I give up. Have it your way. What I mean is, I have been trying to get people to believe that perfection and living by God’s righteous perfection needs to be done before we physically die, but most will not believe this truth. Around 99% of the people that believe in God in our world today believe that perfection cannot be attained until after we physically die. So, I have decided to write to these people in the context of their beliefs and see if their beliefs make sense.
First off, I will not be quoting much scripture since there is not much scripture that goes along with these beliefs. For example, I can’t quote “Matt 5:48 - Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. NKJV”, because people no longer think this is possible in our life time. And I can’t quote “1 Peter 1:15-16 - But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy. NIV”, because people no longer think this is possible in our life time. And I can’t quote “Rev 21:7 - He who overcomes (overcomes sin) will inherit all this (heaven), and I will be his God and he will be my son. NIV”, because people no longer believe that all sin can be overcome or that a person is able to live a sinless life.
I can quote a few scriptures like “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. NIV” I can quote this as long as a person understands the term “believe” to mean a belief in the existence of Christ and that He died on the cross to pay for all our sins. I can quote this scripture because people believe that Christ did it all and we don’t have any responsibility except to believe in what Christ did on the cross for us. This belief is all about saving them to eternal life, but not about being the Lord of any person’s life. I can’t quote about Christ being the Lord of our lives, because Christ being Lord of our life would require the lordship of Christ to take control of a person, which would mean we would have to give up control of our own life. The lordship of Christ does not fit into this belief because it would require a changed life, a life that would have to die to all the sinful nature. It would mean submitting all to Christ as Lord. People would loose control of their life and this is not believed to be required anymore.
People believe that all we have to do to have eternal life is to take up on the offer of being fully forgiven by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice which paid the cost for all our sins. No repentance, holiness, or perfection by living by God’s love is required. Since Christ did it all on the cross for us, all we have to do is say that sinner’s prayer and that heavy load of the consequences of our sins are removed from us. So only God’s forgiveness is required and all we have to do is take advantage of it. It is a win-win situation for us. Everybody goes to heaven as long as they are forgiven. Everyone that is forgiven is automatically converted from a sinful being to a perfect being at the point of the death. This perfect conversion from a sinful soul to a perfect soul has to be accomplished because nothing imperfect or impure can enter God’s heavenly kingdom. This is the belief of most believers even though this belief goes directly against God’s Word. God’s Word is considered out of date for the time we live in and people believe God has changed to compensate for the changing times.
Either way, people believe we become perfect. It is just a question of when and how. All believers are looking forward to heaven and believe we have to become perfect to enter heaven. So, do we really want to be perfect? Do we really want to be like God? Do we really want to be rid of our evil selfish nature and have it replaced with a perfect holy and righteous nature? Christ’s nature. If we do, how much and how soon do we want to become perfect?
If we believe that our goal is to become perfect and be made perfect by becoming pure love like God is love, wouldn’t we want that to happen as soon as possible? If we believe that we have to die to become perfect, wouldn’t we want to pray to God and have Him take our life as soon as possible so that we could become that perfect soul? Wouldn’t we want to leave this evil filled world for a life in a perfect world as soon as possible? When someone dies, don’t we try to help the grieving ones left behind by saying the one they lost is in a better place? If we believe this, shouldn’t we be throwing a big party because God has chosen to take that person and make him/her perfect and have that soul live in a perfect heaven for eternity?
Do we need to wait to have God take our life or can we end it ourselves? If we commit suicide, we would be sinning against God’s Word, because we would be acting as our own God and killing ourselves. But God has probably changed His law for our times and aren’t all sins forgiven through Christ anyway? Most believers believe that someone that has committed suicide can still go to heaven. It is unthinkable to think a loving God would reject anyone for wanting to escape this evil world. Since this understanding is an excepted belief and even taught by many churches, this might be a person’s way to perfection and heaven. At least we need to commend them for acting on their beliefs. At least they are willing to put action to their beliefs. After all, what ever a person believes, they will act on. If we say we believe in something and don’t act on it, we don’t really believe what we say we believe.
So how soon should we want to physically die to become perfect? Some would argue that we need to have children (procreate) before we die so that the circle of life can continue. There is some logic to this consideration, but for the ones that don’t want to have children or can’t have children, wouldn’t it be best to die as soon as they come to Christ to have their sins forgiven? For the people that want to procreate, it would probably be best to die right after their kids have come to Christ by their children asking for forgiveness for their sins. In this way they would insure that their children are saved to eternal life and the parents could then leave this evil world to go onto the perfect realm of God. With the parents gone, the kids could use the assets left by the parents, grand parents, and so on, to get a good start for them to get ready to have kids of their own.
Some people might think that they need to stay living in this life to nurture and help their children and other people. Well this might sound fine and good, but what does an evil selfish person have to offer anyone else but to share in the consequences of their own sin? We can understand that there is some good in almost everybody, but the selfishness (evil) in a person will always out way any good that a person is trying to do. Since we believe that we never can get rid of our evil nature, then we have to believe that we really can’t offer anything to others that will be good for them. It will always be like dirty rags. We can’t help someone become good or cleaner by wiping them with our dirty rags. Since sin never leaves us until we die, every good thing we try to do will be tainted with evil. Let me give you an example. Say you have a favorite drink, like Mountain Dew, it being pure and good to the taste. Now let us add some sin into that drink. Suppose you go to the bathroom and take some of the feces (poop) from your own body and put it in the drink. Now the drink is tainted and anyone that drinks that drink will not be able to enjoy the goodness it had before it was tainted. Since we still have our sinful nature, when we share with ourselves, we are really sharing a tainted drink to our children and others. Why would we want to do this to people? Isn’t it better if we stop sharing in our consequences of our sins with others and just decide to die and be perfect?
So, after saying all this, why wouldn’t anyone want to die and be perfect? After all being perfect would be like heaven, which represents all of what God is and has to offer us. Being in heaven would be sharing in pure love, righteousness, holiness, and eternal life with God. Why wouldn’t anyone want this as soon as possible? Some might say, “They want it eventually, but they will wait until after they die after a long life.” These people are really saying, “I don’t want all of God right now. I want to still live my own life the way I desire. I want to still be my own God, and after I die I won’t have anything left to loose, so then I will accept perfection.” These people are trying to save their own life for themselves. Or, maybe people might say that they believe in perfection after death, but they really aren’t sure if they totally believe it to the point of wanting to die to get it. The bottom line about all this is, for most people, receiving perfection has to high of a cost – themselves.
So, if you want God and His perfection and you have decided that you can’t be perfected and totally set free of your sinful nature until after death, then you should desire to die so that you can finally be perfected and enter heaven. Come on people, stop fooling yourselves, you need to admit that you don’t want God’s perfection and His heaven and stop calling yourself a Christian, or start believing God’s Word, repent, and live a perfected life by living through the power of His Holy Spirit. Please figure out what you really believe and then show what you believe by acting on that belief.
God gives us the choice of what we want to believe. For me and my house we will believe God’s Word.
Michael W Reid
Showing posts with label holiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holiness. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Thursday, April 10, 2008
What Will Jesus Do With You When He Returns
Jesus says only the ones that have overcome the world will enter His eternal kingdom.
Rev 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Rev 2:11 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Rev 3:4-5 - He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels
Rev 3:12 - Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem,
Rev 3:21 - To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Rev 21:7-8 - He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
1 John 5:4 - for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Who will inherit the eternal kingdom of God?
Matt 19:29 - And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
Mark 10:17 - Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Mark 10:21 - Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Luke 10:25-28 - "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
1 Cor 6:9-10 - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-21 - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
James 2:5 - Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
Here are some other scriptures to consider.
John 5:39-40 - You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
John 10:25-28 - The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life.
John 12:25 - The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Rom 2:7-8 - To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
Rom 6:22 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Gal 6:7-8 - 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.
1 John 2:24-25 - See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.
1 John 3:15 - Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
So where is your heart and soul at today?
If he comes today, are you ready?
What about others around you, are they ready?
Rev 2:7 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.
Rev 2:11 - He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death.
Rev 3:4-5 - He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels
Rev 3:12 - Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem,
Rev 3:21 - To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
Rev 21:7-8 - He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
1 John 5:4 - for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
Who will inherit the eternal kingdom of God?
Matt 19:29 - And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.
Mark 10:17 - Good teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Mark 10:21 - Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
Luke 10:25-28 - "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
1 Cor 6:9-10 - Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:19-21 - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
James 2:5 - Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?
Here are some other scriptures to consider.
John 5:39-40 - You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
John 10:25-28 - The miracles I do in my Father's name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life.
John 12:25 - The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Rom 2:7-8 - To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger.
Rom 6:22 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Gal 6:7-8 - 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.
1 John 2:24-25 - See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us — even eternal life.
1 John 3:15 - Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
So where is your heart and soul at today?
If he comes today, are you ready?
What about others around you, are they ready?
Why Did God Have To Send His Spirit
As I start writing this message, I am really looking forward to sharing about this part of God’s plan. The Holy Spirit is the final puzzle piece needed to activate God’s plan. The Holy Spirit’s power in our lives is the only way to Jesus and the only way to stay in Jesus. Ever since the fall of man, God wanted to be reunited with His beloved creation, but He had to wait for His perfect timing to enable this reunion. With Adam and Eve, God was in close fellowship with man before the fall, but after the fall, sin entered man and sin had put a barrier between God and man. God refuses to be near sin; so in essence, the sin is the barrier, not His creation. Now with the work that Christ has done on the cross, we have the ability to become even closer to God than Adam and Eve were. We have the ability to have God live inside us and become part of us. Even Adam and Eve didn’t enjoy this close of a relationship with God. The Lord not only reunited us to Himself, but He also now becomes part of us. But again, this is our choice. God does not force this loving relationship with anyone that wants to stay separated from Him. Looking over this whole process, it makes me wonder if all this was God’s plan all along. We can only look back with amazement and see these wonderful happenings of God. People say hindsight is always 20/20. But God has the ability to see to the end of time with His whole plan worked out from the beginning of time.
We need the Holy Spirit! When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the outer portions of the temple was torn from top to bottom. This represented that God’s old covenant with man was done and the new covenant had started. This represented that now His Spirit was no longer restricted from His creation by any walls or boundaries. His Spirit was now open and available to all people. He would no longer have intercession be made through one human person – the Jewish high priest. He now intercedes for and communicates directly to each believer’s heart through Jesus’ Spirit which is in us and part of us. This is why we call Jesus our high priest forever. Jesus, through the Spirit now intercedes for us to the Father. Under the old covenant, the high priest was trying to commune and intercede with God through physical fleshly means. Now in the new covenant, it is not our sinful fleshly body trying to communicate with God; it is Jesus’ Spirit in us communicating with the Fathers’ Spirit.
Under the new covenant, the cross would have had no value without the sending of the Holy Spirit. The only way the cross works is with the Holy Spirit as part of the plan. We know through God’s word, that He requires full payment for sins, but He also requires for us to be made holy as He is holy. When we are made holy, we become right with Him, we are set apart for God, His work, and His Glory. It is only through God’s Holy Spirit’s power that He glorifies Himself by making us holy and right with Himself. Ever since the creation of the heavens and this world, it has been God’s Spirit that does all the work when anything good happens. When God spoke something into existence, it was through the Spirit that the work was done. Everything good in God’s eyes can only be done through His Spirit. If anything is done through the works of man or any other spirit, it is not considered good, but self serving to the one doing that work. Adam and Eve received the knowledge of good and evil. Even though they had the knowledge of good, Adam and Eve and all their descendants could not do the good without the power of God’s Holy Spirit in them. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel understood that God’s commandments were good, but they had no power to do the good. The self serving spirit inside them only had the power to do the knowledge of evil. To remedy this, God had to send His Spirit into man’s heart before any good could come out of man. So, God sent His Son to the cross to enable the Spirit to come and replace the self serving spirit in each true believer’s heart with His Spirit. God’s word commands all believers to live by the Spirit. Then shouldn’t we concentrate a lot of our energy on understanding the Spirit? Some churches might be unwilling or afraid to try to understand God’s Spirit. Since God’s ways are not man’s ways, some people might think it impossible to understand His Spirit. Other churches might be afraid of getting the understanding of the Holy Spirit wrong, and in turn, commit the one and only unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This hesitation or the limiting of the teaching of the Holy Spirit can be very dangerous to all of the flock of those churches doing this. By limiting the understanding and teaching on the Holy Spirit, this might be doing the very thing these churches are afraid of, and that is rejecting or blaspheming of the Holy Spirit.
What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? What it mainly comes down to is the putting down of the Holy Spirit by putting yourself or anything else above the Holy Spirit. When we put ourselves above the Holy Spirit and reject His truth and leading, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit and the Spirit being able to work in us, which is really rejecting God. So, in essence, if we reject the Spirit being able to work in us, there is no way we can have eternal life with God, because if we reject being sanctified and made holy by the Spirit, we cannot enter the eternal kingdom of God. In the Bible there are many examples of blasphemy. In most or all of these examples, the person being accused of blasphemy is putting and promoting their own ways, rules, or values above the understood ways, rules, and values of God. This was looked upon as the accused putting themselves above or equal with God. Jesus was accused many times of blasphemy, and if he really wouldn’t have been God, the accusers would have been right about Jesus.
We must strive to know and understand God’s Spirit on an intimate basis. We can understand the Spirit by understanding Jesus and understanding how the Spirit worked in people throughout the New Testament that had faith and trusted in Jesus. Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. Jesus also said that He could only do the Father’s will. This is because they are of one Spirit. So if we want to understand the Spirit and what God wants the Spirit to do through us, we must try to understand God’s character by looking and understanding the life of Jesus. The best way to do this is by reading God’s word. We must let God speak to us through His word. God’s word says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”. When we are a believer and read God’s word, we are communicating directly with God through His Spirit inside us. The only way we can understand God’s word is through His Spirit interpreting it for us. God’s word says “Seek and you shall find”. If we are to be a true believer, this is not an option, but a commandment. We seek, by looking for God’s character and will by praying and searching His word. We find, by His Spirit giving us all the answers by the way of a changed heart and a deeper understanding of Him by the renewing of our minds. God talks to His loved ones by the gentle whispers and thoughts He implants in our minds. As I finished writing this message, I realized it was way too long of a letter. So I had to remove about half of what I wanted to tell you about this glorious gift from God – the Holy Spirit. But the one main thought I want to emphasize is: God is using Jesus’ kingdom on earth to build His eternal kingdom. The people willing to let the Holy Spirit take total control of their lives and be made holy and righteous will inherit eternal life.
With God's love and Spirit, I bring you this message. - Michael Reid
Some scripture verses concerning this message: Matt 25:31-46, John 12:25, Rom 2:7 & 13, Rom 6:22, Gal 6:8, 2 Pet 1:5-11, 1 John 2:24-25, 1 Pet 4:17-19, Gen 3:22, 1 Sam 10:5-6, Neh 9:20, Ps 104:30, Ezek 11:19-21, Ezek 36:27, Joel 2:28:30, Acts 2:14-19, Mic 3:8, Matt 1:18, Matt 4:1, Matt 12:18 & 28, Matt 12:31-32, Matt 26:62-65, Matt 27:51-53, Luke 5:21, Mark 1:8 & 12, Mark 3:28-29, Luke 1:15-17, Luke 2:27, Luke 4:1 & 14, Luke 11:13, Luke 12:12, John 3:5-8 & 34, John 4:23-24, John 6:63-65, John 14:17-21 & 25-26, John 20:22-23, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:4 & 38-39, Acts 7:51, Acts 8:29, Acts 9:17-18 & 31, Acts 10:38, Acts 13:4, Acts 16:6-8, Acts 19:1-7, Acts 20:22-23 & 28-30, Heb 4:14-15, Heb 6:20, Rom 5:5, Rom 7:6, Rom 8:4-17, Rom 8:26-27, Rom 14:17-18, Rom 15:13-16, 1 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:4, Eph 5:3, Col 1:21-23, 1 Thes 4:7-8, Gal 3:14
We need the Holy Spirit! When Jesus was crucified on the cross, the heavy curtain that separated the Holy of Holies from the outer portions of the temple was torn from top to bottom. This represented that God’s old covenant with man was done and the new covenant had started. This represented that now His Spirit was no longer restricted from His creation by any walls or boundaries. His Spirit was now open and available to all people. He would no longer have intercession be made through one human person – the Jewish high priest. He now intercedes for and communicates directly to each believer’s heart through Jesus’ Spirit which is in us and part of us. This is why we call Jesus our high priest forever. Jesus, through the Spirit now intercedes for us to the Father. Under the old covenant, the high priest was trying to commune and intercede with God through physical fleshly means. Now in the new covenant, it is not our sinful fleshly body trying to communicate with God; it is Jesus’ Spirit in us communicating with the Fathers’ Spirit.
Under the new covenant, the cross would have had no value without the sending of the Holy Spirit. The only way the cross works is with the Holy Spirit as part of the plan. We know through God’s word, that He requires full payment for sins, but He also requires for us to be made holy as He is holy. When we are made holy, we become right with Him, we are set apart for God, His work, and His Glory. It is only through God’s Holy Spirit’s power that He glorifies Himself by making us holy and right with Himself. Ever since the creation of the heavens and this world, it has been God’s Spirit that does all the work when anything good happens. When God spoke something into existence, it was through the Spirit that the work was done. Everything good in God’s eyes can only be done through His Spirit. If anything is done through the works of man or any other spirit, it is not considered good, but self serving to the one doing that work. Adam and Eve received the knowledge of good and evil. Even though they had the knowledge of good, Adam and Eve and all their descendants could not do the good without the power of God’s Holy Spirit in them. In the Old Testament, the people of Israel understood that God’s commandments were good, but they had no power to do the good. The self serving spirit inside them only had the power to do the knowledge of evil. To remedy this, God had to send His Spirit into man’s heart before any good could come out of man. So, God sent His Son to the cross to enable the Spirit to come and replace the self serving spirit in each true believer’s heart with His Spirit. God’s word commands all believers to live by the Spirit. Then shouldn’t we concentrate a lot of our energy on understanding the Spirit? Some churches might be unwilling or afraid to try to understand God’s Spirit. Since God’s ways are not man’s ways, some people might think it impossible to understand His Spirit. Other churches might be afraid of getting the understanding of the Holy Spirit wrong, and in turn, commit the one and only unforgivable sin, which is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. This hesitation or the limiting of the teaching of the Holy Spirit can be very dangerous to all of the flock of those churches doing this. By limiting the understanding and teaching on the Holy Spirit, this might be doing the very thing these churches are afraid of, and that is rejecting or blaspheming of the Holy Spirit.
What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? What it mainly comes down to is the putting down of the Holy Spirit by putting yourself or anything else above the Holy Spirit. When we put ourselves above the Holy Spirit and reject His truth and leading, we are rejecting the Holy Spirit and the Spirit being able to work in us, which is really rejecting God. So, in essence, if we reject the Spirit being able to work in us, there is no way we can have eternal life with God, because if we reject being sanctified and made holy by the Spirit, we cannot enter the eternal kingdom of God. In the Bible there are many examples of blasphemy. In most or all of these examples, the person being accused of blasphemy is putting and promoting their own ways, rules, or values above the understood ways, rules, and values of God. This was looked upon as the accused putting themselves above or equal with God. Jesus was accused many times of blasphemy, and if he really wouldn’t have been God, the accusers would have been right about Jesus.
We must strive to know and understand God’s Spirit on an intimate basis. We can understand the Spirit by understanding Jesus and understanding how the Spirit worked in people throughout the New Testament that had faith and trusted in Jesus. Jesus said “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father”. Jesus also said that He could only do the Father’s will. This is because they are of one Spirit. So if we want to understand the Spirit and what God wants the Spirit to do through us, we must try to understand God’s character by looking and understanding the life of Jesus. The best way to do this is by reading God’s word. We must let God speak to us through His word. God’s word says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”. When we are a believer and read God’s word, we are communicating directly with God through His Spirit inside us. The only way we can understand God’s word is through His Spirit interpreting it for us. God’s word says “Seek and you shall find”. If we are to be a true believer, this is not an option, but a commandment. We seek, by looking for God’s character and will by praying and searching His word. We find, by His Spirit giving us all the answers by the way of a changed heart and a deeper understanding of Him by the renewing of our minds. God talks to His loved ones by the gentle whispers and thoughts He implants in our minds. As I finished writing this message, I realized it was way too long of a letter. So I had to remove about half of what I wanted to tell you about this glorious gift from God – the Holy Spirit. But the one main thought I want to emphasize is: God is using Jesus’ kingdom on earth to build His eternal kingdom. The people willing to let the Holy Spirit take total control of their lives and be made holy and righteous will inherit eternal life.
With God's love and Spirit, I bring you this message. - Michael Reid
Some scripture verses concerning this message: Matt 25:31-46, John 12:25, Rom 2:7 & 13, Rom 6:22, Gal 6:8, 2 Pet 1:5-11, 1 John 2:24-25, 1 Pet 4:17-19, Gen 3:22, 1 Sam 10:5-6, Neh 9:20, Ps 104:30, Ezek 11:19-21, Ezek 36:27, Joel 2:28:30, Acts 2:14-19, Mic 3:8, Matt 1:18, Matt 4:1, Matt 12:18 & 28, Matt 12:31-32, Matt 26:62-65, Matt 27:51-53, Luke 5:21, Mark 1:8 & 12, Mark 3:28-29, Luke 1:15-17, Luke 2:27, Luke 4:1 & 14, Luke 11:13, Luke 12:12, John 3:5-8 & 34, John 4:23-24, John 6:63-65, John 14:17-21 & 25-26, John 20:22-23, Acts 1:8, Acts 2:4 & 38-39, Acts 7:51, Acts 8:29, Acts 9:17-18 & 31, Acts 10:38, Acts 13:4, Acts 16:6-8, Acts 19:1-7, Acts 20:22-23 & 28-30, Heb 4:14-15, Heb 6:20, Rom 5:5, Rom 7:6, Rom 8:4-17, Rom 8:26-27, Rom 14:17-18, Rom 15:13-16, 1 Cor 1:2, Eph 1:4, Eph 5:3, Col 1:21-23, 1 Thes 4:7-8, Gal 3:14
Are the USA Churches a Friend or Foe to God?
During the first few centuries of the church after Jesus Christ was resurrected, the Christians of the Church were much different than most of the professing Christians of our day. The Christians of the original church knew that by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, they would be heavily persecuted and face death for professing their faith. Actually most of these original church Christians did lose their life because of their faith in Christ. During the severe persecution by the Roman Empire against all Christians, most Christians were hunted down and killed during the first three centuries of the church’s history. These original church Christians knew to receive eternal salvation, they would have to give their lives as a living sacrifice, by living holy and blameless by the power of the Holy Spirit, even unto death. They knew they were God’s light in this world and that their only purpose for living was to glorify God. They humbled themselves and became totally submissive to God’s Holy Spirit in order to spread His Gospel and shine His holy light of love. The goal was not to see what God could give them of worldly possessions in their current physical life, but was to glorify the one and only almighty righteous God and to be found worthy of eternal salvation in God’s everlasting kingdom. 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.
The original church was mostly made up of totally dedicated born again believers with a small percentage of false converts that the devil used to try to change the truth of the Gospel. In Apostle Paul’s letters he seems to constantly be warning the original church against these false witnesses. Since most people of the original church were born again believers, they had the real truths of God planted within their hearts and were able to reject these false prophets of the devil.
So if we understand that God never changes and His Gospel truth never changes, what God expects of a true Christian doesn’t change either. God still requires us to love Him above everyone, including ourselves. God still requires us to die to all our selfishness and pride so he can use us as a living sacrifice. So how does the professing Christian of our day measure up to God’s requirements? What is most of the U.S. churches telling their congregations about what is required to become a born again Christian?
I want to point out where most of the U.S. churches have fallen way short of God’s glory and righteousness, but first I would like to point out that when I say most of the U.S. churches, this doesn’t include any true holiness churches that still teach and preach that we must become righteous and holy through and through by God’s grace to have the gift of eternal life. A small percentage of these true holiness churches still remain. These holiness churches usually have a very small congregation because most people are unwilling to believe that we must be made holy, righteous, and blameless by His Spirit, because this would require too much of a sacrifice from their current selfish living lifestyle.
Most U.S. churches try to look holy and righteous by outward appearances or actions, but are really like dirty rags on the inside. To give an example of this: I was previously attending a church that made a 15 to 16 year old girl that had a baby out of wedlock ask for the churches forgiveness in front of the whole congregation. I could tell that this action was forced upon her by the church leadership and she didn’t really want to do it. So far this might not seem so strange except for one other big factor. In a Sunday message to this same church congregation, the church’s pastor said very emphatically that everyone in his church are sinners and will continue to sin. He said no one can have sin conquered in this lifetime and that even if someone is living by the Holy Spirit – sin could not be conquered. Well if this is the case, why should the church require someone to ask for forgiveness from the entire congregation if the congregation are all still sinners themselves? What makes the daily sins of the people of the congregation any less sinful than the sin of one person? Matt 7:3-5 - Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. The really sad part of this true story is that most churches have these same beliefs as the church above. They are just religious clubs and not really God’s true church. If a church teaches that sin cannot be conquered in this life through Jesus Christ, then they are teaching and pointing their congregation directly toward hell. These churches need to make a decision. Either accept that they are of the devil and instead of having someone ask for forgiveness from the congregation, the congregation should welcome the sinner into the congregation club of sinners. 1 John 3:8 – “He who does what is sinful is of the devil” But it would be much better that the churches repent and realize the full power of God’s grace and live righteous and holy lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Many U.S. churches also preach the “prosperity gospel” to draw people in, because this is what people want to hear. The prosperity message helps grow the congregation and boosts up the giving to support the pride and salaries of these prosperity pastors. The prosperity gospel goes along with what these churches think they need to support their lifestyle. These pastors think they are doing the congregation a favor by getting them to say a one time sinner’s prayer for salvation and then giving them an outlet to allow them to send in their money, or the new phrase “your seed”. Almost everything these fake preachers say are a deception of the devil. Salvation is not brought on by a one time sinner’s prayer; it is brought on by a life of repenting and dying to ones selfishness. We also can’t give money with the idea that we will receive it back with a greater return. God will bless those who give out of an unselfish heart, but will not bless those that give in order to expect more back in return. God wants us to give out of pure love for Him and others. If we give with the thinking of getting more back, we are still acting out of our selfishness - not love.
Most U.S. churches teach and preach that you are born again of the Holy Spirit upon that first sinner’s prayer and cannot lose that salvation. This is a lie that will end up sending most people to hell. First off the sinner’s prayer is not supported anywhere in the Bible. Sins are not forgiven by just asking to be forgiven; they are forgiven when we have truly repented of the sins. If we haven’t repented of a sin, then we are not forgiven of that sin either. The penalty of sin for all people has been paid for by Jesus Christ dying on the cross, but the forgiveness of sins is on an individual and conditional basis. We can only be born again of God after we have fully dedicated our whole self to God by dying to any selfishness and pride in us. We have to become His disciple before we can be born again. Luke 14:33 - In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Matt 10:38-39 - Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The devil has deceived almost all churches that we are born again from the very start of our relationship with God. Anyone that has been born again has been brought through a process of sanctification (or pregnancy time) to get them to the point of being born again. It is God’s Spirit that brings us through this process to get us to the point of being born again. Most churched people have been deceived by the devil’s lies that they are born again when really they are still in the pregnancy stage. This is where the devil wants to keep all believers - in the pregnancy stage. If the devil can deceive people into thinking they are already born again instead of in the process of getting there, the devil wins and all the souls still in this pregnancy stage will go to hell if they aren’t truly born again before they physically die. It is only upon being born again of God that we receive a new pure heart and after this is when we might be able to say we cannot lose our salvation.
The truth is – the devil is directing the leadership of most of our U.S. churches with his deceptions. In the original church of the first centuries there were mostly true born again Christians and a small percentage of fake converts, now in our current U.S. churches we have mostly fake converts and a very small percentage of true born again believers. The current U.S. churches on a whole have become an abomination to God. Our U.S. churches are mostly filled with people loving all what the world has to offer and religiously doing their time of service one to two hours a week going to church. 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. Most of the U.S. churches and their congregations are committing adultery with the world and in turn have become the enemy of God. The majority of the pastors of our U.S. churches are not born again and are proclaiming the deceptions of the devil instead of the full Gospel truth.
So suffice to say, most of the U.S. churches are not the light of the world any longer. The church should be like a light house shinning brightly to guide people through the darkness to the truth of God, but instead has been reduced by the devil’s deceptions to less than a nightlight where the church cannot even see the truth in this dark world.
If our country is going to have any true revival we must have these false teaching churches die and replace them with churches that require only the true Gospel to be preached. So my strong advice to anyone, to save your soul and possibly get this country back on God’s faithful footings, is to find one of these faithful small churches that still preach and teach the holiness and righteousness of God and also teach how we need to be made holy, righteous, and blameless through the workings of His Spirit to enter God’s eternal kingdom. After you have decided to move you and your family to one of these true holiness churches, find and take some of your friends with you.
God Bless,
Michael Reid
The original church was mostly made up of totally dedicated born again believers with a small percentage of false converts that the devil used to try to change the truth of the Gospel. In Apostle Paul’s letters he seems to constantly be warning the original church against these false witnesses. Since most people of the original church were born again believers, they had the real truths of God planted within their hearts and were able to reject these false prophets of the devil.
So if we understand that God never changes and His Gospel truth never changes, what God expects of a true Christian doesn’t change either. God still requires us to love Him above everyone, including ourselves. God still requires us to die to all our selfishness and pride so he can use us as a living sacrifice. So how does the professing Christian of our day measure up to God’s requirements? What is most of the U.S. churches telling their congregations about what is required to become a born again Christian?
I want to point out where most of the U.S. churches have fallen way short of God’s glory and righteousness, but first I would like to point out that when I say most of the U.S. churches, this doesn’t include any true holiness churches that still teach and preach that we must become righteous and holy through and through by God’s grace to have the gift of eternal life. A small percentage of these true holiness churches still remain. These holiness churches usually have a very small congregation because most people are unwilling to believe that we must be made holy, righteous, and blameless by His Spirit, because this would require too much of a sacrifice from their current selfish living lifestyle.
Most U.S. churches try to look holy and righteous by outward appearances or actions, but are really like dirty rags on the inside. To give an example of this: I was previously attending a church that made a 15 to 16 year old girl that had a baby out of wedlock ask for the churches forgiveness in front of the whole congregation. I could tell that this action was forced upon her by the church leadership and she didn’t really want to do it. So far this might not seem so strange except for one other big factor. In a Sunday message to this same church congregation, the church’s pastor said very emphatically that everyone in his church are sinners and will continue to sin. He said no one can have sin conquered in this lifetime and that even if someone is living by the Holy Spirit – sin could not be conquered. Well if this is the case, why should the church require someone to ask for forgiveness from the entire congregation if the congregation are all still sinners themselves? What makes the daily sins of the people of the congregation any less sinful than the sin of one person? Matt 7:3-5 - Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. The really sad part of this true story is that most churches have these same beliefs as the church above. They are just religious clubs and not really God’s true church. If a church teaches that sin cannot be conquered in this life through Jesus Christ, then they are teaching and pointing their congregation directly toward hell. These churches need to make a decision. Either accept that they are of the devil and instead of having someone ask for forgiveness from the congregation, the congregation should welcome the sinner into the congregation club of sinners. 1 John 3:8 – “He who does what is sinful is of the devil” But it would be much better that the churches repent and realize the full power of God’s grace and live righteous and holy lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Many U.S. churches also preach the “prosperity gospel” to draw people in, because this is what people want to hear. The prosperity message helps grow the congregation and boosts up the giving to support the pride and salaries of these prosperity pastors. The prosperity gospel goes along with what these churches think they need to support their lifestyle. These pastors think they are doing the congregation a favor by getting them to say a one time sinner’s prayer for salvation and then giving them an outlet to allow them to send in their money, or the new phrase “your seed”. Almost everything these fake preachers say are a deception of the devil. Salvation is not brought on by a one time sinner’s prayer; it is brought on by a life of repenting and dying to ones selfishness. We also can’t give money with the idea that we will receive it back with a greater return. God will bless those who give out of an unselfish heart, but will not bless those that give in order to expect more back in return. God wants us to give out of pure love for Him and others. If we give with the thinking of getting more back, we are still acting out of our selfishness - not love.
Most U.S. churches teach and preach that you are born again of the Holy Spirit upon that first sinner’s prayer and cannot lose that salvation. This is a lie that will end up sending most people to hell. First off the sinner’s prayer is not supported anywhere in the Bible. Sins are not forgiven by just asking to be forgiven; they are forgiven when we have truly repented of the sins. If we haven’t repented of a sin, then we are not forgiven of that sin either. The penalty of sin for all people has been paid for by Jesus Christ dying on the cross, but the forgiveness of sins is on an individual and conditional basis. We can only be born again of God after we have fully dedicated our whole self to God by dying to any selfishness and pride in us. We have to become His disciple before we can be born again. Luke 14:33 - In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple. Matt 10:38-39 - Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The devil has deceived almost all churches that we are born again from the very start of our relationship with God. Anyone that has been born again has been brought through a process of sanctification (or pregnancy time) to get them to the point of being born again. It is God’s Spirit that brings us through this process to get us to the point of being born again. Most churched people have been deceived by the devil’s lies that they are born again when really they are still in the pregnancy stage. This is where the devil wants to keep all believers - in the pregnancy stage. If the devil can deceive people into thinking they are already born again instead of in the process of getting there, the devil wins and all the souls still in this pregnancy stage will go to hell if they aren’t truly born again before they physically die. It is only upon being born again of God that we receive a new pure heart and after this is when we might be able to say we cannot lose our salvation.
The truth is – the devil is directing the leadership of most of our U.S. churches with his deceptions. In the original church of the first centuries there were mostly true born again Christians and a small percentage of fake converts, now in our current U.S. churches we have mostly fake converts and a very small percentage of true born again believers. The current U.S. churches on a whole have become an abomination to God. Our U.S. churches are mostly filled with people loving all what the world has to offer and religiously doing their time of service one to two hours a week going to church. 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. Most of the U.S. churches and their congregations are committing adultery with the world and in turn have become the enemy of God. The majority of the pastors of our U.S. churches are not born again and are proclaiming the deceptions of the devil instead of the full Gospel truth.
So suffice to say, most of the U.S. churches are not the light of the world any longer. The church should be like a light house shinning brightly to guide people through the darkness to the truth of God, but instead has been reduced by the devil’s deceptions to less than a nightlight where the church cannot even see the truth in this dark world.
If our country is going to have any true revival we must have these false teaching churches die and replace them with churches that require only the true Gospel to be preached. So my strong advice to anyone, to save your soul and possibly get this country back on God’s faithful footings, is to find one of these faithful small churches that still preach and teach the holiness and righteousness of God and also teach how we need to be made holy, righteous, and blameless through the workings of His Spirit to enter God’s eternal kingdom. After you have decided to move you and your family to one of these true holiness churches, find and take some of your friends with you.
God Bless,
Michael Reid
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)