Tuesday, December 16, 2008

The devil Has Us Right Where He Wants Us

I am very saddened for our country. As a country (people and government), we have went the devils ways by letting our country kick out God and His morals out of almost every aspect of our lives. This has let our pride, selfishness, and love for everything evil take precedence in our life. Well, now we are seeing some of the consequences of all this come to pass. We are seeing corruptness in every aspect of our lives. We have come to the point where we can’t trust anybody or any government to look after our well being. Almost everybody has turned to greed and will not stop at hurting others in order to get ahead themselves. We asked for this by turning our backs on God. If there are no Godly morals to live by – then there will be nothing to protect us from a society without morals and goodness. Without Godly goodness and morals to live by, all we have left is evil in the form of selfishness and pride.

For hundreds of years we were a Christian based country and it was those Christian based beliefs that brought blessing to this country. But now we have kicked out God and given our country over to the devil. People are now so lost into the devil’s lies that our nation will never again be the bright shinning light of this world. Instead we have become the nation that invites every kind of evil and even leads in spreading this ungodly evil around the world. The Godly values and morals that my generation grew up in are long gone and my generation had less Godly values and morals than the previous generations. I fear most of our children will not even have the chance to really become Godly people, because they are collecting so much worldly and selfish baggage along the way that they will never be willing to let go of this evil world. They will never be able to see the goodness of God through the eyes of selfishness. It is so bad - that I would suggest for any true Christians and their children to flee this corrupt nation, but as far as I can see, there is no place in this world that this evil hasn’t permeated itself.

Our economy is currently at its breaking point because of these evils in our country. The current republican president has turned out to be the most socialist president we have ever had. He has been put into a choke hold by the devil into thinking he has to nationalize our banking system and other big businesses. The devil has brought us to the point where everything has failed and we are willing to give away all of our future as a free country in order to save the current economy. After all, in this day of instant gratification, we expect everything to be fixed immediately. No one is looking out for the long term future of our country. No one is saying – how did we get here? No one is realizing where we went wrong. Almost no one is willing to say we have really messed up things and that we need to return to our country’s foundations – which are returning to Godly morals and ways.

At this time, I am not asking for our nation to turn to God and repent of our ways, because the people of this country are not yet ready to repent of their evil ways. There will be a point where some people will see the truth through all this, but for the majority of our nation – they are already lost to the devil forever. Our nation is now one of those great empires that have fallen and will go in the history books with all the other empires that have risen and fallen because of how they have corrupted themselves. We have corrupted ourselves by believing the lies of the devil, and why have we believed the lies of the devil – because we wanted to believe them.

The good news in all this is - for any people that still want to believe in the true God and His goodness; I want to assure you that He is still there and in total control. God is letting the people of this earth have the desires of their hearts. Each individual chooses whether to search out the goodness of God or the evil of the devil. If your heart is still yearning for total goodness, then Christ is still willing to fulfill those desires of your heart. But the bad news for the world is - if your heart desires to get your selfishness fulfilled, then the devil will gladly oblige you.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

We Believe What We Want To Believe

I would like to start out this message and share some of my heartache for my fellow man. Ever since God has placed the Word of God in me, I have been writing about God and His Word. The Word of God that has been placed in my heart has motivated me out of love for all my fellow man. This Word of God that is inside me has shown me how deficit and lost I was before I was born again and I realize that most people are lacking this born again experience - like I was before the Truth of God came to me. It is this very Truth of God that motivates me, because my spiritual eyes have been opened to the real truth and I know most are still on that wide and fast road to hell, because they are still letting themselves be deceived by the devil. I tell you this, because I want to let you know how I hurt deeply for the lost. Sometimes I hurt so much that almost all my energy is taken up by this passion that God has put in me.

Through this passion and sharing of God’s Word with other people, I have realized that a lot of people won’t believe the Truth, mainly because they don’t want to believe it. Of course there are the people that believe there is no God, no heaven, and no hell. My mother is one of these new age thinking people and no matter what I say, she will not believe. Why won’t she believe – because she doesn’t want to believe. My mother knows that if she were to believe what I was saying, she would then have to change her lifestyle and that is not something she is willing to do. So she has found some other books that her lifestyle agrees with – so she can have some contentment that she is OK.

Another group of believers is where they believe there is a God, but might believe that there are no consequences for sin, no judgment to hell, and no rewarding of heaven. These people also might believe that there is more than one God and Creator. They also might believe that there are many ways to get to heaven. They believe that if there is a God, that He is a loving God and will allow everyone into heaven. They say - how could a loving God send anyone to hell – if there is a hell. These people are imagining up their own idea of what God is like. The God they make up is a God that serves them and He will be a God that suites what they want to believe a God is. Again, why do people believe this way – because it is what they want to believe. This kind of god allows them to live what ever selfish lifestyle they choose without the worry of eternal consequences. These people can usually have temporary contentment in acting out their selfish lifestyle and have no remorse about their actions. A person with this belief can feel they are OK with the world and God because they are of the world and see most people acting just like them – so they must be OK too.

Still, there is another big group of believers that call themselves Christians. Even though they call themselves Christians, they have not yet become Christ like or a slave to Christ, as the name “Christian” implies. They are not yet true followers of Christ, since they have not yet picked up their cross (they have not yet died to all their selfishness). Of some of these people, you could say that they are on their salvation path, but until they put away all their own wants and human beliefs and believe in God’s Word alone, they cannot be a disciple of Christ. This group of believers believes the Bible only in part. Most of this group might listen to the Sunday Church message and take some of it to heart, but they don’t get serious and read God’s Word for themselves. They will spend part of their time for God on Sunday, but will live like the rest of the world all the other days of the week. A lot of these people say they don’t understand the Bible. That they would rather hear it interpreted from someone else. The reason they don’t understand the Bible is because the Bible is Spiritual and they are not. God’s ways are not like man’s ways, so when they read the Bible, they cannot understand it because they are trying to accept it and reason it out with man’s selfish way of thinking. Some of these people will accept some verses of the Bible, but will reject other verses of the Bible. They end up believing the Bible verses they want to believe and leave the rest of the Bible verses in the dust, because they seem to conflict with the verses they believe or they just can’t bring themselves to believe in those verses – because their selfish thinking will not allow them to believe the truth.

Then there is the smaller group of believers that believes that every Word of the Bible is true, inspired by God, and that there are no conflicts within God’s Word. These believers have surrendered their lives to the power of God’s Word and they live by it’s every Word. They have laid down their lives in faith of God’s Word, even before God has gave them the total understanding of His Word. I have found that when people act on this faith (hope) in God’s Word, it is after this act of obedience - that God usually opens up His Truth and reasoning of His Word to that person. We usually receive the understanding of God’s Truth after we have been obedient to that truth in faith. We receive the understanding of God’s Truth by the acts of our faith, but after we receive the knowledge of the Truth, we are then acting on Truth and not just something we hope to be Truth. These believers also know that there are no conflicts in God’s Word. If they seem to find a conflict between certain verses of God’s Word, then they know that they must have a misunderstanding of one or both of the conflicting verses. I said in the beginning of this letter that I had received the Truth of God (the Spirit of Truth) and I can attest that there are no conflicts in God’s Word.

Most people will only partially believe or not believe in God’s Word at all, because their selfishness blocks them from believing. This is what is meant when the Bible says the lost are blinded and walking in the dark. They are blinded by their own selfish wants. They can’t see the truth, because they don’t want to see the truth. If they would take the blinders of selfishness off of their spiritual eyes, then they would see the truth and the truth would set them free.

So, as I am ending this letter, I am pleading with you to search out God’s Truth (if you haven’t already). It is for your own eternal benefit. Are you going to choose to believe what your selfishness wants you to believe or overrule your selfishness in favor of God’s Truth. It is for God’s glory that you be born again of His Holy Spirit and that you in turn receive the benefits of being His eternal son. When you have made the choice to leave all your selfish wants behind and act in faith and obedience to God’s love – then you will be born again of His Holy Spirit and all of heaven will rejoice – and I will be one of those rejoicing with the angels.


Michael Reid

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

What went wrong

Well as our economy is going down the drain and there is a lot of blame being thrown around everywhere, no one is really coming up with the real root problem of our downfall. Have you figured it out yet?

The root cause of all of our problems is that we have left God and His Word, righteousness, morals, purity, and love for God and others in the dust. Our world has made its intentions known very clearly that they don’t want God involved in their lives. God has become a hindrance to what they want and believe the world should be. They want a world where there are no consequences for sin. In fact they don’t want to even recognize that there is any sin at all. They want to believe there is no wrong or right – that there is no good and evil. They want to believe that there is no God, even though down deep in their soul they can’t deny it.

From the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, the knowledge of good and evil was placed in all man kind. God made sure to place the knowledge of good and evil in every man when Adam performed the original sin, so that every man/women would have the knowledge that there was good and evil. By having this knowledge of good and evil, we all then have the knowledge to make the choice to strive toward good or strive toward evil. If we choose to strive toward good, we will strive to find the good and eventually we find that all good things and blessings are in God alone – which then brings us into a loving relationship with our Father in Heaven. But If we strive toward evil because our selfishness, we will reject God and all His ways so we can fulfill our evil desires within our own heart.

By choosing evil we can enjoy the temporary evils of our own hearts right away because this world and the devil will always freely supply the evil needed with very little searching for that evil. But for anyone that searches out good, it is only found in God’s blessings. God blessings of this goodness are only released to the ones that will repent of their evil ways. When we die to our sinful (evil) nature, then God will fill us with His goodness. God’s goodness and righteousness cannot co-exit with evil. So for anyone that is unwilling to die to their sinful man – then there is no way for them to experience true goodness.

What has happened in our world is that most men/women have decided to follow their evil hearts and in turn this automatically results in rejecting God and His goodness. They don’t want to give up anything to receive true goodness and happiness. They have decided to choose the counterfeit happiness that the devil has provided. The only problem with this thinking is that all sin and evil has to pay up with consequences which are a lot nastier than any temporary happiness they might have received from the sin they have grown to love.

This is the root cause of our worldly problems. It is not the devil’s fault – it is our choosing to follow the devil and his evil ways in stead of searching for God and His goodness. As a world, we are receiving was is due us because of our sins.

Now that man kind has permeated this world with evil instead of God’s goodness, what can be done? The only way to make any one person or the world right with God again is to do the opposite of what we have been doing, which has been rejecting God. We must repent of our sins and turn to God, and then stay with God and His ways alone.

Until we put God at the center of our society, our government, and our world, we will not recover and be healed, but only continue to suffer in God’s wrath to our end.

Are you hearing from any of our leaders that we must return to God’s ways, morals, and righteousness? Until we do – we cannot have any hope for our country or this world we live in. So what are you personally going to do? Are you going to repent and fight for God’s righteousness? These choices we make don’t only affect our world we live in now. This choice we make also determines our eternal destiny. If we have chosen to keep evil in our hearts – then we will receive evil and damnation for our eternity. If we have chosen to die to all our sinful ways and received the goodness of God into our hearts – then we will be found worthy to have eternal life with God. It is not any of our goodness in us that finds us worthy for heaven – we cannot have goodness without God living in us. It is only the goodness of God living in us that makes us valuable for God’s eternal heaven.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Your choice and God's choice

I have recently been given some words from God that might help some understand the difference between “being saved” and “being born again”.

The words are - that we are saved from our sins when we choose Jesus Christ as our savior and we are born again when Jesus Christ chooses us after we have made Him our Lord. Whether we are saved from the bondage of our sin nature is our choice, but whether we are born again of God’s Holy Spirit is a choice God makes - not us.

Jesus can save us from a life in bondage to sin – so we no longer have to sin, and then it is our choice to sin or not sin. If we believe in Jesus’ blood being spent on the cross for our sins, we are then freed from the bondage of sin (this is the free gift), but getting rid of this sin that has had control over us for so long requires a retraining of our minds and believing we can die to all our sins in the power of God’s grace. This is the sanctification process that we must go through in order for us to be brought to the point where God will choose us as His sons and daughters.

When we are born again (born of His Holy Spirit), we have been chosen by God to receive His Holy Spirit. God chooses us by looking into our hearts and if He sees that we love Him above ourselves, all people, things and everything else and we show this by our obedience to His commandments – God then sends the Holy Spirit (Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, and His pure Love) into our hearts. After we are born of His Holy Spirit – we are then His Sons and Daughters and we then become a part of His Kingdom and we are no longer part of the devil’s kingdom of this world.

So becoming a true son of God is a process. Becoming a son of God is not of our choice – but God’s choice.

Salvation from our sinful nature is our choice and will lead us to becoming a son of God if we become obedient to His love and commandments.

Salvation from our sinful nature doesn’t mean we have been born of God – salvation from our sinful nature is only the start of the process (start of sanctification) and we need to keep repenting of all our sins to the point where we become obedient to all God’s commandments out of the love we have for our Father in heaven.

We do not become a part of God’s eternal kingdom by being saved from our sins – it is only the first step we need to take to start our sanctification process. The sanctification process and our love for God is what will bring us into His everlasting kingdom.


God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

God Says - No More Waiting

God has been waiting in His patience to have the people He loves - actually love Him in return. He sent His Son (Jesus Christ) to pay the price for our sins. He sent His Word and His Spirit into the world to lead us to Him self and to enable us to be obedient to Him through a growing love for Him – a love which He provides through His Grace for anyone willing to repent and turn to Him. But now God is done waiting.

Instead of returning all our love to God as He requires, we (the church) have ended up loving ourselves and everything else more then Him. God wants to give us all the spiritual riches of Him self, but instead the church has chosen to love the riches of this devilish earthly realm. He wanted to give us authority over all the earth, but instead we have decided to go the easy way and be a slave to the devil’s authority. God wanted to give us an eternity of everlasting life in glory with Him, but instead the church has chosen an eternity of death by being satisfied with what only this life could offer – even these things are temporary and will parish in fire. The church has not been humbled before God and has not made Him Lord, but instead has chosen ourselves to be our own god.

Now is the time for God’s wrath! God will no longer hold back the great consequences of our sins. We have loved money and depended on money instead of depending on Him. God will now pull those mighty dollars right from under our feet – to show us all that we have been blind and deceived. The worldly church deserves an eternity in hell, unless we fully humble ourselves and repent of all our evil desires.

God wanted and made everything possible for a pure righteous church to brightly shine His glory to all the nations, but we have turned the church into a mockery of God. The church has turned into a religion of man’s likes and understandings, instead of a glorious lighthouse pointing to and serving Him. Instead of the church being set apart for God’s glory and purpose, it has become dark like the rest of this selfish and evil world. Today’s church on a whole has become the enemy of God, because it has become friends with the world and shares in its selfish, sinful and evil schemes.

James 4:4-5 - You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

The church has committed adultery – it has loved the world instead of staying with the church’s one true love, which is God. We say we love God, but almost all our time is spent loving the world and what it has to offer. We don’t only absorb ourselves into the selfish love with this world, but we also teach our children these same evil desires that God hates.

God is angry with the so called “church”. God is truth and all truth originates with God, but the church has turned His precious Gospel into a deception that is now preached from most pulpits to have people believe these lies as being the truth. Over the centuries the Gospel has been lightened up and changed so much that it no longer has saving powers. The Gospel was changed so that more people would come into the church and not be offended by hearing that their life style was filled with sin. Because these lies have been preached for centuries now, they have been believed as truth and have replaced the true Gospel – even though the Bible has many, many conflicts with this new fake gospel. This new gospel teaches that we don’t have to live a holy and righteous life by the power of God’s grace; instead it teaches that we just have to try to live holy and righteous. This new gospel teaches we can never live a holy and righteous life, so we can only try and when we try, we will fail. This makes God angry. God did not send His Son to die on the cross and send His Spirit into the world so we would still be bound to live a sinful life like the Old Testament Jews. Because of this false gospel teaching, most of our churches are filled with unconverted partial believers. What a blind worldly church we have become. The church has become an abomination to God.

The worldly church we see today no longer loves God’s Word. The church has taken and accepted the scriptures they want to believe in and have rejected all the rest of God’s Word. By doing this, we have rejected God. The Word and God are inseparable. The Word is God and the Word describes God. If we have the Word in our hearts, then we have God in our hearts. But because today’s church only believes a part of God’s Word, this results in people only having a part of God inside them instead of the fullness of God. The only way to heaven is having a fullness of God in your heart – not partial.

God says He will return to judge the world when it is like the days of the great flood.

Matt 24:37-39 - As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood , people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Before the flood, God could not find enough righteous people, so He killed them all except Noah and his family. Do you think all those unrighteous people He killed went to heaven? That is how it is now. There are so few people living holy and righteous lives before God. This is why God wrath is coming upon us. We have chosen death and that is what God is sending to us.

God sees a very small percentage of true believers in most individual churches. These believers have searched and found God even though they have been surrounded by lies. He is calling these true believers to study His Word and bring back the truth to the church or they might also be caught in the devil’s trap of lies and be lost forever along with the rest of their unrighteous friends. If these worldly churches are unwilling to listen to God’s truth, then leave those people. It is better to come out from under the lies of these worldly churches and become and stay a part of the true remnant church of God – even if this means you must stand alone for God by doing this.

2 Cor 6:14-15 - Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

God’s Servant,
Michael Reid

The Church Must Repent

What has happened to God’s church? Jesus warned us about His future church and how it will stray away from Him and His truth.

2 Tim 4:3-5 - For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

Well, that time is here. The so called church will no longer listen to or adhere to sound biblical doctrine. The church has turned into a worldly religious club where people come to have there own desires met instead of being obedient to God’s desires and commandments. Everyone has found the church that will preach what they want to hear with no regard to whether it is the biblical truth or not. Most are requiring to hear that they are saved regardless of whether they are obedient to God or not – or regardless of whether they really love God or not. To accommodate these fake salvation beliefs that enable all to believe they are saved, many lies and myths have been introduced and believed as truth and has replaced God’s truth.

When God’s light is shown – it easily displays what has been hidden in the dark. I am not the light, but I have the light of God living inside me. God’s light has been turned on in my life and has shown that what we call the church today is very much lacking. It is lacking in God’s truth, lacking in God’s love, lacking in obedience to God, and lacking in reverent fear of the all mighty God. But the church does have a lot of worldly deceptions, selfishness, pride, and a teaching that there are little or no consequences to our sin.

The current church of our day has turned the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a lie by changing word definitions and by adding or subtracting words from the scriptures as they see fit. These false teachers will be punished by God’s wrath, but what about the people they are misleading. This is where God has called me and others like me to proclaim the real Gospel. If anyone repents and turns and believes the real truth of God, they will be saved.

I have tried to work with many pastors and leaders of the church, but most have been so entrenched into believing the lies of the devil, that I have determined there is little hope in working with the current leadership of the churches. I am still open to working with any church leaders that become open to the true Word of God. But for now, I must try to reach as many people as are willing to believe the truth, so that they will believe and experience the true salvation of our Lord and Savior.


Below are some of the main deceptions plaguing the church:

The first and greatest deception in the church is that a person is born again and saved onto eternal life from the beginning of their relationship with God. Being born again by the filling of the Holy Spirit is a decision that God makes when a person displays to God that he/she is worthy to receive His Holy Spirit. God will not fill you with His Holy Spirit until you have been cleansed of all your selfishness and pride. A mark of a person that has been born again of God is that they no longer willfully sin against God. So if you are still willfully sinning against God – you are not born again.

The next greatest deception is that a person can enter a pure sinless heaven when they die even though they still have sin in their heart and soul. If you have not been born again by the time you die, because you have not totally died to your sinful nature – you will not be allowed to enter heaven because of the sin still left in your soul. No unclean or sinful thing will enter God’s eternal heaven.

Another deception is that a person doesn’t have to be totally obedient to God’s commandments to be eternally saved. The deception comes out of people thinking that obedience to God is a works and then they quote the scriptures that say we are not saved by our works. Obedience IS NOT A WORK of ours. It is a direct indication of how much we love God. Obedience is a byproduct of our love for God. When we truly love God, we will die to all of our own sinful selfish desires and only try to please God. If we love God, we will be obedient to His commandments. When God sees that we are trying to be only obedient to Him – out of us loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength – then He will send His Holy Spirit into us to mark us as His for eternity. It is only after we show our love for God through our obedience that God will claim us as His sons/daughters in Christ.

This next deception is the result of the previous three deceptions. Since the current church teaches lies that a person is born again from the beginning of their sanctification process, and that a person that still has the sinful nature can enter heaven, and that a person does not have to be obedient to God’s commands to enter heaven – then people believe the lie that there are no eternal consequences for their sin. This makes people feel a fake security in their eternity and that all fear of hell and God’s wrath is eliminated. They are only believing lies and fooling themselves. This lie of the devil has been believed and has worked greatly in the devil’s favor. We have to fear God to bring us to a true full salvation. You see the devil knows if he can get people to believe that they are born again from the start without being obedient to God – then all that believe this lie will stop searching for God and in turn will not find Him. People end up not searching for that full relationship with God because they have been convinced they don’t need to search any further – because they believe they are saved already. This is why most of the people in our churches today are not born again and not saved. They have short circuited their salvation by believing a lie and have never really been converted into a true disciple and a true child of God.

Your servant in Christ,
Michael Reid

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Our Children’s Spiritual Foundation

Dear friends,

What does Proverbs 22:6 mean to you?

Proverbs 22:6 - Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Most of us think this means that if we train our child in the ways of the Lord, then he/she will not depart from that truth they have learned as a child, because they first learned God’s truth in their life and it then becomes the foundation for the rest of their life. This is true.

This verse (Proverbs 22:6) is also loved by the devil, because it works in his favor also. If the devil can make sure that his deceptions are what our children learn first and depend on, then the lies of the devil become the foundation for these deceived persons.

What ever foundation we believe in – it is that same foundation we will also build upon. In our life - we will build upon the foundation with more of what is already contained in the foundation. If our foundation is God’s truth, then more truth will be built upon that foundation. If our foundation is not of God’s truth, then lies and deception can only be built upon that foundation.

So what foundations are you letting being built in your children? Are you giving over your children to the world to create the foundation, or are you protecting your children from the world until they have a Godly foundation completed in their life? Who or what has the most influence in your child’s life? Where are they getting most of their training? Where is most of their time spent?

The verse that proceeds Proverbs 22:6 is what we need to do concerning our children or for that matter any believer that is not mature in God’s Spirit yet.

Proverbs 22:5 - In the paths of the wicked lie thorns and snares, but he who guards his soul stays far from them.

Many of us are heart broken, because we have children that have grown up and gone away from the Lord or have children that have never really came to the Lord, and we ask ourselves “why did this happen”. Well, if we let our children be given over to the wolves in sheep’s clothing to train our children, how can we be surprised when they don’t submit to the Lord and His ways when we have let their foundation be laid by the world which values selfishness instead of Godly love. Also, like most builders already know, and now we have sadly realized – once the foundation has been laid, it is very hard to remove it and lay a different foundation.

You may ask – but what can we do? Don’t our children need an education to make it in this world? Yes they need an education, but what is the education they need? Do you want your children to prosper in this earthly life even if it means forfeiting their eternity in heaven – the devil is very happy with this plan. Unknowingly - this is the plan that most of us have found ourselves following. But, there can be a Godly balance – we need to educated our children on the ways of the Lord first and realize every other kind of learning must fall under and have less priority then learning about God and committing ourselves to Him. We must not put the cart before the horse – we must keep God the priority or all is lost and worthless.

Remember – the devil wants to get at our children first, because he wants to lay the foundations of their life before God can. Are you going to let him?

Your caring servant in Christ,
Michael Reid

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Born Again verses Entire Sanctification

John Wesley’s definition of Entire Sanctification:
“being effected by the baptism with the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart from all inbred sin.” ….. “entire sanctification perfects the believer in love and empowers that person for effective service”

Born Again defined by God’s Word:
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! NIV

1 John 3:9 - Whoever has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot sin, because he has been born of God. NKJV

1 John 5:4 - For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith. NKJV

1 John 5:18 - We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. NKJV

It is not a decision of ours to be born again – it is God’s decision on whether we are born of His Holy Spirit. Being born of God is of the Spirit and not of flesh.

John 3:5-7 - Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ’You must be born again’”. NIV

When we are born again, it is a baptizing action taken by the Holy Spirit to cleanse us and make us a new creation.

Titus 3:5 - He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit NIV

Acts 11:16 - Then I remembered what the Lord had said: 'John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit . NIV

So how does God determine when He will baptize us of the Holy Spirit?

Acts 5:32 - We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him. NIV

So do you see any differences between being “born again” and “entire sanctification”?


Below is John Wesley’s answer to explaining the process of Sanctification:

Sanctification: Initial, Progressive, Entire
236. We believe that sanctification is that work of the Holy Spirit by which the child of God is separated from sin unto God and is enabled to love God with all the heart and to walk in all His holy commandments blameless. Sanctification is initiated at the moment of justification and regeneration. From that moment there is a gradual or progressive sanctification as the believer walks with God and daily grows in grace and in a more perfect obedience to God. This prepares for the crisis of entire sanctification which is wrought instantaneously when believers present themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ, being effected by the baptism with the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart from all inbred sin. The crisis of entire sanctification perfects the believer in love and empowers that person for effective service. It is followed by lifelong growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The life of holiness continues through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving obedience to God's revealed will.

The above doctrine I agree with since it states that sanctification starts at the time of justification. “Sanctification is initiated at the moment of justification and regeneration.” Did you also notice that the Wesleyan doctrine put “Justification” and “Regeneration” together? We are sanctified through a process of regenerating our desires to match God’s desires – usually one desire at a time. By this regeneration of our desires – we end up growing more and more in love with God as we are sanctified by the power of His Grace. Sanctification/regeneration are initiated at the point of justification, but as the next sentences points out – regeneration continues to the point of the “crisis of entire sanctification”. “From that moment there is a gradual or progressive sanctification as the believer walks with God and daily grows in grace and in a more perfect obedience to God. This prepares for the crisis of entire sanctification It is at this crisis point that a person has to decide to make that big jump of faith and believe with a belief that brings forth an action of intense searching to loose self and find God. A person jumps by faith with both feet into God’s hands – instead of having one foot in the world and one foot in God’s kingdom. Entire sanctification - which is wrought instantaneously when believers present themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ”. So what is “wrought instantaneously when believers present themselves as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, through faith in Jesus Christ” – the next part of the sentence explains what is wrought – “being effected by the baptism with the Holy Spirit who cleanses the heart from all inbred sin.” It is at this point and only at this point that the Biblical definition of “being born again” is made true in a believer’s heart and soul. Like I have tried to emphasize – it is God’s agape love living in a born again believer that purifies and perfects the heart of the born again believer – “crisis of entire sanctification perfects the believer in love and empowers that person for effective service.” Did you notice that it is at this time and after that point that the born again believer is now empowered to go into effective service? After this filling of the Holy Spirit, a life of holiness continues because of the pure love that God has placed in the born again believer’s heart – “It is followed by lifelong growth in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The life of holiness continues through faith in the sanctifying blood of Christ and evidences itself by loving obedience to God's revealed will.”

So to conclude this comparison between the term “entire sanctification” and “born again”, we must conclude that they mean the same thing, but with different names.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

The Spirit of God - Part 2

This message is a continuation of “The Spirit of God – Part 1” message. If you haven’t read part #1 of this message, please go back and read part #1 before continuing on with this part #2 message on the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God is spiritual, but we are placed in a physical body with a spiritual heart and soul. To understand God, we need to get out of the physical box of understanding when it comes to spiritual things and rely on believing and understanding with our heart and spirit – because God is Spirit. Let us go back and look a little closer at the hierarchy structure of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God

The Father – The head of God’s Spirit
* Pure agape love, pure righteousness, pure faithfulness, and pure grace and mercy.

The Son – A perfect replica of the Father. The perfect seed of the Father

The Life = Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that brings spiritual life into our spiritual deadened heart and souls. Life in Christ is when we receive the Holy Spirit and He seals us for an eternity with Him in heaven

The Truth = The Spirit of Grace – A subset of the Spirit of God
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to believers to enable them to know the truth, have faith in the truth, understand the truth, and be empowered by the truth. Having belief in the truth of God and His Son is what brings us to a full relationship with God and His Son.
* A Revelation of God’s Love

The Way = The Spirit of Righteousness – A subset of the Spirit of God
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to people to enable people to honor God and live a righteous life. (The power to complete this righteousness comes from the Spirit of Grace)

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In John 14:6, Jesus says - John 14:6 - "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me”.

In the above verse and the simplified “Spirit of God” hierarchy table above we can start to see the reason why Jesus ordered His words the way He did in John 14:6. “The Way” is first requirement, “The Truth” is second, and “The Life” is third.

We must first turn from our sinful ways and turn toward God to live the way of righteousness that God requires of us. The “Way” to the Father and the Son is living a life of righteousness. Abraham was credited with righteousness because he believed in God, and Abraham’s walk in life reflected the way of God. This was by the Sprit of righteousness that was available during the Old Testament times.

Gen 15:6 - Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness

So we see that most of the Spirit of righteousness was available in the Old Testament, but the Spirit of Grace that brings forth the truth into a believer’s heart was not yet released.

“The Truth” is the second requirement that we must receive from God to come to the Father. “The Truth” is brought about into a believer’s heart and soul by the Spirit of Grace. The Spirit of Grace was the missing puzzle piece needed for anyone to be able to live a life of righteousness that was acceptable in the sight of God. This is why the Israelites could see that God’s laws were good, but they did not possess the power within themselves to perform the laws of God. They could see that the laws of God were good, because they had the Spirit of righteousness available to them, but they could not do the laws of God, because the Spirit of Grace was not yet made available to them. The Spirit of Grace is the power behind the sanctification of our souls. It is the Spirit of Grace that enables us to see the truth of God and then the same Spirit of Grace that also gives us the power to turn from our sins and live righteously before our God. How is this power of Grace worked out in our lives? It is by the Spirit of Grace changing and remolding our heart’s desires. When we are truly sorrowful of our sins and we repent of our sins, it is the Spirit of Grace that changes our desires to not want to do that sin any longer. It is this change of the heart that God does through His grace that transforms us into a person more like Him as the process of sanctification continues on. What also happens at the same time in our sanctification process is the transformation from loving our own self to loving God. As we grow in love with God more and more, we end up wanting to please God more and more. This part of God’s Spirit (the Spirit of Grace – The Truth) was missing in the Old Testament people (except for a few chosen people) and this is why the Jews could not live righteously even though they knew they should live righteously. The desires of the heart and the love for their own selves were not replaced or transformed into Godly desires and a true love for God and others – so they were blind to the real truth (which is pure love) and tried to live by rules instead of love.

“The Life” is the third requirement that is needed to come to the Father. Just like Grace, “The Life”=receiving the Holy Spirit - is a gift of God, Even though “The Life” is a gift of God, it is only given to souls that have met the requirements of the first two – which is living a righteous life by being empowered by God’s Grace which is received by faith. You might ask why such a restriction. It is because, when you receive the Holy Spirit (The Life), you then have full access to the Son and the Father and His kingdom. It is also because we must be cleansed of all unrighteousness before we acquire this privileged access. Only totally cleansed and pure things and souls are allowed to enter the Father’s kingdom, so our hearts and souls must be made pure through and through in order to enter the Father’s kingdom. The gift of the Holy Spirit comes to a believer when God sees that a person loves Him with all of their heart, soul, mind, and strength. This love for God will be shown by their righteous living that they acquired through Grace by faith in God. When the Holy Spirit comes into a person as a gift, they are totally washed of any selfish sinful nature and given a heart only filled with God’s desires. After they have this new selfless heart, they have only the desires to please and serve God. God then empowers those born again believers for His service with certain gifts that will promote His kingdom and glorify Himself through those believers. These gifts that God gives are not for the benefit of the one that received them; they are for the benefit of others and to glorify God. I am one of those souls in the kingdom of God and loving every minute of it. My mind can hardly think of anything else but pleasing, glorifying, worshiping, and serving Him. For any that have not experienced God in this way, you can search for the Son of God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength – and then you will find Him.

Let us stop believing and acting like the people in the Old Testament and realize we have God’s grace to empower us to reach and serve the Father before we die. Let us humble ourselves before our God, which will enable God to raise us up in His grace to make us a holy and righteous people where we are found worthy to receive His Son (the Holy Spirit). God is a gracious and loving God and wants all to be blessed. God has done everything possible to make these blessings happen. The only things getting in the way of making these blessings a reality - is our own human reasoning, unbelief, pride, and selfishness. God is no longer limiting his grace like He did in the Old Testament. Let us stop limiting what God wants to do and have total faith in His Word.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

Saturday, August 9, 2008

The Spirit of God - Part 1

The Spirit of God can be very hard to comprehend. We know that the Spirit of God contains the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Son, and the Spirit of Holy Spirit, but even though they are listed as separate Sprits, they are really all of one Sprit and come out of one Spirit – the Spirit of God. There are also other spiritual qualities or sub functions of God Spirit that are released to us as a subset of God’s Spirit. There is the Spirit of Righteousness and the Spirit of Grace. Below you find a simplified table representing the hierarchy of the Spirit of God.

The Spirit of God

The Father
– The head of God’s Spirit
* Pure agape love, pure righteousness, pure faithfulness, and pure grace and mercy.

The Son – A perfect replica of the Father. The perfect seed of the Father
* The fullness of Christ - being the Son of God, has all the same qualities of His Father.

* The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ that is sent into the sons of God to change their hearts and empower them for service. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit that totally cleanses a person of the sinful nature and gives the sons of God a new heart and the result becomes a person born again and totally Christ like.

* The Holy Spirit is under the Son because He is the Spirit of the Son

* The Holy Spirit is the power that accomplishes everything the Father or the Son speaks

The Spirit of Grace – A subset of the Spirit of God – not a different Spirit
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to believers to enable them to become the sons of God.

* Was made available to all people after Jesus was crucified on the Cross.

* The nature and characteristics are – the power of the Word, the knowledge of inheritance, the power of faithfulness, the power of justification, a knowing that the Word is true, the working out of God’s truth, honesty and straightforwardness, the power to circumcise the heart of man, the power to fully sanctify, gives the believer the wisdom and the understanding to serve God with love, fear and honor, brings eternal praise for God into our hearts.

The Spirit of Righteousness– A subset of the Spirit of God – not a different Spirit
* A subset of the Spirit of God released to people to enable people to honor God and live a righteous life with the limited faith released to them before the cross.

* Was available before the cross.

* The nature and characteristics are – praising God, realizing the greatness of God, seeking God diligently, repenting of evil ways, honoring God, recognizing the gloriousness of God, being gracious to others, having mercy to others, and eternal righteousness through the limited faith that was released before the cross – example: Abraham.
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Using the spiritual table listed out previously, we now can try to understand what is contained within the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God contains the full nature, characteristics, and power of God. The Spirit of the Father is the hierarchy head of the Spirit of God and contains all that is underneath Him in the hierarchy of the Spirit of God, while all the other Spirits only contain what is in them selves and what is underneath them in the hierarchy of God’s Spirit. For example: The Father contains the Son, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Grace, and the Spirit of Righteousness. But the Son doesn’t have that which is only contained in the Father, but includes all that is in Him self and underneath Him including the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Grace and the Spirit of Righteousness. We know there are some things that are or have been reserved by the Father and only for the Father.

Acts 1:7 - And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.

But we have to remember that Christ is the Son of the Father and that the Son retains the Spiritual Seed of the Father forever and ever. So this is why Jesus said that the Father is in Him and He is in the Father. This is also why Jesus could say that if you have seen me, then you have seen the Father. Also since the Son is contained within and under the Father, the Son cannot exist without the Father and likewise the Father cannot exist without the Son since what makes up the Son is also part of the makes up of the Father. For one to exist – they both must exist.

We can also now understand that the Spirit of Grace (a subset of the Spirit of God) doesn’t contain the Father, Son, or Holy Ghost, but does contain the characteristics of itself and the Spirit of Righteousness (also a subset of the Spirit of God). The Spirit of Grace and the Spirit of Righteousness are what God uses to sanctify us and to bring us to the Father and the Son.

The Spiritual table also can be used to understand the steps that are needed to take to become a believer and eventually become born again of the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit will lead us into the Spirit of Righteousness and lead us down the path of repentance and at the same time have us be justified through the Spirit of Grace that He provided by Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. It is the Spirit of Righteousness and the power of the Spirit of Grace that enables us to become the sons of God. To become the sons of God we must die to all of our sinful/selfish nature. It is the power of the Spirit of Grace that enables us to do this even though we don’t have the full power of the Holy Spirit within us yet. That is why the Bible says we are saved through Grace by faith. We must become the sons of God first before we can receive the Holy Spirit. We must show we have become the sons of God and our total love for God by our total repentance and total sacrifice of ourselves to God.

Matt 5:43-45 - You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Luke 6:35 - But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High.

If God becomes our Father by us becoming His sons through the power of the Spirit of Grace that He has supplied to us, than we can ask Him for His Holy Spirit – which is the Spirit of His Son.

Luke 11:13b - how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Before we can receive Christ’s Spirit we must be prepared by the Spirit of Righteousness and the Spirit of Grace. We must be prepared, tested and found worthy of this great gift. This great gift of the Holy Spirit (Christ’s very nature) can only be given to the ones that have been proven to be the sons of God.

John 14:23-24 - Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

John 14:15-17 - If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth (the Holy Spirit).

Acts 5:32 - We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.

Matt 7:21-22 - Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Matt 12:50 - For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

The Holy Spirit will testify of itself and of Jesus Christ when you have received Him.

John 14:20-21 - On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.

John 15:26-27 - When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me.

John 16:12-15 - I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

1 Cor 6:17 - But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

When we have been united with Jesus Christ – we become one spirit with Him and reign along with Him to manage and promote His kingdom. This is why the scriptures say we are seated with Him in heaven. We are not seated beside Him – we are seated in Him, because we are now one in Spirit with Him.

Eph 2:6 - And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

All this is to say – God has reserved a wonderful full life in Him and for an eternity for anyone that gives up his/her own life in trade for a life with and in Him.

God’s servant and yours,
Michael Reid

Friday, July 25, 2008

Repent And God Will Heal Our Land – Otherwise ???

With all that is and has been happening – I hope and pray that the ones that call themselves Christians wake up and see what is happening. We are in the time that 2 Chron 7:13-14 is talking about. Even though this is an Old Testament Scripture - it is very instructive for our day also, since God never changes and the affects of sin hasn't changed.

2 Chron 7:13-14 - When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

God Himself has shut off the rain of blessings from heaven because of our country’s sins and our churches are a big part of our country and share in these sins. God has given us over to our devilish sinful ways to devour our land. God has cut off His blessings because He cannot and will not bless disobedience and selfishness.

God has also sent onto us the plagues – the consequences of our sinful ways. God is saying to us - His patience has run its course with us. No longer will He keep blessing our land, because we have taken His blessings and used them for evil. He will no longer protect us from our sins. We are starting to feel these consequences (plagues) upon us now, but are going to get a lot worse in the next coming years, unless!

Unless what – unless we turn from our selfish sinful ways and repent, and turn from our wicked ways. If we repent and turn back to God – the one and true God – then and only then will God heal our land. So if your eyes have been opened to this truth as mine has been, then go and wake up your neighbors to the devastation we are about to have come upon us in the hope that God will see us coming back to Him with fear and reverence so that He holds back His wrath that is going to come upon us.

I want to encourage everyone as an individual to live a holy and righteous life before God through the power of His Holy Spirit so that you might inherit eternal life even if our nation doesn’t repent on a whole as a unified body for God. If our nation does not come back to fearing God and reverence Him with obedience to His Word, then our nation will be lost, but you will be saved if you stand in obedience to His Word out of love for Him.

As a nation we are a people that have deeply offended God with our countless sins that we have done against Him and His creation. Don’t think just because it seemed like God was just letting these sins go unpunished, that God was not aware of all our selfish and prideful ways. He was having patience with us, but that patience has run out. It is time for God’s wrath and it is the consequences of our sins that will provide that wrath.

We have earned the wrath that we are about to receive. That is why the Bible says “The wages of sin is death”. Wages is something we earn and we have earned the wrath that is coming in the next years to come. The Bible also says “What we sow we shall also reap”. Well we have sowed selfish sin for many years and now that sin has multiplied and is being harvested along with the consequences of that sinful harvest.

Our nation is made up of individual people. As each person comes back to repentance through a reverent fear of the Lord – then our nation comes back to God by one person at a time. Even if our nation is not saved – it is your choice to make sure you are saved.

God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Having God’s Heart – What Is It Like? - Part 2

When I share these messages, about how God does truly free us from our sinful nature, most of the responses from people are - it is not possible and that as long as we live we are going to sin. Most people believe that we will always have some sinful nature in us as long as we are living in this body of flesh. This is sad, because it is their very lack of belief that keeps them from receiving this gift of God. So I realized that people need to hear this from other people other than myself, in the hopes that they will understand that – it is not just what God has done in me, but in many other people as well.

Here is one of those other true believers trying to get this same message out.

Obeying God Is No Burden

John, the beloved apostle, wrote, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [burdensome]" (1 John 5:3).

Some would beg to differ. They find God's com­mands inconvenient, if not a real pain. Every device has been tried to explain how one can be a Christian without literally obeying God's Word.

Why do some find God's commands such a burden? And why do others, like John, find obey­ing God to be no burden at all? Love makes all the difference. "And, this is love, that we walk after his commandments." Obeying God has practical results, in faithful love in a marriage, helping those in need, and Christian generosity and honesty.

It's a virtuous cycle: Love produces obedience, and obedience produces even greater love. Too many experience, instead, a vicious cycle of dis­obedience which leaves them guilty and certainly not loving God, but resenting both Him and His commands.

It's a most unsatisfying cycle, but one that God, by His grace, will help us break. The Bible teaches that God's grace both makes us righteous, and enables us to live right (see Romans 6:16-23).

God invites you to experience His grace. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17). God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sin and believe on His Son (Acts 17:30). When we do that, He does three things for us: Forgives past sin (Romans: 3:25), gives a new nature that doesn't want to sin (2 Peter 1:4), and delivers from the tyranny of sin (Romans 6:14). Those so converted both want to, and are able to, obey and serve Him faithfully until death.

And that is why they love God. Nothing can produce real love for God like experiencing His power to overcome the sin that enslaved us. It is then that we, like John, find His commandment no burden.

So don't let anyone tell you that it is impossible to obey the Bible or that it requires some marathon self-discipline. It only requires that we surrender to God in repentance. Ask anyone who has experienced His grace. He'll tell you that God's commands are no longer a burden.

Written by Dallas Witmer

I hope now that some of you that didn’t believe in total freedom from sin will now ask – how do I get there? It is through faith in God’s Word and being obedient to that Word even if you don’t understand it yet.

It was through disobedience that the fall of man came about and it is only through obedience to God’s commandments that you will be allowed to be rejoined with Him. We show God that we love Him by obeying Him and it is through this obedience that comes out of loving God that we are found worthy to receive His Holy Spirit. It is at this time – when we receive His Holy Spirit, are we born again and become one in Spirit with God. God has made the Holy Spirit available to all who truly believe because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross.

With the non-converted spirit of man it is impossible to be without sin, but with a born again person, all things are possible because it is Christ living in us that does every good work.

I want to draw this letter to a close by showing that God’s Word strongly indicates that obeying His commandments are not burdensome, but are an automatic result of being a born again believer.

Matt 11:28-30 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Rom 8:9-10 - You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit), he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Rom 8:5 - Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Eph 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Eph 6:6b - but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

Heb 13:21 - equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.


God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Having God’s Heart – What Is It Like? - Part 1

When we become a true believer, we get a new heart from God. But what does that feel like – to be given a new heart – a heart that you weren’t physically born with, but given to you by God Himself. Well, I can’t answer all the thoughts that might come up with this topic - since a Godly heart is as diversified as God’s love itself, but I will cover some important aspects that are always weighing on my heart (God’s heart).

We need to first realize that when God replaces your fleshly heart with a Godly heart, all your desires are turned upside down and inside out. The Godly heart He gives you is His heart and will replace all your selfish desires with righteous and holy desires. The replacement of our heart is what changes everything. This new heart sets us apart as His children from the rest of the world. This new and everlasting heart is what changes us completely by changing our every desire to love God and others. This new heart drives out all selfishness - because true love conquers all selfishness and evil.

Since our desires of our heart is what drives every aspect of our soul – then with this new heart from God, every action that comes forth out of us will be holy and righteous. This is where the Bible comes true when it says that anyone born of God will not sin and cannot sin. Most professing Christians indicate very strongly that living a holy and righteous life is not possible, but what I want to tell everybody from experience - that living a holy and righteous life is the easier part of being a born again believer. I agree that getting to the point of receiving this pure Godly heart might be a very tough road, but after receiving this new heart from God, your main desires are to live a holy and righteous life for God. At the same time when you receive God’s new heart – you are actually receiving the Holy Spirit to live with you. God sending His Holy Spirit to live in me and giving me a new heart has made me be reborn and alive in Him. His Spirit and mine have become one. The reason I won’t sin is because I am actually offending myself now when I sin. All sin now offends me also, because I am one in Spirit with God. What offends God also offends me.

So if living a righteous and holy life is the easier part of being a born again believer, what is the harder part? The harder part is the love I now have for all my fellow man. You see when you receive God’s heart you don’t only receive the love you need to fill you up, but also an overflowing love for others. Because my selfishness is gone, I now love others as God loves His creation. So how is loving others the harder part you might ask? It is out of this love for others and knowing that most are headed for an eternity in hell. Because God’s heart breaks for all the souls rejecting Him, I also have a breaking heart. His love for others and my love for others are the same since we have become one. This love for others actually becomes the driving force behind spreading the full Gospel. At the time I became truly born again – I had to also become a disciple. I no longer have the choice to believe in the lies that most of the world believes - because the Word of God has been written on and into my heart. Knowing the truth of God’s Word is truly a freeing experience but also a captivating hurt for the rest of humanity.


God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Monday, June 16, 2008

What is meant by “believe in Him”


John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

So who are the ones that have everlasting life – the people that believe in Jesus Christ. So the real question is – what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ. I will try to explain the answer to this question in the most direct and biblical way.

Most people think it means - to believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the 2nd identity in the Trinity, and that He died on the cross for our sins. The devil and all the demons believe this also – so why aren’t they all saved? If this is the extent of your belief – you are still headed to an eternity in hell.

Everybody has beliefs in someone or something and as a result of those beliefs, we all act on what we believe. If we believe in our ability to reason out what is best for us and others, we will then act on our own reasoning over the truths of the Bible. If we believe in money and material things to sustain us and make us happy, we will then act on making and producing as much financial wealth as possible. If we believe in our own reasoning and/or financial wealth – then anyone that gets in the way of reaching our goals in these areas of belief will be trampled down under our feet so that they will be removed as an obstruction to our goals and beliefs. Anyone that believes this way is of the devil and not of God.

Belief in Jesus Christ is when you believe in Jesus as your Lord and forsake any human reasoning that contradicts the Word of God. When we truly believe in Jesus as our Lord, we in essence become a slave to His truth and ways. We believe the Bible as our road map to eternal salvation with Him. We no longer act primarily on our human reasoning and emotions, but primarily act on God’s Word and His Spiritual leadings.

If we say we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but do not act on His truths, we are a liar and the truth is not in us. If we believe in something – we will always act on that belief if we really believe it. If we don’t act on what we say we believe – then we really don’t believe what we are saying.

Through a true belief in Christ, we must love Him above all others and/or things in our life, otherwise we cannot be His disciple.

Luke 14:26-27 - If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

Anyone that does not love God more than anyone else or anything else in their life – will not be worthy of receiving Him.

Matt 10:37-39 - Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind is not an option – it is a requirement.

Matt 22:36-39 - Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment.

If we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we will obey His Word and all His commandments. After we truly believe and act on that belief by being totally obedient to His commandments – then we will receive Jesus’ Spirit – “the Spirit of truth”.

John 14:15-17 - If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth.

If through our total belief in Christ we end up obeying every teaching of Christ – we then have the Spirit of God and Jesus come live with us forever. If we don’t obey His teachings – then we have not believed with our heart and will not become a home for His Spirit and in turn will not be worthy of entering an eternal life with God.

John 14:23-24 - If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.

A relationship with God has become a possibility to everyone through Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins, but what you do with that relationship is your choice. You can come to a total belief and love for God and be saved unto eternal life or you can decide to reject God’s great gift of grace by rejecting even a portion of His love - because of a lack of belief in Him (faith). If you end up rejecting any of His truth and/or commands – then that shows that you don’t really believe in Jesus Christ and you will not be worthy of His eternal life. You have your whole life to come to this total belief. The question is - will you submit to Jesus Christ as Lord and when will you die?

You can tell when you have come to this total belief (faith) in God when you stop sinning. Sinning is when you have been brought to a knowledge of God’s ways and commandments by way of His Word and/or His Spirit and then you decide to reject that knowledge of God and do what you think best instead.

Because of the fact that we all act on what we really believe – then every time you knowingly sin – you are really saying to God that you don’t believe in Him and His ways. When you sin, you are really believing in your own self and not God. When you sin, you are still putting yourself and your own understanding and reasoning above God’s Word. When you sin, you are rejecting God by depending on yourself and not totally depending on God’s Word and all His promises. When you sin – you are simply saying that you don’t believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ.

God demands a total belief and love for Him. Anything falling short of this will condemn us to an eternal life in hell.

God’s servant – Michael Reid

Monday, May 26, 2008

Worth Dying For

On this Memorial Day we remember with thanksgiving all the heroes that have given their life in current and past wars to protect and preserve our freedom, but why were they willing to die for this freedom? The reason they were willing to die for this freedom – is because they had experienced this freedom for their selves and knew that it was worth giving their life to preserve it, so all their loved ones and their children and their children’s children could keep on enjoying this freedom we all hold so dear. So a big thank you to all that have given so greatly to the cause of freedom.

When it comes to spiritual freedom, God says His truth will set you free. So just like all that have been willing to die because they had experienced and enjoyed our physical freedom in this country – God has made a way for us to experience some of His spiritual freedom, which is through a relationship with Him by the blood of Christ. The big question is – after you have experienced a sample of God’s freedom, are you willing to die for this spiritual freedom or have you already died for it?

God has opened up His Spirit to everyone to have a relationship with Him so that they can see that His Word is truth and that His love and freedom are a reality for believers. After we have experienced a sampling of God’s love we then can grow in our faith so that we can know that all of His Word is true.


Eph 3:17-19 - And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge

If anyone grasps the scripture above, he/she will be willing to die to themselves to have the full measure of God which is the rest of these verses.

— that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.


God calls us to die, die to our sinful nature, so that He might live in us and fellowship with us forever, but God also knows that before we can treasure something we must experience it first and after we treasure it, then we will be willing die for it. God builds His treasure up in our hearts. Again the big question is – are we going to treasure Him? Are we going to be willing to die to selfishness and all our sins so we can have His treasure and His freedom for eternity?

The great commission is to “Go and make disciples” – not go and make believers. We can be believers in a proportional amount to our faith, but a disciple is a believer that has died to them selves to follow Christ whole heartedly.

Matt 28:19 - Therefore go and make disciples of all nations

John 8:31-32 - "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

Luke 14:26-27 - "If anyone comes to me and does not hate (in comparison to God) his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple . And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

What happens when a person experiences God’s love through a relationship with Him and then refuses to fully die to his own sinful nature and become a true disciple of Christ?

Matt 10:37-38 – “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

So if we are unwilling to forsake ourselves and love God more than anybody or anything (this includes our sins), we are then not worthy of Jesus Christ and will not receive Him and when we physically die He in turn will not receive us.

But what does “not worthy of Christ” or “not receive Him” mean? It means we will not receive His Holy Spirit – which is Jesus' Spirit that comes to live with us. It is when we receive Jesus' Spirit (His Holy Spirit) that we are born again. Unless a person is born again (received His Holy Spirit) – they will not see God.

John 14:15-17 - "If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— the Spirit of truth.

John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

John 3:5 - Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.”

In the above verse (John 3:5), notice that a person must be born of water and of Spirit to enter into the kingdom of God. When we first come to God to start a relationship with God, we are then covered by Christ’s righteousness which represents an outer washing of our soul and we put a robe of righteousness on – which was provided by Christ’s blood on the cross – this is being born of water and is called imputed righteousness. This imputed righteousness allows Christ to be our high priest while we are still living in the flesh. It is through this imputed righteousness of Christ that we can have a relationship with God. It is then through this relationship with God that we can grow in faith and come to treasure God’s love and eventually be willing to die to all of our sinful nature to preserve this treasure for ourselves for eternity. When we actually do come to the point of dying to our sinful nature by putting to death all our sinful acts – we then and only then are worthy to receive Christ’s Holy Spirit to live with us forever and ever. This is what is meant by being born of the Spirit. It is only when we receive Christ’s Holy Spirit that we are imparted with Christ’s righteousness and are entirely washed and cleansed of all unrighteousness - on the inside as well. It is only after this total cleansing (inside and outside) that we are made ready to enter an eternal heaven with God.

Is God’s love and freedom worth dying for? Have you asked yourself – have I put to death all my sinful ways? Most of the professing Christians today can say they have some sort of relationship with God, but most professing Christians haven’t yet been born of Christ’s Spirit. If you have been covered by His water (born of water) but not yet born of the Spirit, I urge you very strongly to put to death any sinful way in you before He comes like a thief in the night for your soul. God is a treasure and worth dying for!

Your servant in Christ,
Michael Reid

Sunday, May 11, 2008

God Will Not Be Mocked – Message 4

Gal 6:7 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

God wants His creation to see and know the full depth of His love for us, but since most people (including most believers) are so emerged in loving themselves, they have been blinded to God’s truth and are no longer searching for God. We as a nation, of so called believers have come to the point of not needing God - for we have become our own gods, which has been the devil’s intention from the beginning of time.

Most people in the United States have believed that God has blessed us because of our richness of money, things, and abundance. We have been deceived and have fallen into the trap of self sufficiency by being given what we want and all our physical needs provided for by the work of our hands and/or our minds. God promises to supply for our daily needs and for us to look to Him for all our daily needs, but what God intended for good – the devil has provided to us in abundance – so what was meant for good, now is used for evil when the devil takes us out into his world of selfishness and provides to us an out of balance abundance. We now store up money and things in abundance for ourselves so we can feel secure and don’t have to worry about our future. We work our bodies away in worry about our future and try to make sure we have enough for retirement – so we will not have to depend on anybody – including God. Look what God has said to these ideas – remember God is never changing.

God providing manna in the desert to the people of Israel
Ex 16:15-16 - Moses said to them, "It is the bread the Lord has given you to eat. This is what the Lord has commanded: 'Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer (a certain measured amount) for each person you have in your tent.'"
Ex 16:19-20 - Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell. So Moses was angry with them.

The manna was intended for one day and only one day – since God provided for each day.

Matt 6:19-21 - Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Almost all of our heart’s treasure is in our money and self dependence. As a nation, we are no longer storing up treasure in heaven, but storing up destruction of our souls.

Matt 6:24-25 - No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.
Matt 6:30-34 - O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear ?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Luke 12:16-21 - And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." ' "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."

God wants us to rely on Him daily for our every need, but we have taken our dependence off from God and are now depending on ourselves with some prayers mixed in here and there. United States – WAKE UP. The nation of the United States is coming to its destruction. As for the faithful, we must call out to the lost to wake up and see that we have been deceived – at least for who ever is still searching for the truth.

But who is still searching for the real truth anymore. Most are so self sufficient or dependent on the government that they no longer come to the point of really searching out God and His Son (Jesus Christ). We have become a nation dead in the Spirit – yet we think we are alive. We, as a nation, are fools and have been totally taken in by the devil’s many deceptions. We have already been like the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelation.

Rev 3:15-17 - I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm — neither hot nor cold — I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

As a nation, we have already gone past this point; we have been spit out of the mouth of God. We have rejected His full truth and have turned away from Him – so God has turned away from us. For the very small percentage of true Christians left in this country, we must realize that our country is dead and going to its destruction, but at the same time keep an eye out for anyone that still might be lead by the Spirit and be searching for truth so that we can help them come to a true salvation. For the others – the self righteous – the ones that are self sufficient and prideful, we must let them go to their destruction in their sins – in the hopes that they will turn from themselves and come to life in the true God or they will be lost to eternal damnation.

It is very sad that we have become a Godless country, or you could say a nation of many gods, but God’s wrath is coming upon this country and we must rejoice in His justice finally being done. Our country has been totally sidetracked by Satan’s lies, but just like all lies, they eventually are uncovered and then the consequences come. It is upon this judgment time that some might see the errors of their ways and come to a true saving relationship with our Lord Christ Jesus. These times will be hard on all of us, but this time will also be a joy filled time to see our Lord’s glory in action and to see some come to salvation which wouldn’t have come to it otherwise.

In the past God has been patient with us as a nation, but we have repeatedly rejected His mercy and grace for to long, so now His wrath is coming. Are you ready?

Your servant in Christ – Michael Reid

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

God Will Not Be Mocked - Message 3

Gal 6:7 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.

The mark of the beast revealed

As always I want to start out emphasizing how God wants His creation to see the full depth of His love for us, but since most people (including most believers) are so emerged in loving themselves, they can’t see or even understand God’s agape love that He has for us. These people are still filled and consumed by their own selfishness and that is the subject of this message.

God’s Word teaches us that there will be a time when most people will be deceived and will receive the mark of the beast, which is “666” on their hand and/or forehead. I want to inform you that we are and have been living in that time already. Most people have already received this mark of the beast and don’t even realize it.

In order to understand this mark of the beast and what it actually is, we must first come to a basic understanding of the “Things of God” and the “things of the devil”. These “Things of God” are in a specific order (ordered by God) and are numbered and always have to be used when we try to figure out all of the numbers in the symbolic scriptures of God’s Word. I would like to share more about the fuller meanings of God’s number system (the Things of God), but for now we are only going to concentrate on one “Thing of God” which is SELFLESSNESS and “one thing of the devil” which is SELFISHNESS. Below are the “Things of God” and the devils corresponding opposites which are the “things of the devil”.

Things of God
#1 – Longsuffering (patient)
#2 – Mercy (leniency or compassion)
#3 – Contentment (satisfied)
#4 – Humility (willing to be humbled)
#5 – Gentleness (kindness to others)
#6 - Selflessness (thinking of others first)
#7 – Peace (state of harmony)
#8 – Goodness (moral excellence)
#9 – Joy (great delight and rejoicing)
#10 – Forbearance (self control thru faith)
#11 – Hope (hope of winning thru grace)
#12 – Love (Perfection of all Things)

Things of the devil
#1 – Instant gratification
#2 – No leniency or compassion
#3 – Never satisfied
#4 – Prideful (unwilling to be humbled)
#5 – No kindness shown to others
#6 – Selfishness (thinking of self only)
#7 – No harmony with self or others
#8 – Totally unmoral values
#9 – Draining of any delight or rejoice
#10 – No faith or control over one’s self
#11 – No hope of winning or finishing
#12 – Hate of all good things

Notice above that #6 in the “Things of God” represents “Selflessness” and #6 in the “things of the devil” represents “Selfishness”. So when we talk about the beast’s mark, we are then talking in the realm of the “things of the devil”, since the beast represents the evil or the devils spiritual realm. We can now understand from this that the number “666” represents the forms (or realms) of selfishness since all the numbers in the number of the beast contain all 6’s. But how do these numbers go together or add up?

To understand how these three 6’s combine or go together we must now look at the makeup of the spiritual realm of God and the corresponding opposite spiritual realm of the devil. Below are the two spiritual realms.

God’s spiritual realm
Blood – Physical flesh realm

Water – Loving heart of man
Spirit - Heavenly spirit in man
Glory – Kingdom of God

devil's spiritual realm
Blood – Physical flesh realm
Water – Evil heart of man
Spirit – Evil spirit in man
Babylon – devil’s kingdom

You will notice from the above listings that God’s spiritual kingdom and the devil’s spiritual kingdom both contain the “Blood – Physical flesh realm”. This is where these two spiritual realms meet. These two spiritual realms meet in the fleshly realm which is why the spiritual warfare is fought out beginning within the flesh realm. After or underneath the “Blood – Physical flesh realm”, you will notice that these other spiritual realms are opposites of each other when you compare God’s spiritual realms with the devil’s spiritual realms.

Number place holder
Blood – x1 (ones place)
Water – x10 (tens place)
Spirit – x100 (hundreds place)
Glory/Babylon – x1000 (thousands place)

Now I want you to take a close look at the number place holder column. Each one of these opposing spiritual realms has a corresponding number place holder for God’s spiritual numbering system. For example: the “Water” realm of both opposing spiritual realms share the number place holder of “x10 (the tens place holder)” and this number place holder represents a spiritual realm of either a spiritual realm of God or a spiritual realm of the devil. The spiritual realm to be used (God’s or the devil’s) is determined by the context of God’s Word from where the scripture is being taken from.

Anyone that understands what I have stated above can now interpret what the number “666” really means and in turn understand what the mark of the beast really is.

6 = x1 (ones place holder) = A selfish fleshly body
+60 = x10 (tens place holder) = A heart filled with selfishness
+600 = x100 (hundreds place holder) = A spirit filled with selfishness
------
666 = A person filled with selfishness in their body, heart, and spirit


The mark of the beast is a spiritual mark and not a physical mark. The mark of the beast represents any person controlled by total selfishness (sinful nature). These selfish souls belong to the devil. God’s Word says the mark of the beast “666” will be on the hand or forehead. Again this mark represents a person filled with total selfishness and isn’t a visible mark on the hand or forehead. God’s Word says it is on the forehead because this represents our brain and what we think. God’s Word also says it can be on our hand because this represents our works that we do with our hands. A person that has the mark of the beast will think selfishly and all his/her works with also be selfish.

I want to inform everybody that has ears to hear, that the devil’s evil beast has been given authority to deceive the nations, even the believers.

Rev 13:14 - Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.

In the past and for many hundreds of years, the devil’s deceptions had been restricted by God to let His church grow without undo influence by the devil, but now the devil has been allowed to deceive all the people of all the nations. These deceptions of the devil have been going on already for many, many years. God is not surprised by the world being taken over by the devil and his evil forces. God is allowing it to happen. God has authorized all of this evil for the testing of souls and to bring His plan to completion. God is allowing the devil to deceive who ever will be deceived in order to weed the weeds out of His harvest.

Rev 22:11-13 - Let him who does wrong continue to do wrong; let him who is vile continue to be vile; let him who does right continue to do right; and let him who is holy continue to be holy." "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

Gal 6:7-9 - Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

God’s judgment is coming soon to everyone. God is allowing this evil to go on for a time, but this time of evil will come to an end. But before this time of trial and testing ends, it will get much worse. Get ready and then stay ready until Christ’s return. Evaluate yourself and let God search your soul. Are you sealed with His mark of Love (#12 – Love – God’s perfection) or are you marked by the devil with his mark of “666”. Selfishness can be overcome, but only by God’s grace through His Son (Christ Jesus) by the power of God’s love.

Your servant in Christ – Michael Reid