those who "deny themselves", "take up their cross daily" and "hate their lives in the world", will be empowered by the living God to overcome and to move forward boldly into glory. They'll be given insight, vision and victory.
These ones will be free indeed from the dictates of the world the flesh and the demonic. They'll always be hated by the devil within those with no cross.
Psalm 131:2 "Surely I have calmed and quietened my soul, like a weaned child within his mother; Like a weaned child is my soul within me."
Psalm 128:1 "Blessed is everyone who fear the Lord, who walks in His ways."
Here's a wonderful painting by Marc Chagall of our Jewish Messiah on the cross
Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!
