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Isaiah 59:2; But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
There are numerous things that we can be separated from, but by far the worst form of separation is to be separated from God. Just look at the life of King Saul in the book of 1 Samuel and see for yourself how the separation from God caused him to sink deeper and deeper into depravity. Samson kept playing with sin thinking that he was alright with God until the 7 locks of his head were shaved off. He got up thinking he could do as he always did not realizing that God had departed from him. This type of thing did not happen from one day to another but was the result of repeated offenses.
Proverbs 17:9; He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.
Has anyone ever broken off a relationship with you because of things that you continually did wrong? Perhaps you broke off a relationship because the other person involved kept making the same mistakes over and over again. In either case there was an emotional attachment and there will be varying levels of anxiety depending upon how strong that attachment was. There are distinct behaviors associated with separation anxiety which can go to extremes. Some individuals may isolate and seclude themselves, while others may busy themselves with activity, although their distress is apparent. Others may sit on the pity pot while there are also some that will become hostile and act upon their anger in destructive ways. Some people will take things out on themselves because they make themselves to be the reason for all of the turmoil in the relationship and exhibit behavior that is harmful to them.
Ephesians 4:31, 32; Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Children of divorced parents or that have always lived in a single parent household tend to suffer levels of trauma that are greater than those of the parents. They are directly affected by the separation anxiety of the parents as well as their own anxiety which can help to explain a lot of the instability in our society. There is a solution but we are not going to find that solution in trying to do things to make us feel better. These temporary fixes are like trying to plug up a leak in a dam by sticking your finger in the hole. The only long-term solution is to recognize the behavior and then allow the Holy Spirit to deal with you. You will have to repent and trust God enough to surrender your situation over to him.
By no means is this going to be easy in any way form or fashion because we tend to allow ourselves to be controlled by our emotions and most of the time our emotions and our perception of them is badly damaged, but it is not impossible. All things are possible in Christ, with Him and through Him when we allow Him to and surrender control over to Him.
Romans 12:2; And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
We cannot allow ourselves to follow the pattern of the people of the world because the people of the world do not look to God for solutions. Our way of thinking has to be transformed because our former way of thinking is what gets us into the messes we end up in. This can only come about through consecration and sanctification will kick in while we reconcile ourselves to the Father through Christ.
Ephesians 4:21-24; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Mark 4:23; If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.
If you have been listening to what God has been telling you then you would have already crucified the sin nature which is a putrefied rotted corpse due to the evil desires that are deceptive. The word says that in the flesh there is no good thing. What we see in Ephesians 4 is a 3 fold process that begins with putting off the old man (old sin nature). The next step is to be renewed by the transforming of your mind and then to put on Christ.
The reason that so many people struggle with this is very simple; pride and disobedience work hand in hand.
An unwillingness to let go of worldly passions and works of the flesh will keep you in a putrefied state of being so that you cannot surrender your will over to the Spirit of the Living God. Guess what? The Spirit may have departed from you a long time ago yet you go through life with a form of Godliness without any power to back it up. You live with no joy and no peace yet you continually go through the motions of a half-baked prayer life with a little scripture sprinkled on top. That is not living; instead of going from glory to glory we go from one state of decay to another. OUCH!
Matthew 7:13-14; Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Repent while there is still time! Compared to all the people that are in the earth right now only a very small percentage are actually living in righteousness and true holiness. The actual number may be much smaller than we can imagine. Jesus himself said that as it was in the days of Noah so shall it be when the Son of man comes. In Noah's days only 8 people out of the entire population of the earth were spared; yet Noah preached the same message for 120 years. We are hearing the same message now yet not many people are listening.
Separation from God is horrible but eternal separation is unthinkable. Jesus said heaven and earth will pass away but my word will not pass away. Everything is going to end at the white throne judgment. All decisions will be final and if we don't get it right while we are on this earth there won't be a second chance. I may sound like I'm speaking out of urgency and that is because I am. Do whatever you have to do but work it out A.S.A.P. Shalom
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1 Corinthians 1:18; For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
You don’t hear much preaching about the cross nowadays. It used to be that preaching about the cross would bring people to repentance, so what happened? You don’t hear a lot of preaching about hell or the devil or about sin and repentance anymore, if at all. You are more likely to be entertained for an hour and get about 15 minutes of funny stories or a wishy-washy word. It used to be that sinners would walk into a church and be healed and delivered, repent of their sins and never look back. Nowadays people walk into a church and leave the same way they walked in if not worse. They get some goose bumps and chills up their spine while indulging the flesh in song and in dance and mistake an emotional response with the Holy Spirit. Then as soon as they step out of church they light up a smoke while talking about what a good service it was yet no one got saved. Then they go right back to their sin as if church is just a momentary respite from perpetual boredom.
A lot of preachers will make references to the cross metaphorically but they are careful to avoid approaching the message of the cross directly for fear of frightening or offending people. We live in a society where the churches now want to be politically correct; adopting a doctrine of tolerance and mutual acceptance where the rights of the individual supersede the pure and Holy Word of God resulting in a powerless church where pastors are glorified and the brethren are just as lost as the people in the world.
1 Peter 2:6-8; Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
People stumble at the Word and are easily offended because they choose to be disobedient. It is so much easier to appease the flesh than to walk in the Spirit. People do what they do by nature because it feels good. This is the same type of thinking that the people of the world adhere to.
Jeremiah 13:23; Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.
People are apt to do what comes naturally so where sin is not being corrected it will abound. We need to preach the message of the cross; not a new message, but the same message that was preached in the beginning. Some preachers are giving a massage instead of a message. The congregations are being lulled into a deep sleep with a watered down word that doesn’t have the power to penetrate the hard hearts or break up the fallow ground so that the seed can take root and germinate.
What is the message of the cross? DENY YOURSELF! Did I make that clear enough? This is the reason that the gospel is not producing a change in a hard heart. The problem starts at the ALTAR. OUCH!!! If preachers would begin to deny themselves by setting aside their own petty agendas and stop worrying about whether or not people will leave the church because of offenses then maybe things will go back to the way they were when church was church and not a social club or a hangout. There is nothing wrong with music and dancing in the church but the whole service should not be about entertainment. You can stay home in a virtual coma in front of the hell-e-vision and be entertained for 10-12 hours in the day. You don't need to go to church to be entertained. The church needs to cut the programs short so the word can be preached with power and authority.
Matthew 8:22; But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead. If people want to stop coming to church, have church anyway. Those old corpses aren’t doing anything but taking up space anyway. You may as well have tombstones on the pews. If the real brethren would stop praying for God to bring people in and go out to where the sinners are then maybe the church can grow. One sinner a month that repents is not growth. At that rate you can fill the church in 3 years.
Matthew 16:24; Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
I don’t know, maybe this is too complicated. What part of this verse don’t you understand? Is it denying yourself or is it taking up your cross? Perhaps you have a problem with following Christ but whatever the case may be you are just making it hard on yourself. Stop trying to figure it out and stop trying to read between the lines, just accept it the way it is. Deny yourself, set aside your petty differences and your hurts and hang-ups as well as your insecurities. Take up your cross; be willing to pay the price, endure suffering, and resist the urge to indulge the flesh. Follow Christ; Let him lead as you follow, keep pace with him and don’t let him get too far ahead and don’t lag too far behind. This is a simple formula for personal growth. It will work if you apply it and put it into practice. If everyone in a church would do this then there will be explosive growth because you will do things as the word is telling you to do them and you will not fail. God bless you and Shalom.
Father in the name of Jesus, increase the desire in the brethren to seek you with a whole heart. Strengthen them and help them to give up those things that are obstructing and help them to understand that everything that they need to live perfect before you was already done more than 2,000 years ago on the cross. Lord help them also to see that the words that they speak must be followed by actions that will produce results. Thank you Lord and continue to use me to speak on your behalf. In the precious name of Jesus, Amen
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Last night (early this morning) 10/5/09 I dreamt that I was in a very large house with a lot of black people in it that I knew to be very spiritual holy folk. The owner of the house (a pastor) was showing me around the massive house pointing out carpentry work that needed to be done. One interesting thing was an opening for a window that was too low and too small and he wanted me to make it bigger and higher so that he can preach out of the window. He told me that we would be preaching together and copastoring the church. My wife was with me and People were moving around in a flurry of activity, putting things in place and the house was looking more and more beautiful. The pastor took me up to the attic where there was a huge 1 bedroom apartment with a kitchen and large bathroom and I couldn't believe how big the apartment was to be in an attic. Women were showing my wife and I around the apartment (which was furnished) and when one of them was showing us the bathroom another woman said that everything would be taken care of and that we would be living there for free for as long as we wanted to. On the other side of the house in the attic there was an identical apartment that was empty. The furniture that was in the first apartment was removed and my furniture was being moved in and there was a large shed that I could keep all of my tools in and use as a workshop. In the last part of the dream my wife and I were in the vacant apartment and my wife was asking me why we couldn't have this one. I told her that we already had an identical apartment and that we would be living rent free. Then I woke up.
Somehow I have a feeling that this dream has something to do with me moving to Orlando Florida and I feel as if I should be going urgently. Somehow I know that the black people were angels and the house was a mansion. I kept being assured that everything was going to be alright and that everything would be taken care of. I thought that I should drive my minivan down there but it has over 200,000 miles already but somehow I get the feeling I'll get down there just fine. I'll be driving on Rte 95 South all the way and if any of the mychurch brethren can help me as I am on my way down it would be greatly appreciated. I'm just going on faith. I don't have the money for gas or tolls or for food on the way. Hopefully Pastor Marquez in Orlando can send me some money. I may have to sell my table saw and some other tools to get some money to start me off but then after that I'll be driving on a wing and a prayer. I know i'll be driving more than 1,200 miles so I'll have to fill my tank at least 4 times. I know that when I worked with Pastor Felix in the drug program and at the church there were powerful manifestations of the power of God including raising the dead, casting out devils, restoring sight to the blind and many forms of healing and miracles. I look forward to greater things this time around as we raise up a Christian rehab program and academy. Pastor Felix and I will Copastor Perpetual Covenant Church (Iglesia del Pacto Perpetuo en espanol) and the P.O.W.E.R. Online Network will be reborn as it will go multimedia. I don't know how God is going to do it but I'm going to see him do it. God is a Master at making something from nothing. God bless you. Shalom
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Genesis 12:1; Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
We get so used to familiar surroundings, and we develop relationships with the people that are close to us. We know where everything is, the schools, the supermarkets, the malls, and though certain areas may be bad, we learn how to cope. The very thought of leaving such pristine comfort is absolutely out of the question. God is not crazy yet when God tells us to leave our comfort zones we act like we don't hear him. Some of us have been hearing him for a long time but we haven't been listening so God has to shake things up in order to get our attention away from the things that are holding us down like an anchor.
Proverbs 10:22; The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
God may have given you certain things but he didn't include the sorrow and grief that you go through over these things. A blessing is a blessing for a given amount of time. For some people that is a hard pill to swallow. No one knows this better than Job. Job was a blessed man, there is no denying that. He would end up losing everything, but God intended to bless him well beyond what Job thought he had before. You see brethren, that is the problem. We think that the things that God allows us to have are ours. Our children aren't even ours; they are on loan from the Lord. Our bodies don't even belong to us; they were bought with the price of blood.
1 Corinthians 6:20; For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
I remember when my dear sister in the Lord Remarkable Terry told me her husband was trying to take everything from her. I told her to let him have it all if he wanted it, and to some people that may have sounded crazy but Terry took my advice. There were things that she didn't know what to do with and I told her to give it away. Guess what? Terry is a much better person now. Ask her for yourself.
Mark 10: 29-30; And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel's, But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.
Lara is moving out of her comfort zone. She found a place that is definitely a God-send, no doubt about it. She was very specific about what she wanted and she got everything exactly the way she prayed for it. She may have been comfortable where she was but she welcomes a new environment and the challenges she will have to face.
What is this all about anyway? This is all God's doing. He is the one moving and positioning people to strategic locations. This is all a part of HIS strategy as he continually makes provision for the lost. He is not willing that anyone perish but that ALL should come to repentance. We are going to be fortunate enough to see the Bride of Christ in it's full glory! It's almost time for us to go home!
I talked to Pastor Felix Marquez in Orlando Florida. He needs my help to build the ministry there. So I guess Perpetual Covenant Church will be moving to Orlando Florida soon. I've been waiting for six years to get the word and now it is just a matter of time. I don't know how God is going to do it but doors are closing for me over here. As a carpenter I'll have plenty of work no matter where I go and I have other skills that can get me by but God is my all in all, He is my provider.
Romans 11:34-36; For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen.
Where is God positioning you? Is he causing you to leave comfortable surroundings to go where you have no idea how things will go? You can get bitter and angry and miss out on the richness of God's blessings or you can walk in faith and step into the bounty of the fullness of the blessing that is awaiting you. Maybe God isn't moving you at all but you got so comfortable in your walk that God has to rattle your cage a bit to stretch you so that you will remember who is really in charge. Whatever the case may be just be assured that if God is taking you through it, he will take you out of it as well. That same God that has delivered you in the past is more than able to deliver you out of your present situation, if you will only get out of the way and let Him do what he knows how to do.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4; Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Abba Father in the name of Jesus, I lift up my voice to you for those that are troubled and are suffering affliction because you are moving them out of their comfort zones, wherever and however that may be. Lord you are more than able to provide for our needs and to give us so much more than what we leave behind if we would only learn to trust you. You know what is best and what will bring about the most good for the advancement of your kingdom first and then for our needs and well-being. Open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that should be closed and give us the desires of our hearts as we walk in faith to wherever you choose to place us. Let your will be done Lord, in the name of Jesus, AMEN.
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Me myself and I, the trinity of self
Ecclesiastes 1:2; Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Do you know the scales? You know what I mean. In the Disney movie Mary Poppins there was a song that went something like this: Doe a dear a female dear, ray a drop of golden sun, me a name I call myself…And so on. So the scales go; doe ray me, me, me! Isn’t it something how everything in our lives revolves around us? You are the center of a universe that is called by your own name. Though some of you are quick to say NOT ME, just think about it for a little while; this may not be a bad thing.
Ephesians 5:29, 30; For no man (or woman) ever yet hated his (her) own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
Don’t you primp and pamper and fix yourself up for no apparent reason except that you like to look good? There's nothing wrong with looking good. Hey, if you got it flaunt it but don’t get too carried away. You might be accused of being vain and conceited or full of yourself. Some would say that if you look good you feel good. Some people try to make themselves look good just to cover up how rotten they feel on the inside, but with others it is very obvious how they feel because their appearance tells it all. In either case it is always about how that person feels. We should take care of ourselves but above and beyond everything else we should take care of ourselves because we are God’s property.
1 Corinthians 3:16; Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
If you are a temple then there must be an altar. I believe it is the heart and wherever your heart is that is where your treasure will be. If you are selfish and self-centered or egocentric, you already know where your treasure is; the treasure is you. You are the star of your own show. Pat yourself on the back and give yourself an applauseIf you are envious and/or given to jealousy it is never about the other person, it is all about you.
Titus 3:3; For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.
In one form or another we all did and are doing things to draw attention to ourselves. It’s in our nature to be that way. Satan knows this and since he was the first to be lifted up in pride, he will appeal to our sense pride to cause us to sin by exalting ourselves above God. That is not so hard to do; in fact it is very easy, which is why so many ministers fall by the wayside. Pride can lead to a multitude of sins. Pride is consuming the church. Too many pastors draw too much attention to themselves, and there are pews or chairs full of people to help pump him up. These pastors thrive on the attention and adoration and will feel threatened when someone arrives at that church full of the power of the Holy Ghost. Feathers will fly if there is more than one rooster in the henhouse. You know what I’m talking about so there’s no need for me to elaborate. Jesus said; if I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me; so why aren't all men being drawn unto him? The answer is very simple, Jesus is not being lifted up. We need to exalt him in praise and worship and glorify him in the highest. We need to demonstrate love for each other. We need to endeavour to keep the unity of the faith. Until we do things will just keep going the way they are
James 4:4-6; Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Let’s give honor where honor is due. Give the glory back to God and stop heaping up the glory to ourselves. Let’s stop drawing so much attention to ourselves and draw people’s attention to Christ. It’s not about us and it never has been about us. Love thyself and care for God’s temple but do it in a spirit of reverence to God. Love the Lord your God with all your soul and all your heart and all your strength and love thy neighbor as thyself.
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