u) We must not bypass or neglect a specific “virtue of our flesh” which shows itself rather prominently in many believers. It is their LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY.
I view this particular weakness as a branch growing from the root of selfishness combined with laziness, fears and a total disinterest in the affairs of the Lord and of other brethren. Its effects may be observed rather easily, but its root may not be recognized immediately. Usually, its root is inherited or it grows from the early childhood, but it always has a long history of existence and influence on one’s life. It cannot be “cast out”, quickly corrected by a one-time repentance or in any other easy way. It does take a great and repeated pressure upon the heart of the individual and a harsh dealing with the spirits that cause this particular “evil virtue” in man’s soul.
Yes, I call it evil because it is born in hell and stands in the way of the Lord and His plan for the believers. God had not created lazy, fearful and irresponsible creatures, no, not even in the animal kingdom. Lazy, fearful and irresponsible wild animals would perish in their natural habitat in a short order. Only people can afford to be so in their character and not perish. Such people, when they become born-again believers, will be useless in the hand of the Lord for the rest of their lives… unless they change. What may be interesting is that such people might be highly talented and capable of achieving higher goals in their life. But those evil spirits in their heart are as a “wall of Jericho” and will not allow them to move even though such believers might from time-to-time try in their own power. Without a true overcoming, failure is their destiny and no man will help them.
It takes pressures from the Lord’s Spirit to “squeeze” their heart so that they may “cry-out” those powers, which are very hard to dislodge. Sometimes, they may have to resort to fasting and prayer in order to break these forces. Furthermore, the Lord seems to “take His time” with this particular deliverance. It also seems, that the Lord has different priorities when it comes to our deliverances than we may have. Since this evil branch grows from selfishness, it seems necessary that the Lord has to first deal with our selfishness and not the lack of responsibility or laziness. As this root is dealt with being diminished, rendered incapable of growing more branches or supporting them, then the existing branches will also automatically diminish until they disappear.
What is important to observe is the defence of the “old man”, his tactics, foxiness or hypocrisy to preserve himself and his evil virtues. I do beseech Christians everywhere to pay attention to these facts and to begin to see and understand the deviousness of their own old soul and the warfare, which we have to deal with. They might help themselves or their brethren more efficiently if they have the knowledge of the enemy’s tactics.
When a believer is first warned about the continued bad results of his actions or efforts, he will not see himself as the “guilty party”, but will try to shift the blame to somebody else or somewhere else. Only under a continued exposing and pressure of facts, his self-defence may start slowly crumbling down and he may finally admit that he did “something wrong somewhere”. He may promise that he will pay more attention to the affairs next time. He may even repent in tears, if the damage was more serious.
Of his own accord, he will decide in his MIND that he must do things more responsibly, attentively and diligently. And, indeed, his performance may improve – temporarily. The proof of his lack of responsibility will be his “yo-yo” performance. It may take a few YEARS and a relentless pressure from both outside and inside of his own mind until finally he will admit that he “never loved the job”… in fact, he hated the job and did it all against his own heart! He may also admit that he never cared for the job and in his heart he passionately hated any instructions and responsibility given to him! All his work was for SHOW and nothing had been genuine or from the Lord’s Spirit. It was a show of his religious flesh, pride and selfishness preserving his “image” in front of his brethren. In the meantime, he created chaos, did a lot of spiritual as well as material damage and is not aware of it until the Lord shows him.
How do I know it? I have been doing and participating in such deliverances for years. Furthermore, among the believers that the Lord gives to your care, you might at times find some of the most lazy and irresponsible believers to deal with. Why is that? Well, there might be two reasons for it:
a) the Lord may not have enough diligent, unselfish, responsible and dependable brethren for the tasks or needs of your particular church or fellowship,
b) you are expected by the Lord to do the “impossible” and thus be forced yourself to walk with the Lord very closely depending on Him for every move with such believers. This may be a very exhausting affair, but usually it is also a “shortcut” to your own development, spiritual maturing, patience, perseverance and grace!
Let me close this point by saying that in my belief, the above deliverances are only possible in small fellowships or house groups where the dealings and the works of the Holy Spirit are more intimate and direct. The Spirit will not do this kind of work in large congregations.
v) The first several years of my spiritual growth and walk with the Lord, I always asked the Lord for what I deemed and believed as necessary for me. I always wanted to get something from Him that was important for me, at least, in my view. Don’t we believers all do it? All of my brethren around me were doing the same thing for years. We were all praying to get from the Lord everything that we deemed needful for us. Is there anything wrong with it? Well, nothing. Yet, let us see, whether there is more to it than what meets the eye.
One great deception that, in my faith, holds believers in its grip is that we always have to get something from the Lord just by asking. The Word of God (ex. Mt. 7:7, Jn. 16:24) is used as the basis for it but, again, the rest of the Bible somehow does not come into the picture. So, we are happy when we do get what we asked for because most of the time our prayers seem to remain unanswered… or not answered to our satisfaction. In my faith and understanding of the Word, there are three basic reasons for not receiving what we ask the Lord for in His Name.
1.We may ask without faith, which is a necessary “ingredient” (Mt. 21:22) and is not mentioned in the other verses. (Mt. 7:7// Jn. 16:24) The Lord may not give us the needed faith for every petition that we might ask of Him!
2.We may ask “amiss” to fulfil our lusts, which is not acceptable to the Lord. (Jam. 4:3) It is not readily recognized by many of us that most of the time, our prayers may be “selfish” and we may not care how the Lord understands things. We must abide IN Christ in order to ask “anything” because IN Christ we do not have selfish requests. (Jn. 15:7) This applies to point 1. above, as well.
3.We may ask without first giving to the Lord what He desires and needs from us before He would give us anything back! This means that we must first give (to the Lord) then expect to receive what we asked. (Lk. 6:38) The Lord does not need our gifts or just the work of our hands or minds (see more in the next chapter), He needs our life – which is our ALL. This may explain many unanswered prayers.
I know that there is the Word in Phil. 4:6,7,19, but unless you have truly given yourself to the Lord in your heart, you are not able to fulfil this Word and “not be anxious”. You see, anxiety dwells in our flesh and this spirit will always “colour” our prayers whether we are aware of it, or not, whether we desire it, or not. Furthermore, Our God will indeed supply all our need, but according to HIS Judgment of what we need and not our own. (Phil. 4:19)
We may conclude the above in stating the following.
JUST AS WE ARE DECEIVED IN WAITING TO RECEIVE FROM THE LORD WITHOUT ASKING, (Mt. 7:7) SO WE MAY BE DECEIVED IN WAITING TO RECEIVE FROM HIM WITHOUT FIRST GIVING TO HIM WHAT HE ASKS FROM US! (Lk. 6:38)
Just a few more words about GIVING.
It is a large topic, but a few brief statements should give us a sufficient picture of what the Lord desires and what men actually do. The Lord does not need our money! He is not looking primarily how much we are giving but looks at and weighs our spirit (Pr. 16:2) and thus the true intentions in our heart. (Heb. 4:12// Mk. 12:41-44)
THERE IS MUCH GIVING GOING ON IN THE CHURCHES, WHICH MAY NOT COUNT WITH THE LORD AT ALL! WHY?
Men may give automatically, just because somebody asks or begs for a project or membership fee in their organization. They may calculate in their heads what is needed or what they will receive “back” from the Lord. They may also give grudgingly or of necessity or to show off before other brethren. They may give to any person, any institution, church, charity, agency, etc., but not to the Lord Himself. They do not give HIM CONSCIOUSLY anything!
Furthermore, big and expensive cathedrals, auditoria, basilicas, other buildings with rather expensive furnishings, orchestras, equipment, private jet planes, etc. are never inspired or sanctioned by the Lord but rather by ambitious men who think and believe that they “serve the cause of the Lord” or that the Lord “deserves our best” (see again p.75 and 115 about Cain). Many such ministers and founders of projects are then continually in need to extract money from somewhere through endless fund-raising campaigns and by any other means, which they then try to justify from the Scripture. People might keep giving in hope that they are “sowing to the Lord”. In many such cases, it is usually their “religious old man” who is giving. The Lord will never bless our “old man” who cannot have any harvest from Him! True?
Man must give consciously to the Lord as he purposes in his HEART (not in his mind), NOT GRUDGINGLY AND NOT OF NECESSITY; for God loves a cheerful giver! (2Cor. 9:7) Then the harvest will come to such givers. But those that misuse the donated gifts for their own ends or projects are accountable to the Lord and will answer to Him, not today, but at His Coming!
Also, man is advised to give with the spirit and attitude of honouring God and not just with a spirit of profiteering from his giving or regarding it purely as a transaction. God is not a banker or investment agent. Man’s gift to God must also be as the firstfruits from his increase and not his leftovers! (Pr. 3:9) It does require some spiritual discernment and right spirit in man to do the right kind of giving, which God could then receive with pleasure and satisfaction and which He could bless and multiply abundantly.
Finally, we should offer ourselves to Him, not only to receive from Him according to His riches but also in hope that He might use us in this cataclysmic time when things will start happening without warning. Everything around us will start falling and sinking as in quicksand. Who will remain standing? We need the Lord’s Grace, Strength and Wisdom to keep standing. If we do not need His Wisdom today, we will be crying to Him tomorrow… but He may not answer us! If we do not listen to Him today, He in His Wisdom will not listen to us tomorrow. (Pr. 1:24-31// Zech. 7: 11-13) If we are on our own today and need not to follow the counsel of the Lord, we will be on our own also tomorrow following… well, I do not know what, or whom.
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w) In this point I will share a few facts about the last days of this world, of human self-government and about the journey of the Church toward the Kingdom of Heaven.
Prophecies for the end of this world are being fulfilled before our very eyes. Horrible black clouds are covering the horizon and they are heading our way. All the world wars put together were a “picnic” compared to what is truly coming. Antichrist will first bring a short peace and economic prosperity to the world so that he will be admired and also trusted. The world will be ready to worship him and willingly take his number “666” (Rev. 13:18) in order to economically prosper. But later on, he will break his peace covenant with Israel (Dan. 9:27) and will unleash all his fury upon the Apostate Worldwide Church, called “The Mother of Harlots”, (Rev. 17:1-18) and upon that part of the true Church-Israel left behind. Furthermore,…
SATAN SHALL MAKE WAR AGAINST THE SAINTS AND OVERCOME THEM! (Rev. 13:7) GOD WILL PERMIT IT! HAS THIS EVER BEEN PREACHED? WHY NOT? IS THIS NOT A VALID AND ALSO VERY IMPORTANT WORD OF GOD? HELLO?
Who are these “overcome saints”? Well, I see four kinds of saints in my spirit as follows:
1) Those few typified by Apostle John, whom the Lord loved (Jn. 20:2; 21:7) and who are the Remnant, the Bride of Christ. They shall be raptured before the Tribulation starts (Rev. 3:10; 12:5, see more later) and none will be killed as some other faithful brethren will be killed. (Rev. 6:9-11)
2) Those typified by some other Apostles according to their character and spirit who will remain written in the Book of Life and will be resurrected at the FIRST resurrection and raptured at the last, seventh trump. (1Cor. 15:52// 1Thess. 4:16// Rev. 11:15)
This part of the Church-Israel (Woman) is in Her place in the wilderness, which is prepared by God, where She is fed for 1,260 days (~3.5 years), which is the first half of the Tribulation. (Rev. 12:6, see more later) And then She is fed for another “time, and times, and half a time” (~3.5 years) after the Dragon is cast to the earth and is persecuting Her, which is the second half of the Tribulation. (Rev. 12:13-17) This also proves that a large part of the Church-Israel will go through the Tribulation before She is raptured.
3) Those typified by other Apostles according to their character and spirit who will also remain written in the Book of Life, but will be resurrected at the SECOND resurrection and “hurt by the second death”. (Rev. 2:11; 20:6) These saints will be overcome as per Rev. 13:7.
4) Those typified by Judas Iscariot, the disciple of the Lord that betrayed Him. Their names will be blotted out of the Book of Life and they shall lose their Salvation and will be destroyed. (Rev. 3:5; 22:19) They shall be resurrected at the SECOND resurrection, judged at the Last Judgment and then thrown to the lake of fire and brimstone for their names shall not be found in the Book of Life. (Rev. 20:15)
The comfortable religion of today, earthly prosperity, proud laziness and freedom to cater to self-satisfaction will be turned into a horrible shock. Nothing will remain the same and human hearts will be trembling with fear for their very lives as well as for those of their families and relatives and those charming children. (Mt. 24:37-39) Many will seek death as the way out from the horrors of those days, but even death will flee from them. (Rev. 9:6) And this will include born-again believers, the chosen people of God. And if you cannot believe it, then just remember the Holocaust where six million Jews, the chosen people of God perished in the horrors of gas chambers. God permitted it! In the coming horrors, this kind of death will be considered a “luxury”, comfortable way out.
The hand of the Lord, which has been stretched out to this perverse generation for centuries will be withdrawn and evil will be tasted by all those that neither appreciated the Goodness and Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, nor cared for His Word and His Judgment.
Since this subject is too large for this book and its purpose, the above is considered sufficient. Some points will, however, be further discussed later on in Chapter 5.
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To be continued next week in part 11
brother Hanola
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